Review Of 6 Japanese Films (Japanese Film Festival Online 2022)

[Spoiler Alert: Many of my review comments will reveal plot elements that may be spoilers for some.]

A friend alerted me to the Japanese Film Festival Online a week before it ended, so I was able to watch 6 of the 20 that were available. The service ended at 5 PM sharp (Japan Standard Time) on Feb 28, and I finished watching the last one with half an hour to spare!

The JFF website, showing a partial line-up of the 20 movies available. I've moved the 6 I watched to the beginning of this list.

The online festival is available in quite a few countries, so I would advise my friends to subscribe to the site and be informed of future screenings.

Let me complain about one of my bugbears right at the start. The website does not support Linux! Sure, they tell you that on their Help page, but for someone like me who only uses Open Source operating systems, this was a real pain. I had to watch all 6 movies on the cramped screen of my Android phone.

I really hope the JFF ups its game and enters the 21st century by 2023!

With that rant out of the way, here are my reviews of the movies I watched. All of them had English subtitles, although they were almost not required, since half of all the words spoken seemed to be just Arigato Gozaimas' (Thank you)!

Happy Flight

I can best describe this light movie as a documentary held together by the thinnest of storylines. A plane takes off, then returns after a couple of hours due to technical problems. With this simple plotline, the movie shows us all the processes that happen in an airport, like an Arthur Hailey novel would. There is light humour throughout, but I wouldn't classify this movie as a comedy.

I liked this movie for the way it educates its viewers about everything that happens in an airport, using a few characters and short storylines.

Ground engineers - If a tool is missing, the entire area is searched and no one goes home until it is found. The risk of a tool ending up inside an aircraft engine is simply too great.

Ground service staff - They deal with the mess of overbooking and the confusion of misplaced baggage, among other things.

Cabin crew - Life is a series of minor emergencies and challenges, from difficult passengers to unexpected food shortages, all handled with calmness and smiles.

Air Traffic Control - Dealing with weather issues, sudden changes in flight plans, and real-time decision-making are all in a day's work.

The pilots - Anyone can seemingly do this job, until there's an emergency, which is when their training kicks in.

This was a light and no-stress movie, and I would give it a 3 out of 5.

Ito

It wasn't clear at the start what kind of movie this was going to be. I don't like watching tragedies and "struggle movies". But thankfully, it wasn't anything like that.

Ito is a shy country girl who lost her mother at a very young age, and lives in a village with her father, an academic, and her maternal grandmother who is a classical musician. She takes a train to attend school at a nearby town. She seems a troubled teenager, but it's not clear what her problems are.

Bit by bit, she grows up as she resolves each of her problems, whether it be her own lack of self-confidence, her inability to communicate well with words, her unresolved feelings about her mother's death, her reluctance to play the shamisen, or her relationship with her father. Taking the first step, which is to apply for and take up a part-time job as a waitress in a "Maid Cafe", draws her out into the larger world and helps her develop her personality. At the end of the movie, we see her climbing a mountain with her dad and shouting with abandon as she looks down from the peak. Ito is fine, and we're happy to see her grown up as the movie ends.

Ito's grandmother is a sane voice in the household, capable of talking sense both to her granddaughter and her son-in-law when the latter have a spat.

Taking up a job as a hostess at the "Maid Cafe" was the best thing Ito could have done. It introduced her to a bunch of nice people whom she grew to like.

Ito's father overcomes his misgivings about his daughter's job in what he considers an anachronistic outfit when he sees her actually working.

Ito accepts herself enough to start practising the Shamisen again with her grandmother.

This was a mild coming-of-age movie, and I would give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Bread of Happiness

In some ways, this was the weirdest of the 6 movies I saw, although it wasn't bad. It seemed to have some mystical elements to it, and the female lead's problems and motivations weren't very clear.

The female lead is a young woman called Rie, who is heavily influenced by a childhood storybook about a boy called Mani and the moon. Mani to her represents a soulmate, and she gives up on her dream of ever finding such a soulmate as she grows up. After her father's death, she is all alone, and accepts the invitation of a man she knows (Nao Mizushima) to move from Tokyo to a small village. It's not immediately clear that they are married, and the relationship between herself and her husband isn't fleshed out well. They just seem to be joint owners of the Mani Cafe, which is also a boarding house.

The story is a series of episodes where people with various problems come to their cafe, and go away happier after the encounter. Whether there is supposed to be some mystical element to the bread Nao Mizushima bakes, or the coffee and soup that Rie makes, isn't clear.

At the end of the movie, Rie finally realises that her loyal and supportive husband is the Mani (soulmate) she's been looking for after all. She tells him they're going to have another guest in the new year, pointing to her tummy.

Rie making coffee (She looks Vulcan!)

Nao baking bread

A dumped girl and a man with a dead-end job find each other at the Mani Cafe after eating the magical bread there.

A latchkey kid and her divorced father rediscover each other after some magic bread.

An ailing old woman and her devoted husband find peace through magic bread.

Again, a mild and nice story, and I would give it a 3 out of 5.

Masked Ward

Now this is a thriller where providing spoilers would be a criminal offence, so I won't. The basic plot is about a young doctor doing his first night shift at a hospital for patients with dementia, where he finds himself in a dramatic situation as a masked robber bursts in with a wounded hostage. Things get curiouser and curiouser as our hero begins to look beneath the surface. Suffice it to say that nothing is what it seems to be.

Can we just agree that clowns are the scariest characters ever?

I would give this mystery thriller a 4 out of 5. I found it absolutely gripping.

Aristocrats

With the last two movies, I would say we've moved into adult territory in the sense that the themes have much more sophistication and depth.

"Aristocrats" gives us a good look into elite Japanese society. Japanese society in general is much more custom-bound than others, but the elites operate within an even more constricting social environment. It's a bit like the British Royal Family - glamorous from the outside, but probably unbearably stifling. It's an absolutely terrible life for the women of course, but the men born into this society don't have too many options either. The path ahead, paved as it may be with gold bricks, is laid out for them, and they cannot deviate from it.

They can keep their money! I'd rather live my comfortable middle-class life, doing whatever I want.

The story is essentially a contrast between the lives and personalities of two young women, Hanako and Miki. Hanako comes from an upper-crust family herself, because her father has been a successful and well-off physician. But the man she marries (Koichiro, literally "first son") comes from an even higher stratum. Hanako's upbringing gives her barely enough sophistication to cope with the demands of her role in this family.

Miki is from a much humbler background. Her father is perpetually unemployed, and she is forced to discontinue college for financial reasons. However, her brief period in college makes her a classmate of the privileged Koichiro. She has a relationship with him later on, although she doesn't have any hope of marrying him. Their relationship is a natural one, and they are easy friends. In contrast, Koichiro's relationship with his wife Hanako is a bit more formal and strained, even though they are both decent human beings. Hanako lacks a certain something that the less sophisticated Miki has in spades - a vivacious and sparkling personality with plenty of pluck and drive. I personally was very impressed with the character of Miki.

Koichiro with Miki - Miki's being from the out-crowd paradoxically allowed her to relate to Koichiro much more naturally than the women of his circle could, although a formal relationship was out of the question.

It's interesting how the two women meet and interact. It seems to be an understood aspect of Japanese society that men will have extramarital affairs, and the two women negotiate awkwardly about it, Miki parting ways with Koichiro thereafter.

The surprising twist in the story comes when Hanako sees Miki in the city and impulsively meets up with her, even visiting her modest apartment. She sees that Miki's life, although more challenging and less privileged, is completely authentic, and Miki is her own woman. It brings home to Hanako that she is trapped, and once she has a child, escape will be impossible, because aristocratic families don't allow divorced wives custody of their children. She then divorces Koichiro (which earns her a slap from her aristocratic mother-in-law) and becomes a working woman like Miki. She becomes the manager for her high school friend, who is also single and a talented violinist.

The best part of the movie is at the end, when Koichiro, by now a local politician on account of his family's connections, runs into Hanako at a park. As a district official, he attends a musical performance by Hanako's friend. Hanako and Koichiro look at each other across the room, and exchange smiles.

The movie is a statement against the shackles of aristocratic society that prevent both men and women from discovering themselves and relating to one another as authentic individuals. One can see that Koichiro is a man who finds independent women attractive. That's what had attracted him to Miki, and that's what makes his ex-wife newly attractive to him in a way she wasn't when she was playing her domestic role with docility.

For the gradual and convincing way it brought out the need for humans to live their lives without stifling social constraints, this movie gets a rating of 4 out of 5.

(Trivia: Miki's strikingly un-Japanese looks are because the actor Kiko Mizuhara is of mixed ethnicity. Her mother is Korean, and her father is American.)

Until The Break Of Dawn (The Japanese title is Tsunagu, which means "Connect")

I frankly wouldn't have watched this movie if I'd known how many times I'd have to reach for the tissue box. But having watched it, I have to say this was the best of the lot.

This was the only movie of the 6 I saw that dealt with the metaphysical. However, I see this as just a plot device to explore how we should see our lives.

The premise is that there are people called "connectors" who can allow living people to talk to a dead person. There is a limit of one meeting per person, both for the living and for the dead, so it is important for both to choose wisely. If a living person asks to connect with a dead person and the dead person refuses, then the living person has lost their only chance.

Ayumi, a young man who lives with his grandmother, does the legwork of connecting people. The grandmother is the actual connector. Ayumi escorts his clients to a hotel room where they meet with the person who is dead. The meeting only takes place on full moon nights, and at dawn, the dead person disappears for good.

The noble profession of the Connectors

The story is an exploration of regret in all its forms. At the end, Ayumi understands that his job is to facilitate the dead in comforting the living so they can move on.

Every client's story was deeply poignant. If I'd been watching it alone with no one else at home, I'd have been bawling like a baby.

I give it 4.5 out of 5.

What The Ukraine Crisis Tells Us About The US

The long-simmering Ukrainian crisis has erupted into open conflict. What does this tell us about the US, though?

A map of the Ukraine showing the Crimean peninsula (seized by Russia in 2014) and the two breakaway provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, where current fighting is concentrated

Let's look at three aspects of US behaviour leading up to this crisis.

1. The promise not to expand NATO

When the Soviet Union was collapsing, the US assured Gorbachev (both on its own and through Germany) that it would not seek to expand the borders of NATO eastwards.

We know what actually happened. The inclusion of East Germany into NATO as a result of German reunification was understandable, but then the following countries became NATO members too, and NATO's missiles moved closer and closer to Russia.

1. Czech Republic (1999), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact as Czechoslovakia
2. Hungary (1999), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact
3. Poland (1999), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact
4. Bulgaria (2004), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact
5. Estonia (2004), formerly part of the Soviet Union itself
6. Latvia (2004), formerly part of the Soviet Union itself
7. Lithuania (2004), formerly part of the Soviet Union itself
8. Romania (2004), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact
9. Slovakia (2004), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact as Czechoslovakia
10. Slovenia (2004), formerly part of neutral Yugolavia
11. Albania (2009), formerly part of the Warsaw Pact
12. Croatia (2009), formerly part of neutral Yugolavia
13. Montenegro (2017), formerly part of neutral Yugolavia
14. Macedonia (2020), formerly part of neutral Yugolavia

It's clear that the US adopted a winner-takes-all mentality against Russia, much like what the victors of World War I did to Germany through the Treaty of Versailles. We know how Germany reacted as a result of that oppressive treaty, so should Russia's reaction today be any surprise?

2. The support for democratic values

The US has always claimed to stand for democratic values against authoritarian regimes like Russia's.

But what actually happened in the Ukraine? There was a democratic election held in 2010, when Viktor Yanukovych defeated incumbent prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the race for president. Yanokovych's government therefore had legitimacy as a democratically elected one. However, Yanukovych's government was pro-Russia. In 2014, there were protests in Ukraine over the tilt towards Russia and away from Europe, and Yanukovych's elected government was deposed in a coup (not through an election) and replaced by one headed by Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This new government promptly signed an agreement with the EU.

Nobody knows if the protests against the Yanukovych government that culminated in his ouster were a genuine grassroots uprising or were engineered from outside, although one can hazard a guess.

In any case, it's clear that the US doesn't mind the ouster of a democratically elected government through a coup, as long as the change favours its own interests.

3. The promise of support against aggression

A lot of noise has been made by the US over the past few months over the imminent Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people were promised support against Russian aggression.

But what actually happened? In recent weeks, the US as well as its key European allies have ruled out sending troops to fight any invading Russian army, and have only threatened economic sanctions and support to Ukrainian insurgents. Once the invasion began, President Biden said that "the prayers of the entire world are with Ukraine".

It's clear that the US goads its vassal states into brinkmanship, but when the chips are down, they only send "thoughts and prayers". Not the most reliable ally. They deserted the Hmong in Vietnam, and they deserted their interpreters in Afghanistan. (Something for India to keep in mind as it takes on China with the imagined backing of the US.)

What the Ukraine crisis teaches us about the US

1. They're liars. Never believe them when they promise you something.

2. They're hypocrites. They do the opposite of what they claim to stand for.

3. They're impotent cowards. If you wade into battle on their behalf expecting them to back you up, good luck.

Indians Don't Understand History (Or, How India Can Reclaim Its Civilisational Destiny)

Synopsis:

Most Indians, even those who consider themselves savvy about current affairs, suffer from a shocking ignorance of India’s civilisational history.

The malaise afflicts analysts, commentators and policymakers as well, and it has serious negative consequences for the prospects of the Indian nation-state.

This paper lays out the scale of the problem, the impediments towards establishing a genuine civilisational narrative, and the epiphanies that can follow from such a narrative.

The implications for India’s foreign policy, and indeed India’s civilisational destiny, are mind-boggling.

Read the full document online on Medium, or download the PDF document from here.

Peninsular India as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. With a sixth of the world’s population and a commensurate share of the world economy, India’s strategic geographical location dictates that it be the pre-eminent Indian Ocean power and the flagship nation-state among the countries of the Indic civilisation

Indian Institutes Of Obscurantism? (Pronounced "Aiyaiyo") - My Critique Of A Blatantly Unscientific And Ideologically-Driven Embarrassment From IIT Kharagpur

As an alum of the IITs (BTech - IIT Madras, MTech - IIT Kanpur), I was embarrassed and dismayed to see a calendar from IIT Kharagpur (for 2022) that was riddled with pseudo-science, bad arguments, blatantly ideological narratives and unprofessional polemic.

Let me take a deep breath and find a suitable starting point.

There is a "Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS)" at IIT Kharagpur.

Under normal circumstances, I would welcome the establishment of such a department or organisation, since I believe there are many rough diamonds in Indian culture that are waiting to be investigated, tested, refined and given the respectability they deserve in the modern world. An external example of the kind of development I would like to see is the Nobel Prize-winning work of the Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou in 2015. Dr Tu rigorously investigated an ancient Chinese remedy for malaria and proved its efficacy through clinical trials. There are without doubt innumerable such elements within Indian culture, not just in Ayurveda, but also in other streams of thought, and so I would love to see an establishment like this Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems do the same for India.

Unfortunately, the stewardship of "Indian Knowledge Systems" seems to have been commandeered by right-wing Hindutva ideologists, who are doing great damage to the reputation of Indian Knowledge Systems by their unscientific and ideologically biased initiatives. Far from India getting the respect it deserves for its various intellectual contributions to the world, it is being reduced to a laughing stock thanks to the ham-fisted way in which these culture warriors are approaching this endeavour.

Indian Knowledge Systems in the capable hands of the Hindu Right
(Photo courtesy @renjithhadlee)

The calendar I am about to dissect takes up one aspect of this culture war, where it attempts to refute a bugbear of the Hindu right, i.e., the Aryan Invasion Theory.

[The calendar has not gone unnoticed, by the way. A number of people from scientific disciplines have poured scorn over it, including my good friend Seshadri Kumar in a brilliant and incisive post.]

As I have posted before, the reason why the Aryan Invasion Theory is anathema to the Hindu Right is that if it is proven that Hindu "Vedic" culture owes significant elements to sources external to India, then the ideological narrative of Muslims and Christians being cultural outsiders to a Hindu India is effectively torpedoed. It's nothing less than an existential battle for the Hindu Right, and the recent genetic findings establishing the basic validity of the Aryan Invasion Theory have put them in an extremely difficult position.

The calendar from IIT-KGP goes hammer and tongs against the Aryan Invasion Theory with a series of "evidences". [Although the word "evidence" is normally uncountable like "furniture", "evidences" is evidently an acceptable plural form in academic English. I'm still getting used to it, though.]

At the risk of providing further oxygen to this forgettable document, let me point out what is wrong with it. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and bad ideas are best defeated by good arguments, not by Cancel culture, so here goes.

Let me first deal with the things the calendar does well (from the perspective of its proponents):

1. It's visually arresting, with lots of colourful images;
2. It is superficially well-structured, and appears to build up a coherent argument based on "initial", "intermediate" and "final" evidences;
3. It uses a lot of scientific-sounding jargon in conjunction with Sanskritic terms, providing an impression that Hindu religious thought is based on science;
4. It carries the IIT brand, which should awe a lay reader who may lack the intellectual wherewithal to challenge its arguments.

Being an alum of the IITs myself, I am not awed, merely dismayed that one of these highly respected institutes could stoop to producing such pathetic drivel. So let's dive in.

Before I delve into the calendar page-by-page to address each of its flaws in detail, let me provide a high-level framework to understand the thrust of this document.

Here's my one-page critique of the calendar. Feel free to download and circulate this chart. I have released it under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licence.

The basic tool used by the calendar is a false "strawman" model, i.e., a dishonest representation of the Aryan Invasion Theory, which it then proceeds to demolish with "evidences".

Now let's go through it, page by page. It's painful, but also entertaining in its own way.

1. Initial Evidences

The first page engages in circular reasoning, by starting with an unproven accusation that the history of India's "Vedic" civilisation has been unfairly distorted by historians. "It must have taken a few 1000 years to achieve [a long evolutionary sequence of literature, and cultural and spiritual texts]". No proof is offered, just an appeal to the reader's sympathy that "it must have taken longer than what is credited". A number of emotive words are used - suppression, compromises, compressions, distortions, faults and biases.

The simplest explanation, of course, is that Vedic culture and literature indeed had much longer antecedents than 2000 years, but outside the Indian subcontinent. This is a possibility that the Hindu Right refuses to entertain.

Such an explanation would of course close the argument before it could even begin, hence the need for circular reasoning.

2. January (India's Sacred Space)

This page makes an important point that the Southern side of the Himalayas had not one but three riverine systems - the Indus valley, the Ganga-Gomati-Ghaghara valley, and the Brahmaputra (Sanpo) valley. There is a distinct possibility that the civilisational history of India prior to 2000 BCE included not just the famous Indus Valley Civilisation, but these two valleys as well.

However, while this is an important point, it is not a fatal flaw in the Aryan Invasion Theory. The references in the Rig Veda to the Gomati river are not dated. It is entirely possible that the Aryans swept through the Indo-Gangetic plain after overrunning the Indus Valley Civilisation, and that the references in the Rig Veda to these areas date from that period onward. Geographically, once the Hindukush mountains are crossed, there are few barriers to an invading army, and India's plains lie open and exposed. All three indigenous valley civilisations could have succumbed to an invader at about the same time.

3. February (Cyclic Time and Reincarnation)

This page is filled with such woo that it deserves to be dismissed with utter contempt.

"The constructs of space, time and causation is the bedrock of Vedic religious ideals."

This might impress some people, but it's a transparently pathetic attempt to make Hinduism appear like a "scientific" religion by throwing in some scientific-sounding terms.

"The law of causation is based on a chain of interdependence further based on subtle actions and reactions of the flow and value of work (Karma-vada) observed by an individual. The resultant is a chain of reincarnation, through transmigration and metempsychosis (Janmantar-vada) of souls at the cosmic level."

Souls, reincarnation, karma? This belongs in the realm of religion, not science. [Hello IITs, is this really you behind this calendar, or has your soul been possessed by some reincarnated demon? You're earning bad karma by violating your dharma as an institute devoted to science and technology, you know.]

"Rig Veda confirms that the life-principle of Agni as a chain (Vayu or Sutra-atman) over many lives (Jataveda) carrying its subtle repository of experiences (3rd Mandala 26.2-7)"

Oh, the Rig Veda "confirms" this, does it? An unimpeachable authority, no doubt. Is this meant to be a serious proof? A bit like Muslims claiming the Quran speaks the truth because it itself says so! [Dear IITs, if I had provided such a "proof" in one of my exam answer papers when I was studying within your hallowed portals, would you have given me anything other than a zero?]

"The science of Palingenesis constitute the essence and practice of Indian spirituality."

Palingenesis is a concept, not a science. It is a concept in theology and philosophy. In the science of biology, this concept (also called recapitulation) has been discredited.

Indian "spirituality" is emphatically not a science, just a set of unproven beliefs.

"The gnostic foundations of Indian spirituality is an alien or unknown element to civilizations in Europe, whether from the Caucasus Eurasia or from the Steppes. It is also missing in the Semitic foundations of religions practiced in the West and in the Middle East. Therefore, the invading Aryans, if any, had nothing to offer to the development of Indian Cosmology !"

First, a minor point. "Gnostic" sounds like a respectable term, but it is the very opposite of scientific. The Sanskrit term for gnosticism is "adhyatma vidya", or "knowledge from within". I.e., instead of observing a phenomenon and doing evidence-based research, one retreats into navel-gazing meditation and comes up with insights. It isn't very different from the Pope retreating to commune with God about important moral issues and re-emerging with a "divine" revelation over what needs to be done. Gnosticism is hardly a scientific approach, and should not be elevated to such a pedestal.

The important point here though, is that the prior existence of a gnostic tradition in India, even if true, does not refute the notion of an Aryan invasion, since the Aryan Invasion Theory only states that a fusion of cultures took place, not that Aryan culture replaced Dravidian culture and gave rise to Vedic thought all by by itself. [This is the strawman argument I referred to at the beginning.]

4. March (Law of Space-Time Causation)

This is again a repetition of the previous argument, that the Aryans did not have the concepts of "Yoga" or "gnostic foundations", and hence could not have been the progenitors of the Vedic culture.

But this is not a refutation of the Aryan Invasion Theory, because the theory postulates a fusion of Aryan and Dravidian cultures to form the Vedic culture. It is entirely possible that the Vedic culture draws its gnostic elements from the Dravidian culture, and other elements from the Aryan. [The strawman argument again.]

5. April (Non-linear Flow and Changes)

"The parable of the flow of seasons; an iteration of cycles of summer and winter, or spring and autumn are various allegories or metaphors. Chinese philosopher Confucius and Lao-Tzu have also used these parables."

The calendar seems to be arguing against itself here. If the concept of cyclical flow also exists in China, then there is nothing uniquely Indian about it.

"The cycle of the six seasons is the epitome of the wheel of life in the Vedas, and stands for the steadfast parable of a Eka-sringa (Unicorn) Rhinoceros in Buddhism, evident again and again in the Indus Valley seals."

This is a highly confused and confusing set of statements. What is the proof that the cycle of six seasons is the "epitome of the wheel of life in the Vedas"? Second, would the notion of cyclical seasons not be an obvious one to any culture? Third, what is the connection between a cycle and a unicorned rhinoceros? Fourth, how does the existence of a unicorned rhinoceros in the Indus Valley seals and the concept of an Eka-sringa rhinoceros in Buddhism together refute the Aryan Invasion Theory?

"The invading Aryans, if any, had no idea of these subtle constructs. It fulfills the disapproval of the invasion myth."

What "subtle constructs"? Any culture would know of the cycle of seasons. It is blindingly obvious and not subtle at all. And if the concept of the unicorned rhinoceros persisted from the Indus Valley civilisation through to post-Vedic Buddhism, then it simply means that this strand of Indian culture was contributed by the Dravidians rather than by the Aryans when the two cultures fused. It doesn't refute the influx of the Aryans. [Strawman argument again.]

6. Intermediate Evidences

The quote from Swami Vivekananda is an opinion, not a proof of any sort. He would say what he said, wouldn't he? My earlier blog post analyses the difficult conditions of his youth, which caused him to evolve his particular worldview.

"In what Veda, in what Sukta, do you find that the Aryans came into India from a foreign country?"

Genetics is stronger evidence than any Veda or Sukta, my dear Swami. I agree it's unfair to expect you to know about this, since these findings occurred after your time.

"The object of the peoples of Europe is to exterminate all in order to live themselves. The aim of the Aryans is to raise all up to their own level, nay, even to a higher level than themselves."

A self-congratulatory statement with zero evidence. And the Swami is using the term "Aryans" here to refer to what he believes to be an unbroken Indian civilisation. How confusing.

"In Europe, it is everywhere victory to the strong and death to the weak. In the land of Bhârata, every social rule is for the protection of the weak."

Which may explain the treatment of Dalits in Hindu society? Some protection!

7. May (Sacred Feminine - The Matrix)

"This tradition [of representing the nation as mother] is unknown to the West, where nations are hailed as fatherlands."

This assertion is easily refuted by counter-example. Russia, as a steppes culture that is most closely associated with the Aryans (there is a strong relationship between Russian and Sanskrit, both in vocabulary and in grammar), refers to the nation as a motherland, as do many other Western cultures. [There is also the tradition of referring to "Mother Earth" in the West, which is an inconvenient fact the calendar glosses over.]

Hence there is nothing unique about the concept of a Bharat-mata ("Mother India"). Russia has an exactly analogous concept of "Rodina-mat" (nation-mother). One could argue that this fact proves that the concept of the nation as mother came to India from the steppes pastoralists (Aryans)!

"Rig Veda (1.164.46) forwards the sovereign sutra of the unity in diversity, either as the principle of death i.e., YAMA, and that of Resurrection of life, earmarked as MATARISVAN."

It is not at all clear what "unity in diversity" or the "principle of death and resurrection" have to do with the "sacred feminine", or why this is somehow unique to Indian thought.

"E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one") is a well-known Latin phrase, and the phoenix is a mythical bird from Greek mythology that symbolises death and resurrection. [Dear IITs, what are you trying to say here? If I had used such logic in my exam proofs, wouldn't you have given me a zero?]

8. June (Unicorn - The Eka-Sringa Rishi)

So much confusion on just one page!

Unicorn-as-horse versus unicorned rhinoceros referred to on the April page - Make up your minds!

A "spinal column of light" "Neuro-physiologically, it is the spinal chord, the inner trunk of Yoga shoots above the eyebrow." There is nothing "neuro-physiological" about a "spinal column of light". The concept is just woo. [Dear IITs, you are making me cringe!]

"In Epic Ramayana and Early Buddhism, he is identified as Sage RisyaSringa."

As Seshadri Kumar has pointed out, sage Risyasringa was supposed to have the horns of a deer, and this had nothing to do with a unicorn!

9. July (Column of Cosmic Light & Aeons Of Time)

"The Colonial rules forged a different and skewed history, suppressing or misinterpreting Shiva as a Pre-Aryan Dravidian godhead isolated from portions of the Vedas."

Again, this assumes a manichean view of Aryan culture supplanting Dravidian culture to form Vedic culture, whereas the Aryan Invasion Theory postulates the fusion of the two, in which case all these "evidences" are hardly a refutation. [The strawman argument again.]

10. August (Cosmic Symmetry: The Septuplet Chord)

A number of different arguments are made here, which are not provably connected.

Duality is a common concept to many cultures. It is not unique to India.

The concept of seven elements (colours of the rainbow, musical notes, etc.) are again not unique to India but are found in other cultures too.

"They are portrayed as the giver of Madhu, the elixir of immortality, the very secret of inter-connectedness of consciousness in this universe. Thus Vedic Cosmology is a direct clue to philanthropy and altruism as against dialectics of racial superiority and inferiority, as promoted by Colonial historians."

This is drawing a long bow. The notion of givers of the elixir of immortality is not a proof that Vedic Cosmology is philanthropic and altruistic. On the contrary, the Hindu myth of the samudra-manthan that gave rise to amrit is marked by the deception of the asura race and their denial of this elixir in favour of the deva race. Does this not prove exactly what this calendar is trying to disprove, that the Vedic story of amrit represents the "dialectics of racial superiority and inferiority"?

It's ironical that the calendar would choose to highlight the giving of the elixir of immortality (amrit) as an example of non-racial altruism. The well-known story is that amrit was given only to one racial group (the fair-skinned and clean-shaven devas) and denied to another (the swarthy and hirsute asuras). Even the physical portrayal of the two groups in popular art is telling.

"But the objectives of the Aryan Invasion is one of aggression, genetic superiority by race and skin color. The gospel of the Vedas is based on principles of adaptation, acceptance and assimilation; where as the Aryan invasion myth is based on aggression, invasion and extermination of other races ! They do not match."

This is a weak argument based on appeal to emotion. Why can a period of aggression not be followed by a philosophical period where assimilation and acceptance are emphasised? This is hardly an "evidence".

11. Final Evidences

After the damp squib of the initial and intermediate "evidences", there isn't much hope that the final evidences are going to be any better. And as we look at the last four months of the calendar, the set of "final evidences" turns out to be nothing more than an exercise in conspiracy theorising about why the colonialists came up with the Aryan Invasion Theory. [Sneak preview: The colonialists were culturally insecure, unlike us proud Hindus!]

12. September (Why An Aryan Invasion Myth Was Forged)

"The colonial invaders, from the Portuguese to the British, were shaken by the striking similarity between millions of words evident in Indian languages and others in the European Tree of Linguistics. So they had to forge an Indo-European Language system, and further design a history of invading in-migration prior to the Buddha, Plato and Lao-Tzu. They proposed that the superior Colonial rulers invaded the inferior India the second time in 17th century! What an audacity and arrogance!"

Why is this "audacity and arrogance"? Isn't linguistic similarity a sufficient basis for postulating a migration in one direction or another? Since you accept that there is a "striking similarity between millions of words [...] in Indian languages and [...] the European Tree of Linguistics", what alternative explanation would you offer for this phenomenon? Given that the "Out of India Theory" has been comprehensively discredited by genetics, the only plausible theory that remains is a migration into India from outside. Isn't it logical? Sorry, but I fail to see any "audacity and arrogance" here. I only see your cultural insecurity on display.

13. October (Equivalence in Semantics and Semiotics)

"The colonial invaders were also shaken and shocked by the extent of similarities. They had to quickly maneuver and recast a story of Asiatic Invasion via the Caucasus and Central Steppes to prove a one-way flow of culture and sciences from the West to the East."

This reads like a thriller novel. The colonial invaders were "shaken and shocked", not merely intrigued. They had to "quickly maneuver". To avoid what catastrophic outcome exactly?

If the Hindu revivalists wanted to paint a picture of an insecure culture, they could have just used a mirror instead. The desperation in their "evidences" comes across, exclamation marks and all.

14. November (Aggression and Imperialism - An Invasion)

"From a system of philology and linguistics to racial primacy"

The calendar takes issue with Western academics drawing unwarranted conclusions from linguistics to postulate theories about race, especially concepts of racial superiority.

In a generic context, one could of course critique the drawing of racial inferences from mere linguistic similarities, but with modern genetic research having established the existence of separate genetic groups that migrated into India in several waves, the hypothesis of distinct racial groups has been vindicated. Even if the motives of the colonialists in postulating an Aryan Invasion were self-serving, that theory, for better or worse, has now been proven. Those who believe in evidence-based research [Hello, IITs!] should accept evidence even if they personally hate it.

And just so we're clear, accepting the fact of an Aryan Invasion of India does not equate to an acknowledgement of the superiority or inferiority of any group, so you can get that chip off your shoulder.

15. December (Aryan Fallacy and The Two World Wars)

The calendar blames racial theories behind both world wars whereas it is only true of the Second World War, as Seshadri Kumar has pointed out. The causes of the First World War have been well researched and established, and these had nothing to do with racial theories. Even with the Second World War, race was not the only casus belli. Resentment over the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles was probably a bigger contributor. The calendar is drawing a really long bow here in its attempt to gather supporting evidences.

16. Epilogue (The Story of Civilisation)

The page features a collection of books dealing with much later periods than the time of the Aryan Invasion (2000 BCE). It is not clear what purpose this serves apart from furthering the polemic about "East versus West".

The poetic quote by Swami Vivekananda is a hopeful statement about the resurgence of Eastern civilisations. It is not a proof of the superiority of "Indian Knowledge Systems".

16. Centre of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS)

The term "Indian Knowledge Systems" is itself vague and non-rigorous, and not at all what I had hoped it would mean. As this calendar disappointingly demonstrates, a lot of its elements are in the realm of belief and philosophy, not evidence-based science. Any superstition can be defended as a "knowledge system" using this logic.

The page lists the rogue's gallery of all those responsible for this execration. I'm surprised they couldn't coopt Deepak Chopra. I suspect he's a fraud of a much higher league who doesn't want to be associated with relative amateurs.

Sanjeev Sanyal is unfortunately part of this cabal. I had great respect for him at one time as an author of several important books on Indian history. Alas, he has compromised his intellectual integrity and crossed over to the side of the culture warriors.

I suspect that Rajiv Malhotra is the eminence grise behind this centre. He's probably staying in the shadows and advising them on how to take on the Western academics using their own tools of the trade. I remember him psychoanalysing Wendy Doniger using "Chakra hermeneutics", which was a good example of setting a fraud to catch a fraud. The verbal diarrhoea of important-sounding nonsense words on every page of this calendar bears his stamp.

"Induction of an advanced scientific methods of exploration and investigation – GPR based exploration; Laser induced breakdown spectroscopies and Photo-luminescence dating; Paleo radiology, CT computer tomography and micro-CT scans and Kirlian imagery; Paleo-botany and advanced geo-hydrological exploration studies; Decoding NLP and allied methods of language sciences using Sanskrit based on HMI and Natural language Processing algorithms; Advanced satellite imagery studies in landscape exploration; Image processing and advance visual software driven decoding of Iconographic exploration (semantics and semiotics); Exploration of advanced electrical sciences in health, healing, therapeutic and noetic science driven techniques; and many more."

Such a long list of technologies! So impressive! Wait a minute, did you just say "Kirlian imagery"? [Ah IITs, you were doing fine until that point. Mixing pseudo-science with science is never a good idea.]

To sum up, if this sort of nonsense goes on for much longer, I might have to hide the fact that I'm a double graduate of the IITs. I never thought this day would come.