Of Rafa, Google+ and Transformers

Thanks to the July 4 weekend in the US workload the last week was pretty light. 92% of my e-mails to colleagues came right back with an out of office response. But I was for once not complaining. I have been busy spending some of my free time playing around with my new iPad and downloading all kinds of applications on it. 

I also fooled around with Google+ and it seems to be a really neat and the UI is clean and nice as well. But I wonder if Google for some reason is too late into the Web 2.0 party. Even more surprising to me was the fact that Google did not go all out to get hold of those Nortel patents when they could have done very well with some of those telecom related patents from Nortel (like LTE etc) and instead chose to make bids denoting mathematical constants like Pi..strange fellows I say.

Meanwhile we entered the final week at The Championships and the biggest news mid-week was Roger Federer's loss in the quarters against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga played some unbelievable tennis in the last three sets and it left me with some evil satisfaction as I thought to myself that Tsonga in that kind of form would destroy the Djoker. The one man that I am beginning to hate as a hardcore Rafa fan. Rafa is the meantime thrashed Murray much to the dismay of the English press (Poor souls the British. They've invented most of the games and yet have very few world beaters in those sports and the only good thing to come out of it was it gives employment opportunities for hundreds of journalists). The Djoker meanwhile dismantled Tsonga who later told the press that his opponent for everywhere on the court only for the Rafa fan in me to snigger and say, well Rafa's like that as well. Of course I was hurting inside as a Rafa fan because Djokovic had just usurped the No 1 ranking from Nadal. I had to sneer at something! We were now looking at a Djokovic-Nadal final.

I din't get to watch the final as I spend Sunday evening with the missus at the movies watching Transformers 3 - Dark of the Moon. I did check the scores now and then during the movie and the first time I stared at my phone browser the score read 6-4, 6-1 in favor of Djokovic. WTF! What was Nadal up to? Was this real? Crap (background music from the movie was all bullets and canon's firing from the Transformers...apt description for my state of mind then). 10 mins later the score read 6-4, 6-1, 1-6. Muhuahahhahahhahah..that villainous laughter was back. Rafa was kicking the Djoker's butt. My attention was fully back to the Autobot-Decepticon flight. The restless mind got the better of me 10 or 15 mins later and a glace at my score brought me back to earth with a huge thud, just as Cybertron was entering the Earths atmosphere. 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 5-3..I was as helpless as the humans watching the Decepticons annihilate everyone...Sigh!

15 mins later, the good guys in the movie were kicking butt and for me nothing mattered for the score was now 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. The Djoker was the new Champ! Nadal had lost at Wimbledon for the first time since 2007. The missus was probably amused when I told her in a sad tone that Nadal had lost. Watch the frigging movie and forget the score she seemed to say.

Anyways, the movie had all the masala for a dishum-dishum fan like me. Wifey liked it as well and that bode well. After all Harry Potter was releasing shortly as well and I definitely had to take her for that.

Coming back home, a gleeful looking mom (she is a forever Nadal hater) greeted me along with my grinning cousin and told me that Nadal has lost..was thrashed...was walloped by Djokovic. Had to change the topic..fast..had to keep this conversation short.....

So here we are on a Monday afternoon and I have gotten off the Nadal loss. But I am left thinking like many other Nadal fans as to whether Djokovic has gotten into Nadal's head just like Nadal had gotten into the mighty Federer's. The facts seem to speak for themselves. 5 finals and 5 losses (2 hard court, 2 clay and 1 grass). The writing seems to be on the wall but having watched Nadal play the last 8 years, I would be foolish to the bet against the Matador for Manacor and whilst my loyalties still remain with Nadal, I will go into every Nadal-Djoker match henceforth with a slightly skeptical frame of mind.

That said, I think tennis is discovering a new great rivalry in the making so it is good for the sport and like all good sports, I can only salute Novak Djokovic and say terrific job sir! (that of course doesn't meant that I will be praying for Rafa to kick his ass whenever they meet again)..

Weddings, Footie and Wimbledon

Taking advantage of the lull in work related activities, the missus and I headed to Trivandrum last week to attend the wedding of a close friend from Lovedale. Renju and I were neighbors four about 10 years at Lovedale and ended up spending half our time at each others' house. Renju is two years younger that me and his brother Shibu is 5 years younger and was part of the gang at Lovedale that used to be seen together at all times. I still vividly remember dad shaking is heading and telling me to stop playing with kids and go an mingle around with people my age. Somehow like most children, I never took his advice. The world that I shared with these folks was a happy one and I had no intentions of looking beyond this.

We took the train from Yeshwantpur to Kochuveli and arrived at Renjus place the following afternoon. I was meeting Renjus's dad and mom after almost 12 years. They haven't aged a bit! Is it something to do with all the protein rich diet that the mallus have I wonder. The wedding was a big family affair and I got to meet some old people from school and a couple of old laws based in Bangalore that I had bot met for ages. This was the first Christian wedding I attended since Fenny's (son of Mr. P.E. Thomas, an old school teacher at Lovedale) wedding way back in 1990 (or was it 1991?).

We managed to squeeze in sometime to visit the famous Padmanabhaswamy temple. The lord Vishnu lies in the Anananthasaina pose (sleeping ). The idol is simply massive (about 16 feet in length) and has to be viewed through 3 doors! The paintings around the temple are magnificent too and have been preserved well (atleast a part of them). As with all temples in Kerala, dress code is strict. The local mundu for men without a shirt and saree only for women. I was surprised to see the priests int he temple forcing you to take archana tokens and other items. Sad to see this in Kerala. The influence of money! Can't blame the priests too. They are looking at earning their livelihood too.

I managed to catch a few minutes of the match between Brazil and Holland. The Dutch to me looked the better team. Under Dunga, Brazil seem to play  more defensive driven football and maybe paid the price. Holland look favorites to reach the finals when they play Uruguay later today.  However the football the Dutch played has not been spectacular either. I was on the bus returning to Bangalore when the Germans played Argentina. Under Loew, Die Mannschaft seem to play a very attacking game relying of the speed of the young guns in the German team. Schweini  has blossomed in his role as the midfield general in place of Ballack. I will not be surprised if they kick Spain out in the semis though I am secretly hoping for Spain to reach the finals.

Rafa rules Wimbledon again! Although I was too nervous to watch the finals, I knew the title was in Rafa's back after he wont he second set. If those knees hold up, he should have a decent chance to crack the US Open. He should probably skip either the Rogers Masters in Toronto or the Masters event at Cincinnati to make sure he comes into the US Open relatively fresh. Federer is now No 3 in the rankings. Although I don't rule out a FedEx victory at the big apple, a lot of people are beginning to admit that the decline has begun. He will be 30 at next years Open and with the big hitting Berdych's, Soderling's and Cilic's still in their mid 20's, FedEx is going to find it increasingly hard to match their power game.

I can't wait for the semis but the challenge will be to stay awake! Vamos Espana!

Sports Mania!

June and July are totally action packed this year for the sports fan and for someone who loves sport, there is simply too much on TV these days but I am not complaining. House hunting yesterday meant that I could not watch the F-1 European Grand Prix but followed some highlights and read about the whole safety car incident and I endorse Ferrari's views on Hamilton not being penalized enough for overtaking the safety car. meanwhile Vettel to me looks like the next world champion. He is pure class behind the wheels of an F-1 car.

Speaking of class, Germany was all of it in yesterday's world cup match against England. Having said that England played like a bunch of grand daddy's on the field and if I was John Terry, I'd probably pack up my bags and go on a indefinite vacation. Thomas Mueller was fantastic as were the other young Germans. It was good old fashioned counter attacking football at its best! 

Argentina to me, look like the team to beat. Higuain and Tevez are looking solid and then you have the magician, Messi who makes even the best defenders look stupid. The game against Germany should be a cracker. 

Spain and Portugal clash in another classic encounter. I think Spain have just about enough fire-power to over come CR7 and his team. I din't like the way Brazil played against Portugal. Looked like a wrestling contest and I'm hoping Brazil play with their usual flair in their next game. For all footie fans, a visit to the website www.zonalmarking.net is a must. Splendid analysis of all on-going WC matches. They cover all the major football leagues as well. 

Dhoni and his men won the Asia Cup although I remain very skeptical about our chances in the World Cup next year.  We simply don't have a bowling punch to restrict teams that bat deep like Australia and England and I don't see a Zaheer Khan emerging for us over the next year. Nehra is always good when his rhythm is good and the conditions helpful but I don't think the pitches in India are going to favor him. And while I am on the topic of cricket, I must make a humble request to the morons from the BCCI who do all the cricket planning. No more Sri Lanka-India series please! At least for another 5 years! Speaking of the BCCI morons, the selectors have picked Yuvraj Singh for the test squad. Why was he dropped in the first place?  Does he have his form or fitness back so soon? Rohit Sharma merits a place instead but the wise men of Indian cricket always have it in them to make the such awful decisions. Must part of the the job description!

Valentino Rossi's chances of another world title are down the drain after his horror crash in Mugello. Good news however is that he plans to be back in action at the Czech Grand Prix in Bruno. I'm only hoping that the Doctor doesn't carry the mental scars of the crash with him to the race track.

Wimbledon season is here too and surprisingly both Federer and Nadal have struggled through to the round of 16 and the questions over Nadal's fitness are making the rounds once more after he received treatment in the last match. Soderling looks dangerous and the way Nadal's playing I dont give him much of a chance against Soderling. I'm praying that I'm wrong!

Nothing much happening at work. I am off to Trivandrum this week to attend a childhood friends wedding. Will be seeing his mom and dad after 12 or 14 years. Really looking forward to it! 

Meanwhile the hunt to buy a house continues and the a good property at a reasonable price continues to evade us. We came across a nice one yesterday but the vaastu of the place seems to be totally haywire and the family has rejected this. Let's see what the almighty has in store for us.