Eventful week

In that order...

Bayern beat BVB in the UCL final at Wembley.
I didn't see the match live that night, but watched the highlights the very next day just before going to the exam. Later I read the match report, and it said that, both teams played nice attacking brand of football and unlike many earlier finals, where either of the two teams parked the bus or played defensively, this final was entertaining to watch. Personally, I like both the teams and both BVB and Bayern are more or less equal in their capabilities and footballing style. Both the teams are well organised, they attack and defend collectively. Neither team is a superstar based team. But Bayern edged in the end courtesy of Robben's late late goal. Mario Gotze absence surely hurt Dortmund in the final, but still, they can be very very proud of their achievement.

Let me tell something about BVB. They won many hearts on their road to the final. They played good attacking football, they fielded mostly home grown players and they had fantastic crowd support. On the other hand, Chelsea had the money, they had the best players available, still played defensive type of football in the last year UCL. Of course, they managed to win, but they didn't win many hearts. BVB had a great run with their project and of all the other projects, I like their project the most. Other projects means, I refer to, PSG, Man City, Chelsea, Monaco. I am not talking about Real's Galactico policy and Barca's tiki taka as projects here. Because these two clubs are already legendary clubs. Very few will dispute these both teams' dominance of Europe, even though Barca dominated European Cup only recently. But the clubs I mentioned earlier were new clubs trying to make their name, trying to enter the competition. Among such clubs, I liked BVB the most. How can anyone not like BVB. Or, I will say like this, anyone who loves football, must love BVB. But the sad thing is, BVB is going to loose few of its important players and I can only feel sorry for them. I don't know how long they can go on without their best players. I feel like, all Chelsea, PSG, Man City supporters are laughing at BVB, reminding them the harsh truth, that the only way to compete at the top is with the money.



I gave my first attempt for UPSC Civil Services by appearing for CSP 2013.
I will say this. I am neither satisfied with my performance in the exam, nor I was satisfied with the amount of preparation I have put in. There are many reasons for that and lets just say, I have learned a lot in this one year on 'how to not screw up your first attempt'. I will try to write a suggestion list to new aspirants out there on how to prepare for the prelims.

Now, I have not checked the key and mostly I will not check the key till the results are out. After writing both the papers, I feel like, things can go either way. I can not say that 'I will qualify' or 'I will not qualify' with certainty. Such was my performance. So, if I see the key and in the case I don't qualify, I know that my Mains preparations will be hit. I don't want that to happen. Not knowing the result is hence a good thing for me. Now I will prepare with the same zeal and enthusiasm as I would prepare if I qualified.

Now take a look at these questions asked in Paper I, CSP 2013.

1) Find the correctly matched pair and one of the option was 'Atlas Mountains - North Eastern Africa'
If you knew that Atals mountains were at North Eastern Africa, you can easily get that right.

2) List of fresh water sources - ice caps, glaciers, ground water, fresh water lakes and rivers.
I guess we need to sort that in ascending order or something.

3) And one more question on National Parks or Biosphere Reserves.
If you knew where they are located, you can easily answer the qeustion

4) question on Ilbert Bill.
I will not tell why I mentioned the questions here just yet, but in case I qualify, I will tell how these questions helped me to qualify.

MI beat CSK in the IPL final
Watched the match. If not for Dhoni, this final would have been very very uninteresting. Even with Dhoni, after 15 overs, the match became so one-sided, that I didn't feel like watching. Poor shot selection by CSK batsmen. I know they tried to counter attack MI bowling, but their execution wasn't great. Apart from Hussey, all of the top and middle order CSK batsmen got out playing poor shots. Anyway, lot of cleaning work to be done by the authorities regarding this spot fixing scandal. Hope this mess clears soon enough.

Real Sociedad drew with Real Madrid
Mourinho fielded Real Madird B Team. No Ronaldo, Ozil, Alonso, Ramos. Some of them were injured and some were given rest. I have watched the match, but I wasn't involved enough. Half the time, my room mate wanted us to see, IPL presentation. The other half I was battling sleep, trying to watch the match. Anyway, Sociedad created many chances and if not for Lopez, we would have easily lost the match. In the end they scored the equalizer and deservedly got the point. I knew this would be a tough match because Sociedad are chasing the lone CL spot. But I guess, Valencia will win at Sevilla and clinch that 4th spot. Lets see what happens. Apart from that, the only interesting thing left in La Liga is, whether Barca will equal Real's last year 100 point record. For that they have to beat Malaga and it seems they are going to do it.

Lots of rumors in the transfer market. I guess mostly we will see the following coming. Ancelotti, Bale, Carvajal. I am not sure, who would leave. Carvalho alreay left for Monaco. Now, I am on vacation and reading 'Audacity of Hope'. Then we have this big important function in the family. So, till June 2nd week, no Mains preparation.

Later...