Friday, August 31, 2007

A few stray thoughts and observations to conclude the wet month of August …

That the new trend in the Indian judicial circles; celebrities commit crime, they get caught, convicted, get lot of media attention and then they get bail. Nice!! Justice served, people are happy, human rights activists are happy, TRP ratings of news channels rocket. Clearly a win-win situation for everyone... well almost everyone! The only loser was probably the dumb Chinkara who lost it's life in a stupid hunting game for nothing. Let us observe a moment's silence for that animal.

That now-a-days the only topic more talked about than Indian Cricket is the politics in Indian Cricket. ICL v/s BCCI or Subhash Chandra v/s Sharad Pawar. Whether one league monopolizes the cricket world or two clubs get into a catfight, the real issues in Indian cricket are still not answered… and will probably never be.

That Team India keeps getting humiliated on the cricket field series-after-series and yet the aging cricketers get all the money and attention, while the Indian football team won the Nehru Cup and no one cared. Except of course, Mr Priyaranjan Das Munshi whose post-win enthusiastic victory-dance was probably the only genuine expression I have ever seen on a politician.

That the Left Parties might realize but may never admit 5 years down the line that the nuclear deal was probably the best thing India did in the first decade of the 21st century.

That 15th August is important to different Indians for different reasons. But I think that it means the most to those street hawkers on the traffic signals who sell flags and make some money for the rainy day. The fact that we got our independence on this day is probably not as relevant as it used to be 50 years ago.

That Sholay can never be re-made. In fact any iconic movie should never be re-made. RGV has already prepared his defense by claiming that he didn’t try to re-make Sholay. It’s his ‘tribute’ to the movie. Yeah!! Right!!

And finally, I asked 15 school kids who our new President was. None had heard about Mrs Pratibha Patil. I asked those 15 kids who the coach of the Indian Women’s hockey team was; they replied without blinking about Mr Kabir Khan! Happy 60th Year of Independence! Chak-De India!!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

In your dreams...

All of us have dreams. A living, breathing person can never be deprived of dreams. Whether he heads a big organization or survives in a shanty with two square meals to worry about, people dream. Dreams have different meanings for different people. For some people it can be just a leisure activity to amuse oneself while for others it can be the sole reason to keep pushing. Some dream for themselves, some for their loved ones and a rare few dream for others.

Dreams have a very special place in the hearts of the Indian Middle Class. It is that imaginary channel on the cable TV that we can switch on anytime we like. The amount of sub-conscious importance that we attach to our dreams makes it a parallel world for us; a world that we like to see as our 'happy place'. The man sitting opposite to you in the Mumbai local train gazes into thin air dreaming about the future he wants to give his children. The student sitting in the last bench of the class dreams about that pretty girl and how he wants to connect with her. The man waiting for the bus dreams about the ideal match for his daughter. Dream is nothing else but a dramatized hope. Hope can be a one-liner like 'I hope to be a millionaire'. When we beef it up with a script and a screenplay, it takes the form of a dream. Most of the times, these dreams start off with a mere coincidence and over time our power of imagination nurtures them to grow into 'Wishful Thinking'.

The irony of the matter is that though dreams entertain us and help us get through tough times, it is the very same dreams that break at the end and make us shed a tear, or throw our arms in the air and yell out 'Why Me'!! If dream is a journey then the tear drop is its destination. But that does not stop us from sowing the seed of another dream. I guess that's the spirit of the Indian Middle Class. We dream, therefore we are!