Being Human

Detective Beckett: “They are just clothes.”

Teddy (dress designer): “Just clothes detective! Clothes are civilisation. Clothes are what separates us from animals.”

Detective Beckett: “...Not always”

~Castle Season 2 Episode 3 – “Inventing the girl”

       A friend of mine once teasingly told me that as we evolved into humans from apes our body hair reduced and since she (being one of those lucky females) hardly had any body hair she was more human than me. I know some people who believe that wearing branded clothes makes them better than those who wear clothes bought off the street. The city people believe they are more cultured than villagers, who in turn feel they are better than the forest dwellers. The whole concept of western civilisation is based on west being more civil and some believe that it is through emulating the western model of development and culture can one be more ‘civil’ or by extension more ‘human’.

       What is it that makes us human? Clothes? Culture? Money?

       In Delhi, a couple went on a holiday to Thailand locking their 13-year-old maid behind. They threatened her not to touch the food or else they will beat her when they will return. They had cctv cameras installed in the house to track her movements. The newspaper report went on to say that the girl had uneven hair and bruise marks showing that she was habitually abused. As the couple went on a vacation to Thailand, it is safe to assume that a) they were literate and b) they were well-off and probably wore branded clothes. So do they qualify as humans? 

       This incident is not exclusive.

       “Geeta, Priyanka and Parul were 12, 9 and 7 respectively when they were sent to work at the house of Manish and Ritu Gupta in Faridabad, Haryana, in January 2006. Priyanka and Parul would wash the clothes and manage the household cleaning (which included scrubbing the washrooms barehanded with acid), and Geeta would do the kitchen work. By the girls’ account, punishment in the Gupta household for slip-ups at work was nothing if not sadistic. Being locked into a wet bathroom on winter nights was perhaps the mildest. Beatings with dumbbells and cricket bats were common; the children would be gagged so their screams would not be heard. “When we did not finish our work on time,” says Parul, “Madam (Ritu Gupta) would throw our food into the commode from where we picked it up to eat.” During the two years the children worked for the Guptas, they neither got any money nor were they allowed to visit their homes. Says Geeta, “I was desperate to call my parents, and I once became adamant about it. She (Ritu Gupta) snatched the paper on which I had the number, put chillies in my eyes and tied me naked to the kitchen door. She did not give me food for the next five or six days.” Geeta says Manish Gupta attempted to rape her several times. He also shot Priyanka in the thigh with an airgun, apparently because he thought she ate too much. “They did not even call a doctor after that,” Priyanka says. Manish Gupta is an architect; his wife is what is commonly referred to as an ‘educated’ woman'.” (From Tehelka)

       Do these people qualify as humans? These are people we see and meet every day. An acquaintance told me about her friend who was studying in IIT-Delhi at that time. He was her neighbour and they had a teenage boy as their domestic help. She told me that once after a party, this friend and his sister went to their mother and said the help should not be given such good clothes as everyone in the party thought that he was their sibling. In another incident, their mother was worried about her security when construction work was taking place near her house. She locked herself and her dog inside the house during night and made the help sleep outside. These episodes make you wonder if there is something critically wrong with our education system or just with our conscience.

       “A man becomes what his society rewards him to become.”

          ~ Amish Tripathi in Immortals of Meluha

       Unfortunately our society rewards only the rich and glorifies their action which makes other in the society emulate them. There are no rewards for being nice or for having qualities that once defined humanity. It is our actions and our sensitivity to those around us that makes us human. But this sensitivity brings us no rewards, which is why it is not a treasured virtue. In the race for filling coffers and imitating the rich, humans have forgotten humanity.

       In his book 'The Division of Labour in Society' (1893), renowned sociologist Emile Durkheim talks about collective conscience. He says early societies had moral basis for being integrated. Modern society, on the other hand, has weaker collective conscience and is held by complex division of labour. I suppose there is a lot of truth in that. If the moral fibre is weak, what then defines humanity? It seems 'to err a human' is not an exception but a norm. As Dr.Gregory House (from the popular series House) tells his junior Dr. Cameron, "Your problem is that you expect people to do the right thing." I suppose that is a problem. But the following sequence helps me make my point: 
House: “You, on the other hand, continue to be flabbergasted every time someone actually acts like a human being. Foreman did what he did because it worked out best that way for him. That's what everyone does.”
Cameron: “That is not the definition of being a human. That is the definition of being an ass.” 
~House Season 2 Episode 18 – “Sleeping Dogs Lie”
      There it is. Selfish and malicious acts are not 'being human'. The modern society has given each one a fair share of problems. Some have received more that their share and some less, but the least we can do is make sure that we are not adding to someone else's woes and be a little more sensitive to those around us. Doing that is the first step towards being human.

Book Review: The Vault of Shiva

How would a book based on India and written by someone who has just Googled India and talked to a few Punjabi or north Indian families read like? The answer is ‘The Vault of Shiva’ written by Andy McDermott. The book, as I was surprised to learn, was part of a series based on two characters – Nina Wilde, an archaeologist, and Eddie Chase, a former mercenary. I had initially thought that this was a debut novel of an aspiring pulp fiction writer

Around 70 per cent of the book is action. Some readers may enjoy that. In the book, Eddie says the only thing he knows about India is from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It appears that it is also, somewhat, true for the author. Stark manifestation of Hollywood stereotyping is evident in the portrayal of Indian characters and the country itself.

While drawing a mind map, the author probably wrote India in the centre and corruption, caste system, slums, cricket, IT engineers, sadhus and mythology in the off-shoots. He must have then talked to north Indian families and come up with the surnames – Tandon, Jindal and Mahajan, not to mention Khoil, which I believe is distortion of Kohli. While we are talking of names, Chapal (or slipper) hardly sounds like a legitimate Indian name, but then of course some parents have weird sense of humour

In the previous book, Nina, Eddie and some of their friends had recovered lost treasure from the “sunken ruins of Atlantis”. The artefacts included a book called Telenor Codex, which was basically notes by Telenor, a fictitious Atlantean scout, about his journey to India. The traveller had visited a temple, where Shiva-Vedas were kept and, incredibly, the trusting Brahmin guardians showed him the Vedas and even let him take an imprint of the key that was used to open the sacred vault where the Vedas were stored.

The Codex is stolen during an exhibition of the Atlantean artefacts by people hired by Pramesh Khoil, a software engineer-cum-entrepreneur who wants to bring an end to Kalyuga (or Kali Yuga as the book spells it) and start the new cycle.  Khoil and his wife Vanita grew up in slum, though it is not mentioned where. I guess it is safe to assume they are north Indians as they speak in Hindi

Khoil is a dalit who hates Brahmins and, despite being a billionaire, faces caste prejudices (all this he says in a single dialogue and no elaborations are provided anywhere else in the book, not even through dialogues). Yet, he is a hard core follower of Shiva and credits him for all his achievements. His minions are – Dhiren Mahajan (who lost his tongue when the leader of the gang he was an enforcer for put red-hot nail in his mouth, “the way Brahmins used to punish dalits”), Chapal Tandon and Nahari Singh (who was a bonded labourer).  Note- Mahajan and Tandon are upper castes. From the book, it is evident that the author read half page summary on the caste system in India and used it whimsically wherever he could

Khoil stays in a high-tech palace on the outskirts of Bangalore, and none of those who work for him there speak Kannada. I assume he had only north Indian workforce. At one point, Khoil buys over 300 tickets to a cricket match for his employees (an hour and a half before the match was to start) and the people who had the tickets were issued an apology and told that they will get free tickets to any match of their choice. Even for the biggest sponsor (Khoil is a major sponsor) this seems to be an implausible feat, given how easily it was done without any protest or hullabaloo (or maybe the author decided it wasn’t relevant to the plot as Eddie and Jindal might not have encountered any of it). You will have to make many such assumptions throughout the story.

Corrupt officials make entry at few points, though their only contribution to the plot is that it explains why Eddie doesn’t take or receive any help from the local law enforcement body. This I do not contest

Then there is the character of Girilal, the present guardian of the vault, who trusts foreigners as much as the old guardians did and helps them recover Shiva-Vedas. Nina is able to solve the puzzle that baffled the guardians for centuries. Nina also figures out the way to get past a 20-foot tall statue (or as it turns out – a robot) of Kali that attacks anyone who comes near it. Despite the incredulousness of a foreigner (and not an expert on India or South Asia for that matter) solving the puzzles – much like Nancy Drew – by guessing correctly every time, I do appreciate the creativity that the author put in this particular scene:

‘I believe Kali would protect me,’ Nina replied. ‘And she did. Stand back, let me show you.’

She pushed the spear down again. The sword lunged- and this time she jerked the wood away. The blade continued to the limit of its travel, hacking another piece off the wooden shaft.

‘If you are afraid, that’s what you do when Kali attacks you,’ she explained. ‘You jump back – and get hit anyway. But if you’re not afraid, if you stand your ground...’ She lowered the spear once more, keeping it pressed firmly to the stone. Another bang echoed through the passage as the sword stopped abruptly before impact. ‘If you stay in place, there’s something in the machinery that keeps it from hitting you. The symbols in her other two hands are the clue for how to get through. It’s like the key – you have to know the meaning of the stories about Shiva and the goddess to get inside.’

The plot holds no surprises. The villain is revealed early in the book and the only thrust to the story is provided by long winding action sequences

Perhaps, I might have enjoyed the book much more had it been based on Afghanistan or Egypt or some other place whose culture I know little about, except through Hollywood flicks. I might have also enjoyed it if I wasn’t an Indian. My dad picked this book from an airport to read during a journey. I found it lying in the house and picked it up as the title intrigued me. It turned out to be a disappointment to say the least. In Eddie’s words: Buggeration and fuckery! 

P.S: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is NOT based in India.

No promising future: Kya Hua Tera Wada

I don't know why I watch TV soaps. I have been planning to quit. I don't remember why I started in the first place. Yes, they are entertaining, devoid of logic or consistency in characters or those who play them. The thing is, I have a night job and I wake up late. As a result, it is noon when I have my breakfast and there is nothing interesting to watch on TV except the re-runs of these soaps. I repeat, they are often entertaining.
It was one such noon, when I first watched the re-run of Kya Hua Tera Wada. I had seen the promos and had no intentions of starting it, but unfortunately the re-run came at 1.00 and at that time I am full of food and too lazy to move. My cousin had said that Mona Singh who plays 'Mona' and Pawan Shankar, who plays 'Pradeep' were excellent actors and so the show must be good. And so I started watching it off-and-on. But now the story has reached to a point where I am reminded why exactly I don't like these serials.
The ex-girlfriend of the husband returns in his life as his boss and helps him in his career and they both have an affair. When the affair comes out in open, the husband breaks off relationship with his wife of 11-years and his three kids with a promise to support them financially. And what does the wife do? She goes and begs the girlfriend to return her husband who is her "whole life". The girlfriend (Anushka, played by Mauli Ganguli) says that taking care of home and rearing children is job of a maid and that Pradeep needs to go after his dreams and so-on. Mona then tries to commit suicide, but is saved by her mother-in-law, who convinces her to work towards winning her husband back and show him the difference between "gharwali" and "baharwali". And how does Mona do it?
She files for divorce and says that her husband has to take care of the kids. Anushka, who stays in pent house has to shift to 2BHK flat and take care of three kids and from the looks of it, she is done with.
My problem with the serial is that it stereotypes roles. A career oriented woman, who has made it big, is not a good news.A housewife has no identity without her kids and husband and hence she must get her husband back.    
Now, why would an unmarried career-oriented woman not understand importance of family? Sometimes it is the thing you don't have that you value the most. Besides she liked the guy from college and wanted him because he had loved her when she was a nobody. The attraction was normal. The guy liked her too. His wife "never understood him, never supported him in front of others and nor did she take out time for him". So he drifted towards his old love. Fine. But that doesn't mean they will not find happiness. Or that Anushka can't learn to take care of the kids and love them too. She needn't be the classic "stepmother".
And why should Mona want her cheating husband back? Is it her love or financial insecurity? Would she try to find out the reason he left her (usually they don't, not on the soaps that is)?
My guess is that the girlfriend, finding it hard to handle the kids, will try to send them to a boarding school. The husband may oppose the move. The wife would learn ways of the world and present herself in a different light to her husband. Meanwhile, the husband and the girlfriend will keep fighting and he would miss his wife, or not. Eventually, the two will be reunited. The wife will either forgive or let him back "for kids' sake". That is the usual trajectory such serials take.
It is true that in our society it is difficult to live as a woman whose husband has left her. She is certainly vulnerable and the state institutions provide no comfort for such women. Given that she is merely a graduate and has no work experience it will be hard for her to get a job and even when she does the scope of growth would be limited. Such woman are also easy target for criminals and if anything happens the police will blame her for it. The expose by the Tehelka magazine into the mindset of the Delhi police substantiates my point. Even when a woman is murdered the first thing that cops do is to slander her character. However, this doesn't mean she has to go back to her husband.
The situation in Balika Vadhu is far more realistic and well, complicated. (Although Avika Gor, who played young Anandi, is now working in a nauseating serial called Sasural Simar Ka, where she plays the role of a married teen).
But Mona, unlike Anandi, is from a liberal family. She can become financially independent (though that will be difficult as I've mentioned before) and perhaps find herself a new man. At least I hope that happens.
I really wish these soaps try to break the social stereotypes of woman rather than reinforcing them.
 

Kahaani review

*SPOILER ALERT*

The movie starts with a masked man experimenting with rats. He drops a glass tablet inside a cage and as soon as it crashes, a poisonous gas spreads through the cage killing all the rats. The scene shifts to a man (Abir Chatterjee) boarding a crowded Kolkata metro while talking on a phone. He is looking for a bag, which presumably has some device of mass destruction. At the next station, a milk bottle crashes and poisonous gas kills all those aboard.

With this well-edited thrilling start, the story moves two years forward to a seven-months pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arriving at Kolkata from London in search of her husband, who went missing a few weeks ago. A young police inspector Rana alias Satyaki Sinha (Parambrata Chatterjee) helps her in her search, which gets them a close encounter with the street life in Kolkata.

The city is preparing for Durga pooja. Idols are being prepared, woman are dressed up in traditional white sarees with red border, the crowded streets and the street food, the dingy hotel room covered with layers of dust – all this adds to the flavour of the city.

From it being a search for Arnab Bagchi, it becomes search for Milan Domji (Indraneil Sengupta) who looks like Arnab, or perhaps is Arnab and is prime suspect for the metro attack. A R Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), second-in command at the Intelligence Bureau, who was once assigned the task to capture Damji becomes involved in the search, though initially as a detractor. It is revealed that Damji was a Bureau member, handpicked (along with a few others) by the current IB chief Bhaskaran (Dhritiman Chatterjee), to be trained as super cop. The training was undertaken by Vajpayee (Darshan Jariwala), who retired after Damji’s defection.

Khan uses Vidya to reach Damji, and admits it to her rather brashly. He tells her that she can succeed as “nobody will suspect a pregnant woman.”

Meanwhile, those protecting Damji hire Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee), who works as a lousy insurance agent in the morning and a contract killer by night, to kill those who might reveal the secret. After many twists, it turns out that Bhaskaran was the mole in IB and using that information Khan, Rana and Vidya lure Damji out of hiding.

On the last day of Durga pooja, Vidya goes to Triangular Park to meet Domji, who has promised to return her husband. The park is jam-packed with people celebrating Durga pooja. Vidya meets Domji, kills him and runs away. Rana, meanwhile, figures out everything and reaches the scene. He explains to Khan that Arnab Bagchi and Vidya Bagchi are just a story, the woman (whoever she was) wanted to kill Domji and was in fact using them to reach him. Of course nobody suspected her- who would suspect a pregnant woman! She leaves evidence against Bhaskaran with them.

Post-climax it is revealed that she was wife of the IB agent (Abir), who was on the metro to stop the attack. She was pregnant but had a miscarriage shortly after learning of her husband’s demise. Vajpayee, trains her to enable her to take revenge.

The director, Sujoy Ghosh, has drawn an analogy with how Gods gave demons power and when the latter misused it, Gods created Durga. She was given powers to destroy the demons and after she purges the earth, she disappears.

As an audience one tries to speculate what comes next, but the director has played his cards well by throwing unexpected twist every time you think you know what’s gonna happen.

The movie provides an interesting array of characters. There is Bob, who is a cold-blooded killer but no athlete. He is baby-faced and always has a smile on his face. You would expect him to be a content middle-class family man, certainly not a contract killer. There is Rana, a young and smart police officer, who helps Vidya out of his sense of duty and in parts out of chivalry. Throughout the movie he tries to deal with his growing attraction and admiration towards an already married and heavily pregnant Vidya.

Then of course there is Vidya herself. At first she is a loving wife determined to find her husband come what may. At the climax she is shown to be vengeful and driven by righteous-anger. This character, poles apart from the one Balan played in ‘The Dirty Picture’, establishes Balan as a versatile actor. It is to her credit that she has pulled of the movie on her own, without any ‘hero’ per say.

Also, you would never suspect a mother with a wailing infant to be carrying poisonous gas with her (was it even her baby? Was she blackmailed into doing it?)

There were loopholes too. You cannot open a padlock with a hairpin. Right after having a near-death incident, Vidya seems pretty calm when she meets Rana and does not talk about the incident immediately. Even though she cleans after her, she has to have left fingerprints (like on the rubber stomach pad she wears to fake pregnant look) unless, she didn’t have any.

All said and done, this movie is worth a watch, though if you have read this far and haven't seen the movie, you probably shouldn’t go for it now (you were warned).

Fading Memories

At times, dreams and memories intertwine and it is hard to tell them apart. And at times, the difference changes life.

Shruti turned 22 this year and by all means she is a happy girl. She is the college topper, has a vast array of friends and is an ideal daughter to proud parents. Shruti was studying Psychology and though she would never admit it, she had chosen the subject hoping to unravel the truth behind a mysterious incident that occurred almost a decade ago.

There was little activity in the city suburbs on a balmy Sunday morning 10 years ago. Roads were empty, save for a vehicle or two.Tucked away on a small street that branched from the main road was a double storied house, or a part of it, as a wall divided the duplex into two homes, each with a separate entrance.

Twelve-year-old Shruti sat in the veranda of the left-side duplex, gazing out at the lawns, lost in thoughts. The veranda door opened to a circular lawn circumscribed by a cemented driveway, which in turn was surrounded by trees on both sides. It was a nice house. Shruti loved it. She was thinking about her upcoming birthday party.

Outside the door, on the right, would be a kiosk where she will keep prizes for the winners of different games. Maybe not. Towards the right, the driveway led to the garage and that’s where all the vehicles will be parked. So the kiosk can be put towards the left, under the porch. Perfect. She pictured it as she planned.

There will be several games. Musical chair, which can be arranged in the lawn. The music system can be put in the veranda, though speakers would be required. Sharmas have nice speakers, and will surely lend them for a day. She will ask her mother to see to it as soon as her parents return form shopping.

Then there would be dumb-charades. That would be fun! Shruti could hardly wait to see how Anshul, a really stupid kid in her class, would act. She laughed to herself. She can also organise a relay race. Circular lawns have so many advantages, she sighed.

Shruti was so engrossed in her thoughts that it was while before, with a jolt, she realized what she was seeing.

On the driveway towards the right, where the cars would be parked on her birthday, ambled a massive lion. It was followed by a wild boar and a grub, both of which were of the same size as the lion and strode at the same pace. The bizzare group circled the driveway on the far side of the lawn, leaped over the gate and disappeared in the alley.

Shruti, who stood frozen, was seized by a rush of adrenaline. She quickly shut the veranda door and rushed inside the house, bolting all the doors and windows and pulling up curtains.

When her parents returned in the afternoon, Shruti narrated the incident. As was to be expected, neither believed her story. They said she might have hallucinated. Nobody in the neighbourhood complained about seeing a massive lion or a wild boar or an unusually large grub. But Shruti was sure it wasn’t a hallucination or a dream, even 10 years after the incident.

She saw what she saw, though what she saw would always remain a mystery in the back of her memory. Even today, she sometimes woke up in the middle of the night with dreams of the memory. Or, perhaps, it was memory of a dream.