Fergie

He is old. Really really old. And still could put men the age of his son to shame in terms of the enthusiasm for the game he still has. Commands the respect of the entire legion of football fans around the world who have ever heard of ManU.

ManU's fan following around the world as also in the England itself has a lot to do with the man. While people elsewhere were ascending the football ladder by the power of cash injected from sponsorships and takeovers, Sir Alex has kept his focus on developing young players rather that buying stars with all the cash the world's richest football club has.

The touch he has with the young players has helped such an array of English players who have come up the ranks to don even the English shirt to go with the red one. When the Gunners were going through an entire season unbeaten, it wowed the whole of Europe and blew people away with their beautiful style of play. But inspite of all that, the hearts of so many fans still stuck with ManU for all the homegrown players they have, the legacy they bore, the passion they showed. And through all this the hand of Sir Alex has always been there on everything the club has ever done and all the titles and championships it has won, as also the many it will still win when he is not longer at the helm.

He has won all there was to win, (unless he wakes up one fine morning wishing to in the World Cup) and is the envy of even the self-promoting José Mourinho.

Seriously, what makes this man tick?

Learning Photography - 1

Have been pursuing my hobby for a while now. As is common to all other hopefuls, it was such an expensive hobby to keep in the times of the film-cameras, what with the developing costs in addition to the cost of the film-roll itself.

Now however, with everyone (almost) having access to a decent digital camera and the option hence of keeping GBs of stock photos on digital storage, it is so much more enjoyable. You are also allowed to make more mistakes :)

Canon has launched a website for explaining the nuances of SLRs but you can use those fundamentals in your compact digital cameras also, at least to some extent. Recently I purchased the Canon Powershot A590 and have been experimenting with the little manual control it offers. But the fundamentals are now shifting into place. Will be uploading a few photos showcasing the effects that manual controls can have on a photo rather than just using a point-and-shoot camera. Watch this space!

Elections, bloody elections...

I still remember that autumn of 1999. Along with other students in my undergrad college, we went as a group to Ziro to participate in the elections. A unique trait in the rural areas ( as also in most other areas) during elections is to divide the votes on the basis of the locality the candidate is from. Hence, when we went there, it was already decided who will be the one getting all our votes.

When we reached there however, the same night we were told to 'be prepared' as some people were overheard talking about attacking our group at night! I thought, "What the hell!" Turned out there had been some tension brewing at the time what with a car reportedly damaged and burnt the previous evening.

The next morning, as we were taking a walk post our breakfast, we came across a classmate of mine, same college, but who was from a different locality and hence supporting a different candidate. We met him and we din't even talk properly! And to think that we always hangout together back in the college.

That was when I had once decided that I am never ever taking part in any election in my lifetime. The time has come around when elections are taking a huge chunk of media and I can't keep myself insulated from it. Also, this time it is noticeably an effort to educate voters on the candidates they will be electing to the Parliament and I appreciate the celebrities taking time out for doing this.

This time it won't be possible for me to go back home and vote , but now it is starting to seem more like the decision to abstain from it lifelong was a rather brash decision, taken without the benefit of my wisdom as it grows with age :) Or is it?

Have been hearing about no one having the ability to dodge political affiliations as one tries to shimmy up the social ladder, is it so? Will I be able to keep myself sane? Or should I be instead taking a more active role to ensure that the elections throw up a worthier elected assembly?

Only time will tell it seems.

Angels and Demons

Ah! I just finished reading the book a week back and was amazed at myself for not having read this great book before! It has that classic breathless pace of a Dan Brown novel and at the same time is equally if not better that the Da Vinci Code.

But more than that, the believability factor of the novel is so much more enhanced by those diagrams he has cooked up. You cannot help but wonder how much research and hours would be taken by even an inspired symbologist to come up with those symbols and the mother of them all: that Illuminati Diamond, it truly is mind-boggling!

It is books like these which make me question why I did not take up writing as a career. The sheer satisfaction of writing a book which would be loved and read by millions is ecstasy.

Have moved on to reading a book on Nike in its early days. Cya!

Traditions

Caught the last quarter of ‘that’ program on Discovery on Apatanis on TV this morning. Aside from other observations, it focused on the marriage rituals and customs of the Apatanis. As is the wont of the Discovery-style documentaries, it was unbiased and true. It mentioned giving of mithuns, meat and the various rituals from Maabo-Inchi, Arii Banii and Mida. What struck me was the mention of such gift-giving as ‘Bride-Price’ and the exchange these days made easier by using paper currency. Up until now, I had always considered that these were gifts, and not to an extent as expensive as the ‘dowry’ prevalent elsewhere. Keeping amounts fixed in terms of currency as a proxy for mithuns and other allied gifts has eliminated much of the problems of gifts not being accepted. The program also mentioned that the gift-givings were reciprocal with the groom’s side first giving gifts and then the bride’s. However, there seems to be a view considering that this is taking it the easy way out and that customs are being erased out because of this new practice.

This set me thinking on whether it really is so, and whether this new practice was good or bad?

The question was, was this introduction of money into the social fabric a sign of the times that this was a custom that needed changing, or was it intended just as a respite for those cases where the financial burden of the traditional customs could be lessened for those who needed such help. Should have been there when this amount was being decided to be able to hear out the logic and the reasoning behind it. I guess I will have to grow up some more for that. :)

Am going home for Myoko this 19th, will see what I can learn there.