Parched - Movie Review

On many fronts, Parched under a banal plot rides on narrative crusading for women empowerment and gender equality in a fictional rural setting, where mobile phones are in use but television hasn't arrived. The film makes right noises and fetches accolades for its take on patriarchy, machoism, discrimination and violence (in various forms) faced by the women protagonists - Bijli (a dancer with entertainment company), Lajo (a dutiful wife with an alcoholic husband) and Rani (a single mother). While conforming to all the ingredients of women centric cinema, Leena Yadav has made some minor but influential and pleasant deviations from the traditional script. They will refuse to leave you after the movie.

The opening act shows Rani and Lajjo boarding a ragged bus at a shanty bus stand in middle of a vast desert. Both women derive joys in simple acts and are wild as the wind in each other's company. They are undeterred by system that ascribes expectations and weighs them down on a daily basis. Perhaps, it is in these lighter moments, they gather the indomitable spirit to exist and express their urges. Jovial encounters are amply woven between the three protagonists throughout the plot and merge well in spite of the intense violent or abusive moments surrounding men.

The bold talk about sexual desires, life and cuss words appear cosmetic and do not carry the weight. The mother lode of transformation is through the individual moments that serve as tipping points for coming out of taxing situations. The coordinated timing and amusing bonding of the three protagonists generates an unfathomable energy. Rani abandons her abusive son, Lajo moves out of violent marriage and Bijli gathers courage to abandon her handler. It is left to viewer's imagination to trace the origin of seed for rebellion, but it is masterly anchored as a mosaic of collective moments of despair, ache and taking baby steps to defy personal and collective boundaries. 

The concluding scene with three eloping on a motor cycle tri-rickshaw is triumphant. In the process Rani discovers that her burnt hair will now have to be cut short and will subject her to ridicule of orthodox folks. At the thought, they break down in a laughter spree and next we see all three cut their hair short in solidarity and as a symbol of non confirmation to the ridiculous expectations. They stop at a crossroad, before deciding to venture their new life and vow to choose their own paths henceforth.

Parched is a story where a whole lot coexists and finds its way through the grey maze of jurassic impediments that restrict women. It reassures the hope that courage in adversity splurges from within. Whether it is individual or collective courage is immaterial. Moments of slow, steady and silent acts finally snowball to liberate from boundaries and barriers. Keeping aside, the tokenism in portrayal of rural culture and attempt to create an assortment of all forms of subjugation, the film has enough magic and fine moments to woo the woman in you. Frankly, framing all men as brutal oppressors does not help much. Their insensitivity, insecurity and desire to crush women all the time appear just a background noise, which could have been dropped easily.  

How technology is transforming India’s temple towns

By spearheading the application of cutting edge technology, India’s ancient Kumbh Mela festival is providing a blueprint for future smart cities. Read full article at http://www.policyforum.net/smart-cities/

Local Elections, Global Aspirations and Inconvenient Realities

The General Election mandate of May 2014 in favour of single political party has led to articulation of ambitious urban agenda for India that sets forth global aspirations. The smart city terminology occupies a central part of this national urban narrative. It intends to woo neo middle class looking for world class services and instant remedies to existing inefficiencies.My analysis of the dialect resonating in the local elections in Bhopal Municipal Corporation. Read here https://terraurban.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/local-election-global-aspirations-and-inconvenient-realities/

Will small religious towns in India like Omkareshwar find a way to alleviate infrastructure deficits?

With tourism on top of the agenda of the new government of India, I capture a glimpse of the infrastructure deficit in the religious town of Omkareshwar. While national and state tourism schemes will benefit limited destinations of utmost importance for India, small towns like Omkareshwar will have to look at alternative possibilities to alleviate infrastructure deficits.

My piece in Global Urbanist http://globalurbanist.com/2015/06/30/spiritual-city-awaits-the-smart-city

At the Kumbh, your curiosity only increases. My journey to the 2000 year old festival. And why I can never get enough of the Kumbh. http://www.thebetterindia.com/33806/journey-to-kumbh-mela/

Shoes and Spices

36 Questions, 4 Minute Stare and Aunt Philomena - If they couldn't do it for you, who will ?

An article flashes on my face book page, that claims to have figured out 36 magical questions which can make any two people fall in love. It is a list of intimate questions that could trigger or facilitate love between two strangers in a lab environment. The experiment was designed and first successfully conducted by Arthur Aron a psychology professor, who made two strangers answer the questions in three sects. Towards the end, the participants were made to stare in to each other's eyes in absolute silence for about 4 minutes. They actually fell in love and got married six months later. This was later tried by several others with assured results.

I made a note to forward generously it to all the single (financially independent) women (family and friends) who were running low on intimacy and unable to make up their minds. While doing so, I eventually realized that number of single women in the immediate and extended family outnumbered men. Where men were single, they were already dating someone or should I say they would have figured their 36 questions and completed their 4 minute ritual. But with the women, it seemed an arduous task.

Falling (or rising) in love is a subject that has continued to occupy minds of writers, film makers, tarot readers, fortune tellers, astrologists, and match makers for several years. No daily, weekly or yearly forecast columns can afford to miss out predictions on our love affairs. If you are single (of marriageable age or beyond) and gather the nerve to visit your family friends and relatives, be assured to encounter thoughtful Aunts. Aunties that are known to you, or you bump in to by sheer chance would unconditionally pray for you to tie the nuptial knot at the earliest and live happily ever after. They self invite themselves to your wedding and promise to dance like popcorn over hot fire. Getting hitched is some mandatory qualification that would certify your otherwise petty-solo existence in this world. I used to hate them earlier. Now, I mostly use them as my muses to spin stories. I continue to be appalled about my (and our) rising complexity to commit to 36 questions and four minute stare. My impromptu decision making ability while planning travel, choosing assignments and living my life, suddenly deserts me on this frontier.

Talking about marriage obsessed aunts, I should mention that Bollywood has made memorable characters of these, my favorite being the Philomena Aunty portrayed by Leela Mishra in 1979 romantic comedy "Baton Baton Mein". Philomena, with her snow white hair, blue umbrella and a transparent floral bag is a regular visitor, an old school know it all types, who would like the couple to rush in to marriage now that they have known each other for a few meetings. Her disapproval of unwillingness to commit is rather musically expressed in this romantic number "Utthe Sab ke Kadam" [from 2:01 onwards]

Several years back, there was a popular program on some FM radio titled "Love Guru". Google, the word and you will be overwhelmed with 3,86,00,000 results. The listeners posed questions about their affairs, complications and about weird behavior of their partners and family members. [A disclosure] In India, norm is that our entire (extended) families fall in to love with each other. Sooraj Bharjatya's [final authority on Indian weddings] hyped family centered movies have set the bar for the wedding album that lines up all the relatives from left to right in several rows and is considered an authentic proof of the conjugal bond that will last at least seven lives if not more.

Coming back to the Love Guru, a calm, soothing voice at the other end of FM frequency would offer listeners sensible advice with a collection of melodious and romantic songs in between. [We Indians, have a song for ever emotion concerning love]. The advice was generic, as were the questions, largely conservative and occasionally suggesting to gather the guts to declare your love about your partner. At times, the "Love Guru" also offered serious advice to back off as it would create utterly complicated scene with several lives. His voice was sombre, grave, confident and sounded "know it all". It was a late night program, ones that would involve adult matters to be talked about only once the children slept off. Nevertheless, it offered a sneak peak in to world of love affairs that haunted young Indian minds.

Making connections has utterly complicated dimensions, historically and even today. My favorite quote on connections is by Oscar Wilde “For one moment our lives met, our souls touched.” It appears in a play "Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play about a Good Woman" by Oscar Wilde. [Second Act]

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Lady Windermere.  Ah, give me time to think.  I cannot answer you now.  [Passes her hand nervously over her brow.]

Lord Darlington.  It must be now or not at all.

Lady Windermere.  [Rising from the sofa.]  Then, not at all!  [A pause.]

Lord Darlington.  You break my heart!

Lady Windermere.  Mine is already broken.  [A pause.]

Lord Darlington.  To-morrow I leave England.  This is the last time I shall ever look on you.  You will never see me again.  For one moment our lives met—our souls touched.  They must never meet or touch again.  Good-bye, Margaret.  [Exit.]

Lady Windermere.  How alone I am in life!  How terribly alone!

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At the end of Four Acts, Lord Darlington, somehow does not end up with Margaret (or Lady Windermere). I now wonder. How if he had known about the 36 questions and 4 minute stare ? Or if Oscar Wilde could have created a character by the name of Lady Philomena in 1893.

Dreams that light up my world

Dreams of the poor, of the rich,

Of old, young and sick

Of courage, escape and encounters,

You find them on all platters.

In all shapes, sizes and places,

On streets and shallow spaces

Dreams that light up my world

(J K Nagar Jhuggies, Bhopal 24th Dec. 2015)

The hullabaloo over Smart Cities

Whether the Government’s recent proposal for 100 smart cities should be totally new green field projects or improvements of existing towns or a combination of both can be debated and contested vociferously. But I strongly contest it to be used as a medium for fear mongering about smart city being morally and socially indefensible as argued by Janaki Nair piece “In pursuit of smartness”.  

The author in undue haste claims smart cities as scaling up of gated community vision to city level. Contrarily, the gated communities prop up for the reason that urban local bodies are unable to provide minimum basic services in an equitable manner to all citizens. Such gated communities largely attempt to create alternative water supply, sewerage and solid waste systems and spaces for other social pursuits. The reason that our cities (big and small) are grappling with financial resources to invest in city systems and deliver basic acceptable levels of service, the relatively well off sections of population will continue to seek alternatives. This at times may also result in huddling based on caste or related economic activities.

While accusing nation to be short on just and humane urban vision, one needs to recognize such a situation is a result of utopian expectations of physical form delivering in absence of technical, financial and social resources that are bare essential to run our cities. Thus, before jumping to larger narratives, it is imperative to break down the fantasy of “humane urban vision” of the author in to clear indicators of various services and fix responsibility to the Institutions who will deliver this in a participative manner. Some dirty calculations may come in handy of how we plan to fund these ventures not only for capital cost but also for operational expenditures that will be needed to be raised from its users. The privileges of being on the “Activism” and “Always Oppose” mode should be toned down if they allow an escape without raising pertinent questions or providing ideas (if not a road map) to the contentious issues surrounding us. A rather good way of articulating concerns on the smart city hullaballoo is illustrated in editorial by Sunita Narain http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/how-smart-smart-city where she actually shares some ideas for being smart. It also lays down the argument for reinventing urban growth through smart thinking for water, sanitation and transportation. Such ideas convey real concern and challenges and help to think.

To quote from the Finance minister’s maiden budget speech: “The Prime Minister has a vision of developing 'one hundred Smart Cities', as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernizing the existing mid-sized cities”.[1] Thus the idea of modernizing existing small towns in not ruled out completely. While the framework for smart cities evolves and plans post JNNURM get concretized amidst highly opiniated stakeholders, it is important to offer realistic narratives to the collective urban vision. This is important at a time when JNNURM has left behind lessons of little role Centre can play in incentivizing real change through conditional funding. While some advocate for Centre loosening its control and allowing States to play the lead, the Centre can contribute by creating models for the States to look up to while planning their urban vision. The State or Cities by themselves have shown little interest to various reforms including enactment of community participation law, which was expected to create spaces for citizen’s participation and reduce the rabid arguments between various stakeholders.

Yes, the smart sensors and other Wi-Fi gadgets can advance comforts for those who can afford to pay, but lack of imagination and undue haste on Janaki Nair’s  part is evident when she fails to put forth ideas / possibilities to use techno babble for delivering more equitable services (or basic minimum services) to all sections of the population. In this debate, attributing markets as part of the problem, can lead us to situation where State alone is the provider of (affordable) housing and may end up with low quality (State Housing Board type solutions) housing layouts that lacks imagination and creativity. Read in conjunction with our poor performance on implementation of development projects, our city dwellers will have to wait endlessly to avail basic infrastructure. [2]

While land is largely used as a financing instrument in creative urban development ventures, the challenge over the years have been to demonstrate models that can be built / affordable for a larger section of population and do not end up as ivory castles for those who have the willingness to pay. Thus the energies of those who have an itching urge to detest the “smart brigade” need to concentrate on leveraging the technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency in service delivery for water, sanitation, transportation, health, education and safety to all its population.

Our lack of collective imagination is evident in the 7000+ census towns that cannot assure equity in service delivery to its urban population. Our Metros and the splurging small towns have one thing in common; they fail to achieve benchmarks for service delivery and exhibit huge variations and unreliability in the basic services they provide to various inhabitants of the cities. At times, such considerations are guided by technical barriers, at other times by social favoritism to certain wards of the cities. There is a scope to leverage the technology to narrate a more Indian version of smart ways to deliver urban services.  

Smart cities have technology infrastructure as one of the enabler, other two obvious but seldom emphasized are Institutional and Human enablers. Thus while technology can provide real time data and information to take fair decisions, it cannot substitute a clear conscience. The moral obligations from a city can be met through an articulated dialogue and an open mind that values transparency, efficiency of resources and participatory decision making in true sense. If the smart gadgets can open up a possibility to probe deeper in black boxes of the urban service delivery systems it should be a welcome move.  

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[1] http://ibnlive.in.com/news/full-text-finance-minister-arun-jaitleys-maiden-budget-speech/485007-3.html

[2] As reported in Pioneer “In what speaks volumes about poor performance of the housing schemes for urban slum dwellers under the UPA’s key flagship programme, JNNURM, just 8.15 lakhs out of the total 14.42 lakhs sanctioned houses constructed from 2005 to June 2014” accessed at http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/poor-show-of-housing-plans-under-jnnurm-exposed.html

Queen - The Movie

Accuse me of writing off Kangana Ranaut as an average actor, whose films are most suited to occupy the slots in the year when star studded or intellectual cinema does not make an appearance in Bollywood. Not to mention, a sneak or two of a controversy that she manages to rake in the magazines constantly chasing her to cover a section of news which appears to particularly weird sections of the film fans. It is this image of petulant occupier in the medium budget film space (usually deserted by creative, socially conscious or meaningful scripts) that works to the advantage of Kangana as well as the film - Queen.

In the opening thirty minutes, you know not much to expect of the Rajouri Delhi girl who has spun her life around the wedding expectations which leaves her in a lurch immediately after the audience has settled down in their seats. You expect some sulking, drinking and driving with a song or two on a bike with her hair against the wind on the urbane streets, which is so expected of Kangana trademark. This coupled with some heavy moments in the dark locations, without much dialogue that reinforce her vulnerabilities and creates gloom associated with typical fall-outs of relationships calls for a mediocre bollywood script.

Instead, the cynical audience (in me) is disappointed by Rani taking up a mindless exploration immediately after a sulk or two. This, she terms as her “honeymoon” for which she has been diligently planning. The single honeymoon exploration to Amsterdam via Paris which she undertakes is slightly different than one usually attributed to scripts taking to outdoor locations. While she does that, the logical brain is totally cut off giving way to discovering new places and people, without being judgmental of them. In between are the moments, where she conveys her self-proclaimed theory of a single Rajouri girl, delivered with great poise, confidence and true to her beliefs. A streak or two of moments interspersed in the plot, where she takes her lonely pursuits that help her regain her confidence bit by bit.

This swift transition, builds towards the climax, where one is almost convinced of her deciding not to return back to the marriage and give back a solid refute. But, Rani seems to be in no hurry. She does it in her own stride. Gloom, disappointment is eventually shed off by her and she cannot be more grateful, that this actually happened to her.

So, what changed in the trip between India-Paris-Amsterdam is actually my belief that intellectual cinema is a craft attributed only to nuanced actors and a seasoned script? “Queen” is one of the rare scripts set in urban settings - unique in the sense that it raises an issue that attributes over importance to “tying the knot” ritual in urban India that unknowingly renders undue pressure on the women and makes them design their ideas of perfect lives around it.

The reason that Kangana has been able to do complete justice to the role of Rani, is probably due to label of mediocrity that she has been associated with. I doubt, this kind of an impact could have been rendered by her contemporaries like Kareena, Vidya Balan or for that matter Deepika Padukone, usually pigeonholed in strength, equality and revenge. Kangana’s underdog label brings an element of unknown surprise that completely dazes off the audience who has come to expect unmindful drinking and biking from the actor.

The colourful mosaic of Queen’s unapologetic appeal during the 146 minutes is held together by two sets of distinct and often contradictory beliefs - the beliefs that she gathered while growing up in the bounds of Rajouri (Delhi) and what she encounters on her single honeymoon venture. While doing so, Rani echoes the inherent contradictions of urban Indian women who attempt too hard to fit in to either stereotype.

The wrong train, right destination and some effortless optimism

“Kabhi Kabhi galat train bhi sahi jagah pahuncha deti hai” – The lunch box is clearly my favorite movie of the year. It transported me back to the rare genre of minimalist cinema that binds you through every shot. It transcends the usual rhetoric of rights and wrongs and explores the rarest of the rare options that our conditional minds usually discard. The fascination for Bhutan with its “Gross Happiness Index” is an apt metaphor for transcending the boundaries that we usually self create to fall within the expected social behavior. There are ample self reflecting moments in the story that one can easily relate to. All the three lead actors are rebels of similar kind that shatter the boundaries in an effortless manner. I liked it also for the simple reason that it entertains, inspires and makes you smile without creating the much hullabaloo. 

A Weekend and a Belonging

Another weekend goes by! My flat meticulously cleaned, plants watered, clothes rolled up and newspaper nicely folded, with all oped and editorial sections read thoroughly, important points highlighted in fluorescent orange marker. Smell of a tempting new book, light breeze through my balcony door and utter silence around me. There are no rains, but tea is in regular supply. The last three days workshop has made me mentally bankrupt. I am still trying to recollect what was new in the annual parade of discussions? I curse myself for being direct, sometimes indirect but am convinced of the utter wastage of my energies.

“Our Moon has Blood clots” makes a difficult weekend reading especially when I am looking for something more light to get rid of the dizziness that had set it.  But, I do not resist it, treading through every page that tells a story not heard very often. A book that reminds me of another side to every coin, which we very conveniently forget to turn. How can human beings be capable of such violence is something that I will always fail to understand. The reading definitely makes me think about the need for belonging to a territory, identify and being among group of people whom we call family, friends and relatives. From a combination of these things, we derive out identity and make memories. Brutal uprooting of people from this so called familiar territory, their own little world can cause mental trauma that is devastating. Being a “refugee” has its own toll and we as a nation haven’t developed the empathy to understand and relate to this.     

My thoughts wander to my own identify. I have lived in four States in the last twelve years. ‘Familiarity’ is different from ‘Belonging’. In a place, that I come back home every day, I can sense familiarity, but it does not allow my roots to grow deeper and stronger. It allows me four inch top soil to survive, but does not hold me on forever. What does it actually mean to belong, to be so strongly tied to the roots?  

Increasing demand for new States & failure of Balanced Regional Planning

Imbalanced regional development and improper allocations of resources within Indian States (both large and small) continue to impact on key social and economic indicators. Development projects largely remain influenced by political interests and not by actual need on ground. Revenue generating urban centres tend to receive more attention and continue to be islands of investments, if not excellence.

Image Source : http://www.niticentral.com/2013/08/01/the-list-grows-longer-112403.html

This inequity at State level coupled with issues of identity, culture and linguistic differences has often triggered vociferous demands for smaller administrative units. The demands tend to be largely proliferated by the political leadership, students and common citizens who take pride in their distinct regional identity. The claims are backed by disparity in sharing of infrastructure, water, power, roads and even government jobs. The process of carving new states is a tough one and is usually aided with frequent presence and support of police and paramilitary forces. Sentiments run high and are supported by self immolation bids that put undue pressure on the machinery. There is always a risk to buy in bias on boundary identification. It stems from political aspirations, economic gains and several vested interests.

 An article by Down to Earth states that demands are usually backed by issues related to disputes of sharing and utilisation of natural resources with mother states. It adds that linguistic and cultural reasons, which were the primary basis for creating new states in the country, have now become secondary in most of these cases.” 

However, from a regional planner’s perspective, there are a few items that gain utmost importance. Balanced regional development is a sentiment that has been echoed in Indian development planning since five year plans were attempted. The failure to do so has continued to show impacts in such inequitable distributions which gain a political magnitude. Further, lack of immediate answers also creates a lot of bitterness and competing sentiments in the people of same State. Thus, it is essentially the failure of planning machinery that triggers social, political and economic unrest in the first place. 

Decentralization and stake in participatory development have been promised on paper but still need to be translated to the lowest level. While a robust decentralised environment, could provide a more independent and participatory approach to development, failure to do so has ensured that pettiest decisions remain related to State clearances. While new investments remain a priority to provide for impressive growth rate by State governments, failure to prioritize new investments leads to development that does not relate to true aspirations of people. Even if it happens, it is not accountable to deliver mutually agreed performance levels. Investments continue without regular assessment and monitoring of the dividends that they are delivering at the smallest level. 

There are 53 urban agglomerations in India with a population of 1 million or more as of 2011 against 35 in 2001.Today about 43 percent of the urban population of India lives in these cities. As employment opportunities increase in urban centres, the migration of population in and out of these cities will continue creating pressure points that challenge the plans for balanced regional development. With smaller states, the political space will also get more crowded and less clear mandates with emerge at Centre. As elaborated in Down to Earth article,

“since 1984 not a single national party has formed government on its own. The 1980s and ’90s witnessed the electoral boom of regional political parties. Regional parties have been expanding both in number as well as in vote share. In the first Lok Sabha election in 1952, of the 55 parties that contested 18 were regional parties. The number went up to 36 in the 2004 election.

 In the 1984 general election the regional parties got 11.2 per cent of the votes; in 2009, their share went up to 28.4 per cent. In the past 20 years the share of regional parties in total votes has consistently increased. For the next elections in 2014, analysts estimate regional parties will contest in 150-180 seats where the two national parties may not be significant players.”

It will thus create a cocktail of political, social and economic aspirations that may be challenging to provide for.

Yeh Woh Sahar Toh Nahin

I have just started reading “India after Gandhi” by Ramachandra Guha and it has transported me in to an emotional 1947. The detailed insights by the author with reference to thinking prevailing in our leaders (Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah), the Governor Generals and Viceroys of British Raj and series of events that resulted in partition are indeed thought provoking and emotionally charged.

A more comprehensible reference to this tension is evident from several personal accounts including one by British Judge Cyril Radcliffe’s account. Radcliffe was entrusted the task of dividing Punjab and Bengal in five weeks with the help of four advisers (two Muslims, one Hindu and one Sikh). But he soon dispensed them as they fought on every point. His correspondence with his nephew reveals that he was well aware that nobody in India will love him for award of Punjab and Bengal and that there will be roughly 80 million people with a grievance who will begin looking for him. Naturally he didn’t want them to find him.  W H Hayden in his poem in a way tries to describe, what was on Radcliffe’s mind. The other reviews that are more critical of his role are described here  through a doctoral dissertation finding.

There is another interesting reference of Viceroy Archibald Wavell, who had a comparative phased out plan, which was not approved by London. His detailed analysis of plan is available here . For my interest, I draw attention to this Alice in the wonderland parody he wrote before the end of the Mission.

References similar to these and several other instill an ardent urge to seek in to further questions like if the partition by any means was avoidable? And if not who actually could be held responsible for instigating it? Who could be charged with turning it in to ill planned greatest mass migration in history with around ten million refugees on move from both sides? There are no easy answers. However, the author has supported the chapters with extracts from original speeches of colonialists, Indian leaders, journalists and task masters who actually designed and implemented the plans for partition. Reading through these accounts, it seems possible to recreate a virtual account of compulsions of each side under action and stop at that. Heavy price has been paid by both sides in terms of life lost and memory scarred.

At this point in 1947, while reading from the excerpts one feeling is very distinctly echoed from colonial players, on whether India can remain in one piece or will it fragment further. The choice of words to echo such sentiments range from “salad of confusion, of bungle, of mismanagement” to “idea of granting dominion status to India is not only fantastic in itself but criminally mischievous in itself”.

The pressure of dividing a vast country, its 524 million people with 15 major languages in use and conflicting religions and races can be easily sensed, both in their words as well as actions.  These conflicts that ran on several axes of caste, religion and language during 1947 seem to be very much issues being faced by modern India and Pakistan. Partition, in spite of its claims to carve out distinct physical territories based on religion and castes has not been able to bring peace either within the diversities of individual countries or within the region. The feeling is beautifully reflected in  Faiz Ambed Faiz’s  poem Subh-e-aazaadii  written in 1947

SUBH-E-AZADI (August 1947)

Ye dagh dagh ujala, ye shab-gazida sahar,
Vo intizar tha jis-ka, ye vo sahar to nahin,
Ye vo sahar to nahin jis-ki arzu lekar
Chale the yar ke mel-jaegi kahin na kahin

Bias Creeps In

Have been very closely following the changing political landscape in the last year to general elections 2014 in India. The outburst of abusive, racist and xenophobic comments on social media platforms increasingly hints at a society that is intolerant and believes in fixed ideas. 

The unwillingness to consider alternative perspectives by prejudiced minds is a real hindrance to aiming for an equitable society and building a progressive country with better living standards. Bias creeps in from all corners – religion, caste, political affiliation, social and economic factors...

Resuming my weekend breaks - from royal Rajasthan

This one is definitely about forts and palaces...What if it was on a day with soaring temperatures...Travel is something that sets up a new rush of energy within me...:)..Hope to have more of lonely planet trips this year !!

African street (colour) scape !

To the unknown artist who continues to be my inspiration.....

A very happy new year to all of you!! Last few months have been quite hectic at work. Coupled with the city relocation, it has cut down my free time drastically. And as the saying goes: All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl....:(

So here am I....After a gap of almost three months, I have earned myself a "free" weekend. For me there are literally a few escapades...a movie with a friend, long drive out of the city, book by a bedside or theatre...None of this seemed actually possible in a single day...So I wiped out the dust from my camera lens and set out for the prey...

Here I come across an advertisement – “Craftroots – Gujarat’s grassroots”

I am not a very big fan of exhibitions - No...I am really not the haggling types customer, who wants to buy everything at a cheap price....I am one of those quiet observant, who craves for colour, art and expressions for my lens. This time, I had to try something different. I decided to give a shot at behind the scene photography...It's comparatively easy to appreciate creation, beauty and neat work...Nevertheless, sometimes, it makes more sense to dig a little deeper and unleash the hard work, toil and the discipline that goes in to creating a piece of art...So here it is...

It is inspirational for me to dirty my hands with work, hard work and more work to leave a piece of perfect art behind...

Dedicated to the unknown artist who continues to be my inspiration....and inspires me through his colour, design and discipline in the day to day life...

Loose Foundations

My eyes are fixed on these lines...I have been reading through again and again, pinching myself to check in case this is real...Yes it is indeed...The foundations are loose and the fans have been cheated..Though I don’t know how many times and in what ways????

“Agassi, one of the world’s greatest players, admits in his autobiography to testing positive for methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug crystal”....

And it does not end here: The champion, now 39, also says he has always secretly hated playing tennis and lived in fear of his bad tempered and violent father. In a posting on People’s website, Agassi says “he was worried for a moment, but not for long,” about how fans would react if they found out he used the drug. “I wore my heart on my sleeves and my emotions were always written on my face. I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story,” Agassi says.

Eight grand slams and an autobiography of revelations in full glory – I am sure there are more skeletons dropping from the closet with the release of complete autobiography on 9th November.

Welcome to the world of sport – one that boasts of die hard competition, passion and discipline. Is there any truth left in the claims? I wonder how a champion goes to grave after cheating zillions of fans and living a life so pretentious!!

And this is not the end...Read through the reactions coming up :

"It's going to make Andre Agassi even richer. This is going to help him sell his book, which is why he wrote it," Grabowski said.

Agassi reportedly received at least $5 million for the book; the first printing is a half-million copies, a relatively high number in publishing.

"His book will probably sell. It seems very interesting, to say the least," seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams said Wednesday after playing at the WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar. "But what am I supposed to say about Andre's life? I can't really say anything."

(Photo: telegraph.co.uk)

Nature - Inspiration at its best !!

I look back to count the most inspirational moments of life.. And I cannot stop thinking about the dew drops, simple flowers, blue sky, cool breeze and the life sounds echoing in my ears...Appearing as they are !! No pretensions !!