Today's Special: Made In India

Watched the newest sensation about India, 'Slumdog Millionaire'. A huge disappointment.

Incredible, how quickly a halo can be engineered around a product, service, individual or a country for that matter. India is the latest find of the world. Winner of four Golden Globe awards and one which includes another first to India, 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a thoroughly ordinary movie.

While I am happy to see India and Indians being recognized in the world stage, what if all those that are grabbing attention are the very ordinary types and may not be the really deserving ones in the first place. These days it looks more like, pick an Indian if one is around; from Booker Prize to Miss World to Golden Globe. For, if you take the Indianness out of Parvathy Omanakuttan, she hardly looks Miss World-material for me. While I enjoyed the background score in the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', the track that won the Golden Globe for A.R. Rahman is the typical 'once-heard-move-on' kind that the Bolly- and all the other -woods in India churn out in thousands every year.

While congratulating Arvind Adiga, Parvathy Omanakuttan and A.R. Rahman on their feats, I am finding myself completely lost ...

Oh Eight, Over

An un-precedented year, in many a ways!

And with more negatives to it's credit, '08 seems to have made us all poorer overall. If some financial pundits are to be believed, we may be looking at one of the worst financial meltdowns after the Great Depression and no wonder institutions of the like of Lehman Brothers disappear overnight these days. India participated in and mirrored the global meltdown with India's barometer, the Sensex, clocking an unprecedented fall. India was also plagued by a host of other internal disturbances, ranging from local bombings across India (Bangalore, Jaipur, Delhi ..) to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and attacks against Christians and Muslims in select pockets; events were more of the shameful nature this year around and are not worthy to reflect upon or go over ...

India's first individual Olympic Gold, courtesy Abhinav Bindra and US's new President Barack Obama are two pleasant exceptions to an otherwise disappointing year.

I am happy, '08 is getting over.

It's Christmas!

Given the holiday season, things are comparatively light on the work front and the mood overall is one of relaxing and fun. Chill is in the air in Bangalore these days and that saves a trip to Ooty or Kodai, :-). Most of the shops, hotels and malls are decorated with fancy lights, Christmas trees et al and that definitely adds to the mood of the season.

Speaking of which, a large, splendid Christmas Tree in Leela Palace, Bangalore deserves mention. Around 30 feet high (three floors tall), it looks splendid and stunning in the night. Not seen like this one before.

Looks good.

I gather, it is listed among the best ten Christmas Trees in India, this year. We paid a visit to the place and my daughter seemed 'wow'ed. Many thanks to Leela.

Feels good.

Indian democracy: Coming of age?

The much-anticipated results of assembly elections in the five north Indian states, described as the semi-final before next year's final - the General Election, portents something rare in India; governments (that did a reasonable job) being voted back to power.

Anti-incumbency is by far the biggest reason, opposition walks into government and sometimes it is very cruel when performing governments are voted out that way. For example, in Kerala, elections have become a ritual where each of the two fronts are gifted 5-year terms, alternatively, for now close to 60 years (I believe, Mr. Achutha Menon was the only Chief Minister who was ever voted back and that was more than 25 years back!). This, I would argue, would rob a government of any real motivation to perform because the result at the time of the next election is a fore-gone conclusion.

In Madya Pradesh, Delhi and Chattisgarh, Chief Ministers are being voted back this time around and the consensus seems to be that they deserved it. Mr. Chauhan has been widely accepted to be doing good job, in spite of being an administrative novice of sorts; Ms. Shiela, in Delhi, is one of most gracious of current-day Indian politicians and has been credited with serious and honest attempts in improving the lot of the people in Delhi. Mr. Raman's clean image is helping him a lot in Chattisgarh and he too gets a chance to keep his job. While these chief-ministers definitely have still a lot left to do and improve, it is definitely a pat on their back from the electorate for the good work they have done or the impression they have been able to create. And Sheila Dixit is entering into her third 5-year term, no mean feat for a democratically elected Chief Minister in India. These three guys need to be congratulated for their electoral performance.

I hope this is an harbinger of things to come. Good governance is something India seriously lacks today and I hope other politicians take cue from this. India deserves as much.

5 .. 7 .. 9 .. 11 ...

Picture courtesy : NDTV India, Flickr

I hope, the recent tragic events in Mumbai and the anti-terrorist operation that lasted 57 hours turns out to be truly India' 9/11.

Enough is Enough and it is time India started responding like a self-respecting nation.

Family's Day Out!

Had a nice trip to Innovative Film City, Bidadi this week. A first-of-it's-kind in India, IFC [www.innovativefilmcity.in] is a short 35 KM drive from Bangalore city and fits the bill nicely for a day's hang-out. While the mock sets for films [from which the name of the place is derived] are not done yet, IFC already offers a good menu of items to choose from, for a family; especially for families with kids.

We have had chances to visit the Disney Land and Universal Studios in LA, USA during one of our stays there, so could not resist comparisons with those. While no doubt that, the scale and grandeur of the US-ones puts them in a very different class, IFC overall does a decent and reasonable job. IFC is a curious mix of the Disney Land and Universal flavors, though on a smaller scale. While the attractions fail to really impress when taken individually, as an overall package it comes out OK. IFC needs to be complemented for attempting something like this and I hope when complete and fully functional, this would be something Bangalore can be proud of.

At Rs.699/- per head for a day's ticket [excluding Cartoon City and no tickets for children below 3], the fare is slightly on the higher side but not outrageous. Some of the good ones were Go Karting [family and sports car options available], Mirror Maze, Funplex with a 4D show and Aqua Kingdom with 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum' being the highlight of the day. There were some very disappointing fares too in the stable with the Wax Museum being a flop show and Miniature City also being another damp squib. Food court is decent.

While I feel good about having something like this here in Bangalore, there are some things that every public place in India is plagued with and IFC is no exception. And one of the most irritating ones is our complete disregard to the queue system. And no personnel around in IFC seemed bothered to do anything about it. And this malice was most prominent at the Ticket Counter, where you begin your day!

And I have noticed the typical way one behaves when caught jumping a queue. First he/she displays an emotion [one not in the nava-rasas] and immediately follow-up with a blinking of the eye and shaking of the head, exhibiting a total non-cognizance of a queue in the near vicinity. Then people do either of the two things, the comparatively-subversive ones will suddenly display immense pleasure in having found the queue and utmost gratitude in locating it for them and soon stand in line. The smarter category, especially if they are the next in turn at the counter will shower you with Sorry, Sorry, Sorry [and some times utter words like excuse me etc.] and proceed with the transaction. And many a time he will get away with that. I came across two while standing in the queue for the ticket at IFC, one from the first genre and another from the latter!

But for these irritations, the place is worth a trip.

The Great Indian Train Journey!

Though triggered by a family emergency back home, a recent trip to Trivandrum was a pleasantly memorable one. While we were in Trivandrum, got a chance to take the kid to some of the places that we sorely lack in Bangalore; like the Beach, a good Zoo (I agree, Banneraghata National Park fills that gap) et al. Meeting with our acquaintances, relatives and friends, we command in hordes in our home town was something of a revelation for the kid.

Onward journey, being an emergency one was by air and the Kingfisher flight was a smooth one though at a huge damage to the wallet. Four of us, three adults and one child (2.5 years), made the wallet poorer by 19K rupees for a 1.5 hour flight! The good old days of 'any one can fly' is HISTORY! For what one could fly last year, can not even get to the airport today!!! A Meru drive to the new International Airport from Sarjapur Road gave another Rs.900/- kick to the wallet.

So we were determined to make the return trip a Laloo affair and were lucky enough to get a Tatkal ticket from CAPE (Kanyakumari) to KJM (Krishnarajapuram) with boarding at TVC (Trivandrum Central). Un-like earlier days, it looks like Tatkal today needs to necessarily include either the Starting (From) or the Ending (To) points of the train route in one's itinerary, so had to book it from CAPE. But boarding point is allowed anywhere in between. [that sets me thinking ..., could I have taken the ticket from TVC to SBC in that case, may be that would have been a better choice; something to try out next time].

I am not able to comprehend the logic behind [having to include one of the end-points of the route for ticket booking but allowing an interim point for boarding] this restriction, but have now a fair idea how Laloo is turning Indian Railways profitable. I like India Shining, Kingfisher Airlines breaking even, Indian Railways making money and every thing else in that genre. My only grouse is that all that seems to be at a huge cost to me, if not at my cost!

And the train journey was made memorable by the presence of the crew of the popular Asianet musical reality show, Idea Star Singer, as our co-passengers. Interactions with them provided some entertainment and my daughter and wife had their fair share of chit chats and photo sessions with last year's winner Najim and a crowd favorite, Sannidanandan and the crew. The whole team was very friendly and provided great company for the trip.

Railways definitely seems to provide opportunities to interact with fellow-passengers in ways more meaningful than any other mode of transport (may be ship provides too, but I am to yet go there) and it is brings in a lot of richness to some trips at least. It is another of those human inventions that may never go out of use. Let me add this to my existing list, where Radio was getting bored sitting lonely.