A Man Passes By... - A Poem by César Vallejo

A man passes by with bread on his shoulder.

Am I going to write, then, of my double?

Another sits down, scratches himself, extracts a louse from his armpit, kills it.

What use in speaking of psychoanalysis?

Another has entered my chest with a stick in his hand.

To speak, then, of Socrates to the doctor?

A cripple walks by, giving his arm to a child.

Am I going to read, then, Andre Breton?

Another shivers with cold, coughs, spits blood.

To play ever at alluding to the profound I?

Another searches in mud for bones, rinds.

How to write, then, of infinity?

A bricklayer falls from the roof, dies, no longer eats lunch.

To innovate, then, the trope, the metaphor?

A merchant steals a gram of weight from a client.

To speak, then, of the fourth dimension?

A banker falsfies his balance.

With what face to cry in the theatre?

A pariah sleeps with his foot to his back.

To speak, then, to anyone of Picasso?

Someone goes to a funeral sobbing.

How, then, to enter the Academy?

Someone cleans a rifle in his kitchen.

What use in speaking of the beyond?

Someone passes by, counting on his fingers.

How, then, to speak of the not-i without screaming?

"Love Letters" - Rage Productions

I sat down last night to write the review for the first ever play that I have seen. The immediate motive was to finish it before 11 AM next day and mail it across to Hindu. I was ranting on and on, realizing at the editing stage that the word limit is 200 words. After considerable and simultaneously discrete climb down, I came down to 202 words and send it across. Will put that too here once I get to know if it was published at all. So here goes my personal review without any word limits.

Whenever I try to initiate myself into something related to arts, I try to ensure that my first experience is impeccable; thus ensuring that I continue to maintain my relation with the art. After thinking on similar lines about "Love Letters", I decided to give it a shot. Last minute blues made us reach the venue, Ravindra Bharti, earlier than required, to get hold of the tickets. The journey to the place itself was eventful enough and merits a post of its own, which will be duly provided to it.

The ticket counter was tuck away in one corner of the premises and looked so shady that I thought it was selling tickets for the kind of movies we got acquainted to in college. Nevertheless, we bought the tickets and waited for the volunteers to permit entrance. Beginners' Luck was at its peak when we got the best seats available with our price of tickets and FREE SEATING being the norm.

The play started off by 3 announcements. One about audience reviews, second one requesting people from the media to refrain from using flash while taking photographs and also to not obstruct the audience' view while they are going about their job, third one was a very unique way of asking users to switch of their cell phones during the play.

Now about the play.

"Love Letters" is the story of two people, unfolding entirely through correspondences between them. Shernaz Patel plays Melissa Gardner, an insouciant girl born in a rich family. Her childhood and rearing is marred by her mother's promiscuous ways which have a disillusioning effect on Melissa. Andrew Makepiece Ladd III aka Andy is born to middle class parents who love and guide him in his formative years which ensuring he does not "stray away". Andy's father imbibes in him the habit of writing and Andy takes to it like a fish to water. Writing is his way of expressing his innermost feelings.

Andy falls in love with Melissa "at first sight" when he first sees her in 2nd standard. At that time she came across to Andy as a "lost princess in the Land of Oz". (Can I hear girls crooning "Cho Chweet"!). From then on starts a chain of letters which ends only with Melissa's death. The two share a love-hate relationship, fighting over the pettiest of matters and forgiving even the gravest of mistakes. The letters that they exchange are a very novel of giving us a view into their individual lives and into the way their relationship shapes up.

Andy and Melissa's relationship is too strange and personal to qualify for an accepted nomenclature. In times of distress, each comforts the other through his letters. Humor forms a very important part of the play and, in my opinion, is actually its high point. Some of the greatest insecurities of humans are depicted in equally light hearted ways. The humor is very witty and contemporary and loved by most. Andy's problem with erection when they try to make love during adolescence and both of them going on to share a physical relationship only at the age of 50 show that their relationship was founded on totally non-amorous grounds.

Andy with his "straight and safe" ways goes on to become a senator. Melissa, confused and disillusioned as ever, dabbles in various forms of arts to distract her mind. She resorts to smoking and drinking to drown the void caused by the lack of meaning and goals in her life.

Brilliant work by Rajit and Shernaz. They have been doing this play for the last 15 years. As nostalgically summed up by Rajit, "When we started performing this play 15 years back, our main concern was looking old in the second part. Now its the first part that worries us."

India - A Million Mutinies Now

After reading India - A Wounded Civilization, I developed a keen inclination or curiosity, as you may call it, to read the third and final installment of V S Naipaul's trilogy. As observed in the previous book, there was a considerable amount of bitterness, to put it mildly, in Naipaul's writing. So much bitterness that sometimes the reader was pushed to thinking that Naipaul is prejudiced and the book and his knowledge of India is just an outlet for that froth. As someone told me today "Naipaul survives on India bashing". I do not think I am knowledgeable enough to comment on that. So let me talk about the extant book under consideration.

To start with the author has toned down, "noticeably". I am still reading the book, but there are some stark differences that I notice in his approach. For one, there is less of his own commentary on events, incidents and characters, which inundated "A Million Mutinies Now". Here he goes around India (only Mumbai for the first one-fourth of the book) with the help of a local person. He writes about the person and his lineage, his belongings, his beliefs and his aspirations. Through these persons he meets many others and writes about them too. Needless to say, each has a unique story to tell. But then as observed, there is less of his own take resulting in more freedom to the user. Maybe this is what Naipaul wants. When you criticize someone's country, he turns defensive, but leave it to him and he will more often than not vouch for the very same points. Naipaul has described every scene vividly not missing out on even the minutest of details. This may be a treat for the foreign readers who may not well acquainted with Indian surroundings or people. Though I may warn you that
for many, it may be a case of "Tell me something new !"

My opinion: Worth a read.

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Tulasi Virani as A Teacher

It is very bad to start every blog post with, "I was sitting and thinking and got this idea..."; gives the reader a feeling "Is that what you do for a living?". But what can I do, I really was sitting and thinking when I got this idea.

In India, today, there is a very large viewership for the soaps/serials that they show on TV. From the TRP ratings that these serials command and the kind of advertisement that they garner, I am made to believe that they enjoy high levels of viewership. Common views also tell us that it is the housewives who form a major chunk of the audience for the serials. To give you an indication of the importance that these serials hold for many women, let me give my friend's example. His mother used to ask him to watch the designated serials so that when she returns from work, he will be able to update her on "who was exiled from XYZ Khandaan" or "which bahu was responsible for the poison in the matriarch's soup or pickle or whatever". My point is these soaps are in a very good position to drive home a social message.

I am not saying they should be too bland or too obvious to the point of being boring. I am sure that with the kind of directors and producers at the helm of these projects, it is not an impossible task to dovetail important social messages in these serials. Something as simple "Do not spit on the roads" to "Dowry is a crime", all of these messages can be accommodated.

My friend also suggested that the government could provide incentives to serials which do carry these social messages. We could actually have TV serials competing for such incentives.

Appreciation on the professional front

:) No, no, this is not about me getting a raise or a promotion. The product that I work on has got good reviews from credible critics. It is really a satisfying news and at the same time a cue for us to do better.

Read the review here

Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue

Viktor E Frankl, was an eminent psychiatrist who gained fame during the post-WWII era as a propounder of Logotherapy. In "Man's Search For Meaning", Frankl chronicles the time he spent as concentration camp inmate under Nazi rule. On second thoughts, calling it a chronicle would not be totally correct because, the events are described in no particular order. Understandably though, since the author's main intention, as he mentions at the outset, is to look at his experiences in concentration camp from a psychological perspective.

Frankl has come to believe that "Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but
one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way". Even in the most despairing of circumstances, a person can find his motivation(s) which help him maintain his own and ride through the rough weather. He talks about the experiences in the concentration camp in three phases - the shock phase when a person is introduced to the harsh realities, the phase of indifference when a person does not care of his life which has supposedly reached a nadir and the time after concentration camp when he is unable to come to terms with the freedom. Frankl remembers the night after they were freed, when many of his camp mates were ashamed of not being able to enjoy the freedom which they had so longed for.

Breaking away from prevalant school of thought which believed that a man's actions are shaped by his surroundings and circumstances; Frankl says, whatever the situation, we can always choose our actions. As an example he talks of Capos - Jewish heads of concentration camps who used to treat the inmates as badly as the Germans, if not worse. He also talks of "the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their
last piece of bread".

Apart from insights into the human mind, the book also gives a peek into the atrocities and living conditions in concentration camps. According to Frankl, "he has been lucky to have been able to come out of it alive, when the better ones among them could not".

Overall, a really good book worth reading and thinking on. As in the words of Francis Bacon "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested". This is a book to be digested.

Wont hurt if you know - IV

Kuznetz Curve/Theory - According to Kuznets Theory, in an economy, the economic inequality increases with increase in the GDP. After a particular threshold is crossed, the economic inequality decreases with increase in the GDP. (More here: Wikipedia)

Hype Cycle: Put forward by Gartner, hype cycle tries to graphically represent the phases through a specific technology passes. This includes "invention of"/"putting forward" the technology, heightened public expectation, disappointment or disillusionment when the technology is unable to match expectations, further research with tempered expectations and then the phase when the technology joins the mainstream. (More here: Gartner)

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Living the Gandhian Legacy

Today is the 2nd of October, 2007. As has been the ritual every
year, for the past few decades, reams of articles, lots of posts would have
been written. Newspapers would have made a killing with all those advertisements pouring in, most of them from government institutions - the best example of the very anti-thesis of Gandhian ideals. Even we, the general public, has taken it as just another public holiday. Many of us may actually thank him for the holiday, if not for the independence.

As a friend correctly said, most of our generation is not aware of what Mahatma Gandhi stood for. Are his ideals relevant in today's perspective, which is not the same as it was 50 years ago? Or do they need to be interpreted, mind you not suited, in light of the changed environment. Whatever be the case, to form an opinion, it is important that we have the relevant information. Once all of us are aware of the Gandhian way of living, we will not indulge in ostentatious celebration to commemorate the birth of the very man who was austerity personified. We may not need to spin Khadi everyday, but we could ensure that mill workers are paid well. We may not be required to chant hymns or psalms or suras everyday, but we should also not rake up religious issues for grinding our own axes.

It is ironical that everyone, even the politicians, recognize that essence of Gandhi's ideals are fading with every passing day. But they do nothing about it. As has been said "Those who do not learn from history, are condemned to repeat it". We can see a clear manifestation of this in the problem facing India. Naxalism is spreading like a disease through every state. Responding to it, one of the state governments has supported a people's movement, which relies on violence. Recently, one state has presented a brutal case wherein culprits are lynched or blinded to deliver instant justice.

One can not hide a sad smile on the irony that even 70 years back, in absence of most of the current day communication means (including this one), Gandhi was able to mobilize support on an unprecedented scale,whereas today, with so much of information available everywhere, most of us are ignorant of what Gandhism stood for.

Let us resolve to know about Gandhi, his life, his ideals, his shortcomings. Only then will we be able to imbibe them into our lives, find the interpretation of those ideals in today's world.

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