The best tourism ad

Tourism ads, as we have seen lately, have forgotten the thin line between conveying a cultural experience and gross marketing. Here’s one advertisement that really caught my eye. It’s the latest ad of “Madhya Pradesh Tourism”. The catch-line they use is – “The heart of Incredible India” – “Hindustan ka dil…”

Here go the lyrics…

bandar dekha, hathi dekha,
baarasingha, aur cheetal dekha
mowgli ke junglon mein sher khan ko dekha…

pachmarhi satpura ka ajooba,
bhopal lake mein sooraj dooba,

mandu ka jahaz-mahal aur
marble ka pahad dekha,

mahakaal mandir mein pooja,
photo khincha jaake orchha

gwalior ke kille mein bhatka,
khajuraho ne de diya jhatka

poorvajo ko milne-julne,
jaa pahuncha main bheembetka

train ki chhuk-chhuk sunte-sunte,
aa pahuncha main sanchi stupa

sanchi ki shaanti mein,
khud ke andar jhaank ke dekha

hindustaan ka dil dekha…
hindustaan ka dil dekha…

Filed under: Song , advertisement, hindustan ka dil, madhya pradesh, mp tourism, tourism

Beedi Jalaile

Sitting idle is great opportunity to get inspired for elevated thought. You just need an auspicious environment. And so it happened, sitting blankly in front of my laptop in the drabbest of the moments, I played the song I have heard so often in the past few years -  Beedi Jalaile. That sleazy item number with brilliant music, excellent vocals and an all-dazing earthly feel. But, this was the first time I was tuning myself to the lyrics, deeply. It’s a bit allegorical (respect Gulzar) and hence a bit deceptive. It’s risque and reader’s discretion is a must. Here’s the decryption.

Na gilaaf… na lihaaf

Na gilaaf… na lihaaf… thandi hawa bhi khilaaf… sasuri …2

Ho… itti sardi hai kisi ka lihaaf laile…

Ja padosi ke chulhe se aag laile …2

I have got no sheet, no envelope to cover myself in this night. This bitchy, freezing wind too is blowing against me. (Arouses an urge to seek warmth.)

Hey, if it’s so cold, go envelope someone. Go quench your desire; get warmth from neighbour’s wife. (Take warmth from his possession.)

Beedi jalaile… jigar se piya… Jigar maa badi aag hai …2

Dhua na nikari o lab se piya… aa aa…

Dhua na nikari o lab se piya…

Yeh duniya badi thaag hai…

Light your fire, darling, from my bosom. There’s a lot of heat in here. But, don’t let any smoke out of your mouth, for people will come to know. (Don’t tell any one about it. Don’t spill the beans.) This world is a cheat.

Na kasoor… na fatoor…

Na kasoor… na fatoor… bina juram ke hazoor… mar gayi…

Ho… mar gayi…

Hooo… aise ik din dupahari bulayi liyo re…

Baandh ghungaroo kachahari lagayi liyo re…

Bulayi liyo re… bulayi liyo re… dupahari…

Lagayi liyo re… lagayi liyo re… kachahari…

As it once happened, I was caught and reprimanded on similar grounds. Neither was it a mistake, nor an obsession, honey. I got punished (by my husband) for no crime. He called me to his court one afternoon. He rebuked me and tied anklets to my feet, so that I cannot wander. And launched a bodily assault.

Ho… na to chakkua ki dhaar…

Na daraati… na kataar…

Na to chakkua ki dhar… na daraati na kataar…

Ho… aisa kaate ke daant ka nisan chhod de…

Yeh kataai to koi bhi kisaan chhod de…

Ho aise…

Zaalim ka chhod de makaan chhod de re billo …2

Aise zaalim ka …2

Ho… aise zaalim ka chhod de makaan chhod de re billo …2

The bite of his assault, it looks, is so severe that the edge of no knife or sickle could have made such a mark. His manner looks as rash and reckless as that of a farmer while harvesting crops. Leave him, oh dear. Leave such a callous person. Leave his house, my love. Despise him.

Na bulaya… na bataya…

Na bulaya… na bataya…

Naahe neend se jagaya… hai re…

Aisa chaunke lihaaf mein naseeb aa gaya…

Woh elaichi khilaike kareeb aa gaya…

Neither did he tell me nor did he call. He didn’t even wake me up from sleep. I was so surprised to see him (my fortune, my lover) in my sheets. And he got closer by offering me cardamom.

 

A few lines are skipped in the explanation (viz. angethee… and koyla…) but their meanings can be easily extrapolated according to viewers discretion. The read must have seemed vulgar, but I guess that is the true meaning of the song. The dance and the setup in the movie do vindicate my views to a good extent. Still, I would like to mention that this is just one of the possible meanings of the song. I have tried to be as precise and imaginative as I can, while being true to the sense. Who knows there much more still remaining to be read between the lines?

Filed under: Song , beedi jalaile, gist, gulzar, hindi song, lyrics, meaning, omkara

The tactless time-out

Season 2 of the IPL has been a hit in a few ways but a flop in too many. The tactical time-out turned out complete disaster and it didn’t surprise me much. If you stop an innings mid-way for seven-and-a-half minutes, it would definitely ebb the flow of the game and bring in a few hiccups for both teams. As pointed out by many players, Harbhajan Singh being one of them, it actually bifurcates a team’s approach towards the game in two halves. You have a different outlook during in the first ten overs and suddenly have to change the gears. If a bowling team makes inroads breaking a good partnership in overs 7-9, they would like to get through a few overs quickly in order to build some pressure. They would not want the batsmen to get any extra time to settle down. Similarly, a batting team would never want to curb a good partnership mid-way to give bowlers a chance to reassess their strategy.

Now, as we all know, cricketing erudition was hardly the intent behind the inception of such a concept; much less when it’s Lalit Modi’s brainchild. But, even from a marketing perspective the formula seems an appalling thought. Even if you are avaricious enough to want to project more ads between a match, the seven-and-a-half minute break ensures the viewer stays away from the channel for that amount of time. A minute long break between overs hardly dissuades the viewer, but a seven-fold increase ensures it efficiently. Sooner or later, it’s bound to bring the TRP down during the period; those ads would sell at a lesser price.

If you need such a proposition so desperately, a much crisper way would be to allow teams to have custom time-outs. One time-out, say four-minute long, to each team during each innings where players can discuss strategy when they really want to. It would also make it more exciting for the spectators as to when a team decides to have one.

Filed under: Uncategorized , cricket, ipl, lalit modi, marketing, strategy, time out

The mandate

Okay, I must confess that I have grown accustomed to (and somewhat obsessed with) political jargon of late. Anyways, this time around, the elections were iconic in more respects than one.  For one, the candidate I voted for won. Point Me. It’s one-all now, for last December was the first time I exercised my suffrage, in this constitutional republic of ours which strictly believes in representative democracy. Well last time, the candidate I voted for was shown, the same day on local television, abusing the official at the polling booth where he himself cast the ballot. “You’re asking me my name? Don’t you know who I am? What’s yours, by the way?” was what he was caught saying as he pulled the poor guy’s badge close to read his name. I was ashamed of myself; though had some semblance from the fact that he lost befittingly. You do need to know about the candidates before voting, whichever party they belong to.

Coming to these elections, one thing that puzzled me all the way through was BJP’s projection of Advani as its prime minister candidate. How can you back a man who is the face of communal extremism? How can you back a man who triumphantly led a saffron-cowled mob as it sowed the seeds of religious segmentation and made December 6, 1992 the blackest day in the history of India. And they say they have been trying to shed off the hindutva thing of theirs. I cannot understand how Advani managed to pull out of the whole Ayodhya issue legally. Anyways, I believe if they conducted an all India survey asking everyone: Can you stand Advani as prime minister of India?, I doubt even a tenth would have said yes.

As far as the results are concerned, I am quite ecstatic to say the least. I don’t know much about the ideologies, but I am happy that smarter people have won. Manmohan Singh is the most intellectually gifted of the PMs India has had (due respect to PV and chacha Nehru, whose autobiography I’m digging into nowadays), and in the tough times as these, we do need each and every inch of the brain that freed India from the license-raj. With a plausibly stable configuration and a team studded with the likes of Montek, Mukherjee and Chidambaram, the stage seems set. Sonia Gandhi’s abstinence from power in 2004 was dubbed by a few as a tactic to win a few hearts in a country which still calls her a foreigner. But this time, her taking the reins would have been completely malapropos. As was expected, sanity prevailed and for the first time in Indian political history someone from outside ‘the dynasty’ is going to be the premier for two full terms (well hopefully!).

And I hear and read a lot about Rahul Gandhi and his impact in these elections. He’s been brilliant, really. He has pulled the young voters towards the Congress and has been constructive in his approach; unlike BJP with their leg pulling tactics. But, I believe it would be too early to tout him as a PM-in-making. He still has to prove his worth as a minister, a diplomat at the top level. Being a Gandhi, he probably has it in his blood (or possesses a wild card for the same reason), but running a ministry, or a country for that matter, is a different ball game from being a vote magnet.

Filed under: Uncategorized , advani, babri masjid, election 09, mandate, manmohan, rahul gandhi

Aarambh hai prachand…

Well friends… I’ll keep math for later… but here’s one of the best modern hindi song lyrics. Can’t resist posting it. The poetic style is highly reminiscent of the greats of yesteryear like Maithilisharan Gupt and Harivanshrai Bachchan.

The song is from the movie Gulaal and is written by Piyush Mishra.

So, here it goes…

Aarambh hai prachand bole mastakon ke jhund
Aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
[ Aarambh hai prachand bole mastakon ke jhund
Aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
Aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
Aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do ] x2
Aarambh hai prachand…

[ Mann kare so praan de jo man kare so praan le
Wahi to ek sarvshaktimaan hai ] x2
Krishna ki pukaar hai ye bhagwat ka saar hai
Ki yudh hi to veer ka pramaan hai
Kaurvon ki bheed ho ya paandavon ka need ho
Jo lad saka hai wohi to mahaan hai

Jeet ki hawas nahi kisi pe koi vash nahi
Kya zindagi hai thokaron pe maar do
Maut ant hai nahi to maut se bhi kyun dare
Ye jaake aasmaan mein dahaad do
Aarambh hai prachand bole mastakon ke jhund
Aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
Aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
Aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do
Aarambh hai prachand

[ Ho daya ka bhaav ya ki shaurya ka chunav
Ya ki haar ka wo ghaav tum ye soch lo ] x2
Ya ki poore bhaal par jala rahe vijay ka
Laal laal ye gulaal tum ye soch lo
Rang kesari ho ya mridang kesari ho ya
Ki kesari ho taal tum ye soch lo
Jis kavi ki kalpana mein zindagi ho prem geet
Us kavi ko aaj tum nakaar do
Bheegti nason mein aaj phoolati ragon mein aaj
Aag ki lapat ka tum baghaar do
Aarambh hai prachand bole mastakon ke jhund
Aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
Aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
Aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do
Aarambh hai prachand…
Aarambh hai prachand…
Aarambh hai prachand…

Filed under: Song , gulaal, hindi poetry, lyrics, piyush mishra

What’s the probability?

So today, after coming to know that I’ve, yet again, performed below par in my math exam, I am puzzled over the whole phenomenon – called mathematics. Is mathematics a rational science? What does it do after all? Gives us proofs for things? Predicts behaviour of men and machines… and nature? And how does it do it? By just restating what common sense can conclude; in a manner bewildering to some, frightening to others, yet titillating to everyone. Now that might not seem convincing to all of us. One might argue, as I did to myself when I read somewhere, that:

“On rolling two fair dice, the events (A) getting a sum of 7, and (B) getting any fixed number [1…6] on the first die, are independent of each other. But, if the sum in event A is changed to 6 or 8 (or any number other than 7), the two events no longer remain independent.”

And, of course, they proved it using:

P(A intersection B) = P(A) * P(B)

Well, at the first look that sounded counter-intuitive. But then, “why do they need to be independent?”. The problem here is that we assume that all the numbers are equally favourable in the setting, which (you might argue, just as I did) is not the case at all. 7 holds a special position because of the fact that every number present on a die [1…6], can find a partner (of course, exactly one) so as to make the sum equal to 7. No other number has this property. Hence, the answer.

Now, we noticed two things in the above explanation.

1. The answer can be given perfectly logically, even without involving math. (For those who think math is the only exhaustive language for logic).

2. More importantly, how did we intuitively assume that there’s an equality amongst all the possible sums [2… “7” …12]?

Well, I guess it’s natural for people to assume events to be equally likely, in general. This is what common sense tells us. Yeah… Now, I think that’s total bull-shit. It is because of the insufficiency of human brain that we need to stick to procedural learning which doesn’t pay off in parts. Why do we assume frictionless surfaces? Why do we assume the thickness of a thin film negligible? Why do we write pi as 22/7? Why do we assume flow of liquid to be laminar and neglect viscosity and eddies? Why don’t we divide by zero?

These questions may sound silly but sure tell us something about ourselves. Math is not created by God. It is a tool developed by human beings to facilitate our (largely scientific) experiments. They felt that it can make logic lucid and derivable. But, the above string of enquiries suggest that math is very inefficient in handling the reality per se. I mean, where do we find frictionless surfaces, or a film of negligible thickness, or laminar non-viscous flow of liquids? Nowhere. But that’s how it goes. Sure, all these can be incorporated when your course goes in-depth. But, there will always be assumptions; things you do not care about; you dare not care about; you cannot put into equations.

So, is math really making it easier for us to decipher stuff around? Or is it posing its own limitations on us? The argument in support of latter is that the cutting edge research in almost all scientific disciplines is theoretical at first. Math enters only when things have been assumed to be deterministic…

stay tuned for more…

Filed under: Uncategorized , argument, inefficieny of math, logic, math

On the fall of Oz

The recent Australian one-day series loss to South Africa on home soil completes the their hat-trick of one-day losses at home. The Commonwealth Bank turned out to be an unlucky sponsor for CA as they lost both of the super series’ named after it. England and India won hard fought battles in ‘07 and ‘08 respectively, but for South Africa, the momentum was always there. There was more talk of JP Duminy, Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla as compared to the Pontings, the Haydens and the Taits throughout this summer. South Africa struck from the word go, every day every match. They never seemed to be out of contest in any game on the tour. Australia, on the other hand, looked clueless and hapless.

One can ask, how long would a team languish and lament over the losses of great players. McGrath and Warne retired two years back. Langer and Gilchrist have been off for about a year. Hayden, who has just called it a day, had been out of form for six month before his farewell. So, one might ask, is it just the retirement issues or something else that worrying the Australian cricket. They surely have great budding talents in Shaun Marsh and Shaun Tait. But, the morale is leaking; the confidence seeping down; the legacy fading away. From Mark Taylor to Steven Waugh to Ricky Ponting, the aggression in the approach kept on increasing and with players to back it with performance, the confidence consummated. But, today Ponting finds himself in a grave dilemma of leading a team which is much less experienced than him. Every defeat dents the confidence a bit further. The lapses that were few and far between have become commonplace. Not a sign of world champions!

Recent losses not only inflict upon Australia a fear of their waning strength as a team, but also magnify the jubilation it brings to a team that overpowers them. It is not similar to the one-off defeats they used to have in between sprees of commanding performances. The current trend seems more epidemic than sporadic. However it might worry Australia, it does bring a sense of plurality in the game. It won’t be too long before people start asking each other: ‘who’s leading the rankings’ rather than ‘who’s second to Australia’. Now, that brings some kind of satisfaction and a renewed interest in a cricket lover.

Filed under: Uncategorized , australia, cricket, dominance, ponting

Universal Consciousness

Everyone thinks some new stuff everyday. New, not just to himself, but even to the whole of mankind. When such a new thought enters someone’s mind, it also enters something called the universal consciousness.

The consequence of this is that when someone else, in some other part of the world, even though totally disconnected from the original thinker and ignorant about the changes being brought about, when thinks on the same lines, becomes more likely to arrive at the same thought. The phenomenon is, in a way, similar to proxy servers used on the Internet. Only the first person who requests some specific page has to wait for a long time. Anyone else requesting the same page later gets the page much faster.

The phenomenon has been observed many a time when a lot of ground breaking discoveries, inventions, superthoughts occurred in multiple minds almost simultaneously.

But this has a major drawback on the development of human thought. The world becomes biased. Human thinking, in general, gets biased. When it becomes more likely for a person to arrive at a conclusion which was reached earlier by someone else while thinking on the same lines, it also becomes more likely to accept things which are not right or perfect (whatever these terms actually mean!). Induction, they say, is a law of nature and not all of it is rational.

Probably, the same has happened in case of democracy, for example. Everyone around today seems to be so convinced that it is the best political system. Probably, there was a better way of transportation than the wheel. However rationally we may analyze, we are bound to do a biased analysis because of our tilted, crooked psyche; because of the presence of the thought in the universal consciousness.

And now I think, what all can be tilted? Science? Philosophy? Common Sense? Probably the universe is not ordered but entirely chaotic, random, without any equations governing it. It’s just our sense of perception, our line of thought, our tilted standards, the universal consciousness that not only make us believe that the order exists but also depend on and swear by it.

Filed under: Uncategorized , bias, consciousness, discovery, rational, thought, universal

Bollywood vs Hollywood

Well, when Pamela Anderson (I mean Pamelaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…) was once asked what she thinks of Bollywood, she heedlessly replied, “What’s that?”. Now that’s pissing off. Gotta admit that. Even though we have used the US generated (rather initiated) nomenclature by naming it Bollywood, to which people like Amitabh Bachchan and Jackie Shroff don’t comply (they rather prefer to call it Hindi Cinema instead), the themes of most hindi movies is vastly different from those of their english counterparts. And I appreciate that. Just as my professor today said, “It’s much better to live in the world with so much diversity”. They cater different prople, or should I say different moods.

A few days back I saw ’Into the wild’. Wonderful in its own way but typical of the genre I feel hollywood is moving towards. Digression is what I like to call it. Moving away from the general trends. That’s what hollywod has almost always been about. So in a sense there are no ”typical” hollywood movies. There are so many different genres, so many different themes people work on. It’s like a lot of abstract, philosophical thinking that they are into. You see Matrix for example, what an idea!! It’s easy to make a movie based on suh an idea, but the idea, the thought is something that’s really brilliant. Parallel universe and my mouth goes ”Awe…”. You see ”Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” and you’ll feel how difficult movies, when made of  abstract ideas, can be to comprehend. It’s a lot like poetry as someone has aptly put: “What’s poetry, rejuvenation, a refreshed look to someone, is bullshit to someone else. There a feel factor that working, underlying it, and unless you’re “in the feel”, you might end up calling it bullshit.

Now that’s drastically different from how hindi cinema (got respect for Mr Bachchan!) works. They most of time tend to stick to the “formula” stuff. They don’t seem inspired. They have repeated the few themes they have so often that it has made them a typecast. It just uncovers the substrate of it being one of the many methods of survival in India. They population is so unbelievably huge that people are forced, although unconciously mostly, to think that way. Art is meant more to express oneself, than just to make a living out of. That’s the fundamental reason why India is a poor country populated by talented people. They just don’t seem to use it properly. I mean, I have no idea why people like Yash Chopra make such crap of movies when they don’t, seemingly, have to be worried about survival.

This is murder of cinema. Murder of art. Not that hollywood doesn’t come up with extremely forgettable movies, but most of the movies they make reflect a desire to be more philosophical, more thought provoking, pushing the horizons. Also, I do not mean that bollywood doesn’t make sensible movies. There have been loads of them, mind you. It’s just that the fraction of such movies is depreciating, exponentially. Why don’t we have any more Raj Kapoors today is the basic question. Kapoor, for instance, worked so much ‘in the feel’ that he was time and again labelled perversed. People who questioned him on his portrayal of Mandakini in ‘Ram Teri..’ and Zeenat Aman (read Zeeny baby..) in ‘Satyam Shivam..’ just could’t come to terms with what he thought, with his sense of art, his poetry.

I don’t think it’s your mistake if people don’t understand your poem. Art, science and philosophy are interrelated by the thread of logic, be it universally accepted or just a progeny of an individual’s thought process. For instance, democracy might be the best possible governance but it’s surely not perfect. Individual says can’t be overlooked as they have brought about the most amazing changes in the world.

All said, I must come to why I started writing this blog. There’s something about hindi movies and their stereotypical idea of an innocent boy-meets-girl love story that really moves my heart. Ones like ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, ‘Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar’ and the yet-to-be-released ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ that makes me dream of a childish, incredulous, pure and most of all ‘in the feel’ love that they depict.

No denying the fact that even hollywood delivers such movies (some really good ones like the Notebook and Serendipity) but it’s still kind of an oddity there. India perfects that art. Probably because of the society, the most linient of which will call you ‘naughty’ for such an act. But, I like it for the mere innocence.

Filed under: Uncategorized , bollywood, feel, genre, hollywood, love, story

Fear of the unknown

There are times when we get stuck. Stuck at a point from where we cannot move ahead or think of any solution. We try several times, make the same mistakes over and over again and finally give up excruciated, drained out.

We think: “What wrong am I doing?”, “It should work but why isn’t it?” and things like these. And when all this happens over and over again, we fear it, avoid it, curse it. What we do not confess to anyone, or even to ourselves, is that the fear is nothing but ignorance, the avoidance hatred, the cursing jealousy. Ignorance of not being able to decipher the code, get the gist of it; hatred of getting accross something like this when everything was going on smoothly; jealous of people who have got through such situations, who seem to have mastered a trick still unknown to you, and teasing you.

Instead of going haywire, kicking the coffee table and picking up the telephone and throwing it on the ground, what we need to do is sit down and ask yourself one question: “Do I need to learn something new?”. These are the times when you have to ascend to a higher level. This is what they call risk management. There was a time when in business people avoided risks, longed to make it more secure than profitable. They feared risks, avoided them. But they saw some people taking risks and still getting away with its dangers. They started envying them. What they did not understand was that when they stopped muttering over their misfortune, that’s the moment they’d start thinking of some solution.

Every good businessman says “Play it safe. Avoid risks”. Every great businessman says “Take risks and learn to manage them”. It’s the fear that makes them stop thinking and start muttering. It’s the fear that creates the difference. Those who have the guts to fight it, overcome it, work it out are the haves. Those who can’t the have-nots.

Have you ever wondered why a highly skillful batsman like Rahul Dravid is struggling with his form while someone like Dhoni who, many would agree, doesn’t possess that technical soundness and finesse, creating waves when many would have thought he wouldn’t last even a few years in international cricket. Well, here he is, four years after making a trigger-happy, rash century against Pakistan, which could well have been a fluke, on top of the world being the most valuable player, the best captain and what not! But then how has he managed not just to survive at the big stage but rule it the way Dravid never could?

The key is adapting, acclimatising, changing and more importantly knowing when to change. When to ask youself the question: “Do I need to learn something new?”. That’s when you can find the answer and jump over the hurdle. That’s when you can zoom in and see what you were unable to see. You’ll find out what you didn’t know - the unknown. The fear will fade away. You will win. All you need to do is zoom in into the finer details. Kyunki ‘Darr ke aage jeet hai’.

Filed under: Uncategorized , fear, stuck, unknown, will power