Entertainment – Penfluky

Paava kadhaigal – A Movie review

Paava Kadhaigal, an apt title for such a wonderful anthology. This anthology speaks about four different stories with one common emotion, the honour killings. Directed by Sudha Kongara, Gautham Menon, Vetrimaaran and Vignesh Shivan, one story each. This is an anthology that portrays humans’ cruelty to sustain the honour in society.
The series begins with a beautiful graphic story that briefs all the tales in a nutshell played with a soulful BGM.

The concept-

As the series runs around the concept of honour killings, each story tells a different tale of why and how honour killings happen. Though centuries have passed, specific ideas still aren’t passe like “honour killings”. It is a beautiful concept to talk about as people should progress as the world is progressing.

The narration-

Every story has been narrated with a subtility that one can’t ignore the reality behind such stories. But one story that didn’t strike the heartstrings was the story directed by Vignesh Shivan. It stands last when compared with other stories of Paava Kadhaigal.

All angles study-

While the stories got us goosebumps with the hits and punches of emotions, some memorable scenes need light.
In the first story, Kalidas Jayaram plays Sattharu who just wooed us with his performance. The dialogue, “People either got irritated if I go close or came close to me with lust, no one ever hugged me with love!” brought a massive thought into how trans people are treated in society. Kalidas just lived through every tear he shed for the role. The song, “Thangame Thangame” still echoes in my ears.

In the second story, Jyothi, played by Anjali, expresses a deep emotion when she cries before her sister’s dead body.

In the third story, the chemistry between Mathi and Satya played by Simran, and Gautam Menon perfectly worked. When they are happy to when they are sad, the shift of emotions and expressions portrayed a perfect couple.

In the fourth story, Sumathi, played by Sai Pallavi, performed exceptionally in the climax scene. The conversation between Sumathi and Janakiram played by Prakash Raj is heartbreaking.

There are a few parts that are questionable in the series. Every swear word used in Paava Kadhaigal is women-centric. Where such liberal stories are spoken, these words shouldn’t hinder the audiences’ ears. We understand when they are used in anger, but story directed by Vignesh Shivan made a whole scene with swear words which had no purpose. The climax is an epic fail as there wasn’t a need to show that Jothi acted as a lesbian while she isn’t. It could have been better if the story had ended as if Jothi is lesbian.

That being said, there is too much to be told and consumed in this series. One cannot go without tears rolling in the eyes after watching Paava Kadhaigal. The foolishness of humans to have a hold of pride and honour in the name of caste, religion, status, societal standards should be stopped, and for what, Paava Kadhaigal is the answer!

Six Browser Secrets Only Avid Internet Users Know

The internet has become a significant part of our lives. According to a survey conducted by Forbes in 23 countries, more than two-thirds of the people cannot imagine their life. India is leading the study with 82%. By the stats, it is safe to assume that the internet has become an essential commodity.

To access the internet, we need a browser and a search engine. Google is the most popular search engine with an 87.35% market share. In the following article, let us learn Six browser secrets that only avid internet users know.

1. Keyboard Shortcuts: There are plenty of keyboard shortcuts that make the browser experience intuitive and easy. Let us learn some of them.

● You can switch between the tabs without using a mouse or touchpad, just press and hold the Control key and the number 1 to 9 depending on the tab number you want to navigate. For instance, if you have more than nine tabs, you can navigate using Control Key and Page Up or Page Down.

● You can open the downloads window for the browser just by pressing the Control key and J.

● You can quickly delete browsing data by pressing Control Shift and D and clear it.

● Closed a tab by mistake? No worries, you can quickly recover by pressing Control Shift and T.

● You can quickly go to the URL bar for typing by pressing Control and K or Control and E.

2. As a note pad: You can convert any browser into a note pad with a simple link. It will be handy for people who do not want to switch tabs, especially on the phone and do not want to install a new application. Enter the below code in the URL bar, and you can enter the text and save it as an HTML file.

code : data:text/html, <html contenteditable>

3. Easy Email Compose from URL bar: You can compose an email from the URL bar directly without opening your domain website. It is very convenient to skip the part of opening another website, clicking on compose, and doing it.

Just type “mailto:” after the colon, enter the email address you want to send the mail. Your default email client will automatically launch with a compose window. You can type the Email and send it.

4. Reverse image search: If you want images similar to the image you have, Google has an impressive feature for you. You can upload the image or enter the URL, and Google will find the pictures for you.

Just go to images.google.com; if you are doing this on the phone, select the checkbox beside Desktop Site from the menu (3 vertical dots). Now upload the image or paste the URL, and Google will find pictures for you.

5. Getting better search results: You can make a few changes and get better search results. Let’s see a few of them.

● You can get search results involving specific keywords. To do that, Use quotes (“) for a particular word in your phrase, and you will get it.

● You can eliminate results containing particular words. To do that, use the minus or dash(-) sign to exclude results for that word in your phrase. It helps to eliminate the search results of a particular website you don’t want.

● You can get the documents of a particular file type. To do that, enter the topic you want to have a document for and enter “file-type” and the document’s extension (pdf or doc, etc.). By this, you will get the required documents for your search.

6. Fun with Google: There is a lot of fun stuff you can do with Google as your search engine. Let us find them out.

● Open google and type “do a barrel roll.” You will see that the page will roll.

● Open google and type “Google Askew,” and open the first link. You will see the home page tilted.

● Open google and type “Google Gravity” and open the first link and see the home page fall!.

● Open google and type “zerg rush,” and open the first link and have fun playing!

● Open google and type ” Google Sphere,” and open the first link. You will see the home page in sphere mode.

● Open google and type “Atari Breakout” and enjoy the nostalgiac experience of the game!

● Open google and type “Google Pacman,” and enjoy the Pacman right on your computer with that classical music!

Conclusion:

With the world internet growing very fast and reaching millions of people, we have everything at fingertips. Not only the above six but there are many more secrets and hidden features that we can use and take the maximum advantage of the browser. So go out there and dig as much as you can. Have fun using the above features for your comfort and convenience.

Elements For Writing A Fiction Using Real Incidents.

Fiction is one of the most prominent forms of story writings. It is also one of the predominant and one of the oldest forms of writing. In general, most of the movies and series are based on fiction. Fictional writing can be described as a story meant to entertain or carry an author’s point. In this article, let us try to understand the things which are very crucial to write a fiction using real incidents.

Before we proceed if you want to know on how to write an effective article? or want to know more on content writing, click on the highlighted words.

The following are the crucial ingredients to write good fiction using real incidents.

1. Character: The character is one of the essential parts of fiction. As the story is fiction, you can have full freedom of the character. It is like holding one of the most powerful guns and shooting anyway you want. You can take a character, add your elements and escalate the hell out of it.

Many of the experts suggest not to include yourself in the story. But if you can separate the experience as it is and imagine that you are sharing your experience with your rational part of the brain and stay truthful to it, you can write the best fiction. Remember, no one can narrate your story or intention better than you.

2. Theme: As the character has a free flow in fiction, the authors tend to break the theme and go beyond it. The most important is that your character has freeflow in the story, but the theme of the story should be the same. You cannot break the walls of the theme and deviate the story from it. Stick to a theme and let the story flow.

3. Narration: This is my favourite part of fiction; you can use any narration to write fiction. You can write a poem, sonnet, first-party narration, third party narration so and so forth. Any narration can blend very well with fiction. You need to pick the one which you are good at and go with it.

4. Relate The Story To The Reader: It is good if we can relate the story of the character to the reader. By this, the reader gets curiosity to keep on reading and feels involved. You can relate by adding common elements in our day to day lives. Like you can create a situation when your character is driving, cooking etc., By doing this, the story feels natural and will have a good flow.

5. Editing: This is one of the crucial parts of fiction writing. After you have finished writing and before you publish your story, take a small break. Move out of the room, relax for some time, come back and read it from a readers point of view. By doing this, you can remove or add elements to your story. This improves the quality of the story in all the ways possible. It also acts as a proof reading for yourself so that can make necessary changes for the story.

If you follow the above described elements correctly, you can write one of the best fictions possible.

A scream passed through nature and fell upon a canvas

I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red. I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence, there were blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. And my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety, and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

And that is how Edvard Munch describes what he felt while drawing the infamous painting, The Scream (1893). He saw the sky turn blood red, and he felt anxious. If you can see the artwork, the first thing that comes to your mind is ‘anxious’. The art flaunts out, speaks out anxiety; everything about that piece of art communicates some fear.

Edvard Munch describes this about Oslo, in Norway. There was a lunatic asylum near that location which admitted his sister for her disorder. Many interpretations tell that it was this asylum that he referred when he said: “scream passing through nature”. He describes how he felt anxious when he was looking at the blood-red sky. Many thought the blood-red sky was just a metaphor.

Historians explain that a nearby volcanic eruption causes a dramatic red sky in Oslo for a few days. The red sky he saw might be in one of those days. And it is only natural to feel anxious after looking at something unnatural. But if you look closely at the figure that is in the painting. It is screaming, now that figure is metaphorical. It is in-human and looks something close to what we call a ghost.

This figure might represent nature in a personal form. The personification of his feelings when he passed that area made this painting necessary. It is a crucial artwork in history because it is prominent for the movement: ‘impressionism’. People consider Edvard Munch as an expressionist artist, but this specific work is impressionistic.

Impressionism was an art movement in the 19th century. The impressionist artists chose to draw or make a piece of art not by merely depicting something as it is. They would instead create an impression that had been in their minds while looking at the specific inspiration. You can see how it fits the profile of The Scream!

Many historians also claim that it was not just a lunatic asylum that felt like a scream of nature, but there was also a slaughterhouse nearby.

Later in life, Edvard Munch stopped consuming meat and felt it was cannibalism. He, however, continued to eat fish, but he was outspoken about turning vegetarian. ‘Vegetarian cult’ he called it. Historians related his thoughts on vegetarianism from his early ‘Scream’ days and said the ‘scream of nature’ might also refer to the screams of animals from the slaughterhouse.

It does make sense to think of it as the screams of animals because, in his later life, Munch describes eating animals is cannibalism and they are our cousins, brothers, sisters and aunts. He is against the idea of eating closer relatives such as animals, and he supports eating our distant relatives who share different anatomy to us, the plants!

Both interpretations have something in common, the scream—screams of lunatic patients and animals from butchery. Both are innocent; they have committed no crime to suffer such punishment. It is humans that mistreat people with disorders and animals for food. The setting seemed odd, slaughterhouse one side and the lunatic asylum on the other, and the blood-red sky. It was a scream of nature; man, animal, sky, plant and everything around screamed at that moment in his mind.

If he drew this as ordinary landscape painting depicting it as it is with regular people on the bridge, asylum and slaughterhouse on either side, would it have created such an impact? Would you feel anxious when you look at it? Would you understand the scream of nature? You would need some description to figure out the motive behind the painting if it was an ordinary landscape.

It is because of the impressionistic choice he made to personify the scream, to draw the sky wavy in a surreal way, and that makes us feel anxious to look at it. It is as if it was his anxiety that he put into the work, and it transmits to everyone who looks at it. Such is the beauty of Impressionist and Expressionist arts. It is not merely capturing the movement as it is, but it is capturing the feelings that come with the moment and scenery that makes a painting and artistic painting!

Depth of field; Cinema and Photography

Depth, well, it is one of the words that is analogous to many other things. While all the other secondary meanings of the word are related, the primary meaning would be ‘the distance between the top and bottom surfaces’. Even when it comes to a movie, the depth becomes a lot of things too. For suppose, the depth of a film can indicate the story going to deeper levels or the subject of the movie being deep. But we are particularly talking about the depth of field!

But technically, or to say, visually, depth or precisely depth of field is something that deals with focus. Depth of field is the field of vision that is in focus in a particular shot. Different camera lenses allow a certain depth of field. The aperture of a camera lens decides the amount of light that the sensor captures. Hard to understand, right? Let us break it down!

How does a camera function?

A camera is something that captures light through sensors. When you click the capture button, the light reflecting from the subject falls on the sensor. The shutter closes, and the captured light develops an image. Cameras are something that can control time with light. You can capture a moment of running time, and you can freeze that particular moment and hang it in your homes.

Aperture

Aperture is the hole of the lens. The light that passes from the subject is passed through the aperture of lenses before hitting the sensor. You can adjust the size of the aperture, and it affects the photo differently. When the aperture (opening) of the camera is wide open, it lets in all the light coming from outside. When more light falls on the sensor, only the subject appears clearly, and the rest of the background becomes blurred.

Because of the vast light that is going in through large aperture, this blurring of the background happens. And the blur occurs because the background is not in the depth of field. Depth of field is the area of focus in an image or a video. By making the aperture wide open and letting in more light, you decrease the area of focus, and only the subject of the image appears clearly.

Similarly, if you decrease the size of the aperture, the light hitting the sensor is reduced. By each point of decrease in the aperture, the area of focus begins to increase. And if you tighten the aperture to the largest and closest, you can observe that now even the background is clear and not blurry. This blurring and focusing of subject and background happen because of the light going in and hitting the sensor.

F – stop

Something much more critical and confusing here is that the values of changing the aperture are referred to as ‘f-stops’. If you change the f-stops, the aperture either increases or decreases as per your requirement. The f-stops are fractions and are measured as f/1.8, f/2.8 and may have greater f-stops till f/22 or even higher. The common mistake one can commit while talking or understanding f-stops are about how they impact aperture.

It is clear to use that if aperture (hole) is wider then it lets more light in and the depth of field (area of focus) decreases. And if the aperture is close and tight having a smallest possible opening, it only lets little light and the depth of field increases. The f-stops with smaller numbers indicate wider aperture and the ones with bigger numbers indicate tighter aperture.

It is that, greater the number of f-stop, lesser the opening of the aperture. And lesser the number of f-stop, greater the opening of the aperture. So, if you want to take a picture focusing only the subject and blurring out the background, you should choose lesser f-stop number on camera as it means that you are widening your aperture and letting more light. Thus, decreasing the area of focus, i.e., depth of field!

Wrapping up!

We have discussed how the depth of field is created, shifted and used to take pictures or videos. In the following week, let’s get into the practical use and ways of depicting the depth of field. We shall also see different types of uses of the depth of field to tell stories visually.

The Frankenstein chronicles – Parted and stitched

I am someone who binge-watches quite less. Neither I am a fan of TV nor any movie. It’s on a rare occasion that I feel the urge to watch something. When I am angry or sad or confused or anxious, I feel the need to watch something just to escape the tragedy of time and of course so that I don’t have to talk to anyone. This week I felt stressed and scrolled through my Netflix. I am a big fan of drama, psychic thrillers, and rom-coms. So, Netflix apparently showed me in the suggestions this series called, “The Frankenstein Chronicles.” For someone who watches things rarely, we don’t like to surf for many other series. I went for it and I must say, I don’t regret it. So, I thought I should write about it.

Here is the brief about “The Frankenstein chronicles”-

Frankenstein Chronicles is a series that leads by a strong detective character named John Marlott played by the actor Sean Bean. Benjamin Ross and Barry Langford created it based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. John Marlott finds a weird thing at a swamp which looks like a human but is not. The body looks like being stitched and attached. Later, he finds out through a doctor named William Chester, played by Samuel West that the body is actually made of seven different bodies.

For which, John Marlott suspects that the people who were used to make that body were murdered. To find out who possibly can be committing this crime and why he starts to investigate. Through his investigations, he finds out many shocking things that happen about surgeons of England. But sadly, John Marlott’s story ends in an unexpected way. In a nutshell, this story is a must-watch if you are a crime lover. Uhhh, Light-hearted? Please watch in company!

My opinion-

I am a horror fan. So, I expect a lot of horror from the movie, which is a little disappointing. But that being said, the series kept me hooked because of its twists and turns. I loved how everything was placed properly, and nothing was exaggerated. The dull tone used in the movie helped us experience the old times of England. A few shots showing the slum side show us the dark side of big crimes that occur under our nose. The story is a complete package of amazing actors, on-point content and chill in the bones of the watchers.

Wanna read more about movies, and series? Find them here!

I Exist in a dog’s mouth

I was sitting in a cafe, sipping a cold drink. The drink passed in my throat, I can feel it going down my throat and falling into my belly. Right when it hit the bottom of my stomach, I couldn’t feel it anymore. This thought struck my mind, and it made e forget that I’m sitting in a cafe. I was lost in my thoughts. This drink, when mixed with all the half-digested junk in my tummy, becomes something else. It isn’t the soda that I drank anymore. It’s some dude’s half-digested stomach acid. So, the soda doesn’t exist now. It existed a while ago till it was in the throat. But now, it doesn’t, and you can’t turn me upside down and get it back. If you try that, you might get that semi-digested white puke that is not the soda anymore.

So, is this what happens to me? What A I? I’m a skeletal structure, and above that, a muscular one fit with all the organs in a way that I have consciousness. I’m me, till I am conscious. So, if I’m not conscious, aware and awake, am I non-existent? I lost in dreaming about ‘nothing’. I could see something black everywhere. But I know that ‘nothing’ would not be black, because black is something, for it to be nothing, I have to imagine a blank space. I realised that it is humanly impossible to imagine nothingness as we have something or the other to always think about. We can not really think nothing like those meditation fantasisers claim. The close one to nothing that I could think was everything!

I imagined everything instead of nothing but excluded me out of the picture; I imagined the world as it is, full of splendour and horror. And I imaged the dog sniffing in garbage and perverts sniffing thrown panties. The world is the same, the mixture of every opinion it contains. Just one difference; I don’t exist anymore. This thought struck me from the back like an ice pick with full of snow on it. I felt breathless like, Jean-Paul Sartre; nausea. Nothing mattered anymore. I can see my reflection in the empty bottle on the table in front of me. It exists, it is a plastic bottle designed to contain a liquid that people consume; It has a purpose that’s solved, and I trash it. And it goes into the dump and from there it recycles. It’s molten and becomes some other product, or ironically the same bottle again.

But this one, this new transformation is different from the older bottle. Even though it is the same bottle, it is different. It is not the old bottle now, it changed. As per our understanding, its existence has not ceased but transformed into something else or the same thing again. But it is not exact, it is different. Maybe there was an imperfection in the bottle somewhere, perhaps it had an extra plastic layer on it, but it has some new flaws now. It is not the same bottle even if it looks like it. This made me realised how objectified are religious people. Maybe they don’t voluntarily do that, but they compare themselves with objects. They think like this bottle even they are made by some external being, filled with some purpose, and after the fulfilment of that purpose they believe they are re-used.

I think I know how they came to this conclusion. The religious people are just like me, just like how I felt about this soda bottle, they thought about it too, looking at the mirror. They compare themselves with the things that they see because these things are what immediate to our sense and intellect. We can see them, think them. But we can’t think about what is not there. We can’t think about the things that happened before us that connect to us. We don’t know what our parents were thinking about before conceiving us. Or we don’t know what happens in the baby-making factory of God. We don’t even know if God is a dude or an animal. What we speak about or think about God or anything that we haven’t seen by comparing it with things that we have seen and try to make it sense.

But we haven’t seen them, we are not capable of thinking about something before or after our existence. But I have successfully done that. I have thought about the world where I don’t exist. I ceased to exist. I’m lying in the ground, six feet under. Years have passed, and my descendants don’t even know that it is me that brought them into existence. The graveyard has been destroyed, and now the land is a real-estate venture. The tractors moved the soil. My fragile bones broke because of the pressure, and now they got jumbled; My favourite face, the beautiful face that I apply moisturiser every day is now a skull with no features half-cracked inside the ground. And my flesh in the tummies of maggots long back now. My energy drained in the soil went into the roots of a plant. It sucked me with its rots from the humus. And my jaw, my beautiful jaw broken because of the soil-digging, has now surfaced. My jawless skeleton lay underground.

This spectacular jaw attracted the skinny stray dog. It found a play toy in this calcium deposit that I once wielded a majestic beard; It held the jaw in its mouth and ran all over the venture. And It played with my jaw, and the tooth that was stuck on it fell on the ground. My sharp-canine got into a car tyre, made it flat. This angry driver threw my tooth out of this tyre on the filth beside the road. I exist! I exist in the plant’s body, I exist in the maggots that have eaten me, I exist in the dog’s mouth and car’s tyre. But it is not me, it was me, but not me now. Now it is a mere veil that had held me like the empty bottle with no soda. My muscles, my organs, my brain and my functions and my user-interface, the mind, they don’t exist. I transform into a plant, my cells live.

I existed even before I was born, like the stardust. We all don’t cease to exist, we transform. And we change from a being sitting in a cafe sipping a cold drink to dog’s play-bone and a maggot’s midday meal. We are eternal. It is just our consciousness that is not. It is a limited offer which is a result of evolution by natural selection. The cell in evolution had thought it’s best if this ape gets consciousness. Thus, the mind, and existence of consciousness. And here I exist. As a memory in the mind of myself writing this in the future after my cafe episode. Then the regular diversion have started. I have crossed all these thoughts off my brain; I wanted to close my eyes for a while and when I open it, I don’t want to picture my death anymore. And I want to delude myself into believing that I have a purpose like that plastic bottle.

I have lot of things to do, it is time to work, I thought. I stood-up walked away and looked all these people in the cafe, not knowing what happens to them after dying. They think they will transport to heaven or some think they stop existing. No, they exist, in a different form. A form that we don’t want to imagine. We turn in to the half-digested juice of this world’s other beings. But no, why should we think about it, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just look at that toe massager, dream of buying it. Let’s chase a paper print called money. Because I think any diversion is better than thinking about this. Or maybe we can embrace it, by calling it a random event that we had no say.

Our purpose, or to be precise, the purpose for us to have consciousness is to make these cells replicate and live long. Thus our purpose ends as other beings in the world use our energy, cells and etc. Hence our purpose solves. We transform! We exist, not same, but different!

The beauty of Indian literature

Indian literature is something I have always adored from the culture of India. Today, I am going to give you a brief insight into Indian literature, which is not exclusively known all over the world. But it is always appreciated and loved by every person who knows about it.

Literature-

The beauty of Indian tradition is that it is one of the oldest kinds of literature in the world. It is primarily written and essentially oral format literature.

Usually, the language was used to compose songs, recite poems and later was slowly converted as a written form.

One among such kinds of literature is Sanskrit literature which is very close to India’s heart. It later has been used to create many languages.

Sanskrit-

Using Sanskrit as a base, India has officially recognised 22 languages. Many pieces of literature have been produced in these languages over many years.

In Indian culture, Hindu literary traditions have been dominant due to its large part of occupance in the literary work. The Vedas, which are considered a sacred form of knowledge, is the most privileged part of Indian literature.

There are many other works like the Hindu epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata, treatises like Vaastu Shastra for architecture and town planning, and Arthashastra for political sciences. Works like the Vedas, Upanishads, and Manusmriti which are a part of Hindu holy texts are still used by many people in various parts of the world.

Some other literary works like the Tamil literature has a rich literary tradition going back to 2000 years. It is highly known for its poetries in epics, the philosophy and the secular forms.

A few other literary works that made the golden era of Indian literature are ‘Mricchakatika’ by Shudraka, ‘Abhijanam Shakuntalam’ and ‘Meghdoot’ by Kalidasa, ‘Ratnavali’ by Sri Harsha and ‘Svapna Vasavadattam’ by Bhaasa.

Chanakya’s ‘Arthashastra’ and Vatsyayana’s ‘Kamasutra’ have also been mentioned in academics. Arthashastra has been taken as a base for the economic framework of India.

Indian literature has its traces in the vernacular languages of the northern Indian stories of Krishna and Rama like religious love poems written in Maithili (eastern Hindi of Bihar) and 12th-century poems by Jaydev, called the ‘Gitagovinda’.

A huge part of literature was produced in the form of personal devotion to a god especially addressed to Rama (who is considered as an avatar of Vishnu, the God). The Avadhi (eastern Hindi) works of a writer named Tulsi Das, and his ‘Ramcharitmanas’ includes this type of work.

In the early stages, many people like gurus (founders of the Sikh religion) like Guru Nanak Dev and Guru Arjun Dev, composed bhakti hymns in the devotion of their deities.

My personal favourite is the Rajasthani princess and poet Mira Bai who in the 16th century, expressed her love and devotion in lyric verses to the lord Krishna in an exceptional manner. A Gujarati poet named Narsimh Mehta also did similar work.

Hindi-

It started as religious and philosophical poetry in medieval periods in the form of dialects like Avadhi and Brij. Writers like Kabir and Tulsidas are the most famous figures from this period. In modern times, the Khadi dialect was used more which lead to the creation of a variety of literature in Sanskrit.

The first prose written in Hindi was Chandrakanta, a prose written by Devaki Nandan Khatri. Munshi Premchand, a Hindi novelist, Maithili Sharan Gupt, Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, Mahadevi Varma, and Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ are the most famous figures from this period.

In the recent 150 years, many writers have contributed to the development of modern Indian literature. Rabindranath Tagore, a writer from Bengal, was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for literature (Gitanjali) in the year 1913.

English literature-

With the influence of Western ideologies and the introduction of the printing press in the British era, a literary revolution occurred. The writers wrote mostly for supporting the cause of freedom struggle and for removing the existing social evils.

The great examples of the English literature in India are Ram Mohan Roy and Swami Vivekananda. Ram Mohan Roy’s campaign to introduce scientific education in India and Swami Vivekananda’s works contributed to a great part of English literature.

Several other writers like R.K. Narayan, who wrote novels and tales of the village in southern India like ‘Swami and Friends’ and Mulk Raj Anand, who wrote novels like ‘Untouchable’ (1935) and ‘Coolie’ (1936), became famous in the modern period of India.

Among the younger authors, Anita Desai, who wrote famous novels like ‘Clear Light of Day’ (1980) and ‘In Custody’ became famous.

Novelists/ writers like Arun Kolatkar and R. Parthasarathy, Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo, Dom Moraes, P. Lal, A.K. Ramanujan, Kamala Das, Raja Rao, Khushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie, K.R. Sreenivasan Iyengar, G.V. Desani, M. Ananthanarayanan, Nlissim E Zekiel, Bhadani Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar, Arun Joshi, Kamala Markandaya, C.D. Narasimhaiah, Nayantara Sahgal, O.V. Vijayan, and M.K. Naik are also well-known for their works.

Among the latest writers are Sashi Tharoor (‘Show Business’), Allan Sealy (‘The Trotter-Nama’), Amitav Ghosh (‘Circle of Reason’, ‘Shadow Lines’), Vikram Seth (‘A Suitable Boy’), Upamanyu Chatterjee (‘English August’), Vikram Chandra (‘Red Earth and Pouring Rain’) and Upamanyu Chatterjee (‘English August’).

Women authors like Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize Winner for ‘God of Small Things’, Jhumpa Lahiri, 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction, Shobha De, etc. have taken a boom in recent times of the literature.

You can find more about Indian literature here- http://factsanddetails.com/india/Arts_Culture_Media_Sports/sub7_5a/entry-4236.html

The Idly Affair

It started with a tweet of a British Professor, Edward Anderson. We all might be familiar with this issue; people who use social media at least. Replying to a tweet of Zomato which asked people to name a food that they don’t like and many people yet love it. Edward Anderson, using his twitter account, retweeted the tweet saying that he finds Idly as the most boring thing in the world. And the tweets that followed created this Idly affair.

Edward Anderson’s tweet got viral because of the replies that Indians gave to him. It is evident that Indians got offended by this British tweet. Indians are quick at their feet when someone talks about India, and that too when someone not from India does that. After spamming Edward Anderson with curse words and calling him an idiot and tasteless person, I present this pragmatic question : what practical difference did it make? Did Edward Anderson’s taste buds get a firmware update to love Idlis?

After clapping hands to people who spammed him and feeling proud for defending Idly, what did we achieve? Why is no one asking this question? As a South-Indian, I grew up eating Idly more than half of my life. And I have met numerous people who found Idly boring, and they were not Brits, they were my classmates, friends and acquaintances who were very much Indian. So let us bash everyone who hates Idly? I have even met many Indians who told me that they hate the very infamous Dosa! Now shall we go to their house and ask them to leave India?

It is up to common knowledge that likings and dislikings are subjective, which vary upon each person. Not every Indian loves Idly, let alone foreigners. From my experience, I know that most of the Americans love CoffeeCoffee, and the English are obsessed with their Tea. The famous singer, Sting even has a lyric about it in his song, Englishman in New York. The first line of that song is “I don’t drink Coffee, only Tea my dear…” Many Americans loved that song. People didn’t make videos on Sting dissing him that Coffee is tastier than Tea because we know that he was singing a song about his ‘Englishness’.

Similarly, If I replied to Zomato’s tweet by saying that I find Mac N Cheese boring and I don’t know why people love it, I don’t think I would go Viral, and no one would call me tasteless. How insecure we are to react upon a person’s opinion! If we know that Idly and a Hot sambar is what we love to eat, why prove it to someone who doesn’t? Why the intolerance towards someone’s opinion just because they are not Indian? It is a basic thing to understand that everyone in the world can not love what we love.

If we assume that what we love is the only beautiful thing in the world and call the other people with other interests as ‘tasteless’, how immature must we be? How insecure and intolerant must we be to react and try to prove someone that the object we love is superior to their interests and they are idiots. It just means that we won’t let any other opinion in our ears and we want to hear what we love in the mouths of all the world. Not only is that thought childish, but it is also erroneous and dogmatic!

Can we eat Mac N cheese for breakfast? Can the Brits ever embrace Coffee? Can the South-Indians eat only Roti for dinner? These are questions we can not answer because to answer that we need to study every one of those individuals and form a data analysis and interpretation to check the most popular opinion. And in the end, the pragmatic question again, what practical difference would that make? Would you stop eating Dosa because someone told you they find it boring? If not, why would you argue with them that you love it? They never will. Why don’t you enjoy what you love by letting other people love and hate what they love and hate?

Girl before a mirror – Art from cubism period

“Yes, I suffered !

I faked my smile for an unknown reason!

I am not so happy for what I am!

Hated myself for how I look!

And Yes, I’m not ok with my curves and tone!”

This is how many girls think about themselves irrespective of how they are reflected. And these thoughts have been rolling up in most of the girl minds from ages. One such idea is reflected in one of the best paintings called “GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR” by Picasso.

This painting talks about reflections of self; how she sees herself versus how others see her; or the duality of our natures. There are so many levels you can use to prompt creativity and critical thinking about Picasso’s paintings. The woman in the art is Marie-Therese Walter, Picasso’s youthful mistress and favoured model in the 1930s.

Picasso reflected her both in profile and frontally as she peers into a mirror that reflects as a woman she is not. We can see a beautiful pregnant woman with charm and round breasts who is looking at her reflection in the mirror, which appears as her future reflection. In her reflection in the mirror, she sees that her body is aged and she is not very happy about it. The reflection shows a different woman than the appearance, who is dark and morbid; vanity and despair; somber and sad; grief and pain; darkness and crying for hope- a hope where she could be brought out of all her miseries. Some descriptions also say that the woman before the mirror is what everyone sees, and her reflection shows how she actually felt inside, the pain she is hiding from everyone.

“Girl Before a Mirror” by Picasso is one of the most thoughtful painting, and a very few get the whole meaning right away. To know about the art, we have to look deeper and deeper inside the artwork to get the real sense. At times when I look at Picasso’s paintings, I start imagining things that aren’t there, and that’s precisely what Picasso does in his paintings.

MY VIEW AND GIVE AWAY:

Well, this is how I illustrated my view on this art. The girl looks so beautiful, yet she is making it complicated by her thoughts while looking at her reflection. I find this particular painting is more relevant in today’s world. Because many people, especially women, see themselves as being uglier, for they find themselves unable to attain the falsely imposed standards. And here is my take for you:

Why should one be worried about curves; when they have achieved to the best in a curvy life,

Why should one be worried about wrinkles; when they have a beautiful smile on the face,

Why should one be worried about loosing skin tone; when they have the brightness got from happiness,

Why should one be worried about growing old; when they have got a handful of memories to cherish,

Why should one be worried about how others judge them by their looks; when they got the best soul,

Why should one be worried about stretch marks after pregnancy; when they have the best moments to cherish with the kids,

Why my girl, why?

We don’t have to. After all, we have got one life, and we need to live it the fullest. If not what’s the point of living for many years! Admire yourself with what you have, be happy and thankful for being a unique and beautiful creation.
You are not born to live in the standards of others but to live the life where you set your standards, which defines your worth.

It just takes few minutes to embrace yourself and love yourself. But trust me when you LOVE your soul and don’t give a damn on shitty things, you will have the best moments to cherish for a longer time.