I can wager my favorite no 8 jersey that I am going to hear a lot of psyco-blabble when I’m up online next. A lot of critics are going to criticize Chelsea’s game, their ‘boring’ display, (some like to call it anti-football, as we saw after the Barcelona game… seriously!), and that it was sheer luck. Well maybe, yes the play was defensive, yes a lot was ridden on luck, and yes, we may not have been as good as the opposition, but let me just remind you, that we played without both our first choice centre-backs, without our first choice right-back, without our counterattacking king, and on top of that, both our center-backs lacked match fitness! (We even saw Cahill limp with that hamstring)

As a Chelsea fan, I will admit hands down that Bayern were the better side- for majority of the game. The pace and trickery of Robben and Ribery over the wings, and the backbone display by Shweinstiger- Class.  But as fate would have it, it was Chelsea’s night to lift the most prestigious trophy football offers.  Well I’d not entitle the win to fate completely, Bayern were at fault to a major extent. They dominated okay, but missed their chances as they came, their finishing was piss poor. And surprisingly on the flanks, Robben and Ribery seemed to be lost in a battle to prove some hitherto unknown supremacy!

Well, let’s not get into all the tactical analysis at the moment and concentrate on the emotion shall we? (haha). The feeling of Terry and Lamps lifting the trophy that eluded them for so long was well, seamless. The one trophy that evaded the Bridge has finally come home! That hug from Roman Abramovich for Roberto di Matteo. “I won it!” the Italian screamed. Yes he has, and the look in his eyes defined everything the club had gone through, the pain, the suffering, and finally the joy! Finally RDM delivered what we have fought for years. Fragments of the glory still continue to wave before my eyes. And I probably ain’t getting any sleep tonight! (This article is going to sound quite fragmented I bet.. well its just the rush of emotions and the countless images running riot in my head!)

So now that the season is over, (on a high, if I may mention), it’s time for the Chelsea staff to sit down and do some thinking. Over the years, we’ve gone through manager changes, player changes, and a lot more! But the backbone of the club, i.e. the old guard has held its own and kept walking. It will be a tough task to replace these players, and well, will have to be done extremely slowly and strategically. We have brilliance coming our of the youth system, speak of piazon, feruz etc. but let us not make the same mistake as Arsenal did last year and rush them into the team. Revamping the team does not happen overnight. It takes time, and effort. AVB couldn’t understand that, and paid the price, (rightly so I feel). Changing the way a team plays overnight, especially since they’d been playing that way for years, is foolishness. Replacing players like Terry and Lampard, without whom we look shaky most of the time, will take at least a year or two of planned execution.

One thing being a Chelsea fan guarantees u is the roller coaster ride that NO other club offers you. There we were mid-April, heading towards the worst season Chelsea has ever seen, and here we are, just weeks later, holding the most prestigious trophy in Europe! And the zenith of being a Chelsea fan, was the guard of honor that the players gave to the whole Bayern team… it is moments like these, that separate us from the rest…Haters will hate, critics will criticize, but a simple message to all my fellow blues- Carefreee! Wherever u may be!

Signing off for now- True Bluee

Marinade

Marinated Tandoori Chicken

1 teaspoon- Turmeric powder

1 tablespoon- Ginger-garlic paste

2 teaspoons (or more)- Paprika(red chili powder)

1 teaspoon- Crushed kasoori methi

1 teaspoon- Garam masala

2 tablespoons- Raw papaya paste

1 tablespoon- Lime Juice

1 cup- yoghurt/ thick curd

Salt- To taste

1. In a medium bowl add all the marinade ingredients and whisk to combine. Add the chicken and mix well to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for a minimum 4 hours.(overnight or 8 hours is generally preferred)

2.Set the oven to grill and preheat on 220 Celsius for 5-10 mins. Remove the chicken from the marinade onto a large greased baking tray(or a grill tray if you have one) and cook under the grill for 5-10 minutes(turn after every 3 minutes), or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has created a light crust on both sides. Remove the chicken from the grill and let it stand for 3 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the salad: In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, lettuce and onion with the dressing and oil and toss well to coat. Mix in the coriander and season the salad to taste with salt and pepper.

Anonymous comprises of many people including hackers, technicians, social activists etc… It is hard to gauge the membership of this group because there is no formal way to become a member. It is like a flock of birds flying in one direction, some birds may leave and others may join. The group has no leader or any ‘main guy’; it is completely sustained by the independent desires of people who join forces under the pseudonym.

Anonymous has undertaken a number of attacks against websites as an act of retaliation against them or because of their perceived harm to the society. Victims of such attacks include the church of scientology, bollywood industry, bank of America, the Interpol, the police and almost every country’s government… the list goes on and on. The group has been called ‘internet hate machines’ and ‘domestic terrorists’ by the fox news. When Visa and MasterCard under pressure from the US government, decided to withdraw its services from the Wikileaks website, which left the website without any means of acquiring donations, on which it is run, Anonymous, in retaliation brought down the websites of both visa and MasterCard.

There are many who have criticized the Anonymous, I do so too. Politicians and heads of multinational corporations have called them a bunch of criminals, cyber terrorists, twisted souls and so on… The thing is… the Anonymous is a bunch of hackers and activists. It does attack and bring down websites, but the people who try to condemn its personality (cyber terrorists etc…) don’t understand the concept of how Anonymous works. They criticize it, as if it is run by a group of conspirators. Like it has a static hierarchy… It doesn’t…

The Anonymous is a collective. An example of one of maybe the first global super conscious movement. The famous guy Fawkes mask which has come to become the identity of the Anonymous rests on the face of a global desire to change our society. To take away the absolute powers that our leaders have assumed over our lives. The group is shown to be a reckless entity with random targets, but in reality, their targets are ever shifting, from the dictators of the Arab spring, to the FBI itself, this group does not have any reservations. There is no institution too large or too powerful to prevent itself from coming under the glare. One of the ideologies that I find common in almost every ‘project’ that they undertake is justice and freedom for the common man.

‘Domestic terrorists’? They are not people who walk around with hood over their faces. These are everyday, common people. Your brothers and sisters, friends, family, neighbors. These are the people who want to see the society get better. They come together and they can do things that even governments have failed to do. These people are, for upholding the absolute freedom of the Internet while the Indian government forms control-freak laws without wanting to consult the internet population on whether they want such laws or not. I call it the old people who don’t know the difference between operating systems, syndrome. The politicians cannot get into their heads, that there is something that they cannot control via threats or money and so they resort to demonising, that something.

During the last year’s Egyptian revolution Anonymous had shut down websites of the government and the dictator Housni Mubarak. The website remained shut until he stepped down. Several hundred ‘members’ took part in the Occupy Wall Street Movement all across the Globe wearing the guy Fawkes mask, protesting against corporate greed. In 2010 several bollywood companies hired Airplex Software to launch a denial of service attack on websites which were not shut after they had issued notices to them. Internet activists came together to form operation payback, to take down the website of airplex software but just hours before the attack. Another individual had taken down the website on their own! So they moved to taking down other companies which blocked people from accessing pirated content. The Anonymous, are also known to have targeted and shut down websites which hosted child pornography.

Just yesterday, May 18 2012, many websites of Indian political parties were taken down by Anonymous in retaliation to an Indian anti-piracy firm which blocked popular websites like piratebay and daily motion. It is highly critical of any curbs on freedom of speech and expression.

Our society is comprised of people, who on their own are weak and are unable to have the power to actually influence the way they live. We have ‘leaders’ who promise to bring about those changes but, for their own interests, they never do. So we live in a compromise, which we call the society. But what happens when the common people, like a nameless, headless swarm of bees, come together and decide to make a difference? What happens is Anonymous.

It is when the government or existing mechanisms fail to address the socio/economic problems and wants of the people; vigilante groups such as these crop us as a natural response. They are needed in a society to weigh in on the scales of power where the current individuals, in position of power have a heavier say. They need to look at Anonymous as the people, voluntarily being involved in ideas and changes that they want to see happen. Politicians deeply ingrained in politics, fail to see that an organization operates, without the conventional motives such as money and fame. Many similarities are to be seen with people coming out on the streets, joining the anti-corruption movement in India and the Anonymous has been doing its share to spread awareness about it; also about the restrictions that the Indian government is bringing about on Internet accessed by its population. In an event where the political class, claiming to representatives the people, use their positions to gain power, there will always be mushrooms of protests in various forms by people who understand that the politicians work to serve them and not they who serve to the political mechanism. The very foundation of politics is supposed to be for the people to be able to mirror the decisions, changes that they want to see happen to world that they live in.

Anonymous is you. The mob, the common people coming together to do uncommon things. It’s a true vigilante with a smiling mask, taking on dictators, huge corporations and governments that the common man, individually, fears to touch. It gives people power and the ability to question, revolt and organise in an ever changing hive. It is Batman of the internet city. The only difference is, even if you remove the mask, the only face you will see is the mobs.

An injunction issued by an Indian court in a copyright infringement case has forced Indian Internet service providers to block access to the video-sharing sites Vimeo and DailyMotion,  Bittorrent-tracker The Pirate Bay, text-sharing site Pastebin and a number of other websites.

All of these sites are still accessible on BSNL Bangalore. MTNL Delhi has only blocked Torrentz.eu and DailyMotion. Instead of giving a proper clarification for it, the landing pages of these sites said “ The site has been blocked as per instructions from the Department of Telecom ”.

The temporary restraining order was issued by The High Court at Chennai in response to a lawsuit by the Chennai based company CopyrightLabs over the sharing of Tamil movies 3 and Dammu online. It prevents the Internet Service Providers from sharing these movies through any forms of piracy.

As retaliation to this ban, the global group “hacktivists” called “anonymous” hacked into the websites of the Supreme Court and the Congress party. “Anonymous” is known for many other “hacktivistic” activities. Although termed as online terrorists by governments, they have received support from some people because of their ideologies of freedom. Some people also view them as online vigilanties.

Well, since the time of Adam and Eve,
Mankind has always succumbed to the poisonous apple.

True, there are certain rules to this law,
The people have to be straight,
Single,
And not related by blood-or fraternity.

If that’s sorted, there is absolutely no way, that a man and a woman can remain just friends.

Now, I’m not saying- both the individuals fall for eachother, but I am saying,
Atleast one of them does.

So, if you have a friend out there, that you haven’t thought about,
I’m sure they have thought about you.

Now, it need not be something that necessarily is acted upon,
But that feeling, of crushing, or liking someone, does arise, is my point.

I know, men and women may be totally incompatible, may totally lack chemistry, but if they’re friends, the attraction is potent.

I also have one more revelation,
For two people to be friends, good close friends, both the people have to be attracted to eachother on some level. Maybe not physically, but on some level,
Because, its impossible to sustain a conversation with someone you’re not interested in- no matter how nice a person you are!

The truth will set you free,
Friendship is a very valued relationship, because, its safe. Because two people choose to be emotionally close. But it aint as platonic as people make it out to be. Its a bit more dangerous than that.

As a romantic, I’d take friendship, any day. Because its one of the most romantic notions relationships has built. My type of friendship, ofcourse

Words like ‘innappropriate’ and ‘poisioning the young minds’ flew helter skelter in the parliament. Some even said that the cartoons were endangering the democracy in our country. I find it intresting how our politicians use the word democracy in such a broad context, repeatedly. I have come to think that they are not as bright as we give them credit for.

Talking of which, Mr. Sibal had a couple of intresting things to say. “Cartoons on the political class should not find a place in textbooks as they influence the impressionable minds of students.”

Now, we are not talking about toddlers here, these students are teenagers who are going to be adults in a year or two, so whatever was to ‘influence’ their impressionable minds has been done and let me tell you, cartoons in textbooks are ther least of your worries if you go down that road. Mr. Sibal said that the impression should not go to the world that the political class is corrupt and bereft of any principles. It takes skill to say something like that with a straight face, really. He also said, that the freedom of expression is ‘contextual’. Its frightning to see how he gets to express what he wants and anyone against it is ‘misusing’ their freedoms… Did someone say democracy…

I don’t have a problem with politicians wanting to remove ‘objectionable’ cartoons from textbooks, but the thing is, why has this become an issue instead of so many other things wrong with our textbooks? For start, our textbooks are boring and i mean that litterally. Its not upon the student to make studies interesting, it is on studies to make itself intresting to a student. The politicians don’t see, that it is the students who have to live through all of this. All they see is how their so called dignity is being threatned by cartoons in textbooks, textbooks about political science written and approved by scholars of that subject. They have developed a policy these days, if something is intresting and fun, ban it. Make it as bland as possible.

The politicians are nobody to decide what is written about them and the system, it is none of their business because they are not experts of the matter. It is like asking a religious leader to write a textbook on religious studies , that textbook would not be a neutral compilation, it will obviously be biased, depending on which one wrote it. The right thing to do is to let scholars and experts decide what goes in our textbooks or not.

Our school and college textbooks need to be more illustrative, they need to be more eye catching and intresting, more presentable. At least 125 young people in india commit suicide every day. For the sake of the students, who are also human beings by the way, we need to focous more on making the studies better. Our politicians need to see the colleges as more than just factories. I think for someone with so much power and who say that they have indisputable dignity, it is a little odd to be pricked by some cartoons. In the battle to gain a few political points, they are not the ones being caught in the crossfire, the students are.

Talk is cheap. Relationships cater to this illusion of security where things are la di da. I’ve seen it in my own relationships, in other people’s relationships. We just sell out to cliched words.

As a romantic, I really want to be able to say to myself that, well, I’m a man of honour and class, and attached to me, is, this unsaid code of conduct, where everything I promise, is meant with that much intensity.

That’s why, having the gift of the gab, is not always a good thing. That makes you bullshit through life quite a bit. To man-up and lay stake to what you say, is something I desire for all romantics.

Its like in The Notebook, Ryan Gosling, follows through with everything he had promised to do. The white house, the room for painting. Intense. His words carried the weight of Gold.

I went on a date a few days back. I really liked the girl.

And then, I was saying all these things to her, that I knew were supposed to be said, but I didn’t mean it. It suddenly became this Game for me.

What’s more is, the girl has had enough attention from enough men, to know what I was going on about and she says to me “stop with this ball-talk”.

It stunned me. Here was a girl, who read through the bullshit guys throw at her all the time. And you know what? I admitted for the first time maybe, that “ball talk” was what it was.

She and I have become really good friends. Giving things to eachother, straight. It may sound rude or hurtful, but we are honest. And the brilliant thing about that is, its a secure feeling, because we know where we stand. Its the purest most unadulterated friendship.

I dedicate this story to her. For she, has taught me, the art of getting by, lies, in not thinking too much, not saying too much, and just, keeping it real.

I want to share with you something. Its intimate, its real. A lot of times, I don’t mean what I say. I wasn’t always like that. I grew up, unsure about things to say. I was shy as a kid and observed people-listened to what people said to me, and just was able to know what they expressed. I never judged anyone and I think that allowed me to be very social over the course of time. And then, as I grew older, I had this keen sense of knowing what people wanted to hear. And I said it the things they wanted to hear. Now, I don’t know if I said it, for my own personal agenda-for them to like me, or to really make them feel good about themselves. It was a bit of both. I remember, a lot of times in school, I’d tell people who I hadn’t the faintest bit of attraction to, that I had a crush on them earlier. Just, to make sure that they felt desired. Everyone wants to be desired, no? Well, I told people stuff. And over the course of time, I forgot the difference, and I started being this version of me- where I could talk to women and get them to do and be what I wanted them to be. It was easy. I often write, to remind myself of the beauty of words- and dream of this day, where I meet this perfect vision of this girl, who makes my heart go sha la la la. Because honestly, sometimes, the best romance is in the head. In the vision of wanting someone. Someone whom you can say the most intense romantic things to, and someone who’ll move me enough for me to shower her with those words, or someone who’ll inspire me to be the man I was always meant to be and then more. Someone whom I can sleep at night knowing I’d wake up the luckiest man. Someone whom I’d show off to the world yet be possessive enough about to, merit her attention. I’d want that and more.

And the strange, absolute truth is, I’ve felt that only for one girl. The girl I write this column for. And while I know she is the one true love, I try to move on, and be absolutely careless with my heart. But my heart wants what it wants, while I’m wired to be a guy. And a guy wants what a guy wants.

I recently decided to try my hand at an acrylic on canvas all by myself. So, very enthusiastically, I went shopping for all the essentials. I selected a painting that I wanted to reproduce and there- I was all ready! My excitement could not be contained!

During the entire process I realized, that creating a piece of art is actually like raising your own child. Initially, the canvas is blank, clean, white and pure. It is waiting for you to create something out of it. Then comes the infancy- or the part where you draw your picture on it. This was the toughest part for me, as it would be true of any new mother. That’s why I was so cautious during this stage- carefully drawing every stroke with love and care.

Once the drawing was complete, came the fun part! Playing with colors or what I would call the toddler stage. I mixed my colors on the palate and everything was going great! The colors turned out exactly as I wished and I played with the bright hues for a while!

But somewhere I forgot that the canvas has a life of its own too. I applied the color and the brush strokes according to my whims, but the canvas turned its back on me! I stared at my painting- I suddenly found it ugly. I wanted to tear it up and get rid of it- but I stopped myself. After all it was my baby!

 I contemplated about what to do next. And that’s when it dawned on me-helping the canvas evolve while providing my creativity would truly make it beautiful. I fell in love again. The paints dried up with age and experience; and bettered with time. With a little help from me, it had reached it s beautiful self.

The process of creating art is a metaphor for understanding our children. For most part of our lives, we are dimly aware of the difference between their experience and our behavior. Behavior is what we observe- in others and ourselves. Experience cannot be observed, only felt. Like us, our children are simply experiencing, which is manifested in behavior. But we never experience them truly. We always attach the baggage of opinions, thoughts and judgments to their experience and sometimes to ours’ as well!

If parents would only understand this fact, they would eventually experience their child truly and watch it grow into a beautiful human being. But most parents limit their children in their own wishes, desires and opinions; since all of us are so used to this pattern in our other relationships as well! And when the child begins to stagnate, they find it ugly. Only if parents viewed their child as an entity in which experience and behavior are not divorced, they would begin to judge it less and appreciate it more. This would mean true compassion. Even though the child’s behavior maybe irresponsible and while we may have to oppose that sternly, we realize that he/she and we are intrinsically the same. And eventually it is all about the flower blooming from a withered tree…

The tournament was without Andy Murray, who had to withdraw due to a back injury. This week featured several unexpected results with none of Rafael Nadal, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, or John Isner being able to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament. Novak Djokovic was denied a spot in the semi-finals courtesy of a dominating performance by fellow countryman Janko Tipsarevic, who was able to dispose of the world number 1 in straight sets. Juan Martin del Potro continued his stellar form by reaching the semi-finals.

With this win, Federer has once again matched Nadal’s record for the most Masters tournament wins, each player having 20 titles under their belt. More important still, the win has allowed Federer to leapfrog past Nadal into the world number 2 position in men’s tennis.

A strong women’s draw featured all of the top 10 players from the WTA in the tournament. Serena Williams came out on top, demolishing Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 in the finals. As is the case with women’s tennis, the tournament featured several shock results which led to relative unknowns Varvara Lepchenko and Lucie Hradecka reaching the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.

The result has led to Serena jump into the world number 6 position, with Caroline Wozniacki (down from 6^th to 8^th) and Na Li (down from 8^th to 9^th) dropping in the rankings as a result.