Ākāśāt Patitaṃ: Many Forms, One Reality

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Adi Shankara: The image that's stayed with me forever Sanskrit and shlokas have always fascinated me. The sheer vastness of Sanskrit literature is humbling. There are enough verses, texts, commentaries and traditions to occupy many lifetimes, and still leave one feeling that one has barely scratched the surface. But I didn't think much about any of this when I was growing up. I would recite shlokas in the morning and evening without fail. They were simply part of life. The words were there, the rituals were there, the temples were there—but much of it happened in the background. I was busy with academics. There was no time for Sanskrit or Vedanta. At least, that is what I used to tell myself. Of course, time was never really the problem. I could spend five days watching a Test match from morning to evening and somehow consider that perfectly legitimate use of my time! The truth was simpler: Sanskrit and Vedanta had not yet become priorities. Gr...
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Munich...Gripping reality


When Spielberg makes a movie, it creates headlines. But this one was different. Two weeks prior to the release of Munich, Spielberg revealed about such a movie and the reasons are obvious. The movie is about the aftermaths of Black September that hit the 1972 Olympics at Munich where 11 Israeli athletes were brutally murdered after the Palestinians attacked the Olympics village. A sensationally picturised movie of the Israeli intelligence wing, the Mossad, reactivating its assasination wing to eliminate the creators of Black September forms the theme of the year's best movie undoubtedly.

I have no clue of the actors who form the part of this movie. But, almost every unknown name seemed to fit in the role with ease. There are eleven people who plotted the 1972 disaster and there are nine of them whom the Mossad end up eliminating leaving the other two in perpetual fear. The story is about how the people selected for this mission end up killing the plotters and the traumatic experience, each of them undergoes.

Steven Spielberg has taken a neutral stand in this classic. He beautifully has potrayed the ill effects of terrorism, and though the vengeance operation has been carried out, he says that nothing can be done to reduce terrorism. Though people who have plotted the brutality are being killed, new ones are filling the voids in almost the same pace, which ultimately would lead to perpetual killing. The main protagonist of the movie who leads this low key but high profile operation essays the role to perfection as an Israeli agent. His and the team's traumatic experience of the operation is depicted in a way that only Spielberg can do justice. At the end of the day, he loses his entire team in the operation. The story does not end there. The post operations trauma that he suffers is truly a heart wrenching sight. He becomes a victim of his own suspicion and bitterness.

The film not only deals with the Israeli hit back but also what is lost in the entire operation. As I walked out of the theater, I was filled with a sense of uneasiness that gripped me of the terrorism that plagues the society and happiness of having watched another high quality movie from the stable of Steven Spielberg.

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