The Wimbledon finals this year has been AMAZING. Just amazing. After a delayed start (It's London), the game keeps getting better... From a rather one sided start showing the world a rather uncommonly nervous Roger Federer, to the continued dominance of Rafael Nadal, to a wonderful, uncharacteristic display of oure grit from FedEx, to the heartstopping tie breaks, and now the seemingly surreal 5th set... This has been perhaps the most exciting tennis match I can remember.
That includes highlughts of Borg-McEnroe, Sampras-Agassi, the odd Safin magic and every last 4 match in this millenium. But nothing, I assure you, comes close to this.
Maybe Its the stage, the players, and their unfathomable equation between them - a wonder kid who keeps getting better and a genius who learned the ropes from the legends of the past generation before becoming the beacon of this one. And wow oh wow, the stage, the biggest stage of them all, Men's Singles at Wimbledon.
The highlight of their rivalry, i believe, is actually the dynamic bullfighter... Remember that the aforementioned rivalries reached their peak when the players themselves did. This one is unique in that Roger Federer, genius he may be, is actually on the downslide, the mind and body no longer housing the immaculate and calculating enigma that was everything swiss, chocolate and smooth. While Rafael Nadal, a pitbull, a streetfighter by title and probably Leanardo da Vinci's dream test subject, is improving, learning and relearning in leaps and bounds with every passing match.
Speaking of leaps and bounds, remember his first Wimbledon final, when he came out so charged up he actually bounded across centre court for a warm up, only for the cool on federer to washout the first set? Oh does life ever come a full circle... tonight it may well have been the champion bounding across the court, chasing each ball only to miss-hit it by an agonizing millimeter.
Talk about putting a damp cloth on things... just when i was getting into it, the clouds open up. Life can be so unfair, but maybe its just as well, some much needed rest for these frayed nerves. Oh well, one can only wax so much eloquence without anything to eloquent about... time to sign out...
Oh, and after an entire post without bias, i just couldnt resist,
To Roger Federer, Wimbledon Champion of 2008.
Lets just hope i neednt eat anything more for breakfast than oats...
Update: Blah! (Chokes)
Monday, July 7, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Get your reading glasses out...
Left completely bored by the redundant TV schedules and with the opressive heat making going out pretty impossible, I ve stuck to more conservative means of spending time. Translation: I've been reading a lot of books the past week. Maybe its luck. Maybe my parents have great taste. Or maybe I'm not that discerning. Either way, I'm totally enjoying myself.
The first book i read, was The Street Lawyer, by (guess) John Grisham. Its a story of a young, workaholic, not-so-rich-but-getting-there guy in law firm in Washington DC. A seemingly freak accident involving a homeless man holding him hostage in office, and asking thoroughly wierd questions, sets off a series of events which turns our protagonists world completely upside down. The book centres around the Homeless in DC, and how a seemingly innocent stroke of neglect up the economic food chain, can doom the lives of those on the bottom.
The next was a half complete, begging to be finished novel called The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum. I always have loved Ludlum for the sheer excess of tech jargon and action in his books, and how the stoyline, though vaguely similar everytime, is always pretty catchy. Although all of Ludlum's protagonists are the military training, Con-Ops/CIA types, with a general tough outside good inside streak, i can't really seem to care when reading his books. Although, it must be said, none of his recent novels even come CLOSE to the Jason Bourne Series. It isn't fair really... Ludlum got unlucky, and painted his Mona Lisa pretty early.
Anyway, Vector is about a highly precise, tailor made Biological Killer called HYDRA. The weapon is made from the victims own DNA, making collateral damage obsolete, and making it the perfect assasins tool. This is set against an increasingly tyrant Kremlin, set out to reclaim the Motherland's role on centre stage. Lt. Cl. John Smith, a Con-Ops operative, is first leaked info on HYDRA, and promptly attacked. With political pressure mounting, Smith has to locate the people behind HYDRA before they get their ultimate Target - The President of the US.
Another Ludlum novel was The Bancroft Strategy. This one is a mammoth book... took me ages to finish. Its about an operative called Todd Belknap, 'The Hound' who sets out to rescue his closest friend from an operation gone wrong. Todd himself has been placed on indefinite leave after a failed Recon mission, and things get worse when every lead that Todd follows ends up being murdered, and him being framed. On the other side of the world, Andrea Bancroft wakes up one day to find a proposal by her wealthy cousins to serve on the board of the prestigious Bancroft Foundation. However, Andrea soon finds herself wrestling with a benign
charitable foun dation on one hand, and a cold, calculating, and anonymous 'Genesis' on the other. Andrea and Todd collide in the most unlikely manner, and find out they are bang in the middle of a very, very large conspiracy. Loved the movie-type storytelling, and the absolutely unexpected climax.
The last one i ve read is a 300pg, spellbinding, touching and altogether amazing book called 'The Man from St. Petersburg', by Ken Follet. Set against the lead up to the first world war, it follows a fearless, murderous and cold Anarchist, Feliks, who seeks to assassinate a Russian Prince to prevent Russia's participation in the war. However, his not really best laid plans go to nought, when he is confronted with his past. How this affects Feliks, and the entire political implications of one man's actions, forms the basis of this enthralling story. I loved this book, for the amazing potrayal of a man rediscovering his emotions, in the most unlikely of ways, and the inner struggle between his anarchist ideals, and his rediscovered conscience.
Whoa... sure was a long post... anyways... until next time, Ciao!
The first book i read, was The Street Lawyer, by (guess) John Grisham. Its a story of a young, workaholic, not-so-rich-but-getting-there guy in law firm in Washington DC. A seemingly freak accident involving a homeless man holding him hostage in office, and asking thoroughly wierd questions, sets off a series of events which turns our protagonists world completely upside down. The book centres around the Homeless in DC, and how a seemingly innocent stroke of neglect up the economic food chain, can doom the lives of those on the bottom.The next was a half complete, begging to be finished novel called The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum. I always have loved Ludlum for the sheer excess of tech jargon and action in his books, and how the stoyline, though vaguely similar everytime, is always pretty catchy. Although all of Ludlum's protagonists are the military training, Con-Ops/CIA types, with a general tough outside good inside streak, i can't really seem to care when reading his books. Although, it must be said, none of his recent novels even come CLOSE to the Jason Bourne Series. It isn't fair really... Ludlum got unlucky, and painted his Mona Lisa pretty early.
Anyway, Vector is about a highly precise, tailor made Biological Killer called HYDRA. The weapon is made from the victims own DNA, making collateral damage obsolete, and making it the perfect assasins tool. This is set against an increasingly tyrant Kremlin, set out to reclaim the Motherland's role on centre stage. Lt. Cl. John Smith, a Con-Ops operative, is first leaked info on HYDRA, and promptly attacked. With political pressure mounting, Smith has to locate the people behind HYDRA before they get their ultimate Target - The President of the US.
Another Ludlum novel was The Bancroft Strategy. This one is a mammoth book... took me ages to finish. Its about an operative called Todd Belknap, 'The Hound' who sets out to rescue his closest friend from an operation gone wrong. Todd himself has been placed on indefinite leave after a failed Recon mission, and things get worse when every lead that Todd follows ends up being murdered, and him being framed. On the other side of the world, Andrea Bancroft wakes up one day to find a proposal by her wealthy cousins to serve on the board of the prestigious Bancroft Foundation. However, Andrea soon finds herself wrestling with a benign
charitable foun dation on one hand, and a cold, calculating, and anonymous 'Genesis' on the other. Andrea and Todd collide in the most unlikely manner, and find out they are bang in the middle of a very, very large conspiracy. Loved the movie-type storytelling, and the absolutely unexpected climax.The last one i ve read is a 300pg, spellbinding, touching and altogether amazing book called 'The Man from St. Petersburg', by Ken Follet. Set against the lead up to the first world war, it follows a fearless, murderous and cold Anarchist, Feliks, who seeks to assassinate a Russian Prince to prevent Russia's participation in the war. However, his not really best laid plans go to nought, when he is confronted with his past. How this affects Feliks, and the entire political implications of one man's actions, forms the basis of this enthralling story. I loved this book, for the amazing potrayal of a man rediscovering his emotions, in the most unlikely of ways, and the inner struggle between his anarchist ideals, and his rediscovered conscience.
Whoa... sure was a long post... anyways... until next time, Ciao!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Royals Clinch a Humdinger! *Yawn*
Cliché.
How many thousand times has "The Hindu" printed this. Don't worry... pick up todays paper and I'm sure you'll find it. Or maybe tomorrows.
So the IPL is over, declared a huge success, we had our drama and what not, and those who got their money got their money. Almost as an afterthought, you have this "Amazing final" with the "best team coming out on top". And its all summed up in one line. Right??
Wrong.
Amazing final = CSK win. Thats how it works. And before all you purists start wagging your sterile, and abnoxiously long tongues, I dont really care for the 'Game' coming out on top. I wanted CSK to win, plain and simple.
That they didnt is no big deal actually. They played an awesome game. They dropped a few, they hit a few, and they gave... well... more than a few. But thats what, in retrospect, i find so charming about the team. They're always smiles. Ntini... Murali and of course, Dhoni. Maybe that wide gleam disappeared off Balaji, but it ll be back there soon. For the record, he bowled a horrible 3 overs, and an amazing 4th one. No bowler in the world could have bowled better.
What IS a big deal, is that a little birdie wasnt really singing the Super King Tune. Granted, the birdie may have found the Deep Roar a bit hard to mimic, but then we arent really born Lions are we... doesnt stop us from trying. What the birdie WAS doing was sit in her Royal little cage and twitter away to glory.
That came out bad. Chuck it. No actually, don t. It makes me feel better.
Anyway... its irritating that people can't support Chennai. We just have to. Being ignored for national selection so long (Badrinath), ill natured remarks against our younger players (Vidyuth), and numerous equations worked out to push us out of tthe top 4 and push Mumbai in (Every onther news channel)... you would think that could stir up some regional pride. So what if we're not full of local lads? End of the day, its Chennai that comes on the scorecards.
On a side note, Dhoni is awesome. You wont find many captains who speak to every single one of his players before the last ball is bowled, and after coming out on the not so shiny side of the old ball. And you wont find many who says "We lost as a team" and not proceed to elaborate which half chances they must NOT regret. Sure, Raina missed one catch in a hundred, Goni and balaji didnt stick their hands out fast enough, Parthiv cant so much as scratch his nose with the gloves on and Morkel didnt know if he had a size 12 or a size 13 shoe on. It doesnt matter.
I thought that if the Super Kings won, it would have made my day. An anticlimax for the ages. the way they lost, made my week. I would have remained a CSK fan no matter what. But thanks to what they showed us on field yesterday, I m proud to be one.
Congrats to the Royals. We ll beat you next time. Count on that.
Typically incoherent. Sigh. Oh well... guess i ll blame this one on the night being young.
How many thousand times has "The Hindu" printed this. Don't worry... pick up todays paper and I'm sure you'll find it. Or maybe tomorrows.
So the IPL is over, declared a huge success, we had our drama and what not, and those who got their money got their money. Almost as an afterthought, you have this "Amazing final" with the "best team coming out on top". And its all summed up in one line. Right??
Wrong.
Amazing final = CSK win. Thats how it works. And before all you purists start wagging your sterile, and abnoxiously long tongues, I dont really care for the 'Game' coming out on top. I wanted CSK to win, plain and simple.
That they didnt is no big deal actually. They played an awesome game. They dropped a few, they hit a few, and they gave... well... more than a few. But thats what, in retrospect, i find so charming about the team. They're always smiles. Ntini... Murali and of course, Dhoni. Maybe that wide gleam disappeared off Balaji, but it ll be back there soon. For the record, he bowled a horrible 3 overs, and an amazing 4th one. No bowler in the world could have bowled better.
What IS a big deal, is that a little birdie wasnt really singing the Super King Tune. Granted, the birdie may have found the Deep Roar a bit hard to mimic, but then we arent really born Lions are we... doesnt stop us from trying. What the birdie WAS doing was sit in her Royal little cage and twitter away to glory.
That came out bad. Chuck it. No actually, don t. It makes me feel better.
Anyway... its irritating that people can't support Chennai. We just have to. Being ignored for national selection so long (Badrinath), ill natured remarks against our younger players (Vidyuth), and numerous equations worked out to push us out of tthe top 4 and push Mumbai in (Every onther news channel)... you would think that could stir up some regional pride. So what if we're not full of local lads? End of the day, its Chennai that comes on the scorecards.
On a side note, Dhoni is awesome. You wont find many captains who speak to every single one of his players before the last ball is bowled, and after coming out on the not so shiny side of the old ball. And you wont find many who says "We lost as a team" and not proceed to elaborate which half chances they must NOT regret. Sure, Raina missed one catch in a hundred, Goni and balaji didnt stick their hands out fast enough, Parthiv cant so much as scratch his nose with the gloves on and Morkel didnt know if he had a size 12 or a size 13 shoe on. It doesnt matter.
I thought that if the Super Kings won, it would have made my day. An anticlimax for the ages. the way they lost, made my week. I would have remained a CSK fan no matter what. But thanks to what they showed us on field yesterday, I m proud to be one.
Congrats to the Royals. We ll beat you next time. Count on that.
Typically incoherent. Sigh. Oh well... guess i ll blame this one on the night being young.
Friday, May 30, 2008
The Half Full Monty...
I'm Sick. Sick and tired. And for once its not literal. I'm sick and tired of watching every Indian language movie under the sun ask their heroines to strip to the bare essentials. They call it glamour. I call it bullcrap.
Yeah sure, go on... disbelieve. Its easy... after all, its rich, coming from a hormone driven college guy right?
See, thats the problem... Everyone thinks everyone else wants glam. The ooomph! The bikini-swimming pool routine or the drenched-in-rain one. Take your pick.
Sigh.
It's just not fair. Our movies are so obsolete. Our cinema style is obsolete. Our titles are obsolete. Our heroes are obsolete. Our dialogues are obsolete. Our producers? How i wish they were.
Ever noticed the everywhere but not here trend? Not even heard of it huh... thats not surprising... i came up with it a few seconds back. But you ve seen it, oh yes. Lets do a bit of math... we ll figure out the percentage of screen time/surface area a heroine gets in promostional material. Now thats everywhere. Take the inverse. Odds are thats the actual percentage of screen time she really gets. Thats 'not here', here being the actual movie.
I just cant figure it out... why we cant have more than two genres of movie making. Theres the commercial genre, and the non commercial one. If we classify our cinema on those lines, we ve just ordered for a coffin and drilled in half the nails.
Commercial machaan... superduperactionandlovesceneswiththalaspunchdialoguesonboth.
Serious moovie machaan... Im not gonna pay to watch some guy crying over his life
Thrillers, Dramas, Historical/Period flicks, Sci-Fi, Romantic, Comedy... now these are how you classify movies. Hear that, you big guns in Bolly, Tolly, kolly, Lolly, Molly, Sally and Jollywood?
Pathetic. I just realised something. Our filmakers ape the worst, most irrelevant things from western cinema. The latest are the glam gals. Before that was the special effects. But even before that, something that you probably missed... these guys are so pathetic, they couldnt even name their industries without help from Hollywood.
Now that i ve got all that frustration out of the way, i think i should cheer up a bit. Lets just, say , look at the silver underwear on that half full monty. The year gone by, there were some really low budget, really nice, edge of the seat type movies that met with some success. Which is encouraging. Really encouraging. Here s to hoping that in a decade, i wont need to fast forward half the running time of a tamil movie. And that you wont too.
Yeah sure, go on... disbelieve. Its easy... after all, its rich, coming from a hormone driven college guy right?
See, thats the problem... Everyone thinks everyone else wants glam. The ooomph! The bikini-swimming pool routine or the drenched-in-rain one. Take your pick.
Sigh.
It's just not fair. Our movies are so obsolete. Our cinema style is obsolete. Our titles are obsolete. Our heroes are obsolete. Our dialogues are obsolete. Our producers? How i wish they were.
Ever noticed the everywhere but not here trend? Not even heard of it huh... thats not surprising... i came up with it a few seconds back. But you ve seen it, oh yes. Lets do a bit of math... we ll figure out the percentage of screen time/surface area a heroine gets in promostional material. Now thats everywhere. Take the inverse. Odds are thats the actual percentage of screen time she really gets. Thats 'not here', here being the actual movie.
I just cant figure it out... why we cant have more than two genres of movie making. Theres the commercial genre, and the non commercial one. If we classify our cinema on those lines, we ve just ordered for a coffin and drilled in half the nails.
Commercial machaan... superduperactionandlovesceneswiththalaspunchdialoguesonboth.
Serious moovie machaan... Im not gonna pay to watch some guy crying over his life
Thrillers, Dramas, Historical/Period flicks, Sci-Fi, Romantic, Comedy... now these are how you classify movies. Hear that, you big guns in Bolly, Tolly, kolly, Lolly, Molly, Sally and Jollywood?
Pathetic. I just realised something. Our filmakers ape the worst, most irrelevant things from western cinema. The latest are the glam gals. Before that was the special effects. But even before that, something that you probably missed... these guys are so pathetic, they couldnt even name their industries without help from Hollywood.
Now that i ve got all that frustration out of the way, i think i should cheer up a bit. Lets just, say , look at the silver underwear on that half full monty. The year gone by, there were some really low budget, really nice, edge of the seat type movies that met with some success. Which is encouraging. Really encouraging. Here s to hoping that in a decade, i wont need to fast forward half the running time of a tamil movie. And that you wont too.
The Holidays Are Coming, The Holidays Are Coming
Oh wait. They're already here.
Which tells you something. Guess what. Go on... guess.
Im not enjoying them too much. Which is ok. Because that means im normal. You cant hear me being happy without wondering if im down with the latest flu doing the rounds. You know, my doctor actually unsubscribed to all his magazines... says its useless cause i ll tell him wats gonna be hot in the sector anyway. Think of me as this highly sensitive lab rat. Now take out your wand and engorgio that rat a couple of times. A couple more. Maybe another zap. There... now you've got me.
Which reminds me. I haven't had fever for 3 whole months! Yay! Celebrate! Get out the Ice Cream!
*Cough*
Actually, don't. I seem to have a small sore spot in my lower throat. Lets not aggravate that. I ll just celebrate with hot, healthy, soup.
Cheers.
I said which reminds me. Now you're wondering what reminded me. Stop wondering. My mind isnt coherent. So you fell for it, huh? Made my day...
Anyway, Jokes apart, the holidays... what... i bet u scrolled up to check out the jokes again. They dont exist... i was just pulling your leg. Really. Swear. Promise. God Promise.
Ok... jokes apart, the holidays are pretty cool. I get awesome stuff to eat, i get to irritate mom and dad and mommom *thats ammamma* every single day, and i see all these people i ve been really rude to and not seen the entire year. Its not like im busy in college guys... im just lazy. Sheeeet... i just had to say that... Maybe i ll go underground for a few days...
But the best part is reading. And writing. Something about being alone the entire day pumps your creativity up a few notches. Most of its gone into design stuff. But its sort of saturated on that end. Thats why im here... your saviour. To shake up your boring, redundant life and introduce you to a whole new world of pain. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Pat youself on the back. You made it through the post. Im impressed. No, sorry, that doesnt mean i ll stop. Life s unfair, huh :)
Which tells you something. Guess what. Go on... guess.
Im not enjoying them too much. Which is ok. Because that means im normal. You cant hear me being happy without wondering if im down with the latest flu doing the rounds. You know, my doctor actually unsubscribed to all his magazines... says its useless cause i ll tell him wats gonna be hot in the sector anyway. Think of me as this highly sensitive lab rat. Now take out your wand and engorgio that rat a couple of times. A couple more. Maybe another zap. There... now you've got me.
Which reminds me. I haven't had fever for 3 whole months! Yay! Celebrate! Get out the Ice Cream!
*Cough*
Actually, don't. I seem to have a small sore spot in my lower throat. Lets not aggravate that. I ll just celebrate with hot, healthy, soup.
Cheers.
I said which reminds me. Now you're wondering what reminded me. Stop wondering. My mind isnt coherent. So you fell for it, huh? Made my day...
Anyway, Jokes apart, the holidays... what... i bet u scrolled up to check out the jokes again. They dont exist... i was just pulling your leg. Really. Swear. Promise. God Promise.
Ok... jokes apart, the holidays are pretty cool. I get awesome stuff to eat, i get to irritate mom and dad and mommom *thats ammamma* every single day, and i see all these people i ve been really rude to and not seen the entire year. Its not like im busy in college guys... im just lazy. Sheeeet... i just had to say that... Maybe i ll go underground for a few days...
But the best part is reading. And writing. Something about being alone the entire day pumps your creativity up a few notches. Most of its gone into design stuff. But its sort of saturated on that end. Thats why im here... your saviour. To shake up your boring, redundant life and introduce you to a whole new world of pain. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Pat youself on the back. You made it through the post. Im impressed. No, sorry, that doesnt mean i ll stop. Life s unfair, huh :)
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