The Real Lagaan

 Being a freelancer with the Features Desk of a newspaper is both fun and a terror. It is fun because you can choose, and be chosen for, each and every beat. Why, you get a byline on the very front page, an honour regulars rave about. You can come up with an idea, and you get a free hand most often. 

The downside is that you have to prove yourself  each time with every article. Absolute trash in extremely poor English is the run of the mill, and is accepted, given the hurry-n-burry of publishing a daily. But you have to burnish like a pitambari polished copper vessel every time. It is good for you though because thus you truly re(de)fine your art!

Well, one gets all n sundry assignments, in brief. During my stint as a freelancer with the "New Indian Express", "The Hindu", and "Newstime", i enjoyed this privilege hugely. A great break from n an interesting contrast to my academics, the journalistic assignments aplenty often included film reviews as well. A special place would be reserved. I had perfected thus the art of writing in the dark, too, 'coz I had to jot down details, as in early 2000, the Google was not such an efficient search engine.

In 2001, for example, when 'Lagaan' was released, I had to review this cocktail of the two great Indian obsessions, films and cricket. The audience was treating the film match as if it were real. The cinema hall was literally charged. 

Of course, I wrote a laudatory review. Oh, yes, my review snippets, titles (along with the newspaper title) used to be quoted in the newspaper adverts! Well, long lost are those heady days. At times, when I had to board the 8.30 Hyderabad-Pune express, I used to watch the afternoon show, go to the newspaper office, file the review, and rush home, and thence to the railway station,  carrying all along my sparse luggage at times.

Well, the 'Lagaan' watch is etched on my memory. Why was the film so very special? For one thing, it is an upright and honest refusal to bow down to the crudity of mindless power. It is an ode to collective responsibility and collective action, so very rare in India where most all shirk every possible responsibility under some sick pretext or the other!

Basically though, it is a paean to an inspired individual taking on the powers that be. It is in my opinion an example of how an organic leader emerges from the embers of opression, deceit and lies. 'Lagaan'(लगान) is actually 'lagan' (लगन).  No wonder, in an India obsessed with the hero (he can be from the field of films, cricket or politics), the film's success was a thunder!

Pratima@Well, the 'Lagaan' watch is etched on my memory for a very personal reason, too. Papa loved cricket hugely. In fact, in our family, I happen to be the only ignoramus as far as cricket is concerned. Since childhood, Papa, my brothers, they all loved cricket.  Aai loved their love of the game.

 Papa would watch the match till the last ball was bowled even if the Indian team would be losing. He did not like castigating loose remarks on the calibre of a player as he felt that playing at the international level was TOUGH. He would sure know as he was himself a cricket player in his college days. Somehow, the 'Lagaan' memories are interwoven with his, and hence are poignantly special for me 

 

A title and its meaning

 "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet,"exulted Shakespeare's most 'romantic' heroine, Juliet. Beyond Juliet's lovelorn insistence, semiotics, too, maintains that a name, why, practically every word, is a mutually agreed upon convention accepted by the community/society using that particular language.

Care for an example? A dog is the same  cute lovable  animal, most often, the best buddy ever. Every language has a different word for the furry friend though. In German, he would be a "Hund", in French a "chien", and in Spanish a "perro". Let us not get in to the connotation of the word as not only would it change as per the community, not to forget, the individual user, but the discussion about its  connotation could run in to reams.

Why all these prefatory remarks? Is that your question? Well, I was trying to understand the epithet "Good Friday". As the day commemorates the tragic martyrdom of Jesus Christ, why call it "Good" was what I was trying to understand.  

Well, the word 'good' is Germanic in origin according to its etymology. It is close to the German adjective 'gut' which meaning wise is similar to its English version. Why then this epithet?

 A possibility could be that in Old English, 'good' was close to 'God', it seems. Why, it has been argued that 'good bye' actually means 'god be by', that is, 'god be near you, take care of you', it seems. In this sense, 'Good Friday' would mean 'God's Friday', may be, as the day Christ attained almost divine proportions.

In other words, 'good' here would mean 'sacred',  I suppose. May be, as Christianity thinks that Christ brought immeasurable benedictions to his followers, 'good' could mean bountiful which anyways is one of the multiples meanings of 'good'.

Yet another possibility could be that the day is part of the Holy Week which reaches its zenith on the Easter Day. As the Easter signifies the Resurrection, the inevitable martyrdom on the preceding Friday makes it 'good', may be.  

Well, these musings made me realise how little we understand words, phrases, titles we use blithely. Sure, I need to read up quite a bit on this topic is what I realise. The Friday thus became good for me because yet again it asserted my total faith in the absolute need for intellectual humility!

Pratima@Please do illuminate my ignorance in case you know why the day is thus known.

Meteorology matters

 Climate and water, I would say, are the two issues that are eternally relevant. Sudden climate changes spell a disaster, almost as big as the scarcity of water. The farmers may be drying the produce, an entire harvest. A sudden shower can completely ruin it. 

The precise predictions by the meterological department are a blessing in such dire situations. Just a few years ago, such predictions were a regular matter of the most repeated, and quite silly, rather banal jokes. If the meterological department predicted blazing hot sun, better to carry an umbrella, it used to be insinuated, as thundershowers were sure to happen!

People, especially farmers, would rather depend on the traditional measures to predict the possible climate conditions. Well, two major changes have taken place. On the one hand, across the world, climate changes are getting more whimsical by the day. On the other hand, with the new technology, the meteorological predictions are getting more and more precise, nay, almost absolutely accurate!

That is a huge blessing, both for the individual and the government. Disaster management has radically altered; in fact, improved almost to zero error. Thus, a lot of human and material resources get saved, which is a boon indeed. 

Hence the relevance of the world meteorological day which otherwise appears so distant and irrelevant to our city sleek lives! May the predictions get better, especially because climate concerns are getting troublesome by the second!

Pratima@ Meteorology matters, especially to the global South!

Theatre!

 The theatre! Whether the art itself or the hall where mostly that art is practised (except when it comes to the street plays with an obvious, rather propagandist, message) is always charm, mystery and pleasure, as life literally comes alive in these 'walls'!  When one refers to a film or a cinema hall, life is the game of camera-n- pictures. It hence lacks the immediacy of a theatre performance. 

Both the artists and the audience literally live life in a theatre. The very etymology of the word would reveal that fact. The term comes from the Greek root which means to behold. That is what the theatre does for us. It helps us 'behold' life in an immersive way. 

Such is this 'behold'en aspect of theatre that across the world and across different dramatic traditions, we have a 'play within a play' tradition, be it "Swapnavasavdattam" or "Hamlet".  Shakespeare loved this 'all the world' as 'stage' (with different layers of meanings of this term) metaphor hugely and employed it often in his theatre! After all, he was a theatre person every which way, as an author, as an actor, as the owner!

The theatre is special because it is individual excellence (be it as an author, a director, an actor, the musicians, as in the case especially of a 'sangeet natak' or an opera,  the set designer, not to forget  the spectator as only s/he truly completes the meaning of the whole) encased in a performative gestalt.

No wonder, despite so many other modes of distraction, the theatre lives on, especially relevant in current lives where most all wear masks, right? No wonder, whether the British spell it with a word final 're' or Americans with an 'er', this perfomance which is a combo of literary and performative arts is the most appealing. 

Well, if as a literature student, one tends to stress the text, any single folk theatre performance can wake one up from that slumber. Often a director, an actor and the aware audience can weave an entirely different world beyond the words of the text, right? Every performance brings the text alive in a unique way. Hence, the theatre is real appealing. Long live the theatre!

Pratima@The ITI deserves our yearlong thanks for initiating this day, and especially for the special messages from stalwarts such Jean Cocteau to Jon Fosse.

Taming the troublesome terror

 Not very long ago,  that is, in the nineteenth century, so many Romantics, artists and authors, died due to it that it was considered quite 'romantic' to die of this troublesome terror. The patient suffering from consumption would die a slow death, surrounded by the family and friends.

Believe it or not, the 'pale' disease (as it made the victim look unnaturally pale) was so much in fashion then that women powdered and puffed themselves to get the 'pale' look. Novels, poems, plays used the dis-ease as the plot, as the twist in the plot, as the metaphor.

It was a famous fashionable social 'cause' as well because poor children, suffering as the chimney or the mining workers, wasted away due to it. Pathetic paintings of such victims were the 'done', the 'in' possession for the rich and the mighty, the chatterati then.

Have you guessed which disease we are talking about? Yes, it was the T.B. Luckily Dr. Robert Koch located the microbe causing it; fortunately he invented the vaccine to kill this troublesome terror. 

Unfortunately though, it is not completely wiped out even today. Even today, in dingy dark hutments, or even in upwardly mobile places without adequate healthy diet that goes beyond the coke and the burgers/pizzas, this dreaded disease is making rapid strides.

 Once again, it is the stupidly fashionable who guzzle only protein shakes and stuff pani puri's or pizzas as the food, through them, the disease has returned, and with a vicious bang, because now the disease is virulent, causes multi-organ failure and is developing variants which are more and more drug-resistant.

Luckily, post-Covid, the vaccine industry is in a healthy position, and can contain such creeps. Let us be truly health conscious by eating wholesome food, and by following holistic exercise regimens for sure. Stay healthy, (and hence)  wealthy as well as, wise!

Pratima@ The real medicine is 'us' in the sense that we have to be healthy, and conscious in a holistic way.

The day after

 The day after the Holi is always special. In fact, many people may not care as much for the Holi as they do for the day after. The day after Holi celebrates the Rangpanchami or the Dhulwad. 

It is the day of colours. People of all stages from the society and from all sorts of age groups enjoy  this game of colours. Water scarcity never seens to bother them. The typical college areas of Pune, especially the youthful Fergusson College Road, is full of colourful faces which are so much like masks that you would not be able to recognise a friend or a frenemy beneath!

The usual debates about the day after such as the harmful chemical colours or the natural colours made of natural ingredients rage as usual. Well, these days, even otherwise, people colour their hair, paint faces with the make-up, eat food with synthetic colours, and so on. Yet the same debate always carries on, at times, I almost feel as if it is a ritual.

Actually, the religious ritual on this day after would be to mix the ashes of the Holi with water, and throw it each other.  It would be an ideal beginning for the hot season, what with the summer approaching real fast. Ma be, once upon a time, when the social structure was very strict and rigid, this particular day must have been a form of release of all the suppressed lewdnesses and lawlessness that would otherwise threaten the society.

Now it is more an occasion of getting drunk on the so-called 'thandai' which is nothing in comparison with what 'normally' most people get high on these days. 

Actually, 'the day after' this year was a lunar eclipse. Most people hardly seemed aware of it either the religious way or the scientific/astronomic mode. They went about their 'joys' as mindlessly as ever.

In fact, hence, I often feel that 'the day after' never seems to be any different for most people, be it the day after a defining exam or be it the day after Diwali or the day after a marriage or a death! Every 'day after' is always the same! It is as if the unique speciality that makes life full of charm is lost to the banal. The real loss indeed! Long live the day after!

Pratima@ Excess always has a negative effect (on) 'the day after'. In my childhood, each festival had its uniqueness, the special food/dishes, the special rituals, and so on. To give an example, currently, all the Diwali dishes are available the year long. So the 'janta' craves for 'pau bhaji' on a Diwali day!  

Similarly, so much are people constantly buying, what with the credit (card money) that no novelty remains for the festival special buy even when they would go for it, too. Hence the very charm of 'the day after' is lost! Life thus grows truly banal because it is thus flattened in to the 'typical' sans any variety 'the day after' symbolised! 

Actually, 'the day after' has its own charm. As most people prefer the food metaphor these days, let me end by asserting that the 'one evening old' jilebi or shrikhand has a heavenly thanda, thanda, kool, kool taste' the day after'!

Holi

 Holi! How to understand it? Well, two major trends seem to emerge. The first one is the environmental. As per this ideation, the festival stands for the imminent arrival of the spring, and the end of the trailing winter. In a way, the folk festival is like the burning of the old logwood, and getting ready for the new. The old leaves are shed, the rotten branches are deadwood. Nature blooms with new leaves and fresh colours of flowers that would fructify by the summer.

There is another story, too. It starts with the different mythologies. It would refer to the very many she-demons from the Prahlad story, from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana epics, and how/why these demonesses troubled all, and how they were subdued so that order prevails. 

If the environmental version is more lyrical in tone (lots of (semi-)poetry gets quoted in this quasi- literary presentation), the mythological portrayal is ethical in tone to the tune that the festival symbolises the win, the victory of the good over the evil. 

Both these chronicles are tales by now told umpteen times. Do not you believe me? Well, go through a decade or two of newspaper articles, wapp messages, videos, and what have you, it would have to be either of these stories.Why, i suppose, newspaper desk editors (especially, the feature desk) and the RJ's would be sprucing up their own decades old spiel, like the songs that would tomorrow holler the whole day, with 'Sholay' to 'Silsila', via the 'yeh jawani' that is 'diwani'!

In other words, why are responses getting obviously typical? Why is everybody so obsessed with sounding the very correct note? Well, things are changing real fast, at a break-neck speed everywhere, and in every field of human endeavour. Why the repeat performance of the old records yet again?

 May be, because it provides a sense of security in wor(l)ds spinning with dizzying changes? Or because there is a wariness about communication, about each other, and hence the need to be politically correct, and to tell the safe, time-tested tales? 

Well, is not it the time to toss away the tales told since the nineties? Time to find new meanings, novel answers, pose different questions that would flare up the flames of our intellects, our imaginations, our ideations, our very beings?

Pratima@ As for me, at the personal level, nothing can change the symbolism of Aai's birth date, tithi wise, being the Holi. She never held grudges. Instead, she always chose to make oneself better. Burn up grudges (the bad 'karma' of the wrong-doers would come back to them to haunt them for harassment they inflicted!) and burnish anew hence is the forever holy Holi theme for me!

Yet another notion that now is associated with Holi is the way her favourite niece (Aai liked all of them very much. May be, a softer corner for Arundhati!) passed away on the Holi day last year. Actually, none has any control over death or birth. Yet such occurences tell the tales of affinities beyond bounds for sure!