I just finished watching Invictus and I have to say that it was brilliant. Yet another Clint Eastwood classic. It's a sport film about a team that actually made a difference to the lives of millions of people and a divided nation that desperately needed a symbol of unity after centuries of hatred fueled by apartheid. 

The movie is set in post-apartheid South Africa when Nelson Mandela has just taken over as the President of the bitterly divided nation. After 27 years in prison, he struggles tirelessly to unite a nation that is split bitterly along the lines of race. The blacks hate everything that is white and that stands for apartheid and race distinction. The whites, on the other hand, are fearful and distrustful of everything that the new black leadership represents. 


In his attempt to unite the country under a single cause, Mandela turns to François Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team, The Springboks. The movie is based on the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. 


There are several scenes in the movie that are thought provoking. One of the first scenes of the Black-White discord is when the newly founded presidential bodyguard consists of Black ANC activists and White Afrikaner Corps policemen. They share the responsibility of keeping one of the world's foremost statesmen alive while getting over their long-held prejudices for each other. There is also a rugby match between the Springboks and England which has all white South Africans cheering for the Boks and all the black South Africans cheering for the opposition. In their view, the Boks stand for white supremacy (considering the team had only one black player, Chester Williams.) 


Mandela, in his reconciliation program and amidst rebuilding a nation, decides that this team and the upcoming 1995 Rugby World Cup would be the source of inspiration that the newly formed Republic needs. He asks the young South African captain to provide this inspiration in the form of a victory in the World Cup. There is nothing better to heal a nation's scars than the common element of sport. It must be said that when this request was made, the Boks were seeded 9th and were the clear underdogs with nary a victory to their name. 


Whilst this movie is a stirring tale of a nation coming together, it is also a sports movie. And what does every sports movie have? An underdog team rising against all odds to beat the champions. And the challenge is herculean to the young François Pienaar. He recognizes that the World Cup actually represents salvation for the racially volatile nation and that the team were the bringers of this redemption. To top off this mammoth expectation, the Boks are asked to conduct rugby training camps in the poorer areas of the nation for young black children. 


One very powerful scene was when Mandela tells François about this poem that he used to read when he was a prisoner on Robben Island. This was something that gave him strength when he felt like he was spent. The poem is called Invictus. 




It is this poem that François reads on a visit to Mandela's cell and realizes that here was a man who spent 27 years in prison and then came out willing to forgive and forget for the betterment of his country. 


The Boks go ahead to beat all the odds and face off with the most successful rugby team in the world, the New Zealand All Blacks in the 1995 World Cup final. 


Well, watch the movie. Watch it and be blown away by a larger than life performance by Morgan Freeman and a very real performance by Matt Damon. 


Damn, I love Clint Eastwood. I hope he keeps making movies till he has to go to that great Studio in the Sky. 

As you can see from the pretty awesome poster here, it's the last season and there are a lot of faces here from the previous seasons. Some are dead, some are not but let's face it, being dead has never kept a character off screen in this show. The one thing the final season promises is a lot of answers. And I can't bleeding wait. :) So, what was I saying? Oh, yes. A recap.




So, as you know the Flight crashed, blah blah blah. (If you don't know this, you're not a Lost fan and this will all be gibberish anyways). So, in Season 5, we saw some pretty far out things happening. A few characters (Saeed, Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley and Aaron) finally got OFF the island and spent three years off it. A few characters (Sawyer, Jin, Juliet, Miles, Daniel and Charlotte) were left on the island and kept jumping through time (as a result of the wheel being turned in the season finale of Season 4) and finally, after Locke locked the wheel in place, they were all stuck in 1977 or something. As you  might remember, Charlotte dies from the effects of time travelling leaving Faraday a very, very sad man. :( But Sawyer and the rest of the troupe join the Dharma initiative and decide to make a life for themselves in 1977 making the best of their situation. 


In the real world, present day, three years have passed and Locke (having been thrown three years into the future after setting the wheel right) tries hunting down the Oceanic Six in an attempt to bring them back to the Island. Ben "helps" Locke by first having him go around and talk to them and once they refuse Locke, Ben kills him. This prompts the Six (minus Aaron) to get back ANOTHER plane to head back to the Island. This is an Ajira flight that's headed over where the island might appear (as told to them by Eloise Hawking, Faraday's mother and one-time leader of the Others). They get on the flight and sure enough, it crashes. But the Six are all thrown back to 1977 where they are found by Jin and Sawyer. In an attempt to save their lives, Sawyer passes them off as new Dharma recruits. 


Of course, things go haywire and people start dying as these guys rush to make sure that the future never comes to pass. How, I'll get to in a second. 


In the present, Locke's body was on the plane heading to the Island. But once the rest of the Ajira survivors start collecting, there he is, well and good. And of course, this is bad news for Ben Linus. But Locke wakes up and as the leader of the Others, he starts making them walk towards Jacob, all the while whispering in Ben's ear that he must kill Jacob. 


Oh, before we get to this, at the very beginning of the season, you see two people. Jacob and a dude in black sitting on the Island in the 1500s (I think) and they're discussing why Jacob keeps drawing people to the Island. Now, that makes Jacob close on 500 years old. And there's no indication that he's not older. So, Jacob and dude in black keep arguing and the guy in black, we'll call him Nemesis, says that whatever it takes, he'll find a loophole and kill Jacob. To which Jacob replies that he's sure he will.




Anywho, back to 1977, where Faraday finds Jack and tells him that if he's able to explode a Hydrogen bomb where one particular Dharma station is about to be built, he negates this huge pocket of Electromagnetic energy, thus nullifying the existence of the station and the plane crash in the future. Faraday is then killed by his mother in the past before he can complete it. Jack, in the belief that this will actually work, follows through on the plan and gets the bomb (after a lot of gunfighting) to the hole where the energy is discovered. And as they're about to blow the bomb and hence, reset the future, the EM energy starts drawing everything inside and almost kills Juliet. The bomb never detonates. 


In the present, Locke takes all his followers to Jacob and him and Ben enter Jacob's sanctuary. Here, some other Ajira survivors (Jacob's people) find the real Locke's body and bring it to Richard and the rest. So, "Locke" and Ben enter to talk to Jacob and here it is revealed that "Locke" is actually Nemesis and he tells Jacob that he has found the loophole and makes Ben kill him. 


At the same time, in 1977, Juliet is lying at the bottom of the pit and she sees the unexploded bomb. She desperately hammers away at it until the last scene of the season is the bomb exploding.



So, now, here we are. Here are some of the questions that are at the top of my head:


1. Who the frack is Jacob and what's the deal with the Island?
2. Who is Nemesis and why does he need to kill Jacob?
3. What is up with jesus dead people showing up ALL THE FREAKING TIME.
4. What's the deal with the Island?
5. What is that crazy black smoke monster thing?
6. Who are the Others and why are they so weird and why can't they answer simple questions without making it seem like they've been asked to figure out Schrodinger's Cat.
7. What's the deal with the island?
8. How is time travel possible?
9. Why do dead people... 


Okay, I'll stop. You get the picture. 


But honestly, I do love this show. This is one show that has carefully crafted only questions for the better part of it's 5 year run and has kept us on tenter hooks for the entire while. The last season is supposed to answer all the questions. It's exceptionally well written and yes, the plot has more loops than a Celtic promise band but that's what makes this show so great. I can't figure out anything and it's driving me nuts. 


Am I sad that this will be the last season? Sure. Can I wait any longer to find out what the hell is up with that Island? No. I want answers... NOW. 


So, like I said, I'm already on Episode 5 of Season 6 and I must say, it's kickass! Stick around for updates. :) To leave you with something though, here's the trailer for a brilliant Season 6. Enjoy!

Bridge of Rama is about the coming of age of Hanuman. The little vanar warrior from Armies of Hanuman has been entrusted with enlisting to Rama's aid, the biggest vanar fighting force in history. An army that will raze Lanka to the ground and rid the world of rakshahas forever. 

Rama and Lakshman wait at the southern tip of the continent waiting for this force to appear. They face the ocean and the 100 miles to the Lankan landmass seems like an unsurpassable distance. The vanars, as a race, are afraid of the ocean and Lakshman is less than confident about the fighting skills of this undisciplined "army" in the face of the most formidable and ruthless warriors on prithvilok. And then, Hanuman arrives. 


No one recognizes Hanuman. He, in no way, resembles the scrawny little vanar who met Rama at Janasthana in the previous book. Through a secret transformation, yet to be revealed, he is as tall as a man, powerfully muscled and the paragon of strength. And he brings with him, a janaya-sena, a generation army. It is army that consists of every vanar, man, woman and youngling, capable of fighting. Every vanar in existence is pressed into service with only one objective in mind, the liberation of Sita. And in addition, he has a surprise, a massive army of rkssas or bears, one of the most powerful creatures in the animal kingdom. 


Simultaneously, we also follow how Sita's coping in Lanka as a prisoner. Ravana's trying his best to seduce Sita by being an understanding and almost sympathetic captor. Mandhodhari, on the other hand, has a different view of Sita and sees her as a seductress who's got evil designs to be the next Lankan queen. 


The vanar-rksaa army begins trying to build the bridge of Rama from the southern tip of the Indian continent to Lanka. This is a hugely challenging task as hundreds of animals push massive boulders in an attempt to make the passageway. However, during one such move, a boulder comes loose and starts tumbling towards Rama. Hanuman, seeing this, manifests a power whereby he expands himself to triple his size and saves Rama. He says he doesn't know how he did but that it was by thinking of Rama that he could. At this point, Jambavan, the king of the bears reveals that Hanuman is no ordinary vanar. He is the child of Vayu, the wind god and the apsara, Anjani. He is, in essence, a demi-god, and it was his devotion for Rama that awakened his power. 


That night, as the army sleeps, Rama is visited by the spirit of Dasaratha, who tells him that if Rama did not save Sita the same night, she would perish and the bridge and the army would be for naught. Rama then asks Hanuman to fly to Lanka to bring back his bride. 


Hanuman, using his newfound power, grows himself to a hundred times his size and leaps over to Lanka to rescue Sita. 


The rest of the book details Hanuman's encounted with Sita and Ravana and the havoc he wreaks on behalf of Rama. His decimation of Rakshasha legions and his threat to bring an army back that would reduce Lanka to rubble. 


I'm almost done with the set. I'm on Book 6 now, The King of Ayodhya. :)


By the way, one curious little side-note to this post. I was looking up Rama's Bridge on Google and I came across this. 

These are aerial and satellite images of Adam's Bridge or Rama's Bridge that "is a chain of limestone shoals, between the islands of Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka. Geological evidence indicates that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka.^"

It was reportedly passable on foot till the 15th century at which time, storms deepened the channel. Which kinda makes you think, doesn't it? :)

The tale continues...


When we left our heroes at the end of Demons of Chitrakut, they had just started a long, bloody war with one battalion of Asuras who survived the decimation of the Brahm-astra. The 14,000 strong force had come to take revenge for the mutilation of Supanakha and to claim the head of their mortal enemy, Rama. However, unexpectedly, Rama, Sita and Lakshman were suddenly joined by outlaws and other inhabitants of Chitrakut who pledged their swords to the cause of Rama. Outnumbered 50 to 1, Rama tells his people that they will wage a guerrilla war against the Rakshasas which might be bloody and long but will ultimately lead to victory for the forces of good.

Banker's fourth installment of The Ramayana consists primarily of three acts. The first scene opens 13 years after the last frame of the previous book. Rama's forces have valiantly fought the Rakshasa army using the cover of the land to bring their numbers down to a still formidable 2000. The Asuras are now lead by a extremely smart general called Trisirias (the three-headed one). He has studied Rama's movements over the past decade and has finally figured out how to crush them. Rama and his rag-tag band make one final stand at the Battle of Janasthana. They are also watched closely by a vanar (monkey) warrior, Hanuman, who's reporting on the legendary warrior to his tribe chief, Sugreeva.


The second act is post the Battle. After a stunning victory for the forces of good over evil, Rama, Sita and Lakshman enjoy the last few months of their exile and are eagerly awaiting the return to Ayodhya and the life they were denied over a decade ago. This act also talks of the resurrection of Ravana and the resurgence of Lanka as a force to be reckoned with. But to deal with the Princes of Ayodhya, Ravana decides to take the less direct route of confrontation and decides to kidnap Sita instead. This is probably the part of the Ramayana that almost everyone knows about. The deception and the act that leads to the main battle of the Ramayana.


The third act is the brothers enlisting the help of the vanars, a half-simian race who live in the jungles close to Chitrakut. Already, their names and deeds are a part of legend, so when Rama and Lakshman come to seek the help of the vanar king, Sugreeva, they make one deal. They will help him regain his lost throne from his brother, Vali. In return, Sugreeva must help Rama and Lakshman attack Lanka and free Sita. They are viewed with a slight distrust but eventually win the vanar's trust with the aid of Hanuman.


After a pitched fight between Rama and Vali, Sugreeva tells Rama that he and the rest of Vanar-kind will help Rama fight Ravana and get the love of his life back. He then sends Hanuman and a few other vanar generals to recruit as many vanars as possible to Rama's aid. They set out to recruit the armies of Hanuman. 


God, I can just feel this book building the pace for what will be the mother of all battles. On to book 5, The Bridge of Rama.

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything but I've been super busy. Lots of things happening which have something to do with my absence. But I shall elaborate on those later.

For now, I'd like to say, I completed Book 2 of The Ramayana series by Ashok K Banker and yet again, it was excellent.

Book 2 picks up moments after Book 1 left off. The Princes of Ayodhya have vanquished the Asura Tataka and have fulfilled their servitude to the Brahmarishi Vishwamitra, or so they think.

News has reached the Arya nations of the advance of an Asura horde sweeping across the country, heading straight for the defenseless Arya nation of Mithila, home of Janaka and his four daughters. After the last Asura war, Janaka has turned his entire nation to the pursuit of one thing, enlightenment. It is in this pursuit that the army was, for all intents and purposes, disbanded and ritual and pooja became the mainstay of the populace along with the pursuit of a higher state of dharma.

Vishwamitra informs the young princes that the next road on the way to stopping Ravana lies in Mithila. He doesn't inform them till much later that this is the target of the ten million strong Asura horde that threatens to wipe out the defenseless Arya nation.

Along the way, they meet new friends, face more perilous missions and finally, enter the Swayamvar of the Princess Sita on the eve of the Asuras landing at Mithila. It is there that Ravana, in disguise, tries to steal Sita away by winning the competition only to be bested by Rama at the last moment. The challenge is to lift the Bow of Shiva (which is iron cast and weighs 500 kilos), string it and shoot at a target. Rama steps in to challenge the demon king and bests him, thereby winning Sita's hand and also tying their fate together.

But is there a point? The mainstay of the Asura army is knocking at their doorstep (literally) and there is virtually no time to call on allies or reinforcements as every nation is too busy getting their own armies on alert. So, the Rajkumars' Vajra (50 horses and a few elephant), the two Princes, the Brahmarishi and a host of sadhus face what looks like a lost cause.

Or is it?

This is another tale resplendent with Vedic mythology, more tales of good vs. evil while the two brothers march along their preordained path to glory, hand in hand with dharma.

It is little known whether Rama was a real historical figure whose acts of bravery were so legendary that he went down as an incarnation of Vishnu or whether he was a complete fabrication of Valmiki, the robber turned saint who recieved the divine story from Ganesha.

Here is an excerpt from the Author's Note:

Adi-kavya: The first retelling

Some three thousand years ago, a sage named Valmiki lived in a remote forest ashram, practising austerities with his disciples. One day, the wandering sage Narada visited the ashram and was asked by Valmiki if he knew of a perfect man. Narada said, indeed, he did know of such a person, and then told Valmiki and his disciples a story of an ideal man.

Some days later, Valmiki happened to witness a hunter killing a kraunchya bird. The crane’s partner was left desolate, and cried inconsolably. Valmiki was overwhelmed by anger at the hunter’s action, and sorrow at the bird’s loss. He felt driven to do something rash, but controlled himself with difficulty.

After his anger and sorrow subsided, he questioned his outburst. After so many years of practising meditation and austerities, he had still not been able to master his own emotions. Was it even possible to do so? Could any person truly become a master of his passions? For a while he despaired, but then he recalled the story Narada had told him. He thought about the implications of the story, about the choices made by the protagonist and how he had indeed shown great mastery of his own thoughts, words, deeds and feelings. Valmiki felt inspired by the recollection and was filled with a calm serenity such as he had never felt before.

As he recollected the tale of that perfect man of whom Narada had spoken, he found himself reciting it in a particular cadence and rhythm. He realized that this rhythm or metre corresponded to the warbling cries of the kraunchya bird, as if in tribute to the loss that had inspired his recollection. At once, he resolved to compose his own version of the story, using the new form of metre, that others might hear it and be as inspired as he was.

But Narada’s story was only a bare narration of the events, a mere plot outline as we would call it today. In order to make the story attractive and memorable to ordinary listeners, Valmiki would have to add and embellish considerably, filling in details and inventing incidents from his own imagination. He would have to dramatize the whole story in order to bring out the powerful dilemmas faced by the protagonist.

But what right did he have to do so? After all, this was not his story. It was a tale told to him. A tale of a real man and real events. How could he make up his own version of the story?

At this point, Valmiki was visited by Lord Brahma Himself. The Creator told him to set his worries aside and begin composing the work he had in mind. Here is how Valmiki quoted Brahma’s exhortation to him, in an introductory passage not unlike this one that you are reading right now:

Recite the tale of Rama … as you heard it told by Narada. Recite the deeds of Rama that are already known as well as those that are not, his adventures … his battles … the acts of Sita, known and unknown. Whatever you do not know will become known to you. Never will your words be inappropriate. Tell Rama’s story … that it may prevail on earth for as long as the mountains and the rivers exist.

Valmiki needed no further urging. He began composing his poem. He titled it, Rama-yana, meaning literally, The Movements (or Travels) of Rama.