Nescience

This is the first of my '5' posts, which will list 5 'top' objects in the topic of the post.   In this case, they are the new Marathi movies.  Marathi cinema has come of age from the turn of the century, and it is all too apparent in these 5 movies that movies that present the slice of the decade: 1. Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai Is it any wonder that my favorite Marathi movie tops the list? Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai, starring Mukta Barve and Swapnil Joshi, is a series of twists and turns on a single day in Pune. Love the two songs : Kadhi tu and Ka Kalena. Best song: Kadhi tu 2. Natrang Atul Kulkarni is one of the most prolific actors that I have ever seen. In this movie, he takes on two diametrically opposite roles, playing the lead character in two very different stages in life and his mad passion for 'tamasha'. If not for anything else, it is a must watch for Atul Kulkarni. Best song: Apsara ali 3. Harishchandrachi Factory ...

There is something about Arvind Kejriwal that makes you sit up and take notice. It isn't the way he looks. Pleasant and just somewhere in between. Not the way he dresses, because his clothes resemble that of half the adult, middle class working population. I feel it's all in the manner he behaves. It's decisive . He isn't like Arjun to dither on the battle field. He's rather like Krishna, to charioteer the hero and provide him with the necessary support - moral and divine. And that is precisely the thing that he's doing in the JanLokpal Bill movement. A few days ago, the news reports were inundated with the status of his falling blood sugar and his diabetes. On the fifth day of the fast, he's still holding on, making speeches and looking stern. Hang in there, Mr. Kejriwal! We'll get the Lokpal Bill yet. 

The months of July and August 2011 were a good time to be alive in India. For a generation which had grown up listening to the tales of the struggle for Independence, and the movement in the 1970s, the Jan-Lokpal Bill movement was like a dream come true. Lokpal is 'ombudsman', and the Bill to appoint such a body has been pending in the Parliament for more than fourty years. In December 2010 the issue came to forefront when a group of activists criticized the Government's draft, and made demand for a stronger, more responsible Lokpal body. They drafted an alternative version of the bill, and called it 'Jan-Lokpal' Bill. And what happened in the months of July, August and those following it was nothing short of a political drama. There were allegations and counter allegations, and fasts unto death, and meetings between the activists (christened as Team Anna by the media after the leader of the movement, Anna Hazare). But the most striking thing about the m...

Today was a good day to be alive. After the lecture was over, we sat on the stone steps of one of the buildings in college. The sky was leaden, and there was just a little nip in the air - not enough to make you reach for a sweater, but that kind, which is quite pleasurable when paired with a cup of tea. And so we sat for hours (it seemed so, at least) talking and laughing, till all my friends disappeared one by one. I was the only one left - under the overcast sky and the slight wind - and I read a book. It was beautiful. Not the book, the feeling. The book was for the English class (which I bunked, but that isn't the point here, is it?) but I don't remember much of what I read. What I remember is the people passing by, the small drops of rain on my skin and the scent of the soil in the air. It indeed was a good day to be alive.