Lackadaisical attitude, that is all

I wrote sometime ago about errors in signboards, atrocious state of English Language in the country and the lackadaisical attitude of people on power to ensure perfection or near perfection in whatever they do. Well, it looks like the country is only filled pompous over fed individuals who just delegate their duties to their subordinates, sleep on their job and just live off the hard work of foreign hands. Lately, it was brought to my attention of two notices that brought quite an embarrassment to the people who were given the responsibility to carry it on. (see this too!)

In the first instance, a congratulatory greeting ended up emitting the wrong vibes. A simple misplacement of letters gave an embarrassment that stinked to high heavens. (from TAHNIAH to TAHINAH, as tahi denotes faeces, nah is a derogatory and half hearted way of offering something). As the message was supposed to be a congratulatory note to a very powerful man, many heads are set to roll.
Trickling down to ground level, even in the supermarkets, labelling of goods are left to the imagination of immigrant workers to coin out new words in the Malaysian language. Mosquito traps are hot selling items these days due to public panic of dengue fever. In one supermarket, dengue (or denggi in Malay language). The supervisors must have left it to the menial workers to design the labels and this is what they got... A label displaying a RM29.99 device to eradicate jealousy and ill thoughts. You see, DENGKI is just that!
Unlike our forefathers who were generally hardworking people who only believed in the mantra of hard work as the only to success, we are slowly evolving to become a nation of laggards but still want to live in pomp and splendour. Because things have been relatively easy thus far, everyone thinks that it is their birth right to expect some kind of special treatment. The new form of slavery is dependance on foreign labour. Little do we realise that what happened in the 'Planets of the Apes' may indeed may become a reality. The apes who were initially recruited to help around the home eventually became too smart. One spark started a mutiny and pretty soon the world was ruled by generations and generations of apes of worsening brutality!

I want it all!

Her (2013)

Even though this film may appear quirky to some, I thought this 2013 entree to the Oscars deserved the holy grail. It is a social satire that poke funs at human behaviour and how it is destroying the very fibre of society. We, who are forever seeking for instant gratification, may end feeling miserable instead. We are forever seeking that elusive happiness that we crave for. We are blinded by our self centred reference of life rather than having a give-and-take attitude for the good of everyone.
We are made to believe that this is a science fiction but most of the technology, lingo and the cavalier attitude seen here are already happening as we speak. People are easily bored with everything they do. It is easy to go in out of a relationship.
Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix)is a lonely man who lead a lonely life wearing a perpetual frown on his face as if like he is holding the world's problem on his shoulders. He works as a professional greetings writer for people who finds it difficult to express themselves and he is darn good at it. He is undergoing a bitter divorce from his wife whom he grew together but over time grew apart.
He goes home to an empty flat to have his cold dinner, gazing at his holographic 3D TV to play his computer games. For entertainment, he calls for sex chat!
In this film, a common sight of people on the street is of them talking, forever talking. They are not talking to each other but they are talking on their blue tooth, yakking and giving instructions to the computer. Voice recognition is quite advanced. Typing is obsolete.

Theodore's only friend, a couple, Charles and Amy try to get Theodore to meet some girls in view of a relationship but in vain as he is reluctant to commit himself.
He buys a new OS with AI(Operating System). The OS adapts and evolves to satisfy the users need. It gives itself the name 'Samantha' and becomes a close to Theodore. They communicate and slowly their relationship becomes intimate! To feel the physical touch, Samantha arranges for a sex surrogate  (a female to act out on Samantha's command!)
To cut the story short, Samantha matures and develops her own idea of things. She becomes 'more intellectual' and 'more demanding' as she communicates with other OS's. The relationship also meets another premature death.
The problem with modern society is that everybody thinks they know what is best for them. And they do not take a no for an answer. There is no surrender and no compromise. They want it all and they want it NOW!

When they were kings...

Shakespeare Wallah (1965)
It is an English movie made in India describing the romance between a daughter of travelling theatre performers and a local boy. It is actually about the family of the Kendals whose members act in this film. Geoffery plays the father, Laura the mother, Felicity as the heroine, Jennifer Kendall is in a minor role as a guest house owner and Shashi Kapoor, their son-in-law (who married Jennifer), as the hero.
It is post colonial India. Some Britishers who stayed back in India start feeling nostalgic about their home. They reminisce the good old bygone days where they were treated as kings in India at the same time long to be in their motherland. In the same manner, the Buckinghams feel that they were wasting their daughter Lizzie's future by keeping her back in India. The theatre company that they run, showing Shakespearean plays, do not garner much support. The silver screen had taken over!
In comes a debonair Indian boy, Sanju, who is intelligent, able to keep her entertained and well conversant in English. They fall in love, so she thinks, until a Bollywood actress, Manjula (Madhur Jafferey) appears in the scene to warn Lizzie to keep her distance.
Sanju brushes the threat, saying that she is just a cousin.
Yo-yo here and there, their relationship sours. Sanju pours his feelings to Lizzie but cannot stomach the idea of his beau being awed by other viewers. The strained relationship ends there with Lizzie leaving to England.
Quite an interesting show set in the cool highlands of India. We have the chance to see a young Sashi Kapoor in a different role than the usual masala flick that we are used to. Madhur Jafferey gives a sterling performance that earned her the Best Actress Award in 1965 Berlin Film Festival. Interestingly, the music score was composed by Satyajit Ray.

It is a hard life!

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgian, Dutch; 2012)
AG thought 2013 would be the year of the Lion or Common Kestrel. With so many Belgian home grown international football players in the world arena and now a Belgian production a nominee in the Academy Awards for the Foreign Film category, it was her time in the spotlight. Now, we know Belgium has a movie industry.
This melodrama combines too many ideas into one presentation. It, however, excels in the music category. The soundtrack of bluegrass country music with heart warming plucking of banjo, mandolin and fiddle really stands out like no other. You may be asking what is bluegrass band doing in a Belgian setting? Well, the main character of the story, Didier has an obsession with this genre of music and looks up at the pioneers who promoted this kind of music. He plays in a band at a local pub. He has a love (?lust) at first sight moment with an owner of a tattoo parlour, Elise.

Common Kestrel
(Belgian National Bird)

Looks like the new way of telling story is the ala-Christopher Nolan style. The story is told in different time frames and the viewers are required to fill in the correct order. It is not too difficult, however.
An unplanned pregnancy initially scares Didier but later accepts the situation. Love blossoms in the household with the new addition, Maybelle. The story, all along, is interlaced with ear soothing feet stomping American folklore music.
At 6, Maybelle succumbs to cancer after failing all forms of treatment.
That is when I started wondering which direction the movie is heading. After all the sadness and acceptance, each parent blame each other for the child's demise, right down to genetic contribution. Then, there is a clash of spiritual ideologies. Didier is a strict non believer whilst Elise believes in the God above, heaven and all. They managed to settle their differences and start playing in the band again.
Then there is Didier's outburst on George Bush for vetoing the bill on stem cell research. Didier cannot fathom why a country (which he adores) has no qualms killing people through their wars but deprive potentially life saving researches. He blames this on Man's blind faith in God. He even has an outburst during one of the band's performances.
Didier and Elise never really got over the loss of their daughter and their relationship spiralled downhill. At one juncture, she attempts suicide. Despite resuscitation, she is left brain dead.
The most touching part of the movie is when Elise's life support is unplugged to the accompanying music of Didier and his band in ICU.
I feel that many of the areas that they wanted to cover were very wishy washy, lacking in depth and direction. I was left to wonder what really was the take home message. That being in an organised religion is bad, that America is bad, that relationships cannot last forever or how tragedy affects human relationships? Perhaps if the director had spent less time graphically portraying the intimate moments of the main characters, they would have succeeded in these! Still, excellent music!

A great thinking poet

Rabindranath Tagore (Documentary, 1961)
Written, narrated, directed: Satyajit Ray
It is said that Ray is related to Tagore. The Tagores were initially from the Banerjee clan but over time they became to be called Thakur as they were Brahmins and headed the society. Thakur became Tagore. Born in a wealthy family in Bengal, he was born with a silver spoon as the thirteenth child to a 45year old mother. He did not really shine in his childhood and even in adulthood, he did not complete his tertiary education.
Gradually wisdom came to him in his late twenties and the turning point came when there was tragedy in his family - 3 deaths in family; his wife, his daughter and his son.
His fame spread worldwide when his poem 'Gitanjali' was praised by Yeats which made Tagore the first non-European recipient of Nobel prize for Literature. He was also knighted by the Queen which he renounced after 1919 English massacre of Indians in Punjab.
Rabindranath's influence went beyond poetry. He had intellectual discourse with scientists and thinkers. He worked at the ground level to improve the well being of the Indian poor. His songs were patriotic in nature to stir the nationalistic spirit in the pre-Independence India. He established centres for learning of Indian arts.
His compositions made part of the national anthem of India, Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

Swipe at the self-chosen one!

Sadgati (The Deliverance, Hindi; 1981)


This 50 minute made for TV film is an intense depiction of the evil that Man do to each other in the name of pseudo-religious social classification. To ensure sufficient labour force to ensure continuity of duties in a community, society had created the caste system. To give legitimacy to this inhumane treatment of others, people of power had invoked the name of God to instil the fear to others at large.

It is good that this archaic practice is no longer the norm in modern Indian societies or at least is done subtly. Preferential treatment comes in other forms.

Sadgati is a classic Ray presentation with all the trademark of excellent storytelling and superb acting. I almost did recognise the main actor until his puckered face and nose gave it away, Om Puri. The late Smita Patel gave a short but impressionable role as his wife.

Dukhi (Om Puri) is a lowly village tanner who is just recovering from a viral fever. In spite of his incapacitation, he has to meet the village priest (whom he addresses as Maharaj -Supreme King) to get an auspicious time for his barely-of-age (easily just 12!) daughter for marriage.
With offerings of freshly cut grass for the priest's cows, he heads to the Brahmin household. He waits unceremoniously in the backyard while the priest completes his daily prayers. In a humbled manner, Dukhi invites him to his humble abode where his wife had prepared the ceremonial offerings and alms for him to officiate.

Reluctant to reciprocate, the priest orders Dukhi to finish some menial works around his household for him. The tanner, in spite of his hunger and being in convalescence state, obliges. He cleans the compound, packs the husk in sacks to transfer to the cowshed. Just when he thought that his job was over, Dukhi is asked to chop a log with a blunt axe.


While all these are going on, Maharaj prays, reads, conduct classes to teach the good word of the Lord, eats his lunch and even has a siesta.
A fellow man from the low caste watches the whole spectacle.
In fatigue, Dukhi snoozes off just to be lambasted by Maharaj. In agony, Dukhi continues his work with renewed vigour and frustration at his fate that he just drops dead!
As the corpse seemed to be lying on the path of Brahmins and their daily divine duties, there was an urgent need to move the body.

None of the workers, after hearing the inhumane treatment by the priest, wants to handle the remains as they fear that the Police may involve them. Given the Hobson's choice, Maharaj himself ties a rope around a rope around the Dukhi's ankle to drag him all the way back to his house. He was too 'superior' and 'clean' to touch the remains of a low caste man would work with the hide of dead animals.
In the next scene, normalcy is restored as Maharaj sprinkles holy water at the site where Dukhi died. And life goes on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jSwVwv_xwSM

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Why I Killed Gandhi

http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/india/why-i-killed-gandhi/

By Sanskriti on February 2, 2014

Nathuram Godse’s Final Address to the Court

Nathuram Godse was arrested immediately after he assassinated Gandhiji, based on a F. I. R. filed by Nandlal Mehta at the Tughlak Road Police station at Delhi . The trial, which was held in camera, began on May 27, 1948 and concluded on February 10, 1949. He was sentenced to death. 

An appeal to the Punjab High Court, then in session at Simla, did not find favour and the sentence was upheld. The statement that you are about to read is the last made by Godse before the Court on the May 5, 1949.

Such was the power and eloquence of this statement that one of the judges, G. D. Khosla, later wrote, “I have, however, no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal, they would have brought a verdict of ‘not Guilty’ by an overwhelming majority”

WHY I KILLED GANDHI

Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.

I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Ravana, Chanakiya, Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England , France , America and Russia . Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the molding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.

All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India , one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan , my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.

Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji’s influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them.. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day.

In fact, honour, duty and love of one’s own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita.. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.

In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India . It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history’s towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to them.

The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very good in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way.

Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and every thing; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma’s infallibility. ‘A Satyagrahi can never fail’ was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is. Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible.

Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Gandhi’s pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India . It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India , Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani.. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect, it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma’s sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India . His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.

From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi’s infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork. The Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947.

Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls ‘freedom’ and ‘peaceful transfer of power’. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called ‘freedom won by them with sacrifice’ – whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country – which we consider a deity of worship – my mind was filled with direful anger.

One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan , there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.

Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah’s iron will and proved to be powerless. Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan . People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building.

After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.

I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi’s persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.