Bombay cinema : old and rare - I

Amusing, rare conversation on Caste in Bollywood

A very rare instance of a conversation around caste stereotypes in Bombay cinema, even though it is done for comedic effect and is from six decades ago! The clip is from the film 'Dil ki Rani', circa 1947, starring a very young Raj Kapoor and an almost juvenile Madhubala. 

Tried watching the film, to find the context of the scene, but had to abandon the plan as it was sheer torture. The film is unbearably bad.

For a cinema tradition of more than a 100 years, it is quite stunning how totally disconnected and aloof the industry remained from caste and related issues. This was one of the rare occasions, when comedy opened up the lid, even though for a fleeting moment.

Selected shers/ ghazals from 'The Taste of words' (by Raza Mir) ( शायरी # 0 )

with some excerpts of the contexts, mostly in accordance to chronology

इन दिनों गरचे (even though) दक्कन में है बड़ी क़द्र-ए-सुखन

कौन जाये ज़ौक़ पर दिल्ली की गलियाँ छोड़कर
- ज़ौक़ 

(upon being invited to Deccan courts)

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चल साथ के हसरत दिल-ए-महरूम से निकले
आशिक़ का जनाज़ा है, ज़रा धूम से निकले

- मोहसिन उल मुल्क ( originally by मिर्ज़ा मोहम्मद अली फिदवी ? )

(lamenting over passing of the Nagri resolution in 1900 that created an artificial schism between Hindi and Urdu and institutionalized religious affiliations to the languages)

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मैं ने मजनूं पे लड़कपन में, असद
संग उठाया था, कि सर याद आया ।

- ग़ालिब
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ग़ुंचे तेरी बेबसी पे दिल हिलता है 

तू एक तबस्सुम के लिए खिलता है 

ग़ुंचे ने कहाँ के इस चमन में बाबा 

ये एक तबस्सुम भी किसे मिलता है ?

- रुबाई of जोश मलीहाबादी ( ग़ुंचे-फूल )

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हस्ती अपनी हबाब की सी है
ये नुमाइश सराब की सी है

नाज़ुकी उसके लब की क्या कहिये
पंखुड़ी एक गुलाब की सी है

मैं जो बोला कहा के ये आवाज़
उसी खाना-खराब की सी है

बार बार उसके दर पे जाता हूँ
हालत अब इज़तिराब (restless) की सी है

मीर, उन नीम बाज़ आँखों में
सारी मस्ती शराब की सी है ।

- मीर तक़ी मीर
(about whom Ghalib said, "रेख्ता के तुम ही उस्ताद नहीं हो ग़ालिब, कहते हैं अगले ज़माने में कोई मीर भी था" । )
This ghazal is considered by many to be the 'finest', including Ghalib who really liked the sher "Nazuki us ke lab ki..."

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मीर again :

उलटी हो गयीं सब तदबीरें (arrangements) कुछ न दवा ने काम किया
देखा इस बीमारी-ए-दिल ने आखिर काम तमाम किया

मीर के दीन-ओ-मज़हब को पूछते क्या हो उनने तो
कश्का (tilak) खींचा दैर(temple) में बैठा कब का तर्क इस्लाम किया ।

देखी है जबसे उस बुत-ए-काफ़िर की शक्ल, मीर
जाता नहीं जी तनिक इस्लाम की तरफ़ ।

( last two shers are one of many sly mocking of religion done by Mir. This iconoclasm was later carried forward by other poets as well. A major feature that makes Rekhta/Urdu shayari critical of orthodoxy and religion, in many places)
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कमर बांधे हुए चलने को यां सब यार बैठे हैं
बहुत आगे गए बाकी जो हैं तय्यार बैठे हैं

न छेड़ ऐ निकहत-ए-बाद-ए-बहारी राह लग अपनी
तुझे अठखेलियां सूझी हैं हम बेज़ार बैठे हैं

तसव्वुर अर्श पे है और सर है पा-ए-साक़ी (साकी के पाँव) पर
ग़रज़ कुछ और धुन में इस घडी मयख़्वार बैठे हैं ।

भला गर्दिश फ़लक की चैन देती है किसे 'इंशा' ?
ग़नीमत है के हम-सूरत यहां दो चार बैठे हैं ।

- इंशा अल्लाह खान
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इंशा फिर से : ( He symbolized the ways in which one could claim, unselfconsciously, that Hindi-Urdu were truly the same language. He moved from heavy persianized to sanskritized verse, with ease )

'इंशा' जी उठो अब कूच करो इस शहर में जी का लगाना क्या
वहशी को सुकून से क्या मतलब जोगी का नगर में ठिकाना क्या

उस हुस्न के सच्चे मोती को हम देख सकें पर छू न सकें
जिसे देख सकें पर छू न सकें, वो दौलत क्या वो खज़ाना क्या ?

जब शहर के लोग न रस्ता दें क्यों बन में न जा बिसराम करें
दीवानों की सी न बात करे तो और करे दीवाना क्या ।
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ना घर है ना दर है, बचा एक 'ज़फर' है
फ़क़त हाल-ए-दिल्ली सुनाने को ।
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कह दो इन हसरतों से कहीं और जा बसें
इतनी जगह कहाँ है दिल-ए-दाग़दार में ।

उम्र-ए-दराज़(long life) मांग के लाये थे चार दिन
दो आरज़ू में काट गए दो इंतज़ार में ।

कितना है बदनसीब ज़फर दफ़्न के लिए
दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार(beloved's street) में ।
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बात करनी मुझे मुश्किल कभी ऐसी तो न थी
जैसी अब है तेरी महफ़िल, कभी ऐसी तो न थी ।

ले गया छीन के कौन आज तेरा सब्र-ओ-करार
बेक़रारी तुझे ऐ दिल कभी ऐसी तो न थी ।

उनकी आँखों ने खुद जाने किया क्या जादू
के तबियत मेरी माइल(attracted) कभी ऐसी तो न थी ।

सभी : बहादुर शाह ज़फर
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Battleground UP : some thoughts on the affecting book

Battleground U.P. : Politics in the land of Ram by Manish Tiwari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a sucker for well researched, nuanced books on politics, but even if I hadn't been, this book would still rank as one of my favourites. For this is such an utterly fascinating book, so rooted in reality, so authentic. It deals with the dirty, murky world of ground-level politics in UP and dissects it in all its grimy and gory details. Never turning into a high handed social commentary, without any use of heavy academic jargons, it shows the disgusting and the noble, the ridiculous and the mundane, all facets of how politics is conducted in our largest state. And it does that with a lot of compassion, raw feelings, all tongue in cheek. Though it is a bit out of time to read this, since this book was written after UP assembly elections in 2013 and a lot of water has flown through the Ganga since, but still the socio-poltical realities is still almost same, and so it is a must read for anyone remotely interested in understanding how the dance of democracy is conducted in our hinterlands, and what it means for the masses inhabiting this hugely significant state, politically. Everything is dealt in detail here, whether the intertwined streams of communalism and criminaluzation or the rise of caste based politics, heralding the mainstreaming of the erstwhile backward communities into politics, whether the rise of nexus between neo-industrialists, politicians and mafia or the sustenance of socialism, alongside. With a heady mix of personalities, ideoligies, everything from the awe-inspiring to gut-wrenching. A wonderful read.

View all my reviews

It's not about one man.

It's easy to project all your fears on a single person. Helps you escape the reality. Doesn't change it, though. So, while every liberal and even remotely secular Indian is fearful of a Hindutva chauvinist becoming the next PM, I am afraid, the situation has already worsened so much that Modi or no Modi, the future of an India of the dreams of our founding fathers already looks in peril. The meteoric rise of Narendra Modi is, I fear, just a symptom of the malaise that has spread far and wide. Soft-communalism, anti-minority biases, prejudices and plain hatred, fanatical re-imaginings of the past, these values have gained so much currency today that it is indeed a shock.  And surprisingly have become so internalized by even the 'educated' and 'professionals' that it seems a daunting task to even imagine India returning to the ideal path now. I have to say, the Hindu-chauvinist organizations : the RSS, VHP et al wouldn't have in their wildest of dreams, imagined such widespread popularity of what was for a long time a fringe ideology, shunned by the majority. Is it still shunned by the core moderate Hindu ? I am not so sure.

The reason for my pessimism is the fact that these ideas have gained tremendous tract among the new middle class and the young professionals, students who will be the future of our country. The other day, in a discussion at my office lunch, someone nonchalantly quipped that Hindustan is for Hindus and those who don't agree with that do not matter. And there was amazing appreciation for that. Then someone said that Hindutva is just a 'way of life' and everybody living in India, is basically a Hindu, whether he agrees or not. Again it met with vociferous approval. Someone else joined in with the insightful comment that Babri demolition was a social movement, someone else praised Modi for 2002, saying it was the need of the hour.
All this with very little opposition. Those few who tried to oppose were vehemently heckled into silence. "We will have none of that 'pseudo-secularism' crap." "It is your problem if you are not with the patriots".
And the story continued the next day, and the next and then after, with more and more people joining in the Hindutva bandwagon and the opposing voices becoming shriller but,  let me be brutally honest, totally irrelevant. When the majority smells the whiff of communal thought, situation can turn really ugly, very quickly. And mind you these are the happenings inside an MNC, with bright minds and educated people, who are totally mild otherwise, living out in one the most liberal atmospheres possible in India. And that is why I fear for the future. Their insolence, intolerance was so shocking, their understanding of history so churlish and full of fantastical flourishes and paranoia, their belief in Modi being the saviour of one and all so unbending and their imagined victimhood of 'Hindus' by the others so visceral, it made me tremble in awe and fear.

I have now actually begun to curse all those writers, intellectuals and leaders who fooled me into believing that India is a secular state, that it is not a Hindu Pakistan. My belief has been shaken. With each passing day, I realise even more clearly, what I should have realised much earlier. After all the signs were already there. I must have been sleeping when 2 million people attended the funeral of Bal Thackeray.....2 million people, 20 lakh...imagine that. SO much appeal for a hooligan who did more damage to the cosmopolitan fabric of Bombay than any other person possibly. And I should have been concerned earlier that an openly communal CM was winning one election after the other and was simultaneously being given 'audience-choice' awards, one after the other, for the best CM. I must have been wandering in my dreams with Nehru or Ambedkar way too much and so I guess I deserve the rude shock that I have received now. Still, it hurts to watch the very idea of India of one's dreams being shredded apart and mockingly so, by my fellows without so much as a batting of an eyelid.

I have read some opinion pieces stating that this rise in communalism and Modi mania is transitory and will pass. I don't think so. I think the very secular nature of India has been charred already, and the man hasn't even taken power. And it doesn't matter, frankly. Because the man may come and go, but these ideas have so deeply got entrenched into everyone's minds, that it is not going to matter who is in power. Today a Modi, tomorrow an Amit Shah, day after some other. There is not going to be any stop. Atleast that is what it feels over here in this privileged cordon of cosmopolitan Bombay. Sad, very sad indeed!

'Reading' through the Ghalib glass

( Courtesy : Vishi Sinha )


"कब किताब पढ़ते हो?"
"ग़ालिब छूटी पढ़ाई, पर अब भी कभी कभी,
पढ़ता हूँ रोज़-ए-अब्र-ओ-शब-ए-माहताब में."

"कौन सी पढ़ते हो?"
"अच्छी पढ़ ली खराब पढ़ ली, जैसी मिली क़िताब पढ़ ली."

"क्यों पढ़ते हो?"
"पढ़ता हूँ इसलिए कि कट जाए ज़िन्दगानी मेरी, वर्ना किसी शौक़ की ख़ातिर तो मैं नहीं पढ़ता."

"कितनी पढ़ते हो?"
"वैसे कभी पोथी नहीं काफी, कभी इक फ़िकरा बहुत है."

"कैसे और कहाँ पढ़ते हो?"
"कभी अल्फ्रेड पार्क में था मुक़ाम ,
तो कभी गंगा - जमुना तीरे,
कभी ट्रिपल आईटी लैब
तो कभी छत के कोने में.
आजकल फ़ुर्सत नहीं मिलती
ग़म-ए-रोजगार से
तो पायी है पनाह
मोबाइल की छोटी स्क्रीन में."

Cosmic background radiation & discovery ( sort of ) of the gravitational waves ---- explained

by Minutephysics and Veritasium ( who else ! )

Links between 'manliness' , aggression and increasing sexual violence against women

In deeply patriarchal and somewhat sexist societies, too often the popular rhetoric equates the idea of masculinity and man-hood to aggression and dominance. The pop-culture pumps up this rhetoric as well, refusing to accept 'softer' or let's say less-aggressive sensibilities in men and merrily indulges in consigning adjectives like 'weak' or 'un-manly' to them.

And to top it all, the same pop-media-culture goes overboard with their self-flagellation, on the increasing reported cases of violence, physical and sexual, against the fairer sex. All the disturbing, baying-for-blood of the accused, that regularly occur after each such event, in a perverse way, heightens the feeling of 'manliness'.

Now, one doesn't need to be a nobel-winner to figure out that the very idea of female-liberation or emancipation itself is ludicrous when we refuse to shed these ideas of 'manhood' and continue investing in the popular rhetoric.

Here is an insightful article that actually puts forward some really vital links between increasing violence against women and identity of Manliness :




http://www.epw.in/commentary/male-sexual-violence.html