Created on Wed May 14, 2008 3:47 pm with 21 blog posts
Blogging is the new rave in town.. so let me join the bandwagon...
Why is our nation fascinated by the game of Cricket, I often wondered. The answer (or part of the answer) hit me today as I was watching the news. The news somewhat ran the following lines
1) Two ministers watch while a cop was bleeding to death (hacked by a ex-cop and some miscreants)
2) Shashi Taroor being chastigated for his comments on Nehru and Gandhi and he giving the usual "I was misquoted" line.
3) Deve Gowda, the former PM, using unparliamentary language against the current CM of Karnataka, Yedurappa
4) The Indian hockey team going on strike with compensation differences. So, instead of practising they will now go on strike irrespective of the world cup in February. The captain proudly (??) claims that its a unanimous decision and the entire team (for once??) agreed.
5) Racist attacks in australia and blasting the govt. of australia for what is percieved here to be a lack of action or re-action on their behalf. Did we ever think of our action in all the molestation cases against foriegners.
6) Some more muck uncovered in the Ruchika case. The 14 year old girl who was molested by the top cop who commited suicide 15 years ago.
Finally
7) India beat Sri Lanka in the league match of the Tri-Nation series to reach the finals (where they play Sri Lanka again)
Take your pick, what would you be fascinated with?
What I mean by that is there seems to be no point of the argument that Mr. Bhagat and the makers of "3 idiots" are making in public. If anything, it seems to be another publicity stunt aimed at increasing the curiosity behind the movie (and the book). The recent statement by Mr. Bhagat "Please go see the movie and read the book" is a dead giveaway. In a normal mushy love story, the dirt is usually the heroine breaking up with her boyfriend in real life or rumors of some hot link up between the stars in the movie or a fight(catfight usually) between the co-stars. That was tried with Amir complimenting Kareena, Kareena complimenting Amir and I guess when that failed to evoke the much needed curiosity, someone came up with this ingenious idea of a tiff between the makers and author. I would say it is a masterstroke but too flimsy. I am sure at some point someone is going to give in and there would be apologies all around. But not until the movie has run its course, grossed another few (or lots of) crores and a few more copies of the book gets sold.
That is what I would like to ask the youth of this country. This is the picture of students from Osmania university out on a rampage. Can you see the anguish in their eyes, the fury in their faces, the determination writ on their forehead? Well, I can't. What I see instead is a group of idiots thinking its fun to smash windows on public property, maybe cane an innocent bystander or two. And if god forbid, they get lathicharged by the police, the media will ensure there is no end to the tamasha. Look at them. They seem to find the whole thing funny. Its a disgrace. These are the maniacs who should be locked up ..probably for good.
Hopefully, I will start maintaining this blog more regularly from now on. You can also catch some of the action on my other blog: http://jungleejaadugar.blogspot.com. Dial in for some fun commentary. Well, my name isn't. But that is the title of the next movie that Shah Rukh Khan will be starring in. And he is very busy trying to garner publicity (free one at that) from the latest incident in US. He seems to be crying foul about established security procedures in a country that is equally threatened by terrorism. Does he really consider himself above others that he feels that his being detained and questioned is the most atrocious blunder that can possibly be committed? There are a lot of news articles that a lot of local (US) celebrities have been detained, questioned and in some cases being denied travel rights (most recent of them being Edward Kennedy who was supposedly stopped from flying multiple times). Our president Dr. Abdul Kalam was also frisked. That is when I was indignant. I didn’t see our Mr. Khan expressing his displeasure then. But when its personal, yes, it hurts. But to expect to be treated differently just because he is a star is conceited and ostentatious. The usual bad boy of bollywood, Salman Khan, has of recent times being a voice of reason in the otherwise flippant bollywood community. Two incidents of late showed that he can sometimes sport a stable head on his shoulders.
1) In the aforementioned incident he did say that the security procedures are meant to prevent terrorist acts and no big deal regarding the inconvenience to some passengers. Didn’t we say the same thing when 26/11 happened? I have to show my ID at office and sometimes I am stopped to show some identification at the entrance of the flats I stay in. I cannot complain being asked to show identification when I expect security in my living complex.
2) Salman has recently gone to bring a voice of reason again w.r.t. muslim stars who claim that they are being discriminated against. Come on, guys, there will be some odd nuts who do discriminate. But to label a community or a country discriminatory just because you were targeted once is senseless. Like Salman said, this is the country where the top billed stars are all muslims.. Now that cant happen with discrimination, can it?
Live in peace. Especially you, Mr. Khan (Shah Rukh)
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