Mahathma

I happen to hear a wonderful story on the TV yesterday(Yes, TV can be useful too.)

Gandhi was with the Indigo plantation workers of Bihar. It must have been during his return from S.Africa. It seems that one of the owners was mighty pissed off with Gandhiji.

He remarked, 'Gandhi is a coward. He surrounds himself with farmers. If I get him alone, I will shoot him on the spot.'

The news reached Gandhiji through hearsay.

One early morning Gandhiji's colleague and helper noticed him waking up one hour earlier than usual. Gandhiji started walking through the streets. He reached a big cottage and knocked at the doors. Someone opened the doors.

'I heard that you have taken a pledge. Sorry the farmers flock around me all day. So I couldn't free myself. Now I have got up a bit early and have come alone to you. You can fulfill your pledge'

Rest History

The table and the book

My Mom was waiting for me to get away from home for a couple of days. She pounced on my desk, to do a cleaning job.Mind you, I have tried many a times to clean my table, but have failed miserably. I don't know how she manages it!The bad part of table cleaning is you will end up having no clue on what you have deposited and where it has ended up.

Well I give you a chance to compare the extremities. It will take some time for me to revert back my table to its ugly self.

As of now, I have finished 'The Age Of Kali' in the long train journey.Now I am into a biography on EMS by P.Govinda Pilla . The book is entitled 'EMS Nambbothirippad'.Well he has a few accolades to his name:

1. The leader of first democratically elected Communist governement.

2. The first Chief Minister of Kerala

3. The brightest party idealogues in India

4. One who started off 'The land re-distribution Act'. The reason why caste disparities are few in Kerala

Kannada star

So this weekend I was roaming in the streets of Bangalore with my good friend, Vattu.we saw many Kannadiga cinema posters on the wall. We came back to our princely room and watched the late night 'item dances'.
I say to Vattu, 'Eda, I think we ought to try to break into Kannada cinema as heroes'
'Why?'
'As soon as we get a break, it doesn't matter if we grow old, grow bald, can't dance or get a huge paunch. You'll always get two short-skirt clad actress to drool over you plus atleast one item dance with a voluptous one'
'True, very true.'

About to be Bangalooored

For a while I have been planning to get out of the suroundings but nothing hasn't been happening.
It's tough to get all the guys together, atleast a few. Thankfully, a handful from my college days are planning to meet in Bangalore this weekend. As I said it's tough to get everyone together. Times change and so does priorities.Thank God for the ones who haven't changed!
As for now except the tickets, nothing has been planned. A pair of shoes and clothes are in the top of my 'to-get-list' from Bangalore
So will get you guys an update after the weekend. Cheerios

Kaliyuga

One of my ambition @ the Hay festival was to get to meet William Dalrymple

He does extensive research on his works. The deep knowledge he has on Indian tradition and culture can put any hardcore Inidan to shame.
So when he moved ahead to the book signing, I wanted his autograph on any piece of paper.I was unprepared for and grabbed a book of his from the stall.
I hadn't heard of 'The age of Kali' until then. I did a simple judgement based on beauty of the cover.

I was pulled into a trance as I started reading the book. I sat glued in my chair for hours.This is a travelogue and WD travels across the country and he gives the reason why he thinks India is fast slipping into detrioration and degradation.



It's a very chilly narration, but very much true. And you can dismiss it as white man's penchant to jeer at the EMERGING India. Believe me, you will find it difficult to do so.

Most of the blogger friends I came acroos think very much alike. Most of are urbanised and meterosexuals. We believe we stand on a superior moral grounds and the poor and illiterate are fit only for the dungeons.Thus the outcastes are fast eating into the social fabric of the society and dragging us to KaliYuga.While we sit comfortable on the higher realms of morality.



I would recommend this book to every Indian who thinks everything is fine with India.

Rest don't bother

Reality

During the Hay festival, one participant asked Bob Geldof if the rock culture of ‘60s and ‘70s triggered off a culture of sex, orgy and rebellion? He replied that rock culture didn’t trigger off anything. It only brought out what was already hidden the depths of society. Rock brought it out and said, ‘This is what is hidden in you.’

I believe this decade will be known as the reality show decade. The morality of reality (sex) shows have come under the scanner again. This time Rakhi Sawant is the (anti) hero again.
A few years back kids didn’t know what a ‘Nirodh’ was? Today we see the reality couple get married, make love and even grow kids on screen. The stars use foul languages, bitch about others. Then accidentally the bra slips off or there is an upskirt. We get to see celebrities bath publicly. (I believe bath clips were porn a few years ago). Then there are couples who split and make up and again split and make up. And ultimately, we have an uneducated vamp trying to patch up separated couples.

So are these shows evil? Do the sky rocketing TRPs mean, we need them to expose the hypocrisy hidden with in?

Movie of the week- Golmaal3

Saturday is a Sabbath for me. I do a heavy workout and doze off the whole day. But when a girl calls you out for a movie with an accompanying lunch, you drag yourself out of bed.

Well Somu is a good friend of mine. Sadly all her close friends got displaced due to attrition, and she was in desperate need of company. I was happy to oblige as a knight in shining armor. Though I do not like Hind movies, Golmaal was supposed to be sure shot entertainment.

Well the theatre was packed with a jovial crowd. The condition of theatres in Trivandrum is unfathomable. But it’s very low priced and hence forgivable. Besides you get a chance to rub shoulders with nice, cute girls.

Coming back to the movie, there is nothing to review about. The first half was outrageously fun. Although I couldn’t catch the full meaning of the jokes, I got a hint from the crowd and laughed along. The genre is plain slap stick comedy. The movie is colourfuly shot. The protagonists, though jobless, dress always in their Sunday best.

Devgun (or was it Devgunn or Devgn) walks around showing his cleavage and as if he just stamped on shit. The third installment is nowhere compared to the first two and to be frank the best part of the film are the supporting cast. There is no skin show from Bebo. The dumb jokes from Tushaar is getting too repetitive.

Hats off to the director, Rohith Shetty. It’s not easy to make three hit installments, quite phenomenal. The Mithun Chakravarthy flashback jig was awesome and probably the best one I’ve seen. So is Johnny Lever. Rohith Shetty didn’t have a story with him. Surprisingly he didn’t mess up things and wrapped it up pretty decently.

When the movie started off there was a disclaimer- The animal used in a stunt scene is a fake and no harm was done to the real one. How nice and hip to be an animal lover. Strangely, the movie is filled with jibes at a mute character and at one having speech impediment. It’s okay to hurt a person but not at all okay to hurt an animal. What a world!