Apu’s World

Hello, dear readers, if any of you are still visiting! It’s getting harder to maintain a separate personal blog when I’m also running (and writing at) a growing website, but somehow, even though I’m becoming an infrequent visitor here, I’m also reluctant to shut it down entirely. Sigh.

Every other day, I think of things I’d like to write about, and even make a note of them dutifully - yet, time seems to race ahead of me everyday. Anyways, one of the things I was thinking about recently was, how often I hear the phrase these days, “Can’t be judgmental” or “She’s so judgmental”. It seems to be almost a self-evident sort of truth, that one shouldn’t judge.

But, when I think about it a little, I feel that it is really hard to refrain from judging - in fact, it’s practically impossible. Even the most “let-live” type person is bound to have something that they abhor, isn’t it? And aren’t there certain things that all (or most) of us would judge pretty harshly? I mean, if I came across a case of child abuse or ill-treatment of domestic workers, I’m not going to be ‘chilled out’ or put myself in the perp’s shoes and refrain from judging. Would you? I certainly judge high-earning professionals who crib about paying the maid a decent living wage.

Even on less ’serious’ issues, most of us do judge, even if the specific hot buttons vary from person to person. In my case, I can think of a few things where I am rather judgmental. I tend to feel that people who read chick-lit or praise Chetan Bhagat can’t possibly be very intelligent - although rationally, I do know that reading tastes are not a barometer of everything and also that a person could be very intelligent or skilled at some things and less so at others. I judge parents whose children are consistently bratty. I also know that I do judge less as I grow older.

For instance, in my teens, I used to judge women who quit work after motherhood as “wasting their education”. Age and the experiences of loved ones have taught me that no education is wasted, and certainly, they are no more “wasting it” than the IIT-IIM graduates who sell soap and washing powder.

What about you? What/Who do you judge? Or do you manage to stay above it all?

apu In General

A quick note, folks. Who wants a copy of Zubaan Books’ interesting sounding The Bad Boys’ Guide To The Good Indian Girl? Go comment here, with your thoughts on the Good Indian Girl (GIG) - and it may just be yours.

apu The Literary life

So after ages, I watched a Tamizh movie yesterday, one which I’d vaguely understood to be a ‘different’ movie. The strongest impression that I got after watching Deivathirumagal is that Indian audiences are far readier to move on beyond melodrama and lazy screenplays - than Indian producers and directors are.

This is not a review, and the movie has been out on screens for a few weeks now - so, there are going to be some spoilers here.

Deivathirumagal essentially revolves around a mentally challenged single father, Krishna and his fight for custody of his daughter, Nila. One of the issues here is that despite taking up a challenging subject like mental disability the movie shies away from really looking at it. And it is not mild disability; Krishna’s mental capabilities are pegged at that of a 5-year old.

One puzzling example of this half-heartedness is when we are told that the child’s mother, who dies in childbirth, left her home because she fell in love with Krishna. Without meaning any disrespect to mentally challenged individuals, one has to ask what drives an educated women from a super-rich family, to fall in love with a poor, mentally challenged man from a rural background. By not talking disability here, I could not understand what the director, Vijay, was trying to accomplish. Was he trying to say that disability is not a barrier to love (in which case, he could have been bold enough to say that), or did he just mean what a character in the movie says, that ‘modern girls’ are simply content with a good-looking man?

Then, there is the custody battle itself. What a splendid opportunity to examine the basic question: does an individual with a severe mental disability deserve to keep custody of his child? There are no easy answers here; as the Judge says in one scene, custody is not just about who deserves what - at its core is the question of the child’s welfare.

Examining this would not have made the movie ‘boring’ or ‘art-movie-type’. One of the loveliest things about the movie was how beautifully it showed the relationship between the father and the daughter - that despite his disability, Krishna copes with bringing up Nila, with the help of the small community they live in. Nila is shown as sprightly, intelligent and empathetic - and in a believable manner, not in the annoyingly perfect kid mode that Indian movies used to revel in. Given this relationship at the heart of the movie, it would not have made the movie any less interesting if it had dared to take on the custody question directly.

Instead, Krishna’s bumbling lawyer team spends all their time attempting to hide his disability from the court. Thereby killing the entire premise of the movie that a mentally challenged individual is still capable of many beautiful things, including parenthood.

Through the movie, the audience sat in rapt attention - and although the first half had little filmi romance or action, no one seemed to be missing it. Nor did people laugh at Krishna - there was laughter, but it was with him. That is a sea change, when you consider that 10-15 years ago, a character like this would likely have been the comedian on a sidetrack.

Which is why it’s sad that the director did not think his audience would be ready to look at the question of disability upfront - Nila’s custody is ultimately resolved through an emotional route. The judge/ court realises the depth of their love for each other, but the fundamental question stays unanswered. Until Krishna returns the child himself to her maternal relatives - as if acknowledging the limitation of his claims.

In a way, the director plays it safe - yes, a mentally challenged parent has a right to be a parent (and here he milks our tears by playing up their love), but no, he doesn’t really, as Krishna himself seems to acknowledge in the end.

apu Media-Movies-Ads

Conservation, in India, can become a polarizing subject. Green activists are often seen as woolly-headed intellectuals, out of touch with the realities and prioritizing trees over humans. The media too sometimes present debates this way. There is a growing realization though, that it is not a question of trees over humans; that indeed, humans need trees (and the other living things that form part of the ecosystem) for their very survival. Writings on the environment that are accessible to the layperson, will play an important role in spreading this awareness.

The Sprint of the Blackbuck, a collection of writings on wildlife and conservation in South India, selected from The Blackbuck, the quarterly journal of the Madras Naturalists’ Society, is one such effort. Edited by Theodore Baskaran , himself a well-known writer on environmental issues, it is an excellent collection, that can be enjoyed equally by the layperson and someone more steeped in the academic/scientific discourse on wildlife and conservation.

Divided into 4 sections - Wildlife, Habitats, Conservation and Documenting Wildlife - it covers many different issues and perspectives. Some of the best pieces in the collection, such as M. Krishnan’s Nilgiri Langur in Mundanthurai Sanctuary, cover beautifully the intersection between a particular species, a habitat and it’s response to human-engineered conflict. Indeed, all of M. Krishnan’s writings included in Sprint of the Blackbuck are notable for the love of wildlife evident in the writing, the attention to detail and the manner in which scientific concepts such as adaptation are explained so lucidly. (Next on my reading list is Mazhaikalamum Kuyilosaiyum, a collection of M. Krishnan’s writings on the environment, in Tamizh).

Some of the best pieces of the collection are also to be found in the Habitat section, evocative writings on animals in different environments. One grouse I had with the book is that while the pieces have been picked from 25 years of The Blackbuck journal, the original dates of publishing have not been mentioned along with each piece. This is a drawback for most pieces, but especially for those in the Habitat and Conservation sections - while reading about the scrub jungle on the edge of Chennai or an experiment in conservation at Rishi Valley, it is important to know what period these descriptions refer to.

Another drawback is the absence of good-quality photographs, but this presumably, is a budget constraint. If not, it would have been good to see photographs at least for those pieces where one species of deer or monkey is compared to another, and the layperson does not really know the difference between these.

In all other respects, The Sprint of the Blackbuck makes for excellent reading and will open your mind to thinking of the environment and conservation efforts in a more inclusive manner.

apu Other Social issues in India, The Literary life

Until regular programming resumes here, some of my writing over at Women’s Web:

- The Adult Indian Woman - on the lack of autonomy for young Indians, and especially for young women

- Freedom from Fashion - on whether fashion diktats can be stifling, and the veil liberating

- And, The Other Woman, review of an anthology of 16 stories revolving around the subject.

Happy Reading, and hope to be back here soon!

apu Women & Feminism