It’s not a zoo, it’s a circus

It feels like a bad dream, it does. Here, below the fold, check out Rakhi Sawant, painted like a tiger, in a cage. Haysoooos!

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Posted by Amit Varma on 29 March, 2007 in Arts and entertainment

The broadband blues

My broadband has been down today, and my productivity, on a terribly slow dial-up, has been about a third of what it should be. I’m off to watch a film in a few minutes, so will come back and finish off the routine India Uncut tasks, like putting up the latest Rave Out, Extrowords and Workoutable posts.

I think of myself as immensely lucky to have been born at the right time to benefit from the internet. Nothing I do today would have been possible before the internet, and you would never have heard of me, leave alone read my writing. And my shift to this new site, from Blogspot, would have been futile if not for broadband: on a dial-up, all my daily tasks would have taken too long. Immense gratitude comes.

Of course, you might look at my condition now and say that I’m enslaved by technology, but this is a temporary lull in the middle of much empowerment. If Tata Indicom doesn’t give me back my broadband by evening, though, violence will ensue!

Posted by Amit Varma on 29 March, 2007 in Personal

Why does Bollywood crave validation from abroad?

Amitabh Bachchan is quoted as saying in the Times of India:

India’s economic progress is largely responsible for the Indian films getting recognised abroad. When the economy is doing well, everything connected with the country, its food, culture, colour, art and films get noticed.

I have a question: Are Indian films getting “recognised abroad?” To the best of my admittedly minuscule knowledge, only the diaspora really cares much for it, and as the diaspora has grown, overseas markets have become prominent. But non-Indians don’t really notice it, and the stories that the international press occasionally does on Bollywood treat it as exotica.

I have another question: Why do Bollywood people crave recognition abroad? Are the millions of Indian who watch their films not validation enough?

Update: DeCruz Pulikottil writes in:

I would have never expected to have been greeted by an African man inside a Costco (huge wholesale store) and asked if I was Indian. When I said yes, he had a broad smile on his face and asked if I like Bollywood movies. Apparently, Bollywood movies are all the rage in Africa. If you google online for Romanian Bollywood dance troupe you’ll find a group of all Romanians who pick up their dance moves from Bollywood movies who dance at weddings and other functions. Bollywood is insanely popular in Eastern Europe. My Cambodian friend tells me how back in the home country, they consistently watch Bollywood movies that do show. Even here, at a private university in Southern California that has one other Indian person that attends here, I popped in a Bollywood movie (Rang de Basanti) and many white people enjoyed it. So yeah, I’m answering your question. Bollywood is becoming immensely popular overseas and not just among the diaspora.

Hmm. And when I was in Singapore a millennium ago for a conference, a local girl sidled up to me and said, “I like Shah Rukh Khan .” Then she fluttered her eyelashes. Ever the naive nerd, I had no idea why she was telling me that. I think I said something to the effect of “Pah!” And then I toodled off to look for a bookshop.

Posted by Amit Varma on 29 March, 2007 in Arts and entertainment | India

Don’t punish victimless crimes

This is the seventh installment of my weekly column for Mint, Thinking it Through.

Imagine a dystopia where a mad dictator comes to power and decides to ban sex and dating. Sex is ruining the moral fabric of our nation, he decides. Men and women must not be allowed to get together. What will happen?

Here is what I imagine: One, immense copulation will still take place behind closed doors, and as no one engaged in consensual sex will complain, the state will have to spend considerable resources and do invasive policing to make sure people don’t break the law. Two, the underworld will get involved in enabling encounters between the sexes, as those won’t be legal any more, and couples will no more be able to shoot the breeze at a Barista. Three, there will be more rapes, as repressed men denied normal outlets will resort to force.

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Posted by Amit Varma on 29 March, 2007 in Essays and Op-Eds | Freedom | India | Thinking it Through

A sort of trivia

Neha Dhupia says about her character in Delhii Heights:

She is stuck in a sort of trivia where she has to balance her personal and professional life.

In case some of you quizzers out there are suddenly excited, calm down: I can only assume she meant “dilemma.” Sigh.

Update: Quizzers Rishi and Quizman write in to inform me that perhaps Ms Dhupia is somewhat erudite, and was making a scholarly reference to a possible origin of the word “trivia”: in Latin, Trivium means “the meeting place of three roads, especially as a place of public resort.” [Source.]

Ya, right!

Posted by Amit Varma on 29 March, 2007 in Arts and entertainment

Was YouTube around in 1968?

I have to ask: after all, it was in 1968 that Andy Warhol said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” YouTube enables that like nothing else can.

Consider the story of the gent who “hurtled down nearly 200 feet at Angel tube station with a camera strapped to his head and posted the video on the YouTube Web site.” I can guarantee you this: the young man wouldn’t have bothered to do the stunt had YouTube not been around. What else will come from this?

Here’s the video, below the fold:

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Posted by Amit Varma on 28 March, 2007 in Miscellaneous

Politics and caste

One question: will Bhavna Koli be any better or any worse a corporator if her caste certificate turns out to be genuine?

Posted by Amit Varma on 28 March, 2007 in India | News | Politics

Hiding the author

In a feature in the Guardian by Geraldine Bedell, AL Kennedy is quoted as saying:

The authors I first loved all had initials - JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, E Nesbit, ee cummings - and I actively didn’t want to know who they were or have them get in the way of my enjoying their story and their voice.

Indeed, that is quite the problem with our times, especially in India: too much of the focus is on the author. That’s because most of us don’t read.

Posted by Amit Varma on 28 March, 2007 in Arts and entertainment | India | Journalism

India’s water crisis

The Times of India has an eye-catching headline on its website: ‘India to face severe water crisis by 2045’.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, my mind wanders to Paul Ehrlich, and his bet with Julian Simon. Now, why did I think of that?

Posted by Amit Varma on 28 March, 2007 in India | News

Alcohol. Tobacco. LSD. Cannabis. Ecstasy

Here’s an exercise: list the five substances named in the headline in the order of harmfulness as you perceive it.

Then see how, according to the Lancet, they actually rank.

Does it surprise you to know that the three that are the least harmful in this list are the ones that are banned in India?

Posted by Amit Varma on 27 March, 2007 in India