The Red Shift

Physics: The lenghtening of the waves as the observer and the source move apart. See 'Doppler Effect' for details.

In the Indian Context, however, it defines the time of late March, the advent of Summer, when every portion of exposed skin gets a redder hue, though not always due to the blood circulating in the arteries. We do have other phenomenon such as The Green Shirt (not marked by jealosy) and other uncommon colors, but then as they say, its "uncommon".

I have always been very excited about Holi, even though we do not play too much with colors. Its only in the last few years that we have started buying those pukka colors, which once applied announce to the world all the fun you had for quite a few days. And I have never spent a Holi in Kharagpur, where humans turn into animals, welter in mud, waddle in pools on the ground, tear everyones' clothes, dissemble themselves in alien chromas -- in short do everything a civilized person is not supposed to do. I have seen some photographs of Professors playing Holi, and they too do not set a very high standard of civilized Holi.

However, my most memorable Holi was almost a decade back -- in Delhi -- when we had those balloon fights. Me and my cousin occupied a lower terrace, and it was difficult, but we did manage to prove our aim. It was almost 4-5 days of hard work everday, we used to sit around filling balloons with water, collect them in hundreds and proceed to the battlefront.

Needless to say the ones inside the fortress used to be ready with their own lot as well. They had the added advantage of height which allowed them to simply pour water on us. In return, we armed ourselves with shart shooting water pipes, whose force of water could unbalance quite a few.

We had major fun those times.

When I think of those days, or even now, when I paint everyone at home red and blue [I am not spared either]. And to tell the truth, I have really come to like festivals, esp. Holi. The primary reason being, I am at home. I sleep well, eat well, and do nothing else. Life's good !

On a more sombre note, I really like Indian festivals. Each of them has their own story, how they came to be celebrated, what they signify, and almost all of them bring the family together. Apart from the usualy mythological reasons, they also have exptremely demotic and germane causes. For instance, Holi marks the beginning of summer, the spring cleaning, a new season of crops.

And the icing on the cake is that after playing with all the colors, you bathe for a really long time! I, personally, have not been cleaner in months, even though the red shift on my face would not reflect that fact.

March in Kgp

Well, all of my readers must be thinking whatever happened to me. Well, I have been pretty busy over the last few weeks, will keep this post short as well.

For starters, for the first time I participated in dramatics. The Inter Hall Hindi Dramatics. We got Silver, even though we messed up at many places, most importantly me, who changed all the facts in a particular part. Kudos to Nehru Hall. They put up a really good show, and deserved gold. Canards of infinited practice during the weekend are doing the rounds, and even if they did half of what is being said, they would definitely put up a great performance.

It is elections time here in Kharagpur. A microcosm of the real elections, replete with alliances, campaigning, rigging, possibly everything. Halls leave no stone unturned to try and get their candidate win. The only ones who lose out are the poor first years - who have to arduosly listen to every hall tell how good their candidate is, same old crap !!

On the personal front, I have been busy because my internship mentor as well as my guide here expects me to do a lot of work, which I am not doing at all. Besides, I have my GRE next month, so am gonna be busy later as well. Sometimes, I wish there were 48 hours in a day !!

PS: My blog statistics have not been updated by blogger in a long time now. If anybody has any idea how to correct it, please let me know.

Black is White

I hate movies which make me cry. I usually find melodrama too hard to digest. And that's because I usually see movies to remove me from reality, to take me to a world of their own, which always make me feel good.

But Black was different.

And Black was wonderful.

And Black could make you cry.

And still i liked it.

There are some movies which flag off a new beginning, and the subsequent movies seem to follow them. After the Angry Young Man movies of the Eighties, came Hum Aapke Hain Kaun! (or perhaps Maine Pyaar Kiya) which started a whole new trend of movies. Black is as much an achievement. The no-song no-dance approach is a new beginning in Bollywood, a much needed rationalization.

Much has been written about Black, and much will be written. I am no epicure of Bollywood cinema, my vision is not as acute; I ignore many a things other people notice. I usually like to flow with the drift of the movie, see the big picture, try to see through the director's eyes - a world perhaps only he can see in many cases.

In Black, I saw grit, determination, optimisism, struggles paying off, integrity - qualities I long to see in real life but fail many a times. I saw wonderous performances, unmatched preparation for roles, round characters, heart splitting moments, a heart bouying feeling -- all very neatly packaged in two hours of cinematic wizardry.

I would like to write about a few things which I really liked about the movie - a few moments I would like to remember, a few thoughts I would like to share:

1. Grey Characters - Most movies have characters who can be branded as either "good" or "bad". Pardon me, but I do not think it is the case in reality. And I am glad SLB made sure this characters have those shades of grey, those strokes of reality, Sahay's drinking days, Michelle's longing to find her womanhood, Sarah's envious feelings towards Michelle's special care.
2. Ayesha's Child Performance - This would perhaps go down in Bollywood history as the Best child performance. Ayesha Kapur is just stunning, many grown ups would have found that role difficult - with those up-turned eyes and that rabid performance, the throwing the food, the anger and the obstinacy of a young girl who can not see, not hear, not understand the world around her.
3. Rani's portrayal - Kudos to her! After seeing the first half of the movie and Ayesha's performance, established actors would have refused to do the role, just like her role in Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai, but Rani carried it off with elan, rather, gave a role deserving of the character.
4. Amitabh - He is a GOD ! His eye's dilating for the eye drops, his voice, his eccentricity, his determination, his acting is truly awesome. He is truly the best Bollywood has seen and will see for a long time.
   
5. Michelle is blind, so to say. But that makes her vision is clear. In life, we would see many a men conveniently turning blind in the face of adversity, ignoring glaring mistakes, clouded by their prejudices, their biases only making them see half the truth, the half they want to see. She takes things on their truth value, any other would have probably lashed out at Sarah after the outburst. She is truly blessed with a vision.
6. Communication is one high point of the movie. I usually maintain that lack of proper communication is the seed which turns into half the humankind's problems, and watching somebody blind and deaf like Michelle not wary of telling what she really feels really made me admire her - she asks Sahay to give her those moments which she probably would never experience all her life, she speaks her mind, walks her talk and only talks what she wants to walk. I would like to see real normal people match these qualities.

Black is everything a Bollywood movie isn't. Black is everything a Bollywood movie should aspire to be.

I had half expected to watch a sob-story, a story about weakness; I came out after a movie which talks of more strengths than I can think of.

Black is not a movie about blackness; Black is a movie about light.

Black is not a movie to be seen and heard; Black is a movie to be touched and felt.