Shuffling from my seat, I came out of my trance to see few Filipinos staring at me and pondering at the red colored cover page of the book I was reading. I realised that I had been giggling a lot in that 20 seater Jeepney. “Well you know this guy in a costume called as ‘veshti’ is running out of his wedding ceremony while his father-in-law is running behind him” I thought of offering an explanation. But ‘aah!’ whom am i kidding! They wont understand what it is all about. It is not their story. It is a story from my homeland, and my country. It is a story from a country where political beaureacracy governs family relations. It is a country where there is a constant fight, a fight to preserve your community’s dignity, a fight to preserve your own dignity, a fight to withstand your cultural principles and finally a fight against all of these fights. “2 states” , is a tongue in cheek story about all of these fights.
Krish and Ananya, meet at IIM – A, fall in love and then decide to get married. But the Amrish Puri here are their families. Sounds like a typical 90s bollywood movie right? Yeah, even i thought of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, DDLG etc. But the twist here is that the families are against because both the they belong to different communities. Krish the Punjab – da-puttar is loathed a lot by the Tamilian tigers of Ananya’s family. Krish and Ananya have to mould their plausible resolution into a marriage where the Malhotras and the Swaminathans congregate without a dissent. In the process, they go through vicissitudes of disagreements, family fights while struggling with the fine thread of their own relationship.
Again, sounds like a typical bolywood movie, well indeed it is! “2 states” is a complete bollywood style entertainer. Where it would score above any typical bollywood story is the nature of the story telling process. Chetan has very well managed to stick to the topic and write about the ‘2 states’. We get to see Chennai, its culture, the people, the places and their own reasons for hating north Indians. We also get to see the Punjabis justifying their hatred towards the Madrasis. The writer in the entire story has very well managed to debate on both the fronts and then emerge victorious with a nice chocolaty climax.
Ironically, Chetan claims this to be his own life-story. Well, his life in IIT has been in such a way that we have Amir Khan acting on him now. I wonder who is going to play him in “2 states” now. Well I have read this line somewhere, “If you want to be remembered after you are dead, either do things worth writing, or write things worth reading” And Chetan has managed to do both very well.
Our happiness, our sadness. Our success, our failure. Our strength, our weaknesses. Everything lies in this faculty of mind. How much of time money and effort have we ever invested in learning more about mind? Let's dive deeper to understand this mind that is indeed amusing!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Free Your Thoughts
[A Disclaimer and a confession: I am not too good in remembering names, so i might have goofed up with them in this blog of mine. Anyway, this time I would like to believe Shakespere 'What's in the name?' ]
“You know Eknath right?”
“What?” I was stumped.
Red mistook it to be a reaction that I didn’t know Eknath and continued, “Well I can understand India is a huge country, this person Eknath was very well known in the western part of India,”
“Well of course Red, I know Eknath in fact I come from western region of India.”
“That’s right” Carl suddenly came into picture, with a cup of coffee in his hand that clouted the Starbucks logo on it. “He is from Maharashtra, which is below Gujarat.”
“Oh! You know well about India.” I was really keen to see Filipinos know a lot about India beyond “Jai Ho!”
“Cool so you know Eknath. Then you must know his translations of Upanishads and Bhagavad Geeta.”
Had I decided to call up Preshit, Nilay or anyone from my old school days and begin a conversation about Ekanth. I am pretty sure that they’d say with watery mouths, “What lovely samosas he used to make!” referring to the canteen owner of our school. And here I was amongst some 20 odd Filipinos, discussing about Eknath and his lovely translations about Bhagavad Geeta, with a boy who was an atheist himself.
“We have people like Red in our group” Frank like a spokesperson, was explaining me the uniqueness of his group. “They have tried all religions and then decided to be atheist. There are agonistics, there are people from various religions and there are people like me who believe in Christianity.”
“Well I can see the cross as your locket. Wait a minute that is not a cross that is a ‘T’. What is that?”
“The crucification of Christ is a mystery in itself. Few say that He was crucified on a cross; few said that He was on a ‘T’ shaped structure when He died while others say that He died on a tree log while his hands were clutched together above His head.”
“Then why do we see the cross in churches?”
“Well this is one of the Pagan symbols. It was adopted by Christianity during medieval times so that the Pagans would find it easier to adopt Christianity.”
I nodded acknowledging reading something like this in Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”.
I felt it was such a good decision to come within this bunch of Filipilno Freethinkers.
When Frank told me about this Free Thinking concept, I wondered why would citizens of a country where 85% population belongs to one particular religion talk about religious tolerance. My curiosity led me to Starbucks café at the Shangrilla Mall. Well it was my house warming day and I was little late (again, I am not making any excuses, I was late due to genuine reasons).
“We call it knon-Indian.”, chuckled John. “When you decide to meet at a time and then you don’t show up on that time, we have a word for that in Tagalou.”
“Although I wonder why would anyone relate ‘no-show’ to Indians? Are they always late?” seemed to be an honest question from Wella.
“Maybe we mean Red Indians.” Frank was I guess covering up for my community.
“Well!” I offered an explanation “maybe it is because India is 2 and half hours behind. So if you are 2 and half hours late, you are right time as per the Indian Standard Time.”
And everyone laughed, ‘Joke well received’ I thought.
When I reached little late, the group had already begun with their topic for the week.
“The situation is like, to be a recognized political party herein Philippines, you need to get an approval from the election commission. Here was a party GLP (Gay and Lesbian Party) whose application got rejected and we believe there is a role of church in this.”
I nodded, now understanding the need of such groups in a place where 85% are Christians.
“The panel is discussing as what can be done so that this imposition of church can be prevented.”
“Guys, there is a rally organized.” I heard Red addressing the rest of the gang. “If you support the GLP, come to the rally, wear colorful clothes. Make banners saying ‘Gays are OK.’”
“Yeah but write a disclaimer ‘I am not Gay’ “giggled John.
“Also, there are so many people yet in their closet, and we would like them to come out and declare their individuality.”
“Well, wait a minute; we don’t want people who are yet in their closet.” Paused Regg.
“Yeah, but people who are on fence, we can encourage to come out in open. Can’t we?” queried Frank .
“Yeah we can, but again that’s not the theme of the rally. The theme of the rally is to give us gays a right to have our own place in politics.” Regg clarified.
Sooner the gang moved their eyes on me. How are homosexuals received in your country? Is homosexuality approved in your religion? What are your own views on homo sexuality?
I answered their questions to the best of my knowledge. And soon the topic swayed from homosexuality to India in general.
“Why are Indians associated with computers everywhere? Is it that they are better in computers than us?” asked Red.
“Well yes I agree, Indians are really good in computers. But that’s mainly because there are just too many of them. They have many more computer geeks than we do here. And India is a big competition to Philippines.” answered Frank. I felt like thanking all the forefathers who never considered family planning as a way of life, thereby giving birth to computer geeks in such a large number.
I remembered JP’s presentation in our office town-hall meet where he compared our company rates to the Indian counterparts indicating that my Filipino company was indeed doing better than IT firms on my homeland. But this corporate competition is nowhere seen in the warmth of the Filipinos that I meet. In this group itself they declared, “We are cool with Indians. None of our communities have any issues with Indians.” I can vouch for that.
And amongst that warmth, this rendezvous with this bunch of people whose thinking I could very much relate to was indeed a tonic for my knowledge thirsty brain.
PS: TO Know more about 'Filipino Free Thinkers' click here
Friday, August 14, 2009
My Dear India
My Dear India, I wish you Happy Birthday
I wish you Happy Independence Day,
I wish you a secured zone,
Where the Ganges and the Godavari play like a child.
I wish the Indus gets purified on the other side,
And the Padma-Meghna’s violent delta turns mild.
I wish the Himalayas stand tall to protect you from the yellow fever,
And your peninsula shines like a dagger,
Defending your borders with a vision of an eagle,
While claws of that of a tiger.
I wish you prosperity and growth,
Where the circular disc at center focuses on developmental politics.
I wish the investments within you gain returns very high,
And your GDP finds a growth in double digits.
I wish you electrified villages,
Where your farmer smiles when he droves his tractor,
I wish a GPS enabled device in his hand,
For him to forecast the climate factor.
I wish you 1 billion smiling faces,
All standing firm and united under the turf of your tricolour.
The tolerance level all so high,
That the saffron and green embrace at your foundation pillar.
I wish you happiness, I wish you success,
I wish you the enthusiasm to take over many.
I wish you a very happy Independence Day,
As we your children, make another tryst with the destiny.
I wish you Happy Independence Day,
I wish you a secured zone,
Where the Ganges and the Godavari play like a child.
I wish the Indus gets purified on the other side,
And the Padma-Meghna’s violent delta turns mild.
I wish the Himalayas stand tall to protect you from the yellow fever,
And your peninsula shines like a dagger,
Defending your borders with a vision of an eagle,
While claws of that of a tiger.
I wish you prosperity and growth,
Where the circular disc at center focuses on developmental politics.
I wish the investments within you gain returns very high,
And your GDP finds a growth in double digits.
I wish you electrified villages,
Where your farmer smiles when he droves his tractor,
I wish a GPS enabled device in his hand,
For him to forecast the climate factor.
I wish you 1 billion smiling faces,
All standing firm and united under the turf of your tricolour.
The tolerance level all so high,
That the saffron and green embrace at your foundation pillar.
I wish you happiness, I wish you success,
I wish you the enthusiasm to take over many.
I wish you a very happy Independence Day,
As we your children, make another tryst with the destiny.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
I want madhur Bhandarkar to come up with a new film .. TRP
TRP
Rakhi and her Swayamwar, the roadies of MTV, the talent hunt singing on the tunes Sa Re Ga Ma, the guts and the added glory of the reality show has taken over the boo-hooing of the family soap operas. Tulsi and Parvati have been replaced with Rakhi Sawant and Baani. The scripted drama still continues (as recently confessed by Ilesh from Rakhi ka Swayamwar, that the poems he wrote for Rakhi were not really his brainchild), but the dressing has changed. TV has evolved itself by showing the unreal under the name of "reality". But 'yeh public hai... sab jaanti hai'. Ilesh Bhaiyya, we have always been knowing that the reality shows are well scripted and pre-decided. What we would like to know is in what way is it pre-decided, who decides it and who is controlling this multi million dollar industry? It is certainly not Pramod Mahajan's laadla, neither any of it is in Anu Malik's hands. The big boys are well behind and shooting from these shoulders (I know I made a direct translation from Hindi, 'doosre ke kandhe se goli chalana').
The point is, there is a system that is making 100 crore people crazily glued to the television sets. There are people that thong to the auditions of these shows, in expectations that they will somehow land up in Mumbai and fulfil their dreams of becoming a national icon. These national icons wave kisses to the aam junta (the mango people) while standing on the carpet of this system of reality shows. Once this carpet is pulled off their feet, they get lost in the crowd below and people die to take kisses from the icon next in line. Remember Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana? Where are they? They are certainly out of the spot light and hence out of this system that runs the TV. What is this system? What does it thrive upon? What does it need?
The bottomline of all of the above questions is TRP.
TRPs are rating that decide the success of one particular show.
Sponsors endorse a show based on their TRPs.
The fighting judges (to get in the reality show, and then on the reality show), the fighting participants, the fighting audiences (with sms as their weapon) are all in the battlefield to ensure that the TRPs of their show do not fall. Who gains from these TRPs and who does not, will be an interesting thing to look at.
Madhur, imagine a story that talks about these TRPs, I am sure you can have a promotional campaign by asking people to vote from their mobiles whether the film will work or not!
Send TRP space A if you like the article or TRP space B on my mobile number, if you do not like the article. And you wont get anything out of it, it will only enhance the TRPs of my blog.
Work in recession
This is one exceptional blog over here that is not original.
Just read it somewhere and found it very relevant to current market scenario.
Read on.. you'll like it too.
A Senior Manager working in an MNC, as usual after lunch goes to the cafeteria for coffee.
He relaxes in canteen.. He sees a canteen boy cleaning tables there.
To Kill time he decides to have fun with him.
He calls him.
Senior Manager - (Asks canteen boy) : How much do you earn?
Canteen boy smiles...
Senior Manager - what are your future plans?
Canteen boy keeps quiet...
Senior Manager - where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?
Canteen boy gives a cold stare.
(Image courtesy: http://krishlogs.blogspot.com )
Senior Manager - Jab mai Mumbai aaya tha tab mere paas bhi kuch nahi tha.... Aaj mere paas kya nahin hai... ???
naam hai..........,
shohrat hai.........,
paisa hai............
Izzat Hai..............,
tumhare paas kya hai??
Scroll down to find out his answer
Don't think that he answered like Shashi Kapoor of Deewar ki "Mere
paas Maa hain"
Canteen boy - Sa'ab mere paas bahut KAAM hai....
Senior Manager leaves the cafeteria silently........
Just read it somewhere and found it very relevant to current market scenario.
Read on.. you'll like it too.
A Senior Manager working in an MNC, as usual after lunch goes to the cafeteria for coffee.
He relaxes in canteen.. He sees a canteen boy cleaning tables there.
To Kill time he decides to have fun with him.
He calls him.
Senior Manager - (Asks canteen boy) : How much do you earn?
Canteen boy smiles...
Senior Manager - what are your future plans?
Canteen boy keeps quiet...
Senior Manager - where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?
Canteen boy gives a cold stare.
(Image courtesy: http://krishlogs.blogspot.com )
Senior Manager - Jab mai Mumbai aaya tha tab mere paas bhi kuch nahi tha.... Aaj mere paas kya nahin hai... ???
naam hai..........,
shohrat hai.........,
paisa hai............
Izzat Hai..............,
tumhare paas kya hai??
Scroll down to find out his answer
Don't think that he answered like Shashi Kapoor of Deewar ki "Mere
paas Maa hain"
Canteen boy - Sa'ab mere paas bahut KAAM hai....
Senior Manager leaves the cafeteria silently........
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