I miss being a ‘student’

Throughout my schooling days, I wanted to grow up and get rid of the formal education. Going to school then college and finally to the university – pheww life was killing.  Home-works, class-works, exams, viva getting up early, those uniforms, discipline and what not; and after all these people all around would say school life is the best life and all I could respond was – BULLSHIT.

Apparently for the past 20 years I wanted it to end and now that it is over, within 3 months I miss being a ‘student’. I miss spending time with friends, I miss those lunch breaks when we would share our tiffin, those 10 mins chat after school got over, playing in the school bus, waiting for vacations to come and then desperately wanting it to get over when we could get back to the class. Then face the scolding and punishments as I would always have pending holiday home-works :p. All the fun I had in class trips right from the one to Shantiniketan in class 6 to one in Aviemore when in the University. Those high school crushes, fights with friends, arguments, bunking of classes, sleeping in the early morning lectures (spl in Xavier’s)  life was so much fun.

All of sudden, I am not a student anymore. I don’t get vacations. Even Sundays are not holidays. No one scolds me when I don’t do my home-works, actually I don’t get any home-work. No more friends around, everyone is so busy with their lives. Yes I don’t have semester exams anymore but now every day is an exam. Have to prove my metal every given moment. And strangely I don’t even get notes or books to prepare for such exams. Now I understand how much fun school life was.  A few months back whenever I came across a student I would feel sorry for him/her as they had years of torture to come their way. Now when I see a student I feel pitty on myself as those fun filled ‘torture’ would never come back in my life.  

Being a foreigner at home

After spending a marvellous year in Glasgow I came back home last week. I was quite excited as I landed at the Calcutta airport and got a feel of being home after such a long time. I was happy to be back and relive the wonderful life as I used to all these years but to my greatest astonishment, things around were so not same. When I went to Glasgow, things were not this strange though it was an alien country, may be because I was expecting stuffs to be different hence I was prepared. But when I came back home it should have been normal which wasn’t to be. Since the very moment I landed in India I could notice the difference. I could sense being a foreigner in my own home-land, strange but true. The journey from Howrah bride and the Clyde arc and back to the Howrah bridge had changed things completely. Don’t know what the change was? The actual view or my point of view but certainly things around were not the same.

Daily activities which I was so accustomed to, now seemed outlandish. Using plastic money instead of cash was so not desired, if at all I used my card for making payments it was just a swipe without having to enter the PIN. So card becomes as vulnerable as cash, if I lose It it’s like losing hard money.  Yes cakes were available in bakeries but local sondesh and misti doi would reign supreme. Since childhood I loved 5star but all of a sudden I was missing Racer and did not want it to be replaced. I started to feel how inexpensive things were. A tenner currency note seemed to be nothing (practically valueless). Forcing myself through a crowd of people to avoid queuing was so wired and unacceptable for me now. Honking while driving was another irritating aspect, though I would do it so often a year back, now it would get the hell out of me. Partying all day long without sipping a single drop of alcohol sounded baseless. How was this possible? This indeed was one big change in me - soft drinks getting replaced by the harder ones. The ‘T’ that initially would be ThumsUp, now more often represented Tennents.

 

One of the modules in the university taught me how to overcome cultural barrier if you visit a foreign land. It explicitly told about the ways in which an expatriate should behave and perform so as to adjust in an unknown society but nowhere have I ever learnt about how to react or mold oneself if s/he faces such barriers in the own home land. This very experience has come along as quite a shock. On one hand where it somehow shows that I have learnt something in Glasgow and have grasped what I intended to, while the other side of the coin depicts a fear of having changed my very identity and base. I am sure it’s just a matter of time and I should get back into the groove within weeks and then things would be as normal as they always were. Till then I guess the best I can do is enjoy being a foreigner in my own homeland.

    

My first day in UoG

As every good thing comes to an end, inevitably this wonderful time that I spent in Glasgow had to end and so it did. But nevertheless left behind some very precious and cherishing memories that would be treasured in my heart for the rest of my life. First tings first. lets see how it all started ...........

My first day in UoG, 22^nd September 2011, yes I was a couple days late and probably the only two classes that I missed in the entire year. So, my first day, a bit nervous as I walked into the mammoth structure of the University of Glasgow main building. I met AMT and with that glittering smile of her's, she guided me to room 250 in the Gilbert Scott Building, a class with students from all corners of the world, was expected to be so, but could never imagine how it would be without actually experiencing it. I was all set for my first ever encounter with such a multi-ethnic class. As I looked around I saw unfamiliar but friendly faces, and things gradually started switching from nervousness to excitement. I walked down to the second last row and sat beside a tall no actually very tall guy. The Big Bastian, eventually the first one in the class I interacted with. Helpful as he is, he passed on the slide copies and directed me to the proceedings of the class. Guess I had made a friend already J. So the class went on and emotions within me started to calm down. Things were different -  the teaching pattern, use of electronic medium, and even before I could come to terms with what was happening, Prof. Marian Jones calls me up and says I shall be injected into one of the groups for the course work (now as I was late, the groups were already formed and I was to be adjusted somewhere). So she finally assigns me to Group 5. As she asked the members of the group to raise hands so that I can know who I am with, a reluctant hand in the first row went up in rather discontent (probably I wasn’t quite wanted). But then it was to be and I got into my first group to start with.

After a while we had a recess and we all went down to the café to grab some food. It was quite good, had a very few veggie options though. Here I got a chance to interact with a few of my classmates. A brisk inttro with all and we went back to the class and this time with another new student entering along. It was hmmmmmmm Li or Tmac or Tracy ah whatever. I sat with him this time at the front right hand corner and I made this second friend J. Time went by at rocket speed or may be because it was so eventful a day that i could not keep pace with time. Finally the class got over and I was about to leave when the apparent ‘C.E.O’ of my group calls me from behind and informs that we are supposed to have a group meeting right away. Cool, so be it. Hence, we, a group of six, i.e. Andy, Anand, Lili, Madina, Poornima and me, walked back to the café where the meeting was scheduled. Guess I was really lucky to have been a part of the team as in spite of entering an already formed group, I gelled in quite easily (would like to thank them all for accepting the cranky). After a brief discussion we called it day, and we dispersed back home.

 The day wasn’t yet over though as I had to meet yet another classmate of mine, not in the class but at the corridor of the place I was living in. While walking back to my room I came across this guy, with a lot of shopping bags, struggling near the lift, trying to make his way into the Flat. We started moving together and to our greatest astonishment, we eventually entered the same flat. The best thing that could happen, I was to stay with my classmate – Fahd. Had a bit of a chat and then entered our respective rooms. Guess what? right adjacent to each other J. Third friend I guess. So an eventful day thus came to an end, a perfect start to a perfect year that was in store for me. 

Has Man succumbed to Technology?

If I remember correctly, it was class four, our first computer class and the first thing my teacher told us was - “computer is the dumbest servant. It does what you tell it to do, follows your command blindly and has no intelligence of its own.” So basically man had made a machine which would follow what s/he says and would do the task thus ‘ordered’. Technology, machines, gadgets were all made by human for its convenience, betterment and accuracy in work but of late things seems to have changed. With recurring growth in technology, high dependence of man on machine has somewhat generated an inferiority complex in humans.  All of a sudden people have started questioning their own intelligence and capabilities when compared to these inventions.

Recently I came across this random event whereby there would be a tea time discussion on the fact that ‘is your smart phone smarter than you?’ This event made me think of the situation where we are almost giving up in front of technology, which, not to be forgotten, has been developed by man. It might just be a random get together having some casual talk about the matter. But the whole idea of discussing over the given topic of whether the smart phone is smarter than man himself, does leave a spark in my brains which suggests that somewhere or the other may be at the farthest corner of the heart but man do today feel that technology is overtaking his intelligence. Now, this is just one f the many such events happening around us. One basic example can be the promotional activities of Google. Every now and then we come across phrases like – ‘if your name is not google, stop behaving as if you know everything’ or may be ‘the only thing google has failed to do till now is, fail!’. This certainly demands a lot of thought to be put in. For something which was made by us for our convenience and betterment of work to overdo us, this fear in man’s life can be dreadful. May be in this case it’s a marketing proposition by these smart phone manufacturers or even on other instances a marketing gimmick to promote their product but somewhere somehow such a promotional pattern can strongly effect human psychology and for no good.

This kind of an ideology, according to me can probably have one of the two repercussions. Either we will try to uplift our morals and test our abilities and intelligence every now and then which shall make us even better and proficient. On the contrary (rather what is actually happening) we shall succumb to the technology and accept the fact that we are nowhere in competition with machine. This would make us more and more dependent on them rather than believing in ourselves. Why do we tend to forget that the smart phone thus made with all those features is still made by man, or all the information we find on google is filled in there by man. It is not the site or the machine that works or does things it is made to do things and man makes the machine do it. I am not against growth in technology but I would just want to rephrase what Sir George Barnard Shaw once said – Man maketh machine, machine does not maketh man. 

Punctuality is no conformity

‘You are late man, you missed the bus.’ This is a common statement made by people to justify that if we are not on time me will miss the happening. But in the last couple of days I with three of my friends (Riku, May and Pink) experienced something completely dramatic which proved that you can miss the bus even if you are well ahead of time.

It all started on this Monday as we planned to visit the isles of Arran for cycling along the shores on a sunny day. The biggest concern to start with was that, everybody reaches the station on time to catch the train (which was supposed to leave at 8.34 A.M.).  To our greatest astonishment, all four of us were at Glasgow central station by 8:20. Well ahead of the time. We moved up to platform 12 from where the train was scheduled to leave for Ardrossan Harbour. So we were all standing in front of the train on platform 12, waiting for the gates to open and allow us in. Meanwhile, Riku narrated his past experience, where he along with a couple of friends was to go to the same place and missed the train by a whisker and thus had to catch the other one which stops a couple of stations ahead of our destination and then they took a cab from there to the harbour. While we were busy laughing out on the silly mistake of him and his friends, all of a sudden he stops and points towards this moving  train right behind the one we were waiting to enter and exclaims the tragic words “why does the sign on the train say Ardrossan Harbour?”. We thought he was kidding us but no….. it actually did, though being well ahead of time we had missed the train!! As they say ‘History repeated itself’ and we had to catch the other train to Ardrossan beach, waiting right across on platform 11 (as if it was positioned knowing exactly what was to happen).

Well we got down at Ardrossan Beach at about 9:26 and were still on time to catch the ferry which was to leave at 9:45. We rushed to the cab, and asked the driver to zoom in to the harbour so that we can catch the scheduled ferry. While blazing down the road, there it was, a bright ‘red light’ at the signal, but we stopped for barely a few seconds as it turned green, now the car in front could not start until the signal turned red again. No big deal, you can’t blame the driver, it’s a machine, can break down (arrrrrrggghhhh). Anyway the signal turned green again and we moved ahead. We reached the harbour exactly at 9:45, only to hear a rude man saying “you have missed it, wait for the next one.” No! not again, within a timespan of about 2 hours, this was the second time we missed out on the vessel even being on time. Then suddenly a voice from behind says “alright open the gates, let them in “.  ‘Yes!’ We exclaimed in joy and went on board as every passenger gazed at us ready to pounce.

Now things looked good as we thought luck was on our side and from therein nothing should go wrong (maybe we were too early to reach to such a conclusion). So were landed at Brodick, and as ‘Planed’, hired the bikes to go about the Island. We were to cycle for about 30 Kms which according to our captain (riku) was uphill in the start while ‘eventually’ we shall be going downhill which would be a lot of fun. Almost midway, we were to stop at the Whiting Bay to take a dip in the ocean and freshen up. ‘As per the plan’ we should be done with all of it by 6.30 P.M., return the bikes and there after catch the last ferry which leaves at 7:20. Sounds good but knowing how things were shaping up since morning, ‘Plan’ was something we were rather scared of. Somehow we reached Whiting Bay at 5:30 and had an hour at the beach from where we planned to take a bus to the harbour. At 6:20 we were done with the refreshing beach party and were all set at the bus stop. The bus arrives on time, the door opens, ready to embrace us but then a person who happens to be sitting on the driving seat says, “No bikes on the bus” (what? are you out of your mind? where do leave these then, you junky bloody a*****e). He gives a damn, shuts the door and leaves. Now what? The next bus is at 7:00, even if we get on that we shall never be on time – fantastic !! it happened all over again, we are on time, but we miss the bus.

We get on the next bus leaving the bikes behind, hoping against hope that the ferry would be a half an hour late (I don’t think that was unreasonable on our part? : p). But we reach the harbour to find out that we have missed the last ferry by quite a distance. Disgusted as we stood outside the harbour, God’s Own Angel or should I say Pink’s ‘My man’ walks out of the ticketing office and guess what his name was – John ‘Devine’. We tell him the problem and looking at our pitiful faces, he enchants, ‘not an issue, come down tomorrow anytime and I shall validate your tickets (which were same day return) so that you can use them tomorrow as well”

Nevertheless, ‘we still had not had enough’. So we were to stay there for yet another day and explore more. (No, not even in our dreams were we going for another cycling round) We hired a car and went on the exploration. Well not to describe the journey which was rather fabulous, lets come down to the topic. So we were to return the car at 5:30 and catch the second last ferry this time at 6:00 (giving ourselves an option to catch the last one if we miss this). As usual we were way ahead of time and unusually, this time the ferry was late by about half an hour (if only this happened yesterday). Finally we get on board and move to Ardrossan harbour to catch the train at 8:30. We were at the harbour at 7:30 well ahead again, so we thought “no point wasting time sitting at the station lets go grab a pint each” (brave hearts, one must say).  While having this pint we suddenly realise it’s well about time and the train was already there on the platform. This brought us to the perfect end of the trip as we ran for our lives to get on to the train before we could miss yet another one.

All I can say is, being punctual is good, but doesn’t mean that you will certainly get what you are there for. But yeah was fun and adventurous, looking forward to yet another similar trip where ‘history would repeat itself’.  

if you can, why worry? if you cannot, why worry?

Worry, tension, anxiety, fear how so ever you may call, it is the biggest and the most harmful disease a person suffers from and as any other sickness it indeed is futile. I know it’s not aggravated by us nor do we force ourselves into worrying, it is a natural phenomenon that everybody goes through. But Why Worry? Will it help or make things better in any case? Analysing human abilities, there are two possible outcomes to any problem we face - at the end it will be solved or in the worst case, we wont be able to overcome the same. So the point is, if we have the ability to solve a certain problem then why worry? as we know we can do it and if we don't have the ability to do so, why worry? It won’t help you get out of the trouble. Sit back, relax and see what fate has in store for you.

When people worry they actually tend to predict future and foresee adverse aspects of the given situation. First thing it does it break your moral down, you lose your senses and get into a state of panic as you see negative force driving you. In crisis what you need is calm – cool headed decisions made at the best of your ability which is already a remote idea as you are surrounded by worries. So instead of having your adrenaline run faster, leading to better results, it rather slows down and things eventually end up getting worse than what was thought. Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything. This brings me to a very interesting fact once stated by Robert Frost as he said – ‘the reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.’ So if one is going through a patchy time, s/he should rather try and calm oneself and seek for a probable solution than worrying for the outcome. Every situation is created and ultimately is solved by a man. I don’t know about the rest but we taureans believe that ‘there is nothing that a man can do better than me’. I don’t say it’s true, I don’t say taureans are super-humans, but the belief that we can overcome the situation does help. As the legend says man is the only animal, smart enough to build the empire state building and foolish enough to jump off it. So the choice is yours. Believe in yourself that you can do it and if not be smart enough to leave it for the life to handle the situation but don’t be the foolish one to keep worrying about the outcome when it’s not in your hand to influence the result.

To sum it up I would like to quote the light Irish philosophy which says –

There are only two things to worry about:

Either you are well or you are sick.

If you are sick,
Then there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will get well or you will die.

If you get well,
Then there is nothing to worry about.

If you die,
Then there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will go to heaven or hell.

If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.

But if you go to hell,
You'll be so damn busy shaking hands with friends
You won't have time to worry!

A cute love story

I was walking past the kelvingrove park on this bright sunny day (a rare one in Glasgow),  and suddenly came across a bunch of toddlers playing ‘relay’ (a game where you grab a stick, run down to your group mate and pass it on the him/her, then this person passes on to the next and so on). They were probably having a play class during school hours and were accompanied by a couple of teachers. The game was going good and was quite fun to watch those kids running around the park, having fun.

Amidst this there was a cute little boy standing in the middle of the second team and was constantly talking to a girl right behind him. With just two or three more players in front of him, he was anxiously waiting for his turn to come when he could exhibit his athletics. Finally it was his turn and all he had to do was to firmly grasp the stick – run hard to the finishing pole - run back – and pass on the stick to the girl and become the hero. 

He was prepared to give his best and make an impression. With full confidence, he grabbed on to the stick, and ran with all the energy he had. Usan Bolt in the making. Touched the finishing pole and turned about in style. His confidence boosted up to the seventh heaven as he looked straight and that girl was blasting her tonsils off shouting “faster Peter, faster”. May be just tried too much or just a bad luck I would say, unfortunately his ankle bent and the next moment he was lying heads down on the ground. This was probably the most disheartening sight I had seen in ages. The lad was shattered. He couldn’t believe what just happened. He was so very ashamed of the fact that he couldn’t make it and perhaps because of him the girl might lose out the game. He lay there on the ground for about thirty seconds or may be more and was at his wits end. Finally one of the teachers had to come for the rescue, as she pulled him up and passed on the stick to the next player.

Poor little chap, quietly walked back to his position as the game continued. He could not look into the girl’s eyes anymore as he had let her down. She came by stood behind him, tried to console but he was too shattered. Don’t know if they played again or not. But I am sure the next chance he gets, would be the best performance ever made by a person. I wish I am there to witness the moment when he wins the game and can cling on to his princess. ;)

because the heart has a mind of its own

Theoretically brain is the think tank of a person. All important decisions that affect our lives in any form are taken only after we have consulted your brain several times. This is because, generally brain is considered to be more sensible and an organ that analyses all sides of an aspect. All said right, but there is another part of our system which has the capacity to take decisions – The Heart. It is more sensitive, brisk and takes decision based on emotions. May be this is why people don’t trust the verdict of their heart. But at times decisions should be taken based more on emotions than on logic. Being impulsive and doing what the heart wants without giving a chance to the brain to present its opinion can be fatal but then the heart has a brain of its own. If it says something it surely has applied some thought process behind it.

When the heart takes a decision, it combines all your sentiments and tells you what you actually want to do and not what should be done. Following your heart’s judgment gives you a win – win situation. Now this can be explained in a simple way. When you follow an opinion on a certain aspect there can be two possible outcomes – either the decision thus made works in your favour or it backfires. Now the question is, what will give us more comparative satisfaction?

	Succeed	Miss out
Listening to what brain says	V V V X X	X X X X X
Listening to what heart says	V V V V V	X  X X V V

                  X = sad            
                  V = happy 

If we analyse the above matrix we discover some strange but strangely true facts. The first striking feature of the study is even if we succeed and in the best possible circumstance when everything falls in place as we had planned, it still doesn’t give us a complete satisfaction. This is because, somewhere deep within, we are sad for we couldn’t do what we wanted to or what the Heart had suggested. On the contrary, succeeding whilst listening to your heart gives a complete satisfaction and pleasure as you got to do what you wanted and achieved your goal simultaneously. Also while executing the work; it is more like fulfilling your hobby than doing a certain task which could be tedious otherwise. Again, if we consider the other possibility, that is, backfiring of the plan, it does show diversified results. Missing out on the desired result can be fatal if followed the mind, on the other hand, even if we fail to achieve the objective, following our emotional side, we somehow feel happy for the fact that we at least did what our inner self wanted us to do.

Considering this opportunity cost, listening to your sentimental self, driven by flow of emotions, can do a world of good to your confidence and self-belief alongside with providing an emotional and ‘mental’ satisfaction. So the next time you are making an important decision you know who can give you the best opinion. 

The 'RIGHT TIME' that never comes.

‘I am waiting for the right time to start’. This excuse was rather coined even before man knew what time is. Most of us keep on lingering around, waiting for ‘the’ time to do a task but unfortunately the clock never strikes the hour we look for. The question here is, are we actually waiting for the right sequence of circumstances to fall in place? Or is it yet another way of saying - I don’t want to do it; even better – I cannot do it? As Coelho quotes ‘life was always a matter of the right moment to act’. We leave countless big and small life changing opportunity pass by just because we feel that it’s not the right moment. So many decisions are taken against our will just because we think the time isn’t right. Eventually we get so defensive in our approach that if at all the ‘right time’ ever comes, we are not ready for it.

We keep waiting for the right moment to start a venture but the wait goes on till someone else crops up with the same idea and goes on to materialise it. This starts very early in our lives. Remember when you got the exam schedule and awaited the right time to start studying but alas! the time never came unless you entered the examination hall to realise it was too late. Or when you wanted to approach that special person but were waiting for things to fall in place for you and then one day it was all over when you saw the person embracing someone else’s arms. So many around us who always wanted to tell their parents how much they loved them but waited till they were no more to hear the magical words. Since we start our professional careers, shoulder responsibilities, most of us keep thinking – yes I’ll live that one day for myself. Come that day and I shall start pursuing what I wanted to do and not what others wanted me to do.  But the day never comes, less you are resting in the black box six feet under the surface. We keep waiting for that right instance while the time smoothly passes by. It never stopped for anybody and you are no special to make it change its nature.

So what is it that you want to think or recollect when you are rocking on the easy-chair having seen 60 springs in your life? Is it – what a life that I lived, did all I wanted to; tried everything I could. Or, Ah! If only I had made that small move, if only I had the courage to do it, life would have been so different. Things never would come the way you want and if everything is coming your way, you are driving on the wrong side of the street. So if we want time to be right, we have to make the move and go against the tide. 

When life dies an Hour per Second

 Working really hard for days, time running out at rocket speed, every second we hope if only I had an extra hour in this day - things could have been better done, work could have been so easy. This is what a normal life is like, but then there are those days when you are sitting dull, nothing to do, time refuses to pass. Every second you live is like an hour. You have done everything you could to kill time. Slept for 14 hours in a day, cleaned your stuff, arranged everything in place, - now what?

This might seem to be the worst time in life but if considered properly, the day can be just what you had been craving for. Use the day to do what you always wanted to. Go to a nearby park and blast your tonsils off, go jogging, explore the city you are in – I am sure there might be a new house at the corner or at least newly painted or may be a new plant growing up; there always is something you haven’t seen before. Go for some sport – No one to play with? Doesn’t matter, go alone. Life could never be more fun than giving time to oneself. Go cycling, hit the gym, play water sport – water is the best friend of man, you can spend hours in the water all by yourself. Go sit beside the river or a lake and watch the ducks swim, see the fish breathe, embrace the nature around, try and make ripples in the water and if feeling too adventurous dive in.

Lazy enough to move out? Not a problem. There is a lot around you to cheer you up. Play loud music, no dull ones please, but make sure you are not disturbing the surroundings, even if you are, to hell with them and just go for it. Now do what you could never do, but always wanted to. Play air drums, air guitar, jumping up on your bed - get the kid in you out loose. Imagine yourself to be your favourite superhero. Try making some funny videos of yourself and upload it on youtube. Lost out on energy, calm down, sit and grab a paper from somewhere get a pencil and draw the weirdest sketch ever. Remember those school days when the teacher scolded you for drawing some science diagram which was not even close to original? Now this is the time, draw it how you want it to be like and grade yourself with a smiley. Want to do something creative? Land up in the kitchen. Try cooking a dish that no one has ever tasted before. Mix and match vegetables or try making some strange combination of salad. I am sure most of us would not even dare to taste the final product but who cares? You did what you wanted to now bin it. Time to visit the past. Think about your first crush in primary school, the cutest thing that could ever happen to you. How you did silly stuff to make your presence felt in front of him/her.  I know many of you would like to read a book, get into imagination, live some characters. Not a bad idea, but as because I personally am not a reader, I don’t advocate reading. Your take, you can go for it. Books are good to be with, just see to it that you don’t go off to sleep again.

                

                        

Now that you are done with your day, share your experience with others. Write a blog, get on to some public forum and tell how you spent a wonderful day which could otherwise be the most boring day in your life.

the 6Ft 2" miracle is here to prove a point

Former world number one, Maria Sharapova, is not just a style icon on the tennis court and she is here to prove it all over again in the French Open 2011.The Russian ace, seeded 7 in the tournament, meant business and it was evdent all over her face and body language when she took on Croatia's Mirjana Lucic today at court Philippe Chatrier.

Having achieved a recent mandatory title on clay, Sharapova was being considered a dangerous customer, as she started her campaign in the French Open. Fresh off from the victory at the Rome Masters, she was high on confidence and it showed clearly in the game. It would have been a surprise if she had to carry on till the third set and as expected, the heart-throb of millions, wrapped it up quite early in style with 6-3, 6-0.
Nevertheless, Lucic, with all her experience would not let it go without putting up a fight. Though undermined, the battle could have been fierce and was seen in the first set where the Russian had to fight her way through. Finally, at the end of the seventh game, the 24 year old got a lead. Winning the next match point at 40-0 she eventually seized the set 6-3. 
Then there was no looking back. The former world No. 1 whistled through the second set without loosing a single game. As expected things were wrapped up within less than an hour at the end of the second set itself. 

Though a bit jittery at the start, one could see the glimpses of her coming quite close to her best. Not to take away from the Croatian who showed a lot of character, but had to bow down to the favorite. Stakes are high and so are the expectations. This time she is not there just to show the world what she can, but also to prove a point or two to herself after a long dearth of titles. Will she be able to break the clay jinx and add yet another jewel to her crown  - The French Open Title?