Rains....

The dry mess

Rain falls -

the postbox bleeds.

(The monsoon is back after a dangerous game of hide and seek. My Nokia clicked this snap with its 1.3 megapix camera, on my way to Sunday morning masala dosa.)

Freeze!

FADE IN: INT. GRUBBY HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAY (DIMLY LIT)

A woman's face BACKS INTO SHOT, her head resting against grimy wallpaper. She is tense, sweaty, wide-eyed with concentration. This is CLARICE STARLING - mid-20's, trim, very pretty. She wears Kevlar body armor over a navy windbreaker, khaki pants. Her thick hair is piled under a navy baseball cap. A revolver, clutched in her right hand, hovers by her ear. She raises a speedloader, in her left hand, locks it into her cylinder, twists and reloads.

CLOSE ON a guest room door, with a small, wired pack attached to its knob. Suddenly, with a sharp CRACK!, the knob explodes, and the door bursts open.

WITH CLARICE - MOVING SHOT - as she runs around a corner, through a cloud of smoke. She shoulders aside the shattered door and rushes inside, gun at the ready in both hands...

CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY. CLARICE'S POV - MOVING - as she first sees, sitting on the edge of a bed - a FEMALE HOSTAGE. Black, late 20's, gagged, hands behind her back. Then, SWIVELLING... she sees a startled MALE SUSPECT - white, mid-20's - standing by a window with a rifle in his hands. He is turning towards her...CLARICE drops into a combat crouch, gun extended, and shouts.

CLARICE

Freeze! FBI!

Replace Clarice with My Name, also make necessary modifications with the descriptors like mid-20s, trim, very pretty, you can probably replace them with late-20s, appears to be trim, strikingly handsome! Hey.. don't worry, I have not yet gone mad! That was the opening sequence (as per the script) of Silence of the Lambs. A mock rescue operation going on in some Police Academy in the US. Tomorrow, we have a mock Income Tax raid here. IT raids - technically called - Search and seizures - are the biggest things that come to one's mind on hearing "IT". What has gone into IT raids here so far is long, and longer hours of lectures, mostly interesting. I can tell you very well that, it is not just about showing one's ID card, saying "We are from the Income Tax Department" and ransacking someone's resisdence. IT raids have much more to them. More updates after tomorrow. Till then..

Freeze! Income Tax!