ART IMITATING LIFE OR LIFE IMITATING ART?

Convention has always dictated that ‘art imitates life’, i.e. until the 18th century English literature maverick Oscar Wilde propagated his anti-mimesis theory. He was the first advocate of the ‘life imitating art theory’. He based his theory on the belief that the theory is “not merely from Life's imitative instinct, but from the fact that the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy”. I am not going plot a differentiation between platonic realism vs. romanticism in this article, I merely quote Wilde to prove how right he is in the Indian context of ‘Bollywood’.

The argument of life imitating art or art imitating life is one of the common arguments baffling critics. One of the few instances one can convince a declaration on life imitating art is in our own Bollywood. Not just Bollywood but Indian cinema. The Indian cinema is so deeply embedded in the Indian psyche that people believe what happens on screen is the reality around them.

The way we treat our heroes and villains is testimony to that. They are not just actors as the emotion of the protagonists and the people are entwined in Indian cinema. There have been instances of people hating the character of the villain so much; Puneet Issar who injured Amitabh Bachan on the sets of 'Coolie' could not find work for a long period of time because of the accident. The instances are numerous; the government seemed convinced when they banned smoking on screen. They thought kids would be influenced by the heroes smoking on screen. By actually banning it, the bad boy image that goes with smoking was glorified even more. Just take a look at a typical Indian cinema, it is romanticism and senseless idealism, the attributes are plenty in this context. The stereotyping of social classes is plenty, and the dances, where do i even start? The censor board actually censors what is realism and keeps the fantasy part of it on the reel. The dances are laced with jhatkas and matkas of the heroes & heroines; subtle and not so subtle indications of what they want to do to each other (licking their lips, thrusting their pelvis all over the place, biting the tongue and lips to show how strongly they feel for each other) CENSOR THIS! From such movies stems the perfect anti hero on the Indian street. The guys think if they make catcalls the girls will find a compliment in it somewhere, like the regional movies. Indian cinema has shown time and time again that perseverance and aggression is the key to get a girl. How many cases have we heard of women/girls being raped because the boy liked the girl so much that only he should have her? What does he do? Rape her! A tainted girl will obviously want to marry soon enough and given the Indian male’s hypocrisy for virgins, he is the alpha male she has to choose ( Raja ki aayegi barath). The portrayal of Indian women has traditionally been weak too albeit a few films, that were critically acclaimed.

I am not generalising Indian cinema to just life imitating art, it is just excessively found to be so. There are wonderful cinemas that have portrayed art imitating life too, especially in the recent decade. The multiplex era has appreciated the Indian intelligence and grown in stature ever since. But they seem to have been looking westward for inspiration, inspiring a new argument. ART IMITATING ART?

What the f***'s a BLIMP??

A blimp is defined as a nonrigid airship that depends on internal gas pressure to sustain itself in the skies. It came about during the late 1920’s as an anti-submarine patrol airship for the British royal navy. It was commissioned off of the navy by the 1960’s. Since then it has been used in America as an advertising tool. The outdoor sports advertising era for the blimp began with Goodyear which still use this in the America’s cup yacht race.
This technology is well over 80 years old and has served its purpose all over the world. But the IPL seems to have been a renaissance stimulus in the life of the blimp. In every match you can hear the commentators have a go at what they deem to be some wonderful technology. What exactly? The commentators never say, do they? SMG recently even said something to the tune of MRF being a technological leader in bringing this technology to India. I hate to break it to you SMG but the IPL blimp isn’t even a blimp. A blimp is used for observation purposes and also for aerial shots. This is where the technology lies and both the technologies aren’t being addressed in the MRF blimp. This blimp doesn’t even move. It is tied down to a motorable vehicle on the ground. There is a word already for such objects. It is called a ‘balloon’. The blimp is nothing but a floating balloon with a sponsor’s name. It seems like a full circle for MRF which started as a toy balloon manufacturing company back in 1946.

Coalition Poltics

A democracy represents a system of governance where in an ideology & the power of the people is bought forth by an elected representative. The idea of a democracy is in granting power to the people & the exercise of this power is done by an elected representative. Coalition governments in India have undermined this trait by compromising ideologies in pursuit of power. The obvious question would be if a coalition rule truly represents the ideology of the people, as it is fundamentally engrained to do. The rise and influence of coalition politics is indisputable in the Indian political scenario henceforth. There is no doubt that it is here to stay albeit some glitches that could curtail smooth governance.
One of the biggest disadvantages of a coalition is instability due to conflict of interests. During the Indo-us nuclear deal, there was a lot of anxiety in the Indian political diasporas. The vulnerability of a coalition government was exposed when the left withdrew its support in the standoff with UPA on the nuclear deal. Soon enough the opportunistic Samajwadi party stalwart Amar Singh jumped onto the coalition bandwagon. This had Mukesh Ambani twiddling his fingers as he knew his brother Anil’s proximity to Amar Singh. A chain reaction ensued as Mukesh arranged a meeting with Manmohan Singh seemingly to protect his interests. This made news all over as his actions weren’t hard to read. It invoked a reaction from Amar Singh too as he proclaimed he would push for a tax on private oil refineries in the country, which could seriously curtail Mukesh’s expansion plans. This has set up a dangerous precedent in the Indian scenario. In the words of Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a political commentator, it was the case of “The tail that can wag the dog”. The effects of Singh’s declaration was a fall in Mukesh’s stocks & it turned even more bitter when Mukesh stopped Anil’s Reliance telecommunication from merging with MTN stating his permission was required for the deal to go through. Amar Singh called Mukesh’s act disgusting and flexed his new found political muscle by asking the PM to interfere. A small regional party was having a tidal effect on the Indian political and business scenario. This does not augur well for a developing country like India as it shows politics and business are entwined. It reflects poorly about the country’s image to the rest of the world and possible investors. Since then there have disinvestment policies that the government has failed to carry out bogging down to pressure. The PM seems to be protecting party interests rather than act at the behest of our country’s development. Coalition parties in developing countries do not augur well for our development. Everyone only needs their slice of the pie and serve their self interests.

But averting a coalition government is no easy job once we decide that it is a hindrance in development. The decision is in the hands of the people and this fundamental trait of democracy has to be respected. One of the ways I think it can be avoided is to curtail the formation of regional political parties. Parties are mushrooming all over India in the name of religion, caste, creed and of course the opportunists. Such narrow minded splitting up of the Indian proletariat and bourgeois does not adhere well for the populace. For instance Baba Ramdev launched a political party stating he wants to cleanse the political system and get back money from banks in Switzerland which he in turn believes will automatically make India a superpower. That is actually his basis for forming a political party. There was news item wherein people of the gay and lesbian community wanted to form a political party because they are tired of being misrepresented on TV. Do you think we should blame them for having such short term motives? No, cause the election commission doesn’t care too much. So, why not have your own political party? We also have to get down to improving the quality of votes. In permitting only the educated to vote will wipe out nearly half the vote bank. It will only result in increasing the discrepancies between the rich and the poor, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. A better option would be to increase the present voting age to 21. It will definitely improve quality as a lot of graduates would come into the fold.

To change the onus is on us. Convention alone doesn’t dictate what is right. Just because people break a traffic light we should not take it for granted and do so too. We can show alternate paths to people by being pro-active ourselves. You might not stop everyone but someone might just become aware that he is at fault and some others might even follow your lead too. I do hope we can change and inspire others to change. The idea of a democracy is to place power within us. We can get rid of this menace in our country and elect a responsible government only if we believe. ‘VOTE RESPONSIBILY’.

Memorable Quotes

In our lives we often come across some great quotes. Some have an everlasting effect on us. Some quotes strike us purely because of their intelligent quotient and others because of their profound personal effect. I am truly grateful to have come across some quotes that have had a great influence on me by some real ‘wise’ people. Here are a collection of quotes that has been engrained in my memory:
• Travelling is the best education a man can get.(Anonymous)
• If you have to enjoy life, being fit is necessary.(Vikram Muthanna)
• People change with time.(KUP)
• Even a rapist can be nice; for the few minutes you spend with them.(KBG)
• No matter the magnitude of a persons achievement, he is human.(KBG)
• Before each meal ask yourselves, 'have i earned this'? (KNK)
• The best fertilizer a planter can provide to his estate are his own footprints.(KNK)
• You have to care about society, not have society care about you. (KKU)

INDIA & ORGANISATION

NAISSANCE(SDM-IMD Inter collegiate fest) What did it mean to me? Three days of getting pissed drunk and....... yeah pretty much it. I was advised to get involved by my seniors, said it would be quite the learning experience. There was no debating that fact. I tried being involved in the sponsorship part of it. It was quite disastrous; we literally had to beg people without any bargaining clout whatsoever. Everyone from college was unleashed on the streets of Mysore; it was reminiscent of India’s CWG fiasco in terms of lack of preparation. It was all last minute. We were desperate. Soon the blame games began. I could not help but indulge myself in this, as i sometimes love to impress upon people my pseudo brilliance. The seniors blamed the staff, staff blamed seniors, juniors blamed college; on and on.

What is it about Indians and making a mess of whatever we put our hands in? On a recent trip to Cambodia i saw a board highlighting India’s involvement in the restoration of the Ta Prohm temple. Asking some local about it he said something to the tune that money promised had come very late and the work rate was very slow. There are numerous instances of us messing up. Two year’s back Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw passed away. The audience to see him off was paltry and none of the heads of state were present. President, prime minister, leader of the opposition, chief minister, chief of any of the armed forces including the defence minister no one was present. Sam Maneckshaw was one of India’s two field marshals. If it was a film star or a politician there would have surely been quite a number of people from the political elite clout. This is the sad state of affairs of our country. A man who put his life on the line for our country gets below par treatment on his final chapter. There have been numerous instances of us messing up in various facets of administration, law, etc. The worrying part is when we pride ourselves on finishing up the mess we ourselves created.

In talking about the CWG screw up.; I remembered about the Sydney Olympic Games, the authorities of the games actually thought the city would go into post games depression on completion of the games. So, what did they do? They actually organized fairs and festivities thereafter slowly phasing the festivities out. They did this thinking abrupt ending of the games would affect societal working thereon. This is what development and forward thinking is all about. This is exactly what differentiates great organisers from mediocre ones. The difference between a developed nation and a developing one is clearly illustrated here. We can only talk about being a permanent member of the UN, being a superpower by 2040, being the fourth country to send a manned mission to the moon blah blah blah...... What purpose does this all serve? It is internal development we should be focussing on rather than our portrayal and image building of our country to the world. We still have more than 300 million people who are below poverty line in India. Our healthcare sector is still sub-standard. Aren’t these issues that have dealt with immediately?

Un-Sociable networks

Human beings have a tendency to advertise themselves, to be seen, heard etc. The rise of social networks only cements this fact. In 6 years these sites have taken centre stage in the lives of millions of teenagers. I am often asked if i am on any one of these sites. I doubt if i'll ever be. I'm sure the advantages of being on them is plentiful. But am i missing out on something by not being on these sites? I don't think so. My cousin says facebook is for people who can't make friends in real life. Ironically the man has a facebook account. When i asked him about the mismatch between walk and talk, he said he did it to look up on people. A stalker. I did find it interesting enough and using my sister's id i checked up on a lot of people thereon. Each profile seemed to reflect who the person wanted to be than who the person was. Some of them were plain pretentious. I know 'who am i to pass judgement on people', right. But it's my fuckin blog. I am not going to write about the obvious threat of paedophiles, sex stalkers, recently in india even kidnappers. They way i see it people start living two lives one virtual and one real. Nothing wrong with that. The trouble is when they find it easier to live the virtual life. There are kids who are as young as 8 on facebook. I dont know if they have an active social life. Chances are they do. But they might take solace in the virtual world than deal with the tougher reality. I actually came across lot of instances where people would not say a face to face hello but would send friend requests on social networking sites. There is something really wierd about that. They probably couldn't face rejection in reality so they go the virtual way. I truly believe that these social sites will have a negative effect on building social relationships and inter-personal relationships.

Another ill effect would be to cocoon yourself into a groupthink. By groupthink i mean there are so many groups in face book, orkut etc. When you are part of such groups you vision, creativity is narrowed. There exists prejudice in belonging to such groups, you tend to be peer influenced and subscribe to dogma. It is nice to find someone else who listen to Belle & Sebastian on these sites. But i find it also nice to enjoy something by meself also & discover stuff on my own.

I recently came across a site where you can commit virtual suicide by 'killing' yourself on this site. This stuck me as quite stupid. Is it necessary i make a drama of a simple act of deleting my profile. It seems like the internet has succeded in making people feel like celebrities by indulging in celebrity like behaviour.

They call it social networking but oddly it has made people more doleful and unsociable to their immediate environment.

Does A Sinner Break Roots From Being Sinned?

Of late i seem to have come to a realization about this trait of mine i.e taking advantage of people who are 'close' to me. It did come under scrutiny previously from my friends, but i did not bother me then. It seemed to be lurking in my sub-conscious and the trigger effect happened one night drinking tequilla and having chocolates from this girl i was least bit interested in. I did not want to be there but i was. Lo and behold i was in convalescence mode. I kept wondering what shaped this intrinsic attribute. Surely i wasnt born like this, was i?

As i kid growing up in Coorg i was in a hostel at a real young age, i did not know what to make of the place as i was nearly 4 yrs back then and having no experience of such a gamut of social interactions. I was real naive and i thought the best way to survive was by adopting a people pleasing behavior. And boy was i wrong ,i was fleeced of my chocolates, my food etc. My end of the bargain was never met. Then there was this instance in school where i was framed for something i had not done. Then there was this other instance(s) where this boy from my neighborhood would make me steal biscuits from my own home.YEAH!HELL YEAH! I HAD BEEN USED!

This was intrinsic, could i say a lot of other people developed characteristics the same way as i?? Sure as hell yes, aint it? Everyone's personality is shaped by their life incidents. As to how much , it really can't be measured. In nature you see how some plants have tap roots and some others have fibrous roots. Pulling out a tap rooted plant is very difficult.They grow really deep into the soil making it nearly impossible to pull them out.In a garden we often see how dandelions grow right back up after we uproot them. It is because the tap-root would still be embedded in the ground. In contrast fibrous roots are easily dealt with as any gardener would tell you. I talk about this on a thought about how the bad experiences of our life are like the tap roots, they shape our personality. They are the one's that deeply influence our character. A lot of our learning happens from the worst years of our life. I am not denying the part played by those happy days, but i wouldn't say it made me what i am today. Those hard times that i have gone through in life are what stands out for me in my personality. It necessarily does not have a positive course but the influence would definitely be much more profound.