THE INDIAN COMMENTATOR

Image Courtesy: D .K Part 2 Propagandists have often proclaimed that Onam has a Hindu connection. The myth involving Vishnu and Mahabali is one instance for this coagulation. There is lighting of traditional lamps, special pujas in temples and so on. That being said, the festival of Onam also resides in contours adjacent to what may be called a religiously neutral space. But the origin of this neutral position has to come from the story of how the term Hindu evolved. That might take a long time and space to narrate.    Image Courtesy: Google Taken as the name of a culture, the term Hindu does have a connection with Onam as the term is connected to everything in India or everything that is part of the Indian culture. “Hindusthan” is a name we are called in antiquity across the world. At some point in time, Hindu seems to have acquired the status of a religion though. From that moment in history onward, we had taken this word with extra care. This care went for...

Part-1 Image Courtesy: D .K For the past fifteen to twenty years the people of Kerala, in celebrating Onam, have switched from their land and courtyard to their sofas and settees. I am no different. By ‘land and courtyard’, I mean the way we used to occupy ourselves during this festival. Kinds running around in fields surrounding the household for flowers and spreading floral carpet on the courtyard are a few of those memories. It was great fun in the country than in the city back then. Onam was mostly an occasion for getting together with family and relatives, during my childhood.     Image Courtesy: Google Unlike the Wikipedia article on Onam, the celebration does not have much to do with a specific religious practice with the way things are in the above drawn memory picture. Or should I say the way things “were”? Onam has a pan religious appeal. In order to explicate that I would like to tell you what I have seen recently in a church. In a place named ...

You are reading this article for free. You are free to use any of the links above and order author Anu Lal’s bestselling titles from Amazon and/or any other online retailer. Anu Lal Read the full article below: Part-1 69TH INDIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY: Dependence or Independence Where Do You Stand? That middle class Indian may not have personal means for conveyance. He or she would take a bus or train for daily commutation. Within that context, freedom of movement does have a seriously limiting meaning. In essence, freedom to move is limited and knitted with illusion in the life of a person taking buses for his daily travel. "Independence" may have a political meaning. This word also has a strict personal meaning too. In a philosophical sense, independence is possible only in the form of pure consciousness. Therefore, this state of being is beyond the usual sense of understanding the term. In a political sense, the same sense the term is used with these day...

Part-4 Image Courtesy: Indu A few students from Kannur, Kerala, discovered their passion for filmmaking and went for fulfilling their desires. I would like to share this story with you, in order to take my argument through. The problem these young students faced in the beginning was lack of resources. This was single most important impediment they could not cross in the starting stage of the project. I came across one of those students, during my work as an Assistant Professor on contract at a college where they were doing their Graduation. They were dreaming to work in films in some distant future. I asked one of them, had he ever seen Sholay , the Bollywood classic, or The Shawshank Redemption. He said, No. He hadn't watched any of the Robert Duvall movies or even heard of Alfonso Cuarón . That was the moment I felt he required help. At first I wasn’t aware there were more of them with an intention to be movie stars. This I came to know later, after starting...

Part-3 Image Courtesy: Indu I believe, as I already mentioned, that it is the message of self-reliance that we must ponder over. In order to make sense in its content, every message must mean something to us personally. This personal connection can take any message to its intended goal. The question is, are we capable of invoking any personal connection in the young minds of India with the old tale of the British versus the natives? Projecting self-reliance upon the young minds of India, one may create significant output beyond immediate profit. Channeling our discourses towards a new and improved psychological spiritual goal would enable the young minds of India regain its passion for nation and their own existence. This will in turn strengthen the presence of meaning in their lives.        Image Courtesy: Google The first thing every young person looks for professionally, after a college degree would be opportunities. Either as artists or as s...

Part 2 Image Courtesy: Indu I would say it's a lack of true vision that makes these contemporary critics of this once great nation babble about status quo when a majority of people die of lack of food and violence committed on the streets. Let's face the reality. None of us, including this humble author, is not talking about what really matters. Within the Indian geo-political context the term ‘independence’ has a different significance now than that it previously had, say ten years back. India has changed in ways that would help write a new future for this country. This point in time and space in the story of India, one must look carefully for a more fulfilling meaning for “independence.”    It is not political independence that matters anymore. Mostly because political independence is as much an illusion as the thought of a distinct national identity. Everyone, instead, must feel something personally connecting with this thought, “independence”. To be independen...