Cost of Progress ?

I/We shifted to Gurgaon (suburbs of Delhi) in 1989 when my father retired from his job in another state and returned to his native land.
It was a small town then, with majority of people going to Delhi for jobs. It was quite open and less polluted then.

Things started changing…in mid-1990s.

More people started moving out of Delhi because of its pollution and over crowdedness.
Gurgaon was developing then. Nice colonies were coming up and many Delhites sold their properties in places like Karol Bagh/Rajendra Nagar in huge amounts and bought big plots/kothis here in half the price.

With better commercial complexes in Gurgaon, companies started moving in. That reversed the traffic. So now people from Delhi and NCR region come to Gurgaon for jobs.

And then came the Call Centres and then Malls…
More job opportunities, more traffic, more noise, more people relocating to Gurgaon, more disparity between old and new Gurgaon, more robberies/chain snatching/bags snatching, more intolerance, more indifference, no compassion….

One can see accidents happening everyday while commuting to office. And everyone is so busy that no one stops to help. But if their own vehicle is scratched, they stop and then have all the time to fight right there, stopping the whole traffic.

Where has our basic sensibilities gone ? Are we not left with any humaneness ?

Can’t we spare a moment to reflect upon – what is it we want ultimately –
more money with less peace, with lesser time to impart our children sanskaars to enable them to be better humans/citizens, with no time and patience left to talk to our old parents…
OR may be lesser money with more peace, more time, more contentment, more patience, more love of our children, more blessings of our elders…

Time to ponder…

My kind of cinema

Saw “Blue Umbrella” this weekend.

A neat and clean movie.
A movie BY kids FOR the adults !
To show – to what extent we can go to get what we want – be it in Biniya’s (the little girl) case or in old man’s (Pankaj Kapoor) case.
And when we get what we wanted – what we actually have ? Pleasure or pain ? Pleasure in Biniya’s case and Pain in old man’s case.

Pankaj Kapoor is so effortless in any role he plays !
Hats off to him!

Music, photography/cinematography, direction – all very good.
Full Marks to Vishal Bhardwaj !