Archive for November, 2007
The Retarded Child strikes back!
November 25th, 2007
After my new haircut (and the new growth of hair), as per Vishal and my dad - my looks best match those of a retarded child - lol 
This name gives me a kick - demolishing people’s notions about me is immensely pleasurable!
This retarded child made a fierce comeback today in his pre-quarters match. I was up against AXA (Pune) in my first match at Josh 07. My opponent’s slices were a double edged swords because of bad condition of the only court where the matches were being played. Center part of baseline on one side and complete left part of the other side had absolutely no friction. So any slice hit by my opponent was like - ‘zuk’ ‘zuk’ !!! Top that with a slice hitter’s slow & consistent game! And on the contrary, all my top-spin shots lost their kick due to the court’s surface! I knew - I had a tough game ahead of me!
And on top of that when the umpire announced that the Men’s singles matches are going to be “best of 3 sets” - my hair stood at their ends! (last year, all the matches except finals were best of 11 games!)
Completely unprepared (and without any practicing on the court or stamina to stand for a 3 setter) we started the match.
The opponent looked like he have had some formal training. He knew how to use Wilson racquet’s “W” and “M” when it came to toss for side’n-serve, he knew that he has to practice for overhead shots before the game starts, etc.
It was a completely service game. Each one of us were holding onto our serves and the scoreboard showed “Mayank(2) - AXA dude(3)” in no time. I knew that I have to come up with a strategy - and fast, if I had to defeat this AXA dude. All his returns were just utilizing the speed of my shots - he was only blocking my shots, hitting none. He was hitting shots at almost 60% consistency - while mine was below 25%
Defeating slow players requires a strategy - Either a very fast or a very slow and consistent game is required! And since I had experienced this same scenario when I played (and won) the same tournament last year - I knew what I had to do! Play a faster game than him and increase my consistency (or decrease his!)…
That proved to be the turning point for the match & the game started to change to a rally based game. I broke his serve once in the first set and managed to win the set by 6-4. I knew my strategy was working! Niceeee!!!
Second set was altogether different… he was demoralized, was loosing energy much faster than me, I was more _into_ the game, I had found a way to avoid slippery surfaces of the court, I was returning almost100% of his 1st serves, I had more confidence & I already had one set saftely tucked under my name - in short, I was thinking!. It was an uphill climb for him, while my journey was more like that of a plateau. I just had to continue doing what I was doing + be more consistency with my first serves. I always had an advantage on this cemented court- my first serves were like bazooka shots! Whichever was in, I won that point… so much so, even the top spin second serves were proving deadly!
So the retarded child struck back & won the second set 6-4 in lesser time that what it took him to finish the first set.
It was a good game to start the tournament with. I had not expected such a tough opponent in the first round itself - but in a way, its good as well. Now I have one less tough opponent to worry about. (People might say that i’m scared of tough opponents - dude, this is a game & I am playing to win it! Strategies are required and every chance to take that point is needed at every step of the match! And 3 setter match is no joke!)
In a nutshell, I won my match today because my opponent was even more unprepared than what I was. BUT, this wont be always the case! Someone, somewhere might be preparing hard, with a dream in his eyes to win this tournament this year - ever since I won this tournament last year.
I’ll make sure that this dosn’t happens in the next match - God and luck always favour a prepared mind! I’ll be prepared the next time!
Note 1 - before ending, a big applause for my opponent - he almost brought me to my knees today. Had he been a regular player, I had little chance in front of him - but as I said, its a game & I am playing it to win!
Note 2 - An advice for the organizers - please respect last year rankings! Second year into the tournament and you cannot expect yourself to be ignorant of how lawn tennis draws are made and filled. There was no notion of rankings in the draw & it could have happened that the top two seeds are fighting each other in the very first round! Grr… - consider last year’s rankings!!!
Off to sleep now, I have a doubles lined up for tomorrow and even have to give another kick start to my Mixed Doubles partner - Pooja. More on that later…
Posted in Life in Pune, Tennis | Comments (6)
50 beta signups on ApnaBill.com
November 16th, 2007
ApnaBill.com has seen 50 interested users in just less than 2 days after the initial announcement.
I would like to thank each one of them personally for showing initiative & the interest. I hope that we stand by all of our promises & deliver a very user-friendly and impact-full product once the beta signup stage finishes.
Please continue showing your interest by Signing up for the Beta.
Thanks a ton!
Posted in ApnaBill, Startups | Comments (0)
A quickie for using RoR with Gedit
November 16th, 2007
Syntax highlighting for *.rhtml files - no more need to click view/highlight-mode/markup/html
http://robzon.aenima.pl/2007/10/ubuntu-710-rails-gedit-and.html
Enjoy RoR more!
Posted in Rails | Comments (1)
Introducing ApnaBill.com
November 14th, 2007
I am so happy & proud to announce ApnaBill.com
ApnaBill.com is an effort to bring the ease and power of e-commerce to Prepaid Mobile recharge process.Once ApnaBill.com is up, its users would be able to recharge their prepaid connections from the comfort of their home in seconds!
Gone are be those days when you need to find a local shop to get your prepaid connection refilled or recharged! ApnaBill is here!
For now, our Beta Signup process is open - please register & we shall ping you once ApnaBill is ready to serve you!
Beta signups for ApnaBill.com are now open!
Our services would be applicable to Indian mobile phone users only.
Posted in ApnaBill, Startups | Comments (1)
A SliceHost invite up for grabs…
November 14th, 2007
Some weeks ago, I was looking for a hosting provider for my Rails project - for which I added myself to SliceHost’s waiting list.
For some reasons, I dont need the invite they’ve sent me now (I am now a happy RailsPlayground customer). If anyone from my readers is interested, I can forward you the invite. Slices start from 256Slice - $20.00/month - 10GB HD, 100GB BW
Ping me - maku at makuchaku dot info
The slice invite is valid only for 4 days from now.
If SliceHost guys think this post is against their policy, they are welcome to approach me about the same. I respect their business guidelines.
Posted in Broadcast, Rails | Comments (5)