Review : The Crown

 The Crown 

--Netflix

I remember vividly, when I was in school we had to write an inspiring or often mundane quote on the black board , every day!

Often we struggled to find a good one to go on the top. There was no internet ,no smart phones, computers or abundance of information channels, from where we could pull it off and display it as "extensive research". Mostly it would be trips to the library and digs into Shakespeare, Dickens , Shelley , Keats or Byron , for crying out loud!

It's another story that most of the times those trips turned out about stealing centrefolds of Maradona, Baggio , Steffi or Edberg, from"SportStar" magazine.

I remember once writing "A faint heart never won a fair lady" (which now I realise was so wrong on so many levels) and getting mixed responses from various teachers when they had their period. Most of it was "There's still time for that" . One teacher went ahead and erased that but not before giving me an earful , probably out of his "respect for Indian culture and it's values"!

Then once I wrote "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!" from Shakespeare's play, King Henry IV since I was smitten by the bard at that time. Little did i realise it's significance of substance then.

Suddenly after so many years , just like it hit Ego after his Ratatouille experiment, it did for me when I started watching "The Crown" on Netflix. The Crown is ruthless in demeanor and seldom cares about it's patrons. It's more of forged divinity than being human.

The Crown is afraid to make enemies or friends and it never takes sides.

One poem which Thatcher recites during one of her meetings with the Queen exposes it all.

I loved it! Maybe you do to!

No enemies ,

by Charles McKay

YOU have no enemies, you say?

Alas! my friend, the boast is poor;

He who has mingled in the fray

Of duty, that the brave endure,

Must have made foes! If you have none,

Small is the work that you have done.

You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,

You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,

You’ve never turned the wrong to right,

You’ve been a coward in the fight.