Sparsh

The seed of post was sown when Joie de vivre commented in mine recent post that we live in the country where Logon ko democracy ka D bhi nai pata . She was absolutely right that Indians have a long way to go to understand the values of rights and duties of citizen. Personally, I don't have very strong belief in democracy but have a faith in swift and vigilant justice. Yet democracy seems to me as best way of giving voices to myself and the people. This is my naive attempt to understand the complex relationship of justice and democracy. Democracy is ethically right but intellectually void.-- Max Kislanski I once asked my father why people rate parliament above supreme court running on constitution. He replied me that constitution is made for serving the people not the vice-versa. When representative of people at Parliament veto supreme court verdict, they are abiding the rule of people only. I was silenced then. After many years, this memory resurfaces in studying Shahbano Case . ...

The result of 55th National Film Awards are out. And they are quite unbiased ones. National film Awards had also got bad name when Raveena had got it for Daman, Saif for Hum Tum and Karishma for DTPH. It forced me to compile and compose (not purely compose) recent development in Indian cinema through mine observations. We didn't start the fire, It was always burning Since the world's been turning, We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it, But we tried to fight it Billy Joel definitely should have written that song keeping in his mind about cinephiles unbounded zeal or passion or FIRE for cinema . Today,in the words of Margaret Mead, I will express myself: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. All the people involved in this project of educating people about cinema through making films and writing about it are those handful of committed people. Public acceptance can’t be th...

No power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come. --- Victor Hugo Indians also refract technology through their ancient social lenses and let the light that falls on the other side reflect their old prejudices and insecurities. --- Ajit Balkrishnan We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. --- T.S. Eliot To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful. --- Edward R. Murrow If you read a lot of books, you're considered well-read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you're not considered well-viewed. --- Lily Tomlin The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free. --- Swami Vivekanand. Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it. --- Malcom X Democracy cannot cons...

NYTimes journalist, Anand Giridhardas once asked Mufti Shabbir Alam Sidiqi, an important Islamic cleric, whether disenfranchised Muslims were losing faith in India and taking solace in fundamentalist ideas. “What you have in India you have in no other country,” he replied. “In this republic there are rights. We can demand our rights, speak out. In other countries: eat, drink and shut up. Go to Saudi Arabia: you can’t speak. There is Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai, Iraq, Iran. These things are nowhere. They are all dictatorships.” Indian democracy should not work. Democracy brings little to the poor, the state is corrupt, politicians lack principles and ideas. Yet we as citizen with no reason to hope to continue to believe, vote, speak, petition for better India. One fine day, to understand life of people practicing Wahhabi Islam and searching about censorship on blog in Middle East, I came across this blog: The Religious Policeman . It states on its first page: In Memory of the l...

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? "Does observation affect outcome?" Yes, it does in writing. We can assume the unobserved event functions the same as the observed event in a rare case of writing where external observation is not needed. Sometimes event is self-conscious. That is the beauty of writing, it makes you reflective... I insist everyone to write and to clear their point of view or express experiences. Or it may serve the purpose to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning and inhibit clarity. This has happened to me long back ago. A great fellow from 'downsouth' had given me his valuable time and comment to improve my writing skills. I got a mail on asking his opinion on one of the blogpost . The email can be traced back on the date of 16th June 2007 when my blog was just 3 months old with full of spelling and grammar mistakes (Later I edited and republished blogpost on his advice). The person has asked to k...