The last of the inspections.

Nope, I have not mistyped the name of that stupid 90s movie: The Last of the Mohicans. This week, we are indeed giving the last of our inspections. In Australia, renting tenants have to open up the premises for an inspection by the landlord or agent, once a quarter. Sometimes only twice a year. This is for the landlords to verify that there is no serious damage done on the premises, and everything still works. The lot has to be in a respectable condition, which means it has to be cleaned and furniture properly arranged; if the tenants want to continue staying. of course.

And this is a real headache. You don't want to be ousted out of the premises for leaving some grime on the kitchen counter, or if the flooring is damaged. The only way out of this perennial cycle of cleaning and torture is to stop renting completely.

And get your own place !

And so , back to the story. Hopefully, we will never have to give another inspection during our time here. Maybe for life. It was worth it, the struggle, cause this will be the last of the inspections.

We can now damage the floor.

The 2 hour, engineered marathon.

After being lost in international trade wars, and ongoing wars on borders, a different kind of news was trending this week. And that is a good thing. On October 12, a marathon runner from Kenya, Eliud Kipchoge, completed the marathon distance in under 2 hours.

At first, I didn't understand what the fuss was about. 2 hours seems like a lot of time to do some running. What is so big about finishing the distance; my being out of touch with most sports failed to inform me that it was considered impossible to complete a full marathon in that much time. Kipchoge achieved something impossible, he is the first person on the planet to have run a distance of more than 26 kms in under this 2 hour time limit. One hour and 59 minutes is fast in a way that’s difficult to comprehend. Despite the formidable distance, Kipchoge ripped through each mile of his run in about four and a half minutes.

Truly commendable. One for the record books.

Not quite. Mind blowing as it is, Kipchoge did not break the record for the fastest marathon completed. Because he did not run in a marathon. He ran in an marathon specially engineered for him. And the more you read about the actual race condition and its orchestration, the more it surprises.

Everything about this race was controlled, right down to the weather, and the pacing. This race was designed more to showcase how technology can (and has) help modern athletes achieve the impossible.

The planning that went into the event was a fantasy of perfectionism. The organizers scouted out a six-mile circuit along the Danube River in Vienna that was flat, straight, and close to sea level. Parts of the road were marked with the fastest possible route, and an electric car guided the runners by projecting its own disco-like laser in front of them to show the correct pace. The pacesetters, a murderers’ row of Olympians and other distance stars, ran seven-at-a-time in a wind-blocking formation devised by an expert of aerodynamics. There were 7 pacers at any point of time, and a total of 41 pacers ! Kipchoge himself came equipped with an updated, still-unreleased version of Nike’s controversial Vaporfly shoes, which, research appears to confirm, lower marathoners’ times. He had unfettered access to his favorite carbohydrate-rich drink, courtesy of a cyclist who rode alongside the group. The bottle was measured to ensure Kipchoge was under the right hydration. And the event’s start time was scheduled within an eight-day window to ensure the best possible weather. The whole thing was as close as you can get to a mobile marathon spa treatment.

But with great optimization comes great controversy. Looked at one way, the INEOS 1:59 Challenge is a straightforward testament to how money can buy anything, including a branded sub-two-hour marathon. And yet, and yet—the most compelling counterpoint to a cynical view of the performance is Eliud Kipchoge himself. Among a pack of mostly Kenyan runners who have recently pushed marathoning into a golden age, Kipchoge stands head and shoulders above the rest. He is the distance’s Michael Jordan, an era-defining and Kelly Clarkson–loving talent whose credentials—which include an Olympic gold medal and multiple big-city-marathon titles, on top of the official marathon world record—were secure.

After all the engineering, it still takes a human to do the impossible.

Uyare

2019 has been a rough year so far, with all the elections, and politics in multiple countries. Even the movies which came out this year in India had political tones, political agenda disguised as entertainment. So any movie which told a true-to-heart story in its time box , with capable actors playing convincing characters, would easily win and stay with the crowd. I found the first of such movies this year. And it was a super-hero movie.

The Malayalam movie Uyare.

Side note: I got to watch more movies, if good ones like these do come out. Honestly, I am sick of those superheroes.

Uyare is smartly written , seamlessly weaving the story of an ambitious wannabe pilot, who also becomes the victim of an acid attack. The wikipedia page of acid attacks is shocking and heart-breaking. Low-esteem men and dejected lovers throw acid onto women to permanently disfigure them, and in recent years there are increased occurances of such attacks around the world.

Parvathy effortlessly and convincly plays the lead, starting the movie with high spirits and confidence, and then breaking down to the helpless woman in the middle. The scenes where her character , Pallavi , is attacked and the treatment scenes are the closest one could come to actually understant the pain of being attacked in such a way. Never ones is the illusion of cinema broken. It looks so convincing, almost unreal.

The ending, and climax is predictable, and a few more twists could have helped. We don't see anyone thanking Pallavi for her bravery and presence of mind. We don't see the bureaucratic nightmare which usually follows such an air-accident. We certainly do not see it getting the media coverage such acts of bravery usually gets.

Shout out to Asif Ali for playing another negative character, I really think he should stick to these kind of roles. I have never bought his act as a romantic or comedy actor. The audience is definitely going to hate Govindhan for his atrocious act, and that is the highlight of this role.

Another triumph of Malayalam movies, Uyare has to be watched.

And once you have watched it, go read this.