Real super heroes….

I was at a filming site, courtesy of a family friend. It was the filming of a song, which are an integral part in Indian movies. They play a major role in entertainment and also in making the flicks intolerably long sometimes. The protagonist of the movie was played by a very popular star in this particular regional language. There were loads of his fans waiting to get a glimpse of their idol. The star was the centre of attraction on and off the camera there. I also had this rare privilege of having a photograph taken with him much to the envy of others who were refrained from even getting close to him.
I was at this filming site for a couple of hours and observed very grossly the procedures of film making. The confusion was compounding at every passing minute and the director was yelling on his microphone to bring some order around the place. It had not sunk in till then the reason for such a big hustle in this tiny make shift studio place which was setup. It did not take me long to realize though! It was this huge conglomeration of technicians, artists and casual laborers that added to this disarray. I then became present to the hardships that the supporting crews have to go through to make a movie. The actors as always get all the attention and help. The producer and the director are always tracking every breath of their lead face to make sure he is pampered and happy. They are always at the core of every action at the site. Unsurprisingly they charge a fee that would be more than my dream lottery!
The stark contrast was the manner in which the second rung technicians, artists and casual laborers are treated. I saw the dance troupe which danced with our lead artist on the song. It mainly constituted of wannabe actors who just hang around the film industry’s hub waiting for their destinies to have a paradigm shift to get them an opportunity to have others dance around him. They were dressed up in glossy outfits ready to take orders on the sets. They don’t mix around with the main cast of the movie and I could see their submissiveness and inferiority complex they carried. It almost looked like they were ostracized from the main crew. How many of us who watch Indian movies tend to realize the co dancers in the songs and give due credit to their participation in making the song viewable? I must admit that I never did and maybe I will never be able to do it. Well partly to blame are the camera angles that focus on the lead of the movie. Actually I would use this as a safe excuse!
The next were these bunch of men designated as the “light boys”. They hung like trapeze artists on high ceiling grills and weak make shift ladders. The safety of these workers is in an utmost pathetic condition. They hung precariously from these high positions with only Aether (Greek god of air) to his rescue if he was to fall asleep up there.
These were just a few examples I have illustrated here to give you all the tip of the iceberg. The others like the trolley pullers who help the cameraman give you those unbelievable shots under a waterfall, the cooks who don’t have enough to eat themselves, and the beautification artists who cover the pimples of our gorgeous heroine all face the same scenario.
Guys, the next time you are at the cinema to watch your latest crush on screen or your macho man beating up the baddies, please realize that there were armies of under privileged people who make these super heroes.
Wanna watch a movie tonight? I have invites for a premiere!

Divine ignorance!

India is a land of various religions and their network of related casts and communities. This large scale religious diversity also has its share of controversies. The latest one to hit the wrong notes in the divine sections is the issue of the “Paryaya” among the ashta mutts in South Canara in Karnataka. Paryaya is a coalition setup between the eight mutts in the Udupi region with this very diplomatic way of sharing power to run the affairs of the Sri Krishna Temple in Udupi. The stumble block to the smooth transfer of power has been that the succeeding administrator, Sri Sugendra Teertha swamiji of Puttige mutt has violated an unwritten code of conduct to be followed by the seers. The apparent mistake is that he traveled abroad and crossed the seas in order to do so. I cannot see another way of getting to the US without crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It is called the Samudra Yana. The controversy still lingers on and a solution is yet to be reached. But the only thing that has not stopped is the war of words between the successor seer and those against him. Their spats in public has not only damaged their reputations but also reduced their following and credibility. The seers of these mutts are the guardians of the brahmanical knowledge base. It is a very ironical to see people of apparent high level of intellect behaving in such a mundane and atrocious conduct.
I do not see why such a trivial issue like traveling abroad should come in the way of worshipping the god and take over the reins of administration. We have seen one of the most respected, broad minded and the face of Hinduism to the world, in Swami Vivekananda who traveled abroad to make his epic speech in the World Parliament of Religions way back in 1893. No person with a sane mind can make a mockery of Swami Vivekananda’s visionary knowledge and ideas. The young scientific minds of this country would argue as to how crossing the seas can make an individual impure or not fit for the act of worshipping the almighty who according to the scriptures and other popular philosophies is supposed to exist everywhere.
It is high time that we break the shackles of these kinds of unexplainable, unscientific and mindless thinking patterns and move on to become more practically oriented. That is exactly what happened in the 12th century when soci-spirutual leader like Mahatma Basaweshwara accomplished this herculean task. He strived to break such nonsensical ritual practices and caste divides to unite all people under an umbrella of a philosophy which focuses on practical and productive living which also had spirituality interweaved into it.
It is disappointing that a community that is known to be the intellectual cream is tight lipped at this kind despicable conduct by their gurus. I am surprised to see that eminent personalities, social thinkers and Gnanapeet awardees like Sri Girish Karnad and Sri U R Ananthamurthy who always had an opinion about anything under the sun are now in hibernation about this issue.
As India moves to be a world power, our religious leaders should also adapt to the new living patters of their followers and not create such unwanted and ludicrous controversies which do not contribute to the growth of our society. Spiritual leaders are seen to be role models, and this kind of public altercations by them sends a wrong message and sets a negative example. I would like to quote Sir Charles Darwin who said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Seers are you listening?

Negatively unique…….

I was home…..that’s the feeling I got the moment I landed in Bangalooru airport when I was returning home after a gruelling 1st semester at UWA. I loved the feeling of getting back into my ghetto and comfort zone. I came in contact with the crumbling infra structure of my beloved city when the conveyor belt to transport baggage gave way on my arrival and it was like the final moments of a football world cup final where everybody on my flight were doing their best get to their baggage first. Welcome home chinnu! The first day was spent in total hibernation trying to wipe the jet lag out of my body. The adventure begins now….
India is an absolutely unique country. The uniqueness lies in its languages, cultures and most importantly the food. There is another unique concept that we fellow Indian brothers share unknowingly. That’s the harsh reality that I was struck when I ventured into a taking my car out and take a drive. The sight I saw on the road then shocked me. No! It’s not about the road conditions if your mind wandered in that direction. It is the lawlessness of the drivers who use them that shocked me rather rudely.
I experienced a total deliberate ignorance of the drivers around me to follow the traffic rules. There was a driver driving one of the premium brands of automotive history blatantly standing on the right lane when his insane mind is definitely originating nervous impulses to turn left on the traffic lights. Then I had a student on the ever popular motorbike cramming dangerously between two monster looking buses. To add to the agony was that he had no protective gear on him and had an IPod stuck in is ear. I think he had the Guns n Roses song, “knocking on heaven’s door playing on it”. Yeah mate you will get there rather quickly!
Then I proceeded to the next intersection. Two guys on their two wheelers ahead of me are in my opinion the busiest people alive on this globe. They had to have their meeting on their way home driving their respective vehicles. I then saw a truck approach them in the intersection, but the both of them were ignorant to that harsh fact and proceeded to continue to move and lie on the highway to hell. These guys were willing to risk their lives in order to save 3 seconds of their precious conversation in a rather precarious way.
Then a few minutes past by and I had a dose of the BPO industry's contribution to my city, CABS! These companies have filled our city's roads with cabs of varying shapes and sizes. I had this driver behind me who was in a great hurry ferrying its executives that he was honking away to glory behind me knowing very well I had no place to neither go myself nor have any to spare for him to go. This is what I would call road rage!
We have a sense of pride and accomplishment in the fact that we break rules and cause inconvenience to others around us. I can never understand why we have least concern to other people who like us also have a life and the right to lead it fully and comfortably. I have heard people who gallantly announce the ways and tricks they used to waylay the law which we all as law abiding citizens of the world’s largest democracy that we should follow sacredly. What surprises me most is that the educated elite do not seem to care an aorta bit. Another surprising reality is that the government and law enforcement department vehicles are the biggest law breakers. It was the car of a high court judge of the court that bravely skipped the red light in front of me!
In my opinion it is not about illiteracy that is a stumble block to my country’s development, but is the urban public apathy in its unilateral decision not to follow the rules laid out.
All said and done it is home sweet home. Let us hope we change our ways to help us and others lead a better and organised life in the future. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
hey auto….jayanagar bartira? The adventure continues………………………………..thud! Oh pothole…….

Divided we stand!

I was standing in the bus stop which has now become an eternal pool of ideas for my blogs. Another fellow Indian sat next to me. I smiled at him, but he darted his vision away from my face. After a few seconds he stood there expressionless staring at me like an archer staring at his bull’s eye. I got a feeling if this person had a super sense of seeing through people’s body and I felt transparent.
I smiled again trying to invoke a response at this human face staring at me. He was a statue. I then shifted my sight on an attractive advertisement board glittering away on this lonely and dark street.

The bus was unsurprisingly late and I had to wait that bit longer. In the course of just loitering around I saw this person trying to see what I was upto and was definitely trying to judge me. This made me uncomfortable. All he had to do was just smile back and connect. But he chose not to, but I could sense the curiosity etched on his face trying to find out more about me. I brushed it away as another one of those instances which I have been in before.

In my short stint of living abroad, these kind of situations pop up very frequently. Our own countrymen do not greet each other. There is an inherent fear among Indians living abroad that other Indians tend to stick to them and would ask them for help if they get friendly or even to just exchange courtesies. Why do we forget our human relation values which are praised and so widely spoken about in other cultures?

I don’t see the logic behind this narrow mindset. I think most Indians living abroad have their own competence which helps them get there. Why do we fear people who come from the same motherland elsewhere so much?

I see the division of an Indian society here much more than back home. This is silent and unexpressed but inherently a very strong kind of discrimination because it is led by some of our country’s fine tuned brains. I would like to call it intellectual discrimination. So here we are, half the globe away from our beloved country land and surprisingly (or unsurprisingly!), divided we stand!

been there done that.....

I was eating dinner and flipping through the television channels at home and suddenly there was something familiar that caught my eye. The channel reception was not good and I could barely see the actors. The information bar on the bottom told me that it was a weekend movie named “The Motorcycle Diary”. I am not too sure wether the last word in the name was singular or plural. I may have been wrong on that. But the important news is that I had watched this movie back in my home country and it was about this Argentina born Cuban revolutionary persona, Che’ Guevara.
So, what is the attention grab in a revolutionary for a wannabe scientist with a bird brain like me?! The only similarity between both of us is the fact that we are both doctors and the parallelism ends right there. Che’ failed the army entrance test because he was an asthmatic. But the failure turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This gave him a chance to join the medical school. During his time as a medical student, he took time off to volunteer as a health care worker even in the presence of his chronic asthmatic condition. He travelled extensively throughout South America on a motorcycle with a biochemist friend volunteering at different medical communities helping them in treating people.
Among them is one instance I remember very vividly is his act of treating leprosy patients in an island in Cambodia and spreading awareness about leprosy to the other unskilled health care workers. The lepers were isolated on a different island which lay across the river and the health workers would cross the river everyday to treat them. Che’ brought about a psychological change in these patients by spending time with them and improving their self confidence. He was their star! Che’ then travelled to other South American countries before finally getting back to medical school to finish his studies.
His revolutionary ideas then made him Fidel Castro’s aide in the Cuban revolution era and the rest is popular history.
Well what I like about Che’ is his daring medical travels that took him to the most unlikely places on this globe which benefited the people in distress. It is amazing to be able to come in contact with the people who are miles away from the nearest health professional let alone a hospital. Health care in many countries is in an impoverished condition and millions die due to lack of health care facilities. For me Che Guevara is a personality who beat the odds which no medical professional would dare doing. I would definitely remember him as a “medical revolutionary” who had, been there and done that!

Colourblind…….

As always I was on my way to work on the bus which now I have found quite entertaining. Thanks to my blog writing habit to keep me awake through the journey.

I was passing through the central business district and there was something that I found was missing, but was hard to nail it down. It happened for more than a couple of weeks. The moment I enter the CBD, my eyes were seeing a void in something that it was usually wasn’t used to. Then the vision would lead me to a sense of boredom and a pinch of depression.

And then one day, eureka! I figured out what it was! It was the lack of colour I am used to seeing back home in India. The colours that Indian people project especially in clothes are really remarkable. You would definitely see a rainbow of colours or even some outside the spectrum if you were to walk through a crowded street. I was used to seeing the multicolour combination on the saris and the suits of women. I am used to seeing men wear solid coloured shirts and gleaming trousers to work.The colours that rural India has to offer are amazing. The shandies and fairs and the next street market is a painter’s palette.

On the contrary, all I see here people wear are shades of blue, black which is the most predominant and the occasional browns if you are lucky. I really cannot figure out the lack of colour in this supposedly lively place.

My appetite for colour can never be quenched here I suppose. I just hope the Lamarkian theory of the use and disuse of organs does not act on my optic nerve and render me colourblind!

Happily Stressed….

I was on my way back home from my 8 hour library and lecture day which has unsurprisingly become an everyday affair for me. I was literally trying to pull myself together carrying my laptop and my bag and hoping the bus will be on time.

I was standing in the bus stop on this windy evening waiting. The weekend was here and people were ready for their rituals of club hopping to beat the stress they have accumulated over their week on work.

I was stressed too……I am struggling with my work as everything that is taught sounds like Greek and Latin. My performance at present is in no way proportional to my efforts I am pumping in. It is like a frustrated tortoise trying to beat the world sprint record. I am trying hard, but I am succeeding by the toddlers steps.

I am stressed too, trying to make sense of all the cloning experiments and computer programming that is pipelined into my leaky and perforated brain. But below all this stress lies an unseen undercurrent of pleasure, the pleasure that I am stressed by something I like immensely to do. This is what drives me to put in that extra work, work those long hours and spend weekends in the library without complaining. I am enjoying this strain and the grind I am going through. I am determined to survive it all!

People have means to beat their stressed out bodies and minds. Some gulp down their favourite beers with the DJ in the background and others own loyalty to their film idols. Very recently I have started writing some unintelligent blogs like this one to do so…..I hope YOU survived this one!

ispiringly anonymous

I was attending my dream class. My guru and idol was teaching me. My nerves rattled and my heart was pumping. I pinched myself and asked, is this real?

He then talked about his research and the path he tread to get to where he was. It was no red carpet, and it is there, where I draw my inspiration.

He told us what drives some men and women among the billions that live in this beautiful world to make it big.

The illusion of knowledge is what prevents millions of people from investigating into potential unknown territory. The human mind would not want to accept the fact that it blind to certain things, and the controlling ego keeps the eyes away from interesting events and opportunities.

Never bend your back and accept something if it is not backed up by proper proof and research. Have an inquisitive mind and look keenly into things that you are not convinced about. That has been his motto in life.

It has opened my eyes and mind after that talk and I could not help but put into words the inspiration I gained from this wonderful personality.

I now see some of the congenital and stress related diseases differently and an inquisitive eye inside me opens up an array of questions.

One may have to beat the odds in convincing and disproving a long standing myth, but that is the challenge a good scientist should be up to.

I thank god for giving this wonderful life changing event to me when he had another billion choices he could pick!