Day of surprises!

The rest of my days here are gonna be just great..!! Just as Deepu n’ I were stepping into the car to drive to S.H. to take SimCAT6, I got a call from Anand (fave college senior now working at Pune). He got here y’day n’ will be in town for a fortnight! 🙂 The last time we were here together was two years ago!

The test was crazy. I tried a new approach: did Quant first, followed by Verbal n’ ended with DI. Tho’ that improved my accuracy in Quant, Verbal was affected n’ I could do only 1 RC instead of the usual 3. Getting completely out of a math mindset n’ back into it after 40 min doesn’t agree with me n’ I got off just ‘cuz the test was damn easy overall. When the two hours were up, my bladder wuz bursting n’ I was on my marks ready for a dash to the loo, when they presented us with Part-II, a 20-minute G.K. section!

Now that defly wasn’t a good surprise. I wanted to shred the paper n’ run off, but screwed my eyes n’ held on.. The q’s were greek to me; it dealt my ego a humiliating blow when I realised I knew only 1. And folks, I got that wrong! It was re. the US Open ’05 n’ I ticked Hewitt as the guy Federer beat at the finals.

I know.. I know.. I almost killed myself later when I realised the Agassi match was not the semi-final, like I’d thought. But I’d taken a chance n’ attempted all q’s ‘cuz I was smart enough, even at bursting point, to notice that “Wrong q’s carry negative marks” preceded the instructions for Part-II. Got 15/40 right 😮

After the test, Sandy, Deepu n’ I drove over to Anand’s place in FACT Nagar, TPT. His house is renovated n’ is so cool now. We went out together for a long chat, even tho’ it was drizzling. Left after an hour n’ Deepu caught the train home, while Sandy joined me at home for lunch. I went with him to Ekm North. He went home n’ Kittoo picked me up. After we had grub, we did quant till 11! Surprise 3. 😀

When I got home, Amma told me someone had come over to give me a surprise visit. Guessed it was my best pal Rahul (doing an MBA at Amity, Delhi). He’s here for a week! I called him now, after I got back from tennis, but he’s sleeping. My shots are going long n’ I’m resuming coaching from tomorrow..

[Listening to: Collective Soul – The World I Know (4:16)]

A good return..

.. is worth more than a good serve.

Shah sir imparted a vital piece of information y’day. Hold the racket in a forehand grip while you serve. That meant twisting my wrist before connecting with the ball is a mistake. I realised I could avoid that by shifting my stance to face the right net-post. I tipped Vinodh off to the same n’ he served one in. On a bad hair day, that means end-of-session.

New balls please..

The Nassau balls are heavier than the Slazengers but they seemed to suit our style better. Today, we spent an hour on the usual great rallying. Vinodh decided he needed to practise his serves.. n’ I decided to shift focus from my serve. We stuck at it for another whole hour! Yep, today was “Returns” day for me. Though at first they sucked, my forehands got good before I began work on my double-fisted backhands.

Labored to get my returns in shape on both sides of my court, before I mustered up enough courage (and power) to try single-handed backhand returns. At first, I was hitting them out of court. Then I controlled aggression, but the strain was so much, I was netting balls.

Took some time before I began putting them across the net consistently. But I wound up today’s session when I finally hit a couple of them back in just as fast as they came. Getting them to do that on your backhand really gives you a high. Thats when I coined the title..

Tennis days..

..are here again! I started off really well with my shots all landing in court, tho’ the ball hits the rim too often. I’d suggest non-coached folks to buy Head/Babolat. I bought my Wilson ‘cuz it was flashy, going cheap and had high SI. It has a conspicuously smaller head, but if I learn to position myself better, I can put the larger sweet spot to good use.

Well, I don’t know what I’d do without Vinodh for company. Probably not play tennis at all.. I played a match after a long time. We were on opposite sides, with oldies A&B to partner me n’ him resply. The oldies played better as usual. We lost 6-2, ‘cuz A was serving as bad as I was. Funny- serve is s’posed to be an advantage, but the match was won by not those who could break serve, but those who could hold, which only B could do.

The next match was much better. I stopped serving slow n’ took risks. Result: some cracking aces they couldn’t get the racquet to. However, I still couldn’t hold a service game though I came real close on each occasion; got to game point thrice in one of ’em.

I still managed to help break serve n’ with A now serving well, we were leading 4-2 at one point. They got to 5-4 though, but we held to 6-6 n’ thats when A&B called it a day. Vinodh n’ I rallied more n’ practised some serves too. Mine’s decidedly better now..

Decrypter

Saw the term “bigfoot” on Vittu’s blog today n’ looked it up. Wikipedia is awesome, but I didn’t know they also had a Wiktionary! Nice stuff! Finally got a partner to play tennis with. Vinodh’s a decade older than I am, but not old enuf to thulp me. 😉

Bought new balls afterward n’ proceeded to Punny’s place to chat.
The great news is: he’s made it to City and Texas Tech (the latter with aid) for the MBA ’06!
More good news is: my SimCAT %iles are looking up after gradual decline. 🙂

Rented one of my all-time fave movies to watch again after years. Each actor in it fits his/her role like a glove n’ hey Ashwin, if you’re reading this, now I know whom you reminded me of, the first time we met! 😉 I’m trying to rip it now..

Amma n’ I went out in the evening to check out some new phones (her usual craze), but we didn’t find any of ’em good enough to replace her X100, though the C200 is almost as good n’ d*mn cheap. The J210i is quite nice too..

Awesome..

Watched Crimson Tide today. I didn’t know Viggo had acted in a major movie before LOTR. The usual name flashed across at the beginning. I checked up on Zimmer later n’ found out that this movie was the turning point of his career. He is my fave, n’ I like his music more than the stuff Williams makes. Just discovered I could configure gaim for Google Talk!

M’s

I’m back from my M trip. Left with Krishnan (Kittoo) n’ his aunt on Friday night. They’re family friends. Her daughter’s in Mangalore n’ thats where we were headed. Our bus sprang a flat near Kasargod n’ I alighted to feel the bracing wind on my face. We reached M’lore an hour later. Got to KMC quarters (thats where Kittoo’s cuz stays) n’ freshened up.

After bfast, I tried to get in touch with Amol, our school pal who’s now at TAPMI. We realised we’d cross Udupi on the way, so we got down to check out the Sri Krishna temples there. It was past 5 when we boarded a bus to Manipal. Its just 4 km. from Udupi.

Amol met us at the bus-stand, in front of the KMC there. He had class soon afterward, so we checked into Janani Lodge, which is really good and quite cheap too. Leaving our baggage there, we traipsed around KMC, which isn’t as impressive as expected. We sat around in their canteen and checked out (what we later found was just the front part of) the campus.

We were bored pretty soon, so we decided to jog downhill to TAPMI. We overshot it by a mile and had to catch a bus back to KMC 😉 Amol took us to Shaq Point for dinner, where I sampled a yummy cheese-paneer burger and their superlative barbequed chicken. Next, he took us to the Cafe Coffee Day in the MAHE library, which I think is the best place in Manipal.

We said goodbye after that n’ crashed out.. Got up early in the morning y’day n’ went to Udupi, where we joined Kittoo’s aunt n’ cuz on the way to Kollur. After breakfast at a Veg. Mallu Hotel (thats an oxymoron ;), we were at the Mookambika Devi Temple for quite a while. The place is quiet and not crowded at all n’ I spent many a silent minute in prayer..

We got back to Mangalore by 4 p.m. n’ sat around and talked about books (Kittoo’s cuz is quite a reader). He n’ I went later to collect our tickets at Durgamba Travels. Next stop was Woodlands’ Hotel for dinner. Its an old, but lovely place with a homely ambience. Boarded the bus back to Cochin soon after n’

[Listening to: Here I Am (Bryan Adams)]..

SimCAT4

After the test, I told Deepu, “I wish this were the real CAT“, ‘cuz I rated it my best performance yet. The results today revealed that, of the 22k students who took the test all over India, more than 1200 scored more than I did. My %ile graph has dipped to a new low.

I was crushed.. until I saw the list of Top 100 ranks, which lent credibility to my statement. Strange?! There are only 22 students on it!

“Interesting“, Asan Dasari [Product Manager – CAT] calls it. Interesting it sure is! Only 29 folks managed to clear the individual cutoffs for all the four sections! That, combined with my max. sectional gap of a mere 3.34, reinforces my self-estimate! I’m happy 🙂

I need a break. Going to Mookambi this weekend, with Kittoos..

Rain Man

Watched this incredible movie today, based on the real-life savant, Kim Peek. With it, I rate Hoffman equal to the likes of Hanks. I also finally join the ranks of Cruise fans.

The DVD had The Woodsman too, a very unusual movie, which stars Bacon and is undoubtedly his best performance to date, according to me. His wife in real life co-stars..

Yum

Deepu came y’day armed with a DVD containing the FC4 ISO’s. I’m finally done installing it. I discovered YUM, which makes installing/updating software in Linux as easy as doing it in Windows.

SimCAT4 was so-so, and the 50-mark hurdle still eludes me. Etchi didn’t come today. At 3.30, I went with Deepu to drop him off at the railway station, which now has an excellent new eatery. I got home afterward n’ crashed out till 7, after reading mail from Chechi, who has reached Washington D.C. safely with Darshan. They’re there with Arjun, who has been to the U.S. thrice this year already.

Montoya was again at the wrong place at the wrong time today n’ a drain cover of all things, coupled with an engine failure, was the reason for his race exit today. Renault were back on McLaren’s pace n’ finished 1-4, to take the WCC from the latter, with a comfortable lead of 9pts. Raikkonen came runner-up 4s behind race winner Alonso setting fastest lap of the race, while Ralf made me eat my words by taking the final podium spot and pipping Trulli on the Drivers’ Table. Sadly, Schumi maintains 3rd ahead of JPM.

ISB

My skool pal Kittoo called up y’day to tell me about the ISB Information Session at Taj Residency here n’ I got out-house after a long time. Considering I’ve 2+ yrs of work ex. n’ their policy of scaling down GRE scores to 800, I’ve decided to take my chances n’ apply, tho’ its a painstaking effort to fill out 6 essays.

I happened to bump into another skool pal there; its been 6 yrs since I met Chakola. We got together at the bar there after the session n’ the guy recounted his BS xp at NCSU, while we each downed a beer. I got back n’ tried my idea of combining Knorr chinese tomato + vegetables soup with Sunfeast pasta treat n’ it turned out yummy! 🙂

Deepu should be landing soon now; the SimCATs resume this weekend n’ DAMN, I’ll miss this season’s last race. I seriously considered bunking the test to watch McLaren steal the C’structors’ C’ship after half a decade (hopefully!) from Renault, but Amma wouldn’t hear of it, so I’ll just have to catch the replay, shan’t I? :`-(

Thank God for A1..