Flags, Speeches aur Dhoka

Happy Independence Day to all. And while we are on the subject, let me say that we have had enough of the up-side-down flag incidents. Total Dhoka right before our gullible eyes. Our neighbors *unintentionally* do it. Careless government employees do it. Whatever. It's not that hard. Orange on top, green under. Orange on top, green under. Repeat. (Or, as Mr. Murthy, our 8th std Maths teacher would say, "Repeat me") :-)

I listened to some high profile speeches today. Lots of words, lots of touching upon *important* topics. At least we know that they know that we know that some things are very important to us ordinary folks even though we don't really show that we care. Yes, it's important to us that people don't laugh at the sorry state of the Corrupt Working Games. It's important to us that violence be dealt with. It's important to us that we treat our neighbors "just as" they treat us. Both over and under the table. It's important that we finally get all the infrastructures that we have been promised for a gazillion elections. Yes, it's true - Not just the rural folks, but today even the ultra urban metro folks need Bijlee, Paani, Sadak, and Aspataals. Thank God and yourselves for Kapda and restaurants. Where are those "world class cities", may we ask? And how can we get there?

Yes, everything that is important to us was touched upon. The number of lines each issue got was, let's say, directly proportional to it's TV value.

Very dissapointed. Time for change. But then, what's our choice? Bad or worse? Time to get serious. We need *real* lawmakers. Visionaries. Not pocket maars who are cutting our pockets, and the state coffers and filling their own. Choor Kaheenkay.

And to top it all... guess what the latest news from the parliament was this week... "All parties stand united for one cause". Really? They actually came together and agreed on something? So BSP MPs agreed with Congress who agreed with BJP who agreed with DMK who agreed with AIADMK who agreed with Samajwadi Party who agreed with Trinamool Congress who agreed with Janata Dal? Wow. Must be of national importance. Of course!! A five-fold increase in MP's salaries was of dire national importance. Great going guys.
Long live the 63 year old empire!

Good night.

Live Peep into Peepli Live

2010 is hot. Many good movies, and many more to come. The awards juries have a tough year on their hands. But as is usual business, there are enough awards to go around for everyone. At least once.

Meanwhile, our local theater is NOT screening Aisha...but they will be screening Peepli Live. I find that rather amusing. Aisha is more generic ff (family friendly/ Female friendly) than the cussing Peepli-L. And while Peepli is hot on my list, I can't seem to convince myself that I'm going to like this one. First off, the genre this movie represents is quite confusing, which makes how-to-react-to-this-one rather a big problem. It's raw comedy, reality style, tongue-in-cheek and veiled velvet glove punches to some major string pullers in our country. Ms Rizvi's use of character actors is refreshing..but I suspect the movie will suffer from a 'Trishanku' effect.. You know stuck between two worlds. To some it is a twist on a hard hitting "reality" of life, while to others it is a comical thing. Some will be emotionally connected to the film, while some only to their popcorn. Some will squirm in their seats realizing the obvious pointed references to themselves, while others will simply not catch every nuance. I am excited to peel off the various layers in the movie... I hope there are enough.