Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation

Every visit to India, I worry that most interactions amongst people are defined by the "in group" and "others" criteria.  In the non-work social space, there appears to be a great deal of conscious and subconscious decision-making on whom to associate with based on various "in group" attributes, especially religion, and caste and sub-caste.

It worries me even more than that this gets spatially reflected: neighborhoods with dominant "in group" demographics.  Worry is an understatement--it freaks me out.

Such a geographic separation of "in group" and "others" was not uncommon here in the US, too.  After all, for instance, the history of "white flight" as a response to racial integration is not easily forgettable.  Fair housing laws and a lot more inter-racial and inter-cultural mixing, along with education and understanding, has decreased a great deal of geographic exclusion of the "others."  Thankfully!

Sometimes, I think of the geographic exclusion in India as non-violent and passive-aggressive "ethnic cleansing" of neighborhoods.  It freaks me out even more.

India, with its long history of the awful caste system, has a terrible history of geographic separation of people.  My grandmothers' villages were classic examples of these.  In the small village of Pattamadai, the brahmins, for instance, lived in "agraharams" while Muslims lived in a different part of town, and the non-brahmins in yet another part of town.

In my other grandmother's place, in Sengottai, it was no different.

 In the map on the right, which is of the eastern half of Sengottai, the brahmin neighborhoods were clustered about the center.  (Click on the figure for a clearer image.)  As is typical of the "agraharams," temples were the focus of the neighborhoods. 

The Muslim part of town was across on the west side.  In between are the traditional non-brahmin neighborhoods, including the one where the my high school friend's grandfather's home is located.

During my childhood, I have spent many summer breaks in Sengottai and Pattamadai.  But, never had I even remotely wandered into the Muslim areas.  It was much later that I walked around and got a sense of the layout of the town.  Graduate schooling, which helped me better understand these issues, furthered my intellectual and personal curiosities. 

The good news is that even these villages and small towns are beginning to change.  A few years ago, during Christmas time, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lit up decorative star hanging outside one home in a agraharam.  A Christian family had moved in to the neighborhood, I was told, when I casually asked my uncle.  Of course, it was at the end of the street, far away from the temple.  To me, it was progress.  A huge progress.  Over the years, many non-brahmins have also moved into those agraharams.

I never saw a Muslim household though.

Now, it could be that I had not taken any systematic census, and could have overlooked a Muslim-occupied home or two.  But, my sense is that Muslims hadn't moved in.

If that was the case in the villages, changes in cities are also very slow, compared to the phenomenal changes in the economy.

Given that open notices about sale or lease are rare in India, and with space availability information transmitted more by word of mouth, well, the words are transmitted only to the in-group in the first place. And when the word is out, they employ euphemisms and proxies--urbanites being more literate and worldly-wise know that outright discrimination is not correct. .  For instance, "I don't want to rent out my house to those who cook beef"--excludes Muslims and Christians right away. Or, "I don't like the smell of cooking with mustard oil" is a way to keep away the population from Bengal and the Northeast parts of India.  Imagine if in the contemporary US, an apartment manager denies an Indian immigrant family an apartment because of the curry smells from the kitchen!

Of course, change is difficult for those whom the status quo has served well.  But, that status quo is simply unfair.  The more people are resistant to change, the more the unfairness continues, like in this news item about a young woman in Mumbai who "was denied a flat in the city just because she is a Muslim":

After a hard search, Ms. Quadri found a tidy 3-BHK apartment at Sanghvi Heights in Wadala. Her new flatmates — two working women, in their early twenties and Hindu — found her on Facebook.
However, a day before Ms. Quadri was to shift, the apartment’s broker warned that the housing society did not accept Muslim tenants.

Long story short, after signing "a “no-objection certificate” and ready for any harassment from her neighbours because of her religion," she was forced to leave the place.  And this:

Incidentally, the other women had to pay a price for sheltering a Muslim; they have vacated the house unwillingly.

The big world city of Mumbai is no different from the very small town of Sengottai!  Or perhaps the big city is even worse!

ps: the title of this post is from Khalil Gibran's poem, Pity the Nation

Bal Thackeray's spirit refuses to die. A spectre of fear haunts Mumbai!

The pile of papers to grade gets higher and higher; if only I resorted to the easy, no stress, bubbling-in scantron tests, right?

Sorry, I had to rush to the bathroom to puke and get that thought out of my system :)

Anyway, all those papers to grade, and even more pressing is the need for catharsis by blogging about the atrociousness of Bal Thuggeray's goons.

As when he was alive, Thuggerary brought the city to a standtill even when dead.  It was a bandh that closed everything down.

Most Mumbaikars know that how much ever they are pissed off at Thuggeray, well, they ought to keep those thoughts to themselves.

Which is not what two young women knew, perhaps.

"21-year old Shaheen Dhada" posted on Facebook:

With all respect, every day, thousands of people die, but still the world moves on.

On Facebook. How dare she disrespect Thuggeray!  20-year old Renu Srinivasan made another mistake--she "liked" it.

Dhada had added:

Just due to one politician died a natural death, everyone just goes bonkers. They should know, we are resilient by force, not by choice. When was the last time, did anyone showed some respect or even a two-minute silence for Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Azad, Sukhdev or any of the people because of whom we are free-living Indians? Respect is earned, given, and definitely not forced. Today, Mumbai shuts down due to fear, not due to respect. 

The Gestapo knocked on their doors and hauled them off to jail.  Yes, for posting and "liking" on Facebook.

What were they charged for?

“promoting enmity between classes” and “sending offensive messages through [a] communication service”

WTF!

A former judge of India's Supreme Court, among others, rallied support for these two young women.  One of the comments to his open letter is bloody eerie:

WTF!

India Today reports that the families were also threatened by Thuggerary's Sainiks, which is also echoed in this report:

"The Sainiks came with a lawyer, who was armed with printouts of the Facebook message and the address of the girls. I think everyone will agree that the situation was sensitive in the light of Balasaheb Thackeray's demise," said Ramdas Shinde, subdivisional police officer in Palghar.
A mob also vandalized a medical clinic run by her uncle.

WTF!

I can only hope that the arrest of the two young women will be the proverbial straw to break the back of the unscrupulous politicians who have screwed up India every which they can.

Of course, it is easy for me to blog about it from the safety of my home here in the US.  Well, as long as I am not on the President's kill list!

It is a mad, mad, mad, mad world :(

High tension in Indian cities doesn't matter as it does in US cities?

By high tension in cities, I am not referring to the commonly held belief that life in cities is stressful and that it is all peace and harmony in the rural landscape.  "High tension" as in high voltage transmission lines.

As we drove, I heard "X" say "this is high tension road." I thought I misheard--after all, the traffic was flowing really well, and the road was relatively ok.

I knew it couldn't be my faulty ear either, given that the passenger seat is to the driver's left.  So, when I asked for clarification, "X" said, "this is called high tension road."  Turns out that is the name of the road, because of the transmission lines there.

In the US, people freak out about being anywhere near high voltage transmission lines.  A few years ago, there was all that worry over the hyped up electromagnetic radiation.  The risk calculations in the US are very, very different from how risk is assessed in India by individuals and society as a whole.  

Driving under high tension cables, or living right by a distribution transformer, is, therefore, nothing out of the ordinary in India.  A few weeks ago, the directions "S" gave me included the location of a transformer as a landmark.

In Mumbai, my uncle led me on a short hike up the hill by their home in a suburb.  It was absolutely pretty, and I imagine that soon with all the spring blossoms the hill will come alive with greenery and colors.

In between all that are high tension cables, which run right by the housing development too.

Risks of different types are part of the daily life here in India.  When I climbed up the fort at Aurangabad, I was worried about safety aspects in so many contexts that it will be a lengthy post all by itself.  In the US, not one person would have been allowed past the outer walls of the fort because of the potential legal liabilities when things go wrong, for which there is immense scope.

Risk minimization is a reflection of affluence in a country, and by that measure India has a long, long way to go.  In a way, the controversy over the Kudankulam nuclear power plant is also nothing but a discussion over risk minimization.  The protesters seem to be using a US-type standard in a country where most activities are not governed by US-type safety standards.

The cab driver in Nagercoil put it this way: "the tsunami killed thousands and destroyed many homes, sir.  Abdul Kalam says that Kudankulam going wrong will be the tsunami kind of a very rare event.  But, think about the electricity this will generate, sir.  We have ten hours of power cut now every day."

The tension the cab driver had while offering his strong opinions seemed to be a lot more than the tension in the high voltage cables!

Later, as the full moon came up on the Holi evening, I forgot all about tensions of every possible kind!

"Stop crying now, ... or do you want me to smack you?"

The train was a half hour late.  By the time the "express" started moving, it was five minutes past ten at night. 

The three people across from me were already in their beds.  Next to me was a kid, perhaps about eight or ten years old.  And then her mom and dad.  They too had boarded the train at the same station and we were all settling into our seats, and were waiting for the ticket inspector. 

The kid and the mother were all decked up.  The kid asked for her book.  The father hemmed and hawed, and the mother opened up the bag and took the book out.  The kid seemed excited.  So excited that she merely held the book in her hand, and didn't bother to read it.

Soon the ticket inspector came by, and we were all clear to hit the bed.

The dad told the kid it was time for her to climb up to the top most berth.  The kid dragged herself, like the kids when they sing "so long, farewell" in The Sound of Music.

She took the book with her.  And that is when her problems began.

The dad told her it was way past her bedtime and that she had to put the book away.

It was sad to see the kid's reactions.  The excited, happy, joyful girl started crying.  Without big sounds.  Her shoulders started shaking and tears rolled down.

It is so bloody difficult to watch a kid cry.  And that too a young girl who only a minute earlier was such a radiant bundle.  But, parents need to do what parents need to do, I suppose.

The father sternly told her to stop crying.  She simply couldn't.  Which is when he issued an ultimatum:"Stop crying now, ... or do you want me to smack you?"

The mother tactfully whispered something to her daughter, and then asked her if she wanted to go to the bathroom before bed.  And off they went.

When they returned, the kid wasn't crying at all.  She was normal. All ok.  Kids are awesome that way.

She climbed up to the berth where her father had already done up the bed.  She lay down.

Meanwhile, we put up the middle berth where the mother was to sleep.  I got my stuff organized in the lower berth.

The kid called her father and said in English, "a cockroach is here."

"Not roaches again" I thought to myself.

But, she didn't cry about it.  Now, that is one brave girl!

Mumbai terror yet again reveals the difference between India and the US

I was reminded of one of my posts from almost a couple of years ago where I had excerpted from the prolific Pankaj Mishra:

India may have been passive after the Mumbai attacks. But India has not launched wars against either abstract nouns or actual countries that it has no hope of winning or even disengaging from. Another major terrorist assault on our large and chaotic cities is very probable, but it is unlikely to have the sort of effect that 9/11 had on America.
This is largely because many Indians still live with a sense of permanent crisis, of a world out of joint, where violence can be contained but never fully prevented, and where human action quickly reveals its tragic limits. The fatalism I sense in my village may be the consolation of the weak, of those powerless to shape the world to their ends. But it also provides a built-in check against the arrogance of power — and the hubris that has made America’s response to 9/11 so disastrously counterproductive.

 How counterproductive?  Like so:

Afghanistan.
     Iraq.
          Pakistan.
               Yemen.
                    Libya.
                         Somalia.

And counting :(

What a terror act looks like?

Like this, as a result of what is suspected to be coordinated terrorist attacks in Mumbai

More coverage here

Given that the independence days of India and Pakistan are a month away, I worry that it will be one godawful few weeks ahead :(

Incredible India. Not the ad. But, for the reality there!

Many times I have blogged, talked with friends, and remarked to students, that I have given up on understanding India. 

It is a place of immense complexity, which is way too intense for my abilities.  So, I simply take it the way it comes. No questions asked. If it agrees with me, well, I make sure it shows. When it rubs me the wrong way, which happens a lot, most of the times I prefer to be quiet. 

The latest installment?  Courtesy of a student, who emailed me the link to the video that I have embedded here.  And, the interesting twist?  It is from ESPN; go figure!

Prosecuting terrorists: America and Obama wimp out, and India has the cojones!

So, Obama has backtracked, yet again.  It is getting difficult to keep count anymore!

This time, with the decision not to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the criminal justice system, as he said he would.  Instead, Obama is going the Bush route of military trials in Guantanamo.  I understand that a "principled politician" is an oxymoron, but still ...

Compare the American situation with the horrendous acts of terrorism in India.  The world was stunned by the events that unfolded in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and the images of a terrorist methodically killing innocent civilians were simply surreal.  While nothing can be done with the terrorists who died, the survivor is a parallel to 9/11's KSM, right?

So, how was that lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, handled?

On 3 May 2010, an Indian court convicted him of murder, waging war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges.^[5] On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts and to a life sentence on five other counts. Bombay high court has upheld the death sentence on 21 Feb 2011

No special military trials. And, wrapped up in a little over two years.  Despite all the potential for all kinds of fallout, given the high levels of tensions between India and Pakistan.  India's government and politics were confident and secure enough to carry out the trial.

Not so, here in the US.  What a shame!  It is now almost ten years since 9/11, and we are still fumbling around because we are afraid of how to work this through the criminal justice system?  Dahlia Lithwick puts it bluntly: "Cowardly, Stupid, and Tragically Wrong"

Every argument advanced to scuttle the Manhattan trial for KSM was false or feeble: Open trials are too dangerous; major trials are too expensive; too many secrets will be spilled; public trials will radicalize the enemy; the public doesn't want it.

What the heck has happened to the US, eh!

Lithwick writes:

The only lesson learned is that Obama's hand can be forced. That there is no principle he can't be bullied into abandoning. In the future, when seeking to pass laws that treat different people differently for purely political reasons, Congress need only fear-monger and fabricate to get the president to cave. Nobody claims that this was a legal decision. It was a political triumph or loss, depending on your viewpoint. The rule of law is an afterthought, either way.

Isn't it awful, pathetic, and scary too, that the rule of law has become an afterthought?

Photo of the day: Michelle Obama in India

Oh, her husband is also in India :)
Here is a billboard at what looks like Marine Drive to me ...(photos from The Hindu)

The Mumbai McMansion: The Ambani Attila, er, Antilia

So, India's richest man builds the world's most expensive "home"

Mukesh Ambani is having a few friends round to celebrate moving into his new Mumbai pad. But as the home has 27 storeys, soars to 173 metres and is worth an estimated £630m, it will be a housewarming like no other.
The building – named Antilia, after a mythical island – will be home to Ambani, the richest man in India and the fourth richest in the world, plus his wife and their three children. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one swimming pool, a ballroom, guestrooms, a variety of lounges and a 50-seater cinema.

Good for him--he and his brother, Anil, have not squandered away the wealth they inherited, but have gone on to multiply it many times over.

But, somewhere along the road, I hope the Ambanis will remember a golden rule from India: the "dharma" of a rich person is to create a lot of wealth, and to donate wealth to charity.  The old Indian wisdom recognized that creating wealth is not only ok, but is the duty for some.  But, what comes after that wealth .... something like the "noblesse oblige" in the Western contexts.  Here is one:

संपदो जलतरंगविलोल
   यौवनं त्रिचतुराणि दिनानि ।
शारदाभ्रपरिपेलवमायुः
   किं धनैः परहितानि कुरुध्वम् ॥

- सुभाषितसुधानिधि

Wealth is as temporary as a wave on still water. Youth is just a matter of few years. Our life it self is as uncertain as a cloud of Sharat month (where clouds could get formed and dispersed in a matter of minutes. No rain.) What is the use of all the wealth that you accumulate? Spend them in a way that is helpful to others.

A friend emailed me the link to this commentary, where the author notes:

What I would like to see Ambani do now is emulate Gates on another front: philanthropy.
Gates (and his wife), who have said their children will not inherit their wealth, have proceeded to give it away and also managed to successfully convince several other people like them to follow suit.
Given Ambani’s considerable wealth and influence, a similar move by him could kick-start the all-but-non-existent corporate philanthropy scene here.

BTW, Antilia? ... Seriously! 
I think "Attila" might be more appropriate :)
No wonder then there is this news item:

The house which has become the talk of the town — Mukesh Ambani's new high rise at Mumbai's posh Altamount Road, may soon sport a new name. Apparently, the quaint Antilia, according to insiders, doesn't have as much positive energy as the traditional occupants would like. However, nobody is quite sure yet as to what the new name of the 27-floor apartment would be, which is said to be the world's costliest address. The name is likely to be announced at a traditional function, followed by a high society gathering in the evening of November 28, at Ambani's new abode.

A tale of two countries and their catastrophes

Writes Pankaj Mishra:

India may have been passive after the Mumbai attacks. But India has not launched wars against either abstract nouns or actual countries that it has no hope of winning or even disengaging from. Another major terrorist assault on our large and chaotic cities is very probable, but it is unlikely to have the sort of effect that 9/11 had on America.
This is largely because many Indians still live with a sense of permanent crisis, of a world out of joint, where violence can be contained but never fully prevented, and where human action quickly reveals its tragic limits. The fatalism I sense in my village may be the consolation of the weak, of those powerless to shape the world to their ends. But it also provides a built-in check against the arrogance of power — and the hubris that has made America’s response to 9/11 so disastrously counterproductive.

Hillary Clinton’s trip reveals India’s warm regard for U.S.

Hillary Clinton’s first official visit to India as America’s secretary of state was hugely successful, especially from a public relations perspective.

My visit to Mumbai happened to overlap with Clinton’s, and this Indian-American felt quite excited with the fantastic appreciation for his adopted homeland, its president and the visiting secretary.

The hotel where Clinton stayed, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, was one of the targets of the terror attacks last November. Therefore, as one can imagine, security personnel seemed to be everywhere and prevented tourists, including me, from visiting one of Mumbai’s famous landmarks — the Gateway of India, which is adjacent to the Taj Mahal.

Yet people seemed to be genuinely happy that Clinton had opted to stay at the Taj to honor those who lost their lives that fateful November, and as a mark of defiance against terrorism.

The press and the public seemed to treat her as a celebrity as much as they recognized her as America’s chief diplomat. Clinton impressed Indians not merely with her tactfulness, but even her handling of spicy Indian foods.

One newspaper reported that, “She likes hot and spicy food. Back home she travels with a bottle of hot sauce to pep up her food wherever she goes; she believes it keeps her healthy.”

I thought the talk about Clinton’s penchant for spicy foods was nothing but polite, diplomatic speak until I read, after her departure, about how Clinton added her own touch by doing something absolutely out of the ordinary.

According to one magazine, “Hillary was given a chili and to her credit she bravely chomped her way through it, and didn’t even wash it down with water.”

Eating a chili without hastily toning it down with sweets or even water earned Clinton all kinds of admiring metaphors; one, for instance, called her a “woman of steel.” (A note: “chili” is not the spicy stew that is consumed at Super Bowl parties all across America, but refers to the green and red peppers.)

America and the current administration are certainly viewed positively. After years of neglecting India and favoring Pakistan, in response to the geopolitical realpolitik of the Cold War years, there has been a distinct favorable tilt in the Indo-American relationships. President George W. Bush largely continued to build on the new foundations that President Bill Clinton had laid, and so far it appears that the Obama administration is keen on further expanding and deepening this relationship between the world’s largest democracies.

There is also a little bit of insecurity in the Indian push for better relations with America, stemming from an underlying concern that America might lean more and more toward China because of the multibillion dollar Sino-American economic ties, which might then make India’s interests less important to America. In addition to the Chinese angle, there is the ever-present worry that America might at any time ditch India in favor of Pakistan.

Of course, Hillary Clinton having a successful India trip was viewed with suspicion across its borders, particularly in Pakistan. Her forceful remarks that “we hope Pakistan will make progress against what is a syndicate of terrorism” were not received well in Pakistan. “A syndicate of terrorism” is a wonderful phrase, indeed, to describe the many outfits operating out of Pakistan, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

I sense here in India an immense and almost unconditional support for America. It is, therefore, no surprise that there is a lot of excitement about the possibility of President Obama visiting India, even though it was triggered by what appears to be a polite response from the White House press secretary, who remarked, “I know the president at some point will travel to India.”

Maybe prior to a trip to India, whenever that happens, the athletic Obama should practice playing cricket over a couple of weeks. When in India, Obama could then don the appropriate game gear and play for a few minutes with a bunch of youngsters.

That “cricket diplomacy” might seal forever the admiration for the United States in this cricket-crazy country.

For The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Sunday, Aug 9, 2009

In India, man has yet to make peace with nature

I visited Mumbai to spend a couple of days with my great-aunt, who lives with her daughter’s family in a suburb. Suburbs, according to a typical joke in urban planning, are places where street names bear the names of trees that were cut down en masse to make way for the development.

The Mumbai suburb that I went to, Mulund, has names of trees that are not even native to the local geography. The name of a multi-storied housing complex is “Silver Birch” and, oddly enough, there are quite a few other complexes in the same neighborhood with names such as “Pinewood” and “Silver Oaks.”

Of considerably more importance than names of alien tree species is how these residential complexes reflect a critical tension between urbanization and green space.

The geographic expansion into the suburbs has meant a slow encroachment on forest areas and the hills that surround Mumbai. Mulund is a poster-child for this encroachment. Loss of trees and green space has become a heated public policy issue here, and elsewhere. Finally!

As viewers of the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire” might recall, Mumbai is a huge metropolis with a population of more than 13 million — though it feels as if there are a hundred times more. The housing needs, as one might imagine, are immense, as was evident in the same movie, which is also why middle- and upper-middle classes commute for hours from distant suburbs.

Suburbanization has resulted in significant loss of green space. It is not that the government or the people were unconcerned; when a government is resource-starved, and with hundreds of thousands clamoring to find a place of their own, it was easier for everyone to be in denial. Or, a policy of benign neglect, as we sometimes refer to such practices in the profession.

But when urban forests have been replaced by concrete buildings that seem to be taller and wider than the redwood trees after which at least one building is named, benign neglect cannot continue forever.

Thanks to the work of environmentalists and the government, too, it appears that large-scale destruction of forests has been slowed down, if not completely halted. These efforts are also reflected in the manner in which metropolitan areas now review land development proposals. To such an extent that it was feared that the government would swing a wrecking ball to demolish all structures that compromised urban green spaces. Such a retroactive decision would, obviously, add to the chaos that characterizes life in India.

The courts have taken a rational view in their recent decision to regularize all developments constructed before 2005. The status of more recent constructions is not quite clear, however.

This competition between nature and humans is not merely in the metropolitan area of Mumbai. It is a story that is repeated in many ways all over the country. According to India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests, “Due to the impact of biotic pressure on our forests, many forest areas spread across the country have been depleted and degraded, which is a serious concern.”

Recent incidents are telling: A couple of hundred miles away from Mumbai, in the forest areas, villagers stoned a leopard to death, even while forest officials stood by. And the story gets even worse — it was the third such leopard-stoning in the country within a matter of days. The villagers pelted the big cat because it had strayed into the village searching for food and water and, in the process, attacked a couple of youngsters.

Also in the news a few days ago was a story about the absence of tigers in one of India’s tiger parks — Panna National Park — which is in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Apparently it was not the first occurrence in India — tigers have yet to be spotted in another reserve in the same state, and in a third protected area in the state of Rajasthan, which is in northwestern India.

It is clear that the flora and fauna will continue to face intense competition from humans in villages and cities alike. I hope that Mumbaikars and other Indians, too, will soon figure out how to peacefully coexist with nature, as much as we in Oregon — with “real” birches and oaks — have, by and large, worked out. We ought to thank pioneering visionaries like Gov. Tom McCall for that.

For The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Saturday, Aug 1, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire bombs in India

Think about this: if you live in India, and are either living the life in a slum, or are middle class walking or driving past slums everyday, or are the upper class where you have no concept of the reality of the slums, well, why would you want to go to a movie hall to watch a movie about slums, a kid in the outhouse falling into human shit that is underneath, the violence in the slums, the religious hatred that exists among a few Hindus and Muslims, ...... even though the movie is more about love, and doing the right things, ....?

It is no wonder then that

On Friday, a day after Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, the movie filled just 25% of the seats for its debut in theaters across India, the country of its setting. Buoyed by the hype the movie has generated in the U.S. — along with its Oscar nods and four Golden Globe awards, Slumdog on Sunday won the "best cast" award from the Screen Actors Guild — Fox Searchlight released 400 prints of the film across India last weekend. But while Indian critics have largely embraced the movie, audiences are staying away. Theaters showing the movie averaged 50% of capacity on Saturday

The Time report adds:

For many Indians, the film's subject and treatment are familiar to the point of being banal. A lot of Indians are not keen to watch it for the same reason they wouldn't want to go to Varanasi or Pushkar for a holiday — it's too much reality for what should be entertainment. "We see all this every day," says Shikha Goyal, a Mumbai-based public relations executive who left halfway through the film. "You can't live in Mumbai without seeing children begging at traffic lights and passing by slums on your way to work. But I don't want to be reminded of that on a Saturday evening." There is also a sense of injured national pride, especially for a lot of well-heeled metro dwellers, who say the film peddles "poverty porn" and "slum voyeurism."

Slumdog Millionaire

Jorge Luis Borges wrote somewhere that all stories since Don Quixote are only retellings of the Cervantes classic.
What does this have to do with Slumdog Millionaire?



As the movie unfolded, I kept thinking that this was so similar to Forrest Gump. Gump managed to be at the right places at the right times, and despite the low IQ person that he was, well, he turned out to be one successful guy. And, of course, Gump was forever after that same girl in his life--despite how much ever she shunned him.
Here, the slumdog--Jamal--didn't quite know anything really; he just lucked out with the questions--they all somehow related to his life experiences. You know, life is like a box of chocolates, as Gump opined.
I guess the only difference is that Gump girl dies in the end, whereas Jamal and Latika get together in the end, in quite a cheesy ending to the movie.

A quick Google search for the Forrest Gump comparison, and here is an excerpt from one of the results:

In championing Forrest Gump's purity, Robert Zemeckis's film mocked both U.S. history and the complexities of adulthood, helping to fan the flames of American anti-intellectualism to a towering mid-Nineties blaze. Boyle's ode to dumb love and circumstance hasn't the same deliberation, but "Slumdog Millionaire" does manage to make bombastic offense. Jamal's success on the TV show makes him a hero to slumdogs everywhere (they gather around televisions in the cities and on the farms with that nostalgic fellow-feeling), but he doesn't care about being rich. He just wants to be with Latika. Quite instructive to the billions of poor people in the world foolishly aspiring to subsistence, let alone wealth. See that heartwarming montage of Jamal through the years, laughing despite the begging, stealing, and enslavement? He's postcolonial, post-material, totally adorable. Love is all Jamal needs. Love and a lobotomy.

I thought it was interesting with the names of the characters--the brother is Salim Malik, and the brother's boss--the crime leader in the slum--is Javed Miandad. What is special about these names? They were big time cricket players from Pakistan; Malik was eventually banned from cricket for match-fixing, and Miandad is currently the head honcho of Pakistan's cricket board.

Let sports assist war on terror

The recent cricket match here in Chennai (Madras) seemed to be an apt collective response to the terrorism horror in Mumbai (Bombay). Perhaps the world could learn from this.

When terrorists struck in Mumbai, India was in the middle of a cricket tournament with the visiting English squad — though in a different city. The first of the engagements was a series of one-day matches in which India was on quite a roll, completely overwhelming the visitors. The country was preparing for the lengthier, traditional five-day test matches when the English team opted to return home as a result of the massacre.

Given how systematically the terrorists had targeted Britons and Americans, it is impressive that in practically no time at all the authorities in England decided the players would head back to India in order to participate in the test matches. But with one change: Instead of playing the first test in Mumbai as had been originally scheduled, the venue was shifted to Chennai, where I am visiting my family.

Dec. 15 was the final day of this first test match, and England had set up quite a challenging victory target for India. The Indian team rose to the challenge, and the winning runs were scored by one of India’s star cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar, who was born and raised in Mumbai.

It was a poetic and cinematic response that a “Bombaywalla” guided the team to victory. At the end of the match, when awards were presented, both Tendulkar and the team dedicated the victory and the test itself to the victims of terror.

It was almost as if the entire country was practicing an old preaching that the best form of revenge is a life well lived. In this case, the professional approach to winning a test match seemed to be a statement that Indians, and the British as well, would not let terrorists decide how life should be lived.

Getting back to “normal life” this rapidly also has lowered the decibel levels of belligerent calls for military action against terrorist bases in Pakistan. In their meetings with the prime minister and other leaders in India, American and British political leaders also have urged restraint. While not because of the cricket results, the defense minister also has stated categorically that India is not mounting any war effort. I hope that cooler heads will prevail.

Of course, a cricket series amidst extremely tense geopolitical worries is only the latest installment in human history when it comes to the intersection of sports, politics and war. The “ping-pong diplomacy” to help thaw the Sino-American relationships is an example of sports intermingling with international relations. Even the marathon, now held in cities across the world and in the Olympics, owes its origins to the Greek-Persian war 2,500 years ago.

I suppose sometimes sports is not always just about sports. As a new foreign student at the University of Southern California, I remember being impressed with the war-like preparation that I observed for football games. The first game USC played that season, and my introduction to college football, was a sort of re-enactment of history: the Trojans against the Spartans. To my disappointment, the Trojans lost!

Ironically enough, the teams met again at the Rose Bowl after winning their respective league titles. And the Trojans lost again! Such a maniacal approach to sports is, however, far better than the loss of lives and property, which was the case in the real Trojan War.

Along those lines, maybe the Obama administration should designate a “sports czar” who will work alongside the secretaries of State and Defense. Within a short time, this “sports czar” could facilitate soccer tournaments where teams with names such as the Baghdad Bombers and the Saudi Skyjackers can compete, where a soccer ball and the players’ feet and heads will be the only “weapons” for the youth to work with.

Then, comparable to India’s response to terrorism, the rest of the world can deliver a blow to the likes of Osama bin Laden without resorting to violent retaliation and merely through sports.

Hey, I have an inalienable right to dream, right?

Published in the Register Guard Dec 22, 2008

More on the Booker Prize winner

The winner is a global citizen ... The Guardian notes that:

Adiga was born in Chennai in 1974 and was raised partly in Australia.
Having studied at Columbia and Oxford universities, he became a journalist, and
has written for Time magazine and many British newspapers. He lives in
Mumbai.

And, hey, I am from Chennai. My brother lives in Australia. A bunch of relatives live in Mumbai. .... We are all global citizens, and the world will be a better place if we adopted that framework.

But then, Rudyard Kipling reminded us that despite all the exposure, we choose to affiliate ourselves with a much smaller part of the world. He wrote:

Each to his choice, and I rejoice
The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground—in a fair ground—
Yea, Sussex by the sea!