Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal - The Baba Review

If embarrassment was just a feeling, then that could sum up the mood for all the gooners around the globe. The 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool was just too abysmal, it was not down to a bad referee decision , or a horrific injury, it was just bad football.

The players looked lethargic, and the abject performance costed us a strong stance in the premier league, even finishing in the top 4 seems like a mountain of a task now. Even though Liverpool's finishing was plausible, our defense had too many cracks, and players lacked commitment and spirit.
Even though we had a couple of chances to score, we were still outplayed and outclassed by the reds.

The formation and the squad selection was the major talking point before the game, and it just fell apart, our youth has to improve and not just be a "future prospect", we want results now, we want world class players and quality football to watch and applaud and appreciate. We can't just make and stew in our stool, something has to be improved, may be hire some therapists to help players express themselves better and be proud to be wearing an arsenal shirt just as we are proud gooners.

Any which way, it was a bad game, we will hopefully bounce back with more intent and vigor in the next game against Bournemouth on saturday. Sorry didn't really talk about the game here, still too "embarrassed" to talk about/ decipher a lost cause.

Stoke City 1-0 Arsenal - The Baba Review 20th Aug 2017

Frustrating eventuality of the evening, the team gave a good performance but lacked conviction and accuracy, as we lost concentration in the opening minutes of the second half and conceded a goal, and the game to the "rugby" team's latest debutante Jese.Marked by unheard two penalty claims and a legitimate goal, disallowed, I am pretty sure every gunner would be irate and so would be Arsene.

Even though it was a bad result but as an optimist, I can always find some good points in the team. Nacho Monreal for instant, is a really hard working player, he adds value and quality to the team, with his honest and impeccable attitude, he has made me fall in love with defending all over again. His consistency is mostly overlooked, he is an unsung hero of the team. From the defense perspective, there are not solid partnerships, like Kos and Mustafi had, may be with more game time, Mustafi and Monreal, can achieve more clean sheets wit Cech. Apart from defense, I believe Ozil was missing Alexis a lot, couldnt really put in the right ball, and Laca had some loose touches tonight, Welbeck did well, but yielded no fruition.

There is one thing I don't understand is the proselytism among football managers, everybody is going for 3-4-3 or 3-5-1 formations, and Wenger in both the games switched to 4-3-3, it worked once (against Leicester) doesn't mean it will work every time we trail,why can;t we start Giroud, and if that plan doesnt work out then find the snipers like Ozil and Iwobi to work by using 3 at the back, why can't Arsene turn tables, he has seen and adapted to a lot of change, may be he wants to experiment more.

I don't really see anybody new signing in, but would love to see Alexis back in his Arsenal shirt and toiling for spectacular goals as he did for his tenure until now.

Arsenal 4 -3 Leicester City - The Baba Review - 12th Aug 2017

A late night in Mumbai , India, and the inception of a coveted weekend. Putting on my Arsenal shirt, and a drink fixed in my hands, hoping for a good start to the premier league, I sat in my couch like a flushed potato, ready to ride the emotional roller coaster which awaited my ass print.

The game started, and our brand new signing Laca, with his second touch of the ball, and the first from his head, puts the ball past Schmeichel inside 2 minutes of the new campaign. Ecstatic , I started dancing,and singing "1-0 to the Arsenal", but the good times as they say were ephemeral, and Leicester equalized with Okazaki rising tall, like a kid in a metal gig, scoring past Cech. All this just 5 minutes.

The referee had a laissez-faire attitude towards the game, didn't intervene, and did let the game flow, Mr. Dean, didn't disappoint, at least this time, and as it seemed, the gunners would gain the lead back, Vardy scored with a well timed run, and a pin point accurate ball by Albrighton, (for a moment I wished if only Vardy could have been wearing an arsenal jersey) , that was a good finish. The gunners didn't give up, kept dancing towards the Schmeichel goal,like Vegas exotic dancers, in numbers , and with Danny's equalizer at the stroke of half time, the lead was cut down. Not too much pulchritude in the scoreline , but all square when the referee blew (chuckles, he always blows, umpteen times) 2-2.

In the second half, scoring early was the agenda, but Vardy had other plans, rose high to meet the accurate corner kick, and guided the ball past Cech again for the second time, making it to 3-2 to the visitors. Change is the only constant, hence on came Ramsey and Giroud, with some lovely exchanges between the midfielders, the decisive ball from Xhaka landed at Ramsey's immaculate touch, who scored the equalizer , making the crowd go frenzy  and it was not the end of the night, as Giroud scored a wonderful header beyond the reach of Schmeichel, which hit the bar and went in, a fabulous finish by the French striker, and 3 points were in the bag. Arsenal nicked the win from the hands of Shakespeare's men who were just as a flabbergasted as an audience in a Shakespearean play.

Running for our lives

Meticulous Reviews- Badrinath ki Dulhaniya (2017)

Rated 6.5/10 on imdb, and produced by Karan Johar speaks volumes of the movie in itself.
It is a story of a spoiled brat Badrinath played by Varun Dhawan, who meets Vaidehi Trivedi, played by Alia Bhatt , and decides to marry her , just because his father has a great reputation in Jhansi and she would be lucky to be married, since she isn't getting any younger , and her parents ,won't feel burdened for long enough, who is from Kota btw.

Beautifully depicted is the wonder park in Kota, seems very beautiful, I think that is the other thing famous in Kota other than coaching classes for IIT-JEE , mentioned vividly in the movie.
Also demonstrated were the brands , like Lenovo mobile, used by Badrinath to take selfies, and Frankfinn institute for air hostesses, where Vaidehi decides to flee, leaving Badri and his family in shame at the alter.

Vaidehi gets a job in Silk air, in Singapore and decides to live there as long as she can, and also stay away form all the marriage-with-dowry-agenda, on which Badri's father feeds on, besides the oxygen cylinder, to be used in case of emergency if he goes into a cardiac arrest.

The writer and director Shashank Khaitan, has done a commendable job, the dialogues and the deliveries throughout the movie is almost impeccable. The humour is too clever and has been juxtaposed in almost every scene possible in the first half of the movie. The second half gets a bit emotional and sentimental, as a bollywood movie is supposed to have, just like the unnecessary inclusions of songs in the movie, which I think are only euphemisms for making love (aashiq surrender ho gaya, BDSM is it? I don't know, viewers you decide).

Even though it seems clear that the actors who are not from the parts of the land they depicted to be from, did a lot of homework on the accents and the body language and the slurs, in my opinion , they lacked conviction. They can get a tutor, they can hang out with guys from UP and Rajasthan, but that meticulous swag, that style, that way of saying things , that smirk, of a resident can not be replicated, I am sorry, you just can't pretend, pretension  like luck, always runs out.

The grandiose arrangements of weddings were almost flawless, with lights on every entrance and every edge of every window and alley ways you could find, was just too beautiful to ignore.Kudos to the spotboys.

A little bit of bad advertising for Tuborg though, just may be after  a couple of pints, Badri and his friend Somesh were too drunk to even stand straight, I mean it is Tuborg, not even Tuborg strong, seemed odd from the beefed up actor. Anyway, both of them (Varun and Alia) didn't leave a single opportunity to showcase their hard worked mannequin-type bodies.Oh speaking of which, there is a mannequin challenge too, wonderfully epitomized in the opening song.

I also liked the way credits were displayed, not covering the entire frame, and dropping hints of names in and around the protagonists of the song/scene.

And I am not sure if it was a wise decision to be a successful air hostess in Silk Air, Singapore and then come back to India, and from all places , settle in Jhansi and open up an academy for young aspirants. No offense to people of Jhansi, but I don't see it as a wise decision.

Are You Thinking Episode 1

On 14th Feb, 2017, inception took place, a child was born, from a uni sexual and it was called a blog post.
Oh so belated happy valentine's day lovers and loathers, I am not sure why do we celebrate this day, may be I didn't do my research, but let us imagine if the birthday of Saint Valentine is Valentine's day and he is the spirit of this lovely day, did anybody think about what he used to get on his birthday as an adult, was it always chocolates and flowers and hugs, or did some "worshipers" please him orally and/or verbally with epics and tributes?

Anyway, virgin readers,I am known as Hungry Baba and I am mostly found hanging out at the dining table. I am no clairvoyant or voyeur but I can tell many couples would have made love this day rather than read this blog post, nobody gets famous overnight, only if the guy just doesn't come , all night long, may be then.

Pro tip for young aspiring valentine's day celebrators , in stead of saying the obsolete I love you , to your better half, why not create a conundrum, a puzzle or a treasure hunt if you have space and time, so give the recipient a set of questions and get answers as letters or words , like for "will you marry me, or would you kiss me, or..." (... signifies If You Know What I Mean) . Get them jumbled let him/her guess the answer, bring out the romance in you, the above techniques are tried and tested, they work like in 93% of the cases. So all the best. Think more, and if you want to share, don't worry, there are not many eyes on this blog, so your contribution will be anonymous and not known to everybody.

And if you really are not that lovey dovey person, and you just have to say those words just to avoid any awkward arguments in the future, you can try saying "elephant chews" , it does sound like what you have to say and the partner is happy, think about it.

Also one more thing , this is quoted by Piers Morgan "one day you are the cock of the walk , the other a feather duster" so before you think about walking the walk, also don't get too cocky, the downfall just like gravity takes one push and you fall really hard. Anyway, take care, have some philosophy up your sleeve? post it here, let us see if we can keep this going.
#AreYouThinking

Are you listening?

So , today I am like the soap cake with a washing powder, FREE FREE FREE!. Hence, I come back here to tell one tickling anecdote about listening intently.

Let us begin, with the faulty ear syndrome, no no, this time I heard every word loud and clear , but the ambiguity of the description and the word itself, made the escapade a bit waggish. It was a routine road trip from the office to home, in Hyderabad, in Ford Fiesta, with my magnanimous friend, Ravikanth. The DJ (Disc Jockey) [yes Disc is an exact 4 letter euphemism for you-know-what] plays the song called 'Vintunnava' a telugu word, and wait until I tell you what it means, or read the title. Yes! so, the infinite loop had begun, ephemerally, because home is where the fridge is. Here is the transcript:

Me: "What does vintunnava mean"?
Ravi: "Are you listening."
Me (may be I didnt hear) : "Yes, what does it mean?"
Ravi:" Abey, launja, are you listening."
Me: (again misheard full stop for a question mark, feeling annoyed) :"Yes bey, but what does vintunnava mean?"
Ravi: "ARE YOU LISTENING!!"
Me (annoyed an ample amount) [thinking alliteratively]:" Yes, I am, but, why can't you tell me?"
Ravi: (this time calmly): "Vintunnava means are you listening..."
Me: "But I was listening, oh wait" *double facepalm*
Ravi: "Thank you , now please get out of my car"
Me (hiding my face): "Vintunnava? I am leaving"
Ravi: "Ok, now you can go defile yourself."

Well, yes so concluding and clearing out all the omnishambles, languages are not so easy to comprehend, and here before you, the aforementioned true story, and a new learning, listening is an art, active listening will take you places, where you shall make the above mistakes even more.
Talking about mistakes, MS Dhoni, once said, "To become truly great, you need to expand the time difference between committing the same mistakes, the wider it is, the greater you will become. Because even though you don't want to, you will make the same mistakes again".

The Continuous Process Of Learning

Migrating from a student to a teacher.
Adolescence, the inevitable momentousness
Knighting the ignored.
Enlightening the subdued.


Alliteration is the new game


Deception is not at all fame.
Inspiration is a duty.
Freedom , you beauty.
Facilitating instructions
Emitting lights from dreams.
Resurging new attitude from ignorance.
Embracing the change.
Nullifying the poverty and illiteracy,
Cascading contagious feelings.
Emerging as true role models.