Vishal's Blog

Past Forward to 1999 Thinking about this one, my mind went digging into the past before reminding me of a special match played by Andre Agassi at the Roland Garros. Playing against Andriy Medvedev in the final, Agassi was down two sets to nil before rain stopped play. When play resumed, he upped his game and won the last three sets to complete a remarkable win. Later the teary-eyed man was seen blowing kisses to spectators, something which he would later repeat after every win . On that day Agassi created history and achieved something which many great players of his era failed to achieve – a Career Slam. He was the fifth man overall to do it. And I was left thinking he was one of the best to have played the game.   Fast Forward to 2005           Enter Rafael Nadal!! A few years later Nadal appeared and made the red clay courts of the Roland Garros his own. And below has been the norm at the Roland Garros since tha...

  Book Review – Rafa My Story - Rafael Nadal’s autobiography Author – John Carlin If you think John Carlin’s book Invictus was very well written, you won’t be surprised after reading this one. We know Rafael Nadal is Spanish and not very fluent with the English language but the book is written flawlessly - courtesy John Carlin. Here’s a starter from the book which speaks volumes not only about the ability of the writer but also about what goes on in the mind of Rafael Nadal during a match. ======= The cathedral rush of the Centre court is good for my game. Because what I battle hardest to do in a tennis match is to quiet the voices in my head, to shut everything out of my mind but the contest itself and concentrate every atom of my being on the point I am playing. If I made a mistake on my previous point, forget it; should a thought of victory suggest itself, crush it. ======= Not to regret the past and to stay focused till it was over was Nadal’s mantra during the e...

Think Like a champion - Book Review - Dr Rudi Webster The author Dr. Rudi Webster is a leading sports psychologist and has worked extensively in the field of sports management most notably with the champion West Indies cricket team of the 1980’s. Closer home he worked as a mental conditioning coach with Kolkata Knight Riders who won the coveted IPL trophy in 2012. As the title suggests, the author has widely discussed the mentality of a champion throughout the book. The gist is that dedication, discipline, hard work and mental control positively affect performance and are learnable skills. Fear, confusion and mental weakness do the opposite and it is possible to get rid of them by proper training. To understand the frame of mind of the champions he has interviewed athletes like MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Viv Richards, Dennis Lillee, Wasim Akram, Sir Garfield Sobers and many others. The author has asked pointed questions on performance optimization and success tec...

 We were off before the sunlight kissed the horizon on a sleepy and indolent December morning. The rising sun looked beautiful as it lent a kind of splendour to the perpetual sea of parched land. In the vehicle, I shivered in the rigorous chill of the salty desert air. The car slowly gathered speed making its way down the road as the morning was beginning to break into soft colours of pink and orange against the brilliant azure sky.  My lips were beginning to dry and I had to lick again and again to keep them warm. We kept moving on the road until suddenly Gopal (the navigator) slowed down to turn right. The path was now no longer flat but marshy, parched and zigzag. He pressed the accelerator as we whizzed past ubiquitous dogs which didn’t shy away from racing against the vehicle. All signs of humanity slowly faded away and we were in the wilderness… of a different kind. To a passerby it may look an arid, desolate place but the connoisseur...

                                                               Birds of Ganeshgudi                                                       Asian Paradise Flycatcher - Male                                          ...

To break down the intense cycle of daily disappointments and frustrations, I along with Vishnu got a chance to visit the Velavadar National Park in November and we had grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The visit could have been doomed by the impending super-cyclone 'Nilofer' but thanks to the almighty, it fizzled away before reaching the Gujarat coast. Hence, both of us along with our guide Ritesh Khatri were brandishing our weapons (read cameras) in the eerily quite park which was thus devoid of many visitors owing to 'Nilofer'. The picture of these fighting black-bucks have to be one of the defining moments of the time spent at Velavadar. I have to confess that such moments are entirely capable of taking you into oblivion. These animals mate throughout the year and during this point in time, the male Blackbucks strive to drive every other male out of its territory. In order to impose their superiority, they indulge in horn-fights. We captured this moment...