Born Into The Brothel

A marvelous documentary by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski is the winner of the 77th annual Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It is a portrait of children of Red light district of Calcutta where their mothers work as prostitute. Zana, a photographer from New York spends her time with these children by providing them cameras to capture the hues of this world through their own eyes.
There is a group of few children of age less than fifteen. Zana talks to them and makes a great fun with photography. As she spends more and more time with these children, she feels herself very close to them. She decides to do something and starts working on their schooling. Somehow she gets an initial success in convincing parents but the main problem arises in finding a good school. She talks few of them in the city but due to the background of children, they all simply refuse to take them. Finally she talks with social organizations and foundations. With her strenuous efforts, few of those children get into the schools.
The main theme revolves around the children and their lives in brothel. Many of them have the ambitions to study but due to filthy environment and poor financial conditions, all their dreams have been shattering. They have accepted the cruel reality of life. Their worlds have been shrunk around the brothel itself. Zana shows them a ray of hope with a camera. That camera changes many things in their lives. They see a complete new world with the help of this device. These are the pictures taken by them which reflect their ideas and farsightedness.
I liked this documentary, not because of its overall rating but the softness that was untouched so far. There were many incidents when tears rolled down my cheeks. I have not been able to resist my self to think again and again since then.
There will be many such children who will not be able to live a good life. Is it their destiny that they were born into such places while I born into a well civilized, educated family? I have been getting a good education, a respectable social life. What are their faults???
Only their fates led them to hell while mine to a so called ‘heaven’. Why ???????

Khamosh Pani (Silent Water)

I had always been in search of this movie since a long time and thank God! Finally I could find it.
Basically this is a documentary based on Islamic fundamentalistic movement in Pakistan at 1979. The story revolves around a Muslim woman ‘Ayesha’ and her son ‘Saleem’. Ayesha is a middle aged woman, her life centers across her son who is in love with a school girl. As the story progresses, Saleem involves in an Islamic movement. Ayesha is saddened to see her son change radically. Sikh pilgrims come to that place for the worship. Later, a pilgrim looks for his sister Veero who was abducted in 1947. This awakens heart rendering memories of ‘Ayesha’ who remembers the incident in which she (Veero) had to marry with a Muslim to survive.
This story is the mirror of Indo-Pak partition era. Though story revolves around a woman but also provides lot of information.
I had been writing a poem on Indo-Pak border so this documentary helped me a lot in thinking deeply.

For more information about the documentary please click on the link below.
Khamosh Pani(Silent Water)

Changes !!

"Change is the law of nature"
I compare the very first day at IIT and today itself, I realize the changes that occurred in past three years. These changes are transient or for a prolonged period of time are difficult to say. If I push back the memories i.e. three years before when I was in first year, I recall some incidents which give the blurred portraits of mine at that time.

Let’s start with the academics part. I never ever cared about it. I had a notion in my mind that after clearing JEE it was no need to study again so I never gave a damn shit. Always bunked classes and did crap things. The result was, I landed up with 7.28 C.G.P.A (on the scale of 10) while most of my batch mates performed very well.:(

On the account of my worst C.G.P.A, I enjoyed a lot. I was a lively person who always wanted to make every moment precious and memorable. So my ‘self ego’ never came into existence through out the year. But then things changed a lot. I came to new hostel, met different people and learned new things. In the mean time my thinking had been developed a lot. I thought on various topics like philosophy of life, relationship, friendship and so on. I developed a kind of hobby of reading and am very happy that it still persists. All these things helped me to improve myself or I should say to uplift my confidence. Then ‘self ego’ came into existence. Though I enjoyed every moments since then but the way had been changed completely. Now the pleasure shifted in reading books, writing poems and speaking on various issues in public. I can say my inner knowledge has been lit up but have been feeling a complete void something middle of my heart. There are many things which I have been missing since then. I cann’t dance so passionately, not able to talk to my friends in the similar way as I used to do earlier. They might have complaint about it but what could I do. Now things have been changed a lot. This ‘self ego’ taught me to fight for myself or for my existence among my peers.

I know I am not happier but am very satisfied. I have my own way to do things, my own life style and a vision to see this word in a new look. I need these changes to be sustained for a long time to fight against my incompetencies.

Library

I went to the college library after so many days and I was amazed with its new looking. There were new desks and chairs all around. It was very pleased to see students in numbers readind books and discussing something all toghether. Even the computer were installed new so the processing had become very fast. A metal detector will be installed in few days at the door.
I remeber my first year days when I used to go in Library and there were lack of such facilities. I never found students in mass there.
Its good that something is changing and more and more students will come to library to seek their studies. :)

Dravid ensures easy win for India

Rahul Dravid led India to a convincing six-wicket victory over the West Indies in the second league match of the IndianOil Cup at the Rangiri Dambulla International stadium in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, on Sunday.

Full coverage:: India - West Indies

Sri Lanka clinch low-scoring thriller !

Sanath Jayasuriya fought off a dislocated shoulder to guide Sri Lanka to a three-wicket win over India in the opening game of the IndianOil Cup in Dambulla on Saturday. He was named man of the match for his efforts.

It was Sri Lanka's overall depth - in batting and bowling -- that defeated India on the day.

For full coverage click on India-Sri Lanka.

Mumbai grapples with heavy rainfall

Mumbai has been receiving heavy rainfall since Saturday night, which has led to a rise in the water levels again.
Thousands of houses have been washed away and the locals are not too pleased with the way the administration has been handling the situation.
The tracks have been washed away and this has affected the long distance trains. All trains have been cancelled till August 6.