Kid Size Popcorn

-Riya Nagendra, I Year B.A. English

When I was a kid, I used to watch movies every weekend. This, and the many hours I spent with my head buried in comic books, were the highlights of my week. I was exposed to a few movies that weren’t particularly meant for children, but that my father was obsessed with, and thus (and I think I learned this habit from him) were played very often in my house. He loved the beginning of ‘Mackenna’s Gold’, with Jose Feliciano crooning out ‘Old Turkey Buzzard’ in his beautiful voice, and he loved ‘Shall We Dance’, starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarrandon and Jennifer Lopez (I’ll never understand why – it’s so far removed from the genre of movie he typically watches).

Still, I watched a lot of typical children’s movies as well, and here’s a list of the ones that I remember as being amazing (or at least worth a good laugh) –

The Lion King Series:
It’s undoubtedly true that the best movie in the Lion King series is the first one, but I never could (and still find it extremely difficult to) bear watching that heart-wrenchingly horrible antelope stampede scene and so, I watched Lion King 1½ and Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride almost every weekend. I really love the second movie about Simba’s daughter, Kiara, but I’m trying to be objective and the plot of Simba’s Pride is rather cliched and predictable (the music remains as fabulous as ever, though!).

The Tintin Animated TV show:
These aren’t technically movies, but I only found that out recently when I looked it up after ages. It’s a series of half-an-hour long episodes, each based on one of the Tintin books by Herge. As a fan of the comics, I was absolutely tickled to be able to watch comics when I wasn’t reading them. I watched two episodes each Saturday, and when I finished the series, I started from the beginning again. It drove my mother mad.

Another similar series was the one based on Asterix by Goscinny and Uderzo. While those movies/episodes weren’t as fantastic as the Tintin ones, I watched them anyway. The best was undoubtedly Asterix and Cleopatra, the fourth one in the series.

Mrs. Doubtfire:
This movie was hilarious – obviously, considering it starred Robin Williams. The movie handles a rather heavy topic – divorce and the splitting up of a family – in a humourous way, making it a brilliant watch for all ages. It also stars Pierce Brosnan, and if that’s not a fantastic reason to watch it, I don’t know what is.

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus:
Please refrain from making any snap judgements about me, and let me explain myself and my choices. I really loved the Barbie movies when I was a kid, and I re-watched this one recently with a friend for an adult’s perspective – and this wasn’t as horrible to re-watch as you might think!

Of course, this may or may not have something to do with the fact that there was one hilarious dialogue in the movie that I couldn’t get over, and also that my sense of humour is questionable.

Regardless, if you want to fight me on this, you’ll have to watch the movie first.

Snow Buddies
This is one of the few movies starring live-action talking animals that I’ve seen and (vaguely) enjoyed. This movie is filled with things to laugh at and opens up a whole new world of memes (for those interested in that sort of thing, and I know I am). One of the numerous sequels to Air Bud, it features the adventures of Air Bud’s pups in Alaska. It’s honestly quite horrible, but worth the experience.

These are the first movies that came to mind, and the ones I watched most frequently. There are some movies that almost made it, and some of them are quite terrible – Underdog (I used to enjoy movies featuring talking animals more than I do now, apparently), a couple of other Barbie movies (the dresses were nice, okay?); however, there were a few good ones too – 101 Dalmatians (the original animated one), The Home Alone series (a classic) and Finding Nemo (it’s a beautiful movie but it depressed me even as a kid – it’s just one unfortunate event after another sandwiched between a happy beginning and end).

Pro-Choice and Pro-Life: Of Tribes and Nuance

-Zenia Zuraiq, I Year B.Sc Physics
Image Source: http://www.attitudemag.com

Abortion. Whatever your feelings on the issue, it cannot be denied that it is an extremely important one and one that deserves critical discussion and debate, especially considering its immense real-life consequences. Unfortunately, as with a lot of things, the discussion on abortion, as is to be expected with any subject of its potential in current times, has quickly descended into an extremely hostile form of tribalism. People dividing themselves into “tribes” and factions – presenting themselves as polar opposites of the other.

From something as trivial as Cats v. Dogs to something on a larger scale like religions or political parties, the very basis of human civilization has been the grouping together of people into tribes, ideas larger than themselves – and it is an extremely charming and useful trait of societal evolution.

What becomes a problem is when the discussion moves away from the topic and on the tribes themselves. We become so enamored with the tribes and the motifs and symbols that we come to associate with them. The discussion becomes purely an exercise in glorifying one’s tribe – or an attack on the one opposite to you. A vs. B.

This detraction has become so common in any sort of debate recently, it’s disheartening. We’ve become so successful in painting things black and white – there are no shades of grey. Nuance is a lost art today in society and it is an extremely saddening thing. Today, more than ever, we need nuance. A fast paced society like ours with its layers of complexity deserves critical thought and discussion, and it’s about time we emphasize on that again.

With that in mind, let’s explore the two tribes, as it were, of the abortion debate – pro-life and pro-choice.

We have the pro-life side of the debate – the people who argue that all life is sacred and that the very idea of abortion – of making a decision resulting in any harm to the concept is sacrilegious. Life, here, is a right. It isn’t something one person decides for another, and this extends to a foetus. Life isn’t something up for debate.

On the pro-choice side of the debate, we have the assurance of a woman having the right to her own choices. A woman having bodily autonomy. The belief that a foetus in the early stages, a mass of cells, with its ill-defined autonomy cannot be places over the woman’s. Life is sacred, yes – but a woman has life too. This is a faction of people tired of having women in society silenced; talked over. And contrary to popular belief, these folks aren’t 100% pro-abortion. They just respect a woman’s decision to choose whether or not she has one.

Both sides of the debate have their points, beliefs and reasons for doing so. It is very easy to twist either argument as inflammatory. It’s also extremely easy to paint the pro-lifers as “woman haters” and pro-choicers as the “baby killers”. I’ve seen multiple inflammatory posts circulating around groups with no nuances whatsoever. Just pure generalization.

It’s ironic that in a debate that revolves so much around the problem of identity and how we define personhood, we so often paint over individuals. By this swooping generalization, all that happens is that both sides never hear what the other side has to say but instead, operate on their biased view of what the other tribe is. There is no discussion because it is shot down before it even starts.

And you might be one of either tribe, or identify strongly with either view. You might see my middle stance, my attempt at nuance as cowardice. “Just take a stand! Align yourself!” And there is much to be said for the conviction with which people hold opinions – it is indeed admirable. But maybe it is time to let go of a little bravado. Maybe it’s time for a little more caution. Especially when it comes to matters like abortion where our discussions and decisions have real life impacts on real people.

So, today, I urge all of you, to exercise more of an open mind, no matter where you stand. In the age of the internet it’s very easy to get lost in the loud, inflammatory rhetoric that prevails. But take a step back. Exercise some nuance. It might do you some good.

Note From The Editors

It’s not just the end semester holidays that has most people excited during the month of November. It’s one month away from Christmas, and Stella Maris College has plenty of reason to celebrate. November, however, rings in our minds as something synonymous with NaNoWriMo or No Shave November, but as we grow older, there’s one day that we all have probably forgotten – Children’s day. As the phase between infancy and adulthood, it was that one stage where we learnt more, saw more, and did more.

With this theme of Childhood, we reminisce back to our days when the little joys seemed bigger than us, and bring to you articles ranging from TV shows, tech reviews, fairy tales and the power of nostalgia and imagination to real world issues such as the ongoing debate between Pro-life and Pro-choice, and the #MeToo trend that rocked the world over with sexual abuse allegations.

The Foundress Day Celebrations in Stella Maris, and the Union’s Health Week programs have also been reported as we bring our monthly college activities to the forefront. We also bring to you our usual array of wonderful stories, poems and our monthly Humans of Stella feature!

They say that one’s always a child at heart, and with this month’s issue, we hope that all you readers relive those precious moments, once again.

Book Review: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Cynthia N, III B. A. English

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has carved a niche for itself in literary history. Readers never fail to be fascinated by the mastermind detective and his quirks. That Sherlock Holmes has wormed his way into readers’ hearts is evident from the fact that readers pelted Doyle’s house with eggs and sent him a volley of letters, beseeching and demanding him to bring Sherlock Holmes back to life when Doyle himself was determined to kill him.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, the Baskerville family seems to be targeted by a monstrous hound that hunts down the family members. Sir Charles Baskerville dies of a heart attack and the imprint of the huge paw of a hound is spotted near his corpse. Everyone speculates that this might be the handiwork of supernatural, fiendish forces, well past the control of man. However, as Holmes and Watson set off in search of the truth, Holmes unveils a masterful plot with deception at its core.

    The Hound of the Baskervilles is set in the gloomy marshes of the Grimpen Moor and the ominous setting foregrounds the eerie mood of the novel. Conan Doyle hides clues in the very descriptive parts of the text- those parts that a reader might be tempted to skim through quickly, so that no part of the book is superfluous. The several mysteries that lie waiting to be solved snag the attention of the reader and keep it from wandering.

The enigmatic quality of Sherlock Holmes drags the reader deep into the intricacies of the story. Holmes sniffs for clues to solve the puzzle, almost as hound-like as the Baskerville hound itself. He leaves the readers awe-struck with his knack of putting two and two seemingly unrelated things together to form one perfect solution. The famous detective seems to battle against forces that defy all human rationale – forces that form the stuff of myths and legends in order to save the life of Sir Henry Baskerville, who inherits the Baskerville property.

Holmes and Watson are faced with the task of bringing the truth to light and proving that the Baskerville hound is not a beast from hell, and that the problem can be resolved by rationality. Do the daring duo succeed or do they face defeat?

    Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is a gripping read and is a must read for those who enjoy mystery novels that do not allow them to put them down until they have finished it.

[Photograph Source: Internet]

No Money, Honey

A Look At The Demonitization On Campus

Mathangi N.M., II Year B. A. English and Mercy Johny, II Year B. A. English.

Long queues, ceaseless complaints and no cash. Add in a set of confused people attempting to clear each other’s doubts, and an apt scene for the demonetisation situation can easily be pictured. Although a few weeks have passed, most are still reeling from the announcement. As we find out the impacts of demonetisation, we uncover the woes, as well as the lessons learnt from such incidents, from both students and teachers.

With the universal rule of “parental restrictions” being imposed on every young student out there, and a specific amount given to them for each month’s expenditure, those from hostels have also especially suffered from this sudden, drastic change. However, while a few of them were away during the vacation, those who stayed back admitted that while basic requirements could be bought, other sources of enjoyment would have to be foregone.

The most common complaint that most of them had was the lack of change at a few stores they had visited. “It would be simple for those who have credit cards, but for those who do not have that privilege, it would be quite difficult,” said a first year student. “There are several stores that do not accept cards, as well. Neither do they have the required change. It becomes tiresome to go in search for stores that actually serve the purpose of helping people, in such cases.”

“Our van driver has begun charging an extra amount of Rs.500, to accept the Rs. 2000 note,” said another student. She, however, does not know if this charge will go back to the normal rate once everything settles down. Similarly, shopping for petty items and buying food from the canteen, which is every college student’s “fundamental need,” has become yet another task as they struggle to hunt for change in their wallets.

WhatsApp messages, coupled with amusing memes and posts making the rounds, managed to deceive those gullible enough to believe any false information. But there were pros to it as well. “For those who regularly rely on WhatsaApp for information, some messages even let us know how we could cope up with the effects or even sent links to let us know which ATMs had cash,” said a student.

A teacher also narrated the struggle she underwent while having to make a payment at a hospital. When an urgent need arose, she said, “I had to rely on my friends for money as the ATMs were either closed, or out of cash.” With reliance getting shifted from machines to human help, many also admitted to learning from the support that they received during this time from empathetic shopkeepers and other sellers.

As stated earlier, the hostellers on campus continue to face hurdles every day due to demonetisation. Grocery spending, eating outside, watching a movie are all out of the question; spending money has become a limited affair and just a week or so into college, they have started to assemble in front of the ATMs.

The biggest problem that most hostel dwellers have complained about is related to travel. “We don’t usually carry money, we just use our cards. We use cash only when we have to travel.” As luck would have it, most of them were in their hometowns before the announcement of the demonetisation act.

Stellaites, along with the rest of the society, have not been spared by the bad hand of demonetisation. Yet we see us helping each other when in times of need and teaching each other more about this ambitious change every day. One can only hope that things will settle down and significant, positive changes will occur in the future.

[Photograph Source: The Economic Times]

Movie Review: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Hafsa Badsha, II Year M. A. English

I’d like to say I’ve been as invested in J.K Rowling’s world as I was growing up reading Harry Potter, but the truth is, time passes and other fandoms creep in. A Song of Ice and Fire took over my life, there was a new Star Wars movie on the brink of releasing, and so my seven books took a backseat on my shelf, still much beloved, but not as frequently returned to as I’d have liked. Hogwarts and its characters were the warm, nostalgic part of my life, and it seemed like I’d dissected every element of its universe.

And then the Fantastic Beasts series was announced, and I was hurtling headfirst into the wall at Platform 9 ¾, ready to come home.

The movie is based on Rowling’s fictional textbook, and the move to turn it into a five part film series was booed as nothing more than a blatant money making generator move. I’ll admit, I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be witnessing The Hobbit all over again; gory overuse of CGI with no semblance of a plot or actual characters in mind.

No one shuts me up quite like Rowling does. The movie centres around the adventures of one Newt Scamander, an expelled Hogwarts student who now spends his time as caretaker for a range of magical creatures, all living within the confines of his suitcase. When he comes to the United States to release one of them, a Thunderbird, into its native land of Arizona, he stumbles upon a darker plot adrift. A parasitic force called an Obscrus is on the loose, endangering lives and threatening to expose the wizarding community. Together with disgraced Auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Watson), her sister Queenie (A Fine Frenzy), and Muggle (I refuse to use the word No-Maj) companion Jacob (Dan Folger), they must uncover the insidious on goings that will pose danger to them all.

For a movie that was birthed from a textbook, (albeit a magical one), Fantastic Beasts is a piece of genuine, ingenious world building and beautiful storytelling. Redmayne is as much a touted showstopper as Scamander, but his co-stars, Watson, A Fine Frenzy and Folger are all worthy competition when it comes to who truly stole the show. The interaction between the non-magic and magic world, an element sorely lacking in the Harry Potter franchise, is handled with authenticity; there are moments charged with tension, scenes that are fearsome and tragic, and a love story that proves to be heart-warming.

The Beasts themselves are a menagerie of breathtaking visuals, and a testament to the brilliance of Rowling’s imagination. The Nifflers made me guffaw ridiculously loud, the Bowtruckles are adorable, and the Thunderbird will make your heart drop. Overall, they made me think of another large-hearted lover of magical creatures who was expelled. I’ve never wanted to hug Rubeus Hagrid more.

Fantastic Beasts also crowns itself with a few well-placed references to the original series, music included. Without meaning to sound biased, I give this movie all the stars that have existed and my whole heart. There’s never been a better homecoming.

[Photograph Source: IMDb]

Why I Turned Vegan

The Genesis of a Revolution

Jerusha Jose, III Year B. V. A. Fine Arts

With 2 years under my belt in art school, fighting stress, and pushing deadlines; I found the time to catch up with my best friends from school. Just like the old times, we planned a casual meet up at ‘Fruit Shop’, the timeless hangout spot back in the day. After a few awkward minutes of silence, we got the conversation rolling; talking of movies, sports, college and more.

When it was time to order, everyone else assumed the order will be ‘the usual’- 4 chocolate milkshakes. When one of them placed the order, I interrupted and said: “Can I have an orange juice instead?” All of them stared at me as if I had asked for both of their kidneys, for I had broken our tradition. I stared back at them with an air of nonchalance and answered their wordless question, “I am a vegan, been one for almost a year now”

As the server went back with the order for 3 chocolate milkshakes and an orange juice, my friends turned back to me and looked at me in shock as if I had confessed to being a serial killer. The string of questions that followed made me feel like I was being interrogated and, at the same time, as if I was at a Los Angeles Juice Cleanse Convention.

“It’s one of those fads, isn’t it?” “Are you trying to lose weight?” “So no more leather bags?” “Have you lost weight?”“Are your college friends making you do this?” “Are you trying to reinvent yourself in college?” “Don’t you miss chicken?…Paneer?…What about chocolate?” “Are you trying to be like Ariana Grande? Miley Cyrus?”

The answers to all those questions came out in the flow of negativity as I translated my mental notes to verbal pieces. My facial expression and awkward fidgeting made it clear I did not want to pursue the discussion. As they noticed this, they swiftly changed the topic to fashion, very obviously not touching upon leather. The truth was I did want to discuss Veganism but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Well, now I do.

Veganism now popularised by celebrities who want to lose weight or stay fit has misinformed the public that Veganism is a ‘diet’. But it’s not.Veganism is a lifestyle, a choice – made by animal lovers and activists who do not want to exploit God’s creations by shedding their blood. Vegans don’t indulge in the use of any animal product or by-product, such as meat, fish, eggs, milk, and neither in other products derived from animals such as leather, silk etc.

We have been stereotyped and in so many false ways. According to the ill-informed, we either are trying to lose weight or trying to act cool or will shove our opinions down others’ throats or will burst into a sudden picketing or can only eat tasteless meals.

Since Veganism isn’t all ‘raw’ and healthy foods, we don’t do it for the sake of losing weight, we do it for enriching our lives. We aren’t doing this because we think this is ‘cool’, sure the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Brad Pitt are vegans too, but we are all passionate and have the same goal to liberate animals from being exploited and to return to Edenic perfection.

To all prospective vegans out there, if you truly love animals and understand the rapid rate at which hundreds of animals die every day, stand up for what you believe in. The transition from a non-vegetarian to a vegan can be hard, but if you think of all the abuse these animals go through, whether it be excruciating pain or death, you will realise we believe in a greater cause than our taste buds. So what do you say? See you at the Vegan Fest in February?

Movie Review: Wall-E

Wall-E Gives Us Another Reason To Prove We All Are Daft

Dalia N., III Year B. A. English

“Out there, there’s a world outside the Yonkers, way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby…” Barbra Streisand’s voice invites the audience to see a somewhat dirty Earth, a planet much different from the blue orb we are familiar with. The camera zooms in and we see uneven silhouettes of what seem like hills.  Andrew Stanton’s Wall-E shows a future that is entirely possible, excluding the part where humans survive. Well, he made the movie in 2008 and the future of the human race was much better then. Presently we are looking at possible end to the gory glory we have unleashed upon the universe.

It is the year 2805 and roughly 700 hundred years ago they had deemed the world unfit for life because they couldn’t find space for waste. So they moved to the “space” (the cold, dark and vast expanse in which the Earth is a speck of dust) in Axiom, built by Buy n Large (BnL). The Earth they leave is filled with literal filth, unlike the figurative filth that adores the world we belong to. The humans who left in the spaceship hoped to return to Earth, when the robots had cleaned it up. However down in our abandoned and damaged little home, a cute service robot does his duty. He is WALL-E. WALL-E stands for Waste Allocation Loader – Earth Class, it was commissioned by BnL for “Operation Clean Up.”

The admirable thing about the movie is that no one speaks for a long time, so when we meet humans towards the end, we are shocked to see and hear our own species. We favour the robots and scorn our own kind. Wall-E himself has minimal dialogue that ranges from squeaky curiosity to an emphasised version of his name, until Eve appears. He falls in love with this robot immediately and becomes an anthropomorphic robot. In a world governed by reason, we should have fled when we knew that the robot was behaving like a human being. Instead we remain glued to our seats watching Eve giggle as Wall-E’s pet cockroach plays with her and we sigh when Wall-E backs off every time he tries to tell her that he is in love with her.

Eve shuts down as she finds a plant on Earth and her reconnaissance mission comes to an end with that. Wall-E travels to Axiom, where MO-4 is shocked upon knowing that Wall-E is 100% foreign contaminant. Wall-E watches in confusion the hover chairs going about in tandem and one of the red suited things fall off from the chair. It is a human, a giant mass of flesh with nearly a non-existent neck and stubby hands. All the humans go past him, and it is Wall-E who helps him.

The humans have been fed with some liquefied food and they haven’t left their hover chairs at all since their birth. They have a screen in front of them, a virtual head gear that keeps them oblivious to the world. There, they have a virtual barrier that keeps them unaware of those beside them, and here we consciously avert our eyes from those who are in need. Wall-E beautifully captures the change the human race is going through, a transformation that is distancing us from those values that make us essentially human.

There is of course AUTO, the one who has been guiding all the captains, he who is offhandedly the supreme commander. Consequently he arbitrarily decides what is good for his people, and his choice is to avoid going back to Earth. Of course humans fight to go and rejuvenate their ancestral planet. But we are not excited about them restoring Earth, we are excited about Wall-E and Eve. That’s the problem with us.

The movie is an earnest social satire, telling us that we are forgetting our place in the universe and it smartly delivers the stupidity that has infected our race. What do we do when the credits come? We go about like we have nothing to do with climate change and declare that love trespasses all frontiers.

[Photograph Source: Internet]

Blindingness

Sneha Mary Christall, II M.A. English

He emerged from his home,
Fully-formed and morose looking,
A newborn unwilling to experience
Anything besides the dark inner lining of his chrysalis.

 

It was with a certain disdain
That he regarded the world.
However, twisting out of his home,
He Realigned,
Readjusted
To this strange new form of existence.

 

In a few deliberate beats, he was out,
His wings, a pale, dusted blue.

 

He began the slow discovery of
His immediate surroundings,
Taking in the sounds of the farmyard
And the general din of a household
Slowly stirring awake.

 

He wasn’t one for frenzied exploration,
He watched me intently,
For the odd little organism that I was.
Flawed.
Wide- eyed.
A shade too silent.

 

His mute eyes conveyed discernment
As though he recognised me for who I was.

 

I felt exposed.
As though I had unwillingly let him in
On something inward.

 

It was perverse
How maddened I was.
I watched him,
As he flew past.
Crouching among shadows and sunbeams,
My hand, as though acting of its own accord,
Reached out and grasped him,
Crushed him to Finer than Dust.

 

I watched
As though from afar,
The shadow-play
Of his death,
Quick. Final.

 

Walking out
Into blindingness,
I longed to forget,
My vision blinded
By something beautiful and sad;
A child’s incurable curiosity-
And her capacity for evil.

It’s Their World, Too.

Pooja Krishna, II Year B. A. English

The world, according to me, is divided into three kinds of people. Those who, upon seeing an injured puppy on the road, would kick it, rejoicing in its pain; those who would feel compassion for the animal and immediately rush it to a place where help would be provided, and the third and worst kind: those who show inaction in the times when action is required; those who wouldn’t spare the poor thing a second glance. Those are the kind of people for whom the last circle of hell is reserved for, or so Dante Alighieri says. But let’s put that thought aside for a moment.

Now, for the second category of people, who would immediately help the animal. Not all of us who fall into the second category are veterinarians. So what do we do? We take the animal to the ‘experts’. Those who are trained to help in those kinds of situations. The Blue Cross Of India, a.k.a. the place where free aid is provided for animals, because let’s face it, not all of us who fall into the category are millionaires, and we can’t afford to spend hard-earned money on an injured mutt, no matter how big our hearts are.

Little do we know that nothing in the world is free.

Do we wonder what happens to the animal we rescued after we leave it at the Blue Cross? We automatically assume that it would get its happily ever after, as we go on with our busy lives. We couldn’t be more wrong. The sad truth is that there is a good chance that we have left the animal in a state more perilous than the one we found it in.

When we think of the Blue Cross, we immediately wonder how kind and unselfish they are to dedicate their lives to help the voiceless. Little do we realize that they do more harm to the animals in their care.

According to popular reviews and statistics, any animal left in the care of the Blue Cross survives for less than 20 days, no matter how healthy it was when it was admitted there. A lot of people who have adopted animals from the Blue Cross have left negative reviews, sharing their experiences, as many of them saw their beloved pets die before their very eyes.

‘Dirty’ is the word that immediately came to mind the first time I visited the Blue Cross. Dirty and unhygienic. I had to control my tears as I looked at the poor souls who peered at me from behind bars (both literally and metaphorically). Very few animals were allowed to roam around outside independently, and the young ones were shut up in huge, dirty cages (that were probably cleaned once a month or something).Proper vaccinations were not given to all animals, and serious diseases were overlooked, according to some reviews.

Of course, the Blue Cross cannot take the entire blame for its treatment of animals. Lack of funds is becoming a serious issue, which automatically leads to insufficient medical and other kinds of help needed.

‘If this was an organization serving humans, would they be this casual?’ asks Sudha, a person who has witnessed, firsthand, the cruelty that animals go through at the organization.

That is the problem here. Here is where the third and last category of people come in. The world is filled with the kind of people who are too busy running along with their lives to spare even an iota of concern, let alone money, to those they consider lesser than them, and unfortunately, the Blue Cross has some of those kinds of people, too. Some people join the Blue Cross just to earn a good name and not out of genuine care for animals.

The motto of the Blue Cross is, ‘Animals – It’s their world, too.’ I think the real problem lies in us assuming that the world is ours, to begin with.

[Photograph Source: YouTube]