Silly Season

Looks like politicians want to now usurp the roles of stand up comedians. They are now out to provide comic relief and other forms of light distractions in the face of faltering economy, rising prices, starvation deaths, rotting food grains, drought and flood woes.
 
First it was Beni Prasad Verma. Somehow Congress party never gave him his due, probably because he was a turncoat from Samajwadi Party. However his remarks on inflation had the party's ace foot-in-mouth practitioners feel hot under their collar. 

He said that rising prices actually helped farmers! Probably long innings in Delhi's corridors of power has made him incapable to differentiate between farmer and middleman. Since he may be interacting more with the latter for election funding and other money matters, he may have thought they got a really good thing going. Now that government has increased diesel prices, hope he does not feel that the boys who dispense fuel at petrol pumps are going to book Mercs.
 
Some days later it was the turn of opposition BJP. And that too none other than loh purush Narendra Modi - normally known for combative rabble rousing statements.

He told a US newspaper that malnutrition in Gujarat was due to vegetarianism and middle class girls’ size zero obsession.  Surprisingly his remarks on vegetarianism went unchallenged and mercifully there were no Peta protests. It was surprising that no veggie pressure group took umbrage to his statement. Or probably they failed to make it to media's radar. 

But his comment on middle class girls more than made up for that shortcoming. While organisations associated with child rights and women brandished statistics to show how worse off  girls are in Gujarat; he became a favourite muse for cartoonists and satirists.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi too joined the fray by coming up with a jaw-droppingly ludicrous statement on rising Muslim population in his state. To cover up Congress government's lapses in curbing Bangladeshi infiltration, Gogoi ended tying himself up in knots.

At a TV interview to Karan Thapar he shocked everyone by saying that the rise in population among Muslims was due to illiteracy. Thapar first thought it was a slip of tongue and asked him repeatedly, but he came out with same reply. His party high command was left red faced and tongue tied. And for Muslims it was a rude awakening, as it came from the mouth a leader belonging to a secular party.

Meanwhile amidst all this foot-in-mouth orgy, the apple of every cartoonists' eye Digvijay Singh was conspicuous by his absence.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Scaling Mighty Obstacles

While cricket pundits were splitting their hairs over why Sachin Tendulkar's footwork is no longer what it used to be, an Indian athlete with a congenital disability in left foot had his leap-of-faith moment at London paralympics.
 
Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, a 24-year-old from Karnataka did the country proud by winning its first ever silver medal and that too in a physically demanding event like high jump. Paralympic games are a regular feature and happens after the conclusion of every olympics. But the event comes nowhere near the viewfinder of the country's media or its collective conscious. The reasons are not far to seek. Firstly the country's sports culture is nothing much to write home about and secondly the society's attitude towards disability oscillates from callous disregard to downright patronizing.
 
Somehow this year, after the country's best ever showing at Olympics, the TV cameras lingered on in London. Quite predictably controvesies soon followed and got greater visibility. An Indian power lifter Farman Basha had complained that he was not provided with an escort and even his coach was not allowed to stay with him.
 
But nobody in their wildest dreams thought India would open its account at the games. In fact few people were even aware that the country had sent a contingent for paralympics.
 
Now that Girisha has won a medal government and other agencies are doling cash awards and other trappings that come with sporting achievements. But I am sure it will be far too modest compared with other Olympic medal winners and microscopic when compared with IPL pampered cricketers.
 
Reading about his life one gets a snapshot of how miserable it is to be born poor and handicapped in our country. Most notably how these sections of population can no way access medicare. Girisha was born with a defect, which was curable. But his parents could not afford the surgery required to rectify it.
 
In our counry to be hadicapped and be able to lead a semblance of normal life is in itself a major struggle. Hence to take part in a sport like high jump is asking for the moon. Hence no adjective in the dictionary would be apt enough to describe Girisha's achievement.

Saina Nehwal's kind gesture
The badminton ace was so touched by Girisha's feat that she decided to gift him Rs 2 lakh. Hope our Ferrari/BMW driving sports stars (read cricketers) take cue from it.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Did He or Didn't He

He was the embodiment of 21st century version of American dream. His battle with near fatal testicular cancer and later unprecedented success in the gruelling Tour de France was the stuff legends were made of. 

Overcoming cancer and then winning (that too seven times) probably the most punishing activity in the modern sporting arena was really something. Participants in Tour have to pedal a distance of 3,497 kilometres covering stretches of Italy and Switzerland, in addition to France. The route passes through mountainous stretches of Pyrenees and Alps. However, its history is badly scarred with drug taint and numerous ex-champs were stripped off their titles after testing positive for some banned substance.

All through Armstrong's post-cancer career, allegations of doping kept following him like a shadow. In 1999 his urine sample showed traces of corticosteroid in an amount that was not in the positive range. A medical certificate showed he used an approved cream for saddle sores which contained the substance. That was probably the closest he came officially to the doping taint. But there were always a legion of sceptics, who believed that he was not clean; in fact, he was too smart to get caught.

But what he did on August 24 took everyone, including his detractors, off guard. He announced that he is not going to contest the doping charges as he felt the US anti-doping agency was indulging in "witch hunt". It drew extreme reactions. While his supporters and cancer organisations felt he should not have thrown in the towel, his detractors felt vindicated.

Though Armstrong is probably the most tested athlete and has never failed in any test, barring the 1999 aberration, his reputation has always been under cloud. It took further beating when fellow US cyclist Floyd Landis, who himself got disqualified in a drug test, said Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs and even taught others how not to get caught.

Unfortunately the world of doping is very complex. While knave dopers like Ben Johnson get caught immediately, there are some who trip after years like Marion Jones. Even Florence Griffith Joyner died amid innuendos of doping. The reason is that drug cheats are always a step ahead of anti-doping agencies. They  take drugs that are not under the lens of these agencies and go scot-free. By the time doping agencies device a test for that particular drug, they move on to new ones. Some even go for blood transfusion to avoid detection.

As a counter measure the doping agencies keep samples for longer periods, so that they can be later tested for newer drugs. And it did succeed in bringing many to book.

All this is not to cast aspersion on Lance Armstrong, but he should have fought on if he were clean. By refusing to do so he has provided a handle to sceptics. He had previously won an indomitable battle against cancer and these allegations are nothing compared to that.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

In Praise of India

For most Indians there is nothing like getting a pat from a Westerner, it is almost akin to schoolboy's euphoria on being praised by a hard-to-please teacher.

The Telegraph opinion piece by Theodore Darlymple will surely be music to their ears. The author’s name did ring a bell and I wondered if he is anyway connected with the famous historian William Darlymple. But a Wikipedia search revealed that Theodore Darlymple is in fact a pen name for Anthony (A.M.) Daniels, writer and retired doctor.

The columnist's main aim seems to be to run down Britain for being caught in its colonial time wrap and refusing to accept the new 'little England' ground realities.

He begins by attacking Britain's policy of extending aid to foreign countries in general and says it only helps the concerned British officials feather their nests with fat salaries and help corrupt governments in donor countries. Citing his own example as aid project official he said, "I bought my first house with money saved from the generous salary an aid project paid me, when I worked in the South Seas."

Then Darlymple comes to British aid to India says it has more to do with "hangover of a colonial superiority complex" and also decries clubbing all poor nations in one category. He also quotes Pranab Mukherjee as saying British aid was 'peanuts'. He lauds India for the scientific and economic progress made by the country in general – and all that without an authoritarian government. He heaps praise on youth of India and their thirst for knowledge and says the country's condition improved because of hard work by its people and not due to any aid.

Surprisingly Darlymple also finds Indians’ command over English language amazing. He gushes, “The best and most beautiful spoken English in the world is now to be heard in India.” Probably the rise of Indian writers in English fiction made him come to such a conclusion.

However, Darlymple at the same time reminds us that he has not lost track of what ails India. He says the country “remains profoundly corrupt and its government is incapable of passing necessary reforms. Rural poverty is deep and persistent.” Still he says it has come a long way from being perceived as a hopeless case with “perpetual epidemic and recurring famine”.

What I found a bit disconcerting was his justification for India's low tally of medals at the Olympic Games. He says, “Its young people have more important things to do than put the shot or throw the javelin.” Sorry Mr Darlymple, we are a medal starved country and are acutely conscious of it. That is why even bronze medalists here get the kind of reception, which even multiple gold medalists in other countries may not get. One of the main factor for this disquiet is that our neighbour China returns home after every Olympics with a cart load of medals.

I also don’t share his fulsome praise of how things have improved in Calcutta, “they don’t any longer collect dead people from the pavements who have died in the night of starvation.”  Maybe starvation deaths in our cities are no longer happening or not getting recorded, but our metros such as Kolkata or Mumbai are far from presentable. And when I say this I am not even thinking of London or New York, even those who have been to Shanghai or Bangkok rave about their infrastructure, clean streets and polite people. Something sorely lacking in our cities.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Copysutra Unlimited

The fact that noted Indian-American political commentator Fareed Zakaria was caught for plagiarism and suspended from Time and CNN may have caused ripples in US, and Zakaria was oozing with apology, he said he made “a terrible mistake. . . . It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault.”

But at his home country it caused hardly any such stir. Gauging the reaction of people from all walks of the society, it seems that at best it evoked only a casual what’s-the-big-deal shrug. 

An editor who not too long ago was caught for lifting paras from some foreign publication, but still managed to keep his job, said, “Being editor-at-large (Fareed Zakaria is editor at large at CNN) is a tough call. You travel so many places, attend cocktail sessions and read so many things that after a point you don’t remember what is yours and what it somebody else’s.” As an afterthought he said, "I feel he should not have taken paras from a well known journal like New Yorker, but maybe from some provincial publication, whose website frequently gets inaccessible due to lack of bandwidth."

The members of the academic community were more amused than shocked about developments concerning Zakaria. A research scholar, who considers ‘control C+control V’ the greatest invention since wheel, said, "God for copying one para he is doing all this. I know of guys who have lifted whole thesis and are now well placed in life." He then reeled out some names which were indeed very respectable ones.

However, he added that sometimes accidents do happen, as in the case of one of his seniors. He had plagiarized one thesis and unfortunately the invigilator happened to be the guy, whose thesis he had lifted! “Such incidents do happen, but are as rare getting hit by lightning,” he philosophized.

A film director of seventies, who had improvised many Hollywood spaghetti westerns of the 70s into daaku films (also called faluda western) and rode into sunset with good fortune and some popular awards said, “This internet age is proving to be a boon as well as bane. These days it is easy to get film footage and other materials to copy, but it is becoming almost impossible to not get caught by the audience.” 

He recalled nostalgically that during the licence-permit raj days of the 70s, few Indians used to go abroad and English movies were hardly screened in small towns and television was unheard of beyond metros. In such an environment it was easy to get away with lifting almost a whole film and pepper them with song and dance numbers.

For most Bollywood music directors plagiarism is as inherent in their songs, as say words like pyaar or ishq. A Bollywood remix lyricist amid his tight schedule took time off to share few thoughts on the issue. “There is nothing like originality. Everything happens due to inspiration. Even Shakespeare was not original.” Just then he broke into the latest ad jingle for a telecom company ‘jo tera hai, woh mera hai’ to drive home his point.

Disclaimer: A work of pure imagination

Also read: Bangalore Beat 

Mourning Becomes Rajesh Khanna

The end seemed well near. The emaciated frame of yesteryear superstar looked much older than his biological age of 69 in recent TV footages. For those on the wrong side of forty, it evoked a tinge of sweet nostalgia.

But while Kakaji was getting in and out of hospitals, the response among the Bollywood circles was tepid. It was reported that very few people from film fraternity came to visit him. This is not very surprising as the industry has been harsh towards stars past their prime. Its cold disdain and amnesia was even more pronounced in case of Parveen Babi.

The media, however, continued with its coverage off and on, though not at hysterical levels. This somehow sustained interest among the public and once the news of his death came, it evoked a frenzy which no one saw it coming. It looked like a throwback to the 60s and early 70s, when he was the undisputed king of Bollywood.

If those days it was fan mails, kisses on his cars, getting married to his photograph; now it was effusive tweets and Facebook status updates (a mainstay of current day youth). At least for a day the twain did meet between the greying Vividh Bharti generation and the spiky haired, multiplex MTV Roadies generation.

However, the Twitterati did come up with few howlers, despite Google and Wikipedia at their disposal. Some of them tweeted 'RIP Babu Moshai', though that character was actually played by Amitabh Bachchan and not Rajesh Khanna, who was Anand in the film by same name. It drew some angry responses from others. The fact that the day of his death coincided with Priyanka Chopra's birthday too provided fodder to their imagination. Sample this "Priyanka Chopra's birthday was overshadowed by Rajesh Khanna's death. Somewhere she must be weeping 'Why should boys have all the fun?"'

In Facebook the same old bizarre spectacle happened whenever a celebrity dies. Fans were putting up Rajesh Khanna RIP on their status updates and friends were gleefully clicking the 'like' button. As if they were happy to see him go. Mark Zukerberg should make his engineers work overtime to address this limitation.

Even his professional rivals like Amitabh Bachchan and Javed Akhtar were singing praises of him. It almost seemed as if Kakaji, who had been banished to oblivion after his downfall from superstardom in mid-1970s, has been finally put on a pedestal that was long overdue for him.

Also read: Bangalore Beat

Twilight Of a Superstar

The recent TV images of a frail looking yesteryear's superstar Rajesh Khanna standing at the balcony of his bungalow suddenly brought to me a realisation about the passage of an era (or is it light years). The gaunt figure gave the impression that he did not age gracefully like say Amitabh Bachchan or Dharmendra. He looked much older than 69.

When I was old enough to watch movies in mid 1970s, Rajesh Khanna was losing ground to Amitabh Bachchan. Kakaji's (as he is known) romanticism suddenly went out of fashion and was soon replaced by the Bachchan's angry young man persona and Zanjeer was the trend setter.

Later on Big B's stranglehold over the box office became all encompassing. It soon became cool to be lanky and have hair long enough to cover one's ears. Don't know how exactly that hairstyle originated, but in India it became a rage, thanks to Bachchan. From taxi, auto drivers to engineering and medical students, all were painstakingly growing their tresses long enough to flow over their ears. For all other Indian actors of that era, irrespective of language, it became a basic requirement to appear cool. The clippers, a mandatory tool in the armoury of barbers, soon started losing favour among the younger clientele. It gave way to accessories like hair dryer and roller brushes.

Coming back to Rajesh Khanna, my admiration for him was more of a retrospective one. I began appreciating him only after I grew up and by then Khanna was many years away from his arc lights days. I remember watching Amar Prem as a child and found it 'boring' as there were no 'fights' or 'comedy' scenes! And, of course, I was too small to understand what terms like 'baazari aurat' actually meant! 

However, some of the lilting numbers from his movies, especially Aradhana, Kati Patang appealed to me even then. The moment I used to hear these songs from my neighbour's radio, I too used to switch ours on and try to tune in to the Vividh Bharti or Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, the mainstays of Hindi music back then.

That of course was also the result of a symbiotic relationship Rajesh Khanna shared with Kishore Kumar. Both then were contemporaries and struggling to make their mark.

After the dawn of television era, I got a chance to watch the movies of his heydays on Doordarshan on Sundays and really began to appreciate them. I then realised why movies like Anand, Amar Prem were superhits. And felt his abrupt end to superstardom was quite unfortunate; though critics and film historians bemoan that success had gone into Kakaji's head. He had acquired starry airs and was dismissive of junior artists like Amitabh Bachchan. So, they felt his downfall was some sort of a poetic justice.

He had 15 consecutive solo superhits between 1969 and 1972 under his belt, which was quite unprecedented back then and is still considered a record. And fans (especially female ones) went to insane lengths to adore the country's most eligible bachelor (he married Dimple Kapadia only in 1973).

After that golden era, success at box office became rare and more modest. Among those lean periods I remember watching Thodi si Bewafai and later Avataar (that was ages before James Cameron's 3D offering), which were fairly successful at the box office. On the personal front too he had a rough ride. He got estranged with his wife Dimple and later on had a relationship with  Tina Munim, with whom he paired up for moderately successful Souten. She later went on to marry Reliance scion Anil Ambani.

His entry to politics virtually put an end to his film career. While going through a Wikipedia entry on him I was surprised to know that he had even acted in a couple of TV serials. Anyhow since I am not much of a serial guy, so totally missed out on all that.

Nearly a month back I saw him figure in a TV ad for Havells fan, where he points to a roomful ceiling and table fans and says these 'fans' will be with him forever. It made me cringe and wondered how Rajesh Khanna could agree for such an inane advertisement. What left me even more stunned was the fact that the ad was done by famous film maker and ad personality R Balki, who made movies like Cheeni Kum.

However coming back to the recent TV grab, it was heartening to see some young people had gathered before his house on hearing that he was indisposed. Probably DVDs, YouTube videos are keeping the movies of his heydays alive in memory of his fans. And Kakaji, please be assured that you needn't count upon lifeless ceiling and table fans for support!