The idea of God

The other day someone very proudly told me, "I am an atheist you know, I don't go to the temple and all" I smiled and told him the same. It is interesting to know how people nowadays are increasingly moving away from religion and irrational beliefs. With more and more people reading and learning new things about whats happening in the world the importance of prayer or so called 'irrational beliefs' is vanishing. Mind you here I'm not trying to take a stand on prayer and religion but just trying to understand the psyche people.
An atheist Someone who does not believe in the existence of God, the creator of all. Why do people pray? To get their wishes fulfilled or to rid themselves of the burden of sin or to thank the Almighty. Reasons are many if you go to see. For different people God means different things. The other day I was waiting outside the Mahalakshmi temple and I happened to befriend a young girl who had travelled for six hours to get a view of the Devi and ask her for blessings. "Mai toh kuch nahi maangti apne liye, sirf devi ka ashwirwaad hum sab ke upar rahe bus..." said Ankita. It was obvious religion was something that had been ingrained in her ever since she was a child. As she grew up she didn't question any of those teachings and continued with her religious practices.
Last year during one of our cultural studies class, we were asked to write down what God meant to each one of us. We got to hear all sorts of things from God being "A Santaclaus" to "A Moral Police". Someone said something that struck me, she was like," God is something to hold on to, like when your upset and there is nothing to rely on, God acts like that support system" . The idea of God being a support system is indeed central to a whole lot of us. No matter how pressing the situation might be "There is always a way out", "God is watching you" . Not necessary that always one is strong enough to withstand the pressures of life. At those moments when one tends to loose their sense of rationality, the illusion of security of God taking care of everything/everyone really helps.
On Wednesdays it really amuses me to see the thousands of devotees flocking at St.Michael's church. People come barefoot, take rounds of the altar kneeling, walk backwards from the church altar to not show their back to the idol and the list goes on. None of the above practices are listed in the bible. But still people do them, their sense of belief makes them do all of it. It is believed that if you intercede to the Mother of perpetual Succor (Mother Mary) your prayers will be heard. Most of these people don't question their belief and continue praying with the hope that their wishes will be granted. Are the wishes always granted? Mostly yes sometimes no. If yes then God listens to their prayers and if no then "This was not God's will".

Incentives or Bribes

The other day we had this interesting discussion in class on ‘Are incentives Bribes or vice versa?’ It was interesting to know that both words-incentive and bribe, meant almost the same. As per the oxford dictionary an incentive is a thing that encourages someone to do something, it is something that incites whereas a bribe means to dishonestly persuade someone to help you, especially by paying them; something offered in an attempt to bribe someone.

So you see the dictionary meanings for both are the same but still the context in which each of these words are used is different. As they say everything is a matter of perception which defines reality.

Bribe is mostly used as a negative word, something that is evil, and something that makes life easy and is used as a matter of convenience. Paying the traffic police on being caught after breaking a signal only to save our self the trouble of doing the rounds of a government office is an easy way out, isn’t it? So let’s look at this situation, here is the cause is breaking the law and the outcome is going scot-free. So isn’t unlawful behavior being reinforced over here, “If one law can be broken, who cares even the others can be”. Both bribe and incentive are very result oriented.

On the other hand an incentive is considered to be a boost which results in outcomes. Incentives form a major part of various internal PR plans. An employee working for a multinational company anyways gets his/her salary and phone bills paid is given a free executive weekend trip every three months. The motive behind this is to de-stress the employee who probably works five days a week, 15 hours each day. Here the management not only shows that they care for their employees but also increases their productivity. Now this is an example for an incentive designed for a positive outcome.

Having looked at concrete examples for both let’s try to confuse the two by taking a few more examples. Are incentives always designed for positive outcomes? If TATA Photon plus comes with a new plan where in if we take a Tata phone connection then you get a photon plus internet connection free with no monthly rentals for the first five months. Now will this be a bribe or an incentive? As mentioned earlier an incentive when properly designed for a positive outcome is not a bribe. Through this scheme Tata manages to promote its brand in a market which is filled with n number of brands offering broadband connections. Now if we look at the flip side of the same example we get to learn a different aspect. Out of ten clients being offered the scheme, all ten of them might not require the free connection for various reasons. There are possibilities that someone is not a netizen and does not require the connection or someone already has a better plan in hand. Thus different people respond differently to the same incentive that is offered to them.

Everything said and done are incentives bribes or are bribes incentives? I guess I would continue pondering over that till I come to a resolution.

“You play God that is the most difficult task and the most exciting”

Kiran Rao, the director of Dhobi Ghat, has indeed made a mark in the industry with her debut film. She knew from the very beginning that film making is all she wanted to do. In conversation with her she reveals what film making means to her.

“I think I’m here to talk about films as that is the only topic I can talk about with confidence”. She went on to talk about the history of the art of film making. Humans in general feel the innate need to express themselves and make the world aware of their existence. They have always felt the need to create an identity for themselves based on their thoughts. It is the outcome of these needs that takes the shape of various art forms. Let it be painting, singing, poetry and even photography and film making.

Today there are numerous genres of film making, art house films, avant-garde films, ad films, documentaries etc. “Film making is a unified process” she says. It involves five stages, the first on being the development stage. It is the beginning, the birth of an idea. If this is not there then there would be no films made. The idea is then written as a story, it is given a basic structure and broken up into scenes and chapters. This stage involves giving the story a colour, a perspective, and an angle keeping the audience in mind.

“You play God that is the most difficult task and the most exciting, living your dream, living your work, living your art”

The next stage is pre-production, this involves selection of locations, casting, budget and all the technical aspects of the film are decided. The technical aspects include visual texture (cinematography), costumes, sound, choreography etc. Each of these technical aspects is divided into separate departments. The whole unit of the film is finalized.

The next stage is production; this stage majorly depends on the preparation and planning done in the previous stage. Production takes place within a set time limit, limited resources. One gets to see their characters in live space. This is the actual making of the film.

The fourth and the most important stage is post production, here the main player is the editor. The editor has to carry the burden of meeting expectations of not only the film unit but also the audience and the censor board.

“Editing is mining your own material” she says. It involves compiling all the loose scenes, characters. All the unwanted or extra scenes and characters are removed. After the editor is done with his job the final cut goes to the sound designer, he decides which track goes where. He decides on the ambience track, effects track.

After all this is done the film is ready and now comes the final stage-Distribution. A film distributer is usually a company or an individual responsible for releasing the film for theatrical viewing or home viewing. This again is a time consuming stage, depending on the production house of the film, the actors, the label, distributers purchase the film.

On asking her why she makes films, she smiled and said, “The reason to make films is to make films, it is the process that matters nothing else”.

The Relic's Journey continues...

The Relic of Saint Don Bosco has been on a worldwide pilgrimage to prepare for the celebration of the 200^th Birthday of the Italian Catholic Saint. The relic of St. John Bosco, the right hand placed inside a metal box and embedded in a wax replica of his body was brought to the national capital on 28^th July. It was brought to Mumbai on 13^th August and placed at Don Bosco Matunga.

The relic was brought to the shrine of Don Bosco with great joy and Pomp and the road from St.Joseph Wadala to Don Bosco Matunga were lined with students excitedly waiting for the relic to come. At around 5:50pm, the relic arrived in a procession led by a motorcade of flag waving past students and an ensemble of highly energetic drummers. Since then pilgrims from every nook and corner of the city have been flocking to the shrine to pay a visit to the remains of the holy Saint.

Waiting on the steps of the Shrine to receive the Relic were Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Provincial Fr. Michael Fernandes, Rector of the Shrine Fr. Edwin D`Souza and a host of Salesians. With them were also leaders of other Faiths who were present to welcome Don Bosco to the city of Mumbai. As soon as the casket was lowered from the vehicle, a short moment of inter-faith prayer was held, during which the different leaders prayed “the pilgrims who would visit the Relic may grow spiritually and that through the intercession of this Saint, harmony may reign in our city”.

St. Don Bosco was an Italian priest, educator and writer of the 19^th century. He founded the Society of St. Francis de Sales which further went on to form the Salesian congregation of priests, seminarians and co-adjutors. He had dedicated his life for the well-being of the street children and disadvantaged youth. His teaching methods were on the basis of love and not punishment; this was known as the preventive system. He died on 31^st January 1888. Soon after that on popular demand he was blessed in 1929 and canonized on Easter Sunday of 1934 and was given the title of ‘Father and Teacher of Youth’.

The relics of Saint Don Bosco were recomposed in 1929 when his body was recovered from the grave for his beatification and canonization. The bones and tissues of the right hand and arm have been taken in and placed within a wax replica of St.John Bosco’s body, which in turn is enclosed in a large urn.

The pilgrimage began on 31^st January, 2009, the 150^th anniversary of the foundation of the Salesian congregation. It prepares for the 2015 celebration of the 200^th anniversary of Don Bosco’s birth near Turin, Italy on 16^th August, 1815.

The shrine will be open for public veneration till 16^th August 8:30am after which the relic would be prepared to be taken to Goa on the same day. It was brought to India from Hong Kong on 22^nd April, 2011, from where it was flown to Dimapur in Nagaland. The tour of the relic started from Nagaland. Conducted by Salesians in India, the relic will tour across the country and come to Chennai by October.

Nineties Nostalgia

The other day as I was getting rid of old junk from the loft I found a carton filled with cassettes of all the Indi pop songs from the nineties. I looked at them for an instant and recollected how crazy I used to be to buy each of those albums. From breaking piggy banks to religiously doing all the Math practice sums to convince daddy to buy me a ‘Made in India’ by Alisha Chinai or a ‘Colonial Cousins’ by Leslie Lewis and Hariharan.

Pop music from the nineties had a unique charm of its own. Going down the memory lane these are a few songs that I still cherish.

‘O Sanam’- This one is from Lucky Ali’s debut album Sunoh. Back in 1996 this song was a big hit. I still remember listening to this song after coming back from Bharatnatyam class. MTV used to play the song on request. The video of the song was shot in Egypt and his first wife Meaghan McCleary had acted with him.

‘Sa Ni Dha Pa’- I still can’t remember whether it was Hariharan’s weird long hair or Leslie’s rendition in the song that got me hooked to this one. This was their debut album together and they called themselves the ‘Colonial Cousins’. This was one of the first music albums to have fused Western classical and carnatic music. The song begins with a prayer to Lord Ganesha (Vakratunda Mahakaya) and then picks up with Leslie singing the English lyrics,’ Something about the way you smile…” This song was a major hit back then and the duo also won the MTV Viewer’s Choice Award for this album.

‘Made in India’- This song by Alisha Chinai was one of the highest selling albums in 1995. It instantly made her a household name. The dreamy concept of a princess looking for her tall, dark and handsome ‘Indian’ Prince was able to catch the fantasy of all girls out there. Especially if the prince ends up being the dashing Milind Soman who would not want to get lost dreaming about the song???

(P.S. I’m no longer mad about Milind Soman, I’ve grown up)

‘Pal’- This is a super romantic song by K.K. the video says it all. Like all other K.K’s songs even this one is about young love. It was an award winning composition and is till played and sung in many reality shows.

‘Maine Payal hai Chankai’- This one is another personal favourite, it has been sung by none other than our Dandiya Queen, Falguni Pathak. The song has a cute video of a group of college students preparing for a talent show. They use puppets to tell their story and this song is sung in the background. The misunderstanding between the girl and the boy in the song is something all teenagers can still connect to.

‘Dhoom’- I guess this one requires no description; it was a high energy number by Euphoria, one of the first popular Indian bands. Palash Sen and Shubha Mudgal have done a fantastic job with this track. The song begins with beat boxing; ‘Dhoom pichak dhoom pichak dhoom..’

Apart from these there were many other hit singles and albums by artists like Sonu Nigam, Shaan, late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ila Arun to name a few. The music of the nineties was something completely different from what we get to hear nowadays.

Force or Phuss?

Amidst all assignment deadlines and Haqquani network discussions I badly needed a high dose of mindless entertainment. Thats when I decided to go for Force (my bad, why? you’ll know soon). The movie is once again a remake of a tamil film- Khakka Khakka starring Suriya. This one being directed by Nishikant Kamat who has only delivered hits like Mumbai Meri Jaan and Dombivili Fast in the past had given me enough reason to go watch the film.

The film begins with John Abraham as a drug peddler, bashing up a few drug dealers for not paying him the amount he wants. John’s muscles look extremely bulky and double the size of what they have been in his other films. He surely manages to look, not dashing but scary with his piercings, black tattoo all over the arm and huge ankle length black boots (the Salman Khan Bodyguard type). We also get to see Genelia the female lead, in the introductory song Main Challi. She is the cute, vivacious bubbly girl next door, she wakes up every morning with a broooooad smile on her face (unlike most of us), she perfectly puts her feet in the right pair of bedroom shoes even without looking at them (because she is busy smiling, marveling at the sound of birds twittering). As soon as she enters the bathroom, she splashes a lot of water on her face, looks in the mirror and again starts smiling (like a nutcase). She buys flowers from the street children because she cannot bear to see them on the streets going from car to car trying to earn a living. Getting back to apna John Abraham who by now has convinced the audience as well as Genelia uff Maya that he is a scary drug peddler. We are in for a surprise to find out at the end of a gangster encounter that John is actually an officer at the narcotics drug bureau. He is not Francis the drug peddler but ACP Yashwardhan a former IPS officer with the Police and now an officer with the narcotics drug bureau having a unit consisting of three competent officers. Just like all other cops in all other films he knows nothing else but his work.

When Maya comes to know of Yashwardhan’s real identity in the film she goes gaga over him. She then goes behind him throwing her charm on him, trying to impress him bla bla. John falls for her after a lot of reluctance and they are together. We are then introduced to the main villain of the film Vidyut Jamval uff Vishnu. He manages to come back from Kenya unscathed after bashing up a battalion of really scary African gundas who had chained him there. Vishnu is again a dhasu fighter like John and yes he always knows how to get what he wants by hook or crook, he is in other words an ANIMAL.

The second half of the film is filled with extreme violence (not action). Vishnu is out to avenge his brother’s death and come what may he is going to kill all four officers responsible. In this fierce battle between the good and the bad John ends up losing out on a lot of people. He is forced to face situations that he dreads in the beginning.

The climax (by when I had wanted to run away from the theatre for the nth time) is power packed. Yashwardhan and Vishnu are out there shirtless (flaunting their mehnat in the gym). The two are fighting mooke pe mooka, John giving maximum punches (you see, all his khunus is coming out now). The fighting is happening in some morgue with blood everywhere (I’m sure after seeing this scene you will wonder how much blood a human body loose). So yes ACP Yashwardhan hits Vishnu the ANIMAL with fuuull FORCE and Vishnu dies.

John Abraham has improved considerably in terms of acting. He has come a long way from having no expressions at all in emotional scenes to actually giving convincing performances. Genelia has done this role for the millionth time (a couple of times in tamil films and now in hindi). Vidyut Jamval has again given an impressive performance. In terms of screenplay the plot of the film is very predictable.

The music of the film has been done by Harris Jayaraj (Rehna hai tere Dil Mein). The song Khwabon Khwabon which is a complete copy of uyrin uryin from Khakka Khakka is a high energy number. The video of the song looks brilliant; the fusion of classical and contemporary dance in the background is a great add on. Main challi is another catchy track, my personal favourite in the album. Dil ki Tamanna is a romantic track worth a mention.
Though the climax fight scene gets a thumbs up, action scenes in the film could have been better.

On the whole is the movie Force or Phuss, personally it’s a phuss for someone who believes films are meant to be entertaining not depressing.