chaotic order

Jottings - slice of life - 261 ( Few thoughts on what is happening in Sabarimala) What is happening in Sabarimala is a sad reflection of our understanding of what equality means, and where and how should it be applied. As a boy growing up in south India, the melodious renditions of Yesudas and Jayachandran have filled my ears and mind with an image of the resplendent Boy god, and the annual pilgrimage that millions make to the hallowed mountain bearing the strains and tugs of an ascetic life for 40 days, walking barefoot crushed between hordes of men jostling for space, and then the final emancipatory climb over the narrow eighteen steps leading to the sanctorum, where the lord sits sculpted in squatting position with hands raised in benign grace, has been eulogized with passion over countless songs and poems to varying tempos and beats. This journey to the feet of Iyappa reverberates in hearts of millions as an inner symbol of a private journey into ones self , amidst the distract

Jottings - Slice of life - 264 ( Gita Gopinath - an incredible academic journey to the pinnacle of her profession) Amidst the media and hype a prominent actress is currently attracting because of the sheer scale of her extravagant wedding and the innumerable star studded receptions ; on the other side of the globe, in Washington DC, in a quiet, polished but significant ceremony conducted without much fanfare, a young and distinguished Indian economist who was serving as John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard, has taken over the mantle as chief economist of the IMF ( The International monetary fund), a global organization established in 1944 at Bretton woods to balance and arbitrate global economic health in times of need . It is one of the most prestigious positions in the world of global finance, and Professor Gita Gopinath is the first woman - among the eleven economists to have held this vital position since IMF’s inception - to occupy this ho

Jottings - Slice of Life - 262 (Adapting a novel for screen. The brilliance of Daphne Du Maurier and the genius of Alfred Hitchcock) One of the most perplexing questions that often face movie makers is how efficacious is it to adapt a popular novel, or a significant work of literature for cinematic representation. The temptation to do so is always there on the periphery of a director’s awareness. To pick a story from a book that is widely read in its day, gives the film maker the confidence that his audience wouldn’t shun the movie because of its story. Once that important element of risk is taken care of, then all that remains for an astute director to do is to assemble the right actors, set the right atmosphere, infuse life through music and anticipate with confidence that his movie would resonate well with viewers, rake in money, and help him climb the ladder of artistic success. In the last hundred odd years of cinema, majority of movies, especially those made in the early year