The science in INTERSTELLAR

When news broke out that Christopher Nolan was making a sci-fi movie based on space travel called Interstellar, I was eager to see how Nolan handles the grand canvas of the universe with his creative prowess. After watching the movie I am happy that it had all the essential Nolan ingredients - an audacious and improbable core, cerebral screenplay, witty dialogues, mesmerizing visuals and all connected using an emotional chord. But as a science enthusiast, the most heartening thing for me was to watch a lot of real world science littered all through the movie and the clever manner in which Nolan had exploited them for his screenplay. Right from Newtonian mechanics to Einstein's relativity to the Theory of Everything, the movie was a rollicking journey through science. Though there were some outrageuous speculative science towards the end, well thats the creative liberty provided by movie making. Now lets take a look at some of the real world science that was dealt in the movie. 

Rocket Propulsion
Just before entering the black hole the AI robot TARS soberly utters, "Newton's Third Law : Can't get anywhere without leaving something behind." It is not only a witty comment that captures the emotional mood of the scene, but also suggests the physics underlying rocket propulsion. A rocket engine is similar to the internal combustion engine in cars, wherein fuel is ignited at high temperatures in a combustion chamber (Rockets carry their own oxidizer in the combustion chamber as the outer space is almost vacuum). In a car engine the combustion energy is used to drive a piston which in turn powers the vehicle.  But in rockets the high pressure exhaust produced due to the combustion is accelerated to supersonic speeds using a convergent-divergent nozzle (remember Bernoulli's principle) before being ejected out. According to Newton's Second Law, this acceleration implies a net force acting on the exhaust and the reaction force to this is what provides the thrust that propels the rocket upwards. 

Weightlessness
When the Endurance crew is launched into space, they start floating the moment they enter into orbit. Those who have seen videos or pictures of astronauts aboard ISS (International Space Station) would have noted that they too float. This is wrongly attributed to the absence of gravity and hence referred to as 'zero gravity'. But ISS orbits the earth at a height of 400km where the gravity is only marginally lesser than that on earth's surface. So why do astronauts aboard an orbiting spacecraft float or experience weightlessness ? To understand this lets consider a scenario back on earth where you are inside a lift in the tenth floor of a building. Now if you wanted to reach the first floor, the lift will start from rest and accelerate at some rate 'a' until it reaches the first floor. Lets assume that you were floating during this entire downward journey. This means you would have been accelerating at a rate 'g' which is the acceleration due to earth's gravity. Now if g > a then you would have hit the bottom of the lift and if g < a you would have hit the top of the lift and there is no way you could be floating. So if you had to be floating then both yourselves and the lift should be accelerating at the same rate. This can happen under some extraordinary circumstances when the lift cable snaps and both you and the lift are hurtling down at the same rate 'g'. Similarly when a satellite or spacecraft is in orbit around a celestial body (like the earth), the only force acting on it is the gravitational pull of the celestial body. And that explains the floating astronauts on orbiting vessels.  

Artificial gravity
Immediately after they enter orbit, Cooper initiates a spin sequence for the spacecraft which induces some sort of artificial gravity that grounds the floating astronauts. What causes this artifical gravity? When the spacecraft starts spinning there is a centrifugal force that provides a downward force keeping the astronauts grounded. This is similar to the outward force that we experience when making a sharp bend while driving in hill stations or while riding the merry-go-round.

Black hole
One of the central characters (literally!) in the movie is a black hole called Gargantuan. Black holes are formed when white dwarf stars with mass exceeding the 'Chandrashekar Limit' have exhausted the nuclear fuel at their core. During the normal life of a star, there is a tug of war between its own gravity pulling it in and the energy produced by the nuclear reaction at the core which is pushing it out. But with time as the nuclear fuel gets exhausted, the star collapses under its own gravitational pull forming black holes . Black holes have so much of mass compressed into a very small volume that they exert an incredible gravitational pull in its vicinity. There is a region surrounding the black hole called 'event horizon' in which the gravitational pull is so enormous that even light cannot escape. And that is one of the reason that black holes are yet to be physically observed, though it is predicted that there is a super massive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.    

Theory of Relativity
After dealing with time in a non-linear fashion in Memento, Nolan explores the concept of time dilation in this movie. When Romilly says that spending one hour on Miller's planet is equal to seven years back on earth, it sounds bewildering but is actually based on the works on one brilliant German physicist who goes by the name of Albert Einstein. Between 1905 and 1916 Einstein proposed two theories that shook our notion of space and time. The first among this was the Special Theory of Relativity which dealt a blow to the notion that time is absolute. According to this theory the flow of time is different for people who are travelling at constant velocities but in relative motion. More specifically, time runs slower for those moving at a relatively higher speed. Thats why Cooper says to his young daughter that he might be the same age as her when he returns as he might be travelling at the speed of light. The second theory is called General Theory of Relativity which deals with effect of gravity on space and time. When Newton proposed the laws of universal gravitation, it was a monumental scientific achievement because it was the first time the physical world was described in the language of mathematics. Though the law had been verified to a very high degree of accuracy, Einstein was uncomfortable with certain aspects of it and hence proposed the General Theory of Relativity. One of the key predictions of this theory which is relevant to the movie is that time runs slower in a stronger gravitational field and vice-versa. And that explains why time runs so slow on Miller's planet which is near to the black hole that exerts a strong gravitational field. (The Special theory of relativity and General Theory of Relativity aren't just theoretical predictions but have real world applications. The clocks in GPS satellites run slower than that on earth as these satellites orbit the earth at very high speeds of 14,000 km/hr. Also since they orbit the earth at heights of 20,000km, they run further slower as the earth's gravitational field is lower compared to that on surface of earth. These effects have been taken into consideration when designing the GPS satellites.)

Tidal force
When the Endurance crew land on Miller's planet, they encounter tides which are the size of mountains. These monster tides weren't randomly placed there to give a kick to the screenplay, but were caused due to the large tidal force exerted by the enormous gravitational pull of Gargantuan. It is similar to the tides caused in the earth's water surface by the moon's gravity.       

Grand Unified Theory 
The holy grail of theoretical physics currently is the formulation of a theory which unifies all the four fundamental forces of nature - strong force (present inside the nucleus of an atom holding together the protons), weak force (responsible for radioactive decay), electromagnetic force and gravitational force. The biggest hurdle towards this grand unification is the incompatibility between General Theory of Relativity and Quantum mechanics. General theory of relativity works well at the large scale like stars, galaxies et.al. whereas Quantum mechanics works well at the atomic scale. In our day to day life we never encounter massive objects at the microscopic level and so this discontinuity in the laws of nature is not a problem. But at the centre of the black hole there is a huge mass that has been compressed to the atomic scale and hence it is essential that the two theories reconcile with each other. So I presume that is the quantum data that Cooper transmits to his daughter which she uses to solve the gravity conundrum.

One hundred days of 'ache din' ?

When Narendra Modi was elected as the PM of India, it was the denouement of the grandest marketing gimmick in recent political history. One of the catch phrases of this gimmick was the promise of 'ache din' - the transformation of India into to an utopian society. It would be really unfair to expect these good times to arrive within hundred days, given the complexity and diversity of India. Nevertheless, the events that have been happening over the past few months makes me wonder if the ache din was actually meant for someone other than the people of India.

Communal Politics
When Modi urged Indians to shun communalism, casteism and regionalism during his Independence Day speech, it seemed like Modi was slowly cleansing himself off the communal stain caused by the Gujarat riots. But when the same 'talkative' PM remains silent when his partymen and key allies involve in communal violence in different parts of the country, it makes one wonder if it was just another of Modi's rhetoric. If this doesn't sound convincing, then look no further than the current BJP chief. Modi's 'Man Friday' Amit Shah has been rewarded with the post of party chief for helping the party secure a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh. Even die-hard BJP supporters agree that Shah's modus operandi in orchestrating this massive victory was communal polarization. Infact he had been censured by the election commission during the campaign trail for his highly inflammatory speeches. So when Modi says he is serious about communalism, he is surely joking.

Dubious ministers
When you appoint someone as a cabinet minister and that someone was found unfit to serve as your party president on charges of financial irregularities, then it shows you aren't serious about corruption. That was the signal Modi sent out by appointing Nitin Gadkari as Union Transport minister. Another dubious choice is that of Uma Bharti as cabinet minister for Water resources, River development and Ganga rejuvenation. She had been indicted by the Libherman commission for inciting mob violence during the demolition of Babri Masjid, a charge she refutes but is proud to take moral responsibility for the demolition. Though she wasn't in Modi's good books, there is a belief the RSS pushed for her candidature. And our 'strong' PM had to give in. Finally there is Smriti Irani, someone who has probably occupied as much newspaper real estate as Modi himself. Her appointment as union HRD minister means only one of the two things - either there is no one better qualified than her for the post or the Modi government doesn't take the HRD portfolio as important as the other explicitly important ones as defence, home and finance. At some level it doesn't matter whether the education minister was a former actress or doesn't have very good educational qualifications. But it certainly is an issue when the minister lies about her educational qualifications.

Judiciary interference
Among the three pillars of democracy - legislative, executive and judiciary - the judiciary is by far the most respected in India. It is partly because it has been relatively free of the clutches of the legislative and executive. But all this is set to change with certain actions of the Modi government. The supreme court collegium is a judiciary body that elects judges to the supreme court and the high courts. As part of protocol, the collegium sends the candidates list  to the council of ministers for consideration. The ministers can only give their reservations if any but the collegium has the final say. In an unprecedented move the Modi government unilaterally segregated the name of one candidate - Gopal Subramanium a supreme court lawyer - from the list of Supreme court judges. The reason given by the government is that of unsubstantiated allegations about the candidate in a report submitted by the IB and the CBI. But this sounds very unconvincing when taking into consideration these facts - one is that Gopal Subramanium's competence as senior advocate in the supreme court and his potential for judgeship is perceived to be impeccable in the judicial fraternity. And another that he was an amicus curiae in the Sohrabuddin encounter case in which Amit Shah was one of the accused. Looks like Mr.Amit Shah is the one having all the ache din!     

Saffron saffron everywhere
The right-wing is back in town after a decade and they have already started to paint everything in their favorite color saffron. To begin with, the new chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) - India's premier body that funds historical research - is one Yellapragada Sudershan Rao who is a long time believer of the Sangh Parivar's Hindutva agenda. His appointment is seen by many historians as an attempt by the BJP to resume their history re-writing project that begun during the previous NDA rule. In a recent article in Frontline magazine it was reported that his approach to historical research was similar to other Sangh-affiliated historians who try to give simplistic, folklore-based explanations for significant periods of history and dismiss any complex interpretations and inquiry. He also seems to have scant respect for minorities, Dalits and justifies caste system based on brahminical interpretations of ancient religious texts. The Hindutavadis next stop seems to be education. Recently there were reports that the Gujarat government had presecribed a series of nine controversial books on Hindu culture for supplementary reading in primary and secondary schools. These books were written by Dina Nath Batra a long time RSS activist and cover a wide range of topics like science, geography, literature and mathematics. The problem with these books is that the author projects folklore as science, denounces rational thinking and endorses racism. To know more about this absurdity, look here. But the real problem lies else where. All these books have a forward written by Modi himself and these books have already traveled to Madhya Pradesh which is another state ruled by the BJP. So how long before it makes an appearance at the national chance is anyone's guess.        

Gujaratization of India
The phrase that had been on the lips of most Indians for the last one year was 'Gujarat Model of development'. It was the creative output of the notoriously invisible but very effective Modi's PR machinery. Modi and his team used this as a springboard to catapult themselves to power at the centre. The core argument of this model has been that Gujarat transformed into the most developed state of India due to the highly efficient and corruption free government of Mr.Modi. But in reality a lot of credible reports have showed that in terms of economic development Gujarat was always among the top spot even before Modi came to power and data shows that he has just been able to maintain the status quo. And for that he can take credit. But at the same time in terms of social and educational development a lot of other states have done much better during his tenure. Infact the HDI index released by the UN places Gujarat at the 8th position taking into account different aspects of development. And now the government is planning to replicate schemes from this development template all over the country. Take for example the Ganga rejuvenation project. The government has directed the concerned officials to study the Sabarmati riverfront development scheme and implement something similar to it. But the fact is that the Sabarmati river remains as polluted as always and only a small stretch of it flowing through Ahmedabad has been cleaned up to create a recreational space within the city. So the Sabarmati example is just a beautification project and not a conservation effort that is required for Ganges. Another example of Gujaratization is the indication that the centre is planning to replicate the 'Beti Baccho Abhiyan' or 'Save the Girl child campaign' of the Gujarat government. But even after six years of implementation, the scheme hasn't been able to make any dent in the skewered sex ratio of Gujarat. Whereas similar schemes in Haryana and Punjab have had significant effects.    

So where are the good days then ? Currently they are only in speeches, announcements and manifestos. Modi appears like the proverbial 'storm' after his 'calm' predecessor. But just in words. So if not a storm of ache din, the lest I hope for is a light breeze in the coming days.         

What I learnt when MH370 crashed

Whenever a commercial aircraft drops off the sky, I am engulfed with a sense of grief and fear. The grief is due to the untimely death of innocent people and the emotional toll it takes on their kith and kin. The fear is borne out of the thought that when I am airborne someday, what might happen if the aircraft develops a technical snag. Recently I had flown to Andamans with my wife which was my first major air travel. Every time there was a slight turbulence due to passing through clouds, it sent a shiver down my spine. And whenever the crew switched on the addressing system to make an announcement, I feared for the worst. But all the time I put a brave face to my wife sitting near me else she would never board a flight again. So I could imagine the terror that would have gripped the passengers on board MH370 in the last minutes of their flight. With all the technological advancements we have made, it is so frustrating and puzzling that we still have no clue about what happened to such a massive object when we have the capability to read the number plate of a car from the skies. I have been keenly following this tragic episode from day one and in this process have learnt and realized a lot of information spanning fields as diverse as maths, physics, geography and history, which I am sharing in this article.

That box ain't black !
We all know that when an aircraft crashes, the most important debris that investigators search for is the black box. This box contains data regarding vital flight parameters and also the cockpit voice recorder. And many of us might also be aware that the black box isn't actually black but rather bright orange in color so it can be easily identified. But given that over 70% of earth surface is water, how will they retrieve the black box if an aircraft crashes in the ocean ? It seems these boxes have an underwater locator beacon which gets activated once it touches water. The beacon sends ultrasonic signals every second for a period of 30 days after which the batteries die out. So it is important that the location of the box is identified quickly else it might even take years before it can be retrieved as in the case of the Air France crash. Also it can withstand impacts of 3400 times the force of gravity and temperatures as high as 2000 degrees !

Time of Useful Consciousness (TUC)
Though it sounds like a phrase with deep spiritual roots, it is purely scientific. What it denotes is how long you remain conscious at a given altitude in an environment of inadequate oxygen supply. Generally aircrafts fly at an altitude of 35000 ft where the air pressure is much less compared to sea level. So aircraft cabins are pressurized to maintain an ambient pressure that prevents hypoxia. But if the aircraft climbs above 40000 ft, depressurization sets in and you lose consciousness within TUC unless oxygen masks are used. The TUC at such altitudes is only around 10 secs which means you have only so much time to use the oxygen masks from the moment they are deployed. The reason this term has been doing the rounds is because it is being suspected that somehow the cabin of MH370 got depressurized and everyone on board had died of hypoxia including the pilots. Eventually the autopilot had taken over and the plane flew endlessly till it lost all fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean. Similar sequence of events have happened before and are referred to as 'ghost planes'. But in the case of MH370, it doesn't explain why the flight deviated from its trajectory in the first instance. 

Roaring forties
The MH370 is suspected to have crashed in a region of the Indian ocean which is one of the remote parts of the world. The nearest land is the city of Perth which itself is at a distance of 2500km. The ocean depths in these region can be as high as 4000m and the ocean bed is littered with underground volcanoes. To make the search and rescue effort more complicated, this region is notorious for winds blowing at a speed of 30-40mph and is famously called the 'Roaring forties'. And the lack of any military or commercial significance for the region, has made this part of the seabed less explored than the surface of Mars!

Earth's tilt
Since the nearest airfield is as far as 2500km, it takes the search aircrafts around 8 hours for the to and fro journey to the suspected crash region. This leaves them with only 2 hours for the search operation. Thats when I realized that it is just unlucky that this disaster had to happen around the Vernal Equinox (March 20) when the length of day and night is equal. If the crash had happened around the Southern Solstice (December 21), it would have given the search team more time because the days are longer than the nights. This is due to the earth's tilt to its plane of rotation around the sun and also the search region being roughly 40deg south of the equator. But if you look at it the other way round, it would have been worser if the crash had happened around the Northern Solstice (June 21) when the days are much shorter than the nights in the Sourthern Hemishpere. Amidst all these thoughts it stuck me that India will never host a Tennis Grand Slam even if it produced Tennis superstars like Rafa (some might say Federer) or even if India became a superpower accidently. This is because of India's proximity to the equator where the length of days is almost equal to nights all year round and hence difficult to squeeze so many matches within two weeks.  

Predictability through probability
We all had our share of nightmares in our school days regarding probability theorems. We masqueraded our difficulty in understanding the subject by pointing out the lack of any real life applications apart from predicting the outcome of some irrelevant experiments like tossing of a coin. Even that it could predict accurately only if you repeated the experiment an insane number of times. But as we grew up we realized random process was at the heart of everything around us - noise in our electronic gadgets, behavior of stock markets and even the growth of bacteria inside our body ! And recently I discovered that probability distribution has been used to locate crash sites. When the Air France flight crashed in the Atlantic ocean in 2009, finding the black box and cockpit recorder was becoming difficult as the crash site was itself identified only after 5 days. By the that time the ocean currents had drifted the debris far and long. After a futile search for 2 years the French authorities turned to statisticians for help. Based on the various probable causes for the crash and using historical precedent, they constructed a probability distribution function using Bayesian statistics. And Viola! the black box was found in that region of the seabed which had the maximum probability value. Even in the case of MH370 this technique might be used to recover the black box if nothing else proves successful.

Aircraft shootdowns
And finally if you thought that air disasters occur only due to mechanical failure, electrical failure or terrorist activities, then think twice. Because there have been instances were commercial aircrafts have been shot down from the ground either accidentally or intentionally. In September 1983 during the height of Cold War, USSR shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which was flying from Anchorage to Seoul carrying 269 passengers and crew. The flight had deviated from its trajectory due to some pilot error and entered restricted Soviet airspace. The Soviets suspecting a missile attack by the Americans shot down the flight killing all on board. In October 2001 the Siberian Airlines Flight 812 was struck by a S-200 surface-to-air missile fired from Crimea peninsula and crashed over the Black Sea. It is alleged that the missile was fired as part of a test fire by the Ukranian Defense forces and all 66 on board were killed. There have been many other such instances of aircraft shootdown but the credit for the most outrageous incident should go to the 'Moral Police' of our world. In July 1988 Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the US navy over the Indian ocean killing all 290 on board. The flight was in Iranian airspace, flying over Iran's territorial waters and was on its usual flight path. But a US missile cruiser which had entered Iranian waters mistook it for an enemy F-14 Tomcat fighter and shot it down. And to date they have never admitted responsibility or expressed apology.         

P.S - I got inspired to write this article after reading this piece in The Hindu.

The King, the Prince and the Knight

In our school days we have been taught about 'right to vote', 'upper house', 'lower house' et.al in our Social Sciences class. My motivation for learning these was not in awe about the largest electoral process in the world but rather for the sure shot 10 mark question about 'fundamental rights' that would appear in the final exams. As time passed, the earth obediently added few more rotations around the sun and back on earth I underwent quite some physical and emotional changes. And one fine day I turned eighteen and it was time to vote! But who do I vote for? I wasn't a big fan of politics, consigning it to the domain of the corrupt and immoral. Either that or I was busy following the 'Little Master' and the girls in the neighborhood, that I didn't have time to follow our Netas. But most importantly I didn't care if the Indian economy was suffering from inflation or recession, because what mattered most was the pocket money that my father gave me. So it was only natural I voted for the person preferred by the man who was funding my life. 

Now for the first time since I started to vote, I am eagerly looking forward to the general elections to be held this year. So why this sudden enlightenment? Because I am at that stage of my life where I myself have to finance my day-day existence and other social compulsions. So I can't afford to not care about the Indian economy. Also India is ranked as low as 136 in the Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations. In this era of rapid globalization if we need to hurtle a billion (and counting) people up this ranking, we need to formulate well thought out and creative domestic and foreign policies. And the commander-in-chief of these policies is none other than the Prime Minister. Thats why these elections are so crucial. Also what makes these elections very interesting is the contrasting personalities of the men vying for this all important post.

The most familiar of the candidates is someone who rose from very humble origins (tea boy ?) to become the chief minister of the state marketed as the 'most developed' in India. Any guesses? He is planning to build the tallest statue in the world at the cost of 2500 crores which he hopes will magically unite the people of India! Now it should be as clear as daylight that I am talking about Mr.Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat. But in my opinion he would make a great marketing professional rather than a Prime Minister, for creating the myth that Gujarat is the most developed state in India. There is no denying that Modi has been able to sustain the development produced by previous regimes and has also created an industry friendly environment in Gujarat (though at the cost of tribal livelihood). But that doesn't justify the high decibel levels with which he is blowing his trumpet. Because in reality Gujarat is ranked only 8th in the HDI rankings for Indian states and is one among the less developed states in a list released by a panel headed by RBI governor Raghuram Ranjan. And how can we talk about Modi without mentioning Gujarat riots in the same sentence. Though he has been given a clean chit by the Special Investigation team (SIT), the communal stain hasn't been removed completely as there are a large number of people who still believe he was to some extent complicit in the massacre. And on top of it he is self-obsessed bordering narcissism which is evident in the excessive brand building he has accomplished by manipulating the social and electronic media. So if I start a company in the future I would have him in the marketing division but not as the commander-in-chief of my country.

If Modi is the most noisy then candidate #2 would be the most discreet. Infact discreet enough that we don't even know the identity of the candidate. That is because the Congress party is yet to figure out their man who can offset the huge negativity about the incumbent UPA government owing to their massive corruption. But history suggests that it will be only one of the Gandhi namesakes - Sonia, Rahul or Priyanka. Since the assassination of Indira Gandhi, women from this family have restricted themselves to running puppet governments rather than indulging in direct governance. So that leaves us with only one choice, Mr.Rahul Gandhi. From the beginning Rahul Gandhi has portrayed himself as an outsider to politics who is bent on fighting the corrupt practices of the political establishment. But apart from occasionally moonlighting as a crusader who makes guerrilla attacks on his own partymen in full public, he hasn't done much worthy of a prime ministership candidate. Sensing this the Congress party of late has been portraying RG as the driving force behind all key decisions taken by the party. And just when it seemed some people might buy this gimmick, he opened himself up in an interview with Arnab Goswami which made him look both stupid and irritating - something that his interviewer is famous for! I don't think even the 172 crores that the party is spending on the Bharat Nirman campaign (which is eerily similar to the ill-fated 'India Shining' campaign) is going to do any good now.

Just when Indians were confused about whom to chose between the belligerent king and the meek prince, there arrived the knight carrying a broom, riding the Delhi metro and wearing a muffler around his head. From an anti-corruption campaigner to chief minister within a span of one year, Mr.Arvind Kejriwal and team have been at the center of the biggest political revolution seen by our country in recent times. Over the past few years people's confidence in the political establishment has hit rock bottom. Corruption has grown exponentially threatening to even blow up the the numeral system. Crimes against women have become so despicable that animals in the wild seem more evolved. If you wanted any proof of the obscene nature of these crimes, then look no beyond the Anna Hazare movement and the anti-rape protests that rocked the country. Because it isn't very easy to wake up the Indian public which is generally sedative about social causes. And one of the by-products of these movements is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convened by Kejriwal. This party has shunned the VIP culture, displayed transparency and tries to connect with the common man - everything that is an antithesis to our political establishment. Its like a live political experiment unfolding in front of us. But the one small concern I have with them is, in their search for perfection they sometimes sidestep pragmatism for idealism. Also some of their members engage in frequent verbal accusation of other politicians, which even if true is unnecessary as they have a lot of work in front of them. As it stands I would love to see the AAP win this elections. But this is a very tall ask given the lack of time for them to consolidate at the national level. So I hope they atleast dent the vote bank of the two main national parties which will send a clear message to politicians that they need to buckle up or their doomsday is around the corner.                  
     

Two of a kind

To be honest I was more scared than thrilled at the prospect of watching Paradesi given the pedigree of its director. Bala is the master of pathos, whose films have a heart-wrenching portrayal of the not-so-ordinary people of the society. If Sethu dealt with the transformation of a college student into a mentally retarded person, then Nandha was about a protagonist who gets killed by his mother. If Pithamagan revolved around a grave digger, then Nan Kadavul dealt with the lives of Aghoris and the travails of beggars. I enjoyed (though with a heavy heart) his first three creations, but Nan Kadavul didn't impress me and hence skipped his penultimate offering Avan Ivan. So here I was re-entering the world of Bala after a break of one movie and hence all the trepidation. You might ask why force myself to do something when I am not so comfortable doing it. That's because deep down I have lot of respect for Bala, who has the rare ability to create unconventional characters that get completely assimilated into the narrative without disrupting its flow. And added to it there were all the rave reviews floating on the internet.

The milieu is a rural village in Madras Presidency during the British Raj. The first half is focused on establishing the lead characters and providing a glimpse into the social dynamics of the village. There is the protagonist Rasa raised by his harsh yet doting grandmother, whose sole purpose of existence is to fill the stomach. Then there is his uncle who is always drunk and seems to have lost count of the women he had impregnated. And we have Angamma, an effervescent village damsel who engages in lighthearted banter with Rasa. A major highlight of the first half is the marriage sequence which brings to the fore the interplay between different characters. There is also the sidetrack on the booming romance between the Rasa and Angamma. And just when you were on the verge of forgetting this is a Bala movie, there comes the first reminder in the form of the 'Kangani' (slave recruiter). From then on it is a one way descent into agony and suffering.

The Kangani on the pretext of providing better wages along with food and shelter, convinces the villagers to work in the tea plantations owned by the British. But once they reach there, they realize they have been duped into working in absymal conditions and there is no way out of this hell. Right from the British to their fellow countrymen, they are betrayed and exploited till they give up and surrender to the futility of the situation. You can't help but wonder if there is any other species on this earth which so shamelessly exploits members of its own kind just for its own betterment. Kudos to Bala for exploring a relatively unknown dark  episode of our own country in such a gritty and poigant manner without any commercial compromises. And he is ably supported by his cinematographer and music director who capture the mood through their sepia visuals and melancholic sounds.

But when you are watching such movies where the innocent are just free-falling into more and more suffering, the viewer becomes disillusioned and gets submerged in a sea of grief. So for all those distraught souls who want to indulge in some vicarious pleasure of good bashing the evil, I would suggest watching the English movie 'Django Unchained' directed by Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is a maverick genius known for his unconventional but highly gripping narratives, which have complete disregard for both history and geography. In Django, he choses a theme very similar to that of Paradesi, the era of black slavery and racism in the United States of America. But in his own inimitable style, he uses slavery as a running leitmotif and unleashes an improbable chain of events through some strange concoction of characters. 

The movie begins with a German bounty hunter releasing a black slave from his white masters and together they indulge in bounty hunting, with the final goal of freeing the black man's wife from a notorious white plantation owner. True to its intended Western Spaghetti style, we see the protagonists riding on horses with cowboy hats, drawing guns at the speed of light and shooting anything that is white and mean. Then there are the Tarantino regulars like the insane shootouts where blood becomes spray-paint and internal organs get splattered all around. Amidst all this there are the occasional glimpses of racial segregation and the inhuman treatment meted out to the blacks, which have striking similarities to scenes in Paradesi.

The movie becomes more engaging when the protagonists meet the plantation owner to rescue the black man's wife from him. From then on there is a palpable tension in the air as to how the events will turn out to be. The sequence at the dinner table in particular keeps you at the edge of the seat and it is made all the more gripping due to the stellar cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Waltz and Samuel L.Jackson. And the roller coaster ride comes to an end with an incendiary climax, that is befitting of the outlandish yet enjoyable narrative that preceded it. So for those feeling very heavy after having Paradesi as a main course, you can try a light dessert named Django Unchained.     
      

BANG !

It is very depressing to see scores of people die in an accident. And it is all the more distressing when the 'accident' is a premeditated effort by some corrupted human minds. Once such cowardly heinous crime is the act of terrorism, where in the name of religion (almost always) innocent lives and their dreams are snuffed out in a split second. Until the last decade you could maximize your lifespan by staying healthy, by minding your own business and being lucky enough to be not born into the Gandhi family (Remember Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi). But with the advent of terrorism the rules of the game have all changed. And what is most frightening about this barbaric spineless act is that they are very random in nature and completely unpredictable, as the perpetrator has no specific grudge on the victims. The majority of the victims are just collateral damage and the only mistake they commit is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is as if our destinies should be re-written to account for this new avatar of death ! 

Every time there is a terrorist attack, the first thing that comes to my mind is the huge void left behind by the victims among their family and friends. Their lives are never going to be the same and they have to live with this grief for their entire lifetime. Then I think of all the dreams that the poor souls would have nurtured for a long long time and how they have been shattered so mercilessly in the blink of an eye. Once I get over all this grief,  the question that pops up in my mind is "When will be my turn as a victim?". It might seem very hysterical, but then these attacks don't occur in some distant battlefields or in some highly secured government buildings. They occur in places where an ordinary man like me would hang out with friends or go shopping or just cross by. The very clandestine nature of these attacks make it very difficult for even the most efficient governments to prevent them and hence it would be unrealistic to expect our government to be any better. So as an individual I have taken it upon myself to safeguard my life. On days that are considered auspicious by terrorists like Independence Day, Republic Day and a bunch of other days, I don't venture out to crowded places or use any sort of public transport. And on ordinary days when I am forced to venture out to a shopping mall, my antennas are constantly scanning for ULOs (Unidentified Lying Objects) and suspicious looking men, thereby running the huge risk of losing focus on the lady accompanying me! And the moment I sense an ULO, I tiptoe in a direction completely opposite to the object. It seems like a very selfish act but then I don't want to create chaos and panic just based on my hyper-active senses.

Similarly when I travel by buses, I ensure there are no unclaimed luggages near my vicinity. There was this one time when I was traveling to my native town in a government bus. The bus had made a short stop at an intermediate town and some passengers got down at their destination and some others got down to have refreshments. One of the passenger sitting a few seats ahead of me got down and I saw a bag lying under his seat. Immediately my radar got locked on to that location. It stayed locked for more than ten minutes and suddenly the bus throttled alive with the guy still not returning. I started to sweat profusely and wanted to jump out of the bus before something bad happened. But assessing the speed of the bus and my physical agility, I calmed down and decided to inform the conductor about the unclaimed luggage, all along hoping the bag only had a pair of boxers and some dirty trousers. He was initially hesitant and skeptical about my strange request but as I was persistent he gave in. The moment he came over and saw the bag a big smile broke on his face. It turned out to be his bag ! I felt very embarrassed and at the same time happy, for having done my best to live another day. But when it comes to trains I don't even have the luxury of being alert because my antenna doesn't have the required range and I just keep hoping the karmas of my previous lives will come in handy. And anyways the probability of the top berth falling on my head unable to hold the heavily snoring uncle is much more than an explosion ripping through my compartment.

If the above narrative sounds light-hearted, it is not due to non-cognizance of the gravity of the situation. But rather due to the acceptance of the futility of worrying about something over which I have no iota of control. Well I haven't completely given up and thats why I keep my senses extra sharp when I am out in the public, realizing well this increases my chances of survival only by a very meager amount. Thousands and thousands of innocent men and women have already 'sacrificed' their lives in the war against terrorism and it is more than high time we launched a global concerted effort to cull this menace. Unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, terrorism is a man made disaster borne out his own invention called religion. If the invention seems to cause more problems than provide solutions it serves well for the inventor to do away with it. Until then terrorism is here to stay.    

Why this Kolaveri !

Intolerance these days is a virtue frequented by those who are not completely convinced of their own beliefs. Either this or they seem to have all the time in the world to do nothing. Else how can you explain their propensity to agitate whenever someone even remotely seems to infringe on their beliefs. Hold on ! What did I just write. Oh shit ! I forgot to write the disclaimer and before any of your blood pressures start shooting up, I earnestly pledge to everyone out there that my words were not targeted at any religion, language, caste, color, creed, gender and what not. So please forgive me and don't descend at my doorsteps or my uncle's or my cousin's husband's sister's and disturb our peace of mind. Many might think that I am taking myself way seriously. Yes its true that I am an insignificant nothing in the public landscape. But there are many more such 'not so significant' people out there who want to become significant by targeting even a nothing like me (Let me throw some hints to prove my point in case. Sena - Hooliganism - Two girls - Social Network). So imagine the joy of such people when someone like Kamal Haasan - the unparalleled legend in the world of cinema - makes a movie on a very sensitive subject. Viola ! Its party time folks !

As a Kamal fan it was an established fact that I would be watching Vishwaroopam come what may. But with all the controversy surrounding the movie, I wanted to watch it at the earliest before the Tamil Nadu government chewed out some part of the movie. What I and almost everyone who watched the movie felt was that the movie depicted world events in their true self. The movie talks about the terrorists who operate out of Afghanistan and hence they turn out to be Muslims. There is isn't the slightest hint of any provocation and added to it Kamal is smart enough not to jeopardize his 95 crores investment by stoking any religious tensions. But like there is no absolute space and time, there is no absolute perspective too. So it is understandable that some Muslims felt hurt by the movie. In that case they could have simply abstained from seeing the movie. Or they could have requested Kamal to put a disclaimer saying 'All Muslims are not terrorists' (as demanded by some Muslim leaders in Karnataka), though I find it unnecessary mentioning Muslims in the same vein as terrorists.  But demanding to ban a movie that has been certified by the Censor Board is an unlawful act and attacks the strongest pillar of a democratic society - Right to Expression ! So such acts should be strongly condemned and dealt with by the government. Time and again the the cocktail of religion and movies has gone terribly sour and surely Vishwaroopam will not be the last one too.  

In India, not just religion but every component of the social fabric seems to cause trouble. Over the past decade there has been heavy migration between states which is a natural follow through of globalization. This has stoked regional fascism in many states to such an obscene extent that at times it disrupts the national integrity. Such in-tolerances occur in the flourishing regions where there is lot of migration to take part in the development process. People should realize that the prosperity of a region is majorly due to its geographical location and natural resources and not due to a particular caste or tribe. So just based on nativity one can't claim ownership of all the resources, because based on this argument then all the resources would belong to the pre-Dravidian tribes who are the real ancestors of India. The other problem with this migration is the perceived threat to language and culture. I understand that preserving language and culture is very important for the social development of humans, but not at the cost of harboring hatred for our fellow countrymen. In-fact there are lot of forums like arts, literature and movies to develop these social tools and so people who are very passionate about language and culture should participate in these. And finally comes the mother of all intolerances in the form of female subjugation. Indian society has made great strides with respect to female emancipation, but the mindset of many Indian males still seems to be stuck in the medieval times. They aren't able to tolerate the sight of a 'alpha female' and find cowardly means of asserting their male supremacy, the most gruesome of them being the crime of rape.                   

To those who have tolerated my monologue on intolerance and have come so far, I would like to tell you that I am not a completely tolerant person myself. I have not much interest in religion, region or language and respect women a lot (Come home and ask my wife :) ) and hence have no issues with these topics. But I adore a lot of exceptional human beings and when someone talks ill of these people, I fume internally and argue with them crazily giving my everything for the argument. But once the argument comes to a closure, I forget about it then and there and never land at their door steps rampaging their personal properties and thrashing their loved ones. The reason I don't indulge in such anti-social activities is that I am very strongly convinced of my beliefs and also believe every individual is entitled to his own belief which might or might not concur with mine. For all the negativity surrounding intolerance, we also shouldn't forget the part some intolerant people have played in the advancement of mankind. If Newton had tolerated the fact that apples fall on the head rather than flying into the atmosphere, gravity would be existing everywhere except within our brains. If Mother Teresa had been tolerant of the sufferings of the under-privileged, she wouldn't have made a immeasurable difference to the lives of so many needy people. If Martin Luther King had been tolerant of racial segregation, African-Americans would still be treated as second class citizens. And if our freedom fighters had been tolerant of the British Raj, we would still be part of the British empire (in a state of decay though) with the only bright spot being that people would be respecting the concept of queues. So it is very essential that we be intolerant towards things - ignorance, sufferings and wrongful doings - that will help in the development of the human race. And stop being intolerant in those directions that might lead us back to the stone ages !        

All the road's a rage

After some point of time in your life, there are only two people who always keep thinking of you - your wife and your manager. When you are in office, your manager is happy at home dreaming of you slogging your arse off in front of the computer to meet some unrealistic deadline set by him. And when you are at home, your wife is happy out shopping and 'fantasizing' about you doing all the household work. You feel as if your time and space has been hijacked for eternity! And all of a sudden a blaring siren went off in my head. For a moment I thought it was just an acoustic manifestation of my disturbing thoughts. But the decibel level and frequency were closer to that of the ubiquitously irritating horn of a two wheeler and that's when I realized I had been lost in thoughts in the midst of a traffic jam and the sound was coming from a fellow traveler behind me. I instinctively tried to maneuver my car in the two available dimensions but there wasn't much space to do so. So I switched off my engine and tried to get back to my profoundly life altering thoughts. But the high frequency 'noise' from behind was incessant and it was as if the idiot was expecting my car to levitate and give way for him. I wished I had a set of horns towards the rear of my car so that I could 'back-horn' till he went deaf. Or more dramatically I wanted to get out of my car, pull him (or rather drag him) out of his two wheeler, kick his butt and tell him that just because sound travels @ the speed of 330m/s you can't expect everything around it to move at the same speed too. But I was more comfortable with thoughts than actions so I tried to shut the sound out off my mind and get back to dreamland.

As the curtains were rolling down on my eyes, I witnessed an over-enthusiastic chap trying to plough his two wheeled contraption through the infinitesimally small gap available between my car and the one in front of me. Though I was immensely irritated by this senseless endeavor, at the same time I was also eager to see how far he went. He started with intimidation by coming so dangerously close to my car that I had to retreat a bit to avoid being scratched by this moron. Then he resorted to trigonometry by extracting all possible angles available in the gap. But midway he ran out of angles and threw a pleading glance at me. There was no more space for me to steer and he remained wedged like a loaf of ham in a sandwich. I wondered what could be the driving force behind a lot of Indians to indulge in such silly and reckless acts on the road. Is it the urge to reach home early and perform their most important task - having dinner and going early to bed ? Or is it the notion that civic sense is an unnecessary evil thrust on us by the British ?  

By now the road had transformed into a circus and my fellow travelers were morphing into acrobats. And they were using me as an involuntary accomplice too. Suddenly my mobile started ringing and the moment I saw my wife's name on it, I remembered her morning orders to get some household items. Since the traffic was very heavy, I allowed the call to die a natural death and started looking out for some utility store. The moment I found one I parked my car and started walking on the pavement. Hadn't I taken a few steps, I heard a loud horn right behind me. When I turned back, there standing in front of me was the latest menace plaguing Indian roads - the pavement raiders. I wanted to utter loudly - "What do you want jackass ?" But I wasn't sure whether his response would be verbal or physical, so I just threw a disdainfully inquiring look at him. In return he gestured to me to move aside.  That very moment I wanted to take a hammer and break open his nutshell (read as 'head under helmet') but I quietly turned back and continued walking in the middle of the pavement while he followed me honking from behind. After taking a few steps I bent over as if to adjust my lace with the sole intention of irritating him for my satisfaction. Anyway as all good things come to an end, I reached my destination and had to step aside to enter the store when the he roared past me. I am sure he would wanted to bang my head on the pavement, but then the feeling was very mutual.

After shopping I got back to my car and started the last leg of my journey. I wanted to reach home quickly as I was already late by an hour and also the antics on the road were causing heavy activity on my internal barometer. Fortunately the traffic had thinned down and I was able to drive freely for the first time in the past two hours. As I neared a traffic signal it turned red and I came to an halt. And as expected there were a lot of color blind people who continued traveling. But surprisingly once the signal turned green no one was moving even after my incessant honking. Only then I realized that the traffic from the other side was still flowing though their signal had turned red. And clearly anticipating this behavior from their fellow Indians, my side of the traffic was calmly waiting for their turn. Indians had not only learnt the art of transgressing the law but also to co-exist with it. If there was anyone still doubting the theory of evolution, this sight would have been the ultimate proof for its existence. Anyway by now I had lost the will power even to get frustrated and all I wanted to do was reach home. Finally after what seemed like eternity but in reality only two and half an hour, I pulled into my garage. Desperate to chill out and relax, I rang the door bell. The moment the door opened I witnessed the final performance for the day - 'angry wife gone nuts' !  I don't need to elaborate on this act as everyone knows how it is performed :)

The rise and rise of Nolanism

What do you call a movie that has no story, no screenplay, one chest barring hero, two half clad heroines and a few shabby villains? Most of the Indian movies. What do you call a movie that has a jobless dude and a dumb dudette chasing each other's arse and paining ours too ? The remaining Indian movies. Now, what do you call a movie that is very poignant, stimulates the grey cells of even an analog engineer :) and creates a cult following. If you aren't able to guess, then try this clue - It generally has Christian Bale in the lead. Yeah a Nolan masterpiece what else! To me a Nolan movie is like a mind-blowing Ph.D dissertation - an unbelievable premise brilliantly explained in a complex manner. The 'beyond belief themes' sow the seeds for the rich harvest. If it was teleportation machine in The Prestige, it was dream machine in Inception. And in Memento it was short term memory loss - Nolan's greatest contribution to Indian cinema. He then weaves a complex screenplay surrounding this theme. Its so complex that a simple distraction by that niggling couple sitting next to you means you need to skip this show and catch the next show! And in the end he skillfully concocts all this to produce a movie that leaves you flabbergasted both mentally and emotionally.

It has by now been clearly established that I am a huge Nolan fan. But my loyalty will always be questionable as I am yet to watch Memento! By no stretch of imagination was it due to the satisfaction of having watched our own billionaire-lover boy-short term memory loss patient, Mr.Ghajini. It is just one of the few unexplainable things in life. Also I got to watch The Prestige before Batman Begins. I was immediately consumed by its theme which was quite different even for Hollywood standards. It had all the 'Nolan' ingredients like a dark leitmotif, an analytical screenplay with an emotional connect and an awesome conclusion. Next was Batman Begins where Nolan demonstrated the art of making a super-hero movie that is dark, realistic, pulsating and thoroughly enjoyable all at the same time. His collaboration with Hans Zimmer was duly noted from the arousing BGM which lent an epic flavor to the movie. Then came the movie which elevated him to the status of a cult figure - The Dark Knight. It once again re-defined the landscape of super-hero movies by achieving the perfect fusion of sight, sound and substance. The movie featured a never-again-in-a-lifetime performance by Heath Ledger which earned him a posthumous Oscar.  And with Inception he entered the realms of sci-fi thriller. The movie was literally the stuff of dreams with temporal multilayer and seamless transitioning between them. It is impossible and an injustice if I try dwelling into the movie in this forum, but in short it transformed film-making from mere entertainment into a niche field where only very few creative geniuses are allowed to play. And Hans Zimmer's Dream is collapsing BGM was... LEGENDARY! It is then only natural that his latest offering The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) had created unprecedented expectations among both critics and fans. It was considered a near impossibility to match the brilliance of its predecessor and the untimely death of 'The Joker' wasn't going to make the task any easier. So does the final installment in the greatest super-hero series ever made make for an awesome conclusion?

The film understandably has a much bigger canvas than its previous installments. From the beginning the director makes his intentions clear that he wants to end the trilogy with a blockbuster showdown between Batman and his toughest nemesis Bane. So he slowly starts building quite a few characters in this direction. In-fact the first half of the movie is spent on this and I felt it was a bit stretched, though you can sense the gradual increase in momentum. And in the second half Nolan starts putting together the various pieces of the puzzle in his own inimitable style accompanied by Zimmer's crescendoing BGM which is sure to give you the goosebumps. The climax is very much cliched for a Hollywood super-hero movie. But when you are planning to wrap up the proceedings of one of the greatest trilogy, there ought to be a grand farewell and TDKR surely provides that.       

The biggest testimony to the genius of Nolan is the widespread following he has among people with diverse tastes (and gender :) ). This is because his movies achieve that rare amalgamation of Kurosowa's ingenuity, Kubrick's intensity and Spielberg's epicness to create a new genre called 'Nolanism'. Its very tempting to declare Nolan as the best of this era, but out of immense respect for the past masters I would just stop short of uttering it. In a career spanning just few films he has entered the pantheon of the 'brightest and bravest' leaving an indelible mark on film-making. And fans like me can be rest assured that the best is yet to come! Take a bow Mr.Nolan. And long live your tribe... (The Nolan tribe includes director Christopher Nolan and his younger brother Jonathan Nolan with whom he has immensely collaborated.)    

The lady in the room

The build-up to this year's Australian Open final was perfect. Nadal and Federer faced off in a semifinal which was a semi-classic. And as usual Nadal triumphed that too in 4 sets. And in the final he met the Djoker to avenge his six previous defeats in the final . This is exactly what I had expected. Well not exactly because a Nadal-Murray final would have ensured Nadal his 11th slam. But then who would want a Grand Slam final to get over in less than three hours. During the morning of  the final (which was a Sunday by no coincidence) I kept myself busy reading any article in any form which remotely mentioned 'Nadal' or 'Australian Open final'. Like how Arnold Schwarzenegger readies himself for the final battle by smearing himself with mud in that cult classic 'Predator', I smeared my imagination with some astonishing rallies which Nadal wins. Amidst all this I sensed some tension in the air which for the time being lets assume was just my anticipation for the match.

The match started off in a tight manner with the mouth watering aroma of the food being cooked by my wife in the background. Nadal struck the first blow by breaking Djokovic's serve. And Djokovic retaliated by breaking his racquet in frustration. Ah! It was a great sight for Nadal fans as Djokovic showed early signs of  breakdown that have cost him matches in the past. And as if it couldn't get any better, my wife announced lunch was ready. I am not sure what the menu was as all my senses were hijacked by the match, but it was really tasty. I just wondered how lucky a man could get on a Sunday. The first set concluded without any further drama with Nadal safely securing the set.

My wife doesn't follow tennis. But when her husband is jumping all over the room singing praises of Nadal instead of serenading her, you can't blame her for supporting the Djoker. And pumped up by the new found support of my wife, Djokovic got his rhythm back. He started taking advantage of Nadal's second serve and was thrashing winners all over the court. This combined with the unbelievable retrieving that Nadal was doing from the baseline, was producing some out of the world rallies. But throughout the set Nadal seemed to be a step behind Djokovic and a double fault from him gifted the set to the Djoker.    

The third set was a total disaster. Djokovic continued from where he left in the second set and Nadal was being overpowered in all departments. I have never seen Nadal being so outhit before. I was transfixed to the television, intently following a crucial rally when all of a sudden Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai appeared on screen serenading in some strange language (which was supposed to be Tamil) in Machu Picchu. I instantly blurted out WTF !! (to be read as 'What the hell' for sake of censorship ) Then I realized my wife had changed the channel using the remote control. I shouted at her (in reality I pleaded with her) to change back and the following conversation ensued -

"You have been watching this all day without helping me in household work. I had to prepare breakfast, lunch and also clean the house all alone. For sometime let me watch something that I like. It won't hurt you to take a break."

Now I realized what that tension in the morning air was all about.

"This is a live match and I want to watch each and every point. Don't you see the high quality of tennis on display. I have been waiting for this match all week."

"So you haven't been waiting to spend time with me you dumbhead. Ok answer me frankly  - Do you like me more or Nadal ?"

Huh! When will women ever change? Why do they always ask the right question at the wrong time? Anyways out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the scorecard from my laptop. Nadal had been broken twice and there was no hope left for him in the set.

"Archana, how can you ask such a stupid question. You are the most important person in my life and why do you compare yourselves with Nadal. To me he is just an amazing tennis player and nothing more than that."

"Hmm... whatever. I would be happy if you spent your time playing tennis rather than just watching others play."

"After seeing such high quality tennis, I don't want to insult the game by playing it myself."

"Nonsense!! When will you ever listen to me rather than blabbering like this."

So our conversation ended abruptly and we continued watching some tamil movie. After sometime the temptation to know how the match was progressing was unbearable. And I couldn't track the score online too as the internet got disconnected. For a long time now my wife was immobile and speechless. Suspecting she had fallen asleep, I went around her to confirm. Then slowly I pulled the remote out of her hands and changed the channel. And what a moment I had chosen for this stealithy act! Nadal was down 0-40 of his own serve with Djokovic leading the set 4-3. If Nadal had lost this game the match would have been all but over. But Nadal dug in deep as he always does and raised his level of tennis to save all the break points and went on to win the game. The fourth set went to a tie breaker were Nadal finally overcame the dominant Djoker to win it. If only my wife was awake to see the supernatural skills displayed by these players, she would have agreed to my view of I shouldn't playing this game.

So now I was all charged up to watch the final set when something unexpected happened. My wife woke up! Should I change the channel or just continue watching the match? I was really terrified. Summoning all my courage and given the fact that the damage has already been done, I just continued to watch the match. Though she never uttered a word, I was sure she was simmering with anger inside. More than ever I wanted a Nadal victory so that I can take something positive out this day. As if answering my prayers Nadal broke Djokovic's serve. But my happiness was short lived because the Djoker broke back. I wanted to vent out my anger but thought it might not go down well with lady in the room who was now watching me intently. The pressure from different quarters was just too much to handle. Now I just wanted the match to get over soon and no longer cared who won. Another prayer got answered. Unfortunately this time by the Djoker as he broke Nadal's serve. And without further drama Djokovic sealed the set and the match. I immediately switched channels, grabbed my jerkin and went out for a walk pondering whether my wife will allow me to watch the French Open final between the same two guys in the month of June...