Ruminations of a meandering mind

The Aussie Open Final yesterday between Safin and Hewitt was unlike any tennis match I have seen. There was so much drama and emotion from the word go. This translated into warnings to both Hewitt and Safin during the course of the match for their conduct on court. This is exactly what happens when two emotional players play in a big match, both of them as eager as the other to get their first Aussie open. This did not take anything away from the quality of the match which produced over two hours of some breathtaking tennis. Some of the rallies in the match were brilliant. It was Safin's power against Hewitt's tenacity. It was also a match where Safin's infamous volatile temperament was evident.From an ordinary start to some brilliant tennis in the latter half of the game, one wonders if this was the same player playing right through the match.In the end,the giant Russian had the right answers and it was his consistently big serve to go with the powerful groundstrokes which proved too much for Hewitt.

I guess you feel flattered when people praise you for your seemingly good qualities. You also dont mind when you dont possess these qualities and are still praised. There are also occasions when people dont tell many nice things about you on your face, but the things they do however foolish or trivial indirectly gives these feelers and make you feel rather happy.
So it happened with me. Iam always the first one to reach the bus stop to take my morning shuttle to work. Iam there for nearly five minutes before others start streaming in. Since I have been pretty regular to work these past few months, my other colleagues had sort of taken my existence for granted. Due to some reason, I missed the regular shuttle one day. The next day, I hear from my colleague that, on not seeing me at the bus stop, the others jumped to the conclusion that the bus had already left early, They waited for a few minutes and then decided to take an auto to work. They were about to get in to the auto when they saw the bus coming in at the time that it usually does and this prevented them from spending some extra bucks. What if the shuttle had arrived a few minutes late? Then they would have seen the shuttle reaching the work place a few minutes after they did and then realized their mistake. So I feel that this is an indirect way of telling " You are too punctual and regular to work" :).

Tennis Elbow- probably all cricket crazy Indians would respond to what this means by stating "Oh! This was what Sachin Tendulkar suffered from a few months back". I remember a front page artcle in a newspaper which explained everything about tennis elbow. There was also special sections devoted in the health columns of news papers about this physical injury. All this when Sachin was convalescing and missing many international matches. It was tennis elbow's rise to fame :).
Another word that's popular now is "Tsunami". Until 2 weeks back, many were ignorant and would not have known this to be a source of such destruction. Agreed that we did learn this in our school days in our Geography classes.So I did feel a tinge of nostalgia when there were news articles with pictures lifted right out of the text books explaining Tsunami. Today, pick up a newspaper and you will come across this word atleast 20 times in each news section. Even the entertainment section had names of movies that have been made on this topic. The sports section has news coverage of charity matches being held for the benefit of Tsunami victims and so on. Those of you who are looking for new challenges can count the occurence of Tsunami in any of the news papers in the past two weeks :).
Iam looking out for the next such ubiquitous word or phrase and wishing that it would bring some happiness this time.

Are new year celebrations really long lasting? I mean to me its really ephemeral lasting for a day or two.
Since Iam not overtly superstitious, I find it pretty dubious that what they say about doing the right things on new years day. Its said that what we do today reflects throughout the year. Say if you are travelling somewhere on new years day, then you will be on a travelling spree throughout the year or if you are working today, then watch out, coz you then have a busy year ahead.
So I have decided to be experimental today. Have planned for a movie, so let me see how many films I actually watch this year.