Showing the finger.

Exercised my right to vote . Sad to read reports about the low voter turnout in the city. Well done people!! The people who don’t vote are the ones who crib the most.

Congratulations to all those made the most of the holiday by chilling out at home.

Postcards from Shilonda…

Went to Shilonda on September 26th. No.. not some exotic place. Shilonda is one of the trails in SGNP (Borivali National Park). It’s a short walk of about 4 to 5 km inside the national park. It was an opportunity to visit my city’s “lungs“. Hadn’t visited the national park since can’t remember when!

It was a pleasant day. Well, not really “pleasant” pleasant.. Pleasant because of the company

Enjoyed every moment of the trail. Saw plenty of butterflies along the trail. Don’t remember any names now. I was carrying a notepad and a pen, but it’s me.. never gonna write down all the interesting stuff. Yeh, I do remember this one interesting bit, There are around 150 species of butterfly in the National park. Interesting, isn’t it?

No information jotted down.. nothing much to write about.. except that I was with a bunch of interesting people. There’s this trekking group called TrekMates, who had organised this trail.

It was a lovely Saturday.. me, the great outdoors and my camera.

Here’s a collage created with some of the pictures I clicked.

Postcards from Shilonda

Top of the table!

Three weeks into the new season of the Premier League, and Spurs are on top. My beloved Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur Football Club .. for the uninitiated) — numero uno! Too good to be true. Could this be our year?

It’s early days, and I’m sure that’s not where we are gonna finish the season. A top 6 finish, that’ll be good. After all the chopping and changing in the previous seasons, this team looks like a stable combination. We haven’t lost any big names in the summer. The pre season has been okayish. A few loses, a few good wins, and most importantly no big name exits!

Flashback to the start of the 08-09 season. Senor Ramos had already won us the Carling cup, with Jol’s team though. We had a manager with an impressive resume, but we lost Berbatov, and Keane to Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. So what?

We started badly, lost to newly promoted teams like Stoke City (no offence, Stoke City fans). 2 points from 8 games. Everyone’s favourite joke. More than the loss of Berbatov and Keane, it was the lack of team spirit that was hurting.

Ramos was sacked in October. Harry “The Messiah” Redknapp replaced him .. and the rest is history! A strong finish, finals of the Carling cup, and a decent run in the FA and UEFA cup.

Fast forward to 09-10 season. Total contrast to what happened a year earlier. Started the season with a win over Liverpool. We had beaten them earlier, twice last season. But it was the win over Hull City and also West Ham that showed we could win away too. Away matches have always been a pain. Hope that changes now.

Like I said, it’s still early days. Don’t know where we’ll be at the end of the season. But this team, under Harry Redknapp looks a pretty strong challenger for the top 6. I’m not getting carried away as yet!

Looking at the current team, this does seem stronger than previous seasons. We always had a strong strike force, pacy  wingers. But it was the central midfield, and the back 4 that were problematic. Not any more, though there’s the Center back position that’s a bit shaky with King and his knee, Woodgate who’s injury prone, and Dawson who had been impressive last season, but injured and hasn’t started yet this season. Left back. Poor Gareth Bale. He was tipped to break into the starting XI, over Assou Ekotto. Now, he’s out injured too. The central midfield partnership of Palacios (a shrewd buy in January) and Huddlestone seems a lot stable than the previous seasons. This could change once Jenas is back. Aaron Lennon and Luka Modric own the right and left wings. It will take a massive effort from Bentley to displace Lennon now.

I’m pretty confident this team will continue the dream run. A top 6 finish looks likely. Just praying this isn’t one of the “flatter to decieve” quality that has been a distinct feature of the recent Spurs teams.

This summer was a bit different from the previous summers mainly because we weren’t linked with a lot of big money transfers. There weren’t any major exits. And most importantly, there wasn’t a lot of “top-4 this year” bull****.

This season could be the toughest ever, with Manchester City and their millions threatening to break the elusive top 4.  Don’t write off Aston Villa and Everton. They may have had a faltering start. But these two teams have it in them to finish anywhere between 4 and 7.

Keeping my feet on the ground and head out of the clouds.

COYS.

Saturday photo : Green!

Back to blogging after a long time.. Been busy with the usual boring routine.. work, work and more work!

The rains had hit Mumbai, but disappeared even before you could say `pitter patter`.

All the workplace frustration, the swine flu scare, recession … got to me and I decided to head out to the countryside.

Being outdoors refreshes your mind, and body, and also allows me to pursue my passions, photography and trekking.

Trekked to Rangana Gad, in the Konkan region, last weekend. The Independence day weekend.

This is a relatively unknown fort, located in the Konkan region.

Clicked plenty of photos on the way up, and also on the way down.

GREEN .. every where you see. Love the outdoors, love the colour.

Happy friendship day

My first post after a long break .. dedicated to those who make this world a beautiful place ..FRIENDS.

Happy friendship day to all my friends. May we celebrate many more.

Here’s a lovely text message I received today…

It’s in Marathi, but here goes.

Ek prawas maitricha

Jasa haluvar pawsacha saricha

Ti pawsachi sar algad yeun jaate

ani

Ek sundar maitri haluch baharun jaate

Here’s a cup of cappuchino and a brownie for my friends

Saturday photo : Rain

Raindrops

It is a rainy Saturday. It’s been raining since morning, pouring actually! Nothing much to do, except sit at home, by the window.. watch the world go by, have a nice cup of ginger tea, and listen to Pink Floyd on my iPod.

Well, that’s the ideal way to spend a rainy day.. sit by the window, watching the raindrops, tea, a good book, good music, and kanda bhajji!

I love it when it pours.. ummm, let me rephrase. I love it when it pours, except when I’m on my way to work. Nothing beautiful about getting drenched, and spending the next 8 hours sneezing.

It started to pour cats, dogs and elephants in the afternoon… sometime after 2:00pm. The raindrops made beautiful music on the tin roof, and painted a lovely picture on the window pane.

Clicked this shot of raindrops on the window with my mobile camera.

Off to the Iron Fort

The rains have finally arrived here in Mumbai, and I’m off to Lohagad (Iron fort) tomorrow. Yippeee!! I’m finally going for a trek. It has been one long lazy summer.

Sorry!

“Captain cool” has said sorry to the nation after the defending champions were dumped out if the World T20 championship.

Good! I’m so happy they’re out

A lot of newspaper space will be wasted discussing what went wrong. Was it the decision to chase? Or using Yuvraj as first change bowler? Or sending in Jadeja, when big hitters like Yuvraj and Pathan were available?? What about the bowling changes? Questions, questions, questions!!!

Most teams seem to have “sorted out” India by now.. Windies used the short ball effectively, and we saw England use the same tactics. I won’t be surprised if the boys in dark blue face some chin music from Steyn, Parnell and co.

The tournament began with a bang.. they thrashed the mighty Bangladesh, and Ireland (no offence) .. but had their shortcomings exposed against West Indies, and England. South Africa must be eagerly looking forward to their game against the Indians.

Signing off … one happy T20 hater!

Saturday photo : Faith

Prayer flags at Baralach La.

Prayer flags at Baralach La, on the way to Leh from Manali. This mountain pass is situated at a height of 16500 ft. Prayer flags are a very common sight in Ladakh.

He’s a Galactico .. Finally!!

Kaka has completed the switch from AC Milan to Real Madrid for a whopping 56 million pounds. Some guys are recession proof, aren’t they? This transfer fee breaks the previous record paid to get Zidane to Real. One Galactico record broken by another!

I always thought Kaka would stay at AC Milan for the rest of his life. Is it all about the money? Or did he leave to seek new challenges?

It was inevitable… the big money transfer. With Florentino Perez back at Real, a new Galactico era will soon start at the Bernabeau. Who is his next target? Is it Mr. CR7? Or was it just a smoke screen? One thing is for sure, Kaka will not be the only high profile transfer to Real.

This summer’s transfer window will definitely be crazier than the previous ones. With the kind of “crazy money” in football, it’s bound to get more competitive. The big question is where does this leave clubs like Everton? Manchester City dared to put in a 100 million pound bid for Kaka. That they failed is a different story. But the question remains .. Is too much of money killing football? And more importantly, is it killing the financially less fortunate clubs? The clubs which develop talent at their academies, only to see some moneybags lure them away?

Well, I guess it’s not a time to think about all that.. Hey, rejoice. Kaka is a Galactico now! The big ’suspense’ is over.