Freedom is still a myth

I quote Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it.”It is not just India but majority of the world which is built on the basic principle of human freedom. Hundreds of years of monarchy, totalitarianism, autocracy and various other systems have led humanity to understand the basic fact that individual freedom and expression of thought are the only principles which can keep a society non-stagnant, progressive and happy. Freedom can be helpful and progressive as long as an individual respects the similar rights of one’s fellow individuals, follows one’s own heart and does not hurt any other individual in emotional, physical or any other possible way.
All of it being an understood fact it can also be rightly said that any individual does also reserve the right to privacy provided one does not go against the statements written above. The religion one follows, one’s beliefs and one’s sexual orientations are a few of the examples which are too private to be discussed or disclosed in public. And the extent to which an individual is comfortable in being open about these issues should again be left to him/her.
377 is one number which goes against this basic right. What this archaic article does is take away an individual’s freedom to be happy, to enjoy, to live freely, to have sex in a way one wants to. What this law does is to take away an individual’s right to love. The most sacred of the emotions is questioned with Article 377.It criminalizes any form of ‘unnatural sex’. Firstly one needs to understand what the word ‘natural’ in our society symbolizes. Simplest of the definitions being that anything which is not man-made can be regarded as being ‘natural’. So, for any activity to be natural the society compares it to the behavior patterns of animals, birds, wildlife etc. And if one agrees with the point just stated, then sex in any form whatsoever is natural. Inter-species sex, homo-sex or any other form is as natural as animals defecating. Studies over many a decade have proved that different kinds of sexual behavior is prevalent in many animals, birds etc. And if 377 is practiced as it should be then a lion or a giraffe are as much of criminals as any of the LGBTs.
Anyone who is not in favour of removing Article 377 belongs to the middle ages. Such individuals do not realize that being so narrow minded and not respecting human rights is the basic reason behind many of the great wars. Taking away one’s freedom to enjoy and making them obey orders, which in a certain way, the individual does not approve of, is the main reason behind any non-progressive society.
And if India is actually free, not just from the British, but from medieval thinking then 377 should be a number that should not make people scared to accept who they are.

This is it.This really is it.

THE KING IS DEAD.LONG LIVE THE KING.

Last year after winning the T20 World Cup when the Indian team returned, I had a sense of deja-vu.The visuals of the grand reception they received were similar to what was witnessed a few years ago by the entire nation.India had "paused" when Michael Jackson had arrived here in 1996.And it has to be accepted that if one man can make a billion people stop doing everything else and he is not related to cricket he is bigger than everything else.
Back in the 90s whichever party one went to, one always had a a couple of kids trying to impersonate MJ's moonwalk or robot.One could always hear a 'Beta...wo Michael Jackson wala step karke dikhao uncle ko.' at shaadis and family functions.These and many other dancing steps made popular in a country which still does not have the majority of the population still speaking english does say what effect this one man had on the entire nation.From Johny Lever's 'Bidi de bidi de' to Javed Jaffrey's pelvis thump everyone would try and do whatever MJ did.Everyone was crazy about MJ.I remember MJ even as a 3 year old when my elder cousins used to dance on his numbers and I myself used to get ecstatic on watching his videos back then.MTV and CNN were the only two 'cable' channels back then and all day long one saw MJ on MTV.
An inspiration to every stage performer his musical journey spanned more than 4 decades.'billie jean', 'black or white', 'heal the world', 'bad', 'smooth criminal', 'give into me', 'dangerous', 'the way you make me feel', 'they don't care about us' ,'thriller', 'scream'- the list of all time hits and my favourites goes on and on. He was one person who even after not giving a hit in the last 20 years could have pulled the biggest crowd ever witnessed in the world.The entire world would always wonder what the O2 arena could've given them which they would'nt have witnessed in years.One of the biggets dissapointments as a music lover that I might have for my entire life would be that I did'nt get to see him perform live.Its a sad day.
And who would have known that Jackson's last words in public appearance were so apt :

"This is it.This really is it."

I am a Brahmin. I wish it did not matter any more.

'''Another one which I'd written earlier.'''

As a kid ‘reservation’ meant something which let me travel by train. As a youth the same word means something which does not let me get into a college.

To be honest I had no idea and never even cared as to what my caste and sub-caste were till the time I had given my engineering entrance exams. Studying in Army Public Schools under CBSE, one was always guided by the principles of those 19^th century reform movements which made one believe that caste system was something which took us back to the middle ages and was non-progressive and ‘evil’. In fact I seriously do not remember any one mentioning what his/her caste was and neither ever asking me what my caste was during ‘those days’.”Konsi jaat ke ho tum? (Which caste do you belong to?)” would have been a very offensive questions if anyone did ever want to enquire about it. Today this question no more seems offensive to anyone.

India is not a conventional country. I say this because of us being a diverse and rich and ‘blah-blah-blah’ country. We are not bound by one single identity. No common language or religion or any other belief so to say. But this is what our skin signifies. Try getting inside us Indians slightly and one realizes that we are all the same. Indians are all carbon copies of each other. Each one of us rejoices on another one of Sachin’s century. Every household was hooked on to ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ . Each one of us was angry on the 11 July Mumbai train bombings. But the problem is that because there are so many of us and all being the same, there is a slight discontent amongst all due to which each one wants individuality. Each one wants to be different than the rest. Our craving for being different is what has made us what we are today- “Always-fighting-oldest-civilization-of-the-world”. We feel proud to call ourselves the oldest civilization but we still are not civilized enough. We still are a third world country even if we have the nuclear arms and a space program and the blah-blah. Staying together for so many centuries and one still does not find common goals.

And it is this simple fact that has always led to the straight formula used again and again of ‘divide and rule’ which we read in our history books long forgotten. What can be more stupid a fact than being able to get into the college of your choice just because you have a particular surname. “All Mishras-college XYZ and all Kushwahas - college BCD”. It is apartheid in a different form, slavery in a different form. Why should one get penalized for being born to a particular set of parents? Reservation on the basis of economic background can be justified but on the basis of lineage is too medieval.

But I always try and look for positives in everything that happens around me. Mr. Arjun Singh inspires me. At an age when one usually is not able to walk without using a walking stick, when one cannot digest all kinds of food Mr. Arjun Singh can still fight for a cause which would make him a messiah for the people who do somehow benefit from this bill. Even at this age we see the hunger in him, as well as the enthusiasm to get into power again with whatever means he can.

And it is this inspiration which should make us fight till the end.

How and why does an average movie win an Oscar.

Slumdog Millionaire. Two terms which have usually never been used together but would now remain together in the psyche of Indians as well as westerners for a very long time to come. A movie by the much acclaimed director/producer Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting and The Beach fame), it depicts the story of an Indian slum dweller and his rags to riches story. The background of the movie is a masala love story, a TV game show –Who wants to be a millionaire and the murky underbelly of a developing India’s underworld and mafia.

Much has been already said and written about this movie and countless times on countless platforms would it have been reviewed. But what appeals to me most as an Indian and as a regular movie-goer is the fact that a movie, which by no means has a better story and prowess of its actors than many of our Indian Film Industry’s contemporary classics, is already on its way to win the Academy Awards.

It might have been an extraordinary achievement for Danny Boyle to come to India and shoot in the slums. ‘Dis-organization’ and ‘chaos’ are the two words which are usually associated with India in the west. And that is exactly what Danny Boyle would have had to deal with, when filming in this part of the world. But if you compare it to Indian directors, Slumdog Millionaire’s direction was no big marvel. Movies like Satya , Company, D and various others since the industry’s early years have been shot at such locales with much ease. With Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan having such short roles one obviously did not expect any wonders from them. And Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are mostly expressionless in the entire movie. Involve the other aspects too and one surely realizes that AR Rehman has given much better tracks in his earlier movies (though never so varied in a single album). But still SM (Slumdog Millionaire) is winning all the laurels. And the question that is on everyone’s mind is ‘How and why did it achieve such success?’

To answer this question let’s consider The Man Booker Prize winning novel ‘The White Tiger’ by Aravind Adiga. The protagonist is again an Indian. Living in a developing country he does have to deal with the atrocities of the rich and get involved in crime to become successful. The heart of India-‘rural India’ is poor and most of the people are not able to afford two square meals a day. Two stories with similar backdrops are the most widely acclaimed ‘products’ in their respective fields that we have seen in the past few years. Is it because of crime, passion, love, poverty and all the masala in these stories? Or is it because of the “India” factor in them? Or is it simply because of both being a rags-to-riches story? It is none of them individually but all of them involved together with a word that I used earlier for them-‘product’.

SM is a product for the west. They love poverty. They love the slums and crime. They love ‘the true picture’ and ‘reality’. The picture that they get of India in today’s era is of a country which is stealing their jobs. A country which has achieved a lot in terms of economic growth but which none of the pundits would have predicted 30 years ago to go so far. Being the mystical country that India has always been to them, many are still be puzzled as to how a dying economy of the late 1980s ridden by corruption, poverty, hunger and terrorism is actually so close to becoming one of the world leaders. And along comes a movie which somehow shatters their new forming opinion and takes them all inside the darkest alleys of India. Suddenly the west wakes up to the fact that India is not actually so ‘shining’. They realize that ‘the India’ which they had all thought is no more, does still exist. And this is the sole reason. This is the main reason behind SM doing such wonders at such big stages. Behind all the progress and the happiness does lie the filthy underground that is in stark contrast with it. Paparazzi always feed on such stories and SM becomes popular by this simple fact.

Either it is a mere co-incidence that the story takes shape in India or it was a very well thought out strategy. The backdrop does more wonders for the film than anything else. A Slumdog Millionaire from Afghanistan might not have had that hard-hitting an effect. SM is by no means was intended to be a classic but has been carved out to be one by the media and the circumstances.

P.S.I'd written this article before SM winning the Academy.

CORE

Blogger seemed too small a platform for this post.I removed it.Thanks for the comments and of course all the people whom Ive had endless discussions with, after they read CORE.:).:(.

US and U.S.

So a report I read in the Times of India says that Pentagon confirms that aid given to Pak by US was used to buy weapons against India.No surprise this...is it?Its been said that US does always play a double game, but due to some events taking place in the last 5 to 10 years this perception had been not so strongly held by most Indians (rather most that Ive been in contact with) as well as the Indian media.Infact we had been starting to see US as a 'natural ally' in many people's words.

It is not a question of India's development or foreign affairs as such.As a nation we surely would benefit in economic and technological terms from US being close to us.The only benefit that US has from being a 'friend' of India is that we can be a threat to China in the coming future whom currently US sees as a big threat.Another one of the important factors being that this is one of the only few 'sensitive' and 'strong' regions in the world that does not have much of the 'direct' US influence.Of course there are many others-emerging and largely untapped markets, cheap labour, etc.Where India should be most cautious is our security-internal as well as on the borders.

We would be buying nuclear reactors from them soon.The deals already been done.And the way money travels it is not hard to visualize that the same money that we send them, would be sent to Pakistan as an 'aid' to fight sons-as-well-as-enemies-of-the-US : the Talibs.Instead this money would again go back to the US to buy arms and ammunition.As opposed to being anti-Talib it would be anti-India.The internal attacks on India and the growth of Pakistani 'fauj' , both being done in tandem.And this is not just one episode which shouldve been done for India but goes against us, but if we go back and analyze there surely would be many others.This is the double game.It has been and it surely would be on forever till someone is blunt and direct withg the U.S.

Even if the old U.S. administration was a bit closer to India the new one is surely not.Simply because Barack Obama has to 'change'.Change not just the U.S. but the entire world.And to appease the muslim world and bring about the change it simply cannot afford to go against Pakistan straightaway and favour India.It would keep on trying to woo everyone.And what all this does is simply increase the instability in the region.Instability not in terms of many power centers emerging but threats to the common man in India.

The people of India do not go green at the name of China being ahaed of us in so many fields.Rather China at times acts as an inspiration.It maybe doesnt even matter to us if there are two powers in the same region.But we see it from the U.S.'s perception with China surely being a threat.Accepted that we have fought a war with them,we compete with them in international markets on many fronts but then most of us see the Chinese economic story in awe and admiration.And us being with the U.S. makes them our sworn enemies.Somewhat similar is the case with our Russian relationship.Rusiia still being a passive friend mostly in the sleep mode.

I am not implying that we should not take much from the U.S. or go against them.But then there should be some show of strength from our side at times.Point blank-It is not acceptable that U.S. funds Pakistan against India.Period.A statement as such might do some good.A statement as such might stop us from being called a 'soft state'.The whole world keeps on screaming their lungs out when Israel puts the entire Army on offensive when only a few people of theirs were killed by Palestinians.What happens at the end?When Israle is tired of screwing Palestine day and night and the entire 'peace-loving' world has given up hope , they return back to their country.That is the show of strength.I am not even suggesting this drastic a measure.But then our foreign office(Im sorry to say this) looks like it wears 'choodis' and 'bindis' having a moustache.Many strong men and women make up this country but the foreign affairs seems like it is handled by what we call as 'chakkas' .

What U.S. is to the world we are to many smaller countries.But if we want respect, we need to earn it.We need a spine.And we need a mouth.And we need action.And we need steps to be taken.And we need that we donot fall into this trap set again and again for us by the U.S.Cuz being an enemy of anyone would never help us;and the sooner we realise that "getting my arse screwed and receiving a handshake from the same fellow at the same time always f***s me up", the sooner we would be able to progress.