Ambarish's musings

Arsene Wenger, the legendary Arsenal manager announced the he will be departing at the end of this season. The man who won us 3 league titles, 7 FA Cups, a Champions League final, and designed a brand new stadium, while giving us outstanding players, mesmerizing football, and sticking with us through difficult times. He kept us in in the UEFA Champions League for 19 seasons , which is simply amazing, considering the caliber of players he sometimes had to put up with. All the while, he had offers which would have made any other manager drop everything and leave, but Arsene decided to stick with us. His love for the club was simply unparalleled and unquestionable. His dedication and commitment to the club is unrivalled in modern football. He has taken "Boring boring Arsenal" to a new level, built a superclub, which can sustain itself financially, all the while not compromising results. His achievements at the club will never be forgotten, and his influence at the c...

I hate them as much as I hate mangoes. I hate them as much as I hate raw beetroots I hate them as much as I hate the driving skills of autowallahs. I abhor them as much as I hate movies without stories. I loathe them as much as I hate the commercials between two overs in a cricket match. I dislike them as much as Alexi Lalas' commentary. I detest them as much as Stoke City FC and their anti-football. I can't stand them as much as carrots in samosas. I despise them as much as common cold. I contemn them as much as Baba Sehgal. I am sick of them as much as loud people. It is better to not reply than with a one word reply. It signifies the end of conversation, and should be shunned.

When you learn something, you need to put it to use. You need to apply what you learnt to a real world scenario. Only then do you really get to know how much you actually learnt. Last Sunday was one where I put my driving skills to the test. I went on a bike trip with a great friend to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. This guy was my bike guru. He was going to decide if I was roadworthy. He's not a strict teacher per se, but I didn't want to disappoint him. So, the day after I got my driver's license, we set off, in the sweltering Hyderabad heat. The city part was really tricky, and I knew that I won't be confidently able to maneuver the traffic deftly. Already we were a tad late, so my guru handled the bike till the outskirts of the city. After having sumptuous breakfast(amazing sambar!), I started driving, and he guided me. Initially after a few hiccups, my confidence started to wobble. Fortunately, the highway started, and we had lots of free road, and no pesky autos....

Eyes are hurting. Ears are blocked. I can't hear anything. My legs are paining. My ankles don't want to support my body weight. My fingers are cold, and wrinkled. Every muscle, every sinew in my body is screaming. My arms don’t want to move. My shoulders agree with my arms. My heart is pumping the fastest it has ever, even more than when it was in awe. My back doesn’t want to stay upright. My brain is aware of all this. Even it is a little tired, after a long day trying to convince people to write code in the best possible way. But it is just too excited. Adrenaline has taken over me. My mind is ready to go again, even after doing it 20 times in the past hour. Before you get a dirty thought, I am of course talking about swimming. It has been 3 days since I joined a swimming class, and I feel like I learned a lot. I can float, I can swim the breadth of the pool 20 times in 40 minutes. I can hold my breath under water for 20 seconds. I still have a lot to learn, ...

I just had one of the best days of my Hyderabad chapter! I went to Amit Trivedi's concert at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus(btw, why can't it be just called BITS Hyderabad? Is BITS Pilani a brand or something?). Amazing as much the music was, the artists were scintillating! Amit Trivedi, as everybody probably knows, is one of the best musicians of the current generation. All his songs have something very different in them, and he is just a joy to watch. For the concert, he brought a few other artists, some of whom were unknown to me, but by the end, I became a fan of them all. Jonita Gandhi was part of the chorus group! The song selection was spot on, with majority of the songs from Kai Po Che and Queen, where he was the music director. Some were classics like "Chaudhari", which is one of the favorite songs of a colleague from Rajasthan. "Udta Punjab" was one of the more recent movies, whose songs were in full flow. I got the songs which I wa...

I might be 6 years late, but here is my review of this Bollywood movie, starring Sridevi. Directed by Gauri Shinde, this film tackles some This film is freakin' awesome! I can't believe I hadn't watched this movie before. And if you haven't watched it, I suggest you clear out your calendar for tomorrow and grab some popcorn. This is mostly a serious movie, but the lighter moments are well placed, and make great viewing. The plot, the dialogues, the screenplay, everything is perfect. This movie is worth paying big bucks to watch on the big screen, unlike me, who watched it 6 years late on a 14 inch touchscreen. Sridevi is absolutely mesmerizing. Her acting in this movie is one of the best acting performances I have ever seen. When you watch her, her struggles become yours. You feel her happiness and sadness. You want her to do well. You want her to show the world, how much she can accomplish. Anything more I say here will be spoilers for the few people w...

Let me start off by saying I have utmost respect for Arsene Wenger, and I have always wished him well. What he has done for this football club puts him in the pantheon of greatest managers of all time. He deserves a statue for sure. The day he leaves Arsenal FC will surely be sad, and I'll always thank him for all the magical moments he has given us, and not to mention the beautiful Wengerball, which we absolutely adore. Needless to say, Arsenal FC are in a slump of a whole new magnitude unseen in the entirety of Wenger's tenure at the club. Form is nonexistent, results are predictably negative, performances have dropped below the standards usually set by a team destined for relegation. Fans have nothing to cheer about, players don't seem to care. The manner of every defeat has remained the same over the past few years. A culture of mediocrity has developed at the club where excellent was the minimum requirement. The board is seemingly happy with this mediocrit...