Oscars

I watched Oscars like millions did. Some random points that came to mind:

I did clap when Slumdog Millionaire reaped in the awards, but the logical side of me couldn't concede that the movie was worth 8 of them. I would call it a nice enough movie, but just that. Not great, not wonderful - tad better than mediocre. Another example of how right place at right time far outweighs merit.

And then, of course some "Body" comes along and does an illogical thing, and basks in the narrow glow of publicity it brings. They gifted the children a concrete house and claimed they are working for the upliftment of conditions in slums. My head reels - how?! By moving the children who already made some money to a concrete house? How does that equate to "working for upliftment of slums"?

I loved the way Danny Boyle jumped up and down like Tigger in Winnie The Pooh when he won his Oscar. It was a helpful reminder that we all have a child in us, and sometimes takes hard work finding it.

I watched with amusement as the cameras rolled on the best dressed women. I couldn't help comparing the style to the women in South Indian villages who tie a hard knot with their "ull-paavadais" just covering their breasts and dropping down below their knees, as they took a bath in semi-privacy (a term used for not bathing in a closed bathroom - say at the well, or in the courtyard in their homes)"Ull-paavadai" is the inner skirt worn underneath a saree.

Almost all the dazzling clothes were of the same bathing-in-courtyard style, and most of the colours were the same tried and tested variety. But, speaking with a sense of negative fashion IQ , I am not the person most suited to make judgements I am afraid. After all, I still hold the unique honour of selecting all my wedding sarees in 2 hours and not wearing them even once ever since!

I scoured the crowd and found only 2 women wearing a pair of glasses, but the same was not true of Men. Are men more comfortable with glasses or are women more self-conscious about the bespectacled image?!

For a country as vast as India, I find few authors of merit, especially in the children's genre. In fact, after R.K.Narayan, I can think of few others who I can genuinely claim I enjoy. This for a country with the second largest population in the world, and probably the largest English speaking population in the world!

Why the disconnect? Do we lack imagination - I think not! Do we as a people still feel that books are best written by a different race, or is it that we don't see books as a valuable source of income? It is the latter I would guess. The copyright laws that are in effect in India as as effective as a dog told not to scratch his you-know-what on the side wall! The moment a book is out, and it shows any promise of being a partial success, we have printing presses queueing up to churn out cheap copies. It is no doubt then, folks prefer to bottle up their creativity with a hard cork screw than to let their family go hungry and stand outside restaurants waiting for scrap food!

If J.K.Rowling were born in India and tried an Indian publisher, I don't think she'd be living in any 5 bedroom mansion anywhere! More importantly, I don't think she would have taken the step of being jobless for a year to churn out a book. There are no social security payouts to carry one through lean times. Pretty much relatives, who would make sure they run in with a vigour of a Kerala-style oil massage what a thorough waste of time it is to frivolously indulge in creative writing!

On a serious note, I recently read several Indian authors, including Booker Prize winning authors and remain unimpressed. I realise it takes a long time for an occupation to mature, and it is slowly but surely getting to a point when people don't think of Engg & Medicine alone as viable careers.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am sure my Biology teacher still remembers my gifts with the pencil. I am probably the benchmark in that teacher's mind, and let me tell you being a benchmark figure in anything is satisfying! I can readily imagine how many pupils would have been spared the agony of redoing their cockroach drawing, because all the teacher had to do was close their eyes and visualize the cockroach on MY page. Instantly, I could make people look like Michelangelos. How many people can live up to that boast?!

I seemed to have passed some of my varied talents in the field to my daughter. When the tummy was bulging and I was wondering which genes of mine I would like her to have, I am quite sure I hadn't asked for this one to come from me - but apparently it has. A while ago, my daughter proclaimed to her Aunt that she had drawn her a picture, and my sister being who she is demanded that the groaning masterpiece be scanned and sent to her. I complied - I mean nobody EVER wanted to see my pictures, and if somebody wants to see the offsprings, the proud parent can't be stopped! So, there it was sailing through the cables under the misty waters waiting to be revealed.

Here it is: it is a wrench giving it away free on the Internet like this, but one can't be selfish.

Quick as a whip, my sister's exuberant interpretation made it across.
There are fire-crackers on top...shows celebration time

There are hearts...shows that she loves us all

Two little faces with a mop of hair...shows the kids celebrating

A red dustbin...shows that you clean up after you celebrate.

All the colours ....shows how interesting and colourful life really is!!!

Modern art can be interpreted in multiple ways, but really I think she was way off!

1) The dustbins are cupcakes - you need food during a celebration!

2) There aren't only 2 happy faces, there is a sad one too stuck in the corner to make all sorts of people make up our world

3) And, the sun was drawn in two places - high up and below somewhere. That should symbolize the rising and setting of the sun! Just the same way that the celebration starts so too must it end.
While I was explaining this to the husband, the artist pops up in her classic tone, and says:

"Actually, those are not crackers - they are trees! "

"So, what is that thing on top of the trees?" I ask

"Those are fountains!" "Oh ... and the hearts say you love us right?" I ask pleading for her to endorse at least one intepretation of ours. She does no such thing and scoffs at me and declares - "Those are flowers - some are heart shaped, but there are trees, fountains and flowers with sad and happy faces!"

And, that is the artistic touch of the future! I think the whole family needs to attend some classes in Art.

Having said that, we sat down last night after dinner preparing Valentine Day Cards for all of my daughter's friends in her class. While I joked about how I did not classify the activity as important enough to rank high up in our list, I enjoyed it all the same. It made a nice change from the regular. She drew little pictures in every card and wrote out her name arduously. She particularly liked to draw Saturn for some vague reason, and I must say, it was one of her better attempts at drawing. (That is saying something!). So she drew Saturn on a couple of cards. I am not sure whether Cupid and Sani "Bhagawan" have any qualms, but if they did, my daughter just took a brave stab at attaining mythological peace.

More than the cards and the drawing, I like to think of Valentine's Day as a day of love - I am pleased to hear that similar sentiments are being voiced elsewhere too. Instead of marking a day for lovers, it is nice to mark a day of love for all your friends and family.

So, here it is: Happy Valentine's Day - may Love spread and eradicate the darkness of hatred!

I like being a sandwich!

I like being a sandwich!

The daughter had a chest phlegm and a cough. We heard vivid descriptions of her friend, drinking 3 coloured medicines everyday! She has red Tylenol in the morning, purple Tylenol in the evening and pink Tylenol at night. As a parent, I can intepret this to mean 3 different medications, possibly anti-biotics, for a bacterial infection, and further that the said friend was coughing like her. So, off to the Doctor's office she went.

"Good Evening Honey! How are you?"
"I'm fine!"
"So, do you have any little brothers and sisters", asked the Doctor by way of making conversation, and probably checking to see if they were any more minions waiting to be treated.
"No...just me"
"But, you know I have a little sister - she is 3 and half in India. And I have another sister - but she is 5 and a half" (My nieces, and yes, the "half" components of their age are very important. )

"So, she comes home and regales the conversation, and says - "I am in the middle, like a sandwich!"
I join in and tell her, I am in the middle too. I have an elder sister and a younger brother, so I am a sandwich too!

"Yeah! I like being a sandwich!!" we yelp and the doctor rests easy in her knowledge of my four and half year old's 3.5 and 5.5. year old sisters from a different continent and we are happy being the middle layer of a sandwich - it is a complex world!

PS: And all, this conversation has made me hungry. I think I will go and make myself half a sandwich (the half is very important!)