My Son Failed By An Inch : Chapter 11

Yes Santo, I will read it later

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It was six in the morning and I was sitting there, watching the first ray of light pierce the clouds that ominously blanketed the sky and was praying to the Lord hoping he would give me a ray of hope and clear the clouds of despair and desolation that have clustered in my mind. I remember telling Santo, “Santo, you must know that there shall be times when things go wrong. It is the Lord who reminds you of what your strength is. Your faith in him will only make you stronger.”

I have trusted Him for many years. This time, things went awfully wrong. But I only get weaker with time. He must have given up on me too. That is no worry……
“But please Lord, don’t give up on Santo. He’s your child now, an orphan. I beg you to
look after him as I may not be around for long. My eyes carry bags in them and my
limbs can’t move. I am starting to wither and surrender to age. As you feed on my soul, please nourish Santo’s. I beg you from the bottom my heart.”

The Ostracized Lady

In the mirthful Mahabharata,you surely must have explicated,

The despoiled Draupadi with her five consorts,

Had an odious outing, a demoralizing one indeed!

Oh! Poor woman! A tribulation of sorts!

"What's not alluded to in Mahabharata,you can never find in Bharata."

So veracious yet so vexatious,

Is this a democracy where the weaker sex is exploited?

Don't let her suffer! We ought to be dissentious!

Evolution Of Comics Through The Ages : The 1980s

Jason Shayer

Jason Shayer is an expert in the field of Marvel and DC Comics. He has half a dozen short story credits and is a regular contributor to Back Issue! magazine. You an find him nostalgically revisiting the 1980s in his Blogs - Marvel 1980s and DC 1980s

Over the last 75 years, numerous surges and retreats have affected the comic book industry, both creatively and financially. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Silver Age of comic books heralded a successful surge as DC Comics rebooted several of their Golden Age characters and Marvel Comics adopted a fresh, new character-driven approach.

Marvel Comics experimented outside the super-hero genre in the 1970s, successfully tapping into the fantasy genre with Conan the Barbarian and the horror genre with Tomb of Dracula. In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics legendary artist Jack Kirby defected to the competition, DC Comics and created the Fourth World line of books, featuring the Forever People, Mister Miracle and the New Gods.

In the late 1970s, Jim Shooter became the editor-in-chief for Marvel Comics and ushered in what I would argue was the most significant surge of creativity since the Silver Age explosion. We had Frank Miller on Daredevil, Walt Simonson on The Mighty Thor, Chris Claremont and John Byrne on the Uncanny X-Men, John Byrne on the Fantastic Four, Roger Stern and John Buscema on the Mighty Avengers, Roger Stern and John Romita Jr. on Amazing Spider-Man, and Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz on Moon Knight  just to name a handful. My personal bias is showing through here, but that sheer creative energy is difficult to match.

Behind Blue Eyes

When I embarked on the journey called life,

On a rainy Friday morning of July,

Joyous people began entering the site of joy,

Oh! How they flattered my mother!!

"He'll grow up and revolutionize the world",some said,

While others found my semblance appealing,

"His jolly face resembles that of baby Krishna of Vrindavan."

Delhi Metro Diaries

Amazing things tend to happen at the most unlikely places if you just have a knack for looking around. Maybe you don't even have to look around and the situation shall just present itself to you as I found out that day at Rajiv Chowk.

As I was getting onto a metro towards Sikenderpur, I had no idea which direction I should head to, so instead of referring to the Delhi Metro Map, I popped this question to the old man wearing a white sprawling kurta and donning a huge military moustache. He smiled and commented that he was heading the same direction as well and that we should take the metro towards Huda City Centre. I was pretty happy and congratulated myself for saving the time of breaking out of the line and go looking for the map; little did I know that I was going to learn a very important metro lesson in my life.

My Son Failed By An Inch : Chapter 10

The Aftershock

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The phone rang…

I was unsure if I had the courage to break his mother’s death to him and if this was a good idea. A famous and fierce voice greeted me and left me guessing…it was Danilo Mendes was on the phone…
“Hello” I said in a shivering tone.

“I am sorry sir, Santo had an accident. I request you to come here immediately.”
I stood there in daze and couldn’t hold the phone as it was heavier than my heart and let it slip through. Down on my knees, my body felt paralyzed and I could not speak.

Soon, I landed in Madrid, which seemed a hostile place like never before. It was snowing and the sky was as black as a skillet. Tears froze in my eyes as I gathered strength and wished he’d be okay. I took a taxi to the hospital where he was admitted and hurried through the media and fans with a stick that no longer bore my burden and started to crack. Danilo was there and he spoke to me about how all this happened. 

Director's Cut - 50 Major Film Makers Of The Modern Era by M.K. Raghavendra

Harsha Vardhan Reddy

Harsha is a final year student of Mechanical Engineering at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus. He has led various student initiatives in the past three years in Pilani and has just finished his summer internship at Accenture Management Consulting. He was also the head of AIESEC chapter at BITS Pilani.

A book by M.K. Raghavendra is bound to be good. Being a national award winning film critic, he is a well known researcher and has written extensively on the World and Indian cinema industry.

In this book he has delved into the lives of the 50 greatest film-makers of all time and has shared short but precise and concise essays about them. It represents the approach to film criticism and research that all the idealists out there talk about. Films are much more than a medium of entertainment and critics should not view them in separation of the social, political, historical and economic factors inevitably associated with any industry. Mr. Raghavendra takes a scientific and holistic approach in helping the reader to understand the evolution of different film makers. I am especially impressed with his choice of film makers which represents a very diverse and exciting composition.