Lack of champagne in India's Olympics campaign and the Dark Knight's costume complaints

After kicking-off with a spectacular opening ceremony, the London Olympics remains one of the top topics of dinner-table conversations and social media posts. It is unfortunate to see news about match-fixing in Badminton taking the limelight and slightly spoiling Michael Phelps' incredible achievement of winning 19 Olympic medals. Let us hope we hear only positive things about the games from now on.

India's campaign hasn't been without events. A Jane Doe walking with Indian athletes during opening ceremony caused quite a sensation, but six days into the games, India has just one Bronze medal to be proud of. Hockey team is not performing as expected and hopes are pinned on Badminton events to make sure the medal tally improves. With almost two weeks of Olympics still left, it is a tad too early to pass judgement on India's performance, but one can't stop wondering about the dearth of good world-class athletes from a country with a population of over 1.2 billion.

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Being an ardent Batman and Christopher Nolan fan, I watched 'The Dark Knight Rises' as soon as it released here in Stockholm. (I don't get why the release was delayed by a week in Europe, it was not easy keeping away from spoilers!) Since I own a Halloween Dark Knight costume, couple of my friends advised me to wear that to the movie. Personally, I quite liked the idea of growling, "Popcorn-mini. Buttered, not salted.", in a Batman costume at the theater's snack shop. But then, having the experience of wearing the costume last Halloween, I can vouch that the practical difficulties of existing in the costume outweigh the "cool" attention one hopes to get. 

6 reasons for not watching 'The Dark Knight Rises', as 'The Dark Knight'

1) Without Bat-mobile or Bat-bike, it is just too lame to run behind public transport as 'Batman' in train stations and bus stops, .

2) After a point of time, it becomes too bugging when some random person yells at you, "Hey Batman, where is Robin ?". Last Halloween, I realized how many fans Robin had.

3) It is impossible to sit on a chair without the huge Bat-logo and vest ram into the throat. Too uncomfortable, one can't stop feeling like Jabba the Hutt.

4) It gets incredibly hot under the costume and the amount of sweating one has to endure is unimaginable. It's like wearing a thermal wear, woolen sweater and a jacket in Indian summer.

5) The slits in the cowl do not exactly match with eyes since the costume is not customized. Vision is greatly restricted to whatever is right in front of you and trust me, that is not the kind of feeling one wants while wearing a superhero costume. 

6) The costume is lightweight and squishy. There is nothing more insulting (to Batman) than a costume that deforms whenever someone friendly bumps their fists onto the chest vest !