Thank you, Babu!

I know it's been a while since I last blogged (that is an understatement of such enormous magnitude that it's hard to compare it with anything else) and my last post was more than a year ago. But something happened very recently that has prompted me to rethink my blogging career(?!?!) and to become an active blogger again.

But before I do that, I want to tell you folks what happened.

Out of the blue, on Friday last week, I got a very pleasant surprise. A mail from my colleague and buddy from Mumbai was waiting in my inbox. Here's what it said:

From: Babu Ramaswamy

Subject: Hats off

Date: 22 January 2010 3:23:16 PM GMT+05:30

To: Malhar Anaokar

Hi Malhar,

I took some time out last evening and went through your dumping ground ( blogspot )

I started by reading one..then another..then another and in the end i could not leave your page before i finished reading them all... I am really really impressed by your writing...Why have you stopped???

While i was reading blogs under " PROUD FATHER ", i actually could visualize you with your daughter.....While " You are not the boss of the house " brought a smile, reading blogs like " How can i deny this request ", " It's been nine days ", " I am so so proud of her " made my eyes moist.

Admitting to have had " moist eyes " isn't the most macho thing, but i'd be lying if i said that i wasn't blinking back tears when i went through the blogs mentioned above.

You have great skills and i persuade you to continue writing. " The Tiger in town " also shows that your daughter too has the penchant for writing.

Looking forward to reading your short story.

And yes please convey my best wishes to your daughter..

Cheers

Babu"

WOW!

That one completely floored me! This was completely unexpected. I have never expected anyone to read the rubbish that I put up here, much less appreciate it. But more than that, I admired his patience to stay with the blog and to read all the posts. I must have done something right while I was writing them…which brings me to this post.

Dear Babu, this one is dedicated to you! Thank you once again for the very kind and encouraging words and for making me blog again. I will try to be a more sincere and regular blogger henceforth, mainly because you have set the bar so high with your praise that I fear I may not live up to it. But I will try nonetheless. So here goes…to you, my friend, for helping me get on the blogger's path again.

So what's been happening all this while that I have not posted? Quite a few things, actually. So let me see if I can get a few up here…

1. The company that I work for has been acquired. So we are all waiting for the legalities to get done and see what the future holds.

2. I entered in a short story writing competition last year, did not win, but was told that my story was one of the few in contention and that they would like to publish it as part of an anthology. And so, just like that, my second publishing opportunity! The first one you can read about here.

3. I have started going to a guitar class for the first time in my life. After scratching on the strings for all these years, I finally decided that I will learn it like every other sane person on the planet. And I realized I have the B and F chords! :-)

4. Golf has been one roller coaster ride. A few of us in the office started tracking our scores religiously and saw our handicaps drop significantly. Last I checked on our tracking system, I was down to 9.7! And then disaster struck…I could not understand what I was doing wrong. Until last week…when I shot 10 consecutive pars! A personal record!

5. Schumi is back to Formula 1 and my interest in the sport is back. What had become a really boring sport that I pretty much ignored will be my weekend attraction starting March. Go Schumi, Go!

6. Photography as a passion has grown manyfold over the last year, especially since the acquisition of the Nikon D90, a dream of a camera. Have clicked more than 8000 images so far with it, and many more with the iPhone camera and am seeing my passion growing as I start understanding the technicalities of photography. Let's see where this goes in the future.

That's what I can remember so far. And since I am planning to post regularly, as I remember, I will keep adding on.

Once again, thanx a lot for getting me started again, Babu.

Beer is on me the next time we meet! :-)

Making History

Three sportsmen were on the verge of making history yesterday. Two of them managed it, one stopped short.

Roger Federer was looking to become the first man since the great Rod Laver to hold all four Tennis majors at the same time by winning the French Open title, completing a grand slam, something that has been done very rarely in tennis history (see the Wikipedia entry for more info).

Against him was the reigning French Open champion Rafael Nadal, the man who has become the undisputed king of clay. Federer last month ended Nadal's record breaking run of 81 consecutive wins on clay. Nadal was trying to become the first man since the great Bjorn Borg, and only the second man in history, to win three consecutive French Open titles.

Unrelated to tennis, but having a lot of hype and expectations on his side in the Formula 1 world, Lewis Hamilton was looking to win his first grand prix at the Canadian GP after he took pole position ahead of his team mate, Fernando Alonso. If he won, he would be the first Black driver in history to win a F1 GP (not to mention that there has been no Black F1 driver before him). Hamilton has already had a sizzling start to his F1 career as he has finished on the podium in all of the races so far. For a rookie, he has done exceptionally well.

So who would step into the annuls of history?

Nadal trumped Federer to stop the latter from making his Grand Slam and became only the second man in history to win three French Open titles in a row. To a large extent, I think Federer lost rather than Nadal won, something that you can see from the number of unforced errors Roger made during the match. At one point, he had converted only one break point out of a possible 17 while Nadal had converted 3 out of a possible 8. A dejected Roger stood by as Nadal made history on clay.

And Hamilton, taking full advantage of mistakes made by his team mate, convincingly won his first GP in Canada going from his first pole to his first win in a fabulous controlled drive. The great thing about this rookie is that he looks completely in control when he is driving on the edge, a Schumi-esque characteristic. Of course he has a long way to go to even be compared with the great Schumaker, but he is definately doing all the right things to get him into the comparisons.

For one, he definately made Alonso look like the rookie. Alonso made more mistakes and drove a lot more stupidly than Hamilton did. And this from a guy who is a two time World Champion. I think Alonso must be feeling like Fisichella last year. Fisi was in a championship winning car, but could not manage to make anything out of it. Alonso is in the same car as his rookie team mate, but is making too many mistakes for a world champion.

So for the first time, a rookie is leading the F1 world championship on his own. He goes into the next race with an 8 point cushion, mainly thanks to a lot of stupidity by all the people who are chasing him for the title. Both Ferraris disappointed with Massa the better of the two, but disqualified and The Retard (my nickname for Kimi Raikonnen) managing no better than 5th place (even though he had qualified higher.

So the history books have two new members. Personally, I wish Roger had gotten in as opposed to Nadal (I am a huge Federer fan), but then, maybe next year.

Alonso behaved like an arrogant a$$

Did you catch the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend? We always knew that Fernando Alonso wanted to win the home GP real bad, especially after being level on points with his rookie team-mate after three races. And he did start the race aggressively.

The start saw Alonso tucking into Massa's slipstream to gain a lot of momentum down the straight and go around the outside to overtake Massa. Had he given Massa enough space to drive, it would have been a great racing move and a lovely overtake. Instead Alonso, despite being on the outside for the overtaking manouver, almost had his wheels on the inside curb when he was level with Massa at the corner. Massa, from my point of view, had no place to go.

So the cars touched and Alonso spent a couple of seconds in the gravel thereby missing a couple of places to rejoion 4th. Kimi would later drop off (they say mechanical failure, but I think he's a retard and extremely over-rated. He's the single biggest reason I don't call myself a Tifosi anymore) and Alonso would come home in third place, behind his rookie team-mate Hamilton, who now incidentally leads the Championship in terms of points. He is the first rookie since Bruce McLaren (the founder of the team for which Lewis now drives for). Super cool!

But coming back to Alonso...He blamed Massa for being too aggressive in the first corner and for the contact that sent him through the gravel track. And this is where I have a problem with Alonso. He might be a two time World Champion, but he still complains like a sissy.

It's never his fault. It's either his team screwing him up or his setup was not right or someone else hosed him. It's never him. But this time, it was clearly him. HE was the one being too aggressive on the first corner, HE was responsible for the contact, HE paid the price for the move, HE deserved it. HE is just a sore loser.

So Massa has back to back victories. His season so far is: a mechanical failure making him start at the end of the grid, a mistake trying to overtake Hamilton which screwed up his race and two victories. I think he is a better candidate this season for the championship, definately a better prospect than the Retard. Ferrari would have done better signing someone like Webber than they have with Kimi. He's just a LooHooZuHer with a capital L.

But Alonso sucked in the last race. But at least there was some entertainment in the race thanks to the start.

Enough Already

Everytime Britain get's hopes of an individual sports star, there is such a racket that is made. Remember Tim Henman? Jenson Button?

Now, there is a lot of noise being made about Lewis Hamilton, McLaren's prodigy who has become the first rookie in Formula 1 to get on all three podiums in the first race. Now don't get me wrong. I am really impressed with the poise and composure of this young man in his first season in F1. He has handled the pressure and deserves to be at the top of the table for his consistent performances.

But would he be the wonder boy had he made his debut in a Renault? Last year's world champions are struggling to get into the points, forget asserting their leadership. And poor Heikki Kovalainen is having a stumble of a debut in a rotten car. Last year's lame horse McLaren has got it's act together after struggling for a few years. And Lewis is riding on the wave of a good McLaren car helping him to the front of the grid.

What he has not done, though, is to talk to someone like Eddie Jordon saying you have raced around this particular track, manouver yourself into a position where you are allowed a race and then qualify a rickety Jordon on to 8th place on the grid.

That's right. I'm furious about this young fella being compared with Michael Schumaker. Schumi retired last year as the most successful F1 driver in the history of the sport and we have here a two bit debutant who has raced in only three races being compared with and being talked about as the next Schumaker.

Brits, please give me a break!

I know you are not particularly fond of Schumi, as you guys go out of the way to blast every single thing that he does. Then why compare this rookie to a person who you loathe? That isn't exactly a compliment, is it? But you do it because you know what Schumi has achieved is unique and that his records will probably stand for all time.

I would love to see what Hamilton can do in a car which is not running as well as it's front runners (remember F1 seasons '96 through '99, when Ferrari was clearly not the strongest car on the grid and yet Schumi was in Championship contention every single year - except when he broke his leg). The test of a good driver is when he does not drive the best car and still performs.

Look at the seasons from 1995:

1996 : Damon Hill (won and was still chucked out of Williams while still champion)
1997: Jacque Villnueve (had the best car on the grid, got lost in a BAR, big mouth, unknown since)
1998 - 99: Mika Hakinnen (the fastest and most reliable car on the grid)

When all these guys won, it was because they were great drivers (not because of the car). But when Ferrari started to dominate, it was because they had the best car, not because they had the greatest driver in the world who resurrected a team that had not won a single race since 1972 into a team which won six constructor titles on the trot.

No one looks at Schumi's ability to win with a four pit stop strategy, his ability to put in a really hot lap as soon as he is out of the pits, his ability to manage the car and his ability to come from behind (as he so amply showed in his final sign-off GP last year).

So I only have this to say. Lewis, you have a long way to go. If you have to even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Schumi, here is what you need to do in your career:

• Start more than 200 races (Schumi 250)
• Start from pole in a lot of them (Schumi 68)
• Win at least 30% of races started (Schumi 37%)
• Finish on the podium in a lot of the rest (more than 60)

Do that and I myself will hail you. Until I see something like that, forgive me if I don't compose songs on your skill and provess. I love what you're doing on the track and the promise that you have shown, but I would like to ignore most of what is being written about you.

I wish you all the best in the coming races and for your entire future and hope you are the kind of driver who will excite me enough to want to watch F1 again, something that I have founf lacking since Schumi's retirement last year.

Give me hope, Lewis. Not hype.

Schumi double whammi?

Michael Schumaker is rumoured to be in discussions with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team for a multi-million dollar buyout. It is also part of the same rumour that Ross Braun, ex-Ferrari technical boss, may team up with Schumi if this buyout happens.

Hmmm...that would definately be very interesting. I think Schumi would be a welcome sight at the F1 paddock, not behind the wheel this time, but as team boss. Sounds cool.

Another bit of news about my favourite F1 driver...

The Nurburgring track, where Schumi has won 5 of his mindnumbing 91 F1 wins, has decided to name a corner after him. The fast left-right switchback after the Dunlop hairpin will be renamed the 'Schumacher S' in a ceremony during the German GP in July. Schumi is obviously delighted and will be required to drive a lap of honour to mark the occasion.

If there is a driver in F1 history who desrves to have a corner named after him, it's him. Of course there are always drivers like Aryton Senna who are legends in their own right and already have chicanes named after them.

But there's no one quite like Schumi!

What a surprising weekend for sport

First, I shot a round of 84 (despite playing after 2 months as mentioned in my last post) which had an Eagle, then I saw Manchester United thump Bolton Wanderers 4-1, saw Kimi Raikkonen win from start to finish in his new Ferrari at the first race of the 2007 F1 season and then found out this morning that both India and Pakistan lost their Cricket World Cup matches to relative minnows.

First to my golf round (of course!). As I mentioned in my last post, I was really scared of how much my game would have gone bad due to lack of play for 8 weeks. Surprisingly, the only thing rotten about my game on Saturday was my putting, which has always been on the bad side.

I, along with an ex-collegue and a couple of her current collegues, went over to the Palm Springs course in Batam. I completely suprised myself by hitting the green in regulation on the very first hole, and then got over the surprise as I three putted from inside of 10 feet for bogey. Well, at least the swing was working.

After a par and bogey, I had a string of three consecutive pars and then a bogey and a double. I stood with five over par in 8 holes.

And then came the 9th on the Island course.

The 9th is an elevated tee around 300 yards from the green. It has a driving range to it's left and out of bounds on the right. If I want to reach the green, I would have to aim for the bunkers that line the left side of the fairway and fade the ball in towards the green.

And that is exactly what I did. The ball left on the line I was aiming and moved just the right amount to land directly on the green and then roll towards the flag.

A few moments later, I had putt in for Eagle! The third eagle in my golfing experience!

That put my nine hole score to 39, just one short of my lowest 9 hole score ever. On the back nine, I had a few pars, a few bogeys and a massive quadruple bogey where I pulled two tee shots out of bounds. So that was pathetic.

All in all, I shot 84 (with the eagle compensating for the quadruple...not completely, but I'll take it). I was pleasantly surprised with how much my game has stayed with me despite my neglect of it.

And so if I can shoot 84 after such a long hiatus, I can definately shoot a lot lower if I practice a lot more, mainly on my putting. So that's exactly what I am going to do from today. Practice my putting.

Now to football and ManU. We're still comfortable at the top of the Premiership table with the 6 point cushion intact over Chelsea.

Kimi Raikonnen demonstrated Ferrari's prowess and ran away with the race in Melbourne to win the first GP of the season. Only sad point in all of the race was the pre-race problem that Felipe Massa had with his Ferrari which stopped him from qualifying higher and so, with an engine replacement penalty, had to start from the back of the grid from where he managed a 6th place finish. Not a great start for him, but I'm sure he will do a lot better. The surprise package for the race was Lewis Hamilton of the McLaren team, who on his F1 debut, brought his car home in 3rd place and a very deserved podium finish. He led his team-mate Alonso for most of the race, but was overtaken after a great pit stop by Alonso's pit crew.

And then came the news of both India and Pakistan losing their respective matches to the smaller teams in the cricket world cup. As you might be aware, I am not much of a cricket buff. So obviously, I did not stay up late to watch any of the matches. But it was really surprising to note that Pakistan lost both it's first two group matches (first against hosts West Indies and later to minnows Ireland) to crash out of the world cup. Pakistan becomes the first casualty of this world cup.

The sad news was the Pakistan team coach, Bob Woolmer, died on the night of Pakistan's ouster from the world cup. Woolmer, the Pakistan coach since 2004, was found unconscious in his hotel room and was pronounced dead after three hours. As if the team did not have enough bad news to contend with.

India, meanwhile, lived up to it's reputation of making the most easiest of opposition look tough by losing to a young Bangladesh side. With this loss, India needs to win both it's matches (against Bermuda and Sri Lanka) to have any hopes of going into the next round. In case they lose to Sri Lanka, they, along with Pakistan, will be the most high profile casualties of this world cup. And that means a lot of lost revenue in cricket crazy India.

Let's see (only in the news, I am not staying up to watch them) how they do in the next matches. Personally, I think Indians should start playing other sports with as much enthusiasm as they watch cricket.

But then, that's just me.