Come, question your faith...

Dharm, Bhavna Talwer's insightful directorial debut, is one of those thought-provoking films that touch the core of your being. With brilliant cinematography, haunting and meditative background score and Pankaj Kapur's superb performance, it is a film that deserves to be seen by every lover of cinema.

Set against the backdrop of the holy city of Benaras and the river Ganges, Dharm takes the viewer on a journey of spirituality and the Brahmanical way of life. It deals with a familiar topic of misinterpretation and abuse of religious beliefs, by unscrupulous elements who mould it to suit their interests, from those who have turned it into a business to those who purportedly claim to protect and purify it while inciting violence, cruelty and inhumanity against members of other faiths. While the violence scenes at times seem amateurish and the treatment of Hindu-Muslim conflict leaves much to be desired, this is above all a personal story of inner journey, a Hindu priest's transition from an idealized scholar to a human being with common decency.

Although it received immense appreciation at the Cannes Film Festival and is considered by a number of critics to be the best film to come out of India in 2007, it was not chosen as India's official entry for the Academy Awards (it came a close second in a controversial selection process) which will unfortunately not help bring it to a wider audience in the US.

If all you know of India's cinema is standard Bollywood fare, you owe it to yourself to see this film.

Tahmima Anam in Seattle

Some time ago I was rushing about in my usual state of disarray in the morning, feeding Kiki and preparing to leave for work, when a piece on the radio about a debut novel that is receiving international praise caught my attention. I paused to listen to NPR's Morning Edition story on Tahmima Anam's book A Golden Age. Little did I know that two weeks later I would be chatting with her, face to face at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Pioneer Square, as she was signing my copy.

It was thoroughly enjoyable to listen to her tell stories of events and people that brought about this book as well listen to her read various passages from it. I can hardly wait to start reading it in earnest!

A little rainy season humor

Seattle Shoes...

... and Uptight Seattleite's column Stop Waiting for Daytime (second one).

Cornell Cares Day 2008

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
R. W. Emerson

Cornell Cares Day is an annual worldwide student-alumni service event that connects Cornellians, past and present to serve their local community through direct, hands-on service projects. This year Cornell alumni and students joined together in 24 cities to participate in a day of service on January 5th!

We joined Cornell Club of Western Washington at Food Lifeline in Shoreline, WA along with dozens of alumni and family members to help sort, label, and re-package food donations for distribution to food banks, meal programs, and shelters. In addition to helping package over 17,000 lbs of food, it was a great opportunity to swap stories and network.

Happy New Year! Welcome 2008!

"At the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve, Seattle's fireworks show ground to a halt. The source of the problem is reported to be a corrupted file that wasn't checked until the last minute. After two reboots, the fireworks had to be detonated manually. And yes ... one blog commenter, claiming to have worked on prior shows, said that the shows run on Windows."