Sunita is Back Home...

Atlast, Sunita returned to earth in Atlantis..after days of uncertainity and bad weather...Thousands prayed to god for a safe return. Everybody was fearful about what happened to Kalpana Chawla some time back.

This time also, the space shuttle got damage in the heat resistant outer tiles. But, this time NASA didn't attempt for a chance. The damage was corrected before the return journey. Then, the computer system (Russian made), which was supplying the oxygen to the astronauts, stopped functioning. It was a serious problem. Normally, when such a problem comes, rebooting of the system would resolve the issue. But, this time it didn't help. Engineers in Houston and Moscow worked around the clock to come up with a fix. It took some 2 days to fix this damage.

Finally, Sunita and her team (pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, Steven Swanson and Danny Olivas) started their journey back to home. This time around, it was the turn of bad weather to delay their come back. And finally, today shortly before 1.00 pm (US time), they successfully landed at the Edwards Air Force Base (Mojave Desert) in California (earlier they planned for Kennedy Space Station Cape Canaveral.)

Now, Sunita Williams holds the record for stay in Space by any woman (195 days). She also set the world record for a female astronaut on spacewalks, totalling 29 hours and 17 minutes. She also proved that, she can not only walk, but run too, in space. During the Boston Marathon, she completed her race in a tread mill.

After the landing, 41-year-old Sunita was chosen Person of the Week by the ABC Television Network.

We, the Indians can celebrate this moment as she is an Indo-American.

About Sunita Williams...

Sunita Lyn Williams, born on September 19, 1965 in Ohio . A NASA astronaut, she is the second woman of Indian origin after the late Kalpana Chawla to go into space after being selected by NASA.

Married to Michael J. Williams, her family roots go back to Gujarat from her father's side. She carried a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small statue of Ganesha and some samosas into space. She completed her Masters in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Her stint with NASA started in 1998. She flew into space on Space Shuttle mission STS-116, aboard the shuttle Discovery, on 10 December 2006.

Hamilton Creates History in F1...

The Formula 1 circuit in Canada will be better known for the fact that Hamilton lifted his first F1 win. Now, Hamilton is the First Black Driver to clinch this prestigeous car race. Those who watched the race are lucky to see one of the finest F1 races, where Ferrari was crushed, McLaren team mate Alonso taken over by Sato(cpmmentattors told that, even sato has overtaken Alonso), Raikonen struggling (I don't know whats his problem..he may be under pressure to perform), Massa getting Black signal (due to the stringent rules of F1, he was forced to stop his race in between), and some amazing accidents (really I likes accidents in F1 race..I dont know why..). Because of the frequent accidents, Safety car was in place 4 times and Hamilton was lucky in that, just after he took his pit stop, safety car was imposed.

BMW Sauber's Kubica met a very serious accident. He has collided with Toyota's Jarno Trully. By the time I'm writing this post, he has been released from Hospital. There is nothing to worry, he is perfectly fine. He is looking for driving the Indianopolis GP next week.


But, all these times, there was one guy, the wonder boy from UK, without making even a single mistake, looking for the checkered flag. I think, now Mclaren cannot consider Alonso as their leading driver and Hamilton as the supporting driver. In the points tally, Hamilton is leading with 48 points, so is the case with the McLaren in the constructors championship.

Hamilton got one more recognition now. Going to the podium in his first 6 races (including sundays Canadian GP win). I doubts Hamilton will be the next champion and he will fill the gap left behind by the all time champion driver Michael Schumacher. Till last year, it was Alonso who was supposed to be predeccessor to Schumi.

Hamilton is only 22 years now. He should not get carried away by what he achieved in the yearly stages of his carrier. He should concentrate on his driving and his first target should be to win this years championship.

I seriously doubt, there is some problem with Ferrari cars, because, see the way Raikonen is driving (by the way, he is my favourite driver). Last year, he had some last lap car crashes and forced to stop the race just before 1 or 2 laps to finish (he was leading in all those races). Alonso became champion with very marginal advance over Raikonen. But this year, Raikonen is driving just like any other ordinary driver.

Year 2007 for Hamilton

Australian	18/03/2007	McLaren-Mercedes	4	3	6	6
Malaysian	08/04/2007	McLaren-Mercedes	4	2	8	14
Bahrain	15/04/2007	McLaren-Mercedes	2	2	8	22
Spanish	13/05/2007	McLaren-Mercedes	4	2	8	30
Monaco	27/05/2007	McLaren-Mercedes	2	2	8	38
Canadian	10/06/2007	McLaren-Mercedes	1	1	10	48

Battle for the Title @ "Tournoi de Roland-Garros" (French Open)

Now, the only point of discussion among the tennis lovers around the globe is who's gonna win the French Open Title, whether its Rafael Nadal or the elegant Roger Federer. Before putting your predictions, it will be good to know the history behind the prestigeous Grand Slam Tennis Tournament and why its special.

Roland Garros, also known as the French Open, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between mid-May and early June in Paris, France. It is the second of the Grand Slam tournaments on the annual tennis calendar (Australian Open is the first one) and is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world.

Roland Garros began as a national tournament in 1891. In 1925, the French Championships opened itself to international competitors with the event held on a grass surface alternately between the Racing Club de France and the Stade Français. For the 1928 Davis Cup challenge, a new tennis stadium was built at Porte d’Auteuil. Named for a hero of World War I, the new Stade de Roland Garros, and Court Philippe Chatrier, was built with a red clay ("terre battue") playing surface. In March 2007, Roland Garros announced that it will provide an equal amount of prize money for both men and women in all rounds

Why Pete Sampras(total 14 grand slam wins) could not win French Open. Why Jimmy Connors (won all the other grand slams) could not win at Roland-Garros.

The reason, clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared to grass courts or hard courts. Clay court specialists have evolved who often succeed here while many higher ranked players struggle.

The last 7 French Open Titles were won by men who did not win any other Grand slams. So, this will tell story, right..???

This years final is the carbon copy of yester year where these 2 players clashed against each other and Nadal was crowned. One more thing, in 2005 also, Nadal was the champion (defeated Marianofrom Puerta Argentina) here and now he is looking for a hat-Trick at Roland Garros. From April 2005 to May 2007, he won 81 consecutive clay court matches. He is currently undefeated in the French Open.But, at the Hamburg Masters (last month), Nadal's clay court winning streak came to an end, when he lost the final to Federer 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.

For Federer has already won the three Grand slams except French Open. So, he has a point to prove to the critics that, he is the greatest tennis player by winning all the French Opens and more number of Grand slams. In his current form, he can easily defeat Nadal. The pressure will definitely be on Federer to win the match. But, we all know how cool this guy is when it comes to handling pressure.

So, all the tennis fans can expect a Royal Fight @ Roland Garros, tomorrow(10-Jun-2007) @ 15.00

Player Profiles



Singles performance timeline


Tournament 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Career SR Career Win-Loss
Australian Open A A 3 R 4R A QF 0 / 3 9-3
French Open A A A W W 2 / 2 14-0
Wimbledon A 3 R A 2R 0 / 3 9-3
U.S. Open A 2R 2R 3R QF 0 / 4 8-4

Tournament 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Carr. win-loss
Grand Slams
Australian Open A A 3R 3R 4R 4R W SF W W 6-5
French Open A 1R 4R QF 1R 1R 3R SF F 20-8
Wimbledon A 1R 1R QF 1R W W W W 2-4
U.S. Open A A 3R 4 R 4R 4R W W W 1-4

A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

For more details, logon to http://www.rolandgarros.com/

Should Orkut be banned in India ...?????

Today in news papers, I came across a news that, in Mumbai Shiv Sena supporters had destroyed some ciber cafes protesting against some hate comments against Chhatrapati Shivaji that appeared in an Orkut community. And subsequently, the Maharashtra police recommends to the Union Government for the banning of the site, Orkut (http://orkut.com).

In fact, this is not an isolated case. There are n number of the so called hate communities in orkut, which are not under the scanner. They will be posting all sort of nonsenses and hate messages. You can find lots of Hate India communities also. Orkut should take some stringent steps to stop all such abusive groups. Now, the situation is like anybody can create a group and all like hearted people join it.

But, banning orkut is not at all a good idea. Its like banning the freedom to express. There are millions of groups which are really helpful, like higher education, migrating to US, UK or any other country, etc etc... Orkut is the biggest Social Networking site, which is connecting Billions of people through out the world. You can always end up in meeting any of your old friend to whom you lost all the contacts.

Rediff (http://rediff.com) discussion forums are coming with the feature of Report Abuse section, where users can straight away report an abuse against any hate/abusive/pornographic comments. I am recommending such type of proactive steps from Orkut in this regard.

The protest from Shiv Sena is more like a Political drama to get public attention. Indian govt should not ban Orkut. The govt can command the Orkut people to take some stringent action against this anti social elements.