Readers, The May edition of this magazine was as you all know themed "Dial M for Mystery". Along with the allitera-tion, we were thrilled with the content that our con-tributors submitted. What was more fun was how some stories let the mystery continue. That is why with June, we present another installment of "Mystery". We can't wait for some stories to fin-ish their final installment and some new ones to en-thrall us. Keep the sleuthing cap on while another serving of Mystery comes right up! Thanks Editor

Letter From the Editor

Contents

Nobody’s murder Nivethitha Kumar

Beauty, Beast and a Murder Anuradha Chandrasekaran

Fifa world cup – exclusive bracket predictions Karthik Balasubramaniam

Photography Dharini Sundaram

Creative workshop Essays 1st prize Article – Sravanthi 2nd prize Article – Ajay Srikanth

The Other son of Ganges – part 2 Matangi Mawley

The Reel Thrill Aruni Bhattacharya

Two beans in a pod Arul Sirpy

Who dunnit? – The science of solving a mystery Dhivya Arasappan

Unraveling a Riddle Adithya Srikrishna

The neighborhood was not the same anymore. All the houses assumed an air of forced silence. The children were no longer allowed to play outside af-ter school. The women stopped com-ing out of their houses even for the regular evening banter. Young girls were never allowed to go anywhere unaccompanied. Yes, the neighbor-hood had undergone a change that I can only hope is temporary. For this is not the place I grew up in. It was all because of the murderer on the loose. Yes, a murderer

No one can remember how it had all started or can even begin to comprehend why it had. It started as one freak incident in a part of the city that was farther away from us. No one cared much about it and it didn’t war-rant more than a few moments of discussion on the erosion of law and order and per-sonal morals. It had been just another head-line. That was until the scary stories chose our area as their home ground. It started out in the nearby localities and by the end of the month had made its way to our own col-ony. The police seemed to be out of any real leads. I knew a little more than the rest be-cause my father himself was an employee of the Police department. He was not a police inspector or anything of the sort. He worked in the fraud investigation unit, which dealt more with corrupt business practices than with murders and the like. In other words, his was the less interesting of police jobs. However this is fun for me because of the folks that I get to interact with. Many of

Dad's good friends were real police offi-cers. You know the ones that can actually kick rears. Needless to say, all these disturbing events meant regular visits by the police officials to the colony. What made this case very weird and difficult were the in-consistent nature of the victims and the lack of any real motive. It almost seemed like the murdered just felt like killing someone and so he did. The first victim had been a young beautiful thing in her twenties. Her purse had remained intact and she had not been meddled with ei-ther. The next one had been an elderly man, and his wallet was untouched too. Then the blows had come closer to home. It was Sarita, the local washerwoman, who collected all our dirty clothes, washed, pressed and delivered them to us. It came as a rude shock to see Sarita one day and not the next day. Worse was realizing that we would never see her again. The only thing that came close to

Nobody’s Murder

physical evidence were some cigarette butts. Nothing more. It was hard to iden-tify a smoker who had a propensity to kill among 4 million people in the city. Everyone had been hit by some kind of a sharp object from the back. Forensics said there was a good possibility that the victims did not even see this coming and probably did not even look at the killer. None of this added up to a sus-pect. "This man has to be a genius," said Ramesh uncle, one of the constables on the case. "Or he is going through an unbelievable patch of great luck," said Inspector Raju, when they stopped over at my house for a cup of tea. "Is there really no evidence at all, Un-cle?" I asked. Ever since these incidents happened, not only was I upset, I was cu-rious as well. This had tickled my mind in such a way that I was now obsessing over the case. I had read all possible in-formation I could about the cases. My Dad also helped me by getting me ac-cess to whatever information he could and was allowed to. My mom did not like the business at all. All very dark and not suitable for a young boy, she would keep saying. "Oh it is just an interest. It won’t do any harm," my Dad would come to my res-cue. "Besides Mom, I want to work for the crime branch one day," I said, which only irked her more, as she had already made me an couple of different engineers in her mind.

"Whatever, I don’t like any of this busi-ness," she said and walked off. The police were right in being befud-dled. There really was not much one could get in terms of physical evidence. As I was going through a bunch of crime scene investigation reports, my eyes caught another report. It seemed to have been put in this bundle by mis-take. I say this because there had only been 3 of these murders. Where did this one come from? I soon found out that this was a home-less woman who had been found dead near the platform she had called home. The photos showed a small tent formed out of torn sarees and shawls that she had probably gathered from trash. There was even a small Pooja area that she had created from the cardboard boxes people so carelessly tossed off. The report just called it some freak acci-dent and closed the case without any further investigation. Even forensic re-ports were incomplete. There were some blood samples and hair available on the crime scene. But it had never proceeded anywhere. And then I saw it. At first my eyes just glanced over it, almost missing it. And then something pulled me back to it and this time it was clear. I could not believe my eyes and more so, I could not believe how I had missed it before. I had seen these pictures so many times that every minute detail in them was etched in my mind. I could immediately relate it to the other pictures.

And then I saw it. At first my eyes just glanced over it, almost missing it. And then something pulled me back to it and this time it was clear. I could not believe my eyes and more so, I could not believe how I had missed it before. I had seen these pictures so many times that every minute detail in them was etched in my mind. I could immediately relate it to the other pictures. I immediately went to my parent’s room and woke my dad up and told him what I had found. He was in a state of shock both because of be-ing woken up from sleep and be-cause he seemed to believe that there was something of merit that I had stumbled upon. A flurry of phone calls followed. It was followed by a bunch of plain clothes police-men entering and leaving our place. I was showing my new find to In-spector Raju and some crime scene folks who had also turned up. After a few minutes of intense activ-ity and arguments, calm fell upon our house again. I was too tired to do anything. I just went to my room crashed in to my bed. I woke up the next morning to a lot of noise out-side. I had really gotten used to the neighborhood quiet that the noise, though not very loud, disturbed me from my sleep. I got up and went straight to the newspaper. I saw the headlines in the city section about how the murders that had taunted the neighborhood had finally been solved. I was surprised that an arrest had been made so fast. I moved my

eyes down to the part where they had explained how the murders had been solved. "It was an incredible piece of evi-dence that had gotten buried in an-other murder case. A portion of a cigarette case along with some butts had been found near the mur-der victim. It is already known that cigarette butts had been found near the previous murder victims as well. What proved to be path break-ing was the cigarette case with a metallic encasing and initials printed on them. The police were immediately able to contact the manufacturer and then track the trail leading to the owner of the case." There were even a couple of lines mentioning my name and how I had helped in the investigation. My father was smug with pride and patted me on the back a couple of times, telling everyone who would lend an ear, what an amazing detec-tive I would turn to be. My mom even managed a smile. The last few lines of the article caught my attention: "The government congratulated the police department for ardently pur-suing the murderer and upholding democracy where no two citizens are different." I thought of the old homeless lady whose case file had read "Case closed" and had lack of investigation written all over it. My mom interjected my thought with a question

"Who was that old lady?" "Some platform dweller. A nobody. That is why it was over looked," said the neighbor who was more relaxed now that the threat to the colony was dif-fused. Her tone almost suggested that she believed there was nothing wrong in overlooking that case. She was after all a platform dweller. She was not a nobody, I thought to myself. She had saved a couple more lives by dying. That was no nobody. - Nivethitha Kumar

Beauty, Beast and a murder—Part 2

The mere thought of having Steve back made her comfortable. She had definitely had a very tiring, frustrating and scary night because of the many things going on around her. Emma be-ing murdered, then Steve being locked up and then all these reporters!

She would give anything in the world to just get away from the numerous phone calls and interview requests. Everyone just wanted to know about the relationship between Emma and Steve. How did it matter to her? She did not care about the happiness in their relationship or the lack of it. All that she cared about was being able to spend a few minutes with Steve every-day and not being constantly inter-rupted by his neurotic wife. That was what happened everyday and she, Dawn, had to put up with it. She heard a knock on her door. She had never expected to see his face first thing in the morning.

“They let me go.”

She wanted to ask “Why?”, but she cor-rected herself and said, “Great news! Of course I knew they had to, Steve. I have already called our attorney Roger Ar-nold. He is on his way.”

“That is probably not required, Dawn.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed.

“Emma was poisoned it seems,” said Steve with a tone that had no convic-tion in it.

She wanted to ask a thousand things,

“How was She thought about things for a couple of hours. Then she made it straight to the police station to hand over the syringe. As she had suspected and what the police had suspected, it contained faint traces of digitalin, a poison that goes straight to the heart and yet takes time to cause death. Since the scene in the play was that of her sleeping, it probably made things look more natural. And moreover, the sy-ringe had Steve’s fingerprints on it.

“I did not do it! I swear I did not,” cried out Steve.

“You can explain it to the jury, sir. I have evidence of poisoning and your fingerprints on the instrument that administered it.”that possible? I saw your hands around her neck? She had seemed alive until then.” She thought it was probably better to leave the questions to the lieuten-ant currently taking charge of the case. Steve looked so lost. So distant.

She had to do something. Someone had to do something. She went backstage just to poke around. Maybe she will find something that the police had missed. She heard footsteps. She turned around. Her heart almost skipped a beat.

“Steve!”

“What are you doing here? I thought my efficient secretarial machine would be at the office,” said Steve.

“I couldn’t concentrate. Just somehow felt like coming back,” replied Dawn.

“It looked like you were searching for something there Dawn. Do you need any help?” Steve questioned, with a suspicious glance around.

“Nothing. I just feel a little disoriented from all the events over the past two days. It has all been too stressful.”

“I understand,” He took her hand into his and gave her a reassuring hug.

She put her hand into her pockets. It was still there. Steve had not seen what she had picked up.

That night

Steve had been arrested. Emma was dead. Dawn couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t think she was strong enough to do what she had wanted to do. She had looked up to Steve for al-most all her life. All she expected was love in return. She had hated Emma from day one. She, Dawn was more than decade younger, more beautiful and absolutely crazy about Steve, but somehow he kept putting up with his neurotic wife. The more she tried to get closer, the more he pushed her away from his world.

And one day she found out the truth about him. He was leading a double life; he had never been faithful. Her world seemed to be crumbling all around her. Her hero-worship turned into maddening, obsessive jealousy, not to mention the sheer anger she felt. She had wanted to do something. She had wanted to end it all. She had wanted a life where neither Emma nor Steve existed. And thus she came up with this plan. She had taken Steve's fingerprint on the syringe in the pre-text of a stage prop for another story that was being written. All that she needed to do was administer the poi-son and let someone find the syringe. When the police had missed picking up this crucial piece of evidence, she had to take it upon herself to return it to them. A plan crafted so beautifully, a plan that succeeded beyond her wild-est dreams. But she couldn’t go on…. Maybe she was just not strong enough.

Sometimes Love can go beyond simply being Love.... Dawn slept peacefully never to wake up again…There were no clues at all to this one. - Anuradha Chandrasekaran

So it begins... Words uttered by Theoden King of Rohan from the second edition of Lord of the Rings before the historic battle of Helmsdeep where the horsemen suc-cessfully defend against the invading army of Orks and Urukai (If you don’t know what I am talking abt, shame on you – go watch the movie). The exact kind of emotion is what I felt when I heard the vuvuzela’s blare for the first game of the first world cup hosted by the African continent. This article is going to be a simple breakdown on who I think is going to make it to the round of 16 from each group. I know everyone has their own ideas about the teams over here, but hey, I get to write this and you don’t, so if you don’t agree with me, lets keep it civilized and agree to disagree. ok?

Group A South Africa, Uruguay, Mexico, France In spite of having a star studded roster, France is on the verge of being knocked out before the round of 16, which might mean, no more moments of brilliance from Ribery or Henry at this world cup. South Africa could also set history here by being the first host to bow out of the tournament before the round of 16. At the moment, Uruguay is in pole position, having racked up 4 points from 2 games and a young Mexico side is coming close second. Still all is left to play, as the top two sides meet each other in the last game and France can still catch up and upstage one of the 2 teams at the top.

Group B Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece Argentina under Diego Maradona’s steward-ship might not win all their games, but they are going to be entertainers for sure. South Ko-rea is playing good football so far and unless Greece rediscovers the form that won them the Euro 2004 championship, I don’t see them getting out of this group. I am making my bets on the Argies to progress in a canter and South Korea to grab the second spot.

Group C England, USA, Slovenia, Algeria

At this moment, Slovenia are surpris-ingly in pole position in this group, having racked up a close win over Al-geria and a draw with the USA re-flecting the insanity that is Interna-tional football. England stands a bet-ter chance to qualify from this group than the US and Algeria needs to come up with a near footballing miracle to qualify from this group. In-teresting times await this group.

Group D Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana After seeing the national man-schaaft destroy Australia in their opening game (you read that right, that is actually what they call their team for real), I am putting my money on Germany to go all the way to the Semis. I am also betting money on Ghana to pip Serbia for the second spot and Australia to lose all their games.

Group E Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon

Another group that looks seemingly nor-mal on paper, but too close to call. Nether-lands is a better team than the rest of the group but not by much. Bets must be on Netherlands to top the group and Japan to edge out the Danes and the Lions for the qualifying spot.

Group F Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia Current world cup holders Italy are clear favorites to top this group, though they are famous in recent history to sleep through most of the group stages and perform only when it really matters. Slovakia are the surprise package of the group with a re-sourceful set of players and Paraguay bringing some much needed flair to a group that otherwise seems to comprise the who’s who of the catenaccio style of soccer.

Group G Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea The Group of Death, as it is famously called, promises much to the neutral foot-ball fan. I personally cannot wait for Brazil vs Portugal which would be the highlight of this group. From the first round of games, Ivory Coast and North Korea seem to be ready to provide a real challenge to the other two. I am so impressed with the Ivory Coast, that I am actually expecting them to upstage Portugal and qualify for the round of 16. At least then we won’t have to put up with serial crybaby Cris-tiano Ronaldo and his histrionics. Go Ele-phants!!

Group H Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Honduras European Champions Spain were the first shock casualties at this world cup, but they are still a team so talented that they should still be able to win the group. It is going to be a fight between Chile and Switzerland for the second spot and its going to come down to whether the Swiss can park the bus in front of the goal against Chile just like they did against the Spanish. Spain to qualify and I am not saying anymore.

So that should be it for the world cup group stage, let me know if you think I should go kiss my behind from leaving out your team from qualifying for the next round, but hey so can you – I call it as I see it. More importantly, have fun watching the world cup and I hope the players are so motivated as to make this world cup the best we have ever seen. Ta ta, bye bye, see you and let’s hear it for Africa!! - Karthik Balasubramaniam

Mystery Photography Section

Dharini Sundaram

Dharini Sundaram

Dharini Sundaram

Creative writing workshopHere we are once again presenting to you the top 2 essays by students from “Jawahar Vidyalaya Higher Secondary School”. This School is also my Alma mat-ter as well as Nivi’s. On behalf of our Magazine, I had conducted a creative writ-ing workshop in this School during my trip to Chennai. The children were really excited to write on the topic given to them which was

If you could be one of these characters, which one would you be and why1. Harry potter2. Neo from Matrix3. Batman4. Rancho from 3 Idiots

We promised to publish the top 3 essays in the forthcoming issues of our mag-azine. We had published the essay that took the third place in our April 2010 Edition and now we present to you the top 2 prize winning essays. - Anuradha Chandrasekaran

1st Prize: Sravanthi - IX -DWho is Harry Potter? How are you related to him? Do you know his as a friend?

Do you think someone will ask us these questions? Harry Potter is the name of a character in the book/movie Harry Potter. It is a hit movie. Everyone knows about him. He lives in a magical world. He has two best friends, Ron

and Hermione.

If I were Harry Potter, just imagine. Wow! It would be wonderful. I would have a wand to do magic. I would be famous. I would have magical powers. I could play Quidditch in which I could fly on a broom stick. I would find different kind of creatures and fly on them if they had wings. It would also be great to have Dumbledore as our principal/ I would write letters to my friends and need not post them because there would be Owls to deliver them to their homes. I can also travel from one place to another using magic. I can speak in parseltonge. I can bite off more than one can chew.

If I were him, I would use magic for many things. I would m a k e my brain larger and store more useful things. I could pack my school bag and clean my shoes at the drop of a hat. I would also finish my homework in a few minutes. The best of it all, I could run faster than my usual speed. I would use Felix feli-cis which would make lucky the whole day. I would use magic on someone who meddles with me.

I would play pranks at people’s houses and then use the invisibility cloak to prevent from getting caught.

I know using magic for our own purpose is an illegal practice. Magic is used to do good things to the society or the nation. So I would use magic to heal the injuries of people (society). I would kill Voldemort, the most dangerous person. It brings danger to even mention his name would kill all his horcruxes (When someone divides his/her life in to six parts, and keep those parts in different places, they can be killed only if each of those parts are found and killed)Though, we cannot use magic for our good, I would love to do so. It is a dicey situation. I know it is not possible to become Harry Potter but I would still want to be adventurous and magical like him.

2nd Prize: Ajay Srikanth - IX- D

Batman is different in the sea of superheroes. He is unique as he doesn’t have actual super powers. No web slinging, no vapor beams from his

eyes, and no super strength. But He is a super hero. Solely through intel-ligence and gizmos, he is a crime fighter. The dark Knight, as he is called, is extremely stealthy. His enemies don’t even know he is there until they get hit. He keeps Gotham city safe. Especially from the Joker. Grin-ning maniacally, the Joker is on a league of his own. If there was a hall of fame for super villains, Joker would definitely top it.If I were Batman, I would go across the town making no noise and taking care of evil doers, Beating Shumaker using Bat Mobile and swooping across the sky on the Bat Plane. Batman has been a fantasy of mine for a long time. The Dark Knight is a super cool super hero. Looking at the Bat signal in the dark, plain sky gives me an inexplicable thrill. His colors, black and grey correspond perfectly with his crime fight-ing techniques.Being a super hero would be awesome. There are simply

no words to de-scribe the feeling.Long Live Batman!

2

2. “Let me go, Mother…”

He somehow knew after this incident that, whatever position he might be in, she would be with him. Help him. Love him, unconditionally. His mother… Ganga…

His father got him enrolled in the school. He liked going to the school. He liked having kids of his own age around him and talking to them. Not to mention that he was gifted. He could remember anything on just hearing it once. But somehow, he could not al-ways concentrate. He could not help it. But whenever he looked outside the window, he was lost in thoughts. Sometimes he was so lost that-

“Shravan.. SHRAVAN..!” “Ouch!”

It hurt that day. That tiny piece of chalk thrown at him with such anger, it hurt. “Where is all your attention? Do you think this is a joke? The whole of Kashi’s kids sitting here and listening to me and my OWN son- let alone lis-tening, doesn’t even care looking at me as I speak…”

His father was indeed very upset that day. He would not talk to his son, that entire day. And if Shravan would try talking to him, he would go away from that place. Shravan felt that he was a lone human in the entire world. There was no one else with whom he could

talk to. And he had nowhere to go. He rushed out of the house and ran as fast as he could. He ran to his mother. Ganga would always be there. Flow-ing with such force- such raw energy! Watching her hurry towards the sea- it could make one forget all the negativ-ities in them. Shravan sat himself on his mother’s lap, both his feet touch-ing her surface. He wept. It was a sad day for him. The Ganges, patted him. She consoled him…

That day, his mother helped him re-alize something. Shravan was more like his mother. He found her in him, her free spirit. Shravan saw the Ghats around. Then he felt his mother’s soft touch upon his feet. He felt her say- “Do you think I flow within these man-made boundaries? These stones, these bricks? Do you think they hold me back? No. I am all around. Look around, son. Look beyond the stones. See those sinners washing their sins? They think all their sins turn into puffs of smoke when they wash themselves in me. Fools. I flow on them, over them. But I never am inside them. These walls, the Ghats- they are physi-cal. Ganga flows into lives, into minds. That is my strength, strength that these mortals can never bear in them, a strength known only to a few. I can only be trapped in minds. Like I am bound in you, by your love…”

Every day, Shravan would spend all his time thinking about what lay be-

the other son of ganges matangi mawley

yond his world? Sometimes, he would watch the television at his neighbor’s place. All those strange places and strange people would capture his imagination. They were so different from his world here. He wanted to go away. See those people. Meet them.

One day, he told his father about his desire. His father listened to him, pa-tiently. He then said, “Shravan, you belong here, in Kashi. Those strange places are not for us. Those places would never like people like us, visit-ing them. Those places would never be good to us. Your life is here, son. Kashi knows you. The soil knows your scent. The air around has seen you grow up. The walls around have seen you lose your first teeth. Your mother, Ganga, flows here. Not anywhere, but here. I am here… You understand”? He understood. He understood that his mother was in him. Ganga’s spirit in him, urged him to know himself. Identify his soul with hers. He under-stood that, he needed to leave…

And he left. He remembered the night he left, very well. His father was asleep.

He had managed to tie up some of his things in a bundle. He touched his father’s feet while he was asleep. He left the house and went to bid fare-well to his mother. He took her in his hands and placed her on his forehead. Somewhere inside his head, he had a feeling that this had happened be-fore, this initiation. He was just about to leave- when his mother took his bundle from him. He tried to take it from her. But she would not give it back. It was as though she was plead-ing him not to go. Perhaps there was something out there that would harm him. It was as though she held him by hand and did not allow him to leave. He made her understand that he was ready for it. He was ready to see the world beyond here. He was like her, he made her understand. Just like her, Ganga. He convinced her to let him go. He also promised her, that he would come back to her one day,Some day. He felt her hand pat his feet, gently. His mother let him go…

(..To be continued. Part 3: “In a new world…”)

Mysteries have always been made for fascinating viewing. Alfred Hitchcok, the most influential of them all made a whole career out of them. But with a theme that is often repeated, it's easy to go haywire and spoil the larger canvas. We see that hap-pening to almost every mystery/thriller flick coming out of India. A murder mystery needs stellar writing and tremendous hold on the proceedings as part of the director to see it through and quite literally, thrill the audience.

That is the r eas on why tr adi-tional whodunnits always score. There are murders and psychopathic first acts followed by the crime scene events, investigation, bu-reaucracy (in a more thought out story) and ultimately the resolution - the killer convicted. Here you have some set pieces to have the au-dience constantly interested which when over-done can lead to a migraine. The only take-away would be the denouement. But what if it's a true story - a spine chilling one at that - that the world has seen and followed over dec-ades of investigation? More importantly, dec-ades of investigation that haven't ended. A story where you don't have the high point of the ultimate denouement. How do you hold the audience interest there? Well, for starters, by stellar film making.

Zodiac(2007), directed by David Fincher, based on Robert Graysmith's bestseller, is one such example of excellent film making. Zodiac is about the hunt for the eponymous serial killer who committed gruesome murders in and around the Bay area in California between the late 1960s and early 1970s. The murders spanned a large area in the state of California with police departments of several counties involved in simultaneous investigation. The Zodiac serial killer was known for his audacity with the investigative authorities and newspa-per reporters, constantly sending letters and

cryptic texts to them. The case is known to have been closed and reopened repeatedly over the years and to this date remains an un-solved crime in California.

The beauty of the film is in the way it is struc-tured, constantly maintaining a murky under-tone much like the ordeal the police officials and newspaper reporters go through with the case. The whodunnit recipe is rendered useless here as the audience already know that there is going to be no closure. There is no rug under-neath to pull in a story like this one. The props are all within the investigation and how the whole things ties together. It's not about who the serial killer is but about how the investiga-tors piece the things together while holding their senses in a case as baffling as Zodiac's. And some of the characters don't succeed in it either. There are characters that lose their calm and there are characters whose convictions are tested.

The film starts out slow showing us the second killing in detail. This is the point where the in-vestigators begin to take Zodiac seriously as he repeats his gruesome attacks. Paul Avery(Robert Downey Jr.), a San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter receives letters and ciphers from the Zodiac. Robert Graysmith (Jack Gylenhall) is a cartoonist in the same newspaper who shows interest in the ciphers and ends up solv-ing it and guessing the Zodiac's actions when they start to take him seriously. As the clues start unraveling and a determined set of inves-tigators David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) try to nail Zo-diac, we are sucked in by the sheer realism of it all. A perceived multidimensional feeling de-velops as we imagine ourselves being in-volved in the investigation. There are moments of triumph when clues are unearthed and sus-pects are discovered.

Unraveling A Riddle

Aditya Shrikrishna

As the investigators hit a roadblock and Paul Avery becomes paranoid eventually turning to alcohol, the film seemingly loses pace. The ef-fect is only seemingly because the film moves as gradually as ever but the case does not. The clues lead to no comprehensive answer, the suspects remain suspects by nothing more than circumstantial evidence and we feel the frustration of David Toschi, Paul Avery and Robert Graysmith. Toschi, wonderfully por-trayed by a restrained Mark Ruffalo, is falsely implicated of forging a Zodiac letter and re-moved from the case. All the characters move on except for Robert Graysmith. Graysmith gets access to police departments of other counties where the murders have taken place and he tries to put together all the information from them for his book on Zodiac. He also talks to the suspects, friends of victims etc. and is further motivated by phone calls, allegedly from Zodiac himself, where he hears nothing but heavy breathing. This is the point where nothing makes sense to us because nothing makes sense to Robert Graysmith. As he obsesses with the case, he loses his family but is endearingly ordered by his wife to finish the book. Graysmith has no hopes of a convic-tion for the Zodiac killer. All he says is he wants is to know who Zodiac is and look into his eyes.

If Paul Avery is unable to handle the pressure and paranoia as Zodiac's go-to reporter, David Toschi as the San Francisco detective grows tired of the case and wants out by any means. Graysmith, left all alone in the end, has little to lose and goes on with the case. The way the film is written, as a journey for the au-dience over decades, through the minds of several people is what makes the film interest-ing and an unmatched masterpiece. When Graysmith meets up with Toschi one last time and succeeds in convincing the detective of his investigations, Toschi says just two words. The same two words linger in our minds after the movie - "Jesus Christ."

Contributions

Short Stories Nivethitha Kumar Anuradha Chandrasekaran Matangi Mawley Arul Sirpy Science writing Dhivya Arasappan Sports Karthik Balasubramaniam Columns Aruni Bhattacharya Adithya Srikrishna Photography Dharini Sundaram

Magazine Design Anuradha Chandrasekaran Dhivya Arasappan Karthik Editors Anuradha Chandrasekaran Dhivya Arasappan Nivethitha Kumar Coverpage Design Anuradha Chandrasekaran Website Design Nivethitha Kumar

Photo credits Nobody’s Murder http://www.flickr.com/photos/ace_0f_magic/3313363232/ - http://www.flickr.com/photos/38469004@N00/4340454826/ So it begins http://www.ctpost.com/WorldCup/slideshow/World-Cup-United-States-vs-Slovenia-860.php http://www.fifa.com/ http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/opening_weekend_-_2010_world_c.html The other son of Ganges—http://www.flickr.com/photos/cubagallery/4352219743/ Contributions page -http://www.flickr.com/photos/feverblue/1007881390/sizes/l/ Two peas in a pod - http://www.flickr.com/photos/elward-photography/2854988828/

Who dunnit? The science of solving a mystery - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hauntedpalace/226176976/

The Reel Thrill - Seven movie poster http://www.zoopy.com/photo/aj/se7en-movie-poster

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