Aamir Vs. Shahrukh

I know I'm a little late on this front of reacting to this whole thing surrounding Aamir and his dog Shahrukh. But now that I have finally read it, I'm not quite sure how to react. I mean, can't a guy name his dog whatever he wants? Sure he can. If tommorow I decide to name my dog Aamir, there will be no one to stop me or criticize me. But just because Aamir is a celebrity here, everyone has to blow it out of proportion. On the other hand, when you read the blog, for some reason, there creeps up a feeling that maybe, Aamir did all this because that is how lowly he thinks of SRK. While some loyal SRK fans reacted by saying that Aamir would never reach the heights that Aamir would reach and that he is jealous of SRK, I think the inherent problem here is that Aamir dislikes SRK as a person. Now, that is completely acceptable. I mean, of course a person is entitled to his own opinion. He doesn't have to like everyone all the time. And lets not forget here that Aamir is a person who decided that he did not like his wife after 12 years of marriage. So, sure... Everyone has their opinion. But to put that out in such a repulsive manner was not in good taste.

Homosexuality in India

Why is that any time a guy hugging a guy for “too long” is considered inappropriate in India? Why is that despite movies from Hollywood on homosexuality are played in India, we are still uncomfortable talking about it? Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code reads: Of Unnatural Offences: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine. Who decides that homosexuality is ‘against the order of man?’

The marriage of Wendell Rodericks, one of India’s prominent fashion designers and his French gay partner Jerome was solemnized at the French Consulate in Goa according to the Pact Civil de Solidarite (PACS). This is the French Law that gives legal recognition to homosexual unions and also bestows upon them the rights, duties and the status a heterosexual married couple get. The first question that popped in my mind was why did India have to wait so long to witness a homosexual union? And why is it that we had to use the assistance of another country’s law to solemnize this marriage?

The answer to questions like this is that India still views homosexuality as a appalling crime and giving two men the status of being married like a heterosexual couple is considered to be sacrilegious. While the whole world has started recognizing and respecting homosexuals and granting them all legal rights due in today’s era to any human being, our Country treats consensual adult love between people of the same sex as sodomy, and refuses to grant same sex relationships the sanctity that is due to them. We considered it to be the negative influences of the west that are spoiling the young generation. But, if one were to look at the history of India, we would see that these influences are not foreign after all.
The Indian Penal Code, drafted in 1860, was influenced by the Victorian ideas and prejudices; therefore, sexuality was dealt with as being a pathological issue rather than an expression of natural desire. Hence, for Indians to imagine sexual intercourse between people of the same sex was unthinkable.
The above view is incongruent with our past considering the fact that ancient Hindu scriptures, such as Rig Veda make clear mention to sexual acts between women. Further the carvings and depictions in the famous temples of Khajuraho, Konark, Puri are proof of the same.
Stories of Muslim Nawabs and Hindu noblemen with habits such as maintaining a harem full of young boys also point towards the existence of the notion of same sex relationships. Not to overlook the fact that India is also the birthplace of the Vatsayan’s Kamasutra, which is hailed as the bible of intimate acts, which includes a complete chapter referring to homosexuality.
It is human tendency to highlight differences than realize similarities, which is why Gods diversity in creation instead of being glorified is shunned, feared and despised. Society has become nothing but a manifestation of our dislikes and disagreements and we claim that we don’t judge or disagree with those differences but in actuality the society does and we follow its example. There is no cure to a darkness that refuses the light of the day.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Although the final season of Friends was in 2004 and its been four years now since Friends, I still make it a point to sit in front of Star World every evening at 7 when one of the episodes is aired. I only started watching Friends after the show had stopped, but I was hooked from the first episode itself. I have probably watched all of the episodes but I still watch them with as much as interest as I would for the first time. I almost know all the dialogues by heart and I repeat them along with the actors all the time. And yet, I am not tired of the repetition. But why?

I think what makes Friends extra special for me is that all of us, no matter at what point of time in our lives, have always wanted to have friends exactly like each of them. At least I did. In my life, I have never had a huge group of friends that I go out and party with every Friday night. I’ve rather been comfortable with a small group of friends who I can rely on with my life. But in your school life, friends are there in school and you come back home to the same parents everyday. That is probably why I adore Friends. You get to be with the most favorite people in your life, for life. That’s what you want in life also. You don’t want to go back home to grumpy people who always want their child to shine and thus do all the hard work. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not criticizing parents and their roles in a child’s life. Its just that, they can never be and react in the manner that friends do. Maybe thats because your friends are of your age and thus they can understand what you’re going through. And you want to live around people like that. People who you can trust and have fun with. Turn to advice for. Laugh with them. Cry with them. Get drunk and abuse bad boyfriends. Get pregnant and name one of them the Godfather. Most of us, we want our lives to be like that. And Friends, was just perfect for that.

Today, 13 years after the first show of Friends was aired, you still can’t pick your favorite friend. You love Joey (Matt LeBlanc) for his comedy and his stupidness. He is the friend that always makes you feel like a genius. An out-and-out foodie, Joey is a great guy at heart and perfect with his outgoing sexual behavior. Chandler (Mathew Perry) is probably the perfect husband. He is outrageously funny and his comic timing is perfect. The funniest part is probably that none of his friends know what his job is. He is the guy who just has to make fun of his friends and yet you adore him because of his loyalty towards them. Nobody could have done the part better that Lisa Kudrow for Phoebe. An eccentric masseuse and a musician at heart, Phoebe is the perfect weirdo that you miss in daily life. She believes that she can cleanse auras, talk to spirits and in one episode, she even believed that she was possessed with the spirit of an 82 year old woman with unfinished business. Although a control freak, you can’t help but like the cleanliness obsessed Monica (Courtney Arquette Cox). Her relationship with Chandler is the perfect one that everyone dreams of having. And who doesn’t appreciate good cooking? Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) comes across as a slightly spoilt rich girl in the beginning who decides to take control of her life and does a job that “she is actually good at.” In her on and off relationship with Ross, we see a very romantic girl who loves to love. Although slightly geeky and obsessed with dinosaurs, you can’t help but fall in love with Ross (David Schwimmer). He is a slightly psychotic character who has been helplessly in love with Rachel since 9th Grade and was never able to confess it to her. They all come together and are almost like your friends. Each character seems to be incomplete without the other five.

The reason why I wrote this blog today was that I found a clip online, which showed interviews with the six stars just before the last episode, was aired. The fact that after ten years, these people are not really together as ‘friends’ sometimes is a little disheartening. So I just wanted to kind of give a tribute to them. Friends will always remain close to my heart. I’m sure that I will still be watching the DVD’s even when I’m a grandmother. I absolutely love them!

Taare Zameen Par

Most of my classmates and friends really recommended it to me and that’s why I decided to finally go and watch Taare Zameen Par. A teacher of mine said that he had cried watching that movie so I thought that it must be good. I watched the whole movie in utter patience and was waiting for the perfect moment as to when I could use the box of Kleenex that I had brought with me (on the recommendation of all those who had watched it). But, that moment did not come. I mean, although the movie was nice, it did not move me. Yes, ignorant parents finally appreciate their dyslexic child and he finds God in his teacher, but I felt that the movie did not move beyond that point. There was really no story to tell and somehow Aamir just stretched it like a chewing gum. On the whole, a big disappointment from a perfectionist like Aamir.

Plants and Music

Today morning I saw a really interesting news report on farmers in Punjab. It showed that in one district in Punjab, Singur, farmers had not used pesticide on their farmlands for two years now and instead, they had started playing classical music for them. The growth was the same as it was two years ago. I was baffled beyond words. Apparently, all they do is they play some classical piece twice a day, two hours at a time. The growth was the same and thus this has resulted in organic food now. They also saved on all the money they used to spend on pesticides.

It was amazing and thus I decided to check it up online. Apparently, plants do react to music in the same manner as humans and animals do. More than the sound itself, what they react to is the vibrations that come off the speaker. And just like in the manner that some music is good for them, an overdose can kill them also. In 1973, Dorothy Retallack wrote a book ‘The Sound of Music and Plants’ based on scientific experiments. In it, she observed was that plants that listened to music three hours a day grew thrice as large and twice as strong as the plants that were placed in the music-free environment.

On the other hand, she was also surprise to see the overdose of music. A plant that listened to music eight hours a day died in two weeks. Then Retallack performed an experiment of different nature. She played different type of music for each plant. While one plant listened to the rock music, another one listened to the soft and soothing numbers. This time also the results were surprising yet conclusive. The plant that listened to rock music became sickly small, while plants that listening to soft smoothing numbers grew healthily and had bigger size. Another interesting observation was that this plant grew towards the radio from which the music was being played.

I feel that this is a very interesting observation. Maybe, if all the farmers decided to follow this procedure, we could all be eating organic food rather than food full of chemicals.

India - The Open Trash Can

One of the most common things you see in India is probably the amount of trash lying on the streets. No matter which state, which district or which city you are visiting, India definitely has a unanimous voice in this matter: the streets are your trash can. Many a times, I have seen people traveling in their big, imported, air-conditioned car and the moment they eat something, the windows roll down and the empty bag of chips meets the road. Its amazing how many cigarette butts Delhi produces everyday. When I walk down to college from Panchsheel, I see the sweepers sweeping the trash everyday which consists mainly of dead leaves, chips bags and cigarette butts. The next day, I may not see any chips bags but the amount of cigarette butts do not change. And this despite the fact the cigarette smoking is not allowed in public.

Its weird that in so many years of independence and having so many different countries to look up to for examples, India is still an open garbage can. On my recent visit to Kerala, I discovered, to my utter shock, that nobody had a garbage disposal system. Everything was just thrown out into the backyard of the house. The potato peels and the plastic covers. And when I asked people about it, most of them laughed at my face and said that where else would they throw it? Its accepted, and that’s the way its done. Period.

Apart from just the amount of trash, its also the colored stains. No matter where you go, you always see one wall which has been mercilessly colored from top to bottom with tobacco stain. By the way, even this is against the law.

So how come no one does anything about it? How come there is no one to question these people? How come everything is just chalta hai? Something must be done. If the government thinks that they have done their job by bringing out the rules, then the citizens must do their part by ensuring that they throw away things in the trash cans put up. We must stop being lazy and let everything just happen and let go. So the next time that you see your neighbor’s four year old daughter throw her ice cream cover on the street, pick it up and explain to her that she must throw everything in the trash can. I’ve heard that the first step is usually the hardest step, and the rest just follows. In that case, be brave. Take the first step. The rest WILL follow.