The Iron Rose 1973

Happened to watch "The Iron Rose" a surreal horror film directed by Jean Rollins, on a rather windy Sunday. Jean Rollins is a known European film director, who made several horror films on Vampires (female vampires get special attention from him) most of which follow the conventions of horror films with extra gore and sleaze. I watched "The Lips of Blood" by the ame director a few years ago and there was not much in it that left a lasting impression on me, maybe I will see the movie again just to recapitulate the contents. I have always regarded films as a medium of entertainment and as well as a medium of art. I can watch a thriller, a comedy and an action movie but I also love films that go beyond the usual entertainment and present themselves as art forms which are rich in visuals, themes and symbolism just like a beautiful painting that can be interpreted in several different ways. Like in Michelangelo Antonioni' movie "Blow Up" where a character, who is a painter tells his friend that when he starts his work he has no aim or direction in his mind but when he completes it, he steps back and tries to interpret his own work. Similarly, a movie should be a work of art that makes the audience think, forces them to draw their own inferences and interpretations and keeps them busy talking about them for perhaps years and as such, these movies do not go stale anytime and with every viewing, you uncover something new something more subtle.

The movie starts with a young poet meeting a young girl at a wedding dinner and needless to say, is attracted by her. Both of them plan to meet and on the man's insistence, they plan to spend the day picnicking in an old, decrepit cemetery that has been lying in wasteful neglect for years as fallen leaves, overgrown shrubs, disheveled grave markers and rusting iron fences indicate.

Making their way through the overgrown vegetation, they chance upon a crypt (an underground burial chamber) they descend into, to spend some intimate moments. By the time they come out of the crypt, they find that Sunset has already happened and that it is all cold and dark with presumably only these two persons in the vast cemetery. They go about find their way back to the exit but looks like they reach everywhere in the cemetery except the gates. As they run around, frantically trying to retrace their steps back to the exit, the girl's courage starts to give away, while the man, not wanting to show his mounting confusion and nervousness tries to put up a sense of control over the situation and soon after they descend into the blame game and the girl tries to flee in panic only to be followed by the man, who tries to, in a sense, molest her which stops after emotions have subsided and reality dawns on them once again.

Then all of sudden, the girl who was panicking at the idea of being lost in a huge decrepit cemetery suddenly finds peace with its morbid surroundings and starts to poetically romanticizing about the death and how the dead have become their "friends" and that there is nothing to fear. This sudden change in the girl's behavior causes the man to panic and flee and in the dark he falls into an abyss that we later find out is a open mass grave strewn with skulls and bones of those who were interred in it. The girl comes along and helps the man out of the pit. While the man is in a state of shock, the girl seems to be perfectly enjoying being in the creepy environs of the cemetery and she even secretly transports a human skull from the pit the man had fallen into.



The man realizes that he left his wrist watch in the crypt they spent their time in and goes in it to retrieve it, the girl shuts the crypt's door and then goes around ballet dancing in the cemetery amidst the fog, the tombstones, the crosses and sculptures of Cherubs in the dark of the night, which needless to say gives an eerie and very disturbing feel to the whole sequence. As the dawn break, the girl goes back into the crypt, where her now-dead boyfriend is and shuts the door.

The film is not for mass consumption as there is hardly any character development, any story or a even a hint of a plot. There are no ghosts, witches, flesh eating ghouls or the walking dead (zombies). There are no slit throats, no fountains of blood, no dismembered body parts or anything one would associate with a horror movie. Actually, the horror plays in the minds of the characters and in the minds of the audience. The night time photography is excellent and the director succeeds in creating a calm yet dreadfully beautiful. There are some scenes and characters that do not make sense at all and there are something that look out of place. Like the wedding dinner at the start of the movie, where the man spots this woman but looks like no else notices the girl and her presence and in individual shots she is the only person in the frame suggesting that there is a physical disconnect between her and the rest of the world. If one wants to watch a film, please approach it has a piece of artwork on celluloid and not as a film for entertainment. The things are not laid out and explained and the director leaves it to the viewers to arrive at their own conclusions.

(Images: Google)

मुर्दों का टीला - रांगेय राघव

रांगेय राघव हिंदी साहित्य के रत्न थे। मात्र ३९ वर्ष के जीवन में उन्होंने साहित्य की उन ऊँचाइयों को छुआ। राघव का नाम काफी साल पहले सुना था लेकिन अब तक उनकी कोई रचना नहीं पढ़ी थी लेकिन अभी अभी उनकी उत्कृष्ट रचना "मुर्दों का टीला" का समापन किया। सिंधु-घाटी की सभ्यता के नगर मोअन-जो-दरों (Mohenjodaro) पर आधारित यह रचना, हिंदी साहित्य में एक प्राचीन, भूली-बिसरी नगर सभ्यता का सजीव चित्रण करती हैं। १९४६ में लिखी गयी यह रचना उस समय के पुरातात्विक उत्खनन, खोज और अध्ययन पर आधारित हैं। लगभग ७० वर्ष के विशाल अंतराल में, उस समय की मान्यताएँ या तो बदल चुकी हैं या फिर खारिज हो चुकी हैं और इतने ही वर्षों में नयी खोज, उत्खनन के चलते इस गुमनाम सभ्यता में प्राप्त जानकारी में काफी वृद्धि हुई हैं। सिंधी भाषा में "मुआ" मरे या मृत व्यक्ति, मुर्दा, वस्तु के सम्बोधन के लिए प्रयुक्त होता हैं और "मोअन" "मुआ" शब्द का बहुवचन हैं। "दरो" का अर्थ हैं "टीला"। बीसवीं शताब्दी के शुरूआती दौर में यहाँ पर पुरातात्विक खुदाई की शुरुआत हुई। इससे पहले इस स्थान के आस पास के निवासी, इस प्राचीन नगर की ईंटें का प्रयोग अपने भवन इत्यादि के निर्माण में प्रयुक्त करते थे। ईंटें निकालते समय, खुदाई करने वालों को नर-कंकाल मिले, जिसके चलते इस स्थान का नाम "मोअन-जो-दरो" पड़ गया अर्थात मुर्दों का टीला। अब इस नगर का वास्तविक नाम क्या था, यह अब इतिहास और भूतकाल के अँधेरे में कहीं खो गया हैं। भारत का पुरातात्विक सर्वेक्षण विभाग आज भारत में और जगह भी उत्खनन कर रहा हों जिससे इस सभ्यता के बारे में मिलने वाली जानकारियां बढ़ रही हैं लेकिन इस जानकारी का राजनैतिक लाभ के चलते इसका शोषण, संशोधनवाद और भगवाकरण के चलते, इतिहास को तोड़-मरोड़ कर अपने राजनैतिक और राष्ट्रवादी प्रचार के लिए किया जा रहा हैं।


"मुर्दों का टीला" मोअन-जो-दरो पर आधारित एक काल्पनिक उपन्यास हैं जो समय के जीवन-शैली , धर्म, व्यापर, कला, अध्यात्म इत्यादि पर प्रकाश डालती हैं। उपन्यास के चार मुख्य पात्र हैं मणिबंध जो कि विदेश से वर्षों बाद व्यापार करके, अकूत धन-सम्पदा अर्जित करके वापस मोअन-जो-दरो आया हैं। दूसरी पात्र हैं मणिबंध की मिश्री (Egyptian) दासी नीलूफ़र जो मणिबंध द्वारा मिश्र के दास बाज़ारों में मोल-तोल कर खरीदी गयी सुन्दर महिला थी। नीलूफ़र के आकर्षक रूप से अभिभूत होकर मणिबंध उसे अपनी स्वामिनी बनाने का वचन देता हैं। इसी बीच उत्तर के हरप्पा नगर से एक प्रेमी दम्पति का मोअन-जो-दरो में आगमन होता हैं, जिनकी आर्थिक स्थिति बेहद विकट और भिक्षा इत्यादि से किसी तरह काम चलते हैं। पुरुष (विल्लिभित्तूर) एक अभूतपूर्व गायक हैं और साथ ही एक अति-आदर्शवादी व्यक्ति भी हैं और महिला (वेणी) एक नृत्यांगना। मणिबंध नृत्यांगना पर आसक्त हो जाता हैं और यहीं से प्रेम, प्रतिद्विंदिता, ईष्या, छल-कपट, सत्ता और शक्ति के वर्चस्व के लिए संघर्ष की गाथा शुरू होती हैं। लेखक ने चरित्रों, घटनाओं, वातावरण का इतना शक्तिशाली और सजीव चित्रण किया हैं की ये सब पाठक के मन में पूरी तरह से आभासी वास्तविकता की तरह छा जाते हैं और यह उपन्यास एक चलचित्र के भाँती पाठक के मन की आँखों के सामने से निकल जाता हैं। उपन्यास के अन्य लघु पात्र हैं हेका, जो नीलूफ़र की मित्र हैं और उसी के साथ साथ बचपन से धनवानों द्वारा खरीदी बेचीं गयी और इनके साथ हैं एक अश्वेत अफ़्रीकी दास अपाप, जो हट्टा-कट्टा बलशाली हैं। दूसरा लघु पर उतना ही महत्वपूर्ण पात्र हैं मणिबंध का अत्यंत विश्वसनीय और निकटतम मित्र और सलाहकार, एक मिश्री वृद्ध आमन-रा, जो वाक्पटु, बुद्धिमान और जीवन भर का अनुभवी होने के साथ साथ अत्यंत क्रूर, निर्दयी एवं धूर्त हैं।


यह उपन्यास शुरू में अपना समय लेते हुए चरित्रों के भीतर जाकर उनके प्रेम, आशा, ईष्या, सुख, दुःख, भय, स्वार्थ से परिचित करता हैं। उपन्यास उस समय और अधिक गति पकड़ता हैं जब खानाबदोश आर्यों का समूह हरप्पा नगर पर आक्रमण करके और कड़े युद्ध के बाद उसे पराजित कर, वहां के मुख्य गण को अपना दास बना लेते हैं।


इस उपन्यास के कुछ रोचक एवं आकर्षक बिंदु हैं :


# लेखक द्वारा वर्णित नर्तकी के प्रथम बार किये गए नृत्य का वर्णन, जिसमे वह अपना बायां पैर उठाती हैं, वह मोअन-जो-दरो की खुदाई के दौरान मिली कांस की ६ इंच की नर्तकी की मूर्ती का स्मरण करता हैं जो की अब Dancing Girl के नाम से विश्व-विख्यात हैं।


# उपन्यास में नगर की प्रसिद्द नालियों की संरचना का वर्णन हैं और कैसे मोअन-जो-दरो विश्व के बड़े से बड़े साम्राज्यों जैसे की मिस्र, सुमेर, एलाम इत्यादि, से व्यापार इत्यादि करता था।


# मोअन-जो-दरो की शासकीय व्यवस्था व्यक्ति-केंद्रित न होकर शासन व्यवस्था गणों के हाथों में थी जो खुद नागरिक होने के साथ साथ व्यापारी भी थे।


# दास/दासियों की दशा पशुओं मात्र रत्ती भर बेहतर थी। नागरिकों को लगता था दास उनकी सेवा और उनके द्वारा शोषण के लिए ही बनाये गए हैं और दास भी सोचते थे की दास दास ही रहते हैं और स्वामी स्वामी ही हो सकता हैं।


# सुमेर, मिस्र, एलाम के विद्वानो में ब्रह्माण्ड, जीवन की उत्पति, देवों को लेकर द्विन्दात्मक तर्क-वितर्क।


# आमन-रा द्वारा मणिबंध को सत्ता और शक्ति के महत्व को समझाना।


अंत में यह उपन्यास केवल के काल्पनिक हैं इससे इतिहास मान लेना गलती होगी परन्तु अगर पाठक थोड़े ही देर के लिए इस उपन्यास को इतिहास का वर्णन मान ले तो कोई भी अतिश्योक्ति नहीं होगी।

GSLV Launch: A New Era For Indian Space Program

The successful launch of the ISRO’s prestigious GSLV series launch vehicle, the GSLV D5, on January 5th 2014 heralds a new era in the Indian space program. We all know that India Space and Research Organization (ISRO) has been designing, manufacturing and sending satellites up in the space for a very long time, spanning four decades. Sending the satellites up in the orbit is an arduous task and initially, India used the launching facilities of French/Russian and European Space Agency’s facility for satellite launches, which was getting costlier as the time passed. India decided to go ahead with its own satellite launchers and progressively over the years, it went step by step and came out indigenous version of launch rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). PSLV is a sparkling success for ISRO, which has a total of 25 launches its credits out of which only two were unsuccessful. PSLV though a very efficient and a reliable rocket, is not strong enough to carry and put heavier payloads i.e. more than 1.5 tons, into the orbit. Most of the communication satellites these days are heavy pieces of equipment weighing more than 2 tons. Having to use expensive launch facilities in Europe/US, which was a drain on the national FOREX reserves too, India had no option but to concentrate on the development of an indigenous rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads into orbits. The PSLV was not capable of the handling the job that was beyond its design and performance capabilities. The Indian scientists at ISRO started to work towards designing and developing an indigenous rocket that was much more powerful than the PSLV and was capable of putting heavier satellites.

ISRO came up with a new rocket design, named Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which is capable of lifting and putting heavier satellite on higher orbit. Most of the geo-synchronous satellites operate at orbits which are more than 35,000 kilometers above the Mean Sea Level (MSL) and they orbit at a speed so that they just appear to hovering above the same point on Earth all the time. As it is obvious, the launch vehicle needs to have a lot of fuel to carry heavier satellites, which themselves carry fuel to transport themselves to the higher geosynchronous orbits. Here, in this scenario, solid fuel and liquid fuel stage engines become inefficient. Owing to the energy and produced and thrust required, one would need lot of fuel to burn and that will, in return, add to the total weight of the launch vehicle, making it more heavier. To get around this problem, space agencies in USSR/US/Europe developed cryogenic engines, which use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen stored at very low temperatures. When these are burnt, the rapid expansion of these gases provide far more greater thrust per unit of fuel carried than the conventional solid and liquid fuels. ISRO took around 20 years to develop its own indigenous cryogenic engine that is based on the staged combustion cycle model, which is more powerful compared to other cryogenic designs namely the gas generator cycle and the expander cycle, which require less fuel but are less powerful than the staged combustion cycle model. ISRO designed the staged combustion cycle model and it took them almost two decades to design, test and perfect their version of the cryogenic engine, which is an amazing feat in itself. Though, I would like to point out here that this GSLV D5 flight was only an experimental flight (for testing the cryogenic engine stage) as first stage and the second stage are derivatives of the corresponding stages of the PSLV rocket design. This cryogenic engine, classified as CE-7.5 has the thrust power of 75 kiloNewtons (kN). ISRO will now have an efficient, tested reference model to develop the next phase of cryogenic engine, the CE-20, which will have the thrust power of 200kN. Currently, all the nations in the world are making cryogenic engines with thrust power in the region of 200kN. Perhaps, with GSLV MK-III, India would be able to put an astronaut or a group of astronauts in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and perhaps then it can send spacecraft and assorted payloads like landers, atmospheric probes to other planets, bypassing the slingshot method through a series of orbit raising maneuvers, by placing the crafts directly onto the trans-planet-injection orbit.

All of us knew that ISRO makes satellites and sends up rockets, some of which bear the ignominy of crashing down to Earth sooner than expected, but it was never in the news for exciting stuff. NASA/ESA grabbed more attention with their sophisticated inter-planetary missions and low earth space shuttle missions, while ISRO on the other hand dealt with unexciting stuff of manufacturing and sending satellites for remote sensing, surveys, weather forecasts and communication, which no doubt is a silent yet critical achievement of our space program. One of the other better things ISRO has done lately is that they are using social networking webs sites like Facebook and Twitter as a part of their public outreach program. They have currently two pages on Facebook, one being for the updates and information on the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) and other one is the India Space and Research Organization that provides information and updates on the other ISRO projects. This move has attracted a lot of people from different walks of life, especially the youngsters and they have huge fan following that goes up to the region of three hundred thousand followers and the number is still ticking. Rocket technology for me, was never this interesting, where your questions are answered by the scientists and the engineers from ISRO. This should have been long done but given the publicity ISRO received for its Mars mission, suddenly ISRO has become a the most talked after thing on the internet for Indians but sadly below Tendulkar, Modi and Big Boss serial but I am positive that this is a good start. Such missions encourage young minds to become inquisitive and to develop a scientific outlook and to take up science subjects and contribute towards the technological innovations for the betterment of the people and the society. I hope ISRO continues to strive for the greater welfare and benefit of the common people of the country and they have shown that with honest hard work, true determination and grit, one can move the mountains.


In end, I would not like to see ISRO projects disparagingly termed as mere "political gimmicks". They may be gimmicks for the politicians in power but for the thousands of engineers and scientists who work on these projects, the successful missions are testimonies of the triumph of human spirit and determination against every conceivable obstacle. ISRO Chairman went to Tirupati before the launch of Mangalyaan that caused a lot of flutter, but now he should realize that human achievements are dependent on our hard work and will to succeed and not on God’s grace.

Typecast from 1937 Underwood Universal Portable Typewriter

Is Digital Technology Harming Us?

Is digital technology making us dumber, or should we say are losing our skills because of our one dimensional approach towards digital technology? I was having this discussion with my friend over dinner in a restaurant. Though, the conversation did not extend much beyond a few opinions exchanged, but it has given us some food for thought for the time being. While, it is true that newer technology must be embraced, it is also important that we keep our command over other skills that were present before their digital avatars or digital alternatives arrived. Case in the point being, things like writing with a pen, writing and posting letters to friends and relatives with exception for using them in more formal communication like business and jobs instead of emails. The proponents of digital technology claim that newer the technology, the faster it is and hence more efficient as we save more time and perhaps money and there is no doubt in accepting this truth. Earlier, information was hard to get and was available through the periodicals, newspapers, local libraries etc. Now, we can access any information through the click of a button on our latest PCs and laptops from the comfortable confines of our homes. Emails are sent and responses are received almost instantaneously in most of the cases. 

I am of the opinion, that technology should make our job, our chores easier to do instead of making us wholly reliant on it, while we, in turn lose skills that are critical at personal and person to person level. The technology has also negatively affected our attention span and has reduced us to being social recluse. We are in the crowd but most of the the times we are hypnotically gazing into our tiny and personal boxes of technological wizardry than with any real person to person interaction. For example, a group of friends sitting together and checking their smartphones, while waiting for the food to be served on their table in the restaurant and such a behavior is not only limited to public places but also at homes where people do not mind checking their smartphone, when at someone's place for a gathering. Instead of using the technology to our advantage, we are sadly letting technology to frame the personality of our social behavior as well as our own inherent personality. 

So, when did I realize myself that I have become a victim of advanced technology? One day, a colleague brought me a paper on which I had hand written a note. He wanted to me clarify as to what I had written and imagine my embarrassment, when I myself could not figure out what I had written. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in a long time. My hand writing had deteriorated over the years ever since I started using computer assisted writing, to the point of almost being termed as ineligible. That day, I made up my mind not to rely on virtual words that I type on my laptop/PC screen and I need to go back and re-discover the art and skill of handwriting and perhaps make my life more analog (more physical and more mechanical) than digital, where ever possible.

The Friday Typecast

Going Back To The Typewriter.