freebird

1. Full Metal Jacket (obviously the training modules are the same)
2. Mad Max (take a guess)
3. Battle Royale (again, take a guess)
4. Rambo (good hearted cricketers, surrounded by abusive Indians)
5. First Blood (even their own country doesn’t understand them)
6. John Rambo (body count, simple)
7. Matrix (all 11 think that they are the ‘One’ + Hugo weaving is an Australian)
8. Apocalypto (they seem to like all things Australian)
9. Godfather Trilogy (allegiance at all costs)
10. Love Story (at heart they are all soft you know)

a German word meaning ‘pleasure taken from someone else’s misfortune’. Commentators are of the opinion that all REALITY TELEVISION works because of human kind’s innate desire to see others suffer or get humiliated.

The wiki link to all this real and unreal 

It’s possible.

That there will be blood. Literally, that is. In the best of 3 finals between India and Australia from the 2^nd of March. There are anyways 9 possible weapons on the field. 6 stumps, 2 bats and the red cherry. One can also use the 4 bails creatively. If one of the players had a Oriental origin, say Japan or China etc, they would have sufficed. But our cricketing gentlemen are talented and macho and can make do with the given resources.

It is not impossible. One more provocation and on a bad day anything can happen. And why not? That’s the way of life and sport. Take it or leave it. It happens in rugby, football, boxing so why not in cricket?

Lets come to some blows. The batsmen have an unfair advantage, what will all the padding and helmets and guards, but such is life. Some people will always have an advantage. But you can poke the hell out with a stump. Stumps can hurt. I speak from personal experience. I was hit once and lost a tooth. And the batsmen are hampered in a different way. By their pads. Nowadays they are all light but still a teeny-weeny advantage, nevertheless is an advantage.

So make hay while the sun shines. Very few will get an opportunity…to be the pioneers, leave their footprints on the clichéd sands of time. But forget not, you warriors of the bat and ball that you are special. Hope, dreams and pride of cricket is at stake and you will be looked with wide-eyed admiration by the followers. Go for it.

Break the other’s jaw, hand, legs; turn the green pitch red; your nation beckons you.

We play it hard. This is the only way it is played. All sport is like this. Chess, badminton and table tennis too. You only don’t see it. So wear your opponents down with abuse and hate.

It works better if the other side retaliates. Now we have equals. Works better, if you ask me, if there are no umpires also.

Ah blood on the dance floor. Let’s sing the anthems.

What is Qualia?? Came across it yesterday and is damn interesting. Here is a wiki link

Best motion picture of the year:

“No Country For Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)

 Achievement in directing:

“No Country For Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Joel and Ethan Coen

 Performance by an actress in a leading role:

Marion Cotillard in “La Vie En Rose”

 Performance by an actor in a leading role:

Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”

 Performance by an actress in a supporting role:

Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton”

 Performance by an actor in a supporting role:

Javier Bardem for “No Country For Old Men”

 Adapted screenplay:

“No Country For Old Men,” screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen

 Original screenplay:

“Juno,” screenplay by Diablo Cody

 Best animated feature film of the year:

“Ratatouille,” Brad Bird

 Best foreign language film of the year:

“The Counterfeiters,” Stefan Ruzowitzky (Austria)

 Achievement in art direction

“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

(DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)

Art Direction: Dante Ferretti

Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

 Achievement in cinematography

“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit

 Achievement in costume design

“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal) Alexandra Byrne

 Best documentary feature

“Taxi to the Dark Side” (THINKFilm)

An X-Ray Production

Alex Gibney and Eva Orner

 Best documentary short subject

“Freeheld”

A Lieutenant Films Production

Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth

 Achievement in film editing

“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal) Christopher Rouse

 Achievement in makeup

“La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald

 Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

“Atonement” (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli

 Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“Falling Slowly” from “Once”

(Fox Searchlight)

Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

 Best animated short film

“Peter & the Wolf” (BreakThru Films)

A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production

Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

 Best live action short film

“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)” (Premium Films)

A Kare Production

Philippe Pollet-Villard

 Achievement in sound editing

“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)

Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg

 Achievement in sound mixing

“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)

Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis

 Achievement in visual effects

“The Golden Compass” (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)

Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood

to a cameraman who shot for Wajda, Kieslowski, Zanussi and Lars Von Trier Edward Klosinski

Democracy. Liberty. Equality. Fraternity. Freedom. Free. Vote. Dissent. Disagree. Utopia. Classless. Consensus. Elections. Opposition. Multi-party. Secular-religious. Media. Newspaper. Egalitarian. Open. Uncensored. Emancipated. Rights. Fundamental. Argue.

UNARMIED.

We know not who we are. Seems a cynical statement. World weary, sick of life and the only way to redeem oneself it to condemn, reject and obliterate. Could be true.

I met my parents after 9 months. Like all families our family too is happy and sad in their own unique way. We are what people call traditionalists. Brahmins. Brahmins in India assume to be a superior breed. Some of them do, most old-timers did. Supposed to be the highest in the Hindu pecking order. Obviously that’s not the case.

My family too has its shares of believes, customs and more importantly opinions. I am a vegetarian. Most of my clan is. Most of my friends from childhood have been meat-eaters. I could have easily become one but didn’t. That’s a different story. I don’t hate them etc. I can wash their plates if that proves anything.

Me and my parents met in Pune. I like Pune. It reminds me of my hometown Jamshedpur. After a family function it was time for religious tourism. Bhimashankar is 3 hours from Pune. We hired a car. The owner who also drove was very courteous and cultured. The kind of valet that a gentleman will kill for. Pre-empting, reading the mind of the person with him. So Ratan was good.

I proclaim that I am an atheist. I don’t go to temples etc on my own. But when I accompany people, I pray sincerely. Very confusing. Bhimashankar is devoted to Lord Shiva, one of the most-powerful Gods of the holy trinity. He is also the one assigned the dirty job of finishing evil so that good can take birth. So Shiva is ‘The Destroyer’. He is also favoured by people who smoke pot or any other intoxicant. Many a trance lover has worn a t-shirt with Shiva, either dancing ‘Tandav’ or meditating in a yogic pose. So I like Shiva.

En route we spoke on a variety of topics. Mostly religious from my parents. The stories, legends and myths that they know and can tell. An eye-opening experience. You realize the many things that you don’t know and your immodesty in proclaiming otherwise.

Some religious places can give you a religious experience. Even an atheist can experience a ‘religious experience’. Following branded religion has nothing to do with it.

So I entered the sanctum sanctorum and the prayers began and it will be enough to say that I was touched. In the midst of all the God-intoxication when my eyes were shut, I heard the flute. The Flute is the preferred musical instrument of Lord Krishna, the most famous of the holy trinity. I thought I was hearing things and decided to check and here was this old man whose eyes were shut, lost in the music he was playing. All things came together.

We had lunch and slowly entered the chaos of Bombay (Mumbai). My parents who had more than an idea of my girlfriend were received by her. It was very cordial. They also knew that we all were supposed to stay together. For a conservative Hindu family this is almost sacrilege.

But my parents are strange in a strange way. They never imposed any of their ideals, respected my privacy and never interfered. So they entered the house, didn’t say a word. saw our cat called Fish and wondered if it would bite. So far so good. Everything was cool and the question of sustenance came up. What for Dinner?

She suggested ‘mushrooms’. Things have never been the same.

At the same time that these magical words were uttered, the fridge door was also opened to give my mom a picture of neatly arranged eggs, almost smiling back at them.

Affront. Belief. Custom. Tradition. The Hindu burden came crashing down. She asked me if I plan to feed her food cooked in the ‘same utensils’. When the dreaded word is not spoken but hinted at you know that the portents are not good. Even Macbeth shied from saying ‘murder’. I thought she was over-reacting but suggested that I will buy new utensils. We have a maid who cooks. But mother said no, I will cook.

Since then all talk has been few and far between. My girlfriend is pissed. Her high hopes of meeting them have come to a naught. I tried to express this twice to my parents, that we can all talk and have a good time; what else is life for? They are convinced that I was trying to impose cordiality deliberately. Now there is no such thing.

My parents have gone off to a cousin’s house. They had to anyways, but now it seems as if they have in anger. My girlfriend has decided that she will stay at her friends. She is convinced that it’s because of her.

Life’s wonderful. Fish is meowing like never before for the last 2 nights. Both of us wonder if she is sick. we still have to take her to a doctor.

In the meantime I am getting a hateful toothache. There are presentations at work. My parents who had plans of staying for a month, might leave in a week.

What for? I wonder. Because of me staying in with the person I love. No, not that. Because of the ‘mushroom-egg’ combination? Evidently yes. But that got solved I thought with the purchase of new kitchen equipment. Because it was all too sudden for them?

God knows. I know, laugh.

Raj and Abu were arrested and then released. Panic set in Mumbai. People decamped from offices. They fear that they will be attacked by supporters of these gentlemen of violence. It doesn’t matter that I am a South Indian from Jharkhand. I can speak decent Hindi and therefore can be attacked. Forget about my roots. The mob is in a mood and wants to attack. End of story.

 Post the Big B utterances, the attacks on taximen and vendors etc, the locals vs outside discourse has traveled quite a distance. Many a political pundit has discussed it threadbare, interpreted the nuances of chaos. Delhi’s Lt Governor has also contributed his bit in the round table.

 Some of the articles are almost apologies for the MNS. They say that Raj action’s are nothing but an articulation of a long-festering desire to teach the North Indian a lesson. A north Indian who, as the Lt Governor has said, likes to break the law and take pride in it. A north Indian is not as law abiding as a south Indian.

 I am from Jamshedpur. The quaint, small town was originally in Bihar. When I went to study at Hindu college in Delhi, I was not a resident. I didn’t stay in the hostel. I had to look for houses as paying guests etc. The minute Bihar escaped my lips, the demeanor of the landlord changed. It was a NO. Some were either careless or daring or unbiased or badly needed the money. Or they had the wisdom to realize that students will always be students, a bit confused, disorderly but eventually manageable. Thanks to them, I am earning today.

 The north is upset at the assault. So is the entire country. The anger on the street has found a fount. Behave or else…go back.

 Some things have to be kept in mind before Raj T becomes the mascot for increasing civic consciousness. North Indians spit after eating paan and guthka. So do most of the Gujrati traders. North Indians molest girls. So do Maharashtrians. We all know what happened on the New Year night. North Indians revel in breaking the law. All of India does that. Most of our governments do. West Bengal under the Marxists of Budhadeb is the current poster boy. Te culprit’s riots in Mumbai, Godhra and other parts of India are known, but they roam free. Law is broken every day.

 Constitutional rights are broken every day. In the year 2000 when I went to open my bank account in SBI, the person there asked me why people come to Mumbai at all? I threatened him with a police complaint. Marathis in Mumbai can break a law, flaunt their language and get away. For the same crime, a non-resident has to face more and dish out more.

 Indians have to face up to some facts. We might be a young, vibrant, growing nation and economy. But we are also blind nation. We do not accept the ills that plague the nation. Everything is old, ancient, blessed by the Gods. We who advertise for a fair, white, tall, well-proportioned, Convent educated boy or girl feign hurt when people accuse us of having double standards. Let’s accept that we are bigoted. That we have a long and tiresome journey ahead. That we are partisan and biased.

 In one way what Raj’s actions have revealed is the fact that an illusion is broken. Muslims should be happy in India. Hindus are not preferred or favoured in India. It doesn’t matter if you are a Hindu or rich. Bachchan is both and yet became the target. So there is some hope left. We hate everybody equally.