Always All Ways...

Slumdog Millionaire: An award-winning slam to developmental competency?

2009-02-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

Only a few hours to go before the Academy awards for this year’s movies are going to be announced. And along with numerous expectators I am also waiting eagerly for a prestigious Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire – a movie that has already created a history, a milestone and a huge appreciation.

How do you rate the objectives of the movie? Well, as a general viewer the movie is impressive, specially when look at the overall presentation and its lovely music. But interestingly, it appears that this movie is in discussion less because its a good cinema and more because it gives a big blow to ‘something’….which was hidden from the outer world and the director has managed to grab the mystery and presented using light and sound in front of the world. On one hand, the Indian citizens are happy with the masterpiece movie, and are enjoying the tremendous recognition given to them (look at Mr. Anil Kapur’s face in the media posters!). On the other hand, the western world, especially those of the leading nations, are projecting it merely as –“You wanted to see a real bit of India? Here it is!”

Under a cinematic cover the director has conveyed many things, that he and his team could have not been able to express otherwise. How do we take the wining of a chaiwala in a TV show? The director ends up sayings, out of four it is option ‘(d) its written’ – no wonder that this (d) is written only by Danny Boyle. But then the story behind the wining is so pathetic that one might wonder if we really learn only bad lessons from our culture: does bow and arrow in Ramayana’s Rama signify only communal riots? Is it really true that the poor Indians are surviving on those 100 dollar notes from the ‘real Americans’? Here comes a hint of what an outsider thinks and deliberately expresses his thought on poor Indians’ competence for the hard earning. The aptitude of these poor and struggling people for the development towards a better life - how will the people at the top rate to it? Let him be a poor beggar, or chaiwala, but when he comes up with a hard-earn knowledge and equals the top, can we term it as Slumdog Millionaire? Is this what the western world thinks about the development and progress of the competent but struggling people from the third world countries? Is this how they are willing to slam this unstoppable competency in the era of recessions? And is this the reason why the numerous awards are being showered to the persons who could finally express the inner thoughts through the silver window? One has to be careful, and act accordingly during these confusions - just like what Jamal did in the movie when the host of the show gave a wrong clue for an unknown question; and clever Jamal, experienced by struggles in every step, guessed the trick and responded just the opposite to what the host wanted him to do! Along with the glory, every award including a possible Oscar will bring a big challenge to the image of the developing India. And as quickly as the intentions of the western world come in front, we have to face it in every stage.

I mention a couple of recent very small incidents that happened even in my small surrounding!! One of my young colleagues, recently came to me once and asked my opinion about this movie; when I said the movie was good, I heard a comment – ‘how real the movie is that it is winning all the awards’! And then I heard they have decided to see the movie with a view to learn a part of Indian culture untold so far! A second incident, while I was on board in a British Airways flight for an 8-hour long journey from London to Toronto; there was a person next to my seat, whom I hardly talked for about 6 hours. And towards the end we started talking a bit, and he expressed that he was impressed by the place and kind of work I do because he was familiar with the institute I work for. He also expressed some of his concerns about his country for the coming years; and then suddenly he asked me about this movie Slumdog and asked my opinion. This time I was a bit specific, and told that the movie has portrayed the poverty of Mumbai extensively, and the world knows that countries like India are poor. Further I mentioned that its not that poverty was unexplored in cinema, but in this case poverty was well portrayed to the world. He replied back, in a bit defensive mode, that yes, everybody including the director is making money out of the slumdogs! I am sure that, since the release of the movie Indians outside are in a process to explain their foreign colleagues about their opinions, the truths and the implications of the movie in Indian context. And if the movie wins an Oscar, it might be in near future that people of western world will start enquiring about it, just like how they used to do for famous names like Gandhi, Vivekananda, Tagore, Yoga, Ayurveda and all! Should we be proud of it? We might have to decide it soon!

Cats and Deaths...

2008-11-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Unless you are intrinsically mad of CATS, you will agree with me that CATS are one of those most fishy animals - who of course love to eat fishes! I sometimes wonder how these CATS can be so dear to anybody that they dare to dedicate their lovely warm laps to those inherently PISCEAN and suspicious little animals… I am sorry you CAT lovers, I have used those self-created adjectives for your lovely companions! I know that not everyone of your softy CATS are born under the Zodiac sign of PISCES, but still, for me they are the most suitable ones for being ANIMAL PISCEANS (please don’t mistake me, I DO NOT say that all PISCEANS are CATS)!

These small hairy softies are not so softy always, especially when they are angry for some strange reasons. Let me share one small experience! It was when I was a kid of less than 14 years (don’t remember the exact year!), I was visiting with my parents and my two brothers to one of our uncles’ house. It was a terrible Indian hot-summer day, sorry, night… and to get rid of the hot weather we all decided to sleep on a mat on the dark flat-roof of the building house. In that hot weather, lying on the mat and looking at the sky, how can you sleep off boys if you never try! It was just when I succeeded to enter in the world of sleep, something, suddenly hit me on the head, and I woke up and heard a voice which heard like MAAAON…before realizing what’s going on, that sound box again directly fell on the face and with its sharp nails it scratched me vigorously. I cried in agony, and it jumped away…and other people around me woke up and put on the light. They found that the nails of that CAT terribly scribbled a side of the face and blood was coming from it. It was late night, and there was no doctor around, neither was there a well-decorated first-aid box in that remote village. I am sure that the jumping CAT must have scratched some others also, but I do not remember who else were there. My brothers were also affected I guess, but the worst was yet to come. As a first aid, the wise people there decided to touch the injured place with a hot piece of iron… it seems that this treatment would help getting rid of the germs. The procedure was instantaneous and it followed no protocol! So it was an attractive treatment catching the minds of the spectators. Well, I felt the pain for quite a long time, and the treatment was completed. But, this overall incident marked a long lasting influence on me and on my brothers’ minds. It was even many years after that incident that one of my younger brothers used to get terribly afraid just by seeing any CAT around. To see suddenly a CAT around still makes him feel uncomfortable. I know, this might be a small incident to remember… but still it might be a sufficient illustration of a non-softy face of the cats and their suspicious motions in a highly non-uniform velocity through any passage.

Due to their predatory activity, the cats are generally considered a small version of the deadly tigers. I don’t know how far this is genetically or evolutionarily proven. But, it is quite evident that the cats, directly or indirectly, can be deadly, or even can present you a deadly agony! In this context, please do not ignore the effects of those CAT EYES or the CAT WALKS!! Dear cat lovers, don’t worry, my intention is not to scare you!

Although I am using the terminology ‘deadly’, does anything I have said so far really mean that there is a correlation between the death and the cats? Well, one might say that it’s absolutely not, and that the cats can be deadly only because of some minor known reasons. But now, regarding the deadly behaviour of those cats I am going to say something which is really serious.

In the Rhode Island of United States, a nursing home called the Steere Nursing Home has been experiencing highly mysterious incidents with a cat called Oscar. The cat Oscar is two year old and its colour is grey-white. It was adopted by a staff of the nursing home, and from then on it is in that nursing home. The cat is very gentle in general and stays aloof most of the times. But, it has been seen that whenever the cat comes out from its aloofness, and go to a patient and lie near him/her closely and comfortably, the patient dies within a few hours. And this behaviour has become so famous that, whenever Oscar comes out and go to a patient and lie near him, the doctors realize that it means that the patient is going to die in four hours. Regarding this cat’s behaviour, Dr. David Dosa, MD, who is a geriatrics specialist and an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University says that, "Oscar has successfully predicted 25 deaths.... He missed only one. And in that instance, two deaths occurred simultaneously."

It is still an unsolved mystery how this cat can understand that someone is going to die! Some says it’s how the cats can smell death, while the others say it’s simply due to the cat’s sixth sense! But whatever it is, somehow in that particular nursing home, this cat Oscar carries to the patients the signal of death. This is deadly, isn't it? I have heard in my childhood that the cats can bring death at home just by carrying a poisonous snake inside the house, but it’s really a mysterious behaviour that a cat can bring the death signal just by making an appearance of itself in front of a person!

Well, my dear cat lovers, I am really sorry if I have scared you at all. I believe that, you will agree with me that there are many things unknown and uncanny about the strange behaviours of the cats. I am not saying that every time when a black cat crosses your way, you should be careful at the road. But you should be careful before you say that you know everything about your lovely cats... because even if you believe that these little animals are not ANIMAL PISCEANs, please do not forget that they are really mysterious and suspicious creatures.