Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Namastey London

I am not a movie buff, nor do I indulge in writing movie reviews. In fact, this is the first time, I am pushed to do it.

The movie is Namastey London. I had the opportunity to watch it almost five times, but I could not complete it even once. But this time I did use the opportunity. Apart from beautiful London and Katrina Kaif, movie offers nothing interesting. But what really disturbed me was the subject of the movie. The director of the movie did try to touch an important subject of our desi bretheren brought up abroad. I thought the director's portrayal of the desis living abroad and the westerners itself was very much biased. I am not sure if he studied the subject well before coming to his conclusions.

It is yet another movie that tries to picture Indian culture as the all good-good and the most 'sanskari' culture in the world. Ironically, it is so fragile that it has fallen prey to the demon of western culture. And Akshay Kumar arrives as the savior of this pitiable, dying culture. He proves that ours is a superior culture. The worst part is that to prove his thesis he has to take support of the "immoral and consumerist" West. He has to prove that the West, its culture and its people are inferior to us. I wonder if we need to demonise other to prove our worth.

I am an Indian. I love my country, I love my culture. I have confidence in the strength of my culture; and do not feel the need to demonise the West to show me the worth of it.

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Gosh... What a day!

I don't deny that I am lazy. Laziness does not hinder me when I initiate a thing, but it gradually creeps in. And then slowly it becomes a matter of 'mood.' My blog is the proof of it, where I wrote almost 125 days back. But I had to write today, or rather I was pushed to.

My day began with that usual difficulty to come out of bed. Eventually I did come out, reminding myself of an excitement to visit my hometown. Though the visit was for office-work, I wanted to take out couple of days to spend with my family.

I settled my pending account in the office as early as possible and felt quite relieved. Around 12, I left for the railway station. I found no trace of train on the station and began to wonder as to what could have happened. I went to the inquiry-window to find out whereabouts of the train. I was shocked to hear that the train was canceled. I became numb and did not know what to do. In response to my further inquiry, I was informed that all the trains going to Ahmedabad were canceled. Dejected, I decided to return to office (my home at the moment). I got an auto there, and sitting inside, started skimming what my next step should be. The auto had moved barely five feet, when the driver realized that one of the wheels of the auto was punctured. Still confused, he helped me find another auto. Finally, I settled there and took a sigh of relief. We had moved another two kilometers, and the clutch-wire of the auto broke. The auto-driver asked my ten minutes to repair it. Feeling pity for having a 'manhoos' passenger in his auto, I reluctantly told him to take 15 minutes if needed. He completed his work, and finally we reached back home after an hour.

I went to the office, and started looking at the other options to reach home as early as possible. But all my efforts were futile, since this time the internet gave up. The speed of internet was much the same as my own frequency in writing blogs. I washed my hands off and decided to spend time listening to music the rest of the evening. I was glad that the day was finally about to be over. There was still one surprise pending. This time, it was one of my old kurta that I tore while trying to change. But then, thankfully, the day ended.

One thing I enjoyed in the midst of all these misfortunes: it was the joy that I found in laughing at myself, at the thought that a day can be so bad.