What is it all about "Boxing Day"?????

I have always wondered what is it all with "Boxing Day".But never made an attempt to really know what it is still now.Suddenly this wednesday I came to watch all EPL matches live which surprised me coz it usually happens over the weekend.In the whole match coverage they mentioned the word "Boxing Day" more than 100 times, which made me so anxious to know what is it all about.And finally today I got a chance to browse through Wikipedia and here is it folks........ all about Boxing Day.

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, a public holiday in most countries in The Commonwealth. It originated as a day for giving gifts to employees and poor people.Boxing Day is a traditional celebration dating back to the Middle Ages, of which the primary practice is the giving of gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class.It has sporting traditions, especially fox hunting, and is the day when stores launch the most significant sales period in the retail cycle.The public holiday is recognised in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as many other members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Other most significant features about this Boxing Day is that the retail shops open the most awaited sale of the year which spans for the whole week and it is similar to "Thanks Giving Sale" in US.And also all the football league matches will be played on the Boxing Day which makes the day even more exciting for all the football lovers.Specially this year EPL's top 18 clubs played against each other which was a treat to watch and I too came to know something about Boxing Day.

More about Boxing Day here

ColdPlay - Yellow

One of my all time favourite songs, infact I fell in love with Colplay just coz of this song.Superb melody and a great video too, just loved the video as much as the song.

Just enjoy the song and you ll definitely love it.

Corporate Management Funda

One of the best forwarded mails I ve ever got.Appraisal time folks ..... be careful with these crap promises.

England goes down in Wembley tears

It is one of the most stunning news of the year in the world of football.England team studded with full of superstars went down to a quite ordinary but talented side Croatia in the last qualifying match of the EURO 2008 qualifiers campaign.England just needing a point to advance to the EURO finals failed to capitalize on the home ground advantage.

It has been a complete let down by the team filled with individual stars.England always looks stronger and unbeatable on papers than in the field, it is a worst case scenario for the players, coach and the english fans.It requires lot of time for everyone to come out of this shock and disappointment.England will definitely miss the next years EURO cup and being a fan of England I will miss them too....

Kimi - The F1 World Champion

Being a die hard fan of Schumi, I almost lost interest in Formula 1 racing after the retirement of Michael Schumacher.Then came the stunning era of the dynamic trio - My personal favourite Kimi Raikkonen (The Iceman), Lewis Hamilton (The Rookie) and Fernando Alonso (The Defending Champion).This season had been the most glamourous,scandulous, fabulous and extraordinary season which I have ever seen.With just 7 points seperating the top three drivers after the penultimate race in Shangai it all came down to the decisive last race of the season in Brazil, Interlagos which would decide the champion of 2007.What a race it turned out to be, finally Kimi clinched the title with just 1 point seperating the top three drivers.

It was pretty much in favour of the Rookie Hamilton to win the championship in his debut season (Would have been the first accomplishment in the entire F1 history) after he qualified in front of his other title contenders.But it turned out to be a disaster of a race for him when Kimi had the best of the starts and manged to squeeze in front of Hamilton in the very first corner of the race.He wasnt expecting the worst thing to come in what turned out to be a historic race for him, his gearbox failed and he was pushed back to 18th place.The other title contendor Alonso had a pretty decent start and hanged on to his 3rd place and he was never in a position to catch the Ferrari's who pushed their cars to the limit in the opening few laps.

Kimi who was behind his teammate Massa in the opening laps managed to go past him after the first scheduled pitstops which was a typical Ferrari team tactic which earned him the maiden championship.Ferrari worked really well as a team and the drivers were competely supporting to each other throughout the seaon.But the McLaren drivers were never in a position to compromise each other throughout the season with so many disappointing ego clashes off and on the track which terribly cost them the championship in the final race of the season.

The Iceman kept his cool for the entire 71 laps and managed to clinch his maiden championship with Ferrari in the first season after moving from McLaren where he had a terrible last season without even a single race win.There may be lot of controversies over the spy scandal between the Ferrari and McLaren but Kimi won the championship fair and square and he proved he is the best on the track.I even loved the post race interview where he was pretty cool&calm and not at all excited over his accomplishment.I dont know who named him the "Iceman" , but it aptly matches his character.Way to go Kimi ....... The Flying Finn has really reached the heights :-).

Final Result:

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 110 points
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 109 points
3. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - 109 points.

Finally...a trip to Goa

A trip to Goa, we have been planning for this for almost 2 years and finally we made it last week.Its definitely an awesome trip and one of the best days of our life.Initially 5 guys planned for this, one turned down and finally we 4 made to Goa.Its definitely a must see location with all these beautiful beaches,forts,the typical Goan cuisine, port wine and ofcourse the Goan special Fenny (Though we didnt try it, ve heard a lot about it).

The entire trip was filled with lots of funny and exciting events.The onward train journey was bit tiring but we enjoyed it coz of the excitement of going to Goa.Our next 2 compartments were completely filled with girls, but we were not that lucky and we didnt even have a single one in our compartment :-(.But we managed to enter through both the compartments in one of the stations ;).

Our stay in Goa was pretty cool and cheap in Army Holiday Home, courtesy of my friend in IAF.It was a pretty decent 2BHK with all stuffs including early bed coffee and great breakfast.We managed to hire two bikes which is the best option to roam around Goa, and believe me it works out pretty cheap compared to other modes.Roads there were cool, though its a bit narrow it was pretty clean and excited us more without the horrible Bangalore traffic chaos.

We stayed there for four days and three nights.Days filled with fun and new places, nights filled with beer and wine ;).

First day: Went to Miramar Beach, we didnt see anything there except the lonely dried tree.You dont believe we saw this everyday somehow or the other.It was like the ray of hope for us, if we didnt have anything else to do we go to Miramar and sit near this tree.Then went to Dona Paula beach, we didnt enjoy this much coz of scorching heat.Evening went to Calangute Beach, where we enjoyed the most.We took some stunning pics and played all through the evening in sea.

Second Day: Went to Old Goa and visited the century old churches and museums.Went again to Miramar since we didnt know what to do for the rest of the day.One of my friend gave treat for dinner and we had the best Goan cuisine food.We just loved the food, especially the prawns masala...it was just yummy ;).

Third Day: Went to Chapora Fort, the best place we ever saw in Goa.The ride to the fort was just amazing, it was drizzling all through the morning and we enjoyed the ride in the rain.We explored each and every wall of the fort and we infact managed to reach the sea shore in the foothills of this small hill.It was deserted and a very shallow beach, we enjoyed the most here and infact we named it the SRYS Beach :-).Then went to Anjuna Beach and did some shoppin of Shells, funky chains ;) (Which we promised that we ll wear it for atleast a month).Then we went to the most happening place in Goa, the Baga Beach.

Fourth Day: Went to Aguada fort, meaning "Water Storage Place" in Portuguese.It had been the water refilling place for the ships in the older days.It was a pretty decent place and had nice scenaries all around it.Then did some shoppin again in Anjuna and packed all the things and reached the railway station.Our trip was over and we had that slight void in our hearts of leaving the most beautiful place we ve ever been together.

We had a blast in Goa and one of the memorable trips I have ever been to.I ll treasure this memories for a long long time.

India : T20 World Champions

Two weeks before I never thought that I ll write this, but here I'm with the great news of India winning the inaugural T20 championship.

What a final match it was and definitely worth watching it again.It was a complete see-saw and well balanced all through the match with just one shot away.Starting from Pakistain restricting India to 157, then India fighting back with some early wickets, then the brilliant knock from Misbah and finally the golden moment when he got out.I was almost in tears when Misbah hit the six in the final over, I thought India will definitely lose the match which should have been won much easier.But never take the credit out of Pakistanis, they played brilliant cricket all through the championship.Consistency the only word which describes the way they played the entire tournament.

Even I thought the last scooped shot went to four, but somehow Sreesanth managed to catch it under pressue and the only great moment he had in the entire match after coming through some big beltings from Pakistani batsmen.Then came the moment of joy with India lifting the world champions trophy after a very very long time.

Its definitely a stunning performance from the Indian boys who managed to held their nerves in the critical situation.MS Dhoni in his new role has captain has got the full backing from the youngsters and he has been an inspirational captain all through the tournament.The one good thing which I really liked in Dhoni's captaincy is that he's not afraid to take risks and very cool and calm in pressure situations.Khudos to the entire team and they really deserved it.

The entire tournament was so colourful and eventful that it changed the whole perception about this T20 game.I thought it will never become famous and its a spoil sport for the game of cricket.But this seems to be the next big thing in cricket, and definitely will attract lot more people to it.

I wanna just list out my top 10 best moments of the tournament.
1. Ofcourse it should be at the top of my list, "India crowned T20 World Champions".
2. Yuvraj's 6 consecutive sixes.
3. Chris Gayle's century in the first match and first of its kind.
4. India's win against Australians.
5. India - Pak bowl out.
6. Zimbabwe winning against the mighty Australians.
7. SA losing a spot in Semi's with just losing only one match ( They are the most unluckiest in cricket and they come with their own reasons for going out of the tournament everytime).
8. Brett Lee's hatrick.
9. Indian fielding , to mention few things.... Karthik's catch, runout's.
10. And ofcourse the beautiful girls and their dance.
All in all its a wonderful tournament and im so happy for the Indian cricket team and to the entire Nation.

CHAKDE INDIA....... you deserved it and keep up the good work.