In search of ambition

It's 2 in the morning - allow me to specify - Saturday morning...ahem...yes, the FRIDAY evening and night was spent at office. Well so far its never been a big deal but I'm just giving you what you'd like to see.

After hours of data mining, report writings, processing analyses and 'ppt-ing the findings', my team and I indulge in peaceful unwinding. One is streaming the comic scenes of 'Andaz Apna Apna' and laughing himself silly! The other one is standing right behind him and...laughing himself silly !!

"Aa dekh, yeh mark dekh MARK...arre mark to chchodo...patte ko dekho".........

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My attention got diverted for a moment....it seems 'Crime-Master' Gogo is doing his bit and doing it pretty well!!

Of the many thoughts I have on how I've to spend my already begun weekend, working mostly punctuated with household chores...yes, we do those once a week...there are thoughts of hosting my flat-mate's parents, visiting my little sister and other things. But there's one thought which is my personal favourite - nothing. Just blank. This may be a little difficult to comprehend for the fairer sex - yes men can do with blank stares, they're actually NOT thinking anything....anything at all!! Listen to Russel Peters (for the latest on this) - use that common calling card - it's called youtube.com.

Coming back to 'our' (kind's) favourite thought of nothing, I really don't want to plan anything for what's going to come this weekend. What started off as a good idea for the quick and dirty weekend trips and practically extended to all of my personal living...and guess what - it's pretty cool. There are those moments when I could just say, "been there...done that"...but then again - I know that sounds snooty. But at the end of it all, I think it'll be great to actually say those words for real and back them up with evidence (I've started collecting those).

Won't it just be great for an ambition !!

Spirit of new

every once in a while

there comes a guy

who captures your imagination

you'd never seen him

or touched or kissed him

but man! he's such a sensation !

but everytime

there is a smile

tis followed by indignation

so lady, heads up

keep your spirits puffed

skip over to a new fascination,

have your chocolate cream

hear the birds sing

coz baby life is a big celebration!

City of Joy

Tuesday, February 24, 2009: Last night I sat through smoking the last cigarette of the day, remembering the past and trying to recollect every so small detail of my life in the past three to four years. Perhaps it’s that particular impetus I get when I am sitting in my room in my house in my hometown of Kolkata. Of course, there were the usual dominating thoughts. But that aside, there were a million other ideas I felt the need to express.

I have come to Kolkata after seven months and much has changed since I was last here. To start with, the intersections along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass have been shrunk to allow more traffic around the ‘islands’ as it were for the local folk here. There are a whole number of infrastructure projects under way, including the East-West  Metro corridor and a few flyovers near Sector V, etc. I took a walk around the Dalhousie office area and Rajbhavan. There was a pleasant coolness in the wind which was very refreshing. It would make a smoker want to postpone his cigarette to breathe in that sweet Kolkata breeze blowing ever so gently. In the bright, yet soft winter afternoon sun, the hustle and bustle of the busiest roads in Kolkata offered a peace which is absent in the quite solitude of my 9^th floor apartment in Gurgaon.

      

This city gives me the impression of being trapped in a post-colonial euphoric first few years celebrating freedom and right to choice. I doubt if Lord Mountbatten would find major change in the city since he last visited. It is nonetheless ironic that this free people have elected a communist regime to govern them. I urge the loyal to hold their peace here. Of course, there have been many ‘developments’ including super-malls, flyovers, the Metro rail system and the like. But the mind of the city is still free and soaring. In this mindset there is no place for show of wealth – to some extent due to the lack of it – but in general since the importance of this is low. Walking down the busiest of streets and installations, there are the small tea-shops offering a nice warm ‘bhand’ of tea for a meager sum of two rupees where friends slip out of their office and catch up to discuss the unusual early advent of the summer this year. I suspect this happens every year. The formals are long gone and casuals hold sway and large markets have given way to malls – big and small. Yet, and I am very happy to declare this, the quintessential Bengali has retained his character. The ‘I-Don’t-care-what-you-think’ attitude coupled with the recognition that beauty is not just skin deep sets up a fantastic environment of comfort and a ‘chilled-out’ atmosphere. This is in stark contrast with the other metropolitan cities of the country, experience of one which I have and of others about which I have listened to carefully from the near and dear ones. This absolutely amazing setup supports the unusual mental ability of the populace to achieve happiness and content. No matter how materially poor the people are, they are very rich with happiness which is reflected in their soft and graceful smiles and their eagerness to share this with one and all, with the local and foreign. Their sense of wealth is mind-bogglingly unique and is measured only and purely in terms of intellect and personality. And every household has made it their business to be party to this richness. No wonder then that Kolkata is ‘The City of Joy’.  

Slums and Dogs

India, today, is synonymous with mysticsm, IT and as has always been - poverty. It is the this third aspect that has brought it more fame than anything else...ever.. India (not to be mistaken with Hindustan) has always been poverty-stricken. It's just that, of late, consumerism has brought the gap into focus. It has made those lines between the haves and the have-nots thicker. Not that it is a bad effect, but its one side-effect that can't just be done away with. India is no stranger to poverty, she has seen it all. From the lower class to the urban slums and then the absolutely poor in the remote corner of the India rural countryside which is comfortably out-of-sight and out-of-mind. Often, never acknowledged. India is so used to the cess pools in its lanes and by-lanes, to the dirth of sanitation and education and to the disease and infection that only the absence of these will make the people sit up and take notice. 

So every once in a while there comes along an 'artistic' expression of this very cardinal state of the motherland. And so we have 'Do Bigha Zameen', 'Dharavi' and the like. And there is a huge spark of interest, of sympathy and enthusiasm to make to a difference in the lives of the downtrodden. But it is only a matter of weeks before the media finds something else that sells better and this is lost till some other 'eye-catcher' comes along. Now we have the 'Slumdog Millionaire'. I saw the movie quite dispassionately and having seen quite a few, always critically, I fail to understand all the hype it has generated. It is not an Indian movie, yet the Indian media cannot get enough of it. Elsewhere, its won numerous awards and got, I think, more recognition than it deserved. Frankly the story telling has been very ordinary. The character portrayals were somewhat convincing. The anecdotes which come along are often downright co-incidental and some don't quite make sense. Overall a good movie for a break from the regular, good-guy-bad-guy movie. Definitely not something out of this world! Definitely not 'Brilliant'! 

It seems to me that buzz this movie seems to be creating actually emanates from the poverty-stricken backdrop of the story. It is almost superhuman that a 'slumdog' should eventually have his life straightened out - and its perfect for him. His enemies are taken care of while he gets to take care of his girl with twenty million rupees to start off with. Its an astounding fairytale and I am sure many a western female folk would have shed a tear as they temporarily lived Jamal's fairytale. All this is fine, perhaps. There is one question though - How long is the plight of these slumdwellers to remain (after the farcical efforts of the authorities and cine-stars to give some sort of a facelift to their 'home' while the media is swallowing it and voters' ideas are swinging) ? 

One last thought. How come only poverty, as an artistic theme, capture imagination and gain such popularity? It's always the rags-to-riches story that sells, isn't it?