comparative aspect - urban migration

the yearning for the lights and life(style) of a metropolis.

For Mahashewta Devi, it could be the yearning of a civil servant stuck in the tribal land of Palamu for Ranchi.

In Tamil cinema, it could be the idea of Chennai for a rural Tamilian.

In a Chekhov play, the secret desire of a pilgrimage to cities like St.Petersburg.

Ritwik Ghatak's Kolkata sucking refugees into its growing suburbia.

The city of Mumbai portrayed in Indian mainstream and parallel cinema.

The enchantment with the city, the migration to it, the ineluctable love-hate relationship of the dwellers with the city here.

and with it the call of the village , its nostalgia.

two things come out clear even in this muddled putting down of things.

The comparative aspect involved in the idea of a city - the migration of a person based in Palamu to Ranchi and migration of an inhabitant of Ranchi to Mumbai.

Secondly, initiation of this process of migration and resettling has long begun,
looking for greener pastures in concrete land is an age-old phenomenon.

throw their hands into the air in exasperation

It is strange how many people do it, scan a thing, summarize it and reproduce it down. Maybe they put in a something of theirs into it as well. Pollute it and also beautify it in equal measure. Then, another person does it, adds in something of his. When it comes to me, and as I read, see, hear and smell it, I am supposed to think about IT, try to make sense of IT. what an illusion and the absurdity of IT ? - All people throw their hands into the air in exasperation when this thought comes to them....

thus spoke R.

"Saw a cat, remembered a friend of mine who had the same eyes. i did not like him, had a reason then, to not like the cat. Do i make up these reasons for not loving pets? Why can i not relate to them? Have i made an effort? Why am i so concerned only with the human? the 'human' takes up my entire day? am i making that transition from nature to culture? can''t i have both?"
thus spoke R.

men went on dying, women were left pregnant and widowed

something happened to a tribe at a certain point in history, then they were inducted into the big thing, they could not relate to it, they were told - drinking alcohol is bad habit, they were told - wearing animal bones is a bad habit... they were educated.........

they rebelled but were confused, did not know whose side to take, men went on dying, women were left pregnant and widowed

a writer went there and told their story, he had a man and woman falling in love for his story to be read and within it he captured a moment in history, endowed it with the permanence of art

dislodging the utopia

The "blogosphere" is prognosticated to become the "public sphere". bloggers shall leave their petulant and sentimental personal diary reports and start talking about political and judicial issues in and around them. An exchange of views and couter-views will occur. Links will be there, comments will be left posted which will again be counter-commented upon, such is the new evolvment of public sphere and yet there are challanges of rank, inclusivity and accessibility -- issues which help in dislodging the utopia of a perfect ideal of "public sphere" into the too rational too modern now a history.