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Adieu 2008, Hola 2009 31 Dec 2008, 10:17 am

If I were to remember 2008 for two reasons, it would be because it was the year when I finally traveled to Hampi. It was also the year when I first officially got my driving license (for both a bike and a car) and learnt to drive. Yes, by the end of 2008, I actually mastered the knack and drive myself to work every day

There was recognition at work and otherwise. On the home front, I finally renovated my father’s house after a decade. That felt incredibly good.

As I do every year, I ‘d set out my wish/resolution list for 2008 when the year began. As always, it’s time to rewind and think about how I fared.

Health, wealth: Yes, I did have a bit of both.
More success for Ginger Soda Lemon Pop: I did not get a Booker for this one. But, the recognition for this book surpassed my expectations.
Completing my second book: Not yet.
Getting our intranet recognised for the world class portal that it is: Work in progress
Moving Visages to wordpress and getting more frequent updates: Work in progress
An exhibition of my photographs on Bangalore: Not yet.
Once more, travel to two places that I have never visited before: I did quite well on this one and ended up with more than two new travels… Mangalore, Brahmagiri, Corbet, Nainital and Hampi.
Once more, experience five unforgettable books, movies and theatre performances: I fared poorly on the reading. Persepolis is my reco for the year. With movies, there were plenty of them. My movies of the year (if only because I saw them in 2008): Juno, Khuda Ke Liye, Moulin Rouge, The Blue Umbrella, The Dark Knight, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. I also caught two theatre performances that I would recommend - Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Leila Alvares’ musical All Shook Up
Complete my first year MA in English Literature at IGNOU: Not yet. And I am beginning to feel that I will never complete this one. It no longer matters.
Plant many trees: No
Save heritage buildings: No again.
Contribute to improving the quality of life in Bangalore: Not enough. Made a first step with my work on Bhagya.
Learn to drive: Yes, yes, yes!

In 2009, I wish for simple things. I would like to…

Remain employed, and have challenging work.
Complete the two books that I have been working on.
Read two great books. Watch two outstanding plays.
Visit two places that I have never visited before.
Watch five outstanding movies.
Contribute to the quality of life in Bangalore.
Close my educational loan.

It’s a simple, but a huge impact ‘ask’ list. Especially, the two books. In that spirit, here’s to 2009!

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Hope…? 1 Dec 2008, 9:54 am

Most people who visit this blog often know that of late I have felt very discouraged about the state of things in India… And had I not been married to Manoj, who still sees India & Bangalore as home, I would have very seriously considered immigrating to another country. Not because things are better elsewhere… But because if you will always be a ’second class citizen’ in every place across the globe… Then, perhaps it is better to be world traveller on a second class ticket (lol)

And then today I came across this very special post. It reminded me that the good that comes along with the bad… And the good is worth fighting for because this is my country… And has been the country of my ancestors in all probability for the last 2000 years… If not longer…

http://thetimesofbullshit.blogspot.com/2008/11/dear-mr-terrorist.html

Thank you stranger… Who I will probably never meet… For reminding me that the good comes along with the ugly… But, that does not make it any less my country… And yes, it is worth fighting for!

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Ah Taj! 28 Nov 2008, 5:16 pm

There are some memories that will never leave you… And one of those memories for me will be those live images of the Taj in flames… As I sat glued to the television in disbelief into the early hours of Thursday morning… How? Why?

And in all those individual stories of personal loss that I feel with and heroism that I applaud… The memory of the Taj refuses to go away… A building with a century of heritage woven around… Built in defiance by Jamshedji Tata to that infamous line “dogs and Indians not allowed”.

I have always believed that a picture speaks more than a thousand words. So, this one is for Bombay, a city that I have always loved and seen as home.

This picture was taken on my visit to Bombay in December 2007 (yes, around the same time last year)… And then got lost in my collection because it did not capture the splendour of the Taj… As I was trying to cut out the crowds.

But, now when I re-look at the picture, I can’t help thinking that even in a poor picture, the Taj made for such a magnificent picture.

Ah Taj! Ah Bombay!

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September Dawn 17 Oct 2008, 9:23 pm

The film released a year ago in 2007, and is meant to be a Hollywood style representation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of September 11, 1857 in Utah. (BTW, on the offside, what is it with September 11 and the history of the American nation?)

The historical accuracy Hollywood’s account of the massacre, allegedly undertaken under the instigation/inspiration of the Mormon church, is under debate. But, I thought that it was an interesting comment on the workings of religious intolerance.

All religions teach that God is good and that one must act in the spirit of that good God. So, how is that then that people pick up a sword and mow down unarmed women and new born infants in the name of God? How does brother kill brother? How does your mind and your soul stop protesting as your hands commit/you watch the most terrible atrocities being perpetrated?

The movie is a comment on all of that. Not in terms of historical accuracy, but on how it happens.

Finally, the film is also one of those rare glimpses into the religious conservatism that shaped the history of the making of America and that continues to linger on (especially every time Sarah Palin does a little jig - laugh!)

So while this would never be a landmark film in the history of cinema, it still makes for interesting viewing from all these different perspectives.

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Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na 12 Oct 2008, 10:25 am

After all those recos, I finally got down to watching Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, and I must say that there no regrets. It’s lovely little film, and an example of how great cinema is made.

I don’t really want to rewrite all the great reviews on the film that have already gone before. But, I’d just like to make a little note on why this film worked so well for me:

A great script
Sincerity, freshness, originality… Another way of saying this would be that it’s a story about everyday people told from the heart.
Every little bit of the film is there for a reason.
Great dialogues
Whacky humour.
Music that makes you want to dance, think, travel.
In conclusion, a nice, clean film… And the greatest past about it was that it worked… Every little bit of it

It’s also true that Imran Khan has great screen presence. Here’s to the “next big thing” Khan.

Abbas Tyrewala… Hats off to you… You’ve added another little gem to your repertoire. Of course, we expect no less from the master craftsman who created the screenplay for Maqbool and penned the dialogues of Munnabhai MBBS.

Aamir Khan… Take a deep bow… This film has the simple understated conviction that the more overrated Taare Zameen Par (also from Aamir Khan productions) always lacked.

Each generation has a film that captures the essence of being young. Thank you for adding Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na to that list.

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The last legion 12 Oct 2008, 5:54 am

This film was in the news sometime ago because it was one amongst many of Ms Aishwariya Rai Bachchan’s famed international projects. But, the film was finally released quietly and bombed at the box office, without creating much of a flutter.

I was still curious about the film though. After all, I am a great fan of the traditional Greco-Roman epic film. From an Indian perspective, it was also interesting to see how the cast of Ben Kingsley, Colin Firth and Aishwariya Rai came together for the telling of this story.

Now, having watched the film last week, I must acknowledge that the tradition of the Hollywood Greco-Roman epic film has truly lost its way.

What ever happened to the element of brilliant spectacle and editing that keeps you at the edge of your seat? Or what about mighty dialogues reminiscent of the tradition of honour of yore? Finally, what happened to larger than life stars who could carry a film on their own shoulders?

Ben Kingsley is a remarkable actor. Yet, he does not at any point give Charlton Heston a run for his money – at least not in this particular film.

The film is also notable for the complete absence of chemistry between Colin Firth and Aishwariya Rai. Passion that broke across the boundaries of ancient cultures never left you so completely unignited.

Also, how does Aishwariya Rai do it every time? She must hold the award for converting the maximum number of international cinematic dream projects into box office duds.

As has been correctly observed in the past, the problem begins when she opens her mouth Our most international looking heroine, with the most rudimentary of acting skills – and the cliched Bollywood traditional sati savitri style at that, rendered in Greco-Roman style costumes. It needs to be seen to be believed

My favourite Bollywood moment in the film was when Aishwariya introduces herself as a kalari pattu practitioner from Kerala, in an affected “convent school” English accent. I didn’t know whether it was appropriate to laugh or cry

Watch The last legion to add a new dimension to the word ridiculous. You could also watch it to find out how a Greco-Roman epic film is not made.

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It’s been three years 4 Oct 2008, 4:14 am

Three years in a marriage is not a lifetime. Yet, when you get up one morning to realize that you are celebrating three years of being married, you wonder how that happened so quickly. Where did the last three years pass me by in the twinkling of an eye?

Like all marriages, we’ve had our share of highs and lows – if I may add, more highs than lows.

It does sometimes still annoy me that I have married a family and not a person. As an only child of a very individualistic family, there is no personal experience that I came with that would have made me run in the opposite direction from a situation like that or warned me that it would be difficult.

But if I were celebrate one of the many great things about our marriage, it would probably be that we both have the space to exist as completely different people. With the individualistic family background baggage, that is more important than I realized.

It is indeed a special thing to always have the freedom to pursue your dreams or just the space to be the person that you want to be everyday.

Thank you Manoj! Thank you life!

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Tolerance 2 Oct 2008, 1:13 am

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti…

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We remember the Mahatma not because of what he said, but what he did.

Tolerance is not you standing on a mountain, banging your chest, and proclaiming to the world, “I am tolerant”.

That is aggressive arrogance.

Tolerance is lived in our lives everyday.

How tolerant will I be today?

II
I say that my tolerance has reached its limits.

But isn’t my tolerance, with inscribed limits, another word for intolerance?

(PS. To you lovely ladies out there, Eid Mubaraq!)

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Things change 20 Sep 2008, 2:24 pm

There are times in one’s life when something changes in you forever. The last few days have been that for me. It’s also the reason why I have not blogged too much, and why my last few posts have reflected on some form of genocide.

There will also be a post from me sometime in the future on the controversial subject of conversion (just so that I can vent some spleen!)

But, this post is not about Orissa or Mangalore. It is about what Orissa, Mangalore and Madhya Pradesh did to me. I need to talk about this somewhere because deep inside there is still a part of me that is in a permanent state of shock.

I am not sure where it started. Perhaps it was that innocuous invitation to join a group called Bring Orissa Dignity and my investigation of how the online world was reporting the killings in Orissa.

Each morning, our group woke up to anywhere between 100 to 400 hate mails, most often with pornographic content. Each morning, our group admin responded to our alerts, deleted all the messages and left a blessing and a prayer for the people who had left those messages. (Incidentally, the between 2 am to 6 am timing also makes me believe that most of them come from fundamentalists overseas. )

While I am still not Christian in my beliefs, it’s true that these instances for the first time helped me to understand the power and strength of these words, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

But, even more disturbing, what I also experienced there and at all the forums that I visited was deep burning hate – the kind of hate that partitioned this country 60 years ago. And it was this that sent me tail spinning into this state of shock. How could anybody in this modern age hate with such intensity, completeness and complete ignorance?

A post that I saw on Rediff stands out in my mind, “If there was a war, and the Christians had to choose between Jeruslem and India, what would they choose?”

Jeruslem and India??????!!!!!!!!! Shouldn’t it be a ‘no contest’ for obvious historical and religious reasons?

It was interesting to see that the stance that most people took depended on the religion that they were born into. Situations did not exist in black and white. Instead, you were always aggressive or defensive, depending on your religion at birth – even if you did not believe in it And this includes me as well.

Also, no one cares until the witch hunt happens to them. Till then, it’s just else someone over reacting

I also experienced why the police in India has lost credibility. People that I knew at the Mangalore protests related horrendous stories… Police damaging their own vehicles before they attacked the protestors, women and children dragged out of the church and beaten till they were black and blue, young college students arrested (the unofficial number is 100) and taken away with no contact with their families. Even as the Bajrang Dal leaders claimed responsibility on national television for the event and walked away scot-free.

This is also how a community is radicalized. Nothing justifies it. But this is how it happens, and it is frightening,

So the next day, I found myself watching an alleged terrorist encounter in Delhi. I couldn’t help wondering if it was a staged encounter. After all, if they’d fudged stuff in Mangalore, they could do it in Delhi too.

How is that Zeeshan, a Marketing Manager at a small firm in Delhi, chose to surrender before the TV cameras last night, declaring his innocence? Yet, after a night in police interrogation, the police releases a statement announcing that he has admitted to being a terrorist.

Perhaps that is the way it has always been this way in this country. It was just that I had not experienced it before in a personal way. Till now, I only made academic statements based on the same premise.

But, like I said before… “No one cares in a real way… Till it happens to them.”

I also wish so much at times that I did not get involved in things so deeply. That I could be comfortable in my knowledge that it is still not yet my house being burned (this time it’s just people I know)… But, for some reason, these things disturb me…

At least in the fight for independence, one could appeal to the stated (not practiced) British sense of fair play and commitment to human rights. Here, you can appeal to nothing. In a fascist state, there is no stated morality.

Five years ago, I chose to return to India from the UK after I completed my Master’s because Bangalore and India were home.

But, if I am to be a guest in India, can’t I be a guest in any country in the world? At least a country with a better infrastructure and law enforcement system

Also my hometown, Bangalore of the 80s and the early 90s, remains only in the mind’s eye. So, what do I have to cling on to? What holds me back?

Nothing…except perhaps that Bangalore still remains my husband’s home.

So, I watch as we systematically kill the diversity in that great phrase “unity in diversity”. There is place now for only one religion and one culture. Nothing else is tolerated.

In this scenario, I don’t think that I feel very Indian… And I don’t think I ever will be.

PS. Just for the record, I don’t owe my allegiance to Jeruslem either I belong to nowhere and everywhere. I’m just passing through.

And while doing that, I am still committed to touching every life that comes my way, and leaving the world around me a better place than I found it… That is my only truth.

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One more for Mangalore… 20 Sep 2008, 2:38 am

Among the Christian institutions that received threats yesterday was the St Aloysius College. The threats state that cadres from different states are ready to attack them, besides 80 suicide bombers.

When I visited Mangalore for a wedding in the family a couple of months ago, one of the monuments that moved me with its haunting, ethereal, serene beauty was St Aloysius College. I remember thinking that the architectural style and scale was far superior to the monuments that I had seen in that great university town of Oxford.

It pains me that this 128 year old institution is under attack.

But, they say that a picture speaks more than a 1000 words. So, this one is for St Aloysius College, Mangalore.

And lest I seem alarmist, this one below was from Milagres Church, in the heart of town, and at the centre of the attack last Sunday. Not as striking as St Aloysius (it did not help that it was caught in the heat of the afternoon sun), but with a spiritual beauty of its own.

Finally, here is a glimpse from the wedding that took me to Mangalore in happier times. The next time I saw this church again was in a flash on television of hundreds of parishioners congregating to protect their churches.

I am not even Christian in my beliefs (though most fundamentalists wouldn’t know the difference - laugh!), and yet I find that looking at these pictures moves me to tears. For me, it is about the associations with those monuments and another way of being Indian that are destroyed when these monuments are attacked.

So, what about Manoj’s extended family and others who are Christian in their religious beliefs? How would these attacks that persist unchecked make them feel? I can’t even begin to imagine it.

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