Prasthanam - Movie Review

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Movie Name: Prasthanam

Language: Telugu

Director: Deva Katta

Starring: Sai Kumar, Sharwanand, Sandeep Kishan, Jeeva, Jai Prakash Reddy, Ruby Parihar, Surekha Vani etc

Cinematography: Shyam Dutt

Music: Mahesh Shankar

Spolier Alert: Some spoilers ahead, suspense and climax are not revealed but may spoil some fun while watching.

In our life we face moral dilemmas, we are constantly forced to pick sides or make choices. Love, Emotions and Duty conflict and make us oscillate between choices. Life also provides us rare opportunities, tantalizing prospects, which are just one immoral choice away. Men are defined by the decisions they take during such times, which alter the very course of their lives and of those intertwined with them. And when confronted with the truth, despite all our excuses and reasons, our conscience knows the true nature of us. Deva Katta's Prasthanam is about all of the above, it is an engrossing family drama, with a dose of political machinations and questions on life thrown in.

The Story: A family patriarch and a much loved local leader who was elected unopposed for many years suddenly faces competition from an upstart, who is a local liquor contractor and a goon. When the patriarch choses to retire from public life than face a potentially ugly electoral battle, his son steps up to take his place and fight the election, despite his father's advice to the contrary who feels his son with a young family is better off not getting into the murky world of politics. The son is supported in this endeavour by his loyal friend Lokanatham/Loki (Sai Kumar). During the campaign, the son of attacked by the contractor and his goons and he dies enroute to being taken home. An enraged Loki and his close friend, Basha extract revenge and kill the contractor. The patriarch is devastated by the loss of his only son and seeing the prospects of an insecure life for his young daughter in law and little grand children, extracts promise from Loki to become his son and marry his widowed daughter in law. Loki reluctantly agrees and inherits a son, Mitra and a daughter. Mitra, seeing Loki avenge his father's death devotes himself to Loki and adores him while the daughter, being more elder and perhaps not coming to terms with her own father's death and an outsider beside her mother, starts hating him. Loki and family leave, along with his own friends to make a better life in Vijayawada.

The story now shifts to Vijayawada. Loki is shown to now have a blood son through his wife, in addition to Mitra and the daughter. Loki quickly rises to become the MLA and is shown to be fighting for the cause of justice and the poor people earning him the MLA seat repeatedly. His sudden rise, him being an outsider and his rubbing some big people the wrong way earn him enemies who plot his downfall. Chief among those are BasiReddy (Jeeva) and Bangaru Naidu (Jaiprakash Reddy). On the family front, Mitra (Sharwanand) grows up to become a trusted confidante of his father, alongside his father's friend Basha and others. He also enjoys a great following among his father's friends who clearly see him as their beloved leader's heir and as their next leader, especially seeing that Loki is planning his succession and grooming Mitra to take over after him. Loki's own son Chinna (Sandeep Kishan) is now grown up and in college. The daughter hates Loki even now, she hates her mother even more for bearing a child for Loki. She is estranged and lives with her husband, kid and husband's sister. The only link between the two families is Mitra.

Deva Katta sets up the movie brilliantly now. Chinna becomes an angry young man, who sees himself as a rightful heir to his father. He also despises Mitra for his closeness to his father and his father's succession plans and advice to Chinna to go into business and leave politics to Mitra. Chinna feels he should become the next leader, while Loki tells him leadership is to be earned and not given as a gift or a legacy. He also hates Mitra for trying to correct him and mend his ways, seeing these as attempts to discourage him and undermine him. One day he accidentally kills his girl friend and seeks help from his father and his sister (who is the doctor who does the post mortem on his girlfriend) to bail him out. Loki's rivals who see an opportunity to get even with Loki begin their machinations.

What follows is a brilliantly written and wonderfully acted family drama where the strength of each character and his own ideals is tested. Loki, who is shown to be absolutely sure of himself, his own ideals and beliefs, now starts wavering. Mitra, who shares the same ideals and beliefs of his father is now forced to confront a new reality. Chinna, burning with jealously, anger and hatred threatens to bring down everything Loki has created and nurtured. As the movie hurtles towards a brilliant climax, Deva Katta choses to reveal more truths which changes the entire basis of the movie.

Characters:

SaiKumar as Loki

Sai Kumar is brilliant as Loki and his character perhaps has the most scope out of all characters in the movie. He goes through the entire range of emotions in the movie and nails each one. He also gets the best dialogues in the film and who better than the master of dialogue delivery to belt those out. Seeing him in this role, one cant escape the feeling that Sai Kumar should have chosen to do more such roles instead of Hero roles. But this is a brilliant turn for him, and hopefully he gets more such chances.

Sharwanand as Mitra

Sharwanand has this terrific ability of picking wonderful movies and roles to star in (after Vennela, Gamyam, Amma Cheppindi). More than the ability, one needs to appreciate his conviction to do the kind of roles that complete him as an actor instead of joining the rat race for super stardom like the star sons. His character does not have the same breadth as that of Sai Kumar, but is still a powerful role, that of an idealistic young man who has absolute conviction in his own beliefs but which are tested by the very same people he has learnt them from. He carries off the role effortlessly, underplaying crucial scenes, which in my opinion show the anguish and trauma he is going through.

Sandeep Kishan as Chinna

All those wannabe young actors out there be very jealous of this kid. He gets a cracker of a role in his first movie (or one of his first, I am not sure) and he lives the dream in this one. His character is one-dimensional, his emotions are jealousy, anger and hatred. But that doesn't mean its easy. Its sometimes more difficult to play a character which has more depth than breadth. He nails it to perfection as a burning young man consumed by his his own fears and insecurities.

The rest

This is one movie which gives ample scope for each character. Except the heroine and Mitra's side kick, everyone else including the mother, the daughter, Loki's confidantes, the rivals including Jeeva get meaty roles which run the length of the film and are all well acted. It is to Deva Katta's credit that he manages to make the story engrossing by involving everyone in the plot.

Technical Aspects:

The heart of the movie is the story, its body is a brilliant premise and a cracker of a climax, while the actors are the blood. The dialogues are terrific at places, especially those between the 3 main characters. By terrific I do not mean, the roaring punch dialogues of Paruchuri brothers. They are more like the thoughtful, philosophical dialogues of Trivikram Srinivas. For example, Mitra is beaten up in front of Loki, who talks of Dharma and says his Dharma is to protect his son, Mitra touches his feet and says that as far as he is concerned Loki is his father. I will be doing an injustice if I try to translate them from the original Telugu. The background score by Mahesh Shankar and the cinematography by Shyam Dutt are excellent and complement the story well. The background score especially maintains the intensity of the movie.

Having said all that, there are a few things that Deva Katta should have taken care of. The first glaring issue is the comedy track (with Vennela Kishore), which should have been removed totally. The comedy track with Jaya Prakash Reddy at least fits in a bit with the main story but Vennela Kishore's track is not needed, especially because it reduces the intensity at crucial moments and increases the length. The same can be said about the romantic thread and the heroine. I have heard that a couple of songs were cut after release which is a good decision given the length of the movie. But in the end I am only nit picking, and I understand that directors have to live with the pressures to make their films commercially viable. Despite this, Prasthanam is an immensely watchable movie.

Bottom Line:

Deva Katta should be applauded for taking his time after Vennela and chosing a nice story. He could have chosen to make a Hero centric story and commercialize it as there is scope for it, but he instead chose to make it more realistic and focus on the emotions of the characters. A pat on the backs of the producers who believed in the director and gave him the freedom to make it on his own terms. Directors like Deva Katta, Chaitana Dantuluri (of Banam fame), Sai Kiran Adivi (of Vinayakudu fame), Krish Jagarlamudi (of Gamyam fame) etc should be encouraged to come up with movies like these. We need them as much as we need star directors like Puri Jagannath, SS Rajamouli and co.

I don't believe in rating movies using stars as it takes away the enjoyment of the film and passes judgement about films and makes comparisons over a quarter or half point. You can also take the easy route and just rate the film between 3-3.5 out of 5 and don't expose yourself to criticism. Ratings are a bad way to assess a movie, yes they are objective but they don't tell the full story. I will only say that I strongly recommend the movie for the brilliant story, wonderful acting, philosophical and deep dialogues and an ingenious climax.

Much has been said and written about the Telugu audiences and how they do not appreciate good stories and only care for the bigger stars and their mass masala movies. In my opinion, that is not a correct assessment. Most of the non - mass masala hit movies are rejected by the audiences because they are poorly written and are formulaic. If directors and script writers can come up with good stories, ingenious plot lines, taut screen plays and if producers have the guts to back them and market the movies well, there is no reason why Telugu audiences wont appreciate and accept such movies. If you deliver mediocrity, after a while the acceptance standards fall. But if you provide choice and make intelligent movies, with in a good budget and market them well then such movies will also be commercially viable and critical successes as well.

Tail Piece:

If you are in India watch it on the big screen, but like me if you are at a place where the only access to Telugu movies is through high speed Internet access, I urge you to watch the official online version of the movie available here: http://www.rajshritelugu.com/Movie/Prasthanam

You can watch if for just $ 1.99, which is a pittance and in fact less than what you would pay for a multiplex ticket in India. There are obviously choices to watch it free, but if we encourage film makers to make available their movies in this way, we can get to watch official, high quality versions and reduce piracy. Who knows, a day might not be far away when a Mahesh Babu or Ram Charan Teja or a Jr NTR movie (or another Prasthanam or another Banam or another Gamyam) will be available in this fashion, first day first show. Why watch shoddy/unclear pirated versions for free when the alternative is to watch official versions for less than a ticket price in India? I take this opportunity to thank Deva Katta, the producers and Rajshri who had the foresight to make this medium of distributing films available to us 'telugu cinema pichollu'.

Lies, Damn Lies and Accounts

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

2009 could not have started on a worse note. S Ramalinga Raju, one of the torchbearers of Indian Outsourcing story admitted to his board of serious fraud, cooking up numbers and bloating the balance sheet and profits over a long period of time. Together with the ban by the World Bank for data theft, the botched Satyam-Maytas deal, this completes the cycle of bad news for Satyam. This is fraud of monumental proportions, at the very top of one of India's most successful IT services companies and can only be compared to what happened over at Enron. This is without doubt corporate India's biggest fraud ever.

That S Ramalinga Raju, one of India's most respected entrepreneurs could resort to such tactics comes as a blow to the image of promoter led companies in India. But more surprising is how he duped investors, regulators and his own employees consistently over a period of time. I deliberately missed adding auditors in that list. Auditors cannot be duped, auditors are not supposed to be duped. PWC, as lead auditors of Satyam were supposed to have caught these lies, but they did not. If they were complicit (like Arthur Anderson have been in the Enron crisis), then their image will take a blow and they too have to face the legal system in India and US (where Satyam is listed). But if they are not complicit, and have also been duped then it raises serious questions on their competence. Especially because, auditors are expected to do audit confirmation directly or indirectly, by checking with the company in question as well as other external sources like their bankers, customers etc. That such fraud of monumental proportions missed the auditors cannot be digested.

The fiasco comes as a blow to the Indian IT services and Indian companies in general especially since most are promoter led. Only now have companies which were started as entrepreneurial ventures or family owned businesses (or where promoters hold majority stake) are going in for professional managements, which is accepted the world over as a good way to avoid governance issues. Corporate Governance has always been a sticky issue in India, but to see a company that has been given an award for Best Corporate Governance to admit such wrong doing is not palatable at all. The role of regulators has been questioned by some of the media, but there is precious little regulators can do if CEOs lie through their teeth. Indian laws may be inadequate in this respect, but Satyam is listed on NYSE and hence is supposed to be compliant of SOX, but even with those checks they managed to getaway. This issue also tarnishes the reputation of Indian IT companies, since they have more often than not chosen to take moral high ground and endeavored to distinguish themselves from the manufacturing sector.

A lot of people have been let down by Ramalinga Raju, his family, Satyam investors (both in India and abroad), Satyam's clients, his board etc. But the people who would feel the most cheated would be Satyam's employees, those unnamed thousands who slog day in and out in an industry which is now facing the brunt of an economic slowdown. They now face uncertainty, tough questions (from their peers and most importantly their clients) and a tense few months ahead. Satyam might be prime target for an acquisition now, with its share price at an abysmal low, but the question is if anyone would dare buy a company deep in losses, straddled with a large workforce and uncertainty over engagements with new/existing clients. For Indian IT companies, Satyam would not be of much value add since it would be like buying more of the same, there is absolutely no difference between Satyam and other Indian IT companies in terms of engagements, process lines, domain expertise and geographical footprint. It will be a tough few months ahead. Hope Satyam's employees do not have to bear the burden of their top management's greed and inefficiency.

This unfortunate crisis proves that there are no holy cows in business. And there could not be a greater irony that the CEO and founder of a company whose name means Truth lied through his teeth.

A hundred 9/11s

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The nightmare has finally come to an end. 60 hours, almost 200 casualties, 500 odd injured, millions of dollars lost, a city wounded, a nation shaken and a world shocked. The terrorists are all dead, the drama on TV is over and Mumbai is limping back to normalcy. What caught my attention is how the media (both Indian and Intl) is dubbing this India's 9/11. But then India did have many more terrorist attacks, so why point this out as our 9/11. The international media can be forgiven for not taking note (or not giving as much importance) of these other acts of terrorism, but surely the Indian media should know better. The argument goes that while we had other acts of terrorism, only this one caught the imagination of the world for its barbarity, cold bloodedness and ingenuity. The response this time has been of even more anger, pain, accusations and demand for answers. But the fact is that each one of those acts of terror over the past 15 years (and more so over the course of 2008) hurt! The fact is that we had a hundred 9/11s. And we were hurt and angry for each one of those! And we demanded answers and action from the Govt for each one of those! But precious little was done or learnt from the terror strikes, apart from the fact that we learnt we are a weak state and a soft target.

The post-mortem has now begun for this 9/11, by the Govt, the opposition, the media and the people. Heads have rolled, the much reviled Shivraj Patil has finally resigned, and so did the chief of IB and the Home Secretary. Chidambaram is the new Home Minister and I am sure the other posts would be filled soon. As many would argue these are mere symbolic gestures and unless we see more systemic changes there is every chance that we will keep having these 9/11s. So what needs to be done? Where are the faults?

1. First and foremost is to beef up our intelligence agencies. While we keep getting intelligence from time to time, it clearly is not enough and is not distributed well (more on that in the next point). But we need to bring up our intelligence agencies on par with the best of the world. We have the agencies (RAW, IB, police and naval intelligence etc), but it is clear that while the set up is present the capabilities are not up to the mark. If that means taking the help of the best in the world like CIA, Mossad, FSB (the successor of KGB in present day Russia). Its time we let reality take precedence over pride. And this is in no way demeaning our agencies, I am sure they try to do a stellar job, but everyone gets rusty from time to time. The other thing is that in the changing geo-political scenario India, US and Israel (and Russia to some extent) find themselves fighting similar enemies (if not the same). More so for Israel and US, they have ensured that they are capable of protecting their citizens on their own soil but they now realize that their citizens are soft targets outside their countries where they cannot do anything but watch. The enhancement of capabilities should be of both TECH INT (technical intelligence, like intercepts, at which India seems to be doing pretty good) and also HUM INT (human intelligence, at which we are supposed to be pretty weak).
   
2. Enhancing capabilities is one thing, ensuring the available intelligence is passed on to the relevant agencies at the right time is another. For the Mumbai attacks, there seem to be two different but very authentic sources of intelligence (US and RAW) which warned of attacks by sea. But somehow this did not flow down to the relevant authorities in Mumbai, atleast that's the defence of those in charge. This is even worse than having no intelligence. Having no coordination after it has been gathered is almost a crime, especially after the millions spent to set up and support the infrastructure and when lives are at stake. What India needs is a central organization that analyses and disseminates information across the country, to the states, to the relevant departments, ministries etc. This organization need not necessarily gather intelligence, as we already have the agencies for that.
   
3. The National Security Guards (NSG), who did such a stellar job in the current crisis have proved beyond doubt that they are equal to, if not better than other similar agencies in the world. To conduct such an operation with comparatively less loss of human lives, especially when there were more than a thousand guests in both hotels and when the terrorists were unwilling to negotiate, speaks volumes of their efficiency. We do not have a problem of numbers here, NSG has around 7500 members (source:bharat-rakshak.com) and have proved to be capable of handling simultaneous, long drawn crises like in the events of past few days. However one glaring issue is that NSG is based out of New Delhi and moving them to crisis sites has proven to be a huge logistical nightmare. 10 hours between start of crisis and landing of NSG at crisis sites is simply not acceptable. This is not a fault of the NSG, they are as good as what the Govt does (which is requesting their assistance). But without waiting for the logistical nightmares to be resolved, NSG should have regional commands (atleast in the 4 metros, to start with), so that even of the request for their help comes late, NSG can reach the site in the shortest possible time. I am sure the NSG is a very well equipped force (unlike our police who use outdated weapons), but they atleast need a few helicopters or planes permanently on standby, close to where they are stationed to move them to the crisis sites pronto (apparently they waited for a plane to come from Chandigarh to New Delhi and transfer them to Mumbai and then for BEST buses to transfer them to the 3 hot spots)
   
4. The much stretched and much reviled police forces should immediately get a facelift, in terms of weapons, equipment, technology, personnel, training etc. Policing is a state subject, but the Centre should take the initiative to lay down the guidelines of police forces in all the states and provide all possible help (monetary, equipment etc) to modernize them. Police forces too should have elite units, akin to SWAT in US (probably similar to GreyHounds of AP State Police) that can immediately reach crisis spots and handle the situation until NSG reaches there. Not all cities have Naval commands and army commands (which allowed the MARCOS and Army to handle the situation until the NSG arrived).
   
5. Providing NSG commandos to VIP and VVIP security should cease immediately. Currently NSG commandos are loaned to the SPG (Special Protection Group) which is responsible for VIP security. If needed, raise a separate elite force for protection for enhace capabilities of SPG to the level of NSG. But NSG should be available only for anti-terror, hostage rescue and other such operations for which it was created and not for running behind ruddy politicians. If the politicans have an iota of remorse left in them, they will voluntarily give up NSG protection. But as we know for them NSG protection is a status symbol, hence the state should act and remove this with immediate affect.
6. The borders should be protected better, that includes land, mountains and sea. Fence the entire border around India, land that is, even if it means spending thousands of crores of tax payers money. That includes borders with hostile neighbours (like Pakistan), friends (Nepal, Bhutan etc) and the ones in between (Bangladesh). No other illegal immigrant should enter India. Fencing would not be enough, technology used be used to the fullest extent (like at the US-Mexico border) and so should more personnel. This would not solve the problem of illegal immigration and infiltration a hundred percent, but no one should think it would be easy to just enter India.
   
7. The same should be extended to the maritime borders, not the fencing of course but use of technology and increased patrols. This obviously is more difficult than anything else said above and easier said than done, with approx 6000 kms of maritime border and territorial waters of 12 nautical miles but if the efforts could at least make it difficult for those who think they can just ride a boat up to our shores without being confronted. Coast Guard and local police patrolling the maritime borders and who are responsible for protecting our coasts, should again be the beneficiaries of spending in this area.
   
8. The current pilot project of issuing National Identity Cards should immediately be implemented for the entire country. This will not solve the problem of illegal immigrants who have already made this their home and the numerous sleeper cells that have already penetrated into our country, but this will be some kind of deterrent in the future.
9. Bring back strong anti terror legislation, TADA or POTA whatever it is called in whatever form (for example Maharashtra has MCOCA, Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act which allowed the police to hold the only captured terrorist at an undisclosed location and without filing an FIR). We had enough of pseudo-secular parties saying strong anti-terror laws will be misused. Well, that means even those that created this system has so less confidence in it. All kinds of laws get mis used, the way out is to build checks and balances around them, but not scrapping them altogether!
   

I am no expert in these matters. I am just an ordinary average Indian, and the immense anger that welled up in me after the audacious attacks made me write this. I am totally pissed off and so are millions of Indians. How dare they attack my country like this? If our political masters feel half this anger, things will be better. There are experts out there who can provide better and more actionable suggestions. Take their help, pay them if you want, ask the help of our allies who would be very obliging if asked.

All this would cost money and take time to be put in place. But then this is a matter of national security and the citizens of this country will not mind paying for this. So tax us, put surcharges but in the end of the benefits would be worth it. Indians have long given up the hope that their elected representatives would make their lives better, provide them with social security, food security, energy security, good roads, portable drinking water, good education, employment opportunities etc. It might sound fatalistic, but Indians have more or less stopped expecting their own representatives to provide these. They decide to get these things on their own, make a decent life of their own and provide for their families. They move across the country in search of livelihood, taking in stride all the prejudice, parochialism, regionalism, religious divide, casteism and all such despicable things drummed up by the politicians. They fight all these and the system to just get ahead in life. All they are asking is to provide security, security that while going out to work or an outing with their family, someone doesn't come up and pump a dozen bullets and blow up the train they are travelling in. Infact every Indian knows that its impossible for the Govt to provide this security, but they would be happy if the intent was there.

Mumbai, Bleeding!

Friday, November 28, 2008

2 days and nights of terror, blood and gore in Mumbai! And its still not over yet! 160 dead at last count, scores injured, many still missing, families torn apart and a city, a nation and a world aghast at the sheer cold blooded murderous rage of a handful people! 

They stuck India and Mumbai again, this time the scale, coordination, precision and planning is unparalleled! They stuck at 10 places and places in the heart of Mumbai's tourist and financial centres! While all previous attacks were targeted at the average working Indian, this time they also stuck at India's elite and foreigners! If poor and middle class Indians were targeted at Cama Hospital and Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the rich, famous and foreign tourists staying at the premier and upmarket hotels like the Taj Mahal hotel and Oberoi/Trident were also in their gun sights! Those dead and injured were across the cross section of society, religion and nationality! Americans, Germans, Indian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Parsi, poor, rich, middle class, bell boys, policemen, interns, businessmen, tourists, young, old, men, women, children, white, black, brown. You just cannot categorize them! A cruel and ironic reminder that the divisions and categorisations we create do not stand in front of terror, we are all equally the target! 

I came home on the evening of 26th from office and logged in to CNN-IBN to catch the day's news and saw the terror unfolding on the laptop, my first thoughts were of my brother who is working in Mumbai for a multinational and would be returning from work at that time! I called him and was relieved to hear his voice, but a shudder ran down my spine when he said how he passed the flyover at Vile Parle just a couple of hours before a blast ripped through a taxi there! I initially thought these are a kind of serial blasts again, but they innovated this time to cause maximum panic and loss of loves! They fired indiscriminately at commuters at CST, killed top policemen, stole their patrol vehicle and went on a kind of ride around the city just firing randomly at passersby (which was dramatically caught on tape), fired at patients at a hospital and took 2 hotels and a Jewish house hostage! These look like random events, but are all part of a sophisticated, well planned and extremely well executed operation! It makes my gut wrench that I am kind of praising their efforts with those words, but the truth is that they did what they planned to do! 

There are a lot of unanswered questions: Who are these people? How did they manage to sneak into the city undetected by the sea? Was the Govt slow in responding? What took the Govt almost 9 hrs to get the NSG commandos near the buildings? Where was the intelligence? Where were the warnings? If they were, why were they not acted upon? Why were such important hotels so vulnerable and so weakly guarded? These are questions the common man, the media, world governments whose civilians were dead, the victims and their families are asking. As is the wont, they expect the Govt to answer them! But the sad thing is that our Govt has no answers! Its not just about who is in power right now (its another matter that those in power right now presided over almost 50 years of incompetence and some of the bloodiest attacks on our nation, cities and people), but its about the class we keep sending to our parliament and state assemblies year after year and election after election! Just a couple of examples: our very 'articulate' union home minister Shivraj Patil told one of the news channels "By the time I arrived at the place the 

terrorists had left". I think the terrorists missed a chance there to shake hands with his royal highness and take a snap with him! On the other side of the political divide, BJP and LK Advani, although quiet for one long day, clearly lost their patience and launched into a scathing attack on the Govt! What was worse was the way they patted themselves on the back for the way they handled terror during their rule (like escorting terrorists in exchange for hostages). 

The sheer incompetence of this class has been known to Indians for years and we have long lost hoping anything sane from them, but now even the world knows that this glorious democracy we keep touting, this shining India, this resurgent economy, this ancient civilisation is run by a bunch of incompetent, corrupt and care-a-damn jokers! We have scientists who send satellites to the moon at half the cost, we have defence forces who can fight against any army in the world, commandos who are best in the business, best geeks, best businessmen, best of everything, we also have the worst of the politicians! And who elects these glorious bunch? We! 

America suffered the biggest ever terrorist strike ever, it remained the biggest and the only one on its soil! Today, America is perhaps the most hated country in the world, there are perhaps millions of people wanting to attack America, but America ensured that no other attack took place on its soil! Yes we are a more complicated country than America, home to a diverse population, not as developed, but if not action, intent of action can deter many attacks! The intent is what we are missing!

What do we need to do now? I guess thats a whole different story! Perhaps another post! Meanwhile, fingers crossed and hoping that they flush out or kill the remaining terrorists still holed up in the Taj Mahal hotel without any more loss of innocent lives! The Taj Mahal hotel is a glorious structure, I stood gaping at it when I first visited Mumbai from across the Gateway of India. Its the symbol of how Jametji Tata cocked a snook at the uppity colonial govt that refused him entry into a British hotel! It was on fire for 2 days, and is now filled with blood of innocent victims, but still stands in all its grandeur and splendour! Its a metaphor for Mumbai, which is more or less the same now! Mumbai is bleeding! My heart is numb and mind blank! 

Jimmy Boy - Part 3

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Continues from Jimmy Boy - Part 2

After a few years in Guntur our family moved to Vijayawada, as Mom got a job as a lecturer in a famous college. We sold our house and moved lock, stock and barrel to Vijayawada. This was the turning point in Jimmy's life as we had moved into a house which had 2 other portions. This meant Jimmy had to be kept on leash lest he wandered into the neighbour's area and relieved himself. He immensely disliked it having enjoyed unimaginable freedom for the first 10 years of his life. He barked for days on end, tugged at the leash and made several futile attempts to chew away the leash. To ease his pain we made a longish leash which ensured he could wander till the confines of our house. He got used to this over the months but he still severely missed the wide open yard, his old pals – the garden lizards and the butterflies.

In the first few days though he was the cynosure of all eyes because of his unique looks and mixed heritage. Since he was put on a leash and had little freedom, me and my brother and occasionally Dad took him out each morning and evening on a tour of the colony. It gave him an opportunity to meet the neighbourhood dogs and sniff new scents. He and the other dogs were on quite friendly terms and I should say this veteran was quite a hit with the females (of both species, dogs and humans). Which brings me to his sex life, which I should sadly admit was non-existent till then! I was in my teens then and understood that all animals had such wants and wondered if this celibate would ever have that opportunity. I never dared suggest this to Dad though.

Then one day, Jimmy disappeared. His leash was torn and he wasn't to be found anywhere. We searched the neighbourhood on bicycles and those who knew us and Jimmy if he was seen anywhere, but to no avail. Then word came through a domestic help who works in another part of the region that he was spotted there. We rushed ther but again he managed to elude us. We came back with heavy hearts fearing that he ran away from us, which was very difficult to digest. Mom sent us to School so that we would put it behind us but it was impossible to pay any attention to what was happening. We went back home in the evening and found that he hasn't returned yet. We quickly set out in search of him again. Just as we came out of the house, we saw him in a distance, dragging himself back. He looked very tired and ragged but I was sure I saw a look of immense satisfaction on his face. He drank a lot of water and ate whatever Mom gave him. We were all of course thrilled that he was back with us! I did not realise it at the moment but when I later thought about it I hoped he found the only thing missing from his life till then, which i mentioned above! That probably explained the look of satisfaction I saw on his face. The grizzly veteran finally did it (hopefully)!

It was amazing that he lived so long. By 1996 he was 14, a rare age for a Dog. Age mellowed him and also ravaged his body. He lost most of his brownish mane was his skin was a mass of open wounds. He lost his appetite and eyesight. He would frequently bump into the wall or the bushes while walking. He developed fits later on and it after that he refused to come out for walks and rarely ventured out of his kennel. We took him to a Vet who was amazed that he lived so long and advised us against any medicines as he was very very old and should be allowed to die a natural death. We considered mercy killing but were not able to bring ourselves to do it.

It was March 10th 1996. The Cricket World Cup was on and India was playing Pakistan in a tense Quarterfinal match at Bangalore. The whole of India was watching it with bated breath as India riding on a Jadeja onslaught on Waqar posted a challenging total for Pakistan. We were watching the match in the neighbouring house at our relatives place, Anwar and Sohail started in a superb fashion. Everyone was fearing the worst and there was silence in the room. Since we were just next door we heard Mom calling us. Looking from the gate I feared the worst as Dad was bringing a rickshaw and mom was standing there sobbing. Jimmy had died a few minutes back. Me and my brother sobbed uncontrollably. We buried him in an open field nearby.

By the time we came back, word had spread that Jimmy died and the neighbours and our relatives congregated to offer their condolences and console us. Our relatives took us with them thinking the cricket match would help divert attention. Venkatesh Prasad clean bowled Aamir Sohail (the famous incident that is recounted by every cricket fan, wide eyed) and the room erupted. It was probably the only time we dint cheer when India did well in a cricket match.

Even now when we see replays of that incident, I feel a sense of loss. Jimmy was like the third son to our parents and a dear brother. He gave us a lot of memories to recount. Its almost 11 years to the day since he died and I have never recounted Jimmy's life in this detail to anyone. These are the bits of memories we share whenever the family conversation diverts to him! He holds a special place in our hearts.

Jimmy Boy - Part 2

Continues from Jimmy Boy - Part 1

Jimmy loved us all a lot, of course, as any other dog would love his adopted family. He would wag his long tail and lick us all over the face after we came back from school. We would then share our evening snack with him before proceeding to do our homework. He loved Dad too, he never let Dad go into the house after he came back from work unless he patted him and nuzzled him, but as much as he liked Dad he was also petrified of him. No one quite knew why, my dad never even hit him, but he was scared none the less. If he wasn't behaving himself and wouldn't listen to us, all it took was a shout from Dad and he would quiet down immediately, bow his head, put his tail down and walk away. It was an amazing sight, as we never even trained him to obey commands. But he was Jimmy, and he had an aggressive streak in him! He had strong likes and dislikes and me and my brother fell in the former category. Much as he was afraid of Dad, he would start barking at Dad if he found we were at the receiving end of one of Dad's rare outbursts of anger. Visitors to our house of course never believed this. So we put up a show for their benefit. Dad would suddenly call out our names, show mock anger and start scolding us, sometimes using a ruler for effect. His shouts never failed to attract Jimmy who would come dashing to the entrance, stand on the steps and start barking at Dad drawing chuckles and claps from visitors. Jimmy never understood why everyone was serious one moment and laughing the next and would go on barking for some more time probably realising that we pulled a fast one on him.

He loved splashing himself in puddles of water after a strong spell of rain and cover himself with mud, but it wasn't as though he particularly liked water. If he suspected that we were going to give him a bath, he would run away. We had to corner him, avoid his teeth and leash him to get him a bath. Since we stayed in the tropics, we would typically use the cold water from the well, drawing it out using a long bucket and dumping buckets upon buckets of water upon him. He would bear this for a while (perhaps secretly enjoying the cool water from the well), but just as we were thinking that he was taking this lying down, he would shake himself and drench us in water. His mane would stand up all over him and once finished, he would give us a long satisfied triumphant yelp.

As for his dislikes, it included any foreign creature invading his territory. One of Jimmy's favourite pastimes was to sit near the gate and peep from the grill and 'greet' anyone walking on the street. He particularly disliked the early risers from the neighbouring labour colony who attended calls of nature early in the morning. But anyone trying to squat anywhere near the vicinity of the house was scared away by a ferocious volley of abuse from Jimmy. It amused Dad a lot as he unsuccessfully tried to shoo them away from doing the disgusting thing near our house.

But Jimmy had a pet hate, his bete noir, in the form of another Dog called Johnny. Johnny was a nondescript but was fed by our neighbours and he would move in and out of their house at will, roaming the neighbourhood quite freely. He was also quite strong unlike other street dogs as he was well fed by the kindly neighbours but had the aggressive streak of a street dog. No one quite knew how or why Jimmy and Johnny hated each other so much, but they would let out a string of insults at each other whenever Johnny passed in front of our house. In fact Johnny would make sure Jimmy was at the gate, wait if he wasn't and made sure he made his feelings known. He also frequently trailed the neighbours whenever they paid a visit to the house, unsuccessfully trying to sneak in to our house. We knew what would happen if he came in and made sure the gate was always locked. But one day Johnny and Jimmy were having a particularly bad day and Johnny just rushed in the moment we opened the door a little. What followed was a fierce battle between the two dogs. They fell over each other, bit and scratched each other and made so much racket that it borough the entire neighbourhood to our house. No one dared go near them for fear of getting bitten by one or both the dogs. For us it was a pain to watch as Jimmy, although holding up quite well in a fight against a seasoned street fighter, appeared tot be losing the fight. Just when it started looking bad, the neighbour's son walked straight into the middle of the two dogs and kicked Johnny so severely he fell a few feet away and ran out of the gate, leaving Jimmy, quite literally licking his wounds. He was given medical attention by a Vet and recovered quite soon but his hate and fear of Johnny only increased after that. Thankfully after that both never had a chance to shake hands again.

Dogs love food and it was probably his bad luck that he was adopted into a Telugu Brahmin household. During the initial years in the Old house his chances of eating meat were few and far between as there was no one who could buy meat and feed it to him. It was still socialist India where you couldn't go to the local Hypermarket and buy Dog food off the shelf. His luck improved when we moved into the new house. We had a domestic help whose responsibility it was to buy meat every Sunday and feed Jimmy. Needless to say Jimmy saw the lady as an Angel.

Jimmy Boy - Part 1

He came into our family in April of 1982 when he was barely few days old, just a few months younger than my younger brother (Phani) who was born in the January of the same year. My dad’s friend brought him in a small basket. He was pale white and very tiny just like any newborn pup. However a brownish mane started appearing after just a few days. I did not know it at that time, but I was later told that he was a cross between a dachshund and an Alsatian. So he was slightly taller than a dachshund, but had the looks of an Alsatian. He had to be named and this onerous task fell upon my young shoulders. I tried to shirk away trying to get my brother in. But since all he could manage was childish gibberish I had to take up the enormous task. Creativity has never been my strong point even at the age of 2 years! So I was given a choice – Tiger and Jimmy. I had two strong objections to the first option. First of all, how can you call a Dog a Tiger? This clearly stemmed from my ‘education’, which had started just then! I could tell a tiger from a dog and there is no way my family could hoodwink me into believing it by naming a dog a tiger. Secondly, what if the poor thing started believing he was a tiger! The very thought was scary. So it came to pass that he was named ‘Jimmy’!

Jimmy was snatched away from his family at a tender age and forced to live with another, of a different species. But there was no way he was going to know it or realize it. As far as he was concerned we were his family and our home was his home. And he proceeded to show it in the strongest possible ways. Like roaming all over the house and marking his ‘territory’! Like yapping at everything inside the house that he dint like. That included immovable objects and sometimes moving things like my brother’s cradle. So my parents' daily duties included cleaning after my brother and Jimmy.

The only time he used to behave himself was when my paternal grand mom used to read out Sanskrit slokas from the Bhagavadgita and other hymns. He used to lie at my grandma’s feet with his head between his legs and seemed to listen to everything she said with rapt attention. My granny used to teach me all the stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Puranic Stories. And I used to enjoy these and clamored for more. She could understand the enthusiasm and curiosity of a 2 yr old kid. But the attention and apparent interest of a Dog was something she fancied a lot. But his intransigences with his calls of nature became too much for the collective patience of the family. Moreover, he refused to learn the art of dashing out at the right time. Hence he was banished into the open.

My father’s reasoning was that he was getting bigger and needed more space to roam around. And wasn’t ‘security’ part of his duties. He believed that Jimmy should start behaving like a grown-up. The first few nights were painful for him, the family and the neighbours. He yelped all night and proceeded to sleep only in the mornings. But like any other dog, he got used to it with time. Part of the reason was that he had a huge open field to explore. Within no time, he knew he was the king of the yard. He chased after butterflies and hunted garden lizards and barked at crows perched over the compound walls. But he had a special bond with a band of monkeys that terrorized the neighbourhood. These monkeys would descend on the colony and create havoc by shattering the street lights and also the neighbourhood peace, eating the fruit in gardens and attacking anyone who dared to question their activities.

As I said they had a special bond with Jimmy. They liked nothing more than irritating him. It was a well planned and precisely executed operation, which had to be seen to be believed. All the monkeys would perch on the well in our garden and taunt Jimmy, while Jimmy tried desperately to get anywhere near them. Suddenly one of these apes would stealthily approach Jimmy from behind and pull his tail and before the dog could even turn his head, the monkey would scamper back to the safety of the wall. It used to drive Jimmy crazy, but all he could do was bark, run around the well and jump at the simian creatures. Once the monkeys were tired of the games they would take leave of their buddy and retreated into the next row of houses leaving Jimmy barking after them.

As he grew up, he quickly became aware of my dad's contention that security was part of his duties. The only problem was the definition of security was never clearly explained to him, so he proceeded to create his own definition. So anyone without a security clearance were strictly forbidden from entering anywhere near his vicinity. This applied to lizards, crows, his monkey pals and neighbours he dint like. He took exception to anyone outside the family standing in front yard and chatting away. He would walk around them and mark them as part of his territory. It was as though he was saying “Go inside and talk or stand outside the gate and talk. You stand in my yard and talk, you end up as my territory! You will be marked with my hybrid pee”

A few of the neighbours were at the wrong end of this treatment, but instead of getting angry at him, they reminisced about it fondly. In fact soon they started comparing notes and those who weren't touched by his mighty pee were deemed unfortunate. But as I said, he did take his security duties very seriously and managed to scare away a thief or two, as vouched by the next door neighbours. In fact whenever they went out of town, Jimmy was made aware so that he could keep an eye on the neighbour's house.

When he was about 6 (and I about 8) we moved to our own house in a different area. He strongly disliked this change of place and dashed back to the house when we were transporting him in a rickshaw. He felt insecure and scared and rightly so! However once he saw the new house, he fell in love with it. It had an even bigger yard and a lot more creatures to pester. He missed his simian friends, but loved the high grass, into which he would disappear for long hours. Once again he was the King, of a different jungle though! So it dint matter to him one bit that we moved to a new place.

The previous house was part of a residential neighbourhood and there was very less chance of the yard being infested with snakes. So we were allowed to roam freely in the old yard. But the new house was something else, it was surrounded by open fields and so snakes became regular visitors inside the house. Again, it was Jimmy to the rescue. I have lost count of the number of times he found snakes hidden under a pile of stones or a bush or a thick outgrowth of grass. If he was found barking for a few minutes at an apparently harmless stone, the message was that there was something lurking underneath. Immediately the local snake charmer was summoned, who happily extricated the unsuspecting snake and reward Jimmy with a pat on his head.

Me and my brother (we dint have many friends in the deserted colony) used to play cricket in the big yard and Jimmy would keep watch. He wasn't allowed near the ball. Now we were only two of us and would have loved the extra fielder, but it doesn't help if the said fielder runs away with the ball, does it? So he would just totter in the area sulking. But sometimes being a nice boy was too much for him. My brother would play a sumptuous straight drive and the ball appears headed towards the boundary, when Jimmy would appear out of nowhere, execute a Jonty style dive and make away with the ball. It used to take us a while to retrieve the ball after which we would have a long argument whether it was a boundary of not.

Horn OK Please

Monday, November 13, 2006

A Mumbai Taxiwala starts his day with his Taxi owner demanding his pay, he then proceeds to start the taxi with by hitting the engine with a spanner, meets assorted characters, dreams of buying his own brand-new taxi and sees his dreams go up in smoke in just the space of one day! Yet he starts afresh, the next day! This short animation feature, titled Horn OK Please - that ubiquitous message on the back of most trucks and taxis in India, is as much a tribute to the Mumbai taxiwala as it is a story of most taxi/auto drivers in India.

Inspired from the experiences of director Joel Simon in Mumbai, the short animation feature, created by Irish and Indian animators using clay models and hand drawn backgrounds won several awards. Mixing brilliant animation with a taut script and wonderful background score, the short film is a striking advertisement for short animation features.

Read more about the film and one of its creators, Vaibhav Kumaresh - an NID Ahmedabad alumnus, here.

Trivius

Friday, October 20, 2006

Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), IIT Bombay, my alma mater is conducting its annual BFest - Avenues. They have an interesting online quiz running. Check it out.

This format of quizzing is the latest fad on the internet. Remember to read the rules carefully and check out the Avenues blog as it has some pretty nice clues, in case you get stuck, which I promise you will. The quiz has apparantly already been cracked, but dont let that stop you. It can be quite addictive once you crack the initial few rounds. And oh, I am not even halfway through yet!

Micket 2006

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Its that time of the Cricket calender again. The jamboree reaches India for 3 weeks of Micket - Mickey mouse cricket. What else can you call it? When you have all the cricket playing nations in the world - from the mighty Australia to the hopeless Zimbabwe and Bangladesh - playing for glory and you dont call it the World Cup, and you schedule it exactly 6 months before the world cup, it has to be called mickey mouse cricket, a comic caper which is somehow supposed to set the world afire.

Cricket administrators have never been known for their creativity. How else can you call a tournament that has all the cricket playing nations in the world, the Champions Trophy? We have heard of the Champions League in Football in which the top teams of Europe compete against each other. Then there is the Champions Trophy in Hockey in which only the top 6 teams in the world compete. But only in Cricket do we have this farce where every one worth playing international cricket, and some not even worth even that get a chance to play.

The Champions Trophy started in 1998 under the name mini World Cup (later changed to ICC Knockout Tournament before finally settling on Champions Trophy) to spread the gospel of cricket in the non believers of cricket religion. I spoke earlier of mickey mouse cricket, cricket almost came close to being genuinely called that as one of the places under consideration for the inaugural tournament was Disney Land. Thankfully, it never materialized. Till now 4 tournaments have taken place, with the minnows alternating between the usual suspects Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya to the Netherlands and the US. Together these 5 countries played 20 matches without managing to win even one of them.

The contests between the top tier teams have also not been evenly matched, with only a few matches creating some flutter like the Ind vs Aus and Ind vs NZ contests in the 2000-01 edition in Kenya, the final of the last tournament in England when WI managed to beat England, in what can be termed as the only upset so far.

In addition none of the teams seem to be too keen in this money making exercise. Take this year’s tourney. Aus and Eng have made it abundantly clear that they don't appreciate playing in a meaningless ODI contest just before the Ashes. The Indian board isn't too keen either, as they don't like seeing all the revenue from a potential tri-series being taken away by the ICC. Never mind that the tournament itself was the brain child of Jagmohan Dalmiya when he was the ICC chief.

But the Indian paying public wont mind. They will flock even the Bdesh vs Zim game and fill the coffers of the ICC. SL and WI will make it in as the qualifiers and we will hopefully see some interesting games. There might also be some experimentation by the teams keeping the WC in mind, so dont cross your fingers. Aus or Pak might win this time, both having never made it to the final till date.

So here’s to the most meaningless tournament in the cricket calender. May you see some cricket.

BBC gets the wrong 'Guy'!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Literally!

Imagine you are at a television studio to pick up someone. Someone calls your name and you respond and they take you into a studio, put you in front of half-a-dozen cameras, attach a microphone and the anchor starts asking questions about Apple winning a lawsuit against the Beatles. What would you say?

Well, this London cabbie found himself in such a situation when he was waiting for picking up someone at the BBC studios. It so happened that he shared his first name (Guy) with a technology expert and the studio staff put him on air instead of the expert and started asking him questions on the latest lawsuit between Apple and the Beatles! The cabbie, to his credit, was flustered initially but later went on to answer the questions as only a London cabbie would! What was wierd about the whole fracas was that the expert is a white bearded dude, while the cabbie is a bald black man!

Catch the entire store here, along with a link to download the video. Dont miss the cabbie's expressions when he is shown on air for the first time! Priceless! Its such an ROTFL moment! I've watched it a dozen times till now, and each time laughed till my stomach hurt! He is sooo cute!

And check out the expert's own take on the whole thing here!

Bangalore...Whither goest thou?

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Scene: A busy traffic junction.You are on a bike waiting for the light to turn green! So are a hundred others on bikes, scooters, cars and buses. Suddenly someone jumps the red light! Would you go after him and give him a lecture on traffic and civic sense? You might! What if the car that jumped the Red light belonged to the Assistant Commissioner of Police of that City with the gentleman himself in the passenger seat? Would you still chase him down and lecture him in public?

A 'Hindustani' did it in Bangalore! His name is Swaroop Srinath!

Link to the story and original post on this here!

I am sure there are a lot of good cops out there in Bangalore, but stories like the above and this do not give any reassurance to me!

Budhia and Kutral

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Recent news reports have been abuzz with this kid called Budhia Singh, from Orissa, who all of 4 years old, ran 65 kms non-stop. It was not just Indian media, both print and electronic, but foreign media as well who wrote in awe about the Marathon Kid. The amazing story of a slum kid who was sold for Rs.800 by his mother, whose precocious talent was 'discovered' by a Judo instructor caught the imagination of press worldwide. It was not just his apparant stamina at such a young age but the manner in which it was discovered that made headlines. The kid apparantly jumped over the fence of the yard in which the judo instructor was training his wards. To teach the impertinent kid a lesson, the 'guru' told him to run round the yard. When he returned 5 hours later, he found the kid still running! Stuff of Hindi or telugu movies? Where the hero cycles for 10 days to earn the gazillion dollar prize money!?

The kid dint win any prize money, but he won the admiration of the coach who recognized his amazing talent, took him under his wing to make a champion runner out of him! He started running in competitions at an age when most kids are still carried by their parents! His latest achievement (he ran from Puri to Bhubaneswar) made the media and the public go crazy. In a nation starved of world beating sportsmen, in a billion strong nation which every four years suffers the ignominy of returning almost empty handed from the Olympics (save for saviours like Leander Paes or Karnam Malleswari or Rajyavardhan Rathore), Budhia represented a fond hope!

When was the last time a 'kid' created a sensation in sports or related activities? If Sachin Tendulkar was a 'kid' when he faced Waqar's bouncers fearlessly, then what should we term this boy? What do you call a 4 year old boy who runs for 65 kms? The media was ready! He was called 'Marathon Kid', 'Pocket Hercules', 'India's Forrest Gump', 'India's answer to kenyan runners' and so on!

But where there is a success, there is a controversy! NGOs and Human Rights groups shouted from roof tops that he was being exploited by his coach, that his life is in danger and that the courts and Govt should intervene in protecting the young boy. Would the protests have been raised if it was his Dad instead of his coach? Another instance of such foster-parent-exploitation allegations occured quite sometime back in South Africa, although in completely unrelated and quite tragic circumstances. Concerns raised when a 12 yr old South African Black kid called Nkosi Johnson, who was affected with HIV/AIDS from birth, increased awareness among African public through his rousing speeches. The impact was huge, and Nkosi later died from the Syndrome but not before human rights groups accused his foster mother (who incidentally was White) of putting him under tremondous pressure and scrutiny by encouraging him to give more and more speeches.

Such concerns are genuine and in one way its imporant that such concerns are raised lest we get carried away. But, like it happened to so many 'child prodigies' in India, will Budhia Singh become another footnote in India's long list of 'what might have beens'!? Case in point: Kutraleeswaran! This boy from Tamil Nadu swam six channels in 1994 and was included in the Guinness Book of World Records at the age of 13! he became a sensation in long distance swimming after breaking Mihir Sen's record of crossing five channels in a calendar year. So where is he now? Except from Rediff.com's article on him:

Even as a 16-year-old, Kutral was sad about the way his father had to run around each time a competition came up. He had said then, 'I was to participate in a competition in Germany. Everything from tickets to visa were ready. We were to start at 5.30 in the evening. At 3 pm we got a call from the sponsors. They said they could not sponsor me. My brother had gone to Bombay to arrange for the visa. At the last moment we had to cancel everything. I cannot say how disappointed I was.'
.....

'In other countries, if you excel in some sports you are eligible for good jobs. But here, unless you have a good academic background, you will not get any job. So, I am forced to give more importance to studies than swimming. Given a chance I would like to channelise all my energy into swimming.'

He couldn't, and decided to concentrate on studies. Reason: "Lack of sponsorship."I wanted a strong supporting career of my own, hence decided to concentrate on academics. Ethically, it was a painful decision, but logically practical and comfortable. But it was indeed very hard for me to come to terms (with the fact) that I was leaving competitive swimming," recalled Kutral. When he realised that every competition abroad was a burden on his parents, he decided to call it quits.

Will Budhia Singh become another Kutraleeswaran? If the same public adoration, support and concern for him continue, he may not, but public memory is short in India and Budhia became a STAR at just 4!

Fate or Talent?

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Just read that Sandeep Acharya, from Bikaner, Rajasthan has become Indian Idol 2 beating NC Karunya, from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. I have been following this programme for quite some time now and I shamelessly concede that Karunya is a much better singer, both technically and in terms of his versatality.

Sandeep's voice starts and ends with Udit Narayan! He is a good singer, but not a brilliant singer, which I think Karunya is! Sandeep also does not have the range of Karunya nor does he have the technical depth! One on one Karunya is a much better singer! Karunya sings everything from Classical Carnatic to Punjabi Bhangra with equal ease, with everything in between! Even while singing songs of playback singers, Karunya can change his modulation to suit the style of many singers! Be it the 'josh' of Kishore Kumar or the 'pagalpan' of Sukhwinder Singh or the melodiousness of Sonu Nigam! My favorites are 'Kawa kawa' and Manna De's 'Jhanak Jhanak baaje paayaliya' which I think represent the two extremes of Hindi Music or for that matter Indian Music!

Sandeep was consistently in the top 2-3 while Karunya time and again, to the surprise of the judges and his supporters, almost always managed to come in the bottom 2-3. It was never a secret as to whom the judges preferred, they time and again openly said that they though Karunya is a better singer! In addition, it was Karunya's choice of songs that left every one asking for more! He had consistently chosen difficult songs to sing while Sandeep always chose the easy wasy out singing more popular numbers without really experimenting too much.

But Karunya has come a long long way since the first episode! Consider this: Hindi is not his mother tongue, he is from a state which has a very strong vernacular film industry. I am myself from Andhra and I can vouch for the 'film craziness' of andhrites! We are fed on a staple diet of Telugu songs and movies since childhood! An average Andhrite is probably a better speaker of Hindi than any other South Indian with the exception of probably Kannadigas, but still its not easy to learn, forget mastering 3 different languages! He starts with an obvious disadvantage because of these factors...I still remember the legendary Javed Akhtar telling Karunya how to pronouce 'khayal' and 'khwab' while agreeing that such intricate things are probably difficult for an average South Indian to keep in mind!

So was I surprised with the result? Disappointed yes, but Surprised No! Because for quite some time now, somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew that with the voting system and its patterns of late, Sandeep stood a better chance! Is it regionalism? Is it North vs South? Is it the fact that down South, because of the strength of regional TV channels, Indian Idol or for that matter any Hindi Channel is not watched as much as it is watched in North or West? The arguments and counterarguments will go on, as will the 'what if' questions! What if Anuj Sharma who was voted out after the piano round had not come back because another finalist dropped out? Dont forget that this 'turn of fate' led to him displacing Amey Date going into the final 3, once again due to curious voting. And there was a mini riot after the judges walked out in protest disagreeing with the decision! So what if Amey wasnt voted out and instead made it to the final three along with Karunya and Sandeep!

But as quite curiously everyone from the judges to the hosts kept 'hinting', I think 'fate' won over 'talent'! There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Karunya has serious talent, one which the industry cannot afford to ignore! He has all the qualities of a good play back singer and there is no question that music directors will be quite excited by his talent! In one way, its probably a blessing in disguise for Katunya! Without the tag of Indian Idol, he is not bound by any contracts to Sony Music! He is quite free to pursue his own career which I am sure will take off the moment the dust settles over the excitement of Indian Idol!

Just to prove that Indian Idol is not everything, Abhijeet Sawant performed at the end of Idol 2 finale and he gave an absolutely pathetic renedition of RDB's title song, which I am sure made A R Rahman the music director and Daler Mehndi the singer choke over their dinner, if by chance they were watching! I may sound cliched, but votes and hype can never beat pure, unadulterated, exciting and real talent, which Karunya has in abundance!

A biased view of a Neutral State

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

When you land in a foreign country for the first time, you form certain first impressions of that country, its people, its customs and it’s working. These sometimes supplement the associations you have formed about it while sometimes it goes against the best or worst imageries you have about that country.

Similarly I had my own ideas about Switzerland, which I am sure are no different from the viewpoint of the average Indian. Especially since such views were reinforced by a mélange of Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movies which showed snowcapped mountains with the hero and heroine dancing atop them. The heroine is generally covered with nothing more than the average Indian ‘movie sari’ (read: sleeveless blouse, sari below the navel). That the heroine seemed ecstatic just to be dancing in the snow even in that cold never quite sat well with me. And the fact that the Hero is always clad in the best of the clothes (read: woolen or leather jacket with a hundred layers of clothing underneath it) did not make things any better. I had a soft corner for all those poor heroines who gladly stripped off. Although I tend to ignore my friend who says he would dance naked for an hour in the same snow if he is even paid half of what the movie stars are paid.

Another set idea I had about the country is that its people are business like, stiff and very methodical. This was a view that was fostered by the numerous books and movies about Swiss banks and Swiss bankers. Since the banks protected the monies of their clientele and more importantly their identities with such dogged efficiency and utmost discretion biased my views about the Swiss.

The other images I had about Switzerland, other than its snow capped mountains and its banks were of course its spas, cheese, chocolates, watches and Swiss Army Knives. And also that the Swiss buses, trains and trams run notoriously on time. These were the things I had in mind when my company asked me to travel to Switzerland.

So time for reality check! The image about snow capped mountains turned out to be quite true, only this time around it was not Indian movie stars dancing atop them. Rather it was the global heads of state, meeting to discuss globalization and competitiveness issues atop the snow clad resort of Davos. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a certain Manmohan Singh and a certain Chidambaram were among the most sought after people at Davos. Watching German TV at my apartment, I felt rather proud to see images of both these nice fellas accompanied by incomprehensible news in German.

Then, the people! It was interesting to note that the people are rather friendly and not the stiff business types I expected. As Zurich is among the Financial Nerve Centers of the world, you get to see and meet people from diverse nationalities. Around my cubicle are an Englishman, a Chinese lady, a Pole, a South African and me an Indian. And this in just a few square meters of space. Clichéd as it may be but the word ‘microcosm’ immediately comes to mind!

Contrasting my other images of Switzerland were images of a beggar (only one!) on Zurich’s world famous shopping district, a gay couple kissing on an escalator while people watched open-mouthed (most of the onlookers were goras), Swiss versions of taporis teasing a gorgeous girl in a bus and finally a gigantic billboard hanging down the Zurich airport shouting “INDIA FASTEST GROWING FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY”!

Enough to make me feel at home!

Catch-22 in Indian Parliament

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Yet another sting operation. Yet another scandal. Yet another set of lawmakers caught on camera greasing their hands.

Yes, it’s the Tehelka-Aaj Tak sting operation that netted a dozen MPs of the Indian parliament cutting across party lines. This time they took money for asking questions in parliament.

This expose was headed by Aniruddha Bahal (yeah the same dude who did the Operation Westend exposing the nexus between defence contractors and politicians, which ended the political career of Bangaru Laxman) with the name Operation Duryodhan. The mission: Catch corrupt MPs on camera taking bribes for asking questions. The expose shocked the nation, and prompted swift suspensions across party lines. The worst affected of the lot was BJP (6 of its MPs were caught on camera) which till yesterday was stalling the Parliament on the Natwar Singh-Volcker issue.

I was leafing through Bahal’s website Cobrapost.com, to get a lowdown on the whole operation. Bahal explains it in details all the way from the meticulous planning, how each of the MPs were approached through middlemen, even the details of the cover his team had (For details on how it began, click here). They were using the cover of the fictitious North Indian Small Manufacturers Association (NISMA) headquartered in Moradabad.

I was particularly interested in knowing if any of the questions submitted by NISMA were asked in the Parliament. They were not, but they entered the Parliament’s system that accepts questions and then shortlists a few to be read out during the Question Hour.

Here is a selection of some of the questions which were actually submitted to the Parliament.

Whether the Railway Ministry has placed any order for purchase of the Yossarian Electro Diesel engine from Germany? Is the ministry aware that the Tom Wolfe committee report in Germany has halted its induction into the Euro Rail system?

I ask Aniruddha Bahal, “Why only Yossarian? Why not Doc Daneeka or Milo Minderbinder or Major Major?”

Whether the Government has given sanction for the seed trial of Salinger Cotton of Monsanto? If so, has a report been prepared on Catch 22 cotton so far?

Has the ministry lifted the 1962 ban it imposed on the book “For whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway and the 1975 ban on Ken Kesey’s book “One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest” and Hunter Thomson’s book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”? If so, when were the bans removed?

Bahal could not resist inserting his website’s name somewhere:

Whether the government is aware that a domestic flying license has been denied to Cobra Cargo for starting operations in India? Since when has Semper Sursum Private Limited, the holding company of Cobra Cargo, applied for the domestic cargo license?

And here is Bahal’s tribute to the Indian blogging community:

Is it true that while NRI firms such as India Uncut of USA, Sepia Mutiny of Britain and AnarCap Lib of Netherlands have been allowed to invest in Indian SSIs, the reputed German investment firm Desipundit has been denied permission? If so, the reasons thereof? Is the Union Government of India planning to make automatic the long procedure of permission for SSIs to import new technologies such as Trackbacks, Pingbacks, Blogrolls, Splogs and Hitcounters?

That these questions actually been submitted in the Parliament is in itself mind-boggling. Due to some divine interference, these never made it to the actual shortlist of the questions that are asked during question hour. Otherwise imagine of the blokes standing up in parliament and asking the Minister of Industry (is there one like that?) about Yossarian, Tom Wolfe or Sepia Mutiny? Not that it would mean much to our Parliamentarians in Slumber!

Long Live our democracy and our democratically elected representatives!

A night to remember

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Sometimes in life, incidents or experiences which start on a sour note end up becoming nice memories. You get up on the wrong side of the bed, attract all the bad luck for the day, start cursing your stars and life in general, and suddenly out of the blue, something nice happens and the day instead of being a forgettable one, becomes a sweet memory.

I was in Delhi the other day to attend the marriage of my friends Mudit and Neha. The marriage ended at about 11 PM and I was dropped off at the airport by a couple of other friends who were attending the marriage. My flight was at 6:20 AM the next day morning, so I thought I could catch a quick nap in the airport lounge to prepare for day ahead which promised to be hectic. I was at the airport by 12 midnight, assuming they would let me in since I had a valid ticket.

Much to my chagrin and surprise, the security guys refused to let me in citing the rule that check-in is not allowed 2 hours prior to the departure of the plane. It was the start of the dreaded Delhi winter and I was in no mood to spend 5 hours in the cold wintry night. So I requested them to let me in. They were considerate and said that they would let me in if the airline security guys completed my security check. So off I went to the airline rep (Air Deccan), who like any other airline rep listened to my story with great interest and with a condescending smile and almost irritating politeness informed me that the security guys would be at their post only at 3 AM. That was 3 hours away. I repeated my request and asked him to check if it is possible for them to consider my case as it would only be a matter of a few seconds to check me in as I had only cabin baggage. With even more irritating politeness he refused again.

I had no option but go to the airport security personnel to plead my case again with them. To his credit, the guy manning the post at least understood my case and tried to provide solutions. He first asked me to see if I can find other beleaguered travelers so that we would all argue our case with the airline people. IN his words “Bheed jayegi to shayad kaam hoga!” I looked around and to my surprise found 3 other guys who I later learnt went through the same experience of pleading with the airline and security people. So off we went in a group and the airline rep this time responded with a touch of irritability. It was obviously the effects of caffeine and a long night in the office. This time though he tried calling those security guys (at the very least made a pretense of it!) with no luck!

It was the airport security guy again to our rescue who suggested we meet his superiors in the control room. The bunch of blokes sitting around scratching their balls in the control room, listened to our stories with great delight, scratched their beards, creased their foreheads, nodded to each other gravely, agreed with us that it’s cold out there and finally gave us the invaluable suggestion to sit in the line of chairs outside the arrivals block. That was the prospect I was dreading.

We had no fight left in us for the day. So we gave up and plopped ourselves with steaming cups of atrocious tasting instant coffee and waited for the T-Time. It was biting cold, which entered and hit my body through the thick jacket. I remained there hugging myself and cursing everyone from Air Deccan rep to the Lord above who art heaven and ought to be looking after me.

Amazingly, I survived like that till 3 AM, when finally we decided to try our luck again. I just slung my back pack over my shoulder, stretched my numb legs and turned around to see the security guys go into a tizzy. A couple of commandos with AK-47s appeared out of nowhere and took position at the entrance of the arrival block. I thought “Ohh! Here comes another ruddy politician!”

No surprises there! It was infact a ruddy politician, Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party, the Man Friday of SP supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav. He looked just as bald, round, rotund and jolly as he looks on TV and shaking hands at everyone in sight. Everyone in sight being the dozen security guys. I was about to get on with it when I saw emerging from the entrance a tall, lean guy in kurta pyjamas with a 2 day stubble, hands folded behind his back and a brooding expression on his face. It was Abhishek Bachchan, the Bluff Master who very recently played Bunty, the conman with great élan! I was staring at him when behind him came the man who is considered the God of Bollywood by many – the Big B! True to his name (given name), he was big, with his hair neatly parted in the middle (even at such an unholy hour!), with his trademark French beard and walking with the grace and charm that made him the matinee idol of the country.

Amitabh Bachchan is one of the very few film stars in the world that I really idolize and I would be lying if I dint say I watched him with a gaping mouth. Like a true blue moron I forgot the fact that I had a camera within arm’s reach in my backpack. But not as big a moron as my beleaguered co-traveler who forgot the fact that he had a camera cum video phone in his hand.

Now the presence of Amar Singh did not surprise me, as its common knowledge that he and the Big B are fast friends. You could say I could have asked for his (Big B’s … not Amar Singh’s) autograph atleast. Well it took my sleep deprived eyes a few seconds to register the fact that I was seeing a living legend in flesh and blood and he was escorted to his waiting car in a matter of seconds. I could console myself by thinking that the posse of policemen and commandos around him would not have let me anywhere around his royal presence!

We walked back to the airport departure terminal thinking “It wasn’t so bad after all, spending 3 hours in freaking cold!” As I said before what started as a nightmare turned out to be rather pleasant experience! No complaints there! I would sit in the same place again for another 3 hours just to see him walk by again!

Tailpiece: The next day, I read in the papers that the Big B has been admitted in the hospital with an Intestinal problem and after surgery is recuperating in Mumbai. My friend says "Obviously you are bad news to Big B. You took one look at him and his health is messed up. Dont you ever go near him again!"

Encounter with a CEO

Thursday, October 06, 2005

In India, it is said only Movie Stars, Cricketers and Politicians to a lesser extent make celebrities (A certain Tennis star called Sania Mirza got added to the list recently). They can’t afford to step out of their homes alone without fear of being mobbed by autograph junkies or crazy fans. It’s a price they have to pay for their status. Other accomplished people who have achieved great(er) success in their respective fields - businessmen, scientists, and social workers are rarely recognized when they step out for a walk or a trip in the local mall. The reason is simple - the media feeds on the accomplishments (or the lack there of - as was seen in the case of a certain Indian captain recently) of these people, quite simply because that’s what the 'aam junta' (common people) want to read.

One would be more interested in reading about the latest movie of an actor or the item song of an actress or the exploits of a cricketer rather than the latest acquisition strategy of an industrialist or discovery of a scientist. This is a sort of symbiotic relationship between the media and the masses. While the media lives on the capacity of the masses to consume 'digestible' infotainment, the masses rely on the media to bring them such 'food for entertainment'. The result - politicians get to the front pages of the paper (and opening stories of a news capsule); movie stars and cricketers find themselves on the back pages while the rest are sandwiched somewhere in between, which are the less visited middle pages.

This is why I always wondered - how would people react if they saw a successful businessman or a scientist on the street. Would they recognize him/her in the first place? A chance to see the reaction first hand occurred recently. Couple of weeks back, I was catching up with a couple of my school friends at The Forum, a swanky new mall in Bangalore. We exchanged stories of our batch mates, pulled one another’s legs and my friends departed after a couple of hours. Having said goodbye to them, I went for my weekend time pass jaunt at Landmark, a huge Bookstore in the same mall. I enjoy losing myself in the world of books for a couple of hours, without a care in the world.

I finished browsing through a book on cricket and kept it back in the shelf and turned around to go to the next section when I saw a middle aged gentleman looking intently at the titles of some latest releases. I realised it was none other than Nandan Nilekani, the CEO and co-founder of Infosys, one of the biggest IT companies in the world. He was slightly stout (more than he seems in TV or in the papers), taller than I thought and had a pleasant look on his face. And he seemed to be alone and was not bothered by anyone around. Worse (or better, for him?) no one seemed to notice him or recognize him. I stalled for a second, not sure if I should disturb him. But my excitement soon took care of that dilemma. I walked up to him, extended my hand and said "Mr. Nilekani, its a pleasure to meet you" A smile lit up his face and he took my hand immediately, covered it in a firm grip and said "Its the same here".

I think I spoke a little loud, because when I said "Mr. Nilekani" people around me looked up from their books and saw who it was. I was saying "I would have loved to take your autograph, but I do not have a pen" when he was mobbed by about half a dozen guys my age. I realised they were all IT professionals like me. They were all taking autographs from him on address books and pieces of paper. A thought hit me. I fished out my visiting card, borrowed a pen from someone and said "Mr. Nilekani, I work in Wipro. I hope you don’t mind signing at the back of my Wipro visiting card". (Wipro and Infosys are business rivals and competitors in the IT field)

He immediately took it with a laugh, said "Of course no. Not at all" and proceeded to sign it with a flourish. I shook hands with him once again and thanked him profusely and went away to watch from a distance. The commotion was over in a matter of seconds and he was alone again wandering in the bookstore.

Would the reaction have been the same had it been a lesser-known cricketer or a movie star? Of course not. But does not the CEO of one of India's most successful and respected companies, a man partly responsible for making India the Offshoring destination of the world, deserve much more recognition? I would say Yes, but I think I know what Mr. Nilekani himself would say. I think he would much rather prefer wandering blissfully in a bookstore without being bothered by autograph junkies. I am sure he would. That expression on his face told me.