Monthly Archive for September, 2005

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Mithunism—-The Religion

Published on September 9, 2005 in Bollywood, Comedy, Mithunda, Pop Culture and Religion. 248 Comments

A buxom lady is going to have the shoulder of her blouse torn by a bunch of marauding ruffians. Suddenly, a bottle rolls on the ground and a Man enters the screen. The ruffians ask “Who are you?” In a voice that would make the blood of tigers run cold (old jungle proverb), He says:

“Dikhne me bewada, daudne me ghoda, aur maarne me hathoda hoon main”

The man. The legend. Mithun Chakraborty. Some call him Mithun-da, most call him Prabhuji.

Mithun-da is one of my idols. I will go even further and say He is my God. I believe in Him. And like any fanatic, I am extremely impatient with some people who laugh at Him, compare Him unfavorably to Amitabh and Shahrukh Khan just because He is supposedly “down market”. I think these people should rot in Hell with 72 virgins. 40 year old male virgins that is.

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Hey Teacher Just Leave the Kids Alone

Published on September 6, 2005 in Crime, India and Society. 36 Comments

A few weeks ago, we all heard of a principal, Srinivasa Rao of Vijaywada who took digital photographs of girl students in the nude and posted them on the Internet (link to the Internet posting article I could not find). His punishment was to stand in his underpants in a thana in Vijaywada.

Today I see another incident —Bobby Chachan , the principal of Bethany Boarding School in Kurseong who, in a drunken fit, hugged and tried to kiss a 15 year old girl of the school. Police have picked him up.

The alarming thing is that for every perv outed, there are 100s of more prudent ones who pass muster under the guise of respectability.

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The Dissolution of the Fellowship of Friends

Published on September 4, 2005 in Memories, Personal and Society. 19 Comments

There’s something I have observed in most of my guy friends. As soon as they get married, they sever all links with old college buddies with a vengeance that borders on the obscene. The train of events is almost always the same — a gradual process of successively decreasing phone calls, unreplied voice messages, “inability” to attend reunions until ultimately the increasingly-getting-small group of friends get the message— our old friend is out for good.

A word about our group. It is an exclusively male clan of about 20-30 core members of the 55 odd who went to college together and who have kept in regular touch through email and reunions organized in US and in India.

Lest this be interpreted as a bachelor’s inability to understand the nuances of married life, let me say that I am married myself. I am aware of the constraints of married men— I took my wife to a reunion over a long weekend, ostensibly to “integrate” her with my buddies and my past.

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It’s All In The Game

Published on September 2, 2005 in Cricket. 18 Comments

Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan got into a heated verbal duel today during the India-New Zealand cricket match. Ajit Agarkar, the man with a career “economy” rate (aah the irony of using the word economy in the context of Ajit Agarkar) of well over 5 , bowled an over where he gave 15 runs. Nothing new there.

At this point, we presume that Irfan must have said something to Agarkar.

Then Irfan ran into bowl and got blasted for an identical amount. And then Agarkar took a catch off Irfan and that did it.

India’s two spearheads started mouthing off at each other in the full glare of the cameras.

Team India…yeah !

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Meltdown

Published on September 1, 2005 in Society. 11 Comments

Watching the effects of Hurricane Katrina on TV, I could not escape being repeatedly struck by the extremely thin line between man and Nature.

Here is New Orleans, one of US’s liveliest cities, built over 250 years, reduced, in a matter of hours, to an extension of the river and the lake.

And as looting takes place on an unprecedented scale, lowlifes patrol downtown Orleans with Ak47s while police, overworked and clueless about an emergency on this scale, put up token resistance, corpses float down thoroughfares, alligators and snakes wade through debris and the threat of an impending epidemic hangs in the air —-one can see that New Orlean’s refined, urban ethos has vaporized in 36 hours bringing the rule of the jungle to its dark, waterlogged streets.

In short, a total meltdown of civilization played out on live TV.

As Sheppard Smith, Fox New’s Dan Rather-wannabe mentioned—the situation in New Orleans is as bad as it is in a third world country. ( a sentiment echoed in multiple places)

Yes it’s that bad.