Sahana

I cant remember the last time I sat and watched 3 back to back episodes on the Cooking Channel!! That too at 4 am!! Thanks to the jet lag, Sahana and I shared some mommy-daughter moments watching some serious cooking shows.
I was unable to update the hoopla on my blog before I left for China. My ticket to China was paid by the Government of India and for it to be approved, seconded and finally booked took about 2-3 weeks.
Sanjeev and Sahana were already booked and were set to travel with all documents intact.
The ticket arrived 2 days before I left for China. The day before I left, Sahana was running a temperature. So I took her to a doctor who said it might be just viral and we were good to travel. Unfortunately, we had to fly separately because my ticket was booked last minute and there were no seats available on their flight.
Sahana was still runnign a temperature when they were checking in.They left on a flight 12 hrs prior to mine. At the airport,I tried to stand-by for their flight and after 3 hrs of waiting and giving us a lot of hope, the airline said I could not travel with them. I was in tears because Sahana was hot with fever and Sanjeev had to take her on the long trip by himself. It was probably the longest few hours of my life and the worst part was that I would be on a plane when they reach China. So it meant 24 hrs of no news about Sahana. That was quite painful. Actually very painful.
Once I boarded the plane, halfway I even tried calling them on the phone in the plane. But for some reason, there was no signal the entire way. When I finally reached Hong Kong, I was so relieved to when I called them and knew all was fine.
She was still running a temperature of 101 and had a cough. But since we were staying outside in a hotel, I felt better that I could be with Sahana when I wasnt on court.
The problem with buying tickets at the Asian Games was another hitch. While the Chinese media and their official website claimed the tickets were all sold out, there were but 10 people on the 1st day in the massive stadium. That was actually a worse situation than CWG. So I had to find a way to get them to come see my matches.
There were no ticket booths set up and the only tickets that were available were to be purchased form some Chinese bank after staying lining up in a queue for hours. That was ridiculous. But thankfully, our physical trainer Anand found someone in the Chinese Federation and somehow sneaked Sanjeev and Sahana in almost everyday. That was a blessing.
I also took Sanjeev and Sahana to tour the Asian Games Town one day. They were neither checked for accreditation or did they go through any security. I was quite surprised at how lax the entire security was.
After 4-5 days, Sahana was still coughing at which point we decided to check her out with a doctor. Call it a mom's intuition, I mentioned to Sanjeev that sahana may have pneumonia. We were taken in a ambulance by the stadium officials to a nearby hospital. A special ward was set up just for the Asian games participants. While we had no idea what was being spoken, a young man who looked quite Asian came and asked us where we were from. When we said India, he was quite delighted and said he was Indian too. We were so relieved as he agreed to play interpreter. We found out that he was doing his internship and was from Manipur in India.
The doctor who examined Sahana said that Sahana indeed had pneumonia and she maybe admitted as an inpatient for a week.Sanjeev and I freaked out. We really did not want to be in a Chinese hospital for a week and would have rather flown home by the next flight. But after an X-Ray, it was found that it a milder case of pneumonia and antibiotics would fix it. We thanked the Indian student who was such a blessing and left for the courts.
As soon as my matches were over, we took the next day's flight back. Even though Sahana was surely better after the antibiotics, we didnt want to take chances. We had originally planned on a trip to Macau after the Games, but decided that, that would be reserved for another day.
Now looking back, I am obviously a bit disappointed that i didnt win a medal. But I also have come to appreciate that mothers who travel on tour like Clijsters, Lindsay lee Waters and Rossana de Los Rios. While Kim has enough help around her, Rossana has been through tough times travelling with her little girl. Kudos to her for grinding it out on tour and being a mom!!!
I am truly happy to have gotten the opportunity to do what I did and though the outcome I longed for was more than what I got, I feel blessed.
Feel free to post your comments here. Would love to know what you think..

Expect the unexpected!!

The Asian Games 2010 has had quite a few surprises!!! Firstly, India winning a bronze in gymnastics and then another medal in swimming!! This was a first medal for both those events and this is just an indication that with perseverance, anything is possible. I remember the gymnastics team training in Pune when our tennis team was there for a selection camp. They were so focussed and very organized and I am glad their hard work paid off.
In tennis, Sania has returned to phenomenal form. I saw her play a final in Stanford 3 years ago. She is hitting the ball the way she did when she stormed into the final of that Tier 1 WTA event. Though she lost a close encounter to Akgul Ammanadurova from Uzbekistan in semis, if she continues to strike the ball this well, I will not put the top 30 past her in the next few months.
Somdev;s run into the doubles final and singles semi-final is good news as well. Somdev is just so solid, that he wears his opponents down. His doubles run is definetely a small surprise, but a welcome one!!
Sadly, there is still no system to find the next Sania Mirza. All this takes is one person up on top wanting it as much as I do! Then things can change dramatically, but then this is India we are talking about. Change doesn't happen at all and if it does, it's too slow!!!!!Oh well...this is for another day!!

That was an eye opener!!

Yesterday Sania Mirza turned 24 and celebrated her birthday at the tennis courts along with her husband Shoaib Malik and a large number or people. Amazingly, she shares her birthday with her mother Nazeema Mirza who joined hands to cut the cake.
One of Sania's fans from Hyderabad who studies here in some University,sent her a big chocolate cake and flowers on her birthday.
When my team mates and I got there we found a bunch of cameramen and lot of press taking filming and taking pictures of the birthday cake. I was amazed at the number of press people who had turned up to wish her and have a rare photo moment with the woman who has changed the face of Indian tennis.One of our top men players was involved in a team match a few yards away, which was obviously inconsequential. Amazing!!! That is Sania Mania....

Around the Games

It is almost impossible not to compare the CWG with the Asian games this year since they are just a month apart from each other.
Security: Security at the CWG was like an impenetrable fortress. There were almost 3-4 check points one had to pass to get to the venues and based on many reports,that was absolutely essential. That was the kind of security essential to thwart any chance of terrorist activity during the Games.
Security is not that much of an issue here as terrorism is not a problem here,at least,so far! They are much more lax here and there were even times when athletes were not even checked for their pass before entering the Games Village.
Venues and Games Village: The CWG venues and village was surely top of the line even by international standards. But what they lacked on is the presentation of the end product. Dust and unclean living quarters were the black mark for the CWG despite such amazing infrastructure.
In that regard,China knows to score the brownie points. Their presentation is top of the line and though the apartments at the Village dont have a TV,couch or an air conditioner, they have kept it spic and span. The Venues are all massive capable of accommodating a lot more people than the Indian stadiums. In fact everything about China seems to be really huge, the airport, the stadiums, offices, roads,etc. It almost feels like they are thinking 10 years ahead in everything!!
Transport : Both the CWG and the Asian Games are quite similar in terms of transport facilties.
Language: In the CWG, obviously everything was so much smoother because of English being spoken by everyone.
Here, this is a huge problem. It takes us a long time and serious repetition to really get points across to them. even the people who know English are not fluent and it is really hard to get from point A to point B.
Food: If you asked anyone about the CWG food, they would tell you about how fantastic the quality and variety of the cuisines available at the Village. The staff was quite friendly too.
Here, the food is below par with most emphasis on the Cantonese cooking. They do have an East Indian food counter, but it is not that great tot talk about. There is a Mcdonalds counter, though, which is what most athletes end up going to....Believe it or not!!!!
Tickets: Last but not the least, at the CWG, tickets for competitors was made available through the ITF representative who made sure all got tickets fairly.
here it is a ruckus of the top most order. Most stadiums are empty but there are no tickets available to buy. There are not even ticket booths to buy tickets from. Everyone claims all tickets are sold out, but outside the stadiums there are people selling in black market!!! This reminds of the movie tickets people sell in India outside a Shah Rukh Khan movie!!!

Match against Indonesia

With Sania having a ear infection and unable to step in to play, I was chosen to play 2nd singles. I was hitting the ball great during practice and so Rico thought I was a better option for singles.
The Indonesian number 2 player started off a bit slow, but then regained her game and hardly missed through the entire first set. While I attempted to mix up the pace and move her side to side,I made a few unforced errors trying to go for down the lines too prematurely. There were several games that were long and went back and forth with dueces but it was quite clear that she played a superior level of tennis. The scoreline after the end of the match was 6-1,6-1 as I was unable to convert all the break point opportunities I had.
Poojashree played a brave match and was leading a set and 3-1, but lost the 2nd and eventually the tie. So it was a disheartening day for India yesterday when we were knocked out in the 1st round itself.We now have 2 days for practice before the individuals begin.

Asian Games Day 1- 11Nov.

I finally arrived in China yesterday after a 14.5 hr flight. While not going into too much detail, lets just say that the last few days have been chaotic. Its quite interesting how the AITA's(All India Tennis Association)representative and the IOA(Indian Olympic Asso) find ways to delay the inevitable and somehow make it all happen. I cant say I am new to this, but it's amazing how nothing changes here in 10 years. In fact, the nonchalance and procrastination together make it a very difficult scenario.
Now moving on....the Olympic centre itself is humongous. The Stadiums are extravagant and built to mega proportions. The tennis centre is equally nice and ready to cater to a lot of teams that will begin their campaign on Saturday.
The opening ceremony is to be held tomorrow(Friday evening). But we have doubts about going to the Opening Ceremony as we will play our 1st team match on Saturday against Indonesia. I will try to update some photos on Facebook tomorrow...

Tennis and Deepavali..

First of all-Wishing you all a very Happy and Fun-filled Deepavali. Most of us have wonderful and fond memories of our younger days when Deepvali was celebrated with so much purity and passion. Nobody had to wake us up early. We were there in full vigor at 4 am or 5 am opening our boxes of firecrackers with so much excitement. Will our children ever feel that thrill? Sadly, a simple thrill of binging on sweets, wearing new clothes or lighting up one of those totally loud sounding crackers is, probably a thing of the past.

But then I am hoping, by recollecting these memories and showing my child how we relished these times, she will,one day understand the true meaning of Deepavali.
In our household, when my Grandfather,K.G.S as he was called, was alive, Deepavali was THE day in the year we all looked forward to. The excitement began at least a month in advance when we started buying firecrackers. These had to be dried in hot sun for it to be ready to burst. The moms and aunts were busy planning the sweets and goodies they would be preparing for this occasion. Buying sweets outside was not even considered. When I say sweets, there would be at least 5-8 different kinds with the same amount of spicy snacks too. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous now and I cant even imagine eating that many goodies now..

The Day before deepavali, all cousins gathered in our house for a big meal. We would start bursting the crackers, but would save the special ones for the early morning bout. The new clothes were special too.
On the day itself, we would be awake at about 4 am. With just one bathroom and everyone cramming to take a bath, it was quite a ruckus. The bath itself was of religious significance as it had to be done before sunrise.

We could barely wait to get started with the crackers. There were flower pots, spin wheels, cable cars,rockets, all kinds of crackers to loud sounding bombs. In between, we would go back and forth on the sweets and treats.
After that , we would visit our relatives and get their blessings. There were three houses of relatives and we lived next to each other,so there were a lot of aunts and uncles to seek blessings from!!

But the cherry on top for us(my bro and I), was the tennis that followed this celebration. The entire town was closed down for the day. But since my dad maintained a tennis court just for our tennis, we could play whenever we wanted. We didnt own the court, my dad just maintained it. The clay courts needed to be watered and rolled 3-4 times a week. Playing tennis and working hard even on Deepavali was something I will always cherish in my life. When I read Agassi's book about how he trained extra hard on New Year's Day when most of the world is trying to reover from parties, I had an inkling to what he was writing about!!!

Someday, I hope my little girl will do the same or at least feel what I feel about Deepavali. This is a special day and even though we are in a country that may not expereince this in all its might, the Spirit of Deepavali is still there.