Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Feminism gone astray ?

Written By: amodini - Mar• 15•10

No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of WomenThere are varying views of feminism. And while feminism has core concerns such as equality for women, adequate wages etc., there are also many aspects which are being palmed off as female empowerment, when they are not. I have written about them here and here, and recently I came across an article in the Times by Janice Turner, slightly old, written in Aug 2009, which says it very well :

Almost every day, I’m flabbergasted by things that I’d call sexist, although I know this very word makes me officially 100 years old. Like this year, when Wimbledon officials allocated Centre Court matches to women players based not on whether they were top seeds, but top totty. . .


And during the boom years, the language of women’s liberation was ransacked by companies trying to flog us stuff. Suddenly feminism wasn’t about rights or social advances, but shopping. Self-worth now came in a shampoo bottle — “Because you’re worth it”.


Liberation was brunch and designer bags as in Sex and the City. As Maureen Dowd, the US columnist, put it: “Feminism has been replaced by narcissism.”


The most unlikely things are now classed as “empowering”: buying shoes, taking a pole-dancing class, having a boob job, sending a snap of your breasts to Nuts magazine, entering one of the beauty contests newly revived across British campuses. That these are the kind of dumb-ass submissive practices long performed for male view, is, it seems, coincidental. Feminism 2009 means acting out male masturbation fantasies — because you want to.

Full article here.

Posted in culture and society, recommended, women | Comments Off on Feminism gone astray ?

Book Review : The case of the missing servant

Written By: amodini - Mar• 11•10

the case of the missing servantI’m a big who-dun-it fan. Poirot is my favorite detective of all, followed by Precious Ramotswe and Sherlock Holmes. Poirot is Poirot because of all his eccentricities, so when I read of a desi equivalent, it piqued my curiosity.

In this book, Tarquin Hall writes about Vish Puri, a 51 year old, portly, Punjabi private investigator plying his trade in Delhi. Puri, who’s bread and butter is mostly investigating potential marriage alliances, is hired to clear the name of a lawyer accused of murdering a servant girl in his employ. Mary, the girl in question has disappeared and honest litigator Ajay Kasliwal accused of doing away with her, is embroiled in what looks to be a conspiracy put together by his corrupt enemies. Will Puri be able to stop them putting Kasliwal away for good ?

As a detective novel, this book works although it doesn’t have a very tight pace, and in that, it sort of resembles the “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, rather than a hardcore detective novel. Hall peppers the story with Puri’s observations on Delhi and Indian society and government which make interesting reading. Plus Puri is typically Punjabi and Hall manages to introduce his very Punjabi characteristics into the mix.

Puri has set up “Most Private Investigators Ltd.” and is aided by nick-named employees in his work – there’s FaceCream, Flush, TubeLight, DoorStop and HandBrake all so named for a reason. Then there’s Puri’s wife Rumpi, his mother “Mummyji”, his secretary Elizabeth Rani, the servant boy Sweetu and Puri’s friend “Rinku”. Even Kasliwal has a nickname; Chippy. Puri and his family live in Gurgaon in a “white, four-bedroom Spanish-style villa with orange-tiled awnings, which they’d furnished from top to bottom in Punjabi baroque”. Punjabi baroque indeed – I can quite picture that, LOL !

In describing Puri’s abode, Hall also gives us a brief history of Delhi, it’s surrounding towns, and it’s class structure:

“Little had Puri known that in building a new home in Gurgaon, he had become a trendsetter. His move from Punjabi Bagh coincided with the explosion of India’s service industries in the wake of the liberalization of the economy. In the late 1990s, Gurgaon became Delhi’s southern extension, and was made available for major “development.”
. . .
Concrete superstructures shot up like great splinters of bone forced from the body of the earth. . . . All this was built on the backs of India’s “underprivileged classes,” who were working for slave wages. They had arrived in Gurgaon in their tens of thousands from across the country. But neither the local authorities nor the private contractors provided them with housing, so most had built shacks on the building sites alongside the machinery and the brick factories. Before long, shantytowns of corrugated iron and open sewers spread across an underdeveloped no-man’s-land.”

Puri himself is a mix of the old-fashioned and the new. He wears safari-suits and Sandown caps (he has 14 of them), and sports a moustache. At home, he relaxes in his silk dressing gown, and monogrammed slippers “VP”. He drives around in an ambassador, giving that old beast it’s due “Ambassadors might look old-fashioned and slow, but the latest models had Japanese engines.” Although his blood pressure is up, he loves his Punjabi staples – pakoras. He also thinks that young people have no moral fiber and says as much in a letter to the “Times of India” :

“A fellow is no longer happy serving society. Dharma, duty, has been ejected out the window. Now the average male wants five-star living: Omega watch, Italian hotel food, Duabi holiday, luxury apartment, a fancy girl on the side,” Puri had written. “All of a sudden, young Indians are adopting the habits of goras, white people.”

Tarquin Hall, himself a “gora”, manages to gauge and write about Indian society quite accurately. Even given that Hall has lived in India, his nuanced knowledge of India and it’s customs is impressive. Hall’s characters are nicely fleshed out, down to personal details, like the mother-son relationship between the doting (and nosy) Mummyji and Vish. The people in this book have an authentic feel, and Hall even manages to get them to speak in Delhi’s “vernacular” English “Everything is all right, though, na ?” His novel is colorful and descriptive, bringing to life Delhi and it’s residents with humorous, but true details:

“And yet the arranged marriage remained sacrosanct. Even among the wealthiest Delhi families, few parents gave their blessings to a “love marriage,” . . . Increasingly Indians living in major towns and cities relied on newspaper ads. The Singlas advertisement in the Indian Express had read as follows:


SOUTH DELHI HIGH STATUS AGRAWAL BUSINESS FAMILY SEEKS ALLIANCE FOR THEIR HOMELY, SLIM, SWEET-NATURED, VEGETARIAN AND CULTURED DAUGHTER. 5’1”. 50 kg. WHEATISH COMPLEXION. MBA FROM USA. NON-MANGLIK. DOB : JULY ’76 (LOOKS MUCH YOUNGER)”

“The Case of the missing servant” was a very enjoyable read.

Posted in 4_star_rating, books, india, recommended, review, south-asian | 1 Comment »

Tum jo mil gaye ho : Redux

Written By: amodini - Feb• 24•10

Imran Khan and Kalki Koechlin (of DevD fame) in this rather nostalgic (musically) ad. What an absolutely wonderful derivation of an old classic – I wonder if they have the full-fledged song somewhere !

Remember the original ?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkq6EpbKgM]

Posted in bollywood, india, music | 1 Comment »

Bollywoodian evil and all that good stuff

Written By: amodini - Feb• 18•10

photo gabbar-singh_zpsd8b589ee.jpgFilmi yore has it that when recalcitrant children wouldn’t sleep, Mothers would coax their children to bed with the warning “Beta, so ja varna Gabbar Singh aa jayega” (Sleep child or else Gabbar will come) ! Gabbar Singh of Sholay, that much remembered villain, with his maniacal laugh and gleaming eyes, asking that question “Kitne ? Kitne aadmi they?” Menacingly he cracks his whip, takes the lives of his unfit gang-members, and chops off the Thakur’s hands. His eyes dancing with insane delight, we were never quite sure how psychopathic Gabbar really was. What we were sure of was that he was the Bad Guy. The original bad penny – malicious and destructive, vicious and vile. Just like Mogambo or Dr. Dang, Daaga or Teja, or the almost harmless sounding Prem. Prem Chopra that is.

Well, 35 years later, Gabbar Singh, the fierce dacoit will probably not scare many kids but all those years ago, there was only one type of Hindi film villain. Mustachioed, goatee-d, this terribly evil person was perpetually upto no good. And when his nasty plans didn’t succeed, as was often the case (else whither the film folks ?) he and his cohorts would kidnap female relatives of the main protagonist (yes, the brave, chivalrous hero) and subject the women to some form of torture – tying them up, taunting them, and sometimes making them dance on broken glass (a la Basanti). Of course, if the villain was spectacularly clever, or thought himself creative, he would place the tied up females on strategically located drums, atop which he slung nooses. A little slip of the foot, and Aha! Off the poor women would go into the EverLasting Sleep.

These were ofcourse the 80s and the 90s, where Hindi films were romances, and the villains were those who had axes to grind with the hero or his family. That was then – technology was at a premium, bow-ties were in, and the only scholarly folk around lived in the universities. The villains were bold, brassy, and so over-the-top that one never associated subtlety with them. Their characters were always painted in broad brushstrokes; a very general and identifiable evil. They wore hats, smoked cigars and pipes, rolled their eyes, glared, leered and laughed menacingly. The bald look was considered impressive for a man up to no good. When the villain stepped onto the screen, you knew that that was the villain; there was no mistaking him.

Seeing that the villains were typecast then, and their looks and names so stereotyped, there really was no “Crime/Thriller” genre, no filmi noir to speak of in Hindi Cinema. Not until recently that is – that is when they broke the mould. In the past ten years, the villain of Hindi cinema has gone from spectacularly overt to subtly nuanced, from one easily identifiable entity to a many-headed diverse compendium of evil qualities. Where the bald villain of older films flashed his large, red eyes at us, possibly cracking a whip, and at the same time smiling crookedly from the corner of his twisted mouth, today’s smart, sophisticated, well-read villain peers at us from above a James Hadley Chase, hands well-manicured and hair smartly styled. He’s probably also lounging around in extremely fashionable clothes, in digs one would die for, and has a careless, nonchalant attitude to boot. He’s smart and he’s slick and so sure of his appeal, that it comes as no surprise that he even gets away with it (Don, 2006)

In the year 2000, there came this little known film called “Dil pe mat le yaar”. Starring Manoj Bajpai as a naïve country bumpkin, Ram, who has recently moved to the city, this had several villains. Not the ones that leered, and not the types that the audience could easily identify as such. These villains were within us, the little voices of evil in each of the characters. Smarmy and menacing, this evil was more pervasive, harder to identify and kill, because you knew not where it lived.

It has to be said that films reflect the goings-on in society, because there was a sudden spurt of gangster noir. From the early ones like Shiva, Vaastav and Satya, characters were honed until we had subtly nuanced, and soft-spoken gangsters like that of Abbaji (Pankaj Kapoor) a tottering old man, strong of will and machismo, and head of the mob, in the classic Maqbool. And then there was “Company”, a film that pitted gangster against gangster and still managed to make one of them look good.

Politics has been much associated with crime, and cinema depicts this. In the romance with the dark undertones – Haasil, the wily politician, played by Irfan Khan, wants to bump off our hero, baby-faced Jimmy Shergill, so he (Khan) will get the girl. “Manorama 6 feet Under”– one of the most recent additions to this great set of noir films, is deliciously cast, languorously told, and tells the tale of our very own home-grown, firmly-entrenched-in-the-middle-class, detective Satyaveer Singh Randhawa, from the small desert town of Lakhot. Randhawa, beautifully fleshed out by Abahay Deol, comes complete with bickering wife and corruption charges of his own, but does not give up hope in this politically charged thriller.

And let’s not say today’s noir movie makers are not inspired by the masters. “Omkara”, Vishal Bharadwaj’s highly anticipated take on Shakespeare’s Othello featured rural inter-gang rivalries, item numbers and betrayal. “Johnny Gaddar” on the other hand, was about an urban traitor, an innocent looking city-slicker who you couldn’t imagine squashing a bug, much less betraying his fellow con-men.

Well there you have it folks – the appeal of the atypical villain! Welcome the smart, soft-spoken, subtle scoundrel! You cannot guess his intentions and you cannot see his black heart. May he live long and spawn more interesting cinema !

The edited version of this article originally appeared in the Deccan Herald here.

Posted in bollywood, features, india, movies | 1 Comment »

Podcasting hindi movie reviews

Written By: amodini - Feb• 10•10

Podcasting is that thing I said I would do which I was never sure I’d get to. I have a whole list of such things; things I would do when (and if) I had the time. But then really when do I have the time ? An older (and much wiser) friend once told me that it is not that we don’t have the time for a particular activity, it is just that we do not love that activity enough to ever fit it into our schedule. Which is true. You truly never have the time for all the stuff you want to do, you just pick and chose between things you have to do, and stuff you want to, and hope that you strike some kind of workable balance.

Ideally I’d require a good 30+ hours in a day to do all the stuff I want to. But then you cherry pick, toss some over for the next day, and then at the very end of the day spend a disproportionate 4 hours reading that unput-down-able book into the wee hours of the morning, so that the next day you can roam around groggy eyed, with a fire burning at the back of the optic nerve.

It’s a pretty error-prone process – this cherry-picking. Some of the want-to-do stuff is pretty clear, like cuddling with the kids, now that they want to be cuddled with. There will be a time when they will not want to be babied so much, and it is getting closer. My son, already won’t let himself be kissed by Mom in public, and has second thoughts about holding my hand when outside the home.

So then, I figure I must like this blogging thing enough to sit around figuring out podcast hosts at 2am in the morning; it does pale in comparison, this winter especially, to the cosy comforts of a warm bed. And now that I’ve figured it out (with help from friends, and the Wonderful WWW) and plan to repeat the process atleast monthly, it’d behoove me to put down a Podcast 101. So here goes :

To podcast you need this :

1. An audio file, preferably an mp3
2. A host for your audio file
3. A podcast feed to submit to podcast directories

For starters to upload a podcast somewhere, you need to first create one. This is assuming you already have a goal/target audience you want to reach. For this I used Audacity, a fantastic audio build tool, simple to use and free to download. Ah, the beauty of open source ! Once the tracks are spliced up as you want them, and the mp3 is created, one hunted around for a host. There are free ones, and there are the non-free thingies. Unfortunately free is not easy. I know – I tried uploading to OurMedia, and gave up after a couple of tries, finally uploading to the Internet Archive. The other 2 free hosts that I’ve heard of are :

1. Box.net
2. Divshare

and there’s a whole lot of pure storage options on the net, like this, although I haven’t tried them.

That done, one must create a feed. Fairly easy to do in Blogger, and with a little help from FeedBurner, but doesn’t quite work in Google Feedreader. I’m still experimenting though, so would appreciate feedback and tips from those of you who have honed podcasting to a fine art.

Meanwhile here’s the final product :

http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.9385646287352851

I do hope to have many of these in the coming months, and to have carefully tabbed pages listing out each and every one of my media (ad)ventures (here’s another). But it’ll probably take time; it’s on my list – yes, that list!

There is a plethora of information on both Audacity and Podcasting out there – here is a list of articles/videos and screencasts on this topic that I found especially useful :

– Youtube video on podcasting with Blogger
– A Podcasting tutorial
– A bunch of useful how-to screencasts for Audacity
– Feedburner help for podcasting

Posted in india, movies | Comments Off on Podcasting hindi movie reviews

Maharashtra : Falling from grace

Written By: amodini - Feb• 05•10

An excellent editorial in the Indian Express :

The second dimension of this crisis is the blot it represents on our freedoms. We tend to see each episode of Sena mania in isolation: sometimes it is taxi drivers, sometimes Shah Rukh Khan. The Sena may be a weakening electoral force. But the price it extracts on our freedoms is immense. Its power to curtail discourse is extraordinary. What kind of a democracy will we be, if historians cannot freely write books on Shivaji? What does the tearing down of Shah Rukh Khan posters, the attempt to muzzle his voice, the intimidation of movie hall owners, not to mention the beating up of taxi drivers, represent? It is an attempt to subvert democracy in the most insidious way: intimidate public discourse.

Entire editorial here.

Posted in culture and society, india, politics, recommended | Comments Off on Maharashtra : Falling from grace

Schooling and the desire to learn

Written By: amodini - Feb• 04•10

Culture in School Learning: Revealing the Deep MeaningMy kids have been doing Science Projects at school for a couple of years now. The Projects are simple experiments where you have a question and you answer it with due process, analysis etc., not some high-faluting Scientific mumbo-jumbo which makes their mother (i.e.; moi) hyperventilate. Example of projects which kids did are: which battery lasted longer, which water (from different sources) has lesser germs, where is the best place to store fruit (i.e.; where did it spoil less ?). Each kid who did an experiment, had to present his/her experiment in an orderly fashion – Research Question, Literature Review, Experimental Procedure etc.

Although the experiments were simple, the questions they posed were interesting to the kids, and they were curious about the results. Also the kids were free to choose the topic of their project, i.e.; whatever piqued their natural curiosity (which are many things) ! I’m not sure how scientists are made but this seems like an interesting way to start. Instead of following strict rules, let them ask questions and work towards the answers.

I’m filled with something approaching awe, with this concept. Seriously. When I did my schooling, science was this subject where you answered pre-decided questions, not ones you thought were interesting. But to create the new generation of thinker, researcher, scientist one must allow him/her to think out of the box, not be subject to memorization and learning by rote. Scientific curiosity at it’s most basic level does come from one’s innate curiosity of the world around oneself, and if you tamp that down, then you force that child to not think creatively.

My nieces and nephews who are approaching the 10th grade or are at the 10+ level in India, have their lives blighted by unending classes, both in school and then after school. The after-school tuition teacher (and sometimes it’s the same school teacher giving tuitions!) will prep them for subjects being taught in school, and generally gets them to complete their syllabus well before it is finished in school. Then they do revisions and more revisions. And all these tuitions they go to – they go because they have to, it’s not like they are hungering for knowledge that their class teacher cannot provide them. And there are many reasons – everyone else is going, peer pressure, parental pressure, that big question about getting into a good college after school.

Seems nasty – but so it is. Few colleges and lot’s of students. Kapil Sibal recently decided to do away with the Boards, which is great. But seeing that that does nothing to increase the number of colleges, the problem still remains. The student-college disparity will have to be resolved somehow. Just because the Boards go away doesn’t mean that the fear goes away too. The kid’s school performance will still be judged and the seats in colleges will still be accorded to those deemed the most “worthy”. And the rest of them ? Perfectly intelligent, able kids, who don’t make this artificial “cut” will have to resort to the second-best thing.

There are still too many kids who want to go to college, compared to the number of colleges, and only those who make it through with scarily high percentages in school or the entrance tests will get to study where they want. In this rat race, what dies first ? Yes, the poor kids suffer, but among those who survive schooling, the need to learn, actually learn, takes a backseat to getting those high marks. And that is such a pity.

The prime need here seems to be to lessen pressure in Indian students – by establishing more colleges and reduce the amount of learning required at the school level (after all the ones really interested will learn what’s necessary in college anyway). If everyone who wanted to go to college could, and didn’t have that noose of having to score 99% hanging above their heads , maybe kids would actually be interested in the stuff they were learning ?

Posted in education, kids, learning | Comments Off on Schooling and the desire to learn

Indian television and women

Written By: amodini - Jan• 18•10

photo tv2_zps0edeabd2.jpgI’m watching TV. The husband comes in.

He : Why are you watching this crap ?

I : What crap ?

“This”, he points at the TV.

“This is not crap, it’s Perfect Bride.”

“Same thing.”

He exits.

Cut to 2 weeks later. He tells me, eyeing the clock “Your program is coming on” and goes into the bedroom, switches on the TV, seats himself in the comfy chair and begins to watch “Perfect Bride”. Now he’s as into it as I am.

As we’re watching it, they announce the “Bride of the Week”, and it’s Priyanka Sharma.

I’m appalled, “What ! People think she should be “Bride of the Week” ?

The husband doesn’t do sarcasm often, but when he does I can tell, “Yes, of course they do – they’re the unwashed masses. You’re probably the only padi-likhi (educated) woman to watch this show”. I can tell he’s getting a little worried with my suddenly, as he calls it “going gharelu” (getting domesticated); I’m also now intermittently watching some Hindi serials. I’m perpetually going “tsk, tsk” when watching these, and he, the problem-solver, asks me why I’m watching these if I have such a problem with them anyway.

Which is true, I have big problems with these TV serials. I started watching one “accidentally” but started to tune in when I realized that the hero Ambar actually had some sense – he would not leave his apparently not-Brahmin wife (he is a Brahmin) even on severe parental pressure. But now, I’m starting to go off it, because the nut (Ambar) has gone ahead and married another woman, since his **wife** insisted he do it. A lot of Hindi serials on TV right now have heroes who have more than one wife.

Besides these there are also the other problems, like the dialogues which say stuff like –

– What can you do ? You are a woman.
– A married woman must forget her parents.
– The parents of a daughter have only one big ambition – to get their daughter married.
– A woman is the izzat of her family
– A woman must strive to be a good daughter, sister, wife, mother. Period.
– Oh, we’re the girl’s family, it is our job to bow down before you (the groom’s family).
– A low class/caste girl like that can never be associated with our Brahmin family

photo tv3_zps4efeae08.jpgBesides all this very tiresome dialogue, these serials are populated by characters who probably don’t live in modern India as we know it. The fixation on marriage, rituals, relationships, motherhood, domesticity is unbelievable. Still, this would be fine, if all this was a part of normal life, not ** the only thing ** in life.

The husband can’t stand the above mentioned serials, and it’s easy to agree with him, because the needless rona-dhona/no common-sense is starting to get to me. Yes, yes, all that stuff about free speech etc. – surely the TV-wallahs can express themselves too, even if I find their views offensive and regressive. Or atleast that’s what my brain says; I still have a problem. I could stop watching this TV, and even if I did, it’s not actually having much effect on my thinking; I’m snorting through much of it anyway. But my Mom watches it and my Mom-in-law watches it. My parents actually time their dinner to coincide with their favorite serial “Agle janam mujhe bitiya hi deejo” – the last time I watched it with them, the rich zamindar had bought a (second) wife for his son, so that she could bear a son, the first wife being incapable of doing so.

Not everyone’s watching this stuff with disinterest.

Most serials have a disclaimer at the beginning of every episode, which tells us that Star does not believe in any of these social evils – bigamy, casteism etc. But is that it ? What of showing women in such regressive, powerless situations that it sets your teeth on edge ? It was in 2007 that I heard of a “culture” school for women – this was where they were taught to serve their families and lose their ego. But really there is no need of a special school, when there are daily classes/serials on TV. The culture school folks are unaware that their regressive message is being spread far and wide via Ekta Kapoor and her ilk.

Hindi serial story-lines are silly as it is, but really get unbearable with all the “good” women portrayed as being devout doormats, thinking only of their husbands and in-laws, even when they are tormented and humiliated, and the husbands are bigamists. Phrases like “I must be a good wife”, “I must serve my family” are repeated so often, they seem chant-like. Women in these serials are perpetually on tenterhooks trying to walk the fine line of expected behavior dictated for a female in their position. When overstepping these lines, they are often berated and tortured, and told to repress themselves. Thus it appears that the female leads in such serials lead most of their lives fulfilling their duties, and the rest wringing their hands in regret and trepidation over “apparent” trangressions. I am fuming looking at this stuff, but it’s truly bad television because it is very influential. How many times is an impressionable mind going to watch this stuff without wanting to be a docile, repressed “good wife” herself ?

Yes, for television to be interesting one must allow for some drama and some heightened emotions. However it is possible to produce interesting dramas without putting down women or bringing in artificial, damaging notions of “good” women, just as it is possible to have humor on television without degrading women. Remember “Hum log”, “Buniyaad”, “Nukkad”, or even “Fauji” which gave Shahrukh Khan his break? I must say that Fauji wasn’t great production values, and didn’t exactly carry the flag for feminism, but it wasn’t bad. These serials and dramas which aired on televison many years back, had interesting story lines, and generated enough viewership without having to resort to over-the-top, heavy handed emotion and regressive notions.

photo tv1_zps5ad83992.jpgToday’s TV dramas are women based, and not in a good way. Either the women are “bad” and vampish or think for themselves (and that’s very, very bad !), or they are too holy for their own good. The female characters (atleast the “good” ones) in today’s TV serials are shown kow-towing to the demands of family members to such an extent, that it’s almost akin to a breakdown of self-esteem and the natural self-confidence that allows a person to function. Women so absolutely powerless, are a bad example in itself, but to actually enshrine qualities like extreme docility, and not being able to stand up for oneself, as being “good” and desirable, is extremely dangerous.

Plus one wonders about the apparent disregard for the law of the land that serials like this depict. Everybody is so into the bigamy thing; one would think that Indian Law actually permitted such a thing! The men go around being “forced” into second marriages, and the wives consult each other on domestic details so pati parmeshwar can lead a happy, stress-free life.

It is time the GOI (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) stopped worrying about Edwina Mountbatten and Nehru, and started doing something about the real problem. Women have a second class status in Indian society, and many of these problems stem from the regressive mindset and patriarchal notions so entrenched in society. Indian television should not be reinforcing such damaging attitudes.

Posted in culture and society, features, india, recommended, women | 26 Comments »

Apathy

Written By: amodini - Jan• 09•10

Watched this news on NDTV, and it is bone-chillingly horrifying. A wounded policeman lies on the side of the road, begging for help. Gangsters have chopped off one of his legs. The ministers and their convoy pass by, stop, but dither around and then call for an ambulance, which does not come. It takes them 20 minutes to get the policeman into a car, and on his way to the hospital. He dies on the way.

Why would anyone with ready transportation at hand, wait for an ambulance to take a fatally wounded man to a hospital ? Why would not one attempt to even give succor to a man in this condition ? How can one be so matter-of-fact when right in front of your eyes a person is bleeding to death ?Everyone, except the wounded, is walking around like it’s none of their business. This goes beyond callous, it is unhumanly.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6mqRvBsCzA]

The police have later said that they had to protect the Ministers (there were 2 of them) first. But at what cost ? In the convoy was also the State Health Secretary and the Collector. All these men waiting around and watching, and then calling for an ambulance ? It leaves me dumb-struck.

Posted in culture and society, dumb things people say and do, india, recommended | 1 Comment »

2009 : Good reads

Written By: amodini - Jan• 02•10

There were a lot of lovely books in 2009, and here are three of my favorites :

– The help imageThe help by Kathryn Stockett
Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a young girl who has just finished her degree  and returned to her small, conservative town of Jackson, Mississippi. Unlike other girls her age, she does not subscribe to the then (1960s) racist views, and is not searching for a husband (although her mother would wish her quickly married and settled into domesticity). Looking to get become a writer and getting published, she is given advice to write about her true feelings, and decides to write about the segregation between the blacks and the whites in her small town. The stories she writes are of the help, black women who have served families for generations.

This was a wonderful book. Stockett manages to write about a touchy subject very convincingly, and sketches out her characters beautifully. Set in the South, the book’s story is narrated via 3 main characters – Skeeter, Abileen Clark – Skeeter’s friend Elizabeth Leefolt’s maid, and Minny Jackson, Abileen’s friend, also a maid, who often gets fired for talking back to her employers. I loved the detail in the book, and also the way Stockett managed to converse in different voices (as Skeeter, Abileen, Minny) without losing authenticity.

– palace of illusions imagePalace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
A retelling of the Mahabharat from a woman’s point of view. This is a very interesting take on an otherwise traditional story, because although there are women in the Mahabharat/Ramayana, their role is secondary, and mostly as honor/child bearers. There are some women who do get their way, but they are generally “evil”, for example Kaikeyi in the Ramayana. There literally are no strong women, who wield any influence, or can even do as they think. There is Kunti in the Mahabharat, who bears children as an unmarried virgin, but, yeah, what a mistake, she has to give them up, and can never acknowledge Karna as her own. You hear of educated women in traditional texts, but for all their education, very few do little more than birth sons. So among a pantheon of men, hearing what a woman thinks (and speaks) is refreshing to read.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Divakaruni fleshes out Draupadi’s character quite nicely, right from her birth from fire, until the Great War, where she is blessed with the “sight”. And told from Draupadi’s point of view, there are subtle nuances to the story which would never get told otherwise. Yes, it is true that Divakaruni embellishes certain aspects of the story, such as Draupadi’s views on men having more than one wife, or even her feelings with regards to Karuna, but that “embellishment” to me, just made it more interesting.

– everyone is beautiful imageEveryone is beautiful by Katherine Center
Lanie Coates, a young mom of three children is moving from Houston, Texas to Cambridge Boston so that her musician husband Peter can go to graduate school. The novel starts off with the family arriving at their new apartment, where Peter is immediately engrossed in his new life while Lanie flounders around sans a support system and friends, in keeping her kids occupied and fed, and herself sane and showered. At the park one day, she meets a young woman her own age, who unwittingly insults Lanie’s appearance by asking her when she is due (Lanie is not pregnant). That incident serves as a catalyst in Lanie’s life as she realizes how much she has neglected herself, and decides to do something about it . . .

I loved this book, just as I loved “I don’t know how she does it” by Allison Pearson. It describes very well the life of a young, stay-at-home Mom, and the pressure and the consuming demands of parenting. I also really liked Center’s sense of humor and her very amusing, and easy-to-identify-with parenting tales as Lanie deals with the questions of her three boisterous kids. This novel also has a positive spin on it, so it has a nice, feel-good ending.

Posted in 4_star_rating, books, must read, recommended, review, south-asian | 4 Comments »
<<4445464748>>