Size zero is the epithet attached to the Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor of late, either in magazines or in advertisements or in promotions of movies.
Does size zero imply looking as famished as a Somalian woman and getting rid off all those micro mgm's of extra flab and becoming skinny?
Kareena has lost her' bloom ' she was blessed with bountifully, prior to this tag attached to her .
Our country sides and villages are replete with women possessing 'size zero' figures or even 'minus zero ' figures if such a measurement exists in the fashion world.
Almost all of them walk more gracefully than their urbane' counterparts stomping down the modelling ramps or sway to music much more rhythmically than Bollywood heroines, whilst fetching water carried on pots piled one over the other, balanced on their heads ,from wells and rivers miles away from their villages homes .
The only difference is that the village belle's are swathed in yards of clothing after much scrimping and saving to cover all, whilst the Bollywood queens splurge away a sizeable portion of their fortune to fashion designers to acquire and wear skimpy dresses to reveal all!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Lost symbol.
Dan Brown seems to have run out of imagination and has dipped generously into his earlier creations--Angels and Demons and The Da vinci code to present a hotch potch story.
The journey of Langdon in a subterranean maze is tiring and there is nothing new about it .Vatican has been replaced by Washington DC.
The character Mala'k reminds one of the albino villain of his earlier novels.And the suspense regarding his lineage has the echo's of Angels and Demons.
Barring a few chapters where the villain chases the heroine the novel is easily 'down puttable'.
I hope that the Lost symbol would be the last of his 'Symbol series'. The concept of Symbols that caught the imagination of the readers of his earlier books , has lost its authenticity and is as childish as a cave man's drawings.
The journey of Langdon in a subterranean maze is tiring and there is nothing new about it .Vatican has been replaced by Washington DC.
The character Mala'k reminds one of the albino villain of his earlier novels.And the suspense regarding his lineage has the echo's of Angels and Demons.
Barring a few chapters where the villain chases the heroine the novel is easily 'down puttable'.
I hope that the Lost symbol would be the last of his 'Symbol series'. The concept of Symbols that caught the imagination of the readers of his earlier books , has lost its authenticity and is as childish as a cave man's drawings.
Friday, November 20, 2009
I laugh so that I may not cry----anon
These are few of my favourite one liners which I enjoyed reading and some of which made me laugh.
After a good dinner , one can forgive anybody , even one's own relations. ----Oscar Wilde
Money is something that you have got to make in case you don't die.-----------Max Asnas
The world is filled with willing people; some willing to work ,the rest willing to let them.---Robert Frost.
Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions no one has asked them---Leo Tolstoy.
I will not allow my daughters to learn foreign languages because one tongue is sufficient for a woman.-----------John Milton.
Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.------Mae West.
Seize the moment .Think of all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. ----Erma Bombeck.
Britain has invented a new missile .It's called the civil servant--it doesn't work and it can't be fired .--- Walter Walker.
An Iranian moderate is one who has run out of ammunition.-------Henry Kissinger.
Most politicians look like people who have become human by correspondence course.---A.A.Gill.
All political parties die at last from swallowing their own lies.------John Arbuthnot.
God created the poet ,then took a handful of the rubbish left over and made three critics. --T.J. Thomas.
Time is the only critic without ambition --John Steinbeck.
It is only a auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.----Oscar Wilde.
My movies are the kind they show in prisons and aeroplanes, because nobody can leave.--Burt Reynolds.
He was a self made man who owned his lack of success to nobody.--- JosephHeller.
Let's go some place where we can each be alone. --- Broun
Knowledge is power , power corrupts. So study hard and be evil. anon
The more you complain the longer God makes you live. anon
Well, this day was a total waste of makeup. anon
I know God will not give me anything I cannot handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much.---
Mother Teresa.
I laid my wife Beneath this stone For her repose And for my own. ---------Chief Ottawa.
**********************************
After a good dinner , one can forgive anybody , even one's own relations. ----Oscar Wilde
Money is something that you have got to make in case you don't die.-----------Max Asnas
The world is filled with willing people; some willing to work ,the rest willing to let them.---Robert Frost.
Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions no one has asked them---Leo Tolstoy.
I will not allow my daughters to learn foreign languages because one tongue is sufficient for a woman.-----------John Milton.
Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.------Mae West.
Seize the moment .Think of all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. ----Erma Bombeck.
Britain has invented a new missile .It's called the civil servant--it doesn't work and it can't be fired .--- Walter Walker.
An Iranian moderate is one who has run out of ammunition.-------Henry Kissinger.
Most politicians look like people who have become human by correspondence course.---A.A.Gill.
All political parties die at last from swallowing their own lies.------John Arbuthnot.
God created the poet ,then took a handful of the rubbish left over and made three critics. --T.J. Thomas.
Time is the only critic without ambition --John Steinbeck.
It is only a auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.----Oscar Wilde.
My movies are the kind they show in prisons and aeroplanes, because nobody can leave.--Burt Reynolds.
He was a self made man who owned his lack of success to nobody.--- JosephHeller.
Let's go some place where we can each be alone. --- Broun
Knowledge is power , power corrupts. So study hard and be evil. anon
The more you complain the longer God makes you live. anon
Well, this day was a total waste of makeup. anon
I know God will not give me anything I cannot handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much.---
Mother Teresa.
I laid my wife Beneath this stone For her repose And for my own. ---------Chief Ottawa.
**********************************
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tawang was recently in news because the Tibetian spirutual leader Dalai Lama visited a 500 year old Buddhist monastery located in Tawang, a mountainous region of Arunachal Pradesh and the Chinese across our border objected to this visit on the grounds that parts of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to them and that the much respected leader [inIndia as well as inthe world] was visiting the place with the intention of fomenting trouble amongst the Tibetians living there!
The T.V. news channels showed previously recorded pictures of people standing in long queues to cast their vote during parliamentary and legislative assembly elections.It also showed Indian tri colour flags fluttering in every building as also on the entrance to the Buddhist monastery and Tibetian Lamas clad in majenta robes speaking in fluent hindi !
One look at the population smiling at the T.V. camera's makes me wonder.Most of them look like Chinese!In fact most people in the north eastern part of India have Mongolion features and one can seldom distinguish them from the neighbouring South east Asians .
Deep down south of our country there are people who are as black as the inhabitants of the dark continent.
Yet we have the Irula's the snake catching tribes of south India, one of the lowliest ,dark skinned and poorest castes, conducting week long festivals with the sole purpose of staging Ramayana the great epic of all Indians.
In Manipur a remote Indian state buried in the confusing conglomeration of the seven states of the north eastern part of India , a section of the population are strict vaishnavites who recite the 'Gita 'as devotedly as their counter parts in the cow belt.
In the far flung mountainous regions of Ladhak and Arunachal Pradesh there are numerous Buddhist monks chanting prayers and meditating on Lord Buddha who is revered throughout India India as the 10 th avatar of lord Vishnu.
Despite glaring differences in our physical appearances, colour,and language there is a invisible thread binding us all into the notion that we are all Bharatvasi's, namely the collective memories of our ancient epics and legends, the inborn feeling of pride at the sacredness of our land-i.e. 'Punnya bhoomi' as it was trodden by hero's like Rama the ideal for a perfect man [Purushothaman] and scores of Rishis and seers through the centuries and the unshakeable belief in the principles of Karma , gives us all a sense of belonging, in which ever corner of India we live or whatever colour or features we posses!
The T.V. news channels showed previously recorded pictures of people standing in long queues to cast their vote during parliamentary and legislative assembly elections.It also showed Indian tri colour flags fluttering in every building as also on the entrance to the Buddhist monastery and Tibetian Lamas clad in majenta robes speaking in fluent hindi !
One look at the population smiling at the T.V. camera's makes me wonder.Most of them look like Chinese!In fact most people in the north eastern part of India have Mongolion features and one can seldom distinguish them from the neighbouring South east Asians .
Deep down south of our country there are people who are as black as the inhabitants of the dark continent.
Yet we have the Irula's the snake catching tribes of south India, one of the lowliest ,dark skinned and poorest castes, conducting week long festivals with the sole purpose of staging Ramayana the great epic of all Indians.
In Manipur a remote Indian state buried in the confusing conglomeration of the seven states of the north eastern part of India , a section of the population are strict vaishnavites who recite the 'Gita 'as devotedly as their counter parts in the cow belt.
In the far flung mountainous regions of Ladhak and Arunachal Pradesh there are numerous Buddhist monks chanting prayers and meditating on Lord Buddha who is revered throughout India India as the 10 th avatar of lord Vishnu.
Despite glaring differences in our physical appearances, colour,and language there is a invisible thread binding us all into the notion that we are all Bharatvasi's, namely the collective memories of our ancient epics and legends, the inborn feeling of pride at the sacredness of our land-i.e. 'Punnya bhoomi' as it was trodden by hero's like Rama the ideal for a perfect man [Purushothaman] and scores of Rishis and seers through the centuries and the unshakeable belief in the principles of Karma , gives us all a sense of belonging, in which ever corner of India we live or whatever colour or features we posses!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
We try not to think about it .
After an hour of reading aloud and explaining certain passages I decided to call it a day when Pugazh a frail ,dark and totally blind young man in early twenties felt his braille watch and said meekly ''M'am the time you have allotted for us is 1 hour and it isn't over ,there is still 10 minutes left''.
At this I said ''it is not possible to start a new lesson and finish it within 10 minutes''.to this he replied ''I want to ask you a few questions '' and proceeded to do so without waiting for my reply.and asked ''what did you feel the first time you saw us?''
I was taken aback by the directness of the question but nevertheless decided to answere honestly. I replied that it was one of my childhood terrors to lose my eyesight and to blunder around helplessly.That whenever I saw a blind person on the street I would look at them curiously feel a pang of pity and then move away forgetting them in the daily business of life.And that2 years back when I came in close contact with people with visual impairment I was over whelmed by pity and felt sorrowful and wondered at the cruel sadism of the creator in creating people with such disabilities.And that this sadness slowly evaporated when I found that whilst I pitied their plight they didnot pity themselves ,they moved around confidently and were just like any other youth interested in cricket, movie stars and politics! They heard me out quietly,
Then I asked Pughaz a thought tormenting me for the past 2 years since I actually started reading to them but never had the heart to talk about it or clear my doubts openly ,whether he felt sad and enraged at what fate had handed out to him?
He and another youth replied ''very rarely,that to only when people are discourteous ,like those waiting at the bus stand who donot tell us the bus numbers or when a conductor is rude or when my scribe shortens my answeres in exams''.
Once again I was taken aback These insults and slights are also common among the sighted. This is not inherent to their disability.At times when I take a bus and when I take time to board the public transport vehicle with its steep steps the conductor's' have yelled at me for being slow and some of them have rudely adviced me to take an auto.
So I pressed on and asked ''don't you miss seeing the sun,sky,moon,stars,leaves,your face in the mirror or your mother's or some girl's or watching T.V or films''? At which surprisingly all of them answered in unison ''No''.I could'nt believe my ears, as I felt that they maybe putting on a brave face I said ''Are you sure''? They were except, Pughaz who said ''yes at times when I frequented the beach with my B'ed class mates[sighted] I did feel sad that I could'nt see when they were having a merry time but I push away such thoughts immediately and try not to think about it.''
Another blind youth said ''Amongst the disabled lot we are the luckiest and those with ortho problems [those who cant walk ] are the worst .We thank god that though we cant see we are mobile and there fore independant.'' I was reminded of the proverb 'I was sorry that I didn't have shoes till I saw a man without legs'.
To me eyesight was and is the most important sense . How can one live in total darkness ?Yet these V.I youth who are sightless since childhood and have accepted it as matter of course seem to be undaunted by their disability!
Here I am who has been pitying the V.I. all my life for being deprived of the visual treats the world has to offer and there they are giving it only a passing thought and getting on with life cheerfully!
It seems that these blind youth who are sightless since childhood have accepted their disa
At this I said ''it is not possible to start a new lesson and finish it within 10 minutes''.to this he replied ''I want to ask you a few questions '' and proceeded to do so without waiting for my reply.and asked ''what did you feel the first time you saw us?''
I was taken aback by the directness of the question but nevertheless decided to answere honestly. I replied that it was one of my childhood terrors to lose my eyesight and to blunder around helplessly.That whenever I saw a blind person on the street I would look at them curiously feel a pang of pity and then move away forgetting them in the daily business of life.And that2 years back when I came in close contact with people with visual impairment I was over whelmed by pity and felt sorrowful and wondered at the cruel sadism of the creator in creating people with such disabilities.And that this sadness slowly evaporated when I found that whilst I pitied their plight they didnot pity themselves ,they moved around confidently and were just like any other youth interested in cricket, movie stars and politics! They heard me out quietly,
Then I asked Pughaz a thought tormenting me for the past 2 years since I actually started reading to them but never had the heart to talk about it or clear my doubts openly ,whether he felt sad and enraged at what fate had handed out to him?
He and another youth replied ''very rarely,that to only when people are discourteous ,like those waiting at the bus stand who donot tell us the bus numbers or when a conductor is rude or when my scribe shortens my answeres in exams''.
Once again I was taken aback These insults and slights are also common among the sighted. This is not inherent to their disability.At times when I take a bus and when I take time to board the public transport vehicle with its steep steps the conductor's' have yelled at me for being slow and some of them have rudely adviced me to take an auto.
So I pressed on and asked ''don't you miss seeing the sun,sky,moon,stars,leaves,your face in the mirror or your mother's or some girl's or watching T.V or films''? At which surprisingly all of them answered in unison ''No''.I could'nt believe my ears, as I felt that they maybe putting on a brave face I said ''Are you sure''? They were except, Pughaz who said ''yes at times when I frequented the beach with my B'ed class mates[sighted] I did feel sad that I could'nt see when they were having a merry time but I push away such thoughts immediately and try not to think about it.''
Another blind youth said ''Amongst the disabled lot we are the luckiest and those with ortho problems [those who cant walk ] are the worst .We thank god that though we cant see we are mobile and there fore independant.'' I was reminded of the proverb 'I was sorry that I didn't have shoes till I saw a man without legs'.
To me eyesight was and is the most important sense . How can one live in total darkness ?Yet these V.I youth who are sightless since childhood and have accepted it as matter of course seem to be undaunted by their disability!
Here I am who has been pitying the V.I. all my life for being deprived of the visual treats the world has to offer and there they are giving it only a passing thought and getting on with life cheerfully!
It seems that these blind youth who are sightless since childhood have accepted their disa
Sunday, November 15, 2009
11 fools play and............
''Cricket is a game where 11 fools play and 11,000 fools watch'' is the observation made by George Bernard Shaw .I am in total agreement with that British seer.
I fail to understand as to why instead of just enjoying a game by hitting a ball around there is so much ado about lbw,no ball ,googly etc,etc even more tortuous than the civil procedure code.The umpires and refrees even quote precedents [duckworth rules etc] like it is done in a court of law whilst settling disputes!
What baffles me is that little boys barely out of their cradles know all these complicated rules[much better than their multiplication tables] and enforce them furiously whilst playing this game!
Cricket is like the bureaucracy left to us as the legacy of 300 years of rule of British in India.Full of procedures,and rules, that makes it slow ,lumbering and time consuming , merely to hit a ball with a bat!
Foot ball is not only simple to play and follow but also less time consuming and inexpensive.You kick a ball from one end to another. And it is all over in few hours.
Yet millions of of Indian boys [half of them uneducated and poor] play this complicated and costly game[ bats,ball,stumps, gloves ,guards etc,etc,are a must] with great gusto at every nook and corner of our country relishing every moment of the game with its maze of rules more complicated than a game of chess !
It is virtually defunct in the land of its origin but has taken deep roots in her colonies and the toast of its millions and has spread its tentacles through out south Asia.That cricket has a firm grip on the imagination on the populace[male] of S.Asia is testified by the fact that one cricketer[across the border] even suggested that the festering dispute of Kashmir be settled by playing a game of cricket! The winner take's it !This is an uncanny parrelell to the days of yore when a game of dice was played to decide the overlordship of Bharat by ancient dynasties the Pandavas and Kauravas !
What was truly amazing was that our Kargil hero's ,the young soldiers who deftly dodged enemy bullets and threw bombs and grenades at the enemy and fought tooth and nail so as not to cede an inch of Indian territory to the Pakistani's in the frozen heights of Kargil shedding their blood and life in the process had in the few moments of recess ,enquired eagerly of the news correspondents who were covering the war about the progress of one day cricket that was being played in some other continent in a safe and secure environment by their compatriots against the players of the adversary they were actually facing head on ! And the news of victory of Indian cricketers over their Pakistani counterparts was greeted with loud cheers!
Thus the 'Soma Russ' called cricket has intoxicated crores of Indians and S.Asians so much so that they all sway in unison like a snake before a charmer!
I fail to understand as to why instead of just enjoying a game by hitting a ball around there is so much ado about lbw,no ball ,googly etc,etc even more tortuous than the civil procedure code.The umpires and refrees even quote precedents [duckworth rules etc] like it is done in a court of law whilst settling disputes!
What baffles me is that little boys barely out of their cradles know all these complicated rules[much better than their multiplication tables] and enforce them furiously whilst playing this game!
Cricket is like the bureaucracy left to us as the legacy of 300 years of rule of British in India.Full of procedures,and rules, that makes it slow ,lumbering and time consuming , merely to hit a ball with a bat!
Foot ball is not only simple to play and follow but also less time consuming and inexpensive.You kick a ball from one end to another. And it is all over in few hours.
Yet millions of of Indian boys [half of them uneducated and poor] play this complicated and costly game[ bats,ball,stumps, gloves ,guards etc,etc,are a must] with great gusto at every nook and corner of our country relishing every moment of the game with its maze of rules more complicated than a game of chess !
It is virtually defunct in the land of its origin but has taken deep roots in her colonies and the toast of its millions and has spread its tentacles through out south Asia.That cricket has a firm grip on the imagination on the populace[male] of S.Asia is testified by the fact that one cricketer[across the border] even suggested that the festering dispute of Kashmir be settled by playing a game of cricket! The winner take's it !This is an uncanny parrelell to the days of yore when a game of dice was played to decide the overlordship of Bharat by ancient dynasties the Pandavas and Kauravas !
What was truly amazing was that our Kargil hero's ,the young soldiers who deftly dodged enemy bullets and threw bombs and grenades at the enemy and fought tooth and nail so as not to cede an inch of Indian territory to the Pakistani's in the frozen heights of Kargil shedding their blood and life in the process had in the few moments of recess ,enquired eagerly of the news correspondents who were covering the war about the progress of one day cricket that was being played in some other continent in a safe and secure environment by their compatriots against the players of the adversary they were actually facing head on ! And the news of victory of Indian cricketers over their Pakistani counterparts was greeted with loud cheers!
Thus the 'Soma Russ' called cricket has intoxicated crores of Indians and S.Asians so much so that they all sway in unison like a snake before a charmer!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Sanskritaization.
One day I woke up to the sound of Vedas being chanted loud and clear! I pinched myself to see if I was truly awake and if so where was I?In Tirupati or in T.Nagar?I was in T.Nagar at the heart of the central constituency ,the bastion of Periyar parivar[ family,] where the local 'dada's' make sure that the D.M.K. candidates contesting Legislative or Parliamentary elections return to their seat of power without fail.
When I peeped out of my window that overlooks a play ground I saw scores of Brahmin priests sitting around 5 yaga salas ,pouring ghee into the holy fire and chanting all the 4 vedas -Rig,Yajur,Atharva and Soma veda ,occasionally pausing to explain the meanings of the 'mantras' in Tamil!
Lo' behold my eyes met with a fantastic sight!The local 'dada' and his henchmen who conduct 'Katta panchayat' at the road side corner every day dilligently,arrange for record dances in the annual Adi thiruvizha of the small 'Amman 'shrine constructed on the blatantly encroached land of our neighbouring flat ,and rollicking merrily on the road side with regular sun downers ,were all freshly bathed and neatly dressed ,had smeared themselves with sacred ash and took part in all the rituals spanning over a week,along with their wives in the consecration ceremony of their road side temple!.
Suddenly I was transported from the land of Periyar to the sacred shores of river Ganges flowing by the ancient and holy city of Kashi.
In all my life spanning several decades I have never witnessed 'Khumbhabhishekam' performed at such close quarters although I have spent a lot of time living in the 'agraharams of Tirupati and Chittoor and have visited several other holy cities.
What a treat ! Right in the heart of a slum!
When I peeped out of my window that overlooks a play ground I saw scores of Brahmin priests sitting around 5 yaga salas ,pouring ghee into the holy fire and chanting all the 4 vedas -Rig,Yajur,Atharva and Soma veda ,occasionally pausing to explain the meanings of the 'mantras' in Tamil!
Lo' behold my eyes met with a fantastic sight!The local 'dada' and his henchmen who conduct 'Katta panchayat' at the road side corner every day dilligently,arrange for record dances in the annual Adi thiruvizha of the small 'Amman 'shrine constructed on the blatantly encroached land of our neighbouring flat ,and rollicking merrily on the road side with regular sun downers ,were all freshly bathed and neatly dressed ,had smeared themselves with sacred ash and took part in all the rituals spanning over a week,along with their wives in the consecration ceremony of their road side temple!.
Suddenly I was transported from the land of Periyar to the sacred shores of river Ganges flowing by the ancient and holy city of Kashi.
In all my life spanning several decades I have never witnessed 'Khumbhabhishekam' performed at such close quarters although I have spent a lot of time living in the 'agraharams of Tirupati and Chittoor and have visited several other holy cities.
What a treat ! Right in the heart of a slum!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Graft.
I inwardly cringe whenever I read a news item or see on T.V that a petty clerk or some low ranking official has been caught for taking bribes ranging from Rs 2000 to 5000 .The drive against corruption in India is invariably against the lowliest for accepting measly sums ,whilst those taking hefty bribes running into crores like Bofors,Fodder scam and the currently on going spectrum scams are let off after initial hue and cry and such people slither back into power within a matter of months whilst that lowly official would have had his entire life ruined by being dismissed from a bread winning job!
Every one agrees that the corrupt must be booked. But in actual practise the gravity of the offence is determined by the amount of money given and accepted! If the sum is in thousands and if one is caught in order to fill the the register of the anti corruption bureau [before their internal inspection] one is done for.
But if the stakes are high i.e. in crores ,one need never worry! That person is on the right track.All the obstacles will easily fall on the way side . His future is by all means getting brighter and richer with more power and wealth on the anvil!
Every one agrees that the corrupt must be booked. But in actual practise the gravity of the offence is determined by the amount of money given and accepted! If the sum is in thousands and if one is caught in order to fill the the register of the anti corruption bureau [before their internal inspection] one is done for.
But if the stakes are high i.e. in crores ,one need never worry! That person is on the right track.All the obstacles will easily fall on the way side . His future is by all means getting brighter and richer with more power and wealth on the anvil!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Dilliku raja annalum.
Children grow up but mother's don't. Her son maybe a top software engineer,or an I.A.S. or an I.P.S. officer or an M.B.A, but to her he is always the baby she rocked in her hands, the child she carried around and the boy she spanked.To the out side world it is obvious that the person is a responsible,.mature and a strong man but to his mother he is still a immature kid prone to making mistakes there by needing needing her protection and care. Do father's have this block. I doubt it . I think this is a unique trait found only in mothers.
Booker prize.
WhenI heard that Arundhathi Roy [anIndian woman] had won the supposedly highly coveted Booker prize I invaded the neighbourhood Lending library relentlessly like Mahmud of Ghazni to get my hand on that precious copy which was being continuosly borrowed by one member or the other.Finally when I won my trophy and read it I felt that my efforts were in vain! Her language is good but the plot ,the atrocities committed by the people belonging to the higher caste on those belonging to the lower caste which I read daily on the news papers made me weary.
I did'nt learn my lesson and my colonial mindset again went into raptures when subsequently another Indian authoress I think it was a writer named Kiran Mehta won a Bookerand after her Aravind Adiga.It was just like those days when suddenly the world discovered that India was filled with beauties and there was a long line of beauty queens [barring a few no self respecting Indian will consider them as beauties]selected [or nominated] one after the other in the world beautycontests.
Returning to the topic 'Booker prize' both the books awarded with that prize have nothing to boast of except that like their predecessor ,they have taken a mighty swipe at Indian society and have exposed our meanest habits.
To give credit where it is due -Arundathi has given good descriptions of events and the landscape in pleasing language ,whilst Adiga 's white tiger is -'ugh'[the expression I am forced to use] and was glad that I bought only a pirated copy from a pavement seller and thus had the satisfaction of not spending too much money on reading harsh and bare facts which we are all well aware of .
Whereas Amitav Ghosh who keeps losing the Booker race [ how could he win ,he takes a dig at the British often] writes interesting stories that are well woven facts and fiction in enjoyable language.
It seems that any Indian writing in English is assured of a Booker if that writer exposes to the world the dirty and seedy side of Indian society.
I too write about the flaws in our society and customs in my blogs but that is all within the family and I would'nt relish getting a prize for exposing the skeleton in the cupboard , that to from our former colonial masters !It would make me hang my head in shame.
Once upon a time I used to greatly look forward to reading books that won the Booker prize thinking that the English would honour people with prizes who write like Shakespeare or Keats stating sublime truths like 'To be or not to be' or 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever' or for using aesthetic language, but I have been sorely disappointed and have decided never to touch a book especially those written by Indian authors that has won a Booker even with a barge pole!
I did'nt learn my lesson and my colonial mindset again went into raptures when subsequently another Indian authoress I think it was a writer named Kiran Mehta won a Bookerand after her Aravind Adiga.It was just like those days when suddenly the world discovered that India was filled with beauties and there was a long line of beauty queens [barring a few no self respecting Indian will consider them as beauties]selected [or nominated] one after the other in the world beautycontests.
Returning to the topic 'Booker prize' both the books awarded with that prize have nothing to boast of except that like their predecessor ,they have taken a mighty swipe at Indian society and have exposed our meanest habits.
To give credit where it is due -Arundathi has given good descriptions of events and the landscape in pleasing language ,whilst Adiga 's white tiger is -'ugh'[the expression I am forced to use] and was glad that I bought only a pirated copy from a pavement seller and thus had the satisfaction of not spending too much money on reading harsh and bare facts which we are all well aware of .
Whereas Amitav Ghosh who keeps losing the Booker race [ how could he win ,he takes a dig at the British often] writes interesting stories that are well woven facts and fiction in enjoyable language.
It seems that any Indian writing in English is assured of a Booker if that writer exposes to the world the dirty and seedy side of Indian society.
I too write about the flaws in our society and customs in my blogs but that is all within the family and I would'nt relish getting a prize for exposing the skeleton in the cupboard , that to from our former colonial masters !It would make me hang my head in shame.
Once upon a time I used to greatly look forward to reading books that won the Booker prize thinking that the English would honour people with prizes who write like Shakespeare or Keats stating sublime truths like 'To be or not to be' or 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever' or for using aesthetic language, but I have been sorely disappointed and have decided never to touch a book especially those written by Indian authors that has won a Booker even with a barge pole!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Prabhakaran.
The master mind behind the gruesome extermination of the former Indian prime minister, a young and handsome Rajiv Ghandhi, and the callous executioner of scores of others who happened to get into his way and earned his ire .
Yet I felt a tiny twinge of regret on hearing about the news of his death.For all his ruthless ways there was romance in his life!He motivated 1000's of Tamil's to defy a government that trampled on their rights and dignity and even ran a efficient parallel government for decades which gave a modicum of self respect to the Tamil minority whose spirit had been severely crushed by their obstinate rulers.
Yet I felt a tiny twinge of regret on hearing about the news of his death.For all his ruthless ways there was romance in his life!He motivated 1000's of Tamil's to defy a government that trampled on their rights and dignity and even ran a efficient parallel government for decades which gave a modicum of self respect to the Tamil minority whose spirit had been severely crushed by their obstinate rulers.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Six packs.
The current obsession of Bollywood and Kollywood actors is '6 packs'. They starve and sweat it out in exotic gym's and spend lakhs of rupees on special trainers and diet and then bare their chest and abdomen to millions of movie crazy poor Indian youth who also posses 6 pack body ,not by spending money but by earning it ,by doing hard physical labour day in and day out to fill their starving bellies! Both are earning a living .The former spending lakhs of rupees to earn crores of rupees whilst the latter spends his youthful energy and strength to earn a few thoudand rupees to keep himself and his family going !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)