INTERSTELLAR MOVIE REVIEW

"We have always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible and we count these moments, these moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we have lost all that, or perhaps we have just forgotten that we are still the pioneers, and we have barely begun; and that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us" The movie is a must must must watch, Do anything... but watch it (I am planning to, shortly).
Well honestly the movie has its flaws and isn't without faults.. Gravity was lot more accurate a movie but then "Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space." and though the time and space here have been flawed but the portrayal of love has been bang on. Christopher Nolan has created something and in fact another masterpiece out of sheer imaginations and it's brilliant. So you have to keep your logics a little aside, I know you 'll have some questions in your mind after watching this one. But when we watch something as shitty as Happy New Year and come out happily of the cinema hall, this one deserves to be spared on that front. Watch it not for its technical brilliance that leaves you awestruck, nor because you appreciate director and his ability to conjure up a masterpiece out of his imagination but because you are a believer, and you believe in the unending quest of human race to know and discover the unknown and to unfold the great mysteries of the mysterious nature and because director is a believer too because he believes  that “we got this far, further than any human in history.” and the only way ahead is the way that takes us farther

VERDICT: 4*
NOTE: Having not watched it myself the credits for this review go to a friend who took the pains of writing this to me and of course our own IMDb.
PS: No spoilers here!!

OF INSOMNIA AND INSOMNIACS (An Anthology)

For us, the Insomniacs, sleep is a sort of necessary evil. In fact at times, we feel that its not just an evil but a little slice of death and we simply can not express how much we loathe it! We are aware that we are trading on a delicate ground, that our failure to sleep might any day cross over into a failure to thrive. Still we remain too attached to the narratives of the day to want to let it go. Wakefulness to us is enchanting, a tableau vivant fabulously embroidered with incidents, plots and characters and we know that so long as one is awake, these narratives remain open, the treads of life continue to spin in more or less limitless combinations.! Another view that some of our friends from the same fraternity, the fraternity of insomniacs, hold is that if we go to sleep, it would be tomorrow, so we decide no matter how tired, no matter how incoherent we are, we can skip on hour more of sleep and live!!     

OF BEAUTY AND BEAUTY STANDARDS!

“IN NATURE, NOTHING IS PERFECT AND 

EVERYTHING IS PERFECT. 

TREES CAN BE CONTORTED, BENT IN WEIRD WAYS, 

AND THEY ARE STILL BEAUTIFUL”

The definition of “what is beautiful?” shifts as society’s values change. There has never been, and perhaps never will be, a standard that will last for generations. As evident from the books of History, the Greek philosophers were the first people who asked what makes a person beautiful. Plato, who saw beauty as a result of symmetry and harmony, created the “golden proportion” in which, among other things, the ideal face width was considered as representing two thirds of its length, and the face must be perfectly symmetrical. Although I respect philosophers and their works but I think this is one of the works of philosophers those I strongly disapprove of, because what follows are disastrous consequences of the work mentioned above.Over the centuries, we have mauled and manipulated just about every body part - lips, eyes, ears, waists, skulls, foreheads, stomachs, breasts and feet - that did not fit into the cookie-cutter ideal of a particular era's idea of beauty and perfection, and to do the same we have been constantly tyrannizing and punishing our bodies.

As Professor Alma Gottlieb points out Barbie dolls have had a far reaching impact on young girls, and the statistics say that 80 percent of girls under the age of 13 diet in order to “look like Barbie.” The story doesn’t end here but goes a very long way; and a strange custom in Burma speaks loudly for this fact. The Padaung women  of Burma use brass neck coils which is among the most extreme mechanisms for the creation of a longer neck. This is achieved by young Padaung girls being fitted with metal coils from the young age of six! the coils are made up of two pieces, the bottom piece has a counterweight at the spine and widens over the collarbone, the neck coil piece is separate and looks like a cylinder that encases the neck. It is not actually possible for the vertebrae to be extended or stretched, the effect is actually achieved by redirecting the collarbone, which can be seen in the X-rays below. It is a lifetime commitment and not at all pain free.

During the Renaissance, well-born European women plucked out hairs, one by one, from their natural hairline all the way back to the crowns of their heads, to give them the high rounded foreheads thought to be beautiful at the time. Those who didn't want to resort to plucking used poultices of vinegar mixed with cat dung or quick-lime. The latter often removed some of the skin as well as the hair.

The pains taken to achieve beauty mentioned above are still the choices you make on your own however setting the standards on the basis of color complexions is even more disgusting. It is like someone coming and telling you that “You aren’t beautiful because you are born Black!” Imagine a black girl, a girl who is still in her tender years being teased and taunted about her night shaded skin, won’t she feel unbeautiful? Would she ever be able to garner that self respect for herself that a girl with pale skin and similar abilities has?

So the question those remain are can’t we see how fickle and foolishly defined are the standards and definition of beauty? Who decides and defines the beauty standard? Why do we let them? What if we’re already beautiful, but can’t see it because we’re blinded by all the lies that tell us we aren’t? What if we decided to see the good and the beautiful in all of us instead of competing for some arbitrary standard set by someone trying to make money?

The solution to this all is we must understand that we simply can’t rely on how we look to sustain. What does sustain us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for ourselves and for those around us. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul. If we take this by heart I think world would be a little better and little more peaceful place to live and we will enjoy our limited time on the sphere a little more, being comfortable in our own skins and in our own ways!