Medley I

Aaiye dukaan kholta hoon:

1. Re-vive: Coming along pretty nicely. I’ve now sort of realized what I had been missing for quite some time. The ubiquitous adda session that happens every day from sunset till 11 o’ clock has become very, very essential to my daily existence. Pausing to think, I also realize that earlier, we never ever had to call each other to a specific place just so we can have this – we had the tuitions which served the purpose. Commendably. And Mukherjee hasn’t changed. Not. One. Bit. And that keeps things jazzed up all the time, although we sometimes go a little overboard! The Polo Ground is perfect for this kind of timepass. Made my second trip to school with Babai, Souvik and Roy. And we ended up singing a plaintive - and pathetic - rendition of ‘Winds of Change’(Or...did we?). School school naa raha(sob). Siddhant ‘Choos-Lee’ Bhartia came down all the way from Calcutta to meet up with us. We appreciate it, Sidd – it’s a pity our plans to get smashed together in Bangalore never really materialized, and now you're no longer in Bangalore. Now it’s Calcutta for the next 3 years, pucca. Right then. We’ll get smashed in Calcutta one of these days :D
And I still can't decide whether I want to go for that reunion party in school. Most of us are undecided - we're unsure of the crowd... what if the grand old men of SPS Alumni take centrestage and we newbies are summarily ignored? Wisely, the organisers are dangling the bait of having ex-students from AG Church and Loreto on board for the '3 day extravaganza' :D We shall see!

2. Brit GP, Silverstone: So the Brawns finally came unstuck. Low temperatures weren’t letting their tyres warm up properly, and Button was undone (*smirks*) and Barrichello wasn’t exactly giving a great account of himself (Massa and Rosberg almost jumped him). But I’m dribbling on about a mere bagatelle. Why don’t we sidestep this issue and yell ‘SEBASTIAN!!’ - What a performance. What a thundering performance. Granted that the Red Bull car was flattered a little by the nature of the circuit and the air and track temperatures, but you simply can’t gloss over the fact that Vettel, on a heavier fuel load, first put in a stonker of a qualifying lap to take pole, and then pulled away from the two old goats on the grid at over a second a lap consistently during the first stint of the race. That was the day he did a Schumacher. Fab job!

3. Wimbledon: It’s no secret which camp I belong to. And yes, Wimbledon without its defending champion feels a bit like showing up for a college prom night and having to dance with Bablu the channawallah. OK, that was monumentally asinine of me, but you shall, at this juncture, have mercy on this mentally challenged individual and get the drift. And, much as I don’t mind Roger Effing Federer and really, really respect him, the Savile-Row bedecked tennis-racket swinging Rolex commercial really gets on my nerves. The other one with footage from his matches is OK – I mean, Rolex has being doing that sort of ads for years, but this one is, well, phhbbbt.

4. Shantaram(the book): I won't say anything except describing it in one word : 'staggering'.

More later. Run along.

Oh, Roger!

Roger fans (I'm half a fan myself :-)), savour your moment under the sun :-).

What's with the excessive smileys I'm dishing out?

He is the greatest now. Now even critics who held his inability to win the French Open as a trump card have to shut their fucking traps up. Hats off, man. He and his camp have every right to be extremely chuffed about this victory. They badly needed this one. We always knew he had the game to triumph at Roland Garros, and it would only be a matter of time before he'd hold aloft the Coupe des Mousquetaires on Court Philippe Chatrier. There was only one thing he needed. Badly.

The absence of a certain Rafael Nadal Parera on the other side of the net.

Inexplicably, Nadal caved in against Robin Soderling, after decimating Lleyton Hewitt in the previous round. The only saving grace is that Soderling reached the final. Nadal summed it up himself - 'His game didn’t surprise me; I was more surprised by mine.'

And Bjorn Borg's gesture of sending Soderling a congratulatory SMS wasn't offensive at all. Its content was. Apparently, what he said to Soderling is that he was happy his record at Roland Garros remained intact. I've lost some respect for Mr. Borg. Great champions never think on those lines. Sad.

It looks like Federer's luck has also endured at this year's French Open. Nadal had been eliminated. Then, he narrowly managed to scrape through against Acasuso, Haas and Del Potro. Once he was in the final, there was absolutely no stopping him. Soderling didn't know what hit him.

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Federer and his worshippers have more reasons to rejoice. Nadal' s pulled out of the Queen's tournament, and his entry in Wimbledon 09 is also in doubt. We all know why. But if you are a berk, here's why:

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1015677

So King Federer says in an interview:

"I was surprised to see him pull out of Queen's, and now the debate that he might pull out of Wimbledon is quite frightening. I don't like to see it, because you want the best to be playing in the biggest events."

I think not ;-)

Anyway, Nadal has no intention of disappointing Roger Kumar:

"I am going to give 200 percent to be ready for the most important tournament in the world, the tournament that I always dream about,” Nadal said. But he also added that he would not play if he wasn't 100 percent ready.

Fingers crossed. Until the day they announce the draw at SW 19.

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I wasn't aware of this - When Nadal burst on to the scene, he wasn't welcome at all. Frankly speaking, I myself hated him initially.

He had to face a lot of hostility from fans in Paris. Guy Forget, commentator on France 2 detested him(still does, obviously) and said, "We don't need construction worker arms in tennis." After the 2006 Roland Garros final against Federer, Nadal started by praising Federer in his speech. The translator mistranslated the speech, leading the public to think he was praising himself. Nadal was thus booed and whistled at throughout the speech.

Beautiful. These people have had to eat their own words. Repeatedly. And hopefully they'll have to do so for some more years.

Busy doing nothing. Hence the post.

-I am guffawing everytime I recall this bit from Jezza's column featured in the Times today:

"..Nor could I understand how someone from Tooting could possibly support, say, Manchester United, a team sponsored by those hateful bastards at AIG and made up of players from Portugal, France, Holland and, in the case of Wayne Rooney, Walt Disney. Where’s the connection? What’s the point?"

The Wayne Rooney bit is fan-effing-tastic!


- I finished reading the Hamster's autobiography - 'On the Edge : My Story'. Great entertainment, much like the man himself!


- Saw the trailer of 'The Fast and The Furious : 4' whilst channel-surfing. It's got a rather unimaginative tagline which goes : 'New Model. Original Parts'. If somebody tried to sell a car or a bike with such a tagline, the message sent out would be screamingly obvious : "When we first made it, it was hopeless. In fact, it was so bad that no one noticed. Giving it a new set of snazzy decals and new marketing bullshit in the product brochure, we expect to sell more units than we sold last year. Err...we sold none last year. We have an overflowing inventory." I sincerely hope I can laugh as much at this movie as I did when I saw 'The Fast and the Furious : Tokyo Drift'. Muahahahaha.


- I just discovered that my 'Scientists and Innovators' course presentation is on the 1st of April! We'll be doing a presentation on SN Bose. Or was it JC Bose? Damn.


- I watched a rerun of the BNP Paribas Open semifinals on Star Sports. The one involving Federer and Murray was... weird. Federer played brilliantly in the 2nd set and in the 1st two games of the 3rd. Then, inexplicably, he caved in, making a string of unforced errors. That was extremely disturbing. How on earth did his game fold up after he had clearly settled into a good rhythm? I don't know. Neither does anybody else, including Federer.
The other semifinal ensured that normal service was resumed. Nadal beat Roddick 6-4, 7-6. The strong winds made things a little dicey, but every time Rafa let that forehand rip he made A-Rod look slow-witted and ponderous. Duh.


- Saw the 'Every Second Counts' commercial aired by Star Sports as a part of the 2009 Formula One season's advertising campaign. Liked it. Looking forward to what promises to be a cracker of a season! Rock it, boys!


- As you must have realized by now, Star Sports has been my companion for the day.


- I need a new pair of aviators. Now. I need 3 grand to pay for them. I don't have 3 grand. So I shall shut up.


- I am also wondering why I never talk to my parents for more than 90 seconds. This is in stark contrast to my other hostel-mates. I just mutter a few 'hmm's and 'yeah's, followed by long silences, until my mother says,"You don't have anything to tell me. Bye.". And hangs up.


- Checked out the wedding pics of my maternal cousin, who got married on the 14th of February. I wasn't there. Darn.


- I learned that there exists a racing series called 'The Middle East Rally Championship'! Surreal, I say!


- I added the tags for this post, clicked on 'Publish Post' and sat back to watch 'Engine Block'. On Star Sports :D

Tera Emosanal Attyachaar...

“Kal mera bebaaak tha,
Aaj magar kamzor hai..
Khud se aankhein hi na mil paayein.

Aankhon ka hai dhokha,
Aisa tera pyaar
Tera Emosanal Attyachaar”

What the hell are these lines doing here?

I’ll tell you. During one commercial break in the middle of the Roger-Rafa final at the Aussie Open today, I randomly switched to MTV where the DevD trailer was being aired – and I couldn’t help but connect these lyrics to Federer’s surprising breakdown in the post-match presentation ceremony – OK not the ‘Aankhon ka hai dhokha, aisa tera pyaar’ part, but the rest of it!

It was understandable – he really, really wanted to equal Sampras’ record and doing that in the Rod Laver arena in front of Rod Laver himself and other legends like Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Tony Roche and Andreas Gimeno would have been perfect. Everything leading up to the match looked just right – he had been in supreme form through the quarters and semis, he had a good two and a half days off after his easy-peasy semi-final and he was desperate to add to his impressive trophy cabinet his fourth Norman Brookes Cup . He had every right to think that he would be able to do it. So did Sampras, Laver, Borg, Pat Cash, John McEnroe and some other former greats – they had all put their money on the Fedex.

Except that it wasn’t to be. El Matador had other ideas. Rafa ne de hi diya ‘lafa’! The guy never ceases to amaze me. It baffles me how he managed to have so much in reserve after the epic Verdasco Semi-Final. Playing against Nadal is, in many ways, similar to playing against a wall!

But I’ll talk exclusively about Nadal in my next post. In the presentation ceremony, after collecting the Runners’ Up thaali, Roger started, “Hi guys!! I…..God….it’s just killing me…”, and started sobbing uncontrollably! The Emcee then said that they’d hear from the new champ, Rafa and called him up to the mike. Poor Rafa for a moment didn’t know what to do! He accepted the trophy, lifted it and then…went back and put an arm around Federer, prodding him back towards the mike! That was when Federer somewhat collected himself, “I think I will try again. There’s no way I could have the last word here. This guy deserves it.” He moved away and resumed crying. Then Nadal, who seemed genuinely sorry to have shattered Federer, was effusive in his praise for the Swiss great: “I'm sorry for today, Roger. I really know how you feel. But remember – you are one of the best players of the history and you are going to improve the 14 of Sampras. It is always a pleasure to play you and best of luck for the rest of the year.”

Everybody went weak, teary-eyed and appreciative at this great display of comradeship between the two, but it evoked mixed feelings in me… I think Federer, by breaking down like that completely ruined Nadal’s moment of triumph. The poor guy couldn’t celebrate his victory properly... It’s extremely nice of Nadal to have said such soothing words to Federer after that…he might as well have ignored all that and celebrated boisterously instead. Which wouldn’t have been improper at all. He’s such a modest and sensitive chap, Rafa.

Federer, with his experience of having featured in 18 Grand Slam Finals and won 13 of them should have done better. He’s still only 27, has a long way to go and many more finals to play. The demons of winning every match that he unknowingly created over his years as the undisputed World No.1 are finally getting to him, it so seems.

I’ll end with a few lines from another song – Coldplay’s Viva la Vida :

“I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
‘Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!’

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.”

Of course, things are not this bad for Federer, but it sure looks as if that’s the way he’s thinking!!! C’mon Roger, BE A MAN! Show them next time out! And one more thing : Stop crying.