Whims published... It's not an expert's opinion, It's not an online diary, It's not a web journal... It is just my whims published

As the battle was heating up with the 16 pre-quartet finalists in Roland Garros for this year's French Open title, I had changed my wallpaper of my comp to the below one.

Federer was cruising through until the quarter finals which ended just few minutes before. Soderling avenged for the loss in last year's French Open finals by defeating Federer in a four setter match. I was left shattered to see Federer losing it so easily to the big serving Swedish giant. This is going to be the 1st grand slam in past 6 years where Federer will not be playing in the Semis! He had appeared in 23 consecutive Semis after 2004 Wimbledon championships. That indeed is sad news for Federer fans.

Being a die-hard Federer fan, I am not looking for excuses for his loss. But this rain hit match was interrupted many times and it is easy for the players to lose concentration and to lose the momentum. Moreover when the match resumes in such conditions, it becomes easy for the big serving guys like Soderling where the ball becomes heavy. It was evident from the serve speed of Soderling which even reached upto 240kmph in last few games. Whatever are those reasons, we have to admit that Soderling adapted well to the conditions and gave no chance for the Master to come back into the match.

With Murray being ousted by lesser known Berdich, Nadal seem to kiss French Open trophy yet again this year. Let's see if Djokovic or Soderling has any plans of devouring the run of 'The Bullfighter'.

If you are a regular TV surfer, the chance of you not hitting Highway On My Plate (HOMP) on NDTV Good Times is very very less. And if you belong to this minority, let me explain what is HOMP. Evident from the title, it is a travel cum food show. The program is hosted by two witty and burly gaurmets named Rocky and Mayur. These guys travel to nook and corner of the country tasting yummy local cuisines in hotels, dhabas, chat streets, bakeries and less likely in star hotels. Basically their quest is, interesting Desi cuisines across India. In the just finished first season of the show, Rocky and Mayur have tasted various dishes from Idlis of Murugan Hotel in Chennai to Tunda kebabs of Lucknow. The show is currently running the successful second season where Rocky and Mayur have gone to phoren to taste the exotic cuisines. Usually in each of the episodes, they travel to a new destination where they cover 2-3 famous hotels. After belting, they neatly lick their fingers and then rate the taste, ambience, service of the hotels. In most of the hotels, they even engage the owners, cooks of the hotels in hearty conversation, where they try to share the information with the viewers about how some special dishes are prepared.


As a matter of fact, I see lot of travel cum food shows. 'Around the world in 85 plates' - hosted by one named Magandeep Singh in NDTV GT again, The Foodie in Times Now, Chak Le India etc etc. But what makes me feel great about this show is the witty one liners Rocky and Mayur deliver spontaneously. I dont think all of those are scripted, in which case they must be good actors and I know they are not. Rocky and Mayur having known each other for 32 years(!!) share a great chemistry on screen. It is quite weird that Mayur being a hard core vegetarian, is one of the hosts of such a show. When both of them get to visit hotels best known for non veg food, Mayur does all the talking about the place, about the ambiance, about the history of the place etc etc but food. Rocky after belting the non-veg, comments on the taste later. On any given day (episode?), both of them keep pulling each others legs, mostly Mayur ending up in the receiving end when it comes to taunts of Rocky about what all Mayur is missing in life by being a vegetarian. It is a great treat to watch them together. Rocky blogs about some of his experiences during the shoot of the show in his blog. Do read to know the pain of being a food show anchor and some serious side of him which you do not get to see while he is hosting the show.


Some of my favorite one liners that I remember right now, cracked either by Rocky or Mayur are - "The closest thing to my heart is my stomach", "Eat till you fall asleep, sleep till you wake up of hunger". What else can you expect from the guys, whose basic mantra in life is 'eat and let eat'. Ohh.. by the way, never miss the faltu food quote at the end of every episode that Rocky and Mayur utter in unison, punching in for-the-sake-of-rhyming words, that never fails to bring a smile on your face, no matter how silly or stupid they sound :)

India was hosting the prestigious Hockey World Cup this time. Media publicized the whole event quite well. Hero Honda roped in Sehwag, Priyanka Chopra and Rajyavardhan Rathore to promote Indian hockey. People had forgotten about the rift that had erupted between the Indian hockey players and the FIH just few months back. Sports enthusiasts were ready to keep aside some time of their TV watching for hockey matches. After plundering their arch rival Pakistan, Indian hockey team got back into their groove with miserable losses against Australia, Spain and England. By the end of the tournament, India managed to finish 8th in the tally table. I do not follow Hockey much, have never touched the hockey stick in my entire life, but that is never a criteria for me to not notice that we guys were never a match to the Europeans, South/North Americans or the Australians in this sports. They were quicker on the field, their passes were precise, they had stronger legs. Our guys looked totally illeqipped and underprepared when compared to their counterparts. That reminded me of a discussion I once had with one of my friends about the athletic ability and genetics. On a serious note, this can not be an excuse for the dismal performance of our sportsmen in any sport, this is just a parallel thought on the role the genes could play and how influential they are.

None of us can deny cricket is the only sports Indians seem to have excelled in. At the same time, I do not consider Cricket is an athletic game. Hope you all agree with me. Let me consider some athletic games (case study kinda). In Tennis - though we have soft corners for Paes, Bhupathi and Sania Mirza but let's be frank in accepting that they can not even come close to win a singles grandslams tournaments. Football - we hear the names of Bhutia and Chhetri now and then, but Indian football is ranked 130th in the world currently. That says it all. So in which other sports is our 100 billion populated country good at? When it comes to Track & Field events, it is sad that I can remember only PT Usha and Anju Bobby George - former  won at least an Olympic medal, latter cant boast about the same. Swimming, Gymnastics... I do not know a single Indian who has shone in the international level.

Enough of scratching our heads to get the names of Indian sports personalities. Now try answering these:

Name a white athlete who holds the world record in sprinting (100m / 200m).. It is always a Caribbean or black Americans who have ruled this sport. 

Name a black guy who has won an Olympic medal in swimming (any style, 100m to 400m).. It has always been the reign of white people in water.

Why Chinese gymnasts always dominate that sport...?

Why Kenyans / Ethiopians always win marathons..?

Don't these questions ring a bell in our minds..?

Researchers say, athletic performance is affected by genes (particularly the genes which regulate cardio vascular endurance, lung capacity and muscle fibre type) and there are also more important external factors like motivation, training and equipments, nutrition and environmental influences. Apart from them there are also characteristics that are less influenced by genes such as reaction time, agility and balance. Check this, this and this for more info. Myriad of research papers would have been published at the expense of millions of dollars all over the world, but till date genetic scientists have not been able to pin-point a gene/set of genes that affect the athletic performance of human beings. So it is a secret yet.

Until then, Indian athletes, footballers, tennis players, hockey players have another excuse for their under performance - their 'inferior genes';)

The almost forgotten face of the singer Bela in this post of Deepak Iyer, brought me back the memories of my school days. Those were the days.. yes, how can nostalgia be explained without the phrase, 'those were the days'. Those were the days, when TV shows were not riding a tiger named TRP, those were the days when singing shows were taking baby steps, those were the days when (few) singing and (very few) dancing shows were not bitten by the bug named reality, those were the days when judges of those programs were treating each other with respect, naively critical and never harsh on the participants Those were the days when participants never begged for TV audiences' SMS votes standing in front of the camera making faces. Those were the days when the contest winners were neither lured by crores nor by brand new cars. Those were the days when a Final was called a Final and not a Grand Finale. Those were the days when there used to be music and only music in the singing shows unlike today's reality shows which brims with high intensity drama every minute. Those were the days when the singing shows were unadulterated unlike today, where every week a celebrity pair appears in the singing shows to promote their new movie or music. The only purpose of those programs was to entertain the audience with sheer quality music.

Those were the days, when TVS Sa Re Ga Ma was very famous singing show on Zee TV. It was then hosted by the small screen heartthrob, chikna Sonu Nigam, who shot to fame after this TV show. I would not be exaggerating if I say, this TV show taught me to enjoy music. Below is a clipping of ONE OF THE BEST MEDLEYS I HAVE SEEN ON TELEVISION by Jagjit Singh. It was the Mega Final of Sa Re Ga Ma, where there were 10 'mahaan hastis' of music industry to judge the penultimate male and female winner.  Naushad saab, Anil Biswas, Rajkumariji, O P Nayyar, Pt Jasraj, Khayyam Saab, Begum Parveen Sultana, Kalyanji, Anandji and Jagjit Singh himself - were the judges. In the third episode of the Mega Final, Jagjit Singh renders this gem of a medley.

Almost all the finalists sitting around Jagjit Singh are quite big names today. From left to Right are Bela, Sudeshna, Sanjeevini - debuted as lead singer in Kareeb with Chori Chori jab nazre milee, Mohammed Vakil - though he is not much heard of these days, he was and still is my favourite singer, Mukund and Parthiv Gohil - debuted as lead singer in Saawariya in 'Yoon Shabnami' song.

Last but not the least, TVS Sa Re Ga Ma was a brain child of Gajendra Singh, who is now directing Amul Music ka Maha Muqabala in Star TV. But the two shows are incomparably poles apart.. Those were the days... :-/

Whether it is after a hard day's work or on a lazy Sunday afternoon or when I am feeling low, good romantic comedies always work for me. I know no better way to pep myself up. A light plot, an apt cast, cutesy scenes and dialogues sprinkled with humor that does not fail to bring a smile on your lips. And when you are walking alone down the road, sitting alone at home doing nothing or when you are walking up the stairs of your office, you remember those scenes, think how silly yet cute were they and bring a smile on your lips again unmindful of the world around you.

I saw one such movie few days back. Was bored to hit the sack and started surfing TV. Sony Pix was airing Alex and Emma, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson. The movie is directed by Rob Reiner, of When Harry Met Sally..., A Few Good Men and The Bucket List fame. The movie is about an author Alex, played by Luke Wilson who is in need to churn out a novel to repay his debt to Cuban mafia within 30 days. Having got his laptop destroyed, he hires a stenographer Emma, played by Kate Hudson. Alex with a perfect author's mindset and Emma with a mind of a not so keen literary enthusiast, give us the viewers some real funny moments through out the movie.

The movie also shows us a parallel narration of the fictitious plot set in some unmentioned era on some imaginary island, where Luke Wilson himself plays the role of the protagonist and Kate Hudson plays the role of a nanny. It is fun to see the nanny changing from Swedish, to English, to Spanish, and finally as Anna, an American - all played by Kate Hudson herself, as Alex changes the nationality of the nanny in his novel as per the needs of the story. Predictably, Alex and Emma fall in love during this transcription process towards the end of the movie. A hitch is introduced to the storyline with characters in Alex's novel being inspired from his past experiences that make Emma doubt Alex's love for her. But in the end, the differences vanish and movie ends with Alex and Emma locking their lips..

A perfect movie for a boring Sunday afternoon..

To know who kissed whom or what, and why am I counting them, read this.

The spotlight was on Andy Murray, the runner up of Aus Open 2010. Whole of Rod Laver Arena was silent to hear him speak.. And he broke down uttering "I am sure I can cry like Federer, but I am sorry I can't play like him!” Yes, this time too the runner up of Aus Open was in tears like Federer did it after losing to Nadal in the great 5 setter finals of Aus Open 2009.

I could see only the third and the final set of the finals, thanks to KPTCL there was a power cut in my locality. I kept messaging my colleague who is also a Tennis maniac for the updates till the power came back. When the power came back, the third set was going on. Murray was fighting hard to stay in the match, taking the set to a tiebreaker. For the first time in my life I wanted Federer to lose that set! Only to satiate my thirst of seeing him play another set. But Federer not only denied me the pleasure of watching him play, but more importantly crushed the dream of Andy Murray to become the first British to win a Grand Slam. British press always has projected Murray as the next-big-thing on tennis court, the tennis experts say he has got the near perfect techniques to match Federer on any surface, he might be a capable guy but personally I do not enjoy his game!! There could be lot of factors why Murray lost so easily to Federer in that match, the fatigue would have taken a toll on the young chap, there could also be a great amount of pressure on him as he is yet to win a Grand Slam. Though I am happy as a fan of Federer, but as a fan of tennis, the match did not excite me much. It seriously looked one-sided with Federer winning the first two sets so easily. I think Murray fought hard only in the final tiebreaker. Only the third set had some awe moments.

Looking at Federer's journey to final, he never played 5 sets in the whole of the tournament!! He got to play with very few big names in his draw; Lleyton Hewitt(22) - who is not as menacing as he was 2-3 yrs back, Nikolay Davydenko(6) - not a serious threat to Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(10) - who is playing the best tennis of his career. Where as the other draw had many big fighters; Andy Roddick(7), Juan Martin Del Potro(4), Andy Murray(5), Rafael Nadal(2), Marin Cilic(14), Gael Monfils(12). So comparing them, I feel Federer had relatively an easier draw this time.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for the French Open, expecting the battle for title to be fiercer and more aggressive with hopefully Nadal back to his usual fitness and many other hungry contenders.. Lets hope for a great tennis season ahead.

Lastly I want to quote an excerpt from ‘The master and the apprentice’ - "If Federer plays as he did in the semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Frenchman believes that no one can stop the Fed. And if Murray plays like he did in the quarter-finals against Nadal, Nadal does not think anyone can stop him either.

The only certainty is that if both men play to the peak of the abilities, we are in for a belting final". I totally agree with that.