Roadrunner – An Amerindian Story

RoadrunnerThe image of America that I had in my teenage was that of a heaven. The stories I heard were plenty – that, in America, even beggars travel in Mercedes Benz, there is no poverty, you get a 1 ltr pet bottle of Coca Cola for Rs. 1 (yeah, in Rupees not in Dollars) etc. But not all stories gave such rosy pictures. Another set of stories told me that despite of being so rich, America has no family values or culture and their men and women are sex machines who are ready to have sex with everyone.

Watching the Hollywood movies and reading more about America in the late teenage gave another set of pictures. Drug peddling, racism, teenage pregnancy, school shootouts and so on. But it also threw out some old stereo types of the sex hungry females and culture-less families. And when I looked at it, I could draw a lot of parallels between my country and America. On both the good and bad sides. Then I realized that there isn’t much that I should be proud of or feel inferior of my country in comparison with America.

When I finished reading the book “Roadrunner – An Indian Quest in America” by blogger-writer Dilip D’Souza, I felt the same way again. Dilip draws parallels between India and America, oh and perhaps it’s not just about these two countries, but what the human kind everywhere in this world shares in common. It is a travelogue that takes you along with the writer while you go through the pages. Instead of going through the prominent tourist spots and presenting the boring details of such journeys, Dilip chooses to take the paths less traveled by travel writers. He talks to ordinary people, takes us through the extra-ordinarily ordinary places and gets you glued to the pages. He also observes both countries in terms of patriotism and liberalism and gives us a food for thought on the subject. And one story he has kept for us in one of the final chapters, based on a personal account, would shake us cold.

In Roadrunner, you won’t see a blind admiration or an outright contempt for America, both of which could be prominently seen in the books about America. The book is more than 300 pages long and I did skip a couple of chapters that seemed boring to me. I wish Dilip could have skipped some of the detailing in those chapters. I think in the web 2.0 era, writers have to learn how to engage readers in striking, but shorter lines. Dilip does that in his blog though.

Nevertheless, Roadrunner is a good read and as a person who has never visited America, I enjoyed reading it because it gave me a feeling of going on a trip along those long windy roads with the author.

Oh and about the package – it was a refreshing change that the back cover of the book did not have any newspaper quotes, or celebrity quotes saying “Great book! Thumbs up!! I would strongly recommend it to everyone” and such gimmicks. I like that. ๐Ÿ™‚

Order the book in Flipkart here

Title: Roadrunner – An Indian Quest in America
Author: Dilip D’Souza
Publisher: Harper Collins
Price: Rs. 399

Revenge or Justice?

“Justice is done” was the initial response of many Indians in the online and offline world, when the court verdict on Ajmal Kasab came out yesterday. I don’t understand what justice is being done here. Let me clarify – I am not talking about human rights and all that when it comes to Kasab. He deserves a severe punishment for the kind of crime he did. And a death row is definitely not a severe punishment for Kasab, because we are ending up doing LeT’s job for them. Kasab came here to kill as many people as he could and also either to kill himself or get killed in the process. And ironically, in the name of justice we are giving him what he really wanted – death. His masters would be happy that a country’s judicial system is doing what they originally intended to do – to kill a low-level suicide militant. Is that justice done to the victims of 26/11?

And is this going to send any message to LeT or such terrorist outfits? Is hanging Kasab going to stop them? Kasab’s masters would get a thousand Kasabs to replace him for their on-going or future operations. They have no use of getting a Kasab back, when they have new, unknown and enthusiastic Kasabs ready to kill themselves for their masters.

So what result is hanging Kasab going to bring? Kasab, the scapegoat of his terrorist masterminds in Pakistan, has now become the scapegoat here too. The government with all it’s intelligence failures and the inability to track down the mastermind roots will now gloat that we could kill a terrorist (after he’s done what he came here to do). The issue of our police force not being equipped with the right and proper armor (Karkare, a brave man, gave his life because of such ill-planning) will now die down.

I am not asking for mercy for Kasab, but a severe punishment; severe than a death sentence. And I think the best way to punish Kasab would be a rigorous life sentence as actor Rahul Khanna has tweeted. There would be more suffering than ending your life in a moment. With the hanging of Kasab, we are just taking a revenge, not doing justice.

And that’s got me thinking – When a victim takes revenge, it is called a Crime. When the state does that revenge for a victim, it is called Justice. Isn’t that funny?

Picasso @ the Lapin Agile

What would’ve happened if a young Picasso and a young Einstein had accidentally met at a bar in Paris? Which of the two would have won, Art or Science? Come to Alliance Francaise de Bangalore to find for yourself.

Tahatto presents Steve Martin’s play, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile“.

May 7th (Friday) – 8 pm
May 8th (Saturday) – 4 pm AND 7:30 pm
Ticket price: Rs.150/-

For tickets, call 98800 36611 or visit IndianStage. You can also pick up tickets from Landmark in Forum.

Linkaholic

Last week, I listened to an episode of Radiolab on the Placebo effect. It particularly made a lot of sense as I am going through the Homeopathic medication for sinus, which is accused of making just a placebo effect, and I enjoyed this podcast thoroughly. After you listen to this episode, you will be left questioning almost everything that is known to comfort us – medicines, religion, devotion etc. And we would realize how powerful we are by ourselves and how weak we are too, for not seeing what we can do to ourselves. Listen to Placebo.

The second one is from a TED show, where a politician demonstrates the best way to get in touch with our politicians. He says, we need to use the analog tools such as a pen and paper to do that in this digital world. And he talks about how. Listen to Omar Ahmad‘s TED talk.

Thrissur Pooram 2010

Another Thrissur Pooram has passed and we had a wonderful time this year too. The heat did affect the crowd a bit but the people did not seem to mind it much. I went to the town with a couple of my friends and also clicked some photos. To those of you who don’t know what Thrissur Pooram is, go to the Wiki page and read.

Thrissur Pooram

Municipal Corporation of Thrissur distributes butter milk for free in their stalls, such as these, which is a big relief for those who get thirsty in this hot climate.

Pooram is a festive season for pickpockets too. The police force has put up big flex banners in and around the city, such as these, with photos of the known thieves with the warning "Beware of these people" and police phone numbers to report crimes.

Pooram sale

Inside the Vadakkumnathan temple. The famous Elanjithara Melam had just begun.

A view from Vadakkumnathan Temple

Elephants are a big attraction to the visiting tourists during the Pooram days, becaue you can see so many of them roaming around the city in these days.

During the Elanjithara Melam

I couldn't get close to the Elanjithara Melam, but the music being played was so addictive that all the hands were raised to catch up to the rhythm

Another shot from Vadakkumnathan Temple

Vadakkumnathan Temple

Almost all Malayalam television channel crew were present there

Thrissur city at night

Brightly lit buildings of Thrissur in the night

One of the "Panthals" of Thrissur Pooram

The second "panthal"

And the third one

There were small Poorams coming to the city from the surrounding areas at night

I was amazed to see so many local astrologers and card readers around the city. Men and women. Mostly older people. They were sitting in one line and they circled almost a quarter space of the city! And yes, they had many customers even in the night time!

Paramekkavu Temple in the night of Thrissur Pooram

Pooram exhibition is also a major attraction of Thrissur Pooram. You can spend your time visiting and shopping in this exhibition center while you wait for the early morning fire works.

Meet Masarat Daud

I have a thing against the Burqa. I think that thing represents a system of oppression designed by religion and men. Burqa, in my mind, has always remained to be a symbol of oppression, no matter how much those religious folks try to justify it by calling it a way of “protection”. So I was slightly amused when this Burqa-clad woman followed me on Twitter and had a look at her profile and there she is – A Burqa-clad woman who is fighting the very same thing that I think Burqas represent – Oppression.

Meet Masarat Daud, who is working to set girls of our rural areas free from oppression using education as a tool and bringing an event like TEDx to India’s villages, even with fighting the religious orthodoxy. Masrat runs an educational program called 8 Day Academy. She is changing the face of education in rural India through her work and is responsible for hundreds of girls getting the opportunity to attend schools. Since February 2009, Masarat has held three sessions of 8-Day Academy in her hometown Fatehpur, Rajasthan, training teachers and students from a local school in Computers and in Public Speaking & Communication skills. After eight days of Computers training, the team was able to use MS Word, MS Paint and know the theory of computing. All this by people who had never seen a computer before!

And then she brought TEDx to Shekhavati and you can read/listen more about her exciting and inspiring stories here and here . Also see her TEDx Shekhavati speech below:

The need for corruption

You know what, I have a huge admiration for Karan Thappar. What makes him different than the rest of interviewers from the Indian television scene is that, he is well-researched and very much up to the point in many of his interviews, rather than throwing some silly questions and being happy and content in just asking some questions.

Here he puts forward a good thought in an interview with Farooq Abdullah while they talk about Shashi Tharoor and the recent IPL controversy:

Farooq Abdullah: I don’t think so, I don’t think he needs to be corrupt

Karan Thapar: He doesn’t need to be?

Farooq Abdullah: No

Karan Thapar: Need doesn’t determine corruption.

Ever since Tharoor was contesting for MP from Trivandrum, the people who were supportive of him was of the opinion that he could not be corrupt like the other politicians because he doesn’t need to be corrupt. Because he gets – and they made up some big figures about this – a large amount of pension from United Nations and runs his own business. Some say it is 40 lakhs per month. Some say its more than that. But I really don’t get that point. Is privately owned wealth a good reason enough to claim that people wouldn’t be or needn’t be corrupt? If so, why isn’t that kind excuse offered to other rich and allegedly-corrupt politicians in India? How is Shashi Tharoor any different?

Happy Vishu!

Vishukkani

เดŽเดฒเตเดฒเดพ เดฎเดฒเดฏเดพเดณเดฟ เดธเตเดนเตƒเดคเตเดคเตเด•เตเด•เดณเตโ€เด•เตเด•เตเด‚ เดˆ เดตเดฟเดทเต เดฆเดฟเดจเดคเตเดคเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต†เดฏเตเด‚ เดชเตเดคเต เดตเดฒเตโ€เดธเดฐเดคเตเดคเดฟเดจเตเดฑเต†เดฏเตเด‚ เดจเดจเตโ€เดฎเดฏเตเด‚ เดฎเด‚เด—เดณเด™เตเด™เดณเตเด‚ เดจเต‡เดฐเตเดจเตเดจเต.

Kabhi Shashi, Kabhi Game

Now that Modi’s links with IPL team owners of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have emerged, the whole IPL controversy is getting more interesting, wide and ugly. I think there is enough material to make a movie out of the whole story. There is glamor, big money and beautiful women involved. What more do you need to make a good story line for a Bollywood movie?

So here is announcing the movie (title suggested by @rameshnair):

 

Kabhi Shashi, Kabhi Game
The story of an interlocutor and his friends

 

The movie will have two versions. In South India, Shashi is the hero and Modi is the villain. Up in the North, it is Modi in the lead and Shashi, the villain. Sreesanth will play the role of a crouching tiger in both the versions. Make up and costumes will be handled by Ms. Pushkar.

In the North Indian climax, the other Modi, Modi N, will be seen protecting Modi L and finally securing an IPL team for Ahmedabad and Shashi will be seen being left alone with a beautician in the Chala market in Thiruvananthapuram, looking for land with cheap prices to build IT parks.

In the South Indian climax, Shashi will win over Modi L, securing an IPL team for Kochi and building a cricket stadium near the Smart City project area. Modi L will be seen being left aloneย  with a South African model and sniffing 5 grams of Cocaine.

Part of the profits made from the movie will go to Mr. Modi and Twitter. We are looking for prospective producers for the movie, so do start bidding. And yes, multiple stake holders who are family members, friends and acquaintances of yours are welcomed.