Clenches onto any surface with a tight unremovable grip

Clenches onto any surface with a tight unremovable grip

Wimbledon Finale 2009

Roger Federrer Vs Andy Roddick

Yesterday we saw history in a making, The legends of Tennis Roger Federer and Andy Roddick fighting for the title Wimbledon Grand Slam the priced possession and dream of all tennis player. Federer had the pleasure of holding the Trophy Sixth time after losing it to Rafael Nadal last time around, with this victory he regains his position Rank 1.

But that wasn’t the making of history for those who missed the game yesterday, you missed everything i guess. Both the player played their heart out, i have been a fan of Andy Roddick and Roger Federer and it became tough to choose the favorites. Roddick played fantastic and never before confidence in Andy made me feel he has got everything correct this time to win this title. This tournament he looked unstoppable, he entertained us with 5 set matches, superlative performances with his aces and volleys superb control of the lines.

Though Federer won this title and joined the legendary tennis players Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Bjon Borg, Jimmy Connors, John MacEnroe, Rod Laver in making of history. Andy Roddick won respect not only from Federer and the other legends but from the fans present in the centre court who applauded and called his name. The crowd got behind Andy at the End of the game which shows crowd appreciated all the efforts he made and steel he proved on the center court.

A game which lasted 4Hrs.18mins was helluva of battle, We also spotted russel crowe in the stands it reminded of gladiator and who didnt give up on the centre court either. Both wanted to win this one. Hats off to Andy roddick for making this game the most memorable games down in history of tennis.
Roger Federer (2) def Andy Roddick (6) 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14

I wish all the best to Andy roddick and hope to see u win the Title next year. Best of luck Andy and Congrats to Federer on his 6th Grand Slam.

Cheers
DaMonarch

Pics Courtesy Wimbledon.org for further interviews and much in depth analysis visit http://www.wimbledon.org

Interviews links :

Andy Roddick : http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/interviews/2009-07-05/200907051246792697500.html
Roger Federer: http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/interviews/2009-07-05/200907051246792657171.html

Sri Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple) Amritsar Punjab day 2

Sri Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple)

Day 2……

As I joined my cousin at 7.30am honestly I was too lazy to get up early but I wanted to shoot some pix at the sunrise, so had to be there at the same time we had an appointment with our White Surd Dude named Gurnam Singh. Well as promised he was there and we just joined him for breakfast to know more about him. As we started to know him we learnt he was a follower of Hari Bhajan, he was a yoga instructor more about him here. It was nearly 10 yrs and he had been Sikh and he says he never realized until the first 3 years, after three years and self realization he started to grow beard and stop cutting hair and he also gave up meat completely. He was so moved by then he was completely following the Sikh religion closely.

He also enlightened us how others were accepting Sikhism and how they felt being a Sikh, while he had been here for a month he was learning Gurumukhi and how to recite prayers in Punjabi, he was also living a life like a monk, he wakes up early lives in the community living provided by the gurudwara, takes a cold bath and he recites all the daily prayers sitting around on the sarovar area of the complex of Sri Harminder Sahib. Well over the breakfast we had known so much about him and other White Surd from both sexes who were there in Amritsar itself. We had seen couple of them last night and the mystery was solved by Gurnaam Singh, he told us that there was an institution which was providing education and shelter for the white surds, as proof we took a picture of our self with Gurnaam, and a few others.

As our rendezvous with Gurnaam was coming to an end so was our breakfast by now we all had shared a spiritual experience and it was about time to take small walk back towards the market and Jallianwala Baug. We had our moments at the Jallianwala baug but that I shall be adding on a different post. As we had been long enough at Jallianwala, we had to rush thru our shopping, we had a flight to catch at 2.00 PM, and it was already 11.45 am in our watches and we realized our transport shall be at our hotel at 12.00, we still were sticking to plans, it was one last time we wanted to go in and share a prayer and be blessed before we leave Amritsar.

As we rushed to give our shoes and collect our token, we ran back to the gates ran across the steps up and got down on the other end, we were a bit disappointed as the queue was long to get in we had to settle to bow our heads in front of the Temple @ the sarovar, we still didn’t give it up on the last few minutes of photography, it was now more random and more or less just point and shoot at everything in our sights. We had taken so much back from here which is hard to explain in words, as we rushed back to our hotel our transport was behind us.

We were now on our way back to airport and still we could not believe our stay at Amritsar was over, we still were so mesmerized and so looking forward to be back. We were now at the outskirts and the fields and green patches which was a rare scene back in Mumbai was keeping my eyes glued to the window, with thoughts running through my head. Finally we made it to the airport and the next thing I knew we were flying back to Delhi for our connecting flight to Mumbai.

We by now were feeling so exhausted and were looking forward to be at home and we were so anxious to look at the pictures we had taken on a huge screen and we knew it’s going to be a task as we had 2 camera’s at work and tones of pictures to look at.

Well that’s from our trip to Sri Harminder Sahib, Amritsar. If anyone wants more information on how to go, where to stay is welcome to drop a line I shall be more than glad to respond.

Oscars – Slumdog Millionare

Slumdog millionare was winning all the way tonight at the most prestigious awards “OSCARS” , a story of a day to day life of Mumbai captured and well directed by Danny Boyle. Screen play adaption from a novel book : “Q and A” : by Vikas Swarup.

I had a late night sleep around 2 it was all the time on my mind in a few short hours we shall know if rahman brings oscar to home. There i was with a lot other thing running in my mind while i am fixing my alarm for 6.20 am so i dont miss the oscars, I have been following it since 10 yrs missed a few of them due to work but i try to catch them as much as i can. I was up at the alarm walking my way to the hall and settling down in front of my Television as the red carpet begins.

Honestly I wasn’t surprised and I was expecting the movie to win Oscar, I knew we were there from 10 categories and I was damn confident the movie shall pick Oscar for at least the best score. What astonished me was the movie picked up 8 Oscars from 10. I knew the most closed competition was the Brad Pitt’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” from Paramount Pictures and “Frost/Nixon” from Universal Pictures, Slumdog Millionare just walked past major competition to bag 8 Oscars.

While the film’s message is upbeat, Boyle is not afraid to use his camera to depict the harsh reality of life in Mumbai, where great wealth often sits cheek-by-jowl with crushing poverty. That willingness to confront social realism was the subject of apparent criticism by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who wrote on his personal website recently that dire poverty exists in every culture, not just in India.

The comments were interpreted by the Indian media as a slight on Western directors and their perceptions of the country, although Bachchan has denied he was being critical of Boyle’s success.
Boyle said he and screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy wanted to include “as much of the city as possible that we saw and found. And there are some tough things and there are some extraordinary things.”
Boyle said while the global popularity of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire franchise had helped sell the film, it was the movie’s “universality” that had hooked audiences.”The quiz show obviously helps us in many ways it is so well known in so many different countries,” Boyle said. “But I think it’s the universality of the story – it’s the underdog, against all the odds, succeeding.”

Indian composer A.R. Rahman’s won two Oscars for best song and best score in his highest accolade yet in a career that has taken him from provincial Indian cinema to the Hollywood red carpet. And the movie also scooped Oscars for best adapted screenplay, best cinematography, best sound mixing and best film editing.
Accepting the award for best picture, producer Christian Colson said late Sunday the film had been a collaboration by hundreds of people.”Together we’ve been on an extraordinary journey. When we started out, we had no stars, we had no power or muscle,” he said.

“We didn’t have enough money, really, to do what we wanted to do. But what we had was a script that inspired mad love in everyone who read it.”

JAI HO……

More about oscars here

Sri Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple)

Day 1 at Sri harminder Sahib

Recently I was in Amritsar, Punjab to visit the most divine Sikh shrine Sri Harminder Sahib, it’s said that once in a lifetime a Sikh comes here to be blessed and be bestowed upon by the divine power this place has to give. I have been here thrice and this place doesn’t fail to surprise me every time I am there, it’s not like I am religiously excited to be there but whenever I am there it totally different place altogether.

Recently we were there only for a day we landed on the Raja Sansi Airport which is huge honestly and it’s under construction but I can bet when done its going to be great looking airport. We were flying a kingfisher Red which is small plane may be 80 seater and the kingfisher services are great. The funny scene was that people trying to hit on the airhostess treating her like as if she was there to strip on their request or maybe she is going to do them favors once landed, I felt bad cause the poor girl is trying to do her job and a ole guy is hitting on her saying ” You looking sexy today” and then she just nod’s away keeping the frustration to herself, but the ole idiot doesn’t stops there he then say’s “Would u like me to write something good about u today” and even though we did make him realize we were laughing out loud at him, he didn’t stop.

Well all that ended as the flight landed the airhostess misery ended, well but we did get friendly with her and made her feel better we weren’t there to hit on her or something, we were there on a mission to visit the golden temple. As my cousin always wanted to be there he had flown in from Australia and wanted to tour India, somehow it wasn’t going well for him, things went wrong with his itinerary and to add to his misery his train tickets didn’t get confirmed. So he ditched the idea and he stayed back @ Mumbai for 9 weeks did see Maharashtra on a road trip to Ahemdnagar. Well coming back to Amritsar as we got off the plane we took a private cabbie to the hotel Sarovar decent place 2 mins from the Gurudwara.

Well we immediately dropped our bags and were out of the hotel to seek blessing and offer our prayer at the Gurudwara, as we reached my cousin was taken aback by the sight of the Gurudwara, he was completely stunned, it’s true the golden temple is completely amazing he got a lot back then he was expecting, he started taking pictures the moment the Gurudwara was in sight after we took the few stairs up which lead u around the sarovar. It was a magnificent sight to watch as the sun was about to set and we could not help the photographer within us. We went around the sarovar first cause we still wanted to get inside as there is quite a bit of rush there and there is always rush no matter which time of the day or which day of the calendar it is sri Harminder Sahib is open to public 24×7. We must have entered the place around 5pm and were there as long as 11 pm to take pics of the Gurudwara.

By night the Gurudwara completely lights up and the view is amazing, if you are lucky and stick around as long as we did u would be able to take a part in the palkhi procession which around 10 pm, we were there to witness it ourselves and were lucky to be close enough to touch the palkhi, while my cousin did go around with all the way where the Sri Guru Granth Sahib is moved to the Akal Takht Sahib just directly opposite which get closed to public once the Granth is kept there. The palkhi is then cleaned the gates of the golden temple are temporarily closed to public as the cleaning job gets under way, and reopens to public around 5.30 am again. This when u can again see the Sri Guru Granth Sahib being moved back inside the Golden temple on the palkhi along with people and proper rituals. When I mean close to public I mean the access to the temple only while you can enter the Complex or be around by the sarovar all time.

Well my cousin was so fascinated with all this he made sure he wud reach there on 5.30 but the winter was doing its job it was 5 degrees outside and when the winter is at its best, you get great sleep I guess so he missed it by an hour but was there again was clicking pics and he being adventures he went ahead kept click from the top of the gurudwara where we didn’t go on day 1. Now after being just 12 hrs there we knew we were flying out around 2 so wanted to make the most of it. We did meet some interesting people by the way which I forgot to mention on day 1 while we were having our Punjabi dinner at this hotel 2 min from the Gurudwara, he was an American national who converted or shall I say adopted Sikhism and was there for a month by now. My cousin chased him out to setup an interview or 1 on 1 session for day 2. We were both amazed and were very inquisitive to know what chain of events had happened which lead him to take Sikhism.
Day 2 to be contd….

Bandra Reclamation….

The first thing which comes to mind when u think of Bandra is the colorful sight of Bandra linking road and the Bandra link road, it’s like a shopper’s paradise where u can find everything I guess especially for the ladies I have had many experiences there and I am sure u cant disagree with the terms shop till u drop dead.

Bandra offers so much that its cant be pen down on a blog I am have been fascinated with Bandra so much that I would love to buy a flat on the hill side or down the carter road somewhere ahead of where king khan live or close to where Salman live, it’s not how it sounds its more that I would pay to see the sunsets the view day in day out which I will never be bored of. The warmth of the sky and open arms of the sea with the picture perfect sunset imagine you with someone special or alone by yourself.

But the fact remains that I live far away from Bandra and I would have to find myself bank to rob or a job which payout is excellent if you know what I mean. Well getting back to track when it comes to Bandra another thing which come to mind is Bandra reclamation a place for the old and new aged youth and place where passion take place. Amidst the stone barriers built to prevent erosion of the place you shall find couple getting cozy and kissing and making up. I should add the couples don’t care what the people think of it, or may be someone who know them is taking their pictures.

The most amazing fact are the Bhaiya’s who are come there to get free soft porn viewing for them self they don’t care about how beautiful the place looks when the sun sets or how amazing the place looks with all the great garden work, all they care is about the passion flowing around them they would look in the direction of passion and will be amused and do things which we can’t think in public.

Well I have captured some pix of the bhaiya’s in their best here, well I have been to Bandra reclamation tons of time and have been never gave damn much about what more is there to see, honestly since they have stopped the cars down we stick to upside and if come down we would just take a walk click some good snaps of the group and leave. But since my cousin was in town he’s the inquisitive explorer and has good eye for photography. In my so many visits we never entered the tunnel of graphics below the overhead bridge / road because we never felt it’s a place to hangout because it’s a place for couples who seek more intimacy.

We were amazed at the graffiti’s it was like discovering a whole new place inside the tunnel we must have spent an hour inside and trust me the walls were painted with much passion, we have captured some in our lens some we think pictures cant to justice so we insist people to go there to see for themselves how much art work is there below the overhead bridge.

sealink

Groups of people have spent long hours in making images that would impress you and u shall spend time watching them, the pictures are so intriguing and the way the graffiti has been done is quite impressive. How much ever I shall talk about it shall be less. If you are visiting Bandra take some time off and make sure you visit the tunnel under the overhead bridge and stay long enough to see the sunsets. I am sure it’s worth your while.

My trip to Town

It’s not long now since my cousin was in Mumbai and we were going places in Mumbai, We have been to nearly all places in Mumbai from queens necklace to chowpatty, worli seaface to bandra reclamation carter road, hill road, juhu Chowpatty to Silver beach to Versova and the list continues.
My cousin had come to town after 10yrs and I had shifted from town to suburbs by then it has been 6 years now I am living here and I haven’t visited town like to see thing how they have changed. I used to have very glorious pictures or may I say a psychedelic image of the town. It was amazing when I used to live there and I know that for sure because I lived there for more than 18 yrs, so part of my raising is done there and as a teen I have been to all places with friends and family. My college life was amazing as well I remember hanging out with friends and more at places for the young, did work for the best club in Mumbai so seen the niche crowd to whom I refer as “Crèamè” of the society.
Few weeks back I as in town and I was surprised to see how town disappointed me, to start with made a early start from suburbs to siddhivinayak where v weren’t allow to take camera inside so cudnt go with my cousin each of us stood outside and took our darshan individually, So much for a security that they fail to understand that money is being generated by the people inside itself by the self proclaimed care takers….
Then we headed towards Haji Ali Dargah, to my disappointment it was in depleting state, as if a huge earth quake or some natural disaster had struck and it was broken in place I knew, once this place was beautiful and in full glory white marble used to shine and the place had more appeal than, now it had been devastated…
We went to mahalakshmi and babulnath as well but we were expecting too much I guess corruption has reached all temples and even the gods are not spared.
Well moving forward we went to Churchgate Where I was shocked to see the flora fountain to be in dry state and was completely going black in color once I remember that the water flowing over the white marble statue and the angel smiling upon the passerby now looked pale.
Moving down we walked toward Prince of Art of Wales Now know as CSR Chatrapati Shivaji Raje museum and I still don’t get the point that why rename places which have historical facts and essence to it, heading towards Gateway it was under construction and the site was Cops and RPF’s Patrolling and workers trying to build a stage for the concert for 26th Jan, where musician shall play. Leaving just a handful space for the people walk and take snaps of gate way. Other attraction was the Taj where the Terror strike happened and people still clicking and trying to come over what had happened there a few months back.
In short to summarize there was a lot changed, but don’t we know change is constant, maybe I meant to say was change for good would not mind anyone but the way things have changed in few years in town I will leave it to you to think and ponder, I would not be the one to influence yr decision.

The Fire Within

I was impressed by the blog world and finally I was reading blog’s but it wasn’t until my bro from Australia comes to our house for 3 months, it had been few hrs of his arrival, we took him for a drive at Lokhandwala while we check the Lokhandwala shopping centre and return to the relatives for dinner. I clearly remember we were on our way back to home and all of a sudden we see lots of beefed up security on the streets, road blockades and police vans stationed everywhere. Even then a thought of terror didn’t strike us. It was around 11Pm when we returned home and a telephone rings, it was my Aunt who stayed in town called to check on us and broke the news to us.

At first it was hard to believe since the suburbs was like any ordinary evening and on the street traffic was usual but it was much clear why there was so much of cops around the place. My cousin was new to all this he had been here 10 yrs ago and he was still absorbing the Mumbai reforms since he had visited last and was a bit tensed but at the same time was feeling secured as well since he didn’t felt that threatened with so much of security around the place. As we glued ourselves to the television we started to realise how grim and tensed was the situation, the media kept showing us the live coverage of the various places where the terrorist where attacking and how did the brave policemen fought their way back on the street. All this reminded me of a movie I had seen with a different story line though “ North Hollywood Shootout” how the cops from LAPD and Swat team took down 2 bank robbers which brought hell to earth for 44 Minutes. They were fighting with AK’s and metal piercing bullet and the whole drama ended in 44 mins after the swat arrived at the scene. But the case with Bombay 26/11 was different the horror continued for more than 72 hrs, Mumbai lost their finest in the battle against terror, the cops where fighting with outdated weapons and vest which was good enough if the mob was pelting stones on them.

The police was not even armed with machine guns until the first 24 hrs of this horrific event which took place at the Taj Hotels, Oberoi Trident and few hrs later at Nariman house where the terrorist were finally brought to justice. There were many other incidents taking place but none were of this huge scale. First question which came to me from my cuz was don’t u have federal police or swat teams which take care of such situations and I had no answers for these, all of a sudden I realize that we don’t have swat teams here we don’t have federal police here. The concept of ATS Squad is only thing which exist and these people arrived at the scene by midnight but they were few in numbers cause Mumbai was never prepared for such situations. Should we say it was Mumbai which was not ready or should we say the politicians never thought about such a situation or didn’t want to invest in home security. The politicians here believe it’s more important to fill in their Swiss accounts instead of taking care of their portfolio. They failed miserably to protect us from terror attacks haven’t the politicians learnt their lessons from train blast & bus blast @ ghatkopar, they still continued to do what they thought is right. They concentrated on shutting dance bar instead of creating a swat team learning from their previous mistakes

Most of the politicians we have are uneducated, most of them have criminal profiling and some are given portfolio that they can’t manage. Politicians are much worried about their vote banks and they shall go to any extent to lie and be in the current ruling party so that they can make more money for the 5 years term. Our media plays or may I say harps where the bucks are they don’t bother whether its wrong or right it’s just money in the trade which matters. Everything including a child falling in a pit to what going to happen next in the daily soap is like breaking news. I was amazed when the media didn’t spare the operation details with the mass without thinking that the terrorist might have access to the television networks and they can plan accordingly. They kept show and kept repeating their mistakes though out the terror strike I strongly believe that one the reason the terrorists survived that long was because they had complete access of the latest intelligence via our undying coverage of the event by the media which failed to understand that they were now an accomplice to them in terror.

Mistakes have been done in past and they are still doing them in current day by both the politicians and the media who stand answerable to the mistake done by them. Where are the politicians who vowed to protect us from such an event if happened ever, we have been taken for granted via the politicians and the media they strongly believe that the people have short memories and soon shall get over what had happened on 26/11 in Mumbai. The media thinks that they are out there to compete with other channels to reveal the news first on their channels so the TRP on their channels go up. Such an event happens they forget to show world news and shall cover the event 24*7 and keep updating the terrorist so they can plan their strategies against the people who want to take them down. Is there any laws in the state for media coverage, do they know anything else than TRP’s, do they understand that when they risk their live for feeds and talk bravely about it how much loss have they incurred to team fighting to get this battle over with. Its about time that media should be educated about their roles. They should be penalized for their actions and be given a stern warning.

Post terror it has been 18 days and the people are still scared people are not willing to go out for a 31^st December 2008 nite. They say they would prefer it back at home and watch television or play games indoor than party and be killed by some insane terrorist who has one thing mind which is killing innocent people. Most of them don’t even want to go to seashore or beaches as they thing its unsafe for them or the family. Where are the coast guard where is beach patrol, these concepts don’t even exits with us, a coast guard should not be a military thing its more or less for the coastal cities which are so close to the coat line, they should be well equipped with powerboats, quad bikes and adequate weapons if the use of it arises in the future. A firing range for all the cops should be there so they can frequently visit and it should be monitored by a federal agency how a cop is doing on the firing range.

I am sure all these things the politicians wont even have it on mind instead they invited a movie director Ram Gopal Verma to the shootout at the Taj for a tour first hand by our minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. R.R.Patil didn’t want to step down and take responsibility instead he was forced and terminated from his office, he was more concerned with Dance bar girls and got them jobless so that they sell flesh to survive. It’s about time the youth of India does take care of the current depleting situation. We need to bring a revolution and show how to make changes. America has realized change is required the first black president Barack Obama who has won the elections and shall take office in Jan09, we should learn from them, India needs a change a new leadership is required, more and more youth has to come forward to bring a wind of change. The new generations with capabilities to think and with intention to serve the nation and motivated other too.

Last but not the least post the terror strike the new generation has shown their anger against the system which is corrupt and completely useless. They were there in the rally showing the slogans and burning a candle for the brave men who lost their lives fighting and trying to save other people lives. My heart goes out to every Indian out there who was fighting and saving lives whether a police man, NSG , fire fighters or Civilian, no matter who they were but their willingness to fight combat and save innocent lives.

I make a humble request to all who read this please join the cause don’t just read this and let the fire within die, keep the spirits alive don’t let down the soul’s of the brave who fought for us so that we can sleep in peace. I shall keep writing more and want people to know the battle isn’t over its not over until some crucial steps are taken and the youths do something to bring change. We have shredded enough tears and let other take decision of our lives it’s about time we act upon bring the change.

Finally I shall close it with some pictures of the rally and some thought for the youth.