Monday, October 29, 2007

What we should really bother about

According to an ABCNews correspondent,
Technically, child labour is illegal in India. But the government lacks will to enforce its own laws.

What a shame!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

While I was walking

I began my usual walk late in the evening. Fall is more like summer & I prefer the cool nights.
I came out & what caught my attention almost instantly? The sunset colors in the horizon. I generally look the other direction. What I see? The FULL MOON.
I feel blessed. An evening is made!
I am all dreamy when around the turn, I see someone smoke. I kept waving my hands against my nose until I was sure the smoker saw me do it.

I cross an intersection. I smell smoke. US is a huge land. If I can feel the smoke now, what will happen to the next generation? They will live in smoke.

With such thoughts, I kept walking.

A couple of steps ahead, I was still thinking. The moon, the sun, nature when suddenly, *BANG*. I freeze my thoughts for a minute & look up. I see sparks on the road. An accident. No one was hurt, but it was quite a scene. Bumper jumped in the air, the car was pushed to the curb. I went in a little further to check if anyone needed help. The least I had was water & a credit card. Well, it turned out that there were 3 kids in the car with a father(I assume). He was already on call, probably 911. So did not want to intervene.
It took a while to bring my heartbeat to normal.

I kept walking.

I see dead Maple leaves on the ground.
Gosh! I did not have my camera?
Dead things still have life & beauty...Am I heartless?

While waiting for one more signal, I thought, you need to be a photographer to enjoy the nuances of nature.
Well! What a life! Just a little more & I will be home.

I see the bushes, the plants.
Nature is natural. Plants leave out just about right amount of CO2. Give it to humans & they can change the weather globally.

I finally come home. I thought so much. I observed a lot this evening, but could not control my thoughts or mind, forget alone mastering it. Today's failure may be tomorrow's success.
So, I think & get back to the day's work.

Self reminder: Take the camera tomorrow. Maybe I'll think less & see more.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

rendez-vous with a Mexican Mami

I had a rather interesting talk with a Mexican mami(She's a mommy too!!) in Walmart. We were in the same section looking for sweat pants. I was the only other person there, so she started her talk about why she was looking for sweats in the first place. She is visiting her son in Denver in early November & is going to be there for over a month.
I was a patient listener(she was not boring at all). She asked me if I was Indian. After I confirmed, she started the real story. Her DIL-to-be is also Indian. I went uh-oh! If her DIL-t-b was not liked(which is not very rare) is she going to blame the whole Indian community???
Well! She started by saying that she was such a doll. Hmm...not so bad after all. In fact, she does not find any difference between Mexicans & Indians(I hear that all the time) & she agreed almost immediately to her son's wedding.
We had a chat(her talking, me nodding is more appropriate) for almost 10 min. I now know quite a bit about her husband, son, DIL, her sister & mother.
I ended up telling a bit about myself too. She wished me luck & apologized for having taken too much time.
Well! Its not often I meet someone who likes Indians(trust me!). It felt nice to meet her in fact.
Mexican ho ya Indian, Maa to aakhir Maa hi hoti hai.
What surprised me the most was, she never, for a minute, hesitated to disclose that her DIL was from a different culture/country. I doubt if that would be the case if any Indian married someone outside the caste. A million woes, whinings probably for as long as either of them is alive!
That was the thought of my day.

God save her from Denver's winter.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Satta - the game of power

I saw the dvd in the library & picked it up after reading the gist. It said "A Madhur Bhandarkar film". I remember a recent movie from the same director featuring Konkana Sen.
G generally does not prefer Hindi movies(to be read as cannot understand comfortably...sorry G) but this movie made him stop his work to watch.

The movie is in close perfection to reality, probably. It was gripping & makes you sit on the edge of your seat.

It is all about dirty Indian politics. In fact the movie depicts how dirty politics can go. How an ignorant lady is brought into politics & how she manages to entangle all the political traps & set things right. An empowering movie!

When Anna Sahib says, "Satta is an oppurtunity... it is an oppurtunity to bring about a change in the existing politics, an oppurtunity to do something good for the people", it kind of brings in a promising clarity.
The role fits Raveena as a pro. She excels. It is totally her all through the movie!!! Loved the last part where she plays the game :-)

This is my first of Madhur Bhandarkar's films; Certainly, not the last!

Monday, October 08, 2007

The child is the father of the man

The older generation did not ask a lot of questions. But followed whatever was told to them.
The younger generation ask a million questions. Rarely follow what is told to them(by the older generation).

Older generation: Our parents/grandparents, generalized
New/this generation: Us/younger to us

Who is more right?

Let's analyze.

When it comes to being versatile in their likes(I know people who listen from Yanni to Sudha Ragunathan) I doubt if anyone can beat this generation. They rarely do anything without questioning it. Which is good, rt?
They pretty much know everything from Soccer to Carnatic.
They read from Malgudi days to Da Vinci Code.
They have views on everything, right from Sonia Gandhi not being related to the Mahatma to the current Fed rate cuts in the US.
Their knowledge knows no boundary, simply because there is so much exposure in today's world.
I see less of male chauvinism, ego & more of understanding & the need to be happy & satisfied.
Some of them do not believe in God, some say they are spiritual but not religious(thanks to Orkut), some say they are Atheists & do not believe in the existence of a God, some follow natural Guru's, some believe in God, others hate people not believing in God. Phew. What a variety!!!

Our parents/ grandparents did everything as they were told. No questions asked.
They probably listened only to Carnatic music & believed that was the world. Well, they were happy with it. I wouldn't accept that they were male chauvinists, but they did have some ego associated with their caste, family traditions, ancestor's property, religion etc. Almost all of them were religious & "believers".
Wives were mostly at home: Took utmost care of all the children & the elders of the family.
A lot happened everywhere in the world, but I am not sure if they were even interested in it. The male of the family, yes, but the ladies, I doubt.
How they managed to get all their kids good education & a good life after that bites me. They were so contented whatever little they earned.
They believed in honesty, labour & sharing.

The verdict: after hearing both the sides, I have reached the following conclusion(Solomon Papaiya ishtyle)
I think each is justified wherever they are/were. I will not totally agree that the world is a better place to live now, but as individuals/kids/ families, I think we are all better off today. I just hope this keeps going in the right direction.

P.S: Had I not generalized, I would not have been able to write anything. I have seen exceptions in my own family.
I am from a Tamil Brahmin community & hence my knowledge is limited to this community.

Monday, October 01, 2007

I've never believed in the concept of best friends. I've seen people: Best friends today, go separate ways tomorrow(family moves or whatever); people miss each other so much that it affects your studies, food habits, your daily life!
If I look at it all now, I smile.

I am not a heartless person to say, "you are crazy to have a true friend you can trust". I do have a lot of friends. In fact, I cannot live if there are no people around.
Just that, I never really felt the necessity to trust anyone so much as I had my mom always by my side.

I wanted to share a joke, she was there; I wanted to go for the movies, she was there; I wanted to go shopping, she was there; I wanted to cry, she was there; I wanted to tell: someone hurt me, she was there; I wanted someone to share the day's events(be it school, college or work), there she was!!!

She was a working mom, but she was there for me every step of my life!

When you grow older, you need your mom more. I am feeling things that I thought I never would feel. Well! Call me crazy. But I've seen kids(with siblings) fight over their mother-every one wants a share of their mom. Those times, I am so lucky that I can have my mom all to myself.

P.S: People with siblings, no harm meant to you. Just felt lucky today. Spilled it here.