Farouk Gulsara's Blog, page 155
November 19, 2016
Carefree, care less, careless
Ladybird, Ladybird (1994)
Director: Ken Loach
Now, how often have we seen of individuals, in our day to day lives, who are obviously leading themselves into situations of self-destruction and hopelessness? The clear and present dangers of their moves are apparent to everyone except themselves. They stare into abyss and abyss becomes a part of them. They plunge into acts which self-destructive in nature. They go astray, but there is nothing you can do about it. Your pleas and words of advice just fall on deaf ears. Just how often you have heard them say, " I know what I am doing!", "I am in control here!", "Just leave me alone!", "It is my life!" actually and "Don't control my life!"
In the era of self-empowerment and individualism, nobody can put them in order especially if they are no longer minors. These people not only spiral into self-destruction but pull others into the whirlpool of the same.
The authority takes charge of their lives, but these people do not take it lying down. They resist and retaliate, using emotional blackmail as their shield and tears as lubricants. Lest they forget that the affected parties of their actions also need to lead lives of their own in an emotionally comforting and stable environment. Forget man-made secular legislations, and ancient men used the fear of the watchful 'eyes' of an unknown Being and the repercussions of their worldly acts in an eternal after-life. Our ancestors tried to put law and order into society and put the responsibility of parenting, to take care of the after-effects of our innate biological need to sow our seeds.
This disturbing film is supposedly based on a real story. I suppose we have to be wary of this precept 'based on'. With artistic licence, the sequence of actual events could have been spiced up to arouse our fancy.
It starts in a karaoke bar. Maggie, a single mother with four children from four different fathers, gets cosy with a Paraguayan political refugee, Jorge. The tell their past lives to each other and like a flip of a coin, they start living together. Jorge is a mild-mannered man, but Maggie is a fire-brand woman who has anger management issues and has had repeated relationships with abusive partners. Because her four children were partially burnt in a trapped burning council apartment, the Social Services decide to send her kids to foster homes. She had locked them in when she had gone to work.
The title of the film refers to a silly nursery rhyme of a mother whose children were trapped in a burning house!
Jorge and Maggie go on to have a baby. Unfortunately, Maggie's past came haunting her. The social services' officers caught up with her and took her newborn, not once but twice.
The filmmaker tries to highlight the problems of single-parenting and the society's seemingly careless attitude towards carefree lifestyles.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
Director: Ken Loach
Now, how often have we seen of individuals, in our day to day lives, who are obviously leading themselves into situations of self-destruction and hopelessness? The clear and present dangers of their moves are apparent to everyone except themselves. They stare into abyss and abyss becomes a part of them. They plunge into acts which self-destructive in nature. They go astray, but there is nothing you can do about it. Your pleas and words of advice just fall on deaf ears. Just how often you have heard them say, " I know what I am doing!", "I am in control here!", "Just leave me alone!", "It is my life!" actually and "Don't control my life!"In the era of self-empowerment and individualism, nobody can put them in order especially if they are no longer minors. These people not only spiral into self-destruction but pull others into the whirlpool of the same.
The authority takes charge of their lives, but these people do not take it lying down. They resist and retaliate, using emotional blackmail as their shield and tears as lubricants. Lest they forget that the affected parties of their actions also need to lead lives of their own in an emotionally comforting and stable environment. Forget man-made secular legislations, and ancient men used the fear of the watchful 'eyes' of an unknown Being and the repercussions of their worldly acts in an eternal after-life. Our ancestors tried to put law and order into society and put the responsibility of parenting, to take care of the after-effects of our innate biological need to sow our seeds.
This disturbing film is supposedly based on a real story. I suppose we have to be wary of this precept 'based on'. With artistic licence, the sequence of actual events could have been spiced up to arouse our fancy.
It starts in a karaoke bar. Maggie, a single mother with four children from four different fathers, gets cosy with a Paraguayan political refugee, Jorge. The tell their past lives to each other and like a flip of a coin, they start living together. Jorge is a mild-mannered man, but Maggie is a fire-brand woman who has anger management issues and has had repeated relationships with abusive partners. Because her four children were partially burnt in a trapped burning council apartment, the Social Services decide to send her kids to foster homes. She had locked them in when she had gone to work.
The title of the film refers to a silly nursery rhyme of a mother whose children were trapped in a burning house!
Jorge and Maggie go on to have a baby. Unfortunately, Maggie's past came haunting her. The social services' officers caught up with her and took her newborn, not once but twice.
The filmmaker tries to highlight the problems of single-parenting and the society's seemingly careless attitude towards carefree lifestyles.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 17, 2016
A future not so bright!
Before the Flood (2016)
This must surely be the follow-up to Al Gore's 2006 'The Inconvenient Truth'. It is an indirect manner of telling that nothing much has changed in the past ten years except that what was known as global warming is now referred to as climate change. The latter seems to be a more appropriate term as the weather change caused by the excessive emission of greenhouse gases also give rise to colder winters as well.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the world used to be in a steady state. Greenhouse gases (water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated carbons and ozone) from the perspiration of plants and animals helped to maintain the temperature of Earth which would otherwise be too cold (-18 degree C) for human inhabitance. The corals in the sea and lush green forest act as a reservoir to absorb the extra greenhouse gases primarily carbon dioxide, CO2.
Man's insatiable desire to assault of Nature with their economic activities, like burning forests, cutting trees, over-dependence on fossil fuel and even the overproduction of methane by the cattle industry just tipped the balance. Scientists say that a rise in the world temperature of 2-degrees above the pre-industrial era could be disastrous and irreversible.
Leonardo DiCaprio produced and hosted this National Geographic sponsored documentary on this issue. He flies around the globe to investigate the extent of this problem and see for himself what various countries are doing to curtail this potentially devastating problem.
During the shooting of his last film, The Revenant, in Canada, his director had a Herculean time trying to find a snowy mountainous forest for his set. All the snow had melted due to climate change. The Boreal forests had all disappeared.
The biggest polluter in the production of greenhouse gases is China. They, according to the documentary, are taking a concerted effort to offset their bad record. So does India, the third biggest polluter. Many countries are exploiting green energies like wind and solar energies to its full potential. Unfortunately, the second largest culprit, the USA is still in denial mode. Many big companies think that climate change is just a hoax. The real reason for their refusal is their business interests in fossil fuel. Many American companies, including Koch Industries and many lobbyists for the US Government, are climate change deniers.
Many of Man's activity cause irreparable damage to the environment. Fracking for oil and gas leave a denuded piece of wasteland. Deforestation for palm oil cultivation and open burning in Sumatra release too much carbon dioxide into our air. The beef industry is notorious for emitting way too much of greenhouse gases in the form of methane. Compared to other types of food production, including rice cultivation and husbandry, cattle leave way too much carbon footprint.
History shows that weather change had been a cause for change of government and a reason for a revolution. Hence, the documentary tries to empower people to choose leaders who would listen to them other than the other way around.
Change is on its way. Many European countries are tapping into solar and wind energies. Sweden has become the first fossil fuel free nation. President Barack Obama has endorsed the Paris Accord on climate change. Many countries have imposed a carbon tax to syphon the revenue to develop other energy sources. The producer of the film too claimed to have voluntarily paid his dues in carbon tax for their long distance flying during the making of the documentary.
The film ends with Dicaprio giving an address to United Nations General Assembly in his capacity as a special envoy for climate change.
The scriptures in its various forms have all told us in so many ways of the dark look of the future. Many Eastern philosophies and even monolithic religions have advised us to be respectable of the environment. The picture below appeared quite frequently in the documentary. It is a 15th-century triptych by Hieronymus Bosch called The Garden of Earthly Delights. It probably shows the beginning of our world, followed by our present time and the gloomy future of darkness on the third panel. The trouble with us is that we cherry-pick what we want and use it for own self-interest and self-indulgence.
http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 15, 2016
Nietzschean philosophy in Tamil movie
Continuing in our series of exploration of smacks of philosophy in Tamil film, we will look into a MGR starred 1971 film, Rickshawkaran. It must have been a year to honour the little men of the cheaper mass public transportation sector, the trishaw men! Later that year, another film, Babu, was released with Sivaji Ganesan as a dedicated cart pulling trishaw man makes a graduate out of his adopted daughter.
I did not realise that quite early in childhood I had been infused, rather subliminally with Nietzschean philosophy. Of course, the Indian screenwriters need not look up to Nietzsche for inspiration as the Vedic scriptures already have in abundance a treasure chest so filled with philosophy that would last many generations.
In this song, MGR a MA graduate, yes Masters of Arts, who just finds being a rickshaw rider more rewarding than other bourgeois professions, tries to pacify a child from the monstrosities around her. Her father had been murdered and MGR is trying to find justice for her.
In his eyes, he sees the masters as the evil ones trying to do non-virtuous things which the masters think it is their birthright. The slaves, being in a helpless situation, try to pacify themselves that the real judgment would be meted in the end at probably when the real Judgement Day comes. The priestly clan, in the form of MGR comes to the rescue of the slaves. In doing so, the priest also finds own solace.
Life is not fair, the slaves perceived it, as they see the masters frolic in merriment of their achievements. The slaves with their own set of morals try look at these in disdain, seek comfort that their pains and suffering will somehow elevate them metaphysically. The masters feel it is right to enjoy after all the risks and tiring mental calisthenics that they had to endure. The world is now and they are living the life and improving it.
Both parties try to justify their action, ennoble themselves and make sense on their time on earth; one physically and the other metaphysically. The priests too go in with their own agenda, for self-purity!
My amateurish attempt at translation of the song.
Let the people laugh, their haughty laughs.
Your golden smile is a glorious delight.
When the day comes, when world gives the Final Judgement,Then we will know who'll laugh and who'll cry.
Humans laugh till they ache in the belly.Those who laugh at others' aches are animals.
In guise of human clothing, animals live in the country.Justice and honesty are written in stone.
Is deviating, bending and curling called law?And to deflect, you need a lawyer with a law degree.
Children of Lady Justice, Will a mother ever blind her children?Will truth stay mum? to make us bow in shame.
When the fence that was to guard starts eating the plant,we're supposed to stay quiet?
I'll have my hand in it,I'll ask when time comes,I'll show the cat is a tiger,as time goes on,I'll show 'em!http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
I did not realise that quite early in childhood I had been infused, rather subliminally with Nietzschean philosophy. Of course, the Indian screenwriters need not look up to Nietzsche for inspiration as the Vedic scriptures already have in abundance a treasure chest so filled with philosophy that would last many generations.
In this song, MGR a MA graduate, yes Masters of Arts, who just finds being a rickshaw rider more rewarding than other bourgeois professions, tries to pacify a child from the monstrosities around her. Her father had been murdered and MGR is trying to find justice for her.
In his eyes, he sees the masters as the evil ones trying to do non-virtuous things which the masters think it is their birthright. The slaves, being in a helpless situation, try to pacify themselves that the real judgment would be meted in the end at probably when the real Judgement Day comes. The priestly clan, in the form of MGR comes to the rescue of the slaves. In doing so, the priest also finds own solace.
Life is not fair, the slaves perceived it, as they see the masters frolic in merriment of their achievements. The slaves with their own set of morals try look at these in disdain, seek comfort that their pains and suffering will somehow elevate them metaphysically. The masters feel it is right to enjoy after all the risks and tiring mental calisthenics that they had to endure. The world is now and they are living the life and improving it.
Both parties try to justify their action, ennoble themselves and make sense on their time on earth; one physically and the other metaphysically. The priests too go in with their own agenda, for self-purity!
My amateurish attempt at translation of the song.
Let the people laugh, their haughty laughs.
Your golden smile is a glorious delight.
When the day comes, when world gives the Final Judgement,Then we will know who'll laugh and who'll cry.
Humans laugh till they ache in the belly.Those who laugh at others' aches are animals.
In guise of human clothing, animals live in the country.Justice and honesty are written in stone.
Is deviating, bending and curling called law?And to deflect, you need a lawyer with a law degree.
Children of Lady Justice, Will a mother ever blind her children?Will truth stay mum? to make us bow in shame.
When the fence that was to guard starts eating the plant,we're supposed to stay quiet?
I'll have my hand in it,I'll ask when time comes,I'll show the cat is a tiger,as time goes on,I'll show 'em!http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 13, 2016
Malaysian pulp fiction
DUKE
Inspector Mislan & the DUKExpressway Murders By: Rozlan Mohd Noor
Met Rozlan at a book reading event and was convinced by him to give a go at his brand of Malaysian crime pulp fiction. After leaving the police force, one of his lifetime ambitions was to write ten books. Apparently, he has almost filled up with bucket list; two more to go! He mirrors his protagonist after Horatio of CSI Miami, the mysterious cop with many hidden things in his closet. He juggles life as a single parent of a preteen and his demanding job of busting crimes in the city of Kuala Lumpur.
A car crashes onto a divider in the DUKE highway. Initial investigations soon reveal the victims to be business colleagues and lovers. What is initially reported as a suicide-murder becomes murky as the investigating officer, Inspector Mislan Latif, finds more and more loose ends that do not fit. The case becomes hotter as many people from the top, his superiors and politicians, hellbent on putting a closure to the case.
Working tirelessly over the long Hari Raya break, Mislan with his Sergeant and the skeletal police and forensic staff swiftly puts a closure to the deaths in their fast moving tale. If only in real life, the Royal Malaysian Police would rise to the occasion and serve justice with so much dedication and impartiality unswayed by external influences.
Rozlan has been going around the countryside having discussion sessions with students of higher institutions as well as promoting his book. One of the comical comment that he received from the audience is from a teaching staff. The member had admonished him for creating a character who is not the exemplary depiction of how a true Malay-Muslim should behave! In the story, Inspector Mislan is a chain-smoking police officer, a single parent and has an extramarital affair with a single Malay pathologist who has no qualms with their bed-sharing 'friends with benefits' type of friendship! The characters in his novel are no angels, either. For Christ sake, it is a crime drama. Crime brings out the worse and the best of human emotions and ethics.
A light leisurely read of a story hovering around the familiar landscapes of Kuala Lumpur.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
Inspector Mislan & the DUKExpressway Murders By: Rozlan Mohd Noor
Met Rozlan at a book reading event and was convinced by him to give a go at his brand of Malaysian crime pulp fiction. After leaving the police force, one of his lifetime ambitions was to write ten books. Apparently, he has almost filled up with bucket list; two more to go! He mirrors his protagonist after Horatio of CSI Miami, the mysterious cop with many hidden things in his closet. He juggles life as a single parent of a preteen and his demanding job of busting crimes in the city of Kuala Lumpur. A car crashes onto a divider in the DUKE highway. Initial investigations soon reveal the victims to be business colleagues and lovers. What is initially reported as a suicide-murder becomes murky as the investigating officer, Inspector Mislan Latif, finds more and more loose ends that do not fit. The case becomes hotter as many people from the top, his superiors and politicians, hellbent on putting a closure to the case.
Working tirelessly over the long Hari Raya break, Mislan with his Sergeant and the skeletal police and forensic staff swiftly puts a closure to the deaths in their fast moving tale. If only in real life, the Royal Malaysian Police would rise to the occasion and serve justice with so much dedication and impartiality unswayed by external influences.
Rozlan has been going around the countryside having discussion sessions with students of higher institutions as well as promoting his book. One of the comical comment that he received from the audience is from a teaching staff. The member had admonished him for creating a character who is not the exemplary depiction of how a true Malay-Muslim should behave! In the story, Inspector Mislan is a chain-smoking police officer, a single parent and has an extramarital affair with a single Malay pathologist who has no qualms with their bed-sharing 'friends with benefits' type of friendship! The characters in his novel are no angels, either. For Christ sake, it is a crime drama. Crime brings out the worse and the best of human emotions and ethics.
A light leisurely read of a story hovering around the familiar landscapes of Kuala Lumpur.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 11, 2016
We always strive higher!
Bread and Roses (2000)
Director: Ken Loach
Staying true to what Nietzsche was saying about masters, slaves and master morality, the economic migrants put their lives at stake to get to be like their masters. They (the migrants) yearn to be like the masters; speaking their language, dressing like them and abandoning their age-old traditions. Whatever the masters did was good and their own self-depreciating. They achieve what they want, but they are still not happy. They have a kind of self-realisation. They realise that their back-breaking endeavours are only to make the masters' life comfortable at the expense of their (slave's) health and life. They rebel, demanding appropriate recognition and remunerations. That is when the boat starts to rock.
The masters do not like all these melodramas. After all, there are many other newcomers ever-ready to fit into the workers' shoes. The master's continuity of comfort and high-brow lifestyle is of supreme importance. Hence starts the mutiny.
This Ken Loach's flick on the social struggle of the little people brings to light the difficulties endured by the immigrant population. They persevere through struggles of illicitly entering the country, leaving their lives at the hands of ruthless smugglers, human traffickers, middlemen, corrupt border men, local agents and the system that is keen to shoo and step them over when the situation warrants.
The people they left behind in their countries look at them as a beacon of hope. Quickly, even before the immigrant gets their footing in their new place of sojourn, the requests for money keep on rolling. Feeling responsible or not to disappoint the people back home, they comply. They engage in many activities, what come may, legal or otherwise, morally right or not, all for the little comfort for themselves and their loved ones back home.
The migrants are in the spring of their youth. There is also a need for them of to fulfil their own obligations, to desire to satisfy their carnal needs and continuity of their progeny.
'Bread and Roses' is a leftist movie that tends to look at the workers' plight, especially the immigrant type. They are the one that the modern city is totally dependable on for its functionality but remain invisible to its inhabitants. They are the discards of society as was described by Goebbel's propaganda films, the vermin of the city. In this offering, immigrants of different ethnicities come together to rebel against their unscrupulous employers for unfair wages and their inhumane treatment in handling of their day to day needs. The janitors of a company stage a protest named 'Justice for Janitors' and their catchphrase is 'We want bread but we want roses too!'. This phrase is a verse from a 1911 poem which was used in a workers' strike by immigrant women back in 1912.
Sure, the employers took them out from the pit of hopelessness in the basket-case countries which the immigrants failed to develop. They gave them dignity, improvement of living standards to them and their loved ones. They gave them a new lease of life to their otherwise web of hopelessness. They would be rotting in hell if not by the so-called 'unscrupulous' employers. Now that they are big and strong and know the dealings of the world, they bite the hands that feed them, so say the employers.
But that is, after all, what human character is all about. It is human nature to always feel discontented. We always strive to attain another notch higher; scale a higher mountain, sail further to a deeper ocean and reach a more challenging frontier. That must be the innate survival skill that we must have acquired from generations before us which helped us to weather all challenges that lay ahead in life.
"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by Rose Schneiderman; a line in that speech ("The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too." inspired the title of the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West."The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers. Wikipedia.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
Director: Ken Loach
Staying true to what Nietzsche was saying about masters, slaves and master morality, the economic migrants put their lives at stake to get to be like their masters. They (the migrants) yearn to be like the masters; speaking their language, dressing like them and abandoning their age-old traditions. Whatever the masters did was good and their own self-depreciating. They achieve what they want, but they are still not happy. They have a kind of self-realisation. They realise that their back-breaking endeavours are only to make the masters' life comfortable at the expense of their (slave's) health and life. They rebel, demanding appropriate recognition and remunerations. That is when the boat starts to rock.The masters do not like all these melodramas. After all, there are many other newcomers ever-ready to fit into the workers' shoes. The master's continuity of comfort and high-brow lifestyle is of supreme importance. Hence starts the mutiny.
This Ken Loach's flick on the social struggle of the little people brings to light the difficulties endured by the immigrant population. They persevere through struggles of illicitly entering the country, leaving their lives at the hands of ruthless smugglers, human traffickers, middlemen, corrupt border men, local agents and the system that is keen to shoo and step them over when the situation warrants.
The people they left behind in their countries look at them as a beacon of hope. Quickly, even before the immigrant gets their footing in their new place of sojourn, the requests for money keep on rolling. Feeling responsible or not to disappoint the people back home, they comply. They engage in many activities, what come may, legal or otherwise, morally right or not, all for the little comfort for themselves and their loved ones back home.
The migrants are in the spring of their youth. There is also a need for them of to fulfil their own obligations, to desire to satisfy their carnal needs and continuity of their progeny.
'Bread and Roses' is a leftist movie that tends to look at the workers' plight, especially the immigrant type. They are the one that the modern city is totally dependable on for its functionality but remain invisible to its inhabitants. They are the discards of society as was described by Goebbel's propaganda films, the vermin of the city. In this offering, immigrants of different ethnicities come together to rebel against their unscrupulous employers for unfair wages and their inhumane treatment in handling of their day to day needs. The janitors of a company stage a protest named 'Justice for Janitors' and their catchphrase is 'We want bread but we want roses too!'. This phrase is a verse from a 1911 poem which was used in a workers' strike by immigrant women back in 1912.
Sure, the employers took them out from the pit of hopelessness in the basket-case countries which the immigrants failed to develop. They gave them dignity, improvement of living standards to them and their loved ones. They gave them a new lease of life to their otherwise web of hopelessness. They would be rotting in hell if not by the so-called 'unscrupulous' employers. Now that they are big and strong and know the dealings of the world, they bite the hands that feed them, so say the employers.
But that is, after all, what human character is all about. It is human nature to always feel discontented. We always strive to attain another notch higher; scale a higher mountain, sail further to a deeper ocean and reach a more challenging frontier. That must be the innate survival skill that we must have acquired from generations before us which helped us to weather all challenges that lay ahead in life.
"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by Rose Schneiderman; a line in that speech ("The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too." inspired the title of the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West."The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers. Wikipedia.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 9, 2016
The sun would still rise...
They say the silent majority has spoken. They say this is democracy in its full glory. That a single swallow would not make a whole summer. The loud and verbose cannot hoodwink the masses with their rhetorics and statistics. After all, they, the elitists and the deep-pocketed, only make a small portion of the general public. The 99% do not share the same sentiment as the top 1%. They do not care what the foreign policy is or who does what to whom in the name of justice or freedom. They are interested only in bread and butter issues. They want their continued way of life, their style of doing things and their rights. And they saw through the media bulldozing of intelligentsia agenda and meaningless smokescreen. Did they really? Do they not expect some decorum of their leaders, some politeness in speech and inclusiveness in leadership? Are they persuaded by his media presence, his fast talk, his ability to go down to their level to speak their lingo?Some say that people are stupid, that they think with heart or sometimes at groyne level. If you look back in history, many leaders have been saying this as well. Sayyid Qutb, a leading member of Egypt's Islamic Brotherhood, had said after his short stint in American for his sabbatical that people generally do not know what they want. They need a knowledgeable and strong leader for them to pave the way. This sentiment was echoed by Steve Jobs when someone asked whether people would like his product. He had replied, "... people do not know what they want, we will show them what they want and like!". Schopenhauer posits that we pick our choices not with our minds but with other primal urges.
The self-proclaimed 'know-it-all' thinkers think that big decisions involving repercussions of world proportions or even our civilisation should not be left to the commoners. The public is viewed as sheep easily herded to march to the slaughter, or perhaps like the mice or children who follow like zombies to the tune of the Piped Piper! But hey, this democracy. The government of the people, elected by the people to serve the people. Ironically when a politician wins the elections, they conveniently forget the third part.
Now that storm is over or is it just beginning, or it is the eye of the storm? Time will tell. Meanwhile, the sun still rises for the mortals to strive another day. It is reconciliation time...
http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 8, 2016
'No' means no!
Pink (Hindi, 2016)
That is the reality. On one side, we have the fairer sex fairing better by leaps and bounds in all areas; equality, education, knowledge, even in games that require endurance, as leaders in society and assertiveness. We concede that we are modern and do not impose the chains of control over them. On the other hand, we are still feudalistic in our mindset. We still look at them as lesser beings. We expect them to behave in a particular manner and wait for them to curl up to meet our primal, animalistic needs. We make our own impressions about their needs. We assume their seeming ordinary acts of culture, intelligent behaviour as an invitation to casual sex. We say they asked for it. Their way of dressing, friendly demure and friendly gestures are misconstrued. The society has the view that when she says 'no', she means 'yes'. We have different rules for different genders. Men are not ready to lose their patriarchal role to give the female gender equal footing in society.
Three girls decide to continue their celebrations with three guys, who are friends of their common friend, after attending a rock concert, with alcoholic beverages. Their seemingly cultured act is judged negatively on their morals and is taken as an open invitation to illegal carnal gratifications. Their refusal to sexual liaisons is conversely understood as a 'yes'. That is the aggressors' perception that the telltale sign were all there and their conduct was a testimony of it. Hence, when their 'willing partners' said no, they meant yes! In defence, one of the victims swung an empty liquor bottle to her assailant, almost blinding him.
When the girls turned to the long arms of the arm, the supposed protectors of the oppressed turned the table on them. The girls instead were charged with soliciting clients and attempted murder.
In comes an old-timer, a once reputable lawyer who got disillusioned with the whole legal system to their defence.
What follows is a moving depiction of the mental impression and stereotyping of the public on working girls and girls in general. One of the actors who took the main character actually broke down a few times as the role was quite demanding. Perhaps with the luxury of poetic licence and to spice up the movie, the filmmaker must have decided to show the Indian courts to appear like shouting matches in a fish market.
We are now probably at a crossroad where the ladies are regaining the rightful place in society that they once held when we were all cavemen. Men used to be wanderers who were out hunting and were only an occasional guest at their own caves and community. The women ran the whole show then.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
That is the reality. On one side, we have the fairer sex fairing better by leaps and bounds in all areas; equality, education, knowledge, even in games that require endurance, as leaders in society and assertiveness. We concede that we are modern and do not impose the chains of control over them. On the other hand, we are still feudalistic in our mindset. We still look at them as lesser beings. We expect them to behave in a particular manner and wait for them to curl up to meet our primal, animalistic needs. We make our own impressions about their needs. We assume their seeming ordinary acts of culture, intelligent behaviour as an invitation to casual sex. We say they asked for it. Their way of dressing, friendly demure and friendly gestures are misconstrued. The society has the view that when she says 'no', she means 'yes'. We have different rules for different genders. Men are not ready to lose their patriarchal role to give the female gender equal footing in society.
Three girls decide to continue their celebrations with three guys, who are friends of their common friend, after attending a rock concert, with alcoholic beverages. Their seemingly cultured act is judged negatively on their morals and is taken as an open invitation to illegal carnal gratifications. Their refusal to sexual liaisons is conversely understood as a 'yes'. That is the aggressors' perception that the telltale sign were all there and their conduct was a testimony of it. Hence, when their 'willing partners' said no, they meant yes! In defence, one of the victims swung an empty liquor bottle to her assailant, almost blinding him.
When the girls turned to the long arms of the arm, the supposed protectors of the oppressed turned the table on them. The girls instead were charged with soliciting clients and attempted murder.
In comes an old-timer, a once reputable lawyer who got disillusioned with the whole legal system to their defence.
What follows is a moving depiction of the mental impression and stereotyping of the public on working girls and girls in general. One of the actors who took the main character actually broke down a few times as the role was quite demanding. Perhaps with the luxury of poetic licence and to spice up the movie, the filmmaker must have decided to show the Indian courts to appear like shouting matches in a fish market.
We are now probably at a crossroad where the ladies are regaining the rightful place in society that they once held when we were all cavemen. Men used to be wanderers who were out hunting and were only an occasional guest at their own caves and community. The women ran the whole show then.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 6, 2016
Inevitable by-product of affluence?
See what I picked up off WhatsApp...
*Parent Induced Wastefulness* (PIW)
When parents strive to give their children the best of everything at an early age, they are sowing seeds for materially insatiable monsters that are prone to sloth, apathy, avarice and fear.
Don’t stand in self-defence as yet. I have proof.
As I sit in my counsellor’s chair day after day I encounter an altogether a new disorder that I have come to label as- *Parent Induced Wastefulness* (PIW).
Here are a few examples:
* 26-year-old Manas does not want to finish his Engineering degree because he does not ‘feel like’ studying.
But he harasses his parents every day for money.
He tells me that whenever he did not feel like doing any particular activity, his parents told him he could quit.
They always said they did not want him to get ‘stressed’ like they were when growing up.
* 34-year-old Raghav is a qualified Engineer and is married for two years but his wife is not ready to live with him hence the counselling.
He is qualified alright but refuses to stick to any job as it makes him feel stressed!
Every two months he runs back home from work and wants his parents to solve his problem like they did every time he refused to go to school.
* 28 years old Anjali does not want to go back to her one-year-old marriage because it is too much for her to work in the office and then look after the household.
She wants her mother to come and live with her and do the household work.
There are many others...
but all originating in overzealous parents wanting to protect their children from even the smallest discomfort in childhood.
You love them alright, but when you shell them from the adversities of life, what you are doing is bringing them up in a sterile environment.
The result: the moment they are exposed to the world their immunity buckles up and they stand threadbare wanting to run away from everything that is anything but comfortable.
They have to live in this very world and away from you.
Do you really love them?
Or do you love yourself more?
If it is them, then you would ensure to make them future ready- let them face, talk to them, provide support, but let them face housework, studies, bullying and adversities.
Tell them money is limited and let them learn to hear a lot of ‘NO’.
That’s what makes them 'FUTURE READY'.
- *Dr. Sapna Sharma*
Psychotherapist, Spiritual Counselor, Life Reinvention Coach & Motivational speaker.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
*Parent Induced Wastefulness* (PIW)
When parents strive to give their children the best of everything at an early age, they are sowing seeds for materially insatiable monsters that are prone to sloth, apathy, avarice and fear.
Don’t stand in self-defence as yet. I have proof.
As I sit in my counsellor’s chair day after day I encounter an altogether a new disorder that I have come to label as- *Parent Induced Wastefulness* (PIW).
Here are a few examples:
* 26-year-old Manas does not want to finish his Engineering degree because he does not ‘feel like’ studying.
But he harasses his parents every day for money.
He tells me that whenever he did not feel like doing any particular activity, his parents told him he could quit.
They always said they did not want him to get ‘stressed’ like they were when growing up.
* 34-year-old Raghav is a qualified Engineer and is married for two years but his wife is not ready to live with him hence the counselling.
He is qualified alright but refuses to stick to any job as it makes him feel stressed!
Every two months he runs back home from work and wants his parents to solve his problem like they did every time he refused to go to school.
* 28 years old Anjali does not want to go back to her one-year-old marriage because it is too much for her to work in the office and then look after the household.
She wants her mother to come and live with her and do the household work.
There are many others...
but all originating in overzealous parents wanting to protect their children from even the smallest discomfort in childhood.
You love them alright, but when you shell them from the adversities of life, what you are doing is bringing them up in a sterile environment.
The result: the moment they are exposed to the world their immunity buckles up and they stand threadbare wanting to run away from everything that is anything but comfortable.
They have to live in this very world and away from you.
Do you really love them?
Or do you love yourself more?
If it is them, then you would ensure to make them future ready- let them face, talk to them, provide support, but let them face housework, studies, bullying and adversities.
Tell them money is limited and let them learn to hear a lot of ‘NO’.
That’s what makes them 'FUTURE READY'.
- *Dr. Sapna Sharma*
Psychotherapist, Spiritual Counselor, Life Reinvention Coach & Motivational speaker.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 4, 2016
I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.
Awake: The Life of Yogananda (2014, documentary)
This documentary is not much of a faith-changing experience for its non-believing viewers. It is just a superficial narration of the lifetime of an Indian yogi who introduced yoga and the mystical thoughts to the rapidly changing American public of the 1920s and beyond. Parahamsa Yogananda went on a mission to introduce his brand of meditation and tapping of positive inner energy from within.
It starts off with the story of his moment of enlightenment when he believes that the picture of his guru had cured him of his ailment. From then on, he had many life-changing experiences which convinced him of his purpose of his existence in this life.
His calling to the USA was a turning point in his life. Starting with a series lectures to packed auditoriums, he subsequently started an ashram in California. With his piercing eyes, which some says peeks into your soul whilst others says they reminds them of Rasputin, his movement met with controversies. Allegations of sexual pervasions and subversive anti-government were hurled at his movement.
His teaching, no doubt were ancient in origin, did bring in some new concepts. One of his suggestions, our ability to alter our thinking to produce results, later came to be referred to as neuroplasticity - the capacity of neurones and neural networks in the brain to change their connections and behaviour in response to new information, sensory stimulation, development, damage, or dysfunction.
The highlight of this documentary is the archives of old films, including the ones with Gandhi, and the many interviews with well-renowned figures - Deepak Chopra, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar. In his later years, Yogananda wrote his autobiography, 'The Autobiography of a Yogi' which became a sort of a recipe of a healthy and blissful living to many entrepreneurs including Steve Jobs. Perhaps, Jobs may not be the best example of a peaceful human being with his infamous temper and his family life.
From time immemorial, flashes of individuals have surfaced on planet Earth. They have tried, rather unsuccessfully, to teach human beings how to live in harmony with nature and all its occupants. Somehow, all these teachings keep falling on deaf ears. The continued destruction is proof that the End that all scriptures predict is but an inevitable reality.
Paramahansa Yogananda with a gathering in Minneapolis in 1927, from the film “Awake: The Life of Yogananda.”http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boyhttp://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
November 2, 2016
Raindrops keep falling on my head!
Cathy Come Home (1964)
This is the story of many societies. The urban dwellers, unable to keep up in the rat race, get left behind. Initially occupying the centre of the city, as their earning capacity declines or the opportunity dwindles, they get displaced. Slowly they abandon their urban dwelling to sojourn for something modest at its fringes. With further obstacles, they go further to the suburbs. In the best of times, they form the backbone of the workforce. As the economic pie gets smaller and the profit to the bosses takes a dip, they are replaced by economic migrants who would work for a song.
And the original urban dwellers would show their resentment to the migrants and the system they plunge further into hopelessness. The bourgeoisie blames the poor for taking it easy, for their decadence and not saving for a rainy day. The poor feels that it is their birthright to be cared for, after all, they contributed immensely to the progress of the country. The politicians try to be the nice one to all parties. They need the poors' votes and the wealthy's financial support. Does it all sound too familiar?
This problem was there in the post-WW2 Britain, and it is here in 21st century Malaysia. It is the familiar story of the marginalised.
This 1964 offering appeared as a TV drama on the BBC as a sort of a public service to announce to the general public about the urban poor and their desperate situation being pushed around like herds by the system which was ill-prepared to cater for their housing needs. The portrayal of Cathy by Carol White was so convincing that she was often stopped in the streets to be pushed money in the hand and friendly words of encouragement!
This show was shot and told in a documentary-neorealistic style with mostly outdoor shooting straying away from studio dramas which were norm those days.
A free-spirited easy going girl, Cathy, meets Reg, a crane driver or something of sorts. With the spring of youth and the spirit of optimism, they plunge into matrimony only to discover that life is not a bed of roses. Hardship rears its ugly head in various forms. Reg gets injured and loses his job. People look at children as God's gift to humankind and that there can be nothing more precious than own flesh, bone and DNA. So, Cathy and Reg receive the news of her pregnancy with open arms. She stops working. Then comes another baby and another. What can they do? It is just an act of love and of God through Man.
Their kind landlady dies, and her next of kins demand Cathy's arrears of rent. Soon they join the long list of the homeless. The queue for government housing facility is endless. They are shooed away like flies as they occupy caravans and empty spaces. Their children just grow like wildflowers, without necessary medical attention and educational needs. The relationship between adults is also not exemplary but go on by making the best of what they have and making themselves feeling contented.
Cathy and Reg lose a child in a fire. She eventually gets a temporary shelter for herself and the two kids, but her husband is not welcome. Slowly, the family breaks up. Reg rarely visits his family, Cathy loses her temporary accommodation and also her children to social services when they are forcibly removed from her when she is seen strolling aimlessly at the railway station.
The film created such an impact after its release that the issue of homelessness became a national agenda and was discussed in the Parliament. Sadly, as the director, Ken Loach puts it, it was a storm in a teacup. It was business as usual for the capitalist. Loach went on to direct many social awakening films. His latest offering is the dilemma of a working class man who has to work to support himself due to bureaucratic rulings but against his doctors' advice.
One of the reasons why the Chinese diaspora prosper wherever they go is their outlook towards life. Staying true to Confucius' teachings, education is given paramount importance. The desire to own land and properties is high on their list of things to do. These two traits with the desire to strive hard must the secret of success in life. This must also be the reason the concept of 'Malay Reserve Land' was thought about when the British realised that the Rulers had a real possibility of losing their ancestral land to new economic migrants at the turn of the 20th century.
Without a shelter above their heads and education (and a birth certificate), a Man will be considered a persona-non-grata in this country and has to make way to the next highest bidder. In essence, you are a slave to system.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
This is the story of many societies. The urban dwellers, unable to keep up in the rat race, get left behind. Initially occupying the centre of the city, as their earning capacity declines or the opportunity dwindles, they get displaced. Slowly they abandon their urban dwelling to sojourn for something modest at its fringes. With further obstacles, they go further to the suburbs. In the best of times, they form the backbone of the workforce. As the economic pie gets smaller and the profit to the bosses takes a dip, they are replaced by economic migrants who would work for a song.And the original urban dwellers would show their resentment to the migrants and the system they plunge further into hopelessness. The bourgeoisie blames the poor for taking it easy, for their decadence and not saving for a rainy day. The poor feels that it is their birthright to be cared for, after all, they contributed immensely to the progress of the country. The politicians try to be the nice one to all parties. They need the poors' votes and the wealthy's financial support. Does it all sound too familiar?
This problem was there in the post-WW2 Britain, and it is here in 21st century Malaysia. It is the familiar story of the marginalised.
This 1964 offering appeared as a TV drama on the BBC as a sort of a public service to announce to the general public about the urban poor and their desperate situation being pushed around like herds by the system which was ill-prepared to cater for their housing needs. The portrayal of Cathy by Carol White was so convincing that she was often stopped in the streets to be pushed money in the hand and friendly words of encouragement!
This show was shot and told in a documentary-neorealistic style with mostly outdoor shooting straying away from studio dramas which were norm those days.A free-spirited easy going girl, Cathy, meets Reg, a crane driver or something of sorts. With the spring of youth and the spirit of optimism, they plunge into matrimony only to discover that life is not a bed of roses. Hardship rears its ugly head in various forms. Reg gets injured and loses his job. People look at children as God's gift to humankind and that there can be nothing more precious than own flesh, bone and DNA. So, Cathy and Reg receive the news of her pregnancy with open arms. She stops working. Then comes another baby and another. What can they do? It is just an act of love and of God through Man.
Their kind landlady dies, and her next of kins demand Cathy's arrears of rent. Soon they join the long list of the homeless. The queue for government housing facility is endless. They are shooed away like flies as they occupy caravans and empty spaces. Their children just grow like wildflowers, without necessary medical attention and educational needs. The relationship between adults is also not exemplary but go on by making the best of what they have and making themselves feeling contented.
Cathy and Reg lose a child in a fire. She eventually gets a temporary shelter for herself and the two kids, but her husband is not welcome. Slowly, the family breaks up. Reg rarely visits his family, Cathy loses her temporary accommodation and also her children to social services when they are forcibly removed from her when she is seen strolling aimlessly at the railway station.
The film created such an impact after its release that the issue of homelessness became a national agenda and was discussed in the Parliament. Sadly, as the director, Ken Loach puts it, it was a storm in a teacup. It was business as usual for the capitalist. Loach went on to direct many social awakening films. His latest offering is the dilemma of a working class man who has to work to support himself due to bureaucratic rulings but against his doctors' advice.
One of the reasons why the Chinese diaspora prosper wherever they go is their outlook towards life. Staying true to Confucius' teachings, education is given paramount importance. The desire to own land and properties is high on their list of things to do. These two traits with the desire to strive hard must the secret of success in life. This must also be the reason the concept of 'Malay Reserve Land' was thought about when the British realised that the Rulers had a real possibility of losing their ancestral land to new economic migrants at the turn of the 20th century.
Without a shelter above their heads and education (and a birth certificate), a Man will be considered a persona-non-grata in this country and has to make way to the next highest bidder. In essence, you are a slave to system.http://asok22.wix.com/rifle-range-boy
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
