| Selling Fish |
[May. 30th, 2006|06:59 pm] |
It seems the colour of the season is to compartmentalise people.So everywhere I go people hand out membership cards of various clubs.You have the pro-reservation,anti-reservation.You also have anti-anti-reservation.Now on top of it these groups have been further mixed and matched by certain people to form 'categories'.I sincerely hope this is not a ploy to be used later for more reservations.
Now,coming back to point,I was back home this week and I asked my uncle who's an MP what he thought of the present imbroglio.For the unintitiated he hails from the BJP.He in the strongest of words opposed the move,I asked then why don't you say something in the parliament.He said if we oppose it then tomorrow in the election this will be the only issue.There are people in his party who support it.And I guess,as it is the BJP is not having too good a time in the political arena.It seems politicians who feel against the matter feel they can do little and feel they need to hang in there so that atleast in other matters they can exert some influence.
If I remember correctly,a few months back the govt. said it will increase the number of IITs,essentially meaning that it will give more funding to some selected colleges and grant them IIT status.I came to know of this via a yahoo offliner which said something like Doom of IITs. I think we have a decent number of engineering colleges in the country(in fact ,I believe,some states like AP never fill enough students).Most people said this move would dilute the brand name of IITs and leave no difference between them and other colleges.
Now move forward 6 months and the Govt passes this bill and what do we say (I emphasise 'we' so plz dont flame me claiming I belong to one of the above mentioned categories),why are you snatching my seats and giving it to some rich dude whose ancestors were exploited by mine.
Hence,Everyone is selfish,the MPs,me and all categories mentioned here and everywhere else.Why then does the government stop selfish people from using their selfish motives to help educate people.Why does anyone who wants to open a school in India need a license from a babu stating that a school is necessary in the locality.I think,if we let his selfish interest of earning money govern his interest in education we will definitely increase the number of people with decent primary education.Private schools have a growth rate matched only by the IT industry but I guess it does not serve the selfish interest of people like my uncle to pay heed to this.
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I found out that Kareena kapoor is dumb in the movie Chup chup ke.So,the title is supposed to be a pun as well.It seems hindi movies are increasingly finding it difficult to show normal people falling in love.You have Tom,Dick and Harry who are modern day versions of Gandhiji's three monkeys, Pyare,Mohan, Kajol in Fanaa,Black and a few more (which I have lost track off) all showing physically challenged people falling and rising in love.
Also Kareena playing a dumb girl something I feel she should do effortlessly and with much more aplomb then some of the other roles she has done.Despite her being in it,
,I can't wait for Omkara,which is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello.Vishal Bharadwaj's Maqbool totally blew me away and forced me to read the play later.This time I plan to read the play first.
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I just figured if Kareena kapoor married Shahid,she wont have to change her surname :p and I am sorry doing a TOI with the title,could not think of anything else.
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I know this turned out to be much longer then it was supposed to be,so whoever read all of this can comment to get coffee at shack. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 30th, 2006|12:55 pm] |
I was told that Vikram Seth was a writer who took more lines to describe things (say roads) then their own length,someone also told me he was gay.Once while scouting for books in the liby I laid my hands on 'A suitable Boy' but the sheer volume of the book was enough to forget about issuing the book.But despite all this everytime I would ask strominacup which book to buy,he would say Golden Gate.So on last week I bought a second hand copy of the book from Flora Fountain.
Opening the book in the train first thing I notice is a dedication, and it seems for novels in verse dedications are also supposed to be in verse.
'Twas the 22nd of April,
Last saturday eve
Endless shifts of cooking,
The need for reprieve
Thought,"A whisky would be nice,
Drunk preferably on ice;
So off I ran
Lest awry,went the plan-
To the local,CLub IX,
The mood,far from subhive!!
Thru' the smoke and the din
Like an apparition ,she waltzed in~
Sincerely and tall
With no care at all
Lithe and graceful
With a smile,that proved fatal!!
My actions ... involuntary ,
Her reaction...f*** curiosity?
At once did she agree
TO my absurd decree,
And has reduced me
Into writing poetry?!
( the *** is not an expletive,I was not able to understand the handwriting.)
Contorary to whatever I was told,the book is an amazing read.Could not believe poetry could bring me such pleasure (as one of my friends would like to call it almost orgasmic).
Also finished reading the Kite runner,liked that one also.What is especially nice is the way the relationship between the boy,Amir and his father is described.I guess we all have had times when we thought the attention of one of our parents should be directed only towards us and no-one else.Also the book says so much about Afghanistan without giving unnecessary details about the Taliban etc.
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It might seem that I tend to like every book I read and describe them with similar adjectives all the time,but that is basically thanks to my restricted vocabulary. |
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| Of lines and shadows |
[May. 25th, 2006|12:42 am] |
| [ | music |
| | High speed traim -REM | ] |
"..It is this that sets apart the thousand million people who inhabit the subcontinent from the rest of the world-not language,not food,not music-it is the special quality of loneliness that grows out of the fear between oneself and ones's image in the mirror."
One of the best lines about riots I have ever read.The lines I quoted are from "The Shadow Lines" .I read a used copy of this book.Such books come with all kinds of stuff written over them.I remember reading Freedom at Midnight from a copy which made one such reader's views clear for anyone reading it in the future.It had comments about the politicians being talked about on that particular page.For example most of the parts with Nehru had "Nehru was a c*****" written over it.Others,like my copy of GWTW have cute messages written on the opening page.But this is the first time I read a book which had been used,I presume,by a Literature student.This had things like narrator's point of view,meanings of words written all over the intital pages.Then it seems the reader(like most students who make notes) got bored and did this on a on and off basis.Meanwhile,the parts which seem important from an exam point of view (the critical essays) are full of underlinings and all forms of bracketing.I guess some things never change.
I dont know why I end up liking novels which have biographical narratives where the protagonist is undergoing an identity crisis and which have a strong sense of history attached to them.I think I made the last line seem very weird,so just to make things simpler will just list the books and those who have read them can figure it out for themselves, Midnight's Children,Roots,Shadow Lines,Gone with the wind. |
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