A WHISPER IN YOUR HEAD

  Bond, James Bond.       Ah the epitome of the swaggering, mysterious, dangerous and civilized man, I can barely hold my emotions as I speak about this character and everything that he represents. Created by British writer Ian Fleming, he is a byproduct of the cold war, brutal yet sleek who means absolute business followed by being a ladies’ man. Although I had read the classic books, in my opinion, the films have done a greater deal for the rise of the popularity of our beloved spy. Spanning over twenty-five films and played by six prominent actors of their own eras, it has created a great dent in the history of pop culture.           Who hasn’t worn their first coat and looked at themselves in the mirror, without clicking their tongue saying, “the name's Bond, James Bond”? The British gentleman who would consider his job a mere leisure while living his life in all its arrogance is surely a life we would dream of. ...

  Hello dear reader!       Writing this blog does bring me great joy. Firstly, the library that I am talking about today is located within the Government Museum complex in Chennai, a place which I have visited a lot of times mostly just for fun. However, I had never visited the library until last weekend. And secondly, most importantly, if you would scroll down the blogs down to the first one, you would realize that my first entry is about the museum itself! It’s been more than a year since my first blog! Oh, how time flies!        Now this time, my visit to the library was in fact, not for pleasure, however I shall try my best to amuse you dear reader. Now let me begin with my arduous journey to the library.      Since there were no trains on Sunday due to track maintenance, I went to the other side of the station, where you’d normally find a bus. However, as they were overcrowded as usual, I mo...

     You might not be able to name any one of his plays, but when you hear the name Shakespeare, almost immediately the most iconic scene of his plays comes to your mind, the bleeding Caesar, the treacherous Brutus and the words “Et tu, Brute?”. This shocking moment is almost overshadowed by what follows, Mark Antony’s poignant words that sways the Roman mob, ultimately foiling the plans of the conspirators. On this episode, I would like to examine the subtle tools used by Mark Antony in his speech. The link to the speech on YouTube:   https://youtu.be/0bi1PvXCbr8?si=FabRKqrkXUIBZKQF         The other day one of our professors commented on how gullible the Roman mob was, who easily let themselves get swayed by the words of Brutus and now Mark Antony. However, I would like to disagree since, well, come on it’s really good!        Now let us consider what we have to work with. Brutus effectively suppres...

         To be honest, I am baffled that I haven’t read this poem earlier. Yes, I’ve heard about the poem but never had the chance to read it. But here I am, taken a bite off this beautiful piece of art, trying to sway you into reading it too!           Mending Wall by Robert Frost is a simple pastoral style poem, dealing with deeper paradoxes with a touch of levity, and you would feel the warmth of the poem right from the first line. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”          We have the speaker, presumably from a rural area, observing that there is some force of nature that despises the presence of a wall between him and his neighbour. The speaker and the neighbour have cooked up a sort of tradition where, once every year in spring they mend their sides of the wall together.        However the speaker does not understand the purpose of the wall. Ma...

       Sir Philip Sidney has suggested how poets are able to bridge the gap between the historian and the philosopher, creating a medium where the audience can better associate the essential elements of history while understanding the consequences of the actions on a deeper level. Now if you would watch the film Zulu (1964) you’d probably realize the great amount of effort and heart went into crafting the film, that strikes a perfect balance between its history and message conveyed. The link for the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NVokKq2CdO4?si=5B2lAYTlbiwu2QEg        To give a brief introduction to the film, it is a depiction of a real-life battle that happened in the year 1879. The Zulu warriors have overpowered the colonial British forces and a small regiment of 140 men has found refuge in a nearby station run by a missionary and his daughter. It is learnt that an army of four thousand Zulu warriors are coming the...

       We had a short seminar regarding mental health in college today, which brought back the memory of a character who had stuck with me for some time. Laura Wingfield from Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie is a reserved yet complex character who, in my opinion deserves a closer attention since she plays a structural role both in contrasting the other characters of the play as well as providing a wider context to the play.       The Glass Menagerie is a one-act drama directed by Tennessee Willaims and is regarded as one of the most iconic Broadway plays for its innovative use of postmodern ideas such as memory, fragmentation and so on. We are introduced to the Wingfield family, a struggling middle class family struggling against the urban chaos and its hardships. Since Tom, the brother of Laura was the breadwinner of the house, he becomes increasingly frustrated with his commitments affecting his dreams of a life of adventure...

       Putting a lot of hours in Far Cry3, the video game, it gives a really deep insight into man’s lapse into evil. It narrates a truly memorable story where the protagonist gets kidnapped with his friends in an island isolated from civilization, filled with savage pirates, native cults and mystical elements. As the story progresses, as he frees his friends one by one, he slowly gets indulged in an ecstasy of blood, violence and the euphoria of the ancient spirits of the jungle, where it reaches a point where he cannot return back to a normal life, living in a world of savage lunacy. Which neatly brings me along to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.        The story is set up in an island where a group of kids ranging from around six to twelve years old crash land from an evacuation airplane from Britain. There are no adults and the children are left on their own to fend for themselves. Quickly leaders are assigned, commanding orders ...