Cigarettes are better than girls- both of them burn your heart, at least the former you can touch with your lips.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The 21st century middle class Indian guy
Thanks to a crazy Saddam Hussein, without whom we would still (perhaps) have been under the clutches of awry economic policies which were prevailing since our independence. After the socialist strategies introduced by a visionary though unrealistically idealist Nehru proved wrong, a mid course correction should have taken place in late sixties or at best early seventies (some thing which happened with 4 Asian Tigers - Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore who are now at least a generation ahead of us as far as economic development is concerned). But somehow congress managed to make a fool out of us for another 20 years. It was only because of the fanciful ideas of Saddam who attacked Kuwait that we were able to break our shackles, the results of which are visible all around us. Because of the gulf war the oil prices rocketed, depleting India’s forex reserve to the levels of crisis. “When there are no options left, taking decisions become easy.” That is what our then Prime Minister Mr. PVN Rao had said while he introduced the financials reforms in just 2 days. The rest is history.
I was analyzing the impacts the reforms have had on us and I felt that there is no one in this world today who is luckier than a middle class Indian guy. There are many reasons for this.
Let me begin with the kind of education we enjoy. We generally have fun in our school and no matter how we have performed, we some how get into an engineering college. The 3-idiots team might disagree which such trends but frankly speaking who does not want to take the shorter route. It is also very important to note that colleges are not as expensive in India as in US or Europe and we don’t have to pay our own fee. Unlike the western countries our parents do it for us spending their life’s hard earned money and we are free from the tension repaying any loan. Some times they even pay the donations to get us admitted.
College life begins and since we are in a convenient position to say that we are forced to do engineering (or medical or anything else) which is not our interest, we don’t study at all. We also have the cushion at the back of our mind that even if we screw, we are going to end up in a software job which will give a healthy pay. Again we are well supported by our parents and are given an extravagant pocket money every month which we utilize in sipping lattes in Barista, watching movies in PVR, boozing and spending endless hours on our mobiles talking to our girlfriends (who might well be living in the same city and studying in the same college). These are luxuries which our parents would think twice before spending on even today.
We get out of the college and get a well paying job and no matter how much we sulk about it we have a good time with our friends and enjoy our weekends like anything. After a few years an MBA is almost inevitable and even if not, we are promoted to the next higher level and a Hyundai or Wagan-R starts looming in front of our eyes. We see a challenging and prosperous career ahead. It is not that life is too easy which is important for challenges add fun to life. For example people start planning for weekends on Wednesday in Europe. They hardly work and lead what to me seems an extremely casual life. Or in US where everyday life has been made so mechanical and process driven that you can’t help but feel like a programmed robot. What’s the fun in such an easy going or mechanical life? There is also no fun in being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. A spoilt brat always kept in an over protected environment is generally deprived of the many small moments of pleasure derived from overcoming day to day problems of life; those little victories; those little moments of bypassing the rules; those subtle joys of street romance. Difficulties add new colours to the palette; new flavours to the menu. Life without them would be missing a whole dimension.
Moving forward, our parents ensure that we find a suitable bride even if we may be a complete loser as far as the capabilities of charming a girl is concerned.
There are many other factors which we must not miss. Our society still enjoys a very strong family bond. We respect our parents and will be respected by our kids and will enjoy a strong bond with them. The generation after that i.e. our grand children will perhaps be seeing a time what we see in western countries today. They will move out of their homes when they will be teenagers, find brides of their choice and live the way they want to. The family ties will weaken significantly from what it is today.
Many of these things are true for other countries like China as well. But they don’t have democracy. Although what we see around may be a mockery of it but perhaps its still many times better than China. Freedom is something which is essential; something which no human can happily compromise on.
Last but not the least, its important to be a guy in India. Any given day a boy is still luckier in India today than a girl is. I don’t think I need to give reasons for that.
We are thus in the middle of an evolution. What the Indian middle class is enjoying today is freedom from the clutches of socialism added to which is the freshness of capitalism, the thorns of which are still too blunt. An easy education, an easy job, a cozy salary, a suitable bride, challenges, opportunities, freedom, strong family ties… it actually seems too easy. Or perhaps there is something more to it than meets the eye. After all how long can the spring last? Now that’s something to think about.
I was analyzing the impacts the reforms have had on us and I felt that there is no one in this world today who is luckier than a middle class Indian guy. There are many reasons for this.
Let me begin with the kind of education we enjoy. We generally have fun in our school and no matter how we have performed, we some how get into an engineering college. The 3-idiots team might disagree which such trends but frankly speaking who does not want to take the shorter route. It is also very important to note that colleges are not as expensive in India as in US or Europe and we don’t have to pay our own fee. Unlike the western countries our parents do it for us spending their life’s hard earned money and we are free from the tension repaying any loan. Some times they even pay the donations to get us admitted.
College life begins and since we are in a convenient position to say that we are forced to do engineering (or medical or anything else) which is not our interest, we don’t study at all. We also have the cushion at the back of our mind that even if we screw, we are going to end up in a software job which will give a healthy pay. Again we are well supported by our parents and are given an extravagant pocket money every month which we utilize in sipping lattes in Barista, watching movies in PVR, boozing and spending endless hours on our mobiles talking to our girlfriends (who might well be living in the same city and studying in the same college). These are luxuries which our parents would think twice before spending on even today.
We get out of the college and get a well paying job and no matter how much we sulk about it we have a good time with our friends and enjoy our weekends like anything. After a few years an MBA is almost inevitable and even if not, we are promoted to the next higher level and a Hyundai or Wagan-R starts looming in front of our eyes. We see a challenging and prosperous career ahead. It is not that life is too easy which is important for challenges add fun to life. For example people start planning for weekends on Wednesday in Europe. They hardly work and lead what to me seems an extremely casual life. Or in US where everyday life has been made so mechanical and process driven that you can’t help but feel like a programmed robot. What’s the fun in such an easy going or mechanical life? There is also no fun in being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. A spoilt brat always kept in an over protected environment is generally deprived of the many small moments of pleasure derived from overcoming day to day problems of life; those little victories; those little moments of bypassing the rules; those subtle joys of street romance. Difficulties add new colours to the palette; new flavours to the menu. Life without them would be missing a whole dimension.
Moving forward, our parents ensure that we find a suitable bride even if we may be a complete loser as far as the capabilities of charming a girl is concerned.
There are many other factors which we must not miss. Our society still enjoys a very strong family bond. We respect our parents and will be respected by our kids and will enjoy a strong bond with them. The generation after that i.e. our grand children will perhaps be seeing a time what we see in western countries today. They will move out of their homes when they will be teenagers, find brides of their choice and live the way they want to. The family ties will weaken significantly from what it is today.
Many of these things are true for other countries like China as well. But they don’t have democracy. Although what we see around may be a mockery of it but perhaps its still many times better than China. Freedom is something which is essential; something which no human can happily compromise on.
Last but not the least, its important to be a guy in India. Any given day a boy is still luckier in India today than a girl is. I don’t think I need to give reasons for that.
We are thus in the middle of an evolution. What the Indian middle class is enjoying today is freedom from the clutches of socialism added to which is the freshness of capitalism, the thorns of which are still too blunt. An easy education, an easy job, a cozy salary, a suitable bride, challenges, opportunities, freedom, strong family ties… it actually seems too easy. Or perhaps there is something more to it than meets the eye. After all how long can the spring last? Now that’s something to think about.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Monday, November 30, 2009
A GREAT CHEMISTRY
A Great Chemistry
A poor tough guy meets a brat, spoilt rich girl. Or a city dwelling smart guy meets a bholi bhali gaon ki chhori. The two situations seem to be the case in almost any bollywood movie- but these are only attempts to monetize a simple formula that a great contrast makes a great chemistry. It’s a different thing altogether that these contracts have become so typical that in most of the cases the charm is lost unless the script writer is able to pull out a stunning plot or the director delivers a breathtaking masterpiece (like DDLJ).
After I had written a few stories of my own, I was trying to come up with a formula which could make a great story. And then I saw a common pattern in some of the movies I absolutely adore. These movies are- Leon, A Million Dollar Baby, Silence of the Lambs, As Good As It gets, Lost in Translation. In all of them the contrast between the two main characters is so stark and the gap is so wide that they produce a dazzling chemistry on screen which leave us pleasantly amazed. I will summarize the two central characters of the movie in each case.
Leon- I think this was the first movie of Natalie Portman who plays a 12 year old, sweet but arrogant, girl and Jean Reno who plays a good hearted, tough hit-man or ‘cleaner’, who has just suppressed all his emotions. He starts liking the girl and the girl starts liking him too. There are such moments of subtle romance in this movie that any story writer would envy the script writer.
As Good As It Gets- A crazy misanthropic writer played by Jack Nicholson likes a single good hearted caring mother played by Helen Hunt. Again the contrast is what makes the movie click and the one can observe many spicy, crazy little incidences which keeps you riveted to the screen for 139 minutes.
A Million Dollar Baby- Clint Eastwood (boy… this guy never goes wrong) plays a tough boxing coach and Hillary Swank is a girl with strongest grit and desire to become a boxer. Clint is a tough guy, but you can see his emotions for his student when she falters. In the end he kills Swank for obvious reasons. But what a chemistry!
Silence of the Lambs- It is beyond my reason as to how an author can create a character as dreaded and ghastly as Doctor Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins- I think this is one of the best role played by anyone after Marlon Brando played the godfather) and still make him so charming and adorable. And observe the chemistry with the new inexperienced detective played by Jodie Foster. Again the brilliants contrast makes the movie one of the best ever.
Lost in translation- Beautiful, charming Scarlet Johanson and her friendship with an old man whose married life, as the case generally, is tired and lack lusture. The movie ends but leaves one only wanting for more.
I have been trying to think of such characters, believe me I am trying hard, but I have not been able to come up with such contrasts. The pairs just look too perfect and sometimes I feel that that whole universe of such awesome couples is exhausted; but to shatter my belief and as if to belittle me I always come across some movie or the other which such great characters and I am left saluting the author. I wish I could write one such masterpiece.
I would also like to add that when I saw the movie Jab We Met (another movie with great chemistry produced by two absolutely different characters- a bubbly Karina and a serious Shahid) I was quite happy as I enjoyed watching the movie but was also disappointed because I had thought of a similar story, though in my case the guy would have been the more cheerful character. I hope I come up with another such idea and this time I write the story before I see the movie.
(Written on 27th April, 2009).
A poor tough guy meets a brat, spoilt rich girl. Or a city dwelling smart guy meets a bholi bhali gaon ki chhori. The two situations seem to be the case in almost any bollywood movie- but these are only attempts to monetize a simple formula that a great contrast makes a great chemistry. It’s a different thing altogether that these contracts have become so typical that in most of the cases the charm is lost unless the script writer is able to pull out a stunning plot or the director delivers a breathtaking masterpiece (like DDLJ).
After I had written a few stories of my own, I was trying to come up with a formula which could make a great story. And then I saw a common pattern in some of the movies I absolutely adore. These movies are- Leon, A Million Dollar Baby, Silence of the Lambs, As Good As It gets, Lost in Translation. In all of them the contrast between the two main characters is so stark and the gap is so wide that they produce a dazzling chemistry on screen which leave us pleasantly amazed. I will summarize the two central characters of the movie in each case.
Leon- I think this was the first movie of Natalie Portman who plays a 12 year old, sweet but arrogant, girl and Jean Reno who plays a good hearted, tough hit-man or ‘cleaner’, who has just suppressed all his emotions. He starts liking the girl and the girl starts liking him too. There are such moments of subtle romance in this movie that any story writer would envy the script writer.
As Good As It Gets- A crazy misanthropic writer played by Jack Nicholson likes a single good hearted caring mother played by Helen Hunt. Again the contrast is what makes the movie click and the one can observe many spicy, crazy little incidences which keeps you riveted to the screen for 139 minutes.
A Million Dollar Baby- Clint Eastwood (boy… this guy never goes wrong) plays a tough boxing coach and Hillary Swank is a girl with strongest grit and desire to become a boxer. Clint is a tough guy, but you can see his emotions for his student when she falters. In the end he kills Swank for obvious reasons. But what a chemistry!
Silence of the Lambs- It is beyond my reason as to how an author can create a character as dreaded and ghastly as Doctor Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins- I think this is one of the best role played by anyone after Marlon Brando played the godfather) and still make him so charming and adorable. And observe the chemistry with the new inexperienced detective played by Jodie Foster. Again the brilliants contrast makes the movie one of the best ever.
Lost in translation- Beautiful, charming Scarlet Johanson and her friendship with an old man whose married life, as the case generally, is tired and lack lusture. The movie ends but leaves one only wanting for more.
I have been trying to think of such characters, believe me I am trying hard, but I have not been able to come up with such contrasts. The pairs just look too perfect and sometimes I feel that that whole universe of such awesome couples is exhausted; but to shatter my belief and as if to belittle me I always come across some movie or the other which such great characters and I am left saluting the author. I wish I could write one such masterpiece.
I would also like to add that when I saw the movie Jab We Met (another movie with great chemistry produced by two absolutely different characters- a bubbly Karina and a serious Shahid) I was quite happy as I enjoyed watching the movie but was also disappointed because I had thought of a similar story, though in my case the guy would have been the more cheerful character. I hope I come up with another such idea and this time I write the story before I see the movie.
(Written on 27th April, 2009).
Monday, August 3, 2009
"Mamma.. What is this?"
“Mamma.. What is this?”
As I flipped through one of the books in a shop, a cute little voice attracted me. A pretty girl around four years old, wearing a beautiful frock, was inspecting a toy. She turned to her mother and asked – “Mamma… what is this?” The mother replied back in English and then bought her the toy.
Something just did not feel right to me.
After the mother left with the kid, I began to wonder what was that something. It was the little girl talking in English. I am sure that her mother tongue was Hindi, but the mother and the daughter conversed in English. To be honest, I did not like that.
I have personally nothing against English. I feel that each language in itself is equally great and deserves the same respect. But my point is that the way we are treating Hindi, which is our mother tongue, is not doing justice at all to the respect it deserves.
Hindi, and all other regional languages, is still the language of common masses in our country. But there is a segment, which we are creating, that feels ashamed to talk in their mother tongues. I don’t understand why it becomes necessary to talk in English in queues of airport (among your own family members), why is it necessary to place an order in English in a fancy restaurant, why is it necessary that a mother should talk to her four year old daughter in English outside her home (and many times inside as well). The way the ‘modern parents’ are bringing up their kids today, will only lead to creating a generation, which is plainly unconcerned, a generation which is far from the masses, a generation who can not live without AC, can not travel in local trains, is week and uncompromising on any of its comforts. A generation, who reads Dickens but not Premchand, cannot count from one to hundred in Hindi, who can not distinguish between unnyasi (seventy nine) and navasi (eighty nine), who does not understand that guruwar and vrihaspativar are the two names of same day (Thursday). If we continue this way we will only keep widening the gaps, which are already so stark in our society.
We definitely are suffering from an unnecessary complex. A phobia, which says that talking in English, will raise us to a higher social stature. All we are doing is becoming copycats. All we have imbibed from the West is a scanty dressing sense, and a cheesy English accent. None of their discipline, their sense of punctuality and cleanliness, is ever reflected in our actions.
One of the prime reasons why India is booming today is because of a huge chunk of young people who are good at English. But this generation has seen the hard days, has gone through the rigours. It is important that it does not bring up a generation, which is over pampered and frail. Our country can not afford such individuals. We should not forget that where English is the key to our success, Hindi is our culture, our roots and the key to our collective strength.
(Written on 3rd August, 2009)
As I flipped through one of the books in a shop, a cute little voice attracted me. A pretty girl around four years old, wearing a beautiful frock, was inspecting a toy. She turned to her mother and asked – “Mamma… what is this?” The mother replied back in English and then bought her the toy.
Something just did not feel right to me.
After the mother left with the kid, I began to wonder what was that something. It was the little girl talking in English. I am sure that her mother tongue was Hindi, but the mother and the daughter conversed in English. To be honest, I did not like that.
I have personally nothing against English. I feel that each language in itself is equally great and deserves the same respect. But my point is that the way we are treating Hindi, which is our mother tongue, is not doing justice at all to the respect it deserves.
Hindi, and all other regional languages, is still the language of common masses in our country. But there is a segment, which we are creating, that feels ashamed to talk in their mother tongues. I don’t understand why it becomes necessary to talk in English in queues of airport (among your own family members), why is it necessary to place an order in English in a fancy restaurant, why is it necessary that a mother should talk to her four year old daughter in English outside her home (and many times inside as well). The way the ‘modern parents’ are bringing up their kids today, will only lead to creating a generation, which is plainly unconcerned, a generation which is far from the masses, a generation who can not live without AC, can not travel in local trains, is week and uncompromising on any of its comforts. A generation, who reads Dickens but not Premchand, cannot count from one to hundred in Hindi, who can not distinguish between unnyasi (seventy nine) and navasi (eighty nine), who does not understand that guruwar and vrihaspativar are the two names of same day (Thursday). If we continue this way we will only keep widening the gaps, which are already so stark in our society.
We definitely are suffering from an unnecessary complex. A phobia, which says that talking in English, will raise us to a higher social stature. All we are doing is becoming copycats. All we have imbibed from the West is a scanty dressing sense, and a cheesy English accent. None of their discipline, their sense of punctuality and cleanliness, is ever reflected in our actions.
One of the prime reasons why India is booming today is because of a huge chunk of young people who are good at English. But this generation has seen the hard days, has gone through the rigours. It is important that it does not bring up a generation, which is over pampered and frail. Our country can not afford such individuals. We should not forget that where English is the key to our success, Hindi is our culture, our roots and the key to our collective strength.
(Written on 3rd August, 2009)
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