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Showing posts from June, 2011

Crash!

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Crash is an incredibly beautiful movie on racism told in simple characters and simple incidents that connect them together sometimes as the culprit, other times as the victim. What begins as stereotyping looks like ruthless racism turns out to be just another human quality. It works to show how racism works for and against people and how some take advantage of it and the other just fall victims. I thought I must write down one or two scenes from the movie as the most touching ones, but I really can't stick to one or two. Every single scene is shot with a purpose, with intent and with beauty. But I will jot down one which might touch your heart and turn you to watch the movie. A Hispanic man gives his 5 year old daughter an 'invisible impenetrable cloak' to comfort her after the sound of a bullet shot scares. Much later in the film when a racially victimized Persian shoots at this Hispanic man just to find someone to blame, the little girl races to protect her father as he

Clap 5 Times !

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Happy Birthday Slisha Crazy ! It's been good 5 years !!! CELEBRATE: To celebrate I have a new theme, with a new background and a new header. The header image is the set of the play that I directed . I believe it was photographed by a cast member is also the head of the photography club! SHARE: I also added the "share" button and now you can share on whatever social networking sites you use. A comment had once suggested I do that but I never got around. COMMENT: I have also put in a word verification for the comments. I did not want to but then I do not want to unlock iPhone 4 or visit a spooky language I doesn't know. Thank you for all the support!

Joy of Reading: Pratham Books

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It's Friday, friday! And time for the weekly dose of BSR. Today I bring to you a wonderful organization whos main aim is to ensure that all kids can read and actually read. It's absolutely delightful to just browse through their books. Activity: Pratham Books was set up in 2004, as part of the Read India movement , a nation- wide campaign to promote reading among children. Pratham Books is a not-for-profit organization that publishes quality books for children in multiple Indian languages. The mission is to see " a book in every child's hand " and democratize the joy of reading. In the last 6 years they have published over 200 titles in upto 11 languages and have spread the joy of reading to over 12 million children! Details: Read about our why they use Creative Commons here . Support: reading, literacy, education, kidlit, children's literature, publishing Note: They have put a lot of our content under the Creative Commons framework and have begun to see succ

Assamese Women

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I recently read yet another book of short stories about (not all by) Assamese women. It was titled "Woman: a collection of Assamese short stories". I am sorry that I can't even provide you with a reasonable link. The only one I could find was this . But it is not very helpful. It had about 20 odd short stories. All about the sorry state of women and their fate. Not many about the happiness or courage or survival. Of course there are some who stood against the whole world and succeeded and some who was trampled on by the evilness of fate. It had some good writing and some bad writing. May be translations have their way of killing the spirit of the story. I wouldn't know. I can't read Assamese. It wasn't very different from the Iranian collection . It's all the same. The plight of women in this world. I found a sample online. It was one of the stories in this collection. I thought it was OK. Better than Amrita Pritam's work . I think I m done

Ding Dong! Bell Bajao !

Activity: Bell Bajao is a high profile national campaign using innovative media outreach throughout India. With the support of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and campaign ambassador and popular film star Boman Irani, the campaign was launched in August 2008. Bell Bajao! was created pro bono by Ogilvy & Mather. In all its 360 degree media campaigns, Breakthrough uses innovative tools to engage youth and create a culture of human rights. Here are a few ways that Breakthrough spreads the Bell Bajao! message throughout the country: Television, Radio and Press: Thirty two million people have seen and heard the message of Bell Bajao! through television, radio and press. Television advertisements depict men and boys who hear domestic violence and take a minute out their everyday lives to intervene and stop the violence. Video Vans: Mobile vans have been on the road for 150 days, traveling 80,000 kilometers across six districts in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharas

Mayrig's Paradis

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I usually do not like watching old color films that have this old-ish feeling and people dress funny, even though it might be a great movie. And not very fond of non English films that look like that when I haven't heard of the name of the movie. So I usually avoid MGM as a channel. Yet, one day I found myself randomly browsing past the channel when I paused for a second. A handsome man grayed at the temples was deep in thought. He remembered a small incident in his childhood when he was invited to a tea party at his friend Alexander's house. Alexander was not his friend, and was very rich, while this little boy was not very well to do. He did not know though why he was invited. When the day arrived when he should be taken to the palace of a house, his family struggles hard to make him presentable. His mother waits outside the house while he goes in and gets humiliated before coming back to her. Never did he let her know that he was humiliated. The scene was played out so beaut

Protsahan: Encouragement

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The Protsahan India Foundation has a unique idea bringing out colors and using story telling to bring about a change and help underprivileged children. Activity: "Encouraging Creative Arts & Functional Literacy as a Medium of Expression to help the underprivileged create opportunities for a better future" A few young Indians have got together and built this initiative of social change in Delhi. They use youtube, colors, art of stories to bring tremendous change in the lives of marginalized. Check out their work on the Facebook page or read about it on their blog . Even better, visit the site. Support: girl child education, women empowerment Note: Funds, Volunteers, Furniture in the school | This post is a part of BlogAdda's Bloggers Social Responsibility (BSR) initiative. | | I am exercising my BSR. You can too with three simple steps. Visit http://www.blogadda.com/bsr/ and support the NGO's.

Weekend Hyd Out

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Last week was World Environment Day and India played global host. Read all about it here , here and here . The weekend before that was when a good friend of mine, Qurious Quester came over to Hyderabad to meet me, Dee another friend from IIT days and see the city! I picked her up from the airport and headed to my house and spent a while chilling out in air conditioned environment (yes, Hyd is hot). Then we headed out to Lumbini Park where we met Dee and went up to the statue in Hussain Sagar , spent some lazy time and returned home. On Saturday we saw Charminar , shopped for bangles, walked along Laad Bazar to Chowmahalla Palace . The palace was vast and beautiful. We admired it for a while, then settled down under a tree for a picnic lunch. After lunch we realized we actually did not complete our tour. It was much bigger than we imagined. We caught sight of a few vintage vehicles as well. By now we were tired. Though the sun was not beating down on us it was still dehydrating. So w

Capt Jack Sparrow on the Big Screen

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This is a post long due! I watched the Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides nearly 10 days ago. And some how everytime I wanted to write this post I had something to do or my laptop gave up on me. So I'll make it brief. I liked the movie. I love Jack Sparrow. I do not remember the earlier pictures. This one did not have any grossness (really black beard looked human). I loved the mermaids that kill you :P It was my first Imax 3D experience and that is why I liked the movie. It really seemed like the mermaids were jumping all over :) So that's it.