Champions League draws announced

 The draws for the Champions League Quarter finals were announced today and it promises some really mouthwatering clashes. Defending Champions Manchester United take on Porto while rivals Arsenal take on the Yellow Submarines, Villareal. Liverpool who earlier thrashed Real Madrid will be facing off against Chelsea in all-English clash. High flying Barcelona square off against Bayern Munich.

United will be looking for revenge as it was Porto who triumphed last time they faced, throwing the Red Devils out of the 2004 tournament. But this time around, things may not be the same for Porto as half the side from the 2004 team are away. But the biggest person missing for them would be Jose Mourinho. It was the ‘Special one’ who guided the underdogs to a famous victory and later clinched the League itself. United are not the only club looking for vendetta. Spanish club Villareal crashed out against Arsenal in 2006 when Juan Roman Riquelme’s last minute penalty was saved by Gunners keeper Jens Lehmann.  Arsenal should be able to see off Villareal this time too.

Liverpool definitely are the team to watch out for. Captain Stevie G and marksman Fernando Torres are both in lethal form, blasting away oppositions including the likes of Man Utd and Real Madrid in recent weeks. Chelsea are under a Guus Hiddink revival, although I seriously doubt if even he could help them overcome the Merseysiders.  Barca vs Bayern is undoubtabely the clash of the stage. The teams are equally matched in all the departments and both the managers are relatively young and also have played for the respective clubs. The Catalan giants should reach the semis; a penalty shootout is very much a possibility here.  

I was hoping for an all-English semi final line up but with Chelsea and Liverpool facing eachother that is unlikely just like the last time. Also for the first time since the 2001-02 season, the quarters would see the absence of an Italian club.  My prayers are with Manchester United and I hope they repeat Moscow at Rome too later this year.

In BJP’s Karnataka, ‘Obscenity’, not beating up of women, a crime

 Seriously, how many times do we have to go through this? The Bangalore police arrested a 100 odd gang of late night party revellers. They were booked for violating excise laws by selling liquor. Fair enough. But why the hell were they booked for ‘Public obscenity’. I mean, was it not a private party? The young men and women were not dancing in the middle of Brigade road, were they? They were just chilling out having fun at a private party organised at a private farmhouse by private people. How then does the word ‘public’ creep into all this? Is dancing in a disco an obscenity as well?

If you remember it seemed like a lifetime before for our own  ’Mr. Culture’, Pramod Muthalik was arrested, this despite pictures of his group beating up innocent girls  at a pub being splashed all over national television. The irony was Muthalik was not arrested for the pub attacks, but for some inflammatory speech he made sometime back. The attack happened in broad daylight and still the police couldn’t ‘positively’ identify the attackers. However the Karnataka police were quick to arrest the revellers even as early as 4am in the morning for partying.

Lahore attacks a diversion

 The whole world knows of Pakistan’s hand in the 26/11 Bombay attacks. The ISI needed to do something that would turn the turn the attention of the world away from the governments  ’investigations’ on the Bombay attacks. The Lahore attacks could well have been the answer. After their mission the terrorists walked away from the scene, quite literally,  as if they knew not one cop is gonna be after them. Isn’t this enough proof that that the cowardly act was an inside job?

Just like the Bombay attacks , the Lahore attacks was also a perfectly orchesterated operation carried out under the guidance of the ISI. The attack on the Sri Lankans definitely had shades of what happened in Bombay. A hostage situation was obviously on the cards. But for some reason the terrorists left the scene