A casual weekday!

On May 18th 2010, at 6:30 AM  in the  morning, an alarming incident happened. The alarm went up. I woke up, got ready and casually reached office at 7:30 AM. As usual, I logged into my machine. And to emphasize on the casual aspect of the day, I submitted a casual leave application!! This form was casually approved by my manager who was also in the office in the early hours of the morning along with couple of other team members. Other members took it even more casually and finally the whole team was in office at 8:30 AM. And we embarked on our one day fun trip to Anandhamama, a place 80 kms off Bangalore.
To make sure that the driver does not sleep, we sang regional songs, rap music and made whole lot of noise till we reached Kanakapura, a village 60 kms off Bangalore.   As told by the office authorities who had booked the resort, we called up the resort people who were very glad to inform us that there is NO advance booking as per their records and they can't arrange for it now. And so emerged the need for plan B. The suggestions of movie and lunch surfaced but the idea of returning back to cement jungles sounded really boring. And so the rescue team decided to look what lied ahead on the road.
As the wise men say "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted". During my last trip to Bheemeshwari, I had encountered a Jungle lodges resort there who were very glad to offer a daily visit package on a weekend without an advance booking.  Since Bheemeshwari was on our way, we called them up and thankfully they gave the same positive response. So off we went ahead, singing songs and playing dumb charades until we reached the nature and fishing camp at Jungle Lodges, Bheemeshwari.

We hit the large rope nets before our welcome drinks arrived to indicate the resort authorities that they had caught their fish for the day :P. Then we trekked down a steep hill to be mesmerized by the breathtaking and serene view from the top. This was followed by the most important part of any weekday: Lunch :P. We idled on the river banks after lunch raising the water level by throwing rocks into the river.Then, we were given bright pink life jackets to add some excitement to a dull coracle ride. The large rope nets unleashed the spider man out of most of us who spent the next hour sleeping/jumping/climbing trees/posing like spiderman for the sake of pictures. Some decided to give the swing the swing of its lifetime, while others just stuck to their usual weekday afternoon nap in hammocks. The sight of snacks and tea was enough motivation to put our feet back on the ground.
 As the sun set on the day, we headed back to the civilization to tell the tale of our impromptu adventure on a casual weekday!

EPL 2009-10

Over a period of 10 months, the football was physically intense and grueling,  some off-field drama with Portsmouth and many nail-bitting matches with goals in the last minutes deciding the verdict. To top it all, the fight for the championship went on till the last day of the calendar. And arguably, the most deserving team won it. This EPL season had it all!
Chelsea who were the favorites to win the title,  were the deserving winners with perhaps the most balanced side in the league. They had firepower at the front with Drogba and Anelka, aggressive midfielders like Lampard and Molouda, the experience of Ballack in the midfield and a stopper like Peter chez with his nonchalant "Thou shall not pass" approach towards goalkeeping. Twice this season, they ran away from their competition at the top of the table only to falter subsequently and finally settled the deal on the last Super sunday of the calendar.
Last summer selling of Christiano Ronaldo brought in lots of money for Manchester United. But without his goal-scoring and play-making ability, they looked a pretty ordinary side. Only the brilliance of Wayne Rooney, the player of the league, got them the second place.
The Arabs of Manchester City poured in money to buy lots of quality players like Adebayor, Tevez, et. all. But it will take more than a season before all of them play as a team and pose a serious challenge for a top 4 finish in the league. Because of the indifferent form  of Liverpool, the 4th spot and the opportunity to play in Champion's league was up for grabs. And Peter Crouch's single goal against Manchester City earned that reward for Tottenhum Hotspurs. As an article on espnstar.com defined it: "A goal worth 50 million. And the dream has been realized". The celebrations at the end of the match defined how much this achievement meant for the club. They are a team without any top stars but they have a squad which plays as a collective unit which matters a whole lot more in football.
And I savor my darling team for the last. Let me digress from the current season to explain why Arsenal are so heavily romanticized in English football. English football has always been known to be intensely physical. That means physically strong players looking for tackling(bullying) the opponents all the time. And in this league, Arsenal (under Arsene Wenger ) have created and mastered their own brand of football. The kind of football that can inspire a poet to write poetry about. They pass the ball around so beautifully that before an opponent decides to tackle a player, he has already passed the ball to someone else. Along with Barcelona, Arsenal are the best team to watch on this planet.
Back to this season. With the spending spree at Manchester city, Arsenal were expected to struggle to keep their position in top 4 of the league when the season began. Not many Pundits thought that they will pose a serious challenge to win the trophy. But Arsene Wenger and his youth brigade knew no fear. They started the season with a 6-1 thumping of Everton. They even found them at the top of the table on more than one occasion( i guess). But injuries to Van Persie and other critical members exposed the the lack of depth and experience in the squad which is essential to win the league. The ease with which Chelsea brushed them apart on both occasions in the season shows that they have some catching up to do if they aim to win the league. But this dark cloud has a silver lining. The manner in which the young generation of Arsenal collected points by winning comfortably against the lesser quality teams in the league kept them in the hunt for the title race almost till the end.  And that is something which had not happened for the previous two seasons. But even Wenger knows he needs to add quality to the side if they aim to go the full distance next year. And he is out in the market to capture the talent before the football world cup bloats the price tags associated with players. And here is my wish list for Mr. Wenger in the descending order of priority:
1. A goalkeeper- With all due respects, Almunia is more of a clown in front of the goal and he is easily costing the club 8-10 points each season with his blunders.
2. A defensive minded strong midfielder - We have quality playmakers like Fabregas, Arshavin and Nasri. But this team is physically too light to challenge the likes of Chelsea and Bolton. There needs to be someone in the midfield/defense to win the ball back and pass it to these playmakers so that they can weave their magic. The job which Patrick Viera used to do amazingly in  glory days of Arsenal (2003-04).
3. Defender - Vermalen is rock-solid! But he needs a good partner at the heart of the defense. Gallas/Campbell/Silvester won't be of any use against strikers like Drogba and Torres.
4. A Striker who plays more in the 6 yard box - As of now Bendtner fits the bill. But his poor conversion ratio does not make him a candidate to be in the starting 11. There needs to be a striker who is physically strong (like Drogba/Torres) and is good in the air  so that there are more goals from headers which is a serious disadvantage for Arsenal as of now.

So the season ends and gives me a serious issue to deal with. What to do on weekends with my weekend dose of football off air for 3 months. But nothing to worry about. The mother of all world cups starts on June 11th! And I am already waving!