Back to the driver's seat!

Hindu View of Christianity and Islam (1992)

Ram Swarup

The thought of my simple-minded mother heartbroken over her beloved son's conversion from his birth religion into an Abrahamic religion was deterrent enough for me to maintain the status quo. The vision of her disappearing into the horizon as I am saved by the second coming of Christ at the end of times and the image of her burning in hellfire whilst I, because of my foresightedness in following the Shepard, savouring the sweet nectar of bliss was just too much for me to stomach.  

I cannot blame her for feeling the way she felt. After all, it is her life experience. In her eyes, as the script of Ram Swarup's view suggests, there is no reason to embrace another religion as the Hindu religion has it all. It has been around since the beginning of time. There must be a reason why unlike the other new kids of the block, its philosophy of living in harmony with our inner self, the environment and the cosmos resonates with other Eastern, African, American Indian and other ancient belief systems.

My mother perceived the Abrahamic religions as disruptive, combative and condescending at best. Her childhood encounters reinforced the idea that the nuns that she had met had ulterior motives in their niceties. She had seen families torn apart and marriages disrupted because of the divisive natures of Western belief systems. In her eyes, Hinduism has been and is still able to provide emotional solace and intellectual support to last this lifetime and the ones beyond. Period. 

Ram Swarup is a respected figure. Starting as a freedom fighter, he later was a prolific writer on matters critical against Christianity, Islam and Communism. Through his association with the publication house, Voice of India, he churned out many Hindu revivalist articles. The West sang praises of his scathing articles about communism but was not so complimentary on his views of Abrahamic religions. 

In this book, he asserts that the political differences between tribes, people from different parts of the world were content with their pagan beliefs, living in harmony with Nature with their own set of social mores that kept them going as a society. The Hindu type of faith spread eastwardly as far as Japan and westwardly as far as Central Asia. In fact, the Lithuanian language shares keen similarity to Sanskriti language. The last pagans in the Baltics who were forcefully converted by the Templar Knights had many Hindu deities. In fact, the Africans were not in a dark continent, but, on the contrary, were illuminated with their own advanced philosophy.  The Native Americans, whom the Spaniards looted were not just bison-hunting savages but with their profound way of life. The Aztecs and the Mayan who were systemically infected and forcibly converted to accept Christ at gunpoint had a shared belief system with the Hindus.

The Abrahamic religions need to put their act together. They need to engage in public relation to erase their checked past to rebrand themselves. They should erase the perception, to the non-believers, of a jealous God who is hot on the trail of a recruitment drive. Or perhaps, their past intentions persist, but their modus operandi may have varied. The perception of a heathen is the religions are means to exert power and a modality to squander money.

Ironically, India, a subcontinent that was referred to as the fatherland of mankind, exuding with advanced knowledge and skills has morphed into an ignorant, divided, self-hating society that has forgotten its past glory and needs validation for its own existence.

On a happy note, the author believes that the future is bright as India has reawakened. Even though it was pushed under the wheels of the bus of the Industrial Revolution, it has wriggled itself out to clasp its hands on to the driver's seat. Now, it needs to steer its wheels.

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You say you want a revolution

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020; Netflix)

Everyone wants to live in a utopia. Even the Islamic jihadis, who are hellbent on destroying everything nice, are looking for that heaven on Earth. The human race continually feels dissatisfied with the way things are run and yearns for reforms. 

Firstly, the society starting with the moderates will initiate the move to change. The ruling regime would appear set in their old ways and seem apathetic to the demands of the majority. Like the 'Emperor in his new clothes', they would be pleased in their own echo-chamber. 

People would rise to the demand for their place in the sun. People would win. Sadly, other self-serving radicals will piggyback on the movement. Controlling a large crowd is no easy task. Emotion runs high, and quickly the peaceful demonstration escalates into a violent protest. Even if the moderates managed to change the status quo, the comrades in arms with different ideologies would steamroll their own agendas. The system will become corrupt. Bear in mind there would exist external forces who are one-track minded on collapsing the whole society so that they can infiltrate with their own plans.

There is an eerie similarity between 1968 America and the 2020 USA. 1968 saw an angry America sending his not-so-fortunate sons of the soil for the slaughter in Vietnam at a draft rate of almost up to 35,000/month. Sending young American men as sacrificial lambs in a land 10,000 miles for a mission so bizarre as countering global Communist threat. That would cost LBJ's re-election ambitions, and the Americans wanted to make their dissatisfaction felt. It was a tumultuous year with Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy, the Democratic hopeful being assassinated. Many civil society group members would congregate outside the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago to express their dissatisfaction in the US involvement in the Vietnam War. 

The Chicago 7: Abbie Hoffman, John Froines, 
Lee Weiner, David Dellinger Rennie Davis, 
 Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin

What started as a peaceful protest quickly escalated to a blood bath when the crowd became rowdy and the police used their might to subdue the mob. With accusations of high handedness by the police and malice intent of protestors, eight civil society group leaders were charged for intending to start a riot. Bobby Searle, the founder of 'The Black Panthers', was initially included in the charge list but later dropped during trial after a blatant disregard for his civil rights.

This movie narrates the drama, and high tension that hung during the trial of the accused (Chicago 7) in a courtroom presided by an old school judge whose standards would raise many eyebrows by today's standards.

Many liberal and left-leaning thinkers assert that the general anxiety of the American is comparable to that of the 1968 generation. With increasing death toll due to Covid, the uncertainties associated with the post-Covid world and the possible imminent loss of world dominance to a Communist country, people are generally angry, in their assessment. This, they say, is the reason for volatility of public as evidenced by Black Lives Matters movements, increasing Islamophobia and hostility to immigrants. Of course, it is not so straight forward. The world has become more complicated since 1968.

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More to hide under the robe!

George Bernard Shaw is said to have said, "whenever you wish to do anything against the law, always consult a good solicitor first." At a time when the law is often called upon to decide the appropriateness of the action of one in power, doing the right thing in the eyes of the law is more important than ever.

It used to be that wars were planned by generals and executed by soldiers with the national leaders as their chief commander. Not anymore now. Over the years, it is increasingly evident that members of the legal fraternity play an ever-important central role in the targeting and other military operations. They are known as war lawyers.

Since after World War 2, the world started looking at how badly humans treat each other in the name of defence of ideology. They realised the dire need to dictate how to act 'humanely' in the face of conflict; how to behave with civility looking at the mouth of impending death! Law was applied for this purpose.

The War Lawyers interpreted and examined the laws of war in and out. They applied these laws in aerial targeting operations carried out by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Israel military in Gaza. They justified their attacks, quoting prevailing laws to plan carnage whilst escaping subsequent legal scrutiny or percussions. They define who legitimate targets are. War is no longer confined to combatant. It legitimised violence against civilians. The net effect of all these is the progressive rise in the number of civilians being caught in the line of fire. They are given names like plain-clothes combatants, human shields and decoy to cover their faux pas. Sometimes we wonder whether there is any truth in these allegations of the contrary as the machines of destruction become increasingly precise to the dot.

I did come into a friendly conversation with a senior lawyer friend about defending a person who had actually committed a particular crime. In some many words that he had explained, my understanding was that it was the onus of the prosecuting officer to prove his client's guilt. It was not up to him to expose his client's misdeed. He was mentioning things like solicitor-client confidentiality and the need for everyone to have adequate representation, but not once was the question of morality or doing the right thing did come up.

I guess the purpose of the court is to uphold the law, not mete justice. Money can buy watertight defence and maybe witnesses too. To add on to Shaw's proposition, one should get the right solicitor when one is accused of a crime. It does not matter whether he actually carried the act. The adage that 'the truth will prevail' is outdated.

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The hidden 9/10 of the iceberg!

Salaam Bombay! (Greetings to Bombay!, Hindi; 1988)

Story, Direction and Production: Mira Nair

My partner in crime, Eskay and I often argue about the presence of poverty and the push it gives to a person to succeed in life. I quote the numerous examples of rag-to-riches stories and the hardships in life being a driving force to accomplishments. Eskay politely disagrees. He insists that the success stories are just the tip of an iceberg. Beneath the majestic free-floating iceberg is 89% that did not quite make it to the surface, submerged beneath the ocean.

For every Ambani that makes it big, many failure stories remain buried in the annals of time. These disappointments are often forgotten. They are seen around but not observed. If we were to approach them, they would each have tall tales of dreams, hard work, near misses and twists of fate.

We, the abled bodies, often condescendingly decree that we all deserve the life we lead. We are all given the same footing, but some choose not to grasp the chances available to them. It is not that easy. Many life situations prevent some from usurping opportunities available to them. Familial poverty, social problems, mental illnesses, societal discrimination and even governmental discriminatory policies based on race and religion put many in a disadvantaged position to come up in life.

The deep-pocketed, educated bunch can always skirt around to jump onto the loopholes to springboard themselves to success. Not to underprivileged, there have to depend on goodwill, fate and divine grace to pull them up by their bootstraps.

This movie is Mira Nair's debut and was India's nomination for the Oscars. Nationalists may decry that the moviemakers are just churning out poverty porn just to whet the Western appetite for the hopelessness of Indian people and the discriminatory nature of the brown people. On the other hand, poverty is present in all big cities anywhere in the world, but this movie gave the life of the little people dignity, not garnering sympathy or playing on the chord of melancholy. The world anywhere is cruel. We just have to deal with it. Wandering illiterate barefoot street kids, abuse, drug addiction, forced prostitution, crimes and overcrowding are common occurrences in metropolitan areas. Bombay is no different. Again, nationalists would blame the British and the foreign Muslim conquerors for plundering all wealth from a country which used to own 25% of the world's GDP at one time.

Irfan Khan (pic) was initially supposed to get his big breakthrough via this movie, but unfortunately, he was deemed to be too well-nourished to fit the bill of a street kid. Khan was offered a minor role. A real street kid, Shafiq Syed, got the part. He went on to win multiple awards for his role but was last seen roughing it out as an autorickshaw in Bangalore. That is Bollywood for you. It is only about whom you know and which acting dynasty you are from.

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Time for re-assessment?

 Putham Pudhu Kaalai (புத்தம் புதிய காலை, A brand new dawn, Tamil; 2020)

The recent Covid pandemic and the uncertainties related to it made many to question the real meaning of life. Is all rat race really worth it? What are we actually chasing? What is the endpoint - is it that we would one day stop waking up but the whole world continuing despite our absence? The generation next is too embroiled in their own quagmire to give two hoots to your geriatric problems. Then what? Just wither away to the dark forces of Nature?

Given the restrictions that COVID imposed on the film industry, five screenwriters came up with five different tales that used the Indian national 21-day lockdown as the backdrop of stories. Somehow the isolation helped the characters to reassess the life await of them, embrace the changes and make amends of their past. And not to miss the twist at the end of the last snippet titled 'Miracles'. Indeed miracles work in mysterious ways.

In the first story ('llamai Etho Etho', 'here here youth'), an older couple, both widowed, try to hook up on the sly without the knowledge of their respective adult children. The exciting thing is that the moment they meet they are transformed into their younger selves (literally on the screen; their role assumed by younger actors). Soon lockdown is announced, and it becomes an opportune time to discover each other's highs and lows, warts and all. Society limits the expression of passion to the youth as if the aged are not capable or need for passionate love. Without longevity and improvement in health, is there a place for companion of the opposite gender? Or old age is merely a time to improve one's intellect or perform tapas to enhance one's standing in the karmic cycle?

The second offering ('Avarum Naanum, Avalum Naanum' - 'He and Me - She and Me') illustrates the many ill feelings that people carry on in their lives. Many of these can be just sorted out by straight face-to-face civil interaction to hear out each other's point of view. This, a granddaughter found out when she reluctantly agreed to babysit her grandfather and lockdown was instituted. She learnt that oldies are not mere dinosaurs who are stuck in the glue of the past. They also try to keep in sync with the winds of change.

Maybe the next one ('Coffee anyone') is kind of over the top. A comatose 75-year-old lady with pontine haemorrhage is discharged home after spending two months in ICU. Her two daughters, from the US and UK, drop in to spend time and celebrate her birthday. The third daughter who had left home over differences in career choices is not in good terms with her parents. This story questions the merits of strict parenting, the outsourcing of parenting duties as practised by modern parents and the traditional Indian type of parents hawking of children's every academic performance. 

The fourth story ('Reunion') highlights how the hard knocks of life sometimes leave considerable dents in people's lives. Not everyone has the wisdom from their experiences but instead, fall prey to the dark forces. In the episode, an old school mate turns up at an old friend's house. She is placed under house arrest during the lockdown. Her cocaine sniffing habit comes to light, and the lockdown becomes the best time to detox.

Unlike the previous stories which are set in more aesthetic homes, the final presentation takes place in the less glamourous of sites. It involves lowly petty thieves and a financially depleted movie maker. Convinced that motivational guru is referring to them when he keeps on saying on TV that he foresees a miracle coming their way. The thugs get the news that a business has hidden his ill-gotten gains in an abandoned car. They decide to look for it.

Everything is a miracle if we appreciate their existence. The fact we can breathe and enjoy things around us with our fully intact senses itself is the biggest miracle. Why look for another?

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The rest, all side show.

 Thithi (ತಿಥಿ, Lunar day, Kannada; 2015)

Our wants and needs vary as we grow older (and hopefully wiser). In the spring of our youth, we are brimming with raging hormones. Our biological needs somehow shut off our cognitive powers. The pudendal nerve and illusive higher centres control the more rational neuronal connexions. Unfortunately, the seeds and the ghosts of our action persist in haunting us in the later phase of our lives.

Supposing we pass through youth unscathed, in the next phase of our lives, stuck with baggage of our past, we are expected to provide for our kin. Social hierarchy dictates we are responsible for the seeds that we sow. The emphasis of life is to provide for the living and to accumulate material wealth for an uncertain future. If we are 'cursed' with a long but unproductive life, we have to fend for ourselves. Conversely, a short affluent one will only benefit the dependants.

After completing the deeds that we are assigned to do, to fulfil our karma, we finally understand everything. The dents and blows of the Hard Knock School of Life open our eyes to reality. The heartaches and betrayals lay bare the illusory nature of life. We become pessimistic. Somehow, all our prior chase for material and bodily gratifications do not matter anymore. That is when others think we are fools.

This simple neo-realistic movie using non-professional actors utilising natural backdrops and naked sounds of nature is a multiple-award-winning offering from the Kannada cinema, often labelled as Sandalwood. It tells the tales of a centenarian, Century Gowda, who dies suddenly. Gowda had been a hunk in his heydays, and that created a rift between him and his son, Gaddappa. Gaddappa is disillusioned with material things and prepare to live as an ascetic (or vagabond, pick your choose). Gaddappa's son, Tamanna, is a householder who is striving to keep his family intact minding his sugar cane plantation and erratic water supply. Tamanna's son, Abhi, a loafer who gets on by doing odd jobs and surfing porn on his mobile phone, and has both his eyes hooked on a pretty goat shepherd girl.

The rest of the tale tells about Tamanna, fed up with his father, Gadappa's, lackadaisical attitude with life wanting to sell off his grandfather's land to support his family. Unfortunately, Gadappa does not want to write off the plot of land to his son. Tamanna then plots a convoluted plan to create a fake death certificate of his father whilst sending him off on an extended vacation towards this end. 

The story shows us how these members of the three generations are embroiled in their own shenanigans as each of them pursues their own purpose in life. It all ends up in a twisted comedy of errors. The rest of the villagers are there to enjoy the party; the party being the final funeral rites of Century Gowda. Here, they celebrate his full life by feasting on the family's mutton meal and the stage show that was arranged. The rest is all sideshow for them.

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Seeing is believing?

Ankhon Dekhi (Seeing through own eyes, Hindi; 2014)

Written, Directed and Supporting Actor: Rajat Kapoor.

On one end, we are told not to accept everything related to us without prior investigations. We have been thought to sieve, evaluate, ponder, perambulate and scrutinise thoroughly before believing anything to be true.  Even then, sometimes, our senses deceive us. Seeing is believing, they say, but in the same breath, they say the world is an illusion, Maya, a mirage: so many names. 

On the other end, we are also cautioned that specific unwritten rules cannot or should not be questioned. This includes queries on divinity, scriptures and belief systems. They have a name for it, blasphemy, and the punishment does not look pretty.

It is said that we only use 10% of our brain. Like much of our chromosomal loci which remain dormant, so is our brain. Would we be at a different level of civilisation if we were to utilise the remaining unused part of the mind? Or perhaps we would just be more creative in annihilating each other? Just to recapitulate, serial killers and psychopaths have extremely high IQs.

A 50-something-year-old man, Babuji, is going through an existential crisis of sorts. After discovering that his daughter's boyfriend is not as much a loafer as everyone describes him to be, Babuji takes a vow to also see things from his perspective; no more listening to hearsay. The problem is that he took the whole idea to the limit. He was sacked from his job at a travel agency when he refused to promote tourists' destinations as he had never seen them. Babuji quit his job as he thought it was based on a lie. Just lying around the house, jobless created friction with his younger brother who decided to move out.

His new outlook also helped Babuji to look at things from another angle. He appreciated things after a first-hand experience and expanded his knowledge in making money in a poker game. His one lifelong ambition was to experience the joy flying like a bird, to feel the cold gush of wind cutting through his bare skin as he scaled down a height in the free skies. But, as they say, be careful of what you wish for.

The character in the film reminded me of a sad incident that unfortunately happened to a friend's son. With the ease of access to knowledge to the studies of the occult and realms of the unknown, the curious young man thought that cyberspace was God sent. Exploring into readily available articles online, he delved deeper and deeper into secrets of life and Consciousness. He soon went in-depth to examine questions of Death. He was recruited (it was proposed later on) into a cult which wanted to experience Death. It was later discovered that he succumbed to smothering in a freak accident as he was performing experiments inducing asphyxia with a plastic bag. Sometimes, one wonders whether the human mind is capable of dealing with the Truths of the Universe. Are some things better left unanswered?

An entertaining movie minus the usual clutter that is often seen in most mainstream movies.

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