The Four Boys Club

Episode 10 (Series Finale): Storyteller - 2

At the turn of the last episode, Storyteller part 1, you got a glimpse into how and why the four boys came into being. Maybe the reason isn’t as dramatic as you would have hoped, but things hardly ever are. You are never warned with a dramatic musical prelude before you meet a life altering event. Seriously, when was the last time you consciously knew an event you were living was actually going to be life altering? The thing is, events like these come up, rattle the little cage that is your life...

Episode 9: Storyteller - 1

You’ve probably heard a lot about the shifting nature of reality, but nothing has summed up the entire phenomenon as well as Bill Cipher when he said “Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram.” And before that, was the masterpiece The Truman Show; where Jim Carrey, as ordinary as his profession (that of an insurance salesman), realises eventually how his entire life has been a TV show. But can you ever tell? Have you never, in those quiet hours of the night when the world is silent, as...

Episode 8: Grief/Guilt

Grief is perhaps the one topic many a book has been written on. There are endless research papers, endless shows, endless whatever medium of entertainment or information you consume that cover grief as a subject. I suppose, after love (and maybe death, though I’m not entirely certain about that one), grief is what has captivated people’s interest the most. You know about those five stages of grief? Purely academic, I’m sure. Because when you actually find yourself in the deep recess of that unim...

Episode 7: In His Bubble

Fantasising about the past… Now, who hasn’t indulged in a little bit of that. You know that utterly cliched, overused line about how the past is history and the future is a mystery and all that? The message that that line is trying to convey is that dwelling on the past is futile and even downright stupid. But when did we ever evolve into a species that had managed to escape stupidity? If fantasising about the past is the anthem of stupidity, well, we are all singing it at the top of our lungs. ...

Episode 6: Recurrence

“Ideas are bulletproof,” goes a line in Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. I don’t disagree, and, yet – as you’ll notice in the case of Midhali in this episode – your thoughts and ideas being bulletproof is actually like a double edged sword. You can kill the mind that holds that thought, but the thought in itself… it transcends the very box it’s kept in. It can inspire, it can uplift, it can lead to a change. But that’s all on a sociopolitical level, isn’t it? On a personal level, that incessant, tha...

Episode 5: Colourful (Part 1 Finale)

You’ve got to feel a sense of power in knowing things. After all, don’t they say that knowledge is power? In seeing through the fog of lies. In resisting being coaxed into the colourful story they are painting for you. In… well, in knowing the truth. Because… Shanky knew things. He knew the truth about many things that happened in Bandem’s life; and not just the ones you’re expecting. Bandem had his moments of embarrassment; you know, things you’re ashamed of, things you wish you could go back i...

Episode 4: A Tragedy

Many a story have been written about what the “greatest tragedy” is; each with their own interpretations. And, rightly so, there is no correct, or one, answer. And yet, I think we can say all these interpretations circle around one idea: the end of a life. Now, whether you think of it as death, or whether something more arbitrary, is up to you. The beauty of art, someone said, is that it can’t be defined. Or at least defined exclusively. To this, Anpag and Bandem both had faced their own shares ...

Episode 3: Hostage

There’s a line June Gable said (who played the undeniably funny Estelle Leonard in Friends), which, truth be told, goes down really well in many a situation. “Things change. Roll with them.” Of course, she didn’t exactly say it in the same context as in this episode of The Four Boys Club, but it can be perfectly applied here. Because, well, things do change, don’t they? And with things, so do people. Can we say we are exactly the same of who we were as kids? That the tide of time has not changed...

Episode 2: The Revisit

Baz Lurhmann made a reference to friendship in his Sunscreen speech. “Friends come and go, but a precious few you should hold on,” he said. Notwithstanding the context he said it in, but friends do come and go. The tide comes and washes the land away, changing the landscape of how it all once looked. From being friends long ago, Mompy and Bandem are now… well, people who wouldn’t much care for one another. Not to say that should either of them be drowning the other wouldn’t do whatever they coul...

Episode 1: The Muse

Every artist needs a muse – how many times have we heard this phrase? An inspiration so to speak, something which drives them. Vince Aletti likened a muse to a mirror; a reflection of their desires, anxieties, dreams and needs. Ross Baldwin said how, without a muse, an artist is simply a madman. Now all that’s fine and dandy, but no one has really touched upon something far more empirical. An inspiration doesn’t necessarily mean the high skies of glory, right? It can also be a path down the worm...

Recap Episode (Season 1)

A lot happened in the first season of The Four Boys Club. We were introduced to the four boys themselves – Shanky Vai, Mompy Arda, Bandem Asra, and Anpag Benza – and got a peek into their lives. There were moments that were dramatic (after all, each story needs drama) and – perhaps I’m being a little ambitious – it makes for a good storyline. So, before the second lot of stories is released soon, here’s an account of all that happened in Season 1.

Special Episode: Offshoots (Part 2)

The things is, you can’t keep yourself away from that well. You can fool yourself into believing it’s not there; convince yourself that the very idea of it is not just ridiculous but inconceivable. But, deep down, you know it is there. You know looking into it is a mistake, because the face reflecting on that seemingly serene surface of water isn’t yours. It terrifies you at first, but you remind yourself there wasn’t anything else that you expected. And this reflection will tantalise you. Like ...

Special Episode: Offshoots (Part 1)

There’s a dark well. A well you go to, to draw water from when you’re angry. You know the water is toxic, poisonous even, but you still do. Because you can’t help it. Sometimes the anger is too substantial, too overpowering, that things like reasoning lose all significance. You stand just outside it, peer down… and you’re scared. Scared of the water. What if it burns you, leaves you suffering and afflicted? What if it leaves you scarred, not physically but emotionally? And, in doing so, marks yo...

Episode 13: Anpag's Reflection (Finale)

We can agree that, for the longest time (or at least since we started chronicling The Four Boys Club), Anpag has been someone we’ve known about the least. All we know about him is that he is a reluctant member of the club, doesn’t particularly like his friends, and therefore, was the likeliest to leave the group before anyone else. As true as those things were, he impressed upon us a sense of arrogance; which made him, him. But Anpag, in this episode, is beginning to experience what we’ll call a...

Episode 12: Midhali's Involvement

You remember the girl from the previous episode, There… and Then Gone? Yes, the one we can call Bandem’s sweetheart? Her name as a matter of fact is Midhali, something which wasn’t revealed last time, and we are going to learn more about her, and her involvement, right now. As we found out towards the end of the last episode, all that had transpired was a fantasy; Bandem’s fantasy. But the reality, as we are about to discover, is far different. Because, much to Bandem’s displeasure, Midhali has ...

Episode 11: There... and Then Gone

Do you remember creating fantasies in your head as an adolescent – the age where the world is literally your oyster and possibilities are endless? Where the prospects of something being improbable, if not impossible, doesn’t stop you from wishing it true? We’ve all been there, immersed in our own version of reality; and no matter how unlikely the outcome, we are ambitious enough to… well, you know. Bandem had created one such fantasy. A fantasy that perhaps all of us are well-familiar with. And ...

Episode 10: The Other Shanky

We’ve heard that story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Two selves in one, and all. I suppose Patricia Highsmith described it brilliantly in Strangers on a Train (which if you remember was also adapted into a Hitchcock movie): “There's also a person exactly the opposite of you, like the unseen part of you, somewhere in the world.” This episode in a way deals with that phenomenon. In more ways than one, Shanky was a case of split personality. Not in the more medical sense; and definitely not something...

Episode 9: Ripple Effect

Today, we go back to the first episode of our podcast. Remember that – “The Distraction”? Bandem found myself in a bit of a pickle, having nudged (without intending to, as we had learned) a man in front of a car. We didn’t pursue that story then, for we had more facets of The Four Boys Club to explore. But now, we go back to that horrid incident; as much Bandem may call it an “accident,” and we want to believe him predominantly because we have no reason not to, the forgettable incident did bring...

Episode 8: Like Father, Unlike Son

We’ve all had role models as kids, right? A celebrity rockstar, a sportsperson who shattered records, a prominent pioneer. What is it with the lives of these personalities that makes them so… alluring? Do we see ourselves leading their lives? Do we see ourselves… as them? For some, role models need not be anyone popular. They can be as ordinary as common people. People we can relate to, whose thoughts and ideas and beliefs and ways of thinking encourage us to rise above ourselves, whose individu...

Episode 7: The Trouble with Shanky

Think back on that one incident, perhaps from years ago, that has never really left your mind. Even though the participants from that incident have clearly moved on, even forgotten about it, to this date it still clings to your mind; maybe even boils your blood. Something akin to that has happened to many of us, hasn’t it? The memory of that one incident which has for the longest time invaded our thoughts, refusing to let go. And the fact that it happened years, maybe even decades, ago doesn’t o...

Episode 6: Blast from the Past

Last time, we went a little deeper inside the treehouse; and saw what really happened from close quarters. But as undeniably important it was to be witness from the inside, the world obviously hadn’t stopped moving on the outside. The incident in the treehouse was as significant as it was serious, and I don’t think we can deny that. After all, you can’t just bring a body back home and dismiss it casually. It was a secret; one I can tell you with some level of confidence the two boys – Bandem and...

Episode 5: The Dead Don't Talk

We heard about Mompy and Bandem secretly smoking in Mompy’s treehouse in the first episode, did we not? Much about it could not be said back then – for we did have more pressing issues to discuss – but that scene warrants being looked into more deeply. It certainly wasn’t just a case of two teenage boys sneaking out for a smoke. Mompy’s dad knew his son smoked, after all. But as we – the audience – find ourselves in the treehouse currently occupied by not two but three people, we learn what the ...

Episode 4: From the Outside

In every group, there is a member looking inwards from the outside. One who is reluctant to be included in the band, but for a reason finds themselves being part of one. Even though no one has given him a tangible reason to feel so, Anpag believes he is like an outsider. That he is “different” than the other three boys. One who is looking at Shanky, Mompy and Bandem from the outside. And what he sees apparently bores him. Maybe there is a bit of arrogance, an air of self-believing superiority, i...

Episode 3: The Saint's Past

Have you heard that saying about the saint and the sinner? How every saint has a past and every sinner a future? I think it’s one of the best representations of how things are never – nor should they ever be seen – in black or white. Everyone called Mompy’s father The Cool Dad. And why should they not? He was cool, after all. And, you know what? The boys even felt envious of Mompy. But The Cool Dad… well, let’s just say he had a past. Whether that past is what birthed the coolness in The Cool Da...

Episode 2: The Day The Chill Dad Died

Friends fight, right? Don’t they say the more intense the fight, the closer the friendship? The more heat, the brighter the flame and all that? Okay, I’ll be honest. I don’t know anyone who said that. But I did know of two people once upon a time – whose real identities will of course remain concealed – who once proclaimed to me they were proud to never have fought in the ten years of their friendship. I knew they were lying; but I also felt envious. Deeply envious. Bandem, who you may remember ...

Episode 1: The Distraction

Today, we’ll have a look into the fascinating world of Baalan “Bandem” Asra. Maybe calling it fascinating is an overstatement, but every good literature relies on exaggeration. Or at least that’s what my English teacher at school used to say. Something seems to be the matter with Bandem. He is distracted today. Whether his irritation, the cause for this distraction, is justified or not is up for question. But, in this distracted state of being… Let’s just say something happens, something he can’...

Trailer: The Four Boys Club