Annies Dream !!

In 1988, Arundhati Roy wrote the story and screenplay for In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones, a low-budget production produced and directed by Pradip Krishen. The film had almost no big names, and was shown just once on national television in a late-night slot, when few people saw it. Despite this it acquired near cult status, especially among young English-speaking urban Indians.

Set in a not-so-fictional school of Architecture in the year 1974, it is the story of dope-smoking, bellbottom-wearing, vaguely idealistic final-year students in the run up to the submission of their architectural theses. The main character, Annie—Anand Grover—doing his ninth year in college, is a misguided visionary who breeds chickens in his hostel room and is in love with a small-time cabaret dancer. There are also Radha, a bright, brash and not-so-sweet young thing, and her boyfriend Arjun; Mankind, and his Ugandan roommate Kasozi, who grinds his teeth when he dreams of Idi Amin; Lekha, who doesn't hesitate to trade coyness for marks; and Professor Y.D. Bilimoria, whom the students call Yamdoot—the messenger of the God of Death. Also a character in the film, perhaps the most important, is English as she is spoken by students in Delhi University - ‘an alloy, melted down and then re-fashioned, soldered together with Hindi (occasionally even a little Punjabi).

Many adventures later, the day to submit the thesis draws near, and Annie, urged by his friends, apologises to Yamdoot. A panel of judges call the students one by one for their final interviews and the tension mounts. Radha goes dressed in a saree but wears a man's hat to detract from her sober attire. To make sure that Annie gets a sympathetic hearing from the hostile panel, Radha and Arjun work out a plan. Just when Annie is called in, Yamdoot receives a phone call from his dominating deep-voiced mother, in actuality Mankind. The trick works and the weary panel gives Annie a good grade.

At the party after the graduation ceremony Annie arrives with heavy books under his arm, his hair shaved off and a butterfly painted on his head! He informs his friends that he has decided to study law and then sue Yamdoot. But subsequently, Annie joins the staff at the architecture school and, when Yamdoot retires, even becomes the Head of the Department of Design!

Towards the beginning of the film, Annie is explaining his Thesis topic, as an idea to cultivate a running length along the thousands of km of land along the railway lines of India. He suggests that the area, which is already extremely "fertile" can be easily watered by attaching a water carriage to each long distance train, which can easily sprinkle water on the trees. :) This idea was mocked and laughed at by "Yamdoot" and others as being immature and unworkable....

Now 18 years later, Annnies dream has finally taken fruit (or vegetables)....

Three cheers for crazy Ideas!!

Heres To Annie.... and the many others who are till today.... following in his shoes....




WESTERN RAILWAY TO GROW VEGETABLES TO PREVENT ENCROACHMENT
Mumbai, 17 December 2007
The Economic Times

In a bid to prevent encroachment of its lands, Western Railway will grow vegetables along rail tracks.
"It has been decided to allow growing vegetables along the tracks to save it from encroachers. Though the scheme for availing the land for growing vegetables is open to all, we prefer railway employees avail the offer," a senior Western Railway official said.
The official said the Railway had already allowed a few of its employees to grow vegetables in some of the land recovered from encroachers in Mumbai after payment of a "nominal amount" as licence fee.
Railways is one of the biggest landowners in the country with 4.23 lakh hectares of surplus land out of which 42,846 hectares is vacant and located along the rail tracks.