chaotic order

In my Hotel room in Louisville, this week, I happened to watch a very insightful TED talk by the famed literary critic and book reviewer for the NY times, Parul sehgal. She was talking about ‘Jealousy’ as an emotion that is so psychological ly debilitating, and yet in a strange way, helps to truly understand the person who one actually is, and the aspirations that drive us to explore different relationships. In a wonderfully concise talk of 14 minutes Parul illustrates the fact that literary fiction is probably the only medium that has expressed and explored jealousy in its various hues, and almost every classic in English language defines and stitches jealousy in some way or the other into its story line and characterization. Close on the heels of watching this video, I tuned into Netflix to play a 2011 drama named “Young adult” featuring my favorite actor these days, Charlize Theron. It is a very simple story about a young, beautiful career oriented rural town girl, who moves into t

She is a young south Indian lady in her early thirties: soft spoken, shy, dressed in T shirt and jeans with a certain self consciousness about her that was evident in the manner she was tugging at her collars frequently to cover herself. I learnt from her that she had moved to Louisville about fifteen days ago as a contractor. Her family - Husband and two little children aged seven and five, co ntinue to live in Cincinnati, and she intends to commute home every weekend (a two hour Grey hound bus drive). They been living in the US for the last seven years and both the kids were born in America : a dream come true, I must say, for many Indian parents.. II was during one of our breaks that I got talking to her . The other participants had a short meeting to attend and we were alone in the classroom. During the last two days, I have been observing that she has been preoccupied , neither able to concentrate on my lectures nor complete lab exercises with any amount of confidence. She seemed

if you believe that words can take you into flights of creative fantasy; if you believe that words have the power to silence the mind and push it ever so gently over the precipice of chaos, into the gentle folds of existential introspection; if you believe that words can translate the most complex emotions into stunningly simple homilies; if you believe that words are timeless, and so is the poe t whose passionate stirrings of the heart and mind can coagulate into blank verses that will reverberate in the human breast as long as Man lives in happiness, sorrow , pain , suffering and all the other myriad prismatic reflections that is our universal heritage - then you will agree with me the Gulzar , the poet Laureate, the bard, the philosopher, the enchanting muse deserves the Dada Saheb Phalke award more than anyone else. For forty long years this mesmerizingly simple, stately poet has been adorning the film world with his brilliance. Each song, Each poem carves for itself a niche, a sp

When one has acted in as many movies as Robert de Niro: with aplomb, intensity, variety and style; then one can be excused if he has conceded to play a role in rather mediocre film like “The Family”. Released in 2013; directed by Luc Besson  and loosely based on a French novel named “Malavita” – this is a story of a High class Mob family from Brooklyn, secretly transported to a Remote town in Normandy, France under the FBI’s Witness protection program. Genetically programmed for violence and revenge, this sweet family consisting of Monzani (De niro), his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer!!), a smart son played by John D’leo and a beautiful, virginal daughter played to perfection (the only redeeming feature in the movie) by Dianna Agron –. find it extremely difficult to keep their temper in place in this small town that is quintessentially French; and hence hate anything remotely American (including Peanut butter!). The FBI officer whose task it is to keep the family and the town safe fro

It is one of those heavy moments, when pain and anguish over the physical loss of a good friend completely paralyses one’s being. I just heard the news of the passing away of my friend Nitin mullick: a young, intelligent, loving and cheerful young man; plucked away in his prime by the inexorable wheel of destiny. How can such a fragrant flower be picked in its freshness? ; Or how could life be so  cruel and heartless in taking away a loving father; a doting husband; a dutiful and caring Son, an admirable friend? These are questions that instantly arise in our mind; but then the answer comes almost instantaneously: - such is the law of life; - that lives that are very bright, incandescent and redeeming cannot last long; and their sheer exuberance and presence was meant only as temporary sojourn for all of us to interact, bask and live with; and then to carry them forever in our memory as a person who touched our lives, enlivening it with joy, happiness and optimism. They are too precio

The 1960’s and 70’s marked a great period of change in American value systems. The Hippie movement, the libertinism of ambiguous sexual proclivities, the infidelity of marital life and increased rates of divorce; and a general sense of disi llusionment and loneliness pervaded its social life. The American political arena also looked bleak after the assassination of JFK, and the country was caught midway between a glorious dream and a damning inertia that seemed to apply brakes to its growth, both socially and psychologically. It was in such a milieu, in 1978, that Paul Mazursky wrote and directed his emotional masterpiece “An unmarried woman” featuring the mercurial Jill Clayburgh. Picture a beautiful lady married for fifteen years walking along the streets of New York with her husband, dreaming and talking of a summer vacation in beach houses; - when all of a sudden, her Husband breaks down, uncontrollably sobs and tells her in between shallow breaths that he is having an affair with

Today is the Bard's  450th  Birthday anniversary. William Shakespeare - without any argument is perhaps the greatest Dramatist, poet and Historical critic ,- the English language has ever produced. No writer of any acclaim whatsoever, can ever disown the influence of his style, language and metaphor in this modern age. He is to English what Aristotle was to science - its fountainhead. His play s still resonate, reverberate with the same intensity and passion that he bought to it four centuries ago. Even today, connoisseurs and laymen alike; flock to watch a "Romeo and Juliet", " the Twelfth night", "Hamlet", "King Lear" or an "Othello" among others, with the eager enthusiasm of a modern day block bluster, as they would have when these tales were first performed at the Globe theater in London; which was the home of almost all his magnificent dramas. And there can be only one reason for this undiminished popularity : the timeless so