Sometime back I had registered for customized news and from then onwards google kept throwing punjab kesri type news of Rakhi Sawant being kissed by Mika. Ok I agree its my fault that I read that news the first time but once in a while a person will tumble over masala news and read it. And as you do that, google will track that news for you. So every time you open news that rakhi sawant update would be staring at your face tempting you to see if there has been any movement in that. Who knows some channel released the photo/video in an attempt to condemn it :). Along with that Google will start getting more crap now from Bollywood to fill your personal section too.
Leaving what google does aside, I am totally abreast with the rakhi sawant case now. If you ask me which side I am. Frankly I don't have very high opinion for both of them so the least I appreciate them, the better. They both could have been wrong, Rakhi could have been playing a publicity stunt or even mika would have been at fault of being indecent as he looks in most of his videos. Remember his first video "sawan main lag gayi aag"? I think Gulshan Grover was hired just to leave no confusion who was the villain and who should the heroine avoid. Strange thing about this episode to my senses: National Commission for Women got involved in it.
6/18/2006
Corruption debate
In a recent discussion with my boss over corruption in India, we came up with some interesting points that I thought of jotting down here. I don't think these are something which has never been thought about but I don't see much talk about them either.
Its common to see the way things work here abroad and laugh about the inefficiencies that are there in India due to corruption. I think its right also, unless you see the difference, appreciate the positives and condemn the wrong, you are never starting on the way to make changes. There's no doubt that things in Indian government institutions that deal directly with the common public are the ones that are the hotbed of the corruption machinery. So broadly speaking what are the causes of it:
Less salaries in Indian public sector. It makes me wonder sometimes how Subir Raha must be getting than his counterpart CEOs. Might be one tenth or lesser. I don't mean he will go corrupt because of not being able to manage in a 20-30 Lakhs p.a. but consider when the same ratio translates to the babu types jobs. I don't know what they get but from what I constantly hear, their salaries are sub 5000 for many. I wont comment its less or more because anyhow there's no limit on more anywhere. But in comparison to what he is offered in bribes, the things that he deals in generally translate into more than 10x times his salary. Which is a great motivator to take the plunge. There would be a great mass who wont take the effort of killing his conscience if his basic needs are satisfied and he gets the respect in the society but at 5K types salary that's not what one can expect. So these rock bottom salaries are one big motivator for the corrupt. Consider Indians pay 21,068 crores as bribes per year anyhow that amount of money is flowing as black money. I think there are many people who feel that instead of charging me 50Rs for a driving license better charge me 500Rs and save me the pain of paying 6 babus 50 rs each and having lesser respect for my own country.
But if you think over the above argument, a person who reaches higher posts and starts earning something which other people in industry get then also he does not stop being corrupt. The reason being, its like once corrupt, always corrupt. Its like yaar ek baar aur sahi, phir nahin karoonga. So once you are into this cycle, there's no ending, how much ever you earn or store or stash.
Society is one more reason. We as Indians keep forming groups and generally recognize ourselves as part of a group only. There are no rights and wrong, we are quite comfortable in convincing ourselves about the aims of the group and follow them as gospel truth. consider a fresher joining a department of xyz revenue collection and distribution. That fresher first identifies himself with the seniors who eat truck loads of notes, then their lesser ones who service them and get some suitcases for their families and it would be in such good harmony that he would also fall in love of the concept and start doing the same stuff. We hardly have rebels, individuals who are ready to challenge the established. We just flow with the things. So my hypothesis is that India in the next generation is going to be a rage without any stopping. You'll see an honest, un-corrupt country. That's because I see a lot many un-corrupt, satisfied people than I used to see in the generation of my uncles, father's friends etc etc who I know are working in sarkari company and making black money and yet being good individuals in their personal lives. The day this percentage decreases and percentage of people who are honest goes high, we'll have followers who will do the same. So I guess its going to be an exponential growth in it.
So the matter is about conversion. I think India should reduce the number of converts by taking appropriate measures. A good salary to match other industry standards is one first step. In countries that I visit these public services either get more or equally paid than other similar professions. People do live in the same society and then feel part of it. They have incentive to be non-corrupt. Awareness can be improved first by stressing more about these issues in School, increase penalty of being corrupt and setting examples of honest people. I think these are little abstract but I think its happening slowly. I admire the way the new industries in India have taken these things very seriously and have their own excellence in executing these stuff.
India is currently placed at 88th rank among 159 nations according to a report by Transparency International. Consider India is the 4rth largest economy of the world (considering Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)) and the second fastest major economy of the world and if corruption does not fall then its difficult to imagine any further growth.
At the end of all my fundas I will leave with a very good report(Transparency International India) of Indian corruption.
Technorati Tags: Corruption, Economy
Its common to see the way things work here abroad and laugh about the inefficiencies that are there in India due to corruption. I think its right also, unless you see the difference, appreciate the positives and condemn the wrong, you are never starting on the way to make changes. There's no doubt that things in Indian government institutions that deal directly with the common public are the ones that are the hotbed of the corruption machinery. So broadly speaking what are the causes of it:
Less salaries in Indian public sector. It makes me wonder sometimes how Subir Raha must be getting than his counterpart CEOs. Might be one tenth or lesser. I don't mean he will go corrupt because of not being able to manage in a 20-30 Lakhs p.a. but consider when the same ratio translates to the babu types jobs. I don't know what they get but from what I constantly hear, their salaries are sub 5000 for many. I wont comment its less or more because anyhow there's no limit on more anywhere. But in comparison to what he is offered in bribes, the things that he deals in generally translate into more than 10x times his salary. Which is a great motivator to take the plunge. There would be a great mass who wont take the effort of killing his conscience if his basic needs are satisfied and he gets the respect in the society but at 5K types salary that's not what one can expect. So these rock bottom salaries are one big motivator for the corrupt. Consider Indians pay 21,068 crores as bribes per year anyhow that amount of money is flowing as black money. I think there are many people who feel that instead of charging me 50Rs for a driving license better charge me 500Rs and save me the pain of paying 6 babus 50 rs each and having lesser respect for my own country.
But if you think over the above argument, a person who reaches higher posts and starts earning something which other people in industry get then also he does not stop being corrupt. The reason being, its like once corrupt, always corrupt. Its like yaar ek baar aur sahi, phir nahin karoonga. So once you are into this cycle, there's no ending, how much ever you earn or store or stash.
Society is one more reason. We as Indians keep forming groups and generally recognize ourselves as part of a group only. There are no rights and wrong, we are quite comfortable in convincing ourselves about the aims of the group and follow them as gospel truth. consider a fresher joining a department of xyz revenue collection and distribution. That fresher first identifies himself with the seniors who eat truck loads of notes, then their lesser ones who service them and get some suitcases for their families and it would be in such good harmony that he would also fall in love of the concept and start doing the same stuff. We hardly have rebels, individuals who are ready to challenge the established. We just flow with the things. So my hypothesis is that India in the next generation is going to be a rage without any stopping. You'll see an honest, un-corrupt country. That's because I see a lot many un-corrupt, satisfied people than I used to see in the generation of my uncles, father's friends etc etc who I know are working in sarkari company and making black money and yet being good individuals in their personal lives. The day this percentage decreases and percentage of people who are honest goes high, we'll have followers who will do the same. So I guess its going to be an exponential growth in it.
So the matter is about conversion. I think India should reduce the number of converts by taking appropriate measures. A good salary to match other industry standards is one first step. In countries that I visit these public services either get more or equally paid than other similar professions. People do live in the same society and then feel part of it. They have incentive to be non-corrupt. Awareness can be improved first by stressing more about these issues in School, increase penalty of being corrupt and setting examples of honest people. I think these are little abstract but I think its happening slowly. I admire the way the new industries in India have taken these things very seriously and have their own excellence in executing these stuff.
India is currently placed at 88th rank among 159 nations according to a report by Transparency International. Consider India is the 4rth largest economy of the world (considering Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)) and the second fastest major economy of the world and if corruption does not fall then its difficult to imagine any further growth.
At the end of all my fundas I will leave with a very good report(Transparency International India) of Indian corruption.
Technorati Tags: Corruption, Economy
6/04/2006
Winner of this weekend: Gangster
Well pardon me for yet another movie review. But I'll try not to break any suspense and hence just say that Gangster is a good movie to watch.
These kinds (new cast and not so advertised) movies get ignored. I also have an habit of not watching movies without any reviews. I can't say I had not heard a good review about gangster but still I avoid movies where I don't know any artist to atleast have some credibility to it somehow had been avoiding any Imran Hashmi movies. Just because he had become stereotyped for serial kisser and had been in a dozen such movies requiring cerebral usage of less than .01 %
Well
Technorati Tags: Gangster, Movies
These kinds (new cast and not so advertised) movies get ignored. I also have an habit of not watching movies without any reviews. I can't say I had not heard a good review about gangster but still I avoid movies where I don't know any artist to atleast have some credibility to it somehow had been avoiding any Imran Hashmi movies. Just because he had become stereotyped for serial kisser and had been in a dozen such movies requiring cerebral usage of less than .01 %
Well
Technorati Tags: Gangster, Movies
Is movie se dimag fanaa ho jaye
Well I was not at all thinking of writing any reviews about Fanaa. Many have already written pages on it and it does not make sense to write a movie which is generally dubbed by people as not making up to the marks. Atleast that's what the image I could get from the reviews that I have read. But now that I have seen the movie, I was provoked to write a review to save millions who read this blog.I had less expectations from the review but the movie disappointed after that also. The initial phase of shayari and the instant maggie 2 minutes falling in love is one of the most hilarious part of the movie. What could easily have been termed as roadside romeogiri is depicted as the best form of wooing. (Low level has gone to the level of hardware perhaps). A guide giving flying kisses to girls in the bus, girls appreciating it looked all like axe land story to me. I digest it all saying that my competency in love matters is nothing that I should be proud of and also that I am watching a movie
Well the movie progresses with such huge negligence of the public common sense that I lost track of what all was going wrong. Amir enters army after killing someone who is never traced by his wife also for 2 months and of course landing in army location where no one, yes no one knew you after the mission also must be easy. Farhaan beats the Indian army in Mithun da ishtyle after jumping from the helicopter and a whole battalion (mind you with a helicopter and motorized sledges) cannot get hold of a person on snowboard. Well I digest all that considering that mithun da did it some 20 years ago and so today's heros must be little advanced.
Well movie becomes a little sane after all this only with little irritating overuse of the dialogues like "Farhaan jitna aapse pyaar karta hai.." and "Har kaam akele nahin hota hai".
Overall then the movie tries not to disappoint more than it has already done till now. You start ignoring things like that what a girl would do when she sees her father's dead body. Run to get some help, panic or just wait casually for her husband to be back. Finding Farhaan's location from the radio is not possible but when Zuni does a radio her location is all known by itself. The intelligence people discuss as if they are sitting on some UP ki chai ki dukaan. Coz the confidence with which they discuss complex politics to extreme science puts any NASA Scientist to shame.
Coming to the point of Kajol and Aamir in the movie. Yes they look good and actually they never looked bad to me so not a selling point for me atleast. And as someone pointed out, they could have made a portfolio of both the artists and shown it as a slide show if that is the only point for which people should see Fanaa.
Songs are good and out of them "Dekho na" is awesome and it's video irresistible
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