American history X

I always found prison movies interesting. A group of men , who came under one roof, for not following the rules of the society. And how those men will behave? Most of the actions of freemen are influenced by the fear of punishment by either God or court. But how those men behave, when they are punished.

But in most of the prison movies, the protagonist is either falsely accused or did the crime impulsively. So, the emotions of the hero would be " paddling against the bad luck" or  " regretting impulsive actions".

This movie didn't follow those. The lead character, full of ego, arrogance, racism and hatred
, did the crime, went to prison, learned lessons from fellow prisoners, returned home as a responsible man, tried to stop his brother from walking through the ugly path he took.

Well, I might have said it in a boring way, but the action of Edward Norton, the gripping screenplay and photography, will leave clear prints on mind. I became fan of Edward Norton after this movie. Playing the role of a arrogant man who can't hide hatred towards other race is no easy thing.

The protagonist lead life in an illusion that, white race is superior to others. He participates in neo Nazi movement and forms a gang and started hurting others. In the world he is living, white race can't be touched, in that arrogance he kills a black guy who tried to steal his vehicle. He felt like a judge while killing him and felt proud of what he did in front of his family. All those superficial feelings vanished, when police caught him, the coldness of handcuffs brought him to reality, that he is not a God.

He might be small town rowdy, but in prison, in the presence of all those criminals, he felt helpless, scared, and started looking for friends. When he found few others like him , felt safe but disgusted by them when gang leaders of every race cooperate each other. When he expressed his disapproval, he was humiliated by them and left alone. 

He was forced to accept the fact that, life is like a prison with every kind of person in it. To beat the prison  guards or God, we need to cooperate.

When he got back home, he surprises his family and friends with his cool nature and felt sad and angry when he realized that his little brother treats him like a hero for what he did and following his foot prints.

A must watch watch drama.

Django unchained

For a long time I was waiting for a good drama movie. Somebody suggested me that it's a drama, so I watched. The movie is above average. It's by some famous director, they said, I didn't really care about that. Presence of waltz and decaprio is good enough reason.

The story is all about the friendship between a German bounty hunter who doesn't believe in racism and an African-American , and their quest to search and rescue the wife of the Blackman. It's one of those which requires empathy , but as I belong to another nation and another time, I could not really get connected with those characters. Its less drama and more cowboy style of shooting movie. Anyway, the first meeting of KKK was hilarious.

According to me, this movie is neither avoidable nor a must-watch. Shared from Google Keep

Open letter to Justice Katju

Dear sir,

Just read you blog post which argues that actor Sanjay Dutt should be given mercy.

As a normal citizen of India, I could not accept with some of the reasons you have mentioned.

The mercy given by governor or president is left to their wisdom and is not a right of the criminal. Mercy should not given by comparison. Each individual case is different.

Just acting in a Gandhi movie doesn't make him a Gandhi.

Getting married and having kids don't make his crimes go vanish.

Mercy can't be given because parents of the criminal did something good for the society.

Sunjay Dutt procured an assault rifle, which is not a weapon of choice to defend life.

I was astonished to see such arguments from a renowned jurist like you.

Regards,
Ordinary citizen of India

Life of my maid !

First let me produce my argument in the form of case study.

When we moved to outskirts  i was a kid of 5 years old.  At that time, our area was filled with huts inhabiting construction workers.As the open land became colony, some of the construction workers changed their profession to auto drivers etc etc  and their wives become house maids. Our present maid is of my age, and started working when i was in 10th class. She has two younger sisters. My mom used to teach them elementary maths and how to read and write. Among the three sisters, the youngest one is bright. She made into SC/ST hostels of Govt , finished SSC and got into nursing profession. The other two got married and continue being maids. Last month, our maid, Jyothi, broke her wrist.

When i went with my mom to visit her, i was amazed to see that, their home is not a hut anymore but a cement house. Her husband is  an electrician. We knew each other on first name basis but never actually spoke to each other since the end of our childhood, she was a good runner then. The youngest sister, moved to some other town and started working.

Now the question is, why didnt parents of our maid , made all three sisters to go to school. If that had happened, life style of everyone of them would have been uplifted. I guess, it didnt happen because, the elder girls had to work to create the surplus money , which elevated the burden of last girl.

The thing, I understood from this case is that  the general argument of OC, to remove reservation to the backward caste is highly ridiculous. The reservation offered to the backward class does not force them to accept the reservation. Many might not use that reservation due to various reasons. Change does not happen  suddenly.  In our maids case, the reservation was used by only one member. The other two had to work , to support the family. If reservation system is abandoned, the children of jyoti might not get proper education. So, the reservation system, has to be there, may be till all SC/ST members of our society enter creamy layer.Change does not happen  suddenly.

Of course , in this post, my argument is against removing reservations for backward class. I have no objection against , poor OC people getting reservation. In indian culture, for centuries, the economic status of person is tied up with his caste. So, govt adopted caste based reservation. I support abolishing the present system of giving reservations based on caste and rewrite the system so that only and any economically backward person will enjoy the fruits of reservation.

 Its funny how many girls who enjoy 33% reservation are against the SC/ST reservation.

How we perceive Govt.

Like God, or a parent. I am not joking, thats how we see govt.

For most of us govt is so powerful that, it can do anything. It is so powerful it can produce gold and currency with a wish. But thats not reality, govt is just like head of a family who manages things, or the house wife who manages finances.

Probably we should start seeing govt as a company. You cant, expect a company to buy raw materials for higher price and sell the final product for lower price and still run with salaries duly paid. Similarly , we cant expect govt to give people subsidized food, oil , travel fare and run programs like NREGA, build projects, maintain roads , military , police, etc etc . The thing is govt cant produce money by just minting more currency. The oil we are using is bought by govt and it used to sell at lower price. The same with food grains. Once the oil subsidy is lifted , the fiscal deficit will go down and govt can build few other things like nuclear reactors.

Of course, we have an argument to counter that. Kill corruption and use that money. Is it? Look at YS Jagan case. When allegations were made on him, his newspaper started spreading false opinions and a section of people are buying and reading it. Though notorious for corruption Lalu Prasad Yadav got elected many times, Raju Bhayya of UP is a criminal but got elected. How could we explain that phenomenon?