Super Sunday

Ever had one of those days when all your carefully laid plans conspire to cancel each other out at the last minute, and you're left with 10 odd hours of pretty much nothing to do?
Well, today was one of those days for me.
But never fear when the idiot-box is here! A quick peek at the TV sports column in the paper, a container of ammo for the day comprising mainly of popcorn and murukku, and Iam all set! It's time for me, myself and the remote-control!

Click

Just in time to watch Bhupathi and Hingis embrace at the end of their mixed doubles finals.
Aaw! They make for such a happy pair! And why shoudn't the Swiss Miss be happy? It's been just the kind of comeback Grand Slam tournament people dream of. Can she actually sustain this intensity long enough? Only time will tell.

Click

Football Extra?....that too, live?? Where's the VB series? Oh, I remember! This one's at Perth...couple of hours time difference. Tut, tut,...Australia,...what a wild, and wide, country!

Click

Pakistan 0/3, and Irfan is only the second bowler ever to get a hat-trick in the first over of a Test!
Iam actually happy my plans got cancelled now. Things seem all the more surreal, after the recent memories of bowlers being used as whipping-boys at Lahore and Faisalabad. Younis Khan and Co. seem to be living in the past though, what with their extravagent swishes and leaden feet at the crease.

Click

Jayawardene and Arnold seem to be steadying the ship for Sri Lanka against the Aussies.
The Lankans have been surprisingly competitive in this VB series, something I didnt expect after their recent fiascoes against the Indians and the Kiwis. But with their batting Marauder from Matara out of the way early today, things might be tough.Hmm...Arnold seems to be patenting his unique late cuts though.

Click

"Baghdatis needs to stay with Federer for as long as he can," are Amritraj's words of wisdom. But the Cypriot seems to be doing better than that. A rash of unforced errors from Federer and the trademark passing shots from Baghdatis' racket, serve to put the freshman in front and he's up 7-5 with a break in the second set.
Marcos Baghdatis is undoubtedly the story of the fortnight. He reminds me of the Andre Agassi of the early 90's, with an essentially counter-punching style, flamboyant personality and crowd-winning antics. Coming from an exotic country helps, so does having an exotic-looking girlfriend. Great market-value, no doubt, but presently,he seems well on his way to take that final step to convert an incredible fantasy into reality.

Click

Akmal and Razzaq are at it again, stroking their way out of trouble, leaving a few bemused Indians in their wake.
I cant help but marvel at the diminutive Paki keeper. He's got to be one of the best batsmen around at the moment, and also one of the best wicket-keepers. And to achieve all this without the slightest hype being built around him, has got to be his greatest achievement till date.

Click

Australia 140/0 chasing 232.
Aah! Now that's more like the script I was expecting. Back to regular service for the Aussies, with their biggest take-away from this match being Gilchrist's welcome century.

Click

A victory in four sets for Federer, bringing up his seventh Grand Slam title.
Back to regular service for Fedex too. In the end, the dream-run was too good to last for Baghdatis. The match ends with the two most wierd speeches I've heard being made by players at a presentation ceremony. Baghdatis, in his inimitable style, gets the crowd laughing at him, while the Swiss King lets his tears do the talking. What were they thinking of?

Click

The Paki bowlers return the favour to the Indians, and end the day holding the upper hand, having taken 4 top-order indian wickets. Quite an unlikely situation, after being 0/3 and then 39/6. A lot of mini-battles happen during the Indian reply and for the first time in this series, Test cricket feels exciting. The longer version truly is a bowler's game!

Click off.

And as Dada mentally prepares himself for his greatest challenge tomorrow in Karachi, Jayasuriya tends to his injured shoulder in Perth and Fedex settles into a contented sleep in Melbourne, I sit in front of the computer and get down to some determined blogging.

If only there was a Super Monday!

Monsoon Wedding

It's the perfect evening, and the bride and groom are busy recieving guests (and gifts).


Iam busy listening to my gossipy Athai about why she was finding it tough to find a suitable match for her daughter.

5 minutes later, Iam being admonished by my stern Periappa for my ignorance on the intricacies of a Mozart composition.

5 minutes later, Iam playing a game of tag with my 7-year old nephew.

5 minutes later, Iam drowning my sorrows of the IT world with a fellow victim and a cousin of mine.

5 minutes later, Iam shouting myself hoarse to make myself heard to my 80 year old Pattiama.


Right through all this, there's a lazy undercurrent of warmth, a feeling that you're at peace with the world, a feeling that you're right where you belong.....

And that is the best part about a big family wedding. It brings all the characters of that soap opera called 'Your Family Life' on a single plate, served with extra helpings.
Sure, there's a lot I can crib about being born in a large family, but...naa, today's not the day!

Restating the obvious, I attended a family wedding recently. And the thing that struck me was how some people, who I could never picture as 'married' till a few years back, were busy settling down and getting on with their spouses and kids!

Aah! The cruel ravages of time!

As Hootie and the Blowfish would soulfully sing,

" Tii-iiiii-iiiime....

Why do you punish me?"

Village Rumours

I watched 'The Village' again, this time on DVD...and I was again left wondering about the lack of success the movie actually met with.

Yes, it was painstakingly slow at times, but so was 'The Sixth Sense' (every Shyamalan movie, for that matter).
Yes, there were a couple of technical glitches, but they were more than made up for, by some refreshing acting cameos.

And then there was the plot.

Which got me thinking...the whole concept of creating their own isolated society in a past world with the primary goal of regaining 'innocence' is downright fanciful, not just in terms of the physical impossibility involved, but the warped reasoning that goes behind it.

The building-block for The Elders' case is that money is the root of all evil, which is such a flawed argument. Walker's initial dialogue when he decides to take Ivy into confidence, is all about how her grandfather had let money rule him, and how this had led to his violent death.
So the solution is simple for these wise folks.

Take away the money....peace and harmony returns.....Utopia is achieved.

How....hmm, Utopian!

Is money the root cause of evil?
Aren't we actually driven by desire? Whichever form it may take...jealousy, ambition, sex, happiness,...What we are is always a function of what we want, irrespective of whether we get it or not...and isn't that where 'evil' rears its ugly head?
Isn't money just one of the many factors that could contribute to it?
Even in the movie, doesn't a dim-witted Noah commit a stabbing in the 'ideal' society... a crime of passion, with none of the green stuff involved?
Isn't evil intrinsic to a human being?
err.....am I making a case for Original Sin?

Back to the movie.....the entire plot could have been made plausible if the director had discredited the Elders' scheme in the end, or atleast left the justification of their reasoning in the hands of the audience, but the silent vote of confirmation to their eccentric lifestyle in the movie's tail piece quashes all such hopes.

And that's why an ending which was meant to jolt the viewer from a 19th century myth to the hard reality of the new millennium, ended up actually taking me to even higher heights of fantasy...because that's what the movie turned out to be about in the end...a land of fantasy.

A disclaimer to end with, I actually really enjoyed this movie (why would I watch it twice otherwise?) because it was different and thought-provoking, and I maintain that it hasnt got the credit it is due. Take away the melodramatic references to those-we-dont-speak-of and childish fixations with bad and safe colours, and you still have brilliant performances from Howard Jr. and Adrien Brody to savour.
Only, it just ain't the perfect movie!

Game, Set and Match!

It was that time of the year again.

The biggest event on this city's annual sporting calender, the ATP Chennai Open.My third year at the show, and it seriously is the place to be!

Things to look out for during the week every year-

Stands filled with raucous, frenzied pseud fans.

Paradorn's namaskarams.

Moya's tatooed biceps.

The city's high-flying snobs forced to rub shoulders with the lower middle-income strata.

Paes-Bhupathi and their chest-thumping antics, though that sadly seems to be a thing of the past.

And yeah, some decent tennis....given that this is a tier-3 (or is it 2?) ATP event.


The crowd is as much a reason to be present there for the show as the tennis stars themselves. The ambience is great and the conversations floating around you can be quite illuminating at times.

A-red-in-the-face-from-shouting dude1 : MO-YAAAAAAAAAAA! MOYA! MO-YAAAAAAAAA! MOYA!

A-deaf-in-the-ear-from-enduring dude2 : Dude, what's with your fascination for Moya, eh?

Dude1 : Nothing! Just that it's such a cool and crisp name to chant. Try STE-PA-NEEEEKKK, and you'll see!


Yes, I see.


Frustrated dude1 (in the middle of a rain delay) : Enna da ithu? They should have some sort of provision to move the match indoors when it rains....

Understanding dude2 : Illai, machan! How can they? This is the Chennai Open, remember?


Aah yes, I remember.

But seriously, tennis has got to be the best spectator sport possible.
Watching cricket in the stadium, you often believe a batsman's been dismissed lbw, only to come home and realise that he had actually been bowled!
At a football match, you actually have numbers on the players' backs so that the spectators don't suffer too much.

So did you get to see Bhutia in action today?
Yes, I did! The number 10 jersey is his, right? Oh yes, I saw him alright!

But in tennis?...you actually can see the sweat on the brow of the players, the strain in their aching muscles, literally...from just about anywhere on the gallery. Atleast, it hold true for the Nungambakkam stadium!

Finally, to the tennis that actually happened,...Ljubicic continued his fine mid-career form which has seen him break into the top 10, Srichapan continued to spiral downwards with his inexplicably insipid play, Moya continued to show off his sleeveless T and powerful forehand, Nadal continued to create a buzz inspite of his non-presence and Amritraj-Bopanna just about managed to provide a glimmer of hope to be worthy successors to the Paes-Bhupathi legacy here at Chennai.

Here's to an action-packed year of tennis ahead!

The Unbeaten Centurion

I attended a birthday party the other day.
The usual balloons and streamers, the usual cakes and sweets, the usual fun and frolic, the usual 105 year old birthday girl....

Mrs. Queenie was actually born in 1901! That makes her twice as old as I presently am when our country got its independence, an event which seems as recent to me as .....well, the Dark Ages.

There she was, all wrinkled and shrivelled, her wheelchair apparently seeming to engulf her. She was hard of hearing, her eyesight was far gone and the wheelchair was her indispensable companion. But the smart way in which she cocked her head to try to hear us better and the beautifully enunciated "Thank You"s that followed every birthday wish clearly indicated that she was still very much 'all there'.

I've often heard people being unsympathetic (or atleast being differently sympathetic) towards elderly folks who are in a not-much-better-than-vegetable state. And I've been confused myself.

What's the point in living so long if you're not contributing to society?....
You're just being a burden to others around you....
Live life to the fullest! So what if it's shorter, it's better!....
I'd rather take my life than not be able to fend for myself....
You're just celebrating a sentimental anachronism from a bygone era.....

But the fact is, you don't live to be a hundred without learning something about life, without wanting to learn more about life. These are the few folks who have managed to cheat death for longer than most and in the process, have got richer for all their experiences. And it's here that their contribution to society remains to be tapped.

Reminds me of this Project about the Supercentenarians which I came across recently. Iam not sure this is a book I will be ...well, dying to read, but it sure is a project I would be more than eager to help out with!

As the author says,

"They are people we can learn from. They are just sitting there, waiting to give us this extraordinary information. You just have to listen."

Happy birthday, Mrs. Queenie!