Movie Review | Madaari and Nil Battey Sannata

During the last week I got to see two movies. Incidentally while one revolved around a ‘mother’ as the central character the other one revolved around a ‘father’; the first one was Nil Battey Sannata and the second one Madaari.

First about Madaari. This movie carries a story line similar to Sanjay Dutt starer Pitaah or Tathastu and the very recent A Wednesday. A grieving single father shocked and disturbed by the death of his only son, who dies from the collapse of a flyover, takes up the responsibility to find justice for his son. He kidnaps the son of a powerful minister in the government and that pulls by the neck all the corrupt individuals who were directly or indirectly involved in the flyover collapse.

The topic is a very relevant one in the light of the recent flyover collapse in Kolkata wherein many died. The collapse happened just before the elections and there were evident pointers towards the ruling party for reasons such as low quality material, excessive push to finish off the construction before the polls, questions on the quality of material supplied by ‘syndicate’ members close to the ruling party etc. But unfortunately the accident even failed to create a dent on the vote bank of the ruling party in the elections which were within a month or two of this unfortunate incident; in fact the same leaders returned back to power with a stronger mandate. Some inquiry into incident might be going on, but at the end the result is known. At the end it is a test for the family members of the victim to fight out in the court rooms against power and money.

First Day to Play Group | July 11th, 2016

This July 11th our son Raunak embarked on a very beautiful journey. He joined the pre-school or play group. We (me and my wife) were contemplating for a few days to get him enrolled to pre-school but having heard the how kids start getting common cold, cough and other ailments after joining, we were a bit sceptical. We were also quite unsure because most of the pre-schools in the vicinity are not very well maintained and clean. Luckily and thankfully Bubble Blue recently opened a branch at Sherwood Narendrapur. Even though that one is exclusively for the residents, one of my close friend who is a resident there was able to make some exception for our son.

Movie Review | The Theory Of Everything

The Theory of Everything is a movie about one of the most spectacular struggles of human determination against all odds. Undoubtedly Stephen Hawking is one of most well-known face of physics and astronomy in the world today; may be apart from Einstein there is no other face from the field as well-known as him.

The movie captures his struggles, his journey and the most touching relationship he had with his first wife Jane. May be Hawking would not have scaled the heights of achievement without the support of his wife. Eddie Redmayne gave a tremendous performance and no doubt that had earned him the coveted Oscar in 2014 for the best male actor. It is really hard to distinguish the on-screen Hawking from the real one just by the looks; the similarity was too much.

Open Letters on the Kashmir violence of July,2016

Violence is again back in the valley. Since the death of an hitherto unknown terrorist (or separatist? Or extremist?) by the name of Burhan Wani at the hands of security forces Kashmir is on the boil. At least 34 people have so far died and many hundreds are injured; some permanently blinded. Media and social media has also been active on this Kashmir issue; some favoring the nationalism and the actions of the armed forces while others standing in solidarity with the Kashmiri population.

Recently an open letter surfaced on social media written by an army veteran by the name of Major Gaurav Arya. And then there was this response to that open letter written by a Kashmiri settled in Mumbai. These two open letters more or less captures holistically the mood and countering opinions from either side.

Turkish Military Coup of July,2016

The failure of the recent coup in Turkey is being hailed the world over by political leaders and media to be a success of democracy. But there is something intricate to that. The secular Turkey came up through the visions of a military leader and this coup was an attempt by the army to overthrow the regime of the current President which is attempting systematic radicalization of Turkish politics and society while moving away from its secular foundations.

I recently came across this article which had captured this thought process. Europe may stand to lose by supporting the current regime.

Repairing my Nikon D5100

​My Nikon D5100 is alive again though a bit handicapped. After the severe fall which it had 2 weeks back I had almost given up that I would be able to use that one again. But thankfully enough I am again able to click with that.

The after the crash I visited Capital Electronic at Esplanade. This one is a authorised Nikon camera service centre. I gave the camera to them on a Saturday and came back. They told me that they would first call me with the estimate and then once I approve they will go for the repair. The same day afternoon called me and told that the camera body had a damage in the shutter which would require Rs. 2200 to be repaired. The lens had greater damage and would require at least Rs. 3000; the amount may increase further. I gave them approval for fixing the Camera body but asked them to hold on for the lens. I was thinking about getting a new lens. I got an automated SMS on the next Monday that the camera body is repaired.

What to do in case of traffic accidents in Kolkata?

The other day I had a very nasty experience on the road. While on my way to office thought of getting the air pressure checked at the BPCL petrol pump off EM Bypass near Patuli Dhalai Bridge. When I reached there for refill there were 2 more cars already in queue and 1 was getting its air filled. I joined the queue. Suddenly an Ola cab came from the opposite direction driving against the direction of traffic on EM Bypass and since it was coming from the opposite direction its entry to the petrol pump was blocked by the queue in front air refilling pump. The driver then started to honk vigorously and then started hurling abuses. Now that is an incident which anyone would face on a daily basis but then I didn’t had the mood of getting down from car and get engaged with such crass person. Reacting to such unruly behavior result in unfortunate incidents of road rage frequently reported.

Euro 2016 Finale - A night to remember for a long time

It was sometime around 2:49 AM IST when Eder’s long distance shot landed at the back of the French net. It was the 109th minute and France knew that was it. The ultimate dream has come true.

Portugal won their first major international trophy. They had Eusebio, they had Figo but they required a Cristiano Ronaldo to achieve the glory. This has been a fairy tale tournament for Portugal. At the onset no one would have thought they would be there in the finals leave aside being the champions but now they are the topmost team in Europe.

The final was nothing less than a fairy-tale too. From the onset of the match it was clearly evident that France was the team with a complete upper hand. They had most of the ball possession and had a couple of attempts at the Portugese goal itself in the first 20-25 mins. Portugal was on the other hand struggling the control the ball in the midfield and there was no supply to their forward line. The Portugese defence and goalkeeper were being tested and they did a good a job to hold Griezmann and company.

Thoughts on the Dhaka terror attack - Continued

Few days back I had done a post on the gradual radicalization that has taken place of the Bangladeshi society. The attacks that have taken place are the result of years of Ismalisation that has taken place for the past few decades.

In the aftermath of attack the following article in Sunday Times of India points to the same direction.
The story can be read here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Why-Gulshan-was-waiting-to-happen/articleshow/53134372.cms

My Nikon D5100 Destroyed

Got to end the day on a very sad note. My beloved Nikon D5100 is dead. Actually it is dead and destroyed. Took out the camera in the evening to take a passport size picture of my son; needed for his school admission.

Had kept the camera on the dressing table and just as I was about to pick it up holding the body, the camera belt got entangled with a drawer handle. I had picked up the camera suddenly and with that sudden force the camera slipped out of my hand and fell on the floor.
I was just dumbfound to see the camera lying split into two parts. Picked it up and understood the damage to be severe. The lens is completely destroyed and uprooted from the camera base. I have no hopes for the lens but if somehow the camera body could be repaired.

40000 rupees gone in a second. I had purchased this one in 2013 from Mustafa, Singapore. Used it to capture some really wonderful moments. Completely heart broken now. Will be taking it to service centre. Hope some how it can come back to life.

Euro 2016 Finale

So the stage is set for the Finals on Sunday. Portugal will be meeting hosts France in Paris. Both the semi-finals have now ended in the identical 2-0 score line. The odds are heavily stacked up against Portugal but still my bet is with them. And the reason for that would be the same because of which many people would love to see France win…..Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal was ultimately able to halt the dream run of Wales. The first half of the match was equally played out with Wales having a slightly upper hand. Bale made some really sharp entries into the Portugal half but they missed a finisher. They also missed the services of play maker Ramsey who was ruled out because of successive Yellow cards.

Thoughts on the Dhaka terror attack

The connection with Bangladesh runs very deep into the Bengali community of India. For long Bengalis had been one of the worst impacted because of the political division which the sub-continent had witnessed in the past century based on religious and lingual demarcations.
The idea of partitioning Bengal was first implemented by Lord Curzon in 1905. Bengal at that time was a huge province and Bengalis were dreaded as a community by the Brits. They had understood that Bengalis had the ability to provide intellectual and political guidance to rest of India. The partition of Bengal in 1905 was withdrawn after sometime because of huge protests.

Then came 1947. This saw a massive migration of people from Bangladesh into India and vice versa. And then again 1971. One of the main reason why India justified its entry into the Bangladesh Liberation War was the refugee crisis it had to face. It resulted in the displacement of some 10 million refugees from Bangladesh into India.

It took a lot of time for all these refugees to settle down but the emotions attached with the roots were hardly uprooted. The romanticism attached with Bangladesh still persists. The dialect (even though Bengali of West Bengal is distinctly different from how Bengali is spoken in West Bengal), the food habits, the ghoti-bangal debate, the debate over Mohun Bagan – East Bengal are all testimony to the deep connect which still runs between Bengalis on either sides of the border.

Euro 2016 Semifinal | Battle of Galacticos

The first seminal of Euro 2016 will be played tomorrow between Portugal and Wales; each team lead by two Galacticos of Real Madrid. Portugal additionally is being led by also the man who is one of most hated players on earth at this moment.

Our generation is fortunate enough to have seen two of the greatest footballers of all time, Messi and Ronaldo, in full glory. While there is a never ending debate going on as who is the better between the two, the two have continued to go in fame and glory. Both have achieved tremendous honors for their clubs and personally but glory for country is something still eludes them.

Juvenile Law in India

Few months back there was a lot of debate in media, newspaper and social media upon the release of the juvenile criminal in the Nirbhaya case. The media had branded this juvenile to have committed the most barbaric of the acts during the crime.

However the criminal managed to escape the full scale of punishment just because he was 6 months shy from turning 18. He was spared the fate of being tried as an adult and was awarded just a 3 year term for a crime which led to the death of a young girl; after a lot of suffering. In December 2015 the so called juvenile got released from the correction facility and was handed over a handsome rehabilitation package to start a new life. In an Utopian world it would be nice to assume that the criminal bend of mind of this juvenile had got corrected during the time he spent at the correctional facility. And he is ready to be integrated into the mainstream. But if that is true practically is subject debate and discussion.

Jupiter landing by Juno

Source: ToI Kolkata (1st July, 2016)