Catastrophe

Someone said..

Bring it on man, im gonna finish what you began.

I hear you loud and clear, I gonna fill you up with fear,

I am gonna make you run and hide..

But.I say.

I feel the need of the speed and in the process you would feel deprived,

Later on don't cry out loud, still there is time to make yourself proud..

Time is of great essence, understand the sentence,

Sit up and analyze, it may still materialize..

I know the secret

Hereby I sit all by myself talking to the only person whom I know from all these years. The conversation with this person I never run out of topics. But the only problem if at all that’s a problem is that I haven't still figured it out that what this person wants.

Sitting idle both of us keep on talking endlessly about what we both want in life, what is that we are happy with but every time the result the same. We always draw blank.

Still again when chips are down, we again start the debate all again. We see the starry skies and down below there is two of us who keep on talking with no solution to the problem.

So now I ask what the problem is, why is it so difficult to leave all behind and keep yourself diverted?

Instantly the inside of me tell it’s easier said than done.

Waging War

Watching in the mirror, I feel I can't betray myself. I can see all those behind me and if I make some movements of my eyeballs I can see those in front of me. I don’t face any danger those in front of me but the ones behind pose a greater threat. Thinking of them would make me weaker. So the need of the hour is to concentrate who are in front of me.

I still believe I can't betray myself; I always look away at other things in this space rather letting them engulfing you. I have the confidence, I just sit in my chair, sip my tea and watch. By analyzing this and analyzing that, I got accustomed how people behave.

Once I know that, I can put your experience to use that I have accumulated by over taking the once who are behind you and without letting others know I can overhaul them. But its easier said than done. But I had confidence in my self.

Once I was at that position, the mirror wasn't any more visible to me. It had simply vanished into scenery with green trees, a beautiful lake with frozen water and birds flying over the frozen water. I couldn't see anybody in front on me but could see the shadows of birds flying trying to overrun me.

I closed my eyes and I said to myself: I did not betray my self.

‘Once upon a time’

Let me begin a tale, with a breath I inhale:

Once upon a time, the night was dark, moon was shining and there I was sitting casually in corner of a bush with a fire in my hands. I was silently sitting moving my head from one side to another which made me feel I was moving in the rhythm with the insects.

All of a sudden I felt like I am hanged two-three feet above the ground with my head facing down.  And I sway along with the insects, and the momentum is increasing instantaneously. Once the motion become a bit slow, some unnatural force pushes me again and I start swaying with momentum. And to go along, I am able to hear constant stridulating sounds produced by the grasshoppers and the other insects. Then I realize the reason of the motion is the effect of stridulating.

 In-between I observe that some ashes of fire also drops from my hand as I am in a constant motion and I take evasive action to save my body part to hitting those ashes. The person approaching me thinks that I am dancing away on some tunes.

Suddenly I notice him and try to act normal, try to stand up on my feet. On the spur of the moment I feel like I am trying to take off like an aero plane then realizing that I need more fuel to do that.

Then again my mind wanders off again to notice that who was approaching me, and observed no one in around me and then I felt I was hallucinating. I tried to close my eyes and tried to concentrate but I could only see green skies. Then I realized today anything is possible and I should return back to the room to keep a control over myself.

This was not a fairytale and I hope this story was not a stale.

Royal Indian Open

In retrospect, being part of the Royal Indian Open at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex (Balewadi Tennis Complex) and watching the semifinal matches wasn't exactly an overwhelming experience.

Our college was the proud educational sponsor of this tournament and much to the delight of a few of us, we got an opportunity to be a part of the WTA event which is being held for the second time in India, after the Bangalore Open in 2009.

Andrea Petkovic during the match with the logo of Sri Balaji Society in the backdrop.

The tournament organizers claimed that the tournament was held in Pune due to the fact that tennis is fast becoming popular in India, with WTA events being the second most followed events after the Grand Slams.

Do they really think so? I guess they have to set the record straight. The few colleagues with whom I interacted before going to the venue didn't know how lawn tennis is played, let alone the rules and regulations. Does this suggest that tennis is fast becoming popular in India? Much to the annoyance of umpires and players during the game there was constant chattering among the little crowd that was present, which was ‘driving the players up the wall’, causing a break in their concentration in between points. Doesn't the crowd know how to respect the players?

To go along with that, I was also disappointed with the maintenance and cleanliness of the stadium and court, which was a synthetic hard court. I personally like the lush green lawn tennis courts of All England Club in Wimbledon. My research helped me to conclude that there is an only one grasscourt in India at Calcutta Club; synthetic grass-courts are the ones which are preferred in India. Last but not the least, for a semifinal match there were approximately 500 spectators out of the 4200 sitting capacity at the Center Court. I once again reiterate, the organizers should check if tennis in India is indeed becoming a popular sport.

Anyhow, being a sports follower who has been following Grand Slam matches on television, being cheesed off due to the unavoidable factors didn't kill all my expectations of a good quality game with long rallies and powerful winners.

The second semi-final match was between the Andrea Petkovic, ranked 140th (ranked 9th a few years ago) from Germany and Elina Svitolina (ranked 148th) from Ukraine. A few good aces, 10 in all from the Ukrainian player, wristy backhands from both the players and powerful first serves by Andrea Petkovic were some of the highlights of the match. Svitolina defeated the wild card entry and the crowd favorite Petkovic in straight sets 6-2, 7-5, shattering her dream of a comeback.

The first semi-final was between Tamarine Tanasugarn (ranked 151st) from Thailand and Kimiko Date-Krumm (ranked 128th) from Thailand. It was a good contest with the match going into the third set, and Krumm eventually prevailed 6-4, 5-7 and 6-4. Tanasugarn’s main pitfall was her low percentage of first serves and frequent double faults. And ironically, the losing point also came from a double fault. At the end of the match during the interview, I was pretty surprised to know that K. Date Krumm was 42 years old; from her enthusiasm and athleticism she seemed to be a player in her mid 20’s.

Perhaps this event will set the ball rolling. Now the ball is in our court, can we deliver an ACE?