For the love of God

First they gave the physical appearance of man to Him.  They gave Him our hue and variations. To give Him power and awe us, they increased certain capabilities, appendages, arsenal, power over beasts...
Then they dressed Him like us. Then they gave Him human traits, likes, dislikes, moods, rage, wisdom... All the traits that we feel to have and yearn for more.And they feed Him, bath Him and sing praises of Him. In other they personify Him! That cannot be right.
Some force which is way beyond our capability, wisdom and power donning our same traits and attire? And the 'boys club' that propagate and encourage these thoughts and beliefs? Or do they have vested interest?
You build a wall of superiority complex around you. You tell yourself it is for the masses who are not as enlightened as you. It is a point of reference for them to focus and understand something quite abstract like the arts. You do not need intermediaries to connect to Him as He is supposed to know your thoughts and even intentions, so why need middle men to put forward your requests? Just cut the red tape.
Why hail all our salutations when He is there to protect you? Or punish you too (the loving one?)? Why the formalities? Cut the crap.
But you tell yourself that you are one notch above normal being. That you understand the ridiculeness of the above and they are all symbolic. It is to help an average man who cannot fathom the concept of Nature, God and Universe. Just like it take certain finesse to appreciate something as abstract as art and beauty.

You can't dance or is it a difficult dance?

A surgeon does surgery and runs into problems. The surgery can be considered routine, but in life, nothing is ordinary. A mundane day may turn into an eventful day, and a highly anticipated event may be a non-event. Such is life.

The surgery is over, but one by one, what can and may happen after surgery or anaesthesia happens. What is justification (excuse)? Do you say it was a complicated surgery? A seemingly routine procedure that was anything but? Murphy's law was the order of the day?  Do you blame the anaesthesia, anaesthetist, the obese patient, the operating milieu, the technical difficulties, the subordinates or God?

Whenever anything goes wrong, the accusing fingers will point directly only at one person. That person would be the surgeon. The world does not expect an apology or self-mutilating honour preserving Hirakiri type of reaction. They just want to know what actually happened and the circumstances the misadventure occurred. The one thing that they want to hear is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! Your entire credibility would crumble and shatter to smithereens if and when you are found to be hiding or even deviating from the truth. If you are not forthcoming with information at times of misery, how will you be truthful at times of a happy ending?
And I am not talking about medical misadventures here...

Sherlock strikes again!

Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God, 1978; Bengal)

Satyajit Ray's Sherlock Holmes of the East strikes again! This time around, he (Feluda, who was seen in Sonar Kella; Soumitra Chatterjee), Jatayu (the writer) and cousin/assistant Topshe are summoned during their vacation in the holy city of Benares to investigate the missing Ganesha statue.

 
This simple case becomes complicated as the people get killed, everyone in the household becomes a suspect, and Feluda and friends are threatened by a local businessman who is also a no-good antique treasure merchant. Along the way comes a sage, Machlibaba, named so as he allegedly swam from Calcutta to Benares and gives fish scales as blessed tokens!

I sense a sense of cynicism on the part of the director. Even the meanest villains have pictures of Gods decorating their walls, even when he has a gun pointed at Feluda!

He is trying to depict the fakeness of the holy men and the supposedly holy people of Benares!

Preys pray?

Zeus

I have a friend who was devastated when his only son was afflicted with a scary form of cancer. He was aggressive in offering whatever humanly possible to nip the disease to the root of things. He has thus far successfully dodged his son's disease. At time of the initial denial phase, my friend made a vow at the spur of the moment that he who stop doing his divine duties indefinitely if his son did not escape the grab of the dreaded crab. So far, 2 years on, the Gods have not lost a devotee!
Then back to the present time, a plane goes missing. What are we told to do? To pray and invoke intervention of the unknown as the experts do not know what else to do!
How is prayers going to change the fate of things that had been predetermined through the synchronised chaos of the butterfly effects? Whatever has happened to the ill-fated vessel had already happened. Our interventions or coaxing of the Forces is not going to undo what had already happened.
What prayers could invoke is that we, the mortals, the comfort that we are actually trying to do something when all other earthly avenues are exhausted. It shifts the blame from a human side towards the unknown. In the end, everyone would just accept whatever the outcome is and take things as it is and reassure themselves that everything happens for the best.
What matters to us most in 10 hours may not mean too much at 10-days interval and possibly laughable 10 year later.
When caught in a corner and the situation is hopeless, a miracle may not happen but people will accept and move on.
If an outcome of the situation we are praying for is not a desirous one, does that mean that we have not prayed hard enough or it is that we had invoked the wrath of the Gods or do we it just accept that  everything happens for the best?  Is our prayer going to alter the path of the universe or adjust the orbits of the stars? Probably not. Then it would create another mammoth catastrophe which is bigger than life itself. There would not be anyone there to pray anymore or to pray for, would they?

Sneak peek into a high brow family

Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke (These Are The Path Of Love, Hindi; 1963)

Even though at the outset, the producers claim that the presentation was a figment of the story writer's imagination, and resemblances were purely coincidental, the public did not buy it. It is based on Nanavati's murder trial where a Parsee Naval Commander, Kawas Nanavati, stood accused of killing his English wife Sylvia's lover, Prem Ahuja, a wealthy debonair playboy Sindhi businessman.  

This court case took the Indian public by storm. They had to chance to have an intimate peek into the private lives of the upper echelon of the society. The crux of the trial was whether the Commander's crime was premeditated or was at the spur of the moment. Pretty soon sympathisers from both sides (those who thought the crime was an accident vs those who believed it was planned) began to make it a community issue - Parsee vs Sindhi. The case heard by a jury, the last of its kind in Indian legal system, found him not guilty of murder. The case was reheard in High Courts, and Navanati was found guilty.

Kawas Nanavati

He was later pardoned by Governor after pressure from Parsee community and that Nehru's sister at Governorship of Mahashatra helped. The commander used to move around with the high browed society, including the first family then, Nehru's.

Prem Ahuja

After being the family (Navanati, Sylvia who stayed on with him until his death and three children) emigrated to Canada.

This 1963 film has almost the same setting -an airline pilot Anil (Sunil Dutt) leaves his French-Indian wife Nina (Leela Naidu) and two kids under the care of his childhood friend, a confirmed bachelor, Ashok. Almost the whole film is told through the trial in flashbacks, poetic dialogues between lovers and fornicator, melodious hypnotising songs and the wit of Ashok Kumar, the defence lawyer, Mukherjee.

Sylvia Nanavati

The outcome of the case is different from Nanavati's one. Anil is acquitted, but they had Nina commit suicide to preserve the sanctity of an Indian lady!

I thought the movie was progressing well until it reached the last 20 minutes. In keeping the masala expectation of the audience, they made a big boo-boo. Just when everything was going against Anil's way- the intent, the ballistics, witness and all, Mukherjee reenacts a drama with Ashok's scorned fiancé, Asha, who actually also had shot at Ashok but they also found another gun with Ashok's fingerprint from which the fatal bullet found in Ashok's heart was fired! So Ashok killed himself! Confusing right? Don't ask too many questions, the songs and the witty dialogues will make up for the deficiencies in the storyline...

                    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KM_Nanavati_v._State_of_Maharashtra http://inconsistentandincomplete.blogspot.com/2011/12/mumbai-april-27-1959-nanavatis-story.html

Leela Naidu's 2010 book with Jerry Pinto indicates that the movie screenplay was written before the Nanavati case. It was a coincidence of the real-life case events with a similar movie storyline that led to similarities while the movie was being made. (Wikipedia)

More than four decades later, a newspaper, Hindustan Times, reached Nanavati for a story. Here is his reply-

Guilt may kill you!

Ethiroli (Echo, Tamil, 1970)
Story, Screenplay, Direction: P. Balachander
The opening scene of the movie says it all...

Sankaran (Sivaji) is a defence lawyer who stands flabbergasted as the prosecuting officer (VS Ragavan) crumbles his case where a defenceless women stands accused of murder.
Sankaran's turn to cross examine the main witness, pin drop silence, only the echo of the sound of the rotating fan. Camera moves on Sankaran's face. He walks towards the witness, staring. He does not say anything, just twirling a pair of reading glasses. He does not ask any question any question, just stares. Beads of perspiration are seen on the forehead of witness. Witness shivers. Prosecution cries foul, accusing of intimidation. Judge presses for Sankaran to proceed with questioning. Sankaran stays mum, still staring at the witness with fury. All of a sudden, the witness breaks down. He admitted that he never saw the accused actually run from the site of crime as he was bad sighted and was not donning his spectacles at the time of incident! Accused is free to go.
The opening scene itself showed that it was going to be one heck of a movie. Sivaji with expressive (sometimes over melodramatic) acting with KR Vijaya as his equally emotional consort gave justice to the role of display of various human emotions and human conundrum in this highly expressive noir-like not your usual run-of-the-mill Kollywood offering.
Sankaran is hot-shot lawyer who has set his future set in from him. Rumours are that he would be promoted to the the judge's bench pretty soon. As per formula of a good movie at the box office, comedy is compulsory. This is provided by Nagesh who actually is actually Sankaran's college mate together with the Prosecuting Officer. Nagesh failed his examinations and became a police constable. The constant nag by his wife about his lowly paid job provides comic relief through his antics of masquerading as a Police Inspector and a marriage broker.
Sankaran is trusted by one of his clients to pay a princely sum of cash to courts. The money is somehow stolen en route to the courts. All his efforts at recovering the monies or a loan proved futile. Upon returning from Tenkasi after a failed loan effort, his luggage gets mixed up with a fellow traveller (TS Balaya, who later becomes his in law) and he returns home with a suitcase of money and jewellery, way above the amount he needed.

7 Commandments

The real climax of the movie is now. Sankaran is a desperate situation. He stands to lose his reputation and promotion. On the other hand, he is in the profession on upholding justice. After much haggling and debating with himself and his wife, through a draw of lots he decided to keep the money. Even the hammer that he used to crack the lock open reminded him of the gravel that he is going hold to uphold justice.
One by one, all the principles that he held to his life is seen crumble one by one. Coincidently, on his daughter's birthday, Sankaran had presented a board with his 7 principles of life - Do not lie; Do not mix with bad people; Do not get angry; Do not forget your duties; Do not steal; Do not show fury to God; Do not murder!
As the news of the missing money hits the papers, the taxi driver (Major Sunderajan) who transported Sankaran's luggage reads about it. He starts blackmailing Sankaran to keep mum. Here we can see the respect between a lawyer and a working class man slowly dwindling. Coincidentally, taxi driver's girlfriend is the woman in the beginning accused of murder.
The story progresses with Sankaran digging himself deeper and deeper into self destruction. Taxi driver uses Sankaran as a free pass every time he is low on cash.
To cut the long story short, taxi driver is shot dead. Sankaran is accused of murder (the last of the commandment). Another interesting court case ensues, this time Sankaran at the dock. His brother, SS Rajendran is prosecuting. Of course, all turns out well. Sankaran gets his promotion too. He resigns after the first day as the gravel reminded him of the hammer that he used to break the lock! The doubt that he fail in upholding justice just as he had made a wrong call when he was in dire straits. He thought that he might waver from the side of justice.
An excellent movie could not have been as good if any other actor had done the role. Sivaji and KR Vijaya showed their star presence. The other actors, excluding Nagesh, Sunderajan and Ballaya, were simply overshadowed - Sivakumar, SS Rajendran, Lakshmi, Vijayalalitha, OAK Devar.

Sometimes you wonder if all those who commit crime do indeed have an internal turmoil before doing an act which they are well aware that it is wrong in the first place or is it like an after thought when they find themselves in trouble deep!
A person's upbringing, backgrounds and believes make one feel guilty of his actions. Even if the man-made court of justice escapes him, the guilt may indeed increase his stress hormones making him in continual risk of flight which make in turn push into him a state of hyper metabolism, stress related ailments, premature ageing and maybe even death. Unless of course, if you of the personality disorder or psychopath type where you experience no guilt and no remorse!

The neutralisation

In the course of my daily duties, in providing advice to partners who came in proud to display the result of the union of their love or their lusty clandestine activities, I cannot help but notice that quite a number of them have contrasting personalities. True, opposites attract, men are from Mars and women are from Venus but quite often each are from different poles, North and South, Night and Day, Beauty and Beast.
Sometimes I wonder how they reach common grounds.
Occasionally, it is a scenario of a beast with a beauty or the hog with a hunk. One may be articulate, the other clueless on social etiquette. One smelling of an English Rose Garden with Parisian perfume while the other with halitosis worse than overnight fermented ashtray. One warm and charming whilst the other cold and vicious. One educated and cultured, the other lacking in simple basic social skills. One may be looking for green card, what about the other? One mesmerized by outward beauty, the other internal which may be eternal?
Rod Stewart sang 'Some guys have all the luck' but I would say, "Do not despair!" All this 'luck' would all fizzle out over time.
What may have started as a union of convenience may soon turn stale when the reality of life pounds its thrashing bits by bits. And as the appeasing view may also be hit by forces of nature, ultraviolet ray and the loss of elastic fibres.
Some accept it as evolution of the times whilst others may go many extra miles to turn back the clock or at least slow the ticking hands of the face of clock of time...