Random Ramblings

The Bollywood Primer

2007-06-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

All right so the premise of this post is to introduce you to the magic that is Bollywood without leaving you bemused, befuddled and bedazzled. What is Bollywood you ask? It is the Indian movie industry based out of Bombay (now called Mumbai). Get it? B for Bombay and ollyhood as a reference to Hollywood. Clever isn't it? What I am going to do is provide you with a list of movies you can see in no particular order. Anyone of these movies would be a good introduction to Bollywood movies.

Before you start watching the movies keep in mind a couple of things.
1. These movie are from a different culture. They are different from what you expect movies to be.
2. Yes there will be singing and dancing involved. But these movies are not American Musicals. Because they are............ (good job) from a different culture.
3. I was going to translate the movie names but then realized they translate into idiotic stuff like 'Rent' or 'Something Something Happens'. So I decided not to.

All right lets dive into the movies themselves.

Monsoon Wedding
This is what is know back home as a cross-over movie. What it means is that basically this movie was not intended for the vast masses of India. This is a Hindi movie primarily meant for people living outside India. It explores one of the most glorious experiences in the Indian culture - The Wedding. Unlike American weddings the bride and the bridegroom are really not very important to the Wedding itself. They are the cause of it but not really the reason for it. The wedding is and excuse for everyone to get together, be loud, colorful and for parents to fix up their children's nuptials as well. Mira Niar films the movie in a very authentic manner portraying the whole process in a very honest manner. Also the movie is mostly in English (albeit accented) so you don't necessarily have to read subtitles to understand it.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
This is a great example of modern Indian cinema. The movie is about Siddarth - the rich Marxist idealist, Vikram - the poor unscrupulous capitalist and Geeta - the girl they both love. The movie is set against the backdrop of the 60s and the 70s. In India this wasn't a time for hippies or muscle cars. India went through 2 wars and a totalitarian regime. These were the decades when India lost its innocence. If you want to try and begin to understand India is movie is as good as a place to start. It is a raw and unadulterated look into the conflicting psyche of India.

Lagaan
If you decide to watch this movie first then it is going to be baptism by fire. it is one of India's most successful movies of all time. It was nominated for an Oscar and earned rave reviews everywhere (8th best sport movie of all time according to Rotten Tomatoes). It is also nearly 4 hours long. Features 7 different song-and-dance routines with tons of back up dancers (all color co-ordinated of course). It is also about cricket. But if you have ever wanted to experience Bollywood cinema in all its riotous exuberance and glory then this is the ticket. The movie is magnificently pure and idealistic in a way that only Sports and Bollywood movies can be. And this is both! of particular note in this movie is the cinematography. Each shot is beautifully composed and is evocative of an India seldom seen on the silver screen. Oh, also if possible get you hands on the official DVD release because the subtitle are excellent.

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
The thing about Americans and romance is that they are too self-conscious and cynical about it. And so any movie about romance also has to be a comedy at the same time. It is also invariable labeled a 'chick flick'. Not so in India. In a country where most marriages are arranged love stories are a part and parcel of almost every movie. The movie is in the tradition of all the Bollywood romances of the last 20 years. Thus all the extened family lives under one roof in a huge house. There are also festivals abound to give everyone a chance the sing and dance songs that everyone mysteriously knows the words and steps too. it also isn't an obvious boy-meets-girl movies, showcasing the immense importance of family values in Indian culture. Also the movie features Aishwarya Ria who is probably one of the most beautiful women on Earth.

Other Recommendations:
Black - The Indian re-telling of the Hellen Keller story. Acting here is par-excellence.
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge/Kuch Kuch Hota Hai/Kal Ho Na Ho - The great Indian romance movie!
Company - Partially based on the life of Daweeod Ibrahim this is one of the best Indian gangster movies.
Dil Chahta Hai - My favorite movie and the definitive coming of age movie of Indian cinema.
Earth - A gut wrenching look at the partition of India and Pakistan.

Lyrics for Alok Mehta's 'In between Blue'

2007-06-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

I was searching for around the internet for the lyrics for Alok Mehta's amazing song 'In between Blue'. I couldn't find anything so I decided to transcribe them myself. I wasn't certian about a couple of the words and i have indicated them with a question mark (?). But they are pretty accurate otherwise.

Below is the song from YouTube, followed by the lyrics.

Song

Lyrics
With whom is you peregrine (?)
your parents can never gain
see and assimilate
from the wealth of their experience

and its tiff (?) of chagrin
regardless of circumstance
their presence will dominate
no need for deliverance

and back to the joy you once knew
the love inherited you
in between blue

do you think your mind is a curse
while your see of a normalcy
talk to yourself and pacify
use the wealth of your experience

believe that your built to last
your army of thought will march
cross the boundaries of who you are
don't be limited by your past

and back to the joy you once knew
the love inherited you
in between blue

be careful when its gets warm
be able to touch the ground
in the eye of the sun you will be
the tempest will have been experienced

now can close your eyes
and remember when you were a child
how simply your eyes were wide
realize nothing has changed

and back to the joy you once knew
the love inherited you
in between blue
[Repeat twice more]

PS - If you haven't seen the movie 'American Chai' yet do yourself a favor and go watch it. it is one of the best movies about the Indian-American experience.

BULLSHIT - "Red States Vote War, Blue states go to war"

2007-05-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

So I read this story on Reddit and I wondered how true is it?

Quick Summary
What I found from doing my analysis was that on an average both Red and Blue states have similar rates of casualties. However in states with most casualties/100,000 Red states dominate (75%). In states with least number of casualties Blue states dominate (69%). The contention that there are more casualties in Democratic states is Bullshit!

Analysis
The contention seems to be that while Red states (Republican) voted for war the people that seem to be killed are from mostly for Blue states (Democrat). So I ran some numbers to check the validity of the statement.

Median = 1.3
Mode = 13.
What the above statistics mean is that the average casualties per state per 100,000 was 1.3. (Mean)
The most common rate for casualties/100,000 was 1.3. (Mode)
The middle value for casualties was 1.3 (Median)
What this seems to suggest is that most of the states seem to have similar rates of casualties. There were 9 states with 1.3 casualties/100,000 and 5 of them were Blue states. A pretty even split. Looking at the data from this angle seem to say that voting patters here seem to have no effect at all.

Lets now take a look at how the data shapes up by each quartile. I sorted the data in Ascending order (least casualties to most casualties per 100,000).

1st Quartile -
Number of states = 13
Number of Red States = 4
Number of Blue States = 9
Casualties Range = 0.1 to 1.0
Damn! This quartile breaks down almost exactly opposite to the Reddit story. As it would seem the Blue states dominate in the states with the least amount of casualties per 100,000. 69% of the states with the least casualties are Democrat.

2nd and 3rd Quartiles -
Number of states = 25
Number of Red States = 15
Number of Blue States = 10
Casualties Range = 1.0 to 1.5
I grouped these two quartiles together because their data had so little differentiation. In the middle 50% we see very little differentiation. Raw data would seem to indicate here toot here are more Reds than Blues. But we must remember that there are inherently more reds than Blues. 39% of all US states voted Democrat in 2004, 40% of the states in Q2&Q3 are Democrat. Thus we see that voting patterns seem to have no effect on the medial data.

4th Quartiles -
Number of states = 12
Number of Red States = 9
Number of Blue States = 3
Casualties Range = 1.5 to 2.9
Whoops! In the data in the 4th Quartile once again seems to directly refute the contention. In the states with the most casualties per 100,000 Red states seem to dominate. 75% of the states with the most number of casualties per 100,000 are Republican. Interestingly the state with the highest casualty rate was Vermont a Democratic state.

The Mid West is More Religious than the Middle East

2007-04-05T00:55:00.000-07:00

**EDIT (3:25 3/5/07):- To clear up a couple of things. I do come from a upper middle class family but I don't think i suffer from elite isolationism. Two of my really good friends were sons of cab-drivers and another one learn't the entire Koran by rote. His goal was to grow up to become a mullah. Look this article is not about how religious countries are as a whole or which country is a better place to live but it is about how people as individuals are wrapped up in their religion. **

All right I am writing this article because of this comment thread on reddit.

Let me preface what I am about to say with this - I was born, and spent the first 8 years of my life, in India. Next I spent a year in Kenya, a year in Saudi Arabia, 7 years in the UAE and now 3 years in Kirksville Missouri doing my undergrads. In between I have visited, on vacations, somewhere near 23 countries (including Germany and most countries in the Middle east). I don't mean to state all of this as a boast but merely to illustrate that I am not speaking from a limited or narrow experience.

Coming to the US my biggest shock was how seriously people took religion. It was a form of religious intensity that I had never encountered. In Saudi I had endured a totalitarian theocracy (is there another kind?) but I had never seen the man on the street be so wrapped up in their religion. I had never met people who defined themselves, first and foremost, on the basis of their religion. Yeah living in the Middle East I was aware of all the extremist fundamentalists. But they were the fringe. They were like UFOs. You only heard of them, you never actually met them in real life. None of my Muslim friends listed the Koran as their favorite book. They never included any suras as their favorite quotes. Sure there were Muslim mullahs on the TV but no one really actually listened to those programs. Anyhow they were TEACHING the Koran as opposed to PREACHING it.

So when I came to the US I was shocked, absolutely stunned at just how absolutely people believed the Bible. This was the first time in my entire life that I had a religious text cited to me during a scientific debate. When one of my dorm-mates tossed out the "Evolution is an unproven theory whit a lot of holes" line at me I didn't even realize that it was the opening line for a serious debate. For a second I thought it was a throwaway one-liner. He doubted evolution! Not just one odd guy, but dozens upon dozens came at me that night. I actually have met 3 different people since that night who actually doubt that the earth is more than a few thousand years old. I still can't wrap my head around this concept.

Another thing that has shocked me how strongly people feel about converting non christians to Christianity. This driven by the constant overarching belief that all non christians are wrong and are going to go to hell (something I have been told bluntly to my face). There is an inability to conceive of the fact that they might be the ones who are wrong. No one, not one single person in my 8 years in the middle east ever tried to convert me to Islam. Not once did anyone suggest that not being Muslim meant that I was going to suffer.

The problem with the mid west is the sheer homogeneity of it. Growing up in a culture where everyone is of the same religion as you, where everyone shares the same believes as you, i can see how anything different maybe considered strange or unnatural. Growing up I ate at iftar during Ramadan with my friends. They burst firecrackers with me during Diwali. We all went to Christmas parties. There was no awkwardness in celebrating religious festivals of a different religion. it never felt weird. But here in the US I cannot think of celebrating christimas. It somehow feel strange. And I am not the only one to feel so. Thats why Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are sort of celebrated/marketed as the christimas alternatives. Thats why malls are afraid of hanging up signs that say 'Happy Christmas'. Hell malls back home (in in the UAE) had gigantic banners saying merry Christmas, no one thought that was strange or somehow offensive.

Perhaps it come with being the worlds only super-power, but somewhere along the line the people of the US started taking themselves too seriously. Somehow the words 'under God' in a pledge have become so important that the Supreme Court needs to rule on this. I went to an Indian school where we recited the standard muslim prayer every day. Then we sang a prayer that appealed to a single almighty god. At no point did this offend the sensibilities of the mostly Hindu student population. We understood that emphasizing one religion does not necessarily denigrate another. 'Unity through Diversity' after all was the motto for India. Somehow this is a lesson that US has not yet managed to learn.