SEX, MORALITY AND CENSORSHIP

This is the play I saw at Prithvi theatre yesterday. A very good piece of satire supplemented with nice music and humor. The story was an insight into the 1970’s conflict of the modern, unconventional outlook on stage (represented by the director of the famous Marathi play “Sukharam Binder”) and the censor board, representing the government and majority of the society who couldn’t accept a radical change in the way things were shown on theatre. The play highlights the hollow and baseless opinion of the censor board when it banned “Sukharam Binder” and also shows how one always has to struggle to get an unorthodox thing onboard a ship laden with conventional, used-to things. The performances of all the actors were commendable, particularly Nagesh Bhonsle and Ketaki Thatte. The play has its highs, makes you feel you are there with the characters and I loved the hair-raising moment when the Shiv Sena guy broke the matki….The fun-filled, longer first half smoothly laid the foundation for a shorter but impactful second half. Overall, a fine play with colorful characters (though borrowed :P), good screenplay, and most importantly a message. Go Mumbai junta, it’s a must-watch!

SAHYADRIS THIS SEMESTER

Trekking is an adventurous blend of adrenalin and nature. Till now, I have been to 6 amazing treks in the Sahyadris this semester and most of the time, it has just been the two of us: me and gidz. We started with going to the ones easily reachable by locals like Peb fort and Mahuli and ended with the awesome 2-day trek in Ahmednagar covering Kalsubai and Ratangad, which is like more than 200 kms from Mumbai. There were a couple of things that made this last trek special. Firstly, both the treks were completely cloud-less. Second, there was a navratri mela going on at Kalsubai and village people doing the hike just humbled me. There were ones without any footwear, there were women (a broad age range) in their saris and there was even a man suffering from Polio!! Third, we stayed in a village house for one night, ate village food, even attended the nature’s call in the open and the whole experience was memorable. For the trekkers, here are my stats/facts:

Trek	Base Village	Region	Difficulty	Staying overnight?	Waterfall?
Peb Fort	Fanaswadi	Karjat	***	Yes	Yes
Mahuli	Manas Mandir	Asangaon	***	Yes	Yes
Matheran	Bhivpuri Road	Karjat	****	Yes	Yes
Harishchandragad	Khireshwar	Malshej	****	Yes	Yes
Kalsubai	Bari	Igatpuri	***	No	No
Ratangad	Ratanwadi	Igatpuri	***	Yes	Yes

I have done some treks in earlier years but never with this level of enthusiasm and thrill. I do feel bad about not exploiting the first 3 years to this extent, now I am not going to leave this passion of mine for years to come. Of course, the next thing to do after the Sahyadris is to go straight north: Himalayas and before that, learn Rock Climbing. There’s also a very wonderful thing to try out: Waterfall Rappelling (The professional trekking groups of Mumbai do it in the monsoons). It’s basically rappelling down a gushing waterfall. Doesn’t that just sound awesome? Some of the things trekking has taught me:
1. Trekking in monsoons (particularly sun covered by clouds) is way too different than trekking in the sun. We first truly realized this in the Matheran trek, which anyways was a long enough trek. Also, the former is usually more fun.
2. It’s not just physical strength that counts, mental strength plays a bigger role sometimes. It’s one of the very important thing you can learn from a trek and apply in life generally.
3. Trekking in a bigger group always takes more time. So, until one really is a big-group kind of a person, trekking in lesser numbers is better.
4. Other than the climbing part, one can get to enjoy a flavor of rural life too in these treks. It is also a very good option for almost all treks to reach previous night at the base and start hiking the first thing in the morning.

LOST

I started watching Lost near the end of my intern at Bangalore, where there was a need for something or the other to keep myself occupied post-dinner. I had heard about this series from a couple of friends but actually never got myself to watch any TV series (except FRIENDS of course) completely. However, what started in Bangalore as a need to fill time became an obsession as I observed myself in weeks to come. I continued the series after coming back to Bombay and finished the 5 seasons in less than 5 weeks. Not just any Drama-Thriller, it is one of the most awesomely finished entertainment products I have ever witnessed. I am truly a fan today and feel bad that the last season is yet to come. What a shame it would be to wait every week for a single episode during the season also when I have enjoyed the luxury of playlisting as many as 9-10 episodes some of the times. The most amazing thing about the show is how the scriptwriters have maintained it over seasons, avoiding redundancy anywhere and keeping each episode as thrilling and mysterious as possible. The show not just portrays the people on the island as LOST, it gets you LOST in the story too. The way the tit-bits are intricately woven to make the whole story is mesmerizing. Though it has been weeks now that I watched the last episode, I still remember each character so very well established in my mind. Gone are the days there was a concept called Flashback, LOST has proved to be unconventional wherever it could be.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

I re-read The Motorcycle Diaries (Ernesto Che Guevera), an account of a long, adventurous journey of two Argentines through Latin America back in the 1950`s. Why the book again after almost three years: I thought I was not competent enough a reader back then to get the book well. This time, I did like the book and actually finished in almost two sittings. The 9-month long journey of Ernesto (23 then) and Alberto is a very fine read for any adventurer. The first thing that I could think of after finishing the book was to unravel India on a bike, which whenever I do, would be the most amazing thing of my life. However, the story has another aspect to it than being daring and venturesome: the social aspect as I call it. Ernesto, a medical student at the time, is heavily moved by the terrible conditions in which the people of the subcontinent live in. The journey, an unplanned one as it was, eventually became the first major event for this most-celebrated Hero, influencing the ‘bigger journey of his life’ he was about to embark on and affect millions. However, what I feel as a reader is that not being a person from that part of the world, I couldn`t well appreciate the book on levels of non-adventurism. As I compare it with my last read “India after Gandhi” (which not only I liked reading as a story, but also affected me on numerous occasions), the difference here lies only on the point on how much I could link to the story.

INDIA AFTER GANDHI

After a long time I read such a book: number of pages exceeding 800 and much more importantly, a book you never feel like leaving. Such was India After Gandhi, an extremely well-written account of the India`s modern history, beginning with independence. Ending the book on the dawn of the country`s 62nd independence anniversary, I was imbued with true patriotic feelings. Isn`t history supposed to bore me, what I doubted before starting the book and A book with a class of its own, what I uttered after finishing the book. Now having read it and also to some extent propagandize it, I honestly feel it is a must-read for every Indian. One must know what his roots are, what is it that the place on earth he is a part of has witnessed. This is where I distinguish between pre-independence and post-independence history (which is unfortunately not a part of most History books used in school curriculum). Knowing about the thousands of rulers of this land is bound to bore you after a while, what is relevant to every Indian today is what has gone into making the nation as it is today, why things stand as they are and not thousands of other ways they could have been. Answers to all these lie in the recent past and a systematic, interesting tale of that is India after Gandhi. One of the most notable characteristic, maybe a passion, of Guha is to draw analogies between characters, events and situations and he does it elegantly. Another point about the book is that quotes comprise a good fraction of the total text: there are innumerable quotes by historical figures, press and historians (as well as loads of other commentators). Actually, I felt it a need for any book on such lines to be like that as it provides the reader with more of facts than opinions of the author himself. If it simply a narrative, there can be a lot of personal bias creeping in which will pollute the content and defy the very reason of such a book being special. The book obviously focuses mainly on the political evolution of the country, there could have been some other areas a bit more talked about like Indian judiciary, India and the UN etc. There are two places where Guha has been most impressive, showing his intelligence: first, the book is divided into two main narrative styles. The time period of 1947-89 is talked of in good detail chronologically, discussing topics/issues/situations to a great extent as people of those times saw it, particularly the Prime Ministers but the second part 1989-present is talked of in a different context (realm-wise and non-chronologically) and also, less space has been allotted to this section. This ensures, as Guha himself remarks, that he wants to avoid bring in his own sentiments (having been an active citizen of India of this time). Also, it is the events of 50`s and 60`s that people feel as buried and are really looking out of this book. Second, he has not missed to conclude the book well. In line with the prologue (a question on India`s ability to survive: “An unnatural Nation”), the epilogue very beautifully summarizes “Why India survives”: the reader is left with a very healthy feeling about the nation despite having been a witness to the oceans of problems the country has been prone to or attacked by.

2 MORE BOOKS

I read “The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy” (Douglas Adams) and “The Seven Dials mystery” (Agatha Christie) and don`t actually have a lot to say about either of these. Both were time-pass and had a common thing that both got me interested towards the end only. “The hitchhikers…” was actually my first science fiction novel with a specialty that it was a blend of science fiction and humor, and not a bad one. The book is pretty small (and actually has three more parts I couldn’t get motivated to read) and Douglas shows a good sense of creativity along with that humor which is not a very common trait. “The Seven…..” is a typical Agatha Christie novel with the clichéd murder-mystery where in the 90% of the book is just narration (there definitely is a story but not the kind that entices you) followed by “the revelation”. I compared it to Sherlock Holmes while reading and thought that why Sherlock interested me more was the awesome description of Arthur Conan Doyle. He could paint a scene, a person or an event for you in a manner not many authors are capable of.

THE GOD DELUSION

I read this book sometime before this mid-sems, having heard about it from a couple of friends. In plain terms, the book is simply an atheistic passage. What I anticipated was actually a debate with both sides of the stories told with no irreverence to either point of view. Richard Dawkins explores the question of God’s existence and puts forth his opinion with all the reasons he could manage to show why one should be an atheist. He defines the challenging question in the starting, also clearly defining what he is about to oppose strongly- the popular concept of God. He attacks religion throughout the book with the same vigor, criticizing the over importance it receives in the world we live in and also, listing out all the reasons why absence of religion is a must for us. He puts forth all the popular lines of thought that profess God and argues his own stand surrounding around the “Theory of Evolution”. A true Darwin follower, he forgets the fact he starts repeating his arguments after a while though they do make sense. The other negative thing the author does is making a couple of stupid, senseless arguments with the intention of making the reader believe he has not one but multiple reasons to prove his point. Removing such couple of things, the book is decently written with a sound line of thought. Dawkins is sensible enough to agree that one can’t disprove the existence of God and hence reiterates that all he’s saying is in terms of probability. The latter part of the book is where he primarily discusses religion, morality etc. and talks more in practical terms than philosophical. He points out through many appropriate examples where we tend to be mere hypocrites. While reading the book, I actually had a question to ask Dawkins: You talk about God and try to prove me that there “most-probably” doesn’t exist one and it’s really the humans who have created the entire concept. How do you defend/hold your argument(s) against the possibility that
There is in fact a super-natural entity as God, who runs the entire Universe as he wishes. He has created us and the world of ours in some fashion such that we never get to certainly assert he exists and why. All those laws of physics, all the happenings in accordance with a so-called “theory of evolution”, all the concepts like those of probability etc. are all a part of his plan to keep us busy and make us believe that we are unraveling the truth. Whereas, the supreme reality is just that we are all his robots, being programmed by him to be in a mental illusion that “we live our lives” and discover facts about this Universe.
I am sure Dawkins won’t be stupid to discard such a possibility by saying it’s very improbable! :)

INTO THE WILD

I didn`t know earlier that the movie is actually a true story. Lately, I watched it again and found the movie equally good. A story of a young graduate who leaves the world and his family for its hollowness to live a life not masked by shallow lies, superficial behaviors but a life of his own, knowing himself more, in short a life into the wild. Surely one of the best movies I have seen, here are some quotes from the movie which I found interesting:

· Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth

· The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences

· Conscious attention to the basics of life, and a constant attention to your immediate environment and its concerns, example- A job, a task, a book; anything requiring efficient concentration (Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you)

· It`s important in life not necessarily to be strong… but to feel strong

· Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past

· If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed

· Careers are a 20th century invention and I don’t want one

· It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it. . . I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale