June 8th weekly bore

Quotable Quotes of the week
Kick out Australian players from the IPL. They should be told that it is impossible to keep them when the blood of innocent Indians is shed in their country- Bal Thackeray - Shiv Sena Chief on the racial attack in Indians in Australia ( typical shiv Sena response -- it has its own effects )

I cannot say Satyam like Scandals will not happen . We will be watchful. We will be careful -- Salman khurshed - Minister of state for Corporate affairs

Our Prime Minister is a psycho -- Barnaby Joyce Australian PM on Kevin Rudd

Federer and the French Open win

Federer did what he missed for a long time -- he won the French open Clay court event finally -- and equalled Pete Sampras record of 14 Grand Slam titles -- Pete Sampras never won the French Open and it was on everyone 'minds that Federer may end up in the same way -- Win all other grand slam events but not the French open -- Not to be -- With help from Robin Soderling who put out five time defending Champion Rafael Nadal and threatening winner Andy Murray , Federer's path to the title was made easier -- Federer 's win was acknowledged by all and the French crowd wanted him to win the title -- This is the difference that Federer has brought too the sport -- A worthy champion who I cannot think of anyone not supporting him-- impeccable on the court , suave ,mild mannered and plays to win -- Federer had a tough semi final against Del Potro the young Argentine who put him in more than a spot of bother - Federer clung on and after more than 3 hours of tennis , the lanky Argentine seemed to loose some gas that Federer exploited towards the fag end of the fifth set to win -- I was a nervous wreck as I watched Federer battle from behind -- simple reason for my discomfort was the fact , this time was the golden time for him to win the trophy with Nadal eliminated already--

Also watch out for Del Potro in the future-- He is a calm person for his age and plays assured tennis with a big serve and temperament to boot with it -- You will see this lad grow in ranking and a Grand Slam win is not out of his reach --

Leander Paes did India Proud by winning the doubles title with Lukas Dloughy of Czech -- Not a easy one for Leander who isall of 35 , but his reflex and control over the net ( which is so important in a doubles match ) was exemplary -- Well Done -- Not often do you a Indian at a International arena triumph

Airtel Super Singer 2008-- the game show that went nearly for a year

The curtains came down during the mid week on this year old hunt --
It ended with a winner that I wished won. Ajeesh was declared the AIRTEL SUPER SINGER of 2008.I have been following this program on and off and I really feel happy for this easy going singer. He is natural and can blow you away with his renderings-Ravi, who won second place was at his best.But to his bad luck he couldn't collect much votes. The final which was decided on the number of votes that one would get over a SMS ended up with over 5.76 lakh people voting on a working day evening ( one may vote any number of times and so this conclusion may not be accurate ) and Ajesh getting over 50 % of them !! The voting was open for around 3 hours and look at the SMS traffic in these three hours.. all the mobile carriers must be laughing at the coffers ringing…Obviously the rate per SMS was different when you send one for contests !!The third place was decided by Renu, (the third contestant ) by herself rather than anyone else -- She just did not perform well as she could given her talented voice --
It is really amazing to see how realty shows can influence you and also the number of dreamers that it can attract -- this program went for over a year as it went through many of the candidates through elimination at various stages and bringing it down to a final contestant list of five -- two of the five were eliminated again by public voting through SMS --
Mention should be made of the fact the quality of the program was very high -- with Professional judges who were fantastic critics and who could discover very minor slips in the rendering of the songs -- Once the final five were arrived at , there was a voice trainer who helped the five to polish their style and confidence -- overall a great effort to find the Super Singer --
I was also wondering the amount of time that through the year the finalists had to spend to get to where they got --Some were employed full time ( leave ? / time off ?/ impact on /to family , Ajeesh is a student) -- Not sure what the price for success is.. It will be worthwhile to see how far Ajeesh and others go up in their singing careers !

Formula one
I did not watch the race over the week end that was the Turkey GP where Ferrari has been dominant ever since the race was inaugurated at Istanbul circuit five years ago--It is one of the two anti clockwise circuits in the Formula one Circuits--

Jenson Button and Brawn GP seem to have sewed up the Drivers title and the constructors title for 2009-- Jenson won the race and with this has pocketed six out of the seven races and is very close to being dominant as Schmi in 2004 was-- So curtains down as far as I am concerned for Ferrari and the defending Champion Hamilton ( McLaren )-- Ferrari finished sixth ( Massa ) and ninth ( Raikonen ) and Hamilton 13th --
The nearest challenger to Brawn is Red Bull but they are at a place from where it will be difficult to mount a challenge for either of the titles-- Ferrari and McLaren need to get to the drawing board and get things right for the 2010 season !!