Films and My life...

Films and my life....

Indian movies always framed my perception about life. In life, you cannot have all the experiences directly, films played a great role in my life to understand issues like love and relationship, dark world of mafias, a life of a prostitute, issues related to begar industry, the life of legends like Gandhi, etc. I started to watch film and analyze it as well as related it to my life from very early age. My first films were films made by legend Satyajit Ray. It was difficult for me to understand the deep meaning of his films but slowly with due-discussion with my mother I tried to understand it. on the onset, I would like to give the full credit to my attraction to films and learning from it goes to Supriya Chettri, my beloved mother. She taught me in a subtle way the importance of film in our life. I still remember to cry unending, till my mother had to scold me, even after the end of the Hindi film named. "Rishta Kagaz Ka". That was the level of engrossment I had while watching the film. I used to get into the film and experienced all the emotions like humor, fear, suspense, love, happy, sad, angry, excited and so on and so forth. Film was always an escape mechanism for me from the reality. It helped me to live a life which is fully mine, even though it was not real. Till date, I love to watch movies with emotions. I get irritated when people say. "It's not real. It is a film. So don't get scared/cry/...". I feel that if I had come to watch a horror film and I don't get scared then there is no point to come for a film. My tear buds get super activated and my emotions get highly charged when I watch a film. I don't feel ashamed at all to watch the film with its right emotions. 

Beside my emotional outbursts, I have framed my opinion on political and social issues from films. Of course, I have enhanced my learning from several readings and discussions with like-minded people. But I would say that films helped to understand different perspectives, helped me to excite my curiosity on different issues, sustained my thirst to learn more and garner strength to fight all odds in my life. Films definitely empowered me to a large extent. I have used films clippings during my workshops to polarise people thoughts on different issues and helped them to reflect life in a much better way. 

Recent films like Queen, Kahani, lipstick Under my Burkha, Newton, Dangal, Secret Superstar and numerous Bengali as well as Hindi films of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Rituporno Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Nagesh Kukunoor and recently Sujoy Ghosh. There are many other directors whose films also inspired me as well as molded my personality, my thought process and my perception about life. 

One of the best movies of the recent time that made me awestruck is "Nirbak (Speechless)" It is an Indian Bengali film by Srijit Mukherjee starring Sushmita Sen (probably her first Bengali film). I saw it in Summer 2015, probably in during the month of May in Delhi. The films excellently depict the stories of love and separation. The films went far beyond the love between two human beings (which can be seen and felt) to love among human being and non-human being. The society which still grapples in understanding the love between same-sex is shown suddenly a film that shows how a tree fell in love with a girl and masturbate to a love between a man and a bitch. It also goes beyond the love between two living being to love between a living human and a dead human (though one-sided). It really shows the existence of intense love, lust, and jealousy among all living and non-living creatures. I will say it was a fantastic movie to watch and reflect. 

"Queen" film taught me to turn my lonely life to a life of solitude. As an individual, I had experienced sudden strokes of depression due to my inability to find true love, was greatly influenced to see life in a positive way after I came out watching Queen. To tell you truth, I started managing my alone life in a better way. Film "Aligarh" helped me to articulate my lonely life. "Lipstick Under my Burkha" helped me identify many people who are quite rebels (lipstick rebels) who challenged in their own way the inequality and dubious facets of life. I started respecting all those who secretly rebelled successfully in their life and made their own headways. "Newton" showed me the reality of standing alone in a society which co-opts people and swallows them without even the slightest burps. Just this Thursday I watched "Secret Superstar". The film made me cry and made to question myself as to how much effort do I give to achieve my dream. In life, its really easy to blame the circumstances for the failure to achieve the dream but have we ever asked ourselves why were we scared to take the road less traversed by the people. 

Life for me without films will be monotonous. Films give me strength and inspiration to face all the odds in life. I am waiting for another thought-provoking films. 

It was really pleasant experience to meet Saroo on the screen, the main protagonist of the film "Lion", and look for many things that I lost in my childhood. Many a time like Saroo, (who later learned that he had been mispronouncing his own name, which was actually Sheru, a diminutive for sher, the Hindi word for "lion") we also seek for many things in life which may help us to connect with the roots, which we belong to. 

In 1986, Saroo, a five year old boy, lives with his elder brother Guddu, his mother and his younger sister in a remote village of India. He was born to a very poor family of a single mother, who finds it difficult to make both ends meet. Both teh borthers used to steal coal from freight trains to trade for milk and food. One day Saroo gets into a wrong train which changed his course of life and landed him with an Australian couple far away from India through adoptation. Saroo, under the care of Sue and John Brierley, started to settle in. Saroo was fond of jalebi, a delicacy that he wanted to have always in his life. This jalebi ultimately reconnects him to his family in India and the rest is the story beautifully shown in the movie. At last he returns to his hometown, where he has an emotional reunion with his biological mother and sister, but learns that Guddu is dead. The film ends with captions about the real Saroo's return to India in February 2012.

The most important point that I liked in the film, which gave me hope of unconditional love in this world, when Saroo learned that Sue Brierly, who adopted her is not infertile, but had chosen to help others in need through adoption, believing that there were already too many people on Earth. 

The film for me was really fascinating as it showed the power of hope. The hope that everything is possible if we seek from our heart - Seek and you will find; Know and it will open. 

In life we all seek for better life, better partner, better children and so forth and so on... but life is hard and harsh only to see that you reach your destiny. Through our life journey we learn whole gamete of wisdom, which makes us a better human. This is only possible when we consciously and deliberately take decisions in our life. It is also true that many a time we have no other ways rather than to accept life as it comes. But in those occasions, we should like Saroo listen to our inner conscious. 

While travelling the path with Saroo, it is obvious that destiny plays a great role in shaping our own course of life. And that thought brings to me in one of the contradictions that I always go through, that is, is God discriminatory? The orphanage that we saw with Saroo in Kolkata is the depiction of the misery that a child goes through when he or she is lost. What all hardship a child goes through in the orphanage is left to everybody's imagination and perception. But should it be the fate of any child after all. How many of them can land up in the midst of a good family. Why is the world so insensitive of the children?

I have seen people who want to marry only because they want to see their hope in their child/children. But very few are like Brierly. So many children get missing everyday in India. We never try to find them beyond the numbers. They get confined in the statistical data and people like us get immune and insensitive after sometime. Government's apathy on the missing children is really scary. For the officials or ministers these children are not more than meager numbers. Their interventions get confined only through some welfare schemes, laws and Acts for the children. Isn't it sad? 

After watching the film, when I was walking back to my room through the big park adjacent to where I stay in Delhi, I was feeling very lonely. Few questions suddenly propped in my mind, What if I get lost? Who will be there to look for me? If my friends and family members read this they will abruptly come up with suggestions of getting married. May be my parents will look for me. May be my good old friends will look for me. But suppose some one who has no one will be forgotten and will find himself/herself as the numbers of missing people. 

Missing children and missing adult in India is not seen seriously. 

Religion Vs Spirituality 

It was great to have a Hindu mother and Christian father. It really helped me to understand the different religious perspectives. I was much influenced by the Institutional church from my childhood. At one point of my life I was so influenced by the christian missionaries that I was about to become a catholic priests. But it was my mother who intelligently asked me to reflect on my decision and then take final call to join or not to join. I found the suggestion from my mother to be appropriate. So I started getting myself engaged with catholic church more consciously to know it through and through. It really helped me to know the institution better and finally take a decision not to be the priest. I will share the reasons for this decision in this blog of mine. Before I explain it let me explain what is institutional religion for me.

Religion for me is the "opium of the people". It is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of German philosopher and economist Karl Marx. The full quote from Karl Marx translates as: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". I was always confused with religion and spirituality. It was just few years back I understood the difference. According to me religion is the institutional arrangements to manage the congregation of people on the basis of biases, prejudices, fears and rewards. It is to organize the rituals to reinforce the majoritarian ideals to manipulate things to establish a hierarchical system. I always felt that the managers in this institutions firmly believe that there is "No God" and hence they become heartless and soulless. Its because of this believe, I suppose, that they can allow any kind of violence and bigotry ideas to be percolated down among the people. Religion, according to me makes people really narrow minded and look through specific coloured glasses. Religious people always try to establish their ideals as rights over the other ideas. Actually the institutions of religion survive because of the insecurity that prevails among the people.The greed among the people grease it's tools. The fundamentalist attitude among the people is the fruit that these religious institution helps to bear at the end of the day. Its obvious that people cannot stay in vacuum. Where as Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives. In general, it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, and it typically involves a search for meaning in life. As such, it is a universal human experience—something that touches us all. People may describe a spiritual experience as sacred or transcendent or simply a deep sense of aliveness and inter connectedness. Some may find that their spiritual life is intricately linked to their association with a church, temple, mosque, or synagogue. Others may pray or find comfort in a personal relationship with God or a higher power. Still others seek meaning through their connections to nature or art.

Tradition and Pride

Jallikattu is a traditional spectacle in which a Bos indicus bull, commonly of the Kangayam breed, is released into a crowd of people and multiple human participants attempt to grab the large hump of the bull with both arms and hang on to it while the bull attempts to escape. In January 2017, occupy marina protest, the protestor’s claims that Jallikattu is promoted as bull taming, however, others suggest it exploits the bulls. The human associated in this game suffer serious injuries and fatalities. The bulls themselves sometimes sustain injuries or die, which people may interpret as a bad omen for the village. An investigation by the Animal Welfare Board of India concluded that "jallikattu is inherently cruel to animals".[1] Animal welfare organisations, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO)[2] and PETA India have protested against the practice.[3] The sport was banned by the Supreme Court in a decision citing animal cruelty based on a lawsuit filed by the animal rights activists group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which asserted that the tradition violates the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA).[4] Occupy Marina protest by enthusiastic Tamil youths associated the ban with Tamil pride and the government had to come up first with an ordinance to lift the ban followed with an Act in the state. With this incident in the back ground I reflect back few questions and my independent thought from a bird view perspective in this blog.  

Should “Jallikattu” be associated with Tamil pride? Should any activity that is cruel to animals or humans, in any forms, be protected and made legal in the name of tradition? If the answer is yes, then caste system, dowry, sati, killing of girl child, khap panchayat etc., can also be made legal in the name of Indian pride. Where were these youths when poor fishermen were crying aloud for their support when the nuclear plant was destabilising their livelihood and above all existence at Kudankulam? Why these organised spontaneous youths were invisible when a couple were killed at day light only because they took the courage to love and get married even though they come from different caste? Where does one locate Tamil pride when Dalits people were denied of recent flood relief in and around Chennai? Is this the same land of Periyar, who once challenged the traditions, because they oppressed and discriminated people? Isn’t these youth’s hypocrites? Or are they puppets in the hands of the politicians?

But the larger question that we face today, is that whether it is rig appropriate to rigorously hold on to any culture or traditions if they are really harmful? For the sake of our regional or religion pride do we need to endorse and safeguard our culture or tradition? This is the most important context that needs to be analysed from the recent debate around Jallikattu.  

Has our country and the world at large accepted globalisation and liberalisation in true sense? (When I say true sense, I mean beyond economical gain). But when I see around and specially after the jallikattu protest, I am very much sure that the world is just making its U-turn towards fascism, traditionalism and fatalism. The world is ruled by people who are staunch supporter of protecting traditions and culture which was thought to obsolete unanimously by the world a century back. The world had agreed on human rights and protection of nature, which includes animals too. But today with the mediocre leaders leading powerful nations we seem to fuelling the dark age mentality of the people to erupt like volcano and engulf the whole world with its lava of hatred, hyper nationalism, brahmanical thoughts and concentration of wealth by few.

I think the world is becoming cynical. The country which voted Obama four years back has now voted Trumph. Isn’t that irony and cynical? The 2016 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos "for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people."[5] But the same country rejected that same peace deal in the national referendum on October 2. The country India, where we had one of the biggest messenger of peace Gandhi leading the country for Independence, voted for Modi as its Prime Minister who has to be accountable for the Godhra  carnage, where thousands of Muslims and Hindus were killed mercilessly. Where is this world heading towards?

People will stand for national anthem in cinema hall and cry out the lyrics with deep feeling of nationalism but alas the same person will go out of the cinema hall and tease, stalk or may rape their own country women. Is this the narrow minded nationalism that we want? We may fast, fight and shout to bring ordinance or law to legalise Jallikattu even though Supreme Court of the country banned it but the same general public is silent on section 377. We are all hypocrites. We are not guided by our consciousness but with narrow mindedness and selfishness. 

I see Jallikattu agitation not as Tamil pride but as insane of Tamil youths. There are many things that have demean your pride. When the fisher folk was affected due to nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, your pride was affected. Every day when a Dalit women or men is discriminated, your pride is demeaned. When every day a marriage is planned on the basis of the amount of dowry, your pride is demeaned. When couple have to give their life due to inter caste marriage, your pride is demeaned. When your politicians loot your money and still you vote them, your pride is demeaned. When a bull or a person die in Jallikattu your pride is demeaned.

Tamil population have always been vulnerable in the hands of identity politics played by their politician. They are aware of that but still fall in its prey. Tamil is a rich culture. A culture that speaks of Dravidian empowerment. It conveys me the message of standing head held high even when Aryan influence was galloping the country. Tamil pride is in its intellectuality. Tamil’s pride is in Periyar’s vision. Tamil’s pride is in their hospitality, integrity and hardworking. Tamil’s pride is in its strength to fight for the voiceless people. But the politicians in Tamil plays with their sentiments and identity, which have brought great loss to them. The same explanation can be true for all culture. If we all become like Trump who see inwardly development of America and not outwardly enlightenment, I think we are all heading towards a cynicism and skeptism.

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[1] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/SC-to-hear-Animal-Welfare-Board%E2%80%99s-petition-challenging-jallikattu-order/article13994379.ece

[2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/jallikattu-bull-taming-is-cruelty-at-its-best-tn-parties-using-it-for-political-gains-2564184.html

[3] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-peta-bulls-idUSSP19914020080118

[4] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/supreme-court-turns-down-plea-to-allow-bull-taming-sport-jallikattu-before-pongal/articleshow/56494779.cms

[5]  "The Nobel Peace Prize 2016 - Press Release". Nobel Media AB. Retrieved 7 October 2016.