Shiva Lives in Rochester: A jogging professor of sociology experiences the power of Shiva

atop Pinnacle Hill in New York

Author(s): STEVE DERNÉ
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 48, No. 45/46 (NOVEMBER 16, 2013), pp. 84-85
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23528617
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 POSTSCRIPT

FILM FESTIVALS I SPIRITUALITY

short documentary actualités made earlier are not considered attending the iffis at Goa knows for whom the red carpet
as "the origin" is a moot question.) is rolled out.

The first iffi was held from 24 January to 1 February 1952 In current global film discourses - both in the film festival
in Mumbai and it was later taken to Chennai (then circuit and, most sadly, in film studies too - "Indian Cinema"
Madras), Delhi and Kolkata (Calcutta). Since the mid-1960s, is increasingly being equated with "Bollywood", in the process
iffi has been a regular annual ritual, initially held in Delhimarginalising and making invisible the various other vibrant
for many years, and then, as an afterthought, taking on acinemas in India. With all the major events being centred
gypsy avatar and traversing different cities like Chennai,around the Bollywood industry and its stars, iffi is further
Hyderabad, Bengalaru (Bangalore), Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata regionalising the regional or the local. The regional cinemas
and Thiruvananthapuram, before finally settling down in and film-makers have only a token, decorative or totem
Goa as its permanent venue since 2004. presence to accommodate the plural in Indian cinema.
But as an "international" film festival, has iffi served as a If the iffis of the 1950s inspired a generation of film
catalyst for Indian cinema? During the inauguration of makers across the country, and in the 1970s and 1980s show
the first iffi, Prime Minister Jawaharlal NehruWith all the major cased some of the most experimental of films
reiterated "the influence of films on people's events being made in all Indian languages, what is it doing in
lives and...the need for concentrating more on centred around the this digital era, when excess is the rule? Today,
quality than on 'quantity production'". Even while with the flood of dvds and the torrent of down
Bollywood industry
acknowledging the prolificacy of Indian cinema, loads, accessibility to world cinema is no longer
and its stars,
Nehru was circumspect about the aesthetic quality an issue. Anyone with a good broadband internet
IFFI is further
of Indian films. The first iffi, which included connection can access all kinds of films from
about 40 features and too short films, was an regionalising the across the world.
regional or the local
eye-opener. Many film-makers like Satyajit Ray, In this context of excess, what we need are con
Ritwik Ghatak and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who went on to texts and contextualisations. Film festivals like iffi have to
make significant films and contributed to the developmentsit back and think through this excess and critically resist the
of an Indian film idiom, have acknowledged the tremendous inequalities in this apparently democratic flow of film narra
impact the neorealist films shown at the early iffis had ontives between the First and other worlds, by sharply focusing
their world view and notions about cinema. on the bottoms of the digital divide. We have to identify and
In the post-Independence decades, the Indian film indus curate experimentations and resistances in film from across
try not only managed to survive but indeed thrived, both in the world with which our cinemas have to engage and dia
terms of quantity and also global reach, unlike many other logue with, to grapple with excess and to create contexts of
national cinemas in the rest of the world that succumbed to understanding. Only then would the slogan of iffi - "Vasud
Hollywood. The Indian commercial film industry has found haiva Kudumbakam" (The Whole World is Family) - regain
a place of its own in the global entertainment arena, iffi its resonance.

too has been growing in terms of its size and aplomb. But
C S Venkiteswaran (venkitycsi8gmail.com) is a film critic based in Thiruvananthapuram.
what is its contribution to Indian cinema, especially to the
art cinema movement? No doubt, iffi has been bringing the
best of world cinema to India, but has it succeeded in taking
Indian cinema to the world?
Shiva Lives in Rochester
If one looks at how iffi is conducted now and the

A jogging
spectrum of film content offered every year, certain disturb professor of sociology experiences the
ing trends become discernible. Most distressing perhaps
power of Shiva atop Pinnacle Hill in New York.
is the shift of focus from films and packages to events and
personalities. True, any international film festival of this
STEVE DERNE
kind is an occasion for celebration as well as celebrities.
But it also needs to be a vibrant platform of interaction
and exchange amongst film-makers, producers, curators, I installed a bell on a tree atop Pinnacle Hill in
critics and cinéastes from different parts of the world who On myhonour
dailyof Lordrun
Shiva. Ithe morning
had returned the afternoonbefore Thanksgiving,
come together to share ideas and air opinions. So, shouldn'tbefore Thanksgiving around 4 pm and showed my wife the
an international film festival held in India give more promi bell, insisting that it wouldn't be long before the devotees
nence, space and priority to films and film-makers from arrived. "How will they know it's here?" she asked. "They
the Third World? Should we blindly ape the Europeanjust will", I replied.
festivals and vie with them for glamour and glitz, especially Thanksgiving morning, as I headed towards the hill crest,
by flaunting "stars" and all the pointless paraphernalia I came upon a deer atop the hill. It just looked at me. I
that accompany such ostentation? Anyone who has been slowed as I approached the top and was greeted by prayer
84 november 16, 2013 vol xlvin nos 45 & 46 eüs3 Economic & Political weekly

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 POSTSCRIPT

SPIRITUALITY

flags. Sometime between Wednesday late afternoon and Shivaya before entering that hallowed ground,
Thanksgiving morning, prayer flags had been installed I chant and meditate (and stretch my calves!) 20
alongside my bell at the approach to the summit of Pinnacle into my run.
Hill. "Happy Thanksgiving, the devotees have arrived", I Into my second year of experiencing Shiva's po
shouted to my wife as I returned home. Pinnacle Hill/Kedarnath, in the early fall (September)
A few months ago, my wife and I had moved to the leafy dove nested about 18 inches above where I had ins
neighbourhood near Rochester's Highland Park. At first, the bells I ring every day. It's led me to ring t
I simply enjoyed the views from Pinnacle Hill in the middle more gently and chant Shiva's name less vigorous
of my run. The view to a flat plain seemed like so many the dove stays calm in its nest, waiting for Shiva-po
scenes from temples atop the karst hills of Burma. White eggs to hatch.
edifices below reminded me of stupas. I would meditate in People everywhere, of course, make the sac
the midst of my run. of the ordinary. I have sat on the banks of the Ganga
But then I started noticing the fires atop Pinnacle Hill. in Rishikesh and watched someone b
I would find the ground still hot and smouldering in in the sand. Others will subsequently
the morning. I noticed tridents scratched into the ground. lingam with colour and flowers. S
There were encampments that reminded me of the sadhus' Ma Ganga water on Shiva, destroy
encampments at Shiva shrines in India. The blinking com- rebuilding it. When the Berkeley
munication towers atop the hill seemed to constitute a huge traffic barriers to improve traffic fl
trident. Square cut-outs from beer cans littered the ground worshipped those poles as Shiva lingam
and reminded me of the paan wrappers one finds around Hill is different.
Shiva sites in India In India, there are places where Lord Shiva appeared as a
In India, flat villages on the plains of Gujarat or Rajasthan fathomless column of light. Th
might have hills that locals connect to the Pinnacle Hill "self-born" or spontan
great Himalayas. More and more I began to reminded me so iban established by hum
see my run as similarly connected to the four much of the above Pinnacle Hill
sacred summits in the Himalayas. Highland Park Himala a's often lit. I find fresh as
reservoir's glacial-runoff blue water reminded Kedarnath abode t'le morrl'ng even a
me of Gangotri, the source of the Ganga. The while hail is coming down. Tridents are some
ridge behind my house is Highland Park's lv /W# how scratched in the burnt ground. A bell
pinetum, which harkened to my memory the symbol IS a sh¡va medallion go up; devotees can
pines behind Gangotri itself. The theological the trident far behind.
seminary reminded me of Yamunotri, the source of the Some pilgrims go to the four dhams in the Him
Yamuna, and Summit Drive reminded me of Badrinath, my others to the four dhams of the compass - Puri in th
least favourite of the four dhams, and which I sometimes Dwarka in the west, Rameswaram in the south
skip on my run. But I was most intrigued by Pinnacle Hill, Badrinath in the Himalayas. Some circumambulate V
which reminded me so much of the Himalaya's Kedarnath (Benaras) or wander in the Braj of Lord Krishna's chi
- abode of Shiva, whose symbol is the trident. It was for Yet others make pilgrimages to holy places in their v
that reason that I installed the bell and the Shiva medallion Some pilgrims devote years to visiting the 12 jyoti
atop the hill. in south Asia.
The devotees arrived; but the bell didn't last long. And now I do my own char dham yatra every
Whoever took it, better watch out for Lord Shiva! On black morning, going to Gangotri (Highland Park Reservoir),
Friday, a shopping cart appeared in a tree atop the hill - Yamunotri (Rochester Colgate Theological Seminary),
perhaps a protest against consumerism? But while the Badrinath (Summit Drive), and Kedarnath (Pinnacle Hill),
bell disappeared, the Shiva medallion did not. Winter the four dhams of Rocky town. Those fires keep lighting on
arrived in Rochester, but I kept running, mostly in fleece, Pinnacle Hill. The trident atop it keeps blinking its lights,
even below 20 degrees (Fahrenheit!). Luckily, the fleece Can it be long before the devotees recognise it as the
gave me a pocket to carry Christmas ornaments, which 13th jyotirlinga, the first in North America, and add it to
I slowly added to the prayer flags at Pinnacle Hill. Some their circuit?
days, I carried a bell with me on my run, hearing the ringing Pinnacle Hill is 749 feet above sea level. Kedarnath is
as I ran. People in India talk of how ringing the bell on 11,759 feet high. But Lord Shiva is bhole (innocent.) If you
entering a temple helped them enter a zero zone; the call him, he'll come,
jingling of the bell as I ran along had a similar effect. On
Steve Derné (derne@geneseo.edu) who teaches Sociology at the State University of
reaching the approach to Pinnacle Hill's summit, I put New York (SUNY-Geneseo) is currently completing his fourth book, Weil Being: Lessons
the bell above my head, ring it, and chant Om Namah from India.
Economic & Political WEEKLY [333 NOVEMBER 16, 2013 VOL XLVIH NOS 45 & 46 85

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