#meena husband death

[stinkyhyena9000]

Finally writing a post about this!!! Here's my ideas for a FutureAU for Sing

Note: by future, I just mean like a generation future, not like time travel future. (~20 years in the future)

So starting off, tw// for major character death, suicide

Almost all your faves are still alive thankfully. Also it does get incredibly angsty near the end, so have fun with that.

ALSO also, yes this does have shipping in it.

So first of all, this takes place like 20 years after the events of Sing 2 and the whole Redshore City incident. Buster Moon and Eddie Noodleman have finally retired. (Thank god no one has to put up with Buster's shenanigans anymore.) Also yes, they are finally a happy married couple, because of course they are.

Johnny is now the person who runs the theatre, with Buster kind of serving as his mentor, and his source of guidance whenever he needs help. The New Moon Theatre is now under Buster's name as opposed to Nana Noodleman's name. Why? You could probably guess. (She's dead). Oh yeah, you know who's also dead? Miss Crawly. They both had like super sad deaths, and died peacefully of age.

Oh yeah, there is also more death than this, but I'm saving that for the end.

I also honestly like to think Ryan took a dip in photography, so he also does that for the theatre. Go Ryan!

Anyways, Johnny runs the New Moon Theatre with the help of Nooshy and Ryan as well. Nooshy works as the choreographer, meanwhile Ryan is committed to being a malewife kinda acts as a new Miss Crawly + extra choreographer teacher if Nooshy is out. Johnny and Ryan definitely are together though by the way, and Nooshy teases them all the time for it still.

Oh yeah also in case it needed to be stated: yes, Johnny is stressed out all of the time (like usual), except also now he's constantly worried about his father and gang now. Despite their age and Johnny repeatedly offering to finance their retirement, they refuse to retire and continue running their mechanic business.

Buster and Eddie live in a new house, but Buster will occasionally convince Eddie to let him sleep nights at the theatre under the guise of "helping Johnny out for the day". Eddie does realize what Buster's try to pull, but let's him go with it because he knows it helps with his anxiety, since Buster can struggle to sleep sometimes without the familiar sounds of the theatre.

So where's Meena? Meena is currently on tour, much to the delight of her and her parents. She's a world renowned soul singer, and travels around with the husband Alfonso. Alfonso doesn't serve icecream anymore, but still cooks for them and acts as a handyman and stuff for Meena when they're on tour. They of course still make time to come back to the theatre every so often again, though.

Ash and Clay? Well, after the multiple reruns of Out of This Worlds, the two of them have been on tour for a years, before Ash decided to come back and crash at the theatre recently… without Clay. She always kinda reluctant to say what happened to Clay, with her story changing every time. First, it's that he got signed into a new record deal without her. Next thing you know, it's because he decided he wanted to go back to Redshore and focus on bettering himself mentally.

(By the way, Clay started therapy after the events of Redshore. Buster did too, thankfully).

In fact, this phantom has started haunting Clay only a few years after Ruby died. It just shows up randomly, serving as a grim reminder of who he's lost.

Okay so quick warning. Remember when I said it was gonna get angsty. Oh yeah, it's about time to get real angsty.

So basically, Clay killed himself a few years into touring with Ash. Let's just say therapy was not enough for the hell he was forced to go through mentally. Remember that ghost of Ruby during the performance of Out of This World? That's not new.

(That's why I'm calling this an AU, because this is less of a hc and more of a story idea)

Bonus: me writing down notes in my anatomy class ↓↓

┏╔══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╗

What structures are found within the muscle fiber

a. terminal cisternare ✓

b. sarcoplasmic reticulum ✓

c. myofibrils ✓

d. epimysium ✓

e. aponeurosis

f. triad ✓

g. t-tubule ✓

╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝

[lunarcovehq]

Georgiana Ortiz is a Vampire that currently resides in Celestial Hills and has been a Lunar Cove resident for 169 years, though a fangtastic latte recipe isn't the only thing she is digging up.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis Woman, She/Her

DATE OF BIRTH: July 22, 1826

OCCUPATION: Archeologist and Owner of The Caffine Crypt

FACECLAIM: Victoria Justice

AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

SPECIES: Vampire

CLAN POSITION: Member 

AGE AT TRANSFORMATION: 29

WELCOME TO LUNAR COVE, GEORGIANA ORTIZ

Trigger Warnings: Death, Child Death, Arranged Marriage, War, Childbirth 

Georgiana Luisa Ortiz Davis de Taylor; born the year of her birth country’s half-century celebration on a July evening in 1826. The fifth child and first daughter of a coffee trader from Puerto Rico and his beloved wife, in the colony of Georgia’s first city; Savannah. It was picturesque and serene. The nation’s first planned city with wide streets, public squares, and parks. Also a port town, Savannah’s proximity to the sea made it possible for the Ortiz family’s trade ventures to thrive. Each son was given his own delegations and all the daughters married off. Which included Georgiana.

It wasn’t love at first sight but a deep appreciation for the heart of a good man who was always kind and generous. Edward Taylor, a friend of her older brother’s, a shipping merchant like her father, and a local to Savannah just like her. They shared eight children together over the course of a decade; only five survived into adulthood. It was the greatest ache Georgiana ever knew; the death of a child. There were no words that existed that she knew to describe such a loss. An insurmountable grief, deaths that she would mourn for all of time.

Eight children took their toll. After her youngest’s birth, Georgiana's human body grew weak. Dizzy spells and the occasional fainting weren’t uncommon. Her family, friends, and neighbors all expressed their concern. Their fears made reality the day Georgiana collapsed at the top of the stairs during a dinner party. Her body tumbled down the wooden steps til it smacked the bottom in front of all her guests. She was dead before her head hit the floor. Hours passed, her body cleaned and redressed, left on the parlor table for her burial the next day. In private, her husband and their children said their goodbyes. A small mercy Georgiana would be grateful for later when it came to giving them closure. 

By morning, Georgiana was in a carriage, leaving Savannah; the only home she’d ever known. Headed North, to a town called Lunar Cove, with her maker for a new life as a Vampire.The one who saved her. A friend of a friend in attendance that night who had slipped his blood into her wine, only hoping to cure the lady of the house of what ailed her after hearing the whispers of concern from her friends. It came as much a shock to him as everyone else in attendance when Georgiana died, still he took the time to welcome her into an immortal life.

In the New England town, Georgiana learned how to be a vampire; to curb cravings, to compel, to live this new life she had been given. Though a better alternative than death, it was a life full of grief for her family. In the solace of a friend, Georgiana found a new family; a chosen one. Meena Raja, who at the time was second in command to the town’s vampire clan, quickly became Georgiana’s closest friend. Both women grew up in society, though a continent and a few decades apart. They shared a love for fashion, music and all the arts, as well as an affinity for gossip like any aristocrat. Georgiana recovered a piece of her humanity in her dear friend Meena. A gift she would not know again for some decades until she returned to Savannah for her son. 

During the American Civil War Georgiana’s former husband and two of their sons died, leaving only her daughters and eldest boy alive. No measure of time passing made those losses easier, not during her tenure as a human or her eternity as a vampire. It was an eternal, forever kind of ache for each and every single one.

Two and a half decades came and went. Georgiana did not age but still changed with every rise and fall of the sun. Receiving an education, a real education, for the first time equipped her with the ability to guide her family from afar. To ensure their prosperity in business and their safety when it counted. She kept a careful eye on them throughout the years, especially her children. No longer babies but men and mothers, too. It was a different kind of ache; watching life go on without you. 

When word arrived that her only son left alive had been thrown from his horse and was fast approaching death, she left her new home for her old one. Upon arrival, the hospital pronounced him dead, but Georgiana heard his heart beating, faintly, the moment she entered the morgue. Inaudible to human ears, yet it was the loudest, most profound sound she’d ever heard; since the day of his birth when Georgiana heard the first cries of her first child.

Peter thought his mother was an angel, returned to Savannah to take him home when she offered him life everlasting. Only part of which was true.

The years came easier with Peter at Georgiana’s side. They mourned together, their mortal family’s lives. First within the safety of a supernatural home but venturing abroad at the turn of the century in pursuit of education, experience, and travel.

Georgiana attended universities across the Euro-Asia continents until the start of the first world war. They did what they could to help the allies. It was a long four years. When peace returned to the world, Georgiana and her son went home. Lunar Cove was a soft place to land after the trials of war. She was grateful for the peace, finally able to return to her studies and reunite with her cherished, chosen family.

In honor of her parents, Georgiana opened a cafe. Her father was a shipping merchant who met her mother through a business associate in the Puerto Rican coffee trade. She named the shop sardonically for the creature she’d become. The Caffine Crypt became a second home away from her estate in Celestial Hills. She relished the days of working in its corners, appreciating the smell of fresh ground beans, as she put ink to paper. Cataloging her life, her work, her thoughts. 

The second world war came and went. Georgiana found a place in her mind where the bloodshed lived. A survivor of three wars, now. The blessing and curse of her life; to watch as all the world moved by.

 After many years of interest, Georgiana found herself in the dirt. An archeologist with her own team, searching for things they’d never find. At least, not publicly. Georgiana kept the best treasures for the town. More than just human tokens, too, but magical relics that amazed a woman who was born no more than human. Safely stored in Lunar Cove, awaiting use should the town ever need. 

For more than a century and a half, Georgiana has maintained an estate in Celestial Hills. A home she often returns to, to spend the stretch of years between extensive bouts of intense research, to reunite with her family. Her son, Peter, and her dearest friend Meena; no longer second in command but leader of their clan and mayor of Lunar Cove. Feast Georgiana took to celebrating with the most elaborate of parties. An ode to their days of girlhood in the upper echelon. 

Over the years, much has changed about the world and the safe haven she calls home, but Georgina fears not war or death. A survivor of both, too many times to count. No threat could keep her out of Lunar Cove.

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Meena Kumari in “Chalte chalte yunhi koi” (“Pakeezah”, 1972)

Meena Kumari (1933-1972), one of the greatest Indian actresses of the last century, in an iconic scene and song from the classic Indian movie Pakeezah (The Pure One-1972, written, directed, and produced by Kamal Amrohi). 

Meena Kumari plays in this movie Sahibjaan, a tawaif. The tawaifs were courtesans who catered to the nobility of the Indian Subcontinent in the Mughal and post-Mughal eras and were trained in music, danse, theater, and Urdu literature. An orphan, Sahibjaan lives since her childhood in a kotha (brothel), but she wants to escape from her fate.

According to the website of the University of Iowa ( https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/pakeezah ):

““I’ve seen your feet; they’re very lovely. Don’t set them down on the earth—they’ll get soiled.” This metaphorical warning-note, penned by a romantic stranger and left between the toes of a sleeping woman in a railway compartment, forms a much-underscored motif in this classic courtesan film—the final collaboration between the great actress and dancer Meena Kumari and her former husband, actor and director Kamal Amrohi. Like MOTHER INDIA, this film coexists with its own legend involving the offscreen lives of the director and star, who planned it together in the late 1950s but whose marriage broke up around the time that filming began in 1964. Kumari (who was also a talented Urdu poet under the pen name Naaz) then purportedly became an alcoholic, but eventually came back to complete the film shortly before her premature death in 1972; aficionados may try their luck at identifying—from Kumari’s pained and sometimes mask-like face—which scenes were shot when. The central theme of the film is the struggle for respectability of a tawai’if, an Indo-Islamic courtesan trained in poetry, music, and dance—a glamorous “public woman” whose career was to be an elegant companion (and potential lover) to affluent men, but for whom a “respectable” marriage and home was out of the question. Her beautiful feet—apart from being an erotic fetish—represent her mastery of the art of North Indian classical dance or Kathak, which tawai’if’s preserved and nurtured for several centuries. The “earth” that such feet must perforce touch, however, is ruled by patriarchal society with its crippling double-standards, which decreed that respectable women (who lived in parda or seclusion) could seldom be interesting to men, and that interesting women were seldom respectable. All courtesan fiction struggles with this divide, which forms a principal theme of one of the earliest and most famous Urdu novels, Mirza Mohammed Hadi Ruswa’s UMRAO JAN ADA (1905; itself later filmed several times; see notes on UMRAO JAAN). PAKEEZAH offers another variation on the theme.”

See also about Pakeezah the paper of Richard Allen and Ira Brashkar Pakeezah: Dreamscape of Desire, on https://www.academia.edu/36264030/Pakeezah_Dreamscape_of_Desire

In the iconic scene of this video Sahibjaan/Meena Kumari sings and dances for the “villain” of the movie, an aristocrat (Nawab) named Zafar Ali Khan (played by Kamal Kapoor), who wishes to own her. The ambiguities and dynamics of the situation and of the relationship between the two are depicted in excellent way in this scene, which takes place at the Gulabi Mahal (Pink Palace) of Luchnow. According to the paper of Allen and Brashkar:

“The Gulabi Mahal (the Pink Palace) at Lucknow evokes a more rarified atmosphere. In Amrohi’s imagination, the space of the kotha is here fused with the idea of a Greek temple where the central colonnaded performance space doubles as a space of worship to the divine feminine, and discrete spaces are orchestrated in a theatrical hierarchy from the outer court with its fountains at the entrance to the inner sanctum sanctorum, which houses the bedroom of the courtesan, essentially off limits to all but the chosen client, and separated from the main performance space by a lighted causeway between reflecting pools of water.The Pink Palace is a sublime temple of femininity, whose fountains, atriums, reflecting pools form a microcosm of artifice that rivals that of the natural world. Indeed, even the moon appears artful in this landscape and the saturated deep blue sky, a studied backcloth to the whole.”

But, as the same article continues a bit further, the Pink Palace is also a prison for Sahibjaan:

“Meanwhile, for Sahibjaan whose desire for self-fulfillment has been awakened, the Pink Palace becomes a prison. In a metaphor that recurs in the film, and echoes throughout the genre, she is likened to a bird in a gilded cage from which she yearns to escape...

...The quality and texture of her performances for him [the Nawab] are now markedly different from her earlier ones. Gone is the vivacity and vibrancy of an Inhin logon ne or a Thade rahiyo as she mournfully sings the haunting Chalte Chalte, which articulates her desire for freedom and happiness.Yet it also returns us to the pathos of her entrapment in a manner that evokes the equation of the courtesan and the flickering flame that opens the film. At the conclusion of the performance, as she sings Yeh chiraag bujh rahein hain / Mere saath jalte jalte (These lamps are fading / As they burn with me), she hears the screech of a train whistle. It is impossible initially to discern whether it is somewhere physically off-screen or within her mind.The camera cranes upward from the floor to the red chandelier, recalling the red aalta of her feet.The lights darken as the escalating screech of the train whistle resounds through the performance space, taking over the song and abruptly bringing the dance to an end. When the camera cranes down again, the dancers have disappeared from the floor.The camera then tracks forward towards the fountains that abruptly stop playing as the whistling ends. It is as if the space in which she dwells, her erstwhile tomb, is now cut to the measure of her desire. She rushes to the balcony to see the train she has seen before, but this time it is motionless, silhouetted against the sky, almost as if waiting for her to come to her balcony before it can leave.Though real, the train appears as if in a vision, so detached is the spectacle from the space she inhabits.What is finally required for Sahibjaan to escape her sealed world is a transformation of environment and character of a magnitude that challenges the tone in which the film has hitherto been cast.”

The lyrics of Chalte chalte yuhni koi were written by the Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002) and its music was composed years before the release of Pakeezah by Ghulam Mohammed (1903-1968). Although Meena Kumari was also a singer, the voice in the song is of the great Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar (1929-2022).

Unfortunately I couldn’t do anything with the advertisements at the end of the video.

I have found on the net the following transliteration and translation of the lyrics of Chalte chalte yuhni koi:

Chalte chalte, chalte chalte    While walking, while walking

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha    I met someone by chance

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha  I met someone by chance

Sare raah chalte chalte   Walking around the path

Sare raah chalte chalte    Walking around the path

Wahin thamke reh gayi hai  Right there it stood still

Wahin thamke reh gayi hai   Right there it stood still

Meri raat dhalte dhalte    This night of mine, which is fading away

Meri raat dhalte dhalte     This night of mine, which is fading away

Joh kahi gayi na mujhse      What I was unable to say

Joh kahi gayi na mujhse     What I was unable to say

Woh zamaana keh raha hai      The world is saying that

Woh zamaana keh raha hai    The world is saying that

Ke fasana                                A story

Ke fasana ban gayi hai     A story has been created

Ke fasana ban gayi hai      A story has been created

Meri baat chalte chalte      From those words of mine

Meri baat chalte chalte   From those words of mine

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha    I met someone by chance

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha    I met someone by chance

Sare raah chalte chalte      Walking around the path

Sare raah chalte chalte      Walking around the path

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha    I met someone by chance

Sare raah                               Around the path

Chalte chalte, chalte chalte     While walking, while walking

Sare raah                                Around the path

Chalte chalte, chalte chalte       While walking, while walking

Chalte chalte, chalte chalte          While walking, while walking

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha            I met someone by chance

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha            I met someone by chance

Shab-e-intezaar aakhir             The night of waiting

Shab-e-intezaar aakhir              The night of waiting

Kabhi hogi mukhtasar bhi            Will after all shorten soon

Kabhi hogi mukhtasar bhi           Will after all shorten soon

Yeh chirag                                    These lamps

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai              These lamps are dying

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai               These lamps are dying

Mere saath jalte jalte                 As they burn alongside me

Mere saath jalte jalte                 As they burn alongside me

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai              These lamps are dying

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai                These lamps are dying

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai               These lamps are dying

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai                These lamps are dying

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai                 These lamps are dying

Yeh chirag bujh rahe hai               These lamps are dying

Mere saath jalte jalte                   As they burn alongside me

Mere saath jalte jalte                  As they burn alongside me

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha                   I met someone by chance

Yun hi koi mil gaya tha                I met someone by chance

Sare raah chalte chalte                Walking around the path

[notasapleasure]

Behind the Beautiful Forevers, National Theatre (2015)

David Hare's adaptation of Katherine Boo's book about a Mumbai slum. It follows various people and their interconnected stories, and Joplin is one of those playing multiple characters in the play: Sub-Inspector Shankar, the Prosecutor, and an unnamed extra.

First off, just a warning for anyone who might need it, as Sub-Inspector Shankar is not above committing a little light torture to get the results he wants. The story is pretty heavy too - there's self-immolation, suicide and violence.

And yeah, I am just here taking my little screenshots, and I am not above saying a uniform can look good on the right body even when said body is wielding a stick or belt as an instrument of torture. But you all know that from these blog posts already... First watch was for going oof at the story, second watch was just for going mad taking screencaps.

---

Oh HI Assad Zaman! He has a motorbike.

He.....oh dear. He had a very bad time as Deepak Rai, aka Kalu. Brutally murdered for breaking into the airport grounds to steal metal. (but he also turns up as a number of other characters)

Hmmmm hello Mr Officer Sir. That IS a moustache!! Sub-Inspector Shankar Yeram aka Fishlips 🙃 (I'm not making it up!)

He wants to keep the murder rates low! Get the certificates, look after his kids....just say the murder victim was suspected of having TB, the coroner will know what to do. Tell the other pickers he was murdered though, we wanna keep them scared!

Among the British actors putting on their Indian accents, he's at least doing a posher one but umm. If you know he's a Cockney you still know.

Holy SHIT did he just pick up Sunil the picker one-handed skdjdjjfjfjff 💀

The problem is I'm trying to have critical thoughts and then it's just 'HURRR. LOOK HOW BIG HE IS.'

Oh no, torturing a man for evidence is bad for his back :(

"Can you tell me what they've been charged with?"

"Yes, I can." 😐🤌

The tick of pulling the trousers up is splendid. The moustache is glorious. The bribery by tiffin is kind of charming. But the accent....bb it's not your best :') I guess it's a struggle to project and do this accent together?

Beginning of the second act (the rains have arrived - hence hat).

He sort of takes pity on the woman whose eldest son, husband and daughter have been jailed for beating a woman who then self-immolated (which they didn't do). I say sort of, because money and tiffins are very much involved, but he helps get Abdul a school certificate to ensure he'll go to juvie rather than adult prison.

As an aside, the second act hits SO much harder. The audience laughter is rarer, quieter, more nervous - in the first half it often made me uncomfortable, like the characters were grotesques to be laughed at. The themes come together too - younger generations who have seen either tenuous opportunity or brutal reprisal based on their parents' approach to getting on, asking themselves why they have to act 'dishonourably' or unjustly to improve their lot. And their parents standing by the hard work they've put in - whatever the cost - in order to improve things for their families.

Probably my least finest hour was trying to get a shot of Joplin's butt dancing in the background while Meena is in agony from the rat poison she's taken.

But if you do watch the play - and I really do recommend it - fair warning that Meena and Manju's interactions will wreck you, even if nothing else does (and there's plenty else that should).

THE MOUSTACHE IS GONE

He's now the lawyer for the prosecution (against the Husseins for Fatima's death).

LIES! DAMNATION AND LIES!

gosh isn't he big though.

I think the accent is better without the moustache?

They still have him hauling bits of stage around in his suit :') And once you're on the look out for him in the unnamed role in between scenes as the copper and the lawyer he's on stage quite a lot. But the cast is large and the story is dense, so if you do watch, be aware that focussing on Joplin will make the story near-incomprehensible and in focussing on the story you might miss a lot of his background appearances. Which is why I'm glad I watched twice :)

---

Rating

Dead? Nope! Not one version!

Evil? Nearly everyone in the play is morally compromised and sees the bribes and the selfishness simply as the only way of surviving with the hand life has dealt them. It's worse from the professional classes because of the additional power they wield, as you'd expect, and though S-I Shankar does what he does for his children's education, one feels he does relish it somewhat, too.

Affects the plot? He does indeed!

It took a while to warm on me, but the second act really made it all come together, and re-watching with a better idea of the characters and themes was really satisfying. The performances all round are great. And on a thoroughly basic note, the uniform is hot, the suit is well-fitted, and yes there was that time he picked up a dude one-handed. 3/5. The speaking roles he has really aren't nice people, looks notwithstanding, and the accent...not his best.

There are shitloads more screencaps too, but I couldn't be bothered to knit them together tonight - when I've watched the last three plays I'll set up a fan blog and a google drive with all of them in for people to take and use as they want.

[strangeduckpaper]

hey can you tell me about E136 Flash family?

Okay, I’m excluding the Chambers family and periphery speedsters (Bolt, Avery Ho, Danica Williams, Tanaka Rei, the Heroic Savitar and his villainous doppelganger) and focusing on the Garrick-Allen-West family, which is still an extensive story with just how enmeshed they are with the Speed Force.

But before that, I’m going to explain the reason why Keystone/Central City is so prone to speed force infused lightning bolts. It all stems from a Missouri Native American man who’s E136’s version of Max Mercury. (Missouri instead of Blackfoot because it’s more local, and I’d like to get more in depth with him, but I’d need to do research because I want to make this respectful)

(BTW, if anyone has resources on the Missouri People, I’d be very grateful)

He accidentally tapped into the Speed Force via a magic spell and earnest prayer in order to prevent a massacre of Natives by the U.S, Military and became unbound in time, disturbing the Speed Force and kicking it up into a storm stretching throughout time and localized to the Central-Keystone area. Max Mercury himself would occasionally pop up through the Flash’s history, serving as a mentor to younger speedsters, especially Bart Allen.

Cut to the late 1930’s when Jay Garrick is locked in a laboratory with heavy water in a convoluted assassination attempt by fellow student Edward Clariss to win the affections of Jay’s girlfriend, Joan Williams. In a stroke of questionable luck he and the heavy water are hit by the lightning bolt, activating his meta gene and tapping him into the speed force, becoming the first Flash.

A college footballer, he was a fairly straightforward speedster, running in straight lines and making good if unintentional use of his altered sense of physics to hit people with football tackles. He served on the All Star Squadron and served on the JSA for its entire existence, during which he and Joan would have Judy, who would become Thunderheart (Rejected names: Bang, Boom).

Unfortunately, at some point, Judy disappeared into the Speed Force, and Jay hung up the hat soon after.

Cut to 1988, when Barry Allen came home to his parents murder suicide. He’s taken in by Darryl Frye (Based off of the Earth 2 jazz musician version of the CW Flash’s Joe West), and grew into a forensic scientist, best friends with Meena Dhawan, husband to Iris West, and guardian to Iris’ nephew, Wally West (1). He was invited for a private viewing to Central City’s new particle accelerator, sharing the front seat with the Rival, a robot built to fight Jay Garrick.

Cue the Accelerator going sideways, and Barry Allen being supposedly vaporized by a bolt of lightning, the Rival bot being vaporized, and Wally being sent into a temporary coma. After spending a virtual eternity trapped within the Speed Force, he’s spat out several months after his death…in the Rival bot’s body.

Thus begins the F.L.A.S.H. (Fastest Living Artificial Super Hero). He would become a founding member of the Justice League, take on Wally as Kid Flash, finally reveal his identity and get back with Iris, and both fight and reconnect with his long lost twin Malcolm Allen (Adopted by Crispus Allen’s family). He would struggle with his sense of self for years, trying not to lose his consciousness to the Speed Force, a fight he would ultimately lose trying to stop the Anti-Monitor, though not before having twins (Don and Nora) with Iris via IVF with Malcolm’s help, who would grow up as civilians.

Also amongst the Allens are Thad and Bart Allen, sons of Don Allen heralding from a dark future where the heroes of Earth fight a losing war against regime of supervillains backed by the Reach and propped up by Apokalyptan tech, given their powers via a retrofitted cosmic treadmill. With the aversion of this dark future and the loss of several items used to kickstart their powers, their future now exists in a state of flux.

The version of the twins stranded in the present would meet a tragic parting as Thad would give his life to the Black Racer, while Bart would fall under the tutelage of Max Mercury, eventually becoming successor to the Mercury name.

Then there are the Wests, Iris, Rudy, and the estranged Daniel. Both Rudy and Daniel would separately name their sons Wallace in reference to their grandfather. Wally West the first would gain his powers following the above mentioned lightning strike and pretty much force himself under the wing of the robotic speedster who appeared several months later.

You could imagine his surprise upon finding out that the robot’s actually his uncle.

He would become Kid Flash, meet Artemis Crock and Dick Grayson, join the Teen Titans, nearly get killed by his powers, semi-retire and go to college, become friends with Chester Runk, fall in love with Linda Park, come out of retirement to fend off the Apokalyptan Invasion, share the mantle of Flash with Barry for several years, become an avatar of the Speed Force, have a falling out with his friend Hunter Zolomon, have kids with Linda Park, and become the Post-Crisis Flash before sharing/passing off the mantle to Jess Chambers.

Linda herself would gain photokinetic powers and briefly be press ganged into the Rogues as Prism, but would mostly stay out of the superhero game.

Wallace “Ace” West would mostly be raised by his mother Rina while his father Daniel went in and out of prison. Rina would be diagnosed with MacGregor's Syndrome, and lacking any relatives, would move to Central City to be closer to Iris and the West-Allens. Daniel would follow, and both would nearly be killed by a nearly cataclysmic fight between the Flash fam and the Legion of ZOOM (The various Reverse Flashes). Ace would be taken under the older Wally’s wing as the new Kid Flash, eventually becoming Surge, while Daniel would meet an unfortunate end as the Reverse Flash of Owlman's New Crime Syndicate.

Wally’s twins, Iris and Jai would both follow in their father’s footsteps. Iris, the more traditional speedster of the two, would become Impulse, the Kid Flash to Jess Chambers’ Flash, before eschewing the Flash name and becoming Impulse once more. Jai, meanwhile, wouldn’t end up with superspeed, but increased control of the secondary altered physics field and a degree of temporal manipulation, becoming a heroic version of the Turtle, equipt with a Captain America-style shield.

I’m not sure about Wade, but I had the idea his powers would be a weird mixture of his parents, where he could access and intangible ‘Lightspeed’ mode.

[ecofinisher]

The Sims 3 Game File Families Part 3/3

Let me introduce the present families in the save file I made for Sims 3. It's just a simple one. The eventual prolog to the actual canon of the game. You'll see familiar Sims and new Sims, of course. I just changed a few things around Sunset Valley, the rest remains the same. This is why I didn't take that long on it. (A hour per day maybe....)

Note: The description contains both family and character bio.

The Sekemoto family (Yumi Sekemoto [Original & Younger version] Leighton Sekemoto [Original & Younger version] and Jade Niyamoto.

Sekemoto family:

Yumi was left a widow upon her husband's death. Good thing for her Leighton has always been a well-educated boy due to both parent's raising methods. Leighton now has a girlfriend and hopes for a bright future with her despite his mother not being 100% fond of their relationship....

Yumi Sekemoto: Upon her husband’s death, she and Leighton were on their own. Yumi isn’t quite pleased with Jade being together with his son but learns to accept her with time, upon seeing how well she treats him.

Leighton Sekemoto: Leighton is certain, that Jade is his soulmate and has discreetly planned out a proposal.

Jade Niyamoto: Leighton is the best thing, that has ever happened to her. Growing up at the school’s loser and ending up dating the school’s star athlete was totally not, what most comrades expected. Jade fears their future together. She fears, that she might not be good enough for him and suffers sometimes existential crisis.

The Alvi family (Miraj Alvi [Original & Younger version], VJ Alvi [Original & Younger version] and Meena Alvi) [Iqbal Alvi remains the same)

Alvi family:

Iqbal and Meena's relationship in the aspect of living seems to be an issue for Meena. Upon an accident, she had to take a part-time job, which would leave her other part of the day to be taking care of the boys or the household. She did ask her husband more, than one time to lean her a hand or other favors, but he would just postpone them....

Meena Alvi: Meena works part-time due to being in a recuperation phase of an operation. Iqbal had promised Meena tons of time, that he would help her after work at home with anything, but this has never happened. Meena has called him out on that too, but as the months moved on, she began to care less about that slowly reducing her work in the household, even watching over her kids….

Iqbal Alvi: Iqbal works had to be able to pay the rent and the food at home. When he’s back home, he spends the rest of the evening sitting in front of the couch watching TV and drinking.

VJ Alvi: VJ was distant with his father, but is in good terms with his mother. He knew how much she complained about her father and suggested to look to herself. Within the time, VJ noticed, that his mother began to change and grow more self-sufficient. This also seemed to have passed down onto VJ pretty quick.

Miraj Alvi: Miraj doesn’t realize at the current age, what’s going on around the household. The only times he sees his parents are the moments, he really needs something and cries….

The Police Academy household (Daniel Lopes, Jake Furtado and Eva Pelicano [Created by Ecofinisher] Hank Goddard and Justine Keaton remain the same

Police Academy family:

Five Sims have moved together to save up enough money to go through their formation. All have their different personalities but appreciate each other's assistance during the rough times.

Hank Goddard: Hank’s school grades didn’t help him get into politics, so he joined the mandatory military course and gained interest in candidature in law enforcement. He was okay at the school, but upon meeting Justine Keaton he teamed up with her to improve his grades at the school.

Eva Pelicano: Eva’s wish as a child was to become a police officer someday. Now that her chance is here, she immediately took it and joined the academy along with her childhood friend, Daniel.

Daniel Lopes: Daniel didn’t have in mind, what actually he wanted to do in the future. His only idea was, that he wanted to help people. When Eva suggested to him, that the academy needed recruits, Daniel came along. Things change between the two during the formation, mostly for Daniel, who starts to see Eva in a different light.

Jake Furtado: Jake was relocated to a different academy due to irregularities around his area. As planned Jake sets his head in the game and hopes to fulfill his lifetime wish someday….

Justine Keaton: Justine’s been in a job seminar looking for possible careers, she could get into after finishing school. From learning about a journalist, who used to work in crime investigation she got quite curious about how it works behind those investigations and gained interest in joining law enforcement to be able to become a DNA profiler.

Night School household (Chad Warwick and Libby Gartner[Created by Ecofinisher]) Ayesha Ansari, Emma Hatch and Cyclon3 Sw0rd remain the same.

Night School:

Five different young adults with different pasts have received a chance to get their degree by attending the night school in Sunset Valley. For the entire year, they have to stay in a pension and most of them don't seem to appreciate their constant sights as much as expected. ..

Ayesha Ansari: As a refugee Ayesha escaped from war among other people and she got lost overseas. Upon getting on land, she was sent to an orphanage, where she didn’t stay for long and she made her life as a con-arist. Upon coming to Sunset Valley for a job, she received the offer to go through night school to get her degree and made there her first and only best friend.

Emma Hatch: A burnout related to stress at school and at home, forced Emma to quit school. During the time, she found passion for cooking and started small at Hogan’s dinner. Three years later, they offered her to attend night school to get her degree, which she thankfully accepted. Thanks to her new friend, Ayesha, she learned how to take things easier and grew confidence.

Cyclon3 Sw0rd: Cyclon3 received from the Doo Peas company a space to learn at the night school. They appreciate his computer skills and don’t want to lose him due to a missing diploma. His biggest challenge will be the studying part…..

Chad Warwick: Chad spent his entire school year tormenting his classmates for being smarter than him. Little did he know, that most of his “victims” got quite successful and made his life into the professional life a pain.

Libby Gartner: The night school is Libby’s only chance in giving her a bigger chance to get her dream job. The worst part of her is the minor time she has for learning.

(Xandra and Uma Yu-Qin [Created by Ecofinisher]) Jamie Jolina, Pauline Wan, Tamara Donner and Zelda Mae remain the same.

College Girls household 1:

Pauline found this house on a news paper addressed and immediately thought of her best friend Jamie. As they were reaching the end of their high school year, Pauline suggested Jamie to invite their close friends to live with them.

College Girls household 2:

Due to lack of space, Tamara moved next door along with two foreign students. One accident led them to lose their roommate and now Tamara is all alone with the new townie Zelda Mae, who's kinda quirky in some aspects....

Jamie Jolina: Jamie as Pauline’s good friend joined the commune first and brought her classmate Xandra and Tamara. Due to her high intelligence Jamie finds herself a spot in medical school and practices at the hospital in Sunset Valley. Jamie is the most serious person in the household and when circumstances allow, she takes a time out to have fun with her friends.

Pauline Wan: Pauline started this commune in the hope this group of friends could live on together, before one day, they find the right path to their independence.

Tamara Donner: There’s nothing better, than after a long week of work to head out at the dance floor and party! Just as in her teenage years, Tamara still has kept her party-girl behavior...

Xandra: Xandra hasn’t decided yet, what area she should go into. Journalism or Politics. At the moment, she’s working part-time and upon finishing school, she hopes to have set her decision.

Uma Yu-Quin: Yu-Quin wasn’t really interested in joining this commune. Due to expensive homes around the town, she accepted the offer of Pauline and moved on.

Zelda Mae: Zelda wasn't sure about what to do with her life and moved in into a commune with two other women. Due to Zelda's rather party and childish-like behavior she earned a unpopularity in that household. She distanced herself from the roommates and developed a high interest into gardening, which she began using in her daily lives after a hard day of work.

[legalupanishad]

Maintenance of Widowed Daughter-in-Law

This article on 'Maintenance of Widowed Daughter-in-Law u/s 19 of Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act' was written by an intern at Legal Upanishad.

Introduction

Maintenance fundamentally means support to someone who is unable to maintain and sustain herself or himself. Predominantly in India, women are not able to maintain and sustain themselves after the divorce or the death of a husband due to constraints and diminutions they face in society. This makes it harder for women to sustain themselves and looking at the constraints and restrictions women face parliament has passed a law regarding this. Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 which governs the law concerning maintenance. For this article, our concern would be the maintenance of the widowed daughter-in-law which is governed by Section 19 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA). Under section 19 of HAMA, the widowed Hindu wife is entitled to maintenance from her father-in-law to the extent that she is not able to sustain and maintain themselves from earnings or property.

Maintenance of Widowed Daughter-in-Law

Where the widowed daughter-in-law is unable to sustain and maintain themselves from her income or estate or has no estate of herself or is not able to secure maintenance from the property of her husband or her mother or father then she is entitled to the maintenance from her father-in-law under section 19(1) of HAMA. Nonetheless, section 19(2) of HAMA states that where the father-in-law has no means to provide maintenance to the widowed daughter-in-law from his property then the obligation stated under section 19(1) ceases to be enforceable. In addition, the widowed daughter-in-law's maintenance right would cease to exist after her remarriage. Right of Maintenance of Widowed Daughter-in-Law: Maintenance of the widowed daughter-in-law can be met up from the estate where the deceased husband had a share in the estate. To plead section 19 the deceased husband should have a share in the estate. In Raj Kishore Mishra v. Smt. Meena Mishra, the court decided that the father-in-law is under no obligation if he does not have sufficient means to provide maintenance through his coparcenary estate. It is crucial to note that the daughter-in-law would have no right to claim the ownership of the property self-acquired by the deceased husband's parents. In Satpal v. Suman and Ors. It was stated that maintenance of the widowed daughter-in-law from the salary of the father-in-law would be inconsistent with section 19(2) of the Act. As the husband has no share in the father's salary, the widowed wife would also have no share. Under the old Hindu law, an uncodified daughter-in-law had the right of maintenance against the self-acquired property of the father-in-law but it is important to consider that section 4 of the act which provides for a non-obstante clause would be having the overriding effect and the aforesaid rule would cease to exist subsequent to the enactment of the HAMA. Mother-in-law would not have any legal liability to support and provide finance for her daughter-in-law from her own estate or possessions. In Venubai v. Laxman Lahanuji Rambhad, the court stated that it is important to understand that section 19 is a whole scheme in itself laying down obligation and its enforceability, and sections 19(1) and 19(2) are not independent of each other. Under section 19 the daughter has a right that corresponds to the obligation of the father-in-law.  

Maintenance of Widowed Daughter-in-Law

Maintenance of Minors with the Widowed Daughter-in-Law:

In a Hari Ram Hans v. Smt Deepali & Ors. judgment by Punjab and Haryana High Court, it was held that under section 19 of HAMA the word ‘widow’ would also include minor children living with her and are entitled to maintenance. In Smt. Raina v. Hari Mohan Budhaulia case the honorable Allahabad High Court held that the petitioner widowed daughter-in-law and her two minor daughters are also entitled to maintenance from her father-in-law as she had no means to maintain herself and her daughters and the father-in-law had the sufficient means to maintain her along with her two daughters. The high court also quashed the impugned order passed by the court below saying the court should not go into the provision's technicalities but consider the act's intention while enacted.  

Section 19(2) of HAMA:

It is important to understand the scope and meaning of Section 19(2) as it mentions the coparcenary property in the ownership of the father-in-law through which he would be providing maintenance to his widowed daughter-in-law. In Nand Kishore Lal vs Shrimati Chanchala Lal, the court stated that the coparcenary property refers in the section would consist of ancestral property or joint acquisition. Sub-section (2) of Section 19 has the meaning that is only extended to the ancestral property.

Conclusion

Women's social and economic condition in Indian society is often fragile and weak due to the constraints and restrictions they face in an overwhelmingly patriarchal society. This makes women dependent and after the separation or the death of the husband, the women become unable to maintain themselves. Looking at the aforesaid situation the parliament has passed an appropriate law known as the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA) which governs the maintenance rights of a wife and widowed daughter-in-law. As Section 19 of HAMA further clarifies the stand of the law regarding the rights of maintenance of women. As the law protects and safeguards the interest of widowed women in a case where she is unable to sustain and maintain themselves after the death of their husband. In this course of events, it becomes obligatory for the father-in-law to provide maintenance to the widowed daughter-in-law and as well to the minor children thus they can sustain themselves. 

Reference:

- Salil Tiwari, “Widow” Would Include Minor Grandchildren Staying With Mother: Punjab & Haryana HC, Law Beat, 7 January 2023, available at: https://lawbeat.in/news-updates/s-19-hindu-adoptions-maintenance-act-widow-would-include-minor-grandchildren-staying-mother-punjab-haryana-high-court#:~:text=Synopsis,ownearningsorotherproperty - Basit Amin Makhdoomi, Minor Children Of Widowed Daughter-In-Law Entitled To Maintenance U/S 19 Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act: Punjab & Haryana High Court, LiveLaw, 6 January 2023, available at: https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/punjab-haryana-high-court-widow-daughter-in-law-minor-children-maintenance-father-in-law-section-19-hindu-adoptions-and-maintenance-act-218287 Read the full article

[rudrjobdesk]

साउथ एक्ट्रेस मीना पर टूटा दुखों का पड़ाड, लंग इन्फेक्शन से पति विद्यासागर का निधन

साउथ एक्ट्रेस मीना पर टूटा दुखों का पड़ाड, लंग इन्फेक्शन से पति विद्यासागर का निधन

साउथ इंडस्ट्री से एक बार फिर गमगीन करने वाली खबर सामने आई है. फेमस तमिल एक्ट्रेस मीना (Meena) पर दुखों का पहाड़ टूट गया है. उनके पति विद्यासागर का निधन (Meena husband Vidyasagar Death) हो गया है. इस दुखद खबर के सामने आने के बाद साउथ इंडस्ट्री भी शॉक्ड है और सोशल मीडिया पर उनके असामयिक निधन पर शोक जाहिर कर रहे हैं. एक्टर सरथ कुमार ( Sarath Kumar) ने इस खबर को ट्वीट कर साझा किया और इस दुख खबर के…

[rnewsworld]

जब मीना कुमारी को देखकर बोले पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री लाल बहादुर शास्त्री, कौन है ये महिला?

जब मीना कुमारी को देखकर बोले पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री लाल बहादुर शास्त्री, कौन है ये महिला?

जब मीना कुमारी को देखकर बोले पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री लाल बहादुर शास्त्री, कौन है ये महिला? | Entertainment Podcast बेहतर अनुभव के लिए अपनी सेटिंग्स में जाकर हाई मोड चुनें। Play 3:57 फिल्म इंडस्ट्री में अभिनेत्री मीना को ट्रेजेडी क्वीन कहा जाता है। पर्दे पर राज करने वाली मीना कुमारी को जिंदगीभर प्यार नसीब नहीं हो सका। एक बेहतरीन अभिनेत्री, खूबसूरत गायिका और शायरा के रूप में मीना कुमारी को हमेशा याद…

[lunarcovehq]

A WIDOW'S TALE

I'm a do just what I want on the regular and it's really not my fault if you're scared of a sweet little unforgettable thing, unforgettable.

After the shock of the first interview, the Council debated whether or not they should keep going, but given that the next name on the list of interviewees was one Council Leader, Meena Raja, the vampire made the call to continue. Leaning casually back in her seat at the head of the table, she held out her hand willingly for Eren Öztürk, of Tower Treasure Detective Agency, to take. There has been a lot of death in the vampires life, so it wasn't easy for Eren to pinpoint the right moment, but finally memories of 1992 came flashing forwards within both of their minds.

Back in 1992, Meena was the advisor to the Clan rather than the leader, although the title had been more of a formality than an actual position seeing how her late husband, Theodore Moore, had hardly ever taken her opinion into account. It was rare for her even to be invited into the room. But, right before the hunter attack, there was a meeting. A group of hunters had apparently discovered the Cove's location, but before they could reveal the location to the rest of their kind, the Council found them. They debated whether to eradicate the hunters entirely or to try to negotiate and, after much back and forth, the negotiation tactic won out. The Council arranged a meeting. Meena wasn't privy to the details, but the Council would meet with the hunters outside the border of Lunar Cove in an attempt to make peace. But, clearly the negotiations were for not given what occurred next.

REMINDERS

For the characters being interviewed: Feel free to react to this plot drop in the Interview thread that is ongoing in the discord chat. You are welcome continue to carry out the interview with Meena before moving on to your next interviewee.

The above discovery isn't public knowledge yet. It is up to the Council what they would like to share along with the residents. Feel free to deliberate.

These plot drops are not mandatory, so if you’d like to react to the above IC in threads you’re more than welcome to, but please don’t feel obligated include in your threads if you’d prefer not to.

The tag for these plot drops are lunarcoveplotdrop3. If you do react to any of the above, we ask you please tag everything under this tag.

This is the fourth of many plot drops like this throughout the month, so keep an eye out for them. We will be incorporating our volunteers into posts like these throughout the upcoming weeks.

Last, but not least, we hope you have fun!

WINTER WONDERLAND EVENT COMING DEC 14TH

[gauri-vishalakshi]

Meenamma Pt. 3

"Ram?"

---

The man in question stared back at Meena, openmouthed and clearly shocked. Lady Scott's expression soured a little. "Ah, you two know each other? Perfect! Go change, Mary, and we'll get you married immediately!" "First of all, my name is not Mary. Secondly, what do you mean immediately?" "Right now! What do you think the gala's for?"

Ignoring Meena's protests, the wretched woman pushed her into a dressing room, where a white salwar hung solitarily on a rack. "You'll get married in front of civilized people in white, and then you'll have a private, ahem, ceremony in front of the brown people. I don't give a damn what you wear then." Meena rolled her eyes to hide the myriad of emotions within her as a pair of diamond-studded earrings were shoved into her ears by a nearby maid.

---

Meena was conflicted. She supposed she could've married worse, but then again, she had spent two weeks in Ram's company and never once had he let slip his profession. Loyal. That was how Lord Scott had described him. But would he be loyal to jailed, restricted her or those who held her chains?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a suit-clad Ram within the ballroom. Had he always been that handsome? A treacherous voice at a far corner of her brain whispered, though she was primarily preoccupied on the fact that she was getting married. Without her consent, or, apparently, her very-soon-to-be-husband's. It's not that she already had a boyfriend or anything (she was far too career-oriented to care about men), but Meena didn't want to get married this soon simply because she didn't want her wings clipped like so many of her female friends had.

Her "father" took her arm in his and walked her to the altar, clutching her hand in almost a death-grip. And before she knew it, the priest had said: you may kiss the bride. Meena and Ram froze, staring at each other with wide, slightly terrified eyes. In the haste of the surprise marriage, they had (both, evidently) forgotten the "kissing" part of the ceremony. Looking around hesitantly, Meena felt fury rise up in her at the smug look on Lady Scott's face. Oh, the bitch was enjoying this, wasn't she? Then why don't I give her a show? Meena had never been particularly patient (unless she was with patients) and prided herself on being spontaneous.

And at the height of her anger-fueled spontaneity, she wrapped her hands around the base of Ram's neck, prompting an instinctual movement of his right hand to her cheek and somehow, they ended up in a kiss. Ram smelled like ink and gunpowder, with a tint of the smoky scent dying embers carried as they flickered, desperate to stay aflame. On the other hand, Meena carried a distinct aleatory fragrance of jasmine flowers, chloroform, turmeric and the smell of the earth after rain, fresh and pure and resembling the banks of the Godavari after a monsoon storm.

The smell brought flickers of memories to Ram's mind. Tinkling anklets, bell-like laughter, two little braids. Chelithaara. Ram’s eyes fluttered open as he gently broke the kiss. No. He told himself. She’s gone. And he looked straight into the beautiful brown eyes that looked so painfully like the ones he’d left behind so long ago.

---

Meena looked at Ram in confusion, wondering at the sudden teary film covering his eyes. "Ram?" She inquired softly, breaking him out of his thoughts. The glassiness in his eyes cleared a bit. "Ippudu endhuku yedustunnavu? Nannu pelli chesukunnandhuka? Nenu Mari antha balena?" ('Why are you crying now? Is it because you married me? Am I that bad?') Ram let out a watery chuckle as, to her relief, he seemed grounded in the present once more. "Nothing of the sort, Meenamma. In fact, the exact opposite. You are probably my best option in this scenario." Meena immediately felt a twinge of guilt at his words about her being his "best option", as hadn't she been wondering, just moments ago, about how he may not be hers? Ram bumped his shoulder against hers, interrupting her musings. "Now, are you ready for our second wedding?" Meena groaned, nudging her "husband" as he laughed back at her.

---

A/N: special thanks to @sivuda for helping me adjust the Telugu translation!

[rpgchoices]

Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game… and thankfully people can also submit their summaries of games they played and help me (and others) find games that cater to their interests!

submitted by @lairofsentinel

(click here for other videogames)

 what to expect from LAST STOP

Narrative linear adventure about extraordinary events happening to ordinary people. It’s set on the streets of London, and follows four different characters whose unremarkable lives are suddenly touched by the supernatural.

At times, it feels more like an interactive movie than a game. 

Despite having options in the dialogues, it’s not a game where “your choices matter”. At least not in the beginning. It’s basically in the last episode where your direct actions determine the many endings. 

Since there are four main characters, you explore their stories in a separate way. As the general story progresses, the chars begin to link one another, and eventually intersect in the final chapter.

 ——- Plot? ——-

Strange yet subtle supernatural events are happening in London. The main plot focuses on three stories involving  four characters who suffer from these phenomena. 

One story is about John (a middle-aged single father with heart problems, working for a gov. civil service office), and Jack (an upbeat, fitness-loving videogame developer in his twenties). Due to these supernatural events that are occurring in the city, their brains end up being swapped. After the shock of this situation, the pair tries to find a solution via traditional and alternative medicine. Without a way to return to their bodies, they end up trying to live each other's lives with disastrous and comical results. 

Another story is about Donna and her friends, who follow a mysterious man to a derelict swimming pool, discover he has inexplicable supernatural powers, and end up holding him hostage after an unfortunate incident. In parallel, Donna has an ill mother and a sister who is a police and puts a lot of pressure on her to behave more adult. 

The last story is about Meena, who is an ex-soldier working for a technology/intelligence company with a lucrative contract to supply the military with robots. Her family is composed of a communist father who is disappointed in her chosen career, a husband who is a teacher, their son, who is always asking for her to spend more time with him, and a lover with whom she is having an affair. None of this mundane life gives her purpose as, apparently, the military lifestyle used to give her. As a consequence, she ends up making bad decisions that turn her life into a complicated mess. In my opinion, Meena is the best character of all of them: she's tough, cynical, egotistical, selfish, and mostly unapologetic about it, which are characteristics that we usually see in male characters, not in women, and even less in middle-aged women. She is as fierce as flawed, and the supernatural element appears in her story when the company where she works for starts to detect unnatural energy around the city.  

——- Gameplay? ——- 

I would say that none. You have almost no interaction with the keyboard and the mouse. Sometimes you pick some answers in dialogues, and other times, you make chars walk. That’s all the gameplay you have. It’s more like an interactive movie. 

——- Characters? ——-

John and Jack, Donna, and Meena

 ——- LGBT? ——-

Donna’s sister, who works for the police, is getting married with her girlfriend soon. Their relationship is so normal and natural that at first I was not aware that they were going to get married, because nobody was making a fuss about it. 

——- Sadness level? ——- 

It has an important degree of sadness. You have chars with serious health problems and a sense of loneliness and frustration that hit some spots. Many characters die or disappear forever. 

——- Happy ending? Deaths? ——-

So far I know, there are no happy endings. There are, however, different degrees of sad endings. The final choices that the game offers are, in the best case scenario, bittersweet, in the worst one, mega sad. 

[dannymillerfansite]

29.11.21 Weeping Wendy cries in the cafe about Ben's death. She decides she's got to pack up Ben's stuff but is struggling with it, Manpreet suggests Meena could help her.

Wendy suggests how awful it must be for Aaron having someone ripped away from him like that. ( While never mentioning it was her family caused Aaron's husband being taken away from him)

Brenda suggests Wendy should sleep with one eye open & she lives in a house of doom with both her housemates Andrea and Ben being murdered in as many weeks & might struggle to get any new lodgers!

Later Wendy has indeed roped in Meena to help pack up Ben's things to give to Aaron so he can feel closer to him, as they haul the boxes outside Meena recreates Ben's murder by swinging the baseball bat as she did the oar as she battered him to death & then covers Ben's mouth on his picture as she did just prior to murdering him but her bizarre behaviour goes unnoticed.

[kellykadesperate]

It makes zero sense actually. They are dismissing the love/bond Aaron had with Robert to create a love interest with zero build up, sexual chemistry, connection outside of Aaron. For example with Moira and John, even after his death his memory and Moira feelings were never ignored even when Cain became her boyfriend. Val is never forgotten or dismissed by Eric. And Ben so far is presented as another Alex, one dimensional, Aaron-focused character.

the idea of being dismissive come from the fact that aaron is just simply not wanting to talk about what this means for him in any substantial way. shouting that what he does/doesn't feel for robert isn't anyone's business and that it isn't up for discussion is ... annoying but it would be better if he had the ability to open up to someone about he feels. like. the lockdown episode

taking my shipper glasses off it still would make sense to talk about an ex as he moves into a new relationship, especially his husband. it happens all the time like you say! it happened with maya/david/meena recently

i don't even think we have seen aaron/ben have a proper talk about robert?? people just ... talk about it ... around ben and he's fine with it apparently?

it's just bad writing ...........

[pretimasafghanistanlitblog]

“Ten Interesting Afghani Novels”

1. Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Intertwined portraits of courage and hope in Afghanistan and Pakistan Najmah, a young Afghan girl whose name means "star," suddenly finds herself alone when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid. An American woman, Elaine, whose Islamic name is Nusrat, is also on her own. She waits out the war in Peshawar, Pakistan, teaching refugee children under the persimmon tree in her garden while her Afghan doctor husband runs a clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Najmah's father had always assured her that the stars would take care of her, just as Nusrat's husband had promised that they would tell Nusrat where he was and that he was safe. As the two look to the skies for answers, their fates entwine. Najmah, seeking refuge and hoping to find her father and brother, begins the perilous journey through the mountains to cross the border into Pakistan. And Nusrat's persimmon-tree school awaits Najmah's arrival. Together, they both seek their way home.

Known for her award-winning fiction set in South Asia, Suzanne Fisher Staples revisits that part of the world in this beautifully written, heartrending novel. (goodreads.com)

2. Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

Winner of the Christopher Medal and a "heart-wrenching" Al Roker's Book Club selection on the Today Show.

Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Taliban have been driven from Afghanistan; a good relationship with her hard stepmother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided for her--"Inshallah," God willing. Then she meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan poetry she taught her late mother. And the Americans come to her village, promising not just new opportunities and dangers, but surgery to fix her face. These changes could mean a whole new life for Zulaikha--but can she dare to hope they'll come true? (Amazon.com)

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years - from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding - that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love - a stunning accomplishment. (goodreads.com)

4. Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra 

Since the ascendancy of the Taliban the lives of Mosheen and his beautiful wife, Zunaira, have been gradually destroyed. Mosheen's dream of becoming a diplomat has been shattered and Zunaira can no longer even appear on the streets of Kabul unveiled. Atiq is a jailer who guards those who have been condemned to death; the darkness of prison and the wretchedness of his job have seeped into his soul. Atiq's wife, Musarrat, is suffering from an illness no doctor can cure. Yet, the lives of these four people are about to become inexplicably intertwined, through death and imprisonment to passion and extraordinary self-sacrifice.

The Swallows of Kabul is an astounding and elegiac novel of four people struggling to hold on to their humanity in a place where pleasure is a deadly sin and death has become routine. (goodreads.com)

5. The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.

In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.

But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-great grandmother, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way.

Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive? (Amazon.com)

6. Shooting Kabul By N.H. Senzai

In the summer of 2001, twelve-year-old Fadi's parents make the difficult decision to illegally leave Afghanistan and move the family to the United States. When their underground transport arrives at the rendezvous point, chaos ensues, and Fadi is left dragging his younger sister Mariam through the crush of people. But Mariam accidentally lets go of his hand and becomes lost in the crowd, just as Fadi is snatched up into the truck. With Taliban soldiers closing in, the truck speeds away, leaving Mariam behind.

Adjusting to life in the United States isn't easy for Fadi's family, and as the events of September 11th unfold the prospects of locating Mariam in a war torn Afghanistan seem slim. When a photography competition with a grand prize trip to India is announced, Fadi sees his chance to return to Afghanistan and find his sister. But can one photo really bring Mariam home?

Based in part on Ms. Senzai's husband's own experience fleeing his home in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan in the 1970's, Shooting Kabul is a powerful story of hope, love, and perseverance. (goodreads.org)

7. Green on Blue: A Novel by Elliot Ackerman 

Aziz and his older brother Ali are coming of age in a village amid the pine forests and endless mountains of eastern Afghanistan. They are poor, but inside their mud-walled home, the family has stability, love, and routine. One day a convoy of armed men arrives in their village and their world crumbles. The boys survive and make their way to a small city, where they gradually begin to piece together their lives. But when US forces invade the country, militants strike back. A bomb explodes in the market, and Ali is brutally injured.

To save his brother, Aziz must join the Special Lashkar, a US-funded militia. As he rises through the ranks, Aziz becomes mired in the dark underpinnings of his country’s war, witnessing clashes between rival Afghan groups—what US soldiers call “green on green” attacks—and those on US forces by Afghan soldiers, violence known as “green on blue.” Trapped in a conflict both savage and contrived, Aziz struggles to understand his place. Will he embrace the brutality of war or leave it behind, and risk placing his brother—and a young woman he has come to love—in jeopardy?

Green on Blue has broken new ground in the literature of our most recent wars, accomplishing an astonishing feat of empathy and imagination. Writing from the Afghan perspective, “Elliot Ackerman has done something brave as a writer and even braver as a soldier: He has touched, for real, the culture and soul of his enemy” (The New York Times Book Review). (barnesandnoble.com)

8. Caravans by James A. Michener

First published in 1963, James A. Michener’s gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A timeless tale of love and emotional drama set against the backdrop of one of the most important countries in the world today, Caravans captures the tension of the postwar period, the sweep of Afghanistan’s remarkable history, and the inescapable allure of the past. (barnesandnoble.com)

 9. A Cup of Friendship: A Novel by Deborah Rodriguez

From the author of the “bighearted . . . inspiring” (Vogue) memoir Kabul Beauty School comes to a fiction debut as compelling as real life: the story of a remarkable coffee shop in the heart of Afghanistan, and the men and women who meet there - thrown together by circumstance, bonded by secrets, and united in an extraordinary friendship.

After hard luck and some bad choices, Sunny has finally found a place to call home - it just happens to be in the middle of a war zone. The thirty-eight-year-old American’s pride and joy is the Kabul Coffee House, where she brings hospitality to the expatriates, misfits, missionaries, and mercenaries who stroll through its doors. She’s especially grateful that the busy days allow her to forget Tommy, the love of her life, who left her in pursuit of money and adventure.

Working alongside Sunny is the maternal Halajan, who vividly recalls the days before the Taliban and now must hide a modern romance from her ultratraditional son - who, unbeknownst to her, is facing his own religious doubts. Into the café come to Isabel, a British journalist on the trail of a risky story; Jack, who left his family back home in Michigan to earn “danger pay” as a consultant; and Candace, a wealthy and well-connected American whose desire to help threatens to cloud her judgment.

When Yazmina, a young Afghan from a remote village, is kidnapped and left on a city street pregnant and alone, Sunny welcomes her into the café and gives her home - but Yazmina hides a secret that could put all their lives in jeopardy. As this group of men and women discover that there’s more to one another than meets the eye, they’ll form an unlikely friendship that will change not only their own lives but the lives of an entire country.

Brimming with Deborah Rodriguez’s remarkable gift for depicting the nuances of life in Kabul, and filled with vibrant characters that readers will truly care about, A Cup of Friendship is the best kind of fiction - full of heart yet smart and thought-provoking. (Amazon.com)

 10. In the Sea There Are Crocodiles By Fabio Geda

What would you do if, when you were ten, you were left to fend for yourself, and, in order to survive, you had to undertake a harrowing journey all the way from Afghanistan to Italy?

In early 2002, Enaiatollah Akbari’s village fell prey to the Taliban. His mother, fearing for his life, led him across the border. So began Enaiat’s remarkable and often publishing five-year ordeal—trekking across bitterly cold mountains, riding the suffocating false bottom of a truck, steering an inflatable raft in violent waters—through Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Greece, before he eventually sought political asylum in Italy, all before he turned fifteen years old.

Here Fabio Geda delivers the moving true story of Enaiat’s extraordinary will to survive and of the accidental brotherhood he found with the boys he met along the way. In the Sea There Are Crocodiles brilliantly captures Enaiat’s engaging voice and humor, in what is a truly epic story of hope and survival, for readers of all ages. (barnesandnoble.com)