Boredom

This post is about professional wrestling icon, Mark 'The Undertaker' Callaway. Yesterday I was watching the re-run of WWE Hell in a Cell 2015. After Summerslam, WWE straightaway came up with a second great PPV and those who are a loyal audience of WWE products know that it doesn't happen that too often with WWE. Some great matches and moments were there: Alberto Del Rio made a triumphant return, Charlotte put up an absolutely fantastic match with Nikki Bella, Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns stole the show with their brutal 20+ minutes (you don't get to see that too) Hell in a Cell match. The show was however headlined by Taker and Brock Lesner. It was dubbed as the 'final chapter' of Taker-Lesner storied rivalry. Their match defied all the expectations especially keeping Taker's physical condition and age in mind. It was one of the nastiest, bloodiest and most physical matches in WWE history. Brock came up with a win and Taker got a much deserving standing ov...

Following the 'dead rubber' (DE DUDE certainly made it one in Wankhede) of Ind-SA Series, I have come to made peace with certain facts that would definitely accompany Team India for quite some time (hope they would prove me wrong as early as they could) in future. Here they are: 1) I'm proud of our cricket team and I'm not being sarcastic here. We are NOT the world's best team and with the limited resources (read bowling department), we have managed to achieve some extraordinary heights. In ODIs, we are the third best team in the world and in Tests, we are the fourth best behind AUS, SA and England (This is not per ICC ranking, it's an observation with which most of you agree). And till the time we remember these ranks and can be candid with it, there wouldn't be anything bothering us about our team's terrible performances. 2) Keeping the above ranking system in mind, I had already made peace with the fact that even if we go down in this series again...

Couple of days ago, in the space of 6 hrs, I watched Chaitanya Tamhane's 'Court' and Christopher Nolan's 'Interstellar' back to back. The one element that's common to the making of both these 'powerful' film is that they both are directed by young, enterprising filmmakers who challenge the conventional wisdom of their respective film-fraternity. 'Court' is the debut feature film of Director Chaitanya Tamhane and this film has been loved the world over by prominent film critics. American publications such as 'Variety', 'The Hollywood Reporter' and 'New York Post' have praised the mockumentary style of film-making inhibited by Chaitanya for 'Court' and it's indeed a slow-burning film which at two-hour length will make you feel more uncomfortable than pleasant. It discusses a 'petty' court case throughout its course and in-between you will find instances that make you both wince and wink. But If you w...

We Indians used to have a 'fab four' in Indian Cricket some 7 years ago. The moniker of Fab Four sometimes changed to 'fab five' for either Jumbo (Kumble) or Veeru would come up with a superlative performance and equal the aura of 'fab four'. But it never became 'superb six' for the reasons unknown though it exactly deserved that. Nevertheless, Kumble, a cricketer par excellence and an obvious contender for the fourth spot had there been any vacancy, called the day first on his remarkable career (in 2008) and thus our anxiety eased a little. But Sourav had already announced his official retirement before the commencement of Border-Gavaskar Trophy (2008), so at the end of this series, we had two vacancies to fill up. And since Sehwag was the only capable cricketer to fill that spot, we quickly signed him up. No doubt, he truly belonged. Was Sehwag incomparable like the other occupants of Fab Four? Let's see. Sachin was God (Incomparable). Dravid, ...

I assume you all have watched BBC's Documentary on Nirbhaya a.k.a Jyoti Singh (I don't know whether I'm legally entitled to speak up her name publicly in India or not, but let's take the risk). It goes by the name 'India's Daughter' in India, but at the same time, it's banned here. Though it was released way back on 4th March and I downloaded it right away on the very next day for my relatives but only yesterday, I got to watch it and that's only because Meryl Streep vouched for it for an elusive 'Oscars Nomination'. That's not to say that I was skeptical of its content or plot but somewhere I was afraid that I couldn't quite grasp its central idea. So let me tell you that if you are a parent or a certain male chauvinist, you can certainly do away with a strong stomach for it will certainly test your strength of character. Awaneendra who was accompanying Jyoti that fateful night, was when asked later to comment on this documentary, ...

There come occasions in your life when you find yourself at loss of words to describe them. Your vocabulary loses you midway and you get rolled over in sense of awe. I had only one such occasion to moon over until this moment of course, it was when Sachin retired. To this day, I don't know why I didn't write anything about it but I am probably wiser now to not fret about it anymore. Dominique Lapierre's magnum opus 'City of Joy' is what induced my second moment of 'blackout'. I am not entirely sure whether I would ever be able to read a book as good as this one again in my life. It comes from 'non-fiction' genre and is a profoundly religious books that mixes the elements of 'compassion' and 'generosity' from all religions in a mythical proportion. At the core, however, it's a book that tells the story of 'Anand Nagar' or 'City of Joy' as more popularly known from the viewpoints of two persons: Stephan Kovalski, a...

Let's talk about Indian Cricket. Yes, it's a coarse topic but its been a while now since I last discussed it. I have some observations and conclusion that I gained during this period of incubation and those need to be laid down here, so let's start: 1) Rohit Sharma has undoubtedly become the cornerstone of Indian One Day Cricket Batting Line-up and these are the first instances since Sachin's departure that watching a batsman at crease gives you same sense of assurance. I can recollect Ricky Ponting's observation of him after the conclusion of India's victorious CB Series Campaign of 2008 where Rohit opened the batting with Master himself and Ricky singled out him as the 'future batting star of the world'. Then the label of 'outrageous talent' got stuck to him and he through his later performances (until this golden period) seriously undermined it. But then he was awarded the Captaincy of Mumbai Indians and he regained his lazy, saintly composu...

I've been watching a lot of TV series lately. About a month ago, I finished watching the fifth season of Game of Thrones and immediately started looking for my next pick. LOST followed till season 1 and then I picked up on Wire. Undoubtedly, they made for excellent viewing but my hunger of a fantasy TV show was far from satiated. And this was not to say that Game of Thrones is only a fantasy show, it's far from that for it mixes every enjoyable item imaginable in a 45 minutes show and thus rightfully was awarded a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding TV Series, finally. It isn't a popular TV show only with the masses but also with TV critics. It has attained critical acclaim unlike any other show in history of American Television and has thus become an 'immeasurable' phenomenon. HBO would have been poorer in its absence. But prior to Game of Thrones' arrival on HBO, it came up with a TV production of Rome, an epic TV Series that tells us the story of Rome's tra...

Rom-Coms are a popular movie genre in film-making. Directors from every imaginable 'Wood try to cash on them by fiddling with audiences' emotions. I wouldn't go as far to say that I don't like them. Actually, every once in a while, I devour them. I munch on them to feel like a little 'humane'. I pull my hair on their quirkiness, laugh on their silliness and sometimes even weep on their tragic endings. Many movie stars owe their mercurial success to this everlasting genre and this brings me to talk about two rom-coms that I watched in last two weeks. One is from Bollywood, second from Hollywood. Both are immensely watchable rom-coms, taking into account all the rubbish both 'Woods come up with every year. So let's discuss each one of them. My first entry is Tanu weds Manu Returns from Bollywood's Anand L. Rai. I became a huge Rai fan after watching Rannjhanaa. Absolutely fantastic that movie was and he didn't disappoint me that much with this on...

Amidst the unprecedented brouhaha over PM Modi's Digital India campaign, my good friend Ms. Enakshi Johri couple of days ago questioned its effectiveness over the timely issuance of her ration card and one Aadhaar card. Her grievances were justified for I too went through a more-than-enough waiting period to avail mine but still her chiding the digital media campaign disturbed me slightly. I believe the principle reason behind such discomfort was my admiration towards PM Modi and all the wonderful initiatives he has been coming up with in both India and abroad but I too found myself questioning their effectiveness today after learning about a very unfortunate incident that happened in Dadri, Ghaziabad; famously known as the doorstep to Capital New Delhi. Mohammad Akhlaq was killed by an angry mob belonging to an extremist group following the rumors that his family was consuming beef. His son is severely injured and his wife and daughter are currently crying their eyes out. His da...