What MICHIGAN victory means to a GRADUATE student

Cheering your hostel (dorm) to a famous victory over your arch-rival hostels to picking up the coveted General Championship Cup at the end of the year, I am sure most of the Indian graduate students have gone through similar wave of emotions during their more eventful undergraduate years. Victory followed by bragging rights for some, while a serene satisfaction for some others, apathy for the rest who were always so focused in their work...... but they did ignite their passions and the hunger in everyone which defines the youth.

Let's stop walking down the memory lane as we are not drunk yet. Move over to Michigan. Hmm, we can't stop skimming through college football's winning-est program, or reading about the greatest rivalry of college football "THE GAME". Halls are old folklore, enter college competitions. Athleticism of the highest order, professionalism to the core, we root for our team in Big House which boasts of housing the nation's largest football stadium. The point is, its all bigger now. And, probably, too big. For graduate students, its just an avenue to celebrate, talk, procrastinate, or be passionate to relive those old days. For undergraduate students, I am sure it means more.  For people like me (and am sure many other and probably even more for some of us), gone are the days when hours of days were spent on the field, so it's easier to relive yourself and be passionate by reading about sports which you love, sports that teams to which you have some sort of allegiance is good at. It was exhilarating and absolutely heart-touching to see the sort of celebration after the victory over Ohio. It is now that I am treading a slightly controversial path and the kind of conclusion that I have been trying hard not to reach. From a Michigan undergraduate's perspective, these celebrations were once in a year, celebrating a team we hardly knew, to whose success we haven't been contributing directly, and against a team whose fans we meet only once a year. Or, is it better to still be able to support that team which has been living with you, rehearsing with you, eating with you, and competing against teams who you also know by virtue of the common space you share in departments or hometowns. 

I have this question lurking in me for quite a while, what would the Michigan undergraduates like ? What do you think ? 

beauty of soccer

I just deleted the whole post I wrote blabbering about my brush with soccer. I thought the purpose of drawing your interest to 'jogo bonita' would be lost in the first place. Yes, I can be so boring at times, but guess what soccer is never boring.

Dexterity is a must for every sports person, no doubt. But its manifestations in soccer simply amazes me. You have to be an adept at swinging your club with the right angle and power at a particular weather condition, or remain lucky, patient and equally attacking in one of those fine knocks which wins you a cricket match, but very rarely in sports you would be called a great player if you are good at anticipating your team members and create stunning passes apart from being adept at the game. I, unintentionally, might be drawing a lot of controversy on this aspect of soccer from the cricket fans, but I believe, soccer is more of a team game than cricket, requiring interaction and mind talks at a very crude level compared to cricket.

Well, the views are personal. It is simply enthralling to watch Messi dribble and snake-dance through 4 defenders to give gem of a pass , or watch Rooney going for a breathtaking dip on target above the wrong footed goal-keeper. Equally admirable is Drogba's strength and tevez's grit. While Samir Nasri's level of self-confidence oozes exuberance even in the opponent fans, Ronaldo still manages to keep his viewers locked to his feet. The likes of Terry and Vidic keep their team mates partly assured, while the never ageing Van der Saar and Casillas make their goal posts secured. Midfielders though still rule the roost for being closest to the heart with Scholes, Fabregas, Gerrad and Lampard continuing their runs while visualizing and implementing absolute gems of passes and through balls. Iniesta, Xavi have craftily carved out a niche for themselves with their brand of patient one touch football.

No wonder it is the most popular sport in the world. And, any soccer blog remains incomplete without talking about the two soccer powerhouese in South America. A country torn in economic and political crisis produces wonders like Messi, while their fast developing neighbour have the audacity to field newer faces every world cup.

Dedicated to one of the greatest and most popular sport on the face of earth !!!

The "Blog Connection"

What exactly was it !! The search for the blog name just picked up from the wiki on French Revolution - an exemplary advocacy of change which we grew up reading about. Yes, it was my quest for knowing more about these changes and how society embraces these changes that fueled the search in the first place. And, there couldn't have been a better way to go about it. Well, you might disagree but we do love changes and have our own way of reacting to changes. From an initial apprehensiveness borne out by our insecurity to the final acceptance, we all go though it except that people take different times to reach that eventual last stage - acceptance. I went through an excellent book named "Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson a real long time back. It's a fine read and a very concise one too talking about two extreme reactions to change. It supports a particular viewpoint, I do have my own reservations, but you got to read it. I have always thought about my own reactions to some of the changes worth remembering about in retrospection and what would have been a more ideal case. I don't know how many people think it's worthwhile to even spare so much time thinking not only about changes but your own reactions to changes, but guess what - I just made you go through it for some time :). And, from the French Revolution came my desire to name my blog in French. While practicing for English Elocution in my second year, an admirable senior while helping me fine tune advised - "You Bengalis can never pronounce French words properly. Never ever go for it." No, not by grudge, but the blog had to had it. And, with most of the French words I knew being already taken, I had to CHANGE my original desire of having a totally new blog name to sharing it with pre-existing ones well blaming it blatantly on my lack of creativity vis a vis names. :( And, so it is - Sweet Life for I am anidea (blogname). 

See, I managed to cover everything through the blog name - the French Connection as well as the Bong Connection. Ahh, hurts to see this terrible piece of humor.