Thoughts. Opinions. Rambles.

Along the way, somewhere, someone decided they were not happy with the way an author decided to do things, and fanfiction was born. And what a wonderful premise it was. It gave us the freedom to explore the world we had grown to love, it gave us an insight into the world of inception, it gave us an opportunity to share our thoughts with like minded souls who yearned for more, and who appreciated the endangered art of penmanship. For, fanfiction is, at it's very best, an opportunity to float a piece of ourselves into a the universe we have known and loved. At its worst, it can be non-canonical swill that exists only because someone who had a random thought owned a keyboard and an internet connection. For what it started out to be, fanfiction signaled hope. Character redemption arcs were soulful and touching. Missing pieces of a puzzle were carefully crafted into place. Non-canon, if it did exist, maintained a semblance of credibility and remained true to character development.  Dedi

No, I'm not going to slander the corona virus. I'm not going to talk about how miserable the overall morale is. I'm not going to say the same things that have been said over and over again. This doesn't mean that I don't mourn for all the lives lost because of the pandemic, all the people that have lost jobs, all the daily wage workers who struggle every day to feed their families. I'm merely saying...these things have been talked about to the point of exhaustion. The entire world was on a lockdown with absolutely no permissible social contact. Yet, somehow, the lockdown brought us all together. They said love knows no boundaries. Love would unite us all, they said. But in the end, it was a virus. A lifeless, cold, emotionless pathogen. An indestructable force of nature. Across borders and oceans, we united. Yet, within borders, we discriminated and marginalized.  The enemy knew nor cared about bounds or boundaries. But humanity still found a way to distance and

What has been one of the most discussed topics of the current entertainment world with a religion-centric theme is the question of the Devil (Satan, Iblis, Lucifer - whatever floats your boat), and his eternal damnation. He was an angel, created by Allah out of fire. Adam was the first human being, created from mud. Doesn't Allah love all his creations equally? Why did he ask one of his creations to bow before another? Doesn't that mean he was forcing one to acknowledge superiority/inferiority over the other? In this case, an angel and a human being. Iblis refused to do so, and so he was damned to Hell for eternity. But children make mistakes, why such a harsh punishment? This means that on the Day of Judgment, Iblis will be sent to Hell. And so, Satan promised that he would take as many people with him to Hell as possible. What I didn't understand for so long was, if he was destined to go to Hell, why would he do anything else differently? If you tell an alcoholic that

With my heart pounding in my chest, I would realize that the sound I heard was my cuckoo clock, declaring into the cold, silent night that it was two in the morning. I would consider going back to bed, but I could risk it some more, I could read just one more chapter tonight, my parents were still sound asleep. I would smuggle library books into m y house, keep it hidden, and then read it in the middle of the night, in the safety of my bathtub; when the rest of the world ( read: parents ) was ( were ) sleeping.  This, sadly, is a reality in almost every Indian student's life, where society thinks that extra - curricular reading is a habit to be nipped in the bud. Why? Because it is a distraction, they say. It takes your mind off of school-work, it makes you lose concentration in your studies. Reading stories, they say, is a waste of time; time that could be spent in revisions of boring schoolwork that dulls your brain and kills imagination. They are entitled to their o

To be honest, I went into this movie with scepticism. Like so many other Christie fans, I've read the book, there was going to be no mystery for me to solve as the movie progressed. The only advantages of watching it were the obvious HD quality, and Johnny Depp; the latter more than the former. And so I sat through the movie, and came out subdued. For this isn't just a plain old 'whodunit' as my younger self remembered it, it is a tale of right versus wrong, of moral ambiguity, and the grey areas in life that have no universal solution. The acting was predictably on point, what with such a star studded cast. It is slightly disconcerting how Depp can portray a vile character with so much panache and still come out with the sympathy of the audience. Which is probably something Agatha wouldn't approve. Speaking of things she wouldn't approve, all those efforts at making out more politically correct (read: racism, feminism) did not go unnoticed; but in today

So. Here we are, after Infinity War. For all the enthusiasm before the movie, I think the fandom has gone into a drone-like state of acceptance. For what use is there in resisting the events of Infinity War? The movie, in itself, is a mindblowing masterpiece that moves forward with a pace that isn't too quick for such a superhero-packed three hours. Each of the characters, I'm glad, were able to get their own screen time and actually come out memorable in their standalone moments. For such a massive movie to accomplish that is no mere feat. That being said, I'm going to now go into specifics. The beginning of the movie came as a shock. I expected Korg and Valkyrie to atleast make an appearance (we have to presume that at this point, despite confirmation that Valkyrie is alive). The movie began on a note similar to Deathly Hallows Part 2. Bleak, darkness, death, and a villian who was monologuing away to the last heroes standing. That isn't a bad thing, but if we re