......*******........

I write this enjoying the mumbai weather; dark clouds, temperatures hovering around 27 degrees, quiteness in the air and a cool breeze; sitting near the window in the topmost floor in the BH. The current feeling is that of loneliness and the need to be loved. I only hope i am being a bit expressive about it. My friends would call me a sissy for expressing such feelings. But who cares, really, except me. I sit here and look at the people scuttering along towards some work or other, i only wonder what ut could be. The skyline is getting greyer and darker with each passing minute, the birds are calling their kind to, i suppose, tuck into the nest and huddle-up together to warm themselves with their body heat. A few street lights have been switched on lighting up the path to the institute; it reflects on the lake, which having lost a lot of water to the scorching heat is finally relishing the opportunity to re-fill and rejuvenate the life that it bears. A light mist lifts off the ground and the lake; the security guard checks the area; a few construction workers relieve themselves in the lake. Enter my roomie and before i ask him, he understands that with the lights off and with only the laptop shedding any light in the room, i am enjoying the situation and he agrees that it stay this way.

Out in the horizon i see the real mumbai, the silhoutte of the skyscrapers and the one hill which stands out and one that has intrigued me for quite a while. I am listening to a motley collection of songs, english, hindi; but they all share one common tone, a tone of love and loneliness, something that goes well with my current state of mind. Aaah!!! I wish i had someone to share this feeling. Glen Hansard's 'Falling Slowly' is giving me company now.

Academic Committee 2008

My first attempt at a collage... the Academic committee of 2008, SPJIMR
RK - centre pic
From top left to right:

AB,Mo!,Subho,Adi,Shipsy,Dey n Ravi,Dee,Senthil,Dillo

Football Mania - England - Part 1 - Europa leaguers

We now shift our focus to England, where we would analyse the season gone by and the possible signings a few clubs could do with.

The 2008-09 season had two outcomes, one: manchester united proved to be good in knowing how to win the league and two: liverpool are a tremendously improved side and could mount a serious challenge in the next campaign.

The season as such was dry with respect to the total number of goals scored suggesting that a good defence could be the key to survival in the English league. A lot of it has been contributed by the solid defences of ManU, Liverpool and Chelsea and of course the 14 games unbeaten and clean sheet record of van der saar and pepe reina's equally impressive run.

I am a fan of clubs like Everton, Aston Villa, Tottenham Spurs and Man City simply because i believe that they are the clubs in need of investment and the subsequent returns could be significantly higher. A common undercurrent across these clubs are that they are managed by excellent managers who read the english game very well and each one could easily manage a top club in europe.

Everton

Unlucky to have got their main players injured. Saha has showed that whether its Manchester or Everton, the injuries are always with him. A feared striker on his day, more or less spends time on the treatment room.

Buy: A creative mid-fielder/winger (joaquin?), a striker (trezeguet could go in there)

Sell: no one really

Aston Villa

Superb first half of the season soon frittered into a disappointng end; so much for having a thin squad and the injury to the captain martin laursen. But this side has got talent, agbonlahor, ashley young and james milner leading the light; the big and powerful heskey and carew have combined well this season to lead the line and cause the opposition defenders some problems.

The pain points though resides elsewhere, Defence. Its been problematic ever since mellberg left for Juventus and laursen had to retire due early due to a knee injury. They need two solid centre backs and a replacement for the now departed former captain and talisman gareth barry. Who is martin o'neill thinking about is a mystery; but they sure could do with a good creative mid-fielder who could build the game from the center of the park with the help of petrov, reo-coker and sidwell helping along.

Buy: A creative mid-fielder and two centre backs
Sell: no one unless a big big offer comes along

Prediction for next season: a trophy if martin is given the license to spend by lerner.

Manchester City

This club could go places if the money from the Abu-Dhabi group is well spent by mark hughes. That said one can never predict who they are after for the money is available in plenty; but more so who is ready to come to manchester city. For this its imperative that hughes build a team around the likes of micah richards, richard dunne, stephen ireland, elano, petrov and robinho; the list is exhaustive but its important hughes knows his starting and best XI.

Some gyan for this club: Build a team first then buy the players, look at the defence and mid-field; sell players who are there for the money before its too late.

Football Mania - Spain

The current football season has ended; but that has not stopped the rumour mills and papers from publishing stories about transfers and related news to sell copies. The past few days even i have been constantly checking out the websites for news relating to expected major transfers viz. Kaka to Real Madrid and the future of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery. The aim of this blog is to put down my ideas of transfers that are essential for the big clubs in Spain,Italy,England and Germany. Not that i am an expert on all this, but nevertheless its fun to pen down your thoughts.

Real Madrid

I would like to start off with Real Madrid, making all the noise in the transfer market in the past month or so thanks to the election of its president Mr.Perez.

The last season for Real Madrid was a poor one. Lack of proper and fit defenders, injuries to sneijder and diarra and a flagging front line. Do not discount their performance that soon though, they did not have a fit Nistelrooy in attack leaving it to a ageing Raul and newbie Higuain.

What they need:

1. A solid defender in the mould of a Stam or Vidic to replace Cannavaro

2. A creative midfielder to be the focus when they attack; ideally replace Van der waart with Kaka

The idea is to build on their existing team not re-engineer them altogether.

Formation for the forthcoming season

Back 5: Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, (A good solid defender), Drenthe

Mid: M.Diarra/L.Diarra, Sneijder, Kaka, Robben

Forward: Raul (Higuain) and Nistelrooy (Huntelaar)

They should cash in on: Saviola, Metzelder and other fringe players

Barcelona

The reigning european champions, this team plays football as an art form. When they pass around it feels like a samurai neatly slicing through with his Katana. Blessed in attack with Messi, Henry and Eto'o, gifted in the mid-field with xavi, iniesta, toure they are rightly sitting on top of the european perch.

Where are they weak? - Defence

But then tell their coach Pep Guardiola about it and be sure to be greeted with a warm smile and a polite reply advocating the philosophy of FC Barcelona; "play to attack and win, if your opponent scores goals, score more than him to win" - simple thoughts but one that is ingrained in every player emerging from La Masia to the new entrants.

Where do they lack is in a big old type of forward who can punish opposition defenders for not being tough, someone like a shearer/viduka etc. Currently they play eto'o and henry as recognized forwards, though they do have Gudjohnsen in their squad, he is heavily under-utilized and of course hasn't had the dizzying success of his other striker comrades. Eto'o is another person who i personally feel does not add a new dimension to their attack. He is too similar to Henry and a little lesser in terms of ability to head and be physically strong under pressure. I would recommend a sale of gudjohnsen and eto'o and bring in a adebayor or a amuari or a zlatan. That would be perfect.

To the midfield, a little bit of a physical presence would do them great good incase xavi or iniesta fail to impose themselves; someone with a great tackling ability and break-up the play of the opposition. But presently Toure is doing a great job.

I have always had my doubts in Marquez in defence, an elegant defender, he is a bit susceptible to pacey and physically strong strikers. I would suggest a big defender at the heart of Barca and that would be it.

Sell: Hleb,Eto'o and Gudjohnsen

Buy: Ibrahimovic/Trezeguet, A defender

There is ruumour that they would go in for Ribery, i would only like to wonder if he would play defense!!