EK CUP CHAI

I was born a Telugu, learned Telugu at school and then all my education pointed to me that English is just what I needed. Not that I have regrets now. But it surprises me that people talk of saving a language, ( a language like) Telugu!

Telugu, is indeed a beautiful language. Take the term ‘go dhooli vela‘. go means cows and buffaloes, dhooli = dust, vela = time. This single word tells a lot about the way telugu’s lived, around a geography of red soil. When Sun had beaten so harshly that the soil became loose..(or something like that) and when it was not yet dark, cattle returned home. As they walked, there would be dust across the village! Almost every home had a cow/buffalo, and as the shepherd(s) made sure that each of the animals went to its owners, every street ended up raking dust. And that’s when women used to start cook in the evening!

Go dhooli vela = Evening

But can preserving Telugu mean the same now. Can it return the meaning of having loose soil? Can every home have a cow or a buffalo, when milk is sold in packets and bottles with the help of co-operatives and what not? The answer is NO. Then why think of preserving a language? When a word gives the entire meaning of a culture, will that word have any importance at times of change!

Language is a only a means to communicate, isn’t it? Yes in the process of communication across centuries, some words attain specific meaning, and some don’t change at all. But every language has its own story - from having started somewhere, to being merged with various cultures,to taking and giving words, borrowing and lending cultures! And today what do you call a computer, with a language 100s of years old? So then why save a language?

Would you save ‘C’ Language if at any point of time ‘D’ comes up?

English has been able to accommodate to various technological, and cultural changes it has been able to reach to hundreds of people. But that doesn’t make any language lesser does it? A language is the sole evidence of how cultures changed and how people’s thinking changed. But trying to preserve a language is stopping the very change which nature has intended. Does preservation of languages has one aim - stop people from changing?

Today Sanskrit stands, and is spoken as the only language in a village of India. Yes, it is too small for what it was once. But then, it still stands, and will never die. No matter what! That’s the power of language. It never dies. It is only understood or isn’t.

Below are few excerpts from an interview. The interviewee had said things like:

Men and Women unity is stupidity! India will be made a 100% muslim nation! Science and Technology are not good for Civilization.

You will be shocked to see what’s in the link:

An Interview with Maulanaa Nawaabzaada Nabiullah Khan, an adviser of Jamaat-E-Islaam, a Pakistan political party!

There is too much negativity around happening in India. Eg: The Nithari Killings, the fake encounter scam in Gujarat, the fake passports and human trafficking involving MLAs. And add to this the politics eternal cover ‘Cricket’ taking a side lane in India.

That means all news channels are covering only the bad side of India, and suddenly India ‘looks’ bad. So lets do something positive on ekcupchai.

For quite some time now I have been wondering who are the people who hold the maximum power to influence people’s lives today, and Times released its list of 100 most influential people of the world. As we all some form of bias towards someone, it is of course imperative that Times will have some Political bias. But on the whole the list contains quite a few influential people.

But what was so good to see was not just people like Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks being included but some one like Zen Jingyan, (a Chinese Blogger) and Lisa Randall (a professor, we could say of Physics but ‘String Theorist’).

Everyone on the list has struggled with hard work, effective work, failures and successes. But apart from those in the politics or religion, almost all of them inspire us to live a life that we all dream about. But it is these people who are in politics and religion, and their inability to distribute ‘gyaan’ to their counterparts that makes life a struggle for many.

But then, lets take the positive side of it pals. Life is Beautiful, and more so because of some of the people listed by the Times. May be we should take lot of inspiration from them and move on with life, even though sometimes life isn’t all that fair.

The Hindus call him the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Chinese call him the re-birth of Lao Tze. And some more followers call him one of the many Buddhas. Buddha - the Enlightened One.

There have been people who have contested things about Christ, there are those who said Mohammed’s verses of God were somehow valid in Desert Gulf. There are people who cry foul against Krishna, and Rama. And yet for some reason, most of these critics wouldn’t say a thing against Gautama Buddha.

This is either they don’t know too much about Gautama, or they know nothing about Gautama. Or may be most people believe that whatever they know of this ‘guy’, it made sense. Lot of sense. In his teaching there is no talking of Believers and Non believers, and there is no talk of God or Devil.

All there is common sense. Gautama Buddha, as he is called today, still surprises me. He is said to have invited the ire of Brahmins and Tribals for his teachings of equality of men. He left behind a kingdom of teachings and lessons. There were plots to have him killed, and attempts to slander. And yet, after 2000 years Buddha and his followers remain the peaceful lot. I wonder what he might have done and taught. Somethings that religions and followers of the world today should ponder upon.

Looks like Central India is having a ball of a time. If not all the people of Central India, then atleast those sitting in the Power are. Few weeks ago, there was this incident where a muslim boy eloped with his girl friend. And then suddenly VHP activists went beserk. For some reason this a muslim boy taking away the girl hurt the sentiments of Hindus, it was said. Result, a the muslim boy’s brother is missing.

Not so long ago, the Chief Minister of  Narendra Modi was about to be assassinated. But then there were the great police officers who killed the about to be killer in an encounter. Result the killer is dead. His wife was killed and burnt (no body knows what the ‘Police’ did with her before killing her). Now only the officers involved are in custody. Not the politicians who had ordered such a Farce.

Yesterday, it was in Jaipur. A mob (supposedly VHP/Bajrang Dal) attacked a person trying to open a missionary. What more, the CNN-IBN also showed recored versions of how the person was attacked. Whether they ‘got’ the VIDEO from ’someone’ or whether the media knew of it and recorded it without police complaint and whether the police simply choose not to react - no one knows.

Everyone knows that in  all these three states, BJP Government’s rule. Hmm…interesting twists these…is BJP trying to make a come back…well…you and I know what happened after Babri, after Godhra… No wonder…it is not just the West Central…it is entire BJP having a ball

A few years ago, I heard a politician, probably Mr. Rajahshekhara Reddy or Mr. Chandrababu Naidu or may be someone else in an inaugural meeting. He talked in length about how Hyderabad has developed over the past few years, and how the land of Andhra Pradesh and especially Hyderabad was giving great development. The word land was so often repeated, yet placed extremely delicately that in the next few years the price of the land has more than tripled in that area. Not much of development is seen around it; but the land owners there are crorepathis (millionares) now!

And then recently there was this talk about Reservation. The words were (are being) phrased so nicely that if any ‘innocent’ person would listen, he will automatically fall for it. The words were “… we will take our right of reservation…” “…why should we not allow reservations when constitution itself allows us the right…” “… having only forward castes to represent country is wrong…” “…we will take care of the oppressed…” and so on.

These make lot of sense ideally. But when it comes to reality, no body talks how have reservations helped the country so far.

Now recently take the example of Amitabh Bachchan. He is a star, and has an image. And also he has not been in very good eyes of Gandhi family (who were once his friends and now in ruling). So the politician’s have great say in whatever Mr.Bachchan does. He gets a Rolls Royce, politician’s talk how some celebrities evade taxes. He gets a special permission to visit Lord Venkateshwar at Thirupathi, ‘people strike’ and an Inquiry is ordered. There are people who ’strike’ all the time. No inquiry is ordered into those strikes. And that’s enough to say who these people who are able to get an inquiry places.

Yes the media, is there. But all the media says is this is how so and so the Politician reacted.

But funny things is how the Politician’s say, “We will see…”. What they mean is there is no point in doing it?

Great! And how many times have we heard those speeches before elections. “We will see to it…”

Truth, they say, is like fire. It burns. Well it almost burnt the Pentagon. Suffering from unnecessarily being called a ‘hero’, this girl realized that she couldn’t carry the load of a lie; that she couldn’t take what the story woven around her was intended to point.

19 year old Jessica Lynch, as a clerk in 507th Maintenance company was supposed to have fought bravely, before being abducted by Iraqi soldiers in 2003. She was supposed to have been abducted as a prisoner of war. She was supposed to have been raped anally and borne all kinds of tortures (that tells how cruel Iraqis are/were). She was supposed to have been rescued. She was supposed to have been a Hero. She was supposed to have lost all memory of torture.

All the suppositions were backed by the great leadership at the Pentagon. Books were written on her, and people who were supposed to have helped in rescued wrote the books and became prominent figures.

Unfortunately, she choose to be a different kind of Hero. The hero, who tells the truth. And when her truth came that showed an ugly side behind a war, the theory behind a war, the theory behind the highest form of conceit - “asking people feel great morality in the act of killing people”

Jessica Lynch, gave a congressional testimony, in the USA, that Pentagon had lied about her bravery and bravery of all those who rescued her.

All she knew was she didn’t fight anybody because her gun was jammed even before she opened fire. She went down praying. That she was taken care of well in Iraq. That a nurse even sang to her to help her sleep.

There were also stories going around that a sympathizer put her in vehicle and drove towards Americans to give her away, only to be welcomed with gunfire (the sympathizer had to run back to the hospital).

But as Jessica Lynch said to the Congress,  “The truth of war is not always easy to hear but it is always more heroic than the hype “. True. It is still heroic, that people in Iraq still want to live after what has happened to them. It is even more heroic, that people of America still want to believe their Pentagon.

“The real trouble with reality is that there is no background music.”

Yep that for real life. But not with reel-life, and that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about. I’m not meddling into Hollywood here, though Titanic, Godfather, Guns of Navarone, and what not make it very difficult for me not to mention them.

But as soon as the term ‘background music’ comes to my head, I can automatically hear “Chaleee pee ke nagar…maikan mein jee ghabraavat hai….” one of the most touching songs I’ve heard, also used as theme vocals in the film ‘Sardari Begum’. Be it Shyam Benegal, or his mate Goving Nihlani, Vanraj Bhatia had somehow intervened in making the character alive, and thanks to him the art of background music is still alive.

Anyways, it is only recently that I heard the background music of some recent films, while some sound stupid, I always wonder, what would be if there would be any movie that could come without some kind of background music. I know there have been some of those kinds, unfortunately, I cannot remember the names of any of them.

But the value of the intermittent scenes with no background somehow seem to stay longer in our minds, just because they have been disturbed by some kind of music, that is almost appropriate to the scene.

Will there be any great cult classic without background music (apart from the necessary sound recording), some time in near future in Indian Cinema? It will be interesting to wait, but will it be so easy to forget the likes of Naushad, SD Burman, Sandeep Chowta… hmmm… well…

I happened to watch three movies of late. Each had a unique style of its own, each was called Great, Excellent and what not. However, there is this feeling about each of them, which you know will happen, which you know that this is how it ends, and that in this knowing there lies a not so great term - ‘Formula’.

Those movies - Rang De Basanti, Dor, The Namesake.

Each movie has a special place in my heart - Rang De Basanti for a kind of feeling it raked in youth (if atleast for a moment), Dor brought out constructive selfishness, or objectivity for a person, that has been missing in Hindi movies and The Namesake brings out the nostalgia called Family, that you hated and you still lived with.

But all said and done - Rang De Basanti falls short dramatically, when the boys are killed by ‘clever’ politicians. A good plot, with intelligent intermix of past and present psychologies, goes down to prove a point that could have been proved otherwise.

In Dor, one of my favorites, Nagesh Kukonoor, who is known for his excellent approach towards dealing with reality, disappointed me no ends. The dialogues, like khud ke liyo jiyo (live for yourself) are used to make bold statements and only to change a person, rather than inflict awareness in the character. Suddenly a wonderful story, becomes a preachy stuff that is generally seen at the end of children stories.

And The Namesake it just keeps telling a tale, without bringing why the characters behave the way they behave. It remains true to the theme of book, but fails the characters by not defining them well, in a hurry to tell the story. It looks like the present tense which Jhumpa Lahiri used in her novel, caught up with the screenplay. The story of coming of age of various characters is seen as an undeniable eventuality, as if no body controlled them.

And if Mira Nair wanted her audience to ponder about this “undeniable eventuality” then she has succeeded. But somewhere, may be all great stories aim at fighting ‘this eventuality’, and Mira Nair’s ‘The Namesake’ shows the American born Indian boy slowly accepting their ‘destiny or fate’ as an excuse to comeback to India, and that Indians, no matter where they go, will remain Indians, not people who can mold into situations and people who can change as the situation demands. Sticking to sentiments is shown as sticking to values. Somewhere I believe that is an Imaginary India, not the India of Vedas, of Yagas, of a Lord Krishna who talks of detachment.

But then you can always disagree. I would like to see why probably I’m finding fault in these movies, that have been a phenomenon, atleast for a period of time.

A new twist in the tale, ‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam’ known commonly as LTTE across many nations, started its first air strike on Sri Lanka. It is a great surprise how these people got the science and infrastructure to build a light aeroplane that can go undetected by the Airforce of Sri Lanka.

India (or) Tamil Nadu has been rumoured to play support to LTTE,though it has never been proved. But the fact that a globally recoginsed Terrorist Group has started off its first air strike, it means that there is not only support, but a political motivation to destabilize Sri Lanka.

India plays big brother to many countries in the Indian Ocean cannot escape ‘commenting’ or reacting to such strikes. Else, it will be not far, when Maoists in the country move around with rocket launchers on their shoulders. And then India will come out with a statement like Sri Lanka did today, ” we had little information about they (LTTE) having a light air plan”.