Oh Manchester United!

Manchester United’s successful run to the Finals of the Champion’s League has ended, and a very sad moment this is. United lost on away goals! But for a team which was leading 3-0 before halftime, it was a game well played.

The mindgames had already begun, with Ferguson ruling out Rooney as an option, but adding on that he might be included if he can change Fergie’s mind. And there he was, an hour from start of match, Rooney was named in the starting 11! His presence is such that it can lift the morale of the whole team, and with 75000 people at the Old Trafford, this game could just have been one of the best.

ManU started with a bang, with a lesser known Darren Gibson scoring within the first 5 minutes. Gibson is a new player who has played in a few premier league matches for MU, but HE wouldn’t have been part of any team formation the opposition could have expected. Rafael, Rooney and Nani combined to attack, European style, with Valencia putting in dangerous crosses one after another. Rafael’s game ended after he was shown a second yellow and the referee was mobbed by the germans (typical, could have expected this) and he was sent off. Rooney was taken off and replaced with O’Shea who was making a comeback after 5 months. The game was a nailbiter, but even though MU won 3-2, Bayern made it through to the semi finals on away goals, a splendid last one by Robben.

This is the first time since 2003 that no english team has made it to the semi finals. With Chelsea’s campaign ending against Inter, and Arsenal getting drubbed by Messi, MU was the only hope left.

MU’s season this time has not been upto the mark, with only a Carling Cup for silverware. I feel that we still have a chance at winning the PL, provided we win all our matches now and wait for Chelsea to slip down, the only option being a loss to liverpool.

Hope all ends well for Manchester United!

Wayne Rooney. Missed?

Sir Alex Ferguson was pretty sure that Manchester United’s campaign for a 19th Premier League cup and the Champion’s League won’t be derailed without Rooney. He surely is being proved wrong here.
Rooney hobbled of the pitch in the match against Bayern and it seemed certain that without a man whose in prime form, having netted the ball 34 times this season, Manchester United will be a pale shadow of themselves against an in-form Chelsea and the germans in the second leg. Although it is pretty obvious to note that Bayern can still be taken care of and ManU can definitely make it to the Champions League semis, beating Chelsea seemed out of the question.
They say “no one is irreplaceable” – you can always find substitute stars for an injured player who can play equally well. But there are always some players who have that specialness with them, the X factor, which can turn the game on the head and make that difference. I am a die hard supporter of Manchester United, and have been following them for 7 years now. But even though the pundits were all in favour of ManU winning, specially when the match had to be played on home turf, I couldn’t join them, because it was certain that ManU was missing that special player in their unit. The team may seem pretty balanced, and you have to give Sir Alex the credit for that. But at the same time, he will have to buy an all-out goal scorer like Rooney, because at this moment he doesn’t have any. The only players who met Rooney’s standards int he team were Ronaldo and Tevez. Ronaldo, being the man that he is, ditched the team that made him and left for the Spanish lands, where he isn’t really doing well. As for Tevez, it is certain that Ferguson is missing him. For a man who wasn’t worth the 25 million pounds spent on him as said by the manager, the Argentine is scoring at almost the same rate for Manchester City.
We saw Chelsea leave Drogba on the bench for matches and we also know Rooney and Drogba are players of such class that can fill rival defenses with fear, and Rooney’s absence fired up Chelsea even more. Ancelotti’s decision to leave Drogba on the bench illustrated the Blues’ strength-in-depth compared to United, so lacking in goalscoring strength without Rooney.
The season is almost over, and the title race is still wide open for Arsenal, Chelsea and ManU. And this season has made it clear that Sir Alex will be looking for a second goal scorer for next season and whether he buys x or y, ManU will be a big force this transfer season. Ferguson has always stressed that the team is up for it without Rooney as the team hadn’t lost a match without him. But after this match, there is no saying that the Talisman is not missed. No mind games are going to work now, we need a goal scorer to support Rooney. Berbatov is not upto the challenge most of the times, Owen frequently gets injured and substitutes are not to be relied on all the time. Giggs and Scholes do turn back the clocks with their mesmerizing performances now and then, but they wont last forever.
The reality also brings out the fact that Sir Alex was fully aware of this before the match. And now he cannot deny it.

Intel: Our rockstars are not like your rockstars. How to feature in the ad

So you saw the ad by Intel where a USB inventor walks in like a superstar? Ever felt the same way, wanting girls to stand with your posters, drooling all over them? You can do that now with this app from the makers themselves.

 

All you need to do is go to: http://113.197.35.30/

They’ll ask you to upload a picture. Do that and wait for the wonder. Although you might be a bit chubby in the video, it still resembles the pic you upload. And this thing is fun!

A link to my video:

http://113.197.35.30/index.html?video=RvmhKKXYAOCsKUtW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnOkDFmuuDY

Effin wordpress is not embedding the video from the Intel site.

Classic Stuff indeed.

Indian to International

The Indian Premier League was always an international league with many foreign cricketers being a part of it. The charm of the tournament was the concept of home and away matches, inter-city rivalry and the large crowds that turned out just to support their team (I went to see Delhi Daredevils twice and screamed my lungs out!).
This year around, IPL 2 has been moved out to South Africa due to the elections clashing with the matches in the states and the ministry of home affairs being incompetent of providing paramilitary forces for the protection of the players, specially after what the Srilankan cricketers faced in Pakistan. The league and Mr. Lalit Modi had just 2 options – either to scrap the league or move it out of the country. Scrapping the league was out of the question and thus came the big question: where would the league be held? The choices came down to England and South Africa as the two probable venues. England, which is the host of the ICC T20 World Cup this year, would have been a great venue and would have also offered the valuable match practice in ideal conditions. But the IPL would have clashed with the County Twenty20 which is scheduled to start on April 1. Also, the G20 summit, which is being held in England. required the presence of the London Police and this would have made life difficult in providing the ideal security cover for the cricketers. The weather conditions were also unfavourable with chances of 70% of the matches to be washed out. This led to South Africa being chosen as this year’s IPL venue.
South Africa, having hosted the T20 World Cup last year, know what is required to host such an event. Also, the conditions are just fine for a game of cricket. Keeping the logistics in mind, the cost for travelling would be greatly reduced however there would be a problem in the availability of hotels. The CSA board has readily agreed to host the IPL and Nicholls Steyn group will be providing the security cover. All matches will be held like last year at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. IST.
The selected cities to host the IPL this year are Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontain, Durban and Prot Elizabeth. Each stadium is supposed to get equal matches. The edition has also been truncated from 4 weeks to 3 weeks. That means that the IPL starts on 18 April and ends on 24 May with all the 59 matches being played. There will be no home or away game system this year. The league has certainly gone international!
Franchisees also have to now face a tough time sorting the money matters since they have lost on the dues they would have got had the league been held in India. They cannot afford to carry extra players who may sit out through the tournament.
Well then, the IPL is finally happening! Hope to see Delhi Daredevils crowned as champions this year around.

Kyunki Saans bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi….R.I.P.

It had to end. The serial, on for about 8.5 years had to end. With all the leaps and the TRPs falling, STAR decided to put an end to a serial which gave STAR Plus its image.

The story focuses on the wealthy, stinking rich Virani family, which hails from Gujarat (Jai Sri Krishna people). The Viranis are quite successful and well-known in the corporate world, always signing business deals and appearing on the front page of newspapers. The story is mainly focused on Tulsi Virani, daughter of the family priest, who elopes with the family’s eldest son, Mihir. The entire family except Govardhan Virani (the patriach-BAAPUJI) and Amba Virani (the matriarch- BAA) (played by Sudha Shivpuri) are against it. Due to anger, the daughters-in-law of the family, Savita (Dead), Daksha (Evicted from Bigg Boss) and Gayatri (Disappeared into thin air) blame Tulsi for charming Mihir into marrying her and entering their rich household from a smaller, middle-class family and harrass her in all respects. However, due to respect and belief in God Shri Shrinathji, called Thakurji, a form of Lord Krishna, Tulsi fights the injustice and battles her mother-in-law and devranis). The entire serial focuses on the battle between the mothers-in-law and Tulsi and in the process teaching them a lesson and earning respect from her family members. Tulsi maata acts as the sole protector, saviour, guardian angel et al.

The serial started on 3rd July 2000 and ends today, on 6th November 2008. Baa has just died on Tuesday and there, a five year leap on Wednesday. No last rites, nothing. Tulsi becomes the new Baa.

Earlier the serial appealed to the masses, with the saans bahu sagas, but soon the story lost its plot. On careful calculations, there are a total of ’5′ generations of Viranis living in one house. This has been quite chaotic and made life tough identifying the people in the house.

The tracks have changed quite repeatedly with the introduction of the so-called ‘vamps’ in the form of Payal, Anupam Kapadia, Meera, Mandira, Gujrals et al. They had little impact on the story as all of them followed more or less the same storyline.

Ekkta Kapoor tried a lot to keep the serial in the news. With the killing of Ansh Gujral by Tulsi, she gained quite a lot of TRPs for KSBKBT. She also had crossovers with other serials like Kayamath and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii. She also *revived* Baa on public demand.

The last bit I liked was the introduction of beefy Tripti. She’s fat, obnoxious, over imposing and has her way in the house bringing the Virani family to the roads. Then Viranis come back and take over the house. The newer plot showed Shiv Singhania running after Ganga, who is the wife of Sahil (confusing…).

After getting rid of Shiv, Ekkta lost the case in the Bombay High Court regarding the continuation of KSBKBT. So she was told to wrap up the show in a week’s time. So she started by diverting Baa to think about her past and how she missed Baapuji (she’s 400 years old). So she eventually dies putting her gramophone on while the house members enjoy a party. Thenafter is a 5 year leap where Tulsi is the new Baa and ends the serial on a philosophical note.

The serial started fine but like all ‘K’ serials, it diverted from its plot and soon had no story. Serials like Baalika Vadhu took over the TRPs and soon KSBKBT lost its audience and had to make way for new serials. Ekkta managed to complete almost 1850 episodes of this serial.

So, that’s the end of one of my personal favourites. Not that I regret the High Court’s decision nor am I emotional. Its just that I can now watch Bigg Boss in its final week since it clashed with KSBKBT!

All’s well that ends well!