where’d you go?

I remember that smile, which would light up the room,

I remember that conviction that would ascend all the way to the moon

I remember that spirit, that no one could suppress,

I remember that aura, designed to impress

what I don’t know however is the whats, whens and how long ago

I just keep looking into this reflection, pondering and sulking, asking WHERE’D YOU GO?

there seems to be only ashes, where was once the torch of passion and ambition ablaze.

the hours now pass by, with a distant hollow gaze

staring into nothingness, it all seems so dull

where the heck was it all lost, how did such rise turn into such lull

so spite me oh mighty spiter, if you even exist

for you’ve left this world to ruin, your duty you desist

I see rage, hatred and pain in all the walks I walk

wanted to be an orator, now I even hate to talk

just see through this perception, and hear me bellow

you’ll notice I keep asking, WHERE’D YOU GO?

I see resistance and judgement, I see your brows slant in

I have no way to express, the war that wages within

Seems like a struggle too long, the soul itself grows weary

To pick oneself up each time, them eyes grow teary

through endless consistent losses, the soul seems torn

but hey, ‘life goes on’, didn’t even get to mourn

there no more seems to be a point, no more seems to be any worth

of life itself, the soul faces dirth

maybe it’ll hold on for a while, but who knows how long

someday, not too far,

YOU’LL BE THE ONES ASKING, WHERE’S HE GONE?

‘The Love-Hate Contingency’

 

Often we’ve read in articles, novels, around social networks, memes, etc that love is a driving force and is the strongest of emotions,etc etc; but today let’s realise that love and hate are like yin and yang, each have their own role to play in maintaining a system of balance in the world. These are like light and darkness,in western culture as well as in confucianism, the contrast symbolizes the moral dichotomy of good and evil; and like there needs to be light to rival the force of darkness, there needs to be darkness so that the value and importance of light can be appreciated; this is more of a principle based concept so as to balance the scales of power and maintain a neutrality by the constant exchange and interaction of two contrasting forces in character.

Ever Read the manga or seen the anime NARUTO?!!
-Well, be it a yes or no, let me give you the perspective here anyway. In the series, there are Ninja Clans, primary being those of Senju and Uchiha. Uchihas were considered to be the emotionally driven clan, had a better knack for loving all that they cared for very intensely, or rather too intensely. As per the creator, so much affection ended up almost as a mental disorder. The Uchihas had a special genetic trait called the ‘Sharingan’, a visual prowess that helped them bend time,space and higher levels of power could create massive destruction; the catch here was that this Sharingan was powered by their emotional wreckage, that is death or loss of a dear one, it fueled this power of theirs, and as such the Uchiha which was capable of loving the most was also capable of harnessing that magnitude of hatred and thus bring about enough destruction to last a millenia. There’s a popular dialogue in the show by an Uchiha (MADARA) who is hell bent on destroying the world to start existence from scratch to establish eternal peace when he realises that all and everyone he ever loved is either dead or standing against him, the reality gnaws him from the inside and he plots a massive degenerate idea-“This world is full of things that don’t go as you wish. The longer you live the more you realise that reality is just made of pain, suffering and emptiness…Listen…In this world whenever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exist, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars and hatred is born to protect love.” Here again we see that hatred and love are a part of a vicious cycle that runs with one following the other or filling the other’s shoes when vacant.

As there are cases of people reacting when the love they feel is lost or scarred.there are instances when the collateral damage is taken personally and not let out, either way there is destruction, of character, of personality, of faith and of emotions.
A certain  ‘Jordan’ in a certain movie called Rockstar, showed these exact symptoms, when he used to flip at the drop of a pin and explode into self destruction. That’s the plight of those who dare to love, as such the entire scenario of contingencies.

We all have read, ‘It’s better to have love and lost, than have never loved at all’, but this quote is rather short sighted, why don’t we ever talk of having lost the faith, belief and courage to love again?!!; Is love really irrevocable once we have turned away from it, or once we’ve been jilted?! What about those who now fear getting into that fondness and even the most optimistic and fortified individual has some emotional bond, something/someone they love, what if it’s taken away?!! The void so created has to be occupied by something, and generally pain, paranoia and  hatred creep in.

Hatred, as such, is not the opposite or the antithesis of ‘love’, it’s more on the lines of love turned sour.
Perspective on the words above; if you really want to know what’s it like to feel the opposite of love, you’d feel the pain when you’re ignored or when you no longer matter to someone, whereas when you hate, its a feeling where you at least consider and/or acknowledge the existence of another, thus the bond that began with love and withered into hatred still has those strands of a caring heart.

The point where the interdependence is acknowledged is when we realise that the existence of hatred breeds the need for love to remind how it all started, and since hatred is nothing more than love turned sour; thus this vicious cycle is one that shall keep running and never end; fighting it is not ideal, and denying it’s value just plain foolishness, whereas acknowledging it is one way to smoothly sift through this entire fiasco, acknowledging that love and hate are the two sides of the same coin.

 

SUICIDE SQUAD: the absolute honest review

Cowabunga fellas!!
A not so usual post on this blog, but as I am a crazy geek and a die-hard fan of the DC universe, I think I owe this to all the people out there still swinging between the demolition by critics and the absolute fanhood for the DC Universe making their mind up as to spending the buck and watching Suicide Squad in theatres. Sooooo, here goes..
Unlike the frequent complaints targeted towards Batman Vs Superman that labelled it as a comic reader’s movie (not wrongfully so), Suicide Squad does not leave you with an infinite set of easter’s to spot and thus analyse what could be and what is, it details on everything and explains the origin of every character, from how and why they got  Amanda Waller’s attention, the need of Suicide Squad, how they are rounded up into the facilities where Waller wanted them to her convenience,etc. It thus clears all air as to all the interrogatorives that need answering right at the start and you don’t really need a lot of prior knowledge of the characters to enjoy them, but it’s like that example you don’t need running shoes to help you run, but they bloody well help, similarly if you have ever read the comics, it’s a slightly better experience .


The Plot:  Amanda Waller is a part of United States’ defence services who plans to bring together a team of supervillains together and use them to deal with metahuman contingencies if they so arise considering that they have recently witnessed Superman’s death (Dawn of Justice)  and feel they’ll need something more than normal armed forces to deal with such contingencies, thus she gets together these super skilled,most wanted personalities who shall  work for her to her whims and fancies and if not, well that’s not really an option for them.

First of all, let’s get one thing clear, it’s not a ‘Joker’ movie, it’s the Suicide Squad movie, so all those critics or friends that tell you that ‘ the Joker is a disappointment, judge them on their sense of judgement and just walk away. Joker is supposed to be an accessory to the story telling in this movie, and Jared Leto has done his job insanely well( heheh, saw what I did there? :p), Leto’s joker is the most badass version of the character on the big screen till date, obviously not taking into account the animated versions. The movie’s objective is nothing beyond introducing the world to the concept and characters of the ‘Suicide Squad’ and how they despite being the bad guys that everyone hates and are the top of the charts on the wanted lists are brought together to aid Waller’s ambitious attempts at holding power and importance in and around her military-social circle.

The movie claimed of this and of being fun, which it is, the script is mostly on point, all characters maintain an element of humor and sarcasm, keeping you entertained.
All this being said, it wouldn’t be wrong to say, that for someone who doesn’t sweat, tear, and bleed DC, the movie does not really live up to the hype it created, DO NOT MISINTERPRET THIS AS ME CALLING IT BAD MOVIE, it’s fairly damn awesome. The fight sequences, the character development of all squad members, the visual effects and everything. Also the appearance of The Flash and Batman are just amazing and a treat.
The movie completes two tasks, is a build up element to the Justice LEague movie and establishes Suicide Squad’s background. at this point all /dc movies are leading up to the gran JL franchise (which will definitely make me scream my throat into permanent voice impairment and probably a cardiac arrest out of all that happiness).

Starcast/Characters: all actors be it Deadshot,El Diablo, Captain Boomerang or the much loved Harley Quinn have probably had the best choice of actors, all do complete justice to the characters as they originally are. Leto can actually not be compared to The Dark Knight’s version of the joker for a lot of reasons, though e version has his own charm and is in no way inferior to the other. Heath’s version of the Joker was a lunatic wanting to send across a message and climbing the ladder of the underworld or villans, whichever sounds better to one, but Leto’s Joker is on the top of that ladder already as the movie shows him and is ruling everything as his own.
Harley Quinn’s character development and origin took the show for me, finally people get to know how the King and Queen of crime,i.e, JOKER and herself come together and what chemistry they share and more.

The Verdict:  The movie does complete justice to the franchise and the original story along with being viewer friendly as you don’t need any pre-existing knowledge of the characters. there is an adequate amount of glam and explosions to everyone’s delight, though the 3D version might come across as a disappointment, I’d advise the 2D versions (and thus saving a few in your wallet so not everyone turns into a critic and a negative one at that because of the possible financial grudge). The movie probably fails in terms of sending across a message or the big gravity of plot that Nolan made cinema has raised the barriers to, but as Deadshot says” We’re the bad guys”, the movie does not need an emotional or social message because the bad guys don’t do that stuff; but it definitely isn’t the Nolan level of cinema. All in all, it’s a worth watch, decent value for money, but is not an extravagant piece of cinema if at all you have out of the world expectations from the movie, but still it’s an experience for all the cinematic and dialogues and for the sheer love of DC.
Personal rating 7.5/10

 

The ‘Heroes’ Around Us.

Let me take you today on a realization spree.
We are all fond of fiction in some form or another. For some video games( God of War, Metal Gear, Hitman,etc), for some novels (Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter,etc), for some Graphic novels that belong to DC/Marvel universe, War heroes for others, etc etc. Ever wondered where this affinity for these protagonists or ‘HEROES’ comes from? Today let’s sail through a stream of thoughts on this.
Often have we looked up towards the skies and sought help, or maybe glanced around us in desperate need of assistance, these in circumstances when we don’t know of a proximate,appropriate and tangible source of remedy. We scroll through our contact lists on Facebook or Whatsapp, partly hoping someone online will revert and will maybe know the right set of words or answer to the questions boggling us and partly prepared there won’t be help. Not always do we get the requisite help, but sometimes we do. What title or coronation should we bestow upon such help- a savior, a hero maybe?
Let’s stick to ‘heroes’ for a while,shall we?
A ‘Hero’ is not essentially a person or the person, it’s more of an idea, almost an act of giving. Hero could be someone who lends you a couple bucks when you run out of money at a restaurant, or someone who offers you a lift when you’re running out of time and have a place to be at; someone who tells you how to go about doing something when you’re too shy to ask around from fear of humiliation or being judged; someone who places their hand on your shoulder and tells you they ‘believe in you’ when you are losing faith in yourself; and many many more such examples to illustrate. It’s almost a pacifying feeling when we experience something of the sort, considering we had no conscious idea of what we are stuck in since we desperately need such saving.
Don’t we have days when we go for a walk with our earphones plugged in because we don’t want to talk but want to probably ponder over what’s been troubling us or maybe fade it out under the strange silence that the music playing would give our conscious mind, of course we do, all of us in fact. It may be just a very narrow sighted observation but sometimes it’s because of the fear of letting something out more than letting something in, or in other words- slipping out something we aren’t confident about (something gnawing us from within) because of some inexplicable paranoia; and not the blocking out of someone else’s words. Now, all of a sudden someone comes by with the right words for the occasion to sooth your burning temples of thought, this is nothing less than a life saver I feel, one’s mood lightens up, you see HOPE once again, you start to walk out of the cloak of negativity. It’s not a wonder, not a miracle, just someone acting ‘hero’ at the right time.

Even further, this need not be another person, Muhammad Ali is hands-down one of the most inspiring personalities to have ever walked the earth, he used to look at his own picture as a world champion to inspire himself to defend what he truly cherishes. A ‘Hero’ need not be living at all, even if we come across a quote online or a television show, an anime, and the character’s portrayal strikes a chord, we feel inspired- people have often felt a liking and appreciation towards the characters of anime, books, and other  works of fiction that end up teaching something about life. Words like- ‘Love imbibes hatred underneath,those who have truly loved can not escape the wrath of hatred, it’s a risk the mortals are cursed to live with’, hail from anime (Naruto).
The idea that is being set afloat here is that, we can have a ‘Hero’for ourselves at any point of time in life, it can be anyone or anything that just shows us that ray of hope, to follow to the light. It doesn’t have to be a superhero wearing tights and cape with superhuman or alien capabilities, Sam Witwicky in the Transformers series didn’t have to be a giant robot to save the planet from invasion, he just did what was right and fought his fight at his human size,at his level, he was a hero to people. Similarly  there are heroes around us, we just have to have faith and let help in.
It doesn’t just end there, we can be heroes too, you never know what one minor act of kindness might mean to a person, what change one unforeseen advice might bring about in brightening up a miserable day for someone, etc. So maybe at some level it’s a give and take, the more you give, chances are the more you’ll get. The more people that get this message, the greater chances are that we’ll have a ‘hero’, unknowingly lurking around  some nearby corner with conscious, subconscious or even unconscious help for a person who might just need it and i have a strong feeling that we all at some point need a ‘Hero’ for ourselves, when everything seems to run downhill, when we have no clue what to do, we all need that someone and/or something to rescue us.
It doesn’t take much to be a hero, just the will to help, a kind intent added to that. I think that life can not be more giving if someday someone looks at you in the eyes to tell you, ‘Because of you I kept going, because of you I didn’t give up’. So let’s be ‘heroes’ to someone, let’s be the harbingers of good.

Mirror on the Wall

 

WE humans, especially the emotional ones, suffer quite the vibrance in terms of our daily issues and lifestyle. We actually perform a ‘Lamborghini dash’ in terms of our emotional impulses, that is to say that we might go from a 0 to 100 mph within a matter of seconds, where 0 is our normalcy and 100 the absolute extreme of a reaction, be it excitement, depression, frustration, pleasure,etc.
Add to this analogy, the analogy of multiple faces; we wear ‘masks’, so to speak, such that there’s a different one for a different person that we interact with,and we somehow are alive and conscious under every one of those masks, much like parallel versions of ourselves. These masks are the various faces we project, the character that appears on surface. We may have one for our family members, another for special friends, another for people we just barely know,a drastically different portrait for when we have a crush on someone, and we might be an altogether different person within. It’s rather subjective to the situation at hand and the image that we have created and/or are trying to defend. Sometimes I wonder, why do we wear these faces, these ‘masks’? Is it because ‘a burnt child dreads the fire’, and one is trying to avoid further harm emotional or otherwise that he/she may invite by revealing one’s true self, with all positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses unveiled as he/she may have experienced once in life? Is it to achieve an ulterior motive through a deceptive demeanor? Or is it to conveniently adapt to whatever group or social circle we might have an inclination to be a part of and/or curiosity to witness similar or even same lifestyle with such group? The possibilities are many, and could as such be any, some or all of the above.

It’s as such undeniable that these rises and falls take their own toll on our daily psyche. They do leave us scathed, if not scarred at many levels. For example, if we see the diaries of a struggling performer, maybe watch movies like Southpaw, Whiplash,etc, we see the loss of reliability and faith in our surroundings when going through a particularly rough patch(this in turn could also explain the ‘mask concept’). Perpetual frustration, agitation and constant misconstruing of what others tell us, even if it is sometimes a helping hand, take over our sense of judgement and reasoning.

               This brings us to a standstill not only in terms of progress, but our relations and personality development. Where does one go for help in such a situation where negativity is the order of the day and absolutely everything seems to lack promise? 

With the given ideas as perspective, let’s ask ourselves ‘What has it come to?’.

Following the mechanics, which run around education, business, ambitions,success/failure etc, we have gotten used to this lifestyle where there is a chain of deceptions and fake faces running around prominently and recklessly. Us being a part of the same, do we even know who we actually are? Do we recognise our own angels and demons? Who are we looking at when we stand in front of that mirror on the wall? Is the image even recognizable? Is it even familiar? Is it us at all?
            The solution that I offer may not be an absolute one(certainly doesn’t seem like it),  but has worked for me nevertheless, and thus I offer insight into this alternative.

     Ever tried looking at the mirror and seeing what it has to show? Let me clear the air a little, one often looks at the mirror through their daily lives, to maybe dress up, do their hair, brush their teeth,etc but are we really ‘seeing’ or are we just looking. I now suggest that we ‘see’. ‘See’ what the reflection has to show, not undermining the power of a mirror; this so because we often don’t look at a mirror this way but it’s our most honest critic that bestows upon us the most brutal truths that shall help us evolve .Unlike any other evaluation or critic, the mirror on the wall makes you compete against yourself for excellence, and it’s rather reliable as it makes no difference to the mirror as to how it’ll make you feel, that is to say that it has no bias in favor, or grudge against an individual that may cause it to flicker from the absolute, brutal truth,thus, the best critic ever. Even in the story of Snow White, the Queen took the magic mirror to be her one true critic and no matter the actions she took recourse to, she did rely on the brutal honesty of the mirror labelling the princess the most beautiful in the land, which is to suggest, metaphorically, the superb critic a mirror could be.
Coming back to the mirror and one ‘seeing’ what it has to show, the ‘solution’ as suggested earlier. When one sits in front of the mirror to truly see what one’s own image, we switch roles, that is to say that we let the image do the talking and the person be the reflection of that image. How does that work? It works in a very poetic fashion actually, the only person you can actually trust when going through a rough patch is yourself and this role-reversal works just perfectly. We take what the mirror has to show at place and face value, thus with the trust issue working out alongside it’s the best way out of a situation that is highly tense and/or depressing. Perform an experiment, shall we? Whenever one feels an extreme emotion(maybe try enacting one) , look at oneself in the mirror and observe one’s own body language. Now, here lies the moment of truth, when you face yourself across that mirror, as earlier discussed in relation to ‘masks’ and deceptions, do you still pose a deception?

I ,sometimes,sit in front of the mirror, thinking, observing, and for some reason I let the other me do the talking, while I silently look on.


the Ambitious Man

We’ve all been ambitious about something or else at some point of time in our lives. Sports for some, academics for some others, career, family, love, etc, it’s a very personally subjective roster. Though we can’t help but notice that no matter what the core/epicentre  of one’s ambition is, it almost always has extreme feelings associated with it.
The nature of human emotions is such that we have been designed to be closer to the Devil, than to God(perspective). Why did I say something like this? Because of a simple observation, that we generally tend to walk into the darkness when we too strongly feel for something, and when we talk about ambitions it’s a rather strong emotion to associate with.  Let’s take historical reference, Alexander the Great cried when he heard the astronomer Anaxarchus talk about the existence of infinite worlds in the universe, when inquired into he answered,“there are so many worlds, and I have not yet conquered one”.  Thus the strength of the ambitiousness prevalent within.
As I have often observed, the ambitious man has many enemies. It’s true,obviously, when there are several contending for the same bone and even the hater’s gonna hate principle applies adding to the misery. But then, as we know, if one doesn’t have haters there’s probably something missing in or wrong with how that person’s been going around life, it’s how we observe video-games: troubles start increasing when one is going down the right path. So, you’re doing something right somewhere, not necessarily right in every eye, that’s where troubles begin.
It’s not easy being an ambitious person , there’s almost a constant tingling sensation(visualise it like Spiderman’s spider sense) that’s simply keeping the person restless when there are periods of ambitions erupting within. It’s like multiple OCDs kicking in together, and it ranges from being as suffocating as ‘waterboarding’ to as motivating as listening to Eye of the Tiger or watching Never Back Down. The variations are both stunning and annoying.These anomalous variations make it pretty difficult to gauge what goes within the skull of an ambitious person, what they think, how they plan, the general reaction pattern ,etc.

Their troubles are often severe, friends turn into rivals, family disregards spike out, relationships end, self loathing creeps in and all goes straight down the alley to hell. People turn into social rejects and outcasts, constant judgements to the extent of branding and calling names,etc. Is this justified at any level? Does any person, whosoever he/she may be, deserve to pay this heavy a price for just chasing his/her dreams? For not giving up on his wings of fancy? Even the Athenian Legend Icarus learnt of his ambitions the hard way when his pair of wings made out of wax and feathers gave away when he tried to fly too close to the sun, but then he had the mental satisfaction of having pursued it, having borne flight with his wings, and this satisfaction has somehow turned into a forbidden fruit for the ambitious simply because of how looked down upon they can be by the non supportive people around.
People have problems when you come up with something new, because they’ve not seen it happen before, thus scepticism is stuffed down one’s throat; you’re new to something but are yet innovative, but how dare one who’s not a veteran overreach oneself and suggest ideas,etc, all this and more of the same is inevitable because ‘the ambitious man’ needs no chains to hold down his/her wings and will therefore keep trying. Thus, the troubles and hurdles become self-explanatory this way.
In the end, it is a twofold karma moment!-
One, on oneself as to when and to what extent are we willing to get ambitious for what we desire to achieve and at what costs??!
Two, towards others as to the choice between being a catalyst or a negative inhibitor for someone who’s running the same rat race as oneself.
Do you choose the dark side by helping your own cause and ruling out competition or do you take the high road and aid the deserving or even if not aid, at least not act as a retarding factor?

An ‘Outburst’

The idea or concept of a strong person or individual is rather confusing. Is it the person who sheds tears and is confident enough to show what he/she feels? Or is it someone who can keep it all in and not react, posing to be the fortified castle of a will?

The debate prevails and exists undecided. On comparing the two, I feel the former has one leverage- they let it out, it could be multiple minor fits or one smooth(obviously aggressive) let out. But for the latter it gets tricky, it gets worse.

I have in quite a few conversations cited the example of Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano in the ancient city of Pompeii, where the volcano’s eruption eradicated existence.
The way the people who hold back their frustrations/expressions  react is rather anomalous. If we visualise what it would feel like to keep stuffing a paper bag with random articles beyond fathomable capacity it’ll eventually give away. Now, the giving away is Vesuvius’s eruption and the damage is Pompeii.

It’s often called an act of maturity when a person doesn’t react ‘impulsively’, which is a convenient negative term for ’emotionally’, and that it’s a better way to deal with things by not letting it out. So one must keep the paper bag of tolerance filling up till the time a Vesuvius erupts taking with it the Pompeii full of people around one that they might care about.
In the end, it’s subjective isn’t it? So, I leave upon thee to decide- the former or the latter?
Do you choose to react in the moment, or keep a bundle of emotions piled up leading to ‘An Outburst’ where the collateral damage shall leave behind residual guilt and more in its wake?