You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2009.
Warning : The post assumes an absence of rigging.
What an incredible result ! Susan Boyle, who was widely expected to win with the world-wide hysteria surrounding her, was defeated in the finale of Britain’s Got Talent by arguably the most deserving contender, Diversity.
Here’s the performance of Diversity in the final round :
Do check out their audition and semi-final acts too.
What I liked best about Diversity was although they were a dance group, they were far more than one. The choreography is very intelligent and goes beyond dance. Congratulations !
As for Susan Boyle, her loss could be attributed to all the negative publicity she has gathered in the last few days about tantrums, temper, threats to quit, etc. most of which can safely be assumed to be false.
Maybe as people, we just love to see individuals rise .. and then fall. If they rise again, all the more better. The cycle just continues, at the expense of their life and our entertainment.
P.S. : I don’t understand the repeated “Britain has got talent” phrase in the show. No one would assume otherwise about any people. I personally don’t understand their obsession with the Queen, but apart from that they are quite cool. Plus they kind of overdo the accent. Joodges ? Every single time ?
This is quite the headline of the day :
Behenji (I am referring to Mayawati, other females can continue with their attire and hairstyle), your cops do know that we have many different acts and penal codes to suit all occasions, right ?
The NSA, I believe, is for anti-national and terrorist activities, which is why even Varun “cut-off” Gandhi could not be booked under it.
I get a sense of deja vu while reading news.
Fourth Indian student attacked in Australia.
Air France treats Indian passengers badly .. second time this week.
Bomb blast in Pakistan .. this is another one, not the one you heard of earlier.
To state it upfront, I agree the racist attacks in Australia were tragic, more so for the student who is battling for his life.
But the way our media has been projecting the issue and demonizing every Australian is quite ridiculous. I hope everyone does realize that all it takes for 4 attacks is 10 odd idiots. No more.
The victim’s kin states :
Australians call themselves a developed nation, but have no humanity.
which is understandable considering the trauma they are going through.
But Mr. Bachchan returned an honorary degree from an Australian university stating :
.. my conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow countrymen.
It is not the country that is perpetrating the attacks. In all fairness, had he accepted the award, we know exactly which leaders would go for his throat the next day. So in a sense, I do not judge him either.
But the audacity with which we are demonizing the country and demanding protection for students is just ridiculous. Here’s a quick summary :
Every year during the railway exams, you do know that a certain political and its cousin beat up students as a yearly ritual, like karwa chauth and dassera, right ?
You do remember the ragging cases that cost many lives, very recently, right ?
You do remember how foreigners are treated in India right ? Assuming they aren’t molested or harasssed, they are at the very least looted by the rickshaw wala the moment they land in India with their melanin and stuff.
So I sincerely request everyone to stop judging all the Aussies and preaching.
Update : CNNIBN hosts a debate Face the Nation: Down under and downright racist?. I did not see that coming.
With the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) taking special offence against beachwear with religious symbols,
In a memorandum submitted by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) to the Directorate of NRI Affairs, the organisation has said that beachwear sporting various Hindu deities and symbols ‘hurts religious sentiments’.
Foreign tourists should be made aware of this even before they enter the country, the memorandum said.
I present to you the new word definition.
ambivalence (noun) : that which is felt by a HJS member when he sees a foreigner (invariably white and female) in a skimpily dressed beach attire thereby arousing carnal desires with the Hindu deities and symbols trying hard (no pun intended) to subdue the aforementioned desires.
I would not like that feeling.
Previous post on the HJS here.
Warning : Long post. Has nothing to do with news or politics.
The absense of updates over the last few days is not to be interpreted as a sign of normalcy in Indian politics.
Sitting at home for a long weekend is a criminal offence in the U.S., so we decided to drive to San Diego and back. A couple of friends drove down from Seattle to the San Jose airport, we picked them up and continued further down south.
For those interested, it is a beautiful drive from the Bay Area to Seattle and back. The green meadows of Oregon, Mt. Shasta and Grants Pass are some sights you must absolutely not cover at night, in case you embark upon this drive.
How could I forget to add this :
The first time I wanted to drive along the Pacific was when I saw Shawshank Redemption. The drive on CA-1 or US-101 is every bit as thrilling as this shot from Shawshank (@4:47) :
Thanks to Gigi.
_____
Now I’ll state this upfront. Having me on a roadtrip, where everyone is expected to contribute to the driving, is a liability. Not in the sense that I will not drive, but that I usually do all the driving myself, as the Alaska travelogue proves. It helps that I do not get fatigued or drowsy while driving.
The first day was all driving, starting at 3 p.m. from Stanford till 2.30 a.m., when we finally checked into a hotel at San Diego. Stops happened whenever we spotted a beach.
_____
The second day was mainly spent at Seaworld, on some lame rides (seriously) and okayish shows. A word of advice : Do not miss the sea-lions’ show. Everything else is trash compared to it.
Now there are around 15 beaches around San Diego, and we smartly selected the only one with loads of plankton.
As a side-note, we discovered over the last few weeks that “ball catching” (usually with a tennis ball) is an amazing activity on beaches where you can easly dive around.
So the session started with ball catching, followed by the same but in water. We had carried along a bat, a trash bin agreed to double up as a stump, a few lines of demarcation were drawn and cricket began, quite possibly the first time ever on that beach. As it was a crowded beach, we could sense the WTFness the tourists were feeling.
We were sure people would be damn curious about this strange new game. Finally, one person mustered the courage to approach us. He trashed something in the bin, and walked away.
It was while playing cricket after so many years that I finally identifed with Mr. Lalit Modi. It dawned upon me that cricket is not about batting and bowling. It is just about batting actually.
______
This was followed by the Shamu Rocks show at Seaworld and a comparatively early bedtime.
______
The third day, we made it to the U.S. – Mexico border, and took exit 1A of I-5, thereby attaining closure, in the driving sense.
The funniest sign just before the border : “Guns are illegal in Mexico”. And the two or three “Last exit of U.S.A.” signs.
For some reason, we felt a strange tension as we walked around the border, with Tijuana in Mexico at the other side. Maybe it was the Mexican mafia thing, the two Mexicans who were facing the border wall with their hands up while being interrogated by an officer (any other time, I would be reminded of a scene in Andaz Apna Apna, but not this time), the fear I felt while shooting this on camera, a vindication of the fear when a passerby told me about a $500 ticket in case cops caught me taking snaps or the half a dozen immigrants being deported back in a line.
Apart from these, it was the most peaceful place, right after any Hindu temple.
_____
The most exciting moment, strangely, was on the drive back. Most of the 500-mile drive was at night, and just for fun, I wanted a snap of the trip-meter when it read 1000.0 miles. I could always halt the car and do that, but to make it interesting (since it was a lonely and perfectly straight stretch with no exits, so no danger of cops), I slightly went past the speed limit touching 90.
Geeks would realise that I had 100/(90*1.6*1000/3600) = 2.5 seconds to take a snap. I managed two.
P.S. : Considering the unlawful activities involved, I am not sure if it would be smart to post snaps here.
_____
As I returned the rental car and was being dropped home by Bill, who works for the agency, the conversation drifted to India, culture, curry (duh ?) and Pakistan. Then came this inexplicable moment :
Bill : So can I ask you a slightly personal question ?
Me : Yeah sure.
Bill : Do you miss Indian women ?
The answer I gave was the best answer given …. ever. It should make every Indian woman proud. Every Indian man too actually.
_____
So this drive, combined with the one to Seattle and back, means I have almost completed the north-south traverse of the west coast of America. The east-west drive remains, which should be somewhere in the near future, Insha’Allah.
I find it strange that it took me almost 2 years in the U.S. to get a haircut that I do not hate. Obviously, I am talking about the cheap 6-10$ haircuts.
Bill Gates is another person who believes in the cheap $7 haircut and we can all see how great he looks. If he wasn’t among the world’s richest men, bullies in the Microsoft would be picking on his hairstyle at this very moment.
Back to me now, some ridiculously funny comments that have been made by hairdressers (invariably Chinese women) include “Your hair too long. Looks like woman !” to “After how long are you cutting hair ??”. But comments aside, the haircuts used to turn out to be so bizarre that at one point, I was convinced the Chinese look like the Chinese not because of some race or genes, it’s just the hairdressers !
But it all changed yesterday.
While losers (in the Indian elections) have generally blamed voters, Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) has come up with the most ingenious of blames :
Megastar Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam, after holding three days of brainstorming sessions over the party’s debacle in the recent elections, has identified a number of reasons, including its symbol, rail engine, for its poor show.
“Besides its poor visibility on the electronic voting machines, the symbol resembles others like the road roller and bulldozer. Voters were confused and it has cost us dearly,” Chiranjeevi said.
Considering Congress’ landslide victory in Andhra Pradesh, I suggest PRP change their election symbol next time to “Press here to vote for the Congress”.
PTI reports :
Six cabinet ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s new team are ‘non-believers’. These ministers “solemnly affirmed” that they would bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution while taking oath today.
Firstly, I am not sure if they are non-believers of god or they just happened to exclaim, “Me ? A minister ? I don’t believe it !!!”.
But if it is the former, I salute the guy who thought of inserting solemnly affirmed in quotes,whatever that means. But if I were him, I would be so offended that I would insert every word in quotes. After all, as Indians, we wouldn’t even vote in an Indian Idol if he doesn’t thank god enough.
Now if you are not scared that non-believers are slowly taking over this country and its administration, you should be ! Then there is the undeniable fact that believers are essential for the general welfare of the people. The logic being simple :
More than a staggering 1% of believers do something constructive with their beliefs, like charity to temples. Now we all know that 2% of temples donate a huge 3% to charity, after they have spent on gold, ornaments and shopping for the deities, who are known to be very fashion conscious. After all, a temple’s gotta do what a temple’s gotta do. Going back to the main point, you can see that quite a lot of the money pours straight down to charity and welfare of the people, which is exactly what a leader is supposed to do.
But with non-believers, all you might have is pure unadulterated corruption. Which I hear is very bad for everyone.
So if you have nothing to do, I urge you to protest against the non-believer ministers.
The 300-odd crore statue of Shivaji in the Arabian Sea, set to compete with the Statue of Liberty, is running into more than a few problems now : (apart from the fact that the state exchequer is in a humunguous profit and such a show might not be very modest)
The Maratha organisations have opposed the appointment of Babasaheb Purandare, popularly known as Shivshahir, as the chief consultant for the memorial. They alleged that Purandare will distort the great warrior’s image.
If you can question Babasaheb’s knowledge and intentions when it comes to Shivaji, you can pretty much do anything.
Before that, for those who do not know, Babasaheb Purandare has been given the title of Shivsahir, and is quite the ultimate authority on anything related to the Maratha king Shivaji.
______
On that note, an amusing anecdote that happened a couple of years ago. A friend, N, and I had gone to visit Babasaheb at his residence to arrange a meeting between him and some kids. So N is a Maharashtrian and hails from Ahmednagar.
Babasaheb asks N his name.
N : Mi N
Just from his last name, Babasaheb went on to tell stories of N’s ancestral history for a good 5 minutes.
Then Babasaheb asks my name.
Me : Mi Deepak Iyer.
Babasaheb : …
______
Apart from being an eminent historian and arguably the most knowledgeable about Shivajiraje, he is an excellent story teller. Narrating incidents and rattling off historical facts is one thing, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the ease with which he captivated the minds of 10 year olds while narrating popular stories of the Maratha king, almost bringing the scenes to life.
