A half-Hindu's view on how Hindus should be percieved

I'm half-Hindu. The other half is Muslim. I've spoken about one aspect of this earlier and am therefore going to skip some parts of the preamble.

I grew up accustomed to people marvelling at my knowledge of "Hindu" mythology, and other religions. I also grew up practically unaware of what Islam was about. Since my family didn't pay much attention to it, I was only aware of who the "heroes" of Islam were: The Prophet, Hazrat Ali & his martyred sons Imam Hasan & Imam Husain, and their clan.

As I grew older, I mixed with more Hindus than Muslims, by virtue of the simple fact that they're in greater numbers in India. Also by virtue of the fact that my parent's mixed-marriage effectively precluded our either staying in areas determined by ethnicity or fraternizing based only on it.

Apart from a few stray incidents I rarely met a religion obsessed Hindu (churkhi & janayoo notwithstanding). This may have to do with the fact that my Muslim sounding name may have deterred them in some way, but despite that I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the Hindus I met were not the kind that carried religion outside on the street with them. Only once when I was about six or seven was I asked in the park, "What religion are you?" by a group of similarly aged youngsters. I am still unable to comprehend how 7 year olds could ask me a question like that. Unless they had instructions from home to ask... Wierd, very wierd.

So my best friends were Hindus right through school, graduation & post-grad. Irrespective of whether I was in UP, Rajasthan or Maharashtra.

It's important for me to state however that I hadn't scratched the surface yet. Young & forgiving I ignored the people who refused to rent me a room to stay in upon hearing my name. I told myself that they're an aberration.

So what has changed now? Have the recent events in India, made me change my opinion of the average Hindu? Have people like bal-t & advani & modi, have babri & gujarat made me rethink? Has the rise in the number of bjp supporters made me rethink my stand? Has the absolute glut of hindutvis on web forums everywhere made me rethink?

To be honest, the first few did not. But the last two really have!

I've just needed to look at my friends in order to dispel any doubts about the first few questions. But the second set of questions bothers me... Is is because I've realized that there's another world lurking behind the anonymity that the Internet offers? Is this a new phenomenon or has it always existed & I've been oblivious to it?

I have also been bothered by some of the statements that some of my Hindu relatives make. Something about Hindus being tolerant & being taken for granted. These are well educated, high ranking, retired people! To be fair, they've always voted the jansangh and to be fair they had to leave Lahore leaving everything behind, but it worries me nonetheless.

So to answer my own question... has all of this changed my stance towards Hindus outside my family? Frankly it hasn't. 5 or 6 incidents are not representative of the attitude of all Hindus. And 15 idiots on web forums do not make up the entire Hindu population!!!

My experience with non-family Hindus has been largely great. I continue to enjoy the love & admiration of friends & family. There is no reason for me to being doubting the larger populace of Hindus, even those that don't have the advantage of a Western education!

So how do we deal with the sections in the media that are right-wing? How do we deal with pronouncements of bal-t, advani & modi? How do we deal with the extremists in web forums?

This is the second part of my mission. I intend to meet them head on. Ignoring them is dangerous, so they must be countered. In every forum! People like Alyque Padamsee are doing it in the offline world, using the clout they have. People like us should do it in the areas where we have the clout.

I will volunteer time at schools & colleges & teach children & youth about tolerance & communal harmony!

I will debate them in web forums, TV shows, wherever I get a platform. I will present facts to them. Most importantly, I will show them how they're hurting the image of the average Hindu by doing all of this. How they're giving an opportunity to the extremists to showcase their hatred to potential recruits!

Educated, liberal Hindus should use media to clear the air about what the religion stands for. They should showcase the lives of Hindus like themselves using TV, papers, novels, films whatever is available. They must undo the damage that the conservatives have caused. A PR exercise is as desperately needed to safeguard the image of the tolerant, secular, progressive Hindu as it is by similar Muslims!

Work should be done to improve the lot of minorities & backward sections like Dalits. Educated Hindus should actively condemn when something goes wrong in areas like that!

My mission going forward is to impress upon each uber-conservative Hindu I come across, the importance of being as modern & liberal. And how it's important for their community to come across as that, if they're to contribute to solving the problems that face all of us today. We must sow the seeds of the idea in their mind.

If you agree dear readers, please help me do the same. Please speak to every hardliner you come across & tell them to live their life as they would like their religion to be perceived. If they want to be viewed as progressive, educated, liberal, loving & peaceful, then they must be that themselves. Do spread the good word.

idiots...

I've often said that I don't want the focus of this blog to be low-lives, but once in a while some idiots come along who excel at being so low that discovering them is akin to the unearthing of Mohen-jo-Daro! Such a discovery needs talking about. Here's another example of a bunch of nobodies using outright lies to malign someone who is their superior by light years!
http://filmikhabar.com/2007/08/05/difference-between-shah-rukh-khan-and-amitabh-bachchan-part-2/#comment-25112

I tried putting up the following comment on this forum, but the idiots are so scared of facts that they didn't even publish my comment. They only want to look at the world from their perspective. Good for them! The less competition to genuine intellect there is the better! I'm having difficulty deciding between "kuen ke mendhak" or "jab haathi chalte hain toh kuttey bhownkte hain. Which one is applicable to them? Both maybe. Anyway, here's my response:

mouse-tafa...
1. Mr. Bachchan's first mega-hit was Zanjeer, a solo. Aren't you forgetting movies like Don, Lawaris etc. etc. Aur yaad dilaoon ya itna kaafi hai aapka muh bandh rakhne ke liye?
2. This overseas market jazz is for people who don't know. There was no oversead market until Yash Chopra & co. started tapping into it late in their careers. And even overseas, Mr. Bachchan got voted as the Superstar of the Millenium in the BBC poll. Bhool gaye kya? Or on purpose?
3. Yeh aapke dekhna ka nazarya hai. I still remember Amitabh's wound up angst from Shakti, not Dilip Kumar's histrionics.And SRK will always remain a poor actor to me. He can't even match Saif, forget matching Mr. Bachchan.
4. I have already answered this in 1 above, but here's a little more. SRK doesn't do movies outside the Chopra-Johar clan. In contrast Aamir Khan does movies with rank newcomers & churns out hit after hit. SRK isn't even as good as Aamir, what're you doing comparing him with India's Cinegod Mr. Bachchan.
5. SRK is rumoured to be bisexual & said to be having an affair with Karan Johar. Is that a cleaner image than Mr. Bachchan's?
6. KANK a hit? When did this happen??? Last I looked it was declared a damp squib.
Aapki zaati rai aap apne paas rakhen toh behtar hoga.
lmfrz...
Outlook Magazine recently had a poll on the most popular star. Guess what margin the eventual winner Mr. Bachchan beat his closest competitor by?
Aap sab log jhoot ka sahara kyun lete hain...?

Afterthought on KKL

A more critical analysis of KKL came to me as an afterthought. It doesn't take away anything from the movie at all for two reasons: The movie is genuinely good; and secondly as my favourite playright GBS put it, "A critic is one who leaves no turn unstoned"!

The part that I'd have liked to see made differently is the absolute ending. There's too much wrong with the ending according to me. The elder brother deserved better & that is what should've been shown. The younger brother deserved much worse and that is what should've been shown, instead of showing him happily returning to his piano. I know for a fact that guilt makes each day unlivable! How happily they've shown the misguided youngster return to a life of normalcy. This according to me, is one flaw in the movie. In short the ending is further from a happy ending than I would've liked.

Maybe viewers with a taste for the quasi-realistic don't share my problem with the ending.

Attempted Crosspost

Demise of the Union...?

Looks like it. Unless all this has been going on for ages & I've just woken up to the news!

Take a look at some of the news over the last 2 weeks:

1. Amarnath Yatra Politics. Yes, politics. There's no other word to describe it. My friend has already blogged about it very accurately here.
2. Naxals getting stronger in Orrisa!
3. bal-t saying he's proud of an H-bomb!
4. The deplorable rise & rise of hindutva!
5. The deplorable rise & rise of Muslim fundamentalists!
6. Sikhs on the streets with swords among other transgressions!
And if you want to go a few months back...
7. Marathis on the streets bullying their fellow-countrymen!

So what is happening to the average Indian? Is he no longer an Indian? Is he Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/Marathi/gujarati/"whatever jazz" first these days? Is the Union of India finally breaking up?
Are "outside forces" causing India to come apart?
Or are "inside forces" causing India to fall apart?
Have we always been like this? Apart for the few years that Gandhiji led us as one in our freedom struggle?

Thoughts solicited from the moderate, centrist.

4 Movie Recommendations

I'm fairly picky about the movies that I watch & even pickier about the ones I like. Any regular reader of this blog will vouch for that. I am recommending 4 movies today for mass consumption. Movies that should probably be made mandatory viewing in India. Just like Sir Attenborough's Oscar winning classic has!

There is no order here, neither chronological, nor preferential.

Aamir:
A thriller worthy of Hollywood. The film starts off fairly innocuously and from there a series of events hurl the protagonist by the same name deeper & deeper into a web of conspiracy & deceit.
The film keeps the viewer feeling edgy all the time, due to the slowly unfolding nature of the subject, the mystery that refuses to unravel, and mainly due to the superb execution of the plot by the director!
Bombay has been grittily shot, realistic, teeming, buzzing, filthy. The glimpses bring memories of the city back to anyone who's stayed there for any decent length of time.
So, brilliant camerawork supports a great plot, a capable cast, and gives us a gritty, gripping thriller that stays with us even after we leave the movie theatre. Surely one of the best made thrillers to come out of India ever!

Dharm:
I haven't seen the movie yet, but my wife has & thinks it should be on a compulsory watchlist for all Indians, specially those who've gone over to the conservative side.

The Message:
Needlessly controversial, banned in many parts, this is a film in the tradition of the Ten Commandments & Ben-Hur, only not that dramatic. It is a representation of facts around the origin of Islam, only more reserved.
The film is a must watch for anyone seeking to dispel any popularly held notions about Islam, for anyone seeking answers about the religion and what it's message is.
Starring Anthony Quinn as Hamza, the warrior uncle of Prophet Mohammad, the rest of the star cast is a bunch of unknown (to us) names. The cast really isn't that important as will be clear when you watch the movie; the movie focuses on the history and the origins of Islam & The Message.
Watch it if you are desirious of developing any know-how about the religion at all.

The idiotic ulemas of the sub-continent and a few other people have made a very poor remake of the film called Al-Risalah. A totally unnecessary butchering of the original. Avoid it & go for the original "The Message. You local pirated DVD wala should be able to get you a good copy. Make sure you ask for a totally unedited one! One never knows these days!

Khuda Kay Liye:
Much talked about, much less seen movie. Although, without a doubt a syllabus recommended, compulsory viewing movie! So important is it's message!
The brilliance of the film is in it's theme, the characters essayed rather well by the cast (that includes our Naseer in a small but very crucial cameo), and to some degree the plot. I know many fans of the movie will disagree, but this is my opinion. Don't get me wrong. It's a good movie. A very important modern work! But the style is somewhat documentary. Not that that shold be a negative for any movie, but I'm a little biased towards Hollywood's style of movie-making. It's brilliant in patches, but stops just short of being overall brilliant!

The songs are quite a rage I hear. I'm not humming them yet, so I will reserve comment on that bit. The cast is good, the theme is brilliant. The movie succeeds in getting it's very worthy message across.

A word of caution here: DO NOT PICK UP PIRATED COPIES OF THIS MOVIE. I have heard that certain conservative elements have edited out the secular maulana's (played by Naseer) very crucial very enlightening speech towards the end!
Go to Planet M, pick up the original CD's from there. BETTER STILL, pick up an original DVD if possible as the subtitles will make it easy to understand the otherwise difficult Urdu.

A half-Muslim's view on how Muslims should be percieved

I'm half-Muslim. The other half is Hindu. While there were no overt attempts in the house to make me choose between either religion, there was exposure to both. Outside of the home, you didn't meet many Muslims and therefore the exposure outside the home was primarily Hindu. And thankfully we grew up celebrating all festivals in the house, and had Christian teachers in school, so there was an ample dose of Christianity thrown in.

I was raised by my Mother on Amar Chitra Kathas. (Uncle Pai therefore shares some of the blame for how I've turned out.) I read comics on Jesus Christ, Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Buddha, Mahavir Jain, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Agastya, Ghatotkach and a truckload on Hindu mythology. I read loads about India's history, her invasions, her home grown kings, and Amar Chitra Kathas always presented an unbiased, usually positive viewpoint, the kind that kids should be exposed to.

I grew up accustomed to people marvelling at my knowledge of "Hindu" mythology, and other religions. I also grew up practically unaware of what Islam was about. Since my family didn't pay much attention to it, I was only aware of who the "heroes" of Islam were: The Prophet, Hazrat Ali & his martyred sons Imam Hasan & Imam Husain, and their clan.

As I grew older, I met more Muslims, relatives who didn't have the advantage of a Western education, who were amazed at how little I knew about Islam. They tried to impress upon me, how good the religion was, what it said etc. Unfortunately, I was in my teens & rebellious, saying emphatic NO's to everything. Also, these people were not exactly the best of teachers.

Thankfully my Grandfather was an erudite, liberal scholar. And his daughter, my Mother had learnt her Islam from him. So she chose to teach me about the progressiveness of Islam. I found that my Grandfather's interpretations of the religion were radically different from what the common Muslim knew & believed. My Mother taught me all about the history of the region where the religion originated and linked it to why certain things were expressed in a certain way in Islam. It made much more sense that way. Simple things like this: Islam considers Moses an earlier Prophet of Islam and his teachings are incorporated in the Quran. So "Thou shalt not kill" is an integral part of Islam.

The damage however had been done by then. I knew my family was different, but the image of the common Muslim in my mind was this: They're Islam obsessed. All they seemed to talk about was religion. If ever another topic came up, the answers were sought in Islam. And that bothered me. Until I realized that all over the World, people seek answers & direction from their religion. Why then did it seem to me that Muslims were more religions focused than other religious groups? That is something I am looking for an answer to.

With all the World attention on Islam & all the hate that spews out in blog forums & on the roads sometimes against it, I've been wondering if there is anything Muslims can do to clear the air. Here are some of the things that I think Muslims should/should not do:

• Educated, liberal Muslims should use media to clear the air about what the religion stands for. It should showcase the lives of Muslims like themselves using TV, papers, novels, films whatever i available. The common non-Muslim deserves to know what Islam really stands for. They must undo the damage that the conservatives have caused. A PR exercise is desperately needed.


• Muslim majority countries like Iran should lay off minorities like the Bahais. Educated Muslims should actively condemn Iran when it does something like this. Countries like Saudi Arabia should allow freedom of religious expression in their countries. Unless they're content to be knows as a hardline, conservative state. I as an educated, liberal, half-Muslim would be the first to condemn religious states!


• The Shia-Sunni divide needs to be bridged. This is easier said than done, but if the differences are irreconcilable, they should at least lay off each other. And guys like zakir naik should be condemned publicly if they mouth any hate.

Notice that I am not just saying "educated". I am saying "educated, liberal". There is a difference and that is the section in whose hands the image of Muslims worldwide lies today.

• The media doesn't seem to be helping on it's own. So there should be an active involvement with the media, a partnership that showcases the attitudes of people like Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Farooque Shaikh, the bin laden niece who made a magazine cover in America. People like Dinara Safina, Marat Safin, Sania Mirza & their parents.

I intend to do my two bits. This way while I can & more if I can later.

My mini-mission going forward is to impress upon each uber-conservative Muslim I come across, the importance of being as modern & liberal. And how it's important for their community to come across as that, if they're to contribute to solving the problems that face them today. I'm aware that most of them will take it as personal criticism & will react just the way I did as a teenager, but I must sow the seeds of the idea in their mind.

If you agree dear readers, please help me do the same. Please speak to every hardliner you come across & tell them to live their life as they would like their religion to be perceived. If they want to be viewed as progressive, educated, liberal, loving & peaceful, then they must be that themselves. Do spread the good word.

Weisz not Knighley

The Pune Times today carried a front page article on whether Keira Knightley is apt to essay Elize Doolittle in the remake of My Fair Lady. There were a load of views from everybody & nobody about how she is apt.
I personally have no doubt that she will be to pull of the early Eliza, but I have my doubts whether she will be able to match the grace that Audrey Hepburn exhibited as the revamped Ms. Doolittle. In my opinion, the actress who could come close to looking as graceful & as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn would be Rachel Weisz. That is one classical beauty.

The people polled are off as far other remakes too are concerned. Some suggest names like Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie or Drew Barrymore for Mary Poppins! Even Meg Ryan is considered, which I believe may not be too off. But I am biased here.
The only choice that seemed apt was Julia Roberts for Maria in The Sound of Music. As usual, it is Taran Adarsh who comes closest to being bang on.

Having said all of that, I think it is also important to consider that the makers are masters of showbiz & they know their jobs. Therefore, if they've picked Keira, they've probably done so with good reason.

Now that I've said both things, in the final analysis, does this post matter at all? I guess not! :-)

he's at it again...

This man just refuses to straighten out like the proverbial dog's tail.
He's at that old game again: If you can't argue with them, shatter their credibility by any means possible.
So in a soft-hindutva stance, shourie took on the Father of the Indian Constitution, in an abashed attempt to undermine Dr. Ambedkar's credibility among unsuspecting youth both upper & lower caste. What he doesn't realize of course is that his attempts are fairly see through.

Notice how he expresses his scant respect even for Mahatma Gandhi. He deliberately italicizes the ji suffix, so that it reads Gandhiji! He does the same with Satyagrah, but doesn't do the same with either Lokmanya, Swami or Sri. his bias comes out strongly here & gives us reason to further doubt his credibility.

As I have said before, this man is a danger to the fabric of unity that our nation is trying to maintain. He is not to be trusted & not to be taken seriously in this era.
And I sincerely hope history remembers him as the overtly biased, rabble rouser that he is, instead of the scholar-historian that some entities with vested interests HILARIOUSLY try & package him as.

Apparently I am not too much off the mark. I am not the only one that sees through him & is unafraid to call a spade a spade. Here are some links to what other people are saying about shourie; including respected historians like Ramchandra Guha:
http://www.ambedkar.org/research/GandhiAmbedkar.htm
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/aug/11paran.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/11/26/stories/13260411.htm
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2005/01/ambedkars-annihilation-of-caste.html
The first link above (an essay by Guha 1) is a specially good analysis.

deconstructing arun shourie

This led to this, and now we're here! What started it all was this article by the rabble rouser this post seeks to analyze.

Let us begin by refuting shourie's article point by point:

There are many reasons why someone would mock anyone else's "secular credentials". From the simple of jealousy that stems from feeling inferior in comparision, to the more sinister attempt to influence by the power of suggestion. What is important to note is that the latter stems from an insecurity of losing one's identity. Anyway, mocking a virtue doesn't make it any less of a virtue.

shourie's tendency to ramble makes it difficult to deal with his essay point by point. If you read it you will appreciate the effort I had to make to stay on track.

Hindutva in it's current form is not different from the Taliban's brand of Islam or for that matter any other totalitarian, violent approach.

shourie's meandered about for miles before finally summarizing that Hinduism gives it's followers the Violence go ahead. Yet he keeps referring to a difference that he doesn't seem to demonstrate clearly. Actually Mohammed too gave his followers the battle go ahead when there was no other way out. So there is similarity in the teachings. But shourie is no expert on either religion & must not be taken seriously. People devote entire lives to the study of religion, yet do not overcome the very basic language & contextual barriers so intrinsic to an in-depth understanding of any literature in a foreign language, let alone religion!

shourie is actually an expert at manipulation. He paints a picture of an India ruled savagely by non-Hindu rulers for thousands of years! He very conveniently forgets that across North & South India, the rulers were primarily Hindu by religion. Even under Mughal rule, there were Hindu Kings in other parts of the country. As for savagery, I suppose the savagery of battle in the Mahabharat, at Kalinga, and the patricide that Hindu kings (how I hate myself for having to use this term!) indulged in are meant to be forgotten because of the fact that they happened on what he considers "his side". As for the peaceful, unifying rule of Akbar, the progress in art & culture that India still lays claim to, that needs to be kept a well hidden secret. Typical RSS-BJP type misrepresentation of facts, doctoring of history & propaganda! Not expected of an arun shourie, but what the hell, the man's human!

He forgets conveniently that India has been primarily Hindu ruled, except for the Mughal period. Even in modern day India, no Muslim/Christian/Jewish/Parsi/Jain/Buddhist/Sikh/etc political party has come to power. The rulers have been Hindus. But wait... these aren't shourie's Hindus.. these are the despicable secular Hindus; the kind that have caused the downfall of the great Hindu state of India! The ones who're better dead than alive! Which is what explains why people like Gandhiji, Indira, Rajiv etc. kept getting assassinated, while their leaders continue to die of old age!

shourie's fogginess vis a vis the Palestinian-Arab religions as he puts it (he could just have used the generally accepted term Abrahamic!) is evident in his "exclusivist" statement! The truth is that Christianity recognizes Moses as a prophet, and Islam acknowledges both Moses & Jesus as preceding prophets. If he'd have read the Quran, he'd have known that Adam, Abraham, Noah and many others are also acknowledged as prophets.

Forget reading the Quran, even if he'd watched "The Message", he'd have learnt that the early Muslims took shelter with Christian kings of neighbouring areas. This shelter was granted to them when verses from the Quran were recited, clearly proving Jesus to be a prophet of both religions!

But shourie doesn't want you to know that! Assuming that he knows that himself, that is!

shourie also skilfully tries to dodge the Khajuraho question in response to the MF Husain argument. If it was OK for artisans to depict Gods & Goddesses in naked, thrusting glory then! on temple walls if you please! how come it isn't OK for Husain to depict them thus in his paintings?

Instead he tries to turn the argument to Husain's never having painted the "icons of Islam". He knows only too well that there are no icons in Islam. It is forbidden to paint or sculpt the prophet or his family lest Islam's message too gets lost among another idol worshipping mass of humanity!

At this point it is wholly clear that shourie's piece is not meant for the discerning reader. It is unmitigatedly targeted at further inciting newly English literate RSS sympathisers. It is a dangerous piece of writing & in an ideal scenario shourie would be in jail for acting against the interests of peace in our country! What is surprising is that the Indian Express chose not to see it like that!

More examples of his attempts to incite are here:

What does shourie mean by "serve as a warning to all who keep pushing Hindus around"? WHO is pushing Hindus around in a country where they're the dominant majority???

Or by "... Gandhiji’s incontestable greatness and the fact that it was so evidently rooted in his devotion to our religion... "? Our religion? Is he talking from a Hindu standpoint here? Or is he insinuating that the religion of India is Hinduism?

It doesn't matter. He is talking rubbish!

Now on to the deconstruction that I spoke of.

arun shourie was probably one of India's bravest journalists. All this happened while I was very young, but I have updated myself on shourie through that (often unreliable) source called Wikipedia.

shourie was with the Indian Express. A newspaper I respect. It was unafraid to speak the truth, it set benchmarks in investigative, truth-be-told journalism; what journalism should be. shourie was during his time with them, probably the biggest exponent of these values. so what happened then? how did he become the malicious rumour mongering arun shourie of today?

Well.. it so happened that the I.E. & shourie took on the ruling Congress party at that time & won a few crucial rounds. It was a laudable effort, they even succeeded in forcing AR Antulay's resignation on corruption charges! Unfortunately, they became victims of a witch-hunt, once the Congress came back to power, post the emergency debacle. Interestingly, the party that had briefly replaced them failed miserably.

I am inclined to believe that I.E. & shourie had no vested interests in their campaign, and that what followed was very unfair.

The pressure on I.E.'s owners it is said, forced them to give shourie the sack. You can imagine how traumatizing that must have been for an honest, eager journalist!

They didn't just take his job away from him. They took his career away from him!

I believe that something inside shourie snapped. he began hating everything that the Congress stood for. Even things like secularism!

he went from truthful journalist to shameless rumour monger!

I believe that for shourie, it isn't about national or even Hindu interest. It is about personal vendetta.

What he doesn't realize is that by becoming what he has, he let that handful of crooked elements in the Congress party win! he has become a caricature of what he once was, he has lost his credibility, he has let his detractors win. They wanted to finish him off. And they have succeeded.

Attempted Crosspost

The Monsoon hits Pune...!

Ah...! The fresh, clean, crisp air. The clean streets, the washed trees (as my Mom calls them), the fewer people on the roads... WONDERFUL!!!

I need to get drenched! On the outside as well as the inside!!! ;-)

There was lightning & loooouuuuuuud claps of thunder as well. I felt fresh just looking at it!

Today's day...

Originally posted on May 18th. Edited today. See bottom of post.

Today's been a little more packed than other days, despite it being a Sunday. Friends dropped in from Bombay (awfully nice of them!) and that made this Sunday a trifle less lazy!

From the moment I glanced at the papers this morning, I've meaning to write this post. Take a look at the day's headlines:
India tells China off on Sikkim! Great going India! Celebrate this instead of that rubbish called ipl!
Gurgaon techie held for posting derogatory messages against Sonia Gandhi on Orkut! WOW! I'm THRILLED TO BITS! The last time a student was arrested for bad mouthing modi, it didn't cause too much of a flutter. I'm waiting to see what happens this time. Wonder if there'll be any word from the Mutiny on this one.
Railway Porter No. 6362 at Kanpur Central is learning how to read, write! More power to Laloo I say! Laloo for PM!!! If people (I don't even wanna call them that!) are considering advani's name, I think Laloo is by far a better bet! Laloo daudega! Biharis will be safe in Bombay too!!!
Binayak Sen wins the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health & Human Rights! Great news! Another feather in India's cap! And a slap in the face for the bjp govt. in Chattisgarh! Yahoo!

One of my friends from Bombay, a Bihari Brahmin girl with no evinced Congress leanings was relating stories of how the right-wing extremists were putting up propaganda on websites and emails about how Sonia was the daughter of the Mafia and how she'd been planted at Cambridge to rijhao Rajiv Gandhi. The Mafia's idea apparently was to get access to effect deals like Bofors! WOW! What a story! Why can't these nobodies stop obsessing over the Nehru-Gandhi family?
She had more to add on the rss. Apparently a few years back, they sangh parivar stripped a woman in public in Gujarat because she was in jeans, offending Indian culture. These are the people you want in power? They strip women, they kill people from other religions. I can only hope there is truth in the saying, "Vinaash kaale, Viprit budhdhi"!
I went to Landmark in the evening, where the first book on your left as you step out of the lift is "The men who killed Gandhi". I pushed back my nausea and leafed through it. It seems to be an account of the events that led a bunch of mentally ill men to plan the assassination of "The Father of the Nation", an over 80 year old man, one whose ideas for India differentiated us on the global map from other countries. The book ends with a photo of the killer and a line that says something to this effect: "... a hero to the millions who believe that he was right in killing Gandhi"!
I am aghast at how such books do not face censorship in India. Are we taking this tolerant attitude, this freedom of speech thing too far? Are we going to allow a generation of youngsters who do not know the truth to read this crap, and believe that Gandhiji deserved to be shot & that that despicable low-life who shot him was a hero??? Like I've said before, History is fair! The likes of fawkes, hitler, booth, oswald & godse will always be remembered as cold-blooded, mentally ill men, but despite that, this book is taking things too far. I'd say give it a miss. The writer doesn't deserve any reading. May he too be remembered as a traitor!

It's been a long day...

June 3rd edit: One commenter said that he's glad that we don't burn effigies like is done on Guy Fawkes Day in the UK. Actually this is a brilliant idea. In India we burn effigies of living politicians as a mark of protest (among more vile things). Nothing should stop us from burning an effigy of godse every 30th January. We will call it the Indian Guy Fawkes Day! We will commemorate the sad loss of India's Greatest Son at the hands of a cold blooded murderer. Who wants to popularize this? Let's start with communities on Orkut & Facebook! We can even request the Brits to burn 2 effigies every Guy Fawkes Day, one of godse added! And we can return the favour by burning a Guy Fawkes effigy! We're in the Commonwealth after all!
I want to understand what godse would've done had he still been around? Would he have denounced raj thakarey for destroying India's unity? No... wait a minute... He didn't murder Gandhiji in the nation's interest. He murdered Gandhiji in the "Hindu" interest.
Even then, would he have publicly chided raj for destroying "Hindu" unity, by targeting "Hindus" from UP & Bihar? No... I don't think so. He would've sided with his state in all probability. So why exactly did The Father of My Nation, a peace loving man, get murdered (& maligned these days) while these rascals get away with murder & are considered demi-Gods?
I think we deserve every bit of trouble that comes to India. If we can't stand up & speak out against what is wrong, if we don't want to do anything about it, if we want to defend murderers & racists, we deserve all this trouble. I can see a civil war coming. With vested interests outside of India feeding on our lack of unity, I can definitely see it coming! Unless we wake up fast. Unless we denounce all these small time crooks & tell them that you cannot tear us Indians apart!

Another not so bad day...

29th May 2008:
News headlines again... Not so bad at all. Fairly encouraging.

The first one that caught my eye saddened my a whole lot. The Indian Express reported an MP minister as having said: "give quotas to beggars who seek it", in response to the recent and ongoing reservation stir. In 21st century India, caste is alive & kicking! Read here.
They say every dark cloud has a silver lining: The fact that it was a bjp minister who said it, in the presence of the bjp CM of Madhya Pradesh is news to take heart from. The more confident & aggressive these people get, the more they expose themselves. Slowly but surely, the country will seem them for who they are & this ugly daag will disappear from the face of Indian political consciousness. For that day, I pray.

Nitish Katara's murderers, Vikas Yadav & Vishal Yadav convicted, despite being well connected! A victory of the Indian judicial system! It gladdens the heart to know that you could be a politician's son, but you cannot get away with murder in this country. All this celebration is a little premature. We still have to ensure that the perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots are brought to justice. We still have to ensure that bal t & raj t are brought to justice. We still need answers to who killed Syed Modi & why is he still roaming free?
This will do very well for a start though. It's a message for us never to back down from demanding justice, to keep at it until we get justice! I hope every Indian is getting this message.

Nepal becomes a republic. Welcome to the secular republic fold people. You have great responsibility and great challenges ahead of you. All the best. May you succeed!

"SIMI faction at helm of all-India terror network": DNA.
Great! Step in the right direction. We know at least which organization was responsible for the terror attacks. So the next step is to curb all activities of this faction! Make it's very existence difficult. Apprehend it's terrorists. And then talk to the terrorists who comprise this network. Ask them what they have against India. If they have any valid arguments, we must fix them immediately, so that we don't have any more organizations like this rising.

For Infosys, growth will take place ‘outside Pune’
The mns has hopefully shot itself in the foot. Instead of giving a boost to employment in Maharashtra, they've managed to send jobs away from Pune! GREAT! I am always the happiest when people like raj fuck up! FANTASTIC News! Suffer buggers suffer!

And here's what a right-winger in power is capable of. Indian's, I've been saying it for very long and I'll say it again... BEWARE!
Hopefully Bush will be brought to justice for his misdemeanours. If not civil/criminal justice, maybe divine justice; but I'd be glad to see him suffer in some form!

That's it for now.

Indulge me

I'm poetically handicapped. Totally so! Having 5 poets in the family doesn't help, but I'm indulging a recent urge to try my hand at it. Apologies for subjecting you to this, but here goes anyway...
Critique invited. Biting critique welcome as well.

The mind wants Peace
Not fragmented pieces
No conflict, but unity
Ah… my mind eases...

Mann chaahe shaanti
Na ki tukde toote toote
Sangharsh nahin, Ekagrata!
Aah… yeh mera mann loote...!

I would've liked to do an Urdu version, but unfortunately my Urdu is about as good as a dog's meow.

Unaware of Human Rights Violations?

A recent discussion here left me searching Google for Amnesty International articles on Human Rights violations (specially wrt to "Hindus") in Bangladesh & Pakistan. Google readily threw up many Bangladesh links (but no Pakistan links, although I'd have expected more of those!) & I went through some of these, surprised at how this had eluded well-informed old me for so long!

So for everyone who wants to be better informed vis a vis Human Rights Violations worldwide, please subscribe to Amnesty's e-zine here.
And for those who want to contribute in a small way, you can take their survey here.

One thing that is still unclear is how these truly deplorable human rights violations are being referred to as "ethnic cleansing". When exactly did that happen?

Art Exhibition in Pune! Calling all art-lovers!

On Mother's Day, Yasmin Zaidi pays a Floral Tribute to her Mother who passed away last year.

The "oils on canvas" series is around flowers and is marked by some excellent detailed work, something normally not seen in modern art.

The Exhibition titled "Mother's Day - A Floral Tribute" begins on Mother's Day, Sunday, 11th May 2008, at the Corinthian's Club, and will continue for a few weeks. Be there for the opening at 11 AM, if you would like to meet the artist...

Yasmin Zaidi has been drawing and painting for nearly forty years now. She has always had a keen eye for colour and composition and an enduring love of nature, which dominates her painting.
However, she has not needed to retreat into the wilderness to transmit this love onto canvas. She has sought, and found, beauty in small gardens in crowded suburbs, bouquets of cut flowers and wild trees fighting against the overbearing concrete in urban spaces. She considers the creation of anything beautiful a "co-creation with the Creator".
The artist comes from a family that has had a close association with various forms of art. Her father Padma Shri Ali Jawad Zaidi was a poet and a scholar; her daughter is a journalist and poet, and her grandfather also painted, though not professionally.
Some of Zaidi's early poems were published by various newspapers and journals and she has painted for and written a children's alphabet book. Her long career in education meant spending at least two decades imparting her painting skills to young and eager students. Post-retirement, she has picked up the brush again and has been painting full time and much of her recent work has been almost exclusively centred around flowers.

Must-visit places in and around Pune... and lesser ones

So what else does Pune have on offer?

First on my list is the Aga Khan Palace. Apart from the pretty edifice and the lawns of what used to be a princely residence, the fact that the Father of the Nation spent a couple of years here makes it well worth a visit. The first time I visited it, I was showing a firangi friend around.
Once we were through with a brief history of the Aga Khans at the ticket counter (you have to ask for this, it isn't part of the tour), we went through the well-labelled rooms, each housing a mini museum to it's famous residents. In fact, so well labelled are the rooms, and so well arranged are the artifacts that one doesn't even need a guide!
It is a great insight into the greatness of the man who is more known for getting India her freedom. Gandhiji's drives around ridding India of untouchability apart from his famous freedom movement initiatives, actually brought tears to my eyes. My firang friend could see that I was moved. I thanked him for coming over as it had given me the opportunity to visit the place.
It is here that Gandhiji lost two of his closest confidantes, his secretary of many years who he treated like a son & his wife Kasturba. Both their samadhis are here, quiet places, strangely in sync with the quiet personalities they seemed to have had.

Shaniwarwada: The place looks like it is falling apart, but it is a tribute to the construction of the monument that it still stands despite it being totally gutted in a fire a few hundred years back. The wooden part of the palace of the Peshwa is totally destroyed, but the stone building still stands practically intact.
The gardens and the water fountains probably give you an insight into the planning & artistry of the Maratha rulers, something they're not well known for.

Lal Mahal: I have only seen it from the outside, as it unfortunately has restricted viewing hours. It is still on my viewing list as I am very keen on seeing what I had hitherto only read about in Amar Chitra Kathas; specially since it has to do with a great king, one whose name has been usurped by & spoilt for political purposes.

Sinhgadh: Fort that was witness to one of the Marathas' greatest victories. Site of the martyrdom of one of Shivaji's greatest generals, Tanaji. Apart from that it is a very green area, where one visit could render the senses fresh.

Lesser places (I guess this varies depending on one's interest) are the temples in Pune.

Dagdusheth & Chaturshringhi, the two that I visited with my firangi friend are deviod of any notable architecture. They're essentially places of faith that are famous I guess for the throngs they attract. One notable thing about Dagdusheth is the amount of gold used in it's inner chamber. It makes ones jaw drop.

Any other ideas about what one can visit in Pune?

Crossposted

Bad Quality of Massages in Pune

Anyone who has experienced an authentic Kerela Ayurvedic massage will know what I am talking about here. A Kerela Ayurvedic massage has to be experienced to be believed. The one I tried was in Goa, at the health club of the beautiful Club Mahindra resort at Varca. An hour long session of pure bliss, which relaxes you to a degree you can only experience not read about.

So when I came to Pune, I thought of going for another Kerela Ayurvedic massage. I called up JustDial & got the number of one heavily advertised centre called Jeevana! I fixed up an appointment & reached them at the appointed hour.
I must state on record, that it was the worst massage I had ever received in my life. It did the exact opposite of relax me, the two massuers were working up a fire on my stomach with their palms. And once I was done, they didn't even have a proper steam room in which to quietly enjoy one's steam bath!!!
And this is true of every other so-called Ayurvedic massage spa in Pune. They don't have steam baths. The have a bag which they put you in & put a kettle in with you!!! It's hilarious!!! Call up JustDial & take the number of anyone who claims to be an Ayurvedica Massage Spa & ask them whether they have a proper steam room. I can guarantee you that they will say no!

Jeevana is an exercise in pulling wool over the public's eyes! Avoid it at all costs!

The next massage I tried was at the health club at the Le Meridien Pune. I must say that the massage was good. It succeeded in putting me to sleep in 40 minutes flat. I wish I'd opted for the hour long one instead of the 45 minute one!

The third one I tried was at the health club at the very elegant Corinthians Club. (The Nyati group makes some beautiful buildings! I must say that they're probably one of the best builders I have seen!) However, this one would probably qualify as either worse than Jeevana or equally bad! In their defence, they're not a speciality massage spa, while Jeevana claims to be one! They need to train their current masseuse better or outsource the spa to someone else. I have provided them with the contact details of person who runs the Goa spa. Let's see what they do. They do have a proper steam bath though!

There is a Naturopathy Institute that apparently offers a good massage, but that is one I still have to try!

So essentially, my 2 years in the city could lead me to believe that there is only one thing to be said for Pune: that they have a variety of very interesting food joints! Is that all that the city has to offer?
I will very grudgingly say, "Not really". There are a couple of interesting places to visit in Pune. Not too many but that in a separate post.

Pune - Foodie's Paradise

Despite my utter dissatisfaction with the Pune's traffic situation & it's citizens WRT the traffic situation, Pune does have quite a few things to be thankful for. The greenery in it's army areas, the tree-lined, shady roads, the old colonial homes.
What's that? You don't want to know what retirees enjoy? You want to know what a migrant yuppie moving to the city can look forward to?

Well, there's the food... Pune is literally the foodie's paradise!

There are no discos worth going to, the multiplexes & malls aren't anything to write home about, but the glut of restaurants that spoil you for choice... aah!

From the ubiquitous, humble Joshi & Rohit vadewale to the surprisingly unpretentious Arthur's Theme & Swiss Cheese Garden, from Sheesha Cafe (despite it's snobbish owner) serving Iranian fare, to the newly opened Litti Chokha (run by 4 very friendly software professionals, all under 30!) serving humble Bihari fare with pride. Litti Chokha is in Katraj, near BVP. The landmark is Care & Cure Girls Hostel.
Mind you, none of the fare can be called truly authentic, but like I said, Pune is the foodie's paradise, not the gastronome's!

Take Arthur's Theme in Koregaon Park for example. They've kept some basic French dishes on the menu, changed them a little to suit the Indian palate, and crammed the rest of the menu with regular Continental & Indian stuff. The least one would expect going to a French restaurant would be some nice wine, but their selection disappoints!
The ambience is nice, not overtly classy, but the type that a group of friends would enjoy a trifle more than a family.
It's not the kind of place you'd go to if you were looking for a quiet classy evening though.

Sheesha Cafe, at ABC Farms on the Koregaon Park-Mundhwa road, has something called the Chello-Burg Kabab (I hope I got the name right), which is essentially a meat dish with rice. It's laden with butter, which makes it great for the tongue but terrible for your arteries! A once in a year kind of calorie indulgence, but well worth it!
Make sure you try & get one of the corner seating areas instead of the tables in the centre. They're carpeted takhats, and you can put your feet up & relax.
Classier ambience wise than anything else I've visited in Pune. Plus they have Jazz festivals!

Anyone who wants a taste of Marwar (the part of Rajasthan that borders Gujarat), should go to Chokhi Dhani! It's a little outside the city; they had to since they require a lot of space to develop that mela atmosphere! Keep driving down past The Aga Khan palace until you start seeing signs for Chokhi Dhani.
To people who've never been to Rajasthan, the entire experience is amazing. To someone like me who hasn't been "home" in 9 years, it's a fairly close reminder of what life used to be like there!

There's Mainland China, an import from Bombay, but extremely popular! Looks like Chinese food is probably the most popular foreign cuisine in India!
Right next to it stands an Italian joint called La Dolce Vita, one I still have to sample.
And after that is Sigri with some of the most uninspiring fare in all of Pune. Give it a miss!
(All the three mentioned above are near Dhole Patil road, in a bylane off Pune Central)

Another place that has great food & some nice wine as well is Nawabs. Nawabs is above Aakar Furniture, on the Blue Nile-Inox road. Peppy music (fairly loud though), great kababs, the kind of place a bunch of migrant yuppies would feel home at!

Northern Frontier, opposite the Aga Khan Palace, apparently serves the best Mutton Roganjosh in the city. This is something I have yet to sample, and I will get back to you after authenticating this claim.

Another place that makes a mean Roganjosh is Chillies at Elysium (a little ahead of ABC Farms on the opposite side of the road)! Worth a try, just for that, although the place is essentially a party/shaadi hall these days!

I cannot close this post without mentioning what is now called Not Just Jazz by the Bay (very outdated website! It's located at ESQUARE). It's my favourite restaurant in Bombay, but the Pune one doesn't thrive the way the Bombay one does. I'm certain this has to do with the lifestyle choice differences that exist between the cities. The Bombay Jazz is packed on weekends & you have to pay to enter. In contrast the Pune one is barely hanging in there. It is badly in need of some patronage. Hopefully the yuppie migrant population is listening!

The reason Jazz suffers so in Pune are many. The Long Island Iced Tea of the Bombay joint is worth killing for. As is it's Macroni & Cheese! The Pune one serves a Long Island you wish you had made instead. And the worst feature of the restaurant is it's manager. A moustached man in a funny green suit, who has the worst manners of any customer service professional ever!

Go to Jazz by all means, but give him hell please!

AND... the latest eatery to open up in the city, jostling for space among the surplusage in Koregaon Park (just before Tequeela), differentiated purely by virtue of it's organic health food menu is Liquid! The young owner & his team whip up some great salads & fresh fruit juices that are a must for every health conscious foodie! No added sugar, no added water, just pure tasty fruit juice blends. My personal favourite is the one they call Ultimate Detox! And there's a Tuna salad for me! The vegetarians may want to try the Broc Doc. You may also want to sample some of the regular coolers.
Perfect way to beat the summer heat: Eat light, eat green! Go check it out & post your comments here as feedback!

Crossposted

twerp!

This is one thing I have to get out of my system. You come across all kinds of animals in the blogosphere, but some of them get your goat so bad that despite being unworthy of even a whisper, happen to merit special mention. One such absolute twerp is shaan khan.

I don't know much about the bounder but by the looks of it he is a mulish, wet behind the ears, galling gadfly.

I'd rarely say anything so venomous about anyone, but this one like I said deserves special mention. He also contributes to a theiving site that reproduces my posts without permission, he freely deletes comments from the comments forum if the views don't agree with his. It is impossible to have an intelligent conversation with him (partly because of the absolute lack of intellect on his part) because he deletes any comment that proves his point of view wrong. Like a little schoolboy tearing out pages from a rival's homework!

One look at a few of his posts (please do forgive me for forwarding you there) shows how biased his writing & reviewing is. He has the temerity to be disappointed with Khuda ke Liye, he constantly writes lewd posts about Abhishek-Aishwarya (no well brought up boy would say all that), he considers Jodha-Akbar to be a bad movie, he has an irritating contant anti-Bachchan stance, he can't even spell stellar right! And worst of all, he considers the movie that murdered the sweet memory of Karz, OSO a better film than the ones we just mentioned!

So once all of you have gone through the links & read his puerile vomit once, please do stay away from his bullcrap!

11 match ban??? Is that all???

Looks like the Pakis have more balls than us!

Shoaib Akhtar is handed a life ban for hitting a colleague.

Shane Warne was out of the game for 2 years(?) in his prime because of a drug-related charge.

And Harbhajan gets a piddly 11 match ban?????????

We're truly a nation of losers!

Ban the offie for a minimum of 1 year from all forms of the game! That's the minimum punishment he deserves! 2 would be really nice!
That's the ONLY thing that will teach him a lesson! That's the only thing that will ensure that when he comes back, his temprament has undergone a change. Let him use the free time to undergo anger management lessons!

He has shamed all of us and totally embarassed us in front of the Aussies!

Ethnicity, Politics or Progress?

Thankfully the discussion on this Blogathon is around a pet topic, one that will not unduly tax the limited resources at my disposal.
Ever since we gained some social consciousness, through newspapers & DD Samachar, thanks to the GK & Current Affairs awareness drives in school, it was amply clear that politics in India was inextricably intertwined with the despicable religion-caste-ethnicity mix! So one didn't react too much to the situation as we didn't know any better!
Until PV Narsimha Rao became India's Prime Minister! & appointed Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister! For the first time since my socio-political awakening, I was witnessing a period where the Government focused solely on development issues. Every move of theirs, every newspaper article was chronicling globalization, open-markets, economy, growth, development etc. The leading opposition party (as is their wont) tried to drag PVN Rao into political debate, into religion & caste issues, but Rao didn't bite the bait. He had his agenda right. He would give his country something new to talk about! That was the first time that everyone in the country was talking about Development! That was the first time that the Finance Minister was a bigger hero than the Home Minister & the Defence Minister combined! That was the first time that we heard of the Montek Singh Ahluwalias of the world. Suddenly uma bharti, ashok singhal & the shahi imam(?) ceased to exist in socio-political conversations! WOW!!!
This is something that Dr. Singh has tried to replicate in his tenure as PM. Unfortunately this is something that he or his party cannot do alone. If the opposition is truly nationalist, then they must join hands in this movement & commit to keeping the discussions around areas that pertain to development. Maybe someone needs to put a code in place, the way an EC code exists?
I was recently talking to one of my ex-bosses about the state of India's affairs, and he said the very same thing! He pointed out that there was only one thing that made us shift focus from politics to development. And that was Economics! And now that the Commerce juggernaut has started to roll, it will only gather more momentum! Once people in the villages realise that it is development that will feed them, clothe them & educate their young, they too will cut ties with parties focused on petty religious-caste-ethnicity centred politics! And that day, a new India will rise!
In my humble opinion, India needs a unifying force. And that unifying force will be Economics! When the money starts to roll in people forget about caste differences. I am certain that India's BPO industry is replete with examples where the reporting structure has shattered caste or gender norms! And not one subordinate whether upper caste or male, has the guts to say anything! His newly acquired lifestyle is at stake!
So let Economics rule! Let Commerce rule! And watch a unified India take shape!

Jai_Choorakkot's Question

Jai seems to be fairly popular in the blogosphere despite his own blog not having been updated for years now! This is the second post one of this comments has inspired, and I'm happy to answer the question he raised here:
http://indianmuslims.in/amar-akbar-anthony/
Jai,
Your reference to the propaganda on the right-wing site intrigued me a lot. I wanted to speak to the more learned elders in my family to learn more about this, but didn't get the opportunity. So I looked it up on the net.
One only needs to know the name of the Prophet Muhammad's so-called "child-bride" to get the right results in Google. Her name was Ayesha.
http://www.guidedones.com/metapage/frq/Aisha.htm
The comments here are from the likes of Dr. Annie Besant, not indoctrinated mere nobodies.
Most interesting is Geoffrey Parrinder's comment. Or should I say the non-reaction of the Church to his comment. This is what I find admirable in Christianity & the West. You can lampoon anyone, burn the flag if you please, depict Christian sects as evil, but it will not elicit a violent reaction, nor stupid PIL's, nor despicable fatwas! We really should learn all this from them instead of importing high-fat burger chains from them. Don't you think?

Cinegod...!

With everyone from A to Z in Bollywood being given some epithet or the other, with ALL of them being referred to as superstars or megastars, where does that leave those who are head and shoulders above the rest?
If hrithik is a greek god, if srk is king khan, what does one call Mr. Bachchan? A superstar? Just another superstar? Where's the distinction?
To be fair, Rajnikanth did say that there is only one Shahenshah & that is Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, but the press isn't given to using too many epithets with Mr. Bachchan. This may have to do with his earlier relationship with the press, but boy do those guys hold a grudge!

So coming back to the point of this post: What does someone address a Supernova of Mr. Bachchan's stature as?

I cannot think of a better suited word than Cinegod!

Awaam ki raae...?

The men with the silvern touch...

Not Midas obviously, but close. This is a person whose antics I have resented in the past (with valid reasons at that point in time), but with more maturity & a calmer disposition, not anymore.

Shahrukh Khan. Much of what I said about him previously on this blog & in conversations, I still stand by; but one thing I cannot take away from the guy... practically everything he touches turns to silver. Despite limited acting, he still draws in the crowds; despite doing the same type of movies repeatedly, he still manages to set the cash registers ringing (largely). His touch seems to worked with the Calcutta team in the IPL circus, and the KBC debacle (and the DON damp-squib) notwithstanding, by the looks of it, he is set to romp home with his latest quiz show on TV.

Not that others don't outdo him in all these areas. Aamir, Saif, Hrithik etc. are better actors (and with probably better track records); Akshay reportedly is paid more than him these days. Shekhar Suman's rip off of Jay Leno did better than Khan's KBC... Yet Shahrukh makes all the news. And I am past blaming his PR machinery for that. They're only doing a good job of what they're hired to do!

On a separate note, it is sad that Shekhar Suman doesn't get the celebrity he deserves. The man is probably older than Khan, built up a great physique before Khan, recorded an album (in the process adding to his already long list of many many talents!), yet it was Shahrukh's apparent six-pack that made the news! Quite a shame actually.

Yet, it isn't all of that that I admire the man for. I have very little respect for SRK the actor, but I have immense respect for the man.
To the casual observer, he seems blessed, a modern day Midas (that's why I said silvern. I wouldn't wish that on anyone!); but anyone who has delved a little deeper will realise that he has had more than his share of misfortunes. His parents died young, his sister apparently still suffers from the impact of those early blows. He's had a serious spine problem. He has to face critics like me, worse probably, all the time. Yet the man carries on bravely!
It is this trait that I admire most about him. His ability to keep on moving.
He has got to a point where he doesn't let criticism bother him too much, and this is a trait very few men can develop. He is content to be who he is, and make himself successful with his limited means. Very admirable traits!

So, all the best Shahrukh. Keep on moving!

Similarly, Hrithik. Leads an apparently perfect life, looks like God sculpted him with His own hands; but look a little closer and you'll see. Hrithik isn't perfect. For all his God-made looks, he has two thumbs that give the impression of a claw. And the man has developed the guts to flaunt it on screen. His father was shot at by goons. He was unsure of the industry, unsure of whether he'd be able to make it, yet he hung in there, dug deep and gave it his best shot! And look what he came up with! Again & again!
No one is perfect, no one has it easy, everyone has to stand up & be brave, face his fears, & fight to come out a winner. Hrithik has done all of that and handles immense pressure. Till now. And my he continue to do so. All the best dude!

And who knows pressure better than Sachin Tendulkar? Who has people writing him off time & again? And who slams cricket ball after cricket ball deep down the throats of his critics to silence them again & again? Despite 20 years in the game having taken a toll on his body & mind, despite numerous surgeries, despite recent recurrent injury enforced hiatuses from the game, who comes up trumps again & again? Sachin Tendulkar! Absolutely Saluteworthy!

To these men of mettle...

I'm a fair man

I never thought I'd get round to doing this, so never say never again.
I saw Chak De a few days back. And I'm going to retract part of what I said earlier. And I don't do this grudgingly, I do this with a touch of respect & admiration.
SRK is not a bad actor as I may have sometimes over-aggressively claimed. He is an actor that decides to do good work in patches. Chak De has him in probably the 2nd best performance of his career. Mr. Bachchan's influence over filmdom's collective conciousness is evident even in SRK. In the scene when he's talking to the 2 warring forwards before the final, there are not just shades of Mr. Bachchan, but it almost seems like Mr. Bachchan has taken on a shorter, younger body! ;-)
To be fair there are some scenes that could've been done better. For example the coach pep-talking the team scenes were a little insipid in comparision to Hollywood sports movies. Remember the Titans? But for that one has to talk to the director. Can't blame SRK for everything. I'm actually a little tired of blaming him now. Yes he could've turned the scene around if he wanted to, but compared to what he has been doing recently, this will do just fine. Yes, this will do very well!
Kudos Shahrukh! If only we got to see more of this stuff.

more on balatkar

I was going through sitemeter's stats recently to check details of the incoming traffic to this blog.
Would you believe that about 35% of all people who come to this blog are sent here by Google searches for the word "balatkar"!!!
It just gives you a idea of the number of wierdos that abound on the net.
Probably explains why we encounter so many wierdos in the comments section on the Mutiny...! ;-)

Maybe I should publish IP details of all the people who visited via the "balatkar" gateway... Interesting thought...

Why can they not leave the Nehru-Gandhi clan alone?

What is it with people in this country? Why're they obsessed with the Nehru-Gandhi clan??? And WHY on earth are they obsessed with the negative?

Sonia Gandhi commutes Nalini's sentence from death to life and there's no applause from her detractors. Maybe because her detractors are killers by nature and have no respect for greater virtue...

Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra visits her father's killer in jail, in an attempt to bury the ghosts that may have haunted her for years and what do I see the next day? Yahoo India carrying a poll on their home page, submitted by a lowly user, asking whether Priyanka's visit is a pre-election stunt???

Only the lowly can think so low.

Crossposted

History & lies

Recently, whenever I quote from History, I have often been told that History is written by the ruler or the victor, therefore implying that whatever I know about India or the world is a lopsided even untrue view of things.

It is this claim that I seek to challenge with my post.

If History is indeed written by the victor or the ruler, how is it that we remember the 1857 Mutiny as our first war of Independence? We lost the damn war didn't we? Yet, we seem to have very clear accounts of the heroism of Mangal Pandey, Rani Laxmibai, Tatya Tope, Tipu Sultan etc. How come we've never heard of the Britishers heroics in that war?

We seem to have very clear memories of Porus conversation with ol' Alex & ensuing honourable discharge; despite Alexander being the victor.

We remember Siraj-ud-Daula as a hero despite his loss at the Battle of Plassey. Mir Jafar who won the battle for the British is remembered as a traitor.

How is it that the Indians heroism is well documented (including Sitting Bull's victory over Custer, an American war hero) despite them having lost overall to the marauding early Americans?

History is fair. It isn't only commissioned by the ruler. There are independent scholars who write it as well, taking into account a number of facts.

So where does this recent phenomenon of lamblasting known History come from? Where does this lamblasing of our schooling as British fed or Congress fed (or Macauly led!!!) come from?

I'll tell you. It's the recently English literate right-wing. After centuries of wallowing amongst dead languages, they've given up & adopted the medium of instruction that will give them access to PR machinery and media (in addition to better paying jobs). And they're using it to further their evil purposes!

I've heard that the Purana Qila excavations have unearthed artifacts about 2500 years old. Great news! I've yet to see a news item that boldly proclaims that 5000 year old remains of Indraprastha have been found! But rumours abound...

Soon, I guess there'll be a theory propogated that the Taj Mahal was actually built by a descendant of Chandragupta Maurya, but the ruling Mughals tampered with History & usurped his claim to it.

That's it ladies & gentlemen... the difference between History & lies!

Another time, another country, another martyr...

This was supposed to go up on the Mutiny, but their editors seem a trifle busy at the moment (with more contributors than they can handle!).

I sometimes wonder why we don't celebrate World Martyrs. We speak in glowing terms about Gandhiji (and we should!); there was recently a post on Bhagat Singh (and a well deserved one!). There was a wonderful live-blogging experiment to commemorate the martyrs in India's first war of Independence!

If this is so because the Mutiny intends to focus only on issues that concern India & Indians, maybe I have my answer; but the kind of people that started & run the Mutiny, and my conversations with them, makes me believe that they don't intend to limit the remit of the Mutiny to only what happens in India.

So again, are only our martyrs deserving of remembrance? Not to me. Those kind souls who have been reading my comments, posts and blog will know that national boundaries, concepts of race, birth, origin etc. mean nothing to me. So here's remembering one of the world's foremost men, on the day he was martyred.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 to April 15, 1865):

Anyone who has read anything about the man cannot help being inspired by Lincoln. He was a colossus who strode through the consciousness of the American public then & continues to inspire thousands more today. (Thankfully, no imbecile can blame this on Macaulay!). He is remembered primarily for his abolishment of slavery in America, (and as it often happens to people who fight for equal rights for the underdog) for being the first American President to be assassinated. He is remembered for his leadership during the Civil War, despite his thorough dislike of of the ills of war. Quite a contrast from his trigger happy current day counterparts. One can't even speak of them in the same breath!

I present a few links that will give an insight into the mind of a man of strong values, a leader of men who fought when the cause was right, a man who believed in the equality of man irrespective of colour, region (among other bullshit) etc., and a man of immense humility:

Lincoln's letter to the Headmaster of the school his son went to.

Lincoln's letter to a lady who lost her sons in the Civil War. What other man would do/has done something like this?

Not many people know that Abe was not formally schooled as a young boy. He educated himself & went on to qualify as a lawyer. Not many people know that he single-handedly & successfully defended himself against a band of robbers once. The attack left a telltale scar that is visible in his photos. Not many people are aware that he had a string of failures (as a lawyer, as a businessman, as a Vice-Presidential candidate) before he finally made it as President, and the most respected President in America's history ever! Very few people realize that often it takes time to realize one's true potential, but when one does...

Don't we too need a leader like him that does away with the differences in our society? Even at the cost of a civil war? Maybe not, then again maybe...

Airtel Indictment!!!

Link from a post that I put up on the Mutiny.
Mutiny uses Wordpress, which has some amazing features, but it's pro-tech-savvy approach sometimes makes the most simple tasks like linking to a photo extremely difficult. So here's the original photo in a more viewable format. Enjoy!

Spread the good word!

The Genesis of Wanderlust

If you've grown up travelling boxed in a huge rectangle on metal wheels, it is unlikely that you will be an avid traveller. If you spent most of your journeys devouring Hardy Boys & Enid Blytons on the top berth, you are even more unlikely to undertake a journey just for the journey!

If however, you naturally relate to verdant hillsides, lush green woods, the sound of gushing streams; if you know what it feels like after 5 minutes under a waterfall that's crashing on to your back and head, you genetic inclination may have triumphed over your circumstances! Wanderlust may still get you!

Man was meant to be an outdoors animal. This entire business of air-conditioned offices & laptops is ungodly!!!

I'd been mentioning this to a friend of mine for some time & he's been goading me to accompany him on a bike ride through the wilderness, but my conditioning kept making me postpone the trip. Finally about 2 weekends ago, I made the trip.

I travelled on Saturday night to Bombay, where we were to begin the trip from early Sunday morning. Now early mornings are not something BPO-ites are programmed to do; but we did manage to set out by a very sunny 11 AM. We made 2 stops for fuel before we hit the highway out of Bombay. 2 fuel stops, you ask? What were we riding? No, the Thunderbird isn't a fuel guzzler but we are!!! So after the Bharat Petroleum stop, we rode to Dara's Dhaba, parked the Thunderbird and swaggered in. We looked for a nice shady charpai, got rid of the shades, leaned back and ordered a hops flavoured brew that is more coolant than fuel! The shade cooled us from the outside, the brew from inside, light snacks & some heavy conversation (my friend leans towards the right & I'm a moderate) later, we were smiling relaxed smiles & looking forward to the trip.

Surbex T (my friend, the biker) decided to ride first as I'd never ridden the Thunderbird for long distances before this, least of all on the highway. It was my first bike-trip after all!

Surbex turned out to be a road-rules respecting rider, and initially I tried getting into the swing of things by trying to appreciate the multi-hued scenery that you encounter on the highway out of Mira-Bhayandar; but the fun caught up when I started enjoying what we had set out to enjoy... the ride! The sheer excitement of watching the Thunderbird gobble up road, knowing that you're leaving the city & vehicles behind, just enjoying the experience of being on a bike. If it weren't for the helmet, the wind-in-your-face element that is such an inseparable part of enjoying a bike ride, would've added to the thrill! I am of course omitting that the dust would've played havoc with your eyes, face & hair, but that's what city-slickers think like. I must think like a rider!

I took over from Surbex, after a while. I've always found the Thunderbird very easy to handle, and slowly I let her rip! I got to 104 kmph when I felt Surbex gently tapping me on the shoulder. Out of respect for his nerves (not mine, mind you!), I came back to cruise mode. The thrill of that short stretch, the experience of "biking" was slowly putting me in a very good mood!

We stopped at Mastan Naka to "re-fuel". A light lunch of Dal-Fry & Kadak Tandoori Roti later, we were on our way to Sajjan.

The road that leads away from Mastan Naka towards Sajjan, takes you into a different world altogether. It is impossible to imagine that merely 80 kms outside of Bombay, there are villages where people live in thatched roof houses & draw water from wells! India truly is bounteous and diverse!!!

As you go on, the road gets more & more deserted, the ride gets quieter and the air gets cooler. You pass Sajjan and head towards the Dam that Surbex keeps talking about as if it's paradise. I can understand why he speaks of it there. He's been there so often, done such speakable (& unspeakable) things there, that he practically owns the place.

About 30 minutes after we took the turn from Mastan Naka, Surbex goes off the road. We ride over the gently undulating dirt path for a while, then the Thunderbird skillfully negotiates a slight rise in the dirt road & suddenly we're in view of this vast expanse of cool, deep-blue water body. This is our destination. It's a river that has been stopped by the damn & the reservoir is straight out of Nat Geo!!!

It's fairly close to what Surbex has been describing it as. It's peaceful, it's cool, it's quiet. We spend some time in idle chatter. Surbex is distraught because his favourite tree has fallen. He oscillates between decrying this to me & talking to the stump of the tree... yes, I have some very strange friends. At least they're all real friends!

We proceed to the small waterfall that is formed by the dam letting some water through. It's not an easy path. One has to be almost goat-like sure-footed in order to reach it without slipping & falling! The water actually falls from a height & has the potential to hurt less able-bodied people! Surbex & I strip down to our undies (or his undies & my boxers to be precise) & venture under the "waterfall". Initially the force of the waterfall is a little intimidating; but we're brave young men. Plus we're already semi-naked, so no point turning back now. (How many times have you done that, huh?) So we slip under the waterfall, and let it beat down upon our heads, neck & backs. It's cold & we slip out almost instantly. Then we realize that it's colder outside when you're wet, so we slip back right under it. I had to because my left arm cramped the first time I went under it. So I went under it the second time to let the force of the water massage my cramp out! The waterfall oxygenates me & thrills me! I step out & roar to the world, "THIS IS WHAT MAN WAS MEANT TO DO!!! NOT SIT AT A DESK ALL DAY IN FRONT OF A LAPTOP!!!". Surbex, equally excited, joins me and hollers to the world, "LISTEN TO WHAT THIS MAN IS SAYING... HE IS RIGHT!!!" Not that there's anyone there to hear us. Not that they would've paid heed had they been there...

After 4 trips, it's clear that any more cascading water on our backs will lead to bruising or worse, vertebral dislocation. We step away, towel off, get dressed and decide to call it our "Brokeback Waterfall"! I'm going to get into trouble with my wife for saying such things...

Night falls quickly. We spend a couple of hours lazing on the stone & concrete dam. It's a clearer sky than in the city & one can see the stars. If we were younger, we'd be drawing Orion in the sky! We decide to head back once we've had enough conversation (we're not women for God's sake!)

I want to ease the "bird" down the rough but Surbex has some reservations. After some cajoling on my part & much pondering on his, he decides to take the risk. He thinks it's risky for a first time Thunderbirder to try off-road descent, with a pillion, but he's a brave boy. What he doesn't know that I am a natural. I ease the bike down so smoothly that he is impressed. I tell him that if I'm on a good bike, the man & the machine become one! He is very kicked about that statement!

I ride on gently over the aforesaid undulating path, enjoying the silence & the cool air that the night offers. I am transported to a trip to Goa about 5 years back. It brings a smile to my face. I realize that one of the things that makes me happiest is feeling the breeze in my face on a bike. I also get in touch with why I've always loved the night so much! It's the most relaxed time of the day.

I ride back until Surbex feels the urge to ride. He then proceeds to drive rasher than he has all day! Thankfully, he has to stop for dinner!!! Dinner is Dal fry & tandoori roti again! :-) I haven't done this highway dhaba food in 8 years maybe! What was I doing all this time???

Post dinner, Surbex decides to give me another scare; he cuts through two trucks driving alongside for a brief rush of adrenaline!

I holler at him, ask him to pull over, take over & promptly return the favour! :-D

This is fun, but I realize that we're tired and need to ride carefully. We do so, with the help of some terrible dhaba chai. We get into Bombay about 3 AM, thoroughly kicked, but just as exhausted.

I'm a convert! I intend to join Surbex on more of these trips, longer ones too which will entail lugging his 5-man(!) tent around. Don't ask me what he had in mind when he bought it. I might say something very incriminating!!! I am even considering buying a Thunderbird sometime late in the year. I know now that I will see more of India on a bike than I will in a car! It's so much more personal. And a LOT MORE FUN!

A Joke... and a Question.

Joke first. For all the stark raving mad pseudo-nationalists...

Santa radio lekar POTTY karne gaya. Jab woh baahar aaya toh...

Banta: aaj to mazey se ki hogi?

Santa: khaak mazey se ki...! radio par jan-gan-man aa gaya, khade-khade karni padi...!

Now the question: Who is going to file a case against the originator of this SMS joke? Will the Bhopali & the Tirupati lawyers file a case, will NDTV discuss this as an affront to a national icon?

And now the Real Question... If "Hinduism" accepts Atheism as a valid religious philosophy, if people walk around claiming to be agnostics & atheists, why can I not be a Nation-atheist?

Answers, gentle readers?

My quiet half century...

I quietly crossed the 50 mark in posts on this blog some time back.

I doff my hat in respect to the gentle readers of this blog in appreciation of their continued reading.

On India’s National Symbols

There has been a lot of talk on our National Symbols recently. I’d written about it earlier and I’m picking up the thread here again.

Narayana Murthy, Tendulkar, Sania, Mandira Bedi & a host of celebrities (only them, mind you!) have recently been in trouble for apparent disrespect to the National Flag. It’s an altogether different story that I consider Mr. Murthy, Tendulkar & Sania National Symbols as well!

Parties who have zero achievements otherwise, like to rename cities in the name of Nationalistic pride. Going back to our old glory. Glory???? What glory can the village of mumbai have claim to?

I would like to initiate a debate on how much our National Symbols actually mean to us Indians.

The National Emblem: How many people actually know about the exact location or the history of the emblem? How many people ever visit it?

The Tricoulour: How many Indians are aware of what the 3 colours represent?

The National Anthem: Isn’t it true that this song was written to honour a visiting foreign monarch? Or is this just hearsay? If this is hearsay, why hasn’t it been effectively squashed? And if it’s true, where are the Nationalists who’re trying to rid India of her Colonial past?

The National Animal: What’s happening on the Tiger’s numbers in India? Shouldn’t it be as sacred as the Cow? There’s a lot of noise about putting country over religion… Only noise, huh?

The National Flower: If I say Lotus, what’s the first image that springs to mind?

The National Tree: Anyone who has stayed in rural India has probably heard stories about ghosts inhabiting our National Tree. Is that how one of our national symbols deserves to be known?

The National Fruit: What pride do we take in the lofty mango? Isn’t most of our finest produce exported? Oh! Ah..! That’s the source of pride then…? The $$$..! I get it!

Do we have a national drink? Tea anyone? Who popularized tea in India? Is it even indigenous to India? Now, if anyone tries to take my tea away from me, I swear I’ll kill them!!! Bombay’s name change I may be able to forgive, but tea is sacred!!!

National Language: This one I’m leaving blank. I seek the awam’s inputs.

We talk about preserving our heritage, our culture. We talk like experts on the origin of ancient Indian customs. Yet how many of us know what happened to Patliputra? Where are all the palaces from the Magadha dynasty that should’ve existed there? Why isn’t it on the tourist’s itinerary? We go to Lahore to watch a cricket match, but we don’t visit Mohen-jo-daro! This is nationalistic pride??? Bah!!! Humbug!!!

That’s it, I’m done. Over to you. Nationalists & pseudo-nationalists welcome.

Crossposted

New Year SMSes

I had intended to this in January, but the fact that I've gotten round to it now could point to anyone of the following:

• I am a lazy, procrastinating no-gooder!
• I am a committed workaholic with no time for myself!
• Since there are a gadzillion new years in this country & on this planet, there's never one time to put these up!

So here goes. Here are some the sweetest, funniest New Year SMSes that I received this year. Please add to this list if you have any others that you think would fit in here.

• Smetmes d Road traveld Turns out 2b More Beautiful thn d Destination reachd..! njoy leadng Ur Life no Mater wt it Turns out 2b..! Wish U a gr8 '08 happy New Yr
• Faith makes all things possible. Hope makes all things work. Love makes all things beautiful, May you have all the three this coming year.
• Happy new year happy lohri, maghi, holi, id, visakhi, ram naumi, shivratri, janamashtmi, diwali, sare gurpurban diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan, merry chrismas 2008, vichale jedo hove thoda happy bday, je exam hove taan best of luck, 365 gud mrng, noon, night,kuch reha taan nahin, chalo saal bhar da syapa mukeya................ Wishing you a year full of laughter................
• Swarglok se samast devta,Vaikunth se Laxmi -Narayan,Kailash se Uma -Shankar,Brahmlok se Brahma, aur
  Prithvi se Swayam HUM, aapko kehte Hai.. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Quite a selection, eh? :-)

temporarily available on the Mutiny

So the Mutiny is taking up most of my time, eh...? Worry not dear reader. Just giving back to the Mutiny. They're a bunch of wonderful people (most anyway) & they deserve our support.

Here's my latest original post for them. No crossposting! :-)