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"Real" Dream

Everybody has a dream. Only a few go on to reach their dream, but they have to undergo various difficulties to attain them. Don't think your dreams are over. Its not, if you can put in that extra effort you can achieve your dreams.

I wanted to be an electronics engineer. I was amazed at the Electronics chapter which we had to study during our Twelfth standard. I was deluged in all the fascination about how I am going to study in electronic scale about working of a radio, TV, etc... As a matter of fact, I didn't study those stuff nor I am working in my field of interest.

I would say four factors that would affect you destiny,

1. Good Education / Institution:

We have a post in our blog stating the education system in India. The educational system should be upgraded as it is outdated. I found that people where teaching vaccum tubes when there is already a revolution in Transistors and MoSFETs. It also depends on the socio-economic class of the student. If he can afford money then he can get admission in good institution.

The education system has become more of a business nowadays. People who have the money power (and muscle power) have started to build institutions and are gaining profit from them. I dont want them to provide education for free (after all they need money to survive), but they could atleast stop the huge amount of donation they claim from those poor parents. I have seen colleges collecting hefty fines and defaulters were made to stand outside the directors office (Like a Watchman!!!) or sometimes suspended. They dont care about the welfare of students anymore . All they care about is money. I am not blaming all of them. We can find some people who have that conscience (or pity) to help the students in their studies and not hinder them.

In the early 20th century, people donated their wealth in order to build educational institutions and help the people in need. In modern days, its the other way round, you take the money from the people to build more educational institutions in order to acquire wealth.

The sad part is even the government are not interfering in these matters. They dont want any trouble from those hotshots (as some of the educational institutions are run by people who are prominent in either the ruling party or the opposition party). They dont care a damn about education to poor, all they care is free TV for the poor when there in energy shortage.

2. Parents:

The role of parents is very important in making you dream come true (or rather their dream come true). Now honestly how many parents would love their child to be an artist, lyricist,etc.. They (some of them) want to impress (or exceed other children) their relatives and friends, so they try to push in their ambitions into our mind. They dont allow you to settle in your minds. They constantly come up and say to you what they want us to become, they dont listen what we want to become. If the kid wants to become something other than what their parents want to be, they are brain washed.

Parents should be supportive of their kids, they have understand what the child wants and not what they want from the child. These days , the interaction time between the parents and the kids are dwindling at an alarming rate. In most of the middle class families, both the parents are working and they come home only by 7.30 pm and the kid is under the supervision of a servant or he will be in some tution class. The kid arrives at 8.00 pm or he is already tired of these classes , so he takes his dinner and goes to sleep. People should listen to what the kid has done in the school, they should follow their activity, spend time with them and thats how the bond between the parents and kid will become stronger. Richard Feynman admired his father, you can find references of his father teaching him in some of his books. Maybe thats why he decided to become a world renown scientist. The interaction between a child and his parent may shape his ambition/career.

Again, if you see from the parents' point of view, they are quite helpless, they want their kids to be in repectable job rather than risking his career for some other profession. Most of them struggle to raise their kids and they expect some payback from child. They think if somehow he/she becomes engineer or doctor, he/she can continue to serve the family. So they are apprehensive of sending their son/daughter to their area of interest which may put the entire family at risk. They are really constricted to some ideas (their ideal world), they dont want to think outside that world.

3. Teacher:

The teacher plays an important role in making one career. Most of the teachers are sub standard,Why? The reason is something to do with the topic of the post. Most of them dont pursue their dream, but forced to come into teaching profession becuase of their family circumstances or due to lack of jobs of their interest. There have been some really good teachers, who have dedicated their lives to teaching, but we need some real gems to force the talet out of the child when a parent fails to do so.

4. The Students:

I would say that the students also play an important role in ruining their ambition/career. Let's for example take engineering, we have been provided facilities (atleast some) when some children could only dream about. Most of the people are forced into engioneering, but there are some people whose ambition is to study engineering. Does all the guys/girls who do engineering study properly? No, I dont think so. We can go about complaining that the facilities weren't there, the teachers weren't good, did we improvise? No. All we did was having fun all the time (maybe sometimes we studied), enjoying life and lost our opportunity to learn more when we had the facility (little facility). We were enjoying with our friends when we should have deluged ourselves in the library books, but we rarely did that, when we did that it was mostly to skip classes and to pass time without much ado.

People dont want to explore the subject, they want to be spoon fed by the teachers. All they want is to score good grades (which is actually important) without actually knowing anything. People have to explore beyond what they have been taught. Its time the students change their attitude, they have internet. Even if they are not taught well, they can go browse the net and actually learn the stuff rather than complaining.

It also takes immense courage to pursue your ambition. It may include going against tradition, parents wishes etc. There are some people who have done it. I knew personally some of the people. I salute them for their courage and reflect upon my cowardice and try to find a solution for my problem.

I agree there are exceptions in all the four points I have mentioned above. Finally, I leave you with these two examples to ponder about. One from the past and one from the present.

i) Leonardo Da Vinci - Illegitimate son of a wealthy man. He didnt have education like us or the facility that we have now. Look at him, he did everything - he was a painter, sculptor, engineer, mechanic, designer, scientist,etc... He did everything he wanted to do and succeeded in it.

ii) http://xlalumni.blogspot.com/2007/11/xlri-homecoming-07-idli-boy-steals-show.html

No excuses for any of us. If he can do it, we can do it. We still have time to pursue our dreams. Who's Game?

Beyond old Kollywood

This is another posting about movies.I couldnt resist posting this from The Hindu,

“Kalloori” is the finest Tamil film of the year. After “Kadhal”, Balaji Sakthivel could have easily made an ambitious film with big stars, but he chose instead to do something smaller, on a more intimate scale. You have to admire him for it. There are few false notes in “Kalloori”, a film about three years in the life of nine college friends. Character, plot and dialogue are flawlessly rendered, staying faithful to its small town roots, never once betraying its authentic rural sensibility. The actors look uncompromisingly South Indian: every face here reminds us of real people and there’s no attempt to airbrush the actors and make them movie-handsome. Sakthivel maintains a fine, calibrated balance between the formulaic and the artistic.

“Kalloori” is only one example among several recent Tamil films that point to a very quiet but exciting revolution taking place in contemporary Tamil cinema: an unexpected, astonishing move towards realistic, intelligent, strongly scripted storytelling. Ram’s “Kattradhu Tamil” and Ameer’s “Paruthiveeran” are also remarkable instances of a new kind of movie in Tamil. What is just as remarkable is their modest success at the box office. In some ways, a film like “Kalloori”, deftly weaving Kollywood and realism, is more ambitious and more entertaining than a big budget film with stars. Is this the new Kollywood?

New wave

What these new wave of Tamil films seem to be doing is to fuse the energy and entertainment of a mainstream film (without its formulaic excesses) with the complexity and sensitivity of an art film (minus the excessive artiness). Mani Ratnam invented it in “Nayagan” and perfected it in “Aayitha Ezhuthu”, but it took all these decades for a newer generation of filmmakers to follow his genius. Other recent examples in this new wave are: Thankar Bachchan’s “Pallikoodam” and “Onbadhu Roobai Nottu”, Vetrimaran’s “Polladhavan”, Nishikant Kamat’s “Evano Oruvan”, Padma Magan’s “Ammuvaagiya Naan”, Gnana Rajasekharan’s “Periyar”, Vasanta Balan’s “Veyil”, Selvaraghavan’s “Pudupettai” and Cheran’s “Thavamai Thavamirunthu”.

Suddenly, it seems there is a new Tamil audience, a young audience, willing to see new things. The big Deepavali releases, “Azhagiya Tamil Magan”, “Vel” and “Machakarran” for instance, seem un-entertaining and even tame to a new Tamil audience now used to a cinema that is more inventive.

The Tamil New Wave is also characterised by style, personal filmmaking, a minimum song soundtrack (with songs in the background rather than lip synched and danced to) a shorter running time, no parallel comedy track (the comedy arises instead from within the plot) and themes that are sharply observed, tough-minded explorations of rural life and life on the mean streets. The characters here are rooted in family, culture and tradition but are forced to break with everything because of their personal choices — usually love or ambition.

The significance of these films is not for Tamil cinema alone. Their influence is already being felt through the rest of Indian cinema, signalling to filmmakers that our formulaic movies can be reinvented.

Already paralleling the Tamil revolution is a new kind of Hindi movie, evidenced by “Hazaaron Khwashien Aisi”, “Black Friday”, “Omkara”, “Iqbal”, “Page 3”, “Mixed Doubles”, “Rang de Basanti”, “Dus Kahaniya”, “Khoya Khoya Chand” etc. Except their themes are urban, looking at sex, adultery, relationships, work pressure, crime and everything else that contemporary living throws up. If Tamil movies depend too much on a rustic milieu, Hindi movies lean too much on the urban. Both cinemas need to crossover.

How exactly did this new cinema come about? Had its young audience, now exposed to better cinema from around the world, begun to tire of the more formulaic, fantasy-driven films? Or was it the young directors themselves who now desired to tell new stories in new ways?

The frontrunners

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when this film revolution in contemporary Tamil cinema started, but I’d like to mark two films as possibly having inspired and kick started this new wave:” Autograph” and “Kaadhal”. Both films were artistically made, entertaining, and — most crucially — huge box office hits. It must have startled the Kodambakkam industry to see two intimate love stories with no stars winning such a huge audience.

Balaji Sakthivel’s “Kaadhal” and Cheran’s “Autograph” signalled two things to Kollywood’s aspiring younger directors — that there was an audience for character-driven, strongly scripted, low budget movies, and that there were bold producers and passionate filmmakers willing to risk telling more realistic, intelligent, personal stories.

Sakthivel brings a documentary naturalness to the acting in “Kalloori”, especially with Hemlatha as Kayal, who can actually make you forget she’s acting. He coaxes an achingly beautiful performance from Tamanna; a complex, intense performance I have not been able get out of my head, one that heralds a major star. “Kalloori” is admirably restrained, subtly humorous and scene-by-scene enjoyable.

Ameer’s “Paruthiveeran” stunned an audience with a brutally detailed depiction of clan wars in rural Tamil Nadu. The first Tamil film to evoke small town life precisely: the festivals, rituals, locale, characters, and dialect. Its strongest character, fascinatingly, is a woman, Muthazhagu (an audacious performance by Priyamani), the heroine who fiercely knows her mind and heart. The scene where she eats with a ravishing appetite just after being sickeningly beaten by her father reverses everything we’ve seen in our movies about women and patriarchy.

Unpredictable

If “Kalloori” is the best Tamil movie of the year, “Kattradhu Tamil” is the most underrated. Ram’s film is original, unpredictable, disturbing and provocative. Prabhakar (Jeeva scorching as a bearded Dostoyevskian hero) has an M.A. in Tamil but it gets him nowhere. He runs into classmates half as bright as him doing fabulously well working for BPOs, while those with a degree in the arts and humanities are marginalised into obscurity. Working as a young Tamil teacher in Chennai for a poor school, Prabhkar narrates his terrifying journey (to Karunas, usually a comic sidekick, who does a superb about turn as a character actor) from idealism and rage to madness and oblivion.

What this postgraduate in Tamil has to say about how irrelevant those who have given themselves to Tamil culture and literature have become in an increasingly Anglicised society feels alarmingly true and painfully ironic. “Kattradhu Tamil” is uneven, dark, and violent but also full of conviction with an uncompromising vision.

The only aspect that slightly mars many of these offbeat Tamil films is their tendency for dark, morbid, violent endings. They seem to interpret any realistic portrayal as necessarily ending in tragedy, almost to say: realism equals tragedy. “Paruthiveeran”, “Kattradhu Tamil” and “Kalloori” also make this error. What they don’t realise is that after soaking in the despair and struggles of these characters, what we in the audience want to see is the triumph of these characters (however small that might be) over their fate. We want to see is Veeran and Muthazhagu, Muthuchelvan and Shobana, Prabhakar and Anandi take flight, escape the past and find a new life. Surely they’ve earned it.

Through the last decade and a half there have been other one-off films that were also intelligent and artful, but because they popped up sporadically and were not, unlike the new Tamil movie phenomenon, part of a gathering movement, they never achieved sufficient momentum to make a strong impact and change the idiom of contemporary Tamil cinema. But they nudged the revolution closer: Films such as Durai’s “Mugavari”, Susi Ganesan’s” Five Star” (his “Thiruttu Payale” is also noteworthy for the way its dark hero stays faithfully in character right up to the end) Suhasini Maniratnam’s “Indira”, and Ameer’s “Raam”. And then, more recently, there have been these other little, deft entertainers — romantic dramas and comedies where the emphasis is not on being realistic or authentic but in being charming and believable: Priya’s “Kanda Naal Mudhal”, Azhagham Permual’s “Dum, Dum, Dum”, Radha Mohan’s “Azhagiya Theeyae” and “Mozhi”, Vasanth’s “Yei Nee Romba Azhaga Irrukkai” and “Poovellam Kettupaar”, and Cheran’s “Mayakannadi”.

Smart and stylish

Even the new wave of Tamil gangster films — “Pudupettai”, Mishkin’s “Chithiram Pesuthadi”, Linguswamy’s “Sandakozi”, Vishnuvardhan’s “Pattiyal” and Vetrimaran’s “Polladhavan” — and thrillers — Gautham Menon’s “Kaaka Kaaka” and “Pachaikilli Muthucharam”, Igor’s underrated “Kalaba Kadhalan”, Vasanth’s “Satham Podaathey” — have a new grittiness and edge to them, and are smartly written and stylishly crafted.

There is plenty that is still disturbing about even new Tamil cinema: endless violence, obnoxious attitude to women, and ingratiating tropes. What is cause for celebration, though, is that this vibrant new cinema in Tamil is not at its culmination but is just beginning. Already in “Kalloori” there is no violence, no caste politics, and no item numbers. It certainly feels like Tamil cinema has finally grownup, turned a corner, and gone beyond old Kollywood.

You can also check the story at , http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/01/13/stories/2008011350150500.htm

Kalloori and other contemporary World cinema

I recently went for the Tamil movie "Kalloori" directed by Balaji Shakthivel. I entered the theater thinking that it will be yet another movie about college. It had all the elements like friendship and love which you can expect in a Tamil movie which is based on college life. The climax was a shocker, we didn't expect the movie to end this way. The director has portrayed the bus burning incident that happened 4 years back in Dharmapuri when three of the student lost their precious life.

I have seen movies that portray real life incidents (sufferings) or the internal problem of people in a particular society (for e.g., No Man's Land , Paradise Now, Kannathil Muthamittal, etc..). Most of the people in the world are not aware of these kind of sufferings that's happening every moment in some part of the world.

Directors from all over the world have started to show the "real" situation in which people around the world has suffered ( Schindler's list, Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond) or suffering (Paradise Now, No Man's Land). Cinema is a powerful media where you can send powerful message to people but unfortunately Indian directors are far behind in this kind of sensitive subject. All the producers and directors want to portray a hero as a larger than life hero and pocket millions. The actors also expect the same from the directors, they don't want to portray sensitive things, they want to enhance their image in front of their fans.

Its high time our actors and directors turn to the social issues plaguing our society. India is the second largest movie producer in the world and most of the movies that are started are not finished and some of the movies are finished with heavy financial backing (and with no story) and only the actors and directors are benefited by this and not the society.

The day after watching kalloori, the 3 accused in the Dharmapuri were sentenced to death (The sentence was nothing to do with the movie) and I thought it was perfect to end this way. Alas, today the court have stayed the sentence. Like the ending of the movie, we will never know if the accused will be brought to justice.

Directors like Vittoria De Sica, Kieslowski, Fellini, Satyajith Ray were daring enough to show the "real" human conditions and emotions. Will we ever see a period like that in Tamil Nadu if not in India? Thats a question for which we will never know when we will find answers.

"The politicians want to see it as black and white, good and evil, and art wants to see it as a human thing." -- Hany Abu-Assad

Ayn Rand - Objectivism

Its time I spoke about Objectivism and Ayn Rand. I read Fountainhead 3 years ago. To be frank, at that time I never knew anything about Ayn Rand or Objectivism. The book was written pretty well given the author is from Russia. In the coming years, I learnt about objectivism through internet. I recently saw a documentary about (Gautam is gonna kill me for this, but I saw it even before you could warn me). The title of the documentary is "Ayn Rand - A sense of Life". After watching it , I decided to write about this topic someday and I think I have the time to write it now.

Ayn Rand was short and precise about her philosophy. This is what she asked people to do, "Be Selfish!!!” .She should be absolute nuts to say that people should be selfish. She defies all Religion in this world. It also had some archive footage about Ms. Rand talking about how everyone should be selfish and she was supportive of capitalism. I thought Ayn Rand was utter rubbish, I know I may get the ire of some of the readers, but How can one live without helping others. The irony is Cecile B. Demille helped Ayn Rand to get a job in his studio and that kick started her writing career. I found it foolish when someone else helps you create a career; you say that you must be selfish. I think Ms. Rand missed the whole point.

Every religion in this world preaches that we have to help others in some way or the other. Feynman says that the moral part of a religion is the only thing that he accepts from a religion. Ms. Rand is an atheist that does not mean that she can say whatever she thinks. I think she missed the whole point, and in the documentary she was taking her characters in her book for her philosophy.

I thought that Ms. Rand missed the whole point. Each and every action that a man takes is to satisfy his conscience. For e.g., when a guy offers something to a beggar, he is happy that he has helped a poor guy. Inherently, he does that because it gives him satisfaction, otherwise he would not have offered anything to that beggar. Even if he is a miser and doesn’t give anything to that beggar, he does that because that makes him happy. So every action that a man does is for his satisfy his inner greediness. By satisfying his inner self, he also helps another person. Is this wrong? Ms. Rand says it is wrong and I say Ms. Rand is wrong. She staunchly opposes Socialism. What a joke?

In a particular interview she was caught unawares by the host, the guy asked her she felt when her husband died. She thought that she wished that she can be with him when he meets St.Peter in heaven in support of him. So the host told her that it was against objectivism (he was right). She said something and escaped that question. If she wants to help his husband, doesn’t that action goes against her philosophy? Every philosophy has some flaws, but Ms. Rand’s philosophy is full of flaws. How can a selfish person write about Love? In Ms. Rand stories, love plays a major part. A selfish guy cannot love. A guy loves a girl and will do anything to make her happy which in turn makes him happy.

I was also angry that she was supporting the capitalist policy of America and she started to campaign for it. We can see what selfishness and capitalism (of US and UK) has brought to this world. We have numerous example, Iraq, Afghanisthan , etc…. They wont go and fight the militants in Africa, because there is nothing in Africa. Their sole interest is the oil rich countries and that’s why they went for Iraq , when there is no sign of WMD in there, get control of all the oil resource and start a civil war and devastate the whole country. Their next target could be Iran. During time when people need care and peace, I thought that documentary to be piece of s*** and Ayn Rand’s philosophy to be utter crap.

The Interpretation of Indian Reservation

It has been the hot topic for the past month in India.I hope your discussion would have come out with many suggestions. I ll try to add on my views in the blog. I was going through the newspaper (' Dinamalar' to be precise) last friday when the results came for the +2 students in Tamil Nadu (many other states also released their +2 result on the same day) when i came across an interesting column which said that around (only ) 3600 students from rural area (the stats is for engineering college in Tamil Nadu) can make it to the professional course this year. Then I was scanning through ' The Hindu' on the same day which was also reiterating the same point, moreover it also said that reservation is not working for the rural people. It is only helping the people who are living in the urban areas.

I always thought that reservation should be based upon the economical basis because people in rural havent got any benefit out of reservation. The political parties in TN play mind games with the people regarding reservation. It is being done for the past 59 years since gaining independence.Reservation is being done based on community, so people think that people from BC or SC community are poor people, maybe it was the case when India got independence but it not now. For e.g., in a school in an urban area, there are students from BC and SC community, they also avail the tution facilites that are available in cities, but considering a school in a rural area, all the students studying there are the same, considering the fact that they have less facilites than their urban counterparts irrespective of their community or caste. Except for a few students from rural area has the money power (e.g. Pannaiyar or Naattamai of a village) to get higher education. Otherwise the students are on their own with no proper infrastructure and lab facilities. If a student from a rural area (say son of a Kovil Gurukal who is FC or son of a Good Pannaiyar who has gone broke because of a conspiracy of an evil Mirasu) who has put his heart and soul in his studies and has got good marks and aiming at a good college but doesnt have the cut off mark to enter the college, then there is no meaning for reservation. That is really unfair.Politcal parties have played this particular card very well for their purpose in the past years to come to power. The colleges dont fight against this , because most of the profesional colleges in TN submit only half theeir seats to Single Window System (SWS), the other half is filled by the management. The students who are filled in the management quota are not necessarily NRI or from other states, most of them are from TN and forced to study engineering and their parents obtain the seats in MQ. I have seen many people like this who are not interested in engineering but are forced to take the bitter pill. One of my friends had 18 arrears till his 6th semester and another guy had 3 arrears even after finishing college, now this aspect degrades the institution and the course thats why the number of Engineers (I meant real 'Engineers') passing out each year is dwindling. Neither the government nor the college management has done anything to stop this. The college wont protest , obviously as they get lot of money from students from MQ.That is the situation right now in the state eduacational system. I think this is the situation in most of the states in India, correct me if I am wrong.

Coming to the central govt. institutions like IIT's and IIM's, again we will be faced with the same problem, the enrance exam is competitve enough, so I guess we can apply the same economic rules here for a better results. Why there is a hue and cry among the people about this reservations in central govt. institutions, because they say that it affects the quality. As I have stated above the quality goes down only when people who are not interested are allowed to study, I think reservation with economic basis will not fail if used.

Several ideas were put forth in the discussion group, one such is bringing reservation in schools...that is an interesting ( an innovative idea too) idea , but as somebody said the schools dont shape a student's career, but college does in professional courses. Another idea was increasing seats is increase seats in those IIT's and IIM's but some said that it is not feasible. I was thinking of an alternative way, it has been already done to Rourkee University 3 yrs back.. i.e. Upgrading an existing college into IIT or NIT or IIM standard. Rourkee University is now IIT Rourkee ( Consider this upgrading CIT into IIT Coimbatore!!!!!). That I think is a good idea as there are a lot of vacant seats in TN (in engg.), so this will also increse the number of IIT and the number of vacant seats also gets increased and those who cant into central govt. institutions can get into other state institutions.... Well, thats my personal view on reservation. Any method will have both advantage and disadvantage, but people should choose the method which have less disadvantage and more advantage....

But when we look at the north eatern states, they offer you a different picture from the rest of India, one of my former room mate is from Arunachal Pradesh. He said that there are only SC's or ST's in the state...The govt. seem to be neglecting the whole of North East, what abt the students from NE???? Thats a question that should be answered by politicians....

regards,

Ivan

P.S: Sorry for a late post, net problem in my house, I have started a blog www.theintellectualfool.blogspot.com. Enjoy the football World Cup.

Paritrana

Dis is just my opinion which i wish to mention having read gautham's blog on dis. I think it's abt time the younger generation entered politics. Wisdom is not the only thing that will get you through so i think it's about time Rashtrapathi bhavaan stopped being da playground of the elderly... Paritrana is a good start. But as a political party it nees more awareness. More publicity and i think we are the people to do that. We the students of India should for starters vote for Paritrana (dat goes to the people who live in da constituencies dat LP is gonna contest in) da rest shall stand by as support. But i also believe dat we need not necessarily vote for them. One needs to vote for the right poeple. It's about time TN had a change .We don't need gramps and granny's sittin in da hot seat and sqabbling like a bunch of kids over a chair... We need ppl who are willing to work for our betterment and in that regard the person who has most impressed me in da Captain himself. yes I know we sit and watch his films and laugh our asses off. but ppl come to think of it, all his films portray a storong feeling of nationhood and he has also proved his leadership skills by being the Chairman of the Tamil Actor's association. So i think da man himself should be agiven a chance at the hot seat. yes life is like trial and error. By puttin him up der we might end up suffering for another 5 years. but whatz another 5 years when compared to the eons that still exist??

AGNI II :)