Is our pursuit of knowledge Dharmic?
A few days ago, I began watching a Tamil movie - கெணத்தை காணோம் - 'The Well is missing' - The title is based on a popular comedy sequence. The movie is about a parched village, its people, an accidental discovery of a dinosaur fossil and its consequences. It has rustic village humor and portrays people as they are - lazy, some of them cunning, indifferent bureaucracy and brutal police. In the past 5-7 years, Tamil movies are marked by sob stories of common man being wronged by the "system". There has been consistent propaganda against the state (that is Bharat as a nation), its system and governments. This movie comes close. The hero, a sculptor and the disinterested priest in the local temple offers his land to dig a well for the villagers' benefit. While digging, the villagers find fossils of a dinosaur. The government departments get alerted. An ambitious and cunning researcher and her (archaeology) department are shown as the vil...