namma autos turns the taxi way!!

hey friends..its good news for all those who frequent on our autos ...yes its happening in namma bangalore. In a new effort to provide efficient and prompt service to the commuters, Smart Commuting Services has launched 'Easy Auto' services in the city.All u need to do is to dial 9844112233 and just tell your location and a spanking green auto will be there at your doorstep. The autos will have state of the art GPS system that tracks the movement of the vehicles and gets them updated in every 3 minutes...sounds cool right??anyway getting flat refusals from the auto drivers will be the thing of the past..

Iranian Cinema

On night of the 1995 Telluride Film Festival, famed German director Werner Herzog declared the opening, 'What I say tonight will be a banality in the future. The greatest films of the world today are being made in Iran.' Almost a decade later, Herzog's words ring true. Iran, along with Taiwan and Denmark, is widely regarded by film aficionados and international film critics alike as creating many of the best movies around. Iranian cinema began with such films as Ovanes Organian’s Abi and Rabi (1930) and Ardeshir Irani’s The Lor Girl (1933). Dariush Mehrjui’s Cow (1970), however, catapulted it into the international film circuit. For a brief period in the late 1960’s early 70’s such directors as Mehrju’i, Bahram Beyza’i, Parviz Kimiavi, Masoud Kimia’i, and Sohrab Shahid-Sales etc became international art house names. Subsequently, in the years leading up to the revolution, Iranian cinema went into decline, with foreign films dominating the domestic market.

In the years 1978-82 the Islamist revolutionaries attempted to “Islamise” the cinema. Soon after the Islamists vanquished other pretenders to the revolution even films about the revolution were banned. The secular left’s participation in the revolutionary upheavals had to be erased. So The Fall of 57 by Barbod Taheri popular in 1980 was banned in 1984. The combination of suspicion of the medium and the purging of filmmakers, especially those working with the Shah’s radio-television network, caused a sharp fall in investment and production. Imported films continued to dominate the cinemas that survived the torch, many of which catered for the revolutionary spirit of the time: Costa-Garvas Z and State of Siege; Guzman‘s Battle of Chile. Pontecorovo’s Battle of Algiers was screened in 22 cinemas simultaneously - 12 in Teheran.

As of now Iranian cinema has gained enormous recognition around the globe and it can be said that Iranian cinema could not exist without foreign recognition of New Iranian Cinema films as it does not have the support of its own country’s regime. Although, it can be argued that the government does support and encourage Iranian films to be shown elsewhere. The MCIG(Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance )encourages an active Iranian presence at international film scenes for economic reasons. This does tend to be films that show Iran and its traditions in a positive and idealistic light, but at the very least New Iranian Cinema does showcase Iranian high art and culture in keeping with the deep-rooted art of historical Persia.

From darkness to light

They venture out to the high seas, Face all odds as nature unleash its fury and yet cater to the platters of hundreds of hungry city dwellers. In spite of this the fishing community continues to remain marginalized and impoverished even in this age. The month long internship programme at the Fishermen Community Development Programme proved to be very thought provoking and an excellent learning experience as far as a fresher like me was concerned. Located in Thope, a sleepy fishing hamlet in the district of Kollam in Kerala, the Fishermen Community Development Programme is a venture of the Salesian fathers with the intention of uplifting the fishing community. The Society was registered in 1984 as the Fishermen Community Development Programme (FCDP), extending its services to the community all along the coastal belt. FCDP helps all men, women and children of the community in improving their socio-economical as well as the cultural background. The three key tasks assigned to me was the organizing of a Vacation Summer Camp, evening coaching classes and the annual pre monsoon health awareness campaign.

An array of tasks ranging from teaching the children in the camp to the door to door health campaign was no match to a rather captivating experience which happened in the later half of my internship. It is the story about a 14 year old girl Teena who was relieved off her hardships and brought back to the world of books and games by the efforts of my organization. It was the most poignant part of my internship programme. At an age in which she was supposed to learn and play, Teena was striving to earn a living by selling peanuts at the scorching heat in the Kollam beach. Her father was a fisherman who passed away when a lightening struck his catamaran (a traditional crude canoe used for deep sea fishing) while fishing. She and her mother sells roasted peanuts for the tourists who flock the beach. As a result of her fathers sudden demise she had to stop her studies at the age of 12. Our team adopted Teena and now takes care of her family and her education. She has enrolled in the high school to continue her studies. This may be a mere case study when viewed from the academic point of view but it was an incident that revealed the other side of life. This exposed the truth that life is not that smooth for everyone. But life has to go on and I walked out of my organization at the end of my term with the satisfaction of restoring normalcy in the life of Teena-a walk from darkness to light.