FIRAAQ – Separation or Quest
16 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Absurdity, god, India, Life, Movies, philosophy, Politics, Religion Tags: Firaaq, Godhra, Gujarat, hindu, Indian movies, Movies, Nandita Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Religion, riots in Gujarat
This is a movie by Nandita Das. Her debut.
The movie is shot as an ensemble of lives of people in Gujarat post the Godhra riots. The lives of a Gujarati woman who is subjected to violence in her own home, a woman who cannot get over the violence in the city. A woman whom the riot had shaken up, she could hear people knocking her door crying for help, at her window asking to be let in. People whom a mob was chasing to slaughter. Women and children who were burnt because they belonged to another religion.
The story of a muslim couple, an auto rickshaw driver and his wife, whose house was burnt down by Hindu fundamentalists. An old muslim singer, played by Naseeruddin Shah. A man older than independent India whose love for music does not leave any room for hatred. His music survives the attacks. But he is anguished by humans killing other humans.
A muslim businessman married to a Gujarati girl, whose shop is looted and plundered by the likes of the husband of the Gujarati woman I mentioned earlier.
A little muslim boy in search of his dead father.
These are all people whose lives are changed forever. Why? Because a mob decided that people of a religion should be killed. The Hindus decided the Muslims should be killed. Muslims decided Hindus should be killed.
Why? Why? Why? Ask them why and no one can give one concrete answer. There is none! The truth is no one knows why they have killed or raped. No one understands the anger or the hatred. What is the difference between gods that have form and gods that don’t. Haven’t Hindus been taught that God is omnipotent and omnipresent? God is present in everything. If God is present in everything, how come your belief allows you to accept that God is absent in a muslim?
Politicians are using this mob mentality and what do they gain – 5 more years of power. In the name of religion? Isn’t religion a private emotion? Isn’t my religion sacred to me? Why is my religion superior or inferior to yours? Do singers persecute all people who cannot sing? Do dancers persecute all people who cannot dance? What about painters?
What is this religion for a mass? Is it not my liberation as an individual? I don’t understand.
I was not in Gujarat. But I can hear the screaming, I can smell the fear of people. Why? What are we killing each other for?
After the riots in that defeaning silence, stench of blood who is happy? No one. Everyone has been affected in some way or the other.
When I finished watching the movie, I was shivering. The movie ends on a positive note. But leaves the reality clinging to your skin. The fact that murder was committed at such a scale. Is this not genocide? How come the international forces have turned a blind eye to this? Is it not genocide? What does it take for it to be declared a genocide? Why isn’t India being condemned?
Why is the leadership in India not being condemned? The international community doesn’t care. India is profitable and therefore no one is raising any hue and cry. Is this the country I live in? Is this the world I want to bring children into.
I don’t even know what happened at Godhra. I was hardly 18 when it happened. We wanted to believe that there was reason for the violence, there was none. I only saw burning trains, screaming reporters and crying women. Who knows what the truth is? The truth is what the media paints it to be. Can one hear over the noise of the media. Its all unintelligible sounds. Its cacophony. I don’t even want to know anymore what happened. Can I live with the fact that it did happen? I have to live with the fact that it happened.
There are some who confidently will tell me who actually started it, which is the best magazine to believe. Tehelka seems to be the most reliable account. Yet. It doesn’t explain the desire to burn human flesh, to massacre, to drink blood. I don’t think anyone can answer this question.
The Holocaust – An Essay by an Ignoramous
03 May 2009 1 Comment
in Books, Fiction, Life, philosophy, Politics, Uncategorized Tags: Auschwitz, Holocaust, Imre Kertesz, Life is Beautiful - movie, Odessa File, Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice, The Reader, Valkyrie
“It is as if, after a night of terrible dreams, one looked around the world, defeated, helpless.” – Imre Kertesz
One definitely cannot imagine what the victims of Aushwitz would have gone through. Of course, there is abundant literature on the subject and we get different views in each piece of work. I am going to outline the various things I have read or seen in that connection and may be reflect on the subject.
My first exposure to the Nazi treatment of Jews, obviously apart from word of mouth, came from The Odessa File by Fredrick Foresyth. He is, of course, a master story teller and the book recounts through the diary of one person who commits suicide and the horrors that the concentration camps were. Of course, then I was too young to understand the concept of mass killings or genocide. Let’s just say my sensitivities weren’t that developed.
There was one movie titled “Life is Beautiful” which put a positive spin on the gory past. It was about an intelligent Jew who refuses to let his son despair and manages to convince him that all this was but a game and if they won, they would be rewarded with a big tank. The bleak and horrifying situation around the concentration camp is turned into a game and despite everything, we can not help but smile at the antics of the Protagonist. The child ultimately is freed and one can’t help but feel joyous.
Then, years later I saw Schindler’s List. The movie moved me in many ways and I got a glimpse of what a horror the whole situation actually was. The abuse of power by one man as an example of all the Commanders of the concentration camps who device ingenious ways to torture people. Strangely these persons/German commanders find ways to benefit themselves in the midst of all this. Of course, we see how Schindler manages to let several escape and the historic list actually is the reason for the survival of the entire Jewish community.
Then I watched (not read) Sophie’s Choice. It is an intricate story of a young polish woman who was sent away without reason and without any explanation with her children. Towards the end of the story we learn that Sophie’s choice really relates to her having to make a choice between her two children – to be killed. She ultimately loses both her children and comes to be cared by a mentally challenged person.
An extremely varied perspective is that of “The Reader”, from the eyes of those who were part of the regime, and wish to continue a normal life. The trial, the embarrassment of the protagonist and her experiences at the time. She got little children to read to her before she sent them away! Was she postponing their destiny or was merely arbitrarily using her powers to put an end to their lives? No one can really tell.
I started writing this post in February and then shelved it. However, for some reason I saved it. Yesterday I watched Valkyrie, the movie. This was another perspective. Well, more than a perspective it was an example of hope. It is touching what some German Commanders and Generals tried to achieve for their Germany, who were sensitive to the obnoxious ways of Hitler.
They almost had him. But Hitler was not to be deceived and each of the members of the Valkyrie Operation was shot dead or hung to death.
Of all that I have read and heard of the Holocaust so far, Imre Kertesz’s one sentence (supra) summarises the anguish perfectly. It is difficult to say whose anguish it is – the sufferers, the people who caused the suffering, the silent witnesses or the generation that abhors the silent witnesses.
I wonder what was the command Hitler had over the people. Can a mass of people really, truly believe in the extermination of an entire race? Hitler’s antipathy towards the Jews is really indiscernible. Today, can a Hitler pull something off like that?
Today, possibly we are too factionalised for something like the Holocaust to happen. My only question is, are we today protected against such tyranny were it to be perpetrated by another mad man. Is it even today a possibility? I shudder to think, yes. Only it is a different set of people with a different agenda. Can we protect ourselves? Can we protect our next generation?
I shudder when I think, another holocaust is not impossible.
An Exercise in Excise
02 Jun 2007 Leave a Comment
in Absurdity, Current Affairs, India, Law, legal issues, Politics, Thoughts Tags: Excise Duty, Excise Laws, India, Taxes
When I speak here, I speak as a layman and not as a member of the legal profession. I find it amusing that a State should tax manufacture. That’s what excise is all about.
I make goods – say shoes for instance. I am expected to shell out a percentage of the costs of making the shoes to the Government! Why should I do that? I already pay a percentage of my profits (income tax); I also pay for the same when sold (sales tax), why should I pay for manufacture?
For a society that wishes to promote the greatest good of the greatest number through increasing availability of goods and services – the State is not really helping to achieve that end. I find it absurd that while one gets income tax deductions etc. to help save profits for productive concerns – how is taxing the activity of manufacture of any use? Yes, it does add to the coffers of the Government– but at what cost?
I understand that it helps make exports more competitive, but why do we have to still have such high rates of excise – 16%. To this absurd philosophy of the State, all I can say is that excise should be phased out and no manufacturing unit should be taxed for being productive. But that is never going to happen.
OBC
06 Apr 2007 Leave a Comment
in Current Affairs, India, Politics, Reservation
What is this incessant need to analyse and class people into several kinds of classifications. We apparently have some 3900 odd OBC in India. 3900! Why cant you solve problems unit wise? Why not make the classification purely geographical and eradicate poverty in every village by addressing issues relevant to those areas alone. What is this excessive obsessive need to classify people and put them in psuedo boundaries which have no relevance in real life. Is it not odd? Where did this start? More importantly, where will all this end. I think its time to close one’s eyes to facts that are on the face of it – baseless and immaterial.
The solution is simple – to take each issue and try to reach a logical conclusion. But are we today that simplistic. Lets take a complexity check in future. Let’s tell ourselves that we will only adopt those solutions and take those steps that are logical and simple. Can we rationalise simply.
