A warning even before you read this…this is not about any book. It’s not about INDIAreads or the online world. This post is about our world, the one in which we live and I am writing it because I couldn’t help myself….

Source: jharia.jharkhand.org.in

I just saw Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s documentary, Hot as Hell. It’s based on Jharia, the town beneath which rage 70 coal fires, the town which has a population of over a million, the town which can go up in flames or collapse any day, the town where I was born. The documentary left me shaken. So much so that I could not watch it in one go. The images that flashed by were familiar. It was like revisiting my childhood; only the despair, the accidents, the helpless faces were missing. Or perhaps I was too young to notice, blissfully unaware in my safe little world. I have no memories of Jharia except the theatre where we went to see a hindi blockbuster or some old neighbours we visited. All my recollections are of Dhandbad, the city adjacent to Jharia. That’s where my maternal family moved soon after I was born. It’s not that I did not know of the coal mafia then or of the abject poverty in the region. Year after year, during summer vacations on the train journey to Dhanbad or subsequently when we ventured outside the city for picnics, I saw thousands of people barely able to survive. Along the road, I saw things covered in white. People sleeping on the roadside with sheets to keep out the flies, I thought. Stupid. Naive. Age was my only excuse. Years later, I learnt they were corpses of people who had been killed by the naxals and other armed groups. I had been shocked then. Shaken, to realize that places I frequented as a child were now out of bounds as they were naxal haunts. It didn’t make sense because till the age of 15 when I visited Dhanbad every summer, all I thought about was the fun times spent with cousins, Rajinder ki chaat, Caroline’s pastry, the elderly tailor who stitched our dresses. Even the people along the road to Parasnath, selling arrows, lances and knives didn’t bother me. Yes, all my memories were happy ones, except one. One which had left me so shaken that after a lot of angst and anger, after feeling completely defeated for I could not change anything, I had buried it. I don’t even remember where I kept the couple of pictures that my dad had taken. Pictures of me wearing a helmet, a torch and a belt, getting on to the carriage that would take me deep into the bowels of the earth, into the coal mines. To the horror of my family I had insisted on the trip. No, I was not driven by any altruistic or revolutionary zeal. I just wanted to see a mine, to see where the people who I saw on the streets of Dhanbad worked. So after non stop pleading, cajoling and threatening for 2 summers, finally they gave in. I was in school and so my dad came to Dhanbad to take me to the mines. No one else was willing to do so.

As soon as the makeshift lift – 8 rickety wooden planks tied together and fixed on a steel frame, there were no walls – landed, I whipped my head around in confusion. It was completely dark. The only light came from the top of the hole. Then, one of the accompanying engineers switched on the torch on my helmet. Whatever you do, never take off that helmet even for a second, I was warned. Excited, I began to move but the engineer practically shouted in alarm. “You have to follow me. Please stay close to the walls and move very carefully.” So we moved into what resembled a cave. I had always been in love with Enid Blytons and this, to me, was a real adventure. The air was reasonably cool and there was water trickling in at some places along the wall. But I did not worry about the mine being flooded suddenly. That happened only in novels. I looked around and saw some tracks. “For the cars that carry the coal out. Be careful, most workers loose limbs when they are hit by the chains of the car,” our guide warned. I remember being bewildered then because I saw no workers. I heard sounds – whispers, hammering, the occasional laughter, but saw no one. When I asked the engineer where the workers were, he looked uncomfortable. But I had to see them at work. That was the point of the visit. So the guy very reluctantly led us into a narrow passage. I almost choked. The air was unbearably hot and heavy. I felt as if I was in a furnace. I still remember that feeling of being stifled. I think I turned claustrophobic that day. And then I saw the workers, chiseling away, lifting the coal. None were wearing helmets. It was too hot. Besides when they needed to rest, they perched on their helmets. On seeing visitors, a few hurriedly tried to strap on the protective headgear. I later learnt that the passage through which we had entered was reserved for officials and the few odd visitors. That was where the cool air came in from. The passages where the miners worked were boiling. I remember hurriedly trying to get out of the mine. After that I spent a lot of time arguing with my uncle, with others around me about the inhuman conditions in the mine. When it didn’t make any difference I forgot about it. It was easier. Subsequently I visited workers colonies or the poorer neighbourhoods of Dhanbad but I never asked to visit a mine. My family moved out of Dhanbad and the mines, out of my consciousness. About the underground fires, I was blissfully unaware. I had never heard about them, never noticed the wisps of smoke.

It was during my years at the Planning Commission that I first heard about the danger Jharia was in. I was shocked. How could I, an educated journalist, not have noticed something so important? How could I be so cocooned in my own world as to ignore everything else? I remember Syeda mentioning that someone had told her to visit the mines to see how much has been done to ensure safety of the workers. I told her about my visit. We decided we would visit Dhanbad and Jharia; go down into the mines and see if things had changed. The trip never happened. Then I saw this film. I am still appalled. To be honest I haven’t finished watching it. I could not. Not because it is full of burning people and mutilated bodies. No, there is none of that. In fact most of the scenes could be from any bustling town of the country. And then you notice the smoke curling out of the ground, right next to the guy who is changing the tyre or the child who is picking the coals. The ground beneath the city is burning and it is not a natural disaster. It is not even an inadvertent error on the part of a worker. It is the result of decades of human greed. The result of unplanned, unscientific mining carried out with the singular purpose of raking in the maximum moolah. Not even when they realized the consequences of their activities, when the workers began to be gassed and lives were lost, did the coal mafia stop to consider. Lives were inconsequential. They did not even remember that they were living in the same city which could collapse into the burning pit any day. Can human beings really be so insensitive? So greedy? Soo selfish? Do human lives matter so little? The workers go into the mines knowing they might never come back. They have no choice. They have to risk it to make sure their kids don’t go hungry. They might come out of the mine alive, but if they don’t go in, they know they won’t have anything to survive on. With the fires, the mines are not working to their full capacity. Many have lost jobs. They pilfer. They dig holes and take from the earth whatever they can find. Theft? Maybe. A disaster in the making? Definitely. But what choice do they have? Just like the residents of Jharia. They know their lives are in danger. They are suffering from numerous health problems and yet they refuse to move out to the new areas identified by the government. Why? What compels them to continue to live atop an inferno? I do not know. What I do know is that if we, in our greed, have destroyed so many lives, what right do we have to sit and take decisions for the Jarawa or the Upper Bonda? They may not live in air conditioned rooms or attend B Schools and earn hefty pay packets but they live in harmony with nature and with each other. They are happy, and more importantly, till we intruded into their worlds, their happiness was not at the cost of others. Is this what we want them to become? Opportunistic, indifferent humans who will stop at nothing to pocket that extra wad of notes. And how did we become this way? Is life really a zero sum game? Does our happiness, our comfort always have to be at the expense of another – be it the thirteen year old who some employ shamelessly in their homes or the workers who are gassed in the coal mines? I know all is not lost, I know there are people doing excellent work. I know change is happening. I have seen it, documented some of it. But at times, I grow despondent. Because too much needs to be done. Do we have enough time? Do we have enough will? Do we have enough hands?

Not every attempt to adapt a literary masterpiece for the silver screen falls flat on its face.

Below is a list of notables that managed to make the shift without getting mud in their eyes, as it were.

1. ‘One for the Money‘ (2012): Stephanie Plum, the beloved bounty-hunter heroine of Janet Evanovich’s best-selling novels, is finally getting her big-screen due — with Katherine Heigl stepping into the role. Based on Evanovich’s 1994 book of the same name, One for the Money (in theatres Jan. 27) traces Plum’s road from lingerie buyer to badass bounty hunter. Her first case: brining in a vice cop who’s wanted for first-degree murder. The snag? He’s her former lover. Should moviegoers dig Plum’s sassy, sleuthing action heroine, they’re in luck: Evanovich has written 17 Plum novels, four novellas and one short story. Can you say “franchise potential”?

2. ‘Twilight‘ (2008): The vampire-romance series, written by Stephenie Meyer, was already a phenomenon unto itself. However, Twilight, the visual accompaniment to her 2005 novel, transformed the phenomenon into obsession. The adaptation, about a romance between a handsome vampire and a girl next door, was smartly loyal to its source material, bringing to life the impossibly chivalric, almost ethereal love story. While decidedly melodramatic, the prolific use of slow motion and extreme close-ups certainly played into that great escape. The fact that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart let their onscreen romance trickle into real life only added to the illusion. And starry-eyed teens and moms responded in kind.

3. ‘The Reader‘ (2008): What’s remarkable about ‘The Reader‘ isn’t just the fact that Kate Winslet quite convincingly ages 30 years throughout the film while playing a morally challenged woman who’s both a seductress of a teen boy (played by German actor David Kross and as an adult by Ralph Fiennes) as well as a Nazi war criminal. It’s also that the actress manages to shrug off her warm offscreen persona to offer an intriguing turn as a chilly character. Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 work was gripping enough to become an Oprah’s Book Club selection. But Winslet made the movie her own by committing to a gutsy and yes, explicit, performance that was at times difficult to watch. It became the transformative role that finally won her the Oscar she’s long deserved.

4. ‘Forrest Gump‘ (1994): A box of chocolates, cross-country running, Bubba Gump shrimp. Forrest Gump was so vivid an interpretation of the 1986 novel by Winston Groom, that it became iconic. Director Robert Zemeckis took many liberties with his version of the story — excising numerous episodes from the novel and adding in a few new ones (like that epic jog) — making believable a sprawling tale about the fantastical life of a humble Southern man, who’s slow in wit but rich in integrity. Key in this were performances from Robin Wright Penn, as Forrest’s childhood love whose mere countenance is riddled with heartbreak, and Tom Hanks rounding out the book’s titular hero with sheer charm.

5. ‘The Notebook‘ (2004): Released in 1996, The Notebook was the first of a slew of books by Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe) that seemed to effortlessly translate to the big screen. Still, it was The Notebook, teeming with palpable chemistry between stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, that was the most successful. She plays a rich girl, he a working-class boy. They meet picturesquely over the summer, fall in love, and then threaten to fall apart. The actors would go on to date for two years after filming the movie — even recreating that sweep-her-off-her-feet kiss for the MTV Movie Awards. Fans so adored the romanticized couple that when Gosling and McAdams split, “Women were mad at me,” he later commented. “Like, ‘How could you? How could you let a girl like that go?’

6. ‘The Color Purple‘ (1985): You’d have been hard-pressed to find a dry eye in the house when The Color Purple first debuted in theaters. Based on Alice Walker’s 1982 work, it recounted the incest and domestic abuse-addled life of a poor, humble African-American woman in the early 1900s. Walker’s tale is told via letters and diary entries, but the cinematic version proved even more poignant by using a classic narrative to chronicle protagonist Celie’s challenging life. Powerful turns by Oprah Winfrey (in her Oscar-nominated acting debut) as Celie’s daughter-in-law and Danny Glover as her abusive husband contrasted Whoopi Goldberg’s demure presence in the lead (pictured with costar Margaret Avery). In the end, Steven Spielberg was able to achieve the daunting task of transforming a Pulitzer Prize-winning book into an equally formidable motion picture.

7. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (1995): At a time when Hollywood was particularly eager to mine the Jane Austen canon for big-screen material, Emma Thompson, who scripted and starred in this costumed version, treated it like a goofy rom-com. Quick-witted repartee between Thompson and Kate Winslet (Thompson’s Elinor: “Did he tell you he loved you?” Winselt’s Marianne: “Yes…no. Never absolutely. It was every day implied.”) made Thompson a shoe-in for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Director Ang Lee, meanwhile, kept the visuals chaste and breezy, like a pleasant stroll through an English garden. If ever there were a film that most effectively updates Austen’s work without losing its spirit, this is it.

8. ‘To kill a Mockingbird‘ (1962): It was no easy feat casting for Atticus Finch, the Abe Lincoln-esque patriarch of To Kill a Mockingbird. After all, the hugely successful, Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Harper Lee (published two years before the film) was, upon its release, a sounding board about racial injustices. But Gregory Peck truly brought the story about an African-American man accused of raping a white woman to life. Though the part came to him midway through his career, the actor would be forever associated with Mockingbird, which also won him an Oscar for best actor. Upon hearing of the actor’s death, the reclusive Lee declared, “Gregory Peck was a beautiful man. Atticus Finch gave him an opportunity to play himself.”

9. ‘Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001): In dark theatrics and stunning effects, the Harry Potter movies are so potent that the term “spoiler alert” need not apply. Of course we know how each of J.K. Rowling’s books end: Yet as the first filmic installment reminded us, sometimes the path — how the drama unfolds — is just as important as the end destination. The smartly cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint became insta-stars after appearing in the Sorcerer’s Stone ten years ago (the book came out three years before that), requiting our long-awaited desire to attach human faces to the Rowling’s fantastical wizards. And watching them grow up with each subsequent film has further invested us in both their real and fictitious lives.

10. ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘ (1994): It would be easy to transform Stephen King’s 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, into a cheesy morality tale about crime and punishment. The fact that it takes place in a prison would tempt any director to play up the melodrama of lock-up. But Frank Darabont draws nuanced performances by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, as prisoners with full hearts, who take their time to communicate their trajectory of isolation, guilt, repentance, and ultimately liberation. If that sounds underwhelming, it was to moviegoers, too: Despite its weighty awards-season presence, Shawshank just barely broke even. But to those who saw it, this unfurling of plot and character was a revelation.

11. ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary‘ (2001): Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel about an everyday Englishwoman’s disastrous, if aspirational, love life was so adored that seemingly every actress considered the role: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz among them. Ultimately, director Sharon Maguire — a friend of Fielding’s — cast the immediately likable Renée Zellweger as a luckless aspiring journalist, an eyebrow-raising move that earned criticism over the actress being both American and impossibly svelte. Zellweger responded by packing on 20 lbs. and perfecting her British accent. By the time she hit the screen, she had the goodwill of fans and critics alike, who commended her portrayal opposite Hugh Grant and Colin Firth as being more crafty that she’d led on: Her Jones was cute without being cloying, downtrodden without being desperate — and perhaps more clever than the heroine of the book itself.

12. ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003): It’s not a well-known fact that director Peter Jackson’s dazzling Lord of the Rings trilogy, about the search to destroy an ultimate weapon, is actually a third attempt at adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1954-55 books. What made Jackson’s successful? Jackson treated LOTR less like a fantasy-nerd obsession it had been and more like the epic story it was. The films boast majestic cinematography, patient pacing, and a smart cast (notably Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom and an indelible Viggo Mortensen, pictured) that treated the heroics as byproducts of a larger drama. (Even the most cartoonish character, the animated Gollum — as voiced and acted out by English actor Andy Serkis — was imbued with weightiness, played out as a heroin addict.) This is Tolkien in Technicolor, as the master himself would’ve imagined it.

13. ‘Schindler’s List‘ (1993): Steven Spielberg is largely credited for the gestation of what is arguably his greatest work to date. But the World War II-set Schindler’s List was in fact based on the 1982 historical novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally, about a German businessman who saved 1,200 Jews from certain death by employing them in his Polish factories. The film’s black-and-white presentation is indeed polarized. It’s stylized when showing Liam Neeson — giving off the air of a strapping movie star from a bygone era — living his glamorous, privileged life. And it’s stark when chronicling graphic scenes of camp brutality, under the leadership of Ralph Fiennes’ icy commandant, a livewire who could be set off at any moment. Where Keneally drew a mental image of the devastation, Spielberg actually allows us to be a conscious observer, witnessing the horror, but powerless to do anything about it.

14. ‘The English Patient‘ (1996): The late Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this sweeping drama based on the Booker Prize-winning 1992 novel from Michael Ondaatje. What won the latter the prestigious award was that his book is beguilingly elaborate — tricky in narrative, specific in imagery, ambitious in breadth. Though he couldn’t possibly capture every detail, Minghella more than compensated with atmosphere. Here, Ralph Fiennes plays a Hungarian explorer who begins an affair with a British woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) in the ’40s, against the backdrop of a washed-out expanse of Saharan desert. The latter is so sensuous, you could almost feel the sweat. That the man’s story is told on his deathbed and in flashback supplants the tragedy with a sweet wistfulness.

15. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe‘ (2005): For many, C.S. Lewis’ first Narnia book — 1950’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, about four kids who discover a portal leading to a magical land — was a staple of childhood reading. In addition to lending the franchise some cred, respected actors Liam Neeson, Tilda Swinton, and James McAvoy helped elevate the picture from mere fantasy to spiritual allegory (as was Lewis’ intent). But the marquee star here is the collective special-effects unit which legitimately helped transport the viewer into an ethereal world. Much of Narnia’s success hinged on the escapist and sentimental appeal of one’s childhood imagination spectacularly imprinted onto the big screen.

16. ‘Gone With The Wind’ (1939): When adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind — an adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s celebrated 1936 tome — is considered to be the most profitable film of all time. It broke other records during its day: Producers took two years to cast the lead male, enlisted five screenwriters, hired three directors, and oversaw nearly one year of production. (Its final director, The Wizard of Oz’s Victor Fleming was said to have briefly exited during filming, due to exhaustion.) At three hours and 44 minutes, Gone With the Wind was not only the longest film of its time, it was also the feistiest: The film’s tart language (a cocky Clark Gable using the word “damn”) and proto-feminism (Vivien Leigh’s alternately demure and ballsy portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara) drew vast criticism — and was downright trailblazing.

17. ‘The Devil Wears Prada‘ (2006): Upon its release in 2003, Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling roman à clef about her time working at Vogue was met with some indignation. (The steely boss of the book was a less than thinly veiled criticism of that magazine’s editrix, Anna Wintour.) But how salacious it was! While no less intriguing, the big screen’s Prada was also smarter than its source material: Confident performances by Meryl Streep transformed Weisberger’s tormentor, Miranda Priestly, into a complicated career woman whose unreasonable demands upon Anne Hathaway’s Andrea Sachs could alternately viewed be as tough love. The picture, directed by Sex and the City alum David Frankel and outfitted by that show’s costumer Patricia Field, was immediately accused of being SATC-lite. To the contrary, this was a Sex and the City with more soul.