Why God? Why?

When you are having one of the worst days of your life (which you caused!) then most people wouldn't want to see something as sad as a documentary on Brothels of Kolkatta and the kids of the prostitutes.

It did change my day. Not because seeing people live in misery made me feel as if I should not crib about my problems. But because it proves that happiness can and does grow in the cracks of society.

A bit about the documentary here:
The title (if anyone is interested): Born Into The Brothels: Calcuttas Red Light Kids
Year: 2004 (year of filming 1998)
Won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
More info here!

Everyone should watch this. Its about this woman (quite young) who is a photographer by profession (not a social worker OR a teacher). She goes and lives in the red light district of Sonagachi in Calcutta for more than 2 years.
There she befriends the children of the prostitutes and in the process teaches them photography. She also gives them simple film based cameras to take pictures of their life and surroundings.
All the kids take so many pictures. And each picture screams out the same story.
The story of a fate pre-decided. The girls of prostitutes will enter the same 'line of work' because their relative or parents will sell them off. The boys will marry someone within the area and probably become their pimps.

But I am most impressed with the children. You wont find a more genuine bunch of kids anywhere else in the world. Kids who are practical about their fate. They know they will never get out of the hell that is their life. Yet they take to photography with as much enthusiasm as any bunch of kids. They are excited and have a sparkle in their eyes even as they wash dirty dishes with filthy water.

Oh the lady tries to get them out of the brothel all right... and get them into a boarding school. But no school will take them without an HIV test certificate. Imagine treating kids for HIV? It makes my head spin.
The good news is that they are all negative.
I smile!
They show a baby kitten playing.
I smile again.

For anyone who thinks they are having the most fucked up day of their life. Remember there is always hope and that if happiness can grow in the cracks of society it can surely grow in your cracked (or broken!) heart.

More about it:
The lady takes the photographs to New York (she is American). There she organizes an auction at Sothebys and an exhibition (where well fed and fit looking people come to peer at the misery of the kids).
All the money she collects goes right back to the kids. She also convinces some big shot photographer guy to come and work with the kids. The kids get their 10 minutes of fame.
There is this one kid who has talent. Maybe he will get a chance to get himself out of the red light area. But the problem is his mom's pimp burns her to death.
That forces him to say "there is nothing called 'hope' in my future". But there is hope. He goes to Amsterdam for a photo exhibition.

The end is sad. Out of the eight kids the lady gets admitted into schools only three stick on. In the five cases their parents pull them out of school probably to work in the same trade.
Misery multiplies.

Fight the good fight!

My life has never been simple. New challenges and opportunities all the time.
I have seen many things, done many things and had many things done to me.

Through it all I have sufferred a lot. But then I realised that there was a very easy way to defeat it all.
Just remove the emotions. Once you remove the emotions you remove the sufferring.
One needs to switch off the emotions in certain situations.
Switching off the emotions is not easy isn't it?
There is one way to do it.
Be patient. Be cool. Things are dynamic. They change. Wait for the right moment to bounce back.
Remove the frustration and remove the emotions.
:D

ACDM 2006

Yesterday I was under a lot of pressure.
Having slept only 1 hr the previous night I had to present a paper at my supervisors conference.
That too in the afternoon.
I managed to deliver a decent enough presentation and the general opinion was that it was good.
Thank the lords.

The Wheel goes backwards too!

Progress is often represented by a wheel. The wheel of course stands for movement.
The problem is that the movement can be in any direction.. even backwards.

India (with the Asoka chakra in the national flag) seems to have gone back in time when it comes to progress in thinking.
In the past we had great poets, thinkers, writers and dancers. Now we are reduced to copying things from the west. Regional language is almost dead with the upper segment of society (ones with the money!) prefering English language books (often unable to read any of the literary masterpieces written by the likes of Munshi Premchand).

In the past a semi nude girl was considered to be artistic. Something representing the ability of God to create beauty. Something to be celebrated. Then the wheel spun backwards and nudity became a taboo. Now it is being re-introduced but only to get the audiences. Showing the human body in all its glory has been reduced from an art form to softcore porn.

These days you can't even celebrate Valentines day or kiss openly in public without landing in deep shit. All this in the land of the Kamasutra.

Then people say all these acts are 'obscene' and not in our 'culture'. Those closed minded idiots don't know their culture since they never had the guts (or maybe were never allowed to) explore beyond what was told to them.

I just wonder how we managed to evolve into such an orthodox society after having such liberal and free thinking fore-fathers. What made us look inwards rather than reach out and grab our rightful place in the world stage.