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Showing posts from August, 2015

An Epitome of Devotion

Ramcharan Yadav, the History teacher of Lokmanya Vidya Niketan Indore, alighted the bus and asked the children to get down quietly. The class eight students were on their annual school trip, and this was the next stop for them. It was a quiet afternoon, and the sun was considering calling it a day.  After ensuring all students were feeling good, the teacher started speaking. ‘What you see here was constructed by a person who lived among us some years before, in the love for his wife soon after her soul bid farewell from this Earthly world.’ As expected, there was no collective sigh of exclamation from the kids, who had grown up watching engineering marvels and sky breakers across the globe. ‘Of course this may not seem to be such a great feat today, but you must remember that he had achieved the same at a time before machines started cutting stones or computers began to lay out meticulous plans. Twenty two long years were spent in the construction.’ Ramcharan watched

A Seventeenth Century Striving To Even Out the Odds

Close to the city of Paithan, in a small village called Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of the great river Godavari, lived a woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her family was well to do, but not among the richest in their area. It was the harvest season, and cotton had to be picked from the plants. The wholesalers and traders from Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks, carrying gold and goods for barter. They would exchange what they carried for the cotton that the farmers grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work was at its peak! But Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn't working. Instead, she was sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari. 'I am sick of this!' she grunted loudly. The cool breeze could not dampen her frustration. ‘Ssh...Not so loud, Ilaa! Others may hear.’ whispered a precarious Eknath. They both sat cross legged in the soft sand by the riverside. The wild outgrowth gave them a cover from th

Poem: Culinary Love

We were never meant to be together. I am a native. She came from beyond. I am white. She is brown. I am sweet. She is hot. I am dry. She is not. We were never meant to be together. Or so they thought. Without her, I am baked flour. Sans me, she is ignored by all. Despite the odds, forward we did go. She ran through me with vigor. As we drenched in steam. Together we saw, A great union taking birth. It was culinary love.

Movie Review : Do Aankhen Barah Haath

Title :  Do Aankhen Barah Haath Language : Hindi Year : 1957 Director :  Rajaram Vankudre Shantaram Genre : Drama, Crime, Comedy IMDB Link Lead Role :   Rajaram Vankudre Shantaram ,  Sandhya ,  Ulhas Do Aankhen Barah Haath (Two Eyes, Twelve Hands) is widely regarded as a classic milestone in the history of Indian cinema. The story of the film is based on the 'open prison' experiment that was conducted some two decades before the making of the movie. Adinath is a prison warden who decides to carry out this experiment on six murder convicts, in an unprecedented attempt to show them the greatness of mercy. He hopes to nourish their human sides by offering them a second chance. Would his gambit pay off? I believe that a film could be labeled a classic if viewers can connect with it and debate it across the dimensions of time and space. In that regard, this movie justifies the tags attributed to it up to a considerable extent. While the story and making is commendable,

Movie Review : Fifty Shades of Grey

Title :  Fifty Shades of Grey Language : English Year : 2015 Director :  Sam Taylor-Johnson Genre : Drama, Romance, Erotica IMDB Link Watch trailer on Youtube Lead Role :   Dakota Johnson ,  Jamie Dornan ,  Jennifer Ehle Fifty shades is an erotica, based on the 2011 novel by the same name. In fact it is only the first installment of what we could call the Grey Trilogy.  The movie tells us the tale of a successful entrepreneur Christian Grey and a college going teenager Anastasia Steele. Ms. Steele meets Mr. Grey for an interview on behalf of her sick friend Katherine, and let us say her changes drastically. Is the change for good or bad? The answer is best watched on screen. Fifty shades of Grey had its fair share of controversy in India thanks to its explicit visuals which the extremists found hard to accept. What intrigues me is that these people have no issues with the amount of graphical description on sexual intercourse in novels but hell breaks loose if the same is

Character Assassination

“Vani woke to the incessant crying of her newborn. Today was a long and exciting day for her and her hubby, Vimal. The nine months of anticipation had finally culminated in the Labor Room of the Little Flower Hospital. Vimal was on cloud nine ever since she had told him that she was expecting. He had taken it for granted that it would be a boy. That months that followed saw Vimal googling frantically for top baby boy names. A hundred sites showed a thousand names, but he was not content with any of those. Vani came up with Aditya, and Vimal gave the thumps up. They would lovingly call him Adi. Vani decided not to tell him that Aditya was her ex-boyfriend. Vani got the shock of her life when she realized that fate had other plans for them. She expected Vimal to break down as the nurse announced that the baby was a girl. To her pleasant surprise, he seemed normal with the news. He even joked that now they would have to hunt for a new name. If Vimal was faking his emotions, he was do