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Posted by bharath on Thursday, April 12, 2007
Posted by bharath on Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Vonnegut on Democracy
Vonnegut on TDS with JS (9.13.2005):
"I've wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy, because we're good at it. In democracy, after a hundred years, you have to let your slaves go, and after 150 years, you have to let your women vote. At the beginning of democracy, quite a bit of genocide and ethnic cleansing is OK, and that's what's going on now."
Read Cat's Craddle if you get a chance. It is a wonderful treat! ¶ 8:21 AM 2 stomped here! links to this post
"I've wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy, because we're good at it. In democracy, after a hundred years, you have to let your slaves go, and after 150 years, you have to let your women vote. At the beginning of democracy, quite a bit of genocide and ethnic cleansing is OK, and that's what's going on now."
Read Cat's Craddle if you get a chance. It is a wonderful treat! ¶ 8:21 AM 2 stomped here! links to this post
Posted by bharath on Thursday, February 23, 2006
Remembering Manjunath
S.Manjunath ( 23-2-1978 to 19-11-2005 )
Today is his 28th birthday.
On this occasion , a few words of a poet come to mind :
Do not stand at my grave and weep:
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow;
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn rain;
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight;
I am the soft stars that shine at night .
Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there. I DID NOT DIE.
Yes Manjunath you will forever live in our thoughts and hearts and inspire us to meaningful achievements.
Today , Let us remember this gutsy and committed young Indian who truly represents the committed and value driven Gen Next of India.
True homage to this inspired Indian would be to rededicate and redouble our committment to our great Country.
Please pass this on to a few more colleagues and friends so they too once again recall Manjunath and his great sacrifice.
Regards
Ali Sajid Husain
Indian Oil Corporation
Lucknow
Note Passsed on from an Alumnus of IIML. Mr. Sajid Hussain, the IOC nodal officer in Lucknow overseeing the case from their side. visit www.manjunathshanmugamtrust.org
Cartoon Courtesy: Sameer ¶ 5:56 AM 3 stomped here! links to this post
S.Manjunath ( 23-2-1978 to 19-11-2005 )
Today is his 28th birthday.
On this occasion , a few words of a poet come to mind :
Do not stand at my grave and weep:
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow;
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn rain;
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight;
I am the soft stars that shine at night .
Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there. I DID NOT DIE.
Yes Manjunath you will forever live in our thoughts and hearts and inspire us to meaningful achievements.
Today , Let us remember this gutsy and committed young Indian who truly represents the committed and value driven Gen Next of India.
True homage to this inspired Indian would be to rededicate and redouble our committment to our great Country.
Please pass this on to a few more colleagues and friends so they too once again recall Manjunath and his great sacrifice.
Regards
Ali Sajid Husain
Indian Oil Corporation
Lucknow
Note Passsed on from an Alumnus of IIML. Mr. Sajid Hussain, the IOC nodal officer in Lucknow overseeing the case from their side. visit www.manjunathshanmugamtrust.org
Cartoon Courtesy: Sameer ¶ 5:56 AM 3 stomped here! links to this post
Posted by bharath on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Some Movie Reviews
La Vita รจ bella (Life is Beautiful) 1997
Director:Roberto Benini | Italian | IMDB
wow. Roberto Benini! If you thought he would jump out of the television, you might not be crazy. He has such infectious enthusiasm. The movie is set with holocaust in the backdrop, and surrounded by misery of those times. As the story gets narrated you won't get infected by it. The life of a couple, their happy kid is what consumes all of your attention. Yet on the bicycle rides through the street with Benini and his kid, one cannot avoid looking at the shop windows with 'Jews not allowed' signs or the Nazi army marching in the city squares. Or the time when the horse of his uncle is painted in green with Jew-slander. It is difficult to do a drama with comedy when the back drop is so very grim. But then Roberto Benini intends it that way and pulls off a near magic. The basic element of the movie is what we all wish to believe and trust in (even in those grim times, especially in those grim times): Humanity. Yes, Humanity is what Benini chooses to frame for us.
Det Sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) 1957
Director:Ingmar Bergman | Swedish | IMDB
The film, set during the days of the plague, brings a knight in confrontation with death (portrayed as a man dressed in black). The Knight challenges death to a chess duel, so he can bargain time to save a happy couple. To some the couple may symbolise the holy mother and God. The Knight wants to believe there is a god, there is a good that is worth living for. The times, the misery, the hopelessness, the deaths of people falling to the plague, makes such a hope an impossible imagination. Ingmar Bergman, one of the most talented directors of our times, portrays the helplessness, the anguish and misery directly. People are shown going around whipping each other, atoning for their sins, hoping for God's grace to follow. The movie is unrelenting and does not offer hope until the very end; even the end that is offered might not be a real consolation. The movie is a wonderful conversation, one that many of us have at one time or the other.
Le Corbeau (The Raven) 1941
Director:Henri-Georges Clouzot | French | IMDB
A really nice film about a doctor who is slandered by anonymous letters written by "The Raven" accusing him as an abortionist. Slowly the people of the township start to be troubled by the letters and its contents as the accusations start to engulf others. The doctor must act quickly, else "The Raven" would have done serious damage to his reputation. The movie depicts the slow coming apart of the society as slander spreads, and people start to doubt "what if there is any truth to the letters?, what if?". There is nothing superlative in terms of direction in this movie. What it does have is a plot and script which are tightly woven in the narrative. As many french movies that came later, the interest is maintained mainly through characters of differing backgrounds: a mother, a bureaucrat of modest reputation, a businessman, and the women in the town whose name gets embroiled in this controversy. In the end you get a very entertaining movie that keeps you guessing.
Director:Roberto Benini | Italian | IMDB
wow. Roberto Benini! If you thought he would jump out of the television, you might not be crazy. He has such infectious enthusiasm. The movie is set with holocaust in the backdrop, and surrounded by misery of those times. As the story gets narrated you won't get infected by it. The life of a couple, their happy kid is what consumes all of your attention. Yet on the bicycle rides through the street with Benini and his kid, one cannot avoid looking at the shop windows with 'Jews not allowed' signs or the Nazi army marching in the city squares. Or the time when the horse of his uncle is painted in green with Jew-slander. It is difficult to do a drama with comedy when the back drop is so very grim. But then Roberto Benini intends it that way and pulls off a near magic. The basic element of the movie is what we all wish to believe and trust in (even in those grim times, especially in those grim times): Humanity. Yes, Humanity is what Benini chooses to frame for us.
Det Sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) 1957
Director:Ingmar Bergman | Swedish | IMDB
The film, set during the days of the plague, brings a knight in confrontation with death (portrayed as a man dressed in black). The Knight challenges death to a chess duel, so he can bargain time to save a happy couple. To some the couple may symbolise the holy mother and God. The Knight wants to believe there is a god, there is a good that is worth living for. The times, the misery, the hopelessness, the deaths of people falling to the plague, makes such a hope an impossible imagination. Ingmar Bergman, one of the most talented directors of our times, portrays the helplessness, the anguish and misery directly. People are shown going around whipping each other, atoning for their sins, hoping for God's grace to follow. The movie is unrelenting and does not offer hope until the very end; even the end that is offered might not be a real consolation. The movie is a wonderful conversation, one that many of us have at one time or the other.
Le Corbeau (The Raven) 1941
Director:Henri-Georges Clouzot | French | IMDB
A really nice film about a doctor who is slandered by anonymous letters written by "The Raven" accusing him as an abortionist. Slowly the people of the township start to be troubled by the letters and its contents as the accusations start to engulf others. The doctor must act quickly, else "The Raven" would have done serious damage to his reputation. The movie depicts the slow coming apart of the society as slander spreads, and people start to doubt "what if there is any truth to the letters?, what if?". There is nothing superlative in terms of direction in this movie. What it does have is a plot and script which are tightly woven in the narrative. As many french movies that came later, the interest is maintained mainly through characters of differing backgrounds: a mother, a bureaucrat of modest reputation, a businessman, and the women in the town whose name gets embroiled in this controversy. In the end you get a very entertaining movie that keeps you guessing.
Labels: Movies
¶ 5:34 PM 2 stomped here! links to this post
Posted by bharath on Friday, February 17, 2006
Mar Adentro
Mar Adentro (Portugese) 4.5/5
IMDB tt0369702
This is a really moving story of a quadriplegic in legal battle with the state of Spain for permission to Euthanise himself. Ramon Sampedro, the main character played by Javier Bardem, deserves our fullest appreciation for playing a role which allowed for little physical expression. The story gets carried through with great dignity and poignance, one that it fully deserves. The struggles in the life of a quadriplegic, the whole reason behind life and what it means to live, sets us thinking. It is hard to avoid these questions in the movie, as you are confronted by Ramon Sampedro throughout. All people around Ramon trying with all their hearts and love to assure him that it is still worth living, makes the movie more like a conversation. As the movie goes both ways on the issue, we are left alone to make up our mind. The movie is based on a true incident. So, we cannot pay as much attention to the ending as we must to the conversation that makes up the story.
It does make one wonder "Is life of a quadriplegic really a life worth living?" Especially when they feel like a vegetable. It also raises the question whether physically challenged have the same life as others, as we confront them in every walk of life. If so, why does the constitution(s) assert life as if it is equal. After all there appears to be irreconciliable differences, ones that can't be fixed purely by opportunities.
If there is movie you wish you had seen, this should make the cut.
IMDB tt0369702
This is a really moving story of a quadriplegic in legal battle with the state of Spain for permission to Euthanise himself. Ramon Sampedro, the main character played by Javier Bardem, deserves our fullest appreciation for playing a role which allowed for little physical expression. The story gets carried through with great dignity and poignance, one that it fully deserves. The struggles in the life of a quadriplegic, the whole reason behind life and what it means to live, sets us thinking. It is hard to avoid these questions in the movie, as you are confronted by Ramon Sampedro throughout. All people around Ramon trying with all their hearts and love to assure him that it is still worth living, makes the movie more like a conversation. As the movie goes both ways on the issue, we are left alone to make up our mind. The movie is based on a true incident. So, we cannot pay as much attention to the ending as we must to the conversation that makes up the story.
It does make one wonder "Is life of a quadriplegic really a life worth living?" Especially when they feel like a vegetable. It also raises the question whether physically challenged have the same life as others, as we confront them in every walk of life. If so, why does the constitution(s) assert life as if it is equal. After all there appears to be irreconciliable differences, ones that can't be fixed purely by opportunities.
If there is movie you wish you had seen, this should make the cut.
Labels: Movies
¶ 7:55 AM 2 stomped here! links to this post
