Is the question that I keep asking myself now 2 days after it had ended. My love for Football started in 1994 when all i loved and knew about Football was Goals. Ever since both my love and knowledge and love has grown, albeit (Unfortunately) love has gone at a much faster rate than knowledge.

So where does this one rank if i were to compare it with the tournaments i have watched?

1994: A very dull affair, i remember this world cup more for the expolits of Sweeden and Bulgaria, Roberto Baggio's missed penalty, Bebeto's antics after scoring a goal and a dull yet efficient game of Brazil.

1998: Known for all the contraversy surrounding Ronaldo in the finals, this was better than 94 for sure. France were flamboyant, rather its Forwards were flamboyant but only till they encountered quality opposition, Henry and Co could not manage even a single goal in the Knockout phase of the tournament. Davor Suker along with Zidane emerged as the players of the tournament.

2000 Euro: Again not a gr8 tournament by any standards, remembered solely for the last minute drama in the finals. Again it was Zidane who emerged as the player of the tournament.

2002 World Cup: As dull as the 94 edition. South Korea and Turkey were the teams which hogged the limelight for their exploits. Ronaldo laying the ghosts of his 98 world cup was the biggest highlight.Of course who can forget the disastarous exit of the Defending Champs

2004 Euro: although many xperts called it an average affair, i would call it a good tournament. Greece stole the show with their masterful tactics and great work ethic, Milan Baros was awesome and some of his goals were simply world class.

2006 World Cup:Wondeful tournament.Italy showed its class. Physical, Intelligent, Aggressive. They were awesome. Zidane's comeback nearly resulted in a fairy tale finish. He proved that he was still the best play maker in the world. Argentina flattered to decieve. ( Riquelme was awesome)

2008 Euro: The pick of the lot. Spain, Holland, Russia, Turkey were all excellent. Germany as usal was efficient and effective.Never did we have these many teams playing good attractive football. It was a treat to watch and it was fitting that Spain won the trophy. The list of good players would be a very long one. Awesome tournament.

Now u know why am i asking "Why did it End?", It was like watching a river in full flow. Sad that it ended. Lets hope that we get to see more such tournaments.

I have lost count of the number of times that i would have crossed that place. But not once did i get a chance to enter. So it was pretty natural of me to get excited when i was told that i would be entering that place.
I was waiting for the D-Day and it did come. I was excited and no words can describe my excitement on that day. I dunno why but whenever i see this Survelliance Camera i get a bit disturbed. This place had plenty of them. Couple that with procedures and lot of Security and i was starting to feel uneasy.

When i was just beginning to get used to the ambience, a bolt out of the blue struck me. I had forgotten to take with me the single most important piece of evidence!!! Oh My God, I said to myself. Visuals of me answering my senior authorities criss crossed my mind and i became a statue for a moment or two. Picking up myself i spoke to the person in charge over there. He said that there was enough time for me to go and get back the document.That was a soothing balm to my wounded heart. Filled with relief i ran back to my family members, asked them to bring it for me. It seemed to me that 120 secs made a minute when i thought of where my family members were, and 30 secs made a minute when i checked how many minutes were remaining. Finally they came and i breathed a huge sigh of relief. My Dad gave me a look which made me think of my Soft skills tutor who said that Non Verbal Communication was more powerful than Verbal Communication. How True is that.

I started again and i now needed to complete some formalities, with a few people and boy! how abnormal were they, it seemed that not even Charlie Chaplin could make them smile. The word "Tough" would be an understatement.

Done with this and now to the final part, this time i was greeted by some people who were smiling for??? I dont know. They smiled for anything and everything. Finally i settled down in this magnificent Human Invention my account was opened. Filled with happiness and overcome by Tiredness i slept off immeadietly.

To Sum this entire experience up in a single Line: "All is Well that Ends well"

Credits:

The Place : Airport

Evidence : My Company ID Card

Tough People: Security Folks

Eternal Smilers: Air Hostess

Magnificent Human Invention: Aeroplane

If i may use that word is the best word to explain the stand of the Government on the Issue of Petroleum. Why this statement? This might be the question that immediately arises in the minds of every reader.After all the Government provides subsidy and there is no problem here.

Well i have a reason for saying this, the Government says that it is providing a lot of subsidies and it is doing so for the welfare of the people. Well, i beg to differ. Last week one of my friends who lives in Canada called me up. We had a long discussion and during the course of that discussion he said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a car in Canada as the price of a litre of gas( their term to refer fuel) has touched $1.33(Canadian dollar). Canadian dollar equals 40 INR and a simple conversion would reveal to us that we are acutally paying more for a litre. So where is the subsidy?

Taxes levied on Fuel by State and Central Goverments alone come to Rs 28 in the case of Petrol and around Rs 20 in the case of diesel( Figures are approximate, readers please help me out with acccurate figures). So the Government is using this as a revenue earning mechanism. To offset this the Government is making the Oil companies to suffer.Now there is a big problem with this approach.

This approach means that the Govt earns more if we consume more fuel. Now isnt this a recipie for disaster? Crude we all know is a non renewable resouce and the Govt shd actually try and encourage the saving of Crude. On one hand the Govt through the oil companies call for Lesser Consumption and on the other hand we have Govt encouraging auto companies to come out with more cars through friendy policies. So what exactly is it conveying? I am not able to understand. Can someone help me out on this???

P.S: Although Off topic, i would like to see the Govt spend a lot on Public Transport System, do away with subsidies on Kerosene and Diessel. Slap car owners with a tax for using a lot of the road space and causing congestion. But will all this or rather any of this happen???

Note:The US and the West are now finding it difficult to make ppl use Public Transport systems, as people have got used to the mindset of travelling through Car. More cars on the road is surely not the way to show our development. The sooner we understand this and we develop a better system it is better for not only us but also for the coming generations. And if we dont and succumb to the pressure of our Auto Lobby( as the West did and still do to a gr8 extent) we are going to get doomed.

Well,it has happened finally, Dasavataharam easily the most hyped movie of the Decade has finally released. So has the movie, which was touted as India's answer to Hollywood lived up to its expectations? Has it become a landmark movie for KamalHaasan which it was expected to become?Read On

Story: I am not going to dwell too much on the story, So much has been made about the Story."Chaos Theory","Butterfly Effect" and a lot many more jargons have been used. Put it simply it is about a Scientist trying to Destroy a Bio Weapon which is finally done by a Tsunami. Is Tsunami the work of God? Why should God create such things? Does anyone called GOD exist? the movie raises these questions.

Screenplay: This is the make or break section for any movie, and as far as this movie is concerned the screenplay is of the worst possible kind. Now, Hold On. Dont get angry. If u think that i am intent on Kamal Bashing , then u have got it wrong. Answer the questions raised below with a neutral mindset

1. The scientist does not know before the monkey's death that this bio weapon will be used for destructive purposes( Well what a KID the scientist must be to think so) and all of a sudden he changes his mind.(Huh)

2. Once he gets hold of the Virus(which takes place in the first half) why does he not go ahead and destroy it right away?? The story is logically over there and from that point on till the climax the story goes no where.It seems that at the climax the hero realizes that the time is up and we cannot make the audience wait anymore. Fatal Flaw.

3. How come a case in which even George Bush is interested in is handed over to an Officer( Read as Joker). The tactics employed by him are extreme sillly. Ridicilousness to the core.

4.These criminals whose photos are flashed all over the papers and TV channels roam throughout Tamil Nadu without anyone being aware about them. The Public is simply absent and so is the police. No police at the Check Posts, No Searchings nothing. Kiddish

5. Where does the story take place? Chidambaram, Next Scene Pondicherry Border and the next scene the people are admitted into a Hospital which God knows where it is and the next scene the concert takes place in Chennai(Simply Confusing)Although a minor one, which not many would have noticed it is still a flaw.

So with these many flaws the screenplay is just poor.

Direction: When u have such a poor screenplay there is nothing that can be done by the director, So there is no need to even speak about the director.

Music: Take away the first song and there is simply nothing in the movie, Background score is also weak.

Editing: Well Shoddy screenplay makes the work of an editor that much more difficult. I dont want to speak more on this( u wud have understood it)

Cinematography: Adequate

Special Effects: Well Done, the special effects are really good. Perhaps the only saving grace in the movie.

Dialogues:Dialogues try to support the half baked nature in which the movie has tried to deal with religion.

Performances:

Kamal in 10 roles and most of them are fogettable, not that he performs badly but there is no depth in characterization.

Asin has done the role of a semi lunatic( thats what i could make out of that stupid characer) to a T

Mallika Sherawat as usual has proven that she is poles apart from acting.
The rest of the cast( Was anyone there???) are Ok

All in all a very disappointing movie, I would say the most disappointing movie in the recent past, ranking higher than even Sivaji and Okka Magadu.( Now dont think that I am comparing OM to Dasavatharam, OM had expectations of a different kind)

Verdict: Well, Huge Numbers will be publicized, a Success Function wil be held for sure. But reality is something which will only be known the people who distributed and exhibited the movie.

P.S: One of my friend said that "Indian Cinema is at Kamal's feet", I dunno whehter he made it generally or keeping this specific movie in Mind,In case if it is a general statement then yes that statement can be taken up for debate, but had he said this keeping this movie in his mind, then there is no doubts over the fact that he must be a die Hard Kamal Fan who praises Kamal as a Duty without any analysis.

"I believe He will make it six in a row"-Roddick

Dear Roddick,Instead of believing in Federer had u believed in Urself, u wud have at least won One.

Just as Home Food is bliss when had after a long time so is a match like Holland v/s Italy when you watch it after a drab affair like France v/s Romania.

It was a fantastic contest, although the scoreline suggests otherwise. Had Italy taken the chances that came along their way the scoreline would not have looked so bad.

If someone would have asked me before yesterday that if there was a team that could out muscle the Italians? i would have said "None".But now i have a different answer. Dutch beat Italy at its own game yesterday. They fought like gladiators for every ball. Surely thats not the way the Dutch used to play before.

Italy's defence was made to look pedestrian. Now when was the last time U saw their defence as pedestrain? We all knew that Defence was not Holland's forte, but it was Holland which looked the more solid of the two in defence.

Italy's defence looked extremely vulnerable.Maybe they were affected by the absence of their charismatic skipper "Cannavaro" or they were taken aback by the physical game that Dutch played or could be a combination of both.

Coming to specific players, Schiedner, Kuyt, Van Bronchost,Van Der Wart were all excellent for Holland, Van Nistelrooy was good as usual. Van Der Sar had a good game.Readers would do well to remember that the influential "Robben" is still injured.

Pirlo was good in patches, he was not allowed to be his usual self, Nor was the Workhorse "Gattuso". Kudos to the Dutch for achieving that. Coming to the striker "Luca Toni" i am somehow not that impressed with him. I dont follo the Bundesliga where this guy plays, but from whatever i have seen of him i feel he is overrated like "Thierry Henry".

All in all a Nice game of football, where we had a lot of End to End stuff. The Dutch were slightly better in Defence and special in attack on the given day. If they can sustain this kind of a play, then they can go the distance for sure.Coming to Italy, i feel i they will still qualify as i dont see France beating either Italy or Holland.

A rocking start to the Euro.Hope Euro rocks till the end.

One word to describe what happened to Federer today-HUMILIATION

NADAL on clay reminds me of a mythological character called VAALI.It was said that VAALI had a boon by which half the strength of his opponent would accrue to him. Nadal seems to remind me of him.

It is yet another Nadal v/s Federer clash and by the looks of it, it seems to me that Nadal is all set to win his 4th consecutive French Open crown there by reemphasizing that he is the "King of Clay".

This 4th win will put alongside Bjorn Borg( the only other player to have won 4 Consecutive French Open titles). What a fabulous Achievement would that be?

Last June we had Federer equaling another record of this great player by winning his 5th consecutive Wimbledon.

Now if two people winning 5 Wimbledon and 4 French are great feats by itself, then how big is the same player 5 Wimbledon and 6 French??? The word "Incredible" would be an Understatement.

Will any other player ever be able to emulate that? I wonder.

Borg unlike Federer is not an "Artistic Assassin" nor a "bulldozer" like Nadal. He was meticulousness personified. Borg was all "Method" and "Meticulousness". I can say Borg was a CMMi Level 5.( Huh, not able to shrug off this IT hangover). Borg was as precise as a surgeon. As cool as as Ice ( that he was nicknamed Ice Borg),As shrewd as a Good Investor when it came to "Risk Assessment" and As fit as a "Marathon Runner"

Borg was never flamboyant, rarely did i see him play an Unbelievable shot. He was a master at doing the simple things perfectly and he was also as tough as they would possibly come.He would make simple adjustments to his game based on the surface and the player. Panic was one word which never seemed to exist in his dictionary. His Record in Five Setters confirms this fact.

So where does he rank? Is he better than Federer or Nadal? Well i don't want to give a judgment on this. I will leave the decision to the Reader's choice. I would however like to throw light on One Important Point. "The Quality of Opposition" Borg had Johm McenroE, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendle who were all great players. I turn now and look at the quality of the opposition and I am unable to find any quality here. The grass has slowed down and the quality has come down.

Well not for a moment i am saying that Federer is someone of lesser caliber. It is only unfortunate that there is not enough quality to bring the caliber out. He has got only Nadal to challenge him and that too on Clay. Its a pity.

My knowledge on both Tennis and Bjorg is as flippant as it can get. But still i am writing this because of the love i have for this champion.

P.S: Here is something some knowledgeable sources. Thanks to Wikipedia."In 2008, ESPN.com asked tennis analysts, writers, and former players to build the perfect open era player. Borg was the only player mentioned in five categories -- defense, footwork, intangibles, and mental toughness -- with his mental game and footwork singled-out as the best in open era history.^[13]":

Readers will remember my article "How Come !!!!" in which i spoke about Brands being associated with us right from birth. Now people are fighting for recognition of one such brand. Wondering what this is all about?"GUJJARS"( now u would have got it for sure)

Gujjar brand now wants Brand Equity. Although a temporary ceasefire looks imminent,this whole issue has clearly shown how the policies followed by our politicians have become a "Frankenstein's Monster".

The "Divide and Rule" policy implemented under the guise of "Reservation" is now a Monster which is growing at an alarming pace. The recent decision of the Supreme Court has only accelerated this growth. With the governments all over the country scouting for more and more benefits to some sections of the society, it is only natural that more and more people want to be identified as those sections for which there are perks and benefits.

Gujjars to me seem to be only the Tip of the Iceberg. If they are successful then they will act as inspirations for more brands to follow suit and get themselves recognized. Now if they are denied and this agitation crushed,( well cant even imagine that,with so much media coverage to the issue).

So Gujjars have set the ball rolling. It might be Kapus tomoro,Some other caste the next day and who knows a day might come when we will see even the Brahmins taking it to the streets. Well i can now say with confidence that we will be there as the most Brand Conscious Nation in a short span of time.

Jai Hind.

I seriously don't know how to start this. I am flooded with thoughts and filled with emotion when i think of this man.

Can i begin this with his debut match in which he took a pasting? With the Gatting ball, which was later dubbed as the "Ball of the Century"? With the 96 World Cup Semifinal? With his failures in India? or with this Heroics in 99 World Cup? or With his latest IPL performance?

I am confused.

Warne has been my Ultimate Hero since childhood. The image of a chubby blond figure strolling up to the crease(thinking how to fox the batsman), sending shivers down the spine of many a batsmen in the world is something which has got etched in my mind so much so that i doubt whether i will be able to ever forget them.

As Someone always destined to conquer Nature. Be it in mastering the art which demanded you to rotate your wrist against nature or be it in overcoming injury after Injury which he was confronted with.

As Someone always made the big stage his own,Remember the 96 World Cup Semifinals, 99 World Cup Semifinals, 99 World Cup Finals? Mind you i have not mentioned anything about his exploits in Tests( which will make this post prohibitively long).

As Someone who not only won but won in style and at the same time lost with Honor.

As Someone who dominated the game which is batsman oriented, something confirmed by Wisden when they named him as one of the players of the century. He was the only bowler in that list and he made that list when he was still playing( his career was 8 years old then).

As someone who is a great leader who could make Boys defeat men to which the IPL win stands as the testimony.

As someone with a great cricketing brain and a great eye of talent and so on and on and on. I simply dunno where to end.

The World calls him a Legend,a Leader and a Genius. I simply call him my IDOL.

Thnks Warnie, thnks for all the memories U have given me.