Juan Martin Del Potro

Wow..What a match that was. I never saw Juan ever playing before and I had really high expectation on Federer for this match. But Juan Martin Del Potro stunned the world by stealing Federer’s crown in the US Open finals. It could not have happened by chance because defeating Federer and Rafa (6-2,6-2,6-2??) in the same tournament is close to impossible.  I was under the impression that Rafa did not put his best on the court, because of his injuries. I thought the chances of Federer, the five time champ, loosing were close to nothing.  But Juan put on great show. especially the forehand shots were so spectacular that Federer does not have an answer for them. But I still feel that was not the real Federer. I believe he had higher expectation set on him and was so much pressure even after winning the US Open five times in row and break the records that he created himself.  But I do not have complaints because Federer already showed the world what he is, so its probably time to yield for the young talents. Federer kept his cool most of the match, but lost it to the empire ones.  His frustration is probably understandable. But the 20-year Juan was so humble to congratulate and acknowledge the talent of Federer.What really threw me off was the announcer did not gave chance to say a few words in Spanish. Juan had to request him the second to say a few words in Spanish. I am not sure what he said but he was quite emotional.

I am sure Federer will be around for more but we might have found ourselves a new star! Bravo Juan.

“One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind. “

-Neil Armstrong

Source: NASA

]]> http://shanthwords.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/apollo-40th-anniversary/feed/ 0 Shanth Apollo http://shanthwords.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/federer-finally-wins-french/ http://shanthwords.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/federer-finally-wins-french/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:36:15 +0000 Shanth http://shanthwords.wordpress.com/?p=298 ]]>

Here we are at the end of the French Open 2009. Probably it was not an exciting grandslam for Rafa fans but something that will go down the history. I haven not watched a single match after Rafa was thrown out by Soderling in the 4th round.But the only thing that I was curious about was whether or not Federer will make most of the moment as Rafa is no longer around, and he did. With this win Federer completed a career grandslam. Bravo!! (Wikipedia: If a player wins all four at some point in his or her career, even if not consecutively, it is called a Career Grand Slam). The only five others who made it to their Career Grand Slams are  Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Don Budge, Fred Perry and Andre Agassi. The very famous few who never made it on Rolland Garros, and thus never completed their Career Grandslams,  include Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras. Now you can probably tell what this win means to Federer.

Source: WSJ

Federer played 10 times on Rolland Garros , was  a finalist 3 times before and had lost to Rafa in 2006, 07 and 08.  Federer holds a record of 7 wins and 13 losses against Rafa.  It would have been quite a match if Federer had got to play Rafa in the final of the French and won it. But anyways I am glad that Federer did put together a match worthy for the Champion to secure the most awaited feather in his cap.

So what’s next for Federer..Tennis Hall of Fame?

Sita Sings the Blues is an animated movie based on the Ramayana, created by Nina Paley. I was totally excited when I read about the movie.  I was expecting an animated version of Ramayana to be an amibitious Walt Disney project.  I was glad that somebody that somebody made it happen before Walt Disney. But the movies was not quite what I thought. Probably I should have known that from the title of the movie, Sita Sings the Blues.  It was really an attempt by Nina Paley to superimpose her real life incidents on to Valmiki’s Ramayana.  The movie, for the most part, narrates the story from Sita’s point of view. In the movie you will Sita singing jazz songs (originally sung by Annette Hanshaw) and I just loved it.

Sita Sings the Blues

The plot of the movie is very creative and I am totally impressed by the way the story connects Nina’s life to Ramayana.  The context of most of Annette Hanshaw’s songs really goes hand in hand with the situation in the movie.  I am not really sure what Nina Paley’s background is, but Sita Sings the Blues is quite an ingenious effort by her.   But I do have some criticism for the movie. First of all, I am not really sure who are the intended audience for the movie. I think Nina wants to emphasize a point in the movie. The movie shouts out loud that what ever happend to Sita was not fair, or in otherwords what ever Ram did to Sita was unfair. I really do not want to go in the discussion of what’s right or wrong. But the movie totally sounds like it was made for the western audience. If that is what Nina wanted I am sure she did a good job at that. But if it was also expected to suit the Indian audience, the movie is a bit too offensive for them.  There is a valid point in the movie and I guess the right people to address it to are the Indian audience, because we are the one who need to give it a thought.

But the movie on the whole is quite entertaining. What makes it evenmore attractive to many is that the movie is available for free under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. You can download and distribute the movie free of charge. Nina Paley says,” From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.” Bravo!!!

Link to Download or watch (on Youtube): http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html

Sita Sings the Blues movie Home: http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/

Last night I came back from a four day trip to San Francisco. I was there visiting a friend. It was a perfect California Summer and SFO turns out to be quite a wonderful destination. You can not miss visiting the Golden gate, Fisherman’s wharf, Union Square, and China town while you are in SFO. But that is not all, if you care to look beyond the SFO city limit, there is much more that California offers. You will find beaches, mountains, and forests in just a stones throw away from SFO. Here are some places that I have been to and are worth considering.

Muir Woods National Monument is just about 10 miles away from the Golden Gate Bridge. Muir Woods is the home of the Sequoia (Redwoods) trees. These trees can grow as high as 300ft. They can survive thunder storms, forests fires and thus live for thousands of years.  Muir Woods is also one of the nation’s First Amendment areas.

If you go further on Highway 1, you will be driving on a wonderful ocean line road to Stinson beach. They have plenty of spots for pit stops on the high way for you to capture the splendid beaches in your cameras. It is really worth a stop. The Stinson beach is amazing stop for beach lovers. But this is where the beaches start. If you are ready to drive further for a bit more privacy, you should head towards Point Reyes.

Stinson Beach as seen from Highway 1

Point Reyes national Seashore is located about 50 Miles from SFO on Highway1/ SF Drake Blvd. The drive from Olema on Sir Francis Drake Blvd offers a spectacular view of the ocean. There are no gas stations on your way so make sure you have enough gas and food/water. It is simply a country drive with farms leading down the hill into the ocean. SF Drake Blvd ends at the Point Reyes light house. From there it is just ocean and ocean in any direction you see. The sandy beaches extend for miles or as far as your eyes can see. You should probably visit the light house at sunset. It is a once in a life time experience.  Be sure have some ear muffs handy and dress warm if would really like to enjoy the view for while.

Point Reyes National Seashore

If you head west from SFO there is a different kind of treat awaiting you. If you really love waterfalls, hiking, rock climbing, or lakes you can not afford to miss the Yosemite National Park. Who does not enjoy the scene of a waterfall, especially if it is 1400ft high? The Yosemite Fall is the seventh highest in the world with a total drop of 2400ft. Yosemite has everything for nature lovers of any age and taste.  There are two ways to get to the park if you are driving from SFO. After you reach Manteca, you can either take hwy 120 directly to the Park or you can drive to Merced and then proceed to the park. The drive through Merced will cost you an extra 45mins or so. But if you do not want to drive on long winding roads like me, sometimes at 20mph, you should probably prefer the route through Merced. That way you also get to drive along the beautiful Merced River which flows through the Yosemite Valley.  Yosemite can host you on a single day trip or a week. But the longer you stay the more is your reward.  The park charges $20 fee per automobile.  After you enter the park you will really see what each of your penny is doing. Yosemite is the most hospitable national park I have ever been to. You have a choice stay of everything from log cabins to high class hotel (look for Wawona lodge). The park restaurant serves you a square meal. You will have access to internet. You can ride the buses that run on green fuel or you can bike around. But Yosemite they make sure that they do not put a toe across the line that nature drew for us. If you still do not trust the commitment of the park toward preserving the nature read this article in New York Times . They are actually planning to tear down a bridge and a reservoir in order to restore the Hetch Hetchy valley.

But here are some things you should not miss while you are at Yosemite. The trail to lower Yosemite falls is a piece of cake for any age group. But if you really want to sweat a bit more, I would recommend the mist trail and trust me on this, you can not thank me enough for the advice after you have reached the top of Vernal falls.  If you love to step a bit higher then go for the half dome and the Glacier point. I had just one day to spend at the park and I got so many things to tell you. If you are planning to go to Yosemite make sure you spend atleast 3 days to feel the real Yosemite experience.

Yosemite National Park

John Muir, the architect of the Yosemite falls, says, “No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite”. He is absolutely right, you will really experience that the moment you step in Yosemite.

If you want to read further about Yosemite from the man who architected the Yosemite national park, you can download the following eBook.

Yosemite by John Muir (Courtesy: Google)- Free eBook (Copyright Expired, Now in public domain)

Here is the last treat. A short video recorded at Vernal Falls

I could not do much for earthday this year. Pity it happened to be  a weekday. But I thought I must get out of the house and spend some time outside.  So grabbed my tennis racket and played tennis for a couple hours.  I just  had a salad bowl for my dinner as an earthday special. I still feel  guilty for not doing anything special today. S0 I found an activity network Earth Day Network and signed up as a volunteer.  I told myself today is just the beginning of another wonderful year ahead. So there is so much I can do. Earthday is designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. So here I am set out to inspire who ever is reading this blog.

I do not really blame you if you do not have passion for our environment. But our world is so beautiful that you do not really have to try very hard to make connection with our environment.  Think about this, would not you like a nice summer day that you can go out spend time without having to worry UV rays. Would not you like an year without hurricanes, unseasonal snow, floods?. If your answers to any of the above question is yes, then you have do have a passion for our environment but you just lost the connection with the world outside. Once you restore that connection, you can, on your own, think of a million ways to lend a help hand to make our world a better place. So I do not want to go on writing about how you can help our planet or should say help ourselves. It is as simple as getting out of the four walls that you live in and spend some time under the sky.

Vote for Earth Hour

THIS SATURDAY 28 MARCH AT 8.30PM YOU CAN VOTE EARTH BY SWITCHING OFF YOUR LIGHTS FOR ONE HOUR – EARTH HOUR.

Here is the link to sign up for us here in US
http://www.earthhou rus.org/apisignu p/signup. php

Last weekend I was out on a short drive to a near by grocery store. It was a pleasant southern winter day after a weeklong 30s. On my way to the store I drove past two Hummers. It was good to see that the Hummers found their way back on to the roads and I was actually glad that people could take out their Hummers for a drive on a nice day like that without having to worry about gas price, which was pretty reasonable at the moment. I saw another Hummer parked as entered the parking lot of the store. For moment I was like wow, good days are back here, until I saw this tiny little car parked right behind its shadow. I read about those European small cars and saw some pictures online, but this is the first time I ever saw one on the American Roads. For some reason that car did not fit into the picture. Not because it was bigger than what I would expect it to be, but it was rather too small. It was too small for the American road and small does not mean anything in America. America is all about big stuff: big SUVs, big malls and even big Macs. It made me think why would somebody want to break the great old American tradition buying something small like that? I guess I knew the answer. I felt like it got something to do with the gas prices or in a broader sense the economic recession that American and the entire world are passing through. But I bet neither of the owners of that tiny car or the Hummers are among the early victims of recession. But if the economy does not stop going down this spiral, we will probably end up seeing more changes in the American way of living.

Last year gas prices went up by more than a 100%. Now we all understand how a subtle uneasiness in the Middle East or a hurricane in Atlantic could make the gas prices go through the roof once again. So after all this atleast some Americans will go for smaller, fuel efficient cars. Even if President Obama’s $150billion alternative energy plan succeeds to bring about a change in the technology, the next generation of cars will considerably differ from their ancestors in their size. What else could change? Let’s take housing, the mother of all problems. A “Big” house with 5 bathrooms and 8 bed rooms is a dream of every American. Over the last 50 years an average American house grew 4 folds in footage. I think this recession will put breaks on this growth, as everybody will seriously analyze their available finances vs. the square footage of their dreams.  I read about many families whose lives turned upside down over night due to the impact of the economy. So I guess more individuals will probably work late into their 50s to make sure they saved enough for the rainy day, which brings about the another change in the American lifestyle, early retirement. Another social change that would occur is the racial mix of the nation. America is the “Nation of immigrants”, as JFK called her. But due to the state of economy the number of foreigners seeking to naturalize in United States will go down, as the nation curbs its borders and the land of opportunities runs short of jobs.

On a positive note, the real gift of American lifestyle is optimism and adaptability, as JFK once said “The American, by nature, is optimistic”. Perhaps adopting this new American lifestyle will just be a ‘Big’ piece of cake for the nation as bigger does not always mean the better.

My hearty congratulations to Rahman, Resul Pookutty and to the entire crew of slumdog millionaire. I am sure every Indian is proud of the success of the movie at Oscars. So am I, but we all knew what AR Rahman is worth even before he won the Oscars, do not we?. I bet he had won Oscars much before, if we were allowed to compete in the general music and song categories. I would like to thank Danny Boyle on this aspect for lifting Bollywood all the way up to the Kodak theater.  I hop this is just the beginning of the show as the Ambanis and UTV are already reaching out to Hollywood for financing movies with Dreamworks, Sony and Walt Disney (Link) and starting new ventures with famous directors like Spielberg.

But guess who are the real life slumdog millionaires?. Some of the child actors of the movie who won the rare opportunity to walk the Hollywood red carpet and witnessed the Oscars live in LA. They represent the glittering the reality of the movie (Link).

I really appreciated the movie passion that our VIPs displayed as they came out to praise the crew of the movie (Link). But my dear sirs and madams, with all due respect, please pay a little attention to the real life aspect of the movie and do something about those poor kids who have been long awaiting a change in their lives. If you can not spot those deprived children ask any forginer who saw the movie or who visited India. Now the whole world knows about it and I could not find a single Indian who disagress the connection of the movie with the reality. I am not sure what Danny Boyle wanted the world to make out of the movie, but we can not afford to slip it into our movie library without giving it a serious thought.