The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox. Awesome recipes do make good movies. And this one was different.

The movie runs high on emotions...feelings of loneliness in life of a man who is on the brink of getting retired...a wife whose husband doesn't have time for her and an orphan who has struggled through his life shuffled through various jobs and countries....

The characters which make the spices of the entire recipe are those which one can relate to in their day to day life. A government claims executive who has worked for 35 years in the same department without committing a single mistake-the character portrayed by Irfan khan.....A wife whose husband doesn't have time to spent with his family-character of Nimrita Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui-an orphan who has struggled to earn a living for himself....

The Lunchbox itself becomes a character in the movie which plays the mediator between the two lead characters. It becomes the chord which relates them. Both the characters wait eagerly for the lunchbox to arrive... so eagerly that at times it becomes difficult for them. For both these characters who are living their lives in loneliness it forms a means to share their feelings and stories with one another........and ultimately it does add taste to their lives.

The movie is probably the best movie of bollywood in recent times.

India: Of Politics and Religion

There is allot of tension going on in UP these days over the 'Ayodhya Yatra' being organised by BJP/VHP/RSS. The government has opposed the Yatra wheras the other parties have said they will conduct the Yatra no matter what.

As the elections are due some time during the next year hence it is quite logical to have this kind of yatras to lure people into voting for the party. and this continues to happen year after year during the elections and probably will continue for n no. of years altogether. The reason i believe this is because though there is so called drive on education and all but we Indian are still surviving within the boundaries defined by the Religion, caste and culture.

There is nothing wrong in believing in ones religion and following it or even fighting to protect its values. but we do need to question what good will it have for the society. will making a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya rid India of the poverty?? Will building temples/Mosques/churches anywhere in India or for that sake any part of the world stop the horrible crimes against women?? Will it improve the quality of living of the people. Will it ensure the malnutrition vanishes from the face of the earth??..... The point is at times we get so much engrossed in religion, caste and culture that we never think about any of these questions.Whenever it comes to caste and religion our views tend to be more local than global. 

In earlier times the religions and caste were used to discriminate amongst various sections of society....probably that work at that time for a kingdom to prosper... as in some way it did define the boundaries of that section of population in terms of work. Yes, i do agree that there were some sections of society which were underprivileged and some which were over privileged, but the country did prosper. If we take a look at todays society the situations are more or less the same..... only the sections have changed. However criteria for growth has changed from being focused on one sections and dependent on it.......to an inclusive growth which includes all sections of society working for a common cause. 

Politics is still defined by the principle of Divide and Rule. And it becomes quiet easy in the states like U.P., Bihar and Jharkhand (literacy rate is below the national average as per 2011 census) where the percentage of educated population is low and those who do get good education leave the state for working somewhere else. Ultimately what is left out is a population which is gullible to the talks about religion, caste and creed....

The worst part is that our politicians know these things and how to exploit them....

When Rabindranath Tagore wrote  "Where The Mind Is Without Fear" he probably thought it to be a distant but achievable dream.....i fear that the dream continues to elude us today and will continue to do so for the years to come.... 

We have seen many revolutions in past perhaps its time for a Religion and Caste Revolution...which would propel the growth engine in future.