Fund Raising for 9 different causes

 Hi folks, i am an admin with Mumbai Road Runners a running community in India. This year we are raising funds for 9 different NGOs in 9 different sectors coinciding with the Navratri Festival in India next month. As you are aware, the NGOs are all facing severe funds crunch during this covid pandemic with the result that many of their projects are starved for resources. This is an attempt by us to fill in that gap, to augment the resources of these NGOs so that their programs are carried on successfully, thereby benefiting the poor and marginal people to whom the NGOs serve. Therefore requesting one and all to contribute generously to one or more than one of these NGOs. The fund raising link for each NGOs is given below. You can click on any link, which will take you directly to the payment page. All these NGOs are on the United Way platform so they are vetted properly by the United Way team. All contributions to these NGOs are tax exempt under the Income Tax Act, 1961 and the tax receipts for your donations, will be furnished directly by the respective NGO.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15409

St. Jude India Childcare Centres. St Jude India ChildCare Centres provide free, safe, hygienic accommodation and holistic support to needy cancer affected children travelling with their parents from rural and semi-urban areas to big cities to seek the best cancer treatment. We bridge the gap between free medical treatment provided by the hospital, and physical and emotional support needed by families to complete cancer treatment.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15407

Animedh Charitable Trust – The objectives of ANIMEDH CHARITABLE TRUST (ACT) are to provide support and social services to needy women and children. ACT empowers women to transform their lives by providing vocational training and facilitating income generation opportunities. ACT also promotes basic and higher education for the children, especially the girl-child.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-11843

MOHAN (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) Foundation’s mission is to ensure that every Indian suffering from end stage organ failure be provided with the ‘gift of life’ through life-saving organ. Its main objectives include creating public awareness about organ donation, training healthcare professionals in transplant coordination, counselling bereaved families to donate their loved ones’ organs.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15411

Light of Life Trust – Light of Life Trust is an NGO registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, works towards realising untapped potential of India’s rural communities and empower them through its 2 verticals – Project Anando (Education) and Project Jagruti (Community Development).

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15412

MENTAID a parents driven initiative, ensures early intervention, education, vocational training, respite care. It promotes Self Advocacy and Independence for children and young adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Through intensive training it empowers their families, 50% of whom come from the economically disadvantaged section of society.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15413

Dignity Foundation’s mission is to create an enlightened society in which senior citizens feel secure, confident and valued, and can live with dignity. We help empower senior citizens with an enriching set of opportunities & programmes so as to lead a more dignified, secure, joyful and fulfilling life.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15414

Bhumi is one of India’s largest independent youth volunteer non-profit organisations. Bhumi as a platform will enable over 12,000 volunteers in more than 12 cities across India for causes like education, environment, animals and community welfare. Bhumi is the recipient of the ‘Leader in Volunteer Engagement Award’ conferred by iVolunteer.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15408

Population First is a communications and advocacy initiative for health and population issues from a gender and social development perspective. Our key objectives are to help reduce gender imbalances in the population and work towards gender sensitive and social development oriented health and population programs.

https://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/tmm-fundraiser-15410

Habitat India beneficiaries are economically poor, low income, marginalized groups considered non-bankable, disaster affected families that includes historically disadvantaged communities. Till date, we have served over 62,025 families comprising of 297,720 individuals through our interventions in Housing, Sanitation, Access to Water and Disaster Response. We are head quartered in Mumbai.

Rebecca

 

Brilliant psychological drama movie from Alfred Hitchcock "Rebecca" (1940) starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) accidentally meets the beautiful Joan Fontaine when he is rather contemplating jumping down a cliff in Monte Carlo. One thing leads to another and soon both are romantically involved. She then becomes his second wife after his first wife Rebecca accidently drowns herself off the sea coast. Rebecca is never shown in the movie, but her imprint is throughout the movie. Her faithful housekeeper Mrs. Denvers is rather too faithful to her memories and seems to be of the devilish and plotting kind. She was too close to Rebecca and adored her too much to bear her loss too badly. Hitchcock twists the plot towards the end to first implicate Maxim with her murder and then it goes around to another tale of her sickness, or probably that she was pregnant or maybe she committed suicide or murder, the plot keeps swinging about till the end. Joan Fontaine as the girl who does not have a name in the movie looked beautiful throughout the movie and acted brilliantly as well.  Laurence Olivier is passable, The film won a clutch of awards for Alfred Hitchcock. 

Pygmalion

 George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion being adapted into a film in 1938 directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller among others. The film stays true to the play, well almost. Professor Higgins (Leslie Howard) is a professor of phonetics & linguistics, and while wandering about in lowly Convent Garden, gets into a scrap with a flower girl Eliza Dolittle (Wendy Hiller). Just then Colonel Pickering comes by, he is an expert of linguistics and dialects himself and wants to meet Higgins, having returned from India. Pickering challenges Higgins to improve the flower girl in a few weeks. Eliza lands up on his doorstep the next morning to learn from him. Then follows the most exacting phase of her life while she tries to throw away her Welsh cockney accent and to adapt a proper British accent with pronunciation, grammar, manners, etiquette etc. Higgins accepts an invitation to an embassy reception with trepidation as to how Eliza would perform. It became his obsession and luckily Eliza goes through with flying colours. Higgins thinks he has won the battle but what has to become of Eliza, where will she go back now that she has become a proper lady, she won't be able to go back to selling flowers. Higgins is unfortunately not able to make that connection.  Higgins comes across as a self centred egomaniac and for him every girl is like a subject to him, like his triumph. Wendy Hiller got nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars. Superb acting by both Wendy Miller and Leslie Howard, both stayed true to script. 

Meshes of the Afternoon

 

Meshes of the Afternoon, (1943) a short film created by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. Its again a surrealist film just like Luis Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou". A woman is seen as walking down a path, she goes to a door, finds it locked, finds the hidden key, the key falls down onto the stairs, then she goes inside the room, which is in disarray, the phone is off the hook, she finds a knife on a bread, a record player playing and then somebody is chasing her, she in turn is chasing a lady without a face but not able to catch her. The images and visuals keep repeating like in a dream. There is no meaning to the movie, its a dream sequence, and one can interpret it the way one wants. Later a man comes into the house, the same sequence keeps repeating, with the key and the knife and the lady. One can sum it as the character's thought patterns in a time of crisis. 

Strange Happenings at Landings Castle & Other Humorous Stories

 

A collection of uproariously humorous stories by Gopal Ramanan, third in his series of short stories books. Starts off with a brilliant spoof on Sherlock Holmes with some strange happenings going in Landings Castle with Lord Landings himself perplexed and requesting for Sholmes' help along with Dr. Dotson. Then there is a take on the venerable James Bond getting old, well, actually old instead of being perpetually young and handsome. Partha is then fretting with his unusually long name in the US and wonders whether he could change it to something short and sweet. Then there are a series of short essays on the author's crisp observations on life's inanities all laced with sweet humour. Written in a very simple style with narrative reminiscent of the great RK Narayan, this is a highly recommended book for light reading. Goodreads 5/5 

Ad Astra

Ad Astra, a 2019 science fiction drama movie directed by James Grey and starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tylor, Donald Sutherland among others. It is more of a psychological drama movie rather than pure technology although there is a lot of science frontiers being broken down as shown in the movie, for eg. colonies in moon, Mars and space travel to Saturn, Jupiter & Neptune. Brad Pitt (Roy McBride) is the son of Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) who has gone away to space for 30 years in search of intelligent life on the universe, in the process he has travelled to Saturn, Jupiter and now stationed near Neptune. His space station has created some cosmic ray disturbances which has affected Earth also, so the son sets out to locate his dad in the vast universe, which takes 79 days from Mars itself. Lot of emotional tug of war between father and the son later, earth is safe from the cosmic disturbances and the power surges. The movie drags a bit in the middle especially when Brad is about to reach Neptune to find his dad after 3 decades. There is no emotional re-union sort of, the Dad has more or less lost his contact and interest in Earth. The movie was nominated to the Oscars in the sound mixing category. The special effects in the movie is quite extraordinary, it is in the human connect that the movie finds its weak spot. 
 

Open Water 2: Adrift

 

An open water adventure holiday gone horribly wrong. Open Water 2: Adrift is projected as based on true events, but with the kind of human stupidity depicted in the movie, i doubt if humans can be so stupid. Three pairs of couples go on a yatch holiday out in the open sea or ocean, far away from shore. One couple has an infant daughter also on board, which itself was a risky thing to take such a young one on a ship or a yatch cruise. Four of the members jump into the water to do a swim which i thought was another stupid thing to do, who swims in open ocean far away from land, maybe some do perhaps. Of the remaining, Amy (Susan May Pratt) has a phobia for water because of an incident in her childhood when her father drowned while swimming with her. The other guy Dan (Eric Dane) is ostensibly the owner of the yatch, but later reveals that he is a fraud and that the yatch is actually belonging to his boss. What kind of a boss allows his employee to take his yatch out to a cruise, beats me. Anyway, both of them also jump into the water, without realising that nobody has bothered to put the ladder down or keep the hatch down so that people can climb back. Dan is such an idiot that he does not realise the blunder he has committed endangering everybody's lives. All of them are stuck down in the water with nary any hold or groove to climb back. Soon one after another start drowning. The movie advertised shark attack, but there was nothing of that sort, even though blood oozed from a couple of the guys. 

The General

 

Buster Keaton and his rip roaring comedy in The General (1926) one of the finest silent era comedy films of all time. Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is a train engineer and loves his engine and his lady love Annabelle (Marion Mack). When war breaks out, time comes to enlist for the Confederates, but he is rejected and his lady love also rejects him without an uniform. In the meanwhile, the Confederates are infiltrated by some spies who steal his train and make off with the supplies. Off goes Johnny after the train and some delightful comic scenes follows. Annabelle is meanwhile kept as captive by the Union soldiers and then Johnny has to rescue her, so some more delectable comic scenes. Buster Keaton's comic timings were superb in the movie somewhat reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin. Fight ensues between Union and Confederate soldiers much to the relief and joy of the Confederates. Brilliant movie to watch especially for Buster Keaton. The direction and camera work were quite superb for that era, especially shots of the moving trains and the wilderness. Who knew a silent movie would prove to be so powerfully comic. Brilliant. 

The Squaw Man

 

A 1914 silent era movie "The Squaw Man" directed by the great Cecil de Mille and the first western ever in Hollywood. It is one of those cult movies in the history of movies. Starring Warner Baxter as Jim, Eleanor Boardman as Diana, Lupe Velez as Naturich, its a story where an Englishman Jim has had to leave England to save his face and family name, following the swindling of the war regiment cash by his cousin Henry. Jim has to take the blame on himself and unfortunately he loves Diana who is Henry's wife. So all sort of tangles there. He escapes to America, where he becomes a wild west man, gets into a conflict with a local goon there Cash Hawkins, who is killed by Naturich. Later Jim and Naturich marry and have a kid. In the meanwhile Henry dies in an alpine fall accident and his dying confession absolves Jim of all the wrongdoings. Diana comes to America to reunite with Jim and ask him to take his rightful place as the Earl. There is no music, unlike in Battleship Potemkin which had great orchestral music. And with no sound, and only the few notes to let us know what is going on in the movie. Cecil de Mille made a 1931 version of the same movie, but with sound and dialogues, but that version is unfortunately not available on youtube.  

A Turbulent Mind

 

A Turbulent Mind is written from heart. Written by my good friend Swetha Amit, whom i know for a good many years. She has chronicled her journey from an unsure, turbulent, self conscious individual to a confident, determined, dedicated woman going on to conquer Ironman 70.3. Many of us are runners, marathoners, mountaineers, tennis players, footballers etc. We have seen pictures and images of multi sport people on our television, sportspersons like Daley Thompson, Swapna Barman, decathletes and heptathles, those sportspersons who compete in 10 sports and 7 sports respectively. That is for professional sportspersons. The closest that amateur individual can come close to achieving that kind of super stardom status is by taking part in a sport called triathlon, which comprises of three sports, i.e. swimming in open waters, cycling and running all done back to back with cut offs at each sport. To do that and also carry on with your normal daily life routines takes some miraculous will power and determination. Swetha did all that within a few months of reaching US on a work assignment which took her hubby there. Having to juggle sports times for 3 sports, plus strength training, stretching and then your family time, household work, shopping, etc. all in a day in the US where you don't get household help unlike in India and also to ensure that one gets adequate sleep takes some kind of planning and clockwork precision. Luckily the sport has many advantages in US where you get good open water swimming facilities and cycling lanes unlike in India. Along the way Swetha has conquered her fear of open water swimming, and hill cycling and conquered her inner demons on the way to her Ironman 70.3 medal.  Swetha has written her journey very well, very meticulously detailing all her thoughts, fears, aspirations, in a very simple language. She has written from her heart. Highly recommended for all sports persons and those planning to take up triathlon shortly.  Goodreads 5/5

Old Enough

 

Winner at Sundance Film Festival in 1984, Old Enough is a coming of age story of two young girls from contrasting backgrounds. Karen (Rainbow Harvest) from a struggling neighbourhood with a somewhat abusive father to boot, and Lonnie (Sarah Boyd) from a rich upper class society with all the comforts that her parents can give her. They meet and become friends and hang out together, Lonnie experiencing lot of things that she could never get with her rich upbringing and Karen overawed at the comforts and extravaganza of Lonnie household. Karen has a moral streak though, going to church, confessing and all that stuff   but she also has a knack of lifting things from a shopping mall. Karen's brother Johny (Neill Barry) about the same age and showing some interest in Lonnie and she getting slightly infatuated with him and all that stuff. Johny in turn becomes infatuated with a new neighbour in their building. It all happens one summer. The kids discovering new things as they grow up and their friendship with each other coming as they are from different backgrounds, that is the sum of the movie. 

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter, a 1946 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard and directed by David Lean. It got Celia Johnson her nomination for the Oscars. An interesting story of two middle aged, married individuals falling in love unexpectedly and not able to do anything about it. It just happened just like that. Laura (Celia Johnson) is a happily married woman with two kids and a doting husband, and she always goes every Thursday to the townside by train and then she shops, changes her books in the library and goes to watch a movie, almost solo, and almost ritual like. She unexpectedly runs into Dr. Alec (Trevor Howard) who is a general practitioner and who also comes into town every Thursday to visit the hospital and relieve his friend of his duties. When Laura is standing too close to the tracks and one train passes by, some girt goes into her eyes, and Dr. comes to the rescue. One thing leads to another and in no time, their Thursday ritual gets more deeper and meaningful and they both realise that are in love with each other. Both also suffer from guilt because both have families to look forward to. Its a nice soft movie, not much of preaching going on, something that happened to two individuals without any hidden motive or malice behind it. Production values were quite good for that era. The background music by Sergei Rachmaninoff was quite exceptional.  

 

The Song of Bernadette

 

Brilliantly made film on the life of Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) a girl who sees a vision in a grotto in Lourdes in France. Bernadette played by Jennifer Jones in an absolutely magnificent role befitting the Oscars for Best Actress given to her as well as the Golden Globe awards for that year. The Song of Bernadette (1943) directed by Henry King remains true to the story of Bernadette Soubirous. The film is beautifully made with superb camera work and cinematography, outstanding for that era. Bernadette sees a vision of a lady in white, while going to fetch wood for her family. Only she can see the apparition, nobody else and she communicates with the lady. Initially even her family doubts her story and so do the other villagers of Lourdes, but eventually one miracle occurs when a spring appears where there were only rock and stones and shrub, and the waters from that spring starts curing people of their illnesses. The church was initially against her, but the Dean of Lourdes starts believing her even as the higher authorities in Rome impose one commission after another to ferret out the real truth. The bureaucrats of Lourdes are totally against her and even want to arrest her on some old 1789 law. Jennifer Jones has done a splendid role, doing full justice to the character.  Eventually Bernadette is sent to become a sister. The climax of the movie is quite beautiful and sad and poignant. Worth watching for the acting of Jennifer Jones, the beautiful cinematography and camera work.   

The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes

 

The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes by William Sparks, an autobiographical true story of bravery during World War II. Its an incredible story of raw courage in enemy territory by two British officers William Sparks and Major 'Blondie' Herbert Hasler. They were part of a secret mission sent to jeopardise enemy lines in France. It was an unusual raid, because it was a canoe borne raid. It was a foldable canoe which is why it was called cockleshell. Each canoe carried two marines and there were 5 teams in all. Their plan was to paddle along the Gironde river, sneak into Bordeaux port under cover of darkness and attach mines to the German boats lined up there. Out of the 5 canoes, three canoes were lost either shot or captured. Their ambush was successful as several German ships was destroyed. Sparks and Hassler then abandoned their canoe and walked more than 100 miles across enemy territory in extremely difficult and trying conditions to reach a French village changing locations several times during this rendezvous. They eventually met the Resistance team who took them to Spain for a debriefing. Out of the 10 member squad, only two came alive and successfully, to tell a tale of raw courage. Goodreads 5/5 

Bicycle Thieves

 

Iconic cult classic "Bicycle Thieves" directed by Vittorio de Sica in 1948, an Italian neorealist film ranked as one of the greatest films of all time. The film derives its strength from its beautiful story told in a simple style. Its a post world war II Italy and work is hard to find. Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) gets an employment call to stick posters of an upcoming film, but he must have a bicycle of his own, otherwise he does not get the job. He has pawned his bicycle to meet ends of his family comprising of his wife Maria, son Bruno and a small baby. Maria manages to sell some quilts and get some money to release the bicycle. Antonio is happy with his bicycle and dreams of a big future giving comforts to his family. Unfortunately on the first day of the job itself, some one steals his bicycle and then its a desperate struggle to get it back, because he knows what it means to him and his family. Antonio does not give up the search and enlists the help of his friends to find the bicycle. The police is not of much help and neither he can spot his own bicycle in the second hand bicycle mart. As he gets one rejection after another, Antonio gets frustrated and sometimes angry at his son, for the bad luck that has befallen him. Lamberto has done a brilliant role as the angst ridden Antonio looking for his bicycle. The climax is very poignant. Both Lamberto and Enzo Staoila (Bruno, the boy) were non actors when they played this part. de Sica has used poor neighbourhood to shoot most of his shots and none of his shots were in studio. It was all realist portraying the poverty, grime and unemployment of the city in post war Europe. Many Indian film makers have been influenced by Vittoria de Sica including Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy both of whom showed poverty and angst in their movies.  The film won the Golden Globe for the best foreign language film in 1949. 

Coco

 

Wonderful animation movie Coco (2017) from the Pixar Disney combination, produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney studios. Its a story of a young kid and his love for music but his family forbids from playing any music or even going near a musical instrument, because his great great grand father was a musician and left his family to pursue his musical career and the family to fend for themselves. From then on the family has no music in its household despite having passed through so many generations and having a successful business to boot. Then there is a Mexican festival the Day of the Dead, in which apparently the dead members of the family are remembered by keeping the food that they loved and celebrating with them. The story has beautifully taken off from there into the Land of the Dead where young Miguel goes on to find his great great grand father and seek his blessings to play music. The interplay between the living and the dead has been wonderfully made during this phase with lot of adventure, daring, innovativeness, creativity with a murder plot, a suspense and a reunion thrown in, all around a deep rooted culture and a family life. Pixar's animation has been absolutely magnificent to say the least. Awesome movie to watch for all generations. 

Battleship Potemkin

 

Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 silent era film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. It is supposedly one of the greatest films of all time. Its a story of a mutiny on board a battleship Potemkin when the sailors are given poor quality meat and rebel against that. The officers round them up and order the officers to shoot them, but the officers refuse, marking the beginning of the workers' rebellion. One of the sailors Vakulinchuk dies in the melee and when his body is taken to the port of Odessa, the town erupts in anger against the then Tsarist regime. The Cossacks then come down and start randomly shooting many people, including women, children and old people. The battleship Potemkin fires cannons against the Odessa opera house and thereby signals its attention to protect the people of Odessa. Production values for the movie made way back in 1925 is stupendous. Some of the shots especially in the Odessa steps are quite brilliant.  Some of his shots have been copied by other movie directors, such as the baby pram slowly falling down the stairs in "Untouchables", With the orchestral music playing throughout the movie, it must have been a blockbuster movie way back in 1926 when it was released.    

Danton

 

A dense historical fiction movie "Danton" directed by Polish director, Andrzej Wajda in a French Polish joint production. It won the Bafta in 1983. The story takes place in 1794 during the Reign of Terror in France with Maximilien Robespierre pitted against Georges Danton. Robespierre is the fiercest advocate of the liberty of people but he has apparently turned to be a dictator. Danton is a popular figure of those times and the people are with him. Both sides have their own set of supporters. The story details that part when Danton and his friends are accused of plotting against the Republic and made to stand trial. The trial in those days were more farcical than today's which says a lot. Basically Danton is accused of sedition in today's times. But he says i conspired for peace and amnesty for the people. Some gems from the movie "The final safeguard against despotism is a free press". The press guys are not allowed inside the court room and take notes. "A defendant's right to be heard is not a privilege, it is simply justice". This is uttered by one of his party members in a kind of Parliament of those days, called the Committee. "Politics has nothing to do with justice" which sadly we are witnessing in today's times as well. "We send you Republic's enemies, your duty is not to judge them but to eliminate them" this is uttered by Robespierre to the judge, shades of what we are seeing today as well. Wojciech Pszoniak as Robespierre has done a brilliant job and Gerard Depardieu as Danton with his usual theatrics. There is not many female interests in the movie. 

Last Man in Tower

 

Aravind Adiga's "Last Man in Tower" is a story about desperate people - desperate lower middle class people wanting to go up in society, wanting the riches, dreaming of a rich future and to achieve that they will throw all the scruples to the wind. Its a story of a old middle class metropolitan housing society in a suburb of Mumbai. The building is old, needs urgent repairs, the residents are all middle class with aspirations for more. In comes a corrupt, wealthy, ruthless builder who offers more than the market price for each flat in the society. Everybody agrees but for a couple of residents - old couple Pintos whose children are abroad and a widower Masterji a retired teacher whose only son is residing in a posh swanky flat in South Mumbai. He is a principled man with lots of attachment to the flat because of his late wife and daughter. He digs his heels in and refuses to accept the lucrative offer, the other residents get desperate because of the impending deadline, while the builder is sweating because of the potential loss of his reputation, when other builders are ready to pounce upon the property. The book is too long, but the narrative is quite brilliant. Aravind Adiga has written beautifully, his prose is superb. Towards the later part of the book, it starts getting depressing and the ending is a huge anti climax. Reminded me of the 80s movie "Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho" a sort of similar story about house owners who are unable to vacate their tenants and the matter goes to courts and stays there for decades, while the lawyers start getting rich, the plaintiffs become poorer and poorer by the day.  

Nayak

 

Brilliant noir film by Satyajit Ray, "Nayak" (1966) explores the dark underbelly of a film star's imperfections. Made in black and white and starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore as the central protagonists, the film is shot entirely inside a moving train except the opening shot and few sequences in his dreams/ recollections. Arindam (Uttam Kumar) is a huge film star going to New Delhi to receive an award in a second class train from Calcutta of those days. His arrival at the train station and inside the train creates a buzz amongst the passengers. Aditi (Sharmila Tagore) is a journalist writing for a women's magazine and wants to interview him. Over the course of the interview which takes three to four sittings, Arindam degenerates his personality from a confident movie star into a insecure, distressed, unsure, nervous person due to ephemeral nature of his profession. All along his biggest fear is that three flops will take him down to the gutter. Satyajit Ray has interspersed the narration with three to four episodes from Arindam's past such as his first ever day in the films, his betrayal of his friend who becomes a union leader, his inability to help a lady who wants a career out in the movies. In one scene he is seen desperately clutching bank notes as he is sinking deeper and deeper into a morass from which even his mentor Shankarda is unable to help him. Satyajit Ray has also added minor sub plots in the movie in the train itself with one lady wanting to act in the movies but whose husband wants her to inveigle herself to a potential client who is enamoured of her. That man's wife and children are in the same coupe as Arindam and the daughter who is sick from the beginning of the train journey recovers towards the end. There is a Hitchockian touch to the movie. The to and fro between Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore is brilliantly done and Uttam Kumar's character from a confident assured movie star to a distressed despairing insecure individual is brilliantly done by Uttam Kumar. Sharmila Tagore looks glamorous and alluring when she removes her thick glasses.  

The 12 week Fitness Project

 

Quick read book by Rujuta Diwekar, although one is supposed to read it slowly and imbibe it along the way and follow the instructions from the book, which is what i did. I like her bindaas attitude to food in the sense that she advocates eating ghee, white sugar, jaggery etc. all of which are anathema to other nutritionists or diet consultants. She uses a lot of Indianised words in the book, which is the hallmark in her earlier books as well "Don't Lose your Mind, Lose your Weight" which was also a good book to read. One has to follow the instructions to the T for proper results otherwise it will not be visible, which is what happens to most of us, in the sense that we get busy with our work lives and forget to follow most of the basic principles advocated in the book. Lot of the information given in the book is very practical to use and adapt. I would recommend, read one chapter at a time, imbibe and practice solutions from that chapter and then go ahead. Highly recommended read. 

The Stranger

 

1946 psycho drama film starring Orson Welles, Loretta Young and directed by Orson Welles himself. The film has dark shades as Charles Rankin (Orson Welles) a school teacher in Harper, Connecticut could possibly be an ex-Nazi criminal by the name of Franz Kindler. He is about to marry Mary (Loretta Young) the daughter of one of the judges of the US Supreme Court. UN War Commission is after Kindler who has left Germany without leaving any trace behind, save for one of his associates Meinike who is a prisoner in a Czechoslovakia prison. Meinike is released in the hope that he will try to contact Kindler and as expected he does go after him to Connecticut. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) who is heading the UN Commission goes after Meinike in order to prise out Kindler. Wilson plays the waiting game for Kindler to fall into his trap. Nice noir movie with Orson Welles playing a super role that of a hard core, unrepenting criminal, Loretta Young as the confused and disbelieving wife and Robinson as the cool and composed cop. The film was released in 1946 which means production must have taken place sometime in late 1945, when the war had just ended with the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombing in August 1945. Quite a brilliant effort for that era, when many movie goers must not yet have realised the depravity of the Nazi concentration camps.    

Asgari Bai

 

Documentary on Asgari Bai, the rare exponent of Dhrupad in Hindustani Classical music. Dhrupad is one of the ancient ragas in classical music and as far my limited knowledge of listening to Dhrupad, i have heard only male singers rendering it, most famous being the Dagar brothers. Asgari Bai was a court musician during the royal times in the pre Independence India. She became the main singer of the Orchha dynasty in the Bundelkhand region. By the time this documentary was made, she was quite old, 86 years of age, and the best years were behind her. There were no performance by her during the documentary nor are there very many youtube videos of her singing. One link i got in youtube was this one

Documentary is nicely made by Brahmand Singh, the doyen of documentary film makers in India. You can watch the documentary at this link