Farouk Gulsara's Blog, page 147
May 6, 2017
...and the storm clouds emerged!
Inspector George Gently (Mini Series Seasons 1-7; 2007-present)
There are police procedural dramas and there are police procedural dramas. What makes this British drama stand out from the rest are manifolds. For one, it is one set in an era when life was simple and was getting complicated. The pilot episode starts in 1964 and it slowly goes on to the tumultuous years at the end of that decade. We can slowly see the gender roles change from a patriarchal one slowly to one where the skirts get shorter and the brassieres go missing. In the time frame, the death penalty was removed in the UK.
The seemingly euphoric times of the post WW2 era sees the baby boomers and their offspring experience the darker side of progress. The working class were no more dancing to the tune of the aristocrats. They start standing up for the rights against the perceived tyranny and the old order of the ruling class. Many minority groups start demanding for their rightful place in society. The general public becomes vocal critics of their leaders, especially with their handling of world politics and Vietnam. In their earlier seasons, brutal ways to elicit information from suspects are totally acceptable but slowly accusations of police brutality start creeping in.
Martin Shaw who assumes the role ofCI Gently as we knew in the 70s asMI6 agent in 'The Professionals'.The world seems simple enough is the early 60s. Smoking in closed offices are accepted norms. One by one, the ill-effects of modernisation surface. Mesothelioma and its link to asbestos come to light. The poor working condition of coal miners becomes an issue. The unholy union of businessmen and people of power puts self-interest above that of the majority, especially of the little men.
The one thing about this mini-series that captivated me all through is the prop and setting. The buildings, cars, attire, hairstyles all gave a convincing account as if it was made in the 60s. Pretty impressive. The shooting of the picturesque countryside adds on to its credibility. The mood is set again with melodious tunes of the bygone era of songs not so frequently heard.
Gently (Martin Shaw), a Chief Inspector of Police solves many murders in the vein of 'Mid Summer Murders' which was set at about a similar setting, using traditional police investigative techniques. This type of drama are clearly a far departure of what we see as police dramas on TV today. The police officers sit in front of their monitor the whole day just to solve the case at the end of the episode without getting their hands dirty!
The mini series come with great one-liners and profound lines on life. There are many philosophical quotations like one from Edmund Burke - The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing!
As Gently and his sergeant, John Baccus, deal with many hard knocks of life, the dialogue becomes darker as the seasons advance. Gently is dealing with the death of his wife and secretly has to terms with onset of multiple sclerosis. Baccus is handling a broken marriage.
They perceive the world as an ungrateful lot. They start questioning the meaning of doing things for the greater good, whether there is honour in war and that nothing is like it is, except death! They wonder what they are doing is right, living a life digging into other people's misery. What do you do to the riot in the heart? You silence it. Really?
The next season, Season 8, scheduled for release in 2017 is supposed to be the last.
http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
There are police procedural dramas and there are police procedural dramas. What makes this British drama stand out from the rest are manifolds. For one, it is one set in an era when life was simple and was getting complicated. The pilot episode starts in 1964 and it slowly goes on to the tumultuous years at the end of that decade. We can slowly see the gender roles change from a patriarchal one slowly to one where the skirts get shorter and the brassieres go missing. In the time frame, the death penalty was removed in the UK.
The seemingly euphoric times of the post WW2 era sees the baby boomers and their offspring experience the darker side of progress. The working class were no more dancing to the tune of the aristocrats. They start standing up for the rights against the perceived tyranny and the old order of the ruling class. Many minority groups start demanding for their rightful place in society. The general public becomes vocal critics of their leaders, especially with their handling of world politics and Vietnam. In their earlier seasons, brutal ways to elicit information from suspects are totally acceptable but slowly accusations of police brutality start creeping in.
Martin Shaw who assumes the role ofCI Gently as we knew in the 70s asMI6 agent in 'The Professionals'.The world seems simple enough is the early 60s. Smoking in closed offices are accepted norms. One by one, the ill-effects of modernisation surface. Mesothelioma and its link to asbestos come to light. The poor working condition of coal miners becomes an issue. The unholy union of businessmen and people of power puts self-interest above that of the majority, especially of the little men.The one thing about this mini-series that captivated me all through is the prop and setting. The buildings, cars, attire, hairstyles all gave a convincing account as if it was made in the 60s. Pretty impressive. The shooting of the picturesque countryside adds on to its credibility. The mood is set again with melodious tunes of the bygone era of songs not so frequently heard.
Gently (Martin Shaw), a Chief Inspector of Police solves many murders in the vein of 'Mid Summer Murders' which was set at about a similar setting, using traditional police investigative techniques. This type of drama are clearly a far departure of what we see as police dramas on TV today. The police officers sit in front of their monitor the whole day just to solve the case at the end of the episode without getting their hands dirty!
The mini series come with great one-liners and profound lines on life. There are many philosophical quotations like one from Edmund Burke - The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing!
As Gently and his sergeant, John Baccus, deal with many hard knocks of life, the dialogue becomes darker as the seasons advance. Gently is dealing with the death of his wife and secretly has to terms with onset of multiple sclerosis. Baccus is handling a broken marriage.
They perceive the world as an ungrateful lot. They start questioning the meaning of doing things for the greater good, whether there is honour in war and that nothing is like it is, except death! They wonder what they are doing is right, living a life digging into other people's misery. What do you do to the riot in the heart? You silence it. Really?
The next season, Season 8, scheduled for release in 2017 is supposed to be the last.
http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
May 3, 2017
I walk the line
It is never 'all-or-none' rule. Above all show compassion, they say. These statements would flash scenes of border patrol officers, with batons in the hands or rifle pointing at the invaders, women or children. Then, of recent, close to us, distance wise, of a voluntary police personnel giving an earful to a shade-seeker from the torrential rain at a mosque for apparently not dressed appropriately for the occasion (of seeking shade at a house of worship).True, above all common sense should prevail and one of most revered human gift is compassion. True that World War 3 was averted in 1962 when a Russian officer decided to listen to his heart than to act on a faulty signal to start the sequence to activate the Russian nuclear head.
Also true that ill-intended individuals are using this soft spot to cheat, smuggle and rob people blind. True, people who act as watchdogs should not be masters themselves but be obedient servants to stand in the line of fire and go as much as to take the bullet of their lords.
It looks like only the higher echelon of the society is given the onus to bend the rule. Other mere mortals should just toe the line.
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May 1, 2017
The Book of Books!
Decoding the Gita, India’s book of answers Roopa Pai | TEDxNMIMSBangalore. http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
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April 29, 2017
The beast within us!
Split (2016)
Director M. Night Shyamalan
Just a thought...
Imagine a scenario...
A wage earner puts on a different personality at work, a docile one, bowing to the pressures of hierarchy, not wanting to step the wrong toe and the fan the right ember! At home, he dons a different costume, being the head of the family, can be a dominant sort pushing forward with so much ferocity as he is King in his little kingdom. His child, quite helpless, transfers his displeasures on his faithful dog who just cow into submission for the food he is served daily! Outside the house compound, the dog would morph into such a brutal to guard his territory.
In essence, we have so many personalities all keep under wraps under the hood of our brains, waiting to be unleashed when the time is ripe.
This must be the basis of this movie where a patient of dissociative identity disorder (split personality) with 23 alter egos. His psychiatrist believes that many of his outward manifestation also affects his biological states. In other words, one particular personality can influence another medical condition, i.e. in one form, he actually needs insulin injections! Every personality wants to dominate over the other. The patient tries to maintain a semblance of normalcy by adapting the best personality accepted in society. This balance, however, is tilted when a couple of school girls pray a prank on him. Hence starts the mayhem of the kidnapping the pranksters. In between all these, a ghastly hidden beastly personality with gargantuan might surfaces. I think this part is the one that mental health workers around the world had a bone to pick with this story. They accuse the filmmakers of denigrating mentally ill patients of being cannibalistic! I think the storytellers were trying to suggest perhaps when our guard is down, the suppressed animalistic desires may just re-surface.
This director was cheeky at the end to announce indirectly that this film is actually is a kind of a continuation of his 2000 movie 'Unbreakable'. Cute. The 'Split' does not only refer to the split personality but also a 'tongue-in-cheek-way' to link it to 'Unbreakable' (hint: antonym)!http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
Director M. Night Shyamalan
Just a thought...
Imagine a scenario...
A wage earner puts on a different personality at work, a docile one, bowing to the pressures of hierarchy, not wanting to step the wrong toe and the fan the right ember! At home, he dons a different costume, being the head of the family, can be a dominant sort pushing forward with so much ferocity as he is King in his little kingdom. His child, quite helpless, transfers his displeasures on his faithful dog who just cow into submission for the food he is served daily! Outside the house compound, the dog would morph into such a brutal to guard his territory.
In essence, we have so many personalities all keep under wraps under the hood of our brains, waiting to be unleashed when the time is ripe.
This must be the basis of this movie where a patient of dissociative identity disorder (split personality) with 23 alter egos. His psychiatrist believes that many of his outward manifestation also affects his biological states. In other words, one particular personality can influence another medical condition, i.e. in one form, he actually needs insulin injections! Every personality wants to dominate over the other. The patient tries to maintain a semblance of normalcy by adapting the best personality accepted in society. This balance, however, is tilted when a couple of school girls pray a prank on him. Hence starts the mayhem of the kidnapping the pranksters. In between all these, a ghastly hidden beastly personality with gargantuan might surfaces. I think this part is the one that mental health workers around the world had a bone to pick with this story. They accuse the filmmakers of denigrating mentally ill patients of being cannibalistic! I think the storytellers were trying to suggest perhaps when our guard is down, the suppressed animalistic desires may just re-surface.
This director was cheeky at the end to announce indirectly that this film is actually is a kind of a continuation of his 2000 movie 'Unbreakable'. Cute. The 'Split' does not only refer to the split personality but also a 'tongue-in-cheek-way' to link it to 'Unbreakable' (hint: antonym)!http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
April 27, 2017
Fate is fluid, destiny is in the hand of Man!
The Man in the High Castle (Seasons 1 and 2)
They say that there is no entity as time. It is just a construct made by Man. Life works just fine when your purpose of your living is laid bare for you to follow and Nature does not put obstacles in your path. It may work just fine if you live in utopia, a paradise, a land of make believe! In reality, Nature had to be tamed and the element of predictability made clear to avert eventualities. This is where time comes in handy, to put a perspective to the cyclical nature of things. Everything in Nature has a mathematic equation to put them in place and time is a denominator.
We have heard of Manzanar, the concentration camp built to place American-Japanese after Pearl Harbour. And the American-German Bund movement which existed before WW2 to promote Nazi in a favourable light. That was it! After World War 2 ended, they were passé.
Imagine an alternative universe where the Germans and the Japanese won World War 2! Well, that is the premise of this miniseries set at around 1962. There is no JFK and no Cuban Missile crisis. Washington DC had been bombed with a nuclear bomb. The Nazi Army had taken control of the Eastern part of North America and renamed it as Greater Nazi Reich with New York as their administrative capital. The Japanese have carved the Eastern part of US to name it the Japanese Pacific States and rule it with an iron fist in a delicate balance of power realm between the Empire, Kempeitai and Yakuza. Bordering this two areas is a lawless state in the spine of the continent referred to Neutral Zone.
Amidst all these, there is the Resistance Army whose freedom fighters try to purge the invaders from American soil.
Embroiled in all this imbroglio are - an Aikido exponent whose sister is killed by the Japanese Military police, her boyfriend, a Nazi agent, an SS officer and his family, a Japanese inspector and an interesting deeply spiritual Japanese minister who could time travel. The Minister, sometimes, during some unspecified moments, could venture into an alternative universe of what would have been with their own President and the Cold War. The mainstay of the Resistance's activity seems to procure and send reels of films which carry coded messages. Sneak peek into the films which are actually newsreels shows a different narrative to the life that they were leading.
And a senile Adolf Hitler is still alive, perched up in a castle in the mountains, he stays aloof to his surroundings, watching runs and re-runs of old films! There is a power struggle brewing to oust the dictator.
The second season had just ended and the third should more interesting as the plot thickens...
N.B. There are ports within our plane of existence where we can teleport ourselves into different timelines. Apparently, this is how sages communicate with their gurus to get advice on the further plan of action or inaction. Clairvoyants are also able to communicate with the departed through this loophole. Hey, this is time travel!
Looking at the title of miniseries, one wonders whether the Man in the high castle actually refers to Hitler as he is the one in his own world in villa up in the Alps. Alas, it refers to the man who distributes reels of film which show an alternate universe to what they are trapped in!
http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
They say that there is no entity as time. It is just a construct made by Man. Life works just fine when your purpose of your living is laid bare for you to follow and Nature does not put obstacles in your path. It may work just fine if you live in utopia, a paradise, a land of make believe! In reality, Nature had to be tamed and the element of predictability made clear to avert eventualities. This is where time comes in handy, to put a perspective to the cyclical nature of things. Everything in Nature has a mathematic equation to put them in place and time is a denominator.We have heard of Manzanar, the concentration camp built to place American-Japanese after Pearl Harbour. And the American-German Bund movement which existed before WW2 to promote Nazi in a favourable light. That was it! After World War 2 ended, they were passé.
Imagine an alternative universe where the Germans and the Japanese won World War 2! Well, that is the premise of this miniseries set at around 1962. There is no JFK and no Cuban Missile crisis. Washington DC had been bombed with a nuclear bomb. The Nazi Army had taken control of the Eastern part of North America and renamed it as Greater Nazi Reich with New York as their administrative capital. The Japanese have carved the Eastern part of US to name it the Japanese Pacific States and rule it with an iron fist in a delicate balance of power realm between the Empire, Kempeitai and Yakuza. Bordering this two areas is a lawless state in the spine of the continent referred to Neutral Zone.
Amidst all these, there is the Resistance Army whose freedom fighters try to purge the invaders from American soil.
Embroiled in all this imbroglio are - an Aikido exponent whose sister is killed by the Japanese Military police, her boyfriend, a Nazi agent, an SS officer and his family, a Japanese inspector and an interesting deeply spiritual Japanese minister who could time travel. The Minister, sometimes, during some unspecified moments, could venture into an alternative universe of what would have been with their own President and the Cold War. The mainstay of the Resistance's activity seems to procure and send reels of films which carry coded messages. Sneak peek into the films which are actually newsreels shows a different narrative to the life that they were leading.
And a senile Adolf Hitler is still alive, perched up in a castle in the mountains, he stays aloof to his surroundings, watching runs and re-runs of old films! There is a power struggle brewing to oust the dictator.
The second season had just ended and the third should more interesting as the plot thickens...
There will come a day when all men must bear the weight of their responsibility!
Fate is fluid, Destiny is in the hand of man.
N.B. There are ports within our plane of existence where we can teleport ourselves into different timelines. Apparently, this is how sages communicate with their gurus to get advice on the further plan of action or inaction. Clairvoyants are also able to communicate with the departed through this loophole. Hey, this is time travel!
Looking at the title of miniseries, one wonders whether the Man in the high castle actually refers to Hitler as he is the one in his own world in villa up in the Alps. Alas, it refers to the man who distributes reels of film which show an alternate universe to what they are trapped in!
http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
April 25, 2017
If you don't know your destination, every road leads you there!
Ignorance is Bliss!You are constantly bombarded with contradictory statements, that 'life is here for you to savour, enjoy, you only live once!' and 'your existence here is for a reason, your presence should spur the race forward or at least your family'.Proponents of the former would insist that the most precious you have in this birth is your life. And it is your God-given boon to enjoy, develop spiritually and make preparations for the elevation of your soul to better heights in the next re-birth. It is as though your worldly duties are secondary and the one that matters is you. Period. You should live life to the fullest, explore beyond yourself, reward yourself, pushing yourself to the limit and beyond.
On the other hand, there would be people who have charted responsibilities for everyone. Everyone has a duty to his dependants, kins, society and nation, depending on the situation. In a situation when a situation warrants a decision need to be made between giving up personal pleasures of the flesh or of the soul to submission to filial duties, familial duties should be prioritised. Needing to live for the moment does not arise. A life lived for the well being of others is life well-lived!You are aware these two options and are in a perpetual flux. You are in a limbo between doing the good thing and the right thing. There is cognitive dissonance between the 'heart' and the 'mind'. You develop bias perception just to convince yourself that you are on the right track as the conflict of uncertainty is simply too overwhelming.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
April 23, 2017
Sony World Photography Awards 2017: Winning photos
on
Visiting a gas station is usually an inconsequential part of a road trip.
But German photographer Ralph Graf's stopover in Roy's Café, a gas station and motel along Route 66 in California, (and his ability to transform the scene into an atmospheric painting-like photograph) has landed him the best travel photo award in the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards' Open categories.
The awards' Open competition handpicked the best single image for each of these 10 categories: architecture, culture, enhanced, motion, nature, portraits, still life, street photography, travel and wildlife.Dubbed the world's largest photography competition, Sony World Photography Awards has received more than 227,000 images from photographers from 183 countries this year, including more than 105,000 entries for the Open Competition alone.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/29/travel/sony-world-photography-awards-2017-winners/index.html
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April 20, 2017
April 18, 2017
What is what anymore!
First, they said, "Seeing is believing. Don't believe anything until and unless you see it with your very own eyes!" Then it was, "Don't believe everything that you see! The mind can play tricks on you!" They showed two arrows of the same length with one everted ends and the other with inverted ones to prove their point of view. Remember the pool of water when you are stranded on a desert only to realise that you have plunged yourself into a sand dune when you thought you had reached a wadi, an oasis. You knew he meant more than what you heard him say the world is a mirage, a Maya, a smokescreen coordinated by the puppet master.Then they said that a responsible and noble band of brothers wants to set the record straight. They want to record news as it is, from the field as it happens unbiased. You were promised truth right from the horses' mouth. They wanted history to be written as it should be. You thought you knew everything and you were happy.
Then someone thought that a lie oft repeated becomes the truth. They succeeded in hoodwinking a whole nation to toe the line. Then it was exposed. You thought the truth will always prevail. Goodness is superior to the dark forces of lie and falsity. How naïve you were!
Surprise surprise. The news that you have been ingesting, that you thought not to be anything else but the gospel truth, starts receiving brickbats. People say that their news is skewed to fulfil their paymasters' political agendas. It turns out to be lopsidedly favouring one party over the other. They say their news is fake! p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545; min-height: 14.0px}
Then yet party decided to churn out news which they claim to be the honest truth only to be debunked by their opponents who claim that the news to trash the fake news to also fake as it turns out. You, as a consumer, stay confused, deciding to mind your business and convince yourself that you are in the age of propaganda. And you are let as confused, not any wiser or smarter than you were before! You only know what others want you to know.
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http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
April 16, 2017
You don't say!
Brimstone (2017)
At the end of the day, people forget that religion and the Word were given to man to help them to live with each other in harmony. Most belief systems concur with this train of thought. Belief systems were put in place to give everyone a place in the Sun to enjoy the fruit of their existence. In the race to outdo each other and the gusto to follow the teaching to do what is perceived as right, people went overboard. Instead of seeing the whole picture, they became nitty-picky. They took the meanings of the writings of the scriptures in its literal sense and try to outdo each other by keeping true to the Word as they say it is supposed to mean. And they became hellbent on ensuring that everybody follows it to the core. That is when all hell broke loose. Any semblance of sanity can prevail only when someone within the community has the gumption, without fear of retribution from the unproven divine forces from above, to say what is sensible and what is not!
Keeping the scriptures sacred, incomprehensible to the masses kept the Catholic church hegemony of things related to spirituality as if the Church had direct connexions to the Divine forces above. See what happened when Martin Luther and his band of men lobbied for the translations of the Bible to vernacular languages. See the resistance and observe the mayhem that ensued after its translation. It appeared like Man could not handle the truth. Everybody thought they knew the key to the secret of the universe. Perhaps, the guessing game of the purpose of life and what is in store for us is the one that makes the world go around.
Brimstone (2017) is best described as a spaghetti Western combined with 'Cape Fear' (1962) and 'The Night of the Hunter' (1955). It tells the tale of a head of the family, a pastor, with a perverted view of the Christian faith and his ways of ensuring God's law prevail on Earth. He starts that by making sure that it starts at his home. He toes the line on how his wife should behave and how, he, as a Man, the superior gender should be treated. Women, who sow the seed for the original sin, should suffer for their actions of luring Man to direct disobey God in the Garden of Eden and coax him to submit to temptations! The meek Pastor's wife took all that in a stride as a curse of being born a woman but when their daughter comes of age and the father exhibits tendencies for incestuous desires, the mother acts.
This starts the saga of the runaway girl, the protagonist. It is told in different timelines to grasp the attention of the viewers but is not for faint hearted. There are gore, blood, violence and objectionable scenes throughout the film, not to everybody's liking. http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
At the end of the day, people forget that religion and the Word were given to man to help them to live with each other in harmony. Most belief systems concur with this train of thought. Belief systems were put in place to give everyone a place in the Sun to enjoy the fruit of their existence. In the race to outdo each other and the gusto to follow the teaching to do what is perceived as right, people went overboard. Instead of seeing the whole picture, they became nitty-picky. They took the meanings of the writings of the scriptures in its literal sense and try to outdo each other by keeping true to the Word as they say it is supposed to mean. And they became hellbent on ensuring that everybody follows it to the core. That is when all hell broke loose. Any semblance of sanity can prevail only when someone within the community has the gumption, without fear of retribution from the unproven divine forces from above, to say what is sensible and what is not!Keeping the scriptures sacred, incomprehensible to the masses kept the Catholic church hegemony of things related to spirituality as if the Church had direct connexions to the Divine forces above. See what happened when Martin Luther and his band of men lobbied for the translations of the Bible to vernacular languages. See the resistance and observe the mayhem that ensued after its translation. It appeared like Man could not handle the truth. Everybody thought they knew the key to the secret of the universe. Perhaps, the guessing game of the purpose of life and what is in store for us is the one that makes the world go around.
Brimstone (2017) is best described as a spaghetti Western combined with 'Cape Fear' (1962) and 'The Night of the Hunter' (1955). It tells the tale of a head of the family, a pastor, with a perverted view of the Christian faith and his ways of ensuring God's law prevail on Earth. He starts that by making sure that it starts at his home. He toes the line on how his wife should behave and how, he, as a Man, the superior gender should be treated. Women, who sow the seed for the original sin, should suffer for their actions of luring Man to direct disobey God in the Garden of Eden and coax him to submit to temptations! The meek Pastor's wife took all that in a stride as a curse of being born a woman but when their daughter comes of age and the father exhibits tendencies for incestuous desires, the mother acts.
This starts the saga of the runaway girl, the protagonist. It is told in different timelines to grasp the attention of the viewers but is not for faint hearted. There are gore, blood, violence and objectionable scenes throughout the film, not to everybody's liking. http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
