"INKHEART - GATEWAY OF FANTASY"

As the saying goes, there is a method in the madness. So also there is a fantasy in reality. May be there is a reality in the fantasy too. Perhaps fantasy and reality are two sides of the same coin. Comelia Maria Funke (Baron in 1958) writes children’s fiction (read fantasy). Children like fantasy and that is what they get in abundance in Maria Funke’s novel ‘Ink heart’. What with people getting into the book and characters coming out of the book! ‘Ink heart’ supplies fantasies aplenty. And the writer’s fantasy works on adults too.

Read on…..

As the curtain goes up (as the novel begins) Meggie, who is twelve years old overhears her father Mo (Mortimer) and a stranger Destinger, a character who has come out of the book Inkheart talk about unfamiliar people and places such as Capricorn- the villain who too had come out of the book Inkheart. Mo is a bookbinder and Destinger, an entertainer and a fire eater. A twig (pet) always sits on his shoulder. Capricorn is desperate to get the original book Inkheart.

Mo finds out that he possesses a special gift that he could bring things and characters out of the books by reading Inkheart loudly. Mo for this special gift is called ‘silver tongue’. Capricorn takes Mo, his daughter, Destinger and book’s original author Fengolio as prisoners to his evil palace. Meanwhile Meggie finds out that she too possesses the same gift as her father. Capricorn forces Meggie to read the chapter in the book Inkheart to bring out ‘shadow’, another villain to serve Capricorn.

Meggie who was forced to read the particular chapter in the book, secretly plans with the author Fengolio to change the script of that chapter. Shadow who comes out of the book turns against its master Capricorn and kills him. The book Inkheart has been made a successful film of the same name.

National Education Association named the book Inkheart as one of the teachers’ top hundred books for the children.

Dial ‘H’for Hitchcock

While reviewing the film”Psycho” American media warned its leaders  “if you are a faint hearted person do not watch this movie”.  For this Hitchcock remarked that there is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.  He further said “I always make the audience suffer as much as possible” and also said film your murders like love scenes and film your love scenes like murders.  I am a typed director and if I made Cinderella the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the couch.  Such of the reputation of Alfred Hitchcock, the director.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was an English man.  His first film “The lodger” made in 1927 was a runaway success.  He never looked back after that.  In 1940 he migrated to Hollywood and Hitchcock era started. 

Hitchcock produced and directed the film “Psycho” in 1960.  Psycho was an American psychological horror film.  Marian Crane the secretary in a firm steals 40000$ and escaped in her car.  She took up a lodge in a motel.  The film centres around on the encounter between the secretary Marian Crane and the mentally disturbed Norman Bates, owner of the motel.  As she prepares to take the shower, a shadowy female figure suddenly appears and stabs her to death with a knife.  Norman Bates discovers the murder and cleans up the crime scene and put the body and the money in the trunk of her car and sinks the car in the swamps near the motel. 

An investigator Abrogast meets Laila, the sister of Mariana and informs her about the theft of the money.  The investigator eventually comes to the motel and Norman’s behavior arouses his suspicion.  The investigator informs Laila about what he has discovered.  A female shadowy figures suddenly appears and murders him.  When Laila did not hear anything after that she and Sam, her fiancé comes to the Motel.  Then Norman takes his unwilling aged mother and hides her in the fruits cellar. 

While Sam was talking to Norman Laila goes around the house and when looking in the fruit cellar she finds Norman’s mother and discovers that she is a mummified corpse.  She screams.  Norman immediately comes to the scene with a knife in his hand and in his mother’s clothes and wig and tries to kill Laila but at that time Sam stops him.

At the court house a psychiatrist explains that Norman had murdered his mother and her lover 10 years ago out of jealousy because he wanted mother’s affection all for himself and began to treat his mother’s corpse as if she were alive.  He recreates his mother in his own mind as an alternate personality often talking to himself in her voice.  The psychiatrist informs the court that his “Mother” personality has taken permanent hold of him. 

Hitchcock alone could create such a gruesome murder scenes and make the audience feel as if they were witnessing real murder and tries hard to stop the strong urge to scream.  If one wants this extraordinary experience one must watch “Psycho” i.e., if one is not a faint hearted person.

21st June- International Yoga Day

‘Go to east in search of knowledge’, says an English adage. India has a rich ancient culture. Yoga Shastra is one of the most important texts in the Hindu ancient culture. A notable Samkhya philosophy scholar Patanjali, who is said to have lived between 2^nd and 4^th BC has written bashya on yoga theory and practice. In Sanskrit language, yoga means ‘to unite’. India introduced yoga to the western part of the world. In the west yoga is referred to physical exercise, but yoga is more than that and is a group of physical, spiritual and mental practices.

Last year, yoga was listed as one of UNESCO’s cultural heritage program. United Nations has declared 21^st June as the International Yoga Day. Ahead of the UN’s declaration, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), one of the best universities in India, which was always in news for wrong reasons, for the first time is in the news for the right reason. JNU has approved a short course in yoga in its curricular activities. The above developments show that yoga is a part of India’s ancient culture. In the tension filled modern life, yoga is attracting people from all communities for relief from tension. Yoga gives us ways to develop harmony and balance and achieve good health in life. Yoga is a science and not a religion. Yoga is not just physical fitness program but also an emotional well-being too.

Once considered as an exercise for the elderly people and basically restricted to breathing techniques, has now become wholesome. Yoga is practised to obtain a release from the web of pleasure and pain. Everyone from house wives to highly technical persons, are thinking of yoga. Many gyms are nowadays offering yoga classes along with weight balancing training to attract a wider clientele.

The practitioner of yoga, yoga Sadhaka bridges the gap between the body, mind and self. Yoga stills the mind. If the world takes up yoga practice, it will usher in a dawn of ‘New Civilization’.

TORIES' STORY

Britain went to polls last week. Conservatives were the favourites to win the elections. Prime Minister Theresa May’s gamble didn’t work out. Hence Tories formed a minority government under May’s leadership. Here lies the interesting story of Tories’ story.

Read on…

Democracy, as man has understood, is a better type of governance, even with the deficiencies it carries than any other type of governance. Great Britain is the birth place of democracy. Britain has suffered the most due to wars than any other country in the world. In the late eighteenth century, intellectual revolution took place in Britain. English man emerged as the best man in the world. The great bard, Charles Dickens, Canon Doyle (can we forget Sherlock Holmes) and Agatha Christie among many other writers made it possible for Britain to undergo intellectual revolution.

The British political philosophy is typical. Englishman (like an Indian) is a traditionalist person and upholds the social order as it evolved throughout the history. Instinctively he is opposed to liberalism. They combine democracy with monarchy. Perhaps this is why Tories emerged as the strong political force in Britain. Conservatives are also called Tories. It is in the seventeenth century the term ‘Tories’ emerged. Charles II was the king between 1679 and 1681. In this period two political factions emerged in the parliament.  Charles II’s brother  was a Roman catholic. One group opposed his succession and the other group supported him. Those who supported him were the Tories. Officially, conservatives were known as Tories.

Former British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel brought changes in the party and created modern conservative party. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli said ‘I am a conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution (it is an unwritten constitution, the only of its kind in the world), a radical to remove all that is bad’.

At present the whole world is looking at Great Britain whether May’s minority government would succeed.

‘It May’.

PIONEER KAPOOR

Even if Shakespearean literature (symbolically said) is taken away from the world life continues to exist. Life is independent and doesn’t depend on anything (including art) for its existence. This is the beauty of life. Life has special relationship with art and art makes life richer and meaningful. Art can be in any form literature, music, painting and theatre. When the word theatre is uttered the name that comes to our mind is Prithviraj Kapoor.

Prithviraj Kapoor was a pioneer in the theatre world and the film industry. In the silent era of the films, he started his career and in 1944, he founded travelling theatre and named it as ‘Prithvi Theatre’. He was born on 3^rd November 1906 and died on 29^th May (last month) 1972. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1969 and Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1971 for his contributions in Indian cinema. He played a supporting role in the first talkie film ‘Alam Ara’ in 1931.

Kapoor played the role of Alexander the Great in the film ‘Sikander’. His performance was much appreciated. Kapoor remained a theatre man and regularly played onstage. He was a fine and a versatile actor. Kapoor staged memorable plays in his Prithvi Theatre which was highly influential and inspiring for young people to participate in the independence movement and the Quit India movement. His memorable performance was in ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ as Akbar the emperor. Kapoor also acted in the Kannada movie ’Saakshatkara’ in 1971 and played the role of the father of Kannada matinee idol Dr Rajkumar.

Many of the Prithvi Theatre actors and technicians found their way in films. Raj Kapoor, his eldest son started his own production unit and the real father Prithvi Kapoor played the reel father of raj Kapoor in ‘Awara’ in 1951. His other sons Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor became popular actors in Hindi films in their own right. Prithviraj Kapoor also had a daughter, Urmila. (Two of his sons died at a young age).

In 1996, the golden jubilee year of founding Prithvi Theatre India post issued a special two rupee commemorative stamp.

He is still remembered for his role in Mughal-E-Azam as Emperor Akbar. Indeed, he was, in reel and also real life lived like…….

An ‘Emperor’

Jai Ho India!

Move over reel Bahubali, the real life Bahubali has arrived. ISRO has made India proud again by putting the heaviest rocket into the space. Now India is in the heavy weight club.  The most powerful rocket GSLV mark III was launched on Monday (yesterday) i.e. the fifth of June. The media has nicknamed this heavy payload rocket as ‘Fat Boy’. This heavy rocket was fired by a high thrust indigenous cryogenic engine, lifted off at 5:28 pm, on 5^th June at Sri Harikota. The launch also proves the home ground launch vehicle’s capability of carrying four payloads into the higher orbits.

The US sanctions on India in 1992 prevented ISRO from getting cryogenic engine technologies from Russia. This took the space agencies over 20 years to develop indigenously the complex cryogenic technologies. Thanks to the US sanctions the development of the indigenous cryogenic engine has put India into an elite club of nations- the US, the European space agencies, Russia, China and Japan which have mastered this complex technology.

GSLV mark III has set the stage for ISRO’s future mission adventures which includes manned mission. The cost of the manned machines might be around four billion rupees. If this fund is granted, 2-3 member human crew can be sent to the space. So far the US, Russia and China have human flight programs.

India took a giant step in the highly competitive space market with this launch. The heaviest rocket weighs around 640 tons and placed successfully GSAT-19 communication satellites in the orbit. India demonstrated its capability to launch higher class communication satellites.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister laid the foundation for the scientific development in India. Despite sanctions or because of the sanctions India successfully developed indigenous technology which proudly demonstrates Prime Minister Modi’s vision…….

Make In India. 

Hillary Steps to Heaven

“Conquer the unconquerable”, is the spirit of man and the adventure is a part of human nature. The highest mountain in the world, the ‘Mount Everest’ was a challenge and several attempts were made to reach the peak of the Mount Everest unsuccessfully. Mountaineers simply disappeared in the clouds never to be seen again. Yet the undying spirit of man to conquer the Mount Everest continued until Edmund Hillary with Tensing succeeded in putting their feet on the highest peak in the world in 1953.

The name ‘Everest’ for the highest mountain in the world was named after Sir George Everest, the British Surveyor general of India. The height of the Mount Everest is 8,848 m approximately 29000 feet. Mount Everest attracts many climbers. British mountaineers were the first climbers. They made several attempts unsuccessfully. Finally it took Edmund Hillary to succeed to conquer Mount Everest in 1953.

The famous ‘Hillary steps’ is 12m high and nearly a vertical climb at the top before the peak. Due to the earthquake in 2015, these steps disappeared. The British mountaineer Tim Mosedale said on May 16, 2017 that she was sure that the steps were gone. The question is whether the steps made climb more dangerous? Or the climb became easier because it does not involve vertical rocks. But there may be limited paths and climbing might become dangerous. Hillary steps are associated with the history of Everest.

The Hindus believe that the Everest was actually ‘Kailasa’ the abode of Lord Shiva. It is an abstract idea. One cannot experience this idea with logic or intellect. Only faith takes us nearer to the idea.

Because of the suspicion that the British might cause political upheaval the British were not given permission to enter Nepal. Hence British were forced to take a detour via Terrai. The conditions in Terrai was very bad because of heavy rains. Despite innumerable hurdles which made the climb very difficult man finally succeeded conquering and enter the……

Peak of Heaven.