Endless Saga of Virtual Reality

Do we really know....what we want in life?...what do we aim?...which is our world?...which is not?...who is our own?....these are the questions that ANTAHEEN will raise. Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's 2nd venture is a perfect poetry.... painting one after another canvases depicting these faults or falsified or juxtaposed identity of human beings....where people lives a life loving an unknown person......

Rahul Bose is a cop, Radhika is an upcoming journalist....they meet....heated debate follows....and there starts an animosity.....but none of them knows that they already know each other...not knowing each others name....they have met virtually...via an instant messenger and have become real good friends. How interesting it is....the person whom you try to avoid in your real life is the same person you have endeared so much in the virtual world.....after all what this virtual existence is all about?...is it all deceiving?...or is it true?...can that really become a good substitute for our real being if not a reality in itself?...Or is it that necessary distance that is required to assess the true depth, the actual vivacity, the real charm of one relationship?.....Distance not necessarily makes you forget....it rather sweetens the past....make you realize how you feel for the other person......and even if a revival seem impossible, then try to be a good friend....after all a distant yet healthy friendship is better than a rotten conjugal life.....probably that's why when Rahul comes to know about Radhika's identity, she has ceased to live...or Radhika had no more cause to live after getting to know the man whom she loved.....what if unknowingly a known person...
But once known, the charm is over, distance is marred...and creeps in the mundane day to day brutal reality.....a far cry from the somewhat make-belief internet world...
Probably even that is the reason, Sharmila Tagore's pisimoni lives.....she loved a man hearing his voice over the phone...that man never came...she never married....she is alone....but she lives her life alone...but as someone says in the film..."there is a difference between a loner and loneliness"...she has mixed up her both existence..and she becomes the only character who overcomes the "shadow lines"...blurring all the bianaries of reality-virtual....married-unmarried....or anything
She is probably the only happy person in the film.....
But what about the wait?....for that right person?...that right moment?....that moment when the virtual existence and the real one will become one.....and man becomes happy.... Reality is brutal indeed.....it never allows intrusion of anything into its domain...and so when virtual comes to meet real........it is clipped suddenly....it pains, it hurts.....we cry....but it goes on.....we suffer, but do we really learn?....the wait is far from over....pisimoni waited, Rahul waited before he was cruelly turned down....Aparna and her husband could not reunite even getting a seemingly another chance....
The distance is needed........give it to time...if it heals....its true...otherwise it was never so......and this is an endless process.....
It will be over confidence on my part...to judge the powerhouse performances ny Aparna Sen, Sharmila Tagore, Rahul Bose, Radhika Apte and a surprising Kalyan Roy.....
it is the message....we devote too much time pondering over the trivial.....and when we realise, its too late.....but the fact is...we know...but our mistakes becomes an endless process before life itself decides to stop....finally....

Need a Break ... Desperately

Writing is sometimes indeed a difficult job....more so when one feels the urge to write but is unable to fetch the exact words to convey....precisely that is what I am facing these days....

More problem rises when I barely have any topic to write about...after all who would like to write a page of gibberish?...but then not writing make me all the more dull.
One syndrome I'm finding, gradually enveloping me, is...I'm getting bored, getting complete psycho....pondering too much over some matter that manages to creep into my head....and at the end getting completely frustrated and yearn for a sound sleep. But even that would not come even without a heavy dose of a dream centering that horrifying, terrifying object that I want to avoid.
Why?....mmmmmm...thought and thought
Tension?
about jobs....what am I gonna do in my future?.....an age of MBAs, engineering, doctors....I'm just a plain MA in a literature subject...who's gonna offer me a job?....my dad will retire and my honorable sasurji (would-be) is hell bent to make my life a living piece of that dog-shit called hell if I fail to land up a respectable job by the end of this year.....hey bhagwan...main kya karu yaar?
Well...if not that....then some very personal things may be the reason I remain down....it often happens...rather it has become almost a staple of my life that what I expect, I plan beforehand is jeopardized....reality invariably takes the opposite turn. Had a very common yet somewhat unbearable brush with the brutality of my fate, collapse of a friendship that I endeared so much....I loved so much.....I cherished so much....But as all ends, it has ended too....perhaps it was to end...but then there remains some incidents, good or bad, that leaves some indelible marks on your mind.Having said so, its over...and it has been quite a long time since that...and I think I have been able to overcome that....then?
well perhaps I'm stressing myself too much....see i tried to find out the root of my tension and take a break....instead I'm giving myself a bit pressure more...lolzzz.....said no?...reality takes the about turn?
need a break....seriously....I'm fed up with this confused meaningless, out of focus existence....I'm gonna have a sleep...good night...

Shesh Belay

Ekta chena chena sondhye bela
Ochena kono konthoswore
Shunechhilam chena protidhwoni....
Bihovalatar resh katiye Sei poth cholar shuru....
Fele asa dhuli-dhushor oteet,
Bhule jawa samay khondo,
Sob kichhur firey firey asa....
Ar tatei samayer durlongho niyom---
Olot palot jhore bhogno dorja
Aaj bujhi chirotore bondho holo.....

Hothat Jodi....

"Kar tate ki...
Amra jodi ei aakaleo swapno dekhi?"

Ki ese jay ...
Swapno gulo hothat jodi
Dur aakashe miliye jay?

Ja chailam
Na e ba pelam?

Hothat hoyto kono ekdin,
Swargo-rath e pari debo....

Jawar pothe amrito sob
Tomar jonne rekhe jabo.....

Tryst with Confusion...this time...again

Modern time is all about a blurred existence......what we do is often not clear to us...often we do question what we have achieved in doing so....and then answer is nothing....even if there are a few mumble .... even that may come after a toilsome scrutiny.....

it happened to me...just as those endless idiotic thoughts of mine...which come at the idle, void times that I often spend....

I have been avoiding.....rather keeping a deliberate distance from one of my friend....
tried hard to find out why?
answer is a perfect puzzle that I got.........long ago I accused him of one catastrophe that befell me....but then in another instance of my idle void time thinking I concluded that I suffered due to my mammoth mistakes...which I went on repeating, even when I suffered the same way before...
That was a consolation....after all it was not a betrayal by a good friend of mine....it was my own betrayal of myself....but as Conrad said..."the question is not whether we betray, we must and we should...the question is whom we betray...king? kin? or ourselves..."
so I had to....if not me then it would have been me only at the other end...I could not cope up......I spelt that out....that was betrayal.....if I had not...then that would have been another...but thats altogether a different question
then why am I keeping this distance?...perhaps I know not...
may be keeping a safe distance from a past that this friend is associated with...but could I really wipe that part out of my closet?
time will pass..and with each passing day...experiences will continue piling up and in the due course that piece of history will be lost....but will this friend go on reminding me of that ?...is that the reason I am distancing myself?
or is it...I have learnt to prioritize?
when I needed him...did he stood by me?.....come on he has is priorities!!!
and if he is exempted for his legitimate right of prioritizing, then I may enjoy the same right...and that way if I shuffle...is that my fault?
again I know not
but one thing is for sure...I am not happy....I miss him....those days of endless chats, those small meets, eating out....those fun and frolicks that we once shared
why then come up such unavoidable scar marks?...they leave no one happy...yet they stay.....why come in between those unspeakable issues....which if spoken will break the hell loose.....if not spoken....creates a hell out of the very existence.....why life takes these tough tests?...
only God knows....I know...what I do now......is solely my responsibility....if I suffer....that would not leave me with any opportunity to blame any good friend of mine....thats the way may be I will be able...to save those few..who are still there with me.....

Chandni Chowk to Chinese Catastrophe

Yeah....money and time all wasted. Hoped to have a real fun this January with the present King of Bollywood....but sadly enough was completely disheartened!!!
to be honest all curiosity centered around Akshay Kumar, the man who churned out back to back 4 hits in 2007, otherwise seen as a dull year for Bollywood. Not that Akshay completely disappoints....rather in the film what ever moments one would love to remember is presented by this man only!! But what could he do with such a drab and meaningless plot?
Too many spices invariably leads to indigestion...and this one proved the fact only.....
Nikhil Advani used too many chiched Bollywood masala and his film became a complete overdose for us. Two sisters, that too twins seperated when toddler, then they meet, then thet meet their father, then a village oppressed by a tyrant, then comes a reincarnation of their mythcial hero, then a man finding a baby in a basket, then he bringing him up as a dada figure, this eversacrificing dada gives his life to save brother.......isn't that too much?
sita-geeta, mothers of yeater year films making you remember the Nirupa Roy era.........Advani has tried to weave in all in one with a new icing of FENGSHASTRA ( Feng Sui and Vastushastra mixed) and Kung fu....which rather looked like more a camera work than a good action.
Akshay was found in a basket when young by Mithun who brings him up, but Akshay is advised by the Fengshastra master played by Ranvir Shorey to go to China as he is a reincarnation of their mythical hero. Meanwhile Dipika Padukone plays double role, who where separated by goons in China....she has an Indian mother and a Chinese Kungfu expert Father......now Akshay is to save the villagers haunted by Hojo the tyrant, under whom one Dipika works....the other grew up in India, works in Advertisements.
then they meet and all the mumbo-jumbo begins.
Akshay is good. Perhaps the only one "good" in the film....not that there was a dearth of good actors...but they were simply wasted, as is Ranvir Shorey....god knows what made him select this script!!! an actor of his caliber really saddens our heart....this is certainly not a film which is Ranvir's forte, he is made for intelligent comedy or good substantial serious role....he had nothing to do. Akshay does well, really...and we have little doubt about his versatility. Mithun is another one wasted, as he is wasted in the Bengali potboilers. He retains his Bengal's Mahaguru stature with aplomb. Dipika is eye candy....but it would be frustrating if one expects anything more from her. Others are quite forgettable.
Music!!!.....one would not really want to remember once he is out of the theatre......its very very average.
And the much touted action---Akshay again good....but the action heroine???.....its for you to go and watch...

as for how I liked it...

SORRY, Mr. Nikhil Advani...

Politics Destroying Education

Professor Dipendu Chakraborty is a renowned teacher at Calcutta University , Dept of English. He has retired already, but given his enormous experience, his popularity among the students and his credentials the university decided to keep him on an extension basis.....which means every January he will get an extension for another year.
The students have no doubt gained a lot from this arrangements. He was awarded the prestigious "Sir Gurudas Chair Professor" post.
But recently this old man was simply thrown out of the university just for the reason that he denied to toe the political line followed by the ruling party. Answering on the topic of caste-based reservation in higher studies, to a magazine, he opined that he personally feels reservations should be on the economic ground....caste system should be counted out, precisely that was the fault that sir actually did, and he had to face the music....and ultimate the students are bearing the actual burnt.
The HoD of another department , who happens to be a scheduled caste (with all due respect to them, I have nothing like upper or lower caste beliefs) took this as a personal slur and asked the authorities to look into the fact so that Prof. Chakraborty does not get a renewal of his extension this year.
Understandably enough sir was extremely upset at the turn of the events and he refused to ask for a renewal either. After so many years of contribution, this was absolutely not the kind of treatment that is expected...and interestingly enough none form the English dept stood by him. Another interesting fact may be stated in this place....Prof Chakraborty was categorical in criticizing the ruling party in the Singur-Nandigram issue, though he has long been a member of the party. Even then what more can be expected from a party which is known for showing least respect to veterans....exceptions though are there but only to sadly prove the rule.
But we, the students are made the victim of this political fiasco.
We took Harold Pinter for our special author paper, and only Professor Chakraborty teaches that unlike Eliot or Woolf which is shared by various teachers. No we are left completely in the dark as we are not getting any sort of guidance. Another potent question who will set papers and who will evaluate those?.as no other teachers are appointed for that special paper, if anyone who has no specialization on Pinter will be made to check our answers after the exams....and whats going to come out can well be apprehended.
Why cannot a criticism be taken as a criticism?... Why punish everyone who dares to go the other way? ... why cant these politicians keep their cheap populist activism and their dark desires out of education....why will not this government allow us to have our own decisions?....I can criticize the government...at least I thought so....but Bengal Marxists , I perceive think the other way round....the need a severe booting so that they understand the enormousness of their wrong doings.....Who will be the HoD will be instructed, Who will be the VC will be decided from the party head quarters.....even a new appointment should require the Alimuddin Street stamp....who cares if he is not a Pinter specialist?...after all students will suffer.....they need a psychophant...and the party interest will be served na? They will be able to keep the teachers' body under their control, another supporter at the university will ease their way to the CU Senate...and much more.........
who cares at the dropping status?...who cares about the regularly falling teaching quality...I have no problem in confessing that it is utter torturous to go through some of our teachers' classes....neither they can guide us through the texts nor they can offer us better critical discussions.....so pathetic is the condition...and added to this is the class room politics...or better students politics which is again in some way supported by these teachers.....so that's a different story.....and I'll definite say that any other day
So there lies the importance of a "petwa" teacher....and Prof. Chakraborty's recent criticisms was enough to earn the ruling party's wrath......so this small situation provided them the opportunity ......
shame on this government.....shame on those who are at the helm of affairs, at CU.....they think of their berths only while the betterment of the students would have been their prime concern....but sadly that's simply a back bencher under CPM-ruled Bengal.....sad story indeed....but in Marxist state, politics first stupid!!!

Winter On ... Thanda Gone

A new phenomenon is sweeping this land..........Winter on but thanda gone....its so sad na? well its my favorite season....no sweating, no panting.....I mean I hate working, and what can be more precious than a lazy winter day?......easing on my couch with story books or soft music under the warm kombol?......but alas.....no kombol this time....this extraordinarily devilish climate is not allowing me to do that.....where is that thanda thanda cool cool climate afteral?

well.......this is not all about pondering what winter generally symbolise or what images it generally associate with itself......its undoubtedly an issue of grave concern........we, as we do in all other matters, talk too much, show off our intelligense and our superb analytical power......our GYAN to be precise.......but do very very little so as to have the actual desiered effect, put on a grim look and like a sage comment on the impending doom if we fail to check what we all know as global warming......
ask any one....." ki bolen, aj kal thanda temon porchhei na.?".....the prompt answer will be "GLOBAL WARMING dada"....ask whats that......well...never dared to do so....fearing to be left lurching in the dark....lolzzzz
we will lecture others about the evils of global warming....and stepping out of the conference room would never hesitate to light a cigarette....after all we are all intellectuals....and "mathay dhoa na dile thik bhabna gulor prosar hoy na"

so we go on....polluting.....out government with its blind love for kata-tal driven auto....and lojjhore old buses....felling trees....and never bothering to plant a new we are constantly adding to the brown smoke over Asia......and calling our own doom....
how funny it looks na?...when we find people raving storms in tea cups over the issue whether this world will be demolished within next 20 years!!!!!

what a pity!!!
we take heroic valour in devouring over the news paper to see minimum temperature soaring to 19 degrees C on a mid January day...and pondering how that may add fodder to our intellect filled discussions at college canteen....or even intensify the puffs at the office tea table.......

unless we change....officially winter will be on for even a few more years.....but thanda will be absolutely gone for ever before we are burnt to death....not literally....lolzzz

Saluting Ashapurna Devi On Her Birth Centenary

Sorry......for being late in writing ....as I said earlier.....What I think, reality takes me just in the opposite direction....

I'm late in writing about one of the finest writers of my vernacular literature of the ages.....my favorite author...Ashapurna Devi
January 8, 2009 was her birthday... She turns 100...physically she is no more...but she still lives through her works.....her vibrant advocacy for empowerment of the marginalized.....an endless fight against the imbecile superstitions and malpractices in the name of religion...

Ashapurna was never taught in the established mode of education....she was majorly what is called self-taught. possessing a sensitive mind that she had......it was her pleasure to know people and learn their language ....that is what we get to see....as days changes,,,,her language molds itself,.........but she remains firm in her unflinching loyalty towards uplift of the women and other social issues...
it was early 20th century that ushered in Ashapurna...and quite understandably it was not absolutely free from the superstitions and thinking of the just past century. Not far from then were women made suttee burning her on her husband's pyre, child marriage, inhuman rules for the widows were followed....and her time was even not free from these evils......
even women were denied education.....even if they were allowed then household crafts....but not novels and classics...as women were thought to be intellectually weaker.
Ashapurna was up in arms against these practices.....her writings brings out the pathetic condition of the women.......and how women are used against women by patriarchy!!!.poor women, denied of education internalized what family patriarch taught them and for them even those women who dreamt of freedom and education were forces of evil....Ashapurna is most humane in picturing this day to day mundane routine of the women folk of the society.....and her might lies in her simplicity......we are forced to take notice and think...
She was pushed to the periphery by the mainstream writers during her time as being feminist writer...writing for women only.....and Ashapurna used that to her advantage and declared her tirade against the evils of the phallo-centric society and she gifted Bengali literature one of the most memorable trilogy Pratham Pratishruti--Subarnalata--Bakulkatha.

In Pratham pratishruti, Satyabati is none other than Ashapurna herself....we can never know Ashapurna if we cannot delve deep in to the character of Satyabati.....she is not merely the heroine of Pratham Pratishruti, she symbolizes the new aspirations of that time. It was the time of Second World War, and the fierce struggle that Indians fought for independence....and the nationalist movement in a large way brought indian women out from their private space into the public sphare....or at least showed them the way.....so a new hope, a new dream was there for the women....and this new women finds beaituful representation in Satyabati.....isn't she Indian Nora (ref Ibsen's A Doll's House) when she leaves her house to seek her own fortune when betrayed by her husband?
The promise of woman emancipation that was uttered by Satyabati in Pratham Pratishruti, was carried forward by her daughter Subarnalata in Subarnalata....and that finds a concrete shape in Bakul in Bakulkatha....or does she really finds?
she tries, she fights....but they r still subjugated....but Ashapurna could rise the question at least which down the ages have made the women more and more aware of their rights....and thus remains her contribution to Indian Feminist movement.....in a true way to woman empowerment....she has written more than 100 novels...and hundreds of short stories and her women, her marginalized characters all remains examples of the social injustice......there lies her greatness....she is very much one of us.....in the drawing room adda style she has shown where our fault lies.......its not only through feminist slogans and organizing seminars that i think will be enough to pay homage to this flame of justice....this great author whose pen sang the groly of the most inglorious people......lets internalize the world that Ashapurna dreamt of...and that way we can only salute her....

NAAMHEEN

NAAMHEEN



Aamar Ghormoy Taar Bichoron
Sneho makha duto chokh
Kachhe dakar akhuti...
Kontho swore kokhono shrinkholito nodir torongo hillol
Kokhono ba baNdha heen bishad probahomaan ...
Antohswar shunyo protidhwoni.


Ami take kokhono dekhini,
Kinmba dekhechhi!!
Bhashaheen, nirakar ... sudhu chhayapot
Him sheetol haate elo melo korechhe amar chul.
Sporshe jhonkrito hoyeche amar shorir---
Dhushor thoNter nirob shobdo sunechi kaane...
Se chiro-birajoman
Abornoniyo ek moha-shunyota ...



Jedin se amay chhere chole gechhe,
Tarpor aaro ekjon...
Tarpor eker por ek.......
Sedin esechilo pratham
Shorirer rondhre rondhre ashoriri protichchhobi...
Amake kore khoto-bikkhoto
Nijer theke nijeke bichyuto
Asha- durashar dolachole
ChuNye diyeche shihoron......

Ke se?
Ami jani na---
Bondhu noy, shotruo
Sudhu ek okhondo ondhokar
Naamheen...

Polluting Autos : Unions and Dirty Politics

Kolkatans now exist as undigested particles in the stomach of the union giant. The pollution spitting auto is still on, thanks to our dadas and didis.....and they will continue to curtail our life span.....with their wonder discovery kata-tel.......and what not!!

Auto rickshaw has already become a kind of nightmare in Kolkata...but even then there are no other choice....given the pathetic condition of Kolkata's traffic. The public transpot system is in shambles and we have a great minister heading the department who turns his own words in to a sad irony. Once this Subhas Chakraborty claimed that he can do anything except making a dead man alive.......what a poor estimation!! He cannot even reign in the reckless auto drivers......he accepts the fact that more illegal autos ply the city's roads than the legal ones...and he does nothing..........

its all dirty politics...these autowalahs have always remained a strong base of the ruling party and annoying them would only jeopardise their constant stay in the state masnad. In the process it has given birth to one of the most arrogant, ill-mannered, law breaking and out right irritating clan of these auto-walahs. And to do their favour has arrived the unions....one thing we can do if not anything else is to form union......select a few foul-mouthed people and make them stand on the dias a shout ear-insulting speeches....and gather some psychophants who only knows how to clap well. The union is formed.....and what these dadas or the didis will say is irrefutable and that will earn the parties their vote...and these people their somewhat livelihood....
This time around.....when the Government seemed to be trying to do something on this polluting auto aspect....the transport minister acted a perfect joker as probably he himself didn't remember what he said the earlier day!!!....and he is perhaps yet to make up his mind which way to go...and that has given rise to an utter anarchy....and in the midst of all these has descended Bengal's favourite didi.......with her never ending penchant for doing good for the poor!!!....
In the process pf this dirty poltics, its the common citizens who are suffering.
The parties need votes and these auto-walahs will do that for them.....and may do even extra.......after all who will carry the voters to the booth for the parties???
but we?...the general citizens?.....probably our fault is we don't belong to any union that will act this way or the other......
but these politicians forget....an invisible common man army acts all the time..... if they think that saving these illegal autos and their handful owners will reap them gains in the ballot-boxes, then simply they are fooling around.......the may save those illegal elements...but common man is always more and more powerful...think for them...that will serve u better,.....

but alas this largest democracy gives us no choice.....even if we don't vote.....these auto-walahs will do that for us....and if we do then for whom?.....no rulers and oppositions here.....its about grabbing unions and all of them are eyeing the same rout....what a pity!!

Ghajini : An Endless Tale of Unbelievable Brutality

My first day of the new year was good.....enjoyed the day with close friends and family members.....and yes watched the new phenomenon in the country...Ghajini.
Aamir Khan movie---that was enough I suppose to pull the crowd and New Empire ran houseful......
the man behind Taare Zamin Par.....the man leading Lagan and Dil Chahta Hain....I was, to be frank waiting eagerly for what this man brings out this time.....and to be more frank.......this new venture was a pretty much forgettable one for me.....
so violent....so brutal.......so inhuman....and so unreal!!!!!
the man who deals so delicately with the issue of a child suffering from dyslexia, the man who gives such a heart rendering Bhuvan, so modern college-goer's story...can really be the same one who plays the role of Sanjay?.....a man with an iron rod penetrated deep in his stomach getting up and beating the villain to death....and that stabbing has no effect at all as he continues to live!!!!.....his hard earned 8 packs are not enough.....he has to turn one villain's head just the other way round to prove his physical prowess!!!
no doubt we would have loved to believe...afteral it was Aamir and he does his job with aplomb every time....a corporate honcho Sanjay Singhania is as lovable as the cold and brutal Sanjay is fearful....his eyes says it all.....such a beastly glance is sure to run a shiver down your spine......
but still....do in real life so many coincidents happen?...
somehow I felt...in the midst of these unreal scenes, Aamir's superb acting has been demeaned....otherwise Aamir reamins always Aamir...
then there is Asin.....truely the discovery of Bollywood of the year.....she is cute....she is beautiful....she is chirpy......she is lovable......she is smart......she is vulnerable....and she is definitely a good actor........Asin is the real gift of the film...and we wouldn't have minded a rebirth for the heroine if the hero can live even after getting stabbed so "horrendously".
And Jiah Khan...the much hyped sensation of Bollywood....who made debut in a more forgettable film Nihshabd against Big B.....she dissapoints...neither she lookes good...nor she acts....I feel she is an absolute dumb.,..and doesn't know what expression is.....

Music is good...though the music in which Asin is introduced is no match with the original Tamil version.....I got to see that portion today only....and surely the Tamil one is better....but "tu meri adhuri pyass pyass"...."behka mann behka" are good.......the locale of the "adhuri" song is a visual feast....

over all its is a good film...but definitely not one which "in my heart I bore...long after it was (seen) no more"..
so much bloodshed and violence...it is a bit aweful......a little less blood would have done better.