Day 213 - 3 Hours of Dreaming

I finally managed to watch LSD (Love, Sex Aur Dhoka) today, after having bought the DVD a couple of months ago.  Over the last few months, I have been wanting to watch a slew of movies which have been recommended by friends or have had rave reviews in the media.  I cannot term myself a great movie buff, but critically acclaimed movies have always been a passion. 

I haven't been able to watch a lot of movies in the recent past because of paucity of time.  Moreover, two small kids at home make it almost impossible to watch movies in a theatre Also, my intolerance for bad cinema has increased and my attention span has decreased almost proportionate to each other in the last few years.  Hence, the sum total of all these factors has been that, I haven't watched many movies (certainly not in the theatres) in the recent past.  The ones that I have watched, are those which have been critically acclaimed, like 3 Idiots.

So, there is still a long list of movies to watch: Ishqiya, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai, Tere Bin Laden, Udaan, Raavan, etc.  The last movie that I saw in a theatre was Rajneeti.  A movie with a huge star cast, with the director trying to make screenplay out of a mixture of Mahabharata, Godfather and contemporary Indian politics.  The huge star cast meant that the director could not do justice to the abundance of talent at hand.  My son had already declared the film as 'not good' after the first couple of reels.

Speaking of movies, down in South India, movies are big news!  Everyone loves movies, across all age groups; across all strata of the society.  Actors and actresses are revered as The Almighty and have even got temples dedicated to them.  One of my favourite films also happens to be in my mother tongue, Tamil: Nayagan.

I do sometimes wonder what is it in a movie that makes people go gaga over them!?  I think movies are like dreams.  Once is in a dreamland for three hours, watching a string of vivid images, while watching a movie.  We see our aspirations, hopes, wishes fears and fantasies being played out on the big screen for 3 hours.  When we watch movies, we get to experience what we normally can’t in our own lives by identifying with characters that are involved in impossible stories. Whether the ending is happy, sad, or bittersweet, if the story is to our liking, we are thrilled every time.  Hence movies are also about story-telling.  A good story is always immortal.

I am not sure, if many people do appreciate the subtleties in the making of the movie itself.  The art of camerawork, editing, lighting and, of course, the acting itself.  I am someone who does tend to notice these.  For example, LSD has been made with experimental camera work.  The three segments of the film have three different styles / types of cameras and cinematography in them.  In the past few years, film makers in Bollywood have started to become more and more experimental in the quest for putting something 'different' out there and this trend has received the right impetus with the influx of new and young talent.

Hope this continues and I get to see many more good films in the coming months and years!

Take care.

Day 200 - Identity Crisis?

One of the highlights of this week has been the decision on the symbol for representing the Indian rupee.  The decision was a culmination of a long drawn exercise which included a design competition for the symbol, which attracted about 3000 entries.  How come I never knew about this competition earlier, will remain a mystery forever.  The design competition was won by D Udaya Kumar, a post-graduate PhD student at IIT Powai, who has just finished his thesis and has landed a job at IIT Guwahati!  He became an instant celebrity, though the cash award that he got for his efforts was a pittance.

So, the Indian rupee now has a new symbol and it is coming to a keyboard near you very soon.  Why all the hullaboo about the event?  It is said that the Indian currency has now entered a select group of currencies (Dollar, Pound, Yen & Euro) having such a symbol, implying that, backed by a trillion dollar economy, the currency is making its presence felt on the international scene.  My repartee: Nobody every stopped the Indian government from coming up with such a symbol for the rupee even 20 years ago, when the Indian economy had zilch influence on the global scene.

Announcing the decision Ambika Soni said, "The symbol would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and global face of the Indian economy".  I say: Precisely.  It is all about an identity crisis.

I suspect all this tom-toming arises from the fact that Indians are not a confident lot!  We always draw great pride from the fact that we will now be in the company of the big boys.  Somehow we tend to define our success by calibrating it to the past deeds of the so called 'big boys'!  Do we not have an identity of our own?  The same philosophy and trend can be extended to the Indian urban society and its uncanny ability to draw inspiration from everything West.

Do not get me wrong.  I am very happy that we now, finally, have a symbol for the rupee.  I also like Udaya's design and believe that it is a perfect representation of the Indian cultural ethos.  And the bottom line: it looks good!  But I am not a great fan of the whole media spin that this is a milestone in India's march towards being an economic superpower.  I am sure that just by allocating a symbol to the Indian currency would not make it gallop at a GDP rate of 10% YoY.  Though I sincerely hope that it does happen, by the hard work of the 1.2 billion Indians!

Till then, keep counting; stop preening!  Take care.

Day 199 - Deprived...

There was a time when I could do with only 2 hours of sleep.  This was during the early years of my career and the brief period of time just before it.  And I had that lifestyle over a long period of time, due to various reasons.  The first and foremost was the amount of time spent at the workplace.  When one is just starting off in one's worklife and is a bachelor living alone, there is seldom a thought given to the number of hours spent at the workplace.  The workplace, in fact, tends to become one's home and the colleagues, family.  The second reason is being young!  When you are in your twenties, you want to do everything and pack in as many things as you can in a 24 hour day, including long chats on the phone late into the nights! :-))

That was flashback; and it was a good one.  Pan to today.  Eleven years down the line and with a family to care for, I can still do with 2-3 hours of sleep on the odd day, but, as you might imagine, it starts becoming more and more difficult as you age.  Lack of sleep does have its impact on the next day, when one feels very lethargic and sleepy.

I recently read an article about the prevalence of sleep deprivation and the consequent health syndrome of Obstructuve Sleep Apnea (OSA) spreading throughout urban India, in India Today.  Over the last few years, I have noticed that we, as a society, are sleeping lesser and lesser these days.  The benchmark of everyone going to bed by 10 PM is no longer applicable.  Most families are wide awake till 11 PM - midnight!  Even children, like my own, are sleeping lesser hours.  It is said, medically, children grow more when they are asleep.  Sleep deprivation in our cities, is doing a disservice to the future of India.  The Philips Sleep Survey says 93% of urban Indians get less than 8 hours of sleep per night!  I think this is a very dangerous trend.  Sustained sleep deprivation leads to OSA, thus increasing the risk of diabetes and heart ailments.

There are various reasons behind this trend.  The Indian economy and its integration with the global economy is the most important reason.  India, because of its time advantage of being able to bridge the east and west, has preferred to grow the services sector.  Hence you have people working unnatural hours in call centres, sweat shops and back offices higher up the value chain.  Additionally, their families have adapted to this lifestyle over a period of time.  The other reason is the opening up of the media and the huge number of TV channels airing myraid soap operas till late in the night.  Clearly, this is a lifestyle issue and the solution lies in changing one's lifestyle.

At the beginning of this year, I made a promise to myself that I am going to try and get 8 hours of sound sleep every night.  It hasn't been consistently possible till now.  However, let me rededicate myself towards this effort.

Sleep well.  Sleep tight.  Take care.

Day 186 - A Collosal Waste

This post is prompted by the Bharat Bandh call given by various political parties, including the BJP-led NDA and the Left parties in the country, for tomorrow.  This is being planned, apparently, in protest against the fuel price hike, which was recently announced by the government and the general increase in inflation over the past few months.

So, what are we going to achieve by 'enforcing' a countrywide strike?  Yes, 'enforcing' is the word being used in the media.  These political parties of various hues which form the whole spectrum of the opposition parties in this country are all supporting the Bandh.  From the right wing BJP to the Left parties, with a myriad mix goons, sycophants and stone age politicos included in between.  Enforcing the strike means, there will be violence if you resist the 'Bandh'.  You will be a likely target of mindless violence if you do not co-operate and shut shop.  Essential services will be allowed but everybody else would be expected to co-operate.

So, who is expected to benefit from the day long strike?  My view: Nobody!

You might find this strange coming from someone who has a socialist father.  However, this strike is being 'enforced'.  It is not an outcome of spontaneous support for the perpetrators of this strike unlike the non-violent movement led by the Mahatma.  I abhor any kind of violence, and that is what every common man should do.  This strike, like all other strikes, is going to result in a collosal wastage of 1 man day of effort; a loss of crores of rupees worth of production of goods and services.  Not to mention the loss due to the violence, arson and loss of life, if it goes to that extent.  Is the government likely to roll back the fuel price hike and suddenly regulate the prices of various food and vegetables?  No.  So, why the strike?  Instead of enforcing a countrywide Bandh and causing losses of crores of rupees, it would make much better sense if these political parties offer to put their heads together with the government to come up with solutions to the price rise issue.

There are other questions to be answered as well, apart from the collosal loss to the exchequer.  Spare a thought for that daily wages earner.  If everything is shut, where does he earn his bread from?  What about the hordes of organisations who have moved their key processes here as part of the ITES / BPO boom?  Should those organisations also shut shop in their respective countries because we, Indians, are are on strike? Imagine the huge amount of time and effort that goes into planning for business continuity for such an event by all these organisations, which is exactly what I have been doing for the last few hours this Sunday evening! Phew!

I do not support this Bandh; nor should you!  Take care.