What I Shall Not Do

I hereby make a promise that I won’t do what I want to do or what the others want to do as long as those things are on this list of what not to be done in 2016. If I don’t want to do these things, I surely won’t do them either. If it is impossible to do these things, I shall keep myself from doing them with happiness. If something special comes up related to these things, that won’t matter too. Okay, here are the five things that I won’t do in 2016. This is the not-to-do list and the great anti-resolution resolution which I am coming up with.

1. I shall not watch Bollywood romance: This is a resolution which I should have taken very long ago, and I did somewhat manage that. But that didn’t include the Bollywood movies which are not really romance, but it has so much romance that you will wonder why it is not known to be romance but something else. So many Bollywood movies have romance, and I consider it an unreal part which needs to be removed for the flicks to go realistic. I am looking for something which doesn’t keep going romantic all the way, especially when there is not real need.

Okay, there is the need for romantic movies at times. I won’t deny that, and I haven’t disliked all romantic movies; I did grow up watching Bollywood romance too. There are movies like Charlie which has a background romance of high spiritual and intellectual quality going on, along with Anarkali and Ennu Ninte Moideen which has the elements of true love and eternal romance. From there, these days we are introduced into those things which needs to have the words “this is actually love and so please do think that it is so” written all over there so that we will feel the intensity of love.

Athirappilly Waterfalls is romantic, but Bollywood romance these days is not!

2. I am not going to read fiction anymore: I have read a lot of fiction in my life, or rather too much of it. In the year 2016, the only fiction that I will be reading is going to be what is written on the blogs. Yes, there will no more comparison of the book and movie – kind of review like it was there in the case of The Hunger Games, Interview With the Vampire, Queen of the Damned and others. I watch too many movies that I forget them too early, and so adding these books to the list will make me forget the movie in a day or two!

3. I shall not sleep during the day from day after tomorrow: Yes, vampires do sleep inside their coffins, but this is twenty first century and coffins are very costly. Okay, lets leave that behind – I am jobless and sometimes during the daytime, there is nothing to do at all. So, I would choose to sleep when I am not writing. Well, only a small percent of what I actually write reaches this blog – so, maybe I should create more that makes it to light rather than keep sleeping. I have thought about that quite a lot.

4. I shall know no taste of coffee in 2016: Yes, I don’t usually drink coffee. But there are times when we accidentally land at some relatives’ home and what we get turns out to be coffee and as we had started it, we need to finish it. That mistake did happen in 2015, and for the same reason, in the name of cardamom tea, ginger tea and all the other types of tea available at Cochin and its suburbs, I take the pledge not to have coffee at all. Before drinking anything, I shall confirm with people that it is actually tea.

5. I will not attend most of the weddings to which I am invited: Yes, I had enough of these weddings which are nothing more than showing how much money everyone has got. To add to that, some people say that I am next. Seriously? It has been one year and one day after this was said – Did I get married? No! If they were sharing my blog posts that would have actually motivated me to attend their weddings. But if these people want me to get married, that is not a positive thing and I shall just skip the weddings 😛

Simona the Kitty shows the right expression towards relatives who say so! 😀

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post were taken by me only.

TeNy

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2015 in Review

Happy New Year 🙂  [Official] 😀

The WordPress.com stats helper zombies prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. According to Uncle Dracula, the Vampire Team has worked harder than he thought in order to make it more popular among the humans. He would like to thank all the readers on this blog and has promised to provide vampire shares when the New Vampire World takes over the realm and bring the New Utopia into existence. He would make a request to all of you in order to pray for the same. Btw, the Vampire Team hopes that you have watched Charlie, the movie of Christmas 🙂

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 81,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Big Posts of 2015

Hitman vs. Transporter [Movies]
These are the seven most visited posts of the year 2015, and it comes as a flashback to what all happened at The Tea Cerebration(s) last year. The most visited post of the year was about Hitman: Agent 47 going face to face against The Transporter: Refueled here, as the date of release for the two movies were the same in India. The movies still only have 5.8/10 at IMDb and 8% at Rotten Tomatoes here in the case of the first movie, while the latter has 5.0/10 at IMDb and 17% at Rotten Tomatoes – but they were fine action flicks and worth the comparison; the post surely made it to the top of the list for the year!

Premam vs. Moideen [Movies]
The second most read post of the year is not that much far behind and is still getting a lot of visitors. With the potential to become the new topper for the year, this comparison has been something which the fans have been doing a lot. Premam and Ennu Ninte Moideen are the two top grossers of the year in Malayalam Cinema, and the fans of the latter flick are consistently trying to degrade the former movie. So, this post had become something essential, and there were many people searching with the same line as the title; some of them asked which one is better, and the rest asked which one is worse!

A Return to Tennis [Sports]
This is the tennis related post which I came up with after a long time, and it becomes one of those rare later sports posts. It was more of a random post about the tennis world, but it had a lot of visits, and the search engine was also very kind to this one. This post chases the write-up which is just above it with the steady number of visits. I wasn’t planning to come up with anything big related to this post, but things ended up really well here. So, with Novak Djokovic being the undisputed winner of the year, 2016 might not be that different in writing as far as the tennis posts are concerned.

Why Watch Rani Padmini? [Movies]
Another post about one of the most interesting and inspirational movies had to be written along with the review posted at Movies of the Soul – Rani Padmini is a movie which creates that kind of an impact. No matter what happens at the box-office, we just can’t avoid such movies. With movies like Mili, Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam, My God and Jo and the Boy to go with it this year, this movie was also required to go bring only the right reasons, as inspiration was going to gain more strength. The movie review is also the third most visited post at Movies of the Soul after Kunjiramayanam and Anarkali, and this post also makes it to the top list.

The Storm Unleashed [Fiction]
This was one of the posts written as the BlogAdda WOW post, a fictional story which did win the badge for the same. The story of the fictional character coming alive was always a part of the dreams, and this one had me thinking about one of my favouite X-Men; it could have been Nightcrawler, Rogue or Mystique, but it was Storm in the end. This is one of my favourite WOW posts, and it did make it for a place among the most visited posts in a short time. There are a number of other fictional stories which made it to the WOW badge, and I have enjoyed writing each one of them.

The Vision of a Lost Bat [Fiction]
I consider this the most valuable post on this blog, thanks to the selection for the India Today Conclave at Taj Palace, Delhi. This one came as the game changer and has got a lot of visits from BlogAdda’s contest winning page. This was also the biggest surprise of the year, as I had mentioned in earlier posts – it also inspired more posts related to it, concerning the big program as well as the journey. It talks about the Vampire Bat’s journey to another planet where he found a new civilized way of life, as Dracula also gets there in the end, with teleportation working in full strength.

On Responsible Tourism [Journeys]
This is a post which is a lot visited which has come up to the top list in the recent days. This one was actually very quick to climb to the most visited posts list, and I was also invited for the Outlook Traveler Tourism Summit, but couldn’t make it to Delhi this time as I would have had to start packing at that moment when I heard that I was selected. I am not that quick, as you might already know. I think, and then I think more; so it was always going to take more time with booking the flights and arranging the accomodation. But I am happy that this post about responsible tourism was noticed!

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Pages of the movies, Premam and Rani Padmini. Meanwhile, have you checked for the movie releases during the first quarter of 2016?

TeNy

The Tales of 2015

Another year is coming to an end, and 2015 has been a different year – all years have been different frome each other, even though nothing huge happens with life, and whatever happens, things just go back to nothingness which has been part of my life. 2015 will also have its own tales which the year doesn’t want to share with 2014 or 2016. There will be something different each and every time making the years not the same. It was better defined when we were in school or college as each year had something special; but now we have to think more to find those events.

Maybe the best or the worst of the year are yet to happen, but as of now, the best moment was winning the passes for the India Today Conclave at Delhi with BlogAdda. It should be my best win ever at any stage, and that happened with the post The Vision of a Lost Bat. I did go to attend the conclave where the main talkers were Sachin Tendulkar, Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Lisa Haydon, Viswanathan Anand, Chetan Bhagat and others. It was a great experience for me and it also made sure that I should blog more, and I would credit BlogAdda for that motivation to write more.

Well, I have written at least one post on every day of this year in this year, and I am still continuing that trend which I hope that I never have to stop soon. 2015 also had many other contest wins for me, and I would call it a rich year which has inspired me to write more and more. 2015 has made me realize that I should do many things, but the one thing that I should always do is to blog, which is why I bought the domain for Movies of the Soul, about which I feel very good. Until 2014, I was only a blogger who wrote something when I had time, but now I find time for writing each and every day, and I shall carry this over to the next year.

Life just keeps hitting the rocks, doesn’t it? But there is always hope.

But there is one big New Year resolution which I really need to make with 2016 right around the corner. In 2014, I fell short of watching 100 movies in the theatres with the final count at 89, and this year, it is at 81 so far, and it seems to be all prepared to end before touching the nineties too. So, in 2016, I want to get it to one hundred movies like I watched 109 of them at the theatres in 2013. I need to take the pledge to be more consistent with this; the problem with this year was that we shifted home and I prepared for some of the PSC examinations. But now I believe that I should keep my movie world alive with the rest too!

I also hope to get a job next year, and it has been the Mission Impossible for me this year. I had sent a huge number of resumes this year at various e-mails, but only a few of them replied and only an even lesser number gave me an appointment. It is a hope which I really need to provide the wings because the relatives are becoming more and more violent every day – the salaries of the cousins are getting higher and they are getting married to rich people which brings a lot of contempt on me. I really need to get somewhere to come up with a direct reply.

Somehow, this relative problem has to be dealt with – we call it The Relative-IT Theory about which I have already written a long time ago. Surrounded by the relatives who are always trying to boast about the salaries and bank balance of their children along with the acres of land and the properties which the children’s off-springs own, will only get worse next year. They will get richer and I will get older in 2016, and so the only precaution to be taken here is to be prepared for those words of vanity, but try to avoid them as much as possible. I have also prepared a few dialogues in case of an emergency situation.

So, you are on this boat to 2016 – lets go through the troubles.

The biggest hope is to become a better person than I am now; but that is going to be complicated because when I get older, I don’t get any stronger. Still, I hope that the upcoming year will bring something better. We have thought in a similar manner about other years too, but this time, Lets think that 2016 is going to be different. Maybe we can take life as one year at a time. The world might be the same anyway, but we can change and above all, we can hope. After all, it is something which costs nothing. May the year 2016 be better than 2015, and lets wish for the best to happen!

I’m sharing my #TalesOf2015 with BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post were taken by me on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310.

TeNy

A Return to Tennis

With the last Grand Slam of the year already over, I had thought that the best moments of tennis were over for this year. But it didn’t end with US Open, as ATP World Tour Finals was not the last big thing. There was Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza did managing to claim the doubles title at the WTA Finals with a 6-0, 6-3 win against the Spanish team of Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro. Having already won Wimbledon and the US Open, it has been an a very nice year for the Indo-Swiss team.

Sania was already the defending champion having won the title last year with Zimbabwe’s Cara Black who had her third title of WTA Finals doubles last year while Martina Hingis is having her third doubles to go with her two singles. It was quite an expected win there, with this team doing so good these days. But the surprises came in the WTA Finals singles and the Swiss Indoors at Basel. There were some interesting moments there, with ATP World Tour Finals still to come.

While Sania and Martina were on the top of their game, Agnieszka Radwańska wasn’t anywhere close to being declared to be among the favourites to win the singles division. She hasn’t been having that great a year, except for the Wimbledon. She still returned into the top five and claimed her spot, making the former World Number Two a fine contender especially in the absence of Serena Williams who was the three time defending champion absent due to injury.

Then too, the last year’s runner-up and the current number two who lead the seedings had to become the hot favourite, but Simona Halep had to take the early exit. Agnieszka herself had to qualify second from a group dominated by Maria Sharapova, even though she could take a set from Maria. Even in the semi-finals, she had to take on the second seed Garbiñe Muguruza who beat her in the Wimbledon. But she got through in three sets and also against Petro Kvitova the two-time Wimbledon winner who defeated Maria, once again in a nice contest.

It was nice to see the lady from Poland finally getting to the grand stage. She has been my long time favourite, even before the new ones were there, but I couldn’t see Agnieszka at her best winning those big ones until now. May be it is time to have newer names on the Grand Slams even though Serena will have other ideas. Agnieszka Radwańska and Simona Halep are two players who seriously need to win a Grand Slam or two in the next year; I wouldn’t be surprised if Garbiñe Muguruza does that too.

Then there was the biggest of them all, Swiss Indoors at Basel. It was going to have a big final after a long time; with Stanislas Wawrinka eliminated early thus getting rid of the possibilities of an all-Swiss clash, it came up to the two big names in the end, about two players who didn’t meet for a very long time because of one of them always exited when the other reached the final. The #Fedal final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was long awaited, with the former surely having a better year and the latter having a better head-to-head record.

Federer still had a better record in indoor hardcourt matches and was also in a better form, even though Nadal did put up the fight. It was a match which was so close to arrive, but never really came for us. It has been twenty one months. It was finally great to see the two men with thirty one Grand Slams in total battling each other, and Federer won another title, and it is his seventh title at another venue, after achieving the same for Wimbledon, Halle, Dubai and Cincinnati. Lets hope to see more matches between these two, and with ATP World Tour Finals there to be taken for another seventh title, with Federer ranked much higher, may be these two will be in the same group!

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Pages of Agnieszka Radwańska and Roger Federer.

TeNy

What Do We Know?

There has been no shortage of newspapers in the vampire world which were smuggled through the portal to the other realm. One of them had the attention of Dracula who decided to teleport himself to the land of the humans, where the Vampire Bat awaited his arrival. “What is it about this India Today Woman Summit and what is this thing about women wanting to be treated specially or equally? What is wrong with these humans and what is it that these people require?” Dracula wondered. A certain understanding was reached with five situations at five different places.

They first stopped at a village where a woman was looking to keep her second child after losing the first one to female foeticide forced upon her by the relatives of her husband. She had her own doubts about this one too, and had left the house. Dracula refused to believe such incidents happening during this modern age and wondered if they had used the time machine instead of the teleportation device, but the Vampire Bat assured him that it is the right device, and to make sure about the same, pressed the button again to instantly teleport them to another location.

The device re-appeared at another location and it crashed into the garden of a house. They were quick to hide the machine and listened to the conversation going on inside home. While leaving, Dracula asked “Why should this girl stay with the idiot who is not worthy of marriage? Just because he is rich and has good looks, why should she tolerate this egoistic maniac? This is ridiculous”. “I would blame the parents in this case. They are always looking for the rich men from reputed families and not men with character. Some idiots think that a job with high salary and family reputation means everything” said the Vampire Bat.

The repaired device stopped at the top of an Airtel mobile tower. They looked around with their exaggerated visions to notice two separate incidents, one where a girl was stalked by three men, and another where four men were acquitted by the court nearby as the accusation on them for molestation was wrong. “This is rather confusing. Which one is real? One of them is an illusion, right?” asked Dracula. “Both are real. There are just good men and women and then there are the evil ones” replied the Vampire Bat. “It is just not that simple as it is in the vampire world. Humans are too unpredictable” he added.

“See that one on the left side!” the Vampire Bat screamed. Dracula turned around to see a man yelling about shortage of dowry. “That idiot! I don’t understand why the families get the women to marry these men who ask for money. There is no favour being done here, and marriage is not about saving the girl. They should say no to the men who ask dowry, no matter what he has to offer. This is not love, but an insult to women. It is a shame that they even give dowry for love marriages” said Dracula. “I have told you many times that these humans are strange. Even most of the good men don’t have the right to choose what to study and whom or when to marry” said the Vampire Bat.

They rested under a tree behind a stage on which a lady was speaking about why all men are evil and how they should leave the women alone to achieve what they have always wanted. They remembered that the same lady had asked for more reservations for women in various fields along with some special treatment at another venue. She had also asked for hatred against men. “Who is she?” Dracula asked. “It is a human thing. They don’t really know what they want, but they find ways to hate each other every day. She is just a very good contributor in one particular field. The religion and caste based hate fields are more popular” the Vampire Bat replied.

“Forget them. Nobody has any idea. At least do you actually know what you want?” Dracula asked. “I don’t know it either. But I have understood that there will never be true equality unless everyone tries to achieve it, stopping the discrimination on the basis of not just sex, but also social status, caste, religion, community, money, race, language and everything else which divides the world including the extremities of nationalism” said the Vampire Bat. “I am delighted to know that you are thinking exactly the same way as I have been directing my thoughts” said Dracula as he disappeared into the shadows.

I’m blogging for the India Today Woman Summit 2015 #WomenPower activity at BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Page of the movie, Hotel Transylvania.

TeNy

That Strange World Cup

Another Cricket World Cup comes to the fans, and the Indian team is going to Australia with that ridiculous and selfish motto “We won’t give it back!” as if it has been made the private property of BCCI after stealing it from someone else. This is the season of those fake patriots and new age nationalists who are going to temporarily love their country until this tournament is over. This is also the season of the abusers who are waiting to abuse the players from other countries and some of them might have even got a whole book of abuse ready for the process. Not having a look here means no patriotism and so I will have a look at the chances here.

1. Australia: The bigger one among the hosts missed out on making a four out of four because the last World Cup was held in the sub continent. This competition at their place makes things so easy for them, as we have seen how well they did in the last tournament involving three teams in total. They have fine batting power, deadly bowling and the strength of some of the best all-rounders. When you look at the Australian team, you can say that this is an excellent group of players, something that you never expected when players like Gilchrist, Hayden and Ponting were gone. They might also be having a strong emotional side this time due to the comrade that they lost. Steven Smith will be the key, and even when he is not, there will be someone else on fire – if one man won’t score a century, another one will.

2. India: With an amazing partnership from Dhoni and Srinivasan alienating most of the educated Indian cricket fans, the team still have so much firepower with the batting even as flat-track bullies in the team cannot be trusted. But the batting should click heavily at some point. By avoiding the services of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, the experience factor disappeared and so did a lot of fans. Another big mistake was committed by not including Robin Uthappa and Varun Aaron. But still with BCCI controlling most the ICC and as most of the cricket fans are in India, some special treatment should be given to the Indian team or team BCCI. If you look at the points table, India can easily finish second in their group and Sri Lanka third in theirs, thus making sure that India won’t have to defeat a good non-Asian team till semi-finals – that is a relatively easy path.

3. South Africa: With the official chokers tag, they have somehow managed to loss all the matches which they should have won. With always having a nice team, they have never been to the final and it is a shame. But, things can change this time. AB de Villiers will be a big problem for the opposition and the key player along with Hashim Amla, as the rest of the teams will have to wait an eternity to have both of these players out of form. But it is also a batting line-up that can go deeper, and then there is Dale Steyn and team that can boast of being one of the best bowling line-ups of this World Cup. This might be their time – they should be ready. They can only be given the third best chance due to their history and reputation.

4. New Zealand: Here is another team which has played too many semi-finals, but the engine stops there. Well, even Kenya has been to the semi-finals of a World Cup. This time, they also come to the World Cup as co-hosts, and this is a situation which they should use to their best advantage. The neve-ending form of the young star Kane Williamson and the experienced Ross Taylor can bring fear into the minds of the opposition. Then, everyone also know what Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson are capable of – total annihilation. With no shortage of the all-round skills and the bowling that can use the conditions well, the black caps should consider this their best chance ever.

5. Sri Lanka: For Sri Lanka, the young captain and the nice finisher Angelo Mathews will be the key along with the experienced Sangakkara-Jayawardane-Dilshan combination and the Malinga power. The middle order might be depending too much on Sangakkara and Jayawardane, but they should deliver enough. When there is the need, Thisira Perera should fire too. People are surely going to under-estimate this team, and it is going to be their strengths. They have been finalists for too many occasions, and it is time that they clinch a World Cup. I hope they make use of the opportunity this time – they have been one of my favourite teams.

6. England and Pakistan: Along with England, I was going to put West Indies here, and then I looked at that team, suddenly shifting to Pakistan. They also have a slight chance here, and for that Shahid Afridi has to play a big role along with the talented youngsters. It surely has a better chance than a remotely possible Gayle Storm. England can do well at these conditions as they have proved, but nothing much can be said. About United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Afghanistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, I have no idea why they are playing other than to increase the total number of teams and to give runs to the major teams. But I hope these teams prove me wrong, especially Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland.

*The images used in this blog post are from the official Facebook Page of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

TeNy

Kochi Biennale 20:20

I do still want to visit Kochi Biennale (http://kochimuzirisbiennale.org) this year, but it turns out that I am too lazy to travel that far and have been unable to find someone who can go there with me. Yes, finding partners to see art has never been this difficult. Therefore, I was looking at the photos taken by me during last Biennale and I wish to share twenty of them with you. All of them were taken on my Sony Cybershot DSC-W310 and chosen just because they look interesting for me now at the first look 😀

Keep calm and hope to go for Biennale 😀

TeNy

My Halloween Valentine

Even as it has been quite a long time since I had a crush and good times have gone and disappeared too quickly, I would like to use this opportunity provided by Closeup’s Cupid Games to make an attempt on how I would propose to my crush on a Valentine’s day. A certain amount of weirdness is present in this blog post as expected, and I hope my readers can forgive it as they have done for my many other posts 😀

The time would be late afternoon, around seven or seven thirty. It would be on the Badminton court which has been one of my favourite and the luckiest places, and there would be her, waiting for a game. I have always been more impressed by her shuttle skills rather than anything else. Being a jobless person, I should be the first one there, but I am also the lazier one. The others are those with even a lesser amount of punctuality; being usually late and that makes it perfect and clear that I can be there at the right time.

I am not with the strength that I used to be, and the teenage energy was lost some time ago, with only a few things left that bring me forward. But she was different, and so was I – the people of the Badminton court. She was never like the other girls around, and it had nothing to do with the looks. I have been pretty much weird myself, and therefore I thought it was going to be good for me, and my idea also was supposed to be strange.

I am getting older and friends are getting married; the fact is that I am feeling much older than I am due to these wedding invitations. I know that the number of people asking me to get married will keep increasing that I might soon be forced to put my face on a matrimony site, and start drinking tea at many houses with girls who were unlucky enough to have their profiles on the same matrimony sites. Drinking tea might be the only positive thing about that. Meanwhile, this was a girl whom I had known for around fifteen and half years.

So, with not much time to waste before getting even older as the single young man, I would go with my Ghostface mask and ask her to have a cup of tea with me, and offer to drink tea with her forever, like the vampires do with their nicely brushed teeth and fangs calling for eternal life. Halloween is my favourite celebration and it has been a connecting link for us. So I wouldn’t think that she can disagree to that. Neither would she doubt the quality of my mask.

We would go for tea in the Chevrolet Beat or on the Honda Dio to the nearest restaurant, and would have that cup of tea. She would also need a Masala Dosa, and as I shall be well-prepared for the same with the wallet. We were never known to be the more talkative ones, and with another cup of tea, I would ask her to begin drinking tea at my home as soon as possible, as more waiting meant more complications, with both of us not getting any younger.

***The images used in this blog post are from the official Facebook Page of Closeup, only meant to support this work. This blog post at The Tea Cerebrations is for the Happy Hours Campaign from Closeup in association with Indiblogger. It is written as a part of Closeup’s Cupid Games. Check the following link for more details about these interesting games from them as the Valentine’s Day approaches quickly – keep calm and participate in the games of love: http://cupidgames.closeup.in/

TeNy

What are the Chances?

The Australian Open is fast approaching, and is almost here. On January 19th, the battle for another Grand Slam, the first one of the year and the most unpredictable one begins, and this is that kind of an year which has hopes for all the players in both Men’s and Women’s draw, if you ask me. Yes, the Big Four was broken twice last year with Marin Čilić and Stanislas Wawrinka tunneling their way to the first and the last slams, and in 2015, there is chance of the newer Grand Slam aspirants to bring the fight to Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Still, our favourites remain favourites.

1. Novak Djokovic: The world number one, once again has the best chance to win his favourite Grand Slam, and this place where he established himself as a worthy opponent to Federer and Nadal should have a lot more for him, considering that even when he seems a little down, he keeps coming back – this is still his peak time. He also have a simpler draw, with all the challenges on his way seemingly of causing lesser trouble for him. I don’t think that any of those names can challenge this man at his favourite part of the world – the Djoker is the favourite, no doubt. His only worry can be del Potro unleashing himself, but that is not much likely, and the Wawrinka, Nishikori or Ferrer challenge in the semi-finals might be the first big trouble.

And there is always the Djoker looking for his opportunity.

2. Rafael Nadal: Looking at the draw, Nadal does have a better path than Federer, and I would say that it is an easier path for him compared to that of Federer, and therefore, even with his usual injury problems and continuous problems of fitness, should have the next best chance after Djokovic. Yes, there are tough names there on his path, but they are all beyond their best, and has very less chance of beating Nadal as far he can find some of former glory and stay fit. I would not judge him by his terrible performances in the first two tournaments this year, because he has had his amount of luck with Grand Slams. Well, he should be looking for something other than the French Open this time and Berdych, Youzhny and Gascquet shouldn’t be able to stop him.

3. Roger Federer: He can have the troubles like Monaco, and the big Nadal Slayer Kyrgios or the big serving Karlović on his path, with Murray in the quarter finals and Nadal in the semi finals, something which can mean long sets and fatigue for the most elderly of the four. Then the final should be against Djokovic, and this is something that should test him, as he goes through all three of the big four – not really good news for him in the very first slam of the year. The one thing that should work for him should be his form, which has been very good, and one of the best, as he went on to win his first title this year at Brisbane with ease. Fresh from the thousandth win of his career, there is no stopping him if he is at his best, and the question only remains if he will be at his best. Well, this is his resurrection – and sparks are going to fly.

As all good things begin and end with Roger Federer.

4. Andy Murray: Even with his terrible form and the inability to win a Grand Slam for quite a long time now, Murray is still the fourth best player considering the achievements as well as the ability which he has proven until now – to keep him out of the list and considering him not a threat, would be a big mistake. Dimitrov should be his only big challenge on the path, something which he should overcome, considering the fact that there are signs of him coming back to his older self. Well, it is time he shows the rest of the Big Four that he means a lot more than just what he has won now, which seems to pale in comparison to the rest which seems to have made their own Big Three.

5. Stanislas Wawrinka: And then there is our defending champion who grabbed that title from Rafael Nadal who was all set to win the last year’s Australian Open. He has a nice route until meeting Nishikori or Ferrer in the Quarter Finals, and then coming up against the big Djokovic problem. I have always supported him to win a Grand Slam, and considering how nice a sportsperson he has been, I think it will be nice to see him winning another title here, the second one in a row. Well, del Potro can destroy all these calculations, but that is if he is back to that player that he has been. I might have my favourites and likes, but may the best man who plays well win.

Happy days have been returning for Caroline Wozniacki.

In the Women’s draw, I am thinking that the one who wins the Caroline Wozniacki vs Serena Williams match, which should be one of the Quarter Finals, should go on to win the title unless it is too tiring to recover, and the winner of a possible Simona Halep vs Maria Sharapova Semi Final should win it – but with Eugenie Bouchard, Ana Ivanovic and the uncertainty of the Women’s side, I can’t make a big guess about it. But I would personally like to see Simona Halep, Agniezska Radwańska, Caroline Wozniacki or Eugenie Bouchard winning this one 🙂 [All images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Pages of the tennis players]

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