Life Etc Etc

In my previous blog we arrived at a ratio  (Total no. of medals won at the Asian Games) / (Total no. of medals won at Olympics)   which correlated the performance of the Asian games with the Olympics that occurred in the same four year cycle.  We did find out that India's ratio of 17.83  was at the bottom of the list  (remember a lower ratio points to a greater ability to reproduce one's Asian Games performance on the Olympic stage)  when we considered the top ranking nations at Asian Games.  But one question remained unanswered, was this the greatest disparity between Asian Games and Olympics as far as India was concerned? I dove straight into the medal tallies from the previous century to dig up the answer to my question.  The graph brought about several interesting observations: Until 2008 Olympics, India's performance at the 1952 Helsinki games (with 2 medals) was its best ever. Sadly, India delivered what would be its finest medal tally (unt...

From the pinnacle of Asian Games, Olympics was a steep fall for India. That set me thinking as to how many more countries found the going tough on the world stage after excelling at the Asian games. For my initial analysis, I took the top 15 countries at Asian Games and mapped out their corresponding ranking at Olympics. As expected, India's Olympic ranking of 71 was third worst behind Malaysia and Qatar. But rankings are not always a great measure to assess how well a country did at a multisport event where a country with a single gold medal outranks another with multiple medals on the account of that country not winning a gold medal. So, in order to have an equitable comparison, I mapped out the number of medals each country won at the Olympics and Asian Games side by side.   This time India narrowly avoided the lower third of the graph which contained countries such as Hong Kong, Indonesia and Bahrain that were placed higher over India in the Olympic rankings. Like rankin...

 As a sports fan, the one thing you would like to absolutely avoid is to see your heroes getting humbled. I went through the misery of Indian team's collapse in the 2023 World Cup final , then watched Rafa getting pulverized at Roland Garros and have now witnessed Daniel Dubois batter Anthony Joshua at Wembley. So here are three disappointing things about the Anthony Joshua knockout: What's most disheartening about this fight is the way it started . AJ never looked like he was in his elements. He was on the backfoot from the get go and once Dubois' punch landed at the end of the first round, he never found his legs in the next few rounds. This was totally unexpected from a thorough professional like Joshua who's known to meticulously prepare for all of his fights If the match began with adversity, things started looking up for AJ by the time the 5th round started. He hurt Dubois with a right and set him up for an uppercut by backing him into the ropes but like a lot ...

When I first started writing this blog more than a decade ago, the reception wasn't exactly great for me to continue sharing my thoughts, opinions or observations . I questioned myself a lot during those times and seriously doubted whether I would ever garner attention for the blog. While self doubt drove me into inaction, the awareness that I was letting myself down urged me to repeatedly mount a comeback and write something after a lull period. These alternate cycles of boom and bust taught me one important thing, that come no matter what the only person I had to impress with this blog was me. Maintaining a certain standard with my blog was the highest priority. As long as I lived up to that ideal everything else that came along with it was just an added incentive. The same, I believe applies to everything you initiate in life. The only person you have to impress with anything in life is just yourself .  Why? What about trying to impress loved ones, family members, friends ...

When Asian Games concluded in October 2023, with the Indian athletics contingent winning a whopping 29 medals , there was hope that in 10 months time we would be putting up our strongest performance ever in Olympics 2024. That, unfortunately remained an unfulfilled dream. Apart from Neeraj Chopra, Avinash Sable and the men's relay team to some extent there was no fight offered by any of our athletes which made them look like serious medal contenders. So, where did it all go wrong? Annu Rani at Paris Olympics <Courtesy: Olympics > I pointed this out in a tweet of mine but I believe a majority of our athletes peaked for the Asian Games with almost everything going downhill from there either due to lack of prep, focus or injuries.  Harmilan Bains, Ancy Sojan Edappilly, Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Kishore Jena all suffered injuries post Asian Games with Harmilan and Ancy missing out on Olympic qualification Jyothi Yarraji was posting a string of sub 13 second times prior to her in...

If winning an Olympic medal is the toughest thing that a sportsperson can achieve in their life then qualifying for the Olympics should be right up there for a country like India which until a decade ago didn't have a proper ecosystem to develop athletes at the grassroot level. It's already been a week since the Olympics has started but before we talk about the Olympians, let's take a look at the heroes who made a place in our heart even after missing out on qualification. Tejas Shirse : If there was an award for the most improved athlete of the year then it must go to Tejas who broke the 100m hurdles national record in his pursuit of Olympic glory. His yearning to excel took him to Europe where he produced a series of podium finishes as he collected ranking points which put him within touching distance of his dream. If only he started his season a bit earlier, we could have seen Tejas' penchant for excellence burn brighter on the Olympics stage but if not this one he...

I think the makers of this film ran out of ideas when they called this one as ' Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F ' That title really doesn't make the film any edgier or cooler in my opinion. I don't believe this is the final installment of the series so the extra emphasis on 'F' seems unwarranted too. What was lacking in the title is however made up by the thought that was put into character trajectories and ushering some news ones into the fold. They also make it a point to acknowledge all the three prequels while comically highlighting that the third one was a bit lackluster ( fans love it when filmmakers are self-aware ).   Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop 4 < Courtesy: KAZE TV > So where does one start with this one, we start right in Detroit where Axel Foley ( Eddie Murphy ) is alerted by his friend Rosewood ( Judge Reinhold ), now a private detective, that his estranged daughter Jane ( Taylour Paige ) could be in a lot of trouble with a certain cartel. Axe...

As an Indian cricket fan, I am happy that we were able to put behind the heartbreak of 2023 to achieve this world cup victory .  This post will however not be celebratory in nature, on the contrary it seeks to critically analyze some of the team management's decisions which could have cost us the big one once again. Rigidity with the team selection has been a recurring theme in many of the failed world cup campaigns of the recent past. I therefore have three questions about some of the decisions that went into the batting order and team selection.   Jasprit Bumrah in disbelief upon winning the World Cup 2024 <Courtesy: ICC > a) This tournament we persisted with the opening combination of Rohit and Virat (who was in woeful form until the final) despite having an attacking option in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal. Did the team management have a crystal ball to predict that Virat would finally come good in the final? Even though Virat eventually repaid the team managem...

There's no rivalry quite like the India - Pakistan rivalry in the sport of Cricket, Now, I don't know if this recent contest was one for the ages but it definitely had enough swings in its momentum for it to be remembered for a long time. This blog post however is not about the rivalry, it's about three pertinent questions which have been bothering me ever since the match concluded . I will put forth my questions below but do help me out with your answers: Who scored the best '13' in the match? There were four scores of '13' in the match. One by India's Rohit Sharma and three by Babar Azam , Usman Khan and Fakhar Zaman from Pakistan. Each of the players have a valid claim for the title but who do you think nicked it? Rohit Sharma scored '13' when the pitch was probably the most difficult to bat on Babar scored '13' and got his side off to a decent start in a low scoring game Usman took the most number of deliveries to score '13...

Until Next Time, Your favorite quotemaster.

This was a nail biter which will be remembered for the way the fielding team came back into the match after the chasing side almost ran away with the result. Here are three very interesting parallels from yesterday's encounter between SRH and RR:   Make the second 10 count: Sunrisers Hyderabad only made 75 runs in their first 10 overs. In the next 10 they smashed 126 setting a target of 201 runs for the opposition. While bowling second, they gave away 100 runs for the loss of two wickets in the first 10 overs but launched a rear guard to take five wickets for 100 runs in the next 10 overs to restrict Rajasthan Royals to 200/7 . Thus SRH's path to victory was built on making the second half of each innings count. Revenge 16 years in the making : When Rajasthan Royals met Deccan Chargers in the inaugural IPL at Hyderabad, they coasted to victory through Shane Warne's final over heroics . Here's a comparison between this match and the one from all those years ago: Royals ...

Plot: Perry Mason receives an unexpected call from Ellen Adair, a lady of queenly bearing with a dark past. Ellen was a beauty contestant who suddenly disappeared at the height of her fame. Now, there's a tabloid which is planning to run an inside scoop on what might have happened to her. Ellen wants Mason's help in ensuring that none of the details of her colorful past come out into the open and her identity remains a secret. Despite not receiving satisfactory answers to his preliminary questions, Mason agrees to help out his new client and promptly shuts down the newspaper from running the article. But the matter doesn't end there, the newspaper sends a detective to negotiate a fee with Mason for his client's compliance. Mason immediately senses that there's more to the matter than what's being laid on the table. With the assistance of Paul Drake, his trusted detective aide, Mason finds out that a very powerful family from the same town as Ellen Adair is desp...

I guess it was destiny that the 150th post of Life Etc Etc had to be about Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Shivaji rose like a phoenix from humble beginnings in the 17th century and laid the foundation for the Maratha empire which changed the course of  history. The history I studied at school restricted his life and achievements to a single chapter and quite erroneously credited the British Rule with the decline of the Mughal empire. I found out later on that it was in fact the Marathas under the able leadership of Shivaji who hastened the Mughal empire's downfall. They were the preeminent power whom the British had to checkmate in order to wrest control of the Indian subcontinent. Despite such monumental achievements my history syllabi had very little information about Shivaji. It was therefore a no-brainer for me to pick up this book and discover for myself why the history of India would never be complete without the mention of Shivaji.  In order to understand any histori...

We live in the times of the antihero. Grey is the new white now and it has become increasingly cool for our protagonists to repeatedly toe the line between good and bad. Nobody stands for anything anymore which makes it all the more difficult to root for such characters. That's probably the reason why I had to go back to Perry Mason . Mason, his confidante Della Street and the ever dependable Paul Drake are a crimefighting unit whom you can get behind in their pursuit of justice. A Perry Mason book comes with the guarantee of justice being served at the end. With this one, I just had to find out how the justice was meted out to the perpetrators.     Plot: John Witherspoon, the wealthy rancher doesn't think too much of his daughter Lois' love interest, Marvin Adams, a science student with no discernible family lineage. When Witherspoon digs into the past of his daughter's suitor, he finds that Marvin's father was convicted of murdering his business partner. Unable t...

"You aren't done until you tell yourself that you are done!" September 2022 Joe Joyce outlasts Joseph Parker in a war of attrition. Joyce keeps coming forward taking everything that Parker threw at him and delivers a vicious knockout to end the contest. This was the first knockout of Parker's career and many thought such a deflating loss would end his stint as a respected heavyweight contender. Joyce on the other hand was crowned as the mandatory for the WBO Heavyweight Championship. He was proclaimed as the rising star of the division and a serious threat to the reigning champions. April 2023 With the mandatory title fight still a long way away, Joe Joyce took on the dangerous but unproven former Olympic Silver Medalist, Zhilei Zhang in a stay busy fight. To everyone's dismay, Joyce wilted under the onslaught of Zhang's power punching who took the possession of the WBO Interim Heavyweight title and the mandatory status. Like Parker, this was the first sto...

India wins another Test and wraps up another series. With the series score line reading 3-1 , I was wondering how fortunate we are today to be watching Test matches which actually produce a result. This was really not the case when I was a kid with many Tests ending in a stalemate. A draw, back then was considered to be an acceptable result and in many cases also treated on par with a victory. Those were the days when neither sporting declarations nor spirited chases were in vogue. A Test match on the 5th day would typically meander meaninglessly allowing those playing to get to some personal milestones and thankfully end before the scheduled close with the customary handshakes of opposing teams. That's probably the reason why I don't remember too many drawn test matches from that era. The only memorable draw that comes to my mind was the one in Sydney where Vihari and Ashwin stalled Australia's charge . Since a draw has become somewhat of a rarity these days, I wanted to...

Where is it? About 25-30 km away from Hampi .  Sanapur Lake Lush green fields on the way to Sanapur Lake What is it? Backwaters of River Tungabhadra and in the past was also a freshwater reservoir for the Vijayanagara Empire .  Sanapur Lake and its association with Vijayanagara Empire What activities are available here? Coracle rides are available until sunset. There are also designated spots near the lake for cliff jumping. I was told that there were quite a few accidents in the past when these jumps were not undertaken under official supervision. Therefore, please follow all instructions before taking up this activity. Coracles at Sanapur Lake Sanapur Lake: View from the Coracle What else can you do here? After completing the coracle ride you can walk around the lake to capture some exhilarating views of the world renowned Hampi boulders and even catch a glimpse of the Sanapur reservoir.   Sanapur Lake: Right before sunset Sanapur Reservoir The view is particularl...