Better Call It a Spin-Off

Finished watching Season 5 of Better Call Saul, and after the tension level was ratcheted up in the season finale, it leaves one waiting eagerly for the next season. So Mssrs Gilligan and Gould have kept up the tempo of the series and maintained the high standards laid down in the previous seasons. As an offshoot of the Breaking Bad series, BCS has done a great job. It's not always successful, this brand extension and many other shows have tried and failed. Joey's and Friends are one example.  Looking up IMDB, Joey's has a 5.5+ rating while Friends had 8.9. The high 8.5+ rating on IMDB for BCS ( while a stunning 9.5 for Breaking Bad) is a validation of the show's success.

TV series spin-offs are risky, the fans have so much invested into the primary series that the spin-off finds it a challenge to live up to the first born. A quick glance on Mental Floss on the most successful spin-offs list, provides names like Daria, Happy Days, Green Acres which are unknown to me. There are also cases where the spin-off show became more popular than it's predecessor, like Simpson's, Frasiers, etc. That phenomenon, i think has a higher probability. The hardest thing is to take a wildy successful show, spin it off and create a success. Like BCS has done. Hats-off to Gilligan & Gould.

Why has it worked in case of BCS?  The story arc of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, Mike, Gus is kept on a tight leash. These were key characters in BB and in the spin-off they are the main players and the writers have ensured that though the series explores their character depth, it still keeps it within bounds of the overall BB universe. The other characters who were absent or at the fringe in BB are given their own arcs like Kim, Chuck McGill, Lalo.
Only one reco ..Watch it!!

Why is China so good in diving? They win medals and that too gold by the bucketfuls. Technique is one as shown here, no doubt honed by years of practice and hard work, pushing Gladwells's 10,000 hours rule of perfection to the limits. Not just the athletes, even the family is willing to make sacrifices to make it to the top. So it's a combination of planning, organization, systematic coaching, hard work and team spirit. Mighty tough to beat this!

One of the great reliefs of travelling in a non-southern part of India is that when you give your name, they spell it correctly, i.e. without the extra "h". That's such a relief and saves so many mental winces i end up giving myself, when somebody spells my name in hyderabad. As a result, my phone bill, paper bill, electricity bill, hell even my voter id card has an extra "h" after the "t" in my name.
Was trying to find online why this happens in the south - apparently something to do with the sanskrit-ized spelling of the name. whatever be the cause it's mighty irritating trying to always  tell your name -" it's navneet with no h in the end!"

Na Jaane

Fruits of sleepless night. Dinner conversation with a friend triggers this. Watching a song from the upcoming the John Abraham flick I,Me aur Main - Na Jaane Kahan se Aaya Hai

1. Shouldn't the girls be using  "deewani" instead of "deewana" in the song - nakal ke liye bhi akal chahiye?
2. Chitrangada Singh is smoking hot, Prachi Desai is trying so hard to keep up with her, but it's as effective as Olonga trying to bounce out Tendulkar
3. The song is a copy, the title is a copy from the Jim Carrey flick. Wonder which Hollywood movie inspired this one?
4. The movie is directed by one Kapil Sharma - who has an illustrious father - Rakesh Sharma -first Indian in space.
5. The song inspite of Chitrangada Singh is no match for the original

Hockey se MBA

Viren Rasquinha, the star mid fielder for India, Indian Oil, Maratha Warriors is quitting the game at a relatively young age, 27, to pursue a MBA at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
A striking example of how sports in India, except for international cricket players does not provide enough remuneration.
Rasquinha, a ebullient, hard tackling mid-fielder and a cultured, erudite speaker off it, probabaly felt his chances of getting selected in the 2008 Olympic team was minimal due to his recent spate of injuries, and clashes with the IHF. If the team selection was doen on merit he would have been a shoo-in, but the fact that he had not been part of the national team since the last six months, after his severe run-ins with the board, was the writing on the wall for him.
Here's to Viren, thanks for providing so much entertainment on the field, and wishing you the best in your journey to the corporate world.

Tale of two aircraft carriers

	Vikramaditya	Liaoning
Launched	1982	1988
Commissioning Date	Unknown (postponed many times)	25 Sep 12
Cost of ship	USD 2300 Million (and growing)	USD 2000 Million
Tonnage	45000 Tons	65000 Tons
Previous History	Was a Carrier between 1987 - 1996	Unfinished Carrier. Project Abandoned 1992
Purchase Date	2004	Hull purchased 1998 by a private company.
Commencement of work	2004	2005
Length / Speed	283 m / 32 knots	305 m / 32 knots
Propulsion	Steam Turbines (Russian)	Steam Turbines (Chinese)
Air Elements	16 fixed wing + 10 helicopters	30 fixed wing  + 24 helicopters
Aircraft	MIG 29K (Russian)	J15 (Chinese) comparable to Russian SU 33
Helicopters	10 – Various (Russian / British)	24 – Various (Chinese)

Gareth Southgate getting ribbed by his mates Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce about his penalty miss in the Euro 96.

Can you id this actress from the 1940s/50s who was featured in Life ?

In the Line of Fire

One of the craziest things I have ever seen in tennis -David Nalbadanian kicking the advertising board

Reminds me of the incident of the linesman Richard Werthiem getting injured by  Stefan Edberg serve, banging his head on the turf and getting a heart attack- leading to his unfortunate demise.

Collecting some of the best pieces written on Rahul Dravid.
Article by Kunal Pradhan on one of Dravid's least know innings - on a green top in Nagpur against the best attack of this generatiion McGrath, Gillespie, Kasprowicz, Warne. He failed but not for lack of trying.
Piece by Tanya Aldred on a Dravid-Warne duel in the english county.