Inflation, Indian Middle Class & George Bush!

I am not really a very politcally active person - don’t really have strong view points, I just enforce my franchise (waiting on my voter’s ID now ) but…this!!!! I don’t see this as being political even…Is it just another of Mr.Bush’s gaffes??

George Bush on Indian Middle class consumption - I was pretty much outraged by this remark … Actually I also found it pretty ridiculous.

I understand that world economy is all interlinked etc.., am not much of an economist or anything close to it…Still one can just not hear something like this from a world leader!!!

Inflation is high in India too….hope there is no slugfest with leaders blaming the US for something!?! Though I guess we should expect that pretty soon?!?

Ripple Effects - a reply…

http://www.lakshmusings.com/musings/2008/05/01/ripple-effect/#comments

Hey Laksh….Replying to your post here instead of as a comment…

I was never asked to do the weekly enna kuliyal…though I loved the way amma used the sambrani, the smell…miss that actually (and loved it when amma used to make chutta appalam on the coal adupu after …yummy!!!)
To the hairstyling bit; again I was left to myself and my ideas as long as I did not cut my hair I did when I was in twelfth, and amma actually called my father to let him know I did that!!! An international call in those days just for this!! Huge hungamma, my dance teacher also flipped with a dance programme in the offing

Have definitely tried different lengths since then… Have my hair shoulder length right now; can let it loose; still put in a band because of the oppressive heat! Realised then, that maybe that is why letting hair loose is frowned upon apart from hair falling all over the place!

There sure is some wisdom behind all those rules most of the time which I am learning. May be some have lost their essence over time; like not using a needle after sun down…

Phew!

Today was a really long long day!! Decided to go out in the evening to good old T Nagar - Pondy Bazaar to be exact. Besides the day being really hot and humid, the traffic made it excruciating. Wonder if all these one ways and overhead bridges help in any way whatsoever! Feel like all the one ways just make our journeys longer and does nothing to alleviate the jams. This comes from a person who actually loves to drive around a lot. It is irritating to see people drive the way they do here and on top of it, give a hard time to those who actually follow traffic rules!?! I don’t watch movies much…but I had seen this one “Anniyan”. When I encounter hard times on the road because of rule breakers…I wonder if something would happen such that people actually obey the rules and chaos ends!! Guess I am pretty bugged

I did enjoy my shopping though

Madras …

Today’s The Hindu  Metro Plus carried two articles which captured my attention. One was on whether Madras is conservative? and another on kolams in the personality column titled L’Affaire Kolam.

Both articles are well written. Just enjoyed them both; hence this entry.

Since I cannot find the link to the Kolam article…will give a gist. It is about a French visual artist Severine Bourguignon whose views are written. She takes photographs of the kolams going in and around Chennai. She calls it a fragile art form with remnants definitely being washed off the next day.Artform without ego! She calls it and quotes how it reinforces Indian belief in the Gita - the detachment and peace that accompany doing things without pride or possessiveness about the deed or its fruit. The journalist says that Severine’s focus daws our gaze into our ingenuity of our ancestors who developed this practice - as combination of aesthetics, physical exercise, concentration, math concepts, communication, spirituality and detachment!

Well…after reading both articles I was more proud to call myself a Madrasi and one who knows the art of kolam to an extent In my mind, Madras is a bit conservative in its thoughts though it is progressing otherwise. I feel that the basic values form the core of the society. Madrasis would embrace modern stuff with elan; but when it comes to certain things, atleast when it comes to their personal life; they do get very conservative. I remember seeing a programme on TV about marriages and how everywhere else, it is the couple who decides entirely about the marriage and even pitch in to pay whereas in good old Madras; majority is where the parents do everything - including deciding the future daughter-in-law or son-in-law. Now do we call that conservatism or tradition?? Am confused as usual. I agree though with the journalist Madhurika Sankar that it piques me when someone says Madras is boring and have asked people what is it that they can do elsewhere that they cannot here?!

The kolam bit…I used to feel sad when the kolam I took sometimes hours to finish gets washed off by rain within minutes wishing it had stayed till the next day when we can work our brains all over again - I never thought of all the deep stuff that had been written; detachment, Gita and stuff. Guess I just did what our ancestors have been doing without giving any more thought to it. The article atleast has put some fodder to my idle brain

Rains!!

I love rains..especially here in good old Chennai. There have been days when my mother used to warn me and ask me to carry a raincoat which went unheeded just because I love getting wet in the rain. (It is not like the chilly rains back in the US! ) The rains here bring down the temperature which is soooo welcome!!

For the past few days, it has been raining. Very unseasonal. Madras does not have south-west monsoons…it has north-east monsoons that come later during the year around october-november; generally dampening Deepavali celebrations (btw, hope I got the  names of the directions right…digging it out of my long lost geography texts ) I love it that the sweltering heat has come down a wee bit. I got wet in the rain too one day

Thing is…I don’t know what it is with the weather Gods and laying of our neighbourhood roads. Just when they top the roads, it rains!! Back to square 1 with regards to the state of the roads….Why does it never rain when we want it to? Like life in general I suppose D Nothing occurs when you need it most

Shall we call this bias?

Was watching CNN-IBN and this news item was featured…

http://ibnlive.com/news/jodhaa-akbar-gets-some-southern-spice/60674-8.html

It is about Jodhaa Akbar being dubbed in telugu and tamil to reach this audience. The report was about reactions and when you read the article, it sounds pretty unbiased. Though, when I watched the piece; I wanted to find out if they do such a report when they dub so many of those English movies in all Indian languages.

The anchor said something about how funny Akbar would look talking in those southern languages…not more funny than a character in Lord of the Rings talking in hindi or any other Indian language.

I personally don’t like dubbed versions of any movie…the original is always better. Would rather have subtitles than watch a dubbing. The reason for this entry though is somehow something struck as odd when even the anchor said it would be funny!! In the case of Jodhaa Akbar, the charm of urdu would be lost when dubbed…accepted and is a known fact! The director though is probably doing this in the hope of getting some money back after the movie bombed in the north due to controversies, bans or whatever!

This also just reminded me of another incident which was about dubbed programmes. Here in Chennai, (thankfully!! ) cartoons and kids programs are telecast in English (meaning Pogo and Disney Channels)…and seems they are in hindi in Delhi. So my nephew who was visiting was excited about watching Noddy…the title song comes in English crooning “Make way for Noddy” while my brother, sil and nephew were singing “Aagaya Noddy” !!! Found it absurd…the funny thing is my nephew walked away saying this is not Noddy!! Poor Enid Blyton There is a channel called “chutti TV” that telecasts everything in tamil…endured about a minute or so of Dora in tamil!!! (my son wanted to see Dora…even he lost interest when it was not in English/Spanish which is what he is used to!) Wonder why they can’t make exclusive kids cartoons in those languages instead of dubbing (and the voices are sometimes ridiculous!!)

Indian Independence Day

Today is our 60th Independence Day. The day was not too different for me except for the tv programmes which were mostly cinema based on most channels!! Even playhouse Disney featured movies from 10 am to 6 pm. Don’t know what the significance is ?!?
Was reading this article featured in The Hindu. I accept most of the author’s views….and do say that the concept of “independence” as being a political abstraction, a dated concept, a state of being that is taken for granted because we have never known otherwise.
He also talks about careers in engineering, business, medicine and law being preferred. I remember the time when my brother took up BHM degree and people were totally unaware of the such a thing or field. To them, anything concerning hotels was cooking -being a chef (pronounced as spelt ) Though, today I find a lot of people are aware of many options. The majority still are stuck to the traditional choices listed…fields like biotechnology, environmental sciences, tourism, hotel mgmt, the list goes on…though all these students have to do additional courses spend more money on courses like programming or whatever to enhance their chances to get a job in this populous place. Engineers are taken into top IT firms through campus placements… Think about doing a masters say in the US….most schools do not recognise a 3 year degree… I digress as usual
One more point that was made was about schools. I have not visited my schools but did meet a few teachers. Surprisingly, my teachers had the same comment…it is not like old times. My school supposedly supports individual thought….in the end though it is the results in class X and XII that count toward getting an admission into whatever course they decide or is decided for them. To excel in those, they have to study all the concepts… e=mc^2 will be just that…won’t it?? Maths and science could be understood and students face exams…but saying out a formula will be just that…it cannot be called studying by rote. I make my son repeat numbers or alphabets…it is not to say that he is learning to read by rote?!? Alphabets cannot change….repetition just helps him learn those. He says things are not changing with times…if one does not learn the basic concepts…how does one figure out advanced things?!? About cell phones with students…yes, everybody seems to have them….but rules can be made to let them use those only during emergency situations instead of banning them. Question is who would police them right? True that teachers can go a step forward and make things interesting by incorporating technology…mabbe get help from the internet and submit reports or something (not plagiarise ) For that, the teachers must become internet savvy too…
He has not written about how most of us Indians are just armchair sportspeople. A population of more than a billion and not many achievements to fill the pages in sports!! Poverty is still a battle. Rich becoming richer, poor being just the same if not worse right?
Basically I think we should be proud of the progress we have made in these 60 years since we got independence….people comparing us with the USA should realise that they got their independence 231 years ago!! We cannot sit on our laurels…We do have a looooooooong way to go…. but I am proud to be Indian.
Jai Hind!!!

Where are we going?!?

I am in India on a long vacation (not really planned it to be long, but ending up to be one ). One does notice a lot of changes each time one visits the country. What hit me this time was how people are going toward unhealthy eating habits more and more…
One particular ad kinda jolted me. It is for a packed fresh(oxymoron?!?) fruit juice which ends with a mom-son duo saying “Ab koi paani nahi maangega! (no one would ask for water anymore!)” I have been reading about how you must take the whole fruit instead of the juices because of sugar content and less fibre etc.., And here I am looking at an ad that says no one would ask for water ( Obviously there are articles over articles claiming how important it is to drink water…am sure it is more so in a hot country like India!!)
So, I guess along with the spending power, increase in loans, traffic and all else…ill-health is also being spread
Hope we improve economically and learn not to repeat the mistakes made by places we are trying to emulate…

Indian in a foreign land

Watched the movie The Namesake this afternoon. I was wondering how I related to this movie - answer in many many ways to many of the characters/ situations depicted! Examples…how I really miss my home & family back in Chennai; how alone I feel sometimes here; wonder how I can inculcate our culture in my son (right now trying to get him to talk in tamil/telugu!!!); how my son is going to turn out to be (though I am not sure we are going to stay here in the US as we will go where life takes us..).
One dialogue really set me thinking…when Ashima says that she would miss the US having lived there for 25 years….was wondering whether I would miss living here when I leave this place?! I will definitely have memories - pleasant and otherwise, but will I miss living here?!? Right now, my answer is no. I have come to believe that The World is Flat ….then one can ask why I miss home? Simple!!! It is the place where I was born and brought up. Now, with our perspective of going from one place to another, where will our son have his roots? Where he was born? Where we, his parents hail from?? For a flat world, it is really complex ain’t it?
Anyways, have decided to lay my hands on the book The Namesake and read it. Have always thought that the books are always better than the film version…

India - Democracy?!?

Read this news item about the attack on a tamil daily over a poll conducted about who the political successor of Karunanidhi is. Last I knew, India was a democratic country. Why should anyone be named a politcal successor. People stand in elections and get voted as a leader. It should not be a dynasty thing. Why the aggression over a poll which in the first place need not have been conducted at all?!? Does it matter that Azhagiri gets 2 % and Stalin 70% of poll votes?? In the end, when the general election takes place…it is who wins the election and who in the political party is chosen to lead…is that not what should happen?? Besides, the CM is still alive and hopefully well celebrating his Golden anniversary of his entry into politics!! He may be old…still? I guess this violence has erupted a little earlier… The same concept goes to the Nehru family too….and the Congress party….still banking on the Nehru name!!! God knows when this would stop!! When everybody becomes literate?? But people who read the poll in the newspaper should supposedly be literate, right?
Kind of a shame to the whole pride of being the largest democracy in the world!!! It might as well have a coup and a dictator take over!! Will probably be all the same right?!?