Top 5 Tranfers

With the transfer market drawing to an end, it seems like only a few more switches will be crunched out. The action has switched to the field and not many are concerned about transfer sagas. Undoubtedly, this summer has been one for those media intensive, anticipated and long-proctored transfers.

5 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United to Real Madrid

Very. Very. Very Imminent. Madrid have a tendency for courtship. Just like douchebags. They will shower the player with promises, off-the-charts salaries. There is something about the name Real Madrid that makes players "Jizz in Their Pants". Even the best player in the world. Amassing 67 astonishing goals at United in 2 seasons, Ronaldo is already an Old Trafford legend. There is a difference between pursuing your dream and hogging glory. Ronaldo perhaps felt staying at United last season was his chance of proving that he was dreams guy. Of course the douches won his heart over and Ronaldo went out of his "relationship" with Utd for a year-long phone and media based "affair" with Madrid. I, for one as a Utd fan, am glad the gaffer let him have his way and sent him packing. For 80 million.

4 Karim Benzema - Olympique Lyonnais to Real Madrid

Absolutely biased and judged. It comes as no surprise that the douches show up again. They have spent over 250 million pounds in a bottomless vault supported by Spain's royalty (and probably an allegiance with The World Bank). For 2 seasons, Benzema was linked with a move to the English Premier League with Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea being the frontrunners to secure the French hitman's signature.
Arrive the summer of 2009 and they struck again. Out of nowhere, Benzema fell for Ronaldo and Kaka. Oops, I mean Real Madrid. And then the usual emotions flew. " My mommy wanted me to play for Madrid since I was 3. 3 months old. It is a childhood dream to join Madrid. Hala Madrid!". Well Mr. Benzema, have fun dealing with a certain kid called Leo Messi and his third grade team called Barcelona who wallopped your legendary side 6-2. Oh, they also happen to be European and Spanish Champions and the first side (yes, your Madrid hasn't done it yet) to win the treble.

3 Carlos Tevez - Random dude called Kia to Manchester City

Super glad. Delighted and honestly happy for a player who deserves more respect that what, shockingly, Man Utd game him. Ferguson obtained him in the most awkward circumstances when the rules of FIFA were changing and lo behold! Tevez was a Utd player but on loan for 2 seasons. In spite of providing tremendous pace, great agility and and undying passion, Ferguson did not believe he was worth 25 million. Being a Utd fan I really cant go against my team. But the saga sadened me quite a bit. The money from the sale of C*ntiano could have been easily used for securing the services of a versatile player like Tevez. Other teams fear the so-called "Animal". Yet, United refused to tie him up and it was only a matter of time before he became rebellious. I wonder if this has anything to do with Ferguson's stuborness and ego issues more than anything else. Benching Tevez, taking him off for a substitution when he was on top of his game and mistreating in the transfer window. I respect our usually not-so-respectable neighbours for signing up Tevez and keeping good talent within the EPL. And I'm sure the Citizens have a good season in store for them following their fantasy league-like switches. I am very keen on Carlito and how he progresses this season in an atmosphere where he will be treated fairly.

2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto'o and some 60 million (Likened to Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels) - Barcelona to Inter Milan

Stupid. Retarded. Terrible. On the face of it. A really controversial switch.
(-)Not a very fair evaluation of Barcelona's former top striker who gave then 108 goals in 145 appearances. A hardworking player and a team player. Fast and agile unlike the 6ft something Swedish Ibra. Great spirit and a favourite with the fans. Terrible treatment by Barca I must say; worse the Carlito :( .
(+)What many forget is Ibra had 5 years left on his contract while Eto' had just 1. That made the 60 million difference. Ibra and Eto'o are about the same age but the latter relies more on pace than Ibra who relies on skill and technique. At 28 apiece, pace will not last too long. Ibra is peaking, Eto'o is fading.
As I said, a very ambiguous and indecisive transfer. Only the season will explain what worked and what didn't.

1 Xabi Alonso Liverpool to Real Madrid

The lightning struck worst here. Heartbreak and something's gone missing. The bestubbled Basque was one of my favourite players in the league and still remains a top notch player at Madrid. The unsung hero who Liverpool could call their Rahul Dravid (for cricket fans). Mr. Reliable was the subject of a much proctored and long-drawn saga. His desire to return to Spain and especially Madrid is understandable in spite of the fact that they are douches. After all, they have a set of individuals who are remarkably talented. Not a mega-money transfer. Not the best player in the world. But still a midfielder with exceptional talent. And as much as I detest Scousers...You'll Never Walk Alone, Xabi Alonso.

An evening with 2 friends

It had been a while since I had spent quality time with these two. Both of them together. School is when you slog, slog and then sleep a bit. You see people, wave at them, make plans and don't execute them. Then you find time to IM them but you still wont find time to actually see them. You will crib about not having time but the jerk that you are, you wont actually visit them. Too lazy to lift your cute little booty off your chair. You have a lot of things to talk about - school, life and the likes. You do them all on IM.

We are all like that. But we do have a lot of fun together.

Summertime. Not the song. Actual summer time.
One sleeps all day, watches cool sci-fi (aka signal processing) and movies online and then works at night with a schedule shifted by about 6 hours. Sleeps at 6 wakes up at 12. Works from 9 to 12 and 1 onwards. in the p.m. and a.m. respectively. Nope, not vice versa.

One is just too bored. This place holds nothing interesting for that person. Absolutely nothing. Work for the same hours as the first one - except in the a.m. and p.m. respectively. Watches a lot of anime and movies works really hard. Too boring. Always asks, "Soooo...what are you guys going to do tonight?" and gets the standard reply "Ohhh...ummm...I'm not sure. I dont know. Actually, I'll see. I dont really know." These replies further add to his boredom. Sorry mate, feel for you.

And the third one is really busy. Like really busy. Practices her passion, takes classes, "plays" with little kids and gets a lot of attention. You know, "attention". This one's life is seriously packed.

As cliche as it sounds, it had to be a Friendship Day (aka a Sunday when all three were free and really had nothing better to do) that we decided to go grab some milk tea. Oh, such good stuff.
A fun evening. One on a broken toe but still willing to walk down Castro. Another really bored but still willing to trudge along. And another with too many things to think about but affording to take a short break. It had been close to a year that we had done this. Just talk. And these talks are worth savoring. With other things aside, they always end up on life and love and this is how ours turned out.

One wishing he knew someone special to walk along with.
One wishing she could choose whom to walk along with.
One wishing he had his special one to walk along with.

We all have completely different and unrelated different stories. Lots of joy, a little sorrow. But its fun to share with you guys. Thanks for a fun evening!

Bheja Fry

Duniya main sab log tumhara dimaagh chatenge. likhlo yaar mere se. tum pe bohot lau karne wale aur tumhari khaal utarni ki iccha rakhnewala. is main bheja fry ho na to pakka hai bhai.
par tension nahi leneka. har cheej ke liye kucch na kucch to hota hai na bhai. rone ka nahi. khaane ka, peene ka, sone ka. mast ekdum. khali pili dimaagh ka dahi nahi banane ka. samjha mamu?

jo tum pe bohot lau karte, usme apni bohot fikkar karnewala hote hai.
1."saala, ye chhinka. isko pakka malaria, swine flu aur AIDS ho gaela. sab ek saath bhai. aur ye pakka marega. ab mera kya hoga?"
2."yaar, iska career main thoda down ho gaya. ye to barbad ho gaya. life bekaar ab. dukaan kholna padega iske liye".
3."bhaya isne meko aaj smile nahi diya. ab to ye gussa ho gayi. kisi aur ke saath bhag jaegi."
ye type. iske liye
1. chhinka to agle din ice cream muuh main thusane ka. aur chhinkna mat ab saale!
2. google khol dal. nayawala. sab ki bolti band. larry or sergey bhai ki bhi. isse thoda kam kiya, bole to thoda hard work dala. to bhi chalta. logo ko accha lagta ekdum. 101 rupaya kamaya to bhi.
3. agle din jaadu ki jhappi dena. jhappi se sab kucch theek. paaka yaar, main 12 hazaar meel ki duri se bhi try kiya. ho jata theek. 100 % ekdum.

abhi jo fikkar nahi karte itna, woh thoda kam hi sochte hai. to unke dimagh main khayal nahi ata itna . pyaar utna hich. sirf fikkar nahi.
aise logo ke liye. kucch nahi. usne fikkar nahi kiya. tu kahe ko karela? woh tum pe pyaar karte. tum unpe. mubarak ho. badhiya cheej hai.

aur jo tumhari khaal utarnewale hai. un log ke liye to...jo uppar waale log hai na. jo bohot lau karte tum par. unko poochne ka. unki help leneki. aisa kiya, to cheen ki deewar bhi gira dalenge tum log.

mubarak ho. bheja fry na karne ke thode to tareeke hai.
to unke liye apun tension nahi lene ka. yaad rakhneka ki kucch kharab nahi hoega. kyun ki tum pe koi na koi tu lau karta hai pakka. iss parich to ye sab possible hai na bhai.
moje main jiyo ab.

Ibracadabra

Slowly but surely, this is turning into a football blog. I guess I don't really mind it. That's one thing I can watch, think or talk about forever. I am at work and I should be making a control law for my detector model. Instead, I'm still floored from watching FC Internazionale's (better know as Inter Milan) star-studded line up at the Stanford Football Stadium. Well, I'm glad at least Inter's presence managed to convince Stanford to host an actual "football" game at a football stadium.

Skipping mundane details about Silva and Cordoba scoring in the 51st and 60th minutes, Balotelli's show-off skills and 2 unnecessary red cards, I will go to the stimulating aspects of the game. No, no perversion please - respect football.

I have no idea what I was expecting. But its just not normal or natural to see Vieira flick and turn and swivel as he did yesterday or see all 193 cm of Marco Materazzi slide in without any inhibitions and least to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic's nimble footwork and delicate touches.

And then, there's gotta be a reason for calling someone The Special One. Watching Mourinho walk out, waving at times, just as if he was taking a stroll outside his home is an enthralling experience. The guy of many words, many ambitions, many ideas and many honours - yet he's just that man out there.

Somehow, everything that seems Oh-so flashy out there seems much more real (not Real) on the pitch. Of course, the quality is there, the class and the skill are there to see. But its just 11 players taking on 11 others, all of whom love the game more than anything else.

The stretching exercises on the sidelines was the closest I got to the players... not quite, my arm brushed a certain Zlatan's on his way out to the pitch.

To the point of being unnecessarily modest, maybe not so much for people at Stanford or even in the US who are used to seeing superstars. But watching my first professional game with Inter Milan as one of the sides will certainly be an experience to savour!

10th Anniversary

May 26, 1999
Manchester United were crowned champions of Europe for the second time in their history. A thoroughly undeserved victory. 2 goals in stoppage time. The day I really started watching football. Not a fan of Manchester United F.C.

But the class and quality of the football they played instantly made me an avid Red Devils' fan. Some amazing quality of football, even when they lost to Arsenal in the Premiership race in the 2001 season. I love Manchester United. I love their quality. Out of form at times, but classy as ever.

May 27,2009
10 years to the day I have known and watched Man U and Sir Matt Busby's 100th anniversary, we lost. There are no explanations. We were outclassed, outplayed and even Sir Alex was outwitted by a wily Guardiola. Congrats to Barcelona. Simply magical stuff! Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Eto'o, Henry and of course the wizard, Leo Messi. A sad and disappointing day.

If you love them and like them even when you lose, that's a Red Devil at heart. All said and done, Glory Glory Manchester United. We'll be back next year ... oh yes, A Happy 10th Anniversary to my initially sour but now supremely sweet love affair with The Magical Force from the Theater of Dreams :)

Midterm

Week 6! Midterms week! Yay! .....Not....

Spring of 2009 at Stanford University, this is the first quarter I'm actually taking 5 classes, each of 3 units or more. This usually means a very rough quarter with lots of work, almost no sleep, lack of a social or footy life and lots of soy milk and Pepsi.

However, I have managed to get an average of 5 hours of sleep every night, talked to my friends and loved ones back home as well as play intra-mural footy (and actually score 3 goals).

Friday - May 8, 2009.

Almost the end of midterms...sigh...relief...but disaster was to follow.
Being done with 3 midterms and after getting reasonably good grades in 2 of them, I was just hoping EE 102 A (Signals and Systems) would be a fair test and make for a good output for a few sleepless nights.

This is what followed:

A 50-minute open notes test, that counted for 30 % of the overall grade. This translates to 0.6 % of the grade every minute. Nerve-wracking.

Maximum score possible = 100. Every 10 points lost is 3 % of the grade washed away.

A class of around 20 students, so no generous curves.

4 "problems" so to say. But hey, who said no sub-problems? Lets put in 3 in each!

Results and reactions:

Highest score : 93 (of course, someone had to)
Lowest score : 23 (bad luck mate, i know you deserve better)
Mean : 59

"This test was all about partial credit" - Matt

"I dont want to have anything to do with signals ... or systems" - Kyle

'This class sucks" - Ziyad

Boom!!!
After 3 fair tests, and a satisfying paper, the quarter just exploded in my face...

Déjà vu

Manchester United F.C.
The name inspires love, affection and happiness in millions of hearts all over the world.
Also called the "Boston Red Sox" of club football, this is also the name that many other people detest and look at with contempt. The name, the money and the brand is far too flashy for some - I have even argued about this with Saay.

All said and done, the club has an aura. Old Trafford, home of the Red Devils is a temple for the United fans (including me). The Theater of Dream as it is fondly called, the place has seen tons of epic battles. However, today's was special...just very special...

April 25th
At the start of the day, the table stood:
Team Games played Points
Man. Utd. 32 74
Liverpool 33 71
Chelsea 33 68

Liverpool demolished Hull City and Chelsea scraped past West Ham 2 hours before Man U took the field against a resurgent Tottenham team that had climbed to an astonishing 10th position from being bottom at the start of winter. Knowing that they had also had a crucial game against Arsenal just before the end of the season, this was always going to be tricky fixture as Tottenham can be rampant on their days. A must win for United not only for the Premier League title, but also as a morale developer just before the Champions League semi-final clash with arch rivals Arsenal.

The game got off to a rather boring first 25 minutes. Not many chances and pretty scrappy play. I was totally not enjoying waking up at 9:30 am on a saturday morning having slept at 4 am.
And then it just got worse. Darren Bent scored for Tottenham followed by another one from Luka Modric...2-0 in 30 minutes - game not over but threatening to put a massive dent in the Devils' title charge. Berbatov was being his lazy self. Ronnie was going for back flicks that were never there. Patrice Evra seemed to have struck a secret contract to switch to Tottenham next year with lots of careless dispossession (and love) for Aaron Lennon. A dismal first half. The look on Sir Alex's face made me want to go puke - Stone Cold could not have been more stone-cold.

To me this was Déjà vu, except the other way round. We had overhauled Chelsea and Arsenal in previous seasons having been behind them by as many as 8 points at one stage. Our massive lead that stood tall in mid-February had been eaten away Liverpool's 4-1 thrashing( still a nightmare and a shocking memory) and then a poor performance at Fulham. As Akkal rightly put it, Seasons in the Abyss. And with Liverpool's healthy goal difference and an Arsenal game looming large, this really did look like a mountain to climb. Twas not to be...

HT 0-2 and Fergie brought on Tevez for Nani to produce the strongest frontline - Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov. And magic unfolded...

A wave of United attacks, cheered on by millions all over the world, staged one of the most dramatic fightbacks. True, it started with a controversial penalty awarded to Utd. Gomes was adjudged to have felled Michael Carrick in the box when it "looked" like he had the ball (not really, to me). Ronaldo blasted the ball into the back of the net. 2-1. game on. 18th English title on. Watching the game, it was only a matter of time before the goals started raining from United, and this comes from me as a football fan - not a United fan.

It started in the 66th minute. Not magical goals, but magical dominance. By the 79th minute, Rooney had forced in 2 goals, Ronaldo had shown Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka how to score two more goals even after starting the season a month and a half late and Berbatov had returned to haunt Tottenham. For those who read live text - 3 consecutive United attacks yielded 3 goals. It was a truly "Jizz in the Pants" orgasmic 14 minutes except that I didn't. I wouldn't be surprised if a big proportion of United fans did. Saay must have thought I had gone crazy, I have only a vague idea of what I was talking with her.

"We were a different team in the 2nd half " United 5-2 "Raped" Tottenham

Some truly unforgettable moments:

1. Old Trafford erupting in joy at Rooney's equalizer.

2. The sight of Ronaldo diving in for the third goal followed by ripping his shirt off and throwing it in the air(followed by a yellow card of course) in front of 75000 Devils' fans. The unforgettable part was only the goal and the celebration, not a shirtless Ronnie.

3. Edwin Van Der Sar running up from the keeper's end to congratulate his teammates after Rooney's 2nd. The, almost fatherly, pats from the 38 yr old to Ronnie and Rooney.

4. Rooney dry-humping Berbatov after the 5th (Berbatov was still acting lazy, wonder what makes that drowsy lump active ?!?! )

5. Sir Alex's arms raised in the air with commanding authority that would scare 300's "This is Sparta!!" Leonidus.

Déjà vu it really had been, as I talked with JD. But from 8 years back when United overturned a 0-3 deficit to win 5-3 against...yeah, Tottenham.

The title is clearly not won yet, still enough games to lose it. However, today was just special!

1

My first blogpost!
To be honest, I'm not a fan of blogs...still not an avid blogger...never thought it was worth shouting out about what I do. But having two of very good friends from college away on an abroad study program, I decided it wasn't that bad of an idea to actually create one and keep a track of random stuff that I have though of , experienced, seen or believed in.