Musings - a movie, a book and little bit more...

Watched a neat movie couple of weeks back- “Khuda kay Liye”.
Amidst all the publicity of it being the first Pakistani movie to be released in India in 4 decades, I liked the overriding theme and the many issues the director has tried to address in a pretty rational manner. Full marks to him for the end product.

And why Islamic fundamentalism ? Does n’t ‘extremism’ in any religion or ideology bring about a similar result ?

While on the movie, I was trying to remember the movie I watched on the big screen before that- ‘Casino Royale’ perhaps?! I can’t even recollect!

From watching a movie a week (and this is excluding the 1-2 movies I used to watch on Star movies, HBO, Zee and Sony TV on a daily basis) while in law college to watching a movie once in you-don’t-remember-when is quite a journey, if you may call it that, I suppose.

While the movie watching habit has definitely been on a gradual decline over the last 3 years or so, what I have ensured to not just keep afloat, but alive and kicking is my reading habit. In the last 2 months, I read “The Kite Runner” (breezy and enjoyable) and “A Thousand Splendid Sons (soulless!) by Khaled Husseini, “The Afghan” by Frederick Forsyth (interesting initially, but then the ‘neo-con Bush’ agenda took over), “Mistress” by Anita Nair (fascinating especially the interplay between Kathakali, art and Indian mythology set in the background of an adulterous relationship in Kerala), besides some writings of Tagore and poetry (off and on).

While these are all fiction/bestseller category (except Tagore and the poetry bit) and relatively easy on the mind to read after a hard day’s work, what had me gripped was the unexpected one! Till I saw that book, I never knew about it. Nor have I read about the author or his other books.

The title “The Swallows of Kabul” first caught my attention at the bookshop while I was searching for an old book of William Dalrymple. The photograph on the cover was haunting- A woman in a light blue burqa amidst the dry landscape of the mountains and some building in ruins (reminded me of that afghan girl’s photograph which appeared on National Geographic magazine ages ago).

“In the middle of nowhere, a whirlwind spins like a sorceress flinging out her skirts in a macabre dance; yet not even this hysteria serves to blow the dust off the calcified palm trees thrust against the sky like beseeching arms.” Thus began the first few lines.

And I bought the book to finish reading it the very next day. A hard-hitting book, written in a very poignant manner, on the despair and hopelessness faced by 2 couples under the Taliban and how the prevailing socio-economic situation plays havoc with their individual lives, which of course, has spun out of control from their hands. Very depressing, horror-ridden and thought-provoking.

What is the end purpose of all this – you wonder? And, more importantly, at what cost does one pursue that purpose? At any cost? So it seems.

It only made me realize (all the more) how we are so much better off living in a democracy – with all its hassles, corruption et al.

I am digressing here, but me thinks democracy, for all its flaws and imperfections, is definitely the best solution mankind has been able to come up when it comes to forms of government – at the end of the day, it does have some semblance of equity, fairness and continuity of process. The evolving role of the modern state vis-à-vis enriching quality of human life and facilitating the development of groups of people is a subject which has been on my mind and reading this book only crystallized those thoughts further. Perhaps will write about it soon.

PS: Reading another interesting book "Age of Kali" by William Dalrymple and excited about my first Kafka book, next on the list! Has the metamorphosis begun ?!