The 'Tradition':: Fiddler on the Roof!

Good, beautiful Stuff!! And "On the Other hand" :-) , I just loved Topol in his amazing brilliance and flexibility in reflecting, rather subtle emotions. His character, "the Milkman" was so wonderful, so funny , so mystical and have got great philosophical depth with an interestingly compromising approach to the life and its unexpected changes.

He's so sarcastic, so hilarious especially in his conversations with God.

Chaim Topol was nominated for Oscar in 1972 for his performance in this movie and had also won golden globe for the same. Its so learned that he had to get special permissions to attend award functions as he was serving israel army in those years.

For people who enjoy musicals like 'Sound of Music', 'Fiddler on the Roof' wil be a treat. And those who love the art of acting, Topol would be great catch. And if you don't fall into both of these categories but enjoy a good bit of camera work, you have got a great deal to be happy about as the movie was shot in beautiful locations in yugoslavia to get the feel of Jewish life in the tsarist Pre-Revolutionary Russia of late 19th century!

Thanks to my late Night shifts and the privilege of 'Work from home' facility, I have just seen my first movie of the year,2009.

"Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match..."

And I would love to watch it another ten times just to see him talking about 'Tradition' and what the 'Good book' says.... :-)

(have a look at Topol from the movie and in his real life snaps. He still lives in Israel and leading quite successful and healthy life.)

A Fine Example of Clinical Reporting - ;-)

IF you still doubt what makes a tabloid different from a news paper, I got something for you. Another fine example on how TOI qualifies it self as the most widely read tabloid in india. They are still celebrating the unfortunate incident of the accidental civilian shooting in a big way. TOI have been quite busy with this for last three days. Somehow this time readers are not giving much attention to this. What ever be the case, after all its a tabloid's duty, to blow a tiny scoop out of all proportions to keep its regular readers hooked. Here you go.They got the pic of his goat too. May be another desperate attempt to stirr up a sympothetic wave towords the deceased. bad luck for TOI that the boy was not married yet, most probably he had no girl frieds too. Or else we would have already got glimpse on his probable family. Now lets wish TOI that the goat would do the trick. I am just wondering what the mighty TOI has got in its treasure to deliver us in the early new year morning? Picture of the first cigarette's butt which Mukarram smoked in his early teens?

Mukarram Incident: A Lesson to be learnt.

TOI came with colorful pictures of Mukarram's grief stricken family, who was shot dead by the sentry when he trespassed a protected army installation in the midnight. It was the house of the biggest Army Officer in the City, a Brigadier who had got tight cover of security.
You see the pictures of relatives and friends who are furious on army's mistake on shooting him. Pages of the newspaper are filled with, testimonials on him, his childhood pictures and graphical descriptions and time lines of the unfortunate accident.
On a neutral perspective, there is nothing much to fuss about here. A young drag racer who used public road (which is the first offence) to display his biking skills with dangerous stunts was confronted by the police (this is their duty). Instead of surrendering to the police and pay the fine, he tried to flee(Second Offence).Any kid in the world would know, not a single traffic offender will be hang to death if caught. Third mistake was the biggest, where he chose an army personnel's residence as his hideout. He scaled the fence, scaled even the house, and from the terrace made frantic calls from his mobile. Despite constant commands from the sentry to surrender he didn’t obey and in fact made plan to escape with the help of his relatives, by bringing in a vehicle close to the building so that he can jump into it and escape. Vehicle comes in, honks and he scales down and runs towards the fence. What do you want the sentry to do this time? An athletic young man would be extremely difficult to be handled in such an occasion and it’s highly important for the sentry to catch him as he did not know about the intentions of the boy and more importantly the intentions of his calls standing on the terrace. Naturally he was shot. Low light, Moving suspect, and you cannot blame the sentry to lose his aim and shot him above his waist. It’s not over yet. Wounded boy still managed to come out of the compound and was taken by his relatives to a hospital. At least these people had to make sure that he got proper medical attention. Instead of that, they too flee from the hospital after taking him there. We all know how much attention Indian hospitals give to a accident victim without any responsible people with him. This time, it was not a natural accident. He was shot. He succumbed to heavy bleeding some time after. Now who were more irresponsible? The sentry who shot him on the wrong place or his family who brought him up in a wrong way (who were boasting about getting him a bike when he turned fifteen which is illegal in India) and his most irresponsible relatives who rushed in to save him, with an offensive idea , after a busy midnight supper?
In this time of national security crisis, we cannot expect trespassers to critical places to be left freely without any harm. If his parents were informed about this issue, they had to inform the police about this and take their son out of the mess. That would have been a wise decision and their grievant mistake of breaking the law cost a young man's life. Instead of blaming the sentry who missed his leg when opened fire, in fact his kin have to be blamed for taking the wrong step in trying to fish him out of big mess in a messier way which he himself had created.

Media has to be little more responsible. Why this hue and cry that a trespasser who is an adult was shot dead? TOI and other newspaper and their visual versions will be really happy as they got sensational news to celebrate for couple of days.
No doubt, it was terribly an unfortunate incident. But let this be taken as a valuable lesson for the young brigade of law breakers for whom, Adrenalin speak more words than what their brain speak. And for all irresponsible parents, this is to be taken as a lesson, so that they would keep an eye on their teen offspring’s on their post night activities.