Did You Know ?

10 things you did'nt know about Children's day

The world celebrates their children on 20th of November but India wishes its children a happy children's day on 14th of November

On an average, a 4 year old child asks 437 questions a day. . . (or more)

A 3 year old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a gathering! ! !

His love for innocent young hearts is well known but Pandit Nehru was said to be India's special child on his becoming the first prime minister after independence.

We promised our children all the care & love in the world. But not every child gets the freedom to enjoy childhood.

Celebrating children's day universally was suggested by an Indian,
V.K. Krishna Menon & later was adopted by UN General Assembly

For children, Watching television alone can act as a painkiller. . .

grown ups bitch & smile, Children play & laugh

I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring
-unknown author

The dirtier they are, happier they are

So Lets become a child once again, 

laugh without a reason, 

play without a care

& most of all

have lots of happiness to share

Watch Chotu Chaiwala at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkVtKFucX4c&feature=share

:)

Chotu Chaiwala (A short film) by Akshat Drama Group

Chotu Chaiwala goes on air

Chotu Chaiwala is a story which ventures deep into education & human perspective. The country promises each & every citizen to provide education as the most basic right, a fundamental right. A right which a child has since birth, which he can claim, but the question is, from whom?

A small child who has a dream, of books, of papers, of education finds a piece of paper thrown away by kids playing, the nurtured ones. He finds it, treasures it, feels connected to his dreams but again loses it to reality. Nevertheless, he does not lose hope.

Life is all about being happy. He was happy in whatever he got, be it a simple piece of paper. It all depends on perspective. How one thinks of an object.

Hope is beautiful

VISION OF THE DIRECTOR -

What may be a piece of paper to one can sometimes become a source of hope to another. This is our very first visual production completed in 4 days of a life altering experience because we found our calling on the sets.

WHY WE DID THIS

This movie raised our sympathy to those kids. There are many of us not even bothering to look at them with anything other than scorn or worse, indifference. If this movie makes one mind aware, then it’s worth it.

Awareness raises sympathy & out of 100 such people, one of them will do something more. That, is our goal

Right to Dream vs Right to make it Real

CHOTU CHAIWALA 

SYNOPSIS

Chotu Chaiwala is a story which ventures deep into education & human perspective. The country promises each & every citizen to provide education as the most basic right, a fundamental right. A right which a child has since birth, which he can claim, but the question is, from whom?

A small child who has a dream, of books, of papers, of education finds a piece of paper thrown away by kids playing, the nurtured ones. He finds it, treasures it, feels connected to his dreams but again loses it to reality. Nevertheless, he does not lose hope.

Life is all about being happy. He was happy in whatever he got, be it a simple piece of paper. It all depends on perspective. How one thinks of an object.

Hope is beautiful

WHY WE DID THIS

This movie raised our sympathy to those kids. There are many of us not even bothering to look at them with anything other than scorn or worse, indifference. If this movie makes one mind aware, then it’s worth it.

Awareness raises sympathy & out of 100 such people, one of them will do something more. That, is our goal

Chotu Chaiwala (a short movie) campaign

Dreams make you bitchy

When I dream, I am a bitch. I am constantly jealous of other people. 

When I start working on the dream, I am a nag. I keep pestering everyone about why the deuce am I doing something I saw in a dream & can remember only faint whispers of it.

A month later, If I am still working on it. . . I am hopeful, I smile

If people don't like it, I wont bitch. Because, I did'nt give up. . . on my dream

.

I ll be sad if people call it a fail but I wont bitch. The fight made me grow and growth, is always a success

-from the sets of Chotu Chaiwala

 6 am

69th Independence Day: Amazing facts to know about Independent India!

India has a long history to tell about itself since independent till now. On the occasion of India's 69th Independence Day, here are some interesting and unknown facts related to India and independence.

1. National flag was hoisted first on August 7, 1906 at the Parsee Bagan Square in Calcutta. The flag was composed of horizontal strips of red, yellow and green. The red strip at the top had eight white lotuses embossed on it in a row. The green strip had a white sun on the left and a white crescent and star on the right.

 2. The name `India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the first inhabitants of India. The Sanskrit name for India is Bharat Ganarajya. That is the reason why it is also called Bharat. The name “India” comes from the Indus River, which is where earliest settlers made their homes. 

3. The current flag has three colours in it. The top strip saffron stands for courage and sacrifice; the middle portion white for peace, truth, purity and green for faith, fertility and chivalry. The Ashok Chakra at the centre of the flag — righteousness.

4. India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history. 

5. It is said that the first version of the current national flag was made by Pingali Venkayya at Bezwada in 1921. It was made up of two colours-red and green-representing the two major communities. Gandhiji suggested the addition of a white strip to represent the remaining communities of India and the spinning wheel to symbolize progress of the Nation.

6. North Korea, South Korea, Bahrain and Republic of the Congo share their independence day with India. Mountbatten chose the day since Aug 15 as it also commemorated the second anniversary of Japan’s surrender to the Allied Forces. North Korea, South Korea, Bahrain and Republic of the Congo share their independence day with India.

7. Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission is the only licenced flag production and supply unit in India. As of 2008, the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha based in Dharwad was the sole manufacturer of the flag. Earlier, flags were made with Jayadhar, a popular variety of cotton grown in Karnataka. But recently, Khadi Gramodyoga has started using Bt cotton instead of the indigenous

8. India is the world's largest producer of tea, milk and mangoes and also the second largest producer of wheat and rice, the world's major food staples. 

9. "Chess" and "Snakes and Ladders" were invented in India.

10. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Lal was featured in Vogue magazine. His unique dressing style, single-breasted jacket, became an important fashion trend in the West. Nehru jacket was listed on Time list of 'global fashion statement.' Later, Nehru jacket was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous people as Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr.

11. India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.

12. On August 15, 1947, when India became free from the foreign rule, Mahatma Gandhi was in Calcutta. Gandhiji spent his day in prayers, fasting and spinning protesting the madness of communal hatred.

13. The world's largest road network is in India-over 1.9 million miles of roads cover the country.

14. Cherrapunji (Meghalaya) is the wettest spot on earth. It receives at least 425 inches of rain every year, which is over 5 times more than the tropical rain forests of South America!

15. With around 155,618 post offices and over 566,000 employees, India has the largest postal network in the world.

16. Hindi is not India’s national language as many think or believe; it’s the official language. Article 343 of the Constitution states that Hindi in Devnagari script is the official language of India. But Hindi is the first official language of India and Hindi was declared the Official Language of the Union on September 14, 1949.

17. India Railways is the single largest civilian employer in the world, with over a million employees.

18. When India became independent on August 15, 1947 there was no National Anthem. Even though the Bengali invocation of Jana Gana Mana was written in 1911, it was not considered as national anthem till 1950. 

19. State Bank of India has the maximum number of branches in the world, with the number being over 15,000 and counting.

20. Controversy surrounding Jana Gana Mana claims that Rabindranath Tagore wrote the song ‘Jana Gana Mana’ for the British monarch. He later refuted this claim and said that he wrote the song as requested by his friend and the song pronounced the victory in ‘Jana Gana Mana’ of that Bhagya Vidhata of India and not of King George V.

21.  The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, who also explained the Pythagorean Theorem. 

22. India is one of only three countries that makes supercomputers (the US and Japan are the other two). 

23. Navi Mumbai, a planned satellite township of Mumbai, was developed in 1972 and is the largest planned township on the planet.

24. India produces more movies than any other country in the world and Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world.

25. There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.

ABCD 2 Anybody can dream

ABCD 2 -

The entire movie provoked taunts from my mouth but the climax, the climax only provoked tears... Tears to follow my dream, Tears to get up, go out of the cinema hall & instead of updating my Facebook to "watching ABCD 2", update my Dream to the version of reality.

Even if the reality version is with bugs. Bit too much senti, ain't I?

I wish they could have taken real dancers who could act well in leads for example Shakti Mohan( no big fan but hats off to her dance prowess + ok acting). Leads just did'nt have the smooth touch to moves like Dharmesh or Punit, like flowing waves. "TOO TIGHT( No pun intented)!

Overall

Yes, Anybody can dream BUT only few, wake up. The movie cinema wise or cinematically is a critic's job not mine. But from the point of view of art, of imagination. . . it is a dream on canvas.

So dancers, pull on some socks and flow. . .

Night

Yours truly
Dreamer

Mahalla Assi is a childhood dream

When I was young, I had no scruples in picking up the laddo(sweet) kept for god & eating it.If ever I got scolded ( rarely because "aweee... cute child antics"), I simply asked why & my mom would give me an answer.

As a child, we are not afraid to ask. As an adult, WE ARE
Life is a game full of  a question and answer. Mahalla assi gives nothing but the truth. Its a question. You answer it.

NO. We are xyz group. We revoke it. We ban it!!
As a responsible citizen, I may wonder, WHY??
The reply I get - "This is $%########"
The reply I deserve- Because we do not have an answer. (i.e. the TRUTH)

 Art is an autobiography of Life. We read it to get answers to mysteries. 

When you feel out of sync.. Laugh out LOUD

I began my day at 6 am today. A very unusual achievement for a lazy bum. If this was not enough, instead of walking to the loo with closed eyes, I put on music and started exercising!

Some sort of magical phase I suppose. . .hmm

While searching for warm up exercises on google, none of them mentioned any exercise for the most vital organ which works 24*7. Even while exercising, the most important point being reducing stress & pressure & yet I did not feel less pressurized or forget about my work load.

I did not know, what to do. These days, I've been feeling a little out of sync with the world, a little drifting off to space. Space is blank.

Oh I love magic! Suddenly, I remembered my idol, my paternal uncle! HA HAA HAAAA !!

He is a yoga practitioner who loves to make faces. One thing I learned from him is how to be positive yaar !

I kept the phone down, switched off the music & started laughing out loud for no reason. At first, I rather pushed myself to produce sounds that sound like laughter, like fake. What I did'nt expect was that after 10 seconds of trying and trying, I started laughing for real.

Oh laughter, I missed you so much.

Shit! I forgot about the workload but thinking about it was, anyways NOT PRODUCTIVE !!!

And, I am writing after months, I guess. I began my day with writing today, my own story.
BEING MAGICAL. Stop writing your hobbies on your resume if you don't do it for yourself. Trust me, you will feel magical.

OK this is the last line now. I changed my wassapp status to " I am not out of sync with the world, the world needs to update its software to me.


PS: Confidence back, no depression pills, only hobbies

Antonym Of Patriarchy - Factories Act, 1948

Deepak, a poor labourer was smoking and chatting with his fellow mate during break at the factory where he worked.

"What do I do Hasan Ji? My wife died last month leaving behind chutki, my 6 month old."

So? women die all the time. get a new wife.

No, I can bring up my daughter alone, even if I AM a majdoor. I will educate her someday.

But you work round the clock. Where will u leave the child? Alone at home?We poor labourers do not have the money to afford a caretaker, my friend.

Hasan bhai, Why is there no cretch in the factory? I don't understand. There are people here with kids. I cannot work knowing my daughter is alone at home, I AM HER FATHER

No use deepak bhai, last month few modern arrogant asses in black & white suit buit came here to give us help. Apparently, they called themselves laayers.

They started giving advice what we should do.Chameli asked them to give cretches. They said that the LAW says

A factory will have to provide cretches only if there are 30 or more women employed and we have only 20 women.Aghast by such a prima facie stupid law, Deepak spoke up, "so the children of these 20 women don't count? or because there are only 20 woman does the law think it as an unnecessary waste?

I don't need their education to understand that on an average if there are 2 children per woman, 40 children should have no security because both their parents are poor labourers earning their bread at factories while they may cry to the deaf walls of home!!!

And what about me? Am I not a parent or will the law decide that too for me, for my fellow workers, for a man whose wife is not there to take care of children for whatever reason? Because I am a male, I am not allowed the natural right of taking care of my daughter by a LAW.

One day, Deepak went home and found his daughter missing. . . his 6 month old daughter...

"without giving her education...he lost her..."

What should have deepak done?

• Married twice against his will because that is what the law implies, if you want a child, you need a woman.
• What if deepak's ship sailed to the other side and he adopted chutki? If he married a man, would he be then allowed the benefit?
• What should a man do if his wife left him? Give up the child because he cannot keep it with him?

There are endless cases. Deepak is just another one...

My question is, why is law deciding on a patriarchal form of society? Who is law to decide that? Is it law or the law maker's wish?

Replacing the term woman with person is not such a difficult task. Why is it taking so many years? Where is the scope of so called "intellectual discussion"?

The feminist school of jurisprudence says that a feminist does not mean that I want a female dominated society. It means I want equality where both are equal and differential treatment where both are unequal.

If a female is born to procreate, then very obviously men cannot get maternity benefit until they change their sex. If a man is facing harrassment from the woman, instead of criticizing a feminist, go ahead , file a case or an FIR which in India, is sure to scare many. . .

Why I wrote this is because criticizing is the easiest job to do... you criticize what you wont change

Note: This article or author does not support extremist behaviour neither is written in favur of feminism. The purpose of this article is to show the failure of law using the example of factories act in India and the real meaning of the word feminist forgotten by the feminist supporters themselves.


What this law said:

As per the provisions under Section 48 of the Factories Act, 1948 any factory employing 30 or more women workers are required to provide creche facilities for the use of children under the age of 6 years for the women employees

Can someone translate EQUITY

Today while viewing the videos of the play, my friend cum editor asked, "what are the Hindi & Gujarati translations of the word "EQUITY"?

I replied, "It is an abstract term, but you can write Justice".

http://youtu.be/Q7UPzbACA70

The video we created (link above) is based on one simple TRUTH

Every action has EQUAL & opposite reaction.

It is human instinct.

At first, the reaction in the video was laughable. What the **** is he doing? Is it a joke? It is just not real. One cannot say this to his own Father! It is not PRACTICAL!

Hindi cinema lovers may have watched Amitabh Bachhan starrer LAWARIS. Drunkard foster father losing everything on alcohol. When son realises that he is being used for money to buy him alcohol, he tries to hit him back for what he did.

Then, not one of us thought it impractical or unreal. Why?

"Are isne to amitabh ka istemal kiya. Iske sath to aisa hi hona chahiye" (That is what I thought while watching.)

Was it equity? Retributive equity? (An eye for an eye) or Reformative equity?(Improvement instead of punishment)

But then, Is this not what we do?
One may not take it out on the parent but it DOES come out on someone else in some or the other form.

Then why is this reaction wrong?

And why do fights happen?
Because we love to prove our manli/womanli + ness? NO
It is because the fight is just a reaction. 

Of what we receive, we give it back.

The question remains. . .IS THIS A SOLUTION?

& of course, What is Equity?



As I am writing this, I know that I will drink milk reading newspaper headlines about rape,murder,cruelties & wish I could change the society by discussing about it!

Do not sit there & answer or You & I will be same.

P is a part of people's prejudice

YOU DISCRIMINATE

18/1/2015:

seva cafe- time 7:30 pm

New faces were introducing there talent on stage when the atmosphere changed. . .

Fun was replaced with Fear

Fear... for me
I got a tight resounding slap from my fiance. . .
in front of everyone

The suffocating silence was broken by some theatre artist calling for attention to enact their play on gender discrimination.

The play displayed a girl getting suffocated in her home by her strict and orthodox parents treating their brother like a king, and daughter, like a convict.

"Tu khud ko badal, tu khud ko badal tab hi to zamana badlega" - song sung by the performers between the scenes

They paused the play at critical points and replaced the girl with a member of the audience resulting in heated discussions. The play ended with the girl sitting in the temple like a devi and everybody worshipping her while the mediator recited a poem by Kamla Bhasin,

"Tum ladki ho, tumhe kyu padna hai?" (poem)

I was watching the play. I was watching the paradox.

Moments before the play, my fiance was shouting at me like a loudspeaker because I earned more than him & he slapped me. 

Nobody reacted. They just watched.

The same people were discussing on the issue they just ignored. WHY?

        I discriminate. 

        I am a part of it.

What is Culture? Everything Is Untouchable

Girl: Mom I am going out with friends for a movie.

Mom: What? Have you seen the time? Its 8:00 pm. . .Go back to your room

Boy: Mom I am going out with friends for a movie. Bye son. 

Mom: The scene above look similar yet belong to vastly different planets.-

                                                    

                                                                MARS & VENUS

Criminalizing Section 377, Gang rapes etc are topics for protest yet no one looks to the root cause of it. Every crime stems from its home.

Why was section 377 criminalized? With all due respect, because the mindset of the judge giving the judgement was what he learned while growing up: Unnatural "sex". Prey tell me someone, who gave the definition of natural sex? His childhood.

Rape happens not because of the so called "uncontrollable urge" but our habit to wield power over someone. Had the uncontrollable urge been really uncontrollable, condoms would replace money.

In Indian Culture, generally, the woman of the house always brings the array of refreshments for a guest. A male would never do that!!! I talk from my own experience when I requested my mother to let my big brother to do it instead of me.

Men wearing shorts to a departmental store is normal. They are guys after all.They can't be expected to dress up properly for morning or night trips to a departmental store. I went in shorts to the departmental store. Why was I receiving weird looks from the aunties present there?

Its not that I gave a sultry or seducing look(usually the charge on a girl, "She asked for it!!")A guy there looked rather the picture but got no looks.

All of this is not the fault of our culture but of a game, "CHINESE WHISPERS"

Humans mold everything with time. What might have been a beautiful custom centuries ago was twisted into something rigid and choking.

For just an example, Unnatural sex was never unnatural. History is PROOF

The Sun Temple at Konarak in Orissa(some of the very few works that have survived the government's attempt to erase homosexual traditions from Indian history) where lesbian love is cast in stone. Artistic works depicting Male love  can be found in the world's most prestigious museums, including the Louvre, the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Smithsonian.

'The word of man is defeated by a stone.’

Why do we discriminate so much? Between a daughter and a son, between the roles of a husband & a wife, between a gay couple and a couple from the opposite sexes? Most importantly, why do we blame it on culture? Its not culture, its ego, its a resistance to change because we are comfortable where we are.

I got my definition of culture.

Culture is the battle of the sexes