Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight

If one day it happens
you find yourself with someone you love
in a café at one end
of the Pont Mirabeau, at the zinc bar
where white wine stands in upward opening glasses,

and if you commit then, as we did, the error
of thinking,
one day all this will only be memory,

learn,
as you stand
at this end of the bridge which arcs,
from love, you think, into enduring love,
learn to reach deeper
into the sorrows
to come – to touch
the almost imaginary bones
under the face, to hear under the laughter
the wind crying across the black stones. Kiss
the mouth
which tells you, here,
here is the world. This mouth. This laughter. These temple bones.

The still undanced cadence of vanishing.

-- Galway Kinnell


Picked from "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi

Movie Review : Mary & Max (2009)

Director : Adam Elliot

Genre: Animation, Dark Comedy, Drama

Cast : Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman

IMDb : 8.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Mary & Max is a claymation movie based on the lives of two pen friends, Mary, a lonely eight year old girl growing up in Melbourne suburbs and Max, an autistic 44 year old obese jew in New York. It's a dark comedy where two people living across continents become friends through letters. They have a lot in common as both love chocolate, enjoy watching a cartoon show called Noblets, and are without friends. 

Max is struggling with obesity, depression and Asperger's syndrome, while Mary suffers from neglect of her parents, and is teased by her peer group at school because of a birth mark on her forehead. They exchange letters (and chocolates) offering support and advice to each other and are brought closer by their isolation and adversities. Over the years we see a beautiful and complex friendship develop which goes through its ups and downs as the characters move ahead in their lives. 

Most of the movie is narrated by Barry Humphries, except the scenes where the characters read the letters. It is unique not only in terms of storytelling but also in the visual appeal, colour scheme and animation style. I doubt if the kids can enjoy the movie as the issues discussed are real life, and the witty narrative even though humorous has a dry gloomy tone. Throughout the movie I laughed a lot, as well as felt sad. A lot of wisdom is hidden in lines like the below one.

Max : [to Mary] Dr. Bernard Hazelhof said if I was on a desert island, then I would have to get used to my own company - just me and the coconuts. He said I would have to accept myself, my warts and all, and that we don't get to choose our warts. They are part of us and we have to live with them. We can, however, choose our friends, and I am glad I have chosen you.

This sweet tale of unlikely friendship is dark and grim, yet full of life. The movie took almost five years to complete and it shows in the great attention to detail in the way New York and Melbourne suburbs are depicted (I read it in the reviews by Americans and Australians). It's a refreshing departure from the usual Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar animation flicks and stands out because of its novelty and the depth of the story. 

प्रयत्न

आज इतिहास के विषय में कुछ सोच रहा था. याद कर रहा था कि दसवीं कक्षा में  इतिहास में क्या क्या पढ़ा था. सहसा  दिमाग़ में एक प्रश्न उठा कि syllabus को हिन्दी में क्या कहते है. पुरज़ोर कोशिश की लेकिन याददाश्त ने जवाब दे दिया. Google पर देखा तो याद आया कि syllabus का अनुवाद हिन्दी में "पाठ्यक्रम" होता है.

तभी ये एहसास हुआ कि अब मेरी हिन्दी काफ़ी कमज़ोर हो चली है जो बचपन में अच्छी हुआ करती थी. मेरे परिवार में अधिकांश लोग अच्छी हिन्दी बोलते हैं. इसका श्रेय मेरी दादी को जाता है जो हिन्दी की अध्यापिका थी. मैं बचपन में प्रेमचंद का साहित्य और हिन्दी के अख़बार काफ़ी पढ़ा करता था. स्कूल के अध्यापक कहा करते थे कि यदि हिन्दी सुधारनी है तो राजस्थान पत्रिका पढ़ो और अँग्रेज़ी सुधारनी है तो Times of India. इस बात को कोई 17-18 साल हो चले हैं.

आज न राजस्थान पत्रिका में अच्छी हिन्दी पढ़ने को मिलती है और न ही  Times of India में अच्छी अँग्रेज़ी. कुछ खिचड़ी सी लिखते हैं दोनों. बोलचाल की भाषा में भी अब हम अँग्रेज़ी का काफ़ी प्रयोग करते हैं और अच्छा हिन्दी साहित्य भी पढ़ने को नहीं मिलता.

इस साल कोशिश करूँगा कि कुछ किताबें हिन्दी की भी पढ़ूँ. प्रेमचंद के कुछ उपन्यास रह गये हैं , शिवानी की भी एक भी किताब नही पढ़ी है. आगे से इस blog पर थोड़े बहुत post हिन्दी में लिखूंगा. इसी बहाने  मेरी भाषा जो काफ़ी भ्रष्ट हो चली है, शायद थोड़ी सुधार जाए.

Ram Ke Naam

It's been more than 2 decades since the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya. Much blood has been spilled on the issue of Lord Ram's birthplace. The  issue, almost dead now, evoked passions across the country, something whose repercussions we still feel today. 

There's an eerie familiarity between the current political climate in the country and what happened around 25 years back. 

Here's a documentary from Anand Patwardhan which was made in the aftermath of riots that gripped the country following the mosque demolition. It might serve as a reminder to those supporting blind nationalism. Then, it was the muslims who were called the traitors; today, it's the liberals.

Alive 'n Kickin'

This blog celebrates its 7th anniversary today.I don't write often and the posts have become more impersonal in the past couple of years. Rather than inner musings, I've posted more of movie and book reviews.

A friend recently commented that the blog shows how I have evolved over the years. Maybe it's true, maybe not. Nevertheless, I hope to start writing more frequently soon and be regular with the posts. I want to do it not for others but for myself so that I'll be able to go back in time and see how I changed.

Like this blog, I've lost touch with many close friends in the past two years. I hardly meet new people and have almost stopped quizzing, one thing that I've loved most in past. I'm proud of none of it and would like to go back to doing things that made me happy.

I'm still alive. :)

Annihilation of Caste : A Review

I read this small 50 page powerful text by B.R. Ambedkar which was originally intended to be a speech delivered in Lahore on request of an organization called the Jat Pat Todak Mandal. The radical nature of speech forced the organizers to cancel the event and later, Dr. Ambedkar got the address published himself for circulation. 

It is a strong commentary about the ills of the caste system and how deeply it has affected the Indian society. He champions the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity and emphasizes that there cannot be any political or economic reform unless they're preceded by social reform. I found many arguments put forth by him to be extremely enlightening. 

" Religion, social status, and property are all sources of power and authority, which one man has, to control the liberty of another. One is predominant at one stage; the other is predominant at another stage. That is the only difference. If liberty is the ideal, if liberty means the destruction of the dominion which one man holds over another, then obviously it cannot be insisted upon that economic reform must be the one kind of reform worthy of pursuit. If the source of power and dominion is, at any given time or in any given society, social and religious, then social reform and religious reform must be accepted as the necessary sort of reform. "

He strongly speaks out against people like Gandhi and Arya Samaj who under the garb of Varnasharm actually supported Caste system. Point by point he rips apart the arguments given by the caste system apologists and exposes the fallacies in their logic.

The problem starts in the second half of the lecture where he proposes to get rid of almost all the religious text of hindus and to have one book as the  the solution to the problem. This is where I disagree with him the most. 

" The real remedy is to destroy the belief in the sanctity of the Shastras."

The authority of Hindu scriptures is probably the most important issue raised by Dr. Ambedkar. He assumes the Hindus to be a monolithic entity like the Muslims and the Christians, a very contentious claim which needs to be debated. He insists that the tolerant nature of Hindus is actually the result of their indifference and weakness on the whole because they were always a divided lot. To anybody who finds such arguments credible, I would recommend reading "The Hindu View of Life" by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. 

Repeatedly he has quoted verses from Manusmriti (the law book of Hindus) to give sanction to his views regarding the horrible practice of untouchability. It's true that many heinous practices of Hindus find their origin in Manusmriti. However, Manusmriti is not only a very recent text, in many ways it is also contradictory to what has essentially been preached in Vedas. That is why to form any assumption about Hinduism based on Manusmriti would be grossly inaccurate. 

"There should be one and only one standard book of Hindu Religion, acceptable to all Hindus and recognized by all Hindus. This of course means that all other books of Hindu religion such as Vedas, Shastras, and Puranas, which are treated as sacred and authoritative, must by law cease to be so, and the preaching of any doctrine, religious or social, contained in these books should be penalized."

It is such simplistic measures which have had led to the rise of  dangerous ideologies like Nazism, and violent Communism. Also, the dogmatic belief in "one book" is the root cause of the rise of Islamic terrorism today. His proposal of involving religion with state is what I found to be the most ill-thought out argument. 

"A priest should be the servant of the State, and should be subject to the disciplinary action of the State in the matter of his morals, beliefs, and worship, in addition to his being subject along with other citizens to the ordinary law of the land. "

We only have to look across the border and at the middle east as to what horrors religion can unleash when it becomes a state matter. 

Irrespective of what I find to be its shortcomings, Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important work of political writing in India. Caste system is still prevalent in its most dangerous form in many parts of the country. This work by Dr. Ambedkar is a must read for many who have not experienced the worst of caste system.

This essay, written almost 80 years ago is still relevant and it changes the perspectives of the reader on the Indian society.In the second edition, Dr. Ambedkar has published the criticism from Mahatma Gandhi and has replied to it in a very lucid and passionate manner and exposed how hollow some of Gandhi's beliefs were.  It's an eye opener for anybody who believes in the superiority of Hindusim and makes him face the ground reality as to why huge population of India converted to other religions over the years.

You can read this text here and the pdf can be found here. 

Movie Review: Okuribito (Departures)

Won Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2009. IMDb Rating: 8.1. Rotten Tomatoes: 81%

Okuribito (Departures) is a Japanese movie about life and death. It revolves around the life of a cello player who loses job when his orchestra is disbanded and finds employment in a firm as an encoffiner (one who prepares a body for cremation). Undertakers hire the firm to ceremonially wash and dress the deceased, in front of the gathered family and other mourners.

The story shows the relationship of the protagonist (Daigo) with his wife, new employer, and his father. Daigo avoids telling about the nature of job to his wife who is repulsed when she comes to know the truth. Disgusted, she leaves him when he refuses to quit. She returns when she finds out about her pregnancy while still being hopeful about changing her husband’s mind. 

The rituals and traditions involved in Japanese death rites are depicted in intricate details and the topic of death has been dealt with kindness and subtle emotions.  As in India or anywhere else, the job of an undertaker is looked down upon. The movie shows the profession in a good light and makes us realize its importance. With time, the protagonist who earlier accepted the work only because of his dire conditions finds purpose and starts taking pride in his work.  He is moved by the gratitude of the mourning relatives who gather to watch him perform the last rites for their loved one. Ryoko Hirosue's (Daigo's wife) transition from being ashamed about his husband’s profession to accepting it with dignity is captured beautifully.

There are a number of subplots in the movie which eventually connect to the main theme. They are incorporated so seamlessly that one hardly deviates from the main narrative. It’s difficult not to like the characters with whom we can easily relate in some way or the other.  

It scores high on screenplay and the sentimental cello music which contribute to the success of the movie. Emotions are captured beautifully and nowhere does the acting appear melodramatic.  This is why the movie is so beautiful.

Earlier I used to think that only Bollywood is crappy, but over a period of time, I have come to realize that even Hollywood is not far behind in doling out formula-driven and soulless cinema. Movies from other countries provide a refreshing change. Okuribito is one such piece of art.