Money Money Money

Okay,this is sort of gone way crazy. No I am not talking entirely about the money problem. That of course has. What I am talking about is blind faith and fanaticism.

It is all good to have political affiliations or religious beliefs. It is all good to take sides and stick by them. But why have we stopped being sensible about anything? The people who rule this country are NOT GODS. They are not some supreme beings. They are people like us, among us, chosen by us. And one of the first rules of a democracy is just that. The people. The whole concept of democracy is lost if these "leaders" cannot be questioned and are not expected to serve the people. How are we any different from a dictatorship then?

Then of course, who is a fanatic, you ask. For me anyone who has stopped questioning actions and decisions, based on their own blind belief is a fanatic. If your style of argument is to analyse a situation, debate the positives and negatives in a healthy way and prove your point, then all good. But if it is to simply make up arguments and try to prove your own point knowing full well that it agrees to no logic, just because you think it is somehow your "duty" to "serve and defend" your master's wishes, then you are a fanatic. And, you do not deserve a democratic government.

I'll go with an example. I prefer the policies of one party over the other. I wish that party won. But I have no qualms in admitting that I don't like their set of leaders at the top. (Thankfully I like them here.) And I shall admit that as of current status, there is a leadership issue at the top which the other guys don't have.

So, unless you really believe that your chosen party or leaders are a bunch of Gods who do no wrong, there is no harm in cutting down that defensive "I shall justify all their acts" attitude and behave like reasonable human beings who have the power of being democratic and of questioning and selecting their leaders.

Now let's go with the current hot topic: Demonetization. Do I think it is a good and necessary step? Yes. I do. "For the benefit and betterment of the nation" I think it is a great move. No. Not because I think it will have a very considerable dent on the actual amounts of black money (that I am sure are not hidden in India), but because I think it is great at curbing counterfeit, as of now.

So yes, I accept and have no qualms in saying so. Cos no matter political affiliations, I, as a reasonable human being can acknowledge as much.

Now regarding the execution and implementation of this action. Like REALLY??? Are you seriously going to deny that there was any better way to implementing this than this crazy mess we are in. Okay. Pull back all old money from tomorrow. But hey! we do not have any new money to replace them with.
There is no new Rs 500 notes.
Rs 100 notes are soooooper limited and most banks are keeping them for their ATMs.
50s??? what 50s?
And then all we get are 20s and 10s.
Like basic question - would it have been such a huge difficulty to first get the replacement currency ready and available before pulling back the old ones? 
No, just a common sense question.
How difficult would that implementation be?
So you announce that all old 500s and 1000s are to be returned and instead the new ones are available from your banks and ATMs.
There would still be queues as there is a time limit to exchange, but THEN, India would definitely "take a little bit of queue inconvenience for the benefit of the country". Not because there was a limitation of money. Because at least at the end of it, they would get their money.

Like, can you at least have the decency to acknowledge that this implementation, not the entire policy, was messed up and stupid.
That not everyone has the benefit of electronic transactions or card transactions and they need money in hand to buy FOOD. You can't turn their money in hand to raddi paper and not have anything to give them instead.
That they would be ready to stand in a queue alright, but that their money should be there at the end of the queue for sure?
That it was common sense to have new notes first before the announcement?
That if someone wants to buy something worth 600, they don't have 500s to pay it with and since all other notes are limited, would pay with  2000? And that then, the shopkeeper wouldn't have 500s to pay back balances with and have to try and arrange for 1500 notes of Rs 100 denominations? (That, only if they are lucky to get 100s and not 20s!!!)

I am not asking you too much. I am not saying go change your political affiliation. I am not trying to prove anyone wrong.
All I am saying is, for once, as one nation and one people with one government sitting at the head, can we please acknowledge that that one government screwed up in implementation of an otherwise good initiative.

And if you can't acknowledge or agree because ego >>> sensible, at least can you have the sense to NOT justify major livelihood issues with this shit:

Because believe me, there are demonetization stories and suffering we may have not even started imagining and the least we can do is to not preach about standing in queues. 

 Thank you my sensible friends.

Criticizing Criticism

Straight off this is about the women's empowerment video by Vogue starring Deepika Padukone etc.

Straight off, I liked it. I liked the camera work and aesthetics of it. I liked the attempted intent/message in it. And of course, I liked Deepika Padukone in it also. Because I like her way too much and I am hugely biased.

Yeah so that's out of the way.

This is actually not so much about the video as much as it is about the criticism against it. Of course, in today's day and age of when outrage on anything and everything in social media is the new fad, the criticism had to be expected. But some were so freaking ridiculous, it actually got me off my laziness of typing and brought me back to this long forgotten blog simply because I had to express my opinion somewhere. 

So let's get to the more ridiculous "offences" of this video straight away.

One of the first points raised was "Hey, because this message was by Vogue and it is their marketing strategy, they only want you to buy their stuff and you shouldn't fall for it." Yeah, because, hey, a marketing strategy by Vogue or Elle or even Victoria's Secret for that matter, using words like "empowerment" and "choice" should not be believed and even if they say good things you have to keep in mind that it is to sell their products. Oh! the evil plan behind it! Marketing their products by talking about empowerment! And have you thought about the fact that whether or not you like the video, you still have the "choice" to buy these products? They are not "cheating" you, you know.

Of course, the whole question of morality! How can we ever let that one go. "To have sex out of marriage" oh Whoa! really?! Because in India everyone is so moral and right that how dare Vogue even mention this?! Well, here's how. She said "choice". Maybe, you are not okay with it and I am not okay with it. But maybe the point is someone out there is okay with themselves and their partners doing what they want. We can't accept it and we can choose to hate it but it IS after all their choice. Why are we assuming that they are talking about adultery or cheating at all? Maybe they have a sexless marriage and who are YOU or I to judge the right or wrong of someone in that situation? Or  maybe they are unhappy but decide not to be separated for a zillion "moral" and "societal" reasons (read that as fearing the judgement of the likes of you) and so find whatever solution suits them. Or she knows her partner loves someone else and she deserves some love too or whatever other many hypothetical situations. Why assume that they are okaying cheating at all? Cheating is the highest form of disrespect one can feel. Ask me about it and I can tell you tales about why I am a single mother for the last 5 years. But what if there are a hundred ways either one of the two partners are being disrespected or hurt or abused or not even being acknowledged or if it is some kind of agreement between the two. I don't know what is right and wrong. But. I know enough to not judge that choice because I don't know that story. (Shit! Now I am branded immoral for life! :D)

Another problem of course was with the "size zero or 15 bit" and you know why the criticism was especially ridiculous? Because this was the logic of it. Deepika shouldn't have done this ad. Because, Deepika acts in the Kellogs ad that talks about losing weight and regaining shape in two weeks?! Or in the garnier ad? Or that, and this is the BEST bit, she dates only "good looking" (very very subjective because I don't think that way about Sid Malya or Yuvraj or Ranbir Kapoor, for that matter) men.

Oh! the irony! you say? Hey! it's her "choice" I say. "She" (read that as any woman who) wants to lose weight for her friend's wedding? Her choice. She wants to look fairer (And I am so against the whole fairness thing, my complexion is evidence to that), but it's still, her choice. She likes her men to look "good", her choice. The point here isn't to be one way or the other. The point was simple - the girl has a choice to what she wants to be and an outsider doesn't get to criticize her personal choice like YOU seem to be doing in that response. Have you considered that we live in a day and age where parents constantly criticize daughters to eat less, to get thin, to look pretty and so forth? Yeah, there is a thought behind that. HER choice. Simply, if a woman does want to look thinner or fitter, that's also her choice. Why assume that that is a message to get anorexic, woman?!

Another one was that she said "You are my choice. I am not your privilege." and the criticism? That that one should go two way. Of course, I agree that that should go two way. But why was the message necessary and more woman oriented? Because, guess who is treated like a privilege in this country more? Like a property, to be exact. Even today, I personally know very well educated guys from decent background who don't flinch while saying "I want my wife to be a virgin when I marry her because no one should have "owned" her before". Yeah. She is not a person. Just a package for that thing he alone is born to "own". 

Guess who is still given a choice about their own life decisions and who is not? Guess who is forced more for a hundred zillion things to do and not to do? Oh for Heaven;s sake, guess whose "right" (not even choice) to be even born is taken away in unimaginable numbers. Of course it should be everyone's choice. But this just happened to be a more "Give the woman also a choice" message. That is like saying why are all the "prevent rape" ads more women-centric. Indeed, they shouldn't be. Boys get raped too. Don't you think they deserve protection?  It is all okay to create Hoo-Haa and find things to criticize every word that is said out there. There is no justification for why the talk s always about protecting or giving right for "only women".  Just that women do get raped a lot more and women do get subjugated and their rights taken away a lot more. But, under all regular "I am not here to criticize everything" thought, it would be fair to have a message out to save everyone and make everyone a choice for everyone. This one just happened to be about women, like most of the "equality" and "gender rights" messages usually are.

And oh! again. To have your baby or not. Okay. Have you ever stopped to consider that most of the (no matter how lame) "women empowerment" messages are not for people like you or me who, thank heavens for that, are from way more protected and empowered background than a vast majority? That women are still married off as little girls an forget given a choice, but FORCED to bear multiple children? Or that a woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock decides to keep the baby when the guy doesn't want her and should be given a choice to do that. Or simply that she is addressing the society against the stupid prejudice that every woman who does not become a mother is "incomplete" in some way and/or something is wrong with her? Maybe she AND her partner have decided to not have a baby and she is addressing her in-laws and parents who only and always criticize her (never the "beta").  Once again, the point is not that a woman should always refuse her husband. No. The point is simply that the woman should "ALSO" be given a choice. After all it is HER body. She shouldn't be forced or criticized for what she wants with that body.

Another one of the most ridiculous flaws about the video was that it was made by almost all men, that is written, directed and produced by men. Yeah because when men make a video on giving women choices we are taking away the choice from women to make similar videos. And instead of being happy that we have men who do stuff like attempting women-"centric" videos, we somehow see it as anti-empowerment. Yeah well, that one is so stupid it doesn't even warranty a response.

Of course, there were more. There were so many about the things that were "Not" said in the video. How the video was lame in not mentioning the more important things like career and work and medical problems and discrimination but instead only mentioned things like choices about sexual orientation and stuff. Erm, yeah that's the point about choice. People can make videos about whatever aspect of a topic (in this case the aspect of "choice" among various topics related to empowerment). People make videos about preventing rape, about what to wear being a woman's choice and not a license to be raped, about career choices or the choice to be a stay at home person (not using wife or mother. Just a person), about equal pay among genders, about medical problems and what not. This one was someone's choice to be about "Choices" like body image issues and sexual orientation and whether to have a baby or not and about feeling like a queen in her life. So what? Why would you criticize their choice for a subject of their video? 

The whole point is to be given a choice. What people do with the choice they have, whether they take the "right" path or "wrong" is for them to decide.  Everyone  must have the right to do what they choose to do in life and then suffer the consequence of that  choice. The whole point is that no one should go around defining how people of a certain race, cast or gender should live. It's is person's perogative to choose.  Just as when we raise our children.  We can teach them about "right" and "wrong". And once they grow up, we can hope they make the right choices. But we still can't force them to do one thing or the other. But we have to five them the right to make that choice and hope for the best.  Well, enough said. 

And, if you haven't seen it yet, this is the Oh! So offending video by the Oh! so wrong people:

Unsafe.

Yes, unsafe, not by crime but by the justification.

Everyone seemed a little sad and disturbed (and no not shocked, it doesn't come as a shock at all) that India is ranked among the worst countries for women. A "little" sad and disturbed, cos it is as bad as it is, we  always knew, but by the regular Indian logic of things, we just hoped that there were a few countries that were a little worse so we wouldn't be "ranked" so high. Just like everything in India, how good or how bad you personally are doesn't count. All that counts is relativity. Even if we are pathetic, as long as there are people who are more pathetic than us, we are all happy. 

Ok. ok. Coming back to the topic of women. So India is a terrible and most unsafe place for women.Why? Aren't women raped and molested anywhere else? Aren't they attacked and their physical weakness preyed upon? Oh yes, they most definitely are. It is a phenomenon that exists all over the world. There are totally sick, crazy, deranged people all over the globe. They are incapable of thinking beyond the ecstasy of that particular moment. They are incapable of evaluating the consequences for everyone involved, and, they are completely incapable of feeling any kind of fear of the punishments associated with the crime (give due importance to the word "crime") when they are completely taken over by the power and excitement of that moment. They are just simply sick and deranged and criminals. Yes, admittedly these sickos exist everywhere. 

So what makes India so special? No, I'm not going into the high numbers and statistics, because even that is associated with this particular specialty. Cos India's specialty is that, rape and molestation is ALWAYS justified. In other words, it is NOT a crime enough.The people who do it are not momentarily deranged or sick. No. They are very intelligent, very decent citizens who commit these acts in an attempt to protect the morality and dignity of women and the values of a country as a whole. It is not a crime, no. In fact, it is the justified punishment for a crime that the women have actually committed by following a certain lifestyle or wearing a certain kind of dress. And if the "victim" (I'm not even sure if I can use that word considering they are actually being punished for their crime) happens to be a very "decently" and modestly dressed hapless lady, returning on the metro from her college or work or even a school student, then her crime is as simple as being out alone at certain hours in a slightly lonely compartment.

And the rest of us are all the same as the rapists themselves? Cos, those who give and the rest of us who buy this explanation are not only agreeing that it is okay to rape and molest a woman who is unfortunate enough to have to earn her living as a sex worker, but have made our conscience so non existent, that once we have convinced ourselves that the woman is "bad", then we can just as easily convince ourselves that the rape was justified and that "she asked for it". Nice. 

And yes, with that philosophy that it's okay to rape a "bad woman", in this great land, rape is , hence, justified.

Not just by the perpetrators, but even by the so called defenders like the police, the politicians and certain rather powerful ladies, like the chief of the National Commission of Women (I'm sure you all can sense the slight irony there somewhere). Yes. In India it is always the woman's fault. Hence, not only will you be raped and molested (Like what can happen outside India as well), but to top it, it will always be your fault for bringing it on to yourself. 

Hence, where, in any other place, rape is a heinous punishable act, no matter who gets raped, in our country, where we bow our heads to strong female deities, it is ok to punish "loose" women by raping them and the "not so loose" women for just being where they were. In other words, it is a totally justified act, no matter who gets raped.

I am not one for publicly bashing my country. In fact, through all the ups and downs that this nation has seen I have maintained and always will maintain that we have only gone ahead and gotten better from where we were a few years back and slowly all possible loose ends will more or less get tied, despite all the politicians and corruption. But this, not the fact that the crime exists in a certain statistics, more than other countries, but that one of the most heinous crimes in the universe can be so simply justified away by the law makers themselves, this makes me hang my head in shame in front of the rest of the world. Yes. We have failed. And how.

Proud, Yes. But Responsible?

I usually defer from writing about the current HOT topics; Too many debates, too many arguments and discussions makes the subject too stale too fast. And any tuppence one adds to it, its already been heard before. However, this post has absolutely nothing to do with the games as much as the strange Indian attitude of extremities, very much propagated and influenced by the media and this time got so bad that one had to dwell on it.

So here we were, one day jumping up and down, booing the government, booing the CWG committee and booing the country as such because International media made a huge ruckus about the "facilities and infrastructure", the lack of it, at the CWG village and they were promptly and happily seconded by the Indian media. A lot of brouhaha took place - an Australian media person saying he entered the facility with a suitcase of explosive device and not being stopped, some athletes pulling out here and there, a snake, a fever and all this was blown out of proportions by our ever prompt media!

The very next day the opening ceremony took place and suddenly everyone was happy! My twitter TL was overflowing with emotional tweets - pride, tears, exhilaration and what not! Added to this the Indian medals tally and the touching closing ceremony made all of us Proud Indian.

So where was our National Pride when some outsiders were hell bent on making us look bad?

Why were we so ready to join forces with them and display to the world spit stains, a couple of removed false ceiling tiles and so forth instead of defending our country by showing the so much more beautiful bigger picture that we finally did get to see during the games?

No, let me make myself clear. I am not saying that there were no issues, the foot bridge collapsing, the corruption are as real as they could get. (And once again, the army to the rescue, now thats where we must all learn National Pride from ). But, corruption is a disease that is there in each walk of our life; and people, believe it or not it exists in every country. Just that they don't go around shouting at the to of their voices that their country is corrupt like we are so ready to do. When there is a 'black sheep' in our family, we all go around trying to protect that fact from public while trying to tackle the issue privately at home. So why don't we have a similar feel for our country?

Once the grandeur of the opening ceremony had the media and in fact the whole population who had believed the media's gory reports, thoroughly surprised, they suddenly backtracked saying 'we never questioned the facilities. The corruption is a serious issue and that has to be tackled'. Well, for one, if corruption were really the issue, why wait for a CWG to raise it? We have to fight it, we have to solve it, but the question is, was CWG the right arena? Did we have to wash our dirty laundry internationally?

Our country has enough and more departments and avenues where corruption occurs and the normal man is robbed in broad daylight. Why doesn't the media do something about it? (in lines of tehelka eh?)  But I guess the TRP attained over crying foul for CWG is way more appealing. Wouldn't we all have looked better if the media had gone onto to display the facilities and infrastructure of the village, the greenery, the roads, interviewed so many Indian sorts person who repeatedly and vehemently mentioned how good CW village was compared to many international arenas and overall spread a good will and then covered the corrution that is anyways being covered now. No, they chose to ignore all this for the TRPs.

More important question is why are the rest of us such putty in the hands of the media? There were such angst and hate over twitter and other such arenas over the media report. Why? didn't we all at some level or other know that the organisers would have definitely made crores and crores. We are by now so tempered about all that, what with politicians stealing money out of fodder and food & clothing for soldiers at the border. So if the media had shown the great infrastructure and talked about corruption on the sidelines we would have just nodded our heads and said, of course! Instead, the "lack of clean living quarters" was the agenda initially to gather enough eyeballs.

In all this TRP race and hate mails and tweets we never once bothered to stop and think what this was doing to the image of our nation. Countries with the "India Itch" happily rode the medias back to show how "useless" Indians were and we as citizens took the side of the media and the International community leaving the organisers scrambling on the other end with  not so much as "Oh, we shall do it".

The way I see things now, we had a mind blowing CWG. With the help of the army and the Delhi CM stepping in and acting (instead of cribbing), everything went on smooth on time. International media was silent. And now that all is over the necessary actions are being taken against the necessary. Only if the media had followed the same path of positivity and support in the beginning and questions and concerns (Negativity and Dramatics on TeleVision) after the games, they wouldn't have had to eat a humble pie.

The last weeks edition of The Week carried an article be some great mind India has become a joke in the international arena thanks to the CWG. Well, I am not sure when he might have sent that article to be printed, but by now I guess we all have realised that the joke is on the likes of him.

JAI HIND!!!

Civic Sense, if Not Common Sense

All over the place, everyone is comparing and complaining about the differences between India and other countries. But, let us forget about economy and population and all those statistical figures for a moment. One of the biggest difference I feel is in the attitudes of people and one particular aspect - civic sense!

The trigger to this sudden line of thought was some brain damaging construction activity that went on in one of the neighbouring houses. Suddenly, yesterday some grinding/drilling/polishing or some such activities began somewhere in the neighbourhood. Now, that this needs to be done by whom so ever can be understood, that this was going to be continued through the night took us all unawares. The non stop droning of the drilling (or whatever) machine had gotten everyone to "bang head against walls" condition in the first half hour itself. By noon everyone was hoping there might be a break for lunch at least but no. Then we started looking forward to the 5pm deadline beyond which workers in kerala stop working with a religious fervor. But no such luck, they broke that record as well (might have been north Indian workers). Finally the work halted by around 8pm and silence has never sounded so musical before. We didn't even switch on the television in order to just enjoy the sound of silence but unfortunately (and extremely surprisingly for kerala) the workers were back in half an hour!

My point is not that in another country drilling wouldn't happen. It would. But, I am sure they would be obliged to inform their immediate neighbours at least of the oncoming sound pollution. Whats more important is that I am sure other countries would definitely have and abide by a decent cut off for such noisy work. Well, not here. No one cares and everyone suffers in "silence".

It's the same about honking, stopping your cars right at the turns and lets not even get into the spitting/cleanliness bit. With people getting such high education, more money and a much higher standard of living as such, I wish the same would reflect in the way they treat their country, at least their immediate neighbours and surroundings!

Anyways, since this is a huge ongoing debate in our country and the discussion shall go on for ever, I am stopping right here as my purpose was to take it out of my system and that has been achieved.  

The Much Awaited Moment

I recently saw and immediately fell in love with the new "Your Moment is Waiting" Add for Kerala Tourism. Parallely, I read lots of criticism against this add most of which expressed concern about how the add did not depict the essence of kerala, especially in terms of enough greenery, backwaters and beaches.

However, what I felt was that the add depicted all these elements and more in a very surreal, dream like, mystery filled and interesting manner

This is the day of the intelligent and aware traveller. Anyone planning a trip these days wouldn't just pick up a picture book, see pretty pictures and select randomly. People consult travel agents, do thorough studies on the Internet and basically know exactly what there is to be seen and explored, while visiting a new destination. Also, today's travellers are more often than not young, stressed out executives looking for some fun, relaxation, family time and most importantly needing soul searching and trying to find themselves. Assuming KT had this target population in mind while shooting this add, I believe the travels and experiences of the young female protagonist depicted here, hits these right spots.

It intrigues, piques ones curiosity and leaves the viewer with a sense of awe and mystery.

What I liked most about this add is what I think also got the most criticism - the absence of the obvious and apparent. Instead of an "on your face" picture-book depiction of a kathakali face, an elephant ride, a house boat ride in the backwaters, a beach with lots of coconut palms and so forth, the video has laid more focus on the fresh and the different. These same aspects have also been dealt with a much more subtle and mystic hand making it all feel like an untouched, unexplored paradise waiting to be explored by You, the viewer. Instead of making kerala look like the picture book and us, the viewer looking at it from outside, the video has stressed on actually getting in and experiencing "Your Moment".
In its own subtle manner, the add actually does depict kathakali - though as being performed by an unadorned artist in a typical kerala house discovered by the protagonist while exploring narrow, unobtrusive country lanes;
It gives a feel of the ayurveda in the starting shots with a beautiful beach on the background, transporting one literally to paradise;
It takes one through the scenic, serene backwaters - not on a house boat but shown as the protagonist rowing a narrow boat on a journey to find oneself and discovering;
It touches on other art forms like the thaiyyams in a manner that makes one want to know and share the secrets too;
And finally it depicts the strength, serenity and calmness of the elephant in its final shots.

I request all those that didn't see these elements, to take a look again with an open mind and a different eye...I am sure you shall be as touched by the magic in it as I was...

That was a longish way to say "I loved it" and it makes me proud. Kudos to Kerala Tourism and the add developers for the imagination and guts to come up with something so different and fresh.