The Quarters, Germany 2006

FRIDAY 30 JUNE
Quarter-Final 1: Germany v Argentina 2030 IST, Berlin

SATURDAY 1 JULY
Quarter-Final 2: Italy vs Ukraine 0030 IST, Hamburg
Quarter-Final 3: England v Portugal 2030 IST,Gelsenkirchen

SUNDAY 2 JULY
Quarter-Final 4: Brazil v France 0030 IST, Frankfurt

Surprise, surprise ....

The Aussies are knocked out by the Italians (who looked iffy throughout the match) via a penalty kick 5 seconds before the end of extra time! To add insult to injury, the penalty wasn't even valid (imho at least). This team was looking good to cause a few upsets (I'm sure they would have prevailed over the Italians had it come down to penalties, Italy's record in penalty shoot-outs being what it is), but they're out of it for good now. Sad.

Brazil are beginning to show why they're considered overwhelming favourites to win this year. Their 3-0 takedown of Ghana (who lost out due to some shoddy finishing, finding Dida each time they shot at goal), with Ronaldo scoring the superb opening goal, was super.

Annnnd the biggest surprise of them all, France taking out Spain 3-1, with Zidane finding the net once & setting up another. Guess who Les Blues face in the Quarters .... Brazil!

This World Cup is turning out to be one of the best ever.

Weekend TV

A series of shows that kept me glued to the idiot box over the weekend ....

TGILC final - The 1 thing that I look forward to on Friday evenings is Laughter Challenge. Had been following it since 'Dwitiya' began in February & last Friday it was time for the winner to be crowned. Like the last time (Sunil Pal), it came as a bit of a surprise, but when you think about it, the judges probably made the right choice. Rauf Lala got to drive away with the Chevy, with the dark horse Rajiv Nigam finishing a close 2nd.

Khayali had been my personal favourite since he appeared as the 1st contestant on the very 1st episode, but his jokes had been getting a tad crude of late, & that's what must've counted against him in the end. He tied for 3rd with Pratap Faujdar, the sardar. Ali Hasan and Irfan Malik, the stand-up comic duo from Pakistan, were good as well & ended up 4th with 2 of my other favourites Dr. Tushar Shah & the 'Puppet Guy' (forgot his name), bought up the rear finishing 5th & 6th respectively .... for me, these 2 were tops in terms of sophistication & talent.

Anyway, the 'Laughter Champions' series will start in about 3 weeks, featuring the winners of both - part 1 & part 2, & that should be something greatly entertaining. Looking forward to watch Raju, Ehsaan, Sunil & Bhagwant back in action.

Germany 2006, the round of 16 - Germany dominated Sweden in the 1st match of Round 2 & are through to the quarters to face Argentina who managed to get past Mexico in a thriller. The sad part is, these are the best 2 teams at the moment (on form) & the elimination of 1 of them even before the semis is a pity.

Englang beat a fighting Ecuador 1-0 with the help of Beckham who bent it like only he can .... good to see him in the thick of the action again. And Portugal eliminated a lacklustre Holland, Maniche scoring the lone goal of the match. The best part is, I managed to see all the goals as they happened & not on the news.

India vs West Indies, the 3rd Test - India have been very unfortunate (in the sense that rain has denied them the chance of having at least a 1-0 lead) in the run up to the 3rd test. But guess what happens when the shoe is on the other foot .... Windies run up a huge 582 in the 1st innings & India fall just 20 short of avoiding the follow-on .... & there's no rain this time. Anyway, Lara didn't enforce the follow-on & with 1 day to go, let's see if India can save this one.

ECW One Night Stand - RAW & SmackDown had really been getting stale of late, & VKM has rightly decided to ressurect ECW with Paul Heyman at the helm. The 1st PPV was good enough, but could have been better. Cena finally lost the Heavyweight title & the extent of the ECW fans' hatred for him was to be seen to be believed. I think it's time he turned heel like The Rock did. Saw some legendary ECW names like Sabu & The Sandman performing for the 1st time & must say I was impressed. Only hope McMahon allows Heyman a free hand at running what could well become what RAW & SmackDown have long aspired to be. VKM is a genius (at least at this), no doubt about it.

Canadian GP - Who else but Alonso? Renault's running away with the titles & there's nothing that the Reds or the Silver Arrows can do about it (Schumi's 2nd & Raik's 3rd place finish notwithstanding). McLaren's title hopes are vanishing fast with every race & where would Ferrari be without Michael? Hats off to Renault though, what a car!, what a driver! & what a race!

Besides these, also managed to squeeze in Phir Hera Pheri .... it isn't as funny as the original, but that's maybe because they've repeated too many of the lines from that one. The 1st half is quite good though. The film has done well & I hear they're planning to come out with a 3rd part .... let's hope they bring back Priyadarshan to direct it.

Damned clients & their half wit machine setups!

By the way, the Aussies & the Ghana-ns have made it (fought their way into, rather) the round of 16 at Germany 2006. Things are warming up nicely.

Kabhi Alvida ....

The music is out (it was on the Net 4 days before the commercial release!) & it sounds suspiciously similar to that of Kal Ho Na Ho. Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Frenz

Saikat discovers my profile on Orkut .... now that's what I call the power of the Net. You are absolutely out of touch with somebody since you left school & here he is asking whether you are the same guy who used to sit next to him at the Maths tuition. Cool .... way cool.

And talking of friends, Neal had just bought himself a Sony Dolby Prologic 5.1 Surround System, which it seems got fried when his house got struck by lightning. Hard luck dude, I know what it feels when a cherished possession goes through that kind of treatment.

The weekend

It took a reminder from Jolly for me to wish Daddy on his Birthday! I must be the only guy who forgets his parents' anniversaries. Must do something about this.



Went movie watching after a long time with Sittu @ PVR. M:I-2 had propelled John Woo to the top of my list of favourite directors & the fact that he was not at the helm for MI:III had made me lower my expectations from the film considerably. But, the 160 bucks turned out to be money well spent.

J.J. Abrams may not be a patch on John Woo stylistically, but he delivers nonetheless. The script is taut, the pace is fast & the action packs a punch .... as does the Dolby Digital Stereo Surround which goes a long way in completing the movie-goer's experience. Tom Cruise though, looks tired in this one .... in fact, Ving Rhames & Laurence Fishburne look better in the movie than he does.

Back home & Ajay was made to serve up an advanced b'day party since he'll be at away at home when his b'day comes around .... I ended up OD'ing on the Vodka .... this is what happens when you shun C2H5OH for a long time.

The action continued with World Cup football .... the teams to watch out for at the moment seem to be Brazil (of course!), Argentina (6-0 against Serbia & Montenegro!), Australia (even though they went down to the Brazilians), Spain & Portugal. Trinidad & Tobago played well against England but ultimately lost 2-0. I'd expected the Soca Warriors (that's what they call TnT) to be this World Cup's Senegal, but it hasn't quite worked out like that. By the way, the Aussies are called Socceroos back home.

That's about it for the weekend, pretty good, considering how laid-back some of them in the recent past have been.

Dawn Of The Dead

I've seen some crazy Hollywood films & this was one more of 'em. Weird .... but interesting.

.... finally

Tell me what to believe
Won't you bring me order
Tell me what to achieve
Baby, so I can move forward
Tell me what to be
Lyrics from 'Car Crashes' by Standfast

In a sky full of people, only some want to fly,
Isn't that crazy?
In a world full of people, only some want to fly,
Isn't that crazy?
Crazy...
In a heaven of people there's only some want to fly,
Ain't that crazy?
Lyrics from 'Crazy' by Seal

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everythings okay and everythings going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everythings gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face
Lyrics from 'Ironic' by Alanis Morrisette

Nights in white satin,
Never reaching the end,
Letters I've written,
Never meaning to send.
Beauty I'd always missed
With these eyes before,
Just what the truth is
I can't say anymore.
Lyrics from 'Nights In White Satin' by Moody Blues

So, I tell you it's black, but you know that it's white.
See everything's cool when you don't have to fight.
There's nothing outside in the darkness waiting for you.
And I wish it was true.
So, why don't you turn your car around?
Forget your way back home?
'Cause it's not me there any more.
Turn your car around.
You're better off alone.
I'll pick myself up off the floor.
Lyrics from 'Turn Your Car Around' by Lee Ryan

The joy that you feel when you finally possess that 1 song (or several) you've been hankering after for God knows how long .... is one of a kind.

Thanks Sittu & thanks LimeWire .... music .... is L.I.F.E.

Aussies!

Australia took on Japan yesterday in their first World Cup match ever & nobody including me was expecting anything much from them. So it didn't come as a surprise when Japan were leading 1-0 with just 8 minutes remaining for the game to end.

But boy, were we in for a surprise or what .... 3 scorching goals in the 84th, 89th & 92nd minutes & the Aussies were celebrating the win over their much fancied opponents! I've always been an admirer of the Aussie fighting spirit & yesterday they proved it all over again. Fantastic!

Sport-filled Sunday

The British GP; World Cup Football; French Open Men's Final & at the back of it all, the 2nd day of the 2nd India vs WestIndies test. How often do such prime time sporting events jostle for so little viewer time?

Sports broadcasting in India has changed such a great deal. Barely 13-14 years ago, we had just 1 National state-run channel broadcasting everything under the sun (news, sports, movies, soaps, documentaries ....), & look at the situation now .... each & every 1 of the events stated above was on a different Sports channel .... F1 on Star Sports; Football on ESPN; Tennis on Zee Sports & Cricket on Ten Sports .... monopoly is dead, the consumer is king .... & 'I'm Loving It'.

Germany 2006

The time is upon us again .... yes, the FIFA World Cup is back. Being just a seasonal football fan (the kind who knows the names of about 11 international players & not all the 11 who make up A.C. Milan), most of the Football related memories I have are in relation to the several World Cups I've been witness to ....

Mexico '86 - I remember Gev sporting it's logo on the sneakers he used to wear. Remember nothing of the matches though. Argentina were in their prime then.

Italia '90 - The logo was really cool & I had a lot of doodles at the back of my Maths register. Roger Milla & Cameroon were the surprise package.

USA '94 - Maradona got the drugs-related ban in this one. Followed a few matches which were mostly late at night. Remember preparing for a Bar Charts test while watching one.

France '98 - A dream World Cup for the hosts. They played fantastically & Zidane was the toast of the footballing world. And who'll forget Ronaldo's performance (non-performance, rather) in the finals .... & his buck-teeth. Watched a few matches at the Hostel mess while witnessing first hand the Bengali's fascination for the game.

Japan-South Korea '02 - Asia's first World Cup. Senegal beating France in the opener. France (the holders) bowing out at the group stage itself after scoring a total of 0 goals. The Koreans putting it across the Italians in the quarters .... & Brazilian magic in the final .... it was Ronaldo's redemption.


Well, it's about to happen all over again .... action starts tomorrow 9:30 PM IST.

Himesh & the art of monopolising TV

I've often thought of posting about the way Himesh Reshammiya has been monopolising the music channels, but always postponed it thinking that it was a temporary phenomenon that would blow over sooner rather than later.

But looking back to this 'phenomenon's' origin, you realize that it's soon gonna be a year since the OST of Aashique Banaya Aapne came out & set the charts on fire. Ever since then, Himesh has come out with one hit soundtrack after another as if off an assembly line & the trend seems set to continue well into the future.

Switch on any Bollywood related TV channel/FM station & 7 out of 10 (seriously!) songs/videos will feature him in some form or the other. He either lends his voice to 'em or does the music or is acting on the video. Thank God he hasn't taken to penning the lyrics yet!

I'd go so far as to say that I've never seen a single artist monopolise airtime to the extent Himesh has in the time satellite TV has existed in India. And the reason for it is not too difficult to fathom .... his tunes are genuinely catchy & have a high 'hummability' quotient. But his nasal twang & the propensity to cast himself in all his videos & that too as the jilted/dumped lover can get mighty irritating at times. And the lesser said about that regulation baseball cap + denim jacket/trenchcoat + mike held at eye level outlook of his, the better.

Still, to give the guy his due, nobody kicks a dead dog .... let's see how long this monopoly continues.

Retro time

Now playing on the MP3 player ....

Cyndi Lauper
MatchBox 20
Billy Joel
Red Hot Chilli Peppers &
Bryan Adams

Life has a habit of throwing up changes when you least expect it to .... you think everything's going on nice & smooth & settled when it'll snatch you by the collar; splash cold water on your face & whump you into place to face what lies ahead .... & face it you must .... cause ignorance will lead to your own peril.

West Indies v India
1st Test, Antigua Recreation Ground, St. John's - Antigua

India
1st Innings: 241/10 in 92.5 overs
2nd Innings: 521/6 dec in 150.5 overs


West Indies
1st Innings: 371/10 in 98.3 overs
2nd Innings: 298/9 in 95.0 overs

Shit!

And by the way, yesterday was the 6th of June 2006, so everybody's calling it the day of the AntiChrist.

Over the weekend ....

Sittu left his 'bunker' at Madiwala & shifted to his friend, Abhishek's place at Koramangla. The 'movements' in preparation for his transfer to Kolkata have begun.

In another case of the Indian media going ga-ga over nothing, there was blanket coverage across all channels when Rahul Mahajan (whose only claim to fame is that he is Pramod Mahajan's son) ended up in the ICU after snorting his way through a Speedball. His late dad's secretary Bibek Moitra however, wasn't as 'lucky' & ended up meeting The Creator sooner than he would have wanted to.
As if on cue, all the news channels had half hour 'Specials' covering the doping scene in the cities .... the reaction of the CNN-IBN guy was the one I remember .... he turned around to face the camera after the story got over with a shocked look & said "Shocking" .... yeah yeah, as if we don't know how easy it is to get Coke/Heroin/Cannabis in Indian cities .... stupid hypocrites.
The Mahajan dude though has to be complemented .... he was scheduled to be in Assam the next morning to immerse his father's ashes in the Brahmaputra & there he was getting high on Champagne & Coke .... way to go man! Sure enough, the cover-up game has started in earnest .... the forensic report will reportedly take 5 days & Apollo announced that they hadn't found any traces of drugs in the guy's blood samples .... heh, heh, yeah right, how could the doctors have seen the drugs through the fat wads of cash that were placed in front of their eyes?

Cricket .... and India caved in again during the 1st innings of the 1st test against the Windies. The Carribeans helped themselves to a 130 run lead, but the 2nd innings showing by the Indians was a lot more heartening, with Jaffer not out after a century at the end of the 3rd day. The match is poised nicely with India even having the chance to force a result .... let's see.

Sid bought a CD of Fanaa on Saturday & following a pre-planned strategy made Arnie, Prav & me sit through it while he himself slept peacefully! The movie is .... strange, for want of a better word. Aamir & Kajol put in brilliant performances as usual, but the story has some wild twists which are particularly hard to swallow .... along with a truck load of shayari (in chaste Urdu) during the 1st half. Most of it was the autorickshaw brand but the one that I remember was this ....
Kehte hain pyaar mein neend udd jaati hai,
Koi humse bhi to pyaar kare,
Kambakht, neend bahut aati hai

Howzatt?

Working out?

Milind Pandya is of the opinion that I work out in the gym since I 'look strong'!

I didn't know I looked THAT fit. Anyway, thanks for the compliment dude. Compliments never hurt, do they?

They're gonna be back .... I hope

Dodge & Chevy have brought out concepts for 3 of my favourites from the Muscle Car era .... The Chevrolet Camaro,

the Dodge Challenger

& the Dodge Charger.

The pics look awesome & I hope they make it to production. Now let's see when they decide to resurrect the Firebird & the Barracuda.