Saturday, March 11, 2006
A Different type of 'Ghandi' joke
It all started with a humbling message on MSN saying that my blog was a lot of fun. This was particularly pleasing as just a week ago, a 'friend' had made a joke about me being one of those 'bloggers'. That friend, it came to light, had gone through every one of my posts dutifully before doing the decent thing of commenting about it. Whatever dude!
Anyway, this person who was appreciative, gave me the link to this other blog - http://sidin.blogspot.com
Hilarious! Very funny! I was actually laughing out loud! I did not of course stop with reading the blog.
Odd things catch my eye - there was a link to this wonderful (sarcastic) article at http://history.eserver.org/ghandi-nobody-knows.txt as one of his 'must reads'. I decided not to judge the blogger on this though.
The article was wonderful because it so defines objective thinking - by showing what is not. As a fierce free-thinker, and a consequent free-speaker, and as a further consequence, an open-minded listener, I decided to give the article a fair hearing. I did make it half way through. No doubt a neo-imperialist Jew in America feels pissed at the beatification of Gandhi, but this guy was just wrong-in-the-head.
By blogging about it, may be I am unnecessarily giving publicity to such bull shit, but I doubt anyone would get far with it. I was finding it hard to point my finger though as to what was specifically wrong with this guy. That he hates the Hindu peoples (and their Muslim brethren) and their non-existent values and the country that symbolises that humbuggery which is India is so obvious that it was almost pointless for him to back himself with 'analysis'. But, to pass off a drunken rant as an intellectual historical analysis is pushing the limit. To refer to himself as impartial was criminal!
Here is a sample of his 'objectivity' - "I cannot imagine an impartial person studying the subject without concluding that concern for Indian religious minorities was one of the principal reasons Britain stayed in India as long as it did." How fucking patronising!
Look at this one for a first hand sampling of distorting historic incidents to suit one's preconceived interpretation - "when Gandhi's wife lay dying of pneumonia and British doctors insisted that a shot of penicillin would save her, Gandhi refused to have this alien medicine injected in her body and simply let her die. (It must be noted that when Gandhi contracted malaria shortly afterward he accepted for himself the alien medicine quinine, and that when he had appendicitis he allowed British doctors to perform on him the alien outrage of an appendectomy.)"
Firstly, Gandhi did not refuse the treatment but his wife did, and not for being alien (could have been an added incentive though!). It was because penicillin was a fungal product and for an orthodox Gujju it was equivalent to meat. Gandhi had no qualms about alien medicine, in fact he was a medical corps cadet during the Boer War.
Gandhi was not perfect, in fact, we dont claim he is the tenth incarnation of Vishnu or the like. And India stands guilty of pushing his image to boost its credibility as a nation, but that is only as unfair as the West considering itself the safeguard of freedoms and civilization, based on circumstantial evidence that it had been the first to develop modern free institutions. A nation has no duty to be consistent to its beliefs, and for this prick to pass India's caste system as proof that India is not a moral nation is as stupid as saying that slavery disproves America's tradition of liberty. (Actually, it does but thats not the point.)
Gandhi was not perfect, but he was the closest big name we got to being perfect in the twentieth century. Not because he showed us the best way of living, but as a person, he was awe-inspiring and humbling. And I hate some bugger telling me why he thinks Gandhi is over-rated.
By the way, the Sidin guy is hilariously funny. Did I say that before?
Anyway, this person who was appreciative, gave me the link to this other blog - http://sidin.blogspot.com
Hilarious! Very funny! I was actually laughing out loud! I did not of course stop with reading the blog.
Odd things catch my eye - there was a link to this wonderful (sarcastic) article at http://history.eserver.org/ghandi-nobody-knows.txt as one of his 'must reads'. I decided not to judge the blogger on this though.
The article was wonderful because it so defines objective thinking - by showing what is not. As a fierce free-thinker, and a consequent free-speaker, and as a further consequence, an open-minded listener, I decided to give the article a fair hearing. I did make it half way through. No doubt a neo-imperialist Jew in America feels pissed at the beatification of Gandhi, but this guy was just wrong-in-the-head.
By blogging about it, may be I am unnecessarily giving publicity to such bull shit, but I doubt anyone would get far with it. I was finding it hard to point my finger though as to what was specifically wrong with this guy. That he hates the Hindu peoples (and their Muslim brethren) and their non-existent values and the country that symbolises that humbuggery which is India is so obvious that it was almost pointless for him to back himself with 'analysis'. But, to pass off a drunken rant as an intellectual historical analysis is pushing the limit. To refer to himself as impartial was criminal!
Here is a sample of his 'objectivity' - "I cannot imagine an impartial person studying the subject without concluding that concern for Indian religious minorities was one of the principal reasons Britain stayed in India as long as it did." How fucking patronising!
Look at this one for a first hand sampling of distorting historic incidents to suit one's preconceived interpretation - "when Gandhi's wife lay dying of pneumonia and British doctors insisted that a shot of penicillin would save her, Gandhi refused to have this alien medicine injected in her body and simply let her die. (It must be noted that when Gandhi contracted malaria shortly afterward he accepted for himself the alien medicine quinine, and that when he had appendicitis he allowed British doctors to perform on him the alien outrage of an appendectomy.)"
Firstly, Gandhi did not refuse the treatment but his wife did, and not for being alien (could have been an added incentive though!). It was because penicillin was a fungal product and for an orthodox Gujju it was equivalent to meat. Gandhi had no qualms about alien medicine, in fact he was a medical corps cadet during the Boer War.
Gandhi was not perfect, in fact, we dont claim he is the tenth incarnation of Vishnu or the like. And India stands guilty of pushing his image to boost its credibility as a nation, but that is only as unfair as the West considering itself the safeguard of freedoms and civilization, based on circumstantial evidence that it had been the first to develop modern free institutions. A nation has no duty to be consistent to its beliefs, and for this prick to pass India's caste system as proof that India is not a moral nation is as stupid as saying that slavery disproves America's tradition of liberty. (Actually, it does but thats not the point.)
Gandhi was not perfect, but he was the closest big name we got to being perfect in the twentieth century. Not because he showed us the best way of living, but as a person, he was awe-inspiring and humbling. And I hate some bugger telling me why he thinks Gandhi is over-rated.
By the way, the Sidin guy is hilariously funny. Did I say that before?
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Rang de Basanti!!
RdB is impressive, refreshingly different - it could be mainly Rahman's music which was almost path-breaking. But, though it overwhelmed the other aspects of the movie, the movie in it self was rather a unique product.Acting was of a high quality - Aamir was extra-ordinary, but you come to expect it from him. Since Lagaan, his penchant for perfection has been obvious. But, there were other stand-out performers too - particularly Atul Kulkarni and Sharman Joshi.
Siddharth was the best though. Of course, this has been his trademark character since Boys and Ayutha Ezhuthu, nevertheless his comfort for the role is awesome.
The second half and particularly latter part suffered from the endemic problems in many Indian movies - too much happens, and the care and detail that was shown for the earlier half is suddenly conspicous by its absence later.
Nevertheless, it is a top-notch movie. I would rate it as good as AE was, though they have different core audience. Some sweet moments -
1. The picturisation during the songs was cool, but 'Rang de Basanti' was great.
2. The Radio jockey announcing that they will take a break to play a song, and having 'Roobaro' was Ha Ha funny. But, then there were many such funny moments in the movie (like the one where drunk Aamir talks about 'pissing in the present')
3. What surprised me was how they got the whole bunch of kids to react before the camera with just the right amount of over-reacting and just the right amount of rhetoric. It looked real and that is a great great piece of direction.
