RAINDROPS FROM THE HEART OF THE MIND.........

For the past couple of days, I was busy looking for a download link to this movie. Unfortunately, I could not find one. Today, I decided to finally watch the low resolution version on YouTube. (I am talking as low as 360p!).

Deepa Mehta, Director, decided upon the movie at a time when a woman's sexuality in India was still  a taboo. It questioned the basic formation of rules laid down upon an Indian woman to define something as simple as a relationship.

The movie tells the story of a traditional Indian household, a joint family of five. Between Radha (Shabana Azmi) and Sita (Nandita Das), the daughter-in-law of the house, the former has a staunch devotee of a spiritual Guru as a husband who is also practicing celibacy while the latter's husband is involved in an extra marital affair with a Chinese girl. Narrating something as simple as that, the movie unfolds in an interesting pattern. Both the women, who have had arranged marriages according in traditional customs, are unable to receive their man's love. As the two confront their situation, they find solace in each other's arms and gradually come to terms with the increasing sexual affinity towards the other.

The story of the two women who have known nothing but tradition all their life have found pleasure in a homosexual relationship speaks tons about whether social media has anything to do with the increase in the number of people coming out of the closet. A woman denied of sex for almost thirteen years and the other, still exploring her sexual freedom outside her failed marriage, chance upon the sexual tension between them one fine day which ultimately takes shape of a strong and healthy relationship.

This hyper controversial movie was sparingly released in few parts of India and that too faced several challenges. The Thackeray party, Shiv Sena, as pathetic as ever, boycotted the showcase of one of the emerging mainstream Indian cinema. Not just Mumbai, even places like Delhi and Calcutta saw resentment from other religious-political leaders saying the movie "spoil [Indian] women" and younger generations by teaching "unhappy wives not to depend on their husbands" and informing the public about "acts of perversion." Though the metropolitan states were open to new ideologies, the religious and political opposition was such that it made it next to impossible for them to watch it.

The Food Security bill 2013 has brought in a vast amount of changes. It addresses the issue of hoarding of food grains against starvation of thousands of poor in the country.

The last food security bill, the food security bill 2011, was a huge disappointment. According to the article in The Times of India, 'The Big Letdown of the Food Security Bill' dated October 18, 2012, "The problem is that the bill does not mention how the government will identify people in each group. Since lawmakers have passed the task of identifying the poor to individual states without saying what methods to use, officials will likely continue to conduct poverty surveys in an erratic, unsystematic way. Critics say this would leave many people out of the public food system and to avoid this lawmakers should allow all citizens to buy cheap grains from public shops."

This year, the food security bill promises maternity benefits of Rs. 6,000 in installments to pregnant and lactating women as against that of Rs. 1000 in the Food Security bill of 2011. Child benefit remains the same with the mid-day meal scheme.

One of the major reasons for the failure of such plans is lack of focus of the agricultural sector. A huge majority exists in the farming sector which loses out on during the food price escalation period. In spite of producing abundant food grains, the poor in the country are not being fed adequately as most of it gets wasted in the absence of storage facilities. There can be no bigger shame for us.