What are the details of the deal?

When talking to reporters in Doha, Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said that the peace deal would cover both the north and south of the Gaza Strip.

As part of the deal for the first ceasefire in the war that began when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 50 women and children who were being held hostage by Hamas would be freed. Around 150 Palestinians who were being held in Israeli jails would also be freed.

Ansari also said that 13 women and children would be the first prisoners to be freed on Friday. “If there were a group of hostages from the same family, they would be released together in this first batch,” he said.

“During these four days, information will be collected about the rest of the hostages to consider the possibility of more releases and thus extending the pause,” said Ansari.

But Israel has said that the peace deal could last longer than four days if Hamas freed ten hostages every day. A spokesperson for Qatar also said that the country wanted to reach a new deal to free more hostages in Gaza by the fourth day of the truce. Netanyahu also made it clear that Israel was not finishing its war with Gaza and that the fighting would not be going back to normal any time soon.

Ansari talked about the break and said it meant “a complete ceasefire… with no attacks from the air or the ground.” He also said he hoped “there would be no violations.”

How will it be implemented?

Qatar said that the Red Cross International Committee will work in Gaza to help get the prisoners freed. It is likely that they will be moved through Egypt. During the time of the peace deal, trucks carrying food and fuel are due to cross into Gaza. There, 2.3 million people are running out of food, and many hospitals have had to close because they don’t have enough fuel for their generators.

The post A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas starts tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know. appeared first on Republic Aeon.

Warren Edward Buffett, the world’s most successful value investor, transformed an ailing textile factory into a financial engine that fueled what would become the world’s most profitable holding company.

According to Forbes, Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha for his investment ability, has earned a personal wealth in excess of $100 billion.
He inspires thousands of devoted followers to travel to Omaha, Nebraska, each year to hear him speak at Berkshire’s annual meeting, called the “Woodstock of Capitalism.”

KEY POINT

• Warren Buffett started investing at a young age, buying his first stock at age 11 and his first real estate investment at age 14.
• Buffett studied under the legendary value investor Benjamin Graham while pursuing a business degree at Columbia University. Harvard had rejected him.
• Buffett partnered with Charlie Munger to acquire the failing Berkshire Hathaway textile company, which was subsequently used to acquire and invest in other companies.
• Buffett is a genuine value investor who purchases undervalued but stable businesses and holds them for the long term.
• Buffett has always been a philanthropist, and he has pledged more than $100 billion of his personal fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation upon his demise.

Early Life and Education

Buffett was born to Howard and Leila Buffett on Aug. 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the middle kid and the only male in a family of three. His dad was a stockbroker and a four-term congressman from the United States. Howard Buffett, who held libertarian ideals, was elected to two non-consecutive terms on the Republican ticket.

Warren, his son, had an early fascination with making money and started off selling soft drinks and running a paper route. He used the money he made to buy 40 acres of land when he was 14 and turned a profit by renting it out. He applied to Penn at his father’s insistence and got accepted. Buffett was unsatisfied with his experience there and transferred to the University of Nebraska after only two years.

When he finished high school, his father urged him to continue his studies by getting a master’s degree. Buffett was turned down for admission at Harvard, but he was welcomed at Columbia. Buffett’s stint at Columbia, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the “father of value investing,” paved the way for a legendary career that got off to a sluggish beginning.

After Buffett graduated, Graham did not hire him and actually advised him against a Wall Street career. As a result of his father’s agreement with Graham, Buffett moved back to Omaha to join the brokerage firm he had grown up in. They began a family after he wed Susan Thompson. Graham first rejected Buffett, but then changed his mind and offered him a job in New York.

Personal Life

Warren Buffett is known for his extreme frugality despite his multibillion dollar fortune. He still enjoys his daily Coca-Cola, visits local eateries for his chosen fare of burgers and steaks, and maintains residence in the five-bedroom home he purchased for $31,000 in 1958. He put off buying a corporate jet for years. When he eventually got his hands on one, he was so vocal in his disapproval of the money being spent on jets that he christened his the Indefensible.

He married Susan Thompson in 1952, and they have been together ever since. Susie, Howard, and Peter were their three children. While Buffett and Susan remained married after their 1977 divorce, she passed away in 2004. Susan had introduced him to a waitress named Astrid Menks before she passed away. In 1978, Buffett and Menks moved in together, and they wed in August of 2006.

Investment philosophy

Warren Buffett’s writings include his annual reports and various articles. Buffett is recognized by communicators as a great story-teller, as evidenced by his annual letters to shareholders. He has warned about the pernicious effects of inflation:

The arithmetic makes it plain that inflation is a far more devastating tax than anything that has been enacted by our legislatures. The inflation tax has a fantastic ability to simply consume capital. It makes no difference to a widow with her savings in a 5 percent passbook account whether she pays 100 percent income tax on her interest income during a period of zero inflation, or pays no income taxes during years of 5 percent inflation.

— Buffett, Fortune (1977)

Index funds vis-à-vis active management

Buffett has long advocated index funds as a viable option for those who lack the time or inclination to actively manage their own portfolios. Investors have been urged by Buffett, who doubts that active management can outperform the market over the long term, to shift their money into low-cost index funds that track wide, diverse stock market indices. When trillions of assets are managed by Wall Street collecting hefty fees, it is frequently the managers, not the clients, who earn outsized profits, as Buffett pointed out in one of his letters to shareholders.[98] A group of managers and Buffett placed a wager in 2007 that an index fund tracking the S&P 500 would outperform high-fee hedge funds. Through the end of 2017, the index fund had beaten the returns of every hedge fund that had wagered against Buffett.

Using investment banks

For a long time now, Buffet has avoided having Berkshire Hathaway work with investment banks.Multiple news outlets, including Barron’s, Insider, and Seeking Alpha, have covered this development.

⇒Important-Buffett’s mystique remained intact until technology stocks became popular. As a resolute technophobe, Buffett sat out the incredible run-up in technology stocks during the late 1990s. Sticking to his guns and refusing to invest in companies that didn’t meet his mandate, Buffett earned the scorn of Wall Street experts and was written off by many as a man whose time had passed.

How Did Warren Buffett Amass His Fortune?

By making well-researched, timely investments in undervalued securities and companies, which he would then hold for the long term. For the majority of the companies he acquired, he retained the existing management, as they had evidently performed well enough to make the company attractive to Buffett in the first place. He has invested in stocks for the long term, holding Coke and American Express for decades (both of which he still owns).

Read Also :Zerodha Success Story – India’s Leading Stock Broker

What Are Some of Buffett’s Pearls of Wisdom?

One notable saying goes like this: “If you’re not prepared to hold a stock for 10 years, you shouldn’t hold it for 10 minutes,” a warning to day traders who are looking for quick profits at the expense of long-term investment.

One such well-known saying goes something like, “A simple rule dictates my buying: be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

Buffett is famous for his pithy sayings about investment, yet he always comes back to the basics of value investing.

What Does Warren Buffett Plan to Do With His Fortune?

He plans to donate vast sums of money, primarily to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, because he has developed a strong friendship with the Gateses and shares and respects their commitment to charitable causes including global health and women’s rights. Warren Buffet is well-known for his prodigious generosity, so it comes as no surprise that he has donated the great majority of his fortune to noble causes.

The post Warren Buffett | Biography, Worth, & Facts appeared first on Republic Aeon.

The Ramcharitmanas is neither a word-for-word transcription nor a condensed version of the Valmiki Ramayana. Ramcharitmanas contains elements from numerous other Ramayanas written in Sanskrit and various Indian dialects, as well as tales from the Puranas.

A Brief Description of Tulsidas and His Ramcharitmanas

Tulsidas was born on the Saptami Tithi of Shukla Paksha in the month of Shravan (July or August) in Rajapur, Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna. (also known as Chitrakoot).

His paternal grandparents were named Atmaram Shukla Dubey and Hulsi Dubey. According to legend, Tulsidas spent one year in his mother’s bosom.

Tulsidas was born with 32 teeth; he did not weep and instead spoke the name Ram, so his childhood name was Rambol.

Tulsidas refers to the epic Ramcharitmanas as Rama’s story, which was stored in Shiva’s mind (Manasa) and then narrated to Shiva’s wife, Devi Parvati.

Tulsidas asserts that he learned the tale from his guru, Narharidas. Tulsidas was a naive child, and the narrative was preserved in his mind (Manasa) for a considerable amount of time before he penned Ramcharitmanas.

Consequently, the epic is also known as Tulsikrit Ramayana. (The Ramayana composed by Tulsidas). The Ramcharitmanas is a vernacular literary masterpiece.

The Shri Ramcharitmanas

1. The Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas are dissimilar.

Ramcharitmanas and Ramayana are two distinct Sanskrit and Awadhi versions of the Rama narrative. There are differences between them in terms of poetic technique, composition, and religious significance, among others.

Sage Valmiki is the author of Ramayana. It is regarded as Adi Kavya, or the first book of elaborate poetry. The Ramcharitamanas is based on the original composition of Valmiki. The great Awadhi poet Goswami Tulsi Das penned it.

Tulsidas compared the Seven Kandas or chapters to the seven steps that lead to Lake Manasa. Popular belief holds that a bath in Manasarovar, located near Mount Kailash, cleanses the psyche and body of all impurities.

2. Ramcharitmanas as the Bible of North India

It is not an exaggeration to state that Western scholars consider the Ramacharitmanas to be the North Indian Bible. This is because the work contains numerous spiritual and religious ideas. The patriarch of India, Mahatma Gandhi, frequently considered Tulsidas’ Ramayana to be more spiritual than Valmiki’s.

3. Seven Ramcharitmanas Kandas

Tulsidas wrote the work in seven Kandas, and they are termed Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya Kanda, Kishkindakand, Sundar Kanda, Lanka Kanda, and Uttar Kanda. The primary distinction between the Valmiki Ramayana and the Ramacharitmanas is that Tulsidas titled the sixth chapter Lanka Kanda rather than Yuddh Kanda.

4. The Composition of Ramcharitmanas

Ram appears 1,443 times throughout the Ramcharitmanas. The term Sita appears 147 times in Ramcharitmanas, while Janaki appears 69 times. Baidehi is mentioned 51 times, while Temple is mentioned 35 times.

Similarly, there are 27 verses in the Ramcharitmanas, 4608 in the Chopai, and 1074 in the Doha of the Ramcharitmanas. This epic’s shortest chapter is Kishkindhakand, while the longest is Balakanda.

When he composed Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas was 77 years old. Tulsidas began writing it in 1574 and completed it two years, seven months, and twenty-six days later in 1576. Also considered an incarnation of Maharishi Valmiki is Tulsidas. In a dream, Lord Shiva inspired him to write the Ramcharitmanas.

5. Ramcharitmanas Details

According to Ramcharitmanas, Pushpak Vimana traveled at a pace of 400 miles per hour, the war between Rama Team and Ravana Team lasted 87 days, and the war between Ram and Ravan lasted 32 days.

Similarly, it took five days to construct a bridge across the ocean to reach Sri Lanka. Lord Ram stayed in Lanka for 111 days, and Sita stayed in Lanka for 435 days. Sarama served Sita in Ashok Vatika while she was in Lanka. Sarama is the daughter of the monarch of the Gandharvas, Shailush, and the consort of the king of the asuras, Vibhishana.

Also read: Ram Navami 2023

6. The Story of Shurpanakha

Vidyujjihi was the spouse of Shurpanakha, Ravana’s only sister. For some reason, Ravana killed Vidyujjihi. She then mentally cursed Ravana that he would perish because of a woman.

After becoming a widow, Shurparnakha became autocratic, so Lakshman severed her nose on the orders of Shri Ramchandra.

7. The truth of Ravana

Ravana was the monarch of Lanka, but Kuver, Ravana’s half-brother, was the genuine ruler of Lanka. According to Ramcharitmanas, Kuver was also a devotee of Shiva; Shiva, delighted with Kuver’s penance, bestowed upon him Lanka, which Ravana would later conquer in the course of their conflict.

Ravana was a devoted follower of Lord Shiva. Ravana severed his cranium and offered it to Shiva as a sign of his penance. Lord Shiva, moved by Ravana’s devotion, granted Ravana ten heads; hence, Ravana is also known as Dashanan. (the one with ten heads).

8. Sri Ram had a sister as well.

Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughan were four siblings, and Shanta was their older sister. Shanta was the eldest daughter of King Dasharatha and Kaushalya, but King Dasharatha gave her to King Rompad of Angadesh when she was a child for unknown reasons.

Shanta was reared by King Rompad and his childless wife Varshini, who jokingly requested a child during a visit to Ayodhya. Shanta became the heiress of Angadesh when King Dasharatha kept his word.

9. The Story of Meghnath

Meghnad is featured in the Ramcharitmanas. He was the son of King Ravana and Mandodari. His name means “one whose speech resembled thunder,” and he was renowned for his exceptional combat abilities. Meghnad was the most formidable warrior in Lanka’s army, and his valor was dreaded. He even defeated Indra, the monarch of the gods, to earn the name Indrajit.

He was cursed to be slain by the individual who hadn’t slept for 14 years. Since Lakshman had not slept for fourteen years, he is also known as Gudakesh. Meghnath was therefore slain by Lakshman.

10. Tulsidas Vision

In a number of his works, Tulsidas claims to have had direct visions (darshan) of Lord Hanuman, Lord Rama-Lakshman, and Shiva-Parvati.

During his travels, Tulsidas encountered a devotee in Kashi who provided him with Hanuman’s address. After having seen Hanuman, he was granted a vision of Lord Rama. However, when Lord Rama granted Tulsidas darshan, he was unable to recognize him.

Lord Rama visited Tulsidas once more on the day of Mauni Amavasya, and this time Hanuman assisted him identify Lord Rama.

Ramcharitmanas in Contemporary Times
During his commencement address at Nalanda Open University, the former education minister of Bihar, Chandra Shekhar, asserted that the Ramcharitmanas can propagate hatred in society. He stated that it is one of the religious texts containing questionable statements about Dalits and Backward people. Despite the fact that Gita Press of Gorakhpur asserts that the Ramcharitmas is a sacred text that should not be replaced, it has been selling large quantities of the Hindu epic. (more than 7 crores pieces).

Both the Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas have achieved great significance in the lives of Hindus worldwide. The theory of karma, reincarnation, Advaita-Vedanta, brahmana, jiva, Maya, and Isvara is the most significant aspect of the Ramcharitmans. Ramcharitmanas spread the story of Ram to every home.

The post Ten Interesting Facts about Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas appeared first on Republic Aeon.

Sholay: It’s not a Movie, It’s Friendship and Love between two Friends

Sholay had unimpressive beginnings (industry insiders typically predicted that this big-budget movie’s “unconventional” elements would make it a resounding flop), but it exploded onto 70mm screens to become one of the Bombay film industry’s greatest success stories — the movie that would, for a sizable audience, unmistakably embody the masala blockbuster. When it was first released on August 15th, 1975 (Indian Independence Day), it played to packed houses at important urban locations like the enormous Plaza Cinema in downtown New Delhi for more than two years, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film ever made, a title it held for almost two decades. It is without a doubt one of the most influential Hindi films of all time, and when asking Indian cinema buffs how many times they have watched it, responses in the double tens are not unusual. In fact, it was so well-liked that not only its catchy melodies but also its chic dialogues were released on audiocassettes and are still remembered by followers throughout India. Sholay, one of the movies that contributed to Amitabh Bachchan becoming the undisputed ’70s superstar, propelled Amjad Khan to notoriety as the vicious bandit Gabbar Singh, and is credited with ushering in the “supervillain” period. Sholay not only gave the now-global Western mythology a distinctly Indian twist, but also established new benchmarks for action scenes and cinematography, as shown in the breathtaking opening train scene.

The movie’s entertainment value and cinematic skill remain strong, making it a good starting point for newcomer Western audiences interested in learning more about the “masala film” phenomena. A three-hour multi-course banquet of emotional flavours, including slapstick comedy, romance, violent action, social and family melodrama, and of course, a half-dozen or so song-and-dance sequences, is what is meant when the word masala, which literally means “spice,” is used to describe an action-adventure-romance. A disconcerting emotional roller-coaster trip over genre terrains that “properly” belong to three or four separate films is occasionally indigestible to first-time Western viewers. Another unsettling characteristic is the apparent propensity of Indian filmmakers to “quote” themes or images from Western movies (e.g., Sholay’s popular critical designation as a “curry Western,” and its blatant allusions to Charlie Chaplin, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). Again, inexperienced viewers sometimes mistake this for a ridiculous parody of “original” Hollywood concepts rather than an inventive tribute, leading to an unorganised pastiche. However, the fact that dozens of masala films are made each year, including a few successes, implies that the genre may have its own aesthetic logic among those who are open to it. Sholay, the most well-known movie in this genre, is helpful for bringing up and problematicalizing cross-cultural cinematic tropes.

Summary: A lone police officer exits a train at a small-town stop in search of “Thakur Sahib” (thakur, literally “lord, master,” is a respectful title for a member of one of the landlord castes who trace their lineage to ancient kshatriyas or warrior-aristocrats; Sahib means “sir”). As the credits start to roll, we see as he rides his horse through an area that resembles the Badlands to reach Ramgarh (also known as “Rama’s fort”). Here he meets the Thakur, Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar), a retired policeman who wears a grey shawl all the time. Singh asks the visitor to track down and bring him two criminals: the scruffy, always happy Veeru (Dharmendra) and the lanky, melancholy Jaidev, or just “Jai” (Amitabh Bacchan). Singh tells the officer about his first encounter with the renowned serial criminals, two years before, when he was taking them to prison on a freight train, in response to the officer’s question about what work they would be suitable for. They immediately defend the train and their injured captive against a seemingly endless horde of horsemen after bragging to him about their bravery. But when they flip a coin to determine whether to take the wounded officer to a hospital (putting themselves in prison) or to flee, their moral ambiguity is exposed (leaving him to die). They are motivated to act morally by “chance” in a recurring pattern. The flashback closes with Singh’s visitor pledging to look for the couple but cautioning that it could be difficult to find them if they have escaped from prison and are on the lam.

Cut to the opening musical sequence, which has Veeru and Jai stealing a motorbike with a sidecar and breaking into a raucous “song of the road” that resembles Raj Kapoor’s 1950s “vagabond” reputation (cf. Awara, Shri 420). However, in this instance, it is not merely a celebration of irrational, vaguely anti-social freedom, but rather an ingeniously choreographed male love-duet, as they declare their enduring friendship (dosti) while taking a joyride through a picturesque obstacle course sprinkled with banyan trees and helpless country folk.

They then contact a dishonest but hilarious Muslim timber trader named Surma Bhopali (Jagdeep), who makes them an odd offer: he would give them in to the police, collect the reward of 2000 rupees, and divide it with them when they are freed from jail. Cut to the prison and another levity-filled scene, with a lunatic jailer (comic actor Asrani) who brags about having studied under the British, paying tribute to Chaplin’s Great Dictator. The cunning couple quickly outwit him and flee, but when they go back to Bhopali to get the thousand rupees they were promised, he turns them in to the police. They are tracked down by the Thakur’s agent once they are back in custody, and when they are let out, Singh is waiting for them outside the prison gate, bringing the humorous digression to a close and bringing the framing story back into focus. Singh offers them the 50,000 rupee prize that the police had promised in exchange for helping them apprehend infamous bandit (daku) Gabbar Singh. They get a 5,000 rupee advance from him, and he guarantees them another 5,000 when they get to Ramgarh.

The guys meet Basanti, a chatty female tonga (horsecart) driver, as they arrive by train (Hema Malini). Veeru is enthralled despite Jai being bored by her constant speech. Soon after arriving in Ramgarh, Jai notices the Thakur’s daughter-in-law Radha (Jaya Bhaduri, who would eventually become his bride), who is dressed in a white widow’s sari. The two want to plunder the home by night and flee quickly after receiving their 10,000 rupees from the Thakur and seeing the wealth in his safe. However, when they were about to do this, Radha interrupts them, provides them the safe key, and instructs them to remove her jewellery (a symbol of the fortunate position of a married lady) as she no longer needs it. They are humiliated into abandoning their scheme.

Basanti assists a blind maulvi (Islamic preacher) in descending a hill while on her way to collect green mangoes for her elderly aunt, displaying the communal unity that exists in Ramgarh. Despite the fact that doing so would leave him alone as he ages, he urges her to assist him in persuading his only son, Ahmad, to accept a job in the city. Veeru and Jaidev “teach” Basanti how to operate a gun while shooting down green fruit for her in the mango orchard.

When the dacoits show up and demand their grain tribute, the village’s daily routine is upended. Veeru and Jaidev help the Thakur drive the people away when he refuses to pay. They go back to Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), who punishes them cruelly for their mission’s failure.

Cut to a scene of Holi celebrations in the village. Holi is a stock motif in many Hindi movies; see, for example, the corresponding scene in Mother India. Amidst a shower of coloured powders and dyes, Veeru and Basanti dance and sing a sensual duet, but Jai can only watch the sombre Radha from a distance. The celebrations are broken up by a vicious onslaught by Gabbar’s band, who almost murder the heroes before being forced off. Afterward, a lengthy flashback in which Veeru reveals the reason for his powerlessness and his animosity towards Gabbar Singh is prompted by his disdain at the Thakur’s refusal to aid them at a key juncture (by throwing them a pistol). (Intermission)

When Veeru and Jaidev, horrified by the Thakur’s tale, vow to kill Gabbar Singh, the Thakur reminds them that he wants the outlaw alive. A villager brings news that gypsies—known to supply arms to the dacoits—have arrived in the area. Cut to a dance sequence in the gypsy camp, featuring the hypnotic song Mehbooba (“Beloved,” sung by R. D. Burman himself), with sensual (to Indian ears) Middle Eastern-style music and heavily Persianized lyrics. While Gabbar Singh is distracted by the show, Veeru and Jai enter the camp. In the ensuing skirmish, Jai is wounded. As he returns home, Radha rushes to meet him and the Thakur realizes her feelings.

The blind maulvi receives a letter from his urban brother, informing him that he has found a job for Ahmad; however, the boy refuses to leave his aged father. It being Monday, Basanti goes to a temple to ask Shiva for a good husband (as unmarried girls typically do). Veeru briefly impersonates the deity, but is found out. As Basanti drives away in anger, Veeru sings to her “Anger makes a pretty girl even prettier.” Veeru now tells Jai that he wants to marry Basanti, and asks his buddy to intercede with her aunt. Jai finally does, but the aunt is horrified by Jai’s description of Veeru’s lifestyle of drinking, gambling, and whoring. Rejected, Veeru gets drunk and threatens to kill himself by leaping from the village watertank. The dialog to this famous scene includes comic asides on Veeru’s use of English.

1st villager: Brother, what is this “suicide” thing?

2nd villager: You see, when English people croak, they call it “suicide”!

At last, Basanti’s old aunt relents and agrees to the match.

The blind maulvi’s son Ahmad, departing for his new job in the city, is waylaid and murdered by Gabbar’s men as revenge for the Holi debacle. His dead body carries a letter from Gabbar, threatening worse retaliation if Veeru and Jai are not surrendered to the dacoits. As the old maulvi weeps over his dead son, the villagers angrily tell the Thakur that they cannot take any more; a debate ensues over nonviolence versus fighting back. But the maulvi shames the villagers by asking Allah why He didn’t give him more sons to sacrifice as “martyrs” for the village. Veeru and Jai proceed to the rendezvous point, and manage to outwit and slaughter Gabbar’s men.

Back in Ramgarh, the Thakur’s old servant tells Jai how happy Radha used to be before the massacre—leading to a flashback to another Holi scene, when her wedding was being negotiated. Jai resolves to ask for her hand, and the Thakur goes to Radha’s father, urging that, although a widow, she be permitted to begin a new life. The men agree on this.

Basanti is pursued by Gabbar’s men, and Veeru tries to save her. Both are captured. In a famous scene, Gabbar forces Basanti to dance in the hot sun, threatening to shoot her lover if she stops. She sings, “I will dance as long as there is breath left in my body.” At one point, the dacoits make her dance on broken glass (recalling the climactic dance sequence in Pakeezah). Needless to say, Jai comes to the rescue, the dacoits are slain, Thakur Baldev Singh takes his revenge on Gabbar, and (some of) the lovers live on happily.

Sholay presents interesting parallels with its predecessor by nearly two decades, Mehboob Khan’s Mother India, notably in the enduring trope of the daku (Indian English “dacoit”) or highwayman—an outlaw whose popular representations span the gamut from freedom-loving Robin Hood to rapacious sociopath. In the earlier film, the mother’s dark, younger son Birju, driven by well-justified hatred for the parasitic village moneylender who has ruined the family, eventually becomes the leader of a dacoit band; he appears as a dashing, richly-dressed horseman, who is primarily interested in settling a score against feudalistic oppression; yet when he finally abducts the moneylender’s daughter, his own mother rises to destroy him. In contrast, the dakus of Sholay—from their first appearance in the flashback of the train-shootout—are unambiguously evil and bent on carnage, yet they are apparently ensconced in the very heart of the nation (the film’s visual setting is the plateau country of the northern Deccan, India’s midsection), and the forces of social order (here focused in the brooding patriarch, Thakur Baldev Singh) are powerless to defeat them. Indeed, the sadistic Gabbar Singh has brutally murdered this “Father India’s” two sons and has literally cut off his law-administering arms (cf. the comparable though “accidental” mutilation of the father in Mother India). To strike back, Singh must (as he puts it) “use iron to cut iron,” replacing his slain offspring and severed arms with two “adopted” criminal “hands,” who alone possess the requisite bravery (and moral ambivalence) to track down the monster in his lair.

Significantly, a mere six weeks before the premiere of Sholay, on June 26 1975, another self-styled “Mother India,” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, claiming that anti-social forces imperiled the nation and that draconian measures were required to prevent chaos, imposed a “State of Emergency,” suspending constitutional rights and jailing thousands of political opponents. In retrospect, Sippy’s cinematic epic appears as a surprisingly dark and prescient parable of the erosion of traditional order and the brutalization of politics in the once-happy village of Ramgarh—the Nation writ cinemascope.

Also read: Amazon’s Valentine’s Day searches increase year

Sholay has been the subject of two book length studies to date. Wimal Dissanayake and Malti Sahai’s Sholay, a cultural reading (New Delhi: Wiley Eastern, 1992), attempts a comprehensive scholarly study that sets the film within the broader history of popular cinema in India. Anupama Chopra’s Sholay, the making of a classic (New Delhi, Penguin Boooks India, 2000) is an inside look at the film’s production, based on interviews with the director, stars, and crew members.

The post Sholay: Friendship and Love all are in One Movie-Valentine’s Day Special appeared first on Republic Aeon.

If that’s the case, why do we celebrate our Republic Day on January 26? The answer lies in the history of India’s fight for freedom, which has made the date important since 1930.

The historic “Poorna Swaraj” declaration was made official on January 26, 1930. This marked the start of the final phase of India’s fight for freedom from British rule, where the goal was complete independence.

After the Chauri Chaura incident in February 1922, the Non-Cooperation Movement ended abruptly. At the time, Mahatma Gandhi thought that the country was “not yet ready” for his peaceful ways of protesting. So, there was no more organising on the scale of the Non-Cooperation Movement and the anti-Rowlatt Satyagraha in the 1920s.

But the 1920s were by no means unimportant. From the rise of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad to the coming of age of a new generation of Indian National Congress (INC) leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Vallabhai Patel, and C Rajagopalachari, the 1920s set the stage for the future of India’s freedom struggle.

Notably, in 1927, the British government put together the Simon Commission, which was made up of seven Europeans led by Sir John Simon and tasked with coming up with ideas for political reforms in India. This made people all over the country angry and unhappy. For the first time since 1922, people all over the country protested against the Simon Commission, chanting “Simon Go Back.”

In response, the INC put Motilal Nehru in charge of its own commission. The Nehru Report asked for India to be made a dominion within the Empire. In the Balfour Declaration of 1926, dominions were described as “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, not subordinate to each other in any way in their internal or external affairs, united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.” Countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became dominions in 1926.
Importantly, not everyone in the Congress agreed with the Nehru Report. Young leaders like Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who was Motilal’s own son, wanted India to break off all ties with the British Empire. They said that even though India would have some independence as a dominion, the British Parliament and Crown would still be able to get involved in Indian affairs.

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Importantly, both Bose and Nehru thought that if India became a dominion, it would be complicit in colonial exploitation in other parts of the British Empire, especially in Africa. Bose and Nehru had a much more radical view of the world than their predecessors. They didn’t just see anti-colonialism as a local political issue for India, but also as a global issue.But Gandhi still wanted India to be a dominion, saying that it would be a good step in India’s fight against colonialism. His views would soon change.

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The second season of the Shark Tank India show is making a lot of headlines. Sometimes deals worth crores, sometimes differences between themselves, and sometimes with the revelations of inside matters. Recently, shark Namita Thapar revealed that she has also been a victim of body shame regarding a pitcher’s clothing brand idea. People used to tease him by calling him fat.

Namita became bodysham

In this episode of Shark Tank India, a businesswoman took an entry. Who was pitching for the expansion of the clothing brand. She told that she also designs clothes for plus size. Namita gets impressed after hearing this. Namita asks why didn’t you think of designing clothes only for plus size?

Along with this, Namita tells that she too had to be a victim of body shame many times. People used to tease him by calling him fat. Namita said – In India, this body shaming which is called, which they call fat and fat. I have also become his target. Namita’s words had an impact on other sharks as well. Piyush Bansal and Aman Gupta agreed with his words. At the same time, he was also impressed after hearing the idea of the pitcher.

On this, Pitcher says that plus size is seen very differently in the industry. That’s why we have kept clothes of all sizes to make this thought common. So that people feel that everyone is equal. The design which is in small, is also in plus size.

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children used to tease in school

Namita has already told in Chetan Bhagat’s podcast how she has been targeted in school because of her appearance. How he was teased because of his increased weight and facial hair. Namita used to be very overweight then, she had spots and hair on her face. Namita had said- I have been teased a lot in teenage, I used to consider myself very useless. No boy used to look at me. It affects your mind a lot. I used to be teased by the name of the girl with the moustache. Namita had told that she had lost faith in herself.

This 1 min video is why I don’t get off social media inspite of the vicious trolling that doesn’t even spare a sweet teenager 🙂 https://t.co/V6aN0LyBS3 Have a super week ahead! pic.twitter.com/X1TdZF7OdH

— Namita (@namitathapar) January 16, 2023

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