Loonville

Schiller.Goethe.Hegel.Zeiss.Sido

Friedrich Schiller University, Jena.

OpSciTech

EM grant, 42,000 Euros, my preciousss.

UPDATE: Going through the first year’s coursework, I contemplate switching track to study philosophy or psychology. XLRI now looks very promising.

No glasses. Semi-blind. One does strange things.
I was hoping for a Hermes.

Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??

Hecate
Take this quiz!

Particle physics.S-matrix.Wormhole.Blackhole.Quantum Gravity.

H-Bomb.Manhattan project.Wheeler-Dewitt equation.unified field theory.

John Wheeler is gone.

The young man looked down intently on the white globe. For once, he didn’t find dimples alluring. It was somehow not right. Sweat dripping down his brow, it wasn’t an ideal day to turn down the air conditioner let alone walk across a 90 acre stretch they call green. Today, green was more like brown. A well-meaning soul says the green has always been brown. The young ‘un steadies his arms. The presence of a fair skinned bombshell who just clobbered a poor ball across ‘the green’, by a distance that ought to be measured in light years, doesn’t help. The repressive MCP begins to make his presence felt. A girl, no, not before a bombshell ..
The Oldest member counsels ” Try opening your stance, that way you wouldn’t hook it”
The fledgling is all at sea. Is a hook over-hitting it to the right or it that a pull ? A brain entombed in rich cricketing traditions screams in protest. A hook or a pull gets the short pitch ball over to the leg side.
A small voice whispers ” Dude, you have to connect first and SHE IS LOOKING”

Did our hero do a Harry Vardon ? Was the nubile creature enamored by the man with the perfect drive ? Will they have kids by the eighteenth hole ?

“Eureka !! Pressure !! Lift !! That’s why golf balls have dimples”

Golf. I was fifteen when I first watched golf on ESPN. The reason ? I was just back from my class 10 boards and I had missed that one four marker. I vividly remember Senthil yelling ” Golf paarkureya.. #$#%$@@^&% ” and rushing home to see if I had slit myself up. One must admit watching senile men move across the green at a pace that would match a Chennai Transport bus in rush hour traffic, may not be everybody’s idea of sport; but there is an old world charm to it. Mystical serenity. Acquired taste. Golf embodies it all. The ball flying across the blue skies, fluttering birds, tracing an arc and then thudding across the green to subdued applause. Welcome to the gentleman’s game. And when Shinde uncle invited me last sunday to the golf course, I was enthralled.

I was dressed immaculately for the occasion. After all, I have spent hours over PG Wodehouse denouncing knickerbockers and skinny legs. I was a couple of minutes early and I spent it invoking the graces of the Oldest Member, Abe Mitchell, Harry Vardon and Cuthbert Banks. Shinde turns up with a bag of clubs, worth its weight in gold, shows me the stance and the interlocking grip ( Tiger Woods uses it * gibbon jump*). I tee up, position myself into a good Sachin Tendulkar stance, a Brian Lara bat-lift, a Steve Waugh grip and take my first swing; a lofted drive over long-on, six runs, out of the course. Shee, golf is easy..

” Not bad for a greenhorn. But you pulled it “
“It was a straight drive over mid-on actually”
“Your head wasn’t still. Terrible eye-hand co-ordination.You didn’t twist as you came down. And you don’t get points for hitting out of the course”

Golf is a geek’s delight. A zillion peculiar terms, calculations, par, handicap, windspeed, angle of approach, a wide choice of clubs, lift, drive, optimal force and inclined planes. Tailor-made for me. All I had to remember was the El-nino and ‘the earth’s rotation’

I spent rest of the day shouting FORE ¹. I am not sure it was the right term.The ball stayed put, the clubs did the flying.

Golf is tough. Addictive. Life threatening when I’m on the green/brown.

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FORE¹ – “Fore!” is shouted as a warning when it appears a ball may possibly hit other players or spectators