Just yesterday I was lamenting how the frequency of my posts have fallen off late. But hey I am back here again, just a day later, with another new post! Round of Applause kids. This time too, I am back with a post which I posted at our company today, in reply to a topic that was being discussed. Of late, only stuff I am writing is in response to some query by someone on our company's public folders. I have become too lazy to write something original on my own. I put the blame squarely on Twitter. Before twitter, I had all the time in the world and lots of patience to organize my thoughts into a post. But now, with the advent of twitter, I blast my twitter account with my expert views as events unfold in real time; be it films, football(much to the annoyance of my very loyal followers ), current affairs; both political and personal. So I hardly have any thing new to say, hence the drop in the number of posts on my blog here. But let me promise you my love(my blog), I will not abandon you for some new hot babe dressed in a skimpy 140 character text. I fell in love with you first so I will stay with you through thick and thin. :)

I am digressing, so why am I here. Oh yeah, the post. Actually, its a pointless exercise. I am just posting it here to keep my blog regularly updated. Since not all of you are aware of the context in which I replied to it, this might not make much sense to you. But its a one of a kind memorable experience for me, so I am posting it here.

Little background to the post. As I said, I posted this in response to a discussion on our BB. The topic was exploitation of Infoscions by the Auto Drivers Mafia/Union outside our campus. It is a problem our fellow employees are facing on a daily basis. As different people voiced their opinions on it, one of our fellow employees, in his reply on the discussion, stated this:

‘CM of AP has taken bribe from auto unions for hiking the metered fares’

This reminded me of a similar incident that happened sometime back.

4 years back when the helmet rule was first introduced in Hyderabad, I got caught for not having a helmet on. I remember the date clearly, it was 26th May 2005. It was just 2 days prior to my friend's sisters marriage and I got caught on my way to his place, riding his bike. Traffic policeman refused to let me go for any amount of ‘fine’ I offered to pay. Those were the days when Tejdeep Kaur Menon was the chief of Traffic Police and she had then introduced a very innovative way of educating Hyderabadis of the importance of having a helmet on. A loyal cop that he was, he refused my offering and seized my license. Only way I could get it back was to endure a 2 hour session on the safety of having helmets on at the Khairathabad Police station. I wasn't going to go down alone, so I managed to convince my friend too into attending the gruelling two hour session. So on the day before his sister's marriage, we both made it to Khairathabad Police station to attend the session.

At the Police Station on that day, there was a huge gathering inside a conference room, around 60-70 offenders, who all looked very embarrassed to be there in that room. We all endured a 2 hour movie at the police station, one which was terribly enacted by amateur actors( my guess, actors probably were the traffic cops themselves, probably this was a fun event for them introduced by their HR to foster team spirit in them), with good amount of glamour quotient thrown in with the likes of Nagarjuna and Babu Mohan making pleas on the benefits of having a helmet on. There were personal accounts from the kith and kin of accident victims too, advocating the use of helmets.

Once the movie ended, a Q n A session followed, which was handled by a top cop. An agitated man in his mid 40’s was the first one to go. This was his question. ‘This is exploitation sir, exploitation by politicians, by police, for personal benefit of the Congress politicians and YSR. I know YSR has a Helmet company, he is making crores by making all of us purchase ‘his’ helmets.’ There was a thunderous applause followed by a huge uproar in the room, all in support of the man’s argument. This is what the top cop answered. Firstly, he had a good laugh, and then said 'Sir, I understand you don’t like being pulled up here. This is for your benefit. Research we carried out showed us that head injuries is the major reason why most people got killed in 2 wheeler road accidents, so we decided to implement the Helmet rule. Let me assure you, this is an area where YSR has not gotten into, yet. There are many more lucrative ways of making money for him than making people buy his ISI marked helmets.' :)

I realize its been very long since I last logged in here. So I am posting my review of Inglorious Basterds, one which I quickly posted a few days ago on our company's public forum. Since I did not have much time to compose it then, it is not very elaborate and it is not properly constructed. I am too lazy to make any changes to it now so I am just posting it here as it is. Feel free to mention your thoughts on the movie in the comments section. See you when I see you again. :)

Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basterds is a fictional revenge drama based in Nazi occupied France in 1941. It is about a group of Jewish American Soldiers called Inglorious Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt, in a very funny Southern Accent) who are in France to take revenge on the Nazis. The movie is entirely fictional, but it involves many real life characters like Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Winston Churchill and the likes.

The movie is divided into 5 chapters. First chapter starts off with Colonel Hans Landa ‘the Jew Hunter’ (played brilliantly by Austrian actor Christopher Waltz) interrogating a French farmer, whom he suspects of providing shelter to a Jewish family. The colonel breaks the farmer down into confessing the whereabouts of the family and then orders his men to massacre them. All are killed but one, Shosanna, who manages to escapes from the house. The second chapter provides introduction to the Basterds and their ways of exacting revenge on the Nazis. A Nazi soldier being bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat wielding Basterd is depicted in the movie. But believe me when I say it, the scene is incredibly funny. Third chapter introduces us to Shosanna again, now working in Paris at a Cinema house. A Nazi war hero turned actor, Frederick Zoller falls for Shosanna and invites her to lunch with Hitler’s minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. There Shosanna’s theatre is selected to premier the war propaganda movie named ‘The Nation’s Pride’, produced by Goebbels starring Zoller, which would have all the top Nazi leaders including Hitler in attendance. In Chapter 4 we are introduced to Operation Kino, an Allies covert Operation to blow up Shosanna's theatre to take out all Nazi leaders including Hitler, thus ending the war. Chapter 5 is Shosanna’s revenge; how she avenges the death of her family at the hands of the Nazis.

Christopher Waltz’s Colonel Hans Landa steals the show from everyone in the movie, an Oscar worthy performance from him. He owns the movie, brushing aside a superstar like Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt puts in a good performance, but his performance pales in comparison to the devilish character of Hans Landa. The movie is strangely ironic; considering that the violence depicted in the movie is orchestrated by Jews on the Nazis. Chapter 1, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 are the best parts of the movie. Watch it for the unpredictability, watch it for top acting, watch it for the tension built up by Tarantino by clever use of words, watch it for the dark humour. It is not an English movie mind you, it is a multilingual movie, conversations keep moving from German, French and English. You need to follow the subtitles closely to follow the conversations. It’s definitely a must watchin my opinion. If you are a Tarantino fan, you will absolutely love the movie. You get everything you expect from a Tarantino flick; quirky characters, long conversations filled with humour, unpredictability, lots of action and gore. Even if you are not a tarantino fan, watch it because it is a thoroughly entertaining movie.

The new season of English Premiership football is finally here! Phew, it was a long wait. After 3 months of transfer madness initiated by Real Madrid and carried forward by Manchester City, it feels good to be talking about football again. For Chelsea, it’s a new beginning under Ancelotti. What better way to start off in his new job than with a win over Manchester United at Wembley!

It feels good to see Chelsea begin their new season with a win but there are still many question marks over how Chelsea will adopt to this new system as the season progresses. Following are some of the positives and negatives that I noted today.

Negatives:

1. Lampard was largely invisible today. Playing at the tip of the diamond formation, Ancelotti wants Lampard to play in the role of a support striker to Drogba and Anelka. But with no playmaker in the team to sit deep to provide defence splitting passes to the attacking 3, Chelsea will find it difficult to break down teams with stubborn defenses. I feel Deco needs to be tried in the role of a deep lying playmaker. He has the range of passing to sit there threading passes all over the field. Only question mark is over his defensive abilities. But still that’s an option for Ancelotti. Another option is to have Joe Cole sitting at the tip of the diamond with Lampard employed on the wings of the narrow midfield. Sitting too far ahead, Lampard will not be able to initiate as many attacks as he would like to.
2. I was surprised to see Ivanovic starting at right back in place of a fit Bosingwa. Bosingwa was one of the consistent performers for Chelsea last season. Chelsea is a left heavy team with no right wingers at all. Bosingwa provides width from the right with his runs and crosses. Ivanovic is clearly behind Bosingwa in the pecking order and that’s how it should be. Chelsea looked much more lethal after Ancelotti introduced Bosingwa in place of Ivanovic in the second half
3. This game was a game of 2 halves. Chelsea started brightly but United dominated the first half. They could have been leading 2-0 or 3-0 if not for Peter Cech’s brilliant goal keeping. One need not be a keen observer to know what SAF was trying to do. Looking how narrow Chelsea were operating with no width coming in from the fullbacks, United were attacking from the wings. Most of the opportunities that United created in the first half were from Evra, Nani and Ji Sung. John O Shea wasn’t pushing ahead on the right, but that would have put more pressure on Chelsea. That’s a problem for Chelsea. Against a team with marauding wingers and overlapping fullbacks, Chelsea will find life difficult. Ancelotti needs one out and out right winger in the squad. Ancelotti can start all games with his diamond formation but without a right winger, he will find himself short of options when the formation isn’t working. Quite similar to the problem Scolari had last season. Hopefully, Chelsea will get in a right winger before the transfer window closes.

Positives:

1. Carvalho! Boy, was so glad to see him starting for Chelsea again. He was brilliant today and he played the perfect foil to John Terry. While Terry went in for the aerial challenges and the blocks, Carvalho was anticipating all the dangerous through balls and nipping them in the bud. He also showed his attacking instincts with a very well taken header for the first goal. Ancelotti needs to stick to this back 4 of Bosingwa, Terry, Carvalho and Cole. They should start every game unless there is an injury to someone.
2. Anelka and Drogba both looked sharp today and both were combining well, switching places, taking turns to shoot. I reckon they two will forge a great partnership this season. It was pleasing to see Drogba dropping back when Chelsea were under attack. Anelka needs to stay at the top and Drogba needs to play the support striker to him. That’s how it should be.
3. Peter Cech. It was a misunderstanding between Terry and Cech that resulted in the first goal, but otherwise Cech was at his best throughout the game. His saves off Ji Sung, Fletcher and Berbatov were all of the highest class. He also made the crucial penalty saves for Chelsea to win us the match. That augurs very well for Chelsea.

Next up, Hull City at Stamford Bridge! Hopefully, new boy Zhirkov will be fit to play a part in it. Looking forward to this new season with great optimism!

Fedex had to battle really hard to scale that peak of Grand Slam number 15. What a match it turned out to be! I must confess I did not expect Roddick to push Fedex all the way. I thought the match would end up being a terribly lopsided affair with Fedex swatting Roddick off like he was a fly. But Roddick clearly had other plans. He came out all guns blazing and attacked Fedex from the word go with his booming serve and backhand winners.

Roddick looks a more complete player now to the one he was 5 years ago. He serves and volleys brilliantly, looks more athletic, covers more ground and pulls of remarkable winners. I think everyone who saw the match would agree that Roddick deserved to win the title more than Fedex. He was dominating the match all through until that very last game; hitting more winners, committing fewer errors, also breaking Fedex’s serve 2 times.

Fedex on the other hand, looked very erratic. He was committing too many unforced errors and he did not for once look like a man who had so convincingly beaten Roddick twice on this very court few years ago. His crosscourt winners weren’t coming off, even his forehand shots were going into the net. He never really got into any sort of rhythm until the tiebreaker of the 2nd set. Roddick should have closed out that set, what with him leading 6-2 in the tie break with 4 set points. But I guess Roddick relaxed a bit and Fedex scripted an incredible turnaround to take the 2nd set. That turnaround seemed to have unsettled Roddick so much that he literally lost his way when he ambled on to the wrong side of the court after the break. He had to be reminded 3 times by the chair umpire to switch sides. But he regrouped quickly and his serve only kept getting better and better. He was mixing his serve up beautifully; angling the ball across the court, hitting it down the T, aiming it into Fedex’s body and covering every inch of the court like a man possessed. He was attacking Fedex’s service game very well but every time Fedex looked like he was in trouble, he pulled himself out of the hole with his accurate serves. Finally, it was 2 uncharacteristic errors from Roddick that gifted Fedex the match.

Clearly, Fedex had an advantage in the final set as he was serving first and Roddick had to hold him off each time. But credit to Roddick for sustaining the pressure from the great man for so long. When the match finally ended, I am sure Fedex wasn’t anticipating it to end so quickly, what with both winning their service games with an ace after ace. But finally fatigue seemed to have taken a toll on Roddick and the great man seized the moment and eventually that turned out to be the match winning points for Fedex. For a change though, there were no tears after he won a match of such great significance. I think that was because he hadn’t anticipated to wrap the fifth set up so ‘quickly’.

As a Fedex fan, I could not have asked for anything more. This peak looked unconquerable in the month of January, when Rafa mentally decimated Fedex in the Australian Open. But credit to the great man for believing in himself and making a brilliant comeback! But my heart went out for Roddick. This was a match which he deserved to win. Silently, I was rooting for Roddick to pull it off. Fedex would always come back to win it again, but unfortunately I am not so sure about Roddick.

A word to all Nadal fans who would come out saying Fedex had it easy with Nadal out injured here. Fedex did not go and personally inflict that injury to Nadal. Injuries are part and parcel of the game. Greatness of a player lies not just in winning tournaments, but also in looking after oneself and keeping oneself fit and injury free. Fedex handled himself very well in the last 6 years, taking breaks at the right time and always coming into a Grand slam well prepared. The fact that he has made it to 21 consecutive grand slam semi-finals and appeared in 20 grand slam finals speaks volumes of the greatness of the player. There has not been a player who has dominated the Grand slams like he has, and so rightfully, he deserves to be right up there at the very top, the best ever tennis player of all time!

Few things I found amusing during the course of the match:

• Sampras smiling in relief after Roddick won the first set. He probably thought his record would stay intact for a few more months
• Roddick walking on to the wrong side of the court at the start of the 3rd set.
• Number of celebrities present there! The ones I saw: Sir Alex Fergusson, Michael Ballack, Russel Crowe, Woody Allen, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, Ilie Nastase, John Mcenroe(commentating) and Henry Kissinger. I heard the commentators say Sachin was present too but I could not spot him in the crowd. Did I miss anyone?
• At one point in the final set, I wondered what Sir Alex Fergusson would have done to break this deadlock. He looked like he was planning on sending his super sub Ronaldo onto the pitch. Oh wait a minute, he is not at united anymore! :P
• A friend wondered, had the match gone on any longer yesterday, Fedex’s wife Mirka would have delivered on the centre court itself. She looked very uneasy and tensed in the last few minutes of the final set. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happened.
• Fedex sporting number 15 on his jacket at the post match presentation ceremony. Roddick almost made that thing look like a joke. Over confidence on Fedex’s part?