I’m finally free…after a gruelling month and a half of submissions, practical exams, theoretical exams and the like, I can stop, look around , sit back and just relax! The feeling is something different. Nothing else seems to matter as you carelessly indulge in this ineffable pleasure. Ah, the joys of just not doing anything! Plus(and most importantly) I get a chance to get back to my beloved blog!
The vacation was long awaited this time around. Simply because the subjects this semester were tougher and much more advanced than the previous terms. The university guys really cranked things up this time! The depth and breadth of the syllabi, the exam patterns, everything saw a major shift. It was as if the course planners were saying,” Hey blokes, took it easy for the first 2 years, didya?.. well, lets get on with it now! If you thought engineering is a cakewalk, take that!”
So we took it(as if, we had an option!) as and how they came by. Sometimes ecstatic and chagrined at other times. Tired and anguished on some days and lively and spirited on others. The mind is a rollercoaster of emotions during exams. Tension on the previous night and apprehension on the day of the exam are inevitable. The lucky few are able to mix variable amounts of confidence into that while some enviable ones are able to throw in a ‘devil may care’ attitude! The exam itself gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘unstable’. Emotions rise and ebb depending on how strongly each question rings that bell situated somewhere in our head! Exams almost invariably end in a frenzy as papers are (rather ingeniously!) made so as to either get over in the last(est) minute or never at all!
All of the above, finally results in one of two scenarios- We either end up feeling dejected and disappointed and start blaming God(or ‘facebook’) or feel elated and flushed with newfound vigour and zeal!.
The former causes some to simply resign and give up or thoughts like ‘You may have won the battle but the war is not over yet!’ start creeping into their heads! The latter, on the other hand are an excited lot, giggling and cackling at having won the proverbial battle!
But everyone, after a temporary sense of relief(at least the darned subject is done away with!)gets back to the grind on a war footing!
It was no different for us. Combine that with minimal sleep and seemingly unending hours of work and you get one helluva exam!(PS:Frustrated souls like us would go and have ‘poha’ and a ‘cutting’ at 4 o’clock in the morning for no apparent reason!) Its really at times like these, that you begin to miss those wonderful days when you could do anything under the sun and sleep to your heart’s content. Every little thing tugs one back to the time when life wasn’t a living hell. Every minute is valued like never before. Fond memories of periods of total freedom are conjured up at instants when your conscience denies you even the most basic pleasures of life.
Some start building dams around their thoughts in a bid to shut out everything else and just focus on the job at hand! I, on the other hand make lists. I list out every little thing that I feel like doing during those tormenting days but obviously can’t. This way, I’m assuring myself that I will actually do it someday and that it won’t be forgotten, which, to an extent takes away the urge of wanting to do it at that instant. A good example may be the urge to watch a particular movie or read a certain book.
Inspite of all the hardships, the tempestuous period passes like a blur. And before you know it, you’re back to being a free bird. You haven’t realized it but you have actually steamrolled ahead. The storm hath been weathered…leaving us waiting, for surely, this wasn't the last!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Khan(t) digest it!
Just the other day, I heard news ‘break’ on the idiot box. A certain Mr. Khan had been detained at Newark airport for security reasons for over an hour. And trust the Indian media to blow things out of proportion! It’s like second nature to us! I mean, what’s the big deal? Just so you guys know, I don’t really feel sympathetic or anything towards him. But news channels just kept showing the damned thing on television the whole day. It was Independence Day for godsakes! Poor Manmohan Singh and his speech were relegated to the sidelines. No patriotic ‘specials’ or visuals of the flag-hoisting or ‘walks’ down memory lanes.. not even those depressing (and repetitive) stories on swine-flu…It was all ‘King Khan’ on Saturday.
Actually, that’s exactly the problem with us Indians. We carve out gods from mortals! (as if we had any less gods to pray to already!). We worship them and elevate them to the grandest of pedestals. That's when they begin to believe they are above the rest and don’t deserve to be subjected to mundane stuff like this. They detest being packaged with the common man and being treated like any other ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’. So what if Shah Rukh had to undergo an hour-long grilling at the hands of American authorities? So what if the Americans are paranoid about their national security? Isn't that precisely the reason why they haven’t let another 9/11 happen again? If that’s the cost a few must pay in order to keep an entire country safe.. well, so be it! In fact, I would suggest that India learn something from this, start taking its security seriously and implement such kind of practices at its airports as well(Plus, we’ll get a chance to hit back at those Americans!). After-all, we’re at a much larger threat from terror strikes.
And, by the way did anyone even notice what transpired in the news in July. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was apparently frisked on 24th April this year by the ground staff of Continental Airlines at IGI airport(in dilli). This was clearly a violation of protocol and they apologized later. But the point to be noted is that Mr. Kalam(for whom, by the way, I have immense respect) didn’t make any fuss about it. He quietly let them frisk him just like an ordinary passenger. Did the media give this case even a fraction of the importance it gave to Shah Rukh? Wasn’t this a bigger shame to the country? SRK, on the other hand seemed all upset and disturbed and angry. Come on, SRK grow up! You know as well as we do, there’s no VIP culture in the US. Nobody is exempt from security checks! No use taking the support of Islam and getting too philosophical. Thousands are detained at international airports for being muslims. You didn’t exactly raise your voice then, did you? For all the love, praise and adulation that people shower upon you the world over, you really better be prepared to take such things in your stride! And hey, what are you cryin’ for anyways man.. Al Gore, Edward Kennedy and scores of other senators and sport-stars are frisked and detained day in and day out at American airports.. That’s a pretty illustrious company to be in, ain’t it ‘King’?!
PS:Scroll down to the end and voice your opinion in a poll related to the article you just read!
Actually, that’s exactly the problem with us Indians. We carve out gods from mortals! (as if we had any less gods to pray to already!). We worship them and elevate them to the grandest of pedestals. That's when they begin to believe they are above the rest and don’t deserve to be subjected to mundane stuff like this. They detest being packaged with the common man and being treated like any other ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’. So what if Shah Rukh had to undergo an hour-long grilling at the hands of American authorities? So what if the Americans are paranoid about their national security? Isn't that precisely the reason why they haven’t let another 9/11 happen again? If that’s the cost a few must pay in order to keep an entire country safe.. well, so be it! In fact, I would suggest that India learn something from this, start taking its security seriously and implement such kind of practices at its airports as well(Plus, we’ll get a chance to hit back at those Americans!). After-all, we’re at a much larger threat from terror strikes.
And, by the way did anyone even notice what transpired in the news in July. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was apparently frisked on 24th April this year by the ground staff of Continental Airlines at IGI airport(in dilli). This was clearly a violation of protocol and they apologized later. But the point to be noted is that Mr. Kalam(for whom, by the way, I have immense respect) didn’t make any fuss about it. He quietly let them frisk him just like an ordinary passenger. Did the media give this case even a fraction of the importance it gave to Shah Rukh? Wasn’t this a bigger shame to the country? SRK, on the other hand seemed all upset and disturbed and angry. Come on, SRK grow up! You know as well as we do, there’s no VIP culture in the US. Nobody is exempt from security checks! No use taking the support of Islam and getting too philosophical. Thousands are detained at international airports for being muslims. You didn’t exactly raise your voice then, did you? For all the love, praise and adulation that people shower upon you the world over, you really better be prepared to take such things in your stride! And hey, what are you cryin’ for anyways man.. Al Gore, Edward Kennedy and scores of other senators and sport-stars are frisked and detained day in and day out at American airports.. That’s a pretty illustrious company to be in, ain’t it ‘King’?!
PS:Scroll down to the end and voice your opinion in a poll related to the article you just read!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
India's tryst with pigs
Hey guys.. I’m back! Tonnes of work and a busy schedule kept me from blogging. My sincere apologies! But now I feel compelled to write, more than anything else. Recent goings on have drawn me to the ever-reliable MS Word. Times are churning out unbelievable events…hitherto unseen, unheard of!
One of them, which I’m sure is on everybody’s minds (hopefully not on their throats!) is…yes, you got it right.. swine flu! Pigs have suddenly caught the imagination of one and all. If you discount the Chinese, nobody ever gave them so much importance apart from eating them of course! (The Chinese have some strange astrological methods wherein they denote years by animals and to them a ‘pig’ is a sign of fertility and virility!) Never before has the word ‘swine’, (popularly perceived to mean ‘dirty’, ’lowly’, ’disgusting’) been used so frequently! It has rudely gate-crashed into the modern, urban lexicon. The flu, on the other hand has made people do things they would never have imagined were even ‘do-able’.I was, at what many would like to call the epicenter of it all-Pune when pigs burst upon the national scene. And I have never witnessed such mass hysteria in a very long time. Imagine a whole city covered in masks! The Taliban guys would have been jumping in joy had they seen it! All the ‘wallahs’ including rickshaw-wallahs, tapri-wallahs, udupi-wallahs and pav-wallahs were donning masks! Even our house-maid, armed with a mask, who I’m sure had never known what even ‘flu’ meant was buzzing with information and statistics about swine-flu. Initially there was apprehension, shyness coupled with misinformation. “Yikes!!, you crazy ??!!, how can you wear masks in the classroom in front of the teacher?” , ignorant people would remark. My friends outside Pune would laugh at me when I told them I wore a mask for a whole day in college. However, a couple of deaths laid such reactions to rest! May all of them rest in peace! Some others turned vegetarians overnight (??) while others stopped going to the gym!
Suddenly there were public announcements at malls, theatres, plays urging people to wear masks or to cover their mouths with something. It was as if everybody had been jolted out of their slumber. It was a like a different kind of ‘social-awakening’. Revolt against swine-flu! In a knee-jerk reaction people fled Pune. Loads of students from outside the state ran back to their home-towns. Swine flu had done what Raj Thackeray has been unsuccessfully striving to do. It had driven away the dilliwallahs and biharis back to where they came from! In fact, maybe swine flu can be used as a formidable deterrent by places like Mumbai and Pune against the ever-growing inrush of the ‘bhaiyyas’ from UP and the ‘babuas’ from Bihar. Imagine Raj Thackeray’s men brandishing vials full of H1N1 viruses at stations!
Anyways, gradually the situation is settling down. Panic is deflating. I discovered that all the talk of people shunning malls was bullshit. I couldn’t find a place to park my car in a mall which has a humongous parking space! Fear is giving way to humor. My gym instructor suggested this flu become a bi-annual affair in view of the unexpected ‘flu-break’(which is, by the way as long as an average Christmas break)! Just the other day I got an SMS ‘forward’ saying that the Americans have asked India to warn all the gujratis here to not line up outside American embassies……since H1N1 is not a type of visa!
One of them, which I’m sure is on everybody’s minds (hopefully not on their throats!) is…yes, you got it right.. swine flu! Pigs have suddenly caught the imagination of one and all. If you discount the Chinese, nobody ever gave them so much importance apart from eating them of course! (The Chinese have some strange astrological methods wherein they denote years by animals and to them a ‘pig’ is a sign of fertility and virility!) Never before has the word ‘swine’, (popularly perceived to mean ‘dirty’, ’lowly’, ’disgusting’) been used so frequently! It has rudely gate-crashed into the modern, urban lexicon. The flu, on the other hand has made people do things they would never have imagined were even ‘do-able’.I was, at what many would like to call the epicenter of it all-Pune when pigs burst upon the national scene. And I have never witnessed such mass hysteria in a very long time. Imagine a whole city covered in masks! The Taliban guys would have been jumping in joy had they seen it! All the ‘wallahs’ including rickshaw-wallahs, tapri-wallahs, udupi-wallahs and pav-wallahs were donning masks! Even our house-maid, armed with a mask, who I’m sure had never known what even ‘flu’ meant was buzzing with information and statistics about swine-flu. Initially there was apprehension, shyness coupled with misinformation. “Yikes!!, you crazy ??!!, how can you wear masks in the classroom in front of the teacher?” , ignorant people would remark. My friends outside Pune would laugh at me when I told them I wore a mask for a whole day in college. However, a couple of deaths laid such reactions to rest! May all of them rest in peace! Some others turned vegetarians overnight (??) while others stopped going to the gym!
Suddenly there were public announcements at malls, theatres, plays urging people to wear masks or to cover their mouths with something. It was as if everybody had been jolted out of their slumber. It was a like a different kind of ‘social-awakening’. Revolt against swine-flu! In a knee-jerk reaction people fled Pune. Loads of students from outside the state ran back to their home-towns. Swine flu had done what Raj Thackeray has been unsuccessfully striving to do. It had driven away the dilliwallahs and biharis back to where they came from! In fact, maybe swine flu can be used as a formidable deterrent by places like Mumbai and Pune against the ever-growing inrush of the ‘bhaiyyas’ from UP and the ‘babuas’ from Bihar. Imagine Raj Thackeray’s men brandishing vials full of H1N1 viruses at stations!
Anyways, gradually the situation is settling down. Panic is deflating. I discovered that all the talk of people shunning malls was bullshit. I couldn’t find a place to park my car in a mall which has a humongous parking space! Fear is giving way to humor. My gym instructor suggested this flu become a bi-annual affair in view of the unexpected ‘flu-break’(which is, by the way as long as an average Christmas break)! Just the other day I got an SMS ‘forward’ saying that the Americans have asked India to warn all the gujratis here to not line up outside American embassies……since H1N1 is not a type of visa!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Changing trends in technology
The world has come a long way. The humble beginnings of the ‘early’ man have given way to a modern, sophisticated and technologically advanced society. Today’s world is fast. In fact, ‘fast’ seems like an understatement. Technology, today is taking giant strides, whizzing past the laggards at dizzying speeds like a juggernaut not showing the slightest inclination to stop. It’s the age of snazzy mobile phones and PDA’s, cutting edge laptops, funky mp3 players, glitzy laser crystal displays and mind-boggling global positioning systems. Newer models and configurations are being launched at the drop of a hat.
Integration is in vogue, fuelled by the insatiable appetite to multitask. Everything, nowadays serves multiple functions. From headphones which measure your blood pressure to watches which double up as mp3 players and from sunglasses which can play videos to talking cars and t-shirts with temperature control, the list can go on…
There are some who claim to be addicted to these ‘marvels’, lapping them up as they make their way out from factories and warehouses while others brush them aside as unimportant, esoteric rubbish. Their argument? How many of these have actually lasted beyond the initial hype? Are these simply fancy names, then, which make for good reading?
There seems to have crept a certain sense of saturation into the technological arena. Most of the path-breaking discoveries and iconoclastic inventions took place in the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Since then, there has been a kind of a vacuum in that department. What we hear about today are just fatuous additions, subtle modifications and obvious improvisations. Once considered as a revolutionary concept, the car today is looked upon as an outcast in today’s society. CO emissions in large doses, generous contributions towards global warming and the inevitable traffic snarls haven’t really helped its cause. Governments are exhorting people to use public transport and to walk or cycle down short distances. Some go as far as to limit the number of cars per family. Now, owning just any car is no big deal but possessing a ‘hybrid’ version of a four-wheeler surely grabs a lot of eyeballs!
Mobile telephony was, I think, the most recent technological advancement which grabbed the people’s fantasy. Mobiles sold like hot cakes and they continue to do so. But, don’t we rely too much on our mobile-phones now? Haven’t we made them completely indispensable entities? Once a popular status symbol, it has now been reduced to a bare necessity. It is as if, your mobile number provides sole proof of your existence! Greetings, wishes and other formalities which would earlier be deemed complete only after a heartfelt conversation are now got over with cold SMSes while messages are conveyed with curt missed calls. The advancements in mobiles today, are all about higher resolution cameras and better multimedia sound quality which, really speaking has got nothing to do with the basic function of a phone!
The 20th century has been witness to the gradual change in the way people thought. That has translated into what we have invented , discovered and unearthed in our constant endeavour to progress. In the beginning, foundations were set, basics learnt and concepts established. Slowly, great scientists and researchers bore deep, unravelling fascinating mysteries about different aspects of science. Discoveries during this time revolutionised the world. They rewrote unwritten rules and redefined old paradigms. I think , they were simply waiting to be made. Necessity, not curiosity, was the father of invention then. Research was focussed on getting to know the subject better and gaining expertise. The bulb, the telephone and hundreds of other discoveries were, in a sense, serendipitous but they changed the way people thought.
But, slowly things have changed. Man has been there and done that. There is virtually nothing major left to discover. People are leading good lives with bulbs, mobiles, computers and ipods. The Moon has been conquered and nuclear energy harnessed. Now what? Has research stopped? No..certainly not. It has merely changed its nature. Research is now people-centric, aimed at making lives more comfortable and luxurious. Companies have virtually got into a rat-race in a bid to come up with products which appease the general masses. Suddenly, huge importance is being given to compactness. Smaller phones, sleeker laptops, faster computers.. all they have to do is to tweak their existing products here and there, reduce their size, give them a ‘feel-good’, contemporary look with a spanking new logo, throw in a few add-
ons and voila!..you get a ‘next generation’ product!
Today, every creation is aimed at erasing all efforts man has to make to eke out a living. ‘Manual’ is slowly being replaced by ‘Automatic'. Air-conditioners or stereo systems were great but people had to actually reach out to them to switch them on, so they came up with the idea of a remote control. This has now been extended to tube lights and fans also! It is this very relentless pursuit of appeasement that has led to the creation of frivolous and sometimes, purposeless products. One sometimes wonders whether all these have made life simpler or more complicated?
Well, love it or hate it, this trend is here to stay. It is thus, imperative that one is ‘in sync’ with the goings-on of today’s world to avoid being tagged as ‘ignorant’ or ‘backward’. So, pull your socks up and take stock!
Integration is in vogue, fuelled by the insatiable appetite to multitask. Everything, nowadays serves multiple functions. From headphones which measure your blood pressure to watches which double up as mp3 players and from sunglasses which can play videos to talking cars and t-shirts with temperature control, the list can go on…
There are some who claim to be addicted to these ‘marvels’, lapping them up as they make their way out from factories and warehouses while others brush them aside as unimportant, esoteric rubbish. Their argument? How many of these have actually lasted beyond the initial hype? Are these simply fancy names, then, which make for good reading?
There seems to have crept a certain sense of saturation into the technological arena. Most of the path-breaking discoveries and iconoclastic inventions took place in the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Since then, there has been a kind of a vacuum in that department. What we hear about today are just fatuous additions, subtle modifications and obvious improvisations. Once considered as a revolutionary concept, the car today is looked upon as an outcast in today’s society. CO emissions in large doses, generous contributions towards global warming and the inevitable traffic snarls haven’t really helped its cause. Governments are exhorting people to use public transport and to walk or cycle down short distances. Some go as far as to limit the number of cars per family. Now, owning just any car is no big deal but possessing a ‘hybrid’ version of a four-wheeler surely grabs a lot of eyeballs!
Mobile telephony was, I think, the most recent technological advancement which grabbed the people’s fantasy. Mobiles sold like hot cakes and they continue to do so. But, don’t we rely too much on our mobile-phones now? Haven’t we made them completely indispensable entities? Once a popular status symbol, it has now been reduced to a bare necessity. It is as if, your mobile number provides sole proof of your existence! Greetings, wishes and other formalities which would earlier be deemed complete only after a heartfelt conversation are now got over with cold SMSes while messages are conveyed with curt missed calls. The advancements in mobiles today, are all about higher resolution cameras and better multimedia sound quality which, really speaking has got nothing to do with the basic function of a phone!
The 20th century has been witness to the gradual change in the way people thought. That has translated into what we have invented , discovered and unearthed in our constant endeavour to progress. In the beginning, foundations were set, basics learnt and concepts established. Slowly, great scientists and researchers bore deep, unravelling fascinating mysteries about different aspects of science. Discoveries during this time revolutionised the world. They rewrote unwritten rules and redefined old paradigms. I think , they were simply waiting to be made. Necessity, not curiosity, was the father of invention then. Research was focussed on getting to know the subject better and gaining expertise. The bulb, the telephone and hundreds of other discoveries were, in a sense, serendipitous but they changed the way people thought.
But, slowly things have changed. Man has been there and done that. There is virtually nothing major left to discover. People are leading good lives with bulbs, mobiles, computers and ipods. The Moon has been conquered and nuclear energy harnessed. Now what? Has research stopped? No..certainly not. It has merely changed its nature. Research is now people-centric, aimed at making lives more comfortable and luxurious. Companies have virtually got into a rat-race in a bid to come up with products which appease the general masses. Suddenly, huge importance is being given to compactness. Smaller phones, sleeker laptops, faster computers.. all they have to do is to tweak their existing products here and there, reduce their size, give them a ‘feel-good’, contemporary look with a spanking new logo, throw in a few add-
ons and voila!..you get a ‘next generation’ product!
Today, every creation is aimed at erasing all efforts man has to make to eke out a living. ‘Manual’ is slowly being replaced by ‘Automatic'. Air-conditioners or stereo systems were great but people had to actually reach out to them to switch them on, so they came up with the idea of a remote control. This has now been extended to tube lights and fans also! It is this very relentless pursuit of appeasement that has led to the creation of frivolous and sometimes, purposeless products. One sometimes wonders whether all these have made life simpler or more complicated?
Well, love it or hate it, this trend is here to stay. It is thus, imperative that one is ‘in sync’ with the goings-on of today’s world to avoid being tagged as ‘ignorant’ or ‘backward’. So, pull your socks up and take stock!
Let all Pinky's smile!
22nd February 2009 saw India making history. Indian cinema had its date with the world at large. The 81st Academy Awards held in Los Angeles were to stun the world. American director Danny Boyle’s ‘love story cum destiny’ saga based on the streets and slums of Mumbai called ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ won an astonishing 10 Oscars. The unique movie experience combined with the off-beat and innovative music composed by A R Rehman drew rave reviews and attracted instant global media attention. It was, as they say, an instant rage.
But somewhere behind all the hullabaloo and the ‘slumdog frenzy’, another success story got lost. 22nd February made India proud not just because ‘Slumdog’ hit the jackpot but also because another film based in India stood victorious among 4 others in the ‘Best Short Documentary’ category at the Oscars. The film was a 39 minute short film about a girl from Central India born with a lip deformity and the problems she faced because of it. The film did not get its due in terms of media attention probably because it shared center stage with a movie that has captured the global viewer’s attention like very few have in the recent past.
The short film called ’Smile Pinky’ is a real-life story about a 6 year old girl named Pinky. Pinky hails from the Dabai village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ahura district. She is born with a cleft lip-a lip deformity. The villagers treat like a social outcast. She is denied the normal life of a child and has to face ignominy and shame at every step. After years of hardship and pain, she finally gets help from a social reforms group who cure her lip deformity. Pinky Sonkar, from Mirzapur played herself in the film directed by Megan Mylan.
The villagers from Pinky’s village, desperately praying for the success of the movie, were thrilled to bits when they heard the news. Nirmala Devi, Pinky’s mother was ecstatic. Today, after Pinky has undergone corrective lip surgery, she has begun to lead a normal life. She can mingle and mix with the villagers and enjoy the joys of her childhood. Pinky stands rescued.. almost re-born. But, even now there are thousands of other Pinky’s who are yet to lead life on their own terms. Children, who, for no fault of theirs are forced to bear the brunt of society’s cruel ways and see their life shatter into innumerable pieces right in front of their eyes. There is an urgent need to reach out to all those Pinky’s. There is a need to ensure that these Pinky’s are not ostracized. That they are treated fairly and equally like all the other children are. And that they are amalgamated with the rest of the society at large. There is also, an urgent need to make available the technology and the modern facilities that corrective lip surgeries demand, to even the most far-flung areas and villages of this country.
‘Smile Pinky’ has ensured that such needs will not be overlooked. It has given us hope that children with lip deformities will not be forgotten, that they will be cared for.. nurtured. Megan Mylan picked one of thousands of examples from the villages of India and highlighted her plight. In a way, he portrayed a mere pixel of society but in return gave back a whole photograph of the society, to society. Through the movie, he has drawn an action plan and implored the people of this country to adhere to the chartered course. We need to get up, shake off our lethargy and get down to business. Let all the other unfortunate Pinky’s smile!
But somewhere behind all the hullabaloo and the ‘slumdog frenzy’, another success story got lost. 22nd February made India proud not just because ‘Slumdog’ hit the jackpot but also because another film based in India stood victorious among 4 others in the ‘Best Short Documentary’ category at the Oscars. The film was a 39 minute short film about a girl from Central India born with a lip deformity and the problems she faced because of it. The film did not get its due in terms of media attention probably because it shared center stage with a movie that has captured the global viewer’s attention like very few have in the recent past.
The short film called ’Smile Pinky’ is a real-life story about a 6 year old girl named Pinky. Pinky hails from the Dabai village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ahura district. She is born with a cleft lip-a lip deformity. The villagers treat like a social outcast. She is denied the normal life of a child and has to face ignominy and shame at every step. After years of hardship and pain, she finally gets help from a social reforms group who cure her lip deformity. Pinky Sonkar, from Mirzapur played herself in the film directed by Megan Mylan.
The villagers from Pinky’s village, desperately praying for the success of the movie, were thrilled to bits when they heard the news. Nirmala Devi, Pinky’s mother was ecstatic. Today, after Pinky has undergone corrective lip surgery, she has begun to lead a normal life. She can mingle and mix with the villagers and enjoy the joys of her childhood. Pinky stands rescued.. almost re-born. But, even now there are thousands of other Pinky’s who are yet to lead life on their own terms. Children, who, for no fault of theirs are forced to bear the brunt of society’s cruel ways and see their life shatter into innumerable pieces right in front of their eyes. There is an urgent need to reach out to all those Pinky’s. There is a need to ensure that these Pinky’s are not ostracized. That they are treated fairly and equally like all the other children are. And that they are amalgamated with the rest of the society at large. There is also, an urgent need to make available the technology and the modern facilities that corrective lip surgeries demand, to even the most far-flung areas and villages of this country.
‘Smile Pinky’ has ensured that such needs will not be overlooked. It has given us hope that children with lip deformities will not be forgotten, that they will be cared for.. nurtured. Megan Mylan picked one of thousands of examples from the villages of India and highlighted her plight. In a way, he portrayed a mere pixel of society but in return gave back a whole photograph of the society, to society. Through the movie, he has drawn an action plan and implored the people of this country to adhere to the chartered course. We need to get up, shake off our lethargy and get down to business. Let all the other unfortunate Pinky’s smile!
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