An overrated virtue?

The mold used to be cookies. During RRF days,

Amma used to cut out sweetened flattened dough to

deep-fry the cutting. Nobody particularly enjoyed it

except for Appa. It was a regular feature though for 

Deepavali then. It would be the last delicacy to finish

as the other popular ones are scooped by us!

An acquaintance wrote a touching eulogy of sort on the death anniversary of his father. He narrated the poignant moments of the last few months that he spent with his ailing father. He recollected some touching instances when his father literally went against all odds to ensure that his offspring got what he wanted. Through his actions, father showed his son the true meaning of the word 'love'. Not much was spoken neither was there public display of affection in the way of hugs or kisses.
Only then you would realise that many displays of love is not physical. They are mostly unsaid, unspoken and quite often unrealised until the magic hour is over. Another friend even went as far as to add that not all love for the physical is love at all.
Many things are spoken when you say nothing at all. And sometimes words are just hot air emerging from nowhere meaning nothing but just wind.

When does it snap?

Whiplash 2014

This award winning film again embarks into the question of how harsh the teacher has to be to bring out the best in a student. One has to be stretched to the limit to discover his true hidden potential. Do you think that the greats of talents just had their potentials just ooze out without provision? By not pushing to the threshold, the world would be missing all their good work. Michael Jackson would not be Michael Jackson if not for the long torturous practice sessions and the Hitler-like coaching by his parents. Just like that the world would be deprived of all the good times and good music!

Andrew, a new student at a prestigious music is thrilled to be a jazz drummer. He is recruited by a strict teacher, Fletcher. Slowly Andrew discovers that Fletcher has a horrible temper and it passes beyond the boundaries of abuse. Fletcher feels that his method helps to bring out the best in his students. 

Eager to be the main drummer in his class, Andrew practises till his hands bled and breaks up with his girlfriend to ensure 100% commitment. At this juncture, I thought the movie would another one of those boring success stories where the protagonist would come out tops despite the adversities. Luckily, I was wrong.

Before a particular competition, everything seem to had gone wrong for Andrew. The bus he was travelling had a puncture and he had misplaced his drumsticks. In the frenzy of trying to play in the competition, he is hit by a truck while hurrying to the hall. Andrew still drags himself to perform albeit miserably. A tiff which ensued later got Andrew expelled!

There are no two words in the English language
more harmful than good job.

Hearing about Fletcher's method of teaching and the possibility of a previous student committing suicide, a lawyer approaches Andrew to squeal on his former teacher promising anonymity. He agrees. 

One day, he encounters Fletcher playing in a jazz band after being ousted from the college. One thing led to another and Andrew is persuaded to play drum at one of Fletcher's band that he is coaching.

During the performance, Andrew is humiliated by not being given the musical notes to play. Fletcher knew all the while who had reported about him!

Andrew retaliates by giving a once in lifetime superb presentation that not awed the audience but Fletcher too - all the drilling by Fletcher had obviously paid off!

India's daughter

BBC releases India’s Daughter on YouTube!

After much speculation, the highly controversial documentary, India’s Daughter, makes its way to the World Wide Web. Banned in India, the documentary focuses on the rape case of Jyoti Singh who was brutally beaten and raped in Delhi in 2012.

The documentary highlights the aftermath of the event as well as a one on one interview with assailant Mukesh Singh. While BBC was in high hopes of releasing the video on television for Women’s Day (March 8th), heavy protests against Mukesh Singh’s lack of remorse and despicable comments lead the the ban of the documentary in India.

Directed by Leslee Udwin, the film has now been made available on YouTube.

india's daughter bbc documentary
http://urbanasian.com/whats-happenin/2015/03/bbc-releases-indias-daughter-on-youtube/

Resting on past laurels?

The Imitation Game (2014)
The Brits, ever nostalgic over the times when the sun never set on their empire, are still not done with their success stories. This time around yet another angle of their success indecoding the unbreakable German Enigma machine.
The movie did not really strike as a suspense thriller but rather as one sympathetic to the plight of the LGBTQ community. And we have been too many of that kind of late!

The story is not anything new. As it is of historical nature, the outcome is well known, nothing unexpected.

It tells of a Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock fame), a socially awkward mathematical genius who is recruited an encryptor during the WW2 era. He and his team managed to decipher the German codes and potentially shorten the war by a good two years. 

Kiera Knighley as Joan Clarke

The real Joan Clarke

The real issue that the film makers are trying to highlight is that a man of such stature, his deed to the country is reciprocated by his subsequent imprisonment and chemical castration for homosexuality. His incarceration ended with his apparent suicide. 

During his tour of duty, he was engaged to his co-worker, Joan Clarke. As we can see from the picture below, a plain Jane, mathematical whiz and crossword puzzle maestro is made larger than life with the razzmatazz and make-up as portrayed by the lovely Kiera Knightley. An average movie by my taste.

Running commentary of life?

Looks like a new form of parenting has crept into our society. The little one, usually a toddler would be given sort of of a running commentary of all the things that go around him.

Bring him to a checkout counter, while the mother is busy unloading the trolley of food stuff, the father would be busy narrating what is being done and how the transaction is recorded, calculated and so forth.

At the obstetrician's office, whilst having the good doctor examine the yet-to-be-born addition to family, father does his duty again. He explains to the confused toddler of the various anatomical parts of his offspring as seen on the ultrasound screen much to the annoyance of the attending obstetrician. The doctor who is still living suspended in the good old time where children were seen and not heard,  seriously wonders whether the child really understands what in heaven's name is going on, but the father's duty has to go on! He is waiting for the son to ask the father, "Who put little Tommy in?" just like he heard his mother read to him the nursery rhymes "Ding Dong Bell".
In his own mind, the obstetrician shudders what the father would say to son when he is literally caught with his pants down during his nocturnal orchestrated manoeuvres in the dark?
I thought children were to explore things themselves, learn the hard knocks lessons of life through self discovery and research rather than being spoon fed information that they sponge up as they pompously slide through life mollycoddled and sugarcoated....

Can't get enough!

The Beatles Lyrics, Hunter Davies (2014)

I guess we will never have enough of the Beatles. This time around a book to analyse the lyrical content of each song composed by them album by album from 1962 (Love me do/PS I love you) to 1969 (Abbey Road).
The obvious loophole in these type of publications is that they may be guilty of over analysing and interpreting things as the author wants to see it. The author, however, claims to have spent enough time to know what goes through the Beatles' minds. Roughly, I would divide the songs onto 3 eras- the early years, the studio years and the beginning of the end...
I realised from the outset that the best way to appreciate this book is to simultaneously search the songs on Youtube as the authors analyses song by song, album by album over the years.
Invariably, the lyrics of the songs are reflective of things that happen around their daily lives. The early post-Hamburg stage was the time they would do (write) anything just to be noticed. They were running around performing around the globe to screaming teenagers whose voices buried their melody and songs. In spite of their hectic schedules, they still managed to write a few songs here and there. (And everywhere - on receipts, bits of envelopes and letters!) In fact, these memorobilias are collectors items and are regular features at Christy's.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney have distinctive ways of writing song. Paul goes more for melody whilst John is particularly fastidious about lyrics. The early era comprised lovey-dovey songs. Their respective love lives became a nidus for their creativity.

Something as mundane as paper reporting of a depressed teenager running away from her house can metamorphose into a hit song. A Melanie Coe's disappearance was described beautifully from the side of Melanie and her parents. The lyrics mirror the emotions that went through their mind on the said day of event. (She is leaving home)

George Harrison, being the younger of the pioneer three lived in the shadow of the two only to blossom later. Their entanglement with Indian culture enriched their songs, music and lyrics wise. With the help of psychedelic drugs and Eastern mysticism, their songs suddenly started sounding so profound and light years ahead of their time. Hinduism, with its pacifistic outlook to life and symbiotic nature with environment, is just a platform to build your lyrics of a song to sound exotic and different. 

Compared to the acts who were in vogue during their time, the Beatles were considered decent and mild mannered. Their songs were clean, they were well dressed - suit and tie; but the band wanted to let it all out but restrained, unlike Rolling Stones.
To different people, the lyrics of Beatles' songs denote different things; to the young it may be about joy, fun, love and its intricacies, the the older it could be about deeper meanings of purpose of life. Even Charles Manson interpreted it as a call to justify his hideous activities. Their stint with Maharishi and the mysticism of Indian philosophy immensely enriched their songs especially in Harrison's composition as evidenced by his works in the post-Beatles years.

Life becomes more difficult as time went on; internal problems mounted and their ego bloated. Yoko's entry was not seen as a welcoming move to the rest of the group. Despite their squabbles, they still managed to churn out gems of songs in the White Album and Abbey Road Album.

Equilibrium in the ecosystem?

The Ballad of Narayama (1983)

In many scriptures, folk tales and legends, many protagonists after finishing their feats on Earth, they would just disappear into oblivion, away from the limelight. Hang Tuah, after reaching an impressionable age when his reflexes took a decline, is said to have just wandered into the jungles of Mount Ophir (Gunung Ledang) to wither away. Some say that he embarked into a journey of self-discovery and meditation to age away and go back into the ashes of Nature. Of course, the romanticised version dictates that he went in search of the elusive drop-dead sultry temptress, Putri Gunung Ledang and they lived happily after in the clouds of ecstasy. Siddharta Gautama and King Krishna are also said to have taken similar path of withering away after realising that their work on Earth was over.
winner film tells the story of inhabitants of a remote mountain area in Japan. Their way of life is so simple. They live in harmony with nature and its inhabitant. Day to day living is dictated by a strict code of conduct which had been passed down over generations. Food is scarce in the mountainous terrain with harsh weathers. Theft of food is dealt with severely by communal justice. And after reaching the age of 70, the elders will be led by their young to basically die up slow death in the icy mountains of Narayama. The elders take it upon themselves a living pride to be able to make it to Narayama akin to a life long pilgrimage.
These rules and regulations help to maintain equilibrium in that small community.
The film suggests that people are no different from other animals in the world we live in. Interspersed between the story-line are picturesque shots of various animals and insects in form of activity like copulation and hanging around, very much like what the human characters are doing. The snakes are also living in the house as characters of the film do but people also eat snakes!