Posts

The Battle for Indus - A Sibling's War

Image
India and Pakistan, how do you describe their relationship ? A friendship that went astray ? Or perhaps, a modern day saga of two brothers from the same mother, who came to loathe the other ? Regardless of how things are now, these countries have done it all and seen it all. They have come a long way in forming a unified fight to fend of the Imperial powers and then underwent a bloody partition where nearly north of a million lives were lost. Its an intricate tale which is deeply layered, changing course through history, in a state of constant evolution. Both countries have been independent for 70 years now, Pakistan a day before India, yet the powers at Islamabad and Delhi have never been able to come to terms completely, or so it seems. And the one lingering topic of dissent among these two nations has always been Kashmir. Or also known as "Heaven On Earth". Its actually much worse than this ! It began in 1947 and it has continued ever since, Kashmir has ...

The Oriental Illuminati : A ones we don't see

Image
"A good conspiracy is an unprovable one.... If you can prove it, it means they must have screwed up somewhere along the line" We know they exist. Centuries have passed and their influence doesn't seem to wane, instead its on an infinite rise. Rumored to have been a brainchild of stalwarts like the magnanimous Leonardo Da Vinci and Dante, it started out as the weapon of logic in a world where religion reigned supreme, in a world where the Pope and someone like Galileo Galelei stood at opposite ends of the fence, in a world where going against the prescribed law meant imminent exile and banishment, the rule of the land was to stay hush hush if you had a brain that questioned because no one dared question authority. And religion was authority. In a world like this, came about the force that came to be known as Illuminati. While the Illuminati is associated to the Bavarian clan of the Illuminati, its presence undeniably so stretches the globe. Europe takes c...

The (Anti) Hero Paradox

Down with three posts, and audiences have rightly, by and large, identified the one common theme in my blog posts, my unabashed and unapologetic praises for the rather controversial figures in mythology and history. I wouldn't go so far as to call them straight out villains, but rather be more subtle and tag them as Anti Heroes. But then, just like with everything else, there is a catch here too. The important thing here is that there is a thin line between what separates a villain from a Anti hero or what separates an antihero from a white meat babyface. Now, i come across this question a lot, a lot of my readers have posted it too, that does an Antihero exist ? Or is it just a imaginative figure, an internet darling, a script seller, restricted to the realms of imagination potrayed only in books and movies ? I, on the other hand, blessed with a somewhat twisted mind, with a fetish for all things unconventional have another prominent question "Does the quintessential Hero ...

Karna : Unlucky or Deceived ?

Image
Who is Karna ? Sure, he is the son of Kunti, brother to the Pandavas and Arjun's nemesis. But is that all ? Or is there more to this phenomenon history acknowledges as the 'Son of the Sun God' ?  Karna isn't just another character in the Mahabharata, he is perhaps the unluckiest character in Indian mythology. His detractors might feel otherwise, but no one has or ever will doubt his ability. He had everything going for him but somehow everything managed to work against him. He had all the elements of a hero, but was never allowed to be one ; first by his mother, then his teacher, his brothers and even God. Karna, is only biologically the son of Kunti, as his sorry tale begins with her. Back when she was princess Kunti, letting her curiosity get ahead of her she decided to summon the Sun God(Agni Devta) using the magical powers bestowed upon her by a sage. Upon being summoned, and appearing before the princess, the sun God was compelled by virtue of the m...

When Fascism took to the field

Image
The 20th century will be best remembered for a lot of things ranging from Einstein to Hawkings, from Hitler to Gandhi, from Stalin to Gorbachev. It lay witness to the two world wars,oversaw the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, watched ideological differences create a wall that divided a city for a good part of 40 years and watched as Hiroshima and Nagasaki crumbled. It was a century of revolutions and political uprisings, of assassinations and murders, of sex, booze and drugs. But among all other things the 20th century was the century of football. Beginning with the 1930 world cup, football grew in stature and over the course of the subsequent decades consolidated itself as a global sport. Whilst it was always a part of popular culture, football really began growing into a global phenomenon in the 20th century, most notably in Europe and South America. What began as a source of entertainment quickly transitioned into a hobby and ultimately into the one platform for global repres...

Ravana - Hero or Villain ?

Image
Ravana : Mythology's Anti Hero Throughout history, the world has had its heroes, the quintessential babyfaces who fight through insurmountable odds, always walk on the right path and no matter what comes up, they never back down from a challenge. And quite frankly, the world needs heroes. The world needs a feel good moment to believe that Good overcomes evil, that finally there is a time of reckoning when what's evil succumbs to the forces of good. And history has from time to time given us these heroes, the good guys who shoulder the responsibility of representing a million voices and fight evil. Sometimes these heroes can be fictional and yet have such an impact that they have a deep rooted influence on how people think and how the system works. Amitabh Bachchan is essentially one such example of how a fictional character influenced a country of 125 crore people. Given the moniker ' ANGRY YOUNG MEN' he basically set the bar for what's considered the Indian H...