Ten Issues -24

1- Smokers’ Corner: Real revolutions by Nadeem F. Paracha.

2- The Night Shastri Died And Other Stories by Kuldip Nayar.

3- Why Elites Fail by Christopher Hayes.

4- The real wealth of nations - The Economist

5- Children of the Taliban - PBS Frontline

6- The wedges between productivity and median compensation growth By Lawrence Mishel

7- 'A Perfect and Beautiful Machine': What Darwin's Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence by Daniel C. Dennett.

8- Why so many communist philosophers? by Santiago Zabala

9- Destroying the commons by Noam Chomsky.

10 - Theories of Oppression and Another Dialogue of Cultures by Ashis Nandy Perspectives

Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

A Cinephile

I love world cinema.
I have habit of checking IMDB votes of good films.
I am a person who love movies, conversations about films, and people who love films.
That's who I am,
A cinephile.

Part I
Cinema provides us a cosmetic version of nationhood. We, Indians can great affinity to our cinema. We pay homage to movies through the use of dialogues, style, body language and even songs in daily life. So much of their impact on us that we can either hate or love our films, but definitely can't ignore them.

Ramadhir Singh is more subtle and strategic way in GOW : "Every fucker's got his own movie playing inside his head. Every fucker is trying to become the hero of his imaginary film. As long as there are fucking movies in this country people will continue to be fooled."

There is always so many feel-good and masala potboiler films in our mainstream Hindi cinema. They serve a very important function of delivering entertainment in our society. But one feel-bad film every year can reminds us of the mistakes that we make and hushed up under covers. We need to diversify the portfolio of genre of the films.

The nudity and sexuality in a good film is context, not subject. But, we don't know how to handle even such sensitive topics with grace. We stick to the conservative and moralistic film avoiding burning topics like partition, riots and even naxalism in right light. We are so much adopted to the candyfloss reality that anything that is even a little real, seems dark and taboo. And Indian diaspora is more conservative in preservation of traditions.Hence, none can hope much ray of hope coming from overseas Indian community.

Indian mental liberation has occured through west. There is no denial of this. But we are still colonized in our sense of thinking and acting. If one Western magazine calls a movie "hidden gem" then all of India is calling it "hidden gem". This is current Indian colonialism. There is no inner calling among us to search and promote independent minds of tomorrow's cinema.

Part II
Movies made for "everybody" are actually targeted for nobody in particular. Movies about specific characters in a detailed world are spellbinding because they make no attempt to cater to us; no longer make movies based on personal analysis and outlook to life and to the world.

We seldom see director driven cinema. Its the insult of creativity and vision. A good director (story teller) is a person who represents the sentiments, the unexplored and the unexplained powers that have been handed down to the people through centuries. In India our so called 'meaningful' films often seem shallow because they are about borrowed pains. Seldom does something as deeply felt and skillfully made like Miss Lovely, Supermen of Malegaon, Frozen, Harud, Gandu, Hava Aney Dey etc come our way. We should be grateful for small mercies of such indie directors.

At this age when quick cuts, item numbers and shaky cameras are becoming trends, its a sense of aestheticity to watch a long shotand let us fully appreciate images and dialogues that are well worth watching. Sometimes the story stops in a frame and a spectacle takes place. Either wonder or heartbreaking tors of metaphysical wonders. The visions makes us lost in the grace and glitz of the cinema.

‎"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever does." ~ Margaret Mead

Part III
Witnessing a scene in an anonymous crowd in dark theater. Its the expression of our repressed and private emotions in the public throgh the character of another person.Cinema brings us the secret anguish of frustrations burning in heart with a silent sorrow of failed dreams that surrounds us in loneliness. The picture stands face to face in front of us. It transforms us into the territory where viewers don't know how to react. Humiliation and Compassion of protagonist become ours.

If you are alone, you are more receptive ad look more deeply into things and that is important. That is how cinema can go beyond entertainment and be work of art. You never forget a sad ending and feeling of broken promises. Heroes die and there is chance of heartbreak! You can't simply watch it, you have to absorb it. Great film and silence in the dark surroundings becomes complementary to each other.

There are odd cases that such a great looking film is not particularly re-watchable. Even the story line and script development are good but the whole film re- watching becomes dull experience overall. May be the characters and dialogues are not engaging enough to catch our attention again and again.

---------------------

The world is always a battle ground between romantics and realist. And we want a healthy balance between them in our cinematic arena. We all know that life time vale of cinematic product like documentaries, short films, movies are enormous and passed through generation like a cultural heritage. Roosevelt insisted that photographers and writers document the Great Depression, they produced iconic work that allowed America to doubt its myths but also to get back on track. Can't we do same with our cinema ? I have faith in future of good cinema. Do you have ?

"Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul."- Jean Luc Godard

BHU Kulgeet

मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।
यह तीन लोकों से न्यारी काशी ।
सुज्ञान धर्म और सत्यराशी ।।
बसी है गंगा के रम्य तट पर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
नये नहीं हैं यह ईंट पत्थर ।
है विश्वकर्मा का कार्य सुन्दर ।।
रचे हैं विद्या के भव्य मन्दिर, यह सर्वस्रष्टि की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
यहाँ की है यह पवित्र शिक्षा ।
कि सत्य पहले फिर आत्मरक्षा ।।
बिके हरिश्चन्द्र थे यहीं पर, यह सत्यशिक्षा की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
यह वेद ईश्वर की सत्यवानी ।
बने जिन्हें पढ के ब्रह्यज्ञानी ।।
थे व्यास जी ने रचे यहीं पर, यह ब्रह्यविद्या की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
यह मुक्तिपद को दिलाने वाले ।
सुधर्म पथ पर चलाने वाले ।।
यहीं फले फूले बुद्ध शंकर, यह राजॠषियों की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
सुरम्य धारायें वरुणा अस्सी ।
नहायें जिनमें कबीर तुलसी ।।
भला हो कविता का क्यों न आकर, यह वाक्विद्या की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
विविध कला अर्थशास्त्र गायन ।
गणित खनिज औषधि रसायन ।।
प्रतीचि-प्राची का मेल सुन्दर, यह विश्वविद्या की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।
यह मालवीय जी की देशभक्ति ।
यह उनका साहस यह उनकी शक्ति ।।
प्रकट हुई है नवीन होकर, यह कर्मवीरों की राजधानी ।
मधुर मनोहर अतीव सुन्दर, यह सर्वविद्या की राजधानी ।।

---By Dr S.S.Bhatnagar
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To read the interpretation of this kulgeet, click on Kulgeet (English).
To listen to this kulgeet, click on BHU Kulgeet. (This broken link has been recently fixed)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Literal meanings:
विश्वकर्मा - Lord of architecture
सर्वस्रष्टि - All creation of nature
बिके हरिश्चन्द्र थे यहीं पर - Once King Harishchandra even sold himself to keep up the truth of his words, providing a glorious example of his morals on this land of Kashi. Read full story of him by clicking here.
थे व्यास जी ने रचे यहीं पर - Maharishi Ved Vyas ji wrote sacred books, including Mahabharat, in Kashi.
मुक्तिपद - Steps of freedom
यहीं फले फूले बुद्ध शंकर - Kashi is the place of first sermon Lord Buddha (in Sarnath) and land of Lord Shankar (Kashi Vishwanath Bhagwan)
वरुणा, अस्सी - The two tributaries of River Ganga; Varanasi name comes from Varuna + Assi.
नहायें जिनमें कबीर तुलसी - Kabirdas was born in Kashi and Tulsidas ji was born on the ganga shore
वाक्विद्या - Study of voice (Speech and Poetry)
प्रतीचि-प्राची का मेल सुन्दर - Beautiful mix of east (prachi) and west (pratichi)
विविध कला अर्थशास्त्र गायन गणित खनिज औषधि रसायन - Multiple Arts, Economics, Music, Mathematics, Mining, Medicine and Chemical Science
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Puneet Pandey for the post.

Life of A Rural Manager

What is unofficial tagline of Brand Rural Management Programme at XIMB : “We Try Harder”

A simple question is asked by an aspirant, “Why does anybody ever want XIMB-RM as first choice in admission ?”

Yes, we all know that “XIMB-RM is only No. 2.”

Yet the reply is simple: “We try harder in nurturing our budding rural manager because we have to make a point. It's always the second ranker who works harder and learns a lot more in the process.”

The origination of the answer is not to create a cute, gimmick, but instead it was – and is -- a business philosophy that every XIMB-RM students holds true. Each and every student of rural management knows that he must work harder and learn extensively than their counterparts. XIMB - RM focus on frank and truthful statements about our ranks and education philosophy. This institution is a Sangam (confluence) where we seek to find balance between mainstream business and development of people on margins.

As I write this, I'm enjoying cool breeze of Vagator beach, Goa with a chilled beer. Actually, that’s not the true case at all. I'm sitting in a small room with bare minimum facilities at Gajapati district during winter internship. I assumed before joining XIMB that I can handle the weather of Odisha. Rarely, it rains mildly with a romantic weather. Its always either a dull humid weather or heavy rains. Nothing weakens Superman like Green kryptonite, the humidity acts same way here draining all energy! For once, we can wish cool weather every day (yes dear XIMBians, We all love Bhubaneshwar weather :X)! To add to that rigour were other matters like bad food (very very important). We love cuisine like Night-mess ka roasted chicken to X-cafe ka garlic chicken soup.

Arbeit macht frei is a German phrase, literally "labour makes (you) free". The slogan is known for having been placed over the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, but that should be put on the entrance of this place. Yes, life is not so cool here. Time is a scare commodity in this place. Yet, one can see endless usage of time in various activities. People still have the spirits to involve in various Committees, quizzes, games and X-Walks. But this is a thing about XIMB: you rarely get time for yourself. Even the whole 24 hours seems to be exhausting, tiring and even suicidal as it can sometimes get, I don't think any of us would want it any other way.

When Rural India wakes Up at 5:00 AM only then our rural managers stop their interactive chatting sessions and start dreaming of liberal days of graduation. 15 minutes before beginning of the class, get you Ass Up Fast is the call from the beloved lazy neighbor. Even then, 9 out of 10 Rural managers are firmly grounded on their bed. Such is the start of the day and the forecasting of whole saga of two years can be made on this start.

There are not only Intelligentsia, Devil's Advocate, Activist, Salesman and Social workers but also Mamas, Chachas, Night-Owls & Free-riders present in each batch. There are people here who provide a lot of joy whenever they leave the room. While one or two are such masterpiece while everybody was drinking from the fountain of knowledge they only gargled. Yes, there are superstars who gives solid evidence of halo effect. Some of ours species can even argue with a signpost but there is one with whom it's hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm. I fall in the category of rural managers who set low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.

Before a layman goes on a trip, one may want to read more about the history, the people, the landscapes, and the present political and cultural situation of the destined place. That is the pedagogy of academics for rural manager. Donor Mentality, CSR activities, Development tourism, Caste based business, deep poverty, top down approach of government, rehabilitation policy etc ... we were mentored for two years to question authority and yet develop leadership traits.

Our alumni travel across India and are ease with corporate office as well as a tribal community in a remote region. That sets us apart from our colleagues in India. We have our internal conflicts like how we will integrate development (not sure what it meant then) with surging profits of the company. We know both about CK Prahlad and P Sainath. P Sainath who? A question that is asked too frequently from the rural managers.

And we learn in two years : For India, reality bites. But Lage Raho India ,dream on! Business Managers are good Hegelian. They have a good theory, forget about the reality. Hence, the author has chosen to become rural manager. Yes, saying golden words in the end, we all have a deep love for 'sustainable development' of all 'stakeholders'.

Notice: This was a draft written long ago treasured in archives of the blog for unknown reason. It's been like 8 months since I last wrote in one flow. I am throwing a glimpse of life of a rural manager tailored at XIMB.

Ten Ted Talks

1- Adam Savage: How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries.



2- Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career



3- Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability



4- Brené Brown: Listening to shame



5- Hans Rosling: Religions and babies



6- William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes



7- Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea



8- Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice



9- Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better



10- Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation



Quote of the Day : “As a teacher and a writer, I'm not interested in just producing books, and I'm not interested in just reproducing class after class of people who will get out, become successful, and take their obedient places in slots that society has prepared for them. What most of us must be involved in—whether we teach or write, make films, play music, act, whatever we do—has to not only make people feel good and inspired and at one with other people around them, but also has to educate a new generation to do this very modest thing: change the world.”— Howard Zinn