Farewell, Good Sir

•  Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee
•  MS and PhD from University of California, Berkeley 
•  HoD Civil and Environmental Engineering at IIT Kanpur 
•  One of the founding members-cum-first secretary of 'Central Pollution Control Board of India' (CPCB) when it first came into being in 1979 
•  Mentoring an entire generation of Indian environmentalists like Anil Agarwal and Dr Rajendra Singh also known as the 'Water man of India'

But is it these stellar academic and professional accolades alone that make Professor G.D Agarwal a true Hero?
NO! This only makes him a great scholar and academician.
 
What really makes him a real Hero in the true sense of the word is the fact that he chose a life of struggle when he could have very easily chosen a life of luxury, with such credentials under his belt.

A staunch Gandhian, Professor Agarwal was a life-long bachelor who cooked his own food and swept his own floor, all by himself right to the very end.
 
After having retired from IIT Kanpur, he finally joined a monastic order, became a Sanyasi, assuming the name of 'Swami Gyanswaroop Sanand' and dedicated his remaining years to the one cause that had been the closest to his heart throughout his life - the cleaning and rejuvenation of river Ganga.

And he did so in true Gandhian fashion ie through the route of 'Aamaran Anshans' or fast-unto-death.

His first such fast, undertaken in 2008, brought the issue of river pollution to the centre stage of the hydro-power production discourse. It led to the designation of the Ganga as India’s national river. His second fast in 2009 led to the formation of the 'National Ganga River Basin Authority'. The third one in 2010 forced the UPA government to cancel all the three new projects between Gangotri and Uttarkashi and the establishment of the 'Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone'.

In February 2018, after having waited for four full years, he wrote a series of letters to Prime Minister Modi requesting him to take some concrete action to stop further exploitation of Ganga.
But to no avail!

So, on June 22nd, he commenced on his fourth and final fast-unto-death for the cause of Clean Ganga.

On 11th October ie 111th day of his fast, he died under controversial circumstances at AIIMS Rishikesh.

It was only after his death that people in general, including myself, got to know of his valiant fight to save Ganga. A fight he undertook for the future of our children.

The general sense of apathy during his struggle and even after his passing away is another proof that we, as a society, have completely failed yet again and we don't deserve a genuine saint like Him.
What a shame!
 
It reminds me of these lines by the legendary Hindi poet, Baba Nagarjun..

बाल झबरे, दृष्टि पैनी, फटी लुंगी, नग्न तन
किंतु अंतरदीप्त था, आकाश-सा विस्तीर्ण मन
उसे मरने दिया हमने, मिट गया पागल पवन
अब भले ही याद में करते रहो सौ-सौ हवन

Nagarjun wrote these lines on a similar death due to neglect of one of his fellow legend of Hindi poetry, SuryaKant Tripathi 'Nirala'. But these lines ring equally true for Professor Agarwal.

We failed him while he was alive, fighting all alone. Let us not fail him in his death.




Let us all take a pledge to carry forward his fight for a Clean and Rejuvenated Ganga

That, and that alone can qualify as our true homage to his memory!

Movie Review: Kaala

"Until the Lion learns to write, every story will always glorify the hunter."

That seems to be the guiding motto of director Pa Ranjith's work to date in Tamil cinema. At least that's the impression I got after watching 2 out of the total 4 films he's made so far - Kabaali (2016) and Kaala (2018), both starring the legendary Rajinikanth.

India's epics have always served as inspiration for filmmakers, right from the very first film that was ever made in India,  Raja Harishchandra (1913). Manirathnam's Raavan (2010) and Prakash Jha's Rajneeti (2013) are just two recent examples that come to mind. The main reason behind this is the Timeless and Universal appeal of these epics. The Ramayana and the Mahabharat, in particular are "Living Epics", not some dead literature and the most prominent feature of living epics is that they are open to interpretations. This is what makes them so conducive to reinterpret, reimagine and refashion to create a whole new version altogether.

As Dan Brown says in his famous novel, 'The Da Vinci Code' :

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”

This is all the more true for Mythology. As any keen observer would tell you, mythology is a battle between different narratives.  The victor's version becomes the dominant narrative and comes to be widely accepted while the vanquished's version or the counter-narrative gradually gets buried under the sands of time. Pa Ranjith's Kaala is a retelling of one such counter-narrative that might have got buried under the sands of time but refuses to die nevertheless.
In Kaala, he takes the age-old trope of 'Good vs Evil' from Ramayana and turns it on it's head by presenting Raavan or, to be precise, Kaala as the Hero.  Dharavi, Asia's second largest slum, serves as the backdrop for this retelling of Ramayana; Raavan's Lanka, so to say, thereby locating the epic in contemporary Indian realities.

Kaala is a film rich in symbolism, be it the use of colours to represent the different caste and class structures prevalent in the society or the names of the chief players - 'Kaala Karikalan', his son 'Lenin' and 'Hari Dada' or his henchman 'Vishnu' (who gets killed by Kaala on the day of Ganesha Visarjan) or Hari Dada's company 'Manu Realty' that wants to turn the slums of Dharavi into 'Dandakaaranya Nagar' or the omnipresence of Dalit-Bahujan iconography such as the statues of Buddha, Ambedkar and Periyar..heck even the number plate on Kaala's Mahindra Thar jeep which reads 'BR 1956' (the year Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism) 

Hats off to the director for incorporating so much symbolism into the story. Direction on the whole is top-notch. Three sequences, in particular, stand out.

1. The animated portion featuring a young Rajini from the 80s right at the start laying out the backstory.

2. The brilliantly choreographed slo-mo Rajini rain fight sequence right before the interval.

&

3. The cryptic yet super-charged Climax; the first known instance of the use of "Magical Realism" as a cinematic tool in mainstream Indian cinema. Multiple Oscar winner Alezandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Birdman fame would be proud!

The only minor glitch is the track involving Kaala and his ex-lover Zarina played by Huma Qureshi. This whole track feels forced and could have been easily done away with, without taking anything away from the story.

Coming to the performances, Kudos to the Thalaiva, first of all, for choosing to lend his  Superstardom to such an offbeat and potentially controversial subject (One of his dialogues goes like: "Land may be a means to Power for you. For us, it is our very life. I'll not spare even your Gods if they too try to take it away from us!").

It may or may not be his most successful film in terms of box office but it surely is his most important and Rajini-the actor is in rare form here making sure he does full justice to the immensely likeable 'Kaala'. In fact, it won't be an exaggeration to term it his finest performance till date with the possible exception of Manirathnam's Thalapathi (1991) (which, by the way, was itself based on another epic, the Mahabharat)



Every great Hero needs an equally strong Villain. Batman had the Joker. Superman had Lex Luthor. Kaala has 'Haridev Abhyankar' aka Hari Dada played to perfection by the great Nana Patekar. Even though he actually makes an appearance in the film in the second half only, yet his shadow looms large, both literally as well as figuratively, over the whole film, right from the beginning, even when he's not in the frame. It was a masterstroke to pit Nana's acting prowess against Rajini's off-the-charts charisma and just as you'd expect, sparks fly whenever these two stalwarts come face-to-face on the screen.



But the real scene-stealer here is the effervescent Eswari Rao who plays Kaala's wife, Selvi with such aplomb that it becomes difficult to believe that she is making a comeback to Tamil films after over a decade! The mature romance track between Kaala and Selvi is one of the most endearing aspect of the film and provides some much needed lighter moments in an otherwise politically charged film.


Not just Selvi but even the other female characters of Kaala - be it his ex-flame Zarina or his would be daughter-in-law Puyali - most of them are shown to be strong, independent and opinionated women with a mind of their own and not like the stereotypical Bollywood caricature of Indian women. 

Nowhere is this more evident than in that memorable scene, which can also be termed as the highlight of the film, where the firebrand Dharavi mulgi who also happens to be Kaala's would be daughter-in-law, Puyali (played with the requisite gusto by Anjali Patil) while being manhandled and stripped by the corrupt Policeman, instead of picking her shalwar to cover her "modesty" chooses to pick up a hockey stick instead to beat the shit out of her molester. 

Which is an indication that Pa Ranjith's cinema is not just about Dalit assertion but about Women rights and Feminism too.

Background music is yet another highlight of the film, particularly during the rain fight sequence right before the interval and then towards the climax. Songs, albeit, are strictly okay. At least in the Hindi version that I saw. The use of Hip-hop as a tool of rebellion against oppression by the slum youth is a nice and novel touch, though.

All said, Kaala is director Pa Ranjith's film through and through. It bears his unmistakable stamp in almost every frame and every aspect of film-making, which is a remarkable feat for a director who's still only 4 films old!

If post Kabaali, he had the "thinking" fans' curiosity, post-Kaala he now has their attention! 

Final word: Must Watch for everyone who's interested in meaningful, stimulating, thought provoking cinema. 

Here's wishing more power to Pa Ranjith's craft and looking forward to the third and concluding part of his 'Educate.Agitate.Organise' Trilogy. 

A fresh start. A new beginning

Okay, I admit it right at the onset that blogging is not something that comes naturally to me. Yet, I do, at times, feel the urge to express myself on certain issues and there's no better medium for doing so for a commoner like me than the blog. That's the reason that prompted me to take up this medium for the first time around a decade or so back.

Now, my first experience with this fascinating medium was a reasonably good one as, to my own pleasant surprise, I somehow did manage to get some kind words of encouragements from a few readers. But after the promising start, I failed to keep the momentum going (damn..this cricketing influence on my vocab!) As a result, the blog started being updated only once in every blue moon and gradually went completely dormant.
Tried reviving it some years later, around 2011-12 but soon 'Nirbhaya' and the 'India Against Corruption' movements happened and since then, like many a young men and women my age, Politics took a precedence over pretty much everything in my life with the sole exception of my family. As a result, blogging once again had to take a backseat.

All in all, it'll be fair to say that my first two attempts at blogging didn't really go all that well. 

So, this will be my third attempt at blogging and I must thank a dear friend of mine, Parul of the Vartikasdiary fame for encouraging me to give it another go. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration and motivation, Parul!

This time around, I'll try my best to not repeat the same mistakes from my earlier attempts and update my blog as frequently as possible with posts on varying topics, and not just sports or sher-o-shaayari/poetry.

Wish me well, folks 🙂

An Ode To Banaras

इस शहर में धूल
धीरे-धीरे उड़ती है
धीरे-धीरे चलते हैं लोग
धीरे-धीरे बजते हैं घंटे
शाम धीरे-धीरे होती है

किसी अलक्षित सूर्य को
देता हुआ अर्घ्य
शताब्दियों से इसी तरह
गंगा के जल में
अपनी एक टांग पर
खड़ा है यह शहर

These lines are an excerpt from the classic poem 'Banaras' by one of my favourite Hindi poets, the late great Kedarnath Mishr ji. I, for one, couldn't think of a more apt description for the second oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.
Yes, you read that right! Only Damascus in Syria can claim to be of an older vintage.

Speaking of Banaras, I love it like I've never loved any place! Yes, not even my beloved hometown. (Never thought I'd say that!)

Went there for the first, and hitherto, only time in May 2014 to campaign against NaMo in the General elections. Without a doubt THE best experience of my life, despite the result not favouring us!
Never felt so ALIVE as I did back then, even in the sweltering 48+℃ peak summer heat. Not even in the Delhi assembly election of 2015 where we won with a huge landslide margin of 67/3.
As they say "Some goals are so worthy, it's glorious even to fail!" 

Politics aside, there is something so vibrant, so 'magnetic' about Banaras! Though a sworn Khanabadosh, if I ever choose to "settle down", it'll have to be in Banaras.

The Ghats, the boat rides, the Dawns, the Dusks, the Aartis, the Chai Adis, the Thandai, the Paan Banaras Wala, the banter & above all the baths in Ganga! 

Everything so chilled out & relaxed. Laidback & Old school. Just the way I like it. Kehte hain kuch sheheron ka bhi apna hi ek mijaaz hota hai..
Don't know about others but it's definitely true about Lucknow (my 3rd fav. place) & Banaras; captured perfectly in Subah-E-Banaras & Sham-E-Avadh

Just realized writing this piece has made me so nostalgic. Can't wait to visit there again. May it always retain that old world charm.

Here's looking at you, Banaras..