Switching off the Shutterbug!

The word lost opportunity doesn’t subsist in my dictionary because I hardly got  any in my life that I rued latter for missing out. While in school I was considered to be a moderate sportsperson and I was very active too during my early days. However, even I am proud of my orthodox background at the same time it was one of my biggest drawback. Whenever I intended to move to my desired direction I was dragged back to the square by my superior. Often those moments were very irritating but at the same time it gave me a great sense value that still I carrying forward. Today when I looked back I never regret for those opportunities I was denied but later I was thrust forward to create my own opportunities and I am proud of it. Women in India, that too from an era when being a women was a biggest shortcoming yet someone surged forward against all odds to be someone that needs to be mentioned. Today, my blog a tribute to Homai Vyarawalla, the first lady of the lens.

Homai Vyarawalla

Homai Vyarawalla, was India's first woman photojournalist. First active in the late 1930s, she retired in the early 1970s. In 2011, she was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India. India’s first woman press photographer Homai Vyarawalla, captured the last days of the British Empire in India. Her work also traces the birth and growth of a new nation. The story of Homai’s life and her professional career spans an entire century of Indian history. This selection of rare photographs tells her life story amid footnotes of an emerging nation, as she saw it.

The story of Homai’s life and her professional career spans an entire century of Indian history. Belonging to the small Parsi community of India, Homai was born in 1913 into a middle-class home in Navsari, Gujarat. Her father was an actor in a traveling Urdu-Parsi theatre company. Homai grew up in Bombay. She was the only girl in her class to complete her matriculation examination. Vyarawalla, studied at the Bombay University and the Sir J. J. School of Art.

Homai moved across Delhi on a bicycle. Wearing a saree, with two huge sling bags across her shoulders that held her cameras and equipment, she also carried two boxes, one holding new flashbulbs and the other to keep the fused ones. "I would get strange looks from people on the street" she chuckles. "A lot of them thought I was a foreigner in spite of the fact that I wore a saree!"

Homai Vyarawalla took a number of memorable photographs during her career. Her favorite subject was Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

Most of her photographs were published under the pseudonym “Dalda 13″. The reasons behind her choice of this rather amusing name were that her birth year was 1913, she got married at the age of 13 and her first car’s number plate read “DLD 13″.

Homai Vyarawalla, who passed away January 15, 2012 at the age of  98. Thus, she surged forward to fulfill her passion in a male dominated turf and left a huge footprint behind.

!!!In the land of opportunity, Lost and Found are non-existing, all we have to do is create one for ourselves.!!!

                                                                                            

The Iron Lady!

It is too early to write about her but it is difficult for me to ignore it for too long. If I recollect from the past then I had quite a few name from Hollywood in my A-list, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day. Jodie Foster is another name I always looked for but I think Meryl Streep is incomparable. Over thirty years, she portrayed one after another memorable characters with ease and it is difficult to judge which one is better than other. It was way back in 1980 when I saw ‘Kramer Vs Kramer’, that was the film  for which she got her first Oscar. In that movie she was sharing screen space with another greats and one of my favourite actor, Dustin Hoffman. Obvious the result was awesome. Every of her outing are breathtaking. Apart from appearing celluloid screen she also performed in stage and related with music. Record-setting, sixteen Oscar nomination in her kitty and won it twice,  once for ‘Kramer Vs Kramer’ and other for ‘Sophie’s Choice’.

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep is an American actress and singer who has worked in theatre, television and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented and respected actresses of the contemporary era. Streep made her professional screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia. Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win.

Considered by many movie reviewers to be the greatest living film actress, Meryl Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an astonishing 16 times, and has won it twice. Born Mary Louise Streep in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, Meryl's early performing ambitions leaned toward the opera. She became interested in acting while a student at Vassar and upon graduation she enrolled in the Yale School of Drama. She gave an outstanding performance in her first film role, Julia (1977), and the next year she was nominated for her first Oscar for her role in The Deer Hunter (1978). She went on to win the Academy Award for her performances in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Sophie's Choice (1982), in which she gave a heart-wrenching portrayal of an inmate mother in a Nazi death camp.

A perfectionist in her craft and meticulous and painstaking in her preparation for her roles, Meryl turned out a string of highly acclaimed performances over the next 10 years in great films like ‘Silkwood’ , ‘Out of Africa’, ‘Ironweed’ and ‘A Cry in the Dark’. Her career declined slightly in the early 1990s as a result of her inability to find suitable parts, but she shot back to the top in 1995 with her performance as Clint Eastwood's married lover in ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ and as the prodigal daughter in ‘Marvin's Room’.

Filmography :  The Deer Hunter, Manhattan, Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Sophie's Choice, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed, A Cry in the Dark, Postcards from the Edge, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, Adaptation, The Hours, The Manchurian Candidate, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, Julie & Julia, The Iron Lady.

List of Movies of Meryl Streep that got her a Nomination for Academy Award

Year	Film
1978	The Deer Hunter	Nominated - Best Supporting Actress
1979	Kramer vs. Kramer	Won Best Supporting Actress
1981	The French Lieutenant's Woman	Nominated - Best Actress
1982	Sophie's Choice	Won - Best Actress
1983	Silkwood	Nominated - Best Actress
1985	Out of Africa	Nominated - Best Actress
1987	Ironweed	Nominated - Best Actress
1988	A Cry in the Dark	Nominated - Best Actress
1990	Postcards from the Edge	Nominated - Best Actress
1995	The Bridges of Madison County	Nominated - Best Actress
1998	One True Thing	Nominated - Best Actress
1999	Music of the Heart	Nominated - Best Actress
2002	Adaptation.	Nominated - Best Supporting Actress
2006	The Devil Wears Prada	Nominated - Best Actress
2008	Doubt	Nominated - Best Actress
2009	Julie & Julia	Nominated - Best Actress
2011	The Iron Lady	?

I know that these are not the final list, certainly, she is going to get many more meaty roles and awards, so I said it is too early to write about her.

!!!This toast of mine is for the one and only Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady!!!

Slayed for Playing with Fire!

Whenever think about the land of Rajputs and the great warriors, immensely one would ends up thinking about Rajasthan. In my childhood, I was so much fascinated by those tales of Rana Pratap, Pannabai, Rani Padminibai and their courage. The place also one of my most desired destination that I desired to explore. The palaces, the folk music, colourful peoples and scenic views all are pleasure to explore. However, in recent the same Rajasthan and a handful peoples are in the news for very wrong reasons.  The news opened the door to the world of lust, sleaze, power and politics. The story is of a very ordinary woman Bhanwari Devi, whose association with powerful peoples and her unaccounted ambition that cost her life. At same time, she was associated two rival politicians from same party, she was certainly playing with the fire. Varun Gandhi was right when he said that Bhanwari Devi was not a saint yet those lustful men from power corridor doesn’t have the right to bumped her off. Four-month long search ended when CBI found her belongings in a canal. Things became hot due to the CD that showing Bhanwari Devi and Maderna in compromising conditions.

 Bhanwari Devi, who was employed as an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife in Rajasthan, went missing on 1st September, 2011. Her husband filed an FIR and blamed the Rajasthan Minister Mahipal Singh Maderna for his alleged involvement in the case. He alleged that Maderna had been in touch with her for 4-5 years. Still state Minister refused to have ever known anyone named Bhanwari Devi. Then came a CD, some local news channels aired a video tape, showing Bhanwari Devi and Maderna in compromising conditions. Bhanwari Devi threatened that she could bring down the government of Rajasthan.

This incident has reiterated how power is being misused in political arena. While it needs to be established as to what happened to Bhanwari Devi and need to ponder for why did it take the police and politicians more than two months to act when all the evidences were against the accused. Of course, Bhanwari Devi paid the price of challenging political heavyweights.

Finally, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday confirmed before the Rajasthan high court that missing nurse Bhanwari Devi was killed at the behest of a politician, sources said.

The agency made its assertion during the hearing in the habeas corpus petition filed by Bhanwari's husband Amarchand before he was arrested by the CBI on charges of being involved in the conspiracy of his wife's disappearance, sources said.

The murder of Bhanwari, a political advantage for all parties of Rajasthan, so  it can be handy job of any one. However, the powerful offender may walk free from the l---o---n---g hand of the law and will never get the punishment that he deserves.

!!!Solitary Rules of the Masters, when done with their Mistress, just Bump Out.!!!

Sites that I love to Sight!!

It was somewhere in the year 1994, when I was introduced to this world. No, it is not a joke, I was born long before 1994 and of course not in Mars but very much in this world only. I am talking about internet. That time it was in its crawling stage. The only service provider we had then was the Government owned VSNL. The attitude of VSNL was as good as any monopoly businessman.  There was a simpler package for the students with cheaper rate but it was totally worthless. The package we used to get would cost us three thousand bucks for hundred hours and in addition we had to pay sixty rupees for one hour telephone charges, obviously it was a dial-up-connection. Therefore, we robbed by the Government and it was a very smooth operation, I mean the robbing, it happened always. Only thing was they gave us a new address, it was an email account, the cheapest and fastest communication tools. But the services was very bad and often during single working process we have to face several breakdown, it was the part of that parcel or rather package. Then two private companies, Satyam and Mantra came in the picture but these companies vanished even before they could made any impression. Search engines I used were Altavista.com and Infoseek.com. Then,  Sabeer Bhatia came up with an web mail known as hotmail.com, I was having my privacy in the office because before that we used a single mail account for our official and personal communication. Today, Goggle is the most happening website that armed with everything what one asked for. The journey was irritating at one point but most of it was exciting. For me it is a learning tools all the way. Some of the sites that I used during this journey and some others those were benchmark for others.  We should not forget the role of a browser, without these piece of software all these would have been impossible.

Browser

Browser, a program that enables a computer to locate, download, and display documents containing text, sound, video, graphics, animation, and photographs located on computer networks.

NCSA Develops World's First Web Browser

Students at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, develop Mosaic, the first browser software. It is the first multi-version browser designed for different operating systems.

The Search Engines

GO

Go.com (also known as The Go Network) is a web portal first launched by Jeff Gold, and now operated by the Walt Disney Internet Group, which is a part of The Walt Disney Company. The portal includes content from ABC News, ESPN, and FamilyFun.com, all of which are associated with Disney and are hosted under a go.com name. Along with TimeWarner's Pathfinder.com, Go.com proved to be an expensive failure for its parent company, as web users preferred to use search engines to access content directly, rather than start at a top-level corporate portal.

Infoseek

Infoseek was a popular search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch. Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation.

AltaVista

AltaVista is a web search engine owned by Yahoo!. AltaVista was once one of the most popular search engines but its popularity declined with the rise of Google.

Yahoo

Yahoo! inclusive was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 1, 1995.  According to news sources roughly 700 million people visit Yahoo websites every month. Yahoo! itself claims it attracts "more than half a billion consumers every month in more than 30 languages".

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational internet and software corporation specialized in internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys", while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates.

The Webmail

Hotmail

It was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and launched in July 1996 as “HoTMaiL” It was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million, and shortly after it was rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". The current version was released in 2007.

Gmail

Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols.  With an initial storage capacity offer of 1 GB per user, Gmail significantly increased the webmail standard for free storage from the 2 to 4 MB its competitors such as Hotmail offered at that time. Individual Gmail messages, including attachments, may be up to 25 MB, which is larger than many other mail services support. Gmail has a search-oriented interface and a "conversation view" similar to an Internet forum. Founded by Paul Buchheit in April 1, 2004.

The Blogs [Everyone is a Publisher]

The first known use of a blog on a news site was founded in August 1998 by Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer. Bruce Ableson launched Open Diary in October 1998, which soon grew to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries.

Social Neteworking Sites [Where is my buddies?]

The first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists.  SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others. While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable business and, in 2000, the service closed.

I am not much fond of these Social Networking Sites, because the quality of language and the wall posting is substandard and below par, Twitter is an exception.

I am also using a few other sites and all for free under the wings of Google, apart form this blog site, the others are their social networking sites Google+ and Google sites for my webpage. Of course for the encyclopedias I already mentioned in one of my blog yet my full praise for Wikipadeia and its team.

!!!Stay Connect,  Stay Sprightly!!!

Angel of Death, Human or Guinea Pigs!

Whenever I think about this man, feeling is always same, awful and sickening. He was known as “Angel of Death”, a doctor who himself was sick and a devil in disguise.  Dr. Josef Mengele is the name, he was a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. Writing about him and his gruesome acts itself is strenuous.

Josef Mengele and His Ghastly Acts

Mengele took turns with the other SS physicians at Auschwitz in meeting incoming prisoners at the camp, where it was determined who would be retained for work and who would be sent to the gas chambers immediately. In one instance, he drew a line on the wall of the children's block, about 5 feet from the floor, and children whose heads could not reach the line were sent to the gas chambers. When it was reported that one block was infested with lice, Mengele ordered the 750 women that lived inside the dormitories to be gassed.

Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his research on heredity, using inmates for human experimentation. He was particularly interested in identical twins; they would be selected and placed in special barracks.

Mengele's experiments also included attempts to change eye colour by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations of limbs, and other surgeries. Rena Gelissen's account of her time in Auschwitz details certain experiments performed on female prisoners around October 1943. Mengele would experiment on the chosen girls, performing sterilization and shock treatments. Most of the victims died, because of either the experiments or later infections.

Once Mengele's assistant rounded up 14 pairs of Roma twins during the night. Mengele placed them on his polished marble dissection table and put them to sleep. He then injected chloroform into their hearts, killing them instantly. Mengele then began dissecting and meticulously noting each piece of the twins' bodies.

In my own Frontier

Nothing is changed with the time, only things are not that bad but things still happening around the world. In modern days, the doctors lost their all ethics and ready to bend their way for any purpose for big money. Most of them are not for the patients but guided by the big pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic centers and minting money from both. Following pieces are picked from some news articles and it happened not at Auschwitz but very much in India, the largest democratic country of the world.

In an outrageous act bound to dismay the medical ethics community, as many as 233 mentally ill patients in Indore were subjected to clinical trials to check the efficacy of various drugs, including 42 patients for Dapoxetine. The trials were conducted at private clinics by doctors of the mental hospital attached to the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Indore, between January 2008 and October 2010.  The question was raised in July this year but the reply given then was incomplete. The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh detailed reply came during the assembly's winter session that ended on December 3. Significantly, the doctors involved had taken the approval for the trials from independent ethics committees attached to private hospitals both within and outside the state, thus bypassing the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College's own institutional ethics committee.

The names of five mental hospital doctors involved in the trials - Ramgulam Rajdan, V S Pal, Ujwal Sardesai, Abhay Paliwal and Pali Rastogi. It also came to light that the clinics where the trials were conducted did not have the mandatory registration certificate from the district chief medical and health officer.

However, two doctors claimed they had done no wrong. "We did the trial in private clinics, so we took the approval from independent ethics committees," said Dr V S Pal. Asked why the MG Medical College's own institutional ethics committee was bypassed, he refused comment. Dr Abhay Paliwal, another doctor named, said, "We are allowed to conduct clinical trials at private clinics. We have followed all DCGI and ICMR norms." According to him, it was not necessary to go to the medical college's ethics committee as the trials were conducted at private clinics.

!!!The doctors in white coat, not always a saviour but an angel of death. !!!

Ignominious Fame!

Human nature, very strange and I am not an exception. I was more Indian while living away than living in India. The same theory can be applied to my state too, yes, I was more Bong during my thirty years when I stayed in different states than last few years while I am here. While away, I was always hungry to get a piece of news from my place and often travelled distances for a newspaper. Nevertheless, the sorry state of my city and state was and is in I never found a news or something that could have excited me. Whenever it made to the headline, it was for different wrong reasons and current one too not an exemption. Two horrible tragedies back to back brought Bengal on the limelight. First, it was there for fire at AMRI and then India’s worst hooch tragedy.

Most the private hospitals in Kolkata are here only for business and hardly do anything for the patients beyond there business interest. It is sad that the people goes to a hospital to ease out their pains and ends up dying there for some other reasons. The incident was occurred only for the negligence of the hospital administrations.

AMRI Fire

How come a hospital of this stature could operated so long from a place like it is situated. Under any emergency situation, it has hardly any space to get in or out. It seems the accident was due for long so it happened. The hospital is co-founded by some big shot, the Emami & Shrachi Groups along with the West Bengal government in 1996. The hospital, once rated as amongst India's best, is located in the fairly upscale Dhakuria neighbourhood.

On December 9 , the pre-dawn fire broke out at 3.30 a.m., catching many in their sleep. While most nurses, doctors and other staffers were able to get away, many critically ill patients suffocated to death in their hospital beds. The tragedy unfolded over many hours. Some were suffocated, some were too infirm to escape the toxic fumes. The lucky few were brought down the side of the four-storey glass facade building using ropes and ladders, even as thousands watched in horror. In the worst fire tragedy in any hospital in India, 91 patients and staffers were killed  when a terrible blaze engulfed its annexe building early Friday, trapping dozens of helpless patients while doctors and  staffers fled to safety.

Hooch Tragedy

In less than a week after more than 91 women, men, and children died in a disastrous fire at the AMRI hospital in Kolkata, illicit brew has claimed the lives of about 171 people, at Sangrampur in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Preliminary reports indicate that the hooch was sold in sachets, priced between Rs.7 and Rs.20, virtually opposite a police post in the area. Starting with a couple of deaths early in the morning, the toll kept rising through the day and touched 80 by daybreak next day. Most of the victims complained of body pain, stomach cramps, vomitting, and a burning sensation. The health authorities diagnosed the early deaths as due to “cardio-respiratory failure” arising out of methyl poisoning. Evidently, licensed liquor sold through the legal retail system was out of the reach of the poor, who fell into the trap of the hooch trade. At last report, about a hundred victims were in hospital, most of them said to be recovering. So far 171 people have died.

So, loss of 262 lives for different section and for different reasons but both are man-made disasters. It is high time for Mamata Banerjee to stop blaming others and try to improve the infrastructure in West Bengal. Matter of fact Bengal lacks any sort of infrastructure. Only talking rubbish is not solution,  stop talking and try to do the justice and faith of the people who elected her.

Both incidents are two of kinds as poor died due to their addiction and others rather very helpless condition but surviving members of the families paid heavily.

!!!In death all are same, be it rich or poor, cannot value a life in two different scale.!!!

End of Golden Era, an Era of Romanticism! [Part II]

This one is the concluding part of the times of Hindi movies that considered to be a Golden period.

Sunil Dutt

Sunil Dutt was born on 1929 in the Jhelum District of Punjab, in Pakistan. The Partition had a great toll on his family who had lost all their wealth and in fact, he was left begging in the streets of Delhi before he re-joined his family. Later he moved to Lucknow and then to fulfill his dreams he moved to Bombay. In Bombay, he joined Jai Hind College as an undergraduate and took up a job. Starting out in radio, Sunil Dutt was a hugely popular on the Hindi Service of Radio Ceylon. He moved to acting in Hindi films in the film ‘Railway Platform’. He retired from the film industry in the early 1990s to turn to politics. He died in 2005. Apart from many award he also conferred Dadasaheb PhalkeAward in 2005.

Filmography : Mother India, Sujata, Gumraah, Yaadein, Mera Saaya, Waqt, Reshma Aur Shera,  Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

 

Rajendra Kumar

 

Rajendra Kumar made his debut in the 1950 film Jogan in which he starred opposite Dilip Kumar and Nargis. He then shot to fame in the film Mother India in 1957. There were times when he had six or seven films running in their silver jubilee weeks at the same time. He became known as "Jubilee Kumar".

 

Filmography : Dhool Ka Phool , Dil Ek Mandir, Sangam, Arzoo, Aap Aye Bahaar Ayee, Jhuk Gaya Aasman

 

Shammi Kapoor

 

Shammi Kapoor was born in Mumbai to theatre actor Prithviraj Kapoor. First he joined his father’s theatrical company Prithvi Theatres.  He made his debut in Bollywood in the year 1953, when the film Jeevan Jyoti was released. He has given many hit and was hit with then young generation for his dacing style. He died on 7 August 2011.

 

Filmography : Jeevan Jyoti, Dil Deke Dekho, Junglee, Professor, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, Teesri Manzil , Rockstar

 

Dev Anand

Dev Anand born in 1923  was an film actor, director and producer  known for his work in Hindi cinema. After graduating, he came to Bombay from Lahore.  He joined his older brother, Chetan, as a member of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). was offered a few roles starring as the male lead opposite singer-actress Suraiya. Often compared to the famous actor Gregory Peck the world over. The Government honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002 for his contribution to Indian cinema. His career spanned more than 65 years. Dev Anand died on 3 December 2011 in London.

Filmography : Baazi, House No. 44, Funtoosh, Kalapani, Kala Bazar, Taxi Driver, Munimji, C.I.D., Paying GuestHum Dono, Tere Ghar Ke Samne, Asli-Naqli, Guide, Jewel Thief, Prem Pujari, Tere Mere Sapne, Haré Raama Haré Krishna, Jaaneman, Des Pardes, Chargesheet.

Dilip Kumar

Dilip Kumar was born as Muhammad Yusuf Khan in Peshawar. The family relocated to Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1930s and in the early 1940s Yusuf Khan moved to Pune and started a canteen business and supplying dried fruits. In 1943, actress Devika Rani helped Khan's entry into the film industry with screen name Dilip Kumar. His first movie was Jwar Bhata. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994. In 1998 he was awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award conferred by the government of Pakistan. He is the second Indian to receive the award. He is the sole surviver of that era and recently celebrated his 89 birthday. Wish him many many happy returns of the day.

Filmography : Jwar Bhata, Jugnu, Mela, Andaz, Deedar, Daag, Aan, Udan Khatola, Devdas, Azaad, Naya Daur, Musafir, Yahudi, Madhumati, Mughal-E-Azam, Gunga Jumna, Ram Aur Shyam, Aadmi,  Gopi, Dastaan, Sagina, Bairaag,Vidhaata, Shakti, Mazdoor,Mashaal, , Karma, Saudagar.

Listed movies in the filmography, are some of the hits but not all.

 

!!!Stars, today here and tomorrow there but they will always sparkle!!!