Ek Hulchul

Ek Hulchul, ek aberration, ek weirdness...that is what the movie Dev.D is...

Of the tons and tons of things that are wrong with our Hindi movie industry, Dev.D is an aberration. It is what is right and how the industry should be. The movie is bold, frank and risky. It is all things that the Hindi movies should strive to achieve. The movie is so good that I totally don't care about its flaws, which is mainly its length. The movie should be shorter by about 30 minutes. But despite that everything about this movie, I appreciate...

Anurag Kashyap, Abhay Deol and the whole crew, they don't deserve to be thanked with just a pat on the back. They need to be blindly given all the awards for this year. Just give it to them, all of them. The movie on a whole is brilliant, the concept, the story and the script. The direction, the music etc all stand out. The movie is just too risky and risqué! So glad that they made a movie like this, really shows the talent that resides deep inside bollywood.

The music is outstanding. The songs Ankh Micholi, Duniya, the rock version of Emosanal Attyachaar all are good stuff. Nayan Tarse is really good, the start is so Pink Floyd-esque, it's a trip ;-). When has a Hindi song ever been a trip (Tell me if you know of one, maybe I haven't heard it). Dhol Yaara Dhol and Saali Khushi really stand out. Dhol Yaara Dhol is actually outstanding with its beautiful Indian folksy music, arrangement and singing. But the song I liked the best is the uplifting 'Ek Hulchul Si'. That is exactly what this movie is...Ek Hulchul!

With recent movies like A Wednesday, Rock On, Dasvidaniya and Dev.D this "hulchul" seems to be catching momentum and it for sure has whet my appetite.

That's it...WE WON!!!

I can barely define the shape of this moment in time...
-- Pink Floyd

Took this picture from a flight that was just about to land in Jaipur.

The reason I post this is because it is so representative of India. The hundreds of fragmented farms in just maybe 10 square kilometers is so typical and can be found all over. These small farms are the backbone of the country, they probably cover 90% of our country, can you imagine the sheer number of these farms?!?!

Blue Mountains...

Visited the Nilgiri mountain ranges a couple of weeks back, this area is really ‘wild’ with the Mudumalai and Bandipur national forests at the base of these mountains. But in terms of wildlife the trip was fairly disappointing because the national forests were closed due to the danger of forest fires.

It was really dry all around. Check out how parched everything was…


Also in terms of trekking/hiking it was disappointing because we could do neither. But among the good things on this trip, one good thing was the weather on the mountains. Once you made your way up the mountains crisp cool breeze, clear skies and fresh air greeted you.
Oh by the way the drive up the mountains was extremely picturesque and challenging. The Zen performed beautifully, compared to some of the other bigger cars that kept getting into trouble on the steep climbs. The car was in first or second gear almost throughout, same thing coming down. The beauty around made it tough for me to keep my eyes on those 30 odd hair pin bends. My rubbernecking (rubberneck: To look about or survey with unsophisticated wonderment or curiosity) definitely gave some heartburn to the co-passengers, whose brunt I soon faced ;-)
Anyway once on top, taking all that fresh air in at the higher altitudes, you felt really rejuvenated. At night you could see about a gazillion stars in the sky. Spectacular show, it was...

Two incidents that happened were, one, seeing two porcupines darting across our jeep headlights in the middle of the night. I thought they were chickens but then I saw the spikes! Beautiful spikes with white streaks! These two porcupines looked as if they had just raided some food store in the middle of the night and were scooting away with the loot atop their heads.
The second incident was going to an animal watering hole in the middle of the night and just waiting...waiting in pitch dark, in silence. I had read somewhere that when one of our senses is deprived then the brain compensates by making the others more sensitive. This was definitely the case as we couldn't see much at all but our hearing was working overtime. There were 3 or 4 owls in the area each hooting away to glory in their own tone and rhythm. And then suddenly there was a small growl followed by a rustle and a soft sound of water trickling. It came from the opposite bank, just once, but we couldn’t spot anything or make anything out…

Here is the panoramic shot of the valley…

Students for Bhopal

Students for Bhopal is a group that is trying to get justice to the people of Bhopal who suffered (and continue to suffer) in the toxic chemical leak from Union Carbide's pesticide plant during the very early hours of 3rd December 1984. This incident is now widely acknowledged as the worst industrial disaster ever. Union Carbide is a US based chemical company which cut corners and due to it's blatant negligence, methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases leaked into the atmosphere. Other than killing thousands (8,000) on that night the leak left nearly 150,000 people severely disabled for life. A total of 22,000 people have died since that tragic day.

Union Carbide is still killing people of Bhopal because it left without cleaning up chemicals which continue to daily seep into drinking water sources around the factory. Dow Chemical has since acquired Union Carbide and refuses to clean up the contamination and compensate people who have suffered due to this poisoning.

Some hard facts:

• More than 27 tons of methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases turned Bhopal into a gas chamber. None of the six safety systems at the plant were functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents prove the company designed the plant with “unproven” and “untested” technology, and cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money.
• Today, more than twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, at least 50,000 people are too sick to work for a living, and a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed that the children of gas-affected parents are themselves afflicted by Carbide’s poison.
• Testing published in a 2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5 trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing women living near the factory.
• Yet when the Independent speaks of "rape", the Guardian of "disgrace" and Jon Snow of "a crime against humanity", they are not talking about THAT NIGHT - but of what has happened since to those who survived it. Today, more than 20 years after the disaster, Bhopal remains a humanitarian disaster.
• Union Carbide left without cleaning it up. Tanks full of toxic chemicals have corroded and burst, dumping their contents onto the ground. Worst of all, twenty monsoons (three months of heavy rain each year) have washed the toxins Carbide left behind deep into the soil, poisoning the drinking water of the same people Carbide gassed 20 years ago.

Links that you can read up on this tragedy:

• Students for Bhopal
• What Happened
• BBC articles and videos on Bhopal - watch the video 'One Night in Bhopal'
• Bhopal Disaster - Wiki - a lot of research links on this page
• Bhopal - The world's worst industrial disaster - Greenpeace

I would like to urge you all to sign up on the Students for Bhopal web site, subscribe to their newsletters/mails and try to participate in some of their initiatives like calling government officials in Madhya Pradesh...spread the word...

Mangalore Coast Trip

(Rough and better late than never)
Days: 3 days, 2 nights
Total distance driven: 1150kms
Places visited: Mangalore, Ullal Beach (base), Suratkal Beach, Udipi, St Mary's Isles, Maravanthe Beach, Shri Mookambika Temple @ Kollur.
Gripe: Weather didn't cooperate.
High points:
- 'Shark Tooth' on the beach under starry skies
- B'fast at a quaint place in Udipi
- Maravanthe
- 30km drive through the mountains to the Mookambika temple


Sunrise behind the lighthouse @ Suratkal beach

Intel FABs

Couple of days back Intel announced that it would build its next FAB (Fabrication factory where our silicon chips are made) in China. India lost out.

For many years there has been a tussle between Intel and the Indian government over this FAB. It is a $2.5 billion investment and there was no doubt that the Indian government wanted to get this FAB but at the same time the IT ministers were not ready to make enough concessions to convince Intel to get them to build the FAB in India. Apart from the tax exemptions and such, Intel was also worried about things like the bribes you have to pay at transportation check points plus the red tape at our ports and customs. In the 2007 budget some new incentives were introduced to attract the semiconductor manufacturing industry but looks like those weren't enough…

Semiconductor manufacturing given the scale of these FABs and the size of the industry itself can hugely impact an economy. It has the ability to bring in huge amounts of foreign investment and generate employment. These FABs run round the clock and bring in good technology because they are extremely high tech, all good benefits for any economy. If India had bagged Intel's FAB then given that Intel is the leader in semiconductor manufacturing it would have been a huge green signal to the rest of the players to view India as a viable destination...

Oh well I am sure there are other fish left to fry...
Intel Makes $2.5 Billion Bet On China

The Indian FM and the 2007 Budget...

In the 2007 budget, again in my limited knowledge, nothing has been done to address the first issue and very little towards the second. Nothing incites me to continue to pay my taxes and no encouragement is there for more people to start paying taxes starting this year. In terms of allocation, he has increased spending towards education and farming but from what I've read looks like there are many other obvious areas in which a growing country like ours should have increased spending but have been ignored.

And coming to inflation, this just bums me out. The FM has been caught napping. Despite a drop in oil prices inflation continues to increase in the country. And our eccentric FM is refusing to move and is just sitting and waiting for a good monsoon to solve the problem for him. Well a good monsoon solves almost all problems in our country. Any kid knows that but my expectation as a citizen of this country is that you get off your fat ass and do something about this rising inflation starting now!

Here is my cousin's post:
In a post last April, real estate bubble, had indicated actual inflation is not what the government is reporting. The finance minister and his boss, the PM, are doing whatever it takes to hold on to their chair. It seems, they need another mandate from the IMF and world bank to continue reforms. As a citizen we would love to pay our taxes, if we are convinced the money is put to the right use. When you visit any of our government offices, can you ever believe they spend our money right. They do no work, accept bribes which adds to our overall tax bill, bad role models for our next generation. Whom will they emulate when they pay bribes to get their temporary driver’s license and one more to make it permanent.
One of the real drivers of inflation is the cost of real estate, however this did not get mention anywhere. Real Estate prices will get tamed only if there is more legal straight forward supply and tightening of interest rates. It will make Indian services and manufacturing more efficient. In education, 2 lakh more teachers will be appointed, who will never come to work, however they will press the button alongside the Hand symbol, many times, during the next general elections. Chidambaram has proven to be slimy and a pervert one more time. Its time we get these fossils out and replace with new blood.

India
Over some drinks, last week, someone remarked how in some communities parents want their daughters to be married only to someone settled in the US. Now along those lines there were some other comments like "I will never go there", "And I am proud to be an Indian" and "I never felt at home there or could never somehow call that place my home". Anyway that apart, Fahrenheit 9/11 was coming on TV and there is one segment where they show how on a regular basis the US have invaded countries. That got me thinking...

In 1998 the US bombed a far away country and destroyed a primary school and an Asprin like drug making factory. They never helped Rwanda but they happily went and flattened Iraq twice. They gave Osama 3 billion to spend and god knows how much more to Saddam to fight against Iran. They have assassinated probably half a dozen presidents and leaders in South American countries throwing these countries in chaos and sending them spiraling into further poverty and then installing puppet dictators.

What I am getting at is my country has never done that. We have never invaded anyone. Despite having one of the worst neighbours ever possible we have never been the aggressor against even them. We have the worst corrupt politicians but still we have never bombed a primary school. We have never bred hate and violence in such blatant forms to satisfy the greed of the elite rich and the so called "corporations". I can safely say that our collective conscience is clear in this matter. This makes a big difference in my mind, proud of that record...

Che Guevara
The second thing that I quickly wanted to write, came to me while watching Motorcycle Diaries. The movie is about Che Guevara. While living in Los Angeles I had read and known about him but hadn't seen the movie as yet. The movie covers Ernesto Guevara and his friend taking a road trip on a rickety motorcycle across South America. Something changed in him during this trip. He saw the economic disparity in the countries he traveled through and that changed him to become one of the most influential leaders who fought for the weak and poor. His photo (below) is among the most recognized pictures in the world. Che, which became his famous nickname meaning "man" or "pal", is the symbol in the fight against inequality and injustice all around the world.

But what sort of popped in my head was a song that AC/DC plays in their live shows called Bonny. Angus Young, one of my all time favorite guitarists, plays a very soulful version of this song. Anyway the song goes:

I`ll take the high road
And you`ll take the low road
And I`ll be in Scotland afore ye

So did Che Guevara take the high road or the low road? I am not sure. Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt his intentions were righteous and I find what he accomplished very admirable and inspiring. But was it the high road? Now let me ask you if Gandhiji's road was the high one or the low one??? I have no doubt as to which road it was...

Apparently Che was inspired by Gandhiji and claimed armed conflict was never his first option but looks like finally revolución was the only option he was left with...

Leap Backward

Saw this in the India Today

Introducing quotas in higher education without adequate and compulsory primary education will only lower the standards of higher education

Simple logic ain't it? This statement aptly captures the reservation related uproar happening in the country these days.

I am here on the IIT Bombay campus and the students here are on a indefinite chain hunger strike. A group fasts for 24 hours and then they are replaced by another group who fasts for another 24 hours and so on. Innovative ;-)

Saw a survey on NDTV which showed that a large majority of the country is pro reservations. No surprise since this survey included the whole of India urban and rural. But does that mean reservation is right? No it isn't. If the current reservation in about 55 years has not managed to uplift the backward people then that doesn't mean you automatically increase the reservation perentages all across the board and then introduce it in higher/professional education. You go back and fix why it is not working in the primary education area first.

We know all these things...
...who are we kidding, this is just a #@$%ing political gimick...