The Year is New, but are Your Priorities?

Everyone’s excited about the new year that began on January 1^st. Excited about a new beginning, a new resolution, a new twist to lie, a promise to oneself, new changes, new attitudes, new, new, new…

But is that really the case?

Do we really look forward to a new year or look back and enjoy the memories of milestones past. Are we just content to look back and not bother much about what lies ahead?

Image Courtesy: discussionist.com

If yes, then why rejoice for all the things accomplished at the end of this calendar year? Why not think of what didn’t happen this year? Why not think of what more could have been done this year? Why not reflect upon things that still require attention?

Some examples if you please.

Everyone in India went gaga over the fact that the country now has 1 billion telecom users. Yay! The country is now connected, right?

But what about the fact that India’s population is 1.2 billion, which leaves about 0.2 billion people still without a phone?

And what about the fact that there are 4 billion people in the world still not connected to the internet according to CNN Money? That’s four times the people who just use telecom services in India.

How about the 1.6 billion people in the world who have no sort of electricity at all if the World Bank is to be believed? How come these people don’t have a light in their homes this new year while we celebrate?

But the best and most apt comparison is that the United Nations claims there are 1 billion people in the world who defecate in the open even today. Well, how about that? What about them?

If you need to think, think of what is still left to do instead of lying back and basking in the glory of things already achieved. These are the things that need to be done this year.

Make a promise to help in whatever little way you can, for every small measure helps in making this world in the words of the immortal Michael Jackson:

A better place for you and for me and the entire human race…

Owning up to the Real Issues at Hand

We see and are a part of a number of things that are wrong in society in daily life. We want to make them better, we want to be better as a civilization and we strive towards that very common goal with the rest of humanity.

But we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture either by quickly finding someone to blame or getting caught up in unnecessary nuances that hide the real issue, which is then left to stagnate and dealt with at a later date.

Image Courtesy: pinterest.com

These are the issues that really need to be dealt with, the crux of the matter, the questions we should really be asking. Divided by categories, here are the real issues and their tangents we have been obsessing over.

Crime

Radhe Maa in a skirt or Radhe Maa abetting suicide

The self-styled ‘Godwoman’ known as Radha Maacame into the news recently for her apparently racy photos in which she is wearing a short skirt or a dress. Although the real issue of her involvement in the death of a woman in a dowry case came to light, everyone was obsessed more about her short skirt than her abetment of suicide. That says more than one thing about the Indian mindset.

Defence

Japan’s new defence bill or Chinese aggression in South Asia

Everyone, from pacifists, to students, to academicians, to the common people are opposing a bill cleared by the lower house of Japanese parliament that will allow their military to help their allies fight threats. This means, Japanese forces will once again be able to deploy beyond their shores. What is not being taken into consideration however, is the Chinese aggression in the South China Sea that is taking a turn for the worse and Japanese self-defence may be reliant on reciprocation of the same to its allies.

Social Issue

Politics or Human Rights in the Israel-Palestine conflict

Political deadlock between Israel and Palestine seems to have become a permanent feature for that part of the world. With uncompromising parties on both sides giving no room for a peaceful reconciliation, the conflict seems in no hurry to end. However, human rights abuses, both by militant groups as well as police forces seem to be sidelined in favour of sovereign territorial disputes, settlements and violence on the streets.

Culture & Heritage

Protecting Monuments or Stopping Conflict

Cultural heritage all over the world is in constant danger of being enveloped into the conflicts that result in their unnecessary destruction or the threat thereof. The destruction f the Bamiyan Buddhas (Afghanistan), the looting of Iraqi national museum (Iraq), the allegations of the Taj Mahal being a temple (India) and the threat to Palmyra’s ruins (Syria) is very real and disheartening. Religious intolerance and conflict will continue to exist till there is a shift in mindset or in vested interests, but heritage will not come back once it is destroyed.

Education

The Porn Ban or the need for Sex Education

Amidst the uproar on whether the Indian government has any right to tell its citizens what to watch on the internet due to them banning over 800 porn sites, the real point of sex education and its despondent state in Indian education has been lost. The government has cited immorality as its feeble excuse to try to get away with its regressive policy but all everyone can be bothered with is the right to watch porn. What about the real bad effects it has on children? The answer is lost in the echoes of morality, decency and the freedom of the internet.

Religion

Fanaticism or Blame Game

Religious fanaticism exists in almost every religion and even examples seem unnecessary in this case. How much ever one tries to deny it, everyone knows that fringe elements exist in every religion, the people who are either too naïve to figure out that they are pawns in a bigger game and those who do so for their own vested interests. But popular concentration seems to be on placing the blame not on these elements alone but on a broader spectrum of people, most of whom abhor these elements and wish to see them wiped out as much as any sensible human being.

Time for a reality Check, maybe?

Hence, to say then that we aren’t actually facing up to the real threat wouldn’t be much of an overstatement. Time to see things in a broader perspective, don’t you think?

Don’t Spit in your Boss’ Coffee Maybe?

Internships are prerequisites for jobs in India today. Whether you attribute this trend to increase in competitiveness or blame it on overpopulation, internships have entrenched themselves as precursors to jobs in every field today.

Medicine, law, journalism, IT and in fact every private sector job opening requires the completion of one or more internships before the offer of a job comes your way.

I know this because I interned at two national newspapers, two magazines, a regional television news channel, a web news channel and a Public Relations agency before landing my first job. That’s seven internships in five years of my under-graduate and post-graduate studies.

Of the seven internships listed above, I had a disappointing experience at only one. And this too was only because my potential wasn’t fully realized due to mismanagement and faulty delegation of authority. This account may sound one sided but it is diluted by the fact that I received recommendations by every other place I went to. You see, that’s why I actually have a job as a journalist today.

Bad experiences are part of internships but one has to learn not to overreact to them in the spectacular way that this person has, whose note to his/her boss speaks of unmitigated hatred and revenge for unrealized potential.

Image Courtesy: youthconnect.in

Read about why you shouldn’t overreact to your Boss and just suck it up or quit the internship instead of making a mistake that jeopardizes your career in the field. The entire opinion piece is here on the Youth Connect magazine: [He reacted to his bad internship in the worst way possible. Here is why it is better to suck it up]

End of Two Years - Not with a Whimper, but a Bang

This reversal of T S Eliot’s famous lines from ‘The Hollow Men’ is the perfect way to describe how this blog completes two years today. And it isn’t the end just yet; I believe this is just the beginning of my long relationship with writing. It has only been in this second year that I’ve really flourished in the Blogosphere and ventured into new territory.

Triumphs like reaching out to 200 followers on Facebook, 35,000 page views on the blog, 151 posts, 2,500 (the highest) views ever in a month and 40 followers on the blog itself are things I’m proud to announce this year.

I almost feel like a CEO presenting the statistics of the last financial year to eager investors. I know that these numbers make no difference to those who read my work on a regular basis. These facts are also not because I want to impress first time visitors, I’m sure it makes no difference to them as well. However, it is these small things that make me realize how much the blog, my writing, my readers and I have grown in the past year.

This is one of those times when I’m truly impressed by my own perseverance. And believe me when I say that perseverance isn’t one of my strong suites, I can’t stress that enough. But blogging over these two years has probably been the best outlet my passion has had in recent times. Writing for other websites, meeting new people, reading fantastic authors and trying to match up to the level of fellow bloggers has been as exhilarating a challenge as I’ve ever faced.

Dabbling with various forms of writing has expanded my horizons and placed such knowledge into my hands as one can receive only by staring at oneself in the mirror that shows one’s soul. It has helped me unravel the mysteries of the workings of the world and given me exposure to how fast the world is changing around us at this very instant. It has provoked… enlightenment.

My readers, who have suffered the most at my hands are the ones I have most to thank for they are my inspiration, the ones who have placed their expectation in me to deliver the best of the best. What more can one ask for? It is only through meaningful conversations, the endless debates and the views of the world that have helped my work my gears to bring out my twisted version of what conspires around us.

After two years, I’m not tired, I’m not weary and I’m not ready to give up. I’m ready to drive by this milestone and begin the next lap of this incredible race. Hope to have you by my side and in my ear, edging me on…

I Am Possessed

It has been free couple of weeks for me with nothing to do except sitting around all day, sleep, eat, watch a movie or two, surf the net and sleep some more because college is out. They have given us something they call vacation and something I call a waste of my time. Instead of doing something worthwhile like maybe a project or analysis of something in the field, they have opted to give us some time off to relax. Well that wasn't exactly their intention, but that is what I’m doing and it’s driving me insane.

The vicious circle of Food-Television-Food-Internet-Food-Sleep is like a never ending black hole that is pulling me infinitely into itself. It is like the drunken stupor that doesn't see the bottom of the bottle, it is the quicksand that is pulling my very being into its abyss, it is that storm in which my senses have stopped working, it is that maelstrom from which I see no hope and it is that pit of hell from where there seems to be no salvation.

To have no set objective for the next day is indeed a dangerous place to be in and I know it because it does feel like everything is pointless and that I might as well watch another movie than try doing something worthwhile like writing this blog post.

Image Courtesy: Google Images.

I am like one possessed. IT feels like a parasite growing inside me, constricting my lungs and making a little place for itself; little by little. IT thinks I do not notice and till yesterday, IT might have been right, but now I know that IT is in me and I know ITS name; it is SLOTH. This being has permeated my insides in such a way that it feels like there is no escape. Even though I know that I will eventually do something, the here and now frightens me.

At this very moment, IT knows that I’m doing something and that is giving IT pain. IT cannot bear to see me working and I feel like just putting my laptop aside and slipping away into blessed oblivion until sundown. IT wants me to just lie down and close my eyes which are strained by the harsh light in my laptop and I feel the urge to heed IT but then I steel my resolve and continue in the hope that those who read of my plight do not let themselves fall wherein I've fallen and beware that every moment they do nothing is a moment where IT is waiting for you to fall into ITS outstretched tentacles. Waiting like the silent predator it is, for you to give yourself up willingly and consume your will to do anything at all.

Beware! For IT is always watching from the darkest corner of your soul, the part of you that wants to stop living the dog’s life and just relax. It is there, just waiting for you to take one wrong step and then IT will pounce, like a tiger upon a gazelle; and it will be only with immense determination that you will be able to escape its grasp.

Run little gazelle, run…

Brandy, Whiskey & all that… FOR ALL!

Well, I wish that was possible, because in that case I’d hand out a glass to each one of my readers and then clink them to the resounding clamour of ‘cheers’ from all around. Today, my blog turns ONE.

It is quite an achievement for me that this blog managed to survive for a year. That been said, it is also an achievement that I’m writing my 100^th post on this day. It would hardly have been conceivable to me that I could actually manage this, had someone used this line to exhort me to write when I began. But I’m glad I did, because this day is a feeling I’ve had only twice as yet; the first was when I finished school and the second was when I completed my graduation.

Image Courtesy: Google Images.

All those who have followed my writing since the inception of this here blog, they will probably know that I started it just because I was getting bored at home and staring at a four month long vacation with absolutely nothing to do except for eating and watching what I like to call ‘my big ass’ TV. And so began this incredible journey of jotting down my feelings, my experiences and sharing those of others in the blogging world and outside of it. It was the first time that I came to realize the responsibility of being a writer and the joy of sharing my work with those who really want to read it.

It was somewhere around the six month period when I first experienced ‘writer’s block.’ I no longer knew what to write and I’d already exhausted all that I wanted to put out. But then it was this self-same blog that helped me realize what I wanted to write. Well, the blog and some people:

Namrota Mazumdar who found a novel way to keep me on the keyboard in times I didn’t feel I could write something worthwhile; she started poking me on Facebook and this inconspicuous yet highly effective nudging gave me the motivation to write again.

Then there was Sumedha Sharma who connected with me on a more professional and personal level and gave me newer insights into things one might just write off as normal.

Shruti Chaturvedi was I think my original inspiration to start the blog and it was she who helped me take my baby steps in the Blogosphere.

Farheen Raaj, one of my most intriguing and talented juniors at college is the one person younger to me whose opinion really matters.

My readers, especially those who commented and reviewed my work have also been my constant critics and support who helped me write better. A few of these people off the top of my head are Naini Khajanchi, Trisha Das, Debjani Ghosh, Dr. Shirish Kashikar and all those who have been reading but not let me know of their presence.

I’ve had inspiration from many great writers in the blogging world and to name all of them would take another post altogether, but chief among them are Sakshi Nanda, Tomichan Matheikal and Nabanita Dhar.

Thank you all very much and all those whom I’ve forgotten to mention.

Yours, in writing,

Brendan-Anton Raphael Dabhi.

The Prodigal Reader...

Yours truly has been an avid reader for as long as he can remember.

Well, that’s what happens when one receives books for birthdays, books for Christmas, books for Diwali, books for Eid and more books in the vacations.  So basically, my people hadn't heard of video-games, movies, cricket bats and keyboards. No, books were the objects that I was surrounded with and every morning, I had to be dug out from under the books that had overflowed off my shelf and table, thereby coming to rest on my bed.

Apart from books that I received as gifts, I also got hand-me-downs from my older cousins. In fact, some of these books were so old that they had been passed down from previous generations. I also got bought books in book fairs and from salesmen and government office sales. I still remember the time when I entered a Crossword shop for the first time. Yes, exactly. I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. That day, my cousin bought me my first set of English Classics. It was the day I decided to graduate in English Literature (and I did).

But lately, there seemed to be a disconnect from books, I know not why. Living way from my books and multiplication of workload had driven me far from being able to read anything worthwhile. It so happened that my wish list of books started growing much faster than I could obtain and read them. My ledger was showing red for the first time. Of course, I had books stored in my computer, a lot of them. I still do, but I just do not enjoy reading them in soft copies, whatever their merits. Till I get the feel of a book in my hands, smell the musty pages, straighten the dog-eared pages and use a book mark, I cannot bring myself to read anything. Is that weird? Is it?

Well, the point is that now I've come back home for my semester break, I've reclaimed the library card that my mother was putting to good use. I've also cleaned my book shelf and taken an inventory of all the books I have and want (by the way, I collect books).

Reunited with my books, I've even abandoned my laptop and television. And as I select the book I’m going to read today, I say, “Long time, no see.”

For regular updates on this blog, you can follow its Facebook page: Brandy, Whiskey & all that...

Half a Year & Half a Century…

It is now exactly six months that I started writing this blog and although I realize that I haven’t done anything great, it has been no mean feat for me to achieve this milestone. It was a day of vacations this first of May and it is a day of vacation on this first of November that I’m penning down my 50^th blog post. And… it feels good.

When I look back at these past six months, I see how much I've grown as a writer; not only through introspection but also through what my readers feel when they read my work. I mentioned before that completing six months was no mean feat for me, I said so because I’m very fickle minded. I take interest in one thing but then tire of it and move on to something else (I should be the brand ambassador for Fasttrack). But blogging has clung to me like barnacles to ships and chewing gum to shoes, which is the only reason why I’m still here. Those who feel it will understand the strange pull of writing what you feel and waiting for others to read it, to think about it, feel what you feel and maybe, just maybe realize what made you write what has been written. It is that feeling that brings me back to my letter pad and pen no matter how busy my schedule.

However, it wasn't just the pull of blogging but also the push of a friend that helped me get here. Namrota Mazumdar has been a true friend in need by exhorting me, through a very innocuous method, to write. She has been poking me (virtually) which brings my writing to the forefront of my thought-shelf and a new piece of writing is born. Thank you Namrota.

A special thanks to all my readers and especially those who take the pain of commenting after reading my work. You give me true insight into my work and help me improve as a writer and as a prospective journalist. You are my inspiration and my motivation.

Score: Brendan Dabhi – 50* Not Out.

Light after Dark

It’s one of the best Sundays this year is going to have for me, or so I think. I can hardly believe my good fortune. I was not surprised that I didn't make it into the winner’s list at the IndiBlogger awards because I’m an infant blogger as yet but imagine my absolute delight when I realized that in lieu, I had won two other awards to make up for the earlier disappointment.

The first award of the two that I was nominated for was by Niranjan. He nominated me for the Awesome Blog Content Award.

ABC Award by Niranjan

The second award was presented to me by Namrota. She selected my first fiction story writing attempt as one of the three best that had entered her Coffee Beans Competition.

Coffee Beans Competition Award by Namrota

I’m very thankful to my two fellow-bloggers who thought I deserve these prizes. These accolades hold much importance, especially for a new blogger like myself; for only when appreciated as such, does one realize that readers like your work and you try to perform even better and in fact try even harder not to disappoint those who have come to expect something from you.

I shall strive, to the best of my ability, to serve my readers.

Yours truly,

Brendan-Anton R. Dabhi.

STOP and Think for a Moment…

I’m sure everyone has that one family member or friend that is very, very racist/chauvinist/orthodox, oh, unintentionally of course, but very much still biased towards anything and everything that does not match their standard of a normal person. This person may or not be aware of what he/she is doing but to a person who is aware of these things and is sensitive to gender, colour, race and lifestyle bias, this can be shocking, sometimes appalling and more often than you’d think – hurtful.

I have seen many people with the tendency to be insensitive towards people who society marginalizes. These incidences shock me because it’s not only that we are all human and that there should be no demarcating factor there, it is also about not trying to prove that some people are better than others. Because if one is trying to do so, Hitler is a proud man in hell. Here are some sentences that I've heard around me that have caused me to stop and evaluate for a moment, how society differentiates itself on the basis of its diversity.

“What was the name of that of that African coach? You can hardly tell those people apart!”

“You’re SO gay man…”

“So, when are you leaving for the land of our little yellow friends?”

 “You have to learn to cook. Who will feed your husband? You expect HIM to cook?”

“Yo nigga! Waddup man!”

“She’s such a slut! I saw her kissing two guys in the same week!”

“So, what caste do you belong to?”

“Hey, don’t these Chinese all look like - the same?”

“What’s your religion?”

“Dude, you’re hanging out with those goras(white people)?”

And these are just some that I vividly remember for their scathing attack on people of different nationalities, different coloured skin, women, different religions/castes, different lifestyle choices and different relationship status’. It is even more disgusting to hear these things from those who you are surrounded with. Everywhere I go, I get to hear such tripe. Is it that people think that they are perfect and that these so-called “other people” are abnormal or freaks or weird and should not be part of society?

The answer, I feel, to this dilemma is not tolerance of all people. That might be confusing since everyone nowadays seems to be advocating tolerance towards everything else. Tolerance towards other religions, tolerance towards lower caste people, tolerance towards homosexuals, tolerance towards transsexuals, tolerance towards this and tolerance towards that… The list can go on. But I wonder - Is it tolerance that we need? In fact, what is tolerance? Tolerance is the mighty responsibility of the superior people to bear with the whims and fancies of the inferior people. That’s what tolerance means. Now, do we need that? Do we need to look down on people who are a wee bit different from people in our Utopian society? Or do we need to understand that we are all equal and one is not superior over any other person.

I’m not saying that I’m totally blameless here. I look into the mirror today and I see a hypocrite. Yes, because I've laughed at some of these, I've responded to some of these and I've not bothered to rebuke people who have said these things. But in retrospect, I have felt great remorse for what I have done to encourage people who make up such stuff and I have made up my mind to help people become aware of what they are saying and why it is against humanity as a whole. This is my commitment, my contribution to the betterment of society as I see it. I hope that at least one person will someday stop and think what they just said about another human being. That will be my greatest reward.

Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow…

I have this habit of writing down the things that either bother or intrigue me and these things often come flowing out in the form of something that you might call poetry. Since I realized that I might be on to something good here, I started arranging my thoughts because poetry is not just inspiration from the muses as much as the arranging technique, vocabulary and style of the poet himself/herself; or so William Wordsworth said. It has been around six years now that I've been writing stuff but only the past three in which I've received proper guidance from my cousin and literature professors to develop a style and to stop rhyming everything that I wrote. It was only then that I really started writing stuff that other people also seemed to think was pretty OK and not the childish nursery rhymes that I used to pass out earlier.

Now I often look back at my old poems and give a little nostalgic smile at how naive and rhyme-bound I used to be. Sometimes I also curl my lips up in disgust at some of the utter tripe that I’d written. But then I feel that it’s a part of life and that evolution or growth is an endless process and I realized that every few months or years when I looked back, I found something to laugh at, in my diary. This is now clear to me that however good you think you've become or whatever height you've achieved, there’s always space to still go ahead and do something better because as a species, we are always in the search of bettering ourselves.

Every few years, something or the other becomes obsolete, so is the case with knowledge. What we know today may be proven wrong tomorrow or may be presented with improvements to it. So, it’s impossible for something to remain stagnant and be needed. For example, water that has remained stagnant for too long develops algae and fungus and can no longer be used. But flowing water keeps cleaning itself and thus is vital to majority of organisms on the planet.

Thus it is not only change that is required but what is important is progress or moving forward. Because there is nothing like standing still. You either move forwards or you move backwards, there is no other way out. You stand still and are promptly left behind by the world which is progressing at an incredible rate. Especially in the AGE OF INFORMATION that we live in. Yes, I believe that the post-war and modern age are over, we are now in the age where information is the greatest tool as well as weapon depending upon its application. Communication is the key to any and all events taking place over the world and if you were to be left behind the times in terms of information and your surroundings, you cannot cope up with the world again and all you will be able to see is it’s bumper sticker that says, “Farewell sucker!”

This is what I think about keeping up with the times. If anyone feels otherwise or wants to augment what I've written, raid the comment box!

Of Left & Right & Wrong & Right

They say, “Early to bed, early to rise…” OK I forgot the rest, but you know what I mean. But it’s getting nigh impossible for me to wake up before 9:30 in the morning because I don’t sleep before 3:00 in the night. And, I absolutely HAVE to wake up before 9:30 because my Car driving class starts then. Well, they aren't so strict about timings there so that’s cool but the horror starts after I sit in the car. I've just woken up, hurriedly worn something remotely decent while brushing my teeth, forgotten to comb my hair, with bathroom slippers on my feet, no tea in my gut and wearing the afore-mentioned Terminator shades to hide my red-shot eyes.

The instructor there at the institute changes every day so I often don’t realize who’s throwing instructions at me. This may be so either because my sleep-addled brain can’t pay attention to both, the instructor and the road or because I don’t care enough so early in the morning (without tea). You see, I’m not really a morning person. But due to my sleepiness, I've discovered my Superpowers, oh yeah! I can differentiate my driving instructors simply by the commands they issue on the road! How many people can do THAT?

So I've figured out that I’m being taught by three instructors on a daily rotational basis. Since I don’t know their names (obviously), I have made up names for them with their major characteristics.

1.)    Severus ‘Handlebar’ Snape:

So this guy comes in and says, “Start the car” in such a monotone that my hand automatically goes to the keys and as soon as the engine whirs, his hand is on the steering wheel. After that, his hand only comes off after we’re finished with the lesson. Along with the curt commands and almost dictatorial command over the pedals, I feel like I’m ‘LEARNING’ to drive the car on bloody Autopilot.

2.)    Michael ‘Pitstop’ Schumacher:

The man with the need, the NEED FOR SPEED. He just lets me pull the car out on the road and gives me free reign of the raw power beneath my legs. He sits back, turns up the volume on the stereo and asks me to hit it! This incredible teacher taught me how to brake and go without hitting stuff or rolling down slopes. He makes me stop – go – stop – go and then vroooooom… to the end of the road. Basically, I like him… a Lot.

3.)    Akshay ‘Joker’ Kumar:

Then there is the man who never stops talking and cracking jokes that only he understands and laughs on while I try with all my patience not to drive the car into a tree or the back of a truck or into a wall. While he’s not joking or spitting out of the window, he tells me to stay left, once even when there was a bulldozer coming up the wrong way. I swung into the fast lane anyway to avoid turning into bread and just missed being hit by a trailer from the other side. We had to stop while he took a moment to compose himself. He’ll never joke about THAT, I bet!

So, this is how I've been starting my mornings since the last week and will continue this routine for the next two. Hope my adventures continue to get even more interesting…

Oppa Terminator Style

I recently had my eyesight corrected through LASIK, i.e..  lens correction through laser. And for the next 15 days I had to roam about with dark shades even in the house, so as to protect my now-sensitive eyes from any damage. This was a great pain because even though you get used to them, wearing shades for the whole day and even while sleeping, is a bit over the top. But anyway, I bore that nonsense and now I'm spectacle free for the rest of my life after 16 years of constant companionship.

So, yesterday Dad took me shopping for all the new stuff I needed and after we’d bought the clothes and shoes and other things, I reminded Dad that I needed to buy my first ever pair of shades(Having acquired heavy-duty spectacles at a very tender age). And so we went to our regular optician and he began showing us a variety of goggles that had me completely confused as to which ones to buy. But as I was trying two of the shortlisted ones, Dad commented that they made me look like the villain robot T1000 from the movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Sure enough, I looked into the mirror and voilà!  I was a futuristic mimetic alloy sentient being come to buy some cool shades. And my choice was made! Obviously, I wasn't going to buy anything else that probably made me look like Salman Khan from the movie Dabbang. Come on, if somebody gave YOU a choice, look like a futuristic robot capable of changing shape or look like a buffed up Bollywood actor; what would you choose?

This would be a very easy choice for any self-confessed movie-nerd. There is absolutely no doubt that the Terminator series is regarded by some hard-core movie addicts to be a Classic. Oh yes, if you didn't know this, too bad.  The Terminator movies were possibly the first of their kind to mention the possibility of advanced machines gaining self-awareness and destroying human supremacy on Earth.

This idea, coupled with the indomitable and indestructible Arnold Schwarzenegger was a revolutionary and in fact a pioneering step in the cinema of the annihilation of the human race and the rise of the age of robots. As far as I know, it was only after this that more movies based on this concept were produced. Prominent among these films are iRobot, starring Will Smith and Transformers, starring Shia LaBeouf.

Secondly, even though the first movie in the Terminator series was not expected to make much money, it stayed at the top of U.S. chart for two weeks. This may be the direct result of casting Arnold Schwarzenegger in a role that required him to give no expression whatsoever. Perfect casting! Also he looks a lot like a robot sent back in time to destroy Earth’s only hope for a future. So yeah, well done James Cameron. For people born in the 90’s, the Terminator is undoubtedly their favourite movie of all time. You may not know this but I consider myself to be a connoisseur of good cinema (Even if it’s only I who say so), even then, to this day, my favourite movies of all time are the Terminator series. You may even verify that on my Facebook account.

So, Terminator shades? Hell Yeah!