The tragedy that is life :D

Katrina Kaif is undoubtedly the hottest actress in Indian film industry right now. However, her shortcoming is that she doesn't know hindi and her voice is often dubbed. Ok, of late, she has done a few dialogies but they have been confined to some really well rehearsed hindi lines and anyone can spot that her spontaneity in dialogue delivery is about the same as a grandfather's spontaneity in a sad russian play.

ooooh la la

         This sentiment has unknowlingly splipped into the psyche of people who have typecasted her in roles which demand such a thing. Look at Namaste London. An NRI with bad hindi... yea of course! Then in movies like Singh is King and Race where she only sticks in front of the camera for the sake of eye candy. Rajneeti's director Prakash Jha atleast saw something beyond dance and eye candy to offer her a role which she did to the best of her abilities. However, it's still tough to change the mentality of people around. The female centric roles still go to, well no surprises, Priyanka Chopra (who is my favourite). Priyanka Chopra has the whole hindi vibe going on with her which makes her really awesome :P

totally my favourite

Anyways, back to Katrina Kaif. What made me laugh and made my day actually was the caption that went along with a still of Tees Maar Khan in today's The Hindu review -  "In the movie, Katrina Kaif effortlessly slips into the shoes of a dumb wannabe actress." Looks like the real film industry is not too different from the what the movie portrays. Katrina Kaif has indeed effortlessly slipped into the indian film industry but does very little talking and for that reason is almost "dumb". I'm not sure if the reviewer wrote it deliberately but if he did, a big thumbs up for making a nice humorous point. It definitely made it laugh. Ofcourse, there is no offence meant to Katrina Kaif. She has got all the looks and has got half the country going gaga after her.

In Tees Maar Khan, Katrina Kaif effortlessly slips into the shoes of a dumb wannabe actress. [lifted :P]

Visions of Johanna

Freedom, creativity and mental satisfaction taste very sweet but is in fact are somethings which are really distant and can't be touched. Maybe momentarily we may feel them but in reality is quite the opposite. They may have only been illusions. Bob Dylan meant a lot of things when he wrote and performed VIsions of Johanna but for me, the song is a testimony to these illusions of freedom and utopia we have. Actually that's the beauty of Bob Dylan's songs. They are poetic rather than musical and like a poem its open to the interpretation of the listener.

         I read a few places in internet and they seem to compliment what I have in my mind. Johanna represents all that is free and all that is pure and ephemeral. Bob Dylan always imagines himself with Johanna but in reality is stuck with Louise who is earthly wise, practical and sometimes harsh. Remember he sings...

Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here

      Louise (reality) in her ways makes it too concise and clear that Johanna (freedom) is non-existent. That there is very little creative freedom and that world is too cruel anything that is out of ordinary. Western countries atleast understand this but India has almost forgotten to award creativity and out-of-box thinking. If you think about it, it's not altogether surprising either. After all our parents have grown up in some really hard times and always favoured single minded hard work and earning a decent pay instead of "dilly-dallying" searching for our passions.

         Why do we have to dream about something and then when we fail, need to be reminded of it every second? Well it's reality and that's what Loiuse is for. To remind us that we can never have Johanna. Because we are with Louise and she's more than what we can settle for. Yet, we know we should've settled for Johanna. I know I can go on this ranting forever but it's not a good idea to do so on a blog i guess...

On a totally different note, does it mean Bob Dylan is hinself a person who sees that the pasture is always green on the other side? Even if he has Louise with him, he always dreams of Johanna? There are some excellent threads on various forums discussing the meaning of this song. One of the best is here. It provided perspectives which make you realize that a person's interpretation is so dependent on his perspectives and his mindset. Read the interpretation of Lukethedrifter and Montresor. Really well seen.

Analysis becomes the antithesis of the analyis itself. In this song case, yes it is and thanks to Elephant_range and Bob Dylan for making me realize it.

Keep it on the fire a bit longer!

No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain is one of those really good gourmet shows. Being the vegetarian that I'm, I feel more at home with Indian gastronomical travel shows like Around the World in 80 plates, Highway on my Plate etc. But the style of Anthony Bourdain is undeniably good. Unlike many other shows, his show is full of his own quirky opinions rather than some facts lifted from some travel book. That's also true for Highway on my Plate but Anthony has a tag which takes him anywhere in the world. Something everyone wants to do. Actually I'm sure, deep inside, everyone envies Anthony Bourdain and his job description.

                  I was watching an episode of his where he travelled to Rajasthan (in India) What really stuck in my mind was what the Prince of Udaipur said. He said that the concept of non-stick pan doesn't exist in Indian cooking. Burning is pretty much part of the flavour. That set me thinking and wondering if it was really true. Turns out he's pretty much right. India despite its huge diversity in food habits has this common thread of an added flavour due to getting a little burnt.

            The best example is the dal served part of any meal (south or north). Tadka that is added to the dal (lentils) is pretty nothing but a mixture of spices in a little bit of oil, burnt in a small deep spatula to give that distinct taste. Punjabi tadka is sometimes intentionally burnt a little extra to give that smoky taste that goes well with roti and paneer.

The garnishing is the tadka which is a slightly burnt mixture of several spices. yummm :D

        One example from south Indian cuisine is the shallow fried dry vegetable curry. The telugu guy that I am, I call it vepudu (fry). Bhindi fry is really popular in this part of the India and I'm in love with it. The kind of texture and taste that Lady's Finger gets is only because of the slight burning that happens in during shallow frying.

Dosa, roti, tandoori roti and naan all are cooked directly over fire. Ok, maybe not dosa but some varieties are. All these have small patches where the batter is slightly burnt and they add a distinct flavour which can't be achieved using a non-stick pan. So much so that, most people even today stick to the centuries old tandoor for making tandoori roti inspite of the mass proliferation of ovens and grills.

Ajmeri Kalakhand. One of the my fav sweets!

          The most surprising thing is that there are many sweets which taste the way they taste because of burning. All variants of kalakhand are prepared after intense boiling of milk. Boiling it to a point that most of the water escapes and the solid remains start burning. The burnt part forms a layer sticking to the vessel while the rest of the remains are taken for preparing the sweet. Interestingly, the part that was burnt is further burnt and eaten with rice in south India. Also, Gulab jamun tastes the way it does because the recipe asks us to let it be deep fried in oil for a moment longer to give that blackish-maroon color. Another example of burning it slightly.

          These are the dishes that I can remember off my head. I'm sure there are many more and occasional peeks in the kitchen while my mom is making something would reveal a dozen more dishes which are prepared this way. The only downside of this activity is use of liberal amounts of oil which often make food heavy and full of cholesterol. This has always been true for India. However, it was not a problem a few decades or centuries back (All the dishes discussed here date back many centuries back :P) due to physical activities being an integral part of daily life. However, we modern Indians, as we embrace services culture and welcome sedentry lifestyle with open hands, we must also be cautious of how much food we eat. It's difficult to exercise control therefore one should involve oneself in physical activities. I walk a lot. What do you do?

Beauties in the World of Espionage

There's a very popular TV show by the name of Chuck. It's about a guy (Chuck) who seems to recollect lots of information thanks to some photogenic hack. A mix of comedy, romance and action, the show is all about espionage. CIA, NSA, KGB are words which are thrown on a regular basis in every episode. There are people who add an element of comedy and then there is Cassie who throws in a few triceps and biceps and intimidates everyone. But the star of the show in my opinion is Yvonne Strahovski. Sexy, sassy and always ready to give a punch or two to the enemies. No one really knows her real name. She is way too hot to be in CIA but then we are not really complaining.

Today, I came across a piece of news which talked about a woman who is right now in Russia and was deported from US for spying activities. They charged her for spying on the US and leaking information to Russia over emails. She is Irine Kustov a.k.a Anna Chapman and is of Russian origin. In the US, she is a real estate agent and has a masters in Economics. In her previous life, she was some manager in London for Barclay's Bank. In Manhattan, she rubbed shoulders with the who's who of the NY elite and lived in a posh upstate flat. It seems she wanted to penetrate the inner financial world and US and leak information from US to Russia. You can read more about her story here.

         
What struck me most was the kind of stories that are usually associated with such news items. Spies usually have a life of enjoyment. Yes, they have to work a lot to carefully launder information but they do get to see the joi-de-vivre :P It's no more about living in dark bunkers, hacking some servers and training oneself in Karate and shooting. In today's world, where all the information is there in computers and with people who are high up in the ladder, spying is all about getting to know the right people. Mingling with them and extracting the information out of them in a very sweet way. And a girl like Irine (with her hot looks and a master in Econimics to back it up) can easily slip into a party and mingle with people. In a youtube video, she herself has talked about how easy it is to talk to a top businessman in the US and praised the progressive attitude of NYC.

          I should say these two things are forcing to relook the whole spying thing. They lead a life full of mystery and move in the circles of top business, social and political honchos. Whether it's a guy or a girl, they have this great time mingling with the beautiful snowflakes of the upper strata of the society. Doesn't seem bad at all. Nope, totally great. nice and healthy. Actually, I'm starting to feel jealous now.... :(

The Various Shenanigans of the UPA

I feel the UPA should resign. No questions, no debates and no discussions. It should Just hand in its resignation over to the president of India. Knee deep in scandals and controversies, Congress is finding it very hard to wash its hands off the poop it's been handling of late. The cartoon below so aptly describes the state of a naive, illiterate and brainwash-able Indian. Illiterate that he already is, he doesn't understand the power of that one vote that he's got.

Look closely. All I see is Napolean and Squealer in action. Clover, Benjamin, Mollie are all out there too...

Even today Congress uses the names of its stalwart leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to win votes. Sonia Gandhi campaigns wearing that typical saree which was worn by Indira Gandhi, draped over the head in the same way. To delude the illiterate public and play tricks with their head? Rahul Gandhi need not be discussed. People were gaga over him sometime back. A few years on, several grey hairs later, Rahul is still "rising", still "connecting" with the real India. Four years is a long time to connect with Indians. He is never in news and when he is what is he for? For instigating false false rumours of Hindu Parishads planning an anti-US campaign. Really? Wikileaks revelation was an embarrassment. Pulling antics like this will definitely not land him anywhere near power. Actually it reminds me of the tantrums that Varun Gandhi threw during elections.

In its recently concluded Plenary session, Burari accused RSS of having links with terrorists. Sonia Gandhi urged party leaders and workers to aggresively attack its opponents and spare no opportunity to publicize its achievements and expose BJP's doublespeak.

now really??

Frankly speaking there are no achievements (more on this later) and making sand castles out of its otherwise hollow achievements will not get it anywhere. BJP is being a clean opposition party. It's doing it's job and making the govt accountable and that is somehow troubling congress. Well, it will because someone's closets are being cleaned. 

Some achievements of the UPA over years

I've never been an admirer of centrist politics and it's prime proponent AICC. UPA is full of itself and can't do anything right. Honestly, BJP was better but if BJP comes to power, it'll be a classic case of becoming a devil yourself in order to cut a deal with the devil. Right wing parties have their own problems and at this moment, India needs something better than a right wing power which can aggresively push insignificant issues. Sometimes I wish there was a party which represented a liberal side of Leftists. A true socialist party. Not Bahujan Samaj Party or Samajwadi Party who stand on the shoulders on Dalilt voters while making sure they remain oppressed. Classic Paulo Freire scenario. Make the oppressed feel that unless the Oppressor is there, there is no hope for the oppressed and things will become only more bleak. Will we ever see a socialist party in action? When will people realize the value of parties like Lok Satta who are working towards real issues. Not gravitating towards power.

ps - both images are courtesy cartoonscape, The Hindu

Ofelia and her dream

Having had an overdose of fairy tales, Ofelia is a girl who is a staunch believer in fairy tale ending. Even at the moment of her death, (her step father shoots her point blank) she is convinced that her blood opens the portal and she is let into her kingdom - a Utopian land. The happiness of the moment was enough for Ofelia to feel that her dreams were not altogether a farce. That the world is going to be a better place and that Mercedes is going to sing her lullaby to her every night. Btw, this is from a movie Pan's Labyrinth. I think it won an oscar in the best foreign movie category.

      We all stick to the one thing that he hope for and make it the center of our lives. Base our decisions around it. Sometimes it makes me feel that the most rational and well thought ideas are founded by our most irrational thoughts and desires. Though not directly related to the story in the movie, it does remind me of various things we do just because we need to satisfy an urge of ours. These urges which don't even sound logically correct. We all chase money but why do we chase money? Is it because it buys happiness? Contentment? Well it buys neither yet we are here stranded but trying our best to deny it.

         Ofcourse not everything starts out with money. Monomania like the ones seen in Hitler start out because they see something that they feel is wrong. They are obsessed with the idea of removing it from the system and do anything to do it. Because they see a fairy world where they are right. Obsessed with the idea that have to instill righteousness in the system and make it a better place. (question : Did he really start with that agenda?) Ofelia saw the world and was sure the world she lived in was not for her. Instead her place was in the utopian world where things were much better and she wanted do everything in her power to make it happen...

The Game

So I went to attend a play The Game starring Alyque Padamsee and Sabira Merchant. Expectations were high considering the fact that both were veteran parsi theatre personalities. Add to it the fact that the story was being done by Sam Kerawala. Story too, the play seemed really interesting. Two old people coming together and playing Rummy in an old age home. Through the game's progress, they discuss each other's life and get to know each other on a deeper level. If you want to read the play, read The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn.

                       The old guy, Fali Pistakia is impatient at times never sparing an opportunity to utter profanities. The old women, Shireen Bamboat,  is equally impatient with people who use profanities. Their conversations are funny and vivid. She lovingly calls him Fali while he uses Shireen. Both of them shift to last name when they want to sound rude or turn businesslike. Alyque uses Bamboat in several ways (must be because of acting several times.) One thing which I liked (and is true for many other plays as well) is that there is a an aspect of improvisation and spontaneity. The play was full of comments on contemporary issues. The snide comment on Commonwealth Games when things were falling apart was too good. Ending, however, could have been better. I'm a happy endings kind of a guy. Unless there is a strong reason to, one should avoid open ended plot endings. This one had a sad ending. I felt really bad for Fali when he couldn't even get a dance out of Shireen. Even Frank Sinatra couldn't woo Shireen into dancing "as strangers in the night" :D

                      The play was good and I was lucky to get a free pass and got to sit right in the front. Too bad I was stuck between two boring, not so sociable aunties. Usually, it gets boring when you go out and watch something alone. It's always good to have a someone by your side with whom you can joke or something. But this play was different. It was really immersive. Actually it's got to do with Alyque. He's got a charm to keep the audiences follow each and every word of his. Indian theatre scene today has a many parsi folk and it's good to have them all around. Today if there is someone doing the thinking act and, it's got to be the likes of Sam Kerawala, Alyque Padamsee, etc. Even the theatre scene in Chennai is becoming bigger with each passing quarter. Haven't been to the plays by guys from there but Hindu publicizes it madly. And who is going question Metroplus now! Only question is what about Hyderabad and the theatre scene here? Mohammed Ali Baig is doing a lot. He's doing a great job at bringing the right theatre people from across the country to stage their plays. That's why I say Hyderabad is becoming a great place for theatre watchers. Hope it inspires some local talent too...

2 + 2 + 2 = 7

I was reading this collection of stories of Lydia Davis - Ten Stories from Flaubert. I'm not a subscriber but as a free user I could read the first three. All of them are connected in some way. I was done reading the three stories once that I felt I had to read them over once again. But the best part was different use of tense and person in each of the stories.

                 At first second person narrative never seemed natural to me. It was year and a half back in Creative Writing course that I came across more pieces of second person writing and understood some aspects of it. I often use the example of play and a person in the audience to explain the novelty of second person. Imagine there is a play and you are part of the audience. You connect with a character and feel his emotions and understand his actions. Now imagine there is a soliloquy where the character in question talks about his feelings but addresses you while talking about them. As if he's telling you about your own feelings. That's the kind of effect second person lends to a narrative. Often in situations where a character finds himself in an unexpected situation, using second person adds a layer to the narrative. However, it should come at the price of jostling between two persons and effectively confusing the reader. Needless to say, second person narrative was what I used in my final non-fiction writing piece.

               Now, the first story (After You Left) was a strange story as the author mixed second as well as first person. The author is known for mixing and mashing things and coming with new techniques. However, reading it was strange and the first thing that came to my mind was if it's even allowed. Ok, now we are all masters of our own will and write what we wish. Actually, "allowed" is one word that is hard to find in this field. But still. And then four or five sentences later, one begins to realize that it might actually not be one of those second person narrative kind of pieces. It's a simple beginning of a story involving two people where one character (I) reminds another character (you) how the latter wanted to know what happened to the former. OK, now everything is sorted.

          But then how does a reader not fall into the trap of getting confused and not be misled into believing that it was a second person kind of narrative. To know if mixing of first and second person was a good enough clue, I checked to see if there were examples on net demonstrating otherwise. Turns out, I found a lot of pieces mixing first and third person but not second person mixed with first or third. So it is a good enough clue to tell us something is off. But personally I feel it's the spacing and ending of the paragraph with one line in a hint in itself. Signalling that something is different and what you understood from the first paragraph needs to be pondered upon and carried over to the subsequent paragraphs. The fact is it is implicit and the best part is it was never concretely put before us. It was yet another day for our head to take stock of what is given and come with an inference with a lot more information than what it got. In a way, you are giving 2 apples, 2 mangoes, 2 bananas and getting 7 fruits in all. I'd like to think of that extra fruit just as an incentive. What do you think?

The Curious Case of Average Americans

In another case of bullying other countries to follow its agendas, US is shown to have harried India into putting a full stop on its relations with Iran. To put it simply, US doesn't understand that Asia is a complicated place to be and for India which is multi ethnic, its even more difficult. Ironical it may sound but the fact is that both Iran and Israel are very close to India and play a huge role. It's beyond question that US has ALWAYS acted on its own interests. The fundamental truth behind all the actions of US is What is there in it for me? In a way that is not bad. By all means, every country should adopt such a policy but following the policy blindly, poking nose into other countries' businesses is when it actually gets messy.

                I think, Iran is more interested in making the life of its own people better. It has always seemed to me that it has bigger things to do than to make the life of Americans, Israelis and Iraqis a living hell. For that matter even Iraq was the same towards the later years. Iraq never had the know-how of producing nuclear weapons. Iran IMHO never wanted to use nuclear technology for producing weapons. But the damage was done by US. It was US which perpetrated false claims that Iran was developing weapons. To the point that it wanted to have an Iraq style military strike in Iran as well. I'm sure this led Iran's leadership to look at the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, but this time for its defence. And in this way, US has successfully created another monster. In the same way that it successfully created monsters in the form of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

                Central to all this is the phrase "Average American" which US has used so many times to leverage its plans. Noam Chomsky in his book, Hegemony or Survival has commented on several of these issues. At one place he went on say that about 33% of the americans (who btw are all average) believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and 20% believed that Iraq actually used them against US. He goes on to say that the average American believed that a preemptive strike on Iraq was justified because equipment was discovered which COULD HAVE POTENTIALLY been used for developing weapons. Another use of the phrase "average american" was in a cable to India which read as follows -

"...The average American will wonder why the US has gone out of its way to have a nuclear cooperation initiative with India, when India is so friendly with Iran..."

Hidden beneath layers of sugarcoated political correctness, it doesn't take much to realize that the statement is utter hogwash and bs of the highest standards. An average American doesn't care what India is doing with Iran. If India comes up anywhere, it is in a discussion of how Indians are stealing their jobs. Frankly speaking, average Americans can't understand world politics. In the wake of a prolonged recession in their country, their thinking has only become more narrow. Obama who was genuinely interested in reforms faced a setback in mid-terms. Economic Analysts around the world agree that recession can only go away with temporary regulatory measures. Regulating the actions of banks. But GOP has gone out of its way to convince average Americans that it is the other way round. Average Americans are falling prey to these insensible remarks. I can only hope these average Americans wake up from the deep slumber and take stock of the situation which is in front of them.