Finally, Lady Luck Deserts Him

This has to rate as the bloodiest tour ever, with crashes practically in all the stages so far. But at the end of the 8th stage, the real tragedy is that Lance Armstrong had to bear the full brunt of the fickleness of lady luck.

First was the gritty, narrow and dusty cobblestone stretches of stage 2, where he had a puncture that lost him a good 1 minute over his rival Contador. Today, the 'Bleeding Carrots' team (a team with an orange jersey and a tendency to crash often) proved his nemesis, making him crash twice on a killer 9 degree gradient and eliminate him from the contention for a podium finish.

Not exactly the best way for a champion to go, with elbows and knees bleeding, and spirit broken.

Now it is pretty much in Contador's bag.

A ramble in Aphasia

Excerpt from Douglas Adam's 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency':


Professor Urban Chronotis...had a memory that he himself had once compared to the Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly, in that it was colourful, flitted prettily hither and thither, and was now, alas, almost completely extinct.

Nowadays, I empathize heartily with the prof. As Gopal Babai found out at Seenu's reception, a leaky memory for people exposes one to a minefield of embarrassments. I seem to be  headed down that path myself at a pace that would be alarming if it were not farcical in terms of the spots it puts me in. Consider the various manifestations of this malediction:

1. White body effect: New names, alas,  simply refuses to register. Like a perfect white body reflects away all light,  my memory seems to be completely incapable of storing new name data

2. Leaky Sieve effect: Old data seems to be evaporating at a galloping rate. Even when I clench the thick muscles in my head, I cannot seem to recollect names and faces (specially at the office) that were around even 6 months ago

3. Revolving Door Effect: Even the appellations of folks I work with on a daily basis are often replaced by 'whatshisname' in my head. It is like the name was there a second ago but has now stepped out for a quick breath of fresh air, and if my luck changes, would be back in a while

The selectiveness of my memory makes it all the more intriguing. Why can I remember a blue faced Malkoha but draw a blank when it comes to round-faced Mallika?

Why can I remember that the title of the post is borrowed from the title of an O Henry short story I must have read not less than 5 years ago, but cannot figure out if the guy is Vishal or Vijay, although I meet him every day?

Are there any solutions to this vexing problem? How does one improve the stamina for remembering things?

Aditya and Carnatic Music

Aditya started his music class recently and has been learning music. He is really enjoying learning the swaras, even though he complains about practice!!!!!!!

His teacher is teaching him Achyutashtakam on the side. Here are the first 3 stanzas he learned.

Forget Wimbledon, World Cup

It is time for the idiot box to validate its existence by allowing us a roadside view of that classic battle called the Le Tour De France or Tour of France. It starts on July 3rd and I am really hoping Indian sports channels don't let me down by not showing it. Some quick facts, if you don't know the tour:

- A cycling race across the whole of France
- covering a distance of 3500 KM
- in 20 stages, one a day (23 days including 2 rest days)
- with a good bit of it being on the Pyrenees and the Alps'
- with around 190 rides competing
- been around since 1903, hence a classic
- threads across the breath-taking countryside of ancient France, a visual treat
- one of the most grueling endurance sports in the world, fiercely competed
- for example, cyclists burn an average 6000 Calories a day during the Tour, hitting 9000 cal. on tough days. In contrast, when I run 4 KM at a decent pace, 1 burn just about 300 calories!

But mostly, like in any sporting contest you need two or three arch-rivals to really deliver the drama. Enter on stage, on cue:

Contestant 1: Lance Armstrong. A brash Texan, trespassing into a traditional European sport, doesn't even have the decency to stay off the podium. He is the only man to have won the Tour 7 (consecutive) times, after almost losing his life to Cancer. He then retired for 3-4 years and came back last year, at age 37. One of the oldest men on the circuit, no one expected him to do well- he finished 3rd (missed 2nd by 1 second). This time, he is 38- can he really do better than 3rd position?

Contestant 2: Alberto Contodor. A Spaniard and arch-rival of Lance, he won the Tour last year. Relatively younger, equally arrogant, more introverted than Lance. He is also similar to Lance in his abilities- both of them are good at climbing, and often broke their opponents by forcing the pace on the mountains. Lance got a taste of his own medicine from Alberto last year, on the Alps. Alberto is the favourite to win the Tour this time too. Will Lance spoil his party? It is like Federer and Nadal, playing in the French Open Finals (Nadal with the clear edge), but with a lot more hostility in the contest.

Others: Andy Schlek, Bradley Wiggins, 2nd and 4th positions in the Tour last time. If Bradley wins, he will be the 1st Brit to win the Tour in a long time.

So keep your eyes peeled to this contest. You can also follow it on the Tour website, which has got to the best sporting website ever- a total treat.

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Many many happy returns of the day krupakar anna and poonam bhabhi!
:D