Gentle Whispers

A while ago, I published on this blog my bucket list. The 30 things I would like to do before I die . Now, contrary to perception, this is not a definitive list and I keep adding items on it to with a regularity that stuns those who know me well. My love for football been a well-documented fact on this blog so I shall not go into it in detail and drive away the very few readers I have left. And this very love for the game is why I'm oftenest to be found on Twitter discussing, debating or even arguing on all things football related. And recently, my favourite football writer Sid Lowe made several impassioned pleas on Twitter to help save his club Real Oviedo. A team in the third tier of Spanish football. How could we help? By buying shares at approximately €10.75 each and help raise €1.9 million and let the fans take over the club which has seen financial mismanagement bring it to the brink.  Why help Real Oviedo? Because despite their recent troubles, Real Oviedo have ...

Last time, despite my best efforts. Okay fine, no efforts at all. I did not succeed in carrying out the 30 Day Project and this time around I have solemnly sworn to myself that I will carry this out even if it kills me. So then, Day 01 - Favourite song I've never had a particular favourite song, there are just too many out there to pick just one, so instead I'll tell you one that is constantly on repeat on my iPod. Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue. Simply because the song played on the radio late one night as we made our way home and ever since then I can't help but think of us crowded into a car singing at the top of our voices and the happy-sad feelings it evoked. Another perennial favourite of mine is this one. Mainly because it's Liverpool FC's anthem and even over television, it's awe-inspiring and spine tingling to watch 45,000 people packed inside Anfield singing and urging their team on and mostly because I hope to be there one day doing e...

So anyone who knows me, knows what a huge sports fan I am. I watch them all, soccer, basketball, cricket, tennis, Formula One. Everything. So as I've said before, I've been watching a lot of soccer . I check Goal.com every two hours to see what the latest happenings in the footballing world are. And a million other footballing websites. I try to keep my weekends clear so that I can watch as much of the Premier League as I can. I'm signing petitions that ask for more of the La Liga to be broadcast on Indian television. Anyway, I'm guessing you've got the picture? So from the last few years, I've been a neutral. I watched several teams and I was happy. But the more football I watched, the more I felt myself get drawn towards one team. Liverpool FC to be precise. They're my team in a sense that none other never was. Their underdog reputation, their lack of supporters, in India I mean, the fact that people never take them or their title challenges se...

Did anyone watch Barcelona versus Real Madrid in the 'El Classico' match of the year? Wasn't Barcelona absolutely marvellous? Xavi, Iniesta, Thierry Henry, Messi. All so so brilliant. Especially the Spanish players. I want to adopt them all. Sigh.

I am now totally football obsessed. I watch football day and night these days. Take yesterday for instance, I watched Liverpool play Hull City, Chelsea play West Ham, Manchester United play Tottenham and Valencia play Barcelona in the La Liga, which meant I went to sleep at 4 in the morning. Now that's a lot, even by my normal sports fanatic standards. The bad part though, only Liverpool went exactly the way I wanted it to. Chelsea beat West Ham, ManU came back to beat Tottenham from two down to win 5-2. All thanks to an absolutely horrible penalty given by the referee. Barcelona leveled with Valencia too, courtesy of a terrible mistake by the keeper. Poor David Villa. P.S: I'm a Liverpool girl. They're where it's at. Also, while I'm fairly neutral to Manchester and Arsenal. I canNOT stand Chelsea. Not even a teeny tiny, minuscule little bit.

I don't know if you've been following the IPL religiously. I haven't. I'd much rather watch some football. What I am following regularly now is a blog that's allegedly by a Kolkata Knight Riders insider. How far it's true? I don't really know, but it's fun and rather sarcastic and a good read for when you have nothing better to do, with the latest being him referring to Bublee and Babli, which allegedly refers to Brett Lee and Preity Zinta apparently as having an affair. Anyway the link is HERE . And to make things easier for you, some of the main characters as gleaned from comments left on the Fake IPL Player's posts. Kishen Kanhaiya is Ravi Shastri Appam Chuthiya is Sreesanth Pedophile priest is Adam Gilchrist Kaan Moolo is Ajit Agarkar Big Sister is Shilpa Shetty Prince of Patiala is Yuvraj Singh Lord Almighty is Sourav Ganguly Babli is Preity Zinta Calypso King is Chris Gayle Vinnie Dildo is Shah Rukh Khan Havai Chapal is Greg Chappel Junta Torme...

I wanted to write a post on Federer yesterday before the Australian Open final, but I got too caught up in the match and I'll just have to do it now. Where do I begin? What a wonderful wonderful match! And yet, I wasn't that happy because Federer wasn't at his best. Visibly nervous. Double faulting. Poor first serve percentages. For last night, I will say this, Rafael Nadal deserved to win. He played and he played. He chased every ball down. Refused to give up and didn't seem rattled in the least bit. Federer on the other hand, was visibly emotional. And I've seen him do something he rarely does ever before. Argue with the chair umpire a lot of the time. And it absolutely broke my heart to see him cry. Roger Federer never shows emotion. Always calm, cool and collected. It's unbelievable to watch him weep. But I guess the emotion of it all was too much for him. Nadal was king of clay. Federer of grass and the hard court. And now Nadal has taken both of those away...

I cheated today. Not on a boyfriend or anything of that sort, before you let your imagination run away with you. But at a stupid little game of volleyball. Played entirely for the purpose of fun and a miserly bottle of Pepsi. Well, anyway the score was tied, the other team was serving. One of the boys on the opposite team smashed the ball over to our side. We thought it was out and left it, only to have it bounce on the sideline. The other team starts celebrating and my team minus me, starts screaming about how the ball was out, and then everybody started arguing. One of my team mates comes up to me and says, 'It was out. You don't say anything, we'll handle it.' And I didn't. Because I was the only girl in the team and I didn't want to have all the boys shout at me. I now see that for the miserable excuse it is. That I, who's always prided myself on my courage and honesty and fearlessness could be scared of incurring the wrath of five boys. And when the oth...

My day began with an sms from Times Now saying, India wins first ever individual gold. Abhinav Bindra creates history at the Olympics. Catch the breaking news on TIMES NOW. I don't think I've ever been so glad to recieve an sms from TIMES NOW. I raced out of bed and switched on the TV and kept flipping from channel to channel to catch glimpses of Abhinav Bindra. As the opening day of the Olympics came closer and closer, I got more and more excited. And I pretty much watched the Olympics opening ceremony with a heavy heart wishing I could be there. But all of that aside, I kept hoping secretly that the Indian contingent would win a handful of medals and come back. And not just a solitary bronze. I even meant to post about it but I was busy with work type things, y'know? I didn't voice my hopes though cause I pretty much knew that people would be violently disagreeing with me and pointing out what an optimistic person I am and how I need to wake up and see the reality. Bu...

I miss basketball. I know I've said it about a million times before, but I still miss it. I haven't played in ages. It's hard to explain though. It's just so absolutely wonderful to play and to come off the court exhausted yet exhilarated. I love the sense of anticipation before the game. I love that time on the court when I think of nothing else except where the ball is. I haven't played in months since college ended in fact which was about 3 months ago. And now with work and everything else, I don't see myself playing for a while except maybe an odd moment here and there. The most depressing thought I've had in a while.

Rafael Nadal edged out Roger Federer yesterday in the Wimbledon finals. Thereby ending Federer's five match winning streak at Wimbledon. And to say that this was one of the greatest matches ever played will be doing it an injustice. It's a rarity in any sport to see two classy opponents playing at this high a level. Last year's final was heartbreaking for Nadal and this year almost became a repeat of that. Nadal had Federer on the edge a couple of times and yet every time it seemed like the game was lost, Federer would swing back in. In the end, it felt somehow incredible that Nadal actually won. Time after time on crucial points, Federer rendered Nadal helpless. And if it was any other player, their spirit would have been crushed perhaps. But not Nadal. He had only one case of nerves when he double faulted in the third set after leading the tie breaker 5-2. Both players fought and fought and didn't let themselves get down. Federer came back after being two sets down to...

I haven't really felt like blogging lately. I've been commenting on other peoples' blogs but when it comes to posting on my own, I haven't been in the mood. And even now as I type this post out, I don't really know what I'm going to be writing about. So please bear with me. First of all, I'm overjoyed that Spain won. The team I supported right from the beginning along with Portugal and Italy won. It was a brilliant victory and well-deserved. And I couldn't be happier if I was in the team myself. I love their style of play. Attacking, flowing football with sharp passing. A sight for sore eyes especially compared to the German style of brute strength. Every game they played was a pleasure to watch. And the best part is that the team who didn't lose a single game throughout the tournament won. And I love Iker Casillas, David Villa, Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso. *Sigh*. And Spain were the clear winners. Despite what some people seem t...

Spain is taking on Germany right now. Pray that Spain wins! Pretty please with a cherry on top.

In keeping with my ongoing obsession with the Euro Cup, I've created a poll on who the hottest footballer is. And you'll see if you look at the right hand side of the page. If you wanna know what they look like, check this post out. So what are you waiting for?? Start voting !!!

Contrary to my usual basketball obsession, I've been living and breathing football lately thanks to Euro 2008 and its even eclipsed the NBA finals which I have just been following sporadically. And I just had to blog about it. I'm supporting Portugal, Spain and Italy in that order. And while Portugal and Spain qualified comfortably, Italy just managed to squeak through with a 2-0 win over France. Italy though are mentally and physically strong and I'm sure they'll manage to raise their game up before the next match. Though they are playing Spain. Whom the hell do I support? Spain or Italy? Spain or Italy? Though I would love Portugal to win, they're my favourite team in this Euro Cup, I don't think they'll win. I don't think they really have it in them to win. Much as I hate to say it. While I'm supporting these 3 teams, I haven't yet written off the Dutch who are playing "Joga Bonita" football. They are a joy to watch. Pure poetry and ...

As you may have guessed by all the posts I've done so far, I'm thrilled that India won the series. Overjoyed infact. But now reality is sinking in. We do have a good young side and like I said in an earlier post on par with the Australian team. But now I'm starting to think that maybe the media is going a bit over the top in praising the Indian team. They seem to actually believe that from now on India will never ever lose and the 2011 World Cup is as good as ours. And nothing is going to stand in the way of the Indian team. Now there's nothing wrong with, I can understand the joy that India's won a series of such magnitude but I do think they need to not overreact and hold their horses and wait a while to see what happens next. Statements like the one made by Inderjit Singh Bindra, the former BCCI chairman in the Sydney Morning Herald has made the galling claim that the Indians had acquired Australia's winning qualities and had beaten the world champions at the...

An interesting phenomena has emerged from the recent tri-series in Australia in which Dhoni's men came out triumphant. A new world has emerged and India seems to be the team to beat. Which is good news for the country which pumps the maximum amount of money into cricket. This has been a long long tour with controversies left, right and centre on and off the field and India has held their heads highs and come true. It has seen India overcoming racial tension, winning the test match at Perth and halting Australia's sixteen test wins streak and finally the icing on the cake beating Australia in two straight finals for the tri-series trophy. Something many illustrious teams have failed at. I personally feel that if the umpiring in the test series had been up to the mark, the Indian team would have at least drawn the series if not won it. India is now clearly at par with the world champions if not better than them and the India- Australia rivalry has become the game's premier ri...

I just caught the last three overs of the second final of the Commonwealth Bank series. And India won!! A nail-biting nine run victory that they deserved. I love this Indian team. The energy levels are extremely catching. You know that those boys out there are trying their best. Dhoni's maturing as a leader and I'm glad. I hope all the positive support for him lasts a while and doesn't end with the next time India loses. That's one thing, I don't like about Indian cricket fans. They seem to refuse to accept that wins and losses are part and parcel of any sport and that burning effigies of the players and throwing stones at their houses is pointless. We all have bad days and good days and not just in sport. Anyway, I'm digressing, this was a phenomenal win and will go down in cricketing history as one of India's best wins ever. Again like at the Twenty20 World Cup, different people have proven themselves at different points of time and it's easy to call t...

I've been watching the news to catch up with what is happening on the Harbhajan Singh issue and managed to land on Headlines Today. After some hard news, they broadcast some footage of people dancing on the streets celebrating the removal of Steve Bucknor. And finally to get on my last nerve. They showed a video of the Indian team's moments in Australia. First the happy moments. Then the sad ones with the song from Lagaan ' Chale Chalo '. And finally some song that I really dont remember the name of meant to symbolise India fighting back.. Ohhhhhhhhhhkkk. Things like this make me want to give up being a journalist.

India has been playing in Australia. Tests so far and contrary to my usual cricket obsession I haven't been watching it or keeping track of what has been happening. But the little of what I have rea d, seems mainly to do with atrocious umpiring and racism. The latest being Harbhajan Singh banned for 3 Test Matches after allegedly calling Andrew Symonds a monkey. A 6 hour long session was held by the match referee Mike Proctor and he ruled that Harbhajan Singh was guilty of casting a racial slur and therefore banned him. How he arrived at this conclusion is beyond me. There is no actual evidence of his having said something like that. Proctor also paid no heed to Sachin Tendulkar who was at the crease with Bhajji at the time of the incident. Symonds's words backed by Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden was taken as the truth and the ban imposed. Procter made a statement at the hearing, saying, "There is only one team right here." And from his judgement it...