Unsettled Views

Long Day's Journey to Lavasa - Part 2

2011-03-18T10:19:00.002+05:30

[An edited version of this article originally appeared in the Lavasa Blog.]

Up early and ready by 6 o’clock the next morning, we found ourselves one car short to take us around Lavasa. The photographers had left before us to catch the sunrise and, disappointed, we had to kill some time walking around before we could use the other car to head out to The Nature Trail and Ekaant, a resort 2 kms away up on the hills. It was my fault as I was responsible for taking care of the photographers and bloggers. But I must say that the bloggers were quick to adjust to the situation.

The Nature Trail was a walk in the woods through a narrow pathway up in the hills. We travelled part of the way, taking photographs and generally amusing ourselves, but returned to Ekaant to capture the beauty of Lavasa amidst the Sahyadri Hills at sunrise. Tea on the terrace soon followed and, if you ask me, the bloggers’ revelry came pretty close to the enactment of the mad tea party scene from ‘Alice In Wonderland’. It was good to see Lavasa bringing out this enjoyment in people.

We drove back down to the promenade for breakfast at the All American Diner – a mix of Indian and continental cuisines. The photographers joined us midway through breakfast and, after more waiting for what was next on the itinerary, during which the bloggers continued their revelry in high spirit, we drove to Bamboosa, a workshop and retail centre for bamboo products, located in another part of Lavasa.

Bamboo forests are nurtured in Lavasa and Lavasa Corporation employs local people and their skills to craft bamboo products such as artefacts and furniture. We bought a few pieces for keepsakes and thanked the artisans before leaving.

The sun was high above our heads and we decided to head back to the promenade. First off was a quick lunch. After last night’s happy dinner, we would have preferred another go at Chor Bizarre, but the restaurant hadn’t opened its doors by then. So, we strolled into the All American Diner and, after some hurried consultation with each other and the waiters, we were served a semi-American semi-continental spread. We dug right in with all the zest still left in us and, before we knew it, lunch was over.

We raced to our rooms, packed our bags and checked out of The Waterfront Shaw. The cars were waiting to take us back to Mumbai and we bade good-bye to each other in a rush, promising to keep in touch over the days and months. And so we did – over emails, tweets, Facebook updates and posts on our blogs.

My lady blogger friends, being far more prolific at creative writing than me, began posting their impressions of our journey to Lavasa not long after their return to their homes. I was the one who fell behind on his promise... but managed to put something together here. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

However, to get the best and the most from my long day’s journey to Lavasa during the Lavasa Women’s Drive, you must read the personal stories of my lady blogger friends who accompanied me there and made my journey such a celebrated one. You’ll find their stories here (Anu), here (Kiran), here (Monika), here (Nisha), here (Pushpa), here (Ramya), here (Sakshi), and here (Shakti). Happy reading!

Long Day's Journey to Lavasa - Part 1

2011-03-18T09:51:00.002+05:30

[This article originally appeared in the Lavasa Blog.]

It started around 7 o’clock on 27th February morning at the Reclamation Grounds in Bandra, when I walked into, what seemed to me, an open-air theatre. It was the stage for the flag-off for the Lavasa Women’s Drive from Mumbai, and the place was buzzing with people and cars.

They were all there to participate in and/or cheer for the participants of the Lavasa Women’s Drive (LWD) – a car rally to the beautiful hill city of Lavasa, in support of early detection of breast cancer in women and celebrate the modern Indian woman. Women sported the white LWD t-shirt and pink ribbons, their cars decorated with messages for the cause, like ‘Overtake Breast Cancer’, or in support of other social causes they believed in.

The event organisers and Bollywood celebrities flagged off the cars one by one and, soon after, my team of bloggers and photographers followed them on their journey to Lavasa.

Needless to say, the bloggers were all women, the modern independent-minded strong-spirited variety, and our conversations on the journey to Lavasa (and through to the next day) were profound. Topics ranged from Lavasa and how it was their first visit to the hill city, to bloggers as eye-witness documenters of present-day history to travel to food to women’s issues and the changing role of the urban Indian woman to personal experiences of gender compatibility (and attraction).

We travelled along the LWD route all the way to Lavasa without a hitch and, after some confusion over parking spaces and where to have lunch, we settled (somewhat late) in what seemed like a comfy restaurant with a strange name: the Oriental Octopus. Outside, we could see the LWD participants arriving in small groups, satisfied from their long journeys and their kabab and biriyani lunches which were specially organised for them, and milling about on the promenade.

Inside the O. Octopus, a feeling of bonhomie had developed and we all talked and tweeted away without a care in the world, sharing experiences, getting to know each other better.

However, while taking our orders and serving us at our tables, the O. Octopus got all tangled up and began to blot out our high spirit. Apart from the wait and differences over cuisines, some of us were served the wrong dishes while others didn’t get served what they had ordered. Words and feelings were exchanged – and tweeted – leaving us in some confusion. I guess a sudden invasion of high-energy bloggers and photographers was too much for them to handle.

Undaunted, we fanned out in different directions. Some returned to Mumbai to attend to their next-day’s work, while others decided to soak up some late-afternoon entertainment, catching up on the LWD post-rally celebrations. The Band of Boys was belting out a few happy numbers and the LWD participants and their friends were jiving to the rhythm.

When we reconvened in the evening, most of the LWD participants had left. The hustle and bustle of the morning and the afternoon was replaced by a calm which was a welcome break at a day’s end. While the photographers went off to shoot Lavasa by night, the bloggers and I gathered to re-cap the day’s events, sharing our thoughts about LWD. To cut a long story short, we were impressed by the turnout of participants, the support shown by so many others, and the seamless management of the event.

Dinner awaited us and Chor Bizarre on the promenade beckoned us in. It was an Indian fare and the decor inside the restaurant was quite appealing. The bloggers made the most of it by posing here and there, taking pictures of this and that, before settling at their tables for a taste of Chor Bizarre’s sumptuous Indian cuisine. The service was tailored to our needs and, before retiring to our rooms at The Waterfront Shaw, we talked of returning to the restaurant the next day.

However, to get the best and the most from my long day’s journey to Lavasa during the Lavasa Women’s Drive, you must read the personal stories of my lady blogger friends who accompanied me there and made my journey such a celebrated one. You’ll find their stories here (Anu), here (Kiran), here (Monika), here (Nisha), here (Pushpa), here (Ramya), here (Sakshi), and here (Shakti). Happy reading!

Lies of Silence

2010-03-31T17:13:00.001+05:30

Is it better to be a coward and live a happy life with the one you love? Or, is it better to do something heroic and risk your life and happiness? That’s one among several dilemmas Brian Moore grapples with in his book Lies of Silence.

Lies of Silence begins as a simple story about a Belfast hotel manager (Michael Dillon) who, unhappy with his marriage and his unfulfilled life in Belfast, decides to leave his wife for another woman and move to London. But, as he prepares to tell his wife about his decision, he is overwhelmed by unexpected and extraordinary circumstances.

Overnight, Dillon and his wife are taken hostage in their house by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). And, while his wife is kept hostage in the house, next morning, he is ordered to drive his car with explosives to the hotel, park it there and disappear. Should Dillon follow the IRA’s directive at the cost of many lives and save his wife whom he no longer loves? Or, should he risk his wife’s life – and his own, in the long run – and save the world?

Irish author Brian Moore presents this moral dilemma in a taut and gripping novel against the backdrop of a politically – and economically – volatile Northern Ireland. Faced with this dilemma, we get the feeling that regardless of Dillon’s choices, the outcome of Lies of Silence is unlikely to be a happy one. But how that outcome is reached is a credit to Moore’s storytelling.

A toast to life

2010-01-01T17:51:00.003+05:30

While we celebrate the coming of the New Year, let us not forget that our lives and our planet Earth are interconnected and dependent on each other.

The consequences of not understanding – or damaging or breaking – this relationship may be fatal to our future.

Café Coffee Day rips off its loyal customer

2009-11-19T13:09:00.000+05:30

Sadly, last Sunday (15 Nov), my lunch at Café Coffee Day (CCD) at Mumbai Domestic Airport Terminal 1 lounge turned sour. It started off as a happy lunch with fish and chips – not offered in most CCDs but a rather substantial and tasty offering I might add – and a portion of toasted garlic bread (not mentioned on their menu but served on request) on the side.

I relished my meal and, although the air conditioning wasn’t working effectively at the CCD lounge, I decided on a cup of hot coffee to pass the time... before clearing ‘security’ on the way to board my flight. So, I placed my usual CCD order of a cup of strong cappuccino and a walnut brownie with the young lady in a short navy blue skirt and a white blouse with a navy blue scarf (not the usual CCD service attire).

The young lady asked if I wanted a sizzling brownie or a plain one. I replied, “No, not sizzling, a plain one will do.” She then asked if I wanted the brownie as it is, or did I want the brownie warmed up. I suggested that if the brownie was cold, then could she warm it up for me in a microwave. She accepted my order and, not too long after, my strong cappuccino and my plain warm brownie were served.

Needless to say, I enjoyed this part of the meal as well. But, when I asked for my bill, I noticed that it contained a charge for a sizzling brownie for Rs.167/-. I drew this to the attention of the young lady who had taken my order and suggested that there was an error in my bill. That, a plain brownie at CCD doesn’t cost that much. The young lady, however, said that there was no error at all and that I had been billed correctly.

Now, I’m a regular at CCD outlets and I know that a plain brownie costs Rs.45/-. And, this plain walnut brownie looked no different from the ones I normally have. In fact, I had my usual CCD order of a cup of strong cappuccino and a walnut brownie at the CCD outlet inside Crossword Bookstore at Nirmal Lifestyle in Mulund, Mumbai, just the day before (Saturday, 14 Nov evening) and my bill was within Rs.100/-.

To the young lady, I pointed out my loyalty to CCD and our earlier conversation when placing my order for a plain brownie, warmed up, and not a sizzling one. The young lady, nevertheless, said that a heated brownie, which was what I had ordered for, was the same as a sizzling brownie – and that I should now pay my bill.

I was aghast. This was CCD ripping off its loyal customer. Since I didn’t want any unpleasantness at the airport lounge, I cleared my bill in cash, suggesting that their brownie at the airport lounge was overpriced and should be noted. Of course, these words fell on deaf ears, and the entire experience left a sour taste in my mouth.

I wondered about the customer-client transparency levels and the service levels that I had just experienced at CCD at the Mumbai Domestic airport lounge. I wondered how, in this day and age of customer consciousness and customer delight, when customer service is a key driver of a brand’s reputation, a well-known brand like Café Coffee Day could treat its customers so shoddily. This was against all principles of marketing.

And then I wondered if Café Coffee Day even cared for such things.

A romance on illegal immigrants

2009-11-13T10:57:00.001+05:30

In his 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things, British film director Stephen Frears paints a wonderful colourful picture of survival for a small group of illegal immigrants in London.

In the lead is Okwe (played superbly by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Nigerian with a past. His story unfolds slowly over the entire film, but right from the beginning we realise that Okwe is a man of honesty and integrity... and education. Although a doctor by profession, he makes a living as a part-time taxi driver and as a night receptionist at a mid-level hotel, The Baltic.

In fact, it is The Baltic on which Dirty Pretty Things is centred. The hotel also offers work to Senay (played by the lovely Audrey Tautou), a young and somewhat naive Turkish woman who dreams of going to America to join her cousin’s restaurant there. As a member of The Baltic’s housekeeping staff on the morning shift, Senay rents out her couch in her tiny flat to Okwe during the day.

For company, Okwe and Senay have a colourful menagerie of characters on the side: Juan – the hotel’s supervisor (played by Sergi López), appropriately called ‘Sneaky’ for his suspicious dealings; Ivan – an opportunist East European doorman (played by Zlatko Buric); Juliette – a prostitute with a heart of gold (played by Sophie Okonedo); and Guo Yi – a philosophical Chinese morgue attendant (played by Benedict Wong) who is Okwe’s friend.

But, when British immigration officers raid Senay’s flat and attempt to catch her working without a work permit, life becomes difficult for both Senay and Okwe.

Matters are further complicated when Okwe uncovers a racket in the sale of kidneys run within The Baltic by his supervisor, Sneaky, in exchange for false passports for illegal immigrants. In turn, Sneaky finds out about Okwe’s Nigerian past (Okwe being a doctor and being charged with his wife’s murder) and blackmails Okwe into performing kidney operations for his personal gains.

This is where Dirty Pretty Things moves away from ordinary human drama and into the realm of a crime thriller... climaxing with Senay taking up Sneaky’s offer in exchange for her passport to America.

With Dirty Pretty Things, director Frears works on a tight script by writer Steven Knight. The dialogues are minimal, but within those words, the story is told rather well. Together, Frears and Knight present a London most of us know very little about. Beneath the bright lights of the big city is a life lived by people who would be best described as marginal: people who have little going for them except their instinct for survival and their hope for a better life.

And, Frears delivers on that promise. Dirty Pretty Things, Stephen Frear’s romance on illegal immigrants of London, is a film crafted to perfection. It shows us why life is still worth living no matter how adversely our immediate circumstances overwhelm us.

Why penalise the workforce?

2009-10-26T10:17:00.000+05:30

The Indian economy is not doing badly. It may have slowed down after its exemplary performance in the last couple of years, but with a growth pegged at 6% or so in the current fiscal year, it is way ahead of the economies of the leading Western countries. If this be true, why are Indian corporate organisations and businesses, following their Western counterparts, adopting austerity measures which are affecting the Indian workforce negatively?

From retrenchment of workforce to delayed appraisals to delayed/non-payment of salaries to non-payment of performance bonuses for previous year’s excellent performance to cutbacks in salaries to cutbacks on perks promised... (the list is long)... Indian businesses, big and small, are trying to reduce costs in order to bring their businesses back on track. By which, they mean bringing up their businesses to previous levels of profitability.

Although there is a big question whether previous levels of profitability were/are sustainable over longer periods, I am more concerned about the negative effect these austerity measures have on the Indian workforce. The biggest negative effect is, of course, a disenchanted and disgruntled workforce. More so, because the workforce – at least, comprising of those who have retained their jobs – continues to work in the same dedicated manner that had brought in the revenues and profits in the previous years of growth and profitability.

If this be true, why are Indian corporate organisations and businesses penalising the workforce?

The human need to be social

2009-10-16T18:20:00.000+05:30

There’s a lot of talk of social media – about social media marketing, social networking, viral marketing, tweeting, tagging, cloud sourcing, etc. The talk usually hovers around the Internet and mobilephones, and how technology makes everything possible. More so, because the technology that makes this possible is now in the hands of millions of people.

With this technology – actually it’s a collection and convergence of various technologies – people are talking, connecting, creating, commenting, blogging, tweeting, messaging, emailing, uploading and downloading files... sharing everything from professional information to political points of view to personal interests and experiences.

Although technology has centre-stage at the moment, I wonder if it is being given importance far beyond what it deserves. After all, though technology is making it all happen (and I do give it due credit), technology still needs to make use of, sit on and act upon the solid bedrock of human relationships that makes up our world.

For, it is the human need for relationships and togetherness that seeks out opportunities, methods, resources, time and technology to bring people together. Social media simply complements and completes this need, bringing joy to millions of people around the world. It is this human need to be social that’s driving this phenomenon we call social media.

Immortality gained

2009-09-27T11:01:00.001+05:30

I know he is with God. He always has been.

Anyone who has met Rameshji, been to his satsangs, read his books or watched video recordings of his talks would tell you how gladly he shared his wisdom, and the ease with which he explained the most difficult of concepts to seekers like me.

His daughter, Jaya, would often tell me: “My father simplified things.”

After reading many of Rameshji’s books, having listened to some of his discourses, and helping to edit several of his books through his publisher and disciple Yogesh Sharma (of Zen Publications), who had introduced me to Rameshji almost eight years ago, I agree wholeheartedly.

Rameshji was fond of saying, “Consciousness is all there is.” And, so it is.

Ramesh S Balsekar – beloved ‘Rameshji’, Advaita guru and friend to all – left for his heavenly abode this morning. He will be fondly remembered by us all.

Far from the West

2009-09-18T15:31:00.001+05:30

Contrary to trends in the West, particularly in the United States, where print is being replaced by online media, and power is shifting away from corporate-owned media to individual journalists and bloggers, the Indian news and media industry, steered by large private business houses, is confidently maintaining its leadership through print and TV, and growing robustly.

In India, neither individual journalists or bloggers, nor the online media, is able to claim a substantial share of voice in the industry. At least, not yet. Traditional news organisations are continuing to play a critical role in keeping the Indian public informed.

Wisdom of crowds?

2009-09-13T18:52:00.001+05:30

Yesterday, Jeff Jarvis, American journalism professor, on Twitter, had been imploring the contributors of Wikipedia to correct his date of birth on the Wikipedia entry on him. Finally, he says, someone did.

This made me wonder about the ‘wisdom of crowds’ belief that Wikipedia is supposed to epitomise in today’s world of information and the Internet. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not challenging Wikipedia as a source of inaccurate information (I had done that before and had to correct myself). After all, I have been told that Encyclopaedia Britannica, apparently, contains as many errors as Wikipedia does.

I’m merely contemplating if many people contributing to, and creating, news and information (as it is on the Internet today) is really better than news and information created by a single source (such as a traditional encyclopaedia or the traditional newspaper/TV). Does more and more people contributing to, and creating, news and information necessarily lead to more accurate news and information?

No redemption for The Ram

2009-09-06T08:52:00.001+05:30

Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 film The Wrestler is not for the weak-hearted. It’s a brutal film on the life of a washed-up wrestler, Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson, and his path to self-destruction.

The Ram lives in the past. His sustenance comes from his past glory. Unable to find a place in the world that you and I live in, or love from his estranged daughter and a stripper-dancer he is attracted to, The Ram succumbs to and finds comfort in the only thing he understands: the life of a professional wrestler. But even here, and despite the recognition and admiration he receives from his fellow wrestlers, The Ram’s time has run out.

The Wrestler is a bleak portrayal of this story, and director Aronofsky executes it superbly. From his choice of Mickey Rourke as The Ram, to the bleak setting of New Jersey winter, to the seedy strip clubs where losers hang out, to the futility of The Ram’s life reflected in the life of the stripper-dancer, to the gruesome enactments of the wrestling matches, to the 1980s Rock music, to the camera stalking The Ram from behind… Aronofsky’s mastery is everywhere.

But, it is the pain that is so real in The Wrestler. It seeps through the film and tugs at your heartstrings. One look at The Ram’s aged and scarred face and body tells you everything. You know it’s over even before it begins. Yet, you sit through the whole film with an anticipation you can’t explain. There are a few flashes of hope in The Ram’s life, but soon they are washed away before your eyes – as does The Ram’s own life. There are no redemptions here; no happy endings to hope for.

I’m amazed how Aronofsky pulls the whole thing through. Mickey Rourke (a huge comeback for him after many years) as The Ram is superb. He should have won an Oscar. Marisa Tomei as the stripper-dancer Cassidy also does an excellent job in a supporting role. If you think you can handle the pain, the despair and the not-so-perfectness of life, you’ll enjoy every blow The Wrestler delivers.

Death is only half the story

2009-05-23T18:20:00.003+05:30

For most of us, death is a solemn experience. Unless we are related to celebrities or other public figures, and perhaps even then, death is seldom greeted with appreciation. I mean, although death is as common as life itself, rarely do we exhibit it publically, preferring to stick to our grief and simple affairs over funerals and obituaries.

Nevertheless, deaths of public and/or historical figures do involve us now and then, and when we find ourselves in such unexpected situations, we are at a loss for information. Newspaper archives, libraries and the internet do help, but what we really look for is a single easy-to-find source for all famous dead people in this universe.

This may have been a tall order earlier but, thanks to Krishna Andavolu (and a few others), now we have Obit Magazine – an online magazine on obituaries, epitaphs, retrospectives and memorabilia of public figures from around the world. In fact, Obit Magazine is much more than that. If one were to go by its masthead, the online magazine is about ‘life death transition’ – a sort of look at life through death.

Here’s what it says in the introduction to the website’s Meet Obit section:

“Death gives life its immediacy. Because we know it will end, we savor and value life all the more. Obit examines life through the lens of death. Whether it’s the loss of a person, a place, an object or an idea, life’s constant change presents an opportunity for examination, discussion and even celebration.

By examining the transformations we face, we can understand how the past influences our time and our future. Obit aims to offer a forum for ideas and opinions about life, death, and transition that you will find nowhere else.”

Although Obit Magazine specialises in obituaries, it offers sections on topics such as just died, editor’s picks, arts & media, books, business & politics, sports, science, died on the same day, retrospectives, and best send-offs. There are blogs and forums too – as well as features such as news feeds, newsletters and a search facility.

You can log on to Obit Magazine here… and celebrate life as well as death.

[Citation: The title of this post is reproduced from Obit Magazine. The complete line, which appears just below the website’s masthead (except on the home page), states “Death is only half the story. Obit is about life…”]

A life without newspapers

2009-05-20T01:04:00.003+05:30

With the internet and the electronic media becoming more and more popular, there’s a growing fear that one day newspapers will simply vanish from our lives. Would that really matter to us?

It should, according to Beth Teitell.

In a rather anecdotal tongue-in-cheek view published in the Boston Globe, Beth Teitell gives us hope that there are still a few applications for which newspapers are irreplaceable.

Here’s one:

“You can shed a tear right now for the iconic ransom note, with letters clipped from newspaper headlines. What’s a kidnapper to do? Print out letters at home using different fonts and point sizes?”

You can read Beth Teitell’s complete article here.

You can also read related posts from my blogs here and here.

[Citation: Save the Presses! by Beth Teitell, the Boston Globe dated 17 May 2009.]

A street artist named TKV

2009-05-14T15:40:00.002+05:30

She walks the streets at night, hiding from the law and the few antisocial elements who accost her on her journey, to leave her creative mark on the walls of Belgrade in Serbia. But, she’s careful not to touch the heritage buildings (for they have their own value), opting instead to use the walls of buildings in the lanes and side-streets as her canvas.

She’s almost 21 and her name’s Sashka, though she prefers to go by her adopted artist name of TKV, short for The Kraljica Vila, which means The Queen of Fairies. In an interview with the Dutch Submarine Channel, she says “she wants to add something beautiful to the world,” hoping to change the world with artistic magic.

To find out more on TKV as well as watch her video interview, log on to Pretty Cool People Interviews on Submarine Channel. Or, go directly to her MySpace profile to see more of her street art.

[Citation: Image reproduced from TKV’s MySpace pages; video link from Pretty Cool People Interviews on Submarine Channel.]

Youngistaan?

2009-05-13T01:06:00.000+05:30

As the 2009 Lok Shabha Elections comes to its fifth and final phase today, I can’t help but wonder about the 100-odd million young Indians in the 18-24 years age group who are eligible to vote and who are expected to have woken up in order to exercise their right to vote this year. Why? Simply because, if one is to believe the Indian media, a great deal of India’s political future now rests on them.

To make this dream come true, this year, leading Indian political parties have risen to the challenge of taking India’s youth to the polls and winning over their franchise. Taking cues from Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign, they have left no stones unturned, wooing India’s youth from every corner, reaching out through available technologies such as the internet and the mobilephone.

Opposition leader L K Advani has been exemplary in this respect, and has set benchmarks for others to follow. Another leading light has been Jaago Re!, a much-applauded media campaign by a non-partisan NGO called Janaagraha and supported whole-heartedly by Indian corporate Tata Tea. According to media reports, Jaago Re! has been successful in registering close to 600,000 new voters on their website (whose content is entirely in English) – although it’s uncertain at the moment if all 600,000 new voters fall in the 18-24 years age group.

The question is, of course, whether these internet-savvy mobilephone-wielding English-speaking mostly-urban youths in the 18-24 years age group – what FMCG giant Pepsico labels as ‘Youngistaan’ in their marketing campaigns in India – will be large enough and strong enough to exercise and exert their power to carve out India’s political future.

In the last Lok Shabha Elections in 2004, only 10 per cent of this group of youths had exercised their right to vote. I wonder what their count will be this year.

China's urban billion

2009-04-30T13:35:00.002+05:30

According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study, by the year 2025, nearly a billion people in China will reside in urban centres. As many as 221 urban centres in China will have a population greater than one million; out of which 23 centres will have a population greater than five million. By 2025, over 90 per cent of China’s GDP will be generated by China’s urban economy.

You can read MGI’s full report on China, titled Preparing for China’s urban billion, here. [PDF registration required]

Ecological Intelligence

2009-04-27T19:27:00.002+05:30

“Every item we buy has a hidden price tag: a toll on the planet, on our health and on the people whose labor provides those goods. Each man-made thing has its own web of impacts left along the way from the extraction or concoction of its ingredients, during its manufacture and transport, through its use in our homes and workplaces, to the day we dispose of it. These unseen impacts are incredibly important. For instance, an ingredient in sunscreen primes the growth of a deadly virus in coral reef. Four thousand to 6,000 metric tons of sunscreen wash off swimmers each year worldwide. The dangers are greatest, of course, where the most swimmers are drawn to the beauty of coral reefs.

Our inability to instinctively recognize the connections between our actions and the problems that result from them leaves us wide open to creating the dangers we decry. Our brains are exquisitely attuned to pinpoint and instantly react to a fixed range of dangers, such as snarling animals. But our perceptual system misses the signals when the threat comes in the form of gradual rises in planetary temperature, or minuscule chemicals that build up in our body over time.”

– Daniel Goleman, American psychologist, author and science journalist, best-known for his 1995 book ‘Emotional Intelligence’

[Citation: Quote reproduced from Truth and Consequences, an article by Daniel Goleman, in Newsweek’s Science section, 18 April 2009 – based on his latest book ‘Ecological Intelligence’.]

Green is a state of mind

2009-04-23T20:28:00.002+05:30

Yesterday, 22 April 2009, was Earth Day.

And, I am ashamed to say that my contribution to our beautiful planet Earth was virtually nothing. The best I could do was buy some clothes made from organically-grown and organically-dyed cotton… and resolve to eat organic food as often as I could.

At work, too, there was zero participation from my colleagues in celebrating Earth Day. I guess, we were all to weighed down by work pressures to pay attention to, or make time for, something as esoteric as celebrating our planet even for a day… or choose a green lifestyle for ever.

This made me wonder about the lifestyles we have adopted these days: our fascination with urban life, our dependence on things plastic and non-organic, our disregard for our environment, and our move away from nature and her bounty. But, was it always like this?

I wondered if it was convenience or carelessness or pure selfishness that drove us away from a pure and natural life that our forefathers enjoyed… and into destroying our planet bit by bit. And I wondered how great a commitment it will take us now to go back to our original pure state… and save the planet.

It was while dwelling on these thoughts that I received an email from The Body Shop advertising its ‘Bag For Life’ on the occasion of Earth Day. The promotional email advertised a free reusable organically-grown cotton tote bag with the message ‘green is not a colour, it’s a state of mind’ with any $30 purchase from The Body Shop.

And I was immediately overwhelmed. The message ‘green is not a colour, it’s a state of mind’ had me mesmerised. True it wasn’t action of any kind – it was just a message on a bag. But, perhaps, this was a start. Perhaps, this was the kind of consciousness we needed to wake up to every morning.

[Citation: Image courtesy The Body Shop email for ‘Bag For Life’.]

Art is irreplaceable

2009-04-18T12:46:00.003+05:30

“Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world – equal to but distinct from scientific and conceptual methods. Art addresses us in the fullness of our being – simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images.

Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions. And it remembers. As Robert Frost once said about poetry, ‘It is a way of remembering that which it would impoverish us to forget.’ Art awakens, enlarges, refines, and restores our humanity. You don’t outgrow art. The same work can mean something different at each stage of your life. A good book changes as you change.”

– Dana Gioia, American poet and Chairman National Endowment for the Arts, in his 17 June 2007 Commencement Address at Stanford University

Watchmen

2009-04-16T16:22:00.001+05:30

It’s 1985. In the United States, Richard Nixon has settled into his fifth term as President. Globally, the Cold War is about to reach its climax as the US and the USSR are at a standoff, their nuclear weapons ready and aimed to annihilate each other. The US, of course, has a secret weapon – Dr Manhattan, a superhero who can control matter and may possibly be able to stop the USSR’s nuclear missile attack and save the US from destruction.

Other superheroes have retired – some too old or dead; some living ordinary lives; some living their last days in asylums. Crime fills the streets and homes of ordinary people – especially one that has ex-superhero Rorschach’s hackles up. For, this crime is the murder of Edward Blake – the erstwhile superhero known as the Comedian, a member of a group of six superheroes who used to be called the Watchmen.

But very few people know that. So, Rorschach smells a rat and starts his own investigation of the Comedian’s murder, dropping in on his old cronies (both ex-superheroes and villains), and recording his progress in a journal. Watchmen – British writer Alan Moore’s 1986 graphic novel turned into film by American director Zack Snyder in 2009 – tells the story of Rorschach’s investigation of the Comedian’s murder from this journal, travelling across the globe, across timelines and even to outer space.

Unlike most Superman, Spider Man or X-Men films, Watchmen is not a film for adolescent/teenage boys and girls. The film’s content is definitely for adult viewership, with scenes of strong graphic violence and, in instances, sex (parts of it censored for Indian audiences). However, the film is impressive, with great cinematography and special effects; and some great 1970’s music (Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimmy Hendrix, etc).

And, of course, the tension of the investigation continues till the very end: Who killed the Comedian? Why was he killed? What happens now? What happens after?

But most importantly, Watchmen shows us the dark side of superheroes; their pasts and their penchant for vigilantism. Watchmen portrays our superheroes as far from being the perfect human beings we hero-worship. Rather, they are troubled characters, full of flaws, trying to redeem themselves and improve the world they (and we all) live in. In Watchmen, Rorschach is a wonderful embodiment of this dark superhero… and my favourite.

A few things did bother me about the film. First, at two and a half hours (in Indian cinemas), Watchmen tended to be long. Second, the plot, and its switching back and forth through flashbacks, was a little confusing at times. And third, the characterisation of the superheroes – the Comedian, Rorschach, Dr Manhattan, Nite Owl II, Silk Spectre II and Ozymandias – was somewhat weak. Still, in my mind, these failings weren’t enough to stop Watchmen from achieving epic status.

Watchmen is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the Comedian), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Billy Crudup (Dr Manhattan), Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl II), Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II) and Matthew Goode (Ozymandias).

Life and gender in advertising

2009-04-11T17:58:00.007+05:30

A recent lifestyle and compensation survey of advertising professionals by The Drum – one of UK’s leading advertising, media and marketing magazine based out of Glasgow, Scotland – found that

“71% of the sample were married or cohabiting and 28% single or divorced. The mean ages of these groups were as expected with single people at 20 years, cohabiting at 24 years, married at 30 years and divorced at 38 years.”

I wonder if this progression of age and marital status is a fate we all have to surrender to in our profession… even in India.

Needless to say, the survey found, men in advertising are paid substantially more than their women colleagues… with higher prospects of securing board-level positions.

I guess all’s not fair in advertising either.

A report on The Drum survey titled A Work-Life Balance? can be found here. [registration required]

On the issue of gender bias in executive pay, please read Men make more money than women.

We now wield the paintbrush

2009-04-10T00:53:00.001+05:30

“Few people realize the speed of change as civilization’s consumption grows but the Earth’s resources don’t. I’ve found one illustration so dramatic it makes the point painfully clear. The present total weight of vertebrate life on land and in the air can be divided into two parts: the human-related (humans and their livestock and pets) is 98%, and wild nature just 2%. If you’re keeping score, we have won – but in winning may lose a grander game.

The following two sentences summarize the situation at this wonderful moment of human life on Earth:

Over billions of years, on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life – complex, improbable, wonderful, and fragile. Suddenly we humans (a recently arrived species no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature), have grown in population, technology, and intelligence to a position of terrible power: we now wield the paintbrush.”

– Dr Paul B MacCready (1925-2007), inventor of human-powered flight, founder and former Chairman, AeroVironment Inc, in his 1999 web essay An Ambivalent Luddite at a Technological Feast

The Winner Stands Alone

2009-04-07T20:16:00.002+05:30

“One of the recurrent themes in my books is the importance of paying a price for your dreams. But to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? For the past few decades, we have lived in a culture that privileged fame, money, power – and most people were led to believe that these were the real values that they were to pursue.

What we don’t know is that, behind the scenes, the real manipulators remain anonymous. They understand that the most effective power is the one that nobody can notice – until it is too late, and you are trapped. The Winner Stands Alone is about this trap.”

– Paulo Coelho, in his latest novel The Winner Stands Alone

[Reproduced from the Foreword of The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho; translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa; HarperCollinsPublishers 2009.]

Tata’s turtle dilemma

2009-04-04T01:03:00.003+05:30

[Tata Nano Olive Ridley Turtle ad courtesy Greenpeace.]

Could have fooled me

2009-04-02T19:01:00.002+05:30

Pranks on April Fool’s Day have been commonplace in my life. Though, with the advent of technology, these days, my friends have (thankfully) chosen emails and mobile text messages over the more elaborate pranks we used to play on each other while growing up. So, apart from the usual jokes that filtered in or beeped into my inbox yesterday, the day had ended rather uneventfully.

However, while surfing the internet before going to bed, I came across two hilarious April Fool’s Day pranks – both, amusingly, from the world of journalism – that, if it hadn’t been April Fool’s Day yesterday, could have easily fooled me, and perhaps the rest of the world, into accepting their facts as reality.

The first was a Guardian article announcing Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink – a light-hearted account of how Guardian’s news stories will now be available on a message service. And the second, a Christian Science Monitor story, titled Scientists worldwide admit global warming is a hoax, on how Al Gore and his mantra on global warming have really been fooling us for years.

You can read the stories here and here.

I wish the Indian media had a sense of humour to match these stories.

[Citation: Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink by Rio Palof from The Guardian website dated 1 April 2009; Scientists worldwide admit global warming is a hoax by Eoin O’Carroll from The Christian Science Monitor website dated 1 April 2009.]

No pop-up ads here

2009-02-10T20:37:00.003+05:30

Hurray! No pop-up ads here!

How often can you say that with satisfaction when you’re on the internet these days? Not too often, I’m guessing, unless you’ve programmed your web browser to effectively block off those irritating pop-up ads on your computer system. Even then, you’re likely to have a face-off with the shoshkeles every now and then.

But pop-up ads and shoshkeles aren’t the only irritants while surfing the internet for news and information. There are other drawbacks too, which we grudgingly accept everyday. Drawbacks, perhaps, not in the pure sense of the term; but definitely considered as drawbacks when compared to the old-age system of gathering news and information through the print medium – typically through newspapers and magazines.

Although not in India, but globally, the print medium is losing its readership, with more and more people switching to the internet for their regular dose of news and information – and much much more. I had blogged about this a couple of years ago, but the bitter truth is, today, globally, the print medium is under threat from the online industry.

What should the print industry do in response to this threat?

Well, here’s a story: In an article I read recently on the National Press Club website – titled Newspapers are fact-checked, hand-delivered, no pop-up ads. What’s not to love? – Ken Paulson of Newseum defended the print medium, offering an interesting and humorous perspective of the advantages the newspaper offers to its readers vis-à-vis the online medium.

Paulson wonders what would have happened “if Gutenberg had invented a digital modem rather than a printing press; and that for centuries all our information had come online. Further, imagine if we held a press conference announcing the invention of an intriguing new product called the ‘newspaper’. That press conference might go something like this:

We’re pleased to announce a new product that will revolutionize the way you access information. It will save you time and money and keep you better informed than ever before.

Just consider the hours you’ve spent on the internet looking for information of interest to you. We’ve hired specialists who live and work in your hometown to cull information sources and provide a daily report tailored to your community, your friends and your neighbors.

We also know that you sometimes wonder whether you can trust the information you see online. We plan to introduce a painstaking new process called ‘fact-checking’ in which we actually verify the information before we pass it along to you.

In addition to saving time online, you’ll also save money. You won’t need those expensive color ink cartridges or reams of paper because information will be printed out for you in full color every day.

You’ll also save money on access charges and those unpleasant fights over who gets time on the computer because this product will be physically delivered to your home at the same time each day, for less than what you would tip the guy from Pizza Hut.

You worry about your kids stumbling across porn on the internet, but this product is pre-screened and guaranteed suitable for the whole family.

And in a security breakthrough, we guarantee newspapers to be absolutely virus-free, and promise the elimination of those annoying pop-up ads.

It’s also the most portable product in the world, and doesn’t require batteries or electricity. And when the flight attendant tells you to turn off your electronic devices, you can actually turn this on, opening page after page without worrying about interfering with the plane’s radar.

To top it all off, you don’t need a long-term warranty or service protection program. If you’re not happy with this product on any day, we'll redesign it and bring you a new one the next day.”

There’s, of course, more to this story. To read the entire Ken Paulson article on the National Press Club website, go here.

[Citation: Newspapers are fact-checked, hand-delivered, no pop-up ads. What’s not to love? by Ken Paulson of Newseum, posted on the National Press Club website under NPC Wire New & Noteworthy by Sylvia Smith on 6 February 2009.]

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-28T20:13:00.001+05:30

By now you would have heard, or read in the media, a great deal about British film director Danny Boyle’s latest film Slumdog Millionaire. The film narrates the story of a child from the slums of Mumbai who, though orphaned and growing up in abject poverty, overcomes many hardships in life to win millions on a TV gameshow and find true love.

May I request that you ignore all that you’ve read and heard about Slumdog Millionaire so far and go see the film yourself. Then, go and see the film again. Whatever you think and feel about the film after that is exactly how it should be.

If you’ve seen Slumdog Millionaire already, you know what I’m talking about.

JR: extraordinary street art

2008-11-06T15:36:00.007+05:30

He is a graffiti artist with a camera – and a huge imagination. His name is JR, and he is transforming the streets of many of our cities with his extraordinary street art/photography.

JR (he uses his initials because of the illegal nature of his work) pastes huge, (usually) B&W photographs of people in high-visibility public spaces such as walls and windows of buildings, rooftops, side panels of buses, etc creating a new kind of graffiti in the guise of street art/photography.

The themes of his photographs highlight a deep concern for humanity, drawing attention to social causes, wars, human emotions and suffering – challenging many of our present-day (preconceived) notions.

For instance, in a write-up on JR’s street art, the Tate Modern Gallery website cites, “His work with Palestinian and Israeli citizens explored the similarities of their daily lives, rather than focusing on the ever present divide, highlighting fundamental human emotions.”

A Frenchman who remains incognito (like Banksy), JR describes himself and his work on his own website:

“As an undercover photographer, JR transforms his pictures into posters and makes open space photo galleries out of our streets. An acute observer of our time, as comfortable in cozy neighborhoods as in urban ghettos, he questions pedestrians with the exhibitions he mounts on their everyday commutes.

Using a camera he found once in the subway, JR finds inspiration in informal encounters he makes following his travels and his intuitions.

From 2001, he has been pointing his camera to a number of communities (writers, breakdancers, freestylers...), and worked with popular actors and musicians such as Vincent Cassel, IAM or the Gotan Project.

From 2004, he has been working on the 28 millimetres project, the first part of which – Portrait of a generation – led him up to the New York Times front page. The large size pictures of the Montfermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois youth have been notably displayed on the walls of the European Center for Photography and the square of the Hotel de Ville, in Paris.

His pictures are beginning to sell at Hotel Drouot of Paris; he keeps on planning unauthorized exhibitions of large size pictures such as in Rome or in Wuppertal (Germany). He is currently working on the second and third parts of the 28 millimetres project in Middle East and Brazil.

The 3rd stage of the 28 millimeters project – Women Are Heroes – has already led him to Africa in post-conflicting zones to shoot the women with whom he wishes to share painful stories and to testify their desire to live. Their portraits were already pasted in Sierra-Leone and in Liberia. In 2008-2009, JR will develop this project in India and in Asia.”

To learn more about JR and his extraordinary street art, please visit JR’s website (showing videos of how his street art is installed), or the Lazarides Gallery JR page, or the Tate Modern Gallery JR page.

JR’s 28 millimetres project has its special place here.

[Citation: JR’s website, Lazarides Gallery website, Tate Modern Gallery website, 28 millimeters project website. JR’s street installation image reproduced here from the Tate Modern Gallery website (courtesy the artist and the Lazarides Gallery).]

Elle Muliarchyk – the bold and the beautiful

2008-11-03T17:18:00.012+05:30

Alone Hermès
self-staged photograph by Elle Muliarchyk.

Belarus-born Elle Muliarchyk, 23, blonde and beautiful, sets my heart racing. Not just for her beauty, but also for her artistic accomplishments, which she seems to have achieved with a curiosity and daring not easy to come by.

Elle Muliarchyk is a model and a photographer in her own right, modelling in her own photographs and staging the entire performance with clothes, make-up, props, lights, tripod and camera… in dressing rooms of high-fashion boutiques, and even in dangerous locations outdoors at night… within minutes and in most trying situations, to avoid getting caught.

What Elle Muliarchyk does is walk into some of the most glamorous boutiques, take photographs of herself wearing the choicest expensive clothes, posing for the shots, adding props and lights to compose her pictures, and then walk out of the store without buying anything. She usually has only minutes to do this daring act before getting caught by the store attendants and getting kicked out of the store or arrested by the police.

As she says in her self-styled profile on SHOWstudio: “Doing this I become my own photographer, model, art director, make up artist and hair stylist. I can be whoever I desire at that moment ‘a movie star, a Vamp, a Seductress’, and own those outrageously unaffordable clothes for a few moments, never having to pay for it!”

But that’s not all. While collaborating with fashion designer Bella Freud on a project, Elle Muliarchyk has walked around in some of London’s seedy areas at night, armed with her tripod and her camera, taking self-portraits in Freud’s latest collection. Apparently, during her first shot, she was attacked and mugged by a gang of eight men, witnessed a robbery of a boutique and had to escape the guys on the motorcycles. But, as she says in her SHOWstudio profile, “the images were totally worth getting.”

Fashion Television has featured Elle Muliarchyk and her daring acts on a couple of occasions, which can be seen here and here.

Elle Muliarchyk’s SHOWstudio profile can be found here, and a selection of her photographs can be seen on the German website Stern.de.

Zarah Crawford of The New York Times has done a story on Elle Muliarchyk in August 2006, called Pretty Larceny, which makes interesting reading. It also explains the ‘Alone Hermès’ photograph displayed in this post.

[Citation: Elle Muliarchyk profile on SHOWstudio; Elle Muliarchyk videos on Fashion Television; Elle Muliarchyk’s photographs on Stern.de; and Zarah Crawford’s story on Elle Muliarchyk, Pretty Larceny, on The New York Times, 27 August 2006. ‘Alone Hermès’ photograph reproduced from Elle Muliarchyk’s collection on Stern.de.]

Kappa

2008-10-31T10:38:00.003+05:30

A Kappa is a mythical beast, found in Japanese folklore. But, in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s 1927 novel, Kappa, a whole nation of Kappas (cute creatures) come alive, predominantly in the male gender (though the female of the species does exist), inhabiting their very own world called Kappaland, which is almost a parallel to ours.

Kappas have cities with roads, houses, shops and public buildings; they have factories, hospitals and schools; they have trees, rivers and seas; they have politics, religion and wars; they have doctors, judges, businessmen, students, poets, philosophers and fishermen; and they experience the same emotions of love, greed, jealousy, etc. as we do. However, some of their thinking and behaviour are different – almost opposite – from ours.

We know all this because Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s protagonist from his novel Kappa, identified simply as Patient No.23 in the Author’s Preface, is there to tell us his story of Kappas and Kappaland from personal experience.

Although Kappa is hailed as one of Akutagawa’s greatest achievements – his most famous work is his collection of short stories published as Roshomon, made even more famous by Japanese director Akira Kurasawa in his epic film of the same name, which was based on two stories from Akutagawa’s Roshomon collection – I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Kappa and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as well as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, both of which were published much before Akutagawa’s novel.

For instance, Alice falls asleep in the garden and then wakes up to find a white rabbit, which she then chases down a rabbit hole, to arrive at Wonderland. Akutagawa’s Patient No.23 also falls asleep in a jungle by a river in the foothills of a mountain, wakes up to find a real life Kappa and chases it, only to fall down a hole in which the Kappa disappears, and finally arrives unconscious in Kappaland. Or, for instance, the references to, and description of, things in Kappaland which are similar to our human world (in this case Japan), and yet which are ‘upside-down’ or logically inverse of the human world. Alice’s Wonderland is built on a similar ‘upside-down’ or logically-inverse model.

But, perhaps, I’m being petty. After all, Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Kappa is a charming tale of a Japanese man’s accidental discovery of Kappas and his stay in Kappaland (for an undefined period) before returning to Japan. Akutagawa’s parallels between Japan and Kappaland, at times somewhat surreal, are indeed something to marvel at. The fact that Akutagawa wrote Kappa as a response to his revulsion of himself and of the Japanese society at that time (leading to his suicide at 35 years of age, soon after publishing his novel) – as it is explained in a very long Introduction to the novel by G H Healey – is, of course, unclear to the reader from the story. But, that doesn’t take away anything from the fun and enchantment of the Kappas in the novel.

[Citation: Kappa by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1927), translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Bownas (1970), with an Introduction by G H Healey; Peter Owen Publishers, 2004.]

Andy Warhol prince of pop

2008-10-30T20:36:00.003+05:30

Besides or in spite of his art, most people probably remember Andy Warhol as the person famous for saying, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” For Warhol, his fame was much greater than the fifteen minutes he had proposed for everybody. For him, it had lasted twenty-five years (until his sudden death due to a complication during a routine gall-bladder operation in 1987) – and it continues even today.

I knew very little about Andy Warhol until I read Andy Warhol prince of pop by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan. The book is a slim and easy-to-read volume of his biography, describing Warhol’s life (born Andrew Warhola) as the third son of Ruthenian (people from an area near the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe comprising parts of Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and Hungary) parents who migrated to the United States after the First World War and settled down in Pittsburgh.

Warhol’s father, Andrej, was a construction worker who took up odd jobs when he was laid off, but “managed to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads during the toughest years of the Depression.” But it was Warhol’s mother, Julia, who was his greatest encouragement, pampering him through his ill-health during his childhood until his later years, almost till Warhol was 40 years of age, living close to Warhol in New York.

Andy Warhol is inseparable from American Pop Art – an art movement that started in the 1960s and continues today. What made Warhol famous over and above other Pop artists (such as Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wasselmann, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg) was his application of this art form into media such as advertising, design, books, films, TV production and fashion. Besides, when other famous Abstract Expressionist artists of the time (such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko) remained true to their oeuvre, Warhol shamelessly experimented with different media, form and content, extending the boundaries to establish his own style and standards not only on Pop Art, but also on contemporary American culture.

Everybody wanted to be in Andy Warhol’s company – be it in his art, in his films, in his parties, in his studio (The Factory), in his magazine (Interview), and/or be seen with him. That’s probably what Warhol meant by ‘world famous for fifteen minutes’. And, true to his form, he delivered on this promise. For, by 1963, Andy Warhol had achieved fame. He was an American icon.

Decidedly gay, Warhol was successful in winning over both men and women, many of them celebrities in their own right. Yet, many of them turned to him – for memorability. Warhol knew the importance of image-building, creating a memorable image for himself single-handedly. One of his dreams was to become a supermodel, but he did not attain this goal. However, what is of importance (and, perhaps, a learning for us all) is that Andy Warhol was superlatively industrious – he never stopped working, even when he was shopping, partying, or on a holiday. His huge volume of work is a testimony to this fact.

Andy Warhol prince of pop by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan is a quick and enlightening biography of America’s greatest pop artist. The book also contains a Warhol timeline, a list of Warhol’s films and books, a glossary of art terms, notes on quotes and references, and sources of research material on Warhol… making it an interesting mini-compendium on the artist.

[Citation: Andy Warhol prince of pop by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Laurel-Leaf, 2004.]

Being Muslim in ‘India Today’

2008-10-24T18:40:00.000+05:30

As an Indian, I’m no stranger to issues of race and religion, facing it everyday, not just in the news but also while living, working and travelling in Mumbai city. It’s a complex issue, considering India’s mixed population and history, made even more ‘slippery’ by the games played by the politicians and the Press today – the very pillars of society who ought to hold upright the values of a secular state that India is.

For instance, consider this email I received from a concerned member of the media (I’ve posted it here verbatim, after taking approval from the author of the email/story):

This is a piece I wrote for India Today but the version that has appeared in the magazine is an edit that I did not agree to. It’s not clear to me how that happened since I edited the longer article down to this final version and sent it in to them. But the magazine is out and I am both angry and saddened at their careless editing of ideas that are particularly under siege at this point of time.

So, here is my edit and I would be glad if it was circulated widely on the net - more widely than the magazine!

Samina

Not far from L18, in the posh part of Jamia Nagar, is a house on a tree-lined avenue that will always be home to me. But my life, with all its easy privileges, could not be more different from Atif and Sajid’s, the two young men shot as alleged terrorists at L18. I contain multitudes, Whitman so eloquently said. But we live in a time when even multitudes are forced to lay claim to a singular label. And so by writing this, perhaps, I will forever be labelled the voice of the liberal secular Muslim. A voice that is accused of not speaking up. Ironically, it is this very tyranny of labels that grants me this space in a mainstream national magazine.

As someone with a Muslim first name and a Hindu surname, I suppose I have always swung between labels - a poster girl for communal harmony or a confused, rootless individual, depending on who was doing the labelling. I went to a public school and have never worn a burkha. I might escape being thrown in the big cauldron with “Islamic Terrorists” but I will certainly be added to the one for “misguided intellectuals”. While there is no mistaking that it is zealous nationalists who seek to light the fire under the first cauldron, the other is a bone of contention between those who seek to define for me how to be Indian and those who seek to define for me how to be Muslim. My condemnation of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Imrana’s rape or the media circus around Gudiya will always be seen in the context of my privileged background, my gender, my religious identity. Perhaps, it can be no other way.

In this rhetoric of binaries, of “us and them”, it is difficult to find the space to create a new paradigm of discussion. And so, in conversations that throw up Islamic terrorists, rigid religious beliefs, Pakistan and madrasas, the response is inevitably another set of questions - why is the Bajrang Dal not labelled a terrorist outfit, why is the growing public display of Hindu festivals like Navratras and Karva Chauth not considered rigid religious beliefs, why should Muslims in India be answerable for what goes on in Pakistan, what spaces other than madrasas are available for thousands of believing Muslims who choose to get educated and still retain their Muslim-ness. As a Muslim in India today, not only are you fighting to shrug off the label of fundamentalist- if not terrorist - but you are also succumbing to a paradigm of dialogue which has been set for homogenous communities with clear markers of identities.

But how does one fight that when shared cultural spaces, other than those created by the market, shrink? How does one speak of the diversity of being Indian when Diwali is celebrated in schools and Eid just in Muslim homes? How does one avoid a singular label for experiences that are diverse and yet have a common thread running through them - the experience of a tailor in Ahmedabad whose Hindu patrons have stopped giving work to, the butcher in Batla House who couldn’t get a bank loan, the software professional who will now have to watch every single byte that leaves his computer.

Being Muslim in India today means many things to many people. But how easy it is to forget that one fundamental reality. How easy it is to say, as someone said to me after the Delhi blasts - “These are all educated Muslims. Don’t they know that their bombs can also kill their own?” As if everyone with a Muslim name is a terrorist’s very “own”.

Samina Mishra / October 2008

Accusations against Milan Kundera

2008-10-21T14:55:00.001+05:30

Looks like world-famous Czech author (now a French citizen) Milan Kundera may be in a spot of trouble.

According to news which appeared in The Editors Weblog yesterday, posted by Lauren Drablier, documents going back 50 years or so have been discovered in the Communist archives in Czechoslovakia implying Milan Kundera’s involvement in denouncing a fellow student in Prague (under the Communist regime).

This post has been reproduced entirely from The Editors Weblog story posted by Lauren Drablier on 20 October 2008:

The Editors Weblog interviewed Martin M Simecka, the author of an article that appeared in Czech magazine, Respekt on October 13, 2008.

The article claims that an authentic police report, over 50 years old, has resurfaced from the Communist security agency’s archive. The report implicates Czech author Milan Kundera. Kundera is accused of denouncing Miroslav Dvoracek, who was a university student in Prague. The denunciation led to his imprisonment for over 14 years.

Part of the document reads:

“Today at around 1600 hours a student, Milan Kundera, born 1.4.1929 in Brno, resident at the student hall of residence on George VI Avenue in Prague VII, presented himself at this department and reported that a student, Iva Militká, resident at that residence, had told a student by the name of Dlask, also of that residence, that she had met a certain acquaintance of hers, Miroslav Dvoracek, at Klárov in Prague the same day. The said Dvoracek apparently left 1 case in her care, saying he would come to fetch it in the afternoon. (...) Dvoracek had apparently deserted from military service and since the spring of the previous year had possibly been in Germany, where he had gone illegally.”

Editors Weblog asked Mr Simecka a few questions about how Respekt has handled the issue from a journalistic and editorial point of view:

EW: How did you determine the authenticity of the police report? Is this the only document you have?

MS: The experts from the Military History Institute confirmed the authenticity of the document. We also interviewed Ms Militka for the story. Other newspapers have interviewed her as well.

EW: How and why did you decide to publish the document? Did you have any doubts or hesitations before you published the article? Did Milan Kundera answer you when you contacted him before publication?

MS: Adam Hradilek, the historian who found the original document, tried to contact Milan Kundera by fax on September 11, 2008 (one month before the article was published), however, Kundera did not respond. We also know that he had received the fax. Of course we had some long debates about publishing the article, but we have no doubts about the version we have published.

EW: How was the article written and presented in the Czech Republic? As purely factual or as accusatory?

MS: Our article did not accuse Mr. Kundera, we simply were following the facts.

EW: Kundera has denounced the document and article as ‘pure lies’, how do you plan on approaching the situation now? What will be the magazine's response?

MS: In the Czech Republic it is a very heated debate, and sometimes very irrational. We have asked Czech writers, such as Vaclav Havel, to write short essays about the case.

EW: In hindsight, because Kundera has denounced the accusations, do you feel that you should have taken more precautions before publishing the article? Or are you confident that it will hold up?

MS: Our biggest problem was how to talk to Mr Kundera – we knew very well that he has not communicated with the media for over 25 years. On the other hand, until now Mr Kundera has not said anything else about the case – other than claiming that it is a lie. There are many questions that need to be answered, but Mr Kundera is not communicating to the media.

EW: You are comparing Kundera to Günter Grass. Does this mean that you are expecting Kundera to admit?

MS: Originally, I hoped for it but now I do not expect that Kundera will admit.

EW: Where do you see this debate going? Will it continue to grow?

MS: Yes, especially in the Czech Republic, the debate is going to be huge. I am afraid the result may be that politicians will close the Military History Institute.

EW: What does it change if Kundera is guilty or not? Who will be affected the most?

MS: This case could open the debate of the past, but it seems that it can also close it for years and years. That would be the saddest story.

EW: What do you expect from Vaclav Havel?

MS: Vaclav Havel has written for us – more or less defending Mr Kundera.

EW: Do you think other cases of velvet revolution heroes will appear? Have you opened Pandora’s box?

MS: Some other cases may come up, but I do not think they will ever be as big as this one.

[Citation: Covering the accusations against Milan Kundera, on The Editor’s Weblog, posted by Lauren Drablier on 20 October 2008.]

Being creative

2008-10-14T14:13:00.000+05:30

“You only have to look at your children’s drawings or listen to the odd little phrases they coin to know that man is born with a creative urge. Yet sadly, most people lose this urge as they grow older.

Many ‘primitive’ societies seem far wiser than us in the way they nurture this quality. For example, I have in my home some masks and statues from New Guinea, tapa cloths from Samoa, and aboriginal paintings. Artists like Picasso learned much from this kind of art, and the artistic impulse – seen in acts like body painting and tattooing – seems more widespread in their communities.

But we ‘civilised’ folk in pursuit of such worthy ends as direct marketing allow this inherent ability to atrophy. We have come to think only a special, gifted few can be ‘creative’.”

– Drayton Bird, British direct marketing guru, in ‘The birth of an idea’ from his book Commonsense Direct Marketing

Toumani Diabaté

2008-10-10T20:28:00.002+05:30

Toumani Diabaté is from Mali (West Africa). He plays the kora, a 21-stringed traditional Malian musical instrument. The music from the kora, whether solo or accompanied by a band or vocals, is so melodious that, some say, it can transport the listener to the seventh heaven.

Toumani Diabaté is represented by World Circuit Records, London. You can buy his CDs from, or listen to his music on, their website. To listen to his music, choose any of the 3 albums displayed at the bottom of the screen and click on the ‘listen’ link.

You can also watch a video of Toumani Diabaté’s performance on YouTube here (4 minutes of bliss) and a short intro to playing the kora here.

[Citation: World Circuit Records; YouTube.]

The Daily Beast

2008-10-08T18:57:00.001+05:30

Tina Brown, British-born but now American citizen, former editor of famous magazines like Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, talk-show host and winner of many journalism awards, has launched her very own news website called The Daily Beast.

What is The Daily Beast?

According to its website (and in Ms Brown’s own view), “It’s a speedy, smart edit of the web from the merciless point of view of what interests the editors. The Daily Beast is the omnivorous friend who hears about the best stuff and forwards it to you with a twist. It allows you to lead the conversation, rather than simply follow it.”

The name of the website was chosen by Ms Brown from her favourite novel: Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, a satire on London’s Fleet Street, home of the British press.

Visit The Daily Beast here.

India’s future

2008-09-30T14:41:00.001+05:30

Here’s an excerpt from an article, India’s future, from the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire dated 29 September 2008, which ought to give us, every Indian, something to think about (that is, if we aren’t thinking about it already):

“How will the rest of the world react? As India acquires the means to shape the global economic and geopolitical landscape, its leaders will face a familiar dilemma. Like rising powers in the past, India is keen to expand its influence in line with its increasingly global interests — but it needs to do this without provoking a backlash from currently dominant countries or being caught up in rivalry with other emerging powers.

How India manages its rise — and how the rest of the world responds — will have huge implications for the country’s stability and growth prospects. One potential obstacle is geopolitical: India needs to promote regional peace and stability in order to have a strong claim to be a major world player. But South Asia is an especially tough neighbourhood. India shares borders with countries that are embroiled in civil war (Sri Lanka), have just emerged from civil war (Nepal), or are under military or military-backed rule (Myanmar and Bangladesh). Civilian rule has recently been restored in Pakistan, but the political scene there remains fragile and a destabilising Islamist insurgency is gathering steam. This leaves China as India’s least volatile neighbour — but China, which is helping to build ports and quasi-military facilities in Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, is also India’s chief geopolitical rival.”

The entire EIU ViewsWire article, India’s future, can be found here.

Nothing Twice

2008-09-25T15:31:00.003+05:30

Exactly two months ago today, a friend and colleague of mine made one of my wishes come true.

I had been pining for Wislawa Szymborska’s poetry for a long time now when this friend announced his trip to Poland with his Polish girlfriend. I jumped at the opportunity and requested him to obtain an anthology of Wislawa Szymborska – with dire consequences to his life upon his return, should he fail to fulfill this request.

Of course, he had no idea who Wislawa Szymborska was. So, he couldn’t see the meaning in my threat, until his girlfriend enlightened him on Polish literature – and my sincerity. After all, Wislawa Szymborska is something of a Polish national treasure, apart from being a humanist and a renowned writer.

Happily for me, on 25 July 2008, this colleague and friend of mine handed over a brand new hardcover copy of Nothing Twice (Selected Poems) – an anthology of 120 Wislawa Szymborska’s poems, both in Polish and in English (translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh), published soon after she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996.

This means, although Wislawa Szymborska has written only 250 or so poems so far in her life, not only are they magnificent enough to lead her to her Nobel Prize, but also most of them are contained in this collection. For all those interested, here’s the poem from the title of the anthology:

Nothing Twice

Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.

Even if there is no one dumber,
if you're the planet's biggest dunce,
you can't repeat the class in summer:
this course is only offered once.

No day copies yesterday,
no two nights will teach what bliss is
in precisely the same way,
with precisely the same kisses.

One day, perhaps some idle tongue
mentions your name by accident:
I feel as if a rose were flung
into the room, all hue and scent.

The next day, though you're here with me,
I can't help looking at the clock:
A rose? A rose? What could that be?
Is it a flower or a rock?

Why do we treat the fleeting day
with so much needless fear and sorrow?
It's in its nature not to say
Today is always gone tomorrow

With smiles and kisses, we prefer
to seek accord beneath our star,
although we're different (we concur)
just as two drops of water are.

[Nothing Twice, a poem by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh - from the anthology Nothing Twice (Selected Poems) by Wislawa Szymborska, published by Wydawnictwo Literackie, Poland, 1997.]

I thought today would be a good day to post something on Wislawa Szymborska as this friend and colleague of mine is leaving today to join another agency.

Lost formats

2008-09-20T21:32:00.006+05:30

Dimensions: 4 x 2.5 x 0.4 inch
Storage Capacity: 60, 90 and 120 min.
Manufacturer: Norelco (Philips)

Know what this is? It’s a 2-dimensional image of a compact cassette which was (and, in some places, still is) used to store music. Once, this type of media for recording and storing music was popular, but now, with the digital revolution in full swing, the compact cassette is (almost) dead.

According to Experimental Jetset’s website, the compact cassette was “introduced in 1966 as a convenient way of recording and playing music in home and car. In 1982 it overtook the LP’s dominance after Sony’s popular Walkman was introduced, but was surpassed by Philips’ CD (compact disc) in 1993.” Of course, a great deal has changed since then and, as things are, even the CD will soon disappear into oblivion.

You don’t need great brains to know this, and may even find this information redundant and irritating, but you may be (at least, I was) surprised to learn that an Amsterdam-based graphics studio, called Experimental Jetset, is doing all it can to preserve for posterity what it calls ‘lost formats’ such the compact cassette.

Experimental Jetset seems to have 64 such ‘lost formats’ in their archive at present. These 'lost formats' can be found on their website.

The panda’s preference

2008-09-17T17:06:00.002+05:30

“…according to Megan Owen, a conservation specialist at the San Diego Zoo, there is a possible evolutionary explanation for the panda’s seemingly foolish preference for bamboo: lack of competition. When pandas split off from the bear lineage about 3 million years ago, tasty and nutritious cuisine like meat, fruit, and nuts may have been difficult to obtain while bamboo was ubiquitous — a wide-open ecological niche. So there were two choices: Exert some serious effort to get the good stuff, or munch away on a seemingly inexhaustible supply of woody grasses.

The panda accommodated its vegetarianism with a few physical adaptations — enlarged chewing muscles (those adorable jowls), their famous ‘thumbs’, and a slightly modified digestive system (though still far more similar to a carnivore’s than to an herbivore’s). But the most notable adaptations were behavioral. Pandas must minimize energy expenditure in every aspect of their lives: limiting locomotion and mating periods, having a low surface area-to-volume ratio (i.e., being fat) to conserve heat, and sleeping as much as possible.”

[Citation: Reproduced from Could Pandas Be an Evolutionary Mistake — or Proof of an Intelligent Designer?, an article by Lizzie Buchen in Discover magazine, published online on 5 August 2008.]

Alexander McCall Smith goes online

2008-09-13T15:35:00.001+05:30

One of my favourite authors is Alexander McCall Smith. Almost all his books are light and delightful reads. He is, of course, most famous for his series of novels which began with The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in 1998 and continued with nine more stories. He has written several other novels, many of which are popular across the world.

What is of recent – and greater – news is that Alexander McCall Smith has decided to collaborate with the Telegraph in the UK to publish his next novel, Corduroy Mansions, as a serialised novel on the Telegraph website.

Starting from Monday, 15 September 2008, Corduroy Mansions will be published through the Telegraph website – with simultaneous podcast editions available to download through iTunes.

Furthermore, readers will be invited to get involved in the creative process by writing their comments and suggestions for Alexander McCall Smith on the Telegraph’s website via www.telegraph.co.uk/alexandermccallsmith.

You can find all the information you need on Alexander McCall Smith going online with his new novel right here. You can even get the serialised novel emailed to you by registering on the Telegraph website.

The printed book, Corduroy Mansions, won’t be released in the UK market till July 2009.

Upside down

2008-09-09T17:07:00.003+05:30

'The World Stands on its Head'

Foreign Policy’s Passport blog reports that “in the town of Trassenheide on Germany’s Baltic Sea island of Usedom,” a man has built a house upside down. The house is called ‘The World Stands on its Head’ and is open to visitors.

South Africa’s IOL website, in an article titled Man turns house on its roof, identifies the builder of the upside-down house as Polish-born German Klaudiusz Golos. It states that, “Visitors enter the 120-square-metre home through the attic and ascend to the ‘ground’ floor. All the furnishings including chairs, the fitted kitchen and the toilets are also upside down, but the stairs are right-side up because visitors have to use them.”

Some very interesting images of this upside-down house can be found here.

[Citation: Photos: Germany’s upside-down house, Foreign Policy’s Passport blog, 4 September 2008; Man turns house on its roof, in South Africa’s IOL news, 4 September 2008. Image reproduced from Foreign Policy’s Passport blog, Photos: Germany’s upside-down house, 4 September 2008.]

Banana

2008-09-06T13:31:00.001+05:30

“Behold, the atheist’s nightmare,” declares Ray Comfort, an Australian evangelist, as he holds up a banana in a hugely popular video on YouTube. The fruit, he says, testifies to God’s creative genius. It comes with a colour-coding system that shows when it is ready to eat (green is too early, black too late); an easily gripped, biodegradable wrapper; and a ‘tab at the top’ which, unlike that on a can of soda, works so well that when you pull it ‘the contents don’t squirt in your face’.

Not everyone is convinced. One video response points out that the banana only achieved its user-friendly qualities through evolution over many centuries of farming.

[Citation: Text reproduced from Viva Vivanno – Innovative things to do with a banana, article in Economist.com, 2 September 2008.]

[Correction: Ray Comfort is not Australian (as the Economist.com article states). He was born in New Zealand and now lives in California, USA.]

On Reading

2008-09-04T20:00:00.003+05:30

Most of us have a personal relationship with books. But, if asked, I wonder if we’d be able to define or describe this relationship… or the characteristics of it. Perhaps, if someone were to watch us reading books, he or she may be able to capture the moment from a distance and define the relationship for us.

While surfing the internet, I found that photographer André Kertész has done exactly that. In his book On Reading, which was published in 1971 and released again this year, photographer Kertész has captured various black and white images of people reading books in their quiet moments.

According to a review of the book by Conor Risch, on PDNonline, “Made between 1915 and 1970, the images in On Reading study the complex and varied relationship we have with the printed word, a relationship Kertész no doubt personally developed at a young age as the son of a bookstore owner.”

Without much ado, read Conor Risch’s review of André Kertész’s On Reading here.

[Citation: Conor Risch’s review of André Kertész’s On Reading on PDNonline, 25 August 2008.]

Pop goes 50

2008-08-29T19:45:00.001+05:30

King of Pop Michael Jackson turns 50 today. A CD titled KING OF POP is being released – only in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong (strangely, not in the US) – to commemorate Jackson’s 50th birthday. Jackson, of course, along with his concert-promoter friend David Gest, has been busy recording Robert Burns’ poems to music, giving the 18th century Scottish poet’s lyrics a 21st century twist.

Queen of Pop Madonna turned 50 earlier this month on 16 August. She was, reportedly, partying in London and showing no signs of relinquishing her crown.

Media, meaning

2008-08-27T12:29:00.000+05:30

A blog I was reading the other day described and commented on the amount of ‘trash’ dished out by the Indian media recently – specifically, the news in print and on TV. For an old-school media/news consumer like me, this observation was not only true, but also heartening to know as the blogger and those who commented on her post were young (I’m guessing, in their twenties) and concerned about the state of the media in India today.

This made me wonder. Doesn’t the news coverage (i.e. the content and its creation) by the media, its bias and its delivery reflect the state and nature of the society (and the culture) it represents and originates from? How, then, can we interpret and criticise the news in India today as trash? As media/news consumers, are we – at least, this small disenchanted group of people – radically different from mainstream consumers in some unique way(s)?

How, and why, are we unable to find meaning in today’s media/news when others around us are thriving in it? What distinguishes us from them? Are we, then, the ‘other’ in our own society and culture?

Acceptance

2008-08-25T10:38:00.000+05:30

“Life becomes bearable only when one has come to terms with who one is, both in one’s own eyes and in the eyes of the world. We all of us must come to terms with what and who we are, and recognize that this wisdom is not going to earn us any praise, that life is not going to pin a medal on us for recognizing and enduring our own vanity or egoism or baldness or our potbelly. No, the secret is that there’s no reward and we have to endure our characters and our natures as best we can, because no amount of experience or insight is going to rectify our deficiencies, our self-regard, or our cupidity. We have to learn that our desires do not find any real echo in the world. We have to accept that the people we love do not love us, or not in the way we hope. We have to accept betrayal and disloyalty, and, hardest of all, that someone is finer than we are in character or intelligence.”

– The General, a character in Sándor Márai’s Embers (translated by Carol Brown Janeway)

On (literary) translation

2008-07-29T20:34:00.000+05:30

“Translation is always a daunting task, especially when the translator has so much respect and affection for the author. It is also a creative task that often requires ‘leaps of faith’: a feeling for tone, sensing the author’s intention, taking the liberty to interpret and, sometimes, correct.”

– Sandra Smith

[Citation: Quote reproduced from Translator’s Note in Irène Némirovsky’s novel Suite Française, Vintage International 2007 edition, translated from the French by Sandra Smith.]

Outsider

2008-07-25T11:54:00.000+05:30

He felt a sudden chill and shuddered involuntarily. He pulled the sheet over his body, upto his shoulders, deciding against getting up from bed to reduce the speed of the fan overhead. It was the damp monsoon weather which played tricks like this. It was not as if he had a fever coming. There was nothing wrong with his health. Probably the only thing God had blessed him with.

He was alone, in bed, re-reading Albert Camus’ ‘The Outsider’, an excellent piece of erudite writing if there was one. The book was now half-closed, a finger marking the place where he had stopped reading momentarily. The chill had unnerved him. He looked up at the wall opposite and sighed, prolonging the moment with a thought from the past.

This was mostly how his life’s been every evening. A nagging post-dinner routine: mindless TV serials, in bed by 11 o’clock, a book for company. He shifted uncomfortably, propping himself up against the pillow behind him, the slim book held firmly in his lap, readying himself to start a conversation with an invisible person at the foot of his bed.

Yes, this was exactly how his life’s been ever since Alpana walked away as mysteriously as she had walked into his life one day. It had happened almost in seconds. We should be on our own for a while, she had said before leaving. And she was gone. Alpana never took long to decide. But this decision, he envisaged, he hoped, had taken her time.

It wasn’t easy leaving someone you love. He had trouble leaving his home when he was younger. He recalled his parents standing at the door, begging him to reconsider, saying they had never wished him harm. But he had walked off anyway; a few thousand rupees in his pocket, a copy of Albert Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ in his bag amongst his clothes, and a one-way air ticket to Mumbai.

Ten years later, in bed with the dog-eared book, his mind was jammed in a tangle of emotions. He recalled the look on his parents’ faces as he left them standing helplessly at the door of their Calcutta home. He recalled his immigrant life in the new city: jobs, friends, adjustments, and a roof over his head. He recalled how his heart exploded, the pain searing through every fibre of his body, when Alpana walked out of his suburban flat two years ago.

He felt the slow taste of his tears on the corner of his trembling lips as they trickled down his cheeks to the book in his lap.

The Columbus confusion

2008-07-23T12:10:00.002+05:30

I’ve always been suspicious of the story I’ve read (and heard) about how Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to discover the Americas – and along with it, proved to everyone that the earth was round. Apparently, before Columbus’ trips across the Atlantic, people (read that as the Europeans) believed that the earth was a flat disc, and if they travelled a reasonable distance, they’ll fall off the earth’s edge into an abyss.

The reason I’m suspicious of Columbus proving the earth was round is because, I believe, by the time Columbus sailed across the Atlantic, people in Europe were evolved enough to know the earth was round. I mean, Columbus achieved his feat in the late 15th century, right? Hadn’t the Greek mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy map the earth into 360-degree meridians way back in 150 AD? Thereby proving that the earth was round?

In fact, 200 years before Columbus, in late 13th century, the Italian trader and explorer Marco Polo had travelled from Venice all the way to China on ‘the Silk Road’, met the great Kublai Khan, stayed with him for many years, and returned to Italy by sea via Sumatra, India and Persia. Surely, Marco Polo’s journeys would have removed all doubts in the minds of the Europeans that the earth was flat?

So, I was delighted to read an explanation of the confusion over Columbus’ ‘the earth is not flat, but round’ story in Umberto Eco’s book, Serendipities: Language And Lunacy. Here’s an excerpt:

“So what was the big argument all about in the time of Columbus? The sages of Salamanca had, in fact, made calculations more precise than his, and they held that the earth, while assuredly round, was far more vast than the Genoese navigator believed, and therefore it was mad for him to circumnavigate it in order to reach the Orient by the way of the Occident. Columbus, on the contrary, burning with a scared fire, good navigator but bad astronomer, thought the earth smaller than it was. Naturally neither he nor the learned men of Salamanca suspected that between Europe and Asia there lay another continent. And so you see how complicated life is, and how fragile are the boundaries between truth and error, right and wrong. Though they were right, the sages of Salamanca were wrong; and Columbus, while he was wrong, pursued faithfully his error and proved to be right – thanks to serendipity.”

[Citation: Serendipities: Language And Lunacy by Umberto Eco.]

About decision-making in organisations

2008-07-21T15:02:00.001+05:30

“The question I’d like to raise is something that I’m deeply curious about, which is what should organizations do to improve the quality of their decision-making? And I’ll tell you what it looks like, from my point of view.

I have never tried very hard, but I am in a way surprised by the ambivalence about it that you encounter in organizations. My sense is that by and large there isn’t a huge wish to improve decision-making — there is a lot of talk about doing so, but it is a topic that is considered dangerous by the people in the organization and by the leadership of the organization.”

– Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work integrating insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. Quote reproduced from Edge, The Third Culture.

I agree.

Zoriah

2008-07-19T13:58:00.000+05:30

“My hands still shake and my heart pounds despite my fatigue. A combination of depression, fear, and adrenaline makes my thoughts race with the realization that a simple decision was the only thing that separated me from a body count that grows daily. I look at the images I took on the 26th of June, and realize they do nothing to capture the emotion of being an eyewitness to the aftermath of the Al-Qaeda suicide attack in Karmah/Garma... the smell... the sound of screams and crying.

I want you to observe and comprehend what others live through on a daily basis – to see what the Iraqi civilians and foreign soldiers see. I want people who follow my photography to understand that although I am able to bring images of war to the world in a form of art, what actually goes on here is horror. My message is not that war yields great photography. My message is: War yields human misery and suffering.”

– Zoriah, photojournalist, recounting his experience about the Anbar Province (Iraq), suicide bombing on 26 June 2008; reproduced here from his blog.

Freelance American photojournalist Zoriah (known, professionally, as Zoriah; his full name is Zoriah Miller) was recently disembedded by the US Army in Iraq for his coverage of the 26 June 2008 suicide bombing in Anbar Province, Iraq.

Although Zoriah claims that he did not violate any of the rules of his embed agreement, he has been disembedded because he has published pictures of dead US Marines on his blog. Zoriah’s post on the aftermath of the Anbar Province suicide bombing, which went online on 30 June 2008 on his blog, recounts his experience as an eye-witness photographer and shows dead US Marines and other dead Iraqi civilians.

According to a PDNonline article by Daryl Lang, Disembedded: Marines Send a War Photographer Packing, dated 17 July 2008, quotes Zoriah:

“The official reason which they chose to use for disembedding me was that I had supplied the enemy with information on the effectiveness of attack,” he said. “I told the public affairs officer, listen, I really have to disagree with this, I didn’t provide any information that had not already, as of the night of the attack, been published by Reuters, The New York Times and the Washington Post.”

To read Zoriah’s eye-witness account of the aftermath of the Anbar Province suicide bombing, please visit this link from his blog. Please note: some images may be graphic and disturbing.

[Citation: Zoriah’s blog; PDNonline article.]

Can we be blamed for our lack of creativity in our adult lives?

2008-07-15T13:17:00.000+05:30

“A lot of parents crush their children’s dreams. I give many lectures at universities and colleges all over the country, and always say that parents kill more dreams than anybody. They squash any artistic drive that children have when they say, “We don’t want you doing this stuff, because you can’t make money and you’ll end up being a cab driver or a waitress.”

This can be devastating. I don’t know how you recover from that if you have a great love for the arts. You’ll end up hating your parents for that, especially when you’re stuck in some dead-end job that you really hate.”

– Spike Lee, American filmmaker

Some children, like Spike Lee, are lucky. Their parents encourage their creative instincts. Their parents support their love for music, for painting, for creative writing… and give a helping hand in its development. Their parents don’t brainwash them into believing that, unless they pursue an activity or a field of study that makes money for them in the future, or sets them up for it, they’re useless.

But, as Spike Lee’s words suggest, most of us have grown up with parents who have discouraged our creative endeavours during our childhoods. “You can’t make money as an artist or a musician or a writer,” they’ve said. We’ve had to pursue engineering, medicine, law, accountancy, and more recently, business management or software engineering. For women, it’s always been teaching.

Our parents have drummed it into our heads that the only successful professions are the ones they’ve grown up with, or know of. The ones guaranteed to get us well-paying jobs and set us up in a career they approved of. The rest were for shirkers… a waste of time. Particularly the arts. All musicians, painters and writers lived in poverty and died bankrupt. Except for those born with silver spoons in their mouths (Rabindranath Tagore’s name was often mentioned here).

As children, whenever we pursued our creative instincts, our parents have told us that it’ll lead to despair. That we’ll end up being peons, taxi drivers and farm labourers. Or worse, remain unemployed and depend on handouts from friends and family.

During a discussion on this topic, a friend presented another scenario. He said, although some children were encouraged to be creative, when they grew older they found themselves in a different world. Their parents, who had encouraged them several years before, as well as their teachers at school and college, and their bosses at work, all said the same thing: “Don’t try to be creative. Just follow the rules and you’ll get there safe and sound.”

With such encouragement, can we be blamed for our lack of creativity in our adult lives?

[Citation: Spike Lee quote from Creativity: Unconventional Wisdom from 20 Accomplished Minds, edited by Herb Meyers and Richard Gerstman.]

We must revive the bonds of love and amity

2008-07-10T17:52:00.000+05:30

“Age-old beliefs cannot vanish in a second. A lot of work has to be done for this. And when the beliefs go, the resultant vacuum should be filled in by education and health care for all. The social attitude to the status of women needs to be changed and an overall scientific outlook has to be developed. We must revive the bonds of love and amity, long lost, which we have replaced with hatred, greed and political violence.”

[Quote from Mahasweta Devi’s Witch-Hunting in West Bengal, published in Bortika June 1987, translated from the original Bengali by Nabarun Bhattacharya, reproduced in Dust on the Road, The Activist Writings of Mahasweta Devi, edited by Maitreya Ghatak.]

Reading preferences can affect relationships

2008-07-05T19:11:00.001+05:30

Discovered a gem of an essay in The New York Times going back a few months.

The essay, titled It’s Not You, It’s Your Books, by Rachel Donadio discusses how our prospects of finding and retaining a (soul) mate can be determined by our reading habits – or a lack of it. Even our interest in committing to a relationship can be influenced by our partner’s literary preferences (or a lack of it).

According to Ms Donadio’s essay, our reading preferences mark our social branding and either increase or discount our chances of succeeding in a relationship. Makes you curious, doesn’t it? Well, here’s an excerpt to get you started:

These days, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding. When it comes to online dating, even casual references can turn into deal breakers. Sussing out a date’s taste in books is “actually a pretty good way — as a sort of first pass — of getting a sense of someone,” said Anna Fels, a Manhattan psychiatrist and the author of “Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s Changing Lives.” “It’s a bit of a Rorschach test.” To Fels (who happens to be married to the literary publisher and writer James Atlas), reading habits can be a rough indicator of other qualities. “It tells something about ... their level of intellectual curiosity, what their style is,” Fels said. “It speaks to class, educational level.”

Still curious? Read Rachel Donadio’s essay here.

[Citation: It’s Not You, It’s Your Books by Rachel Donadio, The New York Times, 30 March 2008.]

On Green Dolphin Street

2008-07-02T18:31:00.000+05:30

On Green Dolphin Street by British author Sebastian Faulks is a romance, narrating the story of a 40-year-old Englishwoman’s love for her husband (and her family), and her passion for an American journalist. At the centre of On Green Dolphin Street is Mary van der Linden, the wife of an English diplomat posted in Washington DC at the end of Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency.

The story describes a great deal of America from that period: war and politics (Kennedy-Nixon rivalry, the Cold War, McCarthyism, America’s involvement in Indochina); economics and affluence (the consumer boom, TV sets, cars with long tailfins, tall buildings); and indulgences (parties with free-flowing whisky, dry martinis anytime of the day and night, excesses of food, weekend holidays in yachts).

And, not to forget, jazz. In fact, the title of the novel, On Green Dolphin Street, is named after a jazz tune: a lingering theme from World War II, whose shadow is still cast over Eisenhower’s America and the three main characters of the novel. There’s Mary, cocooned in her own illusion of a permanently happy life; and two men struggling with their pasts, their careers, and their love for Mary.

On one hand, there’s Charlie, Mary’s diplomat husband, drunk and despondent, trying to get over his past ‘mistakes’, heading on a path of self-destruction. On the other, there’s Frank Renzo, American journalist, rising above his impoverished childhood and his career missteps, trying to rebuild his career and his life.

Content with her happy life, Mary doesn’t seem like a woman who would fall into an extra-marital affair. But she does, desperately, with Frank Renzo, in whom she finds the fulfillment of a love that has been missing in her life. It is this desperation for love that makes the characters and their emotions so vulnerable and so real.

On Green Dolphin Street weaves through Washington DC, New York and England, taking Mary through a path of self-discovery. But, as it is with such journeys, the happiness is as liberating as the pain is devastating. Sebastian Faulks excels in his narratives, his descriptions, and his handling of intricate human emotions, making On Green Dolphin Street an enjoyable romance.

[A personal feeling: women are likely to enjoy this book more than men.]

Is tabloid trash a thing of the past?

2008-06-30T18:28:00.002+05:30

Is it? Well, here’s what Russell Goldman had to say about it in an article on ABC News (quoted here from www.abcnews.go.com):

For a while there it was touch-and-go. We as a country would walk past a newsstand in the airport or flip thorough a tabloid in line at the supermarket and collectively breathe a sigh of relief that our crazy country cousin Britney Spears was still alive.

You still hear sighs at the newsstand, but they’re no longer sighs of relief. Now they are sighs of resignation.

Spears isn’t the only one keeping us bored by staying out of trouble these days. Nearly all of the so-called bad girls who just several months ago graced magazine covers as they sauntered out of rehab, sashayed out of prison and stepped out of cars sans underwear have been bumped off the pages by dime-a-dozen reality show stars and politicians.

….

“Certainly, sales of photos and videos of Britney have gone down since last year and the beginning of this year,” said Brandy Navarre, vice president of the paparazzi photo agency X-17 Online. “She’s just not out doing wild and unexpected things anymore.”

“There is still a market for the weird and wacky, it’s just other people doing it,” Navarre said. “We’ve got shocking photos of Colin Farrell on the beach looking really skinny.”

Colin Farrell? Really? That’s it? Sigh.

Read Russell Goldman’s entire article here.

[Citation: Is Tabloid Trash a Thing of the Past? by Russell Goldman, ABC News, 26 June 2008.]

In Bruges – unpredictable and extraordinary

2008-06-27T10:14:00.000+05:30

In Bruges (‘Bruges’ is pronounced ‘broojz’), Irish director Martin McDonagh’s début film, is a dark comedy about two Irish hit men – one young, one middle-aged – cooling their heels in a sleepy medieval Belgian town (Bruges), under orders from their boss in England. They wait, indefinitely, for their boss’ call.

There are mixed feelings about this. The younger man, Ray (played by Colin Farrell), scruffy and tense, is disturbed, wondering why he has been sent to this ‘shithole’. The older man, Ken (played by Brendan Gleeson), mature with experience, takes in the beauty of the town and its various sights, and finds peace.

Ray has reason to be disturbed. His previous job had gone wrong and now he has to live under its shadow. He sulks through his holiday in Bruges; at times, going philosophical and talking about suffering in Hell. Ken, caring and compassionate, tries to soothe Ray’s feelings… and writer-director McDonagh defines an understated kinship between the two hit men. But, things don’t go as expected.

Through a series of chance encounters – the making of a medieval film in the town, meeting with a beautiful girl and a midget connected with the film, a row at a restaurant over smoking, and a botched robbery by the beautiful girl’s skinhead boyfriend – Ray’s mood rises and he feels the trip to Bruges isn’t wasted after all. That’s when the boss, Harry (played by Ralph Fiennes), calls and leaves specific instructions with Ken.

And, that changes everything.

There are further twists to this tale, but I won’t give anything away. I’ll let you hang on to its unpredictability – because that’s what, I feel, Martin McDonagh wants to do.

You’ll love McDonagh’s direction and his cinematographer Eigil Bryld’s fantastic presentation of Bruges, in daylight and at night, while keeping the pace of the film tense until its very end. The script is both taut and funny, leading to some hilarious situations in the film. And, even though the dialogues are filled with expletives, they add to the character of the film and its three leading characters.

In In Bruges, Martin McDonagh presents something of a slow-burn thriller in the setting of a quiet town in Europe. The film is heavy on dialogue but slow in action; its comedy overriding its tragic end. The acting by Farrell, Gleeson and Fiennes is superb (Colin Farrell’s best performance so far), bringing to the front an honest but fanciful message: that even killers have a conscience and principles to live by.

Probably, that’s what makes In Bruges an extraordinary film.

A horrible business

2008-06-17T15:25:00.000+05:30

“Approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders each year and millions more are traded domestically. The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are at least 2.5m people in forced labour at any one time, including sexual exploitation, as a result of trafficking.

Efforts to wipe out this modern slave trade are hampered because human trafficking is a big business. It is impossible to know the exact sums involved but recent estimates of the value of the global trafficking trade have put it as high as $32 billion. The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking describes it as a high-reward and low-risk crime. People come cheap and many countries lack the necessary laws to target traffickers, or they are not properly enforced. Worse still, it is often the victims of the traffickers that are treated as criminals.

Women suffer most in this respect: the report estimates that 80% of victims of international trafficking are women forced into some form of prostitution. Women are involved in trafficking too, though this is less common. In Europe and Central and south Asia women are often recruited by other women who were themselves the victims of trafficking. In part to avoid detection by the authorities, traffickers grant victims limited freedom while simultaneously coercing them to return home to recruit other women to replace them.

The report also casts a light on the increasingly important role that technology is playing in the trade, both in combating it and its perpetration. The internet helps to identify and track down the perpetrators but increasingly it is becoming part of the problem. Chatrooms are used to exchange information about sex-tourism sites; people are targeted through social-networking sites where pornographic records of sex trafficking are also bought and sold; victims are ensnared through instant messaging.”

[Citation: Quote from A horrible business, The Economist print edition, 14 June 2008.]

Josie McCoy – portraits suspended in paint

2008-06-14T20:22:00.005+05:30

Raimunda
(character, played by Penélope Cruz, in Pedro Almadóvar’s film Volver)
Oil on canvas
2007

“Painting offers a version of reality in the same way as films do. I paint portraits of these unreal moments. The poses I choose are evocative – the moment that stays with me days after I have watched the film.

Using oil paint like watercolour, I build up the painting in thin layers to make the surface glow – an imitation of a television screen. The unearthly colours accentuate this. The green hue references traditional techniques of painting, where green was used as under-painting to give luminosity to the surface colour.

Working from photographs of the television allows me to paint an isolated, spontaneous moment, which the character hasn’t specifically performed for. I pare down the image to include only the information required for the character to be recognisable and for their expression to be conveyed to the audience. The viewer is presented with a split second of time, suspended in paint.”

Please visit Josie McCoy’s gallery on her website to see more of her art.

[Citation: Quote from Josie McCoy’s statement from her website. Image from Josie McCoy’s gallery on her website.]

News is a story about what happened

2008-06-13T17:08:00.002+05:30

“I would argue that news has always been an artifact and that it never corresponded exactly to what actually happened.

We take today’s front page as a mirror of yesterday’s events, but it was made up yesterday evening — literally, by ‘make-up’ editors, who designed page one according to arbitrary conventions: lead story on the far right column, off-lead on the left, soft news inside or below the fold, features set off by special kinds of headlines.

Typographical design orients the reader and shapes the meaning of the news. News itself takes the form of narratives composed by professionals according to conventions that they picked up in the course of their training — the ‘inverted pyramid’ mode of exposition, the ‘color’ lead, the code for ‘high’ and ‘the highest’ sources, and so on.

News is not what happened but a story about what happened.”

[Robert Darnton, Harvard University Professor and Director of the University Library at Harvard; quoted from The Library in the New Age, The New York Review of Books, Volume 55, Number 10, 12 June 2008.]

Shanghai Nights

2008-06-09T15:46:00.000+05:30

“So it was that, over time and without my realising it, the setting of my childhood adventures gradually became a moral landscape, and that is how it has always remained in my mind.”

So says 14-year-old Daniel, hero of Juan Marsé’s novel Shanghai Nights (translated by Nick Caistor), towards the end of the book. But, from what I’ve read about the author, it could well have been Marsé’s own confession.

Shanghai Nights is a story about a 14-year-old boy’s childhood in 1950s rundown Barcelona. The boy, Daniel, who has lost his father to the Civil War and now lives with his mother, is entrusted by an eccentric old sea captain called Captain Blay with drawing pictures of an ailing (from tuberculosis) but attractive 15-year-old girl, Susana.

In between school and taking up a job as a jeweller’s apprentice, Daniel spends half his time with Susana, staying just out of reach so as not to catch an infection while drawing her picture, and the other half with Captain Blay, collecting signatures for a petition to stop a gas leak and to close down a factory spewing polluting smoke which may have caused Susana’s illness.

Like Daniel, Susana also lives with her mother, Senora Anita, having lost her father, Kim, mysteriously, as he seems to have disappeared during the Civil War. Sitting by her bedside, as Daniel attempts to draw a fitting picture of the ailing Susana against the backdrop of a factory chimney billowing hazardous smoke, the two teenagers become attracted to each other.

In this scene enters Forcat, a mysterious friend of Susana’s father Kim, bringing news of Kim from Shanghai. Over weeks and months, as a lodger at Senora Anita’s place, Forcat narrates tales of Kim’s daring adventures of escape to Shanghai in pursuit of a Nazi war criminal who had once tortured one of Kim’s friends during WW2, and of Kim’s self-assured dealings with the Shanghai underworld.

Juan Marsé paints a vivid contrast between the rundown world of post-War Barcelona and the colourful gangster world of Shanghai. In each setting, he manages to adorn the storyline with strange but strangely-appealing characters who keep us hooked onto every page of the novel. Yet, Marsé falters towards the end, bringing the story to a quick and a confusing finish. Thereby, destroying the fantasy he had created so well.

I didn’t quite understand the need for this hurry to end the novel, but I must admit that, until that time, Marsé had me mesmerised with his tale. Even now, I wonder about the element of fantasy we all add to our tales of our childhood when we remember them or narrate them to others. And, that is probably the point Juan Marsé wants to make in Shanghai Nights.

Marx and melancholy

2008-05-31T18:31:00.002+05:30

John Pitcher in a recent Omaha.com article, Americans' fear of feeling sad may be threat to great art, questions if there’s a connection between melancholy and creativity. Pitcher’s article makes specific reference to Eric Wilson’s new book Against Happiness which, according to Pitcher, “paints a disturbing portrait of what happens to art in a world filled with ‘happy types’.”

I haven’t read Eric Wilson’s book, but a quote from Pitcher’s article caught my attention. The article quoted Dr Thomas Svolos, an adjunct professor and the vice chairman of the department of psychiatry at the Creighton University School of Medicine, as saying: “When you’re melancholy, you tend to step back and examine your life. That kind of questioning is essential for creativity.”

The article further states, “It’s especially true because the psychiatric community has long known about the link between artistic genius and manic-depressive disorder. History is full of examples. Composer Ludwig van Beethoven, painter Vincent van Gogh and writer Sylvia Plath all were famous depressives.” Among another few thousand personalities from the arts and sciences.

In fact, a fellow blogger, recently, also made references to a possible link between melancholy and creativity while reviewing the writings of Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth – both Austro-Hungarians from early 20th century. This made me think of Karl Marx – perhaps a genius in his own right from half a century or so before Zweig and Roth – who had perpetually suffered from melancholy and creativity.

Karl Marx, like his workers in a capitalist society, struggled forever to be accepted by the world around him. His writing was considered belligerent and anti-government and he was driven out from many places. He was forced to move from Prussia to France to Belgium to, finally, England, where he lived in poverty most of his life.

In spite of Frederick Engels supporting him financially, Marx and his family lived in squalor, were constantly ill, losing three of his four children to illnesses of various kinds, making him incapable of thinking, reading or writing. Although I cannot be certain if Marx was a manic-depressive, his depression did reflect in his productivity and it took him over twenty years to deliver his first volume of Das Kapital in 1867. And, as everyone knows, it was the book that changed the world.

Of course, by that time Marx had written and published various other material, the most famous of which was The Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1848. But nothing compared to Das Kapital, his magnum opus, the later three volumes of which were published after his death (in 1883).

Interestingly, Karl Marx was well-read in philosophy and literature, and Das Kapital includes many such references. Although Das Kapital is a work of economics (or political economy), Marx’s initial ambition was to become a poet. In fact, he had published some of his poetry earlier in his life. Marx believed philosophers and poets only analysed and reflected upon the world. What he wanted was to change it.

[Citation: Americans' fear of feeling sad may be threat to great art by John Pitcher in Omaha.com, 19 May 2008.]

Marilyn, the Portrait

2008-05-27T12:21:00.004+05:30

Marilyn Monroe
from the Ballerina series
photographed by Milton Greene
©2008 Joshua Greene
www.archiveimages.com

“Marilyn never had a father, and she shuttled between foster families… Milton incorporated her into his family. He provided a kind of sanctuary that was both professional and personal. She trusted him and relaxed with him, so there’s not that sex-goddess tension you see in most Marilyn pictures.”

– Carol Squiers, curator at the International Center of Photography in New York

The quote above is reproduced from a wonderful article, titled Model Arrangement by Michelle Stacey, in the May 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine, on the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and photographer Milton H Greene during the 1950s.

In this article, Greene’s son Joshua is quoted as saying, “Everything leading up to 1953 was either on-set photography or glamour shots… My father was determined to break that mold and capture the real person, the soul, the emotion.”

The ballerina series on Marilyn Monroe (by Milton Greene) can be found here.

[Citation: Image, quotes and the title of this blog are reproduced from Model Arrangement an article by Michelle Stacey, Smithsonian magazine, May 2008.]

Ishiguro: the butler as a metaphor

2008-05-26T14:19:00.003+05:30

INTERVIEWER
How did the English setting come about for The Remains of the Day?

ISHIGURO
It started with a joke that my wife made. There was a journalist coming to interview me for my first novel. And my wife said, Wouldn’t it be funny if this person came in to ask you these serious, solemn questions about your novel and you pretended that you were my butler? We thought this was a very amusing idea. From then on I became obsessed with the butler as a metaphor.

INTERVIEWER
As a metaphor for what?

ISHIGURO
Two things. One is a certain kind of emotional frostiness. The English butler has to be terribly reserved and not have any personal reaction to anything that happens around him. It seemed to be a good way of getting into not just Englishness but the universal part of us that is afraid of getting involved emotionally. The other is the butler as an emblem of someone who leaves the big political decisions to somebody else. He says, I’m just going to do my best to serve this person, and by proxy I’ll be contributing to society, but I myself will not make the big decisions. Many of us are in that position, whether we live in democracies or not. Most of us aren’t where the big decisions are made. We do our jobs, and we take pride in them, and we hope that our little contribution is going to be used well.

[Citation: Excerpt from an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro, The Art of Fiction No.196, The Paris Review, Issue 184, Spring 2008.]

Penguin Books

2008-05-23T15:35:00.002+05:30

“We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at low price, and staked everything on it.”
– Sir Allen Lane, 1902-1970, founder of Penguin Books

I’ve been reading books published by Penguin ever since I can remember. And yet, I’ve never known the history behind Penguin Books… until last evening, when I bought a copy of Neil Griffiths’ Saving Caravaggio. For, inside this book, on the very last page, was a brief history of Penguin Books… from which I’ve included an excerpt narrating the origin of Penguin Books:

“He just wanted a decent book to read …

Not too much to ask, is it? It was in 1935 when Allen Lane, Managing Director of Bodley Head Publishers, stood on a platform at Exeter railway station looking for something good to read on his journey back to London. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor-quality paperbacks – the same choice faced every day by the vast majority of readers, few of whom could afford hardbacks. Lane’s disappointment and subsequent anger at the range of books generally available led him to found a company – and change the world.”

The page I refer to offers a representation of the evolving Penguin logo and continues to reinforce the Penguin philosophy of quality reading in the paperback format. You are likely to find such a page in other Penguin paperbacks as well. Should you wish to know more about the history of Penguin Books, you may look up the Penguin UK website here.

[Citation: Quote and text reproduced from inside (last) page in Neil Griffiths’ Saving Caravaggio, Penguin Books, 2007.]

Do the right thing

2008-05-20T12:50:00.004+05:30

Here's Paul Verhaeghen’s acceptance speech for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2008 (Actually, it’s Paul Verhaeghen’s ‘non-acceptance speech’, in which he accepted the award but donated the prize money.):

Ladies and gentlemen,

When I started writing Omega Minor, in the nineteen nineties, my intent was to write historical fiction. A story about the rise of fascism, a story about the horrors of war, a story about genocide. It is all over, I thought. Long past. Historical fiction.

Of the cardinal mistakes the writer can make, this one is unforgivable: To assume that there is a wall between the world he creates and the world he lives in.

I was translating the novel when the news of Abu Ghraib broke. This was the paragraph I was translating: “What if the terrorist networks and the political reality overlap? What if the violence of the new state is the same as the violence of the vanquished Reich? What if those who liberated the camps fill them up again with ideological adversaries?” It is still possible to shrug one’s shoulders at the news of Abu Ghraib or Blackwater. Bad apples.

But the signs of something bigger are unmistakable. The concentration of all power within the executive branch, the suspension of habeas corpus, the de facto censorship and bullying of the media, the secrecy, the warrantless spying, the trivialization and outsourcing of torture. All is now permitted, we are told, for we are Good, and we fight Evil, and by the very nature of our Goodness, all we do, no matter what it is, is justified, for it is done for Goodness’s sake. Invading a country that never posed a threat, killing at least 83,336 of its civilians, detaining 25,000 of them, building cages on faraway shores for prisoners who, it seems, will never get justice but-at most-a verdict. It’s all Good.

It is not.

For instance: My country has now all but legalized torture, including mock executions, beatings, electrical shocks, forced nakedness, sexual humiliation, the infliction of hypothermia and heat injuries, and waterboarding. This is not the work of a few individuals, a few bad apples. Or if it is, their names are Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Tenet and Ashcroft.

This is the twenty-first century. Torture should be as unthinkable as slavery.

In my country, it is not.

These are things you cannot say or write, or you will be branded as ‘un-American’.

Nobody, in all those years I have lived in the US, has pointed out even this obvious truth: That George W. Bush is now personally responsible for the killing of more Americans than Osama Bin Laden. Let me repeat that: George W. Bush has sent more than 4,000 American soldiers to their deaths, for no reason at all: They were not fighting the terrorists who brought down the Twin Towers; they were not defending America’s liberties; they were not bringing lasting peace to the Middle East; they were not making the world a safer place.

I know this is a lapidary statement. But it needs to be said.

Their families deserve to know why they died.

They deserve to know that power is not the only truth that matters.

I apologize if my statement offends you. If it sounds out of place at a forum like this. But it needs to be said.

In the light of all this, and to avoid supporting the regime with more tax dollars than I already owe them, I have asked the Arts Council England to donate the money associated with the Prize, all 10,000 pounds of it, to the American Civil Liberties Union. Withholding the tax portion of those 10,000 pounds from the US Treasury will shorten the war by a mere eye-blink — its cost is currently 3,810 dollars per second — but the ACLU can use that money to great effect in their legal battles against torture, detainee abuse, and the silence surrounding it.

We are not immune to history. But neither is history immune to us.

Be diligent, my friends. Do the right thing.

And may we all fare well.

– Paul Verhaeghen, London, 8 May 2008

[Citation: Reproduced from the Dalkey Archive Press. Paul Verhaeghen’s Omega Minor won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2008.]

Montana Forbes – a celebration of the female form

2008-05-19T16:24:00.005+05:30

‘Untitled’
Montana Forbes
home page,
www.montanaforbes.com

According to an entry in ‘The Fashion Spot’ (July 2005), Montana Forbes acknowledges:

“My work is heavily influenced by a number of things like Fine & Pop Art. I draw a lot from music, photographs, magazines and Japanese animation and set out to capture a certain mood or presence that I get from these mediums.

My background in fine art and graphic design certainly contributes to being aware and sensitive of various mediums and approaches to projects and to comfortably use vivid colours and fluid lines whilst still maintaining a sense of simplicity to my work.

Currently I’m experimenting with infusing real life elements to add depth and peculiarity.”

Eyestorm.com, a famous British online publisher and distributor of contemporary art, concurs. In a recent feature on Montana Forbes, Eyestorm states:

“Montana Forbes’ striking illustrations are a celebration of the female form. With simple lines and flat blocks of colour or monochrome tones, this body of work documents the perception of today’s women in western society.

Hugely influenced by images of popular culture and all things vintage, whether fashion shoots from the seventies, or the innovative record covers from the 1980’s, Forbes draws the women in poses similar to those taken by models in a magazine.

The artist’s objective is simplicity with attention to line and form, and her distinctive use of bright colours comes from travelling a lot between the USA, Southern Africa and the UK whilst growing up.

Forbes has been a resident illustrator for The Sunday Times’ weekly ‘Style’ Magazine for the past two years, and subsequently some of these pieces stemmed from commissions. These works are more than just a drawing to illustrate a newspaper article however – they are powerful and dominant artworks; perhaps suggesting Forbes’ own perception of ‘the fairer sex’.”

Without much ado, go directly to Eyestorm’s Montana Forbes’ exhibition here.

See lot’s more of Montana Forbes’ work here and here.

[Citation: The Fashion Spot, July 2005; Eyestorm’s Montana Forbes’ page; Illustration Ltd’s Montana Forbes’ page; SAA Illustration Hub’s Montana Forbes’ page. ‘Untitled’ image reproduced from Montana Forbes’ website (website not ready yet).]

Maria Lassnig: body-awareness paintings

2008-05-14T13:05:00.004+05:30

Spell 2006
Maria Lassnig
Oil on canvas

I had no clue who Maria Lassnig was until a day before yesterday, when her name came up during a discussion with a friend and an Internet search on feminism and art. What I found left me unnerved and awed. For Maria Lassnig’s art is indeed unnerving, confusing and awe-inspiring at the same time.

Lassnig is a painter with a strong feminist viewpoint. And her paintings, like many feminist works of art, are not always pretty to look at. Her abstractions challenged my mind and left me clueless on most occasions. To be honest, I found some of them grotesque. But then, mine is an uncultured mind.

Further search led me to more information about Lassnig, and what impressed me was the fact that although she is now almost 90 years old, she still manages to exhibit her work in exhibitions around the world – like the one currently on at the Serpentine Gallery in London.

According to the Serpentine Gallery website on Maria Lassnig’s exhibition:

“Lassnig uses bold forms and strong colours to create portraits and semi-figurative abstractions, which reject the static tendencies of traditional portraiture. She coined the phrase ‘body-awareness paintings’ to describe a visual language that she invented and uses in her work to depict the invisible aspects of inner sensations where there is a continual resistance against the repetitive and static. She has repeatedly used her own body, in her view an inexhaustible subject, as a tacit source to explore human sensory experience.”

As I found out, this is just the introduction to Maria Lassnig’s art. There’s more, lot’s more. Like the moving 24 April 2008 article on Lassnig’s Serpentine Gallery exhibition in The Guardian by Adrian Searle. Or, the straight-talking review by Laurie Attias in Frieze Magazine from May 1996 on Lassnig’s exhibition in Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Or, the Jörg Heiser interview of Lassnig in the November-December 2006 issue of Frieze Magazine.

Slowly, Maria Lassnig’s thoughts and world of body-awareness paintings opened up before me, swallowing me in its bold, unnerving, confusing and awe-inspiring beauty.

Some of Maria Lassnig’s art can be found in Adrian Searle’s article link in The Guardian and at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery.

[Citation: Serpentine Gallery; Friedrich Petzel Gallery; Adrian Searle’s article in The Guardian, April 2008; Laurie Attias’ review in Frieze Magazine, May 1996; Jörg Heiser’s interview in Frieze Magazine, November-December 2006 issue.]

NOTE: It seems the Friedrich Petzel Gallery link has been withdrawn. Please try the Art Moco link instead to see a few samples of Maria Lassnig's work.

Reading

2008-05-08T17:37:00.000+05:30

“Even though reading itself is a solitary experience, the impulse afterwards or even during is to want to talk to someone about the book, even if this ‘talking’ takes the form of reading what critics have to say.”

– John O’Brien, Founder, Dalkey Archive Press, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Doisneau

2008-05-06T21:38:00.008+05:30

Kiss by the Hotel de Ville, 1950

A pretty French girl who sits next to me at work introduced me to Doisneau the other day. Ever since my mind has been a swirling haze of Black & White images. For Doisneau’s B&W photographs, which I take sneak peeks at every now and then on the Internet, are some of the best examples of street photography I’ve seen in my life.

Doisneau (pronounced ‘doh-uh-noh’), or Robert Doisneau, French photographer, 1912-1994, is best known for his images of Parisian street life. His B&W photographs include not just strangers in casual moments captured on the streets, but also celebrities in their most perfect moods. For instance, this photo of Pablo Picasso:

Picasso and the loaves, 1952

Word has it that, although Doisneau was trained in the fine arts in his teens, he was soon interested in photography and, apparently, started off as a professional photographer just before WW2. He worked for Renault, but got fired. He became an independent photojournalist, left it to join the army during WW2, and left it to join the French Resistance, earning money producing postcards. After the war he got his break with Vogue magazine.

Fox terrier on the Pont des Arts, 1953

According to his website,

Robert Doisneau, one of France’s most popular and prolific reportage photographers, is known for his modest, playful, and ironic images of amusing juxtapositions, mingling social classes, and eccentrics in contemporary Paris streets and cafes. Influenced by the work of Kertesz, Atget, and Cartier-Bresson, in over 20 books Doisneau has presented a charming vision of human frailty and life as a series of quiet, incongruous moments. He has written: “The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.”

Hell, 1952

To see Robert Doisneau’s work, please visit his website. Some amazing Doisneau photographs are also on display at Masters of Photography website (click on any image and scale it up to ‘full’).

Doisneau’s most famous photo, Kiss by the Hotel de Ville, Paris 1950 (shown here at the beginning of my post), was under a controversy as it was found to be a posed shot, and not a natural photograph as Doisneau had initially claimed it was. The photo was sold at an auction a couple of years ago at a huge price.

[Citation: Quote from Robert Doisneau’s website; text taken from ‘The Encyclopedia of Photography’ (1984). Doisneau images from Masters of Photography website.]

Remembering Kolkata

2008-04-29T10:37:00.002+05:30

I

I noticed the yellow Ambassadors in line. Not the faded yellow and black Fiats of Mumbai I was familiar with. No, these beasts were bigger, and a stately yellow ochre, top to bottom. I approached the first of these beasts, stepping into the morning sun from the coolness of the airport terminal. A warm summer breeze sulkily enveloped me; a hint of what was to come later in the day.

The taxi growled into life and lurched forward in its diesel power, pushing me back into my seat. I knew that feeling. It’s the feeling you get when you lean back on a chair beyond the tipping point and, suddenly, you’re mystified by the lack of gravity you experience, arms and feet flailing in panic. You grab whatever is nearby, hoping to re-establish contact with solid ground. So did I, at that very moment, grabbing the door with one hand and the front seat with the other.

It wasn’t one of the more memorable moments of my life, but I remember it now when I think of my last trip to Kolkata.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. The roads were smoother than Mumbai’s and I couldn’t help notice the greenery around. There were no signs of garbage that littered the streets which I remembered with disdain. That was a surprise! Did my memory fail? Or, had Kolkata become more beautiful in the eleven odd years I had been away?

The taxi driver and his companion ignored me completely, continuing to banter over the drone of the engine until the very end of my journey. But I didn’t mind. The warm breeze filtering in through the windows was company enough for me. Plus, I had my past memories of Kolkata to keep me busy. Soon, I began to recognise some of the landmarks along the way, and before long, I had to give directions for the right turns to reach my destination.

II

“I’m cooking mangsho bhaat [mutton curry and rice] for lunch today,” she said as I entered. “I remembered it’s your favourite. Dipankar has brought fresh mutton from the market earlier this morning.”

That, more or less, was how I was greeted on my arrival. And, that’s how it continued over the two weeks I spent in Kolkata mid last year. It was a joyous revelry of meeting old friends, and a few new ones, over a feast of meals. Nothing was accomplished without food. Everything I did was woven around meals.

Not just the usual lunches and dinners which you might have guessed. There were requests too: a quick “Aarey, ak minute lagbe to” pre-lunch eelish maachh bhaja [a double-quick pre-lunch fish fry]; or a couple of “God, you must be hungry. When did you have lunch?” chicken rolls in the evening; or a mid-afternoon “Tui eta try kor, jeeb diye jol porbey” [try this mouth-watering] fish fry. There were no end to requests and invitations to eat.

Of course, I obliged happily. Every time.

[These two short articles appeared in The Times of India, Kolkata, exactly a year ago. Decided to post them today as I was supposed have been in Kolkata today, but had to cancel my trip due to work in Mumbai.]

The Darjeeling Limited

2008-04-26T14:24:00.001+05:30

I’m not sure how to categorise Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Darjeeling Limited. It’s funny, so perhaps it’s a comedy. Yet, it has a serious side to it, as it deals with emotional and spiritual healing that its three leading characters need… and are seeking. But, categorising the film as drama would be superfluous.

The story is simple, though it unfolds slowly. Three wealthy brothers (Francis, Peter and Jack Whitman) come to India on a spiritual journey after their father’s death in a car accident a year earlier. The brothers haven’t met since their father’s funeral, and they have some catching up to do.

The idea of the journey seems to have been hatched by Francis (Owen Wilson), the eldest; Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) tag along. And so, The Darjeeling Limited turns out to be a ‘road trip’ film set in India, with the three brothers (foreigners) crossing the Indian landscape on a train called ‘The Darjeeling Limited’.

The brothers stay together through the journey, bickering and fighting through old differences which seem to surface between them. Secrets, pacts and trust between the three brothers criss-cross intermittently as they journey through India… carrying a horde of luggage with their father’s name imprinted on them.

What seems to hold them together is not so much the fact that they are brothers, but the fact that they, individually, are running away from something in life. Francis from a near-death experience from a fatal accident (he wears a bandage on his head throughout); Peter from his pregnant lover; Jack from a broken relationship.

That, and the hope of meeting their mother who has ‘disappeared’ in India after choosing a monastic life.

But things go wrong on the journey and the three brothers find themselves de-boarded from the train, lost in the Indian semi-desert, and held accountable (to themselves) for the death of a village boy… until they meet their mother, who disappears on them once again. Yet, all these experiences strangely enrich the three brothers and they come away as better persons.

I’m not sure if The Darjeeling Limited is a film you’ll enjoy (although I did), but there’s something about the film you’ll like. It’s not the three brothers going around like cartoon characters. Nor is it the vivid colours in the film’s cinematography. It’s possibly the message that no matter what happens to us in life, and no matter what recourse we take, experiencing life in itself can be healing and enriching.

Drawing on your own biography

2008-04-21T17:31:00.002+05:30

Tremain feels strongly that fiction should not be confined to the experiences of the author. “I’m not a writer who writes about my own life. I’ve always been bored by the idea. I think novelists who stay in the contemporary, like Ian McEwan, say, who does draw a lot on things that have happened to him...” She pauses, diplomatically. “Well it’s just, the trouble with drawing on your own biography is that eventually it runs out, doesn’t it?”

[Rose Tremain, British author, speaking to Decca Aitkenhead in a Guardian interview (19 April 2008) about her latest book The Road Home.]

Mother and daughter

2008-04-18T14:16:00.000+05:30

“Ma, you’re so old. I hate you!”

That’s how her daughter greets her, bursting through the front door, dropping her school bag off on one side and stomping off to her room.

Something is wrong. She stares at her daughter’s disappearing back. Then, shutting the front door behind her, she follows her daughter into her room.

She notices her daughter’s small body sunk inside the huge TV couch, remote in hand, but the TV still not on, head hung in shame from whatever has happened to her in school today. She notices the hurt look, tears ready to burst forth in frustration.

“What’s the matter, sweetie? Did someone say something bad?”

No answer.

“Come on, you can tell mummy. It can’t be that bad.”

Still no answer.

She takes a step forward, squeezes in next to her daughter on the couch. She puts an arm around her daughter’s shoulders and cuddles the small warm body, nestling it against her breasts. The girl caves in, surrendering to her mother’s embrace. They sit like that for a moment.

“So, you want to tell me what happened?”

No answer. Then, “All my class-friends made fun of me today. Because you’re so old, Ma. All their mothers are just thirty years old. And you’re forty-five!”

“Oh, come on. Forty-five isn’t all that old.”

“Yes, it is,” tells her daughter. “They said, ‘Hey your mother looks like your grandmother? Why did your father marry your grandmother?’”

“Hmm… And what did you say?”

“What can I say, Ma? You look so old. So much older than the other mothers.”

She hesitates. “That’s because I got married late, sweetie. And I had you much after that. When I was thirty-five.”

“Why, Ma? Why didn’t you marry earlier? I could have been born earlier then. And you could have been young, in your thirties, like all the other mothers.”

True. She thinks for a while, reflecting upon the past twenty or so years of her life: the late marriage, the late pregnancy, the complication, the last-minute C-section, and the beautiful baby.

“Because I wanted to build a career for myself first, dear. I wanted to earn lots of money. Live a good life. And save some of the money for you. So, I had to work hard for many years. Time passed quickly in those days.”

“And then?”

“And then, for a while, I wasn’t sure what I should do with my life. So, I waited.”

“And then?”

“And then?” She smiles and nudges her daughter affectionately.

“And thank God for that! Because, then, I met your Papa and we got married. A few years after that, you came along.”

“Why didn’t you meet Papa sooner?”

“Ah ha. We’ll have to ask Papa that, won’t we? But, that’s what happens sometimes, sweetie. We have to wait for the good things to happen. And see, you came along only after that, no? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“I suppose it is.” Then, “I may not have been born if Papa and you hadn’t met, right Ma?”

“That’s right, sweetie. What would I have done if your Papa hadn’t come along? If you hadn’t come along? What would I have done without you?”

“But I’m here now, Ma. So, Papa and you won’t have to worry anymore.”

“Yes, I know, sweetie, I know.”

Her daughter leans in and gives her a warm hug, snuggling further into her. She hugs her daughter, running her fingers through her daughter’s smooth dark hair.

They sit quietly like that, enjoying the moment.

A Far Country

2008-04-15T20:57:00.001+05:30

Daniel Mason’s novel, A Far Country, is a moving story of human migration – from the impoverished rural ‘backlands’ to the cities – told through the innocent eyes (and mind) of a 14-year-old girl, Isabel. But the story is much more than that. It’s about human endurance and, specifically, about the coming of age of an adolescent girl.

As always, the reasons for moving to the city are economic, but Mason goes deeper into human emotions to bring out the painful aspects of such relocation: leaving the simple natural ways of rural living to face and accept the modern almost-cruel ways of the city. He brings forth the psychological effects of such relocation and enmeshes the reader in its emotions.

A Far Country is the story of young Isabel growing up in a small village in the ‘backlands’ with her parents and her older brother Isaias. Drought and poverty surround her, but there is a rhythm of life and a sense of belonging. It is through Isaias that Isabel’s sense of belonging is reinforced – as it is Isaias who, being close to her age, experiences and understands what she is feeling.

When Isaias leaves for the city, Isabel awaits for his calls and letters. When Isaias does not return, she is forlorn. As she reaches puberty and her family is no longer able to feed her, Isabel is sent to the city to fend for herself. She accepts this responsibility, motivated by need to find her brother Isaias there; and when she does, she knows she will find herself again.

Isabel leaves for the city on a pick-up truck and travels for days with many others like her who are going to the city to escape the hardships of rural life. She finds lodging with her cousin Manuela, looking after her cousin’s baby during the week while Manuela works as a maid for a rich family in the better part of the city.

So begins Isabel’s acquaintance with the city and its different and difficult ways. She finds herself inadequate – unable to speak the city language, or use the skills she had learnt in the village, or understand the behaviour of the city people. Even the geographical references – the landmarks – are unfamiliar to her. Her cousin Manuela’s words are full of warning and Isabel is not always adept at following them, taking risks which repeatedly land her in trouble.

Still there is no sign of her brother Isaias. With money from a part-time job on the weekends, Isabel goes in search of her brother – only to be left clueless and helpless in the end. Painfully, she learns that people come to the city only to disappear. Not only because some harm comes to them, but also because they want to disappear.

Daniel Mason’s A Far Country is a story about change – and acceptance of it. That’s why, perhaps, choosing an adolescent girl as its main character was ideal. Because, during adolescence, we experience profound changes – biological, social, psychological and even spiritual – much of which we are uncomfortable with. And yet, we are unable stop this change, or the confusion arising from it, from engulfing our lives. Mason handles this theme expertly, almost poetically.

Interestingly, Mason does not name the country, nor the city, in his book. The story is most likely set in Latin America – a Catholic Third World country struggling with poverty, economic development, the rural-urban divide, and human migration. However, as it says on the back cover of the book, it could well be any (Third World) country where we see similar internal migration. Certainly, as an Indian, I can see Isabel’s story unfolding before me, almost everyday, in my own country.

Therein lies A Far Country’s universal appeal. It’s a book definitely worth reading.

The Smithsonian Life List

2008-04-12T16:22:00.003+05:30

Taj Mahal
Bob Krist
Corbis
Smithsonian

While surfing the Internet for great travel destinations, I came upon The Smithsonian Life List – a list of 28 destinations around the world, handpicked by the Smithsonian, which are certain to inspire the traveller in you.

Well, without much ado, here’s the list (in the order presented by the Smithsonian):

Portals into the Past
1. Mesa Verde
2. Pompeii
3. Tikal
4. Petra

Feats of Engineering
1. Pyramids of Giza
2. Taj Mahal
3. Easter Island
4. The Great Wall

A Matter of Timing
1. Aurora Borealis
2. Serengeti
3. Iguazu Falls
4. Machu Picchu

Triumphs of Vision
1. The Louvre
2. Zen Garden of Kyoto
3, Uffizi Gallery
4. Fallingwater

Scale New Heights
1. Yangtze River
2. Antarctica
3. Mount Kilimanjaro
4. Grand Canyon

In the Presence of Gods
1. Pagan
2. Parthenon
3. Angkor Wat
4. Ephesus

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
1. Venice
2. Amazon Rain Forest
3. Great Barrier Reef
4. Galápagos Islands

[Citation: The Smithsonian Life List. Taj Mahal image courtesy Bob Krist/Corbis and the Smithsonian]

Juno

2008-04-10T12:25:00.001+05:30

The Indian audience for English, i.e. mostly Hollywood, films never seems to amaze me. I say ‘amaze’ because the audience almost always seems to celebrate mediocre films, like Die Hard 4, filling up the seats to packed halls, while completely overlooking the great ones, like Michael Clayton.

Invariably, the English films I like the most seem to be the ones which run in near-empty halls and end up Box Office washouts. This year, Juno was one such great film which was left stranded at the Box Office by the Indian film-going audience. If you’ve missed this film on the silver screen, get the DVD and see it. It’s worth every minute of it.

Juno is a coming-of-age film; culturally undeniably Western. It’s about teen pregnancy and, hence, a little difficult to digest by Indian moral and social standards. However, it’s perfect for the modern urban Indian. The film is engaging and funny, without a big hoo-hah about sex. In fact, it’s treated sensitively and rather neatly by its director, Jason Reitman.

In the lead character is 16-year-old intelligent independent-minded unpredictable guitar-playing Juno MacGuff (played admirably by Ellen Page) who wants to have sex like any other American teen: curiosity and for the experience; at least once. She chooses her timid and geeky boyfriend, band- and school-mate, Paulie (played by Michael Cera), as her partner; and, before she knows it, she is pregnant.

Backing out from abortion (after an unnerving episode in a clinic), Juno decides to go through with her pregnancy. Although her parents (J K Simmons and Allison Janney) are reassuring and supportive, Juno, with help from her friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), decides to give away her baby for adoption to a young caring childless couple, Vanessa and Mark (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman).

So begins Juno’s acquaintance with the adopting couple, as she ‘grows up’ pregnant, trying to cope with herself, her family and her friends at school. At times her emotions come to the fore, but for a pregnant 16-year-old teenager, I would say she is amazingly mature. And, therefore, in the end, no matter how unpredictable life seems to Juno, everything works out well.

Juno is a wonderful film – funny and poignant at the same time. Its appeal is universal and I’ve recommended it to everyone. The film direction is great – but, after seeing Thank You For Smoking last year, I wouldn’t have expected anything less. What is even more refreshing about Juno is the perfect script by Diablo Cody, about whom I know absolutely nothing. But, I’m certainly going to find out more.

Film critics are now expendable

2008-04-07T18:35:00.002+05:30

I was rather disheartened to read a recent online article in The New York Times. The article, Now on the Endangered Species List: Movie Critics in Print, by David Carr, narrates the recent decision by several publications in the United States to lay off film critics from their payrolls.

Apparently, with so much ‘user generated’ reviews and information on films on the Internet, more and more people are turning to the Internet for film reviews, making film criticism in print a redundant function. Newspaper and magazine film critics, therefore, are no longer of great value… and expendable.

I guess this is another effect of the Internet revolution – and bloggers like me are to share the blame. But, my concern is, does this move foretell the future of print journalism?

Read entire The New York Times article here.

[Citation: Now on the Endangered Species List: Movie Critics in Print, article by David Carr, The New York Times, 1 April 2008.]

Converse Kurt Cobain collection

2008-04-01T18:28:00.007+05:30

Converse are about to release a very special collection of shoes, inspired by Kurt Cobain and sanctioned by Courtney Love and the Cobain estate. In this world exclusive, the NFC will bring you the first high resolution pictures ever published of the shoes and the first description of what the collection offers.

To honor Cobain, in May, Converse will debut their Kurt Cobain collection of shoes featuring artwork and scribbles borrowed from Cobain’s personal notebooks. It will mark a central part of the year-long 100th Anniversary ‘Welcome to the Converse Century’ celebration.

“Distressed in the way Kurt Cobain wore them, the shoes provide a rarely seen glimpse into the head of this musical and lyrical genius with sketches that display his hopes, dreams and lyrics from amazing songs such as Come As You Are.”

To further pay tribute to the late singer, three of the Converse shoes that Cobain was often seen wearing will be reflected in the new collection which includes versions of Chuck Taylor All Star, Jack Purcell and One Star shoes. To make the collection even more unique, they’ll have wear and fray detailing and Kurt Cobain’s signature subtly embroidered on the shoe’s outer.

The shoes will be made available in black and white versions and should retail for around $50 - $65.

[Citation: Text and images reproduced from World Exclusive: Converse to launch Kurt Cobain collection at The Internet Nirvana Fan Club.]

Olly & Suzi

2008-03-27T14:56:00.006+05:30

Wolf
aquarelle on paper

“Olly & Suzi are an artist duo whose art-making process is directly coupled with their journey, which they describe as a collaborative, mutual response to nature at its most primitive and wild. Painting together at the same time on the same piece of work, the majority of Olly & Suzi’s art is produced out on location in diverse and remote environments in close proximity to animals, subsequently making the wild their studio. Often endangered, the animals and the surroundings in which they live are the primary subject of their work.

Focusing on representation and symbolism, Olly and Suzi’s aim is to raise awareness and understanding of their subject matter. Sometimes the animal will be presented almost as an icon; singular, primitive and large in relation to the paper, and sometimes a landscape is present and a heard or migration is incorporated into the work. In both cases, the artists strive to create clarity and ambiguity in the same painting; educating and prompting curiosity to equal effect.”

Grizzly aquarelle, sepia and oilstick on linen

“Often the track, print or bite of an animal may be incorporated into the work in an attempt to document the habitat of a creature that may soon be extinct. The artists see this interaction as form of primal investigation; evidence to an event that will never occur in the same way again.

Olly & Suzi continue to travel the globe in the search of preserving the memory and existence of endangered creatures.

Olly & Suzi have been making art together since they met at Central St. Martins School of Art in 1987. Their on-going collaboration was cemented whilst on D.I.P.A Scholarship to Syracuse University in New York State in 1988/89. It was during their early journeys throughout America that they first encountered Native American Indian art and mythology. Inspired by the underlying respect for nature and animals inherent in indigenous art, they decided to formalise their mission as artists; to make art in response to their own journeys, the wild and Nature.”

Please visit Olly & Suzi’s website to learn about, and see more of, their work.

[Citation: Text reproduced from Eyestorm. ‘Wolf’ image reproduced from Olly & Suzi’s website. ‘Grizzly’ image reproduced from Clive James’ website.]

5 years of journalism in Iraq

2008-03-25T19:42:00.002+05:30

This month, the United States completed 5 years of war with Iraq. It has not been an easy time for the people of Iraq – nor the United States. Over the past 5 years, we’ve all read about the war in Iraq, seen many photographs in print and video coverage on TV… with mixed feelings.

The Internet, too, has made its own contribution through words, pictures and videos. From India, I’ve followed the coverage of the Iraq war over local publications and channels – and the Internet for a more global feel of the news coverage.

Recently, two news projects on the journalism behind the Iraq war caught my attention: Bearing Witness from Reuters, and Paul McLeary’s On The Ground on Columbia Journalism Review. Both projects are worth reading and seeing and listening.

Reuters’ Bearing Witness is stunningly visual. The commentary/interviews are exemplary. Paul McLeary’s On The Ground, somewhat of a blog approach, is exceptional journalism; but as they are written reports, they require more concentrated reading.

Bearing Witness can be found here.

On The Ground requires a more careful search on the Internet. Try ‘Paul McLeary On The Ground Columbia Journalism Review’ on any search engine. The report is a series of posts, so you’re likely to find many results for the search. [I was lucky to have subscribed to the CJR newsletter.]

The Maze

2008-03-24T11:32:00.001+05:30

Panos Karnezis’ debut novel, The Maze, is an anti-war fable that takes us through hopelessness and hope, discipline and disillusionment, rivalry and repentance to prove, once again, that war changes our lives.

The Maze is about a lost brigade of Greek soldiers on their retreat from losing the war against the Turks in 1922. The place is Anatolia, just before the Turks gained their Independence. The Greek brigade is trying to find its way to the coast in order to join other expeditionary forces and return home.

The novel is in three parts. In the first, The Retreat, Karnezis describes the low morale of the soldiers, made worse by the weather (hot and dry during the day, cold at night, sudden torrential rain now and then), a series of unexplained thefts, evidence of Communist propaganda material, and the memory of a massacre of Turkish civilians.

Karnezis etches the characters well. The old Brigadier: in love with his dead wife and Greek myths, addicted to morphine, disturbed by the recent thefts and the Communist propaganda. The self-righteous Major, his Chief of Staff: a decorated soldier who has lost faith in the war and in imperialism; who believes a change is coming over Europe, brought upon by Communism.

The Corporal: the Major’s only comrade in the army who believes that the letters he receives are from a beautiful woman in love with him – when they are actually disguised propaganda from the Communist Party.

The Medic: saddened by the futility of war, believes his purpose is to serve humanity, regardless of race or religion. The Padre: troubled by the fact that no one attends Church or goes to confession; roams the army camp aimlessly looking for his flock, clutching his tattered copy of the Bible, followed by his mangy dog.

There’s an injured pilot, an orderly, and a cook. Everyone has a story to tell, even the dog, but Karnezis keeps their tales short. When this dusty brigade chances upon a town untouched by war, it decides to camp there for a couple of days in order to rest, recuperate and reinforce supplies for its onward journey to the coast.

In the second part of the novel, The Town, Karnezis adds colour to his narrative through a bunch of lively townspeople: the schoolmaster, the mayor, the grocer, the Madame, the Madame’s maid, and the maid’s Arab hunchbacked lover – the gardener. There’s even an ambitious journalist waiting for a big score.

Although the townspeople with their simple ways add a wonderful touch to the narrative, they remain incidental to the main story of the lost brigade. Yet, the town is where The Maze comes to its climax. For, unknown to everyone, the army’s temporary occupation of the town, and the incidents that follow soon after, changes everyone’s lives.

The third part of the novel, The Sea, is short, but it completes the novel and the brigade’s journey. At this point, however, Karnezis takes a literary leap and introduces a metaphor (an ominous red dust settling over the town), and adds a fable-like dimension to the story, taking it to its inevitable end. The task is, perhaps, a little ambitious for a debut novelist, but Karnezis seems to pull it off rather well.

The Maze is, undoubtedly, a book worth reading.

Kota Ezawa, video artist

2008-03-21T20:20:00.003+05:30

‘Two Stolen Honeymoons Are Better Than One’
Kota Ezawa, video artist
Video still, 2007

Kota Ezawa is a German-born US-based video artist of a unique kind. He re-records moments from media and history, and creates his own rendering in 2D video animation. After collecting photographs and video footage of specific events – such as President John F Kennedy’s assassination or the O J Simpson trial – on a computer, Ezawa traces the images frame-by-frame and uses flat colours to fill in details and provide highlights.

The effect is quite unique. According to Kate Green, Curator of Education and Exhibitions, Artpace, San Antonio: “Ezawa’s simplified versions of photographs, which are themselves already subjective takes on the real, paradoxically amplify emotive content and create a hyper-real.”

For instance, the image displayed in this post, Two Stolen Honeymoons Are Better Than One, a two-channel animation, is created from Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s infamous home video of their honeymoon. Ezawa re-drew each frame of the footage on his computer and coloured in specific details. The end-result is almost a Disney-like animation.

Kota Ezawa was born in Cologne, Germany in 1969 but is now based in San Francisco, USA. He received his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from Stanford University.

Kota Ezawa’s bio can be found here and here, and samples of his work here and here.

[Citation: Artpace, Artkrush, Haines Gallery, Murray Guy gallery, California College of the Arts.]

Anthony Minghella

2008-03-20T16:52:00.002+05:30

In his own words (reproduced from Tripod member site The Storyteller):

“Wisdom used to have it that only bad books made good movies. Such dispiriting theories stem from Hollywood’s fear of literature and literary figures because of course, the pillage I’ve described can only succeed in a climate of mutual suspicion. The studio view is that films which aspire to the conditions of art, the complexities of a really good book, the equivocations and debates, the edginess or complexities of a really good book, or worse still, the melancholy, will necessarily be limited in their appeal, consigning the to that circuit of dungeons known as the art house (a place which has always held a sneaking appeal, even in its name).

The English Patient is a prime example – a period story, thematically burdened, with a central character burnt beyond recognition, European, elegiac and tragic. It was impossible to find a backer. Successful movies aim low, is the studio mantra, aspiring to the atmosphere of the fairground not the salon, the fireworks display not the microscope. Even those who’ve asserted and achieved the poetic in cinema are at pains to distance themselves from books. Bergman insisted that movies had nothing to do with literature and that the character and substance of the two forms are generally in conflict.

Having written original material for most of my adult life I find myself in the middle of a trilogy of adaptations, which began with The English Patient, continues with my current project, Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and will end with Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. I must deduce, then, that I, too have fallen prey to the same desire to steal a march on the elusive process of getting a film made. It makes great sense, I think, to be the writer of the films I direct but the metabolism of film-making is slowed accordingly. Years can pass before I can walk back onto a film set. The English Patient took over four years to write and direct. If I want to make a film I have to have a subject. Starting with a book accelerates the process. I am afraid it may be as banal as that.”

British film director Anthony Minghella, best known for winning his Academy Award in 1997 for directing The English Patient, passed away on Tuesday (18 March 2008) in London at the age of 54.

The New York Times obituary can be found here.

Michael Clayton raises a question of ethics

2008-03-17T19:17:00.002+05:30

George Clooney delivers one of his best performances in the lead role in Tony Gilroy’s debut moral thriller Michael Clayton which hit the silver screens earlier this month. It’s a flashback of events over four days which brings us back to the present and a thrilling end.

Michael Clayton, a ‘fixer’ (he uses the term ‘janitor’ to describe himself) for a big-time New York corporate legal firm, cleans up messes left behind by the firm’s rich and famous clients. When the firm’s highly-experienced lawyer Arthur Edens (another great performance by Tom Wilkinson) breaks down on a multi-billion dollar class-action suit against a prestigious agrichemical client, U.North, Michael Clayton, a long-time friend of Edens, is sent to clean up the mess.

With Edens’ breakdown, things seemingly get out of hand for U.North on the class-action suit, and the corporation’s ambitious chief legal counsel, Karen Crowder (played fabulously by Tilda Swinton), steps in to salvage the situation for her organisation and protect her own turf. When her own private investigation indicates Edens’ plan to sabotage the class-action suit in favour of the plaintiffs, Crowder resorts to some unsavoury means which lead to chilling consequences.

While investigating Edens’ breakdown, Clayton is straddled by the burden of his work, a failed marriage, a son he has no time for, a failed attempt at starting a restaurant business, an imminent company merger which may jeopardise his job, and a gambling habit. When his friend Arthur Edens is suddenly found dead, Clayton begins to trace Edens’ erratic behaviour and learns that U.North may have been responsible for the deaths of, and damage caused to, many farmers – a fact Edens wanted to make public.

Michael Clayton re-assesses (for us) the notion of ethics in today’s corporate world and the lengths we are willing to go to overlook or defend it. It’s a moral tale that presents to us the risks of choosing either side.

The work I do

2008-03-16T14:36:00.000+05:30

While visiting friends yesterday, their 15-year-old daughter approached me with great excitement. She showed off her new Converse shoes – the Chuck Taylor All Star classic.

Why did she push her parents into paying a small ransom for shoes which looked no different from the ordinary, and cheap, canvas hiking shoes I wore when I went camping with my geologist dad some 35 years ago?

Her response was utter amazement. Duh?!! Because everyone who was someone was wearing one. And she was the first among her friends to own a pair. Now all her friends wanted one too.

I stopped and thought about the work I do as a marketing strategist.

It is my job to advocate ways by which my clients and their brands can appeal to consumers… so consumers can buy their brands and my clients can grow rich. And, in the process, several advertising – and other marketing-communication – agencies and media companies can grow rich.

Sometimes, it’s at the cost of my friends paying through their noses to keep their children happy.

Diane Keaton on photography

2008-03-15T15:51:00.003+05:30

Image from book Clown Paintings, edited by Diane Keaton

Most of us know of Diane Keaton as a Hollywood actress, with many award nominations to her credit, winning her Academy Award for Best Actress in 1977 for her role in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall – which also won her a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA in the same year.

However, if I were to tell you that Diane Keaton has been awarded the 2008 ICP Trustees Award by the International Center of Photography in New York, you might wonder what’s going on. The fact is, apart from her career in acting, Diane Keaton is an avid photographer and curator of photographic collections.

Her contribution to American photography can be stated as (and I quote from ICP’s website):

“…outside of Keaton’s many acting, directing, film production, and philanthropic pursuits, she has long pursued her interest in the photographic medium. Several collections of her own photographs have been published, and she has edited or co-edited multiple collections of vintage work, commonly focusing on photographers who are forgotten or ignored. The latter include Still Life (1983), Mr. Salesman (1993), Local News (1999), and her forthcoming collection of images from Fort Worth, Texas, Bill Wood’s Business, to be published in conjunction with the ICP exhibition of the same name in May 2008.”

The news of Diane Keaton’s 2008 ICP Trustees Award win is not really a big surprise to me. I had been fortunate enough to learn of Ms Keaton’s devotion to photography earlier; and was reminded of it upon reading an article in the New York Review of Books a few months ago. The article, by Larry McMurtry, titled Diane Keaton on Photography, had some wonderful things to say about Ms Keaton as a person and her contribution to American photography.

Here’s an extract:

Over the years, sometimes with the help of the New York writer-curator Marvin Heiferman, Diane has sniffed out collections or archives of photographs that she feels are unjustly overlooked, neglected, or lost — like, very often, the tarnished human beings who appear in them. Once convinced, she mothers these archives and attempts to arrange for their exhibition and safekeeping and, so far, publication in five books to which she’s written prefaces…

Her eye, however, is broadly welcoming and embracing, as are her sympathies. Ron Galella, the Dean, as he was known among paparazzi and their subjects from the Sixties on, once shot Diane in rollers and yet she easily forgives him:

“Lovers, who, with the turn of the head once had the power to crush, or lift me into the realms of impossible elation are gone, gone, gone. Yet they have returned with the flash of Ron’s camera. I see our lives, and am cognizant of the absurdity of some of my choices, even though they were such very sweet encounters for awhile. But what I am ultimately confronted with is the hard fact that there is no permanence for any of us... ever. Permanence can only be found in the immortality promised by the results of the click of a camera. Like it or not, life moves on as quickly as the photograph doesn’t.

In the end I’m glad to be among the Dean’s cavalcade of celebrities, not just for the recognition value, which I can’t deny I once pursued with a relish I am ashamed of, but also because of the education he gave me.”

[Citation: (a) Diane Keaton ICP Trustees Award, ICP’s Infinity Awards 2008; (b) Diane Keaton on Photography by Larry McMurtry, New York Review of Books, Volume 54, Number 17, 8 November 2007; (c) Clown Paintings image courtesy Amazon.com.]

Overwhelming

2008-03-12T18:27:00.001+05:30

Every once in a while we see films that mean something special to us – something special at an individual level. This year, I’ve been fortunate to come across two such films: Indian actor-director Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par and Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn’s Into The Wild. These films have a personal significance for me as I have experienced some of the emotions of the two young heroes of these films.

Like 8-year-old Ishaan (played magnificently by Darsheel Safary) in Taare Zameen Par, I, too, am dyslexic and have suffered the shame of not being ‘up to the mark’ like everyone else in my class – or in my family. And, like 24-year-old Christopher (played by the talented Emile Hirsh) in Into The Wild, I, too, have cut myself off from my family and walked out of a promising life in search of the truth.

Forty years ago, no one in India knew what dyslexia was. As an 8-year-old dyslexic, I had to find my own means of coping with the world and try to make sense of what was happening. And, unlike Ishaan’s world in Taare Zameen Par where an observant and caring school teacher pieced things together, no one came to my rescue and explained to my parents what the trouble was with me.

I grew up troubled, and my later itinerant years – somewhat similar to those of troubled Christopher in Into The Wild – were (and still are) a result of my alienation from my family and a rebellion against the values they represented. Like Christopher, I, too, embarked on a journey to live life on my own terms – dropping off my ration card (India’s equivalent of social security), driver’s license and passport along the way.

However, that’s where my story differs from Christopher’s. I had the sense to realise that, although truth has a special place in my heart, it is equally important not to lose sight of two vital life forces: a livelihood and the love of friends. Christopher’s folly – or immaturity, perhaps – was to trade his college-educated level-headedness for an imaginary life.

For, Christopher’s search for the truth and his disdain for the material world eventually took away his life’s energy – the pure goodness that had driven him to embark on a journey across America to Alaska, touching various people’s lives along the way in most wonderful ways. In Into The Wild, Sean Penn chronicles Christopher’s journey over two years until its heart-achingly overwhelming end.

Political thought and behaviour

2008-02-14T13:41:00.001+05:30

As a Mumbaikar (i.e resident of Mumbai, India), the recent events connected to Raj Thackeray and his MNS party has worried me. No, not from fear of being beaten up and being driven out of the city (as I’m not a Maharashtrian, but a Bengali from Kolkata in eastern India), but from Raj Thackeray’s view of politics and the bigger question of political thought and behaviour.

It’s no doubt that political thought and behaviour play an important role in our lives. For some of us, like the Mahatma Gandhi and Raj Thackeray, it even becomes a life’s ambition and a driving force. Unfortunately, politics has never interested me. However, with the recent turn of events in my city, I’m beginning to wonder how an individual’s political attitudes, intentions and decisions are shaped.

Are these environmental, ethnic or national dispositions? Or, are they matters of garnering votes, winning elections and achieving political prominence? Are we, Indians, or humans for that matter, naturally communal? Or, is there something else at play which I don’t understand?

Understanding children today

2008-02-13T16:32:00.000+05:30

Unlike my generation, where we used to be outdoors most of the time when we were at play, today’s children are more used to watching TV at home or being cooped up in their rooms in front of their computer screens for hours on end.

Where our social skills were groomed by interaction with each other through flesh-and-blood face-to-face communication and physical engagement in outdoor or indoor games, today’s children are happy communicating with each other through their mobilephones, computers and the Internet.

Mobilephones, video games, MP3 players, computers and the Internet have captured the attention of our children so overwhelmingly that their learning and social skills are now geared around these digital media/devices, rather than from actual interactions between human beings that my generation is used to. These digital media/devices have become their passion, as books and outdoors games were ours.

As adults, if we can understand, harness and innovatively manage this passion, there is a chance that we’ll be able to engage our children more productively in learning and play… and understand them better.

Adele, 19

2008-02-12T16:25:00.000+05:30

With all the fuss over Amy Winehouse at the recent Grammy Awards, would you be interested in Adele Atkins? Probably not. You’re more likely to ask, ‘Adele who?’ But if you like Soul/Blues or even Pop music, then I’d say Adele Atkins’ debut album 19 is worth listening to.

Like Amy Winehouse, Adele Atkins is also from London, but not half as famous. No Grammys or millions of sold CDs/downloads (or drug rehab, for that matter) for Adele yet – though her single ‘Chasing Pavements’ (Amazon.co.uk video) did hit the UK charts big-time and bring her some deserved attention.

Adele writes her own songs too and, from what I’ve heard on 19, I’d say she has a talent as a songwriter as well. Adele’s music is more Folk/Blues/Pop than Winehouse’s (which is Soul/Jazz/R&B), still she prefers to label it Soul/Pop. 19 is full of young love, with enough maturity to hook an old-timer like me. So, do listen.

For more on Adele Atkins, visit her MySpace page.

The Proposition

2008-02-11T16:41:00.000+05:30

Directed by Australian John Hillcoat and written by rock-pop musician Nick Cave, who is Australian born but now living in the UK, The Proposition is a disturbing film.

The film is like a Western, set in the Australian outback in the late 1800s when Australia was inhabited by, apart from the indigenous Aborigines, White convicts and free settlers under the British Rule. The scenery is harsh, and so is life. There is no water and you can see and hear the buzz of flies all through the film. The people living here seem emotionless, hardened by the climate and their hardships of the land.

The story is about an army/police officer, Captain Morris Stanley (played by Ray Winstone), who has to bring to justice a gang of criminals – the Burns brothers – who have raped, murdered and robbed an innocent family. The film starts with Stanley and his troopers raiding and, after a gun battle, capturing two of the Burns brothers: Charlie (played by Guy Pearce) and Mike (played by Richard Wilson). The oldest and vicious Burns brother, Arthur (played by Danny Huston), remains at large, hiding.

Stanley returns to town with the captured younger Mike, leaving Charlie with a proposition: if Charlie hunts down and kills his older brother Arthur (the mastermind behind the crimes and ‘a monster’) before Christmas, Charlie and Mike will be allowed to go free. If not, Mike will be hanged on Christmas Day. However, Stanley keeps this proposition to himself, lying to the town’s people about the capture of the Burns brothers and making false promises.

As Charlie sets off to find Arthur, the film focuses on Stanley trying to maintain a balance between several worlds: the harsh Australian outback; the politics amongst his troopers; the town’s people, led by a businessman/mayor, demanding justice for the crimes and insisting on a gruesome lashing of Mike; and his English wife (played by Emily Watson) who tries to create a secluded fenced-in pure English home in the middle of the harsh Australian outback.

Charlie eventually locates Arthur but is unable to kill him, being rescued by Arthur twice: once from an Aborigine attack (when Charlie is impaled by a spear and almost dies); and again, when an English bounty-hunter (played by John Hurt) captures him. On the contrary, Charlie is enamoured by Arthur – a survivor and philosophical man, in love with the beauty of the land; and Arthur’s partner-in-crime, Sam (played by Tom Budge) – a rapist/murderer who is also a beautiful singer.

That’s the strange thing about The Proposition. The film presents a set of contrasts: good and evil, beauty and bleakness, murder and music, fragility and strength, heroes and villains. Yet, these contrasts seem intertwined, at times taking up opposite positions, bringing up questions of morality. First, overtly, when dealing with the Burns brothers as criminals; and then subtly, when questioning the governance and treatment of Aborigines (in the film’s background).

On instances, both director Hillcoat and writer Cave introduce Charles Darwin (who was most certainly in the news in late 1800) and Darwin’s theory of how we, as men, share the same ancestry with monkeys; how we have survived the worst to evolve as civilised men; and how, in the name of civilisation, we can do no wrong – even when we relapse into our basic genetic behaviours. The film seems to rationalise the fact that, when it comes to survival, we are all products of our environment.

This sense of fatality is what disturbs me. Although The Proposition ends with good winning over evil, I am left with a strange mixture of revulsion and respect. The film reminds me of William Golding’s novel ‘Lord of the Flies’.

[The thing I did not like about the film was the mumbling of dialogues by the actors. Perhaps the print I viewed was not a good one.]

Bíró and the ballpoint pen

2008-02-10T17:35:00.000+05:30

The ballpoint pen, though ubiquitous today, became popular in India only in the 1980s, much later than the rest of the world.

Those of us brought up on the fountain pen – which produced splotchy writing and ink-stained fingers, not to mention messy exercise books and soiled school uniforms – know what a blessing it is to use a ballpoint pen now. So, when I came across this article on the Net on the ballpoint pen and its origin, I just had to share it with you:

“When László Bíró saw a ball rolling through a puddle  on the street and leaving a trail of water behind it, he conceived an idea that would go on to change everyday life forever. Based on what he had seen, the Hungarian journalist, along with his brother Georg, began to work on the first commercially successful ballpoint pen.

Bíró had become frustrated by the time spent filling up fountain pens and waiting for the ink to dry. He had seen  that the ink used to print newspapers dried much quicker and so decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. In 1938, the Bíró brothers patented a design which featured a tiny ball in its tip, which turned freely in a socket. As the  ball moved along the paper it rotated, picking up ink from  the cartridge and leaving it on the paper.

Whilst ballpoint pens had existed in the past, none had  proven very popular due to constant problems with clogging, leakage and ink distribution, and the Bíró was the first pen that significantly overcame these problems.

After relocating to Argentina in 1940, the Bírós licensed their design to a number of makers in the US and Britain. But it was almost ten years later when the design was mastered  and introduced to the rest of the world. Marcel Bich, a French pen manufacturer who had bought the ballpoint pen patent from László Bíró, ironed out the remaining design problems (mainly ink distribution) and began huge, low cost mass productions of the ‘BIC CRISTAL’.

It’s not surprising to hear that, in 2005, BIC sold its one hundred billionth pen, when you consider just how many of their pens you might have owned, borrowed or even stolen. At the same time, as being an icon of democracy – almost anyone can afford to buy one – the ballpoint pen is also one of the first products of the throw-away culture in which we now live.”

More information on BIC ballpoint pens is available here.

[Citation: Text reproduced from designboom article reinventing the bic pen. Image reproduced from dkimages.]

Reggie Pedro – glimpses of possible narratives

2008-02-08T10:17:00.000+05:30

78 Stone Wobble, 2007

“Reggie Okerheire Pedro's approach to his work would appear, at least in a non-literal sense, to be a reflection on his perceptions and experiences, growing up in London. One of the first things an artist of any nature might say to you about their work is that the work comes from their experiences, but then what other basis or foundation could an artist have for expressing themselves as honestly as possible, than to come from a perspective that is as true to them as they are to it. This would also beg the question as to what is experience, and how do we measure an artist's performance or body of work in relation to their experience in life.

For Reggie Pedro, his experience growing up in London only really offers a superficial component to his work, which isn't to discredit the fact that London lifestyle has a lot to offer to artists culturally, from a social-political viewpoint or just aesthetically, but really to say that the real expression in his work can be found in the interplay amongst his depiction of characters or in the lone character, in how these characters are portrayed within the bold use of colour, outlines, flat planes and surfaces, occasional handwritten text sometimes giving a hint or indication to, or emphasising a theme or subject-matter within multi-layered images that trigger the viewer's imagination through their glimpses of possible narratives.

It is when dealing with these aspects of the work, ignoring momentarily the urban settings in the work, that you can identify maybe on a more holistic level with the subjects that Reggie attempts to give life to as paintings. The fact that Reggie uses the visual medium of paint to articulate his ideas shouldn't be seen as a technique which has been given little thought or as an outdated medium in today's computer generated image world. But on the contrary, paint which is essentially pigment like any other use of colour can be used, and has been used in a variety of ways depending on whose hands are using it and how they view the world around them in relation to how they treat the medium.

His paintings are the site of tension between representation and creative intervention, between seriousness and upliftment or humour. The work spans areas of our lives which deal with civil unrest, love, boredom, isolation, exuberance, spirituality, to name some of the literal concepts that Reggie Pedro tries to tackle. There is a lot of struggle that takes place in the creation of his work, struggles within figuration, semi-abstraction, and abstraction.  His will is to render our existences as sincerely as possible without losing sight of his creative artistic endeavours.”

Reggie Okerheire Pedro, British illustrator and painter, passed away last November at the age of 35. His work can be seen on his website.

[Citation: Image reproduced from Eyestorm. Reggie Pedro’s profile, by Bruegal Futtywheat – Artspew, quoted from Reggie Pedro’s website.]

Not your usual gangster film

2008-02-06T13:46:00.000+05:30

Ridley Scott’s American Gangster is undoubtedly a great film, but, after two and a half hours of viewing, it left me a little dissatisfied. Not because of the length of the film (which is justified), but because it lacked the intensity I had expected from an epic gangster film of its genre – which includes films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Godfather’ series, Brian De Palma’s ‘Scarface’ and ‘The Untouchables’, and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Mean Streets’ and ‘Goodfellas’.

The lack of intensity, and gangster meanness, in American Gangster is in the portrayal of rivalry between the two lead characters: Frank Lucas, a druglord in Harlem (New York) selling heroin in the early seventies, played by Denzel Washington; and Richie Roberts, an honest but philandering New Jersey cop pursuing the underworld of drugs, played by Russell Crowe.

The film is based on a true story. Frank Lucas as a Harlem druglord did exist (apparently he made a million dollars a day from selling heroin on 116th Street in New York in the seventies), is alive today (in a wheelchair), and was consulted for the film. However, I’ve read in the media that, writer Steven Zaillian and director Ridley Scott have taken a lot of creative liberties with the film.

The acting by the two lead characters is fabulous; although I must say that Denzel Washington outshines Russell Crowe by a mile. The film, after all, is about Frank Lucas – his rise from a driver/bodyguard/collector for an earlier druglord to becoming a kingpin in New York’s seventies drug business. And Washington, in Lucas’ role, is superb. If anything, the film is worth watching because of Denzel Washington’s acting.

I was curious to note that, in the film, Lucas, in spite of his heinous crime of selling heroin, considered himself a progressive Black businessman. He contributed to his family’s and Harlem’s welfare. He talked about principles of business such as markets, product sourcing, product quality (purity), branding, pricing, value proposition and distribution. I was impressed.

Where American Gangster falls short is in portraying the relationship between the two rivals: Lucas and Roberts. Both characters are likeable – strong on ethics, outcasts in their fields – in spite of their negatives (Lucas as a druglord and gangster; Roberts as an honest cop and philanderer). They live separate lives, unknown to each other. Not until the very end of the film is there any rivalry, or relationship, between the two men.

Roberts considers Lucas a suspect much later in the film – first on a hunch, and then confirmed almost accidentally by one of Robert’s (mysterious) friends. Lucas doesn’t know Roberts is after him, doesn’t believe he’ll be caught (a touch of invincibility – his folly), and continues to live his life, expanding his business (Lucas had ensured that the heroin cannot be traced back to him).

Even when Lucas is caught, an understated event after a shootout, the face-off between the two men is civilised and gentlemanly – as if they are in admiration of each other. A touch of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Catch Me If You Can’ is what I felt, washed off all the intensities expected from the usual gangster film.

Of little consequence

2008-01-30T19:18:00.000+05:30

These days, I often find very little news to read in the daily papers. By that I mean news of very little consequence. On most days, the papers have no worthwhile news to report. The media simply fills the pages of the newspapers with any news they can get their hands on. Some of it is self-congratulatory – a narcissistic self-fulfilment for us Indians. Sadly, India’s leading English-language daily, The Times of India, fits this description perfectly. Here’s an example:

While the whole world is talking about the killings in Kenya, where over 800 people have died in the past four days, The Times of India (in Bangalore – that’s where I am at present) today has ‘Monkey off Bhajji’s back’ as the main story on their front page. It reports about a ban on Indian cricketer, Harbhajan Singh, for an alleged racist remark made to an Aussie player in an earlier test match, being lifted and Harbhajan Singh’s name being cleared of the racial charge.

This main story is supported by other headlines on the front page: (a) ‘Tests confirm it is water contamination’ – about illness and death in Bangalore from contaminated drinking water; (b) ‘Re rise pinches IT staff pockets’ – about the rise in the Indian rupee having a negative impact on salaries of information technology employees; (c) ‘Illegal copter landing leads to mare’s death’ – about a horse in Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi race course being put to sleep when it broke a leg against a barrier while trying to escape in panic, when a helicopter landed on the race course.

More interestingly, today’s Times of India also has a substantially large picture of a spanking-new winding highway; the image spread diagonally across the bottom half of the front page. I didn’t get the significance of this picture… until I noticed some small-print text on the image bottom, leading to a full-page colour ad on Page 5 of the newspaper. The ad on Page 5 belonged to IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, which builds (yes, you guessed it) highways and roads in India, and is planning on an IPO to raise funds for its projects.

And, the killings in Kenya story? I couldn’t find it at all. Not even on the Times Global page (Page 21) with its ‘Love All Nations Alike’ tag line. The main story here was ‘Bush admits economy in distress, won’t take blame’.

Distress is what I feel when I read The Times of India these days. But then, will the newspaper take the blame for delivering to our doorsteps news of so little consequence?

Dhiraj Chawda: Reflections

2008-01-29T19:25:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Bachchan (early career)

Yesterday I received a wonderful gift from a dear friend. It was Bollywood photographer Dhiraj Chawda’s recently-launched book, Reflections over the last 50 years. The book, a coffee-table edition, is an exclusive collection of Mr Chawda’s photographs – mostly portraits of some of Bollywood’s greatest stars (film, dance and music), and a few other Indian celebrities (e.g. Rajiv Gandhi, Ustad Vilayat Khan).

Although I have seen Mr Chawda’s work in the Indian media, some many times over, I must confess that I know very little about him and his achievements. Hence, I have reproduced below an extract from a screenindia.com article I read on the Internet today:

“Dhiraj Chawda, ace glamour photographer for over forty years, describes himself as an artist who paints with his camera. He is best known for his portraits of film stars, and is remembered for his meticulous attention to detail, his penchant for experimentation, and his ability to create an ethereal aura around his subjects. A walk down memory lane with a man who is an inspiration to photographers even today.”

The entire screenindia.com article can be accessed here.

The book, Reflections over the last 50 years, is obviously worth owning – or, at least, worth taking a look at.

[Citation: Image reproduced from Dhiraj Chawda’s book, Reflections over the last 50 years.]

Kate Marshall – the artist as the model

2008-01-26T18:51:00.000+05:30

Portrait of the Artist as an Artist, 2007

“My most recent work stems from an interest in the fetishisation of the artist and the artist/model relationship. From Vasari’s ‘Lives of the Great Artists’ to Anais Nin to contemporary celebrity culture we have been fascinated by the romanticised figure as much as their work. I have begun to realise this might now include me and that I should redress the balance with my ‘models’. Until now I have been the Madame of the house and not one of the whores. I hope these quasi-self portraits are also a reminder of the humour in my work.”

– Kate Marshall, artist

There is something erotic about Kate Marshall’s art – something that gives me a voyeuristic feeling when I look at her work. Perhaps that is her intention. For, embedded in her art is a fascination with the female nude – an exploration of the feminine ‘self’. No doubt, the simplicity of colour and form, and her experiments with the artist as the model, add to the appeal.

See more of Kate Marshall’s work on her website.

[Citation: Image reproduced from Eyestorm. Quote reproduced from Kate Marshall’s press kit from her website.]