Authors note:

Considering his name is Moriarty, you (and Sherlock Holmes) have every right to squint your eyes and be suspicious. But the truth is, Chris and Laura Moriarty are doing magic right now with their Million Waves Project. To do this, they have combined two major global problems and offered a solution for both.

• Every single year, 28 billion pounds of plastic gets dumped in our oceans.
• There are over 40 million people in the world, including children, who need a prosthetic limb. Less than 5 % have one.

The two facts may seem unrelated until you take into account the Million Waves Project, a charity initiative by this couple that offers a sustainable practical solution to both problems.

The non-profit organization, Million Waves Project takes the plastic recycled from the ocean. The couple actually cut it all up by hand before feeding it into a paper shredder and then a 3-D printer. Via their app, they connect with people who need a limb and print out the required limb, wrist or digit based on the specifications sent. They then deliver it to the disabled person.

They get donations by selling keychains and other products at their site Million Waves Project.


The Moriartys are not done yet though. With the aim of increasing their productivity ten fold and providing limbs for the disabled at a quicker rate, they are presently working on getting an industrial-sized shredder to help their cause.

You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.


The team of the Million Waves Project definitely deserve to make it to the list of Heroes of Kindness who inspire the world with their deeds.

Authors note:

This post is part of the We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event to showcase stories of compassion. The hosts for this month are:  Shilpa Garg, Peter Nena, Inderpreet Uppal, Sylvia McGrath, Belinda Witzenhausen and me, Roshan Radhakrishnan.

The idea is to spread positivity and light to counterbalance the negativity and darkness in social media. You can check their pages to find the list of feel-good stories written by bloggers from around the world.

As the title suggests, I set out to make a list of movies that take place over 24 hours. Turns out there were a lot more than I thought. So I am going to limit this list down to some of the better ones, okay? Okay.
Here goes.

Action

Die Hard - In addition to being one of the most awesome action movies of all time even 30 years after its release, this movie makes this list too as we follow officer John McClane try to save his wife and other hostages from the evil Hans Gruber at the Nakatomi Plaza on Christmas eve.

A franchise making movie that made movie stars out of Bruce Willis and the late Alan Rickman.

Related Viewing: Die Hard 2 and Die Hard with a Vengeance. Both good movies and set over a span of 24 hours.

Another movie I loved was The Negotiator featuring two top police negotiators in Samuel L Jackson and Kevin Spacey, only one of them is now the hostage taker.

More violent but equally effective is Training Day featuring Denzel Washington.

Thrillers

Reservoir Dogs - A classic by director Quentin Tarantino, a group of thieves begin to suspect one of the gang is an undercover cop after a robbery goes horribly wrong.

Let us not forget the amazingly picturized Gravity following astronauts stuck in space after debris damages their space shuttle.

Panic Room, where a mother and her diabetic daughter are forced to hide in their panic room after burglars enter their house, searching for something.

Horror

Cloverfield - One of the most well-made 'found footage' horror movies, if you ask me. Directed by Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes), we follow a group of friends seeking to rescue another friend after something goes terribly wrong in New York and a huge monster appears.

Related to found footage movies, I will also recommend REC (Spanish), where a television reporter follows a fire fighting crew to cover an incident in an apartment building only for the crew to realize that something is not right with the tenants.

Don't Breathe - Still with horror, a bunch of thieves break into the house of an old blind man to rob him. Big mistake.

I also love Trick r Treat, an anthology format movie based around Halloween night.

Romance

Comedy

Airplane - One of the funniest spoof comedies of all time, everything that can go wrong does go wrong with hilarious consequences after a plane filled with an eccentric crew and passengers takes off.

Also in the spoof category, Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.

Harold and Kumar go to White Castle - A hilarious guilty pleasure movie where two stoned men end up having a series of misadventures after going out to buy a burger.

Also in the guilty pleasure list, The Breakfast Club, the classic which follows a bunch of high school students who learn quite a few valuable lessons while stuck in detention and Ferris Buellers' Day Off where a high school kid bunks school and has a whole lot of fun.

And don't forget the evergreen hit Baby's Day Out with the most adorable baby, three bumpkin kidnappers and one very famous gorilla scene!

Classics

Twelve Angry Men - Another classic, this deals with an extremely tense courtroom scenario where one out of a jury of 12 men tries to prevent the others from giving the wrong verdict in a murder trial.

Rebel Without a Cause where a teenager joins a new school and well, does a lot of 'rebel stuff without a cause!'

Rope, where two friends kill an old classmate and then host a party with the body still in the apartment to see if they can carry out the perfect crime.

Movies Based on Books

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Book better than the movie, though.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Again, book better than movie.

You should also consider the 1974 version of Morton Freedgood's The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three where hostages take over a subway train.

Authors note:

This is also my take on the image prompt set by WriteTribe for Day 7 of their Festival of Words June 2018.  

It began with a heartbreaking series of tweets by Christopher, a father to a young boy.

"Strange request. Anyone know anyone famous/well known who could send Ollie a positive/9th birthday message. The bully keeps saying to him that everything O has, he has bigger/better/more often. O excited for his birthday but keeps being told it won't be as good as his own.
I would be so grateful and I appreciate it is an odd request. Just would love someone to tell him he does mean something & bullying is not."

His son was being bullied and ill-treated even on the eve of his 9th birthday. He hoped anyone would be able to find anyone just 'well known' also to wish his son to cheer him up on his birthday.

He got his wish with a few 'moderately well known' blokes and lasses deciding to wish Ollie and cheer him up, letting him know they were on his side.

So who all came in that list of wishers, you ask? Meh. Nobody great. Just:

1. Talk show host and legend Ellen Degeneres.
2. The Terminator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger
3. Wolverine Hugh Jackman
4. Gladiator Russell Crowe
5. Singer Nicole Scherzinger
6. Astronaut Chris Hadfield 
7. Astronaut Tim Peake
8. English cricketer Graeme Swann
9. British Olympic racewalker Tom Bosworth
10. British Olympic medalist Dame Jessica Ennis Hill
11. Simpsons cartoonist Eric Keyes
12. American activist Monica Lewinsky
13. Manchester City football club
14. Manchester United football club
15. Arsenal football club
16. The English national football club

 So ya, as I said, meh. Nobody great.



Jokes aside, it was an absolutely lovely gesture from the stars and must have felt so great for the young child. His mom, Natalie would later thank everyone for their kindness.

"Hi, I'm Ollie's mum (married to Chris). I don't 'tweet' and always go on at him for spending too much time on Twitter!! However, this time I want to say, from the bottom of my heart 'Thank You' so much. You really don't know what this means, Natalie xx"

I wanted to share this lovely story for two reasons and you, the reader, are a part of the second.

The first reason is that for me, twitter is nowadays one of most toxic social media platforms available (especially in India) with abusive trolls and hate-filled tweets forming the bulk of comments for anyone trying to raise a point. Celebrities who stand up for a cause actually end up getting threats of rape, violence and murder.
And yet, I have hope. Because this is the same world where people of different beliefs, races and religions all got together on Twitter and let a small boy know that they stood by his side and that bullying is not okay. We will get there, India. We just need to keep standing up for our own Ollies who are victims of abuse and who wrongfully believe that nobody cares for them.

The second point is far more positive. If I am not mistaken, Ollie celebrates his birthday on the 5th of July. So I am hoping you can find it in yourself to spare a moment to write a birthday wish for the young lad in the comments section (the plan being to share this post with his father next week).

Sure, you and I are not Wolverine or Ellen but you know what, I think, he wouldn't mind it at all.
Who knows, if we are lucky, we will get cake too!

P.S. Do you want some hints on how to write birthday wishes to Ollie? Here are some people who tried it in 2017.

Happy birthday, Ollie! Remember, anyone who tells you that you aren't good enough is just plain wrong. #BeKind

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) June 30, 2017

Tell Ollie happy birthday and I hope I can meet him in September to celebrate! pic.twitter.com/pS6RkB1MDT

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 30, 2017

Happy 9th birthday, Ollie! pic.twitter.com/vjDGha6XtM

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) June 30, 2017

Hope your 9th birthday is out of this world Ollie. Just remember - a bully is a person too scared to do the right thing. Aim high dude! 🚀

— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) June 29, 2017

Hey Ollie, Happy Birthday buddy! I just celebrated mine too! Maybe you and your dad would wanna come hang out at XF later this year? xo

— Nicole Scherzinger (@NicoleScherzy) June 30, 2017

Happy Birthday Ollie from a guy on @TheSimpsons who's not quite famous but draws a kid who is =) I hope you have an AWESOME day! pic.twitter.com/f7itI4XdfW

— Eric Keyes (@monkeyes) June 29, 2017

Hey Ollie, heard it was your birthday. 9 years old eh? Congratulations, Happy Birthday !!

— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) June 29, 2017

happy birthday, ollie! 🎂we're rooting for you to have a gr8 day... + rooting for you always. hang in there! pic.twitter.com/EhG2HqGb2K

— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) June 29, 2017

Happy 9th birthday Ollie from everyone @ManCity! 👍💪#mcfc

— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 29, 2017

Happy birthday, Ollie! 🎂

Fancy coming to see us in September? Let us know and we'll make it happen. 👍

— England (@England) June 29, 2017

Happy Birthday Ollie. Hope you have a great birthday. We've all been there with bullies, never let them win. Enjoy your day 🎂🎉

— Dame Jess Ennis-Hill (@J_Ennis) June 30, 2017

So once again, don't forget to wish Ollie a happy birthday in the comments section :)

Authors note:

This post is part of the We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event to showcase stories of compassion. The hosts for this month are:  Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk, Mary J Giese, Dan Antion,  Damyanti Biswas.   

The idea is to spread positivity and light to counterbalance the negativity and darkness in social media. You can check their pages to find the list of feel-good stories written by bloggers from around the world.


This is also my take on the prompt “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” – Cinderella set by WriteTribe for their Festival of Words June 2018.  

Last year, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was making cocktails behind the counter of the Flats Fix tacos and tequila bar. The college educational director was forced to take up this second job after the recession hit her family badly and they faced foreclosure. After her father had passed away, she and her Puerto Rican mother (who cleaned houses and drove buses) were struggling to make ends meet.

She was the poster girl for the struggling middle class American. In 2017, disillusioned by what the Democratic Party had become in America, she took a long shot and challenged Congressman Joe Crowley for the seat of New York's 14th congressional district.

To give you some background:

• Joe Crowley has been a 10 term representative for the Democrats with no challenger for a decade. 
• Ocasio-Cortez was eight years old when Crowley first became the U.S. Representative for the 7th district in 1999. 
• Above all this, Joe Crowley is the person rumoured to be the next to lead the House of Democrats. 
• He has the funding and backing of the entire national Democratic party at his disposal.

It was not a bloody campaign simply because Crowley did not see Ocasio as a threat. A cocktail bar waitress with no money taking on one of the mightiest of a grand political party does not end well in real life, no matter how many fairytales we come across in fiction and celluloid.

I'm speechless ...@JoeCrowleyNY doesn't attend debate with @Ocasio2018 and sends @NYCCouncil member @PalmaAnnabel in his place

Why would she agree to do this?

This is the ugly side of the Democrats on full display, pitting one woman of Latin descent against another #NY14 pic.twitter.com/2xaWOTg8PW

— Michael Corley (@MichaelCorleyNY) June 19, 2018

So unworthy did Crowley deem her that he did not even come to the city debate scheduled between them, sending a 'woman of similar race' to deal with his opponent instead.

He was not alone. Most leading newspapers failed to even cover her story during the lead up to the elections, dismissing her chances outright and deeming her unworthy of a single story. Imagine that. An election being held for the first time in a decade against a prominent leader and the media did not even deem it fit to talk about the challenger prior to the elections.



If Ocasio-Cortez was insulted, she did not show it. She focused on her grassroots campaign, going from door-to-door to spread her message. Taking into account the diverse population of her area in New York, the campaign was individualized to include languages like Bengali, Mandarin and Spanish. If the newspapers did not have time to feature her, several progressive websites did, giving her space to showcase her views.






Her liberal views challenged the Democratic ideologies that, while more open-minded than Republicans, still fell short in many aspects. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stood for:

• Abolition of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) that has been repeatedly deemed to use fascist methods to enforce laws.
• Universal healthcare.
• Tuition-free college.
• Pushing for a federal jobs guarantee for all.

She fought publicly too, leaving her own campaign in between to join protests at an ICE detention center in Texas against families being forcibly separated.

The child detention camps are here - I confronted the border officers myself.

Using their names, I told them exactly what they are responsible for.

One of them made eye contact with me.
I spoke directly to him.
I saw his sense of guilt.
We can dismantle this.#AbolishICE pic.twitter.com/QLyc9MAnkt

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 24, 2018

Before this campaign began too, she had been part of the progressive activists at Standing Rock who had protested the Trump-led construction of the pipeline that traversed Native American land.

At the end of the day, her policy of not taking any funds from corporate companies would seem to come back to bite her, with her overall funds being less than 1/10th what her opponent Crowley spent, even when he 'wasn't trying' against the Latina woman challenging him. But it didn't.

On Tuesday night, the results were announced. Taking 58% of the votes, Ocasio - who was working 18 hours a day as a waitress last year - defeated the man the Democratic Party of America had considered their next leader and perhaps even Speaker of the House this November if the Democrats were to win.

Challenger @Ocasio2018 toppled one of the top Democrats in Congress, @repjoecrowley, Tuesday night in their primary in the 14th District. The victory stunned even her, live on our channel. #NY1Politics https://t.co/fnK1O0bacz pic.twitter.com/RjuqHJpn1p

— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) June 27, 2018

At a time when politics across almost all the major nations has come down to money, long-standing political careers (often with far too few inspiring contributions to society) or religious ideologies (with tragically, far more divisive contributions to society), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' win is the victory not just America but the world needed.



With no money in her account, no media to lift her up, gender and cultural biases holding her down and nothing but her beliefs that focused on humanity, this beautiful David just slayed Goliath and showed the world that change is possible, even in the dark seemingly narrow rules that have defined politics for decades.

She is not the only one. Other young women have stepped forward too over the last year, looking to force the political parties to introspect on their values by challenging those who took their political seats for granted.



Where, over a decade ago, Barack Obama was the defining hope for all black men to believe that someday an 'African American could actually consider running for President', Ocasio-Cortez' win provides hope to young men and women of all races and economic backgrounds, disillusioned with the stands of the main political parties and media, to stand up and be the change they want to see in their country.

And by country, I am not restricting it only to America either. Her win should serve as an inspiration to the youth across the world looking for change from politics based on ideologies that should have been outdated ages ago.

Authors note:

This is my take on the prompt “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of them all.” – Mulan set by WriteTribe for their Festival of Words June 2018.  

Would you watch a comedy that revolves around a disabled character?

I can see you frown already. Yes, the thought gave me certain misgivings too when I first heard of it simply because there is so much potential for things to go wrong in portraying disabled characters on the screen even under normal circumstances without adding the tag of a comedy sitcom to it.

And yet, ABC's show Speechless does not just work but pulls it off so brilliantly that I found it to be one of the best sitcoms in years (since Brooklyn Nine Nine, and definitely far lighter than Black-ish, which I also adore).

Premise:

In Speechless, we follow the (barely) middle class DiMeo family as they navigate through life with their three children, the eldest of whom has cerebral palsy. With a bossy British mom (played excellently by Minnie Driver) who subsequently forces the new school of her children to give her their groundskeeper to use as her son's caretaker (!) and a fun, subservient dad (played by John Bowie, whom you know better as Barry Kripke on The Big Bang Theory) running the house, the rules tend to change often, much to the annoyance of the middle child (the sane one) who also gets bossed around by his young sister.


The title Speechless refers to the disability of the eldest brother, J.J. DiMeo who communicates via a laser pointer attached to his spectacles that he uses to 'write' on a board filled with letters, words and alphabets placed on wheelchair so that others can read as he points.

So how does such a show come into existence, you wonder? Who thought it was a great idea to make a comedy about a kid with cerebral palsy?

Well, the creator and executive producer of this show is Scott Silveri, who decades ago wrote for shows like 'Friends' no less. But that isn't the reason why he is the right person to make this show. For that, you need to enter his home.

Creator Scott Silveri grew up in a family exactly like the show Speechless, with an older brother with cerebral palsy and parents who did everything possible to make the best of what life had given them, infusing humour into reality.

Much like some of the best comedy sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond, Speechless too is based on real life incidents and people (I have a whole list here of such shows!), infused with both humour and poignancy.

But the kid who plays the disabled J.J. DiMeo is so good. How does he manage to act out such a realistic portrayal of cerebral palsy?

He doesn't. You see, Micah Fowler is not acting. He really does have cerebral palsy!



One of the key decisions taken during casting by Scott Silveri was that the person playing his brother should be a real person with disabilities and in Micah, they found a phenomenal character who often brings the biggest laughs in scenes with his antics. He isn't overcoming life's problems... he is just a teenager living his life the best way he can.

Why this show matters

The show doesn't shy away from the reality of the problems of cerebral palsy but instead embraces it. After an excellent Season One, Season Two hit the ground running in full gear, dealing with queries J.J. has as he grows up, including whether he can go to college or have a wife someday. These are indeed tough topics to deal with and yet, the show doesn't shy away because somewhere in the past, the creator Scott would have watched his own parents deal with it.

I honestly would not have known anything about this had it not been for a visual on the screen in the last second of the season 2 finale.

It was Scott telling goodbye to his brother, Gregory Silveri who had died earlier this year. The same Gregory who got to see himself immortalized on screen as JJ DiMeo before he passed away.

Final thoughts -

Watch this show. You will be pleasantly surprised by how excellent the team dynamic is in Speechless between the insane parents, the quirky children, the hilarious new caretaker and the unique circumstances.

Don't forget to pin this so that others find out the lovely truth about Speechless!

Micah Fowler is unique in today's world, being possibly the only person with cerebral palsy who has become a part of mainstream television. In doing so, he has broken down a huge boundary and proved to the world that nothing is impossible.


You can listen to the interview of the main cast, including Micah and Scott, here.

Authors note:

This is my take on the prompt “You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul.” – Ratatouille set by WriteTribe for their Festival of Words June 2018. 

They told him he lacked imagination and had no good ideas when he was a young man working at a newspaper. Walt Disney went on to redefine the animation and movie industry in America with his ideas.

They told her she was too emotionally invested while firing her from he first job as a television anchor. Oprah Winfrey stayed emotionally invested with her guests and went on the become the first African American billionaire woman thanks to her own talk show.

She failed in her early dreams - to make the national Olympic figure skating team and later to become the editor of the magazine she worked for. At 40, disillusioned, she started in an entirely new direction, designing wedding gowns. Today. Vera Wang is one of the leading names in the fashion industry.



Harland David Sanders was fired from dozens of jobs and deemed a failure as he entered his sixties. He finally started travelling around America, selling chicken dishes in others' restaurants. Today, the face of Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise are known across the globe.

Having taken her son out of school to help look after the family farm, the young mother soon realized the boy was no good at it and had to make a choice whether to persevere with him on the farm and send him back to school. Sir Isaac Newton would return to school and go on to change the world's concepts of physics and mathematics.

He was so bad at his audition that the director told him to stop wasting his time and go work as a dishwasher. Sidney Poitier would go on to become the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor.

She was struggling to make ends meet after a failed marriage, living inside a car and receiving rejection letters for her work. Today. JK Rowling is one of the richest (the first billionaire author) and most read authors of all time thanks to her Harry Potter series.

Another author was so frustrated over his repeated failures and inability to succeed that he threw the first draft of his first full length novel in the dustbin. His wife had faith though and picked it out, encouraging him to work on it. That book was 'Carrie' which would go on to make author Stephen King the gold standard of modern day horror fiction.

This Taiwanese man failed his college entrance exams twice which was a huge embarrassment for the family since his father was a respected high school Principal. He tried joining acting school but his English was not good enough. Ang Lee would go on to become a 3 time Academy Award winning director with classics like 'Life of Pi' and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.'

No music company was ready to sign this young rapper so he had no option but to sell his own song CDs from the back of his car to anyone who would listen. Jay-Z is today a rap legend and one of the best selling music artists of all time.


10 people who failed in life.
Who were berated for their inadequacies.
Who could have given up.
But did not. 
And ended up becoming legends.

Authors note:

This is my take for the prompt provided for Day 3 of Write Tribe's "Festival of Words June 2018"
The prompt for today was - “Our fate lives within us. You only have to be brave enough to see it.” from the movie, Brave.

The young girl stared at the hung rows of clothes - reds and browns, stripes and plains - criss-crossing across windows above the lanes.
"How many lived here?" she asked.
"There used to be 720 in this road alone last year. Men, women, boys and even young girls like you."
"And now?"
He was silent for a long moment. When he spoke, her five year old ears could hear the barely concealed anger.
"None. As it is across this entire land. And all the other lands around."

The girl tried to hold his hand to console him but as always, her fingers just passed through his at the point of contact.
"Why? How?"
He shook his head.
"They said they were defending their God."
"They were defending you? From whom?"
"From others who were defending me."

The girl floated up until her face was at the same level as his head.
"There is nobody alive today because everyone killed each other defending you? I don't understand." she said, seeking clarification.

The all-seeing, all-knowing being did not turn to look at her. His face - or at least where she assumed his face would have been through the radiance - remained fixed upwards, watching the empty clothes in the sky that had once adorned all his children.

"Neither do I, little one. Neither do I."
 

Authors note:

This is my take on the Picture Prompt provided for Day 2 of the Write Tribe Festival of Words June 2018.

The distinctive blue colour comes from the petals of the Clitoria ternatea / butterfly pea flowers.

Here are some fun facts for you to know about Blue Tea:

1. They are made from hand-picked butterfly pea flowers. Other names for the same are Aprajitha / Cordofan pea / Asian pigeon wings. The official name is the Clitoria ternatea plant.
2. It is a caffeine free, herbal tea that is rich in anti-oxidants.
3. This blue coloured brew has actually been available for centuries in South East Asia. It is only recently getting popular world-wide though and is not easy available.
4. That distinctive blue colour comes from the petals.
5. In Thailand, this tea with lemon and honey is served as a refreshment at hotels and spas.

Taste: 

Well, it is mildly floral but not as empowering as a chamomile or imperial white tea. Would I recommend it? Definitely. It is a good tea to have, considering it offers the benefits of green tea and is definitely more flavourful!

Fun fact: The distinctive blue colour that comes from the tea when placed in hot water is also used in making dyes or food colouring as seen in the Malaysian rice dish nasi kerabu.

Image source: FoodAdvisor

That gets me thinking: you can use this same principle for adding vibrant colours to other food items too, right?

Anyway, that is it from me for now. Tell me, given the chance, would you be willing to try out a blue tea or is it the safety of regular tea for you?

Authors note:

This is not a sponsored review. I am actually participating in Write Tribe's Festival of Words June 2018.



Their prompt for Day 1 -  "Use this sentence in your post : You’d never believe me if I told you that I _____________, but it’s true and I can prove it." got me thinking of this blue tea and so I wrote about it.

You can read other bloggers take on Day 1 of the Write Tribe Festival here.