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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Why Turner Classic Movies is Reframing Problematic Hollywood Favorites

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Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a movie Alicia Malone fell head over heels in love with during childhood. Seeing it more times than she can remember in her native Australia, the future author and Turner Classic Movies host still recalls failed attempts to launch a high school film club with Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly as the star attraction.

“I thought for sure people were going to get excited about classic movies if they watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s because it has so much life to it!” Malone says today. How could they not fall for Hepburn’s iconic performance, which Malone still describes as luminous? “Holly Golightly is a complex female character, and for the times it was quite sexually progressive.” Yet there was always another element, even in those halcyon days, which Malone recognized as uncomfortable—that discomfort has only grown to modern eyes.

Beyond the movie’s bittersweet romance between a pseudo-call girl and the kept man living in the apartment upstairs, there’s a grossly racist caricature of Japanese Americans in the movie’s margins, and it’s portrayed no less than by Mickey Rooney in yellowface makeup. It’s technically a small part of the movie, only appearing briefly and sporadically, but each time the character arrives, it’s like a sledgehammer swung across the screen. For decades the performance has been rightly criticized by Asian American advocacy groups, and even Rooney acknowledged late in life that if he knew people would become offended, he “wouldn’t have done it.” Nevertheless, the shadow that character casts over the movie has only loomed larger with time.

“I just kind of hold my breath and half shut my eyes every time Mickey Rooney shows up,” fellow TCM host Dave Karger says during a Zoom conversation with Malone and myself. “Mercifully, he’s gone pretty soon, and I’ve chosen actively not to let that performance ruin the movie for me, because ‘Moon River’ and the party scene, and George Peppard looking so great—there’s just so much to love and appreciate, so I actively choose to focus on that.”

Despite those personal struggles with the movie, Karger and Malone are both unafraid to examine the full implications of Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi head-on. It’s why they hosted, alongside Ben Mankiewicz, a lengthy discussion of the character’s legacy last week during a special Turner Classic Movies presentation. That conversation was part of TCM’s Reframed series, a new season of content from the network which looks at some of the most beloved Hollywood classics of the 20th century—the crème de la crème, as Karger describes them—and studies why they can also be problematic and, in some cases, stunningly offensive. In the case of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, that can even lead to larger discussions about prevailing anti-Japanese attitudes and stereotypes in American society that persisted in the immediate decades after World War II… and can still be found as echoes in the anti-Asian stereotypes of today.

For Karger and Malone, these are the types of discussions TCM hosts have been having off-screen for years. So bringing those dimensions to the forefront for new generations of viewers felt only natural with Reframed.

Says Malone, “We often talk to each other about how we approach certain films when it comes to writing our scripts for our intros and outros for each individual film. We also talk with the producers about what we should bring up, what we shouldn’t bring up; if we should talk about an actor or director’s problematic past during that particular film, or if it doesn’t go with the content of the movie.”

So the five main hosts of TCM–who also include University of Chicago Professor Jacqueline Stewart and author Eddie Muller–were eager to have these frank discussions on screen while offering historical context from a modern perspective.

“All of us at TCM are watching the world change and watching the culture change,” Karger says, “and even though we show movies by and large from the period of the ‘30s to the ‘60s, we all realized that it doesn’t mean we can’t be part of today’s cultural conversation. It’s not a stretch at all to talk about classic movies from a point-of-view of the 21st century; that’s very possible to do, and I think a lot of our fans are looking for that kind of context when they watch the channel.”

The Reframed series, which was spearheaded in part by Charlie Tabesh, the TCM head of programming, and organized by producer Courtney O’Brien, looks to balance what Karger describes as the push and pull between nostalgia and criticism. Both Malone and Karger are acutely aware of the hesitance some classic movie fans might have about evaluating works from nearly a century ago through a 21st century prism, however the new program is intended to renew engagement with these movies—particularly in an era when there are just as many loud voices that attempt to dismiss or wipe away the legacies of these film’s from the cultural canon.

“That’s really important to remind everyone that this series is not here to shame these movies or to tell anyone that they can’t love these movies,” Karger says. “And if there’s a frustration that I’ve had in this last month, it’s to see some of the reaction to this series be along the lines of ‘you’re part of cancel culture with this series.’ It could not be more the opposite of that. We’re not cancelling anything; we’re showing the films a hundred percent in their entirety, we’re just talking about them.”

Malone further emphasizes this is what can keep so many of these movies vital in an era when sequences like the aforementioned Rooney scenes in Breakfast at Tiffany’s are being deleted from a Sacramento film festival—effectively erased from the collective memory.

“I think everyone at TCM sees this as the way forward,” Malone says, “the way that we can continue to make sure these movies stay alive for younger generations. We can continue talking about them, discussing them, they can change over the years, our feelings can change about them; you can love a film and not be able to justify parts of it at the same time. What’s so important though is just to have the discussion, to talk about these problematic areas and face up to them rather than hiding them. To me, if you take out a film from existence or you just delete parts of a film, you’re in a way saying these problems never existed.”

Indeed, even the opinions of folks as steeped in this history as the hosts of Turner Classic Movies can evolve as the culture does. Ben Mankiewicz, for example, is TCM’s unofficial statesman but he surprised some viewers two weeks ago when he revealed during a Reframed discussion that he can no longer comfortably watch Gunga Din (1939), a rollicking adventure movie set in British India. Based on a Rudyard Kipling poem, that classic film’s influences can still be felt in more modern blockbusters like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). However, Gunga Din is also a movie that glorifies the British Empire at the expense of then-contemporary Indian independence movement, with the villain being a character who Mankiewicz noted is physically modeled after Mahatma Gandhi, who would’ve been seen as subversive by some white audiences in the ‘30s.

“I’ve never been a huge fan of that movie, even though Cary Grant is my favorite actor,” Karger says. “And I was even a little surprised when Ben and Brad Bird included it on [the TCM program] The Essentials last year. Not because it’s not a revered classic movie, but because it’s more than a little offensive. And it was fascinating to be part of that conversation with Ben, talking about the evolution of his feelings for Gunga Din, because he’s been with the network 15 years. I can’t imagine how many times he’s talked about that movie, and it’s just showing you that culture and history are living, breathing things.”

Opinions change. Malone had a similar experience when she joined Mankiewicz and Muller to discuss John Ford’s seminal Western, The Searchers (1956), a movie where the director began reckoning with his depiction of Native Americans on screen. The film is a touchstone to this day for filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas. Mankiewicz and Muller note that Ford is grappling with the racism of his earlier films via John Wayne’s lead character, an unrepentant bigot who becomes both the movie’s protagonist and antagonist. However, the film still bathes Wayne’s character in heroic imagery, and still relies on Native American stereotypes.

“Watching The Searchers again with the lens of talking about it during Reframed, I just saw so much,” Malone says. “I know John Ford was trying to have a conversation about racism involving Native Americans, but there’s just no doubt that many of his films contributed to the very dangerous and horrific stereotypes based around Native American people. And I think Native American people have suffered greatly because of the way they’ve been stereotyped in Hollywood films.”

That subject of intent comes up quite a bit during the Reframed series; Karger describes the movies they discuss as running the gamut from mildly problematic to extremely offensive, yet that ambiguity should invite education about the times they were made in, as opposed to preventing audiences from knowing about those eras.

Says Malone, “I think [Reframed] does show an attempted evolution on the parts of the filmmakers, and that’s interesting. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and The Searchers, and My Fair Lady are trying to comment on a particular issue. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers comments on the sexism of the brothers in the film; My Fair Lady comments on the misogyny of Henry Higgins; and The Searchers comments on racism. But at the same time, they are also sexist, misogynistic, and racist.” She ultimately concludes movies can be both progressive and not progressive because of the times they’re made in.

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My Fair Lady (1964) will be the centerpiece of TCM’s final night of Reframed programming this Thursday. A lavish big screen adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway musical, which itself was an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play, Pygmalion, it deals with the story of cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) being remade into Professor Henry Higgins’ (Rex Harrison) ideal woman through diction lessons. And the fact the musical, written in the 1950s, changed the more transgressive ending of the original play where Eliza leaves Higgins behind, will invariably come up on Reframed.

“Some people would look at that and say, ‘My Fair Lady? What could be the problem with that? It’s a very strong female character who stands up for herself and has so much agency and power in the movie,’” Karger admits. “But then when you really look at specific scenes, particularly the end of the movie, which is what I think we talked about a lot, there are certain things that just kind of make the movie, for me at least, have the tiniest bit of a sour note.”

The question of whether My Fair Lady is a sexist movie or rather a movie about sexism became the heart of its Reframed discussion.

Adds Malone, “We also talk about the fact that that ending has been changed by some stage productions. That is happening now, and we also talk about the idea of the makeover movie. I think the Pygmalion myth is something that’s fairly sexist and outdated when you look at it, but there’s also so much to love about My Fair Lady.”

The opportunity of having these discussions has been a gift for Karger and Malone. They both stress they don’t have the answers to all the questions they raise, and that even with added time for the outros on Reframed, there is no way to cover everything that needs to be said about a film in a handful of minutes.

“I thought about multiple things I wish I said or I forgot to say, or just didn’t have time to say,” Malone says. However, she hopes the series gives viewers the tools to begin engaging more seriously with these films and embrace a greater curiosity about the past. On tonight’s line-up alone, Malone and Karger will both get to engage in discussions of films they lobbied to have included in the Reframed series.

“I had just a brief conversation with Charlie [Tabesh] about including something around the idea of gender identity, or the transgender community, because I wanted to delve into that,” Malone says. “And of course from there, it becomes what do we have the rights to? What’s in license, what can we show? So there are certain limitations on the types of films we can show in the series.” The film they ended up agreeing on is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

“I love the fact that it is one of the classic movies that everyone should watch, a horror classic,” Malone adds.

Karger by contrast will be discussing another Audrey Hepburn movie, this one dealing with Hollywood’s history of depicting LGBTQ characters on screen.

Says Karger, “I will never forget watching the documentary The Celluloid Closet in the mid-1990s when it was released, and that was one of the seminal moments for me, as far as looking at film critically. This was a history of LGBT characters in film history over the years, and one thing you learn when you watch a documentary like that, there was this trope in films where if there was a character who was gay, that character would not live to survive at the end of the movie. That character would either be murdered, have some kind of horrible accident, or end his or her own life.”

He continues, “So you think of The Children’s Hour in the early 1960s and at first you think, ‘Oh this is something to applaud. Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn playing two women who may or may not be lesbians. Wow! This is a great thing to bring attention to.’ And then you realize they couldn’t even use the word lesbian in the movie… then the character who ends up being gay also ends up being dead by the end of the movie, and I just think it’s this unfortunate trope that tells people, consciously or not, that you can’t be gay and you can’t be alive in society… It’s a shame, because it came so close to getting it right but you realize it didn’t have the opportunity to get it right in 1961. It couldn’t with all the restrictions in the film industry and society in general.”

It will be the last night that TCM dives so directly into the murkier waters of some of Hollywood’s legacy, although both hosts hope for a second season of Reframed. Karger, who admits he shouldn’t spend so much time on social media, has seen the predictable social media reactions of “you’re ruining these movies” by talking about these elements. But he’s also been heartened by responses from fans who wished TCM provided Reframed discussions on movies that aired later in the evening, like Stagecoach (1939) or Tarzan, The Ape Man (1932). Karger says if he has it his way, they’ll include all those movies in a second season of Reframed.

Meanwhile Malone would really like to continue a thread begun with the screening of the Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy classic, Woman of the Year (1942), from several weeks ago.

“I love having discussions for films where we talk about the representation of female characters,” Malone says. “That’s something I’ve done a lot of work on, so that’s something I’d like to continue—to talk about the way women have been portrayed in films throughout Hollywood history, and we could talk about that in terms of their beauty and how that was seen to be the most valuable quality a woman could have, or the way they could search for love. I love all the women’s pictures that forces the woman at the end to give up everything for love, but for most of the movie she is a fantastically independent woman.”

Other examples of this trope she cites are His Girl Friday (1940), and nearly every movie Katharine Hepburn made after The Philadelphia Story (1940).

Karger conversely would be interested in revisiting movies with extreme age differences between couples.

“I’d love to look at films like Gigi or Love in the Afternoon,” the host says, “because I think there are some people who have issues with the much older man and much younger woman pairing. And I think I’d love to hear what my fellow TCM hosts have to say about that, because you never see it in the opposite direction.” In fact, based on just this one comment, Malone began thinking aloud about all the ageist movies spawned by Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), a camp horror classic that kicked off what Malone describes as “hagsploitation.”

When it comes to revisiting (and reframing) Hollywood classics, the options for learning more are limitless. Not that the lessons should be intimidating.

“I think it’s quite exciting the way things change,” Malone says. “Society changes so quickly, and you learn more and have different opinions, [including] on films. I love being more educated and finding out more of my own blind spots and trying to fix them.”

Reframed continues that search on Thursday March, 25, beginning with My Fair Lady at 8pm EST.

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boharanews · 3 years

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Nelson Mandela International Day

Boharanews, 18/07/2021, 1:15 PM

A great tribute to the nurturer of humanitarian points and the priest of democracy in the world.

Dr. Nelson Mandela's inspiration and mentor

Nelson Mandela: Who discovered Gandhism in the end after going through all the paths of struggle

As the incident of being thrown out of the train in South Africa became an important inspiration for Gandhi, similarly two incidents related to apartheid gave direction to Mandela's fight

In Nelson Mandela's story 'Long Walk to Freedom', Richard Stengel, editor of Time Magazine, narrated an anecdote related to Mandela as follows:

Once upon a time me and Madiba (the people of South African affectionately called Mandela Madiba. In the local language, Madiba means - father) were going to Natal. It was a six seater airplane. Madiba sat in the ship and started reading the newspaper. He loved reading newspapers. He used to read even the smallest news. The ship was flying overhead. Then he saw that the propeller on the fan of the ship had stopped working.

Madiba told me that I should give this information to the pilot. While saying this, his voice was as calm as ever. I was very scared. The closure of the propeller meant that the ship could crash. I got up and ran towards the cabin to inform the pilot.

When I came back, I saw Madiba reading the newspaper. When he asked me, I said that the pilot has come to know and is trying to contact the nearest airport for an emergency landing. Hearing this, Madiba again started reading the newspaper.

The fear of death was clearly visible on my face. At the same time, Madiba was reading the newspapers oblivious, as if nothing had happened.

The ship was landed safely. After landing, I courageously asked Madiba, 'Aren't they afraid?' Madiba's reply was, 'Fear! I was trembling inside, Richard. But if he had disclosed it, you, the pilot and everyone else would have panicked.

Richard goes on to say, 'Then I understood what courage is.Courage is not to let your fear come to your face. If people consider you ideal, then your conduct is seen. Madiba always remembered this.

It is quite natural that this quality is innate in Mandela and it is very possible that he learned it from his mentor Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi also had amazing courage. Remember the scene from Richard Attenborough's film 'Gandhi' where he is walking away talking to a journalist in South Africa and some white boys are standing in front of a street corner to stop him. Gora journalist urges Gandhi to change course. Gandhi turns down the request and moves on. The journalist gets scared, but Gandhi, showing full confidence and courage, stands up with his eyes in the eyes of those boys. There is no violence in Gandhi's eyes, just a determined insistence that brothers follow what is true. This is Satyagraha.

This determined urge remained in Mandela's life as well when he took the initiative to end apartheid in South Africa. 'The Struggle Is My Life' is a compilation of his articles and speeches. Here in an article with the same title, he says, 'No power in the world can destroy the movement of the oppressed people in which they have resolved to overthrow the anti-people power'In the same article, he further says that when a government tries its best to suppress a peaceful movement of unarmed people, it should be assumed that the government has understood the power of that movement.

Although it is also true that Mandela had called for a violent revolution along with his peaceful movement. In 1961, he formed the armed wing of the African National Congress 'Umkhonto Ve Sizwe' and was its Commander-in-Chief. Mandela was also somewhat associated with the philosophy of communism and the Cuban movement also influenced him, but the most powerful inspiration for him was the philosophy derived from Gandhism.

Professor KK Virmani of Delhi University's Department of South Africa writes in his book 'Nelson Mandela and Apartheid in South Africa', 'Mandela took military training in the African country of Algeria and he was also proud of it. But they also believed that it would take many years for the workers of the African National Party to fully take up arms against the apartheid government. He spent almost 27 years in prison and was released in February 1990.

The incident of being thrown out of a train on the grounds of apartheid in South Africa is considered a turning point in Gandhi's life. This incident also must have played an important role in the foundation of his Satyagraha movement. Nelson Mandela has also mentioned two such incidents that happened to him in 'The Struggle is My Life'. Clearly it would be these events that became for him the strongest inspiration in the fight against apartheidThe first of these anecdotes is that when Mandela joined the Witkin-Sidelski-Edelman Company as a lawyer after practicing law, a white typist said that his company did not believe in apartheid and that when a waiter (black man) brought tea. If so, you have to go and take tea from him. After this the typist said - We have ordered two new cups, one for you and the other for your African black fellow Gore Radik.

The second story is also associated with this company. A white typist of the company used to go and ask for some work from Mandela whenever it was vacant. Once they were giving him some dictation in typing that an English client came to the office. Seeing that Englishman, the typist hesitated and immediately said to Mandela, 'Nelson, take the money and bring me shampoo from the shop.'

These events made Mandela realize that the roots of prejudice towards black people are very deep in South African society. And perhaps these incidents would have hurt him equally.

Mandela's first political innings was only eighteen years old. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress, in 1952 he was elected president of its Transvaal branch and then national vice-president. He went to jail for the first time in 1953. Then because of his movements, he was tried for treason and in 1956 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. On August 5, 1962, he was arrested again for a nationwide strike and sedition, and then he was imprisoned for 27 years.

During his time in prison, Mandela became popular around the world and became the biggest leader in the fight against apartheid across the continent of Africa. Virmani writes that Mandela was karma-oriented. His courage, patience, public connection and spirit of sacrifice made him a leader of black and marginalized people not only in Africa but around the world.

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sareesinthewind · 3 years

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Photo 1: Parasakthy and Sundha 1961 in Colombo Photo 2: Parasakthy and Sundha in the 80s in Chennai Photo 3: Sundha as a BBC newsreader 1982 in London Photo 4: Sundha interviewing a young Mathematics prodigy from Tamil Nadu from Radio Ceylon studios 60s in Colombo Photo 5: Sundha was also a talented photographer, and this is one of the photos he took and cheekily edited on his film camera Photo 6: Sundha performing in one of the radio dramas, Radio Ceylon 1950s Photo 7&8: Front and back cover of ‘Mana Osai - Reminiscences of a Broadcaster’ a book about Sundha Paraskathy Sydney, Australia *note that uncle refers to Parasakthy’s husband, the late Sundharalingam. In 1948, uncle, as a young boy, had listened to the running commentary of Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession. Back then in Jaffna nobody had a radio at home, so the school principal hired one for the kids to be able to listen to Gandhi’s tributes. Uncle said that he and many of the children cried. Uncle was so amazed at how something happening in a distant land could move people in his village in Chavakacheri. In his wonderment at how this was possible, his dream to one day become a radio announcer was born. Sri Lanka started broadcasting in 1923, three years after Europe started the BBC. The transmitter was built using equipment from a captured German submarine. Colombo Radio, later known as Radio Ceylon, started broadcasting in English first and later added Sinhhalese and Tamil . As the station’s popularity grew in India, Hindi was introduced, which also catered for the Hindi-speaking businessmen in Colombo. While uncle was studying at Jaffna Central college, he stayed in a hostel and would listen to the 9pm All India Radio news on the public radio installed in Subramanian Park while the other students would be engrossed in their studies. At the age of 21, uncle started working in Colombo, having skipped his university entrance exam to earn money. There he found himself working in the office next to Radio Ceylon. One of his colleagues was a radio drama artist and invited uncle to join him. Uncle fell in love with the stage and soon became popular for his theatrical talents. When a vacancy opened up for a news reader, he applied and was appointed to the job. By the fifties, radio had become a big craze in Jaffna, but very few people could afford a radio and our parents also didn’t want us to get distracted by listening to film songs and dramas. Even if we could afford a radio, my family didn’t have electricity. We had a simple life and education was our main focus. Uncle’s family also didn’t have electricity and had to go to a neighbour's house to listen to his broadcasts. While at Radio Ceylon, he was seconded for a ministerial post as press officer with the option of returning to his job as a news announcer when he wished to do so.

His duties included reading the papers and giving the minister a summary of daily events as well as interpreting speeches from Sinhala to English or Tamil. He also accompanied different Sinhalese ministers on their trips, bearing witness to their acts incitement of discrimination against the Tamils. He would often come home and tell me how sad he felt. His next job was as a simultaneous interpreter in parliament, a service provided for the Members of Parliament . Most of the Members spoke only Sinhalese or English and uncle worked as the Tamil translator.

Because parliament only sat for a few days a year, uncle had a lot of free time, which he filled by voicing jingles for advertising companies and performing in radio plays .

The stage was like a second home for him. He had so much confidence in all three languages. In 1969, he and another interpreter were selected to do the simultaneous interpreting for the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20. These Sinhalese and Tamil interpretations, which were done non stop for three days, were broadcast by Radio Ceylon all around the country and region, capturing that awe-inspiring moment in history. The US Embassy in Colombo trained the team, which included Tamil and Sinhala scientists, for about a week, so that they were familiar with the technical terms. They also had to go through a simulated landing. Uncle found the American English difficult, but managed to successfully complete the task. Though Sinhala chauvinism escalated well before the eighties, we never imagined it would eventuate in the pogroms and violence that followed, culminating in the atrocities of 2009.

When the Sinhala Only Bill was passed in 56, uncle had to read it out as news on Radio Ceylon and had to cover stories of its implementation. Uncle was also a news reader during the 58 ethnic riots and the 76 and 78 pogroms.

Uncle's time at Radio Ceylon, his time in parliament and our years in India, the UK and Australia as a refugee during which time he yearned to return to our country of birth, had a profound effect on him. His resulting grief stayed with him right until his last days in Australia. In 1959, I graduated with a BA in Arts from Peradeniya University. My family never thought I would get a place in the university, as it was a difficult entrance exam. In those days, the results were announced in the English newspapers. But in our home, we only read Tamil newspapers. My father's friend saw the results and sent the paper to our home, with my name underlined, through another friend. I also had the option of entering a Teachers Training College to study teacher training, which required a less competitive mark than university studies. My school principal, the late Miss Thambiah, however encouraged me to enrol in university and promised me that I would have a job back at our school, Vembadi Girls’ High School, when I had finished my degree.

In Jaffna, education was mainly segregated into male and female schools. In certain schools, at the higher levels there was mixed education. So university was where I first met men, outside my immediate family. It was also the first time I met Sinhalese students. There were about fifty Tamil students and two or three hundred Sinhalese students. We enjoyed our single rooms and ate in a dining hall with fork and spoon. We were served a lot of beef and so I became a vegetarian. University is where I tasted cheese for the first time. Our education was free, and our living expenses were minimal. Those of us who remember the days of no ethnic divide, will remember university as a wonderful experience. Those days we had the best of everything in Sri Lanka - free education and free medical services. Everything was good, till the politicians of the majority community poisoned the minds of the people against the minorities living in the country. I think that now it's too late for change. The poison has sunk in too deep. After my studies, I returned to Jaffna and started teaching at my high school. I was so happy and I had many dreams of helping my siblings, who were excelling in their studies. But a marriage proposal to uncle came my way in 1961 and though I had a lot of ambitions and wasn’t keen on it, it was my parents wish and so I obliged. After our wedding, I joined uncle in Colombo where we had a comfortable life, like most middle class families. I got a job at the Muslim Ladies College in Bambalapitya Colombo. Teaching in a multicultural environment was another unforgettable experience. Our move to Chennai in 1980 was not my decision and nor was I in favour of it. Our only daughter Subhadra had just sat for her OL exam and was keen to continue her bharathanatyam studies, while we wanted her to attend university. It came as a rude shock when one morning in January 1980 uncle asked me to sign my retirement papers. He explained there was an option for lady teachers to retire after twenty years of service, which i had just completed, and I could avail myself of that facility. He said I could go to Chennai to educate Subhadra in the Fine Arts (music and dance), while at the same time help her to get a degree in Arts/Science. My school principal refused to endorse the papers as I was in the process of being appointed as principal of the newly built Colombo Hindu Ladies College. I was appalled! Who would throw away everything so good? I was in a dilemma but my husband solved it for me. He said “a decision has been made, let us not go back on it”. He said that Tamils couldn’t live in Sri Lanka in peace anymore and that political unrest was simmering. He said that he no longer wanted to live like a fugitive in his country of birth ‘his தாய் நாடு’ and that after translating the venomous speeches of the Sinhalese Members in parliament, he had spent many years of sleepless nights. He said that at least in Tamil Nadu we would feel a sense of familiarity and could continue to be part of the Tamil culture and language. He reminded me that we had to seek refuge in a Muslim friend’s house during the 1977 pogrom and that our daughter had no chance of entering university with the government’s standardisation policy which penalised Tamil students. So in Jan 1980 I retired and we left for Madras, our home for the next twenty years. There were only three other Tamil families from Sri Lanka who had settled down in Chennai after the first pogrom in 1958 and they all welcomed us graciously. Mr and Mrs Sivapathasundaram had made Adyar their home, the suburb which would become our home too. Mr Sivapathasundaram was a renowned broadcaster at Radio Ceylon and a popular Tamil writer on par with Indian writers. He was the one who gave the name Thamilosai to BBC Tamil Radio. We realised theirs was a life of struggle even after spending nearly three decades in Tamil Nadu. Our years in Chennai were also tough, and those who came to visit us were shocked to see how we were living in a single room annex. In 1982, we received a surprise phone call from the BBC asking uncle if he would come and work as the Tamil radio producer for one year, while Mr Shankaramoorthy, the then producer, took one year of medical leave. In uncle’s previous trips to the UK he had acted in some of the BCC Thamilosai’s radio dramas and so they were familiar with his talents. Subha had entered Stella Marie’s College, so we put her in the college hostel and set off on our year long UK adventure. We could have stayed on after our contract was over by taking part in radio programmes, however uncle said that he wanted to listen to carnatic music and hear Tamil in his ears - காதிலே தமிழும் பாட்டும் கேட்கவேணும் ! So after our stay in the UK was over, we flew straight to Colombo, with the hope of settling back there. After about 10 days of visiting our families in Jaffna, uncle, again said that he felt something bad was going to happen and he wanted to get back to Chennai. I again didn’t want to leave. I missed our family and they missed us. We had nobody in Chennai. Uncle however insisted that we had to return to see our daughter Subha and once again said “I don’t want to be a second class citizen in my own country”. We arrived back in Chennai in May 1983. In July when the pogrom against the Tamils started in Colombo, those who had money, got on planes and arrived at our doorstep. Over the following six months, at least a hundred Tamils made their way to our home straight from the airport. We helped them find temporary accommodation to begin with, then a home and a school for their children. We became local guardians to hundreds of children, as this was a government requirement. There were number of challenges we faced as guardians - illness - exam failures - two missing students - but we were thankful we could help them. Those who could afford to sent their children to other foreign countries. Thanks to the BBC, we had a telephone, which became so useful for the many Eelam Tamils who would line up outside and inside our home to use it. One night, we had more than 20 people sleep in our tiny annex. Those nights were tough, but what were we to do? Uncle, who looked to life’s positives, would often tell us that he was grateful that we got out in time and didn’t have to go through the trauma of watching our people being massacred. He was even more thankful that we were in a position to be able to help those that did escape. After hearing of the massacres and the burnings of the 83 pogrom, the people of Tamll Nadu became sympathetic to our cause and opened up their homes for rent. MGR, was the Chief Minister at the time, and said all Eelam Tamils could be accepted into schools in Tamil Nadu. For those who didn’t have money and escaped the island by boat, they were kept in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, and their plight was and still is an incredibly sad one. Many are still there with very little protection or hope for a better future. We were the lucky few and though we never returned to live in our country, we have a lot to be thankful for. In the years that followed, uncle became BCC’s Thamilosai correspondent for Tamilnadu, which allowed us to continue living in the India and provided us with a permanent income. Thanks To BBC, we were also able to get a visa to visit our daughter in Australia. After uncle passed away in Australia after a tragic accident in 2001, I did not want to go back to India and all my family members had left Sri Lanka by then. I stayed on with my daughter's family as a refugee for 12 long years. It was a period of struggle and great uncertainty, thanks to the Australian government. I was finally granted Australian Citizenship in 2017. END In 1999 Dr Maunaguru, a close friend, turned audio recordings by uncle about his life into a book titled ‘Mana Osai -Reminiscences of a Broadcaster‘. Uncle was not keen on the book idea, but he agreed on one condition that the book when published would be distributed free - he said everyone has a story to tell so it's not fair to make money off it. Aunty’s grandson Senthan is now also a radio broadcaster and co-hosts the popular podcast Stuck in Between.

#TamilStories #SurvivalStories #EelamTamils

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briefnytw · 7 years

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Partition: The Creation of Two States

Before Partition: Muslim and Hindu Relations

Long before British rule, India was ruled by the Mughal Empire from 1526 to 1857. The Mughals were founded and ruled by a Muslim dynasty, taking governmental control away from the Hindus native to the land. Similar to other conquests of one nation by another, the Mughals used violence to gain control of India. During the time of ruler Akbar, from 1556 to 1605, there was much intermixing within the two cultures. Akbar built relations with Hindus through marriage, listening to the teachings of Hindu saints and philosophers, building Hindu and Muslim temples as well as allowing Hindu’s to play a big part in court. Other rulers, such as Aurangzeb who ruled from 1658 to 1707, were not so open to Hindu influences. Aurangzeb imposed harsher taxes on Hindus, had authorities mistreat them, and showed considerable favoritism, overall, to Muslims.

However, the last written ruler of the Mughal emperor, and most rulers of the empire, mirrored Akbar’s tolerance more than Aurangzeb’s favoritism. By the 19th century, a Sunni Muslim living in Bengal still had more in common with his Hindu neighbor than another Sunni or Sufi Muslim from another part of India and vice versa. Historian Sukbir Singh sums it up by writing that, “the social relationships between these two communities were co-operative without any severe constraint or conflict despite religious distinctions.”

By 1858, India found itself caught in the crosswire of British imperialism. The East India Trading Company, a British company, had gone to and won a war with the Mughal Empire, which soon set the British up not only as an economic power but also as the as governing power in India. Many historians view this as the turning point in Hindu and Muslim relationships. Alex von Tunzelmann writes in her book India Summer that when “the British started to define ‘communities’ based on religious identity and attach political representation to them, many Indians stopped accepting the diversity of their own thoughts and began to ask themselves in which of the boxes they belonged.” British legislation helped create the Congress Party, a secular party with a Hindu majority, and the Muslim-dominated Muslim League. These two parties played a huge role in Muslim-Hindu relations as India hurdled towards Independence.

To Independence: The Creation of India and Pakistan

Calls for India’s Independence from British rule began to gain steam at the end of the First World War.

Photo from an article by Shoaib Daniyal

The Congress Party was led by Hindu’s Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, while the Muslim League was led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. All three were lawyers who received part of their education in England. Much of the politics in the situation, like today, was lead primarily by relationships and personality. In the beginning, Jinnah was a huge advocate of Muslim-Hindu cooperation in gaining independence. He was famously dubbed “the Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity” after saying that he thought the British were implying Hindu-domination over the Muslim public as a way to “frighten you, to scare you away from cooperation and unity, which are essential for the establishment of self-government.”

However, after the First World War the relationship between Jinnah and Gandhi grew sour. Congress Party launched a boycott of non-cooperation to all aspects of British rule. Jinnah did not agree with this policy, which grew the divide between Congress and the Muslim League. After local elections in 1937, Congress refused to form coalition administrations with the Muslim League in mixed areas.

During World War Two, Congress began a “Quit India” movement and refused to fight for Britain in the war. Gandhi, Nehru, and many others were arrested and jailed. Jinnah, however, used this moment as a way to grow favor with Britain, urging Muslim Indians to fight for the British in the war and meeting with British leaders to discuss Muslim interest in India. Jinnah began advocating for partition and the creation of a Muslim state of Pakistan. Historians are still undecided on whether Jinnah used this as a bargaining chip for equal Muslim-Hindu control over Independent India, or if he seriously wanted another state.

Overall, this did not bode well with Congress and Gandhi, who thought Indians should be fighting for independence instead of currying up to and helping Britain win their wars. By the end of World War Two, the disagreements between the two men intensified. The disorder brought on by the World War Two fueled the discontent between Hindus and Muslims even more. Local and regional political leaders deepened the idea of separation with their words and calls to violent action. People began moving from mixed neighborhoods to areas with only Muslims or only Hindus. Soon there were widespread religious massacres; one in Calcutta in 1946 took the lives of five thousand people.

At the end of World War Two, the British Empire was heavily wounded and no longer had the resources to continue ruling India. In March 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten came to Delhi to give India its independence and set up a central government. Prime Minister of Britain, Clement Attlee, at the time told Lord Mountbatten to “Keep India united if you can. If not, save something from the wreck. In any case, get Britain out.”

Mountbatten found Congress and the Muslim League unable to agree on many terms on independence and rule. Communal violence between Muslim and Hindu communities continued. Thus instead of one central government, Mountbatten, Congress, and the Muslim League agreed to two independent states. Mountbatten acted very hasty in trying to get Britain out of India. He announced August 15, 1947 as the day of the transfer of powers. This date was ten months earlier than Congress and the Muslim League had expected. Cyril Radcliffe, a British judge, was given less than forty days to draw the boarders of the two new states. On August 14, 1947 when the remaining British officials set off towards the railway station to leave, they saw Punjab burning.

The Aftermath:

Photo Credit: Margaret Bourke-White/The Life Picture Collection/Getty

When August 15, 1947 finally came, millions of Muslims migrated across the newly drawn border to Pakistan, while millions of Hindus migrated in the opposite direction to India. Guerillas, from both sides, clubbed travelers they met on the roads, while packed trains often suffered ambushes that left hundreds dead. Leaders in the Muslim League and the Congress Party tried but could not stop the violence. In a couple of months the Hindu population in what is now Pakistan went from 15% to 1.5%. Muslims in India, especially Punjab, according to India’s census, went from 52.4% to 1.56%. Partition result in 15 million people displaced and more than a million killed.

Tensions remain between Pakistan and India to this day. Though the generation of citizens in both countries that lived through Partition have begun to talk about the violence they witnessed and endured, a collective healing, from both sides, seems distant.

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/128996/11/08_chapter%204.pdf

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-cant-hindus-and-muslims-get-along-together-its-a-long-story-1162319.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-a7888131.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/15/indian-independence-day-everything-need-know-partition-india/

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-the-partition-of-india-195478

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-british-pm-who-oversaw-indias-independence/295156

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/viceroys-house/lord-mountbatten-india-partition/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/70-years-later-survivors-recall-the-horrors-of-india-pakistan-partition/2017/08/14/3b8c58e4-7de9-11e7-9026-4a0a64977c92_story.html?utm_term=.1db85f9b84c0

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-a7888131.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/31/break-silence-partition-british-colonial-history-south-asian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/05/partition-70-years-on-india-pakistan-denial

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/14/everything-changed-readers-stories-of-india-partition

http://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/indian-partition-a-brief-history-of-india-and-pakistan-on-the-70th-anniversary-of-independence-a3612126.html

#anordinarymuslim

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sundayeveningthoughts · 5 years

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Higher

Sunday Evening Thoughts

Higher

March 1, 2020

Dear Paul and Rachel,

The Talk in Three Phases: Part 3 — Higher

Hark! Oh, my lover is coming,

bounding over the mountains,

leaping over the hills.

Song of Songs 2:8

“No more sex talk talk tonight,” said the Dad to the children.

“Phew!” expressed the kids to each other in a private Whatsapp connection.

”Glad Dad has it out of his system!” they joked.

“Is there a higher love?” he pondered.

“Damn, here it comes.” they demurred.

I ask that question because I just saw a 3-hour (180-minute) movie, The Hidden Life, based on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, and I am wondering? I cannot write this S.E.T. without giving spoilers, but I bet you can guess, Jägerstätter is executed in the end by the Nazis.

Franz Jägerstätter is a Catholic martyr from Austria during World War II who refused to pledge allegiance to Hitler. But Jägerstätter is no Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had theological education and social standing, though he too refused to support Hitler, thus losing his life too.

(FYI: Bonhoeffer was hung at Flossenburg Concentration Camp. Mom and I visited there two years ago. Very sad place. One of the small ovens in Flossenburg. Most people were not gassed in ovens at Flossenburg, but shot or hung.)

Jägerstätter, conversely, is uneducated, no social standing — poor, yet married to a beautiful woman, with three lovely little girls. He has no prestige. He is a simple farmer. But he was a man of great conviction!

Everybody is telling him, yelling at him, and cursing at him to sign the damn papers — support Hitler. Jägerstätter refuses. His local parish priest wants him to sign it; his bishop wants him to capitulate and sign it; the mayor of his village — and best friend — wants him to sign it. He refuses. His wife is unsure for many months, but is enlightened by the end to his view of “higher love.”

Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, Jägerstätter had no political plan for an alternative to the evil Nazi politics. But Jägerstätter knew in his soul, his gut, to refuse allegiance to Hitler was the right thing to do. He believed in a higher love.

Why should you see this movie? You should see the movie because of the cinematography. The Hidden Life is a short 3-hour course on Western Fine Art Paintings, especially classical European art. Terrence Malick, the writer and director, frames every scene like a great masters painting. You get Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Salvador Dali, and Picasso. But the Naturalists, the Pastoralists, are the ones who get the most acclaim. In many ways, Terrence Malick frames the life of Franz Jägerstätter in its iconic, beautiful pastoral scenes like the author of Song of Songs frames the beauty of the love between the two lovers in Song of Songs. Malik designs scenes in the gorgeous beauty of the Austrian Alps. It is beautiful cinematography!

I first heard about Franz Jägerstätter in the early 70’s from Dorothy Day. She liked him not only because he was a pacifist, which the film does not mention, but because Jägerstätter is a common man. He is the St. Joseph, the Worker of the 20th Century. A simple man.

Jägerstätter is a simple man who has a beautiful wife that digs in the soil hand-n-hand with him, scything hayfield upon hayfield, shearing sheep upon sheep, and sweating drops upon sweat drops while plowing their “verdant garden,” thus producing child upon child.

“Oh no, here it comes,” I hear you say. And you are right! The physical love between Franz and his wife, Franziska, is palpable in the film. But to be honest, I thought the film needed even more “Shepherd Shelter time” on screen, though it is clearly implied. Franz Jägerstätter is not as poetic in his love letters to Franziska as Solomon is to his lover in his poems in Song of Songs, but the love and physical expression is present.

Still, did Jägerstätter possess a higher love? A higher love that manifests itself “on earth” simply by saying “No” to evil. Throughout the movie the statement is often made to Jägerstätter, “No one will know what you have done. Why do you still refuse?” But he is a solitary witness. In every sense, Jägerstätter is a great man of principle who simply said, “No.”

Gordon Zahn wrote the biography In Solitary Witness in the mid-60’s about the life of Franz Jägerstätter, which I read in college. Nevertheless, I remember it read like a scholarly dissertation, which it partially had been for Zahn. But Jägerstätter’s personal letters found in Letters and Writings from Prison, by Erna Putz, reads more emotionally, where you get a better picture of the person.

So, back to my original question, is there a higher love? I think so. I hope so.

Have a good week…

Love,

Dad

P.S. Pretty easy to find a song that interprets tonight’s S.E.T. - Steve Winwood’s, “Higher Love.” An early live recording on David Letterman is very good. Graham Nash and David Crosby singing Nash’s “A Simple Man” is another easy choice. But that’s a little too easy. I think Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” tells the life of Franz Jägerstätter best. It is hauntingly beautiful!

Crank it up!

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bigyack-com · 5 years

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Ankur Tewari on music festivals in India, spoken word poetry, Gully Boy and more in this exclusive interview - art and culture

The city of lakes and a popular tourist and wedding destination, Udaipur, Rajasthan is alive with culture and the sound of music of various genres. Lake Pichola, City Palace, Fateh Sagar Lake, Jagmandir Palace are some of the must-visit locations while you’re in this city.The Vedanta Udaipur World Music Festival (UWMF) has begun today and will be on until Sunday, February 9 2020. A city-wide, multi-venue music festival featuring 150 global artists and collaborations, the fest also sees participation from countries namely Spain, Italy, France, Brazil, Switzerland, and many more.In its 5th edition this year, this festival has fast become the biggest world music festival in the country. This year’s edition is built around the concept We are the World: Unity in Diversity. Spread over three picturesque venues, UWMF offers immense diversity in music that celebrates different moods of the day, right from a morning meditative raga to personifying romantic music at its best played beside the lakes in the afternoons. Evenings will bring spirited youthful music that connects people of all age groups. The festival also features local Rajasthani talent.Ahead of their performance tomorrow at UWMF 2020, we got a chance to speak with Ankur Tewari and The Ghalat Family. Excerpts from an exclusive interview:Q. Tell us about the inspiration behind called The Ghalat Family and why?A. The inspiration behind the band being called The Ghalat Family is actually nothing serious, we didn’t have a name for a band. We were shooting for a music video and a friend of ours saw us and he said that we are a bunch of misfits and somehow the word The Ghalat Family came out between fits of giggles and laughter and we just stuck by the name.Q. Your opened for singer Norah Jones back in 2013. What’s been your fondest memory of that day?A. It was quite a special opening for Norah Jones back in 2013. It was a summer-time festival where we were going to play and I have always been a fan of her music and I have never seen her live so just to share the backstage along with her is a big honour. Karsh who was also opening for alongside us is a friend of hers (Norah’s) and because of him we met her, chatted with her. It was quite a humbling experience to see somebody so famous and big, being so humble, and her band was also too nice and too sweet.Q. How far have famous authors from history impacted your songwriting? Tell us some of your favourite proverbs/lines written by Manto and Bukowski.A. An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way and an artist says a hard thing in a simple way this quote by Charles Bukowski has always struck a chord with me. There are so many interesting authors and poets whose words resonate with me, Manto’s Toba Tek Singh is a classic for me where people in an art house are asked to decide whether they want to go to Pakistan or stay in India during partition… can’t describe the partition in a better way.Q. What’s more fun: performing for a live audience or in a studio?A. I have always been a performing artiste. I love performing to a live audience. I have not been in the studio as much as I want to be in the studio. I find performing live is a better community experience but in recent times, I started enjoying recording in the studio as well. But definitely, when I perform I like to play more for an intermediate audience than big stages. Big stages make me feel very distant from the audience and with my band members at the same time.Q. Favourite film song project you have been a part of?A. Favourite film song project that I have been a part of is my first song Sabse Peechhe Hum Khade for Let’s Enjoy (2004). That was the song I used to sing and then I used it in the movie and then I got Silk Route to sing a cover of it.Q. What can the audience expect at the Vedanta Udaipur World Music Festival 2020? Tell us something about the songs you have chosen in your set and what’s in it for everyone attending?A. Vedanta Udaipur World Music Festival is very special for me especially it is organised by SEHER. It is like a family for me and I have curated an interesting set of my popular songs including Mohabbat Zindabad, Sabse Peechhe Hum Khade, Dil Beparvah and some surprises.Q. Your thoughts on the music festival scene in India and if there’s one thing you could change, what would it be?A. It is amazing that there are music festivals that showcase artistes from around the country and the globe. When I started making music, there was none, but it’s so amazing to see so many festivals cropping up, so many stages, and I am encouraged to see this kind of an atmosphere in the world with independent music.If there’s one thing I could change, I would try to include more new artistes in the line-up every time because, for me, music festivals are about the discovery of new music as well. Vedanta Udaipur World Music Festival is one such festival which brings new artistes from across the globe in its editions and I simply admire this concept.Q. Tell us more about Woh Hum Nahin and the process of writing/composing it.A. Woh Hum Nahin came to me in about 5 minutes. I was backstage going to perform in 10 minutes and I was looking at my phone and I saw the images of violence in the hostel of JNU and it really hurt me that such kind of violence is happening in universities, in colleges in India and it had a deep impact on me. Thought about of nation that has Mahatma Gandhi as a father of the nation, a pioneer in the world of peace and agent of love in this country. Such an act happening, it broke me within. Even before I could hit the stage in 5 minutes these words came to me and I went and performed my set. I came back and found the chords to these words, and recorded it in an hour’s time.Q. How did you decide on collaborating on Kommune with Roshan Abbas?A. If I may be honest it was Roshan Abbas who decided to contact me and Gaurav Kapoor and take our discussions further. We were usually discussing how we don’t find going out exciting where the only place you go out is to tune out of the world. But sometimes you go out to tune in to something and feel enriched when you come out of it and we were missing those events. So Roshan Abbas came up with an idea that we should gather those people who will be interested in storytelling, poetry or music of a softer sort. We pretty much started on instinct and before we knew it, it is known into a big thing.Q. What can you tell us about the upcoming seasons of The Spoken Fest? After the Delhi debut late last year, will Spoken be going to other cities too?A. We are constantly in touch with the spoken word artists and poets around the world and we are trying to make it interesting with each coming year.The Delhi edition was encouraging and on the response of the Delhi edition, we thought to take it to other cities as well. Many cities have written to us and we are strongly crunching the numbers to make sure that we can take it to other cities as well.Q. For upcoming poets, what is the one-word advice you would want to share?A. My only advice to upcoming poets is that you should be honest and clear with what you want to express and try not to push vocabulary outside what you use. If you are not satisfied with your vocabulary, read more books and increase your vocabulary, once you start using those words in your life you should include mini pauses as well.Q. Name three poets you’ve seen Live in performance and find great promise in their voice?A. Some of the poets I admire are Kausar Munir, Swanand Kirkire and Varun Grover. They’ve also had an amazing impact on me.Q. You’ve worked with Prateek Kuhad on several songs too - tell us about this collab. A. I’ve worked with Prateek on the collaboration called Dil Beparvah, for a show called The Dewarists and it happened organically. It was amazing that we both are diverse personalities and the song became the meeting point for both of us and started an interesting friendship where I get to learn a lot from this young artist.Q. Your favourite from the Gully Boy album and why?A. My favourite work from Gully Boy is definitely Apna Time Aayega for the way the song happened, the way poetry happened and the collaboration happened with Divine who is such an amazing artist. I’ve never imagined that I would be collaborating with a hip-hop artist. It was a dream collaboration to work with Dub Sharma, Divine with Javed Akhtar Sahab giving his suggestions and inputs.Q. Jeene Mein Aaye Mazaa is a sweet reminder of life in Bombay (Mumbai) one has lived and misses. What was your inspiration behind the number?A. Jeene Mein Aaye Mazaa is for me a story about friends, a story about people who stands by you even when the times are tough. When the tough times are over you look back and you realise how important they are because you know tough times don’t last but friends do. They make this world worthwhile and if we can ever look beyond the balance sheets of life then you will realise friends are what makes your world. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Read the full article

#ArtandCulture #artgallery #artist #at #Culture #famousartists #finearts #gallery #howgreatthouartlyrics #howtodonailart #moma #oilpainting #paint #paintonline #print #watercolor #whatisliberalarts

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twistednuns · 5 years

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August 2019

India // It’s incredibly hard to sum up my feelings about India and Nepal. It was a truly incredible trip. And so exhausting. It was enriching, interesting, hard, disgusting, educational, everything. This is not the place to talk about my experience at length so I’ll just write down some nice moments I collected along the way //

on the go // the huge corner toilet at MUC airport departures / Rischart coffee / the smell of the Emirates airline NOIR lotion they offer in their bathrooms / cherry-flavoured Skittles // Delhi // brightly painted buses and tuk-tuks / eating at AB veg restaurant in Hauz Khas, inredibly delicious and cheap / being lucky enough to choose the hostel in Hauz Khas village; meeting Dominique, Christie, Ayush, Samar and Julia / all those talks we had about linguistics, education systems, the future, politics, travelling, home, friends, experiences with magic mushrooms, Hannah Arendt, travelling (…); talking to Christy about her past, family, criminal record / Mosambi juice / Nici constantly flirting with me, trying to seduce me. She told me I’m posh, assertive, regal and I know myself very well. Making out with her was fun but honestly… not worth the drama. / Mosambi juice / a consultation with a renowned Ayurveda doctor - I loved talking to her even though she wasn’t able to tell me anything I hadn’t known already; sometimes it’s nice to get the confirmation that what you found out on your own is exactly the right thing / eating momos and Kathi rolls, the best Thalis / parties on the rooftop until the sunrise interrupted us; grilling whole fish, saying goodbye to Julia, singing along to Louise Attaque and Cher songs / riding rickshaws through Delhi; extra fun: squeezing 5 people in and listening to club music / the sheets smelling chalky with a hint of grape sugar / dancing at Raasta / petting cute street doggies / a cooking class with Mansi and her family in North Delhi - delicious food and really nice people, I fell in love with the mum / eating at Social (that building is just amazing) and strolling through the little alleys and stores at Hauz Khas village with Christie; she showed me the place where she got her linnen dresses and we talked to a jewellery store owner for quite a while / the spice market, climbing up a building and watching the men flying their kites, tasting some street food and spices, realiszing that there is a market street dedicated to a single group of things like the shoe market, the jewellery market etc. / the Brit Brats sharing their joints; tripping to Bayonne / the hidden merchant streets with colourful wall art around the entrances / PANEER (!) / stand-up comedy with a female comedian / elevator selfies / learning about the development of Indian scripts and letters/characters in Sanskrit in the National Museum; erotic sculptures, very detailed paintings depicting badass, tiger-hunting ladies / I saw a peacock. Cows, chipmunks, pigs, horses, monkeys, goats, guinea pigs, bunnies, cats and dogs, bats, herons, boars, caterpillars, centipedes, horses, donkeys (…) / finding the perfect triangular earrings with gemstones at the Dilli Haat market; getting some nice dresses, too / living on water and mango juice, feeling very light and clean, having an empty stomach all the time / Gandhi Smriti, retracing Mahatma’s last steps before his assassination / feeling human again after a few days in bed - I love the power of make-up, bananas, fresh clothes and those pink little Pepto-Bismol pills the Canadian lady gave me / Delhi central station; just WOW. It’s places like that which make you realise just how many people there are in India. //

Rishikesh // the man helping me with the bus to Rishikesh; the kindness of strangers / “I thank the Lord for the people I have found” (Elton John - Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters) / emotional bus rides: crying for no reason, letting go, for the first time in a very long time; emotional turmoil, softening up; leaving people and whole countries behind / seeing the huge Shiva ceremony at the Ganges from the bus / my yoga teacher training, getting to know the other students / learning about a magic trick against bad posture / instant karma / the view from the rooftop, watching the sunrise over the lower Himalaya mountains / the simple, vega, ayurvedic food they offered at the ashram / visiting the temples with the apprentice yogi and his scooter; walking up 13 stories in the blazing sun, receiving a blessing and some red string around my wrist; taking part in the Ganga ceremony at sunset / the Beatles Ashram; it’s just this amazing place with incredible street art, and those ruins, the meditation caves and eggs on the rooftop… climbing up there was one of my highlights in Rishikesh / close second: visiting a meditation cave at the Ganges, a bit further up in the mountains; a monk had spent 15 years in that cave practising meditation / all the beautiful shops around town focussing on yoga accessoires / putting my feet in the Ganges #blessed #moksha / learning about my aggression during silent yoga / all the animals around town: horses, donkeys, cows, monkeys and whatnot //

Varanasi // taking the night train for the first time; I shared my little compartment with a family and three little children but they were surprisingly dramafree and actually quite cute / a sunset boat trip on the Ganges, seeing the ghats, the ceremonies, the moon rise / the little alleys behind the ghats; the stores, the surprises / Marnikarnika Ghat was really impressive; it’s the cremation place and I saw dead bodies for the first time / accidentally discovering the Dirty Chai Cafe (chocolate peanut butter shakes and fresh, cold mint lemonade), finding a Kamala Das poetry book on the shelf / spending an afternoon with the German journalist (so weird how the atmosphere shifts when you’re accompanied by a man there; also our dynamic made me feel so glad to be travelling alone, to only be responsible for myself, to be independent); sharing a banana and water surrounded by goats in Hanuman Ghat; the view over the river from his room; him gently stroking my cheekbone / buying two saris in a little corner shop / my jewellery quest (unsuccessful) / eating fresh fruit salad after hardly eating solid food for days / checking out that little park on my last day, the air buzzing with dragonflies / watching the sunset from the hostel’s rooftop, filming a slow motion video / India brings out trauma and deep emotions; the people kept staring at me for whatever reason; I kept having disturbing dreams about my dead father and grandmother; and the mob-video Christy showed me didn’t help either (the whole village carried a man through the streets, eventually beating him up because he couldn’t pay off his debts) //

Nepal // the first view of Nepal from the bus windows - how much greener, how much emptier it is than India / meeting some nice people on the bus - an American, a Brit and two Frenchies; grabbing dinner in Kathmandu with the latter / watching the sunrise at the border between India and Nepal / sitting next to the mayor of small town council on the bus ride; communicating with hand and feet / the Kathmandu valley is such a gorgeous sight / I got lucky with my hostel; Yakety Yak was a really nice and quiet place to stay; they even had laundry service and a shelf with free books - I read two or three of them because I behaved like a good (home)sick German abroad: bed, Haribo, carbonated water, trashy literature / visiting Bhaktapur, a gorgeous small town in the Kathmandu valley / watching the latest Tarantino movie at the cinema; the tickets were incredibly cheap / walking up the hill to the temple and the monastery, enjoying the incredible view over the surrounding hills; meeting two ladies from Austria, they live close to my old university town; walking to the centre through back alleys, stopping at a rooftop cafe, ordering three drinks at once (liquid diet) / that one jewellery store near the Pokhara bus station - I found some gorgeous brass rings with precious stones for little money / the busy square, the markets / hanging out in the hammock in my hostel in Pokhara, overlooking the lake / watching the skydivers land / the ayurvedic cafe and the other place serving smoothie bowls by the lake - it’s such a fantastic moment when you finally feel hungry again and eat a little solid food after fasting/suffering for a few days / two incredibly weird guys from Latvia and Berlin who provided a nice, mellow ending for my shitty day and even made me survive the mosquito attacks / meeting my travel agent who actually took me out dancing and gave me a ride on his motorcycle to the bus stop; he even gave me some fruit for the ride / By the Way starting to play while waiting for Vietnamese food / hunting down a place that sells semi-precious stone columns in Kathmandu; negotiating with the old lady selling them; getting some brass souvenirs for my friends and family / the view from the airplane - seeing the Himalaya for the first time; I pity people who’ve stopped looking out of windows //

Coming home. I’ve NEVER felt happier entering my apartment after a trip. Being alone. Truly alone. Silence. Three rooms just for me. My bed. Having all my stuff back. Toiletries! Nice body lotion. My favourite perfume. Going to the supermarket. Unpacking all the jewellery, clothes and knick-knacks I bought. Taking care of my plants.

Making a huge batch of my favourite ratatouille / pasta sauce.

Visiting Manu in hospital. Cheering him up a little bit.

Finally receiving my black and white analogue photos. I loved the shot of Andre looking like he’s being kissed by a dementor. And Lexi looking dead cool at ADBK.

Pizza party at Grano with Lena. Eating sorbet out of a lemon.

Riding my bike through the forest on a sunny morning. Stopping to take pictures of the beautiful light, the yellow flowers. Spending too much money at the garden center. Driving home, IKEA bags full of plants.

Inventing my signature manicure: a little black dot just above the nailbed.

Having an evening beer outside at Sofa So Good with Andre.

Stumbling upon Konsti. The one who ghosted me years ago after a beautiful summer spent kissing in lakes because his therapist had told him so. Well, we talked for a few days, but guess what - he just ghosted me for a second time. Fool me one - shame on you. Fool me twice - shame on me.

#things i love #august #2019 #august 2019 #personal #present perfect #india #nepal

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bollywoodirect · 6 years

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Remembering legendary star Shobhana Samarth on her 19th death anniversary today.

Shobhana Samarth, the Indian screen goddess who was showered with coins and flowers like a true divinity from Hindu heaven. She turned to be one of the well-famed actresses in Indian movies mainly Hindi and Marathi. She was an earlier heroine acted in lead roles up to the '50s and later in supporting roles.

Her first Hindi film, 'Nigahen Nafrat' was released in 1935. Shobhana is best known for her portrayal of Sita in 'Ram Rajya', produced in 1943. ( 'Ram Rajya' was the only film Mahatma Gandhi saw ever in his lifetime.) So evocative was this performance that she became the eternal Sita in the audience's minds. The first film in which she acted as Sita was 'Bharat Milap' (1942).

Notable films of her included Vilasi Ishwar, Nal Damayanthi, Sri Krishna Arjun Yudh, Ram Baan,Taramati, Insaniyat, Chhalia, Chitralekha, Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal, Love In Simla and Ek Baar Muskura Do.

She had also produced a film 'Hamari Beti' in 1950 in which she launched her daughter Nutan. In 1960 she produced 'Chhabili' to launch her second daughter Tanuja.

Shobhana Samarth passed away on 9 February 2000.

#shobhana samarth #bollywood #bollywoodirect #nutan #tanuja

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gracelessknights · 7 years

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“I just want to do the right thing and what’s best for you.” “How would you know what’s best for me?” I asked sharply. “You’re not me. You have no right to make decisions for me.”

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” I tell her. “There are millions of people who have had their mother die. You did, as well. I’m not so unique. We all get through it as best we can.”

And yes, his sex life is fairly shallow; he’s admitted as much. But he’s clearly intelligent and kind. Not the soppy sort of kindness that seems to be more about showing off than actual caring, but a quiet, unobtrusive thoughtfulness that’s unexpected and lovely.

“I love you too, baby,” she said. “I really do. I want you to be okay. The rest of your choices are up to you. I hope to God you make the right ones.”

“If you say you’re in love with him, then I believe you. Please understand, however, that at your age very few loves ever last. You don’t know if he’ll just decide to leave you one day. Keep that in mind, okay?”

“You have ten minutes,” he told me. “Ten minutes to think about what you did wrong and how bad you feel right now. Are you ready?”…“There. It’s over now,” he said. “Now you look forward and figure out how you’re going to get better.”

Anything is possible if you give it a chance

“They’re your family.” Hades laughed. “No. Goddess lesson number one: Fear the family.” “My mom—” “Was a wonderful mother to you, I’m sure. But she still lied and deceived you at every turn.” He waved off my protest. “Consider yourself lucky. Our father tried to eat us. We all grouped together and killed our parents. Instead of drawing us closer, we spent the next few millennia ripping each other apart. Families think they know what’s best for you. Your friends let you figure that out for yourself.”

I trust him to be true to his nature, you need to trust those around you will be true to their nature. Even when it may appear that they are betraying who they are.

Aim to be better not bitter.

Some things are out of our control,” he said. “We have to learn to accept and adapt.”

Why drown in love when you can have so much fun swimming around in lust?

Who better to parent you, than people who have had to persevered through their life.

Be a catalyst for change

My aunts said I was dreaming when I said I wanted words to be a career, but my mother kept quoting Picasso’s mother. “Picasso’s mother told him if he got into the army, he’d be a general. If he became a monk, he’d be the pope. Instead he was a painter and became Picasso. That’s exactly how I feel about you. So do, Rachel, what you love.”

Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.

Demographics are destiny.

“Devils don’t come from hell beneath us. No, they come from the sky.”

Goodnight. Travel well.

“It’s not torture. It’s not making things worse. It’s not horrible. It’s not a fucking mistake. Out of everything don’t you dare say it’s a mistake.”

Learn before you burn.

I don’t think it [love] is someone who sweeps you off your feet. I think it’s someone who stays right beside you and let’s you walk on your own.

We can only do want we know.

We can only practice what we understand and he neither understands this nor does he value it.

“…,Im fine.” “Until you’re not. Then what? What am I supposed to do,…? Do you have an answer for that?”

Intentions don’t bloody matter if the end result isn’t what you expected.

I feel like you have the best intentions but you’re just making one mistake after another.

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified.”

Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.” ― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it’s time for them to be hurt.” ― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Of course it hurt that we could never love each other in a physical way. We would have been far more happy if we had. But that was like the tides, the change of seasons–something immutable, an immovable destiny we could never alter. No matter how cleverly we might shelter it, our delicate friendship wasn’t going to last forever. We were bound to reach a dead end. That was painfully clear.” ― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart

“I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“That’s what the world is , after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.” ― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Most people are not looking for provable truths. As you said, truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths. What people need is beautiful, comforting stories that make them feel as if their lives have some meaning. Which is where religion comes from.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“It’s easy to forget things you don’t need anymore.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything. ― Letter to A.F. Oeser, Nov. 9, 1768

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. ― Christopher Columbus

Either you run the day, or the day runs you. ― Jim Rohn

What you plant today, you can harvest tomorrow.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is not about where you impart your views, it is about the message itself. Speeches made on on a table in the cafeteria can sometimes mean more than words said in an arena with roaring crowds.

It’s not just a word. It’s the weight of it.

It’s not a small thing to give up everything you’ve ever known. But it’s not a small thing to give up Emma, either. If there is even a slight possibility he can have them both—Emma and his heritage—then it’s certainly worth fighting for.

“If you ever get caught in the undertow,” he’d said, “just let it take you. Just let it pull you right out. Whatever you do, don’t fight it and waste your energy and oxygen. That’s how people die. The people who don’t die wait it out. The undertow lets go eventually, right when you think you can’t hold your breath any longer. You just have to be patient.”

I wonder if other mothers feel a tug at their insides, watching their children grow up into the people they themselves wanted so badly to be. ― Jodi Picoult, Keeping Faith

You’ll never know your limits until you push yourself to them.

He - and if there is a God, I am convinced he is a he, because no woman could or would ever fuck things up this badly. ― George Carlin

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. ― Neil Gaiman

You need to spend time crawling alone through shadows to truly appreciate what it is to stand in the sun. ― Shaun Hick

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily. ― François de La Rochefoucauld

Do not sit still; start moving now. In the beginning, you may not go in the direction you want, but as long as you are moving, you are creating alternatives and possibilities.’ ― Rodolfo Costa, Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes

It is never too late to be what you might have been. ― George Elliot.

Being there for someone when they need you, that’s all relationships are. ― That Awkward Moment.

Remember: It costs nothing to encourage an artist, and the potential benefits are staggering. A pat on the back to an artist now could one day result in your favorite film, or the cartoon you love to get stoned watching, or the song that saves your life. Discourage an artist, you get absolutely nothing in return, ever. ― Kevin Smith, Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good

Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent. ― Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you put effort into your self and people will put effort into you

We find comfort in those who agree with us - growth among those who don’t. ― Frank Clark

Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition. ― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain. ― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

You wanna make a splash? Part the Red Sea. ― Harvey Spector

In a gentle way, you can shake the world. ― Mahatma Gandhi

Silence only perpertuates more silence

“Jesus, you’re so bloody…forward.” “You don’t get anywhere in life by going backward.”

I know that this woman isn’t just a prostitute, she is an heir. I know that this precious woman is a princess and was worth the King of kings to die for her. I know that she is worth more than $20 dollars for 4 hours and that she is treasured beyond belief. I know that she is valued and loved to an extent I will only know in heaven. (A Christian article I read a while back)

I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel ― Maya Angelou

Name one thing you can’t live without. Emma Stone: Love. In whatever form it takes.

It would make more sense to have birth control for men because .. There’s a better chance to shoot on an empty gun than to shoot a bullet proof vest.

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.

i’m still not sorry but I understand.

Don’t wait for the future. it’s all hit or miss

Do what you can for as long as you can

Visual escapes are crucial only due to the psychological factor it pertains

I love my community so i wanna help it

Education should never have a political agenda.

“She stared into the fire for some time, thinking about what she had in her life, and what she had given up; and whether it would be worse to love someone who was no longer there, or not to love someone who was.” ― Neil Gaiman

As for courage and will- we cannot measure how much of each lies within us; we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry us through the trials which may lie ahead. ― Andre Norton

A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous. ― Alfred Adler

Is the holocaust an aberration or reflection of who we really are.

I found myself surrounded by people who celebrated intellectualism and engagement and who thought that my ironic oh so cool disengagement wasn’t clever or funny but like it was a simple and unspectacular response to complicated and compelling problems. ― John green

Just because you’ve done something throughout your life, it doesn’t let you off the hook for it. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. Stop using familiarity as an excuse.

You’re doing what you can and that’s all that matters.

Treat yourself like you would treat a small child.

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over again. ― F Scott Fitzgerald

“I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream”

The only thing you need to do anything is the time and motivation

Adjust your sails according to the wind

“Then suck it up, take responsibility for your own mess. And get your head back in the game. ”

Learn something with the intention of teaching it.

You’re the only person who has control over who you become.

Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

‘When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow’

“Need covers itself with love … but need is never love. Always beware of the one who needs you. There is always a want behind a need, you see” ― J Lynn Armentrout

“If you’re not scared, then you’re not taking a chance. And if you’re not taking a chance, what the hell are you doing anyway!” ― Ted Mosby

This is the problem I have with religion, people do too may things in the name of belief, or worse use it to prevent others from exploring external possibilities.

So here’s my advice study broadly and without fear. Be vigilant in the struggle towards empathy ― John Green

Being afraid isn’t a weakness, Alex. It’s only a sign of something you must overcome.” ― J Lynn Armentrout

“We would all believe in God if he served our every whim. Belief is not about an easy life. Belief is soemthing you have regardless.”

“Sit down, take a deep breath. And let mommy take care of it… just like she always does.”

Small mishaps don’t count a fuckups by the way -me

It’s not a problem, its challenge

Take the game seriously, but remember it’s just a game

“Even when you grow up and move away, its important to come home. Ok?”

It doesn’t get easier… it gets manageable.

Don’t set off running unless you can see the finish line.

Are you strong enough to carry your secrets

Escape-based choices are almost always disastrous, because they solve only half the problem. Target-based decisions at least have a shot at being successful, so keep that in mind every time you have a significant choice to make. Don’t be pushed away from what you don’t want; let yourself be pulled toward what you do want. I’m not saying your end goals can’t change—of course they might. But don’t tell yourself, “So what if this isn’t what I’d hoped for? Heck, it beats what I’ve got.” You deserve better.

Understand that there are no “wrong” decisions.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences. ― Robert Green Ingersoll

“The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Clarity and focus doesn’t always come from God or inspirational quotes. Usually, it takes your mother to slap the reality back into you. ― Shannon L. Alder

The mother memories that are closest to my heart are the small gentle ones that I have carried over from the days of my childhood. They are not profound, but they have stayed with me through life, and when I am very old, they will still be near … Memories of mother drying my tears, reading aloud, cutting cookies and singing as she did, listening to prayers I said as I knelt with my forehead pressed against her knee, tucking me in bed and turning down the light. They have carried me through the years and given my life such a firm foundation that it does not rock beneath flood or tempest. ― Margaret Sanger

It really takes the pressure off if you understand that every experience you have, whether you characterize it as “good” or “bad,” is exactly the experience you need to have at that moment. Some choices may lead to more painful lessons than others, but living life in fear of living life is no way to live.

When I was trying to decide whether or not to go on my trip, I had a friend who flipped a coin and made me commit to the outcome. Life involves some risk. Flip the coin and see where it leads you.

William Parrish: I thought I was going to sneak away tonight. What a glorious night. Every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly perfect memory. Sometimes we had our ups and downs. But we’re all together, and you’re mine for a night. And I’m going to break precedent and tell you my one candle wish: that you would have a life as lucky as mine, where you can wake up one morning and say, “I don’t want anything more.” Sixty-five years. Don’t they go by in a blink?” ―Meet Joe Black

William Parrish: I want you to know how much I love you, that you’ve given a meaning to my life that I had no right to expect, that no one can ever take from me.

Susan Parrish: Dad…

William Parrish: No! I love you so much. And I want you to promise me something. I don’t want you to ever worry about me. And if anything should happen, I’m gonna be okay. And everything’s gonna be all right. And I have no regrets. And I want you to feel the same way.

Susan Parrish: I love you, Daddy.

William Parrish: That’s why it’s okay.

―Meet Joe Black

[Watching the fireworks above the party before they depart]

William Parrish: It’s hard to let go, isn’t it?

Joe Black: Yes it is, Bill.

William Parrish: And that’s life… what can I tell you.

―Meet Joe Black

Joe Black: I don’t care Bill. I love her.

William Parrish: How perfect for you - to take whatever you want because it pleases you. That’s not love.

Joe Black: Then what is it?

William Parrish: Some aimless infatuation which, for the moment, you feel like indulging - it’s missing everything that matters.

Joe Black: Which is what?

William Parrish: Trust, responsibility, taking the weight for your choices and feelings, and spending the rest of your life living up to them. And above all, not hurting the object of your love.

Joe Black: So that’s what love is according to William Parrish?

William Parrish: Multiply it by infinity, and take it to the depth of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I’m talking about.

Joe Black: Those were my words.

William Parrish: They’re mine now.

―Meet Joe Black

#sorry for the super long post but i'm cleaning out my phone and these were most of the quotes i had in it #just ignore it #q #ref #and most of these quotes are un-accreditted because i just copied it from books/fanfic/things i've heard peop #*people said #sorry again #parenting

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anuananya-blog · 7 years

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Ondu motteya kathe

Finally a movie that lives up to the expectation! Though it was a bit disheartening to see that there were so few people in the theatre.... It is a little slow paced and devoid of any masala but a brilliant piece of work! Raj B shetty is a revelation, a brilliant story and an equally amazing execution. For true Dr. Rajkumar fans this is such a lovely treat... Dr. Raj kumar is always an inspiration, the way he is portrayed and the way his songs are interspersed is beautiful. I am so impressed with the entire movie, would love to talk about all the subtle things in every scene that make this movie class apart but would not want to give away the essence of the story... I really wish more and more people would watch it in the theatre to understand what a good movie is all about. Just a couple of days ago I was reading about all the destructive acts of the so called kannada activists and the way some pseudo people were defending it....as someone who loves the language this movie touches the right chords. I am so disappointed that schools have made the language so difficult for children to learn, I say that because I feel so hurt that it has become so difficult to inspire children to learn the language...everything is about the marks now unlike in our days...to be very honest my flair for writing started with kannada and all those prizes and recognition in school and college was what gave me the confidence to be able to express myself..... I still remember Mr. Ravindra Reshme suggesting to my dad when I won a prize for my write up on Mahatma Gandhi in college that may be I should consider getting into arts stream and pursue the language...I still feel bad that I let my self drift away from writing in kannada...but my love for it is so genuine that I really get annoyed with the atrocities of the so called activists who only want to create unpleasantness for political mileage....recently saw a friend's post about his mother tongue, Tamil....how a language remains so dear to your heart no matter in which part of the world you live or how little you use it in your day to day life....A true proponent of the language will always uphold its dignity.... Dr. Rajkumar again was truly legendary and having grown up watching most of his movies and being in awe of his charisma, this movie is such a fitting tribute to the legend! Honestly his movies made such an impact and his dialogues really were so inspirational.... The beauty of the movie lies in it's simplicity and the genuine performances of each and every character....the fine details which even the biggest productions miss out on are all so well taken care of....it is not about big names, big budgets but having a bunch of talented artists putting together a master piece.... when Janardhan takes a student to the principal's office and the principal is reprimanding the student.... the simple fidgeting of the hands of Janardhan, the way camera focuses on it.... You get so much understanding of the character, his insecurities....the Facebook DPs of the hero and heroine, again, all so subtle yet so profound....each and every character is aptly cast and though it is a completely new comers crew no where you feel that they are novices! For any average person who is not academically brilliant or breathtakingingly beautiful, people can make life seem so difficult...the comparisons, the unrealistic expectations..... And then our own expectations from life....something that we get easily is never fascinating enough and probably the value of some people in life....which you never realise till you lose them....how we end up not noticing genuineness while pursuing tangibles...how ego, misplaced anger sometimes let's one lose out on exploring or understanding the value of a relationship...and so rightly conveyed, how important it is to accept a person as a whole package with all the finesse and the nuances....see the real beauty beyond the physicality..... relationships are never about perfection or right matching but how willing one is, to experience it .... each relationship is only about communication, once one opens up that channel of communication it doesn't matter if one needs words for it at all..... And the reference to astrology, as someone who is learning the true basis and understanding the misuse of an invaluable ancient art and science and condemning the commercialisation of it....it is so heartening to see this movie highlight the perils of it's misuse, so subtly. I really want more and more people to go watch this movie which is a complete original and such a brilliant piece of work. This is what kannada film industry needs, not the inspired or remakes of other languages, the mindless hero worship or goondaism movies or the so called cheap, vulgar comedies and the most idiotic song and dance love stories starring politicians or yesterday years actors sons who are so low on talent and high on money! Thank you pawan kumar for backing and promoting such a great talent! #ondumotteyakathe #rajbshetty #pawankumar #drrajkumar #kannada

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marymosley · 4 years

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Mukesh and Anrs. Vs NCT Delhi (Nirbhaya Case)(2017) 6 SCC 1- Case Comment

Court Name-SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Date of Judgment– 5 MAY 2017

Citation–

Bench Name- DIPAK MISHRA, R.BANUMATHI AND ASHOK BHUSHAN,JJ.

SUMMARY OF FACTS –

A twenty-three-year-old woman, a para-medical student, who had gone with her companion to watch a film at PVR Select City Walk Mall, Saket, on a breaking cold night got into a means of transport at Munirka transport stand to be dropped at a specific spot; One of accused persuaded them to get on a vacant transport with colored/tinted windows. Where they were attacked by six guys, one of whom was a minor, aged 17. The companion, when he attempted to secure Nirbhaya (“Nirbhaya” is the pseudonym used for the rape victim)., was pummeled and beaten by the culprits. Nirbhaya was explicitly damaged and sexually violated, her body was mutilated, and private parts were ruptured to give vent to their degenerate sexual appetite. Her intestinal tracts were pulled out, and private parts were ruined and mutilated and she became a prey to the lust of gang of six and brutal assault. The companion of the young lady was able to survive regardless of being tossed outside the transport alongside the young lady and the endeavor of the charged appellants to run over them got vain as Nirbhaya and her companion, by their slight movement, could escape from being squashed under the transport, and the appellants left them believing that they were not anymore alive. Lying exposed, as the garments were expelled from their bodies, they yelled for help and as favorable luck would have it, the late evening patrolling vehicle, a motorcycle, showed up and the said man, Raj Kumar, gave the shirt to her companion and reached the control room from which a Bolero watch van came and they brought a bed sheet and torn it in two sections and gave a piece to each so that they could cover themselves and feel civil. The PCR van took the victims to the Safdarjung Hospital where treatment initiated. Later, Nirbhaya died of various organ failure, internalbleeding, and cardiac arrest on the 29th December, at a hospital in Singapore where she had been taken to with the expectation that her life could be saved. There was a great deal of social shock because of the gruesome occurrence. There was a great deal of candlelight march, solidarity movements, and protests. The shock was not confined to India, the entire world had formed an opinion about India.

ISSUES RAISED-

Whether rape as defined under section 375 of the IPC covers the offence entirely?

Whether death penalty can be given to the convicts as punishment for such heinous crime?

Whether a juvenile committing the offence should get punishment equivalent to the adult?

Whether public outrage can influence the judgement in a case?

Whether the sexual offences against women is tried appositely in India?

CONTENTIONS FROM BOTH THE SIDES

The contention of the defense counsel was that the DNA report was deficient and contended that DNA test can’t be treated as precise as the victim had experienced blood transfusion during the treatment and when there was a transfusion of blood, DNA profiling was probably going to vary. The contentions of the defense counsel that the bite marks were stage-managed.The contention of Defense counsel was that the victim could not have given any dying declaration because of her health condition. The defense counsel and amicus curiae were reproachful of the withering announcements, saying they ought not to be considered as they do not rouse certainty due to irregularities and enhancements in them. They also argued that the third dying declaration made through signals needs believability and it ought to have been video-charted, needs substance. Convicts Pawan Kumar Gupta and Vinay Sharma had asserted that on the night of December 16, 2012, they were in the DDA District Park in Hauz Khas territory of South Delhi viewing a melodic occasion sorted out regarding Christmas festivity and they were not in the transport and had not committed any offence with the lady or her companion. Third convict Akshay Kumar Singh alias Thakur had guaranteed that he was not in Delhi the evening of the episode and left for his town in a train a day prior on the ticket of his sibling Abhay, alongside his sister-in-law and nephew. The defense witnesses brought by him were his family members including his significant other and, as saw by the preliminary court and high court, they attempted to wriggle him out of the chaotic circumstance, similar to the regular impulse of the family members. The seat saw that the DNA profile created from the bloodstains acquired from the iron poles was predictable with the DNA of the person in question. The defense counsel had asserted that the police had created the tale about utilization of iron poles, as neither the casualty nor her companion, who was likewise ambushed inside the transport, had referenced about it in their first proclamations and were not mentioned in the FIR. The contentions of the defense counsel that utilization of iron poles was not referenced in the FIR, the convicts claimed that their names were not at first referenced in the FIR.They argued that Batla house blamed got life; was let off because of governmental issues, why death for this assault accused at this point? The counsel asked that Why Parliamentarians charged in dacoity, assault and murder are not attempted by fast track courts? they mentioned that Poor get imprisoned as they cannot employ great legal advisors. in their defense, they argued that Convict Vinay Sharma is a decent student and has applied for the Air Force and did not commit the crime.Akshay is liable for his evil guardians, spouse, and youngster. He ought to be indicated benevolence. Invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s name, legal advisor A P Singh says, “God gives life and only he can take it and not man-made courts” Life imprisonment is the standard, and death punishment is a special case. Death is irreversible; the purpose of justice is reconciliation and reform. All the arguments of the defense counsel were rejected by the supreme court and the prosecution has made it very clear that it needs death punishment for all the four convicts. The prosecution has contended that there is no motivation to show the convict’s benevolence. The prosecutor says they have killed a vulnerable young lady when even she asked for mercy. The prosecutor says there ought to be ‘no benevolence for cruel convicts’. The crime committed by them was against the society.

JUDGMENT OF THE CASE

The court held that there should be consideration of both mitigating and aggravating factor and there should be a balance between the two. In this case there were mitigating factors like the dependent and ailing parents, the age of the convicts, behavior in jail, no criminal antecedents, post-crime remorse but the aggravating factors outweighed them. The court held that the conspiracy involving gang rape and murder inside moving bus was brutal, barbaric, and diabolic and the victim’s companion was assaulted and brutally beaten and robbed. Moreover, they tried to run the bus over her after throwing them out of the bus naked on a wintery night. The evidence clearly displayed that the victim’s internal organs were perforated and slayed open due to repeated insertion of iron rods and hands and caused grave injuries to the victim who later succumbed to her injuries. The convicts had also tried to destroy evidence by washing the bus and burning the clothes of the deceased after that they distributed the loot among themselves which confirms death sentence. A committee was formed and criminal law (amendment) act, 2013 was enacted to tackle sexual offences effectively. The court mentions that the mitigating circumstances were not enough to take the case out of the category of rarest of the rare case and hence, affirmed death sentence.

COMMENTS ON THE CASE

After increasing huge amounts of national and worldwide attention, Delhi’s “Nirbhaya” rape case turned into an urgent defining moment and a turning point for India’s women’s activist and the feminist movement. In the time since this case, India’s administration has found a way to propel laws and policies with respect to violence against ladies. Her case started a momentous movement, known as the “Nirbhaya Movement,” which caused to notice the prevalence of sexual viciousness against women in India. Fights, protests, and public pressure, both nationwide and global, pressurized the Indian government to make a move. They made an elevated high-level committee; run by the previous Chief of Justice of India, Justice Verma, called the Verma Committee. Their key suggestions were to enlarge the meaning of “rape” to incorporate non-penetrative sex, make new offenses for acts, for example, acid attacks and sexual harassment, and increment punishments for those sentenced for rape. These proposals were completely brought into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) through the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013 likewise called the anti-rape act. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) came out with an announcement saying that rape reports had risen, while conviction rates had diminished, the National Commission for Women finished up a need to redesign provisions for sexual assault in the IPC. These provisions included reclassifying consent, rape, and molestation.

There was the inclusion of Section 166A which covers the offense of Disobedience of law by a servant of the public, after the amendment Act 2013, where the punishment would be thorough detainment for a half year to 2 years and liable to fine.

Inclusion of Section 326A and B which spread the issue of Acid attack. The amendment Act has made it a Specific Offense under the Act, punishable with 10 years Imprisonment extendable to life detainment or fine or both. Inclusion of Section 354A, that deals with Sexual harassment and punishment for the same. Inclusion of Section 354B, that deals with the offense of compelling a lady to take off her garments. Inclusion of Section 354C, which covers the offense of Voyeurism- which is viewing a lady when she is occupied with some private demonstration including sexual acts or when her sexual organs are uncovered. Inclusion of Section 354D, which covers the offense of stalking. The Age of consent has been increased from sixteen years to eighteen years.

The meaning of rape has been broadened after the Nirbhaya Case. The Amendment Act has included more activities under the domain of what comprises rape, for example, unconsented penetration of mouth, urethra, vagina, anus with the penis or different items by anybody and unconsented application of mouth to vagina, urethra, and anus. Inclusion of Section 376 (2) (c), which covers the offense of Rape by personnel of the armed force. Inclusion of Section 376A, which deals with the offence of Rape which can result in death or vegetative state. Insertion of Section 376D, which deals with the offence of gang rape. Repetition of offences is punishable with life detainment or death. Employment of a trafficked person can pull in penal provisions also. It has additionally been explained that penetration signifies “penetration to any extent”, and the absence of physical resistance or such different resistances is unimportant for comprising the offense of rape.

The Government of Karnataka announced the dispatch of an all day, every day committed helpline (1091) to help ladies in enrolling any grievance against any type of sexual maltreatment. The setting up of fast track courts to dispose of pending cases and provide immediate help to victims. The government of Tamil Nadu likewise declared a 13-point action plan to ensure the wellbeing of ladies in Tamil Nadu. The Jammu and Kashmir government launched plans to amend the state’s laws against sexual offenses as the level of wrongdoing against ladies has been overhauled nowadays. The Himachal Pradesh government chose to set up state and region level committees to check the assaults committed against women in the state. The National Council of Education Research and Training has since created course readings/ textbooks and lesson plans concentrated on “gender sanitization,” which intend to bring issues to light of gender issues among school-going children. After the Nirbhaya movement, gender sanitization turned out to be popular and was carried out through various projects and workshops. Delhi’s taxi drivers and rickshaw drivers are currently required to take a gender sanitization course so as to renew their business license. These two-hour classes focus around showing the drivers how to respect and ensure the security of women travelers.

It is no uncertainty that administration is finding a way to decrease assault/sexual offenses, notwithstanding, no tough safeguard moves are made to stop the event of such offenses. The very underlying foundations of the law should be made more grounded before hopping over onto the branches. remedial activities may dispose of the non-conformities in-laws by deterring the accused from perpetrating such wrongdoings. Anyway, to those hardened lawbreakers or psychopaths who discover no blame in overlooking the laws, taking preventive activities would wipe out the reason for potential wrongdoing itself. It is much the same as we have standards of State Policy and fundamental rights together, we ought to have both the Act and preventive strategies of acting carefully to stop the commission of such wrongdoings. The significant ill-defined situation in the Nirbhaya case is that it does not recommends steps or strategies to be followed by police to forestall the event of the violations against the ladies. The preventive activity remembers cautious activities by police for connecting with the victim on time and sparing her from turning into a substitute in the possession of wild creatures.

Author: Swati Anand

Legal Intern (June 2020)

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sentoornetwork · 5 years

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মহাত্মা গান্ধী একটি হিন্দি ছবিই দেখেছিলেন

New Post has been published on https://sentoornetwork.com/only-hindi-film-mahatma-gandhi-saw/

মহাত্মা গান্ধী একটি হিন্দি ছবিই দেখেছিলেন

নিজস্ব সংবাদদাতা: মহাত্মা গান্ধীর ১৫০ এবং ‘রামরাজ্য’ (১৯৪৩) ছবির ৭৬, এই দুটির মধ্যে সম্পর্ক কি। আপাতদৃষ্টিতে কিছুই নেই। কিন্তু আছে। গান্ধীজি জীবনে এই একটি হিন্দি ছবিই দেখেছিলেন ‘রামরাজ্য’। ১৯৪৫-এ মুম্বাইয়ের জুহুর এক বাংলোতে কিছুদিন ছিলেন মহাত্মা গান্ধী। সেইসময় ছবির পরিচালক বিজয় ভাট ‘রামরাজ্য’ দেখার জন্য অনুরোধ করেন। গান্ধী বলেন ঠিক আছে। উনি ছবি দেখার জন্য ৪০ মিনিট সময় দিলেন৷ ছবি দেখতে দেখতে মগ্ন হয়ে গেলেন গান্ধীজি। পুরো ছবিটিই দেখলেন শেষমেশ। শোনা যায়, এই ছবিতে মান্না দের গান শুনে খুব খুশি হয়েছিলেন তিনি। পরিচালক বিজয় ভাটের সঙ্গে মহাত্মা গান্ধীর পরিচয় সেই তিরিশের দশকে। পরিচালক বিজয় ভাট এবং তাঁর সঙ্গীরা দলবেঁধে বেড়াতে গিয়েছিলেন গুজরাতের ভালসাদে। সেইসময় গান্ধীর সঙ্গে পরিচালকের পরিচয়। বিজয় ভাট ছবি পরিচালনা করেন শুনে গান্ধী বলেছিলেন, তুমি নরসি মেহতাকে নিয়ে ছবি করছ না কেন? নরসি মেহতা ছিলেন পনেরো শতকের এক গুজরাতি সাধক-কবি। তাঁর ভজন ‘বৈষ্ণ জন তো তেনে কহিয়ে জে পীত পরায়ি জানে রে’। ছিল মহাত্মা গান্ধীর খুব প্রিয় ভজন। বিজয় ভাট করেছিলেন ‘নরসি মেহতা’ (১৯৪০)। ছবিটি আসমুদ্রহিমাচল জনপ্রিয় হয়েছিল। কিন্তু পরিচালকের একটাই দুঃখ ছিল যাঁর অনুপ্রেরণায় ছবিটি করা তাঁকেই দেখাতে পারেননি।

#flim #hindi #mahatma gandhi

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technicalbaccha · 5 years

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from Bollywood | The Indian Express https://ift.tt/2pb90Zu

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eldenmcgrath44-blog · 6 years

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Finest Hotels Around The World, Autumn 2017.

The Giornate del Movie house Muto honours the half a century life of The Parade's Gone By. English film historian Kevin Brownlow's traditional oral history poll was first published in 1968. If you are attempting to choose your tank's aim at or even ToT by clicking on all of them as well as you discover you are not able to do thus, remember that you require to delegate target to left click (or whatever various other computer mouse button) under Options-Spells-Hostile, like you created for pleasant targets under Options-Spells-Mouse. In the late '90s, then-New York Area Mayor Http://Lifesportblog.Info Rudy Giuliani tried unsuccessfully to reduce methadone plans providing 2,000 addicts on the grounds that in spite of the medicine's results as a treatment, it possessed and also was an unethical solution failed to receive the hookeds employed. As opposed to demonstrating how lots of folks remained in stable of any type of specific raid participant, it chooses only one "finest" intended for the aoe cure. The concern is certainly not with narcotics treatment at some facility in Kentucky over the stretch of a couple of months. I clocked 2 hrs the initial day committed to "getting the word out" of the Landmark forum as an indication of the attendees' "integrity." If they had honesty, they would certainly, like Martin Luther Master or Mahatma Gandhi, take guts to spread out the beliefs of the Landmark Forum to all their pals, enlist them in the system, get them to follow to the famed Tuesday night finishing ceremony for their totally free promotional session. I have not observed any type of movies concerning hip-hop that are as fantastic as The Band Buck Wagon" or even Singin' in the Storm" or Seven Bride-to-bes for 7 Brothers." Those as well as several various other films employed the music of the day. Our experts possess strolls aplenty to lure you outdoors consisting of a Rail Rambler to Delamere Rainforest on Nov 5th, Ribble Lowland Rambler on November sixth and also Area Rail Walk on November 12th. After quite a long space in our program, this happening Sunday (23rd) views the beginning of our biweekly Rail Rambler travels. Join us on Wednesday, March 1st for our following Area Rail Walk when our team have a rounded walk the upper hand of Darwen.

Finally the weather is running out and also, ideally, the ground also and the customers for the weekend break are actually great so no reasons for not joining our company on our Rail Rambler to Alderley Edge this Sunday, December 2nd. Each E-M1 and E-M1 Spot II restrained chroma (colour) noise fairly effectively, leaving merely luminance noise, which the E-M1 Spot II appeared to become capable to make cleaner looking picture. Border: Multi+ Aggro just has the aggro banner added to the above three, and placed as very first in concern along with red different colors to ensure that reddish structure takes priority over all the above conditions (intended, mouseover, default dark). My version adds temperature to the slide show and also a timer to the conventional setting. The unwillingness of German judges to lock up unsocialized walking time-bombs already recognized to the police has asserted a sufferer in Perfume on New Year's Eve. I had a look at the Lawrence Tierney film, Step by Step last evening and while I assist any type of film that has its own extremely fit leading guy walk in just a swimsuit for the very first 20 mins of his display opportunity I rejoiced to find that it was actually a stylish little thriller besides that fact. But as anybody understands, who saw tv and movies "back then", Mr. Hunnicut showed up in pretty a number of film as well as television productions, evidenced due to the 86 entries on his IMDB webpage. Today the clock screen Saturday 32nd.

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1800any · 6 years

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Term 3: Final Sculpture

For this Assignment, I have taken a look at the language of the plinth and two artists that work with sculpture and how they have influenced my artwork into being that it is. The main focus for my artwork is to shed light upon the atrocities of Christianity throughout time.

Christian Terrorism and Atrocities

Gunpowder Plot

The early modern period in Britain saw religious conflict resulting from the Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches. The 1605 Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt by a group of English Catholics including Guy Fawkes to assassinate King James I, and to blow up the Palace of Westminster, the English seat of government. According to Vahabph D. Aghai, "The beginnings of modern terrorism can be traced back to England and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.” [Self-published source] Although the modern concept of religious terrorism had not yet come into use in the 17th century, David C. Rapoport and Lindsay Clutterbuck point out that the Plot, with its use of explosives, was an early precursor of 19th century anarchist terrorism. Sue Mahan and Pamala L. Griset classify the plot as an act of religious terrorism, writing that "Fawkes and his colleagues justified their actions in terms of religion.” Peter Steinfels also characterizes this plot as a notable case of religious terrorism.

Pogroms

Orthodox Christian-influenced movements in Romania, such as the Iron Guard and Lăncieri, which have been characterized by Yad Vashem and Stanley G. Payne as anti-Semitic and fascist, respectively, were involved in the Bucharest pogrom and political murders during the 1930s.

Ku Klux Klan

After the American Civil War of 1861–1865, former Confederate soldiers organized the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) organization originally as a social club, which was taken over in the next year by "night rider" elements. It then began engaging in arson, beatings, destruction of property, lynching, murder, rape, tar-and-feathering, whipping, and voter intimidation. They targeted newly freed slaves, carpetbaggers and scallywags, and the occupying Union army. That iteration of the Klan disappeared by the 1870s, but in 1915 a new Protestant-led iteration of the Klan was formed in Georgia, during a period of xenophobia and anti-Catholicism. This version of the Klan vastly expanded both its geographical reach and its list of targets over those of the original Klan.

Rev. Branford Clarke's illustration in the 1926 book Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty portrays the Klan as slaying Catholic influence in the US.

Vehemently anti-Catholic, the 1915 Klan had an explicitly Protestant Christian terrorist ideology, basing their beliefs in part on a "religious foundation" in Protestant Christianity and targeting Jews, Catholics, and other social or ethnic minorities, as well as "immoral" practices such as adultery, bad debtors, gambling, and drinking alcohol.

The goals of the KKK included, from an early time onward, an intent to "re-establish Protestant Christian values in America by any means possible", and they believed that "Jesus was the first Klansman". Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality, virtually every Christian denomination has officially denounced the KKK.

From 1915 onward, Klansmen conducted cross-burnings (adapted from scenes in the 1915 film Birth of a Nation), not only to intimidate targets, but also to demonstrate their respect and reverence for Jesus Christ. The ritual of lighting crosses was steeped in Christian symbolism, including prayer and hymn singing. Within Christianity the Klan directed its hostilities against Catholics. Modern Klan organizations remain associated with acts of domestic terrorism in the United States.

Central African Republic

Anti-balaka groups destroyed almost all mosques in the Central African Republic unrest. In 2014, Amnesty International reported several massacres committed by the Anti-balaka against Muslim civilians, forcing thousands of Muslims to flee the country. Other sources report incidents of Muslims being cannibalized.

While anti-balaka groups have been frequently described as Christian militias in the media, this has been denied by Church leaders. Bishop Juan José Aguirre said: "But in no sense can it be said that the anti-balaka is a Christian group. The anti-balaka are made up of people of all kinds, terribly enraged, and including many people whom we call the 'dispossessed' – bandits, ex-prisoners, delinquents, criminals – who have got involved in these groups and are now extending, like a plague of locusts, across the whole of the CAR, murdering Muslims". The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has also pointed out the presence of animists in anti-balaka groups. However, there have been reports that many members of Anti-balaka groups have forcibly converted Muslims and animists to Christianity.

On 20 January 2014, Catherine Samba-Panza, the mayor of Bangui, was elected as the interim president in the second round voting. The election of Samba-Panza was welcomed by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General. Samba-Panza was viewed as having been neutral and away from clan clashes. Her arrival to the presidency was generally accepted by the anti-balaka. Following the election, Samba-Panza made a speech in the parliament appealing to the anti-balaka to put down their weapons.

The next day anti-Muslim violence continued in Bangui, just days after the Muslim former Health Minister Dr. Joseph Kalite was lynched outside the Central Mosque and at least nine other people were killed when attacked when a mob, some of whom were from Christian self-defence groups, looted shops in the Muslim-majority Miskine neighbourhood of Bangui. As of 20 January, the ICRC (The International Committee of the Red Cross) reported that it had buried about 50 bodies within 48 hours. It also came after a mob killed two people, whom they accused of being Muslim, then dragged the bodies through the streets and burnt them. Within the previous month, about 1,000 people had died. On 4 February 2014, a local priest said 75 people were killed in the town of Boda, in Lobaye prefecture. In the southwest, anti-balaka militants attacked Guen in early February resulting in the deaths of 60 people, according to Father Rigobert Dolongo, who also said that he had helped bury the bodies of the dead, at least 27 of whom died on the first day of the attack and 43 others the next day. As a result, hundreds of Muslim refugees sought shelter at a church in Carnot.

In May 2014, it was reported that around 600,000 people in CAR were internally displaced with 160,000 of these in the capital Bangui. The Muslim population of Bangui had dropped from 138,000 to 900. The national health system had collapsed and over half of the total population of 4.6 million were said to be in need of immediate aid. Also from December 2013 to May 2014, 100,000 people had fled to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo bringing the number of CAR refugees in these countries to about 350,000. Amnesty International blamed the anti-balaka militia of causing a "Muslim exodus of historic proportions”. Some Muslims of the country were also weary of the French presence in MISCA, with the French accused of not doing enough to stop attacks by Anti-balaka militias. One of the cited reasons for the difficulty in stopping attacks by anti-balaka militias was the mob nature of these attacks. In October 2017, Anti-balaka militants killed 25 muslim worshipers in a mosque.

Anti-balaka groups have also kidnapped burnt and buried alive women and men accused of being 'witches' in public ceremonies.

Christianity and violence

Christians have held diverse views towards violence and non-violence through time. Currently and historically there have been four views and practices within Christianity toward violence and war: non-resistance, Christian pacifism, Just war theory, and the Crusade (Holy or preventive war). Concepts such as "Holy war", whereby fighting itself might be considered a penitential and spiritually worthy act, did not emerge before the 11th century. The concept of "Just war", whereby limited uses of war were considered acceptable originated with non-Christian Roman and Greek thinkers such as Cicero and Plato. Though this theory was adapted later by Christian thinkers such as St Augustine, the perspective was not based on the New Testament. The "Just War" concept was widely accepted early on. However, warfare was not regarded as a virtuous activity by some and expression for concern for the salvation of those who killed enemies in battle, regardless of the cause for which they fought, was common.

The Bible and violence

The Bible includes several texts regarding and describing violence. Leigh Gibson and Shelly Matthews, associate professor of Religion at Furman University, write that some scholars, such as René Girard, "lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence". According to John Gager, such an analysis risks advocating the views of the heresiarch Marcion of Sinope, who made a distinction between the God of the Old Testament responsible for violence and the God of mercy found in the New Testament.

Mahatma Gandhi embraced the concept of nonviolence which he had found in both Indian Religions and the New Testament (e.g. Sermon on the Mount), which he then utilized in his strategy for social and political struggles.

Christian violence

J. Denny Weaver, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Bluffton University, suggests as common examples of violence in Christianity "the crusades, the multiple blessings of wars, warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child', justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men". According to the view of many historians, the Constantinian shift turned Christianity from a persecuted into a persecuting religion.

Miroslav Volf has identified the intervention of a "new creation", as in the Second Coming, as a particular aspect of Christianity that generates violence. Writing about the latter, Volf says: "Beginning at least with Constantine's conversion, the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross. Over the centuries, the seasons of Lent and Holy Week were, for the Jews, times of fear and trepidation; Christians have perpetrated some of the worst pogroms as they remembered the crucifixion of Christ, for which they blamed the Jews. Muslims also associate the cross with violence; crusaders' rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross."

The statement attributed to Jesus "I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" has been interpreted by some as a call to arms for Christians. Mark Juergensmeyer argues that "despite its central tenets of love and peace, Christianity—like most traditions—has always had a violent side. The bloody history of the tradition has provided disturbing images and violent conflict is vividly portrayed in the Bible. This history and these biblical images have provided the raw material for theologically justifying the violence of contemporary Christian groups. For example, attacks on abortion clinics have been viewed not only as assaults on a practice that Christians regard as immoral, but also as skirmishes in a grand confrontation between forces of evil and good that has social and political implications."

Historically, according to René Girard, many Christians embraced violence when it became the state religion of the Roman Empire: "Beginning with Constantine, Christianity triumphed at the level of the state and soon began to cloak with its authority persecutions similar to those in which the early Christians were victims."

Genocidal warfare

The Biblical account of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho was used by Oliver Cromwell to justify genocide against Catholics. Daniel Chirot, professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at the University of Washington, interprets 1 Samuel 15:1–15:3 as "the sentiment, so clearly expressed, that because a historical wrong was committed, justice demands genocidal retribution.”

Inquisition

The Inquisition is a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. The total number of people who were processed by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000; applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560–1700—about 2%—the approximate total would be about 3,000 of them were put to death. Nevertheless, it is likely that the actual death toll was higher, keeping in mind the data provided by Dedieu and García Cárcel for the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively. It is likely that between 3,000 and 5,000 people were executed. About 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition. Included in that total are 29 people who were executed as "Judaizers" between 1571 and 1700 out of 324 people who were prosecuted for practicing the Jewish religion.

The period of witch trials in Early Modern Europe was a widespread moral panic caused by the belief that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat to Christendom from the 15th to the 18th centuries. A variety of punishments was imposed upon those who were found guilty of witchcraft, including imprisonment, flogging, fines, or exile. In the Old Testament, Exodus 22:18 states that "Thou shalt not permit a sorceress to live". Many people faced capital punishment if they were convicted of witchcraft during this period, either by being burned at the stake, hanged on the gallows, or beheaded. Similarly, in the New England Colonies, people convicted of witchcraft were hanged. The scholarly consensus on the total number of executions for witchcraft ranges from 40,000 to 60,000.

Christianity and domestic violence Violence against women Issues

Acid throwing, Breast ironing, Dating abuse, Domestic violence, outline management and pregnancy, Eve teasing, Female genital mutilation, Gishiri cutting, Infibulation, Foot binding, Force-feeding, Forced abortion, Forced marriage, Forced pregnancy, Forced prostitution, Human trafficking, Marriage by abduction, Raptio Sacred prostitution, Devadasi, Fetish slaves, Violence against prostitutes, and Witch trials, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Campus sexual assault, Mass sexual assault, Rape and pregnancy laws, Types of rape by deception, Sexual slavery were all issues surrounding the oppression of women throughout history.

Christianity and domestic violence deals with the debate in Christian communities in relation to the recognition and response to domestic violence. There are some Bible verses that abusers falsely use to justify discipline of their wives.

Christian groups and authorities generally condemn domestic violence as inconsistent with the general Christian duty to love others and to the scriptural relationship between husband and wife.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Men who abuse often use Ephesians 5:22, taken out of context, to justify their behaviour, but the passage (verse 21-33) refers to the mutual submission of husband and wife out of love for Christ. Husbands should love their wives as they love their own body, as Christ loves the Church."

Steven Tracy, author of "Patriarchy and Domestic Violence" writes: "While patriarchy may not be the overarching cause of all abuse, it is an enormously significant factor, because in traditional patriarchy males have a disproportionate share of power... So while patriarchy is not the sole explanation for violence against women, we would expect that male headship would be distorted by insecure, unhealthy men to justify their domination and abuse of women."

Christian domestic discipline

A subculture known as Christian domestic discipline (CDD) promotes spanking of wives by their husbands as a form of punishment. While its supporters rely on Biblical interpretations to support the practice, activists for victims of domestic violence describe CDD as a form of abuse and controlling behaviour. Others describe the practice as a simple sexual fetish and an outlet for sadomasochistic (sodomy) desires.

Significant numbers of Christian pastors ordinarily would tell a woman being abused that she should continue to submit and to "trust that God would honour her action by either stopping the abuse or giving her the strength to endure it" and would never advise a battered wife to leave her husband or separate because of abuse. One mid-1980s survey of 5,700 pastors found that 26 percent of pastors ordinarily would tell a woman being abused that she should continue to and that 71 percent of pastors would never advise a battered wife to leave her husband or separate because of abuse.

The American religious news-magazine Christianity Today has published articles lamenting U.S. churches for possibly making domestic abuse worse "not in incidence, but in response" due to inadequate understandings. In December 2017, academic W. Bradford Wilcox wrote for the publication, "Domestic violence is still present in church-going homes... some local churches, clergy, and counsellors fail to address abuse head-on for fear of breaking up a marriage." He also argued, "Others steer clear of addressing the topic from the podium or in adult education for fear of broaching an uncomfortable subject. This silence around domestic violence has to end.”

Cross of Saint Peter - In Christianity

The origin of the symbol comes from the Catholic tradition that Simon Peter was crucified upside down, as told by Origen of Alexandria. The tradition first appears in the "Martyrdom of Peter", a fragmented text found in, but possibly predating, the apocryphal Acts of Peter, which was written no later than 200 A.D. It is believed that Peter requested this form of crucifixion as he felt he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that Jesus died. As such, some Catholics use this cross as a symbol of humility and unworthiness in comparison to Jesus.

According to Roman Catholicism, the pope is Peter's successor as Bishop of Rome. Therefore, the Papacy is often represented by symbols that are also used to represent Peter, one example being the Keys of Heaven and another, Petrine Cross.

Anti-Christian imagery

By inverting the primary symbol of Christianity, the upside-down cross has become popular within anti-religion groups and has appeared in films such as Exorcist: The Beginning, Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring and many more.

The inverted cross is also a recurring motif in punk rock and heavy metal, where it is embraced as symbol of anti-authoritarianism and defiance (but not necessarily Anti-Christian), and is featured in the iconography of punk-themed fashion label Cheap Monday, hip-hop collective Odd Future, worn by fictional bassist Murdoc Niccals of the band Gorillaz and worn on a necklace by rapper Lil Uzi Vert.

My Sculpture

By working primarily with symbolism and he idea of the plinth and the power relations between an artwork being lifted by a plinth compared or being placed on the ground, I want to challenge the and also reveal the historical and modern atrocities of Christianity.

Artists that influenced me were Hank Willis Thomas and Yinka Shonibare. Both these artists address colonialism, Catholism and create the conversation of how the word of God has been twisted and manipulated into creating conflict and dominance within society.

The sculpture and plinth will be made from gray iron due to the fact that it is a durable, cost effective moulding metal. Gray iron also experiences less solidification shrinkage than other cast irons that do not form a graphite microstructure. The silicon promotes good corrosion resistance and increased fluidity when casting. Gray iron is generally considered easy to weld. Compared to the more modern iron alloys, gray iron has a low tensile strength and ductility; therefore, its impact and shock resistance is almost non-existent. The material I chose will be more important because of the colour and finish it will have.

It is a free standing sculpture that will be placed in the direction away (towards Voortrekker Road) from the Cape Town CBD due to the fact that more cars pass by in the direction of the CBD, hence giving it a clearer view to onlookers. The sculpture intentionally has the cross upside down in order to state its anti- authoritarianism and defiance against religious atrocities, terror and Christian domestic discipline and raise awareness about the above mentioned research. The artwork criticises the history of these events and sheds light on valuable information about belief systems.

The total diameter of the salt circle is 14m. I felt like having the sculpture according to the following measurements due to the fact that i think it is a satisfactory size in proportion to the circle and also to be fairly notices and intimidating at the same time. The scale of the machete will be 1cm:0,5m as shown by the drawing below: (can also be found on my Tumblr Blog)

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