A wife's rights!

Read this bit of "Weird News" yesterday on Yahoo:

Boy Marries Dog

It happened somewhere in Orissa.
The boy is not yet 2 years old, and he was married to a neighbor's dog! Weird indeed. But there was also something very ironic...
The boy's wife's name is Jyothi. She was allowed to roam around in the streets after the wedding. No dowry was exchanged.

Now if only this was true of real wives. So many dowry deaths could have been avoided, so many women would be free to do what they want, wear what they like, meet who they want. The dog wife seems to have more rights :)

Hehe :) I guess I can draw parallels and conclusions and make mountains out of the weirdest of molehills!

Luck ... By Chance!

I will echo a lot many others who have seen this movie...

I loved, loved, loved the movie!

And it was the perfect setting for me too. I went with a friend and her sister to watch it in one of the AMC's on a week night. Almost empty parking lot, almost empty theater. There was only three of us, and then three more people joined later. Nice people, quiet as mice, with no crackly candy wrappers, no cell phones ringing, no kicking my seat. And hopefully they did not mind the three girls giggling away to glory!

Blisss!!!

Will not go into the story line of course. So will list out a few things that stayed with me even after I left the hall...

There is SO much talent in the Indian film industry! The opening credits featured a lot of the "menials", their hard work ... and their hard life! The set designers, costume designers, makeup artists, choreographers, editing artists, oh my, I wouldn't even know how much goes into making one single movie! I wish there were some laws about minimum hourly wages in India like there are in the US. It is heartbreaking to see such hard work, such beautiful work being taken for granted like this!

Then there was the whole unfair business of how people get a foot-hold in the industry. Such a stark contrast between the thousands of talented artists struggling for years and still getting nowhere; and the people with "connections" who get in (and are some times forced in!) so easily with no talent, no experience, no nothing! I suppose it is sort of like the political scene in India too. No qualifications needed, except for connections! How I wish that would change. But I digress...

And then there was the life of the poor little rich kid! Who could not eat enough because there were millions of rupees riding on her waist line as opposed to the poor kids (not featured in the movie, of course) who cannot eat enough because, well, there isn't anything to eat!
Niki Walia was a very believable character in spite of, like Vikram says, living in a cake! She was still so innocent and good at heart, just like most people are deep down within.

And now for the best thing about the movie according to me: the strong, independant and sensible Indian woman! Sona truly represents what the Indian woman is today.
She is not "Sati Savitri" who will sacrifice all for the man
She is not the wife from (I forget the movie...anyone remember Radhika with the curled up "choti" married to Rishi Kapoor?) who lives like a servant in her husband's house.
She is not Rekha from Khoon Bhari Maang, going all out to kill the enemy.
She is no Meena Kumari who will die pining away for her husband!

She is one very sensible woman, who knows what she wants.
She is very strong and refuses to patch up with her very selfish lover
She is very honest and tells him exactly what she thinks of him! She is neither mean to him, nor does she waste time in seeking revenge. She figures out what is right for her, and goes her own way!
She is very realistic and understands that she can either be sad that she could not act in big movies, or she can be happy that she is doing good work and is well liked by people.
She has oodles of self respect!
She chooses to be happy!

She is the perfect role model for women! Not just in India, but all over the world!

Move over Sita and Sati and whoever undermines the power and strength of a woman...

The world belongs to Sona Mishra!!!

I know there are too many !!!! in my post, but then that is how much I liked the movie!

Need help

Some of you may remember I had written a post about Borewell Deaths in India a while back.

My friend has come up with a plan for starting work on covering up these open pits. I have been roped in to write a brochure for her that she will use to contact people and get them to take action. I have also been assigned to task of naming the project. And I am drawing a blank here :(

Would really appreciate your creativity in coming up with something.

I just had a couple (very boring) names:

"Shut the Death-Traps"
"Borewells: Lets make them green"

Please help!

What does YOUR India look like?

I am reading all these articles where people are protesting against movies like "Slumdog Millionaire" because it projects India as a poor, not very nice country.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but have heard and read a lot about it. Of course :)

I wonder why all the uproar? Because the movie won awards, and we are jealous? Because what it says is true and are ashamed that the truth is out there for everyone to see?

There are other movies made about issues in India (Firaaq for instance). But they have not become so popular, and hence no protests?

Look at the other movies that are made in Bollywood. Where the lead couple sings and dances in Switzerland and almost everyone lives in mansions. That is also not the true face of India, then why no protests against that?

What is the true face of India that we want the world to see then? I think about the day to day life of an average Indian, and what story can we make out of it? I don't know :(

I loved Swades, but wasn't that also projecting how bad the Indian villages have it?

What story would YOU like to show? Which reality in India would you want non-Indians to know about? Can you recommend any recent movies that make you proud of India? That you would love to see winning top awards? Taare Zameen Pe maybe?

I am not saying that poverty and struggle is all there is in India. But I would like to know HOW we can separate ourselves from the poverty that is there on each and every traffic signal, on all footpaths, just about everywhere? Please do read this post by someone who works with slum dwellers everyday. See what she has to say about portraying this side of our country.

Slumdog Musings by Anouradha Baskhi of Project WHY.

Would really love to see comments on this one!

I can start off and say I would love to see a movie about the Chandrayaan...and without the song and dance trappings!

Edited to add:
And about how the role of the Indian woman has changed over the decades! Maybe something with three generations of Indian women in it! I can see a huge huge huge difference between the life, way of thinking, everything about my nani's life and my sister's daughter's life. They both live in modern day India!

Edited again (1/20) to add:
Just wanted to say that this post is not about dissing India, or supporting Slumdog.
I just want people to think about good things that they would like the rest of the world to know. Good things, like the ones I have listed above (at least I like them!)

Borewell Deaths

I have recently started contributing to a blog called "Giving it a shot". It is a very interesting blog, where we can contribute ideas for a better India, a better world!

Here's my latest contribution there. Do drop by! And also catch up on the other innovative (and often very simple) solutions to common problems.

Connections...

As I read the blogs being posted about the Mumbai attacks and the state of the country, I find one issue to be, if not THE cause, then at least a very big cause of all our troubles. Lots of folks have addressed it as well, so its nothing new that no one hasn't noticed so far.

It is corruption, bribery, nothing getting done without greasing a few, actually more than a few, palms! What finally prompted me to write this is what happened to the Project Why folks. It made me realize how corruption is pretty much accepted as "part of the process". And if you don't go with the flow, you suffer. Your work never gets done, or if it does, then it is so late that it hardly even makes a difference, or at the very least you have sustained some losses because of it.

Often times I hear folks from India very proudly saying, Oh, I never have to wait in line, I have insider connections". Yes, we are proud of our corrupt ways!!! Even if these "inside connections" don't ask for bribes, they do give their friends and relatives preferential treatment, making other common people wait in line. Or they will expect similar favors in return in future.

We see it in each and every corner of our day-to-day lives! From trying to get basic necessities like gas, electricity, ration cards to a step further to getting admissions in schools, getting proper medical attention to bigger issues like running a business, you name it, and there it stares back at you in the face!

How did this become the norm? How did this become the way of life? How did this become acceptable?

The problem is very basic, there are not enough resources to meet the needs of our vast population. And those in power are making the best of it. We may say we condemn it, but have little power against it. What would you do if no school is agreeing to accept your kid without "donation"? What would you do if no doctor is willing to see your child/parent/spouse without some "fees" first? More often than not, you will give in.

But on second thoughts, I feel there ARE enough resources for everyone, but they are just not distributed well enough. This is also because of the corruption! The rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Oh what a catch-22 situation!

It is such a deep-rooted problem that completely eliminating it is not quite possible in our lifetime. But we can, and definitely need to start doing something about it right now.

What can we do?
On a day to day basis...
Refuse to grease those palms whenever possible...like the Project Why team did. I guess we will be forced to bend in situations where we need medical assistance, but where possible, just say no!

If you know someone who indulges in this (say a doctor or some other professional like that), bring them out in the open! Write about them, tell your friends and family, THEIR friends and family, some how try to expose them, bring them to shame.

File a complaint against them. I am sure there is a consumer forum that needs to look into things like these.

On a larger scale...well I don't know :( But there HAS to be a "weed-killer" out there for this problem!