winter blues ..

just read that there is scientific evidence to prove winter blues..
that explains the funny feeling i have been having for days now ...
feeling very stressed out ,exams in 2 days and so many things to study,no mug is the right word ..,not realised the value of time in the hols and always end up cramming in the last minute,lesson learnt every semester :-P

got loads of new topics to write about but will probably do so only after these exams which end on jan 7th (ugh !)

take care ...

provoked

Just saw 'Provoked' - directed by Jagmohan Mundra on Max..
Aishwarya Rai portrays the tole of Kiranjit Ahluwalia in this movie based on domestic violence.

The movie has a simple and straight forward narrative ,lacks a tight screenplay and is based on the true life story of Kiranjit,A woman based in the UK who unable to tolerate physical and verbal abuse meted upon her, by her husband kills him in a daze ,after they were married for ten years.
the movie is based on a book written by Kiranjit-the circle of light...

The movie shakes you up and takes a look at the darker side of marrying an NRI,being helpless in a foreign land,repeatedly being abused,the pain and endless fights .Ash has made the pain and fear of Kiran's character come to life. She displays innocence while she is being married to Deepak Ahluwalia(played byNaveen Andrews )and later her inhibitions and confused state of mind leave you feeling sorry for her.The scenes where Deepak abuses are menacing and did scare me. Kiran's life in prison is a discovery and it generates happiness when you get to see a woman being happier in prison than she was when out of it ..

The scenes which made a tear trickle down my eyes are The scene where Kiran gets to meet her children finally after an agonising wait in the prison and Kiran making to the court room for the second trial ,kiran dons up a suit,shedding her behenji image ,these two scenes totally stood out for me from the movie ...

The movie wakes you up to a dark reality-domestic violence..

We have heard of several stories among friends and relatives of x divorcing y and accusing him of physical abuse or z committing suicide but kiran chose to kill her husband ,which she does in a confused but tormented state of mind.This is a harsh truth to accept for any law though she was in an abusive relationship for a period of ten years. The truth about domestic violence is that it can exist in any strata of society.

While gender equality maybe unheard of in a lower income ,daily wage worker family where the husband ends up drinking every night and bashing up his wife,the elite who speak of equality at champagne flowing,camera dazzling fund-raisers/charity dinners are themselves subject to repeated abuse-maybe of a different kind,say verbally or financially.the most recent example that comes to mind is that of Rahul Mahajan and shweta.Tabloids report Shweta filed for divorce after being in an abusive relation for over a year.didn't she have the power/position to walk out from the relation earlier ? why did she have to tolerate it all this while? It speaks volumes of how this is not a minuscule problem...sigh...


while cases of dowry are still being reported regularly in the papers,women staying close to their parents geographically still have a chance to open up and share the pain .but for women staying abroad,the situation looks grim.Support groups do exist but do all women have access to them?

it is believed that the number of NRI's marrying just for the sake of a domestic help has increased significantly in the past year,esp from the Middle East..

In this age of mass media penetrating every inch and corner,it is impossible to not hear a woman's wails but what will you say to a woman who like kiran refuses to speak up.
In the movie,when kiran is pregnant,Deepak pushes her in a fit of rage and she comes tumbling down the steps.When they go to meet a doctor,the doc gets suspicious and asks Kiran if she would want to tell her something but kiran never opens up,maybe because there is a fog of fear surrounding her entire life .......the movie made me feel sad for the thousands of NRI wives who marry with a twinkle in their eyes,little knowing what the future holds for them ...

Go watch Provoked and if you ever see a friend/relative just needing to speak up,do take a moment out and listen to them..you never know the dark truth hiding behind those innocent eyes......

Ending this post here .i am very depressed now thinking of the sorry state of women today....

Gender equality be damned,at least women deserve to be treated humanely ....

Listen up men else doomsday shall arrive soon ...


PS: everyone's asking me why am I writing only about movies,hmm,I admit I am a movie freak but most of the times when i watch a movie,it triggers off reel vs real ,ideas begin to click in my mind which are reflected in my posts. so :-)

exam mode

hi all,

there will be no posts on my blog till 14th Dec,07 due to my exams ...

take care

some day........

yesterday i was at the post office-Yeshwanthpur RTO branch ...
the regional transport office (RTO) is a hectic scene of activity.
it houses the driving license issuing offices ,various property doc related offices ,a bangalore one center-an integrated facility that will cater to various needs .

tucked away in the second floor corner of this building is our post office.the lift goes only to the third floor,so we have to go to the 3rd floor,take the stairs down and reach our p.o .

now yesterday the lift was in perfect condition but its usual occupant-the lift operator with his creaky broken plastic chair seated inside the lift,(taking up a good amount of space in the lift) was missing .my mother refused to get into the lift citing the poor condition n blah blah.the actual reason-the lift has another lift adjacent to it which is not functioning from almost a year,they have started the repairs around a month back and it is still going on. so worried for her dear life,my mother suggested we take the stairs .

i have no problems with stairs as long as there are no rogues pushing you around the railings,driving license touts running around with documents bumping into people all the time and serpentine queues of people waiting for their license tests .add to this ,the chaos of some more people desperately looking for directions to a govt office and people looking baffled when the lift does not stop at the second/first floors but shoots up like a rocket to the third..well,the p.o is all this and much more .the staircase has been thristy for years ,forget domex/dettol/any cleaning ingredient,it looks like the stairs haven't even been washed with good old plain water for ages though there are occasional fresh marks on the "spitters hall of fame" all throughout the building right from the entrance sometimes even on the steps ! aargh.

as we entered the p.o,cobwebs greet us from all directions. a shutter settled completely with dust has a notice pasted on to it saying all posts and parcels lying at tumkur p.o,nh road ..
there is a public coin box which serves as good humour ,once a notice says "STD working ,20 seconds-1 rupee" but you look closely and the receiver is dangling and the notice below it says "not working-out of order " . the po was recently upgraded with some decent furniture which is the only plus point i can think of . some shiny black chairs and a neat wooden huge desk for interacting with customers,like a teller's at the bank have been added . though there is an antique desk smeared with glue all over reminding that things haven't yet changed completely .

as my mother got into the queue to await her turn,i could see that it was quite crowded for a Friday morning ,usually nobody withdraws money on friday's,lakshmi et al being reasons . so most of the people were there for deposits .

the p.o provides a range of financial services for the common man,ranging from savings bank accounts to kisan vikas patra among others.they provide a low amount of interest compared to any big-wig bank but the common advice among elders in the family is that investing in a p.o is extremely safe- courtesy the numerous lessons learnt from relatives by investing in xyz chit funds or fake financial companies for the greed of a higher interest . hence my regular trips to the p.o with my mother .

as i waited for my mother to finish up her work,i saw a woman,in her late thirties,helpless and confused enter the surroundings . she seemed disheartened at the length of the queue and started talking to a middle-aged woman seated next to me asking her to fill up a form for her . the middle aged woman said she had to leave and was in a hurry and said she couldnt do it .
then the woman approached one more person who pointed towards me ,i was coughing and sniffing by then and was pretty tired since was unwell.

the lady came to me and said "please form fill maadi kodi " i agreed but warned her that this form was new to me and she would have to help me out with her details,she immediately produced another filled up form and waved it in front of me and said "idu hale form,pls same fill madi,only date change maadbeku" .i was struck by her clever thinking and filled up the details in the same manner but only changed the date . she thanked me and joined the queue.by then,my mom was back and we departed home .

this set me thinking ,if the woman had ever got a chance to go to a school,learn how to read and write ,it surely wouldn't have made her helpless for the 20 min that i saw her in the p.o but also probably would have made her a successful person ,she had enough sense to get an older form for convenience sake ..it really made me wonder ,what miracles could such people achieve if given proper education ?

our country has celebrated 60 years of independence and today i got to see two sides of a coin majorly disturbing me ,
1.illiteracy
2.poor state govt organisations

now both problems are better solved in the election manifestos of various parties (simply on paper) rather than reality,i just hope that some day i can proudly show off my local p.o as a place known for its impeccable neatness ,efficiency and see a long queue of literate women handling businesses there ......

might be a far off dream but some day,maybe some day............