Meandering Minds #1 - (For Members Only) - Page 104

Reporting from Shillong...

Misti & Aruna,  you were right.  This area is beautiful.  The only drawback so far is internet connection.  It does not work in this area very well.  In some sense, it is good because I don't even feel like browsing.

Watched a short film made by Sujoy Ghosh. Its in bengali but has subtitles. So sharing it. Its an interesting twist on the story of Ahilya. 

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV87uCC6FXs[/YOUTUBE]

Misti,  watched Ahilya.  I had read reviews of this short movie in India too.  So was curious to see.  Thanks for the link.  I liked the different take where Indra is the one who gets punished and she is not the victim but the seductress instead.  Radhika was so apt for this role.   

Most of the interpretations have always shown it as a rape where Indra got minimal punishment and Ahilya the victim truly suffered.

 

Watching "historicals" on Hindi TV is quite educational.  I was flipping channels and caught 10 minutes of Jodha Akbar.  So this serial is still there.  I thought it must have ended by now.  Anyway, no Salim or Anarkali.  Instead there were two British villains who had kidnapped Akbar and were trying to poison him.  Jodha dresses up as Banjaran and dances her way to one British villain who tries to molest her.  She immediately frightens him to death by speaking modern English and telling him imperially to not dare touch her even one hair because she was Mughal empress #1.  When the British guy gets even more excited at the prospect of sleeping with Akbar's main queen, she stabs him.  After that I changed the channel.

Another day, saw Maharana Pratap for one minute.  Flipped the channel because the actor playing Akbar was replaced.  In any case, everyone had just one expression on their face - that of dukhi aatma.  

Finally, the only "historical" show that I do watch from time to time ----Ashok.  The main interesting character of the show - Justin is now gone.  Helena found out that Siamik was his and Noor's son.  Justin decided to become the serial heroine for the day and decided to sacrifice his life to save his mother's skin and to make sure both Noor's and Helen's dream come true - that of making 1/2 Persian, 1/4 Greek and 1/4 Indian Siamik the next Maurya king.  So Noor's and Justin's love story was destroyed by CVs to keep Helena and Noor as vamps.  Helena slit her son's throat in public to convince dumbo Bindusar and his dumb followers that she is devi.  Chanakya lost his brains and now Ashok is the one who has remaining brains.  For last six months, the CVs are dangling the carrot of Bindu finding out Ashok is his son and Dharma is his queen who was almost murdered by Greeks & Persians.  But everytime Chanakya decided that the time is not right for the big disclosure.  Well he is right as ratings are quite high.  So until the TRPs go down or first 500 episodes are telecasted, this carrot will keep on dangling in front of viewers.

In any case, Ashoka is now superkid and is hero of Ramayan, Mahabharat and all Greek tales.  He has both brains and brawn and he also follows his mother's principles.  Dharma does two things well - giving lectures and sprinting.  Nobody can defeat her in 100 meters or marathons.  She has two principles in life that she maintains very religiously.  That she shall not lie and Ashok shall not kill.  Chanakya has a weakness for Dharma's lectures.  So all his spy power is used to maintain Dharma's principles.  Just when she is in situations where she has to lie or get exposed, Chanakya's spies come and lie for her.  Similarly just when Ashok has to be captured or he has to kill, either Ashok's friends or Chanakya's spies come to kill for Ashok.  Rest of the time, Ashok manages to defeat armies of people without even shedding a drop of blood of his enemies.

There was whole Lakshagrah and Greek's treachery sequence where the main outcome was Bindu's realization that he was dumb.  Thankfully, Chanakya did not contradict him and silently agreed with him.  Then Bindu managed to get some brains for few seconds but promptly lost them when Helena slit Justin's throat.  Now he is even more dumb than he was before.  Dharma's lectures have increased where she is now taking the cause of capital punishment.  Ashok is so good and peaceful where it does not seem that he can even kill a fly let alone his evil brothers or innocent people of Kalinga.  Wonder how he would do that in future.  Maybe his evil brothers would kill Kalingians and themselves and then be able to put a blame on Ashok.  

Update:  Chanakya has got back some of his brains today.  Wonder how long will they last.  Dharma's lectures were absent for a day or so.  Ashok has finally figured out that he is the chosen one - that is, he is the prince.  Bindu though remains dumb.  Greeks and Persians are now united against Indians though Greeks have all the brains and Persians are dumb ones.  Noor and Helena have become best buddies and so have Selecus and Mir.  Could they have not done it prior to Justin's murder?  However, the object of their obsession - Siamik is still Ashok's BFF.  And Sushim's ex-girlfriend is developing a crush on Ashok.  But now her dumbo fighter mother has got her engaged to Sushim.   

Now months later after throwing 2000 carrots,  finally Ashoka knows that Bindu is his dumb though "heart of gold" father and his mother the servant cum doctor is the queen bee.  Still Bindu and his dumbo enemies have no clue.  Chanakya keeps on giving hints that he would disclose everything to emperor, but when it is time to do so stops anybody and everybody by saying that it is not "uchit samay" (right time) to disclose the truth.  That the truth if disclosed at an inappropriate time can create havoc [with TRPs].  So somebody wrote this:

http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4449391

First it was Radhe Ma and now it is Indrani Mukherjea (at least this is one way her last name was spelled).  Though I have to confess that I am liking Radhe Ma and all her red outfits...  As far as Indrani is concerned, her family tree is more complicated than any Math puzzle.

First so much drama going on in Indian news that Indian soaps seem now less dramatic.  MSG (Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim or whatever the full name is) is back with second movie.  So I guess the first movie was a hit.  Also it seems that he is going to be a contestant on Big Boss though Radhe Ma has declined to participate.  Just when I finally decided to start watching Big Boss.  I guess now I have to wait for Big Boss 10 to have my watching debut for the show.  Wonder who is going to be in charge this time - Salman or Farha?

Now back to Indian soaps.  Everything else is boring.  The new flavor of Indian soaps is that instead of bride getting switched under the ghungat (veil), it is now groom being switched or almost switched under the sehra. Thanks to my mother,  I have now seen/heard of at least four soaps where such a thing happened or almost happened - different height, weight or glimpses of faces under sehra aside.

So only Ashoka is holding my interest so far.  The partial uchit samay (right time) came and now one villain - dumbo Mir is exposed while the main vamp - Helena remains hidden as usual.  First she was pretending to be doting step mama to Bindu and now she is additional pretending to be doting step dadi to kiddie Ashok.  So Chanakya came up with his "brilliant" plan to expose Mir and to reveal the truth to dumbo Bindu that he has a worthy heir who would be famous through ages and ages.  Of course the brilliant plan also involved Ashoka being thrown from the tower (higher than Tokyo Skytree) and climbing back from it to save his mother from villain Mir.

Now his dumbo mother Dharma would have still got him killed with her ahimsa (non-violence) lecture in the middle of fight if it was not for dumb Mir.  Here the King (Bindu) and Commander in chief (Mir) are equally dumb.  So Mir instead of inserting sword in Ashok throws him off the tower.  Then he goes and gloats in front of Dharma, giving plenty of time to Ashok to climb back.  Then after the most peaceful in the world Dharma (who would give lectures to be even tolerant towards ISIS) causes Ashoka to be defeated, he starts having chat with mother/son long enough for even dumbo Bindu to come and play hero.  Of course, once Bindu partially defeats Mir, he decides to have a family reunion in middle of the fight. 

But this family reunion has a happy ending as it gives Bindu to stop Mir from killing the family by grabbing his sword with the bare hand, getting enough blood to fill Dharma's maang (hence remarrying her) and making Ashok become all sentimental at seeing this soulful love.  

The fight was really entertaining.  Despite Dharma's lectures, Bindu kills the side vamp Queen Niharika (assistant of Mir & Helena and mother of Ashok's future girl friend or stalker Ahankara).  The killing makes him so hungry that before revealing the truth to public, he decides to have lunch with Dharma and Ashok.  Dharma too forgets her repulsion to killings and happily feeds him ladoos for the successful hunting.  

Eventually, the trio comes to court where the remaining evil Maurya family is gathered.  The camera zooms twenty times on each shocked face at the arrival of new heir Ashok.  

To be continued from this point next time...