'Going Rogue'

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely……….these words ring true of not only the entire socio political setup of this world that we live in but also of things on a much smaller stage…everyday living and issues surrounding who rules who?

It would be an interesting experiment to give power in the hands of the downtrodden of today….the ones who curse the system and wish politicians dead. Would they then establish a just world order or fall prey to the very temptations and machinations they abhor today??

Would this then answer the quintessential question? Chicken or egg? What came first?
Is it the wrong kind of people who go into politics, accumulate wealth and become powerful and then perpetrate the hideous culture that has become the hallmark of politics across the globe?
Or is it normal people …people like you and me, but maybe with a dash more of ambition thrown in, who get into politics, wake up to the immense thrill and kick that power gives and then start on the journey of corruption to maintain that power ?

Two old political scandals, or shall I say mishaps, have returned to the fore in the public arena this week. They belong in two different continents but the undertones are similar….
As the Chilcot enquiry begins its work to look into the legality of the war in Iraq, the most palpable sentiment around is hatred for Blair. Yet this is a man who could do no wrong a few years ago. A darling of the masses, twice elected to power, with a huge halo round his head and the glow of his charismatic personality radiating far and wide.

Did Tony Blair start off as a well meaning Prime Minister who seriously wanted to do the right thing, defend democracy around the world and establish a just world order? Few believe this today but in the heydays of Labour supremacy in Britain, he did have people enthralled by his sharp oratory and the look of earnestness about him. Did he start off as a smarmy, sly man or was it years in politics that made him cynical to the extent that many now are ready to believe he took the country into an illegal war? How cynical do you have to be to do something you know will cause immeasurable death and destruction, reduce an entire nation to a rubble and ruin the lives of generations to come?

Opponents of the war hope the inquiry will establish that the decision to invade Iraq was illegal and based on flawed or deliberately misleading intelligence about the risks posed by Saddam Hussein. Whatever else the enquiry achieves, simply by being in the news the past few months, it has played a major role in Blair losing out in the race to be EU President.

The other case in point is our very own L K Advani. In a dramatic turn of events, -the Liberhan commission report, which was 17 years in the making, was tabled after details of its conclusions – apparently implicating top leaders of the Hindu nationalist opposition in the Babri masjid destruction – were leaked on monday, triggering uproar in the lower house. Personally, I have always found it extremely difficult to digest that Advani and co had at any point acted out of ‘Ram bhakti’. It never was a campaign of moral outrage against historical acts of vandalism or a campaign to reignite religious sentiments in the hearts of the non believers. It always was a cynical political act directed towards exploiting the extreme naivety of the electorate, wasn’t it? Yet at the time, even the intelligentsia was divided about whether to celebrate or lament their growing influence.

Who knows if these two men started out believing in a just cause and simply ‘went rogue’. (Ha ha….could not keep our darling Ms Palin put of this…). Time will tell.

The (Sur)real world of Indian television.

Have any of you recently tried to watch the soap operas telecast on Indian television channels ? If so, you will probably have complete empathy and sympathy with me and understand why I’m still tortured by the memories of what happened.

Here’s what happened: We’d driven off to London for the weekend (on one of our-‘let’s just drive off somewhere’whims). I have to say the weekend went by very well – we managed to catch ‘We will rock you- the musical’ and had some fabtastic Indian food which is always the attraction on a trip to London (God bless the Gujjus).

Then on the way back, we decided to stop by at one of Rohit’s old friends, Neha. Now it so happens that Neha is not just a devout fan of Indian TV soaps but in fact eats, talks and breathes television.

So she told us of this exciting new reality(?) show which has a bunch of guys staying together (No, don’t let your imagination run wild- that just does not happen on Indian television, yet!), a bunch of girls staying next doors with their mothers (the guys’ mothers, silly) and they are supposed to assess each others’ compatibility- the guys and girls with each other and the girls with their prospective mothers in law.

Needless to say there was a lot of bitching, sobbing, outrageous statements a la Big Brother (or is it Big Boss?) and generally everyone seemed to be terribly stressed about coming out of the TV show, having made a lifelong commitment or found their soul mates. Watching it, we went through a complete whirlwind of emotions in rapid succession - disbelief, amusement, puzzlement, frustration, and then downright rage… Rage at the way producers of these shows take the Indian audience to be made up of part cretins and part masochists. There is this complete dumbing down of TV shows and the audiences don’t know to expect any better.

What’s particularly frustrating is the portrayal of female characters: if she’s not running a corporate powerhouse in a sexy mini, she must be a stay at home bahu, indulging in politics of the most complex nature (Move over Mayavati and Rabri, the Indian Bahu is soon going to overtake you), all the time bedecked in tons of jewellery with, of course, a pallu over her head. She wakes up in the morning with more jewellery than most of us manage to wear in a lifetime.

We thought we’d had enough when she insisted there was this other reality show (!!!!) featuring the newly engaged Rakhi Sawant and her partner showing their parenting skills….with other people’s children! Seems the idea is to have celebrity couples staying in a swanky Goa resort with successively older children every week, starting with toddlers. To judge what? How these smooth actors and actresses cope with the stress of being around other peoples’ kids for a few weeks?

I would not even like to venture into what the repercussions could be of one of these ‘celebrity’ parents abusing their proximity with other peoples’ children (Yes, despite 24 hr camera surveillance). What kind of parent leaves his/her child with some fake TV parent to have a showdown on national television?

Tell you what, one good thing to come out of the ordeal was that it reaffirmed our views that we do not need television for entertainment. Looks like the news is all I can watch anyway…as long as its not Star News reporters screaming down my throat, that is!

(P.S.- Interestingly my spell check suggested changing Mayavati to Amravati (didn’t know that was part of MS word repertoire) and Rabri to Rabbi (If only!)

Nick Griffin on BBC question time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlQFvKgPSC0

Didnt watch the actual program but saw the video clips a couple of days later. (available on youtube, above).
Somehow, just came out with this acute sense of anticlimax. I had rather imagined Nick Griffin to at least be....mmm...you know, well read, erudite in his specialised field(!) and a good orator. Whereas he just came across as wishy washy, evasive and in places I simply felt aghast at his assumption that he could come to a national platform, expecting people to believe in his statements simply by sharing patronising smiles and nodding his head. I couldnt decide whether he is supremely stupid or attempting to be supremely smart. In any case, anyone who may have harboured delusions of sympathy for any one of his poilicies, I'm sure switched off his/her television thoroughly disillusioned. So in that sense, we all ought to congratulate the BBC for airing this. All the half baked truths about his party's policy that seemed attractive to some people (they nust have been, for his party to have won seats in an election) were unsheathed for what they were. A truly illuminating episode.

Of the panel, looks like Sayeeda Warsi was well coached in the art of political one-upmanship. She managed to get Jack Straw on a back foot and generally managed to win approval of the audience. So if this was political hara kiri for Mr Griffin, it would probably be a highlight on Baroness Warsi's political portfolio.

'Bharat ek khoj'

Granted I was a kid when this was aired. And this was in the good ol' days of Doordarshan when you didnt know the mad urge to flip between 21 channels in as many seconds. So I still remember some of the old TV serials from that time. Nowadays, aside from news items, I watch zero television.

Anyway this particular title 'song' (its wrong to call it song as it is translation from shlokas of the Rigveda) stuck in my memory and was it a pleasant surprise to see that some helpful soul had actually uploaded it to wikipedia! There honestly is not much that is not on wikipedia at the moment.

Another favourite is the theme song from 'Chanakya'. If anyone has the words, please feel free to upload to wiki! (And do let me know)

From wikipedia


This first stanza is in Sanskrit (Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn 129):

nāsadāsīn no sadāsīt tadānīṃ nāsīd rajo no vyomāparo yat
kimāvarīvaḥ kuha kasya śarmannambhaḥ kimāsīd ghahanaṃ ghabhīram



Srishti se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin

Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhee nahin thaa.

Chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhaka thaa?

Us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa.



Shrishti kaa kaun hain kartaa?

Kartaa hain yeh vaa akartaa?

Oonche aakash mein rahtaa.

Sadaaa adhyaksh banaa rahtaa.

Wohee sach much mein jaantaa..Yaa nahin bhi jaanataa

Hain kisi ko nahin pataa,

Nahin pataa,

Nahin hai pataa, nahin hai pataa.



Voh tha hiranya garbh srishti se pehle vidyamaan.

Vohi to saare bhoot jaatee ka swami mahaan.

jo hai astitvamaana dharti aasmaan dhaaran kar.

Aise kis devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar?



Jis ke bal par tejomay hai ambar.

Prithvi hari bhari sthapit sthir.

Swarg aur sooraj bhi sthir.

Aise kis devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar?



Garbh mein apne agni dhaaran kar paida kar,

Vyapa tha jal idhar udhar neeche upar,

Jagaa chuke vo ka ekameva pran bankar,

Aise kis devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar?



Om ! Srishti nirmata swarg rachaiyta purvaj rakhsa kar.

Satya dharma palak atul jal niyamak raksha kar.

Phaili hain dishayen bahu jaisi uski sab mein sab par,

Aise hi devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar,

Aise hi devta ki upasana kare hum havi dekar.