There have been many interesting reads and views. Just that somehow since May so much happened that I just did not have time for anything. Anything at all. I think the nice movie that I saw were Shakeshpeare Wallah, Love me If You Dare and Inception. Bookwise it has been sparser. The Book of Tao. Johnny gone Down. Nothing much to write home about.

Seemabadha

To watch this movie, one has to know the Kolkata of the late 60s and 70s. There was a great gap between the rich and the not so rich. Ray tries to show this Kolkata of the rich via the eyes of Tutul, who is a guest at her sister's house. She has met her sister and brother-in-law after ages and hence is able to make out the change they have gone through with prosperity. She is initially mesmerized by Kolkata and her Brother-in-Law, who seems to be an ideal man.So much so, she has second thoughts about her boyfriend back in Patna, who is intelligent, intellectual, idealistic yet one with uncertain future.  

Shyamalendu is very pleased with his success and it is clear that he has worked hard to reach here. He leads a lifestyle that is required to be accepted in his circle and is in fact quite popular too. His wife Dolan, is very happy to lead this sort of a life and wishes for his success at work. Till now, they have managed without compromising with their morals at large. In everybody's eyes, they are a successful couple and when Tutul visits them, she feels the same.  

The next promotion that waits for Shyamalendu has become an obsession of sorts. He has an arch rival who is also aspiring for the same post. As it happens with climbing the success ladder, the higher one gets, the more one has to lose - prestige-wise and other wise. An unforeseen crisis at work tests Shyamalendu's ideals and morality. He has to make some choices that decides his standing in the eyes of Tutul and himself. For the world he is still a hero, but he fails in Tutul's and his own eyes.  

This movie is a very different Ray movie. The story line and treatment of it can be understood by people who are familiar with them occurring in Indian context. It's a good thing that I understand Bengali, the translations are not very proper and sometimes totally lose the context. I liked the movie very much in spite of that.

The Rock

Summer afternoons / evenings....and we rushed to the river side...it was by no means a river....a seasonal spring to be more precise...but we 'liked' to call it a river...it defined the maturity we liked to associate with the act. The rocky edge gave it all a very authentic feel. And we sat cooking up adventures....spotting a frog here, an eel there or a very small fish...gave us the 'scientific high'....or for that matter the changing colour of the sky made us feel so artistic. We liked to fish....or we liked to pretend that we fish....so we'd make little fishing-rods and pretend as long afternoons and evenings....flitted by.

And when the rains would finally give the spring some width....we felt we were being faced with the fury of nature....the water actually reached our regular spots ! But it gave another sport....sailing paper boats...wooden chips and competing. Sometimes we made it difficult for the boats....we directed them towards whirlpools and falls....and clapped our hands in glee...or sometimes felt sorry for their sad demise.

We ran to 'The Rock' as we had christened it....every day of our Summer lives

Old age wisdom and what grandmothers said.

Old age wisdom and what grandmothers said has always proven to be correct. Is there even a point to discover every law of nature individually? Is that not a waste of time? Do we even have time in 1 lifetime to find all that out?

It's like knowing that they wrote it in Upanishads but trying not to believe it till you experience it on your own. Strange that we have been unable to build upon all that knowledge.

Any belief without understanding the right motive behind it is a curse. Any belief that is not practiced in it's correct essence becomes a bane.

By the River

This is a lovely song. It featured in the Italian movie called The Son's Room. That's where I learnt about it. It reminds me of The Book of Tao that I bought from library two weeks back and loved instantly. Eastern philosophy was always very close to nature. Hence it has always been calming and life giving. It is interesting to note how Upanishads and Book of Tao have similar things to say. Different notations but similar message. All our folk tales, legends and handed down wisdom consisted of this.

It is interesting that things want to go back to where they have come from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUyZgXN6DBQ

Good cinema is blessing just as good books are. Art in any form goes back to the basics of life. It always conveys what a religion conveys.

The fact that we conform to ourselves and none has been India's age old philosophy. Then it got diluted and lost when people who did not understand it. The gist of life and everything as human beings has been understood long ago - we are just in the process of realizing the same thing over and over again. Will we ever learn anything more? I guess no till we are a normal human being.

Saari jawani katra ke kaati, Piri mein takra gaye hain

..It gets lost, it gets involved in the farthest-out adventures, but in the end it always wakes up and comes back to itself..(Alan Watts)

Hind Swaraj - Some Quotes

- The curse of the nation will rest not upon the English but upon us.

- In order to restore India to its pristine condition, we have to return to it.

- Like others, he will know that action is much better than speech; that it is our duty to say exactly what we think and face the consequences and that it will be only then that we shall be able to impress anybody with our speech;

- You make a mistake. You and I have nothing to do with the others. Let each do his duty. If I do my duty, that is, serve myself, I shall be able to serve others.

- Real home-rule is self-rule or self-control

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” he said. “Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

-Steve Jobs

Have u noticed that all great men all over the world have had a pull / liking for India? Most of them.

reading is my sanity. it brings me back home. when i don't read, i am not myself.

Rules and Life

It's strange learning the rules of life. No one teaches us as we are embarking it - think no one fully has understood. It seems more like on the job training - each lesson archived as soon as learnt. Make the mistakes earlier and that is better for you.

Existentialism is what I support. A person is what a person is - his/her life is as it is. There can be no right way in a thing - there is always only perspectives. If it feels right inside - you can live with it forever. If it doesn't - do not do it or else you are screwed for life !

Chaos by James Gleick is a riveting read. I recommend it to everyone. It made me see the world in a new light. I am often saddened by the fact that I have SO MUCH to learn. A lifetime seems short. Shucks ! I will know things for sure. One day.

Fractals

Mandelbrot Set - Created using Fractalizer.

Sublime in Chaos

I do not know the details at all but reading about chaos, pattern in chaos and sustenance of sublime in chaos just has triggered my thoughts. Each life has a pattern. The pattern repeats itself but not in the same way every time as there is a scope of 'the butterfly affect'. The pattern can be shaped on the input conditions. And that simply means that a pattern can be altered.

Is there a way that we escape the entire process altogether?

Le Battement d'ailes Du Papillon

I know that the movie was nice but today, frankly speaking it is today, that I know what it meant in the larger picture.


I have this uncanny pattern of (a) late discoveries (b) elaborate and very visible learnings (c) forgotten theories !! But it does not dampen the spirit, as the understanding of original fragment of idea / spirit / life / sound is a breathless delight !

Lorenz's Attractor

There have been very few instances where I have felt this sort of revelation or understanding of something. It almost seems magical. It feels as if how come I did not know this when it is SO simple. I have got goosebumps just reading all of that. And I know that I look for this when I read anything new. It is so beautiful that I can almost cry !

2010

It's January. Another year is here. So much happened in this decade - globally, professionally and personally. This decade rests in peace now.