Besan Ka Halwa

SCIENTIFIC TEMPER Society is scientific. It keeps asking for proof. It asked me to prove  My Loyalty  My identity  My sanity. The day I asked society  To prove itself,  It burned me at stake  To prove the greatest discovery  Of man - fire. -V.G.

  'BREWING BELIEF' Tea versus coffee Is complicated and pointless- Like a religious debate. A million myths, A hundred histories, Several stories and sects. With or without milk and sugar? One god or many? Dipped or filtered? Buried or burnt? The answer if there is - Is water: a necessity. Water is virtue. -V.G

'Sir Amrit' Amrit hated surprises And assassination was top on that list. On the eve of filing papers, He found his old birth certificate. Discovering the absence of 'A' He shot himself. -V.G. 

'Pinocchio in Love' I got lost  Talking to a chirping bird Who sat on my nose one day. I kept telling lies  To make it stay and it did But farther and farther away. -V.G. 

A Fair Lure - Vikram Grewal 'Haraf' S-U-C-C-E-S-S is freedom  from repetition. Always almost there But never there yet. A pursuit depending  Constantly on consonants. A caged victory  Cursed into a loop, With recurring S's and C's Resting on two vowels. It wishes to be more stable, Buttressed by broader letters. Held by three or four vowels, With no repetition ofcourse! If only it were spelled: F-A-I-L-U-R-E.

Hymn for the Neo-Colonizer If you think That you are better than them Then better them, Without telling them. And as you better them   It betters you, Without telling you.     - V.G

'Pablo, no Hablo' Be quiet. Very quiet. So quiet that you mistake silence for peace, That you misunderstand stillness for harmony, Vacuum for wind, Being for living, And your own heartbeat for the clock that ticks -  And loves to hear its own ticking, For which you have been asked to Be quiet. Very quiet. -V.G

 

The Loop of Legitimacy and Longing Aranya Sahay's debut feature asks questions with probing palms and listens closely for answers with attentive ears When I got an opportunity to watch 'Humans in the Loop' this Sunday, the first thing I noticed was the runtime. There is just something about films with lengths less than 80 mins that instil attention and interest in the viewer. It is like the film is telling you that it is pretty sure of what it wants to say, so you better listen.  Humans in the Loop exudes a similar confidence but it is not one of those films that hold your hand and make you run across a forest track. It asks you to stop and observe: the wind, the birds, the strange pair of eyes that stare at you with aroused quils, the rocks that breathe and the painted caves that call out to you reminding you how far you have come - how far evolution and civilization has brought you. And once you observe and listen you ask what this 'civilization' actually entails?...