Straight from the Heart

It’s the time for India bashing in the west. At least that’s what seems to be the feeling one gets when one sees Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire receive so many Oscar awards and when one hears about “The White Tiger” bagging the Man Booker prize! India had become the toast of the world during the last 3-4 years and the entire world had been watching with growing interest the rise of the nation named India. In 2007, London School of economics inaugurated the India Observatory, which was a sort of acknowledgement to the fact that the world wanted to know more about India. I had the priviledge of being present at the launch and I am sure that, like me, most of the Indians who were present on that day at the Peacock theatre, would have felt proud. So the world has started to research more about India and bring India out in front of the global population. And what is better than using cinema as the medium to spread the message! Am sure Danny Boyle had this in mind when he read the no...

“Seven days ago, I had been ecstatic, over the moon at getting my first job after qualifying for the engineering degree. Now, nobody will remember me. I will be lost into oblivion,” remarked Gaurav gloomily to Jena. “ I had promised to call up my fiancee to let them have a first hand information about my first place of posting. Trying to connect to the world outside this place seems to be an exercise in futility.” They were sitting on the front steps of the graduate trainee hostel, home to the twelve bright engineers for the past one-week. “You are right. This place gives me creeps. Ever since I set foot in this place I have been fearing about coming face to face with a man-eating tribal, who will drive his spear through my heart and then eat my raw flesh”, remarked Rakesh displaying visible concern on his face. The graduate trainee hostel, where the twelve bright engineers from different parts of the country had converged, was located in one of the remote corner of eastern India. The ...