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!