IANS informs us that cricket has been banned in a few villages in Haryana because, in the words of a panchayat head, “[t]his game is making the young boys go astray.”
When will these old fogeys understand that drugs and rock & roll and cricket and sex and so on are all just red herrings. There’s just one thing that makes the youth “go astray.” And that is youth.
That’s both sublime and tragic, but you can’t ban it, can you? Huh?
(Link via email from Lalbadshah.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 April, 2007 in
Freedom |
India |
Small thoughts
It seems that the cow that Akshay Kumar was shown milking in Namastey London is named Katrina. Can you guess what it would have been called when it was younger?
Katrina Calf.
Ok, sorry! It might be sleep deprivation…
Previous posts on cows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 , 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 April, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
Old memes |
Cows
Don’t be taken in by all the activity that’s going on around Indian cricket. You’ll see movement all right, but it’s all headed nowhere.
PS: Of the glut of pieces out there on the subject, I recommend you read ”The Real Culprits” by S Rajesh. It lays bare India’s shortcomings on the field of play. As for the dramas of the dressing room, we’ll never have the full story, though different versions of events will no doubt emerge. (You get a sense of Greg Chappell’s version of events here and here. Ian Chappell’s broadside against Sachin Tendulkar the other day now becomes explicable. Heh.)
Anyway, watch the dance if it entertains you. I’m not throwing any more grains.
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 April, 2007 in
India |
Sport
Screaming fans have lined up outside my house demanding that I post about Sanjaya Malakar. Some of them have Mohawk hairstyles, and some are even threatening to start singing. But what to say? Sanjaya’s beyond words, he’s so good and bad, both.
Here’s my theory on why he’s got so far in American Idol and why he won’t go all the way. The format of the show helps a polarising figure like him survive in the early rounds. If the viewers of American Idol had to vote to throw people out instead of to keep them in, he would have been out long ago. People who want him to stay would have faced the task of figuring out which of his opponents was closest to him, and they’d have had to vote in concert for that person. Hardly likely. (That voting mechanism helped the low-key Rahul Roy win Big Boss, as I’d mentioned here.)
Instead, as Sanjaya’s supporters vote to keep him in, people who don’t like him find their votes diffused among his many competitors. But as the show progresses, there will be fewer and fewer contestants left, and the votes of those against Sanjaya won’t be spread so thin. That is why he’s unlikely to go all the way. A similar case that I’d once written about was that of Ravinder Ravi, who, in the first season of Indian Idol, exasperated Anu Malik even more than Sanjaya bugs Simon Cowell. Ravi outlasted many better singers, but lost out in the final five.
Of course, there are other factors at play as well. Sanjaya has the backing of the immensely delightful Howard Stern, who “hopes to turn the talent competition into a farce and destroy its popularity.” The premise there seems to be that the show is popular because of the quality of its singers, which Vote for the Worst disputes by saying that “American Idol is not about singing at all, it’s about making good reality TV and enjoying the cheesy, guilty pleasure of watching bad singing.” They’re also supporting Sanjaya.
If Sanjaya progresses through the show, expect the Indian press to catch on. Right now he’s under the radar: hardly anyone watches Star World, where American Idol is telecast, and the media probably hasn’t gone to town with the story because he’s an object of ridicule for the American press. But if he comes close to winning, it’ll be reported as an “Indian Boy Come Good” story, even though he’s an American boy. Such it goes.
Meanwhile, for a few glimpses of what the American media has to say about Sanjaya, check out Manish’s post on the subject. And below the fold comes a clip of Sanjaya singing the No Doubt song, “Bathwater”: not quite as bad as the hype around him, I’d say. Certainly better than bloody Ravinder Ravi.
(Update: Comments are now open, please leave your thoughts on Sanjaya. Also, Gaurav has a technorati analysis of American Idol contestants here.)
Read more...
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 April, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment
... is cynical.
So why am I writing this post?
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 April, 2007 in
Personal |
Small thoughts
It seems that couples across the city are holding hands. That too, in public spaces, as if they belong to the public. But worry not: the police is countering this moral, social and epistemological crisis with an iron hand. Aren’t you relieved?
(Link via feedback from reader Annette.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 April, 2007 in
Freedom |
India |
News
A version of this piece was published today as the eighth installment of my column for Mint, Thinking it Through.
Last week I had begun my piece on victimless crimes by asking you to imagine a dystopia where sex is banned. Smugly, I had referred to it as a mere thought experiment. I apologize for that: for millions of Indians, it isn’t a thought experiment, it’s reality. They’re gay.
I’m sure you all know about Section 377, the archaic law in the Indian Penal Code that bans “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”. While it seems to deal just with anal sex, the way the law has been used effectively makes homosexuality illegal in India. Still, until recently I assumed that this law would be used only occasionally, and that too for non-consensual sex, and that gay people had more reason to worry about social attitudes than the legal system.
Well, I was wrong. I met a couple of friends over the weekend who told me about how Section 377 is used as a tool of extortion. Note, I said “is used”, not “has been used” or “can be used”. There are systematic rackets run throughout the country to extort money from gay people scared of having a case filed against them under Section 377. These rackets are run by the police. One example of this is what activists refer to as The Matunga Racket.
Read more...
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 April, 2007 in
Essays and Op-Eds |
Freedom |
India |
Thinking it Through
Eleven-year-old children are having sex in America. Hai hai! I think we should instantly protect Indian culture by banning all television, all books, all films and all music. And ah, clothes also pick up trends from there. Ok, all clothes as well.
Happy now?
(Link via email from Anand Krishnamoorthi, who was no doubt using the internet. Ban the internet!)
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 April, 2007 in
Freedom
The Independent informs us:
Tony Blair is considering calls to legalise poppy production in the Taliban’s backyard. The plan could cut medical shortages of opiates worldwide, curb smuggling - and hit the insurgents.
This is immensely smart. George Bush is opposed to it, but it’s probably about time that Blair said to him, “I’m a poodle, here’s my paw, it has a middle finger.”
And do check out General Musharraf’s quote in the piece about buying all the poppy so that it can be destroyed—what a clown.
(Link via email from Gautam John. And on the subject of legalizing drugs, here’s my essay, ”Don’t punish victimless crimes.”
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 April, 2007 in
Economics |
Freedom |
Politics
An ice-cream vending contractor caught raping a six-year-old girl at Nithari was lynched by a mob yesterday. Apart from the anger you’d expect the crowd to feel, what else did the lynching demonstrate? Their lack of faith in the cops and the justice system, that’s what.
The mob might well have felt, “The courts will take years to punish this man, if they ever do at all. Why should be not take matters into our own hand and ensure that justice is done?”
Now, I’m against mobs and lynching and so on. But how do you answer that question?
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 April, 2007 in
India |
News
