The Inglorious Basterd

I was mulling over the poem on Balan’s blog, ”The Funerals”. Leaving aside the stark facts the poem dwelled upon, what came into my mind was the opening scene in Terantino’s film, “Inglorious Basterds”. Those of you who have seen that movie would, I’m certain recall the cold scenes with which the film opened.

The stony soliloquies of the SS officer Colonel. Landa laced with feral innuendos, metaphors and sautéed with sadistic overtones still haunts. The lives of a rodent- a rat and his evolutionary cousin the squirrel! It is dramatically incomparable like the lives of twins or siblings from the same womb that diverges far apart in the real world. I downloaded the words of COL Landa from the script of the film.

The allegory can be noticed in many walks in this world. The strangeness of repulsion and fondness that are inexplicable -be it rats and squirrels, dogs and cats or human beings from the same stock or diverse. The injustice of perception! Food for thought nevertheless!

COL LANDA

          Monsieur La’Padite, are you aware of the nickname the people of France have given

          me?

PERRIER

          I have no interest in such things.

 COL LANDA

          But you are aware of what they call me?

 PERRIER

          I'm aware.

 COL LANDA

          What are you aware of?

PERRIER

          That they call you, "The Jew Hunter".

COL LANDA

          Precisely! Now I understand your trepidation in repeating it.  Before he was assassinated,     Heydric apparently hated the moniker the good people of Prague bestowed on him. Actually why he   would hate the name, "The Hangman", is baffling to me. It would appear he did everything in his power to earn it. But I, on the other hand, love my unofficial title, precisely because I've earned it. As "The Jew Hunter”.         

COL LANDA

          The feature that makes me such an effective hunter of the Jews, is, as opposed to most

  German soldiers, I can think like a Jew. Where they can only think like a German, or more precisely, a German soldier. Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast,   would be the cunning and predatory instinct of a hawk.

        

 COL LANDA

   Negro's - gorilla's - brain - lips smell - physical strength - penis size.

   But, if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be

   that of the rat. Now the Fuhrer and Gobbles propaganda have said pretty much the same thing.

   Where our conclusions differ is, I don't consider the comparison an insult. Consider for a moment, the

   world a rat lives in. It's a hostile world indeed.  If a rat were to   scamper    through your front door

   right now, would you greet it with hostility?

   PERRIER

          I suppose I would.

   COL LANDA

          Has a rat ever done anything to you to create this animosity you feel toward them?

   PERRIER

          Rat's spread disease, they bite people -

    COL LANDA

          - Unless some fool is stupid enough to try and handle a live one, rats don't make it a practice of

       biting human beings. Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that was some time ago. In all your born days, has a rat ever caused you to be sick a day in your life? I purpose to you, any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Yet I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels that you do with rats, do you?

    PERRIER

          No.

    COL LANDA

          Yet, they are both rodents, are they not? And except for the fact that one has a big bushy tail, while the other has a long repugnant tail of rodent skin, they even rather look alike, don't they?

         

    PERRIER

          It is an interesting thought, Colonel.

    COL LANDA

          However, interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat     were to scamper through your door, this very minute, would you offer it a saucer of your delicious milk?

     PERRIER

            Probably not.

       COL LANDA

          I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them. All you know    

          is, you find them “repulsive”.What a tremendously hostile world a rat must endure. Yet, not only does 

          he survive, he thrives. And the reason for this, is because our little foe has a instinct for survival and 

          preservation second to none. And that Monsieur, is what a Jew shares with a rat.  Consequently, a 

          German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? 

          He looks  in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar - he looks everywhere, he would 

          hide. But there are many places it would never occur to a  hawk to hide. However the reason the

          Fuhrer brought me off my Alps in Austria, and placed me in French cow country today,is because it 

          it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human  beings are capable of once 

          they abandon dignity…….!

         

.

LIEBSTER Award

I was nominated for the Liebster award by Mrs. Usha Menon (http://eccentricgrandmum.blogspot.com/), who is a retired educationist. Thank you, Mrs. Menon for the encouragement.

The Award, I understand is to promote amateur writers in the Blogdom. And is a kind of chain that links bloggers with modest following.

I found the process a bit confusing and tiresome that I delayed accepting and following the process prescribed in the nomination-

1- Answer your nominator’s eleven questions

2-. List 11 things about yourself

3-Choose up to eleven bloggers with less than 200 followers and ask them your questions

And sign off by mailing them on the nomination.

Now, on Mrs. Menon’s prodding here I go.

1-      ANSWER TO THE NOMINATORS QUESTIONS

a)      If you become Prime Minister of India what will be your priority?

      Ensure the Police Force need not be pliable to the executive

b)       Which Book are you reading these days?

None

c)       Why did you start writing a blog?

      Just chanced upon the idea

d)      Do you like to see the Sun rise or the Sunset?

      Both

e)      Do you think cooking is a female’s prerogative?

      No

h)   What do you like to see on TV?

      BBC, Sports & Wild life documentaries

i)        Which games do you like to play?

Cricket & Badminton

j)        Do you believe in Destiny?

No

     What do you prefer arranged marriage or love marriage?

   Neither

kl      Do you believe in God?

No

l))       What is your favourite pastime

Movies/Reading/Blogging

2-      List THINGS ABOUT MYSELF

a)      “Retired” from business

b)      Sometimes temperamental

c)       Not religious or believer and must confessto being not quite holy.

d)      Not fascinated by any political ideology

e)      Tries to be dispassionate but cannot help becoming emotional at times.

f)       Choosey about befriending people.

g)      Content with a few good friends.

h)      Do not feel happy if I impose my opinion on others and the family, though I get annoyed when they disagree.

i)        Anxious about what is in store for posterity, the way the World is moving.

j)        Despises fanatics and charlatans

3-Choose up to 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to answer my questions

http://pettywitter.blogspot.com/

http://www.hephzibahisrael.blogspot.com/

http://under-the-tree-of-tranquility.blogspot.com/

http://www.kavitasahariamyroom.com/

http://www.insigniasblog.com/

http://sandy-purplelatches.blogspot.com/

http://shilpaagarg.blogspot.com/

http://joezachs.blogspot.com/

http://kparthas.blogspot.com/

http://ash-aqua-girl.blogspot.com/

http://rama-ananth.blogspot.com/
http://blog.chowla.in/

4- My Questions

      a)      Are you proud of your country, if so why and if not why?

      b)      What have you given back to the world you live and or what do you intend to give in your life time?

      c)       Are you afraid of death?

      d)      If you were to meet God in real life what would you do?

      e)      Would you want to make the future not mysterious?

      f)       Will you stand up for banning capital punishment, if not why?

      g)      What would you like to be if given a choice- King, an elected ruler or a fascist?

      h)      Would you like to be like somebody? If so why and if not why?

      i)        Do you think emotions are for weaklings? If not why?

      j)        What is in your opinion the reason for the misery in the world?

      k)      If there is another life what would you want to be a, Male or a Female?

So folks come forward and accept the nomination please.

Pazhan Kanj,Uppu Manga & Kandhari

I remember from long time ago, a short story that narrated the tale of a young man who shelved his plan to end his life at the very last moment. He was tempted by the aroma of his favourite dish (puttu) his mother used to serve him. The smell of the fresh steamed pounded  rice flour meal whiffed through the air from a nearby restaurant adjacent to the railway track where he was  bidding his last moments ;the shrill whistle of the train sounded like the steam gushing through the puttu cooked on the hearth in his mothers smoke filled dinghy  kitchen. In no ittle time the early morning Kottayam passenger locomotive  will steam by and the sun was just about peeping over the distant coconut palms. Suddenly he was pulled by utter craving - lust to live. The urge to live pounded him incessantly with the aroma that the gust of air brought from the restaurant - the smell of food that  reminded him of his mother,whiffed away  the despondency that ploughed him till a moment ago. He ran back home along the track and along the river’s edge that wound by, to his hut-where he saw his  mother  was indeed cooking his favourite meal that morning. He inhaled the flavoured steamy air in the kitchen and felt a voice tell him that what a fool he would be if he had done the mad act when he nearly let go the things that were dear in life. That morning he devoured the food his mother made and like never before. He relished it much, which words would toil to account.

The aroma of favourite viands that linger and whiff by unexpectedly and the titillation it provide for taste buds are sure to make all those who have known of it desire the pleasure more and forever. We all have, often in our life. So it was with amusement that I recollected the scene at the dining table quite a few mornings at a friend’s house. He has of late joined the club of hyper tensed people and is on medication for elevated blood pressure. I was speaking on the phone to him and his wife and could not resist the tongue in cheek comment to her that all those morning meals he indulged went overboard because of those wonderful pickled dishes his mother was wondrously adept at making. Those morning meals which he unfailingly  did not miss and used to relish- the previous days cooked rice soaked in water and then his pompous and arrogant discretion of mixing it with pickled brined mango and those special tiny heavenly chilies’ fresh from the garden (pazhan kanji and uppu mango with kandhari mullaku)! This he devoured before speeding off to college for work, while we lazed by eating like respectable people iddlis or dosa and even bread toast with omelet. But if you ask me,at the end of it all I would prefer an existence laced with hypertension. The contentment is after all one had had the fortune to eat every day to the heart’s content what one loves most in life- a special preparation of excellent cuisine by one's mother. A high blood pressure is only incidental to the contentment  of the soul day after day for a long time in life.

Thinking of it, I must confess that I drooled and drooled figuratively speaking I would have drowned. For, I have been often privileged to have food at his home and the simple mundane native delights his mother used to cook, though she was handicapped by partial paralysis from a severe stroke.

It is not an exaggeration and wee bit dishonest if I say that the aroma of those fabulous dishes do linger in that house even now though it is a few years since she passed.  Perhaps something exist or stay behind even aftersome folks  are gone?