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Samay. 14.1.24 |
Saturday, 13 January 2024
Sunday, 7 January 2024
Monograph on Mrinal Sen on his 100th birth centenary
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| For a free copy send mail to mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com |
Window Seat. Weekly Column in English. 7.1.24
Window
Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 7.1.24
2024: Year of MAYA
2024 is going to be the year of MAYA.
It is the year of elections in
India, US, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the first two considered to be the biggest
democracies of the planet earth. An election is the time when fact and fiction,
truth, half-truth and falsehood coalesce. Every participant out to impress the
voters about their suitability try to create a maya. 2024 will see more of it.
It is also the year AI
(Artificial Intelligence) is poised to make rapid progress in ways far beyond
our comprehension. Those who still think AI to be just machines- have not yet
understood the power of generative AI. At some point Gen AI will create things
and processes of its own. In the hands of people with brains and deep pockets-
it has the power to create a maya-jaal (net of magic), common people are too naive
to even realise its existence - let alone understand it.
So brace yourself for a ride through the maze of
maya.
Swami Vivekananda
Swami
Vivekananda, the monk extraordinary, was born on 12 January 1863. His birthday
has been celebrated as National Youth Day since 1985 in India. Swami
Vivekananda not only played a key role in introducing Indian philosophies of
Vedanta to the Western world, he ignited the spirit of nationalism and
modernity in a country still under foreign rule and steeped into dogma and superstition.
He brought in the freshness of freedom and modernity.
Known
in his pre-monastic life as Narendranath Datta, he was born into an affluent
Bengali family in Calcutta. From an early age, he showed a keen interest in
spirituality and meditation. In his quest for spiritual knowledge, Narendranath
came across the saint Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886). This meeting had
a profound impact on him, and he became one of Ramakrishna's most devoted
disciples. Under Ramakrishna's guidance, he experienced deep spiritual
awakening. After Sri Ramkrishna’s passing in 1886, Vivekananda renounced the
world and crisscrossed India as a wandering monk, deliberating on Vedanta
philosophy and preaching oneness of all religions.
Swami
Vivekananda gained international recognition when he represented Hinduism at
the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893. This marked the
first time that ancient Indian philosophy was introduced to a Western audience
on such a large scale and had a deep impact. In fact most of the Vedanta
societies, which were founded in America and Europe up through the 1930s can
trace their origins directly to Swami Vivekananda.
After
the Parliament of Religions, Swami Vivekananda spent several years traveling in
the United States and Europe, delivering lectures on Vedanta and Yoga. He aimed
to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western philosophies and promote the idea
of universal religion.
He
returned to India in 1897 and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1898. The
mission aimed to combine spiritual ideals with social service- helping people
during calamities, spreading education and providing health care.
Swami
Vivekananda passed away on July 4, 1902, at an early age of 39.
In just
16 years of public life (he formally accepted monastic vows in 1886), he had
remarkable contributions in the field of philosophy and social service.
However, it was his capacity to blend oriental with occidental, tradition with
modernity, individualism with collectivism; and his holistic vision and world
view- that made him an exceptional thought leader.
2024
The United Nations declared
2024 the International Year of Camelids (camel like animals) (IYC 2024).
2024
will celebrate the birth centenary of two legendary Indian cartoonists: Sri
Gopulu (18 June 1924- April 2015), illustrator and cartoonist and Abu Abraham
(11 June 1924 – 1 December 2002), the legendary cartoonist who fearlessly
questioned those who were in power.
It will
also celebrate the birth bi-centenary of Dayanand Saraswati, the saint philosopher
and one of the makers of modern India, Harish Chandra Mukherjee, the legendary
editor of Hindoo Patriot, who were among the first intellectuals of India to
raise the issue of self-rule and Michael Madhusudan Dutta, poet and playwright.
2024 is the Year of the Dragon
according to the Chinese zodiac. My friend Sudhansu Deo, who has keen interest
in astrology tells me- it is also the year of Shani the god of karma,
justice, and retribution, who delivers results depending upon one's thoughts,
speech, and deeds. He advises me to feed black dogs to please Him. As I started
looking for a black dog, I was told the price of a pure black dog has gone up
manifolds in the canine market.
15 Years of YouTube in India
YouTube just completed 15
years of its existence in India. In just one and a half decades it has occupied
a significant space in the media ecosphere of India. From computers and mobiles
it is now taking over the drawing room television- through what is called
connected TV (watching content off YouTube on television. This
segment is going through the same phenomenon that made internet usage grow
…falling prices of smart TVs and the rising penetration of fixed-line
broadband.
Another area which is
growing is called ‘shorts’ - small videos usually created by the users of
YouTube. More and more people are creating and consuming shorts. The rate
accelerated as YouTube announced monetising Shorts in February 2023.
Content in regional
languages in YouTube is also growing at a phenomenal rate- drawing in more
viewers and creators.
YouTube at 15 - is having a bullish time.
2023 Person of the Year
Times
of India 2023 Person of the Year is no person. Matlab- no human being or
even animal- lion or rat, or bird- crow or parrot, or mosquito. The TOI Person
of the Year is no living being. It is CHATBOT.
Welcome
to the new world - the metaverse, where real and virtual not only co-exist, but
coalesce.
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A
compilation of all the episodes of Window Seat published in 2023 is being
compiled into a e-book. It will be sent to interested readers for free.
Interested persons may send their email to mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
Saturday, 6 January 2024
Monday, 1 January 2024
Sunday, 31 December 2023
Window Seat | Weekly Column in English | 31.12.23
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee 31.12.23
2023-2024
The time gap between today and tomorrow is 24 hours. It could
be one minute at 23.59 today. And it could be one year when it is on 31
December. I just discovered that is another way of looking at time, and day and
year. Ha! That is some self-praise at the end of the year, which saw
megalomania at a much larger scale.
From Putin, relentlessly pounding of Ukraine to Trump,
relentlessly trying to impose himself on the world (for America, according to
him is the lord of the whole world) to many such persons in sadda Bharat, we have no dearth of
megalomaniacs- thinking themselves to be the centre of the universe.
Will 2024, the birth centenary year of Harishankar Parsai,
satirist par excellence in Hindi, who in his writings lambasted megalomaniacs
see more of that variety? Time will only tell.
100 years of Radio
Broadcasting in South Asia
Since
the first broadcast in South Asia in June 1923, radio, one of most potent
protean medium, has been remixed, fragmented, diverted into apps and a growing
audio broadcast industry. It was on June
1923 the Radio Club of Bombay (now Mumbai) made the first ever broadcast in the country. This was
followed by the setting up of the Calcutta Radio Club five months later.
Radio Ceylon in
Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) became first radio station in Asia in its earlier
avatar Colombo Radio launched on 16 December 1925. It was followed
by one in Kabul by King Amanullah Khan in the same year.
It is interesting to note that radio made
its entry in South Asia in India, the first radio stations were set up in Sri
Lanka and Afghanistan; and the first community radio ‘Radio Sagarmatha’ was
established in Nepal in 1997
In undivided India, Indian Broadcasting Company
(IBC) came into being on July 23, 1927.
It was liquidated in three years. In April 1930, the Indian Broadcasting
Service, under the Department of Industries and Labour, commenced its
operations on an experimental basis. Lionel Fielden was appointed the first
Controller of Broadcasting in August 1935. In the following month Akashvani
Mysore, a private radio station was set up by K. Gopal Swami, Professor in
Psychology in Maharaja College. On June 8, 1936, the Indian State Broadcasting
Service became All India Radio (AIR). It was renamed Akashvani in 1956 on the
suggestion of poet Pandit Narendra Sharma. However, both the names were used
till recently.
Interestingly
Radio, unlike print and television media, made the journey from analogue to
digital without much difficulty or friction. As a medium it finds itself as
intimate, versatile and flexible in digital ecosphere as it was earlier. It is
as creatively challenging as ever. The digital technology, especially AI
(artificial intelligence) has of course thrown new challenges and provided
exciting new opportunities.
I
have had a long association with radio beginning in early 1980s when I was a
casual announcer in AIR, Cuttack. As radio broadcast turns 101, here is wishing
it a very bright future.
Maruti@40
Remember the first indigenous ‘people’s car- Maruti
800, the little hatchback. The first batch of these cars rolled out from the factory Maruti Udyog Limited located in Haryana, close to Delhi December 14, 1983. India, then was
still under the licence raj. As India gradually opened up its economy, Maruti,
the frontrunner became a beneficiary of liberalisation.
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| The first Maruti Car that was sold to this gentleman, 40 years ago. |
The tiny ‘people’s car’, revolutionised personal
mobility and served as a link between the old and new journey that India
undertook. Interestingly it was in 1983, that Indian cricket team under Kapil
Dev defeated the mighty West Indies at Lords in England against all odds.
Curiously there is a similarity between this two
completely different incidents. As
Maruti shook up then sleepy passenger vehicles market in India, challenging the
duopoly of Hindustan Motor’s Ambassador car and Premier Padmini and soon became
the symbol of aspiration for millions of middle class Indians, Kapil’s devils
showed India ‘can do’.
Displacement
We are all displaced at some time or the other. The
issue is: whether you are displaced forcefully against your will and how well
you cope with the displacement.
If you are displaced forcefully, then the pain will
remain for a long time. That is trauma.
Displacement brings with it loss of identity. That is
probably more painful than material loss. Nostalgia remains through
generations. My mother land remains in my blood. As I continue to live the old
blood cells die gradually, new blood cells take birth. If this happens in a
favourable condition- the country I am in- becomes my mother land in two
generations. If done forcefully it does not and the pain remains.
Swapnamoy Chakravorty’s 2023 Sahitya Academy award
winning novel ‘Jaler Upar Pani’ is a depiction of life in a refugee colony in
West Bengal. It talks about loss of identity and taking on or morphing into a
new identity.
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| Cover of 'Jaler Upar Pani' |
Tailpiece:
Happy New Year
Q. Why did the man sprinkle sugar on his pillows on
New Year’s Eve?
A. He wanted to start the year with sweet dreams.
(Courtesy: Social Media)
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Friday, 29 December 2023
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