Symbiotic or Parasitic

Politics and the media. Somehow these are two facets of present day India which gives the average person a lot to talk about. Our country’s average Joe/Jane is a self styled political theorist each of whom has his or her own opinion about the politics of the state.

To say that the relationship between Media and Politics is symbiotic would be an understatement. One cannot live with the other, nor live without the other. The last Lok Sabha elections “India is shining” media campaign comes straight to my mind. Well Glitzy as it may seem apparently that led to the downfall of the NDA government. Also in those days almost every market survey firm, worth its salt, tied up with a news agency bringing out their own version of exit polls, all of which predicted an NDA victory. Except the master of psephology, Pronnoy Roy’s channel which did otherwise and drew quite a flak for that. The results are there for everyone to see.
Somehow there seems to be a more mutually parasitic than a symbiotic angle to affair. I don’t know how far biologically correct that term is. But the fact of the matter is that both thrive out of each other’s plate, chewing all ends up, trying to malign the other. The media seems to rely heavily on the political affairs of the country for its daily bread, mostly by slamming them. Similarly the firbrand politicians slam a section of the media for bringing them to disrepute. Really irks me; is it pre-mediated? Else how can a simultaneous hate parade (enough fodder for a solid suit) lead to be beneficiary for both?

The current “war” is a case in point. Mr Narendra Modi v/s the English Media. Somehow both derive significant mileage by slamming the other – which leads to my previous question. Mr Modi slams the English media as per Sagarika Ghose “the English-speaking Left-inclined upper class Nehru-style firangis who, ever since the neglect of Sardar Patel by the congress, have failed to give Gujarat its due”. The media on the other hand with its myopic vision cannot see beyond the Godhra carnage and the genocide aftermath, and thus paints a very poor picture of Gujrat. The irony in this battle however happens to be the fact that Modhi has romped home with a resounding victory and the channel in question has the highest viewership.
Am I missing something or is it the way it is…….

Money or Fame - Either should be your middle name

Starvation is a slow poison. In every form it has a killer effect. But what are we starving of; as a person, as a society, as a generation? It has to be either fame/recognition or money or a combination of both... it’s an unusual malaise, we can never be satisfied with whatever we have, no matter how much or how little it actually is. Alternatively it’s also a stark contrast that we actually stoop down to base levels just to satiate these desires. This craving for money and recognition really brings out the worst in us, and it sometimes becomes most apparent when our hunger is not satiated.

Taking the example of Reality shows can explain this better I guess. All the high TRP shows these days seem to be the reality contests; I don’t have the details whether their TRP is higher than Saas-bahu soaps but should be close. Now every channel has its own version - Indian Idol/Sa Re Ga Ma Pa/VOI... what have you. I don’t have any problems with Talent Hunts as long as the contestants are judged solely on the basis of their singing talents by eminent person in the field of music ala the erstwhile Sa Re Ga Ma or Meri Awaz Suno. The contest was a knockout format and the judges were the very best names in the music industry, most of them institutions by themselves. Hence these contests have produced singers like Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal, Kunal Ganjawala, Manpreet Kaur and Vishal (Vishal-Shekhar) among others. But somehow these shows could not capture the masses, so they were altered and the final judgment was always in the hands of the audience. The quest for quality gets lost amidst the din of TRP and revenue.

So what we have today is a set of programs which have judges for the sake of having them only, the ultimate trigger to eliminate or elevate a participant lies with the viewers. The rationale being, let the people choose for themselves who they want to hear...so that the winner starts of with a solid footing in the industry and a good fan base to boot. A wise thought, must say but the caveat is that of participant’s ability of buying into the public. Mind you at stake is instant stardom and a lot of moolah, so the idea seems to have spread like wildfire. A massive TRP and starry hopefuls apart, there had always been snide rumors of insider voting was doing rounds.

All this came out in the forefront in one of the shows last week, when one of the participant's father openly challenged his daughter's total vote count by stating that he and his partners (in crime) had sent in nearly double that number of votes from computers set up across the country and by running up a huge mobile phone bill. A very sad story which led to one of the judges commenting and requesting people to let a music contest remain that itself and not turn that to a business proposition....

All this and more brings me to my original question (and many more). Why does one have to do this? Is it for the instant passport to fame? Is fame really that important? Well probably there will be certain things that I will never be able to fathom. But what I do fear is the impression on the future generation's mind that a father/guardian is making -
MONEY CAN BUY ANYTHING....
MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING IT IS THE ONLY THING
IF YOU ARE NOT FAMOUS YOU ARE A LOSER.




Fame, (fame) makes a man take things over
Fame, (fame) lets him loose, hard to swallow
Fame, (fame) puts you there where things are hollow
Fame (fame).....


Fame, nien! Its mine! Is just his line
To bind your time, it drives you to, crime
Fame (fame)......

From Fame - By David Bowie

Here I Am

The day started with me waking up late (of course), a mad rush to office, just managing my breakfast shake of milk, strawberry yoghurt and banana and a wild drive on snow filled road. Three hours of work later a heated up lunch of Chicken Pad Thai. Another 5 hours of rigors and then a drive back home. No not home tonight so soon, I had to go to the Fedex counter to drop off a bunch of MS program applications for my colleagues.
Well this is where the twist in the tale comes in. 3 of my colleagues S, K and R are applying for their MS programs at schools spread all across the nation and they had sent over their applications to be posted out here- saves some dough!! Now the beauty of the fact is that K and R are engaged and their scores don’t exactly tally, so with their individual scores they would apply to 6 schools each but since they wanna stay close they applied to a union of theirs (11 per head). S had seven of those herself.


So as you can understand 29 applications mean 29 addressee forms to fill up, putting them in 29 envelopes and keeping track of the fact that the application of GIT does not end up being mailed to NCSU. Piece of cake indeed!! Did that paid the bill, a total of nearly five hundred dollars, and finally returned home two and a half hours later (Famished to the core, cold and tired).

A bad experience but the hope still lingers on. Next year this time or maybe a bit later I will probably be sending out applications myself, or will ask somebody else to send them on my behalf. Maybe K/R/S will send em on my behalf.. Life might (will) come a full circle....

Here I am - this is me
There's no where else on earth I'd rather be
Here I am - it's just me and you
And tonight we make our dreams come true

To the place I belong

Its said that the formative years of a person go a long way to shape his/her future persona. There are many contributors in this time frame. Friends, parents, the ideas, education and of course the neighborhood/surroundings. All these and many more factors contribute to the growth of a sound mind and body; ultimately playing a significant role in shaping who the person grows to be later in life. Among all these I do feel the place where a person grows up, the 'cradle of growth' plays a very crucial impact. I , for one, was blessed to spend the first 15 years of my life in a small but beautiful town called Maithan on the banks of the river Barakar (A tributary of Damodar) at the border of West Bengal and Jharkhand (erstwhile Bihar).

The genesis of the name of the place is where I shall start from. Ma ka sthaan (Obode of the Mother) led to Maithan. Mother here referring to the temple of Godess Kali at the Kalyaneshwari Temple.

The town was a Govt. colony of the Damodar Valley Corporation, serving as the field headquarters of the place. The biggest attraction of the place happens to be the dam, one of the oldest dams of Independent India. The town is on the Chhota Nagpur Plateau portion hence slightly elevated when compared to the sea level and surrounded by the hillocks an the river. The opening o the sluice gates during the monsoon to release the excess water is a treat to watch, Open up all the gates and we have ur own version o the famed Niagra.
Clean air, fresh water and smell of fresh rain on the grounds happen to be my first memories o the place.


More on Maithon to come up in the later posts on the subject



Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
Take me home, country roads.....

By John Denver

Phoenix-Arise from the ashes

The Phoenix...

Okay I shall start of with the cliché, Love him, Hate him, you cannot ignore him. I shall come to the 'him' later. Let’s start with the contributions of him which statisticians don’t regard. He is single-handedly responsible for taking the cheer from football in the Mecca of football in India, he is the one who inspired my cousin to take up cricket much to the chagrin of me and my uncle (our family has always been for football), spawned an industry of cricket coaching camps in Kolkata and provided the City of Joy with a Role Model.

Yes he is our very much beloved/hated (based on your perception) Sourav Ganguly. A man who is a living lesson to the adage "fight till your last drop", an inspiration for a generation that success owes so much to the struggle which goes unnoticed. A man who has faced the ignonimity of being dropped and written off only to paint black the faces of his critics (silencing them is an understatement).

Sourav Ganguly's career was well and truly over even before it had started, in the 92 series of Australia. reports of his refusal to carry drinks to the field made more headlines than Ravi Shastri winning the AUDI. The Bombay brigade was ready to jump onto it and wipe off easily any sort of 'other state' player from entering the team.

Team selection has always been a much debated affair in India and there’s more to it than meets the ordinary eye. After the 96 WC, Sourav was back in the team for the England tour. His detractors had written him off as a failure. Sourav and Dravid entered the team at approximately the same time. Wasted no time and scored back to back centuries in England. Critics were silenced but not to be undone they cried hoarse over his Achilles’ heel - the shorty aimed at the ribs. Who does not have one? Sachin is susceptible to the delivery 4 inches outside of stump which McGrath uses to keep Sachin at his mercy; Sir Don and his Larwood Bodyline fiasco is a well known affair, nobody keeps track of those. Everybody has limitations and how one plays with these known issues is what is to be seen and nothing else.

Thereafter much water has flown through the Thames and Sourav was dropped in Toronto for a couple of matches a move which cost Mr Patil his job apparently. Thereafter Sourav had the series of his lifetime next year in Toronto. Went on to handle Captaincy of the Team and did what no Indian caption hadn’t done till date - take the bull by its horns. Intimidating the mighty Aussie Steve Waugh in the home series in a series of verbal duel and winning the Eden Test and thereafter the series started this. It gave the cricket fraternity 2 brief but strong messages - Don’t mess with Ganguly and Aussies are not invincible. What followed next was a tour of down under when under Ganguly's captaincy the Aussies were at their knees at home since the days o the mighty WIndies of the 70s. Ganguly palyed well and built a team around himself which is the perfect blend of youth and experience and the set was really gelling and clicking well. Waving his T-shirt on the pavilion of the Lords made puritans snigger but that i the man, never bothered to mince words or show the world that Indians can do what the rest of the world can do.

Reaching the finals of the WC 2003 was a big event for the team. Bringing Srinath back to the team and make Dravid agree to keep in the matches were shrewd decisions which along with the tremendous knocks of Sachin led to the feat....

What happened next is a set of political upheavals and the powers that be announced a new coach who arrived with the sole intention of wrecking the existing team; by the time the intentions were clear to everybody the damage was done, Ganguly out of the team the players were shuffled around like a pack of cards and India had their worst WC outing in years.

Ganguly was written off and people were waiting for his press conference to declare his retirement. But as the saying goes, "Fighter Humesha jeet ta hai", as I write this Ganguly has scored back to back double centuries in the Pakistan series a century at Eden and a double century at Bangalore (his highest test score) and on the way to have his most successful year in terms of runs in TEST cricket.


I am not a great fan of dada, but am more for Ponting and Dravid but still
I salute you dada......



Everyday people
everyday shame
everyday promise
shot down in flames.
Everyday sunrise
another everyday story
rise from the ashes and blaze
of everyday glory

.....Anonymous

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever

Much to the dismay of my colleagues I had gone to watch Aja Nachle last night. Why did I go there in the first place when all the critics had written off the film and Madhuri Dixit? Just because I could not resist the temptation of watching Madhuri dazzle the silver screen again.

The hall was empty with me and a couple of more people proving that Mrs. Nene drew fewer crowds than Ms Dixit. Remember that Devdas grossed heavily in the Us markets

The film's music fails to evoke the passion that it should
The movie starts with a dance number which apparently is heavily inspired by 90s Samantha Fox, a melancholic hymn O re Piya as a cross between Chaand Sifarish and Yaaro Sab Dua Kaaro but is beautifully rendered by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan saab. The title track has the starting lines of the baul song " Dad paye pori re mela thheke bou ene de"... reeks of inspiration and lack of creative ingenuity. Ishq Hua is a hummable number.

Choreography is insipid till the climax dance drama.

Still it’s a movie to watch. Why? Because of Madhuri Dixit Nene.

I guess am biased towards Madhuri Dixit cause have been smitten by her since the days of Mohini of Tezaab. The first tune I played on the keyboard is "ek Do teen" and even today I play that when I have to try out a new Keyboard.

Lots have changed since the release of Devdas, Ms Madhuri Dixit became Mrs. Madhuri Nene (Dixit), mom of bonny kids but that smile still remains which can set hearts aflutter. Lets start with the major change between Ms Dixit and Mrs Nene. Seems Mountain biking has had its effect Madhuri looks awesome in a pair of Denims. If someone remembers the videos of Aankhiyan milau kabhi aankhiyan churau (Raja)with Sanjay kapoor or meri jane jana (mohabbat) with Akshay Khanna, he/she will understand what I mean... Closeup shots reveal the fine lines on the face but that smile remains as it is (100/1000 whatever the wattage be). As does the dancing acumen with the adequate doses of Shakira-esque Hip movements synced with drum beats. The subtle nuances remain of the yore and the 'adakari' is just ..... nothing can describe that...

I had gone to watch Madhuri alone and I did just that. She still dazzles the widescreen. No matter what the critics say about the film, Madhuri was shining bright as ever always. The long hiatus from the industry only made me yearn for more I returned back home truly satiated.



A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing......

By John Keats

Am back

Am back after a long hiatus with a promise to update the blog posts at a regular interval. With the onset of winter and with it the lack of physical activity will help channelise my excess energy towards towards this..

Hasta La Vista