Thandiani through the Lens of iPhone

Picture 100
Originally uploaded by jndrfq

Thandiani is where my dad was born. Its a lovely village in the northern areas of Pakistan. 1 hour uphill drive from Abbottabad, Province of NWFP.

It is one of the hidden treasures of Pakistan. as close to nature as you can get. mountains, greenery, streams, sun, fog, cold. as pure as it can get in the present day.

This is an instant shot of the local transport used in the area.

Fantasy Champions League Week 1 team

Fantasy League Week 2 Team

Biggest Car Sale ever in South Africa; Avis Car

Lal Masjid by Dr. Shahid Masood

Arsenal after the Transformation

Now it happens which every Arsenal fan dreaded for long. Thierry Henry signs for Barcelona after a long time of speculations linking him with the Catalan club. I have to agree that it happens at the most unfortunate time & brings along a lot of uncertainty. People have started Speculating about Welcott, Febregas & Wenger's future as well. Although I believe that Henry was close to taking over Tony Adams as Mr. Arsenal when he declares he is going to be a gunner for life & he signed a 4 year long deal last summer. Now having said that he came up with pretty lame excuses, i must say about leaving arsenal. He associates his moving away from London due to David Dein's quitting & Wenger not signing the new contract which runs out in 2008. Anyways we will wait & see if Wenger stays or not.

Now that Henry has gone & he has gone cheap. 16M is too less a price tag for a player of his caliber.

A night to remember @ Loftus Versfield, Pretoria

Spanish giants, former european champions FC Barcelona came to South Africa on June 20th, 2007 to play a friendly with Mamelodi Sundowns the current champions of South Africa. It was a long drive from Joburg to pretoria. Although on a normal day it should have taken only 20 minutes but it took us around 2 hours to reach the stadium and then finding the parking was another big problem. In the end we had to park outside in open.

We reached there around 2 hours before time. Some local teams were playing already as a curtain raiser. Then about about 7 the event started. By that time the stadium was almost full. We got the best seats, amazing view. They started the event with both teams coming out and warming up before the large crowd. Sundowns came out first, but the pick of things was when Barcelona stepped out lead by Ronaldinho. You couldn't hear the person sitting next to you coz of all the Vuvuzela's. I have to say South African can make noise :)If they are not banned in the WC 2010 then its gonna be a big support to the south african soccer team.



The team started warming up. Good thing barca was warming up on our side of the pitch and you could always see Ronaldinho, Eto & Deco pulling tricks. It was some feeling watching them kick the ball. Imagine if Henry would have been there. Anyways it was my first big soccer game so I really was having a ball & the atmosphere was a big plus.

After they were done with the warm ups there were some other performances by some dancers & singers.



The game started at 8. South African international Surprise Moriri handed the home side an early lead but late goals from substitutes Santiago Ezquerro and Marc Crosas secured the win for the visitors.
Sundowns took the lead after just two minutes when Brent Carelse latched onto Vuyo Mere's low cross before setting up Moriri, who shot past Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes. Calvin Marlin kept Sundowns lead before the break after making point-blank saves from Samuel Eto'o and Ludovic Giuly. Even though the Spanish giants dominated the first half, Carlese, Josta Dladla and Patrick Apataki also spurned good scoring chances for the South Africans. Barcelona's persistence paid off the in the 74th minute when Ezquerro levelled from a Ronaldinho free kick. Ronaldinho was again the provider with a superb pass to Crosas, who fired past Marlin with six minutes remaining.

When the game ended it was a mess everybody trying to leave the ground. They say it can really get hectic in south africa after big matches. All the hooligans & pick pockets etc. Somebody i knew lost their camera during the game so I was really tied to my camera as I had all the barcelona stars captured in mine :) It all ended well though and we rushed back to joburg but never reached till another 2 hours. It was money and time well spent. I am gonna remember this for a long long time. Its always going to be big unless i see Henry or Delpiero play @ Ashburton Groove or Delle Apli respectively :)

Javier Saviola Leaves Barca with a bitter taste

Javier Saviola was once one of the hottest prospects in soccer world. He joined the catalan club for a mammoth club transfer fee of $28M from River Plate. The argentinian was all set to stardom with his agility, pace, finishing and flair. But he never got a chance to feature as a first team player once Rijjkard took over the club. Since then he has been a fringe player going on loans and staying on bench.


Now that he is leaving Barcelona Real Madrid seem interested. Although Arsenal i believe can't match the wage he was getting at Barca but still he and Henry together can be a lethal combo besides he gets to play first team and at his age he should only be looking for that.

Arsenal Summer Signings

Arsene Wenger: "The key is stability, and then the possible addition of one or two players who I think can add to what we are trying to do. But the key is to be strong, with a consistent belief in this team. My target is to keep the quality of our game at the level it is, try to improve it, but also give a little bit of a better balance to the team in the areas where we can be stronger."

Arsenal surely need a Center back to strengthen their squad. Kolo needs a partner there, Gallas although is versatile but still we need a strong figure like Tony Adams or Sol Campbell to form the second last line of defence.

In midfield we have a lot of talent but after Pires & Bergy left you can see a lack of that spark. Febregas needs someone of the class of Viera, Pires or Bergy to work things up. I think Ribery would have been a perfect candidate to provide that weidth we lack. Reyes is for sure not coming back but Baptista has not shown the class which was expected of him. Freddie is hanging in there.


As far as the strike force is concerned; you would think with Henry & Van Persie you dont need anyone else but who knows ?? Barca & Henry saga has been going for long now. Rumours are Barca is trying to sign Wenger up as a replacement for F. Rijjkard. If this happens then we have to fear for the worst :) Wenger is well known for convincing people & taking them along. After a long long time Wenger has finally let Frenchman Jeremie Alliadaire go. He is signing for middlesbrough for a transfer fee of 3 Million Pounds. I would really like to believe as always Arsene has a surprise for us. He will throw the ace right at the close of the transfer window i.e. if he stays. Instead of going to France I would like him to look in Spain and try to get someone like At. Madrid's Fernando Torres or Joaquin, although D. Villa will be out of our reach.

Vieira, An autobiography

Genevive & Jeff knew i was an Arsenal fan. Once i went to their place and they gave me a nice present. Vieira, An autobiography. A book with an amazing cover, paper quality and binding. I am not very big on reading but when it comes to biographies i think i can finish a book pretty quick. Took me three days to finish the book. I believe you learn a lot from the biographies of successful men & women. You get to know what to do to succeed in life.

Vieira tells about his childhood at Senegal. He migrated to France while he was 7. Never had shoes for kicking the ball but always was kicking something. Bottle or anything that rolls. The book tells how he made his way to the local clubs near Paris. One after the other. Cannes was the one he mentions again and again. He came on the surface when he was contact by Milan AC out of the blue. He did go to Milan but never made it big. Stayed for one season and played only a couple of games. Which kid would not like to be in Milan AC soccer team ? But then he met Wenger who asked him to come to Arsenal. Wenger was coaching in J-League at that time but was asked by Arsenal to come to Highbury as a manager. Vieira also had the options of joining Ajax and couple of other big clubs at that time. He made his choice - Gunners. He came to Arsenal in 1995-96 & stayed there for another 9 years.

He played with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Davor Suker, David Seaman, Tony Adams, Nicolas Anelka, Ray Parlour etc. They won a cup & Epl double in 98-99 ! This is when the amazing arsenal started transforming. Time went by and players kept coming and going but Vieira stayed and he was selected the captain after Tony Adams retirement. The best days were yet to come when the Arsenal "INVINCIBLE" came into being. They won the league unbeaten, 49 games in a row which was a new record. Greatest Arsenal team of the history with players like Thierry Daniel Henry, Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Sylvian Wiltord, Sol Campbel, Lehman, Ashley Cole, Lauren, Kolo Toure, Freddie Lundjberg. They were really great.

Then he talks about his transfer talks. He denies all the talks before the Real talks in 2004. He says all was pure fabrication until Real approached him & he was all set to go when on the last day of the transfer window he declined. He stayed the whole season but just to leave the next season for Juventus. in juventus he stayed for one season in which they won the Italian league but they were relegated due to match fixing scandals. Good thing was Juve played Arsenal in the Champs League knock out phases & Arsenal rupped them apart. It was Vieira vs. Febregas. Young spaniard won obviously scoring a goal as well. He is playing with Inter after Juve went to Serie-B.

He had great success with French National team (les blues). He is a world cup winner in 1998, a euro winner in 2000. France was WC finalist in 2006 where they lost to Italy on the Penalties, yeah the great Forza Azzuris.

Over all a nice book, Highly recommended for an Arsenal fan and one who wants to learn about Arsenal's history. Also recommended for Manu haters, as vieira tells Manyoo my favorite enemy :-) He thinks Van nistelrooy is a cheat and a coward. Although he appreciated and enjoyed the tussles with Keane & Scholes in the midfield battle for glory.

Joburg; a mugging hell or a muggers heaven

I had heard a lot about this & it so happens that my corporate informed me about this while i started my jounrey to South Africa. It was my first time in the African continent so i was not sure what to expect. I had an amazing 78 days in Suid-Afrikaanse (Afrikaans) it was the 17th day of May, Year 2007 it happened, which i feared.

I left work around 1700 hrs that day. Jeff did me a favor and he dropped me off at the Thorpe street so that i dont have to walk all the way with my laptop to the parking. I drove my car out from the parking. Meanwhile i placed my laptop behind the driver's seat infront of the back seat, so it was kind of hidden. I drove all the way to the market street, which happens to be the busiest street in JHB CBD with all major corporate offices in that area.

I stopped at one of the red traffic signals (called robots in SA). It must be around 1740 by now. My window was a little down so i could get some fresh air. That costed me :-) Next thing i know, there are 4 guys standing by my car- one put his hand through the window and turned the ignition off. Next i saw my car key thrown to the floor. Now the interesting part when they turned the ignition off, VW automatically opens the locks (something which they should consider). With all the doors open i am sitting there buckled up with the seat belt on, unable to move.

First i thought i had broken some traffic rule or something so they wanted to make sure i was punished, but NO next thing i hear is money money !! fone fone .. I believe they dint know english. Zulu maybe whatever ! They took my wallet !! I asked the guy who was drunk and smelling like anything to take the money but leave my Credit cards & driving License etc, which he did. Removed the money and threw the Wallet out. I still have blood on the Credit cards :) Now usually while driving i place my Mobile phone under my thighs :) which saved it. Thanks God it din't ring around that time. It was just this time when they started leaving. One guy who was standing by the left back seat window saw the Dayymmnn Laptop :( He asked the other guy; they picked it and that when they left. They din't run - they just walked - thats confidence man ! I parked the car pick up the VW car manual from the road, a couple of CDs and what other stuff i could pick up and left. I called the emergency police at 1746, 10(111) which never came till 1930. In the meanwhile Mohammad was kind enough to drive all the way from his home to CBD to see if i was alright.

We went to the Police head quarters on the Commisioner street by Fordsburg to make a complaint. We see half dead people with blood dripping and nobody to look after them. After some 10 minutes they called us & started the process. And i dont want to talk about that as the guy dint know what IT is and dint know the spellings of Computer :-) Anyways it ended and now I have a case number.

I AM STILL NOT SURE WHICH WAS WORSE GETTING MUGGED OR REPORTING THE COMPLAINT :)