The Mother of the 'Pepper-Spray’ can!

I watched this movie recently after a long time. Last time, I watched, it was way back when DD One used to thrust movies in our face every Sunday. And we had to watch them. I did not appreciate it much as a kid. It was different experience, this time, though.

This movie shows all the evils of Indian society directed towards women. Most of these are not only still existing but sadly, thriving.
Notably,
1. Female child is not allowed to go to school.
2. Adultery by husband is acceptable.
3. Dowry is expected and accepted like a birth-right.
4. Physical and verbal violence against women is a way of life.
5. Women are subject to eve-teasing.
6. If a girl loves a boy, she can expect to be beaten mercilessly by her father if he sees them together.
7. If a couple doesn't have a child, the women is simply branded 'infertile'.
8. If a couple does have a child and it is not a boy, then the women is made aware of her 'guilt'.
9. Worst of all, a woman’s chastity is traded by the society to seek the easier way out.
10. Lastly and ironically, if you observe, the first person to criticize any woman who takes a stand against any of the points above – is a woman, not a man.

What I liked most, is the climax of the movie that lasts for couple of minutes only. When men cannot be ‘men’, women can very well take care of themselves! It is an amazing piece of cinematic excellence. The haunting image of Smita Patil – all defiant - with her weapon in her hands at the end - is transcendental! Awe-inspiring cinema, India, Bravo!

A letter from Salman Rushdie

I have to share this letter which Salman Rushdie wrote to a Chief Rabbi who denounced Rushdie's book 'The Satanic Verses'. ------------------------------------------------------- Dear Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, I have visited at least one college in which young Jewish men were being taught, rigorously and judiciously, the principles and practices of judicious and rigorous thought. Theirs were some of the most impressive and honed young minds I have ever encountered and I know they would understand the danger and impropriety of making false moral equivalences. It is a shame that a man they might look to as a leader has become neglectful of the proper process of the mind. “Both Mr. Rushdie and the Ayatollah have abused freedom of speech,” you say. Thus a novel which, love it or hate it, is in the opinion of at least a few critics and judges a serious work of art is equated with a naked call for murder. This ought to be denounced as a self-evidently ridiculous remark; instead, Chief Rabbi, your colleagues the archbishop of Canterbury and the pope in Rome have said substantially the same thing. You have all called for the prohibition of offenses to the sensibilities of all religions. Now, to an outsider, a person of no religion, it might seem that the various claims to authority and authenticity made by Judaism, Catholicism and the Church of England contradict one another, and are also at odds with the claims made by and on behalf of Islam. If Catholicism is “true” then the Church of England must be “false,” and, indeed, wars were fought because many men—and kings, and popes— believed just that. Islam flatly denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and many Muslim priests and politicians openly flaunt their anti-Semitic views. Why then this strange unanimity between apparent irreconcilables? Think, Chief Rabbi, of the Rome of the Caesars. As it was with that great clan, so perhaps it is with the great world religions. No matter how much you may detest one another and seek to do one another down, you are all members of one family, occupants of the single House of God. When you feel that the House itself is threatened by mere outsiders, by the hellbound armies of the irreligious, or even by a literary novelist, you close ranks with impressive alacrity and zeal. Roman soldiers marching into battle in close formation formed a testudo, or tortoise, the soldiers on the outside creating walls with their shields while those in the middle raised their shields over their heads to make a roof. So you and your colleagues, Chief Rabbi Jakobovits, have formed a tortoise of the faith. You do not care how stupid you look. You care only that the tortoise wall is strong enough to stand.

LAN in IIT KGP

The LAN/DC++ in IIT KGP was indeed a beacon of hope and entertainment amid the wilderness surrounding the institute. The fact that the institute is situated in the poorest district in India, nothwithstanding. The institute was actually a jail in the British Raj. That accounted for the eerie ambience. The place was gloomy in the mornings. The mornings felt like evenings really. Among the few good things was the general interaction with "bright" people from all over India. There was so much knowledge flowing everywhere. And then there was the LAN. The biggest misfortune of our batch was that we stayed in the then newly built MMM Hall - SD Sharma block which did not have LAN for the first whole semester. Only in second semester, did we get the LAN. I remember the first day when I installed DC++ in my old-school clunky desktop. All of us went berserk downloading whatever we could find. And by the end of the week all of the computers were infected by virus! Well most of them. I wish I had better hardware at that time. I plan to visit the campus sometime again and experience the changes (if any) first hand :) Once a KPGian always a KGPian!

Vicious Circle - Part II

The monkey jumped upon me. At first, it was right on my head, then turned and clasped my back. I was shaking violently but it did not budge. Finally it did jump away. The monkey was off my back and I woke up. It was a short but strange dream.

Last Saturday started with me waking up from this peculiar dream. The day was to become more peculiar to say the least. I had a dentist’s appointment to get two of my wisdom teeth extracted. Two of them had been giving trouble occasionally and I decided 2012 will be the year to bid goodbye to them. I was bit helped my some of my colleagues who had underwent similar procedures. But a surgery involving anesthesia is always tricky! Naturally I was anxious.
The dentist’s assistant offered a movie-list to me. I could choose one which she said I could “enjoy” while the surgeon went about pulling my teeth off. Well, I did choose my favorite “Being John Malkovich” assuming I will just get myself deep in to the movie and won’t care what the surgeon was doing to me. I couldn’t be more wrong!
The surgeon, Dr Stanley was an affable looking young man. I believe he did his job pretty well considering, he was able to pull the teeth clean without breaking them and within half an hour. There was lot of anesthesia in use as I could not feel any pain. I did hear the “clicking” sound each time the teeth finally gave away. I was rightly advised by my sweet wife to keep my eyes closed and just cut off from the surroundings but I could no do that. Now my advice will be same to anyone else. It is very disconcerting to see the weird tools going in and out of your mouth. At one point, I saw a drill-like machine go in to my mouth and that was it. I wanted to just sit up and holler at the doctor “What are you doing? Are you trying to take my teeth out? The doctor was cool. He did take out both eventually. He also stitched the gums after that. I asked the doctor to give the teeth back to me as I intend to keep them as souvenirs. After all, I was so “attached” to them for so long.
All’s well that ends well, right? Except I wont be able to watch Being John Malkovich again!
One very important thing is to take pain killer medicine shortly after the extraction. Of course, I did not. When the pain hit me, it made me forget everything else. I always “knew” but then I “discovered” the meaning of the word “excruciating”. As I said, it was avoidable. As soon as the Vicodin (God bless the person who invented it), entered my system, the pain wore off. I am now on a liquid diet until I get the stitches removed on Friday!
Hopefully, the monkey will be off my back then.

Trivia

Even during her decline, Sparta never forgot its claims on being the "defender of Hellenism" and its Laconic wit. An anecdote has it that when Philip II sent a message to Sparta saying "If I enter Laconia, I will level Sparta to the ground", the Spartans responded with the single, terse reply: "If".

A Modern Indian Classic

Rashmirathi

One of my most favorite poems of all-time.

Gives a unique perspective of the greatest story ever told: "Mahabharata".

Vicious Circle

“One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.
Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.”


Ogden Nash told us long ago (when we were in 9th standard to be precise), how visit to the dentist is one of the most excruciating experiences of all. I had, but forgotten the nice poem in my text book filled with literary devices and humor till yesterday.

Like all normal homosapiens, yours truly is blessed with a set of 32. Now, the wisdom teeth, (that must be some strange irony!) have only one function in human body: Cause the occasional pain. I read that a normal adult doesn’t even require more than 28 teeth in the present age. But still there they are, vestigial and remnant of an age where we used to eat what not!

Getting an appointment for a dentist is usually a smooth affair, although, most dentists don’t work on Saturdays/Sundays, some not even on Friday.

As this is US, most of the expenses are covered by corporate Health insurance policy, which is a good thing, considering the dollars involved.

Lying in the dentist’s chair, I was able to appreciate the emotional turbulence Ogden Nash would have gone through to come up with the classic. It is more like sitting in a barber’s chair, only that barber doesn’t intend to cause you pain. Only time, one feels good is when the ordeal is over and the dentist asks one to leave.

I was lucky enough to leave with all my 32 intact. However, the dentist did tell me that there is a No. 33 which apparently was the cause of my visit to the dentist after all. Guess, Mr 33 who is as uninvited as anyone can ever be, won’t be with other 32 for long if he continues his wayward ways.

Anyways, I sat, I lay down, I suffered, got cleaned up well before I finally escaped, surviving just to “visit” another day.



Here lies the entire text of the classic poem: