clog

(This post was written right after the first episode but due to editing delays ;) wasn't posted till now)

Big boss has been living up to my expectations so far. TRPs are not so flattering which means it isn't meeting everyone's expectations.

However, the way it started was better than I imagined. Bunty, the thief with a lot of cases on his name and who has spent 13 years in jail didn't take longer than a day to break down. In the process the biggest victim was the camera that he chose to cover with his, hold your breath, ...sock.

While he was evicted the same day, he deeply disappointed Abbas bhai, why? Well, because he went without shaking hands with anyone. I am sure with this kind of logic, he must have done a helluva job a defending Kasab. Poetic justice for a killer who should have been hanged a while back, not only because I would like to have no more of him, but because we shouldn't be spending a penny more on keep that **** alive. Mr Kazmi's issue to me seems akin to our censor board policy of not showing people smoking on screen because that would be a bad influence as if stealing, murder, rape, cheating are all acceptable in normal human behavior.

The following episodes were not as exciting but they did a good job in putting Khali in at the right time, just when things started going a little downhill. And then later, the firebrand, Bindra.

Soon to follow a post on my fascination with non talent based trashy reality shows.

This was one of the movies that I knew I would like even before I saw it and I did. The trailer showed glimpses that the backdrop of the movie was somewhere in the Hindi heartland of India, the area where I come from. The movie turned out to be shot in Raisen, even closer and the state is called Mukhya Pradesh, a not so subtle reference to the state. Well, this post is not about the movie but about my experiences here which I always wanted to publish.

Every once in a while I make journeys in buses and trains there, more specifically these are non ac buses (the only ones we have there)  and general compartments of trains. I do it with minimum of liabilities (i.e. no luggage, no company) because I believe I can’t do it peacefully anymore with luggage. Every single time I do it, I feel fortunate that I don’t have to do it as a need or as a regular part of life.

MP is unique in the sense that there is as much poverty as most other popular poor states i.e. Orissa, Bihar etc. but it never makes any news for it. The invisibility is what defines it; nobody knows about it and doesn’t care about it either.

Peepli live paints a very real picture of how majority of the villages are. Abject poverty, overfilled tempos (locally called bhatsuars), a real huge market for desi thurra, an abundance of time and acute lack of work. Now at the verge of labeling folks here a total loser, a comfort is there in their own condition and no real effort to get out of it. Highlighted by the fact that Nattha’s plan out of his misery was not to try harder but to give up and die, the only possible state more laidback than his current one.

A major part of the state is immune to shining India’s GDP growth of post liberalization era. The state is somehow against emigration to other places (mostly true for unskilled labor which forms the major part of the population) in search of jobs unlike Bihar which is accused of spiraling out everywhere. In fact one of their pet peeve is people coming from outside and spoiling their state of being (if that is indeed possible).

It is stuck in some kind of treadmill time, it keeps slipping by your feet, yet everything stays as it were.

Every time they enter a queue to buy a train ticket, I think they are prepared to have a fight; the next one would be when they enter their compartments. Classic case of scarcity of resources! It is easy for me to be patient since it’s not a daily routine for me but for them showing any kindness is damn too difficult if not impossible and yet you see them doing that quite often.

The buses here still play the music of 90s like the songs of “Dilwale” or Altaf Raza. I found this similar to the fascination a few friends and I share for the songs popular during my college years. May be it is indicative of our desire to be in that time, like my state’s desire to still remain in 90s, a time they are comfortable to live in.

While a lot of places have issues due to increased traffic, we are facing the same. Only difference is that we have it because of lack of roads and not due to any increase in traffic which would be a nicer problem to have.

In one sweeping analysis, I am inclined to label the problem is a lack of vigor/life. Indifference, idyllic drinking, drugs and endless and mindless discussions about everything around yet without any desire to ‘do’ anything even for their own good.

Like every time you cite a problem you should have a solution, I don’t think I would like to do that because the problem seems to be more basic than systemic. At the bottom of it is probably laziness or some such silly reason. The morose attitude once replaced by a little enthusiasm can take care of most of the issues in due time.

The line up seems promising. They have a thief, bandit, hermaphrodite, someone who appeared in an explicit mms, a lawyer who seems to be taking the wrong side in many high profile cases (kasab being one of them). I am sure the rest are no less but they don't have stuff like this to boast of.