IPL 2021

This relates to something I wrote eleven years ago. Click and see.

https://vcat13.blogspot.com/2010/04/ipl-iiis-happy-ending.html

 

#IPL #IPL2021

The curse of the eidetic memory

I didn't know I had it, and one has trouble believing it. Was diagnosed by a professional. OCD must have had a role.

What does this mean? I can recall events to a precise day in intricate detail from decades ago, I know where a phrase is on a page of a book, where a cartoon image is in a comic, every TV show/movie line, who said/did what on an actual date, multiplication tables, everything in pictures, nursery school -- since age 3. I recall my first flight, and what I did on that 737 as a very small child. 

What benefits? None thus far. I just have photos and 'movies' in me.

Recalling events of the past week is far more difficult, which is why I have a private journal. But ask me about 1993 day on day, you got it.

https://www.slidecamp.io/blog/eidetic-memory-real-superpower -- hah! ;)

A childhood's comical progression (let's say for my books for that time as well)

For me (all owned titles):

• Likely have 300 ACK titles, and then some more (re-reading through present date) -- age 4 onward
• Enid Blyton, pretty own much all her books across ages  -- age 4 onward
• Indrajal comics (Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Bahadur and co.)  -- age 7 onward
• Enter Tintin and Asterix (all of these comics) -- age 10
• Cameo by Sidney Sheldon, Ayn Rand, and J.H. Chase between 10-12
• Archie and friends -- age 12
• MAD Magazine! (nearly all issues up and through the '90s)
• Calvin and Hobbes' entire collection -- age 18

Others here and there -- Chacha Chaudhary, C'mama, Madhu Muskan

Notice no Marvel and associated crapola?

About today -- April 11, 2021

I posted this like six months ago on a different platform, and shared later on Blogger. About 50% , per my estimate, has come in true.

It is that day. =)

http://vcat13.blogspot.com/2021/03/back-to-future-april-11-2021.html

Back to the Future – April 11, 2021

So, I’m just done with my daily VR run – it was fantastic for I could choose the scenery I wanted to run in. Yes, the running parks are still closed for you know what (COVID-19 maybe?). This morning I chose the English countryside, much like in the song ‘The Safety Dance’ (look it up). Only that I hadn’t moved from my living room at all. 

Then my fitness trainer shows up – she’s a real person from a branded gym, but she’s also not in my room. Having finished my workout, I step into my sanitizer shower. There’s one at my front door too. That’s the spray-only version for visitors. That telemedicine cable network reminds me that it’s time for my low blood pressure consultation. I’m now wired automatically to machines that are far away. It also pricks my finger to transmit a blood sample to the (VR) doctor. A doctor that can treat multiple patients simultaneously. A screen displays all my stats since the start of 2021. 

I hear a buzzing sound and a beep at my balcony. 

It’s the grocery drone that can carry up to 30 lbs of supplies. It waits until I unload and ‘Mukesh bhai’ confirms he’s received payment automatically. Bhai has 6 ‘El Kirana-2’ drones that can cover a radius of 1 mile. Then a friend calls in to ask if I’m in for his birthday party. I said ‘sure 8 o’ clock?’. At the party the drinks – delivered by drone home – were not virtual. My smart shirt tells me I’ve had enough to drink (hey, who’s driving? No one!). It also tells me that I have been talking to someone too long. 

Zzz time, and the mandatory call from the telemedicine network to ask if I’d like to be vaccinated right now. I’m no anti-vaxxer, but I’m still not convinced. Yet. I let the Roomba do its thing overnight. It’s no slacker, and covers a housekeeper’s cost very well. I have not stepped out of my apartment in 8 months. What reminds me that there is an outside world is not the chirping of birds and kids playing – it’s non-stop ambulance sirens. 

The twice-weekly automated call comes from the United States consulate. The next evacuation airplane takes off on Saturday. Really?! Would anyone want to go there now? But thank you, Department of State – much appreciated, really. You were just trying to help. Oh, I forgot about that wedding Wednesday! 

Quickly found something on a retail store that fitted me, and let me see what I looked like. So, ‘Here comes the drone again’, like that Eurythmics rain song. The wedding was great, much like the party, but with lots of Bollywood style dancing. The bride looked a tad stone faced, like an infamous Bollywood farce movie. Indian readers, you know what I’m talking about. Things have gotten worse. All of us want to return to 2016, before someone became president. That’s it. Like many others this spring of 2021, 

I am Legend. © 2020 | Venkat Srinivasan

Tom Brady -- what can one say?

This icon, that I've been watching since 2001. Made New England QB post that horrible injury to Drew Bledsoe. Whattay #Superbowl story!

And I watched him tonight almost twenty years later, winning his seventh ring at age 43. And he looked like he arrived from back then. 

Well done,  team Tampa Bay Buccaneers!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/sports/football/tom-brady-super-bowl-age.html

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – 2020

 

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – 2020

By Venkat Srinivasan

I thought this post’s title was an original, and then I saw a news channel (or two) had copied it from me already. Nevertheless, here goes?

Yes, a year to forget, to cancel, to cut a year off from our ages. Yes, all that. But we had some good stuff, so I’ll start with that.

 

The Good

Nature – connecting with the skies, the green, and the clean air was great. Actually, could watch peacocks, exotic birds out my window like many other neighbors. Never thought I’d be delighted to see cobras nestling in the park. Oh, and the sparrows (recently rarely seen), and hornbills. And fewer pigeons.

Escaping COVID-19 – Despite two bouts of actual full exposure and many flights, we (I speak for family and I) didn’t catch the virus. Whew!

Reaching out – Talking and connecting with friends and family again. Things one has rarely done in years past. The random phone calls and chats online kept spirits up. We shared memories and recipes (with pictures).

Technology – Video and voice conferencing was/is a life-saver, be it for work-from-home, anniversaries, birthdays, quizzing, anything. Imagine this even twenty years ago?

No more Trump – Joe Biden, may you do a better job along with Kamala.

Netflix and Prime Video – Shows that kept us laughing, and distracted.

And this –  See right here please.

The Bad

The people we lost – Besides friends and family, there were several popular celebrities (easily named) that we liked and looked up to. All now gone.

Substance abuse – This got many into a downward spiral. Too many bad examples to share – friends and neighbors.

Domestic issues – This was hell for some neighbors. Some threatening to jump off roofs and balconies, major spats at some homes, tension, and violence heard all over. I can’t recall the number of times I was called as part of an ‘emergency group’ to help. God knows I can’t catch a 170 lb woman from the 7^th floor. I’d be the one to go.

The US presidential election – This was as nasty as it could get. A sitting president that lost, and then refused to concede. This, at the world’s supposedly ‘land of the free’, that oldest democracy? Come on.

 

The Ugly

Need I say anything, or more here? The year’s scourge. The plague we’re still enduring.
It gets even ‘better’ in other ways, per this article.

This decade has officially ended. May we all have a great 2021. Bless everyone. May everything improve.

 

© Venkat Srinivasan | December 2020

 My latest article https://ven-srin.medium.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-2020-59d372cae0d1

Change at Syracuse University - Female Engineers on the Rise!

I don't read the Daily Orange as much as I used to, but today this article caught my attention immediately. It said female enrollment had increased in Syracuse University's engineering school. 

This made me think back to my time there, and my observations then. 

SU's L.C. Smith College of Engineering seemed like the MCC or Oxford's colleges of yore, except there was never a bar on women. They simply didn't take up engineering.

This isn't about the small groups of girls from India or China that obviously would be doing nothing else at an American school. The only female students that took math or science came from these countries, is what it looked like then.  

Syracuse was/is a female majority university - with over 56 % of its students being women. And you'd see them far from the engineering school - taking up languages, art, politics, advertising, film & radio, journalism, music, home sciences, gardening, whatever, but not anything to do with machines or computers. 

During all my time there, I never met a girl that leaned toward an engineering major. Typically I'd hear they wanted to teach 'special needs kids' and become Jr. Mother Teresas. Why, I got a response to this effect all the time, when they were asked about study/career plans. I also got the sense they were at SU to have a good time.

Not there's anything wrong with that. I went to Newhouse at SU! (never mind its lofty reputation)
Photo: Keegan Barber | Staff Photographer, Daily Orange

But this here is a refreshing piece of news!

Women are showing an interest in science, and are actually taking up full engineering programs at SU. Some of them have even taken up mech. Way to go!

There's been a female dean of the school for over 5 years now.


The article talks about 'a lack of encouragement toward women to pursue math and science opportunities in college',  the perception that a four-year engineering program is too complex, and few female role models.

Also, I daresay some offered - 'How can college be fun this way? What about all the pah-taying?'

Dean Laura Steinberg is quoted as saying 'The United States needs to change how it communicates the field of engineering to female students. Describing not only the principles learned in engineering, but the problems that engineers solve as well, is an important distinction.' 

It looks like some of that has happened in the past twelve years.

Conspicuously, the Daily Orange didn't speak to or feature a single female American student of Asian or Indian origin. That, I believe, would have taken some of the newsworthiness away?

A decade now! How the major leagues cheered us up.

It was a depressing fall, 2001 - with the September 11 attacks, and deep economic gloom all around. It seemed there wasn't any good news. There was then news of another crash, colored coded terror threat levels, the shoe bomber, an attack on Parliament in India, fortress like airports, people looking at each other suspiciously, and people getting laid off every day.

In the States, the major leagues stepped up, I thought.

1. First, even news that Michael Jordan was returning to the NBA with the Wizards gave cause for cheer
2. The Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in a thriller in a November World Series
3. Then for us in the Boston area at least, the New England Patriots removed a lot of the glumness

The Pats will be at the Superbowl this Sunday for the fifth time in a decade, with three wins thus far. Until their magical 2001 season, I didn't watch or follow football much. Then I did, for what happened that November onward. Haven't stopped since.

Boston area fans, as many have said, have never had it so good. Can you believe the Patriots now are the club with the longest championship drought?! (The Sox won in '07,  the Celtics in '08, and the Bruins in '11)

Payback, I hope, at the Sunday, February 5 rematch vs. the Giants. I'll be thinking of ten years ago this week in Boston, all through.

'Ecstacy of Gold' - This was the one I was looking for

Found it at last! This Ennio Morricone concert in Warsaw.
I particularly like this version of 'The Ecstasy of Gold'; I think it's the soprano. :)

#Brillo^10

'No holiday at Halloween. It's a pagan observance'

...said the lady to me, when  I asked about the possibility during my freshman year at Syracuse.

Cold windy weather, the sudden onset of darkness (at 4p with the end of DST), and deserted streets, make  for an eerie setting. Michael Myers appeared on TV over and over again, as did Jason and Freddy. Else, there were repeat telecasts of The Exorcist, Dracula, Psycho, and similar.

That first Halloween, there were random knocks on my door. Didn't usually have that happening. Turned out it was neighborhood kids trick or treating, and I did not have candy on me, nor did I want any tricks. I pretended no one was home.

Watched creatures that looked like Jawa from Star Wars go past my apartment. There was another in a cape and head in its hand. Had the feeling I was missing out on a lot of excitement.

The next year, I did not participate, but attended a Halloween party. There was a drag queen, a large bunny with a candy basket, Boris Karloff, a hangman,  Anthony Perkins, and Henry VIII. Ahead of this event, I'd been asked by nearly anyone I met - 'What/who you going as?'  (WYGA).

In the years afterward - junior/senior years/ grad school - I really got into Halloween. The opportunities for social advancement (*wink*wink*) were amazing, the reason I started referring to Oct 31 as 'Helloween'. I knew months ahead, my response to WYGA. I was ready with tales to tell at parties, famous lines from horror movies, who played who in what, and ideas for after-party screenings. Pah-tayyy!

It was fun! Halloween was bigger than New Years and DeeWolly. Why, I even sold the India student community on an annual event for the weekend before Oct 31! (This was so I could continue to have a good time at the regular Helloween)

But these soon turned into Bollywood lookalike contests, unfortunately, and I'd look a tad silly in my Ghostface costume.  There were also rival parties, with no social networking possible. No opportunities, when there were several political camps. And this was a tiny community of like 50 Ind students!

I soon decided to observe Helloween only with the natives. 'Hello, hello, hello....', this was social.

By the time I started my career, I'd started to wish 'Happy Halloween' to people far away in India. Now I gather it's big in Jullunder and Hyderabad, with other cities fast catching up.

Maybe it'll become like what it used to be for me, back in the day.

Perhaps it'll get to 'WYGA?' again.

Happy Helloween.

#Halloween

That call ten years ago today -- Tue a.m.

Roommate in Detroit that had taken a flight out of Logan that morning: 
'I'm ok'
Me in Framingham, MA: 'Ok, so?'
Roommate in Detroit: 'Turn the TV on!'

And then I watch the 2nd plane come in.

All outbound calls not connecting - all networks busy. Cell and landline.

*Ring*Ring*!
Dad on the phone: 'You ok? Good. The planes originated from Boston, and I have someone who's son also left Boston at the same time....'

I record the day's events live, towers collapse, ashen (literally) faced people, sirens, II date that will live in infamy....

Thoughts on my time up there, in the twin towers just earlier on a rainy day.
Reports that Camp David and the White House were hit.
Friend and I play tennis in a surreal setting that 9/11 evening.
Endless incoming calls to ask if I was ok. I wasn't.
TV shows people in Gaza shooting rifles in the air.
Stick Old Glory sticker on my car, given recently acquired PR status.
Wed onward: 'Are neighbors, people at the store, mall, interstate..... looking at me differently?'
'Chasing Amy' on TV the previous night

Early morning parade - people I see almost every day

I've always wanted to make this list of fellow regulars at the Joggers Park. I do not know any of their names. Here goes:

Elephant Lady
Peaceful (and mildly frowning) senior citizen who walks anti-clockwise. Not elephant-like in size, but she wears a floppy gray colored track suit.

Joggie
Elegant slim female runner, likely in her mid-20s, who has a medium-speed shuffling gait. 

Captain Gamsakhurdia
Purposeful looking speedwalking senior gentleman in shorts. Is considerate of lane etiquette - always steps to the side when runners pass.

Colonel  Rahmanzadeh
Looks like a 60ish Iranian armyman on furlough. Anti-clockwise brisk mover - walks with a jacket and shorts on. No gun seen.

Politician
(Or local corporator) Middle of lane walker who swings his arms wide inconsiderately. Always accompanied by at least one chatting flunkey. Seems to inspect the park often for maintenance, and knows all the staff.

Pol's Flunkey(s)
Up to 3 walkers that are seen with the politician all the time. One of them looks 100% PMC staff like, and has this unique walk-speed jog at times. Moves at the same speed as the rest, only that he has this jogging action.The flunkeys usually end their time at the park with a loud chortling session seated by the pol.

Florida Pensioner
Slow moving old gent who makes others behind him guess which way he'll veer, from the middle of the track.

Speedking
30ish runner in a red hat who will always try to speed up and take the lead, when someone tries to pass him. Usually does not succeed.

Kindly Old Lady
The one I mentioned here back in March. Walking conversationalist, and friends with a group of always seated chatty ladies that talk about their families and inflation.

The 3 Idiots
Insufferable group of vocal codgers who have one trait in common. The ability to always get in the way of anyone that passes them. This is done by ambling 3 across in the walking lane, and 1 in the narrower running lane, with frequent sudden switches in position. And by being oblivious to how they annoy everyone. They start with one meandering senior, and in minutes the group expands to 3, led by the Chief Idiot who can actually straddle both lanes at the same time.

Group typical I'm sure, of many other similar places. Other park users now plan their walk/run schedules so they avoid this 3-5 man regiment.

Gold's Gym Instructor
Senior citizen who's somehow the exercise coach for other older gentlemen. Does contortions that some of them simply should not replicate, and he should not encourage to do.

Destination Restroom
Middle aged man who always walks around the park with a rolled up newspaper.

Tantric Yogi
Barefoot 40+ runner in a tee and pants, flails his arms wildly, and runs only anti-clockwise in the mud track. Wild hair. Inspects and picks flowers.

No-Tan
Dark woman who walks only in the shaded stretch even on moderately sunny mornings. There's another that whips out an umbrella in the non-shady section, early mornings.

Katherine Hepburn
Stately, tall old white lady with a slow gait, and an umbrella. The slowest mover in the park. Is wary of tripping or being knocked over by runners. Has two attendants - one that walks with or behind her, and another that gets her newspaper and a bottle of something. She's the only regular person of white extraction in the mornings.

Steam Engine
Unsteady and ungainly slow barely-jogger, who forces himself to get momentum with a series of violent forward movements. Uses the far slope to gain more speed afterward, with a flat footed thumping sound all the while. Stares at anyone that passes him, which means almost everyone.

(+couples/others who show up daily, but have no standout characteristics or behavior like those on this list)

The Glacial Retreat Watchers Consortium

The Glacial Retreat Watchers Consortium (GRWC) was founded decades ago to promote and encourage competitive glacial retreat observation. The members meet regularly to form observant teams and compete on observed global glacial retreat.

The scoring system is usually in reverse (less is more) as glaciers are retreating and not advancing at this time. Likewise for the competition.

Most in the GRWC were very good at glacial retreat watching which was a good thing, and they wanted to ensure many more benefited. So they spread the word about the fun they were having and got several new young members to join. They all showed up in glazed eyed enthusiasm. Many did.

The young newbies were amazed at the quality of observed retreating knowledge and wanted in on all of it. So they competed at these GRWC meets and lost spectacularly, but everyone has to start someplace and stay there forever, right?

They were very impressed with the Messis, the C.Ronaldos, the Rooneys, the Tevezes, the Kobes, the LeBrons.... and their Record setting exploits. They saw them teaming up and winning Regional Glacials, and the National Furtwängler and Siachen Cups,and some high end competition in between.

So they wondered if they too could join these teams, as the GRWC was meant to promote and encourage glacial observation in retreat. Surely they could be the third observer?

They made calls and sent emails to the Kobes and Messis, weeks ahead of the star contests. They got:

1. No response over 5 weeks
2. 'Nope, am observing with someone else'
3. 'I always observe G-lent with ____'
4. 'You're not very observant. Deals struck in the last mini ice age'
5. ('I'm waiting to see if Berbatov is available')

Or 0.5 days before the Open Glacials, when already teamed, they'd get from a suddenly single and until recently evasive Kobe:

'Hey, are you teamed?'

All of this happened several times.

In the locker room/dugout/showers -

'I don't wanna observe glacial retreat with that newbie. S/he's such a moraine!'
'Can't win with these moraines in our team'

'S/he's weak on catching isostatic rebound'

'Bergshrund! What a wannabe observ'ho'

'Btw, WYGW next year?

Now at the regular GRWC open observation meets -
'Hey, how come only we the same teams again at the observation deck?'
'Hey hey, why only 11 people watching the watchers compete? There were 18 before'
'Btw, HMYW?'
'And WYGW?'

Optimistic and naive newbie tries again. Calls and emails to the C.Ronaldos and LeBrons, months ahead of the big contests.

Zip.

No encouraging signs, nor any promotional.

Now again at the regular and inclusive GRWC open observation meets -
'Hey hey hey how come only we the same same teams observing G-lent again?'
'Hey hey hey why only 3.5 people watching us the watchers compete? There were 11 last time'
'What's the glacial watch cutoff?'
'Anyways, who/what do we joke about?'

'And hey, where the heck are those moraines?'

Along with the glaciers, something else was retreating. At a faster pace than climate change.

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THTM: This morning at the park

End of run, stretching at a park bench. Sound of someone walking on dry leaves, toward me:
(*scrunch*scrunch*)
'Hello, good morning, wanting to talk to you long time' (kindly 50+ lady)
'Hello'  (smile)
'Who you are?'
'           '  (raise eyebrows)
'No, no, I see you running every morning, long hair waving, it is good looking on you'
'Oh, thanks'  (smile)
'Like paramhansa you look' (smile)

'Oh, what? I see...'
'Yes, like swamiji. You have seen his photo? In paper?' 
'Think I have, yes' (oh, darn, like a swamiji?!)

'What is your surname?' (!)
'Sr-------n'
'That is from where, in south?'  (thinking expression)
'Yes. Mixed'  
'What is mixed?'  
'I'm half I--r and half G-B (Ko---n region)' 
(Lit up smile, beams)'Oh, I know, my first daughter is married to I--r boy. But we are from Surat <+detail>'  (animated phase)

'Where are your parents, what they do?'  (inquiring smile)
'China....<+one line summary>'
'So you are new here?'
'No. Spent my childhood here'
'You are having some accent, that's why I asked. You are visiting from abroad? USA?'
'Yes, a few years ago. I work here'
'Oh my sister is settled there . Since many many years <+ extra detail>' (beaming)
'But you know Indian language?'
'Yes' 'What you do?' (smile, smile)
'Mkt... <+whatever>'
'You are having H1?'  (sounded like the flu)
'No, I don't'
'Green card? Or you are citizen'  (inquiring frown)
'Why do.......yes, green card, but am Canadian'    (error III)
'Canada green card you have?'
'No. United States'
'So USA green card and Canada citizen' ('Now I get it' frown, looks at the ground)
'What is procedure for Canada? My son-in-law is thinking to go' (inquiring frown, looks up)
'That'll take a while, ma'am. I gotta go now' (smile, turning to leave)
'Wait, wait... where you live?' (eyes wide, smile)
'Oh, nearby... I have to rush actually!' (smile, take-off mode 3-2-1)

'One minute - you are married?' 

 .............

Nokia's Ovi Store and software - helping keep Android and Apple in the lead

I don't think any Ovi users (any left?) were surprised by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's 'burning platform' memo to Nokia staff this week. From the beginning this store and associated software have been, and continue to be, a disaster.

Ovi is simply unusable. It is a piece of trash. It is an Android and Apple App Store driver. It is, well, unusable. Seven attempts in all. Despite several communications to Nokia at different levels, including an Ovi PM known to me, nothing has changed.

As a 'high-end' Nokia phone owner, I was initially excited about Ovi. I planned to load my device with applications, get music, everything. 19 months later, I still have nothing.

I. For example - Ovi Music: We won't let you buy

Overall, navigation on Ovi Music and beyond is abominable. Same as it's been for over a year.

1. Now I tried clicking on Unlimited Music downloads
2. Went to a page where it said 'enter PIN', or request a PIN

3. Request PIN went to a general help page

4. Where a link to Unlimited Music how to went to a 'Sorry can't find that' page

This was after I logged in three times and it still said I had to login again.
Then it said I needed to create another account to access unlimited downloads, when I clicked on the Unlimited banner
Absolutely (gave up) no way to buy plain music, never mind unlimited downloads. Where to pay to download - no clues given.

I have stayed away from Nokia accounts online and the Ovi store for this reason. The whole online experience is very confusing, just goes around in circles. And I'm not your average mobile/net novice.

II. For example - Ovi setup/use on Nokia PC Suite: A'maze'ingly useless 
PC Suite is the super-useless software that syncs a Nokia smartphone and a laptop.

1. Anytime you try to upload music using the god-awful Ovi interface in PC Suite, it will say there's a software update.
2. The Ovi software will rarely find the phone, and the PC Suite anyway will keep switching back to 'USB mode' from 'media transfer' mode. This is despite picking the media mode every time.
3. Near impossible to upload and organize music. Each file will somehow disappear inside a folder, and show up with completely different music, even if the music's from the same album.

 Just treat the phone as a pen drive and drop files in the music folder. It works. What Ovi?

III. Note on Nokia PC Suite basic usage: Finlandia Ostrich Special

Nokia PC Suite and it's various version updates are no less spectacularly incompetent. There's no way to save incoming call numbers to the contacts list for instance.

Oh, and you can't just pick images and videos to move to your laptop. It has to be all or nothing. And the bumbling program will store them in folders inside folders automatically in the laptop making it difficult to find anything later.

Calls from users and communities to Nokia since antiquity go unheeded. They don't want to know. The result - look up the content of Elop's note to staff.

Ovi and software like the above mentioned PC Suite are definitely part of Nokia's downward spiral - key contributors. Like I said before, they need to be left behind on that burning platform when Nokia jumps.

The delightful Li Na. Congratulations anyway!

Notice how Li Na seemed happy even in defeat at last Saturday's Australian Open Final? She looked thrilled to just be there at the end of a hard fought match. She was delighted, and having a good time at the finish.

Li Na played a great tournament all through, especially a top class semi final and final. She went down fighting to Kim Clijsters, and dominated the match until the middle part. She likely won ten-fold more admirers in the tennis world with this performance (despite asking the umpire to tell loud Chinese fans not to 'teach me how to play tennis' in the II set).

And at the end, there was no disappointment shown externally. Li Na had quietly gone further than any Asian in Grand Slam singles competition. She was no 'storms in, crashes out' first round specialist. 

She smiled as she sat courtside after her loss, smiled as she chatted with Kim C on the podium, and then gave a graceful, cheerful speech. Gamely, in English, to a vast audience. It was all a good feeling.

As she posed for post match pictures, all dressed up as she held her runner-up plate, she still looked as pleased.

(Now watch for several new Chinese players on the tour. They'll have added this to their production lines)

The friendly inquisition, and after-party

Anyone watch Barkha being 'interrogated' by her friends yesterday? On NDTV. Couldn't tell who was the funniest - the moderator, the other editors, or BD herself'.

They were all doing this with a straight face. BD did some amazing pained/indignant/I'm clean/petulant facial expressions though.

The discussion was to the effect of:

Editors: 'BD, as a reputed journalist, does all this make you AnGGrry!?' (only sentence they were allowed to complete)

Sonia Singh/moderator: 'Calm down, Bark'

BD: 'I trusted Rad. Dang. But hey, I'm highly reputed. I made a judgment of error. (Didn't realize the phone was tapped)'

'Riina Nadia' on the phone: 'Hey, y'all, where's the after-party? TGIF at 9?'

Everyone: 'Idiot! This line is tapped as well (but we're on).' *secret gesture*

NDTV:'This show is unedited (but not live)' 
Watch here.

The two-handed shake theory

Do you think devious/insincere people shake hands or greet others often with both hands?

This two handed shake goes for many politicians when they congratulate rivals, people that fawn over superiors, and most anyone that harbors crafty intentions for the hand they hold. This action usually comes with a slight bow and a fully toothed smile - another pointer toward insincerity.

Watch how Tom takes Jerry's outstretched paw, even as he plans to trap him yet again. It's always two-pawed.

Kimiko Date - the active, winning grande dame of tennis

Amidst all the talk about the longevity of some sportspersons - fifty-year old golfers, cricketers that play on for four decades, and first round and doubles specialists in tennis - here's a real achiever at the highest level. And in a sport where being past 23 is considered 'old' for singles competition.

Kimiko Date turned 40 yesterday and continues to amaze the world of tennis. She turned professional in March 1989. A little Japanese giant conqueror among (giant) young tennis pros.

She came back after a 12 year layoff ('96) in 2008, and has since beaten the best in tennis, won several ITF titles, and a WTA Tour title. This year she's won against Dinara Safina (twice), Nadia Petrova, Maria Sharapova, and Daniela Hantuchova (second time since '09) - all highly ranked players, and younger by more than a decade.

Impressive.

Take that, teen prodigies! (And where are any these days, btw).