various rambling thoughts

Sacred Hindu vs. voluptuous TOI

2012-02-02T07:53:00.001+05:30

Many of us would have been highly amused at the recent and on-going war of ads between the two newspapers – the venerable “The Hindu” and the king of media - “Times of India”.

Times of India has been trying to penetrate the bastion of “The Hindu” in Tamil Nadu. The marketing and brand manager would have done his 4P exercises and realized that Hindu has an image of being somewhat cerebral and therefore deemed dense by the segment eyed by TOI. This is when they came up with this ad

TOI has been getting a lot of flak on social media for this ad for being tasteless. I am not a fan of TOI but I think that this is a smart ad. TOI is not targeting the reader who wants to read an analysis of the Syrian situation or how Chavez is transforming Venezuela. The typical TOI reader is the type of reader who would read a typical tabloid in London. This is the reader who wants a twitter style news. TOI gives it to them and these readers would give attention to this ad

Coming to “The Hindu”, I have loved their response to this. If TOI had mocked the brains behind the editorials of Hindu, those same brains have come out with an aggressive ad response that completely turns around the logic of the TOI ad. These were the ads…Hilarious!!!

The Hindu ad says this - “Yes, we are cerebral. We are like that only. And if you are like one of these people in our ad, we don't really want you as a subscriber”

It has been quite entertaining but the fact remains that both have made their position clear, which was clear from the beginning itself. I mean the supplement of TOI in Delhi - “Delhi Times” is becoming the same size as main newspaper and the front page of TOI will have something that Hindu will deem fit for a deep inside page. Hindu on the other hand is an epitome of the best in Indian journalism.

The reader who wants entertainment will subscribe to TOI and the ones who want to understand what's happening around them will subscribe to the Hindu. That's has been their respective positioning all along and their business model. That's just been reaffirmed by their ad

But its been a really entertaining duel!!

Technorati Tags: The hindu,TOI,Times of India,advertisement,ad,war,ad war,war of ads,india

Inshallah Kashmir - Why this needed was to be banned and why you need to see this…

2012-01-31T19:41:00.001+05:30

Banned in India by the ever faithful Big Brother of a censor board, the director took the unprecedented step of releasing this online (apparently there is no law against releasing something online…yet). Ashvin actually opened it up for download for one day – on 26th January, the Republic Day. That’s quite a symbolic gesture!!

And once you see this you know why…

Which is why you need to see it

It has been the practice of all governments to try and dictate what we must see and hear and there us always an effort by all governments to make the public buy into their version of current and historical events.

And there has been an increasing virulence of intolerance by self-appointed patriots whose sense of injustice bleed too easily. Look at what happened to Symbiosis university’s Kashmir seminar “Voices of Kashmir”, which was cancelled due to the ‘fatwa’ by the right wing fringe.

And Kashmir is one topic which will always invoke strong reactions. And this is one topic which will always see an effort to give the ‘official’ version of the story

In Kashmir, Ashvin Kumar has taken different interviews from a wide variety of people to give a very different perspective of Kashmir, different from what the self-censored mainstream media would not give.

Through the interview, Ashvin talks gives a feel of the history of Kashmir and why so many things that we see today has roots in events that happened long time ago, even as long ago as Akbar. But more recently due to the allegedly rigged elections in 1990. During the whole length, all the topics, deemed too controversial for our sensitive ears are brought into the open – rigged elections, army and police brutality, excesses on civilians, mainstream indifference, the Kashmiri Pandit exodus

The people interviewed include ex-militants, current militants, former Kashmir administrator Wajahat Habibullah, Nobel nominated activist Parveena Ahangar (who has struggled for two decades to raise attention to thousands of missing people, or as she calls it ‘enforced disappearances’), Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, a Hindu Pandit couple who were kidnapped by militants

Perhaps the most controversial interview was that of women of village of Kunan Poshpura, who were raped by the Indian army personnel on 23rd February 1991.

It is almost taboo in India to talk about excesses by the Indian Security forces, as if they are somehow fundamentally different from armies in rest of the world. In a situation of warfare where you have absolute control over life and death decisions, its a power that corrupts easily. So to expect the Indian army to somehow be made of supermen of morals is to believe a whole hypocrisy.

There were no holy cows who were spared. Its not only the army and the Indian government who are brought to the dissecting tables, the people on the other side – the militants are brought here too.

Ashvin tries to show that there are no good guys or bad guys. There are only situations and there is only human nature. People, be they the idealistic youth who took to militancy or the common soldier, act according to the prism they are shown. The militants see the Indians as invaders who use guns to silence Kashmir. The soldiers see the militants as an extension of Pakistan, the enemy who is an enemy because they always have been.

Importantly, what ‘Inshallah Kashmir’ catches brilliantly are the ordinary people who are caught in the middle. The women searching for 20 years for their missing children, husbands and brothers, who are all most certainly dead. The women who were raped just because they were vulnerable enough. The aspiring young cartoonist who was made to feel a terrorist in his country’s capital just because he was Kashmiri, the budding cricketer who lost a leg just because he was caught in a demonstration, the militant who was disillusioned with both sides of the conflict, the kidnapped couple who helped their captors escape because they understood that the army could not…

Inshallah Kashmir shows that that we are far from making any solutions in Kashmir. Instead of winning over people, we are subjecting a new generation of Kashmiris to only one image of India – that of a rifle and Army boots. How can we make it better from that?

The documentary has a very raw feel to it – almost as if the director wanted to maintain the immediacy of the videos taken. It is almost as if its something that you could have taken. Its one the main reasons you get drawn to ‘Inshallah Kashmir’. It puts you behind the camera and brings you into the lives of the people that the censor board didn't want you to see…

It is important that you see this. Its good to have your beliefs challenged.

Catch the whole documentary here…

Technorati Tags: Kashmir,Inshallah Kashmir,India,controversy,indian army,army,militancy,ashvin kumar,documentary

Boat Grandma etc

2011-12-04T11:37:00.001+05:30

What is it about an old place where you spent your childhood? No matter where and how far you go, physically or in time, evoking the place, through snatches of conversations or a special smell in the air, seems to bring on a magical sense of primordial peace and a clawing yearning

What is it about the old place then? What is it that is invoked when an old incident is recalled? What is it that makes up nostalgia anyway?

Visiting Nivedita Enclave, where I spent my entire childhood and teenage years, to attend one of my oldest friend’s ‘aiburobhat’ (literally a bachelors last lunch!!), the day before he left for Kolkata to get married, I visited one of the ‘old timers’ of the colony, a couple who live near my house. The woman I know only as ‘Nouko dida’ (boat grandma), a name I made up because she used to make paper boats for me when I was well, very small.

Our memory has a way of creating a frozen slow moving images of people whom we meet seldom but many times over a long time – an image here, a glimpse there. Mostly I remember Nouko dida as she used to watch me and my brother play cricket on afternoons, standing by her window, with one hand slightly stretched outside. The earliest memory of her I have is in a warmly lit drawing room, place buzzing with conversations and laughter and clinking of glasses and spoons. I remember a lamp on the side and her sitting on a chair beside it. I don’t remember if she made a boat for me then but I like to think that she did.

That was probably more than twenty four years ago. Two decades has been a short time when the days are counted, a very long time when memories are measured. Twenty four years is time enough to see a lot of certainties depleted, a lot of childhood comforts turn into cold realism, a lot of invincible grown-ups people to magically transform into mortals.

When I visited them now, we were glad to see each other as we had been glad to see each other always. Only I would not get any paper boats made for me. This time, for them, I, the visit, was the comfort and the giver of joy. Twenty four years is a long long time. Long enough to reverse who gives what

They would be leaving soon. In March, to Kolkata. For good. The housed that housed the boat grandmother would be sold to someone who knew nothing of that 5 year old who loved getting paper boats in the house. They were moving because they did not feel a part of the people around anymore. Too many people have gone away for good. The new ones, they just didn’t know how to be friends with, don’t know whether their child would love paper boats.

Memory is populated with people and people only. Memory of a mountain, of a brick wall, of a lane is linked with who you were with, even if that person was only you. When the people go, the bricks and paved stones become just that

Maybe that is why I was seeing ghosts – of all people who had walked the streets of Nivedita enclave and would never walk again, as I made my way outside the colony, where my car was parked. But new memories were being created. My friend was coming back from Kolkata with one…

Rupert and Amy – till death do us apart…

2011-07-24T18:59:00.001+05:30

So Amy Winehouse is dead..at the incredibly ominous age of 27, the age which claimed Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison and Cobain…While that age number merits an all new blog article of its own, this post is about a small thought I had when I read about the Amy’s death in the papers today…

In space of about a week, NOTW died and then Amy died…almost coincidentally symbiotic…

The media that pushes them to stardom, only to earn profit by completely feeding on creating images false and partly true…the talents that need the media to give them an identity only to make a devil’s deal…

Its tragic all around but that's what goes…

NOTW will have a new successor…so will Amy…when it has been decided what we public need to read or hear, be sure that there will be substitutes very soon…

Well, Amy…look at it this way…the media which killed you will also immortalize you in the hall of fame of “Dead at 27”…The next quiz question will be about you…

del.icio.us Tags: Amy Winehouse,Rupert murdoch,NOTW,News of the world,culture,music

The case of the Old Warrior and his price…

2011-01-09T20:31:00.001+05:30

So this truly is the end of Sourav Ganguly as we know him best – the bat in his hand, pads on feet and the classic charge down the pitch for the lofted six – stuff now to be seen only on YouTube videos, never live again…

Emotions are running high now and will remain on boil for some time to come – especially among the easily excitable Bengalis who see this as a personal snub…how dare some movie stars and corporates not see fit to take on Ganguly, they ask. How can they measure his worth in money, they ask then. Which is where I need to ask some questions as well…

In the midst of so many conflicting emotions (the twitter updates on Ganguly have really spiked in the last couple of hours), it is often difficult to find a neutral position. And especially when I have been and will always be a avid fan of Ganguly – for me, not only of the best cricketer but also the most complete leader of men that cricket has produced in this country.

But life goes on, has to go on and Ganguly of all people, should have realized by now that there is a time to take a last stand and a time to slide gracefully into the sunset. There is a time for brave stubbornness and a time for pragmatism. The gunslinger past his prime will be eventually shot down by the younger one. Fact of life.

Before we start berating the rich smug corporate czars and the movie stars for demeaning a legend, let us ask ourselves an uncomfortable question – was Ganguly a willing participant or was he not?

In fact, he increased his base price before the bidding began, (which may have actually been the last nail in his coffin), which may or may not be a last attempt to rake in the money before the end of a career.

Lets face it – he, along with everybody, was in this for money. Period.

So lets not keep shouting that this money fest is demeaning to cricketers and to cricket. For better or for worse, every sport is eventually about money. That's what gives us the spectacle that cricket enthusiasts have been lapping up for the last three years.

Its quite simple – if you don't like, don't watch it, don't give the advertisers your money or the event your attention. If it goes for us, it goes for Ganguly. But then, he wanted to be a part of it.

And when you are a part of it, you play by the rules.

And the rules of this particular game is this – This is a young man’s game, this is a game that calls not for class or even talent but for brutal quickie power, this is a game not played for pride or glory or even for sportsmanship or country – its played for money

It is not – a place where legends will be feted and celebrated for their own sake – if you haven't played for some time, you cant hit em out of the ground from the first ball, a place where huge egos can be pampered

Which then brings us to the next question that is being asked – How dare they they think Ganguly was not good enough? After all, he was one of the big scorers in IPL3.

Well, he may be good enough or maybe not. After all, he has not played cricket in a long time – long, short or the Blitz versions. So let me play the classical trick of turning the tables and putting your money on it. If it was your $4m and you had a choice of Ganguly with his legend or two players with $2m each but who are battle ready, and you stand to gain if your team won and lose if your team loses, which way would you go? At such times, the head easily wins non? So lets not blame easily…

So yes, it is a disappointing way to hang up your cricket bat but hey it was a war out there and Ganguly lost fair and square (though conspiracy theorists will undoubtedly see one in this one as well – we all have ways to deal with disappointments!!).

I do not believe that this is a disgrace. We, Ganguly’s fans should be confident of the one we admire. Ganguly’s accomplishments are enough to wipe out this distressful day. The man who turned around Indian cricket cannot be disgraced by an event, which in the final analysis, is not much more than a extravagant gully cricket tournament.

Long after the cheerleaders have packed up and gone, long after the after-match parties (which will still be more important than the match itself) have faded into the dawn, long after the fixers have gone home with their booties and long after people will stop giving a damn about the advertisement fuelled match adrenaline, the vision of Ganguly’s waving of his shirt above his head will still define the spirit of Indian cricket…

My Captain, my Captain…Adieu…

Technorati Tags: Sourav Ganguly,Ganguly,cricket,India,sports,IPL,IPL 4,auction,KKR,Bengalis

Sedition of the good doctor

2010-12-24T23:45:00.001+05:30

Binayak Sen was convicted today for ‘sedition’ by the ‘justice’ system of this country. People around the world are appalled that such a thing can happen in the largest ‘democracy’ in the world…

It would almost be abnormal today, in this seemingly ethically ambiguous world, to not feel a sense of hilarity when such heavy words are used with such seriousness. You feel like laughing out loud and then bang your head on the wall…Mr Assagne, you of course understand, dont you?

Dont you know, Mr Sen, that it is sedition to protest against what one considers injustice and it is sedition to care for the people who have been forgotten even by the democratic vote-seekers. It is also traitorous to speak up publicly. All this makes you an enemy of the state…dangerous anti-social…they called you a terrorist too, didnt they?

The justice of this country…they needed to make an example of you. Just like they are making an example of people who have stashed away millions nay billions from sports events or from telecom spectrum or even from onions. You see what I am getting at my good doctor?

There is a saying – Kill a man, you are a murderer. Kill millions, you become a general. Maybe you never heard of it…

If you had, you would not have been in a filthy jail for so many years…nah…you would have had merely a parlamentary committee set up against you (that too after many protests!!) and you would have been busy preparing bytes for our 24 hours news channel, between their reality show updates of course.

Maybe your mistake was in being upfront about it all. Maybe you believed in the balderbash about the essential goodness of it all – you know, humanity, justice, fairness…fraternity, equality and liberty and all that and you know how that one ended up!!!

No Mr Sen, its all your fault. They are right, spot on. People like you just keep cropping up and you just dont learn. You should have really taken up arms against the state or done something really traitorous. Then you would have had politicians lining up at your door so you can help them win elections. Like you were right now, you were of no use to anyone, dont you see that?

And what the world has no use for, it punishes. Ah well, justice meted out wont you say, my good doctor?

Mr Sen, you are already old news…Ah well, time to turn to the sports page…

Technorati Tags: Binayak sen,Binayak,Sen,justice,India,prisoner,Maoist,doctor,tribal,jail,chattisgarh,convicted

The Game for Life…

2010-07-25T00:11:00.001+05:30

World Cup is gone…long live World Cups!!!

Its only been a few days since the void has started to get filled up..the void that inevitably comes after the end of what is arguably the most awaited one month in four years. A month when TVs are switched on no matter what the hour is and you hold your breath as fame and infamy exchange hands within seconds…

World Cup South Africa 2010 was the sixth world cup for me and over the years, no matter where I have been or what I have been doing, the one month becomes a time when nothing beyond the action in front of me matters. I must have sounded like a zombie on the phone with G since at that point of time my heart beat with Forlan and his magical left foot…

In life, we have various yardsticks with which we mark our time and which we use to look back and say ‘Aha’, that's when I was there and did that.

Four years is a long time for someone who is growing up…a time when circumstances around you are shed and you come out as a completely different person. Your thoughts and opinions about the world around you and the people in it change. You have moments when you grow up suddenly, you have heartbreaks, get over them (sometimes overnight), you read books that change you for life, you meet people who mark you for life and you discover things about yourself that you may or may not like…

But in the end, when the next world cup comes around, you have done your time and its time sit and cheer for your team. You also realize that like so much of your memories so many cherished players have become a part of the past.

For me, World cup started with Maradona and the Roger Milla dance, a world cup that I ended with tears along with Maradona. I remember the incredible vibe around my house as the tournament started. Its my great luck that I was born in a family where everyone watched sports together (especially two things – World Cup and the other – Ganguly batting!!) and that was like a virus that I caught onto…

That was Italia 1990 and the world cup that I remember wolfing down magazines (this was 8 years before internet came into the house and atleast 10 years before any more-than-humble surfing can be done) which offered any information about what was happening around me. I remember reading and re-reading about the heroes of the past – the Peles, Garrinchas, Cryuffs, Lev Yashins, Kempes, De Stefanoes, Eusebios, Pushkas ; the heartbreaks of the past – Netherlands’ defeats in consecutive finals with arguably the best team, Hungary’s defeat in the finals after being unbeaten for four years and subsequent decline after the revolution, Garrinchas death in penury and so on…

By the time the next one came up, old heroes had slipped and new ones came up, probably my first lesson that sports taught me about life – things change and we must go on. Milla’s dance was gone and Maradona was soon to go, in shame. Aryton Senna was to go too, in a car crash. That world cup was to be of Romarios and the dance was to belong to Bebeto and the tears belonged to Roberto Baggio…

I saw that world cup half in Calcutta and half in my home. My dad, uncle (who had gotten married in between the cups) and brother stayed up to watch the finals and I remember recording the final on VCR. Baggio’s thundering kick which missed the post by a mile will probably always remain indelible in my mind – a sign of how you can be the best player in the world and yet be remembered forever for one bad penalty kick. The golden cup is unforgiving to those who fall by the wayside…

1998 France was the time when it was my tenth boards. But studies were to take a complete break as Zidane unleashed his magic to power the Les Blues to their first world cup, the first new champion since 1978. This time the tears were Brazilian and glory was of the team that signified ethnic unity in a former imperial power. Almost a fitting end to the last world cup of the century which saw its first in 1930 between two world wars!

2002 S Korea and Japan. I was done with my school long back and had started on a good boy’s career path– engineering after a hard fought battle with various entrance exams. There was a creeping feeling that there were too many distractions in life, time seemed short, a good career seemed suddenly a holy grail to a perfect life and life seemed to be suddenly in too much of a hurry.

Yet, everything was swept aside as time stood still for that one month. The hero of the last millennium, France, went out shamed in the group stage without scoring a goal and Brazilians and Ronaldo had the last laugh. Asia came into its own with S Korea reaching the semis defeating Italy and Spain. Africa again flattered to deceive as Senegal went out in a heartbreaking golden goal decision. Asia had its first world cup and Indians had to be content with the knowledge that India had once qualified back in the 1950s.

2006 Germany saw me with my first job after engineering in Kolkata (Cities, even if names, too change between world cups!!) working away as the greatly glorified job of being the genius third world technical problem solver for US MNCs, at a company that prided itself at having no Indian clients and whose employees prided in working in a company that was listed in NASDAQ.

Ah well, all cynicism were swept away as France, the model of ethnic unity 8 years before, now torn by ethnic strife and rise of anti-immigrant politics, looked to heroically regain glory with a visibly ageing team. A task that they almost magically grasped before footballs most famous header took it away from them. I had to hurry home from work to watch the matches on a small 14” TV in my one room guesthouse in Salt Lake. The good part was that I did not have to make any excuses to hurry home. Bengalis being Bengalis, it was an unspoken and tacit agreement throughout the city and indeed the whole state!!

In a sign of how rapidly things can change in four years, especially for those ‘starting off in their lives’, the next world cup was to see me in Shimla after having completed my MBA and having already started to feel a bit older after a heavily eventful four years. But the excitement has only grown, visibly. Forlan’s free kicks and Spain’s golden boys made the four year wait more than worthwhile. What made it even more enjoyable was the realization that I may not have been around to see it at all!!!

The gap between each World cup was filled to the brim with life that can only be appreciated by a rear view mirror. I have lost and gained so much – so many thoughts, so many convictions, so many dreams and so many people.

Each world cup seems a metaphor to me of life that goes on – enjoy while it lasts. You wonder where you would be as the next opening game kicks off and with whom. But I can promise one thing – I would still be loving every minute of it!!!

del.icio.us Tags: football,soccer,world cup,growing up,sports,history,india

History witnessed – Slovakia defeats Italy

2010-06-25T20:21:00.001+05:30

There are some sporting moments that become marked in the collective memory of the world and which become iconic events, burnt deep into the history of the game. They are talked long after the shock, bewilderment and the euphoria has died down.

And decades down the line, people will talk in wonder about the spectacle that was. They will wonder whether they would be able to watch anything like it themselves – watch it as it unfolds, live or being physically present, not necessarily knowing at the start that they are living in a historic sporting moment but knowing fully by the end of it…

Then there will be people who would have seen it live, as it unfolded before their eyes, as history was created in their lifetime, people who were privileged to have been there, in the right place and the right time. These people would remember the moments vividly, moments when their blood would be throbbing and they would be on their feet, all aches and worries of this world forgotten…

Yesterday, I was one of the lucky millions who was a part of such a moment. And the magic was provided by one of the most extraordinary game of football that I have ever seen.

Slovakia, World Cup debutantes, with no victory in their first two matches, against all odds, defeated the defending champions Italy 3-2 in a pulsating match that had one of the most intense last 10 minutes of football ever seen. Italy ended up at the end of the group, below New Zealand!!! Who would have thought that when the world cup started? Italy and France, the finalists in 2006 WC are both out (both defeated by so called minnows – France eliminated by South Africa)

It may be a pivotal moment in world football, which in a world cup marked by many upsets (and we are still in group stages), a moment which may herald the coming of age of footballing nations which played second fiddle to the great footballing nations (Later, in the night, Japan defeated Denmark 3-1, crashing them out, first time the Danes had gone out of group stages).

It was a game that Italy had to win or atleast draw to get a safe passage into the round of 16. And everyone gave the Italians thumbs up. After all, that's how the Azzuris have their history – they are slow starters but they eventually come good. This time, the law of averages caught up with them.

For the game review, read this from the Fifa site (if the link does not work, click here)

And see the goals and the highlights of this game which along with being a historical landmark also had its more than fair share of drama and controversy (can the two be ever separate, I wonder)

The snippets and the highlights can only capture a small part of the drama of the live action when every second seemed heavily pregnant with possibilities of the game swinging any which way. The late surge by the Italians was wonderful to watch and your heart went out to the Italians as they realized the nightmare that they are living through and the nightmare that most of them would carry all their lives, this being the last world cup for the majority of the ageing Italian team.

And what better way to capture the moments than by posting some of the pivotal moments of the game, a game that would live long in the memory of those lucky to witness it…

Slovakia vs. italy 2010 WC from protik basu on Vimeo.

Perhaps the most poignant photo of all is of Cannavaro, walking back in the proverbial sunset but with no happy ending, an end that no-one would have wanted but that's the way the game goes…

del.icio.us Tags: football,world cup,slovakia,italy,upset,goals,group stage 2010,south africa

The Illusion of Free will

2010-05-16T12:18:00.001+05:30

I have always found it fascinating how a single frame picture can capture what wise men have burrowed through tomes to bring forth…the power of the picture, the power of pure imagery…

del.icio.us Tags: satire,picture,free will,cartoon,philosophy

The flag waving popcorn slayer…

2010-04-27T00:30:00.001+05:30

I have been meaning to write on this subject for some time now, ever since I left Bombay…

The subject is of the practice of having the national anthem played before the start of a movie…

Of course, mob mentality and pre-consciousness societal teaching being what it is, we all stand up and sing along with our gazes upturned to a digital flag waving a few feet from our faces…

We feel patriotic and dutiful and yes comfortably conventional…even if we sit down to watch ‘Striptease’ after that…

So what is it that gets my goat?

Is it the faux patriotism? or is it the truism of the Churchill statement that patriotism is the last refuge of the fool? A bit of both, i admit…I sat resolutely at the last movie I saw, to the staring eyes from those around me…but here are the reasons why I had had enough…

Its a godamn trap…I felt like i was a part of the novel 1984, where you are watched and you have to show patriotism and obedience or else! You are boxed in and everyone stands up because, well, your mom taught you to…I don't like being forced into situations which demand a certain behaviour from me without asking my choice…If I don't have a choice, I would rather be a stubborn child than a lawful coward

What is the whole freaking point anyway? To make fine upstanding gentry of us (or the unknown citizen, as Auden would have put it)? To ensure that we don't become terrorists? To trust the government and believe them to be the good guys because they put the flag on the screen? so that we don't forget the words of the anthem?

I may not go literally with Lennons utopian – imagine there's no country. But I believe in the essence…we draw borders and imagine the enclosure to be home…in essence, we are just glorified mobile wielding primitives dancing to the chieftains tune, which is the national anthem…(plus I am a little comfortable with the fact that the anthem was written in all probability as a commemoration for the King of England, but that is besides the point)

So, no, I don't believe in patriotism. I know this is something very controversial that I am putting out, but I believe that it is an over-rated concept. Its an opportunistic feeling that we cultivate – to be brought out when its convenient and bottled up when personal needs are paramount. Bring it out during times of collective danger like Kargil war and bottle up when the neighbouring state needs water…

Put Satyendra Dubey and Manjunath’s photo there (remember them?) and appeal to us not to forget them – that would be patriotic, something tangible, something actionable. Flag waving is easy when you can sit down to popcorn after a few minutes…

Anyway, the whole point of the above rant is that its a damn silly concept and its time the people who defied the Sena to watch an atrociously bad movie give a thumbs down to this tyranny as well, a tyranny, which when compared to the Sena is much more subtle and hence much more dangerous…

del.icio.us Tags: patriotism,india,national anthem,mumbai,bombay,movies,rant,political,social

Farewell Fred Halliday

2010-04-26T23:31:00.001+05:30

You were one of the prime reasons that my interest in international affairs got sparked and got the direction it needed…

Your articles dazzled, informed and most importantly cut through bullshit…

You have left the world bereft of another leading light…

Goodbye, Fred…

Open democracy’s tribute

del.icio.us Tags: Fred Halliday,death,tribute

Ek revolutionary ki mauth…

2010-04-25T18:23:00.001+05:30

I took some time to write about Kanu Sanyal, one of the fathers of what is arguably the only genuine revolutionary insurrection in post-independence India. I took some time to write about his death not only because it was a suicide but also because writing about the death of a revolutionary means bringing in his life as well…

Kanu Sanyal was found hanging in his house, at the same place that saw the break of the Spring Thunder in 1967. The end seemed almost poetic, but then you need a Neruda for to make poetry. All that the old warrior had was a few columns in newspapers, one of whom actually described it his death as the “death of a top Naxal leader”, as if he was still in the neo-Naxalite movement…

In the end, all he had become was a blurry myth and a sad present, repudiated by those who carry his legacy and casually ignored by those who once feared him…the fate of all great men who did not die in the blaze of glory and whom history passed by in search of fresher and more photogenic heroes…

His death came a few days before the Naxalites massacred 76 CRPF jawans in an ambush, the biggest attack by them to date. The government and the Naxals have declared open war, in which for now, the government seems to be on the backfoot.

So, at a time that the Naxalites have become, officially, the biggest threat that this country has ever faced (J&K terrorism pales by comparison), with them having a presence in a quarter of the country, with their tentacles reaching out into urban centres as well, you would expect the symbol of the Naxalite movement to be satisfied. At least, the last thing you would expect him to do is to go hang himself…

But then you got to ask yourself – was he a Naxalite anymore? Maybe in his last moments he would have muttered to himself paraphrasing Marx who once famously said “If that is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist”…maybe he was aware that no matter what he did, the media and the society would fail to spot the difference between what he believed in and what the Naxalites today believe in.

The Naxalism that arose from the simple need to fight for dignity slowly became a movement in which violence, not justice (which is an abstract term anyway) became the priority for maintaining momentum. It became a movement in which poor must remain poor in order for having a raison d'etre for the movement.

If an insurrection goes on for too long, it begins to look like what it intends to supplant. Maybe that's what Kanu Sanyal saw and realized.

When Naxals make pacts with dodgy politicians and when they start to blow up schools, when Naxals become the tipping factors in elections by way of fear, when they begin to claim glorious victory by killing CRPF men who have been pushed to be cannon fodder, maybe he realized that it was a war for its own means – a never ending war in which the people to be killed will be the ones whom he wanted to give a different life all those years ago…

Maybe the end came for him much before the noose tightened. Maybe at the end he had had enough of the power that flows out of the barrel of the gun…

Maybe its time to mourn him as we mourn those great visionaries who dreamt big and tried to live upto that dream, no matter how much the rug was pulled under them.

That takes courage…so does preparing a rope for yourself…

RIP Kanuda…

del.icio.us Tags: Kanu sanyal,naxals,naxalite,revolutionary,homage,tribute,india,communism,history,insurrection,suicide bomber,west bengal,media

Of Defiance and Death – Pinter’s Nobel speech..

2010-04-24T00:09:00.001+05:30

G had recommended the Nobel acceptance lecture by Harold Pinter. I got around to reading it after a while…

And boy was it a read…there are some things you read once in a while that sends your blood coursing down your views and leaves you throbbing awake, with all all your senses pounding away…This article did the same for me, having read words of such power after a long time.

The words turn from being dreamy and philosophical at first to savage and bitterly laden with irony by the time it comes near the end. It does not end on a sweet or hopeful note, which is the best way it could have ended…and it has a poem by Pinter which I had not read before, termed “Death”…beautiful!!

The best antidote to banal and tabloid reporting that besieges us everyday…an article for keeps…

Read it here

Of course, an added reason I like this article is that one of the poems that has affected me profoundly is cited here - “I'm Explaining a Few Things” by Neruda…the power of the words in that poem seem tailor made for the article…

A hurray for Pinter…you are sorely missed…

del.icio.us Tags: Harold Pinter,nobel,nobel speech,article,anti-war,protests,Neruda

India sold for 500,000…

2010-04-18T18:52:00.001+05:30

I remember a childhood story that i remember affected me profoundly. The story was of the Koh-i-noor diamond and how we lost it to the Britishers. The Brits were the ‘bad guys’ who looted the best things that this country had to offer and how they obscenely display the Koh-i-noor, something that they stole from us.

It was a story told with much pain, a pain which I could articulate later as born out of impotent helplessness. At that time, I could just sense the injustice of it all. I could sense the wound. The pride of India, stolen and displayed openly by the thief. If only we were powerful and could force the Brits give it up, how wonderful that would be, i used to fantasize. I used to fantasize, Hollywood style (or rather Mossad style) of a crack team of commandoes who would steal back the diamond.

I guess i retained a bit of that boyhood fantasy till very late. If some part of it still lived somewhere inside, the following news pretty much would have killed it off…

Tipu Sultan’s sword sold off

The implicit belief of my boyhood fantasy was that no Indian, if given a chance would let a part of his history and legacy be sold off like a cheap trinket. By Indian, I mean us as a collective. The government of the people, as a custodian of the country’s pride…

In spite of having ‘grown up’ i.e. resigned myself to the ‘practical world’ of adulthood, a part of me that never let go of the boyhood fantasy has collapsed with dismay over the almost non-importance of the event for the public, let alone the mandarins in the parliament. It merited a single column in most newspapers. IPL’s cheerleaders get more space.

A part of our glorious history – that of resistance agaisnt the Britishers (Tipu was the last king to defeat the Britishers), a legacy of the perhaps the greatest threat against British rule (before 1857), a symbol of what we have learnt to be proud of (remember the serial ‘The sword of Tipu Sultan’?), is sold off to the highest bidder at an auction house in London and we do nothing!!! and worse, we are still happily doing nothing. And even worse, we have already moved on…

Tipu’s sword was taken (stolen by the ‘bad guys’ remember?) from his dead body when his capital was overrun in the Third Mysore war. The captured sword was taken a symbol of triumph to London and 150 years later, we get a chance to get it back to where it belongs. But we let it go into the private collection of somebody rich enough to display it among his/her other trinkets.

A government that sits back and watches millions of rupees being spent on as useful as their own statues (sometimes complete with handbags) is not able to spend a few million on getting back what is rightfully ours?

In 2000, Vijay Mallya bought another of Tipu’s sword amidst much fanfare, as if he was doing a service to the country by keeping it in his house. Why not make it public property? Why was it not demanded? (I would not be surprised if this is the same sword that Mallya bought, which it is, according to some reports)

Which is all a collective failure, a failure of our pride to galvanize us in demanding the restoration of dignity of our past. We just don't care enough. Perhaps we don't seem to feel that it is important enough. Our so called present ascent to a world superpower (superpower of outsourced work, mostly) gives us more pride, not a supposed colonized past.

The only question to be asked here – would China (with similar history and the supposed competition to our ascent) have sat back and let their legacy be sold off? Of Mao or of Sun-yat-Sen? How many of us would say yes to that, I wonder? Something to ponder on there…

I guess Tipu fought for the wrong country…

del.icio.us Tags: Tipu Sultan,sword of tipu sultan,auction,india,history,1857,first war of indepenence,legacy,indian

On blocks and incapacitation…

2010-03-26T01:00:00.001+05:30

This is a blog entry about not writing a blog entry!!!!

Or rather about not being able to put fingers on keyboard to type them words out…

When i started on sales this November, I made a promise to myself – that I would continue to write atleast one entry per week, which, to the uninitiated me, seemed like a huge buffer…

So here I am in March, nearing my first year end and this is the first entry i write in months…and that too about my failure to write one :)

So what stops me? Women, wine? Nah…the first one is an imaginary creature anyway, in my line of work!!! wine…i dont drink alone…

Its indifference…yeah thats right!!! When the first thing in yr mind in the morning is the travel plan that you need to follow and the number of billings to be done and the number required at the end of the day, there isnt much thought left over…about anything other than some numbers entirely meaningless to anyone beyond the small number of DTH salesmen!!!! and that indifference is born of tiredness….

At the end of a long day spent on giving complete opportunity for cancer cells to grow in my ear by hanging a phone at all times, all you want is temporary death, a deep sleep that is…unless you want your energy level to drop drastically next day…so you dont…and so you dont blog…

So a bomb-blast here and a godman scandal there enters through my numbers clogged brain but only stays to tickle it. Something irreverent and completely bloggable forms but gets lost before they can be translated onto the screen…

Why? Because I just cant write anything just to fill up space. I like to write something that makes sense to me and which I can read years later without feeling guilty of wasting cheap online space!!! As you can understand from above lines, am quite a pseudo-intellectual…so that is the actual problem!!!

So writing about the latest movie or about the beauty of mountains in a few twitterish lines appeals none to me…so here I am stuck for grand projects but finding my brain overfilling!!! all of which makes for grand excuses!!!

Which is what the above is…a big grand excuse to not write when in fact i have been unapologetically, insufferably and intolerably lazy!!!!

And the above has been an excuse to write something as well!!!

So heres hoping that that the next entry does not read…On blocks and incapacitation – Part two!!!

To me…

del.icio.us Tags: writers block,rambles

Young green shoot up – why Delhi fares better

2010-01-02T08:58:00.001+05:30

I had just come back from Mumbai and had various reasons to like and dislike the city.

However when I came back, while on the road in Delhi, I saw something that struck me as the symbolic basic difference between the two cities.

I saw new saplings having been planted on the divider (see picture), protected by a wire net. I realized what I had missed so much in Mumbai – trees and greenery. The only time I saw greenery was in Powai, the natural mangroves. But then, that too is fast disappearing under the weight of the ‘development agenda’. I did not see green on the streets or in the sprawling colonies – just miles of concrete and walls of jostling people. Delhi, on the other hand, has made an effort to make the city green. Almost every road has trees either in the divider or on the side.Colonies have trees planted on their perimeters.

I don't know why this is. Mumbaikars have an easy explanation – the pressure of living with millions of migrants coming in ; where is the space for poor trees? I don't have the figures but I don't think Delhi is far behind on the migrants radar. Yet, the city and the government has made an effort to green the city.

Probably the reason is the government. Delhi has a stable government which has been focussing on development for a long time and has been rewarded electorally for the same. Mumbai, on the other hand, is torn between ostentatiously corrupt and callous politicians and an ugly chauvinistic fascist ideology. That's why trees don't figure…

When I look at the green shoots, Delhi, for all its faults, gives me hope and for me tips the scales for choice of living here.

del.icio.us Tags: Delhi,trees,Mumbai,green,living,city,urban

End of an era – Viva Chetak

2009-12-11T00:16:00.001+05:30

Ah well…all good things must come to an end, especially if you don't want to own the good thing anymore!!!

Bajaj will, from now on, manufacture only motorcycles, finally bowing to market tastes. With that decision, a product that signified India for decades will pass easily into history pages – the “Hamara Bajaj”, the Chetak.

The scooter that was the beast of burden for the common man carrying whole families on its seats, the acquisition of which (after sometimes years of waiting) truly became a neighbours envy – owner’s pride. The scooter which with its Italian inspired design ruled the Indian roads long before auto majors discovered the market in the country. A scooter which when your father let you drive was when you became a man of the world, a world suddenly free…

That's the nations nostalgia, a collective nostalgia as it were. Anyone above the age of 23 or so will have a special personal memory of the scooter that looks impossibly frail and might I say cute in front of the hulking bikes of today.

We also owned a Bajaj scooter, some 20 odd years ago. One of my earliest memories was the extreme thrill I felt of standing in the front, just behind the handles, my little hands on the dials, my hair buffeted by the wind against which my eyes squinted to see ahead, safe in the knowledge that my father was the captain and my mother the navigator. It was the most perfect Titanic moment (the hands outstretched moment that is – not the crash!!!) I ever had. I used to actually feel that I was flying without making any effort, tagged along by the Gods. Nothing I have done since has come close to that experience…

However I believe that it was time it gets consigned to our nostalgia. The Chetak was not made for the madly commercial world of today. It belonged to the world of movies like “Chashme Baddoor”. It belongs to a world when you actually loved what you owned because you literally bought it – EMI was not yet invented by financial whizkids, a world where cosmetics to make men fairer was not advertised on the TV, a world of sometimes impossibly grotesque fashion but also of rebellion. A world of limited but meaningful TV, not the infinite variety of trash today…

Ironically, It belonged to a world where streets were emptier and you could have done with more power in the engines, instead of in a world where you have all the powers in the world but no streets to drive them on!!!

Of course, scooters have been reinvented – the Activa for instance. But for us Indians, it will never be the same.

The song of Chetak remains humming on in our mind, if only as a dirge. An elegy, even, to a world vanished forever…

Viva Chetak!!!

del.icio.us Tags: Bajaj,scooter,India,marketing,product,nostalgia,Chetak,current issue

We will wave to you on your choppers too!!!!

2009-11-05T21:48:00.001+05:30

Even if it means a wave of good riddance

The incident of a person dying because of the security arrangements made for PMs visit to a hospital was an event waiting to happen. In fact I am sure that there would be many incidents like these, which happen, either directly or indirectly due to the stoppages made for the travel of our VIPs or VVIPs or whoever with fancy nameplates.

If you have travelled on the roads of Delhi, you would have most certainly got stuck in traffic that is stopped a full half hour before somebody important is to pass down the road. And inevitably this would be done at the peak hours. I have been stuck on the Dhaula Kuan – Gurgaon road at 9 in the morning for a full half hour. Imagine the pile-up on that road due to that stoppage time. And all because someone needs to feel important enough to feel he/she is an assassination target.

But reaching office late and dying because of this are very different. Its time that someone (The PM would be a good idea to start from) wakes up to the alternatives. And seriously, Mr Singh, an apology like the one you have given comes out very lame without change in the status quo.

An alternative.In a country that spends crores on MPs snacks, we can use those funds (let them eat a few less sandwiches) to buy choppers for our ‘important’ guys. Have helipads made at all the important destinations that these guys frequent. And if you are worried about security in the skies (and if you have watched too many far fetched Hollywood action flicks), have a battalion of choppers. We don't travel to office or hospitals in skies. We don't mind.

But in cases like the incident that happened, when roads must be used, security must be tight but focussed. Harassing common people and denying basic rights should be made a criminal offense.

And seriously, its a non-brainer - Hospitals are not a place for functions. Or has the PM forgotten that people die from things other than bullets?

I and you can rant as much as want but the next time you want to reach office on a tight schedule, the president might just feel like a morning drive on the wide and empty roads of Delhi. After all, they have a country to run…

del.icio.us Tags: Delhi roads,current issue,Delhi

Is Marx laughing?

2009-10-24T12:08:00.001+05:30

Came across this highly entertaining news article yesterday in the newspapers…

Marx gets Vatican thumbs up or here

So, Marx is under ‘review’ by the Church. As to whether he is an approved human being, I guess!!! approved to be given access by St Peter, no less. Well, well…i guess poor Karl has been waiting outside the pearly gates for too long…

The funny thing about the whole incident is the absurdity of it all. It would have been smashing to hear Marx’s comment on this. I am sure he would have had a sly comment up his sleeve.

So, the centre of manufacture of the ‘opium of the masses’ is getting soft towards its deviant child?

Here’s my take…Dangerous but dead men start to become more acceptable with years passing by, as their snarl and their bite become a blurry memory and lose their context for danger. Che Guevara T-shirts are tolerated on the streets of US forty years after his death, Stalin is being rehabilitated and who remembers Napoleon? Add to the fact that communism is ‘officially’ dead for the last decade and a half and Marx is becoming less of a danger for our minds (read the minds of the faithful). His sayings (like the one of religion being a opium for the masses) have slowly become mere dialogues, repeated as a matter of rote and as a sign of erudition rather than as an existential threat for religion.

Religion faces more of an existential threat from other quarters – quarters that Marx would have disapproved but which have equal efficacy in blunting the power of religion. It is that of unfettered technology and capitalism. People would rather grab for an i-pod or get moved by Xbox games than reach for a crucifix or a taabiz or be moved by chants. The holy see has more of a problem with abortions than with communal land holdings for now.

So, when Marx has ceased to be an ‘anathema’ to civilized world (as seen by the Church) and since paradoxically his popularity (Marx reinvented as Robin Hood) has soared in those very worlds with the disillusionment with the kind of materialistic capitalism let loose in the world, the Church finds wisdom in ‘rehabilitating’ him. Maybe the attempt is at positioning the church on the side of the common man.

But even so, it is a hilarious situation. Its funny how the world operates. Nothing ever remains constant. Not ideas, ideology nor words. Marx reinvented as the messiah. He would have laughed at the irony, I think. History being recycled as farce.

I think right now, Lenin must be squirming in Red Square. He fears he would be next!!!

del.icio.us Tags: Marxist,Vatican,Marx,Communism,opinion

To Do and Done – the difference…

2009-10-20T22:10:00.001+05:30

In this case, Nada..nothing…

I am talking about the attempted abduction with intent to rape, an incident which occurred yesterday in Delhi. The attempt was foiled by passerbys…

But what concerns me is the fact that since no actual abduction or rape occurred, even though the two men have confessed, the justice system in India will find a way to set them free. Helping it along would be some odd human rights groups who seem to be more interested in helping convicts than the victims…

But isn't it a no-brainer that when something has been attempted and you have got away with a rap on the knuckle, its human nature to learn from the mistake and make sure that there are no mistakes next time? Next time make sure that there are no passerbys, maybe even keep a weapon to threaten. Oh yeah, the next time they would make sure that they would succeed…

And I am sure that if they are caught them, they would be convicted because well, they have committed the crime at last and thank god we can hang them now…

The attempts like these are the non-minority reports and a precursor of what is to come. These attempts must be taken at the same level as the actual crime. An attempted rape is the same as rape; there are no mitigating factors like say in a murder…

And one more thing, when we do get the National ID cards, lets have our criminal records on it – so that criminals are branded…I have had enough of human rights for criminals like these, whose crimes have nothing to do with stealing a loaf of bread…

del.icio.us Tags: dehi,rape,justice

The best anti-wrinkle solution is…

2009-10-16T18:19:00.001+05:30

DEATH!!!

haha…something that just occurred to me!!!

Die young and they will remember you wrinkle free :)

King of Delhi roads – Lambo and Alto. The battle…

2009-10-01T09:23:00.001+05:30

The grim reaper, as has been told to us repeatedly, is the great equalizer. Poems have been written about this final eraser of differences, philosophers have sustained themselves with writing dense tracts about the how in front of him, the king and the pauper alike look the same.

All this is fine. I realized something a couple of days back with the result that I would like to nominate the addition of Delhi roads to the list of the great equalizers.

Ill tell you how I came about to this realization. I was turning to drive down Lodhi road, in my workhorse – my Alto, when I see coming on to my side a sleek black Lamborghini, probably modelled on Batmobile for all that I know. You could hear and feel the power of its engine, which like a sleeping giant, was just waiting to wake up to flex itself. And all that I had on my side was the 800CC of pure layman engine.

Who in their right mind would even think of racing that monster? Well, considering that my sympathy always lies with the underdog and in this case, I was the underdog, I was game.

I am no fool however – I was game because I know that the modern city of Delhi with its modern roads was with me. And this is how the race went…

When Batmobile drew level with Alto, there were two vehicles in front of both of us and both of the drivers were of the thoughtful variety who seem to be driving on the roads looking for some unfathomable solution in life. Anyway, Batmobile and Alto were both of the minds that they had better things to do and needed to get ahead. Now Batman would be mortified to learn that drivers in Delhi driving parallel to each other give only that much space to allow a bug to get through, even after incessant honking. And the best insect to travel across Delhi roads is of course the Alto. So a horn blast and nudge and a swerve later, I was through the gap. Looking back, I see Batmobile still trying in vain to get its whole big ass bulk between the philosophizing cars. In the meantime, I was on my way. About ten seconds later, I look back and I see that the black bulk had finally broken through. Then it pressed its only advantage – its awe-inspiring engine. Within a second, Batmobile had grown from a dot in the rear-view mirror to a detailed study in engineering. Another second, it would have overtaken Alto and would have said an insouciant farewell to the red dot (my car is brick-red, you see).

Just at that moment, Delhi roads again came to the rescue of the underdog. Just in front of us was the ubiquitous tin-sheets-put-together-carrier-on-three-wheels. A little on the side was an Esteem parked on the side of the road. And there was only so much space on the side. I touched my finger slightly on the steering wheel and the whole small mass of Alto neatly fit into that space and out through the gap. Batmobile on the other hand had to hastily apply brakes and put to test its 200 to 0 Km/hr in one second claim. While it was trying to rally back, the red light in front had turned yellow, with a car in the right lane, waiting. Alto pushed through in the last moment (isn’t it a nice game all of us in Delhi play – beating the yellow light, what pleasure we get!!!) and was over the line just as the light turned red…

Now, navigating through another traffic mess ahead, I looked back. Batmobile, chastened in defeat, had settled into second place behind another car, as they all waited for the green light. Batmobile, the sleek black monster, in all its gleam, stood defeated by a better master – the roads of the capital.

I felt a little sorry for it. I mean Batmobile will attract the attention of all the starlets in the world and the drool of those who worship metallic lustre. But my good man, I am still reaching someplace faster than you!!!!

del.icio.us Tags: delhi,delhi roads,funny,humour,alto,lamborghini

Some men are like that only…

2009-09-24T19:15:00.001+05:30

Like almost a ghost, Kobad Ghandy has risen out of the past. As a reminder. A reminder of a time and an ethos that prompted men of all backgrounds (in his case an exceedingly advantageous one) to give up everything for the sake of something that they believed in. It is true that the revolutionary bug bit many of Ghandy’s contemporaries but only a handful remained faithful to what they believed in as a hot blooded teenager. Mark Twain had once remarked that “If you are not a revolutionary by the time you are twenty, you don’t have a heart; if you remain one when you are thirty, you don’t have a mind”. In cases of men like Ghandy, Twain would have accepted the exception.

A man coming from a rich family, studying in Doon school, higher studies in London, coming back to India to fight for the upliftment of the oppressed masses, marrying a like minded woman and deciding not to have children so as not to get distracted from the cause – his life story reads like that of a revolutionary romance and would find echoes in many places and many times, most however in the past.

His life story also reads as a reminder of how some lives are (and can be) led and how some men (and women) strive to live for something higher than themselves. Compared to most of our ambitions today (including mine), their life-force and motives for life seem impossibly inaccessible and almost an object of awe. We stand in awe mainly because we can never even begin to think of replicating their way of life – firmly ensconced as we are in our single minded devotion to climbing the ladder of corporate life, in search of the best paycheck to buy our peace of mind.

That is why men like Ghandy, men like Che seem like men out of a past – a past where rebellion was not only in rock ballads but on the streets, not only in books but in the mind directing the arm. A past that retains its romance today, when we look back with rose tinted glasses; a past, however, that has lost its relevance for most of us today – mainly I feel because we, (starting with our fathers) compromised, choosing safety and conventionality over fighting in the name of some nebulous ideal. We compromised when we told ourselves that watching TV in an AC cooled room was more rewarding than living in the jungles in the danger of sudden death.

But let us blame nobody. We choose our destinies and the way we would like to lead our lives. But man is essentially an animal and finds solace in herds. It’s the renegade then, who, commands our respect and awe even though we know that they are an enemy to the way we lead our lives.

I am no ideologue of the Naxalite variety. I find their basic demands appealing but not the way they look at implementing it. In answer to the negatives of today, they proclaim a state that would tilt the scale in the exact opposite direction without taking into account the positives gained under the present system. I do not believe that should they ever gain supreme power, the government would get any better. It would be corruption and oppression by another name. It’s the Marxists worldwide who have killed Marx.

But that should not detract ourselves from the man himself. He stands for the best ideals of the Naxalite movement and has stayed true to it. It is of course a given that except a handful of us, we would wilt away in face of so much demands made on us when there is no clear ‘advantage’ accruing to us for all the hardships.

Maybe that’s where our tragedy lies. Our sense of cost benefit analysis has been honed to such an extent in the world we inhabit today, we cannot see beyond a few years without counting the costs and the benefits we hope to get. Everything we interact with simply reinforces that this is the only way to live and the best option to survive in todays increasingly smaller, yet lonelier world.

That is why men like Ghandy rise like a dinosaur. We can only pick at his surface and wonder at him. The ability to truly understand how he lived or thought is lost to us.

del.icio.us Tags: revolutionary,indian,marxist,naxalite,ideology

Public Enemies – an instant review

2009-08-09T09:49:00.001+05:30

A movie that had so much potential, so much scope for not only exploring an era and the wildly interesting characters that inhabited it but also for making a fast paced action movie. And it had the people to do it – Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, America’s most wanted, Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the man who pursued Dillinger. Their pairing could and should have been explosive. Sadly, nothing worked – on occasions, there were only the hint of what could have been…

Dillinger was a fascinating character. The movie failed to bring it out though there were faint echoes at times. He was a charmer, a guy who did his work with style and was one of the last romantic gangsters…the movie failed to bring it out. Even his almost fairy tale romance with Billie fails to bring any energy to the screen. His growing desperation and death also seemed devoid of sentiments that the audience could have felt. His relationship with his comrades never really came off the screen. So much so, I had difficulty in recognizing at times who his men were!!! but inspite of all that, Depp rises above the loose storyline at times by the sheer power of his acting depth. Not enough to salvage the movie, however

Christian Bale is wasted. Now there are two movies in a row that I watched where this hugely talented actor as been under-utilized (the other being terminator). Here, his combat with Dillinger could have been more intense. Here you have two highly intelligent, resourceful men on opposite side of the law – perfect recipe for a mammoth showdown. It ended in a whimper, however. We don't get to know anything about the agent as a man. Remember, this was the time that FBI got formed and it was mainly due to this conflict between Dillinger and Purvis. We don't see much evidence of birth out of conflict, neither in the story, nor in the character of Purvis

All, in all, it was a movie that held so much promise and of which it gave slight glimmers at times but it ended with being just a linear cat-mouse chase story without any flesh being put on the characters. We don't get to know them. This was a movie about characters who were in grey. The ‘bad’ guys were simply a product of their times. So were the ‘good’ guys. That borderline treatment never really came out. The characters on the screen remained strangers to us.

Watching it made me compare this movie to the ‘The Untouchables’. And that made this movie come out even poorly…

So much promise, so little delivered

del.icio.us Tags: Gangster,America,depression,movie review,johnny depp,christian Bale

Holy water, unholy carriers…

2009-07-20T20:35:00.001+05:30

I am fine with religious functions and events as long as they don’t disrupt ordinary people’s lives. The tradition (newly revived during the BJP government rule) of kawariyas carrying Ganga water from Hardwar and transporting them on foot to their respective places definitely don’t fall under this category of personal religion.

For a month, they disrupt roads and create a ruckus wherever they go. And like it happened in Punjabi Bagh yesterday, these people just need an excuse to create a disruption and indulge in hooliganism. I think we really need to dig beneath our rhetoric of giving respect to religious activities and see this event for what it is – a disruptive activity which gives some people a license to rule the roads for a while. And this is not the first time that the Kawariyas have created disruptions in their wake. This has happened year after year and there is in fact an increasing trend of increasing violence.

And anybody who has travelled in Gurgaon in the last week or so will testify to the fact that traffic is literally brought down to its knees just because the kawariyas refuse to stop at red lights and refuse to let cars pass when they are travelling – in short act like they are above the law. And the sad part is that the law allows them to be this way. Small surprise then that they display the kind of anti-social behaviour that they do.

I have a couple of issues with the whole thing

First is a personal one. Religion thrives on making people single-minded by making them simple minded. Carrying water on foot for hundreds of miles is an arduous task and frankly a very intensive one. Many people express their admiration for the kawariyas for the same. But the fact is that it is just empty religious fervour – one bereft of understanding and one based on jingoism. If they really care about the holy water they are carrying, why don’t we ask them to join a river conservation programme? Why don’t they join Greenpeace and try to preserve all that makes the Ganga ‘holy’. They wont simply because that takes a lot of commitment and a lot of background work. And it wont give them a chance to rule the road for a month or indulge in random acts of destruction. For them piety is in walking miles and showing their faith, not in trying to understand their religion.

Second is a practical one. It is understandable that the government would not want to stop something which is born out of belief. But isn’t it also the duty of the government to ensure that the common citizens are not hampered in their daily life? The government seems to favour the first over the second, perhaps because the first group is organized and prone to aggression (maybe precisely because of the weakness of the law-enforcers) and the second group is neither.

So we continue to suffer hooliganism in the name of religion.

Technorati Tags: Kawariyas,religion,hindu,ganges,current issue,civic issue

Hanging the branches..same old, same old…

2009-07-20T20:32:00.001+05:30

They don’t really learn from the past do they?

Gujarat government is prosecuting Hooch sellers who are allegedly behind the deaths of more 150 people recently. They are obviously taking a high moral ground when they do this, claiming to punish those people who are ‘corrupting’ a ‘morally pure’ society.

It is strange and ironic to see how past echoes itself again and again in different guises and forms in different places. The same attitude was taken by the authorities when they imposed prohibition in the United States in the early part of the century. Now, we all know how that ended. Not only did people find ways out –often dangerous ones, this period also saw the rise of the mafia like never before. It was only after a decade or so that the government realized what the Modi government refuses to understand – prohibition does not work.

Ask anyone who works in Gujarat. They all have a tale to tell as to how they manage to get liquor. Most of it is dangerous because, well, its illegal. And therein lies the crux of the problem – people want liquor, they always have. And people, as resourceful as they are, will always find a way to get it. And people will find a way to sell it as well – illegal things are as a rule, hugely profitable. The question to be asked is – which of the devil do we rather fight?

Do we become like medieval moral guardians imposing our sensibilities on people, no matter how removed it is from reality – in the process, endangering people’s lives and health? Or do we become pragmatists and realize that morality is not absolute and certainly not what our religious texts claim, and so devising ways to give the citizens the choice to become more responsible? If we believe our citizens to be mature enough to choose their government at 18, I think its obvious we need to trust them to make certain life choices.

In any case, other states have not slipped into anarchy just because there is no prohibition. In fact ironically, the only recent riots that have occurred occurred in Gujarat. I think Modi needs to sit and think what he really intends to accomplish. Hanging a few hooch vendors will certainly not cure the problem, because obviously they are the symptoms…

Technorati Tags: prohibition,Gujarat,liquor,current issue

Golden oldies? or a TV death?

2009-07-13T21:38:00.001+05:30

A couple of days back, I came across another report of another old woman who died alone in her flat in Kalkaji, in south Delhi. She died and nobody got to know until her neighbours could smell that something was wrong. She lived alone, even though she had children. She was unable to cook for herself and depended on the food given to her by her neighbours. Her only companion at the end was her TV which was playing even as she lay dead for days.

This is an urban phenomenon that is becoming quite common now. Children live away from their old parents and check on them only once in a while. This setting becomes fatal when one of the parent dies, leaving the other completely alone. In many cases, they continue to live alone for various reasons – though hardly ever out of choice, I am sure. The result is the kind of tragedy that occurred in Kalkaji.

Wherever I discussed this problem, I got predictable reactions – which mainly varied from decrying our loss of ‘family values’, to children becoming selfish and heartlessly career-oriented and some people looked to the law for recourse.

I have an issue with these reactions, natural and true that they are. Let me explain.

Let me talk about the law first. Even though the courts have made it punishable for children to abandon their parents, it is apparent that parents would take this route only under extreme conditions, not otherwise. The woman who died in Kalkaji was not ‘legally’ abandoned. She has the resources to live her life (that is to say she had the material benefits, but obviously not the emotional ones). These are in any case the majority of the cases. The law would naturally be helpless in these cases.

About the other, predictable response. Every generation decries the loss of ‘family values’ in their next generation. It is a natural flow of society and at times it can be quite subjective. In many ways, we behave better than our previous generation – towards homosexuals for example. And we are more aware and aggressive about building our own future. And so on…

Today we live as independent nuclear families. Parents encourage their children to be independent and be absolutely focused on their careers. They cheer when their children get a green card or a million rupee job in a far off city. The loss of ‘values’ we cry about later is nothing but a by-product of our own ambitions.

Yes, we have become more mercenary and much more materialistic. And yes, this is harmful to society and to our relations with each other. But unless we radically change the direction our society is going, this phenomenon of growing distance between people is just going to continue. So why raise a hue and cry about the side-product when we are unwilling to change the way we aim to live our lives as a young nation?

Another thing we need to understand is that no matter of moralizing and appealing to good senses will matter to the children who abandon their parents. They do what they do because their conscience does not prick them in the first place. In any case no one sees themselves as villains. We humans have an infinite capacity for rationalizing any situation and belief.

So what is to be done?

This is what I believe in. Study the phenomenon and condemn the people who abandon their old parents by all means. But give an actionable solution to it as well. Moralizing has never helped anyone.

There are two solutions I believe that can work if some thought is given to them

I believe it is time that old age homes are rescued from being considered a place of humiliation to a place where people, who for whatever reasons cannot or don’t stay with their families, can live together, give each other company and enjoy their time together. Make a business model of old age homes and have people contribute some part of their money (when they still have money) in it to book themselves a place. Position it so that people understand that it is a resort, not a dingy unprofessional place where people will face more humiliation. The advantage is that medical care can be constant and immediate. And company always helps. And when your children refuse to look after you, that always helps doesn’t it?

Now the above solution is obviously for those who can pay. What about the ones who cannot? How many times have you seen an old beggar woman or man with a jhola on their shoulders with probably all their belongings in it, standing on a side street asking you for a few seconds of mercy? They cannot pay for the old age home that looks like a resort.

This is where I believe a public-private partnership can come in, so that they are provided dignity when they need it the most. I am sure that like me, many people, would like to contribute to the cause. What is required is the initiative and the capital that only a government body can give if this has to be done nationwide. The practice of relying on opportunistic unaccountable NGOs should be stopped and a central body should be created. Only then will this problem have the focus it deserves.

I know that the two solutions are radical in many ways. One is in the way the mindset has to be changed about ageing and what we should do about – not an easy thing to do especially since we always believe that our children will not be like ‘their’ children. The challenge is to project it as a kind of an insurance against ‘bad judgement’. The second is about the intent and effectiveness of the government in taking this forward especially since this is all expenditure and no revenue generation – a purely socialist initiative, a word that has been derided to no end (atleast until the capitalist bubble burst last year)…

But think of the alternative…anything is better than dying all alone, forgotten…

Isn’t it?

Technorati Tags: old age,current issue

Autopsy of the heart

2009-07-08T07:38:00.001+05:30

Michael Jackson, who became a legend in his lifetime and who perhaps was a pioneer of the modern music age, is in the danger of becoming a circus object in the coming days and years; much like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, people would be fascinated by this life of a star which burnt so brightly that it consumed itself all too soon…

People don’t seem to know how they should react exactly to his death. He had become a subject of much ridicule due to his erratic and quite unpredictable lifestyle and he had kept the rumour mills going for more than a decade, the heavy bulk of which had nothing to do with his music.

Suddenly with him gone, after the initial short homage paid to his talent, the media world is slowly turning to what it knows best…dissecting a dead man’s world mercilessly. Dead men don’t lie and nor can they defend themselves. The change of complexion and his transformation into a harrowing physical form is being shown much more than the music he created. The world is watching on vicariously as a one of the world’s most revolutionary and passionate performer is being turned into a circus item.

I can just hope that one day Michael will be remembered as a hugely talented mortal whose talent got ahead of him in life, a talent that got him to the top very quickly but one that did not equip him to deal with that life.

It was a talent that gave him the means to live in a personal Neverland but denied him the reality he always craved. It was a talent that gave the world the license to invade his most inner privacy and slice and dice his every word. It was also this talent that probably killed him at the end, when he starved himself to get into shape for his ‘final’ comeback tour.

Michael, there are a lot of things that will be said of you but there is one thing that I would like to say to you. We may autopsy your body but we can never autopsy your heart. It is this heart of yours that will always stay with those of us who have loved your music and what you had to say. Your heart is what we would always carry with us…

RIP Michael Jackson

“In My Anguish And My Pain
Through My Joy And My Sorrow
In The Promise Of Another Tomorrow
I'll Never Let You Part
For You're Always In My Heart.”

– from “Will you be there”

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson,Music,tribute

Sic semper tyrannis – “Thus always to tyrants”

2009-05-21T21:23:00.001+05:30

Prabhakaran is dead. I chose this photo over his death photo as, I felt it was undignified. No matter what my personal feelings about the man, death must be respected and should be given dignity.

But will Sri Lanka win the battle but lose the war? Time will tell…

The people of Sri-Lanka, both Sinhalese and Tamils, will now turn to the most difficult task of all, rebuilding their lives so that there is peace for coming times…

If the conditions which allowed LTTE to form is not removed, the ghost of LTTE and Prabhakaran will come back to haunt.

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s biggest test starts now. Lets hope he is as adept as an inclusive politician as he is a military strategist.

Let us also hope that atleast one of our neighbour is strife-free!!!

Technorati Tags: Sri Lanka,Prabhakaran,War,Civil war,death,LTTE,terrorism

Two Cheers and an amber light…

2009-05-19T20:21:00.001+05:30

The Congress has won in many ways its a welcome result.

Mainly for two reasons…

Firstly,

This is a signal from the population that they are tired of the parochial and narrow obscurantist politics that the likes of SP, BSP other regional satraps follow. We give the people of India less credit than they deserve every elections, which is why we were surprised by the positive vote for peace that was they gave in 2004 and again in 2009. Which is why we hear Mayawati threatening her party members that unless they concentrate on development, she would throw them out (one can only hope that she does not mean developments of her innumerable self-glorifying parks)…the people of India have succeeded in making the most boastful of politicos smell the dirt…Lets hope that regionalism keeps on receding (that would depend on the work that the Centre does now)

Secondly,

This result can be seen as a resounding yay for constructive politics – for development, for a better standard of life, for peace and harmony. The fact that everywhere the people have voted for parties which have done constructive work. This has cut across the party colours. BJP and Congress have both been beneficiaries of this. Delhi, MP and especially Bihar are apt testimony to this…As I said, we give the masses lesser credit than they deserve. They don't really want people whose agenda is temple building or who have hazy concepts of antique ideology or who want to abolish English for that matter. They want the opportunities to get to a good life and they will vote the party who will concentrate on that…

Now for the amber light…

Ask any graphic novel reader and they will tell you that every superhero needs an arch-villain to be a superhero.

Without a challenge, the best of the people and the best of the organization become sluggish and worse complacent, which is why the opposition in a vibrant democracy needs to be strong to keep the ruling government on its toes.

For all the faults of the Left, they were the few people in the country who can initiate a serious debate. Many of the achievements were successful because of the vociferous debates that the Left brought about – NREGA being just one.That would be missing this time.

The opposition to the Congress has been virtually decimated. BJP is lost in the woods and virtually bankrupt of ideas. Their appeal has died down and their militancy on the basis of exclusivist religion has takers only in some parts of Gujarat and Karnataka. Unless they can see the writing on the wall and reinvent themselves as a more inclusive conservative party, they will cease to be a serious contender by the next elections. The Left has been brought on its knees because their approach has been seen as obstructionist and based on an ideology that has not stood the test of time. Karat and Co still live in 1917 whereas the socialist rulers of world today – from Castro to Chavez and Morales have moved on to a more indigenous variety that has been tailored to their country. And of course the left supporters have been appalled at the party aligning itself with characters like Mayawati and Jayalalitha. The regional rulers have been mauled badly.

In this situation, Congress has the whole field to themselves and have no excuses not to perform. But this situation is the perfect recipe for lethargy and complacency after a couple of years or worse, dictatorship of opinion and action due to lack of strong opposition which may lead to wrong policies that would harm the country. That has happened with Congress in the past and can happen again…

If that happens, it would be a tragedy and the gains of the last two elections would be lost…

All we can do is wait and watch…these should be exciting and instructive times…

Technorati Tags: Elections,India,democracy,Congress,BJP,Left,Elections 2009

A few lines that are haunting me

2009-05-17T10:48:00.001+05:30

Stay by my side as my light grows dim /

as my blood slows down and my nerves shatter with stabbing pain /

as my heart grows weak /

and the wheels of my being turn slowly /

Stay by my side as my fragile body is racked by pain /

which verges on truth /

and manic time continues scattering dust /

and furious life bursts out in flames.

Stay by my side /

as I fade /

so you can point to the end of my struggle /

and the twilight of eternal days /

at the low, dark edge of life.

These lines are from the movie – Devils’ Backbone, that I saw a few days back and these lines occur at near end of a shattering climax…These lines are something I cant get out of my head..the lines are beautiful in their poignancy…

Technorati Tags: Devil's backbone,Poem,Dr Casares,Spanish civil war

The case for alternative movie theatres…

2009-05-15T11:22:00.001+05:30

As the standoff between Bollywood and multiplex cinema owners continue, and as we are relegated to having no choice at all in way of viewing new movies, a pertinent question to be asked is – isn't there a third way out, one that will not only give us more choice but choices that are different and in most cases much more enriching?

I am putting forward the idea that there should be an alternative movie theatre that will not showcase the usual movie fare that can be watched everywhere (and all cinema halls have begun to look the same anyway). While Bollywood and select Hollywood movies get good exposure due to default (they are always considered to be crowd pullers), the independent movies (both Indian and foreign) are left with a select audience and never get the popularity they deserve (In India that is). And why only independent movies (or Indi movies as they are popularly known), the best of world cinemas are available only at certain film festivals (and there also, many show old classics – we know Kurosawa was good, we don't need to be reminded) and not otherwise.

Why isn't there a chain of theatres showing these movies? True, there will be a select audience at first but once awareness grows and with proper nurturing, I do not foresee that more people wont throng to these halls (Little Miss Sunshine is an Indi movie – but with the marketing effort, it has a cult following in India). And keep the basics intact and take away the frills. We don't want popcorn served at the seats. If necessary people can bring food from outside. Appeal to their good senses to keep the premises clean. Its a wonder how many times that works, when communicated well. Delhi Metro is a case in point. Bring down the cost of the movie going experience. Give them the margin to experiment. People like value for money.

I am sure that like me, many people are sick of the daylight robbery that the PVRs and the INOXs commit in the name of providing entertainment. This model can provide good cinema at the rates possible to see more than one movie in a day. This model works in western countries (an example) and there is no reason it wont work here.

The popular wisdom is that people don't like serious (which just means non-Bollywood style) cinema. As with so many popular understandings, this too is wrong. Any film festival is a testimony to that. The enthusiasm is there among people who want something different than the usual fare. It needs to be captured and channelled and word of mouth will take care of the rest. That's how the best models grow. The discontent with being ransomed with poor quality stuff is untapped but high.

And when you showcase the gems from the world around (and its incredible the amount of good cinema being made around the world, in countries you wont even give a second thought to), people would start giving second thoughts to watching hollow, poorly scripted escapades for 180/-. And they will also realize that the movie is the experience, not the popcorn.

As for me, for now, I would just pick up my laptop and watch from the collection I have on my hard drive…Someday I hope watch it on the big screen.

Technorati Tags: PVR,Movies,Cinema,alternative cinema,india,multiplex,indi movies,foreign movies

The proletariat dog – will rebellion come?? :)

2009-05-13T20:35:00.001+05:30

Will the sleeping dog rise and claim his right to equality??

I saw this scene in Khan Market today…outside a posh pet shop (see the sign on the shop window), which I have gone into once (courtesy Bulbul who has two dogs – a lab and a pug, lovable house dogs). The shop is a place for the privileged class of dogs who are fed vitamin bones, given toys, are fussed over and are taken to dog salons where they their nails are chipped (and god knows what else!!!)…and indeed the shop is stocked with things that maybe even i didn't get when I was a child!!! lol (in the human variant, of course)

A classical feudal system as any, something that existed before the revolutions a couple of centuries past. A revolution is nigh you ask? A time to bring down the throne of the house dogs who wrinkle their nose up to the dog on the street maybe…

But the proletariat dog is sleeping yet…hmm…I guess we need a canine Marx to spell out that “All street dogs of the world unite..you have nothing to lose but your fleas” lol…

Technorati Tags: Humour,dog,canine,proleteriat,funny,Delhi,Khan Market

This name is your name…or is it?

2009-05-10T21:50:00.001+05:30

Was travelling by metro and was coming back from DU station and coming to CP…and i asked for a ticket to which the guy at the counter said “one ticket for Rajiv Chowk”…and that set me thinking

Connaught Place was renamed Rajiv Chowk some years back. But no one except babudom calls it that. Shops in CP never changed the address on their name boards in defiance and the population in Delhi never called it by another name except what they have used all their lives…In fact I make it a point to call it CP at metro stations where it is officially Rajiv Chowk.

But then again, I have no qualms calling Madras Chennai or Bombay Mumbai or Calcutta Kolkata. But I do have qualms calling Bangalore Bengaluru…So what gives?

Its not just affinity for a particular place. Then I would have minded calling Calcutta Kolkata since I have grown up with that name and has a lot of cultural affinity with it…But I do have a problem with calling CP Rajiv Chowk…and that's not only because the Gandhi family wants to put their name across every damn centimetre of Delhi!!!

One obvious reason is that the name should be something that is in quiloquial use – Calcutta was always called Kolkata by its inhabitants for example, Mumbai was sung as Mumbai in old Hindi songs and so on…

But I think a further determinant and I think a more important one is that it should sound nice!!! Because its not only the inhabitants who will speak it but the rest of the country and if the rest of the people don't catch on, its never going to be popular. Nobody wanted to say Bengaluru, really…it sounded, well..vulgar!!!. Of course, there was a pride in the word Bangalore with the feeling of doing a service of reverse imperialism. Chennai sounded ok and it gradually slipped into use, as did others. Rajiv Chowk could not compete with the glamour of the name of Connaught Place since it was a name that evoked pride for Delhites, being one of the best well planned shopping complex in the country with a heritage value. And RC sounded pedestrian and uncool in front of CP!!!. If Delhi is renamed Dilli, it wont cause too much of a flutter either.

So the trick for netas – make it sound cool. We like to roll over our tongues over nice sounding words!!! Because in this case, rose by by another name is not a rose!!!

Technorati Tags: Delhi,New Delhi,Name Change,Connaught Place,Name change,India

Some rapes are more equal than others…

2009-05-06T17:26:00.001+05:30

A piece of news item came in Times of India on 2nd May 2009. Here…

It was about a woman who was gangraped in the wee hours of the previous night. It is uncomfortably similar to cases that have happened before in the city.

I waited for four days to see if any follow up article comes up in terms of any police developments that take place. Nothing yet and there is no reason to believe that there are going to be.

The reason unfortunately is not too far to see. The victim is after all a member of the ‘non-influential’ part of the citizenry as can be seen readily from the article and so we play the same game again.

As usual, the nation and the media wakes up only when a member of their own fall victim. Take any case past or from recent memory. MAMC case and more recently the Noida case. The Dhaula Kuan case is eerily similar to this case but since in that case the victim was a DU student, the police swung into action immediately as it did in every other case. Perhaps more pertinently, the cases evoked a host of responses in the media with everyone decrying the lamentable condition of women in the city. Our homes were concerned.

We were concerned. In this case we are not. The difference lies perhaps in the attitude that since the victim was a slum dweller, she was exposed to the risk anyway. Worse, the feeling probably is that – she is not one of us…so it doesnt matter. The english media wont find interested readers for the case, so why pursue…in any case, some news is always ready to dethrone other stories.

No matter what law we make stating the equality of victims in the face of similar crimes, the problem is that justice is also partial to public opinion. Lets not kid ourseleves - Jessica Lal case got a verdict due to public outcry and all the candle light vigils. Modern School is being persecuted for the same reason. Shanno is already lost, as is this unnamed girl – unfortunate victims in the real sense.

The most ironical aspect of the whole case I found was that even though its an election year, the opposition did not take this case as a stick to beat the government. I do not think the case would have been the same if it was one of those who read english newspapers. The politicians dont care either – even though the english newspaper reading population usually votes the least.

Its the attitude, silly….

END OF POST

Technorati Tags: rape,delhi,crime,attitude,social

LTTE and the internet illiteracy

2009-05-06T12:04:00.001+05:30

We are seeing the end of LTTE, one of the most notorious and well known militant organization in the world. And it is something that needs to be welcomed. LTTE had become the very problem that they had started out to solve in 1983 – securing a peaceful future for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.

Like most guerrilla movements with a cause, LTTE had started off fighting a real oppression and found wide ranging support among the Tamil population, which is why its supporter base grew by leaps and bounds. But as with many revolutions that meanders for too long, LTTE became an organization that sought power as its means and ends. The ideal for the movement would have been to join the political process once they were in a position of strength and had successfully championed the cause of Tamil empowerment in the island.

Instead, even after repeated peace overtures, LTTE chose to keep fighting thus betraying to the world that it was hungry for power only and not for any kind of resolution. The result has been a thorough fascist organization under a megalomaniac leader.

LTTE also got corrupted in many other ways, almost right from the start – the practice of using child soldiers being the most heinous one, using civilians as pawns and human shields and torpedoing any development projects that came up in the ‘liberated’ zone, thus stymieing any hope of better conditions for the people under their control, the people they were ostensibly liberating.

However, if you read about the protests that are still taking place by the Tamil diaspora in the various cities around the world, to force the western governments to make the Sri Lankan government stop the military operation, you would wonder whether the much vaunted power of the internet to disseminate large amount of knowledge at the click of a button is really just a societal marketing phrase.

Because in these protests, we hear about the atrocities committed by the army only and not about the unnecessary casualties inflicted on the civilians by LTTE who are refusing to let the civilians escape and holding them by force. It would seem that the diaspora has shut its eyes and ears to any other information other than what chauvinistic Tamil websites are spewing which are still holding to the illusionary promise of a Tamil Eelam, their equivalent of land of milk and honey. The fact that LTTE has repeatedly violated human rights seems not to have made any dent in their opinions. The diaspora just wants to keep on believing that something that they have funded could not be committing atrocities against its own people.

It is also assumed that by the diaspora that they can speak for the Sri Lankan Tamils just because of a common ethnicity and in the process completely discounting the fact that what they believe and what actually happens on the ground are two very different things. There is a large trace of ethnic chauvinism in these protests. The question that they need to be asked is – what will happen if there is a ceasefire? There has not been a single instance that the Tigers have honoured a peace process. What will happen to the long suffering Tamil population in the island who have had to live in the crossfire for nearly three decades now? LTTE has been thoroughly discredited. Do they want the organization to keep scuttling the future of the Tamils in the region?

The problem is that solutions are absent but the anger is there and a completely irrational fundamentalist anger – truly the most fanatic fundamentalist is also the most ignorant one. Especially one whose whole contribution to the situation has been money sent to LTTE for the ‘Tamil cause’.

It just goes to prove a maxim that Julius Caesar reportedly spoke almost two millennia ago - “Men believe what they want to believe”..and no amount of information right under their noses can make a difference.

Technorati Tags: LTTE,Sri Lanka,War,Tamil,Diaspora,protests,internet,knowledge

END OF POST

Sumon – the tragedy of a poet turncoat

2009-04-27T23:17:00.001+05:30

There was once a rebel poet-singer who modelled himself on the traditions of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and early Dylan. He sang songs that cut through the baggage of Bengali music that had stagnated for over two decades. He sang songs of protests, of frank love, of yearning, of rage and of revolution. He sang songs of the man on the street and his life. His voice and lyrics reminded us of the best traditions of Bengali music – anti-conventional, poetic and stirring.

For this he was hailed and feted as the saviour of Bengali culture by a generation tired of its own pretensions and saw him as a fresh wind blowing away the cobwebs of oppressive tradition. I remember whole families – three generations together, under his spell.

And for a while he lived upto his promise. He touched off a revolution in Bengali music with Anjan Dutta becoming the first convert. Today’s popular bands like Chandrabindoo, Bhoomi, Cactus owe their existence directly or indirectly to Sumon’s revolution.

Today, however, Sumon has become the face of the tragedy of people who betray themselves and show themselves to be hollow, both politically and personally.

The worst kind of extremist is someone who is a new convert to a faith that he once opposed. He is the most enthusiastic and as a result is the most vulgar. Sumon has come to typify this example best.

Sumon joined Trinamool. If that was not enough to make his former fans puke instantly, he goes on become a servile sycophant of one of the worse politicians to ever come up in India – Mamta Banerjee. He talks about uprooting and killing and wiping off CPM off West Bengal in the worst form of demagoguery possible.

Anyone with half a political brain can see the tragedy that would befall Bengal if Mamta Banerjee and her goons ever come to power – they who have never done anything constructive in their political career and instead have focussed on disruption as their main agenda.

And Sumon, who once extolled the virtues of the 60’s political stance cravenly follows this party. Why you may ask? Maybe he needs a career and he feels he is morally outraged by what happened in Nandigram (which needs a big discussion in itself) and that Trinamool gave him some importance that others don't give him.

Whatever the case may be, Sumon has become the face of people who were once hailed the voice of the people and who instead of remaining outside the sphere of political parties so that he is not morally compromised, has become a tool in the hands of politicians who just want to use him for giving some hollow ‘fiery’ speeches.

Does he understand that he is being exploited? He, once sang of society’s oppression and how humans are used as tools, does he understand the depths to which he has fallen?

Maybe it is too late for realizations. Sumon has become an example of those who are fiery in their youths out of compulsion of their hot blood which masks their cowardice and lack of political depth, which comes out later…and when it does, it is ugly.

END OF POST

Technorati Tags: Bengal,Music,Elections,India,Sumon,Sumon Chatterjee,Mamta Banerjee,Trinamool,Culture,Bengali Music,Bengali culture,West Bengal

Walking advertisements – the tragedy of IPL capitalism

2009-04-24T21:12:00.001+05:30

I am enjoying the IPL…it make the game fast and exciting and completely in sync with our demands on time…and in the final analysis, I believe that the T-20 gives cricket a fighting chance against other sports that are competing for our eyeball and attention – F1 and football mainly and which were slowly gaining ground. Cricket needed to move away from the leisurely gentleman game that the purists keep raving about and move towards giving people what they really need – a complete fast paced entertainment package.

Having said that, what is really disturbing to me, as a viewer and a fan is the level of commercialization that has taken place.

It would seem that in order to cash in the popularity of the game, every available space is being used to make money.

Look at the player’s jerseys and even their trousers. A jersey was supposed to something that a player takes pride in, something that they would cherish. That is why, even if there were sponsors, they would be a small addition to the apparel. The player’s identity was more important.

Looking at the player’s jerseys in this tournament, one would be forgiven for thinking that they have been specifically employed by companies to display their wares…there would be atleast ten sponsors on the jerseys and it gives a very tawdry feeling to the proceedings – looks like a glossy advertisement brochure or market sale in progress, in human form.

Not only that, they haven't even spared the player’s names. At the back, the name has been relegated to secondary position as the sponsor take the prime location. So, in most of the camera frames, we see the sponsor’s name and not the player’s, which is the intention anyway.

What makes it worse is the blatant break of ten minutes that is given after 10 overs, ostensibly for ‘strategic thinking’. Either the organizers take us for fools or worse, they don't give a damn. Its sponsors over the game and the fans.

Money making has never been so blatant and so unapologetic as it is being demonstrated. If I started by saying that the format might save the game, its this blatant disregard for the spirit of the game by over-commercialization that might accelerate the hammering of the final nail in its coffin.

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Technorati Tags: IPL,cricket,India,sports,sport commercialization,cmmercialization,advertising

Music Ostriches – when will they learn?

2009-04-23T21:10:00.001+05:30

The recent conviction of the four co-founders of Pirate Bay has once again thrown open the question of whether mere conviction of individual companies will stop the idea of file-sharing and raises the more serious question of whether the music companies and the musicians supporting them are like ostriches burying their heads in the burning sand that would probably end up burning them…

If past is something that we should ideally be learning by, then the music companies have remembered nothing, learnt nothing. Napster was a celebrated case, Kaazaa had somewhat lesser publicity but is an often quoted one. Sure, they led to a handful of companies opening up legal music downloads websites most notably iTunes. But its a telling statistic that today more than 90% of all downloaded music is through P2P networks like that of Pirate Bay.

Its time that the the music bosses at EMI, Warner, Sony, Universal etc understand that the idea of music sharing is the proverbial idea whose time has come and all the legal and legislative armies of the world will not be able to stop it. People will always find a way to get hold of those songs ‘illegally’ no matter how many sites they close. Its ridiculously cheap to set up a website which will provide links to user’s files. You bring down one and another one will spring up in no time. Its only a matter of time before another Pirate Bay comes up.

It is also time for these music companies and for some jaded musicians like Metallica and Rolling Stones to stop insisting that piracy will bring about death of the music industry and instead concentrate on changing with the times and embracing the opportunities that would come with the new technologies. In any case its only the past-their-prime musicians who are bent upon fighting file sharing, claiming life long high royalties as their birthright – think they need to read up more on pension funds.

And there are opportunities galore. Radiohead demonstrated this amply with their album ‘In Rainbows’ which they made freely available to the general public relying on their goodwill to make a donation. Against conventional wisdom, they collected a huge sum and showed how the power of volume can be harnessed on the internet.

The internet is a powerful medium for independent musicians to provide a platform for their music thus bypassing the bureaucracy of music companies. Communities of musicians have sprung up which provide their music freely and interact with their fans on a one-to-one basis.

And this is a change that has been embraced by the whole net community and will only strengthen as time goes on. Things, in fact, will become even more innovative because most people like to move on with the times and embrace positive changes unlike the music companies who still dream of going back to the good old days when they made super profits by over-pricing their music.

Well, the consumers have had enough of this exploitation and a Pirate Bay will spawn a thousand.

Pirates Forever!!!

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Technorati Tags: Pirate Bay,Music download,P2P,file sharing,music sharing,Pirate Bay verdict

Rags to Riches strategy – sell your Oscar child

2009-04-21T20:35:00.001+05:30

After the storm – the debris…

Slumdog Millionaire was one such storm to hit the Indian storm…we will be picking its debris for some time to come…

An example of this is the sordid drama being played out with Child star Rubina’s father allegedly trying to sell her off…

Denials and counter-denials are going to be thrown back and forth for some time to come till the media attention drifts…but one thing is for sure…there does appear to be more than a kernel of truth in the sting operation by the ‘News of the World’…Rubina’s father taking her daughter to a sheikh and discussing her ‘future’ smacks of something rotten, especially with previous cases involving sheikhs in the country…

So, for a moment let us consider that Rubina’s father did try to sell her off…then, let us try to look at the situation…

That Rafiq Qureshi (Rubina’s father) should be condemned and should be prosecuted is beyond doubt. Selling your children off is an act that is heinous beyond words…

But then, it is easy to condemn a man like him from where we sit…its easy being armchair judges…let us try and put ourselves in his shoes for just sometime and try to think like him before condemning him as the devil…

It is human nature to extract the maximum benefit from an advantageous situation. There is nothing immoral per se from such an attitude…its a fact of how we have evolved…we are capitalists by nature, not socialists…

Look at the one other star from the stable of the successful film – Frieda Pinto. Almost overnight she has been transported from a struggling also-ran to becoming the face of many a brand to even getting a chance to work in a Woody Allen movie. She does not let go of any chance to promote herself, her abilities and her new found connections and nor does the media tire of telling us her changed glamorous lifestyle – even telling us which shoes she now prefers…

Why the difference, we may ask. Boyle and co might be opening up funds to take care of Rubina and her future but nothing has happened as of yet and it may not. Remember ‘Salaam Bombay’, ‘Little Buddha’? There too, promises were made and broken…there are no happy precedences.

Pinto and Rubina. The same film…possibly the same amount of effort (when comparing a child and a trained actor) and the after the flashlights, the future seems absolutely different. One has been put in the stratosphere and the other one given sympathetic glances and told to get on with her life…

Too bad, we may say…life isnt fair, In any case, Rubina got more than her ‘peers’ will ever get…she should be happy with it. Which is exactly the point…who decides?

Rafiq is smart – in a devious way or otherwise. He does not want to depend on transient sympathy and dubious promises. He just wants to make hay while the spotlight still shines. He knows very well that Rubina’s face will not be chose as the selling point of any brand. He also knows that she does not have a career in films except for some sympathy roles for some time. He cannot be faulted for thinking like that; in fact the way this world works, he has full justification for reasoning like that. Where the problem arises is in the manner he wants to make the hay.

In any case, he will not be the first parent (and not the last for sure)to want to make money out of their child’s success. Some flog their children to death with work and some just siphon off the money. Rafiq just went one step further. He crossed the line so to say.

The fault lies more with the way we and the media treats people caught in the spotlight. As long as they satisfy our needs – glamour, sympathy, success, we raise them on a pedestal and adulate them. The minute something else catches our attention, we simply run off leaving the old heroes cold and feeling abandoned. And this kind of behaviour is increasing in frequency with our nano-second attention span.

It would lead to a host of psychological problems not only for the one directly in the spotlight (especially for someone like Rubina who would feel totally out of depth in this new world that she has been thrust in) but also those on the edges of the light’s arcs. Its not something that people who have not been in that situation can grasp easily.

Which is why it is easy to simplify and condemn.

So condemn Rafiq’s act by all means. He deserves all of it and more. But let us also try to see the other forces at play that are not so easily obvious and then perhaps the inhuman act will start to make some sense.

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Technorati Tags: Slumdog Millionanaire,oscar child,scandal,critique,social,opinion,India

Totalitarianism by any name is still…

2009-04-19T01:57:00.001+05:30

Tehelka published a an interview that was taken with a Naxal commander from the forests of Bijapur…

It makes for chilling reading…

With anyone following the developments in Pakistan, the words spoken by the ‘commander’ seem to have a chilling reflection of the words spoken by the Taliban across the border – the same self-serving statements about representing the people and of a fight against a corrupt and immoral system without any scope of looking within themselves; the same confidence of final victory no matter what the cost; no scope of negotiation or compromise; and the constant harping on the ‘people’, as if the ‘people’ are one single homogenous constituent.

What was most fascinating was a lack of understanding of how an economy operates best. The solution for unemployment is not always local self-sufficiency. On the contrary. Either this is deliberate or stems from a lack of awareness, both of which makes them very dangerous…

Also the fact that democracy has no place in their ideology places makes them ideologically and practically Luddites. They still seem to believe in the ‘Dictatorship of the proletariat’. The collapse of communist police states and the transformation of China seems to have passed them by.

Reading through the interview, one gets the feeling that the Naxalite movement has developed a vested interest in keeping people poor and in distress so that the state of constant warfare remains – permanent power will continue to flow through their barrel.

Very Orwellian…but who said that Orwell did not draw from the world as he saw it…

What makes these thoughts of Naxalites very important is that these guerrillas control almost 20% of the country and are spreading their networks across India. For the poor, its a seductive ideology since they are empowered and their anger can be channelled through a gun. Its naturally a socio-economic problem that has been neglected by the political and economic elites all these years.

But as things stand now, even if the government wants to make changes, the Naxals will not allow them. The poor must remain poor in order for them to remain relevant.

Caught in the cross-fire as usual again are the very people these rebels are claiming to fight for. And all they get at the end of the day is a gun and some meaningless slogans…

But one thing is for certain – whether its a religious struggle or a class struggle, the roads lead to the same thing – dreary totalitarianism, something that our comrade forgot.

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Our local Thermopylae…but did you notice?

2009-04-17T23:18:00.001+05:30

On 14th April, a news piece came that told about an incident that should be told and retold as an example of why inspite of everything being stacked against us, India’s democracy still pulls through…

The first lines reported in the article, written by an obviously moved reporter, suffices as the best introduction to this soon to be forgotten heroic incident…

“ For 10 hours, a band of 22 CISF jawans battled more than 200 heavily armed Maoists, without backup or reinforcements, and saved the lives of 150 Nalco staff who were held hostage by the guerrillas in Orissa's Damanjodi since Sunday night.”

Read the rest of the article (or here) here before reading further

A few reflections will bring out why remembering this is so important to us…

We don’t even know who or what CISF are. But then, even if it is replaced by CRPF, our awareness grows a notch but its still not something we can relate to. These men guard some of our most prized assets – infrastructure and their human capital yet they have never been proper security forces in our eyes. They are usually relegated to the status of mere guards. They do not have the dashing that has been marketed as the image of the armed forces.

We reserve all our adulations for the Indian army. They deserve all of it – they are one of the special reasons that this country still stands. But here I believe that this adulation on our part has a large part of self-interest as an ingredient. Because we feel that we are threatened more by what may come across the borders, we tend to put the ones who keep them at bay, on a pedestal.

Naxalism is a malaise that is eating away our innards. The alarm has been raised but we don't have seem to have ingested the danger enough. That is why we don't seem to appreciate the sacrifice made by the men fighting the enemy inside the gates…

These men showed almost foolish showed bravery when they could have surrendered or run. They instead stayed and saved lives. This, when the insurgents were superior in arms and overwhelmingly so in numbers.

Because we cant relate our safety to the actions of these men, because their heroism seems remote to us – because of all this, we will soon forget what they did for us. Soon, their stories will be drowned in more newsworthy buzz – elections and IPL…(by elections i mean the circus, not the people who have been killed by the Maoists – they are similar unsung heroes)

But for the moment, let us realize that the much vaunted democracy that we boast around the world is not due to the politician on the dais but is due to poorly armed, outnumbered industrial guards defying terrorism in some forgotten corner of the country…

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History’s satirical echo

2009-04-11T22:38:00.001+05:30

Marx once famously said that “history repeats itself…first as a tragedy and then as a farce”

Here then is a song that uncannily sings about the economic fall that we see around us today and all the black comedy associated with it.

The song is “I am changing my name to Chrysler”, a biting satire on the farce that is “free-market”, a term beloved to those who unquestioningly embrace capitalism in all its forms. The song is sung by Arlo Guthrie, son of Woody Guthrie along with Pete Seeger (lyrics by Tom Paxton) – the best people undoubtedly to sing a song which with its simple lyrics tears apart capitalist gospel.

The song is about half a century old yet what it talks about is uncannily familiar to us – right from corporate behemoths running around with a begging bowl to AIG giving bonuses from the people’s money and the ones losing out in it all – you and me.

It’s a must hear not only for its timelessness or for its humorous, black satire but most importantly, because its an example of a song that is visual in its lyrics and was not made for the purpose of selling maximum copies. Its a throwback to times when songs were much closer to people and the lives they led rather than being beholden to marketing objectives.

But if for nothing else, hear it for the humour…it is sure to bring a smile, especially the last paragraph

You can download the song from here or from here

and here are the lyrics to the song…

Enjoy song activism at its best…

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RIP 30164

2009-03-28T03:19:00.003+05:30

So here ends my MBA.

30164 was my roll number for these two years, a number that at different times brought joy and at other times sorrow.

But for all that, it feels good to leave the cage behind...though I would miss it thoroughly...

In a week, I would be back at home and would wait for 15 June, when i would be joining Airtel. I would never come back to the room from which i write what i am writing this...it feels funny...inertia at work again, i guess...

So it goes...

And as a last word, below is the article that I wrote for my Yearbook...I could not have expressed myself better...

Of Hope and a Few Word

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Creative Writing college yearbook

Adieu SIBM

The ultimate sexist divide

2009-02-22T03:01:00.001+05:30

On our recent trip to Goa, I came across the following picture...I am sure some very helpful soul wanted to make life easier for us ignorant handwashers!!! They sure got the attention of one of them!!!

I wonder what the feminists would think about this one?

Methinks thinks that since behind every feminist is a closet hygiene freak, they might actually welcome the move...push over old style apartheid, your new avatar might just be here!!!

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The Nationalism of the Movie screen..

2009-02-09T23:49:00.001+05:30

A couple of days back, I went to see a movie at E-square. The minute I entered the hall, I saw people rushing to get up and stand up. That's when I saw it - the Indian Tricolour emblazoned on the movie screen and the national anthem playing on the Dolby surround sound.

Made me feel quite dizzy. It made me feel as if I was in an Orwellian world suddenly.

Now what do I have against this show of nationalism, you might ask.

Well. First of all, its phony nationalism. Even if I dont completely agree with the notion that nationalism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, this sort of in-your-face show of patriotism makes a mockery of the feelings of the true believer/patriot. Just playing an anthem and showing a flag on the screen is supposed to do what? Make me donate to the prime minister's relief fund?

Secondly, why the movie theatre? When I come to a movie theatre, I have a movie in my mind no matter how patriotic I felt in the morning. Imagine a scenario of us lining up and saluting the flag and then settling down to salivate at Sharon Stone's legs. It can get completely incongruous to the point of ludicrous. Maybe they choose the movie theatre because the people have no choice but to look at the screen. If so, its the nationalist's crassest way of getting attention.

Thirdly, its makes a complete mockery of the feelings of nationalism that people have. If you believe in the principles of nationalism and patriotism, you would like to have the anthem and the flag being used sparingly, used on occasions that really give respect to the nation and its people. Since when has the occasion of the nation paying respect to fallen soldiers become the same as going out to watch a late night movie? When would we respect the symbols of the nation more?

This was a common practice some 30 years back when it was discontinued in the country when it dawned upon the powers that be that the whole exercise is having the opposite of the intended effect

So, I am completely befuddled at the whole idea and amazed at the stupidity, the vulgarity and the short-sightedness of the person (ie the political party) which could pass an order like this.

If I am feeling patriotic, I would hang a flag from my roof. If I am patriotic, I would not approve of the commercialisation of my values.

And for god's sake, let me enjoy the movie...

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Ghajini - anatomy of a success with only fluff

2009-01-20T10:56:00.001+05:30

Its official - one of the worst movies of the year has become an all time grosser (see the article here), proving once again that more often than not, intelligent, innovative and intense marketing leads to huge profits even though the movie content and quality can be atrociously poor.

Watching Ghajini was one of the most traumatically boring experiences of my movie-going existence. It literally came to a point where you could predict the next frame. The underlying concept was of course that of the cult movie - Memento and is a fascinating one. The storyline built on that concept in the Bollywood avatar, though, was wafer thin and full of holes that a child fed on cartoons can spot; not to mention that the film dragged on for atleast 90 minutes more than it should have. The action was implausible and laughable at times. The narrative was weak and there was no thread binding the pieces of the past and present. There were unnecessary characters throughout the movie, who, in retrospect were superfluous.

The funny thing about it was that I knew all of this even before I went to see the movie. The question then is - why did I go on a cold January morning when I could have been sleeping peacefully in my quilt? The answer is this - Marketing, both of the movie and of the actor - Aamir Khan. So even though reliable sources tell you not to waste your money, you still want to go and see what all the fuss is all about.

Perversely, you also want to see how bad can it really get, considering that this was the famed "one movie a year" actor's movie and the next venture after "Taare Zameen Par", probably one of the best movies to come out of Bollywood.

So, what marketing books simply call 'personality branding' was acting itself out in real life and people flocked to see the movie all over, thus pushing up the cash register. Many people simply wanted to see the new all muscle look of Aamir with the gangster hairstyle, deuce with the story, which was turned simply into a revenge drama with lots of outlandish fight sequences.

The profit conscious producers got it straight on the bull eye of course. If the hindi version had tried to replicate the memento's complex pyschological environment (which takes very close viewing to get an idea of what exactly might be transpiring) and especially the disorienting reverse chronological sequencing, the movie would have been deemed complex and would have taken the focus away from Aamir and on to the story, not something that would have made long queues.

It would have been hailed as a new bold style of film-making in Bollywood and would have become a cult classic but not much else. The movie going population love a good story but apparently not enough to make the movie a top - grosser. Otherwise, "Taare Zameen Par" or "A Wednesday" would have taken that slot.

So, in ending, the only positive that I can glean from all of this is that in times of recession, one more avenue has opened up for marketing MBAs - the movie industry; the trickle moving there can change into a torrent!!!

Since content is usually not the strongest point of an MBA education but imagery is, we would be suited for such roles. Maybe we should call them next on campus.

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Personal technological Man Fridays...

2009-01-19T20:25:00.001+05:30

Taking the analogy of 'stranded alone on an island and what would you carry' and extending it to a similar nightmare that has become all too real for us; the us including the ones who feel a massive withdrawal syndrome if our laptops and the related accessories go kaput one day.

Of course, it is very important to keep a list of passwords somewhere safe online. Along with this, a list of your favourite links should be available online (by using a service like del.icio.us) because you dont want to lose all those hours of browsing to go waste. In any case, most of our computing would be online in a few years. But not very soon...

Waking up from such a nightmare, I decided to list down the very basic requirements that I need up and running in case my laptop becomes a clean slate tomorrow. This list should get me on my feet and my life on track. This is an attempt to understand what my basic needs are and to filter out the unnecessary stuff that gets accumulated on our hard drives over the years, most of which we dont use after the first try.

Scribd uploader- Since all my important documents are stored on scribd, the site has become a repository and the uploader a handy tool

Windows Live writer - Its the best blogging tool that I have come across. Desktop publishing has never become more convenient. This was written on Windows Live writer only

Microsoft Reader and PDF reader- How else am I going to read the tonnes of e-books?

PDF converter - Text is usually too messy and obviously too unglamorous to read most of the times, for which I need this

Winamp - Since the first time that I listening to MP3, Winamp has had me hooked and nothing has made me change my loyalties over the decade. The releases over the years has only solidified the support (except Winamp 3 i.e.)

VLC Player - For watching movies, once you have used VLC, you wonder what the hell are the people behind Windows Media player or any movie player doing. No format is unplayable (except Real media, for which Real Player, unfortunately, has to be downloaded)

Microsoft OneNote - Collecting information in a systematic manner has never proved to be so convenient as when I started using OneNote. Adding functionalities like calendars and alarms would complete the picture.

Microsoft Visio - We are all visual animals and this is needed to make the other animals get the clear picture

Throw in an antivirus software , Winzip and iTunes and the basic Microsoft Office and my day is made.

And now when I look at the installed programmes, I think to myself that like life, the computer takes on dregs and flotsam that it cant throw and cant use easily either!!!!

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Black cat crosses the technology highway too...

2009-01-14T01:40:00.001+05:30

Came across this headline in a newsmagazine the other day. And it set me thinking on something a friend of mine in police told me - "When a new technology comes, the criminals grab the potential fast and make the best first use of it; the enforcement agencies just play catch up"...

The same can be said of many undesirable aspects of the society - superstitions being one of them. At a time when our intelligentsia and our education policy makers seem to have lost focus on fighting the gamut of superstitions and practices of blind faith persisting in Indian society, the practitioners of these have clambered on to offerings of technology to spread their wares.

Take the example of astrology - a suspect science in itself. What has made things worse is the explosion of the number of crooks in the garb of astrologers out to make quick money in the confusion. Today astrological computations are done on computers so that more 'detailed' results can be given. Kundalis etc are made by computer savvy astrologers so that they ac scale up their businesses. The ease of it is only encouraging people to go for it. After all, getting a horoscope done (if got cheaply) wont do any 'harm' would it?, they would ask. The discouraging part of it is that people who would not have normally gone are now going, simply because of 'convenience'.

Temples of all hues have gone online to ask for donations. Now NRI's can clear their conscience by getting a puja done in their name at a temple in India by donating a sum online. Blessings are then provided online as well. Tirupathi is a case study worthy example. Faith, cynically, has transcended boundaries. It can of course take dangerous dimensions, when money donated to religious institutions get siphoned off to finance riots. But technology provides a convenient smokescreen. What is not palpable does not sear the conscience.

And of course, how can I leave out arranged marriage portals. I believe, and this is of course controversial, that if there is one institution which is holding up the ghastly caste hierarchy in India, it is the institution of arranged marriage. When marriage becomes a commodity and the various matrimony sites' silly ads flood almost any Indian site that you visit, you know we are losing the battle for an inclusive and diverse society.

Contrast these developments with the 'catching up' part. Type in astrology on Google and contrast the results with when you type in rationalism. The former would take you to well structured sites with very targeted offerings which shows that it has profiled its customers well. The latter would show much fewer structured sites and most would lack coherence and at best would be discussion boards that would need real dedication to get through. The problem with the latter is that you should know the exact aspect that you are seeking to find a relevant piece. For the former, the keywords are enough to get you going.

And in today's information age, if you can be found easily, you are halfway to winning.

And right now, you will have to find essays by Bertrand Russell but people claiming to know your future and your future bride WILL FIND YOU. That makes all the difference...

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The things right under our noses...

2009-01-10T08:48:00.001+05:30

Sometimes its so easy to forget the joys that are right under our noses. We look so fiercely into the future that we forget the things that matter are right in front of us and becoming fleeting because we choose not to look at them...

Until sometimes when we choose to, even if for some moments...

Like the look from the terrace from my house which has become so commonplace to me now that I literally dont even look at it. Only when a person coming for the first time remarks how beautiful the place is, do I acquire a fresh pair of eyes and actually realize how peaceful it is around me and that hundreds of birds are chirping around me. How many places in Delhi can boast of that?

Or the joys of listening to my grandfather talk about his days and the small juicy stories and gossips of his time and loving him and feeling grateful for all the time I have been able to spend with him. How many times in our lives do we want to treasure somebody's company forever?

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Old world wisdom

2009-01-07T17:12:00.001+05:30

Its strange how sometimes you stumble upon some forgotten nook and cranny that few people would give a second glance, which can throw up some words that stick with you and sets off a chain of thoughts...

I came across a marble slab engraved on the side of the entrance of the Delhi Public library in Old Delhi. I had gone with G since she wanted to get some books reissued. I was standing outside my head full of the music pouring out my ipod when I started to look over the side of the entrance.

I read that the building which houses one of the best library in the country (and precious few even know of its existence!!! Before G, I was an accomplice to the ignorance) was donated in 1944 by Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia. I was digesting this when I saw the marble engraving on the other side.

The marble was scratched and dirty and looked typically inconspicuous. I wonder how many people have actually stood there and read it.

It gave a quaint feeling as if it was a sentinel of good sense which everyone seems to have forgotten about but it still stands to proclaim what it has to say

I wondered how many people today, no matter how rich, can donate a building towards housing a library. Libraries were considered essential to building the foundation of a civilized and a thinking society. I remember reading about Thomas Jefferson donating his house to the city library.

The cynics among us might say that donating one house among many is not a big deal for these people and it was probably an ego-rush for them in any case. Even in that case, better to have an ego rush by donating a building to house a library than by buying a Maybach for your daughter's 18th birthday or having your a wedding beside Buckingham Palace...

Then it was time to think about the library itself. Some people feel that they are becoming outdated what with almost every book available at a click of a mouse and more becoming available everyday. Maybe, but that's in the far future as far as most people in this country are concerned. For a huge majority of the people, libraries (especially the one like the Delhi Public Library with its Rs 5 annual charge and one of the best collections of books I have seen) are a very cost effective way to get access to a lot of written material that would otherwise be permanently out of reach for them. No book at any decent bookshop would cost below 250/-. You cannot really indulge in variety reading when a couple of books can set you back by a grand.

Just a thought. If all those misguided people who join medieval religious groups like RSS, VHP or regional chauvinistic groups like MNS had been given access (ie made aware of the benefits) to a library like this one, wouldn't they have resisted the nonsensical poison that is poured into their brains? If they had been introduced to the joy of turning pages in their idle time, would they have wanted to twirl lathis in the ground or go smashing windows? I dont think so.

I think that we should have more libraries, not less. Gurgaon boasts of many things. I would have preferred a big public library over a golf course anyday, but then that's me...

Wide knowledge that only libraries like this one (not like British council library with a pitiful collection and annual charges that run in triple thousand odd) can provide is fundamental to our development if channelized properly.

After all, as Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia had got engraved more than 60 years ago..."the largest of empires and the mightiest of conquerors exist only in the dust of archives"...

Knowledge survives, Golf courses, like empires don't...

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A welcome back to myself

2009-01-07T17:09:00.001+05:30

It has been a long time...

The last two years have passed by quickly. MBA is almost finished and I am happily placed in Bharti-Airtel. A snapshot of the last three months can be shown pixel perfect by the following...

Now I can come back to writing my blog...Hopefully I would become more regular now. No, that's not a new year resolution!!! Its a promise that I intend to keep to myself...I have been involved in a lot of things in the last two years which did not include setting time for writing, something I miss...

So here goes...

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We were the world!!!

2008-09-05T09:57:00.001+05:30

This was a poem i found in MAD...and i just had to put it up on the blog...moreso since this is something that is close to my heart...

It has parallels in India as in other countries as well (like France with its student riots of 1968); when youth rose up like a huge wind of hope and as years passed and very small gains made, settled down into a life of compromise and craving for the very things they fought against once...

Satire is the perhaps the best way to express anger. Maybe it is the most mature expression of protest, not to say, the most delightful.

Now I leave you in the hands of MAD

"Ever wondered what became of the tens of thousands of screaming rock fanatics who were part of

WOODSTOCK 1969?

Well, for one thing, they're a lot older! For another,they're now part of that large group of Americans called Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals)! What's it like when flower children and protestors turn into high-tech, tie-wearing, church-going,money making achievers? Lets hear from the Yuppies themselves as MAD presents...

WOODSTOCK REVISITED

There was a time...that we barely can recall

When we flipped out at the great Wood-stock Fair;

Though you're sure to won-der

When you look at us today,

If...we...were...real-ly...ev-er...there.

Those days are gone...and we've found a brand new cause;

Now its big bucks that we groove, ye-sir-ee!

With our wives we're talk-in'

Stocks and bonds and pension plans -

What's...more-we...dig...the ...G...O...P

WE WERE THE WORLD!

We were the children!

We were the ones...who told off cops

and crooked pol-i-ti-cians;

But those kicks...we...got...then

Are nothin' like the thrill

We get...from braggin' what we paid

for our Seville

Once we'd turn on, and get mellow from the high,

But the glow is for-got-ten and gone;

Today...we turn on...whatever's on TV;

Ain't no grass - ex-cept...what's...on...our...lawns

WE WERE THE WORLD!

We were the voices!

We were the ones..who burned the flag

and led a rev-o-lu-tion;

"Filthy punks" they called us;

It suited us just fine

But now...we're suited by Bill Glass

and Calvin Klein

Once our hair was long, and blowin' free and wild

Now we pay thir-ty bucks to have it set and styled,

Hell, hell, hell - once we used to march...go stormin'

down the street

Now "The...Establishment" real neat!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

WE WERE THE WORLD!

We were the spirit!

we were the oes...who screamed for "Peace"

and hollered, "Screw the System!"

All the dreams we fought for -

They never came about,

Be-cause...some-where along the line

We all sold out.

Delightful!!!

END OF POST

Rebellion's prophet

2008-08-31T09:08:00.001+05:30

I finished "The Motorcycle diaries" yesterday, a book I enjoyed immensely. The sense of adventure, of discovery and of development of thoughts became evident from the first page. Of course, this book being written by Che made it all the more fascinating, more so because the movie is one of my all time favourite...

However of all the words in the book, the last page is the most haunting. I had first come across the words in Jon Anderson's biography of Che Guevara but it was still had the awesome power to move. I think the power was multiplied because it was the perfect epilogue to the book.

But the most astonishing fact is the prophetic nature of the words. Since Che was himself writing the book, he could not have seen the 'use' that would be made of him, his ideals and his mystique by the generations coming after him. He could not have foreseen the tragedy of co-option by a society that hankered after images.

At the end of the book, as the book draws to a close, Che meets an old man, a refugee from 'somewhere in East Europe' who seems to be a victim of persecution by the communist regimes. As their conversation draws to a close, the old man says -

"The future belongs to the people and gradually, or in one strike, they will take power, here and in every country.

The terrible thing is, the people need to be educated , and this they cannot do without taking power, only after. They can only learn at the cost of their own mistakes, which will be very serious and will cost many innocent lives. Or perhaps not, maybe those lives will not have been innocent because they will have committed the huge sin against nature: meaning a lack if ability to adapt. All of them, those unable to adapt - you and I for example - will die cursing the power they helped, through great sacrifice, to create.

Revolution is impersonal; it will take their lives, even utilizing their memory as an example or as an instrument for domesticating the youth who follow them. My sin is greater because, I, more astute and with greater experience, call it what you like, will die knowing that my sacrifice stems only from an inflexibility symbolizing out rotten civilization, which is crumbling. I also know - and this wont alter the course of history or your personal view of me - that you will die with a clenched fist and tense jaw, the epitome of hatred and struggle, because you are not a symbol (some inanimate example) but a genuine member of the society to be destroyed; the spirit of the beehive speaks through you and motivates your action. You are as useful as I am, but you are not aware of how useful your contribution is to the society that sacrifices you"

The words are chilling in its prescience...

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Quick pics from Lavale...

2008-08-15T04:50:00.003+05:30

Just came back from a detour of the SIBM campus...and as usual, took some pics...cant help it...the campus looks too good at night!!!

On the helipad@4 am

City at night as the backdrop

Time to come back

Now I need to catch some sleep...long weekend ahead...have got only 2 hours to catch some shut eye!!!

END OF POST

Independence Day blues

2008-08-15T01:17:00.001+05:30

Its that time again...the day when my inbox would be flooded by forwards from well meaning guys...forwards which would strive to remind me that some Indian is a CEO of one of biggest corporation in the world (its funny how in these forwards CEO's come first in the bulleted list and the guys due to whom the forwards are possible come at the very end and almost as an afterthought) and how we should feel proud of the land we live in.

Its really irritating. I have come to believe that patriotism for a country is just basic fundamentalism and is the root for many of our prejudices. But personal ideology aside, what gets my goat is the fact that people want to heap the patriotism on you. Patriotism, in the sense we understand should be felt and not be shown. There are people who do that for which I respect them, even if I don't believe in what they believe.

And I have also realized one more thing. The more blindingly patriotic a guy, the more ignorant and the more narrow minded he is (by ignorant I don't mean anything akin to illiterate but more with regard to lack of original thoughts) The people who will not entertain criticism on certain days (like on independence day) are the ones shouting themselves hoarse with flags on the streets (remove the tricolour and put up saffron and you would see a mob).

One more irritating thing is that the celebrations seem no different than on the day of a cricket match. Somewhere we seem to have blurred the difference.

One more amusing thing about this day is the sudden change in the songs playing. Right now I have Lata Mangeshwar singing the 1962 war song ("Zara yaad karo qurbani") in various hostel rooms. A song which would seem so out of place on any other day suddenly seem to be the "in-thing". By evening tomorrow, of course we would have the usual songs back.

So I guess what it boils down to is that there is not much difference between a Valentine's day and the independence day. Both are of the moment and both have rituals that make sense then, on that particular day (like carrying around flowers and paper tricolours). Its then, all about being 'into the moment' as they say and being 'fashionable'..like buying the paper flag. So, why should we cringe when I make the comparison; maybe only because we have been taught that patriotism is a noble passion.

But think about it. And observe the activity around you on this day. Is there any difference?

END OF POST

Goodbye Geetanjali Savarkar

2008-08-13T19:02:00.005+05:30

Its seldom that I would write a farewell to a faculty on my blog (believing that good teachers are a fast dying breed and we dont need too many teachers) but today when Geetanjali Savarkar finished with her last day in SIBM, I realized that this is one teacher that I have to bid farewell to properly.

I cannot say that I attended her classes regularly:)...for various reasons - council work being one of the major reasons along with overconfidence!!! but nevertheless, she is perhaps the single biggest reason that I cleared my accounts paper. She need not have taken the classes seriously and could have just done her part in teaching the subject and moving on - like most faculty.

Instead, she did what most teachers seem to have forgotten - take a personal interest in the students and take a interest in their fortunes. When we were getting ruffled, she took pains to assure us. When on the eve of the exam, there was a rumour of an extra-difficult paper, she did not bluff it out and was as worried as us - becoming one of us and yet was ready with a smile when she told us that we should just be confident and "sab theek ho jayega". And well, I guess it worked!!!

Not only in terms of exams, i have never once felt that she could not be approached for help in any regard. When we were doing a B-plan contest and approached her for some financial aspect of the problem, she actually lent her own book immediately.

Geetanjali - i think we all appreciated that you took the pains to say goodbye to all of us and we hope that you enjoyed the cake!!!

We all regret losing a teacher and a person like you from the college but things change and people have to move on. The appreciation of a person comes because of it and inspite of it.

Goodbye Gitanjali...All the best to you, wherever you go...

END OF POST

Farewell Foundation!!!

2008-08-13T17:41:00.007+05:30

This post is a post of remembrance of the ten months in which I finished the Foundation series by Asimov; a ten months which I enjoyed immensely and in which i became a lifelong advocate of science-fiction stories.

My flirtation with the foundation series began five years ago when foundation series was a part of G's course. There was no Wikipedia but Google was enough to whet my appetite. But being perpetually broke, and each book costing upwards of 300/-, the foundation series were out of reach.

But before foundation series, I read the short stories of Asimov. This is when I simply fell in love with the genre. Having been a fan of Star Trek, i guess i was very susceptible anyway.

In my first year of MBA, i discovered the magic of e-books. Having got hold of the whole collection of Asimov a few months ago, i finally took the plunge and read the first book of the series i.e. "Prelude to Foundation" in my second semester of MBA. And boy was i hooked!!!

There are these books in which you just immerse yourself - not only in the storyline but also in the characters. By the time i was through with the first book, Hari Seldon, Dors Venabili, Raych etc were familiar people. The combination of a rollicking adventure, the science aspect, the creation of a whole new universe in itself was seductive.

Over the next ten months, i wolfed down the rest of the series one by one, whenever i had time; of which i did not have much, considering the pressure of MBA and the work of the council team on top of that...but as they say, you always find a way if you really want it bad enough; and reading this series was something i did want badly. The galaxy of people who became an enjoyable fixture expanded to include people like Savor Hardin, Huber Mallow, the Mule etc. The more i progressed in the series, the more i got immersed in the twists and turns of the story - from the mentalics to intergalactic wars - the series, for me, becoming nothing short of a visually entertaining play of words

The hallmark of a successful series, in books or movies, is that you simply cant stand still until you have finished the whole collection. The Foundation series was one such for me.

Of course, later on, i found out that the Foundation series won the Hugo prize for the "Best science fiction series of all times", beating the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In any case, i enjoyed the Lord of the Rings more so because of the magic that the Foundation series was weaving on me at that time.

I am through with the whole series and as it happens with the best of books, i feel a certain void that is bittersweet - of having something that you really loved for a long time and knowing that you enjoyed every bit of it; and then realizing that the best of things always must come to an end.

I have a 2 GB collection of e-books of science fiction books. But probably having started with the best of them, the rest of the same may not be the same. But who knows - the foundation series has opened a door for me.

END OF POST

The song of Stalingrad...

2008-07-16T17:53:00.003+05:30

I just finished with the book "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor...an excellent book that just served to increase my fascination with one of the seminal battles of history...

I think what is most fascinating about the battle is not just the fact that the Russians won what was almost a lost cause to start with or that the Russians singlehandedly defeated an army that was invincible till then, effectively ending World War II. For me what is most fascinating about the battle was the human drama involved.

In battles, its too easy to get enmeshed into the details of the military tactics and the moves made by the central characters and too easy to forget the boots in the trenches - the guys who actually face the iron and the mud.

I found a song in the book which was perhaps sung or hummed by thousands of Russians fighting in the ruins of Stalingrad. A song about love and longing and of the almost certainty that they will never see again the one they love.

It was perhaps a song that would not have made the propaganda officers happy but it was so popular that they had to look the other way. Its easy to see why the song is not a war song. Its a love song that transcends patriotism or love of a certain ideology.

Its a tribute to the men and women who sang the song and then went over the top to fight for those whom they would never meet again...

The song's name is "Zemlyanka "

This haunting song was written by Aleksey Surkov, written in the winter of 1941. Sometimes also known from its most famous line as 'The Four Steps to Death' ...Here goes...

"The fire is flickering in the narrow stove

Resin oozes from the log like a tear

And the concertina in the bunker

Sings to me of your smile and eyes.

The bushes whispered to me about you

In a snow-white field near Moscow

I want you above all to hear

How sad my living voice is.

You are now very far away

Expanses of snow lie between us

It is so hard for me to come to you,

And here there are four steps to death.

Sing concertina, in defiance of the snowstorm

Call out to that happiness which has lost its way

I'm warm in the cold bunker

Because of your inextinguishable love."

END OF POST

Angela's ashes - of irony in poverty

2008-06-25T13:49:00.001+05:30

While reading the book 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt, something that i read earlier in the book "A prayer for Owen meany" came back to me - in the book Owen Meany says that what irritated him about the 60's flower power and love politics was the lack of irony and the pervasive self-righteousness. The same can be said of most of Indian literature.

In 'Angela's Ashes', McCourt paints a picture of desperate poverty and of helplessness when dealt a life where the odds are stacked against you right from the start. The foundations of life which we take for granted - a more or less stable family, food, shelter and a sense of a better future is missing from the author's life while growing up in Limerick, Ireland. But he takes us through this bleak childhood with a remarkable sense of irony and black humour, which is almost Dickensian in nature (early Dickens actually, since the late Dickens was much more gloomy and dark).

What this does is that it gives the reader a full measure of how life becomes under these circumstances - when life becomes purely a matter of survival, when our finer senses of compassion and show of propriety is sacrificed on the altar of getting the next piece of bread. A life where death is so common and so constant that death of two brothers and a sister in quick succession in their infancy is treated with sorrow but without any sense of ceremonious tragedy. You get over it quickly becuase life needs to go on. Ceremony and rituals and extended sorrow are for the well-off and privileged - the ones who have the money to pay for the time spent in taking part in activities to mourn.

But its a life not without its humour. Black and grim and maybe even gallow humour but humour nonetheless. It is this humour that suffuses the whole narrative The end result is that the reader comes away deeply touched and fully aware of how the life he is leading right now is not only completely different from the protoganists but also how fortunate that level of difference is. It is this awareness that spurs on a better consiousness of life - especially life at the 'lower dregs'.

It is this kind of narrative that is almost completely missing from the roster of indian literature (exceptions are few, notably Premchand.), a large part of which deals with poverty and life at the margins. Mostly the literature variety oscillates between two extremes. A section, Gandhian in nature, deals with the nobleness of the poverty - the picture of the long suffering indebted farmer who is nevertheless virtuous is a constant feature in many stories. The other extreme is of the extreme wretchedness of poverty and how it turns ordinary men and women into unfeeling animals.

It is this lack of greyness and the lack of seeing the black humour of poverty that makes so many of our so called social literature seem so one-dimensional. It is why even celebrated writers like Mulk Raj Anand's works seem so one-layered now. It sketches the situation but not the individual. Bhism Sahni's 'Tamas' is a fabulous picture of the hypocrisy and the tragedy of communal riots, especially for the poor, but why are we so far away from an 'Indian Catch 22'?

Maybe it is because the people who write such stories have the privilege of being arm-chair activists. The stories that they spin out is a victim of their interpretation and of their opinion of what the people below them in the social chain might be thinking or doing. Both the concept of 'noble savage' and of the 'wretched animal' are an overcompensation on either side of the spectrum. Intellectuals who fashion themselves to be liberals feel self-righteous in foisting their concept of poverty on the people around them, people as removed from poverty that they read about as are the writers who write about them.

And this is also the reason that readers are put off and which is then conveniently portaryed by these intelectual high priests as the tendency of Indian readers to prefer fantasy and light literature. I think its a self-perpetuating cycle. Writers try to sound impressive by writing serious tomes and when people cant associate with the subject, the readers are blamed. Writers like Rushdie who pack in lots of satire in their works were first appreciated in the West before becoming popular in India (the fatwa helping no doubt!!!).

What is needed is an Indian Dickens or even a Frank McCourt - people who have seen the 'other India' with their own eyes and escaped with thier sanity and who can put into words - words which will not be self-righteous but words which would be truthful - even to the black humour and the grim tragedy. It would be a service to the people and perhaps more importantly it would make for good literature.

Che on porcelain and cotton

2008-06-13T19:42:00.001+05:30

An excellent article on how we have co-opted Che Guevara into our materialistic lifestyle even while considering it to be a symbol of uber-cool or of rebellion which unfortunately we seem to have lost the guts for.

The guy who said that it was the picture of Jesus on his T-shirt can be forgiven for his utter ignorance but those of us who try to find some reflected glory or feeling of being different by having the face of Che nearby are and should be an object of pity. For those of us who are even dimly aware of what he stood for and yet sport 'Che memorabilia' are guilty of hammering nails into his beliefs and his dreams.

Here then is the article written on his 80th anniversary. (published in Mail Today on June 13 2008).

Click the button on the extreme right on top panel to enlarge to full screen

DEATH OF A REVOLUTION - Upload a Document to Scribd

Vikay Tendulkar - a goodbye

2008-06-13T19:18:00.001+05:30

As usual, Frontline does it best when it comes to honouring people who are dismissed with a few columns of space in most dailies.

Vijay Tendulkar has been instrumental in jolting many people out of their petty sensibilities, including me. I hope that his plays stay with me throughout my life. I don't claim to understand every nuance of his plays but its something to look forward to in the years to come - a testimony to the effect that Tendulkar has on his reader. His plays, the bulk of which I have read two years ago, still affect the way I look at the world - makes it that much sharper.

So then, here is his obituary (published in Frontline)

Writing for life

END OF POST

The Girl with the Gun...A tribute...

2008-06-06T12:36:00.001+05:30

There are these pictures that captivate you even though you the only glimpse that you have got of them has been only fleeting

I saw this picture long long ago,it would be easily 15 years or more, in a documentary being shown on TV about the Vietnam war. This picture was a part of a slideshow and it was on the screen for barely a couple of seconds, but it had a strange effect on me. I have never put it in words.

It took so long because I simply could not find this picture. Searching with all possible combinations on Google images did not yield much. Searching for Vietnam images from that period just brought up the regular images - mainly the world famous images - the napalm image of the children of the bombed out villages running with their clothes simply torn off by the Agent Orange chemical and the image of the US controlled South Vietnamese captain shooting a POW in cold blood. The image of My Lai massacre came up along with some images of the Tet offensive

It was as if no 'non-violent' or 'beautiful' images of the war were put up. Wars and 'beautiful' images seem contradictory but they are not. These are the images when the human spirit comes forth in the midst of a human-made hell.

I went through quite a lot of images before I atlast found this image. Even then, it was a part of an animated gif and I had to isolate the frame. But the difficulty and the wait was worth it.

Today I can pay my tribute to the Girl with the Gun.

I can stare at the girl, fascinated, for hours on end and the only thing I can be absolutely sure of is that the beauty that I see cannot be simply expressed in words, no matter how long I try. But try I must.

To me, its both an image of the absurdity of war and its power to play carnage with life and of the indomitable image of the human being in facing and fighting back even when faced with impossible odds.

Sometimes, I think we are so enmeshed in our daily chores of existence that we forget about the human spirit that resides in us - the spirit that would rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light, as Dylan Thomas would have said; the spirit that led us to conquer icy wastes and dry deserts alike. Its looking at picture like these that helps me to discover that spark.

Without the war, the girl would probably had found choosing between which which dress to wear on a date to be one of the most important decisions in life; would have been perhaps a beautiful, dreamy girl having regular crushes and planning big-small plans for the future. Here, there is an unmistakable feminine charm in the freeze-frame which neither the Vietcong uniform nor the gun, nor indeed the war, can hide.

The easy gait with which she carries the gun slung across her back is at the same time, both pitiable and extraordinarily terrifying. We would perhaps never know how or why she took up the gun - whether it was a split second easy or an agonizing decision. But the gun having become a part of her body lends a strange, terrible beauty - a beauty that cannot be shaken off easily maybe because its a beauty that we are privileged to see so seldom and in our own lives, maybe never.

I find her gaze arresting. The half glance that gives us a part view of her face reveals a face that seems beautiful because and inspite of a severity - a baby faced soldier with soft edges to the face that nevertheless seems to have acquired a glint or a sharpness that a guerilla warfare would bring. What is she looking back at? It could be just a casual glance to someone who has called from behind or maybe its a glance of introspection. The beauty of the picture is enhanced by the fact that we would never know what was it she gave a backward glance to. Its almost a symbolic look back at the devastated country that she is fighting for; a glance of reaffirmation of faith. Maybe it is also a glance of solitude. War invades privacy like no other pestilence. Maybe its a look she allowed herself when she felt herself unobserved, a glance that allowed her glance to soften for a bit.

An easy question to ask with a sigh and a wonder is "Will we ever know what happened to her". It would be a good thought to believe that she survived the war and led a full life. But then, she might have been killed an hour after this photograph was taken. But does it matter? She probably proved herself much more to her own self than many of us can even aspire to. When it mattered, she did not take cover and run; did not whimper and plead for mercy from the heavens; did not bemoan her fate to be born during a time of war; was not paralyzed with the tragedy of the possibility of her youth never reaching maturity, fully aware of the possibility of her life being extinguished any instant; she probably kept on walking inspite of facing the possibility of the fact that that no one might survive who would remember she even existed - the loneliest feeling of all.

Instead she fought back knowing fully well it was not a fair war (is it ever?), knowing that her rifle would be useless against a B-52 bomber. Yet she chose to fight. I think it was this thought cumulating in a split second that marked me forever when I saw this picture.

Maybe we would never be able to put a name to the face. But its just as well. Let her be a symbol of every unsung and unhonoured hero that has fought in every war of resistance - resistance perhaps being our only inalienable right in life.

Let her also be a symbol against every kind of stereotype and limitations that we accept easily around us, stereotypes that allow us to neatly draw boundaries between what each of us can and cannot do.

In the end, I would just end my tribute to you by repeating a lyric that seems to have been sung just for you. In his song 'Unknown soldier', David Rovics sings in the end - "In all the trials of my life, I could only hope to be as beautiful as you".

Because of you, my heart has grown.

Rest in peace wherever you are.

END OF POST

Of Long Bare legs and naked waists

2008-05-30T01:42:00.001+05:30

Looking at the commotion created by the various 'moral' groups over the cheerleaders' dresses in the IPL, one is struck not by the ignorant posturing by people who should have better things to do with their lives than do skirt gazing, but by the striking difference that is made by culture and tradition over what are 'moral dresses' and what are not.

In any case, its an established fact that most of the people who protest about skin exposure are self-righteous moralists who feel immensely inadequate in their own sex lives and who find aggression always a good defence to hide behind. But that's another case altogether.

Consider this. If we had women dancing in Ghagra cholis and dancing some traditional folk dance, these same moralists would not have had a case; even if the dresses had involved a lot of navel and naked midriff show. Its fascinating how naked midriff and a deep neckline can be considered as traditional and hence 'respectful' dress while naked legs are not. The moralists would not have had a case because the general population would have not found anything amiss in the dresses.

Just because show of naked legs were never a part of our traditional dress while naked waists are (Hell, the latter are an integral part of our wedding dresses!!!). Naked waists would be considered dangerously titillating in many cultures and would be banned for the baleful influence it might have on the poor 'defenseless' men!!!

If we had naked legs as part of our tradition, the naked legs would have not raised an eyebrow.

Even many of our traditional dances have gyrating movements which seem perfectly fine with us and considered a part of our cultural heritage. The same dance would have been considered vulgar half a century back in lots of western countries. A lot of our dances were even branded as 'devil dances' by Victorian purists.

What the moralists of our time must understand that everything in culture is relative and subject to de-sensitisation. Show enough legs for 20 years and no hair, men would lust after hair.

But the self-righteous never learn. That's their first attribute.

So it goes.

END OF POST

India's coming civil wars?

2008-05-30T01:30:00.001+05:30

Salvor Hardin, a character in the "Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov, once remarked that "its a poor sword indeed, that does not cut both ways"

Looking at the Gujjar agitation to get the benefits of "backward caste" tag attached to their CV, I am reminded of those words.

Its a case of the chickens coming home to roost. Just like the Pakistan establishment never thought that the Islamic militants they were creating would one day do a 180 degree turn and point the gun the 'wrong' way, similarly our myopic politicians never thought that the caste cards they played to win petty votes would one day turn on them.

I am not worried about the military precision with which the Gujjars can bring the capital to its knees by blocking roads. Any half witted ambitious politician with enough ignorant fools as followers can cut off the main arterial roads by poring over a map. And specially these days when human rights is mainly concerned over who gets shot, no matter if they are the aggressors and provocateurs themselves, resulting in an emasculated police response.

What I am concerned about is that we have a mini civil war on our hands. I don't know whether we know it as that yet, but the signs are all there. One caste fighting against the supposed benefits enjoyed by another caste. We might very well be having our version of the race riots (in our case - caste riots). We would soon have new militant leaders of various castes who would then arm themselves for their caste's 'cause'.

Other castes and their potential militant leaders would be watching this battle that is now raging with a lot of interest. If the government shows weakness, it would be a green signal for others to start similar agitations of their own. And we might soon have castes fighting against others, with everyone seeming to have a predilection to get armed very quickly as well.

Sounds like a portend for a civil war, nyet?

If its seems like an exaggeration, remember every idea that seems opposite to our comfort zone seems always exaggerated when stated at first...

END OF POST

Movie channels ki maut. But a Requiem for them? Nah...

2008-05-29T01:48:00.001+05:30

I remember the time, not very long ago (a few years at the most), when my first task of the morning was to scan the newspaper supplement to check the various movie listings for the day, map the times in a mental timetable and religiously sit during the allotted time in front of the TV, with snacks in tow. Some of my memorable moments with cinema have happened this way.

But something has changed. The change seems very evident to me in the last month. This is a time when I have been at home for quite some time, thanks to my summer project being in Delhi. This is at a time when I can sit at home at leisure and watch movies on TV (the number of movie channels have gone up too in the last one year).

Except, I don't.

Maybe its the laptop effect coupled with my ever increasing movie collection. But I think that there are deeper reasons.

The main thing is time. Why would I want to take 3 hours to watch a 2 hours movie? When you have acquired the taste of watching a movie uninterrupted, why would you want a break in the narrative and needless to say, a break in the flow of the movie every 20 mins or so? I get enough ads to last me a lifetime when I watch a cricket match anyway. I don't think I need to be more informed in order to exercise an informed choice. And more and more people are getting exposed to this taste of watching movies without breaks.

And its not just me. The pace at which we are working, the pace at which we need to work, is increasing for everyone and this pace is filtering down to the teenagers as well. Between juggling an information overload from which we need to filter out meaningful knowledge and relaxing to get our mind de-stressed, why would we let ourselves be a captive tool for advertisers and have our time wasted in addition?

This is a reality that advertisers and Movie channels need to wake up to (especially the Zee movie channels who easily double the viewing time of a film - I wonder if anyone, even bored housewives, watches them anymore).

The reality is not only of laptop toting young and not so young consumers who have separate hard drives for movies (a exponentially growing tribe). DVD libraries like 70mm and DVD Express are gaining popularity with their excellent collection of movies (especially foreign movies - something that is not easily seen on regular channels). There are various models in the pipeline for the DVD rental business, but its a dynamic, constantly changing business. The only thing sure about this business is that they are going to topple the conventional movie channels in the time to come (atleast the current format)

The main turn of tide will occur because of a deeper reason. That of choice. The movie channels had a merry run because of the ever increasing hunger for entertainment and few alternative outlets. With movie halls becoming more of an outing rather than a regular feature due to the ever-rising ticket prices, they filled a vacuum recently vacated by VCRs and magnetic videos and not yet filled by DVDs. They dished it out and we took it.

Not any more.

The movie channels in their current formats would be on their way out soon. I have good memories of its early years. But now, they just eat up my time and deny variety.

Off with their heads, I say.

END OF POST

Song of the Fall...

2008-05-16T01:23:00.001+05:30

I stand here unmoving

staring over the precipice

throwing my memories backwards

back through the swirl of forgetfulness

seeking an unknown spark of a fiery moment

a moment of untrammeled life

a moment of pure unadulterated life

a moment when life itself oozed out of the very pore of existence

Do I seek in vain?

Do I not find fear everywhere

fear of a beginning, fear of an end

fear of a loss, a fear of parting

Do I not find despair everywhere?

despair for what has ended

despair of what might have been

Where is the me?

the me within?

that drinks to none but myself

that exists as the pure present

that is conscious of the throbbing life within

In this moment of resounding silence

I shout out loud into the darkness

Now, Now is that glorious moment

when I feel the blood in me

when I feel every muscle aching and staining in me

when I feel the very warmth of life surging through every inch

Ah life, is this our greatest tragedy?

that we may feel you in your resplendent self

when it shall merge with the great infinite?

END OF POST

The modern version of 'Let them have cake'!!!

2008-05-15T12:27:00.001+05:30

Bush says gave up golf in solidarity with Iraq dead

What a sacrifice it must be for the Texan...to give up golf so that the parents who have given up their sons and daughters in the imperial banditry in Iraq feel empathy for their President who gives up something as important...

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf," Bush said in an interview with Yahoo and Politico.com.

No, but the mom would be frantically overjoyed to see the 'Commander-in-Chief' hurling more men into the war and denying the dignity of the dead by repeatedly lying to his people and to the world.

Its quite funny to see how the ivory tower of the ruling class becomes so evident in statements that almost seem like Freudian slips (though not in the case of the US president with his evident lack of intelligence)...

To have the notion that giving up golf is anyway comparable to empathizing with the parents of the soldiers who are dying in Iraq (most of whom would never be inside a golf course anyway - due to the deliberate targeting by the US army of poor neighborhoods for their 'volunteer army') is evidence of the yawning difference in priorities by the different classes...

Bush shoots off his mouth and thus opens himself to derision. A Bill Clinton would never have said it but would have felt the same set of priorities...

Marie Antoinette and her court was guillotined as vengeance for living in the same ivory tower. The cake statement may or may not be true, since there was no Internet to catalogue her view. Bush would never be brought to trial, let alone executed for his crimes. For victor's justice is never denied. We remember Auschwitz but forget Dresden.

Yet for all that there is simply no difference between the idiot queen of France with the most powerful man on earth.

The more things change, the more they remain the same(or the French would put it more eloquently - "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose").

If history is a cycle, we live out the maximum period in the farce stage...

END OF POST

A Milestone

2008-05-15T00:54:00.001+05:30

And that my dear is my 100th post :)...

A pat on my back!!! lol...

END OF POST

Me ranked 91 on Youtube??

2008-05-15T00:44:00.001+05:30

I got what you would call, a pleasant shock when I just wandered on to my Youtube profile and saw that I was actually ranked 91 (in India) on Youtube in terms of views :) (see in my profile section, below the India flag)

Sets me thinking though...I have simply not done anything to promote my videos....the videos are mostly a legacy of my Cognizant days when I had nothing better to do than upload the numerous videos I used to get as daily forwards (from people who are similarly idle :))...

I don't know what lessons to draw from this...I am no Internet Marketer (except that tagging 'humour' or 'comedy' to videos does get higher hits)...it also is a testament to the mindboggling number of people who cant get enough of getting their daily fix of moving images

But ah well...one day maybe I can understand why I got through the top 100 :)...the way I see it though, with me taking passive interest in the videos, the ranking is not going to be mine for very long, what with Youtube India starting off and Indians getting hooked to short videos...

so as long as it stays, let me enjoy it...and for posterity, I take the snapshot of the page :) lol....

END OF POST

Unforgettable images

2008-05-12T12:56:00.002+05:30

Some of the Images that I have a special affinity to....just thought of putting them in a slideshow...These are images of events or people or situations that always have the capacity to move me...

"Hymn of Creation" - who will here proclaim it?

2008-04-29T21:17:00.011+05:30

Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced?
Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has arisen
– perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not –
the One who looks down on it,
in the highest heaven, only He knows
or perhaps He does not know.

The above is a part (the finishing lines) of the “Hymn of Creation”, a part of Rig Veda, a part of the ancient Hindu text anthologies.

I think a more powerful hymn to the mysteries of the universe is scarcely available, in ancient texts or in the modern ones. The biggest wonder is that this text is more than 3000 years old.

For me, a more succinct explanation of the mysteries surrounding us is difficult to find. What gives it strength is the simplicity of the words. In a series of questions, the hymn effectively demolishes many of the qualities that we, humans, in all our frailties, have attributed to god. Many ancient philosophers from Greek to Indian to Chinese have always maintained that god is an expression of our fears and our striving for an ideal state.

The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

An astonishing statement to make and get away with without getting the book burned for the last 3000 years. If this is one of the holy books of the Hindus, it effectively makes a strong point for agnosticism as a foundation of the religion.

More than that, for me, the immense strength of the hymn is that it takes a stand that it is almost impossible to know our most fundamental mysteries or questions about the universe as easily as people have tried to explain it away. These are questions we are still asking and would be asking for a long time to come out. Maybe it’s a necessary part of the fabric of space that the ultimate questions will always remain a quest (due to that quest only, we have progressed immensely, not only in science but in social studies, art, philosophy etc)

Whence this creation has arisen
– perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not –

A classical statement that uses dualism in the same statement to put its point across.

Looking at the battles that go into fighting about the issues, the above lines are almost a call for sanity; a warning not to fall easily fall into a dogmatic camp about our deepest questions.

I remember being taught about god in Ist standard in a subject called ‘moral science’ (the term itself is suspect – like a fundamentalist Christian priest teaching evolution). We were taught that god was “omnipresent”, “all knowing”, “all seeing” and so on (we were taught to spell god as God as well thus making it a proper noun – a person).

I have often wondered if somebody makes these curriculums as a part of a conspiracy to keep the concept of god alive or its just systemized that’s never been revolutionized. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain – we are not taught the other side. The side of the Hymn of creation or the side of the Ionian philosophers or even that of Spinoza.

What we learn in school in the early years makes an indelible impression on us and goes deep into our psyche and it takes a lot of struggle to unlearn the lies taught to us (knowing where to find to uproot it is the biggest challenge). The so called attributes of gods have been drummed into us and has become a frame of reference for most of us in looking at the world.

I wonder if the so called subversive ideas (which are merely the alternate ideas) are taught to us, won’t it lead to a more thoughtful society? Especially in terms of religion which in the present poisonous form entraps us and which in its extreme form leads to foolish shedding of blood.

The irony is that the “Hymn of Creation” is a part of Hindu holy texts. It’s also the perfect antidote to all the ideas that our parents and relatives and teachers try and teach us (in all fairness, they are just passing on the ideas from their parents and so on – all without debate). A child taught about the 3000 year old skepticism will reach out for ideas and books which encourage open thought. He would reach out and enjoy Oscar Wilde over say a Kipling in his early reading. He would not listen to the discourses of priests without trying to question what he hears. Imagine the difference that would make, this culture of being taught to think with an open mind right from the start.

Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?

Who indeed?

We need to ask more questions, before our mind is filled to the brim with ‘answers’.

END OF POST

Fidel...Absolved?

2008-03-12T11:03:00.005+05:30

With Fidel Castro’s sudden illness and the huge controversies and speculations that immediately erupted, the focus sharply turned towards Cuba and the man who has come to symbolize everything Cuban for the last half a century.
Among the various responses, which were needless to say, sharply polarized ones, I found this following article which truly spoke in the way I felt.
Though an admirer of Fidel as a man and an admirer of his courage, his honesty, and his charisma and the sheer pull on imagination that he has exerted ever since he triumphantly entered Havana in December 1959, I detest people who act as apologists for the regime….Che Guevara died young and handsome and instantly became an iconic martyr but Fidel, undoubtedly more able of the two, grew old and has perhaps, in many people’s eyes, betrayed many of the ideals that his revolution stood for….we would not rendering those ideals any service if we desist from criticizing him or his methods. If a better way is to be found, it in fact, must be done…..
Of course, of the other kind of response, the Miami-Cuban-in-exile type of response, an ill-informed point of view expectorated with an almost fiendish glee, tainted with an absolute incomprehension of the history of the region and denial of the positives of the revolution is almost too absurd to point out here….
So cutting long story short, here is the article by Fred Halliday (which appeared on Open Democracy) that really reflects what I feel…..

Click here for the article

END OF POST

Drunk Rambling I

2008-01-19T12:07:00.000+05:30

Something i wrote when i was dead drunk in Bangalore and the words just came out...lots of unfortunate souls were of course bombarded with this sms of course :)

Do you know what is that i love the dearest in the world?
It is the savagery of being...
the teeth bared to the wind,
the defiance of the fist to the wind against,
the naked mind of rebellion to tyranny,
the run against the storm and moving one step closer to the windswept plains,
the click of the revolver against,
the mob the kiss before the oblivion....

One more i wrote on the same day

Man, i am more than myself right now...
A part of the sublime,
master of none,
subject of the one playing the heretic strings...

The world revolves around my pivot,
yet there is exquisite solitude
Therein lies the happiness of being

END OF POST

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Drunk Rambling II

2008-01-19T11:56:00.000+05:30

Another thing i wrote when i was smashed

Do you know the loneliest part of ourselves?

Being a mere spectator to the medley of memories in our mind...it is also our loveliest and most beautiful part of living...the kaleidoscope of the moments when we actually loved, preserved in technicolour and sepia with us the lone applauder

one more...

Its a breadcrumb sin world and all i want to do is lie on my back, stare at the inky dark sky and wait for a shooting star...

END OF POST

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Why wait?

2008-01-18T18:32:00.001+05:30

The title, of course, takes its name from the famous suicide note of George Eastman when he wrote the reason for taking his life as “My work here is finished, why wait?”

I have often wondered at the irony. Almost all of us blunder around life trying to find a reason for all that we do. Looking as an outsider at the melee that our life, haven’t we all, in secret or in the open, despaired at finding some purpose in what we do. If we have to be a little poetic, don't we wonder for what are all our tears, our hopes, our desires, our jealousies, our camaraderie, our romances and everything that makes up the small jigsaws?

I sometimes feel that our mind and our consciousness boggles at the vastness of our existence, which is why we find comfort in the small mercies of life – a person who loves us and a person who allows us to love him or her, our family (for the lucky ones who have a completely normal family i.e.) and the present circle of friends (which have a higher turnover than ever before) and willingly ascribe our time and thought to targets we set for ourselves – passing the next exam, marriage, retirement and so on. This prevents us from simply breaking apart at the realization of our smallness in the onrush of history.

So when Eastman kills himself because he has finished his work, I have to admire him. It takes genius to know what our purpose is and it takes guts to admit to oneself that our usefulness is over and that’s all that there is to it. Maybe the famed human tenacity is nothing but clinging on and hoping for the unknown, still trying to find purpose in the face of onslaught of death.

Which is when I wonder. If I ever face what Eastman faced at the time he decided his fate, how would I like to move on, bring on the final scene so to say?

First of all I want to do it alone; jumping off a bridge or a building or stepping in front of a train is absolutely out of the question. First of all because I think I would like to greet death in solitude and also because I want an elegant death – if I have taken care of myself while I lived, why the hell would I want to depart mangled or smashed.

Secondly since it’s a very pre-determined objectively thought out decision (I am doing a Eastman, remember!), I would like to prepare myself well, which means I want to kill myself on a full stomach; since I like to eat the good stuff, depending on what I feel like eating then, I would go to the best place that offers it (and if I hesitate, I would suddenly remember saving money makes no sense anymore :)).

I will then write a nice moving farewell letter to all those I love and hope they understand why I must do what I must do. I think I might like to write a poem but will take a call then; if I feel that the whole killing myself drama is getting too melodramatic, I think I will finish with the letter but write a poem anyway and keep that as a backup (what if the original letter flies out of the window or something; I want my last words fame too!!)

And then, I would read “The Gift of the Magi” and remind myself that life is beautiful because people like the two people in the story actually exist (and flatter myself by saying that I am one of them – er almost was!!).

Then when it is late night and everything is silent, I would play Dylan and die. My only wish then would be to die at the exact moment that “Mr Tambourine Man” fades away.

Well, takes all kinds to make a blog don’t it? ;)

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Borderless - one of the best Ads ever

2008-01-17T01:56:00.000+05:30

If I were to rate Airtel as a mobile communication service provider, I could fill a page with my rantings.

Their network seems to fail suddenly and as has happened with me, it happens just when you need it the most. Your ring tone is changed without your approval, which means that you are charged without your approval as well!!! You get a bill which seems inflated and you don’t remember making so many calls and the call centre rep always passes it on in a daymare replay of a Catch 22 situation. And just when you are planning to pay online a day before last date, their website develops glitches. As is very apparent, that’s about a 360 degree circle complaints as far as Airtel is concerned. Maybe i stick to it only because the other service providers are even worse!!!!

However, one thing that no one can take away from them is the fact that they make some of the best ads on TV...quite thought provoking and quite attention arresting. To tap into the human need of communication and turn that need into some of the most beautiful ads, Airtel according to me, can attribute a good part of goodwill that people have about them to their ads that touch a place deeper than a certain cute dog ever can.

Their latest ad is a case in point.

This can be easily termed as one of those 'ads with a social message', which it is and it’s a great marketing tool at that, which is one way to look at it. But...

If we just look at the ad from a purely aesthetic point of view, it’s fantastic in its ideation and execution. The ad obviously points to border between the Palestine and Israel but the way it has been shot, it can just be any place - from Kashmir to Cyprus.

And what is amazing about the ad is that it has packed all the subtleties in about a minute and a half. The way that the older boy cajoles the other way to pass on the wall using sign language, the way that the other boy is hesitant at first because obviously he has been taught to suspect the other side, the way that innocence wins out in the end and the glee on the faces on both the boys when the ball is kicked back.

And then the coup of the ad.

The spontaneous movement towards the fence and how when the smaller boy gets stuck in the barb wire, the elder boy lends a helping hand. The expression on their faces when they actually stand defiant of the barb wire, small rebels who just want to play with each other, is simply overwhelming. And the voice over says “There’s no wall, no barrier that can keep us apart, if only we talk to each other”. At that moment you want to forget that it’s a marketing ad. It becomes a classic in its own sense.

To the tune of the Airtel tune, composed by A R Rehman, the camera starts panning out, moving upwards, the two boys start playing football in the no-man’s land, between the barb wires, as if creating a small peaceful country of their own.

You realize after seeing a few times that a lot of thought has gone into making this ad. A point in fact is that football is taken to be the sport which has a much more of a global language than cricket, a sport that an Indian marketer might have been tempted to take as a theme. But taking football made it universal.

It’s these small things that make this Airtel ad possibly one of the best ads ever.

Hats off, Airtel!!!

The Reason...

2007-12-14T19:49:00.000+05:30

You tell me that it is a dew drenched grassy plain
but its not real,
reality is the parched land of before

You tell me that its an azure sky up there
but its not real,
reality is the doubt within

You tell me that this passion is rare
but its not real
reality is the people who have never felt it

You tell me that we found each other as if destiny
but its not real
reality is a twiching and dying loveless society

But i tell you this, my love,
I tell you on this sundrenched crystal morning

You and I have grappled with impossibility
defeated time and fate to pour ourselves into each other
You and I have fought ourselves to gain victory in our self's defeat

To disentangle now is to turn away from life, from a throbbing living
to embrace the existence of a faceless mob,
to exist in a room of steadily closing walls...

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Coloured...Who me??

2007-09-06T20:16:00.000+05:30

I got this as a fwd on my mail and couldnt help smiling away at the self evident ironical statement made at the end of the poem...the shortest poems can be really so devastating, especially when they can turn inside out the logic of notions which we dont give a second thought to...

The poem was supposedly written by an African child....though could have been written by anybody with a great sense of ironic humour

When I born, I Black,
When I grow up, I Black,
When I go in Sun, I Black,
When I scared, I Black,
When I sick, I Black,
And when I die, I still black..

And you White fella,
When you born, you Pink,
When you grow up, you White,
When you go in Sun, you Red,
When you cold, you Blue,
When you scared, you Yellow,
When you sick, you Green,
And when you die, you Gray..

And you calling me Colored ??

You Stand in the Doorway - A poem

2007-09-06T20:00:00.000+05:30

You stand in the doorway
Your face invisible in the bright opaqueness of the daylight
your outline silhouetted, simmering as made of vapour

you do not speak, nor i
for you see,
the very best and the very worst of our lives are inexpressible
cant be spoken of without losing that intangible terrible beauty

You always said
The brightest light leaves the blackest shadow
But then don’t you understand
The light is the light only because you are there
Extinguishing itself without you

Farewell
Let us not turn back for last looks
You’ll never grow old for me, nor me for you
The beauty of our moments preserved in the mind’s eye
That is perhaps our greatest gift to each other
In this long short life of ours

We wont meet again perhaps
But then we have always been kindred souls
We will find each other in the darkest alleys of the mind,
Illuminating each other as if facing the bright side of the moon.

The shadow that follows us...

2007-07-06T16:23:00.000+05:30

History is never really that far off, usually it just a glance away, a thought away or a talk away. It’s just that we strive so hard to try and clear the fog of the future that we forget the roots from which we have sprung.

I got a sample of this when I talked to my grandfather some time ago.

Now those of us who are Bengalis must have heard of the famous song “Ranar”, which has an enviable pedigree – this powerful poem is written by Sukanto Bhattacharya, set to tune by Salil Chowdhary and sung by Hemonto. Now “Ranar” is an ancient form of a postman, the name itself a corruption of the word “Runner”. At the turn of the century, Ranars used to go running from village to village distributing mails, money etc, armed only with a crude spear, usually barefoot with a small bell banging against his spear to announce his arrival. The spear was to fend off attacks from dacoits who knew that he would be carrying money. The song is a tribute to the man and his life, a life of extreme poverty, loneliness and an ever present danger of a sudden death.

While hearing the song, I am usually lifted away to a murky, long dead world, every vestige of which has been blown away by the sands of time. Though the song has incredible power, it still gives off a whiff of a world that is very difficult to relate to now.

Life has a funny way of setting right our perspectives. While talking about this song to my grandfather, I was a little taken aback to hear him say that as a child, he had seen the ranar in action and he could actually understand the agony from which the song was wrought.

Suddenly the remoteness of that long dead world crashed and I felt it was suddenly brought into sharp focus, as if somebody from the mutiny has come back in flesh. And I wondered about the term remoteness. Here is a man who has met and taken mails from this ranar, now using a mobile phone and telling me to send his e-mails. Nothing remotely remote about it. It was a perspective shift yeah but a very pleasant one.

Another reminder perhaps that history is just a shadow, forever following us. Its upto us to put flesh to it and feel closer to where we have come from.

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This land is whose land? funniest parody i have ever seen...must see

2007-05-13T21:09:00.001+05:30

This is actually the best parody that i have ever come across...a play on woody guthrie's famous song "This land is your land" (which had a satire of its own), this takes potshots at the US political climate...and it does so in such a funny, unpretentious manner, its quite refreshing...a must see, have seen it already 10 times and going strong:)

This Land!
|Funny Jokes at JibJab