The Magician

Over the course of the last 18 months that I have been living in the United States Of Ignorant Cricketless America, I have not watched too much live sport action. But a couple of times I have been tempted to buy the package for the live streaming of cricket matches on the WWW. These almost invariably ended in humiliating losses for India, depression on the next day and frustration on a waste of money and time. The one bright spot in this sordid saga however was that the quality of the streaming was excellent.

So I expected that to be the case when last week my tennis-starved self grabbed at the offer for the live streaming of the Dubai Open Men's Tennis Championships. I was wrong. The coverage provided by the well-intentioned ZCam was impossible to watch without distress and at least on the first day it had to buffer after every 5 seconds. This interval is on an average less than the time for a rally in tennis and hence my troubles were compounded. To their credit upon receipt of my complaining email they did apologize and made some sort of improvements on the subsequent days. As a result when it came to the semi-finals I could watch the Agassi-Federer match to an acceptable degree of approximation. Still very fuzzy but it did not buffer every five seconds.

By the end of the match I realised it was worth the effort. Agassi at 34 played excellent tennis and was yet thrashed 63 61 by an absolutely imperious Roger Federer. It reminded me somewhat of the 1999 Wimbledon final where again Agassi played 3 sets of green supreme grass court tennis yet lost all of them to a Sampras playing on an altogether different plane. Not completely erroneously do they call the Swiss King the Heir to Sampras.

One shot in particular will stand out in memory forever and fill the heart with awe and joy every time I reminisce. After dominating a rally Agassi played a drop shot, drew Federer in and played a decisive volley winner... until Federer thought about pursuing the ball - moving in the same direction of the ball, target behind his back and with the back surface of his racquet, (ala Arjuna in the Draupadi Swayamvar) he flicked the ball over Agassi's head to land right on the baseline. For a moment only Agassi realised what had happened. Shell-shocked and broken, he walked to the chair. Only after an interval iof a few seconds did the complete significance of what he had achieved dawn upon Federer and the crowd.

In his regal yet humble style, the Magician put his hand on his head in disbelief and smiled. Federer is giong to be honoured with the ATP Player of the Year Award later this month and also in the running for the Fan Favourite Award.

I indeed consider myself priveliged to watch tennis at a time such a Magician is displaying his skills.

Never Again !!

Shall I have 2 medium Pizzas in 1 evening.

The other day I was alone at home. I thought it would be nice to have Pizza and had one Cheese Pizza - it was frozen - I heated it in the oven. All was well. Unfortunately, at this point of time I made that fatal mistake - listening to the mind rather than the body. I was overcome by a sudden attack of gluttony and against the better judgement of my body I decided to go for another one. That I was wrong I realised within the first couple of slices of the next pizza. But it is always uncool to allow a Pizza to spend a night in your fridge so - devoured it was.

The feeling is quite undescribable. You feel like you have swallowed a full-grown cow that is itching to burst your stomach at every possible opening - and you have to fight it. Mentally, it clears your mind of all thought - you are basically turned into a fat, senseless log. And in that spirit I shed aside all work I had planned for that evening and hit the sack. Slept like a log for 10 hours.

Thank God it's over.

An Absolute Honour

On Sunday, we celebrated Cultural Diversity Day here at the University. While the name may suggest a solemn, educational event where several cultures interact, in reality most organisations use this as a tool for making money by setting up stalls that sell food, items etc. etc. which bear some link to the country/culture they represent.

Be that as it may, it provided me with a memorable experience. I was called upon to get the India Flag which is hosted at the Language Media Center to the venue. Initially I thought of it as just another assignment in my capacity as a board member. Once I got there and lifted the tricolour however I realised what a big responsibility and an honour that is. No wonder it is such a prestige issue at the Olympics as to who should hold the flag.

For those who still think I am making a big deal out of a rather simple chore, Id suggest they try it for themselves.

Terrific, Terrifying, Touching, Brilliant.

There has been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about the movie 'Black' recently. Look here, here and here. While I am disappointed that I might not be able to see this movie here (in this God-forsaken place) so soon and also overjoyed that such a beautiful movie has been made by an Indian (if all the reports are true and it is hard that so many people would start exaggerating at the same time), I had a most amazing movie experience myself last night. The movie was Hotel Rwanda. It is a true life story set in the Rwandan conflicts of 1994. Had it not been for this movie, I would have never in my life had the faintest idea of what suffering countries such as these undergo. And it is not just the emotional experience that it provides you, it is also the knowledge of facts you would have never otherwise come across.

The conflict is between 2 groups of people - the Hutus and the Tutsis - the Tutsis were in the past the wealthier; the differences in the two were economic rather than ethnic; in fact there seems to be hardly any other difference at all. Colonial Rule of the Belgians exacerbated this difference. And then you can imagine the rest of the story.

Don Cheadle in the role of true-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who sheltered and protected over 1000 people - Hutus, Tutsis alike and foreign tourists is simply awe-inspiring. Clearly he is one of the 3 Oscar nominations that the film has - (oh btw that reminds me Shwaas did not make it :-( ... Black next year ?? ).

The direction is superb and the tempo of the movie perfect. It never dwells too much on the sufferings so as to make you sick nor does it seem like it has been deliberately hastened anywhere. I would recommend it to all interested in seeing a serious, meaningful film as described above.

A Brit On Campus ??

I was sitting as usual doing my duty as a Help Lab Assistant. Basically I have to just sit in the lab and do my own work. Occasionally people come over for help but most of the times the question is "What is the name of this printer ? ". Easy as that. "301" I answer and get back to work. "And yes, you have to out your own paper". I add. At times there are people who do not know how to compile a C file; worse some do not know how to use an editor - and I need to help out patiently. But sometimes people put before me some JAVA code and expect me to let them know by taking a glance at their printout why their program is buggy.

Today however was different. The question had something to do with certain paths and some variables and I had a vague idea it was something to do with OS Programming Assignments. But I could not gather the gist of the question because I was quite suddenly stunned. The voice I heard was not the "Oh Man ..." tiring American accent but an extremely sphisticated and clear British one. I had to ask the guy to repeat the question a couple of times not because I could not understand him but because I took so much time to get used to the fact that I had actually met and conversed with a Brit in person for the first time. (I hope that is the case and that he is not just an American trying to ape a British accent. I mean - if it is he was really good at it but that would be pathetic - after all having a British accent is the easiest way for American guys to impress women). After all why would a Brit want to leave his country and come to Iowa of all places to study CS is a mystery to me.

I wish to get to know this guy better and hopefully make friends with him. It would be great to have a British friend to talk to - about Cricket and Football - about PG Wodehouse and Harry Potter - about the lovely British countryside and the fickle weather !!!

Kabhi Tum Nahee The ... Kabhi Hum Nahee The ...

It happens often in life that you come across people that you think you could really hit it off with - but for some reason or the other you just can't. And you get used to the fact over time - keep thinking that you were wrong and you never stood a chance of getting along - but then, when the time comes to say good-bye you can't help but feeling that in another place ... in another time ... who knows what could have happened.