Slavery never disappeared?

Aadujeevitham (Goat Days / Goat Life, Malayalam,2024)
Director: Jessy

By the end of the 20th Century, many of Kerala's male population worked in the Gulf Countries. Poverty and unemployment were the push factors for the 'Gulf Boom' in the 1970s and 1980s. Business was booming on the other side of the Arabian Sea, and petroleum was hitting record levels. Soon, sob stories started appearing about the abuse and pathetic living conditions amongst the Kerala Gulf diaspora. 

In 2008, a Malayali writer, Benyamin, narrated the trials and tribulations of Najeeb Muhammad, a Malayali guest worker stranded in Riyadh airport. Not knowing Arab, Najeeb innocently followed an Arab man he assumed was his employer. His initial contract was for him to work as a cashier in a supermarket. Instead, he ended up herding hundreds of goats in the middle of the desert. He had no living quarters, time off, food, or pay. For more than two years, he had not seen any living soul except for his 'owner' and the owner's brother. He was scrutinised and beaten up every time they did something they did not like or tried to escape. In simple terms, he was a bonded slave. He had no dignity and lived with the goats. He was denied water to wash himself and even a change of clothes.

Before and after pictures.

The Malayalam true story became a bestseller and was translated into eight languages. It is currently in its 130th edition. Of course, it was banned in the Gulf States as it depicted Arabs as barbaric. Of course, an Arab also helped him to safety when Najeeb finally found the courage (and a friend) to escape.

Now, before jumping the gun and condemning Islamic clerics for never openly condemning slavery, one should remember that all Muslim countries, in accordance with the UN Charter, ban slavery in any form. All ancient belief systems have accepted the presence of slaves in their societies. It is common knowledge that slaves were given free status when they converted to the religion of the ruler or invading army. People are people everywhere; they want to dominate others. 

Author Benyamin and Najeeb

When the British banned the transatlantic slave trade, it was done under a different name. As the French benefitted immensely from the slave-intensive sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean, Napoleon even legalised slavery there. It ended with the Haitian slave revolt and their declaration of Independence in 1804. In the USA, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution effectively ended slavery in 1865.

Even in this age and time, we hear of maids enduring slave-like living conditions in both first-world and third-world nations. A sliver of hope suddenly convinces us that humanity has not died. We pacify ourselves; we all love our fellow humans, only to be slapped with gruesome stories of abused maids. Surprisingly, we treat our pets with more dignity. 

(P.S. I think the filmmakers were trying to make Prithviraj, the main actor, do a Tom Hank role—as in 'Cast Away'—to emphasise the desolation and hopelessness of being stuck in the vast desert. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as such. The director thought it was necessary to include song numbers to drive home the point of what a good time he had back home with his wife. I do not think it worked here. By the way, Najeeb would not have left if it was all hunky dory back home.)

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Whether it is Rama or Ravana...

Bramayugam (Era of Madness, Malayalam; 2024)
Story, Direction: Rahul Sadasivan

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the takeaway. No matter who holds the helm of control or the intoxicating concoction of power, life can never be a level playing field. Invariably, one tries to supersede another regarding idea, physical prowess, endowments, or wealth. For every robust individual, there is always another who is slightly better, faster, or stronger. And the eternal duel to be the supreme leader of the tribe goes on. 

Set in 16th-century India, when the  Portuguese were out hunting for Indian slaves to spur their intercontinental slave trade, two men escaped from their captive ship and hid themselves in the jungle. One of them falls to the lure of the jungle temptress spirit, Yakshi, and is killed by her. The other, Thevan, makes it to an abandoned mansion in the middle of the jungle. Hungry, he helps himself to some coconut, but he is admonished by the house's cook, who brings him to meet the boss of the manor. The boss appears like a reasonable chap and treats him as a house guest, much to the chagrin of the cook. Upon discovering that Thevan is a palace singer, the Lord of the Manor requests him to sing. 

Thevan, a person of the lowest castes, Pannar, is grateful to be given due recognition for his talent. Soon, things change. Increasingly, the homeowner goes into mood swings. When Thevan says he wants to leave, he gets a 'NO!'

Things turn eerie with strange sounds, and the cook starts acting weird. The story explores the various superstitions and beliefs in the supernatural, spirits, and demons in Kerala. This film is shot in black and white but does not fall short of suspense. The filmmakers do not depend on gore or visual extravaganzas to drive home their point but via judicious use of sounds, visuals, and good acting. 

The Lord of the Manor is not who he is supposed to be. Demon (shattan) has taken his appearance. As the cook and Thevan defeat the Demon, the Demon tries to jump ship. The body that it goes into turns evil. That, in essence, is the message behind the movie. The Demon is equated to power. Power is evil and destroys indiscriminately. 

First, the primordial people of the land tried to make sense of the world they were in. Trying to give meaning to tremendous forces of nature, they named Gods. Work was distributed based on people's skills and aptitudes to ensure the continuity of life on the planet. Somewhere along the way, people started thinking that their own jobs were more important. They tried to impose restrictions to keep the knowledge of the job to their own kind. A divisional hierarchy soon followed.

People were always suspicious of other communities; they allayed their cognitive dissonance by convincing themselves that the other party was wrong or deviant. It made sense afterwards. To spread their beliefs, they had to conquer over the other.

The conquerors started making divisions amongst their subjects to make 'divide-and-rule' the way to go. They came up with half-baked studies, supported by supposed scholars, to drive home the point of who the real boss is. Obscure occidental studies supported the theory that the Orientals were culturally backwards when, in reality, the reverse was true. Aryan Migration Theory was coined to justify the occupation of Europeans over India.

It did not matter who held the ruling position. The people at the lowest rung of the food chain will always be pushed. As the Tamil proverb goes, 'Whether Rama rules or Ravana does, our life remains in the doldrums.'

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Another of India's soft power!

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
Author: Lizzie Collingham (2006)

When the first Europeans, mainly the British, landed on the Indian shores, they must have noticed that the natives' food was as bland as theirs back home. This must have been around the 16th century, when Europeans found an alternate route to access spices from the East, as the Islamic conquerers had absolute control over land routes and imposed exorbitant taxes on goods.

Most of India's staple diet was khichari, a simple dish with two grains boiled in water. The grains may be rice, millet, lentils, chickpeas, or whatever is harvested. The Brahmans had their food restrictions, and so did the Jains. They had a medico-spiritual relationship with food. The preparation of food was according to Ayurvedic principles. Food was divine. The average Hindu in that era ate only two meals a day, one if you were very poor. So, it was a culture shock for them to see Faranghis eating so many times and, what's more, so much meat. Holy Cow, indeed.

Opulence was the order of the day at the Moghul palaces. After all, the Quran promises much drinking, eating, and pleasures as rewards in the afterlife. Therefore, the Moghuls emphasised food, scents, sex, and ascetics. They were quite adventurous with their food. The nomadic invaders brought in the culture of pilau, in which rice or other grains were mixed with meat.

The Portuguese brought new foodstuffs to India. They must thank the Spanish, who discovered new fauna and flora in the New World and brought them into Europe. Soon, the Portuguese started knowing about corn, chillies, potatoes, tomatoes, turkey, and many more. When the Portuguese set up base in Goa, they were bored with the unimaginative Indian cooking. They brought their stuff from Portugal and taught their cooks, as well as their Indian mistresses and wives, various Portuguese cooking methods. Vindaloo was one of them.

For the Moghuls, lavish dinners were their trademark to show their supremacy to the occasional foreign visitor. The rulers were open to new recipes. Almonds and raisins became part of their cooking. A spicier version of pilau called biryani came about. The commoners also tried experimenting with what the palace cooks did with their own cooking.

To accommodate one morbidly obese Moghul king who was a foodie but had such rotten teeth that he could chew his meat, somebody came up with the idea of mincing the meat. Thus, Kimma was born.

The Portuguese, even being a small country, had a profound influence on European culinary habits. The introduction of their cooking styles to subsequent generations in India, also via Anglo-Indians, made it quite famous. The English who came in droves also picked up the habit.

The East Indian Company and the British Raj personnel who returned home after their tours of duty could not just live without their Indian-flavoured foods. Some entrepreneurial mavericks tried to sell packed curry powders to the British. Of they were far from the real McCoy. Some sailors from India also set up eating shops to fulfil palatal cravings.

Curry is a British invention. The Indians do not call any of their dishes curry. Instead, they call their dishes by their names, rogan gosh or korma. The British lumped all of them together as curry.

Indian cooking could not be reined in. As the Indian diaspora migrated or were sent as labourers to various places worldwide, cravings kept spreading. Indian cooking style spread to the Caribbean, the Malayan archipelago, the Southeast Asian countries, the Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga, and even Japan. Surprisingly, one country where curry occupies a position of national importance almost equal to the place of Indian food in Britain is Japan, which has no colonial connection with India and indeed boasts its own sophisticated food culture. The Japanese found it easier to feed their large army during WW2.

During the British Empire, when indulging in the exotic of Eastern mysticism was hip, it later became low-brow to consume curry. It then turned upon itself to come a full circle. In 2001, Chicken Tikka Masala became the British National Dish. One can probably find Indian food or something claiming to be Indian anywhere globally. This must be another of India's soft power.

Over the centuries, new foodstuffs and recipes have transformed Indian food. In modern India, the kitchens of the growing Indian bourgeoisie have joined the imperial kitchens of the Mughal emperors, the bakehouses of the Portuguese settlers at Goa, the Vaisnavite temple kitchens in the south, and the cookhouses of the British in India as the engines of culinary change.

Tea gets a special mention here as it was the British went all out to promote tea in India. There was no divine calling to make Indians drink this beverage. It was all economics. The British tried to introduce it in public places, including railway stations. The Indians were quite happy with water and buttermilk. In the South, coffee was a favourite indulgence. The British could not understand why Indians mixed so many things into their teas- spice, copious amounts of milk, ginger, and how they boil the tea leaves. Well, eat your words. Chai tea is a real thing now.

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N is the new 30?

Nyad (2023)
Director: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

When do we pack everything up and call it a day? Is there a time frame within which we are expected to pursue our dreams, complete our bucket list and prepare our souls and minds to meet the Maker? Should there be limits to our wants, and is there a limit to the number of attempts one should give to an endeavour before calling it quits? Is age ever a deterrent to our effort to succeed? Should we give up and give it a go on another day when the going gets tough? Or surrender to let your descendants do it, or attempt it at the next birth?

Most societies advise individuals to cool off after a certain age. Setting ambitions and fulfilling personal aspirations is left to when they are younger. Just how old is old?

Things have changed drastically over the years. With increased longevity and the general well-being of the populace, we can live to push our bodies and minds beyond societal-sanctioned limits.

Some expertise only comes with experience and time spent in the School of Hard Knocks.

Many prolific writers and participants in extreme sports are usually in the older spectrum of society. Still, when is it then the faculties give up on the person? The logical guess would be multifactorial, ranging from genetics to lifestyles.

We should continue executing our plans like we will live forever while planning our future like there is no tomorrow.

Fauja Singh

Octogenarian Fauja Singh must have thought this when he retired from farming. Burdened with the loss of his wife and son, he was forced to migrate to the U.K. Rather than waiting till the end of days when the Grimm Reaper would do his rounds, Fauja Singh worked towards the debut at his first full marathon at 89 in the London Marathon. After becoming a beacon of hope to many, being featured as Adidas' mascot and PETA's poster boy (as he was a vegetarian), Singh hanged his boots at the ripe age of almost 102.

Diana Nyad was a distance swimmer who failed to swim the 180 km between Cuba and Florida. Thirty years after immersing herself deep into her daytime job of journalism and motivational speaking, someone toyed with the idea of revisiting her 'Cuba to Florida' challenge. She was told she was mentally more robust than her 28-year-old self when she attempted the first swim.

The movie is basically about the preparation, execution, frustrations, and failures that she had to slay as she challenged the marine life-laden hostile sea unaided by a shark cage. 33 years after her first failed attempt, with three further tries, at the age of 64, Nyat successfully swam across the Florida Straits in 53 hours. Unfortunately, the governing bodies did not recognise her feat because no independent observers could ratify her swim.

(P.S. Note: Many of these super achievers who live to tell the stories of feats at mature ages are outliers. Even if one is in the pink of health, or seemingly so, a word of caution is deemed necessary. Of course, one should do the appropriate due diligence. Sure, even after dotting the i's and crossing the t's, the naysayers around you will bring you down to the extent that you start doubting yourself. Their intentions may be innocent, but the damage is done. You begin imagining imaginary conditions. Of course, these outliers can be the yardsticks we hope to attain. "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars," they say; a good adage to remember.

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Serenity exemplified in Auschwitz!

The Zone of Interest (2023)
Director: Jonathan Glazer

Even though this is about something that happened more than 80 years ago, put in a similar situation, I foresee we humans do the exact thing that we did during World War 2 Nazi rule of Germany. We justify our actions and inaction through the dog-whistle call of the majority without taking a step back and asking ourselves, "Am I doing the right thing?"

Even during peacetime in Malaysia, a section of people is trying to steamroll their agenda to the rest of the country. Any sane person of reasonable intellectual capacity would understand this is not how democracy works. The majority chooses, and the rest would follow suit. Changes are made via constructive discourses at the appropriate forums. This renegade group is trying to change all these. The might of high decibels in the confines of an echo chamber cannot be underestimated.

Like Grobbels, who thought that the propaganda machines of the State could steer the thinking of the majority, small-minded fascists in this country are using mob power backed by their own interpretation of the scriptures to gain political power and to cow the minority into submission.

The thinking majority should be aware of this and not just that. They should also have the gumption to call the bluff. Otherwise, the outcome will be what we see in this movie—the country's machinery used to carry out a dastardly activity for future generations to curse us.

This movie won many accolades for its gruesome (not in graphic representation with gore, violence and blood) depiction of events that may have happened at Auschwitz concentration camp. All the violence, killings and death are only depicted in sounds and indirect visuals.

Serene living beside a concentration camp
in Auschwitz.

It tells the story of the Commandant of Auschwitz and his family as they live in a lovely double-storey bungalow immediately beside the camp. Amidst the background hum of the incinerator, screams of prisoners as they are led to their death and the occasional gunshots, the family leads a happy life. Oblivious to the happenings at the camp, the family grow attached to the bungalow, beautifying it and even refuses to move when the Commandant is transferred elsewhere. The air is filled with bellowing smoke of burning flesh. The river occasionally has fragments of bones discarded after incineration. The compound is strewn with ashes. Still, life goes on happily.

The irony is that the family lives without a care in the world. They conveniently overlook the carnage that happens behind the camp walls. They even have grand plans for the future.

This must be the true meaning of the word banality of evil that Hannah Arendt popularised after the 1948 Adolf Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem. People perform the cruellest of evils, not because they are sociopaths or inherently evil. They do it because the system expects them to behave in a particular way. For them, it is business as usual. It becomes the list of duties that must be completed to qualify for remunerations and promotions.

The mind shuts down. Mindfulness is lost. The higher thinking centres get bypassed. Everyone goes into zombie mode under the hypnosis of the supreme leader. 

(P.S. The director's acceptance speech at the Oscars ceremony has started a storm and could possibly be outcasted by Hollywood. His speech essentially can be interpreted as all that seen in the film was the effect of dehumanisation. His mention of the October 7th incident begs further clarification. Are the Jews, after surviving their aggressors, repeating the dehumanisation policy to the Gaza people? There is no easy answer. Remember, the state of Israel is located amongst neighbours who yearn for its annihilation. Can one practice no violence at the end of the barrel of a gun? 'We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people,' he said.)

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To stir the beehive?

Beekeeper (2023)
Director: David Ayer

Bees can teach us a thing or two about Nature. It is mind-boggling that something as small as this arthropod can have a complex, organised, self-sustaining community. Imagine all the structured living, with specialisation, hierarchical order, layered and combatant defence, and continuity with progeny happening in immaculate order, all in one colony. They do all these without a functioning brain but groping around using pheromones as their guide.

Everybody has a job to do, no matter how trivial or low down the food chain, and they have to play their roles elegantly.

In the eye of a modern man, the whole setup may reek of a Kafkaian dystopia. A communist regime, allegedly after a collective politburo discussion, what is best for the plebeians who follow blindly for the progress of the Motherland, may not be everyone's cup of tea. A Hindu-bashing leftist may remind us this is how the caste system works, that one is born into a caste and, hence, his profession. We know now that this is all bunkum. The four castes mentioned denote a person's aptitude, not profession. But hey, the leftists are too brainwashed to comprehend that.

Perhaps bees tell us that we should be sincere in performing our assigned duties as if it is the last thing in the world. Hell hath no fury a hornet nest provoked.

In the late 1960s, Americans woke up to a quiet spring. No bugs in the garden or birds flying in the sunny sky. People remembered that just a year previously, DDT was introduced as an effective way to combat malaria, typhus, and other insect-borne diseases. With time, the world has realised that every God's creation has its role in our delicate ecosystem.

Fast-forward to the 21st century. After mindlessly slashing their jungles and hunting animals to extinction, Europeans had a revelation. They realised that their population of wild wolves was dwindling critically. The corresponding effect is the burgeoning number of deer. Deer entered their highways and their households.

The new buzzword 'Rewilding' was thrown in. It involved a push to repopulate the wolf population in the wild. It is hoped that this would balance years of apathy. It is assumed that wolves would instantaneously start killing deer again, and equilibrium would be achieved again. Alas, they overlooked that now, thousands and thousands of sheep are reared on an industrial scale. If jumping on a helpless sheep is more effortless, why would the wolf struggle to hunt down a deer with antlers and all? Equilibrium takes years of work, and it cannot be forced.

By the way, this film has nothing to do with the write-up above. One of my favourite action heroes, Jason Stathon, acts in this B-grade movie, which showcases Statham as an unassuming retired commando who finds peace tending to his bees. When the only person who speaks to him commits suicide after a scam, the Beekeeper goes ballistic. Like a fighter bee, he blasts all barrels to hunt down the scammers.

[P.S. Our world is so polluted and damaged that the bee population is declining exponentially. To trigger pollination, beehives are rented out to farms and orchards. Much like Tinder or Shaadi.com, dating services hook up eligible or assumed bachelors to spur meet-ups, hopefully, meaningful copulation and continuity of progeny.]

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Death can be a satire?

A Case of Exploding Mangoes

Author: Mohammed Hanif

On 17th August 1988, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan was killed in an aircraft crash. Perishing together with him on the Hercules C-130 military aircraft were the President’s close assistant Akhtar Abdur Rehman, American diplomat Arnold Lewis Raphel and 27 others.

In the rest of the world, a country owns an army. In Pakistan, however, its Army own the country. In 1976, Prime Minister Bhutto elevated ul-Haq to a full general. One year later, he deposed Bhutto and declared martial law. Bhutto was hanged for treason.

Ul-Haq’s 11-year tenure as the Supremo saw him announce Pakistan as a nuclear nation, aided Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and secured himself as a prominent Islamist leader. In a way, he was instrumental in making Pakistan a theocratic country and the rise of global Islamic terrorism.

The crash was extensively investigated by many quarters, but nothing was conclusive. The possible theories range from aircraft failure, as the C-130 was notoriously famous for faulty equipment, to sabotage by Americans, Soviets, Mossad, the Pakistani Army, and even Bhutto’s dependents.

Mohamad Hanif, the author of this book and the head of BBC Urdu service, was consumed by the crash. The interviews he conducted did not reveal much. The aircraft did carry mangoes. A rope was found among the debris. Someone suggested the possibility of explosives in mango seeds and the usage of poisonous gas to incapacitate the pilots as the craft plunged head down suddenly.

In most countries, too, something so sombre, like the death of a leader, is not sneered upon. This rule may not apply to Pakistan. Because of the restriction of freedom of speech, Pakistanis have volumes of jokes about their leaders. Every other day, even its immediate neighbour finds pleasure in mocking Pakistan. So, it is not surprising to read the humorous narration of the moments before Zia-ul-Haq’s demise in this light-hearted satire.

Even though the exact cause of the crash is not explained and the real perpetrators of the accident are not told, it seems like everyone had a burning desire to see the President die - the Pakistani Army, a Trade Union leader, the curse of the imprisoned blind gang-rape victim or a disgruntled soldier whose father was killed by Zia. A crow, possibly intoxicated by the nectar of the sweet Pakistani mango, may have a hand in it, too. The aircraft also carried such a heavy load of mangoes, so aromatic that it filled the whole vessel that the air conditioning need not be switched on. VX gas filled the machine when it was switched on later, and we know what happened next.

(Dedicated to RK, a Pakistani-Hindu from the Sindh Province, who paints a rather rosy image of his Motherland contrary to the perception of the rest of the world.)

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