The only constant

Change.....one word which immediately steers a variety of emotions in one's mind....excitement,apprehension,fear,restlessness....& so much more!
But,then its also probably the most universal phenomenon in our life.Change means moving on & 'Lack of change' implies stagnation,something highly undesirable.
People seeking variety in life as much as possible, are actually obsessed with density...ie "How much one can squash in into a life-span of 60-80 years"....in terms of experiences,learnings & takeaways.But,where do we take it to?....is there anything at all called 'After-life'?...It's doubtful....so all we are aware of is 'This Life'. Hence,reaffirming the thought "One lifetime,One chance"....Whatever one has to do...this is the time...drink upto the brim.
However,variety & seeking new experiences is as enticing as much it is challenging.It brings with it the baggage of fear of the unknown,& threats to the existing comfort levels,if any.Human beings are generally bound by status-quo,all we look for in life by default,is happiness & once we get hold of it in some form,its difficult to let go.But,then 'life is not a voyage just about sticking to one particular shore,not because we have live & loved enough there,but maybe for the sail flows better in another direction'.If this had not been true, then people with cushy jobs would not have taken the plunge to become entrepreneurs or writers or hitchhikers.The transition phase is tough actually,you lose your safety-valve,your schedule goes haywire & you get into a life of uncertainty.One struggles in such a phase,but comes out stronger.
To get something,one has to lose something & that's why it is said,"Today's pain is tomorrow's gain".

Variety was his spice

If there was any Indian film-maker who never repeated himself,someone who’s awe-inspriringly wide body of work can only be compared with someone like Satyajit Ray, someone whose repertoire spans 5 decades & 40-odd films to his credit ,he is none other than Tapan Sinha, the grand old man of Indian Cinema.
Though it remains a catastrophe, that very few people actually know properly about this master of movie-making as is evident from the lukewarm celebrations today, ie his birthday. However, this lack of awareness can be attributed to his long ouvre of work itself & the lack of branding of the same done by the connoisseurs of cinema that leaveas an audience confused whether films like Kabuliwala, khaniker Atithi, Jhinder bandi, Nirjan Saikate, jatugriha, Galpo Holeo Satyi,Apanjan,Sagina mahato,harmonium,Safed haathi,Bancharamer bagan ,Atanaka, Ek Doctor Ki maut,Antardhan,Wheelchair,Ajob gayer ajob kotha all belong to the same director. Writer Nabanita Deb Sen has rightly said,”Perhaps we like watching his films, but somehow forget the man behind them”.
But it’s not just the audience, but the critics have also perhaps failed to categorize him as a film-maker sometimes he’s included in the same bracket with Satyajit Ray,Mrinal Sen,Ritwik Ghatak ,some other times with his more commercial copunter-parts like Tarun Majumder,Ajoy Kar,Asit Sen while some other times in neither of the two. The reason behind this probably is that Tapan Sinha is the real father of “Middle Cinema”, films which are thought-provoking & entertaining at the same time ,a genre which unfortunately is credited to someone like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who has actually been a plagiarist of Sinha’s films at times, yet managed to win the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 10 years before Sinha.
Tapan Sinha was not just a man, an institution. Not just a film-maker, he was a music-director, lyricist, script-writer & story-writer as well. But, it’s really disheartening to see why even after his demise he has not got his deserved respect & recognition.

Good Things come in Small Packages

Every management-student does an internship-programme as a part of his/her cirriculum...I was lucky enough to do two of them...that too in diametrically opposite companies & sectors.
My first internship was with a manufacturing-biggie & the second one was with a midcap IT-firm with 200-odd employees.While the former had hardly anything to offer apart from the big brand on my certificate....the latter,despite being a much samller organization offered me such hands-on experience which I had'nt received even in formal 20 months of work-experience before in an IT-giant.
This differential experience brings me to a fundamental question:
"Which is better...a big brand with its name & fame or a small firm with the much-needed personal touch?"
Must say.....both have their merits & demerits.
As young people,as freshers....we tend to suffer from a certain amount of brand-consciousness which in turn,makes us myopic.I remember,one of my ex-colleagues who himself hailed from a small company told me"what one learns in 5 years in a large company is equivalent to what the same person learns in 1 yera in a smaller company...because there one has to do everything starting from designing to developing to testing to business analysis".My experience of working in a small company as an intern was also similar as I found out HR's taking up a more generalist role & handling a large gaut of functions including recruitment,PMS,employee-engagement & so on.probably,tha's why a small company is always such a good traiing-ground for any junior-professional at the beginning of his/her career.But,then it ultimately bolis down to getting p;aid for your work...somewhere bigger companies win hands down with their transparency & reliability.Nevertheless,it's all really dependent on where one lands up initially & how one makes the most of it.

Completing the ray-repertoire

As any other intellectually inclined bengali film-buff,needless to say that I have grown up on a staple diet of movies by Satyajit Ray & Tapan Sinha,the two directors of bengal with the widest bodies of work.While,many of Tapan Sinha's films have got destoyed in a fire,Satyajit ray being a more well-konwn figure in World-Cinema has achieved the posthumus privilege of his works to be well looked after.Hence,its not really difficult to get hold of his films & finish watching all of them...a feat which I achieved a week ago with "Pratidwandi"(The Adversary)-the only Ray-film that I had not seen earlier.
"Pratidwandi" is the first film of Ray's 'Calcutta Trilogy' & was followed by 'Simabaddha' & 'Jana Aranya'. What started in the first film was prevalent throughout the trilogy,was Ray's harsh & critical outlook on thr troubled 'Calcutta' of the 70's.
The youth was utterly confused & frustrated.While,on one hand some of the brightest minds were giving in to the naxal-movement,industrialization was starting in the city...however,unemployment & corruption were rampant,adding to the agony & struggle of the middle-class.In 'Pratidwandi',the protagonist Siddhartha is shown as a vascilllating character who can neither be gutsy enough like his revolutionary brother,nor relate to her ambitious,compromising sister & ends up being a failure.His girlfriend Keya seems to be the only silver lining in his otherwise bleak existence.
Style-wise,'Pratidwandi' was probably ray's most unique & experimental film as he used some innovative techniques like 'X-ray digressions' & metaphors from the protagonist's reminiscence of his medical classes.'Pratidwandi',as a film,might not be compared to 'Apu trilogy' or 'Charulata',but is indeed one of Ray's most challenging & progressive films.

Criticism:How it helps?

When you meet someone...say at a party...& if the person says 10 good things about you along with one terribly bad thing....you are instinctively bound to remember the bad thing most of all!It's inherent human nature to take brickbats more seriously than backpats,specially if one is of the sensitive type.
This, I guess can be attributed to the fact that we are more conscious about where we go wrong than what we get right because the former is the case whereign ammendments are required unlike the latter where we've already set a standard.
Let's face the fact.Mistakes are inevitable!They are bound to happen.Hence,what becomes critical is the ability to own up to the mistakes & learn from them.
Now,mistakes only become visible when we receive flak for that.In fact,that is what really makes us pull up our socks & try harder with more vigour the next time.
It's criticism which actually with all it's apparently negative vibes,induces in us the urge to prove the critics wrong...which makes us introspect to find out our flaws....& which eventually steers & pushes us to work out of our wits to overcome our weaknesses.

...but,what about placements?

Some time back,in our cororate management class,our faculty asked the class
"Why are we in business?"
...the bulk of the answers came in the form of "to earn money"
Also,I remember,in one youth-empowerment seminar that I attended,the lady conducting the session asked the bunch of young attendees,"Why should you study?"
The lion's share of the answers comprised of "to get a job"
Even as we see today's youngsters planning to ride high on Engineering coupled with management,one can't but notice a dilution of focus for the lure of higher perks & better lifestyle...or maybe it's a shift in the focus altogether.
Regardless of how much the career-counsellors write about alternative-career options in the education-supplements of leading daily's,for middle-class youth,it's still restricted to Engineering & Management,barring niche professions like Medical,Law,media & Architecture.The killer-combo of BTECH+MBA has indeed become the
go-of-the-day for the future of the country.
This phenomenon can be largely attributed to the growth of the IT-industry in India,which generated abundant jobs with decent pay & Engineering became the buzz word as it started to grow literally in every alternate Indian Family.But...cut-to-2008...recession hits the world & suddenly IT is an uncertain domain to pursue for some.However,more importantly,what it has done actually is bringing down the recruitment which can't really provide for the increased number of Engineering Colleges & Business schools coming up every year.
Hence,the invariable question arises,"What about placements?"
...the answer does'nt seem that obvious,but certainly few key-areas can be identified that can be looked into for betterment of the scenario.
Firstly,the success in a career depends both on the want of an individual to pursue that career & also the need of that profession to cater to that individual.
Also,I feel,time has come when,if interested an individual should be gutsy enough to pursue an alternative profession,...maybe a journalist won't be earning as much as an Investment banker initially...in course of time,things do get balanced out.
Lastly,being an Hr-student ,what I've noticed is a ceratin kind of sckeptic ism among the industry-practicians themselves with respect to thei fields & alma-mater...specially in communication-related fields like media & management.It's true that 'Communication'as a career-domain has been glamourised a lot....nonone hardly looks into the guelling hard-work that goes behind the apparent coolness.
So.it's evident that it's also the indifference of outsiders that a communcation-professional has to live with.Add to that,scarcity of job-openings which can be a 'nightmare' for colleges & their students alike.But...probably,it's the passion for a career that will enable aspirants cross all impediments...when a career-choice is born more out of spontaneity than calculations.

Beyond Bollywood

Long back...I still remember,in the good-old-day's of orkut(when 'facebook' had not yet invaded the social-networking scene),I used to be a member of a community called "Inidan Films outside Bollywood".It was supposed to be a forum for film-buff's to discuss Indian films(including hindi)which were possibly outside purview of the run-of-the-mill commercial potboilers,churned out of Bombay's popular film-industry...which collectively led to the coinage of the term "Bollywood".Along with the reminiscence of being a part of that community & also recently coming across an article on "10 years of 'Dil Chahta Hai'" has steered me to take retrospective look at the evolution of Bollywood over the last 10 years.
Probably,"Lagaan" & "Dil Chahta Hai" were the two films which,though very different from each other,for the first time showed that Bollywood could be different...'in the true sense of the term'....& sesnible cinema could be crowd-pullers too.It was also the same time when cross-over films started being made in a ‘Hinglish’ lingo which made good use of character-actors of Bollywood & greatly got fit in to the growing multiplex-culture in India,eg.Monsoon Wedding,Leela,Jogger’s park,Bollywood/Hollywood,Bend it like Backham,Morning Raga & MR&Mrs Iyer.But this actually led to a small-film movement in hindi as well which produced promising directors like Vishal Bharadwaj(Makdee,Maqbool,Omkara,Blue Umbrella,& khoon Maaf),Madhur Bhandarkar(Chandni Bar,Satta,Page 3,Corporate,Fashion) ,Anurag Basu(Gangster,Life..in a metro,Kites), onir(My Brother Nikhil,Sorry Bhai.I Am) & Anurag Kashyap(DEV D,Black Friday,Gulaal).”Bheja Fry”.a film made on a shoe-string budget of 60 lacs with limited locations & no stars had garnered as much as 6 crores.While veterans like Shyam Benegal,Sudhir Mishra & Prakash Jha have also made good use of the multiplex-audience,& commercial directors like Sanjay Bhanshali & Karan Johar have made alternative films like “Black” & “My Name is Khan”…the difference between so-called parallel & mainstream cinema has definitely diminished greatly in Hinda cinema.

Some Iranian Films I Have Seen

Of late,some Indian films are found to be moving into trouble due to censorship issues.Reportedly,films like “Chatrak”,”Teen Yaari Kotha” & “Gandu” are likely to be facing problems to get released in India because of explicit content.All these hue & cry about artists’ freedom being violated vs conforming to local cultural ideology makes me think….is censorship really an obstacle to make independent cinema.Certainly,the brightest exception of our times is Iranian Cinema.In a severely orthodox country like Iran,film-makers like Majid Majidi,Abbas Kiarostami& Jafar Panahi have churned out truly modern films about their life & times.Out of their movies which I’ve seen I’ve taken immense pleasure in watching the child-centric movies in particular,’The White Balloon’,’The Mirror’ by Panahi and ‘Children of Heaven’ by Majidi.The sheer innocence depicted in these simple,heart-warming tales speak of cinema which is poetic,but not pretentious.Kiarostami’s ‘Taste of Cherry’ is an unique story of a suicidal man’s dilemma as he encounters several people in course of a journey who emphasize on him the importance of life.The jerky camera-movement swinging between long-shots & close-ups serve as a superb metaphor for the protagonist’s oscillating mind.Majid Majidi’s “Song of Sparrows” tells the story of how the character of Karim,a villager changes drastically after moving to the city in search of work.As Majidi’s camera sweeps through the bustling city of Tehran,we see the narrative unfold through several nuances of the protagonist’s metamorphosis in character through various dramatic events.The shots of Karim,dressed as an ostrich standing on a hill-top,looking for his pets or the shot of gold-fish’es from top-angle create memorable moments in the film.
Lastly,I’ll come back to Panahi to mention his comedy “Offside” ,shot almost entirely around ‘Azadi Stadium’, about 5 Iranian girls who disguise themselves as men in order to gain entry into a soccer match,as Iranian women are otherwise prohibited to enter soccer stadiums.However,Panahi’s strongest attack on Iranian society’s repression on women came in the form of “Circle”,which many believe to be his best film.The film begins with the turmoil in a family due to the birth of a daughter and ends with the imprisonment of the mother for the same,while describing other stories of female-opression in Iran.The cyclic stairs of the hospital complement the circular structure of the film,symolising the vicious cycle of existence of Iranian Women.
Incidentally,this film is responsible for Panahi himself landing up in jail which goes to show it’s not just the censor-board,but the social-censorship which needs to be eradicated for films to become a truly ‘social medium’.