There are all kinds of utopia people have imagined about and written about but the one which is the most addressed is the one based on complete equality;no division between the rich and poor,or for that matter no division on any basis and high levels of goodwill characterising relations between people.

But one thing most of these forget to mention is that equality doesn't mean identical,it doesn't mean sameness.They are as different from each other as similar triangles and congruent triangles. According to me,in a true utopian society,people should be equal but also different.

Now as far as the Indian scenario goes, for centuries together our society has been stratified thanks to the corruption of many vedic concepts where the society was divided mainly in terms of 'guna' which later corrupted to 'profession' and ultimately it became 'hereditary'.We had an hierarchy where a class of people were considered superior to the other and hence they were ill-treated.

And since independence, very renowned scholars thought the best way to help the people lowest in the hierarchy was to elevate them to the top and then gift them with goodies.Now,this lead to a more complicated problem.An hierarchy creeped into the so-called lower castes and hence the whole 'goodies' concept failed.

It has been 57 years and we have still not understood the futility of the exercise,instead we are planning to extend this to the private sector.What I suggest is not to leave it to the government to take care of the upliftment of unprivileged people.There should be affirmative action taken by the private sector,each and every individual should try to contribute not in kind,but actually come forward and try to help people by educating them or atleast ensuring that each one of them gets a decent education.This I think will have very far reaching effects.One,this will make more and more people self-reliant.Once they are self-reliant,they will have more clear ideas on what is good for them and they will definitely become more human,by which I mean they will start thinking not just about themselves but also about the people around them.I think such a society will be a very just society.Once this happens,I think that is the day we can say,'Not only did we realise what our rights are as citizens of a free nation,but we also realised what our responsibilities are'

Long time no post

Its been a long time since I posted something.I think I am running short of things to put here,so I will be a little stereotypical for now and try to put a new post as soon as I come up with an idea on which I can write something.

This is a review of the Hindi movie 'Anand' which I had posted in a website and I am just pasting whatever I wrote there.

""Babu Moshai, Zindagi Aur Maut ke Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain" An immortal piece of dialogue from an immortal movie ‘Anand’. Many a Hindi movie starts of well, but falters pretty badly in the climax. Anand was one of the few movies, which grips you from start to end. It is one of the few movies which has an unforgettable climax.

Consider this the eponymous character Anand Sehgal(Rajesh Khanna) lies on the bed dying. Babu Moshai (Amitabh Bachan) enters the room. He cannot bear to see his friend lying still on death bed. He holds him and shakes him up weeping uncomfortably

"Tum Mujhe Aisa Chod Ke Nahin Ja Saakte"

"20 mahine se mein tera bak bak sun raha hoon"

"Baate Karo Mujhshe" And then as if on cue, the tape recorder plays "Babu Moshai, Babu Moshai, Zindagi aur Maut Ki Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain, Yahan kya hote hai, na tum jaane na main Sab Upar Wale ki Haath Meiin" The ghostly way in which the voice appears and the equally eerie laughter, creates such a haunting impact, that a shiver runs down my spine every time i watch this scene. It's as if Anand is speaking through his spirit, and even after death he still continues to live.

Anand is a masterpiece of the first order by Hrishida and one of my all time fav movies. Now an interesting thing regarding the dedication of Anand. It was dedicated to Raj Kapoor and the city of Mumbai.

The Raj Kapoor connection was easy to make out, as he was Hrishida's best buddy in real life. Hrishida got his first commercial success with Raj Kapoor's Anari and Raj Kapoor got the best actor award for the movie. They were as different as chalk and cheese. While Raj Kapoor was the typical loud Punjabi extrovert, Hrishida was the very epitome of the Bengali Babu with his sober intellectual demeanor. Also Hrishida's movies were aimed at the common man, and pretty sober and minimalist in nature, while RK was a showman par excellence with his penchant for larger than life canvas and huge settings. Hrishida himself admitted that Anand's character was based on RK's and he didn't cast RK as he couldn't bear to see his friend die on screen also. For his part Anand was a movie always close to RK's heart.

Regarding the Mumbai connection, i feel the story of Anand is somewhat linked to that of Mumbai. One could be that Hrishida made his career in Mumbai and i guess this was his way of saying thank you to the city which made him. Most of Hrishida's best movies have been Mumbai centric "Anand", "Mili","Abhimaan","Gol Maal" to name a few. Also like Anand, Mumbai is a city which though beset with innumerable problems like slums, crime, pollution, overcrowding still manages to survive and live every day. Life is not easy for an average Mumbaikar, what with all those overcrowded trains, high prices, crime rate but he/she still has a zeal for life, which is rarely found anywhere else. Its a city which gets back to normal life even after a couple of bomb blasts have destroyed large chunks. Its a city where dreams are made and realized. Its a city where people face a daily struggle and yet have an inexhaustible zest for life,much like Anand, who knows he will die but takes death head on as he says "Babu Moshai, zindag Badi Hone chahiye, Lambi nahin". Mumbai is a city that dies a thousand deaths daily, but never loses its love for life. Anand is a man who knows he is to die, but makes the best of his limited life."

Thats all for now.Will try to post something more substantial the next time.