A thought for the day,

The good thing about going away is that one can always come back!

Vishnu Mathur.
Arunachal Pradesh,
November 25, 20213.

The Swami

Swami Sharnanand

Swami Sharnanand once said if a person cannot even serve a glass of water to the thirsty that person cannot become free and attain ‘.Nirvana’. He was certainly a liberated soul. The only great saint I had known personally. One has read about many saints and seers in India,read about their wisdom and visited their Ashrams and have gained a certain spiritual strength, but knowing Swami Sharnanandji Maharaj as he is popularly known,  was a great personal boon  for me and my family. He was our family Guru so to say. My father first met him in Pushkar in the early nineteen forties on the behest of his close friend. My father was very impressed by the saint but then somehow lost touch with him. Then suddenly one day when he was travelling in a train he heard someone calling out his name from the other part of the compartment 'Mathur'. My father was surprised to find that Swami Sharnanand, a blind saint, had recognised his voice from a distance and  had even remembered his name after a brief meeting many years ago. That accidental meeting established a lifelong bond between the saint and my family. This was before my birth and I am told that Swamiji as we all fondly called him, first visited our house in Ahemdabad in 1944 the year I was born. I would like to believe that that has perhaps something to do with my closeness with Swamiji or maybe it was just a coincidence. But one thing is sure that even if one does claim to be a great spiritual person time and again the great saint has come to my rescue if not in person but certainly through his goodwill and wisdom.

He was a wandering monk and never stayed in one place. He visited people who invited him and stayed with them in their homes for a few days and moved on. He used to   say that a saint should not stay in one place for more than four or five days. But he was in touch with his disciples one way or other and they knew where to find him. Hrishikesh and Vrindavan in U.P. were his favourite places. And then as the number of disciples increased, at the behest of some close disciples he established an ashram in Vrindavan in the mid nineteen fifties under the aegis of Manav Seva Sangh, a charitable trust. His disciples built a house on the adjoining plot which was later called Sant Kutir as he did not want to live in the Ashram and nor did he want to hold any of the official positions. Then more things happened and some more Ashrams came up with the help of his disciples in Jaipur in Rajasthan,  in U.P and in Ranchi which is now in the state of Jharkhand.

Swami Sharnanand‘s method of teaching was very simple, down to earth and direct. He never took recourse to pompous words or quoted great scriptures to make the disciples understand their problems. He had a one to one way of dealing with his disciples, very personal very intimate and full of love. There was no distance between him and his disciples even if they were meeting for the first time. For example, he would tell someone in distress “Kuch Mat Chaho” in Hindi which roughly would mean, don’t wish for anything sorrow will disappear or “Beman Ke Ho Jao’ meaning thereby keep a neutral mind and mental agonies will go away. He did not put disciples to difficult task of doing some great tapasya or mental task. More than anything else he put people at ease in a way that just by talking to him half of their problems would disappear. He was like a therapist who could ease away the pain in no time; he was like a counsellor who could give simple and practical advice which one could practise in one's day to day life. More than anything else he was a family to so many who knew him in his lifetime. He would regularly reply to the letters people wrote to him asking for his advice and meet visitors any time of the day and night if need be. His discourses which he gave from time to time were recorded and have been published in  a book form. His lectures are also available on CDs. He dictated books on a variety of subjects to his prime disciple Devki Maa who faithfully wrote and edited them before publishing them. After his lifetime Devki Maa took over the task of spreading Swamiji’s wisdom by travelling across the country and by preserving his wisdom by reinterpreting his lectures in her own way.This she continued till the end of her life. All the books and recorded lectures are available with Manav Sewa Sangh and the information is available on the web about his life and teachings for anybody who is interested.

There is an interesting anecdote about him which reveals his attitude towards life and the nation. It seems Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, had invited him to Rashtrapati Bhavan as Swamiji had also taken part in the freedom movement as he believed deeply that injustice has to be fought. The President told him that as political leaders they knew what was ailing the nation and knew what the solutions were but were unable to carry them out. He asked Swamiji how he would look at this problem. Swamiji told him: "If there is no compassion in the heart, nothing can be done." What he said is something that today's political leaders have to seriously consider.


For me and my wife Lakshmi, who had not met him in person, he has been a great source of inspiration and time and again in times of crisis he has been a beacon of light which indicated the way to the shore.There is this story connected with Swamiji about our marriage. Before my marriage when my parents were pestering me to get married  I told him that I will only marry when I meet a person of my liking and not marry in the conventional way of ‘Band Baaja Baraat’ and may be just have a simple marriage. Swamiji was very forthright; he told me, “Where is the need for a even a simple wedding? When you meet the person of your choice just bring her to me and I will pronounce you husband and wife.” That did not happen because he passed away before we got married but we did visit the Ashram in Vrindavan. Although Lakshmi did not believe in swamijis, she was curious because she had heard so much about him from me. So we went to the Ashram to be in Sant Kutir and Lakshmi said that she experienced an extraordinary sense of peace there in that small room.  He sure would have blessed us as we are still married and have survived the highs and lows of life!

Vishnu Mathur 

 Nov. 2013

The Static Shot

Train Arriving at the Station (1896)

The first 'film' of moving images was a static shot. One single shot made the ‘film’. There were many such first films around the world. One of the most memorable images is of the single shot film was called “Train arriving at the station’. The camera was placed at the end of a railway station looking at the entire platform and the railway track where a train arrives and stops. A few passengers get down from the train with their bags and walk away. The shot holds on till most of the people go out of the ‘frame’. End of the film.

More than hundred years have passed since the inception of moving images, movies, film or cinema whatever avatar of the moving images you may like to call them. Cameras have evolved in so many ways and so have evolved the whole craft of film making and the static camera has moved long ago on various moving platforms, on trolleys, dollies ,cranes and many other vehicles to follow the actors or to capture  a piece of action or just circle around the earth. The camera can reach anywhere on a moving gadget which can be operated with remote control to follow an action anywhere on this earth and the near universe through satellites. And we can look at life in whichever way we like and whichever manner we like. But the static shot has remained where it was. Static. Where it is locked on a static platform, looking at a given view in front of it, dispassionately. Looking at a piece of action, silent or talkie, with actors or without actors, looking at a landscape or the sky, just looking. Static shots  often bring a sense of relief after a hectic session of the camera moving in different ways following a piece of action or just reflecting the restless state of the director’s mind with some exceptions of being used by creative directors to build a lyrical sequence to reveal something hidden somewhere. More often than not the camera movements are arbitrary and are used just because they are making ‘movies’! Once Satyajit Ray when asked by a journalist why he had so many camera movements in his film Charulata said in jest because he had just acquired a new trolley!

Many great films and film makers come to one’s mind when one thinks of the austere static shot. One thinks of the Hindi film Mughal E Aazam arguably the best Hindi film ever made in ‘Bollywood’. The film is a celebration the director’s faith in his content; so much so that he hardly felt the need to move his camera except to capture action or a dance movement. The presence of great actors like Dilip Kumar and Madhubala in front of the camera was enough to capture the attention of the audience. In a particular love scene, a particular shot holds on for almost three minutes while the lead actors barely exchange three dialogues and in which Dilip Kumar blinks just twice. It needs faith and conviction in one’s work for a director to render a scene in that manner. More often than not directors have restless camera movements in their films because of the severe anxiety that the audience will get bored if there is no movement in front of their eyes. Hence the camera movement.

                                 

The great Japanese film maker Yasujirō Ozu and the French master of cinema Robert Bresson were great exponents of the 'quiet cinema’ who celebrated the static shot to its sublime utility. In fact, Ozu was famous for his low level static shots and virtually made all his films with static camera positions. An undeterred conviction in one’s rendering of a given reality. This is not to profess that to use a camera movement is a sacrilege but just to bring the attention to the fact that the camera faithfully records a given reality in front of it. The comprehension of the audience will depend on how convincing the content is that is put forth by the 'auteurs' of the film and not by how dazzling the craft of the film is. Of course, this proposition is not applicable to films made essentially to distract the audience from a given reality, creating a make-believe world goading them to believe that they have experienced something new, while not providing the means to understand that experience.

Great exponents of cinema use the camera to see what is there in front of their mind image and not falsify a given reality even if its purpose is to entertain. A static shot can be the mirror of the director’s mind and reveal how one looks at life. As the Zen Master Tenno once told his students “When you look, just look; if you wonder about it, you won’t get the point.”

                                                       

Vishnu Mathur,

October 14. 2013.

Flavour of Green Tea over Rice (1952) Film by Ozu

                                          

Living In Time.

A Day

After day

After day

After day

In between

The nights.

Vishnu Mathur. 

October 25, 2013

I "quote'

I “Quote”

                                     Ralph Waldo Emerson

                                              1803 - 1882

                                            

                                     Definition of Success.

         To laugh often and much. To win the respect of intelligent friends and affection of children.To earn the respect of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends.To appreciate beauty and find best in others.To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition.To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived.

                                                               

                                           
                                                      Ralph Waldo Emerson.

                                                    American writer and thinker. 

A thought for the day.

Sometimes I feel that life is a big placebo. Vishnu Mathur. 26 September 2013

Night Train

A poem today


Through the night

Cold station

Awaits

The morning train.


Vishnu Mathur.
September 21, 2013.

Pigeons On The Terrace.

                             

                                           

                                                               Photograph  Vishnu Mathur ©


Every morning when I go up to the terrace of my building to feed a bunch of pigeons it is a new day. Depending upon the time (it has to be between 7.15. to 7..45 A.M.otherwise they fly off to other place in search of food) they approach me differently. Normally they approach the place I am sitting at in a helicopter fashion. They approach me from the left and land a few yards away and then cautiously walk towards me to the center of the terrace where I start throwing the Bajra (Pearl Millet) grains. Once the first bunch starts eating more pigeons will appear from nowhere and join them. The number varies from thirty or  forty to some times hundred when the neighboring building pigeons also join the party in  the absence of their regular source of their first meal of the day. On other days when I am late a few pigeons will be still waiting at the distant corner of the terrace but then they are cautious and approach very carefully one by one.Sometimes they will wait for some reason to make sure if all is well till a more courageous ( or more hungry) pigeon  will land alone. When he or she (I can't still make out their genders,I am told that the ones with slender necks are females and the ones with thicker necks are males) starts eating the others join the party one by one.On some other days if I am very late there will be no pigeon in sight and I will have to wait till a few of them spot me sitting. They  will come nearby and wait till I start throwing the seeds.Once that group starts eating the whole bunch will appear from nowhere and finish their quota of  feed for the day. But there are days when I wait with  the seeds and no bird would appear and finally I have to spread the seeds around and leave. Of course they come and eat the feed sometime during the day because when I go up to the terrace for a walk in the evening or the next day all that I threw down  would have been eaten up. Another interesting  thing is that  sometimes when the bajra is over and I try to feed them any other grain they make a lot of fuss and sometimes just fly away in disgust. But again when I go there next time the  feed is all eaten up one way or the other.

The whole group of my building are all not grey as one would like to imagine them.Because of some homing pigeons in the vicinity and because of the freedom of cross breeding habits,  I have on my terrace pigeons of many shades apart from the predominantly grey. There are a few pure white ones whom the previous tenants of the adjoining building have left behind, then there are the first generation mix breed who are with  black and white spots and then the further away breed who have just a streak of white and grey, sometimes just a white feather showing on its underbelly. To my surprise there is one pure black pigeon in my group whom I first suspected to be a water bird. Maybe it is a cross breed from there I am not sure. So I recognize some of them  clearly because of their distinct colours  and have named them likewise. The white one is obviously called Shwet, two of them who have grey and white spots are called Spotty. Because I can't distinguish between the two they are just Spoty 1 and Spoty 2 .Lately I see only one of them; I suspect one of them is dead. Others whom I can recognize are called in different names like Fluffy, Toughie, Black, Dakota because of a certain shape which looks like a Dakota plane and so on. Many don't have names because I can't make out which is which, they are all different shade of grey, but not identical in their shades and shapes. Anyway I know that  it does not matter because I have a suspicion that  they don't know that they have names and that they don't even know that they are 'Pigeons' for that matter! And I am sure they have no name for me; not yet! They recognize me perhaps as just a figure who appears in the morning on the terrace at a specific time and feeds them.

Pigeons are pigeons. Not really. When I see them closely I see that each one of them has a distinct personality and different nature apart from different shapes, sizes and shades of their plumage. Of course as they are popularly known they are peaceful by nature. They never rush or fight with each other to grab their share of feed. Some of the birds because of their nature will stay on the periphery of the main group and timidly wait till a grain or two falls near them. That is why I throw the seeds slowly in different directions so that all the birds get their share of food. There are others who are not afraid to come close to me and eat the grains sometimes from under my feet. I sometimes feel like a guru who takes care of all the disciples, keeping in mind their nature and specific needs. There I am reminded of the gurus and teachers I have known who took special care of  the pupils who were quiet and remained in the shadows.These birds are also not greedy when a particular bird has had enough to eat  it just flies off even if there is more food there to eat. And as a group they just take off once they know that the day's quota is over without waiting even a minute.So unlike humans!.

I am a human all right. When I started feeding these birds a couple years ago I used a a small measuring cup full of grains, roughly calculating  how much it would cost me to feed the birds and that it would not upset the household budget.of the month. And then as I regularly started to feed them I realized that more and more birds are joining the group and I felt that I must put more bajra for them. So I chose a bigger measuring cup which I thought was  double the size of the previous one. As I started to pour the cup on the first day I stopped mid way. "Am I going overboard?" I thought. "Am I stretching my generosity too much,can I really afford this?" And then  in my mind I start calculating the money I would be spending in a month and so on.(Never mind the amount I may be spending on my evening beverages!) So I did not fill the measuring cup to the brim but just two third of its full capacity.That was my way of economizing the monthly budget. And  at that  time I realized  that I do not have a  big enough heart to  really be generous enough to fill that cup in one go. So I started filling the cup  just a  little more every day so as to keep my expenses in check  and at the same time I practice to be more generous as the days go by. It has taken me a little time but the good news is that my cup is full now and I think I am putting enough feed for the pigeons on my terrace and they seem to be happy. I also realize that there are other benefactors  around who are taking care of the other birds of the area. But it certainly makes me happy  as I climb up on the terrace each morning when I see my group of pigeons waiting for me to have their breakfast. And when they flutter around merrily I can instantly feel the presence of so many loving  innocent souls around me. It certainly makes me feel good in a quiet way. Never mind that they do not  know my name yet.

Post Script. Who said pigeons are like Dodos and who close their eyes when they see a cat.It was very difficult for me to get a nice picture of the pigeons .They became very conscious of the camera in my hand and would freeze or just fly away before finishing the feed. After many attempts I could manage a decent photograph. I will keep trying and get a better one.


Vishnu Mathur.

September 15  2013.

Far Away Land. Part 3.

Part 3.

As I progressed with my Cinema Workshop children became more and more receptive and perceptive. The girls more than the boys for whatever reason!  And gradually they came a long distance away from the staple diet of Bollywood masala fare including the ever present ‘Item Numbers’. Unaware of the others in most part of the country, popular films have become synonymous with our ‘Indian culture’ more so in foreign countries where the NRIs survive on the staple diet of popular Indian  films and songs in various Indian languages. That is how they keep in touch with India. Our India! But there in Jhamtse Gatsal within our own land these popular films are a dream world which exists somewhere else in the country and the children there dream to go to such places shown in the films and may be shake hands with  popular stars. Hence all the questions about film stars! Popular cinema in India is certainly the “opium of the masses”! But as I kept on with the Cinema Workshop I kept on receiving wonderful reception from the children and all other guests and staff members who kept their interest in the workshop. The best responses, to my surprise, were for some old black and white films including Boot Polish, Sujata , Kabuliwallah and some silent Charlie Chaplin films


The film which to my surprise made the maximum impact on the children there was 'Boot Polish'. A black and white film produced by Raj Kapoor which deals with two orphan children. Since the film dealt with orphans I was a little skeptical about the reactions of the children there as most students in Jhamtse Gatsal are orphans. I was afraid that the film may hurt their sensibilities or disturb them and as the film progressed I could hear more and more sobs and I could actually see children visibly disturbed. When the lights came on I could slowly see smiles coming back on the faces of the kids. I knew that the underlying message of the film had gone home, the message of dignity of labour and importance of education which the main character of the film ‘John Chacha’ played by actor David kept on stressing throughout the film, telling the orphan children not to beg but work and educate themselves. The last shot of the film shows the two children entering a school like walking into the proverbial sunset. Later on after my discussion about the film with Lobsang Phuntsok it transpired that he resisted the idea of calling the school an ‘orphanage’ because he wanted the children there to have a sense of dignity about themselves and not feel like orphans living on the ‘charity’ of others. Although he explained that he would have received more money from various sources if he had added the word ‘Orphanage’ to his school. In the next session of the workshop he explained this point to the children and repeated the message of the film about dignity of labour and importance of education which the children had received well. Inadvertently I had chosen a film which is not often spoken about, that had the maximum impact on the children apart from Charlie Chaplin films.

Every day in the morning when I looked out of the window of my room I would see a different formation of the clouds and light falling on the mountains which kept changing every minute and I kept recording them in my still camera. The beautiful mountains, the valley and the river flowing in between the  borders of India and Bhutan! Lama Lobsang one morning drove me and some other volunteers down to the river. It is actually a point where two rivers merge with each other, river Tawangchu and river Nyanjsumy, a natural border between Bhutan and India. Across the narrow river between two rocky mountains was Bhutan. Another country another land, another culture, where people could stand on the opposite side and wave out to us and beckon us to come to their side. An experience which gave me goose pimples when I imagined how borders have divided people, lands and cultures. Border from where you can see but cannot touch! Beautiful mountains with rock formations which reminded me of black and white Chinese paintings and now I was there looking at them right in front of my eyes. I was almost there in China and Tibet and Bhutan. When we started to climb back in our jeep I knew that my return journey had begun. This is as far as I could go on this trip. Maybe next time with a permit to enter Bhutan I would go further. To China and Tibet I would not know when I would go. Even the Lama who was driving us did not have the answer. All the Tibetans in India have a dream that one day they can go to their own land Tibet. One’s own land and one’s own people! But the people who live there on these borders have the consolation of physically being so close to their homeland Tibet and smell the air which drifted from those mountains across the border. I quietly looked at the mountains receding from my window and then it occurred to me that this was looking at the location of my future film about a Tibetan Lama and his relationship with a boy! I was suddenly transported to my world of celluloid and fictional stories.

Finally a visit to Tawang and the Tawang Buddhist monastery which is one of the biggest in the world and innumerable photographs of the beautiful frescoes in it. Tawang monastery has a long history and is a very important landmark as far as the history of Tibet is concerned. Being there was a great experience both physically and spiritually. After a hearty Chinese lunch in a local eatery and some souvenir shopping it was time for me to leave. 

                                                                                                                                                                                             


One month had passed. A lot had happened: the Cinema Workshop, my contact with people there and their culture and most of all, my  bond with the beautiful children there in Jhamtse Gatsal; a bond which now will never break. Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community School created by Lama Lobsang Phuntsok was an eye opener. It goes on to prove that with a clear vision and dedication and without any government support and political patronage it is possible to do things which can bring about a positive change in our country. Maybe in our country people have got into a slavish mentality of either being patronized or dependent on a dole from the government. We are always asking what others should do for us and not say what we can do for the country as President John F Kennedy once said.

                                

After a tearful farewell and party which went late into the night I woke up at 3 A.M. to leave. A handful of people were there to say good bye to me in the cold dark morning when I started my journey back to ‘my land’. Far far away! The return journey was more beautiful as I knew what to expect. I had missed a lot of things on my way up as it was already dark when I passed through that area and I was sleepy with fatigue. On my way back in bright day light I could see the beautiful Sela pass at 13700 ft, Bomdila, Bhalukpung Dirang and many historical landmarks made famous by the infamous Indo-China war of 1962. Most of all some astonishingly beautiful landscapes at giddy heights above the clouds which made one shudder and exclaim with ecstasy at the same time. I left behind many, many small villages and towns with beautiful houses and curious eyes looking at my passing vehicle. I saw on the way constant presence of the army which is there now to assure people that their fear that China will one day walk over their land is an ill-founded one. And most of all a proof that a certain civilization can survive and continue to move ahead with hope that one day they will be part of the mainstream life in India and that they will not be a land so far way that it would take days and nights even to reach there. And most of all I was leaving with a hope that next time I go there, there will be better roads and maybe a super fast prime train to reach me to the north east frontier of the country in comfort. Most of all an institution like Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community School remained in one’s mind as an example of hope that everything is not lost for us as a nation in spite of rampant corruption, inept government machinery and politicians who are only looking at their own interest first and then the political parties they belong to and only then anything that has to do with the people and the nation.

The fresh innocent shinning eyes of the children there gave me the hope that all is not lost in our country or anywhere else in the world where such conditions exist, and that there will always be a metaphoric rainbow at the horizon no matter what the odds may be against humanity at large.

                                                                Photographs and Text,

                                                                  Vishnu Mathur.©

                                                                    September 6  2013.                                                                

Far Away Land Part 2.

Part 2  
                             

Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community School. A place in the sky: two hours of travel from Tawang right on the border of Bhutan and just about 25 kilometers from the border of Tibet and China! The entire school children, staff and all the visiting volunteers were lined up to receive me and my host Vasudha Wanchoo , the head of the administration at the community who was returning from the U.S. after two months. Lama Lobsang Phuntsok was right in front of the line to receive me. Many silk scarves and flowers and beautiful hugs from the children of all shapes and sizes made my fatigue of my seven-day journey disappear in no time. I was there on top of the mountain surrounded by higher mountains and a lovely community whose warmth was instantly overwhelming. A cup of tea and a  guided tour by  Lama Lobsang Phuntsok around  the campus set the tone of my entire trip and I knew that the trip to the far away land was not going to be a waste.



When I woke up the next day in my room and opened the curtains of the window, I saw the mountains of my dreams, the mountains I have been struggling to paint in my sketch books all these years! I could not believe it as I stood there with a sense of dismay and wonder. Dreams come true, do they? They do some day; I knew it at that moment. Very soon children were all around me wishing me Good Morning  as I was temporarily put up in a teacher’s quarters and Lama Lobsang came apologizing asking me if the children woke me up too early. He did not know how wonderful it was to be embraced by so many loving children and repeatedly asked about all the film stars I may have met and seen in Mumbai and I knew that’s all they knew about film making: film stars!

As I slowly got acclimatized physically to  the location and while secretly hiding my fears about my fitness I got to know the wonderful institution of Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community School. ‘Jhamtse’ a Tibetan word means Love and Compassion. A dream come true for Lama Lobsang! Lama Lobsang belonged to that region and having lived a life of poverty and deprivation he had resolved that one day he would do something for the poor children of the region. And during his stay in the USA he gave shape to his dream which finally took concrete form just six years ago.  And what I saw was far beyond my imagination. I had not imagined that the place I was going to in a far remote corner of the country would be an up to date, well organized institution for the orphaned and underprivileged children of the region. Well constructed dormitories, well equipped class rooms and dedicated teachers in that breathtakingly beautiful unspoiled surroundings: I would have not believed it had I not been physically present there myself. Well appointed kitchen and a mess with wash basins with  bottles of liquid soaps and most of all clean toilets and bathrooms. A sight which one does not very often get to see in a public place in India!

                                          

The atmosphere there was very relaxed. While I hesitantly started to conduct my Cinema Workshop for the children of Class 7^th and 8^th I realised that the children there, 82 in all, were not as remote as they seemed, from the day to day realities of the world and very soon they came on to my wavelength leaving behind their persistent enquiries about the film stars which I had banned after a couple of days into the workshop. Very soon we were into serious orientation about the history of cinema and the methods of film-making. The alternate day screening of some classics I had carried with me opened their eyes in a certain sense, so to say, to the cinema which lay beyond Bollywood and Hollywood which was their routine fare. Hopefully I was on the way to change their mindset about cinema once and for all.

What a wonderful life: to be hugged by ever loving children every time one passes through the campus. Such bright faces full of smiles and eyes looking for love from every passing soul. All the children in the community come from the surrounding villages of the Monpa tribe barring a few Nepalese children whose parents had settled down in the region. Many children there were orphans, a few belong to single parents and some were just underprivileged. Lama Lobsang Phuntsok himself went around the surrounding villages to admit the children in the school by convincing the parents and guardians that education was of prime importance if progress has to happen in the region. The region, according to some, belonged to a larger Tibet, and the Chinese Govt. continues to call that entire region of Tawang a disputed territory. Some locals still feel a sense of insecurity on that issue and are afraid that one day the Chinese will just march in and take over the disputed territory. But most people now believe that it is not anymore a realistic scenario in the present context especially because of the large presence of the Indian army in the entire stretch.

One fine day during my workshop I ventured out with my host Vasudha to a Monpa village down in the valley. Going down the slope was easy because there was a newly built kachcha road.  Looking at the unspoiled beauty of the place , frantically taking photographs for eternity and to show them to my family when I get  back to what is considered ‘civilization’ to prove that I have been to places an average Indian cannot believe exist was an exhilarating experience.  We walked down from a beaten path to the nearest village down in the valley. The houses were made of stone and tin and bamboo roof. Smoke was emitting from the rooftops and I was told that wood fire is always burning in these houses to keep them warm and the smoke-filled houses often created eye ailments in the people there. We came across a blind old woman who was carrying a small child on her back who was pushing her to keep walking. That made an interesting picture.

                                       

 The primary occupation of the people living there is agriculture. They cultivate in small terrace fields and mostly grow a type of rice which does not require too much water. The people there look poor and backward but there were signs of progress. We saw a new school coming up nearby and we met a girl in the village who spoke good English and we were told that many children go to nearby schools and some had even studied in Jhamtse Gatsal School Community where I was staying.  I also saw community water taps in the villages; in fact everywhere in Arunachal Pradesh. A mix of old and the new and I wondered how some people live in such places which we cannot imagine not only in India but all over the world, sometimes blissful in their ignorance of the rest of the world! Climbing on the way back was a tough task and I started imagining the last words I would utter before I collapse like “Tell my family that I love them.” Well, I survived all that nonsense to sit here and write this report on my trip. It only reminded me that I was not young any more.

   
                                 



                                                              Photographs and Text

                                                                  Vishnu Mathur.©

                                                                   September 4, 2013.

Far Away Land

Part 1 

How I wish I was a writer and not a filmmaker!

If I were a writer every time there is a desire in me to communicate something all I have to is just  pick up a piece of paper and a pen and  not look for funds to make my film and tug along a whole paraphernalia with me to express what I wanted to communicate! Maybe not even that, all I have to do is to just open the desk top in my computer and start writing. That is precisely what I am doing now to describe my incredible trip to Jhamtse Gatsal Children's Community School in the remote mountains of Tawang District in Arunachal Pradesh in India.

All it took was a simple invitation to visit this community late last year by a family friend who is part of the community. All I was expected to do was to go there for a month and introduce the children there to the medium of cinema. A trip to the far corner of the North East of India on the border of Bhutan, Tibet and China was not an opportunity to be missed even if one had had the good fortune of travelling extensively in India and abroad by the sheer fact of being a filmmaker. All I had to do was to reach Guwahati, the capital of Assam, and the rest was to be taken care of by the organizers.

North East! Right across the width of the country from where I live in Mumbai. So why not take a train and see the country in all its length and breadth, from west to the far end of the east! I booked myself on the solitary train which connects Mumbai to Guwahati, but only thrice a week. I boarded the train one fine morning in early Oct, 2012 knowing full well that it will reach its destination after more than 48 hours! How romantic! Travel across the county on a slow train to nowhere land!

North East turned out to be a far away land. As the train trudged along the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal and then Assam  my enthusiasm and patriotic feeling diminished as  hours passed in that much neglected train going to what is referred to as   ‘neglected states of the North East of India’. Even though I was supposed to be in an elite class of the train, the train seemed to be a free for all for everyone: hawkers of all cultural hues of the states the train passed through and anybody and everybody on the train no matter which compartment they were in, kept walking up and down the aisles of the train all through the day and most of the night with or without reason. And as the time passed the train accumulated garbage in the same proportion as the number of passengers who kept discarding anything and everything from fruit peels to chocolate wrappers and the toilets became  filthier and filthier as the journey progressed with no respite at any station or any form of cleaning.

One day and one night then another day and another night with some over enthusiastic co-passengers on a pilgrimage oblivious of the unpleasant surroundings challenged my patience as a tolerant citizen of the country every now and then. Yet I held on. With some polite conversations with co-passengers and some nationalistic talk with a reasonably sensible co-passenger who was fortunate enough to reach his destination much before me with a pledge that he would never travel in that train again! I too took that pledge in my mind. I sustained myself for one more night and day. The enthusiastic pilgrims got down somewhere in the middle of night and finally the train reached Guwahati two hours later than it was supposed to—fifty-two hours from Mumbai! Two others passengers and myself were the only ones who had travelled right from Mumbai to Guwahati! Bravo!

A day’s halt in Guwahati was a relief as my host was to pick me up the next day as she had missed her flight from New Delhi! Then began my next assault in my journey to the North East! From Guwahati to Tezpur and from Tezpur to Tawang and from Tawang to Jhamtse Gatsal beyond Lumna with two night stays on the way. It was another chapter of my travel to the North East! The vehicle I was travelling in was moving on virtually non-existent roads devastated by landslides and post monsoon waterfalls overflowing over the road at times and the slush made you shudder as one looked at the depth of the valleys on the side of the roads with no protecting walls. On the one hand I was looking at the sheer beauty of the landscape and on the other hand I was shivering inside hoping the driver won’t take a wrong turn or take a cat nap while driving!



                          

All through the long bone-breaking journey of 20 hours I was wondering at the apathy of governance that had had left the entire stretch of the road in a state of neglect. It is on the frontier of our country on the border of Bhutan, Tibet and China, a very sensitive area full of army deployment and constant movement of the army convoys and what is more, people use this road to go from one place to another. When I compared the border roads of north India to what I was seeing I wondered why the disparity? Was it sheer apathy of the government at the center and the state, or corruption of the highest level or just incompetence of the Border Road Organization which is managing these roads? The answers have to come from somewhere. The fact was that I was traversing these treacherous roads and maybe spending twice the number of hours reaching my destination than it should have normally taken raised some questions in my mind. What would happen if there is some kind of trouble on the border, how fast would our forces move to reach their destination? I was told that on the other side of the border in China there was a four lane road right up to the border where tourists drive up in their posh cars! And I also wondered if any central minister had ever travelled in these conditions from Tezpur to Tawang in the recent history or if the Prime Minister or Defence Minister for that matter is even aware of this state of affairs in the North East which the central Govt  is often accused of neglecting.


                                  

Finally I reached my destination! After two days of travel. I was hoping although I was broken in my body, I was not broken in my spirit.

                                     





                                     



                                   

                  

                                                                                         Photographs and Text

                                                                       Vishnu Mathur. ©

                                                                       August 29, 2013.

A Thought for the Day.

Rape is the most heinous crime on this planet Earth!


Vishnu Mathur.

August 24, 20013

'In Search Of Rahat'.

                                                      


                                                        

                                                                   Rahat Yusufi

A couple of years ago I finally was able to contact  my fellow film maker Rahat Yusufi after a gap of five years.For five years I had no idea where he was and nobody I knew could tell me about his whereabouts in Bangalore where he lived. He had separated from his family and was on his own. As he was generally perceived as  an eccentric person I feared for the worst when I could not locate him. So there I was talking to him one fine morning, his voice voice coming clearly excited from a village in Ratnagiri Dist. in Maharashtra.He was well and was part of a school in a village called Panhale on the border of Maharashtra and Goa.The school was run by Vasant Gangavane, a well known activist friend we all knew. Rahat had been residing in the school campus for the last five rears and was surviving by making small documentaries for the activists and NGOs of that region.and was taken care of by the school. A great sigh of relief!

During the conversation, he told me that he had the basic equipment to make small films on his own and described the beautiful place he lived in which sounded very nice to me..He invited me to visit him and since I was in a wandering mood I promptly accepted the invitation. He said that I could stay with him in the school guest house where he himself was residing and the food was provided by the school mess.That was perfect. When I gave a serious thought to his invitation I decided that to make my trip more meaningful I must do something there in terms film making since he had the means to make films.So I suggested to Rahat that we make a film there while I was there. He asked me "On what?" and I said almost spontaneously "On ourselves".I told him in a  lighter vein that since nobody was making a film on us why not make a film on ourselves.But I told him that the film need not be in  the mode of self glorification but just a record of our lives in a certain factual manner, what we have done, what we think and our cinema. Suddenly it was making sense: we decided that we can take care of the camera alternately while we shoot each other and construct a film. The prospect of vising this obscure village Panhale was becoming even more exciting..

So there I was one clear night on  a train to Ratnagiri with my personal belongings and a set of digital video tapes and an extra battery for the camera Rahat had asked me to bring with me. I followed his instructions and got down at Ratnagiri station,walked to the main road, took a bus to a town called Lanja on the highway leading to Goa from where Panhale was just four kilometers down the road. After two and a half hours of journey when the bus turned into the bus stop of Lanja I saw Rahat eagerly waiting there at the corner. When we hugged each other I found a much thinner and older looking Rahat but a very happy one to see me. Vasant Gangavane's son Vishu had brought him to the bus stop in their little yellow Nano car to receive me.That was my first ride in a Nano. After we turned left after four kilometers of drive towards Goa after a  hundred meters  the school building appeared  on the right side of the road and then after a short distance on the left the hostel compound and the guest house where Rahat lived..I had arrived for what was going to be one of my most memorable film-making experiences my life!

Once I settled down and got familiar with the environment, we met Vasant Gangavane and his family and saw the village surroundings.The very next day  we were on he road with the camera and accessories. Just two of us: Rahat and myself. The smallest film unit I ever worked with! I had never operated a camera myself before but very quickly I learnt the basics and I took my first shot of Rahat sitting under a  big tree, Rahat's favorite spot. Since the camera had option for only a built-in microphone we did not need a sound recordist; not that we had choice. We just started shooting whatever came our way while wandering along the landscape.Things started flowing easily. Rahat and I began from where we had left last time when we met, whenever it was, alternately taking over the camera while taking to each other.

Two days passed and  I started constructing the film in my mind. I realized that the film was becoming a little ambiguous. It needed more focused  approach.It  was Rahat's space: he lived there and led a certain way life.The film had to be about Rahat Yusufi. I told this to Rahat. Rahat tried to protest but I convinced him that it made more sense than making a very vague description of our lives.That is when the roles got divided. I took over the camera and sat behind it and Rahat became the subject of the  film. Then I began constructing the film in my mind from that point of view as I went along shooting the film. In house he lived, the school to which he was  connected and the open spaces around. I started talking to Rahat and he started recounting his life from his childhood to the present state he was in. So there I was shooting in a beautiful unobtrusive environment: the landscape, the trees and the spiders, the village, its people most of all the beautiful lovely children of the school.I cannot describe how liberating the experience of making this film was for me It was eating, sleeping, breathing and  walking cinema. No producer, no script, no cameraman to explain the shot to, no light boys, no production manager....and no audience in the mind. Just two of us interacting with each other and at times I alone with the camera in the wilderness. On some occasions Rahat would take over the camera from me and talk to me randomly whatever he felt like.But in my mind I kept on constructing the film and took  it to a logical conclusion, all about the life of Rahat Yusufi. At times it all looked so absurd and weird, just two us sitting in an open landscape recording a serious interview about life and cinema while the traffic moved relentlessly  some distance away on the Mumbai Goa highway!

That two weeks of shooting, roaming,eating drinking and talking  was one the  most fulfilling experiences of my life.In  two weeks I shot by way interviews the life of Rahat Yusufi in his own words, the environment he lived in and the beautiful landscapes of Ratnagiri district.For Rahat it was like getting back to civilization  He got reconnected to his friends and got links to others who lived far far way in foreign lands. I left Panhale on a big high. I had gone through an experience of film making which was free of  any anxiety  and I could practice my art without any doubt whatsoever in my mind. It has been quite a while since I shot the film and I have seen  the rushes of the film several times, much admired by my friends and admirers, but for some reason I have not got down to editing  the film as yet. Meanwhile Rahat has  edited a simple version of the film with his own perspective.He  has put up that version of the film on a site for people to have window to his life. It is a concise version of the film but nevertheless it gives an idea of what transpired there in that fortnight in Panhale. It was for me a celebration of my life in cinema.I hope to make another version of the film as soon I get an opportunity to do so and screen it for everyone to see. The film will be titled "In Search Of Rahat".

Meanwhile if you do wish have a look at the edited version by Rahat Yusufi click on <http://www.cultureunplugged.com/storyteller/Rahat_Yusufi#/myFilms> If possible I will  put up some  portions of the 'Rushes' in this blog whenever possible. 

Vishnu Mathur.

August 20, 2013.