Football fever!

I simply love the game of football! I am a passionate supporter of the English Premiership team, Manchester United.

However, I must confess that I'm not very good when it comes to playing. Poor is closer to the truth.

Here are some links which I'd like to share, to build up interest in the game in general, especially given the fact that the world cup will be held this year in Germany. I'll be cheering for the Netherlands, led by the Dutch goal scoring machine, Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

Official Sites:

Manchester United, the red devils - the greatest team on this planet.
Come on you reds, come on you reds,
The team every defender dreads,
We' re the devils in red, you know
Its Man United, here we go!

Jeetega bhai jeetega - Man United jeetega!

That's all I can say about them!

The English Premier League

The Spanish Primera Liga Unfortunately, King Beckham plays here now.

The Italian Serie A

The German Bundesliga

The UEFA


Other Links:

Football @ Skysports

Football @ BBC - This site gives live text commentary of important matches.

Science prevails!

Recently, at the company where I work, through the efforts of myself and some colleagues, we managed to end the inclusion of the "art" of living as part of the employee training. Our rationale is that a religious/spiritual campaign has no place in a secular and scientific setup. I mean, such a thing, infringes upon the rights of among others, atheists and agnostics.

May the rest of the country follow suit, sooner rather than later.

I don't care if the firangis like the pathetic fools I've been seeing all over Bangalore these days do it provided they do so in their own countries, and don't create more trouble involving religion in India.

Search Engines Part-II

I had written quite some time back about search engines, in particular Google, and how they can be an intrusion on privacy. Most of the information I had mentioned still turns up if you consult Google.

Having said all that, I must mention some of the good aspects of search engines.

After reading my earlier post, a friend of mine googled the name of some guy who was hitting on her and came to know that he was married (with a kid enrolled in a school whose website listed the names of students and their parents) and had been lying about his qualifications. The fellow claimed he had done the five year M.S. from IIT-Kanpur, but IITK’s alumni website proved otherwise.

In the last few days, I managed to find clips/streams of quite a few songs I like and their lyrics after consulting Google. If you are one of the conventional, religious types then you’d easily get links to download hymns and religious music of pretty much all religions. I know because I downloaded “Abide with me” only because it is a soldier’s song and I hear it on Beating the Retreat on January 29^th, every year.

Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia, is an awesome website! You can get information on anything there. I frequently lookup historical events and tricks with digital cameras, there. It helped me verify Paulo Coelho's claims in his book 'The Zahir', about the Aral sea drying up.

Keep googling people, and if you come to know something interesting, post it as a comment.

[MOVIE REVIEW] Rang De Basanti

############## POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD !! ###############

Its hard to classify this movie as being one of the usual genres of movies churned out by Bollywood.

The movie begins with Sue McKinley (Alice Patten), reading her grandfather Col. McKinley's accounts about the hangings of the revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. She travels to India to film a documentary and tell the story about the revolution that ultimately failed. Reaching New Delhi, she befriends some students of the Institute of International Studies lead by DilJeet (Aamir Khan), and enlists them as the cast for her documentary.

Everything is fine, albeit with a few fights now and then, until Sonia's (Soha Ali Khan) boy-friend Lt. Ajay Rathore (Madhavan) is killed when his MiG-21 fighter jet crashes while on a routine sortie. Suspecting corruption in defence deals the group lead a peaceful demonstration at India gate, which is broken up using force by the police. Likening their treatment to the freedom struggle, the group plan and execute the daylight killing of the defence minister.


No particular character can be called the protagonist of this movie. Khan's portrayal of the college student interested only in bikes, partying and friends, is very convincing and makes one wonder whether he is really forty plus.

The movie is strewn with jokes throughout the first half, including one with an obscenity in Hindi mouthed by Patten. One of the most humorous scenes is when DJ boasts in Hindi/Punjabi about making Sue his wife and then realizes that she speaks Hindi.

However, the film tends to drag in the first half and the jokes don't do much to help. The second half get over-dramatic especially towards the end.

The trigger happy behaviour of the Indian security forces, and the portrayal of the change in a right wing organization's strategy before and after coming to power, have been correctly depicted.

The music is catchy and "listenable" by Bollywood standards. The song "Tu bin bataye ..." stands out.

Watching this movie, I got the impression that they were trying to glorify violence and anarchy by citing Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad et al. Alarmingly a lot of people have begun subscribing to the view that Gandhiji and his principles were wrong and that armed struggle should have led to our independence.

Has the world already forgotten Gandhiji, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Dom Ximenes Belo, Jose Ramos Horta, Ibrahim Rugova, ... ??

Don't we know all too well that a freedom fighter to some is a terrorist to others?

VERDICT:
Given that Indian audiences are easily swayed by sensationalisation, in the interests of law and order and public tranquility, the makers of this film would do well to voluntarily withdraw it.

Nobody Else

Nobody Else
Written by me on
8th February 2006

Since you first spoke to me,
I wanted to be yours.
Nobody made me feel
so happy to be alive before.

Every second, every night and day
I think of you.
Whatever I do, wherever I go,
my thoughts lead me back to you.

You are what
my universe revolves around,
But for you am I
merely another face in the crowd?

You just cannot imagine
Right now how I feel.
Its not what you said or did not say
Its the silence that kills.

Nobody else can love you more
Of that I am sure.