Long time...No see....

For all those avid readers of my blog who have been dying to read another entry in my very famous (read obscure) blog...heres another entry....... Im finally back in kgp now....and the first week has been a week of turmoil...dont ask me for details.....ill write a little later...suffice to say....a lot of people have been screwed up.... Leaving aside the bad news, lets come to the good news, of which there is'nt any. As you know i had lost my i card and library card on a highly disastrous sojourn.... an so as soon as i got back here i tried to renew my only means of identification as a student of kgp....but as u might (or might not) know kgp is an extremely sleepy place.Ppl like to work only for the minimum time possible..and as a result i was turned away from the registration table highly rudely when i produced a torn and maligned photocpy of my i card as proof of my identity.. after much running around and convincing the administration that i was the one and only mithun madhusudan (who else would want to pay 25000 odd bucks in my name????give me a break!!) i was finally allowed to register..(thank god!)...that was registration day...truly a nightmare.....kgpians will be praying for a solution to this problem... well ill write in more detail later......when i have the freedom.... until thn..

Two movies, saket, and a humongous headache

Statutory warning: DO NOT watch corporate. Yes, the much awaited second movie from madhur bhandarkar definitely fails to live up to expectaions and i learnt it the hard way..i have a good mind to sue the hindustan times for giving it 3.5 out of 5 (that was the prime reason i dragged myself to pvr saket, and of course there was this friend of mine who brainwashed me into believing that this was an awesome movie) 3 hrs and 150 bucks later i stepped out feeling like a complete fool and with a good mind to strangle that friend of mine.....adding to the boring movie were the damn seats at saket...it has like the worst seats in the NCR.... oh yeah, i mentioned another movie..It was superman returns, and contrary to the title i did not watch it at saket..The movie was watchable..no particular storyline..but the action sequences were spectacalar and there were scenes in 3d too!(it was my first 3d movie..so forgive the xcitement) and the hall(IMAX) was much much better than pvr saket.. ciao for now!(what an ending!!damn im losing my touch..i think its writers block!!damn!!

Paint me azure!!!!

Finally the extravaganza that was the football world cup 06 is over....and the soccer widows can do whatever they want with their husbands now that they can be weaned away from beer and the antics of shorts clad young men on the pitch (hehe)...Frankly this edition of footballs biggest celebration failed to live up to expectaions, with dubious refereeing and big names failing to live up to their billing...who would have predicted an italy vs france final..With a poisonous cloud over the italian team cocncerning the biggest scandal in recent times to rock domestic football and as many as 13 (mayb 12 but 13 sounds more glamorous ) of their squad involved in investigations that might lead to the end of their careers, nobody was backing italy to climb out of that hole and progress out of the group stage let alone reach the final...And france, well they were being billed as the fallen giants, having failed to show the promiseof 98 and 2000 when they won the european cup in any of the qualifiers.Add to that a team that looked like it was going to fall of their legs at any moment and france did'nt make very pretty picture going in ot the world cup.. Well they both refused to give in and both teams put in inspired performances to leave what was behind them and prove that in football you cant predict anything.. circa the group stage when france were struggling to find goals and zidane was a shadow of his former self, and everyone (including yours truly was burying them into ignominy). The french found their rhythm only in the last game against togo and qualified into the group stage by the skin of their teeth. Inspiration came from ribery against the spanish when his spectacular solo goal lifted the entire team to perform and stalwarts like zidane and viera came to the party, both showing flashes of brilliance in their 3-1 win. But we still werent sure whther they could live up to the big samba boys in the quarters..and wallah. another majestic performance from zizo coupled with bad tactics from the brazilian coach (tell me what kind of crazy coot plays someone like ronaldinho in a deep defensive position? if you ask me he was one of the biggest reasons ronaldinho flopped in this wc) led france to a semi clash with portugal which they won (of course). By this time it looked like zizou would end his last wc match with his hands on the cup.. But history will have a different tale to tell, of one of the most majestic players of his time losing his cool and losing his country the cup ...Why? france will ask of it's favourite son. But the answer will forever remain shrouded in speculation and one of the greatest incidents in wc history.. But the champions were the azzuri. After being labelles cheats in their group game against the us for the use of questionable tactics, it is credit to their captain canavaro (my choice for the golden ball) that they rallied and produced one of the best performances of the cup by a team in the semi against germany to rob the host nation of a dream. youngster fabio grosso must have been in dreamland when he saw his delightfully curled shot go past lehman and into the top corner minutes before penalties aginst germany.. He for me was one of the stars of the team along with pirlo and gattuso whose engines never seemed to give out in the middle of the park. They can be sure he has a lot in store for them after this world cup... And how can i miss buffon. The most expensive keeper in the world sure lived up to his billing. with a delectable performance throughout the cup, he has never put a foot wrong. and the icing was a spectacular stop from a zidane header in extra time that surely would have given france the cup.. There were too many heroes in the italian team, and the french were left high and dry by a moment of madness...Here's to the azzuri!!!! Until south africa...

And France ride through...

It was destined to be zidane's game...AFter every football writer worth his salt had written his obituary in the group stages, his comeback has been nothing short of spectacular. The match started as was expected with both teams leaving only the lone striker upfield and neither team wanting to concede the early goal. Ther were a few early long range efforts from the portuguese being parried by the french keeper barthez....that pretty much was turning out to be the story of the second half when henry turned carvalho in the penalty area and was brought down. Penalty to france..and who should coolly slot it home other than zizu himself.. The second half began with portugal playing wide with ronaldo running at defenders but there was no end product.thuram played out of his skin and was everywhere in th box, itercepting crosses at will.. The match ended at 1-0 and france were through with the chance of winning only their 2nd world cup. but they will have the azzuri to cintend with and they are the team with the best defensive record in the tourney....france will look once agian to their talisman zidane to weave his magic.

Germany see blue....

The hosts crash out....is'nt that a surprise? Not to anyone who saw the match. Italy were clearly the better team defensively and on the offence. Playing 4-5-1, their famed defnce did all that was required to keep klose podolski and ballack quiet. Totti looked his imperious best and was spraying passes to all corners of the ground. it was goalless for 90 mins nad the game went into extra time. Italy came out with all guns blazing and hit the frame of the goal twice in two minutes, from gillardino and zambrotta. with two mins reamining for the game to go itno penalties, pirlo split the german defence with a sublime pass to the leftback grossowho curled a spectacular first time shot into the far corner.All lehmann could do was look on helplessly as german dreams evaporated. a minute late with germany pushing up gillardino held up th ball long enough for del piero to come tearing through and put an end to the matter. Germany can say goodbye to the trophy for another four years. The azzuri will be in dreamland awaiting a clash with france or portugal in the final.. All i can say is, on the day, the better team won.

Here come the blues!!

Well well well, the quarter finals did'nt turn up all the expected results did they? Here's a review. Engalnd looked miserable agianst portugal, as they have done throughout the tournament. THeir miseries were compunded by an innjury to beckham in the second half. rooney showed his mercurial temperament by stamping on chelsea defender ricardo carvalho's (ahem!) balls after being fouled. He saw red and engalnd were thrown into the deep end. rooney had a spat with united teammate ronaldo fuelling speculation about ronaldo's future at united. England defended well through extra time but were finally thwarted in penalties by portugals keeper ricardo who made three fine save to send luiz felipe scolaris team into the semis. A predictable result awaited us in the match between ukraine and italy with ukraine unable to beat the stout italian defence and the azzuri held out to book a place in the semis. Host germany blew past sweden courtesy two first half goals from young striker podolski. Sweden looked entirely at sea and had no answer to the german blitzkrieg. The big one was defintly a rematch of th 1998 final. If brazil had revenge on their mind they definitley did'nt show it as coach carlos alberto perreira played a very defensive formation and played right into france's hands. Zidane might well be playing his last tournament but he definitely did'nt look like it as he made footballer of the year ronaldinho look like a complete novice. He played the game of the tournament, weaving past defenders with the consummate ease of the maestro he is. Joga bonito was at its best. He complted his performance by setting up the goal which thierry henry scored and sent france into the semi final. favourites brazil were knocked out. Some heads will definitely roll down there, maybe the first will be the coaches. Meanwhile there was jubiliation for the french team, who proved that having an old team does not handicap you. The world is waiting, zizou. Semis Germany vs Italy France vs Portugal

Travel Travails....

For all the obsesed junta (of whom i know there are none ) who have been wondering why i have'nt posted for a few days,well i've been on a trip (the details of which will be inflicted on you via this post) to bombay an shirdi. not exactly a trip in th true sense, meaning that when i say i'v been on a trip i don't mean i'v been thr for a week. it was more of a whistlestop 3 days in n around aamchi mumbai. the first day was more of a sober day with pilgrimage on the agenda. Shirdi was where we went and finally fulfilled my mom's wish to get me to at least one temple in these hols.. Early nxt morning, we left for mumbai on an empty stomach, in spite of various complaints frm my growling stoamch. (as it turned out we did'nt have anything to eat till 7 that evening )..Reaching dadar station after standing for four hours in an impossibly crowded and impossibly late train (hail indian railways) we almost fell into the car and had ourselves driven to vasai (bad decision ,probably should have taken a train) anyway after hellos and th like (and some dinner..thank god fr that) we were on our way again to another suburbb of mumbai, dombivili which was in the exact opposite direction in which we had come...adding to all th mess was the patehtic roads in bombay and of course the monsoon which had decided that it was exactly the right time to unleash it's full fury on hapless bombay. during that drive it seemed like bombay was just one giant pothole and the rain was having his way with it.. there were potholes every 50 metres which made any travelling at speeds of over 40k dangerous. To add to my frustration were all the toll booths which seemed like they were taking money to keep the roads in that bad a condition. damn the bmc (and this from a delhiite!)...anyways after nearly getting lost thrice and a few near breakdowns we finally made it to my aunt's place. Next morning we woke up to the sounds of torrential downpour and the news channels reminding an already slowing down city of the horrors of a year ago. Our flight was in th evening and anxiously we began plotting our way out of the pool we were in....two hours later, after tracelling in all possible means of public transport, including autos taxis and the famed local trains of bombay and soaked to the bone, we wheeled our luggage into a jampacked airport. It turned out that most of the flights were being delayed because of the rain, and people were at the end of their tethers...finally after four hours of exploring every nook and cranny of the terminal and being ticked off by security for ogling, we finally took off in air deccan flight DN657 to delhi. As it happened i was sitting next to an emergency exit by the wings and had an extra special chat with the air hostesses who were visibly shaken. Why? because someone had tried to wrench off the exit on the earlier flight nad caused all sorts of mayhem at the airport. A few things i learned from this experience: 1.Never trust the Indian railways, inspite of all the profit it's been making, passenger comfort seems to be the last thing on it's mind. 2.When in Mumbau travel for as far as possible using the local train network. It connects all the suburbs and is much better than a taxi ride on the hell holes that are mumbai's roads. 3.The best way to spend time at alrge airport is to ogle, at eveything and everyone. it's kind of satisfying when a beutiful lady suddenly realises that uv been staring at her, decides she likes it, and smiles at you(mind you that only happens one in a million times. you might get ticked off. But hey, what's life without a few risks?) 4.As far as possible avoid snacking at the airport cafeteria which (in bombay at least) is ridiculously overpriced and a thimble full of coffee is all you need be ripped off. (That cafeteria owner must have out his kids through college on the money he eanrde that single day) 5.Air deccan is certainly a no frills airline, but DO NOT make the mistake of eating on the flight. Believe me,I know. Two slice of bread with hardly visible mayonaise in between cost me 40 bucks!!Damn!