Rang de Basanti

"I thought people die in two ways...either while screaming...or dying in silence...but I know of a third kind...who die smiling..."....
(if you want to improve things in your nation) "either tolerate things and shut up OR start taking responsibilities for change" (don't just nag and complain)....
"No nation is perfect...YOU have to make it perfect and work for it"....I am no movie buff and I don't memorise dialogues from movies....hindi or english...but these three lines from the movie were engrained in my brain after the 3 hour experience at the last show of 'Rang de Basanti' at Woodgreen cineplex. I know people say that after all its just a movie, don't take it seriously, people will forget about it after a while etc. etc.....but I disagree, I mean come on you have to be serious about atleast something worthwhile in life! If you keep on overlooking the compelling, subtle messages for change and improvement from day to day life, how else can you expect to prosper? Movies are meant for entertainment, but they are one of the greatest social tools for education, for learning, if after watching a movie like 'Rang de Basanti'...your thought processes are not transformed, if you remain the same person you were before you entered the theatre, then I am afraid I find no difference in living life like a tree...you have a life, you grow, you inhale and exhale, you bear fruits and flowers and spread smell and color...and you die....BUT...you do not think...its the air that moves you, its the sun that feeds you, its the soil that holds you...and you...just live and live and die one day...similarly if we keep on waiting for things to happen in our lives... wait for external forces....and do not think and act...but merely nag and complain...we are no better than a tree. I do not want to spoil your experience by narrating what happened in the movie, all I want to say is that the greatest revolutions take place in the human mind first...then they are articulated, planned and executed in battle fields, streets, board rooms or wherever...but the locus of revolution remains the mind...hitting the nails in the coffins of corruption..which is eating countries like ours, 'Rang de Basanti' is not only about India and its aspirations, its youth and its potentials... my hats are off any ways and always for them who have so successfully given 'patriotism' a new dimension--the Indians, inspite of having so many differences in languages, religions, cultures and opinions of a billion people, when required--they have been able to unite all under the tri-color...and look how far they have come and you won't be able to see how far they will have gone 10 years from now, so rapid is their economic and social growth...but the gist of the movie could be applied to any context where the problems are similar....and the most corrupt country in the world is the finest ground to implement the inspirations derived from that movie...that is what I believe...combine 'lagaan', 'dil chahta hein', 'shaheed bhagat singh', 'swades' and 'yuva'...what you have in 'rang de basanti' is equal to that...watch the movie...and wake up....if you don't....if you can't....then keep on sleeping...you are not worth it any ways....eat,shit and die...as a bosom friend of mine used to quote.

What a waste of energy

Leader whose life spanned the Gulf state's growth from backwater to global player, By Robin Allen Published: January 16 2006, Financial Times

Kuwait's Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, ruler since 1977 of the oil-rich state, died over the weekend aged 79, paving the way for a long-awaited succession by his ailing distant cousin, Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah......Sheikh Jaber never lost the trappings of a traditional autocrat. On one occasion in 1979, when Britain's Queen Elizabeth attended a race meeting, she congratulated Sheikh Jaber on his horse coming home first of the nine runners. The ruler replied casually, "They're all my horses.".....Sheikh Jaber was married as many as 30 times. He leaves 23 sons and at least 15 daughters.

Dubai in mourning after emir, 62, dies in Australian hotel
Brian Whitaker, Thursday January 5, 2006, The Guardian

Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and a world-renowned owner and breeder of racehorses, died suddenly in Australia yesterday, aged 62. ...The emir, who had been staying at the Palazzo Versace luxury hotel on the Gold Coast in Queensland, had arrived on December 28 in his personal Boeing 747-400, apparently to attend the Magic Millions yearling sale, which starts next week.....At home, he generally maintained a low profile, preferring to allow his younger brothers to run the day-to-day affairs of Dubai, one of seven wealthy mini-states that make up the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporting nation of the world, Kuwait and UAE also contribute to a great amount in the world oil exports.....the geographic and political importance of Middle East is very important...better understood by the West than the Arabs themselves.... its also the holiest place for devout Muslims....yet the increase in scale of global Islamic terrorism makes me wonder what the rulers of those countries have been doing all along....doing something for their region, for humanity, for Muslims, for Islam....doing something like not only building shining expensive mosques and madrasas in remote corners of impoverished countries like Bangladesh...not only building expensive hotels in sea shores of Dubai...not only keeping large stables and expensive horses managed by white jockeys in England....but effectively establishing a just democratic society by spreading scientific education, infrastucture development, economic freedom...for themselves and for the poorer Islamic nations around Middle East...but what a pity....they are still harboring monarchies.....and are the best allies of the 'democracy champion' of the world--The United States....they even don't know how many times they marry in one life time and how many children they have produced....expensive harems, private jets, family run state, lavish lifestyle and oil....all in the banner of the 'vanguard of Islam'....what a shame...how well they could have capitalised their comparative advantages in terms of natural and financial resources...just see what they are doing....and interestingly enough...world press gives coverage either to the terrorists with Islamic names....holding AK-47s and the Quran with hostages etc....or to 'blessed Muslim souls' like Jaber al-Sabah and Maktoum....who died still oiling the West's industrial wheels and machines....moderate Muslims usually don't make space in international press...as they are still confused.....and haven't done anything 'significant enough' to deserve a space there....note that 'significant' does not mean blowing up a bomb and killing 'infidels'....or spreading the seed around and contributing greatly to the world's population...or flying in private jets where fellow citizens are illiterate, poor and camel-riding nomads. Sad...very sad.

Culture Shock : Part trois : Colors of life

X is committed to developing its policies to promote equal opportunities in employment. All applications will be treated on their merits, regardless of sex, age, marital status, disabilities, sexuality, race, colour, religion, ethnic or national origin. To monitor the effectiveness of our equal opportunities policy, we would be grateful if you would provide the information requested below. The information requested will be detached by us upon receipt of your application and will not be used during the selection process.

White-British

White-Irish

Any other white background

Mixed- white and black Caribbean

Mixed- white and black African

Mixed- white and Asian

Any other mixed background

Asian or Asian British-Indian

Asian or Asian British-Bangladeshi

Asian or Asian British-Pakistani

Any other Asian background

Black or Black British-Caribbean

Black or Black British-African

Any other black background

Chinese

Other

Now this is what they say when they take applications from job-seekers, all the ethnicity monitoring and stuff. But what makes me wonder is their classification criteria for this. I mean you can categorise people in terms of country i.e. Bangladeshi, Indian, British etc. ...or you can categorise in terms of religion i.e. Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu etc. or you can categorise in terms of continents i.e. Asians, American, European, African etc. or ofcourse you can categorise in terms of color....if that makes any difference to you...like Black, White, Brown, Yellow etc.....but how on earth and why on earth would you combine color and country/continent in the same list to classify people?...I mean look at the list above..it takes for granted that if someone is White its most expected that he/she would be British or Irish or from any other 'white' country...and the rest...I don't care...as long as they are non-white. A British friend of mine asked me where he would put himself in that list, as he is neither from the Caribbeans nor from Africa but born and brought up by British parents who just happen to have colored skins...as if being 'purely' British and black are mutually exclusive! It also makes us..the Desi people wonder why the most 'fairest' pupils are known by their names by those who care....and the rest are like 'miscellaneous' ....and why 'some' names are 'impossible' to pronounce....whereas we call even 'Schwarzenegger' with much ease.

So the troisième culture shock comes in colorful ways around you...rules of fair play and ethnicity monitoring etc. are however written in papers only....in black and white....probably to distinguish between black and white....I admit that fingers of the hand are not of the same size...but the issue remains one of the major underlying causes of division among people here.

Culture Shock : Part deux : W.C.

Never would you miss so much the 'gono shouchagar's back in Dhaka or the 'sulabh souchalay's back in Delhi...unless you are in London. As there are no free lunches..and free waters...(ref. culture shock part un)...there are no free...lol..toilets too...yes..in the financial capital of Europe..its all about money honey...so if you need to say hi to nature, you better not water any roadside trees, or put grafitis on walls..as you might get yourself arrested...so what you have to do is to pay 20p and relieve yourself of urgencies. But hang on....where is the public toilet in the first place? Bars and pubs and kebab shops and supermalls and cinema halls and cars and people...almost everywhere you see...but no W.C. I just listened to radio this afternoon that London is planning to get some more W.C.s so that its residents can 'release in ease'...haha...so make sure you know where the nearest W.C. is before you know where oxford street is..as the maps might show you where that is ..but they don't show you where W.C. is.

Culture Shock : Part un : Water

Although its nearly a year late to write about culture shocks, still better late than never. Coming straight to the point, we have to buy water from our university cafes, I have come to know from culture-shocked 'mates' from other universities as well that they don't have water-reservoir or something like that from where you could fill up your bottle, or tactically use your hand to drink some much needed water, when you are tired, thirsty or right after a meal. A small bottle costs 60-80 pence and it takes around 3 seconds to finish it in one go. Whenver I am bound to 'buy' water, I think of my school days in an impoverished, over-populated, hot and humid country and my university days in a less impoverished, populated, hot and humid country, and wonder how the laws of supply and demand fail to make any sense here. When there is more demand for water say like in hot and humid and polluted countries, its supposed to be expensive, a candidate to be sold in bottles...but where the demand is less... like in cold, developed, cleaner countries where people don't get thirsty often any ways (or live on alcohol)...water could be made easily available and ofcourse free....but NO...shock shock !! There are no free lunches...or free water...take it or leave it.

Where the power lies and lied and still lying

This is how the ranking of the countries look like in terms of population, I was amazed to learn that 3 South Asian nations appear in the top 10 and also the combined population of these countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan) are one-third of the total world population (6 billion).

1.China (1,298,847,624) 2. India(1,065,070,607) 3. UnitedStates (293,027,571) 4.Indonesia (238,452,952) 5.Brazil (184,101,109) 6.Pakistan (159,196,336) 7.Russia (143,974,059) 8.Bangladesh(141,340,476) 9.Japan (127,333,002) 10.Nigeria(125,750,356)

After all its human beings who have created modern economies, better lifestyles, scientific innovations and prosperous societies. It was the brain and brawn power of the homo-sapiens, not any extra-terrestrial assistance that brought us to where we are now. So people are the greatest of all resources and guess where in the whole world they are most available? Its a pity how those who hold the most potential are wasting time fighting over issues such as petty politics and ofcourse religion. India has however gone far ahead in contributing something worthwhile to itself and to the world....in the true sense...but alas..Pakistan and Bangladesh are yet to free themselves from the shackles of militant factories and wholesale corruption respectively. The true power lies in our part of the world and those who are in power...the politician species...have been lying all along just to cover their vested interests. Time to wake up, realise where the true power lies and use it.