Monday, May 26, 2008

BORN INTO BROTHELS: Calcutta's Red Light Kids


Admist the apparent growing prosperity of India, there is a dark underbelly of poverty of another side of the nation that is little known. This documentary film is a chronicle of filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's efforts to show that world of Calcutta's red light district. To do that, they inspired a special group of children of the prostitutes of the area to photograph the most reluctant subjects of it. As the kids excel in their new found art, the filmmakers struggle to help them have a chance for a better life away from the miserable poverty that threatens to crush their dreams.

Zana Briski (the director) studied documentary photography at International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995 she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. In 1997 she returned to India and began her project on the prostitutes of Calcutta's red light district, which led to her work with the children of prostitutes. Zana has won numerous awards and fellowships including George Soros' Open Society Institute Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism and first prize at the World Press Photo Foundation Competition.

Zana and co-director Ross Kauffman were awarded grants from the Sundance institute, the Jerome Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts for their film, "Born into Brothels", a feature documentary about the children of Calcutta's prostitutes. In 2002 Zana created Kids with Cameras, a non-profit organization to empower marginalized children through learning the art of photography.

I liked the film not only because it brought out one of the burning issues, which despite being evident has been neglected for long by our government and society, but also for the positiveness of the film. When you see the film your touched by the condition of the people in the red street but watching the kids optimistically moving ahead so as to make a better life for themselves, makes you believe that nothing is impossible. One more thing that captures your eyes is the excellent photography by Zara and the kids, that makes one wonder if pictures could speak.The struggle they began here is just a start and a lot needs to be done but...paths are made by walking not waiting !

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Dark side !


There is always a dark side...

Friday, May 9, 2008

Right or wrong!

We never understand y at times people cant understand us when we are so ‘obviously right’!!...”come on what is wrong with the way i say...of course it is like tat, u just cant understand it...i don’t understand wats wrong with this..”... hmm tel u wat...ur talkin to deaf people there...n knw wat....tats wats happenin in reverse too...the people opposite to you too feel that they are talkin to a deaf you cos u don’t seem to understand their point too... hmm so who’s point is really right...eh wanna ask a third person ??...ah..bt then he/she may have his/her own set of ideologies and may say that u r wrong even thou u think ur right...hmm so how do u actually know wat is right n wrong??...sorry if am not making any sense...;-)... Wel i believe that there is nothing as right and wrong cos thats something that differs frm person to person...wat may be wrong to you may not be wrong to me and wat may be right to you may not be right to me.. Wel wat really matters is how u feel... u should feel ur right n trust ur self...only tats needed, right ? Of course am right! I always am! :-D

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Graduation blues...

You always look forward into the future and wonder..’How am I gonna face tat ?’ or ‘How am I gonna get through tat ?’..I too always wondered how I would feel wen I will be on the verge of gettin out of clg..bt then...nw wen I am..I really dont feel anythin...n am sure many would agree wit me..well nt tat we all r devoid of emotions..:) Cos otherwise I won’t be writing this... :)...

Thing is...we are at the verge of breaking into the ‘real world’ ..n we al r lookin into the future..so full of hope and expectation tat we can’t really wait to get out n grab any chance to make our way towards wat we actually want...well tats another thing.. ‘knowin wat we want’...caught u rit.? still hunting for it huh..join the club..:)bt we al agree tat watever it is, we al r lookin forward to enjoyin n bein happy in life..so should we really repent for gettin out of somewhere where we wer bound for four years bw al those crappy theory papers n assignments n presentations n da same old classes..so much tat we really cudnt do al those things tat we really wanted to do.!!..ah!yea...I know..wat abt al those wonderful moments we had.. the never endin long chats abt those out of the blue topics..the hangouts,b’day parties,long walks,hostel blasts...hmm yea gonna miss al tat..bt again r u tellin me tat where ever we r goin we wont have any of these any more...hmm no we wil..we wil still meet nw people...wud still get close to sm of them...wud still laugh n enjoy wit them..cos life is al abt adaptin...adaptin to situations, to nw places, to nw people..so is all this graduation blues momentory..??hmm wel am nt really concludin here anythin cos I really don’t know...maybe someday I wil..maybe sm years dwn da lane.. watever it is i simply can’t deny the fact that to me college was a place where i actually met ‘some people’....some crazy guys n gals who touched my life in a way that is irreplaceable..!