Archive for the dividing line

A Touch of Nerve-Roger Federer

{ February 3, 2009 @ 1:18 pm } · { Sampras, djokovic, federer, nadal, on and off, sports, tennis, the dividing line }
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My last post on Federer and Nadal touched quite a few nerves.Some one accused me of being biased against Roger,another stated that Nadal plays like a cow and looks like one and a lot of others merely stated well, they dont want to comment.All these guys are Federer fans believing as so many millions across the globe that their idol is perhaps the greatest of all time.Replying to those comments, yes I am biased against Federer in a way and No..Nadal does not play nor look like a cow from any visible angle .His butt picking habit not withstanding he is one of the hottest tennis stars I know. Though now of course he may come third in that current list after Djokovic and Verdasco.
The reason why I write this post is because I realised that my blog stats soared with the last one but on a more serious tone its because I felt that the last post was incomplete. main1990
so why am I biased against Federer? I started as a federer fan when the Swiss began his career,it was fine until the moment people started hailing him as better than Sampras.That for me was sacrilege.When I heard that, I wondered if it was true and even spent anxious moments . After Sampras had retired I had not seen the sport for 2 years.

Federer was lucky in the sense that he had Agassi in his twilight,Safin all imploded,Roddick not so talented and Hewitt – I am yet to figure out what happened, as his prime opponents.For all their ability these guys do not hold a candle to the kind of opponents that Sampras faced,taking into account of course that Andre was past his best when Federer began to ascend .Sampras is the greatest because he dominated with such imperial authority the most competitive era in men’s tennis.
I still wonder why the media switches its claims so easily.Agassi had called Sampras the best when he lost to him, he later bestowed it on Federer when he lost to him,the same goes for Henman and a host of others who extolled Roger and are now questioning if he will ever win Nadal again.Even Sampras when asked to name his potential successor at the time of his retirement had said it would take the game of Safin and the mental strength of hewitt to dominate as he did.He did not name Roger Federer then.
I am not trying to belittle Federer, I am a fan of the sport and any fan worth his salt will know that Federer is gifted with the most talented all court game that ever was.Better than Nadal? Definitely yes.Better than Sampras? Also a yes.I am only suggesting that he is not the best player at the moment nor is he the best in history.By player here , I mean his ability to win.Talent need not translate into success always.Ask Uncle Toni.
Nothing is wrong with Federer’s game, its the same. There is no perceptible change to it before and after the arrival of a man called Nadal.If Federer could be called GOAT then he must be now too.His game is the same.The only hitch is that Federer is all elegant and grace when he is not challenged,when he is, it falls apart.He has made the same uncharacteristic errors against not only Nadal but also against Murray and Djokovic.
He reminds me of the other supremely talented Swiss ,Martina Hingis.It was painful seeing her come apart against the powerful ground strokes of the Williams,Capritati and Davenport.Her game was Swiss perfection too except her serve that is.But elegance and talent did not withstand the power and athleticism of the Williams.
If you are to go on and call Federer GOAT then it would put us in a quandary with Nadal .What would you call this guy who so thoroughly dominates Federer?
Federer lacks perhaps the one important weapon in his arsenal-the Champion’s Mind.Genius can be outdone by hardwork and dedication.For being focused single mindedly on a goal is genius in itself.Thats why the day Federer stops thinking of everything else apart from winning Nadal, he will do it not once but quite a few times.

A day in the life of a blogger-con&porn and a bit more.

{ December 20, 2008 @ 1:27 pm } · { PSBB, QTB, book review, musings, on and off, ramblings, review, the dividing line }
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Yesterday was one of those days when you had a lot to tell but was lazy enough  not to do so.Apart from the fact that i came down with a bad cold and sore throat  and my laptop is teetering over the edge with a con virus , it was a pretty uneventful day. The virus in my laptop is a porn watcher’s delight. It made me give 2 significant frustrated outbursts.One was about how i dont even watch porn and yet the virus , ppl found that funny. So funny that every person who has so far promised to set my laptop right has laughed at me, my comp or in the case of shiny ended up watching movies on it.This led to the other outburst- more a cry that went ‘ i dont want windows’…you see with Windows its like the ants in the basement story. There are ants all over the place in the room next to yours. yet you believe it wont be your room next.It takes a good few bites to realize and go and get a lakshman rekha.This moral holds ofcourse for the average laptotting ,non-open crazy ,non-geeky,non-Gates basher whose ultimete utilisation of the comp is watching movies,like me.

Then there was this speech in the afternoon organized by SPICMACAY. I dont even remember the guy’s name. He was ok, conservative,praising the media and believing in Utopian ideals .The worst part was that heair  gave the sppech in Kannada. Now thats discriminatory in a national institute of technology.

Back in school i used to have this wonderful long discussions on a lot of topics. We fought, badgered but always discussed. It mattered to argue whether reservations are right or not,about dvaita and advaita, open relationships,whats diff btw american girls and indian ones,that Scarlett O Haara was perfectly justifiable or the run of the mill Tamilnadu politics. It did nothing but to increase phone bills, reduce the concentration in class hours and lead to small phases of ‘i wont talk with you’.

It also strengthened bonds of friendship,made you understand people better,helped you to while your time in sanskrit classes and most importantly it molded me into a debator and a pretty successful one at that till i crash landed at NITK.The prob was a large number of ppl i met as a naive first year did not take such discussions in the right sense.  They called it giving fundae and still do .The thing with such discussions is that they are meant ultimately to be taken in the right sense,its not about who is better its about what you think. Of course opinions vary for some wierd reason and you need to live by that.

Lastly I read IWoz and realsized that Wozniac belongs to a rare breed of ppl.If its indeed the triumph of the nerds then its the triumph of this guy more than the other for Gates is like a poisonous ivy in your backyard and a shrewd bussisnessman(at some level they mean the same
) and Jobs ofcourse is this rockstar cum politician cum visionary cum streetfighter all rolled into one. My god there is no geekiness in him, he is the larger than life CEO whose charm is at best irresistible.As for Michael Dell,packard and others we will leave it for another day.

P.S: the answer to that question abt the girls is .. mind you i quote,” To an American girl its important that you always have a boyfriend and to an Indian girl its important that you ever had one”. I dont own anypart of that statement its been copyrighted elsewhere.

As for the guys by mutual consent we came to conclude not much of a difference . afterall after a certain drop it does not matter if its left or right.

AIIMS strike on reservations- a retro.

{ March 4, 2007 @ 1:15 pm } · { the dividing line }
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The other day we were discussing student unions and strikes. Someone said probably there was no point in such strikes because nothing happens at the end of it all. the example given was the AIIMS’ strike which he said had led us nowhere and that the entire episode was a big failure,in a way.That set me thinking for after all the person was right in one way . Arjun Singh and the Government refused to relent.if seen in the perspective of the bill being revoked or not the entire affair was a futile exercise perhaps.But then i would not want to define success in terms of that.The success lay in the fact that the nation woke up to those guys , irrespective of whether they supported them or not.While a section of the students protested and held hunger strikes and candle rallies,the government decided to have its year end feast .How shameless do they get?reservations are understabdably one sided in politics but the blatant way in which Manmohan Singh and his cronies went about it ,is saddening.

The media dubbed the strike the Rang De effect after the movie but whatever effect it was the strike was symbolic of the youth who protested.They used sms campaigns,blogging,chain mails,orkutting ,candle rallies as effective a medium as striles on the roads.The strike did not sustain but then we all knew it would not.Neither a vote bank motivated government nor a HRD minister who does not even know the break up of his population can be expected to come up with a sensible reaction.For me, the strike struck a very poignant note.Whether you call them the elite or not they are some of the brightest minds of this nation.When such a population gets disillusioned it does not argur well for the country. Maybe, Dr.Abdul Kalam does not believe in brain drain but so many others do and heres another incentive for young people to leave this nation. A Rajeev Goswami immolated himself long ago, probably he knew where this nation with its politics on reservations was heading.

I am not against reservations.For,after all a democracy does not exist to care only for the best ,if it did it would be a failure.6o years of reservations have taken us nowhere maybe we need to rethink the model.The very fact that the government insists on including the creamy layer shows its vested interests.But then again after supporting reservations we need to ask ourselves a question:’how feasible and safe is it to have a nation of doctors and engineers built on quota?when you and me want the best of the facilities should’nt your nation be getting the same?’ perhaps reservations in higher education is a wrong way to go about the quota issue.

In a few month’s time the obc reservations will come into place and we shall see colleges stretched to their limits .we can only watch as the tamasha goes on…