Below is the poem by Hanri Vivian Darozio , from famous Young Bengal movement. It is strangze that our communist dominated history books talk about all ills of Indian society which westerners pointed out but is silent on those foreigners who made India their home and contributed significantly to shaping its young minds e.g. Henry Darozio, Savitri Devi, Annie Besant, Charles Andrews etc.
To India - My Native Land
by-Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
My country! in thy day of glory past
A beautious halo circled round thy brow,
And worshiped as a deity thou wast.
Where is that glory, where that reverence now?
Thy eagle pinion is chained down at last.
And grovelling in the lowly dust art thou;
Thy minstrel hath no wreath to weave for thee
Save the sad story of thy misery!
Well- let me dive into the depths of time,
And bring from out the ages that have rolled
A few small fragments or those wrecks sublime,
Which human eyes may never more behold;
And let the guerdon of my labor be
My fallen country! one kind wish from thee
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Nice guys finish second - part4 - connections
As i grew up in life i realised the vital role connections can play. In fact we are taught at our management school that MBA is all about making yourself more presentable and forging connections. Even BK admits this fact in his book.
e.g. he clearly mentions how connections of Nehru family ensured that their stay in jail was very comfortable despite them demanding so.
Connections work silently.
Those people who lament rote learning prevalent in India and or pressure to score more should have a look at admission process of foreign universities which is highly subjective. In fact BK also used his connections to get his son admitted in UK university but I guess this is norm there.
No where the connections are more important than in Finance and diplomacy and his stint in USA and associated experience where he puts a claim to be very close to to John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson gives a proof to it.
Another interesting theme in this book is BK's unhappiness over Anglo Indians dominant position in Indian life completely disproportionate to their numbers or intellect. One can understand this if one looks at people in different professions such as air force, sports,administration etc in 30-60s period.
Similar resentment is felt today by powerful peasantry and rich people from towns towards city folk many of them occupy high positions solely because they are good in English or had a privileged background or right connections.
e.g. he clearly mentions how connections of Nehru family ensured that their stay in jail was very comfortable despite them demanding so.
Connections work silently.
Those people who lament rote learning prevalent in India and or pressure to score more should have a look at admission process of foreign universities which is highly subjective. In fact BK also used his connections to get his son admitted in UK university but I guess this is norm there.
No where the connections are more important than in Finance and diplomacy and his stint in USA and associated experience where he puts a claim to be very close to to John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson gives a proof to it.
Another interesting theme in this book is BK's unhappiness over Anglo Indians dominant position in Indian life completely disproportionate to their numbers or intellect. One can understand this if one looks at people in different professions such as air force, sports,administration etc in 30-60s period.
Similar resentment is felt today by powerful peasantry and rich people from towns towards city folk many of them occupy high positions solely because they are good in English or had a privileged background or right connections.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Nice guys finish second - finance world
Recently I was reading that some foreign diplomat was remarking that IAS officers in India consider themselves know all persons and will negotiate even scientific, military and financial matter ignoring subject experts.
Country continues to pay heavy prices for this over reliance on arrogant IAS officers.e.g. one lament Of BK in this book is increasing number of "people who matter" in Delhi. As per him it used to be 64 in British time but now he feels as he later mentions in book his own job in finance ministry had been divided into four full fledged department. I don't understand why this desire to cling to power. India expanded rapidly in same period and further when people do not get any specialist training in India and no hire-fire is practiced it is better to have more number of people to get more expertise.
He does not admit it directly but 4 out of this 64 people cost India its biggest foreign exchange loss in rupee-sterling negotiation. Another tendency to ignore industry experts present in mumbai or Calcutta or academicians was responsible for this.
In "transfer of power" by V P Menon it is mentioned that how they refused one proposal of Nizam on the basis that all financial experts were away negotiating in London and os no one could understand financial terms. A country of 30 crore had 4 financial experts then.
BK gives a further example when they were sent as a mission to Australia to study finance commission or division of financial powers between center and state. He admits that complete work was done by one professor in the delegation and ICS officers had no clue what was happening!!
Even our political masters were no better. How Nehru would spend thousands of dollars o buy paintings but would stop 70-80 dollar bills is mentioned very humorously.
BK's stint in USA at least made him aware of prowess of finance in world politics. he befriended who's and who of wall street and was instrumental in getting "India aid club" established. But sadly now a days people entering in civil service don't have fiance background necessary or elite upbringing to forge relationship with wall street bankers.
BK also mentions about one officer who even became India's representative at world bank who had a "nawabi" attitude - in short a shirker and inefficient at best and corrupt at worst. Such people were allowed to remain in system and even occupy high echelons speak a lot about Indian administration.
another telling example is Atalji when he was foreign minister in janata government was taken aback when British foreign minister discussed with him only trade relations. I hope our political leaders have improved since then.
But Morarji desai possibly due to his administrative experience come out as better finance minister.
Even today one can witness similar cases of financial ineptitude by leaders and bureaucrats alike.
Country continues to pay heavy prices for this over reliance on arrogant IAS officers.e.g. one lament Of BK in this book is increasing number of "people who matter" in Delhi. As per him it used to be 64 in British time but now he feels as he later mentions in book his own job in finance ministry had been divided into four full fledged department. I don't understand why this desire to cling to power. India expanded rapidly in same period and further when people do not get any specialist training in India and no hire-fire is practiced it is better to have more number of people to get more expertise.
He does not admit it directly but 4 out of this 64 people cost India its biggest foreign exchange loss in rupee-sterling negotiation. Another tendency to ignore industry experts present in mumbai or Calcutta or academicians was responsible for this.
In "transfer of power" by V P Menon it is mentioned that how they refused one proposal of Nizam on the basis that all financial experts were away negotiating in London and os no one could understand financial terms. A country of 30 crore had 4 financial experts then.
BK gives a further example when they were sent as a mission to Australia to study finance commission or division of financial powers between center and state. He admits that complete work was done by one professor in the delegation and ICS officers had no clue what was happening!!
Even our political masters were no better. How Nehru would spend thousands of dollars o buy paintings but would stop 70-80 dollar bills is mentioned very humorously.
BK's stint in USA at least made him aware of prowess of finance in world politics. he befriended who's and who of wall street and was instrumental in getting "India aid club" established. But sadly now a days people entering in civil service don't have fiance background necessary or elite upbringing to forge relationship with wall street bankers.
BK also mentions about one officer who even became India's representative at world bank who had a "nawabi" attitude - in short a shirker and inefficient at best and corrupt at worst. Such people were allowed to remain in system and even occupy high echelons speak a lot about Indian administration.
another telling example is Atalji when he was foreign minister in janata government was taken aback when British foreign minister discussed with him only trade relations. I hope our political leaders have improved since then.
But Morarji desai possibly due to his administrative experience come out as better finance minister.
Even today one can witness similar cases of financial ineptitude by leaders and bureaucrats alike.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Nice guys finish second
In this post I will deal with B K Nehru's view about Nehru household before he bid it a good bye to join ICS. He gives a picture of Kashmirs brahmin community in Allahabad which is interesting. A community which is rising under colonial masters in a sense cheating with other countrymen but at the same time cuaght in a time wrap in some issues.
Motilal comes as anglicized person with a great degree of contempt for common Indianm. This so called first family of India was so angliscised that they had names like batty,Dorthy for each other in house. Their living was particularly anglicized in all respects and we don't find much mention of Indian religions and common Indian people except their servants.I think it was only thanks to his dad and his postings outside Allahabad that BK turned out to be sensible man that he was.
e.g. how luxurious used to be stay of Nehru's in jail. But still one would have to agree that family wholeheartedly supported an uncertain cause and especially Nehru;s effort to organize peasants in UP were commendable.
Motilal comes as anglicized person with a great degree of contempt for common Indianm. This so called first family of India was so angliscised that they had names like batty,Dorthy for each other in house. Their living was particularly anglicized in all respects and we don't find much mention of Indian religions and common Indian people except their servants.I think it was only thanks to his dad and his postings outside Allahabad that BK turned out to be sensible man that he was.
e.g. how luxurious used to be stay of Nehru's in jail. But still one would have to agree that family wholeheartedly supported an uncertain cause and especially Nehru;s effort to organize peasants in UP were commendable.
Nice guys finish second - 1
I read the book almost a year back when I was about to enter this college. I am sure many people specially contemporary of the author and other people associated with those events would have written much insightful reviews but I guess my unique position in time and some other factors which i would deal with later make my review or rather collection of my insights from the book it interesting because ultimately all people of that age are to be evaluated by people of my generation !!!
Boasting apart before reading this book I had hear about B K Nehru in class 5th when mugging name of popular books and authors was one way of winning inter school GK contests.
Later I read a book by HT journalist who was sent to cover nagaland but ended up marrying a naga woman and became a spokesperson of naga cause which obviously did not paint a good picture of B K Nehru and he was portrayed as an old school man who was hell bent upon enforcing writ of Indian state.
Just before reading this book i read Jagmohan's "My Frozen Turbulence in kashmir" in which two main issues as to how Faruk abdualla govt failed and what happened in Srinagar city on the night jagmohan arrived were described in detail to create for justification of all the moves mentioned BK in not that adulating terms. He infact tried to pin any blame for dismissal of farukh governemnt on BK's door ( this is 84 - first stint of Jagmohan which actually saw the beginning of terrro
Boasting apart before reading this book I had hear about B K Nehru in class 5th when mugging name of popular books and authors was one way of winning inter school GK contests.
Later I read a book by HT journalist who was sent to cover nagaland but ended up marrying a naga woman and became a spokesperson of naga cause which obviously did not paint a good picture of B K Nehru and he was portrayed as an old school man who was hell bent upon enforcing writ of Indian state.
Just before reading this book i read Jagmohan's "My Frozen Turbulence in kashmir" in which two main issues as to how Faruk abdualla govt failed and what happened in Srinagar city on the night jagmohan arrived were described in detail to create for justification of all the moves mentioned BK in not that adulating terms. He infact tried to pin any blame for dismissal of farukh governemnt on BK's door ( this is 84 - first stint of Jagmohan which actually saw the beginning of terrro
Saturday, August 2, 2008
A shameless ripoff of Kramer Vs Kramers
i watched Kramer vs Kramer yesterday and that forced me to think about akele hum akele tum which I had watched years before. AHAT copies the Kramer vs Kramer sometimes scene and even dialogue by dialogue while at other times to give things Indian touch they play havoc with main story line so Manisha's parent have to be devils and she has to be super talented to garner public sympathy as to why she separated. Amir has to meet this villainous music director duo from film industry to jutify his negligence towards manisha. This shows that main story is not strong and i.e. why director needs this 'doping' of story. While copying story director forgot that with 5,000 salary in Mumbai Amir can't possibly afford the flat he is shown living in and not treat his child with costly icecream everyday. This struck very odd to me when I saw AHAT but after watching Kramer vs Kramer I know the inspiration !. Court scenes are more subtly handled in Kramer vs Kramer but maybe to sell movie in India all this was needed.
I watched movie on TV long after it was released but its songs were hit
1. Dance sequence of amir khan in club- rarely you find indian heroes singing with guitar
2. Character of music director duo seemed to hint at someone in bollywood
3. Character of Tanvi Azmi was first of its kind in India. As the movie was copy from hollywood there was no parallel for her charcter
4. Bania and other neighbours were addition on hollwood.
5. Sexual part from Kramer vs Kramer was removed so Amir Khan did not sleep with any colleague in his wife's absence and Tanvi was not looking for a boyfriend.
6. happy ending ( it is india come on)
Monday, July 21, 2008
Leben der Anderen, Das aka Lives of Others : view from India
Lives of others
Starring: Sebatian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Muhe
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donners-marck
Motivation for writing this review are three fold, recently I started learning german
, this is one of the best german movie I have seen ( i have seen only 3-4 of them). Second reason was a review of it by outlook
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080728&fname=Movie+Review&sid=1
Few days back I read a very lame revie of same movie by sudheendra kulkarni in indian express . it does not appear on goolge now but i found another review on indian express
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/334451.html
Further I also came across two revies of this movie in print media very mediocre , one in naidunia and other in Hindu.
Now here are my two cents
but before that some comments from IMDB. it is a wonderful forum and people come up with myriad explanations of things around them here
one of reader writes
"The film hardly portrays Weisler as "abruptly switching to a completely sympathetic man." In fact, it's a slow process that begins about 20 minutes into the movie, and what follows are at least 10 distinct experiences that influence Weisler's transformation. I won't go into all of them here, since I don't have the movie to refer to, but I'll sum it up.
It begins with Grubitz's undeserved promotion, which rightfully belonged to Weisler. Then seeing Christa-Marie on stage, which secretly captivated him. Brecht, Jerska's suicide, speaking with Christa-Marie at the bar, realizing Minister Hempf is using Weisler to spy on a rival suitor... you may not see any overt outward display of recognition in Weisler, but all of these things are having an effect on him. He compares his bland living quarters to Dreyman's warm apartment, compares his empty sex to their passionate love-making, and begins to question the validity of his life. Again, none of this is broadcast to the audience through dialogue or obvious plot contrivances. Outwardly, nothing about Weisler changes. He doesn't dance in the park, redecorate his apartment, or find true love of his own. He never even smiles. It is up to the audience to connect emotionally with the character, and to be aware of all the little moments that contribute to Weisler's change.
By listening in on the lives of others, experiencing people who are alive, passionate, in touch with emotion and feeling, Weisler is discovers his soul. It's an incredibly organic process that begins almost as soon as the film begins, and takes a period of months to come to fruition. I also think it's a poignant and unique way of approaching the subject of eavesdropping. See Coppola's "The Conversation" for a very different take on the same subject matter.
"Man does what's right and gets thanked for it" is greatly oversimplifying things. You could boil just about every film down to one trite sentence, but it wouldn't do justice to everything else that is going on in this film, including the cinematography, the score, the expressive and subtle performances, the sets, etc. This isn't a book, so plot isn't the only important thing at play here.
In this case, it's the way in which this man does what's right, and it's how he is thanked that makes for a world-class film. Weisler's one kind act does little to make his life better. For a time, it even makes it worse. After the fall of the Berlin wall, Weisler is still alone, still in a menial job, very much the same man he was before the events of the film. Georg Dreyman doesn't come running up to hug Weisler and thank him personally. They don't grab a beer and talk about their shared experience. Instead, Dreyman seems to know that these two can never be friends. He can't just say "thank you" and think that makes it alright. Something more must be done, and so he turns his experience into a novel about what it means to be a good man. You ask for something appropriately thematic at one moment, and then discount at another moment one of the most thematically appropriate scenes in the whole film"
well for me i have following comments to offer
1. Beautiful acting , good cinematography. we could make a similar movie in india though i doubt any regime in India ever went to this length.
2.To me very strong was the notion that perfectly normal people can be hooked to a system so bad. All of them seem to have a noble goal in mind to keep fascism at bay. They think that they should go for socialism as capitalism will ultimately lead to fascism. But in order to achieve this bigger goal they compromise on every small step and become enemies of their own citizen.
3. I believe that this is what is bound to happen in india. Hindu nationalists have a laudable final goal to save India from Islamic tyranny but in this quest they may damage Indian psyche also.
4. Once again one sees power of art in this movie. I think depsite all shortcomings our race has one distinct feature which makes our lives worth living i.e. pursuit of art forms. Artists in this movie like in real life are motivated to take risk and make society as they see in their dreams.
5. Corrupt minister who would have once started as an idealist but now is a cogwheel in system.
6. Rival officer of protagonist who is equally efficient and helps system on the plea of being honest to his job. I think this is very much relevant to my generation today when we shrug off our questionable role in perpetuating many wrong things by simply saying that we are just doing our job maybe we also need to witness lives of other to arouse that humane inside us.
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