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!