Message About A Coronation

Posted on by Roshan Leave a comment

Someoneā€™s left you a voicemail message, but all you can make out are the last words: ā€œIā€™m sorry. I shouldā€™ve told you months ago. Bye.ā€ Who is it from, and what is this about?

So I have a call that I couldn’t attend and the caller has left me this simple message “I’m sorry, I should’ve told you months ago. Bye.” Well the call is from a woman, one I met several years ago while I was on holiday in a hill station. I was still only 20 years old and in the 18 years that have passed I have almost forgotten her name and what she looked like – but not quite! I still have a faint recollection of this woman in a sweater and jeans walking towards the horses that were for rent to go around the gardens and estates of the hill station. I glanced at her and she glanced at me and before you knew it we were talking and introducing ourselves. A cup of coffee turned into two cups and then dinner at one of the fine restaurants in the area.

During the next 10 days (the duration of my holiday) we spent most of the time talking and taking in the sights but mostly wanting to spend time with each other. She told me very little about herself other than a few likes and dislikes and the feeling of loneliness that she had been feeling. On her last day, she asked me to pack up a picnic basket and said she wanted to go on a boa ride. While we had lunch in the middle of the lake, she confessed that she was a princess of a small European nation and that the moment she got back home, the preparations would begin for her arranged marriage to a prince of another small nation. She had no say in the matter and she wanted this time we had together as her only feelings of true love. That night before she had to leave, we made love in my room and spend the night listening to the rain.

The next morning I woke up to find her gone and a check at her hotel let me know that she had already left via flight back to her nation along with her entourage. I went back to my home and my life, knowing that I would never see her or ever hear from her again. But I know what she called me for – 18 years have passed and her daughter, a princess, is being inaugurated as the rightful queen of her nation. This is because her mother, my one time lover, is ill and cannot continue on as queen, and with the king having been dead for 10 years only the daughter is left. And that 18 year old girl looks a lot like me! I gotta go and head to that nation – my kid is being crowned as queen!

Prompt from the Daily Post at WordPress.com.

Typing Words Of Wisdom, Let It Be

Posted on by Roshan Leave a comment

A restaurant that removed your favorite item from the menu, a bad cover of a great songā€¦ Write a postĀ about something that shouldā€™ve been left untouched,Ā but wasnā€™t. Why was the original better?

Quite a lot of things. Ok, let’s run down some of them. This is not a complete list by any means but these are the ones that I can think of at this moment.

Reboots / remakes in general; while I agree that some of them are necessary and worthwhile and at time far superior than the original, a lot of the reboots & remakes are redundant and shameful. The 2012 remake of Total Recall for example; whatever the fuck was that done for? More recently I watched the reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – was not half as good as the original. Horror movie franchises have this habit of being rebooted after a few movies down the road – Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, Friday The 13th & Nightmare On Elm Street are examples. The last two did not go down well with fans at all and there is a 50-50 divide on Halloween. In some ways I see why the producers think it is necessary but unless you are going to do a good job, it’s better left alone.

Tv shows, especially Science Fiction have had similar routes. Battlestar Galactica (you can read my views on that in the BSG section of this blog), V & Star Trek have had some tinkering in the form. BSG was a huge success when they deviated from the more kid friendly and lighter tone of the late 70s original to come up with a more dire, gritty and relevant to our times version. And although V had good intentions and in some ways were superior, in the end it faltered but I still see where they were going. Star Trek – well most of us Trekkies would argue that it is neither a remake or a reboot but it is a different timeline in the same universe – started well in the 2009 movie but the second movie was a bit of a rehash really. And we have a new BSG movie, which is said to go back to the 70s original story as well as reboots of Stargate coming up.

I’m all for reboots or remakes if done in the right spirit with a respect and a nod to the original and yet having your own ideas, nay your own good ideas. Songs are good examples; most of them are done because the artists loves the original song and is a fan of the artist who originally wrote & sang it. Unlike say when most pop, rnb & rap artists covers a rock song just to make a hit and make more money. And you can tell who is sincerely paying tribute and who isn’t.Ā  In the latter cases just let it be!

Prompt from the Daily Post at WordPress.com.