Lyrics and Music

Physics tells us that all objects have a wavelength and a frequency and resonate given the right environment. I say all objects have a music of their own, a frequency and a rhythm that reflects their composition(pun intended). This refers to non-living objects not tuned yet, musical instruments waiting to be tuned or played, living beings - humans, non-human animals, insects, plants and trees and the super living - planetary objects. And as such anything that exists has a music - common creation that is closest to music is a poem. 

   A poem is born with a music of its own, driven by the expression it manifests. It is no surprise then that poets and poetesses sing their poems and not just read it. Most compositions especially in the west are written and composed by the same person. In fact, it is a bit odd that some poems are not composed by their creators but a composer like in Bollywood, or may be they are? Is it the case then that Musicians really adorn the inherent song in the poem, make it in tune for the instruments that would get played.
    

   Is it a corollary then that well written poems result in better songs and vice versa and reflect the reason the evergreen quotient of Bollywood songs continues to be on the decline.

A tale of two movies – The Kashmir Files and Shikara

Why would one review two movies together when reading one is task enough. Well, multiple reasons but primarily because I saw both over the same weekend and the Kashmir Files(TKF) is being talked a lot and Shikara is not.

TKF begins with Hindu kid getting beaten by Muslim kids and adults and ends with the killing of Kashmiri Pandits. There is no time for what led to the exodus or genocide in 1990 or what is happening to them today. Director, also a co-writer, is clear that the movie is about what happened in Kashmir in that period and how it seen by the people present then and today.

Shikara on the other hand starts with the hope the refugees in their own country are clinging on to and ends with the hope of reconciliation. The tragedy of the situation is summed up by a scene at the end of the movie where the protagonist Shiv Kumar is back in Kashmir to tutor children. Several children enter the house, and they keep staring at him. When Shiv asks the reason, the boy innocently says, “Isne kabhi Kashmiri Pandit nahi dekha”. Shiv smiles but it is enough to tear one’s heart apart.

Director of Shikara, Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a Kashmiri, born in Srinagar and his mother could never return to the valley. In contrast, Vivek Agnihotri does not have a direct connect, of course he feels strongly and differently about the story and incidents. But is his take superior to Shikara, or he is just pure lucky that his movie arrived after Covid has mostly settled. Can someone who never lived in Kashmir can have more authentic take on Kashmir than the director who was born and brought up there and had a living member who was forced to live in exile.

When I came out of the theatre after watching TKF, I was like “Why, why has there been the story of Kashmiri Pandits not told. How can natives of one own country become refugees and then continue to be.” First question is soon answered as I watched Shikara the same evening, probably the first authentic take that was released in 2020. It is still 30 years after the event, but earlier than the TKF one can argue. TKF tries to answer the second question as it shows the helplessness of the police and the administration, and the media was either not telling the story or they were being filtered to not reach the people’s homes. Frustration is so widespread that the movie shows how representatives from each of these get into a small fight, even though that fight, and the explanation stays inconclusive.

TKF keeps hammering on the violence that pandits of Kashmir were made to bear. If you believe the film, no other group were harmed. It does not show that even some Muslims bore the consequence of what happened in that period. We know that, even today Kashmiri Muslims continue to be targeted by militants or terrorists.

Let us contrast the movies more closely. Both the movies show the mayhem that unfolded in that period. Both show how the terror had taken over the Pandits, how they initially would not believe it’s coming to them and could happen to them and their own. They trusted their neighbours, their friends, and their network among the who’s who. Pushkar Nath in TKF is relieved when he says, it’s good to be friends with senior officers of the government.  In Shikara, Shanti calls the milkman crazy when he tells her that they would have to leave and go to India and Haji saab will take their house. It is deemed so innocuous that she does not even mention it to her husband Shiv Kumar.

Both show how they were shocked to see the fire in their neighbourhoods including the posh ones. Both tell us a list of targets was created. TKF is in a hurry here, but Shikara shows the scared and terrorized faces as they read their names in the list. They assure each other, even joking if their favourite news reader is killed who would read the news every night on their TVs. It tells soon enough that the news reader is no more along with several others.

Both tell us the hardships refugees face in Jammu camps. TKF shows the hunger and the killer diseases, counting several thousand deaths owing to the arrangement(or lack of) in the refuge. This figure is comparable to those of deaths in Kashmir by terrorists as per the film. Shikara on the other hand uses cinema to show the helplessness. For instance, on arriving in the camps, people run after a trolley full of tomatoes that is being offered by a right wing political party(name not like BJP!). It shows the walls created by people using their own clothes mostly sarees in the refuge hall. TKF shows how Pushkar Nath would always skip the dinner as the food is in short supply and would go out to take a solo biscuit from his tiffin and lick it to tease his hunger. They show us hundreds even thousands of letters are written to the head of states – PM in case of TKF and President of the United States in case of Shikara.

While there are similarities, the contrast is starker. TKF is in your face, based on a set of incidents, some very uncomfortable ones and it shows them as is. It is no surprise then people who suffered see this as a fact based movie, even though not everything in the movie is about facts. Shikara on the other hand is mellow, it shows the same betrayal, deceit and helplessness but does not shake you. TKF holds the audience by both their arms and shakes them vigorously. Shikara leaves you helpless like the protagonist and makes you cry, whereas TKF does not stop there, it brings your emotions out and very successfully.

Most fundamentally, the treatment of the subject is different from start to end. TKF is about three things – deceit, violence, and anger. And to do that it relies upon darkness, the chilly winter and the brilliant actors. The movie was so dark that one wonders why the director couldn’t use more light. Probably that’s part of the story teller’s message. There is nothing beautiful about Kashmir then and thereafter. Most things happened in the night or night equivalent light.

Shikara on the hand is so much more realistic even though TKF is more real being research based. I say this as the story develops, it shows layers of characters, how things change, story builds on it and then there is climax. TKF just goes shoot, shoot, and shoot except when it comes to the political commentary where it asks you questions and makes you to think and ponder.

Shikara leaves you tricked, frustrated and helpless, but does not leave you hopeless. TKF shows the treachery(neighbours included), but the helplessness does not strike you so much, it is the anger. It leaves you hurt and angry! Pushkar Nath says in a scene – “Inke to surname bhi hamare diye hue hain” reminding that Kashmiri Muslims are firstly a Kashmiri and then a Muslim.

Shikara’s protagonists are two lifelong lovers who are shown in beautiful times just a few years before the exodus. It makes us fall in love with Kashmir for the beauty it is known for. Cricket is popular among all and so are films as they get shot in the valley. When Shiv starts to build his dream house, father of his friend (a Muslim and Ranji Cricketer) brings building material for the foundation and the house gets built. It tells that people did live in peace and harmony so much so that a trained doctor returns from England to practice in Kashmir.

The movie also demonstrates the build up to the gruesome events. Some would call it apologetic or attempt at justification of genocide. But the movie gives its reasons even though not fully satisfactory to many, of why things happened i.e., easy availability of guns including AK47 from the war in Afghanistan and the neighbor nation looking to create trouble. Of course, there were local separatist people who actively participated and led the movement. But it is the root causes, the movie spends more time on.

It also gives the multitude of events that unfolded until the D-day and takes us through the layers that are peeled as people finally see the light and accept the harsh reality that they have to leave their homes. TKF on the other hand is monotonous when it comes to pogrom events and spends an equivalent time on the political statement i.e., the whitewashing of issues. It shows that the mastermind is welcomed to Delhi and his interview is telecast on National channel where he accepts charges of killing several people.

Shikara makes no specific commentary on either Muslims or individuals. It is obvious it makes room for reconciliation howsoever elusive it may seem. It depicts life in refuge to a greater detail, how even living in the camps children are focused on better life and continue to make strides there.

On the question of return to Kashmir, TKF shows us Pushkar Nath is back to Kashmir in a strange village where his grandson and daughter in law are killed in cold blood. And finally, it shows that Pushkar Nath’s ashes are spread in his house in the valley, even though no one lives there. It is still unoccupied!

Shikara on the other hand is the story of hope, it starts with hope as the hero is shown to be writing letters and that he would have a meeting with POTUS soon. Very rewarding for the wait of 30 years!

Throughout the tumultuous journey involving one setback after another, Hope doesn’t die ! It shows how his dream house in the valley is occupied by Haaji saab as predicted at the beginning and it has been fully rearranged. To know what this means, just go back to a place you built and lived and then sold it to, except if you are a Kashmiri then you have occupiers in your house anyway. It’s strange then that Pushkar Nath’s house in the dreaded, dark valley per TKF remains unoccupied.

Even though the hope of meeting the US ends up being a lie, Shiv Kumar is back in Kashmir at the end of the film teaching to the kids who have never seen a Kashmiri Pandit.

If you want to watch a set of facts and the doubt that continued to be spread until today whether it happened, go see TKF. It is not so much a movie, even though it uses cinema as a medium and for this reason I believe it is named the Kashmir ‘files’. TKF ensures you leave the theatre with the sound of bullets and the faces of Nadimarg victims when it shows every single of 24 bullets fired and the faces of each victim including one child. But if you want to join a Kashmiri family and watch the color of Kashmir and their life changing it is Shikara! It is indeed made like a movie; it is multilayered and talks of the detailed writing and depiction. I for instance could not miss the various musical instruments played at the wedding, the long, beautiful earing accompaniment wore by Shanti throughout the movie.

On looking up, one reviewer criticized the makers of Shikara for trying the balance. I wonder since when did trying a balancing act became a bad thing. Don’t we hear all the time, avoid extreme, attempt balance. Hindi language has an equivalent phrase. Probably the country has seen too much watering down of one type of events trying to be politically correct that people are fed up with white washing and before we go to balancing acts again, can we say things without too much qualification. And this is where the Kashmir files minces no words. It strikes the chord with the viewers and people who suffered. And this is where TKF gives the heavy weight punch to Shikara and knocks it out.

 

A mobile cover's musings (एक मोबाइल कवर)

     मैं और मेरी तन्हाई अक्सर ये बातें करते हैं तुम होते तो हम मुंबई की बारिश देखते - खिड़कियों से नहीं, खुले आसमान के तले | सोचता हूँ तो लगता है जैसे कल ही की तो बात है जब हम मिले थे, आदमी के हिसाब से कुछ महीने, पर मेरे लिए तो जैसे कल ही की बात है| तुम नए चमकते श्याम श्वेत आवरण में आये और सीधे मुझमें समां गए थे. तुमसे पहले मैं किसी और से नहीं मिला था, मेरा रंग भी तब ऐसा पीला न था, कोई भी फ़ोन मुझसे मिलने को तैयार था, पर नियति को मुझे तुमसे ही मिलाना था |

   कहते हैं मैं चीन से हूँ, पर मुझे ये बताये की कौन नहीं है चीन से, मानता हूँ तुम नहीं हो, पर रिश्ता है हमारा बहुत पुराना ही सही| मुझे याद है जब हमारे मिलने के तुरंत बाद ही मालिक ने तुम्हे २ हफ़्तों तक बंद कर दिया था और मैं सांस रोके तुम्हारा इंतज़ार करता रहा | कितने ही हसीन पल हमने साथ काटे | कितनी ही तस्वीरें तुमने मुझमें झाँक के ली थी., मुंबई की बारिश अभी शुरू ही हुई थी जब काले घने बादलों को हमने एक साथ निहारा था और तुमने बिना पलक झपकाए एक के बाद एक कई चित्र ले डाले थे | कहते हैं तुम्हारे मायके में अभी भी वो तस्वीरें हैं| मालिक कभी कभी उनको देखते हैं तो अनंत में निहारते रह जाते हैं, मुझे उनका दुःख देखा नहीं जाता तो मैं भी बच्चो के साथ घर के दुसरे कोने में चला जाता हूँ | 

    बारिश अभी रुकी नहीं है, रह रह के बरसती बूंदे मुझे कंपा जाती है | वो दिन मुझे खूब याद है जब मेरी जगह किसी और को लाकर मालिक फूले न समाते थे, और फिर देखते ही देखते उन्होंने मुझे तुमसे अलग कर दिया | मानता हूँ वो खूबसूरत था पर क्या हुआ वो तुम्हारा ख्याल न रख सका ! मेरे होते मुझे कोई तुमसे जुदा न कर पाता, उस बुरे दिन, जब तुम रिक्शा में रह गए और फिर गलत आदमी के हाथ लग गए मैं हरगिज़ न ऐसा होने देता | सुनता हूँ तुम्हारा अंग भांग कर के, तुम्हारे कितने ही टुकड़े कर दिए गए होंगे, क्योंकि अगर ऐसा न होता तो मालिक तुमको ढूंढ ही लेते। और फिर मैं पास से नहीं दूर से ही सही, तुमको देख पाता, तुम्हारी आवाज़ सुन पाता |

   सच कहूँ - मालिक का तुमसे दिल लग गया था, कितना मानने लगे थे वो तुमको | जब देखो "ओके गूगल " करते , मैं सोचता की ऐसा भी क्या लाड की पहले ही ओके बोल दिया, पहले बात सुनले, समझ ले, फिर ओके बोले| बाद बाद में तो "हे गूगल " बोलने लगे थे | उसके पहले मालिक ने "हे" केवल ईश्वर के पहले ही लगाया था | मैंने कभी नहीं सोचा था की मालिक धर्म बदल लेंगे, शायद ईश्वर की ही सजा है जो तुम्हारा ये हाल हुआ |

पर मुझे तुमसे कोई भी शिकवा नहीं, तुमने अंग दान दिया, भले ही स्वेच्छा से नहीं, पर कितने ही लोगो और मोबाइल का इससे भला होगा | समाज कल्याण में तुम्हारा योगदान सुनहरे अक्षरों में लिखा जायेगा | 

   ये सब बाते हैं पर फिर भी मुझे लगता है की तुम किसी भी दिन आ जाओगे और मुझसे गले मिल जाओगे, बिछड़े दोस्तों की तरह | और मैं सोचने लगता हूँ की तुम होते तो ऐसा होता, तुम होते तो वैसा होता | मैं जानता हूँ की तुम नहीं हो कही नहीं हो पर मेरे जहन में लगातार ये बात है की तुम यही हो यही कही हो |

   - एक आम मोबाइल कवर

Aurangzeb Road or Abdul Kalam Road: A road treaded a bit too far

   Recent renaming of Aurangzeb road to Abdul Kalam road by New Delhi Municipal Corporation has caused uproar among a section of society including mainstream media and political class. I would not go into whether it is right or wrong. They could well have avoided it. What is funny is the kind of points being put forward in both print and internet media to criticize the action, justify Aurangzeb's actions and to prove greatness of the last prominent Mughal ruler.
   A close look at a few articles is in order. This mostly well balanced article compares Aurangzeb's destruction of temples with that of Vasundhara Raje Sindhia, present CM of Rajasthan and almost justifies the act.  
   This article tells us that Aurangzeb "is like the kuttichathu of Malayalis—responsible for anything that went wrong." The author contends that Aurangzeb was made responsible for all wrongs. And what wrongs are being cited - that the last mughal was a bigot, fanatic, imposed excessive taxes and destroyed temples in every nook and corner of India.  
   Now lets take a look at the very popular TOI and Mumbai Mirror. A very prominent journalist in this informative article(picture below) in Mumbai Mirror puts Aurangzeb in perspective with other Mughal rulers Babar, Shah Jahan, Akbar, Jahangir and Humayun. He tells us that Shah Jahan and Jahangir were nobodies, that Akbar was no less cruel than anybody else. He further goes on to tell us the greatness of Aurangzeb declaring with the ending line that "Aurangzeb was certainly great".
   As for his shortcomings, we are told that "The action against temples came in three stages: no new temples, no renovating old ones, break old temples" and that, "this order was followed indifferently, probably because of the emperor's lack of enthusiasm". So two points are to be noted, one, destruction of temples was done indifferently. So the thousands of temples were destroyed with no "specific interest". Two, author would like to attribute this indifference to Aurangzeb's lack of enthusiasm. One should consider this along with the fact that Aurangzeb stopped listening to music because one of the hadiths said so as per the same author. To conclude, Aurangzeb was ardent follower of Islam so much so that he stopped doing what he liked, but he had no particular interest in destroying temples which he did in countless numbers.
   This TOI article (picture above) tells us that Aurangzeb was the only Indian that Britishers could not beat. Isn't it a matter of pride for all Indians? But it would like us to forget that Aurangzeb was the emperor of India and Britishers were nobodies then. And Gujarat had its "tangible achchhe din" under him. A historian is quoted that ban on music was really economic in nature. I have no problem with this explanation except that it doesn't tie with the Mumbai mirror article quoted above. It also safely ignores the war on temples that Aurangzeb waged across India as it would like us to believe that the Mughal emperor is being victimized and shall remain alive among historians.
   While these articles have brought a lot of hitherto not known facts about Aurangzeb and other Mughal rulers they have gone a bit too far to twist the picture they would like readers to see.

A letter to Narendra Modi from an angry supporter

Modi ji, good evening. I will start with the confession that I am your die hard fan and have been following you since 2007.
So, it's a night of introspection, night of feedback, night of advices! 
Rings any bell? "Kaala dhan Kaali raat Kaala karnama (black money, black night, black deeds)", You had said in an election rally. You also said, "Our country can forgive mistakes, but not betrayal". You really know the people and know how they behave and vote. They forgave Arvind Kejriwal's mistakes. But if you continue to lie and fool people, you may not be forgiven.
   Todays Chanakya which predicted your resounding victory in general election 2014 did a social survey in Delhi on election eve. It tells us quite a few things. One, Brahmin, Baniya, Punjabi, BJP's traditional vote bank preferred AAP to BJP. Two, SC, OBC and Muslims voted in huge numbers for AAP. Even among age groups, you were given a complete thumbs down. All in all, there was not a single class who preferred BJP to AAP. NOT ONE!
   I have to say, this was one of the worst campaigned elections by BJP. Either there was no campaign-in-charge or there were too many. Negativity, conspiracy, mud-slinging and what not! You had seen all this in 2007 and 2014, but you stayed clear of them and were rewarded handsomely. What went wrong this time, sir? Are you getting surrounded by a coterie of advisers, something we hear Sonia Gandhi had the luxury of. Have you started enjoying the luxuries of Congress? If that is so, people won't give you 10 years that you have asked and are planning for. 
   I am sure you already know. But to get any chance, not only would you need to increase your focus on public good (I do not doubt, you are already doing it), but also you would need to stay clear of mud-slinging, unnecessary nose poking in other party matters. For e.g. what is happening in Bihar and Jharkhand wont be seen favourably by public. Not only do people see through your lies, they also are disgusted at such cheap tactics.
   If this election is not an eye opener, none would be.

NaMo - The Commodity

   Going through the news on Google for the last few days, it came to me that Narendra Modi is probably the highest selling commodity right now. Well, I mean Narendra Modi, the name.
With the amount of response the name generates, not only are tens of blogs and news articles, both positive and negative written about him everyday. In fact, he might soon or even already be the most talked about person in India.
   Browse through the news and there are all kinds. Sample this

1. Narendra Modi likely to reach Delhi for NDC meet
2. Will fulfill any responsibility given to me by party: Narendra Modi
3. Narendra Modi keeps away from Nitish Kumar at NDC

   And one of the news, which apparently has been taken down (or headline changed) since stated: Commercial sex worker gang raped in Narendra Modi's Gujarat. 
(an equivalent news is linked here ) The news contained nothing about NaMo, it does not even mention him in the news.
   I am sure you would have seen similar news before on web/ TV/print. The point is anything associated with Narendra Modi raises eyes and ears. In commercial TV terms it is good for TRP. 
   Newspapers and news channels have realized this for quite sometime now and ensure that anything and everything even remotely related with Narendra Modi shall be captured and published. After all, people esp. netizens want to know more and more about NaMo. And this helps increase the number of hits the website and webpage gets and ultimately drives up the advertisement revenue. 

   Even if it means, only saying he shook hand with someone or chose not to, he reached a party office or is just expected to reach some event. Never mind news where he has no role, it is just an incident that happened somewhere in Gujarat.

LPG Subsidy Cut - Is there more to it than what meets the eye ?

Manmohan Singh has finally started taking the desperate steps of economic reforms, when news rumours were strife that Congress party itself is opposed it. I say it was Manmohan as the decision was taken at 7 Race Course road, his residence and workplace. Official government release said, limiting subsidized LPG cylinders to six a year will reduce the under recovery to OMCs by 5300crores and a 5 rupees increase in diesel price will reduce the under recovery by Rs. 15000 crore. 
       Even if we keep the argument around its economic sense away for a while, the step of reducing LPG subsidy hasn't stopped intriguing me. Most of the household I know use about a cylinder every month and I also know that 350 Rs a month is a lot to them. This is the amount an average household using a cylinder a month will have to shell out extra in addition to the impact that would come with increase in diesel prices.
       A quick look at the internet tells that there are 14 crores domestic gas consumers. Even a simple calculation tells that 4900 crore (14crore X Rs. 350) would be recovered only if the government had said, every household would have to take one un-subsidized cylinder! But government hasn't stopped a that, it further said, that for the remaining year you would get only 3 cylinders at subsidized rates. So even if you have used only 2 cylinders so far this year, you would still get only 3 and not 4 cylinders at subsidized rate.
       Govt has further noted that total under recovery owing only to LPG subsidy would be 32000 crore for the full year after the subsidy cut. That is, total subsidy without govt. action would have been 37300 crores. On an average it is Rs. 2664 per person for the full year, or the subsidy on 8 domestic cylinders. By simple calculation, 2 cylinders per consumer would be sold at market rates and that shall reduce the under recovery by 9800 crores. 
       But that is only the beginning of the story, as a huge amount of these cylinders are not used for domestic purpose. By a moderate estimate 15% of these are used for commercial purposes. It was an obvious issue, as commercial cylinders are so much more costly owing to the fact that they are sold at a profit. Compared to a domestic cylinder they are sold at a profit(19kg cylinder sold between Rs 1400 to 1500) which is about Rs 700 per cylinder.
Plugging this leak is what I think is the unsaid and probably the biggest benefit of this subsidy cut. So doing a quick arithmetic again, you get a profit of about Rs. 9000 crores taking the total gain(under recovery plus profits) for OMCs to approximately Rs. 19000 crores. This is a full year figure and so the figure for remaining part of the year is Rs. 10000crores.
      The government is obviously downplaying the figure they would recover. The biggest question though with this government is will it do what it is supposed to do - GOVERN? Because even plugging these leaks wouldn't be simple as Indians especially the enterprising units are smart they would find some ways to work around this limit. 
     Lastly, it looks like that our politicians are the people most impacted rather than the common man who has to arrange only Rs. 2000 a year. How would these people arrange for 200 un-subsidized cylinders which is an increase of whopping Rs. 70000 to their annual budget ?