The Pacification Directive

What a hectic sequence of events we have been witness to! Two countries that have been teetering on the edge of war just silenced their guns. Individuals from said countries were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize no less. Malala Yousafzai. I have no idea how to pronounce her last name. Let's just refer to her as Malala. Tough young woman! She is described as a Pakistani female education activist. That's an activist for female education who is from Pakistan. Makes sense no? If the events surrounding her can be summarised, it is just a young girl who wants to go to school and better her life. She is an individual who is convinced of the value of a good education. It started with a blog she wrote. A young girl with a point of view. It however takes more than that for people to look up and notice a little girl. In Malala's case, it was 3 bullets. The fact that a man who had never seen her before was compelled to seek out and end her life tells us something. She survived the assassination attempt and what emerged was much more. To draw a parallel, she was 'the girl who lived'.
I have a confession to make. When someone asked me who won the Nobel Peace prize, I said, "Malala and some Indian chap". I am an Indian and I had never heard of Kailash Satyarthi(I had to go back and check if I got the name right). Information began to trickle in slowly and after a respectable amount of time had passed, all I knew was that he had done a lot for children. This tweet pretty pretty much summarises the state of the nation on that day:

BREAKING: Google crashes under load of 500 million Indians typing “Who is Kailash Satyarthi?” http://t.co/odQcrMkd96 #NobelPeacePrize
— The UnReal Times (@TheUnRealTimes) October 11, 2014

Even a single child saved is a deed that elevates you and Kailash Satyarthi had done that many times over. So why have we never heard of him? Why is there no publicity around this man who, according to modest estimates, has freed more than 80,000 children. Imagine that! 80,000 children! That is a staggering number and yet, unless you are fairly familiar with national happenings, you will not have heard of him. Here is a sample of his work : http://youtu.be/BWz8xB-xLbE

This is a man who walks into a scenario well knowing he could be shot dead. Here's a fun fact. Kailash's name has been nominated several times in the last decade! Here is the source. So what changed this year? The director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad claims they are making amends for not having given a Peace Prize to Gandhi. I will ask again. Why this year? Why now? What changed? What 'pricked' his conscience?
Malala is a shoo in for the prize. She is young and she is from a community that is being lambasted on a public stage for not displaying even the most basic tendencies of civilised people. She is one entity that covers diverse topics from education to better lives and rights for women.
I think the impact that we Indians have had off late on the world stage does not allow our country to be ignored any longer. The Nobel committee clearly saw there was no getting away with awarding a peace prize to a country(yes a country) that was at the very moment lobbing boom packets at it's neighbour. I might even add that they would have gotten away with it a few months ago. A lot has changed.

PS : Feeling a bit 'Ludlum'ish. Hence the title. 
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J.A.P - jest another post ....

Let me start very arrogantly. As all the many readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of the movies. I seem to have an appetite for even those deemed 'rotten'[a genuine rating in some circles]. I happened to see the posters for an upcoming SAW film. I realise that these people mean bsuiness and are here to stay...forever. There is always going to be a way to put humans together in one room and watch them act crazy! Can't say its an original idea. I remember watching cage matches on WWF. You put a bunch of wrestlers together in a cage and its fun watching them 'spreadin' the looooove'.Forced confrontation. That happens in offices too. Not that I have the temerity to speak seeing as I am in between jobs. You will be forced to share a cubicle with the person you hate the most! You don't like the creepy thin fella who whispers into the phone a lot, cool sit next to him. That woman who can't stop showing you pictures of her baby? You're paired with her for the next assignment. The universe is sending out a very clear and concise message to us. Keep your fucking prejudices to yourself. Maybe SAW people should do that. It's not long before aliens come to earth[actually even if they take a few million years there will be a SAW movie coming out at that time]. So maybe SAW will have aliens and humans pitted against a common enemy. Oh wait AVP already did that. I saw that movie. Waitaminit! I SAW that film. Cool!

The Snake

Beauteous snake,
How much I learn from thee.

You meander through the grass,
Like a dangerous ornament.
Slithering over obstacles,
Your movement so elegant.

Your jeweled eyes cast,
A cold look so intense.
So still is your body,
An inexplicably terrifying presence.

A graceful form that hides venom.
A lazy gait belies your speed.
But what I like most of all is,
To sit aside and watch you feed!

Top telugu film dialogs

I am an insane fan of movies. I am constantly looking for updates wherever I can find them, on every site that is NOT blocked in my company! Like any PSBBian (madras people know what I mean) I prefer English movies to local fare. Being a Telugu person, I make time for as many Telugu movies as I can (insert cringe for Balakrishna movies). We all have that one idiot who ruins the name of the industry! Hollywood has Chuck Norris, Tollywood has Balakrishna, Kollywood(tamil cinema) has Vijay, Vijaykanth, Sam Anderson and many more (dig dig at sam people! :P), Bollywood has well ... suffice to say I do not wish to test the limits of my blog. Despite the presence of these pests, there are things we are proud of. I always thought telugu cinema dialogs were good. So I want to make an unofficial compilation. Right here ...
Post your favorite dialog in the comment section in the following format.
"" - :

let me start.

Sex in India ...

In most countries, sex is a proposition.

"Should we?" - "We should."

"Can we?" - "We can."

and many more such infuriatingly cooperative situations.

Sex in India however is a preposition.

"Have you ever done that?"

The standard reply to this question is more or less the same. Open your mouth in the shape of an 'O' and while emitting a steady sound rapidly cup and uncup your hand on your mouth(3 cycles per second should do the trick). The resulting sound should be something like this ...

"awbawbawbawbawba ..."

"You did thataaaa?"

"Tee Hee ... no"

5 cartoon shows that should have been made into films by now!

Before I begin let me make it very clear that the Power Puff Girls or the Care bears will not be featured here. Go fish yourself!

- Centurions : Everything about the show from the theme song to the satellite home base to the snap on body armour to the insane cyborg enemies to the ... ok you get the idea. This was a great show! 3 sachinodus(dudes to you) are referred to as the Centurions(echo effect).



Ray - usually wears suits that help him underwater ... hence the name ray!!
Rockwell - bloody obvious : land operations
Ace McCloud - yes yes without a doubt air support.

The three of them have a good time kicking some Cyborg ass. Hey if G I Joe(which by the way was my bloody bloody fav cartoon) can be turned into a film(I gag while I say this) Centurions can be celluloided too!

- Johnny Quest : The theme song! Yes we all remember this cartoon because it had a GREAT theme song! Those beats were insane. The action in the toon was pretty good too! This was the first cartoon I saw where people travelled between the real and virtual world. It was captivating! That indian kid(because he has a turban silly! all indians wear turbans) irritated me a lot!!! This movie will definitely do better than the Harry Potter movies(are they done yet?). Just found this by the way!



- Swat Kats : ok maybe not a live action film but hey MegaKat city is pretty cool! If they can make garfield,they can make T Bone and Razor! I would love to see these fellas on the big screen ripping across their sky in that ubercool fighterjet! I cannot recall the number of times I tried to make that hand thingy the Kats wear with all those gizmos on them!!!



- Top Cat : thats right I said it ... Top Cat! This was one of the first cartoons that made me realise that good dialogues go a long way to make the story interesting! The absolute cool with which Top Cat did everything, the natural leadership he displayed reminded me of one person alone - Simon Templar[a.k.a The Saint - sigh yes the Val kilmer movie - :( but previously a set of novels then a tv series(roger moore) and then the godforsaken movie!]. I think a Top Cat movie will be more of a challenge to the writers than the animators! Again .. not a live action movie!



- Thundercats : To be honest I don't remember much. All I know is a lot of half meow half human people walking around busting butts. Perfect recipe for a movie I say!!! I wanna here them say Thunder ... thunder ... thunder ... thundercats in DTS!!!




James Cameron ... stop making "blue" films and bless us with your creative eye!
Michael Bay! Edo okati cheyyi be!

Just realised there are too many "cats" in my requests!

Edge of Darkness

I wonder how many of you have seen "Taken". Tough and gritty movie, not a single dull moment. Liam Neesons' daughter is kidnapped and he must find her within 48 hours before she is lost forever in the prostitution underworld. When I saw the promos of "Edge of Darkness", I was subconciously pushed to thinking, "Father avenges daughter, should be good".(background noise of director snickering) Mel Gibson plays the role of Thomas Craven a Boston Police Officer. His daughter comes visiting and she is obviously sick. Daddy is about to take her to the hospital when all of a sudden outside their home, a masked man guns her down, not before screaming "CRAVEN!"(if you remember in Taken, the kidnapper says, "Good Luck"). The police assume it was someone who had it in for the father. Thomas Craven is however more cranial(get it?) than that and decides to look into what his daughter was doing. We soon get to know that she was an MITian(seriously? are there no other good colleges?) and was(note how I am using the past tense) working for a firm called Northmoor(oooooooh). The next hour shows Mel Gibson rattling every cage he comes across, starting with the CEO of Northmoor - Bennet. Subsequently every person he speaks to says the same thing, "Bennet is the bad guy." "Bennet's the man you want". Until slowly but surely Craven realises that Bennet is the one behind everything(this is the main twist). Throw in a fat but creepy man with a british accent who casually talks about the edge of darkness with his doctor, a shady research fa cility that is making nuclear weapons for foreign countries, a flower child organisation that is completely anti-corporate and of course some henchmen in black suits, what do you have? Nothing. Don't even watch this film. Mel Gibson has corny lines. He exit line in one scene is, "... and don't forget to wear your seat belt!". Wow! We have a clear message here: You may have assisted my daughters death but I value your safety(this is my major wtf moment). What really peeved me is when he catches one of the henchmen(after shooting off his leg) and asks him to scream, you guessed it, CRAVEN! People do what Mel Gibson did, go watch "Taken" again!