The Trip

An account of my recent trip to Kerala, the God's own country:

Lily Darling

The trip started off with a bus to Ernakulam. The night was bumpy and sleepless and Ernakulam, well, was every bit disappointing (congested, hot and you would be forgiven for getting confused on whether it is Chennai or Bangalore) and we had to endure one more bus journey to Alepy. But all this was vindicated by Lily Darling. Ah, bless you Lily darling. Don't get me wrong, Lily Darling was the name of our houseboat in the Alepy backwaters. If you thought money can't buy you peace, well then try this. Coconut trees, paddy fields and a vast expanse of waters is just the thing a person used to city life requires for a break. And ofcourse, no trip of mine can ever be complete without Himesh crooning off a 'melody' of his. Perfect start. It was strange, the way we were trying to capture all this beauty around us using our cameras, when actually its so fleeting and we should rather have just sit down and see as much of it as possible. Its like memories are our real experiences. Memories are us.

Of Broken Bacardis and Peace

From Alepy we headed off to Varkala, a relatively unknown beach resort near Trivandrum. The hotels are situated on a cliff providing a panoramic view of the ocean. The first thing that'll strike you is that almost all the tourists there are foreigners. Just goes to show how unexplored some parts of India are really. On our way there, we befriended two Canadian Tourists, who also ended up in the same hotel as ours. Thus were made plans for some alcohol in the evening. Pratik managed to get some rum from the town (which is 6 kms away). Now thats a lot of fight considering that this was a vacation and considering that he doesnt drink. And now comes the part where anyone who has ever had alcohol and is reading this, kicks me. No, really. By a quirk of fate, irony and simple human stupidity, i broke the damn cursed bottle. At 9 o clock , when you had grand plans for alcohol, and you no longer do have the alcohol, now that is really sad. But in the memory of the deceased alcohol, we went to the town again, and after 3 shady bars and a hundred rupees on the top, we managed to get alcohol once more. Victory. And what a time we really had. It always piques my interest, how people from different places and cultures, strangers can connect and bond and how different they are really. and turns out people are not that different really. We all are in search of our broken bacardis and peace.

Man on the moon

And finally we headed to the last leg of the trip : Munnar. Some shady breakfats and an evil bus conductor (pure evil) later we finally managed to find our destination, which ironically was a treehouse in the middle of nowhere. Now for two guys, Munnar is not the ideal of spots. But it was too late for us to realise that. But staying in a treehouse in the middle of nowhere, thats perfect 'Away from the madding crowds' place. Munnar otherwise, is beautiful but boring. If anything, the trip raised more doubts in my mind about life that settle them. Probably so much leisure time gets you thinking more. And sometimes these things strike you so ramdomly that you just dont have any response. But it did make me realise that inspite of all their collective irritation, you need people around you. And on the last night, in the pitch darkness, as the moon shone brilliantly, as an act of desperation and seeking the lost faith , I was searching for the man on the moon. Didn't find him this time though

The Lives of Others

It was 3 am and sleep was proving to be as elusive as subtlety in Govinda's movies or news in Times of India. Being a sound sleeper usually, I was at a loss of alternatives. I did consider ringing up people and asking them , even as they fumbled for my identity, the most impertinent question you can ask a person who is sleeping: "oh, i am sorry, were you sleeping?". But sleep (my sleep i.e.) being one of those few precious things in my life, i decided to forego such a great opportunity out of fear of repercussions. Tried to read a book, watch some TV, but somehow they just made me feel more awake. That is when it struck me; it being the art of online voyeurism : Orkut.

For some reason (vague, again) I decided to be a peeping tom in my school's community. School. Seemed like a different lifetime. I browsed through profiles of old friends, some of whom i hadn't spoken to in years, of acquaintances, of people who used to be popular back then and of course the random hot chick. And the amount of transformation , in people and their lives (whatever i could make out of their profiles) just astonished me. People who held great promise, still seemed to be struck in their old ways, some, who were mediocre back then had achieved remarkable success. Some had got married, had children while some had travelled far. Some had undergone unbelievable physical transformations while some had strayed off the beaten track and done different things. It was just a whole lot of change everywhere.

And that is when it hit me that anybody's life, viewed from the vantage point of view of time, is full of changes and twists and turns. People that we once thought we knew, change evolve and move on. In our day to day mundanity, we somehow never realise the changes that we all have gone through. Our everydays somehow hide the enormity and the story of our lives.

Life is strange afterall. Here i am, sitting at 3 am and taking a virtual stock of the lives of people i had known, seen but lost; and wondering what the story of everybody's lives would eventually turn out to be.

"It Goes On" - Robert Frost

Life in a hostel

An insider's perspective on hostel life and why its fun in the small ways that only hostel life can be:

1) You can talk to someone while taking a shower. Believe me its fun. That is on the rare occasions that you do take one actually. Which is a huge advantage in itself and should have been covered in a different point.

2) Had a bad day? The prof wants to see you for having not submitted an assignment in a course you never knew you had registered for? Your friend borrowed the most expensive books on your library card and cant find them? No problem. Catch hold of a random guy. Instigate people against him and treat him to the holy grail of hostel rituals...bumps.Never was a better way discovered to relieve your pains. Just pass it on to somebody.

3) Hungry at 3 in the morning? Feeling lazy too? And the wallet is empty? Just go to the next room and pick up stuff. Oh and in case nothings there in the next room you have 16 other rooms to try. Like they should say..'The hostel never sleeps'.

4) The proverbial 'Fart sessions'. Not to be taken literally. Whether it is talking about 18th Century German Philosophy or the perpetual human stupidity, its all covered in here. And if someones talking borders on being soporific, just give the royal treatment.Bump him.

5) For all the obvious disadavantages of having 300 guys staying in a building, you always have the company for a coffee and the fart sessions. Which is the best part of it all.

Spaceman Spiff Speaks

Have you chased Zargons across the galaxy? Have you asked profound questions about life, but realised that watching T.V. is probably more interesting? Have you ever thought that your principal was probably a space alien spy? Ah, welcome to the world of Calvin and Hobbes.

As one of the most loved and sustained comic strips, C & H needs no introduction. But just why do we love C & H ? Well, admit it. Calvin is the kid you always wish you were. He's curious, imaginative, rebellious, innocent, profound, funny and lazy, all at the same time. Calvin and his imaginative tiger friend Hobbes (both named after European philosophers) are a reflection of the world as seen from 6 years innocence and adult skepticism at the same time. Whether its war, religion, girls, or homework , Calvin's honesty of innocence shines in the way he questions everything with the simplicity only kids can conjure. He has no baggage of adult hypocrisy or complexity. And yet, hes a kid also in the way he's lazy, loves saturday mornings , loathes homework and lives in a world created by his own imagination; limitless and self-sufficient. In Calvin and Hobbes, not only has Bill Watterson created the magical realm of childhood, but he has also created a caricature of the world, seen with an innocence and curiosity, that for us adults is lost. And never has things so profound been said with such brevity.


But to me, the best thing about it is that it makes me laugh and think at the same time. And wish that i was a kid all over again. This one.

Love, hypothetically

"Have you ever experienced love?"

"344"

"What?"

"That's our bill. You owe me 181"

"Oh. Yeah, whatever. I asked you something"

"What?"

"Have you ever experienced love?"

"What kind of a question is that? Of course i have. I love my books. And my Macintosh"

"Not like that. I mean with real people made up of tissues, cells, mitochondrias and emotions"

"Oh, that? Sure, i love my parents. I love my friends. Come to think of it i even ...."

"Hey brother! I mean, have you ever been in 'love' ?"

"Oh that! Umm , you know there was this very cute girl in my school...she even had blue eyes. What was her name...? Dor...? ...? Nope, I've never been in love"

"Hmm"

"Have you? I mean been in love and all?"

"I think so"

"What was it like, being in love and all?"

"It was ... good. I felt wanted. I was oblivious to the larger part of the world. I even thought that i looked good. It was like having some purpose in life. I was ... just happier."

"Dude, whats with all the 'i-talk'? You almost sound as if it was a one way experience. Were you in love with that person or yourself?"

"I guess both. I did love her, you know, with all her quirks. But I guess it was fairly selfish. At the end of the day, she did make me feel good"

"This reminds of me this book The Selfish Gene. What it basically postulates is that the ultimate purpose of life, from the point of view of evolution, is to replicate itself. The main aim of the genes is to selfishly spread themselves via reproduction. that is why it makes you enjoy things like love , sex, happiness . By doing this it is strengthening the chance that it gets a representation in the next generation."

"Yeah i've read something similar too."

"Its interesting, you know. Its like our brains are some kinds of complex mathematical tools. By some calculation, you estimate that a particular person is more suitable to be your mate. I guess your genes figure out somehow that their propagation has more chances with that particular person's genes. Its all hardwired up there man. How are we then any different from robots? We too have some basic codes running up there trying to figure it all out. So much for free will!"

"You know, we are very different. First of all, robots' lives are not governed by chances. Our lives are...The precise fact that im sitting here, talking to you, is a ramification of millions of chances compiled over each other. Say, if your parents had put you in a different school, or if you were working in a different city, or if Ms. Sen had made you sit with Smita in class 7, we might have never known each other. Infact, most of our choices also are half chances."

"And free will is indeed flushed down the toilet"

"No, no. We do have choices in life. The fact that i decided to have a coffee with you is a choice. Or that, if i want, i do have a choice to step out of this mundanity and maybe join some NGO or make documentary films. I know, its not easy, but i definitely do have a choice! which brings me to my second point. The genes indeed are selfish and we indeed are hardwired to an extent, but humans have an ability to circumvent the selfishness of genes. Infact love is a testimony to that!"

"How?"

"There are so many people out there who fall in love for reasons other that physical attraction. Maybe for some qualities that we, humans, deem as qualities, but not nature. Like companionship and friendship"

"But isnt need for companionship a natural trait also? We need company because community living is easier in propagating a species."

"Hmm, i guess so. But community living is not a direct consequence of our reproductive needs, I guess it was an evolution of some kind. Thats what evolution is all about isnt it? Survival of the fittest. Community living sure makes that easier by giving you security against predators"

"Hmm"

"Coming to love again...as i said there are reasons for falling in love, that just our basic instincts cannot explain. People fall in love out of guilt, for redemption, even for the sake of power. It all depends on what circumstances you have gone through in your life!"

"So what is love then? Again a product of chances? Because the circumstances you go through in your early life are definitely out of our control. You might be born into a nice family or a dysfunctional one or your father might alcoholic and so on. On top of that, you have your selfish genes acting all the time. What is it then? Do we have any free will at the end of the day?"

"We do. Or at least an illusion of it. Just like love. But I'd still like to believe that love has something in addition to selfish genes and chances. I'd like to be in the illusion"

"So what happened?"

"Where?"

"With her"

"Oh , we grew apart. Got bored of each other, i guess. Coming to boredom...."

"5:30"

"What?"

"My bus. I have to rush. You owe me 181"

"Yeah. whatever."

Tolkien, the king

Literati have loathed him and consigned his work to the level of juvenile balderdash. Readers, worldwide, have loved him. Surveys have named his book 'The Lord of the rings' as the best work of fiction of the 20th Century. The man in question is JRR Tolkien, the visionary author and (almost) the creator of fantasy genre. Even 50 years after the publication of LOTR, Tolkien's works remain as popular as ever. What do we attribute this to? And why is Tolkien the definitive 20th Century author?

To those people who have read his works (and even to those who have watched the movies, for they were brilliant adaptations) Tolkien appeals to us at different levels. The form of his story telling, romanticizing everything from friendship to valor, his lyrical prose, his settings in lands far removed from our age and times in fantastic settings appeals to the escapist, the adventurer and the romantic in us. We love the stories of friendship, camaraderie, sacrifice, love and valor. We also , somewhere relate to the ultimate underdog spirit of the book, in which Frodo, a small (and therefore weak) Hobbit ultimately triumphs against such a big evil. To some, the descriptive nature of his writing, is his quintessential hallmark. But there is an instinctive appeal in the book, which can not be described as easily.

For this, we have to delve into Tolkien, the man , and try to find our answers. In many ways The Lord of the Rings was Tolkien's reaction to 20th century and the horrors he witnessed in it. Tolkien served in the British Army in the World War 1. The horrors he witnessed then, and later on in the World War 2 had a lasting impact on his works. There are subtle undercurrents of his political inclinations throughout the book. While he describes The Shire as an idyllic society, with no concentration of power and fair amount of de-regulation, Mordor is described as the place having power concentrated in one hand (Sauron) with evil and obsessive focus on industialization (vis-a-vis the fascist powers of Germany and Italy). This is not to say that he was against technology, but owing to its misuse then, definitely suspicious of it. And the ultimate theme of the book is that power corrupts, in the form of the ring. Whoever has ring, gets seduced by its power and ultimately turns to evil. Even strong and good characters like Gandalf and Galadriel, realise this and refuse to bear the ring. Through this Tolkien is telling us that power, even in the hands of good people, ultimately corrupts them. And is this not what human political history is about? Specially the 20th century is full of such examples: Hitler, Stalin, Mao and now Bush. And even though philosophers (like Plato in The Republic) have argued in favour of such a concentration of power, albeit in good hands, if history is anything to go by, the concentration of such power is the biggest perpetrator of human misery.

Thus, at heart Tolkien was a libertarian, who deeply believed that a decentralised, liberal society, without any concentration of power, where humans are left free to pursue happiness, is the only solution of our political problems. And though the book does end in Aragorn being crowned the king, Tolkien's heart is always in The Shire and in peaceful Hobbits. Tolkien, with this book, conveyed his deep understanding of the political problems of 20th Century, in a way that captivates us and speaks to us intuitively, no matter what the literati and the critics have to say. And ultimately we are all suckers for a good vs evil story, specially the one which has an underdog triumphing in the end.

Tolkien is the defintive 20th century author.

P.S. His publisher, fearing that LOTR would never make money, made the contract such a way that profits would be split 50:50. To this date his literature alone has earned over 2 billion pounds, half going to the publisher. This is the difference between foresight and luck; Tolkien had foresight and the publisher luck!

My post is heavily influenced by these articles.

The blue suede shoes

Monday mornings. Hot Monday mornings. Hot Monday mornings in Traffic. Bangalore traffic. These four phrases convey a whole lot of emotions; Of a weekend wasted, of five working days staring at you with a lethargic boredom common to babus. As i zipped around on my bike, a thought of 10's of Mondays gone by in similar fashion and 1000's more to come struck me. Man, Monday mornings sure make your life look as interesting as Citizen Kane. But then again, we owe it to life for being strange, random and almost useless.

And then my eyes fell on the Blue suede shoes. Not many one would notice these days. The shoes were adorning some girl's legs, but stretch as much as i might, shoes was the only thing i could see. An inch here, an inch there but nope. Blue suede shoes. And as i said, on a hot Monday mornings in Bangalore traffic one would do anything to make life look interesting. And so i decided i had to see her, come what may. So a docile, traffic obeying driver, me, suddenly got transformed to a congenital Road Rash expert as soon as the traffic got anarchic again. Gear. Accelerate. And ah, break! Damn the Honda City! Umm...where's the damn auto? There it is! I almost catch up with it and Blue suede shoes are Nike officially now. But green turns yellow turns red. Break? Accelerate?

Throw the rules to the wind, and the world will be your oyster (?).

So i ditch the break and break the signal. But my target remains elusive. Dodging cars, autos cycles and sundry I follow it with as much attention as when I stare at my monitor during coffee breaks. Blank and complete. The chase is relentless and unrelenting. Its not about the girl, the shoes or the adventure in it. Its just about a change, a deviation from the routine. A small and trivial digression in this huge random life. But irony is life's sense of humour. And finally it happens! Blue suede shoes take a right and i am compelled to take a left lest i get imbroiled in one way politics.

Life is strange, random and almost useless. I would never see that girl ever. Maybe she had blue eyes as well. And as long as i am dreaming, maybe she would have smiled seeing me. But, all i would remember is the blue suede shoes, Nike.

Well, its one for the money,
Two for the show,
Three to get ready,
Now go, cat, go.

But dont you step on my blue suede shoes.
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

Bad Medicine

News is how News looks. If you got bored of Shilpa Victim Shetty's tryst with "fame" or Anna Nicole Smith's, tragic as it was, death, well then go ahead, read this post.

At the risk of sounding redundant; medicine is one of the oldest industries of mankind. Well not in the contemporary meaning of the word, but something akin to a systematic labor for some useful purpose. But in the modern sense, it truly is an "industrialised" industry, where profits rule the roost.

At the heart of the medicine, or rather, pharmaceutical industry's future is a court case currently being fought in Madras, India over India's patent laws. Now here is what it is all about very briefly: In the 1970's India stopped issuing patents for medicines. This allowed its many drug producers to create generic copies of medicines still patent-protected in other countries - at a fraction of the price charged by Western drug firms. But in 1994 India signed up to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips), a deal that required all WTO member countries to grant patents on technological products, including pharmaceuticals, by 2005. Drug companies have since been queuing up to patent their brands in India. Up to 9,000 patents await examination. A big pharmaceutical company, Novartis, is now arguing that India's requirement for drugs to be new and innovative is not in line with the TRIPS.

But here's the catch: Owing to its patent laws earlier India became a "pharmacy for the world's poor", providing generic variations of expensive drugs for diseases like AIDS at very cheap prices. A geneva based NGO, MSF (medicines sans frontiers) says generic manufacturers have helped bring the cost of AIDS treatment down from $10,000 per patient per year in 2000, to just $130 now. Now the geo-political spread of AIDS is such that its the worlds poorest living in Africa, India and so on that will be affected most by this case.

Novartis, however, points out that nations are entitled to over-ride patent protection in the case of a national emergency. However, the countries that are trying to issue compulsory licences, which in some instances have been some of the more powerful middle-income countries, come under enormous pressure, and that pressure is noticed. Brazil has threatened compulsory licences three times. The drug companies have jumped up and down, and [the US] Congress has threatened to withdraw Brazil's trade preferences. So much for the humanisation of WTO.

At the face of it, I am not totally against Novartis. After all they have invested millions of dollars in making these medicines and if nothing, they at least deserve the rights over their intellectual property. After all it was someone's hard work.Or is it this simple?. Rather, this is more so a case of twisting some clauses in TRIPS agreement and pseudo-imperialist-capitalism. Like presenting medicines with just slight variations over the older ones as patentable.

And at the heart of it all, is the scary picture of capitalism that has emerged. The one where big companies form bigger lobbies and influence government decisions in their favour at the pretext of pseudo-intellectualism. Where the capital P is profit not people. And where company policies might as well be renamed as double standards.

Don't get me wrong. I am not denying them their intellectual credit or the amount of effort put in by them to make life saving drugs. Neither am i morally defending generic manufacturers. But the world, as we see it has such an intrinsic complexity that sometime arguments which are more irrational and humane are more sense also. Sometimes we should step back from viewing the world with a business, scientific or intellectual perspective and just have humane common sense damn it!

The Critique of Pure Compassion

On Nietzsche, Darwin and Bill Gates

Compassion : Sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

In a world in which Darwinism theory of "Survival of the Fittest" is enacted in all walks of life, compassion, as a concept, is almost antithetical. It is almost like an oasis in a desert. Why is compassion an emotion experienced by humans then? Lets try to get a historical perspective.

Circa early 19th Century. The glory and democracy of French revolution has given way to an anarchy, which only the obstinate optimists will term as a success. Over the period of next few decades, Napoleon would, in a way exploit, this chaos to establish his supremacy over France. Needless to say, this seminal event changed Europe and the World, not only politically, but also in the way people started thinking. This is as brief a premise as i could possibly give.

Circa late 19th century. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a Prussian-born philosopher, who though was largely overlooked by the contemporaries of his time, came to be regarded as a highly significant and influential figure in modern philosophy. Much of Nietzsche's philosophy has a critical flavor to it; two concepts associated with a more constructive project are the Übermensch (variously translated as superman, superhuman, or overman) and the eternal return (or eternal recurrence), though in this context, its the former we are interested in primarily. The former is posited as a goal that humanity can set for itself, or that an individual can set for his- or herself; Nietzsche basically was of the opinion that society's and mankind's only role should be in the development of a Man who is perfection personified. And consequently, he rubbished democracy. The anarchy that followed French Revolution and the "heroic" role played by Napoleon thereafter, seems to have contributed to Nietzsche's philosophy, as did Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Idea". Contentiously, though, Nietzsche never clearly outlined the role this Superman was to play in such a hypothetical society.

Circa 2006. The world is a lot different place. The new weapon is money, but strife, as a part of life, is one of the few constant factors. In this increasingly complex world, some acts just shock you by their sheer audacity and surprise quotient. The world's richest man, Bill Gates, decides to not just donate most of his wealth close to $50 b, but actively involve himself in philanthropy. And helping him in this endeavor is another of the world's richest men, Warren Buffet who gives most of his wealth to Gates for this purpose. And all this happening in the intensely competitive Corporate society. Gates, in a lot of ways, is the modern Übermensch visualized by Nietzsche. He is a product of his society, achieving success not by inheritance, but by sheer talent and diligence. The implication here is not that he is perfect (ok, there are plenty of Gates detractors), but if there's anyone who fits the bill in this world, its him. And such a man, when in his prime devotes himself to such a cause as philanthropy and compassion, the world takes notice.

Maybe after centuries of power struggles and strife, humans have finally started realising that strife, though necessary, has only worstened human plight in this control-less way and mindless wars. And maybe its people like Gates, who consciously or unconsciously are realising the fact that its not always survival of the fittest which leads to an evolved species, but survival of the weakest which strengthens the pyramid of our societies and our species as a whole. And the most remarkable and striking of all things is that, this time the agent of change is not the Aristocrat, or the Nation state but one of the finest products of a society , where strife is relatively controlled.

And although inequity is still ubiquitous, we still fight over things as inane as land and religion and future appears unstable, but maybe Compassion and humanity is the new mantra in evolution, pioneered by Gates-like-Übermensch.

Nietzsche take a bow.

My Fair Ladies

There are two things that interest me a lot : Cinema and any "Top 10" lists (eg. the top 10 ways not to tear off your hair in desperation in a Karan Johar movie ; of which atleast two would be a) not to watch it and b) be bald). And so the idea for this blog ; although i would limit myself to "top 5" as 10 would be too much of a strain on my mental faculties and to English movies only. So without further ado, my favourite five female characters in English movies :

1) Clementine Kruckzynski (Kate Winslet) ; Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind : Everything about her is different (rather eccentric?) . She colours her hair Orange (and blue). Her name is Clementine Kruckzynski (whoa!). She has that crazy spunk in her which makes her talk to complete strangers. She likes going to the frozen lake, on a freezing night, to watch the frozen stars. And...she listens to hindi songs (she does!). And it is this arbitrary craziness about her which makes her so likeable. Its the likeability of the uncertainty (and chaos) in her. And the amazing chemistry with Jim Carrey only makes the contrast in their personalities all the more stark. O my darling, O my darling, O my darling Clementine....

2)Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) ; When Harry Met Sally : The quintessential "Girl next door" with a difference.The sometimes confused, sometimes finicky , yet always likeable girl with a penchant of placing food orders in an excruciating detail. What makes you like the character is also the fact that you see her over a period of 12 years , in all her transitional glory. But truly speaking, its Meg Ryan that makes it really memorable. She makes it believably real. Sally is the "Girl next door" we all wish we had.






3)Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) ; Roman Holiday : Audrey Hepburn. A princess. That about sums it up i guess. But its that innocence, purity and grace of the character played superbly by Hepburn that makes it stand apart. Its rare to find such portrayals now. And its impossible to find Audrey Hepburns in this age of publicity beauties. I guess i have mixed up the character and the actress ; but its rather difficult to speak of them in different terms, isnt it? To me, they are the same







4)Celine (Julie Delpy) ; Before Sunrise/Sunset : The French accent does make me biased. But jokes apart, she is the woman who is intelligent, has a sense of humour and is beautiful too. Now that defies the whole beauty*brains=constant logic (feminists, have a sense of humour or a bad memory atleast :D). And again, you see such contrasting dimensions of her personalities in the two movies; the young hopeful one and the older pragmatic and cynic one, that the dual traits of strength and vulnerability make this character appear really feminine. And of course, the song sung by Julie Delpy : " Let me sing you a waltz....."




5) Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride/Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) ; Kill Bill : For the record, I never really liked the movies that much. So , its a revenge saga, done in style, with a twist, but nothing really great. But Uma Thurman makes it worthwhile. She is a gangster, bride and a revenge seeking woman in the same movie. She rides bikes, knows kung-fu and ruthlessly kills legions of enemy single handedly. And all with great style. She is the suave ruthless chic with an agenda of vengeance. Beatrix Kiddo rocks!
P.S. My personal fav? O my darling..... la la la la... can you beat blue hair? :)