Indiana Jones and The Kingdom OF the crystal skull

Doctor Indiana Jones is back! And he is still afraid of snakes! That apart; it is a fantastic comeback.

Spoiler warning

World War 2 is over. The Germans have been replaced by the Russians; KGB agents are all over the place. A rising paranoia about communism sets the background for the plot.

A sword bearing KGB commander (Cate Blanchett) is after a certain lost crystal skull, restoring which will release powers unheard of. But the KGB isn’t smart enough. It needs the services of dear doctor Jones who is also hot on the trail of the skull. He doesn’t need to tell the KGB the secrets but there the KGB has him. Or rather they have his ex- girlfriend, the same girl who he walked out on after the lost ark. And along with her comes her son. Any guesses as to who the father is?? Let’s leave that there.

In a chase that runs across Peru and Mexico, Dr. Jones encounters tribal folk with poison darts, giant man-eater ants, huge waterfalls, caves and dungeons, secrets and a betrayal.

The plot is a ‘formula’ Indiana Jones. It has amazing action sequences and some good special effects. After all it is a Spielberg movie. John Williams has done the music to suit the movie.

And

Indiana Jones gets married.

We hope he doesn’t live happily ever after, for we want one more movie.

Are you listening Mr. Spielberg?

GENIE of the lamp

A magic lamp rubbed

A genie arose, spoke thus

“Make a wish and I shall grant;

Only don’t ask for love’

For if I find it, I ll keep it for myself”

And hence spoke Al,

“Seek not thee love, for

The more you look for it

The lesser you find”

Impatience struck the Genie,

Irreverence for the one who liberated

“What is it that you want?

Speak your mind.

Keep me waiting not”

Al, the brave, Al, the courageous

Looked away, Oblivion staring back

“For ages, you have been bonded

To the darkness, and now

You are impatient.

Free to go, thou are”

A thousand thunderbolts struck,

The genie cried, rivers overflowed

“For a hundred years, many a master

I have served. None spoke of freedom.

I ask for a wish to grant

You want to let me go”

The light of the lamp flickered.

Hues of darkness parted

No oil, yet the lamp shone

“What I can wish for, thou cant grant

For if I believed, I would rather believe

In god and his greatness

So widely proclaimed”

Thus spoke Al, of

The distant eyes and

All that lay beyond

“a speck of dirt is of more use

At least you walk on it.

What is my purpose then?

Oh master of the lamp?

I bow down to you

Kindly make a wish

Whatever it maybe, even

Love is not a condition”

Begged the genie of Master Al

Al, the serene, Al, the peaceful

Though not hard of hearing

Turned his ears deaf

To the pleas of the genie

“seek not thee for love, for me

But seek it for yourself

For I don’t know what it is

I have never felt it

Hate I can describe, jealousy

I can explain, greed I can understand

But love baffles.

Sometimes it is there and mostly not

Those who say it rather

Mean it not.

The rest just lie”

The flames of the lamp rose

Engulfed a brave Fly

Who had ventured too near

A martyr of foolish bravery

He lies as specks of carbon

The flames crackled and died

In rushed the genie, to the arms

Of a familiar dark

Al, the wise, Al, the man

Tossed the lamp

Back into the sea.

Indiana Jones is back : watch the trailor

CANT WAIT TO WATCH IT!









----------------
Listening to: Movie Themes - Indiana Jones
via FoxyTunes

TAJ MAHAL

The Sailor is back from A voyage to the TAJ MAHAL.
Taj mahal is huge, splendid and many other superlatives that one can think of.
After all it is, the the BIGGEST ERECTION OF A MAN FOR A WOMAN.
Jokes apart, i felt like a waste. how how how couldnt i think of doing any such thing for my people.
Ozymandias thought he would live for ever but his statue was broken, the crown shattered. but the taj mahal is a different issue. dont know when the smoke and dust of today's world is going to destroy it, but as long as it stands, the message is out in the clear. literally two eyes aint enough to see it. it is that huge. it definitely deserves to be on the list of 'wonders of the world'

But, did you know??? like the Da Vinci Code, we have The TAJ Mahal conspiracy. before anyone jumps up to refute me, disclaimer: this is The Sailor's personal opinion. arrived at the same after some researh.
the story goes thus ;

No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P. N. Oak, who believes the

whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says

the

Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz's tomb but an ancient Hindu temple palace of

Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya) . In the course of his research O

ak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from

then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle,

Badshahnama,

Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra

was taken from Jai SIngh for Mumtaz's burial . The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur

still

retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for

surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a

burial place for

dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers.

For example, Humayun,Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried

in such mansions. Oak's inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says

the term "Mahal" has never been used for a building in any Muslim countries

from Afghanisthan to Algeria. "The unusual explanation that the term Taj

Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in atleast two respects.

Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, " he writes.

Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's

name to derive the remainder as the name for the building."Taj Mahal, he

claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo Mahalaya, or Lord Shiva's Palace . Oak

also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created

by

court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists . Not a

single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates

Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by

Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a

few

samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed

that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan. European traveler Johan

Albert Mandelslo,who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's

death), describes the life of the cit y in his memoirs. But he makes no

reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an

English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the

Taj was a noteworthy building well before Shah Jahan's time.

Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies

that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple

rather

than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj ! Mahal have remained sealed

since Shah Jahan's time and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak

asserts they contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects

commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples . Fearing political

backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Prof. Oak's book

withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the

first edition with dire consequences
for further reading go here

WHAT THE SAILOR BELIEVES IS THAT, THE LAND ON WHICH THE TAJ IS BUILT, WAS INDEED TAKEN FROM A HINDU KING. IT MIGHT JUST BE A POSSIBILTY, THERE WAS A TEMPLE ON THE SAME GROUND BEFORE; A SKELETON ARCHITECTURE OF WHICH MIGHT BE RELFECTED IN THE TAJ. ALSO SOME OF THE MOTIFS AND PATTERNS ON THE WALLS ARE UN-MUGHAL LIKE. SO ONE CAN NEVER SAY...
BUT CONSPIRACY OR NOT , THE TAJ WILL CONTINUE TO INSPIRE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE

photographs courtesy PAPPU
----------------
Listening to: ALADIN- A WHOLE NEW WORLD
via FoxyTunes

goodbye

Manchinbele - Birding Haven

The reservoir stretches beyond the line of sight.

May 1^st being a holiday, Sailor and a friend hit the road for a birding expedition. The destination: Manchinbele reservoir.

The previous afternoon was spent leafing through blogs of people who have been there. Finally it was Wikimapia to the rescue. About ten kilometres down the Bangalore Mysore highway, there appears Rajarajeshwari Dental College on the right side. Immediately after it, there is a small right turn. This leads to The Big Banyan Tree. From there, about 10 km down a horrible road; the reservoir appears out of nowhere. That’s the effect of the bad roads and the summer.

So we got there and my friend, an avid photographer that he is, got in to his act. This place is a haven for birding. (And for picnics too, but we didn’t go there for one) There is a road which leads right up to the edge of the reservoir, running all way along the edge.

Seated on a rocky perch, looking at the water birds, we heard a cry. It turned out to be a lapwing; a solitary lapwing probably calling out to its mate (yep, it is mating season in bird land). We had to look away when a huge bunch of cormorants flew past us in formation and settled in the water. They looked like a squadron of fighter jets practicing their moves. Then there were the herons, looking out into the reservoir as if in deep contemplation about life and its meaning.

We moved away to another place, disturbing quite a few rock lizards which were sunbathing. A speck of white flashed past us. I thought it was a butterfly. It turned out to be a speckled kingfisher, which flapped around a bit and started to hover around a point. After almost half a minute, he went whoosh and splash. Straight into the water, a plunging dive and a fish in his mouth; he flew away.

We decided to climb the hillock which surrounds the reservoir. So my friend and I took different directions; him shooting away on the camera and me peering into the binoculars. After walking up for a few minutes, I reached a clearing. Robins, swallows, bee-eaters, prinias, bulbuls, babblers, drongos and many birds which I couldn’t identify were just flying around. I was lost in marvel, when a rustling in the bushes nearby startled me.

I went around investigating, half wishing my friend to be with me. I was scared, only a wee bit. Soon I had to laugh at myself. A pair of wild hares, who were probably making out, ran out and disappeared. I didn’t chase them. My friend was calling out for me.

From the top of the hillock, we could hear a voice which was singing. It came from the direction of the reservoir. Looking into the binoculars, I spotted a fisherman, a mere speck on the huge blue reservoir, singing away to glory. In his frail coracle, he seemed to be having a jolly good time all by himself. We watched him drift to the other end of the place beyond our line of sight.

The sun rose higher and higher and we decided to make a move. We settled down under a tree, and waited for the birds to come there. We weren’t disappointed.

A quick snack, smokes and many photographs later we were on the go. On the way back, we chanced by a pond. A small pond it was and a definite blue kingfisher territory. So we settled down in the shade. Before long, a bright blue flitted past us. Our man, the kingfisher paid us visit acknowledging our presence. We also spotted a drongo chasing a jungle crow for intrusion and a noisy family of white breasted water hens.

I don’t want to leave yet. The reservoir looks beautiful. But we better get home before the sun reaches his peak. As we leave, I turn back for one last look. (I will be back for sure).

A roller, resplendent in its bright blue and orange colours, sat on the electric cables and spread out its wings as if to say goodbye.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY: SUMAN KUMAR

----------------
Listening to: Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song
via FoxyTunes