Linking the past with the present...

I could bury my legs till my knees in the fall leaves then. The leaves had so many colors. Some golden, some brown, some deep green. They would settle on one another to form a deep leafy bed covering the whole of  hill trough. When night settled, the rustle of the leaves would keep me awake. In the morning, the wet, musky smell would tickle my nostrils, my mind absorbing the earthen rot. I could tell who's coming by the sound of the footsteps they made on the leaves. The tribal cook at his regular visits with tea, breakfast, cigarettes. His dog in search of the remnants. Sharp at 8, my father's surveyor would come and wait in front of our tent; All decked up in his field boots, hat and with the sandpaper colored bag on his back. My dad will immediately pick up two of his treasured possessions: the hammer and the torch and off they'll go to delve into the bottom of the earth. To look into the cracks an crevices, faults and mineral beds, walking endlessly through the virgin forests.

Sometimes he would take me along, mostly I was left behind. The moment I'll see their jeep disappearing around the corner, I'll jump into the wild terrain, starting my own geological excavations. I'll dig out a piece of glistening mica or find a perfectly round shaped basalt. Once I found a beautiful piece of rock all engraved in golden stripes which later I found out were copper striations. They all went to my collection. The stones- all shapes and sizes, the pine cones, the rustic leaves and the most exquisite of all, the wild flowers.

As night would descend, the sounds start reverberating with great elan. The tiny living beings which were hiding most of the day, comes out in open. A lone mammal would heave a big sigh, some other a lingering shriek that would mess up with the monotony of the jungle. Every forest has its sounds. The constant humming that keeps it alive, murmuring of the cricket, stems tweaking, winds hushing the just awakened inhabitants.

The sounds, the smells, the feel of its vast entity, the calm of the moonlit night serenading the ancient Eucalyptus trees, the not knowing and discovering - there's so much to a forest and living in it. Kuchai, in the lap of Chhotanagpur plateau called me time and again. But I could never go back. I had to go pursue another way of life while some other people started inhabiting there in ways that are considered un-social by many now.

That was 18 years back. I could relive my childhood memories, however. Just last week. After all these years and crossing all those miles, I felt the same calling, the smell of earth, the sound of dropping leaves in another piece of untamed nature. Awakening to another wishful wood. Or was it the same? We change but the forest don't.

It's still the same. The dull, wet morning, smeared in the smell of earth, the moisture in the air caressing all, the leaves, the brick red walls, the dusty cushions of the patio chairs, the contours of my mind. I sit, waiting, warming my hands at the painted tea cup while the steam and the aroma of its content awaken my senses. I try to fathom the fading darkness through the huge glass door that separates me from the world. It acts as the perfect guardian, shielding me, protecting me from the turbulence outside. Yet, it never ceases to get me intrigued by the stuff out there. The motion. The commotion. Colors and clouds.

Somewhere out there you would be going to sleep now. Nestled in the comfy of your home, with the people who define your life today. Maybe you would brush your unruly curls, or pick on your teeth. Perhaps you'll quickly turn the pages of a journal or just sit there, calm and composed with the Buddha smile. For you always had an air of calmness in times of utmost chaos. Times, when you'd drive me mad with your calmness. While the lava inside me would come exploding in torrents, you would keep looking at me with wistful glum. Deep sensitivity in your eyes that would just see, not speak. Not heal. But only linger to read the visible and the underlying.

Yet what remained with me still, is the feel of the steaming tea in earthen cups at the dingy tea stall near the winding university road...the blissful moments of sipping it, and gulping the lures of life.

Wiki Leaks, Net Neutrality and the future of the Internet

Yesterday, I was having this conversation about whether any discussion can really be called an ‘objective’ one, as our opinions are based on our personal perception and experiences. So much so, that there is always a shade of biasness (overt or covert) when we analyze something. The media, being the extension of human voices and creativity also subscribes to the same principles. Result? We see a Republican loudspeaker in Fox TV, a Democratic middleman in MSNBC, a worshipper of the ruling party in NDTV. Some publications do it in the guise of honest retrospective reporting to cover-up messy operations carried on by the government. For instance, one of the TIME July issues has a horrid cover picture of an Afghan girl with her ears and nose chopped by the Taliban. It says that if it’d be appropriate for the US troops to leave Afghan women to such atrocities? Now you decide whether it’s a true concern or a propaganda mechanism to defend US military presence in Afghanistan amidst fiscal drainage and massive criticism of the Obama government.

The partial, selective highlight of the truth often clouds the genuine message in its entirety.

When it came to what to believe and what not to, the Internet with its uninhibited platform, however flooded us with choices. We no longer had to depend on that colored news at 9 or to listen to the rants and coaxing of the ever popular news anchor. The Internet though much global in its reach and scope, is also that niche for personification. You and I, we all could have our corners to voice our perspective. And for free. It’s simple, economically viable approach epitomized individual triumph in the sheen of collectivism. It got the world to your doorstep and also took your little ideas across the globe. Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange, however, took it to the next level. He claims to have founded a system that tackles press censorship. You get the story just like it is. Uncensored. An ex-hacker, he stunned the world by some gory revelations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. How he decoded the secret anecdotes, nobody knows, but he did come up with some investigative journalism that we don’t get to see on print and TV these days.

Not anymore, it seems.

With the surprise deal between Google and Verizon on net neutrality, that specifies Google’s certain privileges on Verizon network, one can’t help but wonder what would be the fate of individual Internet users when the big network corporations hijack search engines and other popular portals under their wraps. Will there be a price tag for every click? Is the common man going to get penalized for connectivity, effectively and figuratively? The Internet which served as a level playing ground for people of all nations and credibility might just be the next caste system of the virtual world.

Let’s see what happens!

Where have all the leaders gone?-- A leader's guide to better America

“Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you have never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.”—these are the wise words of Lee Iacocca—the dynamic ex-CEO of Chrysler who converted this car company from rags to riches. He is the man behind the Iacocca Foundation that’s making huge success in the field of Diabetes-cure. He is also the Chairman and inspiration to the compatriots of Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission. “I think we need to be reminded every once in a while of who we are, and what kind of nation we’ve promised to be.” Says Iacocca. “Not a nation that builds walls, but a nation that lifts a lamp to light the way.” At 83, Iacocca talks his heart-out in his latest book, “Where have all the leaders gone” and hopes to make a difference.
Pity, this book came rather late. Most of his opinions or criticism on Trade, Commerce and Economics of USA and its allies is already been covered by journalists and research scholars across the globe. His views on foreign policy, particularly those about Middle-East and Japan are also prototypical. However, Iacocca lives up to the expectation of being candid and out-spoken. With anti-Bush slogans and a bitter criticism of the Capitol Hill, he intends to provide direction to the upcoming US Presidential election in this book.
The “Nine Cs of Leadership” as compiled by the author provides an acid-test for the future leaders. It is a practical method to judge the desired qualities of an aspiring leader-be it in the political scenario, social platform or an industrial backdrop. Along with the dynamics of Nine Cs, Iacocca portrays genuine case-studies, mapping his life-long achievements and mistakes to current scenarios. Although, the book talks mostly about American situations, his guiding principles have a universal appeal.
The author points out, “When advertising slogans are better known than the Ten Commandments or the Bill of Rights, when shopping malls are our places of worship, when bad behavior is justified as long as it leads to profit, when debt is justified as long as it leads to a plasma TV, and when the measure of a person is the kind of car he drives, maybe it’s time to ask whether we’ve corrupted the very notion of capitalism.”
It says a lot about the intensity and profanity of morals in the midst of economic-globalization. Besides, the fiscal angle as highlighted by the author, exemplifies the alarming ‘debt’ burdens of the government and commoners alike in the USA. Along with criticizing the spending-spree of average Americans, Iacocca presents a gloomy picture where every household is entitled to a debt burden of $115,000, courtesy the latest National Debt records of the US government. That is the magnitude of US ‘borrowing’ in the world market. He demanded a “National Borrowing Freeze”.
His perspective on pros and cons of merger and acquisitions in today’s business world throws light on some of the conniving issues related to corporate ‘take-over’s. He advises current corporate executives to analyze the various dimensions of a merger-acquisition prospect. The potential of an amalgamated entity may increase or decrease as per circumstances. He emphasizes on the “synergy” factor. Moreover, he demonstrates how team-dynamics, existing and prospective customer base adds up to the complexity of the situation. “Merge because of your hopes, not your fears” says Iacocca.
Other than the business aspect, this book passes judgment on the existing legal idiosyncrasies in America. The terror of lawsuits involving punitive damages, vaccinations, insurances et al have demotivated the American professionals from all works of life. It has made them “too safety conscious” and as per the author innovativeness is directly proportional to risk-taking ability.
Like in his earlier work “Iacocca: An Autobiography” and “Talking Straight”, Iacocca’s sense of humor adds on to his rational thought-process. His expressions on national level disasters or his analysis on today’s “over-eating, pill-popping, TV-watching, iPod-wired, shopaholic, attention-deficit-disordered” current generation are marked with acute satirical gestures. His simplistic, honest, straight forward writing, though marred by unparliamentary language stands out in the myriad of hypocritical narratives. He is a self-proclaimed rebel amongst the retired, golf-playing club goers and a dedicated campaigner to bring back ‘leadership’.
No wonder, at 83, Lee Iacocca, the capitalist entrepreneur turned political and social messiah, who once smoked cigars with Fidel Castro, still doesn’t cease to intrigue and rock the world.

I am participating in the WeBlog's Sleepy Sunday contest! You may read other participating posts HERE

Stripped Down

What is the first thing you do in the morning?

a) Check my cell phone
b) Check my emails
c) Check my Face book
d) All the above

Do you subscribe to any of these options? The answer most likely is ‘yes’! No worries, you are not the only one. Josh-the high school student next door sends 7000 texts on an average every month. His girlfriend Nora has like 1000 plus friends on her FB account and Vishu, across the street is almost always available on gmail. Why? To stay connected of course! Yes, we are all very hyper active social butterflies who have to know and more importantly tell everything every minute about our not-so-important lives. We happen to be so much engulfed in this virtual maze that our real lives retrograde to detached caldrons, way too reluctant to even venture proper conversations for real. Scary, right?

But there are chances of redemption before we sacrifice our minds and lives totally to high-tech dominance. Life Organizational Expert Peter Walsh advised “stripped down”. To strip down everything that comes between you and your best life. If that means to get rid of technology for the moment, then do so! One needs to de-clutter and reorganize ones personal space every now and then to live a healthy baggage free life that ushers new promises while maintaining the harmony of existing surrounding.

Life still celebrates the little moments of emotional stirrings. Maybe its time to take our eyes off the blue screen and smile that refreshing smile that no one has seen in a while. You sure can do it still, no?

Provocative partisan talks at MIT !

Last month, this controversial seminar took place in the prestigious premises of MIT that grossly violated the sanctity of Indian hegemony.

Here is the link to the subject-matter of that conference:

http://www.twocircles.net/2010apr13/report_mit_workshop_challenges_secularism_and_rule_law_india.html


This is what I have to say:

Much of the past decade was about breaking walls and sowing seeds of homogeneity. As technology seeped through our societies, our eclectic minds exploded to embrace the new age: an age of cultural accord. Economic congruency. A strive to simulate the West into the East and vice versa.

Yet, today, the world is more fragmented than ever before. Identity in minutia has way surpassed the ethos of entirety. Factions based on caste, religion, ethnicity, ideology et all is marring the socio-political paradigm. Samuel P. Huntington points out in his book The Clash of Civilizations, “In this new world the most pervasive, important, and dangerous conflicts will not be between social classes, rich and poor, or other economically defined groups, but between peoples belonging to different cultural entities.”

India, scaffolding years of cultural synthesis obviously served as a target for frequent civil disobedience in many façade. Historically the Indian diaspora is scarred time and again by many a bloody battle.

--Will Durant writes in his book "The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage" (page 459):
“ The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. The Islamic historians and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride the slaughters of Hindus, forced conversions, abduction of Hindu women and children to slave markets and the destruction of temples carried out by the warriors of Islam during 800 AD to 1700 AD. Millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period”.

In modern times, the US Department of State reports that, according to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, the Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2006 due to Muslim onslaught against Hindu Brahmins in that region.

Genocide for political gains even exceeded horrors of ethnic cleansing. In February 1979, thousands of impoverished refugees from East Bengal were massacred by the communist police in Marichjhapi near the Sunderbans, which serves as a classic case of vote-bank paying diminishing returns. Under the same ruling party hundreds of people are subjected to terror tactics, group violence and annihilation for the last three decades, culminating in brutal revolts recently in lieu of forfeiting agricultural lands by the government for establishing special economic zones.
Last week, on April 6th, seventy six Indian police men were killed by Maoist rebels in the state of Chhattisgarh. (As reported by Time magazine)

However, despite the ongoing mayhem, India exemplifies an underlying current of unity in diversity. The sluggish, yet buoyant, the nefarious, yet upright democracy harbors sentiments of allegiance and compassion. Ethnic minorities held highest offices in this nation. Various religious cults endlessly alleviated the downtrodden from ignorance and deficiency. Communities conspired for a better tomorrow. Perhaps, the challenge today is not just how to identify and analyze the various disintegrating forces in our society but to transcend idiosyncrasies, to establish a more connected, impervious sovereignty.

In the context of the recent conference at MIT, Subject: Group Violence, Terrorism, and Impunity–Challenges to Secularism and Rule of Law in India-- It is expected from an elite academic institution like MIT to propagate unbiased discourse of culture consciousness instead of hackneyed groupism based on petty politics. Focusing merely on one-sided version of a pogrom not only rendered injustice to the apocalypse in it’s entirety that innocent people of diverse religious affinity were subjected to, but, it dangerously infused faulty notion of our coveted cultural edifice, threatening the very existence of our age-old coexisting conscience. If not an all-embracing testimonial of our inclusive past, the great minds of the academic gentry could at least bypass the bigoted, esoteric views and offer a holistic approach to the fragmented narrative that they dealt with. The ever effervescent youth of today deserve to know the truth.

Why Shakha Proshakha is one of my favourite Satyajit Ray films

Before I start justifying my l'affaire d'amour with this amazing film, let me give you a bit of background to my post.

Last Saturday, we (Rahul, Rini, Mouli et moi) met at our place for a Chinese night, read Chinese food that we wanted to experiment with. Like most of our evenings, we were in for good food, good wine and a good movie with some food for thought. The mood was for a Bengali touch so we chose a Ray movie: Shakha Proshakha. Now, the junta was a bit disappointed at it, except me of course, who suggested the movie.

Next day, Rini sent me the following link where eminent Bengali film makers criticized it as well.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2701/stories/19911220156.htm

OK, so here are few of the aspects of this great film that I like and why:

---The opening scene:
Despite popular opinion on the scene being too long and dramatic, I would like to say that it typified the banal act of reminiscence and retrospection by an ageing father, who happens to be a stalwart in the society. So, we saw a bit of pride, glimpses of defiance, an overt declaration of love, concern, gratification, a little self-pity and a lot of vulnerability. His raving occupied quite a bit of reel time but mind you, it was no ordinary morning. It was the day to commemorate his eclectic past and the flattering present: it was the day of his 60th birth anniversary. And a day when he got a chance to pour his heart out to his mentally scarred, physically dormant, once brilliant second son. Of course he got carried away. Of course he was oh-so-rhetoric. Aren't we all, when we meet the fringes of our broken self?

---The characters being one-dimensional:
I would like to know which one?! The father(Ananda)though being a well-respected, even worshipped retired executive, who climbed the ladder of name-fame-prosperity by sheer hard work and honesty, who was widely acclaimed for his humanitarian contributions often displayed naive sense of tinted outlook, be it about his family or the world in general.
The eldest son (Prabodh), an erudite, composed head honcho who sits on an epitome of familial and professional authority, falls from grace as his not-so-respectful repertory unfolds on the dinner table.
The second son (Prashanto), an obvious ideal intellectual with abundant prospects immerses himself in a hapless state of non-conformity instead.
The third (Prabeer), painted in a shade of misguided atrocity, rises to the occasion by a humble gush of self-realization and compliance.
(Pratap), the fourth son, the idealistic rebel also had his share of doubting self-efficacious moments.
The elder daughter-in-law (Uma) and the younger one (Tapati) were painted in the light of opposites too-that of classical candor and contemporary resilience.

---The movie being simplistic in its approach:
People say that in the context of ek-nambari and du-nambari the treatment of the concept was almost child-like. I beg to differ.
Firstly, human beings, especially workaholic, undaunted go-getter types spend so much of their time and energy in the pursuit of their goal, they mostly end up missing the finer nuances of life. In the hustle bustle of our daily chores, how many of us actually find time to reflect? To evaluate right and wrong? To surpass the all-encompassing trivia in knowing the entirety beyond? Plus, we believe what we want to believe. Historically parents have been blinded by the unquestioning love and devotion for their children. The rational of the wise and the perceptive get putty in the hands of innocent naïveté. Life, perhaps, is more simple than we’d like to admit, lest the absurdity of our confused mind (read complexity) gets trivialized.

That’s what I like about Ray. He depicts life as it is. Like a matured bystander witnessing it with great élan and objectivity. It’s not a carried-away(ed) overture of ecstatic adolescence.

Mouli sent me these 2 links that truly says what I meant to say about Ray movies.

http://satyajitray.ucsc.edu/articles/sragow.html
http://satyajitray.ucsc.edu/articles/sen.html