Remembering Verdasco

By Tony Sebastian


It was just a little over a month ago that Fernando Verdasco scripted one of the best sporting matches in history along with Rafael Nadal in the semi finals of the Australian open. That five setter which had all of us on the edge of our seats - that amazing spectacle which had all the elements of life in a 5 hour 14 minutes span is still etched in the minds of anyone who watched the match. But the name of Fernando Verdasco is not one that comes as easily to our lips as that of a certain Mr.Nadal who went on to win the title at Melbourne Park.

In fact, "Verdasco" would never have crossed the thoughts of someone who did not watch the match but merely saw the scoreboard and it is highly unlikely to do so for the rest of their lives. They wouldn't know of the effort, dedication and supreme sportsmanship he displayed to stretch the match to a world record length. The painful tale of how he fought off the angst of an injury and battled on with some powerful winners and serves only to ironically double-fault in the 10th game of the 5th set to concede the match (and quite possibly the Australian Open) to Nadal is one which has already been forgotten.

It is a weird world, the one which we inhabit. Completing two runs with a lunge for the crease when the throw comes in is dubbed "great running and tremendous athleticism". Being run out by an inch while attempting the same two runs is a "needless waste of a wicket". The margin of error is that slight - a thin line which separates the heroes and the villains. You set off for the second run because you are "confident" that you can make it. If you do make it, your confidence is lauded. If you don't, you are just stupid.

We've all had our share of close misses. But the bottom line is nobody cares, except yourself. I myself have rambled on for two years about CAT 2007 and how my score of 98.95 percentile was just short of IIM Calcutta's cut off of 98.96 percentile. How I missed out by 0.08 marks when the least count in CAT was 1 mark. But the way the world sees it, I am a person who didn't make it while others did. I can argue about how unfair that is, and how 0.01 percentile was not something that set me aside from the people who got calls. But I have found out that it is best to save my breath.

William Henry Davies in his poem, leisure, said "It is a queer life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare". When the once considered soaring finance field crashes and burns consuming everything around it the very next day, you can take it for granted that life is certainly queer and people have no time to stand or stare, let alone sympathise with you. Fernando Verdasco may go on and win a grand slam in the future, but until that day he will remain in obscurity.After all, in the digital age if you are not the one you are a zero.

My take on Delhi 6

by Tony Sebastian

I feel quite sorry for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. For someone who hates bollywood as much as I do, Delhi 6 was a welcome relief. Having been brought up on a steady diet of Sreenivasan at his satirical best, my movie appetite has long been starving for something like this which ROM dished out. The movie was entertaining, insightful, metaphorical and clever.

I am not here to review the movie. For one, I don't think I am qualified enough to do that and also Baradwaj Rangan has done a brilliant job of dissecting the movie here. Instead, I would like to put forth an analogy which will explain why I feel frustrated with people panning the movie...

I was pretty proud of the crossword which I had made. I was even gladder still that there were about 150 people gathered to solve it. I had taken great pains in ensuring that the clues were fair and clever. It had taken over three days to make the grid, but the effort was worth it. I handed out the sheets and the heads in the hall started bending down, I sat down with a contented smile on my face.

Five minutes later, I decided to walk around looking in to see how the solvers were doing. My heart sank when I saw people filling in "Guevara" for the clue "Does he instigate revolutions? (7)" I walked around and saw a few more of the same. The solvers had expected a quick crossword, I had prepared a cryptic crossword. They failed to see why "Does he instigate revolutions? (7)" would result in "SPINNER" or why that is beautiful. One by one, the people started leaving, they had had enough.

I think that in a nutshell sums up what happened with Delhi 6. He made a cryptic crossword, but the audience did not understand it. They were too used to the run-of-the-mill quick crossword and something as trivial as a symmetric grid was enough to win their appreciation. Anything smarter was given a miss.

If Delhi 6 is a cryptic crossword, its climax was the fit in clue - That one clue which you cannot frame properly. You don't really like it being part of the crossword, but you can't take it off since you need it to complete the grid. You hope that the solvers forgive you for that one clue because the rest of the crossword is good enough, and it is only fair that the one bad element is forgotten.

I realise that I sound extremely snobbish with that analogy, but I chose it only because it is one which I can relate to. I am sure this is how Vinu (my roomie and an ace musician) feels if he tries to explain to his musically dense friend (me) why a particular song is beautiful or Thomas (my other roomie) feels when I blink at him when he tells me how awesome his new graphics card is.

Delhi 6 was a perfect movie for the wrong audience. But I don't think the bollywood crowd is to be blamed. Malayalees eat beef because that is the way they have been brought up. The reason Delhi 6 is panned is because we are used to the senseless idiocy like "Singh is kinng" and "Om shanti om". I just hope that people like ROM don't feel disheartened and play to the galleries.

About This Blog

Although Royal Ramble has been short of content, I have attempted to keep it silly and humorous. This means that the random thoughts which pass through my head just go away without being penned down. Here is an attempt to post a few thoughts.

The title (which is a kind of acrostic for my name) explains what this blog will be like. It is not designed to offend anyone, but to give vent to my frustrations/thoughts. I will not painstakingly edit/censor any of the content on this blog. It is most likely that its content will be impassioned and off the cuff.

With that heads-up/FYI we are off.