Who killed the Imaginative Indian?

Four students return home after their training. On the way, they see the skeletal remains of a lion. Thinking that to be the best opportunity to test their skills, three of them decide to give life to the lion. Now the fourth guy who happens to be dumb at studies, objects. He argues that giving back life to a dead lion would be a rash act and would boomerang on them. The others ignore him. The dumb fellow then proceeds to climb the nearest tree, while the others go ahead and put their skills to test. One of them uses his knowledge to arrange the skeletal remains, over which the next student adds the muscles and tissues. The last one uses his knowledge to breathe life into the lion. The lion on getting to its feet promptly makes a meal of the smart three. The dumbass on the tree looks on sadly.

An entreprenuer uses his money and advertising skills to bring together a group of genetic engineers and paleontologists to recreate a species dead for 65 million years. The lone mathematician in the group objects. He criticises the entrepreneur and the scientists involved for playing with living objects as if they were toys. He predicts that the system would collapse. It does. The mathematician survives to tell the tale.

What do the two stories have in common. The second is the gist of Michael Crichton's Jurrasic Park. The first is a story from Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma from around 200 BC. Now the claim is not that Crichton flicked the idea from Panchtantra. He most probably does not know about the existence of this work. And neither do I belong to the clan led by Swami Dayanand Saraswathi to make "engineered" claims about India's glorious genetic past. What I find similar and hence interesting is the thought about the dangers of easy knowledge or "off the shelf technology". The aim of the Panchatantra story is most probably to warn about the dangers of text book knowledge not supplemented with common sense. But if the upper layer is slightly ruffled one finds a more important and profound thought coming to fore. That being, the discipline which one should develop along with the technology.

Crichton puts this thought across, through the character of the mathematician Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park. Scientific power is like "inherited wealth......Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apparenticeship, a discipline lasting many years ...... Whatever it is you seek, you have to give up a lot to get it.............Now what is interesting about this process is that by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to a point where he won't use it unwisely...."

Crichton gives a very good example of the sort of discipline which science does not foster in the mind of the user.
"A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife. The person who kills is the person who has no discipline.......who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special....."

The Mahabharta provides a simple illustration of the need for discipline which one should develop along with any skill and the dangers, the lack of this control causes. Ashwattama is one of the 3 survivors after the war in the Kaurava army. He vows to destroy the Pandavas and in the figt with Arjuna unleashes the deadly Brahmastra on them. Arjuna counters it with a deadly weapon of his own. But Veda Vyasa intervenes fearing the calamity that the weapons would bring to the land. He advices both the parties to retract the weapons. Now Arjuna, being more disciplined and having mastered the use of weapon the hard way, manages to do it. But Ashwattama was imparted the knowledge of the weapon by Drona, out of affection for him. Ashwattama didn't have the superior discipline which was a necessary condition to handle such weapons. Hence he is not able to call back the weapon. And he is forced to target it onto Uttaraa's womb containing Parakshit who is then brought alive by Krishna(Now that is something which I have always found difficult to digest..but more on that in later posts). But again the point made is that one shouldn't get to use a technology unless one shows the discipine and control required for the proper use of the technology. The Mahabharata example even suggests a need for the ability to outrightly erase the action and not just provide remedies.

While there were men in India atleast 2000 years back, who could think about the risks of technology and could visualise the dangers that accompanies the acquisition of knowledge, the 'Shining Indians' of the present can't even make a decent movie without being unabashedly inspired by some Hollywood movie or novel. This leads to my favourite question,"Who killed the imaginative Indian"...A simplified answer I guess would be a mix of snobbish,opportunistic, spineless and stagnant Brahmins, fanatic Muslim kings, and to top it all the self righteous civilisers from the British Isles who set up an education system to provide them with obedient dubashi clerks, an education system we still have not tried to change.

Thank you media

One day Bangladesh (which is no minnow having already defeated India once and more importantly Australia and Pakistan convincingly) defeats an insipid Indian team and the whole nation (or so it seems if you trust the news channels) is fuming. The sons of the soil are so pained that they wreak havoc on Dhoni's house. (One just wishes they do this to their local MLA's or councillors house post elections). And a couple of days later India thrashes a lowly Bermuda and the news channels can't stop praising the event for the next 24 hours. Added to this the media and other personalities go gaga over Sehwag for thrashing a side which was easily the poorest in the World Cup. Maybe we should include him in the Indian cricket Hall Of Fame.

So where does it all lead. An upset is made into a disaster and a stroll in the park is presented as a magnificent triumph. Hail the media for adding spice to our life. I just can't imagine how boring our lives would have been without you folks. I tell you, the next time we have a religious riot, you guys will be the biggest instigators. Thanks for that in advance.

Venneer with Panneer - 2 ( Entry scenes for heroes)

There is this thing called a stylish entry scene for our heroes, where the hero enters with a bang.....For Rajini and his clones there will be the camera panning from the shoes(which will be a Nike even if hero is a velai illai pattadari) to the face and then a smile and a wink followed by a song where the hero praises himself sky high. If the hero happens to be too modest then he will get some vetti fellows to do the praising. Another version would be a fight scene with a hand suddenly appearing to stop the villian from cutting off one pava patta ponnusamy's head or stripping off some pookari's saree....The clenched muscles and sweaty hands and the music reaching a crescendo turns an anticlimax as the camera reveals the owner of the iron hand to be Ramarajan in pink shirt and green pants.

One of the earliest stylish entry scenes was in Sivaji's Raja Raja Chozhan. While the head sculptor is busy at his work, his young assistant, who has to give him his betel leaves, runs away, without telling the sculptor. When the sculptor asks for the leaves, a hand with a bracelet appears on screen and as the sculptor turns to spit the leaves in the jar he notices that it is the king standing and giving him the leaves. As Sivaji enters the screen you have proper entry music with Thavil pattayakalappifying. And then the great man gives an acknowledging nod in his usual style. Truly a classic opening piece. And it straight away makes a point about the nature of the art loving king.

But apart from this and a few others there have not been many really wonderful opening scenes which also make a distinctive point about the nature of the character. So as usual while searching for anything quality in Tamil movies, one turns to Kamal's(mostly post nayagan) movies. So here is the list of my top 3 opening scenes for Kamal. All these scenes in addition to being interesting make a point about the character of the hero.

1. Opening scene of Nammavar with Kamal entering the college during a bloody strike. He ducks as a bottle is thrown at him by Karan, when he tries to enter the college. He turns around to show a thumbs down, making the point that he has seen it all and won't be intimidated by that. This is Kamal's most stylish enry scene ever. The purposeful lecturer not about to be put off by kids wielding weapons. A brilliant start to a not so brilliant movie.

2. There are some roles which Kamal could do a lot better than Sivaji. One of them being, acting clumsy and awkard. A case in study being the Chaplinsque scene with Kamal getting stuck trying to push a trolley through a small door at the airport. What follows is a laugh riot. What better introduction does the clumsy Sakthivel Gounder of Sathi Leelavathy need.

3. The station scene in Thevar Magan makes a contrasting point to the serious role which Sakthi would have to play later in life. For the moment life for this man is all fun and frolic. And by the time the movie ends one is left wondering sadly, eppadi iruntha Sakthi ippadi aaitaru.

These are my top 3. Maybe Bala and others could add a few more to this.

Haikus...all the way...

This is a collection of 9 haiku’s I wrote at Saarang 05. Haiku is a japanese verse form having 5-7-5 syllable scheme. They should necessarily have a reference to a season (atleast indirectly). Even pointers to a season are allowed.(eg Mosquitoes refer to summer,snow to winter etc). Metaphors and simlies are to be avoided. As this is my first attempt at Haiku all my verses do not necessarily stick to the 5-7-5 scheme. But I have tried to bring in the seasons concept in most. We were given a few words and asked to write haiku’s having a connection ( however vague)with the word.

1.Woman

Half of god,
Lost in the sleaze
Where is she?

2. Silence

Post the cacaphony
In the autumn of life
Yearning for silence.

3. Kitten

Damn the lineage
Small and weak it may be
Cat is still tiger family

4. Grass

Apostles of peace
Do not trample me
Abode of insects

5. Blue

How to describe
Rainbow in the sky
To the colourblind


6. Physics

Saying heating expands
So summer days are longer
Is no physics


7. Death

On an invisible horse
Fast as a cyclonic wind
Death chased me

8. Train

Life does not stop
Unlike a speeding train
For tracks under water

9. Phone

When in heat
Cuckoo needs no phone
To pick its mate