The Rescue Moto

21^st December 2016 was just another Wednesday in my vacations. I watched the new star wars movie on Monday (at PVR Pacific Gold which is by far the best cinematic experience I’ve had so far) and was writing my review of it (which you can find here). I talked to a few people, made a plan to watch Dangal this friday, watched a few videos like any other day; finished my review by evening (again here). After completing my review I sent out the links to the blog to many people (a thing which I personally hate to do). Then as regular, it was time for my evening workout. I left my home around 7:45pm and reached the gym by 8:00pm. Changed my attire; grabbed my shaker, towel and phone and kept them on some machine. It was chest day. This was routine. I used to do this everyday since a long time. As I knew most of the people in the gym as well, it never occurred to me that a theft can ever take place. So I just kept my stuff openly. The shaker and towel are necessary stuff but I also had a habit of checking the phone for missed calls or check my twitter. Then it happened. Around 9:00-9:15, I went away a little too far to use a machine and complete my set. By the time I returned, my phone was gone! Rest of my stuff was there but no phone. I informed my trainer and he called on it but the phone was switched off. Nothing was to be done now. We can’t track a dead device. Whoever took it might’ve gone by now. I accepted that I’ve lost my phone due to my recklessness and went home around 9:30pm after telling all the trainers and the owner to keep an eye open if they notice anything but I knew that I’ll never see my phone again. Now at home I immediately started the process to somehow atleast secure the data in my phone. Actually the data inside was more valuable than the phone itself. It had everything- all my accounts, my PINs, my identity proofs, unfinished blog posts, story ideas, music, exclusive wallpapers, college documents and setups of paid apps among other things like photographs. All other data like contacts and calendar were synced with google though so that was no problem. I called Vodafone to block my SIM. Still my whatsapp and paytm wallet were a reason for big concern. I cannot use whatsapp in any other device without my SIM and cannot login to Paytm web portal without the OTP they send on my registered number which was stolen along with the phone. I tried contacting Paytm but to no use. I couldn’t reach a single human on their helpline. At home I used my brother’s phone, much to his dismay, for syncing my google and the only app which I could use, snapchat. Now I had my contacts and my snapchat atleast in my brother’s phone. At night around 12:30am I ordered a new phone from amazon (for which too I couldn’t make payment because I can’t make bank transactions without them sending an OTP on my phone). But still I could revise my payment method in 24 hours. So I had 24 hours to get a new SIM and put it in a phone. I slept around 1:00am thinking to get a similar number new SIM card tomorrow first thing (I hardly slept that night). But then it happened and the real adventure began.

The following morning, that is the morning of 22^nd December 2016, I woke up and checked my mail. And here it was. I had 9 mails from Paytm. Somebody had used my Paytm balance. A metro card recharge of 700. As the day progressed, I found they did few more things- checked my whatsapp as the last seen was of 1:35am on that night; used my paytm for a Rs.30 transaction more and used my Freecharge balance of Rs. 160 too. But among all these things and the 9 mails I received from paytm I discovered something of mighty significance. He (the thief) tried to reset my paytm password 7 times and when he was unsuccessful in doing so, he tried to change the registered email address. This was his huge mistake. He changed the registered email address from mine to his. Aaaandd skadoosh!. I had his email address now. I used somebody’s facebook to search for him (I don’t have facebook as you all know). And I found his profile. That idiot!. Now I had his workplace, school, photos, family details everything but the address and phone number. I couldn’t stop laughing. There was no end to my happiness. Looking at his picture, I wasn’t sure if I had seen this person in my gym or not. He was probably new. But when I scrolled through his photos, I found a pic with one of his friends and I recognized that douche. I remembered him. He used to wear a batman tee everyday and he was new. Now I had two suspects- Sonu Singh (the one I recognized) and Abhijeet Kumar (the one with the mail). Now it was only a matter of time before I go hunting for them. I had my breakfast, talked to a cousin who lives nearby and gathered all my evidence. I printed all the details I had- the mails, the facebook profiles, their photographs (individual and together). Now we could find their addresses from the gym. So we went to the police station at around 11:00am. Told our story and displayed our leads to the SHO and he called an SI who took over our case. The SI was very cooperative throughout. He went to the gym with us, there and then and we got their addresses from the registry. They haven’t even filled their complete addresses. We made the owner to call them and ask the address to complete a routine check. He did and they told us. At first they said they didn’t know the address as they were new to Delhi.

Now it was only a matter of time before we find them and bring them to justice. All the while I was worried for my phone. I wondered they might’ve sold it by now or atleast deleted the data for sure. In the afternoon, the police sent a person to get them from the address but nobody was home. Now came evening of 22^nd December 2016. The police sent people again to the address. This time they found someone. He was a roommate to both our suspects. He was taken to the police station. Pretty soon both the suspects were also assembled in the police station along with their two roommates. They were four people who shared a room including the culprit- Abhijeet Kumar. He was asked to return the phone. He asked the fourth roommate to bring the phone he’d hidden in the kitchen of their home. He and only he was responsible as was found out later. All three of them were oblivious to the theft as they claimed.

So now, we were called at the station around 6pm on 22^nd December 2016. There I found all four of them along with my phone on the SI’s desk. I checked the phone. It was mine but they’d deleted all the data. A complete factory reset. So nothing was there on it. He’d even discarded my SIM somewhere and was using his own in my device. But still, I had the phone back now. We left them in police custody that night and came back home with my two year old phone. So all in all, I did lose all my data and I’m yet to receive the Rs. 890 they stole from my Paytm and Freecharge wallets but I got my phone back. Without even a single scratch on it; with the screen guard and the back cover and the memory card still intact; and that too just within 24 hours. 

If you find this story interesting, then ask the author about the one time he found a corpse on road and it came alive. 

Rogue One: Review

This must be the most fast paced star wars movie. Welcome everyone to the review of the most anticipated movie of the year ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’. Well yeah they made another one before the actual sequel comes out, just to extract as much as they can from the pockets of you plebs but hey who cares?

The movie starts with the backstory of the main character, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the lone child of Imperial scientist Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) who played a pivotal role in the construction of the first Death Star. Jyn is a great protagonist. Realistic, capable and not too heroic but still does the right thing at the right moment. But not to be confused with Rey. Rey would be an understatement to our more hardened war vet. She is not as fortunate as Rey but she is just as awesome (even more in some ways). She joins a band of misfits that includes a cold-blooded Rebel assassin named Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who is no replacement for Finn or Poe but a good enough character on its own although he feels a bit rushed and incomplete at moments; a blind but still lethal warrior-priest named Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) (my personal favourite in the new expanded universe); Chirrut's stoic, cranky but loyal best friend Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), a legendary marksman; former Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), who defected the empire along with Galen Erso, and Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), an extremist leader of rebels whose cyborg legs and assisted breathing make him a light-side-of-the-Force answer to baddies like Darth Vader and General Grievous (plus for some reason his voice is funny too).

  

The movie's most prized reveal and the most ‘alive’ droid yet would be K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), a reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid who can be a badass sidekick and is still as petulant and pouty as C-3PO and tends to blurt out everything that comes into his ‘circuit’. Frankly he’s brought more to the film than R2D2 or BB8 ever did. I know those two are the most beloved and adorable droids ever but in terms of character, they’re still just beeping ball-ish beings. C-3PO does almost nothing ever except being a kind of a comic relief. But no K-2SO is different. He is better. He is witty, he’s got a sense of humour and he can fight. He is a martyr whose death will leave a void just as big as his human counterparts.

This is the one thing weird about this movie. The lead duo Cassian and Jyn are given sufficient screen time but still they somehow don’t feel much polished as characters whereas newly introduced side characters such as Baze, Chirrut and K-2SO leave a lasting impact both on the film and the viewer’s hearts. Well this was bound to happen. The movie was totally self-contained. And by the interval everyone should’ve realised what’s gonna happen in the end. Yes, none of these amazing characters survive as we move to the immediate start of ‘A New Hope’.

Rogue One is a movie for someone who’s never seen a star wars. And at the very same time it will be most appreciated by the hardcore fans who can recognize all references and character reappearances. Rogue one is actually much more darker and original than the rest of its predecessors. It may be a spinoff but it never forgets where it came from. The absence of Jedi and the Sith may take away the entire feel of the ‘Star Wars’ soul but the movie speaks more on a local level. It shows the struggle when there is no Jedi or princess on any quest to protect or annihilate anybody. It highlights individuality, freedom and what it really means to be a rebel. How the life of anyone involved in the struggle can be so unpredictable and fragile when they’re fighting for a cause. A cause they might believe in but without any backing of any kind except the ‘hope’ to succeed. Well they do pave way for ‘hope’ (quite literally) by the time it concludes.

At times, I think this whole movie was made just fill the biggest plot hole in the star wars franchise. The infamous weakness of the greatest weapon ever. One blast in the correct, really tiny almost impossible to hit place and boom, all of it is a pile of rubble. A weapon as ominous and as humongous as a moon comes with an Achilles heel. This was never explained that why would the empire allow such a massive lapse to exist in the embodiment of their ultimate dream. A sword through which they can conquer anything and establish an unprecedented rule of dread but comes with such a huge weakness.

The old score by John Williams still works and incites the same magic and inspiration it did ages ago. The performances are solid with the side characters stealing the show and the returning characters proving to be satisfactory. The direction by Gareth Edwards is top notch except a few too many cuts here and there. The Godzilla (2016) director shows the AT-AT walkers beautifully and all the fight scenes although extensive but are thrilling to the core. Not much is seen in this flick in terms of space warfare but the ground battles are just as mesmerising.

As for the presentation- At the beginning, the movie feels too much restless. Like its in a hurry to establish too many converging storylines. We cut through so many planets and places and people that its almost hard to keep track. After that though, when the commotion starts to settle down and we see the picture rather clearly things become enjoyable. That is the thing about this movie, it isn’t very exciting but enjoyable. You don’t long for what’s going to happen next as the plot is pretty straightforward but you enjoy whatever’s happening on the screen. The movie reaches its pinnacle at the very end when we see Leia escape and we see Darth Vader wreak havoc on the Alliance soldiers. It was horrible. It was terrorizing. It was overwhelming. It was awesome. Vader is just as cool or even more so as he ever was. Just seeing him move through the smoke and kill people is nothing short of a spectacle.

The Verdict

So this is what we have. Another full length feature of the universe far far away. I’m glad to be living in an era when we get so much of star wars and that too all entries greater than the rest. Rogue One at certain times feel like a compilation of star wars memes. Its got everything the internet ever wanted from a star wars spinoff. Moreover it lays rock solid ground work for the ultimate tale, the space opera of the century which started it all ‘Episode IV’. Rogue One is an aboriginal gloomy tale of the alliance’s efforts to resist the fascist imperial regime and how the spark of faith in a handful of troublemakers can ignite a flame of struggle for the generations to come. Without much turbulence, the movie goes straight in one direction and leads to the definitive finale it sought. The movie is adequately emotional albeit unusually sombre and despondent for a franchise like this but proves to be an indispensable addition to George Lucas’s spiritual saga, ripe with enough thrills and satisfying clashes, memorable characters, successfully depicting the sacrifice that made possible the creation of a new hope (hehe).

So this one is a definite go ahead. Watch the movie. If the Phantom Menace let you down, this is the prequel you were waiting for. If you’re a star wars fan you won’t be disappointed. If you’re not, this would be the best time to become one.

The author finds Felicity Jones much more attractive than Daisy Ridley (those eyes!). And now that we're done with both male and female human leads, can we please have a star wars movie starring an Ewok?

 P.S.- Darth Plagueis is Emporer Snoke

Raman Raghav 2.0 : Review

There are normal Bollywood movies. Then there are some serious and dark Bollywood movies. And then there is reality which is even more brutal and unsettling. Even beneath reality, there is Anurag Kashyap ; who not only portrays raw and unbelievable reality in its full gory glory but then forces things to take an even darker, grittier and sombre tone. It’s like taking an already inedible fruit and injecting it with poison but the director doesn’t just stops there. He will shove that fruit down snow white’s throat till she chokes to death.

So the movie starts almost neutrally. We see an opening title sequence with loud music and just as all kashyap films I know what to expect here. More so because I had a feeling it might similar to ‘Ugly’ in some sense. The truth is it is and it isn’t. In Ugly we had people who atleast seemed to care about the little girl but Raman Raghav is completely faithless. The movie is divided in chapters like Tarantino does it and tests what our reality is and how unsafe anyone is to how fucked up people can be.

The movie is devoid of any compassion. No character displays any kind of humanity towards anything in any scene. Not even for their own selves. People are just caught up in their own demons and the ones who are the victims of such abuse quietly tolerate it before they meet their end. Yes that’s the thing about this movie; not one single strand of plot ever goes onto anything even remotely positive and just unfolds itself until at the end where it reaches its peak (or nadir) of debauchery. There is almost no theme the movie does not touch- spousal abuse- physical and emotional, drug abuse, child abuse, rape; you name it. And believe me these are not even the main focus of the movie just background props to add to the disgust we’re already forced to feel for almost every character.

An abusive and abrasive and drug addict police officer, very much prone to violence and often killing (even) with almost no sense of duty or moral bounds and also no regard for anyone who cares about him; and a girl who for some reason falls for such a guy and for the same mysterious reason always lets him use her, treat her like trash without ever saying a word. Such are the people on the ‘good side’ (this phrase is so farfetched). In between such characters, a villain needs to be worse than bad. He needs to be evil incarnate. Something so twisted, something so wretched, so anti that it puts Patrick Bateman to shame and disturbingly so but Nawazuddin’s Raman does exactly that. He shows us a sickening, almost nauseating evil creature which deserves no sympathy in any world, right on top with the likes of Ramsay Bolton and Griffith (Berserk).

The casting of the movie is great. Nawazuddin’s psychopath is the star of the whole setup. He perfectly shocks you with everything he does by descending lower and lower to the point where he becomes a force of nature, the embodiment of sin, a dark shapeless slimy creature. Other’s do a pretty well job as well. Vicky Kaushal’s frustrated and quite simply put- a dickhead of a police officer is quite irksome and as fate would have it, almost equally guilty if not twisted as the antagonist. The movie also introduces the gorgeous, sensuous, dazzling (sorry, can’t help it) Sobhita Dhulipala as Smrutika Naidu (Thatswhy they call her simmi in the movie). She is the victim. She is treated badly. Not once she is shown any care at all. But still somehow the viewers can’t feel any sympathy for her as she herself is utterly remorseless and ignorant. The music is top notch. Ram Sampath does a fantastic job creating a chaotic, sinister and chilling soundtrack mixing aptly with all the film’s elements. Where the film lacks is (I don’t believe I’m saying this) in Anurag Kashyap’s direction. There are too many cuts and scenes where the execution could’ve been better and overall the movie lacks the dark humour Kashyap is famous for. And the second half also gets a bit repetitive as Raman makes fool of people again and again; Mr police officer proves to be a jerk again and again. All those things which mesmerised us during the first few minutes of the movie seem like a structure which the rest of the movie blindly follows.

"Bhagwan ka CCTV hoon main"

So to sum it up, not Kashyap’s best work but certainly his grittiest till date (and that’s really saying something for a guy who made ‘Ugly’). This is what happens when a person like Kashyap meets with a serial killer. You get a psycho thriller devoid of all hope, humanity and emotion. You come out of theatre cursing humanity’s existence and fearing for your own safety. He shows us how danger lurks everywhere and anyone can be anything. The most simple and ordinary poor man can be such a vile monster. But there were times when it felt like the movie was too afraid of itself. It showed us what true diabolism is but seems scared of what the audience might see if it showed more blood and gore. Maybe then it’d have turned a horror flick as against the intention of the makers. But nonetheless, this is solid piece of cinema, not for the faint of heart or believers of humanity. This is not just a story about a person somewhat inspired by a serial killer, it’s a story of a whole world under the influence of a vicious beast who as Raman puts it “galti se nahi mara maine kabhi kisi ko”. The story of a misguided yet motivated man who knows no bounds and stops at nothing when it comes to killing. He’s got no morals, no rules, no principles to live by and such is the whole movie, no room for any optimism at all.

VERDICT
A good movie that can only be described in bad words. I was about to give three stars but a half extra for the fact that the antagonist not only displayed evil but successfully spread it as well. So here at our expanse is a movie too gritty, too hopeless, and slightly humourless for anyone’s tastes but still excels at showing an outright disgusting serial killer who spares no one; be it children, relatives or whatever crossed his path. The audience is not spared either. We have to sit through it and witness our own souls being devoured by the cynicism aroused from such unsympathetic and despicable characters committing heinous crimes with no guilt at all. A nice watch for Kashyap fans and all those who have faith that they’re not going to heaven anyway. The movie is a testament to a reality we all choose to ignore and by the end I feel its better that way. Some things are better be ignored but not this movie, its a go. Not a happy bright ribbon wrapped 'go' flag but an anxious and scary 'go ahead' for the fans of intense cinema out there.

"The author wonders why is he always late to the show. And is also willing to see this movie again just for Sobhita Dhulipala"

"The things I do for love" - Jaime 

Movie Review: Udta Punjab (2016)

A star wars style intro eh? Well not enough to impress me but it did captivate my attention. Welcome folks! To the review of the newsmaker of the month- Udta Punjab. The movie, notorious for its tussle with the censor board finally got a release after high court intervention and only one cut as against the CBFC’s recommended 89 cuts.

Now unto the movie itself. After such hype and all the controversies, I was really excited to see what the fuss is all about. And I must say, I don’t get what made the board to ban the release. The film was a great exploration of the Punjab drug scene and the sometimes intersecting lives of four individuals but there was nothing in it which in any way could’ve offended anyone. Here I must say I think the CBFC overreacted.

The movie starts with showing a nice scene of how the drugs are locally peddled even across borders. At first the film seems like a quirky dark comedy with madness flying everywhere with Tommy Singh, played pretty convincingly by Shahid Kapoor. But don’t be fooled by its initial impression. This is one very serious movie about a very serious menace in our society. Infact the humour practically dies in the rest of the movie. Had it been crazier then maybe I should’ve rated it higher but that’s just my bias. I like such terrifying craziness in movies but nonetheless, the movie does not fail in any way. Its intentions and flow is pretty clear and firmly grounded. The movie does not move in a linear direction in terms of excitement though. It does not linearly go down nor it goes up. The movie has its moments, some very disheartening ones and some really wonderful ones. There is just so much melancholia in the movie that at some point you are just forced to wish the best of everything for everyone involved, no matter how clichéd it might look. The film turns from unsettling to tragic by the time we reach the conclusion. Maybe, that’s just exactly how a film should be about drug abuse.

The characters of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor, Dr. Preeti Sahni and Tommy Singh, are the most gleeful characters as compared to the others. Tommy is an inspiration for everyone caught in substance abuse while Dr. Sahni has dedicated her life to fight the menace of drugs. Tommy is high almost throughout the movie but we still see the guilt that has engulfed him due to his habit. He tries to avoid it but simply cannot perform without it and often resorts to antics harmful to others but then again regrets them almost immediately. Tommy is very well a character who may be caught in a storm but finds his way to redemption through his love for MJ and shows everyone that he’s not just some hollow junkie consumed by his addiction but there is still goodness inside. The saddest of the sequences is the story of Alia’s unnamed character (MJ). Right from the start we see her in abject poverty barely supporting herself, given up on her dreams and then things get far worse for her. Her story is so heart-breaking that the end of the film seems all the way more fair. Diljit’s Sarjit Singh also scores high in this department though as his brother is also an addict for which he holds himself responsible and in a way he is, but due to rampant corruption in the system he feels helpless.

Now the performances of everyone were great including all the artists in minor roles but holding great significance to the plot. The antagonists weren’t any A-list actors but they still did a solid job of showing a maleficence lurking in the regularity of everyday lives. Their subtle portrayal made the characters both believable and detestable. As for our four leads, all were very aptly cast and fit very well in the roles. If there is anyone noticeable on screen then it would be Alia Bhatt but she still did a convincing enough job. As for Diljit Singh, I can only say he was still better than most newcomers in Bollywood. Not once in the whole movie he strikes as a romantic nor is he in any way interested in the female doctor as against in most Bollywood flicks. He genuinely cares for her but never tries to force something in the plot-line which simply isn’t suitable.

The Verdict
Udta Punjab is a good film with few tense moments and few truly tragic ones but the message is very loud and clear and the movie with each passing second reminds us how drugs ruin lives all the users as well as the ones around them. Sometimes artsy, sometimes too predictable but Udta Punjab manages to capture the misery and drug affliction quite relevantly. As I said before, the movie is a very serious one and never takes the subject in question or itself lightly. Maybe that’s where it lacks. A bit more of dark humour and I might’ve rated it higher but nevertheless this is still a solid piece of work and deserves a watch or two even, for GABRU.

“Not just Tommy Singh but the author loves Mary Jane too. And yeah, fuck you- balli.”

Runners Up

“ughhfoo” ”ughhfoo”, he was panting. With heavy breaths, he was running. As fast as he could. He never was much of a runner, the idea exhausted him but he was running. In the dark of night, the hoots of owls were apparent. “At this hour” “At this place”, he thought to himself. “Why would the owls make the noise they do?” “Do they see me” “do they acknowledge me” “why’d they fly here” “animals are not sentient beings, their actions can’t be questioned or be mistaken for a divine sign”. That’s what he did. That’s what he always did. Contradicted himself.  Saying one thing, then another, never reaching a conclusion where he could agree with himself. This was a conflict he fought through his whole life and when it became unbearable, he decided to run. But to where and from what? “Pat!” he collided with an old lady, she fell on the road. He didn’t stop. Looking back he saw people helping her and cursing him but he didn’t stop nor did anyone try to make him. Somewhat similar to that other night. He didn’t stop even then. If he had, a man’s life would’ve been spared. Two years ago, he was running or jogging really fast would be more appropriate. It was merely his second day after he made a vow to become shapely. On the very first day he realised how boring it can be. All the while his mind tried to convince him to go back to his comfortable lifestyle. So to avoid it he carried his music with him the next day. With headphones on the loudest, he wasn’t even listening to his own thoughts and that was the intention. Outside noises were completely non-existent. It was like he wasn’t running on road but in a white plain. Nothing around, nothing for miles only the blinding whiteness all over. He hears a loud screech. Just then his world shatters. “Glass? Was that glass?” he asks himself wondering about the big thump he’d just heard. A horn blowing constantly, beeeeeeeeeeeeppppppp! And he’s back to his senses. He realised the world he’s in. He’s out of the park now, it never occurred to him that he was already on road. He looks back; at the back is his misfortune as he looks in horror at the bloody head of the driver who crashed into the traffic light. He goes to him, shakes his body, tries to help him but he’s already dead. There was glass all over the car’s hood. Here he wondered to himself, such is his fate. The place was so desolate he couldn’t find any help from anywhere. He cursed the moment he decided to bring an mp3 player instead of his phone. He then searched the body for a phone. He found one, immediately called 112. The emergency services arrived, cops arrived. He told them what he desperately wanted to believe himself. “So how’d it happen?”, constable Dogra asked. “I was out for my regular jog before dawn breaks and I found this person with his car collided with the traffic signal”, he replied. “So nothing else?” “No, nothing else sir”. “Seems like an accident, the driver must’ve fell asleep. During these hours it’s pretty common”. “Yes you are very right sir”, he said constantly doubting his own statement, wondering “is he dead because of me?”

He was running, this is what mattered. He was running now, not what happened two years ago, not what drove him to this madness but what he was doing and he was running now. “shunnnnn!” he hit a window. But he kept going. “The windows in my room are kinda stuck, their lock is rusty” “but not that it matters now”. He kept running. “Faster, faster, faster” “no no no, stomach cramps stomach cramps, “slower slower slower”. Can he die while running? From running too much? “Nah”, he thought “this isn’t how it ends” “I get to decide that. Atleast that decision’s mine”. This reminded him of the city-half marathon he ran last year. It was a charity event for an orphanage. “Is that all I’ve given to this world?” “I didn’t even complete that race”. Just then he saw a familiar face in front of him. She was picking up a nickel from the road. Just when she stood up and in the split second they saw each other, her eyes widened, she recognized him. “Lucky girl, found a nickel on road” but then it hit him. He remembered who she was. She was the girl he gave a ride a few months back. Now the whole night came flashing back to him. He was on the road to his way back home when he saw a girl waving hands at the passing cars. He didn’t want to stop for her. Afterall good samaritans are statistically more prone to being robbed. But he wasn’t moving at a lethal speed so she literally threw herself infront of his car. “You want to die here, girl?”, he screamed from the inside of his car. “Please, please, my brother, my brother” and pointed at a person seemingly collapsed nearby. He stopped his engine and came out to see what it was all about. This was now officially a disaster according to him. He left himself so vulnerable, anything can happen now. These two can very well threaten him and run away with his money and car or even worse sedate him and take him for selling his organs. He got closer to this person on the side of the road. The suspiciously trembling gentleman on the road was hardly breathing and shaking violently as if having a seizure. “Now what to do?”, he wondered. “As if I have a choice now”. He dragged him to his car and took the girl and her brother to the nearest hospital. On their way the girl explained how both their phone’s network was ineffectual. “Bloody Vodafone”, he mumbled. “What?”, she asked. “Oh nothing, nothing”. After a while the doctor told them it was an allergic reaction. “He could’ve died. You brought him here in time. He almost had a stroke”, the doc explained. “Oh yes. My brother’s allergic to peanuts and he bought a chocolate bar from a shop on our way. Gosh! I must’ve known, I’m so stupid”, the girl cried. “Yup, that you are dear” “what?”, she said again (he wondered if that’s all she knows of the English language). “Had I not been there at the right time, you’d have become the sole heir to your parents’ inheritance”. “No, we’ll still be rich. I’ll sue the chocolate company for not explicitly mentioning that they use nuts as an ingredient”, she said. (This girl certainly knows more, he wondered) “I feel like I should go now and leave you with your sinister plans” "what?", she said again and he left her at the hospital and rushed back to his car and headed straight for home (at moderate speed ofcourse).

“I saved that boy’s life that day. Must mean something” “nah, I guess. I didn’t do much” “she forced me to help her”. Now he forgot about his stomach ache and kept running with newfound vigour. Now his destination was close. He was getting there. He started without thinking about one but on his way he had made his mind about the river in the outskirts of the city. “Yup, that’s where I’ll die. With the countless fish I’ll lay myself to sleep as well”. The river had been at the centre of various controversies over the years. Many people used to commit suicide there during the early 80’s. Some say the spirit of old Maggi still lurks in the river in the form of a big angler fish. Maggi was allegedly thrown into the river by her elder sister over a petty feud. Presently the river was seeing many staged protests against out-city factories dumping toxic waste in it causing the fish to mutate. The river was a symbol of rampant pollution and widespread environmental neglect all over the city with big corporations completely shunning away from all responsibilities. “With my death maybe they’ll see how important conserving environment is”. Bereft of his logic, he continued running.

As his cynicism took over, came the time for him to recall every sinful deed he’d done in his life. “Nonsense, I can’t possibly remember each day of my life”. Then it hit him. How wrong had he been all his life. How carelessly he lived without giving a thought to the happiness of others. All mistakes he ever made, came hitting him like nails in his head. The time when he sneaked booze in his school dormitory or everytime when he smoked with his friends. Or how he kept hitting on women, getting into pointless relationships just for sport. Never caring about anyone’s feelings. Even after his marriage he almost cheated on his wife once. Or how he backstabbed most of his colleagues to get his way in the company he worked for. Everybody hated him. And all for what? Increment, bonus, bigger office? “Was that it? Is that why this illness is inflicted upon me? This is my retribution. I am a sinner.”, he thought to himself as he started to wonder about the beginning of this whole ordeal.

Last week he collapsed while mowing his lawn. The reports came back this afternoon. He was diagnosed with Thymoma, a malignant tumour in his thymus, a cancer. Just when he was returning from the hospital, utterly devastated, barely holding himself together, he snapped. His fingers weren’t steady on the wheel, one of his legs started shaking uncontrollably. Profusely sweating all over, he lost faith in his sight. Too many thoughts burst in his mind at once. He felt like his limbs are being pulled apart in different directions. His mind felt like paste. He started having trouble breathing, he felt suffocated. He opened the door of his car then just ran away from it all as fast as he could.

“We’ll start chemotherapy from next week”, he remembered the doctor’s words. “why? What’s the purpose of it all? With only few months left to live why should I waste my time in chemo? Even if it succeeds, how much time will I borrow from death? And how many people even survive? I’m not gonna fight this. I had it coming. I deserve this. I have nothing left to live for. My life is worthless. I’m just another disappointment. I couldn’t do anything with my life. In all these years I merely scrapped my way through the world. No one will remember me. No one would’ve remembered me anyway. I’ve always disappointed people. My family, my friends, anyone who ever made the mistake of depending on me. I have no place in the world. I deserve to die, alone. Away from anyone who can recognize my corpse. This is the penance for my self-centredness.”, as he was about to burst in tears in the middle of the road he tripped and fell, rather badly.

“Oh just great! A broken finger now. Now I’ll get a fiberglass cast just like my daughter” “well how does it matter, I’m about to die anyway”. “Wait! My daughter!”, now he couldn’t control his emotions anymore and started crying. The memories of his daughter evoked something from deep within him. Now he really wasn’t feeling like himself. “How will she feel?” “She’ll cry for sure but few years and she’ll understand”. “Her mother will help her around it”. “She’s so little. I remember how she first fell from her bicycle when I was teaching her how to ride. When she fell, it looked like a big ball of wool rolling on the road. I can’t forget her face when I left her to the school for the first time. All the kids were crying. I was crying. She wasn’t. When I left she waved her hand at me and I still can’t describe how it felt” “her fractured hand should heal by next week” “I need to take her to the doctor again. Oh I remember now, day after tomorrow I’m needed at her school for the parent’s meet”. “how? How gaawwwdd?” “how can I just turn my back on all this?” “how can I die now. My cancer will kill me for sure. Who’ll do these things then?” “if I go back home, what’ll I tell my family? That they won’t see me around after a few weeks” “it’ll cause such a chaos in the lives of everyone connected to me” “no I can’t go back” “I’ve ran so far. My river’s not too far now. What’s far is my life, my family and my daughter.”

He felt a spear go through his heart. Like he’d just been stabbed multiple times. There he was. In the night, on the road, tired from all the running, still undecided. The night turned red in his mind now. He was so frustrated and tired he couldn’t think straight. He felt being pulled. Standing on a thousand corpses, everyone he’d ever met, pulling him down with their bloody fingers, tearing his soul apart. He was unable to move, unable to see anything, helpless. A person trapped in his own mind. The victim of a cataclysm of his own making. A big blue ocean appeared suddenly in front of his eyes. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. The water was shining unlike anything in the mortal world. There was no end to this heart wrenching sight. The endless ocean. That’s what he wanted. That’s what he needed. An ocean to consume him and everything in him. All his troubles, all his anxiety, all his pain. “Let me go! Let me go”, he cried. “Going into it once and all my problems will be over.” But the dead didn’t leave him. He wasn’t going ahead or anywhere but down. Sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss. The sight of the ocean growing smaller and smaller with each of his cries and very soon vanished completely. One last harrowing scream and then into oblivion he saw nothing but darkness. By the time he came back to his senses, he felt all of his thoughts to be extinct. Everything just gone. Like he was hollow inside. No feelings, no pressure, no worries. A state of true serenity. “We can’t stop the inevitable I guess”, he thought and chose to be succumbed to the temptation of a few more days of pointless life and a few more days with his daughter and turned back. There, there returned the broken man. A man who couldn’t even decide to die. 

One night, Zhuangzi dreamed that he was a carefree butterfly, flying happily. After he woke up, he wondered how he could determine whether he was Zhuangzi who had just finished dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who had just started dreaming he was Zhuangzi. If asking oneself "Am I dreaming?" in a dream proves that one is, what does it prove in waking life?

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

First of all, a very happy new year to everyone; hope for 2016 to be different. Now this is my first review of the year and there couldn’t be a better way to make a start than kicking it off with the most awaited special of the year- ‘Sherlock: The Abominable Bride’. Foremost, for those who don’t know this was just a standalone special episode, a sort of present for the Sherlock fans worldwide and it isn’t a part of any previous or forthcoming season. As for the fourth season of Sherlock, we’ll have to wait probably another year or so. It can be argued that the story is pivotal to the whole overall plot of the show but the showrunners made it clear as it is only a bonus and won’t affect the established plotlines in any way but it will be gigantically stupid to miss this.

So it was expected that this is going to be a Victorian Era story of Sherlock Holmes, set exactly in the times as originally imagined by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sometimes I wonder if dear Arthur was alive today how would’ve he felt. ‘Proud’ would be an understatement.

Though proud am I to say that this character has successfully transcended all boundaries containing it in any media. Originally made just as a next gen sleuth for a couple of stories, Sherlock Holmes nearly 128 years after its first appearance is a worldwide phenomenon today. A character so genuine it engulfed the whole genre. Can Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman with minds of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss do justice to its legacy? Yes, and quite splendidly so.

The episode is about a bride who returns from the dead to commit murder. It does sound ‘impossible’ but then the possible never did interest our Mr. Holmes. Despite its setting, the episode never feels sombre or plain as the times back then. It is exciting, visually riveting, humourous and packs a punch in the mystery itself, just like all other great Sherlock episodes.  Soon, we realize the focus is not the mystery but why did Sherlock invoke its memory in the first place. (Yeah, I guessed that way before they mentioned it. In your face Sherlock!). We meet versions of everyone in that time which are all the same except quite noticeably Mycroft which was an enormous hint to put it mildly. But as we know Mycroft to be always many steps ahead of his little brother dear, he’d already solved the mystery (I always liked him more) but only in his head. He needed Sherlock for the ‘legwork’.

This was an episode in love with its source material. There were just too many references and homages paid to some classic works of Sir Doyle. Everything from beginning to end was to remind us of something or the other. From great landscapes to disclosing minute details to the every normal persons’ take on everything seemingly important (ofcourse except Sherlock and me). I always found Sir Doyle’s actual talent to lie in describing the scenarios or the setting of the background location. He aptly describes everything from the rusty door to the twilight moonshine to the dinghy walls of ancestral mansions. Same goes for our today’s episode, it was as if the original storyteller has come to life. This is the closest anything could ever come to a Sherlock novel. This episode was probably the most heavily influenced by the original works than any other. That is not to say you won’t enjoy that. If you’ve ever read anything Sherlock related, you’ll be jumping in your bed.

Now the real interesting thing to see was whether Cumberbatch could fit into his most famous role in the conventional settings. And yes he did so amazingly, though I always pictured the regular Holmes to be aged and a more wrinkly- faced man but saying Benedict is young is not an argument to work against him here. What always delighted me and did so again was Martin Freeman’s Dr. John Hamish Watson in the 1800’s.  I have said it before that the real star of the show isn’t Cumberbatch but Martin Freeman and this time the showrunners also accepted it giving Watson a more engaging story than ever. (Anything Watson does, looks so adorable like a little cat)

What bothered me though was how no one ever asks the right questions ever in a Sherlock story. Maybe it’s a British thing to play ignorant until the more responsible one clears everything. Sherlock always seems to belittle the audience and we’re always presumed to be simpleminded as compared to him. (Though with my little exception. PS- I did uncover the culprit before Holmes cleared everything towards the end. Take that Mr. Cheekbones!).

This was more of an emotional episode than all others as Sherlock (and I) prefer to be emotionally detached from the mortal world as feelings serve no other purpose than to distract us, a ‘crack in the lens’ so to say. Sherlock’s drug addiction is seen as a serious problem now. We also witness Moriarty and Sherlock’s epic fall. As I mentioned, this episode didn’t conceal its endless affection for original Sherlock even a bit.

Final Deductions

Surprisingly, this episode was about Moriarty. It explored his destructive relationship with our sleuth more closely than ever before and reminded us why our hero is always so taken aback at the thought of confronting him. Moriarty is no fun, he is no plot device, he is not a mere villain. He is a despicable, a truly contemptible beast with monstrous intellect. He is the embodiment of carnage, an evil spider constantly weaving a web of atrocities beyond anyone’s comprehension. The credit here all goes to the writers and the masterful portrayal by Andrew Scott who can remind us that Joffery Baratheon is merely a child. Our bonus episode captures the detective’s latest/ oldest exploits in a suspenseful and magically charged horror tale ultimately discovering a moral root in a sad but once true chauvinism and connecting it to the issues prevalent even today. So if you’re a Sherlock fan, fan of the original works or just got nothing to do right now, this is the perfect getaway. Immerse yourself completely in the London of your dreams and fall in love with Watson's stories, the Reichenbach way. (also wake up your inner feminist) 

The author admires Mycroft as his equal but Sherlock in no way stands a chance against him.

The author also arrogantly poses the question- "How might it feel in those tiny little brains of yours?"