Life Etc Etc

One of the most recognizable names in the world of wrestling, Macho Man Randy Savage, concluded his final run as WWF (WWE) champion in 1992.   With Hulk Hogan's exit from the company after Wrestlemania 8, this was a period of transition for the WWF and an ideal opportunity for a champion to carve out his own niche. That somehow didn't happen despite all of Macho Man's charisma and verve. So, what preempted Macho Man from cementing a legacy defining second reign? Let's take a look: Exit and face turn of several top heels post Wrestlemania 8 : You are only as good as your opponents, an all-conquering hero needs a credible villain to prove his mettle. This of course didn't happens as: Sid Justice and Jake "the Snake" Roberts both left the WWF immediately after Wrestlemania 8 The Undertaker turned face and was now a monster slayer rather than a tormentor of good guys Earthquake who once put Hulk Hogan on the shelf was now straddling the tag team scene with Ty...

Recap of the Royal Rumble 1991 For the second year in a row Hogan outclassed 29 other superstars to win the Royal Rumble and set up the main event for Wrestlemania 7 with the American turncoat villain, Sgt. Slaughter. Hogan didn't need to win the 1990 Royal Rumble, Mr. Perfect should have gotten the nod there to launch a well-deserved main event run . Here however, Hogan was the only logical choice to win considering the circumstances of the Gulf War and his status as an All-American hero. And win he did by eliminating all the big men that were available (read Smash, Crush, The Warlord, Brian Knobbs and Earthquake). Other stars who shined included: British Bulldog eliminates Mr. Perfect with a brilliant dropkick <Courtesy: WWE > The Undertaker (still managed by Brother Love) who eliminated the likes of Bret Hart and "Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich "The Model" Rick Martel who entered at no. 6 and made it to the final five thereby setting a new Royal Rumble ...

 Where? About 400 kms from Hyderabad. Gandikota fort overlooking the gorge over Pennar river What is it? A picturesque fort on top of a gorge steeped in history and relevant for multiethnic communities. Plaque detailing the history of Gandikota fort What greeted us within the fort? We made our way into the fort through a majestic entrance which was constructed wide enough for the royal elephants to march in. The majestic entrance of Gandikota fort Gandikota's own version of Charminar and an ancient prison house were the next stops on the journey. Charminar - Gandikota fort version The ancient prison house - Gandikota fort Then, the magnificent Madhavaraya temple with its awe-inspiring gopuram and resplendently carved pavilions emerged. This temple is an excellent example of Vijayanagara school of architecture.  The spectacular Madhavaraya temple within the Gandikota fort   Vijayanagara school of architecture - Madhavaraya temple pavilions Next stop was to the Gandikota go...

In a nutshell A plodding whodunit which takes its own sweet time to set things up but doesn't quite deliver the punch at the end with its reveal. Plot  Miss Marple returns to a favorite childhood spot, Bertram's hotel, to experience the nostalgia of the bygone years. The hotel's guests include Miss Marple's gregarious friend Selena Hazy, absent minded Canon Pennyfather who's making his way to a conference in Lucerne via London, hypervigilant Colonel Luscombe accompanied by his precocious ward Elvira Blake and tabloid friendly socialite Lady Bess Sedgwick who always seems to have a knack of generating headlines. While Miss Marple does take great pleasure in the comforts of the place she also quickly comes to sense that there's something sinister going on behind all that external facade. While a motley group of characters is permeating Bertram's hotel, the city is being terrorized by the daring thefts of a criminal gang which has evaded the police by skillfull...

In a nutshell A delightful whodunit set during the Christmas time with some compelling performances, brisk pacing and a happy ending. Plot   Sam Donovan ( Dennis O'Keefe ), an insurance investigator sets off for a small town to delve into the suicide of one, Roger Philips, who by all accounts was an extremely unpleasant man. On the way there he runs into Anita Weatherby ( Barbara Britton ), daughter of a wealthy banker in Philips' town, Stu Weatherby ( Art Baker ). The two hit off instantly and Sam makes plans to visit the Weatherby family once he's done wrapping up the Philips case.   Dennis O'Keefe and Barbara Britton <Credits: Cult Cinema Classics > Upon arrival Sam calls upon Sheriff Larry Best ( William Bendix ) to clarify the details of the case only to find all his inquiries being thwarted. Through the evasive replies, Sam learns that no weapon was recovered from the victim's side and the coroner who could have thrown some light into the circumstances o...

We all heard the idiomatic phrase that one should end the year on a high . But what does ending on a high really mean?  Does it symbolize wrapping up the year with a brilliant accomplishment? Does it relate to closing the door on something which has been bothering you for a very long time? Does it involve managing your health and finances extremely well? Does it point to a family milestone? Or Does it involve finding that sweet space in your life where doing less is more? Well, the short answer is 'Yes' and 'No' to all of the above.  <Courtesy: Kateryna Hliznitsova> If you have answered 'Yes' to any of the questions above then congratulations on completing a worthy year. You have every reason to celebrate. If you have answered 'No' to all of the questions above then fret not . Welcome to the majority! We are all in the same boat. In this marathon called life, not every year bears the fruit we desire or deserve. But the real question to answer is wh...

I wanted to start off this blog by sharing a beautiful piece on Cricinfo about the redemption arc of Deepti Sharma . If it was South Africa who denied us a place in the semifinals four years ago we paid them back in kind by lifting the world cup trophy. This however was not a resounding performance by any means, there were concentration lapses, nerves and also moments where the pendulum genuinely swung the other way.  Here are some prime examples: Radha Yadav's gigantic no-ball which brought down the target by 13 runs (two consecutive sixes of the no-ball and the free hit) in just one ball Deepti dropping a straight forward chance at midwicket of Dercksen   Jemimah Rodrigues shelling a sitter of the dangerous looking Nadine de Klerk Shree Charani's final over jitters as she offered 10 runs (5w, 1w and 4) on a platter to de Klerk  But we still won chiefly due to the tandem of Deepti's guile and Shafali's guts. Deepti more than made up for her drop by knocking over...

India chased a world record total of 338 to sprint past Australia in the semifinals of the 2025 World Cup. Out of 157 chases, 92 resulted in victories for India.  So this run chase should have been a cake walk for India, right?  Wrong!   Why? Let's take a look at India's successful chases over the last 15 years. Trend line representing India's top 10 successful chases before the semifinal win Until the  2017 World Cup final,  India had chased a score of over 230 only once Until the victory in the semifinals, India's highest ever successful chase was 264 against Australia in 2021. This was also the first ever time that India had chased a total of over 250 against any opposition It remained their only victorious chase over 250 against Australia until this semifinal win  Out of 92 victories for India batting second, only 20 (~22%) involved chasing a score of 200 or more Including the semifinal win, India had chased a score of over 250 only 4 times in their e...

  Until next time, Your quotemaster.

  Until next time, Your quotemaster.

A slew of countries exited the Champions Trophy over the last few days. But wasn't there a Champions Trophy that we hosted where everything turned topsy-turvy for us? A loooooooooong time ago but not that long ago there was one such tournament in 2006 where nothing went to script. I literally had to go to Cricinfo to refresh my memory about this tournament. I do however remember: The promotions which promised a festival of cricket but what we got was a damp squib The interest in the tournament waning once India was dumped out at the group stage That the final was an anti-climax and how Australia briefly let go off their manners while accepting the trophy. After decking us out the tournament they also shoved the then president of BCCI, Mr. Sharad Pawar, for good measure India who were firmly entrenched in the Greg Chappell era vacillated between able and awful.  Sachin was not at his best Dravid was unable to prop up the middle order Irfan Pathan's efficacy was being nullifie...

Plot Outline : When a tech entrepreneur ( Srinivas Avasarala ) gets kidnapped, the officer-in-charge of the security detail ( Meenakshi Chaudhary ) vows to rescue him with the help of her ex-boyfriend, Y.D. Raju (Venkatesh) an ace ex-cop. Y.D. Raju accepts the responsibility and sets off on the mission in tow with his ex-girlfriend, jealous wife ( Aishwarya Rajesh ), father-in-law and son. Venkatesh, Aishwarya Rajesh and Meenakshi Chaudhary in Sankranthiki Vasthunnam <Credits: Dil Raju > Three things which didn't work I finally had the chance to view this film over a month after it's release. It's a passable fare with a few decent laughs intended primarily for the movie starved Sankranti audience.  However, you do get the feeling that the director was not able to extract the most out of a promising roller coaster ride consisting of people with differing agendas. So here are three things which didn't work for me in Sankranthiki Vasthunnam: Too many gags falling fla...

  Until Next Time, Your Quote Master.

Plot Outline Chief of Police, Matt Whitlock's ( Denzel Washington ) personal life is in doldrums. His marriage is on the rocks and he's secretly courting another man's wife, Ann ( Sanaa Lathan ). When Ann is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Matt decides to fund her treatment with money that was recovered from a drug bust. But before Ann can proceed forth with her treatment, she and her husband Chris ( Dean Cain ) are killed in a mysterious house fire. The case is assigned to Matt's estranged wife, homicide detective Alex ( Eva Mendes ) and to make matters worse (for Matt), the DEA comes calling for the drug money. If this isn't enough, Matt is the sole beneficiary on Ann's insurance policy which further implicates him in this crime. Will Matt escape from the fix he is in and identify who's behind everything? Or will Alex and the DEA catch up to the clandestine secrets he's hiding?  Denzel Washington navigating rough waters in Out of Time <Credits: Movi...

I expressed a lot of satisfaction in one of my previous blogs that draws in test matches were drastically coming down. We just had one more draw at the Gabba in Brisbane as part of the Border-Gavaskar series. So, this seemed like the right time to look back at the various draw related stats between India and Australia.  Out of the 110 tests played between both countries 30 tests ended up draws. I wanted to find out whether the number of draws between the two countries were increasing or decreasing over the years .  India vs Australia draw stats The first draw between both countries was a rain affected match in 1947 . A majority of the draws during the initial decades only occurred in India. 30% (8) of tests played between the two sides during the 60s and 70s ended in draws . All of these draws occurred in India while all the tests played in Australia during this period produced a result always in Australia's favor  The  1979-1980 series which happened in Indi...

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 found 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 so was the medal tally at the first ever Asian Games in 1951. Such a...

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 ...