One more Indian student attacked in Australia

The Australian law enforcement agency is sending out a clear and
consistent message: are you one of those thugs that waylay people
coming back from a day's hardwork; and you do not want to be kicked in
the wrong place while you are busy with your act?, then choose your
victims carefully, foreign students! If you can recognize Indian
students, all the more good. We are officially declaring that they are
'week' targets; they will be at the wrong places at wrong times, that
is, we, the police, wont be around to help them! And they are very
likely to carry mobile phones and iPods. Have a field day!

Angels and Demons

If you have not read the book, then you will enjoy the movie more! Having read the book, the unexpected quantum of change in the screenplay was very unsettling for me. However, that's where it stops! The movie in its own rights is worth watching.

The book is about the continuance of the age-old war between church and science. There are moderators amongst scientists and church, who believe science and religion go in parallel and in fact they both support the cause of the other. Of course, both sides are not without hardcore elements that despise and suspect that the other camp is undermining their fundamental belief. The storey is about a fanatic that uses science to establish the righteous place of the church. He was pursued by an academic who would stop at nothing but to stop him.

Some good themes in the book are lost in the movie. In the book, it was Vittoria's father that was killed by the assassin. That by itself was a strong motive for her to seek revenge along with Langdon. In the movie she is a mere prop. In book, the assassin was in fact lured into saving the very establishment, church, which he thinks is destroying. The version of the camerlengo from the book was a highly motivated fanatic, in the movie he turns out to be a bit lame!

However, the screenplay has pleasantly surprising changes compared to the book. The movie is matured in that sense. Where the book slips into a stereotype of a middle-east terrorist with little respect for women, the movie portrays him as a hired assassin. The assassin leaves Langdon and Vittoria unarmed, though he could have easily killed them - 'because I was not asked to kill you!'

While the book goes overboard with church-bashing, the movie is gentle and subtle about church's controversial past.

In spite of the shortcomings, the movie is a better version than the book. From start to finish, the movie goes without any moments of slackening.

But why the heck did they over simplify the fifth symbol, the mythical diamond, of Illuminati!

Overheard

A couple of conversations I overheard over the weekend!

At BigBazar: A father, accompanying his two teenage daughters, speaking over mobile phone. 'Where else? Shopping! You see! All I do these days is nothing but chauffeuring and swipeing credit cards!'

A chat between my wife, my three year old son and neighbour's son of same age:

My wife: a person who flies an aircraft is a pilot! A person who sails a ship is a captain! Now, you know this one, who drives a car?

The kids in unison, 'daddy!'

It appears that it is not without a reason many men out there fear marriage!

Oz – Indian students are targeted!

There was a perception that Indian people were "weak prey" for criminals, Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe was quoted as saying by the media here."I don't think they are (racist crimes) in general ...more opportunistic activity. We think they (Indians) are vulnerable, we don't think it's racial, we think they are a weak target."

Police have repeatedly denied that race was a factor in the attacks, arguing that Indian students were often simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as they travelled home late at night with items such as mobile phones and iPods.

What a lame response from an establishment, which is meant to protect the "week" and have extra vigilance at the "wrong" places!

Sarvam

It is not that everyday you get to see talent and hardwork wasted mindlessly. Amazing art direction, wonderful costumes and clever blend of graphics with choreography; none of this had a chance against an absurd storyline and screenplay.

In spite of their general inability to emote varied expressions, you expect to see the leads Arya and Trisha in better movies. Their experience in the industry must have taught them something when it comes to choosing the right movies to act!

Rupa says this movie is from the same director who did Pattial. Hard to believe!

Anyway, I walked out of the theatre with few unanswered questions, though. Was Trisha's death before the intermission as per the original storyline or she requested to be killed off the movie! Was Arya's poisoning his attempt to commit suicide for accepting to act in this movie or part of the original screenplay! I will never know!

Exit-poll results Vs Results

As I write this blog, the Indian Parliament election result is being announced. The trend shows that the election pundits are once again proved to be inefficient in predicting the results. They predicted that JMM would be deciding the next government. For the uninitiated, JMM is Ms. Jayalalitha, Ms. Mamata and Ms. Mayavathi! The pundits predicted that NDA would form the next government with the support of JMM. They predicted UPA may get only as many if not less number of seats as NDA. The results speak a different story!

The media and the pundits used scientific methods and proper sampling for the survey. They partnered professional consumer survey companies to increase the accuracy of their predictions. In spite of such measures, they were caught unaware by the actual results. I wonder if their prediction mechanisms took voter's psych into consideration. It has been rumored that, this year more than any other years in the past, voters were paid to vote for a particular candidate. If that's true, what would the voters say when they were approached by the surveyors? Of course, they would say they voted for the party that paid them money even if they have voted for some other party. They have no reason to believe that the surveyor is actually from a post-poll surveying company and not someone from the party that paid them money. I don't know if the surveying companies considered this possibility!

If this reason is true or even partially true, then it can skew the results. If that's the case, can we then assume those parties that were predicted to win during the post-poll but lost when the actual results were announced, were actually that parties that paid the voters! Ineteresting!!

Registering your name in the list Vs Voting

Ah! Did I say registering my name in the voters list was easy (Election koothu!)? Of course it was easy! But that does not necessarily mean your name will figure in the final list. After two visits to the Taluk office, I was confident that my name would be there in the final voters list. Hm! Hm! someone in the election commission decided that Mr. Kamal Haasan and I shouldn't be voting this election! Though I was very disappointed that my name did not find a place in the list and I could not vote, it was a big consolation that even someone as popular as Mr. Kamal Haasan was dropped from the list! Praise democracy and equal treatment to all!!

Pay the voters or make the voters pay?

We have heard enough of candidates paying voters to listen to their propaganda. It is a big business during election time. Agents pick up loads of people from huts and villages to the meeting venue; arrange snacks and lunch for them; depending on the venue of the meeting, they arrange for site seeing; and finally pay them for their day's 'work'!

That's old news! Have you heard of a politician who makes his voters pay to listen to his propaganda? Here comes Mr. Vijayakanth, actor/politician from TN. This smart politician has been timing his movies, which is loaded with political overtures and his party's propaganda, in such a way that his die-hard fans pay to watch his movie and listen to his propaganda as well.

Now isn't he a politician at the core?

Political Parties or Corporates?

The more we read the election news, it becomes clearer and clearer that political parties and Corporates are alike!

At the fore of the goal set is the desire to dominate the 'market' or profit.

The Corporates build their brand by constantly being in the news through advertisements, announcement of expansions, etc. So does the political parties! Every issue is looked at and judged for its potential to create news, sensation.

Individuals or small business owners pay upfront franchise fee to acquire rights. They run the franchise, make profits, pay at regular intervals to the corporate - all these happen using the brand image of the corporate. So does the candidates of the political parties. It is rumored that they pay hefty sums to get seats. They pay at regular intervals to the party to retain their 'rights'. They run their 'business' un-interrupted with the support of the brand image of their parties.

Corporates hire celebrities such as actors and sports persons as their brand ambassadors. Political parties are not far behind in recruiting celebrities. Well! Many leverage their celebrity status to float their own parties is a different story!

In both political parties and Corporates, many key people may enter and exit. However, the control generally remains with the promoter's family!

The similarities end when it comes to forging alliance, though! When the Corporates go for partnership or joint ventures, it is for long term, five or ten years. The political arena is unpredictable. The have one alliance for the incumbent govt., one before the election and one after the election!

What do they mean by don't politicize?

I really dont understand! What do they mean by don't politicize the issue. I'm referring to the recent shoe throwing incident.

The leader who was assassinated was a politician. The person(s) who were accused of spearheading the massacre of a community are politicians. It is a political party that is accused of being insensitive. The shoe was thrown at a politician, that too, a minister. The person who threw the shoe was a political analyst!

I really dont understand! What do they mean by don't politicize the issue!

Election koothu!

Nowadays, election is the favorite topic whenever I bump into someone! Well, I had cast my vote couple of times in the past. When I moved into my new house, my name got dropped from the voters list. Since then I missed a couple of elections. It was the right mix of Ignorance and laziness that had kept me away from registering my name! I did not know registering my name in the voters list was a simple process. I thought of the bureaucratic govt offices and did not bother to register my name. Thanks to Jaagore, I registered my name in the electoral list recently.

Now, that is the kind of social movements we need the corporate houses to fund. Tata Tea backs Jaagore! See you guys around, Im stepping out for a chai now!

Apeing the west!

Did you switch off the lights during the recently 'passed' Earth Day? What a farce?

The new fad in town is Global warming! The corporates have joined the kitty party ladies. If the West says, we are switching off all electrical appliances for half an hour, it makes a lot of sense. They get electricity 365 days a year 24/7. Their life style needs a numer of gadgets, must-have, need-to-have and nice-to-have types. What is the situation in India? Even in a big city, you would call yourself lucky if you get electricity 24/7 for 300 days a year! The small towns are subjected to power cut everyday, anywhere between 30 to 120 minutes. The remote villages are a sorry sight, many dont even have electricity. When the electricity department is already cutting the power proactively on your behalf, why do you even bother?

You should have seen the amount of e-mails and advertisements that were floating around to promote Earth Day. Avoiding this circus alone would have achieved more than what that half an hour could have, in terms of storage space for those mails, CPU usage, network usage, wasted human energy, etc.

Should we all clamour about global warming just because it is the most fashionable word or the in-thing now? Dont fall for the politicians and corporates. They have a responsibility to 'show' that they care for the environment.

If we are really worried about global warming, then the let us worry about Nano for a starter. At a time when world's natural resources are drying out, when the rich countries have realised their mistakes and are promoting public trappostation, demarking separate lanes for car-pools, we are attempting what is ironickly termed as common man's car. Where will these cars run? Fly?, for we dont have enough road space for the existing vehicles. It would have been a celebration, if the Tatas came up with a Rs. 1,00,000 bus, a public transportation vehicle. That's the need of the hour.

Let us sensitice the people of switching off the lights and fans when leaving a room, switching off the appliances when they are not in use, and not leaving the appliances in standby mode. Then, we will send 'the' message to the authorities. Let us get the priorities correct, let us lock the cart to bull in the right order!

Cultural Police

The world women's day was just another day for many Indian women. For a handful of them, it is a day to send wish-mails to their friends. For an even lesser number of women it is a day to step into the streets and claim that its ok for them to choose and wear clothes of their choices. And for the retail giants, it is a day to show how much the care for women - they have announced a slew of discounts on articles such as household items, clothes, fancy stuff, etc; obviously things that would let women be in control of their own lives in the male-dominated society! However, for quite a lot of women it is just another day for slogging.

During a long drive to Vellore recently, my brother and I got into talking about what happened in Bangalore and Mangalore recently. The thugs that call themselves 'the cultural police' went on a rampage at a restaurant, beating up girls. In many north Indian cities, Valentine days have become annual fanfare for raiding greeting card shops and terrorizing couples on the streets.

My take on these anti-social elements was simple. These are a bunch of dumb asses that are being taken advantage of and being misled for someone's political aspirations.

Not just that. My brother believes it goes way beyond just that. Any society that has wealth unevenly distributed amongst its members is bound to have disturbances, really disturbing ones. Ours is a society that has on the one-hand a man contending to be the world's richest
and on the other-hand hundreds commit suicide trying to escape defaulted agricultural mortgage, while thousands go to bed hungry and without a roof over their heads.

It is not just cultural policing. It is the manifestation of the quaral between the haves and the have-nots. The crooks are out there to cashin on this.

Slumdog Millionaire

I have seen the movie the week before the Oscar night, last week it has won eight Oscars. It is an ok movie. Now I know why Nayagan, Hey Ram, Devar Magan, Lagan or a score of other deserving Indian movies did not win Oscar.

The India that was seen as a 'land of snake charmers' is a thing of the past. The western tourists who had been hoodwinked by the age-old documentaries and no-brainer Hollywood movies that projected an India that was steaming with snake charmers and elephants had been disillusioned by their visits. How often do you see a snake charmer at the road side or an elephant rubbing your back?

The Hollywood needs a new identity for India. A land of ancient structures? No! They have got Egypt for that! A land of IT (Information Technology) engineers? May be! But they have got their own IT engineers. A fast growing economy? Yeah! But China, though they don’t like them much, is a more compelling option! A land of dark miseries and slums? Bang on! That would be appealing. At one side we have IT and BPO companies thriving and you step out of the office, you have slums and people living on the pavements! A country of many such contrasts! It is not only the Oscar that has fallen in love with the Indian slums. So are Booker Prize, BAFTA and Golden Globe.

So Mr. Kamal, Mr. Amir, want an Oscar? Go to the slums and whip up the sentiments and make the Pinkies smile. Jai ho!

Related: http://mottaimaadi.blogspot.com/2009/01/white-tiger-by-aravind-adiga.html

The Satyam fiasco!

The Satyam scam - here is an old quote from Warren Buffett: It takes
20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you
think about that, you'll do things differently.

Why indian trucks need two drivers?

Have you ever noticed? The indian trucks, lorries and tempos, they all
have two drivers! I'm not talking about the backup drivers. I'm
talking about the quintessentially indian side-kicks, the cleaners.
They seem to have their own rules of traffic. They permanently keep
their left hand outside the window, banging the door every now and
then; waving hand every now and then indicating they are taking left
turn, of which the actual driver has no clue. It is suprising that the
cleaners' left hands are still intact in the Indian traffic.

It is funny to watch the driver and cleaner work together. Most often
if not all, the driver plays guru and cleaner the student. The driver
will be the one who turns today's cleaner into tomorrow's driver. The
cleaner neither pays for the training nor gets money for his labor. It
is an on-the-job training. In return, the driver gets the best deal.
He gets an admirer, who treats the driver and the vehicle as the king
and chariot. For the cleaner, everyone else on the road are lesser
citizens!

Can there be a Obama without a Bush?

I'm not talking about the mere existence of these individuals. Can Mr. Obama be where he is today without Mr. Bush being what he is?

If you are a Tamilian, then you would read or at least heard of this twenty centuries old epic, Silapathikaram. If not, check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannagi.

As it goes in a Tamil cine song, had there been no Madhavi, then we would not be talking about Kannagi today; no epic would have been written to praise the virtues of Kannagi!

Had the American political and financial situation been different, had Mr. Bush not been there to screw up things for America, I don't believe a person from a minority community could have made it to the top. Lets face the reality! What is Mr. Obama? First generation immigrant? He was not even brought up in America during his formative years. Relatively inexperienced; less than five years as a law maker. And of course from a minority community. Who would have thought of this man becoming the president.

We have heard of people who destroyed their family (marriage) trying to shore up their career. How many of us have heard of a lady who saved her marriage to shore up her career? How was it possible for Mr. Obama to win over Mrs. Clinton who started out with a strong backing of the majority's support? If not for the mess supposed to have been created by Mr. Bush and the battered image of America all over the world and the possible American-guilt for the unwanted gulf war and cruelty to prisoners, I dont think Mr. Obama would have taken the most solemn oath!

The Americans and many around the world are waiting for a miracle! Poor man, no stress at all! I wish him all the best!

A skinny boy with a funny name who became the President

I heard a quote which was attributed to have been said by President Barack Obama himself, 'I was a skinny boy with a funny name. Only in America my dream could have come true'.

Well, at last his presidency has been inaugurated today. The whole world is going gaga over this. In India, we are rejoicing the historic moment and the media is praising how justice has prevailed. You see, in India we had got rid off caste; social inequalities have been leveled; and women's rightful place has been restored. The only issue that has been bothering us was the racial problems in America! The problem is solved now. The media can rest peacefully!

Slumdog Rehman

It was 1992, I just finished my bachelors. I was back home waiting for the results and contemplating higher studies. A friend of mine from college called me - Hey! He is very good da! There was a lot of pain in his voice. He was talking about Rehman and his debut movie Roja!

In college, we were a bunch of crazy Ilayaraja fans. Even if we heard a good song from some other music director, we would only half-heartedly accept the truth. We would try to find some Ilayaraja song that resembled the new song so that we could say it was influenced by Ilayaraja's song! We were fanatics!

Unfortunately for us, it was around this time, Ilayaraja's scores were becoming more and more clicheed! Some times, the copycats were more innovative and creative in copying Ilayaraja's songs than Ilayaraja himself! And Ilayaraja's most favorite female singer Janaki's deteriorating voice was adding to the woes! Obviously, the maestro was bored with cinema music and was concentrating on bigger things; his project with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was happening.

That's exactly when Rehman entered Tamil cinema by storm. I was told, that was how Ilayaraja took Tamil cinema by storm with his all new scores some thirty years ago! History repeated itself. Rehman's Roja was new and refreshingly fresh!

Now back to my friend's call and why he was so pained! He was the most fanatic of the Ilayaraja's fans in our group. We, at last, realized that Ilayaraja was not going to be mainstream anymore. A replacement is here and he is very young. We knowingly fooled ourselves by calling
Rehman a one time hit; he is just a sound engineer; he can only work with digitized computer music. He proved us wrong again and again with his successive movies. Of course Ilayaraja gave us wonderful scores after that too but then he was not mainstream anymore as we suspected.

What we did not foresee then was, what a tremendous force Rehman would become in Hindi cinema field. A lot of things that changed around the world and India had helped Rehman further. To name a few: Tamil directors such as Manirathnam and Shankar had become popular and highly respected figures at the national level; they had given the much needed entry for Rehman to Hindi cinema; Indian economy opened up; foreign interest in India and anything that is Indian had increased; gen-next listened to western music and expected similar scores locally; Hindi and Tamil movies were released worldwide. Many things that were not available to Ilayaraja were available to Rehman. Things have changed forever. Since then there was no looking back for Rehman. It has today culminated in the Golden Globe award for Rehman for Original score in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

What an achievement! Wish you all the best and 'Oscar' Rehman!

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

I have just finished reading 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga. It is one of the best books that I have read in recent times. It is a Man Booker Prize Winner for 2008.

What struck me the most was the simplicity of the narration. You dont need long, winding and brain squeezing writing style to make a great story.

Secondly, the pace. There is not a single place where it slackened and made you involunterily skip the pages. From the start to the finish, it is a string of interesting events that unfolds the story of Balram Halwai. The difference between the unfortunate villages of India and the stiffled cities could not have been illustrated anymore stark. The book is an anti slogan to the 'India shining!' campaigners! Being an Indian, you do not want to accept what is said about India in the
book, but then your heart knows it is true. There are moments when you want to scream, man! that happens in miniscule, why do you want to make a hill out of a mole! Then you convince yourself that however small it may be, it is still unacceptable!

Now, surprises of a different kind. There are many direct and indirect references to politicians, places, events, religions, and gods!

While you understand, in the book, the term 'darkness' generally refers to the under-developed villages, it is obviously referring to Bihar. The description of the great socialite - the man with puffed face and white spiky hair who has been ruling the darkness for many years, reminds us of Mr. Lallu. In the story this character takes and talks of bribe very casually. There are many references in which Congress party members are shown to be taking bribe. And of course, the 36,000,004 gods in India - 'Mr. Jiabao, How quickly do you think you could kiss 36,000,004 (divine) arses?', there are many not-so-good references about muslims and a north Indian politician calls the Bangalorians as Tamils and Tamilians as negroes!

Of course, all these come out in the story as the opinions of the characters in the story or as indirect references. My surprice is on how come the political class of India has become so tolerant. Dont they go about smashing New Year parties and Valentine celebrations. Dont they go about destroying MF Husein's work because mother god was represented in a certain way. Dont they go about doing anything and everything that gives them political mileage or new identity or things that help them consolidate vote banks. Why no reaction? Probably, no one has read the book so far! Come on! It is a Booker Prize winner and bound to give you international visibility! Surprises! Surprises!

Now, surprises of a third kind! It is a good book, no doubt; deserves recognition and reward - agreed . However, why the Booker Prize? Was it just a coincidence that the other Booker prize winners from Indian authors (Midnight's children by Salmon Rushdie, Gods of small things by Arundati Roy and The inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai) have the darkest corners of India as their plot. One may argue that the Prize was justifiably given to the books that are true and soulful. But the pattern is a bit disturbing. There certainly books of equal quality from the Indian authors with other plots. Why were those books not chosen? What the judges get out of taking these books to the international stage? Those of you who have read the other Booker Prize winners from non-Indian authors can comment!

Paruthi Veeran

Have you seen Paruthi Veeran? This Tamil movie was released more than a year ago. It won some awards, national, state or something like that! It was praised for its offbeat storyline and realistic picturization of its characters. The hero, Karthik (his debut) and the heroine, Priya Mani, were congratulated for their stellar performances.

Well! it may be a great movie, but was it a great experience watching the movie? Let me express myself without using any expletives! Why on earth anyone would want to take a movie such as this one? In the name of being realistic, showing the murky miseries of human life does not make a movie great. I'm not exaggerating when I say, halfway through the movie I felt nauseous. Unfortunately, I did not realize, it was the movie that was sickening me until the movie reached its climax! It was too late by then; I could not shake off the depression. I stayed
sick for the rest of the weekend!

As if playing the movie once was not enough, one of the creatively retarded TV channels of Tamil Nadu has chosen this movie for special screening on this New Year day. Probably, they could not think of any other better and brighter ways of starting the New Year!

Anyway, I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year folks!

Achilles and Hector of Troy - legends killed by their own blood!

Yesterday I was watching Troy. That was not the first time and I believe that will not be the last time either. I'm one of those people that believe there is a lot to learn from our past, be it the mistakes or the best decisions that had changed the course of human history.

I have not read the book but the director, Wolfgang Petersen, had done an awesome job with Troy. The opulence and magnificence of yesteryears was vividly captured in the movie.

Everytime I watched the movie, there was always something new that hit my eyes. This time was no different. The legendary Achilles and the prince of Troy, Hector, I realised, were killed by their own blood! Achilles was single handedly killed by his own mother while Hector's killing was a collective achievement of his father, wife, brother, commander and the least you expect, Hector himself!

I know! If you had read the book or watched the movie, you would say, 'No! Achilles killed Hector and Paris killed Achilles. Wait! Hear me out!

When Achilles was invited for the war, he goes to his mom for advice and this is what she had to tell him; if you stay back, you will have a happy family and a loving wife; you will have children and they will love you; they will have children and they will praise you; they will have children and in turn they will have children of their own; you will be forgotten slowly. On the other hand, if you leave, you will never come back, but the world will sing your praise; you will be remembered forever! Going by the almost-gayish intimacy shown between Achilles and his cousin, the 'marrying-a-girl' part must have had beaten the s--t out of Achilles! So he decides to leave for the war and his mom kisses him goodbye. What a mom! And what a lousy way to start a lifetime mission! In the end, he does not seem to participate in the war happily. He dies a sad man. Of all the people, the mighty Achilles had to be killed by the weakling, Paris.

The other sad story was that of Hector. When Achilles calls Hector for the ill-fated fight, none of Hector's relatives believe or at least pretend that he will come back alive, including his wife! As if that is not enough, Hector himself strongly believes that he will not survive. I would have been surprised, if he came back alive after all these ill preparations. What a far cry from today's Stephen Covey, Robin Sharma, Robert Kiyosaki and a host of other authors and their money-minting books on positive thinking and self-hypnotism for success!

Having said that, it was no surprise that the weakling, Paris, kills the mighty Achilles, because Hector tells him, you are the prince of Troy now, my brother, I know you will make me proud! Helen, with a face that launched a thousand ships, tells him, I love you for what you are! You are more man than my ex-husband.

It is a wonder what positive words can do and negative words can undo!

Living together!

Don't be surprised if you heard that this seemingly a western practice is not alien to India, that too in what is touted as 'the' traditional Chennai! My wife and I came to know of a couple who are living together. They have a five year old child from this relationship.

Neither me nor my wife thought ill of this relationship. In fact, this is only a problem of the middle income class, the torch bearer of countless traditions. They try to live their lives in whatever time that is left between these traditions. What a life? Anyways, neither the supper rich nor the lower income class care about these traditions. They have their money and day-to-day life to chase for, respectively!

We were only wondering what would happen to the child's future in the Indian setup. In India you cannot declare someone as your partner without a formal ritual. A ' life partner' is not a legal relationship! At least, you must have registered your marriage.

We were wondering what challenge one might face. Be it the legalities involved in the dependency, inheritance, guardianship, traveling abroad for fun or education; as we discussed more, what appeared or we thought as a problem, is not really a problem. At least, all these problems can be solved with proper documentation of legal nature.

It so appeared that except for the social stigma attached to this relationship, there are no other problems. Or are they?