waking up on the battle field

I opened my eyes to the sharp twang of bowstrings, and suddenly the scene before me started becoming more clear.

I could clearly make out one of our archers putting all his life into ensuring that every arrow flew as far as they were meant to, and the speed at which he was losing the shafts meant he was panicking.

This didn't feel good, and I couldn't see how many more archers made up the line. They needed to relax if they were to be effective, and I wondered which moron was the commander around here. I wished I could just walk out and get them in shape.

Its when I tried to move that the searing pain cut my vision again. I was just summoning my strength to stand up, when something braced my face with a heavy whizzing sound .I knew it was an arrow, and it indeed was.

A black coated shaft with silver feathers and tough metal. A fine shaft indeed and I couldn't help appreciate how many hours of art would have crafted such a wonder. A shame if they were being wasted upon corpses and random trees.

On closely examining the shaft, I could see that it had pierced the shield kept inside the tent, and the blade was still intact. The moment of admiration passed when I identified the marks of our enemy. My heart pumped hard. The enemy archers were hitting the camps and with such fine arrows, and our foot soldiers won't stand a chance against an onslaught.

It was time for a retreat. I looked around for my commander, but couldn't find him anywhere

*********

I open my eyes to the constant tip-tap noises, and suddenly the scene before me started becoming more clear.

I could clearly make out one of our pals putting all his life into typing a mail and ensure that no one can reply to it in another day, and the speed at which he was mis-typing meant there was a release today.

This didn't feel good, and I couldn't see how many more coders made up the office space. They needed to relax if they were to be effective, and I wondered which moron was the supervisor around here. I wished I could just walk out and get them laid off.

Its when I tried to read my mails that the searing pain cut my vision again. I was just summoning my strength to send a reply, when a notification blinked on a screen with a screeching sound. I knew it was an issue mail, and indeed it was.

A mean and nasty one with enough logs. A fine mail indeed and I couldn't help appreciate how many hours of composing would have crafted such a wonder. A shame if they were being wasted upon non-existing defects and random teams.

On closely examining the mail, I could see that it had found some real defects and it had more logs. The moment of admiration passed when I identified the marks of a customer issue. My heart pumped hard. The testers were hitting the teams with such fine mails,  and our developers won't stand a chance against an onslaught.

 It was time for going Out of Office. I looked around for my manager, but couldn't find him anywhere.

Lord of War

Opening up the news websites, or on switching on the TV, I regularly see images of soldiers carrying weapons, or protesters demonstrating in front of policemen armed to the teeth. Add to this the image and news of regular shoot-outs in various neighbourhoods.

On one such occasion I couldn't help wonder what I would think on seeing the same images, if I were to own a significant number of arms and ammunition factories. Supposedly, I had connections in the shady east Europe, or North Africa or South East Asia, to name a few, this would have been fairly easy too..

What would be my thoughts? Would I be noticing the weapons, the nature of usage, the country, and going over my deals and plan my charts? Will I call up my execs and ask for ground report? I would maybe run calculations in my head on which gang leaders I would want to meet, which lobby gangs should I fund, which political party to add my weight behind and so on.

I would be a very busy man for sure, as competition is heavy in this business.
The low cost Chinese models make it hard to negotiate with the rich yet stupid clients that we arms tycoons have to regularly deal with. And the rascals who run for shit like peace and charity missions continuously make me lose markets. But then the damage they make hardly makes a dent in my profits.

Dealing with politicos is the hardest part everywhere. The shady goons in their employ bring good deals, but going ahead with their cuts has to be a very discrete, else I would be the one who has to face the music. Its easier to deal with anarchies and rebels, and hence our organization has been dedicated to creating more and more such markets.

Well, last but not the least the domestic markets are booming everywhere. Ranging from people who keep guns to defend their property from neighbours to those who want to keep their illegal empires intact, I have a big list of customers.

Its tough going these days, but we are good at this, so don't be surprised if you find your closest friend or relative in my customer list :) sooner or later..

lady in the shiny armor

She lie there writhing in pain. The arrow had gone through her thigh. The armor was split at the joints. She cursed the greedy blacksmiths of Stoneville. If she gets out of this mess alive, she would surely love to pay them a visit and take off their tiny fingers as a 'souvenir'.

Right now, she had bigger troubles to deal with. The thundering horde of horsemen were butchering her lot in huge numbers. The wild ones had caught them in an unexpected trap. She realized with horror that shed had to make a final stand and keep the horsemen away from the fleeing peasants, further down the trail.

The wild men would for sure slaughter them if she let them through. She had absolutely no doubts on that. The last raid by one of those tribes had taught everyone what to expect from these men. She remembered how the council had initially thought that the wild men can be bought. But they went horribly wrong as the wild men systematically looted and burned down every house in the village that was handed over to them as part of the treaty last time. She was a trainee back then and remembers in horror how the brave warriors returned home, their usually  proud heads hung low in shame and self loathing.

That was ten years ago. Now a front line commander, Laura faced an even more organized and mobile horde. She had got reports of their overwhelmingly fast progress through the countryside, wiping out villages and forts that stood in their way.There were suspicions that these men were different from those they faced last time, and seemed well organized and trained. The spymaster had sent instructions to all field commanders to hold them at all costs by 'improvising' strategies.

Laura knew what it meant. The council has completely failed to read the enemy's strategies and have left the field commanders to their own devices to handle the threat. She managed to climb on a rock to get a better view of the battlefield. It hurt like hell, but she managed to cling on. She could make out a couple of her divisions still in formation, while the others seemed to be a mix of survivors driven in from other divisions. The confusion was obvious as she couldn't make out any of them in formations. If this continued, they would last hardly for an hour. She watched as more and more horsemen in shiny black leather armor poured into the scene.

She hurriedly blew her horn three times loudly to signal her divisions. She wanted them to move closer to each other and cover the flanks of the survivors. She looked out for the shiny orange helmet of Lawrence, her most trusted lieutenant. She caught sight of his bulky torso cutting down enemies and moving his division into formation. She breathed a sigh of relief, as slowly both her divisions drove the enemies out and closed the flanks protecting the confused survivors. Someone in the middle seemed to be rallying the survivors in supporting the divisions with archers. Laura was curious and wanted to meet this guy once the ranks closed in on her.

For now, the survivors were secure and actively participating in the battle. But what should she do next to stem the advance? Was this the main force or just some diversion? She was completely cut off from the intelligence network. She also wondered if she could form a unit strong enough to retreat out to safety and re-organize for a counter-attack. Time was short and she could feel her grips weakening as the grass beneath her became thick with warm blood. She eyed Lawrence signalling to her frantically before the darkness filled her eyes.

A short movie on history of the Israel/Palestine conflict

Usually I never write about videos and other social media content I find on facebook and leave it to the people who notice it to enjoy it.

But rarely, I come across class material that makes me want to shout to the world - "Bloody go and watch this".

Here is one such

This Land Is Mine from Nina Paley on Vimeo.

I have never in my life seen such a clear illustration that details the long history of a political and humanitarian conflict.

Centuries of bloodshed, by various tribesmen, men of religion and ethnicity, all kill each other for the same piece of land, singing the same piece of shit song about peace and prosperity for everyone.

ha, could things be any more clear?

opening the Pandora's Box..

And before I knew it, I had hit ‘Send’.


I feared that if I thought through it any more, I might change my decision. Seeing the confirmation message sent waves of relief over me. I felt as if a huge load has been lifted off my shoulders.


But things are far from over. I knew what exactly I had to do and had everything planned out in the last couple of months.The exit has to be quick and silent. Getting into the taxi waiting for me at the corner would begin a chain of similar escapades.

Once outside the reaches of the Organization, I can be in relative safety. But in this dangerous game, safety is an imaginary luxury of temporary nature. My worries are seldom about my safety. I had made peace with the fact that I was cannon fodder, the day I started taking up the 'special' tasks. All these days, I was on the run with two fears in my mind. One was whether I would be caught before I could finish what I was upto and the other was about my friends and family. I now have only the latter. I only hope that I have done enough to protect those whom I care about.

A word about myself...My name is John, and I am not a terrorist or a spy.
I am a regular computer technician, working for Blueberry Marts, the largest retail chain in the world. My expertise is in data assimilation and pattern analysis, a part of which we use in the regular work to identify purchase patterns for ad and product planning.

I lived a regular life until about a couple of years ago, when I was approached by two guys in identical black suits. They made me to undertake some special tasks, the nature of which would be public and known to all of you in a matter of hours.

almost similar...

Then it would be upto each one of you judge for yourself the nature of my actions and of those that is mentioned in the mail I have sent to the editors of the leading dailies all over the world. I only know that I would have suffocated with the nature of secret I had to keep all these days.

Right now, I wish I could sleep for a while. It has probably been a month since I slept properly. I know that the organization has sniffed around and realized what I was upto and soon their dogs would be at my doorstep baying for blood. Time is of essence and I need to make haste.

Pray for me, my family and most importantly for humanity, for such is the nature of the content I am placing for all of you to behold.

Adios..
-------
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.(All images are obtained from Google Image Search and copyrights are retained by their original owners)

This post is also dedicated to the thousands of brave whistle blowers out there who put their lives in grave danger to expose shocking truths about human rights violation, censorship and other illegal activities by the very same organizations we trust to uphold these values.  Hats off, without you guys we would have lived in a completely ignorant and blind state forever..

Review of Madras Cafe

Immediately after writing a detail article( Lanka Dahanam ) on the Sri Lankan conflict, I find it very difficult to write something far less important, which is a movie review.

But I owe this movie a bit. It was while watching it that I was convinced that I should write about the genocide and now that I am finally through it I should just write the review.

The movie revolves around the basic plots surrounding the civil war in Sri Lanka and how India got entangled into it. Being the 4th largest military in the world and propelling towards being a regional power, India in those days was proactively monitoring and involved in the dynamics of Sri Lankan politics.

Through the eyes of an ex-RAW agent and paratrooper(never mentioned, but supposed to be so from the Red Beret), played by John Abraham, the story unfolds of how things went from bad to worse for India and Sri Lanka. Scripted as a commercial movie with some action scenes, suspense and romance this movie doesn't seem to hold back on the depth of research done on the topic. I was personally interested in the political involvements that were depicted.

The role played by Nargis seemed too cliche and badly written, and felt like forcibly added to keep the charm of beautiful models who speak British English in a war torn country of Tamils and Sinhalese and get prompt responses in .. Hindi! Speaking of which, the language was a major disappointment with the movie. Probably to keep the majority of Hindi speaking community in mind, the use of subtitles and local language has been limited and almost all characters speak Hindi, though broken. And the goof-ups showing the poster of Aashiqui-2 in a theatre scene which was supposed to happen in the 80s, and the shoots in Kochi where the modern container terminal too appears on frame shows that the camera department didn't do much homework to recreate the times when the story unfolded.

 Even John's attire and looks were largely metro-sexual, which wasn't the norm in those days. It looked like and old story remodeled to suit the sensibilities of the new crowd. But to give credit where it is due, the equipments used and some of the guns too were taken care to be those that were really available in those days.

Though there were some goof-ups and inaccurate facts, the story moves at a good pace through the solid lines keeping the balance between the story of the individual and the larger political and social aspect of the conflict.

Overall a entertaining political thriller that makes you think. 7.4/10

Lanka Dahanam

Yes, I did watch the movie Madras Cafe, but this is not the first movie that talks about the problems in our neighbouring country. And this post isn't about any movie either. I just felt compelled to write this article while I was watching the movie.

The history of Srilanka was always intermixed with that of India from ancient times. The arrival and the subsequent colonization of the island nation by the imperialist nations in the Imperial Age wasn't different either, except by the factor that a large Tamil population was now present on the island to work on the increasingly profitable plantations and other areas of work.

The strife between the two communities had begun during the British times itself and it naturally percolated down to modern times. After winning its independence in 1948, it didn't take much time for communal tensions to reach a point where the LTTE came into existence(1976) with Vellupillai Prabhakaran leading from the front. The rest is history.



The conflict continued for more than a quarter of a century and ended in a bloody, very bloody showdown.


Living through those days
The developments of  the struggle was a popular subject in the subcontinent, at least in the southern parts. We used to hear the adults talk about it every other day, and the news channels and papers used to carry news of the distant struggle almost every week or so. But apart from that, the one thing that stood out was the name of the notorious leader of the outfit, Prabhakaran,commonly known as Puli Prabhakaran. He was regarded both as a hero and a villain, kind of akin to the fame that the forest brigand Veerappan enjoyed among the common folks.

The 'general' knowledge was all there about how India was involved, and that Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE for it. But what didn't percolate down to the kids at that time was the intricate politics of power,ethnic cleansing and economic strength. For me, the Srilankan struggle was a by default something perennial and didn't change through the busy days of school and college. I saw it as two sides opposing each other's communities and had taken up arms for it. Seemed too ridiculous a reason at that time, given the way Indians live with all communities in relative peace. The names of Puli Prabhakaran and Veerappan were held at same regard until curtains fell on them soon enough(each killing carrying its own clouds of controversy with it).

But it took me many more years to understand and fully denounce the horror of the conflict in the tiny island, which was supposed to be a beach paradise and cricketing power. A few books and mostly lots of reading on the internet after watching movies like Kannathil Mutthamital and Mission 90 days helped. But the real eye openers were the articles I read after the bloody showdown in which the tiger of the Tamils was silenced in deceit. The swiftness and the aggression showed by the Government naturally hinted that all stops were off and killing was relentless. There were no rules on the ground. And the thousands of international reports, leaked picture,stories and footages, international appeals and studies; everything pointed in the same direction. A grotesque genocide in the neighbourhood under the watchful eyes of all the international big brothers and the perpetrators walk scot-free!!

I think both sides were responsible for illegal and inhuman methods of targetting civilians for their own military needs, but with the wipeout of the LTTE(which could have been avoided by the Government if it had not gone back on the unconditional surrender), it is now only the Government officials who are supposed to be tried in the international court for rampant war crimes. Horrifyingly, all international appeals and reports were simply rejected or oppressed by the Sri Lankan Government.


Watch the video below titled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields by Channel 4. Viewer discretion is advised as the footages shown are raw, violent and often grotesque. You need a very tight gut and brave heart to sit  through the terrible scenes that have been caught on camera. The accounts of systematic brutal attacks on hospitals and civilian settlements makes one feel like the so called "tyrants" of the Middle East that the Security council is happily declaring war on are Messiahs. Even the UN officials who were forced to leave express their views that it was a deliberate move by the govt to have no international witnesses on the ground for what was to come.
\

It makes me wonder, how a proactive organization like the Security Council can crackdown on minor ethnic oppression in the middle east countries while turning a blind eye to the almost Nazi-style ethnic cleansing in Lanka. Well, the way I see it, the dynamics of oil rich countries is different from that of an island nation whose support can help countries gain footholds, both economic and military over the entire Indian Ocean. And that is not a small factor at all. Shipping line supremacy is a very very big factor for every economical  power and having military presence is absolutely necessary to balance power against the rising dragon.

But unfortunately, all this happens at the cost of millions of innocent civilians and the Indian political and bureaucratic paraphernalia got entangled with this conflict in all wrong manners. The Tamil population has bled itself and is at logger heads with the centre over this issue. Also the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi added so much masala into the landscape of Indian politics that essentially took away the ruling class from the common man. Traditionally, being slow at making right judgements, the Indian bureaucracy presents sitting ducks for the hostilities this quarter century long episode has generated within and around its national borders. 

The issue is very complex and I am no expert on the topic to write any further. Refer the follow links for substantial reports, books, articles by international news desks,supporters for both sides and so on..
Genocide Watch
Reports without Borders
Wiki: War Crimes in Sri Lanka
War without Witness
Official website of the LTTE
South Asia Terrorism Portal(SATP)
Human Rights Watch - Sri Lanka

Pray for peace...

A thousand splendid reflections of Motherhood

I finished reading a Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini a few minutes ago, and was just writing up its review and starting to dwell into its various unappreciated moments, when I saw many posts in facebook about mother's day. Spoiler alert, as I intend to dissect the story.

While I don't fancy choosing a day to appreciate what your mother does and has been to you. But in light of the events in the book, there is a deeper aspect of motherhood that is left unappreciated, largely owing to being in a very fortunate setting of not having to cling to your lives everyday.

The book speaks not just of the relationship between two oppressed women in war torn Afghanistan, but also spreads the fragrance of motherhood all throughout its pages. The image of a mother that the book draws is very strong. If you think along that line, we realize that every mother would play the same role given similar situations.

The more I think about it, the book is all about the enduring love and affection shared between two women who shared a mother-daughter relationship. Having faced severe rejection,guilt and subjected to repeated acts of hatred, Mariam was dead in her soul for years when Laila crash landed into her life. The memories of her mother, whom she felt she had betrayed bitterly, her father Jalil, the mullah and all that she had around her kolba, was all that was left. She lived a mute life bearing all the insults and anger subjected on her by the burly Rasheed. The matters of politics, war and rules didn't affect her bit, as she was already without any hope for anything.

Its in such a life that Laila literally crash landed into. Having her own intentions to keep her love with Tariq alive, she had to agree to the cruel purposes of Rasheed. That is the point where the selfish mother in her starts taking shape, transforming the bubbly girl into something more mature and deep. Atleast she managed to secure a safe birth for her daughter. But this pitches Mariam against her and intense fights ensue.

But as its goes, the cruelity of life with Rasheed starts showing off on her too and now the women join hands as Mariam, for the first time in her life has someone who stands up for her. It moves her a lot and she lets her stony emotions to melt. Soon, in their everyday struggle in bringing up Laila's daughter Aziza against Rasheed's simmering anger and torturous rules imposed by the Taliban, they become very close.

As the sorrows in their lives keep increasing with no signs of hope, they have only themselves to support each other, while taking pains to bring up the kids, now including Zamai, Rasheed's son. Laila had for once thought of killing it in the womb itself, but her motherly love didn't allow her to, in spite of the hatred she felt for Rasheed. Things soon get worse and they land up in big trouble and in one swift motion, Mariam changes their lives forever. Mariam, the harami girl who used to wait patiently for her father to turn up, the girl who was humiliated by him when she tried to visit his house, who faced the guilt of her mother's suicide, who resigned to the fact that moving in with a stranger to a far off land is her only course in life. The same girl who got used to the repeated abuse hurled at her by Rasheed, who patiently bore all the complaints and insults and lived on without breaking down. She transformed suddenly for the love of the girl she held close as her daughter and did the unthinkable.

The picture of the painful expression on Mariam, imagined.

Her sacrifice paved a way for Laila and the kids to start a new life and its this debt that Laila repaid when she returned to Kabul from her happy life in Pakistan to rebuild the country after the war was finally over. Her acts weren't those of sympathy, but a retribution and a contribution. In each new things she helped build, she saw the will of Mariam, the love of Mariam and often Mariam herself.

If you think about it, you will realize that you see your mother in everything that you have done  and gained in your life. Irrespective of the level of intimacy of your relationship with your mother, she is always around you and you are always in her thoughts. Such is the power of this single title that cannot be denied by any creature living on Earth.  Amen to that..

What is good life?

Often we encounter words like "Fine dining" "good life" "exotic" etc?
And this is usually tied up to European or European like facilities, life style, locations etc.

I was wondering why this relation of 'fine' and 'good' to Europe and related 'fine' stuff.
The first question I tend to ask myself is - "Why only Europe"? Isn't the life you live now good enough for you? What about the ameer businessmen and politicians, the filthy rich Americans, powerful industrialists and so on and so off.. ? Everyone of them have a plethora of things that you don't have, but still you see them involving in a 'good life' , 'fine life' conversation with Europe-related artifacts.

Stupidity. Ignorance. That is what I call all these.

Every rich and filthy rich person wants to earn more money and relax with good food and comfortable facilities. C'mon that is nothing they can't buy. But still the lure of the European facilities pull them to the common bucket. Human beings turn into a more monotonic and predictable species as years wear off its morality and drain it off its humanity.

So the filthy rich can't complain about not having a fine life everyday. Yeah, they are well above the fine life of a poor man.

So can a poor man dream about the fine life of Europe? No, he too would be just a fool to follow such aspirations. A filthy rich guy is already filthy and insulated from the pleasures of simple life by applying the wax of wealth over his senses. But a poor man? Though under lots of pain and in constant struggle against hundreds of day-to-day problems and oppression of all kinds, he is the one who is closest to the simplest pleasures of life and he would be stuck in an eternal cycle of pain if he yearns to live the 'fine' life which in actuality is not fine at all..

Having observed all the human stupidity and lack of insight, why don't I move over to the bloody question of the relation between fine life and Europe? Yeah, here is the answer - The Europeans are and were bloody rich for centuries owing to the continuous pillaging and merciless exploitation of colonies in the name of colonialism/imperialism. In the name of countless civilizations and scientific marvels that were blown to smithereens by this handful of money hungry tribes, they OUGHT to be bloody rich.. and I really mean BLOODY(you know, with the blood and gore sticking to each coin of gold)..
... .... .... .... .... .... ...(catching a breath)

They come in all sizes and shapes..

Alright,so they had good wine, great food, some wonderful culinary skills and traditions. It is a good way of life if you fancy it, but it is not THE fine life. Fine life is even in the small things that you do. For example, my ability to write such a lengthy blog post on this topic in office hours on an internet connection paid for by my employer, while getting paid every month, for my facilities, the ability to purchase some of the things I wish to have..etc etc. I consider this a good life. It can be better, but it still is good life. I am sure 98% of readers of this have a good life too..

So there it is. That is what I think of the entire thing about having a good life. You have almost everything you want to be happy with but most of what you don't have are those which you don't want anyway.
Now you don't have any excuse for not having a good life and to feed more money to those .. ( ok enough of the Europe bashing.)

Disclaimer:- The entire view of this post is based on the momentary train of thoughts of the author. The blog or its owner is not responsible or liable for any hurt feelings or other complaints that the readers might have. The author is aware that this has been a closed observation of matters, but cohesion turns your LED to LASER, so why not this article :D

ciao

Iron Sky - A review

I liked the film a lot. For the records, I am a world war 2 buff. My head is stuffed with data about weapons, history, tactics, profiles of important people, propaganda material, consequences and fallouts of the war etc etc

The movie goes like this. After the defeat in World War 2, the Nazis escape to the dark side of moon and settle there. They teach their offspring the philosophy of the Aryan supremacy and build up large military forces using a new fuel Helium-3. The kids believe that they will go back and teach peace and equality to the world. Also they are shown a short clipping of Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" , and are told how the great film captures the idea of the dictator saving the world.

Now, things go wrong when a black american model is sent to the moon as a part of.. a re-election campaign, and is caught by the Nazis. The president who sent him resembles none other than.. Sarah Palin, in terms of looks and intellect. The dialogues are funny and quite sarcastic in nature.

Even the UN, where each countries' representative is chided and sarcastically represented, makes a hilarious combination. No need to say, we have a turbaned fellow representing India.

All hell breaks loose when the Nazis decide to attack Earth. What follows is a hilarious warfare that would throw you off your seat if you can make connections to the real world scenarios.

I won't venture further for the fear of giving spoilers. The movie is good. A tad slow at the end, but interesting and hilarious throughout. Highly recommended. My rating is 8/10...

Oh yeah, if you watched the Untergang or the famous Hitler scene from it dubbed into umpteen things, you have something here..