Am definitely into reading stuff, not that much into the digital realm in that respect, I mean ebooks. Just tried a couple of digital books. And am convinced that print category has a long way to go, it's just like in the Neolithic age if w...e compare with the Earth's life. Now e versions, be it legal or pirated of every major bestseller is widely available online. Somehow that's too much acting as the teaser for the print sells. The physicality that the print version is able to deliver totally lacks in their digital counterpart. Not even Kindle is close enough to give such a experience, may be some distant cousin of it, may be. Till then we will have to wait.

 

The thing which is weird, unknown, magical, surprising, shocking, has the greatest chance to achieve virality. Not just digital but anywhere (Virality nowadays stands in direct reference to the digital medium). Suppose a horror film, the film feels more attractive till the point of disturbance is not shown, a poltergeist. A bandage trailing away behind the curtains, the mummy is not being shown. Supposedly a person whom you don't know is more interesting than a person you know well. But the catch like any other communication is that the content should be exposed to the right people.

I have read all of Dan Brown's novels, there's a striking difference between this and the rest. As those in the loop knows this one has been already commissioned to be made into a major motion picture, Dan Brown seeing the fate of Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons has written this in a more fit to screen language, though the other ones were equally cinema material this one does seem to be more pictorially richly explained. I have found some striking resemblances with Rays unfolding of a adventure plot and Dan Brown's. The information provided in this one reminds me of another Bengali maestro whose novels and articles were full of information and well researched material, Narayan Sanyal, though the new age Dan Brown is far ahead in the depth of his research. The Dan Brown's novels mostly don't segregate good or evil, it plays on the dilemma of your mind on the grey area in between, it shows both as the two sides of the same coin not far apart. Its takes you to a place where its very difficult to draw lines. Keep on Dan Brown will wait to read more of you.

On a certain winter morning while travelling in Dun Exp as I woke up, got stuck to this odd station of the Indian Railways. It was a halt and the train might have stopped for some time. It looked somewhat like the green swiss gateways as shown in certain kind of bollywood films. Couldn't believe myself. the platform without any shade based the canvas for the evergreen grandeur with lined pine tree...s. A little layer of fog did the rest of the magic. I restored myself and noticed the name of the halt. Passed through the same path a few more times but never tried to spot it. As its beauty lies in that time place person (stan kal patra), where I can never get hold of the time, and I dint want to spoil its charm

3 idiots - Dhobi Ghat - Delhi Belly - Satyamev Jayete - Taalash------These are the five products that Amir Khan has mainly endorsed during the last four years. First an out an out family entertainer, second a art house project, next a rough on the streets comedy, then a path breaking TV show and now a psycho thriller.They send us the message of his openness to experimentation with the product and moreover the medium he is attached with. Each time facing new challenges and overcoming them with new strategies. This makes him an ideal media mind to follow, who understands it as a whole in this era of media desegmentation. Wish him luck for his next, may his Midas Touch work again.

A Friendship That Changed Literature Forever.

If it hadn't been the friendship between Tolkien and Lewis, the world likely never have seen The Narnia Chronicles and The Lord of the Rings.
Professionally, they studied and taught the literatures of medieval romance and, in Tolkien's case, the background of Norse myth. And they realized that it was only quite recently that such stories had become marginalized as "children's stories." Through mu...ch of history these were tales told and enjoyed by grown-ups. Even strong warriors enjoyed them, rejoicing in their triumphant moments, weeping at tragic turns of events. These stories told them important things about life—about who they were and what the world was like, and about the realm of the divine. It dawned on both men that there was a need to create a readership again for these books—especially an adult readership.
Early in their relationship, in 1936, after Tolkien had written the children's story The Hobbit, the two men had a momentous conversation about their desire to bring such stories to a wider audience. They actually decided to divide the territory—Lewis would take "space travel," Tolkien "time travel." Tolkien never got around to finishing his time-travel story, concentrating instead on his more "adult" trilogy, in which he placed hobbits in the context of his Silmarillion stories. But Lewis did write his space books: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.
-------As derived from Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship (Hidden Spring) a book written by Colin Duriez

After the death of King Sasanka sometime in the seventh century AD the political disintegration (The Matsya nyaya – Practice of the fishes) that followed landed Bengal in total anarchy and confusion and this continued for a century. The people who had suffered untold miseries for a long period suddenly developed a political wisdom. They perceived that the establishment of a single strong authority is the only remedy against this. So without any struggle the independent political chiefs recognised the suzerainty of a popular hero named Gopala. This marks the start of the first ruling dynasty of Bengal. – As sourced from History Of Ancient Bengal by R.C.Majumdar.

She is a character in MKBKM. Her name is Gulabo. These are known facts. But the catch is in its symbolism. The purple cow initially became famous as a chimerical referent in a short humorous verse, but has since come to refer to a diverse range of other things, including sports teams, food, wine, and tobacco products, as well as marketing practices in general. Yet all these examples retain the common theme of a sense of something out of the ordinary. Now let's hope he dint come up with something more distant from the ordinary

Kolkata unlike all the other metros is growing at a very subtle pace, which is very difficult to register through our tamed eyes. You can’t get it in the balance sheets, in the political turnovers, or in the rising cosmopolitan touches. To figure it out you have to live the city with a soul to accept its typicality. Be it in the change of the para culture or in the shoppers’ dilemma there is a ve...ry fine adjustment that’s happening. These small conflicts with the custodians of older societal values give it a shape of a colosseum of a rare breed. The typicality lies in the fact that the moving forward is always challenged by its past, it’s like limping with tons of baggage, still adamant to move forward. It’s very difficult to watch this as an outsider, to register this effect one has to live like a kolkatan.

How fast do your parents understand a new technology? How fast do you do that? And your next genaration? Have you ever thought that this is in a decreasing time graph. And we might get some answer from Charles Darwin

Yesterday was going through this on TV. Yet again. The tale has ended sometimes back, but it’s a fairy tale and fairy tales can be watched again and again. It’s always a matter of great curiosity haw J.K.Rowling designed this modernized version of a fairy tale taking the facets from the age old epics and myths. It has the good win over bad, lies over truth. Prophecies told. Friendships tested. Brave souls like the knights. Yet it touches the hearts of the modern day sceptics. To me the success of this franchise lies in the simple flow of age old typed storytelling in a contemporary surrounding.

These carriages in cities like Kolkata can be and should be compared to the pirates in the deep blue seas, with their flags flying high, occasionally they join the others of their clan in a cove like gas station. They are the kings of that part of the city like any part of the sea. They may give you a ride or may get you late for your office depending obviously on their mood. To them the most precious of the jewels is the change money. They only listen to those who have change. They like to enjoy in their cove like the pirates (not mentioning the accessories). Like the British Navy the City Police sees them with deep respect. Who knows you may even find a Jack Sparrow if you are lucky

The deviations in the field of aesthetics only came up when copying got saturated, for instance expressionist movement.
All creations namely photos, movies, music, painting, bla bla bla is best rendered when they deviate less from normalcy or basic reasoning, now when this type of rendition is saturated Masters deviate, yes only the Masters, because when you deviate, you better be good at it, its dangerous.

Kolkata's Selfie when the word Selfie didn't existed.

May it be Sholay or DDLJ, railways be it Indian or Swiss, or some other, has always helped in being used in Indian Cinema. From thematic uses to climaxes the Indian film makers have always relentlessly used the ever dynamic icon that is the Railway. Say for instance Ray's Nayak, most parts in the film has been shot based on a 1st class compartment in the Indian Railways leaving out some surreal se...quences. What else matters is that Bollywood and the Indian Railways has always been the best of the relevant icons to represent India in the international arena. They have been like the two tracks of a railway line moving parallel to each other. I just can recollect the basis of this essay as in 2007 I heard one of my seniors then studying Journalism in Jamia Milia being asked in a job interview by Vir Sanghvi about the same relation described here.

Every four years it comes back. To give a chance the poorest of the poorest of nations, ones we never hear about otherwise. It renders economic and cultural stability to them, against oppression of the haves. It is a great balancing sign in... world fraternity and peace.
Every four years heroes rise from the ashes of poverty and disdain. From extreme conditions heroes get to rule the international football arena for the next few years. It's a great equalizer.
We are a country of millions, plagued with poverty and violence, we also nurture the dream to play the Coupe Du Monde, may not be in our lifetime but still. Till then we empathize with the glittering boys from third world nations like Brazil, like their battle is our own.

They say art is the response of the society as a whole to the changing times. Post independence, India gave rise to some of the linear viewpoints in politics, society, economy which were limited by the scope to register the diversions, and other micro paths that could have existed parallel to its belief. In the 60s and 70s slowly we got knowledgeable about happenings at the other corners of the wo...rld, mostly the west and started questioning many plots that were put down upon us.
Now in these 60 years span we can rate movies as the most popular and dominant art category (obviously in India). At first movies represented linear conflicts with good winning over evil, slowly it got into complex scenarios where it tried to show evil more powerful than ever. Later realised good should be the emotional variant and not the protagonist as a whole so started designing heroes with darker shades. Later they even delivered villains as the main protagonist. Then slowly we see Auteurs coming in, Indi films being developed.

This in a way can be seen as a chronological maturity being gained. On the other hand a voluntary shift to copy the West. Whatever may be the reason this shift not only affected the movies but all forms of art and all forms of social projections, and brought us to the 21st century. Now the rumble is to overtake the people whom we have learnt from. And we better be good at it.

 

This is Mickey Mouse and his pet dog Pluto. There is a school of thought that says not to find any inner meaning in comics and cartoons, another one says there are subtle messages hidden in every work for children's consumption, provided it has a certain minimum pedigree. Say for instance the works of Lewis Carroll or Sukumar Ray. Now here Sir Walt Disney injects the message of democratisation of power where a dog has been kept as a pet by a mouse. We get to see so many of these underlying messages, just need to see beyond the obvious.

It is 450 years since his death, yet Shakespeare is still the most influential writer of all time, having transformed English drama and the very language that we speak.
We hardly know about the man.
May be that this is not the portrait of the man who wrote.
May be this is not the name of the man who wrote.
May be he is sipping tea at some corner of his heavenly abode and chuckling at us, you all fall prey to the great misdirected address, just when you read me, realise me, feel me.
Still it's not the portrait or the name but the essence of the man who wrote.

Why is that among so many mutants in the X Men series Wolverine is the most loved one, is it Hugh Jackman's skills or is it the character???
In content creation conflict is the key word that sucks all attention. There are mutants more powerful than Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto, Phoenix to name a few. But what makes Wolverine truly interesting is the combination of his powers and limitations. Why are the Spidy and the Dark Knight movies more popular than the Superman ones, nobody can see himself/herself in a God, but can very well empathise with Peter Parker's teenage problems or Bruce Wayne's sorrows. Super humans who are nearer to human beings are more bankable, always have been.

"Jhalmuri" has always fascinated us not only as a tasty retreat but also as a "Process of making the end result". As a child while travelling in Indian Railways the "Jhalmuriwalla" with his hanging containers has once or more moved us to pursue his path. I even once made a prototype of that container at home and sold Rs.2 Jhalmuri to my mom. Every time I travelled in railways I was certain I will ...again be able to get a glimpse of it. Now why are these collective memories remain with us of a certain "Jhalmuri", it's not only the appetite or the taste but the process with customized mixing of spices that gives way to a mind blowing flavour. The packaged "Jhalmuri" nowadays in shops are nowhere near to that. Guess that all advancement is not essential.

In the 1890s, Gauguin ran away from Paris, family and stock broking career to paint (and bed) native girls in the tropics. Like many a troubled soul, he could not escape so easily from himself, despite great efforts to do so with the help of drinks and opium. At the bottom of his disquiet lay a longing to find what we call the “savage”- primordial man (and woman), humanity in the raw, and elusive ...essence of our kind. The quest eventually drew him to Tahiti and other south sea islands, where traces of pre contact world – an unfallen world, in his eyes – lingered beneath the cross and tricolore.
In 1897, a mail steamer docked at Tahiti bringing terrible news. Gauguin’s favourite child, Aline, had died suddenly from pneumonia. After months of illness, poverty and suicidal despair, the artist harnessed his grief to produce a vast painting – more a mural in conception than a canvas’ – in which, like the Victorian age itself he demanded new answers to the riddle of existence. He wrote the title boldly on the image: three childlike questions, simple yet profound.”D’Ou Venons Nous? Que Sommes Nous? Ou Allons Nous?” Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? – As sourced from A Short History Of Progress by Ronald Wright. See More

Benedict Cumberbatch is having a journey of a lifetime, arising from the isles of the Great Britain he took a major move into Hollywood after some minor implications when landed up the role of The Necromancer and Smaug, the dragon in Hobbit in 2012 followed by Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, Oscar winning 12 Years Of Slave, reliving Julian Assange in the Fifth Estate followed by Hobbit 2 in 2013.... All due respect to his uncommon looks and a marvellous voice he also continued the Sherlock fever on the BBC series from 2010 till now. He had a blast at the 2014 Oscars which might just be the net practice for the next year's where he will have The Imitation Game in as Alan Turing's epic role and Hobbit 3 in the desserts section.