From Pink Line to Deutschland

From Pink Line to Deutschland

It’s literally mad — like, I spend over two hours just to get to college. No joke. It’s metro , rickshaw, walking — rinse and repeat, day in and day out. And for what? To go to EVS. Yeah, EVS. The ultimate scam subject, where you sit and feign that you’re saving the world by learning how to sketch food chains. I took that class on some random Thursday — was already half-fainted, and I had just stuffed a banana into my mouth before leaving. I took the Pink Line and lo and behold, I randomly discovered that it’s the tallest elevated track in the entire Delhi Metro. No one asked, but I felt strangely proud to know that. Such as one day it’ll assist me in getting the top prize at a metro-themed pub quiz or something stupid like that. Anyway, I arrived at class — already sweating, already fed up — and sir begins ranting about milk and meat. Yeah, he went all-out about how you shouldn’t be eating them together because of atoms reacting in your stomach or some heavy EVS heavy stuff like that. And suddenly — I had a weird memory flashback. Outta the blue, Inglourious Basterds flashed in my mind. Full-on Hans Landa, with his intimidating-af smile, minding his cool eating strudel with cream. Exact combination. I couldn’t help seeing it. That EVS lecture in clg suddenly became a movie flashback from Nazi Germany. Lajpat Nagar straight up to Deutschland in my head.

After class, I was trudging down the college halls — and I’m serious, Hans Landa was still chuckling in my brain. I don’t even know why, but that day I was just FINISHED. Heat, fatigue, brain dead. Didn’t care if I was sleepy, cared about nothing. I came home, ate what was available, and just opened up my laptop and hit play on Inglourious Basterds. No second thoughts. The point is, I’ve been watching The Office since, like, forever — 2019-ish or so. Binge-watched it to oblivion. So you can just imagine how crazy it was when I discovered that the same dude who played Ryan the Temp — B.J. Novak — showed up in Inglourious Basterds as the ‘Little Man.’ I was like, “Wait, what?” Dude transitioned from writing WUPHF emails to blowing up Nazis. Career peak flip. And Brad Pitt? Don’t even get me started. The accent, the mayhem, the “we’re gonna kill Nazis” vibe — iconic. That film doesn’t let up, doesn’t breathe.

It just continues. Then there’s Shoshanna. Her fleeing the farmhouse, her quiet fury, her entire cinema-plan revenge — it’s poetic and insane at the same time. But yeah, the centerpiece to it all — Hans freakin’ Landa. The man is frightening not because he’s loud, but because he’s quiet. He doesn’t yell. He smiles. That milk and meat business? Suddenly made sense again. Like he knows things people shouldn’t. He didn’t care about Hitler or Germany — the man just cared about himself. Classic narcissist. And by the end, when he switches sides and attempts to cut a deal with Brad Pitt — that’s when you see — he’s not evil because he’s devoted. He’s evil because he’s intelligent enough to make it anywhere. Doesn’t matter who wins, Hans Landa always wins. Until that final moment. And that final moment? Etched into your mind. Literally. Brad Pitt being what Brad Pitt does — etching a Nazi sign onto his forehead so he won’t forget. It’s disgusting, it’s brazen, it’s Tarantino. And really, it’s kind of beautiful in the most strange way. Silly how one sweltering afternoon, a random trivia about Delhi Metro, and a useless EVS class can put you in a whirlwind of thoughts and films and philosophies regarding milk, meat, and monsters. But yes, that’s life.