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Status quo
Nothing anew in the adage of the new morn of but the morrow
Just lies perpetrated by the perfunctory defenders of the zealot monolith
Yesterdays, todays, tomorrows all relative in their abashed charade of time.
Callows are they, rogues are they who can see no front, no back
Interests vested in the pursuit of unabashed rapaciousness
Mitigated blessings from the demi-gods of hypocritical self-aggrandisement.
Change is alien to the indoctrinated in our rabble of their rousing
If you cannot digest what mumbo-jumbo I spit out
You can imagine the disparate conflicting parts they are made of.
• Collection:
Anger in Ashes
• Originally written on
March 19, 2003; 11.40 am
[ First published: November 22, 2008
Last updated: November 22, 2008
]
Making Cat Calls
Mohammad bin Tughlaq had ruled over vast stretches and tracts of land that today constitute India. He was a great ruler who left behind a legacy. A legacy that is today most identifiable as an adjectival derivative of his name – Tughlaqesque. The word is too complex to have an exact synonym. Tughlaqesque would mean exotic, Quixotic, far-fetched, well-meaning, ill-conceived, arrogant, grandiose, all at the same time. It is also a word that can be routinely associated with India’s later-day rulers. Especially, the ones who have lorded over us since Independence.
There is one Tughlaqesque idea that is doing the rounds these days and the gullible Indian media has fallen flat for it – that of reintroducing the cheetah in India.
Seeing the cheetah in the Indian wild is any Indian wildlifer’s wet dream. It is something that sets our hearts aflutter. But let’s get real and see what this dream is all about.
The minister and his words
The Poetry of Cinema
“We have reached a time when we must open warfare on mediocrity, greyness and lack of expressiveness and make creative inquiry a rule in cinema.”
His oeuvre rests on this simple rule, which lies framed in his study. On the wall opposite is a poster with a pigeon nesting on tangled strips of film. And for Buddhadeb Dasgupta, too, his concerns zoom through the mesh of life to explore the inexorable truth of life and living.
But, as Dasgupta himself says, “If creative inquiry is a rule for cinema, then a filmmaker never makes one in expectation of an award. But when one gets one, the feeling is good.” And this reaction comes after his latest cinematic essay, Lal Darja, was adjudged the best feature film for 1997.