Quintessence of Dust?
Desert
Spring
Dialectic of history seems to be
waning before the forces of development and progress. Even the highly
radicalized cyber space looks pretty much predictable in the end. The
last year was a momentous year for the netizens. At least, that's
what social scientists have tried to make us believe. From the sands
of Lybia to the firewalls of Chinese commies, we see the people are
virtually sending their governments in the 'clouds'. It has been
argued that governments across the world are now reviewing their
strategies to control and command the individuals from using
different platforms to express, circulate and form opinion. Shaken by
this impending danger our government has acted promptly to censure
net moghuls, like the Goolge and Facebook. How liberal is this
liberal space though? Is this going to make any material change on
the grounds?
This
brave new world is really so various, so new and yet there is very
little human warmth and certitude. The other day I was reading an
article on the forthcoming digital-wallets where standard devices
such as mobile phones could very well work in near future as your
plastic cash on the go. This does not sound outlandish any more [ http://www.google.com/wallet/
]. But the crucial point is
how many Indian shops will be ready to offer such technologies to its
clients. The rise of 'systems' in every sphere of life is so clinical
that the gradual disappearance of grey market camera shops,
traditional book shops looks inevitable at this point in time. I
really don't know how they could reinvent themselves in this changed
atmosphere. The arrival of FDI in the the retail sector that the left
has opposed so earnestly in our country is only a matter of time.
The
signs of disaster cannot be more apparent than this. Ageing
capitalist system is desperately seeking to infuse new blood in its
decaying veins. The vampire needs to suck the life blood of newer
victims to keep its system alive and growing. The sense of calamity
has been further deepened by people's growing disillusionment with
the political system. All of us here are groping in the dark for
answers.
[2]
[2]
Happily
for us, Hindi cinema cannot be accused of such misadventure with its audience's
consciousness. At the most it centres around the salvation of one individual. That's how it is in the Hindi film world. No point in chasing them for that. Last year we witnessed some good cinemas from the
western shore of India, we must make peace with that.
“Toh
Zinda ho tum”
Zoya
Akhtar's Zindegi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)
is basically a sequel to his brother's trend setting movie Dil
Chahta Hai (2001). In most of
the cases sequels fail to live up to the expectations, but this one is
a nice exception, a better rework. The movie has four different
climactic scenes for its principal characters and they come as their
moments of truth. This is perhaps Hrithik Roshan's best performance
till date. Even Katrina Kaif's performance is quite impressive.
Excellent acting skills, pacey dialogues, great script, poetic
treatment came together to produce probably the best Bombaiah movie
of 2011.
“Kun
Fyakun”
A
sudden and sublime realization of the wonder of creation could swell
a person's heart with hitherto unfelt divine emotions. This is one of
the high points of an otherwise forgettable movie Rockstar. The movie
had some promise but it never got translated into a real success due
to lack of cohesion, bad editing,pathetic acting, too many loose
ends, and bad direction. The movie could not be saved but it will be
remembered for some really good moments. Here is one such moment from
the cinema:
[3]
The
Book that shook my world
I
have developed a new mentality for hoarding hundreds of ebooks in my
hard disk. This hoarder's mentality is creating confusion in me as a
reader. It's so disturbing to have so many books before you. It
affects your thought process and topsy-turvies your reading priorities. At
the end you do not know what to do with all these books.
The
increasing capacity in modern hard disks has revolutionized the
concept of archives though. One of my friends is now the proud
possessor of the entire Heidelberg University archive of Bangla
Nineteenth century journals and periodicals. This is really
liberating for people like us, living in some remote corners of the
globe where there is little or no quality library facility. So the
cyber cloud does have some silver linings.
If
I have to mention any one book from my last year's reading list it
has to be – Shahidul Zaheer's Abu Ibrahimer Mrityu (
The Death of Abu Ibrahim,
Dhaka: Maola Brothers,2009). Though published posthumously as a
separate novel in February 2009, many years after its first
publication in a Bangladeshi journal, the book reached me last year.
The circle of truth that embraces the hopeless life of the central
character is so infectious that I felt gradually drawn inside his
inner world, his consciousness. There is an Abu Ibrahim hiding
somewhere in all modern men, Shahidul knew that. But the discovery
leads to no real liberation. The gloom of an existential crisis is so
overpowering that at times I cursed myself for reading the book. But
it has a mysterious air that gradually builds on the reader. Getting
out of this highly tensed zone of consciousness is one hell of a
difficult job.
Stumble
upon
The year 2011 was particularly profitable for me since I discovered some very interesting websites and blogs.
www.lettersofnote.com is
a case in point . This is one website which all my friends would like
to read. Here is one such link: “I
would like to get out of this world before the H-Bomb blows it sky
high”
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/12/i-would-like-to-get-out-of-this-world.html
. If you are not a great fan of the global you may visit your very
own local tea party: http://localparty.tumblr.com/
. The anonymous blogger's take on history is the one that I liked the most:
http://localparty.tumblr.com/post/9551152403
Comments