Films@ Future

 Japan, they say, is always fifty years ahead of the world. Some proof of this maxim is the futuristic films taking Japan literally by the storm. Yes, I am talking about the 4D Japanese films about which I read recently. 

Branded as 4DX or MX4D (and occasionally expanding into multi-screen formats like ULTRA 4DX), this technique of "showing" the film in cinema halls changes a standard movie into a physical, theme-park-style ride.

How is it managed? Well, the article I read about this sensational phenomenon says that the seats in such cinema halls  are motion-Controlled seats. That is to say, hydraulic seats tilt, pitch, roll, sway, and heave to match movement on screen, such as a tsunami like huge wave approaching the shore. 

Moreover, the seats in such specialised cinema halls deliver sudden thuds for explosions or punches, while small air jets or leg/back ticklers simulate bugs, whips, or physical brushes.

Environmental effects are managed through auditoriums deploying synchronized water sprays, heavy fog machines, strobes for lightning, wind fans, and scent generators as well.

Major chains like Toho Cinemas, 109 Cinemas, and Cinema Sunshine feature formats like 4DX and ULTRA 4DX (which combines motion seats with a 270-degree panoramic screen), said the article.

Lucky indeed are Japanese spectators because science n technolgy are there creatively harnessed to create entertainment that is truly experiential, and tickles all the senses as much as it may provide food for the mind!

Pratima@ i watched a YouTube video       exemplifying this technology. The feel was as visceral as the fear of the spectators who watched the Lumière brothers' early films. When our economy soon outshines the Japanese, hopefully, such unique mode of entertainment would reach us, too. 

Quote of the day:                                                           "Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic," says Arthur C. Clarke. 

Word of the day: futuristic                                        Futuristic means imagining what the future might be like, and hence very modern and unusual in appearance, as if belonging to the future instead of the present. 

Three faces of the same 'issue'

 On the way to and fro the college where I teach is this gynaecological hospital. It is also an artificial insemination center. Mostly, one sees there heavily pregnant expecting mothers and/or a happy family taking home the bundle of joy. Cute sights!

It was hence truly heart rending to hear this soul wrenching wail. Actually, my mobile seemed to ring. So I had to stop in front of the hospital which I generally just pass by. Hence I heard that loud sobbing.

The young woman had either lost her foetus or the AR (artificial reproduction) experiment had failed miserably. She was loudly lamenting her loss, repeating countlessly, 'all is over', oblivious to the fact that her unhappy grieving could be heard over and above the din of the traffic.

Just a few feet down the road are these eateries where flock the hale n happening  college going crowd in abundance available hereabouts. The arrogant aggression of 'I, me, my body, my space' is clearly visible, obviously from their minimally draped bodies. Their public intimacies are an embarassment only for the helpless, hapless passers-by. They could not care less! Surely, as such hussies openly admit, 'if the contraception fails, there is the convenience of an abortion!'

Not even fifteen feet away is a major crossroad  where a beggar woman is literally picking lice from the matted hair of the infant dazed(!) in her lap. Playing around despite, and in the traffic, dashing in to the melee of  screeching brakes and impatient  honks are young bodies, weirdly painted so that better begging can happen! Whose children are these? May be, not her own, possibly victims of the organised child trafficking racket?

Three faces of the same 'issue'! Was I truly moved! Yes, hurt I felt somehow by these glaring discrepancies so typical of the careless, casual, carefree "could care two f****!" bravado, so much in the face, that  it euthnises genuine feelings!

Pratima@ Strict laws prohibit people from easy adoption, while the riff-raff  comfortably steal and misuse babies! Such contradictions is the name of the capitalist game!

Quote of the day:                                                           Says Tim Blake Nelson, "Really, life is full of contradictions. Life is messy." 

Word of the day: wail                                                   A wail is a cry or a  complaint in a loud, high voice, especially because you are truly sad or in acute pain.

Honey, shrunk is the job market.

 Remember the late eighties film titled "Honey, I shrunk the kids"? Well, play with the title a little, and it reflects the current world realities as far as the job market goes. 

Why do I say so? Well, here is this news item doing the rounds of many a newspaper n magazine. It sounds so weird that at first it reads like gossipy stuff. No, though. It is eerily real. 

Okay, meet John Weiss from Utah, America. He completed his graduation from a major university with summa cum laude. His Ph. D. is from Princeton. The area within chemical engineering he chose for his doctoral work is quite niche, too. 

Yet this bright spark has not yet got a full time permanent job. He applied for more than two thousand positions. With nothing more than cursory advice from the alumni network which matters hugely in the American job market, he could land a low paying temporary hour basis  job that just lasted a few weeks. 

Indians have many lessons to learn from this real life instance which surely would not be one of its kind. First and foremost, it is necessary to seriously think if it is worth it to spend almost a million, often through bank education loan, on a foreign degree. 

Next, job crunch is a world scale reality unfortunately. Hence it is better not to allow your  simmering anger against the system to boil over so much that it steams off as anarchy. Such a scenario would complicate  matters further, both for the individual, and the larger whole, that is, the society, and the country.

The AI, moreover, it is necessary to accept, is no finance fed bubble. This Revolution 5.0, or whatever, changes its shape faster than chimera, and has already enveloped most all fields absolutely. Best hence it is to befriend it, and follow it up regularly through online courses, youtube videos, weekend workshops, and what have you. 

Now one has to be a lifetime student who, moreover, trims n shapes professional growth constantly. It looks as if the days of landing up a job at twenty-two and retiring at sixty are over. Within a life time, one might have to negotiate the professional profile time and again as gig economy, in brief, seems to be the order of the day.

The utmost acquisition now hence is a resilient mindset. One has to learn to be optimistic, take rejections in stride, and be cheerful n balanced. The best support system here would obviously be a friendship with self, and being wrapped in that cocoon called caring family. Times might be tough. It is no truism, however, that the tough get going when the going gets tough! 

Pratima@ Creative hobbies like music, painting, gardening, being pet friendly may help. Time also to return to pranayam and mudra/meditation instead of pumping protein after a tiring gym session.

Quote of the day:                                                         "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that, within me, there lay an invincible summer." I love this quote by Albert Camus. 

Word of the day: gig economy                                     The gig economy is a labour market characterized by short-term, flexible, and project-based jobs where independent contractors and freelancers perform on-demand tasks rather than working standard full-time jobs. It is heavily driven by digital platforms and apps that match service providers with the needy, and can be heavy n harsh on the employee. 

Happy Dasara!

 What does Dasara mean now? Let us continue the icon(ograh)ic discussion which we began yesterday. Dasara refers to two iconic events in our epics, Shri Rama returning to Ayodhya and the end of Pandavas' exile and a year of living incognito. 

How do we interpret these episodes in times today? For sure, the truth does prevail in the end! Yes, virtue wins over vice finally. Neither the egotism of either the Duryodhana or Ravana variety succeeds. 

Which are the other significations of Dasara? Grace under stress? Hence the golden feel (reflected by the yellow/ochre flowers) at the beginning and the end of the horizon stretched like a bow? Do the iconic shami leaves suggest ever youthfulness in thoughts, ideas, concepts and actions? 

Which liminalities to cross now that there is so much unrest everywhere, around and in us? Within us, should it be a cross over from 'my' space to 'our' space(s) so that our own horizons widen? Around us, it has to be avoiding wilful misunderstandings of the other(s) with intended confrontations, right? 

Remember, both Shri Rama and Shri Krishna allowed a long rope to the foe to avoid a face-off? I suppose, all must imitate such magnanimity instead of lusting after power with a 'my way or high way' attitude. 

May the festival bring brilliances of all sorts in all our lives! Happy Dasara!

Pratima@ Let the good, the right(eous), the genuine prevail, n forever!

Ideal Iconography

 Well, to state a rather obvious truth, 'seen in a new light, the old appears a-new.' Yes, perception changes cognition. Just a little tilt this or that side, or a look upside down, and with the changed perspective, emerges a     re-vision, right?

An epiphanic example of such a re-look for me is my re-think of the beasts often associated with the Devi. Let me see if I can make some sense thereof, an exercise thousand times much better than wearing a particular colour on a particular day as defined by consumerism.

Indeed, my attempt is more honest on a subtler level than going from one pandal to yet another one in search of Falguni Pathak or her screechier versions. Well, I could even go a step ahead and assert that such an analysis is more adrenaline inducing than mere temple- and/or bhajan-mandali- hopping! 

Which beasts are associated with the Devi in the traditional iconography? The most noteworthy one is the bull, of course. Sure, he is thus an extension of her consort's, Lord Shiva's, 'Nandi. '

In a more symbolic way, if the Devi is the mother principle, then this beast of burden, from time immemorial the symbol of the menial, hard work, has to be the best companion for the feminine principle with whom, agree most all thinkers from most all  -isms, began the agrarian settlements. 

The lion, another major of the Devi's animal companions, is the symbol of regality, grandeur, bravery and uniqueness. I saw birds such as the swan and the eagle as well as the Devi's vehicle. If the swan stands for purity, for grace, for gentle perfection, the eagle symbolises her power and her perspicacity. 

In one of the pictograms, I saw the Kali Mata riding an ass! I think such a depiction shows the Divine revealing the power to control the asinine in the human heart as well as in the society.  In brief, iconographically, too, the more you explore, the better possibilities open up! 

Pratima@ Such interpretations are like the childhood simple but fascination contraption, the kaleidoscope! A slight shift, and emerges a new de-sign!

Quote of the day:                                                          Says Peter Pearson:"Iconography, good iconography, strives to convey invisible reality in a visible form."

Word of the day: iconography                                 Iconography is the science or study of visual symbols, images, and themes in art and culture, as well as the system of symbols used to convey specific meanings.

Moulds and models

 For many, Hindi Chini are bhai bhai. I should know because I have any number of past students letting me know that they are studying Chinese. That is because I would request them to study a foreign language or two! 

Why Chinese? I suppose because, according to them, it opens up for them professional avenues. Yet another reason could be that the very ethnic script full of pictograms must be satiating the latent/budding artists in them. 

Ah, the Chinese art! That should remind us of the Terracota Court and of the Great Wall of China, right? Both belong to the rule of King Qin Shi Huang. This morning, on one of the WhatsApp groups, there was this huge praise of this Chinese King as someone who believed in the 'unity is strength' principle . Apparently, he thus changed the very contours of China. 

Well, I looked up the references a little. It seems, he unified all the warring states in to a nation. King Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and political reforms aimed at the standardization of the diverse practices among earlier Chinese states. All praiseworthy and noble so far. 

I wonder though why the morning message praised him as a unifier. Apparently, he burnt a large number of books from earlier regimes. His methods, though also is debated this accusation, were, it seems, tyrannical and brutal. 

I suppose that precisely could be the problem when it comes to praising n imposing models imported from abroad. I would say, better are homegrown models, and we have aplenty. From Maharashtra itself, we have Shivaji Maharaj, the Peshwa's and Ahilyabai Holkar. Let us not refer to the erstwhile Chalukya or Satwahana dynasty, nor let us discuss the multi-pronged leadership that emerged during the Freedom Struggle. 

Such is the trajectory of each of the Indian states and erstwhile provinces. In other words, there is no dearth of local n organic models n moulds. Hope we somehow re-pay their debt, at least by elaborating such genealogies as historiographies! 

Pratima@ Even a cursory glance lets us know how little we know, either of the past or the present, and, that, too, in the AI era! 

Quote of the day:                                                             Marcus Garvey argues, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." 

Word of the day: organic                                             Organic organising refers to moulds n models developing gradually and naturally over time without forced planning. 

The Real Renegades

 Well, all seems to be quieter on the CJP front. Sure, Dhruv Rathi un-muted when he reached London. As for the CJP-ians, they seem to be scuttling in to the corner, too. Ah, the quotation mania of literature enthusiasts! Those who read the classics  would sure know that this reference is to Kafka's Samsa. 

When one thinks a little more about of the 'regime changers' though, one realises that the real culprits are neither the Ph.D. scholars of a certain university nor are motor-mouths of any other variety to be blamed. 

The real renegades belong to the old order. Some of them are journalists. Like academics, journalism, too, was a profession that commanded awe n high honour once upon a time. Even as a rookie journalist, the kind of respect I have been granted continues to be energising 

Currently, it is tough to decide which field is full of apostasy, which of them is more compromised, academia or journalism. Both species seem equally 'i'mpaired, and engage in a truly tough competition with each other when it comes to corruption of all types, but especially of the moral variety. 

Honestly, when it comes to certain big names in the game, it is tough to believe that once upon a stupid time, one actually thought that such 'intellectuals' were decent, honourable, ethical! How naive could one be to believe that such 'i'ndividuals could have principles! Well, they are the real renegades. 

They do not mind changing colours faster than a chameleon. Whosoever might seem to give them a plum post, thither they would hasten. Honestly, they are more like 'spotted snakes with double tongues' who shed skin as often as necessary. 

Actually, both these creatures are clean compared to the intellectual renegades, drunk on a dangerous potion of self-interest, mixed with a visceral 'hatred for the sake of hatred' of their  decades long targets. They are hence forgetful of the basic concern for the welfare of the motherland wrested from the colonial clutches with such hardships! 

Well, 'i'nterests may shift and change as per 'i'ndividual conveniences, parties may come and go, slogans may whimper away in to whispers! The sustenance of the motherland and its quintessence cannot be subject to renegade betrayals, right? 

Pratima@ When the foundations of, be it academia and/or nation, are thus corroded in to degeneration, generations suffer, and the loss is forever! And, why?  So that certain pigmy 'i'ndividuals could preen to their heart's content!?! Thus snowballs the descent in to degradation! 

Quote of the day:                                                           "Just for a handful of silver he left us,/ Just for a riband to stick in his coat—/Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,/Lost all the others she lets us devote;"                                             Thus laments Robert Browning "The Lost Leader" (1845).

Word of the day: apostasy                                           Apostasy means the refusal to follow, obey, or recognize a (religious) faith, or the abandonment of a previous loyalty. It can also apply generally to leaving a political party, cause, or set of principles.