THE FILM FESTIVAL

Art cinema is quite something very puissant in the way of communicating with the audiences.
Extraordinarily unbent no coincidences,no miracles just pragmatic.

Oflate I had the privilege of savouring some of it in the very altruistic theatre fest Bahuroopi.
Movies I managed to watch were Roots by Marvin J.Chomsky and John Erman,Amistad by Steven spielberg...
both of them based on slavery.One showing the unsuccessful pursuance of freedom by a slave and the latter showing the victory of humanity over politics.

The movie Amistad was scheduled to be screened back to back with this other movie called Cry Of Freedom.
And being dead timely we arrive 15 mins late for the movie and enter the room flashing the cell phone torch(which was am sure quite annoying to the others) to find our way and this usher rudely interrupts us asking us to put off the light...we do so...and realise there is no seat available..so we go and ask him if we can sit on the ground...he says-"movie is about to end but you can still sit"!!
Obviously enough it was the previous movie still running...so we get out and wait for it end.
After about 10 mins we go in again expecting Amistad to have started and since we didnt have a bat's vision we flash light again...but this time annoying this old man enough that he mutters to the man beside him-"AYYO!!EVERY 10 MINS THESE GALS ARE COMING AND FLASHING LIGHT"...
Nevertheless it was all worth as the movie was outstanding.Another over-the-top movie we caught up with was a spanish movie called sea inside,theme being mercy killing.
All in all an unforgettable festival.

A TALE OF TWO BRAINS

This is a tremendously hilarious analysis of the functioning of the male and the female brain and is perhaps damn on-key!!...

THE BUCKET LIST

Iam not really an ardent movie viewer...I prefer reading over watching stuff since laterly a movie is just a transmutation of pages into visuals(ofcourse not that I dont watch em at all!).But on the suggestion of a friend I watched The Bucket List.It features the lambent Morgan freeman and the endearing Jack Nicholson substantiating a bucket list.

I was excogitating if all of us had a ken of our respective deadlines, life would have been so much more different.We would just have to make that special effort and go the extra mile to realize the most perfervid desire and thats it...you would never get caught up in a vicious circle!...so that way you could not just die quenched but also live mirthfully!

The bucket list shown in the movie goes something like this....I guess...
1.Witness something truly majestic
2.Help a complete stranger for a common good
3.Laugh till I cry
4.Get a tattoo ....et cetera
If bestowed with a chance to create a bucket list ...ofcourse one would include all his torrid desires ...if you were also to include something extreme you had to realise for/on someone else.....what would it be?

The CRAZY CATCHER

Holden Caulfield a very infamously famous fictional character who bears the brunt of wedging
some unforeseen occurences both positive and negative.

He is somebody who has successfully glorified dereliction.The character has influenced innumerable artistic works including
television....psychedelic rock music...and has also been equally controversial(supposed to have influenced john lennon's assasination).

Everything about the character is so damn significant....his lecherousness,even his name...rightly pronounced as hold-on caul(a protective membrane for embryos)-field.He is churned up by the terrible realities of the world and resorts to alienation as its solution,and has his own profound theories for everything in existence.



Now the relevance of the image...I discovered it somewhere dont remember where...its the image of the little lake near the Central Park South(new york city) which holden
caulfield used to visit in his seek out for ducks.

He always wondered where the ducks went during winter.Like I said every thought of his was momentous.I couldnt figure out the duck disappearing theory...although i'd lik to believe that he is talking about temporariness...

And the image is supposed have ducks in the background...but I have to admit I cant
see them!! can you?

Make PEACE With IMPERFECTION

Like its said "the pursuit of happiness is the motivation for life"....

We never seem to be contented with what we have.We are always focussed on what is wrong with something and our need to fix it...which i guess leads us to feel disgruntled and hence dysphoric.
Why are we always in the quest of something better than we already posses forgetting its something we yearned for sometime ago!!!Perhaps thats the jugular of us the "fallible human beings".

Inspite of the cognizance of the fact that nothing is perfect and nothing is likely to be perfect
why is it so hard for us to make peace with imperfection?Is there really a possible way to do so...or are we just bound to strive in a constant battle of setting things aright and perfect....

Quoting John Lennon-"Life is whats happening while we're busy making other plans".

We incline to postpone our gratifications,our happiness often convincing ourselves that "someday" will be better than today...that "someday" never arrives!!!
Why is it reckoned that the supply of happiness,pleasure and contentment is rationed out and is
not limitless?!!or is it really that way!!
Is striving for imperfection really a worthy goal??!!

CELEBRATION??

Hurray!!! yet another booker for India!!Arvind adiga wins the Man booker prize 2008 for "The white tiger".


Indeed a moment of joy and pride for India.Havent yet read the book perhaps will do it soon...but from what I can gather the book exposes the dark side of India.But is it right on the part of Indian authors to cash on the dark side of India?Isnt it like demeaning India before the world? And to top it all it is a work of fiction if not to uplift the image but to disparage it even further.


India will be construed by its readers as a country with invincible poverty,ever looming illiteracy,esurient beings,abandoned kids,grubby streets,trifling governance,nepotism,larceny and ofcourse as the land of corruption.

Iam sure my perception is not largely cogent since a book is just a piece of art!but it does leave an impact on the minds of the readers... So should we celebrate the booker??

HOLIDAY time...frenzy time

Its dasara time and hence holiday time for all the school kids. 

Every available piece of flat land  around my house and in its vicinity is being used to chase the cherry.Cricket is like the hobson's  choice for all the kids to keep themselves occupied

all  day.Its like they are on a spree to obliterate their surroundings.Not like I havent experienced this  before 

just that I havent seen it in this kind of intensity.Curtsy 

our state government for making yet another nugatory rule that 

all schools ought to have a common vacation time for dasara.... 

Its quotidian to find kids playing cricket in the evenings 

but it gets freakin chafing when you have to listen to -

quibbles over "out...no...not out",squallings of "run out" and "lbw",

and roars of "howz dat" for like 50000 times a day....

          But what is most admirable about this whole thingy is the 

insouciance these kids possess.Just some wood,a bouncing cherry

and a piece of timber and they are all set to play the gentlemen's game the way it should be played unlike our national paladins who get moolah for it and yet they fail to retain the sanctity of the gentlemen's game.

ANYTHING FOR YOU MA'AM

Dint like the book much though....as its too striking,dramatic and full of happenstances just like a pure hindi masala flick.Nevertheless it had a few "winning over" excerpts-


"When will it be right,I dont know
What will it be like,I dont know
We live in hope of deliverance
From the darkness that surrounds us."
-Sir Paul McCartney


"There is one thing u've got to learn
Life is full of twists and turns
You've got to break the rocks in the hot sun,
For the tide to turn
If there is night..There has to be dawn
Life goes on......."

SOME SMALL JOYS

One seems so focused on what he wants from the future that he forgets to be thankful to the past for allowing him the life he has had. True, there always seem to be people for whom nothing is ever good enough. But there is little we can do about them.

There have been several little joys that stick to my memory to this day and will very probably go to my funeral with me. Regardless of any changes later in my life, these little shifts in my growth will never get overshadowed.

On a look out for an important document I ended up with stuff more momentous...
my slam books,loads of paper cutouts,photographs...which roped me to implant vignettes into my memory. During the process I realised how great a cricket devotee I used to be,prompted me of those few chums ive gotten disconnected with,raked up those kerfuffles which happened during the lunch breaks in the school,those quibbles over celeb paper cutouts,those flyspeck raslings during the game(I remember one in which I actually knocked this dame's tooth out)....these incidents so bantam yet so powerful,pedagogic and entrenched that its hopelessly impossible that they get erased from your mind.

There are more things that I ought to be thankful for. They may not mark turnabouts in my education or my personal life, but they affect the whole of my worldview in small but significant ways. We all need them for perspective and should remain ever thankful for them.

Charles Schultz Philosophy

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read straight through and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America Contest.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. They are not second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.


Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.


Easier?

The lesson: People who make a difference in your life are NOT the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones who care.

CLEAR HAI

Lately ive been obsessed with commercials on tv more than tv shows.Besides being short,they strike the right chord and deliver the message in practically the most innovative way possible,and surprisingly everytime.Above all you dont have to suffer the pain of prophesying-"what happens next?".
Some of them can be so effective that they almost get entrenched in your mind,besides the fact that they can also be highly deluding.I can still distinctly recollect
the very catchy "kya aap close-up karte hain..."commercial,
the very musical "bole mere lips...i love uncle chips" commercial or
the peppy "doodh doodh doodh...piyo glass full doodh" or
the very cute "i love you rasna" commercial.
After ages having seen a filmstar on a bajaj scooter (shahrukh in chak de india) reminds me of the very patriotic "hamara bajaj" commercial.

Of late commercials dont just market the product they also market the image of the endorser.And with celebs whom we consider local Gods,endorsing products,has taken marketing up by a couple of notches.Commercials can also be highly deceptive and dangerous.

A couple of such instances are.....ads like "fair and lovely" or "fair and handsome" which portray the idea of becoming successful by turning fair are i think promoting sheer racism,and ofcourse the very recent "sprite" commercial teaching guys how to have more than one girl friend and still be truthful to each of them.

But the saddest thing is that we are willing to get allured by these commercials.

Ignited minds

India since the past decade is known to have been on a developing streak.
With around 70% of it being comprised of the working class,India going great guns testifies the tremendous value addition done by the working class of the nation towards its path to not just a financially empowered nation but also towards a much edified society.
The overglamorised image of the elite society getting portrayed all over like never before is more inviting than anything else to a working class young mind aspiring to be a part of the jaunty society.This serves as a motivation to the ever dreaming young mind.
But the obscene and life threatening competition offered by the world kills their aspirations and desires in the process of achieving them,some prove their mettle some just recede.Their minds constantly work in several directions for their future planning.
They are in an incessant battle of testing their own dexterity in terms of ingenious and complex thought process,inventiveness and the ability to take critical decisions.They are always at the crux of their life’s momentous decision making processes.
Amidst all this frenzy the essence of living has ebbed away from their minds.The negative side is given more a thought in terms of fighting it and surmounting it,and that’s essential but the positive side also needs to be basked and talked about,which is I think done but sporadically.In my hunches the positive side of life is that what you have and not what you want to have,regardless of the set of problems you have(which comprise the negative side).
And I strongly believe this will help taste the real goodness of life.