peRFect!

Roger Federer cruised through the second round of the Australian Open, hitting a winner every 2 minutes during the match; with each of those winners showing the Class he belongs to & why the Class consists of only a select few.  His third round entry is not“NEWS” anyways. Unlike the elusive second round entry (if ever) of the ‘media friendly’, ‘eyes on the cameras rather than the tennis balls’, ‘recently engaged, to quit’, ‘the female counterpart of DADA ‘(minus the performances & of course, the killer instinct) & the ‘first round player’ with a sluttish forehand .  (I JUSTT COULD NOT HELP, BUT POUR IN THE ‘BHADAAS’)

 (ENOUGH OF DIGRESSION)

This post consists of an account of an event that took place on the 6^th of July, 2008; written by me on the very next day, after somehow recovering back to my normal sensibilities, following it by a lot of cajolery (you will know why, read further) towards my younger cousin, and lastly, a Rs. 500 futka that bought 2 movie tickets, some popcorn & roasted corn and some more corn.

Here it is:

 TIME:   1:30 A.M. IST (around 20:00 hrs in UK).

VENUE: Centre Court, The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon.

MEN’S FINAL.

The match (READ: the Battle) interesting enough to excite the curiosity of the clouds.

The match time well over 3 hours. A considerable amount of day time lost due to many interruptions. And when there is ‘this’ Spaniard around & his sluggish methods (they don’t replicate themselves in the points played though), it becomes even more tricky.

The Rolex sponsored, viridian board showed:

4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-6…   

It was the fourth set tie-breaker. That isn’t enough.

It was the Championship Point. Since 2003, it was as if this point was meant for only one man. The last time the man had to suffer a loss at the venue, it was not even a year past the 9/11. No such ‘luck’ this time around.

Rafa had the Championship point. Big advantage. The Invincibility was at stake. Big Time. The champion in no mood of ceding. While the southpaw on the other side of the net had come up with a performance that could shatter the self-belief of the ‘best in the business’. (Got reminded {though there exists no relation between the two events. But still.}  of the seventeenth day of the “Greatest Battle” where the ‘elder’ great  was tested with an hour of ‘face’ ,from the ‘Awatar’ himself ,questioning  the elder’s ‘Invincibility’ ,through the hands of the ‘younger’.)

This wasn’t all of a sudden from no-where. The previous two finals were of 4 sets & 5 sets in that order. So, a five-setter was always on the cards.  

Rafa, being his usual self, takes all the time in the world to get ready to serve for the match & his ‘first’ Wimbledon. He does his peculiar adjustment rituals .Rupa Underwear recommended for him. FIT  ITNA MAST… KI NO ADJUST….

My Mother Teresa had invited my younger cousin, to spend a few days with us. That meant I lose on a bit of privacy, my own vacation days, and my computer for a few days & peace.

I gave the younger brat, strict instructions not to leave his seat, till the match is over and the “Invincibility” is proven yet again. And the poor guy, with not even a molecule of kinship in his mind towards the game had to follow them. He either preferred sleep, or wanted to cry. I am yet to figure out. HAHA!

The Championship Point.

The serve is on the mark, right across, compelling Federer to rock back, stretch & reach out for the ball where he barely manages to hit it at the centre of his racquet. The ball passes over the net to the other side, and Rafa sees red. The intent is right. He goes for the kill. My heart beat is 12330303. The Centre Court is silenced. Rafa comes up sprinting. There is some spin on the ball. The ball pitches & spins away from Rafa. Roger, in the mean while, anticipates Rafa’s next action. I wonder how, with so much at stake, the champion’s mind was still alive, working and his heart still fighting. It seemed, not much he could do at the very moment. Rafa returned aggressively, placing the ball in the same side of the court (where Roger recovered from his previous shot), with tremendous power & with depth in the shot. And the world was witness to the shot of the match, of the tournament, of the year, of the rivalry between the two.

The ball bounced to above waist height. Federer, again, tried reaching out. Went as close to it as possible. With small ‘Agassi’ steps, trying to balance his lower body, with the upper body trying to come in position to hit a backhand & to try to keep up the point alive & the hopes of millions.

And he did it. The odds were against him. Even though he was not completely balanced, the single handed backhand was perfectly executed.  The net approach of Rafa was proven redundant. The unthinkable had occurred. It surprised not just Rafa & Roger & the World, but the God himself I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPjzYLEKBKw 

My next move, much to the delite of my cousin, was that I picked up the remote controller, and did the Unthinkable. Switched off the box. Because, the winner was already decided by then. And it was not Rafa (the eventual champion) or Roger. It was the game that had won.

The two heroes clashed, and the game excelled above all.

MY FIRST ALUMNI MEET!

As I climb up ‘The Slope’ of Fr.Agnel Ashram, I notice a new security cabin (they keep on renovating continually for reasons unknown) & more importantly, I notice a smile on the security person’s face (the situation was different 2 years back. Then, the same person had confiscated my college ID, (many-a-time), for reasons such as ‘Rolling a football down The Slope’ & for a “Sahi hai!!!” smack on a friend’s back”). Before I ask for directions to the venue, he says “Today, you can go ‘this’ way. No more confiscations for this. Go straight up & Enjoy the Meet”.  One has to be a CRCEite to understand what ‘this’ way means in the above case.

On 2^nd January, 2010, the CRCE Alumni Association organized the 20^th Edition of the Annual Alumni Meet at the swanky “Samvad” Auditorium at Fr.CRCE,Bandra. After a few hugs& “Abey, tu toh Uncle ho gaya be!” kind of statements, everyone settled down for the gathering to begin.

The dignified occupancy on the dais constituted Fr. Diniz, Fr.Victor, the Principal, the ‘most regular alumni’ and the ex-Principal of CRCE, Dr.R. Sesha Iyer.  

The Chairperson, Sapna Ma’am welcomed the alumni and explained the purpose of the alumni association .And then came the array of speeches by the dignitaries. Iyer Sir was at his witty best. I admire at his way of conveying an important ‘thought of life’. He spoke about his experiences as the Principal, juxtaposed it with “3 Idiots”, leaving the audience in splits. An opportunity was given to a few alumni (Production people, in particular, aur kaun??) to share their experiences at CRCE & how graduating from there has done wonders to their lives & careers. Some of them reminisced about their awful time with the completion of journals & the ‘last but not the least’ submissions. While completion is one thing, submission is a different ball game altogether. Not to forget the Gruesome VIVAs. One of the alumni mentioned how he badly missed a student hostel. Of course, he missed it in the sense of the fun quotient.

Few suggestions were made regarding the future of the alumni movement and the ways to improve it. Of which, the most plausible suggestion seemed to be “Display of names of all Alumnae likely to attend the event”. HAHA!  My suggestion is “Display of names & photograph of all Alumnae & an e-mail of the database so formed to all”. Fayde hi Fayde!

In her closing address, Sapna Ma’am thanked the Alumni for investing their time and

for their active involvement.

A scrumptious dinner and a few photographs ended the Meet on a pleasant note.

Met Joshi Sir, Jorapur Sir.

CRCE is not complete without MD Sir & NC Sir. And so was the Meet.

PRODEVILS of 2009 who could attend the meet can be seen in the following photo with the man, himself  Iyer Sir.

The PRODEVILS missed are many.

But more obviously missed ones were,

HAHA!  I am so funny. Not.

‘You can take a CRCEite out of CRCE, but you can’t take CRCE out of a

CRCEite!!’  


                The story that I promised in the last posts comes in the next posts. Till Then, Take Care.
  
                                                                                                          
                                                                                                          Yours Truly.

 

THIS JANUARY IS A BIT DIFFERENT!

010110! And you all are wandering what the binary code really is?

Guess what!  It is nothing but the occasion why the world, yesterday, endorsed a great sum of moolah in the consumption of a compound that binds a hydroxyl group with a carbon atom.  This definition of the stated compound is often considered as “derogatory “or “raunchy”. A statelier version of the definition is “alcohol” or “ethanol”. The stateliest is considered to be ‘khamba’ or ‘bevda’. ( derived from Mumbaiya hindi & not LATIN.)

A person reaping the benefits of alcohol, irrespective of the benefit called Hangover, will be able to decode it. It says 01^st January 2010. I know that, all you people, my dear fellow reader(s), were successful in decrypting it. If not, hit the bottle!

YES! It’s January 2010! On the personal front, the January’s of the last four years (2006 to 2009) had been full of excitement, anticipation, & of course, Fun. The dispiriting days of exams in December did take a lot of toll on the body & mind     &   extracted a large amount of cottage cheese off the body of each Engg student  (Not just women, but men too, in this particular case.) (***Not me. I retain a bit though!) Yeah! So, January meant that few of the classmates hit the ground practicing for the game that is played by half a billion people (Approx.) in India & only 11 more in Australia.  The rest of the world, even till today (after 28^th November, mention NOT!), remains inspired by the heroics of Cat (better known as, Now-a-days) Woods. (He managed 36 holes with a meager resource of 18 mistresses.) HAHAHA! I am so FUNNY! I know, only I agree!

But, No such luck this year!  (Your attention & sense of understanding to be directed back to my JANUARY topic; Come out of the Tiger’s zone.) No Cricket tournament to be played! No winning! (I GRIN)

 I guess it will hurt even more in March this year!

Today, I got up early than usual. One reason this was possible, was that I restricted New Year celebrations to a safe level.

Other reason was the dream I had last night. I slept for 2 hours. Yes. So boring naaahh!!!

I would like to share that dream in the form of a short story that follows in the next post!

                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                  Yours truly!