Sign of things to come?? hopefully :

Liverpool got one over chelski already, and the season hasnt started yet...
A semi hot tempered game i felt.. anyways nice to see liverpool win, this would really wake up chelsea, they wouldnt have liked it at all..
Paulo ferriera looked comical at left back, all signs and indications are chelsea would sign another left back, ashley cole that is...

Cant wait for the season to start! go gunners go!

and! happy indepedence day to all indians! people of Congo too?? and north korea!

How things changed!

Last week i was finally able to decide! i shouldnt quit... i should stick on, and try and prepare reasonably well for CAT... so no more interviews and tests and stuff, for jobs that is...

Joined coaching too, at career forum.. means i stay busy 7 days a week, quite hectic, but have to take it for 3 or 4 months, no choice... that too, the first two weeks, classes are for some 12 or 14 hours a weekend, that is tiring alright, but as i said, i have no choice.. brain degradation with the kind of work i had been up to has forced me to do this!

Forza italia

Germany's luck runs out! atlast... the team with quality throughout the 11 wins it! How could people have started comparing germany to italy, and expected them to win easily... anyway italy proved their critics wrong, and got through with another determined performance... They were lucky against australians, but now they are making their luck count...

Spain do what they do best..

So much so for the fortunes turning of the underachieving spaniards... they again raised hope and then collapsed...so typical of them... and cheers to france, for having played through a bad patch and come up with a very important win(3-1)... they deserved to win yesterday, although the winning goal came via a semi dive from henry... but then spain never tested barthez much either, to say that they deserved to win...

Ghana gave brazil a real scare, all of the first half, they should scored, and one or 2 goals at that... 3-0 doesnt reflect the game at all... the quality of shooting and final ball was the difference between the sides, and of course the offside goal right on half time, which knocked the wind out of the fighting ghanians, who were doing pretty well till that time...

Italian job! indeed!

What luck they have... played in their half for almost the whole of the second period! And injustice happens to the fighting spirit displayed by the australians, who i would say were inferior to the italians in skill and ability, but were far ahead of them in their zeal to win and willingness to work for that... Kudos to the socceroos, they have gone out, but not in shame... Grosso fell over, not exactly a dive, but he wasn't tripped either... fell too easily, and the combination of italian gamesmanship and spanish refereeing got the italians a penalty, when all of 5 seconds where left in the added time for the second half... cruel luck for the aussies..

The most boring of the prequarter finals followed the italy australia match.. Ukraine and switzerland played out a cagey affair, although it looked like switzerland were more adventurous and wanted to win it early... again, they also didnt lose badly, a penalty shootout is always a throw of the dice, and their inexperience and young age showed in the shootout...

Weekend in the woods...

Long since i posted something, but this is about the right time to do that... had an amazing trip this weekend, from a planned one, it turned to totally unplanned, and it turned out to be as good as it can get...

We (me, mahesh, vivek and shyam) decided to go to kemmanagundi, supposedly the best kept secret of karnataka, a beautiful little hill station, in chickmaglur district. Distance from mysore was about 230 kilometers. So we thought we could drive down. Start early on saturday morning, reach by afternoon stay there, and come back on sunday afternoon. In between we were supposed to make short trips to some nearby waterfalls. That was what it was... it turned out to be totally different from it...

We did start on saturday morning, but not as early as we thought we could.. had to travel on hunsur road, and were cursing the roughness and unevenness of the road. We had to take a deviation to hassan from it, and as soon as we got on to that road, we had a road surface as good as the best road surface we could find anywhere in India. We were glad and were chasing the road at 100 for a while... then we witnessed the true colors of what can be karnataka. What was lying in waiting for us was the opposite of the best surface. There wasn't even a surface, there was no tar on the road, it was like one of those village roads, which bullock carts would be using. That stretch was there for about 2 kilometers. And then we had the same kind of super surface once again... We just hoped that it doesnt get back to the worst surface again, and luckily for us it didnt happen again... atleast not for long. Only inside some town and city limits was the road bad, until chickmaglur...

To say the truth, the road got better and better as we went further, maybe because we were reaching the parts of the road where the work is complete... we could see that there were proper signs on the road, there was a line in the middle, and on the sides, there were reflectors along the central white line, the curves had dividers, almost as good as anywhere else in the world 9(for a 2 lane road that is)... One more good thing was there wasn't any traffic at all, the road just kept winding through the hills of karnataka and you could see kilometers ahead on the straight stretches. Every one or two kilometers one bullock cart or one KSRTC bus was all that we could see on the road. As we moved on, the road seemed to get better, because the sides of the road got greener and greener, with the generous amount of rain that it had been recieving for the past few weeks. The scenery reminded us of travelling in europe, with hills and mountains in the distance, and vast grass covered land and cultivated fields that formed regular patterns as far as your eyes could see... "marvellous" is all we could say. We were being treated to a feast for our eyes, and on top of that, the road was also as good as it can get. It was much more than what we had bargained for, too good to believe i would say.

We reached our destination at around 130. Checked into a hotel and then had sumptous lunch... We had already altered our plan slightly, and decided to go for a safari at bhadra tiger reserve (32 kilometers from chickmaglur). That was planned for sunday morning. We would initially go to kemmangundi, and then come back to the hotel, watch the weekend world cup action, sleep off and get up early and drive to the tiger reserve. That was the plan, but the security guard at the hotel, who was very knowledgeable about the distances and places suggested that we should take the safari in the evening, instead of morning. That would reduce the travel time for us. We found that logical and set out for the tiger reserve at 3 PM. It was supposed to be an hours drive. We thought we could make it in about 50 minutes so that we will be in time for the 4PM safari, if we drive a little fast. The road was pretty decent, good surface, and width enough for 2 vehicles to go past. But, the farther we went away, then narrower the road became, and more the pootholes on it... Sometime later the road totally disappeared, and we were constantly on 1st and second gears. Finally after 1 hour of driving, as the security guard told us earlier, we did manage to reach there. A big dissapointment awaited us at the place, as there was no safari that day, as the safari jeep had been taken for emergency repairs.

We then tried to strike a deal, thought we could somehow get to stay there, inside the forest, in one of the cottages or the dormitory. According to the people there, it was running full for the day, and the guest haven't turned up yet. We pleaded and maskafied them for a while, they RADIOED the head office and kept on asking, and ultimately got permission to give us the instructors room for the night. It was a 2 bedroom place and the four of us were more than willing to adjust for the fun and thrill of the place. We had to arrange for dinner, and the person over there said there is a family which cooks for the guest. We wanted non veg food, and he had a hen which he would kill and cook for us. But it was 3.75 kilos or more, and for the three of us it was just too much. So we decided to go to the nearby village and buy chicken, as well as some basic things for the night stay like candles, match box, mosquito coil etc. Shyam and vivek went to get it, and the forest guard accompanied them. The way to the village was more terrible than the route we had travelled so far, and the guard made that more miserable by telling them how a wild elephant had picked up someone and crushed him to death, and even showed them the spot where it all happened. By the time they were back, it was about 530. The forest guard suggested we should visit the inspection bungalow. It was about 3 kilometers uphill. We wanted to walk, but he said the car would go up there. Little did we know what was up next...

It was just a steep uphill drive, and the road was non present, and there were stones in the middle of the dirt track that the forest guard called road. With all 5 of us sitting in the car, the body started hitting the stones, and we could hear metal sound intermittently. Shyam was driving, and i was getting shocks everytime i hear one stone hit...We continued going up, and the slippery road was making the car skid at times, but we managed to crawl up to the inspection bungalow. What awaited us there was worth the struggle up the road. It was on a hill top and the view from there was scintillating. The mist covered blue hills was as refreshing a sight as you can ever see... We got lost in the beauty of the place and admired it for about half an hour..Then we had to go back, we did not want to.. but according to the guard it was booked for the night by some forest officer...We drove back, and the sounds from the stones hitting the car were getting greater and greater, owing to the greater down hill speed. At some place when trying to avoid a big stone, the fron tyre got into a small ditch, and the three of us at the back had to get down from the car, and put stones in the ditch and make it go back on the road, or whatever was supposed to be the road. Three of us decided to walk back and the two others went in the car, which it seems was smooth after the car lost weight. We went back to the place, moved to the room and were chit chatting there when dinner was served. We had the sumptous dinner, had a little bit of chat and slept off peacefully. It was long since we were in a place where there was no electricity, no mobile network, no cable tv, none of the pleasures of life. But the relative quietness of the jungle, and the slightly cool environment was more than enough to make us all sleep off... I got up at around 530 AM, and went and disturbed the forest guard for a morning safari. The jeep had still not come back, so we decided to take a private jeep, for which we had to go back to the village from where we had got the chicken and other essentials the previous night.

We drove to that place, and realised why it took 1 hour for shyam and vivek the day before. I had to continually shift between first and second gears for all of the 6 kilometers or so. We left our car at the village and took the jeep back to the safari. The safari drive was fast and furious, and topsy turvy! the jeep was going horizontally at many places due to the slippery conditions, but the driver somehow managed to keep it vertical and not fall. We must have spotted a few hundred deers, some bison, and some wild pigs etc during the safari, tigers were deep in the forest, and jeep wouldnt go because of the extreme wet conditions. We visited the biggest teak tree of karnataka, which was deep in the forest (72 meters tall and 5.5 metres round), and another inspection bungalow, deep in the jungles, which surprisingly was made in 1910. We came back to the village, had breakfast from a small shop there, which to the pleasant surprise of me and shyam, was run by a mallu! Where on earth will you not find our "Swantham naatukar"...

We finished the payments at the resort, and made the decision to come back in pleasant weather... Drove back to chcikmaglur, stopped at every place which looked beautiful or photogenic. We got back to the hotel (the one where we had got a room the previous afternoon), and managed to checkout 5 minutes before 24 hours got over. The next destination was baba budanagiri. It was supposed to be 35 kilometers from chickmaglur, and we set out on the route. Once the ghat section started, we saw a board which said ghat roads damaged by heavy rains and drive very carefully. We were in no more mood for adventure, especially with the car, and so decided to go back.

The road back was when we could stop and go a lot, because we were in no big hurry.. Mahesh was supposed to get down at hassan and catch a bus to banagalore, which he forgot( he had dozed off), and we too forgot. We again stopped at every place that looked beautiful... Took snaps, enjoyed the moment and had a super drive back. We enjoyed the road back even more, and i dont know what was the difference, maybe the fact that we didnt have to go really fast...

Of course, at hassan, there was this lady on the scooter, or was it some other location?? dont remember clearly... anyway mahesh went fida over her.. she honked at us from the side when we had nowhere to go... then we flashed our headlights when we went past her later... all of us looked out of the window and gave her a big wave when we crossed her! she was smiling like she is really really happy :) Vivek bid her bye bye when she crossed the road, and she waved back.. mahesh had worn my cap just at the right time.. tricks to impress!

We reached mysore at 745, dropped mahesh at the bus station. Dropped shyam off at his place and me and vivek reached home at 8. I some how sat through the england match till about 80 minutes and then slept off. Couldnt wake up later and watch the netherlands portugal match, but luckily, there was a replay in the morning, which i could watch. The war torn car, i gave it off for service and routine checkup today morning... Am totally surprised to find there isnt any problem, not with the alignment, the suspension or the tyres, no fault at all! hats off to maruti suzuki swift! It gave me an amazing mileage of 16.5 kilometers to the liter over the last 24 hours. That included some 20 kilometers of ghat roads, 20 kilometers of city roads, 10 kilometer of no roads, and 175 of good highway...

Dont feel like working, or being in the world of pleasures and convenience.. would be great if we could live in the forest and do nothing for a week ;).

Check out the pics at

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vineethvazhayil/album?.dir=7e59

improving germans and stuttering england

Last night was the first set of last round matches... means two matches at the same time... good thing was all matches were inconclusive in a way that the qualifiers were almost decided.

England disappointed all again... (2-2)... i actually felt sweden had the better chances to win the game, although ultimately it needed a 90th minute goal from larsson for sweden to get a draw, but earlier in the match sweden had a lot of oppurtunities, especially from corners and freekicks, the england defence looked shaky... swedes hit the bar twice, reminds me of last world cup where any team that hits the bar had lost their match... sweden didn't though... trinidad and tobagos super run in the tournament (i say super because they fared much better than expected), came to an end yesterday with a defeat at the hands of paraguay (2-0), though it was not as one sided as the score would suggest...

Germany played the best football they have played in the tournament, against ecuadorians, created a hatful of chances and scored 3, encouraging for the hosts.. looks like they are improving and the home support is egging them on... good luck sweden! poland got 3 points... a hard fought win over the costaricans...

Argentina and holland will not field full strength sides, anyway one of them would get portugal and other is likely to get mexico in the next round... looks like they are ok with any team, so it wouldnt be a match of much purpose... the serbs want to win, their bonuses (500000 euros) are dependant on getting points at the world cup... if they do, then it will be injustice to Ivory coast, they should get atleast one win....

Angola and mexico are fighting for a place in the second round, with mexic o needing just a draw and angola needing to win and hoping mexico lose to portugal, which will bring it all down to goal difference.. atleast those matches would be a bit more interesting...

cesc shines!

Spain did all but score till the time raul and cesc came on yesterday and won them the match 3-1... raul scored and showed that he still is worth his place in the squad...
tunisia did well to repel the spanish attack, but couldnt live up with the substitutes...

Ukraine bounced back to hammer the hapless saudis 4-0... nothing interesting in the match, no moments of magic, nothing.. apart from the rebrov goal...

Switzerland won their match, to setup their group very nicely, all three still have a chance to qualify... france have to win by a big margin to get through, irrespective of the other result...

btw, the weather is a little bit cloudy and depressing today.. quite a contrast from yesterday...

the weekend action !

Guess i need to update scores from 3 days...

argentina thrashed the serbs (6-0), to start the friday action.. superb attacking soccer throughout the match.. makes the favourites for the winners trophy.. netherlands ivory coast game was the best game of the world cup... ivory coast did deserve a win in that, i feel.. but the oranje stuttered through (2-1).. angola got a well deserved point out (0-0)of mexico..mexicans, you have to score to win (or you have to be england!)...


portugal looked good enough for the win over iran, and the winners position in their group (now argentina or netherlands lay in waiting for them...) ghana then pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far by getting a well deserved 2-0 win over the czech republic, petr cech was the man of the match probably, even though his team lost, he must have made some 10 world class saves! italy - usa was a tempestous affair (1-1), 3 red cards, and hats off to USA to have survived the italians for one whole half with 9 men... that group is really interesting now... all can get through...

and yesterday croats spilled their chances against japan (0-0).. now its all to play for in the last match against the aussies for the croats... the aussies put up a super show against the samba boys, but still lost... i feel they deserved a point out of that match...(2-0)... and last of all, france korea (1-1), they have improved from last world cup when they were losing all matches, now they are drawing everything.. now things rest more on other teams than on france...

it was by the way, the weekend.. one day i had been to bangalore, met up with some friends... sunday i was back in mysore... went to a supposed tourist spot, balmuri, which was a dissapointment...
PS: I started using the kitchen at my house!

Some make it through...

england after their unimpressive and late win against trinidad and tobago (2-0), and ecuador with the 3-0 thumping of costa rica get through to the second round...

sweden have to just get a point from their last match to make sure they go through.. ljungbergs late goal was enough... now if T&T win their last match and sweden lose to england by 3 goals or more, T&T go through!

big matches for argentina and holland today... win, and they are through, draw and it becomes a last day scrap for places... Mexico can also win and seal their place....

One more contender!

Spain... super performance.. put sheva's men to shame.. ran them over, after the czechs, another super performance... germans look to be through almost... and the arab derby... saudis deserved to win...

brazil didnt look as good as they can be. Korea are the only asian team to start with a win. france and switzerland made me sleep!

england can decide their qualification today. All they need is to win today, agains T & T. Maybe they would,but a better performance is what fans demand, rather than a struggled victory.

Ecuador can also progress if they win... Sweden better get winning if they wanna go thru to the next round...

the magnificient czechs!

Yesterday, the czechs played well... really well at that.. the best performance from any team so far... USA were rolled over, clinical display by the europeans... had lesser possession, but made good use of it.

Aussies kept everything to the end... they were dominant during the whole match and should have won it fair and square much earlier...cheers to gus hiddink for having turned the fortunes of another team around, master coach he is!

Italy did well enough to win... i think they also were playing below par, and ghana were wasteful in front of goal, so italy got the result they needed. a winning start to the campaign, and 3 points in the bag.

today, croatia, would be a stern test for brazil. But i feel brazil have enough in them to beat the croats. Korea looks like they would edge it against the togolese. And france are slight favourites against their neighbours, the swiss..

PS : Today also happens to be my birthday.

So far...

In a week of hectic sporting action, the biggest of 'em all, the World cup started... saw some favourites in action already...

england, well, i would say they didnt do too well... argentina, they were scared to death by ivory coast... germany, did well to win... sweden were poor.. portugal too struggled. netherlands had a tough match, and did well to get 3 points out of that..

i feel the favourites have just been a little careful, in their first matches, to start well... they will improve in the subsequent matches...

liked the argentina ivory coast match... the serbs and oranje also produced a good game...wished iran could get a draw in their match, but they seemed lost in the second half... fitness wasnt so good of many iranian players...

tonight.. australia and japan, feels like that would be a draw... the czechs would win. and i want the italians to win, but am not sure if they would.. maybe a 1-0...

World cup starts today... too bad i miss the opening game... but it doesnt matter that much... afterall who wants to see a struggling germany against
costa rica?? or poland against ecuador!

alright, should've watched those just for the sake of it... anyway from saturday onwards watch i shall! tommorow, argentina ivory coast... hope argentina shapes up well for that.. and another favourite england plays its first match...

today matches - germany to win, poland ecuador a draw...

paavam djibril cisse!

Poor ol djibril cisse broke his leg again... and he misses the world cup due to that...and world cup wil witness one of the very best in the world in action if england make it through to the second round... rooney is fit and available to play... spain seal a last gasp win against croatia, which is a good sign for them... will they do better this time? time would tell...

one more day to go for the world cup, and a weekend full of sporting action. The world cup, formula 1, NBA finals and lastly india's second test match against the windies...

The first post

Bad time to start posting i guess... after a day of boring work, am as bored as anyone can get... and a party tonight, have to do the driver job...pickup and drop people (apart from eating and drinking - the non boring part of the deal...)...


Wish it could have been at 6PM! this wait till 8 is killing me... am so bored today....