Hmmm yummy Chicken Tikka sandwich from CCD.
Month: July 2012
RIP Dara Singh
Veteran Indian wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh passed away today due to a cardiac arrest. He was 83 years old.
Dara Singh was born as Deedar Singh Randhawa in a Sikh Jat family on 19 November 1928 in Dharmuchak village (now falls under Amritsar district) in British Punjab. He started to get into pehlwani an Indian style of wrestling and performed internationally. Singh went to Singapore in 1947 and became the Champion of Malaysia (Indian style wrestling) by defeating Tarlok Singh in Kuala Lumpur. He has toured almost all far-east countries as a professional wrestler. Dara Singh returned to India in 1952, became the Indian Champion and won the title Rustam-E-Hind in 1954.
He made his film debut in 1952 with Sangdil and was successful as action hero in the 1960-69 in Hindi Films and is believed to have started the trend of hero taking the shirt off. He appeared in 119 Hindi feature films and in 21 Punjabi films. Of the 140 films he did, 58 had him play the main lead. He also did 6 TV serials. One of his notable friends was the actress Mumtaz with whom he had performed in 16 Hindi films and had 10 of them as box office hits. His famous Hindi films in sixties were Awara Abdulla , Rustom-E-Baghdad and with Mumtaz films like Faulad, Veer Bhimsen, Tarzan Comes to Delhi. He then went on to television in the 1980s and 1990s where he played the role of Hanuman in the television adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayan. He also played in the super hit Mard as Amitabh Bachchan.
From his first marriage, he has a son Parduman Singh Randhawa and from his second marriage he has five children: two sons and three daughters including TV and film actor Vindu Dara Singh.
Dara Singh (19 November 1928 – 12 July 2012)
Are You Good At Reading Maps?
Actually no I am terrible in reading maps. I’m very bad in sorting directions. I get confused very easily. I guess my internal compass is outta wack. Needs more alcohol!
Like I’ll be in a building that I am familiar with yet will point to the wrong directions for guiding people and it will take me a minute to get it right. If I were to get my directions in order I guess I will become better in reading maps. I just have a ready made confusion when it comes to my north, south, east & west. The same also affects me in directing a vehicle to a particular place. I make a lot of mistakes and get confused easily unless I use the same route many times before. My apartment building is the perfect example – with 4-6 routes to get to it and a bloody junction right in front of it – when I come in a car/auto from a route that I am not familiar with it takes me a while to tell them where the building is.
Whenever I go to a new place, like my new office which is in an area that I never visited till last week, I always look for landmarks that I can use easily. It takes me a couple of days but I do nail it eventually and am able to trust that I won’t get lost or end up staying in the bus a few stops down the road. So for the first few days of last week, I was looking to my left memorizing all the shops, buildings & landmarks so I know when & where to get down. And the next 3 to 4 days I memorized shops, buildings & landmarks on the right side of the road :)
A couple of days we were on Google Maps as I tried hard to find our building & area on it. It was a struggle and I had to give up. A few minutes later I tried again and was successful. Whew! That was tough!
My Former Neighbours
I saw some of former neighbours on my way back home today. The house next door to ours in Thrikkakara was rented out in 2005 year to a family of 5. Our earlier neighbours were very nice people – the father of the house died in a scooter accident when I was about 17. He is survived by his wife, son & daughter. His wife currently lives with their son, who is a Air Force pilot and his wife & kid. And the daughter lives with her husband and two kids in a house near their old one.
The family that came to live next to us seemed to be a good family as well – but they sure were noisy as hell! The two boys in the family are probably in their late 20s now and then in their early 20s. Their mom & sis are much more petite but they sure made up for the lack of size by high decibel levels. The father it seems is the odd one out, not only do I not know what he looks like, having never seen him, but he is also kinda quite! The two women and the younger guys used to have loud discussions from 10 pm to midnight and often beyond that. What’s more, I think their voices would scare the dog, Shawny Jr! She did not seem to like to spend time in that side of our plot and preferred to be in the front veranda or to the left side of the house.
The discussions could get pretty aggressive at times and it seems like some blood has been shed at one point or the other. I think it is the mom or the daughter who is the loudest. I have never met them, only seen them but not been introduced at all) so I can’t really make out which voice is of the mother and which is of the daughter as the two are quite similar. The boys start the debates rather whole-heartedly but give up in the end and surrender meekly to the ladies. Sometimes at night, when I’d go to the downstairs bathroom I could hear them go at it, as the boys’ room is on the side of the bathroom (shit coming from both).
The one good thing I like about them is that the guys have good taste in music. They are huge metal & rock fans with Metallica seeming to be their favs. But they play the music so loudly, my dad used to tell me that I’s never have to play my stereo system as those guys play theirs so loudly. Occasionally though they have played some stupid stuff like Celine Dion and Madonna. And they sing so badly, voices that sound like a metal pipe being viciously rubbed with sandpaper. One afternoon while going to feed the dog, I heard one of them mercilessly killing a song – it took me a while to understand that he was actually singing(??) that asshole Enrique Iglesias’s song (the one that goes “Why, Why”. I ran as fast as I could.
The Monsoon Update
Well the monsoon took it’s time in being consistent but it looks to be pretty consistent from the last few days. Usually we have heavy rainfall from June 1st onwards but although it did rain, it wasn’t like the previous years. After all the heat we suffered through I was hoping that we’d have a nice solid monsoon season. And meteorologists did predict a much heavier rainfall that earlier seasons (I’m sure some people were looking into building arcs) but it hasn’t been that case so far. In truth it has actually been more like a disappointment even though the rain has picked up quite a bit in July.
For most of the last few days it’s been raining early in the morning and stops around 7 or 7:30 am. Then it is mostly sunshine with occasional bursts of rain fall. It goes away in the late afternoon (probably to allow most of the office going crowd to go back home in a little peace) and then picks up at night. This way the nights are cool, the mornings are cold and the afternoons are mostly warm! Hmmm it might be ok for some but I like it to be a bit more warmer in the mornings – it’s not that great to take a bath in cold water! Like my cousin Sujith says – while living/working in Bangalore he didn’t have a water heater in his bathroom and during the colder days he would take a cold shower in the morning with icy cold water & scream all the while! The same is now true during the cold mornings we have during the Kerala mornings – is it that cold? Probably not to some in countries that have much colder temperatures. But for us – it’s too cold. Cold enough to imagine my sperm being frozen while still in the sack, as I take a bath in cold water.
I hope we do get lots more rain though. Especially in the Iddukki area because of the dams there and well we are dependent on the rain water for our electricity needs and supply. So yes more & more rain please. Only, could it be more in the afternoons and less in the early mornings?
Latin-Rock Laced Instrumental Track
Simon McBride plays a great Latin-rock (??? name anyone) during a PRS guitars clinic.
RIP Ernest Borgnine
Veteran American film and television actor Ernest Borgnine died on the 8th of July, 2012 after 6 decades in the business. He was 92 years old.
He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, winning an Oscar in 1955 for Marty. On television, he played Quinton McHale in the 1962–1966 series McHale’s Navy and co-starred in the mid-1980s action series Airwolf, in addition to a wide variety of other roles. Borgnine was also known for his role as Mermaid Man in the animated television series Spongebob Squarepants. Borgnine earned an Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the series ER.
Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino in 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut, the son of Italian immigrants. Borgnine joined the United States Navy in 1935, after graduation. He was discharged in 1941, re-enlisted after Pearl Harbor, and served until 1945. After joining the stage he gave movies a try. In Hollywood he eventually received his big break in From Here to Eternity (1953), playing the sadistic Sergeant “Fatso” Judson, who beats a stockade prisoner in his charge, Angelo Maggio (played by Frank Sinatra). Borgnine built a reputation as a dependable character actor and appeared in early film roles as villains, including movies like Johnny Guitar, Vera Cruz and Bad Day at Black Rock. But in 1955, the actor starred as a warm-hearted butcher in Marty, the film version of the television play of the same name, which gained him an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1962 he signed on for lead role as the gruff but lovable skipper Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale in McHale’s Navy.
One of the last movies I remember seeing him was in 1998’s Baseketball. Borgnine was married 5 times and has 1 son & 3 daughters.
Ernest Borgnine ( January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012)
WordPerfect Troubles
This is rather an old one, that has been around for a few years, but is one of my personal favourite jokes.
Tech: “Ridge Hall computer assistant; may I help you?”
Customer: “Yes, well, I’m having trouble with WordPerfect.”
Tech: “What sort of trouble?”
Customer: “Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away.”
Tech: “Went away?”
Customer: “They disappeared.”
Tech: “Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?”
Customer: “Nothing.”
Tech: “Nothing?”
Customer: “It’s blank; it won’t accept anything when I type.”
Tech: “Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?”
Customer: “How do I tell?”
Tech: “Can you see the “C” prompt on the screen?”
Customer: “What’s a sea-prompt?”
Tech: “Never mind. Can you move the cursor around on the screen?”
Customer: “There isn’t any cursor: I told you, it won’t accept anything I type.”
Tech: “Does your monitor have a power indicator?”
Customer: “What’s a monitor?”
Tech: “It’s the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it’s on?”
Customer: “I don’t know.”
Tech: “Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?”
Customer: “…Yes, I think so.”
Tech: “Great! Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it’s plugged into the wall.”
Customer: “…Yes, it is.”
Tech: “When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?”
Customer: “No.”
Tech: “Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable.”
Customer: “…Okay, here it is.”
Tech: “Follow it for me, and tell me if it’s plugged securely into the back of your computer.”
Customer: “I can’t reach.”
Tech: “Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?”
Customer: “No.”
Tech: “Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?”
Customer: “Oh, it’s not because I don’t have the right angle-it’s because it’s dark.”
Tech: “Dark?”
Customer: “Yes-the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window.”
Tech: “Well, turn on the office light then.”
Customer: “I can’t.”
Tech: “No? Why not?”
Customer: “Because there’s a power outage.”
Tech: “A power… a power outage? Aha! Okay, we’ve got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?”
Customer: “Well, yes, I keep them in the closet.”
Tech: “Good! Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from.”
Customer: “Really? Is it that bad?”
Tech: “Yes, I’m afraid it is.”
Customer: “Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?”
Tech: “Tell them you’re too stupid to own a computer.
Semia Uppma Recipe
This is what I took for lunch today to the office. Semia is vermicelli and it’s a favourite of mine. I like semia uppma for breakfast although we sometimes make it for dinner as well. It’s light and never leaves you feeling stuffed and bloated. Here is the recipe as explained to me by mom:
- boil the vermicelli for about 10 minutes and then strain the water
- in a cooking pot add oil and heat the pot
- add mustard seeds to the oil and wait until the seeds split
- add finely chopped onions, a little green chilli and some kariveppila (curry leaves)
- add salt to taste and mix it up a bit
- and then add the vermicelli
Serve it in a bowl like noodles. I guess some people might want to add a few more stuff like carrots or some other veggies. We do it the simple way at home. Enjoy!
The Collector
Much like in the vein of the Saw franchise, The Collector is a torture porn (dare I say that) film that promises to keep you on the edge of your seat and will get your heart pumping & racing until the end credits. I had heard so much about it that I had raised the film to a high pedestal and had really high hopes for this movie. Well it came crashing down in pieces. The written by Marcus Dunstan directed movie has both him and Patrick Melton writing the script and I must say a big disappointment after all that building up. The only time my heart raced was at a little topless scene that had me appreciating the ‘talents’ of a young actress, who rather seemed to be enjoying that bit of nudity.
The movie stars Josh Stewart, best known in his roles in the tv series Dirt & Third Watch and in his recurring role as JJ’s husband in Criminal Minds, along with Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth and a single scene for Daniella Alonso (Hills Have Eyes 2, Wrong Turn 2). The movie starts out with a prologue – a middle aged man and his wife(?) come home after a party and start groping each other. The wife goes up stairs and is followed slowly by the husband but there is a maniacal killer in this house. The wife shouts for the husband when she see a box that wasn’t there earlier and when it moves the husband opens it up – they don’t show what is inside but a masked figure comes up from behind and grabs him. Cut to the main part of the film – Arkin is a flawed yet affable chap, working carpentry at a rich family’s large mansion. We see him interacting with the cute younger daughter as she invites him for a ‘tea party with her dolls and when he is outside having a smoke, the older daughter asks for a cigarette.
Arkin decides to rob the house of a large gem that they have in a safe as his wife’s gambling problems have left her with a large debt and the loan sharks are calling it in. So he assures his young daughter & his wife of being safe and then goes to the house which is supposed to be empty. However he finds that the mysterious killer has tied up the husband and wife and booby trapped the whole house. The older daughter being out with her boyfriend is safe and the younger girl is no where to be found. Arkin avoids the killer and tries to help the wife but on seeing her dead husband’s mutilated body, she freaks out and runs right into the knife of the killer. Arkin finds the box from the first scene of the movie which now contains the middle aged man. The tortured victim tells Arkin that the killer enters a house and lays traps for a cat & mouse game with his victims. He saves one person for future torture and locks them in the box while he kills off all the rest. The killer also uses a large & vicious Alsatian to guard his victim house. Arkin leaves the panicking man in the box and tries to find the younger daughter.
Avoiding the hidden numerous death and snare traps all around, he has the girl hide, while he tries to find a clean way out. However in the rain outside, the older girl comes home with her boyfriend and start making out on the kitchen table, being watched by the killer. This is the bare boobed scene I mentioned earlier and yes, Madeline Zima who plays the girl is stacked. Ok, so the killer kills both of them but the girl manages to dial 911. The Collector kills a lone cop, with the help of his mutt, who comes to check up on the house but not before he sent a message to dispatch. Akrin manages to get the upper hand and injures the masked killer and runs out with the little girl and sees the house burst into flames. They make their way to the road where Arkin is hit by a car. Dazed he is helped onto an ambulance while the cops take the little girl away. However the collector still lives, having left the house before the explosion. He crashes into the ambulance and kills the driver & the medic and drags a screaming & kicking Arkin into the box and drives away.
What is the motivation behind the Collector? Who knows and what’s with all the booby traps and shit? This movie is for the torture type movie fans only but why bother when you have Saw. 6 outta 10!
The Blossom & Fade
There is a hatred in me regarding the people of my state the rest of India on a particular matter. And this concerns the female population a lot more than the male population. And my bit of advice to the girls & women in my state is – if you cannot follow through on a romance, do not fall in love & start one!
In Kerala, like most of India, arranged marriages are the norm although that is changing and you see a lot more love marriages. But still a vast majority of marriages are decided by the parents of the groom & bride. In most cases the groom & bride have the final say that yes they would like to get married to the person that their family has found for them but in some cases, that isn’t so. For many years I have marveled at the bitches who fall in love with a guy, start a romance for a couple of years knowing fully well that their family is not going to agree to let their daughter married to the guy of their choice. In some case the parents say that the girls cannot choose and in some it’s that the parents do not approve of the guy and hence they girl cannot marry him. Whatever the reason, the girl in question should know that come hell or high water, her parents are not going to allow her to get married to a guy that they themselves have not screened and selected. By screening I mean – religion, caste, family, financial status, social status, boy’s reputation, family’s reputation, boy’s job, possibly even the marital & financial status of his siblings & their spouses.
I have seen it happen so many times. They meet and become infatuated while in their late teens or early 20s, usually in a college. It can sometimes be at their first entry level job too. They start hanging out in the same group and then exchange cell phone numbers. They have their time alone in college or the office. They talk at all times on the phones but in especially the girl’s case, she does it in secret. She will talk on the way to the bus stop from her house, in the bus, on the way to the office or on the way back home. Once she reaches home the calls stop in front of her family, until she can find some time alone in her room. They talk late till night, risking sleepy faces & tired eyes the next day but it’s all for love, right? Yet when the time comes for marriage, she hesitates and then then approaches her folks timidly. They are appalled and say no. Father even threatens physical abuse. Mother feigns a fainting spell and an appeal to her “god – where did I go wrong?” Father might fall sick and either parent might get a symptom or two of a heart attack (just like in the movies in India). Then the girl calls the guy – “I cannot go against the wishes of my parents! We cannot be together!”
The guy – fucked! I thought this stopped a few years back but I still see cases like this every few weeks or so. Someone I know or used to know or someone who is related or known to someone I know or related too! I came to know of 2 such cases in the last 10 days and another related case which happened to my cousin. Next post will focus on such cases. One more thing I have to say is that the ease in which is it to get a cell phone and cheaper rates for calls & SMSes are to blame for a lot of “romances” in blossoming. Possibly these girls are bored and want some entertainment until their parents find a “suitable” match for them!
How To Spend A Weekend
What’s the best way to send a weekend?
Here is mine – Friday night go to a coffee shop straight from work. Meet a couple of friends there or go to the cafe with friends from work. Relax and unwind, order a couple of cold frappes and get a sandwich or a muffin. Or even some cake or pastry – you deserve it! You worked hard all week and now it is time to relax. Enjoy the cool confines of the cafe and laugh as you share a joke or two. Total relaxation as the music in the cafe fills the room. 2 hours later get up and then look for a bar to have a beer or two and chow down on some food. Maybe a shawarma. Then say goodbye to your friends and head home to catch some tv shows and then sleep a deep sleep.
Saturday wake up and hit the internet. Make sure that all pending emails are answered by afternoon. It’s time for some serious fun and you have till all 12pm to finish all hindrances. Then head out to the mall meet your friends for some shopping. Then go for a movie post lunch. Discuss the movie that you just watched with the friends while you guys get some java in a cafe nearby. Go for more shopping and then – hit the bars. Lounge in style and drink some vodka. And then drink some more. Drag yourself back to your home where you watch some football or part of some movie before you plonk yourself on your bed and sleep like the dead. The next day is Sunday – do not expect to be up before 10am. You chill, you relax, you enjoy your family time and you watch some tv or football. You spend a long time soaking in your bathtub. Relax to some music. Sleep early – cause Monday is just round the corner and the hustle & bustle will start again.
Broke His Cup Holder
One day a guy calls tech support. This is a little like how it went…
Customer: Hello?
Technical Support: Hello
Customer: Yeah, my cup holder broke and my computer is still under warranty, so I would like to get it replaced.
Technical Support: A cup holder?
Customer: Yeah cup holder…
Technical Support: Ummm did you get it with a promotional offer?
Customer: No
Technical Support: Umm are you sure you got the right company?
Customer: Yeah
Technical Support: I ‘m sorry if I sound confused, because I am.
Customer: Well it’s square, and it’s on the front of the computer, and it comes out when you press a button…
At this point the Tech support guy had to put the guy on hold so he could finish laughing…
The guy had broken his CD-ROM drive, thinking it was a cup holder.
She Says I Am The One
Here is The Civil Wars performing their awesome cover version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. Doesn’t Joy Williams have a beautiful smile and a sexy voice?
Friday Sandwich Photo 5
Something quite different in taste & texture. This is a Southern Chicken sandwich (Southern as in Southern India) from Cafe Coffee Day with thick & hard bread and it’s quite crunchy. I like it although it isn’t as good as the other ones.
Something I No Longer Worry About
I no longer worry about death. My own anyway. I do worry about my loved ones & friends dying. And yeah celebrities that I care about. What? The world would be a sorrier place without some of these celebs!
But for a guy who has dreamed up a future where in humans accidentally stopped their aging at one point in time, and thereby almost achieving immortality of sorts, I am not afraid of dying myself. In this dream concept future of mine, a chemical introduced into the air where humans lives, meant to kill them, by an alien enemy race actually halted the aging process when combined with a material that shields all humans from outside forces and acts like a force field (too scifi for ya? ). So yeah for someone who dreams up a future where people & earth animals don’t die and can live out infinite lives in a futuristic world that is awesome to be in (not to mention, inter-planetary, inter-solar system & inter-galactic travel as common as taking a car or a bus from one town to another, I’m not afraid of kicking the bucket.
I am afraid of pain and suffering which is something I don’t want and hope to avoid. Let the death be quick, 30 seconds flat! One minute I’m alive, the next minute, after saying something dramatic – I’m gone! No illness, no pain, no nothing. Hale & hearty until the last minute. I’m not afraid of dying and I don’t believe in heaven or hell and/or any kind of afterlife. After you are dead, you cease to exist. Nothing more. You had your chance, you are dead and your return back to the universe after some decay /cremation / burial! Nothing else. And I’m ok with that. Why should I be bothered about anything after I am dead? I’m ok with all the time – the millions & millions of years – that I wasn’t alive before my birth, so why be bothered about the time after my death? I have to be ok with it and I am. So should you. Well not forcing it on anyone but you should think about it.
Peace.
I Haven’t Gone To The Theatres In A While
It’s been ages since I last went to a movie theatre to see a movie. Sometime in October 2004 I guess. Before that I was a regular visitor at the theatres. I’d go to watch most of the English language movies that they’d show in Cochin but Sridhar theatre was my favourite. Especially after they did a big renovation sometime in the late 90s. I’d go alone mostly but when my cousin Manoj still lived in India, he & I used to go a lot. When I’d go I’d get a soft drink, some popcorn or chips and a candy. I loved the theatres and I had a special seat that I always wanted to sit in in the balcony section in Sridhar – it was the right most seat in the front row of the middle section – best viewing angle.
In 2004 I went for the most movies at the theatres that I remembered of in any year. That year there also was a James Bond movie festival and I had no computer or internet at home so I was bored. I worked a shift that saw me finish work at 3pm, so I would gather my stuff go to Shenoys theatre, buy snacks & a drink and sit in the balcony. I watched 10 of the Bond movies that year and 8 times I was all alone in the Balcony section. 8 times! So I’d take my shoes off, put my feet up and chill. Fell asleep once or twice too! The same year I remember going for Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Troy & The Last Samurai. If I am not mistaken Troy was probably the last movie I saw in the theatres.
I dunno why I haven’t been to one since. There were many movies that I would loved to see in the theatres and thought of going. Avatar, Star Trek & The Avengers are the 3 that spring to my mind at the moment but I am sure that there were more. With The Dark Knight Rises coming soon, I might be tempted once again to break my self-imposed exile as far as movie theatres are concerned and go along with my cousin Sujith and see it on the first weekend that it gets released. Might be a refreshing change for me.
Castle – Season 4
So Castle, season 4. In some ways this is more dramatic than the other 3 seasons but there are some funny scenes too. Really funny! Ok, so Beckett is rushed to the hospital, losing blood very fast. After undergoing extensive surgery, Beckett takes three months to recuperate before returning to the NYPD. With Castle she tries to find out who shot her and Captain Montgomery is replaced by Captain Victoria “Iron” Gates, who does not approve of Castle’s presence. As Castle tries to dissuade Beckett from digging deeper into the case, he himself is immersed in the process of trying to identify Beckett’s shooter. And it’s obvious that Kate hasn’t recovered completely from her shooting. When an ex-con is mysteriously slain in an alley, Castle and Beckett believe a vigilante is behind the murder. But efforts to identify their suspect are thwarted when they discover that he roams the city in a costume — and may indeed be a Superhero.
A tough episode & case is when while investigating the mysterious shooting death of a young woman, Castle and Beckett face a cop’s worst nightmare when they discover that the gun used in the killing is Det. Ryan’s old service weapon – the one that was stolen by the serial killer, 3XK. Now with the clock ticking, the team must work to solve the murder, track down 3XK and retrieve Ryan’s gun before the killer strikes again. Kristen Lehman guest stars as a former high priced art thief turned insurance investigator who is hunting for a a valuable sculpture is stolen, a case that Beckett & Castle are working on. And she has her eyes on Castle. When a world-renowned ghost hunter is mysteriously murdered while investigating a haunting at a legendary New York mansion, Castle & Beckett confront the possibility of paranormal foul play. Castle and Martha are taken hostage by a crew of bank robbers dressed in hospital scrubs and using classic television doctor names, Beckett finds herself on the outside, desperately trying to rescue them — which proves to be even more difficult with a by-the-book hostage negotiator watching her every move. Castle becomes the de facto leader of the hostages, and discovers that the robbery is actually a skillfully orchestrated distraction for an even more sinister plan.
Castle dressed as Elvis? Hilarious episode where I had tears down my eyes, investigating into the death of a casino owner in Atlantic City, Castle Ryan & Esposito go undercover dressed as Elvis impersonators. The team searches for a sniper who is terrorizing New York; Beckett tries to hide her worsening PTSD from Castle and the guys. Beckett and Castle awaken to find themselves handcuffed together with no memory of how they got here – wherever here is. And there is a tiger involved! When a Casanova is killed, Castle and Beckett suspect that the victim’s mysterious double life holds the key to his murder. Their investigation leads to a shocking twist that threatens to disrupt Ryan’s wedding with Jenny. The future career of NYC mayor is in jeopardy when he is the center of a murder investigation and Castle wants to do anything to clear his friend’s name. Nana Visitor guest stars in the next episode – a famous dog trainer and show judge is killed, the investigation keeps coming back to charismatic reality TV star Kay Cappuccio. Castle gets a hold of a diary that was written in the 1940s, and tries to solve a modern day crime through the information in it. Every time he reads it he flashes back to the ’40s, with the principal cast playing characters in the diary.
Castle and Beckett find out that the killer they are pursuing is part of an international conspiracy with, for once, real CIA involvement; meanwhile Alexis starts a new internship assisting Lanie in the medical examiner’s office.And the CIA agent (Jennifer Beals) is one that Castle has a fling with and the inspiration behind a previous character in his books – is Beckett just a little jealous? The CIA agent turns out to be the main person behind the Linchpin trying to start a war. When a woman dressed as Red Riding Hood is found dead in the woods with claw marks covering her body, and soon after a murdered Snow White is discovered with a poisoned apple in her hand, Castle and Beckett find themselves on a Grimm hunt to catch a fairytale killer before he kills again. A contestant on the hit competition show “A Night of Dance,” is found murdered in her dressing room. When a bomb explodes at a protest rally killing five people, Castle & Beckett realize the key to solving the case is to reconstruct the 47 seconds prior to the explosion. Using video and witness accounts, they uncover the shocking truth about who planted and detonated the bomb.
A devilishly handsome detective from Scotland Yard, Colin Hunt, teams up with Castle & Beckett to find the person responsible for the murder of his friend’s daughter. But by now Castle knows that Beckett remembers everything that happened just as she was shot and he is upset that despite knowing that he loves her, she did not saying anything. Meanwhile, Lanie convinces Beckett that she needs to make a move on Castle before it is too late. However Castle is dating hot blondes again. One fantastic episode is when Castle finds a new partner – his old Firefly buddy Adam Baldwin plays Detective Ethan Slaughter – he is almost killed multiple times due to Slaughter’s eccentric ways. The partnership is temporary! When Castle and Beckett investigate the murder of a man with human bite marks on his body, Castle’s wild theories start flying. But none are as wild as what their only witness insists happened – a Zombie attack. As the evidence pointing towards an undead assailant piles up, the team plunges into New York’s Zombie subculture to find the killer and bring him in — dead, undead or alive.
And then the season finale – the murder of an Army veteran puts Beckett on the trail of the man who shot her, Castle must decide how much he’s willing to sacrifice to keep her safe. As secrets are revealed and feelings are put on the table, the lives of the detectives at the 12th Precinct may never be the same. Castle reveals it all! He confesses that she’s only alive because she backed away from her mother’s case. “And that’s the reason you’re alive, Kate. Because you stopped.” “How do you know this?” she asks. And then, he drops his own bomb, and admits he’s been the one keeping her away. He refuses to watch Beckett throw her life away and says he is done and not going to be her partner anymore. With Castle off the case, Beckett and Esposo decide to pursue the suspect without backup. Beckett is almost killed by a mysterious man who kills off Castle’s informant the elusive Mr. Smith, and declares he’s gonna put Kate Beckett “in the ground once and for all.” . Ryan informs Gates everything and she puts Esposito & Beckett on leave. And Kate says she is quitting! As the season ends, Beckett goes to see Castle who is alone at home – and they kiss!
Surprise ending and I bet it thrilled a whole bunch of fans. But what will happen next season? Wait to find out!