Weekend movies - Thalainagaram and Fanaa

Thalainagaram - Pathetic movie. I still don’t get it, what made the director to cast Sundar. C as the hero. He has a completely wooden face and remains expression-less for most parts of the film. And when he does try to show expressions of some sort, you wish he had remained expressionless. He hardly talked during the entire length of the movie. There was no voice modulation whatsoever. What was most irritating to me was the fact that the director has shamelessly copied some scenes from Company (the one item number and the killing by using a lorry to smash the car). It was like Deva copying those background pieces from Titanic for Priyamudan. Imaam's music was another major irritant. Though the song "Yedho ninaikkiren" seems to have become a huge hit in India, I didn’t like it all that much. It was a typical S. A. Raj Kumar style of tune with a horrible selection of the male singer. Vadivel's comedy made me laugh at times but the times he irritated me was more than those few moments when I laughed at his comedy. It looked like a take-off on the Winner comedy and so looked repetitive. The heroine was OK. Prakashraj & his character were both big-time annoyances. His reasoning to ask Sundar to come back to rowdyism is very silly. The only character I liked in the whole movie was the guy who acted as Sundar's friend. Really don’t know what else to say about the movie. You wouldn’t lose anything by missing this movie. The director probably cast Sundar C as the hero of the movie to pay tribute to his mentor (looks like he was an assistant director under him). But may be the director should have tried something else instead – made a better movie, than just casting his mentor as the hero.

Fanaa - Finally managed to get hold the DVD of the movie as there was a dog fight at the local Indian store to get the DVD of the movie. Well, what should I say apart from the fact that Aamir could have well avoided this movie. Its not that the movie is very bad but it certainly did not need someone like Aamir. What started off as a compelling & captivating love story between Kajol & Aamir, turns into this absurd patriotic-cum-emotional movie, post interval. Coincidence and serendipity - these are 2 things which any film should try to keep it to a bare minimum or better still, try to avoid it. The moment they start having more of these, they tend to look absurd. That is one reason why Anbe Sivam, inspite of all its noble intentions, in my view is not a classic - the whole Kamal accidentally meeting Madhavan who is engaged to Kiran, who in turn happens to be Kamal's ex-girlfriend. That’s coincidence for you. And that’s what makes Fanaa look bad in our eyes. The director has based the whole movie on happenings which occur coincidentally. On top of that, we have this really badly executed terrorist sequences & scenes. Narrowing down the whole plot to a small electronic part is how as childish as it can get. Kunal Kohli needs a lesson about the basics of making such movies with patriotic undertones from one Mr. Farhan Akhtar.

There definitely were some highlights in the movie. Of course, as almost everyone has written, you can watch the movie for just one person - Kajol. She turns in a really fine performance. She is still the same gorgeous Kajol that we saw in DDLJ, though the fact that age has caught up with her is visible in some scenes, plus a few extra pounds which is only to be expected. It is amazing to see how she has kept herself up in good shape, even after delivering a baby. Aamir was his usual self. No complaints on his front. Very natural acting and an apt performance. To me, the biggest irritation of the movie was Tabu. I still don’t understand what in the world made Kunal Kohli to cast her as the intelligence officer. She was a mis-fit, to put it very mildly. Some of the worst scenes in the movie were the ones involving the army unit which probes the disappearance of the trigger. Well, a Fanaa review would be incomplete without a mention of the Chand Sifaarish song. It is one of those rare songs which you fall in love the moment the song starts. Its not like you have to even wait till you hear it completely. And the way the scenes leading up to the song have been shaped with the Subaan allah rendering in the background, is all well done. It teases you to no ends and then finally when we are starved enough for the song, we end up seeing the song of the movie. Aamri’s subtle & simple steps in the song were very neatly done. Couple of other songs (Mere haath mein and Dekho na) are very melodious too. Salim Sulaiman have done a decent job with the background score. Bottomline - Watchable once for Kajol & Ravi K Chandran & for this shayari:

Tere Dile mein meri saanson ko panah mil jaaye

Tere Ishq mein meri Jaan Fanaa Ho jaaye

Interstate System Trivia

The freeway system here in the US is something I am sure which amazes every desi guy/ girl the moment you set feet on this country. One reason probably is bcos that is the first thing that you experience on getting to the US, when somebody comes to pick you up from the airport. In my case, I couldn’t control my excitement when I got on the highway and the first question I asked my friend who had come to pick me up was When can I get to drive on these roads?

So, like I had written earlier, I volunteered to be the quiz master for the trivia challenge at my team meeting. I thought hard about having India as the topic but then finally since I couldn’t come up with a good set of questions for the same, I decided to look out for other topics. It was just then that the 50th anniversary of the interstate system was celebrated (on June 29th) and that immediately gave me the topic I was looking for. Interstate system is a good topic for trivia for 2 reasons – 1) You can have everybody in the team get involved in the trivia and 2) there is no better topic than the interstate system that can have loads and loads of trivia. So, interstate system it was. Like I had expected, the trivia was a blast. Everyone in the team simply loved it. So, here are the questions I posed to the team.

1) What is the total number of miles this freeway system in the US covers?

2) What is the longest interstate in the US? And how many miles does it run for? Which 2 cities does it connect?

3) Which highway runs through the maximum number of states? And how many states?

4) Which is the shortest 2 digit interstate route? Which cities does it connect?

5) Which state has the most number of interstate routes, crisscrossing the area of the state? And how many routes does that state have?

6) According to the interstate standards, what should be the minimum width of each lane?

7) What percentage of the country's roads and travel do these interstates comprise of?

8) I am sure many of us know that the freeway system here in the US is called the "Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways". Name the President of the United States who actually mooted the proposal and began research into the same. When did he do it?

9) How many of each of the following does the interstate system has?

Bridges, Tunnels, Rest areas and Exits/ Interchanges.

10) What was the total cost for constructing the complete interstate system? And which was the most costly interstate route to construct?

11) The interstate system directly serves the capitals of all but 5 states in the US. Name the states.

12) What is the death/ fatality rate on these interstate systems?

13) Which state has the most number of interstate mileage? And how many miles of interstate does that state have?

14) What are the highest and lowest points on the interstate system?

Answers (& sources), as always, in the comments section.

Thimiru album - Mass music at its best

Had some good expectations about this album. Reasons were two fold - Vishal shares a good rapport with Yuvan and the director of the movie is a debutant & it is my conviction that debutants usually succeed in getting some good output from the music director. And Yuvan doesn’t disappoint a bit, with the album turning out to be a perfect mass entertainer, with all the songs being very catchy in a matter of 2-3 listenings. Now to the songs...

Goppuraane goppuraane- This is my most favorite song of the album. Gangai Amaran's vocals are just too good for this type of a song. Yuvan has done an amazing job of selecting Gangai Amaran to sing for this song. If this song is even remotely picturized well, then it is bound to be a chartbuster. Only grouse is that the song is short, runs only 3 mins 28 seconds. I usually like such kuthu songs and Yuvan is able to come up with such tracks in each album of his. Simply loved this one. Beats are very simple but highly addictive. I wish Yuvan had one more charanam in this song.

Maana madurai - the moment the song starts, I would not be surprised if people start dancing to the beats (even before the song actually starts). Such is the beautiful opening of this song. But I have to be honest in saying that the actual song does not live up to the tremendous prelude with which the song starts. The charanams are actually slightly better than the pallavi portion. Overall, another instantly likeable dance number.

Kattikko - Most might say this to be the best song in the album. The vocals involved are completely different. It reminded me of the 'Aattamaa therottamaa' song from Captain Prabhakaran.

Money money - This is Yuvan's hip-hop number of the album. The song is good to hear but somehow I did not like the rap portion of the song. But I loved everything else about the song, particularly the way the song ends. The loop/ beats used in the song reminds us of the ‘Erimalai naane’ song from Kanda Naal Mudhal.

Thithikkira vayasu - Another instantly catchy song. I am amazed at the manner how Yuvan comes up with these instantly catchy songs. The tune and the arrangement all have a very curious feel to it. Not a great song by any means but definitely hummable material. My second favorite number of the album.

Overall, another impressive album from Yuvan. For a movie with a budding star with a lot of potential and a debutant director, Yuvan has provided an awesome album. I like the direction that Yuvan is going, while shaping his career. Except for Selvaraghavan (& a Vasanth here & Ameer there), he is carefully avoiding any big name stars and only works with younger heroes and promising directors. While albums like Thimiru will definitely make him more popular among the youth and further consolidate his position as the numero uno among the Tamil film music directors, I would love to see albums like Pudhupettai that showcase his talent & capability to provide quality music, atleast once a year. Like always, Yuvan rocks, totally!! I would rate this album to be better than both Vallavan and Kedi.

A Tale of Two Sons

May 23, 1999 - Days after his father's death, Sachin returns to the Indian squad, smahes an unbeaten century against the Kenyans and breaks down, dedicating the century to his beloved father.

Cut to July 23, 2006 - Weeks after his father's death due to cancer & days after failing to make the cut at a major for the first time in his professional career, Tiger Woods roars back to prime form, winning the British Open for the 2nd straight year and breaks down in front of the whole international audience on TV. And he dedicates his victory to his loving father and wishes he had been there one last time to see it all.

Two very special sportsmen. Both highly attached to their fathers. And both, arguably the most popular sportsmen on the planet.

Y'day, Tiger Woods's victory & the scenes that unfolded after the final round of the British Open aptly summed up what sports is all about - complete mastery of skills and the emotion that it brings along with it. It was an emotionally charged 18th hole, last morning. Tiger makes a short putt to seal the Open, then does his now-famous fist pumping, goes to his caddie Steve Williams for a hug & breaks down completely. Steve is about to let go of him but Tiger does not want to. He cries for a long time like a child. Then, he manages to walk into the waiting arms of his wife. And again, cries uncontrollably on hugging her. It was all beautiful, very beautiful. A moment unlike any other and a poignant moment, I am sure, that brought tears to everyone watching the Open on TV, inlcuding yours truly.

Hike to Snow Lake

I am not a big fan of hiking. But when researching on what to do in the weekends during the summer time, I found that there are numerous hikes in the Seattle area (like 50 or so miles in & around Seattle). There is even a site Washington Hikes dedicated exclusively to provide details about such hikes. So, this past weekend, I picked out this hike randomly from the site and decided to go there with 3 other friends.

Turns out that this hike has a difficulty level of moderate, which means beginners like me will find it difficult. And boy, did I find it to be difficult. It almost killed me, particularly towards the end where I had to take a break every few feet. The main reason for the difficulty in completing this hike is the elevation gained during the course of the hike. We began at an altitude of around 2000 feet and the place we finished was at a good 4100 feet elevation. The destination was a lake called Snow Lake. The lake is completely surrounded by mountain peaks of the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National forest area.

The lake though completely justified its name, with even in a summer month like this, there was a good amount of snow still floating in the lake. The lake was amazingly beautiful and the moment I saw it, I was completely blown away by its beauty. Serene beauty would be the right word to describe the lake. The atmosphere at the lake was so peaceful and calm, with not many hikers having made their way yet to the lake.

The hike lasted a total of 4 hours, including 1 hour at the lake. The total distance covered round trip was 7 miles. Though it was a tough & exerting hike, the lake which we got to see at the end of the hike was worth every calorie burnt. The weather was just perfect as we started early in the morning and returnd it got too hot. Overall, it was a very satisfying trip. So, bouyed by the success (?!) of this hike, planning to do more such hikes in the coming weeks.

Here are some pictures from the hike:

Naalai - Movie Review

Main reason I wanted to watch this movie was for Karthik Raja's melodious numbers which had already got some good acclaim. Plus, this Richard guy has always intrigued me. Kaadhal Virus was the only movie I have seen him before but he seemed to me as someone who could do a lot better, provided he gets the right script. And Naalai seems to have given him just that. He is very impressive in his role as Justin in the movie. But it was Natraj, the cinematographer turned actor, cast as Nattu, who turned out to be the surprise package of the movie, with his natural acting & dialogue delivery throughout the movie. Well, except in the climax where he flops miserably. All the others in the cast have done their part pretty well. Nasser has been doing many unimportant and not-so-impressive roles of late and hence, his meaty role here is heartening to see since it kind of reminds us of how capable an actor he is (though it is something we do not need to be reminded of). The photography was awesome, with the 'different shades of colors for different scenes' concept and the action sequences in particular have been picturized very well. The other thing I am noticing in Tamil movies is the way they picturize scenes involving gun fights. I feel that we are still in the fledgling stages of shooting such scenes, since almost everybody clearly show their naiveness when it comes to handling a gun. I had noticed the same even in Kaakka Kaakka and more recently in Thalainagaram too.

Couple of the songs - Oru maattram & Naalai indha - tuned in by Karthick Raja are so melodious that you don’t want to stop listening to them. Vintage Karthik Raja. And the Oru maattram song was picturized very beautifully and it reminds you of the classic Ilangaathu veesudhe. Karthik Raja was phenomenal in the background score throughout the movie. It is truly a case of 'genes running in the family'. How else could one explain the beautiful background efforts of all of Ilaiyaraja's protégés, Bhavatharini included? Out of the 5 songs, 2 gel perfectly with the flow of the movie and hence its a treat to watch them. Fortunately for us & Karthik Raja, those 2 songs happen to be the best of the album. The other 3 songs were one of the main reasons which made me lose interest in the movie. In an otherwise decent movie with a smooth screenplay, why insert these 3 irrelevant songs? The problem with these unnecessary songs is this - everyone associated with the song tries their best to show off their talents & skills. Like the hero does his best in dancing, the camera man provides us some amazing shots, art director comes up with awesome sets and the choreographer gives his best by innovative steps. But you know who the loser is at the end of this all? Poor we, the audience. These unnecessary songs not only make the movie less interesting, they also test our patience levels. The movie runs pretty smoothly for the most part but it is in the last 30 mins, the director seems to be clueless as to how to end the movie and thus ends up spoiling much of the good work that he had done through the first 3/4th of the movie. But overall, a decent watch.

Highlights - Karthik Raja, Richard, Natraj

Golf Trivia

Continuing my trivia series with some trivia questions about golf. This probably might be the toughest of them all but still do give it a try. When asked in our team meeting, I got the answers correct for just 2 questions (numbers 4 and 7). We have 2 big time golfers in the team and one of them came up with these trivia questions.

1. How much do Americans spend on golf balls per year?
2. In what city & state does the oldest public golf course in the US reside?
3. How wide is a golf hole in diameter?
4. What was the year of the first US Open Golf Championships?
5. There are four major tournaments a year (Masters, US Open, British Open, PGA Championship). Jack Nicklaus holds the record for the most consecutive majors played. How many?
6. What is the average score among the world’s 50 million golfers?

7. Tiger Woods' streak of consecutive cuts made in PGA tournaments ended just recently. How many cuts had he made in a row?
8. Norman Manly of California holds the record for the most holes-in-one ever by one person. How many?
9. In the Guinness Book of World Records, how far is the longest carry with a drive? And how heavy was the person who did it?
10. What are the chances of making a two holes-in-one in one round?

As always, will leave the answers to these questions in the comments section.

Weekend movies - What About Bob & Naam

What About Bob - This is the movie Thenali is supposed to be inspired from and hence has been on my to-watch list for a while. As I finished watching it, I felt that the word inspired should probably not be used in this context of talking about the similarities between Thenali & What about Bob. Rather, the word I should be using is shameless rip-off. It is that pathetic. Kamal's input (& KSR's if any) in this movie is almost a big zero. This movie runs for 97 minutes and all Kamal & KSR have done is to add the 6 songs that ARR tuned in. Plus, fit in some extra scenes for Jyothika bcos the equivalent character in WAB merely comes for 2-3 scenes. The other thing that Kamal & KSR have done without inspiration is Kamal's flashback scenes in Sri Lanka which were done to justify Kamal's Sri Lankan accent. So, no wonder that those flashback scenes were the worst scenes in the movie. There are two types of getting inspired, borrowing an analogy from the Tamil film music field. One is the Deva-kind of inspiration where there is absolutely no input from the music director while the other is Ilaiyaraja/ ARR kind of inspiration where they would have brought in their unique flavor to the song, on top of the inspiration. Panchathanthiram definitely belonged to the IR style of inspiration whereas this is more of a Deva kind of inspiration. Bill Murray was awesome in this movie. Whenever we watch the original & remade versions of the same movie, usually we get impressed by what we see first and even if the second movie we watch is the original, we still love the copied version just bcos of the fact that we watched it first. But over here, even though it is Thenali that I have watched first, I loved Bill Murray in this one. Kamal's performance was very ordinary when you compare against this one by Bill. The problem in watching a movie like this is bcos all through the movie I was concentrating on how much Kamal has inspired from the movie rather than actually enjoying this movie. Like I said at the beginning, there is very little original in this one as even the famous bayam dialogue sequence by Kamal has been inspired from here where Bill Murray keeps saying something similar I feel good. I feel great. I feel wonderful. Looks like this movie is not that popular a movie too. And that is something we should appreciate Kamal for having identified this relatively obscure movie and Indianizing it. One only wishes he gives the creators of the original some credit. That is not asking too much. But Kamal somehow just refuses to do that.

Naam - Wanted to watch this movie, as I had missed this one out when it was released and remembered this one got some pretty decent reviews back then. The other reason was that this was Duet movies' first production effort and the movies that Prakash Raj has produced after that, was another of the main reasons for myself renting this movie out. This in fact turned out to be a very good watch. The movie had a very interesting storyline and even the way it was executed was neat with no major hitches. There weren’t too many songs which hampered the flow of the movie. The twist in the story took me by complete surprise and I was totally unprepared for that. The way each one in the group reacts & panics to the turn of events is all so natural. Did the director do any other movies after this one? Even one of the songs in the movie Dhinam dhinam kanavugal was pretty good and caught my attention the very first time I watched it on-screen. On the downside, couple of the newcomers were pretty bad and it did have an effect on what I felt about the movie at the end. The fact that Prakash Raj was constrained by cash limitations can be seen all over the movie and nothing else conveyed that better than the slide at the end of the movie - this movie sponsored by Gold Million Sunflower Oil :) I am really impressed on what Prakash Raj is doing with his Duet Movies. Overall, a very good movie and with a better known cast, could have been a huge hit bcos of the interesting & novel plot. Even with all its limitations, I liked it immensely and left a smile on my face as I finished watching it.

You'll love this

To make God laugh, tell Him your plans!

This is from the movie Amorres Perros. One of the best lines I have come across in recent times (or should I say 'ever'?) and I am sure this is going to stay in my mind forever.

A Tale of Two Finals

Wimbledon - This was the first time I was watching a Federer - Nadal tie. In fact, I have never watched a complete match featuring either Nadal or Federer. But didn’t want to miss this one, since I mainly wanted to see how Nadal performs on his supposedly least favorite & least suitable surface. I was expecting a total decimation of Nadal by Federer and the way the Federer wrapped up the first set before people could even got settled in their seats, the rout was very much on the cards. But after the initial jitters, Nadal showed the world what he is capable of on the grass court. Nadal might have lost yday but yday's match has surely given me confidence that if not next year, Nadal will surely beat Federer at Wimbledon in 2-3 years from now. This was Nadal's first final at Wimbledon while Federer had been here 3 times before. So, I am sure if Nadal comes to the final next time, he will play his more relaxed game, something which we saw in the 2nd and 3rd sets of this final. Though the match didn’t rise up to the expectations of the Clash of the titans build-up it received, it definitely had its moments. Both players brought out some of the best weapons from their armory. The one thing that surprised me was Federer's reluctance to come to the net. He played a major portion of the match from the baseline. But that seemed to be his match plan too. Nadal's only shortocming that I can see as of now is his serve, which is not all that good. Though he serves a high percentage of first serves, they are less threatening. This match threw up an interesting statistic which is reason for both good & bad news for the future - Federer(32) had more unforced errors than Nadal(26). Good news bcos it gives hope to aspirants like Nadal that Federer can be tamed on his favorite surface, his unforced errors opening that small window of opportunity while the bad news is that if he can win inspite of having more unforced errors than his opponent, it tells something about his ability to raise his game to that extra level when he deems it fit. That is dangerous. Very dangerous.

FIFA World Cup - Like I had mentioned earlier, my interest in the World Cup was lost once Argentina lost in the quarter finals. They were clearly the better team than Germany. But the good thing about your favorite team getting knocked out is that you can watch the finals without an iota of anxiety & with a great peace of mind, bcos you simply don’t care about the result and no matter who wins, it isn’t going to affect you. The match was OK. Wouldn’t call it anywhere remotely close to great or an epic or a match for the ages. Any time the finals of such a prestigious tournament is decided by penalty kicks, it sucks. I had the same feeling when Brazil won in 1994. Atleast then, the Brazilians were the better team on that day. But yday I thought that France was the better team and hence felt bad that they lost in the penalty shoot-out. In the final 20 minutes or so, the ball never got off the Italian half. The French were attacking continuously. But the goal keeper of Italy, who didn’t do anything in the shoot-out, was the man who won it for Italy as he saved that most crucial header from Zidane in OT. And that brings us to the whole ugly episode involving Zidane, which is something this final will be most remembered for. This report here says that Zidane's (re)buttal was bcos Marco Materazzi called him a 'dirty terrorist' (Of course, Materazzi has conveniently refused it). But a player like Zidane (he became only the 4th player ever to score 3 goals in the history of the World Cup final) should have known better as how to react to comments like these. If Zidane had stayed, he surely would have taken one of the kicks and who knows, it might have even changed the result of the match. But the minor consolation for him is the fact that he won the Golden Globe award for the MVP of the tournament (BTW, that vote was decided before he was sent off). So, Italy it is, for the next 4 years, as the world still awaits the 8th different nation to win the World Cup. Do you think we will get to see a country that is not named Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany win the World cup anytime soon? I doubt it.

Trip to US Grand Prix at Indy

Watching the US Grand Prix race live at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of the items in my checklist of 'to-do sports activities'. So, was planning to go & watch the US Grand Prix, for sometime now. Went there on last Friday and got back on Tuesday. Following are some random notes from the trip:

1) Like in any other sport, the experience of watching the race live was amazing and completely different from what you experience while watching in TV. But there was a difference as far as car racing is concerned: usually the excitement level in the stadium for other sports (like basketball, football, baseball) is mainly due to the audience, the fans whose chanting and shouting which makes the experience all the more enriching & memorable. But over here, there was a difference in that it is the cars that provided all the excitement. I still cant get the vrooming sound of the cars out of my head. Particularly the time when the race started. That is when we had all the 23 cars in the race and the noise generated by all of those cars was just deafening.

2) The next thing I noticed is the huge attendance of desi fans. This was something that I was completely unprepared for. I had expected around 200-300 desis but I am sure there would have been a good 3000+ desi fans. Not only did the sheer number of desi fans took me by surprise, but their involvement & knowledge of the sport impressed me to no ends. I am no big F1 fan but I do follow who is winning and the other important headlines. But many of our folks who attended the race seemed to know so much more about the Formula 1 circuit. Many of them wore Ferrari paraphernalia - flags, T-shirts and hats. Some of them even had the Ferrari logo painted on their faces :) But you could see some trying to act like big-time fans too and they didn’t know what they were doing - like for example, during the presentation ceremony, some were even clapping/dancing for the German anthem, thinking that they were cheering for Ferrari and looking ridiculous in the eyes of the other spectators.

3) This amazing coincidence should say something about how many desis came to the race. My friend had booked the tickets for the 6 of us, few months ago. Our tickets were in Q row, 1-6. And when we got to our seats, to my friend's biggest surprise, he found that 4 of his school friends had booked the next 4 seats in the same Q row (from 7-10), even though they didn’t know that each other was coming. What a coincidence!!

4) Our seats were pretty close to the starting line. So, we had a good opportunity of seeing all the drivers from up-close before the race began when they were getting ready to get into the cars for the formation lap. Schumacher was the obvious crowd-puller and the crowd trying to get a glimpse/ picture of him was just too much. So, I decided to watch the drivers with the Alonso fans. So, I got a very good view of Alonso & his Renault crew. The pit stop of Ferrari & Renault too were very close from where we were seated. On the downside was the fact that from where we were seated, we couldn’t get a good view of the turns which is where all the action (like overtaking, brushes, accidents, etc) usually takes place. Thus, we missed seeing the important crash which happened in the first lap which resulted in 7 cars pulling out of the race.

5) The excitement which was there when the race started gradually went down as the race progressed. I watched the first 40 laps from my seat and then roamed around for a while (mainly bcos it was clear by then that Schumacher had an unassailable lead & he would clinch the race easily) & then finally came back to watch the last 10 laps to watch the finish. The last couple of laps were great to watch since the whole Ferrari crew was in the pit lane waiting for Schumacher & Massa to pull up near the podium. The podium celebrations too were a treat to watch.

Overall, a very memorable trip. And the answer to the usual question as to if all this was worth the money spent to go to Indianapolis – YES would be my answer. May be, I wouldn’t do this next year but this is something every sports fan should experience atleast once.

With US Grand Prix ticked off the checklist, all it remains are the following:

- The US Open tennis tournament (This should be ticked off in September when I am going to NYC to watch the tournament)
- Any PGA Golf tournament, preferably one where Tiger participates
- The Cricket World Cup
- The Olympics

Priceless

Batting gloves - $25

Cleats - $50

Gloves - $30

Equipment kit - $85

My kid hitting a home run off of your kid - Priceless!!!

(Saw this on the T-Shirt of somebody at the airport. Too good to miss.)

Monthly Sports Round-up - June 2006

I am trying to limit the list to the top 10 sporting events of the month. I was looking at the list for last month and I found the list just too long, that even I got bored reading through the list. Hence, the above said decision. Now, to this month's list (Couple of these entries in this list are pretty outdated as I am posting this a good 5 days into July. But I still wanted to post what IMO was the major sporting events of the month of June):

June 9 - The 18th edition of the Soccer World Cup, the biggest sporting event of the world, gets off to a grand start with a colorful opening ceremony.

June 10 - Justine Henin Hardene wins the women's final of the French Open with a straight sets victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova and thus conquer her 3rd French Open title in 4 years.

June 11 - He does it again. Nadal for the 4th time this year, provides proof of the fact that Federer might be the best tennis player on the planet but when it comes to winning on clay, he is the best. After a jittery start due to which he loses the 1st set pretty badly, Nadal comes back strongly and goes on to win the French Open final in 4 sets. Thus the French Open sees the unique event of the defending champions in both the men's and women's categories successfully defend their titles.

June 15 & 16 - Tiger returns to the golf course after a 9 week lay-off following his father's death , which also happened to be the longest lay-off in his professional career. He finds the going extremely tough where he finishes a disappointing 6 over par. And the very next day, he gets eliminated from the Open, as he fails to make the cut for the first time in his professional career.

June 18 - Geoff Ogilvy wins the US Open golf championships with a 5-over par finish. The unbelievable collapse of Phil Mickelson in the final hole results in a completely unexpected victory for the Australian, who did not expect to win when he walked into the clubhouse after finishing his round. As Phil Mickelson went for his tee short on the 18th, all he had to do was to get the hole done in 4 shots, but in a collapse which nobody foresaw, he shoots his only double bogey of the tournament and ends up finishing 2nd, tied with Montgomerie, who had experienced a similar disaster in his 18th hole.

June 19 - The Carolina Hurricanes defeat the Edmonton Oilers in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and bring the Stanley Cup to Carolina for the first time in the franchise's history. Though I am not a big fan of ice hockey, I did take some liking to the game, after following the 2006 playoffs on TV.

June 20 - The Miami Heat are the new NBA Champs. In becoming only the 3rd team ever to come back from a 2-0 deficit in the finals, the Heat rode on some superlative performance from the finals MVP Dwayne Wade and finished off the Dallas Mavericks in 6 games, to bring the Championship to Miami for the first time in the franchise's history. I am a big time Kobe fan and so I have to hate Shaq and hence I was rooting for the Mavericks. And when they went up 2 games to nothing, I really thought that the series was as good as over. The collapse of the Mavericks in the 4th quarter of the 3rd game (where they lost the game inspite of a 11 point lead mid-way through the 4th quarter) was what IMO changed the course of the whole series. Shaq fulfills his promise to the city of Miami that he would make sure that they win the NBA championships.

June 25 - The game loses its greatest showman, as Andre Agassi announces his retirement plans from the game, after spending 21 years playing it. The US Open in September of this year would be his last professional tournament. He was one of those rare personalities who was able to successfully combine both style and substance. He was the game's ultimate showman. The best thing I liked about the guy was how much of his time & energy he spent in his charity foundation. I am sure retirement will help him spend more time with the foundation. But this US Open is going to be a tear-filled one, for sure.

June 25 - Alonso wins his 4th consecutive race and 6th overall race of the season, by winning the action-filled Canadian grand Prix and thus stretches his lead over Schumacher by a commanding 25 points. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher comes second.

June 28 – Overlooking names like Adam Morrison and Rudy Gay, the Toronto Raptors pick Andrea Bargnani from Italy, with the first overall pick of the NBA draft. The Italian star is already drawing comparisons with the other famous European star in the NBA, Dirk Nowitzki bcos of his ability to shoot from the perimeter. The draft was full of trades with as many as 4 out of the top 7 picks being traded, with the experts citing the lack of star power in the draft as the reason for the high number of trades. The Seattle Super Sonics pick up a relatively unknown Saer Sene from Senegal with their first round pick.

Best Sporting event of the month – The first test between India and the West Indies IMO that ended in an agonizing draw is the best sporting event of the month. Inspite of India applying pressure from all ends, the West Indies clung on to their last wicket, thus forcing a draw in the first of the 4 test series. With 19 balls to go and just 1 wicket to take, India did all they could but finally fell short of that elusive victory as Edwards & Collymore clung on to their wickets as they would do to their dear lives.

Best individual performance of the month - Nadal for his unbeaten run in the French Open and for stopping Federer from the unique achievement of holding all the Grand Slams at the same time. 60 continuous wins on clay court is just mind-blowing.