THE LESSER MORTALS
What is it with a slum that lures movie moguls towards them? Why do films based on third world poverty rake in millions of dollars? Do such films emaciate our integrity or do they make us more passionate about our own country? Does it vitiate our judgment or does it strike a chord with the homeless as well as the privileged citizens of the country? Why can’t directors showcase the lives of the burgeoning middle class? The movie ‘slumdog millionaire’ has become a media luminary overnight. The manner in which the slums have been exhibited in the film is laudable. It makes us cognizant about our surroundings, the surroundings which comprise of the poor and destitute, their scuffle for survival and their impervious will power.
But reaping 20 million dollars as a result of an esoteric quirk of fate is a bit too far-fetched for an illiterate person. And to accentuate my view is the veracity that the director has not justified all the answers given by the protagonist. The use of the edict – “written in destiny” is rife throughout the screening, but isn’t destiny supposed to be a fruit of our own hard work? I accept that certain outcomes are beyond our injunction but in the movie, the word ‘all’ has superseded the word ‘certain’. But what is the aim of the director? Is he sensationalizing the ubiquitous ragamuffin or is he hurling muck at Indian sentiments? You can riposte by claiming that you are an Indian and very well aware of the poverty that is hounding India.
But do you really care? The movie has been flayed by critics who have denounced it as derogatory for addressing the Indian as a dog. But how many of you have deliberated upon its etymology? The word ‘slumdog’ is derived from the terms ‘slum dweller’ and ‘underdog’. What I fail to conceive is why a dog is used as an element of expressing blasphemies. Wasn’t the dog supposed to be man’s best friend? Besides, why is Danny Boyle being chided for his remarks? Don’t we also regard the slum dweller as ignoble? What are we doing for the upliftment of the society? Why have we relinquished the opportunity to the director to ridicule our nation? The only thing we are doing is strangulating the imagination of the creator in the self-forged walls of blind patriotism. If we continue to impede the path of the creator, the creative element is entailed to ‘go to the dogs’! I am glad the director didn’t christen the movie as ‘sleazeball billionaire’!!
Prateek Gupta (IInd yr ECE)
Execution: The most hated profession
Have you ever thought what it feels like to kill a person that too when you are legalized for it? Confused?? Well that is what an executioner or hangman has to do. Execution is the most hated profession but yet an integral part of the society. Though this article appears to be very unusual but I was actually striving to write something on this & finally DCE TIMES provided ink to my thoughts.
Among all those doctors, engineers and officers there exists a profession which is hated by even those who are practising it, that of ‘hanging a person till death’. Execution has been carried out for centuries in one or the other form. Many years ago prisoners of war were executed by shearing their head with an axe. Pier gerfols donia was one of the most ignominious Frisian executioner who could cut the heads of even 5 people with a single axe blow. Breaking wheel, boiling to death, flaying, slow slicing, disembowelment, crucifixion, impalement, crushing (including crushing by elephant), stoning, execution by burning, dismemberment, sawing, decapitation, scaphism, or necklacing were some of the other execution practices which existed during early centuries. But as soon as 20th century arrived capital punishment was regarded as inhuman and all European countries proposed a ban on such form of punishment. But still in some of the most populous countries (including India, China, Thailand, etc.) capital punishment is given for the most severe crimes (Nithari case is the recent example of this).
Though there has been a long debate on the morality of such punishment but life of a hangman who carries out this horrendous job has never been discussed in public. Job of a hangman does not require any qualification except the daring heart to kill a person. This job is either taken by people who are left with no choice of surviving or by those who inherit it from their family. They are paid around Rs.2000 for a single execution, 2000 for pushing that lever & getting the name of legal murderers… in India where people are highly discriminated by their profession, ’jallads’ (Indian name for hangman) are hated a lot & are still fighting for their position in the society. It is such a matter of pity that a person who awards the capital punishment gets such a high respect & person who executes it gets a downtrodden treatment. That’s why central jails like Tihar jail are facing shortage of such people. The agony of a hangman has been portrayed beautifully in Nizhalkkuthu, a Malayalam movie by Adoorgopal Krishnan which is a must watch for all movie lovers.
As an intellectual citizen of this country it becomes our duty to realize the pain & suffering of so called JALLADS & give them their due for which they have been waiting for so long .During this engifest our dramatics society will be showcasing a play reflecting the agony & pain of this class of society( so after all those mindless & vulgar comedies we finally have something sensible!!!). Be there for sure! I conclude my article by quoting the lines of an Indian hangman: “agar armywallon ko aadmiyon ko marne ke liye medal tak mil sakta hai to humein izzat kyun nhi”
Chirag garg, PSCT, 3rd year
VALENTINE WOES
It is that time of the year when you have to ‘officially’ dote on your loved one (or ones if you have a plethora of girlfriends!). It is that time of the year when the guys have to act like ‘sugar-daddies’ as a ‘goodwill-gesture’ towards their loved ones. It is that
time of the year when guys like me yearn for a companion, a companion who can understand you; a companion who accepts you the way you are; a companion who is there for you when you need her. But the quandary that arises is – whether we require a day specifically earmarked for making our surroundings rosy? Is Valentine’s Day a mere formality or is it our unfettered respect for St. Valentine? Are we bluntly aping the west or are we giving our emotions a new dimension on this day? Well, that is up to you to decide. Valentine’s Day is also that time of the year when the likes of you and your loved one(s) attain the privilege and the perk to inundate the parks (read picnic grounds). By parks I refer to the ‘notorious’ places where you and your loved one can ‘openly’ resort to ‘Public Display of Affection’. And while I don’t have any inhibition or qualms about it, there are ‘cultural chauvinists’ who vilify morals in the name of sacrosanct religions like Hinduism. Being sanctimonious doesn’t connote that you are a bona fide devotee. It highlights the bigotry and undermines the piousness of a liberal and secular nation like India. Even nudity is rife in Indian mythology which depicts the Gods and Goddesses (whom we worship) and contemporary India teeming with frescoes of kings and queens. I conjecture that ‘moral policing’ is not solely aimed at garnering political clout. It is a strategy used effectively by the ‘politicians’ as a recreation activity through which they can procrastinate on issues which actually hound the Indian citizen. The politicians should first deliberate on their decadence rather than using brute-force to curb the freedom of the Indian citizen. So I advise the ‘pig-headed’ politicians not to get ‘piqued’ by our affections and harness their agitations in doing something for the country.Prateek Gupta, ECE 2nd Yr