Jack Bauer for the Rescue

24, an action drama which follows events of one bad day and every episode covers one hour with events unfolding in real time. Unlike other soap operas where the cream of the show is shared by atleast 6-7 characters, here the spotlight is around one guy, who is the hero/producer of the show, Jack Bauer(Keifer Sutherland) with other supporting characters eventually dying off.

Initially, the frequent change in personnel was not good, I felt but it ended up refreshing and I stand corrected. The plot is simple, America has one bad day and Jack saves the day but he doesn't have time to follow the rules each and every time, so goes on breaking some but as he produces results, he is being spared and also hailed as a national hero.

The hero is a part of Counter Terrorist Unit which takes care of the security of high end officials including the President, and he heads up the Field Ops. The technology these guys use are state of the art and is intriguing. The organisation has many heads over the entire series and my favourites are Bill Buchanan and George Mason.

In the rest of the supporting cast, Chloe O' Brian is the most important character after the hero himself, the others are Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, David Palmer, Renee Walker, Nina Myers, Cole Ortiz and Audrey Raines. They do their parts so very good and render, the lead man solid support.

 Although carrying an entire series based on a single agent is kind of a risk, Jack sees that the risk part is handled with care as the show is so neatly planned and executed, it wins in keeping us glued to the seats and trying to find out what happens in the next episode.

The show has its own bunch of pretty woman but as I mentioned earlier, they don't last the entire series. Kim Bauer played by Elisha Cuthbert, The Girl Next Door fame does a neat job.

Jack stands out an excellent action hero, may be best in the small screens and wins people heart big time. He has also won the "Star who will be missed the most" award recently. In the show he fights almost anything from a Presidential assassination plot to viruses to bomb threats.

To sum all up, 24 is a great show and it is a pity that it had ended and the way it ended was very sentimental while many thought it would be action packed. Jack's face in the big screens of CTU before he signs off for the last time is pretty moving. I would give it 8.7 and try catching it.

Long and Strong

I spent my first year in the hostel and like all the hostellers, I have my stack of fond memories and my room mate Bharath Bhat is an integral part of it. I still remember him sitting in the cot with his dad for the first time. We had no problem as our interests were mainly coincidental.

Without a second thought, our room could be rated as the dirtiest in the hostel, yet we had fun. We spent the late nights discussing movies and nothing but movies. I would never stay back in the weekends and so the time we had together was very little. We spent most of the weekday evenings with both of us deeply occupied in the songs of our respective walkmans.

3 days back, we had a considerable time together after almost two years and we did not waste a second without discussing the movies again. It was really good and fun to catch with him. We never studied together and didn't care about others' mark and I guess it was one of the factors for a good time that we had.

Also, on the first year, our final years would drag us out to work for the next day function (if there is any), setting up the decorations. He was vital in helping me escape as I would roll on the other side and become invisible. The seniors, finding no one but him from the door will miss and the night will be spared.

His snacks from mysore were great and I would be hoping for him to return with packs whenever he return from the holidays. He was rather shocked at the first to know that I am moving out, but came around the situation eventually and has made many friends since then.

A tough life gets tougher

Ok, so I am officially a final year student and with the posts getting filled and friends and friends of friends taking up the herculean tasks of taking a post and surviving in the same for an entire year, and their reactions of what they have to go through to make 5 % of what they have planned for any event come true, made me think of the basic qualities one must possess so he/she can take a post, hold on to it and actually do not get a rise in level of blood pressure at the end of the course.

The first thing is that, you have to take your spine off and hang it back home when you go to college. When you do not do so, you tend to contradict your superior and before you know it, you will be on the streets.

You will have to avoid the iodine contact of the food you take in, so you not find yourself shouting at the poor fellow standing in the mirror "yenda sothula uppu pottu thana sapadra, antha aal solrathukellam thalayaatra" ?

Any ideas you have to take the event, a step forward must be locked into a case and the key must be given to actor Vijay with a deal that, he must return you the key the instant he gives an hit.

Unless you are a billionaire, you shouldn't even think of roping in a professional, to deliver a speech or organising a workshop for that matter.

Have yourself understand the fact that, once you get into the post, there will only be three other professionals who will be working as hard as you, the american marine, the hindi film industry trying to bring an expression out of John Abraham and the TCE'11 batch trying to find a "genuine" figure before their term expires.

You will feel that you are economically crippled when you hear people say the first prize for any event in the department is 30 bucks and trust me, you can do nothing about it.

You will be pushed to the reality, where there is no colour in the world other than blue and white, try to sneak in even a dot of other colour and your poster finds itself in bin before you could explain anything.