Vetty Post #2

Sweet fumes of Nostalghia

A trip back to the Alma Mater is always special. It's been just 22 months away from her but the intensity of the Nostalgia was already sky-high. Six of us decided to make it to the "Waves", the cultural festival of the Institute ... If not all of us, I was not bothered much about the culturals. You just need a pretext to be there again - The very idea of walking through those familiar frontiers is always an excitement. 

There is something very strange about Nostalgia - Only Nostalgia can transform the most mundane of the memories into very special remembrances, Only Nostalgia can render that special halo romanticizing the dullest moments of the past. Nostalgia, in a way is a very "selective" memory - You tend to relive and relish things which with some reason (for that particular individual atleast) are meaningful, sentimental or inspiring or whatsoever.

For me, Nostalgia about the institute was multi-diamensional ... Personal, Nostalgia about the places, the sense of social cohesion which the whole setup provided etc. Visit to the library, being under the Insti-roof , walks through the Shopping complex and the hostel corridors, breakfast at the Monginis - Very special moments they are - Longing for the past was just aggravating over time. As always during the "odd-sems", the campus was sparkling green.

Vasco da Gama occupies just three parallel streets and will look very ordinary in terms of the tourism value and the social life it offers but the kind of experience and memory that each of us carry with respect to Vasco is enormous. Dining at the Vasco Inn and Ginza's, snack at "The Temptations" were a part of the wish-list of all of us ... We ticked the boxes one-by-one. How can you travel to Goa all the way and not visit a beach at all ? - Bogmalo it was and a carefree four hours there.

This will well be incomplete if it doesn't carry a reference towards the perennial raconteur of the group - Cheenu. Cheenu's storytelling expertise is something which will age like wine - He did recall some of the evergreen bullet-points of our times there. We covered everything starting from Physics 1, Computer Programming exams, Mechanics of Solids project submission, duels with the profs, notoriousness at the labs, check-posts infront of BH1, Birthday parties and so much more  - we had an additional audience for the above - the junior guys.

Those are "Good old days" ... {Read the paragraph 2 aloud again}  :)

PS: "Nostalghia" is a 1983 film by Andrei Tarkovsky, one of my personal favourites.

Vetty Post #1

Free Free Free !!!

I found myself engulfed with a "WTF" question mark as I bought this week's issue of the tamil magazine "Anantha Vikatan". Well, the reason is there for yourself.

The caption stated thus, "இந்த இதழுடன் ஸ்டேப்ரீ செக்யூர் அல்ட்ரா தின் கேட்டு வாங்குங்கள்". 

A mainstream magazine that is typically targeting people of all age groups of both the sexes, offers a freebie (i.e) Sanitary pad. 

Have they gone insane ? Had this been a women's magazine like "Aval Vikatan" or "Mangayar Malar" or "Penmani", I can understand the intent. While I am not trying to bring in here any sexist or gender connotations (with respect to the popular culture), I am trying to understand the very "purpose" of the product offered for "free". Has Vikatan received any statistical information that the "only" subscribers of their magazine are women of the age-group 15 to 45 ?

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Got to view Anand Patwardhan's riveting documentary "Prisoners of Conscience", which features interview footage with some of the "Political prisoners" who were imprisoned during India's Emergency  (1975 to 1977). The visual imagery and the credibility it offers (for only 41 minutes though) is definitely no match to volumes and volumes of print literature that may exist.

You actually find it difficult to understand and accept the facts that are presented - the kind of gross disenfranchisement of civil rights, the devoidness of social justice, political and social unrest, arrest without trials, MISA, "Tortures" in the prison etc. 

Is this India ?, Is this the country which is hailed the Greatest democracy ?.

While the cinema and press of the period have remained largely "silent" (Or they were silenced ?), the original archival footage this documentary offers will stand as an important political record of a traumatic period in India's history. While the film has limited it's scope largely by just presenting a series of edited montages featuring interviews with the "victims", it has an interview with Jayaprakash Narayan and hence for me, is worth the time and effort. That said, the presentation of the documentary is neither lucid nor cogent and will not serve somebody to actually understand the whole mess (i.e) India during Emergency.

A tiny photo essay with the screenshots from the documentary.

Indira Gandhi, the Ironhand

JP.Narayan, the firebrand

As long as there are "Prisoners of Conscience" or the "Political prisoners" in jail, the expectations from the Janata party haven't been fulfilled and I think there should be a continuous pressure on the Janata party government .. Also, I believe the time might come when some kind of a mass movement (of the people) might become neccessary ... the public opinion, young people, Sarvodaya movement, the press - all these should help in this process.

- Jayaprakash Narayan (in 1978)