This year, primarily due to the joys of high speed internet, a swanky new Landmark near the office, and KD coming home to India for a holiday - i was able to indulge in a rather expensive hobby. The first lets me download and sift, the second I buy in rupees undiscounted material, and the third enabled me to buy on line at different points in time - sales - and allowed KD to bring back a treasure trove. Essentially this was the year that I indulged my hobby of collecting tag]Graphic Novels & TPB’s. My top buys and reads this year: [tag]Watchmen - a long time favourite. I read it an awfully long time ago and at an age when Indiana Jones, Batman, James Bond & Han Solo were more attractive than an unpleasent vigilante called Rorschach. A few months ago I saw it at Landmark and purchased it. Its the kind of graphic novel that you read once in a few years, get depressed at the sheer prescience of the narrative. A fabulous story of heroes in the real world and the moral and ethical compromises that they make. This is not about Superman or Batman and their unerring ability to do the ‘right’ or heroic thing. It is about a flawed humanity and its flawed choices. A fabulous story, a great narrative style , a scary creation of an alternative (yet plausible) reality and a kick in the guts ending. Definitely worth a look. Pride of Baghdad - Can freedom be granted through invasion or is there more to it? This is the essential theme of the Pride of Baghdad that looks at a pride of lions ‘liberated’ during the American bombing of Baghdad, and their different perspectives about allies, liberators, freedom and captivity. Based on a true story of escaped lions shot dead by invading American Troops, the Pride of Baghdad is an allegory on many levels. Brian Vaughn the author of the amazingly witty, wry, and fantastic "Y - the Last Man" gives us another great story. Not so much Animal Farm, as Chandini (the little story about the goat, that was a part of 4th standard English, written by former president Zakir Hussain). The artwork by Nico Henrichon is worth killing for - great earths and ochres create the impression of a city under seige. Again worth buying. Infinite Crisis - DC’s magnum opus that sought to reset the continuity of the last 2 decades. A great concept - when continuity gets unwieldy reset the universe. An epic tale of honour, loyalty, bravery, sacrifice and the unerring ability to do the right thing. This is a tale about heroes at their heroic best. Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman and possibly the entire DC cast join hands to battle evil and save the universe. A rip roaring read - the graphic novel equivalent of an old fashioned Eroll Flynn Film. Batman - Hush - . Write Jeph Loeb ( Long Haloween & Dark Victory ) teams up with Artist Jim Lee to create a visual extravaganza. Batman has never looked better. Catwoman looks like she has been poured into her costume, and you have probably never seen better looking art (as opposed to better art) in a Batman book. And like all other Loeb books, every major villain in the book turns up, and there is a new one. The plot has holes that you can drive a truck through - but it is a jolly good romp. The Dhoom of comic books. Looks good, great pace, and you will probably come back to it at some time for a quick, non brain straining read. Captain America the new series by Ed Brubaker (writer of the Sleeper, sometime writer of Batman, and currently on Daredevil). A super soldier in a time he doesn’t understand, working within a legal and moral framework that he can’t comprehend, and with a tormentor who knows just a bit too much about him. Out of synch, out of phase out of time, and yet very human. For the first time it seems that Captain America is more than a symbol - it is a person, a hero - flawed, yet a hero. Somehow this entire run works very well as a lead up to the current Marvel magnum opus Civil War Next year, the plan is to get the entire Preacher series, and the Y - the last man series - but, that depends on picking up a lot of new work. btw - wordpress tells me that this is post number 666 ! Graphic Novels

Technorati Tags: & TPB’s. My top buys and reads this year: [tag]Watchmen, Rorschach, Superman, Batman, Pride of Baghdad, Baghdad, Animal Farm, Infinite Crisis, Batman - Hush, Captain America, Civil War, Preacher

Tags: , Comics, Graphic Novels, Infinite Crisis, Pride of Baghdad, Reviews, Watchmen

Finished reading Vrinda Nabar’s excellent "Caste as Woman".

It looks at women in India not from the point of western feminist theories, but more in terms of looking at India’s own unique socio-cultural systems, which essentially serve to keep the woman as an uncomplaining victim to many ills. As she puts it:

"… in India, the discrimination against them (women) would be by and large three - fold: Sex based (Stri Jati), caste based (jati) and class based. To be caste as woman in India is to live out this triple layered existence."

Starting with a look at our women and their women - a broad literature review of western feminism and Indian sociological thought regarding women (Nabar does not believe that Indian feminism as such exists) the book moves onto look at the various staus that women occupy- from the girl child to the widow,to the roles that she plays - daughter, wife, mother - in modern society.

In the week that the UNICEF report has shown the extent of murder of girls, Nabar’s statement on the girl child is telling:

Discrimination between the sexes in India begins at birth, or even before it. It starts before the child is born, in the mother’s womb. None of the conventional blessings showered on a pregnant woman mentions daughters. ……exhort her to have atleast one son, prefrebly the first born. No well wisher, it would seem, would admit to wanting anything else.

On the great Indian Marriage - Nabar is equally caustic. Her little ballad had me in splits.

View Point ( A modern Indian Ballad)

Bring out the silver & polish the brass,
Brush off the cobwebs, and clean all the glass
Unlock the pantry, lay out the food
Keep away grandma, her manners are crude.

We’ve got a daughter we are willing to sell
He is the bargain, the profit as well;
He’s coming to see for himself, so he said
How she and our money would look in his bed

Our daughter’s a graduate, he’s no cause to moan
She’s a well brought up girl with no mind of her own
She speaks English well, has a fair pretty face
And is Five foot four inches by Lord Bhagwan’s grace

Of course she’ll be happy, I’ll tell you that flat
She’ll have her own home, produce brat after brat,
Forget all her youth, as she spins out her life
In waddling behind him, a good Indian wife.

And she’ll long to have sons; they’re boons from above
Take it from me that they’re proof of God’s love
And when all her daugthers are suitably grown,
She’ll marry them off as we’ve done our own

The book is surprisingly a lightish read. Neither too academic nor too soap boxy. In fact I think that Nabar approaches quite a few issues with almost a bizzare sense of the ridiculous. And if you read some of the strictures about women, the only response is laughter. If you took it seriously it would be far too depressing.

Definitely worth a read.

Technorati Tags: Vrinda Nabar, Caste as Woman, feminist

Tags: Caste, Caste as Woman, Discrimination, Gender Issues, India, Reviews, Society, Vrinda Nabar

V for Vendetta Definitely worth a read. Alan Moore’s graphic novel of a bleak, dystopic, Fascist Britain in the aftermath of a nuclear war. In this Britain the rule of law is maintained by the 3 arms of the state - the eyes, the ears and the voice. The voice tells you what to think,and the eyes and the ears ensure that the ‘law’ gets behind you if you don’t. It’s a society that is bereft of non white, non hetrosexual, and non christians, and non conformists.

The story starts on the 5th of November with a masked hero - V - dressed as Guy Fawkes - rescuing the heroine Evey from a gang of cops who want to rape and kill her. He stops the offence, kills the policemen and blows up the Houses of Parliament. As the story progresses V manages to take out many of the symbols of the state. And in doing so challenges the authority of the Leader.
A lot of the story is from Evey’s point of view. Her hero worship of V, her abandonment by him, her time in captivity, and her realisation of her own part to play in the world. The story is as much about Evey’s transformation from an aspiring hooker to a person who self actualizes and escapes her own innate fears as it is about the brilliance with which V achieves his goals.

Alan Moore’s narrative is gripping I personally find him to be one of the best story stellers of the last century, in any medium - just check out Watchmen or Batman Killing Joke or the Swamp Thing to know what I mean. And David Lloyd’s artwork is brilliant - it creates a possible grey future where the world has gone mad. The colouring is in almost washed out colours - enchancing the feel of a horrific future.

In a world gone bananas, and where fascist tendencies are on the rise again … V for Vendetta makes for a very scary read.

Technorati Tags: V for Vendetta , Alan Moore, graphic novel, dystopic

Tags: Reviews, Society

A few months ago one of dad’s friend’s gifted him this book, which has been gathering oodles of dust on the book shelf.

Yesterday, finding nothing light to read - I picked it out of the bookshelf, dusted it, and tried to read it.

Tried is the key word here. I managed 3 whole chapters before I gave up. Part spiritual mumbo jumbo, part management gobbledegook it is a scary read. The prose is turgid, the characterisation worse and the self help out of Yoda’s school of gurudom.

The monk should have pledged his ferrari and taken writing lessons. Seriously!

Tags: Reviews

Currently re reading an old favourite. Tranlated by Sir Richard F Burton(the explorer not the actor), and with an introduction by A.S.Byatt

Scheherazade’s attempt to save her life and the lives of all the eligible women in the kingdom by weaving a story that would divert her husband’s rage against all women for having been cuckolded. It almost seems an allegory for the lot of women in modern days. Cajole for your rights rather than fight for it. Somethings never change.

It has all the old favourites - Ali BAba, Alladin, Sindabad, the Potter’s story etal. The kind of stuff that you used to get in Chandamama, Champak and a half a dozen hindi films.

Somehow, the versions that I read that i was a kid were more sanitised than the one I am reading now. And, I am sure that the original tales were even more bawdy and earthy and that the English translation by Sir Richard Burton was keeping in mind the sensibilities at that time - Victorian England.

The one irritating thing about this particular Modern Library edition is the complete lack of paragraph breaks.

If you don’t have an issue with online text and want to sample before you purchase - then you can get the stories here.

Tags: Reviews

The Day has arrived. And after an extensive search through Indian blogdom - this week’s Bharateeya Blog Mela is finally in place. Thank you for all those who nominated. And as usual, this task would have been chaotic without Bloglines.

Announcements

JK at Varnam announces the setting up of the new History Blog - The Palm Leaf
Sid at Patang announces the release of the Carpool Beta - an interesting social software that helps you share vehicles in a geographical area. And with the price of petrol being what it is (almost Rs.49 per litre) in Mumbai, VC’s might start keeping a beady eye on this software

Business

Cerebral Shangrila sallivates about the new Visa Ad starring Richard Gere .

Object Petit M - in the CSF - writes about how Yahoo’s business policies in China have led to a Chinese journalist Shi Tao being sentanced to 10 years in prison.
Sambhar Mafia blogs about Tata’s 75% stake in Landmark in an all cash deal worth 103 crores. So can we see book stores with Chai bars soon?
Kartik has an interesting take on why the Tamil publishing industry is in the doldrums.

Caste

58 years after Independence, we still havent’ managed to shrug off the evil of caste. Somehow society and religion seem to tolerate it. And even today - Dalits face atrocities that would have us screaming “human rights violations” if it happened elsewhere.
As Aparna points out

Again an upper caste ire
Set Dalit homes on fire
What leaves me aghast
Is that the issue of caste
Even today can such violence inspire!

Uma at Indianwriting in the duty of the rich castes ponders about the difference betwen big crimes - setting fire to a row of houses - and little crimes - preventing a Dalit girl from cycling to college. She recommends that we read Viramma: Life of an Untouchable. To that I would add read Untouchable by Narendra Jadhav. It is an eye opener. Abi at Nanopolitan looks at the same atrocity that happened at Gohana - and observes wrly that individuals - even those who should know better - would worry about the impact of this incident on FDI. And Anand looks at the torching of Dalit homes in much ‘more enlightened’ Maharashtra.

Development

Ruth writing in CSF - talks about her work with the Tsunami Victims in Tamil Nadu, and how after almost 7 months they are nowhere near finished.

Arzan blogs about how post independence India allowed two brilliant architects - and town planners - Le Corbusier & Louis I. Kahn to help develop a new style of architecture.

Govindraj Ethiraj - in Dateline Bombay - A Reporter’s Tales looks at the disaster that is the urban landscape of Bangalore and asks compares the work ethic of the hi-tech IT firms there with that of those who provide public services - such as roads and desilted drains.

And, Nitin writing in the Acorn - has an analysis of the Human Development Index in India and our neighbourhood. He says,

India’s ranking is also a reflection of the inertia that has come to characterise its progress towards privatisation of industry, education and social services.

Akshay of Trivial Matters has a photograph that he clicked featured on United Children of the World. It is truly a picture that symbolises hope.

Education
September 5th being Teachers’ day - there were a number of posts around that event. Patrix blogs about President Kalam’s message to create life long learners and enlightened citizens. Arzan tells us to take some time out to wish a teacher who made a difference to our life. Twillight Fairy looks at a sari wearing experience - which makes her look like chirpy Chawla (Juhi) - on the occassion of Teacher’s Day, a long time ago.

Anand writes about the need for a child inspired education system, without which learning may not be effective. Michael Higgins has an interesting post on who should guide Children’s Education.

On the occasion of International Literacy Day - Uma has a beautiful post - Post Card to Akka - her experiences of Karnataka’s adult literacy movement.

Charu writes about the need to strengthen the undergraduate programme
And finally, if it wasn’t true it would truly be funny. Sunil has a wry look at Pew’s latest survey on religion in education (in the USA). And Srikanth has a rib tickling account of how theologists want to introduce Creationism as part of the science curriculum. He quotes from Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert):

By definition, people with bad ideas cannot be swayed by logic. If they were logical, they wouldn’t have bad ideas in the first place - unless the ideas were based on bad data

Facism

Kamesh’s post on Hijacked Gods re examines the Gujarat riots after seeing Rakesh Sharma’s Final Solution. He wonders : “Why do people forget that “Man can exist without religion, but religion cannot exist without man”.

Faderu of CSF looks at Police Fascism in Mumbai in cancelling the Independence Day Rock. Kunal of Ceteris Paribus expresses his outrage elequently on the same issue, as does Amit Varma of India Uncut in Rock is Evil.

Faith

Atanu Dey has an extremely well written out post on Faith and its multiple facets. He points out that only the feeble minded will use faith as a crutch to deal with what happens after death. He also looks at the connection between the Hindu concpet of time - kalpa - and cosmology. Methinks that he is reading too much Fritzof Capra. Ashsih says that we are so busy admiring what we did in the past that we are somehow stuck there, like a broken clock.
Subhas provides a rather impassioned defence on why he has faith but is not feeble minded.

And of course Saket talks about why he feels completely ‘intellectually arrogant‘ in his firm faith that there is no God. Reminds of an online exchange of ideas i had with Amit on whether atheism is a faith. of course it is
Nilu has an interesting set of posts about Advaita and futility.
Sunil talks about the most cuddly of all Gods - Ganesh - and about the goodies that were made during his child hood days. Somehow, theist or atheist - when it comes to good modaks and pedas, everthing is maaf.
And finally, Hemant of Instant Kaapi says that If A R Rahman turns Prophet for a new religion and promises to use his songs for sermons, he would be the first convert. Interesting faith that would be

Gender Issues

Annie writes about missing women. Women who are never ever born. Women who are killed before they are ever born.

there are at least a million women out there who agreed to, if not actively opted to, kill their girls - born or unborn. Mothers who are not facing starvation-level poverty. Mothers who, possibly, were neither unmarried nor raped. Grandmothers who pushed their daughters-in-law into getting rid of granddaughters.

I fail to emphathize, because my imagination completely fails me.

Charu writes about empowring Sita and Draupadi, and quotes Anand Bakshi - “Sita bhi yahan badnaam huvi”
Vikrum blogs about eve teasing at 35,000 feet on Kingfisher Airlines. And how, there was really no point in complaining - becuase Kingfisher Airlines used a marketing strategy that sells sex. All you have do is see the hoardings around Mumbai to know that he is right.
Primary Red blogs about how four women were paraded half naked over a property dispute and how the police refused to file a complaint.

Sakshi writes about Alimony and asks if some women are misusing the law.

Katrina
Katrina occupies the mind space of a number of Desi bloggers. Maitri from New Orleans has a day by day post on the situation there.
Amardeep Singh asks if the Government has the right to forcibly evacuate people who don’t want to move.
Gawker is furious with Michael Brown the head of FEMA - who blamed the victims for not getting out of town. Rueben feels much the same, especially to the US Govenrment response that they didn’t know how severe Katrina could be. And he quotes a pastor on the devestation:

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleansnow is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion — it’s free of all of those things now,” Shanks says. “God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there — and now we’re going to start over again.”

Ouch! It redefines compassion and charity.

And this seems to redefine grace - Uma has this blistering post on Boing Boing’s response to India’s aid (5 million dollars and army assistance).

Poverty
What is poverty seems to be the topic of a cross continental debate. It all began with John Scalzi’s Being Poor. Peter Griffin, comparing the post to his rear has this in reponse :). And Dina jams in with this - being Poor in India. And Madhoo recalling her earlier years in Vizag, talks about the fact that sometimes the poor don’t really want to be helped.

And Finally

Jabberwock celebrates one year of blogging.
Neelakantan tells us how to identify anti - globalisation aunties.
Aparna has a limerical take on the Mangal Pandey fracas.
Nilu writes about the pissing contest that he has with himself Nilu, please let us know who won this one
Secrets of my Inner World has a litany on Apples.
Rashmi Bansal writes on a new form of ABCD - Apna Bharatiya Chinese Dish
Dinesh asks “to swear or not to swear is the question” (with all apologies to the bard).
Sulfury has a A to Z of the world according to George Bush.
And, Vishnupavan writes about a number of American Presidents who played cricket.
And the last one is on Bill Gates who wants his money back. Gawker blogs about how Billy Boy mistakenly donated 10 million dollars to an institute that worked in the area of Intelligent Design. They probably came up with the next version of the Microsoft OS, that crashed on start up and imploded taking everything with it.

That brings us to the end of this weeks blog mela.

Next week Amit Varma at India Uncut is your friendly host of the BlogMela. Drop off your nominations there.
Till then bye bye.
(roll credits)

Bharateeya Blog Mela can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear’s ÜberCarnival.

Tags: Blogging, Culture, Development, Economics, Gender Issues, Mumbai, Poverty, Religion, Reviews, Science, Social Software, Society, US, World

Jose Saramago is probably one of the greatest writers of our times, and the The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is one of the finest books that I have ever read.

It is the story of Jesus - who is not the son of God, but the son of Joeseph and who loves a Mary. All he wants is to be a good carpenter, a good husband and a good man. But God has other plans for him.

There is a brilliant scene in the book where Jesus has this amazing conversation with both the God and the Devil. God offers him a screwd life but immortality in terms of being remembered, while the Devil offers him a normal life, a happy life. Both God and Satan play for Jesus’s loyalty. and the relationship between God and Satan is this friendly banter of old men who know each other well, are fond of each other but want to appear contrary. Their bickering masks a deep understanding and friendship. The relationship between Jesus and Satan - as the Pastor - is extremely well written. Satan comes out as an incredibly attractive character - the only friend that Jesus has. God comes across as an incredible manipulator - more in the mould of the ancient Aryan Gods / Greek Gods - Indra - than the benevalont, cuddly lovable God that I believe in.

More than anything else, the style of the narrative is superlative. The book has no dialogues, yet it has conversations. Saramago has written it in almost a fly in the wall, an “echo of the psyche” style. And you feel like a vouyer reading this book.

If you are devoutly Christian, then read this book - you will empathise and become more fond of Jesus and the sacrifices that he made. If you are fanatically Christian avoid it - there are other things that are more readable.

Tags: Reviews

The Good News is that George Lucas has promised to make no more Star Wars films.
The bad news is that Revenge of the Sith is the link between the first two dreadful episodes and New Hope. And to be fair, it is nowhere as bad as the first two episodes.

Lucas almost made a good film. There are scenes that you get an inkling of the film that could have been. And these were very “human” scenes that dealt with loyalty, love, loss, betrayal. Unfortunately the computer generated characters kept interfering with these scenes. Alhough the technology is better than in the original trilogy, the fights better choreographed - this film too is done in by it technical perfection.
Mostly it remains a 3-D computer game into which a whole host of characters have wandered on. The Original series had a soul, the over reliance on Industrial Light and Magic has rendered this trilogy soul less.
The story is how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. And since we know who survived - having watched New Hope eons ago - there is no suspense . Hayden Christiansen as Ankin Skywark is terrible. The only person who is possibly worse than him is Natalie Portman as Padme. Despite them being the central characters in the film, you really don’t care a damn about their fate.
Ewan MacGregor as Obi Wan Kanobi sounds as though he is participating in an elocution class. How on earth did he grow up to be Alec Guiness!
The build up Count Dooku - Christopher Lee - in the Attack of the Clones and then behead him in the first ten minutes of this film begining. Samuel Jackson is as ernest as ever - God! they used to make extremely sanctimonious Jedi Knights:). The two characters who shine are Yoda - as cryptic as ever - and Palpatine - the Chancellor who becomes the Emperor. The scenes of political manouvering work. The scenes with the computer graphics don’t. More than anything else, i missed the repartee and the humour of the original series. This lot of three is singularly humourless!
Anakin is a young Macbeth whose actions fulfil the destiny he wants to avoid. The death of Padme as a consequence of Anakin’s attempts to prevent it are inevitable. But, the tragedy of this doesn’t come through. And Hayden Christiansen plays Macbeth as Hamlet - which really doesn’t do anything for either the character or the film. There is a scene in the Temple where Anakin faces the ‘younglings’ - that more than anything else transforms him into Darth Vader. Even in this scene that sense of tragedy is missing. The switch from Anakin to Darth Vader is also inexplicable.
The last 30 minutes of the film shows us a glimpse of what the series could have been. But, it is too little too late. There death of Padme, and the Death of Anakin are done well. The birth of Darth Vader is also shot well.
All in all, a disappointing film. Not as bad as the Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. Not as Good as Empire Strikes Back and New Hope. In the same league as Return of the Jedi. I would like to see a Director’s cut that amalgamates the new trilogy into a 4 hour special. Cut down the story. It may tell itself a lot better in a lot less time.
If you are indulging your nostalgia go see the film. IF you want a few hours of entertainment Nazar is probably a better option.

Tags: Reviews

Last night I went to see Nazar at Fame Adlabs with Anand and his friends. Anand Sivakumaran is also the writer of the film.

Let me start by what the film is not. It is not the Eyes of Laura Mars - though the concept of trasnference of “vision” is borrowed - It is not The Eye. The script is instead an amalgamation of many influences that somehow manage to form a good two and a half hours of entertainment. There are tributes to Hitchcock, the Profiler,CSI, Seven. It reminded me a lot of the neo noir thrillers of the 1980’s (as opposed to the noir films of the 1950’s) where morality is ambigious, sexuality is flaunted, relationships erotic, and the sense of human isolation heightened. Everybody here is an island unto themselves. The kind of film a Jagged Edge or a Basic Instinct was. A good 2 hour watch, a good to catch on TV film - not a classic by any stretch of imagination. This is not a movie that is going to be talked about in the same breath as Kurusawa or Ray. And it doesn’t pretend to be. It uses oft used cliches and uses them well. And for the viewer it is paisa vasool.
The synopsis:

Divya Varman (Meera) is a successful singer and dancer. However, she leads a monotonous life until she meets with an unfortunate accident that turns her life around. She is suddenly haunted by strange visions of unnerving murders that make her believe that she is going over the edge. As the story unfolds, she meets Special Investigating Officer Rohan Sethi (Ashmit Patel), who is uncovering a case of serial killings doing the rounds in Mumbai’s beer bars. Sethi employs Divya’s constant visions and flashbacks to solve his case. But these come with bleak consequences…

Meera and Ashmit Patel are competent. Though, i wish she would improve a dialogue delivery. Almost every third scene has her orgasming over a sentance. Meera can’t dance. and the item number in the begining is probably the most awkward performance that i have ever seen in my life. Ashmit Patel is limited, but thankfully the script does not give him too many long lines:). He does look more like a wannabe rock star than a policeman. That hair is definitely not regulation. His one and half expressions is supposed to reflect grief and guilt (like a James Stewert in Vertigo) about not saving his wife on time. Aly Khan is competent as the man strung along by Divya.

The actor who walks away with the film is Koel Purie. She is extremely convincing as a no nonse policewoman.

There are enough twists and turns in the film to keep you hooked. The violence is well executed. I would have preferred to see a cut that was about 25 minutes shorter- taking out some of the songs would probably do the trick. First Time Director Soni Razdan has made a decent first film. The Murderer’s rationale at the end is a bit pat, but somehow you don’t think about the absurdity of its logic. And that’s where the film holds, it doesn’t give you time to think about why!

All in all,worth a dekho.

Tags: Reviews