Desicritics Category: Media: Graphic Novels

Kindling The E-Book Revolution

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:53:07 EDT

In the dim and distant past, I have used the Palm Pilot as well as the Sony Clie before as my e-book reader but after having moved to a Blackberry which did my PDA bits, I never could get back to getting an e-book reader. In an ideal situation, if the Blackberry can give me Windows functionality, a very good camera (5-6 MP) and some kind of e-book reader capability, I would be happy. Just one device to carry around, but in the meantime, I either had to read on my laptop or on my home pc.

But recently, on holiday in the USA, I was gifted an Amazon Kindle by my brother-in-law and his sister. This is one of the best gifts one could have hoped for and I immediately started drooling over it.

The Kindle comes in an attractive box, it looks like a book itself. Nice packaging. Something that you can easily plonk into your bookshelf without any issues, looks pretty neat, those letters and symbols floating around?

The package is clipped closed with a rubber band and opening it shows you the kindle on the right and a storage compartment on the left which contains the leather case, the charger, USB cord and the manual.

Took it out, charged it up (see the white charger? shades of Apple?). This was in the USA and I have an amazon.com account. So when I powered it up, it asked me for my amazon.com account, put that in and viola, I was up and running.

Can you see the little round button on the right hand side? looks like a wheel? It is a wheel and click mouse. The lone channel on top of the wheel with a small silver pointer running up and down is the main guidance mechanism. Pressing it brings up a context sensitive menu, you can go to the Kindle Store (I am in the UK, so the wireless network doesnt work, but in the UK, you can subscribe to newspapers, blogs, magazines and the lot, brilliant stuff).

It seamlessly connected to the Amazon.com website via the wireless cellular link, showed me my purchases and recommendations, and so on and so forth.

I did a download for my son and it was again seamless, a chapter came down, he read it and it was quite easy.

As I would be in the UK, I would not be able to connect wirelessly, so have to do the USB business. So I connected to Many Books, a site with free books in kindle and mobipocket format books and downloaded the top 10.

Here's the Count of Monte Cristo e-book. Pretty crisp to read. There are 2 buttons on the right, for next page and back. On the left, there are 2 buttons, back page and next page.

You can change the text size, this is the default big ass size, which I reduced as soon as I could. The battery life is amazing. I have been carrying it around for the past week in India without charging and have read it for about 15 hours now, and the charge meter has rarely shifted. Oh! yes, I did have a problem with it, it froze at one point. But being a good old windows user for a long period of time, simply opened the kindle's back flap, got out my trusted paper clip and gave the reset button a damn good shove. Obviously nothing happened. Still frozen. So swore at it, banged it on the desk, prayed to Ganesh, poked the reset button for 5 seconds and it worked.

I have downloaded the mobipocket creater to convert my e-library to the mobipocket format. The Kindle comes with 200MB of built in memory which is good enough for about 100-150 books, I guess. I have a few CDs full of scanned and downloaded and free and gifted and every weekend, there is a pleasurable time reading and converting those books. There is also a slot for an SD card, where you can store music and additional books if you need, although I dont see the need for it. I use my mobile phone to listen to music.

All in all, a very neat device, very hardworking and rugged (have dropped it, travelled with it jammed in my backpack for 1 week, swore at it, read it in the bog and in the dusty environs of Gurgaon, no problems) and is quite well readable in all angles and lighting.

And yes, you can read this in the bath, you have to be careful, of course, dont drop the thing into the bath, but then, you would not do that to a paper book either, would you? Some drops of water did splash on it, but a simple wipe took care of that. Only quibble? It just doesn't smell the same, but you can annotate and clip away to glory..

Oh!, the screen saver is just brilliant, the images that it throws up are very amazing, old authors, old wood cut impressions of printing presses, exotic and strange word definitions, very good. Good first impression. Anybody who is a logophile and/or a bibliophile would love this.

Technorati Tags: Bibliophilia, Logophilia, Kindle, Reviews

Genocidal Indigenous Forces: Teaching Kids War Games

Harold Bergsma — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 03:28:30 EDT

Kids love it! They get to ride in Humvees or Black Hawk Helicopters and hold weapons and shoot at the evil ones, the genocidal indigenous forces. The American soldiers and uniforms are real but the enemy they shoot at is sort of vague, but they are the genocidal forces that will kill you unless you kill them. Terrorists!

Joseph De Avila’s article, War Games: Army Lures Civilians by Letting them Play Soldier (The Wall Street Journal, July 28th, 2008) describes the new war games that the army has developed as a recruitment device. They present a new way “…to relate to the public, they also present an opportunity to shape their tastes,” says Col Casey Wardynski from West Point. Some $9 million have been spent to develop these war games as recruitment devices. And, they are realistic. When you shoot the bad guys they fall down dead. Try not to hit the friendlies; that’s a no, no. How exciting to shoot at the ‘genocidal indigenous forces.”

In the Old Testament it says, “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Prov.22.6) They knew their stuff back then, long before Christ, even if they didn’t have military psychologists to tell them how to motivate youngsters. Somehow, what you learn as a kid, particularly about modeling adult behavior, seems to have some effect on them in later years. Amazing. The US Army sure got it right. The way to get young people to enlist as soldiers is to make them feel it, put a gun in their hands and go bang, bang. That’s powerful stuff. A bit violent, perhaps, but hardly any different from what the kids watch on T V. Oh, I almost forgot, soldiers are trained to kill the enemy.

Of course teenagers also play the Army game and if they are over seventeen, they soon get a call from recruiters with ideas about incentive packages and the like, and it seems to work. You see, the terrorists are out there, but you can’t really see them. Sure there was 911, but even Bush got it wrong, where the terrorists came from, but look, if they are ‘genocidal indigenous forces’ that are radical and insurgent, go for it. The war on terror is frustrating because the enemy doesn’t play fair, doesn’t show his head, just sneaks in and explodes a bomb or two and kills a bunch of innocent people and then later in the press, some strange group takes happy credit for it. The “genocidal indigenous group” called the faithful warriors of the almighty was responsible for the latest killings. Sound familiar? It happened in India not too long ago, bomb blasts, and revenge killings for past killing of the ‘faithful’. The old Pathan ethic, the pushtunwali, still is very much alive, revenge, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But the problem with bomb blasts and suicidal killing of others is that so many innocent die or are maimed.

The US Army recruitment efforts, targeting kids and young people to enlist, is not a new idea. One of the earliest schemes to use children to foster the state’s programs occurred in 1948. The Stalinist apparatchiks established a children’s train and recruited hundreds of children to run a train with the intent of creating a cadre of enthusiastic rail workers for the state, and to “instill political obedience in youth.” By the way that same train system has been modernized and is back in service in Hungary and, yes, the kids run it. To be admitted to this training program requires high admission standards but the pay is great, and the added bonus, they get a good dose of “old style discipline.” See Daniel Michaels’ article, ‘Is this any Way to Run a Railroad, In Hungary, They Put Kids to Work.” (The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 8, 2008.)

But wait, it is not only the western world that is targeting kids with subtle messages to gain their support. Have you heard about Islamic Superheroes who battle injustice in America? The new series is called The 99 and is a whole series of comic books which feature hero characters that each; personify the 99 qualities that the Koran attributes to God. Interestingly enough, the comic book series is doing well in the Islamic world after the creator of the series, Naif Al-Mutuwa guaranteed that great respect would be given to Islamic religious beliefs, which resulted in a major Islamic bank supporting his project. Imagine, “Jabbar the Powerful” or “Noora the Light” fighting the, now get this, the evil indigenous forces of evil in America. An illuminating review of this by Camille Agon, called Islamic Superheroes Going Global was reported in Time on 8/7/2008.

Yes, bring them up in the way they should go and when they become adults they will not depart from it. Ancient wisdom is being applied in modern situations by many different groups, and the system works.

I wonder how youth are trained and motivated to support and even become Taliban, Al Qaeda? War games in which vague figures are dressed like Americans which can be shot at in video games? Hardly, no. Madrassas are sometimes the answer! The difference is dramatic. In the American War Games, they shape their tastes: the youth sit in a Black Hawk Helicopter, safe and secure and kill genocidal insurgent militant forces from a distance and don’t even see the blood and guts, just hear the roar and the thunder of the explosions. How different from the youths, say from the NWFP of Pakistan, whose religious beliefs are so honed that they will put explosives on their own bodies; beautiful young men and women, and blow themselves up for the sake of the Cause. That is real commitment based on very strong faith and belief that the rewards in the next life will be great and eternal. With US Army war games, they “shape their tastes” now for active recruitment: for the faithful, religious training could lead to personal suicide shaping their eternity in the great bye and bye based on a combined set of motivators, hate for the infidel Zionists and a passionate love for Paradise.

The beauty of the American system is that it is supported NOW, not by eternity, now, with lots of high tech killing machines and lots of computers that make striking the target an almost certainty with a feeling of anonymity as the trigger is pulled. Training, simulated killing of the enemy, the evil ones and that is sort of fun; and you even get to keep score while you are at it. Play soldier. What a strange concept. There is nothing playful about killing another human being, whoever she is. Certainly, for the suicide bomber, play does not enter the picture, nor is there anonymity involved, it is highly personal and by pulling the trigger the ‘game’ is over. It is not a game but a choice for death based on a belief in life everlasting with a knowledge that as you die you take a hundred of the enemy with you, you know the accursed American infidels who are in Afghanistan and Iraq. Madrassas may get a bad rap because a few of them do train youngsters to do violence for a greater cause and even teach them how to handle weapons and explosives. The US Army should get a bad rap for developing a recruitment tool that is insidiously and philosophically awful; motivating young people to become killers with a game. But, oh well, as long as it is for a good cause, you know, obliterating ‘them-thar’ genocidal indigenous forces. We all know who those guys are, right?

We have a generation of youth whose ‘tastes have been shaped’ by violence on television, daily doses of it. Even as a pre-school youth, long before television was invented, I remember running around playing cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, a toy gun in my hand going bang-bang, you’re an Indian and you are dead. I had no idea who Indians were, nor even where the Punjab was located. Later it was water pistols and now I see they have graduated to guns that shoot blobs of dye so that you can record a ‘kill’ with colorful evidence. Yes, mea culpa. I loved guns. I was an excellent marksman and a pretty good shikar and shot many helpless critters in India, Nepal, Africa and America. Jim Corbett was my idol. Yes, my tastes were shaped, and I think the war games will be effective recruitment tools for the Army since many American youths have a taste already established. Is that called appetite? Yes I think the Islamic Superheroes comic books will be a big success and create the zeal for justice that the authors’ seek.

My huge problem now is that I no longer believe that the world’s problems can be solved by violence and by killing each other. In Luke 3 vs.14 it says, “Do violence to no man.” I must have missed that verse earlier on in my youth. Strange, how selective our perception is based on age, taste, experience and belief. Consider this; “Not one blow, O Madhusudan! will I strike to gain the rule of all Three Worlds; then, how much less to seize an earthly kingdom! Killing these must breed but anguish, Krishna!” Out of context, assuredly, but not out of mind.

We maintain the right to bear arms in America, and this is a deeply held liberty based on the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Most American homes have a gun or two. I checked on this and came up with the figure of 215 million guns in homes in 1999 and that since that time about 60 million more have been added. (You see, there are many gun collectors who have many guns.) Imagine a country with 250 million guns in the hands of its citizens. Yes, I can see that the U S army has developed a recruitment winner with its new war games, especially since they have connected shooting and killing with patriotism and getting the bad guys, the evil genocidal indigenous forces that live over there somewhere and speak weird languages and scribble stuff from right to left and set the price of gas way too high. Let them play soldier. A satirical cartoon would be redundant in an atmosphere in which comic book cartoon superheroes bespeak the reality of international nuclear control, not mere guns.

Swingtown, Dexter & The Sopranos - Questioning Absolute Truths

Deepti Lamba — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 12:46:46 EDT

There are no absolute truths in life; when shades of Gray are delved into, some are accepted and some are denied fervently. The relativity of absolutes are tested time and again. Whether it be by books such as Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment or Anne Rice's Vampire Series or television shows such as Dexter or The Sopranos.

Protests were made by those who cannot fathom why we are supposed to identify with psychopaths like Dexter, or Tony and his gang and Anne Rice's books considered to be against Christianity for identifying with demonic forces.

Dexter kills but only those who he sees as evil, Tony likes children and animals yet our value system demands that we condemn them as heinous human beings and Lestat loves those whose blood sustains him.

Dexter can be seen as a superhero who kills the villains instead of handing them over to the cops and Tony Soprano just a New Jersey mobster to be taken down but not someone totally evil and likewise Lestat and his ilk feed on the dregs of society.

That's how they would want us to perceive them since that is how they justify their own evilness to themselves. And like wise due to our love for them we try to find innate goodness in souls twisted with perversion and evil desires.

The envelope is pushed even further when we don't want them to be caught by the good guys. We don't want Lestat to be staked or Dexter or Tony to face the chair. Why?

Evil deserves to be eradicated and righteousness demands the right to surmount. That's the mantra we all grew up with. The meek shall inherit the earth but as sinners is it possible that we tend to understand the motives of other sinners and at least in the fictional world want them to have the last laugh?

Another show that has the morale brigade up in arms is a new CBS show called Swingtown. Its more like an adult version of That 70's show where the old and new world collide. Though the storyline of Swingtown centers more or less around the burgeoning sexuality of a teenager and her mother, it also tests our own levels of social acceptance.

Most of us consider swingers to be weirdos but when a perfectly happy couple decide to sleep with another couple not only do we, as viewers, find ourselves grappling with our perception of right and wrong but reflect upon the insecurities of the characters themselves who otherwise had led conservative lives in the past.

The couple who continue to lead a normal life seem boring and stodgy whereas the ones willing to move with the trends of the time hip and daring.

While there is more to Swingtown than I'm discussing here, what got me thinking was the deliberate manipulation on the part of the script writers to make the regular couple seem mundane. Similarly in Dexter and The Soprano the scriptwriters made the cops ineffectual and the bad guys devious, charismatic and intriguing.

That, in my mind, is the crux of the matter just like in SpiderMan 3 where Peter under the influence of evil becomes cool, confident and oozing with sex appeal.

We are made to think that heaven is boring and hell is entertaining, that regular Superheroes like Superman are simplistic whereas dark heroes like Batman, Hellboy, Hulk or even Iron Man are far more interesting. Where simple living and being content is not interest worthy but a spicier, adventuress living for the moment, economically prosperous life is more pleasing.

Does media then have some sort of an unconscious effect on our psyche? Where we may find ourselves accepting more than just some liberal change in social norms such as swingers and take it to a higher level where we empathize with certain kinds of psychopaths if they are packaged and marketed just right?

Tales of suave criminals such as Charles Sobraj abound and titillate the public . People fall in love with murderers and marry them and there are times when crimes of passion intrigue the masses and fiction then replicates reality as it happened with the Nanavati Case back in the fifties. We tend to think we are saner than these people who find glamor in lives of criminals but then in the fictional world find ourselves seduced by evil or it that we find our own innate darkness reflected in their deeds?

Sleep-talking: An Ode to Neil Gaiman's Sandman

IdeaSmith — Sat, 1 Mar 2008 08:28:45 EST

I asked the Dreamcatcher if she had met Dream and she laughed and told me,

you shall be addicted
you shall not want to go out and meet people
you shall only want to sit and read sandman
my god if i could afford them, i would dance the dance of joy!

So if my words sound a little odd, don't think them so. I am just talking in my sleep.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Orpheus, son of Morpheus loved like few others
The Wounded Healer, he touched hearts when he strummed his lyre
And yet his song brought him no solace or peace
For words, when they are one's own are just expression
But from another, they are the revelation of I AM NOT ALONE!
The comfort of SOMEBODY UNDERSTANDS ME...
And the warmth of I AM LOVED.

So his words, they flow from his bleeding heart
To soothe the pain of a hundred others
But his own will stay aching and sore
Till his lyre plays no more.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
So God doesn't sentence us to Hell then?
We do. We buy our own passports to the land of Eternal Unforgiveness
And we gift one-way tickets those that we love the most
As a fitting token for branding their selves
On our most precious possession of all - our souls
And alas, we forget that they carry it back with them when they make that fateless journey into the darkness.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Desire, treat me not as one of your own
I am a mere mortal but one with dignity; the pride of a few decades of consciousness
I am not a puppet of your whim, driven by your chemical frenzy
Nor an addict perishing when you leave me starved of your company
And perhaps, in anger at my impertinence in questioning you,
You move out of my heart in a huff
Only to secretly tiptoe back into my soul
And mingle your seductive whispers in my intuition
And now I'm not just a puppet
But a ventriloquist's dummy that speaks the language of Desire.
Ah, cruel woman-man!

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Lucifer Morningstar, I always loved you
Even if He never did
But at least He put me in the universe
For you
Appreciation
Acceptance
Audience
...and the vessel for your talents.

Darling, I may be your canvas
But don't you know that you, the artist, may define what's on the canvas
But the canvas defines the artist - you as You.

So long as you don't get that
You will stay Lucifier
Fallen Angel, Lord of the dark place below
And my own.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Isn't it odd then, that of all the seven Endless siblings:

Delight/Delirium
Despair
Desire
Destruction
Dream
Destiny
Death

that the most compassionate one of them all
is the one that we meet at the very end?

And odder still,
is that we would rather
run into the realms of the others
than face her beautiful Ladyship.

Reading Tintin - The Thin(?) Line

Fleiger — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:33:48 EST

I finally got my hands on the elusive Tintin comics, "Tintin in the Land of Soviets" and "Tintin in the Congo". Now, I agree that the comics were written in early 20th century by a 20-century author. So, on one hand, I am happy that these comics won't ruin the umpteen re-readings of other comics for me (and I am still looking forward to the movie). But on the other hand, one of my sensors will always be looking for racial tones in the comics which I earlier dismissed as racial quirks.

This has also raised an old question to the front of my mind: When do racial caricatures turn bad?

Those familiar with the writings of prominent Marathi author Pu. La. Deshpande will remember one of his most memorable characters, Pestonkaka. The story captures the tones, the language, the quirks of a typical Parsi gentleman in post-independence India (capturing such quirks is a typical characteristic of Pu. La.'s writing). And yes, the story uses these quirks and accents for humour. Yet, even the most "sensitive" individual will find himself chuckling along, and nobody will find anything derogatory in the caricature.

On the other hand is the desi version of "12 days of Christmas" doing rounds on the net. Personally, I found that particular video bad, if not in bad taste.

So, is this a subjective question to such an extent?

Every group, race, nation, people have their own characteristics, customs, accents, language (I am not talking about English, Hindi etc. here), which define them as a group. Personally, I think any true to life portrayal of a particular person will have these, giving the person an identity. There are so many differences, that you are bound to find one or more of such characteristics funny. Just to give an example, every Bollywood (and even Hollywood) film watcher will have a plethora of characters in mind, which portray a particular identity in good, cheesy, all the way up to bad and pandering to popular perception way. And personally, I don't think writers using such devices for humour is bad, till the time it is in "good taste".

But at what point does the funny turn into bad? Is overuse the line to cross here? Do we perceive the "intent" of writer to be offensive (or think we perceive it) based on our sensitivities (and sometimes, our mood at the moment)?

Or, is it just a case of us vs. them, and everything is funny till we are at the other end of the joke?

Converfession: Heart to Heart

temporal — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:39:08 EDT

In Ashes to Ashes Jay wrote:

Some events are beyond comparison, without measure, some events cannot be understood by others, no matter how they try.
Love
Death
Happiness
Terror?

I agree that from an individual perspective we do have our personal interpretation. But wordsmiths paint pictures with words. They are blessed with the tools - insights and communication skills that enable them to decipher for themselves and their readers - convey the sentiment, the sensation, the feelings of happiness, despair and awe. Using their skills they grab the attention of the willing reader on this roller-coaster journey - from the the zenith of emotions to the nadir of despair and other stops on the way.

Hence when you argue so passionately and eloquently from your vantage point, please allow me to take a look from a different perch.

Love

What is so elusive and furtive about an individual's love that others cannot understand? Along with death, love is one of the most discussed, analyzed and written about emotions: metaphors and examples abound. And past masters have used their communication skills to share with us this intense emotion in tales of Laila-MajnooN, Shirin-Farhad, and Romeo-Juliette. Don't think I can accuse those writers of 'imperfect metaphors, images or descriptions.' What is so unique about the fast heartbeats when lovers exchange glances that cannot be conveyed to others?

The masters have shown love in the escaping sigh: in the coquettish smile of the maiden: in the increasing dhuk dhuk of the heart: in the grim expectations of descending doom: in the 'U' turns in life: in the unexpected emergence of paths: in the ever so slight brushing of lover's fingers: in the furtive first kiss; in the last leave-taking kiss on the forehead, in the fluttering of birds. What gamut, what threshold, what sublimity, what facet of love has been left unexplored and hidden from these wordsmiths?

Pain, Sadness, Happiness

Yes I cannot feel the exact invisible pain that unleashes the river of tears in your eyes. But I can relate to that pain because in the past many have written excellent passages and essays depicting the sense of injustice, pain, neglect, hurt or loss of those who undergo similar experiences. Did you not share Rohan's pain?

To borrow from Jao Beta:

jao

jana hay tou jao
yaadouN maiN qaid
khaabouN ki maanind
waq't ki lehrouN per
bikhar-jao
mooskurah-hatouN kay paimaanouN ka
mauj-e-beh'r-e shauq ka
dil maiN mehfooz lamhouN ka
sheeraza bikhair dou
jana hay tou jao
..........................chalay jao.

kitab-e-dil kay safha-e-aakhir pay
kiya raq'm hay, maa'loom hay humaiN
kuh'r-e-oodaasi maiN leh'r-e-gham
phir ik baar hum aaghosh hogi
chund sa'atouN kay liyay
ya a'bud kay liyay
shayad....

leave, if you must
like fond dreams
imprisoned in memory cells
vanish with the waves,
dissolve
---the promises of Smiles
ignore
---the waves from the Ocean of Love
melt away
---those moments ensconced in the heart
go, if you must
................leave.

on the last page of Book of Heart
what is writ large we know,
pensive mist will embrace
the waves of sadness, yet again
for moments few
or forever
perhaps...

The shade of red is subjective I admit, but the murmur of that heartbeat is a universally shared and narrated experience.

Death, Terror, Mayhem

Yes, we may not know the true depth of that father's anguish seeing the bloodied shoes of his son on the idiot box the next day. Or the parents on either side of the divide in Sarajevo who zoom in on the bodies of their children, in a final embrace, lying in the middle of the square separating the warring factions. Or the frozen look in the mother's eyes, in the crowded bazaar, who identifies the little hand clutching a doll as her daughter's.

Their pains, their sighs, platitudes, vows, their separation anxiety, their faith in meeting again, their last embrace - all have been written about and felt by the readers and viewers. So much has been written about the loss of near ones, that we can come very close to sharing those feelings universally.

Despair, Intensity, Hopelessness

Despair (sound of hope trickling away), emotive intensity (volume of tears), hopelessness (sensation of life collapsing) are rhetorical musings that have been eloquently shared for posterity in the past also.

The father you mentioned feels a vacuum. All of us have felt similar voids at some point. Writers have expressed it. They can relate to him and in turn so can we.

They come darn near close to experiencing your love, death, happiness, terror - about the only thing thing that eludes those wordsmiths is the shape of hope in the flutters of your heart beat.

Let me borrow from Beta Chala Gaya

aitraaf

humaiN rona hee tou
nahiN aata hay
qatra, aaNsoo ka ban'na
kis kad'r mushkil hay
ma'aloom na tha
qatra, gohar-e-miz'gaaN ka
lakh motiyouN say keemti
ban'na nahiN aata.

bun gaya woh qatra gar maiN
to wa'ada raha tap'kooN ga
---maaN ki palkouN say
---khaamoshi say dhalouN ga
teri bund aankhouN kay kinarouN say
---dostouN, azeezouN ki chasm-e-pur num
bun kar chamkouN ga
---ik bay awaaz aah kay saath
her chahti aank ko ashk-bar kardouN ga
yeh wa'ada raha...

confession

wish i knew
how to cry.
do not know
how difficult it is
to create a droplet of tear.
droplet --- diamond delivered by eyelids
rare, precious, and so impossible
to create for me.
if i ever succeed
promise you, i will
---stream down mother's face
---roll down silently out of the corners
of your shut eyes
---will glisten on the moistened eyes
of friends, relatives
---with inaudible sighs
will caress all caring eyes
promise you, i will...

Heart to heart, I would say I understand your anguish. I understand the pain of losing loved ones in despicable acts of violence that are hard to fathom. And, with you and millions of others I do not understand the mind-set that inflicts such destruction. The misuse of ideology, religion, hurt, deprivation and disenfranchisement baffles - singly and collectively. My mind fails to relate to how a young kid of yesteryears can turn into a brainwashed adult of today, willing to part with that most unique of gifts - life. Even though a loss of any life is a loss of life, perhaps, I might reconcile it somehow if these brainwashed take only their own life. But when they cause innocent deaths it is extremely perplexing.

Am glad you gave me this opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

Comic Detectives of India

Fleiger — Tue, 5 Jun 2007 10:11:04 EDT

Try as I may, I cannot find any detectives in Indian comics. I mean, some (all?) of the Feluda stories were made into comics, and Fa Fe found his way into animated format via Tinkle, while we have a plethora of crime-fighters. But there are no detectives solely created for comics.

So, I am going to take this opportunity to talk about some crimefighters who don't really make it into a Superhero grade, but are beyond your normal comics-guy-next-door.

Bahadur: Son of a dacoit, raised by a police officer, Bahadur grew up to be a crime-fighter, with a special interest in rehabilitating former dacoits. This he accomplishes with the help of his fiance (and later wife) Bela, and Lakhan (a reformed dacoit) and his Citizen's Security Force.
If this sounds like a hindi movie to you, don't worry. Bahadur bears a lot of resemblance to the original angry young man Amitabh Bachchan, as can be seen from his features and his clothes (though he changed from kurta to t-shirt with the times).

While he battles mainly dacoits, he has fought every kind of criminal from common thieves to relic smugglers to spies and terrorists. In the process, he has done a lot of detective work in uncovering common criminals, finding an ancient treasure in a Rajasthani fort and uncovering the 'well of amrit' in a mythical city.

Of course, if you think the guy who destroys terrorist training camps is not really a detective and hence should not be in this series - hey, I like the guy for being one of the few original comic book heroes in India, and I can put him on this list if I want (for lack of any 'real' detectives to write about), so sue me...

Chacha Chaudhary:
With a "brain faster than computer" and the help of his Jovian friend Sabu and dog Raacket (sorry, that's how it's written in Hindi), Chacha Chaudhary has fought many criminals in his life, the chief of them being the accidentally-turned-immortal Raaka. But apart from fighting Raaka, he has spent his life fighting crime in every guise.

Again, this red turban and black jacket clad, white big mustachioed Chacha is not your traditional detective. But then, even though most of his time is spent thinking of new ways to imprison Raaka, who being immortal and super-strengthened now needs new ways to be captured like a cyclone, a magic bottle in the belly of a whale or orbiting the earth in space.

But then, a brain faster than computer cannot be wholly occupied with one single task, can it? Of course, Chacha Chaudhary does spend some time in solving your normal crimes too.

Again, as I said, I didn't find any famous black-sunglasses and trench-coat clad detectives made into comic series, so I took the chance of plugging an underrated (according to me) hero I like and everybody's favourite uncle.

Do you have a favourite detective I should have mentioned?

Comics Review: Virgin Comics' Ganesha by Deepak Chopra

Deepti Lamba — Fri, 1 Jun 2007 02:27:10 EDT

The Virgin Comics label continues its reinterpretation of global myths with Deepak Chopra's Ganesha. This goes beyond the basic story telling of the genesis of the Elephant God, the son of God Shiva and Goddess Parvati/Uma. It's a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. The emotions evoked seem sincere but the logo of 'authentic India' irked me like biting into an errant pungent cardamom that spoiled the taste of an otherwise succulent dish.

Ganesha, the god of compassion through knowledge, adorns the walls of most homes and is considered to be the harbinger of good luck and yet his origins lie in the ultimate truth of the Universe that we have trouble accepting - birth, death and rebirth and more so the grief felt by parents when the young ones die.

Ganesha appeared in the Hindu pantheon in about the 8th century A.D., and analyses of his role have ranged from proto-Dravidian origins to heralding the coming of an age of progress and conquest. Ganesha is currently one of the most popular gods in the Indian sub-continent, with numerous adherents, cutting across social boundaries, and with a reputation of being a 'remover of obstacles' or problem-solver, the symbology suits the current solution-oriented dialectic, one reason perhaps for the popularity of Ganesha.

Deepak Chopra's interpretation of Ganesha's origins in the first issue of the series is straightforward. He talks about the love that lies between a mother and her child, the jealous heart of a child unwilling to share his mother with others and yet the mother's heart being big enough to encompass all beings in maternal compassion.

Shakti or Uma the giver of life is married to the destroyer Lord Shiva who in anger killed his own son and regretted his impulsive actions. The dichotomy of being a life giver living harmoniously with the destroyer God clearly symbolizes the relationship between life and death, good and evil and looking beyond these truths that the rhythm of the Universe is eternal, that the laws of cause and effect govern the lives of divine beings as well for they too can die and be resurrected.

The beauty of the novel does not lie just in the narration or the illustration or the philosophy of karma or finding the 'godly' qualities within us or what was called incarnating the gods within us but in human qualities as well of honoring one's parents, forgiveness and grieving despite knowing that life is eternal.The memory of elephants is a boon and a curse, especially when combined with the passion of humans.

Visually, the images are wonderful, with a hand-drawn, soft tint, and the coloring is reminiscent of the Amar Chitra Katha series, updated for modern inking and aesthetic tastes.

Deepak Chopra's Ganesha is a must read and a collector's item.

The Prickly Porn Pickle: Does Erotica Thrill, Chill Or Kill A Relationship?

Aditi Nadkarni — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:10:13 EDT

I was having a casual conversation with a colleague the other day when she startled me by mentioning how much her husband enjoyed porn.

"Excuse me?" I said hoping I hadn't heard her right. Call me a prude or maybe its the desi in me but sudden, unexpected "sex" conversations startle me into discomfort.

She looked at me a tad sheepishly and my heart immediately went out to her. I realized from her expression that she was looking for a reaction, for answers. She'd been raised in a Catholic family and her husband, well, hadn't. She simply didn't know if it was ok for him to occasionally watch porn after twelve years of marriage.

"Do you think it is, you know, not normal?" she asked biting her lip, "I am sorry I brought it up", she added looking down, red in the face.

"Please don't feel bad about asking me" I said quickly in the hopes of easing her discomfort. More importantly, I was trying to come up with a rational answer, fast.

"Don't Indian guys look at Kama Sutra and such? Isn't it kinda similar?" she asked innocently as I cringed but held my tongue.

"Umm, well, Indian guys look at porn too...I'm sure but Kama Sutra isn't porn" I managed to say, "It is more like a couple's guide to sex...positions, foreplay ideas and such."

She seemed interested and that evening she could be seen giggling like a teen at the oh-so-naughty Spencer's store, looking for the 'Kama Sutra' board game that I have recommended to many a married friend before. It is a fun distraction. Come on, who wouldn't love playing a board game where one not only can get the competetive high of a victory but might even get lucky at the end?! Win, win!

She was happy and I figured she'd gotten over the minor sex-smite. Either the Kama Sutra board game really spiked things in the bedroom or it could very well be that she just didn't mention her issues ever again.

A few days ago, a newly wed Indian couple came over for dinner. The husband had to leave a bit early, they told us, due to prior commitments. During conversation we found out that the "prior commitment" was a strip-club party with his friends. Not a bachelor party, just something he and his friends did once in a while. The wife seemed awkward when the subject was alluded to. It made me uncomfortable but they didn't seem to be too flustered about the situation. He gave her a peck on the cheek before he left and she sat with us and chatted while he was at a strip club with his friends. I wondered if he would've done the same had she planned on a girl's night out at a male strip club. For some reason it left somewhat of a vulgar taste in my mouth. Maybe it was just me. Who knows, maybe I am a prude after all!

But these few recent episodes prompted me to contemplate about the "porn" issue that seems to plague so many relationships. With the advent of internet porn, it is quite literally at one's fingertips. Westerners have always treated porn and strip clubs with casual regard, often viewing it as some form of entertainment. I find myself wondering how Indians who have moved to the US adapt to this cultural dilemma.

Some people claim that a li'l bit of harmless porn is hardly worth fussing up a storm over. Some others shake their heads, raise their eye-brows and basically declare that the relationship is done once the P-word infiltrates the bedroom. Its is equivalent to cheating they say. Then there are those who shrug and state, very practically, that they'd just rather not know. What they don't know, won't hurt them. So I am curious as to what the consensus is on this subject.

Does porn in a relationship crowd the bedroom and result in intimacy issues? Does it just add a wee bit of excitement and shouldn't really be so worrisome? Should her man's checking out the lithe, nude body of another woman, not bother a woman? What does it do to a woman's self-esteem? How would men feel, if their wife, girlfriend or partner were to get it on only after having checked out a hunky pornstar first?

Comic Review: "Courtney Crumrin" by Ted Neifah

Fleiger — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:05:31 EDT

All kids know that there are goblins and other creatures under their beds, in their closets and all dark places. All our parents warned us of them too. But what would happen if the house you live in is full of "night-things"? What if the woods nearby lead directly to goblin market, which is located in the underworld? And what would you do if your inheritance meant that you are a witch?

There are very few books (and even fewer comics) which capture your attention right from the first page. The “Courtney Cremrin” comics written and illustrated by Ted Neifah belong to such a minority.

Courtney Cremrin is a young girl who is a misfit almost everywhere she goes. Her parents ignore her, and in their desire to enter the inner circles of the rich and famous “run out of credit cards. So, it is a blessing for them when her great-granduncle Aloysius Cremrin, who lives in a big mansion right in the middle of a rich suburb, invites them to live with him.

Courtney finds herself even more of a misfit among the snobbish and bullying kids in her school, and her nights in the old, huge, spooky mansion are not good either on account of many “night things” which roam around the house. But the old man, living in isolation and whom people fear, takes an affection for the young Courtney, who is a witch (and powerful one, if her exploits are any indication). Using his library, Courtney starts on her mystical adventures and misadventures.

She captures a goblin (Butterworm) living in the woods near her house, which helps her solve the problem of bullies on the way home from school. She tries a spell which makes everyone like her for a day, though the constant attention of everyone is a bit too much for the girl who wants to be left alone. Her parents force her to be babysit a small kid of their famous neighbor's (in return for entering a cocktail party), and uncovers the racket of night things wherein the human babies are replaced by changelings. Entering the goblin marketplace with the help of “Boo” the cat, she gets herself captured, but her great-uncle manages to buy her off in the auction, thereby saving her. Later her misfit character leads to the creation of a doppelganger, which she defeats finally (because the thing does not do its homework properly, trying to give everybody “the Courtney they want”) after almost losing the battle.

When the "Coven of Mystics" wants to punish a changeling called Skarrow for cursing a witch, Courtney and her great-uncle fight against everybody to prove his innocence. In the process, Courtney also discovers the secret of the person who summoned “the worst goblin ever”, Tommy Rawhead, and manages to punish the culprit in the process. When her teacher Miss Crisp (a strict lady who is teaching as a favour for her friend Aloysius) makes her attend Saturday school for children like her, she again finds herself a misfit among her “equals”. When one of the boastful kids' spell misfires, and he converts his brother into a night thing, she leads her coven classmates on a trip of the underworld to gain back his humanity.

Courtney's curiosity (and sometimes ambition) leads her to new adventures (and misadventures). Going head fast into things which she does not understand, she often ends up in trouble. A misfit almost everywhere (except with her great-grandfather, and to an extent with her teacher), she wants people to acknowledge her, but at the same time doesn't care for their recognition (as shown by her defeat of her doppelganger who fits everybody's expectations). She wants to be “left alone”, and is loathe to help anybody. Yet, she has changed enough in the story to gain some sense of responsibility (“I am responsible to bring them here, and to leave them here won't be... cool”). Most of her character derives from her parents' neglect of her, who almost don't care what their daughter does, though her father in a moment of weakness reveals that they “wanted to give her all material advantages in life”.

Aloysius is a powerful warlock, who shuns the contact with other people (his character reminds you slightly of Prof Kirke from “Narnia”). In this quest, he makes many enemies in the Coven of Mystics, but still they come to him to do their “dirty work”. An authority on night things, the only person he loves (and loves deeply) is Courtney, while his (almost only) friend Miss Crisps is working as her teacher as a favour to him.

All in all, the comics are a completely different look at fantasy, with language and themes which can attract people of all ages. While kids have their tale of “monsters under the bed” and fantasy world, adults will find much deeper meanings in the tale of a misfit, an ambitious girl, who is ignored by her parents and bullied by her schoolmates, but who finds within herself a sense of responsibility and justice.