Indian household debt is rising

India’s household debt has risen 80% in 2017-18. It could bite if incomes don’t grow

Illustration by Arindam Mukherjee | ThePrint

We have heard these last few years about the twin-debt problem faced by companies and banks. We’ve read reports like Credit Suisse’s ‘House of Debt’, on companies that don’t have the earnings to pay interest on debt, let alone the principal. And of course we have read more than we would wish to about how banks have been writing off record sums of bad loans. So far, though, no one seems to have looked at the extent of money that is being borrowed by individuals, and the rising levels of household debt. Time to look at it when the consumption engine that has kept the economy going through a multi-year investment slowdown has stopped firing as before.

Individual or household financial stress is usually the result of lost jobs or livelihoods, and there is some of that. Look at depressed farm incomes, the fate of Jet Airways, or the effects of demonetisation. But there seems to be a deeper problem building up, one that is not linked to economic downswings or disruptions. Personal debt has been climbing and we must ask whether the burden of repayment is eating into disposable incomes — especially if loans taken for housing have to be repaid even when the housing project is stuck. Take a look at the numbers.

Between 2013-14 and 2017-18, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) ‘Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy’, personal loans given by banks went up in by 89 per cent to Rs 19.1 lakh crore. This, when private consumption increased by only 53 per cent, and overall non-food credit went up by an even more sedate 39 per cent. There was an increase of 82 per cent in borrowing for housing, 54 per cent for consumer durables, and 78 per cent for vehicles. The most striking was a 154 per cent increase in “other personal loans”, even as credit card outstanding went up by an even bigger 176 per cent. The only modest increase was for education loans (up about 16 per cent).

These numbers on borrowings are compelling when placed against the figures for household savings, which, in the three years to 2016-17, went up by just 18 per cent, while physical household savings actually declined, though fractionally. The household figure for savings includes unincorporated enterprises, so the numbers are not strictly comparable. 

Nevertheless, the growing tendency to borrow more to consume is clear: The ratio between borrowings and overall consumption (including of the daily necessities) moved up in four years from 15.6 per cent to 19.3 per cent.

That’s just bank credit. There is then the money that people borrow from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), usually for housing and cars but also for consumer durables and spending occasions like weddings. RBI numbers suggest that banks account for only about two-thirds of household financing, and the overall financial liabilities of households went up by Rs 6.7 lakh crore in 2017-18. This was an astonishing 80 per cent step up from the increase in (not total) liabilities of a year earlier.

India’s household debt in relation to its GDP is low — barely 11 per cent — compared to the other BRICS countries: 17 per cent in Russia, 26 per cent in Brazil and 48 per cent in China. But loans have to be repaid out of disposable income. This will be lower in India, where most people still live hand-to-mouth, than in the rest of BRICS, which has per capita income about five times India’s. For that reason, straight comparisons with such countries on the levels of personal debt can be misleading. That apart, at their present rates of growth, personal loans in India could well become the largest category of bank credit in just two or three years, replacing large industry and services which lead the tables now. Bank credit to all of industry, for instance, grew just 7.3 per cent in the four years to 2017-18. The financing of households is fine if incomes keep growing. If not, high debt levels could begin to bite, and we will have a double whammy.

Uber drivers are not employees

Uber Drivers Are Contractors, Not Employees, Labor Board Says
For The New York Times
By Noam Scheiber
May 14, 2019
The National Labor Relations Board, handing an important victory to Uber, has concluded that the company’s drivers are contractors, not employees.

The move, outlined by the board’s general counsel in a memorandum released Tuesday, deals a blow to drivers’ efforts to band together to demand higher pay and better working conditions from Uber and its main rival in the ride-hailing business, Lyft. It is the first major policy move the board has made concerning the so-called gig economy under President Trump.

Contractors lack the protection given to employees under federal law — and enforced by the labor board — for unionizing and other collective activity, such as protesting the policies of employers. As a practical matter, the conclusion makes it extremely difficult for Uber drivers to form a union.

The board’s general counsel, Peter B. Robb, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, does not have purview over other laws applying to employees, such as minimum wage and overtime protections.

Still, had Mr. Robb’s office found that drivers were employees rather than contractors, the decision could have put pressure on the regulators who enforce such laws to reach the same conclusion.

The labor costs of companies like Uber and Lyft would probably rise 20 to 30 percent, according to industry estimates, if regulators or courts forced them to treat drivers as employees. Both businesses have seen their stock prices fall after recent public offerings amid questions about their financial prospects.

The companies appear to be walking a delicate line: Investors and analysts have suggested that the businesses might have to slash their labor costs to become profitable. Drivers frequently complain that pay is already unacceptably low.

Uber lost nearly $2 billion last year, and Lyft lost nearly $1 billion.

“We are focused on improving the quality and security of independent work, while preserving the flexibility drivers and couriers tell us they value,” Uber said in a statement on Tuesday.

The memo follows an opinion last month by the Labor Department arguing that workers at an unnamed company with a business model like Uber’s were contractors, not employees.

In both cases, the conclusions reversed the approach adopted by the Obama administration, which had suggested that people who found work through apps were likely to be considered employees. In 2016, the labor board issued a complaint against Postmates, an app-based delivery service, over allegations that the company had interfered with workers’ ability to exercise their labor rights.

The agency could not have issued that complaint without first concluding that Postmates couriers were employees.

The memo released on Tuesday, which was dated April 16, has no long-term value as a precedent and can be reversed by a future general counsel. But it carries considerable weight in how the board enforces federal labor law.

The general counsel is the labor board’s chief prosecutor and has authority over whether or not to issue formal complaints against employers, which are analogous to indictments in criminal law. The memo essentially tells Uber drivers and many other gig-economy workers that they should not bother reporting a labor rights abuse to the board because Mr. Robb has deemed them to be outside its jurisdiction.

Mr. Robb has had a long career in labor law largely spent representing employers. He was involved in the Reagan administration’s legal fight with the air traffic controllers’ union, which went on strike illegally in 1981. Labor experts have said the government’s decision to fire the controllers contributed to organized labor’s decline.

The immediate consequence of the memo is to render moot three formal accusations, filed in different parts of the country, that Uber had violated federal labor law. The memo instructs the board’s regional offices to dismiss the charges if the people who made them do not withdraw them first.

In its analysis, the general counsel’s office listed 10 factors that collectively determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor, including the extent to which the company can control how the work is performed and whether the company or the worker provides equipment.

But, citing a federal appeals court decision, the memo also said the “animating principle” used to make the determination of contractor status was whether the worker had an opportunity to profit from the activity in the way an entrepreneur would.

“The drivers had significant entrepreneurial opportunity by virtue of their near complete control of their cars and work schedules, together with freedom to choose login locations and to work for competitors of Uber,” the memo stated.

Marshall Babson, a former labor board member appointed by President Ronald Reagan who is now a labor lawyer representing management, said the general counsel’s conclusion had largely been dictated by the limitations of federal law.

While the conclusion may not be satisfying to those who believe the National Labor Relations Act, enacted in 1935, does not reflect the realities of today’s workplace, Mr. Babson said the board did not have the authority to expand the boundaries of the act on its own.

“Congress has to do it, not the N.L.R.B.,” Mr. Babson said.

But Wilma Liebman, a board chairwoman under President Barack Obama, said the memo elevated the importance of factors that indicate a contractor relationship, like whether both the company and worker believe the person is a contractor, and underplayed factors that suggest employment, like the fact that drivers perform a function that is central to Uber’s business.

Ms. Liebman added that the memo took an extremely permissive view of entrepreneurship, given that drivers cannot set prices or market their personal services to potential customers. The driver’s entrepreneurial opportunities are almost “completely circumscribed by the company’s control of the price,” she said.

Some labor groups insisted that drivers would not be deterred from mobilizing for better treatment, even without the protections of federal labor law.

“Drivers across the globe are organizing and demanding rights,” Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said in response to the memo. “The road may be long and difficult, but one way or another Uber will have to answer to its workers.”

Dark matter season 1

This is the series which I hopped onto when I had the inkling for a sci fi series. There is a scarcity of good science fiction nowadays . Nope the superhero series don't count

Looks like I missed it when it aired in 2015 and the only familiar face is Roger cross from continuum.

My opinion

After finishing the thirteen episodes of the first season I can safely conclude that this is a solid  series

There was never a dull moment in the entire 13 episodes kudos to the writers who made it as engaging as possible. The fact that the primary characters still call themselves by a number which they gave themselves when they woke up with their memories erased at the start was interesting. They continued to follow the same even after they learn of their real identities. It gets the question whether sometime in the future humans will have a service to erase their memories to escape a traumatic past or guilt. This would be the real pursuit of happiness. Imagine every day is a new day  wouldn't that be exciting


One has a past of Fortune and tragedy which he is trying to piece together

Two is a criminal with a bio mod which her almost invulnerable to anything

Three is a journeyman criminal who seems to be the only one who behaves the same way before losing his memory I.e he doesn't have any emotional baggage

Four is royalty and is the first one to learn his past and act on it

Five is the free loader to the criminal spaceship

Six is the man with morals which is contrary to his criminal past

Despite it's very thin budget , the special effect in this series is a joke ,the selling point is the manner in which they maintain intrigue in every episode by adding layers to each character

Somehow they make the audience invest in their stories and would like to unfold the story along with them

The acting is good and there was no moment where I had to facepalm which is impressive for a cast which I haven't seen anywhere else

Wonderbread by Alfred corn

Wonderbread
BY ALFRED CORN
Loaf after loaf, in several sizes,
and never does it not look fresh,
as though its insides weren’t moist
or warm crust not the kind that spices
a room with the plump aroma of toast.

Found on the table; among shadows
next to the kitchen phone; dispatched
FedEx (without return address, though).
Someone, possibly more than one
person, loves me. Well then, who?

Amazing that bread should be so weightless,
down-light when handled, as a me
dying to taste it takes a slice.
Which lasts just long enough to reach
my mouth, but then, at the first bite,

Nothing! Nothing but air, thin air .... 
Oh. One more loaf of wonderbread,
only a pun for bread, seductive
visually, but you could starve.
Get rid of it, throw it in the river—

Beyond which, grain fields. Future food for the just
and the unjust, those who love, and do not love.

Nicholas brothers

Parkour twins

Chelsey minnis - clown

Clown

BY CHELSEY MINNIS

It seems like I'm growing more and more like a clown. First of all, I'm always

sad. Secondly, all my knives are made out of rubber. Thirdly, it's like my house 

is on fire.

No, I'm definitely becoming more like a clown. I have a tendency to want to put

on clown clothes. As soon as I put the clown clothes on I feel faintly happier...

Another sign is that I constantly feel like I'm alone in a dressing room. Most 

of the time I feel amused. Anyway, the only thing good about the circus is 

the tigers.

I realize that I could get both legs cut off by the circus train or get frightened

by an elephant. But it's very depressing to sit around in a clown suit and think

about death.

Sometimes I don't feel happy unless I'm in my clown suit. And I enjoy hitting

people on the head with a foam club. I really do...

When people see me they realize that it looks very sophisticated to wear a clown

suit and smoke a cigarette. This is how I get all the ladies because they think I'm

very droll.

People don't understand how you turn into a clown. You turn into a clown 

because you feel more and more like putting on a clown suit. When you're 

around people you sense a kindliness. It makes you so nervous you can't 

stay calm. Which is why it feels perfectly normal to wear orange pants.

Plus, it's very subversive to wear bow ties. You can't imagine how jolly 

everything is. And the fright wigs... I don't want to be a clown but I'm 

sure to be one. My mother was a clown.

Ode to Teachers

BY PAT MORA

I remember

the first day,

how I looked down,

hoping you wouldn't see

me,

and when I glanced up,

I saw your smile

shining like a soft light

from deep inside you.

“I'm listening,” you encourage us.

“Come on!

Join our conversation,

let us hear your neon certainties,

thorny doubts, tangled angers,”

but for weeks I hid inside.

I read and reread your notes

praising

my writing,

and you whispered,

“We need you

and your stories

and questions

that like a fresh path

will take us to new vistas.”

Slowly, your faith grew

into my courage

and for you—

instead of handing you

a note or apple or flowers—

I raised my hand.

I carry your smile

and faith inside like I carry

my dog's face,

my sister's laugh,

creamy melodies,

the softness of sunrise,

steady blessings of stars,

autumn smell of gingerbread,

the security of a sweater on a chilly day.

Pigeons by Huang fan

I’ve never seen pigeons argue I only see them soar I don’t know if a pigeon is naïve or worldly I just know it has no past to make it toil through life

Maybe they’re the tongues of the air Lazily expressing cars’ sighs Maybe they’re lined up on the roof Vying to perform snow’s wedding

One day I stick my head out the window And realize their nation is the act of soaring Soaring makes my silence meaningless Thank god, they’ve taught me how to talk about nations!

Standing under a flock of pigeons, I think oh People aren’t even worth one flower blooming toward them

Conan on his shelf life

Calvin Coolidge was a pretty popular president. I’ve been to his grave in Vermont. It has the presidential seal on it. Nobody was there. And by the way, I’m the only late-night host that has been to Calvin Coolidge’s grave. I think’s that what separates me from the other hosts.
 I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that.

True detective is back

Season 3 is here. This is the Tv series which started the golden age of television. This seems to be more in the genre of Season 1 which is welcoming....... and it is directed by Jeremy Saulnier who did "Hold the Dark" , "green Room"

Spider Man : Into the Spider Verse

This has to be a groundbreaking animated movie as it will revolutionize superhero movies in the future. Thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie.

Family - Josephine Miles

Family

BY JOSEPHINE MILES

When you swim in the surf off Seal Rocks, and your family
Sits in the sand
Eating potato salad, and the undertow
Comes which takes you out away down
To loss of breath loss of play and the power of play
Holler, say
Help, help, help. Hello, they will say,
Come back here for some potato salad.


It is then that a seventeen-year-old cub
Cruising in a helicopter from Antigua,
A jackstraw expert speaking only Swedish
And remote from this area as a camel, says
Look down there, there is somebody drowning.
And it is you. You say, yes, yes,
And he throws you a line.
This is what is called the brotherhood of man.

Chris Abani : In the middle of Dinner

In the Middle of Dinner

BY CHRIS ABANI

my mother put down her knife and fork,

pulled her wedding ring from its groove,

placing it contemplatively on her middle

finger. So natural was the move,

so tender, I almost didn’t notice.

Five years, she said, five years, once a week,

I wrote a letter to your father. And waited

until time was like ash on my tongue.

Not one letter back, not a single note.

She sighed, smiling, the weight gone. This

prime rib is really tender, isn’t it? she asked

Killing Commandatore

My introduction to Haruki Marukami

Bird Box :Another Netflix thriller

Review: Sandra Bullock makes the creepy, derivative 'Bird Box' worth a look
By JUSTIN CHANG
FILM CRITIC
DEC 12, 2018 | 5:30 PM

Sandra Bullock in a scene from "Bird Box." (Merrick Morton/Netflix)
In Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box,” an end-of-days freak-out starring Sandra Bullock, the world is overrun by an inexplicable menace with a clever plan for wiping out humanity. To those of us in the audience, the creatures (or whatever they are) remain entirely invisible, represented by a sudden rush of wind, which makes them about as scary as a leaf blower. But if you were a character in the movie and happened to look in their direction, your eyes would turn blood-red and you would be seized by an immediate, irresistible urge to kill yourself, probably by dashing your head repeatedly against the nearest hard surface.

I am glad to report that the movie itself, creepy and diverting enough on its own workmanlike terms, induces no such impulse. It could have, I suppose, but Bier is too much of a professional to drop a stray reel from “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” mid-picture. Instead, she applies herself — as does the screenwriter, Eric Heisserer (“Arrival”), adapting Josh Malerman’s 2014 debut novel — to the challenge of representing a horror that, in every sense, cannot be seen.

This is a different order of business from the year’s other high-concept sensory-deprivation thriller. In “A Quiet Place,” the characters must avoid making noise to evade the attention of murderous monsters. In “Bird Box,” the survivors must constrain their own senses, which might be even harder. For much of the picture, we watch a tightly wound Malorie (Bullock) and two quietly obedient children (Julian Edwards and Vivien Lyra Blair) make their way around in blindfolds — a task that becomes trickier when they are forced to spend hours kayaking down an icy, turbulent river.

What happened? How did they get here? Where are they going? The movie begins to provide answers — not all of them, but a few — by flashing back to five years earlier, when a wave of mass spontaneous suicides breaks out worldwide. Chaos erupts at the hospital where Malorie, six months pregnant, is seeing a doctor with her sister (Sarah Paulson, gone too soon). Malorie’s frantic drive home becomes a bravura piece of doomsday action choreography, with self-crashing vehicles and people screaming and fleeing en masse, as one after another makes the mistake of laying eyes on the creatures in their midst.

Amid the fiery chaos, Malorie is pulled into a large house whose inhabitants have the good sense to lock the doors and cover the windows. At this point, “Bird Box” effectively becomes a zombie movie sans zombies, in which a motley crew of survivors — Malorie’s new housemates include Trevante Rhodes, Lil Rel Howery, BD Wong, Jacki Weaver and a surly, shotgun-toting John Malkovich — find themselves trapped in a single location.
This one is fairly spacious, all things considered. The usual clash of personalities ensues, plus moments of teamwork, bonding and what-the-hell-it’s-the-apocalypse sex. Rations and supplies run low; the slightest glimpse of daylight can prove deadly. Desperate survivors come pounding at the door at night, including another pregnant woman (a touching Danielle Macdonald) and a man (an unnerving Tom Hollander) who provides a chilling clue about the rapidly evolving nature of the outside threat. And then there are the caged birds, which turn out to have useful perceptual powers where the monsters are concerned, and whose imprisonment is clearly a metaphor for the characters’ own.

The actors give the material an appreciable boost: Much as he did in “12 Strong” and “The Predator,” the handsome Rhodes emerges as a kind of B-movie ensemble MVP — after Bullock, of course, with whom he strikes up a warmly emotional rapport. For her part, Bullock remains an effortlessly watchable action heroine, though her natural comic spark has been tamped down in service of a character who becomes increasingly humorless and raw-nerved as the body count spikes.
Presumably, we will learn how Malorie becomes the joyless, no-nonsense mom she is five years later, someone who denies her poor kids even the slightest moment of levity and, as the movie notes in some overly emphatic dialogue, has sacrificed living for the sake of survival. “Bird Box” keeps cutting back and forth in time, between the house under siege and the boat on the river, a seesaw tactic that opens up the story visually but also undercuts the suspense on both ends. One form of narrative monotony is effectively replaced with another.

More celebrated for the nimble early pictures she directed in her native Denmark (“After the Wedding,” “Brothers”) than for her rickety forays into Hollywood melodrama (“Things We Lost in the Fire,” “Serena”), Bier plunges herself into mainstream horror filmmaking with a gusto that doesn’t always offset her lack of precision. For visceral intensity, she never tops the early scenes of mayhem and mass panic; slow-building, artfully modulated tension in close quarters seems beyond the movie’s interest or purview. The scares keep getting more and more desperate, cranking up the volume with gale-force winds and eerie voices, en route to an ending that’s silly verging on offensive.
Although far better than M. Night Shyamalan’s mass-suicide thriller “The Happening” — scant praise, I know — “Bird Box” never really makes its unseen villains work conceptually. The horror remains strictly theoretical when it should instead be palpable. The movie’s wan, derivative pleasures fly completely in the face of its premise: You’ve seen this all many times before, which doesn’t mean you’ll mind seeing it again.

Game of Zones : Season 5

This is just awesome

Technology in television : The Americans

The Haunting of Hill house

mmmmm..... what can i say about this film. Though it is in an episodic format it felt more like a movie for me.



The main selling point of this piece of art is the mastery involved in the craft of film-making. Mike Flannagan has used every piece of tool available in creating the tone and texture of the film. I would recommend people to appreciate and experience the usage of the color pallete in portraying the emotion and the psychological state of the characters. Some of the points to note esp like the "Red Room" was always portrayed as a place of solitude for each character where they can be themselves without the interference of others/society.The Directors choice to show the Red room as very bright when they are in its trance is an apt choice to convey that it is the room trying to trap the characters eternally within its grasp.

Hollywood has seen a slew of well made horror movies in recent times but The Haunting of the Hill House has managed to create a league of its own. Whereas the other movies seems to highlight the tone and the jump-scare moments whereas this is actually an endearing drama where the ghosts are just an euphemism for the mental struggles which every human goes through.

Not all ghosts are dead people as clearly illustrated by the image which haunts Shirley was not about her dead mother/sister it is actually the image of infedilty. It should be appreciated that the Director painstakingly developed each character and how all the siblings coped with their experience in the hill house during their childhood. It is a story about the emotional trauma of children as much as a horror story.

Each of them has their own coping mechanism -

Steve was able to manage it by denying the existence of the super-natural and concluding that the real ghosts are actually in our heads (he is not wrong!). He also thinks that mental illness is hereditary which lead to his vasectomy thereby preventing further offspring of trauma. The Director has taken the effort to show us why he came to that conclusion by his ignorance to the presence of ghosts in the hill house which saved him from the trauma experienced by his siblings. It has also strained his relationship with the family as he didnt see any issue in writing a book about their experience in the hill house

Shirley did not seem to be much affected by her experience in the hill house and was able to cope with the death of her mother by pursuing the vocation of funeral home impressed by the handiwork performed at her mother's wake.She seems to be the most stable of the children and almost like the matriarch but at the same has her own insecurities.

Theo's character is the issue for me. They have taken the option to portray her as a psychic where she can basically see the experiences of others or even non living objects (really...) by just touching them.There is no background provided on the character on why she chose to stay with her sister or why does she had the ability. There is a decent argument on her coping mechanism by choosing to wear gloves inorder to stop experiencing the ghastly images seen during the last day of her stay in the hill house

Nell and Luke are probably the saddest characters in the series. Their entire childhood experience was traumatic in the hill house which has quickly translated to the struggles in their adult lives. Luke became a recovering drug addict whereas Nell is on continuous therapy sessions after the tragic death of her husband.

Hold the Dark

Hold the Dark

By David Fear of "Rolling Stones"

Some filmmakers excel in telling stories; Jeremy Saulnier is better at setting moods. Oh, his movies have narratives: man wants revenge recently-released-from-prison killer of his family (Blue Ruin); punk rock band must get out of neo-Nazi stronghold or die tryin’ (Green Room). But what you tend to remember more than the A-to-B particulars of this 42-year-old Virginia native’s thrillers are the vibes that he marinates his tales of murder and mayhem and vengeance in — all variations of a sort of sickened, curdled sense of dread. He’s also remarkably good at staging moments, and Hold the Dark, his adaptation of William Giraldi’s blood-snow-and-wolves novel, has a handful of indelible ones. Weeks from now, you may end up racking your brain regarding specific plot points, hard-left pivots and some seriously twisted turns. But you’ll find yourself unable to shake the sight of what a well-shot arrow does to a jugular vein, or the image of a backlit man perched on a ledge and wearing a primitive lupine mask, or the sensation of watching a nightmare unfold before your eyes as things go from bad to underbelly-of-the-beast worse.


We don’t want to damn Dark with faint praise — it’s still an extraordinary high-pulp potboiler, one that mixes elements of indigenous mysticism, Greek tragedy and rural revenge flicks, along with a genuinely showstopping centerpiece (we’ll get to that in a second). And if this take on the evil that folks do isn’t quite as efficient or airtight as those aforementioned previous works, it’s mainly because Saulnier has set his own bar at nosebleed-level when it comes to crafting this type of thing. There are few current filmmakers doing what he does this well.

And what he does here is seed the ground for a winter harvest of madness. A boy has gone missing in a small village in Alaska; there’s been an epidemic of wolves snatching local kids. His mother, Medora (Riley Keough), summons a writer and retired expert on the creatures named Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) to find the animal and kill it. He reluctantly accepts the gig, tracking the pack in the wild. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the desert — it could be Iraq or Afghanistan; we’re purposefully never told — a solider (Alexander Skarsgard) catches a bullet in the neck from a sniper. The man, Vernon Sloane, is the child’s father. He returns home to mourn and finds out that Mom has gone missing (we suggest you take another look at the mother’s name and see if it resembles any famous theatrical heroines of the past). At which point this accomplished killer of men, his friend Cheeon (Julian Black Antelope), Core and the local sheriff (James Badge Dale) all seem to be heading toward a date with destiny

Suddenly, what seemed like a man-vs-nature survivalist tale — “Hey, it’s the guy from Westworld fightin’ wild wolves!” — morphs into something that’s part Arctic Noir and part violent art-horror. Saulnier knows how to use the frame to heighten tension, to drop things in the background that suddenly demand your attention, to help turn a casual aside (“Those my boots?”) into a small piece of a big-picture fatalistic puzzle and to make the score underline every bit of doom around the corner. He may be a mood-channeler, but he knows how to assemble the tools of moviemaking to play audiences like cellos. For the first hour or so, you constantly feel the ground shifting underneath you, as lost in the dark as Core is but, like our hapless hero, knowing a bad wind is blowing our way. Which brings us to the set piece.

The cops need to find Vernon, who’s on the hunt. They head to Cheeon’s house to question him. Russell also happens to be nearby, having stumbled across a corpse. A conversation occurs on the porch, one that suggests things are not going to end quietly. In what might constitute a spoiler, a machine gun comes into play. And to call what follows “a shoot-out” is a bit like saying Gene Kelly splashing around in the rain is a “musical number” — it’s technically correct but severely underplays the impact of watching the sequence. This is where everything, from the direction to screenwriter Macon Blair’s facility for dialogue to the actors (Badge Dale and Black Antelope turn the back-and-forth into verbal game of chicken) to Magnus Nordenhof Jonck’s cinematography to Julia Bloch’s precise, razor-sharp editing, gets marshaled into creating something that’s genuinely unforgettable. It’s an action sequence that knows when to pump the adrenaline and when to make you feel the pain of human bodies being hurt.

If Hold the Dark peaks somewhat at that point, it’s only because the whole thing is such a virtuoso act — the film uses it as a bit of a palette cleanser before getting back to the especially nasty business of tying up some loose ends. There are more revelations and surprises as this disturbing piece of work slouches towards its rough resolution, some of which feel surprising and others which feel inevitable in the ways that myths do. (Note to filmmakers: cast Wright in everything. The man does more with a pause then others do with a soliloquy and he goes a long way towards making the third act hold together.) Having gone from doing a film almost totally set in a claustrophobic neo-Nazi bunker, Saulnier pulled a 180-degree turn and made an ambitious B movie set in agoraphobe-unfriendly, wide-open expanse of nature. The snowy land his characters tread has a lot of history soaking in its soil, the film reminds us — and a lot of blood, curses and Freudian insanity as well. You can only hold back the darkness for so long.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

My thoughts : I believe the entire story is a metaphorical life and death struggle of a patient (Jeffrey Wright) suffering from a terminal illness. The darkness here signifies death. The characters in this struggle are as follows
Russell Core - Patient with terminal illness
Medora and the Father - Carriers of death/illness who shows their true self while wearing the mask
Police officers - Antibodies fighting death
Wolf pack - Death
The very fact that both Medora and her husband become psycopathic whenever they wear the mask seems to signify that they are like dormant carriers and become viral once they are activated. There are certain lines of dialogue which signifies it like the below :

The white people called it influenza. We called it peelak.I was a little girl. Half their village, their bodies in igloos on the hill. But the wolves came at night In the morning the hillside was scattered with pieces of their bodies.

Now you understand about the sky dont you ? They spared you . What ? They spared you....

Etheridge Knight

Rehabilitation & Treatment in the Prisons of America” By Etheridge Knight


The convict strolled into the prison administration building
to get assistance and counseling for his personal problems.

Just inside the main door were several other doors proclaiming: Doctor, Lawyer, Teacher, Counselor, Therapist, etc.

He chose the proper door, and was confronted with two more doors:

Custody and Treatment. He chose Treatment, went in, and was confronted with two more doors:

First Offender and Previous Offender. Again he chose the proper door and was confronted with two more doors:

Adult and Juvenile. He was an adult, so he walked through that door and ran smack into two more doors:

Democrat and Republican. He was democrat, so he rushed through that door and ran smack into two more doors:

Black and White. He was Black, so he rushed—ran—through that door—and fell nine stories to the ground

John Keats : On seeing the Elgin marbles

My spirit is too weak—mortality

Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep,

And each imagined pinnacle and steep

Of godlike hardship tells me I must die

Like a sick eagle looking at the sky.

Yet ’tis a gentle luxury to weep

That I have not the cloudy winds to keep

Fresh for the opening of the morning’s eye.

Such dim-conceived glories of the brain

Bring round the heart an undescribable feud;

So do these wonders a most dizzy pain,

That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude

Wasting of old time—with a billowy main—

A sun—a shadow of a magnitude.

Mary Shelley : The movie

This movie had an impact on me..... Im not sure whether it is the tone, the score or simply the grim style of telling a very short span of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's life when she took the decision to elope with the poet shelley till she wrote the iconic "Frankenstein"..... Also the wonderful poetry in this movie usually described during a montage was able to bring the mood of the poet on the screen,



You can't sleep?
Do you miss her?
She was so full of passion.
So full of defiance.
As if she were at war constantly
with everyone and everything.
And enjoying every moment
of the battle.
Warriors like your mother are
never long for this world.



I looked upon
the rotting sea And drew my eyes away I looked upon the rotting deck
And there the dead men lay I looked to Heaven
and tried to pray But before a prayer had gushed
A wicked whisper came...



When silvery clouds float
through the wildered brain
When every sight of lovely,
wild and grand
Astonishes
Enraptures
Elevates
So bright...
...so fair, so wild a shape Hath ever yet beheld As that which reined
the coursers of the air And poured the magic
of her gaze
Upon the maiden's sleep



As I was saying, both your parents are a great source of inspiration to me.
My mother died when I was ten days old.
I'm sorry, I had no idea.
Don't be sorry.
I love to talk about her.
Even if I never truly knew her.
All of the contradictions she embodied.
All anyone ever talks about...
...now is how she wanted to go off
and live with a married man and his wife...
...in a mnage trois.
And what do you think about... ...all that?
I have no problem with it. People should live and love as they wish.
But one thing I've never understood is...
...why did two radicals such as your parents
succumb to marriage?
To legitimize me.
Meet me...
...tomorrow.



A sweet scented courtier did
give me a kiss And promised me rightly that I would be his
But I'll not believe him for it is too true
Courtiers promise much more than they do
My thing is my own
That I'll keep it so still
Other young lassies can do what they will



Oh, Mary, I miss her too. Oh,
I wish I could have saved her. I'm not asking you to let go of her, Mary.
I'm just asking you to raise above your grief. To raise her spirit to the great heights she deserves.


It was a dreary night of November and...
It was a dreary night of November
that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.

Remember that
I am thy creature.
I ought to be thy Adam but I
am rather the fallen angel
whom thou drivest from joy
for no misdeed.
Everywhere I see bliss...
...from which...
...from which, from which I
alone am irrevocably excluded.
I was benevolent and good
Misery made me a fiend Make me happy.
And I shall again be virtuous.
"But soon", he cried "I shall die
and what I now feel be no longer felt.
Soon...
these burning miseries will be extinct.
I shall ascend my funeral pyre triumphantly
and exult in the agony of the torturing flames.
My spirit will sleep in peace or if it thinks
it will not surely
think thus.
Farewell."
The End.

UFC 227

Henri Cejudo the belt snatcher


Cejudo put up a far better performance than the bout two years ago. Thee maked improvement was on his defence which enabled him to pressure DJ and get the takedowns. Eventhough he wasnt able to keep him down and dominate but the multiple takedowns in the course of a contentious 5 round fight enabled him to take the W.My evaluation of the fight was that DJ didnt make any significant damage bu he definitely hit Cejudo more than he took.The very fact that DJ looked spotless after the fight illustrates my point.I believe a draw or DJ winning would have been a fair decision tonight. But anyways a trilogy is on the card now which might make it more PPV worthy next time.

A designer is born

Dragonfly and the Goldfish

Just got this as a gift from my office as I won a raffle contest. Trying to understand what does this mean

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code passed by the Parliament is a welcome overhaul of the existing framework dealing with insolvency of corporates, individuals, partnerships and other entities. It paves the way for much needed reforms while focussing on creditor driven insolvency resolution.

BACKGROUND

At present, there are multiple overlapping laws and adjudicating forums dealing with financial failure and insolvency of companies and individuals in India. The current legal and institutional framework does not aid lenders in effective and timely recovery or restructuring of defaulted assets and causes undue strain on the Indian credit system. Recognising that reforms in the bankruptcy and insolvency regime are critical for improving the business environment and alleviating distressed credit markets, the Government introduced the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill in November 2015, drafted by a specially constituted 'Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee' (BLRC) under the Ministry of Finance. Trilegal worked with the BLRC to assist with the drafting of the bill.

After a public consultation process and recommendations from a joint committee of Parliament, both houses of Parliament have now passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code). While the legislation of the Code is a historical development for economic reforms in India, its effect will be seen in due course when the institutional infrastructure and implementing rules as envisaged under the Code are formed.

THE CODE

The Code offers a uniform, comprehensive insolvency legislation encompassing all companies, partnerships and individuals (other than financial firms). The Government is proposing a separate framework for bankruptcy resolution in failing banks and financial sector entities.
One of the fundamental features of the Code is that it allows creditors to assess the viability of a debtor as a business decision, and agree upon a plan for its revival or a speedy liquidation. The Code creates a new institutional framework, consisting of a regulator, insolvency professionals, information utilities and adjudicatory mechanisms, that will facilitate a formal and time bound insolvency resolution process and liquidation.
Key Highlights
1. Corporate Debtors: Two-Stage Process
To initiate an insolvency process for corporate debtors, the default should be at least INR 100,000 (USD 1495) (which limit may be increased up to INR 10,000,000 (USD 149,500) by the Government). The Code proposes two independent stages:
Insolvency Resolution Process, during which financial creditors assess whether the debtor's business is viable to continue and the options for its rescue and revival; and
Liquidation, if the insolvency resolution process fails or financial creditors decide to wind down and distribute the assets of the debtor.
(a) The Insolvency Resolution Process (IRP)
The IRP provides a collective mechanism to lenders to deal with the overall distressed position of a corporate debtor. This is a significant departure from the existing legal framework under which the primary onus to initiate a reorganisation process lies with the debtor, and lenders may pursue distinct actions for recovery, security enforcement and debt restructuring.
The Code envisages the following steps in the IRP:
(i) Commencement of the IRP
A financial creditor (for a defaulted financial debt) or an operational creditor (for an unpaid operational debt) can initiate an IRP against a corporate debtor at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
The defaulting corporate debtor, its shareholders or employees, may also initiate voluntary insolvency proceedings.
(ii) Moratorium
The NCLT orders a moratorium on the debtor's operations for the period of the IRP. This operates as a 'calm period' during which no judicial proceedings for recovery, enforcement of security interest, sale or transfer of assets, or termination of essential contracts can take place against the debtor.
(iii) Appointment of Resolution Professional
The NCLT appoints an insolvency professional or 'Resolution Professional' to administer the IRP. The Resolution Professional's primary function is to take over the management of the corporate borrower and operate its business as a going concern under the broad directions of a committee of creditors. This is similar to the approach under the UK insolvency laws, but distinct from the "debtor in possession" approach under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code. Under the US bankruptcy code, the debtor's management retains control while the bankruptcy professional only oversees the business in order to prevent asset stripping on the part of the promoters.
Therefore, the thrust of the Code is to allow a shift of control from the defaulting debtor's management to its creditors, where the creditors drive the business of the debtor with the Resolution Professional acting as their agent.
(iv) Creditors Committee and Revival Plan
The Resolution Professional identifies the financial creditors and constitutes a creditors committee. Operational creditors above a certain threshold are allowed to attend meetings of the committee but do not have voting power. Each decision of the creditors committee requires a 75% majority vote. Decisions of the creditors committee are binding on the corporate debtor and all its creditors.
The creditors committee considers proposals for the revival of the debtor and must decide whether to proceed with a revival plan or liquidation within a period of 180 days (subject to a one-time extension by 90 days). Anyone can submit a revival proposal, but it must necessarily provide for payment of operational debts to the extent of the liquidation waterfall.
The Code does not elaborate on the types of revival plans that may be adopted, which may include fresh finance, sale of assets, haircuts, change of management etc.

(b) Liquidation
Under the Code, a corporate debtor may be put into liquidation in the following scenarios:
(i) A 75% majority of the creditor's committee resolves to liquidate the corporate debtor at any time during the insolvency resolution process;
(ii) The creditor's committee does not approve a resolution plan within 180 days (or within the extended 90 days);
(iii) The NCLT rejects the resolution plan submitted to it on technical grounds; or
(iv) The debtor contravenes the agreed resolution plan and an affected person makes an application to the NCLT to liquidate the corporate debtor.
Once the NCLT passes an order of liquidation, a moratorium is imposed on the pending legal proceedings against the corporate debtor, and the assets of the debtor (including the proceeds of liquidation) vest in the liquidation estate.

Priority of Claims
The Code significantly changes the priority waterfall for distribution of liquidation proceeds.
After the costs of insolvency resolution (including any interim finance), secured debt together with workmen dues for the preceding 24 months rank highest in priority. Central and state Government dues stand below the claims of secured creditors, workmen dues, employee dues and other unsecured financial creditors. Under the earlier regime, Government dues were immediately below the claims of secured creditors and workmen in order of priority.
Upon liquidation, a secured creditor may choose to realise his security and receive proceeds from the sale of the secured assets in first priority. If the secured creditor enforces his claims outside the liquidation, he must contribute any excess proceeds to the liquidation trust. Further, in case of any shortfall in recovery, the secured creditors will be junior to the unsecured creditors to the extent of the shortfall.
2. Insolvency Resolution Process for Individuals/Unlimited Partnerships
For individuals and unlimited partnerships, the Code applies in all cases where the minimum default amount is INR 1000 (USD 15) and above (the Government may later revise the minimum amount of default to a higher threshold). The Code envisages two distinct processes in case of insolvencies: automatic fresh start and insolvency resolution.

Under the automatic fresh start process, eligible debtors (basis gross income) can apply to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) for discharge from certain debts not exceeding a specified threshold, allowing them to start afresh.
The insolvency resolution process consists of preparation of a repayment plan by the debtor, for approval of creditors. If approved, the DRT passes an order binding the debtor and creditors to the repayment plan. If the plan is rejected or fails, the debtor or creditors may apply for a bankruptcy order.

3. Institutional Infrastructure

(a) The Insolvency Regulator
The Code provides for the constitution of a new insolvency regulator i.e., the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Board). Its role includes: (i) overseeing the functioning of insolvency intermediaries i.e., insolvency professionals, insolvency professional agencies and information utilities; and (ii) regulating the insolvency process.
(b) Insolvency Resolution Professionals
The Code provides for insolvency professionals as intermediaries who would play a key role in the efficient working of the bankruptcy process. The Code contemplates insolvency professionals as a class of regulated but private professionals having minimum standards of professional and ethical conduct.
In the resolution process, the insolvency professional verifies the claims of the creditors, constitutes a creditors committee, runs the debtor's business during the moratorium period and helps the creditors in reaching a consensus for a revival plan. In liquidation, the insolvency professional acts as a liquidator and bankruptcy trustee.
(c) Information Utilities
A notable feature of the Code is the creation of information utilities to collect, collate, authenticate and disseminate financial information of debtors in centralised electronic databases. The Code requires creditors to provide financial information of debtors to multiple utilities on an ongoing basis. Such information would be available to creditors, resolution professionals, liquidators and other stakeholders in insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings. The purpose of this is to remove information asymmetry and dependency on the debtor's management for critical information that is needed to swiftly resolve insolvency.
(d) Adjudicatory authorities
The adjudicating authority for corporate insolvency and liquidation is the NCLT. Appeals from NCLT orders lie to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal and thereafter to the Supreme Court of India. For individuals and other persons, the adjudicating authority is the DRT, appeals lie to the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal and thereafter to the Supreme Court.
In keeping with the broad philosophy that insolvency resolution must be commercially and professionally driven (rather than court driven), the role of adjudicating authorities is limited to ensuring due process rather than adjudicating on the merits of the insolvency resolution.

CONCLUSION
India currently ranks 136 out of 189 countries in the World Bank's index on the ease of resolving insolvencies. India's weak insolvency regime, its significant inefficiencies and systematic abuse are some of the reasons for the distressed state of credit markets in India today. The Code promises to bring about far-reaching reforms with a thrust on creditor driven insolvency resolution. It aims at early identification of financial failure and maximising the asset value of insolvent firms. The Code also has provisions to address cross border insolvency through bilateral agreements and reciprocal arrangements with other countries.

The unified regime envisages a structured and time-bound process for insolvency resolution and liquidation, which should significantly improve debt recovery rates and revitalise the ailing Indian corporate bond markets.

Kevin Durant : From NBA to Silicon valley

When Durant chose to leave OKC, he became everyones favorite villain, but it has all worked out for him . He sacrificed his salary by losing around 20 mill per annum but instead he has received two championships, a great team culture and an ever better monetary benefit to his brand and business. The economic benefit of being a 2 time champion will pay dividends in the future rather than the immediate salary hike. He has understood that and has opted for lower salary in the near future to the regular cash flow stream of a NBA superstar which he is assured of being due to his championships.

How Kevin Durant Is Becoming A Force In Silicon Valley BY JOSHUA EFERIGHE

Back in June, after losing game 7 of the Western Conference Finals to the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant had a huge decision ahead of him.

His contract with Oklahoma City was in its eighth and final year and the former MVP and two-time scoring champ found himself being one of the most coveted free-agents since LeBron James.
The Maryland native had many options, too. His old coach, Scott Brooks had found a new home in his former superstar’s hometown and with star-power of their own in youngsters John Wall and Bradley Beal.
Boston was very attractive. Their new head coach, Brad Stevens, is considered one of the youngest brilliant minds in basketball. He took over a losing team in 2013 and increased their win total every year.
This year they’re second in the east only behind the champion Cavs. With Budding superstar Isaiah Thomas, Durant would have been a great fit. They even brought in Brady and his rings to sweeten the deal.
Then, of course, he could have stayed in OKC. With the human cyborg Russell Westbrook as a wingmate and barely losing — lost 3-1 lead — the Western Conference Finals, it too was a viable option.
However, Durant did neither of the three.
Kevin Durant picked the Golden State Warriors in efforts to win a ring. It shocked both the NBA and the entire sports world, but even more importantly, made him one of the most scrutinized players in the league.
If you are familiar with Oklahoma city you would understand the market limitation. Kevin Durant, who has a reported $300 million deal with Nike and is currently ranked as one of GQ’s Most Stylish athletes, has other aspirations.
And in his short time in the bay, he’s shown just that. This past winter Durant had a speaking engagement at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California. Something he could have never done in OKC.
When the largest start-up town is down the road from your day job and you have money to blow, Silicon Valley sort of becomes Vegas with much safer bets.
Teammate Andre Iguodola was bitten by the bug first. The All-Star forward is a noted investor in companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Tesla. Durant saw his moves and decided to take a stab at the booming industry himself.
Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman unveiled a start-up of their own called the Durant Company.
The portfolio includes investments in tech companies like Postmates and Acorns, in addition to hotels and restaurants as well as film and television development.
They are also investing with Ronald Conway, one of Silicon Valley’s “super angel” investors and a front-row fixture at Oracle Arena and consulting with Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’s widow, on his own charity foundation.
Half-way into the season and Durant still gets criticism from everywhere. His severed relationship with Westbrook is an easy storyline and the fact that his team is blowing everyone out has people in fits.
However, Durant says he’s used to not having friends. Besides, his plays off the court are going to be the ones that last a lifetime.

NBA Finals Game 7

It has not happened since the 1970s the NBA final in both the confeerences have gone to Game 7.

It clearly shows why NBA always seems to increase its audience year on yer despite the league seems to be top heavy with the the increased salary cap.

If Lebron somehow manages to win Game 7 then he will be the undisputed king of basketball cause there is no other player in the past decade who could have pulled his team through turmoil and lackadaisical display like him

LeBron James put forth another all-time performance in an elimination game Friday night against the Celtics.

James pushes all issues aside, wills Cavs to a win and a Game 7

by Candace Buckner of Washington Post

CLEVELAND — Quicken Loans Arena had fallen into a hush and four concerned teammates huddled and stared at the city of Cleveland’s — and the Cavaliers’ — biggest fear realized: LeBron James, down on the court, holding his right knee and wincing in pain.

James slowly rose, his expression turned placid, and he finished what he started, turning in another dominant performance in a 109-99 win in Game 6 over the Celtics, forcing these Eastern Confrerence finals to a seventh game Sunday night in Boston.

With his team facing elimination, James pushed past his fourth-quarter leg issue to finish with 46 points in 46 minutes to go with 11 rebounds and nine assists.

 Friday night was not a “flu game” — the iconic moment Michael Jordan created in the 1997 NBA Finals — nor did it ascend to Willis Reed levels. Yet, James added another level to his legend. Consider: James has either had a triple-double or a 40-point game in each of the past seven games with his team facing elimination. He was 17 of 33 from the field against the Celtics, doing most of his damage after Kevin Love left the game in the first quarter.

He received help in the form of three teammates reaching double figures but make no mistake, the responsibility in beating back the Celtics belonged to James and he scored the big shots and made the necessary plays with the resolve of a man who has spent the last seven Junes on the hardwood.

When asked for his thoughts on James’s night, Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue stifled a chuckle then started with just one word. “Greatness,” Lue said. “I think championship pedigree. You know, giving it his all. We needed that, especially when Kevin went down.” While the backcourt of Terry Rozier (28 points) and Jaylen Brown (27) stabilized Boston, the duo could not stop James. Quite literally. Within the final minute of the game, James no longer limped as he drove at Brown and scored at the rim while getting hacked. After teammate Larry Nance Jr. fell into his knee, James went on to score 12 points.

“I’ll try to get him to bang his other knee, so he could get 24,” Lue joked after the game. “He delivered. He was up for the challenge,” Lue said. “He carried us home, as usual.” The chants of “M-V-P” resounded in the sold-out arena, and that praise peaked at the buzzer when the arena announcer intoned: “We’re going to Game 7!” James improved to 13-9 in elimination games.

In the 21 previous elimination games over his career, James has averaged 33.5 points, the most of any player in league history in those moments. Although he also played as an all-around threat (10.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists in elimination games), James embraced the instinct to score — quite possibly, because he had to take over. Only five minutes into the game, Love experienced a painful encounter with Jayson Tatum. As the Celtic rookie chased George Hill from the baseline to the three-point arc, Love, who was standing still and unaware of the action happening behind him, absorbed the worst end of a head-to-head collision with Tatum. Love crumpled to the hardwood, only peeling his hands from his head to signal to the Cleveland bench for help. Love walked to the locker room on his own power but his injury sapped Cleveland’s depth. After one freak accident, James was left without an all-star wingman and yet the crucial moment served as the backdrop to yet another masterful performance.

By the time Love exited the game, James had attempted just two shots but soon turned aggressive. He attempted a plodding drive against Marcus Morris, who’s not easily moved as a 6-foot-9 forward, and that post possession ended with a miss at the rim and James raising his arms in protest for a foul call. But by his next drive, James quit begging and simply barreled over the younger and skinnier Tatum. After the first quarter, Brown scored 15 of Boston’s 25 points and the Celtics held the five-point lead. James sat on eight points but wouldn’t rest again through the half. His night was just beginning.

In-game updates, by Tim Bontemps The Eastern Conference finals are headed to a seventh game. Back-to-back dagger threes from LeBron James in the exact same manner from the exact same spot pushed him up to 44 points on the night, giving the Cavaliers an 11-point lead in the final minutes. This is now the seventh time James has scored over 40 points in these playoffs, and Cleveland has needed all of them in a game the Cavaliers lost Kevin Love in the first quarter. When you have James on your side, though, it doesn’t matter.

 With under three minutes to go in Cleveland, the Cavaliers are clinging to a seven-point lead, and trying to get over the finish line to force a Game 7 Sunday night in Boston. With no Kevin Love, and with LeBron James having played all but 57 seconds at the end of the third quarter, the Cavaliers look to be tiring late — but should have enough of a lead to hold on. James has shown little bounce since injuring his leg, but has 38 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as he tries to drag himself and his team over the finish line. LeBron James finally took a seat for the final 57.3 seconds of the third quarter, the first time in this game he’s spent any time on the bench. It’s been a remarkable performance from James with his season on the line, with 32 points, seven rebounds and seven assists while committing only two turnovers. Meanwhile, Cleveland goes into the fourth quarter leading 83-73 after Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier sandwiched three-pointers around a Kyle Korver triple inside that final minute as James watched from the bench.

It seems likely James will return to start the fourth quarter, and play the remainder of this one. And, with Kevin Love out for the game, James will need to keep banging home buckets for Cleveland to close this game out. Want to know what makes LeBron James special? This sequence:  There is no other player in the league capable of both sprinting out in a 2-on-1 fast break and converting that layup, only to then come flying back down at the other end full speed to reject Rozier’s layup at the rim. That’s especially true when one factors in James having played every second of this game so far, and playing in the 99th game of the 15th season of his NBA career. Has anyone figured out officially if he’s a cyborg yet? Because he just might be one.

Want to know one of the reasons why Boston finds itself in yet another hole on the road? Al Horford just scored his first basket of the game … in the first minute of the second half. It has truly been baffling how this series has zigged and zagged back and forth, depending on which team was the home team in each game. It’s one thing if that happened in the first round between evenly matched teams. But in the Eastern Conference finals? That’s another thing, entirely. The Cavaliers are without Kevin Love. They had to play LeBron James for the entire first half. And they still lead by 11 at halftime. A 28-8 run covering most of the second quarter allowed Cleveland to storm into the lead and take a 54-43 edge into halftime, putting the Cavaliers 24 minutes from a return trip to Boston for Game 7 Sunday night.

James was magnificent in the first half, going for 25 points, five rebounds and five assists while playing every second — something that may have happened anyway, but had to happen once Love went to the locker room a few minutes into the first quarter after a collision with Jayson Tatum and didn’t return. Jaylen Brown had an outstanding first quarter for Boston, scoring 15 of his 17 points, while Terry Rozier added 13 on 5-for-7 shooting from the field. Jeff Green, meanwhile, gave Cleveland a big boost off the bench with nine points playing in place of Love, and likely will get the start for him in the second half. Love is being evaluated for a concussion and will not return to the game. LeBron James remains on the court well into the second quarter, and Kevin Love remains in the locker room. That might be the case for the remainder of this game. If Love is unable to come back, it might take a 48-minute effort from James for Cleveland to win this game. The Cavaliers needed George Hill to have a big game in Game 6, and that was before Kevin Love left the game in the first quarter after colliding with Jayson Tatum. With six quick points early on, Hill is delivering. Cleveland has been a far different team in this series when Hill has been engaged and attacking, taking the Cavaliers from a staid offense to a dynamic one. Like so many things on both sides in this series, Hill has looked generally looked this way at home and then far less on the road.

Cleveland can worry about that changing in a possible Game 7 if the Cavaliers can make it there. In the meantime, they’ll take Hill keeping this up for another 36 minutes or so. The last thing the Cavaliers needed in the do-or-die situation in which they find themselves was for Kevin Love to be lying on the court holding his head halfway through the first quarter. That’s exactly what happened after Love got the worse end of an accidental head-to-head collision with Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum, crashing to the ground and holding his head, to the point where George Hill had to commit an intentional foul to stop play while Love made no attempt to get up. Love headed to Cleveland’s locker room, having gingerly walked off the court. It seems likely that he will be entering into the league’s concussion protocol, which he’d have to pass before returning. Cleveland has struggled to get consistent offense in this series outside of Love and LeBron James. If Love has to miss any time here, that could be a massive problem for Cleveland’s chances of pushing this series to a seventh game Sunday night.

When this season began, the expectation was that the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers would meet for a fourth straight time in the NBA Finals. Now, the NBA heads into Memorial Day weekend with a seemingly unfathomable scenario unfolding: first the Cavaliers, and then the Warriors, hosting games that could end their seasons. That’s not how this was supposed to happen. Cleveland and, in particular, Golden State, were supposed to roll through the playoffs. But here we are, staring at the two teams that have ruled the league for four years both on the brink. Cleveland will first welcome the Boston Celtics to Quicken Loans Arena Friday night. Boston — a dreadful road team this postseason, going just 1-6 away from the friendly confines of TD Garden — will try to become the first team to dethrone LeBron James in the East since … the Celtics, when they beat James in 2010 to end his first stint in Cleveland with a resounding thud.

The circumstances this time are different. The Cavaliers have won a championship this time, and have made the Finals the past three years in a row. This year’s team wildly and unpredictably swings from one pole to the other, never providing a good barometer on a game-to-game basis for how it will perform. Still, it’s hard to see James and the Cavaliers losing this game, in part because it’s just hard to ever see him losing a game that matters. As the greatest player of his generation, James always seems to find a way to get it done when it counts. But the Celtics’ wretched play away from Boston also factors in. Will that change in a road elimination game against James? That seems like a bridge too far for a team that couldn’t close out the Milwaukee Bucks in the same situation two rounds ago. Stopping James is just a bit harder than that. For the league, though, there’s nothing better than a potential holiday weekend full of climatic action, with the league’s two most iconic teams fighting for their playoff lives.

NBA playoffs: Cavaliers finally play good defense but fizzle on offense in Game 5 loss LeBron James and the Cavaliers miss Kyrie Irving more than the Celtics do The Warriors’ unbalanced roster is catching up with them at the worst possible time Rockets draw even with Warriors in Western Conference finals The graybeard Cavaliers have turned experience into their best weapon against the Celtics The Cavaliers were left for dead. Now, it feels like their series to lose. Only Steph Curry can make the Warriors the most dangerous version of themselves The NBA Finals blueprint for the Cavs, Celtics, Rockets and Warriors If the Rockets are going to get back into this Warriors series, they must play faster With all these blowouts in the NBA playoffs, will fans stop paying attention? Stephen Curry’s mom scolded him over his potty mouth Luka Doncic should go No. 1 and other thoughts from the NBA draft combine In Cavaliers-Celtics, a tale of two coaches: Scorn for Tyronn Lue, praise for Brad Stevens At the NBA draft combine, mystery is more valuable than getting on the court Draymond Green trademarks ‘Hampton 5,’ doesn’t seem to realize it’s not The Hamptons Faced with a make-or-break moment, the Rockets responded like champions If the Rockets beat the Warriors, Clint Capela will be the reason LeBron James may have had a lousy Game 1, but he still has a mind like a steel trap LeBron James owns the NBA’s Eastern Conference and isn’t ready to let go What I got wrong about the Boston Celtics James Harden’s biggest advantage is his brain The Rockets can limit the effectiveness of the Warriors’ ‘Hamptons Five’ lineup Steve Kerr touts Warriors’ experience edge over Rockets: ‘Our guys have rings’ Rockets are the toughest playoff opponent Steve Kerr’s Warriors have ever faced Pau Gasol: ‘Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.’ Dragging these flawed Cavs to the NBA Finals would be LeBron James’s most remarkable feat