RIFLE RANGE BOY

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack (Hindi, miniseries. Ep1-6) Director: Abhinav Sinha It was the last Christmas season of the 20th century. The airports had not yet begun instructing passengers to remove belts and shoes before check-in, as the Twin Towers had not yet fallen. A simple hand wave would suffice to get one to the boarding area. That was the situation at Kathmandu airport on Christmas Eve 1999, when Indian Airlines flight IC841 departed for Delhi at around 4 p.m.  Forty minutes into the flight, as they were entering Indian airspace, a masked passenger entered the cockpit (yes, it was not a security zone then). Just as a steward entered to serve drinks, the masked passenger put a knife to the steward's throat and announced that the plane had been hijacked. Indian air traffic control was informed; however, the information did not filter down through the chain of command appropriately. Bureaucracy and apathy were to blame. After all, India had just fought a war in Kargil a few mon...

Aruvi (அருவி, Tamil; 2017) Let's face it. People are expected to live within preset rules. The society sets what is acceptable, what is happiness, what is beauty, what should our aim in life be and it decides our desires and aspirations. We are enrolled in schools to be educated in a rote manner, taught to act in a predetermined manner, told what are good virtues to fit into society. At the society level, we are all like lambs to the slaughter. We work for the big corporations who sell us things that we do not need. The media sets values that are favourable in modern living. They pluck the strings of our heart to crave for things that the big corporations are willing to sell at a cost of an arm and a leg. We think we will be happy with the purchase but surprisingly, happiness is but an elusive dream. The world emphatically asserts that all man are equal. In reality, it is just hogwash. People are arranged in a pecking order, with the wealthier ones perched on the ...