I WAS OUT OF PLACE ALL THE TIME

I ‘m going to use a word in this piece of writing which I simply hate using-BONG for BENGALIS…….. [Lord forgive me for this]

It was a little more than a year back……when I made that blunder….. a decision which others considered would bless me with a successful career ……..it was me taking up MASS COMM for History……showing it to others and more to myself…..I carried something in me to win the award “Whims of the Century” [!!!!!] because MASS COMM was never on my mind…..though I cannot say I did horribly!

And there I was at a place which I could least comprehend.

STUDENTS- Well…..barring a few…..just a few…..the others were beyond my reach. I don’t know whether, I should use the word “reach” here. The great minds in our class spoke something I never understood [they spoke in ENG of course!]……some bombastic words all the time…..some great vague theories propounded by some great men….. Existentialism, Modernism, Post-modernism, Neo-capitalism, Late-capitalism, and some big names which I did not even remember a second after I had heard them. Initially I was happy at the prospect of studying in a class in which Bengalis were the majority [I am a racist and harbor anti-MARU feelings]. Little did I understand that these Bengalis have been transformed into BONGS! These BONG materials in my schooldays would always be ostracized completely….because there we formed the majority. Now I found myself in the minority- I am the Bengali among the BONGS-the one who was clumsily dressed , fumbled all the time, had no sense of style[which is so important to be in this college],etc etc! But somehow I felt proud….because the difference existed….for the 1st time I felt happy to dress clumsily and remain a”BEHNJI”……… Being a fashion-victim would be appreciated still but not someone whom “fashion” has spared. It was quite in vogue there, to call each other by queer names/nicknames. No! Don’t you think that these names were out of love and affection for your friends- it was just “so fashionable” to give each other weird names! Most of them found the canteen “cheap and noisy” and so to spend good amount of money from their pockets they went to the near-by CCD…..some 10/15 people at a table, ordering cookies for lunch/dinner/supper/whatever! 2 cookies for 20 bucks- that’s the cheapest there…..and shamelessly they sat there in such large numbers around the table and with 2 cookies on a plate in the middle!!!!!!!!! Most of them survived on a staple diet consisting of ….well…..umm….”FROOTY”. They possessed nothing “in” them to receive/welcome anything/anyone. Once, I’d done the grave mistake of asking one of my classmates “who is KURT COBAIN?”- I saw glaring and gaping faces at me. On another occasion I had asked “what is OLYPUB?”- ok, I don’t need to pen down their reactions again!!!!! During one of our class-exercises I had asked someone[I don’t remember who] in class, her views on Reservation-Quota-Vendetta politics and NUKE-WAR - they all stared at my face hearing the alien words [so the conclusion is, not knowing KURT COBAIN was something for which I should be put to death, but having no knowledge of the country is “jussssss fynnnnn”]. And oh yes! It was so fashionable to play the guitar and hum English tunes in class….. It was also extremely important to flaunt your newly acquired earthly possessions- like a DG SLR camera/a new N_SERIES mobile/a new Reebok /Nike shoe in public. Finally for a few misfits like us in the class, it was partitioned into the left and right wings [something as great as EAST and WEST Germany]

FACULTY/INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE DPT- One of my good friends had remarked once, that the chair of the H.O.D in the DPT is something like “Bikromaditya-r 32 Shinghashon”. Whoever is on it, will invariably speak crap [well better admit all the teachers there have somehow mastered the art of speaking/writing shit]. The DPT is called MASS COMM & VIDEOGRAPHY but strangely enough neither MASS COMM nor VIDEOGRAPHY has been taught to us properly [or badly] over d past 1 year! We are given assignments 2 work with the camera but we are not provided camera and we are all suppose to have it. We are suppose to understand and study the working principles and applications of camera, sound studio, lights, etc without having the least bit of prior knowledge and assistance from the teachers. We are to study the AUDIO MIXER but the one we have there is dysfunctional from ages! How are we supposed to know all the editing software? [as if they don’t know that we come to the college straight out of school and all of us are shifting from pure academics to a vocational, basically industry oriented] course. And the best part is they will never teach them in class! None of them can speak simply and appreciate students who do the same. All of them will discuss something in class which has no connection whatsoever with what we will b testes on, during our university exams. Classes are not held most of the time and this becomes a major problem coz we don’t have any study material to fall back on!!!! The teachers feel that they are not accountable to the students-they will neither give us the syllabus nor listen to our queries. Our class projects should be ideally financed by the college but the college authorities have no clue that the students are being forced to finance the projects i.e. buying cassettes for the DV-cams, paying transport fees if the project is taking place outside the college and so on and so forth! I think this is enough for everybody to understand how the DPT functions…..so I should stop the bashing here.

Miscellaneous: - mobile phones are not allowed even in the canteen……the canteen food is atrocious…..the hygiene vis-à-vis drinking water and canteen food is something the authorities must take into consideration……..and what with this excuse slip and all?? Are we nursery kids, eh???

ALL THAT I STAND FOR

I am the poem of a hazel-eyed man

The green goblin resides in my soul

I freed the purple genie from the lamp

In my oneirism I have killed the one I loved

The boogeyman comes 2 me 4 scary ideas

My tainted mind's kissed by eldritch influences & is free now

For centuries I've worked as the shaman between the gremlin & the pooka

But I’m still d product of your dullest imagination

RESERVATION & BEYOND

The Congress has lost its traditional vote bank & what all is it not doing to regain it! Reservation is just an effort to lure back d lost voters. Reservation has damn-all to do something with balancing society-it has everything to do with winning elections.We all have had enough of "merit Vs caste/quota" debates dating back to the heydays of Mandal Commission.So i'm gonna spare u of all this.I decide toanalyze the debate from a totally different perspective which gives a vivid picture of contemporary India-


1>The entire debate is characterized by hypocrisy; by self-interest dressed up as ideology. At one level, it is the Dalits who talk of social justice but actually only support the proposals because they benefit from them. And at another, it is the upper castes that talk about merit but are only worried about getting their kids into medical school. But there’s another, more significant, level. If you say that quotas are necessary to restore social balance and order, then u must apply this principle across all categories. And yet, nearly everyone uses the argument selectively. You will find hundreds of TV-friendly activists and fiery feminist dial-a-quote peddlers who will tell us that seats must be reserved in Parliament for women to restore the social balance. Ask many of these same women about caste-based reservation in jobs -- or even in Parliament, for that matter -- and they’ll suddenly sing a very different tune. So,reservation based on gender is okay.But caste-based reservation is regressive, apparently. Or, ask the backward leaders in the BJP who tell us that more castes should be included in the reservation list why the same arguments should not be used to secure reservation for Muslims. After all, they are much worse off than most backward castes on every parameter. But not only will the BJP refuse to concede the logic but even the Congress will pretend that ‘social justice’ only applies to Hindus.

2>The founders of modern India -- men like Jawaharlal Nehru -- had a vision of a country where caste would soon become irrelevant. In the 1970s and for much of the 1980s, as electoral mandates cut across caste lines, that vision seemed to be coming true.Then, after Mandal, everything changed. Today, Indian politics is about caste.But the problem with today’s caste-based reservation is that every Indian will now need to know his caste even before he learns what his blood group is: his education and his job will depend on that knowledge.I find it extraordinary that the Congress -- which Arjun Singh represents -- has so completely betrayed Nehru’s vision. And I think that it is a sad commentary on modern India that nobody even thinks that this is worth commenting on.

3>In the bad old days of 95 per cent income tax, urban land ceilings and wealth tax,the tragedy of Indian politics was that the politicians seemed to think that India's problems were about distribtuion.In fact, they were about production. The way ahead was not to redistribute the little that there was but to free the economy so that we could produce much more. That way, there would be more to go around and we would not need penal tax rates, foolish laws like FERA and income tax raids.Fortunately for us, Dr Manmohan Singh saw the point in 1991 and the Indian economy is now booming. The same holds true for reservation. We must be the only country in the world where every parent is traumatized by the prospect of getting his or her child into school or college -- not because of the expense but because of the scarcity of seats. Indians value education. So why don’t we have more schools? Why doesn’t the government spend its money on more colleges?If college seats were not so scarce, then nobody would get so agitated about reserving seats on a caste basis. But our politicians have failed to translate the lessons of economic liberalization into the education sector. So, the scarcities continue. And all solutions are framed in terms of redistributing scarce seats.

4>As opposed as I am to the current reservation proposals, I have to say that I find the attitude of much of the urban middle class deeply disturbing and, at a more primal level, loathsome and revolting. In the last five years or so, the Shining India of the towns and cities, of the mega-malls and mobile phones has grown increasingly insular. Most of us have never known so much prosperity. But rather than opening our eyes to that part of India that is not Shining, the money has made us petty, selfish and greedy. We look to Manhattan /Seattle for our reference points; and we forget the debt-ridden farmers who kill themselves a few hundred miles from our homes.This attitude shows up in everything that Shining India does.
And the reservation debate is no different. Once again, it has become a them-and-us issue. And once again, the urban elite has failed the nation by not voluntarily offering some form of affirmative action for the less privileged. Of course, I oppose reservation. But I am often ashamed to stand next to the self-satisfied, rich people who share my position. Because it isn’t reservation that they are really against. They oppose everybody who is poor, who is disadvantaged, and who is not like them.


5>If it is true, as this government claims, that 60 years after independence, the backwards still have not got social justice, then whose fault is it? For something like 50 of those 60 years, the Congress was in power. How come Arjun Singh and his Congress pals did nothing till last year?

There's not much to be proud of,is there??

PANACHE DIFFERENCE

Yasujiro Ozu's films are explorations of space, although his later films are pre-occupied with the notion of the passage of time. His camera investigates the emotional spaces which divide and unite the characters of the film, the household and the workplaces, the architecture of small suburban Japanese towns and of sake bars and offices. His images are always simple but carefully constructed with the traditional rigorous Japanese geometry. Almost often his films are concerned with the unit of family.

Japan being a feudal society, the locus of power resided in the family. Post WW-2, the change and flux of the Japanese society, the demands of the” new and independent woman" or the breaking up of the family unit as result of the Japanese society giving way for newer cultural and economic currents-has been specifically portrayed in his films. Let us consider the examples of the 2 films "Tokyo Story" and "Early Summer" where Ozu tries to bring out the pathos of everyday existence and the changing Japanese bourgeois society respectively.
For example in "Tokyo Story", the journey of the parents from the countryside to the suburbs of Tokyo which occurs in a heartbeat of screen time, actually is a long process, both literally and metaphorically. The changing value system in JAPAN which has also been portrayed in "Early Summer" through the mature and independent Noriko[Satsuko Hara] is actually an indication of Japanese society at that time. His films were mostly shot in middle-class Japanese interiors which brought out the home as a kind of stage for the inevitable conflicts between the family members. The decision which Noriko makes in spite of her family's dissonance is not the outcome of an irrational whim of an immature girl but the new-liberated Japanese woman!

The plots, the characters, the backdrop of Ozu are very "JAPANESE”, irrelevant of the fact that they evoke universal sympathy.

Kurosawa's composition of frames picturesque, his projects were grand and won for him both critical and audience acclaim. His camera ventured into unknown spaces, while Ozu's was fixed-the entire drama unfolding in front of it.Ozu almost never panned the camera or faded to the next shot. Whereas Ozu was mostly confined to the Japanese interiors,Kurosawa explored the open Japanese wild territories. The fixed camera position of Ozu is similar to his treatment of films-there is no action, nothing really happens in the story. Kurosawa's way of making films was very different from that of Ozu,two of the major reasons being-he shot mostly outdoors and chronologically[one of the very few to do so],which made his films a gala affair!Ozu was very minimalist in his style-the simple decor, the minimum dialogue, the almost elegant mise-en scene -which forced the audience to go beneath the surface of drama and look for inner meanings.

Since Kurosawa's films did not essentially deal with typical "JAPANESE subjects" like Ozu, his films for the first time could open the doors of Japanese cinema to World cinema,though it must be mentioned Ozu's was a quiet and powerful study of the rapidly disintegrating Japanese feudal society.

HAD THE REBELS SUCCEEDED IN DRIVING OUT THE BRITISH IN 1857

Probably 2007 is not so late[?...lol] to comment on d most important event which took place 150 years ago in colonial India-the 1857 revolt-which in no way can be called a Sepoy mutiny, merely!So coming to the point........what might have been the consequences had the rebels succeeded???

The leaders of the rebellion were mostly the dispossessed native rulers,feudal lords,peasants,etc who were all united by anti-British feelings[not nationalism].Hence if power was seized,the feudal class and the native rulers would have continued with the feudal economic system for ages to come since they provided no blueprint for an alternative economic plan!A feudal economy would have meant no maximization of production because such an economy does not provide any incentive to improve production.Since the newly western educated elites condemned the movement,their initiative in formulating a new economic structure and active participation in d freed nation is doubtful.

Driving out the British at that point in time would have spelled doom for the education system of our country.Western Education in India was started only 20-25 years before the revolt i.e. roughly around 1830s,the pedagogs being mostly British.Western Education was indeed what India was in need for centuries because her cultural progress had become stagnant under centuries of Muslim rule. Doom and how???It was essentially Western Education that triggered off the feeling of nationalism among the Indians which in turn gave birth to the urgency for parliamentary democracy and "Swaraj". Nationalism is the only force which can integrate the various ethnic groups of India.But in 1857 the rebels were not even remotely touched by nationalism.They were all inspired by regional or provincial patriotism which meant that they did not refrain from fighting other Indians as long as they did not come from their provinces.Hence communal unrest would have been more frequent than, probably it is now.

It was with the help of the British that eminent personalities like Ram Mohan Roy and Iswar Chandra tried their best to eliminate social evils like Sati,Child Marriage,etc.Though frankly speaking, they were still carried out in practice,well after the laws were passed.And these great men were all products of Western Education,after all! Hence in some way or the other,the defeat of the rebels was a gain for the future generations to come.

##### This is a mere hypothesis and plz don't take it seriously.I've only tried to pen down the major consequences according to my historical views.

THE DAY WE BROKE OFF

DEAR.......
You are right! Of course it couldn’t last. But what does? Life,happiness,hope?We only clutch at them while they are there;when it is dark once again we find ourselves as we always were,alone!If you ever think of me, remember yourself as someone who once made me very happy. Whatever sadness I feel is my own doing. For that you are not responsible.

YOUR ..........