Posts Tagged: India
Slumdog Millionaire and India
Quick last post before my hard disc is formatted and before I leave for my trip!
As most of the movie going world knows by now, Slumdog Millionaire has won 8 oscars. That’s right, EIGHT. That is quite an achievement.
For those living under a rock, it is about a poor Indian teen who lived all his life in a slum winning the “Who Want’s to be a millionaire” equivalent show and hence winning a million rupees.
So the movies is related quite a bit to India. Okay, it is entirely in India. However, the director and most of the crew of the movie is not Indian; the actors all are.
Among the eight oscars, 3 were won by Indians – AR Rahman, Gulzar (Shared wiuth Rahman) and Resul Pookutty. They won for Original Score, Original Song and Sound mixing respectively. However, none of the actors were nominated for any of the awards and so obviously, none won. The director was not Indian, the movie itself is classified as British. So how is this a win for India as it is being claimed by all most news channels?
I have nothing against the winners from India. But that does make it a win for India. An Indian win would be for a movie directed by an Indian (No, M. Night Shyamalan does not count or any of the other NRI or directors of Indian origin. Shekhar Kapoor does though :P ) or made by an Indian company.
Please folks, cut out the hype. It is NOT an Indian movie, it is not a win for India.
All Hail
OMFG, it’s raining hailstones in a Bangalore. After such a LONG time.
Wow. And the weather is lovely. I don’t even remember last when there was a hailstorm in Bangalore.
Yeah :)
Update: Tried to get a few pics of the hailstones but was unable to. Got some pics of the heavy rain though. The haze is the heavy rain. The photos do not do justice to the actual scene though.
It’s a Long Way to the Top
Why is it that a single win can elevate the India cricket team to new heights?
A loss in the next match and the same media will slam the team into the ground and then some more. While I agree that the win by the Indian cricket team was truly magnificent and the whole team performed as a unit and very admirably, labeling a single as redemption and a comeback is carrying it too far.
This match alone, as linked above has been called the greatest test win by India. Other reports claim that the “invincibility” of the Australian team has been shattered (not that I believed there was such a concept).
India’s ascendancy to the 2nd place in the world test rankings will further increase their arrogance, one that will be shattered both by the next loss and the overwhelming criticism that will be directed towards them due to the loss.
All this hype takes place every time India prepares for a tournament, or happens to complete an increasingly rare victory. While it is not bad to celebrate a win, it should also be tempered with humility and cautioned with not becoming complacent.
Slightly away from the topic, I found this article very well balanced and while not vitriolic, also points out the errors committed by the Australians in the infamous 2nd test in this series.
Desicritics
There is a blog I’ve recently started following, called Desicritics which is a part of a blog network called Blogcritics. The Desicritics blog consists of a huge bunch of writers who write almost daily on a wide range of topics related mainly to India and south east Asia. But they do write about some other topics which are significant and in the limelight at the time.
The articles are very well written, succinct and fun to read. But do be warned that it’s a very high volume blog due to the multitude of writers. But for good content about India, visit it and read it more often :)
Republic Day of India
Today is the 56th year celebration of India becoming a republic. Declaring it’s sovereignty and adopting the constitution of India on January 26th, 1950. It was after quite a long struggle that India achieved it’s independence from the British on August 15th, 1947.
After the first government had been formed under Jawarharlal Nehru, India adopted the contitution, the longest written constitution of any independent nation in the world, containing 395 articles and 12 schedules for a total of 117,369 words in its English language version. (Source Wikipedia)
I’m proud to be an Indian and Congratulations to Mother India :-)
Edit: I apologise with great embarrasment that I mistakenly put the number of years as 54 instead of 56. My math is going bad :-(
Thanks to Ajay for pointing it out.
Thus speaketh