Chennai Masala 2

Ek gaaw mein ek kisaan.....

In a coup of sorts, Jayalalithaa, campaigning for the Samajwadi Party, addressed a rally in Allahabad in Hindi. Yes, Hindi.. you heard it right. I am being unjust to the lady by comparing her speech with the famous Ek gaaw mein scene in an old Bagyaraj movie. But, whenever a southie speaks Hindi, you cannot but avoid the comparison. She reportedly delivered a hard hitting, 15 minute speech in chaste Hindi . The crowd responded with shouts of 'Jayalalithaa Zindabad' which reportedly left 'Manya' Mulayamji blushing :)-

Karunanidhi's Pearls

Known for his penchant for writing dialogues, MK recently responded to the Supreme court's refusal to vacate the stay on OBC quotas by angrily saying that the "fate of 100 crore people cannot be left to two men".I wonder if there was any other statement made by any other person -dead or alive- that even comes anywhere close to this gem.

According to MK, a two judge bench can decide only on cases involving two people. To decide on OBC reservation, which according to MK involves over a billion Indians, you need a bench with a billion judges. Assuming that we find a billion judges and constitute a bench, Mk will not have any problems if they too refuse to vacate the stay. That is because, his pimary objection is to the number of people sitting in judgement and not their judgement.Fair enough.

Days later, a two judge bench of the Madras High Court upheld the abolition of the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to professional colleges in TN. They lauded the government for its efforts to ensure 'social justice'. How come these two can decide the fate of 6 crore Tamilians? Will MK oppose this? If this is not double speak, what is?

Politicising Fishermen Deaths

There have been recent incidents of Tamil fishermen being shot dead in the high seas. This disturbing trend,coming in the backdrop of renewed military might of the LTTE, is unabted.MK, meanwhile slammed the Sinhalese govt for firing unprovoked and in true filmi style , warned thatTamilians will not remain mute spectators. ( His typical statements go like this... " innumum madhiya arasu tamizhanain ratham kodhipadhay paarthu kondu irukkadhu endru ninaikiren. Rajni can consider hiring MK 's services for Sivaji).

The Lankan govt categorically denied any involvement in the firings and explicitly stated that its navy has been instructed not to fire on Indian fishermen transgressing the international waters.Meanwhile, there were reports that the Sea Tigers, the naval arm of the LTTE, could be behind the killings to sour relations betwen the two countries. The PMK, MDMK and the DMK which were vociferous in pinning the blame on the Lankan govt, chose not to react .

Now, the DGP of Tamil Nadu has confirmed that the Sea Tigers were behind the killings. How are the LTTE sympathisers planning to respond to this shameful, cowardly act?

Media Mania

It was a bumper fortnight for the media and the Ash-Abhi wedding was the most important event on earth. Headlines Today started the build up a week before the wedding, concentrating on details as silly as the amount of Mehendi to be used for the ceremony. The other channels were no better. They had the temerity to gate crash and attempt to intrude into the privacy of celebrities, but when chased away by the security gaurds , they paint the town red with complaints of high handedness.

The media's single grouse seems to be " What is preventing the Bachchans from even sharing a single pic of the couple?". Well, that's a fair question. But it's the prerogative of the Bachchans. If they choose to dump the media, what's preventing the media from returning compliments? They cannot ....because, news on the Bachchan wedding sells. And to drive their business, they want the Bachchans to oblige and compromise on their privacy. I am no defender of the Bachchans. They need the media for promoting their films, but want them out of the wedding. That speaks volumes for their character. It's a lesson for the media and I bet they would not have learnt it.

Coming back to the news channels, I can atleast excuse HT, but CNN IBN was criminal in its coverage. Despite flogging the wedding to the hilt, it ran a debate on whether the media was right to over hype the wedding. Double speak is not confined to politicians.

Jeppiar and the Isreali connection....

If you thought that Satyabama college buses where the only place where this philosophy was preached .. think again.. chk out this article..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6584661.stm

This goes on to iterate my theory put forwrd in previous articles that you can find religious fanatics in any community in any region of the world given the "right" circumstances..

Arent we equal before the eyes of the God?

After the much touted wedding of Aishwarya Rai and Abhsishek Bachan, the couple were seen 'seeking blessings' at Tirupathi. This set me off on a series of thoughts that have bothered me often in the past. What makes them so special that even God metes out a special treatment to them (or is atleast forced to). Its a common fact that nowadays people visiting Tirupathi get 'tagged' for an appointment with the God, and on auspicious days the rendezvous gets delayed by as much as 48 hours, and the devotees have no other choice but to wait after having planned their entire trip to last just a day. And then there is this concept of special darshan (this is not just in Tirupathi though). People who buy the 'tickets' for special darshan get Divine blessings sans crowd's jostlings and long waiting times. Only consolatory thing with Tirupathi being that even if you get these tickets you still end up waiting for a couple of hours till you get to the sanctorum. However on reaching the sanctum sanctorum, when we think all our ordeals are finally over, we only end up being physically pushed away by the 'dedicated' crowd control group with their non-stop 'jarugandi's.

What makes some people so special that they get to sit in front of the deity and perform elaborate poojas, while we are chased away like dogs. Why should they be given the permission to be taken directly to the sanctorum while we endure hours of waiting under the sun on bare foot. And why should a religious establishment embrace the concept of 'pay for easy view' concept. How different is this from cinema theaters, where more you pay, the better is your view of the screen? Arguments like "temple needs revenues like these to sustain themselves", "this the only way to manage a huge crowd" are too specious. So much for socialism and communism.

On an offnote,this is what CNN-IBN has to say about the marraige. Here are the people who create all the hype by showcasing the wedding, interviewing people, and having a panel discuss the implications of this wedding on the 'welfare of the society' and then they form another panel that discusses the implications of the excessive hype that has been surrounding the wedding. And people talk about intelligence while reporting!

MY THOUGHTS AT MIDNIGHT

India seems to be going through this phase of turmoil, if you are willing to call it that. Well I am referring to the recent Narayana Murthy national anthem fiasco and the "national flag” cake case of Sachin...just to name the two famous ones. There have been a couple of others and a few older ones that come to my mind like the Malini ramani cocktail dress in the tricolor. Anyway coming to the main point why is it that we are so agitated with these issues?

To understand this we need to understand the foundation on which India was built...the strong foundation which has managed to surprisingly stay on in spite of the events in the last 20 years-the socialistic structure. The socialistic structure was a choice Nehru made on behalf of India...well most people accepted it back then and voila, India was an imitation of the soviet union...maybe a cheap imitation or maybe not. And now; if you are a socialist nation then you follow their norms right?? Well obviously. So there we have the basic norms namely, a Hugh republic day parade displaying all your army might (the fact that your technology was outdated did not matter)...restricting the use of the national falg, embelem and other symbols to official use, jailing anybody daring to tow the official line and of course one of the favourite controls-controling the intellectual mindspace. And by the way it does not matter if Russia has stopped its "might display”:D.

So now it must be fairly obvious why we have such anger being vented on the street. It is a part of the socialistic set up. Anyone who goes against the "rules" is not to be tolerated. But then I find something really amusing...the rules are framed in the first place to project a strong nation...and if a nation can be insulted by a mere anthem or the cutting of a cake or by somebody sneezing on the flag, the nation just does not deserve to exist.


Thought I must add this... Before anybody goes on to call the protests political; pleaseeee. Members of political parties are people too. The membership should not be reason enough to bar them from protesting. It is Hippocratic to ok the Jessica Lall protests but not the Chennai bandh on reservations. More on the reservations later...lets get back to NRN...and the "IT BOYS"...he totlally deserved whatever he got...the protsts were less about the national anthem and more about his statements on the cauvery issue.MR murthy, you might get your appointment with the chief minister and prime minister to get your "incentives" namely tax sops to setup a "world class" company but the farmer can only dream of such appointments.When people have no other way to be heard; disrupting the life of you guys is the only way out to be heard..so chill Mr Murthy.
THERE WAS A POST THAT SAID THAT THE COMMON CHENNAI CITIZEN WAS SCARED OF OPPOSING THE GOONS...TYPICAL 2% TAMIL POPULATON RESPONSE.: D...infact if one had watched any news channel chennai was the city where most people supported the confrontation and bandh.after all it pays to support what benifits you.

KINDLY NOTE: THE AUTHOR FULLY ENDORSES THE MAAI BAAP CONTROL OF RESOURCES AND INTELLECT.

The Life of Brian

This is a movie of epic proportions and an ode to what humor is for the intellectuals. It takes inspiration from the bible and the events of the movie are based in the biblical age. The movie starts with the entry of the three wise men into a poverty stricken household where a mother is taking care of her baby. The three men try to bless the baby only to be stopped by the acrimonious mother only until they say they have “gifts” for the baby. It so turns out that they have entered the wrong poverty stricken household and instead of blessing Jesus they have blessed Brian!

The movie is extremely hilarious and is way ahead of its time. It ridicules terrorist organization s and even has a number of its own in the film prominently named as the PFW (the Peoples front of Judea) an organization against the oppression of Romans. This surely draws inspiration from the PLO! The plot has many twists and turns’, ending with a lovely song as “Brian” is crucified.

The film was released in early 1979 and caused a loud uproar from various religious heads. I know of many situations on in India where religion and the caste system have made issues of non issues. I have also heard a lot of intellectuals saying that this would never happen in the west! A number of moral policing organizations lobbied to have this film banned. At the time in Britain the local community leaders could prevent a film from being screened within their community if they felt it to be “amoral”. And this was done in a lot of counties just based on hear say. The movie as such has nothing to talk about Jesus his views and neither is it sacrilegious.

This just goes to show that everywhere in the world there are people who blindly follow religion and become self-proclaimed moral policemen and there are enough people who just like to blindly follow a cause without a droplet of thought put into the ratification. Parallels can be drawn to the 92 Bombay riots or the Ayodhya incident any other mass religious movement! Freedom of speech and thought is very important for a society to grow and humor is an important element to rectify the vice of a society. The Romans had their humor instruments so did any of the many glorious empires from the past in India ratified by the myriads of folk tales that we have been subjected to from our grandmothers!

Ps- this link chronicles the media circus that followed the release of this satire. I know it is about 50 minutes but is very interesting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJvJ-dIC3pE

Chennai Masala

This section will have a quick round up of newsworthy events . I will try to update it on a weekely/ fortnightly basis

Sun and Sky dont see eye to eye

Never shy of brushing the wrong side of the law,Sun TV has done it yet again. It is flatly denying signals to Tata-Sky, a rival DTH operator, in order to ensure the success of its own DTH service due in July. Despite the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) ruling in favour of the Tata-Sky JV, Sun TV is refusing to budge. Interestingly, TDSAT, comes under the Ministry of Telecom headed by none other than Dayanidhi Maran !!! It may be noted that Maran was accused of trying to arm twist the Tatas into a partnership- for rolling out DTH services with SunTV last year -which the Tatas firmly resisted.


Narayana Murthy is a traitor

Kannada zealots have plummeted to new lows. They want the Infosys Chairman 'thrown out of ' Karnataka and if possible, out of India. This outrageous demand is in response to NRN's reported remarks on the national anthem.During a visit by President Kalam last week to the Infosys Mysore campus, an instrumental version of the national anthem was played. When NRN was asked why the anthem was not sung, he is reported to have said that singing the anthem might make the foreign trainees in the campus uncomfortable. I am at a loss to undertsand the logic behind this, nevertheless, NRN has promptly apologized. Not content with that, the zealots are pouring scorn over him and are gunning for his blood. They are urging the govt not to provide any more land to Infosys and say Karnataka will be are better off without Infosys. All this at a time when Infosys reported revenues in excess of 13000 cr for the year ended 06-07 and a net profit over 4000 cr for the year. The ever increasing headcount now stands at a little over 71000.

Bounty Time

Talking of profits, its bonanza time for IT employees as salary hikes are normally given in April. They (me included :)- )are watching the financial results of their companies with bated breath to see if they can rake in some moolah. In the war for talent, salaries are expected to go up by 12-15% but P Chidambaram will ensure that the hike is offset by inflation, additional surcharge, cess and what not. Guess what? This additional cess is to fund the OBC reservation bill. Heard of double jeopardy?

CD row

Tech savvy-ness and the BJP seem poles apart. Hi-tech misadventures- be it the hidden cameras in Tehelka or the glitzy India Shining campign- have landed the party in a spot of bother and history has repeated itself. The party is accused of circulating CDs with communally inflamatory content in Uttar Pradesh, where the polls are underway. The self appointed custodians of secularism are up in arms and have petitioned the EC to de recognize the BJP and the EC has promptly served a show-cause notice. Sensing that things are boomeranging, the BJP has disowned the CD .I wonder where these parties are when the DMK indulges in majority bashing and particularly Brahmin-bashing. BJP CD Transcript
For the not so busy, read the transcript and post your comments on the content.

First Salvo Part 2

The law providig 69% reservation in TN , over and above the 50% ceiling that the SC has repetedly emphasised, was mischieveously included in the 9 th schedule by JJ. Laws under 9 th schedule are beyond judicial scrutiny. It was envisaged my Nehru for initating land reforms but soon became a tool in the hands of the politicians who incuded as many as 274 laws under it !!!! The SC has questioned the legality of enacting laws at will and including it in the ninth schedule and this is giving sleeps nights to the likes of MK.

When MK resorts to political stunts, you can rest assured that all is not well.He fears that the quota law in TN might be struck down. He is pre empting the SC by upping the ante against it. A mouth watering confrontation with the judiciary is on the cards. Will keep you guys posted.

Tail Piece: The latest on 27% OBC quota...IIMs have been asked to withhold their admission list till April 21. The HRD ministry is bending over backwards to get the stay vacated. The IIMs meanwhile have announced that if there is no communication from the centre even after 21 st, it will go ahead with the admissions without the additional 27% reservations and without increasing the intake

Diarios de motocicleta

This is one movie that I had been keeping away from. I knew the movie was about Che Guevara one of the revolutionary South American socialists. Too be frank I did not have any interest in learning about why Che revolutionized south America in the fifties and the sixties, along with Fidel Castro specially in a “doccumentry”. I was hence prejudiced about the film and hence did not even care to give it a chance.

Somehow fate brought me together with the film one lonely cold night. It’s a beautiful film and extremely well made and is not an advert to socialism or how Che Guevara brought about a revolution and certainly not a doccumentry. It is about a road trip that Che and his friend took in the early fifties from Argentina to Venezuela right after graduation from medical school. It took them close to 12 months to complete the journey the movie chronicles the events that happen along the way. It’s a very well made movie and extremely touching as well.

I went on to read up on Che Guevara. If you are wondering who this guy is I am sure you must have come across him on the back of some T-shirt sometime in your life and wondered the same then.

This got me thinking about the socialism concept and why it was so required in the fifties in India, South America and any third world country and probably going back a little further the early twenties in Russia. The plight of an overwhelming number of people was really bad as compared to a major few. It was a strong cause for socialism. But my feeling is that neither a purely socialistic society nor a purely capitalistic society would work in a modern economy. That’s why I feel that the Indian constitution was way ahead of its time. But the principles are far from being adopted. The rules are being bent so as to help causes such as Murli wrote home about! We need some sort of revolutions and some foresighted people to rally around what our constitution really is about!

Che was assassinated by the CIA sometime in 1967 because the Americans where shit scared of his revolutionary ideas, the way he was implementing them and of course the fact that he was a proclaimed socialist. I can never understand the fear of the American politicos on this and why they have tried and keep trying to twist socialist countries.

First Salvo

The reservation rage is back.The 2 judge bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, in a stinging verdict, has stayed the quota coteries' plans to push through the 27% reservation this academic year.In a particularly embarrassing observation, the court said "Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you."It went on to add "Differentiation or classifications for special preference must not be unduly unfair to the persons left out of the favoured groups".

The court did not stop with that. It said "Though it is submitted that the number of seats available for the general category is not affected, that is really no answer to the broader issue. If there is possibility of increase in seats in the absence of reservation, it could have gone to the general category"

Now, cut to Chennai. March 29,2007. TN CM is in Mahindra City inaugurating the new BMW factory. Hearing the stay order, he dashes off to Anna Arivalayam , gets into a huddle with his allies, expresses 'shock' over the verdict and calls for a TN banch on Mar 31 (Sat).

Mar 31, Chennai. Typical bandh rituals Sun TV declares it a massive success and proudly announces that TN was completely shut down. Jaya TV meanwhile reports the difficulties of stranded passengers and flays MK for causing 'inconvenience' to the people (Ironically, JJ is against the SC verdict, but blames the stay on the inefficient handling of the case . ADMK boycotted the bandh accusing the TN govt of 'indifference' towards protecting 'Social justice'.
I had a nice time watching these channels as their news bulletins were more comical than any comedy show on air.Taking a cue, AP shut down on April 4. And Gemini TV and ETV took over from Sun and Jaya.

Back in Delhi, parties flay the SC order. Close followers of Indian politics will be hardly surprised that the very parties that extensively quote the SC judgements when it comes to Ayodhya or the Gujarat riots,unashamedly question its authority. Indian politics thrives in double speak and hypocricy. The better you are at it, the farther you go. And our 'netas' know that well.

Barely had the Arcot veerasamy vs madras High court spat ( where he compared the courts to a 'Katta Panchayathu' and demanded that the judges be shown their place. Google search for details:)-) died down , the TN govt(which is synonymous with the DMK) has , by calling the bandh,mounted pressure on the SC. MK, the master demagogue, conveniently (mis)interpreted the people's unwillingness to take on the DMK hooligans as a public endorsement of his stand and gave himself a pat on his back.

But ever wondered why MK is so unnerved? I'll answer that next week....