Climate change

7th February 2019

Snowfall in Noida.

Is climate change still a theory?

YouPoop

The number of advertisements on YouTube has grown manifold recently. If you manage to play a video without getting an ad at the beginning or in between, you might as well buy the lottery ticket that day because it will be your luckiest day in a while. 

Gone are the good old days when the number of ads was lower than the tolerable limit, instead the ads have become unskippable and more irritating recently (BTW who the fuck on the planet listens to Hindi-English remixes of a certain Vidya Vox). We might be looking at the future where you log onto YouTube to watch advertisements primarily and a video in between if you're lucky enough.

Klopp for Kop?

If firing Brenden Rodgers 8 games into the season wasn't bad, Liverpool FC is planning to replace him with Juergen Klopp. English clubs have a tradition of expecting overnight results from their recently appointed managers and Klopp could end up like Villas Boas(with Chelsea).
Klopp generally takes 2-3 years to drill his players to his high intensity game which is the deadline given to Premier League coaches for winning the Champions league. What Liverpool need at the moment is a coach who can get the best out of the current crop of players (someone like Carlo Anchelotti) rather than someone who likes the team to play  with his unique style. Nevertheless, if Klopp (being the charismatic orator he is) does get the job, the remainder of the season is gonna be as exciting as it has been in recent times.

Judgement day looming large for LVG

When Louis Van Gaal took over the reins at Old Trafford last year,  big things weren't expected of him in the upcoming season. The club was in post Ferguson transitional period and the need of the hour was to rebuild the squad after the ten month odd Moyes' stint. Such was the atmosphere around the club that a psychological lesson was more crucial to the players than a footballing one. So, at the end of the 2014-15 campaign finishing fourth and qualifying for the Champions League drew sighs of relief from the fans especially after the seventh place finish a year ago. To his credit,  there were some signs of cohesion and team chemistry visible towards the end of the season in the emphatic victories over Liverpool and Man City.

Fourteen months, three transfer windows and nearly £250m later,  the jury is still out on his Old Trafford tenure. Although, Van Gaal did address the squad's pressing need of midfield reinforcements their build up play continues to be slow and bottled up. For all his insistence on possession based football and implementation of his 'philosophy',  hitting long hopeful balls aimed at Marouane Fellaini's head seems a tad too desperate Plan B. All his charisma and confidence aside,  Van Gaal needs to start winning games as the extended honeymoon period being enjoyed by him is drawing towards its end. United expects entertaining football and titles to start flowing again and soon Van Gaal will be judged on what he has done rather than on who he is.

The only thing which unites Delhi

How hard is it to understand that unless the passengers inside a fully packed metro train deboard first more people cannot board the train? Apparently, it is extremely hard. It seems to baffle even the educated people working for MNCs whose daily routine involves complicated problem solving. The only thing I think which unites the people of Delhi is pushing while boarding or deboarding the train. Even the senior citizens seem to be adept at this art. I told an elderly man yesterday who was pushing me with all his strength to squeeze in before the metro gates were about to be shut, "Uncle, this is not the end of the World. Neither is this the last metro ever to arrive at this station. You were born as a human being, please behave like one."

Fight for existence

The public mandate is out. The party religiously following a dynasty whose latest poster 'boy' has an IQ less than that of a rock has lost the assembly elections in two more states. After having a drubbing in the general elections only a few months ago, Congress refused to come to terms with the demands of the general public of accountability and clean governance. Instead of getting its act together, the party was trying to push land deals for its 'Son-in-law' in Haryana just weeks before the polls.
The Congress mantra of minority politics has run past its sell-by date. The people of India want development and strong leadership instead of scams and Rajiv Gandhi ABCDXXXX scheme for the 'economically weak'. Time for some serious introspection for the Congress or India's oldest party will become a thing of the past.

Wasted Galacticos

You thought he wouldn't be that stupid. But no, Florentino Perez has proven it to all his doubters. That too, Again. Zinedine Zidane's words after David Beckham arrived at Madrid and Claude Makelele was sold to Chelsea in the summer of 2003 were, " Why put another layer of gold paint on a Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?". Well, Makelele would be more of a fender in an automobile analogy but Di Maria is indeed the engine. He was instrumental in connecting midfield and attack and was the most vital piece of the zigsaw in Carlo Anchelotti's 4-4-2. Accredited as man of the match in the Champions league final this year and ever present in the La Decima campaign, Di Maria ran his lungs out for the team. If you had to bet your money on one player who could run for the entire ninety minutes and the ensuing extra time, it had to be Di Maria.

Even Argentina looked like a broken team once he was injured in the quater final against Belgium. Buying James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos can enhance any team any day, but Madrid has no dearth of attacking riches. Di Maria was the one who supplied and connected the offensive plethora of Ronaldo, Bale and company with the rest of the team. Having already lost two La Liga matches out of three, the worst is yet to come. Selling Di Maria would surely come back to bite Madrid from behind.