Life Etc Etc

 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...