Ignorance is progress

Ram : ( Adjusting the belt he couldn't see below his tummy ) Ignorance is progress .Absolute ignorance is rapid progress . Whatdyasay ?
Shyam : ( ridding the collar button of its anchor and loosening his tie ) Preposterous . Ridiculous . All progress is built on knowledge and learning .
The taxi turned onto Tulsi pipe road , the connect to Bandra from Parel .
Ram : Not quite so . Think about it . If Columbus knew he wouldn't reach America , would he start at all ? If Alexander knew he would get malaria , would he move a muscle ? They haden't read history , seen Magellan maps , studied Flemings theories on pencilin or listened to leadership speeches on battle preparation or read Homers the Illiad or Odyssey . That lack of information spurred progress , led to discoveries of a new continent , new methods of warfare and birth of new civilizations - America and Greece .
Shyam : The drivers for such quests were different . It was an individual need not societal so you can't sweep society into the generalization .
Ram : The ability to take a risk leads to progress . The word 'Risk' implies less knowledge , for if all was known wheres the risk ? Look at what happened yesterday . The ex-Nasdaq head Bernad Madoff has run a $50 bn scam . How did he manage to do it ? Wasn't an Enron collapse the start of a lot of regulation and governance ? Who forgot to implement ? Who pays the price . Harshad Mehta did a massive bull run sabotage - mind you , he paid back 550 cr over 5 days to various banks . One man . Then heavy duty regulations came in , there was a bear hug on the markets . Seven years later another broker - another scam - Ketan Parekh . Again more regulations . Five years later - Telgi - 50000 cr gone . The stamp scam was 100x Harshad , but measure the $ 1 trillion economy against a bankrupt govt in 1991 and it's the same size .
The car crossed the small flyover that spared one from the Dadar flith below . Traffic was dense and three km stretch took over three quarters of an hour .
Ram ( looking out of the half-rolled down window cursorily ) : Throughout history , its the same example . Napolean attacked Russia in winter in the early 18th century and paid a massive price - defeat , demoralization and end of french dominance . A century later , Hitler attempts the same - loses his ground to Russia in a winter attack and loses the war . Yet another example - Soloman bros , the great investment banking firm in the late 80's filed for bankruptcy after years as the largest bond trader in the world and brought the US economy down quite a few notches . Today Lehman , Bear Sterns , Merryl Lynch are doing the same . If they had learnt , the world would have been different . But in the process , millions have been made rich , millions have lived a life , enjoyed homes , fulfilled aspirations . And millions have forgotten again . More money is being pushed into the system , to force people to pull our their credit cards again , to leverage assets to buy another house they don't need , to think of a car they can never afford and help another million somewhere in the chain make real wealth .
The taxi slowed down further for the next kilometer or two .
Ignorance , my friend , is real progress .
Ram : Remember the old line from the movie Anadi - ' Sikandar ne Porus se ki thi ladai , to mai kya karoon ' ?
Shyam : Sure
Ram : Thats a guy who would make progress , not bogged down by historical facts or improbalities . Think of this . We have had a good and maybe slower journey today because we didn't have a clue on traffic on tulsi pipe . Had we known , we would have taken a train . And maybe lived the same mundane sleepwalking life , we live everyday . Maybe not seen the new malls , the new highrises on tulsi pipe , the new wealth being created , the new showrooms . That's probably what the Mumbai grind does , the train travel , the lack of information , the mundaneness , the selfishness , the acceptance , the realisations sort of keep your head down , so you can take in this harsh city and yet not break down . Till one day , the tide turns , and Shyam mark my words , the tide does turn - thereafter , you take on this city - richer , enriched , wealthier and content .
Shyam : Maybe . Now that you set me thinking....

A tear, a little fear and some passion

Of the many movies I saw over the last three weeks , four stood out as outstanding . Casablanca , Enemy at the gates , The scent of a woman and No country for old men . Each of these made me want to see it again , made me pause to ponder and reflect on life . Each tugged at my heart in a very compelling and different way .

Casablanca is an outstanding love story . Desire , pathos and love are depicted sensitively and the few memorable lines from the movie - Play it sam ; We'll always have Paris ; Its the beginning of a beautiful friendship ; Frankly my dear , I give a damn - have been etched in cinema folklore over many years . Humphrey Bogart is terrific as the chain-smoking , rustic lover while beautiful and confused Ingrid Bergman wanting the good life , looks quite stunning . Quite a few hindi movies have explored this loved and lost theme , but I guess they take the ' suffer or sacrifice ' route rather than etch out a character as strong and self-consuming as Bogart . The black and white movie uses shadows and light quite effectively . Absolutely a nine on ten .

Enemy at the gates was one of the movies I saw amongst many war movies together - The longest day , The windtalkers , Platoon , The thin red line , Dirty dozen , Black Hawk Down and The battle for britain . But EATG stood out as gripping and brilliant . There are probably fewer movies with the crucial Russian - German war as a backdrop so it makes it additionally interesting to see a part of this history . Ed Harris and Jude Law's singular conflict interspersed with lovely Rachel Weiss and cunning Ralph Fiennes turned out to be quite a gripping tale . Told only from the point of the sniper Jude Law , it grips you from the first scene to the last . A small scene of german Ed Harris being stripped off his rank for failing to nab Jude is moving , but it generates no sympathy for his character . The love making scene in the bunker amidst many sleeping soldiers is shot very well . You want them to make love and be together inspite of the impossibilities , so there is an sense of fulfillment when the scene comes on .The whiteness of her skin in the filthy green and dirt background with passionate love-making , makes it quite an endearing moment . Jude Law is brilliant and gets the audience on his side from the first scene . A nine on ten .

Al Pacino is Al Pacino . His blind colonel act in The scent of a woman is starkly memorable for being intense and moving . Fun movie to watch , especially the plot of wanting to spend a weekend in NewYork pursuing his unfinished dreams - driving a ferrari , meeting his estranged brothers family , doing the tango , living in the most expensive suite in the most expensive hotel in New York before blowing his brains out . Liked the tango scene the best . Surely an eight on ten .

Saw Coen bros No country for old men twice . I mean the DVD guy didn't pick it up so got an extra day . What a thriller . Had'nt heard of the spanish actor Zavier Barden before this movie . His potrayal of Anton , the hellish guy obsessed with getting his money back was quite stunning . The intriguing part of the movie is that while there is a chase - the sheriff ( Tommy Lee Jones ) is after Zavier , the killer , who is after Josh who has picked up the drug-deal-gone-awry millions of dollars - none of the three meet each other in the movie . They get close , cross each other and get within a breath but don't meet . The texan countryside is awesome and shows how tough it is to be a cop in that terrain . The guns are deadly and each killing is credibly different . You really want Josh to run with the money - guess thats the connect with the key character . There are some unnecessary conversations , though , that distract you as you try and connect the story with those conversations , including the one that the movie ends with . But the chase itself is gripping and polishes off the killings as character defining , so none of them looks gory or out of place . It won 4 deserving oscars . An eight on ten definitely.

Money down the tube

The Sensex is at a 3 yr low . The world markets are in turmoil and minute by minute as the ticker spills blood , my money is sinking into the Arabian sea . Not ordinary money , but dollops of cash - am a million and half rupees down as I go to press . Yet , everyday as I watch CNBC , I have a smile on my lips and some hope in hell .
It's the women on CNBC . Must say it is probably the best collection of faces , second only to some parts of Bollywood . One look at beautiful Tanvir Gill and your day has begun well . She is probably the face of CNBC . Eyes , Hair , Lips , Face , skin - she's a 10 . And as she explains the wiping off of zillions of marketcap everyday , she gets more and more appealing . No sorrow in her eyes , yet shes pathos personified . Who the heck cares about a couple of million here or there as long as she's there to explain it all off to a sub-prime or a p-note .
A close second is Sonia Shenoy , a freshly minted face - she's just gotten onto the newsroom . Anchoring a session called After the bell , she's one bombshell . Her hair falls seductively as she is quite stunningly attractive .
Mornings belong to Mitali Mukherjee . Mitali is lovely , bright , full of sunshine and very very beautiful . And human . Can't concentrate on the opening bell tips that she ends up giving as her beauty is quite distracting . The sort of woman you take home to mom . Very coy and very enduring .
Menaka Doshi is the fiesty afternoon anchor . Wonder what she would look like if she were tanned , for she has just about the right features to carry off any color on her skin .
Shireen Bhan , the executive editor is another sexy woman . She smiles most of the time and since she does not do a regular sit-down news reading show , one can enjoy her overall personality . She's good looking and carries herself well . Her Young Turks programme with many a successful businessmen is one of my favs . Very vivacious and garrulous , she surely has many an interesting entrepreneural tale . Rebecca , her US counterpart is another stunner . As she shouts out the Dow Jones spectacular falls , smiling all the time , you miss the irony of it all .
Anuradha Sen Gupta , Lata Venkatesh and Manisha Gupta are the real hard workers covering advertising , banking and commodities . Real women with solid knowledge and interacting with big-time CEOs and business leaders , they are made of sterner stuff .
And to add to honesty and innocence is Swati Khandelwal , one of the last of this batallion of the women of CNBC . A chripy , sweet little young thing with a slight tan covers patchy news and mid-caps with rigor .
May their tribe increase .

The $50mn business

How the heck does a country so poor as Somalia manage to create a highly profitable new industry ?
Using its only strategic advantage - location. Its place in the Cape of Horn helps it target all sorts of ships passing through the area . Last reported they have managed a $50mn profit by holding up over 45 ships including a Japanese cargo ship , a Thai fishing vessel , a Chinese super-sized cargo ship , a Saudi oil tanker and a Russian ship full of nuclear powered tanks .
The modus operandi is pretty simple - small 10-15 member fishing boats surround ships and take them hostage .The US naval commander in the area commends the efforts of these pirates while Indian media is giving it good coverage .
I remembered the movie 'Black hawk dawn ' on the covert CIA operation to take a Somalian warlord hostage starring Mr 'deadpan' Eric Bana . Piracy on high seas is probably just another way for the warlords in this poorest of poor countries to fund its forever war with neighbour Ethiopia .
In these days when most companies are pleading with their governments to bail them out , here's an outstanding example of a bunch of guys who have decided to fund themselves .
Damn poverty .

Don't Book This Tiger

As sheer count , this is my fiftieth post over the last three years . In celebration , I thought I will write about writing . Here's what I think of Aravind Adiga's Man booker prize winning novel - The White Tiger .

At one level , its pretty close to the story I have been wanting to write , but on another level it doesn't quite turn out that way . It is , however , one of the very few bookers I have managed to finish cover to cover ( Funnily , of the famous booker of booker winner , Midnights Children ( 1981) , I haven't gotten beyond pg 25 ! ). And even so , of the few bookers that I have managed to complete , it lacks a soul . In story , it pales in comparison to Monica Ali's Brick Lane ( 2003 nominee - a terrific read , one of my favourite bookers - a pity it lost to Vernon ) . In plot , The White Tiger pales in comparison to Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992 ) . In language , it pales in comparison to DBC pierre's crass and inventive Vernon God Little (2003 ) . In canvas , it surely lags Yan Martel's beautifully crafted The life of Pi ( 2002 ) and in imagination , Ben Okri's Famished road is far far brilliant (1991 ) .

But it has won the Booker . And as they say nothing succeeds like success . Here's why I think it won the Booker . It is a timed political statement on India's current pursuit of capitalism in deference of its socialistic roots - panning the failing concepts of inclusive growth and constantly peckered cautious optimism . Its a dark tale told with immense brevity . It is probably the first booker that you can speed read . There are no literary pretensions . There are no take aways . People who look at India as a sprinting economy dangerously challenging the world and staking its place in the world will love it for the pithy , stark poverty-filled images of 'Darkness' as sketched by Adiga . The plot is threadbare and too simplistic for credulence . It just can't be true .

A rickshaw-puller killing his owner for the seven lakh rupees and turning entrepreneur with a new identity is not new . Its certainly stuff of many a hindi movie , just the timing makes it very contemporary . The metaphors of 'Darkness' and 'Light' or his despcription of sex as 'dipping my beak' also don't elevate ( pun intended ) the book in any manner .

Avoid the book . Read a older , brillant and well written 'Brick Lane' instead .

Mu-Barack !

Obama has done it .

Remarkably and brilliantly , he has managed to first outsmart Hillary and then McCain . And like I wrote the last time round , he is a new 'emotion' . Here are some lessons I learnt from him - just watching him , his speeches , his poise and temperament and from reading his book ' Audacity of Hope' .

1. Hope Audaciously - a first time senator , black , muslim middle name , earning less than his wife , an unpaid education loan , two fathers , two mothers , 3 countries of origin , not getting a ticket to the National Democratic convention in Y2K , young and inexperienced . Can a guy like this have a hope in hell of becoming teh most powerful man on earth ?

2. Develop yourself - a Harvard law degree with a teaching assignment , a fantastic oratorial skill , a desire to win ( basketball especially ) , energetic and a spankling clean reputation .How long can you keep a good man down ?

3. Be Smart - the world has changed since the last election . Orkut , Facebook , 3G and Youtube have emerged out of the blue . Demographic sand has shifted . Terror , Fear and Hate are new buzzwords . Fox is the channel to watch . Its a post-american world . Traditional republican belts have been just that - traditional . How about focussing battle on those states and distracting the enemy by making him spend more time at home ?And why would you not have a TV campaign surrounded by a lot of internet , make appearances in Europe and Iraq and hire someone with contrasting and complimentary skills as your VP ? How about a Music video with 60 celebrities on 'Yes , We can ' that gets 11 mn viewers ? How about roping in facebook founder 'Chris Huges ' as an advisor ? How about organizing 4000 parties across the country called ' Unite for Change ' for Hillary voters to convert to Obama after she withdrew ? How about a tactical site called Fightthesmears.com to take care of the attacks by competition ? How about a customised site 'MyBarackObama.com ? How about a contest to collect $1 mn in 1 minute called AnObamaMinute.com in NewYork ? How about sms'es for polling booth addresses ? How about ads on online gaming sites ? How about a widget for the iphone ? And telecalling in spanish ?

4. Go mass : enrol non-voters to widen base and swing support , get money in smaller donations ( $5 to $10 ) and create the biggest war chest in history . How about loaning your competitor ( Hillary ) some money to pay her dues from your war chest ? And making a republican call himself 'broke' due to the amount of money he has .

5. Persist : Heroism is just hanging in for 1 min longer . Just hanging in there gave Obama newer ground to take the battle to - the economic meltdown , the choice of Sarah and the death of his white grandmom one day before polling .

Look what he amassed on the way to victory - $640 mn in funds , 3.1 mn contributors , 100 mn pageviews on Youtube videos , 5 mn volunteers , 2.2 mn fans on facebook , 800,000 on Myspace , 1mn page views on campaign website , 33000 followers on twitters . And despite Hillary getting the largest fundraisers behind her Obama mobilized a larger fund bank from 3 mn people .

He's one hell of a guy . May God bless him . May he run another term .

Pappu , put on your dancing shoes

The Indian Value system has surely changed and how .

The most moving dialogue in the blockbuster 'Deewar' - 'Mere paas Maa hai' quite defined the value system for very many years . Gaadi , naukar , bangla , bank balance vs a 2-penny job , a uniform and Maa . The movies' cult status forever etched in peoples mind the spiritual vs the material battle and pronounced the definitive answer - it had to be 'Maa' over everything else .

That was in 1975 .

Three and a half decades later , values seem to have been redefined by a breezy new yuppy movie with newcomers called 'Jaane Tu ' .

Pappu is blue eyed , fair , wears Gucci , Rado , drives a Bmw , strings the guitar , can travel where he wants , can buy what he wants and has an MBA but - he can't dance !

A new battle of 'material and stuck-up ' vs the ' free ' .

Have and have-nots redefined .

This is perhaps a new age value - 'cool'-ness .
To chill , to relax , to fall in love .

Like the 'protagonist ' enjoying his life and its absolute mundanity .