The grind of the morning was about to begin. There were already some twenty odd office goers nibbling on their bacon, sausages, cheese and the sweetened assorted breads. Clinking of cutlery and clanking of dishes could be heard everywhere. Some distance away from the main dining area, a coffee maker was whirring constantly, releasing the ever arousing rich aroma of arabica beans. 'your weak darjeeling?', 'champ' as he was known asked the copper haired old lady, who has been staying here for the past two weeks now. 'i want chai!' the bespectacled Britisher replied, eyeing the boy with a gaze which can be described as a look of a wizard who has just cast a particularly nasty spell, and is awaiting the effect. The 'champ' gets the idea, it must have been one of those late afternoon trips to the neighbourhood with Indian acquaintances, to some corner chaiwala. Now, the woman is hooked to street tea.
He prepares what can be sadly described as 'chai' in a 'luxury' surrounding. A sip. No reaction. Another one. Frown this time. 'Where is the sugar in this?', ' and what?', 'no ginger!'.
Champ could not have gone beyond a certain point without actually getting in touch with the faceless 'chaiwalah ' who has done the damage. He faces the perennial problem of street food versus 'luxurious' experience, both at worlds ends, both trying to desperately emulate each other, sometimes with little success. 'Chai' described in the information highway will have a stock pile of spices and milk and sugar, all boiled with water and tea leaves. This is the traditional Indian tea of the north western states and does not necessarily reflect the 'chai' as it is misunderstood by the Westerners and the N.R.I's too often. The term tea, in English, is what we in India call chai. So tea is chai. Period. In fact if we travel a further back from this time period, we are enlightened to the fact that the term 'tea' itself had travelled from the plains of India to the west. A heavily accented westerner saying 'tea' would sound something like 'tchheeeaa". That is our chai!!! if you listen properly. Well, the fact remains that India is one of those countries which had given the world its most delicious,refreshing, heart warming non addictive beverage. We have three world renowned regions like Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri, which produce some of the best varieties of teas. Whether you like your tea, plain black, with milk and sugar or lemon and honey, the trick to a really good cup is the water temperature and the brewing time. Tea is a delicacy, hence the preparation too, needs finesse.The making and the setting is what one needs to understand first, before ordering tea. Leaves soaked in water is chai, adding 'masala' to it will make it masala chai, just tea,water and milk together is readymade chai, addintion of a herb like say mint, with or without milk makes it pudina chai etc.Meanwhile, ten minutes time is what it takes to make a cup of north western chai described earlier. Take black tea leaves of the blended Assam variety along with a lot of finely grounded clove,cinnamon,cardamom,bay leave,star anise,aniseed and yes fresh ginger, in a thick bottomed pan with two thirds fresh milk, one third water and sugar.Bring all this to a vigorous boil. Strain and serve piping hot. Its the making of tea that matters, that alone brings out the magic, the 'chai effect'. In a luxurious setting, they make tea with a few bags or some leaves, in a ceramic pot, just added with hot water and cold milk is placed on the side. The making is not right. Nor is the setting.

The trainer, about to start a topic on brands, asked the class, 'so which brand comes to your mind when i mention toothpastes?'. Colgate!!!!, the unanimous response, could have been true in any other classroom, at any other time, anywhere else in India and the world. That to us, we, me, is the kind of resonance asssociated to a giant of a brand which kickstarts the day of millions and milions of users worldwide each morning. Let's talk about 'our' viewpoint, What's so special about this particular brand? It is not that users in India have reaped extraodinary benefits by using colgate, in fact, we are considered to be a nation which ranks below average in oral hygiene standards. And 'benefits' is definetly not a top priority of a brand user. No brand of cigarette will be called 'beneficial' by a right minded user.There are certain other things that come first. Most of those like, comfort, value, trust, reliability etc are of the bookish varieties that every tenth grader knows these days. Lets explore one more, hidden but top priority. In fact it is the factor that leads to ultimate leanings towards a brand.

Its called Bias. Yes it not a typing error, its called Bias. We are biased individuals who choose our brands because of a preloaded programme inside us. Deep within the crevices of the hemispheres of logic and creativity, lies our best friend,our bias, the one who makes us choose a red umbrella, a green dupatta, a black sherwani, a silver sliding mobile phone, an ipod which is white, a golden toothpick holder, and yes, a certain red coloured packet of toothpaste. We are totally biased towrds these colours that attract. It is almost unknown to us, many a times it is identified by the marketeers, but not as a bias factor but more as a recall value driver. Red and blue are identified as the two most prominent colours in the world of ads. Both the makers of the ads and the end users are biased towards these colours. And the colour factor is not just one bias that leads to brand loyalty, we are even biased towards the sound of the names! A popular celebrity column in an English daily becomes phonetically profound sounding, with a heading like, 'God in Gucci'. We have enjoyed the hit 2008 release, 'The Devil Wears Prada', see? we have an automatic selection process to names when it comes to attributing it to something beyond us. Now, we shall never again see a slogan like, 'Prada, even the gods like us! The dye is cast. Amrani, you can be the automatic choice of the humble humans. Heaven and hell are divided by your fellow competitors. Snigger,snigger. We hate bias don't we? Yes we do. On paper. Deep within, every choice of a brand we make, is about our biases to things associated with it. Colour and sound are two examples. Long ago a popular noodle brand which enjoyed monopoly in India was marginalised by Maggi. Now Maggi is the favourite of everyone. Is it because of the taste? Not certainly, personally i feel it tastes average, now after all these years. Yet, i too buy it time and again. On introspection i realise that the bright yellow and red imagery on the packet played a vital role in my selection process long ago. Taste and smell of the product too sway the buyers decision. But they cannot be too important. A slight difference in taste leads to initial dissatisfaction, the overall impact of the brand remains encaptured by the colour and sound effect. A highly sucessful layout designer of Indian origin in New York once said, 'they come to me for the effect, for the variations in tones on their product, without it, they all increasingly realize, no body looks at them in an aisle full of only one product! True, we do not look at the less endowed. We all admire the biases in us, remember?, 'tall dark and handsome, 'my fair lady', 'chand sa roshan chehra', these are some of the iconic phrases of the present and past century, the biase to colours goes well beyond. To the birth of man. It is what nature told us to do. To choose from the rack of toothpastes, only the bright red packet.

Aparthied, an illness of the society, resulting in bloodshed, tauma, loss of innocent lives, is to be blamed on our colour biases.Did we ever try to see what is not on the exterior? the value that is intrinsic?. Nope. Had that been true, we would have made useful decisions that help us really. A better husband or wife instead of a pretty or handsome little monster who ruined the rest of our married life. A nutritive diet plan instead of the of junk food that chokes us slowly. A real teeth cleaner whick kills germs and not a sweetned pulp that the 'dentists' from over the world prescribe! A balanced energy drink which replenishes vital nutrients instead of a can of sugar syrup laden with 'secret' additives that the generations of this planet calls 'cola'. See what is not there to see. Taste the essence not the assault of flavours. Feel the warmth and not the false sense of 'power' in your hands. Be biased, but not to something that denounces values. Red is what attracts us. Let's appreciate the value of red that is inside all of us. Not just on a rack.

India, our country is about numbers, a lot of numbers. And currently, our respected netas are crunching a hell lot of numbers(their entire life depends on numbers) to decide what may be the possible collage at the center. Yes, a collage. Not a party, nor a few parties, but an entire brigade of wannabes hounding a big brother to find something to nibble at, something to be called a 'government'. As Adiga the writer says in his recent booker winning novel, 'what a ....... joke'.

We, the people, have managed to create a really long list of political parties, and a further long list of 'winners', who would now be able to have a go at the center of power in the Indian democracy. Democrazy, anyone? So, you voted for the secular forces, huh? Do not worry, a plethora of forces will find your voice at the center very soon. You can watch the comedy show in a month's time, when they do decide on the 'government' and start the 'process' of parliamentary debate. Now, the picture has emerged from the ballot box, UPA it is, your choice! UnderconstructionParliamentary Affairs, shall become United Parliamentary Alliance once again, your own government! Dr Manmohan Singh and his mentor have decided enough is enough with the left. Hence left is left out this time, some others will get their chance. The biggest setback in this recent election has been for the left parties. They messed with the stability at the center on the pretext of no faith in the nuclear treaty.And then, mishandled the situation at Singur and Nandigram, allowing a certain Ms Banerjee to flee with the votes. Good on them. Such irresponsible behaviour should not be tolerated for a national level party. But then its about the numbers na! Who do you omit to include????? that's the question.
Hence we shall have analysis upon analysis on the 24*7 news channels as to the final outcome. Until what comes out come finally! We can be led by anybody. Just about anybody. Ministries have been allotted to the goons from the cow belt and the ex convicts from coconut yards . Lets hope this time too they find the 'competent' candidates. Half the government has already rolled out by the time this post got to your desktop. Efficient people at the centre!
One over the top lady is screaming 'preshident rool' for her state from one corner of our country. Signs of the times to come. Well, we may have some rule or the other definitely. Only 'governance' you cannot demand, or get for that matter. That my dear friend is some thing the ballot they so dearly coaxed you to 'jaago re up to' never promises. 'Aap vote nahi kar rahe hain toh so rahe hain', right. 'ParKya Aap vote karke ro rahe hain?'

Let's call her 'danu'. My friend had this habit of taking things into consideration, a lot many times before arriving at a decision. And invariably she would come to me for  suggestions, speaking in a tone which suggested 'help me na'. i of course was a sucker for any free service of  advice, that is abundant in all of us, isn't it? That afternoon i had gone somewhere( a movie i think), when i had called her to say hello. Honeydew asked me to come and see her immediately after the movie; it was regarding an interview she was supposed to have with a top guy in our company. Upon meeting her, i told her to be very positive and sound enthusiastic about the new profile she aspires to get, that is if selected at all. After a few queries as to what she might be asked,Danu left for her meeting. Later in the evening, at around dinner time, she sent a message that i should come and see her. There was this staff cafeteria where i chanced upon her, she was looking for me; her eyes spoke more than they wanted to, she was tensed. The staircase leading up to the floors in our office was a secluded place to have a 'private' chat. We went up two floors to a suitable spot; lest someone overhears our conversation. Sensing the nature of the situation, i spoke as carefully as possible, but she broke down as soon as we sat down on the staircase. She wept on and on clutching her face, i awkwardly placed an arm around her(never at ease with these things). Poor Danu must have cried for a full four minutes, when she finally managed to mumble that she needs my handkerchief. Snapped out of a daze, self ran downstairs to grab the nearest napkin lying around(we have no shortage of such things, ever). She wiped her face, i helpfully offered her a glass of water, she drank some, sniffed a little, and then told her story. 

It seemed she wanted to get hold of a better profile, she had been trying hard for it for the past year or so, in some other company. Likewise, here too(she was a new employee) her talent was lying waste for lack of opportunity, and for that regards she had applied to join the sales team. They flunked her;again, that's what she was worried about. The interview mentioned earlier had gone well only till the point of her presenting her case well, they/he/the interviewer had actually appreciated her 'spunk'. What's spunk, Sam? she had asked me in between telling her story. But alas, in the end she still was empty handed, her 'bad luck' hadn't left her still, she was heartbroken. Now what can a colleague, or even a friend do in such a situation? except may be perk her up. That i did. i told her that she was a genuinely nice human being, a rarity. Sometimes even the rarest of things do not get the attention they deserve, you do not worry, and certainly do not cry, stop being a crybaby. 'Stop being such a girlie' wouldn't you like to put up a better fight? i see that you aspire, which is good, now get your act together and get going, you'll succeed surely. She thanked me for being with her. i thanked her for sharing her 'down' time. We all share our 'up' time very easily, but hardly speak to anyone when things aren't rosy enough. A few months later, Danu came to me teary eyed again, this time to say good bye. She was leaving for a better position, a better profile that she had wished for so long. We spent a few hours together, relieving all the wonderfull moments spent that made up these past few months. Her life now seemed on track, and i was happy to see her smile and giggle at my silly jokes again. She had left on a bus, i had waved at her till the bus turned a corner. i knew we wouldn't meet again. Some instincts are too strong. It has been a long time.i am sure you did well in your life. i wish you only the best 'Danu'. 

Watched a full length documentary called Religulous, ( probably merging of religion and ridiculous) an American production. The narrator is a stand up comedian called Bill Maher; yeah they can take a stand on anything. America for all that it stands and doesn't stand for is a very open society, the views expressed in public, would bring a nation like India to a bloody civil war. They have varied levels leading to and away from religion, the theist and the atheist being the closest and the farthest respectively. American society has and had quite a handful of atheists, this particular sect being treated like the carrier of some deadly disease by the majority of the very religious and church going Americans. Too many despicable and downright crass moral and social stigmas are attributed to the completely ungodly creatures, namely the atheists.
This documentary is no different from the huge amount of sound and fury spewing out of the land of plenty, time and again. Any talk,book,movie,documentary, audio or video about or against religion is widely followed and marketed; it always scores high. Religulous is no different, the narrator essays a silky smooth barging into the private lairs of some rich and powerful religious leaders or representatives to defy everything that religion stands for and does. He throws question, levels veiled accusations, scorches, stumps, bruises,punches and laughs at the pot bellied, Armani suited 'scholars'. They evidently are playing to the camera, some making it look real, others fumbling and stuttering, maybe praying that this gets over soon. The whole episode is a series of short interviews aimed at poking fun at the concept, misinterpretation and general shortcomings of religions all over the world.
Maher knows his onions, or is rather well prepared for the roasting of his victims, while keeping the proceedings light hearted and jovial. But the point is that inspite of making severe dents into the foundation of religion, like pointing to the glaring glitches in history(usual),linking of private wealth of preachers to blind faith(hackneyed) to rationalizing miracles to every day phenomena(clever), the documentary fails where all American tirades against religion fail, its adversity to atheist way. We, in India look at religion as either true or false, not the Americans, a vehement no to religion is still unacceptable to them. The narrator, like all other rationalists from America, relies on the seed of doubt to express his and all fellow brothers and sisters inability to see what religion is up to. They conveniently call themselves agnostics, a fancy term for the doubting Thomases. By this they mean that they are unsure, 'by doubting you are being rational' booms Maher. nah! you aren't being rational, you are trying to escape the twin dilemma of becoming a social outcast and a futureless,rootless flying twig. There are a lot of unmentionable attributes strangely given to the atheists, the veracity of the same though cannot be vouched by yours truly. 'Atheists do not vote, do drugs, blah blah blah'...went on an American i personally know, himself an agnostic.
i remember the sensible statement from another agnostic American, Richard Dawkins, 'physical science has a long way to go before it unearths the mystery of the all that is there around us, hence it is safe to say that all arguments for or against religion are not final, both are true and untrue at the same time'. That is solid ground for the agnostics, this yes and no, easy to adopt and say 'i doubt', instead of saying 'i deny' and get lynched. This view does not change anything, but it is better than a 'yes i believe so bring out the nuclear warheads'. Peace and human progress shall be achieved when assorted no-brainers like of 'doubts', 'beliefs', 'service', 'rituals', 'miracles','punishment', 'rewards in heaven', etc etc are totally and thoroughly washed down from our collective conscience. With religion around us, its a 'miracle' to live another day. Without it, there will be heaven without death. Another miracle!

Recently spoke to a Texan engineering consultant about the woes of the world market, to get a feel of how an American reacts to an infectious malady born in USA. He was pretty cool about it, saying casually that this is going to take three quarters more to get back to normalancy. He pointed out that the earliest signs of the recovery would be the drop in unemployment levels, and raising of interst rates. These two parameters he said, would be a healthy indicator. i asked for good measure what he thinks is the right price for oil in this scenario, to which he replied about seventy should be good. Sounded fair, the rates, controlled by American companies are always illogical. The commoner on the street should be able to get a tanks fill without having to worry about other consequenses. Then i came to the crux of the discussion, which i suspect he was ready for, he knew somehow that i would ask him. So why do you think this had to happen, who, if you were asked, is the single biggest culprit?
He was a smart diplomat in this classical answer of his, 'greed my friend, its greed'. There can be situations where the consumer is looking for a refuge under some sort of cover, to meet his desires, the market foces if not ready to meet the challenges shall be losers in the long term. Only, the methods chosen should have state approval in almost all cases so as to avoid future consequences. At least that is what is proven in this recession. The world needs better economic regulations to accomodate the aspirations and fix the greed of the principal lenders. Further i stated matter of factly that the reforms are going haywire and that the very basis of economics is a farce, its a dicey concept. He fully agreed to that and offered to add that it is called, 'the dismal science'. i laughed at this new phrase. Yeah, yeah, he indulgingly muttered. Trying to put mathematical coordinates on to human behaviour is nothing but an absurd idea. So the world will always see such phases, more of the global meltdowns are likely to occur, unless a very strong fundamental base of economic governanace is rolled out for the all the nations to follow. That is an unlikely scenario, like telling fifty chimpanzees to stand in a line for some bananas. Someone is bound to jump the line, someone would scoot with a whole bunch. Man is only socialised, an animal all the same.

In an age of instant viewership or readership for all sorts of media, the teams behind the numerous mediums expect the unexpected in a matter of a few hours or minutes sometimes. A news item, its authenticity be dammed, becomes an instant rage with one single telecast. Likewise, an erroneous article, or a scandalous interview is purposely feeded to the masses to elicit a response to something that's co related to another end product;a movie for example. More often than not, it hits the bulls eye, given the volatile nature of the multiple cross sections of the society. Anything goes in the name of 'breaking news'. Times are such that a viable model of business has been carved out by the wily and often highly paid strategists looking to make a mark in their chosen field; nobody is 'safe' without results, however qualified they be, such are the times. Quality in all fields, be it ads, movies, print media, television etc has gone for a toss. The formula is simple, make a downright crappy product and place it in the hands of a team of fancy degree holding team of 'professionals', they will brain storm over litres of coffee in some suburban five star and pronto!, you have a delightful plan to sell it overnight to a hype mongering consumer. Before anybody realises what the hell is being 'marketed', the makers are flush with tons green bills. Win win situation. Read an absurd 'news item' the other day about a bloke from Mankhurd who fretted and fumed to get his ticket money back after watching 'Ek'. The makers had apparently advertised that those not satisfied with the movie will be reimbursed their hard earned money. The said ad also kicked a bucketful of muck at the review writers, claiming that, when certain films being given a bad rating, it does not affect its box office performance. The makers went to the extent of pointing out that 'Dev D'which won a rarest of rare 5 star rating, didn't do well, whereas a movie like Golmaal Returns with 2 star rating proved to be a winner. What! that's a comparison? Its like comparing Charlie Chaplin to apna Jonny Lever. Forget about talking sense, these chaps do not understand what sense means. They want their nonsense to be highly regarded. By the way, if the ratings didn't matter, then why the hell do you raise a cry about them? Well that's the plan i guess. Make some noise, someone's ear is going to prick. If anything bears a semblance of sense, its the reviews of some truly dedicated critics. Yes it is easy to criticise,but then that's the voice of truth. We should be ready to hear the truth after giving our best shot, the sounding boards are bound to echo with the glaring bloomers commited.
And promises of simply giving money back will not help, you need to promise a decent entertainer to yourself before calling over the 'hustlers' in tie-suit.

India goes to vote again, another money flaunting, muscle flexing, hoodwinking,backstabbing,booth capturing circus is about to unfold. A new set of men and women shall be chosen to govern the country.Early nineties saw a then considered to be the baap of all political showmanship, BJP's rathyatra.The obvious agenda behind such a yatra or journey was to whip up the Hindu sentiments in the name of Ram.A vernacular leftist daily had a gem of a poem in this context which i translate here- Ram has re-incarnated in the form of Advani, this can be safely assumed, if the vote bank goes to BJP, the country's reigns will be in the hands of Hanuman! Both the avatar and the ape god reference here, are to demean the essence of the juggernaut which was unleashed in the country. The said party did finally win, but a lot later. And not Hanuman but A B Vajpayee was at the helm, incidentally the five years of his party's rule were puntuated with hiccups like Godhra, Kargil and Lahore summit( Advani almost looked ready to confer the Padmashri on Musharraf). And then, a whirlwind rally by Sonia saw the tides turn in favour of the congress again.The rule of the UPA was a bumpy, rocky ride capped with the recent recession.Two ideologicaly polarized parties, two different regimes, same unsatisfactory results. Not to talk about some forgotten piece of fiction called election manifestos.In India we choose not able leaders with vision, but personalities with narrow agenda.The messy,often bloodstained regional politicos, steeped in black money are promoted to the echoleons of power at the centre, or else given enough lollies in their state itself. Parties are willing to partner with anybody who has a seat to his/her name.The coalition resulting of such deals are multiheaded monsters allowed to run the country shamelessly, the voters clearly having shunned each one of them.In the run up to the general elections,a more disgusting result of such coalitions is surfacing, the blunt, selfish, egoistical leaders of regional parties are openly flaunting their drooling tongue and wagging tail, prime ministerial aspirations exposed. Just about anybody can pin their hopes in a lok sabha election for the top job. The top job is that easy. It is akin to a plump piece of meat hanging on a thread. Any bully can snatch it and be promptly named our next PM. It happens only in India.There is absence of logic in the mandates, reason is conspicous by its absence in the coalitions(adultry is the norm of the day), a single stable leadership is missing from the thick of things, India is about to vote for its next puppet PM. For the politicians, of the politicians,by the politicians. Thumb rules.

The powerhouse of world enconomy is taking one disastrous tumble after another in the face of a yet to be fully ascertained recession. Sub prime is prime time news, plus every coffee, chai or ciggie break topic.Stimulus or no stimulus, some known company or the other is announcing cut in flab like it is a routine policy matter. Now news has come in from the lands of plenty about families wiping themselves out, often initiated by the head of the family;reason, unable to cope with the crunch.So much already, more bad news invariably around the corner; all this what for? because of the countless mistakes of a wealthy, powerful, all pervasive, domineering state which has the largest share of every listed man made threat to the planet? This
nation consumes every thing from burgers,chips,colas,trees,gas,steel,paper,rubber, oil,whiskey,beer, anything that is there to consume like there is no tommorow.The average American is worth at least 20 Indians in terms of consumption of resources. The amount of pollution US of A creates would blacken the face of earth in a mere few years if all other nations were to follow suit.Now this hungrier_ by_ the_ minute giant is showing yet another disgusting face of itself, callous misappropriation of mortgage funds to the tune of so many billions that some nations may possibly run their economy for a hundred years with that kind of money.That kind of money is gone;kaput. Result is, truly deserving nations like India, which ought to come out of shadows of a miserable past, and share the power equation of the world, is being unnecessarily made to drag back its feet into messy waters. More pollution from the American stable, the dollar dirtying the fragile economic balance of the world. What can we do about it? For starters, our nation has shown tremendous foresight in refraining from falling into American hands to support its key infrastructure. Oil, a near monopoly of the US, cannot be totally produced in our homeland and hence needs to be outsourced. Sectors like IT services,call centers ect did depend on the well paying American cos, but then they are relatively new money spinners, and hence do not directly affect the vast majority. But we do need a serious relook into the shortfalls of a dissaparate revenue generating capacity across all sectors. Agriculture, small scale industry and consumer electronics should be strengthened to such an extent that the lower and middle income group, the bottom of the heap, begins to add value to the national income. The health of the nation lies in the weakest sections of the society, in our case, the agricultural sector must pull its feet up towards better output and quality. The per hectare yield is a shameful figure by world standards. This can and must change immidiately. Like in milk production, food grain surplus is the need of the hour. The green revolution that never was, must become a reality.Secondly the millions of manufacturing units must get all possible help as regards financial, technical or marketing related support. Improved quality in home grown products will automaticlly open new markets, just like in the case of the high quality saree fabric or mangoes that India exports by the tonnes.All in all, a better equipped, burden free, government backed lower income group, which so far has only faced apathy and injustice, must be allowed to break free of the shackles of the last four hundred or so years. This step alone can cure a plethora of economic maladies which the country faces from time to time.Let the hetherto unknown Indian in the darkest corner of the country stand up to tell the world what he can and does do, chances are, another wave of change will happen. This time it just might take the wind out of some mortgage swindling American.Take that.

This year's filmfare awards reinstated the old fact about this most popular of cine awards in bollywood.It is populist and often contrived.The awards in itself are not a patch on the global one's;themselves gullible to entrappings as displyed recently, it at least has the guts to say that look, we know what the public likes, so we shower only the viewers choices with the statuettes. A notable ommission though would be Ghajini.This blockbuster of the year was given a cold treatment, pray why, filmfare?because it's a southern remake?oh! so you don't like regional makers to enter your esteemed territory and run havoc. Ghajini went on to shatter record after record, the style statement of sorts it created was a sidey bonus, and both went unnoticed, unrelenquished, Amir's brilliant portrayal notwithstanding.Had this been a 'homegrown' production, bollywood would have given it the maximum trophies. Anyways, a perfect compliment to last year's best female lead in Priyanka Chopra has been delivered; an excellent selection. Roshan Jr was a bad choice altogether for best actor. If not Amir for his short term memory loss afflicted role, then Shahrukh deserved it for his double role in RNBDJ.
In the music category, the choice of A R Rehman for Jane tu...was poor, it should have gone to him, but for Jodha Akbar.Best film was a dissapointing and agonisingly callous choice in 'Jodha Akbar', 'Fashion' deserved it hands down.The second female lead in 'Fashion', played by Kangana, and rightly awarded for best supporting actress providing a little consolation. This acid tongued (pun intended) comment on the model-designer scenario with the whole lot of cliches, was by far the finest example of direction and production. It richly deserved to win the maximum trophies, including best film. Vocal merit awards again could have gone any which way, no singer making much of an impact, 'haule haule' by Sukhwinder, which won for best male playback, in particular was an odd choice, he doesn't even sound close to Shahrukh. The rest of the categories are technical and hardly scrutinised by the masses, 'oye lucky....oye' bagging the best dialogue award, is seconded by yours truly.A number of award ceremonies are on the way in the coming months, each with its own set of prejudices and fallacies, a few more bloomers would be witnessed, in the end no one is likely to complain. They just want to watch the great Indian tamasha unfold on the stage near them, clap for the winner, encourage the losers to hold their breath on to the next round of trophies. Something always comes by in a decent filmy year. There is one for every one, even for the perpetual absentees (read Amir Khan).Or if all else fails, 'have money will buy' is the sure shot winner(read......nothing).The legend of playback, Kishore Kumar, waited 26 years for his first filmfare trophy.An old issue of the magazine by the same name carries the year by year account of the legacy of Filmfare awards, search for it, buy it, it's worth a dekko. One finds exellence, passion and integrity on those pages.Now that is exactly what the awards these days do not honour.Ask Amir Khan.

Yours truly had elsewhere blogged about the implausible script of the global phenomenon, the recent hollywood-bollywood jv, Slumdog Millionaire. Now it has just achieved something more implausible, a whopping eight academy awards!!!! Over the MOON, anybody? Over the top would be more apt. Hollywood likes us to believe that this is what exellent cinema is about, we can't achieve a thing with Indianess of our backyard in the history of a century of cinema. They can, and have done with a few (only a couple) of immensely Indian subjects, and have emerged triumphant. The 82 movie Gandhi was a undoubted aspirant, and a deserved winner. It spoke the language of true cinema, sensuous art and sublime sensibilities. The winner on 23rd February 09 is at best a really brave attempt at westernised bollywood masala. Yours truly has a lot of respect for the academy awards, its choices and the standards. Appreciated the stiff upper lip response to our best hope in recent years,(read Lagaan) their reason for exclusion found to be believable. But now this! A shocker. Yes you like bollywood, everyone who can spell 'cinema' does, so?it gives you a passage to make a hilarious take on a famous quiz show and call it a masterpiece? Not accepted. The drama called Slumdog was a product of a very proffessional bunch of men and women working together.And more such efforts will be eagerly welcomed, but it is too early to bestow oscars on a near comical take on what luck can do for you, in the name of good cinema. The award for Rehman could have come anytime during his colourful carrier, but not this time, the music is just not that superior as the award suggests. Ditto for Gulzar's song Jai Ho. Dhanya ho! What were these jurists thinking? The great poet might be giggling over at the hilarity of the situation, some foreigners judging a rather mundane Hindi lyric and declaring it oscar worthy.Sound mixing, yet another category reserved for an Indian, is highly technical, so may be that does not call for a comment by the uninitiated. All in all, the amount of time,energy and recources spent on the movie at various international events may sound great for bollywood and its future collaboration with the west, but 8 oscar awards is uncalled for. Let's put a figure then,a real one, on the movie's oscar and other awards that it collected(totalling 100). Difficult to figure? Try putting an Indian director at the helm, exactly same movie.Jai Ho.

Most memories of childhood are really sweet, smile inducing and generally treasured little jewels for a majority of us. The little pranks we played... tantrums we had thrown, innocent wishes we had expressed aloud....all of them form a hallowed, misty, sacred (sometimes secret)paradise we uncover in parts with a little walk down the memory lane. Presently i recall two such instances which remain etched in memory after what seems like forever. i visited the botanical garden in Kolkata when i was barely four. It was an exhiliarating experience, and is a top slotter in the memory file. The greenery of the garden spreaded to infinity, a heavy mist blanket floated on the surface like clouds descending on mountain tops. Our party had camped besides the lake, under an ancient banyan. A peanut seller caught my attention by the way he went about his business, making percussion music with his gungroo even while deftly doling out neat conical packets of warm titbits. A regular peanut vendor in Kolkata would garnish the 'chanachoor' or 'mixture' with a lot of onion, green, chilli and coriander, thus adding value to the readymade snack. i got a packet of peanuts from the vendor,(much to my dissappointment since i had fixed my tastebuds on the mouthwatering chanachoor) the shelled ones mind you. i enjoyed them too at times, especially the cracking of the shell part. A couple of peanut shell cracking and husk removing later, i discovered something inside the cone, a really tiny polythene pouch;smaller than the size of a peanut shell. This discovery made all turn their attention to me. Someone fished out the teeny weeny pink substance holding pouch to have a good look. A prick of a hairclip made a dent on the little puffy bag. Out poured some of the pink substance onto the flat palm of uncle. A flick of tongue and a proclamation; jhaalnoon or spiced rock salt. Imagine a poor peanut seller you have seen last, most would sell their ware warmed up with burning charcoal and provide garnish if desired ie only on request.This chap in botanical garden did something that is a rarity in the low cost low margin business of peanut vending. i was pleasantly surprised with the entreprenuers thoughtfulness of providing spiced rock salt in a near impossible package. Just how did he manage that tiny bag to be sealed? Handmade?Machine made? Naah, i dont think so...too costly.Possibly done with heated metal strip with hands. But the point is he managed his small business really well. A customer salutes him after even after twenty five years.
i had just learned how to catch fish at nine years of age, complete with digging out wriggly earth worms and hooking them alive as bait.A pond nearby was a good practicing place for most local boys. i attempted at the shallowest point for the fear of falling in water(i don't know how to swim). A collective hurraying accompanied each catch and there were a quiet a few, but all from fishing partners other than myself. A frustating two hours later as darkness settled, all the boys had left with at least a couple of catches each. i remained alone fighting a swarm of mosquitoes and a sulking heart.It seemed the fishes were selectively partial to my bait, i was about to leave when the line was tugged a bit.Happy to get something at last i yanked it for dear life. There, in the dark moist ground lay my only catch of the day. With no one to celebrate the occasion, i ran home in anticipation of showing off to mom the achievement. As i carefuly unhooked the still moving fish, mom gave a mild laugh saying..just throw it away, its an inedible variety.Fish.

Long long ago, i had read an article in a sunday supplement of a leading english daily about an impending ufo sighting; a specific day in the coming week with time, to be precise.It was in the pre-liberalisation days, let me assure you people in those days took the newspaper as the gospel.Needless to say, the said article and its astonishing exploits about this encounter of a third kind proclamation was enough to create a flutter in the vast readership.The anxiety laden week started with frantic enquiries and possibly mass procurement of over the counter night sky watching nick-knacks.At last this once-in-a-life-time moment of truth was upon us.i distinctly remember bending twice over the balcony grills, over the terrace parapet and scurrying down to the enclosed playground nearby to get at least a fleeting glimpse of the visitors from far.The night passed,no sighting, not a flicker, absolutely no dancing of lights as promised.A depressing and did-i-miss-it? syndrome ridden week later, it appeared in a corner article as an answer.The newpaper had a good laugh at the cost of its readers.i was a miniscule speck they needn't have bothered laughing at.The date! they poetically pointed out.You could have guessed it from the obvious choice of date it was published.First of April!No offence but just thought it would be a good occasion to whip up a solid laughing spree in case the idea caught on.It did.
Later i found myself shaking my head at the foolishness of believing such an incredible idea of visiting spaceships,my juvenile age bracket at that point of time notwithstanding.But now for the last few years, i am equally appalled at the serious tone with which the channel, 'discovery' and its clones, air the alien propaganda. They have these fat farmers from Australia or Virginia who rant on camera as to how they lost their favorite cow to the aliens with huge sucking machines. Why only cows? Why not rabbits? The aliens have a very limited choice it seems.i doubt there was ever a missing persons complaint filed for a fat farmer sucked up by the aliens. For all the crazy stories you may have heard about dancing lights in the sky and thin green men, no hard evidence is present to sustantiate the claims.'i saw them there' is the usual one liner you would hear from a retired army officer or some bored housewife making their time to time appearance on television;read discovery,our own aaj tak ect ect. While i have no doubt the former channel is a respected one with a huge fan following the world over and the latter is a desi top of the heap hindi news channel, they simply cannot peddle these insane stories in the name of enmassing viewership.Like a lot of things unproven, undetected inspite of the latest advances in science, things like the ufo phenomenon too continue to take popular imagination by storm in the face of an all believing, all lapping, ignorant, rumour happy population.A historical reference too is found in the engravings it seems. Yet no body ever remotely claims to have made any direct contact or even reported a conflict with these so called visitors from far.Only stories are told by a stray attention monger and filed by unscrupulous agencies.i hear a collective laughter whenever these episodes are aired or printed, the joke is again on us,me.

INDIA FORUM

Apni chatri tum ko de dein,

kabhi jo barse pani,

Aur kabhi naye packet mein Bechein

Tumko cheez purani.

These tacky lines are from a SRK starrer called 'PHIR BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI'. The now- noble -now -shady situational cartwheeling capacity of us Indians is highlighted here. We the people, Nandan Nilakani's people of idea of India, prof Amartya Sen's, argumentive Indian, Nehru's people who had a tryst with destiny are truly unique. Colourful,simple,vibrant,copious,greedy,helpful,brainy,jesty and enterprising. Its not easy to describe us in mere words. The tumulous world market has gone crazy trying to stay afloat on a wobbling plank supported by the trio of dollar, euro and pound. But the rupee keeps us merrily sailing, the world be damned.The soul of Indian economy is the enterpreneur in India, be it the wealthy old fashioned business men viz the Tatas, Birlas or Ambanis, the educated, sophisticated Murthys,Bhatias or plain instictive Biyanis and Premjis. At every stage of the post independence era this very model of business has taken the country forward to the new millenium with heads held high.Ours may not be the fast food variety of the west which only thinks big and bigger, its rather the slow cooked nourishing meal, which keeps good warm company in cold, bad times.The collective strength of our young and middle aged citizens is a very very poweful force to be ignored. We have a long way to go and the difficult times will only test the true mettle of the famed Indian entrepreneur. A lot of new ideas are floating around as to how we shall eventually reach the top slot at the world stage. A top nation with a very sound economic health isn't really that distant a dream any longer. In fact we can all see it in our lifetimes, the developed and poweful India. However some of the persistent problems must go by then, like the lacklustre governence we see all the time, plus the amount of corruption eating into every strata of society. A very bright talent pool like this is good news, whereas the evident regressive approach of the power-brokers is sad news.Let's all take a joint initiative to spell out our minds towards all the possible ways we can tackle the problems ie find the best solutions for future course of action.Thus we exchange ideas and listen to each other and perhaps give the government a good picture of what's in store for non compliance of the very demand of the people.A huge sounding board like, say an online public forum with the active participation of the ruling government seems like nice idea. All students,teachers,traders, proffessionals,experts,scientists,public servants ect can voice their opinion or suggestion in this forum and possibly elicit a suitable response from the government or the responsible agency in response to the big picture. It need not be a one way traffic, people can appeal to the general public, answer queries or perhaps start a separate debate. Such a site will definetly handle a lot of traffic and may place some moderators;self appointed or through a selection process to avoid repatation and malintention. This hopefuly would throw up myriad viewpoints and ideas towards a well governed and better behaved country. Some obvious clauses would be no joint demand,no involvement of\by the armed forces,no nuclear policy related issues,no raising issues pending in the courts and no appeals towards certain foreign policies.Some areas are best left to the efficient ministries of the centre.We can chat through to the new world order! Happy blogging.