The Australian Open - the cauldron of hope

Happy New Year folks!

The new year brings with it rejuvenated minds, revitalized bodies, excitement, new-year resolutions and most importantly, hope.

I mention hope because as each one of us sets up the new calendar, we anticipate good things, great things ahead of us.

It isn't too different for the tennis players across the globe as they approach the first Grand Slam of the year - the Australian Open.

The foremost amongst the hopefuls is the young Alexander Zverev. The 21-year German is ranked no. 4 in the world. However, he has failed to reach the last 4 of a Grand Slam yet. Long been hailed as a future champion, each passing major keeps building the pressure on him.

However, he ended last year with a stunning ATP Tour Finals win. He has this to say about it -

I came to London saying, ‘Look, it's the last tournament of the year, we're all tired, you want to go on holidays. I want to enjoy it as much as I can. I'm playing the best players in the world, I'm going to see how it goes. At the end of the week, I won the tournament. I learned out of that – I kind of figured out I have to have the same mentality when I play at Slams.

We "hope" he has a great Open - he has begun well with a comfortable win in the first round.

Then, there are the usual suspects - Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Both came into the 2017 edition plagued by injuries in the latter part of 2016. However they belied all expectations by making it to the final and giving the fans a dream match-up. The final itself was a cliffhanger which Federer won in five sets.

His words post the win summed it up well -

“I’d like to congratulate Rafa on an amazing comeback. I don’t think either of us thought we’d be in the finals when we were at your academy four or five years ago. I’d just like to thank my team. It’s been a different last six months. I didn’t think I was going to make it here.”

[caption width="739"]AO 2017 champion Roger Federer (R) poses with the trophy alongside runner-up Rafael Nadal (L) and the man after whom the centre court is named, the great Rod Laver (C)[/caption]He won the event again in 2018, thus reaching a record 20 Grand Slam titles.

He will be one of the favorites to win again, to reach an unprecedented 7 AO titles. Meanwhile, Djokovic, who is top seed, is also chasing his 7th title.[caption width="640"]Roger Federer with AO 2018 title after his win over Marin Cilic[/caption]Nadal, who is seeded 2, comes into this event without match practicd. He hasn't played an ATP Tour match since being forced to withdraw from his US Open semi-final because of a knee injury last September. Australian Open hasn't been too lucky for him, with his one win in 2009 and 2 final losses. He will "hope" to change that too.

Much of the pre-tournament focus was on Andy Murray's retirement. In an emotional press conference, he announced that his hip injury and the corresponding pain is making it extremely tough for him to continue playing and practising the way he would like.

He "hopes" to play till his home event Wimbledon, but isn't sure how his pain would hold up. Sir Andy has been a crucial part of the Big 4 of tennis for long, and a great ambassador of the game. All tennis fans hope to see him one last time this Wimbledon.

P.S. As I write this, most parts of India are celebrating the new year in the form of Makar Sankranti (known by various names across - Maghi in North India, Pedda Pandaga in Andhra, Sukarat in central India, Bighu in Assam and Pongal in Tamil Nadu).

Happy Makar Sankranti everyone! Have a great year ahead.

Book Review – Deep Work by Cal Newport

Are you one of those who constantly feels that they are distracted more than ever before?

Do you always look back at your younger selves with longing eyes and feel that although you had fewer gadgets, but had deeper and richer experiences.

If the answer to the above is yes, as it is for most of us today, you definitely must pick up a volume of this book and devour the same ASAP.

The author Dr. Calvin Newport (a.k.a Cal) is an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University and the author of five self-improvement books. He also writes the Study Hacks blog – focused on academic and career success.

So what is deep work? The author defines it as Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

The author keeps the book and its flow simple and engaging. The book is divided into two parts – the first part deals with the idea of deep work and its usefulness, while the second part lists out 4 rules to achieve deep work.

The author draws richly from the experience of achievers across fields, viz. –

Bill Gates’ Think Weeks (taken 2 times a year, where he retreats from regular work commitments to dedicate himself to reading and thinking big thoughts)
Mark Twain writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in shed on a quarry farm, where his study was so isolated from the house that his family blew horns to get his attention
The author Malcolm Gladwell and his insistence on not using Twitter and other social media actively to promote his writings like scores of other authors.
Cal brings out the importance of deep work by an analysis of the working styles of the above and many others.

The best part about the book is that he doesn’t stick to just analyzing the methods of these achievers and the extreme isolation and methods of some of them. Instead, in the second part of the book, he highlights methods in which people working in modern day jobs can bring in periods of deep work within their normal 9 to 5 jobs. And this applies not just to do deep work for pathbreaking work, but for more depth and efficiency in their office work.

The author dedicates a full chapter to the analysis of value of social media, as well as its de-merits. He quashes the oft-quoted benefit of social media ‘it helps me connect, what’s the harm in being on it’. I would suggest reading the book just for this chapter.

P. S. This was a promise to self, more like a self-defined goal – to target reading a book a week and write a review blog about the same.

I have met reasonable success in the former target (reading), although the latter target (writing) has left a lot to be desired. This being the second blog in a day is an attempt to give a push to the latter.

Book Review - The People Next Door by TCA Raghavan

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." - Francis Bacon

If we go by Bacon's quotes, this one would surely fall in the last category. In fact, this one is meant to be digested and savored multiple times.



Pakistan, its politics, its people and their outlook and ties with India are topics that interest every Indian to some degree or the other.

It is quite safe to assume that people who otherwise don't take any interest in politics surely hold an opinion or two about our western neighbor.

It is with assumption that I call this book a must-read (a multiple time read as I wrote above).

The book smoothly takes the reader through the timeline of creation of Pakistan and its journey since then.

The internal affairs, the government and the leaders, the cultural affairs and the life of the common man is brought out vividly and their evolution traced to the modern day.

What the author does brilliantly is project that journey against that of India. There are phases when India has a strong democratic setup and Pakistan a dictatorial one, and vice versa at others. One country has a strong political will at a time when the other faces a leadership crisis, and these roles keep flipping through time.

The author does the tough task of touching upon almost all the major political and cultural developments in both the countries across the years, occasionally brining to use his magnifying lens to dig deeper.

This one is a must read if you have even a passing interest in the enigma that is Pakistan.

Book Review : The Sanjay (Gandhi) Story

I started my blog page with the intent of writing about the following three - sports, travel and books.

Staying true to the stated aim, this one is the first post on books.

For some years now, I have been having a tryst of sorts with books, trying to put myself ambitious targets for the number of books I wish to complete.

A few years back, a reading of Shashi Tharoor's "Bookless in Baghdad" highly inspired me. In one of the essays in that book, Tharoor mentions how he has been reading 365 books an year since the age of 8. Now I thought, that was impressive.

I tried keeping steep reading targets like 50 books an year. I didn't get much close to that number in any of these years, but keeping those targets did help me gradually read more and more.

This particular year, I have again been on spree of adding books but falling woefully short of reading them. I had, in fact vowed not to buy more books till I finish the backlog.

Then, it so happened that my wife Shivani and I were one of our much-cherished Saturday evening visits to Khan Market. Having put our names on the waiting list at one of the eateries and with time to kill, we walked into the quaint little bookstore "Fakirchand and Sons".

Browsing through, a black and white cover from the corner caught my eye amongst the myriad of colorful books. The simple cover featured Sanjay Gandhi's face. Now, despite being keenly interested in history, especially modern Indian history, Emergency and Sanjay are topics I had only passing knowledge about.

Naturally the book intrigued me instantly. Couple that with the fact that the author was seasoned journalist (Late) Vinod Mehta who we have often seen on television debates, and my mind was made.

The Sanjay Story - by Vinod Mehta

The book was originally written in 1978, just an year after the lifting of Emergency post Congress' defeat in the General Elections of 1977.

All forms of media had been severely curbed during the Emergency and hence, there was a spate of books immediately after its lifting. However they all focused on the Emergency. The author's claim is that he is the only biographer for Sanjay Gandhi.

However, this isn't an official or authorized one. The author tried reaching out to Sanjay, however, all access was denied for the fear that the book would contain criticism of the Gandhi scion.

The condition put forward by the Gandhi team was that the author could get free access to him if he agreed to portray Gandhi in a positive light. Mehta refused.

The book flows seamlessly and is a quick read. It is to the credit of the author that even after 40 years of its writing, the book doesn't seem archaic or complex.

It begins right at the start, from young Motilal Nehru and Anand Bhawan in Allahabad. Tracing the Nehru family's progression through Jawharlal, the introduction of a young timid Kamla to the Anglicized Nehru household, young Indira and her childhood, Feroze's queer entry into the house (the book raises some controversial points there, which I would leave for you to discover), the family's centre stage role in Indian politics, the issues in Indira's marriage, to young Rajiv and Sanjay.

Withing a span of one chapter, the author successfully puts the history of India's most important political family forward and also sets the stage to analyze Sanjay's childhood and formative years.

It delves into the (mis)adventures of Sanjay.
Sanjay's misadventures with Maruti are well-brought out. His obsession for cars and joy on working on cars in his personal garage with bare hands pushed him to setup the Maruti factory. However, what ensued was not just a monumental disaster, but also a classic case of cronyism. Despite having the access to all sorts of Govt licenses in the times of strict license Raj, the company failed to as much as take off - producing just 20 or so cars over the 5 years it was in action.

And coupled with that, proof of diversion of funds through a complex ownership structure meant the Parliament was rocked by the opposition from time to time.

The two other themes that the book brings out vividly are the Emergency (of course) and his tryst with youth Congress.

Emergency and his excesses therein are well captured. For me, it was an eye opener to know the details of one of the most watershed moments in Indian history.

In a nutshell, what emerges is that Sanjay had a good understanding of the acute problems that India faced - overpopulation, lack of sanitation, housing problems in the metropolitan cities etc. However, the approach to solving these was simply kiddish, to sum it up.

The depiction of events during the clean-up of Delhi slums and forced sterilization are laced with anecdotes that bring out the failures of Sanjay's approach very well.

My suggestion - a must read for anyone interested in the Emergency period. The author's brilliant writing ensures that despite the detailing, the book remains an easy and smooth read (I finished almost half of it on the very night I bought it). However, the book is too specific at a lot of times, and doesn't touch upon the overall political scenario in India, and for that particular reason, it might appear a drag to someone with only passing interest on the topic.

The Championships begin.

(originally posted on rishabhkalia.com on July 4, 2018)

June-July is a busy time for sports fans with numerous important sporting events during this period. This year is no exception.

The biggest showpiece of the most popular sport on earth is underway (the quadrennial FIFA World Cup), Formula 1 has races lined up on 3 consecutive weekends (a first for the premier racing event), apart from international events in hockey, cricket and badminton.

This is also the time of baking summers (especially in north India), approaching monsoons, summer holidays for school children, first quarter target pressures for professionals, and long family vacations on some years.

Apart from these, there is another constant , year after year.

The Championships. Wimbledon.

The oldest and most prestigious event on the tennis calendar opened its courts for its 131st edition on Monday.

8-time champion and last year's winner Roger Federer starts as the top seed, and the overwhelming favorite. Despite being off tennis for 3 months, and skipping the entire clay court season, his dominance in the past on grass leaves no one in doubts as to who you should put your money on.

Let's run through the draw to explore who the other bidders are.

(Note - As I write this, the first round of matches are almost over).

Quarter 1

In the first quarter of the draw, Federer looms large. He breezed through his first match without as much as breaking a sweat and dispelled any doubts of him being rusty after the break.

His path to the quarters looks pretty easy. Lukas Lacko in 2nd round, Leonardo Mayer in the 3rd, and Borna Coric/Adrian Mannarino in the 4th. None of them should be tough for the Swiss maestro to shrug off.

 

Roger Federer returns on way to his first round win against Dusan Lajovic.

The bottom part of this quarter seems quite competitive. Gael Monfils has already got the better of 23rd seeded Richard Gasquet, and faces Sam Querrey (11th seed) in a potential 3rd round clash. Querrey should prevail here.

The South African Kevin Andreson (seeded 8th) looks good to beat Kohlschreiber/Muller to advance to the 4th round against Querrey, and setup a repeat of last year's 4th round match where Querrey prevailed in 5 sets. That should be a cracker of a game.
Quarter 1 - Federer v/s Anderson/Querrey

Quarter 2

3rd seed Marin Cilic had an amazing Wimbledon last year. He had a good run upto the final where he came up short against Roger, losing in straight sets. He must be licking his wounds and raring to have another go at the title, to add to his solitary Grand Slam title (2014 US Open). He faces a potential third round clash with the Canadian Milos Raonic. This would be a nail-biter, but I would tip Cilic to advance basis his grass form.

In the bottom half of the quarter, Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) has already caused a mini-upset of sorts by knocking out 6th seed Grigor Dimitrov. Although Stan has 3 Grand Slam titles to his name, I am calling it a mini-upset as he is currently on a tough comeback after two operations on his left knee.

The Guardian aptly captured it "...victory that must have been almost as satisfying as his three grand slam title wins." 

Stan Wawrinka celebrates his victory over Grigor Dimitrov in the Men’s Singles first round at Wimbledon.

Wawrinka is no stranger to comebacks, and reaching back up to the very top. My article on him, written in 2014, captures this.

He should get past Tsitsipas, but John Isner in the 4th round should be an even match. Had Stan not been on a comeback, I would have called him favorite, but 50-50 as of now.
Quarter 2 - Marin Cilic v/s Wawrinka/Isner

Quarter 3

This quartet of the draw had ample heavyweights. However, as I write this, two are already out.

The Roland Garros finalist and 7th seed Dominic Thiem has pulled out during his first round match with an injury, while Fernando Verdasco has crashed out to Franciso Tiafoe of the US. These developments mean smooth sailing for the Serb Novak Djokovic uptil the quarters.

The bottom half of this quarter is where the action lies. Kei Nishikori of Japan and Bernard Tomic of Australia go head-to-head as early as the second round. The winner faces the mercurial Aussie Nick Kyrgios in the third round, the winner of which faces Alexander Zverev.

On current form, Zverev should get through to face Novak in the quarters, but this quarter of the draw is what you should be watching in the first few rounds.
Quarter 3 - Novak Djokovic v/s Alexander Zverev

Quarter 4

This ain't clay, but you can never count out the enigmatic Rafael Nadal, a two-time champion here. He is fresh off a highly successful clay season, winning an unprecedented 11th Roland Garros title, apart from his 11th Monte Carlo Masters, 11th Barcelona Masters and 8th Rome Masters.

The first significant hurdle he would face should be Fabio Fognini (Italy) in the 4th round. He has got the better of Nadal before at the big stage - a shock defeat in the 3rd round of US Open 2015. (Read my post on that game here)

However, Nadal looks in solid touch currently, as evidenced by his opening match against Dudi Sela, and should prevail.

The battle to face Nadal in the quarters seems easy. Juan Martin del Potro (5th seed) should sail through against Jack Sock/David Goffin in the 4th round to reach the quarters.

Juan Martin del Potro

Quarter 4 - Rafael Nadal v/s Juan Martin del Potro

Now I would stick my neck out and call the winners here.

Quarter 1 - Federer v/s Anderson/Querrey - Federer to sail through. Roger Federer

Quarter 2 - Marin Cilic v/s Wawrinka/Isner - This is tough to call. The mind says Cilic, while the gut feeling says that this is another of those years where Wawrinka comes into his own. Stan Wawrinka

Quarter 3 - Novak Djokovic v/s Alexander Zverev - Zverev has shown some brilliant performances over the last 12 months, and he has shown his prowess on the big stage as well. Djokovic wouldn't back down easily, but I would tip Zverev to take this in 5 sets. Alexander Zverev

Quarter 4 - Rafael Nadal v/s Juan Martin del Potro - Going by the amount of fatigue Nadal has been through in the clay season, and del Potro's booming forehands and past grass court performances, I would call del Potro to take this, in 4 sets. (Must add, that as a die-hard Rafa fan, I would love to be proved wrong). Juan Martin del Potro

So there goes my prediction for the semi-finalists. May the best man win!

Undecima(ted) Nadal

(originally posted on rishabhkalia.com on June 11, 2018) 

Rafael Nadal continued his dominant run at the Roland Garros, getting the better of Dominic Thiem in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

In front of a packed Court Philippe-Chatrier, Dominic Thiem gave it all, trying to match Nadal blow for blow. However it wasn't enough.

If the Austrian needed any evidence of Nadal's prowess as the greatest clay-courter of all time, he got it today in full measure. Rafael Nadal reacts after winning his 11th Roland Garros title.

Full marks to Thiem for intent and aggression, not so much for accuracy. The numbers bring out the story.

His first serve percentage, which had been in the 60s throughout the tournament, was a dismal 45% in the first set. He improved in the next 2 sets, but still ended at 56% for the match.

His serving problems were compounded by a staggering 42 unforced errors, as against 24 for Nadal.

These are still early days for Thiem, and with his talent and promise, he should go on to win quite a few events at the big stage. But today was just not his day.

Playing in his first Grand Slam final, he was overawed by the man who is arguably the most dominant tennis player ever, on a single surface. Probably the most dominant player across sports for a specific surface/format.  Embrace and words of encouragement.

Nadal excelled today in net play, his sojourns to the net giving him more returns than he usually gets. Uncharacteristic to the man who is more comfortable dictating terms from the baseline, Nadal approached the net 18 times in this match, winning 88% of those points.

The heavy forehand returns and the cross-court winners were all in full display. Also on display was the heavy top spin on his returns. They had been remarkably missing during the early part of his quarter-final against Schartzmann, when the cloudy weather had made things tough for Rafa.

THE INVINCIBLE?

The Mallorcan has often left fans and experts in awe with his superhuman performances on clay, ever since his trailblazing debut here as a teenager in 2005, when he went on to win the event.

The ease with which he has triumphed in Paris over the years (a win-loss record of 85-2 since 2005), is enough to delude anyone into thinking that playing here is cakewalk for the Spaniard. Nadal touched upon this aspect after reaching his 11th final at this event, beating Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets.

"Today is a day to rejoice. When you’re in a final like Roland Garros, it’s a great happiness. It may sound easy and logical, but I don’t want it to be. It’s not a routine. I don’t want anyone to think that it’s a routine. It’s a day that I should rejoice about."

The expression says it all!

He is still the wide-eyed child that is as excited about winning here for an 11th time, as he would have been making his debut. The joy, the tears, the sheer euphoria showed this is not routine business. This is special. Every single time.

“It’s amazing now, I can’t describe my feelings.It’s not even a dream to win here 11 times, because its impossible to think of something like this.”

During his speech, he "hoped to see you (the crowd) next year". Maybe we are in for more?

Formula 1 2018 pre-season

F1 is back! Melbourne gets the season underway this Sunday.

Two four-time champions go head to head for a chance to become only the third player in history to claim 5 championships.

Sebastian Vettel in the red Ferrari resumes hostilities with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, after an acrimonious last season.

But before action gets underway, here's a roundup of the changes brought into place this season.

Halo - the cockpit protection device introduced this season is designed to further improve driver safety in the event of an accident, and in particular to deflect debris away from the head.

The core design has strict rules, however teams have the scope to modify the surface, so it will be interesting to see what aerodynamics teams can work out around this. Watch this space for more.

Trick suspension disallowed - This system had been introduced to allow cars better grip on the surface, but was being increasingly used by teams to modify the car height.

To know more, watch this https://youtu.be/yDVmIXV4WEw

T wings and shark fins banned - Another aspect where teams used their imagination widely in the last season. Williams employed a double T-wing, while the likes of Force India, Renault and McLaren took things further, experimenting with multiple planes.

Tyre changes - Pirelli has introduced 2 new tires for this season - pink hypersoft and orange superhard,making the total available compound tyres to seven, from last year's five.

Keep watching this space.