Movies Seen in the Last Two Days

(500) Days Of Summer

Genre:Romance

Rating: 4.5/5

Sixteen Candles

Genre:Drama/Romance

Rating:3/5

Outbreak

Genre:Sci-fi/Thriller

Rating:2.5/5

Waitress

Genre:Drama/Comedy

Rating:2.5/5

The Big Chill

Genre:Drama

Rating:2.5/5

Changeling

Genre:Drama/Crime

Rating:3.5/5

Dogma

Genre:Drama/Comedy

Rating:3/5

The World's Fastest Indian

Genre:Drama/Sports

Rating:5/5

Office Space

Genre:Comedy/Drama

Rating:3/5

On other news, sitting up all night to see the movies and then watching 3 wickets(sorry..make it 4)(sorry for this one too..make it 5) go down for India for nothing in the Morning is not FAIR!!

Madness in Bilbao

It was a chilly raining day. While coming back from office, I noticed a huge hoard of people waiting in front of Hotel Carlton to see and welcome the local football team 'Athletic Club De Bilbao'. It was a big night for them. They were slated to play Spanish Giant FC Barcelona later tonight. It was the semifinal. From what I had heard, Athletic Club de Bilbao was a talented team, but were way below the FC Barcelona in the Club Rankings in Spain. Anticipation was in the air.

We felt the excitement creeping in and we went to check the out the stadium about 2-3 kms away. It was a magnificent sight. No luck with the tickets though as it was completely sold out.

We returned to our room. Night came. Chilly and raining.

Everything broke loose at 11 PM. People came shouting and panting in the streets repeating a Spanish slogan which I did not understand. A bottle of beer in one hand and a flag of the club in the other. FC Barcelona had been conquered 3-0.

The sleepy town from outside had turned own its head. This was an extraordinary sight of small town people supporting their club and rejoicing in their victory. Cold weather did not deter few crazy drunken people in taking a dip in the cold fountain water. All vehicles, small or big was stopped and forced to horn 3 times in a symbol of - 'yes, we are also with you' sign.

How could I be out of action? In spite of not knowing the name of single player on the club, I was still happy to be part of a huge crowd whose immense home support had inspired this incredible win.

It felt good(to litter the otherwise clean streets without feeling guilty :P). Dancing with few beauties without fear of getting beaten by their boyfriends. And I sneaked in a few of my own slogans - 'Bharat maata ki jai' without any fear of getting understood.

Celebrations continued till morning. On that night, everybody was for everybody. No skin had colour. It was just happiness.

Cold steel - Book Review

Cold Steel - By Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey

I went to one of my Friend's Place in Delhi couple of weeks back and saw a small book kept in his book stand. I picked it. First Line on the cover said-

'A rare, insider's account....reads like a thriller'.

Reads like a thriller?? You see the face of Lakshmi Mittal on the cover and then you get an idea of the book genre. The book essentially covers the 'the takeover of the century'. The marriage of Lakshmi Mittal and Arcelor steel. It is an absolute thrill ride from start to end. Face to face between two giants of Steel world. Lakshmi Mittal and Guy Dolle.(I admit I was not acquanted with this name before). Covering a deal (called 'hostile' by many) as massive as the one in question requires tremendous research and patience. And it reflects in the book. 300 pages may not be enough to cover a takeover which ran for almost 6 months and involved 7 governments in 4 continents. But it has enough steam in its pages to admire the book for its freshness.

It has characters which can easily be mistaken to be present in a mob movie. Russians, French, Americans, Brazilians, Italians, Spanish,Germans, Iranians - they are all there in supporting casts. And in the Boxing Ring itself we have two self made men - Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian and Guy Dolle, a Luxembourger.

The story is simple. Lakshmi wants to conquer Arcelor. Execution, far from being simple. Why? Because Arcelor believes that it is not for sale. This simple story takes numerous twist and turns before culmination which we already know. The book covers the mood of the deal perfectly and shows the importance of the deal for both sides successfully - for Lakshmi to win the battle and for Guy to dodge the punch. The motivation and reasons of every action taken by every people involved has been dealt with. Want to talk about human sensitivities? Politics, Racism, Patriotism, Devotion, Loyalty, Betrayal, Heartbreak, Elation, Struggle, Compromise, Truth, Lies, Celebration, Disappointment - all due to one 'hostile bid by Lakshmi Mittal'.

The Book is an achievement. Reading it was a pleasure as well as informative. Highly Recommended!!

P.S - This book helped me come out of the coma in which I was in after reading 'The White Tiger'. Easily the worst book I have ever read. And I do not even remember the second worst book now. It was pathetic to see an Indian write such an obnoxious story about another Indian. I dont want to give coverage to the book by reviewing it and praising it for its limpid style or to label it dumb for the same reason. After all, it won the 'The Booker'. Reading it was an atrocity. Huge disappointment!!

Danny Boyle should be praised for its uplifting story..

My next Pick - 'The Count of Monte Cristo'

Leg Stump

I know, getting a middle stump of a batsman is the most pleasing sight for a fast bowler, but believe me, getting a leg stump gives kinda same feeling. Though, I am no Mcgrath, but even he would have been as happy as I was when I set the leg stump rolling of a highly rated batsman at a crucial juncture of the game.

This was a few days ago when a lot of mind games were being played within the two rival captains. A few from opposite team asked me too to take part in the verbal volleys and I just told him, 'main bolta nahi hun. Karta hun'. This just had a reaction of 'Wooooo!!!' from others. I said no more.We were challenged to play and beat a team which was undoubtedly more powerful and more equipped man by man. They had better bowlers, better batsman and better fielders. But they had something else which unbalanced everything. OVERCONFIDENCE.

Our captain (team lead in office) was not shy of accepting the challenge and he knew that to beat them he has to count on the performance of a couple of key players(including yours truly).So, the day was set. In the evening we all reached the ground. It was a working day so we decided to play an 8 over game. We won the toss and batted first. The Captain(Amit) and another person (Dusiant) opened. Now, my captain is sort of gafter. Likes to take his time to settle and keep one end secure. So the attacking shots were to be played from the other end. But Dusiant was not in his usual free flowing cricket and while he did hit one boundary, it was apparant that he was not comfortable against the variations in pace. Amit tried to up the tempo and was well caught behind the wicket in the 2nd over. This brought me on to the crease and I soon came into the groove. After a couple of singles, I creamed a low full toss to the cover boundary and me and Dusiant added some good runs for around 4 overs before Dusiant got out while trying to loft. Now it was mine and Ketan's turn to maintain the tempo and we added some quick runs by doing a lot of running and in between I also got 2 more boundaries. I was out on the last ball of the innings while Ketan remained notout. We had managed to score 65 runs in the 8 overs. The total was by no means a very safe total but we knew that if we bowl well upfront in the first few overs, we had a realistic chance.

2nd Innings

Their one of the most explosive batsman Tanay and another guy Surendra opened and we knew that we had to get Tanay out soon. Me and Ketan did not bowl first up as we were both tired by doing all the running. We had to do 4 overs between us and Amit had two overs. We decided to give Vinay and Vignesh and over with Amit in between the two and then me and Ketan will bowl. We got an extremely lucky break in the first over itself of Vinay when Tanay got run out due to some good throw from the deep. The first over yielded 5 runs. Amit and Vignesh bolwed the 2nd and 3rd overs which did not gave two many runs and we got one of their batsman Gopal also out. Their Captain Vikas came and was cleaned superbly in the 4th over by Ketan. We were on top but we knew the danger man was still waiting to come. Rajesh and Surinder were on the crease when I started the 5th Over. I bowled 2 dot balls to Surinder and he took a single on the 3rd. That brought Rajesh on the strike and tried unsuccessfully to hit me on the 4th delivery. The 5th delivery was a magic. The ball was pitched full on the leg stump and as Rajesh tried to hit it hard on on side, ball went round his legs and set the leg stump flying. Rajesh could not believe it. But it happened. My mates erupted in joy as the next batsman took guard. Sameer is one guy who can turn the match on its own in just few balls. Match was not over yet. He took single of the next last ball to take the strike. Amit and Ketan bowled the 6th and 7th over. 7th Over threatned to turn the table a bit when Sameer hit 14 runs of the over. But that still left 24 runs to hit in the final over which I was to bowl. I gave them little chance by conceding just 6 runs and we won the game.

While they were amazed at their loss, we knew how we did it. By letting our deeds do the talking!

kya Lyrics hai...

" Ye raat thodi to dhalne do,
dheere dheere isko pighalne do
Aage hain do raah, maana magar
thodi dur to saath chalne do"

--from the song ' Jao Na' (Whats your Rashee?)