Irrational Faith-1

This post is formed by compiling various lines from Internet. Not quoted as original writeup by me but an authentic work to represent mine thinking. Topic will be continued in future as series.

A lethal combination of blog post and documentary input have created havoc inside me to scan the topic of faith. I was provoked to write as a human what I feel. Either I was doubting belief or believing doubt. A thorough philosophical analysis and balancing act about religion and God is done by my friend Rajneesh in his blog brilliantly as he has heard whisper of my conscious secretly.The belief that is not based on evidence is one of the world's great evils. Inspite of providing some peace to the common man, the logic devoid faith has created violent extremist in every religion and nation.

Now, I am diverting my anger towards Islamic and Communist regime for expressing my point of view. Many moderates assume that religious "extremism" is rare and therefore not all that consequential. But we know, religious extremism is not rare, and it is hugely consequential. There is always huge pathos in moderates when hardliners take reign in their hands and take community/ nation in hell. Moderates can plainly speak hollow words when gun barrels and violent action leads the way of destruction. This infidelity of moderates is explained as being too tolerant towards intolerance.

In one of his essays, Professor Russell says “I sometimes have the impression that in the field of Islamic studies more than most, scholars feel a need to be ‘diplomatic’ (which, let us face it, is only a polite way of saying ‘less than completely honest’) so that influential people will not be offended." And then he refers to Hardy in the Explanatory Note to Tess—that ‘if an offence comes out of the truth, better it is that the offence come out than that the truth be concealed.’

Several authors have identified how the writing of history in Pakistan has been systematically distorted to foster an artificial identity and ideology. In History perhaps more than in any other subject, there needs to be a clear balance between presenting complex facts and arguments in a concise and objective manner. Islamic and communist hardliners uses history and educational system as their tool to create mass support to them. It is like amnesia to common public having limited access to finer details of the history and information. History when contradicts the memory of living,the nation or community is on the verge of self destruction. By omitting a critical and honest discussion of these factors and by glorifying and romanticizing these conquests the student is deprived of learning about the forces and dynamics that shape history, in particular those that have shaped the destiny of our own land. Point of view of student become limited and many parameters are not being considered for the fear of creating doubt in the mind of learner. Exposed constantly to a one dimensional, mono-visual world in texts which allows no room for discussion or debate and subjected to a teaching methodology that encourages rote learning as the only means to passing exams. The gender and class biases seed's are sown here in the young minds.

I strongly favour that both doubt and faith should be judged on the basis of logic. I don't deny my diversion towards 'Anubhuti' concept of Hinduism which favours 'Anubhuti' above 'Gyan' as wholesome. But it strongly recommends to obtain 'Gyan' through rational thinking. Received wisdom is something that kills of any form of criticism, and our own ideas to question. The problem with us is that we form judgments rather than asking questions. We have killed our curiosity, because we have already found out the meaning of life.Its sad!...

Always eternal quest for truth start and continue with a doubt only.

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."-Steven Weinberg

What good is cinema if it trails behind literature ?

Rissent put it, “It’s not about just loving a film, and one must love it for the right reasons.”

Why I lament again and again as stubborn child on the lack of the better films in the mainstream cinema? I find exact words for my pain in writings of Nitish : 'In every other profession, work or hobby people have the right to be intelligent but in cinema its considered a sin- Intellect is bad for health and bad for cinema.'

If cinema is for entertainment only, then literature should be used as medium of entertainment only. Premchand should be rated below Chetan Bhagat and gossip columns should be inserted into our academics for enhancing the escapism only.

The purpose of a film should not be to alienate people in escapism. Cinema is there for reflecting our lives, dreams, ambition and hidden desires on the celluloid. Better films are needed to fill the void of good commercial cinema. Further, quoting my friend Nitish: It's our duty to inform that Andre Bazin existed and so did Ritwik Ghatak from villages to towns, to cities and metroes to everyone and anyone... who have a second to spare.

Dynasticism in bollywood or politics generates a conservative non-thinker spoiled brat that comes from sucking too hard on a silver spoon for generations. Hence the fortress bollywood remain unbreached for new ideas and concepts. Let us evolve as an audience and give chance to film makers to evolve or extinct from the face of the Indian cinema. I believe that we have lot of unique things to offer to the world through this cinematic medium.

For going into detail of the topic,go through these web links....

1- A cinephile, Anuj explores on the perennial advise everyone has "Why don't you go and make movies in Bombay" for changing the scenario of Indian Cinema.

2-A unique comparison of Independent Cinema with free software movement.- "Do You want to make a film (Open Cinema Foundation)"

3-Muzaffer Ali explore the place of Bollywood in the world cinema and ground realities about fall of Indian cinema into abyss.

4-Corporates are not only exploiting natural resources, they also endangers cinema by making it as consumer product like coke or Pepsi. Hence a look on independent cinema in this equation by K. Hariharan

5-Discussion on cinema and literature by Gulzar, Javed Akhtar and UR Anathamurthy and on the need for filmmakers to live the written word before attempting it on celluloid.

--- Finally, an article to support cinema as greater medium than literature by thorough analysis.

India like every year is missing in action at Cannes Film Festival but not film stars with Indian media asking questions to stalwarts of world cinema “Do you watch bollywood movies?"

I want these bollywood crazy media guys to be rebuked by a white Caucasian guy heavily and telling them to watch cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, John Barua, Kumar Sahini, Mani Kaul or Shyam Benegal. And atleast know the name of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak or Mrinal Sen. I want to see the ashamed and amazed faces of bollywood stars and crazy Indian media on knowing existence of these unknown genius of Indian cinema by distant foreigners. Is this mine day dream or just hidden pain....

3 Anecdotes & a Joke

For the sake of blogging, three abstract thoughts that influenced me in 3 days. And a quite old joke which makes me laugh even today.

1-There is an interesting anecdote from a Godard film. In one of his film a daughter asked her father, “Papa, tell me how do we know a person is trustworthy”, her papa replied, ask him whether he loves reading? And if he replies Balzac, Shakespeare, Homer…move on, but if he asks you.” What do you mean by reading?” there is hope. [Origin]

2-As per Rabindranath Tagore's famous poem, when God told Valmiki to write the Ramayana, the life-story of a king yet to be born, Valmiki reportedly asked God: "But how can I write an accurate account of what has not even happened?"God then told Valmiki: "It does not matter what Rama will be or what he will do. What the ages will remember is simply what you shall write. That will be the only truth." Origin]

3-A sage who had retired to the hills since many decades was once cajoled by his disciples to come down and experience the plains. One of the disciples was the probing kind; he was well read, intelligent, and full of rationale. When Swamiji reached the city, the disciple managed to convince him for an outing to a multiplex, very reluctantly though. The movie was a typical bollywood potboiler filled with every conceivable emotion on earth. Swamiji sat through the entire movie unflinchingly. At the end of the movie, as every one tried to make way towards the exit, the disciple asked, “What was the experience like, Swamiji?”

Swamiji replied, “As long as there was darkness there was love, hate, sadness, laughter, violence, and lust, but all of it dissolved the moment there was light." That was all he saw. [Origin]

Joke: An old joke in Delhi went like this: Police teams from all over the world participated in a lion-capturing competition. At the end of the day, all the police teams had returned -- some successful, some not -- except the Delhi Police. So the organisers went to look for them, and found them with a bear that they had captured, thrashing the animal mercilessly and shouting, "बोल, तू शेर है!" ("Admit it, you're a lion!")

Kamran Khan : The man who would be cricket star

Before IPL:
I noticed a news article and my heart was glad from inside.It stated:"Shane Warne is all set to unleash a fiery Indian teenage pacer Kamran Khan in the second edition of the Indian Premier League. The charismatic Rajasthan Royals skipper calls him 'Wild Thing' or 'Tornado', and says the fast left-arm slinger is capable of hurling the ball at more than 140 kmph."A player from nowhere was coming on the cricketing stage of India.

Azamgarh was in the eye of the nation for all wrong reasons. And to be Muslim from such district is more sinister than anything in these days. In such troubled times for the town, which has forgotten the likes of Kaifi Azami, the advent of a new star in form of cricketer Kamran Khan is a welcome change. He hails from Nadva Sarai, Azamgarh.To even know name of that exact place in Azamgarh, It was great surprise for NRA ( non residential azamgarhi) like me. My mother has studied there in her childhood days hence heard of this remote small village.For clarification, Nadva Sarai village was in Mau district but now falls in Azamgarh commissionaire.

Biography and profile will be spread here and there now on the newspaper or internet. Left-arm seamer Kamran Khan was picked out of obscurity when the Rajasthan Royals signed him up for the second season of the IPL. Darren Berry, the team's director of coaching, spotted him in a Twenty20 tournament in Mumbai. He had no first-class experience and Kamran had spent his nights on railway stations when travelling for cricket trials. When he was handed a US$24,000 contract by Rajasthan, Kamran told the Indian Express. "Had this money come two years back, I might not have lost my mother.I always had monetary problems. I never dared to ask money from my brothers. I had one pair of white clothes for trials."

Rise to fame at IPL:
Kamran bowled just one over in the Royals' losing warm-up game against the Cape Cobras Saturday. He bowled a lethal yorker to knock off the stumps of Cobras captain Ontong [Youtube Link]. Even the fake ipl player blog ,he is termed as Akram Azam. A great compliment from a blogger who has tarnished image of many cricketers...

Kamran was overwhelmed by the change in his fortunes over the last few weeks. "Even until few days ago, nobody knew me. I used to play at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai and just hoped to keep on doing the hard work. I'd gone for trials to every part of UP but without success."

Warne’s immense faith in Kamran’s showed when the veteran preferred him over others for the last over and the deciding Super Over.Warne said: “I told him don’t worry about the Super Over. If you hadn’t bowled such a good last over, we would not have been in this situation.”

From now on:
I had long before watched a movie called 'Iqbal' and now it appears like same story of picking a diamond in the rough. Nothing is like success, everybody (like me also) embraces a winner. New success stories will be formed and every Tom, Dick & Harry will run to take credit of his exponential rise. I do not know how far he will go in this cricketing world but he has changed the face of Azamgarh. Atleast a new hero is born in the Azamgarh....

BTP Analysis

Let me bring to you most hilarious analysis of B Tech project ever read by me on Internet. This is a piece of adaption from a post of a great blogger who is also alumnus of my college. I am huge admirer of her writings. A tale of B.T.P. analysis in the season of end semester is mandatory for me.Here we go-------------------

Let me first of all clarify to the readers that the above title is read as "BTP A-null-(th)esis".

For the advantage of all non engineering readers BTP as understood or made understood by any technological institute is expanded as "B.Tech Project". As you all know, B.Tech is the degree for which we toil and survive the 4 years assigned to the course. BTP, however, expanded by technological students would conform to any of the following terms but the one given before :

Badly Timed Project

Breath Taking Project

Brain Twisting Project

Bulk Torture Project

Boring Technology Project

Big Tragedy Project

Bravely Tackled Project
Bas Topic Project

Or some people tend to devise less complicated and non-technological terms to comply to the acronym (courtesy: F&S)

The initiation of BTP occurs with the allotment of the topic which may take place any day from the first week of the semester to the day before the report submission depending on the flexibility of your department, (mis)guide and/or your typing speed. But of course I cannot overlook the presence of your conscience. This leads the inevitable mention of some ELITE (Erroneously Lost In Technology and Engineering) students who comply to the university definition of the acronym and actually work for it. My post assumes their non-existence.

The main work of BTP is the preparation of a flawless, acceptable report. This report can be broaly divided into two types:

1. which has been explored by you so well that you can easily baffle the proffesors giving them a false impression of your knowledge, interest and efforts.
2. which is neither understood by you nor the proffesors such that they prefer not to enter the untried domain.

The first type requires some research of the topic (as in surfing, netting, mostly books are considerd orthodox and seldom used) and if possible a know-how/what/why of the proffesor(s) to make sure that you can baffle him(them). This type thus requires a little more effort than just the report writing in addition to convincing evidence to prove your attempt and success.

The second type with the advancement of technology (as in free-flowing internet) is more easily accessible. It is ready-made, requires less efforts and is more or less hassle free. The only thing to be made sure of is that it conforms to the type mentioned above i.e an untried domain at least to the professor(s).

Once the report is made and submitted, the more dreaded moment arrives - the BTP Viva(or presentation). There however is also a good part about it, that being the end of viva more or less marks the termination of the B.Tech struggles.

The viva involves your explaining to the panel:

• the importance of your project- this is the easiest part (thanks to the technological advancements)
• the work you attempted - this is often confusing. Your (mis)guide can help you with this or you can always turn to the omniscient (internet).
• and the reasons for your inability to complete it - this is the hardest part since you can neither blame it on the department nor yourself. If you can find a way through in this part, trust me, your BTP is complete. The most common way through this is to confidently deny that its left incomplete or to simply disregard the part of completion and talk about future scopes in the project.

While dealing with BTP, the important mantra to remember is "If you can't convince them, confuse them".

If you are through with this all, my heartiest congratulations to you. Now you can sit back, look back and have a hearty laugh.

This write-up is dedicated to my seniors who have taught me the importance (or rather unimportance) of BTP, the anecdotes of their BTP, their running/hiding away from guides, their coffee breaks, the F&S team, their thorough research on the term BTP, my friends whom I have seen struggling (or rather not struggling) for their BTP, their evidences and efforts and lastly all engineering students who have a similar story to tell.

[Diclaimer: This post has no intention of making fun of any institution, any of its ongoing tradition, or the ELITE students of the institution and is based on first hand experience, observation and second hand confessions]

Enjoi!

-Anki.