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?