I created this blog about a week back and now here I am, scratching my head and thinking what to write in my first post on my first ever blog. Let me begin by describing the events that took place in the past week, starting Saturday, i.e. 26th June 2010. I had succeeded in my goal of ensuring that the entire PaRC team (well atleast 75% of the team) was as excited as me in following the Fifa World Cup this year.
The weekend (Sat-Sun i.e. 26-27 June) marked the beginning of the round of 16 matches. This week was also important for me as I submitted my documents at the VFS UK office in Nehru Place to apply for the UK Tier 4 Student visa. It will now take another 8-10 working days before I get my passport (hopefully, stamped with UK visa) along with the academic and professional documents submitted during the application process.
26th June (Sat)
In the 1st Match of Round of 16, Uruguay successfully defended their winning streak by defeating South Korea in an exciting match which resulted in a 2-1 scoreline. In Match 2 that evening, Ghana surprised everyone when they beat USA 2-1. A Ghyan scored the second goal for Ghana when the match went into an extra time, as the score was tied 1-1 at the end of second half.
27th June (Sun)
The plan of meeting up at Shashank's place to watch the Germany vs England match was very much on. The potential list of attendees included Anshul Malhotra, Ankur Sharma, Vishal Marwah, Dheeraj Sah, Sumit Singh, Prashant Gill, Shubhojeet Gupta and Jagjit Talwar. The plan was to meet up at Shashank's place, everyone brings their own booze and we will order for some snack items (veg and non-veg) when we reach at Shashank's. Anshul, the first person to back out from what was considered a fullproof plan, had to meet one of his close friends, whose grandmother was hospitalised. I left my place at 4.30 PM and headed straight for Malviya Nagar, where I picked up Sumit Singh. We then went to Mohammadpur to pickup Shashank, who was visiting her sister over the weekend. Sumit lead us to a wine shop in Vasant Vihar, his old hang out zone during school days. Shopping time - 8 beer cans for Sumit, 4 bacardi breezers for Shashank and 2 breezers for me. We reached Shashank's place at 7.15 PM, just 15 minutes before the start of the much awaited match between Germany and England. Soon we were joined by Jagjit, his room mate, Vishal and Shubhojeet. The absentees included the football enthusiast, Dheeraj Sah and the casanova, Ankur Sharma. The 4-1 result in favor of Germany had Mr Singh jumping all over. He even broke Shashank's bed for crying out loud. It was a big let down by the star studded England team, which failed to impress at all during the entire match. The beer and breezers were flowing on. Finally the snacks arrived, which were ordered an hour back. Dheeraj was untraceable the entire evening. As Shashank, Dheeraj and Jagjit stay in the same building, both Dheeraj and Jagjit were the so-called "common hosts" along with Shashank. The 2nd match for that day was between Argentina and Mexico. I drived as fast as I could and reached home just before the match started. Argentina, led by Messi, Tevez and Higuain, comfortably beat the Mexicans with the scoreline reading 3-1 at the end of the match. Dheeraj Sah finally woke up from his sleep and realised that everyone got together at Shanky's place and that he, the common host, was being cursed by all who gathered.
Monday (i.e. 28th June)
I preferred to work from home that day. Went to PNB, Noida with Mom to sort out few pending items. The 1st item was to get a new passbook with my name printed on it (for the UK visa application). 2nd item which was completed the same day was getting ATM Debit Cards for mom and myself. 3rd item included submitting an application for internet banking registration. Unfortunately the computers were down at the branch and except task 1, the rest of the tasks were completed. We then went to StudyOverseas office in Nehru Place. I met my consultant, Roshni Tagra for the first time. I showed all my papers to her including the old pass book, which had my name written by hand. I filled in the visa forms and enquired about the next steps involved with regards to UK visa application. All the documents, except the PNB passbook were now in order and my file was ready for the UK visa application. In the evening, while working from home, I watched the round of 16 matches between Netherlands and Slovakia, which the Dutch won comfortably. The other match that day was between Brazil and Chile, which the 5 times champion won without much threat from their South American neighbours.
Tuesday (29th June)
Along with mom and my kid sister, Preeti, I once again visited the PNB Noida branch, hoping that now the computers should be working and that the new passbook could be issued without wasting much time. Unfortunately, the systems were down again and we were asked to collect the new passbooks post 4 PM IST. I dropped mom and sis at GIP and left for work. Around 4.30 PM that day, mom called me and said that she has collected the passbook and it now had all the 3 names printed (my mom, my sister and myself). On my way to work, I went to Sec 14 market in Gurgaon and got my photographs clicked for my UK visa, which I was handed over at that very moment. 8 visa photographs and 8 passport size photographs-delivered immediately-for Rs 180.
In the evening, I preferred following the match between Paraguay and Japan over the internet until the end of 120th minute of play. I then went to the cafeteria where my fellow football enthusiasts were cheering for the Japs. The match was quite eventful and was the 1st match of the 2010 World Cup edition which led to a penalty shootout. The Paraguay team held their nerves together and won 5-3 against a heart broken team from Japan.
The much awaited match of the day was between two footballing giants from Europe, viz Spain and Portugal. The European neighbours kept taking chances against each other in the first half, with neither of the teams showing any signs of taking the lead. An exciting display of attacking football and great skills from David Villa, had Spain take the lead in the second half. Christiano Ronaldo was completely overshadowed by the Spanish attackers and defenders. The game ended in a 1-0 win for Spain, however the Portugese performance was under par when compared to their match against Brazil.
Wednesday (30th June)
Went to meet Roshni at Study Overseas in Nehru Place. All the paper work was now complete and my UK visa application file was completely ready. A mail was sent to the VFS UK Delhi office requesting them for an appointment date for me to apply for the student visa. I decided to go home from there as the traffic was really worse and my back pain did not allow me to drive all the way to Gurgaon. On Wednesday, I stayed logged in from home and completed the pending task items for the day. It was quite a boring day for a football lover, as there were no WC matches scheduled for that day and the day after.
Thursday (01st July)
Roshni from Study Overseas called me and informed me about the date and time for the visa appointment at VFS UK office. Date: 02nd July (Friday) Time: 8 AM. She requested me to drop by at StudyOverseas office and take the cover letter from studyoverseas, which would help my application go through the visa scanning process. Reached office by 2.30 PM and left work by 9.45 PM, as I had to get up early the next day for my visa appointment. Saturday's plan of meeting up with college buddies, viz. Namita, Pushpendra (and Pooja), Neeraj and Naveen was finalised. We decided to meet around 6.30 PM at Mocha Bar in Satyam Complex, Nehru Place on 3rd July (Sat) and watch another Argentina vs Germany Quarter Finals, just like we did in 2006.
Friday (02nd July)
Woke up at 5.30 AM and left home by 7 AM. I always love driving my car when there is little or no traffic on Delhi roads. I reached Nehru Place in half an hour. For the next 30 minutes, I just waited for the VFS UK office to open their gates. I finally entered inside the VFS office at 8.20 AM. The overall process of paying the visa fees (Rs 13950+200), submitting the CAS number for verification, getting all the documents validated and finally the biometric finger prints, lasted 1 hour and I was out by 9.30 AM. Thanks to a massive jam near the Gurgaon Toll booth, I was able to reach office by 11.10 AM. I met Ashish Sarin, who recently got married and had lunch with him at Pizza Hut. It was the beginning of the Quarter Finals stage of the 2010 World Cup edition and everyone at work was pretty excited. The 1st Match between Brazil and Netherlands was going to be exciting, while the second match between Uruguay and Ghana was expected to be a good contest. Around 7 PM, I left for Raj restuarant to meet Abhishek and Somankar. I was seeing Somankar after 1 year and was pretty excited to meet them both. We had a long chat and "daddy" (Abhishek's nickname) was entertaining as always. We discussed about my plan of moving to UK and the risks involved. We then discussed career progression path for Somankar and daddy's plan of him moving abroad if ever such an opportunity was presented to him, during his stint at IBM. The moment I reached the 5th floor, I was greeted by all the PaRC members, supporting Argentina, who were very excited to share the "news of the hour" that Brazil lost to Netherlands in a thrilling match. Woweeeeeeeeeeeeee......... was the word that came out of my mouth, followed by high fives all around. Argentina's path was now clear. Hurrrrrraaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! Poor Anshul, Prashant, Kamaljeet and his elder brother Rajdeep, they were all heart broken. All of them had predicted Brazil would lift the 2010 World Cup, and now here they were crying all around over Brazil's loss to the "Orangemen". Yippppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..... way clear for Argentina to lift the trophy. When I reached home, I witnessed another great match between Ghana and Uruguay. In an exciting and thrilling match, A "Hand of God" display followed by a selfless deed from Suarez ensured that Uruguay reserve their semi-final berth against Netherlands.
Saturday (3rd July)
The moment I got up in the morning, I was excited about the Quarter Final match between Germany and Argentina. I was also excited about meeting my fellow batchmates from IHM, my best friends since the last 12 years, and enjoying the match in their company. All was going well until 5 PM, when Naveen informed me that Mocha Bar had been shut down and he was trying to arrange for an alternate venue. Unfortunately, there wasnt any place which was available on such a short notice and moreover the places we checked out were not showing the FIFA WC matches on big screens. Namita called me around 5.45 PM and said that she will not be attending the get together as she had to attend an immediate family exigency. The plan was eventually called off and lets just say that I was not in a pleasant mood. I now waited for the Argentina vs Germany match to begin as only that, topped with Argentina kicking German arse, would have made me happy and rejuvenated me. Goal 1, 2, 3 and 4.... Nooooooooooooooooooooo..... Maradona's men were left stranded against the German "Attacking" Machine... From a 1-0 score in favour of Germany at half-time, the score soon turned 4-0... It was now my turn to be all sad and disappointed and heart-broken. Argentina losing by 4 goals to nil was like to worst nightmare of my life. How could that have happened??????? Messi, Higuain, Tevez, Maxi, Heinze and Maradona.... Nooooooooooooooooooooo.... I decided to eat my dinner and go to sleep. If I were to be all normal the next day, this was the best thing to do. I didnt even watch the 4th Quarter Final match between Paraguay and Spain. Now, I had no interest in following the remaining of the WC matches. My team, Argentina, was out and I really prayed Germany to be kicked out by the Spaniards in their next encounter. I am ready to apply the age old philosophy of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". I now support Spain and would want them to win this WC and kick German arse all over the Durban stadium..... C'mon Spain !!!!!
Sunday (5th July)
Argentina's loss to Germany was something that haunted me in my dreams too. I finally woke up at 1 PM. I had chicken biryani at lunch. For the remainder of the day (till now 5.15 AM, Monday morning i.e. 5th July), I kept researching and reviewing the various flight options and their rates for my planned travel date of Sep 1, 2010. I also surfed through various websites and kept searching for a good laptop to buy, which should last for a minimum of 3-4 years. British Airways is currently offering a student offer, wherein one can carry 46 kgs of baggage to UK. The ticket price from Delhi to London or Edinburgh is 21K or 25K. I guess, I will be going for the Delhi-Edinburgh option as that will be hassle-free. As for my choices on laptops, I may opt for any one of the laptops which has the following configuration:
1. core i3 or core i5 processor
2. RAM size - 3-4 GB
3. Disk size - 320-500 GB
4. 15.6" screen or above
As of now the laptops fulfilling the above criteria are Dell Inspiron 15R (36.9K), ACER 5740G (39K), Samsung R580 (43K), Samsung R480 14" screen (40K)... Before the end of the current week (WC 5th July), I should be able to book my tickets as well as buy a new laptop which I will be carrying with me in September this year for my MBA at University of Edinburgh...
