Digitally Exploring the world

The year started with me driving down solo to Chennai to watch the Chennai Open. The only world class ATP tour of India. Left home around 9ish one cloudy morning and entered Chennai in 4hrs driving at a steady pace of 100kmph. It was a great drive all the way with tolled roads all along , though the toll hits the pocket a bit .It took me another hour just to locate my sister's house thanks to the highly crazy google maps on my phone that I initially tried to use.  One learning never use google maps while driving around in India, just ask the auto drivers or local shopkeepers. Had picked up a season ticket for the entire week and was all set. My six year old niece Anya, who's also been playing tennis for two years now wanted to come along. I was a little apprehensive whether she will last all through the matches but to my surprise she did and really enjoyed the atmosphere. She did come along on two consecutive days.   There were a bunch of players from top 50 and 100 Be...

I finally watched the Chennai open in its 14th edition last week and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. These matches took me back to my teenage years spent in Calcutta learning to play the game and participating in tournaments and also watching good Davis Cup ties with Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes etc.. Growing up watching junior world champion Leander play was wonderful and it was like a dream even for a late beginner like me to play in the same tournaments in the girls category. (Pics from the semis) This time around there was a new Indian tennis star Somdev, who seemed like a panther on the prowl just like Leander, chasing every possible ball around the court. The crowd was also very supportive and it felt good to cheer for an Indian tennis star after such a long time. I hope his good form continues for a long time to come. A good beginning for Indian tennis this year.