Rabble Rousers - Be more sensitive

Couple of things that I wanted to add on to my earlier posts

1) On the posts about killing of 5 Jawans in the Poonch sector, I had mentioned that the army should be given authority to respond to such attacks. Apparently that is already there, which is visible from the protests that Pakistan is making about their Jawans are killed by Indian firing. My question to all the opposition and Mr Goswamis of the world, why are you not talking about such things ?

2) Second is about the Madras Café movie - the government has taken the easy route of washing off their hands stating that theatres are not willing to screen the movie. I had mentioned that the High court has declined to ban the movie. However, all main stream media shouting about no release in TN for Madras Café. I was shocked at seeing that and thought I had missed something in the verdict and was checking it again. All that the high court mentioned was a movie cannot release without the censor certificate. What is news in that? Why do we twist that to state that there is no release for the movie?

Summary

1) Diplomacy should be handled deftly. I am sure the tone that we hear from the current opposition will be entirely different if they are ruling and the ruling party will behave like the current opposition. That's the sad part of our democracy.

2) The media is more interested in sleazy headlines rather than content. This is a real shame.

Madras Cafe - Again no freedom of speech?

In my short blogging life, this is the third time I am writing about lack of freedom of speech. First it was about Amina Wadud and then Thalaivaa and now Madras Café.

There are many fringe elements and some political parties which are asking for a ban on this movie and rightfully the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has rejected the request to ban this movie.

I don't know the story of the movie but what I hear is that it portrays is how LTTE killed the former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi.

Everyone is jumping and saying that the movie portrays LTTE in bad light. First of all LTTE is a banned organization under the Unlawful activities prevention act (basically the terrorist act). The ban still continues even though most activities of LTTE stopped after the killing of Prabhakaran in 2009. LTTE and Prabhakaran are charged for Rajiv Gandhi's murder in the courts here.

The usual suspects like Thirumavalavan & Vaiko want to ban the movie and even Karunanidhi wants the government to check if the movie portrays the LTTE in bad light and then take action.

Funny thing is the students have also jumped into this and want the movie to be banned.

What is wrong in portraying a terrorist organization (as per Indian government) in bad light? That's one part of the story.

John Abraham, who is the hero of the movie, has been saying that the wont give into the bullying. And he is right in saying that. He has the right to act in a movie and this movie being censored should be released.

Summary

There is nothing wrong in portraying a terrorist organization(which they are) in bad light and nothing wrong in showing that LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi(which they did). If the fringe elements have a problem with that, then they should get the ban on LTTE revoked(which they couldn't) and retry Rajiv Gandhi's case (which they cannot).

We definitely need to protect our freedom of speech right which is being abused more and more recently.

 

David Miranda - If this is not Human Rights violation, what is?

David Miranda, the Brazilian partner of Glenn Greenwald was held at the Heathrow airport for 9 hours on Monday morning. They were on the way from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where they live.

Glenn Greenwald along with Laura Poitras were instrumental in getting out the Edward Snowden story.

He was detained under the schedule 7 of UK terrorist act which allows people to be detained for full 9 hours before they have to be either arrested or released. This schedule specifically applies at the Airports, ports and at other entry points into the country.

He was released after the full 9 hours which the act allows and his belongings like Mobile Phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games console were taken away by the authorities.

This is a clear case of intimidation for all journalists and use of terrorist acts on friends and families of journalists who have been critical of the west on their snooping of the individuals smokes of hypocrisy. On what basis was he identified as a terrorist to use this law?

There is more to this, White house was informed in advance about the detaining of David Miranda. Not just UK, US is also equally to be blamed for this incident.

What rights does these nations have on questioning third world countries about their human rights standards?

Why is the west cozying up to Modi?

Whenever any foreign dignitary comes to India they meet the Prime Minister, President and they also make it a point to meet the Opposition leaders. I am sure we had seen leaders meet Sonia Gandhi during the NDA rule and then LK Advani or now Sushma Swaraj/Arun Jaitley during the UPA regime.

Secondly the main purpose of the embassies in different countries is to not just give visas but to understand what is happening in those countries and report back to the head quarters. This is to ensure that they are not blind sighted when a change happens.

Till recently, for the west Modi was just a CM of a state in India. He was ruling Gujarat when the 2002 riots happened. They didn't want to be seen supporting him.

Now he is projecting himself as the next PM candidate even though is party is not willing to say so(at least till date). The UPA is definitely on the way out, which is what all opinion polls also say. The west wants to ensure that they don't have a PM who they don't know about or who they are seen as against. India is an important nation and west cannot afford to have an PM who they openly oppose.

Now a days the governments means business and to win contracts you need to have good relationship.

That is the reason why we see British calling him to UK or the Australians calling him. It is not that they have new found love for Modi.

The TV reporters who are questioning the British MPs or Australians should understand this basic fact before bungling the interview as Nidhi Razdan did in NDTV.

Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer - A Movie Review

Watched the movie Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer(AKS) yesterday. The theatre was not even 25% filled, and this was the first weekend. The director has had a 50-50% success at the box office so far. His first movie Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was a run away hit. Who can forget that parotta comedy?

Story is about the teenage or I should say college love and the larger impact that it leaves the next generation. The hero loves the heroine in college but she treats him more as a friend. He threatens to commit suicide and she relents. They go on an outing and she gets pregnant. The parents get involved and they agree initially to get them married but there are some conditions laid out. The girls parents don't agree and in the interim the lovers decide that they don't want to get married.  And then the climax scene leaves a huge lump in your throat. There is a baby that is born and the girls parents leave the kid at an orphanage and after a couple of years try to get the heroine married of to another guy and the hero is shown flirting with another girl. Cut to show the baby who is without any footwear picking up a ball in hot sun and running and stops and cries because he couldn't bear the heat of the sand.

In terms of performances - The hero(Ramesh) unless he is related to the producer or director, not sure how he got this role. Cannot emote. Heroine(Manisha) in her second outing after Vazhakku en has done a decent job.  In terms of support cast the heroines mother played by Tulasi has done a very good job. All other parents including the much acclaimed Poornima Bhagyaraj and Jayaprakash don't have much to do. The heroines friend Jenny (not sure who the actor is) has done a very good job. She continuously opposes the relationship. Arjun (Kadhalil sodhapuvadhu eppadi fame) also does a very good job as a friend of both the hero and heroine.

Songs are good and have been a hit.

There are some scenes which are good, like where an uncle of the hero comes and wishes him on becoming an uncle and Arjun says seekaram appa kuda ayiduvan sir. Also the scene where the heroine before they fall in love advising the hero that once you get a bike any girl will fall in love and the next scene we have the hero asking his parents for a bike.

On the whole the movie is short and runs less than 2 hours and it doesn't bore you. To me personally except for a few laughs here and there and climax scene, there was not much in this movie. Much more was expected from the director (who I personally feel has not lived up to the high standards he set for himself with his first two films - Vennila kabadi kuzhu and Azhagar samiyin kudhirai).

Why can't we have proper guidelines and selection criteria for awards?

OK, the title might be generic and many would have faced this question in their lives. However, I specifically wanted to talk about the sports awards (Arjuna & Khel Ratna Awards) that are awarded every year.

Last year Rahul Dravid did not win the Khel Ratna. Guess the reason - Ravi Shastri who was the lone Cricket representative in the selection panel did not show up for the meeting. Wow, that's a great reason. Is this how much importance the awards are given?

Every year there are some sportspersons who feel left out and complain about it. We had Krishna Poonia complaining that she missed out on the Khel Ratna and some others like Manoj Kumar (boxer) who complaining about him not being considered for Arjuna awards. There were also complaints that the selection of Sodhi being biased.

Why is it that we cannot have a defined criteria for selection of awards? Why cannot it be made more transparent?

When our nation has very little to celebrate as sports success outside cricket, why cannot we recognize deserving sportsmen/women?

I really wish to see a day when once the awards are announced, every one congratulates the winners and the story ends there. People who don't get the awards will get disappointed, but if we make the selection process transparent & objective everyone will be able to accept the decision made.

The Athletics World Championships - Our Dismal show continues

Anju Bobby George was the only Indian to have won a medal at the world championships. She won the bronze at the 2003 Championships in the long jump event. India sent a 15 member contingent for the World championships which is currently being held in Moscow with a hope of adding to that single medal.

Only event in 2012 Olympics (both men and women) in which we had progressed to the finals was Discuss. Vikas Gowda and Krishna Poonia both progressed to the finals but failed to finish in the medals. In the world championships we had only Vikas Gowda representing us with Krishna being injured. Vikas progressed to the finals but finished only 7th. He has been consistently finishing around that level in the Olympics/world championships. The leading throwers throw have their best performance of over 70 metres and Vikas's best is only 66m. I don't think there is more to expect from him beyond this level.

Sudha Singh the 2010 Asian Games Gold Medalists finished a lowly 23rd in a field of 29 in 3000m steeple chase event.

Walking seems to be one area where we are having more participants. We had totally 6 participants including a woman. We had 3 men participating in the 20km walk and 2 in 50km walk. The promising KT Irfan who finished 10th in the 20km race at the London Olympics was in the chasing pack till he was disqualified after 13 kms of the walk. He was placed 8th at the end of 13kms. The other two contestants Gurmeet Singh and Chandan Singh finished 33rd and 34th out of the 53 finishes.

The only thing that we expect from our athletes (who are still not at the level of winning medals) is to bring their A game to such prestigious events. We want them to meet or beat their personal bests. That's all we expect. And so far only Khushbir Kaur has beaten the national record by a whole 3 minutes (it's the different story that she finished 39th in the field of 57 finishes and was 7 minutes away from the winner).

In the 50km race we had Basant Bahadur Rana finishing 33rd and Sandeep Kumar disqualified after 30kms.

Renjith Maheswary failed to qualify for the finals of the triple jump, at least he had registered the jumps in the world championships while he failed to register even a single jump at the London Olympics. He had the same length as the last qualifier for the finals with a distance of 16.63m, he didn't qualify as the other persons best jump was in his first attempt and Renjith's was in his second attempt.

The last event that I had personally some hope of qualifying to the finals was the 4*400 relay and just came to know that we had finished 16th in a field of 17.

With this our participation in the 2013 World Championships comes to an end. Our wait for our second World championship medal continues.