Today seems just perfect. The winter has just passed. A great day full of sun and brightness and warmth and a gentle breeze lavished upon Flint. And nothing to do. That,I think everyone in this busy world will agree is the best part. So I rest in our backyard with a couple of bread loaves, egg, jam, coke enjoying the leisurely afternoon. Having signed my contract for residency, days like these feel eerily like the calm before the storm though.
Sitting like this, the world of yesterday and before seems like an alien world. A world about 100 years into the future. I realize that it is now an active, bordering on energy expending activity to keep your mind away from the crazy goings on in the world. There is the release of the ipad-as polarizing in the technological world as the health care reform in the political world. Personally, apple products appear like toys for the grown-ups to splash their money and show-off. No specific utility seems to be satisfied by them which is not already available through other means. For a layman, that is.All the apple fans I've encountered are also childishly staunch and classlessly loaded. And how can the world run without youtube is beyond me. But then, I'm neither a techie, nor tech savvy, so who knows.
My dilemma as to which phone to acquire in july doesn't end. Although I lean towards the droid phone. I can't handle the fragile iphone, hate the nexus one look, htc hero..hmm maybe. Droid looks cool on their website at least. Then I look at my mail and see this-End-of-Life Care: Withdrawing Nutrition and Hydration'. BAM!
There really doesn't seem to be any respite from the disease and death and morbidity in this profession. Still, I shall keep my mind free and full of life today, courtesy this beautiful day.
In the news though...
The taliban terror rages on, in Pakistan. Yet the US keep empowering that country with everything under the sun. And as I said in my previous blog,nobody cares about people dying..the media is obsessed with the sania mirza-shoaib malik drama. Here again,Bal Thackeray comments on sania mirza make me laugh. He's 84 and he talks of tight clothes of young girls. This after his comments on Rahul Gandhi. One wonders if the old man is losing it.
The curfew in Hyderabad is relaxed. Here's hoping it all settles to normal by saturday, when I reach there.
Alex Song and Sol Campbell are doubts for an already injury ravaged team of Arsenal. What promised to be a spectacle of football is now just left in tatters. Still excited about this wonderfully poised fixture.(2-2) first leg. And then the IPL where Deccan chargers came off as a bunch of retards. It pains me to see such grown up internationals not having the basic common sense to know which bowler to lbock, which one to pick to attack, which batsmen to be given strike. Every numpty that came to bat tried to go after shane warne while rohit sharma was easily despatching every other bowler to the fence. Why not just block warne and let sharma win it for you from the others. No. R.P. singh i must say is the worst and most retarded cricketer I have ever seen in my life. He's the equal of Courtney Walsh's batting and Harbhajan Singh's nonsense at the crease put together. Gilchrist strikes me as a clueless captain himself. I really miss those olden days of cricket.
Now then... that's how Indians get worked up over cricket and me in particular about any sport. But I am here to enjoy this afternoon full of brightness. There, that brought another smile to my lips as I think of it and look around at the lush greenery and the nice houses. Nimble squirrel makes a dash from nowhere to somewhere. 'Ain't no sunshine when she's gone' What a song that can be sung for a girl at this time! Women are so blessed with all the chivalry and such wonderful songs going their way.
Almost a perfect afternoon, just short of that pleasant neighbor who I could have bumped into and had some nice conversation on some good things in the world. But this is good enough, getting to blog about the day, away from all the prides, egos and pettiness of all things human. Won't be long before I go back to encounter them all. So,, I guess I'll stop here and take some more time off with myself and a few melodies from that trusted companion of mine-youtube- in that same bright, sunny, warm day.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
As much as I complain,moan and despair about things in this world- or at least that's how I appear to others, while on the contrary I always insist that it's only my perfectionist nature that causes even the little imperfection to cause disturbance and a sense of frustration,and I am in fact very proud of my nature capable of finding joy in the most simple of matters of this beautiful world-I also love to praise people and things that are good and well, praiseworthy. So, one article dedicated to my british airways flight experience.
4 stars out of 5 though. One star lost to that imbecile at the boarding area. Typical idiot trying to sound strict without an idea of what he was asking or listening to while cracking stale jokes for the amusement of his female colleagues on adjacent desks. Ok, from here on it was all a pleasant time. The plane cabin was clean and the seats were taut and comfortable unlike the ones in Air India(AI) where you sink into the seats after sitting, not to mention the untidy seats. Airhostesses were quite courteous and spiffy too. Now that's what I thought they ought to be before I had my first flight with AI. The crew is lost in their own world once the plane starts flight and one of them was literally shouting at one poor old woman for trying to get to the restroom while plane was descending. Right from where she was seated. And the AI food sucked too. Completely.
Food in ba- that is one of the best I've tasted. Getting every meal neatly packed and labelled halal over it was so reassuring. And I had about 4 meals over the course of the long flight and each one was different in substance but similar in quality-excellent. I think I told everyone I met after that flight about the food in BA.
Entertainment- blew me away. It was perhaps fitting that I got to watch the Heath Ledger masterpiece in The Dark Knight aboard this wonderful airways. Also watched Taking of Pelham, and Hangover. There were a few other very recent movies and I saw on their website that the movies change every month, which is in absolute and complete contrast to AI which had the same old worn out movies during both my trips 6 months apart.
There was one another experience too. In the night when everyone was asleep, I woke up momentarily to pull the sheet over me when I saw one of the airhostesses had come out for something-hair let down. In the half asleep state of mine, it felt like some angel had glided in into the aeroplane from the outside. Again,stark contrast to the haggard crew of the AI.
It was so great flying with ba, that when one of my co-passenger asked for help filling out the customer satisfaction form, I took it from him and filled it out myself with 5 stars in every column and also asked for extra card for extra compliments. Especially the food.
The london layover was funny. It felt like an Indian airport. Many of the shops had Indians at the desk and there were a lot of passengers that were Indians and even the crew at the flight entry check-in was and Indian lady and a sardarji. I mean, that was amazing. The connecting flight from London to chicago was no different. Pleasant crew, amazing food and neat cabin. And this time a scottish dude was accomodated beside my seat cos his tv wasn't working in his original seat. After sometime we talked for quite some time and it was fun.
All in all, an amazing experience, thoroughly pleasant and left me wanting to aboard the return trip as son as possible
4 stars out of 5 though. One star lost to that imbecile at the boarding area. Typical idiot trying to sound strict without an idea of what he was asking or listening to while cracking stale jokes for the amusement of his female colleagues on adjacent desks. Ok, from here on it was all a pleasant time. The plane cabin was clean and the seats were taut and comfortable unlike the ones in Air India(AI) where you sink into the seats after sitting, not to mention the untidy seats. Airhostesses were quite courteous and spiffy too. Now that's what I thought they ought to be before I had my first flight with AI. The crew is lost in their own world once the plane starts flight and one of them was literally shouting at one poor old woman for trying to get to the restroom while plane was descending. Right from where she was seated. And the AI food sucked too. Completely.
Food in ba- that is one of the best I've tasted. Getting every meal neatly packed and labelled halal over it was so reassuring. And I had about 4 meals over the course of the long flight and each one was different in substance but similar in quality-excellent. I think I told everyone I met after that flight about the food in BA.
Entertainment- blew me away. It was perhaps fitting that I got to watch the Heath Ledger masterpiece in The Dark Knight aboard this wonderful airways. Also watched Taking of Pelham, and Hangover. There were a few other very recent movies and I saw on their website that the movies change every month, which is in absolute and complete contrast to AI which had the same old worn out movies during both my trips 6 months apart.
There was one another experience too. In the night when everyone was asleep, I woke up momentarily to pull the sheet over me when I saw one of the airhostesses had come out for something-hair let down. In the half asleep state of mine, it felt like some angel had glided in into the aeroplane from the outside. Again,stark contrast to the haggard crew of the AI.
It was so great flying with ba, that when one of my co-passenger asked for help filling out the customer satisfaction form, I took it from him and filled it out myself with 5 stars in every column and also asked for extra card for extra compliments. Especially the food.
The london layover was funny. It felt like an Indian airport. Many of the shops had Indians at the desk and there were a lot of passengers that were Indians and even the crew at the flight entry check-in was and Indian lady and a sardarji. I mean, that was amazing. The connecting flight from London to chicago was no different. Pleasant crew, amazing food and neat cabin. And this time a scottish dude was accomodated beside my seat cos his tv wasn't working in his original seat. After sometime we talked for quite some time and it was fun.
All in all, an amazing experience, thoroughly pleasant and left me wanting to aboard the return trip as son as possible
Friday, October 9, 2009
The world's most populated joke.
Talking about India,no joke. The joke for me starts from Narendra Modi being the CM of gujarat-the preamble of the Indian constitution talks about some secular democracy- and extends through the 'subtle' nepotism of the shivsainiks and their folk-the preamble also talks about equal opportunity for all- and to the kashmir and such disputes with our 'friendly' neighbors Pakistan and China-yup, sovereign republic,says our preamble, you got it right! Well, I don't know the exact details of the last part so I wouldn't comment on that although so many attacks including one right on your parliament do leave one amused sometimes.
But the cake, the biggest joke is the general naive proclamation of patriotism by the majority of youth in this country. Not many know that a country is made by it's people and not just by a piece of land with borders.
Few examples and jokes- People die every year of some or the other natural calamity. Well, most recently people died of floods in Andhra Pradesh and as a rule, the weather department in the country had no idea what was going to hit them and as another rule, the government has failed miserably,as daily reports come in in newspapers of the officers failing to do their jobs at various levels. Well, sort of a sad joke is that just a week before the floods hit the region, drought relief was being mobilised.
Then there is the media. National media, all those channels almost ignored the floods until quite later. 12000 crores of losses in the country and they didn't mind. Happens. South India you know. Instead, the main story is a metro rail construction thing faaling off in Delhi. Talk about equality.A few years back an aspiring model had taken mentally ill and was claiming to be married to abhishek bacchan-the whole media clutter gathered to interview and mock her. It was a one hour show at peak, prime time on a couple of news channels. Responsible media, my arse.
There was a bomb blast in TN at a station during the same time as the floods, which got ample attention though. Terrorist attacks, way more sexy and juicy news you see. Farmers died by the dozen about 3 years ago in Vidarbha which nobody reported except for a certain P.Sainath of the Hindu newspaper.
Now figure this out- One of my friends, a doctor who works in a government clinic. 3 hours a day in a shoddy clinic about half hour away from his house. He went to school and college like normal people, paid his fees, gave routine exams and got his MBBS degree-became a doctor. Now he works at the clinic. The first month he did his job routinely, like any other job. Going in on time, working as per schedule and returning home on his modest bike. 18000 rupees(about 400$ for my american readers) was the salary stipulated. So at the end of a month came the time to collect his salary.First salary. Exciting. All normal, right? Wrong. He doesn't get the salary. The people manning the finances of his department bring up some unfilled paperwork and some other unknown formalities and refuse to pay the guy. The doctor is confused initially, then frustrated slowly. Then slowly he realizes he has entered the working class of India where nothing budges without money changing hands.(It's actually a saying in ISLAM-Not even a leaf can move without God willing). So he reluctantly shells out the required amount and voila! In 2 days he gets his salary of 15000(350$) rupees. And that's the amount he's been collecting each month, as the remaining one goes into the pockets of the superiors or the clerks who disperse the salaries. After gaining education for years, someone goes to work everyday on schedule, and in the end has to pay his own money to people who he doesn't know, somewhere in some office just to collect his earnings. It's been a few months since I've heard this from him and it still amuses me. Confuses me.
more to come...
Now figure this out- One of my friends, a doctor who works in a government clinic. 3 hours a day in a shoddy clinic about half hour away from his house. He went to school and college like normal people, paid his fees, gave routine exams and got his MBBS degree-became a doctor. Now he works at the clinic. The first month he did his job routinely, like any other job. Going in on time, working as per schedule and returning home on his modest bike. 18000 rupees(about 400$ for my american readers) was the salary stipulated. So at the end of a month came the time to collect his salary.First salary. Exciting. All normal, right? Wrong. He doesn't get the salary. The people manning the finances of his department bring up some unfilled paperwork and some other unknown formalities and refuse to pay the guy. The doctor is confused initially, then frustrated slowly. Then slowly he realizes he has entered the working class of India where nothing budges without money changing hands.(It's actually a saying in ISLAM-Not even a leaf can move without God willing). So he reluctantly shells out the required amount and voila! In 2 days he gets his salary of 15000(350$) rupees. And that's the amount he's been collecting each month, as the remaining one goes into the pockets of the superiors or the clerks who disperse the salaries. After gaining education for years, someone goes to work everyday on schedule, and in the end has to pay his own money to people who he doesn't know, somewhere in some office just to collect his earnings. It's been a few months since I've heard this from him and it still amuses me. Confuses me.
more to come...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
One major event of this life.
The CS exam.The exam that right now I consider as a major incident in life along with the big four-birth,settling down in job, marriage and death. For all the non-medical friends,CS = clinical skills. Officially it's known as clinical skills,but it can be appropriately named as communication skills. An exam where 12 patients decide you fate,you are supposed to go and talk to them,interact with them,console, pacify and encourage them- for 15 ridiculously short minutes and get all the information from him regarding his disease. More importantly,ask for the patient's permission for everything.For example-can I examine you? Yup, you heard it right. Doesn't get simpler than that. I agree about one thing though. The concept of making the patient comfortable. My only complaint is that I think we are taken overboard in making the patients comfortable. And in those 15 short minutes. I mean, personally, I believe in making the patients comfortable but the exam is just a pain. All the thank yous and sorries.
Well, anyhow, that was it. And after about 2-3 weeks of preparation I appeared for the exam. I was just one of maybe 3 who didn' have an accent among the examinees. The girl candidates looked spiffy. The hotel wallahs charged me 1.5 dollars for a glass of water. And when I ordered 2 glasses of water for breakfast and did not have change for 5 dollars-I got to use the phrase 'keep the change' for the first time. 2 dollars as tip for 2 glasses of water. Doesn't get more posh than this. (That is what nerves before exam and a new country,new place, new people can do I guess).
Lunch at a mexican eatery and after checking out from the place that I was staying, it turned out to be a great day from there on. Oh even before that, I hope I made a friend during lunch.We'll see about that later,but after checking out and going to a friend's place with my cousin, we had a barbecue with some friends of his...awesome people with great manners. Felt like schooltime friendship again. And then off to bowling.Woohoo. Sport is in my blood.No,in my genes and DNA molecules. And it didn't take much time that I took to the sport. Spinning learnt in a day. Looking forward to my next outing at a bowling alley.
Next day,off to Universal Studios. Ramoji Film City of Hollywood. Obviously on another scale. Just a place to roam around, it didn't get the adrenaline rolling as much..as another night out at some bowling or other sports place would have done. I felt a sense of stupidity/idiocy though after seeing that the whole King Kong habitat in a small piece of land in there. Damn! So,all this while I was being made an idiot in all those movies. Many such movies with huge worldly destruction-all inside that compound. Damn!
Next day,lunch at friends,then return home and then for a telugu movie. An awesome one at that,starring my favorite actor. Well,it was a great 3 days..but then it still sucks having to live off relatives,At a minimum, that feeling of take is there,at leas personally. Prayers to the almighty, to make me self sufficient and to give me that much prosperity so that I help out a lot more of my friends too. Also,fervent prayers to pass the CS exam too. I do not ever want to face that exam again. Hope this major event comes only once in my life.
Well, anyhow, that was it. And after about 2-3 weeks of preparation I appeared for the exam. I was just one of maybe 3 who didn' have an accent among the examinees. The girl candidates looked spiffy. The hotel wallahs charged me 1.5 dollars for a glass of water. And when I ordered 2 glasses of water for breakfast and did not have change for 5 dollars-I got to use the phrase 'keep the change' for the first time. 2 dollars as tip for 2 glasses of water. Doesn't get more posh than this. (That is what nerves before exam and a new country,new place, new people can do I guess).
Lunch at a mexican eatery and after checking out from the place that I was staying, it turned out to be a great day from there on. Oh even before that, I hope I made a friend during lunch.We'll see about that later,but after checking out and going to a friend's place with my cousin, we had a barbecue with some friends of his...awesome people with great manners. Felt like schooltime friendship again. And then off to bowling.Woohoo. Sport is in my blood.No,in my genes and DNA molecules. And it didn't take much time that I took to the sport. Spinning learnt in a day. Looking forward to my next outing at a bowling alley.
Next day,off to Universal Studios. Ramoji Film City of Hollywood. Obviously on another scale. Just a place to roam around, it didn't get the adrenaline rolling as much..as another night out at some bowling or other sports place would have done. I felt a sense of stupidity/idiocy though after seeing that the whole King Kong habitat in a small piece of land in there. Damn! So,all this while I was being made an idiot in all those movies. Many such movies with huge worldly destruction-all inside that compound. Damn!
Next day,lunch at friends,then return home and then for a telugu movie. An awesome one at that,starring my favorite actor. Well,it was a great 3 days..but then it still sucks having to live off relatives,At a minimum, that feeling of take is there,at leas personally. Prayers to the almighty, to make me self sufficient and to give me that much prosperity so that I help out a lot more of my friends too. Also,fervent prayers to pass the CS exam too. I do not ever want to face that exam again. Hope this major event comes only once in my life.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Even the switches are upside down!
1.The roads-you drive on the right side of the road.
2.The driving seat is on the left in the vehicles.
3 Even the switches are upside down. They are off when they are pressed down and on when up.
There must be many more such things here so,this list is sure to be updated from time to time.
Also,on roads,the pedestrian is the king. It was so hilarious watching these huge, cool looking cars stop for me to cross the road at leisure. Kudos on the overall traffic here. Guess it comes from being so lowly populated. When you land in America first,and start moving around, you miss a camera so much.Especially from the summer of India. The place is so well kept,neat and tidy. I still miss a camera,the index finger tickles and tries to flex into a clicking position from time to time as the thumb gives a grip to the imaginary camera from below.Trees of a particular kind are grown I believe,cos they all seem in such order and shape.
Kroger store.You pay your bill yourself. I mean..just get the stuff checked in(by a machine) and put the dollars in the machine or credit card payment. Awesome concept.Loved it.
The masjid place disturbs though. Everyone starts their chatter as soon as they are done with the namaz. It becomes like a social gathering. A place of worship has to have it's sanctity,24 into 7. A decorum. An aura to it. It irritated me in India too, and it's more so here. But then...well, I just hope to change these things one day.
Hmmm..first impressions of the country.United States of America. Man! people are so talkative.Having little dawats and meet ups all the time. God help me there. hehe.
Edit:Sadly, the Indians are almost the same here. If anything it just increases their ego manifold that they are earning lot more here and that they are in America now or whatever. But it's the same egotist, cribbing personality.It's never their mistake,they are supreme beings but when you give them any honest compliment the cribbing starts instantly.SICK OF THE FAKE SACRIFICIAL SADISTS.Shoot! Whatever... Oops,no disrespect to the good ones though. The good ones are good anywhere.
2.The driving seat is on the left in the vehicles.
3 Even the switches are upside down. They are off when they are pressed down and on when up.
4. The taps ,you just push the knobs to one side most of them.Left side- warm water,right side cold water. But in one home I saw the traditional tap,where you have to rotate the knob and yup,even that was working the other way. So,it didn't move when I turned it to my right and water started flowing when I turned it to the left. Left me in a speechless stare for a couple of seconds.
5 Oh yea. Very natural and basic, But the time.That is inverse too. It's am here if it's pm in India and pm here if it's am there.
5 Oh yea. Very natural and basic, But the time.That is inverse too. It's am here if it's pm in India and pm here if it's am there.
6. They write the away team's name and score first during sports but all over the world they write the home team's score first.
7.It's nokia all over..except in US.
There must be many more such things here so,this list is sure to be updated from time to time.
Also,on roads,the pedestrian is the king. It was so hilarious watching these huge, cool looking cars stop for me to cross the road at leisure. Kudos on the overall traffic here. Guess it comes from being so lowly populated. When you land in America first,and start moving around, you miss a camera so much.Especially from the summer of India. The place is so well kept,neat and tidy. I still miss a camera,the index finger tickles and tries to flex into a clicking position from time to time as the thumb gives a grip to the imaginary camera from below.Trees of a particular kind are grown I believe,cos they all seem in such order and shape.
Kroger store.You pay your bill yourself. I mean..just get the stuff checked in(by a machine) and put the dollars in the machine or credit card payment. Awesome concept.Loved it.
The masjid place disturbs though. Everyone starts their chatter as soon as they are done with the namaz. It becomes like a social gathering. A place of worship has to have it's sanctity,24 into 7. A decorum. An aura to it. It irritated me in India too, and it's more so here. But then...well, I just hope to change these things one day.
Hmmm..first impressions of the country.United States of America. Man! people are so talkative.Having little dawats and meet ups all the time. God help me there. hehe.
Edit:Sadly, the Indians are almost the same here. If anything it just increases their ego manifold that they are earning lot more here and that they are in America now or whatever. But it's the same egotist, cribbing personality.It's never their mistake,they are supreme beings but when you give them any honest compliment the cribbing starts instantly.SICK OF THE FAKE SACRIFICIAL SADISTS.Shoot! Whatever... Oops,no disrespect to the good ones though. The good ones are good anywhere.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Unconditional Love is an Illusion!
Well..the topic title was to be 'My take on Slumdog Millionaire(SM)' but I went for the more flashy one assuming my blog one day would be famous (like every budding blogger I guess) and people would check this article instead of going past it without wanting to go through SM again.
I saw the movie again yesterday and wanted to put down my thoughts on it and about things around it.
http://buzz18.in.com/snippets/gossip/the-ugly-truth-about-freida-pinto/116862/0
This. And coming right after a movie which centers around love. Makes you wonder about the hypocritical people of the world or the degree of unrealism of cinema. I simply burst out into a little laugh when I first saw this just after having finished watching the movie last time. All those awards and stuff, you know..
Well, about the awards,yea-I concur with them. Well deserved. Just loved the editing. Some of the initial scenes it felt like the scissor was working at your eyelashes.SNAP!
And the casting. Amazing. Those kids. Jamal was the endless cutie,both as the youngest and middle jamal. And Salim with that face of the realistic elder brother-not the brutal villainy but just that roughened up look. Oh I just loved the casting. Anil Kapoor could have had better dialogues but boy,was he awesome in his role!Big bad ass upmarket tycoon oppressing the lower class of the society.That is what is termed a winner's attitude in this world isn't it? anyways. But then,as they say-there is no such thing as perfection-what the hell is the deal with Latika Pinto. The younger versions were lovely but whatever attracted the makers to Freida Pinto. One sore spot I guess. Sorry if this sounds superficial,but in a 3 hour movie that is the best bet. You get to judge them by their looks only,so it was kinda confusing why Jamal would go through so much and after such a long separation. They could have done with a better one there..anyways..
Now to the contentious issues-All the patriots in India getting up in arms against a foreign filmmaker not being able to see through the 'dirty underbelly' of India. And the counterargument was this-that it wasn't meant to be a negative propaganda of the region and Danny Boyle sang praises of how the people of the slums were not complaining even living such lives and were just happy and gay about their everyday life. It was a celebration as he said.
It struck me during the scene where Salim thrusts an infant into Latika's arms forcing her to use the kid to earn double money and then "Rote rah baccha,triple money"-Crying baby earns triple money. YES,the kid will eventually stop crying and all that,but while he is in pain,it IS a cause for concern isn't it? So there I felt his 'celebration' quote was flawed. I mean-that is just a wrong thing and a wrong way to celebrate.Neither something that's worth celebrating.Far from it. There are quite a few other scenes like like that in the film,none so more blindingly glaring than the blinding scene of Aravind. Yea, he moves on, on his alms collecting job makes jokes and is cavalier and casual when he comes across Jamal later, but is that what one would call celebration? Or for that matter- normalcy? My intuitions an inquisitions take over me many times in all sorts of situations and thus I am left wondering and cringing in discomfort over a search for an explanation ofthings when I imagine Aravind asking someone-Why ?
Why it happened what happened to him?
Why does he have to endure the life that he has to now?
Taking sides on this one seems difficult for me for now. Maybe someday someone will convince me into taking one side. What cannot be denied is some parts of the movie are just brilliant to experience.
I saw the movie again yesterday and wanted to put down my thoughts on it and about things around it.
http://buzz18.in.com/snippets/gossip/the-ugly-truth-about-freida-pinto/116862/0
This. And coming right after a movie which centers around love. Makes you wonder about the hypocritical people of the world or the degree of unrealism of cinema. I simply burst out into a little laugh when I first saw this just after having finished watching the movie last time. All those awards and stuff, you know..
Well, about the awards,yea-I concur with them. Well deserved. Just loved the editing. Some of the initial scenes it felt like the scissor was working at your eyelashes.SNAP!
And the casting. Amazing. Those kids. Jamal was the endless cutie,both as the youngest and middle jamal. And Salim with that face of the realistic elder brother-not the brutal villainy but just that roughened up look. Oh I just loved the casting. Anil Kapoor could have had better dialogues but boy,was he awesome in his role!Big bad ass upmarket tycoon oppressing the lower class of the society.That is what is termed a winner's attitude in this world isn't it? anyways. But then,as they say-there is no such thing as perfection-what the hell is the deal with Latika Pinto. The younger versions were lovely but whatever attracted the makers to Freida Pinto. One sore spot I guess. Sorry if this sounds superficial,but in a 3 hour movie that is the best bet. You get to judge them by their looks only,so it was kinda confusing why Jamal would go through so much and after such a long separation. They could have done with a better one there..anyways..
Now to the contentious issues-All the patriots in India getting up in arms against a foreign filmmaker not being able to see through the 'dirty underbelly' of India. And the counterargument was this-that it wasn't meant to be a negative propaganda of the region and Danny Boyle sang praises of how the people of the slums were not complaining even living such lives and were just happy and gay about their everyday life. It was a celebration as he said.
It struck me during the scene where Salim thrusts an infant into Latika's arms forcing her to use the kid to earn double money and then "Rote rah baccha,triple money"-Crying baby earns triple money. YES,the kid will eventually stop crying and all that,but while he is in pain,it IS a cause for concern isn't it? So there I felt his 'celebration' quote was flawed. I mean-that is just a wrong thing and a wrong way to celebrate.Neither something that's worth celebrating.Far from it. There are quite a few other scenes like like that in the film,none so more blindingly glaring than the blinding scene of Aravind. Yea, he moves on, on his alms collecting job makes jokes and is cavalier and casual when he comes across Jamal later, but is that what one would call celebration? Or for that matter- normalcy? My intuitions an inquisitions take over me many times in all sorts of situations and thus I am left wondering and cringing in discomfort over a search for an explanation ofthings when I imagine Aravind asking someone-Why ?
Why it happened what happened to him?
Why does he have to endure the life that he has to now?
Taking sides on this one seems difficult for me for now. Maybe someday someone will convince me into taking one side. What cannot be denied is some parts of the movie are just brilliant to experience.
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