Movies Review- all u want to know

Network Marketing

2008-06-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

See how fast life is going to be. Are you ready for the same ? I will show you how to be with the space. I offer you a unique LIFETIME unlimited earning opportunity thorugh American International MLM Company (Network Marketing Company) Which will provide you Health, Wealth & Happiness. For more details contact : VIJAY PAWAR on 9321027883.

amazing arts

2008-06-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

Watch this beutiful clip & give your comments on it. Your heartly comments ar highly appreciated.

MY SLIDESHOW

2008-06-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

The other India

2007-04-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

......not in distant UP or Bihar but at our very own Kurla train terminus. I was there last night, to pick up my mom, returning from Kanpur on the Lucknow Express. Suffice it to say I felt transported to Mulayam Singh country standing in Mumbai itself.Now of course large swathes of this city are not 'first world' at all. Or even second world (if something like that exists). But when it comes to a public amenity such as a railway station in a major metro, there are certain minimum standards you expect.CST, Bombay Central, even Dadar - they're not fancy but they're fairly functional. A station like CST was built over a hundred years ago and there's scarcely any room for expansion. Yet the local and through train terminus somehow co-exist and bear enormous passenger loads. By contrast, Kurla terminus is exclusively for long-distance trains. It was built from scratch but God knows which planner/ architect was employed by the railways for the job. Its existence almost justifies 250 years of British rule in India. Had they not been here, perhaps the rest of our stations too would look like tabelas.The first problem with Kurla terminus is that it is in the middle of nowhere. Meaning not enough signage - whichever side you approach it from. But that is nothing - wait till you actually get there.You will somehow have to squeeze past the taxis and rickshaws piled up at the narrow exit-cum-entrance to park your car. A vast ubad khabad maidan with piles of rubbish where rats the size of 2 week old kittens stroll languidly. A housing complex for the upwardly mobile of said species complete with picturesque garbage dump and 'tracks' view!Enter the station 'complex' which is basically a couple of platforms under tin roof sheds and a large cement and concrete hall. A kind of 'waiting area' where rows upon rows of sheet clad bodies are laid out in various stages of slumber. Waiting for a train? Or simply waiting it out till they find accomodation in Mumbai. You can't really tell. Onto the platform. The stench hits you, full on. A giant unwashed and uncared for smell; a lone uniformed employee valiantly spraying the tracks with pressurised water. Standing there in a pool of self-created sludge.The already-narrow platform is half occupied with giant gunny bags barely leaving room for alighting passengers. Two trains pull in at around the same time - both over 2 hour late. There is absolute chaos as a mass of humanity spills out of the station and tumbles into the waiting tangle of transport. No traffic policeman in sight...The first taste of Mumbai for folks from the hinterland. The dirt, dust, chaos and lack of amenities perhaps make them feel right at home!I entered the stationmaster's office with the intention of writing a complaint/ suggestion. Can't the railways at least level the ground outside the station to provide proper parking? I mean, you're charging us for it!A tired middle aged man looked up and,"Madam, kya karein.. sab unplanned hai. Naya building banega." Kab? I was last at Kurla terminus 6 years ago and nothing has changed in the interim period. A tiny rat scampered across his room as we were having this conversation. Simultaneously the train we were expecting pulled into the station and I abort my 'improve India' mission. Just glad to pick up mom and head home!The thing is...Building clean, functional railway stations is not rocket science. There's the Delhi metro of course but also just a few kms from Kurla, the example of New Bombay. Vashi, Belapur and the like. They're 'local' of course, but living proof of stations built to some kind of plan. And an improvement on the British zamaane ka model - with better design, construction quality and hygiene standards. You keep clean, it stays clean. You build a cowshed, it stays that way. And gets worse... But then Shree Laloo Prasad is too busy giving lectures at IIM A and Harvard to bother about such minor irritants. And the media - so full of discussion and debate on the need for a second airport in Mumbai - could hardly care less. At the very least they should stop calling this horror 'Lokmanya Tilak' train terminus. Now that, would be a real sign of respect.P.S. I am leaning towards Nokia N80 as my next phone. Does it take decent night shots? Any N80 owners with views/ opinions - please do get in touch!

The Sex Education debate

2007-04-27T22:05:00.001-07:00

Indian Express reports: The Madhya Pradesh has decided to end the Adolescent Education Programme (AEP), two years after it was introduced in class IX and XI, saying "sex education has no place in Indian culture".Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's decision came a day after he met Deenanath Batra, chairman of RSS body 'Shiksha Bachao Samiti'. Batraji advised the CM that yoga should be included in the curriculum in place of sex education.Apparently, NSUI had also recently protested the use of 'graphic anatomical pictures' in the kit provided to teachers. Teachers themselves had protested against "indecency in the name of education".ET reports:According to some teachers, illustrations in the book showing physical changes in male and female bodies from childhood to puberty to adulthood were offensive. They said they would not be able to talk to students regarding the same or show such diagrams.The diagrams in question are similar to what is contained in many biology books taught to school children showing the human anatomy. However, teachers in Madhya Pradesh argued, the human anatomy was different from sexual organs.One Mr Rajesh Tiwari, principal of government-run Excellence School in Bhopal, believes AIDS is a different issue and sex is different."Why do you need these diagrams of nude boys and girls? It is against our culture to talk sex and show such diagrams to our students. Fifty years ago, teachers did not need to speak of sex to students. So why the necessity today?Why should a 15-year-old be openly spoken to about sex? Just tell them that according to Indian tradition, every man has to lead the life of a ‘bramhachari (bachelor)’ till the age of 25. Tell them AIDS can be contacted through a used syringe or blood transfusion." There have been similar concerns in Kerala.My reply to Tiwariji, Batraji and all others concerned about the impact of sex education on ‘Indian culture’:50 years ago we only had Binaca Geetmala on All India Radio. Today we have item girls in bikini tops and chaddis jiggling it on prime time television.50 years ago Bollywood couples only danced around trees. Today they kiss, have sex and sometimes even get pregnant before marriage. Then, proudly carry around their bump.50 years ago most Indian girls attained puberty at age 13-14. Today, it’s as early as 9.A recent survey by the Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association (MPVHA) of 250 girls in the 10-19 age group in 12 districts found that 70 % want sex education to be made a part of curriculum in schools. The survey found that over 60 percent of the girls were facing a communication gap with their parents due to shyness and fear, and 80 percent were unaware of physical changes in their bodies during adolescence.As many as 47 percent of the girls indicated that they were sexually harassed outside their homes. Of these, 53 percent said they had never complained to their guardians about it.NCERT’s AEP (Adolescence Education Programme) includes activity sessions to learn about sexual molestation and its prevention. The program also has modules on homosexuality being a preference rather than an abnormality. And questions like: “When did you first have wet dreams? Did that change your approach to girls?”I haven’t seen the actual syllabus but it hardly seems as if giving this kind of information is ‘encouraging’ sexual activity. If anything, young people get their doubts answered by a credible source rather than hearsay. Secondly, class IX to XI students are around 14-16 years of age and ‘not too young’. In fact, if anything, it’s a bit late in the day and they already know. I personally think by age 9-10 the biological aspect should be explained by parents to their kids, along with some of the value-based, emotional and cultural issues which come up in adolescence.We can’t pretend that sex is possible only after marriage because kids will find out that’s a lie. But we can communicate that in our culture, as well as experience, it is better to wait. That having sex is a big decision, with emotional repercussions, and must not be taken lightly.However I find a lot of parents – even urban, educated types – would rather ignore the issue altogether or wait till the child is ‘old enough’. For some, that day never really comes. A parent recently told me that some mothers arranged a session with a gynaec for their girls in class IV and V. So she could explain to them ‘everything’ and answer any questions they had.This particular mom did not feel comfortable sending her 10 year old. I’m not sure why. She’ll simply get hand-me-down information from the girls who did attend… So why be shy??The parents vs the stateThe does-sex-education-encourage-sex debate is not confined to our country alone. There is a huge controversy in the US on this issue as well. There is a divide between parents who believe schools should impart only ‘abstinence education’ and professionals who believe it is imperative to also impart information on birth control.Abstinence education was created in the early 1980s by Marion Howard, a professor at Atlanta's Emory University. Apparently, when Howard asked 1,000 sexually active teenage girls what they most wanted to know about sex, 84 % said they wanted to learn "how to say no without hurting the other person's feelings."So was born the Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) which uses acting, mimicking, and role-playing to tell 5th, 6th and 7th graders that they are too young to have sex. The unique aspect is the message to abstain is best delivered by kids of their own age. Sessions are conducted by trained ‘peer leaders’ under teacher supervision.Formal evaluation of the program reveals that PSI makes teens less likely to indulge in sexual activity in the year following abstinence education. And 4 years later, in the 12th grade,1/ 3rd of participating girls are less likely to become pregnant.But that sounds like a pretty vague statistic to me.According to MSNBC 66% of American high school students have had sex by their senior year. And these same teens are paying the price by contracting dangerous — and sometimes deadly — sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, 65 percent of all sexually transmitted infections contracted by Americans this year will occur in people under 24.Yet only 18 US states and the District of Columbia require schools to provide sex education The WHO believes that there is no evidence that comprehensive sex education programs encourage sexual activity. This was their conclusion after a study of 35 such programs around the world. And I am inclined to agree...The way forward Since a majority Indian parents are unlikely to be comfortable talking about sex with their kids, a formal sex education programs has its merits. A Indianised version of the ‘abstinence’ program can be added on to satisfy those worried about sex education affecting Indian culture.The truth however is that formal sex education has little or no impact on the decision to have sex. The external environment such as peer group interaction, media imagery and individual personality – sex drive, appetite for risk etc which responsible. And those are factors beyond the state’s control.Yes, a value system or belief system can be influenced by what parents and elders say or do in the impressionable growing years. But as a young adult your child may accept or reject those values – that’s his or her choice.In any case, the situation is not as ‘grim’ as our cultural warriors believe. The % of young people having sexual intercourse below the age of 18 appears to be relatively small.A study of medical college students found sexual intercourse had been experienced by 11.8% of respondents. The mean age of first sexual intercourse was 17.5 years. Along similar lines, a National Institute of Health and Family Welfare study concluded that that premarital sex varies from 17% among schoolchildren to 33% among young workers in the typical north Indian population.Among those who had sex, the average age for first sex estimated by the researchers was 17.4 years for boys and 18.2 for girls. 60% of respondents said that they had sex ‘rarely’.The study was conducted among 1500 young people in the slums of Delhi and Lucknow. A rider: both these studies were conducted circa 2000-2001. Yes, the figures would definitely have gone up. Here’s a more direct indication:In 1996, the Durex ‘global sex sex survey’ found that the average Indian male had sex for the first time at age 25. The same annual survey concluded in 2005 that Indians, on average lost their virginity at the age of 19.8.Of course I would not take this at face value (academicians call it a ‘quick and dirty survey’ with a sample which does not represent the general population as it’s only online!).But some of the pop statistics do seem close to the truth.Indians were the ‘oldest’ to lose their virginity – at age 19.8. We also had the fewest sexual partners n the world (just 3, vs a global average of 9).So the culture brigade can feel ‘happy’ at our relative conservatism or alarmed (at our relative promiscuity, compared to previous generations). Either way, we can’t blame ‘more sex education’ for these behavourial trends.Killing the education bit won’t reduce the propensity towards sex. But it just might end up killing safe-sex-ignorant young people.

Lights, Action... Cut!

2007-04-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Visits to the dentist can usually be characterised asa) painfulb) very painfulc) painful beyond description.Yet, today, the word that came to mind was quite the opposite. Comical is when you hold up a laltain-like emergency lamp a few metres from your face, so that dentistji can see the cavity in your mouth. And attempt to fill it in.All because the electricity got cut 15 minutes ahead of schedule - at 11.15 am. Luckily, we'd finished the drilling bit or I'd have been hanging around half-excavated, till 3.45 pm when the MSEB deigned to restore power to Vashi.It sucks. Absolutely, completely, horrendously. At first we had cuts from 7.30-10.30 am. Bad, but you got used to it and life went on.Now, the timing has been changed - and from 3 hours, we're upto 4. Make that four and a half. Sales of inverters have shot up - fan ke bina to koi scene hi nahin hai. But what about life in general? What about hospitals, shops, offices... And why just New Bombay and other areas technically outside, or on the outskirts of Mumbai??Far enough from Mantralaya and the homes of Godrej-Ambani-Birla to not stir the powers that be into action.Further down, in the rest of Maharashtra, there are 8 hour power cuts, 12 hour power cuts. Maybe the hours they get power should be counted instead of the time they don't!I am angry. We are all angry. But we know not what can be done...A really long and hot summer lies ahead. There seems to be no option but to plan your life around what you can't change. My dentist had better go nau-se-baarah - not in the am but pm.

'Hum hain na..' yeah right!

2007-04-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

If I hear the tan tana na tana ta tana na jingle of ICICI Bank for a few more seconds... I will probably puke. The phone banking system of the bank which pays Shahrukh Khan several crores to give a dimpled smile and say 'hum hain na' had better do something about its phone banking services.
It's all very well to talk about 'revolution in the banking sector'. But is the idea of phone banking merely a strategy to help a relatively new bank expand aggressively? Or was it also supposed to make my life as a customer easier?
My interaction with ICICI phone banking over the last one year certainly leaves me in doubt over that question. The common problems one encounters:-
- Punch in your debit card, pin number etc etc and try to reach a phone banking officer (you may have an automated menu but it does not fulfil every need!).
"Sorry ma'am my system is down.. pl punch yr 16 digit pin number again..."
I do that.
The second person who comes on line asks me to do the same thing! And a third!!
And this is not an isolated incident. Invariably, there is some kind of accident or mishap while speaking to a phone banking officer - or you are put indefinitely on hold. Either way, it's back to hearing 'hum hain na..." tan tana tan tana tan tana tan.
Why not just change your tune to 'jingle hai na..."!
A single call to this bank can easily take 20-30 minutes. How different is that from going to the branch and standing in line there? And did you notice, it's not even a toll-free number!
Yes, on one occassion a higher-up in the phone banking chain went out of his way to help me with my net banking password. But honestly, had the bank used a better courier who would have left a 'We were here while you were away' slip (as is the standard practice) I would not have had to trouble him.
Customer 'service'
No amount of advertising can convince me of ICICI Bank's love for me. The only other time I hear from them is when they (or their DSAs) wish to sell me something. A car loan, a home loan.. whatever.
And I bet I'll get 16 calls a day if I ever default.
Service is when a phone banker calls and says,"Ma'am you have some money lying in your account which could be earning more interest. Can I put it in a fixed deposit? And by the way, a flexi-deposit may make even more sense..."
Instead they 'build the brand' by putting up giant hoardings all over screaming 9% interest. And expect us to sms our desire to participate.
But why should any bank bother? Hamara paisa pada hai to unhe fayda hai. Or so it would seem. A single call from a bank which is in my genuine interest would earn you more in goodwill and future business than you can imagine.
Perhaps all phone banking systems have these troubles - not just ICICI. Maybe ICICI customers are just more net savvy, more vocal. Here are just a few thread with complaints....
Avinash Murkute on mouthshut.com (complaint posted on April 3 2007 - and apparently taken note of).But that's just one of a looooooooooong list.
A thread on Arjun Prabhu's blog started 2 years ago which still gets customers venting their ire (ICICI seems to be monitoring this as well and responding)
And here too ICICI features prominently. Along with Indiatimes shopping and Air Deccan. (I know most of us have vowed not to fly on that airline but let me tell you, but just in case, they have a completely dysfunctional website which is being 'upgraded' for the last two months! )
The bottomline: Some kind soul from ICICI is likely to read this, email me and apologise for the 'inconvenience caused'. But, the problem is systemic.
'Hum hain na' has to be a genuine philosophy for the company. Not just an irritating advertising jingle mouthed by a charming but overpaid actor.

The Air hostess dream

2007-04-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

An air hostess job - on ground - is like being a waitress. And yet that simple prefix makes it so much more. A job with glamour, money and a chance to 'see the world'. At least that's how it used to be.I grew up in a colony of scientists where every kid became a doctor, engineer of PhD. But there was one notable exception. A girl called Pushpa who joined Cathay Pacific.The aunties might have gossiped and whispered but Pushpa couldn't care less. She was good looking - in an arrogant and casual sort of way. And she had perfect skin, which we were told was the essential requirement for an air hostess job.Cathay was good for Pushpa. She travelled the world, enjoyed free tickets for the family and last heard, had married a Greek and settled down abroad somewhere.An average-at-studies girl used her looks to her advantage. And got to see do things she could never have, stuck on ground.But this story is not about Pushpa. It's about the dream of being an air hostess. Today there are numerous 'air hostess training' institutes. One uses a celebrity brand ambassador, the other boasts of a UK certification and yet another says 'life long placements'.Fine. But placements where? Mostly low budget domestic airlines. Frankfinn goes so far as to advertise an 'exclusive tie up' with Air Deccan - meaning that airline recruits only Frankfinn students.Not sure if that's such a wise thing to advertise! Sure, being an air hostess on Spicejet or Deccan is a decent 'job' but most of the elements of the dream are missing. No foreign travel, or paycheck with 5 zeros. No duty free shopping and no fancy 5 star hotels stays.You are on your toes for 10-12 hours, almost continuously as a low budget aircraft has a quick turnaround time and makes 5-6 flights a day. Plus, you have nothing much to do or 'serve'. Just hand out bottles of water, or sell sandwiches.And, there are irate passengers to constantly deal with!Of course someone has to do this job - and there's always hope that you may move on to something 'better'. However, as far as I can see the new airlines apply less stringent standards...And the likes of Kingfisher and Jet still place regular ads to recruit their own candidates - instead of relying solely on training institutes.The point I am making is that people who join these institutes should be clear that they may have joined to pursue a 'dream'. But be prepared to end up with what is merely a job.So don't expect automatic aahs and ooohs when you say "I'm an air hostess"! Which airline you fly determines your place in the pecking order. So if you do have perfect skin - aim high!

Castles in the air

2007-04-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

I got married at the age of 41... because I could not buy a house.Coming from Hafeez Contractor , that's quite a statement. In an interview to HT Cafe Contractor elaborates:Abhi loan milti hai.. It was difficult to get a housing loan back then.... Not that I couldn't have got married. But the girls I used to like were from rich families. And at the time I used to stay with my mother ina one-room kitchen in Gowalia Tank.... That's the reason I understand a 25 year old's dilemma.. he wants toget married. But can't buy his dream house.Of course, understanding does not mean the guy is doing something about it.Most of the buildings he designs aren't the kind a 25 year old can afford.Contractor blames this on government policies, such as restrictive FSI."We need to create an economy of abundance, instead of making people pay the price of scarcity - we are creating it," he laments.Effect of this artificial scarcity: loans are readily available - but who can afford the EMIs anymore? My cousin visited a property exhibition in Mumbai recently where the cheapestflat - in Goregaon - was going for Rs 80 lakhs. Anything in Andheri, Rs 90lakhs - 1 crore."I can't take a loan for 70 lakhs," he sighed. And if he, working for oneof India's best known banks at a senior position can't afford it, I wonder which 30 something professional can!Destiny callsBut back to the architect. An interesting fact about Contractor is that he almost didn't become an architect. Although he was obsessed with drawing from an early age, he actually did not get admission into architecture college because of poor marks in class12.A profile on Business Traveller notes:He was about to enrol in the army when an aunt tore off the letter ofadmission. Contractor then joined the Arts stream in Jai Hind College in Mumbai. The journey back into the world of architecture was by sheerchance. The subject French was a handicap and so he decided to take tuitions from his cousin's wife. The cousin owned an architecture firm and sometimes theclasses were conducted in the office. One day, in the office, Contractorsaw the detail of a window and commented that it would not open in its present design. His cousin was surprised and asked him to show his version of the window and despite having no formal training, Contractor's inputs were very good. Another family member then used some influence and managed to get him aseat for an entrance test in which he scored A+.Amazing story, isn't it? Hafeez went on to become the most successful graduate of Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture.Too much hype?Of course, Hafeez Contractor has his critics. Arzan Wadia writes in his blog: Sadly, besides a few Indian architects, most are blindly aping the west. The band leader of the latter is none other than Hafeez Contractor. In a recent interview that he gave to a very good friend Rahul Bhatia,Contractor was asked : "When you look across the Mumbai skyline, there’s a kind of sameness, nothing that catches the eye." and his response was "When you have a residential building, it consists of a living room, bedroom, hall, and kitchen. It’s only when you have something different, like a museum, or a hotel, that things are different." I am baffled by such comments. What he is trying to imply is that residential buildings all look the same. How wrong can he be. Residential buildings the world over offer an amazing variety of design. He does not even have to look so far.Kanchenjunga, at Kemps Corner is one of the bestexamples of residential high rises. Sadly not one of the hundreds of Hafeez buildings can even aspire to come close to that.I agree - Kanchenjunga, designed by Charles Correa , is something else. But Correa does very few residential projects. Contractor may have done a lot of other work but is best known for projects like Hiranandani. The aam aadmi can recognise a Contractor building and it appears beautiful (beauty being relative to the other crumbling old buildings around).As a brand name in architecture, Contractor is the biggest there is in India today. And that is no mean achievement!The Other ArchitectPerhaps, you say, someone new will come along and create a new, moreoriginal and India-inspired architecture. But wait, there was such a man.His name was Laurie Baker.An award-winning English architect, renowned for his initiatives in low-cost housing... Baker sought to enrich the culture in which he participated by promoting simplicity and home-grown quality in hisbuildings. Baker became well known for designing and building low cost, high quality homes, with a great portion of his work suited to or built forlower-middle to lower class clients.More on the man who devoted 50 years of his life to a unique philosophy of architecture here.Yet, when Laurie Baker died 3 weeks ago, how many newspapers gave it coverage on their front pages? Only the Indian Express. I bet the TVchannels didn't even consider it to be 'news'. The man did not build skyscrapers or malls, after all. No castles, just beautiful, affordable, livable homes.

Song in my head

2007-04-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

...Laari Choote from the film Ek Chaalis ki Local.Incidentally 'laari' would generally mean lorry or truck, but here it refers to a train. And it probably means something like loved one - or laadli - in Punjabi. So it appears that the hero and heroine are going to miss the last local home. The actors in question being Abhay Deol and Neha Dhupia, at least the song will create some buzz for the film! More than some silly kiss for sure.The moment you hear 'Laari Choote' you know there's gotta be a Pakistani behind it. And that is the case. Xulfi of the popular band The Call. But this song is a solo effort. One has to ask - yeh Pakistani musicians mein kya jadoo hai? Atif Aslam's recent Doorie is another amazing piece of work. Not just the title track, the entire album rocks! Mahesh Bhatt, for once, gets it right. Speaking to the IHT, he notes: "Pakistani music had an appeal akin to that of African-American music in the United States: a tradition of song inspired by suffering".Moral of the story: If you have a star cast which may make the audience suffer, throw in a Pakistani song or two! Agar Emran Hashmi ko neutralise kiya ja sakta hai, to Nehaji to chhotee si cheez hain.

'Biotech boom' - but where are the jobs?

2007-04-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants to enter a field which is 'hot'. One such field is biotech. You would have read innumerable articles on the scope of bitechnology. The jobs opening up in the sector. And of course the poster pin up company Biocon. As a report in the Hindu notes: Career counsellors and those engaged in educational guidance... are flooded with inquiries about biotechnology courses and their scope. Biotechnology today looks like what information technology was in the 1990s. But are prospects really that bright? Today, an engineer from an average college can easily land an IT job. What about the biotech graduate? First of all, there is this huge debate over whether biotech should be offered at all the undergrad level. M. Radhakrishna Pillai, Director of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, stated to the Hindu: "Biotechnology cannot exist at the B.Sc. level, where one should learn the basic science. B.Sc. Biotechnology courses have created a confused lot in Kerala, defeating the very purpose of the subject."The same holds true of other states. A number of colleges and universities, especially the private and deemed variety are offering 'BSc Biotech'. Students who were trying for medical but failed to get through would rather opt for a biotech course than a regular BSc. At least kisi ko kehne mein to better lagta hai.For the colleges also, it's a happy thing. Fees for an undergraduate biotech course are far higher than a BSc. One assumes this is because the college will provide better facilities, more qualified teachers etc but... sadly this is generally not the case. In most cases, Biotech students actually use the same labs as the students doing Microbiology/ Life Science!What about PG?At the post graduate level, JNU is the most reputed college, the toughest to get into. The combined entrance exam held by JNU can also get you into 32 other colleges offering biotech at MSc/ MTech level. BHU, Goa University, Anna University and PuneUniversity are some of the next best choices.Now this is the case in every profession. Everyone can't get into the best college. However, in biotech there are certain unique problems. JNU has a tie up with DBT (Dept of Biotechnology) which makes it easy for their students to work on live projects during the course of the MSc. Others do not have it so easy. When it comes to industrial training, you may actually have to pay for it. For example, students of PTU (Punjab Technical University), Indore who went to IIT Delhi last year for 2 months training paid Rs 15,000 (boarding and lodging extra). This money goes towards facilities (eg kits, labs, equipment etc) and the students get to work on a live experiment. There is the option of doing a project with a company also - some give you a stipend while others don't pay but don't charge you either. However having an IIT Delhi project on your resume will help when you go out for a job - so students don't mind paying. And for IIT, this is a way to get some additional funding for projects. So it's a win-win for both. But still, it's a little strange...And what about the job?OK, so now you graduate and start looking for a job. If there is such a 'boom' happening, it must be pretty easy, right? Unfortunately not the case.Shweta Agrawal, an MSc Biotech, has been looking out for a job for last 6 months. "I have given 15-20 interviews. The problem is there are very few real 'biotech' jobs," she says. The company may be 'biotech' but the job expected of an MSc is database management - not experimental. "It's very hard for a fresher to get a job in QC (Quality COntrol) or R & D because most companies have small teams and there isn't much job hopping." What's more, pharmacy graduates are preferred because they can do formulation as well as QC. A quick look at various job sites would tell you that openings for fresh MSc Biotech are few and far between. BSc Biotech ki to baat hi chhodiye. Actually from the job point of view, even MSc Chemistry may be better for you!An exception to all the above would be the handful who complete a BTech from IIT (KGP, Delhi and Bombay) or a Masters in biology from IISc."If I don't get a job of my choice soon I will start preparing for MBA," says Shweta. "The fact is, by now, an MBA from even the most unknown university would have got a job for Rs 10-15,000 p.m," she sighs.The alternate option of course is to do a Phd - either in India or abroad. However even after a PhD, prospects in India remain limited. You would most likely join a government laboratory (that's where much of the challenging work is being done). At age 28, armed with a Phd, you would earn Rs 8-10,000 as starting salary.So if you are planning to do Biotech - keep all this in mind before making your decision. Don't be lured by the idea of a boom and the fact that it sounds cool. Take up Biotech only if you have a deep love for the subject and wish to get into research. For which you must be open to doing a PhD.Otherwise, MBA aapke liye theek rahega. And oh, there is an MBA (Biotech) being offered as well... One last bit of advice. Don't fall for it, go for a more general degree!

Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai: hardly rocking

2007-04-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

First visit: fantastic. Second visit: niceThird visit: ok...Fourth visit: bored!Are there only 15 songs in the hard rock universe? The service is slow and unsteady. And frankly, not too warm.A bunch of guys dancing above your head to the tune of 'YMCA'. Even they looked listless.Except for the company of a very dear friend, this visit was a forgettable experience.I might be suffering from I-get-bored-easily syndrome. But I definitely think there's something missing. Of course there are no other places in Mumbai which hold a candle to Hard Rock in terms of space, decor, sound system, sheer ambience and 'internationalness'. But it feels like one of those tourist spots - chalo ek baar dekh liya. Foreign se koi guest aaya, usey dikha diya. Not a place that owns a part of my soul.Or, in non-poetic language, a place where I would want to hang out. Over and over and over again.

Movie review: Bheja Fry... No stars!

2007-04-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

Rare is the film which truly lives up to its name... This one is asal bheja fry. I really did not like it!The cast may remind you of Khosla ka Ghosla. But the movie is pointless, plotless and (mostly) witless. Vinay Pathak has acted well. The rest of the cast simply irritate, irritate and irritate.Most of all Sarika. So why did I see the film? Because Gaurav Malani - a guy whom I know and trust - wrote the review for JAM, recommending it highly. "I can't believe this!" I smsed him after the show. "This is one of the most faltu films I've seen in recent times... How could you give it 4 stars?""Lol.. I thot the same when you reviewed Fanaa," he replied back. So there you have it - if you violently disagreed with my review of Fanaa you may like this film. I get the feeling there will be two camps here - of the 20 odd people in the 1000 seater Regal cinema who paid to watch the show, a few were laughing. A lot. The rest of us came out with a headache. Oh, by the way, it's a remake of a French film. Which explains a LOT of things. There are some things which are best left untouched by remake artists. Anything French is one of them! Other films releasing this weekend, reviewed by JAM:- Bandidas - Eragon - Perfect Strangers

Reason vs Rationalisation

2007-04-22T23:52:00.002-07:00

A shorter version of this piece was published today as the second installment of my column, Thinking it Through, in Mint. The first is here.Often when I argue with friends, or on the internet, I am dismayed by how intransigent some people are. No matter how many facts I throw before them, or how solid my reasoning is, I simply cannot convince them of my point of view. No doubt they feel the same about me. "He refuses to listen to reason," they think, even as I bemoan how unreasonable they are.This is not a phenomenon peculiar to me: we live in deeply polarised times, and around half the world believes that the other half ignores reason altogether. Well, it is my belief that we overestimate reason to begin with. The Scottish Philosopher David Hume once described reason as “the slave of the passions,” and I believe that much of the time when we feel we are being reasonable, we are actually rationalising conclusions we have already arrived at, positions that we already hold.An excellent illustration of how our mind does this comes from neuroscience. In the 1960s, neuroscientists Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Sperry carried out a series of experiments on patients with split-brain epilepsy. A common treatment for such patients used to be to sever the corpus callosum, the part of the brain that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. This effectively splits the brain into two: rational thought is carried out by the left hemisphere, but the two halves of the brain stop being aware of the happenings the other half.Describing the experiments in his book, “The Blank Slate,” Steven Pinker wrote of how “the left hemisphere constantly weaves a coherent but false account of the behaviour chosen without its knowledge by the right.” One example: the experimenters would flash the word “walk” in the visual field of the right hemisphere. The patient would get up and start walking. But when asked why he did so, his left brain, which would be unaware of what the right brain had seen, and would effectively be doing the replying, gave answers such as “to get a coke.” The remarkable thing is that the patients actually believed their explanation, even though the conscious mind arrived at it after the unconscious mind prompted the body to start walking.Pinker called the conscious mind “a spin doctor, not the commander in chief,” while Gazzaniga referred to the left brain as “the interpreter.” In his book, “Phantoms in the Brain,” VS Ramachandran wrote, “[t]he left hemisphere’s job is to create a belief system or model and to fold new experiences into that belief system. If confronted with some new information that doesn’t fit the model, it relies on Freudian defence mechanisms to deny, repress or confabulate – anything to preserve the status quo.”In other words, the left brain’s job to to make sense of the world and build a coherent worldview. This isn’t easy. The world is full of complicated phenomena, and the most intelligent among us would not be able to make sense of it all if we tried to place each disparate event in its proper perspective. We would be perpetually bewildered.To deal with this, our brains evolved to seek patterns in everything. Michael Shermer, in his book “How We believe,” wrote: “Those who were best at finding patterns (standing upwind of game animals is bad for the hunt, cow manure is good for the crops) left behind the most offspring.” Of course, while we are especially good at seeking patterns in everything, not all patterns are meaningful, and many simply come from confusing correlation with causation. Thus, a cricketer who makes a century when he happens to have a red handkerchief in his pocket may carry that handkerchief with him for the rest of his career.Indeed, this explains religion. For much of our existence, science hasn’t been around (or able) to answer the big questions of the day. We’d have gone mad thinking about it all if we didn’t have religion to give us ready-made patterns that explained everything. Similarly, in the modern world, we have all kinds of belief systems that help make sense of the world around us, and provide us with cognitive shortcuts to think about the world.When these belief systems are attacked, it is natural for us to not want to have to rethink them. As an economist would say, that would be inefficient, wasting too much time and energy. Thus, various kinds of defence mechanisms originate for this purpose, such as the confirmation bias, which is a tendency to consider only evidence that fits our existing beliefs. A believer in astrology would do this, for example, by considering all correct predictions by an astrologer to be proof of its validity, while ignoring the ones that turn out false.And indeed, this is why most arguments, especially about politics and economics, are so frustrating. If both sides have firm beliefs, they stand little chance of convincing the other person, for most reasoned argument in such cases is rationalisation couched as reason. The next time you get into one of those arguments, and witness one of them, you will actually be able to observe this happening. The delight of it all is that the people involved will not be aware of this process, and will honestly believe themselves to be open-minded individuals who are, well, thinking it through. But that is mostly self-deception.

Reason vs Rationalisation

2007-04-22T23:52:00.001-07:00

A Valentine's Day story

2007-04-22T23:50:00.001-07:00

I can't help but share this romantic tale with you:
Surendra (25) and Poonam (23) Gupta seemed like just another newly-wed couple going on their honeymoon when they boarded the train to Goa on February 5.However, two days later, while Surendra, a product executive with a pharma company, was found in an unconscious state in Goa, Poonam was found in a similar condition at Kalyan station.Now, a week after the incident, both are accusing the other of trickery.Have a good day, and don't do anything silly!

"Good girls do what they are told"

2007-04-22T23:49:00.001-07:00

What is most chilling about this story is that it happened repeatedly, across America, to people just like you and me. It show just how authority can exert such a powerful influence, and can suppress conscience and empathy.That, of course, was quite what the famous Milgram experiment also demonstrated.

The return of Karamchand

2007-04-22T23:47:00.003-07:00

"Shut up, Kitty.""Yes boss!"It's an excellent sign of the memorableness of a character if, almost two decades after we last saw him, we can remember his little idiosyncracies: the carrot-eating, the terse questioning, the affectionate faux-contempt towards the goofy sidekick. Karamchand was back on air today, and I think it will do well because of Karamchand -- the character, that is.The key to a popular detective series is to create a memorable character who entertains you, and who you enjoy reading about. Holmes, Poirot, Feluda were successful characters because once you were familiar with them, you looked forward to just being with them, regardless of plot. Indeed, plot was of negligible consequence. If you read Alexander McCall Smith's exceptionally popular Mma Ramotswe series, you will note that the plots there are amateurish, but the characters are immensely entertaining. That's the key to its popularity.I use the term "character" loosely, of course -- in much detective fiction, such as Agatha Christie's work, the main detectives are caricatures and not well-rounded characters with an interior life. And yet, they are entertaining caricatures, which is why it works.And so it is with Karamchand. Pankaj Kapur's character may never show the compassion or curiosity about the human condition that, say, Commissaire Maigret shows, but as long as he chews that carrot and tells Kitty to shut up, the TRPs will come in.(I'd accidentally put this post up on Chandrahas's blog, The Middle Stage, pressing the wrong button on my dashboard. Apologies to both his readers and mine!)

The return of Karamchand

2007-04-22T23:47:00.002-07:00

"Will you still love me?"

2007-04-22T23:46:00.001-07:00

It's a common question for young people in love, when one of them says: "If I had an accident, say if I was disfigured badly, or lost an arm, would you still love me?" Or even: "Would you still marry me?"Well, here's one story:
Marine Sergeant Ty Ziegel already had his life planned out, he would marry his girlfriend Renee Kline upon returning from his second tour of duty in Iraq. But one fateful day a suicide bomber hit his truck, tearing apart his body and making him among the 20,000 soldiers that have been wounded in Iraq. He was blind in one eye, had a shattered skull, and most of his skin was burned off. Renee lived with Ty at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas for a year and a half, sharing Ty's every hope and fear. Their relationship became stronger than ever, and Ty and Renee moved back to their hometown in Illinois in July 2006, and got married in shortly thereafter.To understand what this means, see the pictures. The first two are of the couple before he went to war. And then...What would you do if you were the guy? What would you do if you were the girl?

Common Man vs Gundagardi

2007-04-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

Normally, except in films, it's a no-contest: Gundagardi wins hands down, or up, or whatever. But sometimes Common Man fights back.That what a blogger named Hawkeye is doing in Bangalore. His wife protested against a milkman overcharging her for milk. The milkman:
... turned extremely abusive and verbally assaulted her. He insulted her, threatened her with physical and sexual harm and physically intimidated her. A crowd gathered but nary a person came to her rescue and to restrain the milkman.But rather than let the matter rest, Hawkeye and his wife took it up with the cops, consumer forums and the company the milkman represented. They met with both intimidation and indifference, but to their immense credit, are continuing with their battle. Hawkeye has a full series of posts on this, and I recommend you read the rest from him: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. His posts also have useful links to resources for those who might find themselves in similar situations.

Dating and courtship

2007-04-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

In an article titled "Dating is Competitive Manipulation," Violent Acres writes:
The truth is women love to compete with other women. Women want to win men over. They want to be chosen by a man who could have any girl he wants. No woman of caliber wants to win a man by default. She wants her man to be a prize, a good catch, someone she can be proud of. When you tell a woman that her significant other is handsome or intelligent, she’ll likely beam with self satisfaction. In complimenting her man, you’ve complimented her. You have told her, in so many words, that she is capable of attracting a quality mate. The women who rail against this usually have a low self esteem and thus avoid competition because they fear they’ll always fail….or they’re ugly. You pick. [Emphasis in original.]So all you naive men who sweetly thought that just being charming and sensitive will land you a good mate (ha!), wisen up: the trick to getting a beautiful woman by your side is to first get another beautiful woman by your side, so that the woman you're really targetting feels that there's a challenge in landing you. That's all there is to it.Being older than the lady in question helps. Here's an abstract to a paper, "Courtship As A Waiting Game," by Ted Bergstrom and Mark Bagnoli:
In most times and places, women on average marry men who are older than themselves. We propose a partial explanation for this difference and for why it is diminishing. In a society where the economic roles of males are more varied and specialized than the roles of females, it may be that the relative desirability of females as marriage partners becomes evident at an earlier age for females than it does for males. We study an equilibrium model in which the males who regard their prospects as unusually good choose to wait until their economic success is revealed before choosing a bride. In equilibrium, the most desirable young females choose successful older males. Young males who do not believe that time will not treat them kindly will offer to marry at a young age. Although they are aware that young males available for marriage are no bargain, the less desirable young females will be offered no better option than the lottery presented by marrying a young male. We show the existence of equilibrium for models of this type and explore the properties of equilibrium.Going by this theory, it would seem that couples who marry young have low self-esteem, and I'm not too sure I'd agree with that. Some young people tend to be more romantic than others, and love and marriage happen. Or am I rationalising?Anyway, to go back to Violent Acres, do check out her post on confusing sexual identity with self worth. Common enough these days, I guess. (In the case of men, replace "sexual identity" with "financial status.") Pity.

`Salma`nesia!

2006-12-09T23:25:00.000-08:00

Though Shah Rukh Khan is the biggest Bollywood star in Malaysia, on Thursday night it looked like Salman Khan had taken over his mantle. At the screening of Baabul during the on-going Global Indian Film Awards 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Salman strided in with spiked, gelled hair (we spotted Aalim around; guess this was his scary doing!) and the screams from the excited locals wouldn’t stop! The red carpet premiere of Baabul, at every floor of the imposing KLCC Towers, had zillions of fans waiting to get a glimpse of the stars.
The local folk stood for hours in advance just for a dekho of their favourite actors. They cheered for Salman and John Abraham in the same breath as there did for Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra and Rohit Roy! Though a ticket cost 10 ringgits (approx Rs 120), the rates were hiked to 30 ringgits to cash in on the starry presence.
Esha’s veg khoj
Post the screening of Baabul, a famished Esha Deol was looking for some veggies and dal. Malay cuisine abounds in seafood, and if you are veggie and unadventurous, you have to remain hungry (like Esha did). Or better still, stick to salads like Helen.
Gups day out
Blue bash: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif at the GIFA event in Kuala LumpurDay 2 at GIFA 2007 had Sanjay Gupta unspool the promos of two films, Woodstock Villa (directed by Hansal Mehta) and Shootout At Lokhandwala (directed by Apoorva Lakhia), which he has co-produced with Balaji Telefilms. Present were some of the cast members, including Sikandar Kher, Neha Uberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Sunil Shetty and Rohit Roy.
Gupta also screened one of the stories from his next project Dus Kahaniyaan, titled Zahir, which stars Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza. Bajpai plays a bank employee who chucks his job to pursue his true calling (writing), while Mirza is his neighbour — who is a call centre employee by day and a bar dancer by night.
Support for Dada
Rohit Roy, who features in Shootout At Lokhandwala, seems to have carried his ‘Make Dada captain’ slogan to Malaysian shores as well. He hosted Sanjay Gupta’s event, but not before making all present aware that Sourav Ganguly had played a scintillating knock in South Africa.
Aaarti Chabria has been walking barefoot at the GIFA event. The reason: a sprained ankle. Prior to leaving for Kuala Lumpur, she twisted her ankle while walking along Breach Candy. She had to be rushed to the Breach Candy hospital but the plaster on her ankle could not dampen her spirits to fly to KL. She plays the role of a bar dancer in Shootout at Lokhandwala. We spotted her limping in a pretty pink plaster with her mother in tow.
Saif can’t come
Though he is Provogue’s new brand ambassador after Fardeen Khan opted out, Saif Ali Khan is skipping Provogue’s fashion gala where he was to be introduced as the new face of Provogue. It is left to Esha Deol and Upen Patel (also ambassadors) to walk the ramp, as part of GIFA 2007.

Meri awaaz suno!

2006-12-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

Papa Amitabh Bachchan has lent his voice to several films in the past. But this is perhaps the first time that Abhishek is following his father’s footsteps in that direction. The actor recently recorded a voiceover for Smita Thackeray’s forthcoming production, Kaisey Kahein.
Just right
Directed by Mohit Hussein (director of the TV show Tumhari Disha) the film is set for a February 2007 release. Talking about Abhishek’s contribution to the project, Mohit says, “We were looking at a couple of names, but I was very keen on Abhishek. He had the right urban personality to match the feel of my film. I was delighted when he agreed to lend his voice.”
Bachchan junior will be heard in the introduction and concluding segment of Kaisey Kahein. “We begin the film with a voiceover, where Abhishek talks about the characters and lays the foundation of the plot. Towards the end of the film, the audience will again hear his voice summing up the movie.”
Mohit says that Abhishek even complimented the film after watching a teaser. He says, “Usually, people give clichéd reactions after watching a teaser, but Abhishek asked to see it twice. He loved it and congratulated me on the project. It definitely boosted my morale.”
Not a cliché
Kaisey Kahein stars newcomer Rajveer Dutt and Neha Julka. The film is a love story and Mohit says it won’t fall into the trap of a routine Bollywood cliché. “Every one claims that their film is different. I wouldn’t want to say the same. I think the audience will react instinctively after they see it.” Mohit has also scripted the film and is all geared up for the release. “We are looking at a pre-Valentine’s Day release. I think the film is a perfect date movie.”
Coming from the television industry, Mohit considers himself lucky to have gotten a good break in Bollywood. “My producer Smita Thackeray didn’t compromise on anything in the film. I was given a good budget and could accommodate everything I needed. The film’s teaser will be screened at GIFA and will release early next year.”

`Bigg Boss`s house is full of pythons!`

2006-12-09T23:22:00.000-08:00

In the snake pit: Aryan VaidFor weeks now, the country witnessed the brewing romance between Aryan Vaid and Anupama Verma on Bigg Boss, whispering sweet nothings in each other’s ears, holding hands and hugging for the camera. That romantic equation has now changed with Aryan’s ouster. The actor was evicted from the show last night. Currently, he is going through a myriad of emotions. “I’m shocked, disappointed and worried about my state of mind,” he said, speaking minutes after coming out of Bigg Boss’s studio in Karjat.
Were you surprised at your eviction?
I was stumped. I didn’t understand the logic behind it. There has been a lot of dirty politics going on in the house so I decided to stay away from it. Even now, I’m thinking about why I was voted out. I just don’t see why the audience would have wanted me out.
Did you expect to fall in love with Anupama?
Of course not. I entered the house with no expectations, just like every one else. I don’t want to give my relationship with Anupama any name. As every one has witnessed, it’s definitely a special bond and she’s now a very important person in my life. I value and treasure every moment I spent with her. She’s not only beautiful from the outside but also has a sparkling soul. I have tremendous respect for the way she has conducted herself in the house. We have met socially, but never had a chance to connect. This was a great opportunity to discover the real Punna.
Do you plan taking this relationship forward?
It’s too early to speculate on anything. I’ll wait for the show to get over and see where things go. I just hope Anupama takes care of herself and doesn’t fall into bad company.
Who is the bad company you are referring to?
Definitely Ravi (Kissen). I can’t believe he backstabbed me. He spoke about Anupama and me getting engaged on the show and how we are meant for each other. Then he goes into the confession room and nominates me. He said I was getting frustrated, which is why he wanted me out. I think he’s the one who is frustrated. There are pythons in that house! I can’t believe Ravi could stoop to such low levels, especially when he has a wife and three kids.
There’s a buzz that your romance with Anupama’s is staged…
I don’t know how to react to this. Its ridiculous for anyone to even think on those lines. I never planned to get close to Anupama before entering the show. It was natural and instinctive. What you saw was something very special, honest and straight from the heart. There was no acting or fake emotions attached to our bond. It’s disturbing when people think that way.
Your equation with Ragini kept changing with every episode.
There was no equation with Ragini to begin with. But when I saw her cry as I left, it struck me how strongly she felt for me. She was a pretty girl and I was just being myself. I dont think there is anything more to read between my frienship with her.
Your favourite moment on the show.
All the precious moments I spent with Anupama are special to me. It was great hanging out with her.
Who put you off the most?
It was scary watching Rupali and Carol giving massages to the guys. Every evening, these girls would land up in the guys room and turn into masseurs. I never expected to see anything of this sort. Of all the people in the house, Ravi put me off the most. I couldn’t stand him, especially towards the end.
Would you want to return to the house as the Wildcard entry?
Only if Anupama stays. I have no other reason to go back other than being with her.

‘We lost out by half a point’

2006-12-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

Their ouster from Nach Baliye 2 has affected them so deeply, that Tanaaz Lal has almost lost her voice. The actress can neither think nor explain, and so is the case with beau Bakhtyaar Irani.
After several calls and much persuasion, Bakhtyaar finally spoke to HiTLIST about their ‘so near yet so far’ fate on Nach Baliye.
“To say that we are shocked is an understatement. Our feast is over. We tried to reach the sweetest dish on the menu, but God had other plans,” begins Bakhtyaar.
Devastated
“My parents have taken the ouster very badly. Tanaaz’s daughter Zianne too is in very bad shape. Delnaz (Paul, his sister) came to our place to cheer us up, and so did Manav Gohil. It seems someone has died in our house. The less said about Tanaaz the better. That day, we slept at 3 am. I woke up at 6 am to find Tanaaz not by my side. I ran out and saw her standing in the balcony. It was scary. She was sobbing.”
Close call
Brushing aside our question about whether the Tonks are more popular than them, (Yash and Gouri piped them because of public votes), Irani simply says, “We got more votes than them over all the weeks, except this one. Anchors Manish and Poonam Goyal said we were being eliminated by half a point. I really cannot fathom what they meant by ‘half a point’.
Apart from this vote angle, I think we could not connect with the judges after the regional round (where the couple scored only 19 points).” Bakhtyaar maintains, “I don’t think that Nach Baliye 2 is rigged. Wouldn’t it have been better for the channel in terms of TRPs if Tanaaz and I had locked horns with Hussain and Tina?”
The actor feels that had the couple devoted more time to participate in the reality episodes, the story would have been different. “We were only rehearsing. Look at Hiten and Gauri. They always spoke to the viewers. The next reality show we do, we now know what we need to do.”
We know our job!
Reacting to Gouri Tonk’s remark that the couple should have taken the tournament more seriously, Bakhtyaar says, “This is our job. And we do our job very seriously. Those who did not, hum jaante hain unka kya haal hua.”
Bakhtyaar and Tanaaz are currently in Delhi. “We will not be attending Rajeev and Delnaz’s 10-year wedding anniversary bash today. We needed to get away from Mumbai. We couldn’t take it. Let us take a break for four days,” concludes Irani.
Behen Ho To Aisi
Delnaaz Paul tells us, “Unlike every Wednesday, this time they (Bakhtyaar and Tanaaz) did not call me at 9.30 pm. Finally, they messaged at 11 pm saying they had been eliminated and I thought they were joking. For me, they are the best.
Among all the couples who have participated in Nach Baliye, Bakhtyaar and Tanaaz are unarguably the best. My brother is putting up a brave front by talking to you, but I know he has taken it very badly. You need b***s to do the innovative acts that my brother and Tanaaz did, and our entire family salutes them. I am sure the nation also is doing that.”

Priyanka, Koena to jam with Nelly Furtado!

2006-12-09T23:12:00.000-08:00

Grammy Award-winning American popstrel Nelly Furtado will be performing in Mumbai for a music concert on December 31. And guess who’s going to be sharing the same stage as her? We’ve got confirmation that a bunch of B-town celebs, including Priyanka Chopra, Koena Mitra and Shahid Kapoor will be Nelly’s opening act on New Year’s Eve.
What’s more A R Rahman too will be performing along with Canadian-based desi band Josh (who are instrumental in bringing the singer to India).
Joshila jugalbandi
The Bolly junta will dance to a set of popular filmi numbers. Says Koena, “I’m performing to five of my favourite songs, including the latest tracks from Apna Sapna Money Money.” This will be followed by a jam session between the other performers, except for A R Rahman. He has been reserved for the grand finale.
Says Priyanka, “Unfortunately, I haven’t met Nelly and will see her only on stage. I’m going to be travelling to South Africa for God Tussi Great Ho, after which I will head to Prague to shoot for Drona. I don’t even have the time for technical rehearsals.”
Miss Piggy Chops is such a big fan of the international artiste that she even has her songs as her mobile’s caller tune. She says, “Promiscuous is my current favourite. In fact, I had the track I’m like a bird for the longest time.”
For Koena, however, the jamming session with Nelly is the big draw. “I’m so used to doing solo shows. It’s rare to share the stage with fellow colleagues. I’m equally excited as it’s a Nelly Furtado concert.”
Why not, Shahid?
The Bolly beauties have no qualms about working on the New Year’s Eve either. “This is the first time I’m working on New Year’s Eve,” says Priyanka. “In the past, I’ve only shot for a couple of hours in the day and then rushed back home to be with family. This time around, I’m going to usher in the New Year with thousands of people. It’s going to be a wonderful experience,” she says.
On the other hand, Koena says, “Seeing the pop diva belting out numbers beside me is going to be quite an exciting experience.”
Meanwhile, a hesitant Shahid Kapur refused to divulge whether he was doing the concert or not. A source close to him says, “He is in talks with them. and yet to finalise his participation.”

Even my maid asks for a fee hike!

2006-12-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

It’s been almost a month since Kanchi Kaul made an exit from Ek Ladki Anjaani Si. There was a great deal of buzz surrounding her ouster from the show in which she played the main protagonist, Ananya.
From demanding an exorbitant fee to throwing attitude on the sets, Kanchi was the cause of consternation for both the channel (Sony) and the production house (Shreya Creations).
At that time, she preferred not to react to the allegations against her.
Now, the actress is in more than a mood to tell al.
What went wrong with Ek Ladki?
All these allegations cropped up as it was an opportune time. My contract had expired in August and since it had to be renewed, I asked for a meeting with the channel. For over a month, I was not given a date. I was kept waiting. They just assumed that I was acting pricey.
Did you ask for a fat fee hike?
Yes, I did ask for a fee hike. After a year of shooting every single day, I thought I deserved it. Even my maid asks for a hike in her salary every year. But the amount was not outlandish. I was willing to talk it out, but I was kept waiting for a meeting for over a month. I became a victim of someone’s big ego. I’m acting as it is my passion, it is not for the moolah.
Are you referring to Sony’s Sandiip Sikcand?
I don’t want to take any names, but it is pretty obvious. The way everything was done and the things that were said about me were unprofessional and very unethical. There was so much mud-slinging. It just showed what kind of people they are.It is alleged that you had problems with your co-actors and crew of Ek Ladki.
I am still in touch with them. Need I say more?
Another allegation is that you were the reason for Mohnish Behl’s exit from Ek Ladki.If I was so powerful and called the shots on the show, I would not have been out of it. Everyone knows that Mohnish was out of Ek Ladki after a particular person took charge in Sony. I wish I were so powerful to hire and fire as alleged!
What have you been up to lately?
I am presently in Goa chilling out and catching up on films at the IFFI festival. Prior to this trip, I went off for a trek to Coorg. The place is beautiful and it was an enriching experience.
Are you looking at new projects?
Yes I am. I wanted to take some days off after shooting continuously. I wanted to be with my family. Now I will be back looking at both television and film offers. I am not fussy about the medium.

Spiritual getaways -Mix faith and fun this..

2006-12-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

1 Harihareshwar, 230 kms away
How to get there: The State transport buses are avoidable. Drive down via Panvel-Mangaon-Goregaon Phata on the Mumbai-Goa Highway (5 hours)
Of course, you want to be in Goa, your tousled hair flying carelessly in the briny air, like Dia Mirza’s on the IFFI coverage on national television. But you are not a filmstar. Thank God! And you are not in Goa.
Thank God again! It’s the craziest time to be there, with everyone, from toothpaste tube cap fitters from London (yes, they can afford to be there, thanks to the power of the pound) to high-on-beer-and-abandon-uncles, pouring in by the jeep load.
If you are a beach bum, you can satiate your seafood, surf and sand triangle of desire at the twin towns of Shrivardhan and Harihareshwar. Fringed by thick woods, the beach here is clear to laze on before you head off to a khanawal to dig in to some fried Mushi (local fish).
The ethereal experience of visiting the Harihareshwar temple, is a good enough reason to tear yourself away from the beach. Unlike other shrines, the parikrama at this Shivling-like structure that rises from the ocean, is meant to be taken outside, around the temple, on a rocky trail by the sea.
Look out for discreet steps that lead you right into the mouth of the ocean, from where you can watch the sun glide into oblivion.
2 Lord Venkateswara Temple, Pune, 200 kms away
How to get there: Take the Expressway to Pune, and then go down the highway on Sinhagad Road. A huge billboard on your left will direct you towards the complex (4 hours from South Mumbai)
The Balaji temple near Pune is a replica of the world famous Tirumala Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andhra Pradesh, and makes for a great day trip from Pune. Spread across 10 acres, the complex includes several smaller shrines, one of them dedicated to Lord of wealth, Kuber. And that’s where you’ll find the longest queue. Don’t bother taking any flowers or incense along. All the Lord needs is money, and for a reason.
Balaji dared to beget a second wife despite being married to Mahalakshmi. Furious, she asked for alimony. He had to borrow money from the treasurer of the world, Kuber. Since then, he’s trying to repay the debt.
He struck a deal with devotees: You offer me money, and I will fulfill your wishes, which explains the stainless steel postbox-like hundis, scattered around to hold monetary offerings.
A systematic but meandering queue system leads men and women separately to the shrine. Expect to spend at least two hours before you reach an open courtyard that takes you to the garbha griha where Lord Balaji’s bedecked idol stands.
You can offer your hair in case you have a mannat, at a centre that houses a series of busy barbers. The temple is open all day, with a series of pujas being held at frequent intervals.
Back in Pune, you can spend the evening ambling along leafy lanes with maroon robe-clad soul searchers, around the Osho Commune at Koregaon Park, or the Osho Zen Garden (open from 6 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 7 pm). The bakery products at German Bakery here, are to die for.
Arthur’s Theme is great place for French food (try the Lemon Soufflé and Chicken in Cranberry Sauce), while Malacca Spice brings you delicious curries from South East Asia (have them with Kori Rotis).
3 Ganpatipule, 375 kms away
How to get there: It’s 30 kms off the Mumbai-Goa Highway, 50 kms short of Ratnagiri. You can take an overnight MTDC bus from Nariman Point or catch a Konkan Railway train from CST. Get off at Sangameshwar or Ratnagiri; take a bus to Ganpatipule.
This place has one of the most idyllic beaches fringed by palm fronds . And if you think lolling on the beach is a waste of time, try your hand at paragliding. The drive to here is as beautiful as the destination.
As you wind through the Western Ghats, a chain of mountains along the Konkan coast. lighthouses dot the area, marking ruins of forts built during Maratha king, Chhatrapati Shivaji’s reign.
The Ganpati Swayambhu temple houses a 400 year-old Ganpati idol that’s believed to have sprung from the soil.

Monster House

2006-12-03T22:18:00.000-08:00

Here’s looking at you
Monster House * * * * * Dir: Gil KenanCast: Mitchel Musso, Steve Buscemi (voices)
vijay pawarmailto:pawarbunty_kores@yahoo.coWhat’s it about? It’s Halloween time. 12-year-old DJ’s (Musso) parents go off for a dental convention leaving him in the care of babysitter from hell, Zee (Maggie Gyllenhaal). His only friend is a chubby goofball named Chowder (Sam Lerner). His only pastime is keeping a tab on Old Man Nebbercracker (Buscemi) through his trusty telescope.
Nebbercracker hates kids and any other species that dares to step on his beloved lawn. Now, Old Man Nebbercracker is something of a mystery himself, never leaving the house except to scare off persistent kids. Nebbercracker used to have a wife. Rumour is, he fattened her and ate her up. The old man suffers a heart attack and is taken away in an ambulance.
This is when Nebbercracker’s house comes alive, gobbling anything that ventures onto the lawn. DJ and Chowder are witness to the house’s devourings — a dog and Zee’s boyfriend, Bones. A snobby devil-may-care Westbrook Prep student, Jenny (Spencer Locke) walks up to the house and is promptly saved by DJ and Chowder. DJ decides to take on the house with the help of Chowder and Jenny, armed only with water pistols filled with cough syrup. He thinks it’ll be enough to put the house to sleep.
But the deeper they go, the clearer the truth becomes. Nebbercracker’s dead wife, Constance (Kathleen Turner) is the house. And it’s going to take more than cough syrup to save the neighbourhood.
What’s goodIt was quite something growing up in sleepy suburbs in the 1980s. So what if we never went trick-or-treatin’? It sure was fun back then. The couch wasn’t the be-all and end-all of our existence. We found time to go play games with friends. Venture into empty houses that were supposedly haunted. And who can forget that first crush? That first kiss? It’s quite easy to imagine yourself as DJ. We had pretty much everything kids in the US had, so what if it came to us a year or two later.
That’s what works for Monster House: the familiarity of it all. We’ve all been down that road. Let our imaginations run wild. We’ve had people mock our alien theories, our haunted house stories that seemed good enough only to recant around campfires and so on.
This film uses 3-D motion capture techniques, lending it a feel of the real. Some stars who have lent their voices to characters will be immediately recognised. The dialogues are simple, believable and very, very funny.
What’s bad?Not much, really. The devoured characters coming out of the house during the end credits is a tad too unbelievable. Reports indicate that the film had to incorporate that scene to get a U rating.
What’s that? I’m sure someone other than DJ would see a house come alive. Surely someone would see the house go on a rampage, tearing down everything in its path.
Even when the house is blown up, there’s not so much as an eyebrow raised. However small a town, this wouldn’t go unnoticed. Surely someone at the hospital would notice Nebbercracker come back to his house. It doesn’t happen.
What to do?Remember the 1980s? If you do, you’ll feel right at home, watching this Robert Zemeckis/Steven Spielberg production. Directed by first-timer Gil Kenan, Monster House is a film you should watch with your kids (or the neighbourhood kids, if you please) for the pure joy of revisiting your childhood.
Who doesn’t miss those wonder years? I know I do. Here’s something no other animated feature made this year offers. No talking animals. No hyperactive cars. Just a horror story that kids and adults will love.

Who's answering their calls?

2006-12-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

Ravi Kissen
Calls answered by: Preeti Kissen (wife)
Call registry: He gets nearly 50 phone calls everyday!
Work wise: Even though people know that he is locked up in Bigg Boss’s house, they still call to check on him. His producers keep calling to let me know about his projects. Of late, I’ve been answering a lot of calls from fans who want to give him their good wishes.

Who's answering their calls?

2006-12-03T21:23:00.000-08:00

Carol Gracias
Her number has been switched off.

Who's answering their calls?

2006-12-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

Deepak Tijori
Calls answered by: A voicemail states that he will be out of town for a while. He has left instructions to call his office number or his assistant Addy.

Who's answering their calls?

2006-12-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

Rupali Ganguly
Calls answered by: Initially Rajni (her mother), but the number is now switched off.
Call registry: Around 5 to 10 calls.
Work wise: Rajni says, “Rupali uses two phones, but I have switched them off. What will I do after talking to producers who want to work with her? I had taken the phones with me to the set when she was nominated for eviction. Whoever wants to work with her calls on the landline since they know I am at home.”

Bad‘show’ Khan!

2006-12-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

Sources in the industry affirm that the cold war between Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan has intensified after Khan snatched Kaun Banega Crorepati 3 right from under the Big B’s nose. The battle lines have been quietly but irrevocably drawn. Even their cliques are now clearly defined.
Icy vibes
If Amitabh Bachchan has firmly aligned himself with Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Anil Ambani, Shah Rukh makes his political and social affiliations equally evident by hobnobbing with Sonia Gandhi and her family and attending Nita Mukesh Ambani’s birthday party.
The tension between the two sides has been cleverly concealed until now, but the cracks were obvious at Sikander Kher’s (Anupam and Kirron Kher’s son) birthday party last month. The vibes between the Bachchan clan (represented by Jaya, Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai) and Shah Rukh Khan were I-C-Y.
Reveals a source present at the do, “The party was in full swing until SRK walked in at 2 am. He went up to Mr Bachchan and greeted him. Mr Bachchan is always polite, so he greeted SRK cordially. But the rest of the Bachchan parivar looked through him. Even though Jayaji is very fond of Shah Rukh, none of them can overlook what he’s been doing to Mr Bachchan.”
‘Ash’es to dust
The source adds that the Bachchans, along with Ash and a few friends, were seated at one table and Shah Rukh took the table directly opposite them. “After greeting each other and exchanging formal hellos, it was evident that Bachchan and Khan wanted to their own space. Throughout the night, not a single word was exchanged between the camps. In fact, SRK wanted to strike up a conversation with Ash but since she was stuck to Abhishek’s side, it became impossible.”
It may be recalled that Aishwarya still has to forgive Shah Rukh for unceremoniously ousting her from his home production, Chalte Chalte, replacing her with Rani Mukerji. SRK reportedly showed her the door after her then boyfriend Salman Khan wreaked havoc on the sets.
And now with SRK’s doing KBC3 — which was AB’s property until now — Khan has made matters worse. It is learnt that Amitabh is quite miffed with Star and their attitude during his illness. A source says, “Mr Bachchan was literally told to come back to work after his illness and shoot some episodes. He put his foot down and refused. Things started going downhill from that point onwards.”
SRK’s announcement hasn’t come as a surprise to anyone. An insider reveals, “Samir Nair has been wanting to get Shah Rukh onboard for quite some time. This reached Amitabh’s ears even before a formal announcement was made.”
Putting up an act
Says a source known to the Bachchans, “All this talk about Mr Bachchan not being interested in doing KBC3 is hogwash. He had almost committed to doing it when SRK lobbied hard and pipped him to the post. He’s deeply hurt at the way SRK has gone about the whole thing but prefers not to talk about it.”
As has always been the case, the hostilities will remain shrouded behind a wall of fake civility from both sides. The warring factions continue to deny problems and address each other respectfully in public.
A filmmaker on the condition of anonymity says, “There is definitely a war brewing between SRK and the Bachchans, but no star, producer or director likes to wash their dirty linen in public. When there is a problem, they will sort it out between themselves.”
Neither Amitabh Bachchan nor Sameer Nair of Star returned our SMSes to comment on the story.

Raj Thackeray: "Mee more fun"

2006-12-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

Civic polls are coming up in March 2007. Which is why all political parties are gunning for the youth. The battle is especially fierce - and visible - outside Chetana college in Bandra (E). 'Bal Thackeray neighbourhood.' And here's a novel strategy. From the party which "seeks to project itself as a political force suited to the new era". Raj Thackeray's 'Maharashtra Navnirman Sena' has put up little hoardings all over Mumbai advertising Ball Dance - "1st ever inter-collegiate event full of zeal and zest". The picture shows a boy and a girl, in Western outfits, holding each other and... dancing, in ye olde English ballroom dance style.Ah, just what the youth of the country needs. And so "new era". You see, it is Western, without being vulgar. Which makes the MNS 'different' from the violently-opposed-to-Valentine's-Day Shiv Sena and ABVP types. A second hoarding clarifies that the competition is actually about dance AND cricket. 'Ball' + 'Dance' - so clever no, wink wink. Never mind issues - jobs, education, housing and all that jazz. Woh to sabhi politician log bolte hain. Kuch karte nahin. The youth is cynical. Unconvinced by promises, unmoved by rhetoric. So Raj Thackeray is probably being smart in seeking to project his party as 'the fun guys'.No, this not how it should be. But this is how it is... What next? A kabaddi and karaoke competition by the rival camp?

Why D schools are the future

2006-12-02T23:09:00.002-08:00

There is a never ending stream of news about Bschools. For a change, Businessweek.com turns the spotlight on the world's top Dschools ie institutes which teach design.Although the schools listed are predominantly American, there is healthy international representation. Among institutes of repute from England, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and China, India too gets two well deserved mentions - NID and IDC. Both deserve to be right up there because they are amazing institutions which have produced some outstanding graduates. I only wish there were more like them! Because there is a huge difference between 'design' and 'art'. In India, we often confuse the two. Those who study commercial art are basically trained to work in advertising/ media. So they produce campaigns, make artworks, learn typography/ photography/ illustration. Yes, they are talented and creative. But within a given framework.Design graduates, on the other hand, approach their work differently. A few years ago, two NID students worked on a project to redesign JAM magazine. For them, the issue was not about tweaking the logo, changing the template and a few fonts. They looked at the magazine at a more fundamental level. From the customer's point of view.Of course, not all their suggestions could be implemented. But the thinking that went behind the re-design they attempted was remarkable.The point I am making is that even as b schools proliferate, the need of the hour is D schools. As customers become more demanding, and constantly seek something new and exciting, the importance of product design cannot be over emphasised.Take the ipod - it's not just a pretty gadget. The clickwheel is a fundamental design choice, one which defines the brand. No, a design genius at Apple did not invent it - someone at a company called Synaptics working for Apple did. But, you get the idea. Design is mega important. And good design is not just about looks. That's styling. Great design is good looking and provides a better user experience.Well, the corporate world is realising that the design and business functions need to collaborate at an early stage of the product development cycle. One fallout of this is increased interaction between bschools and dschools. A course called Strategy for Product and Service Development has been introduced at INSEAD in collaboration with design students from the Art Center in Pasadena . As INSEAD graduate Sameer Agrawal, who now works with GE, recalls At the start of the class we had to decide what to work on. Each of us had a minute to pitch an idea to develop. You could see the difference. MBA pitches dwelt on the market: how big it was, how little it had been served. Most designers said: "Here is how I use the product today. Here is why it sucks and how it can be better. Here's how I want to do it.His perception of designers was: "Here's my product, make it look sexy". Now, he sees see design as "a philosophy that people learn in order to understand how products are used..."Similarly, Mozilla was searching for a way to make Firefox more popular. The company's 's business development team turned to Stanford University. Not to the bschool but Hasso Plattner Institute of Design on the campus.The course was team-taught by Stanford profs and industry professionals. Each student worked in a team that included a B-schooler, a computer science major, and a product designer. And each team used design thinking to shape a business plan for Mozilla. Apparently, it made a big difference.A B-school class would have started with a focus on market size and used financial analysis to understand it. This D-school class began with consumers and used ethnography, the latest management tool, to learn about them. Business school students would have developed a single new product to sell. The D-schoolers aimed at creating a prototype with possible features that might appeal to consumers. B-school students would have stopped when they completed the first good product idea. The D-schoolers went back again and again to come up with a panoply of possible winners.Businessweek notes that the power of this new approach, called design thinking, to promote innovation and open up business opportunities is attracting the attention of corporations around the globe. Design has evolved from a narrow discipline dealing with the form and function of products into a major new approach to developing business models. As business increasingly turns to India and China to provide low-cost, high-quality goods and services, companies have to focus on innovation to be competitive. That driving need makes design thinking the hottest trend in business culture today. If engineering, control, and technology were once the central tenets of business culture, then anthropology, creativity, and an obsession with consumers' unmet needs will inform the future.The bottom line is, India needs more D schools. A great D school is multi disciplinary - combining engineering, business, design, and social sciences. And hence IITs are ideally placed to house design schools on campus. But while we've seen Schools of Management spring up at all IIT campuses, design has flourished only at IIT B. IIT Guwahati is the only other IIT with a design school, others have been contemplated starting one but not taken the plunge. Then there are recent institutes such as Srishti School of Art and Design in Bangalore. But the school, although well reputed, is not considered in the NID/ IDC league.Although industry does flock to NID and IDC, for some reason, the contribution of these graduates remains underhyped. Bet you can name a dozen IIT or IIM grads but only a couple from NID - if at all. And none from IDC. Is it lack of PR, or humility. Or a potent combo of both? Maybe we'll wake up when some foreign company swoops down on NID and offers a $100,000 salary. Actually, salaries are going up... but unfortunately the idea of design as a career will never really catch the fancy of the media. Or the general public.That's because unlike the MBA - you need to possess something tangible for a design education. That something rare and elusive called 'Talent'.

Mind it, teacher!

2006-12-02T23:09:00.001-08:00

"I hate Hindi ma'am... " is the new refrain at our dinner table. "She pinches... and hits," says my daughter. Everyone? "Yes, but she hits me more. Because she gives a lot of work and I can't complete it in one period".For a day or two I thought it was one of those things... it would pass. But today, Nivedita declared she would rather change her school than attend Hindi period with this ma'am. I really will have to do something. But what? Yes, I will go and meet the principal but will he really take action? There's always the secret fear that your child will end up being treated worse after you complain.People talk about bad bosses, but there is nothing quite as cruel as a bad teacher. The power a teacher has over a young mind is immense. And this power is often abused by those who are not temperamentally or attitudinally suited to the job.Teachers who, in fact, see their jobs as mere jobs. And not a responsibility which comes with some sacred covenants.And parents, who leave no stone unturned to admit their child to a good school. The 'best' school. Who's to say that every teacher in that school is competent as well as sensitive? Because all it takes is one Hindi ma'am...And all said and done, parents are in a weak position. We pay for the services of a school, we form part of the community. But in most schools, we have little say in the way things are done. Or not done.The attitude is,"If you have problems here, feel free to take your child elsewhere." Because there are enough contenders for that forsaken seat. And the same problems pretty much plague schools everywhere. Not municipal schools or government schools but private schools, brand name schools as well.The Hindi ma'am problem started when the original Hindi teacher - a very personable lady - suddenly quit to join a rival school. In mid-session. Since then there have been 3 different teachers, creating anxiety and confusion.As one teacher elaborates,"Schools don't want to hire us on a permanent basis. They take in teachers on contract - for 3 months, 6 months." So teachers too have no qualms hopping around. And often, no choice either.In this merry-go-round, secondary school teachers end up teaching primary kids. Both kinds of teaching require different skills. And completely different levels of patience.When the school is charging parents a fairly large fee, I see no reason why it should shortchange it teachers - and students - in this manner.If things do not change, I am wholly willing to yank my daughter out of this school. The question is, are the other choices any different? I guess that is a question that can be answered only after a great deal of R & D. If the answer remains "no", then the only consolation is "we survived". So will she. It makes me really sad. And mad. But do I have the energy to fight it?

Youth brand universe

2006-12-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

John Abraham is sitting in a cafe. He puts on a pair of sunglasses. A girl pulls up her chair and sits behind him. Then another, and another. John tilts to the left; the girls tilt too. Then to the right, and so do the girls.He grins and pulls off his glares. It's an ad for Fastracks' new 'biker collection'. And they pull it off without showing a single bike, which I think is tres cool. Because that would be the obvious thing to do!What's more, your 'biker' collection now reaches out to a much larger group of people. The message is, you don't have to be a biker, but wear these glares and girls will think you are! Now of course, whether the glasses sell or not depends on many other factors - designs, pricing, accessibility. But the advertising is just right. A worthy follow up to the original Titan Fastrack watches ad which was quite a hit.It's also interesting because this is more of a 'brand building' kind of effort - even though it uses a Bollywood star. An effort that a number of companies seem to have simply given up on. What we see generally see is :a) celebrity driven advertisingb) product-benefit driven advertisingIn category 1, lame attempts are made to be 'creative' with the same set of stars. The latest ad with the overused Abhishek Bachchan, for example is 'American Express'. The Big Idea is AB jr being referred to as 'Big B' because he now has an Amex card ('membership changes everything'). There's not much to be said about that idea, or the small Big B's acting - in the commercial. Perhaps it works anyways, at least in terms of making the Amex profile in India more 'youthful'.But it's not good advertising.In category 2, one of the lamest ads on TV right now is Stayfree 'drymax'. I mean, sure, you want users of 'Whisper' to sit up and take notice that there is a better sanitary napkin. But who leaves a Stayfree on a table, so that water is accidentally spilled... And the napkin miraculously soaks it all up! Do users really need a product demo? I just don't think you build a brand in a sensitive category in this very in-your-face way. Aside: My 7 year old thinks it's a 'diaper for adults'... Yes, I have given her the explanation, but!Lastly, we have the 'let me bribe you into buying my brand' variety of advertising. Chlormint, which tried valiantly to be cheeky and cool with its advertising (but did not quite succeed) is going that way."Buy a Chlormint and sms the code to 8558. You can win Rs 1 lakh a day and a Nokia phone every hour".The irony is that the sms will cost more than the Chlormint... which sells for all of 50 paise (ie 1 cent!). It's clear that some brand manager has done complicated calculations to arrive at a winning formula.My back of the envelope estimate: 30 crore Chlormints being sold with this offer over 2 months. That means around 50 lakh Chlormints a day. At a conservative estimate 3-5% of users will send an sms. Which would work out, on an average to 2 lakh smses.The cost of sending the sms varies from Rs 1 to Rs 3 (Airtel users are getting fleeced the most!)Of that Chlormint is likely to be getting a revenue share of 40-50%. Which means the Rs 1 lakh a day giveaway pays back for itself - at the very least. If the amount of smses or % of people who sms is greater, then sone pe suhaaga. Thoda advertising cost bhi cover ho jayega. It sounds like a lottery scheme to me, which could possibly get Chlormint into trounle. Because as far as I know, in India, only the government is allowed to conduct lotteries (yes, that's terribly weird and rather unethical but we'll get into that another day). Besides, I see one GIANT loophole in the Chlormint scheme. The lucky number is printed outside the wrapper. I bet smart paanwallahs and kirana store owners around the country will be busy smsing all the numbers on all the Chlormints they have in stock. The smartest ones would be smsing from Reliance CDMA, which costs only 15 paise!And finally, what happens when the promo is over? Coz efforts of this kind don't have a lasting effect. So you're back to thinking of more promos. When you should be thinking about creating products people want to buy. And brands, which stand for something.

Film Review: 'A Good Year' gets 2.5 stars

2006-12-02T23:00:00.002-08:00

If wishes were eccentric uncles, bankers would make wine. That, in a nutshell, is the one line plot summary of Ridley Scott's 'A Good Year'. So you don't have to fear spoiling your movie experience by reading this review. From the moment MaX Skinner, investment banker of low scruples and greed extraordinaire, inherits the French chateau inhabited by a once-dear uncle, you know.Sod is gonna fall in love with the estate, with the idea of living the 'simple life', with France, and possibly a French girl. All of the above happen in due course, so all I can offer you is an opinion on whether it holds your interest.The answer is yes, but not wholly, or in full measure. You don't come out of the theatre feeling either entertained or highly elevated. The problem is it's too predictable, and full of stereotypes.Take Max Skinner. A bigger caricature of an investment banker I have scarcely seen. The guy walks into the dealing room, declares 'today is greedy bastard day' and proceeds to make a trade which is borderline illegal. The guy has no friends, no family, no love life, no other interests except making money. I mean, sure, there might be some people as weird as him out there but there's hardly a moment when you feel anything for this character. And it's not clear why he is the way he is. Except for the fact that his parents died young and his only relative in the world was his old uncle. The moment our man steps into the chateau he is flooded by memories of summers spent as a boy with his uncle. And yet, he did not call or meet the man for the last ten years before he died. "Because I turned into an arsehole". Truth is, he's not all that lovable - even as a kid, in flashback.Anyhow, Max makes a trip to the chateau to assess how much he could sell it for. Thanks to a series of circumstances, including being stranded at the bottom of an empty swimming pool, he ends up staying a week. And you know.. the wine, weather and women factor works on him. There is a slight complication when 'Christy Roberts', Henry's illegitimate American daughter also shows up. But there are no villains in the piece - not even Monseuir et Mme Duflot who I truly thought were cheating the Skinners by bottling inferior wine under the Chateau Sauvignon label. Never mind - if u see the movie, you'll understand.And hey, you can see the film simply for:- The gorgeous French countryside- The gorgeous French girl Skinner falls for (Marion Cotillard)- The glimpse of life in France which truly seems kinder, gentler and as full of sparkle as their wine.The scene where the housekeeper Mmm Duflot does a li'l jig as she cleans the kitchen, the open air cafe where Max and his girl go on their first date, and the restaurant she runs for a living - all of them make you want to cash out your Provident fund and queue up for an immigrant visa to France.Alas, the many stupidities of the film bring you back to earth whenever you get slightly intoxicated. Russell Crowe looks old, overweight and unshaven. His secretary "Jemma" aka Jasminder who hogs a fair bit of screen time, is horrendous. You'll be able to tell from the moment she opens her mouth "Oh, she's Indian". The vaguely familiar actress is 'Archie Panjabi' - best known as the sister in 'Bend it like Beckham'.Speaking of weird names, could the makers of the film find no better nom de film for the French girlfriend than 'Fanny Chanel'?? I mean, really, that's the sort of thing you expect from James Bond... Net: net, you can watch 'A Good Year', but you don't have to. Especially if you're on the right side of 25. For the yuppie types, 'A Good Year' is not compelling but neither is it dangerous. You won't be inspired to run off and settle down on a farm in Satara anytime soon. Given real estate prices in Mumbai right now, my 'kindly old uncle kicks the bucket' fantasy involves a 2000 sq ft 'chateau' in Le Malabar Hill... Sadly, no such uncles!

The Value of Liberal Arts

2006-12-02T23:00:00.001-08:00

Business Standard asks K V Kamath, CEO & MD, ICICI Bank : Do you lack in any particular quality?Kamath replies (after a long pause): I am probably too technical a person. By training I am an engineer and also did my MBA but I never had an exposure to liberal arts. I wonder sometime that if I had an exposure to liberal arts, probably I could have been a better person, better leader and achieved a little more than what I have (done). Early in my career I used to feel that technical education is the best education but after 35 years of working I like to admit that I stand corrected. Kamath was recently named BS 'Banker of the Year' and is widely credited with taking ICICI to new heights. So I'm not sure what 'more' he would or could have achieved. But I agree with his point on liberal arts. More of us should get that kind of 'broad based' education which does not necessarily lead to anything. At least, not directly.I for one wish I had majored in English literature. Nope, I opted for Economics, the 'almost-a-science'. That's because switching to Arts after being the school topper type was itself a big thing. And in the end I chickened out of a lit major, accepting the argument that 'literature is something you can always pursue on your own'. In that you can read books on your own.Unfortunately, you never read those kind of books. Or in that kind of way. It did seem pointless - at the time - writing 3 foolscap sheets on what the motivations and mental state of fictional characters. What a particular novel, or poet was trying to say about the social conditions prevailing in the 18th or 19th century.But, it was interesting. It made you think, and look for answers. Hidden meanings which may or may not have originally been there. I guess I was also lucky in that we had some amazing teachers at Sophia College. Ms Colaco and Mrs Stevens, in particular, stretched our minds far beyond the syllabus. In the second year, they covered several works which were not prescribed. Simply because, without that exposure, we would not truly understand 'modern literature'.Now I can't say that I have, till date, 'understood' T S Eliot's Wasteland. Or Waiting for Godot. But, I am glad I was exposed to those thoughts and ideas. Similarly, the one year I spent in America as a senior in high school entailed a course in American literature. It was a requirement for graduation, so I had no choice. But I would have taken it, if I had one. John Steinbeck, Willa Cather and most of all The Great Gatsby. Just some of what I remember... Also the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder, which is an American classic, but unheard of in our part of the world. Anyhow, liberal arts is not just literature. It's history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science. I find that in India, even Arts has a 'caste system'. The 'Eco' student will take a combination like Eco-Stats-Pol Science or Eco-Stats-Socio. In many cases, that's what the college offers - you have no choice. The 'soft' subjects are in a separate category and generally the two are not mixed up.However, at Sophia, they actually forced you to opt for a mix. So if you wanted Eco and Stats you would have to choose one subject from the 'other group' - "English lit, French lit, History or Philosophy'. I think, partly, it was so that those departments.. would not become extinct. But whatever the reason, I am very glad!Getting back to K V Kamath's statement, sadly, the class profile at bs schools is getting skewed more and more away from Arts. IIMA's class of 2006 had only 3% Arts students. And I bet almost all of them would be Economics graduates. It's a similar story, practically everywhere. I know, it's the old 'engineers fare better at CAT' argument. The point is most intelligent young people in India still opt for technical education at the class 12 stage itself. So changing the exam is not the answer.What we need is liberal arts colleges which set standards of excellence which attract the brightest and the best. One Stephen's, an LSR and a Xavier's here and there is not enough. National Law School is a case in point. Because it exists, it attracts a breed of students who would otherwise never have considered taking up law!Lastly, if you plan to enter the media, a good liberal arts education is worth a lot more than a Bachelors in Mass Media. Journalism or film making are not subjects to study in a class. The projects you guys do by cutting and pasting from google are of no value.Focus is not everything in life. As Prof Robert Allen notes "A liberal arts degree gives students general skills to go on to become lifelong learners... They pick up what they need along the way." Another article on the subject notes: The best education for an unpredictable future provides the capacity and the tools to gather, interpret, challenge, and create knowledge; to combine ideas in new ways; and to communicate effectively.A tall order? Yes. But that's exactly what liberal arts can provide a student. This type of education is called liberal arts, because it liberates the mind. The "liberal" comes from the Latin, liber, meaning free--free from ignorance and intolerance and cultural isolation.Of course, their definition of liberal arts includes music, art and even the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology). What we refer to as "Science" and is again, in India, considered far inferior to Engineering.The bottomline is: Grounding in the liberal arts offers a window on history, culture, and human beings, on methods of intellectual inquiry, that transcends any particular subject, problem, moment in time, or job. Sounds like what I would want from an education!

Shit - 1

2006-12-02T22:57:00.002-08:00

A month ago, somebody asked me what story I was working on.I told her.'Manual? What?""Manual scavenging.""What's that?""It's when people lift other people's shit. Real, literal shit, not the metaphorical kind."She shook her head. "Really? So where will you be traveling?""Different places. But I will start will Delhi."Her husband shook his head. "Delhi? This doesn't happen in Delhi."He refused to believe it. "It can't be... maybe in villages where people are backward."I don't blame him. We all think we're so progressive and this sort of thing doesn't happen in India. Not in the cities. Possibly, in the villages, where people don't know any better.That is what we want to believe. That is what we cannot bear not to believe. That is, nevertheless, the truth. It is illegal. It is unfair. But it is the truth.Yet, I understand the reluctance to accept it. I find it hard to speak about it. And naturally, even those who must do this ultimate-in-filthy-jobs are reluctant to talk.In Delhi, in Shahdara, I met the women whom you could call, in polite terms, manual scavengers. In Panipat, in Haryana, I met some more. In Punjab, in Samral, yet more.... when we talked about it, we referred to manual scavening as "ye kaam" or "kacchi khuddiyo.n ka kaam" (work of the dry laterines).They're usually neat, polite smiling women. Women who scoop up human excreta with a piece of tin and a rough broom and put it in bamboo baskets which they must carry away. On their shoulders. On their hips. On their heads.Which is why many a government document mentions the term 'headloading'. Some government officials have even been insensitive enough to counter dalit activists' accusations of the continuing of the practice of headloading by saying that "they don't carry it on their heads; only their hips."It is hard to come to terms with it, is it not? That there are a few thousand, tens of thousand, a few lakh people who must lift other people's excreta to be able to survive. That we immediately take to technology via mobile phones and CD players, the moment we can afford it, but we will not invest a few thousand rupees to build new toilets, to buy better sanitation, to hire consultants to think about what can be done towards better sewage systems.To think that we let it happen - that nobody takes out processions in protest, that no bandhs are called in the capital, that nobody ostracises anybody in your city who employs another human being (at the rate of Rs 20 a month, and the occassional roti) to lift and carry your shit.These are not nice things to think about. And I don't blame anybody for not wanting to think about them. But think, all the same.
comments links to this post

Shit -2

2006-12-02T22:57:00.001-08:00

Every morning, the women get up and leave their own homes, to go to the homes of people whose excreta they will shortly handle. Some go at 4 am, or 6 am, or 7 am. It all depends on how many homes they have to clean.Nowadays, there aren't that many. But there are enough to keep an estimated 12 lakh people involved in this shit-handling business.No gloves, no face-masks. No disinfectant, and often, no water to bathe with, afterwards.90 % of the time, it is women who do this. Sometimes, they even profess a deep sympathy with their employers, because they understand that women, at least, must have 'a place to go'. Where public flush toilets are not available, it is but natural that dry laterines will persist.This, I did not understand.When I pointed out to the scavenger women that these poor women, whose shit they were going to carry, were often loaded with gold jewelry, and that the government anyway gives huge subsidies for the construction of new toilets, they fell silent. They had never thought about that. Nobody had ever taught them to think like that.So, I prodded - why do they do it?Because, they said, they didn't know how to do anything else. They were never sent to school. Their brothers were sent, often. But they were not. Or, if they were, they were withdrawn after class 3, or 4 or 5.And what do their men do?Some men do the same task. They are more often assigned to community dry laterines, where - because of much larger volumes of shit - they use wheelbarrows to transport the stuff. Sometimes, they get the women to do the actual cleaning of the laterine and only do the transportation themselves. Many more men tackle the sewers.Many toilets - even though they are pour-flush/wet laterines - are built on top of a septic tank. Once every few years, people need this tank cleaned. Once, every few years, the male scavengers will go down into this sewer, wearing only their lungis or their underwear, with a bucket and a stick. That's all.Some die. All that trapped sewage makes for noxious gases. Open the manhole and, if you don't watch out, the posionous gases knock you out. Once unconscious, if you fall in, you're as good as dead. If you don't fall in, you could be very seriously sick.Each life-threatening cleaning job will only cost Rs 500-600. It is done mostly at night. Because, in the daytime, the open tank will stink and the house-owners don't want the smell. Also, because the law stipulates that - if such tanks must be cleaned, the worker be provided with proper equipment, and that oxygen masks be handy. Of course, there is no oxygen mask. Of course, there is no protective gear.But such jobs don't come by every day. In Nand Nagri, I was told that one man only gets to clean a septic tank maybe once in two-three months. The household is run by women, the rest of the time.These women are not always brought up cleaning shit. Some, like Meena, went to school. She, clearly, did not enjoy lifting shit.Why did she do it?Because she didn't have a choice.If their mothers don't induct them into scavenging, their mothers-in-law do. Or their husbands do. If their husbands are also scavengers, they will often work together. For instance, the man, using a stick, will un-clog the gutter into which the shit is flushed. The woman will pick it up and carry it in baskets.The filthiest task is left to the woman, wherever possible.Why?Because, like I've said here, manual scavenging is about caste, about gender, about oppression.In the caste order, it is not the sudra, but the sudra woman who is at the bottom of the heap. And you oppress those you can oppress, because they're at the bottom of the heap. Those who have been conditioned into thinking that this is their lot, and this is their duty. Those who think they cannot escape, for they have nowhere else to go. Those on whom you can collectively gang up, and whom you can accuse of breaking a social code, should they try to escape. Those whom you can beat the shit out of, because everybody else does it, and has been doing it for centuries.
comments links to this post

Shit - 3

2006-12-02T22:56:00.001-08:00

Most of us, let's face it, do not think about things that do not concern us. We say, or at least, think - "What's it to me?" or "Not my problem" or "Hame kya? Hamara kya jaata jaata?"Most of us look the other way. I don't pretend to be very different. Things that absorb my time, attention, capacity for outrage, are usually things that I see, feel, fear. Things that resonate with me because, in some form, however briefly, I've experienced them.Manual scavenging, as a problem, as an outrage, resonated with me because, although I have never had to pick up anybody's shit, I know what it feels like to step into it.My real association with this story, thus, begins four years ago...I was a very young reporter working for Mid-day, and had to be out on the 'field' most of the day. As all women reporters know, one of the biggest problems with being on the field is toilets. Or, the lack of them.This is not just because of our anatomy, or because of a special need for privacy. This is also because women's toilets - by and large - are non-existent. Especially in cities.For instance, there are stalls for men - operational urinals, some of which even have running water... the luxury! - at almost all railways stations in Bombay. Not so for women. The few urinals that do exist are often locked - yes, padlocked, for god's sake! - with no attendant in sight. (I once asked why, and was told that this is because 'unsuitable' activities happen inside the women's loos. Go figure.)Some women's toilets are used as a dumping ground - concrete and rubble from some railway construction project - or as store-rooms (have seen bags of cement stored inside). The logic being that 'women don't like to go here, anyway'. And some are simply abandoned.One day, at a station on the western line - somewhere between Andheri and Dadar - I actually managed to find a women's loo that was not locked. And made the mistake of stepping inside the darkened enclosure. My foot squelched and sank into something soft. It took a couple of seconds to register what the mess was - it was about two inches of shit. Human shit all over the floor. I withdrew the foot and stepped back outside. Suddenly, it seemed as if the world had turned dark. As if the station was empty. There was just me, and my outrage. And the overwhelming humiliation. I didn't recognize the feeling, immediately. At that time, I burst into tears. It took a week to recover, a week before I could stop my mind from going back to that moment of shock and bursting into tears all over again, before I stopped feeling like I needed a million baths.But now, I clearly recognize that feeling - it was humiliation.When I discovered that there are people in this country who must handle shit for a living, the humiliation returned. The outrage returned too. If one accidental brush with a clogged toilet could make me so miserable, could reduce me to tears - how must they be feeling? What does it do to you - psychologically, emotionally - to have to do it, day after day?If I cannot forget that one accidental day, how do they live - constantly struggling to forget? Why should they not live in denial? Why should anyone expect that, one fine day, they will rise up, revolt and throw away their brooms, because we tell them to?I know that if I had to do their work for even one week, I would be destroyed. My spirit would die. What right have I to expect that their spirit, their sense of dignity, their sense of self, will be intact? Intact enough to make them stop doing their work, without a moment's thought?No wonder, the one effective bargaining tool activists have is the word 'children'. Your children... do you want them to go on living like this? And it always prompts a response - 'No. Not our children'. For the children's sake, they will throw a lifetime of humiliation away, throw away this livelihood, break down the structures that lead to this humiliation.And no wonder, public sanitation IS an issue with me. It IS personal. It IS a part of my politics. That day, four years ago, at a suburban railway station in Bombay, it ceased to be somebody else's problem.
comments links to this post

Music and the minar

2006-12-02T22:55:00.001-08:00

The Qutub Festival is back!This is one of my favourite music festivals because it is the only venue where you can lie on the grass, look at the stars against the lit-up shadow of the Qutub Minar, hear the rising strains of somebody's voice, a tabla, a sitar, a guitar... wander off for some hot chaat or halwa or chai, and have the music call you back to its feet.The festival organisers also claim that it is dedicated to the youth of Delhi, which is why there is always one popular fusion band each evening, to go with the classical performance.This year, there are Pt Debu and Prateek Chaudhuri, this Saturday, along with Euphoria (of dhoom pichak dhoom fame).On Sunday, there are the Nizami brothers, the Qawwals, and Shankar-Ehsan-Loy (of Dil Chahta Hai fame)Now, I'm happy.
links to this post

Aggression, nights, news reports

2006-12-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

Aggression has a purpose.Something deeper and more instinctive that most of us understand, but which most of us experience only when we allow it expression, through our eyes, our posture, our tone.Aggression needs to be restrained. But it also needs to show itself, like a flash in the dark, like a sudden snarl, like the hard assertion of its potential.This, I have learnt after being involved with the Blank Noise interventions over the last month.For instance, I learnt to look. To stand in a crowded public space and look. Not to smile, not to shuffle my feet, not to use my phone as a social shield, not to speak to my companions, not to flinch, not to give way.Not to give way.Just stand there and look into the eyes of the passersby.True, I was not alone. There were about eight of us women in a busy subway near a south Delhi market. A few male volunteers accompanied us but did not join us in the more confrontational, challenging actions. They stood to one side and guaged crowd reactions.We, the women, just stood there and stared back. Some of us sat down on the stairs, others stood right in the middle of the subway, facing either direction. We were instructed not to pay attention to anybody who tried to ask for explanations. We did not owe anybody any explanations. But we did give out letters, starting, 'Dear Stranger', and going to describe a woman's first-person account of street sexual harassment.We heard a few warnings; for instance, a watchman told a college-going volunteer that she should not stand around because 'koi galat samajhega' (somebody might misunderstand). She retorted with 'Let them misunderstand... I'm just standing'. He tried telling us that it was forbidden. We told him to show us where it said so - any sign saying 'Do not stand'? Any written order?Somebody suggested that we would be brushed against or pushed about because 'you are in the way'.The point was - we were not! We were neither pushed about nor brushed against, nor pinched nor groped nor even came up to suggest that 'make friendship'. Nobody dared.Because all we did was to stand there and stare, right into the eyes of the passersby, men and women both. As soon as they realised that they were being stared at, they'd look away.And I discovered something wonderful - we women were not just standing there, looking. We were confronting. We were challenging. We were daring. And nobody dared.In the face of aggression, there are two ways to react - one is to fight with one's own inherent aggression, which might result in a physical fight. The second way is to look away, acknowledging that, for the moment at least, you are giving way.Too long, women have given way. When a man comes striding down the street, we step to one side. When a man takes up too much space on a shared bus seat, we cower in our corner, uncomfortable, but silent. When a bunch of men hang round, staring at us, we hurry past, trying to ignore the threat of their eyes.This time, we did not. No slogans, or placards, or black arm-bands, or violence. All we did was let our inherent aggression loose. Stand there - feet apart, eyes unblinking.Jasmeen organised interesting variations each time. One evening, there was a sound element - two recordings playing simultaneously. One was that of a group of boys describing what they looked at in a woman - what their bodies should be like. At the other end, there was the sound of a woman's laughter, hysterical, uproarious.... ever noticed, that in public spaces, very few sounds are feminine? Women rarely laugh loudly, uninhibitedly.[In fact, when I was in school, our Hindi teacher specifically told us not to laugh openly; it was not considered proper for girls].But before that, there was the night walk.To our collective discomfort, there was too much media. Too many cameras, too many TV crews. This was a problem, because the point of the night walk was that a bunch of women should be out at night, doing what they wanted, wearing what they wanted, challenging the public space that prevents women from being out at night.The moment you bring a TV crew into a space, things change. People perceive the whole proceeding as a film shooting, a sham, a staged drama, and not something that is - or should be - a normal part of the cityscape at night.The TV reporters had been warned - if they wanted to come, they'd have to come as participants and volunteers, not as people who gawk, ask questions and leave. This, perhaps, was too much to expect.However, what really made me feel ashamed of my tribe was this article.It says - "the protesters were “leched” at, ridiculed and booed along the three-kilometre stretch of the march, the first of its kind in New Delhi"Factually incorrect. I did the whole stretch and was neither booed nor ridiculed. Questions, yes. Arguments, yes. Booing, no. Leching? Possible? We were too busy to notice.Further, "The organisers, who ran into trouble even before the roadside Romeos, managed to round up just 15 participants."What was this supposed trouble that the organisers supposedly ran into?
"The protesters, in their spaghetti tops and accented English, made quite an impact on the streets. Those who hadn’t turned up in a “mod and hep” attire seemed clearly overdressed."
False. False. False.
Not everyone was in spaghetti tops. [I was.] The women had been asked to come dressed in something they would not normally wear. One friend came in a mangalsutra - the one thing she does not wear. Her friend was in a shalwar-kameez. Many others wore standard T-shirts and jeans.Also, except for a couple of foreign nationals, nobody's English could be described as 'accented'. Unless they meant Punjabi accent, Bengali accent, Dilli-wala accent etc.
The reporter has placed 'mod and hep' in inverted commas. Any particular reason? Was this supposed to be a reference to western clothes? Also, those who were not in western clothes were in regulation cotton shalwars... Overdressed? Who?And even if a woman is overdressed. Let us say she feels like walking about in a Benarsi silk saree... when you come to cover what you describe as a protest (it was never described as one by Blank Noise; it was a night walk/night action plan), why are you so busy taking detailed notes about who was wearing what?There's more.
"Armed with placards, posters and red arrow tags, the protesters..."
We had posters and red arrows. There were no placards. Did the reporter dream those up? What we did have were stencils.This article got it right. Unfortunately, the same media group carried another article, two days later, about the same event, but in a very different tone, possibly because it re-carried the story as given out by a news service provider."A midnight march by women to protest against "touching, staring, groping, pinching and stalking" sounded heroic enough until the protesters ran into stalking Romeos lining up the path."We did not run into stalkers lining up the path.I did run into two young men who seemed concerned at my putting up a poster in Sarojini Nagar. One of them said, "Where's the point of putting it here? This is a government colony..."Implying, of course, that sexual harassment is not a problem in government colonies.I responded by asking, "Why? You think government people are all very shareef (decent)?"That made him laugh in an embarrassed sort of way, and leave. That was all.Anyway, being on the receiving end of media ignorance and inaccuracy is not pleasant. But what really bothered me was the tone of the article. The insensitivity of it. Here is this bunch of women, trying to do something that is generally acknowledged as a huge problem, across the country... And all you can think of writing is the straps on their shoulders or the accents they spoke in?
links to this post

Empower, unpower, empower

2006-12-02T22:52:00.002-08:00

For a minute there, I felt powerful. For a minute, I thought, it would get sorted now.Now that I am involved, have learnt to speak up, and have discovered a few tools that can out-intimidate the intimidators, I thought I was just about done with street sexual harassment.I should have known better... All it takes is five seconds of letting your guard down.Five seconds, when I step inside the kirane ki dukaan near my house, to buy milk. A man follows me into the shop, and pretends to be just another customer, looking for Archies' greeting cards (in a kirana shop!). I leave, and as I open the gate to my place, the man stops me. Offers to 'make friendship'.I have heard this so many times, and have responded to it in so many ways that I would have laughed outright. If it was not for the fact that I was suddenly frightened. By the knowledge that the man had probably been following me for some time without my noticing, that he now knew where I lived and that I was alone at home.I say 'no thank you'.He does not leave. He says 'don't misunderstand... genuine friendship, I promise'.I tell him that I have many genuine friends and don't want any more. I ask him to leave. I say 'please'.He does not leave.I am reluctant to climb the stairs and open the lock until he has left.He tries to give me a phone number.I do not take it. He does not leave.Finally, I have to turn away, run upstairs and lock all three doors behind me until I reach the top and can peer down to ensure that he has left.Five seconds on the bus, when I am on the phone with my mother, and thus, have forgotten to stay alert and look aggressive.The man sitting next to me has placed his hand on my thigh. At first, so lightly that I don't notice. When I do, I turn to look at him, aghast. I am so surprised, that for a full five seconds, I cannot find my voice.And then, all I can think of saying is - "Ye kya kar rahe ho?" (What are you doing?)He withdraws his hand with a sudden, quick movement and looks out of the window.The rage is slow to arrive, for some reason. But while I get steadily angrier by the fractioned second, I notice what a pitiful picture the man cuts - he is a mouse of a man; a trapped rat of a man... if I wanted to, this minute, I could beat him up. Not because I am stronger, but because he is such a coward and I am so angry. All I can feel is contempt.I say "Get up and get out. Right now!"He gets up immediately, mumbles something about having to get off anyway, and gets off at the next stop.The humiliation is his, but minutes afterwards, I continue to simmer. Others have noticed this little exchange of words and some men are turning to stare at me. I stare back at them and they quickly look away.When I get home, I catch myself wanting to take a bath... And yet, something has changed. This time, my reaction is different from what it would have been two years ago. I did not hit the man. I did not scream. I did not panic. I did not feel the need to create a big scene. I was surprised, felt contempt and anger - I did not feel fear.This, I realise now, is because of blank noise, partly. I have gotten used to dealing with the problem, talking about it, taking it to the very streets where we endure it... So used to it, that it seems incredible that somebody should actually dare to go on harassing me. A corner of my brain was wondering - 'What? Don't they know?'And that is why getting involved was good for me. Blank Noise is not just about getting men to lay off. It is also about empowering women to deal with men who will not keep their unwelcome hands off you. It is as much about dealing with women's fear of public spaces and strangers, as it is about dealing with sexually abusive/intimidating strangers.Which is why I encourage every woman I meet, especially college girls and young professionals, to get involved.It is hard to get involved, I know. It is hard to make time for a battle that's everybody's battle; there are too many personal ones to fight. But hard though it is, it makes sense. For my own sake, for my sisters and for the women we will bring up, some day.To show up, to do something - anything! - against sexual harassment in public spaces. Because these are my spaces too; and I can't let somebody alienate me from my own spaces simply because intimidating shit happens out there.
links to this post

Good essay

2006-12-02T22:52:00.001-08:00

entered my hostel and was given my room. Ten minutes later, I was on my knees with a leash around my neck....After so many years, I can list all these forms of ‘ragging’ dispassionately, but no one should be misled. Brutality and oppression remain just that, no matter the name used for them. Who were these seniors, and why did they humiliate us so?From this excellent essay in Tehelka.Not only did I find myself nodding in agreement, but found myself going down memory lane, and echoing the conclusion the author comes to -I have never found any use for the education my seniors gave me.... Ragging is a case study for Freud, nothing more.Do read the whole essay.

Priyanka will not be avenged

2006-12-02T22:50:00.001-08:00

I should have written about Kherlanji earlier, perhaps. Except that I did not know what to say.When Shivam first sent me the link to the story, it took four attempts to read it through to the end. With each reading, I'd be overwhelmed by a wave - something between frustration, nausea, panic - rising up in revolt.I did not want to read the story. I did not want to confront the fact that it was true, and that this was what the world like. That the perpetrators were ordinary villagers - like the ones I meet when I travel. Ordinary young and old men with complaints about electricity, the lack of health services and joblessness. That it is not one or two or three or four but nearly a whole village.I still don't know what to say.Except that Priyanka will not be avenged even if the whole village hangs. Priyanka will not be avenged as long as you have even one square inch on earth where a woman is held as the repository of male honour.

Priyanka will not be avenged

2006-12-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

A new kind of fruit.

2006-12-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

I get a little frustrated with conversations about 'gender'. It is almost as if we were talking about an interesting vase on the dining table, or a new kind of fruit.As if, it has nothing to do with the salaries we draw, the amounts we spend on travel and/or self-indulgence, our health, our place in newspapers, the status of the kitchen sink, the vocational courses offered by the ashram for rescued street children. As if, gender was something to be tucked into a recycled paper folder, on a conference table.Every conversation about gender or feminism quickly disintegrates into 'emancipation' or 'but it should not become a man vs woman debate' or 'learn to be equal, first'.In recent memory, not one person (politician/activist/student/feminist/writer/friend) has spoken to me about gender from the perspective of motherhood. About the economics of motherhood.Three months' paid leave, yes. Creches at the work-place, yes. But what about the fact that, despite maternity benefits, a new mother often runs the risk of becoming an economic liability unto herself? Because, with a baby in her arms, it is not easy to cook, clean, commute, stay up late working on projects, functioning on too little sleep.It is easy to say - let the man take half the burden. What happens when there is no man in the picture? Because, often, there isn't. In any case, that argument is a flawed one, based on the assumption that every mother WANTS to be married/live with a man. What if she doesn't? Where does she get financial help, or social support?And why are Indians not pushing the boundaries further? Are three months enough? Is it fair to expect a mother to return to work with a three-month old infant? Let me put it this way - does society want three-month old infants in day-care centres, to be taken home by a frazzled mother who must go on working - cooking, cleaning, etc? Is that the ideal way to bring up a generation?Another question - do we, as a people, as a species, accept that children are our collective responsibility? That children belong to the world, and the world must do its bit to bring them up?In a world where men do not always assume paternal responsibilities, especially if they have not legally married the mother, how do we make them do their bit? If men were wild creatures like wolves or penguins or something, one could count upon them to feed the young ones, and let the mother recover. Since this trait, however, does not seem to be part of their DNA, how do we, as a world, make men pay their share of the price for the continuation of the species?Like the USA, do we keep track of fathers, using the law to hunt them down, and MAKE them pay for their biological children? Or do we impose a tax on ALL men, to extend social security to ALL pregnant women?Do we extend maternity benefits to a year, or eighteen months? Or does the mother quit her job, avail of social support for upto eighteen months, and then look for a new job?But what happens next? When the benefit-zone comes to an end, do we welcome this not-so-new mother back into the work force? By all reports, we do not.According to a study, "Mothers face greater discrimination in finding a job than disabled people, Asian women and the elderly, new government research has found.Women returning to work after starting a family face the highest 'personal employment penalty' of any group in society - they are around 40 per cent less likely than the average white, able-bodied man to be offered a post, says the study."If we do nothing at all, if we expect that women will fight for equality, on men's terms, and deal with the world of men, by trying to turn into men, this is what you will be confronted with - a baby shortage."Britain is suffering a baby 'shortage' with potentially disastrous consequences as work pressures force young women to shelve plans for a family, according to dramatic new research, urging an £11bn campaign to boost parenthood. Women have not turned against becoming mothers and, if they could have the number of children they actually wanted, more than 90,000 extra babies a year would be born."India is young. India does not yet have the spectre of an aged, dependent majority looming over a shrinking work-force. But we'll get there, some day. It would not hurt to prevent a crisis, for once.

Bad girls!

2006-12-02T22:48:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, stealing is a bad thing to do. But for some reason, I can only shake my head and laugh at this all-girl gang of teenagers who call themselves the 'spider-girls' in Chile, who are 'infamous for climbing up buildings in Santiago to burgle luxury apartments'.And what's more -'Despite both being heavily pregnant, they still managed to climb up to the third floor of some flats.'
What I am not so pleased about is that those who affected - probably the legit occupants of those luxury apartments whose jewelry and clothes these girls stole - want these girls to go to jail. Not to reform centres, not under juvenile justice laws, where some of these girls have already been before.
"Many Chileans have been angered by the girls' antics, saying the law is too soft and needs to be changed so under 18- year-olds get tougher punishments and do not think they are above the law."Well, they aren't. But why does the idea of stringent punishments for teenaged daredevilry (for admittedly grubby motives) make me so uncomfortable?

An Amazing Case Study In Customer `Relations'

2006-12-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

Having spent quality time interviewing and shooting the breeze with Kevin Freiberg, the author of Nuts (The Southwest Airlines Story), I must claim some insights into what makes a great airline. I mean you might well arrive at the same conclusion if you read the book but chatting with Freiberg can be an extremely fulfilling experience. The man knows the airline and its functioning so well that you might think even founder Herb Kelleher might give way!Which is not to say every organisation can become Southwest overnight. You might know all the ingredients but still not get it right. As has been amply proven in the US itself. Why is that ? Well the reason is simple. Its people. Its not Herb who runs a great airline. Its the empowered people of Southwest who run a great airline. Who have taken ownership of customers and their problems. And do everything in their might to attend to them. And have never, in their 35 years, behaved like they were number one.So, our own number one Jet Airways (the comparison is not intended to suggest Jet is a low cost carrier, it isn't but the principles of civil behaviour with customers would apply I think) has responded to my missives. To know more, read "Why I Will Not Fly India's No 1 Airline" It took 48 hours to respond. I don't know if that's good or bad but I guess I must be grateful for a response.Arrogance Over AllJust to reiterate, I wrote an angry mail complaining about a specific problem that I had with its counter staff in Bangalore. Arun has left a comment in my previous post saying how Jet did not honour his upgrade voucher. Well, let me tell you Arun, its a similar problem. Though to be fair, its not the problem that is important. Believe me, the airline might well be right. Except that I am pretty sure I am right too. And Jet is wrong. Guess what. The last time I checked, if the customer is right too, then you give way. Or be nice to him. Not so with Jet, where arrogance appears to rule over all.The next evening, as promised in my first mail, I despatched my frequent flier card and upgrade vouchers in a courier to the chairman's office. Essentially, I said I had no interest in their vouchers or their frequent flier cards because their employees did not care to honour them. In that letter, I also asked for an acknowledgement. Now this is where the bizarre part begins.Giri, a Jet Airways employee, leaves a comment on my previous post, takes the trouble of locating my mobile number and calls me up. I couldn't take his call but he left a voice mail apologising for the experience I had in Bangalore. Did Giri know who is right ? At that point, I am not sure. So Giri realised, at least momentarily, that the customer is always right. Of course I would be interested to see whether he still holds this position. This is why.Can You Believe This Response!Because around the same time, I also get an email from the corporate office which I take the liberty of reproducing verbatim.Dear Mr Ethiraj, This has reference to your letter dated November 28, 2006 addressed to our Chairman, Mr. Naresh Goyal. Since Mr. Goyal is currently out of the office, I am taking the liberty of acknowledging receipt of your letter. Please allow me to examine the issues raised by you with the concerned department and I will certainly revert to you. May we request you to please bear with us in the interim period. Sincerely, Signed..General Manager Service Quality & Customer RelationsAmazing isn't it ? No apology, no acknowledgement that there may have been some inconvenience or an error on the airline's part. Nothing. Just a terse, matter of fact note that simply says `we will examine the issues which you have raised and then will certainly revert. Meanwhile, bear with us'..or in effect, shut up. And this is a letter from someone who ostensibly heads service quality and customer relations!!!!What Would Southwest Have Done ?So, quite clearly, while the branch office felt that something may have gone wrong, the corporate office (if I were to go by the tenor of this mail) responds in a manner that is perhaps uniform to all - from, let me guess, potential suppliers of toilet paper to angry customers. Who of course are wrong unless an internal investigation proves that they just might be right. What do you think a Southwest employee would have done in a similar situation ? I have a pretty good idea. Either way, I think my experience makes for an interesting case study!

Reflections on the legacy of Harish-Chandra

2006-12-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

About the talk:
Harish-Chandra and Srinivasa Ramanujan were easily the two greatest Indian mathematicians of the last century. While the latter is a household name in India, Harish-Chandra, despite his sustained and seminal contributions to "Representation Theory" remains relatively unknown. A former student of Dirac, Harish-Chandra started his research career as a physicist in Cambridge before moving to an enormously succesful career as a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Although the talk will not be free of references to mathematical concepts of varying degrees of sophistication, most of them should be familiar to anyone, physicists, chemists or students, with some undergraduate training in mathematics. The talk will be an attempt to understand Harish-Chandra's place in the mathematical firmament and not an occasion for technical explanations.

Robert Langlands is uniquely qualified to give this talk having known Harish-Chandra closely for more than 20 years as a friend and colleague at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. While Harish-Chandra made "Representation Theory" a central area of research in mathematics, Robert Langlands introduced what is now known as the "Langlands Programme", a vast mathematical framework of conjectures which connect representation theory, analysis, geometry and number theory in remarkable ways. The Langlands Programme is one of the high watermarks of Twentieth Century mathematics, unrivalled, perhaps, in its scope and breathtaking in its vision.Send me an e-mail if you would like to have more info

A new spirit of independence

2006-12-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

India also has options. India may choose to be a US client, or it may prefer to join the more independent Asian bloc that is taking shape, with ever more ties to Middle East oil producers. Siddharth Varadarajan, the deputy editor of the Hindu, observes that "if the 21st century is to be an 'Asian century,' Asia's passivity in the energy sector has to end".
The key is India-China cooperation. In January, an agreement signed in Beijing "cleared the way for India and China to collaborate not only in technology but also in hydrocarbon exploration and production, a partnership that could eventually alter fundamental equations in the world's oil and natural gas sector", Varadarajan points out.
An additional step, already being contemplated, is an Asian oil market trading in euros. The impact on the international financial system and the balance of global power could be significant. It should be no surprise that President Bush paid a recent visit to try to keep India in the fold, offering nuclear cooperation and other inducements as a lure. Noam Chomsky in the Guardian. Links added in the quoted text.

Books That Shook The World, and our shaken world

2006-12-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

In a week in which Mumbai was badly shaken up by a series of heinous bomb blasts (I got off a train on the Western line just half an hour before the blasts, and thus narrowly avoided being sent up to that special enclosure in hell for the souls of departed literary bloggers, bereft of any books but full of copies of the Times of India and the Hindu), here is a set of not bombs but books that shook the world - works that have served for hundreds of years to open people's minds and fruitfully complicate their worldviews. This month Atlantic Books brings out a series of short "biographies" of some of the most influential books in history, each written by a distinguished writer. The first few volumes include Christopher Hitchens on Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, Francis Wheen on Marx's Das Kapital, Simon Blackburn on Plato's Republic, and Bruce Lawrence on The Qur'an. A slightly later release is the American satirist P.J. O'Rourke on Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.Already some bits and pieces of work found in these books is available online: Wheen's excellent essay on Das Kapital in the Guardian last weekend argues that we should look at Marx's opus not as a work in the tradition of classical economics but more as a piece of literature, and O'Rourke argues in a recent issue of the Weekly Standard that Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which almost nobody has ever read, is a vital to an understanding of The Wealth of Nations. People hold very different opinions of who was the greater thinker, Marx or Smith, according to temperament or political persuasion, but a piece in the Economist from 2002 notes that "titles in print about Marx outnumber books about Adam Smith by a factor of between five and ten". And certainly, while our universities and large swathes of India have a great many people who call themselves Marxists, I've never in my life come across a Smithist, which suggests paradoxically that Smith may have been the harder man to emulate. An edited extract from Hitchens's book on Tom Paine appears here.About the blasts: they were a nasty shock, but not particularly a surprise. We live in what history may later call the age of terrorism, and Mumbai's trains are easy and tempting targets. We need much better security systems for our train coaches (which are really not much more than boxes on wheels), and perhaps a special vigilance force, to man entrances and exits of stations and to travel on trains themselves. Multiple entrances and exits to stations, often created by people breaking down walls and jumping over fences, must be sealed off, and walking on the tracks made a punishable offence. (This would also root out an almost daily tragedy of the city, that of people being run over while crossing the tracks. The yearly toll of this - 3500 by this estimate - far outstrips the toll of Tuesday's dead.) Thus, the one positive of this disaster is that it may enforce a long-needed modernisation of our creaking systems, as also a better enforcement of the rules already in existence but blithely ignored by both the public and the authorities.Clearly all this will not be cheap, but life should not be so cheap either. I can think of a simple measure to raise the money. Mumbai's citizens would gladly pay a safety surcharge of 50 paise on every local train ticket bought, and perhaps an extra Rs.5-10 on their season tickets. At about 60 lakh passengers a day, that should raise the necessary funds simply enough, and soon enough, for our 2000-odd trains going up and down every day. The world has changed for good, and the enemies of our open society lurk within our ranks - it is possible we pass them every day on the street. It is hard to pull out such threats by the roots. We need to take all the steps needed just to survive in these new uncertain times, before Tuesday's disaster is revisited upon us.

Some thoughts on artistic time and real time

2006-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Some kinds of artistic creation, like painting, are experienced across space - we understand them by organising all their elements visually at the same time. Others, like music or film or written narrative, unfold in a linear fashion and are experienced across time. Further, the pleasure we derive from them has its source not just in their subject matter, their content, but in how they unfold over time - how they speed up and slow down, the particular direction they take and the sequence in which their parts are presented.If we reflect upon our aesthetic experience we realise that time as we experience it in artworks is far more intense, more "rich" with sensory detail and with feeling, than time as we know it in real life. In the best works of art not a moment is wasted: every word, every note, or every shot seems essential. By comparison with artistic time, real time is almost unbearably tedious in its aimlessness, vacancy and sheer sprawl. When we say we opened a book or put on a CD to "pass the time", we are actually saying something quite significant. One of the reasons why we need art is because it allows us not just to forget our own selves (as I argue here, here and here) but also to transcend the quotidian experience and slow time to which we are irrevocably yoked.Of course, human beings possesses the resources to fill time up, to infuse it with urgency and meaning, even without art. Those resources are the memory and the imagination, the two pillars of human life, and they allow us to prepare our own homemade version of artistic time. Each one of us has a private corpus of memories of the most significant events of our lives, memories we are always reexamining and reinterpreting. What has transpired once in our lives is replayed hundreds of times in the private theatre of our minds, with the inessential details sifted out as they would have been in a work of art. And on the other hand there is the imagination, which takes unrelated elements or inchoate yearnings and, by shaping them into a sequence or a whole, creates the same satisfying richness that we derive from art.It might be said that our memories and our fantasies are our private works of art, only occasionally sensed or glimpsed by others but constantly in our own sights. They are our way of overcoming the tyranny of the present moment, of substituting the inessential with the essential. Even more than in behaviour and in speech, they are where we are most fully ourselves. In fact, art forms like the novel are premised upon this idea, that the dredging up of a person's interior life reveals what is most essential about him or her.Even so artistic time, itself a product of the human imagination, has a special glow. Putting down a book, or leaving a movie hall, we cross the border from one kind of time to another, and wonder if somehow our lives could not be freighted with the same richness and intensity. Of course, this is a chimerical wish: reality will never support it. But on the rare instances that we do manage to live for extended periods in a state of elevated feeling, we often find the only parallel for that experience in the intensity of artistic time. "I felt suddenly as if I could hear life's music", we say, or "It was like I was a character in a novel".

‘The way Ravi looks at you- yuck!’

2006-12-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

Last night’s shocking evictee Rakhi Sawant (who will watch the show now?) is willing to return to Bigg Boss after breathing in some fresh air (read: where Rupali and Carol don’t exist).
She’s ready for another bout of the reality show. “I want to see the sky, the stars, the moon, be free all over again,” she says, moments after stepping out of the Bigg Boss studio in Karjat.
You already want to return to Bigg Boss!
There is no harm saying it. I have told Bigg Boss that if he wants I am willing to return after a break. I can say it, bolne mein kya harz hai?
What’s the first thing you’ll do after going home?Sleep! I could hardly sleep thanks to all the khich-pich in the house. But before that, I need to see a doctor. All the doings in the house have taken a toll on my health. I need to be fit for my dance shows soon.
You were the main attraction on Bigg Boss.That’s what I’ve just been told. All I can say is that except for that outburst because of Amit, I was there to enjoy myself. I wanted to sing, dance and make merry. But the rest of the inmates had other plans: manipulating, planning or otherwise smoking!
Did you fall in love with Amit Sadh?No. The only man in my life is Abhishek Awasthi. I realised what he meant while on the show. I wanted to be friends with Amit because Rupali and Carol had teamed up with the other guys like Ravi, Rahul, etc. I wanted Amit to be part of my group with Kash.
But you fell out with Kash.I know. She was extremely peeved when I broke my fast, but after the fight with Amit I was hopping mad. I could not function and without food my brains don’t work at all; that’s the reason I had to eat. Both Kash and me are item girls and both of us have been voted out. Kuch toh connection hoga hamara.
Who did you dislike the most on Bigg Boss?Ravi Kissen. The way he looks at you… yuck! There’s something horrible about this man. I have acted in one of his films, but during Bigg Boss I have seen another side to him. Also, Amit Sadh does not know how to respect a woman.
You washed the clothes of all the male contestants…Yes, I use to wash everyone’s clothes, including those of the guys. I have washed their undergarments, their chaddis too! I had never washed clothes at home before. I had to leave several of my clothes behind on the Bigg Boss sets as I never knew that you have to check if the colours run before soaking them together. So many of my clothes became multi-coloured!
Besides resuming your dance shows, is marriage on your mind?Yes, I will marry one day. But my mother is right that there is sometime for it. She wants me to be a bigger name. There is still a long way to go to the top and the time is now. I have met Abhishek’s parents and they know about us. I need everyone’s blessings for my marriage, and that includes my sister and brother. They are both married and have two kids each.
And what about your father?He is Hitler; he is somewhere but I have no contact with him. He deserted our family when I started doing item numbers. My mother stood like a rock beside me. I owe my success to her.

Ask me a question

2006-12-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

This is an open thread. Is there anything you’d like me to make a post on? Have you ever pondered on a problem and thought “I wonder what that pompous, arrogant and condescending Cartelian Ravi would say about this?” Ask it here. If there is any topic from my previous posts where you’ve thought that I did not address, maybe evaded, a point, ask it here. I will answer some of the questions that in posts.
I will prefer those posts that make me think. For example, I really wanted to answer this comment:
Would you say there should be a legislation that will punish this judge? If so of what kind? Or is this to be viewed as okay in the interest of free speech? Thanks.
This was on my post on burning the American flag. The link in question related to an Indian judge making derogatory remarks about women lawyers. I don’t know if it was asked as a sarcastic question, but it is still an interesting one and I would like to answer it. Likewise which question would you like answered?

Qayamat se qayamat tak!

2006-12-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

A Dalit mob, who was protesting the alleged desecration of Dr B R Ambedkar’s statue in Kanpur, roughed up Aamir Khan’s stepbrother Hyder Ali Khan in Bandra on Thursday. The incident took place near Kherwadi on the Western Express highway.
Khan was shooting in Madh Island for his forthcoming film Kuch Kehna Hai when the crew had to pack up abruptly. Hyder went to drop his associate director home when a mob hurled towards them forcing them to stop the car.
Saved by busSaid a very shocked Hyder, “It was around late afternoon after the news of violence spread like wildfire. So I decided to drop one of my crewmembers to his home near Bandra in my car. When I entered a narrow road in Kherwadi, a mob of people charged towards me.”
When the actor stepped out, he was pushed and roughed up by a mob of 10 people. They threatened him with sticks and demanded that he reverse his car and leave. Some people in the mob even started hitting the mudguards on Hyder’s car, with the intention of doing some damage.
Hyder said, “I requested them to stop but the furious mob got very physical with me. I got hurt on my right hand but quickly managed to get back into the car. The mob was about to start pelting stones at me, but God is great. A bus approaching from the opposite direction diverted them, giving me the opportunity to whisk away.”
Twice luckyEarlier in the morning, when Hyder was driving towards the Pebble Bungalow in Mudh Island, he had a close brush with another stone-pelting mob at Malwani. “God saved me again at that time, when the cops arrived on time and I got away. It has been an eventful day. I hope peace will return to the state soon,” said Hyder.
The actor’s mother Shahnaaz Tahir Hussain, who also plays a cameo in his film, had not accompanied her son to the sets that day. “I am just thankful that God sent my son home safe that day.”
Hyder has sustained mild injuries on his right hand and on his back. “I have got myself bandaged and have taken pain killers since I have to resume work tomorrow,” he said.

The cause of unhappiness

2006-12-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

After some thinking, I have found the cause of unhappiness. It is nuclear weapons. The economics and psychology behind my finding is simple. The reason for your not figuring it out is also related to the reason why we are unhappy.
People have long noted that money does not make us happy. This is true, and should have been obvious to anyone who has conceptual understanding of the human mind. The human mind has a finite capacity for happiness. Just because you possess more material wealth than your parents, you are no happier than they, because, after all, you inherited your mind and consequently the capacity for happiness from them. Besides, it is well-known that your mind obtains satisfaction by comparing itself with what it had yesterday, and what others have today, not with what your parents had a generation ago. This fact combined with the laws of diminishing margin return and diminishing marginal utility are adequate to explain why we are unhappy. The law of diminishing marginal return ensures that our economic growth slows down as our economy grows, and the law of diminishing marginal utility means that every percentage point of growth gives me less additional happiness than the last one gave me.
I have not expounded anything new so far. Many philosophers, psychologists and economists have figured this out. But having discovered this, they then make the mistake of assuming that money does not matter. That is nonsense. We are happy when we are getting rich, not when we are rich. I am happy now that I have a house with a bedroom window that opens out to greenery, but that is only because I spent my childhood in a Maharashtra Housing Board house that opened out to other people’s windows. The problem is that my son will grow up used to such relative affluence. That will not make him happy and so he will join a religious cult in search of happiness. What can be done to avoid such an eventuality?
One idea that I thought of is to slow down economic growth to a crawl, so that people can savour every moment of it. Unfortunately, this is unworkable. People will get bored of slow growth and soon rebel. Besides, this will only postpone the problem, not solve it.
I had gotten thus far in my ruminations and was getting no further, when enlightenment struck me in the checkout counter of Shop Rite here in New Jersey, where I am currently located. The medium for the enlightenment was the cover of the latest edition of “Cosmopolitan”, which promised that the reader would find inside “8 sex positions we have never told you before about!”
It occurred to me that this was impossible, given the laws of Physics. Cosmopolitan has been introducing supposedly new sex positions in every one of its issues. The human body’s skeletal structure puts certain limits on how many degrees of freedom it has. Assuming sex between two people, it is easy to calculate the upper limit on how many sex positions there can be. It is reasonably certain that the there have been more issues of the Cosmopolitan than this theoretical upper limit. The Cosmopolitan, I reflected, has fallen victim to the same malaise that afflicts society as it tries to squeeze out the last vestiges of interest from readers who are saturated with information.
I concluded that in today’s society, life was difficult for moderately intelligent people. In the past, they’d read books by more intelligent people and interpret them for others. But now with easy access to information, everyone has access to information, interpretations of information, interpretations of interpretations of information, ad nauseum. So the moderately intelligent economist, not finding a job explaining basic economics to people, is often engaged in the supremely pointless task of discovering “Islamic banking”, which is basically an exercise in finding new words for interest, or “Socialism with a market face” which is basically an exercise in finding new words for profit-making, etc.”
The same crisis affects the moderately talented novelist who has to find an aspect of the human condition unexplored before, the moderately talented artiste who has to find a dance routine not danced before and the moderately talented comedian who has to find a joke not made before.
The culprit in all these cases, I mused as I paid for my groceries (and completely forgot to pick up a case of orange juice, thereby losing 2 dollars - 90 rupees!) was society’s ready access to information. If society could periodically lose its store of knowledge, then it would make life better for a large number of people as they rediscovered essential philosophical truths, invented the same sex positions once again and explored the same aspects of the human condition once again.
I then realised that I had the key to human happiness, viz periodic destruction.
The long period of relative peace that we are enjoying now is unnatural. If society were periodically destroyed by war, pestilence and famine, then the period between those disasters would be spent in rebuilding society. The daily struggle for existence would make people aware of the value of acquiring and building wealth. Having watched the death of their brothers, men would realise the importance of family and would be closer to their fellow men. They could afford the joys of a large family, in fact they’d need to have large families because when the next wave of destruction comes, most of their children would be killed and only a few would remain to carry on the family name. Great art could be written, because it is only in times of suffering that meaningful art is written. Great discoveries would be remade and great sex can be had, but then I repeat myself.
Now the perceptive and the moderately intelligent among you might have an obvious question. You might say that while people might be at their happiest in the interval between waves of destruction, would not the periods of destruction be times of great unhappiness? Would a netting out not occur, leaving us no happier than before?
No. That would not be true. Remember that it is much easier to destroy than to build, which is another way of saying that the period of recovery would be inevitably longer than the period of destruction. When the plague comes, or a war happens, people are very unhappy of course, but then they quickly adjust to their new condition, and they reconcile themselves to the long, but immensely fulfilling task of rebuilding from the debris of their previous world.
This then is the recipe to happiness. What prevents us from achieving it? A moment’s thought tells us that the culprit has to be nuclear weapons. While it is clear that economic progress will inevitably cure us of famine and plague, there is no reason why it should have caused an end to wars. Wars are fought with other humans who also have access to the fruits of progress, so in theory we could have fought wars for ever, and wars would have brought famine and plague back with them. These three horsemen would together take us back to the paradise where there was a world waiting to be rebuilt, and a whole ocean of knowledge to be rediscovered.
Unfortunately, one awful invention came about to bring an untimely end to the endless cycle of human happiness and, by causing a pestilential peace, has left us in a state of uneasy unhappiness, and that is the nuclear bomb. I don’t need to tell you how it has made war unthinkable - you know the deal. You will hear the spiel from many “peace activists” who will simultaneously warn us that we shouldn’t fight each other because nuclear weapons have made war too awful to contemplate, and in the next breath call for an abolition of nuclear weapons, without realising that they are in fact contradicting themselves. But I call for the abolition of nuclear weapons for a truly justifiable purpose - the advancement of human happiness by periodic destruction of society.
This then is my contribution to happiness research. Many economists are trying to come up with a measure for happiness, so that they can improve upon the GDP as a measure of how well we are doing. They do not realise that what they are faced with is not a measurement problem, but a conceptual and philosophical problem: What is happiness? I hope that by shedding light on this tricky subject, I have advanced the cause of the human race, and I also hope that the next great wave of destruction will erase this knowledge from our consciousness, to be rediscovered by my happy intellectual descendants.

‘The Ranjans are the biggest liars ...

2006-11-29T00:59:00.000-08:00

There’s more drama off-screen at telly awards functions than there is on the tube these days. Anu and Shashi Ranjan of Hero Honda Indian Television Academy (HHITA) have slapped a legal suit on Balaji head honcho Ekta Kapoor, for preventing her actors from attending the awards show. The Ranjans even claim that Kapoor demanded a list of Balaji winners prior to the event. Now, Ekta is in retaliation mode.
You did not attend the HHITA awards because Anu and Shashi Ranjan refused to show you the awards list. Comment. That’s rubbish. Anu and Shashi are the biggest liars in the world. I think too many people are asking them why I didn’t attend their function. They are scared to tell the truth because it’s dirty.
So what’s the truth?Yes, I boycotted the show. I was in Delhi all day, but I returned in the evening. I could have attended the show. The Ranjans kept calling me to know if I had a problem but I didn’t tell them anything.
Why didn’t you attend?That’s because my flagship show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, which has been India’s No1 show for six years, had not been nominated in the Best Serial category.
Isn’t that a petty reason?That’s not a petty reason. My fury did not stem from the fact that Kyunki had not been nominated, but from the fact that Anu and Shashi axed Kyunki’s nomination simply because Star Plus did not buy the telecast rights of their show.
How are you sure about that?Somebody working with their telecast partner Zee told me about it.
Is that the way awards are being conducted these days?Yes, and I wouldn’t be comfortable being part of such a show. Kyunki is India’s No 1 show and deserves respect. If it has not scored from the public, that’s fine. But if personal interests are the motives behind such acts, I am not going to allow it. Even Zee was shocked that Kyunki was axed from the nominations list. Some people connected to HHITA and Zee told me beforehand that Kasamh Se is going to get many awards. I didn’t like that fact either. Just because a show is being telecast on a particular channel is not reason enough to give it a biased preference.
Did you instruct Balaji actors like Shabbir Ahluwalia, Prachi Desai, Ram Kapoor, Akashh Deep Saigal and Sanjit Bedi not to perform at the HHITA?That’s another lie. I have better things to do than interfere in the personal lives of my actors. It was very essential that Ram and Prachi shoot for Kasamh Se that day. Yet, I personally went to the studio where they were shooting, reworked the script and asked them to go for the show. But by that time, Anu and Shashi had made alternative arrangements (pauses).
Go on…Anu and Shashi wanted some of my actors to sign exclusive contracts with them, which would debar them from performing at the Indian Telly Awards (ITA; of Anil Wanwari). Some of them even signed those contracts, but later felt uncomfortable. That’s not my fault, is it? The ITA and the HHITA have always been at loggerheads. There is tremendous competition between them.
So you have been made a scapegoat?Yes. There’s another reason for that. Anu and Shashi are frustrated that their award function wasn’t as good as the Indian Telly Awards, which I attended.
Which of the two awards shows is fair?I am not passing judgment. I am only bewildered as to how low the Ranjans (HHITA) can stoop when they are at a crossroads with Anil Wanvari (ITA), and do not get the broadcaster of their choice (Star).
So what are you going to do about it?I am taking legal action against HHITA. I had high regard for them, but I am shocked and hurt by their character assassination of me. I will never send nominations for any of my shows to them henceforth.

Sanjay was stress,simultaneously positive

2006-11-29T00:53:00.000-08:00

Few people know that even though Sanjay Dutt and Rhea Pillai have divorced, they still remain close friends. Dutt continues to be an important part of Rhea’s new family with husband Leander Paes and daughter Aiyana. In an exclusive heart-to-heart with HiTLIST, Pillai recounts her emotions post Dutt’s verdict in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case.
What was your reaction when you first heard the news?Initially, I was shocked to hear that Sanjay had been found guilty. However, when I spoke to Satish (Maneshinde, Dutt’s lawyer) he told me that it was a conviction under the Arms Act and not TADA, so I heaved a sigh of relief and was really happy. Of course, I was hoping for an acquittal but this is the next best thing.
Were you apprehensive before the verdict came out?No, I wasn’t. I had a very good feeling about the whole thing, which I communicated to Sanju time and again. This feeling defies logic, because the conviction rate in the case is over 80 per cent. Now that it has gone fairly well, it feels great.
Did you speak to Sanjay today?I spoke with him before and after the verdict. Right now, he’s still trying to figure out the ramifications of the situation. He was stressed, but simultaneously positive.
You were there with Sanjay during the darkest moment of his life. How did you cope? You just do, you know. It’s been emotionally draining for all of us, but it is nothing compared to what Sanjay has been through. Considering that he spent 18 months in jail, there was a lot to be done and understood by all of us. But it all boils down to having faith in Sanjay, myself and believing right from the start that he is completely innocent. I am still with Sanjay…
What do you mean by that?Although we agreed to disagree on our views about our marriage, we remain steadfast in our belief in each other. I am always there for Sanjay, with the support of both Leander (Paes) and Aiyana (her infant daughter). It’s difficult for most people to understand our relationship, but even though Sanjay and I have divorced, we remain friends and will continue to support each other. Sanjay and I separated four years ago, but that kind of love doesn’t change, it grows deeper, wiser and more mature. That’s unconditional love.
Did you ever feel frustrated when Sanjay was in jail? Yes I was, but that frustration was never towards him. Actually, I think it was confusion, as we were trying to understand what was going on. There was confusion about the system too. Anybody who knows Sanjay knows that he is an amazing human being. You can’t call him a terrorist. That’s a crime in itself. That the honorable judge, P D Kode, acknowledged this is very heartening, even though the verdict has come over a decade later.
How has Leander reacted to the verdict?Lee has been amazingly supportive. He was very happy when he heard about it. He got to know about it before I did. He was the one who called me up and told me the good news.

Reflections on the legacy of Harish-Chandra

2006-11-28T03:22:00.000-08:00

The theory he created still stands -- if I may be excused a clumsy simile -- like a Gothic cathedral, heavily buttressed below but, in spite of its great weight, light and soaring in its upper reaches, coming as close to heaven as mathematics can. Harish, who was of a spiritual, even religious, cast and who liked to express himself in metaphors, vivid and compelling, did see, I believe, mathematics as mediating between man and what one can only call God. Occasionally, on a stroll after a seminar, usually towards evening, he would express his feelings, his fine hands slightly upraised, his eyes intent on the distant sky; but he saw as his task not to bring men closer to God but God closer to men. For those who can understand his work and who accept that God has a mathematical side, he accomplished it. [Langlands on Harish-Chandra.] Professor Robert P. Langlands of the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, will be giving an Institute Colloquium talk at 5.15 p.m. on Wednesday, March 08, 2006, at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The talk is titled "Reflections on the legacy of Harish-Chandra". The venue is the Institute Auditorium (IRCC Building). More from the department notices:
About the talk:
Harish-Chandra and Srinivasa Ramanujan were easily the two greatest Indian mathematicians of the last century. While the latter is a household name in India, Harish-Chandra, despite his sustained and seminal contributions to "Representation Theory" remains relatively unknown. A former student of Dirac, Harish-Chandra started his research career as a physicist in Cambridge before moving to an enormously succesful career as a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Although the talk will not be free of references to mathematical concepts of varying degrees of sophistication, most of them should be familiar to anyone, physicists, chemists or students, with some undergraduate training in mathematics. The talk will be an attempt to understand Harish-Chandra's place in the mathematical firmament and not an occasion for technical explanations.
About the Speaker:
Robert Langlands is uniquely qualified to give this talk having known Harish-Chandra closely for more than 20 years as a friend and colleague at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. While Harish-Chandra made "Representation Theory" a central area of research in mathematics, Robert Langlands introduced what is now known as the "Langlands Programme", a vast mathematical framework of conjectures which connect representation theory, analysis, geometry and number theory in remarkable ways. The Langlands Programme is one of the high watermarks of Twentieth Century mathematics, unrivalled, perhaps, in its scope and breathtaking in its vision.

Arbaaz gives Malaika guru gyaan

2006-11-27T02:54:00.000-08:00

Days before the new season of Nach Baliye was to go on air, Malaika Arora-Khan had confessed to not knowing Hindi to well. “I am trying hard to speak more Hindi, this time though,” she had said.
But ever since the show went on air, we’ve seen a marked improvement in the sexy dancer’s diction and turn of phrase. And she’s got no one else but hubby Arbaaz to thank for doubling up as her Hindi teacher.
She’s trying!
A source from the show reveals, “He has taught her five Hindi lines to use on the show. He is a big fan of Nach Baliye 2 and keeps giving her tips to improve her Hindi diction. During the first season, it didn’t matter much, but this time around he was keen on her speaking Hindi more fluently.”
Confirming this, Arbaaz says, “It’s true. I did give her some easy lines to remember.” Talking about his wife’s Hindi diction, he says, “She isn’t fluent in the language, but she’s definitely trying. Because of her family and modelling background, Malaika is more comfortable with English.”
Sharing anecdotes
Khan says that since the other two judges — Saroj Khan and Kunal Kohli — converse in Hindi, it’s important for Malaika to be able to speak the same language. “I admire the fact that she’s attempting to speak as much Hindi as possible. There are a couple of easy lines that I have told her which can be used in every situation.”
When asked what he thinks of the show’s second season, Arbaaz says, “It’s very entertaining. In fact, it’s more competitive than the first. Malaika is enjoying her experience on the show and even shares anecdotes when she returns home.”
Interestingly, in tonight’s episode, Malaika and Saroj Khan are so impressed with Yash Tonkk’s performance on the One Love track that they leave their seats and join him in the act!
‘Line’ dancing
Here are a few line that Malaika uses (courtesy Arbaaz) for different occasions.
1. Mere hosh uda diye (when a performance impresses her).2. Mein mere kursi ke edge pe thi (after seeing a riveting dance act).3. Aapne bahut lagan aur mehnat ki (to praise a performer).4. Mein mehsoos kar sakti hoon (to show compassion to the jodi)5. Aap bahut sundar lag rahi ho (praising someone’s look).

Unruly crowds

2006-11-27T02:43:00.000-08:00

Describing how the situation got out of hand, Sameera says, “Akshay and I were on stage and the energy from the crowds was electrifying. The organisers were fantastic and everything was going beautifully. We were leaving the stage after addressing the crowd, when we realised that we would have to walk a little distance to reach our cars. That’s when things got a little serious.”
Says a source close to the actress, “The crowds came rushing in and they couldn’t reach the car. Akshay and Sameera had to run through the crowds. Sam has a phobia of crowded places as she’s had some bad experiences. The crowd was getting too close. It’s not that they are unruly but they just want to touch the stars.”
Sam is all praise for Akshay. She says, “It was truly amazing the way Akshay took over. He’s a thorough gentleman. I have only interacted with him during shows, but this time I came to know him personally. They were going at him, but the first thing he asked was if I was okay. Akshay took my hand, pushed me in front of him, started walking fast and fought off the crowds so that they wouldn’t come near me. He was literally pushing people off. About 10 security men formed a human chain around us but the crowd couldn’t be stopped. It was nobody’s fault. It was just one of those freak incidents when things go out of control.”
Adds the source, “Sameera couldn’t talk for some time after sitting in the car with Akshay, but he kept talking and joking so that she could relax. Apparently, such things are worse in North India where people are much more aggressive.”
Sameera flew off to Kolkata later that day, to shoot for Buddhadev Dasgupta’s next untitled film with Prosenjit. “I will fly in to Mumbai for a day to celebrate my birthday with my family on December 14,” says Sameera.
What’s the Hyderabad 10K Marathon?
The Hyderabad 10K Run Foundation is run by a group of socially conscious citizens. Film stars, politicians, sports personalities and people from all walks of life participate in the run. The mission of the run is to promote Hyderabad city as well as to promote sports, fitness and healthy living.
A part of the proceeds go to Mission Sports. Mission Sports helps children in government-run schools by providing them access to sports and fitness facilities. A part of the proceeds also go for treatment of poor children with heart ailments.

Early Morning Good Morning

2006-11-27T02:36:00.000-08:00

On Sunday morning, Sameera Reddy almost had a panic attack while attending the 10K Marathon Run at the Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad. Surrounded by a huge crowd, the actress almost fainted with fright till knight in shining armour, Akshay Kumar, galloped to her rescue.
Freak incident
Says Sameera, “Akshay and I had gone to attend the same marathon event that Salman (Khan) had attended last year. We were called to address the 30,000 odd crowd that had turned up. It’s a great event where nearly the entire city of Hyderabad gets together on Necklace Road, by the lake. Children, physically handicapped people, adults and corporates in Hyderabad come together in full spirit for a good purpose — to raise funds for charity. It’s also one of the best-managed events and security is very tight.”

Focussed bride

2006-11-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

Phadnis has been Emraan’s designer since Murder. But Parveen is a first-time client. “One day, Parveen accompanied Emraan to my studio. He was doing his fittings while she spent time looking at my outfits.
She liked the funky, zardozi bridal stuff and told Emraan that she wanted both for her bridal outfit. Most brides are confused or unsure about what they want, but Parveen was very clear right from the beginning. She’s very focussed,” says Phadnis.
Emraan is happy to allow his designer to dictate terms to him, but he adds, “I don’t dress up for occasions as I am not a suit person. But since this is a special occasion, I will have to bear it!”

Mama cancels bhanja’s wedding reception

2006-11-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

Mahesh Bhatt is known for his unconventional ways. So we weren’t surprised when the director decided to cancel Emraan’s wedding reception. Says Bhatt, “I have played the devil’s advocate and cancelled Emi’s wedding reception on December 14. The family is angry with me.”
Though he doesn’t want to disclose the reasons saying he’s been “gagged” by Emraan, a source close to him says, “Bhatt saab cancelled it because the reception was an unnecessary waste.
It’s an outdated tradition of calling people who neither want to come nor care whether you are getting married or divorced. He would rather they spend the money on themselves. Though Bhatt saab fell into a minority, fortunately Parveen was sensible enough to agree with him.”

Emraan’s ‘dress’ rehearsals

2006-11-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

Vikram Phadnis has designed both Emraan Hashmi’s and his fiancée Parveen Shahani’s sangeet and wedding outfits for December 12 and 13. The sangeet will be held at J W Marriott, while the nikah might be held either at Emraan’s Bandra flat or at Taj Land’s End with close family and friends in attendance.
Here, Phadnis gives HiTLIST readers an exclusive glimpse of the couple’s wedding outfits and the reason behind Emi’s dramatic weight loss.
Golddust
Parveen has two outfits ready for her special day. Says Vikram, “I’ve made two outfits, one each for the sangeet and the nikah. We are yet to take a final call on what she will wear for which event. There are two lehengas, one in red and gold and the other in maroon and gold. Gold and red are Parveen’s favourite colours.
She selected everything from the colours to the fabrics. The dupattas have intricate zardozi work, diamantes, opaque stones and cutwork on the edges, while the lehengas have patchwork on them. Parveen’s jewellery will be accessorised on December 1.”
As for the groom, Phadnis says he’s designed a formal black suit and a beige sherwani. “Emraan will wear the sherwani along with Pesha-wari sandals for the sangeet. For the wedding, he will wear a formal black suit with a champagne gold tie,” says the designer.

Last Wish

2006-11-25T04:25:00.000-08:00

I was slated to die by end of the month. That was in August 1996. The fact that you are reading it now, means that such diagnoses, to quote Mark Twain, were highly exaggerated. However, recently, my 'good spirits' have been waning. By now, I am dead and hopefully you have given me a fit farewell. I had instructed Raj to hand over my last letter to you fourteen days after my funeral. I hope he, in his usual style, wasn't late!I must say at the outset that you two have made me proud on many counts. I haven't been very vocal about this and you might have well imagined that I am disappointed by the way your life has turned out. That is not so, on many counts.While I was lucky to be born into a rich family and became quite successful, you outdid me by some margin when it came to living the high life. The obligatory Mercedes, the yearly trips to London, the farmhouses. It was all laid out. While I have asked a few questions on these in the last few years, you must not worry. Such displays are neither new nor revolting. After all, isn't your marriage talked about in Allahabad even now? However, what did surprise me was the eagerness for our old house which you two have exhibited recently.Besides your riches and your fame, I have also been proud of the fact that you have raised five really wonderful grandchildren for me. They are independent and fair, qualities which I look for in people. Yes, one of them did display a rebellious streak as well, but you were quick to prevent independence from turning into rebellion. Much to quick, in my opinion, considering how firebrand we have been and I still am! I would have stopped you if I could have, but then there is a line when my my family ends and your starts. It is your call.I would have done differently, though. I am just sad that you have given up on logic for what you call beliefs. Ritesh, if my daughter had decided not to get married the Hindu way but by reading poetry to her love, I would have been okay (though it would have been corny, like that film whose name I don't remember). In fact, your steadfast refusal surprised me. I remember you first tried to blame your wife's family but failed. Then you got Mitesh to support you. Poor Divya, even she couldn't stand up to Chote Kaka's advice.In fact this incident was the proverbial last straw which broke my back. You call it a reason to live. I would refrain from calling it anything, now that I am away. I remember your youth when you had become card-carrying members. Comrade you used to call me. I hated it. For me, the centre was where I wanted to stay. Not for me reactionary activities and dreams instead of policies. We used to stay up all night debating this. Yet, I was happy that you had found your cause. I hoped that with age, some logic will find its way into the cause. When I told you that I could not imagine that both of you will take up religion.You said that this was your reason to live. That you couldn't take the death of your youngest. I protested. You compared the belief to my belief in Darwin. Which was quite funny as I didn't ever feel the need to believe something which I could explain. I made you carry out all those smoky rituals outside my house. Now, I will forever hold my quiet. Plus, you could take the house and do whatever you want there. I have one last wish though. You see, this particular will (which you will get soon from Raj) gives away all my property to a couple of trusts. It is a large amount of wealth for them so they will not spend it all at once. Instead, they will get only a minor part of the wealth and the rest as income on an annual basis. However, I am happy to come back, remake my will and give it to you. Can you please ask your God to bring me back to life once for a few minutes as my last wish? Just ask God to conduct a minor miracle.I am hoping this will not be a huge inconvenience. You will continue to be in my thoughts, if what you believe is true.Love,VIJAY

Mera baap chor hai

2006-11-25T04:24:00.000-08:00

Friend Maverick points me out to the fact that Chelsea FC has tied up with Yash Raj Films for Bollywood Film. I think it's a great idea.The one thing which Chelsea did lack was stars. No, just kidding.However, now, Jose Mourinho has a chance to go potty-mouth in Hindi. In fact, he will gain shorter punchier lines. My friend who works in the Yashraj stables has started writing the script for Jose already and he brought this to my notice."And I think because of the passion of every English player and every English supporter, and every English journalist for the game, most of the game is played with passion, love for football and instinct, but in football you also have to think."or,"Humein abhi jasbaat se nahin, dimaag se kaam lena hoga""I think I am the special one."or,"Hum jahaan khade hote hein, line wahin sey shuru hoti hai""I was nine or 10 years old and my father was sacked on Christmas Day. He was a manager, the results had not been good, he lost a game on December 22 or 23. On Christmas Day, the telephone rang and he was sacked in the middle of our lunch."or,"Haan main SIGN karoonga, lekin main akele SIGN nahin karoonga. Jao pahle us aadmi ka sign leke aao, jisne mere baap se SIGN liya tha, pahle us aadmi ka SIGN leke aao, jisne meri maa ko gaali deke naukri se nikal diya tha, pahle us aadmi ka SIGN leke aao, jisne mere haath pe yeh likh diya, ke mera baap chor hai.""As a player I cannot compare to Frank Rijkaard. His history as a player is fantastic, my history is zero. But as a manager you cannot compare Frank Rijkaard to me. My history as a manager is fantastic, and his history is zero. He has zero titles and I have lots of them."or,"Woh ek gandi naali ka keeda hai""I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea."0r,"Kutte ki dum tedi-ki-tedi hi rehti hai""I want to give my congratulations to them because they won. But we were the best team. We didn’t lose the game. Ninety minutes was a draw and it was a draw after two hours. We lost on penalties."or,"Har kutte ka din aata hai"

My own little Ravan

2006-11-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

I remember using a badminton shuttle can in class 6 to make a Ravan. It bombed. Okay, sorry for the pun, but the anticipated fireworks just didn't take off. But we did have a blast. Okay sorry again.Anyway, we did discover that cardboard shuttlecock cans are better Ravan material than tin cans. We also learnt that whatever the result, the joy is in making the effigy. Plus, ultimately, we disassembled the tin Ravan and lit the explosive powder. It fizzed and crackled and blew silver smoke into the sky.These days however, the joy of painting Ravan's heads on to chart paper and then sticking it on to a shuttlecock can is being replaced by personalised Ravans. For some people, at least.In case you want a look at Ram Leela instead, Akshay has a photospread here.

On Nagesh Kukunoor's Dor

2006-11-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

A few minutes into Nagesh Kukunoor's new film Dor - after a set of early scenes of great tenderness and beauty featuring two pairs of newlyweds - we see one of his two female protagonists, the Rajasthani girl Meera (played by the marvellous Ayesha Takia), perched on a pile of rocks with a mobile phone in her hand, making her monthly phone call to her husband in Saudi Arabia.She asks for him by name, and is told that he is no longer alive. We see the expression on her face change, and the phone drop from her hand. As if it cannot bear to face her grief directly any more, the camera cuts to a low position behind her. She appears framed against the empty blue sky, which seems to reflect back her great desolation and puzzlement.The camera cuts again to a shot which projects a sharp irony, with Meera in the background, and in the foreground, with his back to her, the man who has given her his mobile phone for a fee. The seconds he is counting down on his wristwatch do not progress in the same way for Meera, for whom time has effectively stopped from this moment onwards. Yet it is not a simple irony, in which the boundless grief of one character and the grubbery of another are unambiguously juxtaposed. In an earlier scene we have seen the man walk away to a distance to give Meera her privacy. This is why, on this occasion, he has no clue of what is happening to her. He is both calculating and kind. From the different aspects of this one scene we can tell that we are going to watch a drama of considerable subtlety.As Baradwaj Rangan has also noted, Dor resembles Iranian cinema in its close attention to the play of human feelings when presented with complex moral dilemmas. Zeenat (Gul Panag, compellingly direct, droop-shouldered and gravel-voiced) learns that her husband stands accused in a foreign country of the death of another Indian man, and the only way in which he can be reprieved is if the dead man's wife will consent to his pardon. She sets out from Himachal Pradesh for Rajasthan (Kukunoor's use of the two contrasting landscapes to create mood is one of many good aesthetic decisions) in search of the unknown woman who holds the key to her own future. In a marvellous scene in which the two lead characters meet for the first time, Zeenat reveals she is in search of her husband but cannot bring herself to explain the circumstances. Meera innocently asks, "Why, do you think he can be found here?" And we know that yes, in a sense it is only here that he can be found.
Takia's is the most naturally expressive face of any actress in Hindi cinema currently. Here it radiates innocence and simple faith, and, covered at first by a gauzy pink veil and then by austere blue widow's robes, is the subject of many striking close-ups. On several occasions she conveys the state of being overcome by strong feelings, in long takes where the camera stays fixed on her face, by nothing more than a flicker of the eyes and a slight dilation of the nostrils.
Her character has a highly developed moral sense, and also a natural moral sympathy - one does not necessarily eventuate in the other. In one scene where the two women are talking about their husbands (Meera does not yet know the entire truth), Zeenat remarks that they are both consumed similarly by memories. At this Meera pipes up: "But there is a difference: you still have hope, but I don't." This is quite true, but then she becomes aware of her impetuosity and, reaching out to the other, says, "I shouldn't have said that. Loss can't be measured out and compared in this fashion."The depiction of Meera's many moods and facets make this one of the best character studies of recent times. Meera lives in a world of restricted choices, and admires Zeenat for her freedom and independence. Later, when she learns the truth, she is inflamed, and exudes a heavy contempt. She declares to Zeenat that it has been her dream to slay her husband's killer with her own hands, and refuses to comply with Zeenat's wish. Later, when she rethinks this decision and delivers to Zeenat the letter of pardon just as Zeenat's train about to leave, the image of the life-giving letter exchanging hands is framed against the very sky that seemed to echo once with a sense of Meera's loss. If the first shot suggested human powerlessness before fate, this one attests to the ability of human beings to transcend their circumstances and to change the world.
The last drama of such force I saw was the Iranian filmmaker Tahmineh Milani's Two Women, and indeed Dor might have gone by the same title. Kukunoor is correct, I think, in pointing to how unusual it is in Hindi cinema for two women to work out a conclusion without a man's intervention - in fact the film as a whole carries a bracing feminist message. He is also to be complimented on his use of Indian landscapes (some thoughts by Amrita Sher-Gil and Satyajit Ray on its depiction on film can be found here in this old essay on Sher-Gil), on Salim-Sulaiman's unusual background score - it is a great pleasure to hear the sarangi given such prominence in our synthesiser-and-drums times - and Mir Ali Hussain's beautifully turned-out dialogue. Yet his work also has some faults.His villains are too simply bad. Girish Karnad, who rarely appears in any other Hindi films these days, seems to take a special pleasure in playing utterly unsympathetic characters in Kukunoor films - the corrupt and conniving coach, shavenheaded like a baddie of old, in last year's Iqbal, and now the bullheaded and tawdry patriarch here, tempted into quoting a price for his own daughter-in-law. The irony is that Karnad is himself a playwright of great distinction. In Dor the exuberant tomfoolery of Shreyas Talpade, the Iqbal of Kukunoor's previous film, as a master of disguises is entertaining enough, but mostly his character exists to provide a few predictable laughs and to add half an hour of screen time. Watching the film a second time, I found his part discordant.Strangest of all is Kukunoor's own appearance on screen as the factory-owner Mr.Chopra. It is known that Kukunoor's early films, made as a relative nonentity working on the fringes of Bollywood, were shot on shoestring budgets. As if unwilling to make a total break from those old days of desperate moneysaving gambits, he continues to cast himself in major roles in big-budget works, when if he had auditioned for these roles he would have been the first to be cast out. The spectacular dodginess of his delivery of the line "Ab aagya deejiye" ("Now please excuse me") at the close of his first long scene opposite Karnad has to be seen to be fully appreciated.Some other pieces on film: on Kukunoor's Iqbal, Rakeysh Mehra's Rang De Basanti, and Tahmineh Milani's Two Women. Now I've got some other pressing work to attend to, so ab aagya deejiye.

Some thoughts on artistic time and real time

2006-11-25T03:13:00.000-08:00

Found on the web

2006-11-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

New and improved feature on this blog: “Found on the web.” The inaugural item is the Hubble Space Telescope pictures. Check them out and even download them as wallpaper, but don’t stop wondering how magical the universe is and how fortunate we are to be able to observe it.

Mobile Internet and India

2006-11-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

“In India, the Future of the Internet Will Be Built around the Mobile Phone” reads the title of one of today’s articles at Knowledge@Wharton. It is an interview with my colleague, Rajesh Jain, CEO of NetCore. Rajesh believes that the mobile phone will be the primary device for interacting with the web for a vast number of users in India. It is easy to follow his logic.Read more »

Mood I gets Rs 75 lakhs sponsorship: for what?

2006-11-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

TOI reports: Mood Indigo - which is due to take place from Dec 26-29 - has garnered a healthy Rs 75 lakh sponsorship so far. This outstrips the nearest rival, IIT Delhi by 50%.I find this news a bit disconcerting. I mean, just last year, Mood I created a record by attracting Rs 50 lakhs in sponsorship money. As recently as 2002, Mood I made do with Rs 34 lakhs sponsorship. Now, with more than double the budget in 4 years, how much 'bigger and better' can we expect it to get?The USP of IIT fests over local college fests is the pro-nites, where students can expect top quality artistes to perform. eg Indian Classical Nite, Indipop Nite, Professional Play performance and LiveWire, the rock competition where pro bands also perform. There are artiste fees as well as light, sound and stage costs. Mood I also gives better cash prizes (Rs 3 lakhs) last year. So yes, a Mood I certainly requires a bigger budget than say, a Malhar or an Umang. But in 2002 - with Rs 34 lakhs - we had a successful Mood I. Take inflation into account, or the desire to do something more, and I can see the budget going up by 10-20%.This 50% jump in a single year? Astounding.Caveat emptor Now IIT Bombay can very well say hey, if sponsors are willing to pay us this money, what's your problem? So here's a bit of free advice to these companies - do take a more careful look at what exactly you are buying.While Mood I may be the college fest with the most extravagant scale, does it really deliver on numbers. The organisers claim it attracts 50,000 students a year. But how true is that claim?Overall, I would estimate at max 20,000 unique visitors. Break up as follows:IIT- B students : 4000 in number and fairly immune to advertising. (and 10-20% 'go home' during the fest period!). Outstation participants: 3000-4000 in number (my guesstimate, and this is on the generous side).Local participants: 3000-4000 per day. More on the day of Livewire.The local participation is where Mood I miserably fails to make an impact. Ask a random college student if he/ she is going to Mood I and chances are you will hear the answer "no".Various reasons given:- IIT is too far- It's the fag end of the year - already attended many fests- We're having vacations - The place is not so happening during the day Of course, die hard fest types do attend, esp those into literary events. And pro nites attract crowd, but again in limited numbers. The 'aam' college student whom sponsors would like to connect with are more likely to have attended the likes of Malhar, Umang or their own college festival. Never mind if it did not attract folks from all over India, or even all over the city. But 5000-6000 eyeballs are there to be addressed and you can be the title sponsor of 15-20 such festivals for Rs 75 lakhs. With the same money you can reach out to over 1 lakh students - 5 times what I estimate you reach through Mood I. And these are students who are more brand conscious, who spend more on everything from cellphones to branded apparel. College name be damned.Yet sponsors would rather plonk their money with a single prestigious festival.So, good for IIT Bombay. And good luck to the BPO company which is one of the major sponsors of Mood I. Coz I doubt if anyone attending Mood I fits their target audience! Lastly, I am under the impression that all the money raised towards IIT fests is used towards the event organisation. That's how it used to be. Maybe times have changed and some of the cash goes in the institute corpus, towards improving infrastructure etc. In which case it's festival as an excuse for fund raising - fair enough. However, that's not the impression one gets from the TOI report. One final observation: I noticed from the Mood I website that outstation participants are being charged for their accomodation. The deposit for the 'mattress and bucket' is Rs 400, of which Rs 100 is refundable if you leave on the specified date and without damaging any property. You also have to pay for your own food, at a nominal rate, but never the less.Pataa nahin bhai, jis zamaane mein hum outstation fests mein jaate the... we paid for nothing more than our train tickets. Guess 'hospitality' is not dependent on how big your budget is!

4 stars to 'The Departed'

2006-11-20T21:46:00.000-08:00

The name 'Martin Scorcese' was a familiar one but to be honest, I had never actually seen a film made by him. "The Departed" was a first and it certainly won't be the last.It's a film which takes the movie-set-in-a-mafia milieu to a new level. Instead of a cops vs robbers story, it's a tale of two cops - Billy Costigan (Leonardo di Caprio) and Jack Sullivan (Matt Damon).Costigan is the 'good guy' who is convinced that he will serve his country better by getting chucked out of the police force. Thing is, he has the perfect 'family background' - crime inclined cousins and an uncle who once worked for mafia boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). So he makes a convincing entry into life on the other side of the tracks, although actually operating as an undercover.Sullivan, on the other hand, appears to be the classic good guy but is not. He owes a childhood debt to Costello, who was 'like a father' to him. When he joins the state police force, his allegiance is clearly elsewhere.The fun begins when both sides realise there is a mole on the other side but don't know who. There are many classic 'Hindi movie' moments like for example, both guys falling for the same girl. And Sullivan being made in charge of finding the mole in the police department a.k.a. himself! Complication: The only two people who know Costigan's real identity are Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg). One dies, the other resigns. Our man is out in the cold, without an identity. Without giving anything more away, lemme just say you will be hooked to the twists and turns in the film.There is a lot of violence, throughout. The scene where Costello and his men break Costigan's already broken arm to check if he is carrying a wire is truly chilling. Even then, the final 10 minutes come as a surprise although considering the title of the movie- they shouldn't! Concepts like 'good' and 'evil' get turned around on their head and in such a scenario, you can scarcely expect a happy ending.The director's touch is evident - the film remains taut and never get cheesy. Leonardo 'babyface' di Caprio has grown up - and how. I can finally think of him without automatically associating the word 'titanic'. Mark Wahlberg as the foul-mouthed sergeant is extremely good and Jack Nicholson, of course, outstanding. Actually, all of the actors are excellent.The most interesting thing is that 'The Departed' is a remake of the Hong Kong film 'Infernal Affairs'. Yet, those who have seen both say there definitely is 'originality' in this version. Looks like Scorcese is walking a path similar to that of Indian directors remaking old classics like Don, Umrao Jaan etc. 'The Departed' is of course a cross cultural transplantation but the trend is to take an idea and refine it/ give it your own unique touch. For example, setting the story in Boston, with an Irish mafia - as opposed to New York and its done-to-death Italian gangs. Of course, there will be people who prefer this or that version .The point is, we could well have an Indian director also doing the honours.. coz neither the Chinese or English versions will reach the Indian masses. An asideI happened to see 'The Departed' on a Saturday night at Cathay Cine Leisure. The ticket at this upscale theatre on Singapore's Orchard Road cost $ 9 SGD. ie approximately Rs 250. This is the same price at which you'd get a ticket at INOX or PVR on a Saturday nite. But consider the fact that 1 Singapore Dollar = 28 Indian rupees and you realise prices are shockingly high in India. The mall-multiplex culture is in fact fast becoming a 'dollar economy'. Whatever supposed cost advantage is becoming less attractive as we expect to lead 'international quality' lifestyles on rupee salaries in India. Which means compensations are rapidly galloping..The trouble is that while we may feel we are in London or Singapore while on the plush carpeted hallways of an INOX where a popcorn and Coke costs Rs 75 ($3 SGD), the moment we step out of the cocoon we are back to the Indian side of the economy. Potholed roads, population pressure and non-functioning essential services (we have a 3 hour daily power cut in New Bombay!) and of course, people, just too many people everywhere.So yes, when more than one friend in Singapore mentioned India has beome 'expensive', I would agree. A parallel 'cheap' India still exists but those of us with the right education and employabliity are rapidly distancing ourselves from it. When was the last time you went to buy wholesale to save a few bucks. Or shopped at the chaotic Dadar market? The upside is, Singapore will not seem 'expensive' - it did when I visited 5 years ago. Now, I am so inured to spending 200 bucks on taxi in Mumbai or 500 rupees on a meal the mental conversion calculator does not send up red flags that often!Of course, I am sure the same would not apply if I went to Europe... which I plan to next year. Sigh!P.S. Am back in India and will be posting as usual, interspersed with some more 'Snapshots from Singapore'.

Bond brings sexy back!

2006-11-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

Casino Royale * * * * *

Dir: Martin Campbell

Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Eva Green

Plot: Opening with a black- and-white shot, 007 (Daniel Craig) makes one of the most lacklustre entries in the history of Bond movies. But what follows over the next two hours can hardly be described in the same tone. This time around, the action is Euro-centric. However, the premise is completely different. Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) is the baddie who fills the pockets of warlords by manipulating the stock exchange.
A high-stakes poker game is his last resort to pay back $10 million he owes a terrorist in Uganda. Bond’s mission is to defeat Le Chiffre in the game and win all his money. Assisting him in the task is the svelte Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) who represents Her Majesty’s bank. Apart from the dose of expected adventure, the film takes Bond on an emotional roller coaster he never signed up for.
What’s hot: Casino Royale will easily go down as the least promoted Bond film. Nobody knew who sang the theme song (successor to Tina Turner, Sheryl Crow and Madonna) until we sat in the theatre to watch the super opening credits. You expect him to kick ass, bed the ladies, drive expensive cars and pull off unbelievable action scenes.
But Daniel Craig does all this and more. If the burden of playing Bond wasn’t enough, he has to measure up to the likes of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan. He not only emerges victorious but also wows you with his ability to underplay Bond and take the character to new heights. Dame Judi Dench is back as M (with a hot new hairdo). This time around, M has a naughty edge that only Dench could pull off.
As his sidekick, Eva Green ain’t no dumb blonde serenading as a scientist (Denise Richards in The World Is Not Enough), but an intelligent stock analyst who is afraid of her vulnerability. Mikkelsen’s villain scares not because of his bleeding eye, but the unpredictability of his erratic behaviour. The cinematography does justice to the stunning beauty of Venice, Montenegro and other European locales.
What’s not: Campbell has a lot to tell about Bond. He doesn’t want him to come across as a cardboard cutout swinging in his Aston Martin, but as someone who can falter, get hurt and bleed. In the process, he exceeds the length of the film by getting overly dramatic towards the climax.
It’s a risk making Bond romance a woman and question his credentials as the cold-hearted spy who never loved. The poker game is at the heart of the story and one needs to know a thing or two about the game to understand the goings-on.
Bottom line: A super entertainer, Casino Royale must be watched for Craig’s new-age Bond who prefers casual wear to tuxedos and suits and carries off his Blond look with finesse. And get ready to miss that trademark line as you’re only going to hear it right at the end, as Chris Cornell puts it well in the theme song, ‘You know my name’.

Snakes On A Plane

2006-11-17T00:44:00.000-08:00

Snakes On A Plane

Plot: Remember the pre release hype surrounding the Blair Witch Project ? Using the internet as a smart tool, the makers started floating conspiracy theories and stories of the existence of such a project. This publicity stunt goes down in history as the first time a movie’s success is attributed to its innovative use of incorporating audience feedback in the actual filmmaking process. Some-thing similar can be said about Snakes On A Plane. Visit any blog, movie forum or the enormously popular youtube.com, and you’ll have a mean snake staring you in the face. The story of an FBI agent (Jackson) transporting a murder witness on a plane loaded with the most colorful, venomous snakes you’ll ever see, has gained almost cult-like status. A multi-dimensional plot of fighting the snakes along with the bad guys on the flight is what the films all about.Acting: Now why would Samuel L Jackson want to be a part of a movie that doesn’t shy away from proudly flashing the B-grade tag? Simply because he’s the meanest man to match the even more mean snakes ever seen on the big screen. I don’t think any other actor could have caused as much euphoria among the fans as Jackson has. Even though the reptiles have more footage than him, he still manages to entertain in a role that gives him God-like status: he’s their saviour, the one who can deliver them from the deadly death that’s awaiting them.What’s hot: Snakes On A Plane was earlier titled Flight 121. Thankfully, the filmmakers quickly realised that what they had on their platter didn’t match what they read on the menu card. So they changed the title so that the audience wasn’t confused about what to expect from the film. There are films that suck because they are bad, then there are those that are campy, trashy, fun (think Mariah Carey’s Glitter) and entertain only because they are over-the-top, obnoxious and loud. This film takes all these adjectives 10,000 feet up in the air and blows them up in your face with its serpentine pace. After the snakes are let loose, and everyone starts freaking out, the real fun begins. Get ready to watch some really violent scenes (and we don’t mean Discovery or Nat Geo violent). Think what would happen if the Farelly Brothers decided to use some snakes in their grossed-out comedies? To top it all is the line you can’t miss: ‘Let’s get these muthaf*****g snakes off the muthaf*****g plane!’What’s not: The film’s biggest flaw is that it doesn’t really live up to its badass reputation. Agreed, the snakes might seem real (though digital), yet they fail to really scare the socks off you. They should’ve had more of Jackson, his presence definitely adds to the fun. Get ready for snakes attacking and biting off body parts.Bottom line: If you have never heard or read about the movie, then you may not really be prepared to take this flight. Expect loads of inane action, blood splattering on the windows, mutilation and the works. Definitely a must watch for fans of this genre.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

2006-11-17T00:15:00.000-08:00

Plot: She kicked some major ass in Kill Bill. Uma Thurman now returns in a female Clark Kent avatar as Jenny aka G-Girl. After dating Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) for a while, Jenny realises she cannot keep hiding her super powers from him. Matt starts getting uncomfortable with her constant disappearing acts and overpowering demeanour. After dumping her he incurs the wrath of a superwoman who will go to any extent to make his life miserable. Think Superman with a really twisted woman playing the lead.Acting: After watching her play G-Girl , you wonder if Thurman was actually intending to laugh at herself and have fun. Maybe she had too much of Kill Bill in her head, and wanted to throw herself in an inane role of a super girl who doesn’t mind indulging in some mindless action.Even though she looks hot and appealing, there seems to be something missing in her overall look. Luke Wilson hasn’t had the success like his brother Owen, and it somehow shows in his choice or lack of it in picking roles. Reduced to being nagged, and poked fun at, Wilson doesn’t have much to do.What’s hot: The premise is interesting. What if a super woman gets dumped? How does she deal with it? The special-effect scenes of Thurman flying through the air, crashing rooftops and doing other antics look cool.What’s not: Is this is a sexist movie? Would the treatment be different had it been My Super Ex-Boyfriend? Guess, we will never know. The film clings solely on to the thread of the word — super power. Every thing starts revolving around the magical effects that Jenny is supposed to display, and that is not a good thing for a romantic comedy. There is no rational explanation for Jenny’s behaviour. Why does she suddenly start stalking and hating him? It’s never explained.Bottom line: Trying too hard to be a fun film can be a serious problem. With a better plot and an exciting lead, the film may have turned out to be a one-time watch.

Don’t meet this deadline

2006-11-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

Plot: A kidnapping drama revolving around doctors, the film starts off as a thriller and ends up being a Sunday Sermon you wish you’d never attended. Dr Viren Goenka (Rajat Kapoor) has it all —money, a plush apartment, tons of neatly polished trophies and a wife who makes sure he eats his salad (served with an overflowing bottle of mayonnaise). Oh, there’s also a gudiya rani sort of daughter, Anishka (sounds like a sneeze every time the name is uttered), who gets kidnapped by Krish (owl-eyed Irrfan Khan) twenty minutes into the film.
We can’t reveal why he kidnaps her (it would be a spoiler, no?) but we can reveal that the movie also stars Sandhya Mridul, who seems to have gotten her hair-colour job at Lata’s Beauty Parlour. The second half of the film has more twists and turns than the dance performances on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.
Whats hot: We have a wannabe thriller on our hands. We are lead to believe that Krish’s intentions are evil. We are also led to believe that to act like an asthma patient, you need to mime scenes from The Exorcist. But we forgive and forget towards the second half. That’s when the movie starts moving towards the end, at times dishing out some tight suspense. Konkona Sen Sharma shimmers in a weak character. Konkona’s struggle to save her daughter’s life may look feeble, but it also brings out the human qualities in her character.
Whats not: The film serves as a Dummies Guide to make a family drama under the disguise of a thriller. You expect some edge-of-the-seat excitement, but the only reason you sit on that edge is while waiting for the final reel to roll. There’s a fight to nab the Enemy Number 1 title: is it the script, the actors, or the tacky direction? I think we should call a tie and let all three of them share it.
Kidnapping dramas can be thrilling (Khiladi) as well as fun (Hera Pheri), but Deadline makes its own category: boring. Out of the actors, Irrfan hams it up like there’s no tomorrow. He comes across as a poor man’s Nana Patekar without a kalamwali bai. He desperately needs to get out of this ‘I can be serious and funny at the same time’.
What’s that: Sandhya tries to hide her flaws under layers of cheap make up and hair mascara. Here’s hoping we see a more fun side to her in Honeymoon Travels. The climax is not only preachy but also dragged to the point of being ridiculously unbelievable. In spite of an interesting premise, the director gets stuck in a web of clichés and sails on safe waters. Thankfully, there are no songs.
What to do: Don’t give yourself a deadline to watch this movie. Make an instant decision and stay away from this turkey.

Ye shaadi nahin ho sakti!

2006-11-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

What’s it about: Sooraj Barjatya is happily back to his roots; he paints a pretty picture of the demure damsel (Amrita Rao) whispering sweet nothings into her would-be husband’s ears (Shahid Kapoor is the latest to join the Prem brigade) on a moonlit night! The setting of this old-world romance is devoid of youngsters strutting around in itsy bitsy nothings, jet setting bikes and monster-like in-laws.
The conflict arises at the fag end of the second half (it has finally dawned upon the director that time is running by) when Poonam (Amrita Rao) suffers serious burns the night before her wedding. Just when you’re dying to hear some baritone voice screaming, “Yeh shaadi nahin ho sakti!’ the drowned-in-traditions hero prepares to apply soothing balm on his burnt bride.
What’s hot: Shahid Kapoor’s restrained performance saves the day. Even Amrita Rao (I’m tempted to call her Madhupur ki kali) makes decent efforts. Otherwise the flick, which suffers from the soap opera hangover of the ‘90s where women would get doused in flames as greedy in-laws haggled over dowry, has nothing new to offer. The fact that the maker manages to inject a social message into the parivarik scheme of things needs a mention.
What’s not: It’s the great Indian wedding theme that the maker continues to exploit. There is no novelty in the storyline except for the fact that Prem has laid his hands on a camera phone and keeps clicking his sweetheart’s pictures. In spite of making efforts to keep marriage prospects at bay, Prem happens to fall for Poonam after one chai session. Incredible, ain’t it?
The music also fails to strike a chord and only helps in stretching the length.
What’s that: With Poonam readying to undergo a critical surgery, Prem indulges in some pulpit preaching before he smears sindoor on her forehead. Apart from familial melodrama, the protagonist’s family members get down decking up the hospital and distributing mithai. The reason being that their beloved son is now a married man. What to do: I suggest you buy your grandparents a ticket for this soapy ride.

Ye kiska sapna hai?

2006-11-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

What’s it about: Enter the wild and titillating world of street comedy. If you thought Kya Kool Hain Hum was crude, director Sangeeth Sivan’s new film, Apna Sapna Money Money, beats his own record in terms of vulgarity and double entendres. If insipid and mindless humour is what you relish, don’t go looking for any story in this one.
Sivan extends his line-up of characters this time (probably because of the substantial budget allocated by producer Subhash Ghai) and fills the screen with his staple gibberish. When a busted underworld don Carlos’s (Jackie Shroff) semi-clad moll Sania (Celina Jaitly) is caught by a wary inspector Mane (Sunil Shetty), she hides her booty of diamonds in petty conman Krishna’s (Riteish Deshmukh) bag. Krishna is on his way to meet his mechanic cousin (Shreyas Talpade), who is in love with a crazy pop’s (Anupam Kher) daughter (Riya Sen). But things change for Krishna when he encounters his cousin’s friend (Koena Mitra) and falls for her. Just as things are looking bright, old enemies catch up and Krishna is forced to disguise himself as a woman. Complications galore occur when crazy pop goes crazier over this man-in-drag. Meanwhile, Sania joins hands with the cop and lands up at the house to look for the diamonds. By now, three different sets of people know about Sania’s whereabouts and everyone wants their hands on the precious stones.
What’s hot: What does a filmmaker do when his formula works once? He repeats it. Spurred on by the success of Kya Kool Hai Hum (KKHH), director Sangeeth Sivan has made yet another not-everyone’s-cup-of-tea comic caper.
Script be damned, it’s all about a rollicking screenplay interspersed with some of the most offensive dialogues heard in a long time. Riteish Deshmukh is the best thing about the film and the director exploits his inimitable flair for comedy to the fullest.
Whether he is playing Krishna, the old man or even the coy girl, he proves that he’s capable of shouldering a film on his own. Shreyas Talpade, in a totally masala role, displays his versatility as a performer. Sunil Shetty is totally uninhibited and enjoys every ‘little’ bit of his screen time. The girls have very little to offer, but Riya Sen does justice to her shy, demure girl-next-door character and Koena Mitra flashes some skin and some energy as the wannabe item girl.
Rajpal Yadav, for once, is funny as Chhote Sarkar as he does a spoof on the Big B’s Sarkar. The music by Pritam is a clear winner and goes with the tempo of the film.
What’s not: Kya Kool Hai Hum was crass comedy at its best, and Apna Sapna Money Money follows the same formula. It’s funny in parts but certainly not a wholesome family entertainer. It’s very clearly targetted at the front benchers. Why else would you have Anupam Kher constantly reaching out for Riteish’s ‘breasts’? Add to this the suggestive jokes about “santraas” and Chunky Pandey pointing to his crotch.
What’s that: The scene where Anupam is trying to slip on sandals on Riteish’s feet while Rajpal Yadav and his cronies listen to their conversation gets on your nerves with its crudity. You also have other gems like Celina telling Sunil, “Saamaan khula pada hai, tickle mat karna” when he attempts to do a body search on her.
What to do: If you enjoyed KKHH, this might be the movie for you. But if it’s a family fun film you’re longing for, go watch Golmaal once again.

Gandhi-giri in Full Bloom

2006-11-11T04:34:00.001-08:00

Remember Lage Raho Munnabhai? This fall, it seems that many civic-minded Indians are taking the Gandhian techniques shown in the film and applying them to real-life problems and protests, with the demand for accountability from government officials being the most common application. Instead of Bandhs and riots, over the past couple of months protesters have been sending flowers and doing Pujas, hoping that people whose work shows signs of negligence and incompetence will "get better soon." Here are some of the examples of "Gandhi-giri" I came across in a quick search:
Doctors and students shame a delinquent health minister (Ramadoss) to take stronger action on the Dengue Fever epidemic (700 infections and 26 deaths in Delhi alone)
A writer proposes reforms to the educational system, using Gandhi-giri as a concept,
In Gujarat, a carpenter did it to make sure a flaky client paid up for services rendered
Farmers used it to shame government officials in drought-ridden areas to approve loans to farmers
to convince government policy makers to describe their policies in clear Hindustani ("Garibi Hatao") as opposed to archaic Sanskrit ("Gribi Unmoolan"). And those are just a few examples; more are given in this recent Boston Globe article. My cousins in Delhi tell me that elderly people are stripping off clothes (this is directly out of Lage Raho Munnabhai) to shame government officials in charge of pensions to actually disburse their funds. And there are stories about pavement dwellers, in response to trash flagrantly dropped where they live by thoughtless passers-by, cheerfully (but pointedly) cleaning it up -- again right out of the film. It's not all good, of course. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is reportedly using his own invention to lobby the government of Gujarat to give his film tax-free status, which it already has in many other states. That seems a bit much; "Gandhi-giri" may well just be this year's fashion, which will get old as soon as other super-rich people start using it to demands perks and privileges. Gandhi-giri: flash in the pan, or a sign of a real revival in non-violent civic engagement amongst Indians of all classes?

Headline Exploitation? Joyce Carol Oates's "Landfill"

2006-11-11T04:33:00.001-08:00

A student pointed me to a recent Joyce Carol Oates story in The New Yorker, called "Landfill," which is available for free online. It's about a young college student named Hector Campos, Jr., who is a pledge at a fraternity at a university in Michigan. One night he disappears mysteriously after drinking heavily at the frat house. Some blood is found at the trash dumpster outside the frat-house; several weeks later his body is found at the local landfill.It's a decent enough story -- Oates paints some strongly visceral, experiential images -- like what it might be like to lie dying in a trash dumpster with a broken neck, for example. There is also some Catholic imagery in the middle of the story, which suggests a sympathetic reading: is Campos an exemplary, Christ-like figure of some kind? Does he die for the sins of American excess, the ugly psycho-social mess concealed in the American college system? (Shades of Duke Lacrosse) Alongside the sympathetic allegorical reading and the scathing portrait of fraternity life, Oates also throws in some references to evolution via a biology lecture ("Evolution is only possible through change, species change not by free will but blindly"), suggesting an equally viable, reading of Campos' death that is distinctly un-Christ-like: the death of a drunk fraternity brother who got stuck in a dumpster as a kind of natural selection, a fitting fate for someone who was, if you will, imperfectly adapted to whatever enables survival in today's college culture.All fine and good. What's unsettling is that Oates' story bears a very close resemblance to a real death, which occurred in southern New Jersey a few months ago. John Fiocco, Jr., a college student at The College of New Jersey, died in the same mysterious way, and was discovered in the same way (at a landfill) a few weeks later. Oates even uses the date of Fiocco's own death/disappearance -- March 25.Some faculty members at TCNJ noticed the parallels in Oates' story, and complained, leading to a small spate of media coverage in South Jersey and the Philadelphia area (see articles in the Inquirer and the Daily Princetonian). In these articles, Oates apologizes (in a way) for potentially hurting the feelings of the family and friends of John Fiocco, Jr., though she stops well short of saying, "I should never have written this story" or "I should have disguised the details of this young man's death more carefully." It's the usual double-speak of "I'm sorry if your feelings were hurt by what I knowingly and willfully did." (Shades of Kobe Bryant)Obviously getting inspiration from today's headlines is a tried-and-true technique, used by many, if not most, contemporary writers. And I don't know that there were many complaints when Oates did a version of this earlier, with her famous novel Black Water, which did to Mary Jo Kopechne, Ted Kennedy, and Chappaquiddick what "Landfill" does to John Fiocco, Jr. The difference there might have been that her purpose in that novel was to unmask the myth of the Kennedys, and the corruption of Senator Ted Kennedy in particular. That is what one might call a political Roman a Clef, making an important feminist point. But none of that fire remains in "Landfill," and it's unclear what the point really is. In general, real life is and must be fair game for fiction, but everything depends on how it's done. Here there's something senseless in the way Oates works closely with the story of this tragic death (she even uses the detail about blood found at the dumpster) and turns it into easy fodder for this short story. To my eye this isn't so much appropriation as it is exploitation -- the fictional equivalent of ambulance chasing.

Diwali in Philly

2006-11-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

I took this photo last night, at the Philadelphia Gurdwara, in Milbourne/Upper Darby (Philadelphia Sikh Society). Though the holiday isn't on the scale of the main, Hindu Diwali, Sikhs do tend to light candles.

"The Billionaire's Sleep"

2006-11-11T04:25:00.000-08:00

Manish's post on Tokyo Cancelled a few weeks ago reminded me that I needed to finally pull the book down off the shelf, where it has been resting since S. brought it for me from a trip to Bombay a few months ago. I read it and was well-pleased (though perhaps not overwhelmed) by the imagination at work in the stories. After a visit to Rana Dasgupta's interesting homepage, I was intrigued to discover he's signed off the filming rights for one of the stories in Tokyo Cancelled to a young Australian filmmaker named Robert Hutchinson. Hutchinson spent six weeks in India this past spring doing research on it for the screenplay he's writing, and kept an interesting blog about it here. Aside from the fact that he misspells "Hindutva" at one point, Hutchinson has some interesting observations to make, both on India and on the script in progress. Here is how Hutchinson summarizes the plot for the film version of "The Billionaire's Sleep," which follows Dasgupta's story quite closely:
Rajiv Malhotra is a billionaire who inherited an Indian steel empire and turned it into a trans-national concern with a focus on India’s ability to provide outsourcing services to the rest of the world. For him every moment of every day in every timezone is an opportunity to provide efficient services. His obsession with utilising every second of the day means he has never been able to sleep. This inability to sleep has also meant he is infertile and has not been able to produce an heir to his empire. His decision to have a ‘perfect son’ made for him through the use of genetic technologies is the inciting moment of the story. From that moment powers beyond his control come into play. (link)That's just part one. Note that it's Dasgupta who uses the name "Rajiv Malhotra" (there is also a real person by that name, you may have heard of him; hard to know if any connection is intended).Part two is where it really starts to get interesting:
Sapna is his unexpected daughter, when his wife gives birth to twins, a girl and a boy, Rajiv finds he has a daughter who sleeps beautifully. That sleep is so powerful that as she approaches puberty Sapna’s fertility when she dreams brings organic objects back to life. Her bedhead grows branches and a perfect white flower. The spores in the carpet burst into life over night filling the air with floating tendrils, her clothes basket grows into a thicket of bamboo. This exhuberant fertility frightens Rajiv and he does everything within his power to have this excess of organic material removed from his sight. (link)There's a little more at Robert Hutchinson's blog, but if you really want to find out what happens in "The Billionaire's Sleep," you'll have to go to Barnes & Noble or whatnot and pick up Tokyo Cancelled (it should be there). I'm pretty envious at this point, because "The Billionaire's Sleep" could make a really great film if done right. (We're overdue for a good outsourcing-themed film, I think.)A side note: at one point, Hutchinson makes an offering at a temple in Maharashtra with the wish that Amitabh Bachchan signs on to play a part in the film -- presumably Rajiv Malhotra. Good luck with it, Mr. Hutchinson! (Though I should mention that I think Om Puri would also excel at this kind of role.)Before getting back to diaper-changing and burping, I do have one quibble with the Vij I wanted to register:
Another annoyance in these tales is that they feel derivative, more remixes than totally novel plot points. Much of Dasgupta’s surrealism has been done before by authors working both in magical realism and sci-fi (link)I actually liked the cross between the fairy tale plot structures with the contemporary speculative fiction themes. And yes, the idea of a misshapen lost twin or offspring has been done by Rushdie several times (not to mention innumerable 70s/80s Bollywood films), but it's also just a plain-and-simple fairy tale conceit going back to the Brothers Grimm: the demon who comes back to haunt you, who demands the secret be unveiled, and the payment due. p.s. Which desi actress should play the part of Sapna?

Asra Nomani, Daud Sharifa, and the Women's Mosque

2006-11-11T04:23:00.000-08:00

Congratulations are due to Asra Nomani, who won this year's SAJA fellowship for a planned project to go to Tamil Nadu to report on movement to build a women's mosque there. The project has been initiated in the town of Pudukkottai, as a reaction against male-dominated mosques and local, male-only Jamaat boards, that have the power to decide many personal and marriage-related disputes in India's Muslim community.The movement is being spearheaded by a woman named Daud Sharifa, and has already received a fair amount of coverage in the past two years from outfits such as the BBC. (More stories can be found here [Outlook] and here [New American Media]). Despite getting quite a bit of attention, the project is years away from completion owing to fundraising difficulties.However, as one reads more about Daud Sharifa, the symbolic project of actually building a women's mosque (which would be the first one to be built anywhere in the world) begins to seem somewhat secondary to what might be her main goal: building a broad-based, national movement to support the rights of Muslim women. Since the government has done little to help (and sometimes much to hurt) the cause, Sharifa and her NGO, STEPS, have gone ahead and created a women-only Jamaat ("Jamaat" means "Congregation") to arbitrate family disputes using a feminist slant on Islamic law. They have been in operation since February 2004, and get a steady stream of cases to resolve (according to this article, they get about 15 petitions a day). Daud Sharifa's justification for the project seems strong:
"The male jamaats are unlawful kangaroo courts that play with the lives of women. A mosque-jamaat axis is a power centre that controls the community. When women are refused representation here, we have no choice but to have our own jamaat. And since a jamaat is attached to a mosque, we have to build our own mosque." (link)Critics of the idea are for the most part the usual suspects, but at least one prominent Muslim woman, Badar Sayed, has also criticized Sharifa's plans as a kind of defeatist separatism: "We need to fight alongside people. We can't just separate ourselves and put the clock back 100 years." (link)Incidentally, Sharifa weighed in righteously last year, when the Indian Ulema went after tennis star Sania Mirza, for having the gall to play tennis in shorts. In response to Anna's post on the topic, Punjabi Boy posted a comment from the same Daud Sharifa:
"If Islamic law says a woman is not supposed to wear such clothes, then they should know the same law also forbids dowry, alcoholism and incest. Yet the jamaat promotes dowry and even guns for a share in it. Why don’t they stop it first if they’re living by the Islamic law? They’re not bothered about a girl earning pride for the country. They are making an issue out of a stupid matter," said committee coordinator Daud Sharifa Khanam from Pudukottai (link)Yes, exactly. Let's hope Asra Nomani's forthcoming coverage of Daud Sharifa and the "women's Jihad" sheds more light on this inspiring example of grassroots struggle.

"Don" - Paan + Tae Kwon = Long

2006-11-11T04:21:00.000-08:00

Actually, the new Shah Rukh Khan movie Don isn't as bad as you might expect, given all the negative reviews (for instance). It's also shaping up to be a box office success. Farhan Akhtar is probably the most hyped director in the new wave of Bollywood film directors. Though he comes from an old B-wood family (his father Javed co-wrote the script of the original Don), Farhan's first film, Dil Chahta Hai was considered a stylistic breakthrough, an anthem for the post-liberalization generation. That sense of clarity or mission is missing here: in his remake of Don, Farhan seems put most of his energy into matching western action flicks, fight-for-fight, and stunt for stunt. On this he succeeds: I liked the first car chase, and I think the skydiving fight scene is probably a first for Bollywood. There is also a certain amount of Kill Bill theatrical viciousness here that's novel in the Bollywood hero-villain iconography. What most of the film's critics have missed, I think, is the basic problem of identity this film symbolizes, a problem which is I think broader than just this film. Farhan Akhtar seems to be torn between two approaches: either he could do a slightly tweaked version of an outdated version of India, from a "disco" gangster movie that wasn't all that great to begin with. (Yes, I said it.) The upside is you get the warm-and-fuzzy nostalgia atmosphere, but the danger is the mindless perpetuation of the myth of the "glory days" of Bollywood and Amitabh Bachchan, as if we need any more of that. Or: you can make a slick, essentially imported style of action movie, with a few "traditional" songs added to appeal to the folks in UP (the "Maurya Re" and "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" numbers). This film flirts with both but doesn't fully commit, which shows it fundamentally doesn't know what it wants to be. It may be a false choice, but the question continues to nag one: will the real, contemporary Indian film aesthetic please stand up? Incidentally, Priyanka Chopra is good here -- it's really the first film where I've liked her. For one thing she gets to actually do some serious martial arts fighting, which is usually off-limits for Bollywood actresses. The remixes of old songs are so-so, and most of the new music is pretty bad (the exception being the Ganapati song, "Maurya Re," and the track by the Midival Punditz). In terms of how the songs are filmed, I have to say I slightly prefer the current style of cheesecake exploitation (Kareena Kapoor) to the old version (Zeenat Aman) -- though both are pretty much ridiculous. But the music for this remake was going to be impossible. How could anyone top the original disco-funk opening to Don 1978? (Maybe if you brought in The Neptunes or Dr. Dre you could top that, but otherwise I don't see how it could be done.) I also thought Boman Irani, as DCP DeSilva, and Arjun Rampal, as a man who's got a grudge against the Boman Irani character, are also strong. More Youtube bits: Khaike Paan Banaras (new) vs. the original Khaike (Amitabh Bachchan wins this song, hands down)Amitabh's entry in the original DonA fight sequence from the original Don

Macacas, Youtube, and the Question of Respect

2006-11-11T04:07:00.000-08:00

Though I live in Pennsylvania (and voted for Bob Casey & Joe Sestak), the big Senatorial race for me was really in Virginia. As most readers know, during the summer, George Allen called S.R. Sidarth, a young worker in his opponent's campaign, "macaca." He didn't seem concerned that the same person happened to be carrying a video camera, and probably didn't imagine that the event being filmed would immediately be seen by millions on news shows, talk shows, and of course, on video sharing sites like Youtube (go ahead, watch the video again, you know you want to). It's possible that this will go down as the first "Youtube" election, just as 2004 was the first "blogged" election -- though notably, the blogosphere (dominated by liberal blogs) didn't seem to make a difference in the outcome of 2004, and I'm sure it's an open question as to whether Youtube had any real impact in the tight Senate races in places like Virginia and Montana. "Macaca" was one of those strange insults you don't know what to do with at first. As with many ethnic slurs, it was unclear at first that it even was a slur (remember rat-eater?), since it isn't a word commonly used to describe (or insult) people from the Indian subcontinent. That isn't really new; ethnic slurs thrive on ignorance, and often misdescribe the people they are aimed at. As people looked up various possible definitions of the word macaca, they discovered that none of them are complimentary. Like most South Asians in the U.S. (see Abhi's post at Sepia Mutiny, and the reactions to it), I immediately registered "macaca" as an insult, though I wasn't surprised that many others didn't see it that way. Eventually the mainstream consensus seemed to be that it was in fact an ethnic insult, and the next question for most South Asians was, "will this matter to anyone?" Will anyone else be as offended by this as we are? More is at stake in that question than first appears. Behind it is a deep anxiety about acceptance and integration, about being equally valued and respected in American society. Everyone is on board (usually) if a public figure makes a remark that could be construed as hostile to other, more settled minority groups -- the hostile response to Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade this summer was essentially unequivocal. And Trent Lott's political career was derailed by a comment relating to Jim Crow. But are Virginians, and Americans in general, going to care about "macaca," and share a sense of grievance with a newer, smaller, and less visible minority community? As the macaca story gathered steam, there was almost a sigh of relief as the answer appeared to be "yes." And now, if Jim Webb's slim lead holds following a probable recount in the coming days, it will be hard not to see it as a decisive factor in the election.* * *But did "macaca" really make a difference? One CNN pundit suggested, based on exit polls, that "macaca" may well not have been finally as important to voters as issues such as the war in Iraq -- 56% of voters said they did not think George Allen was a racist. But it's hard to argue with the huge swing in the polls that followed the initial comment -- even if in the end, exit poll results suggest that other issues may have been more prevalent in voters' minds. In a race as close as this, it did make a difference. There was a bit of gallows humor following the "macaca" gaffe that the use of racial slurs might actually help George Allen, but that turned out to be totally false: Virginia is changing. There are now a decent number of South Asians in Virginia -- 77,000 -- and a significant subset of them are voting American citizens. Assuming that the vast majority were voting for Webb, there are certainly enough desis there to have affected the final tally of the election in Webb's favor (if the current 3000 vote margin holds after a recount). Other stats: according to the U.S. census in 2000, 4.3 percent of Virginia's population is Asian. And close to 600,000 Virginia residents (8.5 percent, with a total state population of 7 million) are foreign born, well above the national average. Virginia is looking less like the "southern firewall," and more like a mid-Atlantic state like Pennsylvania or Maryland. Urban counties are very blue, suburban counties will be purple (currently leaning blue), and the sparsely populated rural counties will be very red.

Mid-week (welcome) break

2006-11-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

Filed under: Personal, Humour, Entertainment, Living — November 2, 2006 @ 7:11 am
Aqua and I were sitting at a place called Salon Mousse in Indiranagar getting our beauty treatments done.
In front of us was a huge glass window (and we debated whether it was sound proof since we couldn’t hear the traffic), a beautiful tree in front providing much needed green cover. It’s noon on a Wednesday.
As I stared out with a feeling of contentment, I feel I could get used to this way of living :)
These one day holidays in the middle of the week are very different from the long weekends. They are like guilty (and sinful) pleasures. You work for two days and then suddenly, you have a day off. It’s almost like you’ll hear your phone ring any minute with someone shouting and asking you to come back to work immediately. But no such thing happened thankfully.(more…)

Radio Indigo Rocks

2006-11-11T04:03:00.000-08:00

These days I’m making excuses to spend time in my car because of Radio Indigo, 91.9 FM. Where was it all along, I am asking?
I drive more slowly. This, in Bangalore, a city now known for its maha traffic jams, is not at all difficult. I try and find more places to go to. This too, is not very difficult!
Radio Indigo in my car. Worldspace at home. I’m all set.
And I am wondering where it has been all along? Ah yes, with Worldspace I read somewhere. But now that it’s freed itself from WS, I’m hoping that it doesn’t turn into yet another radio channel and keeps playing the great music it does!
Radio needs to cater to different sections of the audience. And since one can’t possible cater to all kinds of audiences, it’s best that the folks decide who they want to target and just go for that segment. Here, I’ve noticed, they try and please everyone and that is definitely not going to happen.
Just a year ago, we had no choice. But today there are many more channels to choose from. As people spend more and more time in their cars (especially in jam infested Bangalore) radio makes so much sense.
And while there are quite a few radio channels in the regional language with largely Hindi and Kannada content, it’s quite a pleasure for someone like me to tune into a channel slightly more cosmopolitan and where they play English music. And good music to boot!
It rocks. It’s my favourite channel now. I’m not buying that CD player anymore, thus saving myself a cool 12-14K!
I’m zimbly loving it!

It never seems to end…

2006-11-11T03:57:00.000-08:00

Another two blasts in Guwahati yesterday. I called mom and dad immediately. My dad told me he was in the same area the day before. It’s a busy shopping centre so there’s likely to be quite a lot of people around. Mom travels to and fro work everyday and a pretty long distance.
It’s a little scary and unnerving as to how easy it is for someone to plant a bomb. The next thing you know is someone’s family is wiped out. Someone loses a father, someone a mother, someone else a sibling perhaps. And to what end? Right now, it’s more like violence for the sake of violence. They seem to be intent to terrorising the common man and wiping out their own people from the face of the state.

World Trade Center

2006-11-11T03:53:00.000-08:00

But World Trade Center is an indisputably well made film otherwise, at its very best in the early scenes where the firefighters, led by McLoughlin, reach the general vicinity of the skyscrapers and slowly start to edge their way towards the rumbling buildings. This is stuff that the finest horror-movie directors would have been proud of – you get a visceral, firsthand impression of what it must have been like for those men to approach the Twin Towers (at that point, no one imagined that the two buildings would come crashing down, but it must have been terrifying even without that knowledge). We don’t actually see the towers too often in this scene (the abiding image is that of thousands of sheets of paper pouring out of the windows, like a nightmare version of those glass paperweights you turn upside down to simulate a snowfall), but we feel their awesome presence at all times – this is one of the few times that I’ve found the Dolby experience to be really effective in a movie hall. It’s like two angry active volcanoes have been transplanted to this urban setting and the firefighters are walking right into the heart of the inferno. This is an incredibly effective scene, and what follows is only marginally less gripping. Compared to some of Oliver Stone's recent work (Alexander, U-Turn, even Any Given Sunday) this is a surprisingly straightforward film – it looks like he's rediscovered the merits of good old-fashioned storytelling.

The film

2006-11-11T03:49:00.000-08:00

I had mixed feelings about World Trade Center – not because of the dramatic scenes but because (and I know this is actually a pointer to the film’s effectiveness) it made me feel very tired and claustrophobic. This will happen when the bulk of a film involves two men (characters you’ve come to know and sympathise with) buried several metres below the ground, unable to even move, simply talking to each other in order to stay awake and sane. That’s the real-life story of policemen John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), two of only 20 people who were pulled out alive from the wreckage of 9/11. McLoughlin and Jimeno entered the buildings as part of a rescue squad, hoping to save at least some of the people trapped on the upper levels, but they never got a chance to do anything seriously heroic, in fact never even made it beyond the ground floor; just a few moments into the operation, they were the ones who needed rescuing. The summer’s other 9/11 film was United 93 (which I reviewed here), and though that was docudrama-like in its treatment, there’s something inherently gripping about the story of an airplane held hostage by terrorists. By comparison, the basic scenario in World Trade Center – two men conclusively trapped underground, with nothing to do but wait for help – is a static one. Oliver Stone tries to compensate for this by incorporating a number of flashbacks, mostly in the form of the hallucinations experienced by the buried men as they drift between consciousness and semi-consciousness. Unfortunately, these bits don’t hold up too well – they jar with the rest of the film. Showing the tribulations of the wives and families works well enough as visual relief.

Moblogging offerings from India

2006-11-10T03:32:00.000-08:00

So finally mobile operators in India wake up to the power and the money-spinning potential of blogging and social networking.
The Economic Times this morning has an article - 'Now, mobile phones invade the blogosphere' with service opearators like Reliance and Idea Cellular offering up moblogging sites.
"Reliance Communications (RCL) is set to be the first operator to host a blogging site in India. "Our subscribers, who have MMS and video capability, will be able to send blog entries using mobile telephones. In case of other phones, only text blogging is possible," Mahesh Prasad, president - Reliance World, told ET. RCL has partnered with the Hyderabad-based mobile content provider IMI Mobile for moblogging. RCL will charge Rs 5 per MMS/SMS for posting a blog. Users will have to MMS picture or video to 1234 with the keyword 'mblog' and they will be automatically registered on mblog. A return SMS specifies the user's password and the website URL for her blog. "Bloggers can have a 'buddy list' specified from the phonebook, which can include both Reliance and non-Reliance subscribers so that everytime a blog is posted, they get an SMS alert informing them to check out the specified URL," he explained. To view the blog, one has to visit www.relianceinfo.com/mblog and key in their password. "The community of bloggers is growing. We want to ensure that pictures taken on mobiles are not left just in the phone."".... Idea Cellular is offering moblogging through mygamma.com, a mobile networking community. Idea users can log on to this website and upload their pictures and messages and share ringtones. The service can be subscribed to for Rs 10 for a week or Rs 25 for two weeks (with online points). The company receives around 3,000 renewals every month for this service."Earlier this year, Nokia launched Nokia M-Blog for GPRS-enabled N-series mobile phone users - however this may be restricted as you need GPRS to moblog. The Hindu had a review of rediffiland, the first Indian portal to offer moblogging, a short while ago:" With technology like this, no government can ever hope to gag or throttle public opinion, or restrict it within its own boundaries. The Moblog knows no boundaries. Indians could read about Moblogs, but had difficulty in experiencing the excitement, because most free blog services are not tailored for direct uploading from mobile devices. All that has changed this month with the inauguration by India's pioneering portal, Rediff, of a special site tailored for mobile blogging. The site can be accessed at http://www.rediffiland.com./ Once you have registered at the site, you can use your mobile phone to create your own Moblog, by SMSing the desired text. Mobloggers will also have the added advantage that they can reach the huge audience of Rediff's regular viewers numbering around 40 million. Right now, the Rediff Moblog service is in beta or test stage, and is free to use. There is even the possibility that Rediff might share revenue with bloggers who drive traffic to their sites. That may or may not happen, but the ability to create your own personal blog content is now only an SMS away."And Mobylog seems to have taken off too. Om Malik, who feels camera phones are the biggest opportunity to make money, has been saying "any company that makes it simple and easy for users to upload their photos directly from a phone to their website/weblog, will find itself in the cat bird seat."Veer Bothra, our Mobile Pundit, feels:"With mobiles in India having four times the population of PCs, it is natural that the growth in blogging would be driven by mobile blogs or moblogs."I'd be interested to see whether these moblog opportunities build communities around sharing, and how. And how they deal with communication that is so essential in a social community - read Robert Young's feature on The Future of Social networks - Communication - where he says "The value of the wall (at MySpace) points to a very important dimension of building and running any web property that's driven by community...that communications ultimately serves as the anchor feature and the driver of retention and growth"Tags: moblog, moblogging, india, camera phones

Thought for the Day

2006-11-10T03:27:00.000-08:00

"A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed. It feels an impulsion...... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons"........Richard Bach [quote found at Life 2.0 in a great post called Who Are You?] [Picture credit]

Air India Express To Connect Chennai & Singapore

2006-11-10T02:57:00.000-08:00

Chennai finally joins the list of cities which are connected by international budget carriers. Air India Express, the only Indian international budget carrier has been flying between the Middle East and God's own country for sometime now. Even Sidin had an hilarious post on his experience onboard an Air India Express flight to Abu Dhabi. Although Air India Express had expressed interest in flying to destinations in South East Asia, it is commencing operations on the Chennai - Singapore route only from this month end. JetStar Asia, a popular budget airline, already operates on the Bangalore - Singapore route.
A quick glance through the Air India Express site shows that return fares hover around SGD 575, when compared to the SGD 700 - 900 fares offered by full service airlines. Given that the budget carriers impose restrictions like lesser weight allowance, no / limited free food and date change penalties, the fare difference may not be big enough to cause a shift from a full service airline to a budget airline. However, if AIE fares plunge south (below SGD 500), it would be a runaway success.
BTW, if Indian decides to start a budget carrier, would it name it Indian Express?