Day 8 : Game of Thrones - Beyond the Wall - Review

This is also an episode that was leaked much before the official airtime of the show. Except this time there was far less restraint from the fans. They all spoiled the plot and the deaths much in advance. I don’t really blame though, it was irresistible. And in all of this, if there really was someone to blame it was HBO. They’ve done a lousy job of putting their house in order this year. Hope it doesn’t get this bad next time around. So without much ado, let’s start with the episode.

The first plot point we have is at Winterfell where Littlefinger works his magic to isolate Sansa. The tensions between two sister’s intensifies ever since the younger sister discovers the other had sent a letter to their mother asking her to convince Robb to bend the knee to Joffrey and give up his title of King in the North. The two sisters are going at it hard. Then Sansa sneaks into Arya’s room to find her Bag of Faces. Arya enters the room and gives her the scare of her life. Sansa now for sure realizes her sister is a murderous psycho and she needs to keep her wits about if she expects to live with Arya under the same roof. She enlists Littlefinger’s help with this. Brienne is sent to King’s Landing to respond to call by Cersei Lannister. Not a good move, kid. 

Then we go to Dragonstone. Last time we were here the group had decided to capture a wight as proof to present Cersei to enroll her help fighting the Night King. Now however, Tyrion counsels Daenerys about her upcoming negotiations with Cersei. There is a little yap yap about Dany’s little crush on Jon. But all fun is sucked out of the room the moment Tyrion mentions succession. Dany’d said multiple times before in the show how she was prophesized to never bear any children. And Tyrion being the diplomat he is, is mindful of the transfer of power. Dany now rulers a substantial chunk of land in both Westeros and Essos. It would all turn to rot, if there is no one to take charge of her mission, somebody who shares the same moral compass as her. 

And then comes the main event of the whole episode. We are taken beyond the Wall, Jon leads a raiding party of people who have clear reasons to hate each other. But their shared hatred/fear of the Night King has brought them together. There is a lot of male bonding between them. The Hound and Tormund’s is the best. I would pay to watch a buddy cop movie with these too. After successfully capturing a wight, the group is besieged by the White Walker army around a small rock surrounded by an ice-capped lake. They also discover that when you kill a Walker, all the wights he’d turned also die. (loophole!) But right now they have bigger worries to take care of. Like how to get off that rock alive, and with that wight they’d captured. Jon sends Gendry to Eastwatch and send a raven to Daenerys to request for help. Thoros freezes to death out there on the rock, this means this is the last life for Beric Dondarrion. There is an amazing battle sequence which has Daenerys arrival and her saving most of the group with the help of her dragons. The Night King, jerk, throws an ice spear at Viserion, one of Daenerys' dragons, and kills it. Daenerys reluctantly flies off, along with the raiding party, but is unable to save Jon who till the very end is still flaying his Longclaw around chopping wights. Out of the blue, Benjen Stark arrives and sacrifices himself to allow Jon to escape on his horse. When Jon and Daenerys are reunited, Jon pledges himself and the North to Daenerys as Queen.

The Night King resurrects Viserion, making the dragon a part of his army. This was the highlight of the whole episode. The Others now have a dragon on their side. And it definitely doesn’t look like a fluke. The Night King clearly knows what he’s doing, he was waiting for and luring in the dragons. Notice the three spears, the iron chains, and the nice spot he got the Suicide Squad cornered? This was all pre-planned. He didn’t get the sweet job like leader of an undead army for nothing. He is a badass!

Day 7 : Game of Thrones - Eastwatch - Review

NO SPOILERS. (The leakers took care of it.)

This episode follows the events at the Blackwater Rush. The Lannisters troops have just seen the Dothraki and Dany’s dragon in open battle for the first time. And it really did not go as expected for them. As expected, any episode after a big event, is a mellow affair. There wasn’t really a lot of excitement here, just moving pieces across the board for a much interesting episode coming next. So let’s just get to it.

hey, dad.

The show begins with Bronn and Jaime. They both know they’ve just barely escaped the massacre. They have both faced the dragon’s wrath, they are both still in shock. Bronn says plot blank, he will not fight alongside Jaime in another battlefield if another dragon shows up. Jaime reaches Kings Landing, to give Cersei the news. Cersei at first is not very impressed. But Jaime convinces of her of army’s their pitiful performance. Cersei agrees to fight by some other means. Jaime also tells him about Tyrion’s innocence in his son Joffrey’s death. Cersei also tells him about another news she’s been hiding. She’s preggo. They are both happy and excited, but viewers clearly remember the prophecy. Cersei would only have three children in her life. So she either loses this child, or loses her life giving birth. We all know Cersei, no matter what is to happen she is going down swinging.

Next we come to the Citadel. The maester’s have just received a raven from Winterfell from one Brandon Stark. The crippled boy seems to have seen the army of dead men beyond the Wall, and requests support from the lords of Westeros. The maesters being the cynical bunch, do not put much faith to the words of a young boy’s fantasies. Sam overhears the conversation and tries to intercede on Bran’s behalf. He tells of how he was the one who led the boy beyond the wall and the cripple would not have survived beyond the Wall without the skills he professes of. The Archmaester is not convinced, but still to keep heart with the young intern promises to send raven back North for further clarification. Sam is not very content with just that. He comes home to Gilly pissed. Our sweet lass here has not been idle either, she has become quite comfortable with books now. Comfortable enough to be able to unearth one of the biggest secrets in Thrones. She finds a scrolls from an old maester where he mentions of an annulment of marriage between a Targaryen prince named Ragger and a Dornish princess. The same Targaryen prince is immediately married off to another. This is clearly about Rhaegar and his wife Ella Martell from Dorne. And we all know he was in love with Lyanna Stark, the love that started the Robert’s Rebellion and the downfall of the Targaryen line. But this also means, Jon is the legitimate son of Rhaegar, making him a bastard no more and someone who has a better claim at the Throne than Dany. Sam didn’t make any of that connection though, he was steaming. And can’t blame him yet, only Bran knows yet about Jon’s parentage. Sam has had enough of Citadel nonetheless, packs up a few books from the restricted section and makes off with Gilly to the North.

Speaking of Dany. She begins her time in this show with asking those alive in Blackwater Rush to bend the knee. A few do immediately, a few take some convincing by Drogon. But one old man heard none of it. This was Randyll Tarly, Sam’s father. He’d rather burn than bend. Dany ignored Tyrion’s plea, and did what she did. Burned both father and son Tarly, they both wanted n foreigner queen lording over them. Sam is not going to be happy about this. Also wasn’t Tyrion and Varys. They will have to be keep a careful watch at the Dragon Queen’s anger. They also receive the raven from North. It is from Bran. It is only now that Jon comes to know that Bran and Arya are alive. But he doesn’t get enough time to rejoice. The raven also brings news of the army nearing Eastwatch. They discuss and hatch a plan to go to Eastwatch and bring a wight back to Westeros, show it to the Cersei and her lords. They hope to bring a united force against the Night King.

Then there is the scene where Arya falls in to Littlefinger’s trap. He lets her see a raven sent by Sansa, where she writes at the behest of Cersei to request Robb to swear fealty to King Joffrey. This is a ploy to bring friction between the two sisters. Arya seem to have fallen for it. They never really were big fans of each other to begin with.

Then we come to a hideaway shore of King’s Landing. Davos seem to have successfully smuggled Tyrion into the capital. Both then go their separate ways into the capital, with their own agendas in mind. Tyrion goes for the dungeon under the Throne Room with all of the ancient dragon heads stored away. This is where he meets Jaime and Bronn. They have their little frenemy moment. Tyrion being the voice of reason amongst the Lannister siblings tells him of how little chance he has against the Dragon Queen’s army, he talks of a compromise between the warring families. Jaime has seen the enemies forces and agrees with his little brother for the most part, but he also knows Cersei wouldn’t agree. But in the end Cersei does agree. Just to get her chance to take care of Dany without facing her on the battlefield. Davos by the way, proceeds to Steel Street to find Gendry back where we saw him for the first time, beating away hot metal on an anvil. Davos picks up the eager lad back to Dragonstone to meet Jon. The two bastards become fast friends and they soon leave for the North. Here there is a lot of love-triangle build up between Jorah-Dany-Jon, which I am sure would go on for a few more episodes. Jorah doesn’t seem to get a break at all.

Oh, also we get a scene here where Jon touches Drogon. He is the only other person other than Dany to have shown allowed to do so by Drogon. There was a moment earlier with Tryion in the dungeon where he helped Viserion and Rhaegal. But that still felt a bit not as reciprocated as by Drogon. He seemed pleased. I so hope to see the #ThreeHeadedDragon theory come to life.

Then we reach Eastwatch where the group is welcomed by Tormund who tells they are not the only ones who wish to go beyond the Wall to fight the White Walkers. The Brotherhood without Banners have made their way to the Wall. The Hound, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr all have seen the coming evil horde in the flames and want to fight it. Everyone in the room clearly has cause to hate the other, but as Jon points out – they are all breathing. Which puts them all on the same side. This bad of rag-tag Sucide Squad make their way towards the real North, facing unpredictable conditions, but guaranteed action.

The next episode promises to be a big deal. Can’t wait!

Day 6 : Game of Thrones - Spoils of War - Review

SPOILERS AHEAD (REALLY?)

This was the shortest episode of the whole show. But also by far the most watched, the highest rated and the most badass episode ever!

HBO did fumble the ball a bit when it comes to the episode. They were caught up in a large scale hacking incident, a big chunk of content and sensitive information was stolen from their servers. Including this episode, which was leaked into the internet a few days ahead of telecast. A lot many people did see it beforehand. But I guess due to the sheer goodwill of most of the fans still stuck around till the actual telecast, giving this episode the highest viewers of the entire series. And they were all rewarded for their wait, this was the best episode of the season so far. Maybe even better than BOB episode last season (?)

Give this guy a bunch of Castles already! 

At the very this was definitely an episode where every minute of screen time was something significant. So without much dillydallying ourselves let’s get into it.

The show starts in the Reach right where it ended last episode, Highgarden. Jaime is still pissed off with that last zinger the Queen of Thorns left this planet with. Bronn does question him about it, but Jaime doesn’t spill a word. This is something that Cersei would have to know of first. Instead Jaime hands him a big bag of gold, something that was promised. And a Lannister always pays his debts.

Then we are taken the most important Lannister in the Seven Kingdoms – Queen Cersei. She is meeting with the delegate from the Iron Bank (Mycroft Holmes, they are clearly running short of British actors). Cersei tells him about them taking over House Tyrell and that the Bank would be getting all their debt paid in full. There is a bit of high talk and kiss-assing, in the end Cersei is recommended to enlist the services of the Golden Company. They are a band of swords for hire, notoriously savage and extremely efficient. Readers of the book would recall this is where the Aegon Targaryen is. He is the only surviving son of Rhaegar Targaryen, a major character. Seems pretty fishy introducing him so late in the game. Or maybe that is just a coincidence, maybe this would be a character only living in the book and not the show.

Then we are taken to Winterfell, to Bran. Meera is leaving. Bran, being the aloof cold-hearted guy he’s got to be now, tells her goodbye and good riddance. The guy clearly is undergoing his own version of PTSD. He has seen too much, he knows too much. But there is not much he can do now without inadvertently changing the future by a lot. He is the only person we know for sure is going to survive, he could possible save and protect many others. But we don’t know what would get altered if he does. Also there is Littlefinger coming in and gifting him the Valyrian steel dagger that was used to slit his throat first season. But Bran already knows, and also throws in the ‘Chaos is a ladder’ call back to let Petyr know that he knows.

Then we get to see our favorite assassin in Westeros at the gates of her home. She meets Sansa, she meets Bran. The family is back together. I am so happy. This fills me with so much joy. The three kids where never really that close to begin with. But they have all been through a lot and that shared period of torment has brought them all together as a family. Arya likes Sansa becoming Lady Stark. Sansa likes that she has a lil sword wielding badass for sister now. And they both are equally confused as to what their brother has now turned into. Bran gives the dagger to Arya. We already know it is Valyrian steel, and about its magical powers. So we can expect a lot out of it in the hands of Arya now. Also, there is this neat little training waterdance sword fight between Brienne and Arya, at the end of which they both become instant besties. I love that!

Then we come to Dragonstone, Jon is taking the Dragon Queen into the caves below her castle where all the dragonglass is. There in the cave he shows her old cave paintings made by the Children of the Forest. They depict them and men fighting together against their common enemies, the Others. He almost convinces her to join her armies with his to defeat the common enemy in the North, she simply says she will when he bends the knee. Damn, that woman is persistent. They come out of the cave to find Tyrion and Varys giving them the bad news about their defeat in Casterly Rock. Dany is pissed off. Starts lashing out everyone. She immediately wants to take her three dragons and burn down the Red Keep. Jon has seen more battle, and loyal subjects than her. He advices restraint, using her dragons to burn down castles would only alienate her to her people. In a bit, Theon shows up in Dragonstone to get Dany’s help. But she is already gone.

Then comes the big climax of the show. The Loot Train Attack. Jaime and his troop is marching towards Kings Landing. The wagons with gold have already reached the gates, the food and other loot is proceeding rather slowly along the path. And that’s when they hear the sound. They sound of thousands of hoofs pounding ground, it sounds like approaching thunder. And there it is, a big horde of Dothraki fighters. Bronn asks Jaime to turn back and go to the castle, he is a commander not a foot soldier. Jaime says nah, I’m good, and we can take them. As if in reply comes Drogon’s screech. ‘Forget something, bruh?’ Damn the look on their sorry faces! Gold. Then there is the whole glorious battle sequence, see it to believe it. In Bronn, who probably has more guts than all of Westeros, takes up one of Qyburn’s scorpions and aims at Drogon, you know the giant fire-breathing dragon flying directly towards him. He fires a couple gets one into the dragon’s shoulder. The dragon lands with Dany, not before burning down the scorpion first, Drogon is smart. They had by then almost won the war, the Dothraki is finishing up the last few of the Lannister army. Dany now on the ground beside her dragon/child, tries to remove the spear lodged into his shoulder. Jaime sees this as an opportunity, picks up a spear and rushes at her like a jousting idiot. He is almost there, Drogon sees Jaime, breathes fire on him. Jaime is saved at the last moment, and pushed into inexplicably sudden deep water.

THE END.

(Goosebumps.)

Day 5 : Game of Thrones - The Queen's Justice - Review

SPOILERS ARE COMING

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. This is the best damn show on TV now! Just take last night's episode for example. Everything was precise, everything was just where it was meant to be. And yes, Her Grace Cersei, The Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, gets her sweet revenge.

As has become the tradition now, we begin in Dragonstone. They have been pretty obvious about it with the teasers and the trailers that we would be getting the big ‘Ice meets Fire’ moment. So it wasn’t a real surprise seeing Jon Snow show up at the beach with Davos Seaworth. What was kind of surprising was how the Dragon Queen was trying to show she had the upper hand every step of the way. She got Snow and his men relinquish their weapons and even took away their boat for good measure. You know just to make sure, it wasn’t clear who the boss around here was. Jon being who he was, took it all in his stride. Tyrion notices it too. But he always did like Snow. ‘All dwarfs being bastards in their father’s eyes.’ He does take it upon himself to ease the sting. After all it was Tyrion who made the case for Dany to join forces with the King in the North. Coming to Dany, she was a proper bitch to Jon Snow. I am really beginning to hate her pompous ass this season. Being all up-tight and prissy with our main man Snow here. And well Davos doesn’t help. He never was good at these courtly affairs. And trying to explain the Army of the Dead to people who have never seen it with their own eyes would have been a challenge to the best of the diplomats in Westeros. But somehow, Jon does get what he came for. Good thing that Daenerys still has Tryion around her to make her see sense. (I so wish they all knew of the Three Headed Dragon theory. All this would have been so much easier)

Oh and yes, Mellisandre doesn’t show her face to Davos or Jon and sneaks off to Volantis for some reason. I am not sure what exactly is there. The last I remember there was another Red Priest out of Volantis, in the book though. Maybe the show is catching up to that plotline. And yes, on her way out she creeps the hell out of Varys. That guy seems to have a bad time with every Red Priest that comes his way.

Then we come to Winterfell. Nothing much to see here, just Sansa bossing people around and Littlefinger being Littlefinger. We get to see another Stark Reunion though. I love it when that happens. Bran and Sansa do have their sweet embrace. Sansa does remind him that he is the trueborn son of Ned Stark, the rightful Lord of Winterfell. But Bran is not interested in that anymore. He is has bigger fish to fry. Sansa doesn’t understand any of it, can’t blame her. Three Eyed Raven is not an easy thing to understand, and Bran is creepy as hell.

Then we come to our favorite nerd, Sam. He has succeeded in healing Jorah Mormont, who is not back to his grizzled old bear attitude and cannot wait to get back to Dragonstone to his Queen and her friendzone.

But this was all just filler to the actual event that this episode was all about. Cersei and her justice. Euron brings the Dornish prisoners shackled and paraded around Kings Landing for all to see. He is a bit too pleased about himself, and seems to be having way too much fun any character in GOT is allowed to have. Can’t wait for Jaime to bitch slap his smirk out of his face with his golden hand. Cersei thanks him for his gift, makes him the Commander of the Royal Navy, and doesn’t waste another moment to take Ellaria and her daughter to the dungeon. I know a bunch of folks waiting for some Gregor-style vendetta. But when Cersei did have in mind was a lot more cruel and vicious. Loved it! (and kudos to Indira Verma for acting her heart out on this one!)

We then get to see Casterly Rock for the first time, under attack by the Unsullied forces. They take the stronghold in no time. Agreed they are good, but even they know this was way too easy. Grey Worm looks over to the shore and finds the Iron Fleet putting their ships aflame. Now if they were to help their queen for battle, they would have to march across Westeros. Well played, Jaime.

Where was he all this while? He and Bronn and their band of red & gold soldiers were marching to Highgarden, House Tyrell’s keep. They’d brought the whole of Lannister might to the castle while leaving only a small troop back at their own keep at Casterly Rock. A sound strategy adopted from Robb Stark, something that I’d mentioned Tyrion had used in my last post. Seems like all of Tywin’s kids are learning from Young Wolf’s successes. Since we are in the Highgarden, we get to see one of our favourite old crone in the show, Olenna Tryell. This is one character that I really want to see a spinoff about, her and Oberyn. She is old and withered but still such a badass, imagine what she was like in her youth. She ends her days just like she lived her life – thug life meme personified. She departs telling Jaime she was the one who killed Joffrey. I’m sure Jaime not regrets convincing Cersei to kill her off so easily.

That was my favorite part of this episode. The devil is in the details. Cersei killed off the people just the way they took her children from her. Poisoned lips and poisoned wine.

We are already nearly half way done with this season, there is still a lot more to explore and revisit. Here’s hoping we get to know about Azhor Ahai next episode. Till then, Seven blessings to you, my friends.

P.S. Where the heck is Ghost?! :-/

Day 4 : Game of Thrones - Stormborn - Review

SPOILERS AHEAD

This was an awesome episode. One helluva roller coaster ride from start to finish. Not a dull moment in sight. So following the same spirit, let’s get into it!

We start with Cersei, who is not doing too great. She has called on his Lords to court in King’s Landing. She goes on about how the Targaryen Cow is at the shores of her empire with an army of Dothrakis and Unsullied. She tells them to lay down their allegiance to House Tyrell and Martell and join forces with her to rid the Seven Kingdoms of the foreign incursion. She blames Olleana Tyrell for bringing the savages and eunuchs to the west and putting all of her people and bannermen at risk. A good sales pitch. But then in Kings Landing, no alliances are made by the virtue of a rousing speech. It all comes down to some backstabbing and coercion, which is handsomely supplied by Jaime. I hope Sam’s father is not as big a prick as he seems. Oh and also, Qyburn apparently has been pretty busy himself.

We then go to the next main power centers in Westeros – Dragonstone. We see the whole Targaryen camp surrounding the Stannis’ map/table. Immediately you will notice one thing. It is all women. Every person of power in that room is a woman with a bone to pick with Cersei, and they all just want to get on with it and have the Lannister’s head served on a plate. But Daenerys’, to my surprise frankly, is the voice of reason here. She deftly handles out orders to her liege’s which becomes quiet evident was Tyrion’s plan all along. Also the plan itself reminds a lot of the strategy the erstwhile King in the North, Robb Stark used against Tywin Lannister, and with much success. Hope it works out the same for Dany. Also Melissandre, the red priestess, shows up at Dragonstone. No surprises there, this was always expected and hinted at in the trailer. Oh and also, Greyworm and Missandei finally put the will-they/won’t-they question to rest. Now all that remains is the real question, HOW did they?

Then we go on to the citadel, and get a proper look at the extent of Jorah Mormont’s illness. It does not look good. The Archmaester estimates he doesn’t have more than six months when he loses his mind to Greyscale. Samwell Tarly, a brother from Night’s Watch, knowing Jorah is the son of his first Lord Commander promises to help him. Even though he is told not to. The treatment is just too risky, painful and messy. The citadel doesn’t do messy. But hey, when has that ever stopped our Sam. You, little rebel you.

Jon Snow receives two letters. Samwell Tarly has written to him telling him how the castle at Dragonstone is built on top of a mountain of dragonglass, the only known thing known to be able to kill the White Walkers. Tyrion Lannisterhas written to him to come to Dragonstone to join forces. They both need each other. But for their own reasons. Jon and Tyrion know and trust each other. Sansa, being a good student of the Game, knows not to trust anyone. But Jon convinces her and then Northern Lords of the dire situation they are in. They need more able bodied men, and they need the dragonglass. And to get both of these, they need to join forces with the Dragon Queen.

Our favorite little assassin, Arya Stark, is still on her way to King’s Landing. She ends up in a tavern on the way, lo and behold who does she meet, lil pudgy Hot Pie. He still makes great pies, but then our girl is not too bad at pies now either. Btw, does becoming an assassin make you extra sarcastic as well? Well, good fun nonetheless. This is here where she learns of Jon Snow becoming the King in the North and the demise of House Bolton. She makes a change in her plans and turns around. And right there waiting for her is a wolf pack, and a big direwolf at the head of it. She/we recognizes the big wolf immediately. It is Nymeria, Arya’s direwolf. Now is all grown and has her own wolf pack. Those of us who have read the books, always knew of her surviving the wars and the fact that she and her pack were preying on Lannister strongholds up North during Robb’s rebellion. Arya asks Nymeria to come along with her on her journey ahead. The wolf merely turns around and the pack spares her life. Arya smiles and says, ‘That’s not you.’ Which I don’t take to mean that the wolf was not Nymeria. I think it just means that Nymeria is like Arya, she is not the kind to do what others ask of them. It should come to her in, of her own accord.

Then we see that Ellaria Sand, Yara and Theon are on board the Iron Fleet, their way to Dorne as instructed by Daenerys. Yara and Ellaria do get a bit cozy, as suggested in the trailers. But before anything happens, boom comes the sound. Euron’s back, baby. He and his ships are pounding away at Yara’s fleet. Everything up in fire and smoke and glorious chaos. Something that every GOT fan rejoices in. More blood, more torn limbs, please. A few severed heads and thrusted spears later, Euron finally collects his gifts for Cersei and goes on his way. Oh and btw, the ships were bare of any Dothraki horde, or Unsullied. It was mainly manned by the Iron Islanders, whose cowardice was best displayed by Theon Greyjoy for all to see. Frigging Reek!

And so it was, another amazing action packed episode of the Thrones. There wasn’t a dull moment in the episode. Loved it a lot. I guess the creators did listen the fans. Less of Bran, more of everyone else!

x

Day 3 : Game of Thrones - Dragonstone - Review

Winter has finally come, and none too soon. All the key players are where they are destined to be, including White Walkers. All the pieces are in place, things are happening all over the Seven Kingdoms and beyond. The excitement is palpable. 

So without much ado, lets get into details. (Obviously, spoilers ahead!)

You've been warned

The episode starts with a cold open in the Twins with Frey clan assembled for a feast, which Lord Walder himself starts by saying seems to be quite uncommon. They’d just had a feast when they’d recaptured Riverrun from Blackfish at the end of last season. That in itself should have ticked off your spidey-senses. It would have been justified. It was Arya all along, putting a glorious vicious end to House Frey lineage. With Sansa destroying the male line of House Bolton last season and Arya swiftly doing away with all of the Frey men in just the first five minutes of season 7. The time of cruel men in Westeros seems to have come to an end. If nothing else is to happen this episode, I’ll be just fine. Watching dead Freys are always satisfying enough.

Then comes the awesome theme of the show which obviously no true fan would ever skip. (Don’t even think of it!)

We are then shown a screen of all white, and cold, and ice. We are now obviously somewhere North, maybe beyond the Wall. But there is nothing discerning in the screen yet. Then we see a big storm approaching. It gets wilder and thicker each second, making you feel a bit uneasy. Again with just cause. That right there is the Night King approaching with his army of the Wights, only this time there are Giants in it. You recognize that one of them is Wun Wun. But he was supposed to have been killed in Winterfell. Have the Others already come over the Wall? Then shot back to Bran doing his white eye thing. Frigging Bran. He is with Meera, waiting to pass through the Wall. Initially skeptical Lord Commander Dolorous Edd lets him through. Good on you, Edd.

Then comes the moment we had all been waiting for, our favorite character. Lyanna Mormont. Sure, we are in Winterfell and that means Jon Snow and Sansa and Littlefinger are around. But honestly who even notices them when Lyanna is in the same room. And she is just as sharp as ever. Teaching honor and duty to Lords three times her age. Lovely kid. There is conflict between the Lords, and the monarchs on how to handle the Karstarks and Umber who had sided with the Boltons in the Battle of the Bastards. But Jon being Jon, forgives them gets them saying sons should not be held accountable to the sins of their fathers (*cough* Rhaegar Targaryen)

We then find Cersei and Jaime having their own little predicament. They have enemies riding towards King’s Landing from every direction. With the demise of Houses Frey and Bolton. They suddenly seem to have become short of allies. They have already made enemies of Dorne and Tyrells. Winter is here. And they can’t really ask their men to fight for them if they cannot feed them at the bare minimum. But Cersei seems to think she has the solution to all of this. Enter Euron Grejoy, the King of Iron Islands. Last season he was of the mind to come to Westeros to get with the Dragon Queen with all of her dragons. But since his niece and nephew beat him to it, he has to make to with just ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ (!) Cersie obviously declines the proposal. But Euron promises to win her heart with a precious gift when he next visits the capital. (please don’t be the Imp, please don’t be the Imp.)

Amidst all this we get a glimpst of the Good Clegance – The Hound. Just as last season he is still going through an identity crisis. But being brash and violent about it nonetheless. He also gets a look into the Night King’s army in Thoros of Myr’s flames. Just to put things into perspective for the big guy.

Then comes our favorite couple, Sam and Gilly. They are both in Oldtown, now that Sam Tarly is training to be a Maester which apparently is just like any lousy internship in our little world. He spends his days cleaning bedpans, serving sludgy stew and collecting library books to stow away. He also has to take care of the sick, who the masters look after and utilize in their medical studies. One such subject is our old friend from Bear Islands, Jorah Mormont, still hung up on his dragon queen. All Sam wants to do is get into the restricted section and get his hands on books on the Others. Not many in the Citadel believes his story about the walkers, these Oldtowners are a suspicious lot. He eventually does get his hands on (steals/borrows) a book where he learns that Dragonstone, Stannis’ one-time headquarters is built on top of a mountain of Dragonglass. Just what Jon needs to fight the Walkers. Hurray.

Well that’s not going to be as easy. As we get to know from the climax scene of the show. Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons <breather break> has FINALLY reached Westeros after six darn seasons! She, as has become custom in GOT, gets the last shot in the episode.

It was a good episode. It is clearly a build-up, just to show where everyone is at. But now that it is out of the way. The only thing left now is WAR. 

With just over a dozen episodes left in the series. I only wish they'd get on with it already!!

Day 2 : Everybody Needs Somebody

Remember the time when I started this additional blog to write something daily no matter what. lol. Anyways, like every absentee father who'd missed his son's birthday party, I promise I'll do better next time.

So what can we talk about tonight? Well, I am back into travelling big. Did a long trip last month. So that was good. Should write something about that soon. And yeah, my spare mobile phone was lot/stolen. Which was not too good. And, one of my friends is getting married. Again. And I mean that literally, one of my friends, somebody that I went to school with is getting into his second marriage right now. Frigging turds on sticks, who'd have thought that. I am at an age now where my friends have been already married, separated, divorced, and remarried. Damn. 

Don't get me wrong, I am happy for this person of course. No friend would wish for another to stick around in a loveless marriage. But heck, come on, why would you even get into one in the first place. Sure you got something good going on. Why overload it with the pressures of matrimony. I know I am not the best person to talk of being married. I might very well be talking about giving birth. Which also I don't know the first thing of. But I have been around people who have been married, and women who have had little human people come out of them. And this is something that both of them have said about the experience, not an easy thing. Both are messy,  loud, emotional and kind of miraculous. 

I mean, finding that one person you'll want to spend the rest of your life with is something of a miracle in itself. We live in age now when people are so desensitized to emotions that we go out of our way to not have to show even an iota of it to another living soul. We can talk about our feelings and vulnerability to total strangers over the internet, but when it comes to sharing with someone whom we run risk of having to talk the next day. We just avoid it. We don't like talking about ourselves. 

No that's not true, we love talking about ourselves a lot. That's pretty much what we do in Facebook and Instagram. But that's not really the real us, not our real life, that is just us faking it to show everyone else how great our lives are. If we were to really talk about us at all, it would be a sad and depressing and lonely. And nobody likes a whiner. Nobody should think of us like that. Whining is for losers, and we are winners. 

Oh, please. 

This friend I was talking of, the one who is remarried now, is a real big shot. Big family business and all that. He used to get dropped to school every day in his dad's long expensive car. Before long he started dating this girl we all had a crush on. Well, you'd think we all feel pretty good now that things have turned out lousy for him. To be honest, yeah. For a minute I think I'd felt something that could be best described as content at watching his life become miserable. 

Just for a few minutes, during the birthday party where he told us about his divorce. Then this big adult guy, started to cry. 

Hard liquor and sorrow and girl trouble are all bad combinations. The crying stuff made this whole debacle seem really unappetizing. 

It immediately sobered up everyone else at the table. We ended up shoving him off in a Uber and had the most silent final rounds in the history of drinks nights. Trust me I have been the sober person in all such nights. This was the most silent room I have been in with drunk guys. I could bet each of these guys was sitting around silently with their glasses in their hand thinking about the one that got away. Most of them have someone back at home. Some have been married or been with their partners for more than six years. But there is always that one person that got away. The emotional relationship that they have with that person would be the longest one they will ever have with anyone else in their lifetime. 

We are all vulnerable when it comes to matters of the heart. And we never share anything for fear of it being considered as a weakness. And being naked like that with someone is scary as hell. We would rather shut ourselves up with all our sorrows and hope it doesn't make us insane. And if not for anything else, just for not having to lock ourselves up in a loony bin. Everybody needs somebody.

Anyways, that guy is married again now. Is off honeymooning in Dubai, I think. Good for him. I might hate him. But I don't envy him his sorrows. Divorce and second marriage in your late 20's. Good luck, mate.

And to those of us who are yet to start on their first (and hopefully only) matrimonial adventure. There you go - even at its worst, this life ain't that bad really. 

Day 1 : Road to Success (?)

How to pursue a goal when you never sure that it is definitely what you want in life. Maybe.

They say the successful people are where they are in life because they knew what they wanted and worked tirelessly to get it. I, for one, am very suspicious of that notion. I guess I have no measure of faith in people's will power. Maybe because of the sheer reason that I have such limited inventory of it myself. The same with the people around me. I truly believe that of all the successful people in life, maybe a handful of them can truly say that they always knew what their lives were leading up to. That they definitely knew their product/book/album/app/business was going to be a success. And knowing such a crystal ball has not been invented so far, I am pretty sure even those handful of posers are lying.

No one really knows what life has in store for them. Far fewer know if at all their hopes and dreams would ever come to be. Most of us have those days in life when we wake up in the morning surprised that our dumb behinds even made it to that sunrise. I have very less hope of our species being able to seem many more of these sunrises.

Alright, I just read all that back again. This really does not seem like the happy happy optimistic posts that I do here. Especially this being my first one this year. Oh yeah, Happy New Year!!

Well. What is so happy about it anyway? Don't mean to be a downer. But come on, sit and think with me for a moment. What has changed in the first couple weeks of this year that makes you truly believe that 2017 is going to be any different that the tens of years you have spent on this planet. Life was borderline miserable back then, it is just as miserable now.

Sure there are some  moments of joy. Small tiny specks of them in the raging crap storm called life. These little shiny objects make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You love that feeling. You love having that feeling. But also back there in some dark corner of your mind, sits your very own private Gollum, talking to himself. Rejoicing at that thought that even this moment would pass. This moment of content and bliss would pass and Master would be back feeling sorry for himself. This mind-Gollum feeds off of your misery. The more sad and despondent you are the more the mind-Gollum dances with joy. The more lonely and friendless you are the more the mind-Gollum's eyes light up with excitement.

In everybody's life there comes a span of time where the mind-Gollum is at its strongest. He is plump, and fat, and hearty while you reside at the very rock bottom of your life. Now if a person who has made it big in life has had the premonition of how his life would end up for him, can the same be said for the person haunted by the mind-Gollum? If man has the capability to will himself to success, why would he even make himself to be vulnerable enough to face any sort of hardship in life?

Willing yourself to glory in life is a myth. What mostly happens, is life throws a few curve balls at you. Challenging you at every turn. How your life turns out to be is basically decided upon what you do under that pressure. Do you succumb to the torment, surrendering yourself to sorrow and self loathing? Or do you stand up to life's bullying and make something out of yourself.

Nothing in life is predetermined or predestined. What happens in your life, is not determined by the goals you set for yourself in life. It is decided based on your ability to fight for your own survival and to starve out the mind-Gollum.

#aicl

via Prem Writes

Day 35 : The Great Gatsby - A Book Review

You cannot be regular online book shopper or recommendations pilfer and not have come across this book's name thrown about a bunch of time onto you. It is like the cheeseburgers of classic stories. It is assumed that if you ever have read more than a couple dozen books in your life time. This has to be one of them. Especially if you have a bunch of bengali snobs as friends. So there you go, I've finally read this book. Happy now?

First reason to love - awesome cover!

This book is like a masterclass in novel writing. I wouldn't be surprised if they make students read this book as homework in every first year of every creative writing course. I mean, if nothing else, this book is very well written. The editing is on point. There are no paragraph out of place, no extra adjectives inserted, no words wastefully used. Everything so crisp and apt. Something that I fail a lot at, come to think of it. But Mr Fitzgerald is a natural at it. I am a fan just by that much.

Characters 

Nick Carraway - An unmarried veteran, recently starting out in the bonds business. He is not especially socially adept, but very optimistic and friendly. And as a new resident in a city like West Egg he finds none of those qualities actually amounts to much in here.

Daisy Buchanan - Nick's cousin. The main girl being fought over by the two alpha males. She is sweet, dreamy and the kind of girl who believes it when the fairy tales end with 'they lived happily ever after'.

Tom Buchanan - Daisy's husband, and pure-blood dude. He is rich, strong, flamboyant, charming and a philanderer. He is the kind of guy who has always known success and wealth, and truly believes his destined for nothing less than greatness.

Jay Gatsby - The mysterious filthy rich guy in town. Famous for throwing the most outlandish of parties, everyone is invited. Weekends at his house is filled with the who's who of West Egg. And nobody really knows who he is or why he throws these obscene parties. There are equally obscene and outlandish theories about him. But as they say, the truth is more strange

Plot Summary

The main plot of this book is how a guy who was always destined for greatness, after having amassed great big shiny things, now has come to an unknown town to win back the love he'd once lost. This plot I would guess has been recycled and reused multiple times over the years. I like to think this was the first of those. Must have been pretty fresh back then.

The protagonist is the eponymous Gatsby. A mysterious rich guy, who befriends his new neighbor, invites him to one of his famous parties. And in turn, starts on a path that he was confident he'd planned it all ahead and nothing could go wrong. But it inevitable does. He hadn't considered one important detail - human frailty and naive refusal to accept change or defeat.

Gatsby's main goal here is to get back with Daisy, who is now married to a wealthy alpha male Tom. Tom, though not without secrets of himself, does not take easily to Gatsby's sudden appearance in their lives. And is distrustful of the way his wife looks at him. His wife's brother, the guy who is narrating this story to us is Nick, the guy Gatsby befriends to get closer to Daisy. Nick is like the generic narratoresque character in any movie or book ever. Starts with a introduction about everything, inserts himself into every darn incident, and in the end concludes the story about what he'd learnt post the whole incident. Nothing new to see here.

The conclusion of the book is very Citizen Kane-ish. There is that Rosebud point here where the Nick is confronted with how, even after being the popular guy he was Gatsby in the end, had even lesser true friends than that guy you knew in the high school who could flip a coin off girls behind. Being popular and being friends with, are two different things.

Overall this book is a masterpiece. A classic. There are a lot of times in this book when you will pause and think, hey this is exactly what had happened in that book or that movie. That I suppose is mainly cause this book has always had an impact on so many peoples' creative language. I am sure a lot of writers having read this book have in some way changed how they tell their stories.

This I think is the real success of the book. Even after having been in circulation for nearly nine decades this little book like an annoying friend, will never quit teaching writers how to write. And like most friends, even though we hate being preached, we will still agreed to it do what it says. Just because, sometimes these annoying friends are right. Some times.

Day 34 : Cape Fear - A Book Review

At least once a year I go to this place in Mumbai where they have sale on used books. They are so cheap you can buy at least a dozen for the same amount that you pay for a McChicken. This is a very very dangerous place for me. Mainly because every time I go there I end up dragging a huge haul of books, which only ends up adding onto my unread pile. I am slowly catching up to them, but damn am I outnumbered here.

This book is one of those book. I mostly picked it up by virtue of name recognition. I'd loved the Scorsese movie. It was a remake of an older movie. It had brilliant performances from both Robert de Niro and Juilette Lewis. And had one of the best last shot of any movie ever. That was pretty much the only reason I picked up this book really. I am very glad that I did.

This book is really a very simple single-minded book about revenge and good guy v/s bad guy. There is a good/pure-white character and there is a bad/pure-dark character. Both of these cannot be more different from each other. And both these character now suddenly find themselves in a in a conflict that would only end with one of them being utterly destroyed.

Characters 

Max Cady - The Pure-Dark - A cold-hearted criminal filled with one hunger only. Only pure rage and thirst for revenge.

Sam Bowden - The Pure-White - A law abiding citizen who many years ago, got Cady imprisoned for rape of a teenage girl.

Carol - Sam's wife

Nancy, Jaime, Bucky - Sam's kids

Plot Summary

Well this going to be the easiest summary of any plot I've ever written. Heck, the introduction above nearly gives most of the details. The gist of it is. Cady spends his thirteen years in jail dreaming up of ways to bring terror into his arch nemesis' life. Sam Bowden leads a life of the straight arrow and tries to deal with this guy legally but law is not especially good at handling someone who has no concept of what really is. Cady is somebody who is so vicious and single-mindedly evil that there is no fear or doubt in him. And with the sheer physical size of him makes it all the more scary.

And that is where I really begin to like the book. The way the author builds the tension in the book. You see, there are hardly a dozen scenes in the book where you are actually in Cady's presence. It is always somebody else' account of his violence. That along with his own pure savagery, every moment that he does come into your pages, you sort get goosebumps yourself. I liked that feeling. It is something that very few writers accomplish in doing. This guy who I'd never heard of made that possible. I have immense respect for that.

And now for the part that I wish could've been better. As much as I liked the simple binary good & bad equation of the book. There are parts where the writer tries to explain why Cady is the way he is. He uses the Bowden for that. Which was pretty seemed very out of place for me. You don't try to rationalize why some violent serial criminal and rapist would try to rape and kill the women of your household. Also, the last few pages. I know I shouldn't be comparing the movie with the book here. But I must say in this one instance I am going to give the upper hand to the movie. The climax was awesome, in the movie. And it sucked, in the book. Period.

Just for Max Cady? An excellent read though.

Day 33 : Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - A Book Review

I have written about my love for Harry Potter here before. So obviously it was apparent I was going to pre-order the new Potter book the moment I got the chance to. And obviously I was not going to be able to put it down until I’d read the whole thing through.

And that’s exactly what I did. Twice.

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is quite a remarkable book. For most readers it would seem like a fan fiction written by a fan for fans. There aren’t many parts in it that you’d read, and recognize it to be out of Rowling’s books. This is pretty much a different flavour of the Wizarding World than we are accustomed to. The difference is not only because this book is in the format of a script for a play. You will see a stage setting description and positions of the characters. Some of it sure will feel pretty jarring at times. But it is quite toned down, nothing that should scare readers away. This is not the full-of-hearts Harry Potter that you and I grew up with. This is a mature adult book with adult issues. Much like the problems you and I have right now. 

We have all grown up and apparently so have The Trio.

Tread cautiously now Muggles, spoilers ahead.

Known Characters

Hermione Granger-Weasley is now the Minister of Magic. Very dutiful and strict and uber feminist. Loves to throw her weight around, and still loves Ron to bits even when he is being an idiot.

Ron Weasley now runs the Weasley Wizard’s Wheezes. Is still just as loyal and funny. Though has started to put on a slight belly is still everyone’s favourite uncle.

Harry Potter is now the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. Is still just as popular as ever. And is still just as confounded by his celebrity.

Ginny Potter is now as ever my favourite Potter character. And now more than ever really has more of a part to play. Lovely to bits, just lovely.

Professor Minerva McGonagall is now the Headmistress of Hogwarts and oh how I’ve missed her cold-yet-mushy heart.

Draco Malfoy is, well still a Malfoy and everything that goes with it.

New Characters

Harry & Ginny’s children –

James Potter II

Albus Severus Potter

Lilly Luna Potter

Ron & Hermoine’s children –

Rose Granger-Weasley

Hugo Granger-Weasley

Draco & Astoria’s son –

Scorpious Malfoy

Amos Diggory, Cedric Diggory’s father 

Delphi Diggory, Amos’s niece and caregiver

Plot Summary 

The book follows a popular fan theory that Voldemort and his Death Eater’s are not yet given up on their bad ways. People who believe there was an heir somewhere who would come and bring back pure and superior magic into the world. But it has been so long since Harry’s scar has hurt, our friends have actually begun to forget all of it. All was well.

It was Albus’ and Rose’ first year at Hogwarts. They both were just as excited about it and just as nervous on their first ride aboard the Hogwarts Train. Rose was sure this was a deciding moment in their lives. Their parents first met during this ride and they become friends for life and went to on to do big things themselves. This was not a decision to be made lightly. Rose, needless to say, was much like her mother. Albus, meets Scorpious they had a bunch of sweets together. Spoke for a bit and decided they’d be best friends right then and there. Much like Ron and Harry did.

--

This is where I will leave you. There is much more to the plot. Much more.. But this is one book I would want you to read for yourself. 

There are parts that will take you back to that time you read about Snape’s love the first time. 

There are parts that will take you back to a time when you visited Godric Hollow for the first time.

There are parts that will take you back to the time you saw James and Lilly for the first time. And that heartbreaking green light for the first time. 

There are times you might just weep a little. 

There are times when you would laugh out loud with Ron or Scorpious and any nervous joke about Mouldy Voldy. 

Those are the parts that you will read this book again and again and again for. This is a book for you. For the fans. For the Potterheads. For the millions of millennials who have grown up into adults themselves. But still carry a bit of magical world in their hearts.

It is for you I will say now. There is real magic for those who seek it. Always.

Day 32 : Political Absurdity

India, for anybody who is looking from outside right now, is a place which is equal parts inspiring and bad shit craycray. There are a bunch of things that the country is doing great right now. And there are also a bunch of others where we seem to be getting terrible-er at each passing moment.

I am very active in social media (who isn't) from way back when we were all chilling it up in Myspace. I'd carried over a lot of those friends to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Many of them I have known only within the confines of some sorta screen. I have seen their graduation speeches, liked their wedding pictures, and congratulated them on their first-borns. I have people in there from countries that I didn't even realize had working internet, one of my first friends was a Kyrgyz grad student who used to say her town did not have working electricity half the day.

But now, as much as I like social media. The world being in the state that it is. The internet is the most scary place you can be in right now. Twitter and Facebook bring the news to you at such a pace that half the time you do not have time enough to think over what any of it means. And the ones supplying you with the headlines have even less time to make any sense of it. They have to publish the flashiest news the fastest to keep the clicks coming. In their haste, missing out on the basic filter of weeding out the bullshit. The actual job they were being paid to do.

When I was a kid, my father used to badger on about how we should read the newspaper daily. Be informed of what is going in the world around you. He put that sort of knowledge in high regards. If you were well read, you probably have already made a good impression with him without even having to say a single word. I barely read anything related to current affairs back then. But now there is no escaping them. Every other post on your newsfeed is related to some random guy's rant over some random politicians' some random policy or comments on something. All of a sudden everyone is a Poli-Sci genius and knows everything about everything.

I am in a bunch of fandom groups and read-a-thon online and off late there are rarely any posts in any of them that has anything related to the themes they are supposed to be about. Almost all of them are against/pro some sort of political agenda. Especially the ones that have even a handful of Americans in them. God, seriously. What the hell is really happening over there. How are they even considering a guy like that to lead their country. Wait a min. We have a PM who was allegedly involved in a communal riot. And another group of politicians who have ruled and looted the country for ages. Then we have this other politician from a divisive party who demands his followers intentionally insult the deities of the other religion to incite violence. Just as an excuse to kill people. Umm. Well atleast it is sure now that this sort of absurdity is not limited to any specific country. Stupidity is spread around quite evenly.

When I look at my real world people. The ones that I know and actually speak with on a daily basis. I don't see this sort of anger or frustration or fear or hatred. We are all just a bunch of normal people with normal people problems. We all realize that we do not really have any control over who becomes the president or prime minister. We all realize that we do not really control who gets to eat what kind of meat, or follow which kind of religion, or fall in love with which gender of people. We realize that all those things are something that is to be considered at an individual level. At a family & friends level.

People have to figure out things on their own. And if you are not directly effected by the outcome of something. You shouldn't give a hoot what happens.

You see, there is a news going around in social media of people being assaulted because they were caught consuming cow meat. Now, before you go on a rant about how it is against religion. Let me point out that, people have been eating cows and pigs and rabbits and frogs and even animal poop, for quite some time. And I don't care one bit about any of them. I love chicken, I love lamb, I love fish. I have never eaten beef just because I am pretty sure if I ever did my Ma wouldn't allow me inside our home. Now why she wouldn't want us to eat cow meat, might be a religious thing. But the reason I do not have it is because I care about things that my family cares about. As simple as that. Your most opinions do not really get shaped from that one post in social media. Eventhough those are the ones that make the most noise and with the most shock factor.

If you suddenly seem to feel frustrated, angry or scared to live in your own country. Just try getting off the internet for a bit. Just get a sense of the people around you and in your community. There is a good chance that you wouldn't find just as many intolerant rants and abhorrent incidents of people randomly assaulting each other. Sure there are bad eggs in the lot. But they are too few of them when compare them with the actual normal people who really are just like you.

They might go with a different sounding name than yours, or pray to the invisible man in the sky in a different way, or even eat or love differently than you do. But you wouldn't see a lot many people being openly disgusted by them or even spewing hate at those different than you. Most often you wouldn't see any of them recognized being any different than you unless they themselves say they are. People are just people. Lame, stupid, naive chunks of meat who by some freak of nature can form intelligible words. Which they somehow ended up using to put each other down by a few tweets.

Is there any actual need to be this hateful. Is there any goal that anyone hopes to achieve by sharing a one hate speech by any politician for all your followers and friends to see. By doing that you are only really adding to the noise. There is already enough of that going around. I am not saying you are not entitled to have an opinion. But if you happen to have any opinion which are the kind that you wouldn't want to discuss among the real world people and have them run away scared from you. You probably should not post them all over the internet either. Just add this one rule into your social media consumption. Maybe that would reduce the frequency of vileness in your posts. The world be thankful to you for that.

The world is not really a scary place. It is us who end up painting it that way. Your world doesn't really revolve around who sits in the high chair in a fancy conference room somewhere. Your world is really built of the people in them. So I guess what I am asking of you here is, don't scare them crapless by your angry rants in social media. Instead try talking to them maybe. Real talk, not sarcastic social-media-comment-speak. Maybe you will find that you don't really have to murder them after all.

Day 31 : Closure

Remember the good old times? When things used to just end.

You woke up. Sleep ended.
You ate. Hunger ended.
You got the highest score. The game ended.

Things always came to a conclusion. Things did not linger indefinitely, hanging there like an axe of inevitability over your neck. You never know when or how things would end. But you know for a fact it is definitely coming.

Nothing you will do will ever come close to making anything last longer than it was supposed to. Still you do not always take efforts to end anything. You keep lingering on with it. Trying to hold on to that moment as long as you can. Lying to yourself this moment is worth holding on to. While you really are just scared of letting go. Afraid of what might come next.

I think that is what makes it more uncomfortable. The unknown. We do not know what next. And it is the not-knowing part that makes eternally clingy monsters/exes. There is no real guide map that takes you from this stop to the next. Life is not Pokemon Go. You do not know where you should be heading to. Or if at all the path you choose leads to that rare precious creature you are looking for. There are a few Squirtle and Weedle jokes I can think of here, I will try and hold off on those for now. If I can.

People expect a bit of grandeur in their lives. They expect the next moment to contain something far more glamorous shinier and than what they have now. Mostly the next moment doesn't. Mostly all you get is the same old moment you were always going to have anyway. Does that really mean that it has any less potential to be just as memorable?

Stability and ordinary has lost its charm. I still love those old-timey pictures. People doing ordinary day things, looking and being their ordinary selves. They extraordinary for us now. Aristotle and Ved Vyas are extraordinary for us now. But I am sure back in their day they did completely ordinary things like we do now. I think they all dug for boogers in their respective ordinary noses.

Being ordinary and doing ordinary things are just fine. What survives is that one extraordinary thing that you leave behind. That one thing is not any one moment that would just happen to be there in your life. A bunch of seemingly inconsequential decisions that you make along the way leads you to that one thing you will be remembered for. Most often you don't know what those are crucial when you actually are making them. But in the end, your life is defined by those decisions.

Don't expect a constant stream of grandeur in your life. Don't cling on to something that has already overstayed its welcome. Learn to let things go. Thank it for giving you a visit and forever cherish its memory. Then open the doors wide and wait for whatever comes next. Welcome whatever it is, as it is.

All the while keep working on that extraordinary masterpiece of yours. The one thing that survives way after you've left this augmented-reality game that you are a pawn of, called life.

Day 30 : Young Adult Fiction

I guess I am too late in the game here. I just discovered YA. Before you start babbling on about how either 1. it is the world's most amazing thing, or 2. how it is the worst thing that as ever happened to the world since hipster suspenders. I'll just say that I agree, with both of those opinions. In the last few weeks I've seen and/or read eight YA movies and/or books. Two I liked, a lot. Three were just bad. Four had a brilliant plot point but lost its way in the end. And then there was this one which was so good that let's just say it could easily have been good book regardless of the genre it was associated with.

Most YA stories are basically any Molly Ringwald movie meets noir french depression saga, with a happy ending. There is a group of young people, usually friends or soon to be friends, they do something wacky or adventurous that hardly any high schoolers really get to do. The people doing these stunts are usually the ones that come under the geeks or dorks in the food chain. Yeah right, a geek did a B&E into a house in the middle of the night and shaved an eyebrow off of a jock's while was asleep. Would YOU do that when you were in high school?

Then there is this some sad drama in the middle of the story. Real heart wrenching stuff. Something that would make even the hard boiled bros to go get the tissues. Most of the time those have something to do with cancer. Don't ask me why.

Then after all that, near the end of the story, the protagonist gets a moment of awakening. He learns or discovers something about his past or future or his true self. He unravels the mysteries of life. He (or she, for the PC crowd) realizes how all that has happened or will happen, is for a reason. He goes all Zen on you. This is sort of my most favorite and most hated part of this genre. I love happy endings. I love how people get to figure out things in their lives and get shit sorted out. But I also am a realist enough to know that real life doesn't have these moments of clarity.

Most of us are just specks of dust floating about in the air. Sometimes we are soaring with the wind. Sometimes we are on a pile of crap behind old Mac's backyard. Not a lot of us can tell that we have our lives sorted out, not when we were in age of  the YA-target-demographic. We barely got enough hair in our armpits or enough courage to talk to the opposite sex, whichever comes first.

That is why I guess we need these stories, I guess. That is why we need any stories, really. They help transport us into a world that is more magical than our own. There is no pessimistic, nihilistic outlook on life in that world. Everything is sweet, and young, and beautiful. Sometimes that is enough.

(Plus, it gets a few young people to read a book for a change.)

Day 29 : The Drawing Of The Three - Book Review

This is book two of the seven part epic fantasy series - DARK TOWER, written by the always-amazing Stephen King.

This book  follows the gunslinger in this pursuit of the all-important Tower. In the previous book we find our hero, Roland Deschain, has finally caught up with the Man in Black and has learnt the secretes of time and space and how The Tower itself is in the center of it all. We learn how 'he who holds the Tower, controls the future/past of the world'. The gunslinger's world has moved on. The things he has loved and cherished is nothing but a distant memory, he is the last of his kind. All he has now is his ka, his destiny, to reach the Tower and defeat the Crimson King. At the very end of his palaver with the Man in Black, the priest tells Roland of the three draws he's been granted. He will have to choose three companions, or ka-tet, that would ride with him during this voyage.

The beginning of the book is quite gritty and dry as any western imaginable. And to add to it quite dark and violent. In the end of which our hero looses three fingers and is poisoned by the venom of huge lobster-like creatures. Now he is weak, thirsty and all he can see for miles is just the dry sand, salty sea and hot sun. Still he drags on, towards the north, for some reason always north. He remembers the palaver with the Man in  Black in the dusty priest's robe. He remembers all of the knowledge he's gained from him. Roland also remembers how even the he wouldn't talk of the Crimson King. How even he seemed nervous to talk about him. All the more reasons for Roland to draw from the three doors that would come his way.

The doors are like a magical windows that opens into another time and somehow always into the same place. New York City. Our hero is tasked with going to their world and draw one person from there to join him on his quest.

~~~

Door #1 - The Prisoner 

When the Man in Black, draws the tarot card for the prisoner, Roland sees a man with a baboon riding on his back. The baboon whips like a slave and the man himself is strong and lanky but nonetheless helpless and chained. When Roland walks through the door, he finds the true prison this man has chained himself to. HEROIN. This man's name is Eddie Dean and he is an addict. The gunslinger walks into his mind, takes control of him. And somehow during the turn of events help each other, him by helping him rescue his equally addict elder brother. And for Roland by getting him the much needed medicine from Eddie's world. In the end, Eddie , the lean and lanky and intelligent addict begins to trust the gunslinger and agrees to join him in his adventure. Just because, he has lost call cause to return to his city, his world. There is nothing waiting for him back there, but another fix, and his own destruction.

Door #2 - The Lady Of Shadows

The second tarot card the Man in Black shows Roland is of a woman. A strong-willed, no nonsense woman who is brave and just and kind in equal measure. When the gunslinger walks into this door and into her mind, he finds himself in a deeper confusion than ever before. When he entered the prisoner's mind, there was shock and confusion and the hunger for another fix. Here too there was confusion and fear, but also a lot of hate. And in measures that did not seem to come from one complete mind. There seemed to two sets of personalities living in this one body. Detta Walker and Odetta Holmes. Alongwith a handicapped body, for the Lady was did not have any legs. She was strong and brave and cruel and smart. But was short two limbs. Roland liked her nonetheless, and decides he cannot proceed in his quest without earning the loyalty of her. And he does earn it in the end, before nearly killing himself.

Door #3 - The Pusher

The final tarot card the Man in Black shows him is of the Reaper. 'Death, but not for you, gunslinger' That is what the priest told him tauntingly. The Crimson King was surely not done with him just yet. When he walks into the third and final door, he returns to the same city New York, only into a more recent time to that of the Lady and of the kid he'd met during the first book - Jake. He loved Jake. He was like a son to him. And this guy behind the third door Jack Mort, a serial killer, the same one that 'pushes' the kid in front of a Cadillac. And also the same one that caused the destruction Lady's mind and loss of her two legs. Jack Mort has by far impacted more to Roland's fledgling ka-tet than anything else thus far. Roland doesn't appreciate that too much.

~~~

At the end of the book. Roland has finally assembled his posse and is now prepared to continue his quest for the Dark Tower. Sure he is short a few fingers, short of resources, short of bullets, is dying of poison spreading up his arm towards his heart. But now, he has the companions he's drawn from the other worlds. He is not alone now after a really long while.