Dada'r kirti

The heading is one of an emotional dramatic well-made bengali movie, which has been used here as a catch phrase to recognise our cricketing dada Sourav Ganguly's contribution in recently concluded India vs SouthAfrica series. India have drawn the series 1-1, coming back strongly in Kanpur to win the 3rd and final test by 8 wickets after losing the 2nd test by innings and 90 runs. The 1st test was a run fest where shewag scored a triple century, and the test match yielded almost 1500 runs with loss of 25 wkts over 5 days. The pitch at ahmedabad was lively and india lost the match by getting bowled out within 20 overs for 76 in the 1st day morning. South Africa scored 494/7 in the same pitch, and though dada and dhoni tried their best to avoid innings defeat, south africa won easily by innings and 90 runs. Dada played good solid strokes through offside, punished Paul Harris , the lone south african spinner, handsomely, used his feet to great extent. And in the 3rd test at Kanpur, when the pitch was unpredictable at its best, dada produced one gem of an innings, an innings to remember for long time. The upper part of the pitch was disintegrated, the dusts were coming out, the bounce was unpredictable. South Africa were bowled out for 265 in the 1st day, from 152-1. India were 110/3 and dravid was out in a jumping delivery when dada walked out. And what followed was termed as the "asset innings for playing on spinning track" by south african coach micky arthur. Dada played with lot of positiveness and agression, did not try to just defend. He cut and drove whenever he got opportunities on the off side, and his pulls and jabs down the on side was also there. When he finally got out in the fag end of 2nd day for 87 trying to force the pace, India was safely placed at 279, taking lead over south african total.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2tRMDDP4gc

He not only earned the man of the match for the innings, but earned heap of praise for such skillfulll batting on a detoriating pitch. Still, there are so many critics and non-crickety jealous people who cannot stand Sourav Ganguly..!! But he enjoys that, more people will hurl abuses, his steel strong determination will be more stronger..and the bat will do the talking..

Book Review: The Kite Runner

"For you, a thousand times over".

Thats the phrase that caught my mind after I read the book "Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. Unfortunately thats probably the only thing that I m going to remember from the book. The book starts with the childhood stories of a rich but lonely , devoid of parental attention,child, and his camaraderie with the son of their servant. Initial part of the bok speaks well about the mid-60 early 70s Kabul, Afghanistan, the traditions, the winters, the small little smells and details that will help you to fall in love with a place you havenot seen. It speaks about the loyalty of the servant's son, Hassan to his malik's son, Amir. But slowly as the story progresses, it more or less turns out to be a series of melodramatic events.

Author tries to provide a picture depicting the rise and fall of Afghanistan, but in the end it turned out to be a story of Amir's own life, how he escaped from Afghanistan and settled in America. One important aspect that was never highlighted enough in the book is the civil war in 90s in Afghanistan, where pashthuns and hazara's fought each other. That was the backdrop of the story, starting from the early days, it was pashthuns vs hazara's.Emotions are good, but you need to put emotions in rihht place. Just sketching dreams, past moments, creating a hollow surrealistic feeling does not create a great literary piece. Thats what I felt happened with this book. There are lot of places in the book where the author tried to create sympathy by showing the ugly face of life. He has drawn lot of blood shedding, and in the process marred the main objective of the story he started with. Hassan's character is a strong character, but thats the only character that stands out in the book, thats the only character that you ponder upon after finishing the book. The book do inflict a blurred image of Afganistan, the good and bad one, in your mind, but I think it fails to blend that image in your mind alongside with the characters. I believe it fails to do justice to the title of the book as well. The initial part of the book was sound, but as soon as the part with soviet attack on Afghanistan starts, the plot is lost somewhere in between reality description and story telling. I would give this book 6/10.

Soccer Snippets 2

League of the Champions or emergence of also rans?

For the 2nd time in consecutive years, at least 3 EPL teams are in UEFA champions league quarter finals. This time even better, all 4 big guns of EPL are at the QF of UCL. Arsenal face Liverpool, which means at least one english team will be in semifinal. Chelsea face Fenerbache, and without any disrespect to the turkish side, it can be said atleast 2 english teams will be in the semifinal. Is indeed EPL is the league of champions?or champions league is the place where also rans can excel? fenerbache is no big name in european football, but the way they fought and came this far this season is amazing. They have some good players in the rank, and they fought with heart in the battles, and passion has guarded their lack of skill, and brought them this far. They ousted Sevilla in the 2nd round, who looked very composed in UCL this season. But chelsea will indeed be a tough test. Schalke is another team no one thought would end up in last 8. They emerged from a pretty tough group with chelsea, valencia and rosenborg, and they beat porto in the 2nd round. They are another team who are used to be considered as also-rans by football pundits. Though barcelona will be a stern test, they can already feel proud about their achievements in Europe this season.

Manchester Utd and Roma already faced of this year in group stage and set to replay last years memorable action and goal packed quarter final. Roma is different team this season, as not a lot of team go to santiago bernebeau and knock off real madrid. Not a lot of team go to san siro and beat AC Milan.

So, indeed the teams which were considered mediocre have emerged this season, we are getting very good mix of big names and fighters. Lets have an enthralling last 3 rounds of champions league football.

Soccer Snippets 1

English race is not over

Its a three team race, and after long time, chelsea edged ahead of arsenal to second spot after last weekend's victory over gunners. Gunners are slipping behind after a fabulous start to the season. They have failed to win in last 5 matches in epl. This was somewhat predicted from a young team which regrouped themselves pretty well after last season's disaster and departure of Henry. But I consider the EPL race far from over. Mainly because , there are still big matches left, Arsenal face Liverpool, ManUtd face Chelsea, Man Utd face Arsenal, Chelsea face Liverpool in the remaining weeks, which are all 6 point games. Though Reds(Liverpool) are out of title contention, they can ruin the party for other three in the process of solidifying their champions league berth.

The mid-table juggling is also continuing as Everton, Man City, and PortsMouth battling it out for Uefa cup while everton has an eye to the champions league. Newcastle finally won under king kev and looks like they are not in relegation survival. Hope they hire some good striker and medios next season. If Viduka gets healthy, and owen can play in full force..they still have the team to compete with top four. Juande Ramos has given Spurs their 1st piece of silverware after long time, but the club is doing poorly in EPL. Next season, he may want to change that.

Season is over for Derby, and Fulham is fighting fo their life in ICU. Fasten your seatbelts folks, the EPL is all set for a fast exciting landing.

"aye aye captain...."

Most of you probably are aware of the dialogue mentioned in the heading. It is from dead poet society, where the students used to call their teacher by this, "aye aye captain...".

Captains in every form of life have roles to play, have responsibilities to fulfill, because the word captain itself is very precious and powerful, and as uncle of spider man said.."with great power, comes great responsibilities."

And the magnitude of the responsibility is even greater if you are captain of Indian cricket team. There are more than 1 billion people in the country, and counting NRIs, there are almost 1 billion cricket pundits. you got to be responsible when you are captain of a team which represents people of that huge number. Unfortunately our captain , ODI captain, current captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni isn't.

Now let me explain why I say that. We all followed what happened down under this summer, and this blog is not reporting news or scores that has already been reported in news papers. This is a place to speak your mind, so I am doing that.

India defeated Australia in the CB series final 2-0, and doing so, has achieved something no Indian team has done before, and in doing so has registered their name in history as this was the last annual triangular series played in Australia, which has been part of their cricketing culture for last 30 years.

India omitted senior players from the team, and barring sachin tendulkar, most of the other players can be tagged as "non-aged players". Everyone doubted the credibility of the young team in front of Lee, Johnson, Clark and predicted a washout.But thats the beauty of being an Indian. When people question you, hurt your emotion, then you bring out your best, and proves everyone wrong. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar all played big role in defeating Aussies in their own backyard, and in a version of the game where they are world champions for almost a decade. Cool calm captaincy from Dhoni showed us we got a leader for the future who go by instincts, and who backs his players in difficult times.So far so good, we got a brilliant future.

Right, now lets talk about responsibilities and touch a little on the start of the story. Captains need to be responsible.As soon as Dhoni comes back to India with the team, he gave an flamboyant interview to the media, saying it was necessary to send the message across to some players. And there the whole debate started , the issue of responsibility came into play.

How many years Dhoni has played international cricket? 3. How many years Dravid has played? 12. How many years Sourav Ganguly has played? 12+4. I am not here to repeat Gangulys credentials as captain or Dravids contributions to many Indian victories in the past. We all know that. But we never heard of this kind of statement before. Dhoni has won a triangular series, not a world cup. To remind people, take out sachin tendulkar's 117* and 91 from the 2 finals, the score line might as well be reversed.

so why there is so much fuss about juniors? it should be kept in mind that the best eleven is required to win a tournament, not a youngest eleven.Throughout the tour we have observed the failure of opening stand in Indian innings. We have observed over the last year, whenever sachin and sourav gave india a good start, India went on to either win the match or at least put up a big score.So why Uthappa or Shewag is considered a better option than sourav ganguly as opening partner for tendulkar?

just because he is 36? just because he doesnt run as fast as Uthappa? well then we should consider the amount of runs he scores, which is way more than those players.

Even after India defeated Australia, I am not convinced that India has the right batting lineup in ODIs at the moment. More of all, the players need to show respect to seniors and elders who have served the country so passionately for so long. Words generally create enemies, again the words can create friends. Words can help the flow of emotions. Dhoni made the mistake of first not speaking to the seniors abut their exclusion, second made a huge mistake for making such public statement in the open.

I am a strong believer of what goes around, comes around.It will come back to haunt MS Dhoni, he will realise it one day, but it will be too late then.

From cricketing stand point, both Ganguly and Dravid has about 20 matches still left in ODI career and at least 2 years left in test career. Though energy and youth is replacing the experience in shorter version of the game, I am horrified to think abou Indian cricket's test future. Once sachin-sourav-dravid-laxman, the fab four, hang up their boots, I am shivering as I think about the state of Indian cricket will be then. So Dhoni, please remember, respecting elders is part of our culture.

The Ugly Ducklings

Thats th name of a book I used to read in my childhood. Really childhood. My mom used to bring me one book everyday (almost) when she returned from work, I used to read the book, and kept it if I liked, and torn it apart if I did not. My love for book grew that way. Ugly duckling was a story o an ugly duck who was not wanted in duck society, hated by other ducks, hated by society, almost died in winter from freezing, only finally being rescued and accepted by a few beautiful swans which makes his heart filled with joy.
Society is always hard, we do not want to recognize anything off the track, we do not want to accept which does not fall into 2+2=4 category. But good hearts always win the race ultimately, however tough the journey be.
Well, the ugly ducklings story probably has nothing to do with what is to follow. When a batsman scores a 0 in a cricket match in Australia, the australian broadcasting channel accompanies the batsman to the pavilion with a animated duck on the TV screen. That ducklings is not ugly.
The term duckling gets associated with Australian cricket team just as only channel nine started this duck-walk with the batsman out for a "duck".
The ugliness of the duckling is eminent here, where it is pointing to. We all know cricket is no more a gentleman's game. No game are gentlemen's game anymore. There is too much at stake, there is not enough time to be gentleman. But still, sometimes you let your good heart win the battle with heated neuron signals in your head. All the fiasco that happened over last week between India and Australian cricket team, needs no more discussions. In an age of media dominance, every movement of every individual is thoroughly scrutinized. It is heartening to see that good sense prevailed at the end of scrutiny, mud-throwing, finger-pointing, bad-intentions, rough columns, life-threats. Yes thats what I mean by ugly duckling. The rough face of the duck, who is good by heart ,has been exposed over the last week.
We all descended from our ancestors through evolution which happened due to errors made by DNA during copying. Our ancestors were not homo sepiens. There is nothing to get agitated about it. Lets play some cricket folks..!!

Mishar diary Intro

1st paragraph intoduces the egypt diary by shuchismita. Read the intro before you start reading the diary, it will help you get into the mood.

Click here to read the intro

http://www.guruchandali.com/guruchandali.Controller?portletId=8&porletPage=2&contentType=content&uri=content1196119322974&contentPageNum=1

Mishar Diary (Egypt Diary) by Shuchismita

Eye of an Optimist

The 7 match ODI series between India and Australia has recently been concluded. The series, played with high intensity and temper has been won by Australia, 4-2.

But there is a lot beyond that scoreline. Australia's dominance is the most boring and monotonous thing that had happened to cricket. So every slice cut out of australian glory will be well enjoyed by the rest of the cricketing world. Competing with Australia is not an easy job, as they are thorough professionals and master-sledgers in the field. When they sledge, they dont consider you as human being, or have no respect for you. India , especially sreesanth, wanted to give them back some of their own medicine. They did not like that.

Aussies started crying about racism, monkey chants, all that. How funny!! how funny that the most racist nation in the world is complaining about racism. Every touring party, that toured down under, has faced racist comment on and off the field. Makhaya Ntini, Muralidharan, Chaminda Vaas, Gavaskar, you name it. I just dont think they are not nice human beings, most of them. Of course there is Allan Border, there is david boon, geoff marsh, geoff lawson, richie benaud, who played the game as gentleman's game. But in general, they always sledge, use bad words, drag your families.

The way India approached australia's sledging was wrong. They shud have approached with smile, not with artificial jumping in the ground. But this is not an article on sledging, this is just a small report on the optimistic side of Indian cricket.

India bowled well with the new ball in the whole series, they had Australia 3-4 wickets down inside 100 runs in first 3 matches. They bowled aussies out for 193 in the last match, and dragged aussies to 283 from a runrate of 7 after 15 overs. The

Spinners bowled well, both M.Karthik and Harbhajan generated turn, and sometimes bounce. Brad Hodge has a horrible series, and if all the catches were held properly, Symonds average wouldnt have look so healthy.

Fielding definitely needed to be improved. The general level is okay, but Indian fielders have to hold on to catches more frequently, have to have direct-hit run-outs more often. But again, when the opposition is Australia, it is not so easy.

Indian batting was mixed. Whenever sachin and sourav gave good starts, the middle order looked solid, the runs came big. In the 4th and 6th ODI, the opening stands were 91 and 140 respectively. India ended up scoring 291 and 299. We need that level of consistency more often. Sachin and Sourav together have opened for India I think close to 180 times, and they have crossed 100 runs together as openers for 21 times. Their average as a pair is 45+ . Undoubtedly this is the best opening pair EVER to play one-day cricket. Indian selectors should remember that before they get influenced by a 70 by Gautam Gambhir in challenger trophy, or a meaningless 75 by Virender Shewag in domestic tournaments. Yuvraj's century at Hyderabad was treat to watch, so was the fight by Zaheer and Karthik in the last ODI to win from 64/6. In Uthappa, India has found a batsman who can take the attack to opposition in true sense. His stepping up to the crease, his walking silently to the ball before hoising it for six, his calm head and silence aggression is definitely a wonderful sight for the future. He needs to do this more consistently.

India smashed Aussies out of the park in 20-20 match in Brabourne stadium. I am not going to the discussion of that match, because India is world champion in that format, and the way aussies played that 20-20 match, they have A LOT to learn in that version, a lot to adapt. May be they can take that lesson from India.

All in all, a series ended 4-2, could well have been 3-3. A series, where , Indian team, after such long season, still withstood to aussie challenge. Indian team has played 14 ODIs, 5 test matches and one T20 world cup after their early exit from carribean world cup. Australia, played only few 20-20 matches in T20 world, no international longer matches whatsoever. Easily understood which team was fatigued and which team was more rested. Still Indian players have shown that they can fight, and impossible will be nothing.

I see a bright light at the end of tunnel, or I can say, I see a bright future for Indian cricket.

Chak De..India..!!

Blue Billion..that was the name of the support campaign for the Indian cricket team before the 2007 limited over(50) cricket world cup in carribean. Filmstars, pundits, not-so-noteworthies, everyone chipped in with their signatures and one-liners..wishing their best. And a team, led by an insipid captain, coached by a horrendus individual, boarded the plane for carribean...

We all know what happened in the islands of central america. Indian cricket have not seen bigger disaster, a nation did not show bigger rage. India lost to Bangladesh, surrendered against Srilanka, came back home within a week they played their 1st match. The blue billion became pale, the cafe-corner junta's demanded the head of the players, specially those who failed to perform.

Fingers are raised and pointed to several individuals, the opportunistic racist coach started to swing his willow. Greg Chappel has finally succeeded in destroying Indian cricket. Thats what he came for. After finishing his job, he left the post before being sacked by BCCI. A lot of speculations prevailed, who didnt do their job, who wanted to catch fish in dirty water...

After effect..shewag sacked, harbhajan sacked, Irfan pathan sacked. Sachin and Sourav "rested" from the ODI team. India travelled to Bangladesh to get a "revenge". Well this article is not about the aftermath of world cup disaster..but these events are needed to be mentioned to put things in perspective.

The upward curve of Indian cricket after Greg Chappel left. India defeated Bangladesh 2-0 in ODIs , 1-0 in Tests, defeated South Africa in aODI series in Ireland 2-1 (1st time such thing happened), defeated England in test series 1-0 in England(1st time after '86). But still something was not right. I am telling you what is not right. THE CAPTAIN..!!

Thankfully Rahul Dravid stepped down at the right time. After India lost to England 3-4 in the ODI series, and came back home. Rahul Dravid ended the two tortorous-eventful year at the helm. Some capabilities are natural, and cannot be polished with hard-work. For example, captaincy for Sourav Ganguly, batting for Rahul Dravid. Do what you do best, and do what the team needs you for. The overindispensable feeling of Sourav Ganguly and momentary greediness from Rahul Dravid has chopped India off several glory, cost India a building process.

But never mind..life must go on..and we..the blue billion..can adjust to life very well. So here comes the 20-20 world cup, the new brainchild of ICC in international circuit. 20-20 cricket started in South Africa in 2000, and started in the gully-moholla's of Pakistan in 1970s. This format stopped the non-cricket playing nations accusition of cricket being a boring long game.

It takes about 3-3.5 hrs to finish a match, same time a baseball, american football, basketball match takes. The 50 over games shrinked by 40%, with all the rules and powerplays, and everything. The ground-size is not shrinked, nor the members in team.

It is hard for the puritans to accept it. Same was the case when Kerry Packer started world series of cricket down-under in 1977, flood-lights, colored dress, white-ball, excitement. New things takes a while to be accepted. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, english counties play a lot of 20-20 cricket, so does south-african clubs, Pakistani players. The format is not well established in India , and not taken seriously in Australia.

Ya right, you heard it correctly, Australia. The nation that has won almost everything in cricket in this decade so far. 2 world cups, many more ODI series. Australia, the nation who wants to dominate the sport of cricket. Australia, the nation without emotion and with a lot of bad intent. Australia a nation with utmost power unleashed in cricket field. A nation build on by 2nd generation english prisoners and 2nd generation tribal aboriginals, devoid of mass education, devoid of respect towards human race. Players from all over the world became victim of racial chants in australian cricket grounds. Why? because those individuals have no respect for other people.

Now this is too far-fetched generalisation. There are tons of aussies who are exactly opposite of this picture, but as you know exceptions only can prove the rule.Now back to the cricket ground. India all in all played one 20-20 match in SA. Australian team said they dont take this tournament seriously. Everyone tipped South Africa to win this tournament at their home.Life only goes so much according to the prediction.

India and Pakistan both needed to do well in this tournament. Albeit the shorter version, this is a world cup. And world cup in any sports is of huge magnitude, even if its a world cup of 3-a-side soccer, it gets media attention all over the world. So why not 20-20 cricket? India and Pakistan , both indispensable to the ICC for cash-accumulation, needed to reinstate the flavor on the cricketing world, specially after their early exit from world cup of longer version earlier this year.

And what a way they began. They played a tied match and India won 3-0 in a bowl-out. On the other groups, Zimbabwe stunned Australia, Bangladesh sent WestIndies packing. The sixes started flowing, crowd started dancing, the fireworks making noise. Yes, cricket is back, the excitement is back, the subcontinent is back..should I say the exciting part of the subcontinent is back.

Let me know generalise the matches a little bit. A score of 175-180 is considered to be good score in 20-20, an economy rate of 7 in 4 overs of bowling considered to be good. Now you are thinking 20-20 is batsman's game. Not quite. Yes indeed batsmen are hitting more sixes and four they used to, but there is the catch phrase. They are expected to hit more sixes and fours. This makes bowlers job easy. If a bowler can bowl full, bowl good yorkers, it is hard to just swing at those deliveries. The mind games take priority here. You have to out-think your opponent. Fielding is an important part of the matches, as it always been. No time for making-up, its just 20 overs.

After the initial hickup, Australia made it to the super-8, but they again lost to Pakistan there. Pakistan gained up the momentum superbly after group stage, they defeated Srilanka as well. Pakistan have players who can hit the ball naturally to a long distance. Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq. Misbah ul Haq applied himself brilliantly, and shoaib malik and younis khan played natural cricket. Umar Gul boled awesome yorkers in the middle over, Md Asif provided initial brakthroughs, and Pakistan matched on to the final winning all the matches in super 8 and beating NZ in the semifinal.

Oh, NewZealand, not again. Again losing a semifinal to a subcontinent team. They never get past semifinal because they are the best mediocre team I have ever seen. Daniel Vettori displayed some superb spin bowling, but nothing much to remember off. Some big hits by Craig Mcmillan and Jacob Oram here and there. The lost drably to Pakistan in semis, lost to SouthAfrica in group stage.

Yeah, lets talk about South Africa, and group B in super 8 in general. India lost the first match to NZ, and then SA defeated Eng, NZ defeated England, and the equation became complicated. India , suddenly, losing just one match to NZ, are on the brink of elimination from the tournament. No one noticed the cricket of India that much, till that point. Then India faced of England in a must win match. In came Yuvraj Singh, blasting 6 sixers in a Stuart Broad over. Game on, suddenly the tri-color flags started flapping in the crowd more vigorously. India defeated England by only 18 runs though, 218-200. Bowling remained a question, Joginder Sharma's low medium pace being main concern.

But slowly one can sense, India gaining momentum. Gautam Gambhir batted very well throughout , Uthappa is providing good innings, and now Yuvraj. Yuvraj;s natural hitting ability is never in question, but what he lacked always is the license of hitting freely whenever he wanted. This format of cricket provided that to him. And his shots were not slogs by any means. Good, clean hitting, good classic big cricket shots.

So came the crucial match, India against SouthAfrica, with all its permutation and combinations. India can win the group, India can just qualify for the semis, India can be out of the tournament. Same is true for both SA and NZ. India batted first, Yuvraj was out with tendinitis, and managed 153/5. Decent score from 32-3. Dhoni and new-found Rohit Sharma played calculatedly. Rohit Sharma showd immense maturity in pacing his innings in this format. You hardly pace an innings in 20-20, you just go and hit, right? Ya, you wish. No, as I tried to emphasise earlier as well, this is natural game of cricket. The intricacies and delicacies of regular game of cricket is not lost altogether here. Batsmen still can pace his innings, still can rotate the strike, bowler still can bowl a classic outswinger to beat the edge of the bat.

SouthAfrica choked again, and choked bigtime. RP Sing provided an awesome combination of swing and pace-bowling, SA tottered 32-5 at one stage, and finally even failed to score 126 runs they needed to qualify for the semifinal. India topped the group, and booked a date with Australia in Durban for semifinal.Indian fielding have risen to a new level. Karthik's catch of graeme Smith and Rohit Sharma's run out of Justin Kemp are the best examples.http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aXMiwzJLUI, http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LztfjZUH1oo

India vs Australia at the semifinal. The two ignorant teams in the semis. The experienced teams in this format like SA and England are out. What does this prove? This proves that it doesnt depend on the format, it depends on how you play it. If you play proper cricket, bowl well, field well, you will win a match in 20-20 no matter who is your opponent.

Not a lot of people think that India can go to the final beating Australia. India started off with mediocricity, reaching 41-2 in 8th over. Here comes Yuvraj again. Flicking Lee for couple of sixes through square leg, he gathered his momentum. Gilchrist tried to slow things down by introducing Symonds, Yuvraj whacked him outside the ground. Then he delicately lofted some low full-tosses from mitchel johnson over the cover for boundaries. Finally when he fell to Clarke in 18th over, India are well placed at 155-3. Dhoni was still at the other end, and used his brutal power to lift India to 188. Not staggering, but very good total. If you bowl well, aussies will find it tough chasing that under the lights.

Gilchrist and Hayden started in their natural ways as they always had. Hayden in particular smashed things hard. Gilchrist fell to Sreesanth, but hayden continued the sixes and fours. 134-2 in 14th over. 55 from 6 overs with 8 wkts in hand. A cakewalk in 20-20. Pathan and Harbhajan had other ideas. First Sreesanth bowled a scorching yorker to knock off Hayden's stump. Then pathan and harbhajan bowled 3 tidy overs, allowed no room to hit. Pathan bowled Symonds, Harbhajan bowled Clarke, and Australia suddenly was pushed hard to backfoot. They neede 21 in the last over, Joginder Sharma gave away just 5 and took 2 wickets. Joy erupted, fireworks exploded, Indian players dancing on the pitch. Yes, Australia, the mighty-all conquering Australia is eliminated from a world cup. Other than aussies, I guess everyone erupted with joy. This is an welcome break from the monotony. Then people realised what just happened due to Indian victory in the semifinal over aussies.

It is an India vs Pakistan final. A dream come true. Two nations, divided by british, two nations, filled with so many emotional crazy people, two nations, exiting early from the world cup, two nations, whose players stardom switch from zero to hero and vice-versa in seconds, are in the final. Such is the intensity of rivalry, such is the history of cricket, such is the fan-following of these two nations, such is the flavor and excitement these two nations bring, that, the final of this 20-20 worldcup instantly became the most-awaited event in cricket. Never in an world cup final before, India and Pakistan met. Cricket enthusiasts all over the world felt that this is going to be the match, for ages. This is going to be an epic by itself.

Yes , what a match it was. Any adjective will fall short to provide proper description, so I am not using any. Just suffice to say, it is indeed the match for the ages, it is indeed the best final in any form of cricket have seen so far. India won the toss, batted first. Yusuf Pathan, Irfans older brother opened the batting with Gambhir in Shewags absence. He hit Asif for a six in the 1st over. Gambhir played superbly, kep the scoreboard ticking and picked up boundaries as well. Pakistan did their homework on Yuvraj. Yuvraj was not given pace to work with, and he never felt too comfortable against spinners. Dhoni also failed to score big, and Umar Gul strangled India in the middle over. On a sunny day, a flat Jo'burg pitch, everyone felt anything short of 175 will fail to challenge Pakistan. India were 120 in 17 overs. Rohit Sharma provided the late fire-power and India managed to reach 157 in 20 overs. Gambhirs 75 was the main pillar, and Sharma's 30 n.o. provided the late impetus. Runs on the board. Though 157 is well 20 run short of expectations, chasing 7.9 runs an over in a final cannot be a cakewalk. India been bowling well for last few matches.


Imran Nazir started as if he is playing a 10-10 match, not 20-20. He blasted two cover driven sixes in Sreesanths 1st over that cost 21. RP Sing removed hafeez and Kamran Akmal in his 1st two over to keep things in check a little bit, but Imran anzir just carried on, he scoed 33 of 14, and Pakistan were 53/2 in the 6th over. Match is slipping away from India.

..and here comes the cliched turning point.Imran Nazir wanted a runner, but since he carried an injury to the match, umpires didnt agree to the request. Younis khan pushed a ball to the mid off region and called for a single, Uthappa picked up the ball and throwed to the strikers end. the throw beat hobbling Nazir to the crease, and 3rd umpire pressed the OUT button.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7821150331115380257&q=Imran+Nazir+run+out&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

That seem to have change the momentum of Pakistan innings. Pathan came in and varied his pace beatifully. neither Shoaib Malik, nor Younis Khan was able to hit him, and finally Younis Khan was out to Joginder Sharma. In came Misbah-ul-Haq, the tragic hero of last India Pakistan 20-20 match in this world cup's group stage. Shoib Malik found it hard going on the other end, and in Pathans 3rd over (Indias 12th), both Malik and Shahid Afridi perished. Malik held on at mid on, and Afridi tried a non-existing heave on the second ball he faced, that landed to Sreesatnh on long off. Similar situation as the group matches. Misbah left with tail enders.And Misbah started it as the group match, started hitting sixes along with tail enders. First with Yassir Arafat, then with Sohail Tanvir. He hit 3 sixes on one Harbhajan's over, where as Sohail Tanvir hit 2 sixes to Sreesanth. Equation became 20 from 13 balls. But Sreesanth bowled Tanvir in that last ball of the over, and then RP removed Umar Gul early next over, to put Pakistan again under pressure. 17 required of 7 balls with only 1 wicket in hand.

Md Asif edged a full toss from RP towards thirdman boundary for 4. Again it swings to Pakistan. 13 of last over with Misbah on strike. Harbhajan was whakced by Misbah, so Dhoni called Joginder Sharma again. Joginder finished it off well against Australia in semis. But there 21 was required, here only 13. Joginder bowled a full toss in the 2nd ball, and Misbah whacked it for 6. 6 required from 4 balls. Everyone is on the edge of their seats. The world cricket have not seen more tense final before. The flags in the crowd are not waving. Which way it will go?

There is a proverb,"dont try to be too clever, you may be hanged". The fine leg was up indeed, but just playing with straight bat will have earned Pakistan victory. Misbah tried to scoop Joginders out-side-off stumo full delivery over fine legs head. Bad attempt, and he did not connect it properly, Sreesanth held the catch. It was over, the best final match in the history of the cricket was over. So the outcome..? India has won the inaugural 20-20 cricket world cup.

A nation errupted in joy. People just ran out of their home, fireworks started shooting up in the sky. The joy knew no bound. The escapades from the daily monotonus life been wide open. The only true religion in India has won today. Cricket has provided a billion people their moment of glory. All the Indians in every corner of the world felt special. "We are the world-champion of a sporting event." And what a way to win it...
In the ground, the players were ecstatic beyond words as well. These players, they faced criticism, their houses were attacked, their families were targeted when India lost in carribean.

The smile is back, the enrgy is back, the youth is back, the enthusiasm is back. The freeness, the liberty to express your mind is back. You are allowed to dance , you have earned the right to go for a victory lap with the tricolor flag and a world cup trophy in your hand.
Its a story of success, its a story of youth, passion, exubuerance, story of camaraderie, story of a nation , who after all, full of people with emotion..full of people who feel proud when the tricolor flatters in the sky..a nation with full of people who get excited when they hear the music playing in the background sounding.."Chak de...India.."..!!!

Mighty Milan is the king of Europe

A befitting end to grueling and competitive season of football in Europe. The curtain fell on the continental scenario when AC Milan beat Liverpool 2-1 in Athens to lift the champion’s league for 7th time. Rewind the tape to the start of august, when Milan is shattered by match fixing bribing referee allegations, people shouting for Berlusconi’s head, the game is tampered. But the Milan players and coaches can do nothing about it. They don’t fix the matches, the officials upstairs do. Yet they had to fight adversity, they had to qualify for the champions league.

In an earlier writing I have discussed the season as a whole, how the two teams reached final, not going to do that now. I will keep my discussions on the final match itself. Liverpool played much more flaring attacking football from the beginning. They had to. They saw how Man Utd carried a 1 goal lead in san siro in semifinal, and got destroyed by playing not-so-pressure football from the beginning.
Rafael Benitez asked his boys to go out in the attack from the start, and they did. They used the flank pretty well, with Pennant and half-fit Zenden running down. Pennant was simply superb, and so was Mascherano. It is mascherano who never allowed Milan upfront players to settle down, he didn’t allow them to hold the ball, do slick passing. Milan was trying to free Kaka and Inzaghi, with little success.
Milan was doing another thing, giving up the possession near their defense number of times. But Liverpool never took advantage of those gifts. In today’s world, no body misses a chance to grasp on free gifts. If you don’t, you are lagging behind. That’s what happened to Liverpool.

Milan’s 1st goal was completely against the run of the play, Xavi Alonso sort of pushed Kaka, and Kaka did enough to earn a free kick. Pirlo’s shot deflected of Inzaghi’s shoulder to go in. Liverpool supporters call it luck. No it’s not luck; it is part of the game. The mix of players, who stand beside the wall, always follows the ball after the free kick, so there is always a possibility that the ball going to get deflected.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2284v_ac-milan-1-0-liverpool-inzaghi-goal

That goal changed the whole game. Milan came after the half time with more assurance that they can take their time and hold the ball, while Liverpool looked desperate with every second passed by. Seedorf and Kaka was not a factor in this game, but Jankulovski, Ambrosini, Oddo, Nesta and Maldini..They were huge factors. They never really allowed Kuyt or Gerrard to have a clear easy shot at goal.

Master tactician Benitez did two big mistakes. 1) He kept unfit Zenden on pitch for 60 minutes, and 2) he brought in Crouch on 76th minute. Too late. Dida is never comfortable on aerial balls, but Liverpool never tasted him in air. One would have predicted that Liverpool will have Crouch upfront, have pennant or zenden crossing from wings, and Crouch will try to nod it in. Or Gerrard will have some long-range shots. Did not happen. I think Liverpool, instead of sticking to the basics, tried to do too much. Tried to out think Milan. In the process, they lost their natural game.

The 2nd goal was a result of Kaka’s brilliant pass and Inzaghi’s immaculate finishing. The way Pippo just rolled the ball under onrushing Reina’s arm from an acute angle is really commendable.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x228v7_ac-milan-2-0-liverpool-inzaghi-goal

That’s why Ancelotti started him ahead of Gilardino. He will be offside 15 times, will miss 10 times (as he did today, among them was one easy tap in from 8 yards out), but he will score the all important goal that matters. He did it against Bayern Munchen in quarterfinal. He did it again today. Kuyt’s equalizer in 89th minute (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x228wz_ac-milan-liverpool-2-1-dirk-kuyt) only meant that the supporters will be on their toes till the final whistle. There is no more Istanbul happening this time. Those things do not happen every day. Milan is the king of Europe one more time. Paolo Maldini lifted the Champions league trophy one more time.
Viva Milan..

A Journey to Dreamland

When we got married this January, our parents and other family members were eager to send us to a so called “honeymoon”. Puri, Digha, lots of name were floated. We had to expedite everything due to my shortened stay in Kolkata after marriage. Yes, it was painful. Leaving my wife just 10 days after our marriage, only to wait for two months till she gets visa to US. So we decided we are not going to spend time on honeymoon now. But back of my mind, I had some other plans. I planned something big back then. Something extravagant, something I really dreamed of, we really dreamed of, all the time. How about a trip to Disneyland, a trip to Hollywood, watching killer-whales and sharks jumping around in sea world, wild bear running loose in African rain-forest environment in sandiego zoo?

The plan seemed exciting itself in its birth stage. So after my wife shuchismita came to US 2 months later, and after my grueling semester was over, we thought about materializing our dream. After spending few sleepless nights on doing research about airfare prices and hotels, and tours, we managed to purchase everything through yahoo travel. We could not wait for the big day, 9th June, the date of our travel. We could not sleep the night before, part of the reason being the excitement, and other part being we had a flight to catch next morning at 6:30 a.m. Yes, 6:30 a.m. Sometimes you have to pay price for materializing your dream.

Day 1: The Journey Begins: San Diego Zoo

Nevertheless, our journey got off to a good start, reached San Diego at scheduled time, around 11 in the morning. The ride from airport to hotel was pleasant one, and view of palm trees, house in the slant side of mountains, gave us a pleasant feeling. It felt like home, and when we went to our hotel, Good Nite Inn, it completely felt like home. The hotel has surprisingly Indian ook. We kept our baggage in the lobby (since they didn’t allow us to check in early) and went off for Zoo.

The first dream came true in the zoo, riding an open-hood bus. We only heard about this in stories, saw in movies, so when we actually sat on the bus, it was really exciting. The tour itself was quite good, taking us through different part of the zoo. First part was different herbivores, including African wild buffalo, and deers with fancy horns, Texas longhorns, Giraffes and more. I haven’t seen six giraffes together at one place before. There were horned pigs, hornless rhinos, elephants playing with iron-balls, bears trying to eat a fish, lioness feeling restless in hot, and lot more. It was really enjoyable, and we really felt sad when the tour came to a close. But to treat us as soon as we got down from the bus, a peacock was standing right at our face posing for photos with its decorated colorful tail wide open. Yes, it was cloudy. I did not miss the opportunity.

We were off to visit Panda after that. We dreamt about seeing panda live, as I always feel exclamated by this creature. Finally saw the Panda, a couple, one male, and one female. The attendants were saying the female Panda is pregnant. After seeing the panda we went back to the main zoo, to ride on the aerial tram. The view from the aerial tram was excellent. The vast greenery is bound to give pleasure to your eyes. After that, we decided to explore something of our own, went for a walk in the tiger trail, and experience African rainforest. African rainforest was simply superb. Big green compound leaves covering the sky, eerie silence throughout the surroundings, chirrups of unknown birds, it really felt like we are in a rain-forest of Nairobi. We were walking through a pathway, where there were not too much visitors, and sometimes groaning of cheetahs coming from distance, the feeling was mixed with enjoyment and horror. We visited a sea lion show in between; the sea lion was smart enough to show some stunts, acted like a human being, to bring the crowd alive.

We managed to see couple of cheetahs and one Puma in the tiger trail. The weather was gloomy and cold, it was a little bit surprising for the tigers not coming out. Slowly the day came to an end; we saw some Australian cranes and bought a magnet as souvenir, before calling it a day. The San Diego zoo was a marvelous experience, and indeed, we are feeling proud about the fact that we visited the zoo.San Diego is a city of immigrants. Since it is very close to the border of Mexico, and due to its closeness to the sea and tropics, it has attracted tourists and people from all over the world. Our taxi driver on our way back to hotel from zoo was Middle Eastern. He guessed right that we were tourist and did not miss his chance to earn a few more bucks since we were not aware of the shortest route back to hotel. We had to check in the hotel after we came back from the zoo, since the check in hour starts from 3 p.m. in the afternoon. The room was spacious and good, and did not look like a hotel in a first world country..!! Anyway, it was a long and tiring day, and since we have to get up early next day, we had our dinner in a nearby fast-food joint and went off for bed. Thus ended the first day of our .. well .. you know..:



Day 2: Disneyland

On Friday morning, 10th June, truly the journey to dreamland started. We are heading for Disneyland, the place we dreamt of from childhood, the stories we heard so many times during bedtime, the characters we believed in so much that they became part of our lives. Once upon a time…there was a magical place in the world. Our journey from San Diego to Anaheim was a quite uneventful one, except for the fact that a part of this trip was on the seaside drive of Pacific Ocean. The great pacific ocean, so many creatures, so many stories, so vast in nature, so deep to its nadir, so calm, yet so deadly. The first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean was so thrilling that we totally forgot that we were inside a bus, with many other people.Reaching Anaheim, where we found a Bengali taxi-driver who took us to the hotel. It’s a true saying that, even in the darkest, most deserted place in the world, you will find a Bengali. Anaheim is a famous place in that respect. Here again, we were unable to check-in in the hotel. But that did not dominate our mood and enthusiasm, as we were off to Disneyland as soon as possible. When we arrived in front of the Disneyland, our heart filled with joy. This place is too short or too inappropriate to express the feeling, it is impossible to express those feelings in words. Huge cut outs, colorful people and long queue filled the entrance. We did not lose the opportunity to get a picture before the entrance.

Once inside, Mickey greeted us with the 50 year celebration sign. This is the 50th year anniversary of the opening of the Disneyland Park. In 1955, Walt Disney realized the dream and made the dream reality in this part of the world, which became a legendary place itself for years to come. We wasted no time and jumped into the adventures. First we embarked on a boat which took us through the jungles of Amazon. There were elephants in the river, piranha fish in the water, tribes shooting to the boat, lions and tigers roaring. Well, they were fake, but the atmosphere was good enough to feel excited. We stopped in at Tarzans tree house to get some wild experience. Then we got a little bit hungry, but the prices in the restaurant were extremely high. We manage to have chicken skewers (it is more like a kabob dipped in barbeque soss). After the lunch, we decided to join Jasmine and Aladdin in the fairy tale story. There were kids all around, and after entering the show, we realized that we have already lived through these years in our childhood. We sat there nevertheless for some pictures.

After this came the most electrifying experience in the Disneyland. A ride through the bumpy mountain railroad. A rail with 6 seating compartments were traveling through mountain caves with enormous speed and every moment it seemed that we are going to hit one of the mountains. Luckily for us, we did not hit any, and safely came out of the ride, but I was feeling a bit shaken.

So we decided to take a pleasant ride, and boarded Mark Twain’s ship, and it was indeed a pleasure journey. The ship was nicely decorated, resembling the old times of mark twain.

Then came the most extravagant wonderful experience of the whole day, the Parade of Dreams. Larger-than-life fairy tale characters paraded through the main street USA in the Disneyland, the characters came to life. The beauty and the beast, snow white and seven dwarfs, lion-king, Mickey and mouse, Donald duck, chip and dale, all the characters, all the stories that we are accustomed to from the time we were sensible, came to life. It was an awesome experience and truly justified Disneyland’s nomenclature as the happiest place on earth.

By this time we were getting a bit tired, the clock was ticking towards 5 o’clock in the afternoon. We went inside the “Sleeping beauty castle”. What a marvelous sight it was from out side. Inside the castle, we went for the fairy tale boat-ride, and enjoyed Alice in wonderland. The crowd was getting larger by each second, so we had to wait in line for 10 minutes on average for every ride.

We were really exhausted by 6 p.m., and decided to take some rest. We almost missed the snow white musical theatre show. We rushed to get to the theatre by 6:15, and enjoyed the best musical theatre show ever. Snow white was sheltered by the seven dwarfs and rescued by the prince from the wicked witch, after she died by biting the poisoned apple. All the characters were played marvelously, and the effects and music was awesome. Our mind was fulfilled after the show ended.

We then thought about getting some star-war adventure stuff, and went to the futureland drive. We jumped inside a box that was vigourously shaking and having a fake speed of light-year velocity, which sometimes make you jump out..!! It was artificial, scary enjoyable, messy.After this, we were headed to Mickey town. Mickey mouse and his girlfriend Mini live in this town. We went inside Mickey’s house and had a picture with Mickey, explored mini’s house too.

We had a park-hopper ticket, which means we were allowed to go to Disneyland California Adventure Park, just across the street to Disneyland. They organized an electrical parade in the evening, we stopped by there to observe that, did not found that amusing, and came back to Disneyland main park. By now, we were totally exhausted and waited impatiently for the famous firework. We heard about this firework for long long time.Around 9:30, all the lights in the Disneyland were turned off; only the sleeping beauty castle was lighted in a pinkish color. Suddenly buzzing fireworks in the form of several Disney characters flew in to the sky, and the music was pumped up. We just looked into the sky, soaked into the music, and enlightened by the glittering light. Truly, there cannot be a better experience. For those 30 minutes, it seemed that there nothing exists in this world; we were escorted by magical creatures and put into this dreamland, where all the fairy tale angels came to life and they are making us happy. It was truly one of the most memorable nights in my life. We finished our dinner at a fast food joint and came back to hotel, but our mind was far away from this mortal world, we were truly in dreamland in our heart and soul.

Day 3: scared to death-Universal Studios Hollywood

Cinema, is one of the greatest forms of entertainment to human society. From the earlier part of the century, from the times of silent movies, to the recent times of hi-tech-matrix-star-wars harry-potter extravaganza, this medium have swept away generations after generation with madness, skill, and fascination. Hollywood, is supposed to be the greatest venue on earth , when we talk about cinema. Though, numerically, our own bollywood is ahead of Hollywood. Mumbai madness produces more film than Hollywood. But, if you consider all the aspects, I think Hollywood is still steps ahead than ours industry.

Nevertheless, on the Saturday morning, 11th June, we were picked up from our hotel and were headed to Hollywood studios. Our bus went through the Los Angeles downtown, another dream coming true. Los Angeles is a city that you always dream of, not really want to live in. It’s a city of rich, city of street fights, city of fashion, city of “show-off”, city that never has a dull moment. We got a glimpse of the sky-line, big-buildings, and the Los Angeles Lakers basketball stadium. Though it was foggy, we had a glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign on the mountain of the Beverly hills strip near the universal studios. We reached the Hollywood studio main entrance near 10:30 in the morning, and our tour-bus driver let us in the park, and said that he would come back at 6 p.m. to pick us up. So we had about 7and half hours to endure all the fun. Oh yes, it was fun indeed, only the type of fun you don’t want everyday in your life..!! It was scared to death all the time. The theme of the park is scary, and may be that’s the reflection of American mentality of having fun.

We started with van helsing haunted house, we have to walk through the dark house and from different alleys and blind-spots, and swinging skeletons are coming and grabbing our hand. It was not for the weak-heart people. When we finally came out of the house, we were breathing heavily. We did not know that we were just getting started. I have seen the movie “Mummy” and “ the return of the mummy”. And both me and titum, we are interested in ancient Egypt, its civilizations, and the mysteries hidden inside those pyramids. So no wonder we were excited to go inside the mummy ride. We had to put our camera and bags outside in a locker, and then went in. It was dark and scary to begin with. We sat on a 4x4 rail, 4 people in each row. And then it started with immense speed. It was dark, and scary creatures with big opened mouth coming towards us, looked like the ghost of the pharaohs inside the tomb. They were coming towards us, to fulfill their unsatisfied desire for human blood. It was really scary, we screamed, and a few times I closed my eyes. It was too intense. At the end of the ride, we were suddenly sank down and water droplets were spread around us, and we could see nothing. When the ride finally ended, again we were breathing heavily. After we came out, we took some pictures outside the building, but whenever I closed my eyes, mind went back to those horrible moments inside the “pyramid”, where all the mummies came alive after thousand years of sleep.I already mentioned that this is the day when every moment seems to be the last moment of your life.

Our next stop was at the Jurassic Park ride. Once upon a time , 65 million years ago, there lived dinosaurs on this planet, they roamed around everywhere in the world, and disappeared suddenly after the Jurassic-Triassic age. In the last decade, Stephen Spielberg had awaken those creatures back in his masterpiece movie series about dinosaurs. The technology have even created a question in the scientists mind that can actually the dinosaurs be back again really on earth? From the fossil prints and DNA implantation, it is theoretically possible. But how difficult it is in actual science? As difficult as to find a needle in haystack in a completely dark room. When we went inside the Jurassic park river ride, at the beginning, it seemed calm and quite, there was a river on which our boat was sailing, and artificial dinosaurs were spreading water, making noise. They looked big, but we were able to enjoy them. Then suddenly , our boat entered inside a dark path, where all sorts of scary noises started to happen, and the river path were shaking. Before we realized it, we saw a T-rex (Tyrannosaurus-rex, the most ferocious dinosaur of all) coming to eat us with its open mouth and sharp teeth. Our heart pumped out and we lowered our head to save ourselves, and we managed to avoid the T-rex. Then, next moment, when we saw that we were going downhill. An 84 ft water tower is taking our boat down. This is got to be the end of everything. Then suddenly we were in the open daylight, our boat splashed in the water, and we are able to back on earth, safely. The effect is awesome, and the success of this is that it had been able to create a real impact on our mind. Bravo…

Enough of adventure for the morning, and we were also hungry by this time. So, lunch break. There was a Chinese restaurant nearby, so we decided to have lunch there. But since our time was limited, we finished the lunch, went headed back to the future..!!

Yes, then name of our next ride was, “back to the future”. Its supposed to be a time machine, that will start from ice-age and take you to the years to come. We went inside the big room, where they have 8 seats. They have a 3-d animation screen in front, but it seemed like the whole environment is surrounding us. They move the seats, in such a way that you think that you are actually traveling through whatever you are seeing in front in the screen. This was probably the best ride of the whole day. We started with ice-edge, we were really feeling frozen cool , then went through the erupting volcanoes, and the heat was enormous to survive. We went inside the cave of ape-man, floated on the ocean when there was only water on earth, and finally we were headed to the stars and hi-tech world. We had a glimpse of the world as it would be, say in 3005, thousand years from now. Unfortunately, we could not take any picture of this ride.We always hear about the special effects use in the movies, and how the directors and film producers create illusions in the mind of spectators .Now came our first chance to see live –the special effect in the water world. During this half-an-hour show, the stuntmen showed us all sorts of things, driving in to water, creating smoke and fire in water, aero plane crashing into the water, driving on the rope. The crowd went crazy, and it was indeed a special thing to watch.

Then came the most exciting and knowledgableble part of the tour. The behind the scene tour of hollywood studios. We boarded a two compartment bus, and our driver was giving running commentary of the site. We started with different stages where many indoor special effects of various famous films have taken place. We saw the place where the epic movie “SPARTACUS” was shot. We went through the movie set of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Whenever I saw snowfall in the movies, I wondered how come there can be so much snow in different times of film shooting. Now I got my answer. They were FAKE..!! We went to different demonstrations where we saw how fake snowfall can generate real filling, how fake landslide, waterfall and rainfall can make you think how disastrous the weather is. Then we visited the “War of the World” movie shooting site, and we were taken to a plane-crash site. It is simply unbelievable to believe that there was no actual plane crash happened in that place, no one was actually dead there. We did not missed out our chance to see 3-D movies, with Arnold Schwarzenegger involved in Terminator and Shrek animation. The effect were really intense. Me and my wife are not exactly accustomed to these sort of things, so as soon as things went to crazy(like a shark coming towards us, we are falling down from a huge hill-top), we opened the 3-D glass and removed the effect.The last event of the day was animal-channel show. I actually fought with the gate keepers to let us in after the gate closed for that particular show. I loved animal and I thought they would show really exciting things. But it was pretty dull one, few stunts by monkeys, parrots flying around the arena, and that’s about it.That summed up another day of our tour, and before coming out, I stood on the red carpet outside the studios, and really felt something special. If you love movies as I do, you think about Oscar awards ceremony, all the starts gathering and posing on red-carpet. I stood there on the red carpet for a while, realizing that there has been fulfillment of another little dream of mine.On our way back to hotel, I clearly got a glimpse of the famous Beverly hills street, where Hollywood is written in white letters. Thats it, that’s what we have waited for so long, and now we can be counted among one of the elite class of people who have seen Hollywood sign.:)

Day 4: Seaworld

Sunday was the next day, and we somehow lost track of the days and month, we were such intensely engulfed in our tour and experience. All these places were dream-come-true experience. Anyways, Sunday was our time to bid adieu to Anaheim and Los Angeles, and go back to San Diego. The weather was gloomy in the morning, and when we were on the bus, we kept thinking about the past two adventure-filled days, at the universal studios and Disneyland. The bus stopped at one beautiful spot, the stop was inside a big yellow house, resembling our Hajar-duari at berhampore . There were Palm trees surrounding that place, and we were feeling like we are in a place of many many years ago, we were in a place when there was peace in the world. It really gave an unusual nostalgic feeling.Journey back to san diego was uneventful otherwise .After coming back, we took a quick lunch, and was headed for sea world straightaway. The weather was continued to be cloudy and gloomy.We have heard about this sea world a lot, its an utmost experience of going through ocean life in this sort of setting. We are more used to see zoological garden, but sea world is fist of a kind to me.First we went to a polar atmosphere, and it was really amazing to see how a frozen north-pole like atmosphere has been created.

The polar bears were sleepy, and shy in front of so many people.Then we continued our journey in the polar atmosphere to observe different other creatures that live in such extreme conditions. There was a little funny looking bird having yellow hair on the head, then we saw few penguins which hover around the coldest mountain range of Chile and Argentina close to the south pole.

First time I saw a whale, and it was white. These white whales live in the water under the frozen ice. After finishing the polar atmosphere, we quickly headed to a dolphin show. I already saw this kind of show before in Chicago aquarium, so this was nothing new to me. Dolphin has a very developed brain, and it can communicate with human brain pretty well. After watching that show we went to see sharks and then sea-lions. The sharks did not look as horrible and terrifying as it is portrayed in the Hollywood movies. The interesting part was that, when we went to see sharks, we were walking inside a tunnel, and the water reservoir where the sharks were floating , was above out head. So sharks were actually floating above us.

Sea Lion is a creature that looks like sea horse, but its black, and makes some weird noise, and it loves fish. So people were throwing fish at their direction, but there are sea-gulls. These birds are dangerous, and they show no mercy when trying to catch the fishes that are thrown to the sea lion’s direction. Somehow the cry of the sea lions made us feel sad.

To freshen up our mood, we went to see the famous “shamu-the killer whale” show. We have heard about this show for long time, and every one that we talked about our tour advised us not to miss this one. Shamu is an internationally famous killer-whale, and he has been used in number of movies too. The tag attached to his name” killer-whale” is somewhat misleading, because he is not killer by any means. It is actually the whole shamu family, the father shamu, mother shamu and baby shamu. They danced, they jumped out of the water, they waved with their fins, and they spread the water too drench the crowd sitting near to the huge pool. It was really an entertaining show, and our mind was filled after watching the show. Then we were of to a bumpy river ride, in which we were completely drenched. Then to make things pleasant, we went for the aerial tram, to get a glorious view of san diego and sea world from sky. We were not disappointed, though the sky and weather was gloomy, so we could not take too many good pictures.

By now, we started to feel a little bit tired. We were running around for last 4 days non-stop. We sat down, had a chocolate ice-cream, relaxed, watched a circus show in the water (not so great). Then we again took a ride on sky tower. It basically takes you about 400 fit high and lets you watch the beauty of san diego in twilight. After doing that, we came back, and titum wanted to have a go with the dolphins, and played with them for a while.We waited to see the shamu show again in the night, and the show , shamu, water pool in the floodlights, all looked amazing in the night. We enjoyed it even better than we did in the morning.Finally our day at sea world came to an end. We waited outside for a while for the taxi, and then came back to hotel. Needless to say, we were pretty tired. So tired that we did not have the energy to go for a decent dinner. There was a fast food joint just outside our hotel, I quickly went their and came back with some food, we ate it quickly and went to sleep.

Day 5 : The city and harbor tour

Monday was the last day of our tour. We almost covered everything we wanted to cover on this trip, so we saved the last day for the local views. The city of San Diego, the old town Mexico, and the sea beach. We started from our hotel in chartered bus that picked us up pretty early in the morning. Then we roamed around the city and its suburban area.

We saw the older side of san diego, the beautiful side of san Diego. We went to one of the most expensive places in the world, it’s a small town called “La Jolla”. The beach is beautiful, and the guide told us that lots of Hollywood stars have houses in this area. We visited an art museum in La Jolla, and visited a sea-side gorgeous hotel. Then we visited the old town Mexico, the place is almost at the border of Mexico, and many regards this place as the birth place of California. The place gives you a pretty nostalgic fantasy feeling .It reminds you of old times, when civilization did not engulf the world, when people still survive on hunting, when red Indians used to be the only population around this part of the world.
Bushy trees, old style cars and trolleys, artifacts and handcrafts resembling the old Maya Inca civilizations and many more sights like this exactly portrays the old town Mexico feeling in your mind. It was really wonderful and memorable place to see. We did some shopping in this area and added a photo-frame resembling old town in our collection.

Then we were off to see the san diego port and harbor. It was a one hour long drive in the san diego bay, which is a part of pacific ocean .It was enjoyable, but nothing extravagant .We got a good view of San Diego skyline. The journey was closing to the end. We came back to hotel in the afternoon, and discovered Panda House around our hotel. The best Chinese-oriental food we had for long long time. Then we came back to hotel, and did not take much rest, and went off for sea-beach. Another dream come true. So far ocean meant Bay of Bengal. Now, when we see the pacific ocean in front of us, when we get to play in the water of that ocean, its really an experience we want to cherish for long long time. We hear the stories about pacific ocean, its vastness, its depth, its mysteries, its sharks, its whales..and lot more. The beach was not the prettiest beach, but we enjoyed nevertheless, in the water, danced around, withstood the water current, collected snails, ate hot delicious fries. And thus came the end of our tour. It was indeed the most memorable tour we ever had. People dream about such trips, let alone Honeymoon. Both me and my wife was so satisfied that we were really repenting how the days went so fast.

I am sure now and also in many many more years to come, whenever we would dream, we would dream about Disneyland’s snow white, dream of parade, fireworks, spaceship to eternity in Hollywood, whales jumping in water, and we would dream about the distant, far away shoreline of Pacific ocean still wondering what is beyond that line.Journey to dreamland was finished on high note, and we came back to Ann arbor on Tuesday, June 14th,and still thinking, “once upon a time in San Diego..”.

A preview of 2007 Champions league final:Two teams,Different approach, same result

On athens, panathinaikos stadium, AC Milan and Liverpool will lock horns for the 2nd time in 3 years for UEFA champions league, to decide who is the king of europe, who is champion of champions. Gerrard and Maldini will exchange pleasentaries, shake hands, and in back of their mind, Istanbul will loom large. Shevchenko scored the winning penalty when Milan won it in 2003, Sheva missed the last penalty in tie-breaker when Milan lost two years ago. Sheva isnt



there with Milan this year. But the legacy of number 7 will be there. Xavi Alonso, Carragher, Gerrard, will remember that night. Maldini and co. will want to forget and take revenge.

In Liverpool and AC Milan, UCL got two most competent and consistent team in this year's final. Two teams with completely different approaches. Liverpool is a group of "men-at-work" under Rafael Benitez's instruction. Rafa knows the limitation of his players. Doug Kuyt and Bellamy is fast, Peter Crouch is good in air, but they are not Eto'o, Nistelrooi, or Drogba. Thats why you have to provide the ball into their area of strength, they are not going to create chance on their own. Thats why you have gerrard, ager, penant, zenden. They will float the ball across the area, put the ball in the air, and 6'7" Peter Crouch will try to head the ball in. Bellamy and Kuyt will try to outpace other defenders with off-the ball run. Mascherano and Carragher will get behind every ball, stop the oncoming centre-forwards. Chalked out strategy..when you attack them..it seems to you the lanes are open, but when you get there..every where is stop sign.

Liverpool overcame defending champion Barcelona in 2nd round, got off an easy win with PSV in the quarter final, and "luckily" got past chelsea in the semifinal. Yes luckily. Chelsea shud have won that match in the 1st leg itself. But again, if you dont take your opportunities, you will fall behind in this opportunistic world.




On the contrary, Milan had a mixed campaign. They fought hard to get over the match fixing scandal issue, and had the luck of easy group in UCL. They sweat to beat Celtic. But suddenly after that , the campaign and the body language changed. The beat Bayern Munich 4-2 on aggregate, and 2-0 in Munich. Not many team beat Bayern in Allianz Arena. Milan's playing style is total artistry. they pass the ball in small areas, depend on individual brilliance to creat a thru ball or nagging pass. Kaka runs with the ball in a brisk pace, keeping the ball in front of him.





Pirlo is a cool customer..he takes his time, places the ball with a curling velocity in the feet of the destination striker. Seedorf is mixture of both, he can slow it down..he can play a quick one-two, and then he can unleash from the top of the box. Then there is the wall at the defence..Nesta, Ambrosini, Jankulovski, Oddo, and ever young Paolo Maldini. Think about this, Milan's current coach Ancelotti and Maldini played for Italy in 1990 world cup semifinal. Maldini played against Maradona..!!
Coming back to the discussion, Milan's defense is hard nut to crack. They screen the ball so well, never two defenders are on the same line. If you cross the ball in goalmouth, they will head and clear, they will not leave space infront of the penalty box.
The position Milan will struggle is upfront. Goals have been scored by Kaka (10 so far) and Seedorf. Inzaghhi , Gilardino are inconsistent. You cannot count on them. That is why I said in the beginning, the legacy of jersey number 7 will be there. Andriy Shevchenko will not play in Athens on 23rd May. But Mialn wish he could have played for them. Mialn will again need Kaka and Seedorf to score.
Dida and Reyna are also two completely different goal-keepers. Dida has got past his prime, he is susceptable to aerial balls, and Liverpool will put a plenty of balls in the air,no doubt. Reyna is good keeper, but he lacks the agility in one-on-one situation. If Milan can free Kaka or Filippo on one or two thru balls, it will be interesting to see.
All in all, it is clash of two different styles of football, two different modes of football. It will be a fascinating match. May the best team win.

Sushi, hunan shrimp or Shish Kafta?

How do you compare foods? Based on taste, or based on your sense of tastefulness? or based on how you satisfy your hunger at a particular point of time?

Hunger is probably the driving force in this world. The world biota is existing because hunger is driving it to exist. The evolution dictated the creation in such way that you can enjoy the deliciousness and juicy drops of a shish kabob. But do you always want to eat what you think you would like to eat? Most of the cases, the answer would be "no".

We used to grow up with one particular cuisine. Mom-cuisine. The taste-buds are accustomed to the taste that mom-cooked food tasted. Be it "luchi-aloor dom", be it "khichuri", be it "mangser-jhol", be it "pabda maachh", be it "alu-posto"..be it numberous other dishes that I cannot name it here because blogspot does not have that much space. Then you go outside the familiar home dining room, hit the college canteen, late evening coaching classes, the roll corner behind the bus stop, the egg-chowmin, the pakoras. There is a major transformation zone of your nerves connecting your taste bud. New enzymes, new hormones, new chemical reaction all-together. And before you realise, you started liking shish kabobs, the beef roll of Khaliques, the parantha and beef curry at Nizam, the biriyani in Shiraz. You already connected yourself to the same dinning plat