The Roads Less Travelled …

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - A true classic. Anything more than this and less than a book will not do justice to this tale.

Embers by Sandor Marai - Two old men talk throughout the night, reminiscing about and recreating that fateful day which destroyed the marriage of one, the love of another and the bonds of friendship between them.

Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mafouz - Mafouz at his best. His prose, lyrical and magical, seduces the reader into a world of Djinns and Sultans which stays with him long after the book is finished.

Ports of Call by Amin Malouf - From the French resistance to the shimmering cauldron called Beirut, Maalouf chronicles this love story with an empathy and poignancy that is altogether ethereal.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami - Out of the world. With a dash of mystery and philosophical ramblings thrown in. Trademark Murakami.

The Gladiators by Arthur Koestler - What is revolution? Koestler takes a hard look at this question in this tale of Spartacus, the gladiator who became a revolutionary, challenging and shaking the mighty Roman Empire to its foundations.

Indian Unbound by Gurcharan Das - Part biographical, part journalistic this is probably one of the best books on Post-liberalisation India in particular and India in general. Eminently readable and scattered with anecdotes - the image of India as a wise Elephant rather than an aggressive tiger makes a lot of sense.

Doomed for the season? Out of the title race? Maybe yes. Watching the 4-0 defeat by Boro at the Riverside, I would be hard pressed to argue otherwise. It is not the scoreline nor the dominance of their opponents for the entire 90 minutes that has elicited these comments. It’s the way Man U played and the character they displayed when the chips were truly down.

If it is one thing Manchester United have displayed throughout the Ferguson years, it has been their never say die attitude. Their famous last gasp goals, which on numerous occasions have clinched them points and titles are a testament to this. Coupled with their penchant to take everything that comes their way and finish it has made them one of the biggest and most respected clubs on this planet. Sadly however with all the talent the current crop of players have, they lack these two attributes to a large extent. It is often said that greatness of a team is really put to test, when they do not play well. Getting those scrappy goals and making those last ditch lunges on a opponent rushing past or to intercept a finely threaded ball is the true test of the hunger of the players - and this hunger is what makes a team great and what Man U lacked today.

This criticism might sound too harsh, because the team today lacked probably 4-5 first team regulars - but it was also the team on which Manchester United are resting their future hopes. Rooney, Ronaldo, Fletcher all are slated to be stars of tomorrow. But apart from Rooney and Alan Smith, nobody displayed an ounce of urgency on the pitch. Some players were playing as if the score was not three nil against them but for them. Seniors in the team like Scholes and Ferdinand rather than lifting the young side up were in fact the most culpable. True Middlesborough played the best match of their season so far. But why did not Manchester United players rise to the occasion and do the same? And it is not a rant based on a single performance. The last Champions League match against Lille also we saw this lackadaisical approach.

In the past few years a lot of players have come into the side who promise a lot and deliver little. The number of good crosses Ronaldo put in today compared to the number of fancy stepovers he did on the byline was abysmal. For all the running he did and energy he displayed, Park Ji Sung rarely created anything. For all his purported comfort on the ball, Flecther gave the ball away way too easily and needlessly on numerous occasions. And less said about the performance of Ferdinand, who at the start of the season held the club hostage over his salary as the best defender in the world, the better. In comparison, Beckham with all his deficiencies rarely delivered a bad ball, Giggs matched his trickery with the goals he scored and created for others and Keane inspite of being booked never shirked away from making a strong tackle. And they did this consistently and often when the team was down lifting up the morale of the entire team. More than ability this requires mental fortitude.

There are key pieces which are missing in the current side, without which ManU will probably not regain their former glory and enough I believe has been said by me on this before. But more important is the resurgence of the attitude of fighting to the last gasp and taking those half chances. Because without those regardless of who comes in Manchester United are going to lose. As for making up the 13 points gap on Chelsea, well it looks impossible. The current crop of players probably think so already.

This week as I was browsing the blogsphere, I realized that a revolution of sorts was happening amongst the Indian bloggers. The issue in question was that of the nature and authenticity of the claims made by IIPM, whose flag bearer Arindam Choudhari is often listed amongst the top Indian management gurus.

Jammag, a little known publication tried to delve into the high claims made by the IIPM ads, and came out with an unflattering article regarding the veracity of these claims. Another blogger Gaurav Sabnis links to this article and expresses his own views . IIPM serves legal notice to Sabnis, which to me sounded more like the eternal Bollywood riff-raff "agar tumne hamara kaam nahin kiya to …". The issue heats up in the blogsphere with some apparently disillusioned souls coming out strongly in support of IIPM, by personally attacking Rashmi Bansal (the author of the Jammag article) and Gaurav. To have some fun type IIPM in Blogger search and follow the links.

The whole issue can at extremes be stated as a new direction of social movement by responsible people or a cheap smear campaign to generate some thrills in normally placid arena. Truth however is the fact that, IIPM over the last few years has invested heavily in advertising, especially in newspapers. Arindam Choudhuri has written best-selling (and in my opinion crap) books and has even directed a movie. On the face of such heavy media bombardment it is perfectly normal for an individual or an organization to look into the truthfullness of the tall claims. And that is exactly what has happened and IIPM has not come out of it looking too good. And like a truant child who has been discovered of his misdemeanors, it is creating a ruckus.