The Buck stops here.

Enough of passing the buck….!

It took a tragedy of huge proportions to truly unite India, sadly though only for a brief while. Hardly had the immediate danger passed, that the ‘blame game’ started. From the opposition who blamed the ruling party, to the ruling party who blamed some of their own, media who blamed the intelligence, who in turn pointed fingers at the Navy… It seems as if India has adopted the mindset “Everyone thought someone else would do it”. And the biggest shirker of responsibility is the Indian populace itself. We are equally culpable.

I don’t mean this in the clichéd sense of ‘we don’t vote for the right people’ and the other trite phrases often used. I mean it in the sense of taking responsibility of the things that happen to us. Have we ever stopped to think just how big a force would be required to protect a sixth of the world’s entire population every minute each day, given that this population doesn’t make matters easy? How many times have we got irritated because security guards at malls were frisking us and checking our bags? Have any of us ever wondered that the perfunctory way in which our bags get checked would also be the way gun-toting strangers’ bags get checked? Do we deem fit to inform authorities when we come across broken metal detectors or do we think someone else will do it? At a much deeper level, how many of us have used ‘shortcuts’ to get our driving licenses and other basic identity proofs? What makes us think that only people like us can duck the system to our advantage?

I am not pontificating here, just thinking of ways in which I can make my life more secure. Without getting into another ‘blame game’ myself, I want us to realize that we cannot always blame ‘others’ for our plight. People might ask what chance we stand against AK-47s and grenedes, but the larger point here is not that. The point is that we, along with the Government, our forces, our media et. al. are equally responsible for creating a country of passive zombies, which provides anonymity as an ideal cover for those who seek it. People over here feel emboldened to carry out any nefarious activities without fear of impunity.

All of us have got into the habit of ‘pop-protests’ wherein we write to papers expressing our solidarity, light candles at the Gateway of India – basically do things that make us feel good but do nothing concrete to actually improve our lot. And sooner or later, even this enthusiasm dies out…

Enough of ducking responsibility… I don’t want to repeat the trauma of those 48 hours and constantly live in the shadow of fear if I can help it. Imagine entrusting my everyday life to ‘others’ who don’t even know of my existence except on paper. I have a few ideas about what I can do, does anyone out there have any suggestions?

The buck stops here.

O SO done, but OK!

Kudos to SRK, FK, OK and whichever other Ks were there in the film 'Om Shanti Om'! They have managed to pull off a very average idea, script, story…and how!

The film doesn't really contribute anything new to Bollywood in any sense, it only derives its stuff from a score of stories, dialogues, acting styles, dresses that people have grown up with and therefore identify with. Clichés, spoofs, some chronologically incorrect settings, a standard Bollywood plot of the 70s, typical dresses – Farah Khan has used every trick in the trade to make it an out and out Bollywood Masala movie.

It is the typical 3 hour 'time-pass' movie that people go to the hall to enjoy, leaving their minds behind and disbelief suspended. As the heroine puts it beautifully 'Jab tum 50 maale ki building se koodte ho, tab main vishwas karti hoon; jab tum 100 gundon se akele ladte ho, tab main vishwas karti hoon!!!' ('I believe you when you jump off a 50 storied building, I believe you when you fight 100 goons singlehandedly')   

However the plot, dialogues and a good performance by debutante Deepika notwithstanding, I don't think anyone else could have pulled off the thing besides SRK. And that is because he has practically the entire industry supporting him. The scale would be grand if nothing else. Take out the 31 stars song, the Filmfare awards scene, guest appearances by practically anyone who's someone in the industry, 'that 70s show' and the much touted 6/8 pack (whatever) of SRK, and you would be left with nothing much to write home about.

So ultimately it boils down to scale, masala, a li'l bit o'everything for everyone, SRK the entertainer, time pass and the quintessentially Bollywood HAPPY ENDING!!

(PS: By the way, possibly the last point is the reason why Saawaria failed, especially as the somber ending might not have gone with the festive Diwali mood)

Food Fantasies - Part 1!!

Sheets of lasagna covered with Bolognese
Layers of white sauce with oodles of thick cheese
Herbed chicken cooked with a dash of seasoning
These are a few of my favourite things!   

Warm, creamy, melted cheese in the fondue pot
Crisp breadsticks, fried potato wedges served hot
Forkfuls of hot wedges with cheese dripping
These are a few of my favourite things!  

The Blogger's eye!

“What is the big deal about blogging?”

I find I have no real answers to this question, frequently posed to me by the uninitiated (a.k.a. non-bloggers)! I am unable to explain to them why exactly a blog works, especially for me.

I could give them the quintessential ‘consumer speak’ answers that I have picked up during the course of my job…

“It’s your public diary”, “It’s your personal space”, “It helps you express yourself”

[er…perhaps it might just help if I mention at this point that part of my job is to understand those poor dissected, partially dehumanized and totally un-individualized souls labeled ‘consumers’ my marketers! The answers mentioned above are some culled out from a research!]

…but, jokes apart, I think somewhere these statements seem to be missing the point.

A blog does all of this, is all of these but somewhere it does something more for me, something which is difficult to explain.

How do I explain that as a person, I am myopic (both literally and metaphorically!), but as a blogger I am vision magnified? That no small incident in my life goes unnoticed?

How do I explain a blog allows me to revel in and review my life at the same time? That while part of me is experiencing the event, part of me is observing it?

How do I explain the fact that at times I become a bystander in my own life? That at times, when I am watching a movie, I am forming a blog entry in my mind rather than an opinion?

How do I explain that a blog introduces an observer in my life who sometimes helps me put things in perspective?

Hmmm…actually not bad, maybe I am getting there. Maybe I could now explain some things to the non-bloggers.

About how, for me, the blog started out as something that helped me express my opinion and has now become something that helps form my opinion.

Yes. That is it.

Ok non-bloggers, if you happen to stray to this site, I have my answers ready!!

Food Fantasies

Coming soon...

A Sweet Concoction and a Goulash of Fairy Tales!
For Shreking out loud!

I am extremely proud of myself! Within a span of 24 hours, I saw 2 movies, one of them in the late night show :) . Of course the gold standard in movie watching is watching them back to back - but I don’t really despise my achievement, interspersed as it was with a cheese slobbered pasta session :)

Anyway, coming back to the movies – even as I was watching them, this blog entry was forming in my mind. These were the type of movies that beg to be written about, and so, here I am, hoping to do justice to them (justice as in giving them what they deserve!!).

I always think it is better to start with small doses and so Cheeni Kum it is!

Cheeni Kum: A light-hearted sugar-free (and how!) romance.

One can always expect an advertising professional to advertise his wares well! This is not to say that the final dish was any less delectable as promised by the teasers, but the ingredients mentioned in the trailers gave me a slightly different taste of what the movie was about. Hence I have written out the ingredients afresh, which I think will give a more accurate flavour of the dish!

Ingredients:
2 ½ kgs of sour, acerbic Amitabh Bachchan
2 tbs of Tabu as a sweetener
½ tsp each of an ancient but zesty Zora Sehgal and a precocious young brat frequently seen in television commercials
A slice of Paresh Rawal for the garnishing

Cheeni kum is an out and out Amitabh Bachchan movie without it meaning to be. Even though the movie is about the unusual romance between a 64 year old man and a 34 year old woman, Amitabh Bachchan totally dominates the space with his portrayal of an arrogant, caustic, perfectionist, MCP chef! His tongue is sharp, his manner sarcastic, his concern for people he’s close to coated with brusqueness – and yet, man, it is possible to get bowled over by him! (Yeah, yeah, I know!)

In retrospect, one realizes that the unique concept (for Bollywood at least) not withstanding, the movie is somewhat like an MB. (hold on a second…only in the sense of the arrogant hero and all.J) The first half of the movie is deliciously crisp and fun- at times it is decidedly cheeky without being vulgar, and the chemistry between the lead pair is really good. The second half loses its pace a little, and one isn’t sure whether the hero being older than the heroine’s dad is meant to be portrayed in a comic or a serious light. What seemed a little unnecessary was the ending track of ‘Sexy’ (the little brat who is at least twice as bratty as she should be!).

All in all, the movie is a sharp romance, fresh to one’s jaded palette. Paresh Rawal is just an attempt to add to the list of mavericks associated with the film (including the director) to really label it as ‘DIFFERENT’!!

And yes, move over Abhishek, Amitabh still has a lot of beans left!! (For the uninitiated, till very recently I was a huge Jr. AB fan :D)

Shrek 3: Coming now to the overdose!

Shrek meets Snow White meets Cinderella meets Rupenzel meets Sleeping Beauty meets Peter Pan meets Rumpeltiltskin meets Harry Potter meets LOTR meets King Arthur meets a typical Teen movie…

Gosh! Do you understand the extent of the overdose?

People, who have taken their board examinations, will understand how a culmination of whatever you have learnt feels like! While watching the movie, I felt my entire childhood (and to tell you the truth, adulthood as well, I haven’t really out-grown fantasy!) flash before my eyes – I found myself delving deep inside my mind trying to remember which fairy-tale which character was from. Even for a Shrek fan like me, this movie was a little too much.

Some people might not agree with me (some of my friends actually found it cute), but I definitely feel that in an attempt to make Shrek 3 bigger, better and grander than the first two, Dreamworks has gone overboard. They simply seem to have used all the characters from an overstocked Disney library.

Actually (to temper down my previous outburst, reeling as I was under the impact of the dose) you don’t really mind the movie that much while watching it, but you keep getting this feeling that the movie is trying too hard and that it isn’t half as cute as the first.

Anyway, the end is predictable, with Shrek and Fiona back to their swamp, Arthur safely ensconced as king and everyone living happily ever after (or till the next sequel) except pore ol’ me L

A City retaliates

Malthus prophesied that "Every phase of unchecked exponential growth... will be followed by a catastrophe or misery, and thus unlimited growth may even directly cause misery and vice."

An ominous thought, but one can't help wondering whether his words held much weight.

Specially when it comes to the city of Mumbai.

Bombay was the city of my vacations. Holidays, sunshine, beaches, laughter, Essel World and loads of fun. It was my getaway during the scorching months of Delhi. It was this 'cool' place where girls could wear anything without the 'sadak-chhaaps' checking them out.

When my vacation would get over, I would go back to Delhi wistfully thinking about this free-spirited city.

Cut to 2006, the city of my vacations becomes the city of my work. Maybe this fact has something to do with my changing perceptions. Not entirely though, my professional life could not change my outlook of the city in such a dramatic manner.

Since I've come to Mumbai, a considerable number of things have happened in the city.

From rain-caused deluges, to bomb blasts to tension caused by certain factions, psychopaths on the prowl, Mumbai has seen just about everything. And the relatively apathetic way in which the people regard all these speaks volumes about how innured they have become. Quite astounding to an outsider, hailing from a city where even a relatively small event can get one a very welcome holiday. In the span of just a year, I have seen more 'happenings' than I have in the rest of my life.

I have started wondering whether the spirit of the city, tired of the claims being made on it by the teeming millions, has begun to get back.

This thought struck me when on a certain 'late day' to office, I happened to pause and look around me, rather than be pushed inexorably in the flow of things. On an average, a person spends about 2 minutes at any railway station, but is too caught up with 'things' to take stock of life around him. Ditto for me - but that day as I was descending the steps, I stopped for an infinitesimal second (I stopped perforce because the stairs were like a jammed, overloaded conveyor belt).

And I shrank in revulsion. I could only see heads around me, and from that height they look like tiny ants crawling about, and ...I was one of them!

Was it any surprise to me, then, that the city was behaving so churlishly? I shudder to think what else this spirit has in store. When I come back late from work, I already find myself glancing over my shoulder just to reassure myself.

I want the city of my childhood fun. I want to roam the streets at night without fear in my heart. I want the free spirit of yore.