Mahesh Narayanan's Patriot is a cerebral spy thriller that delves into the weaponisation of digital surveillance against civilians and the targeting of whistleblowers, featuring Mammootty, Mohanlal, and Fahadh Faasil.
A retired Pakistan army officer incurs army chief General Bajwa's wrath, reveals Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
'Khalistan would have been in existence today, but for the army.'
'In the 1971 War my battalion suffered 4 casualties after fighting for 14 days.' 'In Operation Blue Star, I lost 19 men in just one hour.'
'I told them I am a Muslim, you are Sikh, you are Hindu, but we have one country to save.'
A petition filed by a retired Colonel challenging the unprecedented three-year extension given by Pakistan government to army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was on Thursday dismissed by a court in Islamabad.
'Imagine for a soldier -- first you conquer territory after fighting a fierce battle, suffer casualties and then you are ordered to come back to your side of the International Border in India.'
'Any Muslim who shows even the slightest hint of revolutionary thought is marked as 'infected'.' 'At that point, he is taken to the nearest Detention Centre where a procedure called Reconditioning awaits him.' 'Areas with a high Muslim population have been designated as Scheduled Religion Zones.' 'To be an active participant in this social cleansing ritual, there is only one prerequisite: You have to be an undying patriot whose friend and family is his country.'
True Indian scenes most often lie on less travelled routes, along roads that have fallen off the map, after modern highways have come up. On the fourth leg of their 2,148 km journey, Rediff.com's Archana Masih and photographer Rajesh Karkera discover one such forgotten place in the Thar Desert.
