ROGER FEDERER, THE GREATEST, THE FINEST, THE BEST... EVER

Mark this day in your diary, 07/05/2009, for this day has been etched in the history records for various resplendent reasons :

1. It was the day when Wimbledon witnessed another marvelous, epic clash of the titans .
2. Roger Federer became the only player in the history of tennis to win 15 Majors ( GRAND SLAM TITLES ) .
3. The world was presented a true champion to supersede the legend, Pete Sampras.
Well, yes , witnessed by a plethora of some of the finest sportsmen, Roger Federer(RF) became the only player to surpass Pete Sampras’ record of 14 GRAND SLAM titles, which conjured on him the title “The greatest & the most successful player in tennis, ever “. Much deserved, I say, in fact, everyone said!
Sunday, the 5th July, 2009, a beautiful sunny day at Wimbledon, gifted with perfect conditions for a historic clash, a Final between 2nd seeded RF & 6th seeded Andy Roddick. The result was more or less scripted, given RF’s domination on the green court supplemented by the unassailated 18 wins out of the previous 20 encounters between the two. But , nobody whatsoever even had the vaguest idea that this match would become a pulsating, terrific 4hr 16mins epic battle! Yeah, rewriting history demands a lot of grit & guts! Conventional wisdom would have made you predict the outcome, but trust me this was a full-on game of uncanny tennis! Just to mention, Roddick walked into the centre court at Wimbledon not as an underdog. His stats read like this – 160 aces, 72% avg 1st serve, 331 winners, 112 unforced errors. Federer’s (popularly branded Fedex) stats read like this – 77 aces, 67% avg 1st serve, 239 winners, 71 unforced errors both facts at wimbledon 2009. Now compare these… 160 vs 77 for aces, 331 vs 239 for winners. The American, Roddick , was meaning business all thru his path to the final. When Roddick served, the commentators say “ He launches missiles, not tennis balls”! The “Ace-man” ( as I prefer to call him for the obvious reason) was here to prove a point to the world. But, after years of being Fedex’s fan, I have noticed a special ability in him to bounce back even under the most dire circumstances & tones of pressure, so I fondly call him “Come-back-champ”! So, sure you’ll agree this was a clash of the titans. The stage all set for the big match, it all started with Roddick’s serve. No prizes for guessing the contingency, it was an ACE ! The ace-man then went on to win the 1st game & the 1st set as well! Mirka (fedex’s better half) might have looked tensed at that moment, but I was not! My “come-back-champ” would surely fight back, I knew. Set 2, at 6-6 went for a tie-breaker. Leading 6-3, I was a little petrified, I must admit. Just when Roddick had everything under control, Fedex provided another evidence why he’s called a master of this trade. Fedex fought back brilliantly, forced Andy into 3 unforced errors & quite calmly pocketed the 2nd set. Such is the caliber of this man! The 3rd set again going in for a tie-breaker, the opportunity was well converted by Federer, proving his dexterity. Now wait, don’t dare predict anything from here. I’m sure you’ll be deluded by your prejudice! It was from here that the true saga began. The real spirit of sportsmanship put to test. Andy Roddick’s adeptness found no match in Fedex when he blasted the 4th set 6-3 in his favor. Now that was a subtle yet an open challenge to the tipped champion. And come 5th set, oh, my God. It was an epitome to the grandeur of this game particularly at this venue. The set was fought with terrific proficiency & valour by both these knights, proving time & again what their name’s worth is. Federer would serve & casually win the game by lightning aces & the unstoppable forehands! Roddick would serve Aces, immaculate forehands, succinct 1st serve winners. It was a spectacular display of stern, supersonic forehands, skillful volleys, incredible winners & tacit aces.The 5th set lasted a mammothic hour and an half!Believe it or not Fedex had served 50 aces against Roddick’s 27. Now that’s a counter-view to my “aceman” theory! But, notwithstanding all this, nobody could break the other’s serve! My composure was tried & tested, my stoicism crucified & resurrected, my patience literally raided! Fedex failed to convert 5 odd break points in his favor. Whenever it was “Advantage Federer”, Roddick would launch 2 blistering missiles that would slice thru Fedex’s territory as an ace or an unbeatable 1st serve.within mins, it would be “Game, Roddick”. This was the story until it was “Federer leads 15 games to 14. Roddick to serve”. Roddick committed 2 wacky errors & gave it all away to Federer. History was made.With the scores of 5-7,7-6,7-6,3-6,16-14 , Federer became the proud owner of the Wimbledon cup, after missing it for an year. Roddick could’nt believe it, but that was the destiny’s script for that day. Dejection could be seen well on his transparent face. Emotions gushed out of his eyes. But he had all the respect for the man in front of him, the man being crowned as the greatest ever. Roddick felt chastised for his errors, but the world was on his side. The completeness, the spirit, the adroitness he had shown in this epic saga was well appreciated by the tennis fraternity. The thundering applause when his name was called out during the awards ceremony proves this. There had been a lot of glitter & placidity in his attitude. Just get back into the time machine, rewind it to 2005-06, then you’ll know why I’m stressing on this refined quality of this marvelous gentleman. He had fought so hard, in fact both these players. None ever wilted under pressure. They strained every sinews, but absolutely no expression of any sluggishness of fatigue even after such a grueling battle. Only pure emotions played on everybody’s face. As of Roger Federer, he was at the top of the world. He had become a legend. The world acknowledged him with standing ovation. He was ecstatic. Sure he deserves every bit of stardom & adulation he’s receiving. He’s a genius all by himself.
This was a nail-biting match. Everyone was served with a feast of uncanny, venerating, and extolling game of tennis that the people would cherish not for a day or two but for a lifetime. Federer reigns supreme. But nevertheless, Roddick proved his point well.
So expect more of such volcanic matches as tennis promises more to its die-hard followers & fans …

SIBALISM, MAKING LIFE MERRIER FOR THE GENX..???

Imagine this …
You are a 10th grader , sitting tight & studying day in & day out for your board exams. Suddenly, one fine day, you realize something unusual at your doorstep! A beautiful gift box… gift wrapped with the finest & the most vibrantly colored satin. You open it to find a parchment in it. The parchment is decorated at its edges with glitter ink. Inside the parchment, the wordings in bold & italics read
“Class X board exams made optional.
No compulsion! Choice open to the student. Absolutely no side effects … ”
WITH REGARDS ,
THE UNION HRD MINISTRY
What would be your instantaneous reaction to this? surprise? shock? I bet you would cherish this one more than a “Corner House treat” or any Nike\RBK gear as a surprise birthday gift. Well if things are to go the way drafted & if GOD decides to stay by you, you (a 10th grader) will be getting that gift anytime soon!
The Union HRD minister Mr.Kapil Sibal is all set to make a major, debatable rejig in the educational system of India. He has plans to scrap the Class X board exams, introduce a common board (deleting all the state boards) & invite more private players to the higher education arena. Some maverick moves by the HRD minister. Though the 2nd & 3rd seem a good move, it’s the 1st that’s attracted a lot of questions & risen many debates. Not many educationalists in the country like this idea of the minister to scrap the board exams (or to be more precise make it optional). And guess whats the reason behind this daring act? “Detraumatising the life of the students & the parents.” (now where was this issue of trauma & stress when I was giving my board exams ?!)
Though the minister might attained instant adulation & a big fan-following from the student community, many learned call this decision “highly absurd”. From times immemorial, the Class X board exam has proved to be a major benchmark in every student’s life. It’s a threshold , a gatepass for higher education (or atleast this is how my parents describe those exams. I too endorse it, now that I have gone through all those hardships!) So, if such an exam’s scrapped, then how do you guage a person’s literacy? I bet you can’t completely rely on the school internal exams. I can give you a thousand instances where favoritism & biasing has played a role when it came to awarding marks in school exams. Any disagreement with this point? I hope not. And I don’t understand what’s all this trauma, stress, burden on the part of the students due to the exams. I feel it’s a little over-rated. If they are to proceed in the way they’ve started, then probably one fine day, they’ll scrap all the exams even at the degree level and you’ll (or atleast your children will) get your professional’s degree even without facing a single so called “traumatizing” exams. (frankly, I don’t mind something like this only if its going to be implemented within another 2 month’s time, I mean before my 5th sem classes commence! But more musing reveals the fact that even this kind of a situation wont load off my mind or do anything miraculous in my case where we have a sem-end exam paper set by our college lecturers, which is a fine collection of the most ulterior, apprehensive, ultra-cryptic, anomalous questions in the whole universe! Just to give an insight, you are given a theory question to answer for 10 marks in a subject that’s strictly programming & even the best of the reference books has only 5 lines of info in it! You have to make up the rest of the story to be worth 10 marks!) now forget my case for the time being, I know its so melancholic & heart-trending! But I’m afraid there’s very little you can do about it. So by my reckoning, life will only become more petrifying without these board exams.
A board exam is one arena which instills the spirit of competition in the students. It gives them a chance to associate & compete with peers not just confined to his/her school, but the whole territory/ nation. Though it may be branded a drudge or an ordeal, but still its worth all the stress & strain because facing such exams helps students analyse & assimilate their strengths & weaknesses. It forms a well defined scale to track their progress. Tough stuffs like exams prepare the young to face the real world, full of competitors, the fight for opportunities. Most importantly, they help us transform better from a novice to a virtuoso. So, I feel exams are as important as any other aspect in the education system. Also, in a country like ours, respected globally for the dexterity of the folks & their enormous mental abilities, anything making the schooling, collegiate education easy will prove to be too costly a price to be paid towards the end. So, instead of thinking about scrapping exams, let the authorities muse about improving the quality of education, introducing new & industry-oriented subjects, updating the syllabi every now & then, giving more grants to the universities, offering more fellowships & scholarships to the talented lot. Make education modern, not casual. Make knowledge reachable to all, affordable by the masses. By traversing in such path, can we help in India’s progress. So, lets all strive for it. Lets take India to greater heights…