I am very saddened by the passing away recently of the greatest contemporary Bollywood film-maker of our time, Mr. Yash Chopra. He was the king of Bollywood as we know, and i have grown up watching his genre of cinema; DDLJ, Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Darr, Veer Zaara… all of them are very close to my heart as they were milestones in a way. Growing up overseas, his genre of fare appealed to the post liberalization expat kid, who wanted Indian emotions but served up in glossy up market gourmet restaurant format.

His cinema connected us with our romantic inner self  Kabhie Kabhie and Trishul along with Deewar are film of which the folk lore of the Bollywood mythology are made of. The romance which i have missed in my life.  I identified with the obsession of Darr as well as the romanticism of Dil Toh Pagal Hai when SRK comments ‘ Mujhko Meri Maya Nahin Mili Hain’, struck a chord with me. And the iconic line of  Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayemge which Yash Saheb produced ‘ Baadi Baadi Desho Main Choti Choti Baatein Hotein Rahetein Hain’ is something is etched in the memory of cine goers.

The charm of escapist cinema is that it transports us in to a plane of consciousness which takes us away from the dreaded daily lives of drudgery.  The protege of the same Yash Chopra school of Cinema is Karan Johar whose film Student of The Year is almost a tribute to his work accidentally as the film release a few days prior to his demise.

It is ofcourse not a art form taken easily by the critics, nor is it World Cinema. But, what is it is Uniquely Indian, in character, in ethos.  Very Bollywood, the Bollywood that i worship.

Yash Saheb. RIP.

Dear Ms. Perfect

I am pretty normal guy, from a middle class family who has worked hard to make it here, well not exactly have made it from scratch to call ‘myself’ a self-made man, which makes a huge difference to your psyche that ‘he does not consider his fathers money’ to be his. I am not a ‘Mahatma in that context, my parents have worked hard to give me a good education and i have done decently myself academically to land myself a good job to live a decent existence in a megapolis. Yes, i live in my parents apartment, but does that hurt my self esteem, the answer is a big no as this is the place where i grew up.

I am not shy from taking risks, as i understand that i person who does not take his chances in life, fails at that very moment. One does not have to be all sorted all the time.’ Getting my priorities right’ has never been my forte, but i do well in whatever i do as i am versatile enough. Life is a story written in present tense and not the past. Things dont have to be in picture perfect mode, life is messy and sometimes things do get edgy but i aint apologetic about it. 

The society and the media socially constructs a picture of a ‘man’ which is splendid challenging to achieve. When you see Siddharth Malhotra from Student of the Year flaunting his six pack abs, you drool and hence this particular physical aspect becomes a part of your dreamy ‘check-list’. One has to be dressed like a Calvin Klein Supermodel all the time, speak like Amitabh and be smart as a University Physics Professor, and ofcourse be rich as an Investment Banker to pay for your shopping expeditions. Which Utopia are you living on?

And oops i forgot, one has to have a sense of humor and wit and smell Hugo Boss all the time. Just Brilliant.

Well, I don’t know how to drive a car or a bike, hence i cannot take you on your long rides where the wind can be felt through your locks. I am sorry, but driving through Indian roads is not a great proposition to me atleast.

Well, what one is a person who cares more than oneself, is supportive may be mundane but genuine in this actions.

With Love and Prayers

Normal Guy

 

There has been three major trends in the popular mass media: FDI, a challenge to pluto-democracy by civic society activist turned politician- Arvind Kejriwal and the Sanitation hooplah over Jairam Ramesh’s comments saying that India had more temples than toilets. The Hindu Right was affronted by such a sacrilegious statement, saying that the Congress is concerned with hurting the sentiments of the majority community. For anyone who has watched the years most understated bollywood film: OMG on the commercialization of organized religions, would see where the debate is heading. Jairam Ramesh is a skilled , wily technocrat who used a simple literary device of a comparative to shock and awe to force through effective change communication. Shame can indeed be a powerful, transformative emotion to drive change. Our religious places are spic and span but our streets and squatter settlements are not, is cleanliness not next to Godliness as the primary school moral science sentiment goes. Well, we are a nation which keeps over houses clean, but dump garbage and pee openly on the streets as we dont have enough public toilets and open defecation is still morally within the spectrum of acceptance. Normally i would have to enter a shopping mall or a restaurant to visit the loo, which is a significant detour if someone has a tight schedule. No wonder, we are a nation of urinary tract problems, and as we have a diabetics epidemic where would we visit the washrooms. 

Sulabh International has been doing extraordinary work over the decades to manufacture the culture of sanitation. If they can do it, our Government is following a good workable model. Sanitation is intertwined with other systemic variables like climate change as in it being associated with public health. 

Finally a politician has raised a developmental matter, can we not communalise a topic for a change?

One of the comments once mentioned by the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has stuck on in my head that, more than fifty percent of leadership is communication. How important is that in the era of 24×7 media beast where every second is churning content which is predominantly worthless, and where every pause that one stops in a speech is psycho-analysed and criticized.  Leadership is about presentation now a days. Tough decision making is a part of the repertoire of leadership, but conveying that message is even more important.  Spin Doctors make or break ones leadership campaigns. Mamata Banerjee’s Poriborton wave to unseat the Left in Bengal was amplified by a supportive regional language and national media.

Let in bring in two contrasts: The Indian Prime Minister is a man of few words, and the other top leadership in India is pretty aloof as well choosing to interact only on selected platforms. In the midst of a crisis of confidence in the Nation, if the top leadership does not speak to the masses on a regular basis, it simply does not breathe confidence in their ability to lead. Communication is of the essence in a moment of crisis. Just think of the the young queen’s address during the Blitzkrieg in 1940, when her palace was bombed quipping that now she would be able to see Eastern parts of London better. Now how many Indian leaders can inspire that spirit in us today.

Barack Obama epitomizes the essence of effective Political Oratory. Bill Clinton is another charming communicator along with his ideological colleague Tony Blair who know ‘how to close the deal’.  Obama, a Nobel Peace Laureate infuses confidence  by communicating stuff  which matters to its stakeholder community.  His Berlin, Cairo and Jakarta addresses are stuff which dreams are made off.

Can India have a ‘Yes We Can’ moment?

Over the past few days, i have greatly resisted to write anything about the FDI issue which i have written about in the past. FDI in Retail according to many is not the most singular pressing reform issue facing the present administration in Delhi. I am supportive of FDI in Single Brand Retail, in Luxury and Consumer Products like an IKEA or an APPLE Store or even a Barnes & Nobles or a Borders for Book Store Retail. I would like major Coffee Chains like Starbucks and Seattle Coffee/ Second Cup to replace the miserable expresso which i drink from CCD vending machine in my office everyday.

FDI in Multi Brand Retail involves agri commodities; the power centre will move from the ‘Mandi’ to the Corporate Offices in Bentonville, Arkansas. The ordinary farmer who feels helpless and indebted to the loanshark and the dalal, can’t fight the local businessman, is now expected to expect rights and respect from Corporate MBA-wallah type folks, Naaah…. Media seems to be peddling a dangerous, illusion in the name of Agri based Food Chain FDI. And Food  Cold Storage Infrastructure  can be bulit by the Mahindra’s and Tata’S Too. I am not calling for protectionism, just pragmatism.

The concentration of the present regime seems to be on stuff which are totally diversionary from the actual matters of effective governance. They are seemingly more interested in Social Media Censorship, and getting cartoonists arrested than delivering reform where growth synergies will be discovered and so called ‘animal spirits’ unleashed to unshackle the economy out of its policy paralysis.

Can we now get real stuff done please, like Infrastructure and Rural Reform, otherwise the Crown Prince will have to remain one for a while.

Historians studying this decade in the future will have a lot of archival data to work on in re-creating historical narratives and elaborate mindscapes which past maestros of ‘past’ recreators have done over the eras. Social Media is ‘Human Sharing on Steroids’ as the Singaporean Media Commentator Cherian George quipped yesterday at a think tank forum (paraphrasing a tweet from the Asia Trends Monitor and SIIA twitter accounts). History as Voltaire famously said is the victors version of the Story. As my middle school history teacher in Oman said that History is ‘His’- Story or it is our story. With the quantum of information generated every single day, we are indeed dealing with information pollution as the human senses can only bear that much information. 

Social Media is catalyzing revolutions in the Middle East, with Wael Ghonem – the Google Executive in Egypt emerging as a hero for safegaurding the information superhighways for citizen activism. Governments all over the world are trying to curb content defamatory to their interests on social media. Trillions of terrabytes of written, audio and video content for scholars to pour over to analyze and re-frame the narrative, such as the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009 and the Arab Spring phenomenon, occurring in the social media age. Of course there are questions to how much more fair is the content created by the blogging or the tweeting community, as these are educated folks mostly college educated of a certain socioeconomic strata.

Literature in the fiction genre has been considered alternative narratives of events since long and now since people generated content is huge, a more rounded picture of the a phenomenon can be etched. Will look forward to a read regarding Social Media content related to the curation of historical narrative in the near future.

I am just back from my very short trip to Muscat, Oman where i have spent the most precious years of my life probably during my undergrad degree. I am a half-pat, not a complete expat as i always had one leg in Mumbai where ever i went. Negotiation of internal identities is an eternal ongoing process. As i have lived in Muscat for so long every trip even this one after ages, seems very familiar and i had expected the usual, sometimes very positive as stability is appreciated in data packets from time to time in order to feel grounded.

I really got a ‘pleasant’ shock when the immigration officer when he wished me: ‘Welcome to Oman’, as this was the first time any one has ever told me that! The roads in Muscat seems the same, albeit better this time. New Intersections and Highways cut travel times from my residence to the main traditional shopping district called Ruwi, and Old ‘Musqat’ and Muttrah. 

I had a nice ‘Fishy’ meal with my parents at the Yacht parking complex of Oman’s super-rich known as Marina Bandar which has a tony pool side and sea side pub which serves brilliant continental fare. It also one of the fistful of places in Oman which serve both beer and pork which are antithetical to the local cultural patterns. I dug into some delightfully yummy Beef Stroganoff with some rice, which i normally avoid. The Gulf has a tendency to load on the kgs as there is something ‘lazy lamhe’ about the ambiance there.

I guess the only thing which changes in Muscat are some new buildings like the new parliament or Majlis Al Shura complex or the vacant plot beside my apartment block where i used to play cricket in being occupied by a multi-storey structure. Memories seem relegated to Real Estate Market Dynamics in the upmarket Al Khuwair area in Muscat, as is in any other emerging metropolis in the Gulf.

I went with a couple of friends to a nice continental diner called D’Arcy’s Kitchen in the Shatti Al Qurum area, which is the happening diplomatic area district of town. Beside the beach again, and along a string of cool eateries is one of the reasons Muscat remains etched in my memory. The Irish Pub at the Sheraton@Qurum Beach with Fish n Chips plus a couple of pints, was refreshing too while watching EPL, a surreal experience where the culture is as different as chalk to cheese, inside the pub in contrast to what it is outside.

Muscat Airport which was one of the smallest of the airports in the Gulf is now in expansion mode and is turning in to an aviation hub with its diversification towards tourism as Oman is a negligible Oil Producer in contrast to its neighbor across the road Hatta Border i.e. The UAE. Every Gulf State is now trying to be an aviation hub with Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi already major hubs within one hour flying distance.  There honestly seems to be a glut in a recessionary economy is not the best step forward going by economic rationale, but Gulf Rulers fueled by petrodollars buck the trend normally. Singapore Airlines is backed by the State as well, but is run according to market forces.

Every place reinvents itself however static it is. We sometimes need to move away from a place which we care about in order to notice the change. All that’s needed is a fresh lens. It was fun to re-engage with the place which i thought i knew pretty well. We can only know the place as much as we engage in. In a known place we try to detect and imbibe the finer nuances unlikely to be known to the first time traveler. Looking forwards towards re-exploring more explored territories.

Cafes are places which i love in general; a warm cup of coffee, some music and a book in my hands just make for a prefect setting, whether i am sitting with a pretty girl or not (naah, a pretty girl’s company adds color to the conversation). Cafes are awesome places to chill, observe interesting fashion trends and gently study group behavior. The more aesthetic cafes i have been to are on the waterfront or the beach. A cup of coffee in Clarke Quay, Singapore or a Jumeirah Beach Dubai are beautiful. Cafes in Star Hotels are the places where one can see celebrities in flesh and blood, and not on TV.

Malls are the Public spaces which people share in order to have social interactions all over the world. This is indeed a symbol of Americanized monoculturization but it is indeed very function- hence it thrives. The Starbucks and the Coffee Beans of the World are my comfort zone. A cup of coffee at Shatti Al Qurum Starbucks is something i look forward to. Even the Cafe Coffee Day opposite my apartment block in Mumbai is a place i hang out after work. As Starbucks is not available in India yet, Costa is decent substitute with its cafe Mocha. Barista Lavazza has a smooth Moroccan Mint Green Tea which is nice on my tastebuds.

Now i will take you on a little tour of my favorite coffee shops in Singapore. The Pacific Coffee Company in Harbor Front Singapore at Vivo City Mall is my current Favorite. The view overlooking the Passenger Ferry Terminal is priceless. The Coffee Coniessuer at Clarke Quay with its Straight Black ‘Columbia Supreme’ is the best Black Coffee ever. The Tully at the Orchard Central has a better Coffee of the Day than even a Starbucks. The Turkish Cafes along the Corniche in Muscat have their own essence too.

A Cafe is not only about the coffee, it is the ambiance, the culture, the service, the people and most importantly the conversation. Lets see where my next cuppa takes me next as I don’t like to dilute my Caffeine stream 🙂