Nature of artist and purpose of his art
"Satyajit Ray is the suitable boy of Indian film, presentable, career-oriented, and reliably tasteful. Ghatak, by contrast, is an undesirable guest: he lacks respect, has "views", makes a mess, disdains decorum." — Jacob Levich
From Ritwik Ghatak, by Megan Carrigy (Senses of Cinema)
What is clearly evident in these words is a deeply sensitive human being who was equally prone to moments of unparalleled brilliance as he was to horrible lapses of self-destruction: an artist and cultivated thinker so idealistic, passionate, and profoundly humanist that he felt deeply - and consequently, suffered greatly - for the profound rapture and burden of existence in this complex, often terrible, and terrifyingly uncertain world.
— Notes on Rows and Rows of Fences
Read excerpts from the book: Wind from the East
Recommended:
Me? I have never even questioned it. I am individualistic, from the start to end. My individualism is a fact, but that should not be held against me or my work. "I am continuously individualistic". But miyaan, what does that have to do with anything? "Life is like that!" I have been part of a lot of trouble and mischief, but I have never ever harmed anyone. Don't you get it, miyaan?
— Ghatak’s interview in translation by Dipanjan Chattopadhyay
Download link (docx) here: Ghatak with Prabir Sen
March 28, 2009
Essential Ritwik Ghatak
March 21, 2009
What happened to the boy?
A boy in some Iranian village is obsessed with soccer. His ‘ambition’ is to reach Tehran to see a soccer match. He doesn’t know what ‘maneuver’ means. But he steals, cheats and escapes home.
It’s more like a documentary, and the filming felt amateurish but real. What happened to the boy? I don’t think he returned home. Did he become a footballer? I hope so. It's time to go.
March 18, 2009
Reliving memories
‘Andheri West.’
When I was in my early teens I think, I wrote my first letter.
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| From Kathmandu Speaks! Are you listening? |
And it was for none other than Disney Hour! YUP! I had sent my drawings of Ninjas and Darkwing Duck somewhere at this address. Today when this address came up in a conversation, I relived the oldest memory associated with Mumbai.
They call it a dream city, you know?
Two films
I watched Tom DiCillo's Living In Oblivion and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso, among other films, last week. Abbas Kiarostami’s Mosāfer and Ismaël Ferroukhi’s Le Grand Voyage is on the list for the week.
Anurag isn’t God, he ain’t Godard either
I'm hooked to PFC after my Gulaal post.
Further readings:
Gulaal
Mosāfer
Living In Oblivion
Cinema Paradiso
Le Grand Voyage
March 17, 2009
Pakeezah (1972)
On Pakeezah
The train
She cut my wings
to put me in a cage
and tied my legs with anklets.
But i just wanted to run
in the noiseless hour of dawn
after the snake-like train
back to the night of rain
telling myself, i won’t sleep —
this time i’ll keep my eyes open for him.
O stranger,
you took me away from me
My joy, please do not abandon me
It’s not you, it’s the train
which brings back my pain
with even more intensity
than my poetry.
March 16, ‘09
II
she kissed my feathers
before plucking them
out of my skin
i couldn't even cry
the hissing whistles
from the smoky screen
anesthetized me
that monstrous train
that devil took away from me
this pain of my anklets
they bleed my soul
my feet,
my feet
they seek your gaze
they yearn, they play
for a foolish flirt
this aching heart
this living dead
March 17, 09
March 16, 2009
Anurag isn’t God, he ain’t Godard either
Updated: 16 March, '09
Read my Gulaal review on Passionforcinema.
March 14, 2009 @ work
Further reading:
Gulaal's music: Love, power, revolution
March 14, 2009
'Who are you accountable to?'
Brawl Street: Get Ready to Buy Low! And Sell Die
"The weeklong feud of the century finally comes to a head."
Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s Mad Money, had to finally come to The Daily Show and admit his mistakes and ignorance while he and his channel kept on persuading people to “BUY, BUY, BUY” Wall Street stocks despite probably knowing some of the giant companies would declare bankruptcy anytime soon.
Cramer & CO. (the so-called financial analysts) knew the risk behind the madness but says he could do nothing since even CEOs were telling them lies after lies.
This is Jon Stewart and his guys at their best.
March 12, 2009
March 11, 2009
Can outsourcing save U.S. newspapers?
Big names are in big troubles
Saving print media without sufficient advertising revenues and sponsors is impossible but if outsourcing editorial and packaging works can save costs and help newspapers survive, why not try it? Without a change in the mindset of the people in the media, there is less we can do to save the U.S. newspapers going bankrupt or shutting down. And the online transition isn’t going to be smooth either. I don't think many people are ready to buy the idea of outsourcing. Well, outsourcing isn’t a sin. But it can't be a long-term solution either. We are going to lose some more papers, let’s face it. We can only hope the fittest newspapers survive the crisis and keep the ink-and-paper media alive.
Martin Langeveld writes What kind of changes will bankruptcies force on newspapers?:
a.) Consolidation at a corporate level: A large consolidated entity with a new vision might attract new investment.
b.) Consolidation at the city and regional level: As we’re seeing in Denver and Seattle, fewer areas will sustain multiple newspapers.
c.) An accelerated move to online-first (and only-only in some instances).
d.) Vertical de-layering: A delayered organization would keep the capacity to generate content and to sell advertising, and would let someone else own their buildings, their presses and their distribution organizations.
e.) Merge or collaborate with other local media.
Sharing stories to survive?
The Blade has gotten notice in the past year for being one of the eight founding members of the Ohio News Organization, a collaborative in which the state’s major papers freely share their stories (and now their photos and graphics) with one another. All the Ohio papers have seen major cutbacks in recent years — The Blade’s newsroom staff is about half the size it was five years ago — and their willingness to beat swords into plowshares has been a model for other cooperatives around the country among papers with declining resources.The proof of crisis: Worse yet to come?
— Neimanlab
An unverified report caught my attention that "the New York Times is outsourcing their internet operations to a unit of Mumbai India Newspaper publisher Deccan Chronicle."
AFP, March 11:
The Miami Herald Wednesday said it will sack 19 percent of its workforce, and slash the wages of its remaining staff, two days after parent McClatchy Co. announced major cuts due to falling revenues.
The Miami Herald said the measures, which included significant pay cuts, were part of McClatchy Co. decision Monday to eliminate 1,600 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce, because of falling advertising revenue and the weak economy.
McClatchy is the third-largest newspaper chain in the United States with some 30 daily newspapers, including the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Kansas City Star, and some 50 non-dailies.
Like other US newspapers, it has been struggling with a steep decline in print advertising revenue, falling circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.
Other recent victims of the media downturn include the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which on Tuesday told its 170 employees they may lose their jobs as early as next week, and the San Francisco Chronicle, whose union workers earlier this week agreed to major concessions to keep the daily alive. Both dailies are owned by the Hearst Corp.
The New York Times on Monday said it had reached a sale-leaseback agreement to rent out 21 floors of its 52-story Renzo Piano-designed headquarters to raise 225 million dollars to pay down its debt.
BBC, Feb 27:
The New York Times is struggling to service debts of some $400m, amid dwindling cash reserves and plunging revenue. Last year it had to mortgage its gleaming new headquarters (built in 2007 with much fanfare) to bolster its cash flow.
The Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and many other titles, filed for bankruptcy in December, and although its newspapers remain in publication, the repercussions of the bankruptcy filing are likely to lead to restructuring.
Three other newspaper companies have also filed for bankruptcy in recent months: the Star Tribune Holding Corporation (which owns the Minneapolis Star-Tribune), the Journal Register Company (which owns the New Haven Register and a number of other titles in the North-East), and Philadelphia Newspapers LLC (which owns Philadelphia's two top newspapers, the Inquirer and the Daily News).
Media Daily News (Dec. 31):
It's a grim New Year for newspapers. As yet another rough quarter draws to a close, we witness the closing of a venerable Midwestern journal, The Cincinnati Post, as well as an alarming new trend: the outsourcing of advertising responsibilities to India.
The Cincinnati Post, owned by E.W. Scripps, is set to close on Dec. 31 after 126 years of publication.
Separately, The Miami Herald announced Thursday that it is outsourcing some advertising production tasks to India as a cost-cutting measure, beginning in January. The New Delhi firm Mindworks will handle copy editing and design for special advertising sections, including a weekly community section covering Broward County. So far, the move hasn't resulted in any layoffs in the paper's Florida offices. However, Herald executives say the outsourcing is a test — implying that some jobs could go to India if it proves successful.
The Miami Herald is actually the second newspaper owned by the McClatchy Co. to outsource to India. At the beginning of December, The Sacramento Bee also said it would experiment with outsourcing some ad production tasks.
Further reading:
Rocky Mountain News: “It’s strange to cover your own funeral”
Bankruptcies: What kind of changes will they force on newspapers?
Newspapers Send Out, Take in Work
What newspapers don't do
Copyediting? Ship the Work Out to India
March 10, 2009
Being Charlie Kaufman
Watch Interviews:
On Charlie Rose (Part I & II) (17 min)
On Synecdoche, life, work (with Tom Tangney) (17 min)
On writing, television years (Thinktalk) (12 min)
Charlie Kaufman On Being — And Directing (NPR- audio) (30 min)
Read:
Being Charlie Kaufman (Salon)
Interview with Kaufman (Bluntreview)
Wikipedia
Anurag Kashyap's notes Kaufman's master class
March 8, 2009
I thought you'd be happy
Otto e mezzo (8½)
'I don't understand. He meets a girl that can give him a new life and he pushes her away?'
Because he no longer believes in it.
'Because he doesn't know how to love.'
Because it isn't true that a woman can change a man.
'Because he doesn't know how to love.'
And above all because I don't feel like telling another pile of lies.
'Because he doesn't know how to love.'
I wish I could explain.
'They say you're free, but you must learn to choose. You don't have much time. And you have to hurry.'
He wants to grab everything, can't give up a single thing. He changes his mind every day, because he's afraid he might miss the right path.
Will you take me along when you go?
I didn't want to force you. I wanted to know, I just wanted to know what you thought of me.
'Sure, I will if/when I go.'
That's when I started to plan. And my plans were not for today. Things were too complicated at the time. I hoped with time everything would fall on place. I didn't even want to tell you I was already planning to spend my life with you. Because I wasn't sure. I left it to the time as well. But, I could see you weren't happy anymore.
Do you want separation?
I thought it would make you happy. That's why I did everything I did. I thought you'd be happy. That's why I did everything I did. I thought you'd be happy. That's why I did everything I did.
I wonder why things turned out this way. When did I go wrong?
I hadn't understood. I didn't know. It's so natural accepting you, loving you.
And so simple.
Everything is true. I wish I could explain. But I don't know how to. So. Everything is confused again, as it was before.
The lights!
But this confusion is . . . me. Not as I'd like to be, but as I am.
I'm not afraid anymore of telling the truth, of the things I don't know, what I'm looking for and haven't found. This is the only way I can feel alive and I can look into your faithful eyes without shame. Life is a celebration. Let's live it together!
Accept me for what I am, if you want me.
It's the only way we might be able to find each other.
Further reading:
Wikipedia
Read my full review on PFC
March 7, 2009
A dictionary
Value of printed words
I never liked the idea of selling old books or newspapers as a kid. My room was a small library. I used to keep Sunday editions of most newspapers. I didn't want to sell my textbooks. I loved to collect everything I had ever read — even my K.G. books. (Gulmohar was my favorite.) I had to reconsider value of the old newspapers when their volume kept growing. At the end, I decided to sell my archives of The Kathmandu Post and The Himalayan Times. I sold all the copies of The Hindu and The Statesman except their Sunday supplements. But after a few years, there was no room for those supplements as well. But I didn't sell them. How could I sell them? These were my textbooks. My room was my real school.
Then I had to leave. After I left home, there was no one who loved them as much as I did. When I was a kid, I used to prefer comic books to my textbooks. I spent all my money on them. Mother was worried about my studies, but I couldn't change my ways. Finally one day, father decided to tear all my comic books, dozens of them, and threw them outside. That was the first lesson of my life.
For my family, like for everyone else, old newspapers didn't deserve a place in their rooms after a certain time. After I came here, they first moved my treasure collection to a room on the ground floor which nobody used. Images of my newspapers in that cold, dark room started to haunt me for a few months. Then it stopped. I had to grow up, I had to live with this. Then, I realized I wasn't going to read those old papers again. Why should I keep them? But a part of me kept on saying: Will you also leave your beloved when they become old and 'useless'?
Today I had to sell old books and newspapers again. The two men who had come to my flat to buy those printed words got 12 kgs of them. Last month, I had to shift to a new flat and sold well over 15 kgs. I asked them whether they have children. They said yes.
'Don't they go to school?'
'They do.'
I found an old dictionary among the books I was going to sell. I had a newer edition of the Oxford dictionary but I didn't want to sell the old one just for 6 rupees a kg. So I decided to keep it.
I also had to sell pages that I had cut from those papers because there was no point. I cannot take them along. I sold them as well. They were stuffing those papers into a jute sack, when I did a funny thing that prompted me to write this post.
I took out the dictionary and told them: 'I will give you this dictionary if you promise me you won't sell it.'
They looked surprised, they didn't know how to respond.
'I am giving it for your kids. In which grade do they study?'
There was a pause. A long one.
'My son is in the eighth grade,' one of them said, taking the book from me.
'Give it to him then, and tell him to study. But don't sell it. If he's a dictionary already, please ask him to give it to one of his friends who doesn't have one. But don't sell it. OK?'
He nodded silently, and then they left.
March 6, 2009
meroRepublica.com moderation
Are they outsourcing it???
I had really expected change but my dear First President of Nepal is busy changing his topis, pen and shoes....
I see he's very estylish- look at his junga... that's why he had dreams of turning nepal into a Switzerland... since now he has finally understood it's too difficult to do, he is going to stick to the easier plan: like going to Switzerland of course and who doesn't want an account in Swiss bank, hello?
My secret jasooos told me: "In the Maoist party, I bet anyone except Puspa Kamal Dahal knows how deep the party’s pocket is. The party even does not have an official treasurer. All these only encourage corruption, and feed resentment and frustration in the party rank and file."
So you see, I think we should raid his junga first... ke bharosa comrade ko, haathi nai haathi fela parney ho ki, ki kaso sathi haru?
Read: Give me hope
It's funny these people approved my first comment, then deleted it and haven't even let me read my second comment!
I have zero-tolerance policy towards spams and nonsense in disguise of comments, I presume meroRepublica.com guys have the same policy that's why they removed my comments. But who cares? Merey paas blog hain, tumhara paas kya hai?
I didn't save the second comment, I wish they could post a comment on this comment on my blog. Anybody listening?
March 5, 2009
They & I
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Pavitra Papi
Tere duniya se ho ke majboor mein chala
Ish kadar door ke phir
laut ke bhi aa na saku
aisi manzil pe ki jahan
khud ko bhi mein pa na saku
aur majboori hai kya
aur majboori hai kya
itna bhi batla na sakoo
I cannot even laugh, too many coincidences: Pavitra papi. I've always thought I was lucky. For everything, everyone that happened to me. There was just one thing missing in my life and thanks to fate, now I have that as well. I hate how shamelessly Anurag Kashyap keeps on PROMOTING his film saying we, Indians, are so fond of self-pity. I am not fond of it, once I wanted to be (even was). But that's the reason, I stopped writing poetry. It was so intense and painful. I just wanted to come out of that phase when I couldn't overcome grief. But now I've to write everything. I'm going back to my black and white reality. This time, however, I want to color it.
Gulaal's Duniya is my new anthem.
Just like that:
In search of real me
'In Anurag's confusion lies his clarity'
The Making of Dev D.
March 4, 2009
Readers Write
In response to a reader’s genius
We’ve three types of readers:
a.) A majority of people choose to read Kathmandu Speaks quietly, then close it, go back to work or sleep. Of course, they return.
b.) Then, there are a few regulars who post comments.
The comments are of three types again:c.) Then, there is a growing number of people, who for private reasons, choose to communicate personally. And emails are always welcome although I stick to one-liners in these mails.
i.) Honest feedback on the given post
ii.) “Eureka! I found your blog just today!” comment
iii.) Announcements/Spams (Some use this as a platform to promote themselves! For example, I.)
Yesterday, one of those readers, who prefer privacy, wrote :
It’s quite nice that you are a thinking person.. tara bhai ghari ghari blog ma affaile aafnai kura gareko katti pa swauchha ra?(How appropriate is it to talk about oneself now and then?).. I know this is a personal blog .. but we would like to read more of what you think of certain things than what you think of yourself.. i am not talking solely in response to your recent post, but from an overall perspective ...there is no need to constantly remind the readers that you have a ******* (or whatever) thought process... honest feedback as your regular reader .. mind na garnu hola hai..Well, this was the second time I was asked to write on certain things.
PS: ignore this mail if you are not interested in feedback
I wish she was my editor and I was into active journalism. Today, I’m trying to write to a select readership. I’m trying to break in somewhere. I’m trying to discover my strengths and weaknesses. When I started active blogging as a young activist three years ago, Kathmandu Speaks was for 100% freedom, 100% democracy. But then, as it happens with everyone: I grew up. I am not doing that any more, or am I?
Today, I don’t talk about so many things that I used to in the same vein. But I will write more about me if that is how I see I can send a message out there. At times, I find Kathmandu Speaks useless because I cannot even frankly express myself here anymore. I wish it was a little more personal! This confusion will annoy some of you, and I know some of you are kind enough to ignore it.
But let's face it: I’m not going to be a good boy, attend a college, take a job and live happily ever after. Like it or not, I’ll stick to being me. Have patience, I don’t think I know what Kathmandu Speaks really is/will be. Wish me good luck.
One thing is sure: I'm not going to do a regular job.
March 3, 2009
Killing Cucumber
Memento:
Trust me, the first 10 pages of Memento is just so brilliant!
Blame my books:
The Age of Reason forced me think if the books that I read are to blame for my f****** thought-process? Excerpt:
‘What’s the matter with his hands? I like them’The existentialist philosophy is old and unexciting and, yeah, 'misguiding' too. And worse, it fills you with self-pity; forces you to think about 'real' freedom? I don't want to know what's freedom right now. I used to when I was, say, 16. I (don't) know what I've started, but I should change my books, eh? I read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar earlier this week, but my "You too, Brutus?" moment isn't over yet. Too many enemies for a lovely woman? Hanif Kureishi. I liked whatever I read. Well, I’m quitting to write, yeah, at least I intend to. Soon. Then there was this Art of War — planning for next battle? And I am also bookmarking Ulysses:
‘They‘re workmen’s hands. They’re always quivering a little, as though he’d just finished some heavy job of work.’
‘Well, why not?'
‘Yes, but the point is he’s not a workman. When I see his great paw gripping a glass of whisky, he looks like a man who means to enjoy life, and I don’t think the worse of him for that: but take care not to watch him drinking, with that odd mouth of his — why, it’s a parson’s mouth. I can’t explain it, I get the feeling he’s austere, and then if you look at his eyes, you can see he knows too much, he’s the sort of fellow who can’t enjoy anything in a simple way, neither eating, nor drinking, nor sleeping with women: he has to think about everything, it’s like that voice of his, the cutting voice of a gentleman who is never wrong — I know it goes with the job of having to explain things to small boys. I had a teacher who talked like him, but I’m not at school any more, and I find it tiresome: I can understand a man being completely one thing or the other, a genial brute, or the intellectual type, a schoolmaster or a parson, but not both at the same time. I don’t know if there are women who like that sort of thing — I suppose there are, but I tell you frankly, I couldn’t bear a fellow like that to touch me, I shouldn’t like to feel those ruffian hands on me while he soused me with his icy look.’
You behold in me, Stephen said with grim displeasure, a horrible example of free thought.
Killing Cucumber
You'll never see cucumbers as deadly as I saw last night, really. My finest Lynchian moments! [Will shoot a short someday.]
I am also writing on The Auteurs these days.
Downloads
I've uploaded Picasso and Van Gogh, download links:
Picasso
Van Gogh
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