Blogging from San Francisco

Finally the wait is over now. Couldn't wait for this day to get to SFO. We are having a total family get together. My parents arrived here about 2 weeks back. Wonderful to see them after more than a year now. Abinaya, cutie was sitting on the carpet juggling with something in her hand. The moment I entered she looked at me like a complete stranger. She didn't take her eyes off me for almost 5 minutes. I was so scared that she had developed a bad baby syndrome and thought she wouldn't come to me. But quite the contrary. She smiled when I picked her up. Wow! heavenly. Want to spend as much time as possible with her in these 4 days. Possibly will attach some snaps later on. Mom and Dad were quite impressed with my weight gaining capabilities. All they could talk about was how handsome I had become. Can't judge myself if I have, but when my parents say that, it definitely feels good. Whatever, its great to see them again. My brother and sis-in-law, ditto as to what they were 7 months ago.
What dinner could I ask for as soon as you step into SFO? Crab curry, fish curry, rasam (I love rasam, tasted it after almost one year). Guess I might go back to San Antonio with some extra pounds. And not to forget, crab curry is my sis-in-law's specialty. Slurp!!! Am ready for second round dinner ;-)

The Penguin Trail: Playing a DVD

The Penguin Trail: Playing a DVD

10 things/people I love most

Ok here is what I decided to write on a Sunday night (Monday early morning). Life had become too boring by this point that my mind refused to stop searching for reasons to go back to the past and think about wonderful as well as horrible things. Well idle mind, yes, devil's workshop, no. Was wondering how stiff my life became and how different I am today, comparing the Raj only just an year back. Why all this seriousness? Where has the light hearted kid in me disappeared? I used to love that kid in me so much. Well a confused question runs through my mind. Am I getting old? Old enough to take up responsibilities and start living a tight life? That's something I will never want to do. My motto in life was always, just live for today - anyway you have to face tomorrow. Seems like the devil has started invading my top floor, right?
Let me write about wonderful things that I had/have/miss in my life.
Mentioned in reverse order for no reason at all.
10. Sleep until 12 in the afternoon, scolding from my Mom. Gosh! I miss that so much now.
9. One hour tea break in HP center with all my friends.
8. My Bajaj Pulsar. My first bike. Bought it without my Dad's investment. He was mad at me for not letting him pay, but he appreciates that fact now. I miss my bike so much.
7. My Yamaha PSR 350 keyboard. Those were the best days of my life ;-). Me and Rex playing it on stage together. That's a dream yet to come true.
6. Wonderful morning breakfast waiting on my dining table when I get ready to office. I used to scold my Mom for preparing Idli the nth time that week, but now I cook myself and crave for that idli..
5. My 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer. The first car I bought.
4. Libu, Rex, Padmaja, Vino, Sanjesh, Subbu and Smruthi. My HP center friends.
3. Kapil and Aruna, I am like their kid brother. Going to miss then badly when they go back to India.
2. My brother, my sis-in-law and my cutest, sweetest, loviest, most beautiful angel, my niece Abinaya.
1. Ofcourse, my Mom and Dad.

Federerophobia

Right since 2004, a player is not judged by how many grandslams he wins nor by how many tournaments he wins. He would be associated with high quality of the extraordinary league of players only if he has defeated Federer. A very few achieved the feat of defeating this extremely talented player. Other than the losses to Marat Safin in the Australian Open Semi final, Rafael Nadal in the French Semi final, David Nalbandian in the Shanghai masters series Final and Richard Gasquet in the ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo, he had a 81 victory stand in 2005. That's an unbelievable 81-4 win-loss record for one complete year. Such was the dominance of this magician on court. Even extremely talented and top players like Leyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi had admitted to Federer being closest to undefeatable. Most players would loose the match even before they went on court. Such was the mark he made on his opponents minds. Correctly termed as "Federerophobia". Hewitt lost a whole lot of confidence and dropped out of the top 10 in the rankings. Roddick dropped out of the top 3.
Then came Nadal, the only kid who Federer is stil not able to figure out. While Nadal always had problems with many other players like James Blake and Leyton Hewitt, he somehow found the way to attack Federer's backhand with his extremely heavy topspin. They go 6-1 head to head in favour of Nadal. Now maybe Federerophobia has struck back at Federer himself. The French open final suggested a very weary and demotivated Federer. He seemed totally off focus and as if his mind was someplace else. Maybe he has this mental block over Nadal what many other players had over him. Even in the Gerry Weber tournament in Germany, he has been thoroughly tested by players like Olivier Rochus, Tommy Haas, Richard Gasquet against whom he saved four match points before scrapping through. This is totally unlike the magician we witnessed on court. People like Hewitt and Roddick have begun to believe, that Federer is afterall not invincible. Even though it's a good sign for tennis, with increase in competition, it is bad news for Federer and his invincibility. He now needs some tournament victories, especially wimbledon, to get back on track. Let's hope he lives on to the hopes of many legendary tennis stars like John Mcnroe and Matts Wilander that he would go on to be a legendary tennis star.
Go Federer Go!!! You are the emporer of tennis...