Category Archives: India
The Times of India reports:
Can buffaloes be included under a slum rehabilitation scheme and packed off in 225 square feet apartments? That’s the question raised by a petition before the Bombay high court challenging a proposed scheme by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority on a large plot of land in Malad (East).
Read the full report—this is not a story about buffaloes, but about property rights. And government—right at the end of the piece, we are informed that “the petitioners had not furnished licences from the cattle controller.”
Arbit question of the day: Can one bribe a cattle controller with milk?
(Link via email from JSV. 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, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 November, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
This is quite the headline of the day:
Dhoni’s dream of owning 9mm pistol coming true
I especially like the bit in the story that explains that “Dhoni need not produce a ‘character certificate’ as he is a famous cricketer and hails from Ranchi.”
Now, if he was a famous cricketer from anywhere but Ranchi…
Posted by Amit Varma on 19 November, 2008 in
India |
News |
Sport |
WTF
Long, long ago, my good friend Aftab wrote about the Amartya Sen Fallacy, which he illustrated with the following chain of reasoning:
1. We need government-run schools because private schools aren’t up to the task
2. But government schools aren’t doing a great job either, the reason is that competition from the private tuitions are taking resources away from them.
3. Hence we should ban private tuitions.
So what reminds me of the Amartya Sen Fallacy today? This post by Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch:
In August I wrote about a carpooling startup called PickupPal. The idea is that people can gather on the site to find others traveling to the same places, and carpool there to save gas.
Great idea, right? Wrong. The bus companies freaked and sued under an Ontario law that limits carpoolers to traveling only from home to work and back, riding with the same driver every day and paying only by the week, among other restrictions. [...]
Anyway, the court case was decided and PickupPal lost.
For Indians, especially, this kind of thinking will surely seem familiar. I asked some friends on an email group for examples. Mohit Satyanand wrote, “The most egregious parallel is in education, where anyone seeking to set up a school has to obtain an ‘Essentiality Certificate’ from the local Education officials which is issued after they ascertain that the proposed venture will not have any impact on the schools already operating in the vicinity.” (More on this from me.)
And Devangshu Datta said: “FM channels and foreign-owned magazines cannot disseminate news. Technically the FM guys are in violation when they warn you that there’s a traffic jam.”
And then there’s our Department of Posts:
Most people prefer to have a courier collect mail for delivery instead of standing in line at the local post office. Hence it is not surprising that India’s Department of Posts has been feeling threatened by the courier industry, which is now worth US$800 million in India.
The result of the department’s insecurity is a proposal to amend the Indian Post Office Act, 1898 to ban private courier companies from carrying packages that weigh less than 500 grams and to make carriage of this category of parcels the exclusive domain of the Indian Post Office. The proposed amendment also seeks to raise the registration fees for courier companies to about US$2,272, with renewal fees of about US$1,136 a year.
Sigh.
(Tech Crunch link via email from Visu.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 16 November, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
WTF
The WTF line of the day comes from Rediff:
A beaming Tricolour will flutter on the moon now.
I never knew flags could show emotion or something could flutter on the moon, but what would I know, I’ve never been up there with a flag. And this is also very funny.
There will be much celebration this week on India reaching the moon, but I’m not sure if the benefits of getting there are worth the cost to the taxpayer. Unless that flag really is fluttering, and we can be the first nation to open a golf course on the moon.
Posted by Amit Varma on 15 November, 2008 in
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes |
WTF
Gaurav points me to this modern retelling of Noah’s Ark, which serves as a nice little parable about government regulation.
And can you imagine Rama’s men building a bridge to Lanka in modern India? I can see Rama at the local government office asking for a license to build the bridge. “Why do you need to build this bridge?” he is asked. Rama tells them that his wife’s been kidnapped. “File an FIR first at the local police station.”
So Rama lands up at the local police station to file an FIR. “Hmm,” says the inspector in charge. “First I need birth certificate, as proof that you exist. Then marriage certificate. Then ration card. Then pan number. Then chai-paani.”
Rama, with Laxmana’s help, provides the documents and a cup of hot tea. “This is not what I mean by chai-paani,” says the inspector, “but never mind. See, I can’t file your FIR because the kidnapping did not take place in my jurisdiction. You need to file it in the local police station there.”
Elsewhere Hanuman, caught trying to leap over the sea into Lanka, has been detained at customs because his passport is not in order. It’s all a mess.
Posted by Amit Varma on 15 November, 2008 in
Freedom |
India
Sonia-ji, Rahul-ji and Priyanka-ji.
Posted by Amit Varma on 14 November, 2008 in
India |
Politics
Rediff reports the WTF news of the day:
The Gandhi Monument Council, headquartered in the United States of America, has approached mayors of 185 cities in 39 countries to name a major street after Mahatma Gandhi .
The cities contacted included hugely-populated ones like Seoul (peopled by over 10 million), Tokyo, New York and London, to sparsely populated ones like Eschen (in Liechtenstein, with a population of about 4,000), Valletta (Malta), Encamp (Andorra), Dudelange (Luxembourg), a press release from the GMC stated.
The office bearers of the GMC have begun a hunger strike that they have promised not to end until all the cities comply.
Ok, fine, I made that last line up. But not the first two. If Gandhi himself was alive, I suspect he might have taken a break from ahimsa and strangled these GMC dudes with some homespun khadi threads. He was a master of using symbolism to inspire people—that charkha, that fistful of salt etc—but it was always tactical, aimed at fulfilling a higher purpose. This is just pointless idol worship.
(Link via email from Rajeev Mantri.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 November, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
Just yesterday the Indian media was jumping up and down in celebration because they had discovered an Indian name among Barack Obama’s advisors—that of Sonal Shah of Google.org. Well, now they’re all jumping up and down in righteous indignation because she was once allegedly linked to the VHP. My friend Reuben Abraham knows Shah well, and delivers an impassioned defense:
As a friend of mine said at the time, these people are doing to Sonal exactly what the right-wing loonies tried to do to Barack Obama with the Bill Ayers story, i.e., guilt by association. If you have made the mistake of being somewhere near Bill Ayers, by definition, you’re “palling with the terrorists.” This is vile. This is wrong. This is destructive. This is disgusting. And this is precisely the sort of vile politics that the United States needs a break from; the sort of politics the average person is tired of, if Obama’s mandate is anything to go by.
More than Reuben’s personal testimony, Shah’s record speaks for itself:
While she was at Clinton’s treasury department, she worked actively in Kosovo and Bosnia in setting up the central banking system and refloating the currency, both measures vital to the stability of the new states, and especially in preventing hyper-inflation. She also worked in Indonesia during the Asian financial crisis with Robert Rubin’s team. Lest the irony be lost, all three countries are predominantly muslim, not exactly the natural home of the anti-muslim fundamentalist some of these news reports imply Sonal is.
Fawzia Naqvi, a Pakistani Muslim, also pitches in for Shah in Reuben’s post.
If the elections were still on, poor Obama would no doubt be accused of “palling around with Hindu fundamentalists”.
*
Imagine this: You die, get to Heaven, and God greets you at the door. “Let me in,” you say. “I’ve been good all my life, I’ve helped old ladies cross the road, administered first aid to a fly, procreated for the grace of God, I mean You. Now let me into Heaven.”
“Aha,” says God. “You didn’t read the small print. The large print in the contract says that you don’t get into heaven if you have sinned. The small print says that you don’t get into heaven if anyone you know has sinned.”
“Anyone I know?” you protest. “But that’s absurd.”
“That’s the way it is,” says God. “And if no one you know has sinned, I might just invoke the six-degrees clause. You thought Earth had global warming. You ain’t seen Hell yet.”
Posted by Amit Varma on 10 November, 2008 in
Dialogue |
India |
Journalism |
Media |
Politics
PTI reports:
Bhartiya Janshakti Party (BJS) National President Uma Bharti today blamed the media for blowing out of proportion the incident when she had slapped twice a worker of her party at Chhindwara.
“My slapping the worker was not a big deal at all but the only thing was that it was captured on camera by a private news channel,” she told PTI.
[...]
Bharti said that had the incident not been captured on camera, no one would have come to know about it and the person who was slapped would also not have left the party.
In other words, if it’s not on the news channels, it didn’t happen, it doesn’t matter. What to do about people who treat life like a reality show?
(Link via separate emails from Pritish and Sanj.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 November, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
Rohan D’Sa of Daily Humor sends a correspondent to interview Anbumani Ramadoss. Here’s what happens next:
(Comic reproduced with permission. If you enjoy such comics, also check out Fly, You Fools. Excellent stuff.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 November, 2008 in
Freedom |
India
IANS reports from Lucknow:
With an estimated 3,000 monkeys at large in certain residential areas of the Uttar Pradesh capital, local authorities are chasing the animals on a war footing, particularly after a child lost his life to a marauding simian pack.
[...]
After chasing monkeys for nearly 48 hours, they had their first success on Tuesday afternoon when they trapped two monkeys.
So after “nearly 48 hours” of being on a “war footing”, our state authorities caught 2 out of 3000 monkeys. I’m just glad they didn’t shoot a couple of stray cats in an encounter.
It seems that the municipality had tried to catch monkeys earlier in a public-private partnership with “monkey catcher Harbans Singh”, who IANS quotes as saying:
Earlier I have trapped as many as about 500 monkeys, but my bill for more than 100 monkeys was pending for more than two years. So how do you expect me to do anything?
So now the government is doing the job itself. I can imagine Mayawati sending a minister to Lucknow to question the official monkey catchers on their progress. He walks into their office and asks, “Hello boys, how’s it going?” And then they jump on him with a net and pin him down. The local counselor asks, in horror, “What are you doing?” And they say, “We caught a third monkey! We caught a third monkey! Give advance Diwali bonus!”
Previous post on monkeys: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 November, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
If anthropologists from 300 years later see the screenshot below, of the Times of India’s headlines right now, I wonder what conclusions they will draw:
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 November, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media
Heh.
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 November, 2008 in
India
Here’s the WTF headline of the day:
Ganga to be declared a national river
I’m baffled about what purpose is served by declaring Ganga to be “a national river”. Protecting “the ancient river from pollution and other degradation” is a worthy cause, but why do they need to declare it a national river for that?
I now demand that India be declared our national country. Maybe then the government will look after it as well.
Posted by Amit Varma on 06 November, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
PTI reports:
Accusing Hindi news channels of orchestrating an anti-Maharashtra campaign on the small screen, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday warned them of a “fitting response” to protect the image of the state.
Referring to NCP president Sharad Pawar’s reported refusal to speak to the media for distorted coverage, the Sena mouthpiece—Saamna—said, “Pawar has given a verbal lashing to these elements but this may not suffice while dealing with those bent on defaming Maharashtra.”
[...]
“Maharashtrians are being projected as an uncivilised and violent community on the basis of isolated incidents happened recently,” it said.
If anyone is distorting the news, it’s Saamna—nowhere in the media have Maharashtrians been projected as “an uncivilised and violent community”. Maharashtrians are thought of, to the extent that stereotypes hold, as peace-loving and hard-working people, and there is nothing in the media recently to counter that.
On the other hand, the media has faithfully reported what the Shiv Sena and the MNS has been up to recently, and those reports might well give the impression that those two parties are “uncivilised and violent”. That seems pretty accurate to me, and it has nothing to do with Maharashtrians, for these parties represent no more than a lunatic fringe.
Saamna’s editorial also says:
If this tirade against Maharashtra continues, we shall be forced to take concrete measures in the interest of the state. And when we do it, your so called freedom of expression could be a casualty.
Hmmm.
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 November, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
Via Cafe Hayek, I find this superb quote by HL Mencken that is especially apt for this season:
Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
This doesn’t just apply to America—all political parties everywhere are unfit for the job. The purpose of government is to serve the people, but people enter politics to rule, not serve. Their incentives are aligned to their own interests, not to ours. Yes, theoretically they are accountable, for we can vote them out of power if they misuse it, but given that we are always faced with a choice between the pillager and the plunderer, this isn’t much good in practice.
And it’s easy to rationalize our choices, isn’t it? We vote for the devil because he has fire in his belly; we choose the deep, blue sea because of its calming influence. And so on.
Also see: A Beast Called Government.
Posted by Amit Varma on 03 November, 2008 in
India |
Politics |
Small thoughts
"If there were a sex Olympics,” I wrote last year, “India would win the gold medal in all the sprints.”
Well, guess what—there is a Sex Olympics. Vanessa Mei writes in:
I read your blog about Indians not doing well if there was a sex olympics. Well, we are hosting Sex Olympia 2009. I’m sure there are some events that Indians will do well in. After all, the Kama Sutra does come from your holy land!
Here’s a list of events, in case you wish to participate. National pride is at stake, so I insist that India sends a contingent. We’ll dominate the sprints, and Raj Thackeray’s MNS boys would surely excel at the Team Clean and Jerk. Go India!
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 October, 2008 in
India |
Miscellaneous
Devangshu Datta, in a wonderful tribute to RK Laxman, comes up with a good reason to buy The Times of India:
Unfortunately, even Laxman’s presence wasn’t enough for me to continue with my daily ritual of passing the paper onto the raddi-wallah after that one brief moment of homage. For a while, I continued to take it because I was rearing kittens — it was absorbent and useful for little misunderstandings during the house-breaking phase. Once the cats became civilised, I stepped aside from that value-chain.
So if you have kittens at home, you’re excused. Otherwise, why do you read ToI?
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 October, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media
Mumbai Mirror reports:
There are probably very few Mumbaikars who have never had their pockets picked at one time or another while travelling on a bus. So, it will probably come as shock to know that most of these thieves are in cahoots with bus conductors.
The Andheri police who recently busted a gang of pickpockets who robbed commuters in BEST buses across the city were surprised to find out during investigations that the crooks worked hand-in-glove with bus conductors. The thieves would actually share their booty with the conductors for being allowed to ‘operate’ on the bus.
Pickpockets and conductors, of course, aren’t restricted only to buses. They’re all around us.
No?
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Small thoughts
Consider these two headlines from today’s papers:
Youth opens fire in Mumbai bus, 1 dead
MNS leader held for setting buses on fire
And now, a question for you: Aren’t these both acts of terrorism?
*
Also read: Mobs Are Above The Law.
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
Small thoughts
Rediff reports:
In a curious case of mistaken identity that could cause serious embarrassment to national selectors, a Saurashtra Cricket Association official on Sunday claimed that little known Punjab player Ravi Inder Singh was thought to be prolific all-rounder Ravindrasinh Jadeja and got selected for the Challenger Trophy.
[...]
One of the selectors ... conceded that it’s a bloomer from their part but there was hardly any time to get it corrected.
Ravi Inder played in Blue’s first match against the Red and scored 17 before being bowled by Laxmipathy Balaji.
This reminds me of the famous mix-up between JP Yadav and Jai P Yadav. And Abhijit Kale once reportedly missed out on selection (I forget whether it was for a Ranji team or a zonal team) because the then-selector Chandu Borde couldn’t remember his name. Borde was famous for mangling names, and had there been an Indian player named Gaurav Ganguly when Borde was chief selector, India might well have suddenly found itself a new captain.
Anyway, I wish Ravi Inder Singh all the best. And I also wish Ajay Jadeja all the best, for who knows what mistake the selectors will make the next time they want to select poor Ravindrasinh.
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Sport |
WTF
Rediff reports:
The Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are usually adjourned because of commotion. But on Thursday the Upper House was forced to adjourn briefly for an interesting reason—malfunctioning of the presiding officer’s seat. [...]
Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan, who was in the chair, rose to cool tempers. But, when he was about to sit, the back cushion seemed to fall off. [...]
Soon after, Khan adjourned the House for 10 minutes. [...]
But the problem with the seat persisted when the House reassembled at 12:45 pm and Khan adjourned it till 13:30 pm.
There are two things to note here:
1] Parliamentary proceedings cost taxpayers Rs 26,000 a minute, and these dudes showed a remarkably cavalier attitude towards that money. If I was the speaker, I’d just have taken any random chair available and sat on that. Khan’s attitude is of a man who thinks that politicians rule the people, not serve them.
2] If our government can’t maintain a simple thing like the seat of the presiding officer of the upper house of parliament, what chance do you think they have of running the rest of the country well?
Earlier posts on parliament: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
(Link via email from Deepak Iyer.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 24 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Old memes |
Taxes |
Politics |
WTF
1. If Rahul Gandhi is complaining about not having got justice, what chance does the rest of India have?
2. How often do celebrities change their clothes?
The first reader to answer both questions correctly wins a weekend holiday in Patna with Raj Thackeray.
Posted by Amit Varma on 22 October, 2008 in
India |
Miscellaneous |
Politics |
WTF
I have blogged before about how the malls in Mumbai tend to have security at the front entrance, and a terrorist could easily drive in to the parking lot in a car full of explosives and use the lift from there to enter the mall, strapped full of explosives. Well, front entrances aren’t much better.
Every time I go to Infiniti, my favourite mall because it contains the bookstore Landmark, the dude with the handheld metal detector does two things. One, he runs the detector over my left pocket, where I keep my cellphone and my keys—it beeps. Then he runs it over my right pocket, where I carry my wallet—it beeps. He then waves me through—no questions asked, no other part of my body checked.
In the Malad mall, In Orbit, they make me pass through a metal detector, and it always beeps. No matter, I am waved on through. Ditto at the Marriott in Juhu, where I once spotted Salman Khan—I’m guessing chinkaras would be stopped at the gate, so that’s okay.
And what about airports, where security should be highest? Well, there’s no checking of baggage all the way until the security check, so you could walk in with a bag full of explosives all the way till there. After that point, one would hope, we passengers are safe.
Or are we? Check out Jeffrey Goldberg’s splendid piece in The Atlantic, “The Things He Carried”, in which Goldberg describes how, with the help of security expert Bruce Schneier, he tested the USA’s airport security system in almost every detail—and found it wanting. As the introduction to the article says:
Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.
Indeed, smart terrorists could also run circles around authorities in India with ease. Either the terrorists who’ve targeted us so far are not too smart—or we’ve been lucky. How long will that last, I wonder.
Also read: Bruce Schneier’s piece in Wired, “The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Terrorists”, which challenges conventional wisdom about “what motivates terrorists in the first place.” (And while on the subject...)
(Links via emails from Neel and Udhay respectively.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 20 October, 2008 in
India |
Miscellaneous
... has simply got to have polls like this one:
Vote! Which celeb has the worst smile?
Knowing our country’s celebs, most of them would want to win this thing. Anything for the limelight.
Posted by Amit Varma on 16 October, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media |
WTF
The Times of India has a story today on a tribal woman in a village in Madhya Pradesh who was accused of witchcraft by her fellow villagers.
A group of villagers ... took the woman to a deserted location and forced her to pick a silver coin from a vessel containing boiling oil. The woman suffered severe burns on both her hands and she fell unconscious. However, this did not deter the villagers and they thrashed her badly with hot iron rods due to which she received head injuries. [...]
The villagers then dumped her outside her house. Her family members, including her husband, did not allow her inside…
Why was she suspected of being a witch? Well, two members of a family had died in the space of a month, and the villagers, presumably driven by other enmities, blamed those deaths on this poor woman. Once accused, she had no chance of proving herself innocent. A villager explained to ToI:
Women, whosoever, labelled as a ‘witch’ by the villagers has to pick a silver coin from a tank filled with boiling oil, with both her hands. If her hands are burnt, her witchhood is confirmed, otherwise she is declared innocent.
So if you’re a woman is such a village, especially low down in the social hierarchy, you’d better make sure you don’t piss anyone off. Unless you’re really a witch and have burn-proof arms.
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
The news item of the day comes from The Hindu:
Air Customs seized 59 handguns from the baggage of two passengers who landed at the International Airport at Karipur. [...] The two claimed the guns were meant for “agricultural purposes”.
Maybe they were going to plant the guns, water them for a year and get an arms factory out of it. Jai jawan, jai kisan.
(Link via email from Gautam.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 10 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
Raj Thackeray is at it again:
There is a new culinary dish being churned out in the political arena and it is called ‘spineless politician’ like the boneless chicken.
For once I agree with Thackeray—but not in the sense that he intends. I think there are too many spineless politicians in Mumbai, including in government, who don’t stand up for Mumbai’s people and condemn Thackeray’s demagoguery. They are driven by political considerations, not principles—but that is what makes them successful politicians, so I guess one shouldn’t hold that against them.
And there’s nothing wrong with boneless chicken. Unless it’s alive.
(Link via email from Turrtle.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 10 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics
I’m bewildered and confused by Abu Salem’s legal notice to Monica Bedi, which seems to be written by his lawyer, for its inclination and tendency to use two words where one would do. From the three news reports about it (1, 2, 3), I find that:
1] Salem is “deeply hurt and distressed” by Monica’s denial of their marriage. He is unable to “comprehend or fathom” why she would do such a thing.
2] He had “actively encouraged and supported” Bedi’s acting career.
3] He finds “peace, solace and comfort” from reading the letters she sends him.
4] His love for her shall never “diminish or fade away” even if she wants to “split up or sever their marital ties”.
5] If their marriage is an “obstruction, hardship or obstacle” to her acting career, he is ready to divorce her so that she is “free, happy and at liberty.”
Phew, whew. If I was a judge reading this, I would book Salem and his lawyer for contempt of court for wasting my time in such a manner, in this way.
Many of our journalists are no better, of course.
Posted by Amit Varma on 08 October, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media |
Miscellaneous |
News
Our censor board is ridiculous. DNA reports:
At a time when ads on TV are advocating the use a condom, the Indian Censor Board has chopped off a scene from Atul Agnihotri’s upcoming film Hello where Gul Panag asks her co-actor (Sharman Joshi) whether he is carrying a condom before they have casual sex.
[...]
Gul says, “The scene has me and Sharman making out. Like any educated woman I ask Sharman whether he is carrying a condom before we get into the act. Though the lovemaking scene will be retained, the ‘condom’ dialogue has been chopped off.
So sex is ok, but safe sex is not. Go figure.
And really, the very thought of a censor board makes steam come out of my ears. Why should a committee of people have the right to tell a filmmaker what he may or may not show in his film? What gives them the wisdom to decide what is appropriate viewing for me and my fellow countrymen? Pah.
Thank FSM our government doesn’t take blogs as seriously.
Also read:
Mommy-Daddy, Go Away
The Ministry of Wet Dreams
Fighting Against Censorship
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 October, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
1] Free distribution of condoms.
2] Backless cholis and low-waist ghagras.
3] Blogging.
Ok, fine, I made that third one up. I can’t (yet) cite the moral police as an excuse for my recent blogging slowdown—I’ve just had a bout of blogging fatigue, which, after close to four years and more than 6000 posts, I’m allowed. Immense listlessness has come. Massive pointlessness is felt. And so on.
Anyway, I’m resuming now. Let’s see how it goes.
(Links via emails from Mahendra and Mani respectively.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 07 October, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
Personal
The most shocking comment of the week comes from Delhi’s chief minister, Sheila Dikshit. A journalist named Soumya Viswanathan was shot dead in Delhi earlier in the week, driving home from work at around 3am, not an unusual time for a journalist to be getting home. She was 25. And Dikshit had the gall to say:
All by herself till 3 am at night in a city where people believe...you know...you should not be so adventurous.
In other words, she was asking for it. This is an argument coming from a woman.
My friend Shamya Dasgupta was Soumya’s colleague at Headlines Today, and has a moving post on her death here. He points to Facebook groups on her here and here. There’s also an online petition to the home minister here.
I hope Soumya gets justice soon. But equally, I hope that the pressure to show results does not lead to the cops framing an innocent person, as they tried to do in the Arushi case. I’m not optimistic—just as Soumya wasn’t adventurous.
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
One more rave party busted. Immense déjà vu comes.
On victimless crimes: 1, 2.
Posted by Amit Varma on 29 September, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
Salil Tripathi, in an email conversation about Mahendra Kapoor (quoted with permission), writes:
[H]e took chamchagiri to new depths during the Emergency. He was invited to perform at a function in Delhi, and he sang “Mere Desh Ki Dharti” from Upkar. And he did the Indian version of airbrushing history. Remember, there’s that stanza -
Rang Hara Hari Singh Nalwe Se
Rang Lal Hai Lal Bahadur Se
Rang Bana Basanti Bhagat Singh
Rang Aman Ka Veer Jawahar Se
Kapoor, taking sycophancy to new lows, sang:
Rang Hara Hari Singh Nalwe Se
Rang Lal Hai Indira Gandhi Se
Rang Bana Basanti Bhagat Singh
Rang Aman Ka Veer Jawahar Se
Salil quotes from memory, of course, and the excerpt above is an aside—Kapoor was a great singer, and his death is undoubtedly a tragedy for his family, friends and fans.
It can’t be denied, actually, that the dharti of our desh was made lal by Indira Gandhi, in more ways than one.
Salil also writes:
Kishore Kumar, too, was invited to perform at this program, in aid of family planning. Kishore refused. Result: All India Radio and Doordarshan were asked to ban Kishore Kumar’s songs.
Posted by Amit Varma on 29 September, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
Freedom |
India |
Politics
Mid Day quotes the elder brother of a nine-year-old killed in the recent Delhi bomb blast as saying:
We have been waiting to collect his body but the police are saying they have to finish some formalities.
As long as they don’t make him fill out a form in triplicate.
Posted by Amit Varma on 29 September, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
The picture of the day comes courtesy Mumbai Mirror:
It’s part of this story.
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 September, 2008 in
India
I just saw this box on The Times of India homepage:
Fantastic juxtaposition, no?
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 September, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media |
WTF
Abheek Bhattacharya has an excellent piece today in The Wall Street Journal on the growth of classical liberalism in India. Your favourite blogger is quoted in it.
Also read:
Where’s the Freedom Party?
A Liberal Complaint
Posted by Amit Varma on 25 September, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
Politics
Prem Panicker writes in:
There’s a Neo Sports ad out just now that might interest you.
Big hoarding, dominated by an image of a foot with a crushed big toe, and blood leaking out.
The tag line reads: Last year, Brett Lee’s Yorkers didn’t always hit the wicket. Our turn to return the favour.
That’s the best they can do to promote what could be an intriguing Test series?
Well, I suppose juvenile bluster is an improvement on ‘Pakraman’-style warfare metaphors. But does anyone really need to promote this series?
Also, how will our fast bowlers bear the weight of such expectation? The most famous attempted yorker in India’s history turned out to be quite a disaster…
Previous posts about toes: 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Posted by Amit Varma on 25 September, 2008 in
India |
Media |
Sport |
WTF
You must have read by now about the CEO of a Noida company who “was bludgeoned to death by a 200-strong armed mob of dismissed workers.” Well, here’s what Oscar Fernandes, the union labour minister, had to say about the killing:
This should serve as a warning for the managements. It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion.
So now you know whose fault this was. I can see in my mind the image of an old Hindi film in which Amitabh Bachchan leads an army of workers to deal with evil capitalists led by a suited-booted-goggled Prem Chopra. I don’t know if there actually was a film like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised—we’ve glorified this sort of vigilante justice way too much in our movies. I’m not blaming the movies for that—but I expect better from a minister.
Foolish, foolish me.
(Link via separate emails from Sidhu, Jignesh and Mahendra Shikaripur.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 24 September, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
The WTF lines of the day come from an affidavit filed by the Home Ministry:
Indian society strongly disapproves of homosexuality and disapproval is strong enough to justify it being treated as a criminal offence even where consenting adults indulge in it in private.
So individual rights be damned: We must all live according to the preferences of ‘Indian society’, as determined by the men who run our country. Sometimes I wish I was an ant.
Also read:
The Matunga Racket.
Mommy-Daddy, go away!
Posted by Amit Varma on 20 September, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
... according to Raj Thackeray’s calculus of justice.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, other Rajs are getting arrested. Quite surreal.
Posted by Amit Varma on 18 September, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
News |
WTF
No, it wasn’t a woman that did it, but politics.
I think it was just lust for power, not true love. No?
Posted by Amit Varma on 16 September, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
The WTF quote of the day comes from Shivraj Patil:
Well, I have full blessings of my leader.
And the country be damned.
Posted by Amit Varma on 16 September, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
Dear Mumbai Malls
I enjoy visiting you, and I support your new initiatives to tighten security in the wake of recent terrorist attacks. I don’t mind being frisked or having my bag checked: the few extra seconds we all wait individually are worth the collective safety we gain.
But why do you think that terrorists enter only from front entrances?
If someone drives into the parking lot and takes the lift up to the mall, there is no check on him at all. He could walk in holding a bazooka, with bombs strapped to his body and grenades in all his pockets. All the security guards are busy at the front entrance.
I know even a pretense of security can act as a deterrent. But terrorists aren’t stupid, and there’s no pretense in the destruction they try to cause. So, as Amitabh Bachchan would say on KBC, ‘please take good care of yourself’.
Regards
Amit Varma
*
Hat tip for this observation: Ulrik. More open letters here.
Posted by Amit Varma on 15 September, 2008 in
India |
Letters
Reading this article, a thought strikes me: When I was growing up in the 1980s, before the economy started opening up, were there kids who, instead of aspiring to be a doctor or engineer or suchlike, simply aspired to be a VIP?
(Link via email from Neelakantan.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 September, 2008 in
India |
Small thoughts
Dear Amitabh Bachchan
In the context of the recent attacks by Raj Thackeray on you, DNA has reported that you and your family are “willing to face any punishment if found guilty.”
Guilty for what? For hurting Marathi pride? However tasteless you or Raj may find it, do you see it as a crime that deserves ‘punishment’?
That is what your statement implies, and it does a disservice to your fellow citizens and to the cause of free speech.
Also, it actually furthers Raj Thackeray’s agenda. I hope you sleep well at night now.
Regards
Amit Varma
*
More open letters here.
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 September, 2008 in
Freedom |
India |
Letters |
Politics |
WTF
India is a nation of hard working people. India is also a nation of cockroaches. The two come together in a magnificent quote by a gentleman named Jagan:
I have been working on my cockroach eating diligently.
Here’s the story that quote is from. It has a photograph of Jagan eating a cockroach—diligently.
I wish you a hearty meal, whenever you next manage to have one.
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 September, 2008 in
India |
News |
WTF
Bigg Boss has a late-night version of its program after midnight, in which they were showing an unedited feed from inside the house today. Raja Choudhary, Rahul Mahajan and Ashutosh Kaushik were sitting in the living room. They were speaking about the powers of the mind. Raja said (I translate from memory):
See, it is 100% proven that telepathy exists. In fact, I will tell you why we don’t use it today, and why it has become dormant in us. We don’t use it because we don’t need to. We have mobile phones.
I swear he was dead serious.
Rahul then said (again, translated from memory):
Let me tell you about an area in which I have done a lot of research. All the great scientific discoveries took place between 1850 and 1950, in those 80 years [sic]. For thousands of years before that, nothing. Then suddenly, in 80 years, all these great discoveries, like the steam engine, which we still use today.
So my question is, why? Isn’t it strange that these discoveries were made in these 80 years and not for thousands of years before that, when people were just as intelligent? Why were these formulas given to these particular private individuals?
You may wish to know his answer. I couldn’t make out exactly what his theory was, but aliens were involved. Immense WTFness.
Such stupidity aside, I love the show. It’s full of drama, intrigue and pettiness—the stuff of life.
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 September, 2008 in
Arts and entertainment |
India |
WTF
The WTF interview of the week is Tehelka’s chat with Raj Thackeray, in which this exchange takes place:
Tehelka: You are fond of Hitler. What do you like about him?
Thackeray: I like his organisational skills, the way he worked on development.
The rest of the interview is also masterful, especially the end.
More seriously, this creates a problem for those who protest at the Thackeray’s gundagardi, because one way we had of criticising the MNS was to call it fascist. But this dude admires Hitler. It’s a compliment for him! Sigh.
And his uncle is no different.
And ah, this old post of mine now seems on the money, no?
(Link via email from Turrtle.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 11 September, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
WTF
