Life Etc Etc

Where is it? Around 125 KM from Bengaluru, on the Kaveri river right on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. What is it? They call it the Niagara of India but after stating unequivocally in my previous blog that nature is incomparable, I will just ask you to make up your mind after looking at the pictures below as some things are indescribable. Hogenakkal Waterfalls as the moon begins to shine Hogenakkal Waterfalls from an alternate view Hogenakkal Waterfalls: The gorge on the Kaveri River  If the sights look familiar then you have probably seen them in movies such as Roja or Raavanan . How do I explore the area? If you are visiting the falls during the rainy or winter seasons then you will not be allowed to take the boat to view the falls. Instead there will be a separate viewpoint to explore the region.  My trip fell in March so I got to use the small round boats known as coracles to catch some eye-popping views. Coracles on the Kaver...

Where is it? Around 60 KM from Bengaluru. Scenic landscape from one of the viewpoints What is it? A hilly retreat with a rich history and fantastic vistas all around. View from the top of the rock face How do I get there? I reached the parking which is at the base of the summit by car. The hairpin bends are a bit challenging but as long as you stick to your lane you should be fine. There are cabs which will take you there and there's also public transport available from Majestic  I believe.   Parking Lot at Nandi Hills What should I take? All plastic water bottles are confiscated at the base of the summit so do carry water in a non-plastic container. There's a bus which will take you from the base to the top of the hill but if you want to explore the surroundings by yourself you will need plenty of water to refuel yourself Take a windcheater (I suggest using a heavier jacket if you are visiting in winter or rainy seasons) along just in case it gets chilly up t...

It's unfair to talk about someone when they are not doing well. Therefore the intention of this blog is not rant on KL Rahul or his performances of late but to lend some statistical evidence as to why ordinary cricket fans like me are pining for a change at the top of India's batting order. I will also urge my readers to look up Jarrod Kimber's video  which presents a very interesting take on KL Rahul's performances. In order to help my analysis, I visited Cricinfo to garner some vital stats about Rahul's career.  I looked at his overall numbers and came up with a scatter plot of his batting performances in tests.  Rahul's test career average from 2014-2023 Scatter Plot of KL Rahul's test performances from 2014-2023 When I analyzed Rahul's entire test career, 64% of his innings yielded less than 30 runs. 86% of these innings produced 20 runs or less.   Rahul's test scores' breakdown When I confined my examination to his 3rd and 4th innings'...

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; Rudyard Kipling ( IF ) I encountered both of the impostors mentioned above during the course of the last year and life has not been the same since then .  What's worse than a disaster?  It's a disaster which follows a triumph. Just when you think that your life is better than ever, you are jolted into reality and reminded how precarious life actually is. It takes a lifetime to set-up something but it takes less than a second for all of it to turn into dust. You have to find illuminated space within yourself <Courtesy: William Daigneault > We, human beings are expendable, replaceable and inherently perishable.  Yet, we act tough and surround ourselves with hubris for the short while we are here. We feed our fragile egos at every turn and one day when life smacks us we complain that it's cruel. The truth is that we are just fortunate to have a lot of things that we take for granted....

You cannot sometimes outrun your problems. You just have to outlive them. Until Next Time, Your Quotemaster, Chaitanya J.J.

  All it takes is the right mindset to tell convince oneself that your dreams are still attainable Until Next Time, Your Quotation Expert, Chaitanya J.J. 

This was the first time I had watched the World Wrestling Championships end to end and my interest was obviously in the Indian wrestling team which had a stupendous time in the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham . Now I am no wrestling expert, but I thought that the Indian team underperformed. If you look at the medals tally we ended up with the same number of medals as the 2021 edition where we had one silver and one bronze compared to the current edition where we managed to secure two bronze medals. But both of these tallies are behind the 2019 edition where we won five medals (1 silver and four bronze). Since 2018, at least one of the Indian wrestlers has been making it to the finals at these championships but that run was halted in 2022 which makes this edition the worst since 2017 where the team had won no medals at all. The Disappointments  None of the winners from 2021 could build upon their success in this edition with last time's silver medalist Anshu Malik pulling out...