Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Extraordinary mind

Written By: amodini - Sep• 08•09

extraordinay_mind

Source : Andre Jordan’s Work

Respect your MPs or else . . .

Written By: amodini - Sep• 02•09

Reading this article by Amit Ahuja, in which he describes interactions with the governmental bureacracy as transactions where the “government official involved establishes himself not as a service provider but rather as a dispenser of favours“, one is filled with acute hatred for the ubiquitous, corrupt babu and the venal politicians that make this possible. Says Ahuja of the damage to ordinary citizens :

“bribery robs citizens of not one but two things: cash and dignity. By submitting to an official’s demands and grovelling before him, one is humiliated and loses one’s own self-worth. “

The Indian bureaucracy is notorious for rampant corruption. According to Transparency International , even “Below Poverty Line households paid an astonishing Rs 223 crore in bribes to attain access to a set of basic public services like hospitals, schooling, and water.” Keeping in mind that the entire corrupt system rests firmly on the self-serving shoulders of elected representatives such as the MPs and MLAs, it makes the “extraction” of respect for them a ludicrous idea – but that is what the Rajasthan government wants :

Stand up and be respectful ! it says. Not to the common man ofcourse – he deserves to be trodden upon; this “respectful” treatment is reserved only for the neighborhood corrupt criminal politician. It has issued a diktat to all its employees, making it mandatory for them to stand up and greet visiting MPs or MLAs.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s government says that what the government employees are being asked to do is nothing new, but just a part of the Indian culture. How nice (and such ingenuity !) that the Indian culture we don’t see a shred of in government offices these days, can be used at will, by politicians to force (unwilling) respect out of lower officials ! When they swear in these elected officials, they might as well ask them to specify how they like their officials : pliant, malleable or just plain servile ?

Only in India do public servants, those glorious “elected officials”, reserve for themselves the antiquated tags of “VIP” – “Very Important Person”. Everywhere you go, from toll-booths on the highway to airports, VIPs demand special treatment. And what makes them VIPs ? Mostly, getting elected. You might be a criminal, have very sparse knowledge about your great land, and even lesser of your governmental duties, but you are a “VIP” because you are an elected representative. But apparently the VIPs of Rajasthan are not satisfied with their ration of importance; they want more. Thus orders for recieving respect have been issued in writing.

Among other things, according to an article in India Today, government employess aka babus have been asked to :

– stand up not just when an elected representative arrives at their office but also when he leaves
– if there is any change in a prior appointment with an elected representative, the officer concerned needs to promptly intimate the former
– if an elected leader reaches an officer’s office without any appointment, the latter should call them in immediately after meeting those who had come after fixing an appointment
– invite local representatives to all the official functions organised in the area he represents, and reserve the seat for him until the end of the function.
– not ignore telephone calls of an elected representative
– acknowledge an elected representative’s letters and act upon them. If that is not possible, properly explain to them why not.

Of course none of the above facilities are available for the common man or the aam junta. They can just wear out their chappals running from pillar to post at government offices, without being served with even basic courtesy. Gehlot and his government might do well to remember that Indian culture asks you to be respectful to all people including the citizens that elected you in the first place! He also forgets that respect is not extracted, it is earned. And if his MPs or MLAs were indeed doing their people any good, people and officials would stand up and respect them without there being a need for official diktats.

Feed Reader Update

Written By: amodini - Sep• 01•09

To all those Readers who subscribe to my Feed : First of all, a big Thank You – I know that there is a lot of content on the Web, and am grateful that you find the content here worthy of subscription. Please note that I am changing the Feed of this blog to “summary” style rather than “full” post style, to deter sploggers from stealing/copying my feed without attributing it back to me. Sploggers are low-lifes/the scum of the internet who’ll steal your original posts and try and pass them off as their own. All the work on my blogs is Copyrighted, which means that you cannot use this content on any other media without giving me a linkback, and attributing it to it’s original author – which would be me : Amodini Sharma. Also, this work cannot be modified and you cannot “derive” from it – which means that if you take content from here, and change a couple of words and think it yours – it’s NOT – you are still stealing. If you see this content on any other site, other than this blog, it is stolen content, and the website and it’s author are committing Copyright Infringement.

Becoming Indian

Written By: amodini - Aug• 21•09

Reading this article from outlook. It is by Justin McCarthy, who unlike the rest of the aam junta went from being American to being Indian. He has apparently found his bliss in India. He writes :

To this day, still face bewildered, incredulous, wry, bemused, aghast looks at immigration points both local and foreign. Once had Richard Gere queuing behind me at Delhi airport, an official with him imperiously shouting, “VIP! VIP!” Officer attending me looks up, “Hmmph! Vee I P, Shee I P! Chhodo, yaar. Inko dekho!”

LOL.

Bollywood Hero Flash Mob in Times Square

Written By: amodini - Aug• 10•09

The miniseries “Bollywood Hero” debuted on IFC, August 6th. A Bollywood Dance Flash Mob “happened” on said day in Times Square in New York City in support of the miniseries Bollywood Hero premiering at 10pm on IFC. Stars Chris Kattan, Neha Dhupia, Pooja Kumar and choreographer Longinus Fernandes stopped by to enjoy the show.

It’s kind of cool actually – the way the whole thing came together. And nicely done too, here it is :

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXclwb_6LkE]

Mystery girl in Love Aaj Kal

Written By: amodini - Aug• 04•09

harleen_giselleSaw “Love Aaj Kal” (review here) last weekend. The mystery girl who plays Harleen Kaur, was sort of kept pretty hush-hush. And while I don’t get the logic of that, the whole secrecy bit I mean, am pretty surprised that the girl in question is Brazilian model Giselle Monteiro. I might not be that great at divining people’s “place of origin” so to speak, by looking at their faces, but she looked pretty Indian to me. Not only Indian, I was pretty sure that this was a real life Sardarni. With like a last name of Singh, or Saund or some such totally Punjabi surname. And she turns out not only not Sikhni but not Indian at all. Wow !

In all fairness

Written By: amodini - Jul• 25•09

It is an expectation in society that women must be “feminine”, i.e.; you’d better not have hair on awkward places (like your arms !!) , your eyebrows must be plucked to appear shapely and avoid the dreaded uni-brow, and you must at all costs avoid the VPL. Don’t know (or don’t care) what that is ? Well, welcome to the club !

Since the last time I wrote an article about this, it seems that things have gone from bad to worse. There are not less advertisements on fairness, there are more. There is this particular advertisement that is quite annoying. It is for Vaseline Healthy White Skin Lightening lotion, and shows a young woman playing tennis in sweat pants and T shirt. Her coach advises her that pants are OK for tennis practice but she must wear a tennis dress for the big game. Well, the girl listens and how ! Since the skin on the rest of her body is darker than her face, she decides to use Vaseline to lighten it’s color to match her face. Here it is :

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_UfwKLf3s]

Yup, it’s not like you have to play that match and win girl, your all-body skin color had better match the peaches and cream complexion of your face !Talk about pressure !

I went to Vaseline’s website, and this what they had to say about it :

Vaseline Healthy White Skin Lightening Body Milk

Skin glows when it is in its healthiest condition, even your body skin.

When it’s healthy and cared for, our skin has the natural ability to maintain a light tone and clear texture. Unfortunately, when it’s exposed to the sun, the skin’s natural lightening processes are interrupted. Pigment producing cells become increasingly active, tanning the skin, and leaving it several shades darker than it’s supposed to be.

New, Vaseline Healthy White skin lightening body milk works with the skin to reverse signs of darkening and prevent future pigmentation.

Besides the fact that this is faulty logic; wouldn’t you expect the skin on your face to be darker than the skin on the rest of your body, why exactly would it be this bothersome to have it a shade darker ? Trying to be matchy-matchy are we ?

Yes, I understand the issues with protecting your skin against cancer etc. but these ads. are not about your health – they are about “appearing” aesthetically healthy. Also, the ad. implies that the product can restore skin to it’s previous (fairer) state. And what of the women born with darker skin ? Woe betide them, huhn ?

I have problems with this kind of marketing unlike that of regular make-up, because while make-up enhances you for a while, it is understood that you are you, and you will remain yourself – if you get my drift. This push to become “fairer” or lighter or white or more luminous is like telling you that you should grow taller, or get a sharper nose – it subtly denigrates you for what you essentially are.

In this advertisement, we have this beautiful model – and she can only be a model with that face and that body – looking all glum, because hai, the the skin color on her legs doesn’t match the skin color on her face. A normal girl with half the brains would thank the Good Lord for those legs and that body and flawless face and not worry her head about imperceptible changes of skin color. Positive messages for our daughters anyone ?

Note that while this particular ad. airs on desi TV, there are plenty of such ads. on American television too – they hint at “luminous” (yeah, right!) skin.

Review : The Sharing Knife Series – Book 1 (Beguilement)

Written By: amodini - Jul• 02•09

Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1)Call me hopeful, but I’m ideally looking for a mix of sci-fi and romance in the same novel. It’s always interesting to have a major sci-fi plotline with a minor romance thread running through it. So, I thought I’d hit the jack-pot when I came across Louis McMaster Bujold’s “The Sharing Knife” series”. I mean Bujold ! That Hugo winner! She writing a sci-fi novel which features romance – what could be better than that ? Many things, it now appears.

You’re probably getting my drift by now, but let me inflict a philosophical euphemism on you at this point : Most things in life are not that easily gotten. Ergo : I’m disappointed in the first book – Beguilement. Yes, it had new ideas of fantasy, but it read almost like a romance novel, and not the nice kinds (read : woman has spine) either. No, really !

The woman here is Dawn Blufield, all of 18 years. She’s run away from home, because she’s gotten pregnant by a local boy, who’s refusing responsibility, and being generally mean and nasty. Also, desis hold up your heads now, because izzat and honor, and blaming the woman are apparently world-wide concepts, known also to the farmers of this novel. Thus Dawn, mortified by her parent’s embarrassment if they found out has hit the road.

The hero is 55 year old Dag, who’s a Lakewalker Patroller. Lakewalkers are people who guard the common folk against malices and blight bogles, which are evil monsters that suck up your “ground” or life-force. Lakewalkers have an acute sense of others’ “ground”, i.e.; they can sense happiness, sadness and rough edges in the ebb and flow of your life-force. So, Dag can sense Dawn’s “ground” , and she shines so brightly in it, that he calls her “(Little) Spark”. (Oh, kill me now !)

OK, so now the story : Dawn meets Dag. Dag secretly smitten. Enter Malice. Dag to the rescue. And then the event that propels the story (or at least that’s what I thought) : Dawn uses the wrong Sharing Knife on the Malice, and it mistakenly gets “primed”. That is a problem, because it has been “primed” with her now dead baby’s ground (she aborts due to the malice’s man-handling of her) and the baby hadn’t even been born yet. Dag doesn’t know what implications this has, because Sharing Knives are “primed” with Lakewalker “ground” and done by the LakeWalkers themselves. So, he persuades Dawn to come with them to his LakeWalker Patrol so that someone more knowledgeable about Sharing Knives, a Maker for instance, can find out.

Well, I thought that the “finding out” would be done quickly and then the story would proceed in a sci-fi-ish manner. But, instead, the rest of the book is devoted to Dawn and Dag making the journey to her home, to clear up the air so to speak, and falling in love along the way.

Now, I have no problem with romance (in fact quite the contrary), but let’s not act like lovesick teenagers here. The book, at this point has become quite Mills-and-Boon-ish in character. Dag, is the older, wiser, and worldlier of the two, and he longs to cherish her and protect her, blah blah blah . . . And she, actually is a teenager, vastly under-esteemed by her family, and forever taunted by her various siblings. But, but, but . . . she’s earnest and intelligent and kind and compassionate . . . And this really is true-blue love, where they communicate via ESP. OK, then !

This isn’t quite what I expected. If I did want to read a love story about a much older, more powerful man, who wanted to protect and cherish this wispy little woman with a heart of gold and a large brood of (nasty/dependent) siblings, I would go read Betty Neels instead. Granted, from what I can recall, her heroes are almost always handsome Dutch Doctors , and Dag is of unknown country, he sounds fairly Scandinavian to me – close enough, no ?

The book, like the rest of us, is not all bad. The characters are well-drawn – I liked Dag’s character quite a bit; he has his head screwed on right, has no fixed notions of “women’s” work since he actually nurses Dawn through her miscarriage. This might be due to the fact that his LakeWalker culture as portrayed is matriarchial, sort-of; when a man and woman are bound together, the man comes to the woman’s family tent and not the other way around. Plus he seems fairly liberal, except in the parts where he goes around calling her “Little Spark” 🙂 .

Dawn is a likeable character too, I only wish she wasn’t so small and petite, and needing to be “protected”. How about a 6’ woman with self-esteem issues – now you could really introduce some interesting psycho-babble there!

As a romance novel, this one isn’t so bad, but coming from the likes of Bujold, as highly regarded in the sci-fi genre as she is, this is a massive disappointment. This is a sometimes cringe-worthy, and sometimes awkwardly lovey-dovey novel in the guise of a sci-fi tome.

When I ended the book, I was actually quite amazed that this was the work of a Hugo winner. But after reading a few reviews on the net, I am convinced that there are a lot more folks just as put off by this book as I am, and that Bujold is quite at the nadir of her form here. Hopefully, her other books will be better !

No sex education for us. We’re Indian

Written By: amodini - Jun• 17•09
 photo analogies_zoitz_zps6085f8e2.png

Image courtesy zoitz.com

Note : The edited version of this post appears on the Ultraviolet blog.

India is a populous country, and I’m pretty sure the citizens of India have something to do with it. I don’t think the storks are delivering all those babies, or that they are the gift of the Gods, a la Kunti. Thus it is quite a surprise to read about the move to squash teaching of basic sex education in schools :

The Committee on Petitions, comprising Rajya Sabha members and headed by BJP’s Venkaiah Naidu, has recommended that “there should be no sex education in schools” since “our country’s social and cultural ethos are such that sex education has absolutely no place in it”. “

Let’s trot out that pony again – India’s glorious cultural ethos. Let’s hide behind it again. We won’t do it because it’s against our cultural ethos. Let’s all burrow our heads in the sand and ignore the problem, because it’s “against the Indian cultural ethos”.

Watch Indian TV nowadays, and if it isn’t Ekta Kapoor’s sindoor-anointed, scheming pativrata naris in backless cholis, it’s pretty young things in short-short skirts, swinging to some very suggestive lyrics. Sexy is the new buzzword. Looking pretty is not good enough – you’ve got to look sexy.

Most advertisements use women to sell their products. These are mostly pretty women, and they sell soaps, shampoos, refrigerators, hair dyes and even car tyres (Ceat tyres had an animated cartoony advertisement featuring a well-endowed woman in a low-cut blouse and shorts – and you can’t see the face of the woman). A lot of these ads feature women in little clothing, mouthing suggestive dialogues. That also apparently fits right in with “the cultural ethos of India”.

Watch the above mentioned Bollywood films, and you will realise that most filmi scripts feature women in secondary roles, playing second-fiddle to the men, and assumming subservient roles. There are also those films, which pandering to the NRI, portray foreign-bred women who are all too happy to trade-in autonomous life to smilingly melt into the arms of our handsome, chauvinistic hero. Women as depicted in such media are shown as having little independence.

Many rural women marry young, conceive early and die in child-birth. Knowledge of contraceptives is limited, and there are few people “progressive” enough to go to a doctor for such advice, leave alone uneducated women who have no agency of their own. Attitudes in the country still remain vastly chauvinistic – you’ll read about it in the newspapers (foeticide, infanticide and child marriage) and you’ll see it in the street molestation everyday. The youth remains uninformed about sexual choices and we shy away from educating them because it’s against the “cultural ethos” ?

The committee ruled that children must be given the message that sex before marriage is “immoral, unethical and unhealthy”

The young people of this country are being bombarded by suggestive messages oneway and on the other hand are denied basic sex education. Pativrata nari vs. oomph-laden, skirt-suited pretty woman – guess who wins the image war these days ? Mr. Naidu and his Committee might think pre-marital sex is “immoral”, but it’s happening anyway. And if the folk having that pre-marital sex don’t know about basic safety, it’s probably adding to the AIDS numbers, if not creating unwanted babies.

The urban youth has access to the net and other media – if you don’t give them information straight up, they will find it, and it might be pretty warped depending upon the source it’s coming from. Apart from that, what about curiosity ? If a young girl starts menstruating at the age of 11-12, you think she might be a little curious as to what’s going on ? Mr. Venkaiah Naidu might be blind, but most young folk are not.

Advocating “instinct control” and “dignity of restraint”, the committee called for a new curriculum to include material on lives and teaching of saints, spiritual leaders, freedom fighters and national heroes.

While I do think kids should have knowledge of saints, freedom fighters etc. I doubt that learning about Bhagat Singh will help the cause of abstinence any. The cultural invasion has already come. And it’s a little worrying to hear statements like the above from eminently sane people with good vision, and one assumes, satifisfactory hearing. Are they actually living in modern day India ? Do they actually not see Govinda (now an MP) cavort on screen and thrust out his pelvis (or have they missed out on all those little gems of fine Indian film-making ?) ? Do they think he is hinting at “instinct control” ?

The Committee had better realise that the day for preaching the “dignity of restraint” has come and gone. In other words, that boat sailed. Long ago. And Mr. Naidu wasn’t on it. And if at all applicable in this context, there is “dignity” only in not treating our youth as if they were pea-brained. As for restraint, Mr. Naidu might apply it to avoid placing his foot in his mouth.

The committee said chapters on Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga and moral values should be made integral parts of the syllabus to enable “total development of the child”. Chapters like “Physical and Mental Development in Adolescents” and “HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases” and related topics should be removed from the curriculum and incorporated in biology books only at the 10+2 stage.

I had a friend, way back in school, who, when she had her first period at the age of 11, wept copious tears because she thought she had some deadly disease. I have friends, who now admit laughingly that they thought, once upon a time, that kissing could make you pregnant. Such was the ignorance then, and we somehow got by, gleaning information from an elder friend or cousin. It was a simpler time, the all-pervasive media wasn’t here yet.

When I was in school, some 20 years back, education on puberty and bodily changes was dealt with in the 9th standard. Much too late, I have always thought. I cannot imagine it being pushed out even further. At that time a child is already 14-15 years of age, well into the age of puberty. And whether you like it or not, they are noticing these changes. It is high time indeed for the adults to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

There is a case to be made for considering the subject essential to proper growth and a balanced viewpoint. And starting this education earlier. The more we consider this a taboo, and keep hidden this information, the more mystique is built around it. And the more alluring it gets.

It is all very well to talk about the high road, and moral values, but it is another to assume that problems will dissappear once we try to inculcate our moral values onto young folk, without first answering their pertinent questions. And as much as I am a fan of Yoga, I do think that the Committee is a tad out of touch with the youth mindset to think that it would do any good, in this respect.

Claiming that its members were highly embarrassed by “indecent” power point presentations . . .

I think these folk get embarrassed rather easily. These power-point presentations have done what Govinda and his ilk have not been able too. It amazes one that such bigoted minds can actually be required to form a committee which will decide the educational needs of many fragile and impressionable minds. As it is, sex education is considered taboo, and any curiousity of the human body (a natural enough curiousity) is considered “dirty”. And then you have adults , these “Committee” members getting embarrassed.

Ignoring sex education for young adults has done enough damage already. From a burgeoning AIDS crisis, to exponential population growth, and young folk with repressed sexualities and stunted mentalities, it is bad enough already. It should not be allowed to get any worse.

Tweaking reality, MTV style – part 3

Written By: amodini - May• 21•09

This is Part 3 of a series, here are Part 1 & 2.

The Roadies 6.0 cast had an interesting set of characters. You had the bullies Sandeep, Bobby, Roop and the first ever Sardar Roadie – Pradeep. Then you had Palak who was in a class by herself – brave yes, but with overwhelming tendencies to carp, bicker and fight physically. And she could talk – oh how she could talk. On and on and on and on – made you want to plug your ears up permanently.

Samrat, who looked like an Army kid, and seemed level-headed at the beginning of the show, seemed to lose much of his cool and his stature, when he assumed the role of Palak’s mu-bola bhai. And since Palak is the gal you love to hate, Samrat became persona-non-grata and had to bow out of the show, once Nauman, Sufi and Natasha got their act together. Sufi, the one with the temper (during the auditions) seemed one of the more capable Roadies, but was eliminated in the first episode itself. He came back, but got injured and wasn’t able to perform.

You also had the independent minded and the outliers. Kiri had been trying to get on the Roadies for the last couple of seasons, following the Roadies crew around their audition tour. And they finally made him a Roadie – whether impressed by his sheer tenacity or the wish to get rid of him once and for all. Delicate looking Suzanna Mukherjee a Russian-Bengali mix, didn’t mix with the bullies but she didn’t fit into any other groups either. And then there was Devarshi, the obligatory clown. He appears to live in a diffused reality which is very pro-himself. He is the star of his own reality. And no one else really shares that reality (or that notion).

Another girl who kept out of the groups was Natasha. Emotions held tightly in check, she lasted quite a while and gave most tasks her best shot. There was also Paulomi from Kolkata. Kooky and eccentric and with a penchant for lots of make-up, she made it to the final 3, because she wasn’t considered a serious contender, and then she managed some tasks quite easily, contrary to expectations.

And then there were Nauman and Tamanna who seemed to strike up a friendship or so it seemed. Tamanna who was protected by Nauman from Palak’s physical blows, earned Palak’s ire. And because she didn’t socialize with the others, was treated with quite a bit of undeserving contempt and voted out midway.

Now this is a varied mix of kids (Paulomi was the oldest at 25) , but there were very few of them that you could countenance as winner. Note that in a Reality show one backs the competitor that one deems worthy. And how do we make our minds about that worthiness ? We track their performances in their episodes and watch how they react to different situations. There was Nauman, and Sufi. Kiri and Natasha were borderline choices but you couldn’t really be enthused about anyone.

Contrary to expectations, and because you think the unlikeable folks will get voted out sooner than later, Palak stuck it out till the very end – she made the final 3. And the makers of Roadies hadn’t anticipated that, because Raghu and Rajiv came by and tried to man-handle the show into getting some actually likeable folks in there. So in came Sufi and Kiri. Sufi failed to do his task adequately. And Kiri beat both Palak and Nauman to earn a spot in the top 2. Rajiv and Raghu again maro-ed an entry, and exhorted Kiri to do the right thing (yeah, right !). Because here’s the deal – you have 2 potential competitiors, one a guy, who’s probably stronger than you, and another a girl, whom you’ve a greater chance of defeating in a task. Who would you pick ? Kiri, when not under duress, would probably have picked Palak. But with the bald twins spouting righteous-speak at him, he picked Nauman and was defeated. Oh well.

Next : What went wrong ?