The movie season continues. First it was Hollywood-Bollywood and then Hotel Rwanda.
Hollywood-Bollywood is a light movie based on the "Immigrant-theme" and the ABCD generation.
Lisa Ray was charming as usual. Rahul Khanna is a good actor but has done very limited number of films till now. One dialogue which I liked from the Movie was when Rahul Khanna start thinking that Lisa ray was a prostitute, he tells her this:
"Sue, As such it doesn't matter but those middle class values are too deeply ingrained in me". (Not the exact words but something similar)
I found it to be so true, those "Indian middle class values" and the fact that they are imbibed deeply in such families.
Hotel Rwanda was a vastly different movie. That was not an accident pick, I wanted to see that for some time. I had heard and seen on TV about the Rwanda genocide of 1994, I did some searches on the internet out of my interest and came to know that about a million people were killed by the hut militia.
The movie though was a far more detailed account of what happened there. The story is a real life story of a Hotel Manager Paul Rusesabagina and his heroic handling of the situation which led to the saving of 1200 innocent lives.
There were two main ethnic groups in Rwanda: the Hutus and the Tutsis. Their mutual hatred was a result of the colonial past, The Belgian rulers gave the Tutsis privileges in the power structure so the Hutus started feeling alienated. It reminds me of the "Divide and Rule" policy of the British in Indian subcontinent.
The movie is a brave attempt at shaming the international community to not to forget Africa and not let such a shameful thing happen again.
In the features section of the DVD there was a video clip of real life Paul Rusesabagina visiting Rwanda for the first time after the genocide. There were clips of tens of human skeletons (Including those of small babies) lying in the rooms of the "Genocide Memorial" in Rwanda. Its unimaginable that such a thing really happened.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Friday, April 14, 2006
Of "Notting Hill" and our resistance to change
Notting hill remains one of my favorite movies. Having seen it on star movies umpteen times I remember a lot of its dialogues too.
The most touching scene is when Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) tells Hugh Grant:
Gosh! the dialogues are so good...
I equally like the soundtrack too, particularly:
It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
and She
In the DVD which I borrowed from the library there were other features too. There were a 3-4 scenes which were shot but later deleted from the movie, looking at them I felt that it was a good decision, but then had they been part of the movie originally I don't think I would have mind.
Its amazing how we get used to things as they are and can't imagine them to be something else.
Talking in the context of movies, "Swades" was supposed to have Amir Khan as the lead actor but since he refused Shahrukh Khan was chosen. Having seen the movie I can't imagine anybody else playing that role other than Shahrukh! Perhaps in this case it is his excellent acting and screen charisma which is responsible for it.
I am able to relate this to a number of other things in life and I feel that things which we (if I may take the liberty to generalize for everybody) like or which are considered good by us, we are not willing to change anything in them. I guess this is what is called "Resistence to change" and the book "Who moved my Cheese" was all about it.
The most touching scene is when Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) tells Hugh Grant:
Let me tell you, this fame thing is not real, and don't forget that I am also just a girl, standing in front of a boy asking him to love her.
Gosh! the dialogues are so good...
I equally like the soundtrack too, particularly:
It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
and She
In the DVD which I borrowed from the library there were other features too. There were a 3-4 scenes which were shot but later deleted from the movie, looking at them I felt that it was a good decision, but then had they been part of the movie originally I don't think I would have mind.
Its amazing how we get used to things as they are and can't imagine them to be something else.
Talking in the context of movies, "Swades" was supposed to have Amir Khan as the lead actor but since he refused Shahrukh Khan was chosen. Having seen the movie I can't imagine anybody else playing that role other than Shahrukh! Perhaps in this case it is his excellent acting and screen charisma which is responsible for it.
I am able to relate this to a number of other things in life and I feel that things which we (if I may take the liberty to generalize for everybody) like or which are considered good by us, we are not willing to change anything in them. I guess this is what is called "Resistence to change" and the book "Who moved my Cheese" was all about it.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad Ad
I read this interview on rediff and felt "inspired".
Remember those "Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad"1 messages on Doordarshan in good old days? There were so many of them. I think in those days those messages used to outnumber the commercial ads on DD.
Anyways I dont want to get distracted by their memories right now, what I want to mention here is a particular message out of those numerous messages. I dont remember it exactly but it went something like this:
An unemployed guy in a village is shown cursing the government for his situation, and then in another scene a 'self-employed' guy is shown running his own business, it is shown that he is also employing a couple of other people.
Finally the clip used to end with a punchline "Kudh bhi rozgar pao aur dus aur logon ko bhi rozgar do" ( Get yourself means of living and also give employment to ten more people).
The idea obviously was to encourage young people to start their own businesses and not depend on government for jobs.
I don't know how effective that message was and what difference it really made to the lives of unemployed youth, but some how I imbibed it deeply; and that is partly why I find interviews and articles like the one mentioned above very interesting and inspiring.
Having said that I guess I don't want to start a business just to create new employment, my idea is to do something more meaningful than I am doing now and do that with real passion.
I guess I need an idea to start with. When will I get my idea? Is there something as novel and as big as "Internet" going to happen?
I don't know and its difficult to forsee also, but what I know is that I should be ready.
Right now everything is abstract in my mind. I don't even now what should I do to be prepared. For now I am just going to entrepreneur.com to read some articles.
1: I forgot what they used to call it in english. Anybody who is reading this please let men know, if you know - Thanks in advance
Remember those "Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad"1 messages on Doordarshan in good old days? There were so many of them. I think in those days those messages used to outnumber the commercial ads on DD.
Anyways I dont want to get distracted by their memories right now, what I want to mention here is a particular message out of those numerous messages. I dont remember it exactly but it went something like this:
An unemployed guy in a village is shown cursing the government for his situation, and then in another scene a 'self-employed' guy is shown running his own business, it is shown that he is also employing a couple of other people.
Finally the clip used to end with a punchline "Kudh bhi rozgar pao aur dus aur logon ko bhi rozgar do" ( Get yourself means of living and also give employment to ten more people).
The idea obviously was to encourage young people to start their own businesses and not depend on government for jobs.
I don't know how effective that message was and what difference it really made to the lives of unemployed youth, but some how I imbibed it deeply; and that is partly why I find interviews and articles like the one mentioned above very interesting and inspiring.
Having said that I guess I don't want to start a business just to create new employment, my idea is to do something more meaningful than I am doing now and do that with real passion.
I guess I need an idea to start with. When will I get my idea? Is there something as novel and as big as "Internet" going to happen?
I don't know and its difficult to forsee also, but what I know is that I should be ready.
Right now everything is abstract in my mind. I don't even now what should I do to be prepared. For now I am just going to entrepreneur.com to read some articles.
1: I forgot what they used to call it in english. Anybody who is reading this please let men know, if you know - Thanks in advance
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Sonia Gandhi resigns from the Parliament!
This morning when I opened my laptop for the news the surprising news was: Sonia Resigns
Although not a 'Congress fan'; I appreciate this decision taken by Mrs Sonia Gandhi. After all how many of our politicians are willing to take such a bold decision? Even the left has said that their MPs won't resign.
One must also remember the decision taken by her Mother-in-law when she was disqualified from the Lok sabha. She imposed Emergency on the country.
Times are different one might argue and also Sonia Gandhi today is on a far high pedestal vis-a-vis other politicians, but still this is a very good development for Indian democracy and must be welcomed.
In my view Mrs Sonia Gandhi has set an example.
Although not a 'Congress fan'; I appreciate this decision taken by Mrs Sonia Gandhi. After all how many of our politicians are willing to take such a bold decision? Even the left has said that their MPs won't resign.
One must also remember the decision taken by her Mother-in-law when she was disqualified from the Lok sabha. She imposed Emergency on the country.
Times are different one might argue and also Sonia Gandhi today is on a far high pedestal vis-a-vis other politicians, but still this is a very good development for Indian democracy and must be welcomed.
In my view Mrs Sonia Gandhi has set an example.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Google - just an obsession or is it for REAL
Like a billion other people I am also thoroughly impressed with Google!
The way they started off,
The way they have expanded their business based on one core competence "Search", one would have never imagined that search can be so powerful!
The way they listed their stock.
They have an "official blog" AFAIK no other major corporation has one.
The way they recruit.
Time management policy (the 20% free time rule).
Their Amazing products! ( I just love my google desktop search) including recently launched Google finance
The list can go on and on...
Due to above reasons and some of my "Gut feeling" I wanted (or do I still want?) to own Google stock.
I started tracking it when it had already run upto 420-430$ after listing at 85$ in their IPO.
Google was having its dream run. After figuring out that it is possible for me to own it, I had
decided to open a brokerage account with scottrade here in the US.
But then one fine day Google began to slide coz of some bad news and has slipped by about 100$ since.
I postponed my decision indefinitely :-) and am watching it closely.
While discussing this with a friend it occurred to me that its better for me to stick to the "known" waters of the Indian stock markets, afterall they are giving some very good returns for the past
few years! But then "in the Indian market can one find a stock like Google?" goes the counter argument.
I think I need to do some more home work before arriving at any decision.
The way they started off,
The way they have expanded their business based on one core competence "Search", one would have never imagined that search can be so powerful!
The way they listed their stock.
They have an "official blog" AFAIK no other major corporation has one.
The way they recruit.
Time management policy (the 20% free time rule).
Their Amazing products! ( I just love my google desktop search) including recently launched Google finance
The list can go on and on...
Due to above reasons and some of my "Gut feeling" I wanted (or do I still want?) to own Google stock.
I started tracking it when it had already run upto 420-430$ after listing at 85$ in their IPO.
Google was having its dream run. After figuring out that it is possible for me to own it, I had
decided to open a brokerage account with scottrade here in the US.
But then one fine day Google began to slide coz of some bad news and has slipped by about 100$ since.
I postponed my decision indefinitely :-) and am watching it closely.
While discussing this with a friend it occurred to me that its better for me to stick to the "known" waters of the Indian stock markets, afterall they are giving some very good returns for the past
few years! But then "in the Indian market can one find a stock like Google?" goes the counter argument.
I think I need to do some more home work before arriving at any decision.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
DVD Wars - Netflix and BlockBuster
When I was India, I had seen Netflix ads on the internet but never bothered to figure out what it is.A couple of weeks back I got to know about how Netflix has put DVD rental giant Blockbuster out of business in the issue of knowledge@wharton .
At the same time an "NRI"(well he doesn't claim to be) friend of mine suggested subscription to Netflix so I decided to figure out what this Netflix thing is all about. The first stop was their website. It offers 2 week of free trial and unlimited DVDs + no late fees + free both ways shipping. I was amazed at the business model. It seems that Netflix founder got the idea once he had to pay 40$ as late fees to his DVD rental company(which is an obvious reference to Blockbuster).
I checked out their collection and was happy to see a lot of Bollywood movies there.
I was wondering how Netflix is making money! Then I found this from wikipedia.
It was a smart business model but was unfair to the customers. Even now the same practice of 'throttling' exists but it seems they disclose it in their fine print.
Hence finally decided not to subscribe to Netflix!
Blockbuster also decided to open a "me too" DVD rental service, But I don't know if that also suffers from the same "flaw". They are offering one month free trial.
At the same time an "NRI"(well he doesn't claim to be) friend of mine suggested subscription to Netflix so I decided to figure out what this Netflix thing is all about. The first stop was their website. It offers 2 week of free trial and unlimited DVDs + no late fees + free both ways shipping. I was amazed at the business model. It seems that Netflix founder got the idea once he had to pay 40$ as late fees to his DVD rental company(which is an obvious reference to Blockbuster).
I checked out their collection and was happy to see a lot of Bollywood movies there.
I was wondering how Netflix is making money! Then I found this from wikipedia.
It was a smart business model but was unfair to the customers. Even now the same practice of 'throttling' exists but it seems they disclose it in their fine print.
Hence finally decided not to subscribe to Netflix!
Blockbuster also decided to open a "me too" DVD rental service, But I don't know if that also suffers from the same "flaw". They are offering one month free trial.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Ann Arbor Library
Ann Arbor has an excellent public library system (website).
I had heard about libraries in America but still for me it was hard to believe that such a good facility can exist in such a small(relatively) American city.
I am even able to find DVDs for bollywood movies! Having said that I found that the only way to get what you really want is to use their website and reserve the items in advance. Having a policy of "unlimited checkouts allowed" ensures that none of the "hot" items is available on the shelves.
Overcome by greed I reserved and got about 5 DVD's of my favorite actor Tom Hanks ...But didn't found the time to see them....
Still managed to see "Sleepless in Seattle", "LadyKillers", "You've got mail" (this is for the nth time I have seen this one), currently I am watching "The Green Mile".
also got "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintaining" as I was not able to finish it earlier in India...Somehow I had lost that book....
I had heard about libraries in America but still for me it was hard to believe that such a good facility can exist in such a small(relatively) American city.
I am even able to find DVDs for bollywood movies! Having said that I found that the only way to get what you really want is to use their website and reserve the items in advance. Having a policy of "unlimited checkouts allowed" ensures that none of the "hot" items is available on the shelves.
Overcome by greed I reserved and got about 5 DVD's of my favorite actor Tom Hanks ...But didn't found the time to see them....
Still managed to see "Sleepless in Seattle", "LadyKillers", "You've got mail" (this is for the nth time I have seen this one), currently I am watching "The Green Mile".
also got "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintaining" as I was not able to finish it earlier in India...Somehow I had lost that book....
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
TFTs continued..
Its been pretty exciting ..my last 2 months in the states,Here is a list of TFTs (Things done for the first time :)
- Experienced tempratures below -10 C for the first time in my life :-)In fact one day a walk across the road felt as if I am on a trek to the north pole! ...wait a sec ..I think I need not goto that level...otherwise I will have to write for the rest of my life..so henceforth only the"substantial" things...
- Flew a single engine small plane!!!.wait here is the fine print*... The snaps are here.
- Got into a swimming pool! ..definately a substantial achievement for me!!! yet to learn swimming though.
- Played Tennis!!! this was as recent as last sunday..12th march.
* with the help of an instructor.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The last time I did something for the first time
I've always felt inspired by Emirates' punch-line :"When was the last time you did something for the first time ?".
The last Sunday (10th Dec), I went to a see a live game for the first time in my life.
Me and a friend went to see India play Pakistan in a champions trophy match.
India won by 3-2 .The atmosphere was electrifying, the Indian crowd just went mad (both of us too).
Because of all the shouting and cheering I actually had a pain in my throat afterwards!!!
I was just wondering how exciting life would be if I try to do something for first time everyday? Or if that's too much perhaps every week? That's more manageable I guess.
The last Sunday (10th Dec), I went to a see a live game for the first time in my life.
Me and a friend went to see India play Pakistan in a champions trophy match.
India won by 3-2 .The atmosphere was electrifying, the Indian crowd just went mad (both of us too).
Because of all the shouting and cheering I actually had a pain in my throat afterwards!!!
I was just wondering how exciting life would be if I try to do something for first time everyday? Or if that's too much perhaps every week? That's more manageable I guess.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Awaaz uthao neend se jagega india
Mr Narayan Murthy decison to resign from the chairmanship of BIAL (bang international airport ltd)
is understandable, it comes in the wake of shocking remarks made by the Ex PM Mr Deva Gowda.
Even though to most educated people Mr Murthy command far more credibility and respect than My Gowda, the pity is than nothing much seems to be happening because of that.
Bangalore's crumpled infrastructure is going to remain just that until our politicians really wake up.
Coming to specifics Mr Gowda claims that Mr Murthy didn't do much as chairman of BIAL. The fact is Mr Gowda and his party have done everything possible to stall the very same project as well as other prestigious projects in Karnataka.
What these people don't realise is that quality infrastructure will open gates of development in their state and benefit everybody. They are only concerned about their
short term benefits. Such myopic vision from a former PM of India is a matter of great shame for the whole country.
In another part of the country Ms Mamta ( of Samta-Mamta fame) have opposed the allocation of 65 acres of land for a upcoming motorcycle plant in WB. She says that she is all for protecting farmer interest. Does she means is that there should be no industries in WB??
When will India wake up?
I like those NDTV India's promos:
Awaaz uthao neend se jagega india ....Awaaz uthao .....
Sawaal poocho ....
Kadam bhadao....
pretty inspiring.
is understandable, it comes in the wake of shocking remarks made by the Ex PM Mr Deva Gowda.
Even though to most educated people Mr Murthy command far more credibility and respect than My Gowda, the pity is than nothing much seems to be happening because of that.
Bangalore's crumpled infrastructure is going to remain just that until our politicians really wake up.
Coming to specifics Mr Gowda claims that Mr Murthy didn't do much as chairman of BIAL. The fact is Mr Gowda and his party have done everything possible to stall the very same project as well as other prestigious projects in Karnataka.
What these people don't realise is that quality infrastructure will open gates of development in their state and benefit everybody. They are only concerned about their
short term benefits. Such myopic vision from a former PM of India is a matter of great shame for the whole country.
In another part of the country Ms Mamta ( of Samta-Mamta fame) have opposed the allocation of 65 acres of land for a upcoming motorcycle plant in WB. She says that she is all for protecting farmer interest. Does she means is that there should be no industries in WB??
When will India wake up?
I like those NDTV India's promos:
Awaaz uthao neend se jagega india ....Awaaz uthao .....
Sawaal poocho ....
Kadam bhadao....
pretty inspiring.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Book Review of "Five Point someone" by Chetan Bhagat
Here is the review of the book "Five point someone", I wrote sometime back:
Written in a simple , non-fussy, informal language the writer relives his IIT Delhi days and After reading it I too was lost in the memories of my college days! . I bought the novel on my weekend trip to bangalore, I was staying in IIM Bangalore's hostel with Tarun, so got the opportunity to read this book in a "college like" setting. Finished it off on the night of 21st-22nd may . Even though this may not come out on the list of bestsellers or one of the classics, but I think its a must read for anybody who's been to college. The story revolves around 3 undergraduates, Hari , Alok and Ryan studying in IIT Delhi. Hari falls in love with one Prof Cherian's daughter Neha. As they indulge in more and more "extra curricular" activities their grades fall and always remain on the fringes of 5 something , hence the title. Even though the title also says "what not to do at IIT", it doesn't seems like writer's advice! The background of the writer interests me (may be coz I don't have it :-) , an IITD - IIMA passsout Chetan is working for a MNC bank in hongkong.
Written in a simple , non-fussy, informal language the writer relives his IIT Delhi days and After reading it I too was lost in the memories of my college days! . I bought the novel on my weekend trip to bangalore, I was staying in IIM Bangalore's hostel with Tarun, so got the opportunity to read this book in a "college like" setting. Finished it off on the night of 21st-22nd may . Even though this may not come out on the list of bestsellers or one of the classics, but I think its a must read for anybody who's been to college. The story revolves around 3 undergraduates, Hari , Alok and Ryan studying in IIT Delhi. Hari falls in love with one Prof Cherian's daughter Neha. As they indulge in more and more "extra curricular" activities their grades fall and always remain on the fringes of 5 something , hence the title. Even though the title also says "what not to do at IIT", it doesn't seems like writer's advice! The background of the writer interests me (may be coz I don't have it :-) , an IITD - IIMA passsout Chetan is working for a MNC bank in hongkong.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintenance
I am reading this classic for the past one month or so. It has so deep
underlying meanings that its taking a lot of time to sink in. I am not able
to read more than a couple of pages at a time. Yeah it gets dry at times but
still has some 'hard to describe' feel to it which doesn't let me putting it off.
A must read for everybody. I have not finished it yet and I am already planning to reread it.
....
Bought "The Story of my experiments with truth" yesterday (Gandhi Jayanti).
One more book added in my pile of unread books lying at home...
Sunday, October 02, 2005
I am writing here after a long long time ....in the hindsight if I observe the reason why I started blogging, I can't identify with them anymore.
I guess I started blogging because I was fascinated by the popularity of some of the blogs I saw on the net and there was a deep underlying wish to have a blog of my own like them.
More than a year later and having seen a lot of friends' blogs, that thinking has gone. now I am starting to blog for myself :-) !
I guess I started blogging because I was fascinated by the popularity of some of the blogs I saw on the net and there was a deep underlying wish to have a blog of my own like them.
More than a year later and having seen a lot of friends' blogs, that thinking has gone. now I am starting to blog for myself :-) !
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Thursday was a welcome holiday here ...Me along with two friends went to a Beach Tourist place called Knokke ...Its just 1.5 hrs from Brussels by train .....even though we were disappointed by the clouds when e reached there ...the Day became sunny afterwards ....
I went to a Beach after a long time ...in fact the Best thing I like about Chennai is the beach ...the Beach here was quite different though ....there were many quite luxurious looking sea facing apartments ....I immediately wanted to buy one ...
And there was a lot of crowd ...involved in cycling , Jogging or just simply relaxing on the beach ...
But the water ....ahh it was tooo cold for us ...I am more used to the Pleasant cold water in Chennai's hot climate ...but here it was ...I missed my usual 'Walk in Water' ...
We took lotsa snaps also ....one of which I am attaching below ....
There is a good blog on Blog Maintenance and I just learned how to upload images over you blog ...
So here is my first image on my blog ...
On Friday, after office went to a Friends' house and saw a couple of Hindi movies after a long time (I have to catch up on lotsa of them ...) ...Saw Hungama and Darna mana hai ....
Hungama is good ..but not as good as 'Hera Pheri' ...there are scenes where the overacting really shows even to a Naive Actor like myself ....
DMH is pretty good ...gosh I admit I was really scared ...its good that some new directors like Ram G V are making movies which are a break from the lot ....
I went to a Beach after a long time ...in fact the Best thing I like about Chennai is the beach ...the Beach here was quite different though ....there were many quite luxurious looking sea facing apartments ....I immediately wanted to buy one ...
And there was a lot of crowd ...involved in cycling , Jogging or just simply relaxing on the beach ...
But the water ....ahh it was tooo cold for us ...I am more used to the Pleasant cold water in Chennai's hot climate ...but here it was ...I missed my usual 'Walk in Water' ...
We took lotsa snaps also ....one of which I am attaching below ....
There is a good blog on Blog Maintenance and I just learned how to upload images over you blog ...
So here is my first image on my blog ...
On Friday, after office went to a Friends' house and saw a couple of Hindi movies after a long time (I have to catch up on lotsa of them ...) ...Saw Hungama and Darna mana hai ....
Hungama is good ..but not as good as 'Hera Pheri' ...there are scenes where the overacting really shows even to a Naive Actor like myself ....
DMH is pretty good ...gosh I admit I was really scared ...its good that some new directors like Ram G V are making movies which are a break from the lot ....
Thursday, May 20, 2004
I am riting after a long time here ...Lotsa things have happened in India in the past one months ...first the elections and then the suprising results ...Personally I supported the NDA ....and felt bad when Vajpayee found himself in a postion to be the oppposition ...this was his last chance ...
The news channels here BBC and CNN attributed the defeat of NDA to the so called 'Pro Rich policies' which disillusioned the poor .
But I feel that its might be only part of the reason (or no reason at all) ....On the face of it .... Congress also has not won ....Congress and BJP have got roughly the same no of seats ...what has made the difference is the choice of Allies ...Take TN ...one ally DMK with 40 MPs has made so much difference ...that taken with Defeat of TDP in Andhra and no suprise BJP is sitting in opposition .
Congress is making the govt and its such a relief that Sonia Gandhi is not becoming the PM of the country ...No self respecting Indian would have felt nice on an Italian hoisting the national flag on 15th Aug from Red fort ....
Overall Manmohan Singh is a good guy ...but the problem is he is not a Political Heavy weight ...he wud need a lot of help in managing the affairs of the Coalition ...
The Dynasty still controls the congress and no wonder if 20 yrs down the line we see Rahul gandhi's Columbian Girl friend as India's Prime Minister :-)..... I don't understand why the hell Indian public is so stupid .....
Coming back to the "Have-Nots Dissatisfied - voted NDA out of power issue" ... I don't think any govt can really make a huge difference within five years without undertaking massive reforms ...corruption and Population are also a big problems ...
Massive Reforms will be difficult to implement with Left supporting the govt ....So its a tough ride for the Congress .....
Frankly I don't understand why the communists are still there in politics ...they know that they can not implement Marixism type Communism in India now ...and even Chinese communist govt is so liberal to allow McDonalds/Starbucks/WalMart/Carrefour in the country ...
The irony in indian politics is that the parties who are no 3 , 4, 5 in the final seat tally calls the shot in govt formation and its policies ....
The news channels here BBC and CNN attributed the defeat of NDA to the so called 'Pro Rich policies' which disillusioned the poor .
But I feel that its might be only part of the reason (or no reason at all) ....On the face of it .... Congress also has not won ....Congress and BJP have got roughly the same no of seats ...what has made the difference is the choice of Allies ...Take TN ...one ally DMK with 40 MPs has made so much difference ...that taken with Defeat of TDP in Andhra and no suprise BJP is sitting in opposition .
Congress is making the govt and its such a relief that Sonia Gandhi is not becoming the PM of the country ...No self respecting Indian would have felt nice on an Italian hoisting the national flag on 15th Aug from Red fort ....
Overall Manmohan Singh is a good guy ...but the problem is he is not a Political Heavy weight ...he wud need a lot of help in managing the affairs of the Coalition ...
The Dynasty still controls the congress and no wonder if 20 yrs down the line we see Rahul gandhi's Columbian Girl friend as India's Prime Minister :-)..... I don't understand why the hell Indian public is so stupid .....
Coming back to the "Have-Nots Dissatisfied - voted NDA out of power issue" ... I don't think any govt can really make a huge difference within five years without undertaking massive reforms ...corruption and Population are also a big problems ...
Massive Reforms will be difficult to implement with Left supporting the govt ....So its a tough ride for the Congress .....
Frankly I don't understand why the communists are still there in politics ...they know that they can not implement Marixism type Communism in India now ...and even Chinese communist govt is so liberal to allow McDonalds/Starbucks/WalMart/Carrefour in the country ...
The irony in indian politics is that the parties who are no 3 , 4, 5 in the final seat tally calls the shot in govt formation and its policies ....
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Just read about half of 'India a Million Mutinies now' By VS Naipaul and left it there .
The title sounds pretty philosophical and sophisticated , and to some extent the book indeed is .
The central theme of the book is the thousands of different small categories of ppl which divides the indian society ,categories of Casts , Religion,Language ,Sex, Rich-poor etc All overlapping at the same time .
There is no single idea of an Indian . Naipaul contrasts this to his own small Indian Community in Trinidad where the indians were in minority so they lived together with each other and there was only one category he was placed in, that of an indian .
But my feeling was that the idea of 'India having a Million mutinies within' gets dissolved somewhere in the first few chapters .
The Book basically is a kinda travelogue of VSN of his visit to india during 1988-89 . He starts with Bombay , then goes to Bangalore , Mysore , Chennai , calcutta and so on . Basically he meets different kind of people , A local siv sena politician , A Secretary and a Dalit poet in bombay , A former Royal Priest in Mysore , A Brahmin in Chennai , A Lecturere (also former Communist activist) in Calcutta .
He talks to them about their lives since birth , their struggles in life and tries to understand the times they have gone thru .
The Text is classic VSN full of minute observations . Sometimes here and there Naipaul writes about his own Ideas of india and his link with Indian culture while he was being brought up in Trinidad . Also since he visited India in Early 60's , He notices changes in all those years .
After reading a few chapters I got pretty bored reading about the goddam lives of those people Naipaul is narrating . Also I got slighly pissed off on the fact that how little I have seen of India .
Anyway , So I left it midway and settled for 'The Catcher in the Rye' which looks goddam promising till now (its slang reminds me of 'Love story' by Eric Seagal). Its Review next time ....
The title sounds pretty philosophical and sophisticated , and to some extent the book indeed is .
The central theme of the book is the thousands of different small categories of ppl which divides the indian society ,categories of Casts , Religion,Language ,Sex, Rich-poor etc All overlapping at the same time .
There is no single idea of an Indian . Naipaul contrasts this to his own small Indian Community in Trinidad where the indians were in minority so they lived together with each other and there was only one category he was placed in, that of an indian .
But my feeling was that the idea of 'India having a Million mutinies within' gets dissolved somewhere in the first few chapters .
The Book basically is a kinda travelogue of VSN of his visit to india during 1988-89 . He starts with Bombay , then goes to Bangalore , Mysore , Chennai , calcutta and so on . Basically he meets different kind of people , A local siv sena politician , A Secretary and a Dalit poet in bombay , A former Royal Priest in Mysore , A Brahmin in Chennai , A Lecturere (also former Communist activist) in Calcutta .
He talks to them about their lives since birth , their struggles in life and tries to understand the times they have gone thru .
The Text is classic VSN full of minute observations . Sometimes here and there Naipaul writes about his own Ideas of india and his link with Indian culture while he was being brought up in Trinidad . Also since he visited India in Early 60's , He notices changes in all those years .
After reading a few chapters I got pretty bored reading about the goddam lives of those people Naipaul is narrating . Also I got slighly pissed off on the fact that how little I have seen of India .
Anyway , So I left it midway and settled for 'The Catcher in the Rye' which looks goddam promising till now (its slang reminds me of 'Love story' by Eric Seagal). Its Review next time ....
Sunday, January 25, 2004
It has been 4 months for me here in Brussels now , 4 long months of a Boring Assignment , Sometimes I think I am being too pessimistic in mu views on this assignment , but then Life is really boring out here .....I have frequent discussions about my Rommie abt this ....He is also of the same opinion , the problem is of social life , I don't make friends easily , and the presnet lot of ppl around me (at workplaces) doesn't offer many choices .....
The only fun part of my stay was my Trip to Paris in which I visited my College fast friend ! However Lately I have began to enjoy the benefits of the public library here ....
The city is generally good compared to india . The Living stds is much higher , but you don't feel at home . Neverthless I have got new prespective on life and the opprtunity to understand another part of the world which is geographically as well as economically so much away from india .
As is my ususal habit I have been following the events in india for the past few months via internet . There are going to be elections , I have had a few verbal arguments with my roomie over the politics in india , He seeems to be against the BJP and me a fan of Vajpayee , I am getting a good feeling as I feel that I am able to articulate my support for BJP much more better than him .
I told him that I also don't likewhat happened in gujrat or Ayoodhya , but still out of a foreigner and Vajpayee I am definately going to chose the later , on one side you have a seasoned statesman , on the other side is a lady whose only claim to fame is her Marriage into a ruling family . I don't have anything against the Gandhis but then they are propogating hereditary politics and the rest of the congressmen are reduced to a level of sycophancy not seen in any part of the world . There was a comment from one of the congreessman "Priyanka and Rahul are the Born members of Congress" and now they are primary members also" .
I am getting a feeling here that I might be getting too political here . but nothing else is coming to my mind now for the moment .
Fir vapas aakar kuch aur post karta hoon .
The only fun part of my stay was my Trip to Paris in which I visited my College fast friend ! However Lately I have began to enjoy the benefits of the public library here ....
The city is generally good compared to india . The Living stds is much higher , but you don't feel at home . Neverthless I have got new prespective on life and the opprtunity to understand another part of the world which is geographically as well as economically so much away from india .
As is my ususal habit I have been following the events in india for the past few months via internet . There are going to be elections , I have had a few verbal arguments with my roomie over the politics in india , He seeems to be against the BJP and me a fan of Vajpayee , I am getting a good feeling as I feel that I am able to articulate my support for BJP much more better than him .
I told him that I also don't likewhat happened in gujrat or Ayoodhya , but still out of a foreigner and Vajpayee I am definately going to chose the later , on one side you have a seasoned statesman , on the other side is a lady whose only claim to fame is her Marriage into a ruling family . I don't have anything against the Gandhis but then they are propogating hereditary politics and the rest of the congressmen are reduced to a level of sycophancy not seen in any part of the world . There was a comment from one of the congreessman "Priyanka and Rahul are the Born members of Congress" and now they are primary members also" .
I am getting a feeling here that I might be getting too political here . but nothing else is coming to my mind now for the moment .
Fir vapas aakar kuch aur post karta hoon .
Sunday, September 07, 2003
What Plagues our country :
yesterday was watching a debate on ndtv's Big fight program abt the north south divide ... it was intresting to see Ajit Singh defending the prestige of the north ( if any has left for the Bimaru States particularly UP and Bihar) The other two speakers were a social scientist from Bangalore and one of my fav journalist Swami Aiyar .....As expected while The gentelman from bangalore put forward his points very assertively ...Mr Ajit singh was busy recollecting the gr8 history and earlier prosperity of the two states ....Its really a problem with the people in the north that rather than thinking abt the present and the future they always feel happy at the past achivements ...I remember when I was in college in Alld whenever a newspaper article used to be there on something to Do with Allahabad university they used to always put a line in the article "Allahabad university was once known as oxford of the east" ....Arre yaar where r u standing now .,..u r nowhere in the top universities in india leave alone the world ....thats what matters....
The state of my birth-state UP really makes me sad .....I think apart from the politicians ofcourse ppl also have to be blamed for this ...Bihar is ofcourse worst ....as long as these two states remain laggards....the country can't move forward at a pace which we want ...further this growing rift between the southern and northern states is giving rise to social problems which might have serious implications in the future ,....The Migration of cream of the talent from these states to the other states is going to provide only some money in remittences to these States ...but that is only short term phenomanan , overtime ppl will move themselves ...giving rise to further chaos.......can we do something abt it ...?? I don't know ....sitting here in chennai I saw the political events unfolding in UP very closely ...one more "jod-tod ki sarkar" ...which will last for how many days .. is anybdy's guess.....
My recent visit to UP in july really opened my eyes as to how much the state has lagged behind...there was no power for most of the day even in the cities ....let alone the villages ...I visited a "Jan-pehcchan" ke uncle who is working in the District-Magistrate office there ...he had a nice duplex flat but the same problem no electricity ....So he had an inverter and a genset too to charge the inverter :-) ....and look at the mindset of the ppl they still thnk of themselves as the "Most Developed and prosperous State of india" : I'll just Narrate an incident at his home ... We were discussing his children's education over tea ...and topic came to private tutions , In UP they are rampant ...one private tution for every subject...its a herd mantality ....I told him that i have not come across anyone taking 'tutions' in chennai except coaching for competitive exams , pat came the reply from his wife "auntiji" who was till then sitting silent in the conversation . " lekin chennai main to logon ke paas itna paisa bhi nahi hai na ( In chennai ppl don't have that muc money to afford tutions " ...eeeeeeeeeeeehhhh i was like what to say and what to tell them .....u have not visited south anytime just have some old miscnceptions which u made in the 60's and still carrying them .....misconceptions abt ur state and misconceptions abt South ....When will INDIA and INDIANS change ?????
yesterday was watching a debate on ndtv's Big fight program abt the north south divide ... it was intresting to see Ajit Singh defending the prestige of the north ( if any has left for the Bimaru States particularly UP and Bihar) The other two speakers were a social scientist from Bangalore and one of my fav journalist Swami Aiyar .....As expected while The gentelman from bangalore put forward his points very assertively ...Mr Ajit singh was busy recollecting the gr8 history and earlier prosperity of the two states ....Its really a problem with the people in the north that rather than thinking abt the present and the future they always feel happy at the past achivements ...I remember when I was in college in Alld whenever a newspaper article used to be there on something to Do with Allahabad university they used to always put a line in the article "Allahabad university was once known as oxford of the east" ....Arre yaar where r u standing now .,..u r nowhere in the top universities in india leave alone the world ....thats what matters....
The state of my birth-state UP really makes me sad .....I think apart from the politicians ofcourse ppl also have to be blamed for this ...Bihar is ofcourse worst ....as long as these two states remain laggards....the country can't move forward at a pace which we want ...further this growing rift between the southern and northern states is giving rise to social problems which might have serious implications in the future ,....The Migration of cream of the talent from these states to the other states is going to provide only some money in remittences to these States ...but that is only short term phenomanan , overtime ppl will move themselves ...giving rise to further chaos.......can we do something abt it ...?? I don't know ....sitting here in chennai I saw the political events unfolding in UP very closely ...one more "jod-tod ki sarkar" ...which will last for how many days .. is anybdy's guess.....
My recent visit to UP in july really opened my eyes as to how much the state has lagged behind...there was no power for most of the day even in the cities ....let alone the villages ...I visited a "Jan-pehcchan" ke uncle who is working in the District-Magistrate office there ...he had a nice duplex flat but the same problem no electricity ....So he had an inverter and a genset too to charge the inverter :-) ....and look at the mindset of the ppl they still thnk of themselves as the "Most Developed and prosperous State of india" : I'll just Narrate an incident at his home ... We were discussing his children's education over tea ...and topic came to private tutions , In UP they are rampant ...one private tution for every subject...its a herd mantality ....I told him that i have not come across anyone taking 'tutions' in chennai except coaching for competitive exams , pat came the reply from his wife "auntiji" who was till then sitting silent in the conversation . " lekin chennai main to logon ke paas itna paisa bhi nahi hai na ( In chennai ppl don't have that muc money to afford tutions " ...eeeeeeeeeeeehhhh i was like what to say and what to tell them .....u have not visited south anytime just have some old miscnceptions which u made in the 60's and still carrying them .....misconceptions abt ur state and misconceptions abt South ....When will INDIA and INDIANS change ?????
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Mobile Democracy :
The Telecom services have expanded at a phenomanal growth rate in our country ..so was the article i was reading in one of the business magazines ...suddenly the autowallah parked the auto to the side of the road ...As I am now quite Experienced with the chennai autowallahs , I guessed immediately that this guy would have seen a pessenger and now want me to share the auto with someone....
Hey but I was totally surprised and taken back when I realised that the auto wallah had got a call on his mobile .....This was truely unbelievable for me ....
It really felt good....
The Telecom services have expanded at a phenomanal growth rate in our country ..so was the article i was reading in one of the business magazines ...suddenly the autowallah parked the auto to the side of the road ...As I am now quite Experienced with the chennai autowallahs , I guessed immediately that this guy would have seen a pessenger and now want me to share the auto with someone....
Hey but I was totally surprised and taken back when I realised that the auto wallah had got a call on his mobile .....This was truely unbelievable for me ....
It really felt good....
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