No? Neither did I until yesterday.

There I was sitting at Juhu’s Prithvi Theatre watching a compilation of short documentary films, organized by an NGO called Vikalp (formed in 2003, a group of documentary film makers fighting against censorship) and all I could think of was Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

Though the film turned out to be the biggest box-office failure of 2007, to me the film’s depiction of modern day daaku raj (Babban Singh) vs. Ex-Police Chief and his hired goons Heroo & Raj – seem perfectly in sync with the Naxalite situation in the State of Chhattisgarh. No laughing matter this, the reality is as dark and horrifying. However unlike the movie, the Naxalite condition doesn’t have as clear a hero-villain divide as the movie.

In order to free the state’s people from the tortures of the rebellious Naxalities (dakku raj), the government put in action the Special Public Security Act (SPS, 2005), and have also created an army of villagers called the Salwa Judum giving them bows arrows and guns, under the pretext of self-protection against the bad guys. The Chhattisgarh government wants us to look up to them in the same way as the villagers regarded the Ex-Police Chief in the film. Their life-savior, their messiah.

According to the Planning Commission 2008 report, that is not only unconstitutional, but also a form of state sponsored terror. So, no happy ending in sight here, only a spiral result of violence and more of it.

And this is where filmmaker Ajay TG’s story comes in.

Click here to continue reading ‘Do You Know Ajay TG?’

There’s something refreshing about a name like Inkfruit, and it’s even more refreshing when it turns out to be a site selling T-shirts. So these guys approached me asking me to review their site, and they’d give me a Tee in return. Now the request was seriously cute, and just because it was so refreshingly naïve and cute, I said OK.

So here I am, with Inkfruit open in another tab, and I’m thinking, ‘That’s called ideating’.

Don’t know how far something this specific will run, and these guys might need to come up with something MORE, but, for the time being, this is a great plan, and I hope it works. ‘Cause, you know, it’s just so cute and refreshing.

Some of the Tee designs are pretty cute and whacky. And these designs are submissions of people – you can do so too. Not just that, you can also vote and rate your favourite designs, and leave back comments. So it’s all nice and interactive.

Click here to continue reading ‘Introducing InkFruit.Com’

Forgive me in advance,

I plan to get a bit soppy

There’s much reason you see

And even more rhyme

As I’m going to talk about time

Passed, gone, three years to the date

When by chance, or perhaps fate

I opened this site and gave it my name

And with the click of a mouse, became

The blogger you all know and read

With patience and tolerance indeed.

Click here to continue reading ‘Turning 3′