Roger,

Do you remember me? I am the one who leaves notes for you on your website, i mean one among the bazillion people who do that. Doesn't ring a bell? Let me take you down the memory lane..

You and I go way back.. To be specific it was the 2004 Wimbledon finals. You beat Andy and you swept me off my feet. I fell in love with your game and tennis all over again. The last time i had watched a game was during Steffi's era. The consecutive year, it was deja-vu.. Same tournament, same opponent and the same results! You kicked Andy's butt again! You were happy, I was happy, it was happiness all around.

It was 2006 French Open and there was this "punk" in green sleeveless T, long white shorts. Come on! Its not even an appropriate tennis attire for God's sake! But he won. I concluded he is a one hit wonder. I even concluded he would be prone to injuries and wont play much given the way he ran around in the court. I was wrong, Rafa turned out to be your nemesis. That's what i believed. He took many more French opens from you. I wanted to hate him, there were disappointments because of him. But how can I hate him? He is sweet, unassuming, humble and apologizes to you when he wins over you. I really could not garner even a little bit of dislike for him. Then there was 2007 Wimbledon where you gave me a fright! My heart skipped a beat thinking that Wimbledon slipped from your hands, but you won! That was such a sweet victory. But the next year Wimbledon really did slip from your hands..

Then there was this infamous Australian Open... I was devastated just like you. I shed tears for hours just the way you did. But like you, i believed in the same things and i knew you would come back and win many more titles. You and I thought alike in those days. I knew there would be a time when Rafa wouldn't make it to finals and that would be your year, and that was what happened in 2009 French Open.

And then things started changing. I could sense it. You and I didn't speak the same language. Our wavelengths did not match anymore, our antennae were tuned at different frequencies, our hearts didnt sing the same tune! I still cried after every loss of yours but you did not. I shed tears of joy after every win of yours, but you did not. You lost to Thomas Berdych and i thought "Thomas who???". But you said he played well. You lost to Jo the other day and your words were "someone has to lose". But i was crushed. I obsessively analyzed your game. How could you have a 2 set lead and lose? Even while i drove on the busy freeway, i went over your game in my head again and again and again.. I was angry at you. How could you spoil my day? How could you make the whole tournament lousy for me? How can you not be upset when clearly i am devastated? Has our relationship run its course? Are you transmitting a signal that i cannot decipher? Should i find someone else?

Hell no! Roger, you will always be in my heart no matter how you feel.. errr.. no matter how you play.. I consider you the greatest player ever (dead or alive) on this earth. No one can surpass your style, class, demeanor, technique, strategy and attitude... I hope we get over this hurdle and continue our glorious journey..

Love,

C

Addiction..

I have an addiction problem and its called Facebook. Facebook has taken the social network space by rage. And i love it. I graduated from Orkut to MySpace (not proud of it) to Facebook. It has cool features, security is the one i like the most, i don't want every TD&H to know what i am doing! And of course you can find any person in this world on facebook, long lost friends, long lost boyfriends (er.. thats a little awkward), cousins, uncles and aunts too! I facebook a lot, update status "Now i am going to bed", "Now i am about to sleep", "Now i am 99% asleep".. Upload pictures of course, the world ought to see my gorgeous pictures! And then check to see what the heck are people doing (other than spending half the time on social network sites). And all this brought to me by iPhone Facebook app, it has all the features you need and its so handy!

When i check facebook, i constantly get this feeling that the whole world is upto something and i am the one who is not taking part in it. I don't need to know what new pair of shoes someone got because it makes me check my closet wondering "Do i need those...?". Then i thought, if i don't spend time on facebook how can I make use of the time. Maybe i am an extreme FBer and not everyone can empathize with me. And i stayed away from Facebook for 10 days and the difference it made was amazing. I did not log into facebook, no status updates, and had no idea what everyone was upto. Its very refreshing knowing that you are not so tightly connected to everyone else.

Human brain is highly evolved and it can store terra bytes of data. But i am not one of those who can discard information based on its importance in my life and hence i cant afford to lose precious bytes of my brain. I have decided to run a defragmenter on my brain and make space for useful information like Barrack Obama's health care plan (nahhhh...), lyrics of a song (yes), an article on Gizmodo (I am a software programmer by birth, its in my blood so i need to pretend to be interested in the latest and greatest technologies) or watch a marathon of How i met your mother and go gaga over Stinson. He is funny! And here is a small little random fact to digest. In a survey conducted among women, more than 50% said they are most attracted to guys who are funny, around 15% said they are attracted to smart guys (geeks and nerds, hold on tight to your girlfriends) and only 15% said they are attracted to good looks (so untrue if you ask me)

Like any other addiction, there were withdrawal symptoms. I was so eager to update "I got upgraded to First Class", or "My sister sent me a coach gift card, time to splurge!" but i curbed those instincts and instead texted my husband. Texting is a whole another story... But as with an addiction i could not stay away longer, specially when you get a very chatty person on the flight and you just go for that gadget that can get you out of a conversation and facebook came to my rescue. I cannot completely untie myself from Facebook but i can be a less active person on it. And its ironic that Facebook is the best place to bring readers to my blog..