The case of religion and God

I have nothing against people's religions and their concept of god. But I feel it is necessary that people get the right idea of god and understand the true purpose of religion. I am an atheist, but I very much respect others' faith and expect them to do the same to me. God and religion, besides the ever lasting discussion of whether or not are true, are meant to inspire people to a good life. Nothing more than that. But then, why is there war in the name of God? God gives inspiration. Just like how Star Wars, Rocky Balboa training and the idea of hobbits triumphing inspires me. The reason is people think that fairy tale stories are for real. God is an invention of mankind. It's not wrong to believe in God at all. Many people need it to keep things on an even keel. But squandering your money and wasting your life in the name of service to God is not simple bull shit. I have seen the dearest of my friends and relatives do this. There is nothing more important than your own lives. Discover your talents and work on them. Never for a moment think God will save you without you putting in enough smart work.

There was this essay competition in my intra college culturals called Carpe Diem, which I won writing under the topic 'The Nature of reality'. In it I made a proposal which may seem ridiculous to many. It was this : Many believe the Ramayana and Mahabaratha are works of fact. And the evidence produced when the factual nature of the books is questioned is the the discovery of the city of Dwaraka under water, the existence of a place called Kurukshetra and the Indo-Sri Lankan bridge. Fine. 'The Da Vinci Code' is a runaway hit of fiction which is largely set at the Louvre, Paris. Say, for example, Paris drowns due to global warming. And 500 years from now, Paris is discovered under water and a copy of 'The Da Vinci Code' sans the opening declaration page by Dan Brown is retrieved. There is a fair chance to say that that generation of people will believe the events in 'The Da Vinci Code' to be totally true, that a person named Robert Langdon actually raced through the museum looking for clues, under the pretext that the Louvre which features in the book has been discovered. Now, this is no good. Similarly, in my opinion, the evidence produced for the factual nature of religious books is no good. You are welcome to disagree with me. An answer to this can never be found. But what we can do is get a strong hold of our lives and turn to religion for inspiration when needed and not take it too seriously.

I deeply regret it if I have offended anyone's faith as it is not my intention.
May the force be with you! :D:D

The Curious case

I'm smitten by the Oscar fever. By Oscar fever, I don't mean the excitement of who wins what. I mean the excitement of catching up on the movies which have been nominated. I recently watched 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', a slow moving classic. Brad Pitt gives his best performance till date in a movie which has an unusual story in which the protagonist ages backwards. With this amazing idea in the storyline, a wonderful love story unfolds. The execution is simply poetic. Brad Pitt taking care of the child Blanchett and Blanchett baby sitting the child Pitt as their ages run in opposite tracks is just amazing. The scene where Benjamin learns to walk made me sit stunned at Pitt's stellar performance. I thought he can only play the cool dude. He proved me wrong and how! I'm watching 'Milk' tomorrow and I hear Sean Penn will steal the Oscar for his performance. Nevertheless, Brad Pitt is just too good.

Man! Where does David Fincher get his stories from! I can't forget the awesomeness of 'Fight Club' and the chills of 'Se7en'. He belongs right up there with Chris Nolan and Gus Van Sant.

Rory's First Kiss

Let me get my point straight. If 'Slumdog Millionaire' deserves 10 Oscar nominations, then 'The Dark Knight' ought to get at least two more. How can Christopher Nolan be left out of the Director's criteria and the blockbuster out of the Best Picture criteria? I know the reason. 'The Dark Knight' is a comic hero film. There's this whole génre thing in Hollywood. 'The Dark Knight', being a superhero movie has been left out of the two important categories simply because of what it is, inspite of all it's near flawlessness.
Coming back to 'Slumdog Millionaire', if A.R.Rahman deserves an Oscar nomination for 'Jai Ho' and 'O Saya', then he should have earned more Oscars and Golden Globes on numerous occasions previously, the latest being RDB. I think of this and I get reminded of Martin Scorcese. Scorcese won an Oscar for 'The Departed'. The movie was Oscar material, no doubt. But it was nothing compared to Scorcese's earlier classics like 'Taxi Driver', 'Goodfellas', 'Raging Bull' etc. Rahman deserves an Oscar, no doubt. But not for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie, in my opinion, is overhyped. There are moments where Danny Boyle's class is shown. But the movie's no classic. I'd rather see 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button' or 'Frost/Nixon' bag the top honours. 'The Dark Knight' wound will be hard to heal for many fans.
At such a moment, I think of Marlon Brando and how he snubbed the Oscars. To 'The Dark Knight' fans like me, Oscars don't mean a lot any more. To us, no matter what happens in Kodak Theatre, Heath Ledger's 'The Joker' will remain the greatest psychotic character ever portrayed and 'The Dark Knight' the best Batman movie till date. Personally, I don't think Chris Nolan would go for a third installment. But I know that if he does, it will be out of this world!

Act of shame masked in darkness

The following is an article written by Mr. Murali Gopy, published on MSN. Since I share the same feelings as Mr. Gopy, I would like to present his article in my blog. I do not have any intention of plagiarism and present the article as Mr. Gopy's work, simply echoing my sentiments.

"When I was a kid, I loved power cuts. That was the time of the night when I had the liberty to make faces at my dad. I exercised, with great verve, my super-constitutional right to step on the chair cushions (forbidden), juggle the remote control and the pen torch (life sentence), moonwalk to the prayer room in my slippers (deportation) and hide the candles thereof(punishable by death). When the lights came back, my dad would find me reclining on the easy chair with the chemistry text book spread across my chest and a pen idling in my hands; he never mistook it for the catnap of a nerd. He bought an emergency light without fanfare, hid it, and switched it on while I was on my Act. My embarrassment was my punishment.

I have a reason to recall this. Some fans of “Indian culture” remind me of the arboreal ME of yore. They buy the tickets, squeeze into the hall, and wait for the lights to go off. Then, they devour the sleaze that is thrown at them in the name of entertainment. They whistle at the belly button close-up, clap at the double innuendo, cheer the rapist on rampage and hoot wildly at the hero who comes in time to save the prospective rape victim.

THE END, LIGHTS, and they are back to the streets lecturing on moral science, burning effigies of cultural defaulters and issuing life threats on women who have a great wardrobe to choose from.

Mallika Sherawat does not have a master’s degree in dress sense, but that should not prevent her from sharing the dais with Kamal Haasan, Jackie Chan, Amitabh Bachchan and the most venerable M Karunanidhi. But she was told otherwise. She was actually given a sermon by an enraged political outfit of Tamil Nadu on Indian culture. And ordered to apologize unconditionally “or else face the consequence”.

This is not jotted down in favour of Mallika Sherawat’s couture acumen. In fact, I find it tough to describe her choice of attire. It was the sartorial equivalent of “Don’t look at what I am wearing; think of what I am not”. She walked up as easily and confidently as she had done her pole dance in the movie, ‘Dasavatharam’, the audio launch of which was being staged on the dais.

She forgot something: The lights were on!

The watchmen of Indian culture are terribly peeved at Mallika Sherawat “for making Tamilians cringe and hang their heads in shame, for causing mental agony and hurt to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu by wearing a revealing mini skirt, for exposing her back and sitting cross-legged in front of the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi”. Mallika did what celebrities of her hue do when faced with similar obstacles. She fled the scene.

Fleeing has been a standard practice with all post-modern artistes who have dedicated themselves to amoral dictums. Richard Gere had had his share of India’s fabled “athithi devo bhava” when he came down for an AIDS awareness campaign, last year. He had, obviously, selected the Fool’s month for the sojourn. After shaking hands with Shilpa Shetty, Gere changed gears to hug her, bend her to an uncomfortable right angle before planting a few smooches. The next thing he remembered is the chat he had with the airhostess on the “next morning flight”.

Shreya Saran, who sang and danced hand-in-hand with Rajnikanth in ‘Sivaji’, ran into trouble for going on stage, skimpily dressed, and addressing the most venerable M Karunanidhi (again) in “unacceptable attire”. The moral police (again) had asked for an unconditional apology and Shreya had promptly bent her knees and pleaded for dear life. Khushboo, with the 25 pending court cases against her for “degrading Tamil womanhood”, reminds me of that famous Sandhya character from ‘Do Aankhen Baarah Haath’—the village lass with the noisy drum trailing her like a blunderbuss saheli.

Where exactly are we standing now?

The average Indian blockbuster has been, for a long time now, a garish mix of bolly-mujrahs and melodrama, with a liberal serving of the crimson liquid. We have no complaints, since the lights are off every time we bump into one. Peeping Toms that we are, we love to watch without being watched. Once the emergency lamp is trained on our Darknesses, we stand to lose face.

For the volatile fan of Hindu culture, who is ready to empty his barrel on the Shreyas. Mallikas, Shilpas and Khushboos of the world, I must quote Octovio Paz: “The Hindu genius is abstract and realistic, sexual and intellectual, pedantic and sublime. It lives between extremes, it embraces the extremes, rooted in the earth and drawn to an invisible beyond.”

All lights off!"

Now, it's time to think!

P.S. Just to reaffirm that I have not plagiarised, I present the original link to Mr. Gopy's article. http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1399011