Happy Birthday Sachin :)

Four years ago, you won the 'Player of the tournament' award in South Africa.
Four years ago, on this very day, Mid-Day celebrated your 30th birthday in style by having the entire newspaper printed with stories, news and articles that revolved around you. Like many of your fans, I bought that copy of Mid-Day and have treasured it to this very day.

Four long years have passed since that summer of 2003.
They say, fate is cruel and time has no mercy on any soul in this world.
Who else, but you yourself have realised it the bitter way.
Today, you have been apparently 'rested' for the Bangladesh tour.
Your birthday this year is covered by an article on page 32 of Mid-Day.
And a photograph on the cover page.

Nevertheless, a birthday is always an occasion to celebrate and be happy.
It is a wonderful gesture from your childhood pal, Vinod.

Here's wishing you many happy returns of the day.
And here's hoping that you emerge stronger from the current misfortune for a final redemption.

Happy Birthday Sachin! :)

The Emperor & The King

The Emperor 3-7 The King

(Overall Head-to-head)

The Emperor 0-5 The King

(Head-to-head on clay)

The Emperor rules the world on all surfaces & conditions - be it hardcourt or grass, indoors or outdoors, except one surface, viz. the red clay. It is the King who is the wizard on this slow surface. Built like a matador, he flexes those biceps bulging out of that sleeveless T every time he hits with that astounding top spin, and then moves effortlessly in those cargo pants almost 6-8 feet behind the baseline to chase every ball sent down, and then rattles the Emperor every time they have faced each other. And the Emperor is not the lone subject in the King's reign on clay - the reign extends supremely over 67 consecutive matches!

5 of those 10 matches between the two of them have been played on clay - 4 of those have been finals along with a solitary semi-final. 2 matches have been played at Roland Garros while the remaining 3 have been at Masters Series events.

In these 5 matches, the Emperor has managed to take only 5 sets while the King has won 14.

All 5 matches have resulted in the King being victorious.

Seems like a one-sided contest, n'est ce pas?

No wonder, Mark Twain famously remarked something about statistics being nothing else but damn lies.

Then consider this fact - out of these 19 sets, 6 have been tie-breakers and another 6 have been decided by a single break of serve. In fact, in the epic 5-setter final (that had 3 tie-breaks) at Rome last year, the Emperor won more points (179 to 174) than the King, yet lost the match.

Just goes to show how close, how tight and how nerve-wracking it gets when these two slug it out in the middle on the red clay.

Just goes to show how much important it is to win those key points.

The 2007 clay season has begun.

These two have shown yet again that they are way ahead of any of their contemporaries by reaching the final of the Masters Series tournament at Monte Carlo last Sunday without dropping a single set.

The final was a contest between the left handed wizard and the right handed genius.

The Emperor opened aggressively, but his forehand, incidentally his biggest weapon, let him down on that day.

The King proceeded to win the final without dropping a set.

The Emperor still has enough time to make amends - the Masters Series at Rome and Hamburg follow suit in May.

The French Open at the end of May and early June is when both the Emperor and the King are likely to cross their swords (or should I say racquets) for the ultimate prize on the slow, red surface.

It is the only major that the Emperor does not have in his prized collection of 10 other majors.

And it is also THE only major that the King has in his kitty.

Both of them have great respect for each other.

When asked about it, the King could not have been more humble or realistic in his reply,

"What can I say about ten Grand Slams against two?"

When it comes to slams, this is the sole difference between the Emperor and the King. Other titles, tournaments and Master Series events will come and go. But nothing more than a slam or a major matters to the Emperor and the King.

This year's French Open may well turn out to be the defining moment in each man's career and the history of the sport of tennis.

Amen!

The pursuit of...

Finally watched a movie this weekend that I had been wanting to watch since last December. It is the story of a middle-aged guy, struggling to make both ends meet, struggling to look after his 5-year old son, struggling to keep his marriage working, struggling to make his mark in life - a few of those struggles end in success, a few in failure - but there's one struggle that is never ending, it is... the pursuit of happyness.

There's a moment of realisation of this particular struggle, in the movie when Chris Gardner, the central character enacted by Will Smith, says
"And it was at that time that I thought about Thomas Jefferson writing that Declaration of Independence. Him saying that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I thought about how he knew to put the 'pursuit' in there, like no one can actually have happiness. We can only pursue it."

Aren't we all pursuing happyness? Can any one of us ever claim that we have found happyness for ever and ever?

Obstacles always arise in our path. It is the belief in ourselves and in our dreams that should always be unwavering, so that we can overcome those obstacles.
Chris' 5-year old boy wants to become a good basketball player, when Chris tells him that he can't be that because his dad always sucked at it as a child. Then realising his mistake, he tells his son,
"Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period."

The saddest moments in life are those when the heart cries silently with no tears in the eyes.
And the happiest moments are those when the heart smiles with no words spoken, and the eyes are filled with tears.

The saddest moment is enacted incredibly well when Will Smith has to spend a night in the restroom of a metro with his son, after they become homeless - he has no money to go anywhere - and he pushes the restroom door with his leg that someone is trying to open, while he holds on to his son sleeping in his arms.
To act well in such a heart-wrenching scene comes naturally to Oscar nominated actors. You dont expect anything less from them in such scenes.

But the scene where Will Smith truly shows his limitless acting potential is when he finally succeeds in achieving his long-held dream, and experiences that rare moment of sublime happyness.
You can see it in his eyes and his whole body language - no words are spoken - he comes out of his office to mingle into the crowd on the street, yet stands apart from the rest of the crowd.
He simply cannot believe he's finally achieved it against all odds, and he wants to share his happyness with the whole world around him. It is what you can call the perfect moment.

What is it that I am in pursuit of? happyness? success? perfect moments?
Will I ever achieve all of them?
All I know is that -
You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.

My pursuit continues...period.