Some links about the epic Wimbledon 2008 finals!

1. http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld/2008/07/nadal.html
2. http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1141831/1/index.htm
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/7492508.stm

My recreational tennis career !!! :P

I have been wanting to write this post.Those who are close to me might notice a slight difference in me since the last 2-3 months. Even if they haven’t, please please me and say that I have changed; and that I have lost weight, even though it may be infinitesimally small.

In case, you are one among the rare few who do genuinely see my improvement, I have to say that all of this was possible due to Tennis. Yes, I am addicted to this game, big time.

While growing up, my involvement in physical activities/sports was quite minimal. And I don’t consider ping-pong as a game which involves much physical exertion. I played a bit of Football as most North-Easterners do, but after having my specs broken for the umpteenth time while playing, I knew I had to quit the game. It was too rough for me.

At the start of this year, I decided to try out a new game. And incidentally, my office got shifted to a new campus and those guys at the top thought they having tennis courts would add some value to the organization. I have no idea whether it had any effect on productivity but yeah, it definitely added value to me.

So one fine day, I decided to play tennis in the office and that day, I realized that playing tennis is not so easy as it looks. How hard can it be to hit big yellow light balls with a racket that’s bigger than a cricket bat but lighter than the same. I too had the same thought, and after trying to hit a couple of strokes, I knew that I could not control the ball. I could not heave the ball with all my might as it would go outside the fence and then, I would have to run like a rabbit to retrieve it. And if I hit the ball with little effort, the ball would sail to the bottom of the net. Yes, it was that miserable.

Anyway, the excess weight around my waist further motivated me to take up this game and at least do something about it. Going to the gym was not a particularly encouraging idea. I had been to gym regularly during my college days, and now I felt that, I did not have the will or the discipline to work like a madman in a sweat-laden claustrophobic room. So, it had to be tennis.

So, I enrolled myself in a local tennis club and for some time I played in their clay courts. And I remember how good I felt sliding on the clay surface. I also bought a new racquet, bought tennis shoes(first time I ever bought a pair of sports shoes in my entire adult life), bought couple of shorts and I started learning the game. I learnt the different types of grips, the types of tennis strings, the subtle differences in racquets, the differences between flat/slice/kick/twist serves. Even though I cannot hit all these strokes, I felt good that I had knowledge of these things. And now, I have infected with this love for the game. I wish I had found it a bit earlier because I remember we had 4 courts in our college and they were empty most of the times. I missed a great chance of doing something productive at least once in my college days. But, as all wise men say, it’s never too late to learn anything.

So what now? I play tennis regularly even now. My new found interest has lasted longer than my earlier pursuits of photography or of music( remember the guitar post). I used to play everyday for about 2 hours but now I can no longer do it. I guess, my bones are a bit weak to take that kind of abuse regularly at this age especially since I play on hard courts.

So to end it, I would like to tell all my cubicle-working friends, who are thinking of taking up a physical activity, to pick up a racquet and try this game. I know, we cannot become pros now but at least we can have a bloody good time playing recreational tennis for the rest of our lives.

Funny Tennis

The title says it all.

Safin’s response when he was asked if he can beat Roger Federer. “You winning four matches and now you’re starting to challenge the Federer? I don’t think ‑‑ I’m playing semifinals, but that doesn’t mean that I have a chance there, because the guy has won how many times already here? I mean, five, six times already, and he’s on the way to win his seventh title”

“To beat Federer you need to be Nadal and run around like a rabbit and hit winners from all over the place. …”

Another Nadal-Federer Final!

Both Federer and Nadal won their QF matches in straight sets today. Federer next faces Marat Safin in his SF match. This should be an interesting encounter. Even though Safin might be known as a nutcase or he may be past his prime, you can never say anything against the big Russian. Who knows the Safin of the old days might show up in the match.

Another interesting thing about the Murray-Nadal match was the crowd celebrating even the unforced errors made by Rafa and it was a bit surprising. This might have unnerved Gasquet but Nadal is a different beast. Remember the fist pump in the last game of the third set. That just showed that Nadal is in a trance like mode during matches.

On a totally unrelated note, today, I was blessed by the tennis Gods. For the first time, I was able to hit flat serves consistently(80+ %). Now, I need to practice my new found flat serves and work on my so called kick serve so that I can use it as my second serve(it used to be my first serve).

For more details, ask Kx.

Awesome ezine

This is a must-view for all tennis fans

Link

Nadal on a roll!!

It felt wonderful to watch Nadal completely destroy Youzhny. May be the fact that Youzhny had two five set matches was partially responsible for his abysmal performance.

And it’s impressive to see the way Rafa came back in the match after he slipped. Watching his reaction, it must have hurt a lot.

But he’s the man, he just doesn’t know how to quit

must-watch movies

Of all the tens and hundreds of movies, I have watched in the last two-three months, some 3-4 movies stand out for its brilliance..

The first one is ‘Blue Umbrella’. This is a wonderfully sweet movie, based on a story by Ruskin Bond. I think we need more of these kind of films. The child actress in the movie gave a wonderful performance and Pankaj Kapur, as always, gave a phenomenal performance.

Another movie which I thoroughly enjoyed was ‘The lives of others’, a German movie set in the cold war days. For those who enjoy reading the cold-war era spy thrillers, this movie would be a great watch.If you are looking for lots of action, then you will be disappointed, however if you are looking for a story, you will enjoy this movie.

‘The KiteRunner’, based on the novel of the same name is another excellent movie. I enjoyed it so much, that I am planning to read the book. I haven’t read a fiction for quite some time, so hopefully I can read this book in the next few months.

I am not writing a review for this movies, and I am only trying to raise some awareness for these under appreciated movies. Hope you get some time off your busy schedules to catch these films……

¡Hola Mundo!

My two new forms of addiction : Spanish and Tennis.

In defense of the ‘Nano’

This is my first post for the year 2008 and I would like to start this year with my two cents on the recently launched Nano – the 1 lakh car.

While some have embraced the idea of such a cheap car, some others have declared that the car would be a disastrous for the roads, environment, etc… While I share the concern that widespread adoption of the car(due to its low cost) would have a negative impact on the environment, I am less convinced by other criticisms against the Nano.

To all those who are against the Nano car because it would overwhelm the roads, I would like to raise a few questions. Do you own a car? What type and make is your car? Unless you own a premium car ( ala Mercedes and the like), I would not want to listen to your case against the 1 lac car. Why you might ask? Most of the car models available in India( note the ‘most’) are stripped-down versions of the models available in, say Europe. For example, the cheapest Suzuki Swift available in UK cost more than £8000 and it has all the features available only on the top car models in India. So, the cars in India, which you so proudly own, are cheap versions of the international models and that’s why you have been able to own these cars in India which then leads me to say that you are responsible(albeit in your small ways) for the traffic problems that we are facing today.

Now, why did you buy a car?Most probably, you have a family with kids and you do not want to take risks ferrying your family on a 2 wheeler on our roads. Well, guess what? This is exactly what the less fortunate families( and it is a huge number) would like to do but till now, they had no options other than to commute on 2 wheelers due to the high costs involved(which may be entirely affordable to you). So, when someone like Ratan Tata steps up to empower these people, what do we do? We conjure up reasons to show how the Nano is such a bad idea, when we, at large, have benefited from cheap cars.