Since the year end is approaching, it is time to continue with more of Greatbong’s annual awards for 2006. Readers may already recall the conferral of the “Howitzer” prize for excellence in journalism 2006 to IndiaDaily. Here are some more achievement awards, in the same vein.
Continue reading ‘The GreatBong Achievement Awards 2006′
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When Queen Elizabeth came to India and not only refused to apologize for Jallianwalah Bag (despite apologizing for British excesses during Bloody Sunday in Northern Island) but also dismissed the magnitude of the butchery as “exaggerated” (instead choosing to believe the casualty figures of General Dyer’s son), she defiled the memory of our freedom fighters and inflicted a resounding colonial slap on the face of the nation—a slap that had gone unanswered.
Till now.
Dhoom II. A royal figure who looks suspiciously like Queen Elizabeth is in a train speeding through Namibia along with her crown, a priceless treasure that is being guarded by two of James Bond’s illegitimate sons. Hrithik Roshan, super thief, drops down from the sky like a piece of pigeon poo, magically gets into the train and then donning a mask (Mission Impossible style), transforms himself into Queen Elizabeth so perfectly that the guards willingly grant him/her access to the “crown jewels”. Through this plot device, the director Sanjay Gadhvi not-so-subtly suggests that Queen Elizabeth and Hrithik Roshan have identical torsos—thus casting doubt on the Queen’s femininity in the same way that she cast doubt on the magnitude of Jallianwalah Bagh.
Bravo.
Continue reading ‘Dhoom II — the Review’
ShareOne of the favouritest past-times of the argumentative Bengali, usually over noisy slurps of tea, bites of aloor chop and intermittent puffs on Gold Flake, is to apportion blame for Bengal’s marginalization in national politics, the economy and even culture in post-Independence India. For politics, the schism between Subhash Bose and Gandhi is considered to be the starting point of Bengal’s steadily decreasing influence over Delhi. The freight equalization policy that took away much of Bengal’s locational advantage and the Congress-party-held Center’s discriminatory fiscal policies towards CPM-ruled Bengal, both as retribution for repeatedly electing a non-Congress party as well as to favour Congress-held states (or states where they had a decent chance of winning) are considered universally (and rightfully) to be two of the major factors for Bengal’s economic marginalization. And lording over these factors is the ubiquitous, inexorable CPM-led militant trade unionism from the 60s to the 90s that led to a massive flight of industrial capital from the state—-though this contributory factor is likely to be debated vehemently by the hard-core Leftists, a breed that is thankfully being slowly supplanted by the pragmatic Leftist as exemplified by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
Continue reading ‘Bengali Passion’
ShareIt’s tough being a MLA in Bihar.
While members of most state legislative assemblies engage in mutual kung-fu fighting, the MLAs of Bihar are a different breed altogether, ceaselessly toiling and travelling with nary a thought for their individual gratification, gathering information and gainfully spending tax money on constructive causes.
Consider the case of this mammoth contingent of Bihari MLAs who were sent by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on an all-expense-paid 10-day “study tour” of Thailand to investigate ways and means to control AIDs. After all, for one of the poorest states in India, what could be a better use of money than to send 15 MLAs to Thailand—-a lesser leader would have spent that money on providing better facilities to health officials inside the state. But not Nitish. He knows that when you send a group of 15 Bihari MLAs into a den of prostitutes, seminal ideas come spurting out.
Well at least the seminal part is guaranteed.
Continue reading ‘Chal Thai-ya Thai-ya’
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