Hyderabad Diary: Rumors spreading fast!

And taking the form of 'Unconfirmed Reports'! All the companies have issued travel and safety advisories to their employees. Most of the people have left early to avoid traffic congestions.

There have been 'unconfirmed reports' of a bus being set on fire in Ameerpet and tension in different parts of the city. None of this is true of course!

Central Government has rushed Rapid Action Force in the city. And there has been no other untoward incident.

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Hyderabad Diary: Bomb Blast

There has been a big bomb blast in Mecca Mosque near Charminar in Hyderabad. The death toll stands at 6 by now. 14 people are seriously injured. The timing of blast was aimed to get maximum damage as it coincided with Friday afternoon prayers, between 1.30 - 2 pm. An unexploded bomb was also found. The blast has considerable damage to this historical mosque, which is also the biggest mosque of Hyderabad.

Old Hyderabad is a Muslim dominated area dotted with Hindu population. Though police is not taking any chance, citizens of this part, mostly small businessmen, have shown a notable and worth emulating sense of communal harmony and not giving in to such divisive tactics.

Let's hope this time also, this incident is not allowed to take any political or communal overtones.
The phone numbers of Osmania hospital where injured people have been admitted, are:
+(91) - (040) - 24600121, 24739549, 24600146, 24600122, 24600124

More details:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/05_2007/blast-at-crowed-mosque-in-hyderabad-40838.html

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/18blast.htm

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An advice to M.J. Akbar (and similar self-appointed-cricket-experts)

Anupam is understandably sore after the defeat (so am I!) and so seems M.J. Akbar (He is a senior journo and editor of Asian Age). But Anupam is a true blue cricket fan who loves, respects and understands the game and its nuances, unlike Mr. Akbar who seems to be just one of those self appointed cricket experts who first praise the cricketers indiscriminately and then call for their heads, when they lose.

In his recent article in Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle (Bylines, 25th March "Money and Murder: The Making of a Bloodsport") he calls the minnows of the worldcup as 'Joke' teams, repeatedly. He calls Bermuda players as Jokers and Dwayne Leverock as "a sumo wrestler who defied the laws of gravity just once to take a magnificent catch against India". It doesn't matter to him that he should get his facts right as he believes Leverock is the captain (Irvine Romaine is the captain!).

What exactly he means when he calls new teams as 'Joke'? Even Sri Lanka was also considered to be a joke team till only 4-5 years before they won the world cup in 1996. And who does Mr. Akbar think he is to make fun of the efforts of these cricketers? On one hand we complain that cricket is not played in enough countries and when new countries try to make their mark, cynics like him ridicule them. More than anything else, it is the love of the game that makes these 'cricketers' practice on weekends when they are not working for their livelihood. But what will Mr. Akbar understand? I doubt he has ever played cricket, forget loving the game.

He is quick to blame whole of the world: players, BCCI & ICC, politicians ("not least being the politicians, from Bengal to Jharkhand to Maharashtra to Kerala, who have muscled into cricket space in the hope that it will get them votes"), corporates and even poor commentators, but what about the bunch of 'jokers' Mr. Akbar is heading? He is the president of Editor's Guild of India. Hope you get my drift. Who is flaring this fire of cricket hysteria? Who is annointing the debutant cricketers as youth icons after their first match winning wicket haul or century? I remember well that it was a TOI article which called Dhoni 'rockstar' after his first century. Clap them when they are doing well, slap them when they are not, you will always get audiences.

And in a cricket-crazy nation, it has some other benefits as well. So when CNN-IBN asks you to sms a CHEER to 2622, this campaign is sponsored by LG and there is a revenue sharing with the service providers or when HT's world cup special is sponsored by Nokia and Tata Sky, some one out there is smiling more than due to journalistic pleasure.

Mr. Akbar is a senior journalist so I can understand that he is suffering from what Vir Sanghvi calls 'Editoritis' ("Its symptoms includes an inability to say “I don’t know” to any question") but for some things, he can better keep his mouth shut.

More: Read Seema Goswami's column in HindustanTimes.com here

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Titanic 2 - The Sequel - Jack's Back

Woof!!!
After you have seen it, goto: http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/2006/04/titanic-two-the-surface.html

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The Hypocrisy of Indian Media

I don't know if it would have been actually better if ULFA had not called off their boycott of the 33rd National Games being held in Guwahati. Perhaps then there would have been some news coming from Games venue, even if related to security concerns.

I am actually shocked by sort of complete blackout of any news related to National Games! Not even any hint of the event on the news scrollers! Not even a 2 column report on page 13 of any daily! And this is at a time when news of Superbowl is beginning to flood us, not to mention live telecast of English Premier League soccer! How many of us actually care to know if Beckham is going to any Los Angeles club or what was the goal difference between Barca and Chelsea in their last league match?

But the sportspersons playing in Guwahati are our own countrymen and best of them would be representing us on international level. Forget patriotism (it is too much to ask from these hypocrite media organizations!), don't we deserve the news even from a journalistic point of view?

And when these athletes don't win medals in Asiad and Olymipics, 'experts' will be called in the studios to discuss the falling standards of sports in India! All sorts of theories will be given and the fact that media itself is shying of its responsibilities will be conveniently swept below the carpet.

I have come to believe that only big bucks sell. So after cricket, EPL and SuperBowl will come. Indian sports and sportspersons can go to hell.

If you want any information about games, you can visit http://www.33rdnationalgames.nic.in/

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Mint Fresh Upgrades!

Mint Fresh: Hindustan Times Group launched two new brands recently in Delhi market. Their long-awaited business publication "In Association With The Wall Street Journal", which will be available in Mumbai also, is titled 'MINT'. (The place where they make coins, not the Polo or Mint-O, you moron!) Also making waves, or rather sound waves, is Fever 104 FM, launched in association with Virgin, UK.

Lately many media houses have taken the collaboration route to get direct access to global markets, money and content. CNBC-TV 18 was the pioneer in Indian Business channels. Both CNN-IBN and Times Now (Times Group and Reuters collaboration) have completed 1 year and their success shows that the trend is there to say. In print media most of the Indian papers are on content sharing agreements with foreign (mostly US and UK papers like Washington Post, New York Times, Guardian etc.) dailies.

The first impressions of Mint are very good (I have seen the online version!) and it looks very refreshing and inviting. But it remains to be seen if mint is able to make enough money to dent the popularity of leading bizz dailies like ET, Business Standard, Financial Express etc.

'Upgrage': Just read an article in The Guardian that coined a new word 'upgrage', which means 'the uncontrollable anger which occurs whenever a software upgrade deemed to be either essential or beneficial proves to be a pointless waste of your time'.

The article titled, 'The Vista upgrade saga' also says that Vista will render thousands of graphics cards, RAMs, monitors or even whole computers useless as very few computers fulfill the hardware requirements of the new MS OS.

You need to install a software called Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor which will scan your system hardware and installed software to inform you, which Vista variant your system can run (Vista Ultimate, Vista Home Premium or Vista Home Basic) and the reasons (insufficient hardware or 'compatibility issues' with installed programs!) if you can't.

The Advisor goes online to look for updates, so even if you pass the test currently, I don't think you can sleep peacefully for long!

I haven't had the Vista version of upgrage but definitely I have experienced it earlier. When Yahoo! 'highly recommends' upgrades for Yahoo! Messenger which do little from making Yahoo.com your homepage and Yahoo Search your default search engine, if you are using Firefox. Or when Real Player stops playing songs claiming an upgrade is available (ditto with QuickTime) and Acrobat showing popups asking you to download recent upgrades.

I recalled this article by Richard Stallman as I read this report. For long sci-fi writers have painted a rosy picture of independent programs managing themeselves and you without your intervention. Stallman's version puts the future in a different contrast!

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On This Republic Day ...

The two facets of a Republic: On this republic day, as the news channels beamed images of a resurgent, vibrant and proud-to-be-India-on-camera India amidst news of separatist groups protesting or observing bandhs, the mercury of my dilemma soared northwards.

Each time they show these kind of visuals of happy, dancing, talking-on-latest-cellphone Indians to project the image of NEW India, somewhere at the back of mind, emerge the images of hungry and extremely malnourished children, everyday mounting toll of farmers committing suicide and many others who are victims of apathy of not only Governments but perhaps of this new 'resurgent' India as well.

Then the sceptical me asks: what and whom this celebration is for? A celebration by the rich/middle class, of the rich/middle class, for the rich/middle class?

And the hopeful me replies: don't be sceptical you jerk. If you have so much pain in the heart for the deprived, don't just shatter keys, go out and dirty your hand in helping them. This one day is a reminder that we have moved a lot but we still have a lot of ground left to cover. No point cribbing over failures, but to highlight the successes and get INSPIRED.

DD Blues: The live telecast of R-Day parade on Doordarshan's National channel was typically old fashioned and hence somewhat nostalgic.

Actually the whole parade seems to be exactly what it seemed to be years ago, when I almost always missed the live telecast (going to school on the two national holidays was compulsory!!) and had to catch the glimpses on the DD's news bulletins which were of course very few and gave very summarizing coverage.

I tried to know the names of all the units marching and the armaments and equipments on display. And though all the tableaus had almost similar themes (and it seems will continue to have same themes for next 1432 years!) there was an excitement of watching all of them and knowing who was the winner.

I can't understand, just why can't DD make the coverage more informative, interactive and vibrant? Of course claiming some one else's feed of a cricket ODI as your 'legitimate right' is much easier than doing some innovation on your own. Mr. Priyaranjan Das Munshi are you listening?

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Someone save my state. Please!!!

The missing rivers: The saints and devotees refused to take a bath in Sangam this year due to extremely high level of pollution in the holy rivers. What a shame! We are a nation of more than (supposedly) 330 million deities and this is what we have made of two of our greatest and holiest rivers. And the rate at which Gangotri and Yamnotri glaciers are melting, we may not have these rivers for long.

Why don't VHP and RSS make failure of Ganga and Yamuna Action Plans an issue? Why don't they protest against factory owners who are dumping untreated effluents out in the rivers, and the officials are letting them do so? With the wide reach these organizations have got, it would be much better for country (and Hindus also!) if they could educate people in protecting the environment. But will they?

Any comments, Mr Bachchan? Did you know who are the biggest supporters of Saddam Hussain? No it's not the sunni community of Iraq, not Al-Qaida either. The honour goes to the leaders and party workers of Samajwadi Party in UP. They were protesting against hanging of Saddam Hussain in Agra and attacked a tourist bus. The police said that action will be taken against miscreants, but you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that no officer would want his job in the line of fire, by acting against members of ruling party.

I wonder why nobody asks Mr. Amitabh Bachchan about his opinion on these matters of lawless ness in Uttar Pradesh. After all he is modelling for Samajwadi Party in UP and has 'family relations' with Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav! If we can have Amir Khan in the dock on cola-pesticide issue, then why not Mr. Bachchan?

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And the Indian of the Year is ....

Actually I am a little confused and ready to be termed a cynic but really I want to know what you think about this.Could anyone of you please help me understand exactly why Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai are nominated for all the 'Indian of the Year' awards, every year? And if Amitabh Bachchan is not the Indian of the Year then he is 'Urban Indian of the Year' (NDTV, 2005). And even though Sania Mirza's rankings slip from 30s to 60s (she is 66th currently) she gets nominated for Indian/Sportsperson of the Year.

Actually what is the criteria for these awards? Being famous and earning enough through brand endorsements to last you a lifetime? Being in the news for any reason, just because you are a celebrity and breaking-news hungry media will fall head over heals to give you a coverage to keep it's news scrawlers rolling? Or simply because the real Indians who make the difference in the lives of many and deserve to be honoured, don't do a good job in increasing the TRP or readership counts?

NDTV's nominees of 'Indian of the Year 2006' include Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt (named as Munnabhai, perhaps they found it a little inconvenient to find their winner behind the bars under Arms Act!), Sania Mirza apart from Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, two other regular fixtures of the list since UPA came to power. I actually wrote them a mail saying them whether they really mean to honour the people and are true to these awards or this is just another gimmick to grab eyeballs by showing an 'Exclusive' with the high profile celebrity. To their credit they had named Kiran Desai (Winner, ManBooker Prize 2006), Arvind Kejrival (Magasasay Award winner and ardent supporter of Right to Information), C.L. Mattu (father of Priyadarshini Mattoo, for fighting for justice in her daughter's case) and Late Major Manish Pitambre (sacrificed his life fighting terrorists in J&K). But honestly I really don't believe any of these people will win. I don't have any doubts on sensibilities of Indian people but the fact is that we often vote for our idols rather the deserving winners. And hence are these awards not reduced to nothing more than popularity contests?

And risking your raised brows, is it somehow related to these celebs' fattenning paypacket from their modelling careers? Isn't a 14 point headline on frontpage (or a half-hour-special on primetime) announcing Amitabh Bachchan as 'Indian of the Year', a very good idea for PR? A win-win for both winner and the channel?

The Week and Outlook give their awards to a truly deserving person whose name you won't have heard ever before but that person would have made difference for his society and community. These awards are not based on reader's polls but decided by the editorial staff. Many others are also heroes from all the walks of life are also featured in these pages.

So I return to my original question, why are the celebrities nominated for such headline-creating-honours irrespective of their not so creditable achievements?

My Indian of the Year? Prof. R.P. Singh (VC, Lucknow University) for taking a step forward in the direction of cleansing higher education in UP. I wish him good luck and all success in 2007.

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Hyderabad Diary: Traditions in a Modern City

Sabarimala Sojourn: If you are in Hyderabad (or anywhere in South India) and you see your boss wearing all blacks (and I don't mean 'The Matrix' attire), an ordinary full sleave shirt and a simple pant and barefooted, don't passout! He has no plans of going to any asylum nor is he mourning, he is just planning a trip to the shrine of Lord Ayyappa in Sabrimala.

He will call you 'Swami' and you will have to do the same, call him 'Swami'. He will be having only one meal a day that would have been cooked by himself or by someother Swami. He won't be clipping nails, or shaving or even going for a haircut. And all this for at least 41 days! So if you thought that you could go to Sabrimala for a picnic, just dump that idea.

Every year millions of devotees throng to this famous and recently controversial shrine where entry of women between 10 and 50 years is banned because it is said Lord Ayyappa was a 'brahmachari'. Nothing against Him but I won't ever want to get a glimpse of a God whose 'Purohits' have such a sexist mindset.

City Lights: Reliance Industries started their retail foray by launching Reliance Fresh stores in Hyderabad. The company plans to open 40 stores in Hyderabad of which 17 are operational. One of them is just across the road from my apartment.

The city also boasts of India's first specialized convention center (the company calls it South Asia's best, I don't vouch for that) Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) developed by a joint venture between Dubai's Emaar Properties and Andhra Pradesh Investment Infrastructure Corporation. A new airport is coming up. This year's Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas and visit of US President also added to the high profile of the city.

I think Hyderabad has a significant edge over its South Indian counterparts like Chennai, Bangalore and Trivendram. There is no political/linguistic chauvenism like Chennai, no infrastructure bottle necks like Bangalore and no labor problems like Trivendram. Though uneven development of state and Telangana issue are definite party poopers. Just hoping that Government manages to sustain the development, not only of the city but also of whole state.

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Life in a hidden city

Allahabad is one of the best places to grow up ,if you want to see and understand India's middle and lower middle class society wihout the glasses provided by bullish management gurus betting big on these millions of people for their ability to act as 'consumers', and from a viewpoint that is unmatched for clarity. After all you will be one of those millions, whom you want to understand.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been a part of this middle class madness. This city hosts thousands of boys aged 15-35 coming from districts of eastern UP and Bihar (Many others go to Varanasi), who study in various government colleges/University/Coaching centers preparing for medical/engineering/administrative services/clerical services and whatever else you have! Most of these boys come from villages and their family's occupation is farming. The money is scarce and watching a movie, sitting on the front benches, on a ticket of 10 Rs. is sort of a luxury. The usual mode of recreation is a walk with friends on the banks of Gangaji and a cup of tea at the local 'hotel' in the evenings. The single room is shared by two or three (even four at times!) guys and it acts as living room, kitchen, bedroom and most importantly study room!

But there is something else as well. The discussion on any topic, be it India's stance in the World Economic Forum or any physics numerical question from Irodov raises an intensity of discussion that is as captivating as it is motivating. An electric emergency light or an inverter is an unaffordable luxury and hence candles or kerosene lamps are the sole support for late night studies that are mandatory to offset the time spent in cooking, cleaning and other daily chores.

The life is tough and it is this tough life that gives you a tough mindset. The viewpoints that you take here during these discussions are almost guaranteed to last a lifetime. The values, principles and ideals (how muchsoever outdated and laughed-at these words may be in urban lingo) are imprinted firmly in your mind. The scarcities force you to live a simple life and resist the temptations. Every success has got an idol and a sense of giving back to the society from where it has emerged and every failure is comforted with a precedent.

This is an India, so vibrant, so visible and yet so hidden from the world. After all this India does not play any role in the game of billions for the management Gurus.

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The toughest question ever!

The train from Mumbai to Lucknow was choc-a-bloc, and despite having a reservation, Nakul and I had to adjust with three others sharing the berth with us. The day had just started and conversation was about to.

And it did and predictably veered to the familiar territory: politics and ultimately terrorism. In India, commuters won't discuss about politics only if they are daily passengers, commuting a couple of hours in the morning and back in the evening.

Apart from these guys, who discuss ONLY about schedule of trains and how they could/could not catch a particular train ("Saadhe saat waali passenger" or "Paune Aath waali local") and what others do in these cases. Rest of India keeps itself busy in cursing its politicians and worrying about Government's soft policy on terrorism.

And so my co-travellers did and I didn't. (Actually I was trying to think how to sit next to the girl sitting next to window. Don't get me wrong, all I wanted was to be close to window to take the photos!) And when I got rid of this issue (Got the desired seat) I started listening to what these people were talking.

The talks were about Mohammad Afzal and why he should be hanged, rather why is there even a question rising about his pardon. About how all Muslims are abetting terrorism in the country and that Uniform Civil Code is only way of stopping the politics of minority appeasement. About how we needed laws like TADA and POTA. And about lot many other things.

I just remembered reading columns of Vir Sangvi and Karan Thapar in Hindustan Times on this issue. And I just read one by Barkha Dutt. And all of these say the same thing: Howmuch ever we hate to admit it, hanging Afzal is not such a simple issue and hanging him will make a martyr of a murderer. And with people like Yaseen Malik and his compatriots of Hurriyat, this is not
exactly a fantasy.

All these journos admitted that they don't have any answer to question of whether Afzal should be hanged or not. If hanging him makes him a martyr, then not hanging him paints India as being soft towards terror. Barkha Datt raises a good point that if we had real perpetrators of crime, maybe then Afzal would have been a small fish and not been awarded a life sentence. But since actual culprits are either dead (the terrorists who actually attacked the parliament) or unreachable (LeT big bosses) and since we need someone to hang, it is Afzal!

Valid it may be, but useless in solving the mystry posed by question.

Don't know what will be fate of this man. I am not actually worried about him either, but I am really bothered about the fate of my country. I don't want it to bleed anymore. I don't want anymore 11/7.

I want the daily passengers to keep on discussing about train schedules!

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Hyderabad Diary: Traffic tremors and Biryani jolts

The traffic nightmare: When I landed up in Hyderabad about 8 months back, I used to leave in the morning, with a prayer on lips and hope in the heart that I will be able to survive city's traffic and come back alive.Thankfully things are not any worse now. the fear has gone from the heart, but wading through traffic is still a nightmare.

Hyderabadis lack even the basic sense of commuting as far as road travel is concerned. Many a times, traffic jams here are caused due to utter stupidity of divers and the ultimate desire of 'Need for Speed'. Large numbers of auto drivers, who are equally reckless (and play very loud Himesh Rshamiya numbers), do not help the conditions. To give the devil his due, AP Traffic Police is pretty efficient, though I feel they could be more strict and would do well to regulate city autorickshaws.

Funniest sight: An APSRTC bus trying to sneak away on HiTec City crossroads.

Biryani delights: Times Of India, Hyderabad (perhaps the only newpaper in the world which doesn't have an editorial page and uses its editorials as fillers!) is conducting a contest in which readers will vote for their favorite Biryani joint.

Hyderabad is famous for its Biryani, both veg. and nonveg. I won't be exaggerating, if I say that it is one of the symbols of the city along with Charminar. Almost all the anglo-hindi movies based in Hyderabad (e.g. Hyderabad Blues (HB) and HB2 or 'The Angrez') feature songs about Hyderabad and Biryani finds its place of pride in them. Andhra Pradesh's tourism sites too mention Biryani very prominently. For recipes you can Google it out.

I have been trying to get a piece of this culinary culture by trying to relish veg. Biryani across the city restaurants. Though this has had an impressive impact on my weight and paunch, anything for the sake of serving society!

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A realization and an apology!

The euphoria about 'Gandhigiri' had initially turned me off!

I am one of those who firmly believe that media has got yet another buzzword to fill the bulletins and telecast 'specials' about.

And as I have understood over the years that there is no buzzword more powerful than that given by a superhit movie. Afterall it's a win-win scenario. The movie rises above its reel life and aquires a halo as we are force-fed the fact that movie has its significance in real life as well. And as we watch the news channel mesmerised by the movie and at times the stars who are appearing on news channels as much as (well almost!) movies, someone counting the channel TRP grins wider.

The euphoria about 'Gandhigiri' had initially turned me off. Initially!

But now I have realized that I am getting a clearer picture of whole issue.

As much the news channels and their analysts claim that Gandhi has been reinvented by the movie 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' and 'Gandhigiri' is going to reinforce his values among society, I believe:

1) The sudden spurt of news and 'impacts' of Gandhigiri are not actually new: Any news about demonstration against injustice which was a drab 'aandolan' or 'protest' till the other day is now presented with a chuckle as an instance of 'Gandhigiri'. Is Satyagraha new to this country? For any protest Indians take the tried and tested path of peaceful protests (read sloganeering which occasionally gets violent!) or civil disobedience which is nothing but strike. Candle marches started by 'Rang De Basanti' is just another variant of peaceful protests. So isn't any 'Gandhigiri' headline, about protests, is not just a way to grab eyeballs? (I was very much tempted to use Gandhigiri in title for this blog also!)

2) Media has got a very unidimensional view of Gandhi's policies: Was Gandhi only about non-violence? I agree that preaching non-violence and propagating its virtues in the world was the core of his ideology and that this is most relevant in today's world divided on numerous lines. But what about his ideas about truth, honesty and religious tolerance? Are these values too outdated to be even considered? Then why do these values seem to be untouched by 'Gandhigiri' movement?

Perhaps this is the time to glorify these values as well.

Finally, it's time for an apology. To a man who could have made his way in history had he lived a little longer. A politician who resigned from the post of railway minister after a train accident claiming it was his responsibility. A Prime Minister who lead India from the front during a war and belied his physique with his governance.

There was no mention of Lal Bahadur Shastri's birthday on Oct 2nd, even in the news scrollers of news channels. Afterall there is no 'Shatrigiri' in any movie!

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Why is Oscar a 'Paheli' for us?

There was a very lively discussion on NDTV 24*7 about 'Whether India sends its best films for Oscar Awards' yesterday (21st September). Hosted by Sonia Singh, the panel had Prasoon Joshi (who needs no more introduction, but for those who don't know still, he is the guy behind 'Thanda matlab CocaCola', Creative Director (South and South-East Asia) McCann Ericsson and lyricist of 'Rang De Basanti'), Vinod Pandey (producer, director and head of the Jury that selected 'Paheli' as India's entry last year!) and Saibal Chaterjee (journalist and film critic).

Vinod Pandey looked almost embarrassed and apologetic as almost everyone asked him why was 'Paheli' sent as India's official entry. He mumbled something about film being 'seeped in Indian ethos' which nobody accepted. Joshi made a very important point to which I agree completely: Our film industry is still not sure whether it wants an Oscar or not. On one hand seniors like Amitabh Bachchan say that we don't need an Oscar and on the other we send our films with a lot of pomp (within India ofcourse, in the west nobody even knows about it!). The result: consider these gems:

• In 2003, no film was sent.
• In 2002, 'Devdas' was sent when according to critics there were better non-Hindi (I don't liking 'regional' word) films in the fray.
• In 1998, India sent 'Jeans'. The reason, producer Ashok Amritraj was leading the selection committee. (Contrast this with 'Paheli', when Amol Palekar resigned from the National Award committee since his film was a contender.)
• In 1991, 'Aagantuk' was the national award winner, 'Lamhe' was the Filmfare awardee yet India sent RK Films' Rishi Kapoor starrer 'Henna'!!
  

Another thing that I noted was that all the top contenders for this year's entry are Hindi films only, even if it means having a crap like 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna'.

There is a need of having a broader look at 'Indian' cinema and select the best and for God's sake keep vested interests out of this. Otherwise nobody is stopping us from sending movies and expecting some miracle to happen! We have got plenty of experience of this.

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High education, Low politics

Every other week there happens some thing or other that says that more the things change, more they remain same. The places may vary, the faces may change but the shock value, the insensitivity stays unchanged.

As if Jessica Lal, Neetish Katara or Priyadarshini Mattoo tragedies were not enough, Ujjain shot up for its claim to shame with murder of Professor Sabharwal of Madhav Singh College. Having spent my teen life in Allahabad where student politics in the University is as vicious as it gets, the violence in campus is nothing new for me. Indeed it was surprising if there was no news of bomb explosions or firing in campus or rampage in academic blocks didn't appear in newspapers for a month! (I am not aware of the scenario nowdays)

But this is something that I never heard.

On 26th August, members of BJP's student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) threatened and ultimately beat Prof. H.S. Sabharwal to death. He was 62 and barely 6 months from his retirement. Eyewitnesses claim that Police did nothing except watching and they claim that this is not for the first time, the 'students' have misbehaved with teaching (or non-teaching) staff. Though for the first time they have killed someone. As I am writing this, ABVP leaders have surrendered but they have been charged with 'manhandling' instead of murder.Not that this is surprising. The complaint itself was lodged after intense pressure from media and opposition while Police kept on claiming lack of eyewitnesses till the librarian came on-camera and claimed that he has already appeared before Police.

This incident may come like a shock to many but this is just another example of lawlessness creeping in universities in the garb of student politics. In Delhi, victory in Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election is supposed to be an indicator of victory in state elections. And needless to say that every candidate flays the rules set by election commission for an upper limit on expenditure. Those who claim that it is not possible to contest elections on shoe-string budget lie. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) does that every year.

Political parties and student unions cried blood when Election Commission suggested an upper limit of 23 (or 25) years on contesting University elections. So you don't need to be Sherlock to understand the real motive of those contesting University elections. Crime is creeping in politics at its 'grassroots' level.

It's high time that someone cleans this mess.

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Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

I think you too have got a mail comparing Indian and Israeli responses to attacks on them. Though I have replied to that mail with appropriate reasons, this video presents the other side of the story. Watch it, how the hunters are posing as hunted and this massive PR machinery is churning out complete lies.
The text below is courtesy Google Video.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

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It's hot outside. We'll go on strike!

What is surprising in this demand? It's too hot and I don't feel like working so why am I being 'forced' to work?
What? How dare you suggest that I face a pay-cut for not working? It is my birth right to have a government job and even greater right to protest and go on strike for every will and whim of mine and since Left Front is in Government, no Government can dare to ban strike.
Supreme Court? Oh come on man, we Indians have a habit of flouting the orders of the court. It begins at highest level of Governance, when parliament amends constitution to go around every ruling of Supreme Court it doesn't like (read: comes in the way of its votebank politics) and continues to lowest level of judiciary when almost everyone (district administration,police,goons and any one who can) laughs at the order of district courts. So who cares if Supreme Court says anything about strikes. We will do whatever we like.
Am I serious about this issue? What else do you think, I am joking here? Well this is not the issue of my coming strike on 17th and 18th August. Now as you know I am an AAI employee and since we don't often get a chance to go on strike we just wanted to ensure that people of the country don't forget me and other unions don't laugh at us.
Yes, the issue is same old one. The airport privatization. Now we ourselves don't exactly know what are we doing it for, since Government had agreed to most of our demands of retaining most of our staff even after GMR and GVK had taken over the airports. But still as our union leader said "''We will be protesting against AAI employees being pushed to new joint venture companies which have been formed to modernise Delhi and Mumbai airports".
Yes, even I was thinking about that. We have known this for past three months that we are going to be employees of new joint venture. But just think about this, we have to start with the new management on a high note na!
Oh, don't give me that crap about inconvenience to public. Is this our fault that public starts expecting international standards from us? Public has to face inconvenience whenever someone strikes, so why single us out? We will do what we have to.
Ok. It's been nice talking to you. Inquilab Zindabad!

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An evening with Tiwi art

This saturday I went to an art exhibition. Ami was absolutely adamant about going but I convinced him somehow and after having savoured one vegetable biryani each (he ate a paneer paratha as well!), which ensured that our stomachs were more than full, we took an auto for State Gallery of Fine Arts. We had reached Jubilee Hills when I realized that we have come a bit too far, and the Gallery must be some way back. And after a call to Neelima and a nice 1 km walk, we reached the impressive Art Gallery.

We were in a bit hurry because it was 6 now and the exhibition is open till only 7. Let me be honest at this point, I had almost no idea about the subject, the artists or origin of the paintings. Not that it would have made much difference had I known these things, but still!

The exhibition titled 'Kiripuranjee: Contemporary Art from Tiwi Islands' has been brought to India by Art Bank, an initiative of Australian Government.The exhibition features paintings from three major art centres of the Tiwi Islands. The word 'Tiwi' means 'we people' (I thought, maybe Ashutosh Gowarikar could have titled 'Swades : We the people' as 'Swades: Tiwi')

Tiwi Islands are located in the north of Australia, separated from mainland by Clarence Strait. There are two main islands that form Tiwi, Melville Island and Bathurst Island, separated from each other by Apsley Strait.

I had carried my camera, but we were pretty sure that we won't be allowed to shoot, so it came as a great surprise when guard in exhibition hall allowed me to take pictures.

If you haven't, you can see the pictures here

Traditional Tiwi art uses only four colors: black (obtained from charcoal), white (from lime), yellow (from iron oxide) and red (by burning iron oxide). New artists generate more colours like blue or gray or maroon by mixing these colors. Some others use paints. Similarly variety is seen in case of painting brushes. So if older generation uses chewed twigs or body painting brushes, new artists use modern painting brushes.

Most of the paintings featured were on paper but baskets made of tree barks called 'tunga' were also featured. Painted tungas are used in religious rituals as well as daily lives.


What fascinated me most were the 'female' spears called 'Puruntatameri'. I couldn't understand that why these 7 ft. (approx) tall, ironwood spears were classified 'female'!


It was a really good experience. By the way, I am going there again next week. Wanna join me?

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The World Is A Small Place

The world is such a small place, we keep on being reminded and we keep on forgetting!

The latest reminder comes in form of Israel-Lebanon conflict which has claimed hundreds of lives, the majority being on the Lebanese side. The rights and wrongs are being discussed, will be discussed and after sometime (hopefully) this war will end. But by then how much would be lost!

And the reason I have been jolted out of my blissful ignorance of the grimness of war, is that somewhere my country is being affected. According to a BBC report, about 12000 Indians live in Lebanon thus making us one of the largest communities in the country. Only 700 are being evacuated. I don't know the complications of this matter. I don't know who has decided this number. What I know (courtesy a report on IBNLive.com) that many families are being torn apart due to this. Some members have to be left behind in the war torn country, being promised further distruction, while others have to leave however unwillingly!

Till today I never cared a damn about this issue. The feed headlines gave enough news for me to bother. But now I understand. Lives are lives. Pain is pain. Sufferring is sufferring.

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