The Story of our lives............

When our ancestors found that wheat
Was a good bread to eat
They settled in Jericho
All of us are settled now
But in our souls there is great woe:
We don’t know where to go

I am settled in a fine place
I own a house, I live in grace,
I have a patio
But late at night when the winds lament,
and the garden shivers – my soul is rent:
I don’t know where to go

One day when I say goodbye
To life and wife, and lie and fly
Somehere in a great flow,
I shall be free to roam again
I’ll try to find but try in vain
Where to go, where to go.

- Henry Shore

Movie Review: Black Friday

Movie Review of Black Friday (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400234/)

This movie is a docu-drama on the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai carried out by Muslim mobsters allegedly in retaliation of the riots in Mumbai where Hindu mobs targeted the Muslims (which followed the destruction of the Babri Masjid by Hindu crowds)

Starting with the brilliantly simple statement of Mahatma Gandhi: ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’, this movie so reminded me of United 93, the docu drama of the 2 planes crashing into the World Trade Centre on 9/11. Its not as crisp as the Hollywood movie but is trendsetting in the Bollywood context.

Although almost universally praised (including many Western film critics), surprisingly I found nobody really mentioned the points I am going to cover below. So here goes

Some aspects of the scenes/script were quite weak

• The policeman advising one of the main investigators not to open the scooter storage compartment since that can trigger the bomb. Duh!!!! And that too when they are actually searching for explosives
• Following an initial lead, the police vans rather overtly arriving in full force down a crowded Mahim Dargah Road to follow a lead at the residence of Rubina Memon. Lots of advance notice for the bomber to make a getaway. I guess to provide a level playing field for all parties.
• The policeman raiding the Rubina Memon house not using gloves and doing a rather amateurish job at raiding, displaying a surprising lack of urgency
• Tiger Memon’s accountant lifting an obviously empty suitcase oh so easily onto the airport trolley.
• The rather comic drama of the capture of Imtiaz and the inept (does that surprise me J?) police. Everybody just seems to have endless reserves of energy in running………and just letting Imtiaz escape
• The Imtiaz character being forced to imprint his bloodied thumb print on presumably a confession. Would it take a very stupid judge not to suspect something fishy?
• The discovery of the RDX sacks among fishstock: a badly made scene
• And I do have a slight crib about the indipop sounding final song accompanying the credits. It seemed to rather trivialize the film, the film seemed to be cruising along at a certain competency of integrity and then this song seemed to reduce it to something totally amateurish

Having got the above points out of the way, I would like to concentrate on the positives of the film, which are many. The scenes standing out in my memory from this film

• The chilling aura generated by Pavan Varma (portraying Tiger Memon)
• The reenactment of the bombings at Stock Market and in the BEST bus
• The rather authentic location shoots throughout India, mostly Mumbai
• Tiger Memon’s short speech drawing Badshah into the plot, a marvelous scene

The small characters who make the movie memorable

• The lady outside Rubina Memon’s house questioned on her whereabouts
• The accountant / manager of Tiger Memon who cracks open
• The Imtiaz character
• Dangale the interrogator

The movie is a must-watch and possibly a collectors-item

And finally I must dedicate this first film review on my blog to http://www.filmigeek.net/ whose regular movie reviews are a treat to read. I hope to draw inspiration from you

Book Review: The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown

The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown is distressing book. Primarily because it offers a mirror to us, South Asians on a gutter-society (for want of a better word) existing right under and in-front of their eyes but which we (and our rulers) conveniently choose to ignore and trample upon.

It’s a sociologists diary-converted-to-book, an experience (over a few years) of life in the Heera Mandi red-light district of Lahore, Pakistan. Primarily narrating the story of a particular family of prostitutes: Maha and her children. It’s a heart-wrenching walk through the changing face of Lahore’s Heera Mandi and the everyday tale of trials and tribulations faced by a host of characters: male, female and the khusras the 3^rd gender (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_%28South_Asia%29)

As an writers’ narration of her experiences, it is expected that they would be flavoured on every page by her views and opinions, biases, upbringing and beliefs, perhaps condescension and so they do. The question that does spring up from time to time in my mind in the book is how can the writer be a passive observer to some pretty ghastly episodes: watching a child succumb to TB due to lack of money (small change for the author), watching the event of an underage girl being sent to have her virginity ‘broken’ in a Sheikhs palace in the Middle East, recording faithfully the daily episodes of prostitution by minors etc.. All in the name of aseptic intellectual pursuit!!!!!! Or am I being a little too simplistic here? Which reminds me of that much-distributed email photo of a starving almost-dead African child about to be eaten by a vulture. The helpful text accompanying the photo mentions that the photographer did not venture to help the child and the child must have doubtless been eaten by the vulture soon after. The award-winning photographer later committed suicide. Which brings us to the potent question as to how far can you remain uninvolved in the subject-matter on hand.

I would recommend this as a must-read for all, primarily for its stress on talking about those ignored sections of society which we and our press all too often conveniently sidestep in pursuit of ‘India Shining’ or ‘Pakistan Shining’ or whatever.

The following statement in that book caught my eye and had me fuming in indignation (a little too soon as I was to discover). “3000 years ago religious prostitution flourished in Hindu temples throughout the subcontinent. Pubescent girls were married to gods and dedicated to temples where they performed ritual dances…………..This is not an archaic practice: its legacy continues even today in the devadasi tradition of India.” I was about to shout ‘No. It does not continue and has nothing to do with modern India’ when I thought of doing some preliminary research first. Sure enough, my indignation turned to embarrassment at my ignorance. Refer to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6729927.stm and the following statement at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devadasi

‘The government of Orissa has stated that the devadasi system is not prevalent in the state. There is only one Devadasi in Orissa, in a Puri temple. Similarly the government of Tamil Nadu wrote that this system has been eradicated and there are now no devadasis in the state. Andhra Pradesh has identified 16,624 devadasis within its state and Karnataka has identified 22,941. The government of Maharashtra did not provide the information as sought by the Commission. However, the state government provided statistical data regarding the survey conducted by them to sanction a "Devadasi Maintenance Allowance". A total of 8,793 applications were received and after conducting a survey 6,314 were rejected and 2,479 devadasis were declared eligible for the allowance. At the time of sending the information, 1,432 Devadasis were receiving this allowance.’

My apologies Louise, I stand corrected.

In this connection, Bollywood fans might find the following facts about Lata Mangeshkar informative. These are taken from the book Bollywood – A history by Mihir Bose, an otherwise pedestrian book.

‘…….the forefathers of the Mangeshkars came from Somnath, where they were devdasi (temple musicians and dancers) at a temple………….After the sacking of the temple and its wonderful treaures by Mohammed of Ghazni (whose annual winter habit was to plunder India)…..Lata’s ancestors fled Somnath for the south and settled in Goa, in a place called Mangesh……..Here they once again resumed their services as devdasis………..Lata has always been cagey about her antecedents and, in her autobiography, written in Marathi, her native language, there is no reference to all this.

Update on 3-Apr-11

From ‘The Big Book Shelf’ - Sunil Sethi in conversation with 30 famous writers

William Dalrymple: …… Devadasis in medieval India often had very high status; they were the great dancers and singers. Bharatanatyam originated with them; Chola princesses would become devadasis. Many devadasis were not simple prostitutes, but had a high status in temples – they looked after the sanctuary and were consorts of the deity which meant looking after the idol. In many ways they were more like nuns than prostitutes. Then legislation – well-meaning initially – in colonial and post-colonial times made the institution illegal but it didn’t kill it, though it cut it's link with the temples and destroyed the devadasis’ high status. Today the devadasis are almost all Dalits and, frankly, their lives are little different from prostitutes working in brothels ………. Yet in their minds, it is entirely different

Book Review: Holy Cow: An Indian adventure by Sarah MacDonald

Talking of the Dervla Murphy book reviewed below brings me to a book: Holy Cow: An Indian adventure by Sarah MacDonald

Seems to me to be just the sort of book one writes with an eye to making money, slightly embellishing it with fanciful experiences. Maybe I am wrong on this count, but again maybe not.

Madam Sarah, sorry to say but I found a layer of snobbishness and snootiness throughout the book.

Views such as the ones below makes me feel you are better off in Sydney then India

• “………..many Indian flight attendants are rich girls whose parents pay a massive bribe to get them a job involving travel and 5-star hotels”

Now that’s a new one. I have heard that India is a mecca for grafts and related activities but I never heard of this one.

• “Hindus revere cows, probably because one of their favorite gods, Krishna is a cowherd and Shiva – the Lord of Destruction - has a bull called Nandi”

Doesn’t that sound a bit simplistic to you, Sarah. I mean Lord Ganesh rides on a mouse, why don’t we revere the mouse and put it on a pedestal? With a background of 2000+ years of cow worship in India, you probably thought about it for about 10 minutes, wrote it down in 2 simplistic statements in 2 minutes. Wow, wish life was as simple as that. How about taking a bit more pain in researching, Madam Sarah??

• “Hari Lal (whose name means ‘green red’).”

Didn’t it occur to you to ask around a bit. ‘Hari’ means ‘God’ or ‘Krishna and ‘Lal’ means ‘son’. You seem to be bent on proving your dumbness or maybe those smart-ass statements rake in money for you at the expense of all those goras laughing at us ‘dumb Indians’ for naming their kids ‘Green Red’. And yes Hari and Lal also mean ‘Green’ and ‘Red’ in some other context.

• …..Mogul invasion wiped out Buddhism in its country of origin

Hmm, thanks for contributing another ‘original’ theory to the disappearance of Buddhism from its country of origin

• Didn’t it occur to you to present this book to some of your Indian friends for whetting. ‘Worly Hill’ in Mumbai. ‘Worli’ works just as fine for 99.999% of Mumbai-ites
  
• Amma the hugging guru whispering in your ear ‘rootoongarootoongarootoongarootoongarootoongarootoongarootoongarootoonga’? “…….A five-second flash of nonsensical babble is hardly inspiring faith”

Didn’t it occur to you to explain in the book that Amma probably can only converse in Malayalam, her mother tongue and that her words probably made more sense that you could understand…….if you could understand Malayalam.

• “Indians………they can get married at the age of fifteen but cant drink in this state until twenty-five”

I wonder which version of the marriage laws has she read…Indians getting married at 15. Going by her vision, there must be hordes of them doing that legally.

One wishes for more sensitivity in books someone writes about other cultures. Is that too difficult a demand?

Some thoughts.....................not mine

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.

– Kahlil Gibran

Desire, when it stems from the heart and spirit, when it is pure and intense, possesses awesome electromagnetic energy. This energy is released into the ether each night, as the mind falls into the sleep state. Each morning it returns to the conscious state reinforced with the cosmic currents. That which has been imaged will surely and certainly be manifested. You can rely, young man, upon this ageless promise as surely as you can rely upon the eternally unbroken promise of sunrise…and of Spring.

- Swami Sivananda to APJ Abdul Kalam.

All reasonable men adapt themselves to the world. Only a few unreasonable ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. All progress in the world depends on these unreasonable men and their innovative and often non-conformist actions

- George Bernard Shaw

For all your days prepare
And meet them ever alike
When you are the anvil, bear –
When you are the hammer, strike

- a little known poet of the 19^th century

Book Review: On a Shoestring to Coorg. An Experience of Southern India by Dervla Murphy

On a Shoestring to Coorg. An Experience of Southern India is a travelogue by Dervla Murphy set sometime in the year 1973. Its about an oldish English(?) lady who is infected by the bug of traveling and he travels in the Coorg area of South India with her 5 year old daughter.

As an Indian, I find that some of the statements/assertions in her book are quite sweeping generalizations and almost filthy racist attitudes. Examples

• ‘Through the jostling noisy crowd……….no sign here of Hindu inertia’
  
  
• ‘…….she think nothing of lying down on a filthy deck amidst scores of talking, eating, praying or copulating Indians.’
  
  Indians copulating on the deck???? Now that’s a new insult. Was she on drugs?
  
  
• ‘……..and we have the 5-year old daughter Rachel saying ‘Anyway, I think some of the Indians look more like monkeys.’.Its almost as if the author has put her inner feelings in the mouth of her child thus trying to escape censure. What need prompted the author to include these rantings in the book? Maybe to satisfy her inner racist urges by way of her daughters mouth.
  
• ‘….who were putting away more good food in 15 minutes than the average Indian can lay hands on in a month.’
  
  Talk about exaggerations
  
  
• ‘….to ring the temple bell but I explained that not even Hindu women…….are allowed to do this.’
  
  Huh!!! She is almost taking this as a representative example rather than an exception which it is. Generalizing for 1 billion people. Madam, get yourself a good education
  
  
• ‘Yet the effects of a vegetarian diet show in the lack of stamina, which is said to be one reason why so few South Indian hockey players are picked in the national team, despite their renowned speed and skill’
  
  It’s a marginally better decision of the writer to become a writer and not a doctor. I haven’t come across any scientific studies which point this out. In modern times, the author would have be shunned by the public for such horrid racial profiling
  
  
• ‘A small boy who spoke excellent English (he attends one of the last outposts of intelligible English in India – a convent school)’
  
  
• …….and saliva, phlegm and mucus, which are believed to be ‘spoiled semen’ (even today semen is popularly supposed to be stored in the head)
  
  Duh!!! Which demented characters have you been speaking with?
  
  
• ‘Indians love noise and habitually amplify their degraded cinema pop music to truly diabolic proportions.’
  
  Oh yes, the westerners are the torchbearers of the civilized world. The music of the easterners is cacophony.
  

And you have the high and mighty English press: The Guardian, Observer and Times extolling the virtues of this book on the front and back cover.

Its a pity really. Were it not for the conscious/subconscious racism and sneering attitude, the book is quite delightful in parts. Especially the parts that cover the cute 5-year old daughter

On Bollywood

While reading the book ‘Bollywood – A History’ by Mihir Bose, I came across the following exposition on Bollywood and found it a pretty neat one.

Benegal says:

We have a different tradition of cinema compared to the Western tradition. The genres that Hollywood has were never created. The West broke up everything. They said this is drama, this is comedy. Hollywood created different genres: thrillers, supernatural films, caper movies, social films, comedies and tragedies. Because we have such a diverse audience we want to cater to different kinds of taste. And in order to do that we have to keep a common denominator, so you have to put in a little of everything so it attracts diverse kinds of people. Our films have everything. We created an all-encompassing genre. The same story will have comic sequences, will have tragic sequences, melodrama, music, song and dance. I suppose it came because the artistic tradition in theatre, or any of our performing arts, have been of that kind. Look at our performing arts. Who were the performers? They were itinerants. They moved from place to place. And naturally, not each place would want the same performance. So they had to have a good variety in their acts. To cater for a wide range of interests and sensibilities you had to create a form that would be suitable for everyone. So that is how our dramatic form developed. Popular cinema followed that tradition. What satisfies the audience here does not satisfy them intellectually; it is the emotional charges. The situations are typical, the situations more or less the same but they make the audience cry, they make the audience laugh, they make the audience enjoy the song, make their feet tap to the dances, all those kind of things. The same film has to have everything in it. That’s traditional, much like our food, because otherwise we don’t feel satisfied, either with our food, or our entertainment.

……..A proper Indian meal is an amazingly free wheeling experience compared with the tightly structured Western cuisine. In the West, meals are a linear progression, moving in a certain stately order: from small starters to larger main courses and then desserts, with each course very distinctive and totally different to the previous one. Indian meals have no such neat, linear progression of starter, main course and pudding. On the Indian dining-table, one course follows another in no particular order and some Indians even begin their meal with puddings, or eat them in between mouthfuls of savoury. The Indian thali…….the various dishes, including sweets, are put in little pots with various kinds of food and arranged circularly around the edge of a stainless steel plate. Watch an Indian eat and he might dip into any of the pots or all of them, including the pot containing the sweets. Indians say this is a joyous symphony of diverse tastes, colours and flavours in one mouthful.

And so Bollywood now started making films which had action, violence, a wronged mother, a lost son, a foiled rape attempt, a successful rape attempt, a subplot involving a dastardly criminal and a maid - who may or may not be a lost daughter – and the whole thing interspersed with lots of songs.