SUNDAY BLUES

A Sunday usually is a good day for all sports fans.But in the last few weeks,it has turned into a disaster for all of us.India lost both its matches which were on Sunday in the recent Ind-Aus series.The 2nd ODI loss on sunday eventually cost India the series loss.Big EPL matches are always on Sunday.There is always Super Sunday package on ESPN.But as a die hard Manu fan,last few Sundays havnt been good for me.First ,the liverpool loss and now Chelsea loss.These matches always create a sense of anticipation throughout the week and hence the loss in these matches almost makes you depressed.I am also a Ferrarri fan in F-1,and F-1 races are always on Sunday.This season,Ferrarri havent done anything exceptional except for a few podium finishes.This has further added to the glamour of Sunday Blues.I am in dire need of some great win for India or Manu on a Sunday to cure this fever.
PS:The only good thing this sunday on TV was Roadies' audition.

BLANK

For the past 2 months,I have been thinking about what to write for my next blog.I asked some of my friends for advice and they came up many suggestions,none of whichstruck a chord with me.Finally out of sheer frustration and urge to keep this blog alive and kicking,the title “BLANK” came up.I guess now I can loosely relate to the term “writer’s block”(Not saying that I am a writer).I always love to write on topics that are debatable and evoke strong opinions.In the last 2 months there weren’t any incidents that would excite me with the few exceptions of India’s exit from Champions trophy or Manu’s win over ManCity.To put it simply,life around the globe is pretty much boring, as I see it.That’s it!!!Couldn’t find more words to express.BLANK again!!!
PS:Frost/Nixon is best movie of last year beating Slumdog Millionaire by a country mile.

COPY CAT:

Since watching movies(and any movie for that mattter) is one of my favourite past time,I decided to remember as many Indian films that were copied or taken "inspiration" from since 2000.Kaante started it in early 2002.Kaante was a stylised version of Reservoir Dogs with songs.The most blatant copy was perhaps Chocolate with Anil kapoor in the lead which was a complete rip off of The Usual Suspects.David Dhawan copied Hitch with Salman and Govinda in Partner.Aziz Mirza copied Two weeks Notice with Kismat Konnection.Zeher is a scene to scene copy of Out of time.The fact that I cant understand is that whether there is any dearth of stories in country of 1 billion.There are hundreds of books written in many local languages in India.But nobody either reads them or considers them sub standard.Most or almost all Indian directors think that Indian audience doesnt watch any english movies or they think we are dumb.I guess if they want to copy atleast they should buy the rights of the film they are going to copy.This brings us to Kaminey .Yes you must be wondering whether even Kaminey is a rip-off.It is similar to Catejan Boy's story which is based on a Kenyan national.However this is where Vishal Bharadwaj is good.He has bought the rights and also credits Catejan Boy at the beginning of the film.Btw watch Kaminey if you havent yet.Totally worth it!!!
PS:While watching Kaminey ,I watched the trailer of Dil Bole Haddipa.It took me a second to realise that the "inspiration" for the film is She's the Man.

WAS YOUR MONEY OR TIME WORTH IT?

When Wimbledon started 2 weeks ago there were murmurs that Federer would face tough fight from Andy Murray.He was in great form and had The Queen’s title to prove it.The murmurs turned into a reality yesterday except that it was Andy Roddick and not Andy Murray.Since it was assumed that Murray would make it to the final,the prices of final soared as high as 20000 pounds per ticket.But anybody who sold their ticket after Murray's loss in semis was biggest idiot in this world,because he would have witnessed one of the greatest matches in this era.Roddick was always known for his serve,but yesterday he showed another facet of his game,his determination.Yesterday he was determined not to let Federer win his 15th Slam and was doing everything in he can to delay it.Finally when Roger broke Roddick's serve for the only time in the match and the time when it mattered most, Andy faltered and Roger wrote his name in history books in front of his idol and my favourite player,Sampras.So anybody who watched it either by being in the court or watching it on TV for 4 hrs,was your money or time worth it?

FAKE COLLEGE PLAYER:

Taking a wee bit of inspiration from fakeiplplayer.,this blog post refers to various characters in our college.Just like him,I am changing the real names of the characters.So guess the characters from their names
Gavwala: Worst kind of Pj’s coupled with unending enthusiasm.Perhaps the most popular among our group.Can also be called “ Perfectly Black Body”
Veet: Most laziest and kamchor person you would have ever met.Always had his eye on one girl who was already committed.The name “Veet” is given with some thought.
South Fox: Always upto some trick or the other.Sometimes went too far.Had a solution to every problem from “how to shorten the assignment?” to “how to get printouts of the experiment?”.Also the worst batsman.
Fulham Fan:Wanted to be in every group photo(although was not possible because of his size)Food is his passion.Strangely stopped talking to me at the end of engg.
Ace:Good cricketer and a complete chatter box.We both formed a formidable partnership while writing papers
Stammer-man:Talent was in his genes.Was a favourite among many professors.Lingapisat no:3
Gujju 1:Had an unusual accent.Had football arguments with him.
Gujju 2:Not worth mentioning(had a fight with him in IV)
Gujju 3:Short but sweet.Responsible for my amateurish Gujrati.Was after a girl but the story never moved forward
Gujju 4:Again not worth mentioning
President:Good handwriting.Hopeless batsman.Only Rajasthani in the world who doesn’t know his native language.
Concealed:Always ready for cricket and has loads of knowledge.Had a secret admirer which became evident during convocation ceremony.
Tendlya:Another cricket crazy person.Cheated a lot when we played cricket
Rock on:If he wasn’t an engineer ,he would have been a singer.His each appearance in college was an achievement.
RSharma: Always late for every paper and every lecture.Also laughs a lot over every single joke
Hopeless blogger: Always use to back answer others.Hopefully Infy curbs his arrogance and enthusiasm.
Specs:Lingapisat no 1.A good cricketer who had a roving eye
Rumours-man: A stock market person who used to chat as if he had knowledge about everything
Kanjoos: A complete character.Aloof.Was mostly with Tendlya.Used to spin the ball when we played cricket
Sawariya: Attended the 8.30 lecture only once in entire engg.Favourite candidate of Zeus.Never completed entire paper in engg according to him.
Tom-boy:A complete cry baby.Tears and tom boy were synonymous.Was of particular help in convincing SHARP group to bunk practicals
Concealed 2:Was part of RSharma’s and Cry baby’s project group.Short in stature but intelligent.
Sportsperson:Had a lafda with almost every professor.lord of last bench.Has a careless attitude to everything but still managed to complete submissions.
Answer –man: Always had an answer to every question the professor asked.A favourite among profs.
Database: A complete database of computer knowledge.
Robo:An expert in robotics.Used to be irritating sometimes
Stick:Most honest and simple guy you would have ever met.Never even uttered a single bad word .
Bike-man:Best friend of database.A good underarm bowler.
Well,that is all I could remember.Now start guessing who is who?

THE BIG ONE

It’s that time of the year again when matches are going on almost on every sports/entertainment channel possible making us choose between our impending exams and the sport that we love with all of our life. The Champions League returns this week with an interesting little match-up of powerhouses and dark horses.
There is one match-up which will almost stir a yawn you might say is Liverpool V/S Chelsea. Being pitted against each other for the 3rd time in the last four years, the players of these teams will almost certainly be hating,if not dreading, the sight of each other on an European night. Having said that it must also be an incentive for the last loser to avenge that last loss. The Blues coached by the Guus Hiddink are still looking for their 1st champions league title and with the premiere league almost out of their reach now, they have everything to play for against their certain champion’s league nemesis. They might still be haunted by that John Terry’s miss handing United that silverware and will stop at nothing short of the title itself. For Hiddink, it is an excellent opportunity to underline his managerial talent [ if needed] to his owner Roman Billionaire Abrahamovich.
But what they are up against is a RED juggernaut that will look to draw confidence from its premiere league form. Liverpool feast on European nights, they get further charged up with the aeroplane roar -resembling decibels of their legendary Kop. That Kop which last time prompted Terry to say, ”At Anfield, you are playing against 12 liverpool players. 11 on field and the Kop.” Rafael Benitez will be looking to unleash his deadly duo of Gerrard-Torres on Chelsea’s defense. Inspite of so much attacking talent in both the line-ups it’s the defenses that invariably grabs the headlines for good/bad reasons in these matches the next day. Liverpool,who might have even sold poor Riise for scoring that unfortunate own goal the last time, will be keen to increase their chances of enhancing their Champions league shelf of their Trophy cabinet.
For Chelsea a win will help extract some revenge against Liverpool for breaching their Stamford fortress the 1st time and perhaps teaching others how do to so. Not to mention its another chance for a Russian dictator to write himself into English folklore.
-Swapnil Joshi

Comment of the week

"I think we can call him the second Wall of the Indian cricket team. This one comes from north."
-Sehwag on Gautam Gambhir's innings in 2nd test match Vs NZ

EGO:3 letter monster

Ego is one of the man's most dangerous traits.It is especially found in male species more than women.Some of the happenings in the real world can be easily explained by this trait.When Zee Corporation owned by Subhash Chandra started its own league with the help of domestic and international cricketers ,BCCI’s ego was deeply hurt .So it completely banished the cricketers(present and former) that were related to ICL and as if to show the world that it could do better than ICL,it started its own IPL.Such was their ego that BCCI did not even spare the commentators working with ICL.Now ,let us recollect the events of past few weeks.When Congress ruled states started playing politics in relation to IPL ,officials in BCCI were so frustrated that eventually thay wanted to show the government that IPL doesn’t need help from anybody.And so we have a domestic tournament with best players in the world being played outside India.Just to give another example,Pakistan government refused to grant permission to send its players to India for IPL.Now that IPL isn’t being held in India,PCB is trying to contact BCCI whether it can send its players to IPL.Will BCCI agree or will stand firm ?Well, your guess is as good as mine.

SPENDING THAT ONE HOUR:

This article is dedicated to all engineering students who have to bear the boring lectures that often last 1 hour.I divide a boring lecture in 3 parts:1)The beginning(most attentive)-15 min 2)The middle-15 min 3)The end(hardest part)-30 min.At the beginning of the lecture ,I usually try to be as attentive as possible or atleast disguise as being attentive.The usual opening of the book and writing seemingly hopeless stuff contribute 15 min of the hour.From hereon,the minutes seem longer than a five day stuff.Now,I just nodd my head and observe what other people are doing to get rid of the boredom.Giving missed calls to your friends or just distracting them makes you waste your next 15-20 min.Then the last 20-25 min seem the hardest.Taking small naps while the professor is writing mainly constitutes this part.The notebook helps a lot in this part.You can fool the professor that you are noting down important points and can do something else.Eg play X and O. In this part you have to keep telling yourself that its only 15-20 min left and then you will be free.You have to fight those demons in your mind and keep your exterior calm and composed.Writing something on your friends book may also help which may lead to some jokes.Writing assignments and journals is only possible if the professor is not roaming.Then as the professor says the word “ATTENDANCE”..I know the feeling.Its like winning an Olympic gold in front of full crowd or winning a cricket match for India with a last ball six.And thus you pass the test of endurance and patience successfully.

TRAVELOGUE

DAY1:

We assembled at Bandra terminus by 10.45 am.One could easily see the excitement on everybody’s eyes.Soon we got into our bogie and the fun began.Our group had 14 people:me,swapnil,yogesh,sandeep,kavan,advait raut ,advait badnaikar,ajay,abhijit,nikhil,pratik,sachin,jagrut,and last but not least..nitin.Train journey began with the usual stuff:cards,antakshari,jokes…etc.The dinner in the train was OK.As the night progressed,it slowly started getting colder.We got down at almost every station till 3 am.

DAY2:

This day began very early.We all had atmost 3 hrs sleep and woke up at 7 am.BTW toilets of second class compartments sux.We reached Ambala Cantt at 4 pm.Then had a grulling 7 hr journey to shimla with dinner on the way.We checked in the hotel at 2 am.Our group was distributed in 3 rooms.

DAY 3:

Woke up at about 8 am,had breakfast at 9am.The combination of train and bus journey had made us all tired.Since we had free time,we decided to scan Shimla.We all just were wandering aimlessly for about 3 hours.Had lunch at 1 pm and then headed out to Mall road.Some shopped for books,some for muffler,etc

As the night began,it slowly started getting cold.From here on till Chandigarh,you could see almost everybody with sweaters,gloves,mufflers.After the dinner,we all assembled in one room, n watched

Roadies.

DAY 4:

Early morning breakfast was followed by journey to kufri.It was 2 hr journey.We then headed upwards in the mountain on the horse.The horse journey was full of tp.Sometimes,the horse scared the shit out of us.After reaching the top, we had the most amazing sight.THERE WAS SNOW EVERYWHERE!!!!!We started playing with the snow,the usual stuff,making balls of snow and hurling it everywhere.Little did we realize that it was going to be costly afterwards.Some visited a small temple nearby,while some started clicking photographs wth Yak.While coming down we realized that the snow we picked was now turing into water.Our shoes and gloves were completely soaked.When we reached down we had our lunch at 7pm.The heater at that restaurant helped us a lot!!!We then headed to our hotel and checked to make night journey to manali.As the night progressed,it really was getting colder.The 9 hr journey was the toughest of the trip.Nobody made a sound throughout that journey .since everybody was tired.

DAY 5:

As we woke up,we were surrounded by beautiful snow clad mountains of Manali.We checked in at about 9.30 am.Ours(me,swapnil,yogesh,advait,kavan,advait) was a duplex room and sceney from the window was too picturesque too believe.After breakfast,we went to the river which was flowing right in front of our hotel.The water was as cold as ice!!After lunch we headed towards Hidimba temple and Vashisht Kund Temple.As the sun set in the mountains at 5 pm,it slowly started getting cold.We ,then did a little bit of shopping at Mall road.The walk from Mall road to our hotel was one of the highlights of our trip.The night time was allocated for favourite game of our group :Dumb Charades

DAY 6:

River rafting was something everybody had only seen on Tv.We were provided gears and were told to remove our shoes in the bus.As we sat in the raft,our legs became almost numb by the cold water of the river.Soon our guide started paddling the raft through the river.We all were told to hold on to the ropes at the side of the raft.It was one of the most exhiliriating things I have ever done.We then headed to our hotel for lunch.Evening was free time. Hence,we( i.e our group) went to Tibetan Monastery,which was walking distance from Mall road.The serenity of Buddha statue had an overwhelming effect on us.There was a small shop near theTibetan monastery.My friends were shopping at that shop for nearly 45 min.Seriously ,complete waste of time!!!

DAY 7:

Rohtang pass is closed during the winter.Hence we headed to Solang valley.For us,mumbaikars,Solang valley is heaven.We all did skiing for about 45 min.There were a lot of Kodak moments during the session.After skiing we climbed up the mountain a little.Some of us headed towards a temple on horses.We reached hotel for late lunch.The skiing took most of the energy from us.Hence the evening was spent in sleeping.The early dinner was followed by long night journey to Chandigarh.

DAY 8:

We reached Chandigarh at almost noon.The lunch was followed by a visit to sector 17 and sector 22 in Chandigarh. Sector 17 is almost like the Fashion Street of Mumbai where you get everything at half the price.On the other hand,Sector 17 has all the branded apparels.The bargaining saga continued here,too.Since we had to leave early morning next day,this day ended a little early for all of us.

DAY 9:

The day began at 5.30 am for all of us.This bus journey from C’garh to Delhi was probably the most comfortable of all since the road was an Expressway.We reached New Delhi Railway station at 4 pm and off we went on our way back home.This time the seats of our group were spread across 2 bogies.Somehow we managed to have fun together despite the arrangement of seats.

DAY10:

The last day began early with the usual “painting the face with tooth paste”.The cards game were the best way to spend time.The last of the photos were clicked in the morning and the good byes were said.As we landed on Andheri Station at 3.30 pm ,we all were bit of both , sad and happy.Till next time..its ADIOSS from me and my group!!!!!