20 years later, Harry potter is more than a book for its fans, it's a way of life

They queue outside bookstores at 6 am, wearing black robes. While others are busy studying or out partying, they revel in spinning theories and writing fan fiction.  And “in their not so humble opinion, words are the most inexhaustible source of magic; J.K Rowling’s to be specific. Well, they are the Potterheads and they solemnly swear that they are up to no good, except when they are reading or discussing Harry Potter.

June 26^th marks the 20^th anniversary of the inception of the magical journey that is Harry Potter (HP) or the publication of the first book of the series,  ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. To commemorate the two decades of J.K Rowling’s wizarding world, Bloomsbury has republished the first book with special Hogwarts House themed covers. Harry Potter fans across the globe are paying tribute to their favourite series by taking part in literary events and theme parties. But no celebration of Harry Potter is complete without a celebration of its most beloved fans, the Potterheads.

Gayathri Potter Gopalakrishnan, as her Facebook profile reads is a self confessed HP addict with a never waning 16-year-old crush on Harry.  Like most Potterheads, Gayathri’s fondest memory is of waiting outside a bookstore for the release of a new title and shouting with ecstasy when the van carrying the books swerves into vicinity and sharing/reading the book with her sibling in 4 hour shifts. Later when the movies released, Gayathri and Varsha Bharath, her friend from college, wore hand- sewed robes, made witches’ hats and wands out of black chart and watched them, first day first show.

Last year during Navratri, Gayathri set up a small Harry Potter golu next to their traditional one. “Since I'd be at office during the day when guests came, I trained my 86 year old grandma to learn (and pronounce) words like "Quidditch" (after a lot of Ennas’? and forcing her to repeat it after me) "Monster Book of Monsters" "Hogwarts" "Spectrespecs" "Time Turner" etc. I wrote the words down on a piece of paper and she took it so seriously that she made every guest play a guessing game of what was what in my HP corner!”Gayathri giggles. An employee of Flintobox, Gayathri manged to convince her office to not only celebrate HP week but also come up with seven Harry Potter-themed DIYs to teach children the importance of the books.

Harry Potter, as a literary fantasy, seems to bewitch every coming generation. The books are fast-paced with a gripping plot and easily comprehensible English and are devoured by both children and adults alike. Thanks to its quality of being both simple and complex at the same time and replete with multiple layers, they make ideal books for re-readings. “Every time you go back you can take away something new from it. Rowling has put in so much thought and details into the side characters as well as the main. I think no matter what age or phase you are going through you'll find a character that resonates with you,”says Aurelia Frederick,HP fan and owner of Fred’s  studio, Chennai.

Can you imagine Nymphadora Tonks, Professor Trelawney, Dolores Umridge, Luna Lovegood and Bellatrix Lestrange riding the same cab? Yes, that happened. When ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ released last year, Gayathri, Sneha Sivakumar, her best friend from college and bunch of their friends attended a HP Witches and Wizards costume party at Phoenix Mall, Chennai. “It was definitely the craziest thing we had done as 25 year olds. We were so excited about the chocolate frogs, flavoured beans and a magical drinks that they gave us for for breakfast,” gushes Sneha. The six- member team won the prize for best costumes that day.

Over the years, mutual HP fandom has united several friends. Yogita Dakshina, a political communication graduate who works with an NGO, shares a HP tattoo with her best friend of nine years, Sneha Ramkumar.The friends tattooed a half of the snitch on the back of their hands, which when put together, forms the snitch as a whole. "I open at the close" is very symbolic of our relationship as friends as well,” says Yogita. This year, Yogita’s mother threw her a  Harry Potter themed party that started with a Hogwarts Acceptance letter and ended with personal wands and butterbeer for all.

Hogwarts is not just a fantasy school and Harry Potter is not merely a fairytale. Life lessons are aplenty in the book and often Potterheads use the book to guide them in life. Afterall, Dumbledore did say that "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the lights!" 

One of the recurrent themes of the book is the concept of good and evil. Rowling’s nuanced portrayals of the shades between good and bad and that they cannot be distinctly compartmentalised as right and wrong rings true for most fans.Themes such as love is the greatest magic of all, dementors as a personification of depression that need to be warded off with happy memories, equality and human rights are peppered throughout the books.Hermione stands up for house-elf rights (and magical creatures in general) and finally it’s the equality between all the creatures, the muggle-borns, half-bloods and pure-bloods that saves the world from Voldemort during the Battle at Hogwarts. Recent research studies have also corrobrated this idea, that HP inculcates values of empathy and love among its readers

"Every character in HP was flawed in someway and the series showed me that flaws are ok as long as you are willing to work on it. It showed me that being evil is a choice it’s not something people are destined for,” adds  Aurelia. The character Severus Snape is an example of this philopsohy and is a favourite of Sneha’s.Snape taught Sneha that everyone has their own story and it’s wrong to judge a person before knowing theirs. “It is our choices, Harry, far more than our abilities, which define who we truly are" - all my beliefs, everything, is wrapped into this one sentence,”adds Yogita

Besides these nuggets of personal philosphy,the books also serve as a substitute religion in a secular era. The great symbol of malevolence is Harry’s nemesis, Lord Voldemort who wants to rid the wizarding world of Muggles (people from non-wizarding heritage) and is obsessed with the idea of blood purity.These books thus teach that bigotry must be fought at all costs, and that tolerance and difference must be celebrated.

Varsha, Gayathri’s friend and Assistant Director to popular Tamil film Director Vetrimaaran, opines that HP was her first lesson on inclusion, that it’s ok to be weird. She identifies most with Luna, a character, who doesn’t fit into the traditional definition of ‘normal’.

Gaythri’s love for the series made her write a dissertation on ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ during her third year of graduation and Yogita for her part hasn’t stopped decoding the texts.She loves reading into the interplay of the motifs of life and death,and the ‘’normalisation of death”that Rowling often experiments with. Dumbledore’s quote, “And of course - its happening in my head, but why would it mean that it is not real?” speaks most to her.“Never kill your imagination; never belittle another person's mental health issues. Two teachings, from one amazing quote,” she says.

The Potterheads chorus that the Harry Potter series is timeless and that the current generation needs it more than ever.“We live in times when we have all the facts staring at our faces and we still choose to ignore what is true, what is right. I find myself increasingly being surrounded by a Rita Skeeter-reading, Dumbledore bashing, Muggle-born hating crowd of Voldemort deniers. Rowling's world- the kindness, empathy, humour, love and magic is more relevant now than ever before,” Varsha concludes.

It’s been 20 long years. Harry Potter craze, even after all this time you ask? Always, they say.

-Originally published in TheNewsMinute.com on 25th June 2017

Celluloid to Soulmates

Someone wise once said that sex sells. Maybe not. Love sells. Images of love surround us everywhere, through out our lives. Romance never goes out of fashion. Books, songs, and television show us how to find a love, how to keep a love, how to get over a lost love, or how to get a new love. These images are included in children’s cartoons, embedded in commercials, pop-songs and disseminated through love’s greatest perpetrator, cinema.

Love is the glue that holds most movies together, be it a thriller, horror or an action flick.  But is the love on screen similar to the love in our bedrooms? Does ‘happily ever after’ exist? It’s an interesting pattern that most movies end when the relationship between the lead pair begins. Films sell only the exciting parts of love. 

In recent times, barring a few movies such as the Marathi hit Sairat (2016), Indian cinema has failed to paint a realistic portrayal of love and its aftermath.

As people consume the media’s view of love, it’s becoming more common for relationships and marriages to be primarily based on a desire for happiness. When these feelings fade, people think love is gone. This mediated view of romance is now being referred to as “emotional pornography”, insinuating that just as pornography sets unrealistic expectations for sex and physicality, the media’s fanciful stories of love, wire consumers to expect Hollywood-style kisses in the rain and constant epic moments of dramatic love. How can real life compete?

Myths are aplenty and cardboard characters rule the roost in cinema. A girl who for years has been utterly unable to commit as a result of some deep-seated emotional trauma can suddenly become fully capable of having a long-term, meaningful relationship, and the boy who's had his heart stomped on can completely forget about what just happened and start anew with the girl. The fact that there's no psychological truth to either of their behaviours is immaterial to the filmmakers. In real life, we have to live with relationships going unresolved. Endings are messy, people are obstinate and there are misunderstandings abound. People don't change unless they really want to.

Director Mani Ratnam, renowned for his sensitive and realistic portrayals of romance in films such as Mouna Raagam, about a couple forced into marriage and Alaipayuthey built on the premise that there is more to life than driving into the sunset, delivered two romance films in recent times that have a skewed understanding of reality.  With ‘OK Kanmani’ (2015) Ratnam went back to the time-tested formula of’ love at first sight’ and the delirium following it. The success of the movie has proved that the trope is still popular, however unrealistic. In Kaatru Veliyidai (2017) he seems to suggest that love is the cure for all problems, even when the relationship is abusive in nature and is ill advised to stay in one. Most filmmakers argue that the audience voluntarily seek such fairy- tale like movies to take a break from the harsh realities of life.

Besides setting unrealistic relationship standards, cinema is also criticised for glorifying violence and passing off deplorable behaviour in the guise of romantic overtures. What for some might seem as stalking, as per Indian movie standards is “normal behaviour”, as many movies cultivate the idea that a woman will eventually fall in love with a man if he pursues her hard enough. Such behaviour does inevitably affect an audience’s assumptions about how to conduct themselves in similar situations.

The film Darr: A Violent Love Story by Yash Chopra (1993), where Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) is obsessed with Kiran (Juhi Chawla), who is engaged to another man, is an example of a movie that legitimises stalking. Rahul carves her name on his chest with a knife, decorates his room with her photos and discusses her with his dead mother. He even kidnaps her to force her into marriage but is eventually killed. The film catapulted Shah Rukh Khan into mega stardom.

Over the past 20 years, the deranged and thwarted stalker has evolved from nominal villain to an outright hero. In the Tamil film 7G Rainbow Colony (2004); the protagonist is an unemployed wastrel, whose sole ambition is the pursuit of a girl who moves into his apartment. In a particular scene the ‘hero’ is shown climbing up a drainpipe to leer at the girl through her bedroom window, and in couple of occasions even forces himself on her.  Eventually, she gives in and ‘falls in love’ with him. The film was a huge box office hit and was remade in several regional languages. One of 2013’s biggest hit Rhaanjhanaa was of a similar premise.

A majority of the 309 cases of acid attacks reported in 2014 across the country were against women and a large number of them are suspected to be the result of failed or spurned relationships. Cinema’s heroes exhibit subtle stalking and psychopathic behaviour and it is ironic that people condemn it on the streets and applaud it in films.

It has been almost a year since Swathi, a young, Chennai based techie was brutally murdered in the early hours of June 24^th(2016) by a man who routinely stalked her and was supposedly miffed that she didn’t reciprocate his romantic advances. At that time, popular film critic Baradwaj Rangan in his column for The Hindu, countered The NewsMinute’s article on the role of cinema in glorifying stalking and violence.

Mr Rangan called for more research data and number crunching before people began blaming movies for increasing violence against women. My recent research paper titled ‘Celluloid to Soulmates: A study on the impact of films on the perception of romantic love among the youth’ may finally shed some light on the disturbing relationship between the silver screen and its young patrons.

As a part of the research study, 500 youngsters across South India (250 male, 250 female) in the age group of 18-23 were chosen. The most popular films of 2015 (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English) were picked and the common romantic motifs running through the films were culled out. The respondents were questioned on the content and tropes found in the films.

Top Findings of the Research Study

1. Romance films are enjoyed equally by both men and women. Though romance films are pegged as ‘chick flicks’ in the west, India doesn’t have this clear demarcation as most Indian films have romance weaved into them. Films are the preferred recreation choice and are enjoyed by both men and women alike.

2.Romance is main course and not dessert. Relationships often take precedence over career, studies and family. The want, or the need to find ‘love’ is very strong among the youth. Interviews held highlighted that respondents have had at least one serious relationship by the age of 20 and all have a special person in their life, that they were currently interested in or had something going on with.

3.Movies provide lessons on love and intimacy: Young minds are impressionable, and while waiting at the brink of their first relationship, or after having navigated through many unsuccessful ones, they seek for some kind of guidance to steer their way to a happy ending. Talking about love and romance is considered taboo in Indian families. In the absence of a social system that doesn’t judge couples in a relationship or encourages youngsters to air their concerns and raise questions about love and romance, many draw inspiration and conclusions from what they see on media. Cinema seems to provide entertainment and the education. In cases where parents set bad examples, or a person has had a relationship that went awry, they tend to become vulnerable and seek movies as a form of wish fulfilment. Perhaps if romance was accepted more openly in society, there would be a greater possibility of youngsters choosing real life models.

4.Young believe reel is real:  As research indicates, youngsters believe in most of the romantic tropes present in movies.‘Soulmates’, that someone ‘perfect’ is waiting in the wings for everyone or that one needs another person to ‘complete’ them can be misleading. Often this is the reason why people either never find themselves in unhealthy relationships or change partners frequently in the hope of finding someone ‘perfect’. This leads to disappointment and depression. Many fail to realise that the ideal never exists and the perfect relationship is a myth actively propagated by the media. The second ranking trope is ‘true love’. Life is often not fair, and people clamouring for true love and believe that love can change everything often put themselves on the path of disillusionment. It is surprising to see that many believe in serendipity/happy coincidences. Movies often depict dramatic moments of serendipity such as ‘bumping into a handsome stranger in a store,’ or striking instant chemistry with a cute co-passenger’ culminating in a fairy-tale ending. However the odds of such events organically occurring in life are extremely rare. Movies are responsible for encouraging youngsters to believe that their life could be as exciting as their protagonists in their favourite movies.

It is a cause for worry that many are of the opinion that if one’s partner truly loves the other he/she would know what’s running in their mind. This confirms that the biggest cause for relationships to fall apart is this lack of communication and unrealistically expecting one’s partner to read their mind. People also seem to believe in pre -requisites such as instant chemistry being vital for a relationship, opposites attract or that outlandish gestures are necessary to exhibit true love. In reality, chemistry may build over time as demonstrated through the success of arranged marriages in our country, and people who are complete opposites may not endure a long-term relationship. Research has shown that shared interests and friendship are the cornerstones of any successful relationship. ‘Love is the cure for everything’, ‘love will ultimately find a way’ and ‘unrequited love is beautiful’- belief in such motifs could be life threatening.  A person may wait all his life for the elusive ’love’ to show up, only to end up missing out on other opportunities.

When asked to name their favourite romance films of the year 2015,a majority picked the Tamil film ‘OK Kanmani’, followed by the historical love saga ‘Bajirao Mastani’(Hindi) and the Malayalam cult hit ‘Premam’ .The common motif running through these movies include love at first sight, love is eternal and that love conquers all.

5. Youth are in denial: Many of the respondents recorded that though the films they watch don’t affect them personally, they do know of people who are. This is an example of the ‘Third person Effect/Hypothesis’ first articulated in 1983 by the sociologist W. Philips Davidson that predicts that people tend to perceive that mass communicated media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves, based on personal biases.

Though as adults youngsters should be able to tell the diffrence between overromanticised love and healthy realistic realtionships,these tantalizing and persuasive images of cinema are affecting their behaviour and hopes for romance.

Filmmakers are not obligated to take the moral high ground or inculcate social messages through the films they make. However they could perhaps invest in showcasing realistic portrayals of love, or explore its different facets and ramifications.

The author first presented the research paper at the ‘Breaking the 4^th Wall -Media Meet’ at Christ University in August 2016. It has now been shortlisted for the ‘ReTrace 7^th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology’ in Austria, November 2017.

By keeping lights on all night,Bengaluru's high end stores are affecting the environment

It’s 11 pm. A typical night in Bengaluru. After meeting with friends, one wanders out of a pub and into the streets, bathed in incandescent glory that cascades down the buildings. As one drives past Indiranagar 100 feet Road, Nike, Adidas, Blackberry, Allen Solly stores, one after the other whizz by.  While drowning in the hallucinogen that is capitalism one can’t help but notice that the stores are desolate, but the lights inside are on. Bengaluru, the IT capital of India, is alight but the teeming workers are long gone. Faceless mannequins gaze out of showrooms, enjoying the spotlights.

 

A drive post 10 pm around the city’s busiest localities, such as the shopping districts of Indiranagar and prominent office areas such as Whitefield and Marathahalli reveals a strange and recent urban phenomenon. Perhaps emulating the west, most offices and commercial spaces leave their lights on well past business hours, even after the shutters are drawn. The city never sleeps they say. In this age of alarming depletion of natural resources and need for energy conservation, doesn’t this unwarranted usage of energy smack of environmental irresponsibility?

‘Keep your lights’ on is a figurative way to say that keep your business afloat. It’s often a tool of marketing or visual merchandising where one hopes that even after business hours are done, passers-by lured by the mannequins or products on display would visit the store next day, presumably to purchase. While marketing is the most common reason for keeping lights on, some showrooms also use it as deterrent for crime since burglaries are less likely to happen in a lighted area.

Bengaluru’s IT capital status and the 24 hour economy means that a lot of companies work according to US or UK timings that necessitates the use of power through the night.  Also, several new age companies that offer flexible timings leave their lights on to encourage and help employees who come to work at hours convenient to them, which may include late nights. While some offices claim the lights are left on for the janitorial staff to perform their duties, offices that are part of larger parks or work campuses point out that the control of electricity is operated centrally and that they don’t have the choice of turning off or saving electricity. At the expense of development are our environmental costs escalating?

The main sources of power in the Karnataka are thermal and hydel, followed by alternate sources such as solar and wind. Bengaluru gets its supply largely through thermal power (mostly coal, gas and diesel and sometimes nuclear), which is generated from the various power stations in the state and from centrally owned CGS or Central Generating Stations that are distributed across the country, such as Neyveli Lignite Corporation in Tamil Nadu and Kaiga Atomic Station in North Karnataka.  Each CGS provides 1000 MW to the state it’s located in. The other source is NCEP (Non-Conventional Energy Project) that uses wind, solar, and biomass to generate power. KPCL, (Karnataka Power Corporation Limited) is the state agency that is in charge of procuring power from different stations, including from other states if need be. Another state agency, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KTPCL) then transmits the power to the different ESCOMs. Typically, Bengaluru is allotted an average of 2000 MW per day, and uses up 45 million unit of power while the rest of the state gets 6000 MW, consuming 140 million. Bengaluru consumes 1/3^rd of the electricity of the state. Though BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) is allotted 2000 MW per day for the city, most often the demand exceeds supply by at least 300-600 MW, and following supposed directions from the government to provide 24-hour supply to the city; BESCOM draws more from the grid.

In Bengaluru, BESCOM provides electricity in two slabs, one for domestic use (residents) and the other for commercial. Commercial spaces may further come under another category called LT users (lower tension, tension being a French word for voltage) that are used by small shops and businesses, and HT (high tension) used by organisations that require high inputs of power such as film studios and big offices. Off late,gated communities and multi- storied residential complexes have come under HT category. On April 11^th of 2017, the KERC (Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Committee) announced an 8% increase in tariff resulting in an average hike in tariff of around Re 1.48 per unit. As per the new guidelines, one unit (1000 KW) of power for commercial purposes costs Rs. 5 for the first 50 units and 7.15 onward for the next 50.

A casual stroll around the city reveals that a showroom, on a minimum, leaves around 6 -10 spotlights on during the night. Assuming that the store shuts at 10 pm, and opens at 10am the next day; the lights are left on for 12 hours.

A typical spotlight used by a store is a halogen lamp that is available in different wattages, ranging from 3, 5, 8,12, 17 35 80 watts etc.

An 80 watts light, used for 12 hour for will consume 960 watt .One unit of electricity is 1000 KW.  Hence one light bulb consumes 0.96 units for the night. In monetary terms, this translates into Rs .6.86 per lamp. Thereby, if the store leaves 6 spotlights on through the night, the total cost would be Rs. 41 per day. Subsequently, the monthly expenditure for keeping the lights on through the night would hover around Rs.1235. While the monetary expense of leaving the lights on may not be a big concern for showrooms or corporates, the environmental costs are a cause for concern. Also, when the electricity demand of the city increases and BESCOM is forced to draw more from the grid to feed the city, the rural areas may have to face the brunt. Most rural areas never have continuous or uninterrupted power supply, with daily power cuts ranging around 4 hours minimum. Though government officials promise that rural power supply is not being comprised for the city, with the rampant shortage of power all through the country especially during summer, the electricity board maybe forced to distribute power unequally.

In terms of an environmental perspective, the costs are heavier. Environmental experts peg the carbon dioxide emission factor (amount of CO2 released per unit of electricity) for electricity to be around 0.527 kg per unit. Therefore a single store that leaves its 6 spotlights on through the night emits around 3.12 kgs of CO2 everyday. Imagine the number of shops around the city and their respective CO2 emissions. The numbers are staggering.

Unless one is a Trump supporter and strongly believes that global warming is hoax, these numbers are worrying and question our responsibility towards the environment. Solutions include shifting to motion-sensor lights (to discourage criminal activity) and LED lamps that consume less electricity. But the larger question looms large. Do we want a city that depletes energy on a gigantic scale and contributes to heavy light pollution? Do we need advertising at the cost of our rural population? Do we really need a city that never sleeps?

-Originally published in The News Minute on May 28th 2017