Nehru's Autobiography
yes u heard it right .Nehru's autobiography .Despite having an interest in politics I never knew that NEhru has an autobiography to his credit apart from largely overrated discovery of India till I got it form a friend.
Literary quality or narration style wise book is no good but still it is worth reading because
1. Unlike Gandhi's celebrated My experiments with truth , this book gives no major revealation but Nehru admits of all his shortcomings.
2. Book is limited till 1935 only , so no insight on partition devleopments or Independent India.
3. This book is am ust read for all psychophants tlaknig aobut Nehru family's sacrifices .Books make it pretty clear that everyone in their family played very safe with britishers got in & out of Geol at will ,enjoyed their quiet whisky & hill resort holidays & had a REAL disdain for poor of India though they blamed british for this.
4. This book shows why most of our inital efforts towards development failed becoz they were made by peoplehorribly out of tune with the realities of India. At one palce nehru claims to have interacted with 10 million people in a span of 3 months of election campaign .( remember franchise was limited & communication very difficult).
5.Nehru obviously has a disdain for revolutionaries & he doesn't hide his contmept of Gandhi for his inner voice. I think only nehru could dare to do such thing in India withou being branded RSSite.
6.All people who paved his way were good ,all those not were bad. Jinnah finds mention only once in the whole book!!!
Overall a must read for people who are tired of Manishankar Aiyer's argument of Savarkar being communalist patriot & Sonai Gandhi 's daily prayer of Nehru parivar' balidan.
A good book togive an idea about NEhru- gandhi relationship. otherwise useless.
In fact as a person u can have glimpses of real Nehru than what you get in his much celbrated biography by S Gopal.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Rag Darbari
One of the very first books i read...
to be precise in class 11th
Rag Darbari by Srilal Shukla is am ust read for people interested in Hindi but who are always put off by memories of Premchand read during school days.
Well all of you would agree that no matter how much we read Vikram seth , AMitava Ghosh or Chetan Bahgat real India specially Hindi hertland can be explored & felt only through Hindi literature.
But out english medium education & cliched movies form Bollywood & Ekta Kapur serials make us heaveily biased agianst Hindi Literature.
Rag Darabri has a background of village politics but in a humourous way .We can call it Black comedy. It breaks the romantic notion of Indian village propounded by Gandhi & nurtured by bollywood movies.
It does not show some Naxal infested & Zamindar oppressed village as one would imagine in communist literature.
Rather it shows how a typical (90%) Indian vilalges are.
obviously it was written in 70s so we can't see vilalge life after liberalization but in addition to that it is nor bulky , thmese are simple but with good insight & it does not preach anytihng. Characters are gray not pure black & white which is rare in Hindi literature.
So if someone wants a real taste of Rural India Raag Darbari is highly recommended.
to be precise in class 11th
Rag Darbari by Srilal Shukla is am ust read for people interested in Hindi but who are always put off by memories of Premchand read during school days.
Well all of you would agree that no matter how much we read Vikram seth , AMitava Ghosh or Chetan Bahgat real India specially Hindi hertland can be explored & felt only through Hindi literature.
But out english medium education & cliched movies form Bollywood & Ekta Kapur serials make us heaveily biased agianst Hindi Literature.
Rag Darabri has a background of village politics but in a humourous way .We can call it Black comedy. It breaks the romantic notion of Indian village propounded by Gandhi & nurtured by bollywood movies.
It does not show some Naxal infested & Zamindar oppressed village as one would imagine in communist literature.
Rather it shows how a typical (90%) Indian vilalges are.
obviously it was written in 70s so we can't see vilalge life after liberalization but in addition to that it is nor bulky , thmese are simple but with good insight & it does not preach anytihng. Characters are gray not pure black & white which is rare in Hindi literature.
So if someone wants a real taste of Rural India Raag Darbari is highly recommended.
Monday, March 1, 2010
ishqiya
This is how life ends not in a bang but a whisper…..
This is the way I gues s one should describe the movie and despite building up a credible plot ending leaves something to be desired. One good point is that Hindi films are maturing now and apart from straight college boy girl romance other angles are also being pursued and similarly in relationship areas apart from normal father –son, mother –son or friend angle complex relationships like guru- chelas whose object of affection is same girl, two buddies, two business partners, or mistress and wife are being presented in very nuanced way just as they are in real life.
Movie’s name is very apt because the entire protagonist including the kidnapped businessman or slain dacoit makes seemingly life threatening choices just because they are in love with someone. As they say love follows similar pattern to insanity and this movie exemplifies.
Some obvious loopholes – vidya’s effort to entice the two gangsters are too much obvious. There should have been some kind of subtlety here. It is inconceivable that police is attacking the house from front and they can easily slip from back. A big businessman with underworld links in lawless areas and without security? . caste war angle is just used to create useful coincidences in film, which could be done otherwise as well.
But scenes involving brother in law of naseer is hilarious to core and so is the concept of vidya finally finding solace in company of these two men.
It is difficult to say if it is inspired from some movie, Indian or foreign but I remember seeing one Brazilian movie where a woman with some fatal disease has a threesome with two youth who fall in love with her.
This is the way I gues s one should describe the movie and despite building up a credible plot ending leaves something to be desired. One good point is that Hindi films are maturing now and apart from straight college boy girl romance other angles are also being pursued and similarly in relationship areas apart from normal father –son, mother –son or friend angle complex relationships like guru- chelas whose object of affection is same girl, two buddies, two business partners, or mistress and wife are being presented in very nuanced way just as they are in real life.
Movie’s name is very apt because the entire protagonist including the kidnapped businessman or slain dacoit makes seemingly life threatening choices just because they are in love with someone. As they say love follows similar pattern to insanity and this movie exemplifies.
Some obvious loopholes – vidya’s effort to entice the two gangsters are too much obvious. There should have been some kind of subtlety here. It is inconceivable that police is attacking the house from front and they can easily slip from back. A big businessman with underworld links in lawless areas and without security? . caste war angle is just used to create useful coincidences in film, which could be done otherwise as well.
But scenes involving brother in law of naseer is hilarious to core and so is the concept of vidya finally finding solace in company of these two men.
It is difficult to say if it is inspired from some movie, Indian or foreign but I remember seeing one Brazilian movie where a woman with some fatal disease has a threesome with two youth who fall in love with her.
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