As the Saturday night inches towards its end, the movie 'Sansodhan' (meaning 'Correction') begs for a comment or two. The setting of the movie is rural. It highlights the travails of a woman panch, who finds herself witness to the machinations of a scheming landlord who milch the public money to fill his coffers. The woman, being newly-wed, is torn between the demands of her husband and the call of her conscience to build a school in the village. Eventually, the good wins over evil and a school is built is the village.
The beauty of the movie was in its realistic portrayal of the characters and the events. The protagonist, along with a few supporting actresses, gives a sterling performance to make the movie watching a really worthwhile experience. In the movie, apart from the fight between good and bad, the gender conflict is also brought out. The protagonist is propelled to the seat of panchayat after a new law mandates one-third reservation for women in panchayat. The landlord presumes that the protagonist will remain a puppet in his hands. But once the election is over, things turn out to be otherwise as the woman refuses to shirk her responsibilities, and vows to build a school. Even as she finds her nuptial relationship going downhill, she remains resolute, courtesy the stubbornness of couple of fellow women villagers. Ultimately, her husband backs her and the landlord accepts defeat and a school is built in the village. The movie ends with the school children praying 'Is dhara main swarg banayenge hum' (meaning 'we will make this earth a heaven'). The movie was jointly produced by UNICEF and NDFC. I just wish the movie had a wider audience. In any case, Star Gold movie channel shows some excellent movies on Saturday nights, 11.00pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the Ahmedabad trouble enters into the third week, a couple of incidents deserve attention. For the last two days to the drive to my office, I have seen a man coming in the opposite direction in the most bizarre way. The man first spreads a bed-sheet on the road and then lies prostrate on it. Then he gets up and stands at the point where his head was when he was lying prostrate. The whole event is then repeated again ad infinitum. In the two days that I have seen him, the man was around four kilometers apart. The second incident is not different from the first one. Today, being Saturday, I saw a huge crowd lined up at Kaali mandir near Rohini, New Delhi. I asked my mother why there was such a crowd, and she said on Saturdays, Kaali puja was performed with great devotion. She also said that on Saturday, if anyone asked for a wish at the temple with a pure heart, the wish was most likely to be granted. Thus, every Saturday, one could see people queueing for almost 5-8 hours to get a chance to pray at the temple. As if this devotion was not enough, I once saw a close friend of mine donating a rupee in an unmanned container that had an image of Goddess Kali. How I wish to relate the Ahmedabad trouble with these show of devotion is best left unsaid and open to interpretation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One thing that holds a profound importance in our lives is 'dream'. For me, a life without a dream is like not living at all. Then, a question arises that what dream should be pursued and what not. Though much can be said about it, let me quote the words of a friend of mine, 'Most people dream. At least I think so. A lot of quotes seem to suggest that successful people owe their successes to dreams. I think anyone with imagination would dream. Children dream the most; they even believe they can reach for the moon. As we 'mature' our experience mellows down our dreams, shackles and fetters our capacity to dream. If we keep the child in our hearts alive, we will continue dreaming. But this is where the similarities end. For many people dreams end up as feeble wishes. Others approach their dreams with a stern resolute, translate dreams into definite goals, plan well and go for it with a steely will to conquer. And then, there are others for whom the desire to make a dream a reality, a dream they believe in, builds inside them as a fire, a passion, a necessary source of sustenance in life. It is this last category of people who can make a difference, leave the world a little better than they found it. Such people need a passion or two in life to keep them happy.
I'm including here two quotes that I liked, "A dream can be a powerful thing. It is more important to have a dream than to have a way to achieve it. If the power of our passion is strong enough, we will figure out a way to make our dreams reality. It is more than having the will to find the way. Will is a conscious act. Passion is deeper. It involves emotion and intuition. If passion is properly tapped, it creates tremendous drive." The second quote is, "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow ." These are just random ramblings, but the point is every clock that ticks, every car that moves, every plane that flies does so because someone had a dream he believed in and was passionate about it. It's such people who can make a difference.'
Thanks my friend for your words of wisdom.
Chachu (23/3/2002)
No comments:
Post a Comment