Who Says Mumbai Is Heartless!

There were two long queues for local train tickets at Wadala railway station in Mumbai harbor railway line segment. I was in a lot of hurry, but there was never any option but to join in . Then I saw something.

A poor man (let’s not call him a beggar) was sitting on the floor in front of the counters. His little son, very pale and weak, was stretched on his lap. There were some x-rays and documents scattered around him. The man was muttering amidst tears, ‘Please help me get some treatment for my ailing son. He may or may not be saved. But please help me do something for him.’ As usual, busy as ever, Mumbaikars hardly seemed to be noticing the father and son duo. But what followed moved me in my innermost soul.

Everybody, I mean one and all, booked his/her tickets and deposited whatever change s/he got with the poor man on the ground. It was ten bucks or more for some, five bucks or less for some others. But they followed the same routine. Mumbaikars, irrespective of age or gender or any other differences, gave the change to the poor man and ran to catch their trains. I did the same when my turn came and hurried off for the platform with tender emotions filling my heart.

Yes, Mumbaikars are mechanically busy, materialistic and always struggling for competition and survival. But still, they have lot of humanity left in their hearts. That’s the good news. Memories of the incredibly humanistic scenes witnessed during the 26/7 deluge in 2005 flooded my mind causing emotional high tides that did not submerge, but calmed me overpoweringly.

Just thought I should share this with you all. 

Mani Kaul (1944-2011): Ode To A Great Indian Filmmaker

Mani Kaul was one of the pioneering Indian filmmakers who contributed to the evolution of Parallel Cinema in India. Trained in the Film and Television Institute of India Pune, when Ritwik Ghatak was the chairman, Mani Kaul took cinema as an intricate method of expression. His Uski Roti (1969) was a revolution in Indian cinema bringing in an intellectual and intuitive approach to film-making (Filmfare critics award, 1971). Instead of obvious portrayal of emotions he made the audience study and understand every frame of his creations. If you are not attentive you may soon lose the thread of the narrative.

Rooted to realism Mani Kaul could hardly differentiate between his masterful features and documentaries. He won his first National Award for his feature ‘Duvidha’ in 1974 for Best Direction and won his second for his documentary ‘Siddheswari’ in 1989 for Best Documentary. His musical masterpiece ‘Dhrupad’ (1982) showed his deep understanding of Indian music and rigorous training under a guru. With profound understanding of life he also took the bold step of adopting Fydor Dostoevsky’s ‘The Idiot’ (1992) as a Hindi television serial and later a film for which he got the Filmfare critics award, 1993. In all, he got four Filmfare Critics Awards.

I met him several times when he was associating in the organization of the first and second Bombay International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (now MIFF) during 1990-92. Last time I met him on a long drive which was also several years ago. His liberated mind and sense of humor made him great company, always.

His death at 66 marks the end of an era. Maybe an incomplete one. Mani Kaul died at New Delhi in the early hours of 6^th July, 2011 after a prolonged illness. We condole the demise of a great filmmaker and pray for the eternal bliss of his soul.

How to Cut Wasteful Expenditures!

One imposing stern-faced snobbish bureaucrat showed an innovative way not only to control but to altogether cut away wasteful expenditures recently.

A team of experts were visiting his company to assess performance and productivity of various faculties and departments. There was everything official about it and the officer had no risk of spending a penny from his pocket. Now, due to links and sub-links the visiting team did not necessarily remain limited to only the experts and naturally expanded into a bigger one. Other company officials had to join too for various reasons. Anyway, there were no problems and the big team went on visiting.

The last stop was an interactive session with high tea. This time the imposing stern-faced snobbish bureaucrat put his assistant at the hall entrance and started screening people selecting specimen from his dear clan mostly for entry. So, many justifiably linked members of the team were effectively debarred from the last session…specifically the tea! Just imagine how much money saved thus!

Next day there was the report giving meeting at a posh hotel. Experts and key officers got seated inside the executive room. But a whole lot of linked members had to linger outside in the hotel lounge. Meantime preparations were made at the counter for serving tea. The imposing stern-faced snobbish bureaucrat told his assistant to oversee that tea was served only to those seated inside and not to anybody outside.

What a revolutionary way to cut down expenditures. The best thing is that it can be adopted by any officer in any office. So, next time a colleague or visitor comes down to your room deny him the tea! If you deny it to at least ten persons a day you save at least thirty bucks a day (taking into account the subsidized tea prices in offices) for your company. If you multiply by the number of working days in a year you save nearly nine thousand bucks! Taking into account the normal service years of 36 you stand to save a whopping three hundred thousand bucks.  If all serving officers adopt this innovation the savings would run into billions.

The method is almost foolproof. A particular imposing stern-faced snobbish bureaucrat would only have to ensure that he himself is not denied a tea on occasions when he is on the visiting side.

What a novel tea(r)ful way to cut down wasteful expenditures!