Goddess of Lost Romance



An ordinary person's guide to Empire, Arundhati Roy, Viking Books, Published by Penguin Group

Roy's latest book is dedicated,

'To those who believe in resistance, who between hope and impatience and have learned the perils of being reasonable.'

and

'To those who understand enough to be afraid and yet retain their fury.'

She dismisses a lot of my beliefs, questions almost everything I stand for (including free-market) and hence makes me look like a fool. Yet, I still go on reading it, and, every third page, turn the inner-jacket of the book, look at her photograph and feel like kissing her!

I'm not reviewing this book as I'm still reading it. Also, it is not going to be very objective.

Roy helps me recall my teen years when I was a romantic rebel and a very angry young man. I love reading Roy because she brings alive that kid in me who used be enraged at every little injustice in the society and was burning with a desire to change the world. Till, like Matrix, computers came and killed him.

If you had such a person inside you who has died a while ago, go buy this book. Roy will ressurrect the angry young you.

Refining Public sectors

I'm a very poor finance manager. That's quite a sophisticated way of saying that I'm bad with my money. I wanted some control and my friend advised that I use two bank accounts, one for my regular expenses and the other where I stash away some cash every month so that some savings get built.

I kept pondering on this idea and suddenly it struck that I don't have to open a new account. In Bangalore, I had a Syndicate Bank account with a couple of thousands lying unoperated. And also recalled seeing a hoarding that Syndicate Bank now offers any-branch banking. Bingo! My two account theory is ready! I'll use my salary account for my expenses and Syndicate for savings.

The real story starts only here.

There's a Syndicate Bank branch right opposite to my office. I went there in the morning. The same high-ceiling with long-stemmed fans whirring away with shabbily dressed men and women seated themselves among huge pile of dirty folders wrapped with cloth tapes adorned the office. I looked around and located the lady seated in the far right corner. I went to her, greeted cheerfully, showed my old cheque book and enquired about the any-branch banking. She looked at me scornfully, and said "This branch does not deal with network banking. You have to go T.Nagar branch".

I thanked her and left. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to attempt T.Nagar. But something told me that I must complete the operation. So I rode across to T.Nagar and landed in the 'Network Banking' branch. This, contrarily, was well furnished, air-conditioned office with computers at every desk. I located a lady in the far left corner. I went to her, greeted cheerfully, showed my old cheque book and enquired about the any-branch banking. She looked at me scornfully, and said "Go to first floor, ask for Mr. Ramesh Babu. He handles network department".

I thanked her and went upstairs. I located Mr. Ramesh Babu, a middle-aged man whose forehead was smeared with sandal and vermilion. I greeted cheerfully and you know what.

He said, "Which branch in Bangalore"

I said, "Millers Road". He looked my cheque book as if it's a fossil sample, went to his computer. "I need to check if Millers Road branch comes under network banking". I asked "But the hoarding said any-account any-branch". "Yeah, but that's what I'm checking". He opened some screen, typed "Bangalore" in one field and a small list popped up in a window. He rolled his finger on the monitor to read them one by one. Disappointingly, "Millers Road is not in the network".

"But it is Syndicate Bank, is it not?"

"Yes, but it's not in our network. So you can't access your account"

"So what should I do next"

"You can't access the account"

"Well, but, Can I atleast transfer the account to this branch"

"Yeah, that's possible. You have to write a letter, attach your passbook and cheque book and give it to us, we'll send it to Bangalore and once we hear from them we'll get in touch with you"

"I don't have my passbook"

"Where is it?"

"Well, I don't know. I must have lost it"

He paused for a moment. "Then you have to write another letter stating you have lost your passbook and attach it with this."

"Okay, how different all these are from opening a new account here. I mean, that would be simpler right?"

"Yeah. But you need to bring a person introducing you to this bank. And that person should have an account with us. With this transfer, you don't need an introducer. That's the difference."

"I'll think about it. Thank you", I left.

Volte-face

As of 15th June 2005, I have stopped subscribing to The Hindu. From the next day, I started reading Deccan Chronicle and Indian Express. As of now, it still is a cultural shock to me. I have been reading Hindu ever since I care to remember and when it comes to brand loyalty, I guess newspaper should come next only to cigarettes (are there any ordinance for referring to to cigarettes in blogs, Mr. Anubumani?). When I was in Bangalore, I was reading The Hindu. When I went to Hyderabad, recalling the old 'When in Rome' phrase, I tried DC for a while but gave up soon to return to Hindu. Until recently, I was quite excited about Hindu's attempt to redesign their layout and even written a piece about it.

So what went wrong? A few things. The layout that I was so ardently appreciating seems to have made a huge dent in Hindu's focus on the content. Over the weeks, I figured that I was skimming the pages so fast I reached the last page even before I finished the coffee.

Hindu, in the wake of DC launching in Chennai and TOI's never-dying threat of opening a Chennai edition, wanted to somehow cater to the young readers. That without losing out on their loyal readers who are middle-aged and above. The content was diluted but not sufficiently enough to make an impact. The result was a very superficial attempt to satisfy two distinctly polarised reader group, which at least in my case, fallen flat. I strangely, belong to neither group. I relish Vikram's endless bantering on Anniyan and also lap up David Crystal's concerns about ethnic linguistic conservation. I couldn't get either of it satisfactorily in today's Hindu.

Deccan Chronicle, on the other hand, feeds me unabashedly on Anniyan to fashion shows to every Page 3 stuff I want. And Indian Express offers serious and often stinging views on current affairs. And this combination costs me 2.50/-. That is one rupee less than Hindu.

My friend and a Hyderabadi, Shyam used to call Deccan Chronicle as 'Indias only adult newspaper' and I used to joke that the publishers should print the statutory warning 'Not to be sold to minors' on DC cover. Nothing much has changed with Chennai edition except that while I willingly seek a Page 3 trash, I have Indian Express to provide the intellectual balance.

Additionally, I think, my reading pleasure is more important than the pride of loyalty. As a rebel, I should initiate and lead the 'Quit Hindu' movement. Recently when I told my friend I did this, he was surprised and said that his dad, who is in 60s, also moved to DC. I hope Hindu is watching this.

Fear - Onto post-production

Film-making, if someone tells you is an easy job, scoff at them. At worst, excuse yourself and go and converse with someone more interesting. In terms of Hardwork Index, Film-making will probably figure only behind coal-mining. The last two days will arguably go into the history as the most hectic and exhausting weekend I've spent so far.

Enough of bantering and now on to the real stuff. The shooting for Bhayam (Fear) is complete and it's onto post-production now. And yes, we've learnt quite a lot during this weekend and now that we're officially film-makers and not an 'aspiring' ones, it's time to list down the learning.

Things that went well:
Script script
Our focus on scripting and storyboarding paid off. We were quick to get into positions and were even aware of the camera angles.
Schedule
Scheduling is essential. We had planned which scene we are going to shoot when. That helped a lot in coordinating with the cast and crew.

Things that did not go well:
Lights off!
My, my, lighting! Both Dinesh and I completely missed out on this part. We were so engrossed with the script, so busy with casting and I kept nagging him on the sound front because I was really worried about the sound recording. But lights? We were totally caught unawares and realising that we are novices, the cameraman took charge and almost started behaving like the director. By the time we overcame the shock and wrested the control back, some damage had already been done. But on the second day, we were back in control, and voila, it was smooth as a silk.

Casting
For that upper-middle class college girl, I casted my friend and, on Sunday evening, on the sets, realised to my shock that she can't speak Tamil! I should have realised it when she asked to have the dialogues written in Hindi! Her Tamil was only slightly better than what Shah-Rukh did in Hey Ram. Then we had her wear her hands-free, and I went into a room, called her from my cell and prompted her for every dialogue through hands-free when the camera was rolling! Problem solving at its best.

This apart, there were other minor glitches such as certain dialogues not sounding natural when spoken out loud, a lady who agreed to do the mother's role ditching us in the last minute forcing us to change a scene, etc.

It may not be the best short-film made in the recent times. But it's certainly the most important one for those involved. Considering that, it was all worth it. On the whole, it feels like we've rushed through an entire Diploma in Filmmaking just over a weekend!

P.S. A few people deserve our heart-felt gratitude. Sindhu, thank you for coming over to help us on a 12th hour notice. Kathir for the on-the-set assistance. Moushumi and Satish, you were so understanding and cooperative, I would have hugged and kissed you if not for that busy schedule. Harish for your illuminating scripting fundas. Kavita Kalyan, you were wonderfully emotive but need to work a lot on your Tamil. Mahesh for putting up with me and waiting in the parking lot with your family while your house was being used for shooting. Vijay for all that help rendered and some work still left incomplete! And all others for enquiring throughout its making and encouraging us on this mainden short-film venture.

Das Kapitalism

In a recent article on Capitalim and Socialism titled Transition From Armchair Idealism, Siddharth thrashes down America and of course offers oodles of praises on socialism. This posting actually went onto become the most read article with 28 comments, the highest I have seen. I wrote a comment too and later, especially after reading the rest of the comments, decided to write a piece myself. There were two ideas presented in that piece, America is bad and socialism is good. I'll write about America a little later. Now about socialism versus capitalism.

Here I go.

Myth: The free market capitalism is evil and here rich get richer and poor get poorer.
Me: Capitalism is not all milk and honey. But what is the alternate we have? Socialism? Communism? Me choosing the free-market economy is very much like people in Tamilnadu voting for the better of the two evils. While saying this, I don't claim capitalism to be so evil. This is the best and most natural economic system we can think of. The derivatives such as blended-economy and welfare-driven capitalism are trash and meant only for politicians. Communism is evil and primitive. The result is evident with USSR and the Berlin wall collapse. And some of the horrendous stories we read from there.

Myth: The left in India are actually bringing a social balance and check to the society.
Me: As elsewhere, Communism is one of the dangerous things happened to India, next only to J&K terrorism. In our own backyard, West Bengal, the most intelligent society in India is in a pathetic state economically. Bengal would have continued to be a guiding light to rest of India had it not embraced communism. I still can't believe that in a state where Tagore, Mohan Roy, Vivekananda and Ray and countless other geniuses lived, the per-capita income is half of the rest of India (leave Bihar out). And today, you'll see more malayalees in Dubai than you do in Cochin. Communism has actually succeeded in driving out hoards of people from their own state to other 'promised lands'. People shudder at the thought of setting up their business units in Bengal and Kerala. We all joke about malayalees running tea-shops everywhere and there's even a joke about Neil Armstrong, upon landing the moon, finding a tea shop there. But the reality is not all that funny. I have travelled to Kerala and seen the situation myself. If this the balance that the left are bringing in, well, I prefer to remain unbalanced.

Myth: Thanks to the Left that the petrol price is under control and various other pro-rich schemes being taking off.
Me: Yeah, thanks to them that the petrol price is under control. And PF interest rate is being kept in check. And various public sectors are not being disinvested.

Well, what is the result? The world petrol prices have gone up, and we are still selling the petrol in controlled rates. Which means the government is actually 'paying' more money from its exchequer. So whose money is it anyway? The taxpayers. Please remember that you and I are actually paying the additional 'hike' money but didn't know it. Not just the salaried knowledge(!) workers. Every individual who buys vegetables to soaps to TV.

The government pays 9.5% interest on PF. They want to reduce it and they can't because left would object. And today anyone with elementary economics knowledge will know that if someone were to earn 9.5% interest, the lending should be on more than 9.5%. In today's dwindling interest rates, the government certainly can't lend money for more than 9.5%. So how do they pay you 9.5%? The government subsidises your interest! Where does that money come from? Your tax of course. interestingly, the Left actually wants to hike the PF percentage to 12!

And the PSUs that are prevented from being disinvested are also being run on your money because most of them run under loss for years and for even those making profits, the profit margins are far less than they actually should be.

The result! The money set aside for developmental and infra-structure projects are being routed for subsidising these things. Recently I read that the BP and IOC, the petroleum giants are pulling out their oil exploration initiatives because they don't have funds for R&D anymore. Their cash reserves are being re-routed to make up for the loss due to world oil price hike.

So that's the result of heeding to left. Our own Fortune 100 companies lose their cash reserves. The growth and self-sustenance plans of these companies are put on hold resulting in long-term loss. And very soon our tax money will go in subsidising them so that they can subsidise our petrol! Your and my money which is supposed to be used for better infra-structure is being ciphoned off so that you can appreciate the left next time you go to a petrol bunk. Did any one ask why your fringe-benefit tax went away? Did anyone ask why the inflation went up post UPA government? Did anyone ask why no money has been allocated for half of the infrastructure projects announced in the budget?

You have the answer.

Why should we avoid bad flicks?



Watching one bad movie per week, if you are going to live for 65 years, leads to wasting nearly 20 whole months in your life time.

That's a hell of a lot of time to waste.

And this statistics does not count the time and effort spent on erasing the after-effects of the movie and also talking to friends on how lousy it was. For example, A Clockwork Orange effect took nearly 20 hours to wear off of me.