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