Manali

  MANALI   ... !!  Bhuntar is a tiny chit of an air-strip. Straight up North, when one looks some 3000 ft. above is sitting Bijli Maharaj   ...  on the bald spur of mountain, above the tree line. There one can see, a tiny, match-stick like lone 'Stambha' ...  when one gets up to the temple, its several tree trunks stapled together by solid iron straps and stands tall, maybe 200 feet, maybe more or less. This acts as lightening conductor and each year around the same time, lightening strikes it, the energy is conducted to the Lingam at the Garbha and it shatters into pieces. Word spreads and devotees start arriving with sacrificial animals and Ghee (solidified at this altitude)  with which the Pujari re-assembles the Lingam, ceremoniously & every body makes merry, feasting and jollying.

Now if one looks down below, one sees a litmus paper like strip, that's Bhuntar aerodrome! A shiny river forks out like the tongue of a snake bracketing the spur of this mountain. Huge eagles glide past in line of sight, just 10 feet away from the edge (they are gliding 3,000 ft. above the ground!) ...  Once a huge red sun was setting and right across on the other horizon an equally huge silvery full moon was rising  ...   Rahatavalokit 11.09.'13

What Can FTII Become?

THE QUESTION OF FTII @ PUNE   ...  one & only   ...   this side of  IDHEC PARIS :

"We” interact with “Reality”   ...   not to satisfy some bourgeois, banal self interest, ours or anyone else’s   ...  but in order to “Change It”   ...  In this “Regarde” if you are not “Us”   ...  then you are  the “Them”   ...  remember this  ...   And in case you are hoping that your “Parents” /  “Family”  /  “Private property”  will help you  on the path of “Wisdom”, that they will find you a suitable match in marriage and see to it that your first born in  “Male”   ...   then you have another thing coming  !!  It will be useful to read-up, ”The Origin Of Family, Private Property and the State”   ...   before you take another step towards finding a “Solution” for FTII. Its “People” who make the “Place”  ...   You see.

I have said this in private conversations and I shall say this publicly, “Please gift this FTII as it is  within Prabhat Studio to Maharashtra State; leaving behind the TV section as well as the Wisdom tree; make a fresh start that may be called  say, “The Indian School of Cinema”   ...   Select a neutral location and build on World Standard of The State of the Art of  Cinematographic ( in the Bressonic sense) sensibility and technology, a 'Center of Excellence', where young & old alike can imbibe “Culture”, take long or short duration courses, where creativity, stylistic research & philosophic enquiry can be nurtured at a deep level of involvement   ...    Rahatavalokit  10. 09. ‘13

What is Cinema?

What is Cinema?

It is a virtual artifact, as yet an imperfect Art Form because it tends to cannibalize upon other Arts, Social /Linguistic signs and symbols. It is unique among Muses, the latest; it uses six ‘dimensions’. The basic two that are called ‘Aspect Ratio’ lead onto the third called ‘Depth’. These three visual dimensions are linked to an Aural dimension of ‘Sounds’ and a Linguistic one that we can call ‘ Semiological Dimension’. As Cinema unfolds in Analogue Time there is, therefore, a ‘Temporal Dimension’ to it.

This combination of Son et Lumiere chiaroscuro when projected under ideal conditions, in a dark, sound-proof hall, powerfully grips the imagination of each individual Man, Woman & Child among the  ‘Mindless Paying Public’ and the discerning, critical viewer finds the experience compellingly engaging. This accounts for the popularity of Cinema even in its trivialized avatara as TV.

Rahatavalokit 11. 09. ‘13

What is God?

Q: WHAT IS GOD?   ...   WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET RID OF GOD?   ...

A:  God is a principle of perfection which compensates the imperfections of each individual; there are countless varieties of imperfections and countless gods therefore.  So long as gods are needed there will be not one, but many. This plurality can be overcome only when the individual forgets his personal limitations in a more comprehensive unity. Then gods are no longer necessary. Rahatavalokit 11, 09.'13