Thoughts on the UP Elections

Published on March 7, 2012 in Politics. 91 Comments

Uttar Pradesh has historically exerted great influence (some may say undue) over national politics, having been the home of some of our most influential politicians. Which makes its politics fascinating, if not for anything else than for its impact on the Delhi throne. For the last ten years, UP politics can be looked upon, very simplistically, as a punch-counter-punch battle between two large voting blocs—-the OBC(Yadav)-Muslim combine represented by Mulayam “Netaji” Yadav and the Dalits represented by Maya “Behenji” Wati with each side trying to muscle on each other’s turf while trying to tip the scales by poaching the Bramhin and higher castes from the BJP. Kind of like Montagues vs Capulets, but with criminals, rifles, wrestlers, elephants, statues, mandir and India’s only royal family added for good measure.

For me of course what has been the most fascinating is how the Congress and the BJP have been, once again, relegated to third and fourth position-scrappers in what has historically been their “headquarters state” and how this marginalization reflects generally on the moribund state of our biggest national players.

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Oh Please No

Published on March 3, 2012 in Bengal. 36 Comments

[Full of Bengali pop-culture references. Caveat to the non-Bengalis]

Not that I support the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, but for the first few seconds of my Saturday morning, I wanted to become the Ayatollah. That is when I realized that they had re-made arguably Ray’s finest movie “Charulata” as “Charulata 2011″ (reminiscent of Disco 82, Hope 86 and Mother 98) , a cross between the original and Jism, with gratuitous displays of Rituparna’s back, as bare as Bengal’s industrial development parks, and sexy displays of Arjun Chakraborty’s face, as poetic as a mis-shapen Nalengurer sandesh.

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Rage Icon Of The Generation

Published on February 25, 2012 in Media. 63 Comments

I have always rued the fact that this generation lacks true rage icons. This, I believe, explains why the new Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, unlike his predecessor, breaks down into tears at every opportunity. Or why the handsome hunks in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara spent so much time discovering their Ying side.

One cannot blame the bachchas too. Because they had not grown up with Amitabh Bachchan’s angry enraged man avatar, where the tightening of jaw conveyed as much burn as three hours of the angsty Rockstar. Because they have not, at an impressionable age, felt the blast from Sunny Deol screaming “Balwaant Raii….” like Mount Krakatoa or experienced first hand his wrath as he laid to waste the Pakistani Army with just a handpump. Hell these poor kids have been brought up under the shadow of a KJo-ized namby pamby Sirish-Kunder-slapping SRK, a far cry from the lip-quivering, red-eyed, macho Madan-Chopra-penetrator which is how we like to remember him.

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The Apocalypse

Published on February 17, 2012 in Calcutta. 64 Comments

Stumbling onto a cache of rare books in College Street, ones I had been looking for quite some time (I need them for a secret project), I was feeling like A. Raja after the 2G auction, the treasure-hunter who had finally reached the end of the rainbow. Thus in a state of light bliss,  I floated into Coffee House, one of the last surviving bastions of Kolkataiaana.

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BPL

Published on February 14, 2012 in Cricket. 42 Comments

A sentiment often encountered online, from Indians of course, is that Bangladesh is somehow undeserving of Test status and that it was a conspiracy of the BCCI that led to them getting their place at the big boy’s table. This sentiment, needless to say, offends my sentiments. Dictating that a country should not play just because they lose most of their games is like saying someone should not sing just because he has a bad voice. Bangladesh deserves every bit of their Test status. And this they do purely on the basis of their fans and the enthusiasm and joy they bring to the game.

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