The Clearing

A quick round-up: With three of the four series going the distance, this second round is the finest I've ever been a `witness' to. The most unexpectedly competitive was, undoubtedly, the Pistons-Cavs series--now is as good a time as any to admit that I was wrong (ouch, that hurts!) to dismiss it as a potential waste of time. It was an immensely exciting experience to watch LeBron & co. make the mighty Pistons look falliable who, it must be said, did play sub-par. Although, ultimately, game 7 was a disappointment, the Cavs 'display ensures that they should be a more-or-less regular fixture in the playoffs in the years to come--they acquitted themselves well in their first trip to the playoff in many (being a bit lazy here) years.

The Heat-Nets series was unexpectedly disappointing--they were the number 2 and 3 seeds in the Eastern conference afterall. My prediction for the Eastern conference finals is Heat in seven--atleast that's what I'm hoping for. Two reasons for the suppport (I'm not saying I'm not being true to form here): firstly, gotta support the underdog, and secondly, the boredom factor--need a new Eastern conference champion--Detroit have won it atleast the last three years running.

The Western conference semi-finals were fiercely competetive--what every basketball fan hopes for. Happy to report that both teams I was supporting made it to the finals, really happy for the Mavericks who were finally able to overcome the Spurs. What a finish to game 7 where Nowitski made the big last-minute 3-point play, driving all the way to the hoop, wading through, seemingly, the entire Spurs team, and drawing a foul from the ever-dangerous Ginobli in the process, looks like he is finally ready to embrace his super-star staus. The Phoenix game 7 was a bit of a damp-squib, though the earlier games were indeed very well contested. I was a little conflicted in this series as to who the under-dog was i.e. whom to support. Was it the Clippers who made it to the play-offs after so many years of being the doormat of the other LA team, or was it the Suns who despite being plagued by injuries throughout the season still made it this far--with an MVP I admit, but one who is a David to the typical Goliath-ic MVPs. I'm still not sure whom to support for the next round--the Mavs since they've come away empty-handed in the playoffs the last few years or the Suns who are decidedly the underdogs this time round?

Labels: Sports

Nadal ties Guillermo Vilas' record of consecutive matches won, 53, on clay by beating Federer, yet again! Here's a prediction (of the doesn't-take-a-rocket-scientist variety): he breaks the record at the French Open.

Labels: Sports

Very proud about my mother having successfully obtained an M.A. in French. Her dissertation, based on the little I've gleaned from informal conversations with her about it over the phone, for I know no French, is a comparison between two feminist novels--`The Long Silence' by Shashi Deshpande which is written in English and `Le Voile de Draupadi' by Ananda Devi which is written in French. Very broadly speaking (defensive phrase to indicate that I can't/haven't read the dissertation), the thesis is about the struggle of women to balance their internal lives with their roles as mothers and wives.

I've read `The Long Silence', in fact it was the first novel I read upon setting foot on American soil in August 2000. We were made to turn up 3 weeks before school actually started for something called `pre-orientation' (go figure!), for `orientation' began only a week before the university was to open. The `pre-orientation' boiled down to teaching us how to speak English , specifically, the way it is spoken here. Needless to say some of us thought it a pointless exercise, some of us were irritated at the assumption that we actually desired to sound like Americans. One of the things we were supposed to do was give a presentation to prove that we could give presentations in English, mine was on the novel. Thanks to the presentation I still remember the plot/characters/tone of the novel fairly well, which is unusual for a novel I read so many years ago, especially one that wasn't extraordinary (it's well written but I'd find it hard to recommend it to...another guy?).

Labels: Miscellaneous

A closer look, I decided, was warranted at Gangubai Hangal's place in the world of Hindustani classical music after reading this article which I came across via this blog. If the `my memory is like a Swiss cheese' factor, as a friend of mine likes to say, is not at work here, the first and only time I have heard Gangubai Hangal sing live was as a part of the SPIC-MACAY convention in Bhopal in `98, and I came away rather unimpressed. In fact, what I heard in that performance left me cold, and wondering about the reason for her stalwart reputation--to put it very crudely she sounds firstly, like a man, and secondly, a man whose voice is too subdued, stunted, and unspectacular for singing.

Obviously, to do her justice she should be judged by her whole body of work and not just what she sounds like now, so I proceeded to get better acquainted with her older works (also, I should admit that I was troubled about being in conflict with the general opinion about her talent). So, inspired by the aforementioned article, I went to the musicindiaonline website (where else?), which I'm happy to report does have some younger Gangubai music. The pieces are fairly short but whatever little I heard was enough to convince me (and hence this post) that she was definitely an accomplished singer before her voice underwent a very strange, and obviously unfavorable, transformation. I especially liked the bhairav piece.

Labels: Reviews

I've been watching the NBA playoffs pretty religiously the past few weeks. This has meant that I've been staying up till atleast around 1 am every night--to say that this is creating havoc in my life might be overstating it a bit--and getting up much later (let's be a little vague about that, shall we?) than I should be. While the playoffs were still in their first round, it was atleast a possibility to watch the early Eastern conference games, avoid the late Western conference game, and still come away with the feeling that your urge to see good basketball had been satisfied. The second round in that respect has been disappointing. More on that later, let me just briefly explain why the first round matchups, in both conferences, deserved my (fickle) attention and (scarcely available) time.

The Nets-Indiana matchup became exciting the moment the Pacers won an away game to level the series. It became even more exciting when they went 2-1 up. Sadly, that was the last game they won--sad only because it didn't go to a 7the game, I wasn't supporting either team.

In the Miami-Chicago series it was the Heat that were the team favored to win. Chicago must have fancied its chances when it won both its home games so convincingly (It was a memorable sight to see MJ celebrating in the rafters), but then Shaq decided to play ball and Chicago was toast. In this case I was definitely rooting for Chicago, it was an adrenaline-rush watching Gordan, Norcione, and Heinrich playing together, and playing so well.

The other two series were not so exciting. The Detroit series simply because Detroit was playing, and the only interesting series featuring them would possibly be the conference finals, and the NBA finals (I'm pretty sure they can only be beaten by a Western superpower). The Washington-Cleveland series was mildly interesting because of the LeBron factor, but the teams themselves are not of very high quality and do not good TV make.

Of the Western conference games, obviously, the most watched and talked about series was the one between the Lakers and the Suns. Nobody gave a chance to the Lakers before the series since they are considered (atleast at the time) a team going through the rebuilding phase. Nobody was saying that when they went 3-1 up, Phil Jackson has indeed worked a miracle here--Kobe, or no Kobe. Now, nobody was giving the Suns a chance of winning three games in a row especially since one of them included the one to be played in Lakers' territory. I'm happy to report that not only did the Suns do the unthinkable, they're also a game up on the other LA team.

The Sacramento Spurs series was supposed to be a no-brainer win for the Spurs but it turned out have a few twists and turns before it went the way of the inevitable. Sacramento was able to level the series at 2-2, in so small part thanks to Ron Artest who was acquired sometime mid-season, before giving in. Another noteworthy player who lived up to his alleged potential was Bonzy Wells who had atleast one 40 point game. The Spurs, unfortunately, just have too many weapons. One player I can't stand on their team is Ginobli who plays the game as if it were some combination of wrestling and kabaddi. I'm firmly rooting against the Spurs, and I hope that the Mavericks can finally find a way of dealing with them.

The Mavericks series was like the Detroit series, very one-sided and boring, as was the Clippers series with the Denver Nuggets.

Coming back to my point, the second round series of the Eastern conference are so uninviting that I'm finding it hard to resist (even mock-resist) the late West-coast game. One of the series is with Detroit--`nuff said--while the other, so far, looks, unexpectedly, like a blowout of the Heat at the hands of the Nets. Now, I'm off (to the TV, if there is any confusion there) to the Spurs-Mavericks game, I hope the Mavericks will appreciate me staying up so late to support them, and have a (the) way of showing it!

Labels: Sports

Here's my attempt at making an abstract Ganesha (click on the image to see a larger version). To tell you the truth, I was just doodling, and what I finally wound up with looks, to me, like an image of Ganesha. Disclamer: That I see Ganesha in a random collection of curves and colors reflects on my upbringing, and not necessarily on my religious convictions.

Labels: Artwork