No country for Comedy!?

So as it turns out, our government is quite concerned for us, the citizens of India. So much so, that it is ready to be play our knight in shining armour, and protect us from the evils of the world, more specifically, an evil that goes by the name of entertainment, that comes packaged disarmingly in the form of seemingly harmless channels called 'comedy central'. Such is their dedication, that the smallest finger raised at our nation's so called modesty, morality and family values is twisted till it conforms to our demands. So Comedy Central India found itself banned by the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting for ten days last week  on the basis of  scenes from episodes of Stand Up Club and Popcorn TV  (aired way back in Au-Sept 2012) “offensive” and “derogatory to women.”. Now I have not come across anywhere that the ministry was acting on complaints from the general viewing public or a PIL. So I have to assume that it was acting on its own discretion. As is often the case nowadays, the judiciary had to step in and restore some sort of sanity, when the Delhi High Court stayed the ban after three days, after Viacom18 Media filed an appeal challenging the ministry's notification. 

In its notification against the channel, the ministry Referred to various provisions in India's Cable Television Networks Rules set in 1994, saying that one of the rules provides that no program can be broadcast "which denigrates women through the depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or derogatory to women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals." [from The Hollywood Reporter]. If this rule has to be strictly followed in its true essence, it would immediately bring all the music channels, movie channels  and even the general entertainment Hindi channels under its purview, and eligible for a ban. Because the last time I checked, the so-called item songs, or even many of the non-item songs as well as the regressive soap operas which are to be found with every click of the remote, do exactly that - denigrate women. What is laughable is that these observations were made with respect to a stand up comedy show on the said channel, when the stand up comedy chows on Indian channels are a hundred times more derogatory, vulgar and offensive, not only to women, but humanity in general. And as I write this, a Hindi movie called Jab tak hain jaan is playing on the TV on a major movie channel in prime time slot, and Anushka Sharma is nonchalantly calling SRK (the lead actors) "asshole". Similarly, the trailers for most contemporary films or even general TV shows use these 'a' words and their brethren, or even thinly veiled references to the 'f' word without ruffling any feathers.Ironically, the English language general entertainment and movie channels here tread a fine line, as they air western shows, which are apparently responsible for 'morally corrupting the younger generation' and 'ruining the Indian culture'. on these channels, the programming is so heavily censored, that more often than not, it takes away a great deal from the content. Even words that can be found in the science books of a 6th grade student are either muted out form the dialog or starred out in the subtitles. one hour shows are cut so heavily that half of the air time is filled by advertisements. 

The point I am trying to make is, why the double standards in moral policing? Not that I want to counter unjustifiable censorship with more of the same thing, but why is it that the local programming can walk away with virtually anything (well not always, considering the whole Dirty Picture on Sony TV episode) like the teacher's pet student, while channels airing international programming have to walk on fire to prove themselves as worthy of being on air on Indian TV? No doubt India is a fragile society, built like a Lego house, of diverse pieces and it requires a certain level of austerity to keep the whole structure from collapsing. But isn't it time that the Government stops babysitting its citizens, telling people what's good for them and what's not, and let them figure it out on their own for once? Did they seriously think that a couple of programs on a niche channel having a limited viewership even within the English-language programming viewers were worth endangering the democratic principles of this country and the freedom of expression and speech?

The Weekend Paradox

This has been one hell of an unbearable week for Delhiites. While we are no strangers to temperature reaching 45 degree Celsius and over in peak summers, it still is usually a one off occurrence in the whole season. But when a whole week goes by with the mercury refusing to go below the 45 mark, life can literally become a burning hell. And this is just the average temperature recorded for the city. Local observations have had recording going as high as 47. Its times like these I wish we could hibernate too. That wish partially comes true, for me at least, on weekends. Every weekend, I go underground. In my home that is. Sleeping late, and parking my ass on the couch for the rest of the day in front of the television, interspersed by the occasional grocery shopping. I am not even on the computer on weekends as much as I am on weekdays. Sounds pretty chilled and relaxed. But for some reason, I end up being bitter and angry throughout the weekend. And the main reason being - I just killed time, without being productive. 

People all over the world look forward to the weekends religiously. I think more odes have been written on Friday than on woman's beauty! Its like a gift of time, and everything fun you want to do in life is scheduled for the weekend. Shopping, trips, travels, visiting friends or family, movies, excursions, catching up on your reading, dusting, cleaning and a thousand other things fill up weekends for people. Or at least, the idea of doing these things. That's all I am left with usually. Just the ideas. Now don't get me wrong, its not like I am extremely productive or super busy on weekdays. That's as far form the truth as possible. But, still on weekdays, there is this illusion of not having time. Your time on weekday is already committed to a prefixed itinerary- in my case, apparently planned by a travel agent who's out to get some long lost revenge on me. You don't have a choice, you have to perform some mundane tasks including getting an education or making a living, and commuting to and fro from the places where you perform the said activities. But on weekends, you have a choice of doing anything else you want to do apart from these things, or even fill in the gaps you left through the week in these - if that's how you roll. For some people, the idea of a perfect weekend could also be the one I described. But somehow, that just leaves me with a feeling of bitterness, of being ashamed at my own laziness and lack of initiative, disappointment that I am sitting on the couch and watching a reality show on TV when I could have been watching live musicians play at the Escape music festival at naukuchiyatal  in Kumaon Hills of Uttarakhand, about which I had been hearing all week long on the radio. Ok, that might be a little bit too ambitious, considering I can't get myself to go to a mall 20 minutes away from my home, leave alone a music festival hundreds of kilometers away. But that is the idea of my life in my head, and the reality is just so distant from it that this rift causes a great deal of disturbance in my mind. Especially off late, since I turned 25 a week back. And as the realization dawns on me that this rant might be more of a reflection of my dissatisfaction with my life in general, rather than a measly weekend, I guess it would be safe to conclude it right here. 

Now I know there is no one who can change all this other than me, myself and I, and there is no one else responsible for it either, but God I wish there was someone I could blame it on! Or much rather, someone who could may be snap me out of this rut! Darn it! Now I feel like I should change the title too. Or rather, I'd just let it continue as a verbal diarrhea of literally thinking out loud. So anyway, in effect, I guess I want to reclaim my life back, starting with more productive and satisfying weekends maybe. And in case someone didnt get it, the paradox lies in the fact that while most people look forward to relaxing on weekends, I want mine to be more productive and ... well, not so lifeless. 

Once Again

Once again the mirror was held up,

to reveal the dark in me.

Once again, I chose to reflect it onto someone else,

shunned all accountability.

Down with the white caps, 

down with the khaki I cried ....

but once again, I failed to look within,

to see the black in me.

Hang the rats by their tails, we cried

we bayed for their blood,

castrate them, we thundered,

and marched ahead, to make ourselves heard.

But once the dust settled down,

once again, we crawled back into oblivion.

When the evil raised its ugly head again,

we just turned our eyes away, convinced, we are helpless.

But aren't we the ones,

who daily fed this hungry monster?

By refusing to change,

to listen, to see, to talk,

and bury it in denial,

we just perpetuated this monster.

Our slate is not clean, 

we just swept it away under the rug. 

If only we could clearly see,

the evil straight in the eye

every time the mirror was held up,

we'd find it lurking, right within.

Where is the dragon,.

you're looking to slay?

Its not dressed in khadi, nor in khaki,

it is wearing your own skin.

Teach our future, what's right,

what's wrong,

what is acceptable and what is to be abhorred.

Change will surely come,

one we start from within our homes.

Hindi cinema, Punjabi soundtrack

Just read an article in The Hindu's Friday supplement (the closest it will ever come to the main body of the Times of India), titled 'Direct, Dil Se'. The subtitle read as, "It is no longer just about Bandra and Bhatinda. .....". This was just the stimulus I needed to write about something that has been irking me for long now, and was on my hitlist of things to lament about here. Its the all pervasive Punjabi songs in Bollywood cinema of recent times. Sure as the afore mentioned article says, Hindi films may have finally broken the confines of Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra and starting to venture into the by-lanes of  UP, Bihar, Kolkotta, and the likes. But apparently, the whole country dances to the tunes of bhangra and hums Punjabi lyrics. The first time I realized this was when I was looking at my music collection sometime back, and noticed that in two months of the new year, I had only felt the need to download the music of one film. Even last year, the total number of films with music worthy of listening to more than once was miniscule. While this might be due to the overall falling standards of filmy music, I also realized that I just didn't care to listen to Harshdeep Kaur singing heer or Rabbi's challa as I had no clue as to what they are singing about. Now give me something like angrezi beat, where the music is more than enough and I don't have to really guess what the lyrics mean, and I'll be more than happy. But whats up with all the heavy duty Punjabi music in almost every other Bollywood movie nowadays? A sampler of the trailers and music on TV nowadays - 'Jugni' from Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster returns, a couple of tracks from Mere dad ki maruti (something about Punjabiyon di battery and another one I don't even know what its called). 

Now when we are talking about movies that are set in Punjab and the stories are integral to the state, I get that the music adds to the flavour - movies Mausam, Luv Shuv tey Chicken khurana, needed their (wonderful, I might add) Punjabi soundtracks. But do we need a Punjabi track in every movie? I have not seen Jab tak hai jaan (and will not see it. well ..... Jab tak hai jaan!), but I am guessing it wasn't really necessary for SRK to jump around like a monkey singing an all out Punjabi song on the streets of UK or US (or whatever hell western country Yash Chopra chose this time around to humiliate Indians) in a HINDI movie!? Did a movie like cocktail need to have all those Punjabi tracks (borrowed from various sources), however great they might have been? Did a student of the year really need a "Velle" or Kukkad"? Did a UP-based Tanu weds Manu, need a Jugni (there seems to be a lot of them anyway!) in the end credits? And speaking of Jugnis, one of the stand out moments in Cocktail for me was when Deepika Padukone's character realizes she's hit rock bottom, at a party, and is seen lying on a rooftop, ravishing in a green dress. The song playing in the background is, of course, another Jugni! And though I love that song, I have no idea what it is saying! I do not know how does it convey the turmoil the character is going through, or even if it does do that or not, because I do not understand the lyrics. So it takes away something from that moment for me. Do the filmmakers and music directors and lyricists of our Hindi film industry really believe that the entire country understands Punjabi? Heck I am a Delhiite, and Delhi might as well be the honorary capital of Punjab, and I still have trouble understanding and more importantly, identifying with those songs! I just feel like flipping the channel, or get bored and distracted when most of them come on. 

Now I am not saying that if its a Hindi movie, it all should be inexplicably Hindi. I don't mind a Marathi 'Navrai Majhi' (English Vinglish), Womaniya or a Gujarati 'Shubhaarambh' (Kai Po Che) thrown in every now and then. In fact, these are pleasant, refreshing breath of fresh air. All I am opposing is this excessive, unending barrage of unnecessary Punjabi music and lyrics (they bother more) in every second Hindi film! And this is a relatively recent trend maybe last couple of years or so. I guess it has to do with the recent success of Punjabi pop music and artists like Mika, Honey Singh and so on. Not so long ago, a "tere bin" by Rabbi (Delhi Heights) or even Mauja Mauja (Mika) were extremely appreciated. Because then they were the exceptions, rather than the norm. Hindi Pop music scene died with the 90's and all we have now is Bollywood to satiate our need for Hindi music. A little regional flavour every now and then is welcome and even appreciated, but can we please maintain a soundtrack that all Hindi-speaking consumers of Bollywood universally understand?

Of pens and pencils

One of the things that change as you grow up, and progress up the ladder of your third decade on this planet, rather quickly for one's liking- might I add, is the number of trips you make to the stationery store. Today morning, while watching the Republic Day parade after God knows how many years, I again found myself escaping into the past, reminiscing childhood memories. As often happens with such train of thoughts, one led to another, and soon I found myself thinking of the dozens of trips I would have to make to the neighbourhood stationery stores not so long back. Then I tried to think of when was the last time I was there, and I was clueless! When was the last time I bought a pen? Again, Clueless! I somehow always have a couple of them around. But while in school, and even college, the stationery was like a daily pit stop. I would be there every other day, sometimes twice in a single day, because I forgot to get an eraser, or a compass or some other object which now seem like they belong in some other distant world. But then, life revolved around these seemingly miniscule pieces of paper, plastic, and metal. There was always the need for pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, geometry sets, maps - physical and political, chart papers, those colorful, shiny rectangular pieces of paper (I cannot recall right now, what were they called!?), ink pots, refills, covers, graph papers, sketch pens, water colors, brushes and a million other things. Children back then were often classified into two rough groups, one who would always have a surplus of these supplies, and those who would always be borrowing them. Oh wait, there would be another kind - the ones who would always have an extra pen, but would blatantly lie in your face that they don't, lest you borrow and never return. Every class always had a 'pen chor'. Half of the stress associated with exams pertained to having adequate stationery supplies. Do I have enough number of sharpened pencils? Will at least one of them hold on for the duration of the exam or the tip would keep breaking off? Does my pen have enough ink? Do I need more refills, should I carry the inkpot, should I risk using an ink pen in the first place? Do I need to carry my own graphs/maps? The stationery shopkeeper was a friend. Friendly familiar face one would see at least 5 times a week. 

Now when I cross those shops, the shopkeeper is the same, he's older, greying, and the teenaged helper of yore now manages the shop for the most part. I often cross, with my hands full of groceries, or vegetables, and have an urge to go the shop and buy something, just for the sake of old times. But do I really need anything from there? My stationery stocks are somehow always magically replenished, the need for them always reducing at an exponential rate. I honestly feel a bit weird when I have to actually write more than a couple of lines with my hands, it looks like a person learning to write with surgically attached arms! (ok, that's last night's episode of Grey's anatomy talking). Writing with hands has become so obsolete, and I am still involved in research and science! I have hardly any use for geometry sets, maps, chart papers and their like, and we all have printers and photocopiers at our workplaces. And worst of all, the stationery shop is not the first place I would run to in event of a friend's birthday, to buy a set of magic markers, sketch pens, a board game, a pack of playing cards, or a snazzy pencil box! Unfortunately those gifts will not cut with it now. Or maybe they will!? Whose birthday is it next? Maybe this nostalgic trip might even save me some money!  

The two faces of hate?

So the nation ushered in the new year on a sombre note, and the first two weeks of 2013 and have been volatile, to say the least. With the entire nation seething with hurt, anger, hopelessness, introspection and a keen desire to change over the 16th December Delhi incident, this year seems to have opened up the Pandora's box with respect to India's problems; from communal clashes in Maharashtra, dirty politics over the Delhi gangrape incident, hate speeches, to tensions along the border, miserable state of affairs on the cricket pitch, and a hostile weather across North India.

With intense outrage and serious debate carrying on for nearly a month now over women's safety in the country, and gender issues in general, one hopes that this incident serves as the inflection point marking the change in the country's psyche, as well as the administration, laws and policing. Its easy to point fingers at the management, but the need of the hour is introspecting and weeding out the flaws in our own attitudes, mending the cracks in the institution of family and marriage, and bringing in systematic changes and awareness so that the future generations are spared of this maligned, rotten and despicable part of our heritage. Education, of course is a key tool in achieving this goal, but the real change on ground level will come when it starts right in the family, for instance when women stop gossiping and pointing fingers at the girl next door for coming late at night in front of their sons, and men start actively teaching them that its not okay to harass a woman and lead by example - right in the household. 

Shoot! I had resolved not to write anything on this issue, as enough has been said and written already, but I guess I couldn't help it. What had bothered me off late was how the whole hate speech issue played out. An MLA from Andhra Pradesh, Akbaruddin Owaisi was under the fire for delivering hate speeches against the Hindu community, and the nation in general. His accusation, the outcry by the principal opposition party, the delay in his arrest and the soft handling of the issue by the state government and police were all issues that drew a lot of media attention. So did another hate speech, which resulted from political opportunism as a fallout of the Delhi incident. The head of a major political party in Maharashtra, blamed people from Bihar for crimes like the Delhi gangrape. This is not the first time his party has attacked North Indians, and more specifically Biharis, even venturing as far as literally attacking aspirants for a Railways exam arriving in the state through trains from North India, as well as autowallahs allegedly hailing from northern states in a separate incident. His comments on this occasion did invite the ire of media, and politicians form Bihar, but that is as far as it went. While Owaisi's speech was of a communal nature, and hence automatically attracted a lot of attention and criticism, regional and ethnocentric parties like this one have constantly tried to agitate and influence people against others of a certain community, state or speaking a different language. However, they rarely invite any political or judicial reprimand or action. They might have been arrested a couple of times, or might have been banned form contesting elections for a period of time, but these are drops in an ocean. They get away by paying measly fines and carry on with their ways.

I wonder, why these double standards when it comes to hate? Is inciting hatred against a religion a bigger crime or in some way, a more morally corrupt offense  than advocating hate against people form a particular region/ethnicity/state? Doesn't our constitution and its preamble denounce both regionalism and religionism in equivocal terms? Then why does one invite instant hue and cry and results in action, even if delayed, while the other just gets swept under the rug after ruffling a few feathers?  One doesn't have to dig deep to find the answer. While religion offers a bigger, stronger vote bank, regional integrity isn't so strong that flaring up these sentiments translates into large scale political gains. Also, it was easy to make Owaisi a convenient scapegoat, as he belongs to a minor party which doesn't hold much influence. But action against these powerful, towering leaders of ethnocentric parties in Maharashtra and other states for that matter, who enjoy massive clout and considerable public support, will definitely amount to a risk, and thus is conveniently ignored. 

There is an urgent need to instill fear into the minds of the people in position, that they can't just get away with saying whatever they want, especially when it causes grievous hurt to even an individual, leave alone a community, or the entire nation for that matter. We have all seen the foot in the mouth complex most of our public figures suffer from in the wake of the Delhi gangrape case, with every other person blurting out his worthless two cents without so much as thinking once as to the meaning and the consequences of their words. And this is a particularly dangerous phenomenon when such figures, whether political, 'spiritual', or in any other public domain, command a following of hundreds of thousands of people in a complex, diverse society like ours. It would serve us a great deal of good, if an example is made out of a few of them with harsh actions and retribution for openly flouting laws, or violating the principles of our constitution. Even better, we all should really start introspecting and take a closer look at who we are raising to such a pedestal.

P.S. - 50th post of this blog to inaugurate the new year!

2012 - Wrap Up!

At the start of this year, I had vowed that I'll be much more regular with my posts. Its almost the end of 2012, and I have exactly the same number of posts as last year, excluding this one. But I still have around 2 hours to catch up! Though I don't really see the point. Till last year, each post drew at least one comment, and I knew people were reading, even if they were just my friends. This year, 13 posts have collectively drawn just two comments, not counting the two replies by me. The post on the "fire in the blood" documentary continues to draw a lot of people from all over the world each day, as it makes the round of film festivals around the world and curious people Google it to learn more. They inadvertently land up on my blog, but without much feedback, I am assuming no one bothers to read it. 

Catching eye balls was never the intention of this blog. It was always meant to be a place where I could think out loud and clear my head. But who am I kidding? Its obviously demoralizing to not have a sustained readership. Also, the things I end up writing about don't help. This year its mostly been about tennis, and a few social and political issues. Not much personal stuff. Incidentally, these are the very topics I cannot talk to my friends about, due to lack of interest. And as they make up my entire readership, its not surprising that there ain't much feedback. But anyway, enough of rambling, cause I am still gonna keep thinking out loud here.

This year saw a lot of lows, with a few highs - for me personally, as well as the nation in general. I'll probably spend January introspecting, and maybe even writing about both. Last year ended with a promising bang, cause I finally joined a PhD program, but the bang started to fizz out even before January was over. However, I did accomplish my long standing goal of joining dance classes. Basically, that sums up the year for me, disappointment and confusion on the career front, and satisfaction in finally doing something I love. Oh and yeah, my almost 2 years of post masters research experience fructified in the form of two publications in  international scientific journals - something I had dreamed of forever, but didn't really mean as much when it finally was realized. Anyway, so here's my two cents worth on what was good in 2012.

Best Movie (Hindi) - English Vinglish.

Best Actor - Not very competitive this year, at least from the movies I saw. It would have to be Nawazuddin Siddiqui for his collective effort in Talaash, Kahaani, Miss Lovely and Gangs of Wasseypur. Though I must say I haven't seen the last two, and also Paan Singh Tomar, for which many would say Irrfan Khan would be a lead contender.

Best Actress - Priyanka Chopra would have scored again this year in my book with Barfi! (after 7 khoon maaf last year), had it not been for a brilliant Sridevi in English Vinglish.
 
Supporting Performance - Parambrata Chatterjee in Kahaani and Kareena Kapoor in Talaash.

Best Soundtrack - Again, not too much brilliance to look back on, but Teri Meri Kahaani was the soundtrack that most frequently appeared on my playlist this year, along with Cocktail.


Playback singing -

Male - Sonu Nigam for Abhi mujh mai kahin (Agneepath).

Female - Hamsika Iyer for Raabta [Siyaah Raatein] (Agent Vinod)

Personality of the year - Definitely, the agent of change, the woman who took the nation by storm - the unnamed.

Movie of the year (English) - Life of Pi would come out on top from the few that I have seen. Still waiting to watch Argo and Les Miserables.

Breakthrough Artist of the year - A band to look forward to for greatness in future - Fun. They may not have debuted this year, but they definitely had a breakthrough and took 2012 by storm.

Song(s) of the year - Though it would be Gangnam style on many lists in the world, it won't be on mine. I never got the whole hoopla around this song, it was no Macarena! But this one would still be a very tough pick, with a host of songs ruling the roost this year. I would for now, go with the obvious ones - 'Call me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen, 'We are young' by Fun, and 'Somebody that I used to Know' by Gotye, though my heart says 'Madness' by Muse.