Fight till the last man standing!

1917 (2019)
Director: Sam Mendes

The story is written by Sam Mendes based on what his grandfather told him. Mendes' grandfather was a soldier in the Trench War, and this offering is in his honour for his heroic act of treading through the dangers of the enemy-line and the perils of Nature to pass over a piece of vital information to the advancing army. His deed indeed saved the day and many fellow comrades.

I am a little perplexed. On the one hand, I am taught that violence is the primitive way of settling an issue. Violence can never solve any problems but instead, create new ones. An eye for an eye leaves the whole blind, they say. Yet in the same breath, the same people proclaim that turning the other cheek is stupidity.

All through our civilisation, war has been part and parcel of our evolution. With each significant catastrophe that we go through, the human race seems to go up one notch in terms of scientific achievement. War propels the world forward. War stimulates the economy, and the desire to dominate is one thing that gives pride. We form tribes and fall in line under a piece of cloth to provide us with a sense of pride to uphold. 

In a war, we say, everyone loses but yet, we are ever ready to justify the mother of all battles to end wars. We know where it led us.

The promise of wealth and power is good enough reason for us to get up in the morning and plunge ourselves into the conveyer belt that would send us all to the hole of destruction. We repeatedly justify our resort to extinction as a means to settle scores by putting the blame on Nature. Even our Universe is rough in its actions. Scorching expulsions of magma, destructive clash of meteorites, earth-shattering movements of tectonic plates and extremes of temperatures proves that the world is no pleasure cruise.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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.

We get the world we deserve

True Detective (Season 2; 2015)

After the successful first season, the producers decided to come out with the second season. Even though it did not live up to the celebrated former, nevertheless it did leave an impact. It recreated a nihilistic world which lies ahead of us which we can already see. A society where truth and natural justice takes a back seat whilst power, authority, money and our animal instincts dictates our life. Human relationships fail miserably. Commitment to the institution of marriage is farcical. Occasional casual relief of human carnal desires is the norm. Sexual preference is optional, and people are confused about they actually want in life, personal glory or acting in a just manner. Divinity is nowhere in the equation.

The second season, in keeping with the mood of its predecessor, creates a broody environment with equally depressing characters all with the problems of their own. First, there is Ray Valcoro (Colin Farrell), a cop with a chequered career record, substance abuse issues and a messy matrimonial dispute to handle. Next, there is Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdam), a CID officer who has a string of suicidal siblings and relationship issues. The third is a highway patrolman, Paul Woodrugh, an angry ex-soldier with homosexual past and a pregnant girlfriend. All three are assigned to investigate a murder.

Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn in a significant negative role) is a local gangster and a playmaker of sorts. The investigation opens a can of worms of deceit, vice, mob, drugs, politicians and entrepreneurs. The bottom line is greed and profit. Doing the right thing for the people is never on anybody's agenda.

The whole machinery of the powers that be is to enrich the select few. The big master plan is geared towards this end. Any opposer to this grand vision is treated as a hindrance and is dealt with appropriately as collateral damage. Period.

Normandy On Both Sides of History!

(Thanks to RS and Baba Mail for this contribution)

They called it 'D Day' in America or 'Operation Overlord'.

The rest of the world knows it as the invasion of Normandy. Normandy today is a quiet coastal area, the signs of the worst war ever to visit humanity are hidden between the cracks of history, and the towns and villages of this area continue on.

This amazing series gives us a glance at the same area, during and after the great war.

It was 1944 and World War 2 was finally shifting in favour of the Allied Forces. Hitler was expecting an invasion but he did not think it would be Normandy, he thought the Allied Forces would not attack such a well defended post. But they did. 130-156,000 troops, half American and half from other commonwealth countries, took the beach of Normandy on the 6th of June.

The invasion of Normandy took the Germans by complete surprise, and signified the first foot print of American forces in Nazi held Europe. What occurred next was the invasion and establishment of Allied Forces in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II. It was the largest amphibious operation ever to take place.

Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on 6 June came from Canada, the Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces also participated, as well as contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Most of the above countries also provided air and naval support, as did the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Royal Norwegian Navy.