Dhobi Ghat

Saw, Dhobi Ghat, the first movie of director, Kiran Rao. The movie was a quite refreshing one. The story based on four lives and a city is depicted in a very fantastic manner in a very short period of just one and half hour. Prateek Babbar has acted extraordinarily well in his debut film

The story deals with the four lives belonging to different class and society. First is the Monica Dogra an NRI banker who has come to India for a break and fulfill her Hobby and interest  in photography, next is the Arun, a painter, played by the Actor Amir khan himself, Prateek babbar is playing the role of a Dhobi, Munna in the movie and the last but the most important one is Yasmin a married girl who is shown through her video diaries throughout the movieplayed bu kriti.

Shai (Monica Dogra) meets Arun and had a nightstay with Arun but later in the morning Arun apologises and clarifies that he was a loner. Later she meets Dhobi Munna, who wants to become hero. Shai develops a friendship with him but somewhere in the heart she has got a corner for Arun only. Munna falls in love with Shai but can’t say because of the class difference. While the painter, Arun finds himself close to Yasmin virtually  after going through her video diaries.

The story moves in a very quiet pace. The movie has very sensitive things in it, like, the one when Munna is exposed in front of Shai as a ratkiller, that emotion has been depicted so nicely by Prateek that the chareter gets the sympathy of the audience.

The movie has got some extra ordinary shots, like of Mumbai, the dhobi ghat and the voice of Kriti is awesome, throughout the movie, in fact her voice leads the story. The film is very compact, though there are no songs in the movie but the background music works. Prateek Babbar cannot be traced as a debutant in the movie through his acting. He has performed extra ordinarily well. Amir Khan, as always has been perfect in is role in his home production movie. Kriti is awesome in her role and Monica Dogra has also performed well. Overall, the movie I felt was good for a change as it’s a bit different. Enjoyed, watching it.

Benjamin Button

I saw a Hollywood movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
recently. It was a classic one.  I was compelled to think over the
story after watching it.  The story deals with a character namely
Benjamin button who is born old and gets younger physically with the
age. His name is Benjamin but his father holds a business in buttons,
thus the character is named Benjamin Button.

Benjamin the main character played by Brad Pitt is born old and his
mother dies during the delivery, his father rushes him to an old age
home where he is properly taken care of by a lady as his adoptive
mother played by Taraji P. Henson. A young girl gets fascinated by
him and he falls in love with her. Gradually with the time, the bond
grows stronger. He leaves his at after attaining a normal physic, he
leaves with a number of people of different type, he meets a lady whom
he falls in love with, a person who survived seven attacks and such
others.

 

In the later half of the story, the Benjamin meets with his childhood
love again and falls they get married finally, at this stage of life
both are of the same age. They enjoy the life, but the turning point
in the movie comes when Benjamin comes to know that he is going to
become a father. The conflict of an extraordinary father is very
nicely depicted in the movie. On one hand he is happy to become a
father while on the other he is thinking about the coming baby that
how would he is able to take care of that baby. After becoming a
father, he leaves his home saying that she needs a father, who will
grow older with her, who could understand her better, not a father who
grows younger with her getting older.

 

The story runs in the flash back with a daughter of the lady narrating
the diary of Benjamin to her ailing mother, without knowing that the
person was her actual father. The acting is fantastic all around. The
movie though does not relate to the real life but the extraordinary
story keeps the sudience bounded to the story. The use of techniques
to show the aeging and deaging has been –presented in very
extraordinary manner, which increases the originality in the story.

Brad Pitt as the Benjamin and Cate Blanchett as daisy have performed
out standing. She looks stunning throughout the movie. Watching the
movie one gets attached to the story so much that he can’t leave it in
between and three hours pass like anything. Taraji P. Henson as
Benjamin's adoptive mother, Tilda Swinton as another love of
Benjamin’s and many others are simply awesome.

Farmer suicide cases: A shame to the state

Coming back from home after the semester break, I was filled with a lot of enthusiasm and was looking forward about getting back to Bhopal. But getting the news of farmer suicides in the state, all my plans and the zeal was shattered away. I was taken aback, when I heard the irresponsible statements of the agriculture minister Ramkrishna Kusmariya about the suicides. The farmers are committing suicides in the very assembly constituency of the agriculture minister and the minister is still very indifferent, as if he has got nothing to do with that.

More shameful is the attitude of the government who claims about the developments going on in the state and calls it as the Swarnim Madhya Pradesh. But the claims won’t do, what the datas and figures suggest is worth noticing. The state is at the top position in the malnutrition, is this development? The women atrocities are maximum in the state, is this development? The farmers come to the state capital and jam the roads, take the city to a stand still, for just getting their authentic demands met, is that development? The basic thing here is that the farmers came here in such large numbers with an aggressive way to get the attention of the government towards there problems. So the question here arises that why did they opt for this? Because they tried to bring their problems to the attention of the officers, ministers and the government a number of times but it was never given any attention, which compelled them to come go for such protest.

In these farmer suicide cases, the reason is the burden of debt which they are unable to repay, losses due to frost which destroyed the crops, but was never compensated by the government. It’s ridiculous that in a state like Madhya Pradesh, the debt ridden farmers are committing suicide which is stated a state working for the development.

The question which arises now is not why the farmers committed suicide, but what are the plans and announcements of the government after these cases and up to what extent they have been implemented to stop these suicidal cases as, the cases are not coming to an end. There is a need to give a serious thought over the issue.

Sarkozy visit to India

Aparna Jha

The recent visit of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to India came with some good results, strengthening the bilateral ties in the different sectors including the IT, education, defence or the culture. Sarkozy has promised to double the bilateral business to 1200 million Euro till 2012.

The French president came on a four day visit to India with his wife Carla Bruni on December 4-7. Contrary to the US president, Barack Obama who landed at the financial capital of the country, he landed at the IT capital of India Bangalore.

India and France have enjoyed a good bilateral relation since long, especially in the sector of defense and military cooperation between India and France. In fact when India desired to diversify its military relation in the early 1990s, France was the first to respond. It all started with the supply of French omnipotent flying machines mirage-2000. Over the years, these air crafts have had Indian air force fly high in the skies.

Later in the 1998, India and France took this bilateral relation to a strategic level since the time a high level defense committee has been meeting and the countries entered into a lot of agreements. There is a (JWG) Joint working group on terrorism to aid co-operation in ‘fight against the terrorism’.

The French president signed a total of seven deals with the India. A deal on general framework for the implementation of EPR N-power plants at Jittapur between NPCIL and the French company AREVA was signed which would produce 1650mw nuclear energy. Prior to this, in the area of the nuclear cooperation India had signed a deal with the France in the September 2008, which was a land mark agreement on civil nuclear co-operation between India and France during the PM’s visit to France. Thereafter a MoU was signed between NPCIL and the French firm AREVA, some time in February 2009, for setting up two European pressurized reactors in India.

Among the other deals are confidentiality of technical data, information on Nuclear cooperation including nano-technology, bio-technology, weather prediction, aerospace engineering etc. an IPR was also signed on the peaceful use of energy, cooperation Between ISRO and French space agency over earth system science and climate.

In a bid to strengthen the cultural relation the two countries signed a deal on December 6, 2010 to co-produce the film. It will enhance the cultural interaction and will strengthen the cultural ties. Now an Indian producer a can produce a movie with a French production house by paying 10 percent of the total budget. A movie produced in India can be treated as a national film in France and the third countries. The pact will also allow French production houses to shoot in India through tax rebates and relaxed visa norms.

There have been some good deals in the area of education, providing room to the Indian students to get education or research in the France and also providing a chance to work together with the students there. A deal has been signed in the field of Research and technology, with a thought of establishing a joint laboratory for research and partnership of IIT and IIS with French university and research centers for Deal between IIT and ‘Paris tech’ for the institutional and the student exchange and joint research and education programme. The number of Indian students in France was 1500 till 2007 which the French president assured to triple till 2012.

the visit overall was not that much hyped as of the USA president, but in the terms of business it did more than the prior one.

Hazar Chaurasivein ki Maa: Mahashweta Devi

Aparna Jha

Today, I completed the widely famous novel, Hazar Chaurasivein Ki Maa, written by the well known writer Mahashweta Devi. It was very long ago when I read my last novel. Don’t know why but while reading the book I felt as if I have lost the habit of reading. I used to read novels in continuation or say I was addict of it. Even if I started reading a novel during my exams I used to complete in that duration, be it any way, keeping these novels inside my textbooks or read at some place so that the family members could not get me, otherwise I would have been scolded.

THE BOOK

The book is all about a mother, struggling with her own family to keep her son in her memories, despite the disagreement of her husband, son and daughters. Her son dies in an Andolan sort of thing, which she was unaware of, her family takes, him as a stigma on the name of the family. The Mother, Sujata is always sad that she herself loved her son so much then how it went that she could not know what way he was moving on.Her fourth and the youngest son, Vrati dies in mutiny, her husband take his death a blot on the name of his family and forces her also not to think of him, but does not do this for consoling her but to remove his name from the family, to maintain his staure in the so called higher society.

The story is based on a family of higher society, where the husband treats his wife as a source to his entertainment and physical pleasure. It also narrates how the circumstances make the lady a rebel, who had buried her wishes and ego against the desire of her family and the husband especially. A sentence "zindagi mein jo cheezein ham apni ichcha k viruddha karte hain wohi kartavya hai" really it stopped me and i was compelled to think over this. The story is really a pathetic one, and describes how a mother chained in the responsibility of the family and maintaining the status of the family in the higher society does not get a chance to mourn even on her son’s death. The story is of just one day from the morning to night.

The name, Hazar Chauraseevein ki Maa refers to the number of his son who was nowhere registered in the crime list neither a list. She is not even allowed to think about him and neither can she cry like a lady who has lost her son in a similar sort of mutiny.

Sarcozy visit to India

 

Aparna Jha
The recent visit of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to India came with some
good results, strengthening the bilateral ties in the different sectors including
the IT, education, defence or the culture. Sarkozy has promised to double the
bilateral business to 1200 million Euro till 2012.

The French president came on a four day visit to India with his wife Carla Bruni
on December 4-7. Contrary to the US president, Barack Obama who landed at
the financial capital of the country, he landed at the IT capital of India Bangalore.

India and France have enjoyed a good bilateral relation since long, especially
in the sector of defense and military cooperation between India and France. In
fact when India desired to diversify its military relation in the early 1990s, France
was the first to respond. It all started with the supply of French omnipotent flying
machines mirage-2000. Over the years, these air crafts have had Indian air force
fly high in the skies.

Later in the 1998, India and France took this bilateral relation to a strategic
level since the time a high level defense committee has been meeting and the
countries entered into a lot of agreements. There is a (JWG) Joint working group
on terrorism to aid co-operation in ‘fight against the terrorism’.

The French president signed a total of seven deals with the India. A deal on
general framework for the implementation of EPR N-power plants at Jittapur
between NPCIL and the French company AREVA was signed which would
produce 1650mw nuclear energy. Prior to this, in the area of the nuclear
cooperation India had signed a deal with the France in the September 2008,
which was a land mark agreement on civil nuclear co-operation between India
and France during the PM’s visit to France. Thereafter a MoU was signed
between NPCIL and the French firm AREVA, some time in February 2009, for
setting up two European pressurized reactors in India.

Among the other deals are confidentiality of technical data, information on
Nuclear cooperation including nano-technology, bio-technology, weather
prediction, aerospace engineering etc. an IPR was also signed on the peaceful
use of energy, cooperation Between ISRO and French space agency over earth
system science and climate.

In a bid to strengthen the cultural relation the two countries signed a deal on
December 6, 2010 to co-produce the film. It will enhance the cultural interaction

and will strengthen the cultural ties. Now an Indian producer a can produce a
movie with a French production house by paying 10 percent of the total budget. A
movie produced in India can be treated as a national film in France and the third
countries. The pact will also allow French production houses to shoot in India
through tax rebates and relaxed visa norms.

There have been some good deals in the area of education, providing room to
the Indian students to get education or research in the France and also providing
a chance to work together with the students there. A deal has been signed in the
field of Research and technology, with a thought of establishing a joint laboratory
for research and partnership of IIT and IIS with French university and research
centers for Deal between IIT and ‘Paris tech’ for the institutional and the student
exchange and joint research and education programme. The number of Indian
students in France was 1500 till 2007 which the French president assured to
triple till 2012.

Palmolien import may cost dearer to CVC

Aparna Jha

The chief vigilance commissioner of India came into light after being accused in the illegal import of palmolein oil from Malaysia. He imported this oil from Malaysia during his tenure as the Kerala civil supplies secretary in 1991-92. The case is still pending in the court of enquiry commissioner and special judge (vigilance) in Tiruvananthpuram. Thomas is the eighth accused in the case of illegal export of the said oil.

The controversial import of 15,000tonnes of pamolein from Malaysia took place in october1991 to April 1992 in the tenure of the then CM of Kerala, K Karunakaran. The deal was signed without any sanction of the center i.e. any import deal can be done after the intervention or dsy the approval of the center but this rule was also violated. The conspiracy done by the Chennai based mala trading company, and the Malaysian firm, PEL caused a total loss of Rs2.84 crore to the state exchequer.

In the year 1992, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found some fault with the import of the palmolein oil done in the year 1991-92. The Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) started a probe in the year 1996 and filed charge sheet against Thomas, Karunakaran and the six other in the year of 1999. But the accused appeared in the court and got a bail on April 3 and 9, 2003. The congress government moved to Supreme Court to withdraw the case in the year 2005, but couludnt do so. The then CM K Karunakaran went to the Supreme Court to get stay and got the stay from the SC in the year 2007 and is on stay till now.

PJ Thomas was appointed as the CVC by a committee constituting of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and the home minister P Chidambaram in September 2010. Though the leader opposition was in the committee and the CVC was selected with her consent only but the opposition party BJP boycotted the oath ceremony, giving the plea that the opposition leader supported the appointment expecting the president will intervene. CVC was established in the year 1964 after the recommendations of the Shantaram committee.

About PJ Thomas

PJ Thomas- Polayil Joseph Thomas, assumed the post of the CVC on September, 2010 as the 14th CVC of India as the successor to the Pratyush Sinha, a 1969 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who took over as the CVC in the year 2006. Thomas hails from Alappuza and is a 1973 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre. His brother, Johney Joseph is also an IAS of 1972 batch.

He (PJ Thomas) started his career as sub collector at fort Kochi. He has enjoyed several prestigious government posts like, finance secretary, chief electoral officer etc. He was the founder and also the director of ‘IIM Kozhikode’ for six months. He became the chief secretary of Kerala in the year 2007 and moved to central government in January 2009 as the secretary in the ministry of the parliamentary affairs. Also he was the secretary, when the 3G spectrums were being sold.