Some article!

Read this over the Internet!

All this time people have been greeting others with handshakes!!!

Those days are over, kissing people to greet them is the way to go.

Guys stay away, dont you dare come close :P !!!

Girls, you now know the norm!

My first ever New Years Resolution (which I have broken now): Never to make a New Years Resolution

The Resolution which has broken the Older Resolution (which also will end up getting broken): Greet people with a KISS!!!
Wishing Every one a Happy and a prosperous New Year!

Hugs and KISSES :)

APJ Abdul Kalam...

Just had an examination today: MCS. Had prepared horribly for it, same old story...

Came back in the afternoon, though I had known about Mr. Kalam's visit to BARC colony today, I wasn't planning to go and see him.

Gaddi called me up and asked me to accompany him and also joining us was Arani. Wasn't exactly excited about it initially though, but there wasn't anything to loose, so I went with them.

Well as is the case with most VVIPs, they arrive late, surprisingly Mr. Kalam arrived at the designated place only half an hour late. Obviously he wouldn't have been the only person responsible for it, he is known to be a man of Principles and a very punctual person.

But the one thing that completely changed my mood during the visit was when he made his entry onto the stage. People were going bonkers; kids, us, elder people, us, the teachers and faculty, us, the security personnel and us. You could see kids and their parents running in from different locations on the ground towards the gate from where he was entering, totally hilarious.

'Us' finds a mention quiet a few number of times because Arani actually started howling and cheering like an ecstatic kid. We were even more lucky as he had come over to the side of the stage, closest to which we were seated, and while he was being introduced to a few dignitaries, he just took a look at us while we were clapping and cheering him, and since I and Gaddi were the tallest guys there, managed to spot us from the crowd and he actually waved at us. I don't mind sounding kiddish but WOHOO!!

My younger bro had an opportunity to actually ask a question to the great old man, what his reply was is something I have to ask him when I talk to him later.

Saw a few of our teachers from school and college, and had a wonderful time recounting a few of the famous and infamous incidents from school. Gosh it was fun.

Also at the function was Mr. Dhanraj Pillai. We actually thought of singing 'Chak De' at the top of our voices. I am fan of his and seeing him in person was a surprise because one would not expect an ex-hockey player at the inauguration of a National Science Conference.

Only regret was that I didnt carry a camera along and my cell's cam gave way, stopped working, this sucks.

So this makes Mr. APJ the most popular person I have ever met. Coming in a close second would be Mr. Sunny Gavaskar. And at No.3 would be Mr. Pillai. Not a bad list to have eh?

Straight from the heart...

This poem was written by an African kid and was later adjudged by the UN as the best poem for the year 2006. Simple, crisp and so very true.

When I born, I black.
When I grow up, I black.
When I go in Sun, I black.
When I scared, I black.
When I sick, I black.
And when I die, I still black.

And you white fellow,
When you born, you pink.
When you grow up, you white.
When you go in sun, you red.
When you cold, you blue.
When you scared, you yellow.
When you sick, you green.
And when you die, you gray.
And you calling me coloured?

Manchester United... No wonder We are this good

A recent interview with Carlos Queiroz and Mike Phelan speaks volumes about the Work Ethic and Work Rate at Old Trafford, rather Carrington Training Ground...

Excerpts from the Article:

By 7.30am on most weekday mornings the hood of Sir Alex Ferguson's car is already stone cold. It's nothing to do with the invariably inclement Manchester weather, of course, but all to do with the fact that the manager has been perched at his desk for half an hour already. And he's not alone.
After more than two decades in the job Ferguson leaves the planning and execution of United's training sessions to his assistant manager, Carlos Queiroz, and first-team coach, Mike Phelan. They, together with the goalkeeping coach Tony Coton, fitness coach Tony Strudwick and skills coach Rene Meulensteen, put the players through their paces on a daily basis while Ferguson monitors developments.

Some commitment eh?

The players arrive at around 9.30am, half an hour before training starts, but the coaching staff meet well in advance of every session to organise each day's bespoke training programme. The club's medical staff are also consulted to highlight players' knocks and injuries.

Rooney's Recovery from injuries at breakneck pace speaks volumes. Arsenal are you listening? Robin Van Persie seems to be out for ages...

The training programme for the week, otherwise known as the microcycle, is determined by the amount of games we have in a week," says Strudwick. "The day after a game, often Sunday, will usually be a rest day for everyone or a recovery day for those who have played. The first three days of the following week - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - involve a lot of hard work on the players' part. In terms of fitness training, the squad will spend some time in the gym working on building up their strength on the Monday. The following day they will focus on aerobic work to help increase their endurance and on the third day they will spend time on speed work. We then start to reduce the physical pressure and intensity on the players in order to help them start preparing themselves for the game on the Saturday. We will also look at some injury prevention methods. The day before a match the players will take part in a standard training session, which lasts no longer than an hour. We try to make everything short and sharp and to help improve the neuromuscular activity so the players are ready."

End the day with fun...

The final drill in training is usually a match of between seven and 10 a side, depending on how bare or crowded the treatment room is looking. "Some of us will swap positions during five-a-side games - the defenders might play up front and vice versa," says Fletcher. "Rio fancies himself in the free role behind the striker, while goalkeeper Tom Heaton surprised us on one occasion when he played outfield as he went and scored a hat-trick."
"Sometimes I play up front when we're having a joke around during a mini-match," chips in Nemanja Vidic. "I actually started out as a right-winger, then I went to right-back before I finally became a central defender. I remember playing on the left wing during one training session - Cristiano took my place in central defence. I felt good on the left wing. I didn't score but I made one great run and put in a great cross but no one was there! I wasn't quite as good as Ronaldo but I wasn't bad either."

When it comes to United how can they not be mischievous?

The players are prone to moments of mischief. "You have to have your wits about you when Scholesy and Wazza [Wayne Rooney] are around," says Fletcher. "All the
balls that are dotted around the edge of the pitch will suddenly start flying past you. You can never relax during that period."

As I said RVP you listening?

Rooney remains committed to the pursuit of hyper-fitness, however, staying true
to the old "no pain, no gain" maxim. "You've got to do the work to get the best out of yourself in the games," he says. "You've got to be fit and I think now with the games getting quicker you've got to be able to run for 90 minutes. Whether it's high intensity or endurance you've got to do it and the only way you can do that for 90 minutes is by doing it in training through the week."

What we see on the pitch at the weekend is not all that these people are capable of...

A player might have possession for a few minutes during a match, they have the most intense contact with the ball during training sessions. This is the time when those lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Carrington will be privy to the players' repertoire of tricks.

"The older players in the latter stages of their careers have the skills, and the good thing is that you don't have to tell them when and where to use them," says Meulensteen. "They have the experience to know that, it's just whether they're comfortable with certain moves. With the young kids we give them all the optional moves and let them practise until they get to a point where they are naturally more
comfortable with one or two. With the first-team players you can look at them, let them do them and then quickly rule most of them out, get them to concentrate on specific ones they are comfortable with. "You can be very specific then. That's the core and what it will do is add something to the game where players look to have so much time on the ball, simply because they've found the right balance between popping the ball about nice and quickly and suddenly using a disguised piece of skill. Disguise is nothing else than making your opponent think you're going one way then, as soon as you've committed him, going the other.

Finally about the Gaffer himself:

The gaffer's the world's worst for that kind of thing. What the public sees is not what happens. The only problem with the manager is that he can't keep a straight face, he laughs too early and I tell him that. He gives it away. We have some great fun. We work hard through the week and a Friday night before a Saturday away game is usually the only time we're all sat down together. We have a meal with the manager. He'll be chatting and telling us the same story, except this time he's added something to it from two weeks ago, so you just act surprised and he doesn't realise.

To read the complete article visit: http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2220079,00.html

Well its Exam time Again...

If you would closely observe the dates when I have been posting (well it shouldn't take you long... haven't posted that often... also if you had actually seen my posts before... you would have stopped checking too... because of the frequency at which I am posting)... well getting back to the point... If you would have noticed, they are around the time when I have my examinations.

Well the one and the only reason- this is the only time I am at home for such a long time. During regular college days, you would hardly see me home before 6 or 7 in the evening. Also this is the time when one has a lot of time at hand because its easy to get bored even trying to study.

A lot has happened between my last post and now...

Most notably, by some unforeseen stroke of unimaginable luck, and some good cricket, India won the Twenty20 WC. Well enough has been written about it and I don't wish to add some more about it.

This was followed by the agony of India's crushing defeat shall I say, against Australia in the One Day Series. Then with India winning 1 Twenty20 match everyone was back to the emotional bliss, everyone screaming at the top of their voices,"We are the Champions!!", of what I may ask, Gully Cricket?, cause this format is as long as the one's I used to play with my friends when we were young.

I had lost interest in the game sometime back, but off late having read some of the posts by a few of my friends, I decided to come off the 'Sanyas' of actively following the game and more so talking about it.

A lot has been said about the "horrible" commentary bundled in with Doordarshan's telecast of the recent matches played in and by India. The less said about it the better. But what caught me thinking was the point about the Pakistani section of the commentary team being biased towards their country and players. What were people expecting? Obviously they will have bias for their team. We do too, and it is criminal to expect otherwise from them.
But I must also add that it would be wrong to call Wasim Akram (though he is not on DD, deserves a mention) and Rameez Raja as biased individuals, because their opinion is quiet unbiased, at least the one's I have come across.

I still remember watching some Cricket show on NDTV (I amazed myself because it was after a very long time that I was watching a chat show about Cricket) Sidhu (apna one and only sardar in the country who can speak, laugh and speak some more all at once) had taken Amir Sohail to the cleaners, verbal jousting of the order I hadn't witnessed in a long time (last time I remember someone getting cornered like that was Arjun Singh on Devil's Advocate). Sohail would have had his eyes on his watch and couldn't have hoped less for the shoot to be called to an end. If you can catch it on a highlight reel one day, do watch it, its totally worth the time.

And there has to be something going totally wrong in the Cricketing community these days, with a suggestion to introduce PINK cricketing balls. As hard as it is to read this text its going to hurt more to see the ball travelling at you at 100mph. I am not against it because of the colour being termed as girlish. As my friends would like to call it more metro sexual than girlish, anyways point being it is not soothing to the eye.

Well enough of cricketing talk. This might be my first and last post on Cricket unless India wins some major trophy again which seems highly unlikely in the next 2 years, because there is no major trophy till then ;).