Ambarish's musings

It has been an absolutely scintillating week for tennis fans. Especially for fans of the legends! No, I am not talking about Djoker and Murray(Hahahaha) But Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. These two are among the greatest ever to have played the sport. And they will meet each other once again at a Grand Slam final at Melbourne on Sunday. First off, I am a Federer fan. I wanted Federer to keep doing well, and he did. Federer is playing competitively for the first time in 10 months, having taken an extended break to recover from a knee injury. This saw him drop off the rankings from World No. 3 to No.17. His first Grand Slam since the injury was the Australian Open. His road to the final is quite remarkable. He decimated Tomas Berdych in straight sets, struggled a bit against Kei Nishikori, but was on fire against Mischa Zverev. The draw was brutal for him: he would have faced Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, had they both not decided to fall to lesser known opponents. In the semis,

Mumbai is incredible! Probably an understatement, I know. People of Mumbai are extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemely helpful. Like, they would go out of their way to help you. I am sure everyone who has been to Mumbai has plenty of examples to cite. Let me give a few. Location: Vile Parle station, 8:15 pm I am standing on the foot over bridge holding a suitcase, looking for the ticket counter. Strangely I couldn’t find one at the entrance. I look around for one on the bridge, and could not find one. I think, okay, not like Kalyan, fine. I ask a lady to point me to the ticket counter. She tells me that it is not exactly nearby, and you have to walk the length of the platform to the opposite end of the station. I looked at my watch and the indicator, which showed the timing of the next train. 3 minutes. No way I make it. Not that it mattered, since there would be one in 3 minutes. So I prepare to walk the platform, without a ticket, and risk a TC catching me. But the lady stops me and says sh

                All people wear a mask. Maybe not all the time, but at some point in their lives, each and every single human being has adorned a mask. I am not talking about the literal mask, I am going to ramble about the metaphorical one. The mask people wear to offices, schools, churches, temples, while travelling, eating, drinking, enjoying, and countless other scenarios. Everywhere you look around, a person might be masquerading his or her true self under a simple or an elaborate mask. Humans of all ages don and remove masks all the time.                   Which begs the following questions: What is the point of these masks? Why can't we show our true selves? Who or what stops us? Is the mask a good thing? Should we continue wearing different masks? When do we show our true selves? To whom do we show it?                   The answers to these questions depend on the individual, their circumstances, and the people around them. Given the same scenarios to the same per

Belated happy new year! It is the time of the year where people set goals and targets for the year. Most fall short by the first or second month. Even I do. But my last year's resolutions were actually so good, I accomplished what I set out for: learn 2 foreign languages, Italian and French. At a basic level, but yeah, enough to survive. And some other goals too, which I did achieve satisfactorily. So what next? I have some resolutions this year too! Let me share some: Get better at piano This is compulsory. No two ways about this. For the past few months, I have become a little distant from the piano. But not anymore. I already started learning a song, one that is usually on my lips! The joy I derive from playing the piano, even if for little time, is very immense. And I already feel better. There is something magical about learning music, and at any cost, I do not want to disconnect from it. Do I have a plan? Umm… no. I have a new piano on my mind, but that depen

                                          Recently I went on a trip to Hampi. Or rather Hippies island, since we were in Hampi for like 2 hours out of the 3 days. We relived the trip through photographs, now let me relive this trip through words. I am going to try and describe certain moments in a novel way. Let me name the characters of this trip: Brilliant and Chill are my roommates, Chatterbox is a colleague, and Cinderella, Observant, and Gregarious are her roommates. I only knew Chatterbox, and the rest were unknown entities. So, here we go! Day 1, 12 noon Crossing the river                          We reached Hampi at around 11 and after being disappointed by seeing the rooms available there, decided to cross the river and resume our search there. We needed to cross the Tungabhadra river and we would have been on our way. Two options: small round wooden boats or walk? Since we were all feeling adventurous, we decided to cross the river by foot(and I am still re