Freezing Thoughts

Avengers Endgame is the culmination of 11 years of story-telling about a fictional universe that feels very real. Being a big fan of the franchise, this movie is a major closure for me; the end of not just a phase of MCU, but a chapter of my own life. I’ve often seen eyebrows rise when people see how enthusiastic I get while talking about Marvel heroes. It takes some introspection on my part to realize why it meant so much to me.  The first superhero movie I ever watched was Batman and Robin (1997). It features in almost every top-5 list of worst superhero movies! But then 10 wasn’t a great age either, so guess it didn’t matter. The 2000s were ok, with Spider-Man, X-Men and Dark Knight making things better. We realize as we grow up that things are rarely perfect in the world. So when you accidentally watch a near-perfect movie (for the genre) about some imperfect people trying to do the right thing for an imperfect world, it makes you sit up and take notice. That was Avengers in 20

“Some wine ?”, inquired the younger woman.  “Oh no, thank you. I prefer tea, with lot of sugar.”, the older woman replied, with a girlish chuckle. The younger woman stared for an instant into the pitcher, poured herself a generous amount of wine and walked around the table and continued the conversation, “You’re saying there is nothing you could do then ? I thought you were the special ones from where you come from.” The older woman, who was admiring the deliberate steps and the play of sunlight on the golden blond braids of the younger woman, replied, “My dear, being better than most doesn’t make one almighty. Don’t smirk, you have no idea what I’d do to change things. But my hands are tied. Joanne has seen to it.”  The younger woman narrowed her eyes and said, “Well at least my fate is not yet written I guess. So tell me, what exactly do you want me to do ? We will have to be quick, I don’t trust George one bit.” “It’s simple. Joanne is currently trying to ruin her own go

In a generation of instant gratification brilliantly aided by technology, it is too easy to get carried away and feel satisfied with very superficial knowledge. It is painful to see people falling victim to sensationalist media, viral social media and agenda/propaganda driven fake news. Just like junk food killing appetite for healthy food, these unsustainable short-term elements can leave a longer impact on meaningful things that actually matter. One such meaningful thing taking a beating these days is innovation. Innovation is perhaps one of the most (maybe even the most? ) overused, abused and often misused word today. People want to use innovative products, organizations claim to be innovative, almost every higher educational institution in the country is planning an 'Innovation Cell' and start-ups are screaming "innovation" to raise funding. Opinions on innovation rankings (whatever they mean!) are hard to miss in any form of media; they also easily hail any