काया परिवर्तन की टीक टीक घड़ी........

See the movie clip

काया परिवर्तन की टीक टीक घड़ी,
जब मेढकों ने पहनी थी घोड़े की नाल,
जहाजों में किया था सफ़र,
ढूंढें थे नगर जहाँ सापों का डर  नहीं था,
जब अंगूठे पे छापा था भविष्य पुराण,
टैडपोलों ने प्रश्न किये थे 
किसी अक्ल की क्या वजह है,
किसी  शक्ल की क्या वजह है,
क्या इस दादुर की हरी खाल के भीतर,
किसी टैडपोल  का मन बसा है,
उन जातीय स्मृतियों  के रिवर्स यात्रा के दौरान,
मैं आतंककारी टैडपोलों  के संपर्क में आया,
वहा टर्रों के सम्राट कम्पयूटर  का  साम्राज्य था.
आतंककारी टैडपोलों ने मेंढक बनने से इनकार कर दिया था,

Gharib -E- Ashena(Familiar Stranger) an Iranian Song by Googoosh

You came from an unknown city, a city without any sign
You came on a white horse of kindness
You came from far way lands across dusty roads
You came looking for someone who understands you
As soon as you arrive covered in dust
All my waiting ends with spring
It's so good seeing you, it's so good you staying
It's so good when I wipe away the dust off your body

Familiar stranger, come. I love you
Take me away with you, to the land of fairytales
Take my hands in your hands
How good is our roof, when its one for two of us
I'll be waiting till you come back to me again
I'm in a prison, but with you I am free

ZAMEEN

ZAMEEN is the first major performance from The DAM(N) Project, a large-scale interdisciplinary art venture that connects Australian and Indian communities around the common concern of global water security. ZAMEEN presents the lives of remote communities in the Narmada Valley of North India, displaced by large-scale dam development securing hydropower for Indian cities. This holistic project integrates innovative technology, diverse community perspectives and true stories of resilience to create an immersive performance combining projections, choreography and multi-channel soundscapes.

चेंद्रू भी मर गए, गुमनामी में ही मरते हैं ऐसे कई नायक

चेंद्रू भी मर गए। लकवे के कारण उनका पूरा शरीर जड़ हो गया था, उमर भी कोई 76 साल हो गई थी। हकीकत तो यह है कि चेंद्रू को खुद भी नहीं पता था कि वह क्या थे? उनके पास कई यादें थीं 50-60 साल पहले की। जब देश-विदेश से कई लोग केवल उन्हें देखने और फोटो खींचने आते थे, वह अचंभित रहते कि आखिर उनमें ऐसा क्या है? आज उनकी मौत पर समाज भी यही पूछ रहा है कि उस मुरिया आदिवासी में आखिर ऐसा था क्या कि उसे याद किया जाए?

Come And See The Blood In The Streets:Pablo Neruda

Chile Street Art

Listen 

You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs?
and the poppy-petalled metaphysics?
and the rain repeatedly spattering
its words and drilling them full
of apertures and birds?
I’ll tell you all the news.

I lived in a suburb,
a suburb of Madrid, with bells,
and clocks, and trees.

युगन युगन हम योगी ...

Click the image to listen the song

अवधूता युगन युगन हम योगी
आवै ना जाय मिटै ना कबहूं
सबद अनाहत भोगी
सभी ठौर जमात हमरी
सब ही ठौर पर मेला
हम सब माय सब है हम माय
हम है बहुरी अकेला
हम ही सिद्ध समाधि हम ही
हम मौनी हम बोले
रूप सरूप अरूप दिखा के
हम ही हम तो खेलें
कहे कबीर जो सुनो भाई साधो
ना हीं न कोई इच्छा
अपनी मढ़ी में आप मैं डोलूं
खेलूं सहज स्वेच्छा

Where Are You Really from?

Sociological Cinema

In the U.S. people are often asked where they are from, but Asians, Latinos and other people of color often share the distinction of being confronted with a follow up question: "No, I mean where are you really from?" It is useful to examine what this common exchange reveals about how whites draw on race as a means of navigating and reasserting symbolic boundaries between insiders and outsiders, or between substantive citizens and non-citizens. This ridiculous scenario is humorously reenacted in the above comedy sketch, which features an Asian woman sharing a casual conversation with a white man. The man asks her where she is from, but after the woman explains she is from San Diego, the man becomes confused and attempts to clarify, "No, I mean, where are you really from?" His awkward questioning about the woman's "true" origin is a symptom of what law professor Frank H. Wu refers to as the "the perpetual foreigner syndrome." As Wu points out, when a person asks, "why aren't you married?" they are clearly signaling a measure of disapproval, and similarly, the question, "Where are you really from?" communicates something more than a curiosity about one's place of birth (see also, "My, you speak English so well!"). The question constitutes an effort to catalog a person on the basis of a perceived racial difference, but the effect of asking the question is exclusion, and as such, it can be understood as a microaggression, a term that refers to the “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color” (Sue, et. al. 2007). The comedy sketch also serves as a means of broaching an important discussion about how this type of symbolic exclusion is part and parcel of a much broader historical pattern. To name just one particularly vulgar example, during the Second World War, Japanese Americans living on the U.S. West Coast were forced from their homes and relocated toconcentration camps. Irrespective of whether they immigrated or were born in the United States, high ranking military officials and state representatives joined media columnists in amplifying the viewpoint that Japanese Americans were perpetual foreigners who could not be trusted. Despite living in the United States their entire lives, many assumed Japanese Americans were not really Americans.

Neoliberalism, or the catastrophic management of catastrophe

By Jerome Roos 

There is no doubt Warren Buffet was right when he said that his side is making and winning the global class war. The question is: for how much longer?

Neoliberalism is the chaotic theory of economic chaos, the stupid exultation of social stupidity, and the catastrophic political management of catastrophe.

— Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN

Bertolt Brecht vs. House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)

Bertolt Brecht appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) on October 30, 1947. Brecht’s testimony consisted of wry jokes and evasions. He played dumb and frequently blamed sloppy translation for the committee’s ‘misunderstanding’ of his work and his politics. Nonetheless, Brecht was praised by HUAC chair Rep. John Parnell Thomas (R-NJ) for his cooperativeness. Brecht flew to Zurich the day after the hearing.

Partial transcripts with audio recordings can be found online at WikiSource andhere. A brief video can be found on YouTube

"Aaj ki Raat bhaut garam hawa chalti hai" by Kaifi Azmi

Balrah Sahni Reciting the poem from movie"Sone ki Chidiya

आज की रात बहुत गरम हवा चलती है
आज की रात न फुटपाथ पे नींद आयेगी ।
सब उठो, मैं भी उठूँ, तुम भी उठो, तुम भी उठो
कोई खिड़की इसी दीवार में खुल जायेगी ।

ये जमीन तब भी निगल लेने पे आमादा थी
पाँव जब टूटी शाखों से उतारे हम ने
इन मकानों को खबर है ना मकीनों को खबर
उन दिनों की जो गुफाओ मे गुजारे हम ने ।

The Fall of the Rupee:Prabhat Patnaik

India Today

AT the end of the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde in his famous play The Importance of being Earnest had talked of the precipitous fall in the value of the Indian rupee. Well over a century later alas, the Indian rupee is still falling, its latest fall as precipitous as any in Oscar Wilde’s time. On July 12, 2011, the exchange rate was 44 rupees to a US dollar; by end-June 2013, it has plummeted to 60 rupees per US dollar, a 27 percent decline in two years.

The Feminization of Farming

Photo Credit: India Program Director, Rucha Chitnis

Oliver De Schutter

ACROSS the developing world, millions of people are migrating from farms to cities in search of work. The migrants are mostly men. As a result, women are increasingly on the front lines of the fight to sustain family farms. But pervasive discrimination, gender stereotypes and women’s low social standing have frustrated these women’s rise out of poverty and hunger.

Big Brother is Watching

Economic and Political Weekly

The suspicion among internet democracy and civil liberty activists that the behemoth databases and servers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Skype have for long been used by intelligence agencies in the United States (US) now stands confirmed. Edward Snowden, a contractor for the secretive US National Security Agency (NSA), bravely leaked confidential and classified documents to The Guardian in early June which confirmed the existence of an electronic surveillance programme code-named PRISM. Launched in 2007, PRISM enabled the NSA to perform in-depth surveillance on electronic communications and data by accessing servers of several “participating technology companies”.

Ship of Theseus

Ship of Theseus is a three part screenplay exploring questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a young stockbroker.

If the parts of a ship are replaced, bit-by-bit, is it still the same ship? An unusual photographer grapples with the loss of her intuitive brilliance as an aftermath of a clinical procedure; an erudite monk confronting an ethical dilemma with a long held ideology, has to choose between principle and death; and a young stockbroker, following the trail of a stolen kidney, learns how intricate morality could be.

This is the first feature length film by writer and director Anand Gandhi, and is screening at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival, where Anand is also a judge

Text: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/ship-of-theseus3a-anand-ghandi/4746594

Jawan, Jungle and Janata

Saumitra Bose,The Times of India          

Dantewada a house is checked for a suspected Maoist:Outlook

Despite his boyish look, Gadchiroli superintendent of police Mohd Suvez Haque, 35, led the force into the jungle against Naxalites.

A BE in chemical engineering from Raipur, Haque then went on become an officer of Indian Police Service of 2005 batch. He was SP in Gondia district, also a Naxal-affected district, before taking up the reins in Gadchiroli last year. Haque, who also holds a master's degree in police management, has been instrumental in the major comeback made by the security forces in Gadchiroli after the debacles of 2009 when 51 police personnel were eliminated by the rebels. This year, police eliminated 17 Naxals and Haque was instrumental in surrender of around 33 former guerrillas.

Change in Maoist strategy..

  Tracking cellphone towers has been one of the most effective means to zero in on the Maoists so far. The use of phones has spelled doom for top-notch Maoist leaders like Kishenji and Azad. Realising that cellphones are turning out to be their Achilles' heel, the rebels have now resorted to the ancient mode of communication - letters written in code words. The move has posed a major hurdle for the police since the cops are now finding it difficult to access the movement of the red brigade.

Though the security forces are not ready to divulge details of the words they have been successful in decoding, a top-level CIF ( Counter Insurgency Force) officer said the Maoist use words like 'ilish maach' (hisha fish) for human target and 'trainer awaz' (sound of the train) to indicate firing by the security forces.

"The use 'tiffin baksha' (tiffin box) is used to hint at landmines and 'dhulo' (dust) to identify gunpowder. After the death of Kishenji, the Maoists have become very cautious. They are not only lying low - avoiding any kind of interaction with the media - they are frequently changing their codes and strategy. 'Ilish maach' three months back meant 'human target'. But now the same word might stand for something else. These frequent changes are not letting the security forces gather enough information on the rebels," the officer said.

"Initially, the letters seemed very irrelevant but gradually we came to understand that all the letters are written in code languages. We could decode some of them," an officer involved in anti-Maoist operation said.

Speaking on the strategies adopted by the Maoists in recent times, he added: "They are evolving their tactics and every time they are coming out with surprise moves. It is really difficult to understand their tactics and by the time we get hold of any clue, they develop a new method."
When asked about recent position of the rebels in Bengal after the Chhattisgarh massacre, a senior officer said: "Undoubtedly, there are some movements in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore but the movements are not that strong. In fact, they are more into building organisation than countering the state force now. They are trying to avoid any kind of confrontation unless they are forced to do so.                                                                                                                                                         

Manto’s human psyche

Farooq Sulehria

Three years before his death,Saadat Hasan Manto “undertook to compile a book of his friends’ observations about his personality” so that his readers “know as much about him as possible through the eyes of those who knew him well”, says Ayesha Jalal. Manto, according to Ayesha Jalal, named the proposed book ‘Nakhun ka karz’ (A nail’s debt).

Venezuela Promotes Breastfeeding over Baby Food...

Tamara Pearson- Venezuelanalysis.com,

Venezuela’s national assembly is debating a reform to its breastfeeding law which could see baby food companies like Nestle fined in certain situations. The corporate media have reacted hysterically to the law, claiming that President Nicolas Maduro is “taking bottles from babies’ mouths”.

Though breastfeeding is widely promoted by the Venezuelan government, and public breastfeeding is relatively de-stigmatised, a study by Venezuela’s National Nutrition Institute (INN) between 2006 and 2008 showed that only 55% of mothers exclusively breastfed when their baby was born, going down to 20% when their baby was three months old, and 11% by six months.

Violence against women causes "global health epidemic"

(Reuters) - More than a third of all women worldwide are victims of physical or sexual violence, posing a global health problem of epidemic proportions, a World Health Organization report said on Thursday.

Oscar Wilde Quotes

Rabindra Sangeet-Eso Eso Amar Ghore Eso(Chhaya Surjo)

>esho amar ghåre aamar ghare
  Come to my home dear, to my home 

>bahir hoe esho tumi je acho åntåre
  from the deepest recess of my heart 

>såpån duar khule esho arun aloke 
  opening the doors of my dream like a sunshine in the morning 

Should I criticize my son for supporting communism?

My 16 year old son is a supporter of communism, but mainly because he's studied up on it through books and online research, and talking to his grandfather who is from the former Soviet Union. Somehow or other, we got into an argument about politics and I more or less told him he wasn't right to support communism (he persists he supports the "real" kind). Well, long story short, I feel somewhat bad for criticizing him. Was I right, or should I allow him to continue his support of it?

From what I can observe, he isn't a full blown radical but a moderate supporter. An old Soviet flag which his grandfather gave him hangs on his wall along with a poster of Lenin.

Caste plays dominant role in Pak elections

Sameer Arshad:The Times of India

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a four-time Pakistan Muslim League (N) parliamentarian, downplays the importance of biradari (caste) factor in the May 11 elections and counts on his party's popularity to see him through. Yet as a hardnosed politician, he has the biradari breakup of his Murree-Kahuta constituency near Islamabad at his fingertips - Rajputs 30% and the rest Jats, Arians, Gujjars etc

The arithmetic is crucial as the factor has a strong impact on elections particularly in rural Pakistan and more so in Punjab that accounts for 55% national assembly seats. Rajputs are dominant in northern Punjab, where Abbasi's constituency is located, followed by Jats in central and Balochs in the province's south. The Peoples Party (PPP)-led government had a Rajput prime minister and a Jat as his deputy before it demitted office in March. The Bhuttos, who founded and have led the party, are of Rajput ancestry.

Review of Nivedita Menon's "Seeing like a Feminist"

Sunita Pathania,The Sunday Tribune

Feminism is an understanding of the ways in which men and women are produced and inserted into patriarchies. It recognizes that hierarchical organising of the world around gender is the key to maintaining social order. Feminism also acknowledges that in addition to gender based injustice, multiple structural inequalities define the present social order. Hence destabilisation of established social order is not only desirable but possible as well. Thus, in its questioning of the status quo, the feminist perspective is a “gesture of subversion towards power’.

Nivedita Menon’s Seeing Like a Feminist has as its core focus the analysis of several issues that concern feminist politics and activities in contemporary India at the conceptual level.

Rapes 'caused by lack of toilets'

Amarnath Tewary:BBC


Most of the cases of rape of women and girls in India's Bihar state occur when they go out to defecate in the open, police and social activists say.

Some 85% of the rural households in the state, one of India's poorest, have no access to a toilet, a study says.

The police reported more than 870 cases of rape in Bihar last year.

Women empowerment in Pakistan

Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh government on Thursday launched comprehensive policy document focused on institutionalising women empowerment and creation of enabling environment for women to realise their potential in all spheres of life.

Caretaker Sindh Minister for Women Development, Anis Haroon on the occasion said there was a need to end the cynicism prevalent in certain sections of the society about implementation of women friendly laws and policies in the country.

"I agree that the process of implementation is slow yet these laws have largely benefited the women," she said.

The minister, also a senior women activist, particularly referred to the amendment in Hudood Ordinance, in 2006, that led to much needed procedural change providing massive relief to women wrongly implicated in Hudood cases.

Haroon said the interim government, despite its limitations that also include paucity of time will also ensure that procedural hindrances in enforcement of public friendly laws are addressed and that the concerned sections are also provided needed relief.

In this context, she said protection committees, an essential requirement under the law for elimination of child labour would also be constituted, without any unnecessary delay. APP 

Dalit Representation in Bollywood

Harish S. Wankhede

The celebration of 100 years of Bollywood needs to be reviewed from a subaltern perspective. The general assumption that cinema is a normal mode to produce anecdotes to satisfy the entertainment quotient of the people should go through a critical scrutiny. Films as artistic expression cannot be devoid of their politico-ideological objectives. Hence, from a Dalit perspective when one enquires about their space during the past one century of the film world, only a handful of non-decrepit, obscure examples are presented. Caste as a peculiar Indian reality is an acceptable fact but it is often cast away by the Bollywood filmmakers.

Bollywood’s first decade after Independence responded quite significantly to the modernist-socialist outlook. The rich and social elites were presented as insensitive towards the poor, selfish in their endeavours, greedy at their core and also violent with animalist instinct. The poor, city dwellers and village commoners were lovable, honest and stood in defence of ideals. Raj Kapoor as the humble city dweller of Awara (1951), Dev Anand as the unemployed charming youth in Kala Bazaar (1960) and Dilip Kumar as the rustic and raw struggler of the village in Naya Daur (1957) became the mascot of the common people’s aspirations.

What Path to Salvation? by B.R.Ambedkar

Speech delivered by Dr. Ambedkar to the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference, 31st May 1936, Bombay. Translated from the Marathi by Vasant W. Moon. The typescript of the translation, with handwritten emendations, was presented by the translator to Eleanor Zelliot on 25 January 1988.


What Path to Salvation?

1 Ladies and Gentlemen

2 The Material Aspect of Conversion 

3 This is a Matter of Class Struggle

The past & present of Indian environmentalism

Keshav

By Ramachandra Guha

On the 27th of March 1973 — exactly 40 years ago — a group of peasants in a remote Himalayan village stopped a group of loggers from felling a patch of trees. Thus was born the Chipko movement, and through it the modern Indian environmental movement itself.

Splendour in the Grass by William Wordsworth

                         By ShaleyRenee.

What though the radiance
which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

Nasiruddin Shah and Smita Patil in Movie "Baazar"

Arundhati on The God of Small Things

Ambedkar Speech in The Constituent Assembly

Caste and corruption in modern India

 Author:Niladri Ranjan Ray

Controversy surrounding remarks on caste made by renowned sociologist Ashis Nandy in January drew public ire, particularly from the Dalits (former untouchables) and Adivasis (indigenous peoples) [2] of India.

Language and Class in Pakistan

Around 3,000 languages are endangered, seriously endangered or dying in many parts of the world. Despite the fact that the state lays emphasis on a unified ‘Pakistani culture’ and Urdu as the national language, Pakistan is a multicultural and multilingual country. The refusal to see this reality saw the rise of the first language-based movement in former East Pakistan, which challenged the very foundation of the ideology of a ‘single Muslim identity’. And today, a strong language-based sentiment prevails in certain sections of society and among oppressed nationalities.

When a man falls in love with a mannequin

This film deals with the characters that remain unnoticed in this era of globalization. These are the human beings surviving in the opposite direction of the stream. These little businessmen-like hawkers, street performers are rapidly going extinct from our vicinity due to the constant pressure of the market. They don't carry big brand names behind them but they are creative  enough to color our life with their magnificent performances. They are often treated as garbage of this society but they have something special to say about their aspirations and dreams. Krishna earns his bread by performing as a living statue on the streets of Kolkata. The only people in his life are his Uncle (Nepal Kaka), his friend Rasu and a beautiful mannequin with whom he is incurably infatuated. Krishna's dream shatters when instead of his beloved he finds a headless mannequin. He madly scours the streets to see her again. Nepal Kaka breathes his last, ironically while performing as a statue and Rasu's play at drugs spirals into addiction leading to his death in a freak accident. Having lost his love and friend, life becomes an agony for Krishna. Written by Bikramjit Gupta

Source:IMDB

‘Woman Pianist’ Songs

1. Jawaan hai mohabbat haseen hai zamaana (Anmol Ghadi, 1946):  

2. Tum apna ranj-o-gham (Shagoon, 1964): 

3. Sab kuchh lutaake hosh mein aaye (Ek Saal, 1957): 

4. Yahaan main ajnabi hoon (Jab Jab Phool Khile, 1965)

5. Dheere-dheere machal ae dil-e-beqaraar(Anupama, 1966)

6. Chehre pe khushi chhaa jaati hai (Waqt, 1965): 

7. Tera jaana dil ke armaanon ka (Anari, 1959)

8. Ae dil dekhein hain humne (Shriman Satyawadi, 1960)

9. Tum jiyo hazaaron saal (Sujata, 1960)

10. Dil se milaake dil pyaar kijiye (Taxi Driver, 1954)

SOURCE:http://dustedoff.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/ten-of-my-favourite-woman-pianist-songs/

Rain Drops keep falling on my head

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit

Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
So I just did me some talkin' to the sun
And I said I didn't like the way he got things done
Sleepin' on the job

Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
But there's one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me

It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me