[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYhrYHmUPn0]
Censor this !
Written By: amodini
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Dec•
17•08
Talking about incredibly stupid ads, here’s one for Amul Body Warmer :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3weY-9hvO_s]
So much for changing attitudes, empowering women, blah-blah-blah . . . !
And here’s one for Happy Dent chewing gum which is disturbing . . . on many different levels :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdesIbwOYAA]
Mumbai horror
Written By: amodini
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Nov•
29•08
I wake up morning after morning, to news channel after news channel covering the same thing. Terror in Mumbai. Armed terrorists taking hostages, shooting at will. Openly, brazenly. But why the shock the surprise ? If you’ve been to India, have lived there, you know the condition of law and order there.
Politicians condoning this incident. Condoning – is that it ? Is there anyone who doesn’t ? Is that all the PM can can do ? Condone ?
Indian news channels talking about “exclusive” coverage. Exclusive ? Breaking news? First on this channel ? Yes, of course, TRPs.
Arnab, the anchor on TimesNow, getting emotionally drippy (and sounding overtly false) on TV. Patriotism oozing out. Suddenly.
Appreciating the brave men who give up their lives. Now when you see them taking the bullet for you. Otherwise the government refuses to give the Armed Forces their just due.
I’m sick and tired of hearing about the unbreakable spirit of the Mumbaikar, the Delhi-ite, the Kashmiri. Why should they have spirit, why should they go on ? Why should they not halt all normal life until something is done ? Halt missions to the moon, the people on earth need help.
How long ago was it that we heard of the Indian plane hijacked and taken to Kandahar ? How much has changed since then ? It won’t, you know, because lives in India – they are cheap. Nothing changes, a bomb blast here, a bomb blast there, people die. Politicians come, look solemn, visit hospitals, condone, condone, condone until they are blue in the face.
Rachel getting married
Written By: amodini
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Nov•
17•08
Rachel getting married is about Kym, Rachel’s sister, and her complicated relationship with her family. It’s about mental baggage; the stuff we carry around in our heads. Kym’s elder sister Rachel is getting married, and Kym is a recovering drug addict, out from her rehab center for a few days to attend the wedding. It is a pretty complicated family structure – Rachel and Kym’s parents are divorced and now married to different people, Rachel is marrying an African-American musician, who comes with lots of family, culture and music, and Kym, an ex-model is an outwardly snaky, inwardly insecure woman, at the center of a deep, dark family tragedy, which no-one can forget.
This film often feels like a personal movie video, with all the family huddled together, making toasts – some polished, some awkward, and dragging over the familial bits. But there is also a lot of family drama, because guess what – Kym is not the only one with hurt feelings. And while the characters are not saintly at all; all of them have nasty streaks like the rest of us mortal folks, you feel for each one of them – they get under your skin. It’s not about who’s right or who’s wrong, it’s about life.
Performances are great all around – I especially felt for Kym and her father, played by Bill Irwin. The screenplay is nice with the details, feels a little “draggy” at times – but probably necessary to give the film the whole “it’s a family spat” kind of a feel.
A point of interest in the film, for me, is that Rachel’s wedding has an Indian theme. So the food is Indian, and the wedding cake look’s like a Maharajah’s Indian elephant. The bride and the bridesmaids wear beautiful silk saris (not very correctly though), and the younger men wear kurtas and sherwanis – the groom wearing a heavy brocade one. I didn’t get why they would go for the desi scheme, and no one actually expresses any affinity to the Indian culture, so that sort of went unexplained.
Nice film. It ends on a high note, but it is a sad story – you’ll shed a few tears.
This moment in time
Written By: amodini
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Nov•
10•08
With the immediate hubbub of the making of history last week having died down, it’s time to recapitulate. Obama is President-Elect, everyone went into a frenzy at the news, and people took to the street in celebration. Newspapers which reported this historic happening got sold out ; my city’s newspaper had to reprint additional copies. There was much revelry on that night in front of the White House.
And while many years down the line, I will remember this, this election of the first African American man as CEO of USA, inc. what will remain foremost in memory is the thought of how personal it was this time. I have voted in Presidential elections, and while I have voted for one or the other with clear conviction , (not a fence-sitter in such matters), this time it seemed imperative that Obama win. His defeat was my defeat and his win was mine.
I am not sure what it was that made me identify so much with this candidate, whose culture I must admit I don’t know. Yes, I know history, as does everyone. But I’m Asian, and very probably our cultures are unalike. But why does it matter – this knowing someone ? It does because if you think you know someone, you can predict how they would handle stress, decision-making etc. So when my Caucasian neighbor told me he didn’t like Obama, because he didn’t think he knew him, I understood what he meant. He was supporting McCain, although he had very little faith in Palin, and the thought of a possible Palin presidency made him queasy.
When I get candid with myself, I think it’s probably the fact that Obama is non-white, so much not a part of the old boy’s network, that one can empathise naturally. And it couldn’t have been just any African-American candidate who’d have won this empathy, it had to be one like this one. Bi-racial, middle-class, having gotten where he was by his own merit and tenacity. He didn’t have it all handed to him, he worked for it. Hard, very hard. And I think one naturally admires men/women with lofty ideals, the ones especially who can articulate them well AND sound lke they mean it.
A lazy, lazy day
Written By: amodini
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Nov•
10•08
Sick, with a massive headcold and fever. Must have sneezed about a thousand times today. Elected to remain in bed rather than spread the infection to co-workers. So, basically at home, in bed with a book. Result : read and slept, and read and slept and so on. The day passed very slowly, and not as in “boring” slowly, but just the impression you have sometimes of time passing very, very slowly. It’s like every impression is getting filtered through this fog, and all of it permeates very, very slowly.
America’s historic moment
Written By: amodini
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Nov•
06•08
Obama is finally President-Elect. I truly, truly, truly think that this man will make a great President, one every American will be proud to have at the helms of the nation. He has campaigned for over 21 months, and what an exhausting campaign it must have been ! His sprightly energy – he bounded up stairs, and spoke in driving rain – came in sharp contrast to McCain’s lurching gait.
There were other differences too – differences in ideology, which is expected, but more importantly differences in behavior, thinking and integrity. While McCain talked the talk, he didn’t walk the walk. And in all his high-sounding rhetoric about integrity, and standing up for what you believed in, it seemed like he was doing the reverse. He was praised initially for being a great man, having done much in service of his country. But somewhere down the line, McCain started to lose focus, and his message became more about smearing Obama, than about the American people. And then it seemed like he had sold his soul in return for a chance to reside in the White House.
Last evening McCain was nothing if not dignified and gracious while delivering a moving concession speech. He called Obama “my President” and promised him all assistance. He gestured for people to stop booing as he said these words, he held up his hands and remonstrated “Please, Please.” Where was this graciousness, this dignity the past few months ? Did mounting pressure and the right wing of the RNC manage to tamp it down ? This tells you quite a bit about McCain’s character, and this I believe caused him to become the target of much criticism over the past few months.
It was Obama’s night and day. As he gave his very moving speech at Grant Park last night, he was victorious and smiling, but well in control. He promised hope to not only his supporters but to those who didn’t support him, telling them that he hears their voices, and needs their support. That he would be their President too. And if that’s not the sign of a great man, I don’t know what is.
Besides Obama’s personal victory (to our very good fortune), it is also a very historic day. America has a Caucasian majority, and America has elected it’s first African-American President! Astounding, when you realize that race is still an issue in this country. Not overtly, no – but where do you think they get the so-called Bradley effect from ? As I watched video snippets on NDTV about Martin Luther’s King “I have a dream” speech, it was all very moving. To think that African-American’s got their right to vote only a few decades back, and that in deep, southern Texas, till recently there were signs of covert racism. And now you have an African-American President !
It’s almost filmi, you know. The country’s in trouble, and here comes the young hero, with resources we hadn’t dreamed of. America is in big trouble right now. And here comes Obama – he’s almost made to order. Of high intellect and temperate nature, he talks of a united nation. He’s got the skills of an organizer, and the stamina to persevere in the face of disapproving odds. He is resourceful and can (and has) run a tight ship. He’s gracious, and dignified, high-minded and a little professorial. Just the President we need.
Which is why the pressure is pretty high for him to deliver. He tried to temper that in his speech last night, and while it is true that this mess is too big and too intricate to be resolved quickly, resolved it must be. After all these years, one African-American has done what none before him could do. He has been much touted as the next big hope, and much looked upto as the candidate to solve America’s problems, and he will have to make good on those promises.
I, personally, think that he will.
More importantly, millions of Americans also think the same.
McCain’s desperation shows
Written By: amodini
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Nov•
02•08
I have never watched so much CNN in my life. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve actually watched re-runs of the same program, on CNN. My husbands kids me about it – calls it my favorite channel. I have never read up, or followed politics as much as I follow now, via Salon, The New York Times and The Washington Post. The times are such, it’s an exciting election, and amazingly, for the very first time in American history, we might actually elect an African-American President come Tuesday.
What is truly amazing about this election is the candidate himself – note that I do not say the candidates, although I did think that both were great men when this race began. Obama has out-distanced McCain by far. Through this long-drawn campaign, he has appeared to be the more temperate, wise candidate of the two. He has treated McCain with far more respect and deference than McCain has treated him. Obama’s stump speeches speak of his plan for the country, whereas McCain’s say little about his plans, and seem to consist primarily of smears against Obama.
While always nasty, recently the McCain campaign seems to be clutching at straws, picking at Obama’s words, and trying to find hidden meanings, which simply aren‘t there. Like the time when McCain dissects Obama’s saying that “his faith in America was vindicated”, he tries to paint that in a negative tone, saying that his (McCain’s) country has nothing to prove to him. Ah well, this is what McCain is now reduced to – linguistically deciphering code in Obama’s language – a sure sign that he can’t find any real issues to talk about.
Or the time, when the McCain team tried to make a big deal of Senator Biden’s words when he said that if Obama were elected, he would face an international crisis which would test his mettle. Now McCain-Palin and Co. try and say that “We don’t want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis . . .”. Invites testing ? Are these people living on the same planet as the rest of us voters ? The news for the McCain camp is that ANY President will be tested, sooner or later, and really, he won‘t need to go looking for invitations either; the problems will come to him. Whether it be Obama or McCain who ends up residing at the White House, the job isn’t exactly cushy.
First and foremost there are the pieces of the American economy to pick up, and put back together like a gigantic, jigsaw puzzle which no-one can fully comprehend (Seriously, just contemplating the state of my 401K is enough to send me into deep depression). Then the President would have to deal with the nasty people outside the US, like bin Ladin, and make efforts to get rid of him and his ilk. Do they think Al-Qaeda will disappear into the wood-work or that the middle-east crisis will resolve itself ?
And as far as the question of which candidate is more ready to be tested, to handle challenges – I’d bet on Obama any day. If McCain cannot even control his temper during a Presidential debate, how exactly is he going to approach the problems of the nation ? It boggles the mind that given a candidate like Obama, there are some who would actually want McCain, and horrifyingly, Palin.
Happy Diwali !
Written By: amodini
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Oct•
28•08
Am at home celebrating with family (taken day off) . Happy Diwali everyone !
What exactly is that ?
Written By: amodini
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Oct•
27•08
Sameera Reddy walking the ramp for designer Falguni and Shane, at Wills India Fashion Week ’09 :
What is this – the design from scrap contest ? (And I’m not talking about Sameera).
Also look at the audience – they seem slack-jawed in shock.
