FIFA. Fever - Over

That was a horrible doggerel to begin with, alright, but that was the simplest thing I could say.My language might not be the most flamboyant - okay I will tone down a bit- my language might not be flamboyant enough- hmmm, I understand, you don't deserve any of this, now I will come to terms with the ground realities - my language is not good enough to describe and summarize a fabulous, marvellous, magnificent and meticulously organized mega event called FIFA.However, I would say the attempt is mine and the result is yours( that is the reader's).
Neither did I follow every match of this world cup nor am I a big fan of foot ball to do a effective sum up. I am a big fan of cricket. But now I am looking for a replacement, as cricket is no longer what it was. I feel so, do you? Well, of course keep Sachin Tendulkar out of this, he is what he is even if the game should lose its sheen.In fact this football world cup is the first major tournament I followed and it was only from the middle of the tournament that I picked up. The dramatic exit of defending champions Italy triggered interest in me and the disgraceful exit of France did me into FIFA 2010 completely.
Critics and spectators voiced their indignation about the lack of grace in Brazil's game, which was far from bad, but it appears everybody turned a blind eye on how Spaniards played throughout the tournament.This FIFA world cup witnessed the exit of two of the best teams, Brazil and Germany, because of the sloppy but effective strategy devised and executed by Netherlands and Spain.
I feel Germany should have been the rightful finalists for the way they played and not Spain. Though I supported and cheered Spain throughout - even against Germany( I support a team which I know for sure is going to win. Bad Habit) - I say this. And, according to me the final was the fight for the 3rd position which was entertaining and enthralling unlike the actual final between Spain and the Dutch. Netherlands replied Spain in their own language only to come second in the 113 minute of the play.Then what the deuce were they doing themselves through the first 90 minutes?On an average every fifth minute of the final, the referee was forced to use his whistle and yellow-card one or the other. It was no better than a school football match with players faking and falling like nine pins.It was like two students of same school of thought pitted against one another but a day can only bear a single winner and Spain took home the cup this time. The only capturing element in the whole of final was anybody could be the winner because both the teams employed the same strategy and each was waiting for the other to flounder. If you watched the final,definitely you would have been bored enough to empathize with me.
To wrap it up, I feel sorry for each of Brazil and Germany. Brazil vs Germany would have been a match worth of World Cup final. If it were the final, then the opening and closing ceremonies would have remained just ceremonies instead of overshadowing the whole World Cup as they did now.However, one thing that would get catalogued in my memory, forever, is "the hip twister" Shakira's "WAKA WAKA" which became a chant to many and I, the other would be Paul the octopus which proved a German nemesis. Now it is time to return home from Africa!!!

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The topic is "My Blog"

I spent many sleepless nights to bring My Blog to current shape it is in. Why in all days did I chose to write about My Blog in My Blog today? Today definitely is not an anniversary of My Blog.December is no where around and it is too early to even long for it.However, Everything falls under the "cause" and "consequence" umbrella and so does this.
During the initial days of starting My Blog I tried to make it popular among my friends and acquaintances. Every time I published a piece here I went around and updated a select few who evinced interest on hearing that I started a blog. Few of the initial readers still remain on My Blog and many others do not. Those were the days when I knew nothing other than 9 hours of work at office and 4 or 5 hours of time on My Blog. I tried many templates and browsed the net for some good sunset pictures before settling with the current template and self-shot picture. The interesting fact is, "December Evenings" sits on a Sunday Morning snap. I shot that at 5:30 a.m in the morning having spent a sleepless night( sleepless here means staying awake forcefully and not struggling to catch sleep). Needless, to say I took a lot of pain in My Blog, which I no longer do and derived pride and pleasure from it, which I still do.
As the days passed by I stopped troubling people. I put up updates on orkut and left it for the interested readers. This was till the last days in TCS. Back then I did not have a laptop of my own.Whenever I got hold of my friends laptop first thing I did was to fair and post the content which was either a quick scribble on a piece of paper or was a carefully typed, edited and mailed thought from my office desk.
The day I joined SAG, I got a laptop and my first thought then was "Unlimited blogging". Alas! little did I know about the side effects of a uncontended laptop. Along with laptop comes unlimited Internet and along with Internet come other avocations. Otherwise very useful, these avocations have proven counterproductive to my blogging - the number of posts plummeted, yeah I meant the word because if you were to draw a line graph you would see Mt. Everest and Eiffel tower juxtaposed.
Every evening of the past one month, after returning from work I have been thinking about My Blog and sometimes sign on to post something( They are so many things which could be interesting pieces), but I am either busy - with research( not rocket science), defeated - at work ,enervated - after a long discussion or elated- that I am going to Chennai. Ha! Chennai comes again into My Blog which has been the case in my recent posts. When I travel across Chennai many things come to my mind which are worth posting, but the moment I enter Bangalore they vaporize.Okay! enough is enough-please stay tuned - I swear I will not mention Chennai again in this post.
I come back to the topic of this post that is My Blog. Two weeks ago I met one of my college friends by accident in a shopping mall near to my workplace. After we went about the usual how-are-yous and what-are-you-uptos he made a mention of My Blog. This took to me by surprise and I was ecstatic when he said he read my posts. I felt very happy about that and I thanked him for his readership. I got some readers, in fact voluntary readers. I do not mind even if they are my critics, it is good to have someone listening to you rather than crying all by yourself to a wall. This put additional onus on me to keep wrting and keep writing good. However I tried I could not pen down a single post owing to the work schedule. Even as I type the previous sentence I look at my system clock to check how many hours of undisturbed sleep I could catch before the alarm shatters my dreams at 8:30 a.m tomorrow morning. That was a necessary short break from the monotonous topic of My Blog. Again today one of my school friends and said that he reads My Blog. This was the trigger to write this topic My Blog.
Did you count how many "My Blog" I put in this post? Count them an let me know for the topic is My Blog. Ain't this a different kind of blogging? Opinions and comments are highly solicited. Signing off from my blog. Happy counting if ever you count.

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