Amarnath Pai

I still cannot believe it!!! Chelsea FC are the champions of Europe. Being a Chelsea fan, I was so desperate to witness this day. The disappointments of Moscow 2008 when we were just a kick away from the trophy and also the controversial semi-final against Barcelona in 2009 are still etched in my memory.

It was not a good season for English clubs in the Champions League this time around. Both the Manchester clubs were eliminated in the group stage leaving fellow London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea to carry England’s flag. It all seemed to be a nightmare when Arsenal was beaten 4-0 at Milan and Chelsea lost 3-1 to Napoli. The return leg did not help as Arsenal won the tie 3-0 only to go out on aggregate. The stage was set for a non-English quarter final for the first time since 2003. That was when one man stood up and took charge.

When Roberto Di Matteo took over from Andres Villas Boas, Chelsea was struggling big time. They were 5^th in the Premier League and failed to beat Championship side Birmingham in the FA Cup. In his first match in charge, RDM beat Birmingham, although with a squad like Chelsea, one expected them to win. But his real test came against Napoli in the return leg at Stamford Bridge. No one had given Chelsea any chance and the “old boys” of the club were criticized for their lack lustre performance. Luck was with Chelsea and the old boys revived and came through 4-1 after extra time winning 5-4 on aggregate. Chelsea showed Manchester City how to beat Napoli

Next up was Benfica. Once again it was a tough match and the odds were against Chelsea. The first leg was in Benfica and they were a tough team to beat at home. RDM had his plan well set as Chelsea won 1-0. The second leg at Stamford Bridge exposed Chelsea’s weaknesses. Even after taking the lead through a Lampard penalty, they failed to capitalise only to see Benfica equalise in the last 10 mins. That was when Meiriles stepped up and went box to box to win the game for Chelsea and take them through to the semi-final. Chelsea showed Man United how to beat Benfica

It was rematch of the 2009 semi-final against Barcelona next. “The fairy tale is over” was what all pundits had to say about Chelsea’s chances. Former boss Jose Mourinho said publicly that the winner of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich will face Barcelona in the final. Little did he know what RDM had up his sleeve. The first leg showed the tactical brilliance of Di Matteo. He knew that an away goal for Barca would mean danger so he “parked the bus” and it worked. Barca could not find the net instead Chelsea scored through counter thanks to Ramires and Drogba. Chelsea won 1-0. In the second leg, Chelsea tried to do the same thing but it backfired. Barca went 2-0 up in just over half an hour. To make things worse, Gary Cahill had to be substituted for an injury and John Terry got himself sent off for a stupid foul, leaving Chelsea with Ivanovic and Bosingwa in the central defence. Somehow, Ramires scored a goal just before half time to give Chelsea hope. Things got worse for Barca as Messi missed a penalty early in the second half. Chelsea defended throughout and in injury time, Torres was in acres of space inside the Barca half, one on one with Valdes, scoring to take Chelsea to Munich. The score was 2-2 on the night and Chelsea going through 3-2 on aggregate. Chelsea showed the world how to beat Barcelona

The victory against Barcelona came at a cost. Ramires, Ivanovic, Meiriles and Terry were all set to miss the final with David Luiz and Gary Cahill doubtful due to injury. Moreover, it was being played in the Allianz Arena, home ground of Bayern Munich. Beating Bayern at home without four key players was almost impossible. The odds were against Chelsea like it was throughout the season. May be Chelsea liked it. The match was dominated by Bayern from start having the lion’s share of possession, more attempts on goal and more corners than Chelsea. But Chelsea was defending brilliantly. In the 83^rd minute, Muller scored what seemed like goal which will win the Champions League for them. Didier Drogba had and answer to that. In the 88^th minute, he rose above to head home a Juan Mata corner taking the game to extra time. Hero turned to zero as Drogba gave away a penalty in extra time. Robben was to take it and Petr Cech guessed the right way. The penalty was saved giving the Chelsea fans a huge relief. It ended 1-1 after extra time as well. Penalties it was to decide the final just like in 2008. Memories of Moscow were flashing through every Chelsea fan’s mind. It was scripted to turn into a disaster as Juan Mata’s penalty was saved. But Cech was again the hero as he saved Bayern’s 4^th penalty. Bastian came forward to take Bayern’s 5^th penalty. He hesitated with his shot and when he did shoot it hot the post. The stage was set for Chelsea to win it. It was Drogba with the final spot kick for Chelsea. Four years ago, it was supposed to be Drogba to take the kick which Terry missed. He had a chance to rectify that. The Ivorian sent the German keeper the wrong way and scored the goal which made Chelsea the Champions of Europe for the first time. Chelsea beat Bayern in their home ground

It was the last chance for the so called old guard of Chelsea to win it. The Holy Grail which they were yearning for since Roman took over the club was finally theirs. The club which was founded in 1905 won the Champions League on 19^th day of the 5^th month of the year, 19/05.

Blue was the colour in Munich. Keep the Blue Flag Flying High

Have you ever wanted to have a job where you sit and do nothing but still get your salary at the end of the month? Where the company will provide you a huge mansion to live in, you will have servants for everything, tours abroad free of cost and 24/7 security? No, this is not my new job but it has been the job of the first citizen of our country for the past 5 years.

The first woman President of independent India, Pratibha Patil, was projected to create a change in our country but she turned out to exact replica of our Prime Minister, a puppet. After succeeding APJ Abdul Kalam, who in my opinion is the best president we ever had, Patil had a huge hole to fill. But instead of filling that hole, she fell right into it.Apart from the Presidential address before Independence Day and Republic Day; we have not heard anything from her for the past 5 years. Even when the country was under multi crore scams, hosting a much unprepared CWG, coming under terrorist attacks or under a “revolution” to eradicate corruption, nobody heard a single word coming out of our President. I agree that the President of this country does not have much power but the least she could have done was voice an opinion so that the message was conveyed to the political class and the people of this country.

The story doesn’t end there. The UPA had not supported Mr APJ Abdul Kalam for a second term because they wanted the President to be someone with a political background. When they nominated Pratibha Patil for the post, many leaders from the opposition had opposed and exposed some corruption charges against her. (Being a former politician, it is a surprise if she is not involved in any corruption). But that was rejected by both the ruling party and media as a political game and everyone soon forgot about that. But thanks to RTI, the skeletons are being exposed from the closet. First it was revealed that crores of tax payers’ money was being spent on the President’s national and international tours which also included her family members. Then a new report has come up with another RTI activist exposing that acres of land meant for the Army has been allotted to Pratibha Patil for her “post presidential mansion”. It’s a shame that the highest position in the country has been degraded so much by one person, who, like other politicians, does not even care about the country but only interested in personal gain.

The good news is that she is in the office for only 4 more months and hopefully we will see someone better in the chair from August 2012. We need someone who has the power to speak the truth and voice his/her opinion without any political bias. The best option will be to ask Mr APJ Abdul Kalam to come back or go for someone from India Inc like Mr Narayan Murthy .

Almost 11 years ago, Steve Jobs had the brainwave of starting an online music store which could download MP3 songs legally for just $0.99  per song.  This created a revolution in the music industry with record labels able to cope with the piracy and users too happy to download songs at a low cost.

Piracy has been the most important challenge to the music industry for a while now. In India, even a 10 year old kid knows from where he can download the latest songs before it is even officially released. So now Flipkart, famous for its online bookstore, has come up with “Flyte”, India’s answer to iTunes. But the big question is will it really help the music industry to wipe out piracy?

Even though it was released a few weeks back, I only had the chance to check it out today. It provides a wide variety of song choices from the international best sellers to devotional classics. The prices are also not that high with the latest Hindi album ” Agent Vinod” priced at Rs 143. You can also download individual tracks with prices as low as Rs 6 per song.

Just to try it out, I downloaded LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem for Rs 9. Yes, that is my first legal download. After making the payment through net banking/credit/debit cards, it gives you an option to download the file. You may choose the bit rate of the file and the download begins. Make sure you are using some download manager since I tried directly through Chrome and in between download, my internet connection failed and so did my download. But not to worry since Flipkart is kind enough to offer 4 downloads for a single buy. The song quality is excellent. Since I already had the song I could compare and to be honest the legal version was better (not because I paid )

Coming back to question of whether this will help remove piracy, I strongly doubt it. Why would someone pay 100 bucks for a few songs when he can get it free illegally. Unless there are strict cyber laws in place, Flyte will not be a success. Good luck to Flipkart if they can prove me wrong.