Greatest of 'dem all....

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the greatest of them all?

“Don’t let your demons haunt you Federer, go conquer them…nobody deserves the French Open crown more than you”….this is something I kept repeating to one & all on Sunday before the Men’s singles French Open Final at Roland Garros, Paris, got underway…. Its years now & I’ve always been a Federer fan, be it him winning or going through a lean patch last year, I’ve always believed that here is a man who will create history, his near perfect game of tennis is not something we see everyday!

I had a bet with my folks that Federer would win in straight sets against Robin Soderling, the same guy who thrashed Rafael Nadal on his way to the final….they laughed at me reminding me how Feddy had consecutively lost the last three French Open Finals. I still stood my ground and told them ‘Wait & Watch, nobody can take away this crown from him today’! I normally keep my fingers crossed when I am tensed about something but not on Sunday, I did not cross my fingers for I knew Feddy would win! Something told me that this guy is one of the greatest this game has ever seen, a guy whose class puts all other top-notch players in the shadows, a guy who has proved that grace & humility can still exist in this big bad world of celebrity sportsdom!

And yes, Federer’s destiny was decided in a straight set win (6-1 7-6 (7/1) 6-4) over Soderling. He jumped in joy, wept with tears of happiness, and while he took the coveted French Open cup from Andre Agassi, another great players of his time, and reminded that he was only the 6th guy in history to win 14 grand slams & counted as one among the greatest of all time, this is what Federer had to say:
"I've always thought it's nice to be part of the best. I feel privileged and proud of my accomplishments in this sport," he said. "I don't know if we'll ever know who was the greatest of all time but I'm definitely happy to be right up there."
Now that’s Federer for you…Excellence unmatched, Humility Personified!

Three Cheers Feddy, you deserve it like none else!

Cheers,
Airlea (Amari for the known ones!)

In Hope we believe....In Silence we pray….

It was late monday evening….I had just returned home, was hungry & trying to find something to eat…as usual, I switched on the television to catch up on one of the matches of French Open at Roland Garros…As I was flicking through the channels, I happened to come across a direct telecast from France 24 being shown on Times Now. There were scenes of flights, people all around & chaos everywhere. Being curious, I sat down to watch what was happening. As I continued, I realized I was looking at the news showing how an Air France Jet which ahd taken off from Rio De Janeiro to Paris, had crashed into the Atlantic taking down with it all 228 people aboard, the worst tragedy in 75-years!

For a moment, I was numb, too astonished to believe that 228 innocent people had perished…just like that! In their wildest of dreams they must have not imagined a tragedy of this mammoth happening to them…One single moment of catastrophe had destroyed so many lives, lives of not just the ones who lost it, but also lives of the ones from Families, Friends, well-wishers who would grieve for their loved ones their entire lives….

My face had turned a stark sad by then, all I could hear was, news reporters reading out the sms’es sent by the people aboard to their loved ones before the crash, ones like ‘I’m scared, don’t know what’s happening’ , ‘Something’s gone wrong, remember I love you’ etc. I realized I couldn’t move from the chair I was sitting…all the while hoping for some miracle to happen & watching all the 228 alive back again. But that was not to be!

Its 2 days now, the search is still on…hopes of survivors having vanished but hopes of finding the bodies is still something that all the people are praying for now…It made me suddenly realize how precious life is & how easily we forget that most of the times.
Lets not look at this as a one-off incident but as one which makes us realize how grateful we need to be to all those around us who make our lives worthwhile!

Lets all pray in silence for the souls of all the lost lives & ask the Almighty to give their families courage & strength to withstand such a huge loss! Amen

Prayers,
Amari