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.