Baharul Speaketh

Forget Me Not: Reminiscences Of A Maestro

2011-10-10T15:39:00.000+05:30

I had fallen in love for the first timewhen I was 13 years old with a junior in school (let’s call her “J”). As ithappens with first love, where you tend to worship the beloved, it had happenedwith me as well. Since it was not reciprocated then, the intensity grew withtime. I would do anything to get any information on her. Years later when wecame to end of class X, we used to write in those slam books, in anticipationthat we would soon be leaving school, what we like or dislike. On one such occasion,I had come across J’s profile where she had mentioned that her favourite songwas “Kahin Kahin Se Har Chehra Tum Jaisa Lagta Hai” from Jagjit Singh’s album “DilKahin Hosh Kahin”. Though I may have vaguely seen the video of the song before,it became a mission to find the song and listen to it repeatedly. And quiteexpectedly it became a favourite as well. This was the first time I becameaware of Jagjit Singh and Ghazals, in a major way. Before that I had listenedand loved “Hoshwalon Ko Khabar Kya” from the film “Sarfarosh”, but at that timeit passed more as a movie song rather than a Ghazal.

A year later, Jagjit Singh’salbum “Forget Me Not” had released. J was in her 10^th standard andwas planning to leave the school after that. Since it was a boarding schooleven self studies happened in classrooms. So we used to keep our books permanentlyin classrooms. In one of those clandestine searches through her notebooks, Ihad found a cut out of “Forget Me Not” which she had herself written. I stoleit of course and carefully kept it for few more years till I lost it, like thelove for her. Few months later, a favourite teacher of mine was leaving theschool to join Central Bureau of Investigation and we decided to give him aparting gift. I insisted that we give the cassette of Jagjit Singh’s “Forget MeNot” without slightest idea if the teacher liked Ghazals.

A year later, I came to Delhiwhen I got real exposure to ghazals through recently established private FMchannels. At night the programs were designed in such a way that all thestations either played classics or ghazals and the latter genre was dominatedby Jagjit Singh. A year later I joined the college, where flashback part of “HoshwalonKo Khabar Kya” was picturised. I fell in love again. Though the girl wasdifferent, my love was in continuity of the previous one. Like upgradingyourself to the latest iPhone. (None of the girls are friends anymore, so Ineed not fear retribution for such crude comparison). Love was more intensethis time, so the heartbreaks. Jagjit’s ghazals became a refuge for a restlesssoul, a bleeding heart. The ghazals I listened during that period of time areso deeply ingrained in my mind that every time I listen to any of them, thememories come rushing.

Years later, I was in Calcuttafor the final years of my education. I had a laptop and hence had unlimited accessto his songs. I was no longer in love except reminiscing the old one (ProbablyGod’s iPhone upgradation was on hold and still is ;)). At night I would putJagjit Singh on my itunes and go to sleep, a practice I still follow.

Ghazals have always been verycathartic to all the pain I went through and Jagjit Singh defined it for me. Ihave heard there are other Ghazal singers who are better and more authenticthan him but I have yet not been able to go beyond him to make a statement orjudgment. His demise is as much a personal loss as a public one. But he shalllive on, in his timeless ghazals, always bringing back those amazing memoriesof wonder years.

The Interrupting Whispers

2011-10-06T21:18:00.003+05:30

On a fine Sunday, few days ago, I was thoroughly enjoying the autumn of Mumbai. Sitting in a chair on the rooftop, I saw youngsters flying kites, older ones flirted with girls around them on a nearby apartment rooftop, while sun went to hide behind a giant apartment. A gentle breeze touched me. Amidst all the concrete, life was still beautiful, I thought.

The day after, I felt feverish at work. It is unusual since fever always eluded me except on one occasion about 15 years ago. The next day rashes started to appear. The first thing I do when I feel sick is to call up my doctor friends, an advantage of studying in good schools. I disturbed the power nap of my school senior and a dear friend Baser Ali, which he was taking in between his shifts. He broke the news. The symptoms clearly indicated that I had chickenpox but I must consult a doctor for confirmation.

The discovery was shocking in a way. In my craziest of dreams, I might have thought of having rarest of diseases, but it never crossed my mind that I could have chickenpox. The only memory I have of the disease was years ago when school friends would have it and would be packed off home for a long vacation. But it will happen to me? Well!

Gradually the rashes started to come all over my face and body. It was scary to look into the mirror. There was constant irritation as if someone was pinching with many needles at once. I couldn’t touch any part of my body for the fear of scratching the rashes which would lead to more of them. At night I won’t be able to sleep. I would think about Bhishma, my favourite and the iconic character from the epic Mahabharata who lied on a bed of arrows. What pain he might have to endure!

However, within couple of days, I was on my way to recovery. The fever was gone and new rashes had stopped coming. Still I couldn’t go to work as yet and I had shelf full of unread books accumulated over more than a year. I started reading with a vengeance. To my surprise, I found that I actually had good pace of reading. Just that I never had the patience to take up reading seriously. I finished two books within a week which is quite a feat given that I took months to complete a book. However, greater revelations were about to come.

Ever since I started my professional life more than a year ago, I never had the time to pause and ponder. Of course the work life didn’t turn out the way I had imagined. The spending power was still the same; I was still not dating anybody. Forget living a wild life. The friends were gone and life had become such a routine. The week long isolation from the world came as a good interruption to the routine and gave me lot of time to self evaluate. To think about things, I have been subconsciously ignoring.

We are so much busy planning for the future that we completely ignore our present. There is wishful thinking that when I attain certain goals, I would be happy. While those goals are being pursued, life would just pass by. I know this is a cliché and you would hear it all the time. But unless you experience something within, you seriously don’t understand the meaning of it. Hence you fail to put it into practice.

We are always so sure about life which is characteristically uncertain. Just few weeks ago, I was playfully lamenting that I had so many ‘leaves’ but didn’t have enough time to take them. All of a sudden, chickenpox happened (which was completely out of my scheme of things) and most of my leaves are spent on this break. Now my year-end holiday plan is in jeopardy.

While life has its own plans to give you things, you always have to look out for it. You have to break away from the routine if you intend to get anything unconventional and experience life’s surprises. You may not have inherited a luxurious life by birth but then know that you haven’t inherited his woes either. Life is uncertain and we are more vulnerable than we think we are. But you have to live the present to the fullest, without saving too much for the future.

A House For Mr Islam

2011-03-26T13:28:00.007+05:30

The first time I had to search for an accommodation was after completing my class X when I decided to leave my boarding school and study in Guwahati. The house was mostly found by elders, so didn’t face any issues. But I didn’t like studying in Guwahati and loved my school, so went back after few months. The actual staying on my own happened when I came to Delhi after schooling. The disadvantage of growing up in a small town is that you can never whole heartedly decide what you want to do. The only career which is respected and every good student pursues is medicine. If you don’t like to be a doctor, there is nothing else you can do. I preferred Engineering over Medicine but I was bad in Math. May be I was not bad, just that Mathematics didn’t come naturally to me (read without putting much effort because I have always been a lazy ass). So, I had come to Delhi for coaching classes for either of the courses. I was never sure.

A school senior, Baser Ali (who went on to do MBBS from Madras Medical College and just got enrolled for MS in Calcutta Medical College) was in Delhi and I along with my cousin Aminul came to live with him. The house in Hauz Khas belonged to a Muslim family who was in good terms with Ali. All the rent dealings were taken care of by him. It was many months later during Eid, when we went out wearing Kurta Pyjama, skull cap etc that the women folk came to know that we were Muslims. I lived there for 3 years despite my college being in the North Campus of Delhi University, which was more than an hour’s journey by bus. I loved South Delhi, I still do.

While in 3^rd year in college, few friends from Assam came to live with us and there was no space left in the building, so we were forced to look for another place. We shifted to Gautam Nagar where I would live till I had to leave Delhi. The house owners were Punjabi Hindus most probably migrated from Pakistan after partition because despite living in Delhi, they were still very rustic in nature. Immediately after shifting, oneday the landlord met me in the stairs and asked,

“Tum Mohammedan Ho?”

“Nahin”

He was puzzled.

“Main Mussalman Hoon”.

He smiled with slight embarrassment thinking I had joked with him.

Most people who use the word “Mohammedan” believe that Muslims would like it since it’s in English. (Our minds are still colonized). But I was little too well read for that. The word “Mohammedan” came into use when Europe was less developed and less accomplished than us and couldn’t accept that there could be a prophet after Jesus. They used “Mohammedan” as a derogatory term for Muslims. So, whoever calls me that, I always reply that ‘No I am a Muslim’. Sometimes I act as if I have never heard the word Mohammedan to annoy them more. Most don’t understand why I do that. But then intellectual pursuit will always remain a domain of the elite (By elite I mean by mind, not by fortune).

After living two years in Gautam Nagar, I had to shift to Calcutta as I got admission for my post graduation in the city. My cousin was already living here and his place was not much far from the institute. Since the school didn’t have proper hostels, I preferred to stay with him. My cousin with a friend had come to Calcutta a year earlier. When they had first come to the house, the landlady didn’t want to rent it out to them as they were Muslims. Her son intervened and they were allowed to stay. Two years later, after finishing my course, I got placed in Guwahati, so I had to leave. My cousin and the third roomie Asraful also wanted to shift with their friends. But landlady was so much attached to us that they lied to her that all three of us were moving back to Assam. On the day of leaving, the landlady came to our room and sobbed like a baby.

My classmate in Calcutta Zenith Sharma and Jagjit Singh were also placed in Guwahati and had planned to move in together. I also wanted to join them when I reach here (I was touring in Delhi at that time). Zenith found a house (my present house) but the landlord won’t allow a Muslim to stay because he would roam in the neighbourhood wearing skull cap and lungi to which neighbours would complain, because he would eat beef in the house. But Zenith was adamant that I must be allowed to stay (I would forever remain thankful to him because he was by then not a very close friend to take such a stand). But landlord had his conditions in place. If I have to pray, I should pray inside house. I can’t go out of house wearing Muslim attire, even in Eid. I must not eat beef. It greatly pained Zenith when he narrated these to me.

As time passed here in Guwahati and the landlord, who is now 73 years old, interacted with me and all his prejudices vanished. Of all the three, I was more similar to him since I could converse in his language which is my official Mother Tongue. That I would never drink alcohol and create ruckus and keep the room clean made me a perfect tenant. Few months later, when Jagjit wanted to shift, the landlord came to me to say that there was a single room upstairs. If I wanted I could stay back.

Jagjit has gone back to Calcutta long ago. At that time, Asraful (my Calcutta roomie who is now in Guwahati) wanted to shift with me as we had a lot of space in the house. But the landlord didn’t allow saying he didn’t want to make it a hostel where people come and go. But few months later when Zenith asked him if a Hindu friend of his could come and stay with us, the landlord readily agreed. It made me wonder why he was so warm to me and would still not allow any more Muslims. May be he thought I was an exception and not the rule. During one of our numerous chats during winter in the lawn, he commented that Muslims reproduce more. When I pointed to him that he has more kids than my father has, he theorized that it may be because my ancestors were Hindus. Hence I have more ‘civilized’ blood in my vein.

Now I have to shift to another place because Zenith will move to Delhi next month. Since my landlord won’t allow my Muslim friends to come and stay with me (My Hindu friends are either not looking for accommodation or have houses here), I had to search for another house. Even now, he comes and tells me that if I wanted I could stay back in the single room (which is now occupied but will soon be vacated). Despite his views about Muslims, I still like him because he is a nice man. May be he grew up at a different time with a different narrative.

So, this is the first time I was actually searching for a house because on all previous occasions someone else had done that for me. With few days efforts, I have realized how difficult it is to find a house if you happen to be a Muslim (I would rather skip the anecdotes). Finally, I found a house in the Muslim quarter of the city. The ghetto mentality works in two ways. People of same religion want to stay together and people of another religion are not allowed to stay with them. For cosmopolitan folks like me are still few to make any difference, specially in non metro towns where we use a flattering term ‘conservative’ to refer to their narrow-mindedness.

A Princess Sapphire

2011-01-31T00:25:00.002+05:30

Love he must even if
the beloved is enemy's daughter
Forgive he does even if
he proves to be the nemesis thereafter

A man of valour and compassion
captured my childhood imagination
He was Prithviraj Chauhan
A hero of everyone's fascination

The kingdom is gone
but the legend grows
Traditions changed
legacy continues

Silky locks, dreamy eyes
an inherent grace;
With a mesmerising smile
she is born to beguile

Makes an impact
wherever she walks
Into a classroom
or a life

She is hip
she is cool
loves to play pool

May not know the rule

One day came the revelation
Not tough to decipher
Awestruck I was to know
Prithviraj was her forebear

In changing times
she is a commoner
At another age would've been
A Princess Sapphire.

Thank You, Sister!

2010-08-24T07:20:00.000+05:30

Thank you for carrying me around even though I was too heavy for you.
For those million mesmerizing fairy tales which I thought was real.
For planting the first seed of imagination in my mind.
For being on my side whenever I was reprimanded.
For those words of assurance when I felt low.
For making me feel the best in the world.

Thank you for carrying my love messages to my crush in school
Who happened to be your best friend.
For telling me not to love her which I never listened to ultimately hurting myself.
For keeping my secrets from parents.
For not minding even when I got a preferred treatment.
For being proud of me.

Thank you for being a friend-philosopher-guide.
For accepting me as I am.
For making me proud of myself.
For correcting me whenever I have faltered.
For trying to make me a better person.
For being privy to my deepest secrets.
For listening to me whenever I needed to speak up.
For sharing that special secret of your life with me first.
For having unshakeable trust.
For obliging to my every irrational whim.

Thank You for being that lovely little angel.
For letting me experience innocence all over again.
For listening whenever I have advised about anything.
For showing respect even when it was not required.
For looking up to me despite knowing my limitations

Thank you, Sister!

School, Video etc

2010-07-23T14:18:00.004+05:30

I have been a movie buff since the day I know this world. So, whenever I got the opportunity to watch a film, I would never let it go. While I was in school, there was military type discipline. We could watch movies only on particular occasions and they were not too many to cover all the films that I wanted to watch. As we grew older, an alternate option was found.

Our school was temporarily run in an old government building as the construction of the permanent building was underway at a different location. One part of our school building was for some training purpose which hardly happened and remained empty. We would rent VCD along with TV and watch movie at night. It was started by our immediate seniors as we were the second batch. When the baton was passed on to us, the responsibility fell on me for being an absolutely movie-aholic.

I along with couple of other friends would arrange for the movie show and would also collect money from everyone for the cost involved. Only the immediate juniors were allowed. The arrangement was good and it went like that for some time. We were in class IX and not too many people paid attention to us as the school would be busy pampering the board exam appearing students.

We were about to be promoted to class XII and it was tacitly understood that we would no longer be watching movies like that as we have to concentrate on studies. For the reason, we would watch movies every weekend before we actually start studying. On one such weekend, there was electricity black out in the town and we decided to skip it. Soleman Khan was one of my classmates and would regularly watch films with us (Not all of our classmates joined us). That day he decided that he would arrange for movies even though an extra battery have to be brought which usually is very heavy. He said “Every time you show us, today we will show you”. He along with few more less experienced friends for the job made the arrangement. The films that we saw that night were Amitabh Bachchan-Akshay Kumar starrer Aankhen and Fardeen Khan starrer Kitne Door Kitne Paas.

Two days later, the news flashed in a regional newspaper that House Master shows porn movies to students in Navodaya Vidyalaya, Barpeta and all hell broke loose. It so happened that while they were bringing the TV set, a local sports teacher had seen them. He was neighbor with one of the clerks of our school. The clerk has some issues with our House Master. To even scores with the teacher, the clerk sent the news to the newspaper. Our house master was an over-zealous teacher who took his job way too seriously. Not the kind to take such blames lightly, he started the hunt within few days found out the culprits. Actually one from Soleman’s gang had betrayed him. That night the house master came to the house and beat everyone (who had done the arrangement that day) to pulp. The next morning notices were sent to their houses with full responsibility of earlier arrangements as well. Those were such tense times for all of us since they could have easily said that truth about the people who actually carry out the task. But they didn’t and we narrowly escaped similar fate.

More than 8 years have passed since that incident and I am sitting with Soleman in his hostel room (he completes his MBBS degree this month) and sharing a good laugh about the bitter sweet memory which was so grave then and so light now.

A Year Ago

2010-03-23T14:38:00.000+05:30

It’s been a year since
The last time we met
In the precincts of the walls
We both loved

Shook hands
Shared smiles
Sat under the tree
That special cup of coffee

This day, this exact time
We met and parted
Not knowing if we’ll
Ever meet again

Corporatization of Hindi Film Industry

2010-03-19T15:36:00.003+05:30

India is the highest producer of feature films in the world and will continue to be so because of its linguistic diversity which is unique to the country. Though many people refer to Hindi film industry as the Indian film industry, it may be misleading as films made in other languages in India (mainly in Tamil and Telugu) are not just as good in content but also very different in cinematic style and grammar. They have almost equal viewership and are made in similar budget. However, being the national language Hindi is the highest spoken or understood tongue which gives the industry an edge over the rest which are referred to regional film industries.

The paper focuses on the Hindi film industry whose primary market is among the Hindi speaking audience in Northern India. But the market is also extended to non Hindi speaking areas specially the metro cities of South India which adds substantial revenue. The box office for Hindi films is split into many sectors which the trade calls circuits or territories.
The main territories are:

Mumbai territory is formed by Mumbai City, Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Delhi/UP territory is formed by Delhi City and the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
East Punjab territory is formed by the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir.
West Bengal territory is formed by the state of West Bengal including Kolkata City.
Bihar territory is formed by the states of Bihar and Jharkhand and parts of Chhattisgarh.
CP Berar territory is formed by parts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
CI Territory is formed by parts of Madhya Pradesh.
Rajasthan territory is formed by the state of Rajasthan.
Nizam territory is formed by Hyderabad and parts of Andhra Pradesh
Mysore territory is formed by most of Karnataka including Bangalore.
There are also some other very small territories like Assam, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra.

Hindi film industry, for the largest period of time remained an unorganized sector. Though during initial years, the studio system prevailed. Under the system, actors were employees of the studio in its payroll. However, as the industry grew in size the actors started to charge more hence became impossible for studios to keep them exclusively. The actors became freelancers who worked with a producer for a film. He was free to do films with any producer at any time. This ultimately led to the death of the studio system which was replaced by independent producers. The finances were completely bore by the producers and were often a shoddy area as it was undisclosed. Black money was pumped into the system which led to high rates of interest. The underworld was infamously associated with the film industry as it became evident with many incidents over the years.

However, there was wind of change when the government accorded “industry” status to the film industry in 2000. This opened the path for producers to get bank credits on lower interest rates rather than relying on black money. A lot of things which were informally done (like signing an actor which was a verbal commitment is now changed to legal documents) were formalized. The production, distribution and exhibition were integrated giving greater control to the corporate over the functioning and accountability.

The advent of multiplex cinemas brought a new phase in Indian film viewing experience. Initially multiplexes were brought to cater to the elite class who prefer a different kind of cinema than what is popular among mass. But the phenomenal growth of multiplexes among metros has changed the situation. More than 50% of total theatrical revenue comes from multiplexes and with its ever increasing presence; it would be much more in near future. Hence with its different customer base, Hindi films were started to be made differently deviating from the popular formula films. Though the phenomenon led to quality cinema, it meant death knell for the single screen theatres which were infamous for lousy amenities, poor sound quality. Audience shifted from single screens to multiplexes producing a great divide which in popular terms referred to “multiplex audience” and “Mass”. Though multiplex audience is lesser in number, they have more monetary power and add more revenue and hence their demand is given priority. Films are made either for multiplex or mass. Quite obviously, multiplex takes the cake. There are hardly any films which can successfully cater to both the categories. But with diminishing number of single screens, it can be safely said that future is for multiplexes with ever increasing buying power of Indian middle class.

The majority of the cinema-going audience in India consists of young men from a variety of regional, linguistic, religious, and class backgrounds. Today there are around 500 million Indians under 25 out of a total population of more than 1 billion and films are made primarily to appease this age group. But of course for a film to be popular it must also entertain the whole family, from grandmother to grandson, who are also avid cinema-goers.

Before Corporatization
After the collapse of studio system in 40-50s, the task of Hindi cinema production fell upon independent producers and remained so for next half century. The complicated process involved in making a film is not known to many people. It would be surprising for most people if they know that filming is less than 40% work in making a feature film. Major work in making a film is when there is no filming.

The Stages in making a film:
1.Development:
In this stage, a story is conceptualized and a proper script is developed in collaboration with writers. The feasibility of making a film is analyzed at this stage and if everything falls in place it is taken to the next stage.

2.Pre-Production: From the time a film is green-lighted till it goes to the shooting floors, the time period is called pre-production. During this time, the cast, crew, story, music is finalized and locked for the film. The planning of shooting like location hunting called ‘recce’ and constructing sets are done during this period. In this stage, the film is designed with shot break-up and proper illustration.

3.Production: The moment a film starts shooting floors till the time the main photography is completed, the film is categorized as ‘under-production’. Before corporatization, when one actor did multiple films simultaneously, shooting was a major hurdle as the producer had to run from pillar to post to attain the actor’s dates. An actor did two/three shifts everyday for different films. Due to this, usually a film would remain under production for 2 years and sometimes more. To cite an example, Govinda had 12 films on floor in 99/00. In fact a close look at Govinda’s filmography tells that during 80s, after his debut into Hindi cinema, he had average 9 releases every year. In 1988, he had 10 releases and the following year he had 14 releases. Also actors were infamous for coming late to sets. Hence it can be inferred that shooting a film was less complicated than getting all the actors together for a film at one time. Since no formal contracts were signed and in an industry where stars determine everything, it was almost impossible for a producer to control such phenomena.

4.Post-Production: The work that goes after completion of cinematography till the film is ready for release is called Post-production. Post production is dominated by editing, mixing, and dubbing since during that time most films were not shot in sync sound implying the actors had to dub their lines in the studio.

5.Sales and Distribution:
The film is screened for potential buyers (distributors), is picked up by the distributor and is released in theatres. The Music right is also sold at this stage. The Home Video and Satellite rights are sometimes sold at this stage if the producer gets required price or waited upon the release of the film. If the film becomes a hit, the price of Home Video and Satellite rights usually go up exponentially.

The Business Model

The major revenue was generated from theatrical release. The music of the film which was sold prior to the release also brought significant revenue, though miniscule in comparison to the whole revenue of a film. The advent of home video came with the introduction of VHS in the 80s and TV started generating more revenue as Cable TV made its presence felt in 90s in India. Still, theatrical revenue brought almost 80-90% of the total revenue.

The Producer:
He is the helm during all the stages of filmmaking mentioned above. However, the biggest challenge for a producer is to get required finance to make a film. If the producer is an established person in the business like Yash Chopra or Nasir Hussain then he need not take external finance to make a film. But if a producer does not have enough money, he has to take external finance to complete a film. Since the Hindi cinema didn’t have industry status, it was deprived of government subsidies and banks didn’t give credit. Hence a producer had to borrow money from private lenders usually at a high rate. A lot of black money was pumped into the system and there was often a nexus with the underworld, which will be subsequently discussed. The other model was to pre-sell the film to the distributors. In such a scenario, during the making of the film itself the rights were sold to the distributors. Such a phenomenon happened only when the film was a hot property meaning it had top directors and actors working on it and whose success was almost guaranteed.

The Distributor
The distributors are the people who look after the distribution of the film in different parts of the country. As mentioned in the ‘introduction’ of this report, the domestic market is divided into different ‘territories’. A distributor may buy the all India right and sell again to sub-distributors in each territory. Or the distributor himself may release the film in each territory. Before corporatization, since resources were limited only major territory like Mumbai was retained by the main distributor and the rest were sold to sub-distributors. The buying of the film from the producer happened on two models. First is when the distributor bought the film before the film by a certain amount making table profits for the producer. Hence all risk was transferred to the distributor. If the film flopped, the distributors lost all the money. Only those films whose success was almost guaranteed were sold on this basis. The second one is films are bought on commission basis. The distributor doesn’t pay any money to the producer but releases the film with his resources. The risk mainly lies with the producer. On success of a film, the distributor gets a certain commission. On failure of a film, the producer lost most of the money.

The Exhibitors
They are the cinema owners. Since advent of multiplex cinema is very recent, the cinema viewing was restricted to single screen cinemas. A lot of distributors owned a lot of cinemas. So when they had to release a film, those cinemas got a priority. Other cinemas had to be booked on rent basis. A particular amount of money was paid as rent to the cinema hall owner. The amount was almost equal to 15-20% of total capacity of the cinema. If the film became a success, the distributors took maximum share. If the film didn’t become a success, the cinema owner was still safe as the rent was fixed. The distributors lost money whatever amount it was.

Method of Working
Before corporatization, Hindi Film production worked on informal basis. There was no documentation of contracts. Mostly it was done by verbal agreement and mutual relationship. Actors after establishing themselves worked only in their comfort zone. There was no prominence given to bound script. In fact most films were signed even without a script. A star’s dates were acquired and then the producer searched for a subject that would suit him and hence a film was conceptualized. Not much importance was given to continuity of a film. There are many films made in the past where the lead actor sported variant looks often out of sync with the script.
Since there is no bound script, the lines were often written on the sets. Sometimes it led to insecurity among lead actors which adversely affects the film. Many times, the actors would say that whatever was narrated to them the film has turned out completely different. This often led to creative dissatisfaction.

The Underworld Nexus
The Mumbai underworld have been known to be involved in the production of several films, and are notorious for their patronization of several prominent film personalities; On occasion, they have been known to use money and muscle power to get their way in cinematic deals. This was result of failure to attain legitimate source of finance. In 90s, many such links came to fore. In 1993, actor Sanjay Dutt’s link with the underworld became known after police found illegal arms in his house, apparently gifted to him by underworld don. Soon after, Divya Bharti died in mysterious circumstances, which many observers felt was doing of the underworld.
The underworld acquired money by illegal means such as extortion, smuggling. Many Bollywood personalities were terrorized by the underworld to give money or face terrible consequences. In 1997, Music Baron Gulshan Kumar who owned the company T-series was assassinated by the underworld because he didn’t give in to the demands. In January 2000, director Rakesh Roshan was attacked but he survived the bullets. Many times, the mafia pressurized actors to do particular film because they had invested money in it. On other occasions, they promoted many actresses who were their mistresses. The proved example was Monica Bedi who was arrested with underworld don Abu Salem. She is out on bail now.
The nexus in film production came to the fore with the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. The film was financed by Bharat Shah, but apparently underworld boss Chhota Shakeel had behind the finances. Bharat Shah was arrested and remained in lock for a year. Later, it was proved in the court that he didn’t take money from Chhota Shakeel but was aware of the deal with the producer of the film Nazim Rizvi, who was in jail for longer period. The film was scheduled to be released in 2000, but CBI confiscated the prints. The film was released a year later and the revenue generated was kept by the court. One of the lead actresses of the film Preity Zinta testified in the court that she received call from the underworld. She was the only Film personality who stuck to her statement. The rest turned hostile. Due to this Preity Zinta was awared with Red & White Bravery award. This case showed the murkier shadow that gripped Hindi film industry.

Corporatization in India
The causes which led to the rise of corporatization are complex and happened over a period of time. Here are the major events which led to the corporatization of Hindi film industry.

1.Opening of Indian economy:
Opening the economy had immediate as well as far reaching effects. While far reaching effect was high growth and coming of affluent Indian middle class. The immediate effects were de-regularization of television giving rise to private pay channels to be aired through cable and satellite. It not only played a medium to open Indian eye to global entertainment, it also enhanced the revenue potential for Indian films. The Hollywood films came to Indian homes and hence the culture of filmmaking was also transferred to Indian audience. Opening the economy also meant release of Hollywood films in Indian theatres almost at the same time. Though in 90s there was not much success of Hollywood films except Jurassic Park and Titanic, the new millennium brought more audience for Hollywood films. For instance Spiderman 2 earned Rs 10 Crore in its opening weekend despite the release of Hindi super hit film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi on the same week in 2004. Now, major Hollywood films are simultaneously released in India and are major hits. The recent examples are 2012 and Avatar which overtook the box office performance of many Hindi films. When Hollywood was knocking at its door, Hindi film industry had to inevitably adapt a model which reduces risk, brings more professionalism and synergies all resources. Hence, corporatization of the industry.

2.Digital Revolution:
The 90s decade saw a revolution in information technology that no other times in the past can equal. Internet, Mobiles phones, Computers, Compact Discs all came into existence and it redefined the way we lived life. It also had great impact on the film industry. Compact discs replaced VCRs and since VCD players were much moderately priced, everyone could own it. It led to the rise in Home Entertainment revenue. Internet enabled content like music and movies to be sold through the web which meant more revenues. The subsequent invention of DVD and Blue ray discs gave more platforms to home entertainment. Satellite TVs reach grew in leaps and bounds. The direct to home services made sure suburban and rural areas where cable TV is not available, get premium channels. As the volume of viewership increased, the revenue also increased. With time, the prospect of revenue generation grew more and more, the corporate decided to enter the industry.

3.Advent of Multiplex Cinema Halls:
Multiplex cinema halls are the complex which has multiple screens with seat capacity of almost 1/3rd of a Single Screen Cinema hall. A multiplex has screens ranging from 3 to 11. The ticket rates are triple or 4 times more than single screens. The first multiplex was set up by PVR in Saket, Delhi in 1997. The first decade of the new millennium has seen a boom in multiplexes in tier I, II, III cities. They not only generated more revenues, they also brought new trend with itself. More screens means more films to keep all of them occupied implying more demand of films. Hence more films were needed to be produced. It was not practically possible for independent producers to meet the demand which paved way for the formation of corporation.

4.Reaching the hinterland:
The advent of cheap pirated CDs which would show the most recent films killed the cinema halls in B and C centres. The main reason behind this was that films would release in these theatres almost after a month of its release. Meanwhile, the pirated CDs would reach them with couple of days. Most of the cinema halls were shut down. But the advent of digital films gave rise to new digital cinema halls. The digital cinema halls don’t use actual reel to show the film. Rather they download the film through satellite and show through digital projectors. Hence films could be released simultaneously released in hinterland, as there was no need of more physical prints of a film was required, which brought the audience back to theatre. This also meant more revenues.

5.Granting ‘Industry’ status:
Hindi cinema production was given industry status by the government in 2000, which became the immediate cause for corporatization. The industry status meant bank credit was easily available and finances could be raised through other instruments. There was no limit to Foreign Direct Investment which meant foreign studios could produce films in India without any local partnership. As more money was pumped into the industry, the prices of the top stars went sky high, which became unaffordable to most independent producers. It was kind of history repeating itself. The time of independent producers was over.

6.Growing Overseas Market:
Since late ‘90s, Indian movies started to make its presence felt in overseas specially in the UK, USA and the Gulf countries where there is considerable population from Indian subcontinent. With time, the revenue base has grown and adds significant amount of revenue. Film makers like Karan Johar is perceived to be making films keeping overseas audience in mind. His film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna did better business in the overseas than in India.

Effects of Corporatization

0 The major and the biggest effect of corporatization was that finance was procured with legitimate means which put an end to underworld era. In fact, after the Chori Chori Chupke Chupke case, there was no news of underworld hand in film production. Earlier, very now and then actors sought special protection. However, it has changed after corporatization.

0 The resources have been streamlined. More control on the supply chain made the process of making films faster. Now films are made within 6 months time. This definitely generates more revenues.

0 There is more professionalism shown by the actors as well as the rest of the crew. Now, actors shoot for only one film at a time and sign a film only after getting a bound script, even when they are just beginners in the industry. Imran Khan, nephew of Super Star Aamir Khan and a promising actor, is just 3 films old and he signs on every page of a script while signing any film. This makes binding on the director to consult the actor even if he has to change one sentence in the script.

0 Independent producers formed a group and made corporations. A new business model came into play. Corporations who had no filmmaking experience would collaborate with independent producers to make films. The producers helped in effective execution of the shooting, while the corporate would finance as well as look after into other aspect of the film. At this time, when costs have gone high, there are hardly any independent producers. Most have formed their companies or work with other corporate.

0 The actors’ fees have gone sky high. During the beginning of the decade top actors like the Khans were paid Rs 1 Crore per film but by the end of the decade, they received as high as Rs 20 Crore per film. The growth is phenomenal.

0 This has reduced risk by practicing the best methods. The ROI is calculated by more capable people to make rightly priced films.

0 Aamir Khan does not charge for his films. He takes 33% if the total profit. In this way, he takes risk for his work which most other actors don’t do. It has always paid off for the maverick Khan as he earns more than Rs 35 Crore per film. Recently he signed an endorsement deal with a company for approximately Rs 35 Crore with a company. The valuation of actors has gone with corporatization and super talented actors like Aamir seem to benefit the most from it.

Yash Raj Films: Evolution of India’s first Studio

Yash Raj Films was established in 1972 when Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna collaborated to make the film Daag. The name Yash Raj is actually the first names of the two phenomenal men who made tremendous contribution to Hindi Cinema. But the production house was soon dismantled as Chopra moved on to make films with Rajesh Khanna’s archrival Amitabh Bachchan. Chopra went on to produce many films independently but with different names and banners. Many years later, Chopra’s maverick son and successor Aditya, who debuted by making the longest running film in the history of Indian cinema Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (the film is still running in Maratha Mandir in Mumbai since its release in 1995) thought of reviving the name Yash Raj. Perhaps few could know what the man had visualized.
The name Yash Raj Films was first re-used, this time with new sign and logo, in the film Mohabbatein (2000) which was Aditya’s second film as a director. Till now for most of the films produced by Chopras were also directed by them. Aditya knew that if he had to build a studio, he needs outside directors. Hence three films were planned with outside directors and subsequently released in 2002. The first film was Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai directed by Sanjay Gadhvi which was a moderate success followed by Hrithik Roshan starrer Mujhse Dosti Karoge directed by Kunal Kohli which flopped at the box office. The last film of the year was Saathiya a Tamil remake directed by Shaad Ali which went on to become a hit. The three directors, despite the fate of their films had to make more films for Yash Raj as three films contract was signed with each. The success of Yash Raj in its first year was not very encouraging but it didn’t deter Aditya to plan for films for he knew what he was doing. There was no release the next year, but Yash Raj came with a bang in 2004 with expansion clearly in mind. The first one was Hum Tum directed by Kunal Kohli which went to become a huge hit. With this film, Yash Raj launched it Home Entertainment division. The next film was Dhoom directed by Sanjay Gadhvi which was another super hit. Yash Raj Music level for overseas was launched with this film. The last film of the year was Yash Chopra directed Veer Zaara starring Chopra favourite Shahrukh Khan, which went to become the highest grosser that year. Yash Raj Music was launched in India with this film. Hence Yash Raj control over all aspect of filmmaking was almost complete. The distribution arm existed long before and a studio (which was under construction then) was needed to make it a complete Studio in Hollywood style. In 2006, it unveiled its state-of-the-art studio making the process complete. Meanwhile it kept on churning out one hit after another.

Distribution:
Apart from the offices in different parts of India, Yash Raj Films has its own offices in UK, USA and UAE through which it releases its films in overseas market. It also distributes films produced outside its own banner. Apart from distributing mainstream films like Koi Mil Gaya, Kal Ho Na Ho, Krrish etc. it also distributed off beat films like Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara, My Brother Nikhil, Meenaxi, Maqbool etc. In 2004, Hollywood Reporter placed Yash Raj Films at number 27 in a survey of world’s biggest film distribution houses. The latest film distributed by Yash Raj was the comedy film All The Best released in Diwali ’09 which went to become a box office success.

Home Entertainment:
The Home Entertainment division was launched with the film Hum Tum. At the moment, Yash Raj Films has 47 titles actively selling in the market. Moreover it has bought the rights of classics created by Raj Kapoor and B R Chopra which will make the library close to 100 titles. For an eight year old studio, the figures are very good.

Music:
Piracy has hit the music industry the maximum. The kind of revenue music generated 10 years ago is no longer their despite the growth of the market. In fact it has taken a sharp decline. Hence Yash Raj sells its own music through its label. Yash Raj is known for creating great music, hence with much less investment, they get huge returns. They have tried to buy music of outside production like Jurm (2005), but it has been limited.

Television:
It recently made its way to create content for TV. It has five shows on air currently on Sony TV.

YRF Studio:
The first film to be shot in the studio was Aamir Khan Starrer Fanaa. The studio is used for shooting in-house as well as outside films.
YRF is India’s first full-fledged studio production house. Though lately it has not attained the kind of success it had when it had begun, still the company is at able hands and would continue to be the leading studio of the country. Very secretive about its projects, it has announced to produce 3 films this year, apart from distributing outside films.

The Challenges

There are many challenges that the corporations have to face to withstand in the industry to survive in the long run.

1.Uncertainty in filmmaking business:
The biggest challenge for a corporate that enters Hindi film industry is uncertainty in film making business. Apparently providing finances does not ensure making a hit film. Hence a lot of corporations have shut offices and have gone back to their main business.
During mid 90s, Amitabh Bachchan was the first person to think about corporatizing Hindi cinema when he established ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) in 1995. After the initial success, the company went bankrupt and had huge debts which forced Bachchan to enter Hindi cinema again (He had officially retired from acting in 1992 with the film Khuda Gawah). It was lesson to be learnt that the industry was yet not ready for corporatization. As of now, ABCL is out of debts and is rechristened as AB Corp Ltd and makes films once in a while. Had the initial venture been successful, Amitabh Bachchan would have been a pioneer in corporatizing Hindi film industry. Perhaps the time was not right then or the risk associated with making a film was not well managed.

2.Piracy:
Piracy is a burning issue at this moment. Due to piracy, Bollywood loses hundreds of Crores every year. Piracy happens on two levels – Music and Movies. The worst hit of the two is the music industry. At one time, Music added significant revenue. In some odd cases, the entire cost of the film was sometimes recovered from music of the film. Ashiqui(1990) produced by music label T-Series was a huge success and it earned sold millions of copies. Even 20 years later, the music of the film is still very popular.

The music industry took all time high in 2001 before hitting rock bottom. The price the films brought was the highest till date.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham – Rs. 11 Crore (Sony Music)
Lagaan – Rs. 7 Crore (Sony Music)
Yaadein – Rs. 7 Crore (Tips)

During that period, the whole film cost was between Rs. 20-25 Crore which means music added huge revenue for the film.
But it didn’t last long and in fact it touched rock bottom that very year. Nowadays, with proliferation of internet where songs can be downloaded at by pressing few buttons, music industry has hit an all time low. Compare the price of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham with My Name is Khan which was sold at Rs 4 Crore to Sony Music. Both the films are made by the same director and have Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in the lead role. The music industry has shrunk after piracy has hit it hard.

Despite hitting by piracy, movie business is growing at tremendous rate. However, had there been no piracy, the growth would have been much more. This is one challenge that the industry has to seriously tackle.

3.Revenue Sharing:
During the first half of last year, there was dispute between distributors and multiplex owners who generate around 60-70% of theatrical revenue in India. The revenue sharing model was not uniform for all films. While the bigger films got better deal, the smaller ones had to be content with lesser share. Multiplexes were begun to be referred as ‘mafia’. There was 6 months long stand-off, when there was no release of any film. Finally, a consensus has been reached. But it remains to be seen how long the new revenue sharing model survives.

The Road Ahead

The road looks very bright for Hindi film industry as it is making its making its presence felt globally. My Name Is Khan (sold at Rs 100 Crore, highest price for any Indian film) was released worldwide by 20th Century Fox and its sister companies and the revenue generated by the film in the international market clearly shows the power of well established distribution system. My Name is Khan’s entire domestic theatrical revenue was less than first week collection of 3 Idiots. Yet, the overseas collection of Khan is more than 3 Idiots, and is the highest grossing Indian film till date.

Another example of Hindi cinema’s global footsteps is forthcoming bilingual film Kites starring Hrithik Roshan. The film will be released in English and Hindi simultaneously. The English version is re-worked by Hollywood director Brett Ratner to suit the international audience. It will surely open gates for super talented Hrithik Roshan to work internationally. There are unconfirmed reports of possible tie ups between top Bollywood and Hollywood personalities. If it happens, then Bollywood’s brand value will increase by manifold.

The process of corporatization is still evolving in India and is in the process of getting there. But one thing is sure that all the Corporations in Mumbai have consistently brought into the industry, is well-sourced money. These companies don’t rely on private financiers and have raised money for operations from legitimate sources such as banks and financial markets. With these huge monies already in their banks, they’re not forced to pre-sell their movie’s rights to distributors unlike an individual producer. Also they have brought in science into the obscure function of movie marketing and have taken promotion to a new scale all together. For instance, the first promo of My Name Is Khan was unveiled in 70 countries across all star networks at the same time. No wonder, the film did the maximum business in the overseas market.
Corporatization has its share of flaws but the number of advantages it has brought to the unorganized Hindi film making business is much more. It is here to stay and evolve with time.

Seeking Simplicity

2010-02-22T22:17:00.000+05:30

We are living in great transformational times. There has always been changes with the passage of time but never so rapid, so life altering, so sudden. I have personally experienced the change as most of my generation. From growing up without newspaper, telephone to 24*7 access to internet and cell phone, a long road has been travelled in too little time. Life is becoming more complicated as technology advances. There is too much interconnectedness which has encroached into our personal space. The line between private and public has become blurred. It’s time to pause and ponder about our dependency.

Four days ago, I woke up to find my phone dead after a naïve wish to go back to mobile free time. I loved this period as I love being at home in Assam. Since roaming facility is not provided to prepaid phones in the northeast, I get disconnected. The internet facility is 8 km away from home, so I rarely access that. Consequently I have so much time to myself that after a week it feels like I have spent a month at home. So these four days were magical, it feels like a long time since friends’ called up to join them for coffee when I am in the middle of a movie, or some childhood buddy calling me up to know about a particular movie in the middle of dinner. Life is great without a cell phone.

But I am well aware that I can’t do away with it. Yesterday, my father called at my roommate’s number and asked to buy a new one immediately and I already got it. But I have decided to use it minimum way possible.

However, I am more fed up with the social networking sites. You just know too much about others which is unnecessary leading to unproductive discussions. Nassim Taleb in his book The Black Swan argues that more information leads to confusion and does not help in making sound decisions. This applies to relationships as well. People who you otherwise avoid for a nice conversation would show up leading to unpleasant confrontations. So I have decided to cut off from the virtual world. Not completely vanishing like Ranchod Das* but limiting it in pursuit of an old fashioned life taking more interest in real things.

*Ranchod Das is a character in the film 3 Idiots.

I Like

2010-02-14T15:23:00.001+05:30

o Any girl with black framed specs and receding hair.
o Dimpled smile.
o New movie promos.
o When a teacher/professor skips my name during roll call.
o When an elder woman touches my head to bless me.
o Talking to older people specially the strangers who strike interesting conversations.
o Non Verbal communications.
o When a girl talks first.
o Covered Women. (Not like Taliban though, I am strictly against socially forced veils)
o Clicking pictures as well as getting clicked.
o Listening to music all day.
o Watching movies in large theatres.
o Sitting under morning sun during winter in Assam.
o Different Seasons in Assam.
o Walking on a lonely road surrounded by trees after rains.
o Slow breeze.
o Reading history.
o Sitting inside a Historical monument.
o Random comments on this blog.
o Salman Khan, A R Rahman, Sachin Tendulkar.
o Travelling in empty DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) buses or new High Capacity buses.
o Staring at beautiful things including Women.
o Romanticizing.
o When someone shows genuine respect to the ones worthy of it.
o Children or grown up girls who are still stuck in their childhood.
o Forests, greeneries.
o Taking bath in open when cold breeze touches you during afternoons.
o Sitting inside large, old and empty mosques.
o Honesty.
o Open spaces.
o Talking to closed ones sitting near a river during twilight.
o Expressing.
o Scent of a woman.

RANN - Movie Review

2010-02-03T23:05:00.006+05:30

Director: Ram Gopal Verma
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, Sudeep, Rajat Kapoor, Gul Panag.

Rann takes the issue of commercialization of mass media which makes the film very topical. It is about a conservative and powerful man who holds his values close to heart. In the changing times, when sensationalism has become the buzz word, he still sticks to his principle of giving truth as it is. As it often happens in life, his son fails to inherit the traits he is known for. The son is rebellious, arrogant and more importantly fallible. When the time comes to choose integrity and commercial success, he chooses the latter which ultimately turns out to be his nemesis for good shall prevail over evil.
The strength of film is the concept, which ironically was stolen by Ram Gopal Verma from one of his earlier assistants. It gives the scope to make a very relevant, social thriller with classic father-son conflict at the core. However, the screenplay is poor. After a great start, the film begins to lose its tempo as the writer tries to over simplify the dialogues. For instance, to persuade Sudeep to give in to corruption, Rajat Kapoor uses the line “Agar tum chaho” thrice in the same sentence. The issues talked by characters are so mundane that you wish to fast forward it.
The second best thing about the film is acting by Amitabh Bachchan and Ritesh Deshmukh. Amitabh Bachchan as the media stalwart is the soul of the film and brings the punch into the film. He burns the screen whenever he comes. His speeches are not just relevant but attractive. Ritesh Deshmukh as his admirer is a budding journalist who adheres to old values. Deshmukh who is mainly known for his comic roles gives a terrific performance as the sole fighter for truth. The cinematography by Amit Roy is great too.
The flip side of the film is wrong casting for the rest of the characters. Sudeep as US returned son is too old to look convincing. He lacks the vulnerability that the character needed. Gul Panag is loud and over dramatic while Neetu Chandra just shows off her designer pajamas. Paresh Rawal as the lousy politician is taken from his villainy days in early 90s. The pace is terribly slow vis-a-vis the background score which desperately tries to make it a thriller. The music is ordinary and lyrics are pathetic. Above all, the direction is very ordinary which reduces the film into an average one which otherwise had great potential.
Overall, Rann evokes some important issues related to media and social paradigm of India, has superb performance by Amitabh Bachchan but fails to rise above the level of ordinary cinema.
**1/2

I Dislike

2010-01-17T12:01:00.004+05:30

o When a Muslim is proclaimed as Indian by a non Muslim after a terrorist attack (the ones coming from Pakistan or religious fanatics).
o When a Bengali speaks to me in Hindi when we are conversing alone. I love the English conversations though.
o When someone has a distorted viewpoint and starts arguing over it.
o When women are judged as good or bad over the number of lovers they have had.
o When someone tries to boss me around specially women younger to me who have illusion that they are the superior beings ever made by God.
o Stereotyping specially based on religion.
o When I am talked about for what I have above my head rather than what’s inside.
o Lies, specially the petty ones.
o When someone tries to define or determine things for me.
o When someone lacks sense of humour or the ability to understand it.
o When someone chats (over internet) with me in Assamese or Bengali. That’s because my ability to comprehend these languages in Roman script is rather low.
o When someone tells me I am a virgin because I lacked opportunity.
o When I am not considered an Assamese despite belonging to Assam, not considered a Bengali despite it being my mother tongue, called a Bangladeshi when I am not one.
o When someone challenges me over Bollywood.
o When a girl thinks I am hitting on her when it’s just innocent flirting.
o When someone has doubts who would I be supporting during an Indo-Pak Cricket Match. Strangely it does not happen with Indo-Bangladesh matches though.
o When someone tells me Indian National Congress is 'your party'.

Supernova, Personally

2009-12-29T00:00:00.004+05:30

Two immediate things that come to mind when you think of Tenzin is that he is immensely talented and incredibly lazy. Talking about the talent, his creative energy is more than ordinary. Writes incredibly well which have been loved by everyone who has seen his work. About being lazy – he lives in Andrews Ganj which is five minute walk from South Ex and he travels that distance by auto. If he calls you to meet somewhere, he will leave his place only after you have reached the venue etc etc.

But he has been a great friend since we met during the end of our first year in college. We lived in the same part of Delhi, took almost the same path to college. That became the immediate reason for us to become friends. Going by personalities, one cannot imagine that we can ever be friends. In fact during the third year, a lot of our classmate would often wonder how on earth we could become so close friends. He is urban, suave with a very English taste who always got the girl while I was this semi-rustic Indian who never got the girl. But we have more intangible similarities that made us become such thick friends.

Since I came from a small town I had very little idea about things that had made its presence in post-liberalized India which had yet not reached everywhere. So he taught me how to place orders in CCD, surf net in Reliance Web world, how to pronounce English words correctly, what an i-pod was etc. On my part, every day I had to update him which class we had, which assignment to submit and made him acquainted with the rest of the class. It’s another story that later he changed side and started taking my case. Less about that here!

He is a peculiar person. He would hide most insignificant things on earth – like the fact that he shopped for grocery at home, he picked up his sister from school, or the fact that he loved one of Abhijit Sawant’s song. He thought it would harm his ‘image’ if people know about it. I never knew what image he wanted to project. He would lie to friends very often for no reason. The list of his peculiarity is also endless.

At the very core, he is one of the most caring person you can come across which again he will hide from you. He may have some fun at your expense but would always stand by your side when required. He is very sensitive and observant. He may never talk to you but can tell you when you kept your phone in your back pocket.

On the ‘limitations’ side he is very possessive and insecure. Though he kept talking about his girlfriend since the first day he went out with her we met almost a year after. Of course we spent some wonderful moments after we met. One of the most perfect women I met, I never really understood how she fell for him. :D :D

On a broader level, Tenzin is not the only close friend I have. I guess some people are even closer. But he has undeniably influenced my views and outlook the most. On a lot of occasions I have accepted whatever he said without questioning. A word of appreciation from him meant a lot, which got rarer with passing days. He has been like a brother and I always want him to be so. For that I don’t mind waiting in Ansal Plaza for 40 minutes when it is just 5 minutes walk from his home and I have gone all the way from Calcutta after a year.

P.S. - This post may sound disjointed because memories are often like that.

Politics Of Global Warming

2009-12-13T22:08:00.002+05:30

In 1969, when US President Richard Nixon initiated to make environmental topics (such as Acid Rain and Greenhouse Effect) to be treated by a third and civil pillar in NATO, it was seen as American attempt to regain international terrain after the lost Vietnam War. It is ironic that when some serious steps were required to be taken (much later though), USA stepped back. To continue with the development of environmental concerns, it took another decade for first World Climate Conference to happen. The main concern of 80s was depletion of the Ozone layer caused by a class of chemical compound called Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC). The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, to assess the risk of “Human induced climate change”.

The major development in 90s happened in Kyoto, Japan with the adoption of a Protocol (known as Kyoto Protocol) in 1997 which came into force in 2005. Under the protocol, 37 industrial countries commit themselves to a reduction of four greenhouse gases (Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Sulphur Hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydro fluorocarbons and per fluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member countries give general commitments. As of November 2009, 187 countries have signed and ratified the protocol. The most notable non-member of the protocol is the United States of America which is responsible for 36.1% of the 1990 emissions level.

The major contributor to the greenhouse gases are the industrialized, developed countries along with few developing ones. If they cut down on the emissions level, there is a fear that their economies would be in jeopardy. This is the same reason US has been reluctant to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. For developing countries, if they stop industrialization the economic growth would slow down. So no one wants to trade economic growth with environmental concerns. Usage of renewable energy is still minimal. For instance, China’s energy sector is reliant on coal by 70%.

On the other hand, the poor countries are majorly financed by the developed countries. Hence the developed countries would have more bargaining power when negotiating reduction of emissions level. Implicitly, the decisions have to be taken by the developed countries. The European Union has consistently been one of the major nominal supporters of climate issues, negotiating hard to get wavering countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

However, there is complications as per as setting emission level is concerned. China’s emission level is high along with the countries like USA, Russia, Germany, Japan etc. But it also has one fifth of the world population. So the per capita emission is much lower than the developed countries. Moreover, many developing countries are being industrialized in recent times to produce goods which are eventually exported to the developed world. Studies suggest that nearly a quarter of China’s emissions result from production of goods exported to developed countries. Who should take responsibility for that?

Presently, the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference is under way and many hopes are pinpointed here as Kyoto Protocol had objective till 2012. A new protocol or understanding has to be reached as the climate change is visible all around. The decisions have to be made, and fast enough.

Rocket Singh - Salesman Of The Year

2009-12-12T15:40:00.005+05:30

Director: Shimit Amin

Producer: Aditya Chopra

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Gauhar Khan, Prem Chopra and few good actors.

The team of Chak De India makes a comeback not with a sequel though. But the subject is as novel and fresh as their previous one. The film undertakes to explore the lives of salesmen, a manifestation of modern business, to put broadly. The film san the trappings of Bollywood film, is a brave attempt at making a good film, which in turn may become commercially successful too. However, commerce hasn’t been given much importance as per as treatment is concerned.

It is the story of Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor), an average graduate, who want to make a career in selling as other avenues seem unattainable to him. He starts with a job in a computer selling company, who mainly assembles and sells to end consumers. However, he soon gets acquainted with the shoddy side of business, where deals are done under the table, all that matters is profit. Morals and Ethics may be damned. Young idealism lands him in trouble and he is pushed to the back office. The rest of the film is about how he comes out of that and writes a success story with the help of the ‘frustrated’ engineer, hot receptionist, the office boy and a corrupt salesman in the office.

The film is great in the first half with some true depiction of real life situations. The way sales people work, office politics, bias towards woman (“Booze would be from the company but no women, so bring your own” the boss announces once amidst the presence of female employees). The story of the underdog really touches you and when he resolves to make it big, you eagerly await for the intermission to end. But the film does not keep the promise post interval and the writing (Jaideep Sahni) is to be blamed. For every successful narrative there are few steps in order – Introduction, Conflict, and Climax. The film is introduced very well but the conflict seems very unconvincing. Harpreet starts his own business and becomes successful. Why does he still operate from the same office knowing well that if caught, they will land up in trouble? When the conflict is not convincing, it does not lead to exciting climax either. The hawkish boss’ sudden change of heart is not well explained either. Had the film found a different, solid conflict it could have been another Chak De India with all its glorifying moments.

Ranbir is terrific. He gets into any character with great ease. Rocket Singh would be another great addition to his CV. But Gauhar Khan takes charge of the film whenever in frame. The role is flamboyant and as potent as a rocket and she does with great panache. The rest of the cast do their parts effectively too. It has three songs which are good. But since music was released just a week ago, it has failed to register with most cine goers to make more concrete impact except the couplet “Pocket Mein Rocket”. Visuals are great as well. Yashraj is perhaps the only production house which can make low budget films with great production values.

Overall, Rocket Singh makes a statement about business practices. With all its failings, it has its moments as well. Though not the film of the year, it deserves a dekko for its novel subject and treatment and some good performances.

Stories We Need To Live

2009-11-27T21:14:00.002+05:30

I am saddened by the way Media, Bollywood paid tribute on 26/11. The day which will go down in history of India as a tragic day when there was barbaric assault on a civilization; a day which will always remind us of the failings our security system. However I am more troubled because this particular day was chosen to remember. There were lives lost but this is not the only occasion when we lost innocent lives to terror. It has been happening from quite some time. There is guerilla war going on in the jungles of Central and South India where hundreds of lives get lost every month. In North-east terrorists blast bombs as if it’s Diwali (as much as 19 bombs go off in one single day in Assam). The big cities are not spared either. The blasts in Sarojini Nagar, Jama Masjid, Mecca Masjid, Bangalore, Mumbai local trains… the list is endless. But why don’t we remember those dates as well? The number of deaths is more sometimes? Were their lives any less important?

The reason is we live in our own stories. The protagonists in those stories are not the common men who die in the endless list I mentioned. Rather the protagonists are the ones who can afford The Taj Hotel. Suddenly when our protagonist become vulnerable, we sit up and take note of the direction the story is taking. If the rich and powerful is not safe, how can we be? We think. But we don’t realize that we were never safe. We have been dying these unknown deaths like the background scene of an epic battle in a film. Just that no one cares to know our names because we are not important to the narratives.

My contention is if we don’t want to forget 26/11, we must not forget other dates as well. And attack on Mumbai by a bunch of hooligans sent by some maniacs from Pakistan was total security failure. As common man we can’t fight terrorists. That’s why chose a government to give us security. We pay taxes to maintain an Army, Police, and Intelligence. But we are still not safe. We are as much vulnerable to a terrorist attack as we were prior to 26/11. Instead of writing a date on our twitter page, should we not be changing the system which has been failing us constantly?

Girl-friends

2009-11-14T01:55:00.001+05:30

I was a cute kid and was a favourite with women – my father’s students or my mum’s friends, my cousin’s classmates etc. Over the years I have had wonderful women in my life. But the surprising thing is that apart from my family, they all have been strictly my friends. I am just wondering about that. I have closest of friends who are women and are indispensable part of my life. Also I have always famously got along with women of all class and creed. Still how come I have always miserably failed with the girls I loved! Not once but many times. It’s the biggest paradox in my life perhaps.

If you fail once, you can put the blame on other side. But if it always repeats eerily the same way, not the highest optimism can save you. Say you believe that every time you choose the wrong girl (By ‘wrong’ I don’t mean bad), the fault is still yours that you choose them or rather fall for them. I have finally realized this fact. Now I am not being able to figure out the point where the problem lies. Do I transform when I fall in love? Do I no longer remain myself? But the truest form of love is when you cease to be yourself. Does it mean true love is never appreciated?

I am not troubled. I am just wondering. I guess I do fine with my girl-friends.

Remaining 'The Other'

2009-11-12T23:29:00.002+05:30

Growing up in the Muslim part of Assam, I was like any other Muslim child not doing things that was forbidden. The two things which were prohibited and most emphasized were Pork and Alcohol. These two things were not even available in my part. After I went to school, I started to live in a cosmopolitan atmosphere. By 11^th standard my non Muslim friends started drinking. Since it was done secretly I never really came across alcohol. My first encounter with alcohol happened in Delhi University. Then I would refer to it as wine not knowing there were so many types of alcohol. During my college days, despite my unwillingness to attend those drinking parties, my friends would insist that I accompany them. Though I showed that I didn’t like it, secretly I loved the gesture. It meant I was important in their lives. But no matter how much they made me feel home, the feeling of ‘the other’ was still there. The culture I was acquainted with in Assam was poles apart from what I met in Delhi. It was like the other end of the spectrum. During my stay, the gap was definitely narrowed but some still remained intact. Not drinking alcohol is one of them.

Calcutta is much more conservative than Delhi, so I don’t meet people who give me does-this-kind-of-species-still-live-on-this-planet kind of look when I say I don’t drink. My MBA friends never insisted me on accompanying them to clubs. Even if they did I guess I managed to escape. Recently a close friend wanted to celebrate her birthday and it turned out quite an adventure. We went out to dine but it stopped with wine only. Then we moved to another part of the city to dine. The drama that happened in between was hilarious to say the least. A different self came out in everyone. After dining we went to lounge bar and danced till they closed shop. In college, though I saw friends getting drunk I didn’t see much of drama which I saw here. Though I was having all the fun, I could not deny that I was still the other. I have almost forgotten to live in a culture that I completely belong. Even back home I don’t fit in completely because of my ‘urban-ness’ and here because of my conservatism. Also people back in Assam don’t exactly believe that I have remained as I was.

But I never felt the urge to be like ‘them’. At times it is a bit lonely to be the ‘other’. But most of the times it feels special to be unique.

Sibling Revelry

2009-11-11T19:29:00.000+05:30

My siblings are much younger to me. Rocky is five and years younger while Rasna is eight years. Both were very young when I left home 13 years ago. Rocky being closer to my age did spend some time with me but I could hardly spend any time with Rasna. Over the years we stayed together only during my vacations with maximum 2 months at stretch. Being the youngest child Rasna would accompany our parents during my parents’ days. But she ended up spending more time with my girlfriends than with me. She is all grown up now and studies in the same school. Though I make friends easily, she is one person I am yet not been able to be friendly with. May be in time to come we will become friends. Rocky on other hand has always been very pally with me though he is least like me.

In our separate lives, there were hardly any moment we lived ‘together’. However the time is soon coming. Rasna will appear for her class X exam; Rocky for class XII and I will appear for my Masters Degree, all early next year. With our separate lives, hundreds of miles apart, we will finally live the same life. For a little time may be; but we will live our moments together.

Another Year Goes By

2009-11-10T22:27:00.003+05:30

I am at a very interesting phase of my life. In less than a month I will complete my 25 years on this planet (Not a day less ‘cos I have never been out of this planet). Twenty five years is seen as the official age of adult though general theories would say by 20 you are no longer a teenager. Whatever, but you become an adult by 25 even if you grow at a slower rate.

Changes are all around me. The way I look at life, my priorities, my goals everything is changing…rather rapidly. I have mixed feelings about it though. I am sad that a great phase of life is going to end and I am happy that a new life is about to begin. Over the years I have realized that whenever you compare your lives at different stages nostalgia always wins. So I would rather not compare. Life has been wonderful till now.

When I look back into the 25 years, the thing I miss the most is the time I lost to spend with my father. The time that I most cherish is also the times I spent with him. The person, whom I have always looked up to and loved the most, is also the one who guides my way at every crossroad. Today (11 November) will be 13 years since I came away from him. But it was an inevitable aspect of life I am destined to live. He has become more precious for that, perhaps. Other things come to my mind from my childhood are the wonderful seasons of Assam (may be another post for that), my trysts with different aspects of nature that I came to discover.

Coming back to the changes I feel today. The most important one would be the feeling of love. The meanings change with age. At one point or rather most of life, love meant stealing a glance of her. Now it’s no longer like that. Companionship is so important to be in love. Earlier I could never believe why people break after going to different places. May at this juncture I would understand better.

Of the last 25 years, I spent almost half with my family and half with my friends. Who would I chose! Over the years friends whoever I loved have substituted my family by becoming an alternate family to me. Today, they are no less important than family to me.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

2009-11-07T00:18:00.002+05:30

Director: Rajkumar Santoshi

Star Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Darshan Zariwala, Smita Jaykar, Zakir, Upen Patel and a Superstar in a very special appearance.

Till couple of years ago Rajkumar Santoshi claimed that he never repeated a genre in the films he made. But he can no longer do that as he goes back to comedy after 15 years of making the cult classic “Andaaz Apna Apna”. Well, comparing APKGK with the Salman-Aamir starrer would be blasphemous, but the present film is hilarious and will make you roll with laughter.

The film is about Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) a happy go lucky guy in a hill-town who runs a Happy Club with a bunch of funny morons. He has an adorable family. Jenny (Katrina Kaif) is a simple girl who shifts to the town and Prem falls in love at the first sight. However, the man who helps lovers unite is quite unable to express his own feelings and soon discovers that his lady love already belongs to someone else. However, Jenny does not have a hunky dory love story either because of dushman-zamana. The rest of the film is about Prem’s efforts to put Jenny’s life in order and see her happily married to her beloved.

The film is a welcome change from the crude comedies that have been served in recent times. APKGK is a clean comedy and in our times making a comedy without any innuendo is almost unimaginable for which the director should be applauded. It is a mix of both situational as well as slapstick which results in non-stop laughter. The villains den, kidnapping the heroine – it has everything with super hilarious climax. The film also takes the Bollywood setting to a small town, which is very rare in this multiplex-era. The town has a lot of innocence and purity which makes a great backdrop to the unrequited love story of Prem. All praise to the director. Though he has been making great films, box office success has often eluded him. Perhaps APKGK will end that.

Ranbir Kapoor has pitched in a great performance. He is funny and adorable at the same time. Till now I thought of him as an overrated star but he is the big star material. Katrina Kaif is superb. Finally the girl has ‘learned’ acting. In couple of scenes she will move you to tears. She is convincing as the de-glam girl. But when Prem wants to transform Jenny into ‘Katrina Kaif’, she actually turns super hot in a song sequence. She is in her best form. The rest of the cast has ably supported them.

Music by Pritam is terrific as it is already climbing the charts. Cinematography finely captures the beautiful location.

Overall, APKGK is a hilariously funny film with a sweet romantic track. The film is an ode to a superstar. If you can’t figure out who I am talking about from the title of the film then Go watch it and have a great time. At the box office, the film is gonna rock. Another hit on store.

BLUE - Movie Review

2009-10-19T18:21:00.005+05:30

Director: Anthony D’souza

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, Rahul Dev and Katrina Kaif (Spl App)

Anthony D’ Souza is a first timer who dons the cap of directing one of the biggest films in recent times in terms of canvas and star cast. The expectations are bound to go high and that’s what goes against the film and most importantly the director. The same thing happened with Kambakkht Ishq which showed that only packaging does not make a film great; you need to have a competent director as well. To Akshay Kumar’s woe the phenomenon gets repeated here. Anthony D’Souza needs to learn a lot before he can handle such huge project.

Post India’s independence its treasure kept in Bahamas, a British colony, was supposed to be returned to the home country which gets lost due to ship wreck. Come to present, Akshay Kumar owns a fishing company but his main goal in life is to find that treasure apart from womanizing of course. But he needs Sanjay Dutt’s (his employee) help to unearth the hidden secret. Both have their secrets and a connection to that treasure. How turn of events lead these two to go for treasure hunt forms the rest of the story, which you will figure out very easily due to poor writing and direction.

D’souza fails to extract even decent performances from Dutt and Kumar who can deliver when required. The climax is abrupt and is quite non happening. The treatment is ordinary. The flaws of Blue are because of flaws of the director.

Coming to the good part, Lara Dutta is super hot in her bikini scenes which are quite a few. A R Rahman’s music as well as background score is outstanding as usual. The canvas is huge and cinematography is excellent but the best part is action. Done by a Hollywood director, action is the USP of the film. Though under water sequences don’t offer much due to the story, the surface action is at par with Hollywood and sets new standard for action films in Bollywood and the film deserves to be seen just for that.

Among actors, Sanjay Dutt’s character needed a much younger actor, younger to even Akshay. At 50, Dutt is anything but convincing as a struggler, who is yet to settle with his girlfriend. Akshay is good but not outstanding. Zayed is still stuck on his Main Hoon Na days and Lara does not have much to do except showing her well toned body which a treat.

Overall, Blue does not belong to its actors or to the director. It belongs to the technicians. Since the length of the film is lower than 2 hours, there is not much scope to get bored despite its mediocrity. For a regular moviegoer it is definitely recommended! It’s a visual treat.

***1/2

WANTED - Movie Review

2009-09-27T12:04:00.004+05:30

Star Cast: Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia Azmi, Prakash Raj, Mahesh Manjrekar, Inder Kumar, Manoj Pahwa, Mehak Chahal and Vinod Khanna.

Director: Prabhu Dheva

Story: Puri Jagannath

When your all time favourite actor and actress decide to come together for a film, immediately it becomes the most awaited film for you. At the same time, you would be apprehensive whether or not the film is going to be a memorable one. But if it’s a remake of one of your favourite films, then you are pretty sure about the outcome. So you can’t resist watching the film even if your end term exams are underway!

Wanted is story of Radhe (Salman Khan), a mercenary goon who soon graduates to a criminal working for the infamous Mumbai mafia. With his fearlessness and effective strategy, he soon becomes the dependable man for the Don as he single handedly eliminates his enemies. Jhanvi (Ayesha Takia Azmi) is a middle class girl who works to earn bread and butter for her family of mother and a young brother. After couple of chanced encounters, she falls in love with Radhe despite the fact that he does not fit her dream boy’s bill. But before she could commit herself, she discovers the ruthless side of Radhe. As her repeated attempts to change him fail, she also fails to stop herself from loving him. To add to the mayhem, there is a lecherous cop (Mahesh Manjrekar) who wants to take advantage of Jhanvi’s family condition, there is an over-aged landlord (Manoj Pahwa) pursuing her relentlessly.

But not everything is what it seems. There is a well kept secret which when revealed will bring endless destruction. Sacrifices have to be made. The question is not whether it would happen or not. The question is when!

The film is a wholesome entertainer with a potent mix of action, romance, comedy and tragedy. A great reminder of the films of yore which was all about heroism but done in a very contemporary, slick way without using much of the clichés. Though action is predominant throughout the film, it has a beautiful love story imbibed within and Ayesha Takia makes it much more lovable! It has few beautiful moments between the top actors that you savour much after the film gets over. While action gives the thrill, the comedy laughter, the romance brings the sensitive part of the story. The dialogues are witty and there are plenty of ‘whistle’ moments. Overall, it is a fast paced film which takes you for non-stop entertainment.

Salman Khan hits back after a slew of mediocre films in past two years. He just has to be in the frame to be the character. He looks fabulous, dances great and perhaps this is his best action role till date. When he beats up 20 guys at one go, it is actually believable – the only aspect where Wanted did better than its original. Though the action is same as the original just that he makes it more believable by his sheer presence. He romances Ayesha Takia well too. But in the later part of the film, he shows the same ‘angry look’ which he reserves for his rivals to Ayesha as well which I think didn’t work for the story. There are few emotional scenes and he carries them really well.

To me Ayesha Takia is the best actress ever born and she always stands up to the expectations. Though she is better in subtle scenes, she carries her ‘masala’ part well too. She brings the much needed balance to the film, an opposite of the violent and arrogant Salman Khan.

But the scene stealer is Prakash Raj as Ghani Bhai. The two time national award winning actor is the main villain in the film and he is unlike any you have seen before. He is comical and menacing at the same time. He is the only actor who is part of all three films. Perhaps no one else could have done the role except him. The significant change made is Wanted is that Prakash Raj’s role has been extended and he is effective to say the least.

Mahesh Manjrekar as the lecherous cop is good. Inder Kumar, Mehak Chahal and Manoj Pahwa extend able support to the film. Vinod Khanna in his brief role does the best scene in the film. In fact the pre-climax scene is sure to give you goose pimples.

The person who needs to be applauded the most is Puri Jagannath, the writer of the story as well as the director of Pokiri, the Telugu original. The script is foolproof. The fact that it became super hit in Tamil and now in Hindi gives enough testimony for the script. As a film too, it’s a scene to scene copy of Pokiri which talks volumes about Jagannath’s directorial abilities. Prabhu Dheva did make some changes and he is quite effective in that but it’s too less and insignificant to give him the credit. The film is essentially Puri Jagannath’s dream.

The music by Sajid-Wajid is ordinary. Except Dil Leke, there are not many tracks that you would like to take home though you might enjoy them at that moment. The background music by Salim-Sulaiman is subtle unlike the original which is great. The action is raw and well executed, though a lot has been copied from a foreign film. Choreography is of top notch which is obvious when the director is the best dancer in the country.

Wanted may not be a great film per se but it’s one of the best films made in its category. The tender hearted people might find some action scenes hard to see, but there are plenty of beautiful moments to compensate for that. For action buffs, it’s a sheer delight. Above all, if you want to be entertained, go watch Wanted. The film comes with an invisible tag line – satisfaction guaranteed!

Part III?

2009-08-20T23:48:00.004+05:30

The trend of making a series of films with same characters or carrying the story forward is very common in Hollywood. The fourth part of Spielberg’s Indiana Jones series released last year after almost two decades. Harry Potter… series is eagerly awaited each time a new installment arrives. The trend of making sequels is very recent in India. The first director who walked on this less travelled path was Mahesh Manjrekar who made Hathyar (2002) as a sequel to Vaastav, his most acclaimed and successful film so far. But the sequel didn’t work and nobody perhaps even remembers it as a sequel.

In the year 2004, Yashraj film’s Dhoom directed by Sanjay Gadhvi became a huge hit. During the promotion of the film the actors were fondly remembering the shooting and wished if a sequel could be made but the culture was non-existent in India. But the idea struck the maverick producer Aditya Chopra and he decided to make a sequel to the film. After the announcement, two other filmmakers whose films had become huge hits in the previous year also chose the path. Rakesh Roshan decided to follow up super hit Koi Mil Gaya with Krrish and Rajkumar Hirani decided to make Lage Raho Munnabhai as a sequel to the cult film Munnabhai MBBS.

All the sequels arrived in 2006. The first one to come and woo the audience the world over was Hrithik Roshan starrer Krrish which became first successful superhero film in Hindi film industry. Though it didn’t receive the same critical acclaim but it went much ahead in box-office collections than the previous one. It was followed by Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi starrer Lago Raho Munnabhai which became much bigger hit than the prequel. Lage Raho… was not a conventional sequel where story is carried forward; rather two most important and popular characters of the first part were kept and a new story was written for the film. Words like ‘gandhigiri’ became a part of popular culture and many incidents happened in real life which was directly influenced by the film. The last film to come that year was Dhoom: 2 starring Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Uday Chopra and Bipasha Basu which went on to become the biggest grosser of the year despite some multiplex chains not playing the film due to revenue issues. These sequels became the top three grosser in the year.

After 3 years, there are no concrete plans to make ‘part three’ to all these successful films though all the makers are very much keen to make their respective films. Post Dhoom: 2, director Sanjay Gadhvi’s contract with Yashraj films got over and he left the production house to make Kidnap with Sanjay Dutt and Imran Khan which was a flop when released last year. He is now planning 7 days in Paris with Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif. It is sure that he is not returning to Yashraj soon and hence the part 3 of this hit franchisee might not be directed by the original director. There were rumours that Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan would come together for Dhoom: 3 which will be directed by Aditya Chopra (who makes only romantic films as a director) himself. But proving the rumours wrong Aditya went on to make Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with his favourite actor Shahrukh Khan which became a big hit bringing Yashraj films back on track. Though no formal announcement about the making of the film has been made yet, it is highly likely that Shahrukh will play the glamorous and ever elusive thief in the film. Still there is time till we can see the adrenaline pumping action sequences in part 3.

The same delay happened to other two films as well. Vidhu Vinod Chopra announced Munnabhai Chale Amerika and even released a trailer with Eklavya (2007) but the makers decided to go ahead with 3 Idiots with Aamir Khan in the lead. The film will release by Christmas this year and the director can start working on part 3 only after that. Rakesh Roshan announced Krrish 2 but nothing more has been done to it. Meanwhile he produced Krazzy 4 (2008) and Kites (yet to release). Hrithik Roshan who works on one film at a time is shooting for Sanjay Bhansali’s Guzarish which means Krrish 2 is not happening anytime soon. Meanwhile Ram Gopal Varma paid his tribute to The Godfather with Amitabh-Abhishek starrer Sarkar (2005) which became a moderate hit. It was followed by Sarkar Raj (2008) which couldn’t become a huge box office success either. Varma has no immediate plans to make, if at all it happens, the part 3 of his Sarkar series either.

There is no doubt that part three of at least one of the series will release, but it is taking too long a time and it doesn’t seem to happen soon either. As viewers we have to wait for sometime till our favourite Munnabhai-Circuit make us roll with laughter or desi super hero taking on bad guys to save the world or a cool cop with his buffoon assistant chasing the shadows of an elusive thief.

Kaminey

2009-08-16T19:43:00.004+05:30

Written, Music, Directed by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Lyrics by: Gulzar

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte

When Vishal Bhardwaj does not make films about children (Makdee, The Blue Umbrella) he ventures into the murkier side of human character and society (Maqbool, Omkara). He doesn’t see world in black and white. His world is grey, so are its characters and its colour. Kaminey is no different.

Charlie and Guddu (Shahid Kapoor) are identical twins with physical disabilities. Charlie lisps while Guddu stammers. But the similarities end here. Both are very different in their characters and outlook towards life. They dislike each other and hence live separately. Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) is a young, headstrong Marathi girl who will go to any extent to get her love (Guddu) even if it means not telling him that her brother (Amole Gupte) is a gangster with political aspirations. The problem is that the brother is contesting election from a party which stands for Marathi chauvinism so he can not marry his sister to a North Indian. On Charlie’s part, he has just lost his entire money in Horse racing because whoever he had fixed double crossed him. Accidentally he lands himself in the middle of a drug deal between corrupt anti narcotics department and Mafia. Now, both have to run for their lives simultaneously. Their paths are inevitable to cross and they cannot escape from revisiting their intertwined history.

The film is essentially a ‘Satire’ with element of ‘Absurd’ throughout the film. It is a satire on the divisional politics, law enforcement departments, inter-racial marriage (there is very witty reference to Rizwanur Rahman case), relationships and above all society’s double standards. The director explores the sibling relationship in different milieus. Apart from Charlie and Guddu, there are three Bengali Muslim brothers who are big bookies, two corrupt brothers at anti narcotics department, the two African brothers who smuggle drugs and of course Sweety with her brother. The dynamics between them actually determines the proceedings of the film.

The lead actors deliver their best performances till date. Shahid Kapoor has done so well in the double role that you will feel that two different actors are playing those roles. Priyanka Chopra is superb and greatly convincing - whether she claims to know “Home Science” or when she pleads to save her husband’s life. Amole Gupte (The writer of Taare Zameen Par) is excellent as the opportunist politician.

But the film belongs to Vishal Bhardwaj. Apart from the credits mentioned above, he has also written the dialogues, co-written the screenplay, done the background score (which is superb) and sung the title track. This is proof enough of his versatility as well as completeness as a filmmaker. The characters are very real yet they are entirely new. His understanding of complexities of characters and society is amazing. The film is like an onion with multiple layers in it. You need to keep all your senses open to explore it. He is arguably one of the best filmmakers in the country we have today.

The person who stands tall to him is the lyricist Gulzaarsaab who never seems to resort to ghisa-pita lyrics that we come across in every other film. His lines are extraordinary as expected from a distinguished poet. The music of the film ably supports the lyrics and takes the soundtrack to a different level. No wonder it is ruling the charts.

Finally, this is amazing piece of cinema which will go into the annals of Bollywood as outstanding work. But the only hitch is that as viewers we are so much fed with escapist cinema that it will take some time till we get the hang of Vishal Bhardwaj’s dark yet real world. But keep patience, the experience will be wonderful.

Rating ****1/2

Goodbye, Sweetheart

2009-08-08T14:05:00.001+05:30

When you came you conquered

The damage you did was irreparable

I ask forgiveness

For I failed to resist you

I forgive you

For your unintentional tyranny

As you leave

Pick up every rubble and go

Let no sign remain

Of your footsteps

Home Truths

2009-08-02T12:15:00.002+05:30

Recently Emran Hashmi alleged that a housing society in Mumbai didn’t give him a No Objection Certificate to buy a flat because he was a Muslim. A lot of us might find it shocking that why would somebody deny home to a star. But he is not the first case. Earlier it happened with Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Saif Ali Khan and many others who chose to keep it quiet. The reason I am writing this is because the incident has direct echo in my life. Finding an accommodation is indeed difficult for Muslims in India.

In 2003, I went to Delhi for my further studies. The first house I stayed in Hauz Khas belonged to Muslims. They didn’t have any identification issues. In fact they thought we were Hindus until Eid when we went out to pray wearing the traditional attire. After three years, few of my friends came from Assam and we decided to move to a bigger place because the space wasn't enough. We moved to Gautam Nagar just couple of miles away. We went through a property dealer and he had to do the police verification for us. It took unusually long for us and the dealer got frustrated after a point of time, “Otherwise it happens so quickly, they are taking so much time this time”. Soon police landed up in our flat to check our identities. There was perhaps order from top level to check every Muslim who seeks house in the capital. I knew that the whole verification was being done because we were Muslims, so did the officer and he was not at all comfortable doing it. He kept his cool throughout and politely replied despite some of my caustic comments.

That was the only time I changed my house in Delhi. Last year I came to Calcutta and I didn’t need to worry about my accommodation as my cousin was already staying here. He had come to Calcutta a year before. The day he had come to see the present accommodation Calcutta was flooded with rain. They searched the house walking in knee deep water. The landlady was shifting to a new house and she wanted to make her present house a PG for boys. After the initial talk when she learned that they were Muslims, the landlady flatly refused that she can’t rent her house to Muslims. After the intervention of her ‘progressive’ son, they were allowed. Two years hence, my cousin and his friend are the only guys living in the flat throughout and a darling of the landlady. We pay rent on time, we behave well with her. Whenever she comes, she sits only in our room. We are even more favourite with our maid. Many people came and went, but we have been living here without any issues.

Coming back to Hashmi and Co, this is a lesson for them to know that people love their characters on screen, not necessarily their real selves. I also want to point out that I personally don’t have any grudge with the policeman or this landlady. But when such incidents occur with someone else, those not-so-pleasant experiences come to haunt me, or should I say “us”.

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

2009-07-13T22:18:00.004+05:30

Director: Michael Bay

Executive Producer: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro.

When the film opened on 24 June in the USA it felt short by couple of millions to create history earning US$ 201 million in the opening weekend standing next only to The Dark Knight (US$ 203) in all time big openers. When Michael Bay (Bad Boys, Armageddon, Pearl Harbour) is at the helm of direction, Steven Spielberg (ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones series) at the executive production and already a hit prequel, the expectations are bound to go high. Surprisingly it released in India this week without much hype as I didn’t find a single ad on newspapers prior to its release.

The film takes the story forward from the first part of the planned series. It’s been two years since the last encounter with the Decepticons where Optimus Prime, the leader of Autobots came out victorious. Now Optimus heads a military organization with human beings where fellow Autobots have also joined in. While hunting a decepticon in Shanghai, they come to know that the Fallen is planning to take revenge. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has graduated from school and is going to join college to learn astronomy while trying to lead a normal life. But his destiny is intertwined with the aliens as he possesses what they seek, much unknown to him. Soon he is drawn into a conflict which apparently is not his. But as the story unfolds it is discovered that the so called aliens are not new to earth as they have been living here for thousands of years. In this grand battle of Autobots Vs Decepticons, the humans must take side with the Autobots to stop the Fallen and save the earth from annihilation.

As it happens with all sequels, the narrative structure of the film follows the trend of the earlier one. Innocent human beings who are going about their lives are affected by the larger than life events and soon they are in the middle of a war and secrets start revealing itself. The best part of the story is that it has been able to camouflage with the real history of Human race over the years. In the film, the main action takes place in the cradle of all civilizations, Egypt and it is wonderfully shot.

Although there could be hardly any scope in this kind of adventure films to show histrionics as an actor, it can be seen that Shia LaBeouf is maturing as an actor. The ‘boy’ is fast growing to a Man and is heading to be a prominent star in Hollywood. Megan Fox’s role is less defined than the previous one hence loses its significance. Josh Duhamel reprises his role as the Major who leads the fight against the awesome aliens and is fairly competent. But the man who steals the show is John Turturro as Agent Simmons who causes much of the trouble to Sam Witwicky in the first part. When things become too formidable for Sam to carry on, Simmons shows the way and indeed seizes his moment to stand out for his country. Also, his comic timing is of top grade.

The aspect where the film is outstanding is its action and visuals. The scale is huge, locations breathtaking, and greatly executed. I am personally fond of aerial shots and the film has a galore of it. It is one of the most extravagantly shot films in recent times. To the film’s discredit, some of the characters which played significant roles in the prequel were not developed properly. Add to that the first part of the film lacks the flow in narration and hence fails to thrill. But as the story progresses the film picks pace and leads to a grand finale.

At the end, the film deserves to be seen for its brilliant action and grandeur. The experience could be awesome. And for all those Transformers fans, the 3^rd installment is already announced. Cheers!

Movies I saw in 3 Months

2009-07-06T00:36:00.005+05:30

My summer internship was smoothen by the following factor. I have never seen so many films in such a short span of time.

1. Johnny Gaddar (Hindi) Neil Nitin Mukesh, Rimi Sen, Dharmendra

2. Chirutha (Telegu) Introducing Ram Charan Teja (Chiranjeevi’s son)

3. Jodhaa Akbar (Hindi) 3^rd time Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

4. Pokiri (Telugu) Mahesh Babu, Ileana D’cruz

5. Fanaa (Hindi) 3^rd time Aamir Khan, Kajol

6. Saamy (Tamil) Vikram, Trisha

7. Enemy of the state (English) Will Smith, Gene Hackman

8. Boys (Tamil) Introducing Siddhartha, Genelia

9. Charlie’s Angels (English) Drew Barrymore, Charlize Theron, Lucy Liu

10. Khuda Kay Liye (Urdu) 3^rd time Shan, Naseeruddin Shah, Iman Ali

11. The 13^th Warrior (English) Antonio Banderas

12. Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar (Hindi) Ruslan Mumtaz, Hazel

13. The war of the worlds (English) Tom Cruise

14. Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu (Tamil) Kamal Haasan, Jyotika

15. The Kite Runner (English)

16. Teesri Manzil (Hindi) Shammi Kapoor

17. Rogue Assassin (English) Jet Li, Jason Statham

18. Mumbai Salsa (Hindi) Vir Das, Manjari Phadnis

19. Gharsana (Telugu) Venkatesh, Asin

20. Kung Fu Panda (English)

21. Sins (English) Shiney Ahuja, Seema Rehmani

22. Ghajini (Hindi) 3^rd time Aamir Khan, Asin

23. Independence Day (English) Will Smith

24. Mississippi Burning (English) Gene Hackman

25. Bommarillu (Telugu) Siddhartha, Genelia

26. The Sword Of Tipu Sultan (Series) Disc 1

27. Sunday (Hindi) 8th time Ayesha Takia, Ajay Devgan, Arshad warsi

28. Tere Ghar Ke Samne (Hindi) Dev Anand

29. Apocalypto (English) Directed by Mel Gibson

30. Love Story 2050 (Hindi) Priyanka Chopra

31. Aata (Telugu) Siddhartha, Ileana

32. Poison Ivy (English) Drew Barrymore

33. Fantastic 4: Rise of the silver surfer (English)

34. Devdasu (Telugu) Introducing Ileana D’Cruz

35. Syriana (English) George Clooney, Matt Damon

36. Sahara (English)

37. Rush Hour 3 (English) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker

38. Idiocracy (English)

39. Enchanted (English) on a very special recommendation

40. Blood Diamond (English) Leonardo Di Caprio

41. Bachelor Party (English) Tom Hanks

42. The Contractor (English)

43. Hindustani (Hindi) Kamal Haasan, Urmila, Manisha Koirala

44. Sye (Telugu) Genelia, Nitin

45. Yes Man (English) Jim Carrey

46. X-Men (English) Hugh Jackman

47. Jugaad (Hindi) Manoj Bajpai

48. The Marine (English) John Cenna

49. Cloverfield (English)

50. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Hindi) ‘cos my cousin hadn’t seen it

51. The Sword of Tipu Sultan (Series) Disc 2

52. Tropic Thunder (English) Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Ben Stiller

53. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

54. Behind Enemy Lines II (English)

55. Dhokha (Hindi) Introducing Mozammil Ibrahim, Tulip Joshi

56. Money Hai to Honey Hai (Hindi) Govinda and others

57. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (English) Harrison Ford

58. International Crook (Hindi) Paying tribute to Feroz Khan on his death

59. The Sixth Sense (English) Bruce Willis

60. Demolition Man (English) Sylvester Stallone

61. Fool N Final (Hindi) Ayesha Takia, Shahid Kapoor

62. Rush Hour (English) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker

63. Jurm (Hindi) Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta

64. 1947 Earth (Hindi) Aamir Khan, Nandita Das

65. The Train (Hindi) Emran Hashmi

66. Allari Pidugu (Telugu) Katrina Kaif, Balakrishna

67. Videsh (Hindi) Preity Zinta

68. Don (Telugu) Nagarjuna

69. 13B (Hindi) R. Madhavan

70. The Inner/Outer world of Shahrukh Khan (Documentary)

71. If Only (English) Again on recommendation

72. Athidhi (Telugu) Mahesh Babu, Amrita Rao

73. Manorama Six feet Under (Hindi) 2^nd time Abhay Deol

74. Taarzan: the Wonder Car (Hindi) Introducing Ayesha Takia

75. Collateral (English) Tom Cruise, Jamie Fox

76. Romeo Must Die (English) Jet Li

77. The Patriot (English) Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger

78. King Kong (English) Jack Black, Naomi Watts

79. Hulk (English) Eric Bana

80. Rush Hour 2 (English) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker

81. The Matrix Reloaded (English) Keanu Reeves

82. Jurassic Park III (English)

83. Schindler’s List (English)

84. Antaheen (Bengali) Rahul Bose

85. Tasveer (Hindi) Ayesha Takia, Akshay Kumar

86. Karma Aur Holi (English) Sushmita Sen

87. Bobby (Hindi) Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia

88. No Smoking (Hindi) Ayesha Takia

89. Kalpurush (Bengali) Mithun Chakraborty, Rahul Bose

90. Darr (Hindi) Sunny Deol, Juhi Chawla, Shahrukh Khan

91. Aloo Chat (Hindi) Aftab, Aamna

92. Aliens vs Predators (English)

93. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (English)

94. The Transporter (English) Jason Statham

95. Shoot ‘Em Up (English) Clive Owen, Monica Belluci

96. Harry potter and the philosopher’s stone (English)

97. Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets (English)

98. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Hindi) Preity Zinta

99. The Mummy (English)

100. Namastey London (Hindi) 2^nd time

101. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban

102. Prince No. 1 (Dubbed from Telugu) Preity Zinta, Mahesh Babu

103. Universal Soldier (English)

104. Dhaam Dhoom (Tamil) Kangana Ranaut

105. Thank You for smoking (English)

106. Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom (English)

107. Amar Akbar Anthony (Hindi)

108. Ghajini (Tamil) Surya, Asin

109. Bulletproof Monk (English)

110. Welcome to Sajjanpur (Hindi)

111. Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar (Hindi) Salman Khan

112. Chandramukhi (Tamil) Superstar Rajnikanth

113. Khal Nayak (Hindi) Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri

114. Rangeela (Hindi) 2^nd time Aamir Khan, Urmila, Jackie Shroff

115. Gladiator (English) Russel Crow, Jaquin Phoenix

116. Chachi 420 (Hindi) Kamal Haasan, Tabu

117. Charlie Wilson’s war (English) Tom Hanks, Om Puri, Julia Roberts

118. The International (English) Clive Owen, Naomi Watts

119. Unleashed (English) Jet Li, Morgan Freeman

120. Arahan (dubbed from Korean)

121. Dil Deke Dekho (Hindi) Shammi Kapoor

122. Baaghi (Hindi) Salman Khan, Nagma

123. Sadak (Hindi) Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt

124. Nijam (Telugu) Mahesh Babu

125. Golden Eye (English) Pierce Brosnan

126. The Girl Next Door (English)

127. Khuda Gawah (Hindi) Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi

128. Indra (Telugu) Chiranjeevi

129. You’ve Got Mail (English) Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan

130. The Good Shepherd (English) Matt Damon

131. Harry Potter and the goblet of fire (English)

132. Die Hard 3 (English) Bruce Willis

133. That Thing You Do (English) Tom Hanks

134. Underworld 3 (English)

135. The Green Mile (English) Tom Hanks

136. The fast and the furious 4 (English)

137. Okkadu (Telugu) Mahesh Babu

138. Aa Dekhen Zara (Hindi) Niel Mukesh

139. Big (English) Tom Hanks

140. Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix (English)

141. The Godfather (English) Marlon Brando, Al Pacino

142. Turner &Hooch (English) Tom Hanks

143. Straight (Hindi) Vinay Pathak

144. Gulal (Hindi) Kay Kay

145. Cast Away (English) Tom Hanks

146. Angels & Demons (English) Tom Hanks

147. Shanghai Noon (English) Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson

148. Pokkiri (Tamil) Vijay, Asin

149. Billa (Tamil) Ajith, Nayanthara

150. My Fair Lady (English)

151. Pyaar Ke Side Effects (Hindi) Rahul Bose, Mallika Sherawat

152. Dashavatar (Dubbed from Tamil) Kamal Haasan, Asin, Mallika

153. Death Race (English)

154. The Last of the Mohicans (English)

Salman, Filmfare and I

2009-06-28T16:51:00.010+05:30

The reason Salman Khan’s name preceded Filmfare is because I don’t know when I became his fan but I exactly remember the time I first saw/read a Filmfare. It was the February edition of 1994. During that time I had just started with my abc of English as my preliminary education has been in Assamese. I guess I could just read the names of actors and films and could see the photographs. The cover had Karisma and Govinda. Back then Govinda was a big star and they were doing some hit films which are now considered cheap. It had carried interview of Aamir Khan, soon after the birth of his son Junaid (excerpt of which I have published earlier). After seeing a photograph of Shahrukh Khan I wondered is this guy also an actor. One thing was sure I had fallen in love with this magazine right then.

By the time I became aware of the world around me, the country was gripped with Salman hysteria as his film Maine Pyaar Kiya was a monstrous hit. Watching new films in those days was tough though. There was cinema hall in the town which was around 13 km away but that was the privilege of the grownups. My village had no electricity. There was TV in my house which was run on batteries. But it couldn’t take the load of VCRs. Then Doordarshan showed films of Rajesh Khanna or Rishi Kapoor which at that point I disliked so much. So no new films for me! By ’93 I was allowed to go to the bazaar which was 2/3 kilometers away and watch films on Video Parlours. The reigning superstars there were the action trio – Sunil Shetty, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan. These guys were a rage. Frankly at that point I found love stories a bit silly and loved these films. Most people who watched films in those Parlours aspired to become like Ajay Devgan who never goes after girl but the girl follows him. Later, after an untoward incident for which I was least responsible, I was barred from going to bazaar to watch films.

But I knew that Salman and Aamir were bigger stars. A poster from the film Andaaz Apna Apna where both were sitting on stairs wearing red jackets hung on my wall. I just didn’t get opportunities to watch their films. Then I went to my school where the opportunity to watch new films was open again. By then piracy had come into the Video Cassettes sector. The pathetic prints were really pathetic to see but then that was the only way to watch new films. Cinema Halls were soon to be shut as few years later VCDs made its way in. Though nowadays whenever I see a bad print in YouTube, it takes me to those days.

In June ’98 I had bought a Filmfare during my vacation as it had Salman Khan on cover post the success of Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya. I took it along to my school a month later. One day a teacher found out that I had ‘Filmfare’ with me. It was confiscated from me. If I read Filmfare at that age (I was 13 then), what I would do later. That was the reaction of my teacher. My house master was a cool person. He kept it with him and promised to give me when I go home next time. May be my teacher would be surprised to know that I ‘still’ read Filmfare only and ‘did nothing else’.

After coming to Delhi, everything changed. Here I watched films in the best cinema halls in the country and regularly read Filmfare (which I still continue). After few months, it became like an addiction. Whenever a new edition came out, I would finish reading it in one sitting and then wait for one month for next issue to come out. The love for the magazine was not just because of my love for films. The interviews are very well written and intelligent. Nowadays, I'm sure it influences my writing heavily.

Just before my admission for undergraduate course in Literature in English in college I appeared for interview in a South Campus college. I had forgotten about the interview. So I was sitting in front of the penal for my first ever interview wearing a T shirt bought from SN Market which had one of those cheesy one liners.

Interviewer1: Do you read?

Me: Yes.

Interviewer2: What have you read recently?

Me: Biography of Shahrukh Khan.

Interviewer2: Do you think censorship should be allowed into a piece of art?

Me: Yes.

Interviewer2: Why?

Me: Because there is lot of vulgarity in films.

Interviewer2: How do you define vulgarity? Can you name one actor who indulges in it?

Me: Yes. Meghna Naidu in Hawas (Lust).

Interviewer1: In literature, one has to read really fast. How is your reading speed?

Me: Pretty good. I can finish Filmfare which is of 142 pages in 4 hours.

I was selected.

Introducing Shruti Haasan

2009-06-25T00:01:00.007+05:30

She is a Rock Singer, a Music Composer, a Model and finally turning into full time actress . Her father is one of the legendary actors of the country. Her Momma is one of the beautiful women I have ever seen (Yeah, I have seen Sarikaji in real life). She is going to make her big screen debut on 24th July this year.

"Naam Hai Shruti Haasan. Na main Luck pe jeeti hoon na Luck pe bharosa hai mujhe. Kyunki Luck bhi sirf uska saath deta hai jismein jitne ka jazva ho." She declares in her introductory promo of the film Luck. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsBiyPDq7_8)

Shruti Rajalakshmi Haasan was born on 28 January, 1986 to Kamal Haasan, a legendary actor and Sarika, a beautiful actress. She began her singing career singing alongside another great actor Sivaji Ganesan, when she was six year old in her father's Tamil film Thevar Magan (1992) followed by Chachi 420 (1998) in Hindi and the bilingual Hey Ram (2000). Soon after her parents got separated and she came to Mumbai with her mother where she completed her final schooling. She then went to the Musicians Institute, Hollywood (USA) to further hone her musical skills.

After returning, she was doing a lot of live performances specially in rock concerts. The first playback singing as grown up happened in the Tamil film Varanam Aayiram (2008) with the rocking song Adiya Kulluthey. Amazing voice. She will compose music for her father's next film which is a remake of the acclaimed A Wednesday. Her music album where she is composer-lyricist- singer will release soon.

She is making her big screen debut in the adventure action thriller Luck directed by Soham Shah alongside Imran Khan, who is a long time friend and has a peculiar relationship. Shruti's mom is dating Imran's mom's ex husband Raj Zutshi. :P. Coming back to the film she has sung the rock version of the title track Aazma Luck.

Many star children make their entry to the film world. Some succeed, some fail and some reach the dizzying heights of stardom. But seldom such multi talented person makes an entry. Watch out for the first female superstar who is truly a rock star. Shruti Haasan. Lastly about her 'Muslim' sounding surname. Her grandfather had a dear friend by the name Haasan. The friendship was so deep that grandpa decided to give the name as surname to his children which is now passed onto children's children. Her grandfather's surname was Ayyenger and he was a Tamil Brahmin.

ANGELS & DEMONS

2009-05-29T18:06:00.004+05:30

I was disappointed with the film version of The Da Vinci Code as it failed to replicate the finer history as well as the thrill of the book. But I was upbeat about Angels & Demons, which I didn’t like much when I read it 4 years back. The reason I didn’t like the book was that it was very filmy in setting while The Da Vinci Code was more like an alternate view of history. When I heard that the producers were also making Angels & Demons into a film, I knew they were going to make a better film this time. Today I can say I wasn’t wrong in my assumption.

Whoever hasn’t read the book, (though I don’t really fancy that someone who hasn’t read Dan Brown’s books reads my blog and if it happens it surely is a tragedy), here is a peek into the plot. Robert Langdon is a Harvard Symbologist who is called by the Director of CERN, Geneva to inspect a symbol inscribed on the body of a murdered scientist. Soon they realize that the murderer has stolen the ‘anti-matter’ which can turn into an apocalyptic bomb if used. But the bigger revelation is that Illuminati, a secret society of scientists, which was thought to be dead a hundred years ago have resurfaced to take revenge. Great intellectuals of middle ages were part of this society to save their knowledge from the atrocity of the Church who didn’t allow any ‘blasphemous’ discourse to happen. Many scientists including the Great Galileo were killed. As revenge, the Illuminati will blow up the Vatican City while a new Pope is being elected. Not before the assassin kills the four Preferiti (among them one would be the Pope) by branding them with Illuminati symbols. The major part of the book is focused on Langdon’s efforts to save the killings along with Vittoria Vetra, the adopted daughter of the murdered scientist, by following the hints hidden in the Vatican architecture while they are running out of time. The climax throws few more surprises and though Langdon fails to save any of the papal candidates, he saves the day.

The film is very well made. In fact I found it more thrilling than the book. Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon is superb of course. He is the kind of actor who remains above the script always. The producer said they were too reverential in adapting The Da Vinci Code which resulted in it being little too long and stagey. This time no such mistake has been made. Every moment is thrilling. But a lot of minor changes have been made to suit the feature film mode like- the book is a prequel while the film is made a sequel to The Da Vinci Code. Wikipedia mentions all the changes made in the film except one which I think is very important. In the book, the assassin is a Middle Eastern while in the film he is a regular white guy. In middle ages, the idea of contract killing began in Middle East or Muslim World. The killers who secretly lived in caves used to take Hashish (also known as Hash or Ganja, is a form of drug) before going out on mission. They were called Hashishin in Arabic and the word ‘assassin’ originates from it. The fact that the assassin in the book is a Middle Eastern draws direct parallel to its history which is mentioned in the book itself. Now the book was written in 2000, before the attack on World Trade Centre and popularization of ‘Islamic’ terrorism. Much has changed since the book was written. I think there are two reasons for changing the assassin from a Middle Eastern to a White man. Firstly, the assassin is an Illuminati who fights for science against religion while post 9/11 Middle Easterns are increasingly seen as people who fight for religion. Secondly, the mere indication that the assassin could be a Muslim planning to blow up the Vatican would have taken the focus away from Illuminati v/s The Church to Islam v/s Christianity in the current milieu. I really wonder how such small things could mean so much.

Coming to my favourite series, the sequel to The Da Vinci Code was scheduled to arrive in 2006. Now it’s finally releasing on 15 September, 2009 with a different name. The working title was The Solomon key which will be released as The Lost Symbol. I’m eagerly waiting.

Individual And Civilization

2009-05-28T14:11:00.002+05:30

The picture above gives a very good illustration of the tension and gap that lies between Civilization and the Individual, the actual and the implied, the real and the ideal. Civilization means a better society than known in the history, “something in process of attainment”. The society we seek should serve the material needs of individuals, while raking them spiritually, by means of the love that is of God and which involves a giving of the self, to love the people around him. Civilization is an idea, while individual is real with a lot of material needs.

However, if we are to endeavor to attain “civilization”, it cannot be done solely by means of materialism, as unmitigated materialism only “debases” human beings. Materialism, whether practiced in a democratic nation or in a communist one, has failed in reality to achieve its presumed goal. Contrary to the general belief, our actual experience has shown that material improvement does not necessarily elevate human beings at all levels. It does not help people to be more virtuous and serve their fellows with love. Neither does it help them create beauty. Instead of a new dignity of man, materialism has brought a respectability to “vulgarity, bad taste, and cheapness” in our society.

As a society is actually composed of individuals, the improvement of individuals is a basic task to be undertaken, if we are to strive for that “Civilization”. Of course, scientific knowledge is useful, but “the wise and humane use of this knowledge depends on the existence of better individuals.” It ought to be understood that knowledge itself is neutral. The making of better human beings is a personal not a mass matter; it is a matter of excellence not of uniformity; it grows out of individual responsibility and effort, not out of techniques of mass education and mechanized social improvement.

Freedom consists in choosing the right slavery; slavery to oneself is one of the worst forms of slavery, while love is the highest form of slavery. The search for civilization by individuals who have chosen the right slavery may well provide a means to cope with critical problems of our age. Scientific and technological development may have done immense good to man but it has also created a danger of total annihilation of the human race.

Reference

A Search for Civilization, John U Nef 1962.

Howly: Town of My Teens

2009-05-22T23:42:00.009+05:30

Howly is a small town. In fact it is much smaller than what ‘small towns’ suggest. It is situated exactly in the middle of Barpeta town and Barpeta Road (that’s name of a town as well). The former is the administrative centre while the latter is the business centre of the district. Perhaps that’s why Howly doesn’t have the trappings of a busy urban life. It doesn’t have any congested alleys, no unwanted shops; everything is more or less planned, may be by default. The national highway which connects the Northeast to the rest of the country passes by the outskirt of the town, which makes it a strategically good place. One can easily go in any direction he/she wants to. May be the presence of two battalion of paramilitary forces (BSF and Assam Rifles) will validate that.

Howly means ‘Palace’ in Assamese. I’m ignorant about the finer history of Assam due to my CBSE course which doesn’t give any emphasis on regional history. Perhaps one small time king had a palace here which has no remains, for the town to be named Howly. This was the place I spent my teenage years as my boarding school was situated here. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya opened in my district in 1995. An old government campus, used to train school teachers was converted to the school. The campus was relatively bigger than other ‘temporary’ JNVs. I joined my school in 1996. Initially we lived comfortably but as newer batches started coming in, space became an issue. Rooms were full with 12 students per room with double bed not a single piece of furniture in place. But this was made up by the amazing life we had in school.

Assam in general is very beautiful with a lot of greenery around and Howly is even better. Every road has well planted trees. Every house is beautifully made. Nothing in that place would qualify to be an eyesore. There is lot of space available, everywhere- be it housing colonies or bazaars. As kids we used to go to market in groups to shop for groceries. It was an activity everyone looked forward to as it was the only opportunity to go out of the campus. We liked it not just because it was our moment of freedom but also because it was an extremely pleasant place to be in.

But the most amazing thing about the place is its people. Bengali Muslims and Assamese Hindus are two dominant communities while Bengali Hindus are also a part of it. Language is very crucial to the general consciousness of Assam and there have been agitations in the past because of it. Even at peace, there is always certain sort of tension between two different linguistic groups (not religious though). But Howly is a place where the rule doesn’t apply. Everyone lives so amicably and has accepted each other that there is not even a slightest undercurrent of any sort of tension or insecurity. One can roam anywhere in the town at any time. The place is completely safe. In my 7 year stay, I never heard of a fight breaking out or any untoward incident. The town retains its simplicity with a certain panache which makes it attractive to one and all.

Delhi was the final stage in forming my identity. But Howly was the place where I started to become aware of it. I experienced the first change – physical, emotional, mental at this place. The first crush was so life defining. The things that I did then, is so embarrassing at the same time so beautiful to recall. Whatever I am now, the base was laid in my house and was strengthened in Howly. But the best thing I learned there is to have control on oneself. We were free to do things that we liked. Back then I was one of the bad boys, unofficial though (After going to Delhi ofcourse I realized that the outer world was much meaner). Unofficial in the sense that the teachers never thought I was one because I was never caught or maybe I was little better in studies than actual bad boys. But the fact remains that I was involved in the worst rule breaking game in school. Still I had certain control which remains with me and hopefully will continue to be so. I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, I didn’t eat Gutka. I didn’t do anything that I won’t be able to tell anyone. In fact we made smoking so uncool, that whoever smoked had to do it secretly. It may be because there was so much freedom that I didn’t need a cigarette to express it.

Howly hosts my most favorite festival – the Raas Mela. It’s a festival of Lord Krishna. Then we didn’t know what the festival was for but it was the biggest event not just in Howly, but in Western Assam. It happens in the month of November and lasts for two weeks. This was the only time we could go out at night, wear our best clothes and of course roam with the girl we liked. Since there was strict instruction to remain in groups, the dating happened in group as well. Although I was not that lucky since my story was a bit complicated. But the pursuit was no less interesting. Some of my best memories are attached to this festival. After leaving Howly in 2003, this is the festival I miss the most.

The year we passed out of the school, the campus shifted to its permanent building. Hence whenever I have gone to meet my teachers or my sibling who also studies in the same school, it’s in the new campus to which I have no memories attached. It’s the most magnificent building in the whole district still juniors who stayed in both the campuses say Howly was much better.

Nowadays whenever I pass through the town, I make it a point to drive slowly so that I can feel the vibe and it gives me tremendous satisfaction. The barrier of time ceases to exist and I see myself everywhere doings things that I did while in school – as a little kid as well as a grown up boy. The place hasn’t changed a bit. The trees, the shops all are in the same place. The only change is that the VCD stores are closed down. The building is again changed to training centre which is hardly used since there are no new recruits in teaching sector in the state. The mango trees we had planted have grown, but there is no one to eat the fruits. If I segregate my conscious life with different places that I have lived in, then Howly would top the list. Those seven years were crucial in every sense of way and played a vital role in shaping me up. May be next time I go home, I should go to my old campus, sit under the trees and relive.

Ileana D'Cruz

2009-05-19T21:47:00.008+05:30

Ileana is the reigning queen of Telugu film industry. As it happens in south Indian film industry, most remarkable actresses are from outside. Ileana was born in Bombay on 19 August, 1987 to a Christian father and a Muslim mother. Her name was given after Helen of Troy. I am sure her parents never thought the lady would actually turn out to be so beautiful that a lot of people won’t mind burning the towers of Troy. When she was ten years old, the family shifted to Goa. She has two sisters and one brother.

She wanted to be a fashion designer but accidentally landed up in the fair and lovely ad directed by Rakesh Roshan. She was spotted by Telugu director YVS Chowdhury and her debut film Devdasu happened. I have seen the film and can’t miss out on mentioning the surrealism in South Indian cinema. Just anything is possible there. But she shot to fame with Pokiri starring Mahesh Babu. The film broke 75 year record in the Telegu film industry. This is one of my favourite films in recent times. Ileana is so adorably hot. The film was first offered to Ayesha Takia, my favourite actress, but she turned it down. Now the film is remade in Hindi where Ayesha will essay the role originally meant for her. And opposite, well, the Salman Khan.

Now coming to the main topic, Ileana shot to top as her subsequent films did well which showcased her enormous talent. Aata opposite Siddhartha is another favourite. I hope she makes her Hindi film debut soon.

Why this post? –It is because I have nothing much to write about. I am sitting idle and I thought you would like to know about her. I hope she makes me her PR manager now :P

The Stormy Night

2009-05-15T16:11:00.000+05:30

Last night it was difficult to sleep

In my small hut in the woods

The thunder storm was frightening

Riding the west wind came

The princess of lightening

The brightness enough to light the underworld

Was blinding

She was surprised

God’s creation could be so wretched

I was awed

It could be so beautiful

She brought an army of happiness

To conquer my solitary world

At victor’s feet laid my heart

Willingly I surrendered

We played silly games

Sang melodious duets

How I wished

The night would never end

Our worlds could never meet

But desire knew no bound

I wanted to change

Pretended to be a poet

Tried to be compassionate

But I failed to overcome

What was destined

In a mortal’s life

Not everything could be attained

The night was long

When morning arrived

She was gone

If only I could dream on.

Endless Wait

2009-05-12T22:27:00.002+05:30

I crossed thousand miles in a day

But can’t seem to cross few meters in years

The eternal distance between us

Am I dreaming?

Or stuck in reality

You burst with joy

As people get closer to you

Some known

Some unknown

While I longingly wait

For my turn to walk the distance

I brave the stormy rain, the burning sun

All filthy tests of nature

But the wait seems endless

Then someone walks through me

I feel pain

Not sure if it is physical

I want to move away

But I cannot

Plead with the passerby

To take me along

No one cares

For the fallen soul

A beautiful girl comes by

I am shaken

To wake up

To reality.

Ramdhenu

2009-05-03T18:20:00.005+05:30

This afternoon it rained here. The season's first big shower giving relief from a month long scorching heat, hot wind and dull surroundings. Suddenly every movable and immovable, living and non living came to life. As I walked down the road to get a new DVD from bigflix store, the beautiful change mesmerized me. Every house seems to be newly coloured as it draws my attention which it fails to do every time I pass them. The trees are washed from the mask of dust to be green again. I noticed everything that came my way - the election campaign posters, the billboards, the park railings etc etc. The road is swarming with people. After rain walk is so beautiful. But I missed one thing which I have been missing from quite some time - the rainbow.

Ramdhenu is the Assamese word for rainbow. I am not a linguist so I might not be correct. I think ramdhenu literally means the bow of Ram (the hero of the epic Ramayana). All rainbows that I have seen were in Assam, mostly during the early days of my life in my village. Since Assam receives high rainfall and has a clear sky with less pollution, seeing a rainbow is no big deal. On special days there would be multiple rainbows. During a cricket match or while coming home from school, we would always standby to see the ramdhenu. Then we didn't have much time to romanticize or think about the reason for those multiple colours in the sky. Then I also didn't know that someday I would stop seeing them.

For me rainbows signify a bygone era which was innocent and beautiful. As rainbows have disappeared from my life, so has the era to come back in my nostalgia.

A Year in Calcutta

2009-05-02T01:58:00.003+05:30

I have just completed a year in Calcutta. Last year around the same time I had come here from my home for the first time. Living in Delhi, I had certain expectations from this city and I couldn't escape the obvious comparisons that would occur in my mind. Though I haven't seen the city in its totality, it fails to stand up to Delhi which invokes a mixed reaction within. The good part is I can romanticize about Delhi being the perfect city and the bad part is I'm not in the perfect city.

But the thing that I miss the most are the wonderful friends I have or made in Delhi. The fact is disheartening. That's why sleep is eluding me tonight and I'm here writing this post. One year is perhaps too less a time to make deep and intimate relationship. But at least in a year one will figure out who would be those long lasting friends. I too have. But that number is a bit disturbing. I always had a long list of close friends. Things seem to be changing. May be the long vacation, which is supposedly my internship, is taking its toll on me. I don't seem to know. Or may be the time to make those selfless relationships is just over.

But last one year has been the longest year for me. Working round the clock, mostly out of my comfort zone has made me learn a lot of things. This year has made me realise that physical time and memory time are two different things. Initially when there would be too much work pressure, I would greet the same person in the evening whom I had met in the morning thinking that I had met him/her the previous day. Finally I'm learning the Calcuttan way of speaking Bengali. May be next time onwards I won't have much difficulty in convincing people that I'm one though I am no more proud of this fact. The bygone year has acquainted me more with reality and my responsibility towards me and my family. One basic truth I have learned is that the struggle with life will never get over. There would be no particular point after which there will be just happiness. Struggle and victory goes simultaneously. You are never sure when you will meet whom.

What's in a Name?

2009-03-29T10:14:00.003+05:30

Names are necessary evils. May be in ancient times, it didn’t make much of a difference because they lived in homogenous societies. But in heterogeneous societies it does. Names are the best and easiest way to segregate and discriminate in the name of caste, religion, region etc. I have faced many instances when name became important to the other person, either to praise me or humiliate me and most of the times hurting without an intention to hurt.

The segregation in the name of religion is possible because unfortunately one particular language is seen as the official language of a religion. Though over the years, religions became universal, it failed to do away with the language of the carriers of the message. By fault Europe has become the mother land of Christianity though Jesus was born in Asia. So in India, you will often see English names for Christians. The same way Islam couldn’t segregate itself from Arabic. A person might not understand a single word of Arabic but can recite the holy Quran by heart. I never understood this phenomenon. The knowledge imbibed in the great book still eludes him and he has to depend on those narrow minded Mullahs to tell him what to do.

Coming back to names, Muslims mostly keep Arabic or Persian names. Persians were the first great civilization to accept Islam. The Muslims who first established on the throne of Delhi were close to this language. Hence Persian was the courtly language. Urdu was borne out of the mixture of Persian and Hindi. Never mind that Urdu isn’t seen as an Indian language by most Indians. It’s more irritating when people think it is the mother tongue of all Muslims in the world.

Whenever anyone converts to Islam, he changes his name as well as if changing the faith wasn’t enough to make him a good Muslim. Would Mohammed Ali become lesser Muslim if he would have retained his maiden name! Of course there is exception to everything. Like I knew a person whose name was 'Rose Khan'. Think again if you thought only Punjabis are capable of doing that. This stereotype is further subverted by Arab Christians who refer to God as “Allah” underlying the fact that Allah isn’t the Muslim god, rather it’s a word in Arabic which means The God.

My name is in Arabic. Baharul Islam means Sea of peace which I think is beautiful. That I’m not peace loving is a different matter. Once I had translated my name in Bengali and tried to play mischief on one of my classmates in college. First two years she couldn’t forgive me for this and in last two years she has been making fun of it.

What prompted me to write this post is Varun Gandhi’s reference to Muslim names recently. He thinks Muslims have scary names…’Karimullah, Mazharullah’. I don’t disagree. But what I want to point out is that Varun is his middle name. His first name is Feroze which in the popular milieu sounds like a Muslim name. What do they say – Sheeshe ke ghar mein rehnewalo ko doosro ke ghar mein patthar nahin phenkna chahiye.

This is Where I Belong

2009-03-23T18:14:00.004+05:30

The sun had already set when I crossed Aligarh. This was the first time that I was approaching Delhi in darkness, literally. So the memories started hitting when the train reached the Delhi station. It was almost surreal. I had no plans to come to Delhi in near future and now here I was standing on the station not knowing the way out. It’s been just a year and I have been to this station for hundreds of times. Memories should never be trusted.

As I walked out of the station, I started to feel the excitement. While walking the underground to reach the metro station, I carefully looked into every soul that passed by me looking for someone whom I might just know. Even when I lived here and had hundreds of acquaintances, I never felt the same. Then the realization settled in that I have actually never been so much excited to reach anywhere in my life.

I talked about memory buttons in one of my earlier posts. By the time I set foot in the station, everything around me started to play memory buttons to me. The seat on which I was sitting in the metro brought back so many memories. Zillion of times I have travelled while going to college having fun with the great bunch friends I had. Not to mention that special moment when a special one sat next to me. How distance can make memories so defining and lovable!

Delhi has changed so much just in a year. After getting off the metro in Central Secretariat I was clueless of the route as metro expansion was going on. Nevertheless it was not hard to find the way to Munirka, where my cousin was staying presently. By the time I reached the bus stop a DTC bus of route 620 arrived. The route terminates at Hauz Khas where I had lived first 3 years in Delhi. Not just with the buses of this route, I had a strong connection with DTC buses. Students in Delhi are issued passes which allow them to travel in regular DTC buses of any route. We used it like our ancestral property – hoping in and out whenever we felt like. Moreover our university special buses were provided by DTC. So it was like an exclusive transporter for me and likes.

Since it was taking other route, initially I couldn’t figure out the places I was crossing. The VIP areas are anyway hard to remember as all the streets and houses look the same. After some time when I reached South Avenue, I had figured it out. A ride through Chanakyapuri is always a great experience with the embassies all around. I used to come to Chanakya cinema, which was demolished a year ago, to watch films in the same route. All the memories flashed like I was watching another film, much closer to my heart, just little abstract.

After few turns I reached Sangam, a low key hall where I used to come when my finances would be tight or I wanted to watch lousy films. I had seen Anthony Kaun Hai three years ago, the poster of the film still hangs in the cinema hall with posters of Jai Veeru, Aa Dekhen Zara. By any standard it was quite a strange phenomenon. After the couple of minutes I reached the road to airport. The entire road is being transformed into a flyover. Due to these constructions, the places became almost unrecognizable to me. So I had to put efforts locate the stoppage where I had to get off.

As I was walking towards my cousin’s room, the realization had already come. This is the place where I belong. Even while I was staying in Delhi, I never realized how much I loved this place. Growing up at different places, I really don’t belong anywhere. But if anything comes closer, it has to be Delhi. The other reason is that my birthplace doesn’t physically exist and my school is shifted to its permanent building. So Delhi is the only tangible place which supports my memories. I have decided that the way I meet my family at least once in a year, I have to return to this place at least once in a year, no matter which part of the globe I live in. To remain connected to my roots, to bring peace to my wandering soul.

And wherever I wander

The one thing I’ve learned

It's to here

I will always

always return

Bryan Adams: Spirit, “This is where I belong”

Film I just saw

2009-03-08T03:13:00.001+05:30

I have just subscribed to bigflix.com as my summer internship is going on. Since there is no academic pressure I can watch as many fims I want. This blog is to share my experiences in watching different sort of films in different langauges. This would be my instant reaction after seeing the film. Hope it will make for good reads.

http://moreflicks.blogspot.com/

The Bride

2009-03-03T14:31:00.005+05:30

On 1st March 2009, one of the most promising and talented young actresses of Hindi film industry Ayesha Takia tied the nuptial bonds with her long time boy friend Farhan Azmi and is on the verge of saying good bye to the silver screen. I am sad because I loved her every outing as an actress and the idea of not being able to see her more is dreadful. Since she is an actress I am supposed not to love her. That's what my friends think as I recieved a lot of flak from them instead of solace. But then when has the world been able to appreciate a lover's efforts.

On practical side, I wish she gets all the happiness in life and keeps doing films.

Shaadi Se Pehle Socha Na Tha ki Sunday ko Paathsala mein Tasveer dekh kar pyaar ho jayega. Dil Maange More bolke Tarzaan ki tarah Dor pakad ke Home Delivery karne gaya Salaam-e-Ishq uske ghar tak. No Smoking board ke neeche baitha guard Cash leke bola, " Super Shaadi No. 1 to kab se Wanted tha aur aaj Fool N Final ho gaya. Kya Love Story Hai!" Neend se aankh khuli to socha Yun Hota To Kya Hota.

P. S. Words in italics make her filmography.

Unpardonable Aggression

2009-03-01T10:32:00.004+05:30

Few years ago while I was in college, one of my friends had funnily observed that the only aggressive Bengalis he has ever known were the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). The comment came in the wake of border skirmishes with Indian forces but it came true with the past week’s incidents.

The BDR men mutinied against the administration over many grievances they have. They are made to do many jobs outside border areas and aren’t well paid. Their officers are mainly deputed from the army who are a bit more aggressive than required for paramilitary forces and treat them like lowly men. So the BDR seized their headquarters to negotiate with the government. After the negotiations were over, the skeletons started coming out. Many mass graves were discovered inside the premises of BDR headquarters and the dead were the top ranking officers including their Chief and his wife. Many mutilated bodies have been discovered from the drains. Not just inhumanly, these acts of aggression take away the honour that they deserve as a military force.

The administration with the help of the army has vowed to punish the guilty and has arrested around 300 BDR men. But the startling thing is that there were 9000 men who had entered the premises and are currently on the run.

What I deduce from the events is that savage aggression never works. It needs an intelligent brain as a guide. How could they think that they would get away by killing their Chief unless they take total control of the country!

Whatever has happened is a result of ugly disposition and should be condemned with strong words. In a country which has a long history of mutinies and coups, it will become difficult for the administration to check such events in future.

Dil Dosti Etc.

2009-02-07T18:07:00.007+05:30

I had a terrific campus life in Delhi University. In Calcutta, that’s one thing I miss the most. So whenever the memories take over, I sit to watch the film Dil Dosti etc. The film takes a close look at life in Delhi University. Not that I completely identified with the characters, but I met those kinds often. Students from Bihar with political ambitions, liberated women and aimless rich kids for whom love is just a four letter word, were all around me. The only character I didn’t meet was the school chic whom Imad Shah dates with a noble intention of drowning her in his ‘white watered lake’ (safed paani ka jheel). It may be because I stayed off campus and didn’t get much time to trot around it.

To stay off campus was a very conscious decision which I both regret and cherish. I regret because I missed out on the hostel life of the university. I cherish because staying away made me see and learn a cosmopolitan culture very unique to Delhi. The decision of not staying in hostel was determined by my hostel days in school. Seven years, I thought, were enough to have a fun and carefree life. Now it was time to learn how to live life like a responsible man.

Since I was very regular to college, I didn’t miss the fun though. Traveling an hour in U-special bus to reach college, waiting one more hour for classes to start, having breakfast and lunch in our cool college canteen and then rushing back on U-special again were routine for me then and happy days now. In the final year, couple of my friends had shifted to stay in the campus, so I used to stay back at times. Walking through partially empty and wide roads during the evenings is the most awesome experience at the university which still flashes in my mind with a sweet immediacy as if it had happened just yesterday.

Coming back to the film, though it didn’t cover every aspect of campus life, it came very close with its real depiction of characters. Just the other day I was watching the film for nth time, a scene really came forth to teach volumes with its stark reality. Imad often visits a brothel in GB Road as he befriends a prostitute. One day he asks her,

“When you sleep with another man I do not feel bad. But if my girlfriend goes out with another boy I will feel bad. Why?”

After taking bakshish the woman replies,

“I do not choose the men I sleep with. It’s part of my business the way I didn’t choose you. But when your girlfriend goes with another man, it means she chose him over you. Matlab us ladke ne uski nahi teri le li.”

The line is true to every relationship that we nurture. Much of our pain is because of the choices we make and in turn the choices made on us.

The Funny Worlds of Shahrukh Khan and Amar Singh

2009-01-21T16:02:00.008+05:30

Few years ago, the most popular actor in the world, Shahrukh Khan realized the importance of filmfare awards in his life and decided to give something back to the award ceremony. (As per being the most popular actor in the world, I think it is wrongly assumed that the whole India knows him. I can say for sure that my mother doesn’t know him neither cares about him and I’m sure there are millions like her.) So he decided to host the ceremony. To make it fun, he roped in Saif Ali Khan, his co-star of the previous year’s blockbuster Kal Ho Na Ho. He put a good show. We all laughed and loved it. Next year, he was back again with Saif in tow. Shahrukh writes the dialogues and Saif follows it without much ado. It was again repeated until it set a trend and a wrong one at that. Initially those crude humors were taken lightly by the victims, but suddenly things started to change. In the 2008 ceremony, they made fun of Vidhu Vinod Chopra for making Eklavya and Chopra vowed not to work with Saif and his family ever again. Poor Saif because it was the other Khan’s fault and he had to pay the price as Chopra couldn’t afford to say the same thing to Shahrukh. But Shahrukh had things coming for him. In another award ceremony, he took dig at Amar Singh for lustily looking at a nubile nymphet. Amar Singh broke down in front of the media as he asked God to punish the King. The next day Singh’s supporters assembled outside Shahrukh’s house and threw stones at it. King was not home but the children were. This enraged Khan and he threatened Amar Singh with dire consequences if he ever repeated it. These are the events of last year.

This year the award season has started, so has the controversies. Shahrukh’s closest pal Farah Khan along with his witty brother Sajid Khan was asked to host this year’s Star Screen award. Farah in her unpleasant tone made a sarcastic comment at Aushotosh Gawariker and he retorted back in the stage itself. Whoever has seen the event will know how funny it was to see the director reacting. What started as a tribute to filmfare by Shahrukh has turned out to be a slanging match where celebrities make fun of their rivals saying they are doing it in good humor and it should be taken sportily. The King has set a wrong precedence.

Coming to Amar Singh, the Chhota Bhai of Amitabh Bachchan has finally grown up because Sanjay Dutt has seen a big brother in him. The errant son of great actor and social worker Sunil Dutt has finally entered the political fray. After failing to secure a ticket from the Indian National Congress, as the party favored the younger and capable sister, he has decided to join Samajwadi Party at Bada Bhai Amar Singh’s hukm. The upholder of democracy follows dictates! Funny again! Dutt’s entry into politics is an immature act. Neither he has the ability nor the will to be in politics. You see his interviews and you will know that this man is not fit for the job. Moreover, his decision has led to a split in the family who has yet not been able to accept his new wife Manyata.

Very few Bollywood actors have succeeded in politics. Other than his late father, only Shatrughan Sinha has been successful. Others have either quit or have become redundant MPs just winning a seat for their respective parties. So even if Dutt wins, he is going to meet the same fate. I wonder why Amar Singh chose Sanjay Dutt to nominate from Lucknow. He was tired of being called the Chhota Bhai, perhaps!

A for ADULTS ONLY

2009-01-15T20:15:00.006+05:30

The fight between the censor board and film producers will perhaps never end. The censor board does keep changing its rules to be at tandem with the changing social trends. Still they can never keep up with the producers who are always a step ahead. Nudity is not the only criteria for a film to get an ‘A’ certificate but most people perceive it to be so and this post would consider only this aspect of censoring.

Mukesh Bhatt, the producer of Raaz – the mystery continues, is at war with the censor board over a nude scene done by Kangana Ranaut in a bath tub. The Censor Board has objected that with the scene included, the film won’t get a ‘U/A’ certificate as it would not be suitable for minors to watch it. The producer doesn’t want an ‘A’ certificate as it would limit their audience. I wonder at the naivety of the reporters who reported this piece of news. Most of the Bhatt films which are hits get ‘A’ certificate only. Be it Raaz, Murder or the recently released Jannat. Why would they fuss around this time?

Bhatts are smart filmmakers. They make low budget films with low key actors and a good music director. No matter how their films turn out, the music is always chartbusters. Good music does tremendous amount of marketing in itself. But for Raaz II only one song has climbed the chart, so they need to publicize the film somehow and they don’t have enough marketing budget to carry on. Controversies are always good for publicity and industry has been doing it for ages. Hence the current gimmick. Kangana’s nude scene will create enough curiosity among the sex starved Indians, including the author, to go for the film.

I won’t go to the debate of whether a piece of art needs censorship. But what I want to say is that censorship doesn’t serve its purpose. I was 14, four years below adulthood when I saw my first adult film. Six months later, I saw my first porn film. And all of my friends saw adult films before they turned into one. Now with mobile phones, it has become worse. One can access to adult material without much effort. Moreover I never saw in my life that a person was barred from entering into a cinema. So when it doesn’t serve any purpose why do we have censorship at all?

The late Vijay Anand resigned from the post of Censor board chief because he wanted to have separate theatres for porn films as it happens in a lot of western countries. I’m not quite in favor pornography. They can’t hold my interest for more than 5 mins. But I would love to see erotica on big screen. Indian society and screen is opening up but it will still take a generation for our stars to do an Original Sin.

From Past Relationships I learned

2009-01-07T15:51:00.006+05:30

1. Never say No to a woman if she loves you. It is very likely that for whoever you are sacrificing the fun won’t even care and moreover she will never acknowledge that you did that for her because it is widely believed that boys just want to have fun.
2. Never show how much you love her. You will never be taken seriously.
3. Don’t trust her if she says she wants to be just friends after things go wrong. The woman you have rejected will respond as if you are her boyfriend and the woman who rejected you will never give you the respect you deserve, forget friendship.
4. Never go back to the woman you have rejected, it will never work. Relationships are very much determined by time and space. If you have been an ass to say no, don’t harbor any belief that you can anytime walk into her life and she will embrace without any conditions attached.
5. Don’t love the woman more than yourself. Life would be miserable.
6. You don’t need to be honest all the time ‘cos it’s likely that she isn’t as honest as you are.
7. Play with things a bit. You don’t need to be serious from day one.
8. And don’t think every girl wants to be just friends with you. So stay away if you don’t want to take it further because if you don’t then you will be blamed for ‘flirting with her and not responding further and breaking her heart’. Trust her friends to repeat it lifelong that how unfair you have been.
9. And stay away from crazy ones. They can seriously hurt you image in the society and if you don’t have as cool parents as I have, the family will start doubting as well.
10. Don’t express things early and to too many. Just because somebody doesn’t know that you love a woman will not lessen your love. Moreover it will enhance your chance of scoring.
11. There are two kinds of girls – those who have motives and those who have not. The girls with motives will anyway never be interested in you because you don’t have Greek god looks or a father like Bill Gates. And the ones who don’t have any motive can never valuate you properly. Trust her to be friends with the weirdest of people but you.
12. And you don’t need to woo her friends or closed ones because at the vital moment, they will anyway let the girl decide which will confuse her more.
13. Don’t expect her to act rationally with you.
14. If you want to apologize don't bring bouquets. That's not the right time.
15. If you have really loved a woman, you can never stop loving her. Accept it and move on in life.
16. Nothing is perfect in life, and it applies to relationships as well.

Last but not the least, not all relationships are made of love and not all love turn into relationships. So don’t get disheartened if you are rejected. Nobody except the girl knows if she loved you. So, give yourself the benefit of doubt, life would be much easier to live.

Different Time, Same Interpretation

2009-01-06T23:30:00.007+05:30

The following is an adaptation from Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice done by famous author Tariq Ali in reaction to the current Israeli aggression against Palestine. The irony is, in the play, the character Shylock, is a Jew who reacts to the discrimination done to him by the Christians.

"I am a Palestinian. Hath not a Palestinian eyes? Hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Jew is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that … the villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."

Why Do I Write?

2009-01-05T19:28:00.003+05:30

"...As you know, the question we writers are asked most often, the favourite question, is; why do you write?

I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can’t do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at all of you, so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life’s beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but – just as in a dream – I can’t quite get there. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy..."

Excerpt from Orhan Pamuk's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. He won the prize for Literature in 2006.

In a State of Disillusionment

2008-12-30T17:40:00.002+05:30

The world around us is more construct than real. I'm not saying the real world doesn't exist. But what we see is our perception of the real which is a construct. Once the construct is made, we get comfortable in it and let our guards off. We start to trust people, make expectations of them, love things, hate people... all based on the construct.

But the fact is that the construct is different from the reality. The real is far more complicated than our brains could fully comprehend. The problem arises when the real pops up to contradict our construct - we are simply disillusioned. Everything around us seems false and a gloomy period ensues.

Right now, I'm in such a state. People who I thought were great are actually not that great after all. Friends doesn't seem to be friendly. The chain reaction begins and even the mundane things seem to be specially designed to hurt us.

But optimism prevails and we believe that it will get over. We make new constructs to live on.

To You, Teacher

2008-12-22T22:43:00.003+05:30

Your success as a teacher lies on

My attentiveness as a student

Every time I fail to be attentive

You fail as a teacher

Surely the damage is all mine

but you are answerable to your conscience

For you have taken the responsibility

to Teach me..

Anguish

2008-12-04T21:32:00.002+05:30

Every morning when I wake up
similar questions question me
Some express it vocally most not
The prejudice gets reinforced
Surely I am not guilty
but those silent glares make me one.
I’m proud of my history
but not the one which I am a part of
Emotions flow like an angry tide
for distorting my history to make a new one
I stand against time
and the lone battle goes on
I cannot give up
for I am poisoned with a victor’s blood
and the battle will go on
amidst those glares and prejudices
Till victory is achieved.

P.S. - This was written as a comment to Nidhi's post on her blog. The post can be read on http://blastit.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/lights-bombs-camera-action/#comment-84

Hawkers in Kolkata

2008-11-28T18:06:00.002+05:30

It’s not easy to explore into others lives. And it becomes even more difficult to know about those who themselves do not fully want to acknowledge their conditions of existence. In this precondition we began our journey to learn about the socio-economic condition of hawkers in Kolkata. As the night fell and we were done with our work in the institute, we went to Gariahat. It took us really long to reach the place but the drive was soothing as we moved seamlessly through the bypass. Gariahat streets are far cleaner than we had expected and it came as a pleasant surprise. As we took out our pens and papers we were welcomed by few surprising looks. But as we assured them that we don’t mean any harm, they let their apprehensions go and started answering our questions. Some questions were definitely uncomfortable but they were answered nevertheless. Along the numerous journeys, we came across different lives, which at the end touched ours to leave an everlasting impression.

The routine questions didn’t trouble them much as the ones which inquired about their income and their state of being. Though the sales touched the thousand mark ever day the profit touched only hundred or so. The despair was visible as they talked about it. Being in the business they could only make their ends meet. Any sort of luxury was a distant dream. Moreover, out of the meager income they had to give money to the union who in return protected them from the wrath of the bureaucrats. The story of Ayesha Biwi moved us. She had a proper stall earlier when government decided to remove them from streets and her stall was broken down. Afterwards they were allowed to set up stall, but she didn’t have enough money to put another one. So she continues to sell her products which are mainly posters of film stars and the likes sitting on the street.

Not that everyone is unhappy about it but most were. We met one magazine seller who is in the business for almost 40 years and has inherited it from his father and is now preparing his son to take over. Such tradition is hard to find among hawkers and it really warmed our hearts. When we asked him if competition bothered him he nostalgically quoted his father’s saying that if you have goods, which are saleable then people will come to buy it.

And then there were pirated VCD/DVD sellers. The piracy market is huge and earlier it was only Hindi films that dominated the Indian scene. Now the Hollywood films are more in demand as the price of Hindi film DVDs are as low as pirated ones. Still the newly released Hindi films definitely find their ways into the stalls. The competition is fierce among each other. Some even refused to answer our questions.

One fact we noticed that few were graduates or college drop-outs. We met one youth who studied till 2^nd year in City College but dropped out due to economic conditions. The image of those watery eyes flashes into our eyes in periodic intervals to make us feel how fortunate we are. As they are educated individuals they could easily understand the jargons and were very helpful in surveys. It appeared that they weren’t strangers to this kind of surveys as they reassured their fellow hawkers about our motives.

However there is a flip side to this flourishing business. Wherever there is a considerable presence of hawkers, there is less space on footpath to walk on. It also adds to the car parking problem. At places, it harms the cleanliness of the place as there is no arrangement to dispose off the papers or other plastic materials which are used to serve eatables.

In a month long quest, we gathered a lot of information which was an eye opener for us. A part of which forms this report and the rest will remain within the deeper recesses of our mind

WORTH

2008-11-21T23:04:00.005+05:30

The word has its presence felt almost at every sphere of life. Everything- tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, is measured for it. The measurement might not always be correct but the perception of it determines the action of one’s surroundings. It has crept into our lives in such a sublime way that we never think about it, like air which is essential for existence yet itself it is so non-existence. Today when I think about a lot of memories come racing back.

Till I crossed my teens, I was not required to prove my worth as most of the people around me made me feel as if I was kind of a superman. But the word started to trouble me after I came to Delhi. “You’re not worth of friendship” “Earn your worth” “He can love worth two hearts”. At the time when these things were said it made a lot of difference. It no longer does. The worth that these lines talked about was intrinsic which varies with person to person who has different parameters to measure. The funny thing is that it can be diagonally opposite.

Nowadays I’m faced with proving my extrinsic worth measured by grades. The grading system is far from perfect but it matters as per as scholarship and placements are concerned. And it bugs you really bad when unworthy people get better grades and become worthy. Worse when you start believing it, you can hardly keep the self-doubt away. I wonder if in the mad race of proving one’s worth we are turning into objects good for selling worth of nothing. But one thing assures me that during adversity only the truly worthy one will survive.

One scene from “Kingdom of Heaven” gives me goose bumps every time I watch it. The film deals with the crusades and ends when after much bloody battle the crusaders surrender Jerusalem to Salah din (Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn ibn Ayyūb), the sultan of Syria and Egypt. Balian of Ibelin (played by Orlando Bloom) and Salah din meet outside the city gate and term of surrender are negotiated. Balian is surprised by the generosity shown by the sultan. After it’s done, Salah din starts to walk towards his camp when Balian asks,

“What is Jerusalem worth?”

Salah din quickly turns back and replies “Nothing” and continues walking.

As the visibly intrigued Balian tries to decipher what the sultan meant, he again turns back, smiles and says,

“Everything”.

NB: It was Salah din’s lifelong mission to liberate Jerusalem from the crusaders. He died six months after repelling the third and the last crusade.

Saari, Sutta, i-Pills Etc.

2008-11-14T00:40:00.004+05:30

Salt Lake, sector V, is the IT hub in the city. People of all kinds are employed here. Add to that there are many management schools around which makes it a very happening place. The flip side is that there aren’t many routes to commute to this place. The one I travel through is the busiest one. There is a traffic light near the building of Wipro and it’s infamous for its jams. During office going hours one has to wait at least 20 minutes to cross the signal. The rest of the day it remains empty. Since buses come crowded from the main city, people who live in salt lake or around can only resort to auto rickshaws. Another peculiar thing is that auto rickshaws are used as public transport rather than for private hiring. The fare is little higher than buses, though not much. In fact at places it is lower than that of buses.

Three people sit at the passenger seat and two sit with the driver. One person always has to hang outside. Not just discomfort while sitting, that person has to get out while the rickshaw gets ignited once the light becomes green. Since the number of autos is huge, it’s funny to see a lot of people coming out of the vehicle almost at the same time.

This discomfort aside, it’s fun to travel by the rickshaws. Every day I find at least one known person sitting in another auto while crossing Wipro. A big smile or waving hand pass between us while somewhat amused and irritated co-passengers will give awkward looks. There will be new people every day in the auto. But at times I meet some people again and again and most of the times they are woman. Or maybe because they are woman, I remember them. Some rickshaws have audio systems which play songs from popular FM stations. While most of the time it entertains, at times it embarrasses. Couple of days back, a girl was sitting next to me. After every song, a woman would announce in full gusto ‘one i-pill within 72 hours will keep pregnancy away’. The girl would find ways to look out every time it happened.

After crossing Wipro, one enters sector V, then starts the posh office buildings. Since smoking has been banned, people have become little courteous with it. At least they go to isolated places and smoke which earlier never happened and irritated me so much. Since it is a conservative city, you won’t find too many women smoking, at least in public. If you get lucky you may find one wearing ill-fitting pants or clothes. Whatever I saw before, all women who smoke are stylish and this new phenomenon gives a feeling that they are ill-fitting to smoke. I had a bigger surprise today when I saw a saari clad woman smoking in front of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). Saari is soon losing its position as the trademark of bharatiya naari. By the time you turn at College More, you will find posters of South Indian films. The cinema is Roxy and God only knows where it is situated. Wherever it is, not at least 10 km around salt lake and it amuses me greatly why those posters are stuck here given that no other film posters can be seen.

Life goes on among these oddities.

Note:

1. Smoking can cause cancer and other serious diseases.

2. No contraceptive is full proof

12 Years In Exile

2008-11-11T14:45:00.002+05:30

As a young boy I had accompanied my father to the function in the school where he taught. Being an active lover of art and stage, he was the main coordinator of the event. Ramayana was staged and he patiently explained the ever popular legend imbibed in it. The play ends when Rama starts his exile. I couldn’t understand how they could go to jungle when there was no jungle around the school. And I vividly remember the moment, one of the most innocent ones I could remember.

Perhaps that was a beginning of a fascination with exile. Few years later (before I turned ten) I read both Ramayana and Mahabharata and the exile part always fascinated me the most. The uncertainty, the trials and turbulences of exile became a part of my childhood fantasy. And I so much wished to go on one, where I would return triumphantly after I complete it.

Twelve years ago on this day, I had begun my exile. Not to a jungle but to find a way to enlightenment – to my school. The journey was full of uncertainty, trials and turbulence but not the way I had imagined as a child. Here I didn’t fight monsters but the demons within. I didn’t have a trusted brother for company but many priceless friends. Here kingdom was not promised on return but to create my own world where I could rule.

The journey has been fulfilling, though not complete. Have yet to create my world and find someone who would want to live in it. Even after all that has happened, I am hopeful.

Pirates

2008-11-09T12:51:00.006+05:30

Change is the only static thing in life. I do not contradict that. But what change are we talking of - the fundamentals or the formation. I guess its the formation that changes, the fundamentals over the years remain the same.

Pirates exist from time immemorial. They robbed the traders going through seas to different countries. Pirate is derived from the Latin term pirata ultimately from Greek peira which means 'attempt, experience to find luck at sea'. The earliest documentation of piracy can be traced back to 13th century BC. To cite few interesting happenings- in 75 BC, Julius Ceaser was kidnapped by Cilician pirates. When the pirates decided to demand a ransom of 20 talent of gold, Ceaser is said to have insisted that he was worth atleast 50, and indeed they raised the ransom amount to that. After he was released, he raised a formidable navy, captured them and put to death. In 9th century, the Muslims dominated the sea. In 846, they sacked Rome and damaged the Vetican. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Europeans had taken over. They used to attack Mughal vessels specially the ones carrying pilgrims to Mecca. Once the Portuguess captured the vessel Rahimi which belonged to Mariam Zamani, Akbar's wife more popularly known as Jodha Bai, which led to the Mughal seizure of the Portuguese town of Daman. The act of piracy continues even till today, just that the formations have changed.

But in today's times, a different form of piracy rules - done by high tech and responsible people through internet. Most of them are not aware of the long and infamous history of their better known namesakes.

In school we used to watch films on pirated VCRs first, then VCDs. We didn't have much choice as that was the only medium available to watch recently released films. After coming to Delhi I can say for sure that I haven't seen a single film on pirated VCD nor did I buy pirated music. Recently I acquired a computer and it seems heaven had opened all the doors to piracy. From pictures to music, everything is downloaded without even knowing who owns those stuff. I guess its all same for all those youngsters like me or perhaps more. One of my classmates was asking me to download Fashion for him which is playing in theatres in full throttle. At least I don't do that.

The film industry loses billions due to piracy. But who cares! All we need is to satisfy our greed, the rest may go to hell.

Apart from this moment of idealism, it's really thrilling to get things with much less effort, even lesser cost. But it has an adverse effect too. We fail to value things which we acquire easily. I got the music of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi the day it was released. But I have hardly listened to the full album even for once. Had I bought it I would have listened to umpteen times by now.

In fast getting things, we are losing the knack to appreciate things.

Write It Off

2008-11-05T23:11:00.004+05:30

Life is a bit of a bargain. You can't have everything. To become something u have to un-become the current you. At times it is intentional, most of the times it is unintentional. We believe we control our lives, the environment around us. But it is oh so not true. Life at IBS is okay. I have ample opportunities to learn. That I do not use it to the maximum is my fault and I accept it. But what bothers me the most is that the days of genuine friendship is perhaps over. Everyone is so much concerned about themselves and I don't say I am any different. My be we are getting 'matured' or may be because every one else is pitted against us. You can have higher CGPA only if the other guy gets less than you, no matter how well you or he does.

As a kid I always wondered how I had so many friends while our elders have so less. Now I realise, how things change. Even if you know the change would come, it is so painful when it actually comes. As we grow, we get obsessed with ourselves. My family, my responsibility. Life is so much fun without them. Responsibilities I mean.

I guess I'm really stressed. I had set out to write out something and am writing something else. When I had set out to create this blog, I had intended to make it a really worthy one, not to use it as a platform to take out my frustration. But it had to come since I have got my computer and there is constant urge to write something. Whether they are worth writing doesn't come to mind. Hence this worthless piece. If the readers find some ways to avoid this kind of post, please let me know. I wonder if anyone reads it. But I see lots of hits.

Alright let's come to the point, the only bright part of the post. Finance is a core subject of MBA and Accounting is another basic area. Due to negligence I hadn't learnt anything and exam was knocking on the door. Then I was talking to one of my college buddies who has considerable amount of influence on me and quite expertise on the subject, at least her family has. After I stopped cribbing she came up with "write all the bad debts off and start afresh". I don't know how much I have been able to do that, but I have scored reasonably well. Why I am happy is because I got more than a lot of "Commerce background" (That's how tastelessly they are addressed) guys specially those who wanted to show in the externals.

I guess we can never get rid of the savage part of our selves no matter how much we write it off.

Evolution of Cell Phones in India

2008-10-31T22:34:00.006+05:30

The means of communication was revolutionized in the past century, a result of unprecedented progress in Science and Technology. What started as a support system for US army to communicate ultimately became a way of life for millions across the world. The emergence of mobile phones is indeed fascinating and the current post deals with its development in a fascinating country called India.

The mobile operations for general public began in mid 90s in India, though it was a luxury of the rich only. The reasons were several. The call rate was very high, the sets were expensive. There were fewer service providers which operated only in big metros. Another important reason was that our country was in a state of transition. After the post independence failure of the socialist model, the country had just opened up its economy and its middle class, who form the bulk of consumers in any country, were yet to rise.

By the turn of the new millennium, the change was visible. With the growth rate shooting high, we were experiencing a new change in our lives. The bourgeois class had finally made its present felt in the country with all sorts of consumer goods taking a leap in sales. The sales of cell phones also started rising as it began to make its presence felt among the new confident Indians who entered the new century with high ambition. Since there was charge on incoming calls, cell phones were mainly used by those who had business related to it. Although the status symbol that it represented were diluting day by day.

One hot morning the news came that the incoming calls were made free by the government. I remember it was the summer of 2003, when I had first landed up in Delhi after my schooling. It was the turning point for cell phones in India as it was embraced by the masses, whether they actually required it or not was not a question to be asked. Since then there have been rapid development in the mobile phone industry. With low call rates and reduction of handset prices, it became affordable to any average man who comfortably earned his living.

The major reason for the cellular boom in India was its economic progress. We can’t deny the power of money but it was not the sole reason. In his book The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell phone, Shashi Tharoor puts forth a different point. During the BSNL monopoly, one had to wait for long, even 8 years in some cases, to get a connection. The author believes that whoever possesses cell phones today are among those who don’t have the knack to wait for those many years to get a connection.

Another major reason was the lack of connectivity in rural India. Many villages don’t have electricity. Cell phones came as a surprise as well as a boon for them who even don’t have access to decent roads to commute.

If economic boom has enabled people to buy cell phones, the latter have also made people lead better lives. Many small businessman, artisans and workers have really benefitted with cell phones and there are plenty of examples all around us. The one that amazes me the most is my cook. She is a single mother and runs small business apart from cooking for us. Every day when I open the door for her I find her listening to FM on her phone. A decade ago, it would have been a wild fantasy.

Today, cell phones have become a way of life. From the dhobi alas to corporate honchos, everyone uses it. Some use for their business, some to gossip, and some just to make style statements, the truth is that cell phones have become an intrinsic way of life. Few years down the line it would be unimaginable a life without cell phones. Coming to facts, India has over 100 million users and almost 8 million add every month making it the second largest cell phone market in the world after China.

Men, not Women, should be Feminists

2008-09-08T15:26:00.004+05:30

Thoughts come in bits and pieces to me. After the funny piece earlier, here is a serious thought. Feminism, in a nutshell, means that women are equal to men and should enjoy all the rights enjoyed by men. As I have mentioned an incident in the earlier post, most people believe that only woman can be feminists as they are 'fighting' for their rights. Even in reality the number of female feminists are far more than male ones.

Feminists want rights, but from whom? Men. It's very important that men realise that women deserve to be treated as equals and not inferiors. Its then the true goals of feminism would be realised. The moment a man acquires such thoughts, he becomes a feminist. So, it's more necessary for a man to become a feminist than a woman.

Marketing Feminism

2008-08-31T13:47:00.004+05:30

One of the great marketing practices in recent times is that any new product is introduced first in USA. The reason is they have lots of disposable cash and are always willing to experiment. Once the product is accepted, it is introduced in the conservative European market who have money but would accept only after it's tried and tested. After a point the market would get saturated (that's a rule) and then the product is shifted to the growing Asian market by lowering price to suit the pockets of the newly some-what rich population. When this market also gets saturated, the product would be moved to the under-developed African market by further lowering the price. That's how any new product moves - from the affluent to lesser ones.

Last night I was wondering, this concept is not just limited to products. It has its presence felt elsewhere too, like Feminism. Feminism (modern) first came into existence in Europe and North America, then it was shifted to Asian countries. At this point it is in the growing Asian market as the less affluent poeple (in Africa or elsewehere) are yet to know what feminism is all about. Even in the developing countries it is not evenly distributed. In India, the affluent cities like Delhi and Mumbai were the first to accept. The rest of the country is still to catch up.

I am living in Kolkata and I was surprised to see the conservative culture given the fact the feminist brigade is full of power-packed Bengali women in Delhi. During the initial days, I was sitting with two females. As the topic of feminism crop up, to impress them I said, "I am a feminist". One of them reacted with shock, "How can you be a feminist? You are a guy". Looks like feminism is still not marketed well here. Thank God for that, we don't need to pretend!

Flexing the Muscle Power

2008-08-21T15:24:00.006+05:30

It was winter of 2004, when I was a first year student in college, I lived in Hauz Khas. Many engineering aspirants also lived in the vicinity as all the coaching institutes were located there. Nikhil Thakur was from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. As a kid, he wanted to become an air-force officer as it was a tradition of his place to join the army. We always do not get to pursue our childhood dreams. Sometimes they become irrelevant or too distant to reach. I was not sure why he abandoned his dream and decided to pursue engineering. Still the patriotic fervour was very much dominant in his personality. He loved to talk about army, or anything to do with physical strength.

It was during those numerous non-productive sessions, he made the observation - "We have shown our brain power to the world, now we need to show our muscle power". I was not convinced. If we had muscle power, we would have shown it to the world much earlier. We as a country, never resisted any aggression (other than the recent Pakistani ones). Moreover, how big and strong those black or white people looked - whether a porn star or a boxer. But his remark had struck a chord with my subconscious - after all we never believe we are weak. Perhaps that's why of all those conversations, I vividly remember this one.

Four years later, his (and secretly mine as well) hopes finally came true. In the ongoing Olympics, India got three medals. Two of them came because of high physical strength - wrestling and boxing. Nikhil is in his final year engineering in Shimla and I am sure he would be one happy man. Finally we are showing our muscle power to the world.

Cheers brother!

Prophecies Foretold

2008-08-14T15:02:00.005+05:30

Literature has often been a vehicle of prophecy. The prophets of ancient era recorded their prophecies in poetic verses. The holy books, which are embedded with prophecies, are considered great works of literature. But at times litterateurs turn prophets.

Shakespeare's Othello is a Moore who goes to Venice and earns a good position by his military prowess. He is made the Commander and is sent to Cyprus to fight the Turks. He wins the war but the darkness in his character takes over and disgraces himself by wrongly killing his wife which proves to be his nemesis.

In contemporary time, the playwright's character takes physical form with a person called Zinadine Zidane. He was born in Algeria, in earlier age the land of the Moore, and migrated to France, its erstwhile colonizer. He rose in ranks and was worshipped as a hero. But at the end he disgraced himself by head-butting one of his opponents during the final match of World Cup 2006. The heroic career of an exceptional player ended with a sad note.

'Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again

A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,

The gorilla wrestles with the superman.

I who am poisoned with the blood of both,

Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?

I who have cursed

The drunken officer of British rule, how choose

Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?

Betray them both, or give back what they give?

How can I face such slaughter and be cool?

How can I turn from Africa and live?'

Derek Walcott, a far cry from Africa (1962)

The above lines bring out the enigma of a Black American, beautifully composed by one of the greatest poets of contemporary America,Derek Walcott. Doesn't Barack Obama fit the bill perfectly(Enough has been written about him so I wont go in details). Obama was just a year old baby when this poem was composed.

Minorities are a Majority

2008-06-28T12:40:00.005+05:30

"minority • noun (pl. minorities) 1 the smaller number or part; a number or part representing less than half of the whole. 2 a relatively small group of people differing from the majority in race, religion, language, etc. " - Oxford Dictionary.

I was relishing on the delicious lunch when an advertisement on an FM radio station distracted my attention.The ad highlighted how the government of West Bengal was doing "minority welfare" and everyone else should emulate it.

The minority here was definitely implied to Muslims as the categorization is done with respect to religion in our country.But can religion be the only criterion for differentiation? Rather by putting everyone of the same religion together,are we defining them wholly and correctly ?

India is a vast country with varied language,culture and demography.People belonging to the same religion differ in laguage,food,culture etc. as their geographical locations change.A Bengali Hindu is different from a Tamil one, an Assamese Muslim is different from a Kashmiri one.To the contrary a Bengali Hindu would be more similar to a Bengali Muslim than a Tamil Hindu.Similarly an Assamese Muslim can identify himself more with an Assamese Hindu than a Kashmiri Muslim.Hence,the whole idea that religion is the only criterion to form a community becomes futile.

What is the similarity among these groups -Thinkers,Scientists,Army,Police,lawyers,Ruling Class,Rich,Superstars,Cricketers,journalists,Teachers etc ? In a country as a whole they are all minority groups. The vital functionings of a society and a country are alwyas done by a minority.In short they determine the life of a majority.A lion is better than thousand jackals.If we go by this age old saying the minorities are our assets.The majority are just those who come along.The underlying message that 'minority' carries of being powerless loses its significance when we talk about these minority groups.

Finally,no two individuals are similar in tastes,thinking,way of life.In this world of materialism and individualism,every individual represents himself.Hence, everyone is a minority.Thus minorities are actually a majority.

To comeback to the ad,it hinted that the government was doing some kind of favour by addressing the problems of the minority (religious minority to be precise).Our constitution gives equal rights to minorities.So it's every government's responsibility to ensure that they get equal opportunities.Hence it should not look like a favour.And it definitely should not be advertised.

DARK HEROES

2008-06-21T17:50:00.010+05:30

I vaguely remember the first time I heard the name of Barack Obama as the potential candidate for some party in the nomination race for Presidency in the USA. Even though they have just two parties I found it hard to remember it. As it become clear that he was going to race against Hillary Clinton he became the marked man for media, thus, for me. I hardly had any hopes for him as no black candidate has ever got the opportunity to get nominated from any party in 200+ history of United States of America. But after an epic battle he finally created history by winning the nomination from the Democrats. And it is very much likely that he will win the race which will make him the most powerful man in the world.

Another man who is capturing enough media space is Will Smith for his film Hancock where he plays the title role who is blessed with superpowers. Traditionally its a white man on whose shoulder lie the responsibility of saving the world. But its happening for the first time that a black man is playing the lead role in a superhero flick.

There lies the similarity between the two man of different attributes - both are powerful and DARK. They represent the coming-of-age of the most suppressed race in the world. Even though slavery was demolished more than hundred years ago, the blacks never got the right they deserved in their forced homeland. But contemporary events are going in their favour. Its no longer the same America otherwise one could have never imagined the rise of a Obama or a film like Hancock.

Barack Hussein Obama is an epitome of multi-ethnicity. His biological father was a Kenyan Black Musilm while Mother an American White Christian. The marriage didnt work as his father walked out when Obama was just two years old. His mother remarried an Indonesian Muslim and shifted to Indonesia. Obama lived there till the age of 10 after which he shifted to USA to live with his maternal grandparents. After coming back, as a teen adult he converted from Islam to Christianity. This is the reason why the blacks as well as the muslims across the world identify with him.

The idea that Americans dont like muslims get re-inforced with their foreign policies towards Muslim countries specially the Middle East. Still not all muslims hate america but they do like Obama. He can be a great factor in reducing the anti-american sentiments that run through Muslims all around the world. The fear, imaginary or real, that Americans are essentially anti-Islamic will cease if Obama gets to the White House.

But their is a twist to the tale.Both the heroes are not perfect. While Hancock makes the people around him feel whether they actually want him or not by his insensitive activities,Obama is catching up. Recently, two Muslim women were barred from standing behind his stage so that they dont photograph them with the Democrat nominee. This implies that he doesnt stand by his cry of bringing change in America where everyone will be treated with equal rights.

Though they are heroes in their own rights, they have a tough test ahead - that of a public mandate. Obama is yet not elected the President and Hancock is still not released in theatres. So we have to wait a while to know if the predominatly white America accepts her Dark Heroes.

The OOMPH Factor

2008-06-20T16:43:00.020+05:30

I hated her when she exploded in the media with her 17 kisses publicity for her film Khwahish.The subsequent claims didnt make any difference either.But the Maxim photo shoot really made me to rethink.

Soon came the sensuous belly dance number in Guru which really made me sit and notice.It had an effect which compelled me think about it over and over.

Then I saw Dasavatharam which made me lust for this woman.The hip gyrating pole dance number seduces unlike anything.My verdict - Mallika Sherawat is the most sensuous actress on Indian Screen.

City of Djinns

2008-05-14T15:01:00.005+05:30

The last book I read was "City of Djinns" by William Dalrymple and it left me speechless.Not just being one of the best books I have ever read,it is also one of the most complete account written about any city.Dalrymple explores multiple layers of Delhi which bring out its complexities in simple words.Morever,it made me feel so insignificant as if I dont know the place at all.After living five years in the city I had become a know-it-all and the book was a great eye opener.It describes places which I have often visited but never really cared to find what lay beneath.And I happened to read the book after I left the city.

It was last week of june 2003,when I boarded the Brahmaputra Mail from Barpeta Road to come to Delhi.I was coming with my cousin to take coaching for Engineering entrance exams.The train was late by 12 hours and we reached the Old Delhi railway station at 5 pm.The moment we stepped into the station the monsoon arrived with bagful of rains.We waited for an hour for our friend who was staying in Delhi to come and pick us up.When he finally arrived he was all soaked in water.We boarded a bus to go to Hauz Khas which was to be my address for the next three years.The old city was waterlogged .But as I crossed Delhi Gate, I was overwhelmed by the splendour of the city.Wide roads with huge trees on its side was a welcome change from all the small towns I had visited.The Times of India building,ITO and by the time we reached India Gate darkness had fallen .I still remember the first time I saw the illuminated India Gate.The visual is haunting.The UPSC,Safdurjung's tomb, AIIMS and then IIT gate which was my destination.

I stayed with my friends at Kalu Sarai which was surrounded by Sarvapriya Vihar,Begumpur and the Indian Institute of Technology.There were many medieval structures around but the locals seem to be unaware of its history.After few unsuccessful attempts I stopped my historical queries.

The first place I visited was PVR Saket with my friend.Given my huge apettite for films it should not come as a surprise to those who know me well.It was the most magnificent cinema hall I had ever seen.Atleast ten films were showing simultaneously.Matrix Reloaded,Chalte Chalte,Jhankar Beats,88 Antop Hills,Bruce Almighty etc etc.There is something unique with "first time"s - you dont forget it.We decided to watch Chalte Chalte but the rate almost made me faint. All my life I had seen films in pirated VCDs cos after the advent of VCDs the small town cinema halls had ceased to exist.I had never paid more than Rs 10 for any film and here they asked for Rs 150.I was willing to shell out even that.But my friend,who hardly saw films informed me about another PVR where the rate was low.Priya which was like a home for next 5 years gave me the first larger than life cinema experience.

The summer in Delhi is aweful but this year the showers were too generous.It recieved the highest rainfall in 62 years.Ultimately the weather was also very pleasant.Then began my journey into the magnificence of history.The Qutub Minar, the Red Fort,the Jama Masjid,Safdurjung's Tomb.I had only the basic knowledge of history thus couldn't notice the intrinsic nuances of these monuments as Dalrymple has done.Still I was enamoured by the feeling that I was so close to greatness.

Then other aspects of South Delhi came to the fore.The fancy housing societies,large jogging parks,Sarojini Nagar Market,Dilli Haat etc etc.But the place which I visited regularly was the Rose Garden next to IIT.It was huge with hundreds of different kind of Roses.It was an escape whenever I found difficulty in dealing with anything.A place where I could sit for hours without anyone interrupting my silence.

With time I got acquiated with everything.I joined Ramjas College of Delhi University and made some precious friends.Learned the most important lessons of life and had one of the best college experiences ever.If I go in detail a book would come out.

The most important aspect of my stay in Delhi was that it became my home in real sense of term.This is a place which gave me the sense of belonging, which made me realise the complexities of my identity.The last 23 years of my life has been spent at different places.So I never really belonged to any place.Morever I lived in a closed world where things were determined for me whether at home or at school.But Delhi was the first place where I was left to be myself.Today of all the places I have lived in I feel most confortable in Delhi.I feel like a guest in my own house.Everywhere else I am a stranger.

I don't know about the future but as of now Delhi is the place to which I belong and which I love. It's uncomparable to anything on earth. It's a city where I strive to go back, always..

City Of Joy

2008-05-12T17:04:00.000+05:30

I am in Kolkata now and will be here for atleast another two years.To cut a short story even shorter,I was in Delhi for my graduation.After that I appeared in entrance exams to get admission to an MBA course and landed up in Icfai Business School (IBS),Kolkata.I arrived here on 30th April just a day before my preparatory classes were to begin.My cousin was already staying here so I had no problems as far as accomodation was concerned.The final destination of my train from Assam(my home where I had a long vacation) was Howrah and the tediuos journey had made me forget the immediate view that I was to see once I come out of station.It was the Howrah Bridge.I heard about it since time immemorial, how it stood without a pole.When I saw I was awestruck.The giant structure is simply amazing.

My cousin had come to pick me up and we boarded a bus to his place,Lake Town.Its then my share of disappointments started pouring in.Buses are made of wood and are the most uncomfortable to sit in.I could see nothing outside as the window opening was low.Bus stops are lesser in number and it doesnt serve its purpose well.One can board or get off the bus anywhere he wishes to.The city seemed terribly old without any major changes in its infrastucture.

We reached his flat (which is now my flat as well) and rested for a while.The flat is spacious and well placed and relatively much cheaper than Delhi which was quite a relief.In the evening we went to the Book Fair that began the same day and I was again amazed.People in huge number were in attendance.There were stage programmes,different movie screenings and a huge structure which paid tribute to a freedom fighter.So many things together in a book fair was a first for me and I realised the Bengali love for culture and literature.

The next day I went to my college which is located in Salt Lake,the most happening part of the city.Once you enter the place the essential character of the city gets replaced.Beautifully planned with world class infrastucture which houses big corporates,salt lake is a vibrant place.After my registration was over I went to the rooftop cafeteria which overlooks a lake.This is the best view I have seen in a city.The slow breeze that blows sooths the soul.

Another importance character of the city is that women are beautiful and are huge in number and well respected .In public transport,their seats are never occupied by men.It is possible that I made this observation as I lived my last 5 years in Delhi.

Within a week I got settled as I had no cultural gap.Infact for the first time I came into a place where Bengali culture is in dominance.I have already started to love this place.In coming days as I discover this city I hope it brings enough joy to remember it forever.

PREMONITIONS

2008-01-17T16:57:00.000+05:30

Filmfare
February 1994
Excerpts from the interview with Aamir Khan..

Q:Tell me, have you ever had an extra marital affair?
Aamir: So far,I haven't had one.

Q: Do you think you will ever have one?
Aamir: I hope I never have an extra marital affair.But you are asking me to foresee my future.Sorry I can't.Who knows Reena might have one.Life can be unpredictable.So don't involve me in guessing game.

Almost a decade later,Aamir broke off his 16 year old marriage with his wife Reena.Grapevines suggested that he had an affair with a white lady..

Filmfare
June,1998
Aishwarya Rai was just a film old but was linked with every other guy- Bobby Deol,Jackie Shroff.An annoyed Ash says, " Next,it'll be said that I am having a scene with Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan.Please guys give me a break will ya?"
The shooting of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was yet to begin.( then the titile was Dil De Chuke Hain Sanam)And surely she was not seeing Salman then.In the same issue the editor Khalid Mohamed visits Salman's house where Somy Ali is described as a part of the women in the house and Salman confirms that marriage will "happen soon".
A year later,HDDCS released and Aishwarya really had a scene with Salman,one of the heroes of the film,which created quite a scene afterwards.

The same issue carried an interview with Saif Ali Khan,a flop actor.In his 5 year career he had acted only in multistarrers and most of them bombed at Box office.His recent releases Keemat and Hamesha were disasters.Naturally the conversation is mainly about Saif's insecurites.He says " I wish I could steal one of those fullproof scripts from Shahrukh Khan and make my career go va-va-voom.I think of such things during my moments of insecurity.Then I pull myself together and tell myself that my day will come,if not today then tomorrow maybe".
Indeed his time arrived.A decade later,he is one of those few actors who are stars as well as critically acclaimed actors..

Catch 'im Young

2008-01-04T12:14:00.000+05:30

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,the 19 year old son of Benazir Bhutto,will head the Pakistan People's Party following the assasination of his mother.The appointment shows the ugly face of dynastic politics in the subcontinet.Just being born into a particular family is all that requires to head a national party.Age,Qualifications,Competence,willingness no bar.His grand uncle Mumtaz Bhutto goes a notch higher saying that Bilawal is not a Bhutto hence should not succeed as the party is founded by the Bhutto family.

The Ideals of Democracy tell us that the best person should lead a party or organization irrespective of his/her family background.To assume that Bhuttos are the only competent people to lead the party would be too naive and incorrect.The subcontinent's obsession with nepotism makes sure that in a democracy the succession happens ala a monarchy.It not only undermines democratic values but also goes against the pristince Islamic values to which the state of Pakistan subscribes.After the death of Prophet Muhammad,Abu Bakr was chosen as the First Caliph instead of Ali, who was the prophet's cousin and son-in-law, because the latter was young and inexperienced.

Coming to Bilawal,the boy is currently pursuing History as an undergraduate student in Oxford University and will continue with his studies.Meanwhile,his father Asif Ali Zardari will look after party's works as regent.The violent history of his family tells us that a crown of thorns awaits him.

Zulfikar Ali Bhuitto his grandpa and the founder of PPP,was no great chap.An opportunist, he pushed General Ayub Khan,then the dictator of Pakistan, to go to war with India to weaken the military and it happened.Within years Ayub Khan fell.The general election took place in '70 in which Bhutto won a big majority in West Pakistan while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's party Awami League got 90% votes in East Pakistan.Awami League was the largest party in the country as the Eastern province had 60% of its total population.The Urdu speaking rulers of Pakistan found the prospect fo having a Bengali Prime Minister too odd.The ruled cant be the rulers.The election was declared null and void.Bhutto could have made a difference.But for his lust for power he cut a deal with the military ,who invaded the eastern province.A gross human rights violation took place and there was no protest from general public of Pakistan.Common religion couldn't make them bothers cos their language was different.After much bloodbath the state of Bangladesh was created in 1971.

Bhutto became the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan is '71.However he made the mistake of challenging his masters in Washington over the nuclear bomb issue.( He was the man to say 'We will make the bomb even if we have to eat grass'.Interestingly his daughter was reminding her audience about the same thing at her last speech).Within a year,after challenging Washington, he was toppled by a coup by General Zia-ul Haque and subsequently executed after a rigged trial.Democracy was restored after the 'accidental' death of General Zia in the late 80s and this time it was daughter Benazir's turn to become the PM.It was during her reign that Taliban was sent to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.However,due to hostile army and bureaucracy she couldnt hold the chair for long.Her second term as PM came to end due to rampant corruptions among her ministers spearheaded by her husband Zardari who was also known as Mr. 10%( It was his part in all Government contracts).A decade later Benazir was set to become the Prime minister again but the monsters she had created long ago, came to get her ala Frankestein.Earlier her two brothers also died unnatural deaths.

Hence being a student of History, Bilawal must know that destiny has chosen a difficult path for him.Oxford will groom this political heir effectively as it keeps doing for many others.But alongside History lessons, Bilawal must learn to walk the metal road at Oxford barefoot 'cos back home he would've to walk over burning coal.

Mass communication or miscommunication?

2007-08-26T16:32:00.000+05:30

"If you believe in anything you are told,then you deserve to be told just anything"

The admission process in Delhi University is quite an event.To get a glimpse of it,I went to my college,Ramjas, beating the scorching June heat.After helping few students with filling forms,I was sitting near the corridor ,as a harsh truth of life hit me hard.I saw a delighted Amit running towards me.Amit is the seminar room incharge of our college ( atleast thats how I know him).Hurriedly he asked me to go to Room no. 203 to meet "media people".Before I could enquire the reason behind it,he ran away.

To get over the gloom,I decided to meet them.As I approached the room two pretty ladies greeted me and I came to know why they were there.Ramjas was to acquire projectors to replace Blackboards in classrooms.Since it was a first in the University,Janmat and Star News had come to cover it.These two pretty women represented their respective channels with cameramen in tow.Soon Amit returned with more people - the soon-to-be Freshers who had come to fill forms.Some young teachers from Department of History also joined.The channels' plan was to create a 'fake' classroom and cover the newly installed projectors.One of the teachers decided to 'act' as teacher and the rest joined us as students.Authencity obsessed person like me could hardly take it without making any fuss.

"Delhi University is closed now.How can you show a class in progress?" I asked one of those pretty ladies.
"News aise hi bante hai(Thats how news is made)" She replied quite unapologetically.
The prospect that I would come on TV made me too excited too carry on with the arguement.What followed was completely hilarious.The laptop had no documents other than Modern India while the teacher was a specialist on Mediaeval India.So we were talking about Aurangzeb while 'Nationalist Movement' adorned the screen and the 'shooting' of the news was complete.

A month later,I again went to college with a friend.Admission was almost complete by now.A guy from Sahara with his cameraman was hunting for people with Mongloid features cos he wanted to make a story on Northeastern students.He got a piece of my mind for stereotyping my birthplace.When he came to know that I was from north east he decided to take my 'byte'.He wanted me to pose as a Second year student and talk in a particular way to match his story.Lying is something I dont do even for my personal gains.
"Let me speak,cut the part which is irrelevent to your topic" I said.After I spoke he seemed impressed as he gave me his phone number and asked me to contact him when needed.

After spending some time in college,we went to Delhi School of Economics.It was afternoon and rain had made the environment pleasant.A channel was interviewing some students and I was standing nearby when a guy came to me to ask " Would you like to speak?"
"About what?"
"Online Shopping"
"But I dont shop online"
"So what? We just need 'bytes'?" He was that amoral to say this.This time I refused completely.

Gone are those days when a plain woman read news on Doordarshan which I believed as gospel truths.Now news is read to earn money.To hell with authenticity,manipulations are welcome as long as it serves bussimess inetersts.It has become tough to discern news readers from actors.Commercialisation has made the reach of media far and wide but at the same time has made it ethically and morally bankrupt.The monica bedi bathroom video or doctored photograph of French president,there are numerous examples.

Another major issue is that every organisation is ideology driven.The reaction to Indian diplomat Ronen Sen's comment on Indian MPs is a classic example.The rightist Times of India is trying hard to prove that Sen's comment was casual and off the record. But the leftist Hindu insists that Sen should be called back as he is "not fit for the job".On one hand 90% of TOI readers say they want the Indo-US nuclear deal,at the other, almost equal number of Hindu readers want its re-evaluation.What does a general reader make out of these contradictory reports of the same event?

Most of my classmates are doing mass communication from premiere institues in India.Some of them are really honest with self integrity and high moral values.After a year they will be 'media'.Will they be able to hold their own or would they adapt to the 'needs' of bussiness?The Initial report about their learnings gave me little hope.

To give the devil its due,everyone works for self-interest.Thus we must not expect people from media to be all self sacrificing.Earlier there was one Doordarshan.Now there are hundred news channels competing with each other.The numbers have gone up in print too.At the end of the day they need to have fire burning in their kitchens.Nor can we set moral standards for them.But the awareness that everything that is told to us might not be true must be spread among the masses.Media tremendously influences in forming one's worldview and aam admi has little time and inclination to critically think over news items.These common people,who are heart and soul of a nation must be conscious that media is not absolute ,nor they doing any free service to them.

After my brush with the media,Whenver I read a newspiece, I take it with a pinch of salt.But I miss those days when I believed whatever I heard, in true faith.

Days of Glory

2007-08-03T11:45:00.003+05:30

"It is not a good time to be a Muslim" I said to my friend Abhishek Mukherjee, expressing my frustration over the ordeal faced by Muslims, in recent times ,for 'being muslims'.At a time when Muslims are killed as 'terrorist' in fake encounters for promotions, arrested just because he happens to be a relative of an attempted bomber,I was not too wrong in my assumption.

Three Muslim countries ( Iraq,Afghanistan,Palestine) are fighting for their existence,another one (Iran) will shortly acquire that status.The second highest populated one (Pakistan) , under the grip of a despotic General and fundamentalism, is almost ruined. Its erswhile territory(Bangladesh),the third highest populated and an epitome of misgovernace and corruption, is currently overtaken by another coup.The government of the most functional democracy(Turkey) is under constant threat from its powerful military.The oil rich Saudi Arabia is a breeding ground for Al-Qaida recruits.Lebanon,when solves its internal conflicts, finds Israeli missiles destroying its towns.Not to forget the North African states ( Somalia,Sudan).In short the so called Muslim world is in a complete mess,perhaps an all time low in its history.The sectarian divide( sunni, shia, kurd and what not), economic backwardness,illiteracy add to the woe.

"It never was" replied the self proclaimed wannabe bigot.However his response was not a result of his aspirations but of gross ignorance of facts and thoughtlessness.He tells me that I show off my knowledge of history.He hardly leaves me with any choice.

The rise of Islam was unprecedented in history,not less than a miracle.When the final verses of The Quran was being revealed(632 CE) in Mecca,only half of Arabia was under Islamic rule.In next 20 years,the empire propagated like the west wind.Wherever it went,the opponet was swept away.By 656 ,the Islamic empire became the largest thriving empire in the world.In north it touched the Caspian Sea,in the east overrun the Persian Empire and reached the gateway to India,in the west the north african states including the oldest civilization,Egypt.Though internal conflicts entered the Islamic Polity,the expansion didnt stop.By 750,it had reached Spain in the west with Sicily,Crete and Cyprus under its control and in the east after conquering Sindh, the border had touched the river Indus.Though the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor( Modern Turkey) had blocked the entry to Europe,the route was open for Muslims who had established a powerful kingdom in Spain.But Europe seemed unattractive to them. As Karen Armstrong tells us "The Arabs felt no compulsion - religious or otherwise - to conquire the Western Christendom in the name of Islam.Indeed Europe seemed remarkably unattractive to them,there were few opportunities for trade in that primitive backwater,little booty to be had, and the climate was terrible".

The victorious Muslims not just aqcuired new territories but new cultures and the existing knowledge of the acquired lands.Major works were translated to Arabic. During the reign of Caliph Harun al Rashid (786-809),the empire saw a great cultural renaissance. Literary criticism , philosophy,poetry,medicine,mathematics and astronomy flourished in his capital Baghdad and other towns.The Arabian Nights ,a collection 101 stories which still dominate the bedroom stories genre, was compiled during this time.The empire became wealthy with stellar support from the Arab bussinessmen. In Satish Chandra's words "The Arabs were keen merchants and quickly emerged as the most enterprising and wealthy merchants and seafarers in the world.Numerous cities,with magnificent buildings,both public and private,arose.The standard of living and the cultural environment of the Arab towns could hardly be paralleled in any country in the world during this time.."

The Islamic Empire continued to prosper in following centuries.The Muslim scholars enjoyed considerable amount of freedom which resulted in great scientific progress. As Chandra further tells us, "By the beginning of the 10th century, the Arabs became the world leader in different fields of science such as geometry,algebra,astronomy,optics,chemistry,medicine etc.Some of the best stocked libraries and the leading scientific laboratories in the world were established in the Arab world during this period.However, it is necessary to remember that many of these achievements were the result of work done by people outside Arabia - in Khorasan,Egypt,Spain etc(all Muslim states).The Arab scince was truly international.It has been called Arab science because the language of literature was Arabic...The remarkable degree of intellectual and personal freedom enjoyed by scientists and scholars was an important factor in the remarkable growth of arab science and civilization which was unavailable in Europe ,due to Catholic Church, and in India.Infact it was in 15th century that conservatism gripped Islamic world thus halted its scientific progress."

By the end of 12th century,the Turkish ruler Muhammad Ghori established his empire in Delhi after defeating the legendary Prithviraj Chauhan in the 2nd battle of Tarain in 1192.Within next 20 years a strong Muslim Empire was built in North India.

It was Dark Age in Europe where bloody battles had ruined its intellectual achievements.The knowledge of the Greeks were lost to them which was preserved among Muslim scholars.They translated the works of Plato,Aristotle and other great thinkers of antiquity into Latin and made it accessible to the Europeans. The Muslim traders brought a number of Chinese inventions such as Compass,paper,printing to Europe.It were the Muslims who introduced the Decimal system to the Europeans.The Spanish scholar Ibn Rushd(Averroes to western ears) greatly influenced the later European philosophers.He translated Aristotle's works into Latin.Thus, Muslims were largely responsible for putting an end to the Dark Age and bringing a new era in Europe which resulted in Renaissance.

Meanwhile,Muslims had to face major challenges from the Crusaders and later the Mongols.The Crusaders were driven away within 90 years and the subsequent crusades were repulsed high handedly.The Mongols onslaught was,however,more destructive in nature.Led by the powerful Genghis Khan,they brought the concept of total destruction.Though conquerors,they converted to Islam and later faught wars under crescent flag.The Moghuls,which would establish empire in India, were descendants of this tribe.

As the 15th century came to closure,many changes took place.While Spain slipped away from the Islamic control,the Byzantine Empire was conquered and Muslims made their way to Europe. Karen Armstrong point out,"By the end of 15th century, Islamdom was the greatest power bloc in the world.It had advanced intoEurope,into the Euroasian steppes and into sub-saharan Africa in the wake of Muslim traders...Muslim merchants,everyone a missionary of the faith,had settled in Malaya at a time when Buddhist trade had collapsed there and soon enjoyed immense prestige.Sufi preachers followed bussinessmen and by the 14th and 15th centuries,Malaya was predominantly Muslim.The whole world seemd to becoming Islamic : even those who did not live under Muslim rule discovered that the Muslims controlled the high seas,and that when they left their own lands they had to confront Islamdom.Even when the European navigators made their astonishing discoveries in the late 15th and early 16th centuries,they coulld not dislodge the Muslims from the sea ways.Islam seemed invincible and now Muslims were ready to eastablish new empires,which would become the most powerful and up-to-date in the world".

Three major Islamic empires were created - the Safavid Empire in Iran,the Moghul Empire in India and the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia,Syria,North Africa and Arabia.

The Safavid Empiree was the first powerful Shia state with its capital at Isfahan.Isfahan enjoyed a cultural Renaissance,which like the recent Italian renaissance in Europe,drew inspiration from the pagan past of the region ie the pre-Islamic Persian culture.The great painters like Bihzad (d 1535) and Riza-i-Abbari (d1635), who produced dreamlike miniatures,lived in this empire.

The Moghul empire was one of the most powerful empires in Indian history.It united the whole sub-continent under one centralised administration.Art and architecture flourished.Great literary figures like Amir Khusrau and Mirza Ghalib lived here.The architecture of this age still defines India to the outer world - the Taj Mahal being one of the seven wonders of the world.

The Ottomans established the most powerful empire in the world at that point of time.At the peak of its achievements,the Turks had the whole East Europe under its control and even reached the gates of Vienna.All the trade routes from Asia to Europe passed through this empire.To avoid Turkish control,the Eurpeans seeked sea ways to reach east.In that process,the Spanish sailor Colombus mistakenly discovered America in 1492,the same year the Muslims lost their last hold,Granada,in Spain.Even after its decline,Turkey was one of the very few countries which kept the colonisers at bay.

The three great empires were all in decline by the end of 18th century. Armstrong argues , " This was not due to the essential incompetence or fatalism of Islam, as Europeans have often assumed.Any Agrarian polity had a limited life span and these Muslim states,which represented the last flowering of the agrarian ideal, had simply come to a natural and inevitable end".This Fall was coincided with the rise of Post Enlightenment(1750) Europe.The world power passed to them and they colonised Muslim states one after another.

Except the last two centuries in its 1400 year old history,Islam has been Glorious and determined the World Order.As new territories came under Muslim control,new cultures also came making it a culturally diverse and rich community.Trade,Education,art and culture flourished in Islamic Empires,much advanced than its contemporaries.At a time,when women were burnt in Europe as part of "witch hunt" and in funeral pyres in India, Muslim women enjoyed considerable amount of civil rights such as widow remarriage and right to inheritance.Egalitarianism is a deeprooted value in Islam which stand for social justice and Equality.Thats why even in modern times, a huge number of socially discriminated people convert to Islam - the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali is one of them.Recently popstar Michael Jackson was advised by his brother,a convert,to embrace Islam to bring peace to his turbulent life,a report said.

In pre Modern world, Muslims lived in Islamic states which dominated the world power in politics,trade and culture.Thus it was not just a good time but a privilege to be a Muslim vis-a-vis their non-muslim compatriots, who were huge in number.

In India, the Muslim hegemony was not just political but pschycological as well.Much after they lost power,the Great Mutiny broke out in 1857.The Sepoys, majority of them upper caste Hindus, invited an ageing Muslim Emperor ( Bahadur Shah Zafar) to rule over them. The medieval Bengal was ruled by two Hindu kings for a certain period.But they chose to rule as Muslims.Indeed those were better times to be called a Muslim.

Roses : My Loyal Companions

2007-07-22T16:04:00.000+05:30

We all have individual and distinct "memory buttons".Memory Button could be a place,object or musical note which take us to our past whenever we encounter it in present life.Roses are such memory button for me.They were with me at different stages of my life.They recorded my history perhaps distinct from the one recorded in my mind.But they were friends,loyal and trustworthy friends.

When the world turned deaf,they listened to me.They stood before me turning RED, when everyone failed to see my bleeding heart.They destroyed themselves whenever I wanted to know "She loves/She loves me not".I wandered through them often to bring solace to my restless soul and at times they guided me as venerable philosophers.

My tryst with the King of flowers began during my growing up years in my village in Assam.Though young my cousin was a keen gardener.Since I ws younger to him I became his assistant.We made a garden of carefully chosen Roses .We were so possessive of the garden that we didnt allow anyone to come close to it lest they get tempted to pluck them,so carefully we nurtured.

At 12 years of age,I went to my boarding school and the name of my house was Krishna.We converted its lawn to another Vrindaban but of Roses.They gave me company whenever I felt away from home.They saw my first heartbeat, my first heartbreak.My affinity to the garden was so strong that I was almost nicknamed Prince Salim.

After schooling, I came to Delhi.As I grew up the size of the gardens also grew.The garden next to my place was Rose Garden,next to IIT,which left me awestruck.For next three years, I regularly visited them.Intially to get away from the city crowd,afterwards to heal my wounded heart.

During the first year in college,I terribly messed things with the girl I loved.My juvenile prank turned ugly and she thought I wanted to humiliate her.But it was not so as she was one of the most admired people in my life.I had to apologise to make things right.I turned to my old friends.I falied in my objective but the "legend of the Bouquet" was born.Everyone put his own theory to describe my 'insane' act- to propose to her,because I liked her,cos I wanted to impress her etc etc..But no one cared to ask me the actual reason behind it.

Since then The Bouquet has become a part of collective consciousness of Ramjas people specially my classmates.Time and again it surfaces with new legends attached to it.My close buddies gave me some new theories - that I brought the bouquet because I watch too much of Hindi films(as if the film industry thrives on me and no one else watches it),that the girl didnt talk to me because of the bouquet.Much was said to demonise my friends.But I was unmoved.

Perhaps everyone believes that I was ashamed of it.One of my close friends is Tenzin.Whenever he loses an arguement he simply turns to the Bouquet saying "Atleast I dont buy bouquet".Once my estranged friend wrote in a famous social networking site that I am the lousiest guy in the class because I brought the bouquet.On innumerabe occasions my relationship with Roses was made the butt of all jokes.

Unlike the popular perception,I was never embarrassed about the bouquet.Infact I have always been proud of it for the naivity attached to it.For it was the most altruistic thing I ever did.That was the only time I unconditionally put myself down.This was the sign of my innocence,the inheritence of my village days.Delhi has stripped me off that innocence thus I will never repeat the act but will always cherish the memory .

My 'so called' friends perhaps never understood the pain I went through,the agony I cover with my smile else they would have never mentioned the bouquet to me.It seems they dont want to let go any situation when they can belittle me by reminding me of my failure.With time perhaps the definition of Friendship has also changed.

The Roses were much better friends than those of my own species cos they never made fun of my emotions.They made no judgements,passed no criticisms.They are my loyal and trustworthy friends and the relationship will go on.Perhaps the Legend with new additions will also live on.

A Man Unparalleled

2007-07-14T19:56:00.002+05:30

Since I joined college in Delhi,the thought which often haunted me was that my life has uncanny parallels to that of actor Shahrukh Khan.Before you consider it too lofty a claim let me acquaint you with them.

We both come from liberal Muslim families where religion was not imposed upon us.While Shahrukh started praying when he was 15, I did that at 18.Both of us were given enough freedom while taking our personal decisions.He completed his graduation from Hansraj College in Economics while I just appeared for my final year exam in English from Ramjas College.His college is just five minutes walk from mine.

Both of us fell in love while in first year in college and our respective ladyloves were junior to us in age.The ladies also came from the same background - " a vegetarian,Hindu Brahmin with a temple in her house".Both the girls were the youngest members in their respective families.

But the main difference in our lives started now.While Shahrukh's love was reciprocated by his beloved Gauri,mine was not.Thus love became a strength and continuous motivational force for him while it remained the most vulnerable spot in my life.

Recently while waiting for an interview at IndiaMart in Noida,the guy seated next to me started a conversation.After the introduction he asked me about the place I put up.

"Gautam Nagar" I replied.

"Oh, Shahrukh`s neghbourhood".He said enthusiastically.

I had heard about it earlier too but was not too sure about it.But he seemed confident in his claim that Shahrukh lived where I now live.Then he went on with Shahrukh`s biography.How he had to struggle before making it big and Gauri gave him a firm and solid stand proving the age old saying, "Behind the success of every man there is a woman", completely right.

Those words evoked a strange feeling in me - that of lacking that significant woman in my life.Though I was always hailed as potentially a good student, I never really stood upto the mark.The reason has been love which took too much of my time and attention.I could not escape the thought that had my love been reciprocated I would have fully used my potential.May be then, another success story would have been written.The sense of not having my loved one beside me came so heavily on me that I felt like leaving the place instantly.

A month later I was browsing my little collection of books.I came across "Hall of Fame-Shahrukh Khan" which I had bought 4 years ago.While flipping pages, I made some startling discoveries which I had missed when I first read it.Shahrukh was brilliant in Academics,Sports and Dramatics equally.He was given the Sword of Honour at his school St. Colombus and topped in college,despite being irregular to classes.He had everything in him to be a successfull man.Gauri was merely one of the first people to recognise his enormous talent. May be I simply lack that talent and charisma thus my beloved didnt see it.So my lady love should not be blamed for missing out on to produce one more Shahrukh Khan.Perhaps Shahrukh would still have been the King Khan even without Guari (that is not to say that she had no role in his success).

But the words said by the guy at IndiaMart will keep echoing in my ears,not to show Gauri's role in Shahrukh's success as a Superstar, but to remind me of my failures as a person.

Salman Rushdie and the legacy of Knighthood

2007-07-07T19:33:00.000+05:30

"In this world without quiet corners,there can be no easy escape from history,hullabaloo,from terrible,unquiet fuss."
Salman Rushdie "Imaginary Homelands"

There has been widespread protest against the Knighthood given to Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie across the Muslim World.I find it funny `cos most protester`s are not aware of what they are protesting against otherwise there wont be any protest at all.

Knighthood is a European title popularised as fantastic characters in the work of literature and folk tales in Medieval Europe.A knight was also a military rank usually given to skilled warriors.It has nothing to do with Islam and Muslim world.If British government decides to knight anyone,why should Muslims from different continent make fuss about it? Well, cos the recipient is contemporary Muslim villain Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie was born in a Muslim family in India.He discarded his ancestral religion and became a writer.He came in direct conflict with the Muslims after writing the controversial novel "The Satanic Verses"(1988).The muslims were angered by the blasphemous and inaccurate portrait of their beloved Prophet.The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran declared the infamous fatwa to kill Rushdie.Since then the British Government has given him protection.

The country which has given home to Rushdie, now has honoured him with Knighthood.Why should it shock muslims? A title given to an infidel by a group of infidels should hardly make any difference to a believer.By protesting against it,the muslims are giving more importance to the title than it really deserves.Even the Britishers dont give much importance to it.
"... a quaint and harmless hangover of a bygone era,only good for a laugh.Increasingly,the honours are seen as anachronism,and there is serious debate going on in Britain to abolish them.So,a knighthood is no big deal."Hasan suroor,Frontline (13 july 2007).

I advocate the "honour" given to Rushdie.In legends,the knights are always portrayed as heroes.But their history vis-a-vis the muslims has been the contrary.The knights led the First Crusade(1096 CE),the first and one of the most barbaric assault on Muslim world.After its success in 1099,the Knights Templar was formed to defend Jerusalem (the beginning of the secret society-The Priory of Sion).During the Crusade,the army ( commanded by the knights) roasted children alive and ate their flesh.They raped dead women and after capturing Jerusalem, murdered the whole population ( muslims and Jews alike) in cold blood.The mosque built by Caliph Omar ( the third holiest of Islamic Shrines after Mecca and Medina) was turned into a Stable. Almost 80 years later,just before losing Jerusalem for ever,some knights even entered Mecca and desecrated the holy shrine of Ka`aba (they were captured and subsequently executed).

A knight will always remain a savage and anti-Islamic figure for Muslims.Incidentally, the Crusaders derogatorilly addressed Prophet Muhammad as 'mahound', the name of the protagonist of Rushdie`s The Satanic Verses.So my dear reader,nobody deserves to be called a Knight better than Salman Rushdie.That Satanic Rushdie!!

Swaminomics at fault !!

2007-07-05T15:57:00.000+05:30

Many weeks ago, while criticizing govt policies , Mr. Swaminathan Ankleseria Aiyar stated in The Sunday Times of India that due to negligence by the authorities the border districts of India are becoming a hub for immigrants from Bangladesh - 'due to unchecked infiltration these areas are becoming a Bangladeshi majority'.

I admire Aiyar for his wide and profound knowledge on almost everything on earth.But this time he was misinformed.Hailing from Assam, specially a Bengali, it hurts me to hear a distorted version of my neighbourhood from such a distinguished intellectual.I need to clarify this,thus,have to dig a little into history.

During the 19th Century, the western part of Assam became depopulated due to some natural causes.By the end of the century, huge area remained un-cultivated ( turning to forests),thus caused huge losses to the govt revenue.At around the same time, Bengal was under the grip of Zamindari system, stripping the peasants off their lands if they failed to pay revenues.The govt in order to increase the revenue in Assam asked these landless Bengali peasants to migrate and inhabit the western part of Assam.Thus, during the end ofthe century a great migration started ( barely mentioned in history books).Since East Bengal ( Now Bangladesh) was mainly populated by muslims these migrant were muslims.
They came in small groups,cleared forests and settled down.Whoever cleared a particular plot became its owner.The process went for decades until Western Assam became thickly populated with Bengali Muslims.They had farewelled their native land and made Assam their permanent homeland.
During the partition of India,a number of districts from Assam were claimed by the Muslim League as they had a Muslim majority.My district Barpeta was one of them(though it is far from the Bengal border).Thanks to the political cunningness they remained in Assam except the district of Sylhet.The Bengli migrants continued living in Assam thus remained 'Indian' while a lot of their distant relatives became 'Pakistanis'.

My grandfather came to assam in 1920s when he was a teenager.Since then there was hardly any connection with his native place Dhaka as the rest of family also came in.I belong to the third generation of Bengali Muslims in Assam.By any standard I am as much an Indian as Rahul Gandhi is ( perhaps more cos my mother was a born Indian).But on many occasions I faced taunts from my friends,who love to call me a Bangladeshi.I laughed off calling them ignorant fools.But how can I do that to a renowned journalist and thinker like Aiyar?It is of grave concern to me that the knowledge produced to him is distorted,far from the truth.Aiyar has become a victim of a particular section of people who want to alter the historical truth by creating a false consciousness (I am sure they have their vested interest in that).

The truth is that western Assam was majorly populated by Bengali Muslims much before India`s Independence.Yes, there might be migrations during the Bangladeshi freedom struggle.But they went back to their native land after the country freed itself from Pakistan.Even today, if their is illegal migration,its mainly seasonal migration to the booming building industry in assam.The labour force come and go back to their homeland once the job is done.The Bengali settlement stopped much before India got divided.But one would still hear cries that Assam is being encroached by Bangladeshis.Why?

If Bangladeshis are settling in Assam regularly,why dont I see them?Why are they visible to a particular section who have no practical connection to this place?These are serious questions needed to be answered.I personally never met a Bangladeshi except on one occasion - the guy who circumcised me.But then he came with proper visa to do his JOB.I must say I was damn scared of him.Wont you be scared of a person who carries instruments to cut off the top of your dick?