My Uncle. My Hero

He was the closest I had to a childhood hero. My earliest memory ever is probably of his wedding. I got to wear a maroon safari suit for the reception. That and the fact that it rained for the wedding.
The other enduring memories from those days is getting up early in the morning at 5 am to watch India play Australia and New Zealand Down Under. It used to be in winter and we used to sleep on the sofa or settee with blankets and enjoy those matches. He introduced me to all the cricketers and explained the nuances of the game, hooking me forever on to the game.

Those were the days.

I used to voraciously devour all the cricket books and sports magazines of which he had an endless supply getting introduced to the history of the game as well as keep up with the latest goings on in the world of sport.

I also used to go with him to Khar Gymkhana where he taught me how to swim. We would then have batata wada or sandwiches and come back home.

Watching cricket matches from the Pavilion due to the free tickets that he always had was another thrill.
In addition to all this he was always a character to be around with. His understated sense of humour. His idiosyncracies or his mannerisms which at one time I would try to imitate thinking they were cool or funny.
His crazy comments or phrases which I would repeat.
"aluwadi dhingawadi sore bhomchi'
'Peter Pumpkin eater'

It was a shock when I came to know about his illness and tried to block it out thinking that like a bad dream it would all go away. Being so far away there was nothing I could do and could not even bring myself to call him and talk to him regularly in the last few months.
Just kept hoping that somehow like the true sportsman that he was, he would carry on his innings for some more time which would give me the chance to meet him once again when I came back.
It was not to be............................


Kumar Kaka I will not miss you as you will always be there with me wherever I am.

Slumdog Euphoria

I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire a few weeks back. Before all this Golden Globe and Oscar hoopla. It came highly recommended from a variety of sources.

When I entered the theater I was surprised to see that it was almost full. And this was six weeks into its run. Normally here in the US, viewership tapers off after the first month and you will barely get twenty people for any show. (I have in fact been to a show where me and a friend were the only people in the hall!!)

Anyway, a part of me felt some pride that there was this huge crowd who wanted to see a movie about India. As the movie unfolded on the screen I began to feel a bit awkward with the way India was being depicted. With all its cliches of poverty, crime, police brutality etc.
Also I started feeling that these foreigners were not getting their money's worth because some of the best dialogues or exchanges between the child actors were in Hindi and the subtitles did not have the same impact or punch.

At the end of the movie as I was moving out I again felt that it was a good movie and still feeling good that Hollywood had attempted to make a full scale film on India with Indian actors and locales.

Later on however as I thought about it more, I realized that all this movie had glorified was the squalor, lawlessness and poverty of India. And that, more than the actual storyline or acting was what was making it popular with the western world.

Thinking more about it I realized that most of the India centric movies which have become popular here and got the awards had this same theme. Extreme poverty, resilience of the poor, exploitation and or emancipation by some enlightened foreigner. Salaam Bombay, City of Joy, Lagaan jump up immediately.

A feel good movie about the middle class like say Taare Zameen Par which did not focus on India specific issues but on something more common or western like dyslexia does not interest the mass or the class here.

Well I don't have problems with that though. Its their choice as to what they like and what they don't. Who am I to pontificate to them.
The reactions in India have as usual been wildly extreme. Some falling over themselves to gush over the movie and the way its been made etc etc just because its a Hollywood production. Others taking the standard anti-colonial stance of "How can these people show my country in this way and propagate stereotypes".

When Amitabh Bachchan said very strongly that there is an underbelly in every western city, he was right. However he did not acknowledge that there are movies made about this too over here. Hollywood has never shied away from making movies about these seamy topics. For instance LA Confidential and Serpico were about corruption in the Police Force, On the Waterfront about dock mafia, The Color Purple about racism and segragation. So the point made is not really valid. Just a means of sensationalizing or an attempt to cash in on the popularity of a topic. (A week later he recanted saying that SM was a beautiful movie and the previous comments made on his blog were not written by him after all!!!!!!!)

We need to stop being so sensitive about criticism and external approval. Why do we look at affirmation from the west that we are a modern and progressive nation.
The day we stop this and start looking inward and show more maturity in these matters, I think will mark the time that we became a nation which is respected and considered as an equal.

Back to the Mumbai Attacks

I had some interesting comments on my earlier blog regarding the involvement of locals in the Mumbai attacks.
"how many americans were involved in 9/11" !!! I have never thought of that.

But then looking back this is different. If there were local supporters for thoose, they would also have been immigrants and not people born and brought up here.

In india we do not have any such immigration (other than bangladeshi). Any local support would have to be Indians who are just out to cause harm to the nation.

Also the hijackers had been in the country for quite some time and even enrolled in flying classes so there was sufficient time for them to get acclimatised.

The Pak terrorists just walked in on to the Gateway and started shooting.

Mumbai Terror Attacks- My thoughts

Some thoughts on the Mumbai terror attack of last year.

India is currently exclusively focussed on the Pakistani involvement in these attacks. This seems to have deflected the attention completely away from introspection into our own internal security.

Nobody is even asking as to what support these people got from local elements. I find it impossible to believe that 10 foreign kids could come into our country by boat and then navigate our streets expertly get into and barricade themselves into 5 star hotels for over 4 days without any support from locals.

Is there any investigation happening into that. Is our media looking into this. All the news that I read on indian websites is about "No action being taken by pakistan".

What about action being taken by India on our internal security.  What about looking into sleeper cells and finding out what are the next steps. What about improving our police forces and eliminating political control over them.

I believe the Supreme Court had come up with a suggestion some years back that Police reforms are required to make our country more secure and more democratic. 

But that has been conveniently ignored.

Just yesterday I read on rediff.com that the lady who saw the terrorists land at the Fishermen's Colony has gone missing !!!!!!!!!!! 

How could that happen. And then someone says that this is not important as she is not a material witness!!!!!!!!!!!! So it doesn't matter if she DISAPPEARS??

My theory: She has probably seen more than 10 people land and now these guys don't want that information coming out during investigation.

Again I find it very difficult to believe that this was done by just 10 people.

More on Conspiracy Theories later