FIFA World Cup Opener - Brazil vs Croatia

This is the first soccer world cup that I am so unprepared for. I have no clue who is playing and who the favorites are. Ever since I got hooked on to the soccer world cup after watching some games in the Osmania University hostel in 1986 I have been watching this event more than I watch anything else. I even joined a job late because I wanted to watch the USA version for a whole month!

But this version in Brazil caught me unprepared. I was not following much - I am not a huge fan of the other soccer cups and leagues. I was not sure if I could do the owl shift and watch games from 130 in the morning to 4. In fact I crashed early last night but thanks to Shobhs got up and watched a fine opener between Brazil and Croatia and now i want to watch most of the Cup again.

I got most of the Brazilian team and recognised its past stars too. The own goal by Marcelo brought back visions of Paulo Escobar's unfortunate own goal for Columbia and its tragic consequences - he was shot dead in a bar room brawl soon after Columbia exited the World Cup. Marcelo showed no signs of pressure or cracking up and played hard after that lapse though. The pressure on the home team to deliver showed on their faces, none more so than Neymar Junior, and did the young man deliver. The first, a most opportunistic but well placed goal to the goal post just eluding the very capable Croatian goal keeper and then a penalty under pressure to equalise. The hardworking No 11 Oscar kicked in a delectable third goal and sealed it for Brazil. With these two up front Brazil looks in good hands, but its defence looks ragged at it always has been.

I loved the experience and am up to a month of waking up at nights now - will reschedule all my stuff to work around the world cup. After all its my favorite sporing event. Nothing like an old passion to make you wake up and feel life again.

After shocks, Power Cuts

On the day Telangana was announced, there were about 5 power cuts in our area. Until then there were no power cuts obviously - election season. Since then there have been so many more unscheduled power cuts, some lasting two or three hours. I have no clue why these power cuts are happening no does anybody else. Have all the guys who give us power gone off to the other land? Is it some conspiracy by some disgruntled employees? Why is this happening?
Who has stolen our power?

Anyway, I see no answers. Yesterday our already depleted water situation got further depleted. A thin trickle came through. For much shorter time. Our water tank, small as it is, was woefully short of water. We called the HMWS&SB chaps and ordered a water tanker (Your tanker has booked! announced the joyous tele calling machine). Only the tanker took about 30 hours to get home. 'We're fully booked,' said the tanker driver. 'We're doing 10-12 trips a day.' I asked him why the water supply was a trickle. 'Don't know,' he said. 'Even we are getting less water.'
Who has stolen our water?

Wonder what next? But whatever this is, it is not looking good right now. I hope this is corrected soon.

Anjali - Who made winners and losers

I simply loved this. I was doing some work on the computer when Anjali came by all serious and asked if she could use the computer. She needed to google some answers.
I gave her the computer.
When i came back I see a page opened. I went one screen back and there is the google search bar with the question - who made winners and losers?

I asked her later what it was she wanted to know. She told me this.
'Me and Mansi were playing to day and she was beating me every game. I got so angry that I was losing and then I thought, who made all this winning and losing? I wanted to find out because I was very angry with him for making this and making me angry.'

Hmm. I wonder who made this too? Life would have been simpler otherwise. I agree with Anjali. 

Highway - Movie review

It's visually enchanting. Alia Bhatt is a wonderful actress. Randeep Hooda is pitch perfect. A kidnap romance of all things. But Imtiaz Ali's penchant to pick up these paradoxes and drive them home comes through - here's a girl who is more secure and happy with her kidnappers than her family which is full of fake, abusive cowardly pretenders. How true is that paradox that who we are closest to supposedly become strangers and perfect strangers seem to have more sympathy, belief and trust in us.

Alia gets kidnapped by accident on the eve of her marriage to a rich NRI. She is the daughter of a rich and powerful man. Her kidnapper, Randeep, does not know her powerful connections and he is stuck with her. As they drive around without being stopped by police (hey, what about the powerful connections) Alia finds herself enjoying the ride, the freedom, the security that her kidnappers seem to offer her. The police do find them finally and end it rather abruptly. No fairy tale endings here.

It's nice. But like 'Rockstar' it left me thinking that it was just short somewhere. Unfinished, if only slightly. I rate Imtiaz Ali highly and like his sensitivity and themes and ideas but it still has this discordant tone. The entire movie was rebellious as hell and true but it kind of ended rather predictably and not in tune with the rest. Almost like the audience came into the picture then. But my nitpicking apart it must have been a great watch on screen with its visual grandeur. The music is good, the leads and support cast are fine. Nothing to complain about really. Go watch.

Anjali - What Will I Learn

We were driving past Jubilee Hills when the eagle eye of Anjali caught a hoarding.
'Learn to seize...' it screamed and continued in that vein about how that school or whatever it was will teach one how to seize.

'Ha, look at that,' said she, all offended. 'Learn to seize?'

I looked at her expectantly wondering what she made of it.

'I will learn to be kind,' she declared.

Not a bad thought. Now if only most adults got rid of these 'seizing' thoughts and got more 'kind' thoughts we might be in a better place.

But thanks Anjali. Makes me feel good already.

IPL 7 - A Case For Going Back to the Basics

Some of the things that need to be looked at by the huge coaching contingents of the teams in the IPL.

Yorkers: 
Without second guessing themselves, bowlers need to do the basics right - full and in the block hole. Bowling wides down the leg side, wide of the off stump, stopping and bowling, slowing down and bowling, making faces etc are more theatrical and do not show for skill. They have no value. What is of value is the skill that Malinga brings, bowling those yorkers and slower balls at will and all bowlers can learn from that.

There is no substitute for skill, for being able to pitch the ball where you want to. It needs practice and practice.


Bowlers getting behind the wicket while backing up for a run out:
How many times have we seen bowlers standing in front of the wicket and letting crucial run out chances go waste. This is the kind of stuff that one is taught at school level cricket. Obviously they are not being drilled in enough. I cannot believe that they can get away without doing such basics right.

Wicket keepers collecting the ball before it passes the stumps:
Robin Uthappa learned this the hard way. But its a sad fact. The wicket keeper is a specialist position and it is embarrassing as hell when something like this happens. To compound their misery, Manan Vohra hit the next ball for a boundary.
KKR may have won, but they could have easily lost for the mistake of gambling with a non-regular keeper. Why did they let go of that brilliant Saha? 

Changing winning combinations:
Kings XI Punjab second guessed themselves and complicated things a bot for themselves. Changing a winning XI, going for old favorites who are struggling with form, changing the winning formula of Johnson bowling full and fast and bowling a bouncer, are all against the cardinal rule of 'keeping it simple'.  Why change things when things are going along fine? Why complicate your life?

Having captains think on their own:
The more captains we have thinking on their own, the better. At all levels. Coaches and mentors can only assist, help and aid.

Low profile coaches:
Sanjay Bangar is a wonderful example of a low profile coach who has come in for great praise and rightly so. Impassive, not getting carried away by the vagaries of the game (Priety Zinta does enough getting carried away for all of Punjab anyway), he is the true, hardened professional. He has done his bit off the field, when the team is preparing, and then he sits back in the back rows and watches how it plays out. He knows performance is all a factor of preparation.

Sanjay Bangar should be now looked at as a coaching option for Team India. Seriously. He is low profile, knows his business and can be the right person for the job.

I was glad to see young R. Sridhar, a successful coach now with the BCCI Under 19 with two World Cups and now the Kings XI performance. He is a good coach with a sound head on his shoulders, communicates well, knows his business and can think. He will be one to watch out for in the future.

These are some of the things I could think of now. More when I can think of other things later.

Anjali - But Everyone Loves You

I was pulling Anjali's leg.
'No one called me today,' I told her.
'So?' she asked.
'No one is thinking about me,' I said.
'Maybe they are thinking about you but not calling,' she said.
'Nobody loves me,' I said putting on a sad face.

She looked at me and smiled in a placatory manner. Now what, seemed to be her attitude.
'But I love you na Nanna,' she said after a moment.
'Only you love me,' I whined.
'Mamma also loves you,' she said.
'She didn't tell me,' I protested.
'That's ok. But she loves you. I know,' she confided.
'Only two of you love me,' I continued.
'Your mamma and nanna love you,' she said.
'But they're dead,' I said.
'Yeah, but they still love you wherever the are,' she said.
Now that's a nice thought. Where did that come from?
And before I could continue my drama she wound it up.
'And all your brothers and sisters and friends and all the people you know love you from wherever they are ok,' she said.

That's a comforting feeling. I nodded. She nodded back, happy at having put my worries to rest.