A Puritan's Final

goppThis season they have been defying all odds and scaling daunting peaks in Europe with a team that has been only a shadow of ‘The Invincibles’(who tore all their Premiership teams apart in a fab season in 2004) in their domestic circuit. Arsene Wenger now aspires an expedition to Alps and a romantic finale in his home town against a team studded with polished gems. Back at Highbury, the soaring expectations of a hard core gunners’ fan may be harder to contain, but Arsene Wenger, with his firm belief of pure, free flowing and attacking football instilled in the young hearts of his players can expect a fairy tale finish if the players live to their dreams which they have accomplished quite astoundingly.

Parallels are being drawn to last year’s Liverpool team, who won an amazing match at Istanbul after being 3-0 down in half time against a talented Milan. Liverpool was fifth in the Premier League last year (same as Arsenal this time), they didn’t bemoan but recuperated remarkably after the loss of Owen (Arsenal-Viera). But the Gallic head has warned that the job isn’t done yet and they start as underdogs.

The football Cognoscenti has corroborated that fact. The Runaway League leaders in Spain has players aplenty marshaled by a pony tailed smiling assassin whom they believe is firmly on the shoes of Pele and Maradona. Splitting defences with his slick passes, unleashing lethal free kicks and dribbling the ball as a magician, Ronaldinho has proven that he is one of a kind in this generation. Though he has ripped apart the opposition and found space even in water tight defences, mention has to be made of the men who finishes his moves, Lionel Messi (being hailed as next Maradona in his country) and the Cameroon Supremo Eto’o. Defence is rock solid with Victor Valdes proving unbeatable. Man to Man in every department Barcelona holds all the aces an exception being Henry around whom the entire team was built, which made Joseph Riquelme of Villareal say ironically that ‘Arsenal is a team with 9 men behind the ball and then they have Henry’.

It’s been long since the world cup, a major trophy has been won by a team with attacking instincts. FC Porto, Greece and to some extent Liverpool were all tactical teams who can sit behind and clear the ball while riding on a goal difference better than its opposition. But to a connoisseur’s delight the two teams assembling on May 17th in Paris puts all those under the mat and plays mellifluent football from the heart. Football is an art that can be orchestrated (and some times choreographed) to such an extent that the rhythm of movement of ball purgates the heart and one can fall in love with the flow more than the finish. We have seen the Brazilians link it to their Samba dance. In Wenger and Rijkaard we have two conductors who hold the batons of the show and the purists’ can only wait for the opera to unfold.

Can the Gallic connection give a dream win for Wenger’s men in Henry’s hometown or yet another feather in the crown of PSG groomed Ronaldinho(another home coming). Its gonna be a situation of who has in it to weather the storm. For us a Puritan’s final is here, let us wade through the two whirlwinds and not miss a moment of sweet thunders hitting us.

It doesn’t get any purer than this.

Singing in the Rain

Landed in Singara Chennai after an arduous and exhaustive journey of 16 hours from Kanyakumari. I was expecting the three H’s (Heat, Humidity and Hostility) to hit me right from the word go and force me to sit in the comfort of my apartment rather than take a trip to office. But it was not to be.

Heat had some what subsided and Sun was generous enough not to allow me hire an auto to carry my frame to my den (otherwise who wanna bask n take a saunter in the glory of Chennai heat). Got a hunch that ‘its gonna rain today’, so was hurrying up not to miss a single moment of it. But I got hit in my face, the moment I set out my foot. Sun was back to its dazzling best. Was asking the Almighty ‘At this point of the year, with the sun scorching us, wouldn’t You be providing us some relief?’. Found myself getting squeezed like a cheese in a sandwich inside a share auto and ended up in office at around lunch time.

It was routine work with mails and lots of snippets(from colleagues)sneaking in. Thought its gonna be just another day huh……..

Boy!!!! I got answers for my prayers. I could hear the sweet or rather rattling sound of thunder and slowly drizzle started pounding gently on the glass window panes. Looked at my watch. Tea time. Called few of my colleagues to gulp in a few hot cups in a corner shop outside the office while savoring the sweet moment of water drops hitting the ground and relish the fragrance of earth evading out due to rain.

Every one seemed ecstatic at the ambience that the nature was providing and it showed in their behaviour. Some ogling at the commuters, some finding shelter in the nearby shops and even the shopwaalaahs were happy to woo the attention of the people though in an unusual way. Most of them were pleased. Though waterlogging popped out again and the real nature of adhoc roads (put for garnering votes) started to surface, it was a pleasing moment for the rain drought city. Memoirs of Oc 27th (Come on!!! It was once in a blue moon) were put under the stack. More over its mid April and what more a soothing sight can u get.

Sipping the tea, we felt how we could drench ourselves in the shower of nature rather than getting back to work? Was remembering the lines of Vairamuthu,

‘Andha megam surandha paalil yaen nanaya marukkiraai
Nee vaazha vandha vaazhvil oru pagudhi izhakkirai
Nee kangal moodi karayum podhu mannil sorgam yaedhuvaai’

(Don’t Curb ur instincts if u wanna soak urself in the rain coz u r missing a part of life and by the time u realize and repent ur decision you might have reached heaven)

We had a long chat discussing from Sreeshanth’s exploits to Amma’s ventures that v got back to work an hour later ( Whos gonna care as long as the work is getting done by EOD). Some one was telling about a Sidney Sheldon novel in which a guy conjured up a device that could manipulate weather. I was pondering if that can become a reality then the miseries of this world can be just blown off since we are accustomed to the vagaries of it and the crisis that it throws off.

We were having pure fun though the drizzle somewhat abated and by the time we got back to our seats, I could hear the oozing sound of car and auto horns buzzing around my ear signaling that the rain had stopped completely.

O God!!! Please make this low pressure zone stay here and alleviate us with some occasional showers and please don’t allow this to drift to northern parts.

‘Rain, Rain Please don’t go away, We Chennai Johnnies want you to stay’