Wanda Vision: A unique spectacle that drives MCU into a completely different direction!

Wanda in Wanda Vision

MCU is taking a big turn. Yes. For those of you who know what MCU stands for and who has watched the just concluded "Disney+" series "Wanda Vision", it would be 

For those who dont, MCU stands for Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It is a dynamic content adapted from the Marvel Comic books and has a long drawn fictitious storyline with lots of thrills, comic references, twists, fun, tragedy, optimism, family-friendly content and variety.

You might think that to understand a movie set in MCU, you need to watch those that came before it, like for enjoying "Avengers Infinity War" movie to the fullest, you need to be aware of what happened to Iron Man, Captain America, and their team(s). But even those without a knowledge of MCU could actually like the just ended web series "Wanda Vision" purely based on the emotional aspect of it. It is basically a deep dive into the life of Wanda Maximoff after she loses her partner Vision, feels lonely and despair and creates her own small world within a real world town called "West View".

Without going deeper into the earlier events related to "Avengers Infinity War" and "Avengers Endgame", it would be fair to say that this web series stands on its own for a change. The same cannot be said about previous MCU content like Endgame or Infinity War or "Captain America Civil War"(The movie that made a big impact in MCU's future).

Wanda Maximoff goes through so much pain that her actions seem to be valid and understandable. She doesnt look like a villain despite keeping the residents of WestView as hostage within a space isolated by a strong virtual-energy-filled wall called "hex", named to simplify its appearance which looks like a honeycomb with lots of reddish hexagons joined together to block anyone coming from outside.

Though giving the complete review isnt possible to avoid spoilers, one can definitely say something on a wider perspective: MCU is taking a new direction with this series and there will be ramifications that will be felt in the upcoming movies and series, like the "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" scheduled to hit theaters in 25 March 2022.

In short, this series is an exploration of Wanda's relationship and dynamics with her love: Vision and the outer world. Her kids: Billy and Tommy. Ultimately she had to sacrifice her reality to free the residents of WestView who, atleast 4000 of them were held captive inside the hex for several weeks. This is obviously not a positive sign for someone called an "avenger". So Wanda is moving further away from being an avenger and more of a magician.

With that being said, Wanda could be changing the way she handles grief when we look at the final end-credit sequence. She could be trying to learn more about herself and controlling her emotions and her attachment to her kids. This also sets up a promising duel with Doctor Strange, either as an ally or as a foe. Some of the actions of Wanda were definitely not nice and wise, and Doctor Strange will have many questions when he comes to know of this.

Instead of giving a "happily ever after" ending that most MCU blockbuster movies have, Wanda Vision has a mixed bitter-sad ending with many directions in which the story could go from there. Wanda could get wiser or get trapped in her emotions again in a different scenario.

With love.. Anil

Aakaashame Hadduraa (Soorarai pottru) : A roller coaster of a ride!

Going into this movie, I expected something similar to other biopics that have come off late:A failing protagonist, lots of challenges, wicked antagonists, gradual rise of the hero, and a big, nail biting finish where the hero succeeds.

Aakaashame Hadduraa (the Telugu dubbed version of Soorarai pottru) does this too, but in an extremely nuanced and wild manner, with lots of fictional elements added to real life incidents.

You may call it yet another biopic like movie with lots of exaggerations and masala elements, but the screenplay and handling of actors and situations was done extremely well. It never strayed away from the plotand everything came together in the end, though what happened in real life later was opposite(air deccan being bought away by kingfisher airlines and later closing the operations completely).

Watch it for surya's performance and the story and thrilling moments.

With love..

Anil

Bolo: An insight into Google's learning app

There are a ton of apps these days to help kids learn something new. It could be a new language, it could be science, it could be history, or it could be about maths or to learn about something just out of curiosity.
But Google has done something that's an instant success and an evolving tool for not just kids but also adults to learn a language.
Initial reports in the media said that it is an app to learn reading Hindi, which is wrong. It is a multi lingual app and supports the below language/language-pairs as of today:
English only,
Hindi-English,
Telugu-English,
Marathi-English,
Bangla-English,
Urdu-English,
Tamil-English.
Spanish-English,
Portuguese-English

The first thing you notice about bolo is its user interface which is very simple and doesnt need too much of navigation. Just tap the story that you want to read/learn and it starts off sentence by sentence.
The screen scrolls automatically as the kid reads out the sentence appearing on the screen.
Another feature that is surely going to create interest among kids is the mini games that were included: simple games like pop the balloons, jumbled words and speed reading are available right now, but may get accompanied by many others soon.
Being an early access version, the app could have some bugs here and there, but so far during my 1 week of testing, I found none.

Important thing is if you kno how to read a language, even if you are an adult, you can get help from this app to improve your pronunciation in various languages, mainly Indian. for example, I can read Tamil apart from Telugu, English, Hindi and Kannada but to learn pronunciation in that language, this is going to definitely help me.
As the name itself suggests, it is meant to teach you how to speak a language and it is definitely worth trying it out.

With love.. Anil

Custom Site for Share

Add Your Favorite Site To Share

This tutorial will explain you the steps to add your favorite website to the Share extension. We assume that you have successfully installed the Share Tools extension. If not, please install it from this link.

If you have installed it successfully, you can notice its icon on the toolbar as shown in the following screenshot:

To add your website, follow these steps:

• Click on the extension icon, which should open its pop-up panel as shown above.
• Now, click on the last (gear or wheel) icon.

• This should launch the options panel of the extension, as shown in the following screenshot:

• From this options panel, you can set two options for the extension: change the default opening behaviour and add a custom website.
• To add a new website or service, you must provide a valid template in the input box. You can find many valid templates on this page. Detailed list is available on this link.
• For example, if you want to add Skype, you need to copy the line # 29 and paste in the input box. This would be:

https://web.skype.com/share?url={url}

• The extension supports only url and title parameters, so remove any other parameter present, like text in the above example.
• After pasting the code, save the settings. Now, this added site would be available with the Share extension. 

With love.. Anil

SHARE. Simple and Straight Forward

I have been looking at so many different ways by which we can share the websites that we visit daily.
How to make sharing as simple as possible and one that involves just 2 clicks?

That is when I stumbled upon an idea to create an extension or modify an existing extension and enhancing its features.
Being the first of my browser apps, it is indeed a challenge to learn how to do it. Technology? Its ready. Coding expertise? ready.
The only missing thing is the infrastructure and means to publish the idea, however simple it may be.

Thats when I tried my hand at the first chrome web app: SHARE.
Below is the link for the same:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/share/imfnjaolefblebhdphcenbeihpljinkn

Since this is the version 0.0.1, expect many more updates and feature additions as and when needed and based on feedback.

With love.. Anil

MCU's perfect culmination of the Avengers series!: Avengers EndGame.

It has been a long time checking out an epic movie that actually feels epic in theaters.

When I say long, it really felt like a long wait! The last time I felt like this was Avengers Infinity War(April 2018) and before that, it was Padmaavat(early 2018) and the biggest Indian movie of that time and still the highest grossing movie in Indian market: Baahubali: The Conclusion(2017).

But Marvel's Avengers Endgame is completely different in tone and expectations when it arrived: It had massive expectations to reach, massive plots to hide, massive stars' fans to satisfy. In a way, it is the biggest multi starrer in terms of having super stars like Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, leading others.

When it did come out, it wowed everyone, not just the fans of Marvel or the stars, but even others who might have started to follow MCU from 2018, thanks to the other biggie: Avengers Infinity War.

The experience was perfect: The crowd was able to react in a way that directors want them to: They were pin-drop-silent when the plot was moving with all seriousness. They laughed when the funny scenes seamlessly mingled into the storyline. They screamed when the action started. They whistled when the "Marvel Studios" logo came up. In short, they made it their own movie and started experiencing it much in a much closer and intimate way.

The difference between this and Infinity War is this: There was higher emotional connection with the characters now. The plot was perfectly set to show off the dynamics of the characters not just in the present but in the time travel as well. By the time the intermission break came in, everyone were holding to their seats and discussing the plot and many of them avoided going out.

I particularly loved Tony having the chat with his father as well as how Steve Rogers lived his life to the fullest by finally having the date with Peggy in the past, and also the brilliant emotional moment
between Thor and his mother, how she listens to him patiently, and asks him to eat
salads so he could slim down! There were so many moments to list out here.

Of course when they did find out that there were no mid-credit scenes or post-credit scenes, they were disappointed, but still waited till the end, till the red "Marvel Studios" logo and "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures" came up on the screen! This is what it meant to them: Experience the full movie, including the small details!

Such interest was second to none in all my movie experience. The only instance when the crowd was so excited and interested in watching a movie in theater was for the Indian biggies like: "Baahubali: The conclusion" and "2point0".

Now the debate has started about if it will break Avatar's USD2.7 Billion record or not. But as far as I am concerned, it doesnt matter as it has won the hearts of millions of people!

With love.. Anil

A mountain of expectations gone awry..

We have expectations, however small they may be.
We have dreams, however crazy they may be.
We also have a sense of purpose, however inconsequential it may be.
Well, this is not a poem.
But what we are seemingly losing is an ability to judge ourselves which is right and which is wrong.
Just because some popular personality says something, we
For the past several months, there have been so many events that changed the way we look at the world. The world is no longer something that could be saved by a super-hero like leader. The world is also no longer an entity which takes criticism in a positive way.

Coming to the current scenario in India, there came a big split between the centre and the state.
When Modi and Naidu broke up, it was a big news. But more importantly the media ought to point out the reason why it went that way instead of just making noise.
They ought to make sense when they say "TDP dumps BJP". It is nothing more than half baked news.

There is a long history to the decision taken by the TDP to break its ties with BJP and it is not about blackmailing. Many media channels have even went to the extent to say that due to some of personal demands of Naidu not being met by Modi, Naidu broke off their partnership.

In all this political games, it is the people who were compromised. It is the people who suffered the most. And it is the people who have seen their mountains of expectations go down like a crashing meteorite.

That, is the biggest harm that any leader/s could pose to any society.

The only advice to the media and the political class now is simple. In fact very simple: Dont create unreal expectations and try to fool the people when you know it could not be fulfilled.
The result will be faced by the BJP and to a certain extent even TDP for continuing for so long with the central government despite knowing very well that the promises will not be kept in a straightforward way.



With love.. Anil

Competing with the best!: "Write India"

There is an ongoing writing competition that is going on, which is called "Write India" and this is sponsored and run by Times of India. While some may have reservations to accept this as the best platform to test and hone your writing skills, many have been taking part in this competition for the past few months with the hope that they will get recognized by the top writers of english literature.

It is into its second season and the craze for this competition has been good.

Each month a passage is revealed by the author of the month with certain rules, and list of winners(usually top 10) is announced after 45 days of the contest's last date. Many people await it with wide eyes, checking for their names! The announcement happens quickly over twitter. I have seen many tweeple getting frustrated and some vowing to not write again, but I beg to differ.
Some people I have interacted with have even went to the extent to demean the platform and said that it only favours a select group of people based on their region or other irrelevant things. This made me think.

Writing is something that takes a lot out of someone's life and energy. To think of a good plot, develop that plot into a story, map out the characters and their details, create logical links between the characters, and then write the actual story(or even a short story) means a lot. To write a proper short story(maximum of 3000 words in this case) is much more difficult than writing a large story.

I believe that this is a platform which not only makes us put our best foot forward into the world of writing, but also teaches us how to respect the hard work of others, the judges and how to keep up the spirits in case we don't get selected among the winners. This spirit is most important and needed the most in the long run because as we keep writing, we need to keep a level headed approach towards the result. We need to first ask ourselves: Are we enjoying our work? Are we enjoying the process of writing a story or a book? If yes, then nothing should really dampen the spirit.

Instead of blaming the judges or authors of showing partiality and getting disheartened, why not take heart from the lost chance and try to better next time?
This "Write India" is a rare opportunity where we can compete on a national level directly without going through the regional levels. It is like playing in the ranji trophy directly without playing the state level competitions! You may not succeed initially, but it gives you a lot to learn and look forward to.

That's been my way of writing and I hope most people agree with me.

Wishing all the writers out there all the best!

With love.. Anil

Tears of a Legend

100 million views. The most awaited sequel to the biggest Indian movie. The costliest movie in the history of Indian movie industry. The biggest Indian franchise. A movie coming with the largest release, to be followed with the first VR Live action movie from India.

And there it came. The moment finally came when the promotions took the power that was expected of a big movie, going ahead with full speed.

Once one of the legendary music composers of Indian cinema took to stage and gave a re-rendition of the famous "Yevvadanta yevvadanta.." song, the captain of the ship came up to stage on his request and that was the moment: the moment when I saw the first tear of another legend, caused by the overwhelming emotions created and churned out by the first legend through touching lyrics. I just hoped the tears dont touch the earth so that the earth could remain immune to the immense effect of them! Why?Because those were not ordinary tears: They were the tears which evolved from just a water+salt mix to something so intense, so compressed with ambition that a single drop of that tear would have burnt the earth below! So just wanted the legend to control the flow of that immense pent-up energy so that he could show it in his next non-baahubali project and keep entertaining the society to levels unknown to us!

Citing a few words: "Eyes are not meant for tears and Heart is not meant for fear, Never get upset but always cheer.. Because you are the one who can make people smile for years."

By the way for those still wondering what was this all about, the first legend I talked about is M M Keeravaani(ఎం ఎం కీరవాణి), the second is S S Rajamouli(శ్రీశైల శ్రీ రాజమౌళి), and the event is the pre-release function of the movie "BAAHUBALI: THE CONCLUSION"!.. దండాలయ్యా దండాలయ్యా మా దర్శకుడివి నీవేనయ్యా!

With love.. Anil

The post-demonetisation era of digital payments and the irony!

Everyone knew the after effects of the demonetisation on India and the positive impact as well as the negative impact that it had.
But hardly did anyone think about the opportunities that lay unexplored, whether it is for the good intention or the bad. In fact, there were so many instances where merchants accepting digital payments or the customers making cashless payments were taken for a ride.
No doubt people were forced into this digital payment business due to lack of cash during the initial 1-1.5 months of demonetisation, but later the situation improved to such an extent that the ATMs again looked empty despite having the cash.
The biggest irony here is that once things came back to normalcy, there was a sudden dearth of cash in several ATMs and some bank branches. Is this due to the sudden cash flow or due to the uncontrolled printing of notes by RBI or exaggerated demand for cash from certain sections of the society?
It has to be noted that this is how the society behaves. Once the limit on daily withdrawal has been increased significantly, again the people will start to stack up the cash in their homes/offices. This is not unusual since the public's confidence in banks came down during the demonetisation. It is not the note ban itself that caused this distrust, but the fact that the banks were not able to serve the general public with the honesty expected from them. This is due to the few bad apples found in almost all departments and the situation could only get worse until and unless the govt doesnt encourage digital payments even after the availability of cash. How do they do it?
To convince the public that digital payments are better and more beneficial to them, they need to be given incentives: For example doing away with the petrol surcharges, giving cashbacks for digital payments just like how it is being done for fuel stations where a fixed 0.75% cashback is given for every fuel using debit/credit cards. Hope such promotions are given across several merchant locations.
It is here that the BHIM app is really useful and needs to be expanded and enhanced with some attractive features where cashbacks are given on certain categories of transactions.
Anyway, the present situation reminds me of a simple story: The king was given a new security chief since the existing chief has been proved to be corrupt and stealing valuable stuff from the palace. But the new chief is not popular with most of the palace staff since he is too sincere and nothing could go wrong under his supervision. So what did the staff and inmates of the royal palace do? Slowly started the misuse of their rights and brought back the previous chief in disguise. The king could not do much here since the staff are much smarter than him and they wanted to exploit the royal resources as much as they can.
So the moral of the story is that until and unless the people's mindset doesnt change, even a king cannot do anything to root out the malice of corruption and black money which go hand in hand.
The note ban was a temporary measure but the fake notes and money hoarding as well as other ways of black money strive until and unless the govt is not agile enough. Conduct review meets with the RBI and all major banks and track the money that they have in the banks or ATMs and track those dealing in huge amounts of cash. Sadly, this doesnt seem to be happening now since everything has settled and anything related to black money is hardly discussed these days on news channels or in the govt.
So the irony is that despite the hike in usage of digital payments, the usage of cash could actually increase now since the banking network is hardly enough and even if there are enough banks in india they are suffering from the lack of trust in the eyes of public. No one has any idea of what new charges are applied on their own hard earned money in the form of not maintaining AMB(depite the jan dhan yojana being touted as a movement to open crores of "zero-balance" bank accounts, many of those accounts, including those from the govt-owned banks are making it mandatory to maintain a minimum balance). Unless the financial system works in a coherent way and remain constantly in sync with the PM's vision of financial inclusion, any number of demonetisations or remonetisations will yield peanuts.



With love.. Anil

Expanding the world of Maahishmati!

Some movies make such a huge impact on you that you start getting into the world in which that movie was set. Baahubali is one of the best examples of how a complete world has been created just for the main kingdom Maahishmati and other smaller kingdoms like Kunthala.
The visual treat was nothing but the best, as is the background music.

Such is the impact of all the characters like Baahubali, Kattappa, Shivagami, Devasena, Bhallaladeva, Avanthika, etc. that I have created my own ebook which has the extension of the movie as imagined by me. Not a big book, but definitely took some time to weave origins story for each of the main characters of the movie. There are so many storylines that could possibly be weaved around Baahubali: The Beginning that my ebook becomes one of the multiverses of them!

For example, there are so many questions left open in the movie like why is Kattappa helpless and completely living like a slave to Bhallaladeva despite he getting an offer of joining hands with Aslam Khan.
The intensity with which Bhallaladeva converses with Devasena as well as her oath to fry him on the pyre set up by her means there is a very intense flashback that must have happened decades ago involving Kattappa, Baahubali, Bhallaladeva and Devasena.

So many questions have been raised(including the biggest puzzle of "why Kattappa killed Baahubali") and those have an answer in the complete Amazon Kindle ebook here:

Maahishmati Kindle ebook on Amazon

Some of the excerpts from the book are below:

Excerpt 1: Athura: The First War:

"
The sun started to rise a little faster the next morning as the tension remained high. The enemy was baying for blood as their soldiers kept building floating boards to cross the huge river. All their efforts to swing across the river using ropes turned out to be futile as they were punctured by poison-edged thorns coming from people specialized at aiming them. Attacks by wild animals were not uncommon but the enemies warded them off using their shields and weapons.
With a singular aim of wiping off anyone who are not from their faith and establishing their caliphate, the thirst of their greed knew no bounds. With the job of breaking through the defenses getting tougher, they aimed for the offensive by using their weapons like thousands of arrows. In response, the people of Mahaashanthala went back to escape them.
As the attack neared the people, they prayed for the almighty to show them a way. Off the dusty atmosphere, the devils started appearing clearly. They neared them and shouted “Athuraaa! Complete your duty. Why are you hiding?”
The people were shocked to hear the name of Athura from them. In a split second, Athura emerged from behind them, took a special sword that seemed to have been made specially for him, and raced towards the defenceless people. Uttama saw all this from a distance and rushed forward to save the people from him.
But as he was getting close, Athura threw the sword backwards towards the devil army with such a skill and power that it cut the throats of the commanders, went around for the heads of the marching soldiers and returned to the hand of Athura.
“Now my duty is complete”he shouted.
The devil army stood there in shock. They hadn't seen such level of skill from anyone and came towards Athura, with the remaining generals shouting: ”You traitor. You cheat your own people? The prophet will never forgive you. You will die a horrible death for going against us.” as the foot soldiers charged ahead, baying for his blood.
“I have found my people.” shouted Athura, pointing to the people of Mahaashanthala.

"

The above is just a small sample of one of the chapters and this particular piece is about the origins of Kattappa, his ancestors and most importantly how his extreme loyalty towards Maahishmati came into being).

Looking forward to share more info and snippets in the coming days.

Excerpt 2: Post-Kaalakeya War

"

In the aftermath of Kaalakeya being defeated, there is a larger challenge: To control the evil mind of Bijjaladeva and his son Bhallaladeva from playing games that could put the whole of kingdom in danger.

During the war against Kaalakeya, Kunthala kingdom wished that Kaalakeya is defeated, because if Kaalakeya wins, the next target would be Kunthala. And its whole population is not even as large as the strong and highly-inspired Maahishmathi army. Despite not going to the war, Kunthala used the time to sharpen its army’s skills, and one of the sharpest weapons is Devasena. Nayaka’s pride, Maahishmathi’s envy, Devasena has showcased her defensive and combative skills in sword fighting. Maahishmathi’s people saw her as a direct competitor to their loved king-to-be Baahubali.

One fine day, Shivagami called everyone to the palace to decide on the auspicious date for the cornation of Amarendra Baahubali as the king of Maahishmathi. Priests from several kingdoms made their way to the large environs of Maahishmathi. They were stunned to see the advanced architecture and the magnificent style of the kingdom and wished to stay there for some more time than just the few hours that they originally planned for! The large palaces, temples, wide pathways, strong horses, sharpest of weapons, and the huge elephants and energetic people made them stunned.

They entered the main courtyard of the palace where so many important decisions were made in the presence of Shivagami over the years.

“15 days from today there is a fantastic alignment of planets. That is the perfect time for coronation. Nothing can come close to it in the next 5 years!”

One of them interrupted: “But.”

Shivagami responded: “What but? Tell us”

“There is a danger lurking in the next few days. Amarendra needs to avoid mingling with outsiders, especially lower caste people or rival kingdoms during this time.”

There is a growing tendency in the kingdom to get influenced by the kings and segregate themselves based on castes. This split has resulted in a cold war of sorts.

During one of these days, Amarendra Baahubali was walking along the street, when he found something is wrong. He sensed something is wrong at the other side of the street.

A group of people were shouting with each other due to something serious. Amarendra queried them about the matter and found out that the issue is about letting some people from other caste to the largest temple of Maahishmati. He took an instant decision: There shall be no more distinction between the upper caste and lower caste.

To make his statement, he did something no other king-to-be woukd have done:

Washed the feet of the lower caste devotees with pure water and welcomed them.

The royal members who are in the temple were shocked when they saw this scene. They tried to take Baahubali away but in vain. He stood firm in his resolve.

On the staircase to take the lower caste to temple, he found the people very happy and they started seeing them as their hero.

Back in the palace, Bijjaladeva was furious. He warned Baahubali not to mingle with others because that is not only dangerous to his life according to the astrology, but also against the norms of the palace and the royal family.

But Baahubali kept calm and ignored him silently. Shivagami too kept a dignified silence.

"
Another chapter, this time on Shivagami, based on her characterization in the movie:

Excerpt 3: Introduction of Shivagami:

"
The day finally came:
Rudrayya has always been the quintessential free bird in terms of doing whatever he wants to do. On the deciding day, he was taken to Vaidehipuram where he witnessed
the people’s lifestyle. They too seemed to believe in dreams coming true. Rudrayya laughed off.
He was taken to the palace where there is a dedicated area for competitions.
The king finally arrived. Tall, well built and handsome, Rudrayya suddenly saw that the king also seemed to be built well and had more mass. The huge drums signalled the start of the competition.
Both of them started bravely with a huge thud of their thighs and skillfully outwitted each other repeatedly and it was almost impossible to tell who was having the upper hand.
“Actually this is to find the right groom for the kingdom. And my daughter Shivagami is ready for you. I knew no one would marry anyone from our family which is considered inauspicious and a harbinger of bad luck.” He paused.
He called the guards to bring in his daughter Shivagami. She is just a young girl, around 19 years. Out of her father’s urgency to marry off his daughter, Shivagami accepted it hesitantly. But her dreams are loftier than just finding a brave and heroic husband.
Rudrayya found this crazy and immediately replied:
“Is this a joke? I cannot do this. I cannot cheat my wife. I can never ever touch any other woman in my life, let alone marry her.”
The king replied: “Well, here we dont have the tradition of monogamy. If you dont accept the marriage, we are going to be losing our honor”
.
Shivagami kept calm. She didnt knew what to do. Rudrayya refused this offer, angering the king and ministers. Shivagami remained indifferent. She never wanted the marriage nor any kind of relationship at the moment, but she couldnt go against her father’s wish either.
So she chalked out a plan: “I want to talk to Rudrayya.” The court turned towards her when they heard her voice. Authoritative and confident for someone so young.
“Personally”. They were surprised further!
Rudrayya entered Shivagami’s private room. As Shivagami started to say something, there was a huge alarm in the palace, notifying an extreme emergency.
“Our kingdom has been attacked. Save yourselves” the announcer said to all the inmates of palace. The king has been given a special security but the body guards themselves sliced his back before he fought back with extreme injuries. He was brave and fought them off before falling down.
As Rudrayya was coming out and saw the king lying in a pool of blood, the king ordered him to take Shivagami to safer areas and look after her. “She is the only hope of Vaidehipuram. This is the only dream that I have. Go.” Shivagami shed tears upon seeing her father in a pool of blood, but promised him to remain with a strong will and
continue a legacy of justice that her father always believed in. She bid a teary farewell to her father by giving him a final hug. Still sensing danger behind them, Rudrayya rode the horse as swiftly as he can to take Shivagami to safety.
Across the waterfalls and rivers, he rode like an expert, protecting the young Shivagami and entered the kingdom of Maahishmathi. Shivagami looked around as everything seemed like a collection of moving images around her. Her fate took a sharp turn within a few hours and she couldnt believe it. Peeking out of her warm blanket, she saw the emblem of Maahishmathi for the first time in bright sunlight that is just jutting out of the morning sun. Rudrayya told the guards that he is bringing the princess of Vaidehipuram. Maahishmathi’s prince Vikramadeva welcomed Shivagami to the palace and ordered everyone to take care of her and treat her as a guest...
"

Excerpt 4: Shivagami and Kunthala's Destruction

"
When Shivagami entered the main courtyard, she saw complete destruction. Amidst it all, Devasena and her infant are struggling to escape a huge fire put up by the enemies.
Still Devasena was fighting against the fire, like a warrior, very similar to Rani Laxmi Bai, with her baby put tightly inside a cloth tied to her back. In a huge blast that broke apart the palace, Bhalla thought that Devasena and her baby were burnt to death. Nayaka left the palace much earlier to fight the enemies and left his body guards to
take care of Devasena, but they were killed by Maahishmati’s soldiers on the orders of Bhalla. With no one to help her, Devasena valiantly fought on her own and killed most of the enemies who were attacking her right inside her room. After the huge explosion, it turned out to be too difficult to find a way out. But luckily for her, in the dense smoke, Shivagami appeared, surprising Devasena and rescued her, taking her baby in her arms. She is happy that her mother-in-law has come to rescue her, but Devasena, feeling very weak, collapsed on the way when they crossed the boundary of the palace where there was no one. Shivagami tried to wake her up, but to no avail. With some of Maahishmati’s soldiers chasing her from far away, and left with no other option, she ordered Kattappa to look after her as she carried the baby away from the prying eyes of the enemies, disappearing in the dark of the woods. No one else saw her again.
Kattappa gently took his daughter in his arms and with tears in his eyes, carried her to a safe place.
“Can I ever tell you the fact? It is my fate. My bad fate that I have to see you in this situation” Kattappa silently talked to himself.
On getting her conscience back, Devasena felt that Kattappa is trying to capture her and tried to fight him. Devasena knows nothing about the truth about her and Kattappa and fears that he may kill her too on the orders of Bhalla. Unable to convince her that he is trying to protect her and also not in a position to tell the truth, a war of words happen between the two and finally Kattappa had to leave the place as Devasena went her own way into the woods, trying to keep distance from Maahishmati’s soldiers.
But some of Bhalla’s forces spot Devasena in some plains of Kunthala’s forest. Bhalla order them to tie her in iron chains and bring her to Maahishmati palace.
Back at Maahishmati, Bhalla wanted Kattappa himself to tie the chains on Devasena and tie her at the main city square.
With no other option than to obey Bhallaladeva’s orders, Kattappa kept low and waited for an opportunity to release Devasena from all the humiliation and imprisonment.
A couple of weeks passed by during which the people were trying to cope with the huge destruction. In Kunthala, Nayaka and some of his staunch followers, who escaped that dreadful night of massacre, await their moment to strike back at Maahishmati, which plays like mute spectator as their queen suffers humiliation at the hands of Bhallaladeva.
Devasena lives in an illusionary state of mind and always waiting for her son to rescue her from Maahishmati. She wants to see Bhallaladeva’s heart, blood, and everything to be burnt on a pyre that she was preparing for the past several years and reveals the same to Kattappa after she realises that he is trying to release her in many ways, officially or unofficially.

Bhalla, in a few weeks, married a trader’s daughter and within a year turned into a proud father of a son named Bhadra. Unfortunately, Bhadra’s mother died soon due to delivery complications. A heartbroken Bhalla took refuge in hundreds of concubines in his personal hall inside the palace and lead a luxurious life at the cost of people’s lives who were heavily taxed and discriminated based on their caste, color and gender too.
"

For more of the above story, check out the ebook here!

Thank you all for your love towards the book at Amazon(ebook as well as paperback). It give me immense pleasure when people support good work and it works like an energy booster to write more books in the future..

With love.. Anil

Bravehearts

When the enemy gives an evil eye,
When the terrorists were given a grand sendoff,
When the attacks cross all levels of tolerance,
The boiling blood gushes out after the surgical strike,
And the heart screams Bharat mata ki jai.

When millions of miles away the jawans wake up,
When the separation from near and dear ones pain the bravehearts,
The heart sends out the best wishes to our real heroes,
And feel like sending a tweet and sweet this Diwali.

When their toes pain with endless movement,
When their eyes burn out of sleepless nights of vigil,
When their stomachs experience hunger pangs,
When their limbs give cramps out of exhaustion,
I feel like touching their feet and just say,
"We are here for you.."

When the chilling environs take all their energy,
When the burning sun roasts your fluids,
When the ammunition flumes asphyxiate the bravehearts,
Thoughts flow out making me think:
"What level of wishes can make their lives a little comfort?"
And my Sandesh2Soldiers goes out.

-Anil Kumar Reddy.

iDonkey goes live!

After several months of delay, the book finally is live and not to mention the excitement that it gave me during the uploading and review process.
Not the first e-book, but yes, the first book to be created with long-term dedication. Of course it is open for review by anyone, but this is a first small step towards more books on varied topics or genres.

Feel free to check it out if you like it. Below is the link to the book:
iDonkey

With love.. Anil

Breaking the barriers of resistance..

Despite all your efforts, there will be something in life that keeps on stopping you, halting you, and also putting you down from achieving greater heights. And that is called "homeostatic balance" of the mind. We seem to compromise on everything, everywhere to just let the day pass away without looking at what that means for the future ahead. I remember the term being told at a training session by a great person, but the real life scenario came across recently and I had to make a choice.
And that choice is continuous dedication towards a long term goal. Never mind the smaller obstacles that come in the way, there is something that pulls me from the homeostatic balance.
Such are the vagaries of life that despite your best efforts, some things take longer to take shape compared to others.
Finding time to fix upon a strong story and build characters into it or rather onto it is not an easy task and it can take weeks, months or even years to get a solid foundation of writing books.
So the process is going on slowly but surely.
Off to a late night sleep!

With love.. Anil

16sep2015, wed: A day of immense challenges and a new outlook towards writing

Never mind the challenges in life, there will always be times when you ought to take that extra leap forward to go to the next level. And today is one such day for me in many ways.
First, the aim got clearer and there is a renewed energy that seems to put lots of emphasis on what it takes to achieve success:
Is it mere brownie points from the ones who sit above you?
Is it just the figures on the home page that you are presented with when you log in to your bank account?
Is it the unknown appreciation that you get from your real inner self when you start analyzing the day that went past?

I am sure that it is the thrid one by far and the best!
And what is that which I love inside the depest confines of the mind?
It is writing! Writing about anything that crosses my mind. Anything that strikes a moment of amazement. Anything that seems like poetry to me. Sometimes I feel what is life without poetry?
How would life look without poetic visuals, poetic sounds and poetic words? Damn boring!
So that is what I loved more about today: It is not that I took up some challenge in something that doesnt touch my heart, but that fact that there is a renewed vigour to complete something that I have been doing for the past few months: Writing a book.
Having already written a small, tiny book of poems, today I would like to update the book with new poem that goes by the title: "Blue is Wohoo!" at the below link for my #WorldOfPoems:

World of Poems

And I hope to complete the new book, which is in the genre of fantasy/fiction/satire soon and publish it online for the world!

With love.. Anil

Most probable story of #Baahubali based on its #bahubalitrailer and wallpapers

Most probable story of Baahubali based on the trailer can be written thus:
A young kid Shivudu grows up into a handsome youth in beautiful jungles in a fictitious land and one fine day he catches spots a gorgeous angel-like lady Avantika and attracted by her beauty runs behind her, only to be trapped by some unknown gang of a big, oppressive kingdom. There he witnesses slavery and tries to escape from them, fighting the guards and releasing few of his inmates in the process.
When he finally asks one of them who he is and what his identity is, he is told the story of his father "amarendra baahubali", who is a ferocious fighter and a king of a large empire. His wife Devasena(Anushka) is also a fighter and due to a conspiracy by the evil Bijjaladeva(played by Nasser in a role similar to shakuni) and Shivagami(played by Ramya Krishna, inspired by Kaikeyi or Gandhari) to capture the kingdom and make Bhallaladeva(Rana) the king, baahubali is eliminated(either alive somewhere due to being saved by his loyal minister Katappa or killed) and Devasena is put in prison as a prisoner of war. But before Devasena is captured, she gives birth to a son and she keeps the baby safe by secretly swimming across a river, keeping the baby afloat. This baby grows up into Shivudu.
Now, this could form the first part of baahubali, whereas the second part could explore more about Devasena, what happens to her and her son Shivudu and how they take revenge against Bhallala deva and co.
A bigger question is also about the mystery about Avantika and who exactly is she, which could be explored in the first half. There could also be a strong link of Shivudu and the story with the Shivalingam. It could be the Shiva lingam which might have saved the new-born Shivudu.

With love.. Anil

Baahubali: Analyzing the first look posters!

Nothing can be more amazing than an amazingly created picture which tells a deep story that is hidden behind its pixels! Since 1000 words, let me describe the above collection of 2 posters in one picture in 1000 words as below!:
The woman's hand has blood dripping down despite coming out of water. This signifies that the woman has gone through some trauma or attack while giving birth or after bringing the baby to this world, presumably the villains chasing her, as she falls into the sea. The background is either an open sea or a really wide, massive river under an overcast sky. One could even deduce that the event could have happened under rain either in the morning or in the evening, going by the direction from which the sun rays were originating!
Nevertheless, with a closer examination, we can notice that the cloth that wraps the baby has a simple, but royal-look to it. This could mean that he is meant to be the inheritor of a heritage/kingdom or a family's huge property. This poster also shows the baby coming in front of the sun, which means he is meant to bring light into lives of many, like a rising sun. When will any world need the light? It needs it the most when it is either plunging into darkness or is already reeling under a shadow(evil). Going forward, it would also be safe to assume that the baby may have something to do with one of the most important elements of this universe: the sun. Could he have born with the energy from the sun? In some ways, this could even be compared to the epic of Mahabharatam, where despite hundreds of Kauravas, pandavas eventually win by going against all the odds created by the enemy. In Mahabharatam, Karna is the Surya putra, so is Prabhas going to have similar characterization here too?If we go by another photo related to Baahubali, the pose of Prabhas aiming high with his bow and arrow bears uncanny resemblance to either Arjuna or Karna(both bitter rivals and arguably the best archers the world has ever known)!
Or is she giving birth to a baby who may be killed by her enemies who believe that the baby could bring them bad luck(like kamsa)? There can be so many theories that could be derived from this first poster of the movie. When we look at the logo, it looks like it is carved out of bronze and has a very tough, rough and sharp look to it, which means the movie could have lots of hard-core action sequences in it! Coming to the hand that is holding the baby: It is a little wierd that one can balance a baby, however small it may be, on a single palm, but in the cinematic universe, any well-shot scene is accepted!
Looking at the poster, one can even tell that the main aim of the director seems to be to tell the story of the beginning, which could be the most important part of any movie aiming to be a series or a franchise later on based upon the success. One look at the colour scheme used in the first poster, and one can see the level of detailing that has been done to maintain consistency across all the elements of the image and also keep the secrecy about the story by hiding extra information in the posters. One thing is for sure: It is going to be a visual wonder after what we have seen in Magadheera, which could now look tiny compared to the arriving Bahubali. The shadows are smooth, the lighting is well arranged and the focus of the poster has been on the baby, which obviously is going to grow up to be the main lead character leading us to the muscular character on the right: Prabhas as "Shivudu".
A man carrying such a huge Shiva lingam is obviously an exxaggeration but that is what a movie is ought to be! The character "Sivudu" has been captured so well that we can almost sense what Shivudu may be doing there or in which context is this image captured. One can see the determination in the eyes of Prabhas(as Shivudu in the poster on the right). This could either mean that he is lifting the huge Shiva lingam as a challenge to show his strength, or he could also be saving the beautiful monolithic structure from some evil hands. It could also be a frame from the introduction scene of Shivudu! As is for any movie, there have been some fringe elements hogging their own limelight by digging the internet for some look-alikes with regards to both the released posters, but they need to understand that the beauty of any movie poster or the movie itself doesnt depend on how original it is but how well it is captured and how well it communicates the different essences of the movie. With all due respects to similar posters of movies like "Simon Birch" and "Tiruvannamalai", the beauty of showcasing the best scenes of a movie is more important than unnecessary comparisions with older movies which were completely unrelated to the genre of #Baahubali. Despite all the accusations about both the first look posters, people need to remember one thing: ipod, iphone or the ipads were not the first original products in their categories but one of the top-class ones in the industries right now, or for that matter even the best android phones may not be original but certainly better than their rivals. Surely the previous products were big hits, but ipod, iphone and ipad reinvented the product categories to an extent that few would have imagined. So in short, it is not if your product is the first one or the original one, but how good is it, no matter how many might have made similar things before! So there may be millions of movie posters that may be similar to #Baahubali that were released till 5May2015, but these are the best in its genre for sure and raises many expectations as well as sets our mood nicely before we step into the theatre to watch the movie on 10th July 2015!
And that was exactly 1000 words!

With love.. Anil

Nirbhaya: Who is the real culprit and what is the solution?

For the recent controversy regarding a British documentary filmmaker's interview with Nirbhaya's convicted rapist, about whom lots of people are up in arms against the airing of the documentary, I have one thing to say:

"CHANGE THE MINDSET! Nothing else will work." 

You heard it right. This one of the biggest issues that churned many thoughts within me and started to ponder over what could possibly the solution to this problem and more than the problem itself, why do people react in a way that doesnt give any concrete solution.

The convict is just the tip of the iceberg. The bigger problem lies in the mindset of the people and the documentary is just an effort to explore that mindset and put it in-front of the public to analyze and give the society and chance to evolve from the medieval mindset. But the public and most of the media seems to be only interested in cure and not prevention. Showing anger is just a temporary event and just a step to please the mob, but the bigger problem needs to be solved by the public itself. Police cannot intrude into the minds of people and repair them. It is the public that needs to think and introspect why such extreme violence is happening and who is responsible for the same.

I keep reading news that goes with the hashtag: "#NirbhayaInsulted". Really? I have a few questions to those who support the above hashtag:

1. When was Nirbhaya actually insulted? When some honest documentary filmmaker tries to explore the mindset of the convict and tries to show it to the nation? Nirbhaya was insulted when she could not use her real name out of fear of being looked down in the society. The fact is that the society which is acting as if it has done some great work by protesting during the whole episode, is in itself guilty of creating such rapists with the various mindsets that kept seeping in from times unknown. Society has time and again looked up to people with a history of crimes that include rapes and corruption(both complement each other), and instead of alienating them from public life, given them votes in exchange of money/"free gifts" like free electricity, free tv, free sarees, free alcohol, etc. This proves that as far as creating proper examples is concerned, no one cares. They only care about how much money they get from the politicians/leaders during elections and forget their basic responsibility of choosing the right person for the job of ruling us!

2. Why are people getting offended with each and every event that seems to be exposing the reality of the society? The mindset of the convict is not just some stray example but a widespread mentality of many people, male and female who have similar views! Is the society afraid that their real image is getting exposed by some western documentary filmmaker?

3. When the parents themselves don't think there is anything objectionable in the content of the interview, why is the media hell bent on blocking the documentary? It looks to be a war between major media houses(namely NDTV vs Times Now,CNN IBN, etc) thats going on where each of them is trying to get as many points as possible and TRPs. The fact that the high court held on to the govt's view and asked the media to block the airing of documentary is another issue altogether.

4. If there is anything to be censored from the documentary, the power lies with the censor board or a body that regulates the broadcasting in India and this can only be done once the complete documentary is watched by the respective authorities.

So what is the main point? People seem to be running behind an imaginary cure(which does not cure at all in reality!) rather than prevention. It is time the society wakes up and tries to look at itself in the mirror and evolve itself into the ideal society that India deserves and not into something that becomes a curse to many Nirbhayas across the nation.

With love.. Anil

An ideal leader..

The other day, I was watching "Air Force One" on some HD english movie channel. What struck me was the way the lead actor(Harrison Ford) plays the President of USA. Though we wonder how would it all happen in reality, the fact is that his was a fictional character that is a dream of many Indians: The one who becomes a role model of millions or even billions across the world in these times of distress, violence and unending journey to find hope and that one spark that is needed to bring about a revolution in the society. When I say "revolution", it need not necessarily mean "change in the setup or a complete overhaul of the system" like how some people think of, or complete hopelessness in the institution of democracy that stood firm in several nations like India, USA, France, UK, etc. despite many attempts to bring it down.

Coming back to the movie, the role played by Harrison Ford was amazing to say the least. Despite watching the movie several times already on TV, the latest airing of this hugely successful movie is something that brings out admiration for the actor as well as disappointment somewhere in the corner of public conscience in my nation.

Do we have a leader who can lift the spirits of the people around them when everything looks down and over today? To some extent, yes, in the form of Narendra Modi, but a lot needs to be done still. This is not about the oratory skills of Modi or his ability to attract huge crowds with his charisma. It is about the consistently positive approach to be taken by a leader at all times: Never get too excited when things are going very well and never show disappointment when chips are down.
It is too early to judge the existing PM of the world's largest and probably the most stable democracy in the world, but if he can maintain the same level of energy, positive approach and inspire others by an example, I dont see any reason why we dont have a leader who not only can be an inspiration to the billions of Indians across the world, but also to other friendly nations who share the same values of India, most notably: "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam"(వసుధైవ కుటుంబకం, "the whole world is a family").
Till then, it is on an optimistic note that I sign off, that better times are ahead for those are willing work and who serve the society!

With love.. Anil

Everything about PK thats good and bad.

Over the past few days, there has been a raging debate over the contents of the movie PK which kept the movie goers busy and therefore created extra free publicity to the film. While there is no denying the fact that PK is a very honest film and the makers have made it with lots of conviction and with a "devil may care" attitude and with dialogues which were penned in authentic Bhojpuri and Hindi, there are certain sequences in the movie which prove that atleast in India, bashing idol-worship and everything related to gods is the best way to get popular and then claim to cleanse the system.
The problem with PK is not that it exposes the godmen(which is a topic thats done-to-death by hundreds of movies in various movies in many languages and this movie doesnt tell anything new), but that it tries to portray even a simple, harmless, absolutely normal ritual as a superstition. I call it over-rationalization. Let me take a comprehensive look at PK with both its merits and demerits:

The good:
1. PK's depiction of innocence is funny to the hilt(makes one laugh genuinely) and heartwarming in some scenes. We just feel like helping him to get back to his planet whenever he tries to answer the question of where he came from. Aamir's performance is highly commendable and deserves all the awards for 2014!

2. The scene where he tries all the ways to impress the Gods by using all the methods, finally reaches a place with various idols and starts praying in all the ways he knows is heart touching. It shows his desperation to get back to his home-planet and shows the seriousness with which he is praying to God. I remember bhakta Kannappa who worshipped Lord Shiva in his own ways by offering Him meat out of ignorance. Similarly, PK too seems to pray to various Gods in a "trial and error" method, but his desire to get help from God is genuine.

3. The final scene where PK returns to his planet is well shot without going into too much of sci-fi. The spaceship lands, but the focus is on the conversation between PK and Jaggu and how PK tries to hide his feelings towards her! The dialogue "he came here to teach everyone to be truthful, but he learnt how to lie" is nice and is a paradox!

The bad:
1. Take for example rolling over your full body around a temple(called 'anga pradakshinam'). Whats wrong in this practice where there is no harm done to other living beings? Are they slaughtering some innocent animals? Are they doing indecent exposure? Is it a wastage of resources? Absolutely not. Then why are the makers hell bent on projecting it as a superstition? It would have been better if they had concentrated on slaughter of animals in some temples(yes) and during bakr-id(obvious) in the name of religion, apart from other rituals in other religions that leads to animal torture.

2. Another example of complete disregard to religious rituals is in a scene where PK proclaims that "those who are afraid go to temple(jo darte hain woh mandir jaate hain)"and his opposition to building a temple. Why the hell does the story need such episodes which are completely out of context and look like they are just patched up without any relevance to the story? Yes it is true that lots of people go to temple(as well as mosques, churches, etc) out of some emotion like fear, desire, return of favor, desperation, depression, etc, but highlighting only fear is an indirect statement against the people who attain peace by going to a temple. Is PK(the alien) trying to convert this planet(out of ignorance) to his home planet just because he finds everything funny here? Yes there are multiple religions on earth, but that is a beauty that might have existed in his home planet. If that is the case, then the movie's title should have been "mental".

3. By showing extreme sympathy and showing a media person shedding tears while talking to Sarfaroz, the movie again tried to use the emotional tricks to pull the audience into some kind of emotional state where they feel that lots of injustice has been done to the boyfriend of Jaggu.

4. By publicizing this as a movie with a strong message and showing many of the valid, scientific practices of religions(Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc.), they are not just entertaining but more than that, they are trying to preach the public what to do and what not to do through the mouth of an alien, who doesnt know anything about earth(specifically India) and the people here. If they were to go to the neighboring nation that is just a few hundred kms from where it landed(Rajasthan), the alien would have had a tragic death due to its actions. The one-dimensional approach towards the God may be apt for an alien which doesnt have any language, clothing, no god or any tradition or identity(I wonder how boring or how monotonous their world might be), but doesnt fit for humans.

5. Trying to be a messiah to a complex nation like India: When PK says "My God doesnt ask people to do this or that unlike your God", it indicates that the alien is fed up of our Gods and is trying to impose his beliefs on us. Let the alien have their own God, but that should not be glorified just because PK doesnt believe in yatras or rituals or chanting of mantras.

6. PK asks for a refund of the money he deposited in a temple, unable to get it back and therefore steals it. If the same logic were to be applied to all activities in this world, does it also mean that just because I didnt like a movie, my ticket amount needs to be refunded back?

7. Cheap sentiments and artificial emotions in certain scenes: Why the hell does the colleague of Jaggu(name unknown) start weeping when Jaggu calls the pakistan embassy and is involved in a conversation to find the whereabouts of her boyfriend Sarfaroz? Why would anyone weep for such a pathetic reason and that too in a seemingly important climax? It seems like a forced crying, just like how Navjot Sidhu laughs in the multiple comedy circus shows on TV even for silly reasons! This is a very cheap trick being used by Rajkumar Hirani since Munnabhai MBBS. The genuineness keeps missing and all that remains is a feeling that this is a fake movie meant to mint money like any other movie, using the cheapest of tricks and repetition of the same formula. It is obviously not a crime to make films in this manner, but to use this "purely-comedy" film to decide who is "true god" and who is a "fake god" is just unacceptable. The concept of "wrong number" falls flat.

As a closing comment, I just want to ask the makers and promoters of this film: "You say all the babas or faiths have wrong numbers to reach out to God. Do you have the right number to contact your version of God? If yes, put it in public. Of no, then let the people maintain their beliefs instead of dismissing their Gods."




With love.. Anil