Random Rumblings

Have had a whirl of a week. A few close calls with regard to project submission and a couple of as-usual-goofed-up papers and quizzes. Have a general feeling that the things are not going quite well up in the clocktower, due to which bells are not ringing at the right time. So pardon me if the post sounds quite drab. Am trying hard not to make this my personal diary, but every badger needs his badgerette to badger. (wtf?!) Have the Finance Summit Arthanomics starting tomorrow... Or today... Aw! Doesn't matter... At least for the ones who stay up all night watching movies or writing soap stories on blogs. Finance... A cleverly disguised term to encapsulate everything that involves numbers so that the ones actually good with numbers are turned off by the sight of ManAc.

Anyways, the prime purpose of this post is to discuss some of the brilliant movies shown by our beloved prof, Mathew sir. The most recent was Le Chiavi de Casa (The keys to the house - yes it is chiavi in both tamil and italian!) This particular movie is about a young father seeing his differentially abled son for the first time and the journey of how they grow close to each other. At one point in the film, another parent who has looked after her similarly abled daughter with so much care for twenty years, declares "Sometimes I wish she would die". This tells of two things - one, love is not about keeping someone alive and making them better; it is sometimes better to let go and save them from a cruel world that offers them no help and two, achievements are not measured by winning prizes but hearts - we often have cinema showing differentially abled children competing with the so called normal ones on an equal footing and yet winning. Though it is possible, it is not always that way. So many lives come and go that have not achieved anything worthy of a certificate, yet to someone they are always special.

Another movie that affected me deeply was 'The Grave of the Fireflies' - a Japanese animation movie. Maybe it was because both the films involved children, but it doesnt matter because if we are not sensitive to children, in no way, are we going to be sensitive to adults. This particular film takes place during the fag end of World War II with the children losing their mother and the elder brother taking care of his younger sister. The interesting thing here is the way the director handles death. Which is worse - a violent death or a peaceful one? How do you quantify tragedy? Do watch these movies. Highly recommended.