Sir Paul Goes To War!

This is the kind of news that makes the page 3 these days.

'War' is in! Everyone wants to show how anti-war they are, or always were.

The word is out that it is not John Lennon, who, we had been led to believe all along, was the most anti-establishment among the 'fab four' ( for us folks born in the 60s and brought up on EPs and LPs they are still the one and only fab four and certainly not Messers Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman!) but it was actually Sir Paul who was the first to get off the block!
A meeting with the great Bertrand Russell made him realise that a very 'bad' war( the Vietnam war) was being fought somewhere in a corner of Asia. I had no idea that war can be quantified as either 'bad' or 'good'! Trust Sir Paul to sound childishly naive even at this age.

History tells us that the Beatles burnt quite a few guiter strumming fingers making outlandish comments on things that were way beyond their understanding. Most infamous being John's 'Jesus' comment that almost put paid to their carrer. Their dalliances ( and subsequent disenchantment) with Indian mysticism and Indian classical music is well documented. Bottom line is - the Beatles were good at only one thing - making music. And we love them for it. As for their pretentious little misadventures in other areas? There's a French word for it- merd !
uday

WHY I AM NOT RELIGIOUS

While channel surfing on TV I have often paused, like most of you I am sure, at one of those
channels where a very driven (for lack of a better expression) kind of a man, a Hindu guru or a
Christian evangelist, is delivering a fiery discourse.
Sometimes screaming at high pitch, sometimes whispering in falsetto, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing, pausing for effect......like an actor trained by Lee Strasberg, these people really know how to work the audience. They are masters of their craft. They really know how to manipulate the emotions of their followers. And I mean this as a compliment.
The popular evangelists( and Hindu gurus, and Muslim mullahs, least I forget!) can take thousands of decent men and women on a collective emotional roller-coaster ride, crying and laughing, as if caught in a spell.
History tells us that Hitler, with his impassioned oratory, could make women swoon and faint! But ofcourse he had his own agenda and he was a nasty little rogue. Whereas the television messiahs are only trying to spread their faith, and in the process cleansing society of the evils of the other religions.

Ah ha, that is where they are being just a wee bit naughty! Caught you! I know your dad is nice, sweet-smelling and sauve. But whoever told you that my dad stinks like a swine? Even if he did he is still my dad and you have no business asking me to junk him.

Don't try to pin your god on me. The only god is the sum of all gods.
If you don't know that, you are not only ignorant and uneducated but you are also mean, biased, illogical, boorish, childish, arrogant, egotistical, unreasonable and blind. You are a SOB and a fool and you are the reason why the world is in tatters today. You may be a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim or a Zoroastrian it makes no difference. You have not out-grown your childhood when you fought with your best friend claiming your father was better than his father! That mindset still rules. You make me sick. I wish the worst nightmare on you!

Many years back I was at a massive gathering of Muslims on the Red Road, in Kolkata, and was stunned to hear a mullah deriding Hindus and Hindustan over the public address system for one full hour. I was there to take photographs. I turned to the people around me, all Mulims, and asked what this was all about. This was many years back but I recall clearly that to their immense credit all of them said, "usko chillaney do, usko baat kown sunta hai!"( let him shout, who listens to him anyway). I guess times have changed. Now I guess, we do listen to the mullahs, the gurus and the priests. And look where we have landed ourselves. Look what the career-religious leaders have done to us. We are all rearing to go for another man's throat.

Nano-logy 3 or gujubhais kick bong ass!

Mamata was jumping the gun when she claimed that the CPIM and Ratan Tata were hand in glove to keep her out of contention in the next assembly polls. Now it seems Narendra Modi, the craftiest Guju post Mohandas Karamchand, was hand in glove with Ratan Tata to fell both Mamata Banerjee AND Budhhadev Bhattachraya,in one fell stroke, for playing truant for too long with the mighty Nano! Otherwise how do you explain the alacrity with which Mr.Tata grabbed Mr.Modi's offer? All it took was 4 days between the bye to Singur and the hi to Sanand. Is this how big timers work? Mr.Tata certainly seems to be a man in a tearing hurry. But he also seems to be a man out to make a point. Have we missed something Mr.Tata? I think you are trying to tell us, the people of Bengal, that you cannot play around with a man of your stature. Point taken, Mr.Tata. You are vindictive. You show it when you are angry. Like you are showing the Greenpeace people because you are angry with them for not letting you build a port at Dhamra, Orissa. A port is development whereas the Olive Ridleys have been around for ages - they belong to history, pre-history infact. The choice is clear, they are expendable.

Quite the epitome of naivete, Mr.Tata even wrote an open letter to the people of our beleagured state asking us to choose between Buddhadev and Mamata. Wallowing in his new found role as the champion of the CPIM govt. Mr.Tata seems to have forgotten that we have chosen, repeatedly, for 30 long years, 'Buddhadev' over 'Mamta', to no avail. Industry still wont touch Bengal. And when giants like the Tatas run away,tail firmly tucked between rear wheels, scared by a few country made bombs, and a 'mad woman', to quote the Left leaders, there is no hope in hell for the 'unemployed youth' of Bengal, who were all hoping to get a job, and a life, in the wake of the Nano. High hopes, but that's another story! Jamshedpur has not changed Jharkhand and Singur would not have changed Bengal. But clever marketing can effectively derail logic. Even revered academics were filling coloumns, rooting for the Nano, as if it was the best thing to have happened to Bengal after Tagore!

If newspaper reports are to be believed the Tatas are being forced to pay through the nose for the land at Sanand. Serves them right. Why shouldn't they pay a fair price for the land? The Bengali bhadralok was bending backwards - as far back as his dhuti kurta would allow - to accomodate the Tatas. They have found their match in the willy Narendra Modi. He has shown that a patient beggar can be a chooser, at the oppurtune moment. He has also shown that business is done on equal terms, not when one party is genuflecting before the other

Enough about the Nano! Just two points before I sign off -

1)Whose hare-brained idea was it to build a cheap car? With depleting oil reserves and irreparably polluted cities who needs a cheap car anyway? Car prices should be hiked up and the money thus generated should be invested to build efficient and eco-friendly public transport systems. Mr.RaviKant said in any interview that the Tatas should not be expected to build roads. True Mr.Ravikant - you are only expected to expolit the roads built with public money. I know you pay taxes but no civilized person's responsibilities end with paying taxes.

2)My relative, who works and lives in Gujrat, narrated this little parable to explain what makes a Gujrati different from a Bengali. If he is to be believed if a Gujrati girl comes home one evening and says that she has been raped, her family,father mother et al,are most likely to say,"Wash up and sit down for dinner". No one will bat an eyelid and the matter will be completely forgotten by next morning! In a similar situation a Bengali girl will certainly contemplate suicide, her family will not know where to hide, how to react. Father will probably have a mild heart attack and mother will be on alpazolam, for days. Brother will blame the girl and promise to break every bone in her body if she steps out of the house ever again.

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Nano-logy 2 or Give Us This Day Our Daily Issue!

"To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple."

Arudhuti Roy

With the Rizwanur issue put on the back burner, the chatterati of Kolkata were starved of issues, when lo and behold, the very dependable Mamata Banerjee has lobbed one right in their court – Singur! They were dying to put their signature, with permanent ink markers, in support of a ‘cause’, stand up for something, be an activist and amply demonstrate, 'We think not, therefore we are!'
Sweet somethings in tank-tops and low-rise jeans on a signing spree at tech-town Sector V of Salt Lake, Kolkata , where every second address is a hangout joint, cheering for industry, pleading infact, ‘Plz didi, don’t stop development of West Bengal’!.

My my, so touching! You could have knocked me down with a feather! Are they for real? Translated, all it really means is Plz didi lay off, so that papa can buy me that ooooooh so cute canary yellow Nano real quick!
Mamata Banerjee’s modus operandi may be wrong and it is also true that her heart doesn’t exactly bleed for the peasants (it certainly bleeds more than the techies from Sector V though). But there is substance in her stance. Agricultural land, especially in a small and densely populated state like West Bengal should not be taken over by industry. It does not happen even in advanced industrial nations. Good agricultural land is always left alone because once lost, it cannot be recovered. Hoogly is not Chotanagpur. What was Jamshedpur before the Tatas? A god-forsaken place of laterite soil with no vegetation, leave alone agriculture. They could have picked such a place in W.Bengal - in West Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura or Birbhum. Why Hoogly? The district with perhaps the richest soil in the state? The answer is simple enough- the Tatas are planning to build a cheap car and it is only natural that they’ll pick a site with existing infrastructure, such as, proximity to highways, airports, railheads and ports, to keep the overheads low. Singur has all these. Reason enough to set up shop there.
Mr. Ratan Tata was complaining that the factory was water-logged for many months last year, derailing work. What did he expect? If paddy fields are walled in where does the water go? If water-logging bugs him he should have picked a dry and arid place. Unless the ground level inside the factory complex is raised this problem will come back repeatedly to haunt them. The Tatas want everything on a platter. Did they get everything on a platter when they went to build Jamshedpur?

PS: I have nothing against industry but please read Arundhuti Roy's qoute once more.

uday

Look,we are all poets!

Apparently a poet laureate was lurking inside the legal eagle Kapil Sibal! If you read the history of the Delhi sultanate or the Mughals you will see that most of the sultans and emperors had tried their hand at composing couplets and short poems in Persian or Urdu. Poetry came quite easily to these despots who were otherwise engaged in chopping off heads of brothers, fathers, step mothers and other enemies!(Which makes me wonder if they were not actually ghost written by the court poets who were then thrown off the ramparts!)
Mr.Sibal’s poetry is certainly not ghost written because even a ghost writer would not mix up doggerel with verse! Mr.Sibal, Stepehenian that he is, should know what a doggerel is, and should have the courtesy of refraining from passing off his doggerels as poetry. Sample this –
Inflation is
Bound to abate
With corrective steps
Sooner than late.
!!!!! By the same yardstick the guys who write the rhyming couplets that we see on trucks and buses are all poets! The guys at davp who compose the slogans for public awareness campaigns are also poets! Holy smoke, the Govt. of India is a constellation of unsung poets!
Ms Mamata Banerjee had also tried her hand at ‘English poetry’. Her stuff went like –
I fly fly fly
High, high, high.
Pretty basic imagery and selection of words! Can’t blame her, she’s like that only! Buddhadev Bhattacharya is a poet in his own right (sorry, no left here!). He could try quoting this poem, Oops, doggerel, by Poet Sibal to Ms.Banerjee( we in Bengal are not used to calling her that, but Mr.Ratan Tata, sauve gentleman that he is, has shown the way.) to ease the Singur impasse a bit.
Nano tubes
In nano pores
Nano tech
In nano stores
Nano thoughts
Of nano brains( hear, hear Mr.Sibal!)
A plethora of nano claims.
Nano metres,
nano miles
Nano cars
In nano style.

Nano-logy 1

Everyone has something to say about the Nano. I too want to join the cacophony! Please!

If the i-phone is lovingly, and cheekily, called the ‘Jesus’ phone, the Nano certainly deserves to be called the 'Jesus' car!
You have a problem with Jesus?

Okay we’ll settle for 'Hanuman' or the 'Ram' car! Little Nano has brought out the Che Guevara in us all.

Nano will not let you fence sit – even if you are on ‘dharna’ at Singur- you are either for it or…. (damn you!), against it.

Mr. Tata has cast a wondrous spell on us and we all seem to be smug in our dream that soon we’ll be zipping around town in our own little wunderkind automobile!

"Take that Maruti!"

" Take that Hyundai!"

"Take that Fiat, GM et all!" Peoples’ car is passé. Nano is a poor peoples’ car! Two and a half cars for the price of one. Two and a half litres of fuel for the price of one……? Oh oh , therein lies the pain in the wrong place my fellow dreamers! That’s where the carnival comes to a screeeeching stop!. Every time you drive the Nano into a petrol pump and have to fish out 500 bucks, that old, stinking, rich-poor divide will slam home!
I pity Buddhadev Bhattacharya, a dyed in the wool commie having to fight for the ultimate bourgeoise status symbol - a car!.

Caught between the radical left, the ultra chic left, the neo left, the mothballed left, the -left -of centre- left, the rightist left, the feeling-left-out-left(RSP, FB….etc) on the one flank and the spectre of Wont-Take-No-For-An-Answer- Mamata- Banerjee on the other, he decidedly looks lost. No wonder Buddha is not smilin' no more!.
If he fires a few bullets in the air, Aparna Sen, and her shades, will be out on Red Road with Rituporno Ghosh, shades precariously stuck on his shaved pate, and Pallav Kirtania and Sanoli Mitra also in tow, marching in protest. (I am told that the candle makers are already on overdrive and the candle lobby clamouring for a price revision- but I think it’s a rumour!) Ms Sen may even skip her birthday celebrations as she did after the Nandigram shooting (by policemen, that is, and not film makers). That’s what she said on TV with a straight face, anyway.
If he doesn’t fire bullets, or atleast the water cannons,(what a photo-op for the lensmen!) and the Tatas say ta ta or goodbye, if not outright f*** you, he and we the people of Bengal, will become the laughing stock of the country(if we are not already). Quo Vadis Bengal? What says Das Kapital? What says the adda brigade at 'Kaloda', or 'Khokonda', or 'Bechada's' tea stall?

Post E=mc2 ,Nano must surely be is the biggest brain-twister for us Bongs. Is it good, is it bad?(it is certainly not ugly!). It is decidedly bad for the environment( where are we going to park those cars?) and probably good for the economy. If we destroy the environment who do we build the economy for? Good question, don’t you think?
uday

Abhinav Tussi Great Ho!

This is the entire text of a letter I had sent to The Telegraph, Kolkata, on 13 Aug. Predictably, it wasn't published. No one loves a spoil-sport, especially when a nation of a billion people is busy basking in the glory of a 25 year old young man.

India is a-buzz with the wonderous achievment of Abhinav Bindra, without realising perhaps, that the country had little to do with it!
By the look of it, it was a brilliant individual effort backed by papa's considerable wealth. Rifle shooting is an elitist sports and even if India manages to produce gold-medal winners by the dozen in that particular sports, it will not make us a great sporting nation. An impoverished country like ours ( inspite of globalisation and Cognizant or Macdonald's opening shop all over) cannot afford to pump in the tax-payers money into grooming an individual, practising a rich-man's sports, to fulfill a nation's dreams. Such pursuits should be left to the affluent, with the govt. backing up only in sectors beyond the purview of individuals. The tax-payers money should be spent on grooming atheletes and team sportspersons. To put things in proper perspective, without taking anything away from Abhinav's truly great achievment, we as a nation, must realise that his is an 'individual' gold if there was one.

I now quote from Abhinav's interview published in The Telegraph on 21st. Aug.

" In terms of equipment, a very basic range(for one point) may not cost more than Rs.25 - 30 lakhs....Yes I've been very lucky to have been born into this family".

Thank you Abhinav for being so candid! You are a nice guy and no wonder you finished first!

uday

Look Who's Calling!

This is no time to take or make a call on your mobile Mr. Rathore! The silver winner at the Athens Games was given the unique honour of carrying the national flag at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games and this is how he messed it up. And to think that he belongs to the army! According the the Constitution the first duty of a citizen of this country is to show respect for the national flag and the national anthem. I am surprised that no one pulled him up for his faux pas. Perhaps a medal starved country like ours is destined to give in to the whims and boorishness of its medal winners? In India the individual has always been bigger than the nation. The player has been bigger than the team. Would Mr.Rathore pause for a moment and wonder where he would have landed by now if the country concerned was China or USA or Britain or Japan or Israel?
uday

2B or not 2B

I found this little gem in my son's poetry book.

Said Hamlet to Ophelia
I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?

The poem is by Spike Milligan.I asked my son if this was part of his syllabus and he quite predictably said "No". Well, atleast it has found a place in the book. That is something. Normally Milton, Keats and Wordsworth are stuffed down our childrens' very reluctant throats!

Rift Valley

All those clamouring for a permanent shrine at Amarnath should be stopped in their tracks post haste. Are they dumb, stupid, ignoramuses or what? Not only will it create an irreparable socio-religious rift in the valley - as if there aren't enough all ready- but also result in an unforseen and complete ecological disaster.

The Amarnath shrine has a certain mystiq about it precisely because of the unpredictability regarding the formation of the ice shiva lingam. It is nature's gift to the believers and should be left as such. The inacessability also adds to the aura. If soon we have Toyotas and Mahindras roaring up to the cave itself the idea of making a pilgrinmage through hardship and uncertainty will be lost. I have a feeling that someone is trying to do a Vaishnodevi to Amarnath. Vaishnodevi is a designer goddess, stage-managed and marketed to perfection with a twist in the tale that one doesn't have to shell out mullah as 'puja' a la Tirupathi or Jaggannath of Puri. Big deal that!

It is time,..... we are very late in fact, to raise the sane vioices. Appeasement of the vote-banks at the cost of individuals and society at large , should be done away with. The greater good should be held supreme. If there is one issue today that calls for a strict no- compromises- stance, it is this. How long are we going to pay for the machiavalian practices of the indian politicians who are always playing one community against another to achieve their very petty goals?

Living with a Blog!

My blog has been around for a couple of weeks now and my wife Suchandra hasn't had the time to go through it. So I just asked her if she was planning to do it soon and this was her reply -" Who wants to read a blog when you live with it!" Touche Madam! Apparently, I am my blog and my blog is me. That's cyber-age existentialism for you.

'Sir'cus and Black Magic!

There are 2 film-makers in Bollywood who are constantly referred to as 'Sir' by the wannabes. Sanjay Bhansali(can’t for the life of me call a guy Leela!) and Mani Ratnam. Why? Do they insist on being addressed as Sir? ‘Mani Saar’ and ‘Sanjay Saar’!.
Sanjay Bhansali did everything to make his ‘Black’ look and feel like a phoren film. He cleverly left out the song and dance routine conning the educated ( are they really?) middle-class into believing that Sanjay Saar has made a serious movie! That film was one big opera. That is his forte, borne out by the fact that ‘Padmavati’ the opera he has directed is doing quite well. All his films are operatic extravaganzas. That is why he is constantly referred to, by the polite set, as the director with a ‘different’ vision. It is the difference between cinema and opera. Shekhar Kapoor had once ( when he was booted out of Bollywood, I guess) famously described Hindi movies as ‘nautankis’ and Mr. Bachhan as the greatest nautank. He hit the nail bang on the head! Mr. Bhansali’s nautankis are misinterpreted by most as touching and moving cinema. Anil Grover, who used to write for Sunday magazine and The Telegraph, went so far as to claim that Black was good enough to compete in the main section and not just as a Foreign Language Film at the Oscars! Really, we Indians get so carried away by our little achievements!
To continue about that much-awarded film( the charade just went on and on and on, with Mr.Bhansali, chewing gum firmly in cheek, picking up every award imaginable and thanking his mother and sister, but no one from the film fraternity, for his great success.) , Dhritiman Chatterjee did all he could to look like a big actor. But he forgot that he was in a movie and not on stage. The explanation for his bizarre histrionics can be found in the fact that he has been making his mark on the English drama stage in Chennai for quite sometime now. He is an accomplished stage actor – and it showed. Ayesha, the little girl was quite good but a bit over the top. The script was written for Rani Mukherjee (did someone say, or is it my imagination, that she is God’s gift to Hindi cinema? Well, I think that person is right) and she did justice to it. Poor Mr.Bachhan had to play second fiddle throughout, but finally he had his revenge when his wig stole the show! I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Could you? If you close your eyes, I am sure, the vision will come back to haunt you even today. The general consensus was that he over-acted. But you see, he was in a Sanjay Bhansali film and when you are in a Sanjay Bhansali film you don’t just act but you over-act. Period. In all this din everyone missed the fact that the two really outstanding performances came from Shernaz Patel and Nandana Sen. They deserved to be talked about and handed over atleast 10% of the awards that Mr.Bhansali cornered.
Bye for now,
Uday

Mani- Mithun- Mallika

Mani Ratnam is one film maker I used to think highly of…..till I watched ‘Guru’. Mani Ratnam’s ‘Nayakan’ finds a place in Time magazine’s list of All Time Great Movies ( a sort of 100 movies to see before you die!). But I believe that has something to do with ‘their’ quota system! “Throw in some Asian movies or they’ll crib.” The 21st century belongs to Asia after all. ( Who ever said that doesn’t care much for the 21st. century! This vast continent works on bribes!).

But….but, Mani Ratnam is good. His ‘Yuva’, although it bombed at the box-office (the dumb brigade strikes!), and heavily borrowed from Innarittu’s brilliant Amores Peros, is good cinema. By our desi standards, mind you. Excellent performances, taut script, top-notch direction, competent cinematography and memorable music. But Guru? Atrocious story line, amateurish art direction (horrid sets), lousy make-up, and acting. Abhishek goes back to where he belongs – between the bottom and the lower middle rung! Aishwrya does precious little with her histrionic skills, as if she had any. Mithunda stands out. But then he always stands out. Vidya Balan and Madhavan gel well. (a fact that the Airtel TV spots are exploiting to the hilt. They should give royalty to Mani Ratnam).

Mithun Chakraborty is the greatest tragic figure in the history of Indian cinema. He has the abilities to give a run for their money to anyone in the industry, starting from the Big B down to the small Z (whoever that may be...Zayed Khan, perhaps?). He had everything going for him, acting skill wise, and he threw it all away because he was anonymous and poor and desperately wanted fame and fortune. He succeeded, as he should have being highly intelligent and hard working, but in the process Indian cinema lost a great actor. No one will put him in the same bracket as Balraj Sahani, Sanjeev Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri or Anupam Kher. But believe you me that is where he belongs. Among the very best. He’s on over-drive now, trying to make up for lost opportunities. But I think he has missed the bus, although directors keep saying that his best is yet to come. If they mean it they should do something about it.

Talking about ‘Guru’ it’s difficult to give Mallika Sherawat a miss. Her ‘Maiya Maiya’ item number is, to put it very very mildly, simply mind-blowing. Now, that girl has what it takes! Oodles of oomph! Sounds horrible, but this alliterative expression does complete justice to her. A touch of semi-rustic, small town Indian sensuality (vulgarity?) that is the main-stay of our popular erotic literature and art is best epitomised in this lanky and lithe woman! No two ways about it. No one comes even a distant second. Preity Zinta, Aishwarya….? Com’n, give me a break! Baby dolls all! They are too plasticky, too un-real, soul-less and anorexic. Priyanka Chopra is doing good and has the correct balance of vulnerability and sang-froid, classic Indian good looks, sexy smile, thick lips, but then she is less feminine than Mallika. So Mallika rules! I think we should all be thankful to Mallika for working so hard to satiate our lust, our drooling and leching. She has dedicated herself to the lecherous ogling Indian male and with telling effect. Thank you kind girl!
Bye for now,
Uday

Installation Art- Contd.

The greatest and most spectacular installation art created by any artist was 'Valley Curtain' by the Bulgarian Christo. He hung a huge orange curtain across a canyon in California. It was civil, structural and what not engineering meeting art! Somewhat like what Indian born British artist Anees Kapoor is doing. Unfortunately the valley curtain was torn apart by strong winds within hours of it being hung. Christo had also wrapped a million square feet of the Australian coast-line in plastic! He must have had immense persuassive skills to arrange for the mind-boggling logistics involved with such projects. Anees Kapoor's installations also cost millions of dollars and yet they are dismantled after a certain period of time. But then we live in clever times and I am sure someone most be making money somewhere. If Christo ( he passed away I believe) had kept the torn pieces of the Valley Curtain he, or someone, could have made a killing today, it is such an iconic piece in the history of post-modern art. No one makes art for the sake of art these days, just as no one sings for the sake of singing, or plays cricket for the love of the game. Someone had described the British as a nation of shop-keepers. Today everyone is a shop-keeper. All nations, organisations, individuals. Shop-keepers one and all!
Bye for now,
Uday

Good Entertainment!

Why are we so bent on being entertained? You switch on the TV and some jerk is trying to entertain you with his silly antics, cracking wishy washy jokes, talking in an unbearable staccato and in general making a complete fool of himself. As, Asish Nandy, celebrated economist, has said somewhere " soon we are going to entertain us to death" or something to that effect. Entertainment is the buzz word. Everything is 'good entertainment'. Be it a cricket match, a trust motion in parliament, a debate on the death penalty....anything.

This is what Clint Eastwood has to say about films in an interview published in the July issue of M magazine -"When you make a film, don't think of the people who might go and see it. Make your film and stay true to your story." Our film makers, right from Raj Kapoor to Karan Johar keep repeating that they make films for the masses. No wonder they churn out such trash. Anything, as any sensible person will tell you, that is devised exclusively for mass consumtion cannot be a product of quality. Hindi cinema is the Nirma soap of world cinema.

I am a big fan of Clint Eastwood and have borrowed his celebrated line for my blog's name.
Bye for now, Uday

Here I Go!

Hello All!

I am Uday Shankar Hajra. Artist. Photographer. Dilettante par excellance. Lover of good cinema, music and books. Tetotaller, non-smoker, non-religious, spiritual, tea and coffee addict and a lotus-eater if there was one!



I love a good conversation but generally cannot get along with people. Especially the uptight sort and these days they come a dime a dozen. I don't believe in secret ballots. if you ask me, and I like your face, chances are that I'll tell you the party or candidate I've voted for. I like it that way. I like the people of Sikkim, who fly the flag of the party they support from their roof-tops! that is how it should be in a perfect society.

In a couple of years time I'll be 50. Too late to start anthing? These days people start at 20 and wind up by 30....ok 40. But that's about it. No kidding, but people do stare at you if you tell them you were born in 1960! That far back?

These days everything comes with 'use by..' dates. Corporates hire people in their early 20s and turn them into vice-presidents or deputy general mangers before they complete 30. My father-in-law worked in a MNC, a true MNC that really does business all over the world ( not like the home-grown MNCs we have that work in India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives and maybe, just maybe, Vietnam!) for 40 years and was made DGM when he had 2 years to retire!

When we were in our 20s, life meant college, politics, endless dirty tea in dirty cups, Antonioni, Godard, Bergman, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, cigerrates ( no booze) and sleep. Sleep, yes! We slept like logs. Some of my pals never woke up before 12 noon!These days people sleep so little( the citi never sleeps!). It's as if if you sleep you miss out on a whole lot of things.
bye for now, uday