slumdog millionairE

Who contests the fact that the film was good? I have to say is the film was fantastic.
Wonderful story, screenplay, acting and direction. How else would have the film bagged the globes and would have raked in such amount of money at the box office?

I’m not aiming to write a full page review on the film, but what struck me most were the themes that were handled in the movie.
If u ask me for the plot synopsis, it is just another rag to riches story with a cleverly sewed in love story. After the movie bagged awards at the globes, all the Indian channels were abuzz with the notion that an Indian film won the globes. After the Mumbai terrorist tragedies they were in pursuit of breaking news and they got it. At least we should open our minds to the fact that this film is a western made movie directed by an English and his crew which enacted a story with an Indian back ground which of course required the use of Indian actors and an Indian musician who could capture the westernized Indian music. More than that for whatever reasons it may be, it took an English man to showcase what the real India is all about, apart from the glistening picture of a middle and upper middle class world portrayed in the predominantly upper class media.
The truths in India like child abuse, religious persecution, sexual atrocities towards women, poverty, gangsters and their murky underworld, atrocities and corruption, social and class discrimination were quite boldly taken up by Danny Boyle which the native film producers and directors always avoided. Even if they were taken up by an Indians they dint see much light, thanks to a wonderful director and his crew this film broke all the social barriers and was an instant success. Life in the slums were quite brilliantly captured by Boyle, the rampant poverty and the social discrimination. The class discrimination is so rampant that even in the tv show, the host (Anil Kapoor) taunts the slum dog with chaiwallah and it is the same upper class superiority that led him to beleive that his fool proof show is being cheated by this slumwallah.

And now, with all the media hype surrounding the film, Amitabh Bachan has come out into the open, criticing the movie, you may not beleive it, for accurately picturizing the facts. He is saying it will tarnish the image of India. Image, the vanity of the rich. I dont have any more to say to those who attracts the curious western clout to the Indian pelvic dance and sleeps in the imaginary glory of the donkey carrying the idol.

I don’t have any illusionary notions that this film is going to change India or the perceptions about it, but we require more and more people like Boyle, to come up with more socially relevant themes and pursue someone to take some actions to bring about a better India.

what bafflEd mE in the US or an idiots guidE to US of A

I should have written about it much earlier, but going by my instincts of procrastination I thought this is the right time to do this.
Well US of A is an amalgam of cultures, which unlike India, means you have one pulp of all the culture of the world. And that also means finding Americans wherever you go in America. This comes as quite a surprise for Indians when they find Bengalis, Tamilians, Mallus, Gujarati, Punjabis etc when travelling in India.

Rather than banging on the wall with my irrelevant visions into the minds of a diabolic, let me come back to the point.

These are the things I found intriguing, amazing, mind boggling, baffling or in short quite different from India.

1. They drive on the right side of the road.
I thought this is a piece of cake to adapt to but the harsh reality is after more than a quarter of a century of living in India I got used to the idea of driving on the left and walking on the right so much so that I was almost hit by a speeding car when I forgot to remember this fact. This was a lesson I learnt the hard way.

2. Water should not be drunk.
We in India use water for almost say 70% of our bodily activities. But the Americans use either coke or some other soft drinks for filling up the 70% water occupies in a human body in India. I seldom see people (Americans) drink water. Even when they drink water (the intake of which may be counted on your fingers) they take it with a lot of ice even in freezing winter.

3. Their switches go up to turn on the light
Another silly but easy to miss adaptation point. They push the switched up to turn them on and down to turn them off. A logic which quite well goes with the common notion of up being positive and down being negative. I remember in my ancestral home some of the old switches still go up to turn on whereas the latest version of switched come down to turn on. I believe we reversed our rationales and packed them together with the British when the left for the isles. Believe me not this was the hardest thing for me to master (not to say that I finally mastered this thing).

4. What is a mug and bucket?
A mug and a bucket are the sure shot ingredients of an Indian toilet (if there is one). We use the bucket to collect water and mugs to slam that water through the ass holes to cleanse the body after the wastes are passed out. But since the Americans have an aversion to water when it comes to body it should be quite obvious that they do our task better with paper. This was one of the first oddities I adapted to. But when I look back now I wonder how the hell I was able to do that?

5. Early to bed and early to rise, I thought it to be purely Indian.
Early Indian texts supposedly speak about rising early and after the bath saying prayers in the Brahma muhoortha which is said to be best time for the learners. Well not anymore westernization took that away; by away I mean they now own that concept. When all the Indian it companies it is an unwritten policy to come late and leave late. But not so in the America where people come early and leave early. I was truly awed when I heard that some guys come at 6 in the morning. I hardly wake up at 8am.

6. Policemen are too polite coz...
Almost all the Indians who had ever met the Indian police will agree on this fact. American policemen are very polite; they address you using 'sir', 'madam' and talk very softly and calmly and all that stuff. Well I too feel the same although I never had a chance to hear them speak to me. But to go by the idea that the films normally depict the culture in the country in which it is made it too agree with this point. But as in one film Robert de Nero remarks, most people respect the badge but everybody respects the gun, have you noticed that the nice speaking police man always has one of his hands on the trigger ready to shoot you if you make the slightest mistake. By shooting I mean shoot to kill not to hurt you or to maim, but to kill. So this politeness can be treated as the politeness extended to an animal of meat before it is culled. I prefer the harsh talking police men of India who hardly shoots anyone than the awkwardly polite western police.

7. Elections, silence as if in a funeral house.
This was the eve of an American presidential election which was turning all tables of precedence to elect a black man to the most prestigious office in the world. Compare the elections there in the US and in India. Here it is like a festival. We have a habit of turning everything to a festival and democracy is the most widely celebrated festival in India. All the people and netas on the road, posters, banners, flex boards, announcements, public meetings and stuff make it noticeable all around the place. But the American election is too calm and quiet to even notice it. Meetings and announcements are conducted in a concealed manner. May be they are fed up of democracy or I wonder if it is a democracy at all.

8. Courtesy and patience.
I believe this is one thing all Indians can emulate. At least patience, here everyone is such a hurry that they hardly think about themselves. May be its struggle for survival that makes Indians go crazy, hazy. Although we are never courteous a good deed done will always be rewarded and not just considered over with thanks.

9. Cars, more important than legs.
I think the number of cars outrun the number of people in this nation. The home to the biggest car market, there are on an average 2 cars per home. Cars are like your seconds pair of legs. And without a car, if you are not in New York you are pretty much an imbecile. This is a lesson I learnt the hard way as I was confined to my hotel and office and missing the most of the life in American. If I ever go there one more time, even if for a week, I will definitely get a car.

10. Ads means insurance, medicines and phone companies
When most of the ads in Indian television are soaps, foods, washing powders and targeting kids and youth the ads in American TV are all about insurance and medicines. As a cherry to pudding there are some mobile service provider's ads too. May be these shows the Americans dependence on medicines and insurance? They live the worst kind of nutritional diet and for all your diseases they run to the doctors and the pharmacy companies have carved such a niche for themselves with this medicine obsessed population who has a heavy dependence on health care which only insurance companies can provide.

After all I feel that if Indian is little more clean and disciplined I would love to stay in this country for ever more.