Published on
August 29, 2009 in
Silly.
Jaswant Singh’s book Jinnah: India, Partition-Independence becomes a best seller this week, based on its re-interpretation of history, yet another scholarly book being lapped up by a country that prides itself on being receptive to different kinds of ideas. [Here is a qawalli composed in his "honor"]
Here we have some of the other books that have been top-sellers in Pakistan.
The Taliban Code: The Langda Don, on sabbatical at Rawalpandi University, tries to uncover the greatest secret the world has ever known, namely that behind the apparent misogyny the Taliban is actually an army of ultra-feminists headed by Mullah Greer codenamed “Haseena Atim Bum“.
Continue reading ‘The Unputdownables’
There is something about cricketers, something about “ball misses bat bat misses ball howazzat” that just make those lips go out of control. I first came to know of this relationship between cricket and kissing during the Sportsworld quiz when the quizmaster asked “Who was the first Indian cricketer to get kissed on a cricket field” and the answer I found out was Abbas Ali Baig (One of the teams guessed Bapu Nadkarni to which the quizmaster pointedly said “Do you want me to repeat the question”?).
Continue reading ‘Kissa Kissi Ka’
Published on
August 25, 2009 in
Reviews.
Whether you find Quentin Tarantino an arrogant, over-rated prick raised to stratospheric levels by the worship of his zombie fanboys or whether you consider him Hollywood’s most stylish and original visionary, the main reason for either assessment is essentially the same.
And that is that Quentin Tarantino’s movies are about one and only one thing.
Himself.
In cinemascope and full technicolor.
Continue reading ‘Inglourious Basterds—the Review’
Published on
August 23, 2009 in
Politics.
[Please read Part 1 of this post before reading this. It has the context for this post as well as links on the basis of which I have based my assessment of Jaswant Singh's book.]
Two questions naturally arise from all this.
The first one: Why did Jaswant Singh write this book?
Continue reading ‘The Power Of History Part 2′
Published on
August 20, 2009 in
Politics.
[This blog turns five today. Long post]
High school. History period. Sitting in the front bench a friend said to me, a bit loudly and with barely concealed exasperation “What is the use of this stuff?” Our history teacher, in an unusually good mood, turned to him and rather than boxing his ears pointed to the book, ” Everything you see in today’s news has its origins right here. This is also where all today’s news will ultimately land up.”
Continue reading ‘The Power Of History’
R