JUST WHY AM I BLOGGING???
I AM NOT HERE TO FIND THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION WHICH MIGHT AS WELL BE THE ANSWER TO LIFE, UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!
On February 22nd, 2009, Slumdog Millionaire won the Best Picture Award at the 81st Academy Awards Ceremony. Known as the best recognition for any film, the Oscar, as the statuette is fondly called has been a goal that every filmmaker has wanted to reach. What surprised me the most was the reaction the entire world gave to the movie. Especially Indians.
A lot of people I know were shocked that such kind of poverty actually exists in India. All of them were, I mean, are Indians.In fact, I remember a few of them telling me that they didn't like the movie because it brings out the bad side of India, the side that “we” don't belong to. Some people even reason that this is why a lot of foreigners loved the movie. Of course, they only know the brighter side, the “shining” side. The part which is portrayed to the entire world as the India that every investor must set his sights upon. No one talks about the farmers killing themselves everyday or the fact that nearly 60-70% of the country scrapes for one square meal a day. Oh come on! These are negative things right. Let's talk about postitive things, like the development of the IT sector or the Indian cricket team doing so well that our “leaders” can actually make time to congratulate (or curse, if they're not doing so well) in spite of all the social issues that they have to deal with everyday. And of course who can forget our beloved Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr. Sharad Pawar who had all the time in the world for BCCI but not for the thousands of farmers who killed themselves because of debt. And now he's running for Prime Minister.
Of the 2 lakh Indian farmers who took their own lives between 1997 and 2008, nearly two-thirds did so in just the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh). The number of farmers taking their own lives each year shot up dramatically. From under 14,000 in 1997 to over 17,000 in 2005. While the rise in farm suicides has been on for over a decade, there have been sharp spurts in some years. For instance, 2004 saw well over 18,200 farm suicides across India. Almost two-thirds of these were in the Big Four or ‘Suicide SEZ’ States. Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today. The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels. Nearby forest depletion and poorly planned government dam projects contributed to the falling water level. Combined with the vicious money-lending schemes that are prevalent in the region, many farmers felt that death was the only option in the face of insurmountable debt. This was in 2009, for those who might feel that the earlier facts happened years ago! And this is just one part of the entire poverty story. On a general note, 260 million Indians are BPL (Below Poverty Line).
But no, we don't want to talk about it. We'll celebrate a movie like Slumdog Millionaire but yet remain happily unaware of the fact that a large section of the world has woken up to a certain truth that we ourselves are unwilling to accept.
Let's face it! We're nowhere close to developing if our primary sector does not develop. And that refers to agriculture and its allied activities. Why is it that we as Indians are not willing to do anything to save our countrymen? Is it a lack of humanitarianism? Or just a general sense of apathy? Usually events like this get national attention for a few days (or nowadays, a few sensational hours), a commission is set up to investigate into this, a few days later, everyone forgets about this and carry on with their normal lives. Some years later, usually 8 to 15 years, the commission finally comes up with a report, by which time even more people have killed themselves or are on the verge of death.
We are all willing to sit at home and comment about something like this, in our plush sofas, in our well-lit, air-conditioned drawing rooms, with a glass of tea (coffee). Oh and yes, we'll have to change the channel when it's time to watch a reality show or our daily soap. Obviously, that kind pathetic melodrama is more important to us than some men hanging themselves to death, because the government that we voted to power did not bother to help them at the right time.
Oh but why do we care? We've all got to go to work, help our children get the first rank, hang out with our friends, poke fun at someone else, and watch sensational news on 24-hour news channels from time to time. After all, isn't that what life is all about?
Yeah well that's what I would say about this whole thing. Technically there are many factors that cause recession. What I studied in school and college is:
"Recession is defined as a significant decline in economic activity across the economy lasting more than a few months normally visible in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales". More specifically, recession is defined as when businesses cease to expand, the GDP diminishes for two consecutive quarters, the rate of unemployment rises and housing prices decline. Many factors contribute to an economy's fall into a recession, but the major cause is inflation. Inflation refers to a general rise in the prices of goods and services over a period of time. The higher the rate of inflation, the smaller the percentage of goods and services that can be purchased with the same amount of money. Inflation can happen for reasons as varied as increased production costs, higher energy costs and national debt. In an inflationary environment, people tend to cut out leisure spending, reduce overall spending and begin to save more. But as individuals and businesses curtail expenditures in an effort to trim costs, this causes GDP to decline. Unemployment rates rise because companies lay off workers to cut costs. It is these combined factors that drive the economy into recession."
Ok I was kidding. I didn't remember all of that. I just flicked it from www.investopedia.com. Anyway, what they're trying to say here is that if something goes up, it'll definitely come down. And if a cycle has to work, whatever goes down should come up right?
Also the media hype for the recession, this one especially, is ugly. So some people lost some money. Is that so important that people have to go crying to their mommies (the governments, in this case) to save them? Every morning, just looking at the papers makes me go crazy. Banks are cutting credit, I-banks have collapsed, loads of people have lost their jobs... But the wacky guy that i don't know is still sending sentimental stupid "This is what your friends are for" mails with every spelling mistake humanly possible. Why isn't anyone laying him off?
I originally thought of naming this post sights and sounds of Mylapore. But, I realised that I didn't do much sightseeing (I mean only sightseeing. You can make whatever you want out of that!) or listen to any authentic sounds. I thought I'd start this post with "The bustling area of Mylapore, where old meets new..." I didn't like the sound of it myself. Travel writing is not my forte. Actually, no writing is my forte.
Anyway, this is my experience of speaking Hindi. No, I'm not going for classes. It's just a conversation I had with a panipuriwalla. I usually like my panipuri with a bit of the meetha sauce. So this was the conversation--
Me: One plate panipuri. (Stupid thing to say to guy who sells only that!) Him: Haan. (Yes) Me: Thoda meetha bhi. Him: Ek meetha aur ek "whatever he says for the kaara thanni"?
This is where the funny stuff started happening. I didn't know what the Hindi word was for the green water which is spicy. I can't exactly say pachcha thanni to him. I tried conveying to him that I wanted a mixture of both.
Me: Nahi. Meetha aur woh (indicating to the spicy water) mix kar. You know.... (He obviuosly didn't because he was staring at me like I was from Mars)
He then dipped a puri in the spicy water and gave it to me. I guess my expression told him something.
Him: Oh. Oh.
From the next puri he started mixing both the sweet and spicy waters. If I'd known that thats all it took...
Right now my comments have been screwed up. I'm going to sue Praveen. Not that he did anything. Just that he did something with the html part and I dont know how to go about it now. I'm no computer genius. So if you read this and feel like commenting, mail me. Oh and click on the Google ads. :)
It's been a really long time and quite a lot has happened.
Firstly, I flunked PE 2! Not that I can do anything about it. Whats happened's happened. I watched Kaalai. I regret going for that movie and thats end of my review.
I've started studying again, and its taking quite some time to get stuff in. Thats about it for now. Will update later.
1. During a recent visit to the beauty parlour, I had to wait for my turn. I was stuck reading Cosmopolitan. I found it pretty boring (its actually a waste of paper!). I asked the receptionist if they had something else to read. All she said was, "Idhu thaan ma ellaarum padikkaraanga. Mathadhellaam padikkardhilla-nu niruthittom." I understood why. Cosmo's cover was "15 ways to get multiple orgasms!" (there are 15???). And this issue was stamped as a collector's copy! People collect these????? :O
2. We had a guest lecture yesterday. The lecturer kept insisting about something regarding escalators (oh yeah, according to him, Chennai is uncivilized. We aren't supposed to have heard of malls, escalators etc.!) that went up 4 floors. Only after a while did we understand that he was actually referring to elevators (lifts). He is a director in ISBM (yes, Indian School of Business and Media and the best part was that he had a Doctorate from IIM-B!! :O
3. India won the twenty-twenty world cup. :D Yuvraj Singh gets Rs 1 crore as prize money, and Subrato Roy Sahara announces that Sahara's giving each player a house. :O (me also the join Indian cricket team :) )
4. I read in a recent issue of India Today (the cover story being something about spoilt children, wherein there was an article stating that children were getting implants (read silicon) thanks to sooper influence of our filmstars. The article said that since Rakhi Sawant recently got implants (which she vehemently denies. Lets not get into that now! :)), and she said that children these days are so lucky that they're able to afford all these "treatments". And hence, children look up to her. Rakhi Sawant - a role model!!!!???????!!!!!! :O
I am planning on taking a nedunthodar a.k.a mega serial. But I need a story. Which is why I asked Engal Anna Praveen for a story, but he refused to help saying that this stuff doesn't need a story and all. Very bad anna.
