Top 10 things you probably did not know about the Australian Open/Tennis

1. Best matches are often played on the side courts.

2. There are many umpires who calling "lets" or "nets" instead of let.

3.  Australian open has 3 primary courtes - Rod Laver, Margaret Court and HiSense.The last one has free entry if you have a grounds ticket.

4.  Best place in Margaret Court to get a tan is to get tickets for gates 1 to 4 and 20. All day the sun shines brightly on you. For those not used to the sun, do not get these seats - you will roast.

5. The seats to avoid for the Rod Laver Arena are the mid to lower sections of Gates 11 to 16. Unrelenting sun will greet you till 8 pm.

6. There are retractable covers over the players seats that protect them from the sun between points.

7. Court 7 has the best and most shaded seats.

8. Almost all players will take 3 balls between plays and select two to keep. Wonder how they decide or is it a trigger? 

 9. There are lots of water fountains around the property - thank god. You can refill water instead of paying an arm and a leg each time and because of the heat water consumption goes up.

10. Legends tennis esp. the men's tournament is a lot of fun because of the trick shots and the antics of some of the players esp. Goran Ivanisevic and Mansoor Bahrami.

 

Languages, Words and Current Times

Reading an article in TIME, which happened to use a word that is not in common use these days, reminded me about how languages change and words take on new meanings as time passes.

I can remember some words that were commonly used in the 80's but have now almost but vanished.

When was the last time you heard somebody use - Oxymoron, Incandescence, eschew or ignominy.

What do you think these words meant when they first entered the language - Cute, Nice, Artificial, Prove and Tell ? Have fun looking them up.

The beauty of languages is that they evolve and change because of the way people communicate with each other. Gone are the days of long words/sentences.

Now its all about  BFF, PPL, TYWM, YW, LOL, WTG, IDK and so on.

Life has become much faster and attention spans shorter. ADD is prevalent. Twitter rules as newspapers decline. In the end though we find ways to communicate in a new language.

And so in tune with the current times - tyvm for reading this and c u l8r.

Read more books !!! Err -Books ? You mean E-books on Kindle ?

On the way to office or on the way back, I see more and more people reading on Kindle or a variant. At one level it appears to be very convenient and at another, I just can't get rid of the habit of reading paper books.

The library seems a little less crowded with each passing year except for students doing research.

Wonder what will happen to books in a few years ? As of now books do outsell e-books but according to one report that is set to change by 2018.

In this posting, am listing some of the more popular fantasy fiction.

If you haven't read any or some of them, now's the time to go buy from the stores or borrow them from the library.

1. The Dresden Files Series - Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden is a wizard private investigator based in Chicago who solves mysteries and has exciting adventures which involve humans and supernatural beings both good and bad. The books are gripping and "unputdownable".

Mystery, betrayal, family conflicts, alliances formed and broken, good magic vs bad - it's all going on and the hooks between chapters are genius.

The first book in the series is "Storm Front" and the 15th is "Skin Game". The 16th titled "Peace Talks" is work in progress.

Go through them in sequence because some of them are linked.


Butcher has another series called the "Codex Alera" where he has published 6 books.

Again fantasy fiction but set in ancient times and not the modern world of Dresden.

Wizardry, magic, political wheeling dealings, cities vs. tribes, old age vs new age and more.

Would recommend reading them but not before you read the Dresden files.

2. The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

The guide is the first of 5 books. You can get a compendium called "A Trilogy in Four parts" and a fifth book called "Mostly Harmless".

Its wacky, its funny and full of wit. The imagination is wonderful and springs so many surprises on you.

What springs to mind when you hear " The restaurant at the end of the universe"?  And no - that's not what it means. You have to read the book to find out.

Discover Babel Fish, Marvin the Robot, why towels are important, Zaphod Beeblebrox and a lot more.

Hollywood tried to make a movie but that was no patch on the books and half the fun is in reading anyway.

 

3. The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

Peter Jackson did a fine job of translating Tolkien books onto the silver screen but the books were so much more.

The cinematic story is somewhat different in parts though eventually the conclusions are similar.

The original story is epic scale with lots of twists and turns and plenty of character sketching and scenario building before the crescendo. There are multiple threads that meet in the end.

Discover Tom Bombadil, Glorfindel and many more characters that were left out of the movie.

The trilogy is quite a sizeable sized book so will take you time to finish but its worth it.



Happy reading and if you have other fantasy fiction favourites please do add in the comments section.

Sunrise, Sunset and Golf Courses

I have always been fascinated by the beauty of the colours that we see at sunrise and at sunset. Add that to the beauty of golf courses and clouds and you can get some wonderful views.

Before the invention of the fantastic cameras that are now available in the market, it was difficult for non-professionals to capture the beauty on film.


Attached are a few of my shots taken in various parts of Asia - most taken on Samsung phones and a few on DSLR or standard digital cameras. No "photo-shopping" or clean up done.

Limericks - forgotten art form

I was reminded by a dear friend of the fun that we used to have many years with limericks. 

For those of you have not had much exposure to limericks, they are an almost forgotten form of entertainment.

Essentially a poem with 5 lines - the first introduces the main rhyming word, the middle sets up the punchline and then the funny end which will  elicit a laugh or at the very least make you smile.

It's a form which uses idioms, phonetics and most importantly puns. And the best part is that you can create your own limericks with a little bit of imagination.

Historically limericks have tended to be risque but Edward Lear and Ogden Nash proved that "clean" limericks can be humorous as well.

Enjoy some samples. As you will see the greatest of writers could not resist the charm of limericks.

There was Old Man with a beard,
Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard (Edward Lear)

A flee and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do ?
Said the fly, "Let us flee"
"Let us fly" said the flea
So they through a flaw in the flue (Ogden Nash)

As a beauty I am not a great star
There are others more handsome by far,
But my face, I don't mind it,
Because I'm behind it,
'Tis the folks in the front that I jar ( Anonymous)

Our novels get longa and longa
Their language gets stronga and stronga
There’s much to be said For a life that is led
In illiterate places like Bonga (H. G. Wells)


There was a small boy of Quebec
Who was buried in snow to his neck
When they said, "Are you friz?"
He replied, " Yes, I is —
But we don't call this cold in Quebec" (Rudyard Kipling)

And finally -

There was a young lady from Niger, 

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger. (Anonymous)

Hope you enjoyed those. If you want to read more, find books by Ogden Nash and Edward Lear at your library.

Interestingly limericks are a predominantly English language phenomenon probably because of the the construct of the language and the way it lend itself to puns.

In case the creative urge overtakes you, do add your limericks to this blog.

For more of Ogden Nash's works use this link
http://www.westegg.com/nash/ or this http://www.ogdennash.org/

For Edward Lear's work use this link

http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/

Happy reading.

Favourite Sports Teams and Players

A few weeks back was chatting with a friends 7 year old son and he was getting very excited about that night's El Clásico (that's Real Madrid vs Barcelona for the uninitiated).

As I listened to him talk about his favourite club ( Barca) and his wish that they beat Real that day (Real won the match) , memories came flooding back of my younger days and my favourite teams/players at that time and now.

The love for sports in general means I follow quite a few sports and as a result have many teams on my list which I thought I would list down here.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL

1. Calcutta (Kolkata) soccer - East Bengal. I hated seeing them loose to Mohun Bagan in my young days. These days both teams are run of the mill teams and not the dominant force that they used to be.

2. Seria A - AC Milan. My fascination for the team arose from watching the 3 Dutchmen (Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard) who used to play for the team and helped Milan rise to great heights.

3. La Liga - Real Madrid - can't really put a finger on why but maybe because of the long history.

4. EPL - Tough one - never had a clear favourite. There was Arsenal because of Thierry Henry and Wenger, Chelsea because of Didier Drogba etc.

5. Favourite Players - Pele, Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Thierry Henry to name just a few.

BASEBALL

NY Yankees - started following them in the mid-90's just before the run of World Series wins and since then the love continues except that there is more disappointment than joy more than a decade.

NFL

1. NY Giants - The Big Blue won a couple of superbowls in the last decade which was pretty awesome. Still conflicted about Eli - is he good or ordinary ? He has these incredible matches and follows up with 2 terrible ones.

2. Peyton Manning - a class act and always a joy to watch. Any team he plays in is a sentimental favourite. Broncos now, Colts earlier.  Where will he be for the 2015-16 season ?

3. NY Jets - Just because its a NY-NJ team. The less said the better about its performance for a long long time. Why is Rex Ryan still the coach ?

CRICKET

Too many favourites to list so listing just a few players -

1. GR Vishwanath - All time favourite. Quiet, unassuming with a square cut to die for and a terrific player under pressure. Helped India win/save matches so many times.

2. Kapil Dev - Changed the face of Indian bowling and of course who can forget the first world cup win in 1983.

3. Sachin Tendulkar - Struggled at times under pressure but can't take away from the fact that he is a one in a million batsman. Some extraordinary innings left behind as memories to cherish.

4. Rahul Dravid - Nicknamed "The Wall" for a reason. One of a kind and a class act.

5. BS Chandrasekhar - Can still remember the roar in Eden Gardens for each of his deliveries as he came in to bowl. Pretty sure some batsmen got out because of the pressure.

6. Erapalli Prasanna - An amazing offspinner with a fantastic flight.

7. VVS Laxman - never got his just rewards but what an amazing batsman to watch.

8. Brian Lara - the best left handed batsman of all times, in my view.

9. David Gower - the lazy elegance of his cover and square drives still etched in memory.

Golf

Love watching the following players

1. Tiger Woods  - game + mental toughness + attitude.

2. Ernie Els - the Big easy - what a sweet swing !!!

3. Rory Mcilroy - Will he break Jack's record ?

4. Bubba Watson - who can resist watching a guy hitting amazing distances with control with clubs that should not be giving those distances.