Aye dil hai mushkil....

I had to write this. I saw the film "Mumbai meri jaan" today and all I can say that it is THE BEST SATIRE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Period.

I am actually finding it difficult to put it in words. The film is übercool. It is entirely accurate to the facts. The case of the serial bombings that shook Mumbai, esp on the Western Railway line on 11th July, 2006.

What impressed me the most was the way the writer and director have used certain aspects of the incident and created realistic stories out of it all. The message goes across.

Amazing performance by all actors. A special mention is required for Paresh Rawal's performance as an aging police constable. Brilliant.

There is not a single moment in the entire film where you feel your interest level dropping and at the same time it keeps up with the mood of the content. Bravo!

An excellent job by director Nishikant Kamat after his excellent Marathi film "Dombivli Fast"

Nishikant Kamat may soon be the new king of satire.

Check the imdb link here : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266583/

Bye.

Seeing red?

I was just thinking about how we are caught up between two of the world's foremost ideals. Communism (eg China) and Capitalism (eg USA). For that matter, India is neither of the two.

Well my thoughts wandered into the symbols of both these ideals. I thought of some interesting similarities.

1. Communism is depicted by the colour red. The most popular symbol for capitalism (Coca Cola) is also red.

2. A commoner will have to wait in line for food in a communist nation. You do the same at McDonald's (except that you have a choice here).

So, it should not be a surprise that one of the world's most famous communists is also a profit making symbol for capitalists (Che Guevara).


Rise of Consumerism

Now, keeping the communists and capitalists aside and start my complaining again. (I have been doing a lot of that lately :P)
I have been thinking more about the rise of consumerism in India. The people of this country have now embraced the mall explosion. They shop more, eat out more and pay more for watching seemingly bad films. This is the new culture of urban and suburban India. I am worried.

So, the capitalists will be happy because they are earning more. The communists will be happy (although I have never seen them smile) because new jobs are being created (despite closing of the mills - well that's another story). Everyone wins. Well, almost everyone.

What lose out in this masquerade are the values. We have started spending more on things that we dont need. But the greed for materials is growing. We are becoming far more materialistic than we were and we aren't stopping.

So, I ask, do we need this pseudo-happiness given by materials?


What do we really need?

Everyone knows this answer: Air (which is free), Food, Water and Shelter.
Everything else is a luxury. No arguments.

People tell me stuff like: "I need my cellphone, I cant live without it" or "Having a car is a necessity now"
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. We are not only becoming heavy consumers but now the materials own us.

When you need your cell phone, one thing is clear. The cell phone owns you and not the other way round. That is because YOUR CELL PHONE DOES NOT NEED YOU. You are its slave. You are so dependent on it that you fear life without it. Side effects of consumerism.


Mini(malistic) Me

So, now you might have understood that I am a sort-of minimalist. I am not totally detached from materials but I feel less materials is better. I like to live an uncluttered life.

Oh alright, I do like to indulge sometime but I try to keep myself from being a slave to my possessions. I like to be me without some material extensions of myself. 100% Apurv.

This should also explain the new minimalistic design to my blog. :D

You may read a related post on consumerism: Consumerism

Ciao!!

What an idea! Surgy?

OK! So I haven't updated my blog for about a month now. Not that I have a lot happening in life but I am plain bored. Also, I think there has been a surge in my fat consumption and my brain has gotten slower now. I might say something and then suddenly start saying something else. That is why people should walk to work. Huh? Um... see?

I just had a "D'oh" moment there! What was I talking about?

This time I saw this advertisement on the idiot box about a mobile phone service that provides education to all. Well, there is this Christian priest (Abhishek Bachchan, of course) who gets an idea from the divine to provide distant education to village schools through a single teacher using an array of cell phones. A good deed, indeed.

Allright, for now I am ready to forget the complications that the teacher will face. I mean, it is already too hard for a teacher to handle a single classroom at a time. Here, (s)he has to manage 5 or 6 without being there. Utopia?

My problem with this TVC is not the highly idealistic view but is the essential concept of education. The problem with this country is the belief that a person is educated only if that person speaks in English. It is true that officially English is spoken in most private institutes and is a highly respected medium but does that mean we should stop speaking in vernacular?

Should we be ashamed of the language that we learn from our parents that we totally give away with it to speak an essentially foreign language (although it isn't a foreign language in India)?
Or should we be educated in order to advance ourselves including our language?
That is where the problem remains. We still haven't overcome the hangover of the British rule that we feel that being educated means speaking in English only.

I believe that if you are at home, speak in your mother tongue. It will help you protect your ethnicity. Speaking in English is not wrong (heck! I am writing in English here!) but totally doing away with your mother tongue is an insult to your ethnicity. Learn new languages, understand different cultures but never throw out the vernacular, because that is your identity. Your Culture.

Check the ad here. For free though! Grrr... they aren't paying me. There are other short ads in this series.





Dhanyavaad!