we live in difficult times.
26/11 has been played over and over, yet the details remain fuzzy. by now, most of us have an idea of what happened: a group of people managed to hold an entire city hostage.
and the 24-hour news channels have continually reminded us: this is war, this was a precise military-style operation, and that lashkar-e-taiba [the alleged conspirators; their past attacks on India doesn't help their we-did-not-do-it-Hindu-nationalists-are-framing-us theory either] had help from the Pakistan military and the omnipresent nemesis of India:the ISI.
then the morning papers: damaged sushi bars, a shattered 5-star heritage hotel, the survivors' tales of horror.
it's all around us. it pervades our innermost senses wherever we go. it is in the back of our heads, our sub-conscious minds tell us, beware, there could be another. from discussing it at a friend's wedding to a what-the-hell-just-happened-to-India debate over a round of drinks: 26/11 is everywhere. it pervades it to such an extent that you are unsure about the person who agreed to pay your auto fare to the metro station because he was getting late and the driver didn't have change; that the man inside the metro with a backpack looks threatening, that a faulty silencer sounds like the piercing rattle of an AK-47, that everywhere you go, there is a nagging doubt at the back of your mind telling you to look out, find a safe area.
we truly live in difficult times.
Saturday 6 December 2008
Friday 21 November 2008
exciting happenings in the wild
lately, what has got me hooked is the state of wildlife. tigers, particularly. wild ones. and i fear, that our future generations may never know what a wild tiger is. in fact, they may never know what
wild really means. especially not, when tour packages such as these advertise wildlife reserves this way.
exciting happenings:
accidents, maulings, deaths.
what's not exciting is, 96% of India is covered by people. 4% by animals, wild animals.
when Project Tiger started in 1973, there were 1,800+ tigers. In 2007, there were 1,411.
and of course, the in-famous Sariska. where two tigers were recently translocated from Ranthambore. sadly, the forest officials couldn't translocate the third tigress, as she couldn't be found. [or did she know something about sariska we didn't--the easiest way to kill a tiger, is to shoot it inside a national park. it's like killing a man in his home. only difference is, there are too many of us.]
then i read about China. about South-Chinese Tigers being one of the most endangered animals in the world. about how it could have survived the wanton development that China undertakes. and about how IUCN believes it to be extinct in the wild.
but, a chinese official believes otherwise.
in fact, China believes tigers do exist in the wild. Proof:
unfortunately, there is a slight problem with this supposedly wild tiger's proof of existence.
apparently, the farmer who had clicked it, and the forest officials who proudly announced that the pride of their land did exist in the jungles, did not know that "A Netizen Panzhihua discovered that the tiger poster on the wall of his home shared the same features as the tiger in Zhou's photos. Even the stripes were the same. The only difference was the ears."
and slowly, the truth came out.
From a Chinese blog cum news site : Zhou Zhenglong , 53, a hunter in mountainous Zhenping county who produced photos purporting to show a South China tiger alive in the wild and who repeatedly insisted they were genuine, has been arrested on fraud charges.Seven officials were sacked, including Shaanxi forestry department's deputy director Zhu Julong - who pledged to resign should the photos prove to be fake - and six others were subject to disciplinary action.
if you are a chinese, this goes for you. did you know, that scientific evidence shows tiger bones, which are supposed to cure everything from rheumatism to blue balls, does not have any medicinal properties. that a mole rat's balls will give you the same aphrodisiacal feeling that a tiger's testicles will. or in plain simple language, your balls won't work if your balls are lousy, even if you had that tiger bone soup in the evening, no matter how hard you try to get it on with that hot woman.
in Vietnam, they advertise tiger balls saying, "eat once, make love six times a night and that will bring you four sons."
please. i am not a seafood person. but oyster sounds much more potent than a pair of balls.
the chinese incident is, however, too similar to the indian forest officials' version to go unnoticed. back in 2005, when Indian Express broke the story of the Sariska tigers, every forest official denied it. some, in fact, even said that the tigers were in hiding. Hiding-yes sir!
what the incident shows, is the great bureaucrat's propensity to show results. to show that he cannot be blamed, and that all reports of local extinction are overrated.
what the Chinese officials did not count on, was that one could trace and test digital photographs.
what is this enigma called the tiger?
Corbett wrote, "when I think of a tiger, I see a young boy about eight or nine, walking in the bush without a care in the world. And he comes face-to-face with a tiger, who looks at him, gives him a scowl as if to say 'what the hell are you doing here boy?', and walks off into the bush." [I am sorry I don't have the book to repeat the exact quotation, but in case you are interested, it's from Man Eaters of Kumaon.]
Geoffrey Ward talks of four different individuals in India, who found their calling in this striped king, and writes of each of their trials and tribulations against the 'mighty' Indian bureaucracy. Billy Arjan Singh, for example-who was single handedly responsible for setting up the Dudhwa National Park, and the bureaucrats forbid him to enter the park because he was accused of stealing firewood from the jungle. [Tigerwallahs: Saving the greatest of the great cats]
Ruth Padell writes of Ullas Karanth, who kept screaming at how tiger pugmarks were a highly unreliable way to count tigers, and quotes an interesting anecdote: Two tigers were kept in a cage, and after a couple of hours, several 'scientists' were brought in to guess how many there were inside. The lowest figure was EIGHT. the highest-17.
it is difficult to imagine how, in a country with a population that grows at nearly 2.5% a year and has the highest number of malnutritioned children in the world, can someone find it possible to even think of saving tigers. especially since a tiger pelt can get a villager more than what he can earn the entire year through his farm. but, as India's tigerwallahs have always argued, to save the tiger, you have to involve the local community.
Understand this: The world's highest demand of tiger parts come from China, a country where the tiger is supposed to have evolved first, and now has died out in the wild. The demand for tiger parts is ever-increasing, and now, China is "farming" them, like horses or cows.
And here we are, in the countries where the Tiger still roams free, atleast in a few parts.
If you are an animal-lover, hunting a cuddly-looking tiger cub will definitely not appeal to you.
If you are a nature-lover, imagining a jungle without its residents should not appeal to you.
If you are one with a conscience, driving a species extinct for its pelt and bones cannot appeal to you.
And finally, if you are a patriot [anything, any idea to poke at your conscience just to save the tiger], imagine this: your country's tigers are being killed, to sustain that old fart's sexual appetite, or that executive's exquisite lunch laced with tiger wine, must not appeal to you.
if you remember your enviromental studies 101, you must remember: kill the apex of the food chain, and the order of nature goes awry.
if you can, please pass it on, especially to any Chinese friends you might have.
as i said before, anything is plausible if it works to save the tiger.
wild really means. especially not, when tour packages such as these advertise wildlife reserves this way.
exciting happenings:
accidents, maulings, deaths.
what's not exciting is, 96% of India is covered by people. 4% by animals, wild animals.
when Project Tiger started in 1973, there were 1,800+ tigers. In 2007, there were 1,411.
and of course, the in-famous Sariska. where two tigers were recently translocated from Ranthambore. sadly, the forest officials couldn't translocate the third tigress, as she couldn't be found. [or did she know something about sariska we didn't--the easiest way to kill a tiger, is to shoot it inside a national park. it's like killing a man in his home. only difference is, there are too many of us.]
then i read about China. about South-Chinese Tigers being one of the most endangered animals in the world. about how it could have survived the wanton development that China undertakes. and about how IUCN believes it to be extinct in the wild.
but, a chinese official believes otherwise.
in fact, China believes tigers do exist in the wild. Proof:
unfortunately, there is a slight problem with this supposedly wild tiger's proof of existence.
apparently, the farmer who had clicked it, and the forest officials who proudly announced that the pride of their land did exist in the jungles, did not know that "A Netizen Panzhihua discovered that the tiger poster on the wall of his home shared the same features as the tiger in Zhou's photos. Even the stripes were the same. The only difference was the ears."
and slowly, the truth came out.
From a Chinese blog cum news site : Zhou Zhenglong , 53, a hunter in mountainous Zhenping county who produced photos purporting to show a South China tiger alive in the wild and who repeatedly insisted they were genuine, has been arrested on fraud charges.Seven officials were sacked, including Shaanxi forestry department's deputy director Zhu Julong - who pledged to resign should the photos prove to be fake - and six others were subject to disciplinary action.
if you are a chinese, this goes for you. did you know, that scientific evidence shows tiger bones, which are supposed to cure everything from rheumatism to blue balls, does not have any medicinal properties. that a mole rat's balls will give you the same aphrodisiacal feeling that a tiger's testicles will. or in plain simple language, your balls won't work if your balls are lousy, even if you had that tiger bone soup in the evening, no matter how hard you try to get it on with that hot woman.
in Vietnam, they advertise tiger balls saying, "eat once, make love six times a night and that will bring you four sons."
please. i am not a seafood person. but oyster sounds much more potent than a pair of balls.
the chinese incident is, however, too similar to the indian forest officials' version to go unnoticed. back in 2005, when Indian Express broke the story of the Sariska tigers, every forest official denied it. some, in fact, even said that the tigers were in hiding. Hiding-yes sir!
what the incident shows, is the great bureaucrat's propensity to show results. to show that he cannot be blamed, and that all reports of local extinction are overrated.
what the Chinese officials did not count on, was that one could trace and test digital photographs.
what is this enigma called the tiger?
Corbett wrote, "when I think of a tiger, I see a young boy about eight or nine, walking in the bush without a care in the world. And he comes face-to-face with a tiger, who looks at him, gives him a scowl as if to say 'what the hell are you doing here boy?', and walks off into the bush." [I am sorry I don't have the book to repeat the exact quotation, but in case you are interested, it's from Man Eaters of Kumaon.]
Geoffrey Ward talks of four different individuals in India, who found their calling in this striped king, and writes of each of their trials and tribulations against the 'mighty' Indian bureaucracy. Billy Arjan Singh, for example-who was single handedly responsible for setting up the Dudhwa National Park, and the bureaucrats forbid him to enter the park because he was accused of stealing firewood from the jungle. [Tigerwallahs: Saving the greatest of the great cats]
Ruth Padell writes of Ullas Karanth, who kept screaming at how tiger pugmarks were a highly unreliable way to count tigers, and quotes an interesting anecdote: Two tigers were kept in a cage, and after a couple of hours, several 'scientists' were brought in to guess how many there were inside. The lowest figure was EIGHT. the highest-17.
it is difficult to imagine how, in a country with a population that grows at nearly 2.5% a year and has the highest number of malnutritioned children in the world, can someone find it possible to even think of saving tigers. especially since a tiger pelt can get a villager more than what he can earn the entire year through his farm. but, as India's tigerwallahs have always argued, to save the tiger, you have to involve the local community.
Understand this: The world's highest demand of tiger parts come from China, a country where the tiger is supposed to have evolved first, and now has died out in the wild. The demand for tiger parts is ever-increasing, and now, China is "farming" them, like horses or cows.
And here we are, in the countries where the Tiger still roams free, atleast in a few parts.
If you are an animal-lover, hunting a cuddly-looking tiger cub will definitely not appeal to you.
If you are a nature-lover, imagining a jungle without its residents should not appeal to you.
If you are one with a conscience, driving a species extinct for its pelt and bones cannot appeal to you.
And finally, if you are a patriot [anything, any idea to poke at your conscience just to save the tiger], imagine this: your country's tigers are being killed, to sustain that old fart's sexual appetite, or that executive's exquisite lunch laced with tiger wine, must not appeal to you.
if you remember your enviromental studies 101, you must remember: kill the apex of the food chain, and the order of nature goes awry.
if you can, please pass it on, especially to any Chinese friends you might have.
as i said before, anything is plausible if it works to save the tiger.
Saturday 1 November 2008
we are liberal, but hey, don't disgust, disturb, disappoint us!
this week's tehelka has one of the most interesting letters to the editor i have in recent times. it gives an interesting insight into the characteristics of the english magazine-reading mind. sadly, it is not something to cheer about.
i quote:
"disturbed.disgusted.disappointed. This is how I would describe my and my friends' feelings after reading your cover story on homosexuality in India.
Disgusting it is, for using the word 'love' for the carnal, unnatural and debased sexual infatuation that the deviant group is afflicted with.
Disturbing for an attempt to impose respectability and acceptance to acts, that till now, were limited to closets of those suffering from the malady.
And disappointing it is, as valuable space in your esteemed journal has been wasted on the fantasy of a miniscule deviant group, which feels compelled to ape the West in all they do.
Without being distracted, I hope you continue your crusade against the rampant corruption, communalism, criminalisation of politics, partisan attitude of our police and the travesty of truth and justice that we see amidst us every day."
The letter was from a MA Jaleel.
i have a few problems.
firstly, the usage of the word disgusting for substituting carnal, unnatural and debased desires into love! i am sure the person concerned might surely be an expert on love to understand its nuances and therefore, comment on homosexual love as just a sexual fantasy, but as a die-hard upholder of the liberal indian dream and as a crusader of justice, he does not remember what a bench of the Delhi High Court had said a few weeks back :"These are not scientific reports. These are articles quoting Bible, which is propaganda. Your arguments should be based on scientific reports. Show us scientific reports which justify criminalisation of such acts (gay sex)"
secondly, the reader calls it disturbing that the article was an attempt to gain respectability to an act indulged in by a 'deviant' group. the article in question is not an attempt to gain any respect; rather, it is an insight into what it is like to be homosexual in a country like India, and does not in anyway, become self-apologetic or empathy-arousing. and well, the reader, like many other 'illiterates' who only read hindi magazines, does not know what a malady is. english lesson for him:
malady:
a malady is a disease. how can a sexual behaviour be termed as one? is homosexuality chronic? is it contagious? did all the readers of tehelka change their sexual behaviour after reading the article?
Mr. Jaleel, however, thinks otherwise. maybe he has turned gay as well, after reading the article, and wrote the letter in a moment of frustration?
i don't claim to be a scholar on homosexual issues, nor can i completely understand the stigma that gay people have to face in this society, but even for a straight guy it's easy to understand, once you read the story in question, that no author is asking you to prerogate their position. noone is asking you to support their fight against an illogical act, which deems a blowjob illegal. the magazine does however, tell you about the matunga racket, and how the mumbai police sodomise gay men on threats of charging them under the very same act.
how is that disgusting?disappointing?disturbing?
yes it is disgusting. disgusting that despite a history of 4,500 years of civilisation where same-sex love was not frowned upon (don't believe me, it's everywhere: krishna and arjun's relationship; arjun's year-in-exile as a cross-dressing, weapon-wielding transvestite; bhishma's understanding that shikhandi was the woman he had spurned in a man's body; khajuraho, kamasutra, so on and so forth), this shining nation frowns on the very idea of sex. where women are thought to be purely for quenching desires and the medium of marriage is the best excuse for people to have sex whenever they want and not pay for it. where a girl cannot sit in a bus after 9 anywhere in this great nation, except a tiny section in the north-east--another bit of land our english speaking readers don't bother to know about, and hence, cannot be inspired from.
disappointing, for it was a rare breed of article that needed to be encouraged more. sadly, receiving letters like these will make the author think twice, or any one else attempting to write something similar. disappointing, that whoever thought english education would be the best way to inculcate a liberal mind, a mind that does not gravitate towards any prejudices.
and lastly, disturbing, because this letter reflects not the single reader himself; it is a microcosm of the bigger picture, a reader who knows corruption and communalism are detrimental to human society, that travesty of justice occurs every day, that our police is not ours to behold, that our politics can never be clean. unfortunately, for the same reader, deviant minds like the one who wrote the article must not be allowed to spread their malady, or else, this great cradle of human civilisation will be infected.
i quote:
"disturbed.disgusted.disappointed. This is how I would describe my and my friends' feelings after reading your cover story on homosexuality in India.
Disgusting it is, for using the word 'love' for the carnal, unnatural and debased sexual infatuation that the deviant group is afflicted with.
Disturbing for an attempt to impose respectability and acceptance to acts, that till now, were limited to closets of those suffering from the malady.
And disappointing it is, as valuable space in your esteemed journal has been wasted on the fantasy of a miniscule deviant group, which feels compelled to ape the West in all they do.
Without being distracted, I hope you continue your crusade against the rampant corruption, communalism, criminalisation of politics, partisan attitude of our police and the travesty of truth and justice that we see amidst us every day."
The letter was from a MA Jaleel.
i have a few problems.
firstly, the usage of the word disgusting for substituting carnal, unnatural and debased desires into love! i am sure the person concerned might surely be an expert on love to understand its nuances and therefore, comment on homosexual love as just a sexual fantasy, but as a die-hard upholder of the liberal indian dream and as a crusader of justice, he does not remember what a bench of the Delhi High Court had said a few weeks back :"These are not scientific reports. These are articles quoting Bible, which is propaganda. Your arguments should be based on scientific reports. Show us scientific reports which justify criminalisation of such acts (gay sex)"
secondly, the reader calls it disturbing that the article was an attempt to gain respectability to an act indulged in by a 'deviant' group. the article in question is not an attempt to gain any respect; rather, it is an insight into what it is like to be homosexual in a country like India, and does not in anyway, become self-apologetic or empathy-arousing. and well, the reader, like many other 'illiterates' who only read hindi magazines, does not know what a malady is. english lesson for him:
malady:
| 1. | any disorder or disease of the body, esp. one that is chronic or deepseated. |
a malady is a disease. how can a sexual behaviour be termed as one? is homosexuality chronic? is it contagious? did all the readers of tehelka change their sexual behaviour after reading the article?
Mr. Jaleel, however, thinks otherwise. maybe he has turned gay as well, after reading the article, and wrote the letter in a moment of frustration?
i don't claim to be a scholar on homosexual issues, nor can i completely understand the stigma that gay people have to face in this society, but even for a straight guy it's easy to understand, once you read the story in question, that no author is asking you to prerogate their position. noone is asking you to support their fight against an illogical act, which deems a blowjob illegal. the magazine does however, tell you about the matunga racket, and how the mumbai police sodomise gay men on threats of charging them under the very same act.
how is that disgusting?disappointing?disturbing?
yes it is disgusting. disgusting that despite a history of 4,500 years of civilisation where same-sex love was not frowned upon (don't believe me, it's everywhere: krishna and arjun's relationship; arjun's year-in-exile as a cross-dressing, weapon-wielding transvestite; bhishma's understanding that shikhandi was the woman he had spurned in a man's body; khajuraho, kamasutra, so on and so forth), this shining nation frowns on the very idea of sex. where women are thought to be purely for quenching desires and the medium of marriage is the best excuse for people to have sex whenever they want and not pay for it. where a girl cannot sit in a bus after 9 anywhere in this great nation, except a tiny section in the north-east--another bit of land our english speaking readers don't bother to know about, and hence, cannot be inspired from.
disappointing, for it was a rare breed of article that needed to be encouraged more. sadly, receiving letters like these will make the author think twice, or any one else attempting to write something similar. disappointing, that whoever thought english education would be the best way to inculcate a liberal mind, a mind that does not gravitate towards any prejudices.
and lastly, disturbing, because this letter reflects not the single reader himself; it is a microcosm of the bigger picture, a reader who knows corruption and communalism are detrimental to human society, that travesty of justice occurs every day, that our police is not ours to behold, that our politics can never be clean. unfortunately, for the same reader, deviant minds like the one who wrote the article must not be allowed to spread their malady, or else, this great cradle of human civilisation will be infected.
Saturday 25 October 2008
a village and some ruins
it seems impossible to imagine the existence of a fresh-water tank in the middle of a city like delhi. and a further suspension of belief that once, this tank existed for the sole reason of quenching people's thirsts.
a right from the green park market takes you to hauz khas village, where quaint little movie poster shops co-exist with glitzy designer labels, where a thatched roof lives alongside a multi-storeyed apartment, where, wonder of wonders, a deer park shares its space with a celebrated restaurant, and where, in the 13th century, Messrs Alauudin Khilji built a tank for the residents of Siri [Hauz Khas is the second city of medieval Delhi], as Wiki informs me.
but it does exist, and is a personal recommendation to any friend who wants to laze an afternoon in a narcotic haze.
a right from the green park market takes you to hauz khas village, where quaint little movie poster shops co-exist with glitzy designer labels, where a thatched roof lives alongside a multi-storeyed apartment, where, wonder of wonders, a deer park shares its space with a celebrated restaurant, and where, in the 13th century, Messrs Alauudin Khilji built a tank for the residents of Siri [Hauz Khas is the second city of medieval Delhi], as Wiki informs me.
but it does exist, and is a personal recommendation to any friend who wants to laze an afternoon in a narcotic haze.
Sunday 5 October 2008
of delhi's shivers that wait on the horizon
before the storm came the lull.
and before the chill came the dusty, muggy, sweaty and sticky clime.
a brief period of rainfall that led to multiple traffic jams and a million insects is now over.
what we face here is the intensity of heat reserved for the hotter months.
but i believe it is a warning sign, a sign that the coming months will be a worthy adversary, and that your best ally is only the old monk from mohan meakin castle.
the cold wind that blows through your jacket despite it promising a warmth reserved for the polar regions; the heavy fog that threatens to overpower the road while you drive; the heater that is about to melt its grills but the heat never seems to reach you; park your car outside and the remnants of a frozen night appear on the windshield as ice flakes; push the quilt to cover your legs and you discover a certain other part that now feels the chill; a frigid drive back in an auto's back seat through a city that has frozen by now, while you feel the pangs of envy witnessing a bunch of people crowding around a fire in their flimsy blankets; the early morning rays of sunlight that you desperately try to gather some warmth before the smog bounces back any hint of heat; sipping a mug of hot chocolate on your terrace, sitting in that comfortable couch you bought on the MG road, wrapped in a multi-hued shawl indigenous to hippie towns; gulping that hot alu-chaat on a cold evening amid the multi-storeyed office complexes; how the fingers automatically retract when the first drops of ice-converted-to-water falls on it....
to suck on that cigarette so that it gives you some warmth even though you know it's not going to give you any....
multiple swigs of the rum in an attempt to preserve your body from falling prey to hypothermia...
a cold nose...
frozen fingers....
a frozen world...
a vast tundra...where all the denizens move effortlessly into hibernation...
and the city sleeps....
and before the chill came the dusty, muggy, sweaty and sticky clime.
a brief period of rainfall that led to multiple traffic jams and a million insects is now over.
what we face here is the intensity of heat reserved for the hotter months.
but i believe it is a warning sign, a sign that the coming months will be a worthy adversary, and that your best ally is only the old monk from mohan meakin castle.
the cold wind that blows through your jacket despite it promising a warmth reserved for the polar regions; the heavy fog that threatens to overpower the road while you drive; the heater that is about to melt its grills but the heat never seems to reach you; park your car outside and the remnants of a frozen night appear on the windshield as ice flakes; push the quilt to cover your legs and you discover a certain other part that now feels the chill; a frigid drive back in an auto's back seat through a city that has frozen by now, while you feel the pangs of envy witnessing a bunch of people crowding around a fire in their flimsy blankets; the early morning rays of sunlight that you desperately try to gather some warmth before the smog bounces back any hint of heat; sipping a mug of hot chocolate on your terrace, sitting in that comfortable couch you bought on the MG road, wrapped in a multi-hued shawl indigenous to hippie towns; gulping that hot alu-chaat on a cold evening amid the multi-storeyed office complexes; how the fingers automatically retract when the first drops of ice-converted-to-water falls on it....
to suck on that cigarette so that it gives you some warmth even though you know it's not going to give you any....
multiple swigs of the rum in an attempt to preserve your body from falling prey to hypothermia...
a cold nose...
frozen fingers....
a frozen world...
a vast tundra...where all the denizens move effortlessly into hibernation...
and the city sleeps....
Tuesday 30 September 2008
torrential downpour
my life revolves around movies these days.
no, seriously, it does. the immaterial, metaphysical and obscure object called life, has decided, that it will not bother with other activities as long as the unlimited width of the broadband gives up on the traffic that it generates.
and so, it has come to respect the hard work and the effort put in by two significant men [i presume, women have better things to do] called aXXo and FXG.
some would call them pirates.
more would probably rejoice when they manage to release a flick before the cartel of expensive dvd makers do.
yeah yeah, they are pirates. but the clarity of vision and sound that they offer is undoubtedly, the best among the millions out there in the infinite galaxy of the internet.
so i bow my head in reverence, and spread the word of the prophets:
"seed and leech
dare to share
one way or the other
you will always find someone who cares"
what would the life of a movie-pirate be like? the imaginarium of a distorted mind spreads itself out, and imagines: "a job at the local dvd store. everyday filing through hundreds and thousands of motion picture dvd catalogs. go back home with a couple. today i shall rip these. with a toke in one hand, and a beer in the other, he watches the computer take over, rip the original 4 gig dvd in a 700 mb file and create an object that brings the movie studios to their knees."
or it could be: "i am against the corporatisation of the motion picture business. i hate these movie studio moguls who think a movie is a commodity, an object to be sold in the market place like a loaf of bread. and i hate these idiots who think buying a dvd for $20[or $30 or Rs900 or whatever price you might be paying] is doing the right thing because it's a genuine piece and the money goes into further productions and its their property and blah blah......"
or it could be a simple "fuck the capitalist bastards. i am going to have some fun today."
the internet is the god of our times, and axxo and fxg are surely its prophets. they are heralding the dawn of a new era, marked by sharing size and file upload speed. they are breaking down the rigid laws of hollywood, where marketing makes up 40% of a movie's costs, and the profit margins are 40% as well. and you thought that bar in the alley was robbing you just because you paid 50 bucks more than the cost of a pint.
axxo and fxg have another lesson for the current world phase, this current financial situation which is based on the eternal gratification of infinite human greed. as banks fall like dominoes on a daily basis, mankind realises avarice has no end. it may be a sin, hell yeah, but as long as i go to church it's all cool. why should i share the $50 million BONUS with anyone else? it's my hard work [based on something called leverage-what this whole mess is about]
what axxo and fxg tell us, is that it's never too late to share. share a bit. share a lot. don't be like the bankers, and start sharing once your movie has been completed.
come on, someone stayed up all night to let you seed, didn't she?
no, seriously, it does. the immaterial, metaphysical and obscure object called life, has decided, that it will not bother with other activities as long as the unlimited width of the broadband gives up on the traffic that it generates.
and so, it has come to respect the hard work and the effort put in by two significant men [i presume, women have better things to do] called aXXo and FXG.
some would call them pirates.
more would probably rejoice when they manage to release a flick before the cartel of expensive dvd makers do.
yeah yeah, they are pirates. but the clarity of vision and sound that they offer is undoubtedly, the best among the millions out there in the infinite galaxy of the internet.
so i bow my head in reverence, and spread the word of the prophets:
"seed and leech
dare to share
one way or the other
you will always find someone who cares"
what would the life of a movie-pirate be like? the imaginarium of a distorted mind spreads itself out, and imagines: "a job at the local dvd store. everyday filing through hundreds and thousands of motion picture dvd catalogs. go back home with a couple. today i shall rip these. with a toke in one hand, and a beer in the other, he watches the computer take over, rip the original 4 gig dvd in a 700 mb file and create an object that brings the movie studios to their knees."
or it could be: "i am against the corporatisation of the motion picture business. i hate these movie studio moguls who think a movie is a commodity, an object to be sold in the market place like a loaf of bread. and i hate these idiots who think buying a dvd for $20[or $30 or Rs900 or whatever price you might be paying] is doing the right thing because it's a genuine piece and the money goes into further productions and its their property and blah blah......"
or it could be a simple "fuck the capitalist bastards. i am going to have some fun today."
the internet is the god of our times, and axxo and fxg are surely its prophets. they are heralding the dawn of a new era, marked by sharing size and file upload speed. they are breaking down the rigid laws of hollywood, where marketing makes up 40% of a movie's costs, and the profit margins are 40% as well. and you thought that bar in the alley was robbing you just because you paid 50 bucks more than the cost of a pint.
axxo and fxg have another lesson for the current world phase, this current financial situation which is based on the eternal gratification of infinite human greed. as banks fall like dominoes on a daily basis, mankind realises avarice has no end. it may be a sin, hell yeah, but as long as i go to church it's all cool. why should i share the $50 million BONUS with anyone else? it's my hard work [based on something called leverage-what this whole mess is about]
what axxo and fxg tell us, is that it's never too late to share. share a bit. share a lot. don't be like the bankers, and start sharing once your movie has been completed.
come on, someone stayed up all night to let you seed, didn't she?
Wednesday 3 September 2008
The queen of murder
performance number 22,461. that says it all.
as a writer struggling with the limits of imagination, i wonder what she had to do to come up with such ingenious tales.
you might shrug her off as plain paperback fiction, but you can never deny her the skill of storytelling.
which is obviously lost in some of the more 'famed' writers of our day.
i narrate a few that i happened to read recently.
hickory dickory dock, where a case of supposed kleptomania leads to a much larger mayhem of murder.
towards zero, where a group of people on holiday are only the pawns in a more dangerous game.
and then there were none, where ten people, unknown to each other, have one thing in common-murder.
she might not have written literature of the highest order, but christie certainly managed to convince her readers that as far as the killing of another human being goes, there is nothing short of a motive.
god knows what would happen if she ever committed a murder?
a perfect crime?
maybe.
Tuesday 19 August 2008
into the wild-a review
there are some movies that one remembers as a great watch.
then there are those that one does a re-think about, a movie that forces you to analyze your very own existence, and compare it to the one on screen.
into the wild falls in the latter.
to look at it cinematically is simple - absolutely stunning locales, brilliant cinematography, excellent screenplay and acting.
but to look at it as a tale, as a life-changing experience, is where the trouble begins.
most people desire a break from the monotony of their daily lives, to travel, to see the world beyond their everyday existence. the trouble is to reconcile that desire with the more practical reasoning of
a)funds
b)career
c)family
and that is exactly why christopher j. mccandless is a hero to all those who think on similar lines.
imagine: an A-grades student donates all his savings of $24,000 to oxfam, and hitchhikes across the states finally ending up in alaska, where, in his words, he found that
"And after two rambling years, comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution."
living off the forest and the rivers and the sea.
traveling across a multitude of landscapes.
meeting people who re-define the meaning of life, while changing your own.
who wouldn't wish such a life?
but the trouble is, for all his bravery, he didn't have the required skill to survive in the frozen land of alaska. and that is exactly why i have a problem with mccandless' self-belief.
and by the end, he concedes it as well.
his wish was to get away from the social animal that man has become, to be rid of the responsibilities that come with civilization.
and he achieves it.
but what comes of that achievement?
that is the question we are left to ponder.
then there are those that one does a re-think about, a movie that forces you to analyze your very own existence, and compare it to the one on screen.
into the wild falls in the latter.
to look at it cinematically is simple - absolutely stunning locales, brilliant cinematography, excellent screenplay and acting.
but to look at it as a tale, as a life-changing experience, is where the trouble begins.
most people desire a break from the monotony of their daily lives, to travel, to see the world beyond their everyday existence. the trouble is to reconcile that desire with the more practical reasoning of
a)funds
b)career
c)family
and that is exactly why christopher j. mccandless is a hero to all those who think on similar lines.
imagine: an A-grades student donates all his savings of $24,000 to oxfam, and hitchhikes across the states finally ending up in alaska, where, in his words, he found that
"And after two rambling years, comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution."
living off the forest and the rivers and the sea.
traveling across a multitude of landscapes.
meeting people who re-define the meaning of life, while changing your own.
who wouldn't wish such a life?
but the trouble is, for all his bravery, he didn't have the required skill to survive in the frozen land of alaska. and that is exactly why i have a problem with mccandless' self-belief.
and by the end, he concedes it as well.
his wish was to get away from the social animal that man has become, to be rid of the responsibilities that come with civilization.
and he achieves it.
but what comes of that achievement?
that is the question we are left to ponder.
Monday 18 August 2008
a rambling about the day
did u know that if u buy 100gm parle G biscuit, it's actually 92gms now?
and Nestle has been decreasing the weight of its maggi!
poof!
thus vanishes the last hope of a corporate revival, the last dream of capitalism!
georgia thought by sending the 3rd largest force to iraq, it could bully Mother Russia!
george bush looked on while georgia burned.
and the world learnt - don't mess with the bear, especially not one the size of a polar bear!
the airconditioner came back with the force of the jedi today, once again freezing us in the middle of a summer day. wonder what the building's electricity charges are?
but that aside, i think delhi's people are used to three things the most:
a)air-conditioning
b)eve-teasing
c)the stink of other's sweat
like in the metro today.
wonder how on earth, can people manage to gather up a sweat, at 11 in the morning?
and i wonder, don't they have the sense of smell?
or haven't they heard of an alternative called D-E-O-D-O-R-A-N-T!!!
and my friend sends me an invite to a poetry reading.woohooo!!!!!!!
culture is a vulture that feeds on the human greed to understand society!
for tomorrow's menu: i review Into the Wild (directed by Sean Penn)
and Nestle has been decreasing the weight of its maggi!
poof!
thus vanishes the last hope of a corporate revival, the last dream of capitalism!
georgia thought by sending the 3rd largest force to iraq, it could bully Mother Russia!
george bush looked on while georgia burned.
and the world learnt - don't mess with the bear, especially not one the size of a polar bear!
the airconditioner came back with the force of the jedi today, once again freezing us in the middle of a summer day. wonder what the building's electricity charges are?
but that aside, i think delhi's people are used to three things the most:
a)air-conditioning
b)eve-teasing
c)the stink of other's sweat
like in the metro today.
wonder how on earth, can people manage to gather up a sweat, at 11 in the morning?
and i wonder, don't they have the sense of smell?
or haven't they heard of an alternative called D-E-O-D-O-R-A-N-T!!!
and my friend sends me an invite to a poetry reading.woohooo!!!!!!!
culture is a vulture that feeds on the human greed to understand society!
for tomorrow's menu: i review Into the Wild (directed by Sean Penn)
Sunday 17 August 2008
in a state of dementia!
now that the great mint experience begins again...a month long hiatus is apparently not enough to re-jig [or is that one word?] the popular perception of rupert murdoch's pet...
god i wish i could get that monkey's money....
so my pages have finished
and what has happened in the world today?
bihar's NREGS falls in trouble as it gives a 280 crore contract to a company with 16 crore revenue[that's called faith, my dear]
apparently kamal nath got mentioned 700% more this month than last month
and ahmedabad gets a shocking wake up call-wipro employee who turned bombmaker
in the midst of all this-italy lost to 10-man belgium
and phelps got his 8th.....
nepal gets a red as a leader....hopefully he can do something about the fuel and the food..
and lenin turned out to be a mass-murderer!
all the while the office toilet leaked and the shit stank through the roof
even as the air conditioner froze all of us to death
brrr.....
tehelka calls for writers-are they paying any more?
and my life revolves around a bloody kitchen and a tiny gas.
god i wish i could get that monkey's money....
so my pages have finished
and what has happened in the world today?
bihar's NREGS falls in trouble as it gives a 280 crore contract to a company with 16 crore revenue[that's called faith, my dear]
apparently kamal nath got mentioned 700% more this month than last month
and ahmedabad gets a shocking wake up call-wipro employee who turned bombmaker
in the midst of all this-italy lost to 10-man belgium
and phelps got his 8th.....
nepal gets a red as a leader....hopefully he can do something about the fuel and the food..
and lenin turned out to be a mass-murderer!
all the while the office toilet leaked and the shit stank through the roof
even as the air conditioner froze all of us to death
brrr.....
tehelka calls for writers-are they paying any more?
and my life revolves around a bloody kitchen and a tiny gas.
Wednesday 14 May 2008
musings...of a different sort....
i have been thinking these past few days, of the past year at ACJ, and what it has taught me. i have come to a few conclusions, except for the obvious fact that i am now a journalist, a profession many mock for its ludicrousness and exasperating habits. however, i do not intend to go into that bit. i have drawn a few conclusions, and though they might appear mistaken for some, i still believe that the past year has affected the person i was.
firstly, ACJ taught what it means to view things from a different perspective. for all the hoopla and criticism of the initial series of lectures that we had, many of us[including me] had problems with the way things were being presented to us. there were many of us who knew the background to the matter being discussed, and many who knew the matter intricately. however, it was interesting to note how different perspectives could emerge from a single incident, or as sainath would like to call it, a process.
for example, the lecture on caste by kancha illaiah. i still stand by the fact that his theory is based on a lot of falsities, oddities that have been singled out to bring out the whole religion as a flaw. however, once again, what mattered was the difference in perspective, and how it allowed all of us to indulge in a debate over the nuances of caste and its workings.
also, talking about perspectives, landing in nepal after a year during a time of heightened political awareness, it appears that many here lack a different approach. and that the media in nepal is also to blame for this. for example, i have been reading the papers recently, and what i found, or rather did not find, was a questioning of the turn of events post the constitutional assembly elections. a whole population has placed its hopes on this new assembly, and yet it appears that once more we are headed to a stalemate, a squabble that constitutes minor differences while overlooking the single fact that the fate of the nation is in their hands.
however, none of the reports i have read so far appear to question the elected leaders. true, there have been reports highlighting the fact that under-represented people have been elected, like the local tailor from pokhara, or the barber from the terai. but, amidst these reports, there is not a single mention of the simple fact that the leaders are wasting precious time. or that there is a lack of coherent policy making within the assembly as a whole. or that the objections raised by one party regarding the Maoists were to be raised before the elections. or that development has taken a back seat and the country is just functioning, or living by.
what is the job of the media?this is a question that has constantly challenged me these past few days, especially since day before's coverage of the jaipur blasts. today morning, IBN chose to highlight the injured - a definitely different tack; however, its melodramatic approach to the whole story had me cribbing - is this really what the media needs to do? also, during a questioning of the DGP of Rajasthan, the reporter missed the most basic question: what sort of explosives were used?were they timed devices or were they remote controlled?
many of my colleagues at the college will argue differently regarding what the media's role is. however, one thing which i learned again at ACJ, is that the media needs to leave its emotions behind. we need to look at events and processes[sainath again], when we are reporting especially, from an outsider's point of view. we cannot be cowed down by how public opinion maybe shaped post the report. we need to report as the incident happened, highlight the failure in the system, and comment on how can the state mitigate the bigger process.
so are we meant to be sadistic voyeurs? i do not for a moment think so. rather, what the profession implies is that we need to live double lives. we need to keep our personal views out of the reports we publish, because what we write formulates the basis of public opinion, atleast to a large extent.
we had this problem while bringing out our last issue of the Word, where a report was deemed to be activist and unsubstantiated. what we also found, was that a better use of words brings out the meaning without intending to offend anyone. and that, creative freedom and editorial censure otherwise, negotiation skills are always helpful.
however, coming back to the last issue, the wholesale cancellation of an article without informing the writer showed me once again that the entire talk about media freedom is actually a huge bunkum, a facade that has been created to encourage potential journalists. when the top official, who is not involved in the production of the magazine in any way, steps in to remove an article he/she personally deems offensive, the least the editorial staff can do is to inform the writer. in other words, it is what the modern world regards as professionalism.
i know these are my individual views, and that the reader may differ from each of them. however, once again, it is the perspective from which you view it that makes your decision.
firstly, ACJ taught what it means to view things from a different perspective. for all the hoopla and criticism of the initial series of lectures that we had, many of us[including me] had problems with the way things were being presented to us. there were many of us who knew the background to the matter being discussed, and many who knew the matter intricately. however, it was interesting to note how different perspectives could emerge from a single incident, or as sainath would like to call it, a process.
for example, the lecture on caste by kancha illaiah. i still stand by the fact that his theory is based on a lot of falsities, oddities that have been singled out to bring out the whole religion as a flaw. however, once again, what mattered was the difference in perspective, and how it allowed all of us to indulge in a debate over the nuances of caste and its workings.
also, talking about perspectives, landing in nepal after a year during a time of heightened political awareness, it appears that many here lack a different approach. and that the media in nepal is also to blame for this. for example, i have been reading the papers recently, and what i found, or rather did not find, was a questioning of the turn of events post the constitutional assembly elections. a whole population has placed its hopes on this new assembly, and yet it appears that once more we are headed to a stalemate, a squabble that constitutes minor differences while overlooking the single fact that the fate of the nation is in their hands.
however, none of the reports i have read so far appear to question the elected leaders. true, there have been reports highlighting the fact that under-represented people have been elected, like the local tailor from pokhara, or the barber from the terai. but, amidst these reports, there is not a single mention of the simple fact that the leaders are wasting precious time. or that there is a lack of coherent policy making within the assembly as a whole. or that the objections raised by one party regarding the Maoists were to be raised before the elections. or that development has taken a back seat and the country is just functioning, or living by.
what is the job of the media?this is a question that has constantly challenged me these past few days, especially since day before's coverage of the jaipur blasts. today morning, IBN chose to highlight the injured - a definitely different tack; however, its melodramatic approach to the whole story had me cribbing - is this really what the media needs to do? also, during a questioning of the DGP of Rajasthan, the reporter missed the most basic question: what sort of explosives were used?were they timed devices or were they remote controlled?
many of my colleagues at the college will argue differently regarding what the media's role is. however, one thing which i learned again at ACJ, is that the media needs to leave its emotions behind. we need to look at events and processes[sainath again], when we are reporting especially, from an outsider's point of view. we cannot be cowed down by how public opinion maybe shaped post the report. we need to report as the incident happened, highlight the failure in the system, and comment on how can the state mitigate the bigger process.
so are we meant to be sadistic voyeurs? i do not for a moment think so. rather, what the profession implies is that we need to live double lives. we need to keep our personal views out of the reports we publish, because what we write formulates the basis of public opinion, atleast to a large extent.
we had this problem while bringing out our last issue of the Word, where a report was deemed to be activist and unsubstantiated. what we also found, was that a better use of words brings out the meaning without intending to offend anyone. and that, creative freedom and editorial censure otherwise, negotiation skills are always helpful.
however, coming back to the last issue, the wholesale cancellation of an article without informing the writer showed me once again that the entire talk about media freedom is actually a huge bunkum, a facade that has been created to encourage potential journalists. when the top official, who is not involved in the production of the magazine in any way, steps in to remove an article he/she personally deems offensive, the least the editorial staff can do is to inform the writer. in other words, it is what the modern world regards as professionalism.
i know these are my individual views, and that the reader may differ from each of them. however, once again, it is the perspective from which you view it that makes your decision.
Tuesday 13 May 2008
finally, a time of insanity ends. no more rides to bessie, no more chandu and no more anna's...its been a bloody long year, and at the end of it all, there was a collective sense of relief. probably, that stemmed from the fact that april was the cruellest month-empty corridors and labs, a few of us who worshipped the airconditioning, and chennai was getting unbearable by the day.
anyway, i am back in nepal for a few days before joining work. there is a new buzz that definitely can be felt around here - it is the buzz of a new government. however, when i look at nepal from the eyes of an outsider, there hasnt been much that has changed. rather, the roads have deteriorated, the electricity supply is short, kathmandu faces traffic problems increasingly, and the heights - pokhara's traffic has become a snarl during rush hours.
i speak to different people about it. everyone has a different view of the problems. but one thing that emerges is the pessimism. one friend tells me, even if the economy is not growing, banks are increasingly growing profitable. which is not untrue. in pokhara, i see new banks that have emerged in the last 12 months. and these are just banks - i am excluding the hundreds of finance companies like the one which has made its headquarters next door to mine.
nepal is going through a very exciting time. the challenge and the prospect of a new system of governance looms over everyone. rumours abound - the king will enter into a deal with the maoists, there is a huge difference of opinion between the Maoist leaders and so forth. everyone is politically interested - a little like the south of india, where sycophancy takes to new heights. hopefully, and thankfully, a similar nepotic culture hasn't emerged here, although our great revolutionary Prachanda is showing signs of deifying himself.
randomly, i choose to take a ride through pokhara. i discover new lanes and newer stores. i spoke about the traffic jam earlier; it was extremely surprising and a bit funny. development chooses different ways to show itself, and one of it is a traffic jam. i see newer cars, more two wheelers, and worse roads.
nepal hopefully will emerge from all of this, unscathed and better. we are a resilient lot; however, we are also an indifferent lot.
anyway, i am back in nepal for a few days before joining work. there is a new buzz that definitely can be felt around here - it is the buzz of a new government. however, when i look at nepal from the eyes of an outsider, there hasnt been much that has changed. rather, the roads have deteriorated, the electricity supply is short, kathmandu faces traffic problems increasingly, and the heights - pokhara's traffic has become a snarl during rush hours.
i speak to different people about it. everyone has a different view of the problems. but one thing that emerges is the pessimism. one friend tells me, even if the economy is not growing, banks are increasingly growing profitable. which is not untrue. in pokhara, i see new banks that have emerged in the last 12 months. and these are just banks - i am excluding the hundreds of finance companies like the one which has made its headquarters next door to mine.
nepal is going through a very exciting time. the challenge and the prospect of a new system of governance looms over everyone. rumours abound - the king will enter into a deal with the maoists, there is a huge difference of opinion between the Maoist leaders and so forth. everyone is politically interested - a little like the south of india, where sycophancy takes to new heights. hopefully, and thankfully, a similar nepotic culture hasn't emerged here, although our great revolutionary Prachanda is showing signs of deifying himself.
randomly, i choose to take a ride through pokhara. i discover new lanes and newer stores. i spoke about the traffic jam earlier; it was extremely surprising and a bit funny. development chooses different ways to show itself, and one of it is a traffic jam. i see newer cars, more two wheelers, and worse roads.
nepal hopefully will emerge from all of this, unscathed and better. we are a resilient lot; however, we are also an indifferent lot.
Friday 18 January 2008
Post a madness - revelation time!!!
finally back to being my old urbane self after a month of wandering....
i can't say i saw too many places...neither did i experience a lot...
but what i found was a distinct contrast...one magnified by an amount unimagined in my mind...
poverty and development are the new buzz words at ACJ...to be sensitive is to seek stories...relate tales of under-development, violence, caste politics
do i seek to differentiate myself from this....i don't think so...i am a part of the system...the system is a part of me...i have chosen to be this...supposedly the power of the press lies in the narration of the tale...but does not exceed beyond that....
eastern maharastra is a land plagued by multiple evils....whether it is the state..or the naxals..or the health system...or the education system...or the under-development...
it seems as distant from the prosperous west [where i spent my new years] as earth from mars..
a land once owned by its people, who now live in constant fear....
so did i think that i was there on a quest?was i there to liberate the people from their pains?
not at all...
yet all the pre-conceived notions that existed in our minds fell apart...all the lectures seemed pointless when we confronted the situation first hand...
it's a beautiful land....filled with trees of every kind....where once man and animal lived in harmony...now there is a constant game of cops and robbers being played in these forests...
land mines....AK's...RPG's...
to get your limb chopped off is passe....the new deal is to be hacked......to death
i have seen this kind of violence before...back home...never has it been so upclose...
i realized the real bastards are never on the ground....they are safe...locked away in their safehouses...in distant forests or in concrete offices....
while the people of the land die daily....
so...
am i a changed man post the 'deprivation' trip?
i don't think so...i am not apologetic about the fact that i love the luxuries of an urban setting...
i just think how easy it is for us to debate about other people's lives and consider them to be plain facts...
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