20-20 Weekends

The good life I hear is all about achieving a good work/life balance.  Deepan and I have been working at this – albeit only to satisfy our greed for the performing arts.  But it was only until I heard a few artists lament the lack of time that I realized what our generation is responsible for.

Last night we were lucky to get a couple of tickets for a ‘Ghulam Ali and friends’ performance at the Barbican.  We’d just finished watching ‘Kaioppu’ and were pleasantly surpriced by the ambience and food at the Balcony Bistro at the Barbican center.  All in all, as we wound our way to the exit, we passed by the main auditorium and learnt of some spare tickets available.  We jumped at the chance and in five minutes were seated awaiting the performance to start.

The program was a ‘double bill’ as coined by the Asian Music Circuit.  The first hour was to feature Ghulam Ali and the second hour, a ‘for the very first time’ jugalbandhi (later clarified as a sangam by Birjuji) between dancer Shri Birju Maharaj, singers, Rajan and Sajan Mishra and young tabla artist Kumar Bose.

While what we caught was a clever and enthralling 2 hour marathon of explosive talent, the artists themselves were not content.  They grumbled about the lack of time.  Ghulam Ali apologized but blamed it on us for letting our watches dictate our artistic appetites.  Same with the Mishra brothers and Birju Maharaj who were bittered by the impatient angst of the audience.

It got me imagining how it wd be to attend a festival of such musicians where they could run with their raags – literally and have us panting for more!

Not only had the audience timed their meal last night but also aptly found many ways to show their poor personal constitution for such gourmet feasts.  This they did with their own two hands — never have I heard nor witnessed such eager hands that seemed more enamoured with the sound of their own applause than the discerning notes on stage.  They clapped in confused delight when they recognized a few first notes of a song.  They clapped in skirmish gusto as they pretended to understand.

On my side, sat the audience of this generation – grey with ignorance.  On stage, were the grey legends of our heritage, young, bemused and most of all humbled.

Who said 20-20 is only about cricket?  Everywhere in life, we’ve embraced short cuts.  Progress and a surging economy has got us to throw the row into the big sea of knowledge.  We’ve sawed off the rudder, given up the anchor and have let ourselves loose.

In contrast, just the earlier weekend, I got to listen to Richard Bona.  He’s a cameroonian musician with a band that hailed members from Brooklyn(both suave and scary), Havana, Columbia and Cameroon – – together their band produced some of the best music I’ve heard in a long, long time.  There we were, spread out on green grass, listening to his band engage us with some haunting vocals and the best rhythmic sounds…. how do I even start to describe what we heard?  Bona has a sweet voice, worn with the personality of a stickler and thank god for it- – he does not compromise.  His music speaks of his roots, of African beats and sweetness, unlike any other sweet sound there is.

And then of course there is Kaioppu.  Released in 2007, this is a Mammooty-Khusboo starrer that revives the malayalee tragedy with a bang!  There is a reason why Malayalees turned to Hindi and Tamil cinema and it was this obsession for tragedy.  A movie is good only if every hope is dashed and murdered — in order to jolt the audience to think.  And believe me, when you do happen to experience these ‘good’ movies, you do walk out of the halls like hapless zombies not knowing when you were struck down!

If we see excessive gyrative dancing in malayalee movies today, it is due to these ‘good’ films only.  This was a mediocre performance from Mammooty who tries to shed his ‘star’ status albeit a little unsuccessfully.  The real winner is the script, aptly spinning a story that draws you in slowly and tenderly – only to slam you against the rocks, helpless against the repetitious cruel intentions of inward-bound waves on a full moon night.  The story (as all of these ‘good’ productions must) ends with a ‘tarpanam’, a dedication that wd only make our selfish toes curl. 

I would still recommend watching Kaioppu, at least to support Malayali cinema, even if we’re engaging with mad loonie toons aka malayali directors.

And I really mean that as a compliment 🙂

What is Indian?

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/dont-stereotype-indians-emotional-pm-tells-uk/44143-3.html?xml

PM Manmohan Singh is unable to sleep after witnessing the interviews of the families of those Indians under arrest either in Australia or the UK.

I have lost count of the names.  The media here consistently announces the arrests in numbers and the detainees as ‘suspects’.  I admit I am also confused on who’s who.  In the old days, crimes were solely attributed to individuals.  Today, thanks to misguided trysts with media (a la Tony Blair), we are more susceptible to generalize.

As human beings, we are very much about personalization.  As infants, it was ‘My mommy’ and ‘My Daddy’ and we quibbed with our own siblings.  As children in schools, it became ‘My best friend’ and ‘my group’.  As adults, it’s really much of the same.  It’s ‘us’ vs ‘them’.

Until the terror suspects were identified by origin/nationality as ‘Indian’, I didn’t pay much attention.  Initially, Indian and muslim and I thought — Mumbai — but then when I heard ‘Bangalore’, I thought whoooa!  This is ‘My Bangalore’ or ‘Namma Bengaloooru’.

So the story on CNN-IBN relates is that of two brothers, children to professors from a medical college.  These two kids both earned a degree in medicine from B R Ambedkar college and then set forth on their journey ‘abroad’.  What happened during the journey seems to be as much an enigma to us as it is to the family involved.  They were ‘briefed’ by their children periodically about ‘projects’ that were highly confidential.  Next we hear, one of the sons is in hospital suffering from over ‘90%’ burn wounds, after  having run his jeep (complete with petrol bombs and gas canisters) into an airport wall in Glasgow, UK.

It is no surprice that Bangalore is a regular exporter of it’s children.  While known mainly  for IT-related exports, this is perhaps the first time the city has come in the news for exporting terror suspects.  The fact that these children are also from the muslim faith only further simplifies the matter for those too afraid to think.

The UK government however isn’t seeing this as a simple matter.  They are pulling together the pieces quietly.  The same report on CNN-IBN also mentioned over 30 reports of racial violence that broke out in Glasgow.  Asians are being targetted.

When we first moved to the UK, we heard this sentiment to break up the ‘Asian’ tag into ‘Indian’, ‘Pakistani’, ‘Bangladeshi’ etc — because most people from one country were not comfortable being clubbed with those from their neighbours.  Now, when I read the report, I wondered how many Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were being targetted due to the acts of these Indians.

It’s like going in circles, isn’t it?  PM Manmohan Singh is right in that Indians should not be stereotyped.  And yet, it doesn’t seem fair that we only attribute our positive qualities to being ‘Indian’. 

I feel terrible for the family.  They seemed like just any other set of parents in Bangalore who’s kids have gone abroad to ‘be successful’.  They clearly do not endorce the ‘terror attacks’.  They are in shock and unable to understand what led their son to do what he has done.  Was he under ‘drugs’ / has he been brainwashed?

Think about it.  If one of your own family members were caught in the red commiting a crime such as this, where do you start?

The Bangalore police, the report said, is also doing some ‘investigating’.  That made me smile.  They wanted to learn, the report said, if these brothers had a local network.  This is what I think our prime minister was refering to when he said he was losing sleep.  As India surges economically, we are also causing a shift of powers at large.  Our current prime minister might not be around to steer us but he is thinking about what this means.

Till late, all the terror suspects were mainly an export of our friendly neighbour, Pakistan.  Now, we need to contend with this as well.  These terror suspects are no longer nationals of any country.  They are forming a boundary-less nationality to whom the world is a playground.  Religion is not a clue either.  While the majority might be muslims today, the next generation will be religion-less as well.  What about family binds then?  Did the two sons think of their parents when they went down this path?  We don’t know.

What results is a very bleak reality of individuals who are without any traditional linkages.  For those of us cast aside by these individuals, we will need to reach out and talk to one another.  We can’t go on feeding our ‘us’ vs ‘them’ illusion amongst ourselves.  We will need to include and provide as many ties to bind us to ourselves so that we don’t lose any more of us to the bleak wilderness out there again.

It might just start with the individual in your company that you think is wierd.  Or the family down the street who really don’t know what to do with their own garbage.  We will need to re-engage in our communities but also re-engage with other communities as well.  We need to become more nosy about our children’s affairs and figure out what the ‘projects’ are really about.  We need to drone out the hype from people who are looking to gain ‘public’ favor and instead spend our time engaging one another.

Dear Rajdeep,

Comment to this blog post by Rajdeep Sardesai: http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/1783/jai-maharashtra.html

Hi Rajdeep,
It’s a bit ironic (and sad) to see a journalist be sucked into the hype of today’s media.  Whenever I hear or witness such euphoric consensus (Jai Maharastra), it often turns out to be a hype created to mask a deeper threat.  From what we witness of terror attacks and the culture fostering it, it is quite clear that we need to be mindful of our pasts such that it doesn’t interfere with how we embrace the present.  Glorifying the Maharashtrian intellectual seems to be a very weak boast of a past that a Maharashtrian can be proud of — but please, let it end there.  The reality today is very much like the darket picture you paint.  There are no two maharashtras – the former is just your wish to drool over a past that needs to remain in the past.  We need to start thinking of our past with some respect and not turn it into a goal that we can re-construct.  The wheel of time moves on and it serves nobody, least of all journalists, any purpose in singing in falseto to the past.  The politicians of Maharashtra need not gain their ‘right’ place because of the past but because of what they are doing today(which as you pointed out is clearly not enough). 
We need to concentrate on the now and focus on the future.  The moment we do this, we will free ourselves from the shackles of the ‘First family’ dictate and charter a path collectively and creatively.  The illusion that the Congress party is unifying or cohesive or even ‘national’ needs to die its death(and hopefully without any more losses to innocent lives and careers) and make way for a more creative vibrant polity that we are all ready for.

The world is bleeding

Whether it’s at the Glastonbury festival or the Concert for Princess Di, I find myself envying artists and musicians and their expression of freedom.  The words they sing, emote and scream feel true and make audiences go wild with happiness bordering on hysteria.  Contrast that with our media channels on television and one is constantly surrounded by lies or ‘perfected perspectives’.  Listening to news these days, I am not sure if anything I hear is true or truthful.

My heart bleeds at the thought that we are on a daily basis sacrificing our artists in the lure and hype around television.  Everyday shows on radio and stage are being canned in exchange for more television.  It is true that money aggregates around television in volumes that will never happen to radio or stage.  Yet, is that reason sufficient for this carnage of the arts?

Today we witnessed the release of Alan Johnstan, a BBC journalist based in the Middle-East who was kidnapped and kept in captivity for 114 days.  This is welcome good news especially in the aftermath of the recent foiled bomb attempts in the UK.  Yesterday President Bush pardoned a jail sentence of a ‘friend’.  Watching Al Jazeera, they contrasted this with the charge-less captivation of their camera man for five and half years at Guantanemo Bay.  This camera man is force-fed twice daily with tubes down his nose and throat.  In that light the release of Alan Johnston is not a result of ‘pressure’ but I believe a more compassionate and confused troupe of rebels based in Gaza – a state one cannot expect from the cold and fascist American leadership.

CNN-IBN have stories of the relatives of a suspect bomber/doctor who was arrested in Australia.  The text scripts didn’t state an opinion one way or the other.  They have family members protesting the ‘brilliance’ and ‘modesty’ of their son/brother with no clear perspective on what is the truth.  Here, in the PM’s Q&A, Gordon Brown announced more stringent measures in ‘scanning’ immigrants who apply for skilled jobs.  As a skilled immigrant myself, I wonder what he means.

Can we really fathom how doctors can turn assasins? I think the government and the ‘experts’ on terrorism are for the first time puzzled.  Earlier it was OK to point at certain practices, even brandish the term ‘terrorist’ — as long as they were mostly illiterate, poor fanatics who even without their terrorizing ways would only be found in the bottom of the food chain.  Today we have doctors, sworn to oath to protect and save, ramming their vehicle into an airport with the sole intention to blow every single person, man, woman and child up into a thousand pieces.  This is not the low-scheming disadvantaged terrorist anymore.  Some would argue this was never the case.  Case examples of Al Qaeda members demonstrate skilled intellectuals choosing this path of terror.  Yet, this was not communicated to us.  The capitalist dream of solving all problems through economic upliftment and growth rates is the price we have paid.

A colleague cautioned that UK clubs are a target because a certain ‘islamist fundamentalist’ group didn’t approve of people going to clubs.  It reminded me of similar ‘Hindu’ fanatics back home who believe they have a right to interfere with people’s choices.  It isn’t Islam or Hinduism nor the practice of these spiritual institutions.  It is down to groups of people who want short cuts to amassing power.  Terror is one of the easiest roads for these mad people whether they be part of Al Qaeda or be the President of the United States.

Whichever side of the dispute you are on, it always down to an ‘us’ vs a ‘them’.  We need that seperation to feel secure and yet equally dispassionate to what happens to the ‘them’.  This is the truth of our own failing in tackling terror.  Where are the leaders who can bridge these differences?  I have heard leadership voices in the UK express this and the release of Alan Johnston can be attributed to a step in this direction.  I don’t hear this in the US, certainly not under the leadership of George Bush.  It is almost a year still till the change in leadership in the US.  I hope the Americans haven’t left it to too late.