Kira Cochrane has an excellent piece in the Guardian, ”For your entertainment,” on the bewildering rise of ‘torture porn,” the “nasty, unrepentant and terrifyingly pointless violence” aimed in women in a lot of new cinema. I get her point: it is easy to imagine a few strange misanthropes enjoying “a man taking a blowtorch to a woman’s face, her eyeball coming out and dangling from the socket.” But when such a film (Hostel) becomes “a massive hit,” you have to wonder what causes its appeal.
Indian films aren’t quite there yet, but our society unleashes subtler horrors on its women. Mrinal Pande, who writes a fortnightly column in Mint, looks at the regressive attitude of the Bachchan family and correctly concludes that in India, “power remains both a primal word and a primal relationship in the Kingdom of the Father, and the individual family unit that defines and showcases that power is rooted in the idea of women being men’s property.”
Indeed, I really can’t think which is worse: being married to a tree, or being married into a family that believes in things like manglikness, and behaves in the manner Pande describes in her column. What is worse is that the Bachchans are such role models across India, and that Amitabh’s attitudes will validate the medieval beliefs of millions of his countrymen. Pah.
And while on the subject, here’s the best post I’ve read today: ”This is why you should call to say ‘no’”. I love that line about coffee being pointless: “Life is too short for a non-activity with stilted conversation.” It is, indeed.
In fact, life is too short, period.
Posted by Amit Varma on 30 April, 2007 in
Miscellaneous
1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Scott Styris, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Kevin Pietersen, 7 Brad Hogg, 8 Lasith Malinga, 9 Nathan Bracken, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Glenn McGrath.
Cricinfo also has a WC XI here, and the only difference, besides the batting order, is that they’ve picked Shane Bond instead of Bracken. Well, I picked Bracken over Bond because big-match temperament matters to me: in New Zealand’s most important game of all, Bond failed to deliver.
Scott Adams writes, “Every time the media makes a big deal about a high profile suicide there’s a 100% chance it inspires additional suicide.”
So what to do, stop reporting suicides, or ban songs and movies that inspire people to kill themselves or commit violent acts? I would argue not. We have to treat people as being responsible for their own actions, and not try to second-guess what will inspire them to do this or that.
Mandira Bedi and Charu Sharma’s pretence at being knowledgeable about cricket makes me want to go and smash every TV in Mumbai. Banning Extraaa Innings is no solution to that. Punishing me if I actually damage someone else’s TV is. As this commenter points out, it’s all about personal responsibility.
Actually, the dark skin of the poetry discarder was the problem here. Not the poetry, which would be entirely more understandable, given how most poetry is.
Imagine if one day everyone wakes up to find that their skin colour has changed. All the whites are black, all the blacks are white, all the browns are also white, all the yellows are also white, even chimpanzees and gorillas are white. What fun, no?
There is much comment all around about how Australia’s domination is bad for the game, and how cricket needs a contest, and so on. I disagree. All of us want to watch cricket that is sublime, beautiful, invigorating. Australia have made that routine. There are few more joyful sights in the game than Ricky Ponting rocking back to pull or Glenn McGrath peppering the corridor, and Adam Gilchrist’s innings in the final will remain a cherished memory for me, on par with his two legendary innings in South Africa—even though it killed the contest.
Imagine, if you can, what would happen if this Aussie side was anything like the England side. You’d have your contest all right, but it would be so boring, so mediocre. Thank FSM for Australia, Steve Waugh onwards. Without them, cricket would be dead.
Posted by Amit Varma on 01 May, 2007 in
Arts and entertainment |
India
