I am about to pay tribute to one of the most memorable characters in modern cinema, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. This here is a cannibal, a criminal, a genius, and a devoted lover and manipulator. How teasing.

In The Silence of The Lambs and Hannibal Dr. Lecter’s word craft and mental domination made my heart skip a beat, such a perfect canvas of malicious brilliance! Something you cannot overlook, really, it thrusts itself in your mind and forces you to acknowledge its greatness, even if you do not like gore, rather, especially if you do not like gore.

A must it is to note that Sir Anthony Hopkins plays the role of Dr. Lecter in all three movies: The Silence of The Lambs 1991, Hannibal 2001, and Red Dragon 2002. His emergence as the optimum, elitist pick for the role is beyond words. There is no denying he was tailored to embody it, or that, in play, it was tailored to fit none other than him. He happens to be my favorite actor.

That twisted love-hate relationship between Hannibal and Clarice is captivating. She fears him yet she trusts him, and he delivers her at the end of Hannibal by chopping off his hand rather than hers after being chained together; an unforgettable scene for those who watched the movie. The way he talks to her, “Hello, Clarice”, and the way his speech picks speed at times in an intimidating fashion, always calmly, so calm, so dangerous, the thrill of it bites you in the neck.

Words, words, words; you must watch the movies to see Lecter in all his glory and might. But a note on the side, if mutilation and vicious cannibalistic attacks disturb you, stick to those words. I would hate being sued because of my recommending my favorite movie to others, I cannot afford it. (Rated R).

Should you be interested in the screenplay of The Silence of The Lambs or that of Hannibal, find the first here and the second here.

I quote Dr.Lecter, from Hannibal, before offering a piece of cooked human brain (that of Paul Krendler) to a curious child on an airplane:

“As your mother tells you, and my mother certainly told me, it is important, she always used to say, always to try new things.”

In a letter to Clarice: “Your job is to craft my doom, so I am not sure how well I should wish you. But I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun. Ta-ta, “H.”"

“I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m having an old friend for dinner.”

Dry

Originally uploaded by Tololy Tutunai.

Curly dry earth
Hugs a rusty old can
And some cracks
Gentle like a smile

It’d be a perfect lie to say I am totally satisfied with my lines of work and the office settings I live in and what not. Those are not the things I am about to put into this entry, however, but I will rather tell you about the war I have to fight every single day at one of the offices.

You see, there’s this person I work with that I do not quite get. I do not understand his motives and his behaviour, and I always seem to fail to comprehend his malice when, as a consequence, I pay the price.

I perfectly understand competition, and I am quite a competitive little person myself - ask anyone, but this sort of twisted scheming I am not used to. It shocked me time and again how this person stabbed me in the back, for no obvious reason but to hinder what progress I would be making.

Then I could not tolerate it any longer.

I am not loud. I think being loud is such a vulgar thing, but there was this one time when I yelled at this “person” for a straight 15 minutes. The look on his face, his mumbling to himself in confusion, and his reaction as a whole were priceless. Since that day on, I have had little or no hassles at the office.

Think not if someone is polite that they lack in voice. Revenge is a sweet dish best served cold, so say some and so pray some.

Not again. Not really. It should be a month soon since the Box moved from Blogspot to its own DotCom, and it seems as though some major sites featuring it, such as toot, are not precisely aware of this fact or are quite skillful at procrastination. There could be a handful of other possibilities, naturally, and I am a person who believes in the benefit a doubt can hold.

As a kind reminder to all concerned, do update your bookmarks and you will live happily ever after. If ever after ever existed, that is. And big, warmish thanks go out to all who got the message “The Box has moved”. Brilliant!

If you happen to have any suggestions, special comments, private opinions or any other messages you would like to get across, do not hesitate to fill in the form below expressing yourself. I would like to learn of what appeals and what doesn’t in the Box, have no inhibitions and say it as it is.

9:50 AM addition: This entry will run through the next two days to grant you more time to post your thoughts. Should you have more than one, at different intervals, don’t be a stranger! Let it be heard.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

- Oscar Wilde

The following piece was submitted on November 30th, 2005 as an assignment on “A childhood memory” during Creative Writing class.

I am not trying to be funny when I state that once in my life I wished for a donkey. I was obsessed with horses ever since I learned of their existence, as I still am. I always put demands forward to my parents to buy me a horse, and they never complied.

Never losing hope, I opted for a donkey. I figured, ” If they do not want to get me a horse because it is expensive, then a donkey will certainly do!”. I think some supernatural power overheard my innermost plans and granted me them.

I was sitting in a minimalist house in a village called Samara in Karak, where my family used to spend the weekends. A regular weekend would end with nothing exceptional taking place, perhaps a lizard here or there, or an injury, that’s about it. Not anything flashy and - it came out of nowhere; a donkey on the loose wandered into the room where I was sitting.

The image that haunts me of that day is surreal. The way the donkey came inside the room, engulfed in light and terribly confused, was dreamlike. I gave the poor creature a name and my father helped me give him basic, yet urgent, medical attention. His leg was severely scratched and he was very thirsty. I was amazed at the quantity of water that a donkey can consume; I had had no prior experience in this field.

Later on in the day, a woman came and claimed the donkey. She said it was hers and had run away in the morning after, in a magical sense again, having liberated itself from the rope that tied it to a fixed spot. I cried.

“Light is Love revealed.
Light is Life manifested.
Light is God fulfilled.”

- Sri Chinmoy

Lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness unto Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.

- Mantra of the Upanishads

“When we live in darkness, our human life is a constant want.
When we live in Light, our divine life is a constant achievement.
Light in the physical is beauty.
Light in the vital is capacity.
Light in the mind is glory.
Light in the heart is victory.”

- Sri Chinmoy

I will be unable to monitor the happenings in the Box, and to compose any fresh entries during the two days to come. Tololy’s Box will be back online early next week, probably on Sunday April 16th.

In the meantime, you can always flip through The Archives for any entries you’d missed or any others you’d like to enjoy. Have a nice weekend!