Losing touch with my humanity

*Sniff. I've got the flu. Considering that I stay in Pune, I'm hoping that it isn't the porcine variety. I'm talking about the swine flu. Its all the rage in the media these days. I can just imagine what newsrooms across the country must be like. "Dying child's parents on line one. I think we've got sunday's front page story!". " A stampede you say! Only 4 dead? Call us after an hour." Alright, thats probably not what its like but I couldn't resist throwing in a little black humour to make my point which is, why do we need a celebrity virus to get our country to talk about the abysmal state of public health care? The only answer I can come up with is that we have become so immune to seeing people suffer that their plight has just faded into the background and assumed less importance over our own. And when I say we, I'm talking about myself as well.
I was walking down a crowded street yesterday when I was accosted by a small girl in her early teens with a little steel lunch box minus its lid. It was crowded, I was feeling sick and I really just wanted to catch a bus and get back home. So I decided to ignore her. She wasn't the type to admit defeat and walk away. As I started to walk away, I could hear her quick shuffling steps that weren't quick enough to overtake me but were quick enough to maintain an annoyingly close distance to me as I tried to walk away. I stopped and tried to cross the road and to my surprise, the little wild cat took a shot at me, lunch box and all. Glaring at her after I crossed the road I realized that she had a big rock with her as well (no wonder my arm hurt so much). When she saw me looking at her, she lifted her hand and pointed at me all the while hurling abuses at me from across the road. I was so surprised. I hardly expected her to attack me. Should I have felt angry with her for expecting neigh demanding money from me? Like it was her birthright... I don't know, but I found myself feeling absolutely wretched instead. Would it have taken me all that much time to just give her a coin or two? Probably not. Why didn't I? That one rupee coin may have made a big difference to her day. I realized that I didn't giver her money because to me she was just a concept. Just another nameless, faceless poor girl. I would surely find another poor girl over the week who would allow me to assauge my guilt over this little incident. Like theres just one little girl in this whole country. That was a pretty pathetic reason.
Everyone talks about poverty so we're tired of hearing about it?... Movies about poverty are so 'inconvenient'... Look away, there's other 'good stuff' happening in this country... Look away, our actors are walking the red carpet at the oscars... Look away, I can't believe Dhoni asked us to cheer for Pakistan. How could he?... But DON'T look away. Our poor are vulnerable to being indoctrinated with Naxal ideologies, they are vulnerable to being indoctrinated with islamist extremism, they are working with countries like China to bring about the downfall of their own country... and they don't even know it. All they want is a little attention. Some development. A voice.
Forget the poor, today finding a way to relate to another person has to be a conscious effort. If we don't make that effort, we just settle into the rat race and risk losing our humanity. We have so many avenues that encourage hyper-individuality but none that balance it out. If we continue ignoring the problems the people of our country face, we're going to be caught with our pants down. Do you really believe the rebellion in the forests of AP are not going to reach the streets of Mumbai soon? Think again. The poor don't stay powerless forever. Every order changes.

Remebering Ingmar Bergman - An Interview with Gunnar Bergdahl

Palador Pictures and The Embassy of Sweden are paying a tribute to one of the greatest stalwarts of world cinema, Ingmar Bergman on the occasion of his first death anniversary through a film festival titled ‘Remembering Bergman – A Retrospective’. The festival, which is to be screened in Pune from September 5 to 11, will feature some of Bergman’s most iconic and poignant work such as Through a Glass Darkly, Wild Strawberries, Music in Darkness, Summer Interlude and Devil’s Eye amongst others.
An artist of cinema, Bergman is often considered to have pioneered the recognition of film as a medium that exposed the complexities of the human condition as eloquently and sensitively as perhaps literature and theatre succeeded in doing. In an attempt to understand more about Bergman’s creative genius, we interviewed his close friend and colleague Gunnar Bergdahl who was invited by Palador to conduct a workshop for film students and filmmakers in Mumbai this week.

“We had a nice friendship based on our common interests in film. We first conversed over the phone around fifteen years ago. When I was at a crossroad in my career I asked him for advice. He told me to become a director but I became a magazine editor instead. Maybe I should have become a director,” laughs Bergdahl, adding, “He was always very generous with his time and advice. I do believe he liked me,” while reminiscing his time spent with the cinema great.

Bergman inspired countless directors from the likes of Krzysztof Kieślowski and Andrei Tarkovsky to even the more commercial Steven Spielberg and Wes Craven. Undoubtedly his complex screenplays, coupled with his intense frames laden with symbolism made him a favourite amongst serious filmmakers but what was that particular trait that made him the powerhouse of creativity he was? Bergdahl replied almost imediately, “His curiosity and his childlike innocence are what made him great. He looked at the world through the eyes of a younger, child Bergman. Once when I asked him why he was watching so many films and wasn’t he was getting tired, he told me, film is an expanding universe, the more you look the more you find. This is the kind of curiosity that set him apart. His genius is evident in his films. Although they are a bit old fashioned in their appearance, the themes they convey are universal like those of faith, death and human suffering.”

When asked what his favourite work of Bergman was, Bergdahl says “If I had to choose from all his films I would say that Persona was his best work. It was a personal story that was outspoken and memorable with a clear point.” Finally we asked Bergdahl what he thought of the Indian film industry. “I don’t think I am in the position to comment on this subject as I have seen only a few Indian films. I have watched the Apu Trilogy and films by Adur Gopalakrishnan amongst others. However I will say this, Sweden is a small country of nine million and India is a country of nine hundred million. If we produced one Ingmar Bergman, you should be able to produce a hundred,” was his surprising reply. A sentiment we undoubtedly share.
by Shivani Bail
Pic Courtesy Palador Pictures - A still from Through a Glass Darkly. The first movie of what is considered to be Bergman's 'faith' trilogy.