Pride of Pakistan

 Recently while watching the 80's superhit Qurbaani, i was reminded of Nazia Hassan. Personally speaking, i was a great fan of her as well as her voice during my college days. Here's a detailed trivia about her which will infotain all of you. Felt like visiting her on the net and this is what i came across.

She was a breath of fresh air on the music scene of Pakistan. She set a new trend which revolutionized the music industry of Indo Pak. She shot to fame with her very first song “Aap Jaisa Koi” for an Indian movie. The song literally took over the entire sub continent and earned her the first real pop singer title. Though a teenager, she had a certain grace and sang that provocative song without sounding vulgar. Her first album “Disco Deewane” featuring her brother Zoheb Hassan sold like hot cakes. The music of the album was composed by Biddu a UK based Indian composer. The same team produced “Boom Boom” the second album which made her the undisputed queen of the pop scene. Young Tarang and Hotline were two more record breaking albums produced by the same team. Nazia’s last album Camera Camera did not do well on the charts. Nazia also did some playback singing for Indian movies. In Pakistan Nazia hosted music shows; Music 89 hosted by the brother sister duo provided a platform for bands such as Jupiters and Vital Signs who later became a big name both locally and internationally. Music was just a hobby for Nazia, she spent the money earned from singing in helping the under privileged. She acquired a law degree from a University in UK and took a job in the United Nation’s Security Council.

Nazia worked for a number of charities; in India she was associated with the “Inner Wheel Club”. “BAN” a charitable organization fighting against drugs was established by the siblings. She also worked alongside her mother and other social workers. She not only established charities but also lectured in schools emphasizing the need for social awareness.

Nazia got married in 1995 to Mirza Ishtiaq Baig. Unfortunately the marriage did not work out well and the couple divorced in August 2004. Nazia was earlier diagnosed with lung cancer which eventually took her life in 2004.


Nazia had class, beauty and a heart of gold; things which etch a person’s name in the minds and hearts of many. Nazia was posthumously awarded Pride of Performance Award by the Government of Pakistan.

Nazia Hassan (April 3, 1965 – August 13, 2000). Her song "Aap Jaisa Koi" from the film Qurbani made her a legend and pop icon in Pakistan and all of South Asia in the 1980s where she is admired and loved even today, several years after her death. She was best known with the titles of The Queen of Pop Singing and Sweetheart of Pakistan. She was the most influential and popular female singer and probably the only real pop singer of the 1980s and the 1990s in both India and Pakistan.

Nazia Hassan was born in Karachi, Pakistan and from an early age showed interest in music. Nazia's professional career started at the age of fifteen when she provided the lead vocals for the song Aap Jaisa Koi from a Bollywood film titled Qurbani (1980), by Indian producer-director Feroz Khan. Nazia was introduced to Feroz by his friend in the United Kingdom. The song was a huge success in India and despite Nazia being a Pakistani, she gained overnight fame there.

She then collaborated with Biddu, a UK-based Indian music producer who was also the composer of Aap Jaisa Koi, on numerous other projects. Biddu had previously made several hit-songs for various singers like Tina Charles and Carl Douglas. In 1981, Biddu released Nazia's first mega-hit, Disco Deewane. The album broke record sales in Pakistan and India and even topped the charts in the West Indies, Latin America and Russia. Her later albums also had vocals of her brother, Zoheb Hassan. These included Star/Boom Boom (1982), Young Tarang (1984), Hotline (1987), and Camera Camera (1992). Nazia and Zoheb appeared with music maestro Sohail Rana's Pakistani television program for children, "Sung Sung". In 1988, Nazia and Zoheb also hosted the groundbreaking show Music '89 produced by Shoaib Mansoor.

After the huge success of their music, selling millions of albums worldwide, EMI Music International also Nazia and Zoheb, making them as the first South Asian artists to be signed by an international music label.
Nazia and Zoheb's television interviews were shown on TV in India, Pakistan, Dubai, UK (big names like David Soul, David Essex, Zia Mohiuddin conducted the interviews on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc) and many other countries.

Nazia Hassan died in August 13, 2000 in London after a prolonged battle with lung cancer at the young age of 35. She was admitted to North Finchley Hospice three days earlier when her condition suddenly deteriorated. She showed signs of mild recovery on Saturday and it was thought that doctors would allow her to go home. But early Sunday morning, her mother, Muneeza Hasan, was called to the hospital where her daughter had started coughing heavily and she died within minutes.

Nazia Hassan's son Arez, who was born on April 7 1997 and was only three when his mother succumbed to cancer, was taken into the care of Nazia's parents. He like his late mother is a talented performer. He is continuing the charitable work that his mother initiated via the Nazia Hassan Charitable Foundation.

The Government of Pakistan has conferred upon Nazia Hassan the highest civilian award Pride of Performance. The award was presented to Mrs. Muniza Basir, mother of Nazia Hassan, by the President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf in an official ceremony held at Islamabad on 23 March 2002.

The Ya-Ya Sister-Brotherhood

The peculiar 'paavan parv' of Rakshabandhan is upon us. I use the word peculiar because it is one the few Indian festivals which seems to have no strong 'storyline'. Unlike a Diwali or Holi or Janamashtami, where the myth or legend behind the celebration is widely known.

Google search of course reveals there are several possible origins. But honestly, while the Hindu pantheon of Gods has several heavyweight couples (Ram-Sita, Shiv-Parvati), there is no such brother-sister example.

Whatever the origin, there was something sweet about this sister-tying- thread-to-brother concept due to which it has not only survived but thrived. Even as other, more 'religious' festivals fall by the wayside.

Raksha, my foot!
When I was really young I thought it was very cool for sisters to get to tie the rakhi and get 'maal' from  brothers.

The situation was quite ridiculous, of course. A hundred rupee note would be slipped into the fingers of brothers as the brother & sister both smiled into the camera whipped out on such ceremonial occassions. As time went by I was bemused and then somewhat angered by this concept of brothers 'protecting' sisters. Coz there were a number of brothers younger to sisters who needed more protection than the sisters themselves.

But you know what, rakhi is too sweet a festival to get worked up about for feminist reasons. So  sisters now gloss over the protection bit and treat it like an extortion ritual.

Speaking of which the commercial possibilities of the festival are being exploited to the fullest. I especially like the creativity behind the 'kid rakhis' - Pokemon rakhis, Tweety rakhis, even Harry Potter rakhis!

And of course, there's the new and promising business of 'send a rakhi through our website'. More and more bhais and behens are living in different cities - even continents. And more and more sisters wake up 3 days before the festival and realise "post karna bhool gaye". Business can only grow, I tell you!

Another happy trend is Cadbury's launching its special mooh meetha karne ke liye 'gift boxes'. This spares junta from exchanging boxes of ghee laden mithais which lie uneaten in the fridge and are eventually given away to the kaamwaali bai!

Avoid this
Rakhi can however be extremely trying - for those who have no siblings of the opposite sex. And they are inevitably tempted into creating 'rakhi brothers' and 'rakhi sisters'.

This is thoroughly and completely avoidable. Simply because there are too many examples of girls tying rakhis to the boy next door for 15 years before realising "Arrey! I'm in love with this guy".

And needless and endless complications follow. No one plots for this to happen but nature has its mysterious ways. You can't ensure you will feel brotherly or sisterly except to a real, blood-related brother or sister.

So what do you do? I say we also promote same-sex rakshabandhan. Sisters tie to sisters, brothers to brothers. Only kids to their (same sex) best friends.

I know this sounds strange, and slightly kinky. But it's way less kinky than eventually marrying your rakhi brother or sister!

Bhaiyya mere...
Another important function rakhi serves in India: it's a polite way to refuse unwanted attention from a guy.

You don't even have to actually tie the rakhi, just casually mention what day it is and dangle one in front of the guy in question :)

In a manner of speaking - and strictly tongue in cheek - you could call this manouevre: 'Raakshas bandhan'.

Afterthought
Going by that pheku school pledge, "all Indians are my brothers and sisters". Guess sisters will be needing to buy more rakhis.... approximately... half a billion?

Dilwale Dulhania le gaye, aur ab...

After a long gap of 5 years Kajol came back to the screen in 2006. The junta was thinking that she literally disappeared from Bollywood - one of the few actors you wish would make a comeback. Well, that's exactly what's happened. Kajol returned to the silver screen in a Yash Chopra film. Interestingly, it was opposite Aamir Khan - not SRK.

What I don't understand however is the sudden rash of endorsements she's taken up. And that too in a 'hum saath saath hain' style with hubby Ajay Devgan.

First, there was the Whirlpool deal. Then came Kotak Mahindra and Tata Indicom followed suit.

To be fair, the Indicom ad was actually very entertaining. Ajay plays a country bumpkin accompanied by his ghunghat mein dhaki hui bride.

The salesman at the cellphone shop tries to take them for a ride before Kajol lifts her pallu and in crystal-clear English demands the phone with 'maximum talktime'. Because that's what phones are for - talking. Humein bewakoof na samajhna!

It was a good ad because it was built around a consumer insight. Yet, it was interesting - and the celebrity couple had been used well.

Ek ya do bas!
However, if I were Kajol I would stop accepting any more ads... And believe me there will be many more offers. Because the laws of me-too inevitably operate when it comes to celeb endorsements.

The brand manager for some brand of biscuit or chai-patti is gonna see the Indicom ad and go "eureka"! That's what I need to add zing to my boring old brand... Kajol and Ajay Devgan.

And of course this ad will just show the celebs eating or drinking the product and saying "acchha hai". No insight, no effort, no story, no glory.

There's a reason why Hollywood stars act in any old Japanese commercial, but not for American dog-food. At least not in their prime... Listen up, Bollywood!

 After a dozen such ads the viewer no longer remembers WHICH brand the celeb is endorsing anymore. I lost track of Amitabh somewhere after Dabur Chywanprash.

Beauty... or brains?

"If she weren't a model... She would probably have been employed with a software company, ingeniously developing code for a software package!"

That's not a statement one hears too often... but there it is. 26 year old Mashoom Singha is a first class engineering graduate from Mumbai who has just hit the glamour scene. That's her pic.

Mashoom follows in the footsteps of Shefali Zariwala, the babe whose claim to fame - besides the 'Kaanta Laga' video - was the fact that she was a student of Sardar Patel College of Engineering. One of the 'most wanted' tech schools in Mumbai.

So what's the big deal? Don't tons of engineers usually end up doing something quite different from their original course of study anyways? The Elex gold medallist may eventually market credit cards while the mechanical or civil dudes chooses to write software. Why does the odd grad entering the glamour world cause a collective ripple in the engineering student community?

Books vs looks
It all boils down to a well-established stereotype: Beauty and brains do not co- exist.

As in people are either beautiful, or they are brainy (in conventional, IQ terms) Rarely, if ever, do both qualities converge in a single human being.

Folks who clear intense entrance exams to 'most wanted' professional courses are like Pentium 4 PCs. Considering the chip on their shoulders, they ought to bear the same blue sticker: 'intel inside'.

Intel junta are endowed with faster processing speeds and can handle a lot more data than the average bloke. But if there's one thing they generally lack it's drop dead gorgeous good looks.

Why, I wonder? Is it God's way of balancing the universe? Kabhi khushi, kabhi gham. Brains zyaada, toh beauty kam?

As one IITian puts it, tongue firmly in cheek: “There is nothing wrong with the intelligence of girls in our country. It's just the fact that the government does not want us to get distracted so they intentionally select very few average looking girls in IITs (based on the photo they send for JEE) irrespective of their performances.”

Well, well, well. The striking thing is how most discussions on looks - or lack of them - centre on the female of the species. The average female IITian may not be Miss India material - neither is the average male IITian likely to be a finalist at the Gladrags supermodel contest!

But then again, different standards apply. Take a profession where looks are extremely important, such as airline cabin crew. The air hostesses - bar Indian Airlines - will invariably have twinkling eyes, near-perfect teeth and flawless complexions. The stewards will fulfil the height and weight criteria but rarely be outstanding in the attractiveness department.

Nothing even half as dishy as the average waiter in Kashmir. Sigh!

Blondes prefer gentlemen

There are a multitude of theories that come to mind.

Firstly, it could be that those who are born beautiful - especially girls - have less incentive to slog and make it through entrance exams. They have enough opportunities, enough self-esteem and enough admiration from the world already.

Conversely, those who are lacking in the looks department would compensate by trying to gain coveted qualifications.

This works especially well for men. Because women generally look for 'high status' when choosing mates. As researchers Satoshi Kanazawa and Jody Kovar of the London School of Economics point out," More intelligent men are more likely to attain higher social and economic status than less intelligent men".

So even though they may be unappealing looks-wise, an IIT/ IIM/ H1 B visa holder who's 'doing well' in life will have tipped the scales adequately in his favour.

On the other hand, conclude the researchers, "Brains are a plus for beautiful women, but they aren't the main attraction.".

In fact women who are beautiful and brainy often try to play down their intelligence. Watch Aishwarya Rai giggling and you’ll know what I mean… How do I conclude she has brains in the first place? Well, I guess she wasn’t into architecture school for fluttering her blue-green eyes!

A bonafide career path
Besides, women have to contend with what Dan Ondrack - a professor at the University of Toronto - calls the "Boopsey" effect: If women are too gorgeous, people assume they are airheads.

So why battle these prejudices? Had Mashoom and Shefali decided to go join Infosys or TCS, can you imagine how much harder they’d have had to work at:
a)Proving they were as smart and capable as anyone else
b)Fending off unwanted admirers.

Whatever their reasons for getting into engineering in the first place, it makes perfect sense for them to garb this chance to opt out. And get paid simply for looking good.

Although I must add, ‘looking good’ on a sustained basis is no mean task. It’s not just genius that’s 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. Much the same applies to beauty.

Va va voom involves spending hours in curlers and under blow driers. Painting on make up, panting in gyms. Constantly worrying what to wear and what not to eat. All of which sounds like harder work than using your brains, to some of us…

But given that you’re ok with that kind of thing – and you get the right break – it is possible to have a ‘career’ based on looks. Not just a few years of timepass.

You can begin with modelling, easily get into television and if lucky - Bollywood. And a few years down the line - if you play your cards right – no more do you necessarily fade away.

Former stars – both major and minor – have plenty of earning opportunities. From starting up choreography and grooming schools to cutting ribbons for designer sari showrooms. They make guest appearances in films and much touted 'comebacks' on K soaps. And at the very least, rake in the bucks hawking miraclulous products on late night television.

Which means that the conventional wisdom, which says ‘get a degree, get a qualification’ is not necessarily any good. After a decade as a model and minor actress, can Aditi Govitrikar expect to ever ‘fall back on’ her MBBS degree?

No, because it’s experience – and not mere degrees – that count. The doctors who graduated with Aditi would have racked up.

Marriage as a career
And let’s face it, marrying and ‘settling down’ is also a valid career choice for women. Even those with the fanciest of degrees.

So, beautiful girls who intrinsically know they are ‘in demand’ in the marriage market may choose – and even be encouraged – not to be overly intellectually qualified.

High status (intelligent) men + Beautiful (not completely dumb) women = Offspring with both beauty and brains.

Oprah Winfrey !!!! is she beautiful???.. Good heavens..the woman earning so much .... and got a attractive way of speaking and talents..that's what matters...

Who told Aishwarya has got brains...Boldness, confidence, talent, intelligence etc....she is really highly overrated. On a different note, Aish's taste (going by her long list of weird boyfriends) doesn't give her brain a very good rating. All she's got is her beauty and now that too a fading one. That's why she's doing movies like Enthiran - The Robot with a man equivalent to her father-in-law's age. Either the Bachchan's are facing a financial crunch or for that matter Aishwarya is loosing her mental equilibrium. Without the above mentioned stuffs..even then she had to marry a person like Abhishek to tie up the Bachchan tagline...

Beauty is intoxication and u cant live with that for ur whole life.. Life needs money and true virtue..i.e. love,care and peace...Beauty is all upto ur perception and percentage of ur likings for a particular person and this is a psychological feeling

I believe special attention for those who succeed both in beauty and brains is gratuitous. Certainly people believe it's contrary to the less substantial law of beauty with brains. But according to me if some graduate succesfully creates a magnetic career in modelling it is only germane to laud her for the success but not for the background she shares. As someone pointed out about Shefali, success if often falsely ascribed to them just because they happen to have a portion of their life involved in it. In short the credit is mostly not true.

This reminds me of a bit of a humor I digested during a Biology class in my IXth standard. Once a famous dancer Isadora Duncan approached George Bernard Shaw for progeny because she wanted the offspring to have her beauty and his brains. In his retort, Shaw quickly remarked raising doubts about the result occuring the other way round i.e. possessing his beauty and her brains. (PS: Though it's still controversial whether the female was Duncan or the actress Eleonora Duse it is pakka that both of them were beautiful.)

Therefore your initial draft would have made more sense than the one which now appears in it's place.

An engineering degree, especially from Mumbai University , doesn't always imply intelligence - often it is about donkey's labour.I don't mean to degrade the genuinely talented people here (even though their marksheets may often say otherwise), but that is just the way it is.

Supermodel Cindy Crawford (Revlon, Omega etc) was in the Chemical Engineering program of Carnegie Melon University, when she started modeling. She withdrew from University and jumped into it fulltime. Today she is not only a supermodel, but a successful businesswoman also. She herself manages her stuff...including business.

'Bursts of genius' alone do not imply intelligence. But Bursts of genius is exactly what the world needs. The Theory of Relativity was just a burst of genius and so were many of the great inventions/discoveries.

Between, there ARE girls who are beautiful and smart. I think the reason that beautiful girls don't end up being smart is that they are way in over themselves. If parents teach their children that looks are not very important, even beautiful girls can become smart. And smart beautiful girls are the best people to be(friends) with.

I think that just getting into an E-school does not certify your level of intelligence, especially with mushrooming private Engg. colleges. You just "buy" a seat in these colleges. If a good looking girl has got brains also then she can very well decide what profession to choose from the available options..modeling or the tech career. But if she has just got brains and no looks then she has to make a career for herself.

With the education system we have in India, where we have to decide our career/profession right from class 11 or just when we get into university, sometimes one can make a wrong decision. The comments like "girls with both "beauty and brains" reserved for arranged marriages" and "arranged married girls are more loyal" cant be universally applied like Newton's Law of Gravitation.

Comments by girls abt themselves like "I have a decent face and i do recieve a lot of undue attention but when it comes to work, I'm not exactly Angeline Jolie..." are prospective case-studies ;-) ;-)

With regards to beautiful women there goes a Biblical proverb "A beautiful woman without good sense is like a gold ring in a pig's snout." 

Some people confuse correlation with causation. Arranged marriages are good, not by definition, but by correlation.

There are examples from spheres of life that demand "real" intelligence like Shereen Bhan. Ahem!

Regarding the funda of good looks, I guess most of the girls in the glam industry with good looks these days have attained them artificially except some women of those days like Hema Malini and if those girls have actually taken the effort and the money to attain those looks I guess their focus would have been the glam industry initially itself and so it is unlikely that they would have actually done all the studies which they claim they would have done had they not entered blah blah blah.

The good looking ones are always complimented for their looks from their childhood even if he/she also happens to be intelligent which eventually may lead them to a profession which involves showcasing their beauty. But the average looking ones either have to impress through academics or else no one is going to give him/her the required attention hence they concentrate more on studies and anything to do with the glamour world they simply dont cos they dont have the required looks.

But what's the big deal. Some people make money by coding, testing and documenting and then there are people who make money by dancing or for that matter showcasing their looks. Besides i am sometimes really amazed how such stupid girls are passed off as pioneers of women liberation. This Shefali chick "confessed" in a magazine that she liked to read porn - blah blah. A little more then we all need to know. Are females like Deepal Shaw and Mallika Sherawat  liberated? Excuse me! I think its some fat bald marketting guy who's actually counting cash by selling off these so called liberated women!

I don't know wat's the big hassle, if a girl can manage a first class and a software job (many non engg students can also, but its still decent), she should be praised for she dared to be unique, for eg, Ramgopal Verma happens to be a engineer, Mani Ratnam an MBA, Shekhar Kapur even studied CA, but they are hardly doing what they learnt. Even Brad Pitt measured in journalism.

I don't intend to discredit intelligent AND good-looking females/males doing their engineering or such supposedly brainy course, but in my opinion, courses like engineering or architecture do not implicitly imply that the people doing them are intelligent, especially with the quota system in place. So this is not a case of sour grapes.:-) 

And there you have the question once again – especially relevant if you are a woman: Should you cash in on your dimaag or your derriere?

It’s a beautiful dilemma...

'Dirty' dancing

So, Mumbai's dance bars are history. Not sure what moral angle it will serve with most of the affected girls saying the only alternative for them is prostitution.

What's even more confounding however is this report in the Indian Express dt Aug 13, 2005: "Don't dance, this is Bangalore".

It was called the ‘Talibanisation of Bangalore’. Dharam Singh’s capital went a step ahead of R.R. Patil’s Mumbai as moral police brought night life in India’s most international city to a grinding halt.

A new law ‘Licensing and Controlling of Public Entertainment (Bangalore City) Order, 2005,’ originally introduced to curb the unregulated growth of dance bars/cabarets, or ‘live-band joints’ as they were known in Bangalore, had pulled the shutters on night life in the city.

The law which came into force on June 24, 2005 was seeing owners of not just cabarets but also lounge bars, restaurants and discotheques struggling to meet stringent licensing conditions.

As many as 49 establishments, falling into different brackets, had sought licenses for entertainment under the new rule but none had been granted since the police had not been satisfied with compliance.

So the work-hard, party-hard city was now being tucked into bed by 11:30 pm.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at this bit:

At restaurants and lounge bars—with or without dance floors—owners these days get into a nervous tizzy even if clients tap their feet or nod too vigourously to the music. Over 150 plainclothed policemen are on the prowl to book anybody, dancer or owner, for dancing without a license.

"You can be arrested for dancing. You also cannot play music that provokes dancing. We have had to put sofas and fill spaces to prevent customers from dancing," says Amardipta Biswas, owner of Taika and Cosmo Village, two of the city’s in-vogue lounge bars and restaurants.

Apparently, night clubs are now playing 'classical music' to ensure patrons are not 'incited' to dance. Bangaloreans - confirm! - is this REALLY true??

What your problem is?
I've never been a party animal - discos aren't quite my scene. But that's my problem. I feel claustrophobic in small spaces populated with sweaty bodies, extra-loud music and smoke.

Besides, I am just not a 'natural' - my body doesn't 'move to the music'. But like I said that is my own predisposition.

There are tons of people who like to let their hair down on a Saturday night - and they should be free to do so. Yet this is what Deputy Commissioner of Police (admn) B Shivakumar had to say, "The new law is for the good of the people. Why should people stay out late and spoil their own health..."

Shivakumar is free to police his own sons and daughters - not all of Bangalore city!

As long as the patrons at nightclubs are over 18 or 21 or whatever the prescribed legal age where is the problem?

We can choose to stay up late.

We can choose to dance.

We can choose to consume alcohol.

Whether in a nightclub or in the privacy of our homes... None of these activities are illegal!

These sometimes silly, sometimes befuddling, sometimes hilarious bans have been appearing and disappearing for more than 10 years in Bangalore. It was not just Mr Shivakumar, there seemed to be something in the entire system that failed to differentiate between fun and sleaze. Live bands were banned in places where liquor was served because the combination apparently encouraged promiscuity! Dancing was banned within city limits for similarly laughable reasons - which led to the proliferation of "dance factories" outside city limits. (No doubt driving 20 miles out of the city to dance beats all promiscuity out of you).

Till the late 80s, Bangaloreans were known for being early to bed and late to rise. Made life easier for the cops too when people stayed at home. I've heard a story of an entire night spent by an individual in the waiting room of a large hospital in Dallas (U.S) and heard scary stories of people attacking each other with knives simply for overtaking (showing off their car speed). These were people with nothing better to do in the daytime and giving a lot of trouble to the cops at night with their aimless visits to "happening places".

Bangalore shouldn't be turned into such a "vice city".

Smoking is unhealthy - so it was banned from movies.

Dancing is not good for social well-being of the society. So what's next?

Dancing banned from movies - My sympathies with Farah Khan, Saroj Khan and Ganesh Hegde.


Apart from the fact that the govt. adds idiotic laws every now and then to a growing list.... how can they apply the law without being subjective...what if the dance girls pose as customers...would they arrest any customer who dances...Which brings us to the question as to what can be considered as dancing..is nodding ones head to the music dancing...where do they draw the line....?

There was some real time job for bouncers too as real mean looking bouncers went around in pubs forcing the junta to sit down as soon as anybody got up to shake a leg.

Stepping into our 63rd year of "independence.." and hence "freedom..", just gives me.. another reason to think if we are actually free in the truest sense of the word.. But i guess, all this is a part of democracy.. atleast it is not like China where recently 36 people were arrested for reading koran in a school..

Normal Bangaloreans, and not the pub-crawling variety, coming out of a movie were surprised to find a place to eat, everything being closed even though it was only just past 11 PM. Police vans would stand outside places which were usually open until 3 AM.

Doesn't make any sense of what the Bangalore police are up to. Another of their schemes is to harass all bikers with pillion riders after 10 PM so as to prevent mugging. Their theory is that muggers also use stolen bikes.

I really don't know where's this country headed. You talk about development, what development. The politicians are sell outs, they kill the very hands that get them the seats. After they get the seats, they do a Dharma Guru act and show what needs to be curbed.

 Instead of addressing the grass root problems our Netas do the wrong things (which they are always accustomed to doing :) ).The government could have very well kept an eye on drug and women traffickers instead of moral policing. Why do we always go wrong????? Can't we take a leaf from many other countries where these measures have successfully been implemented.... ???!!!

Meanwhile every Bollywood film has five numbers where girls and boys are gyrating to music - disco and otherwise... Is dancing so dangerous that it needs to be reduced to a spectator sport? 

till we reach that state.. JAI HO..!!

The 'Mathematics' of Dating

Applied mathematicians studying dating is about as likely to deliver credible results as gorillas solving quadratic equations.

That's what I conclude at least after reading about this mathematical model created by researchers at University College London to explore the role of gift-giving in courtship.

A team of applied mathematicians created a sequential calculation as a model of dating... The researchers assigned points to an array of courtship behaviors, including gift-giving. The computer considered the hypothetical facts, mulled over a few variables and calculated which behaviors would result in the highest score for the imaginary male or female dater.

The researchers varied the type of gift the man could give. (Political correctness aside, it was a given that the man was the pursuer and gift-giver.)

So you had a choice of worthless, valuable or extravagant gifts.

Valuable gifts = diamonds for example. Items with usefulness or resale value

Extravagant gifts = dinner at a fancy restaurant, tickets to a Broadway show or a moonlit serenade. The value of these gifts was just in the experience.

The model showed that extravagant gifts had the highest score for both men and women. This was interpreted to mean: women feel confident that they have found a strong and committed mate when they receive an extravagant gift. And men avoid gold-diggers by giving only gifts that have no intrinsic value.

Hmm. I can see a whole lot of guys go bingo! We knew it. Women want rich guys who can spoil them, no wonder we never make any progress..

Forgeddahboutit
But let me just point out a few problems with this mathematical model. Especially if you're in one of those common (for Indian men especially!) situations where you've been secretly infatuated with this girl who barely knows you exist on the planet. Or perhaps knows you, but only as an acquaintance or friend.

Extravagant will not only NOT work in this situation it will have the poor girl running off in the opposite direction. Getting 100 red roses from someone you barely know on Valentine's Day is flattering to a girl only if SHE also has some feelings for you. Just the roses or the dinner won't trigger those feelings.

So an extravagant gift will work fine if you're IN a relationship. Otherwise, if you ask me, the 'worthless' gift variety which the researchers simply overlook could be more potent.

The best kind of worthless gifts are those which involve effort, not money. They indicate you care about the other person, that "I'm there for you".

Sometimes just being emotionally available is a gift. Helping someone with a difficult decision or problem can be a gift (though you should offer advice only if you're asked to). Offering to drop her home if it's late is a gift (she may not accept but your offering to do so will be noted).

But again NONE of this matters if she does not have a basic attraction for you.

Should I tell/ should I not?
Now take this common situation almost every girl (and a few guys) have encountered in their school days.

* Someone who you don't know at all comes up to you, turns red, thrusts a mushy card/ flowers/ other lame gift in your hands. And waits for a response.

If you're a kind hearted soul you just smile and say "So sweet" and somehow squirm out of the situation gracefully.

If you're a mean one you may laugh on his/ her face and walk away. Next thing you know the whole school knows about the incident and the red-faced one is standing in a corner, purple-faced and alone.

Of course he/she eventually gets over it but what I mean is the success rate of this 'cold call I love you' is so negligible that it makes no sense to even try it.

Then there's the second situation which takes place more around college time.
* There is a girl/ guy who is a friend - maybe even a pretty good friend - and you have developed feelings for her/ him. Now you wonder, should I tell/ not tell.

Now this is definitely tricky and while girls do take the initiative these days let's just say more often than not the 'who will bell the cat' question still has to be answered by the guys.

I guess here you have to trust your instinct. Although you may think the girl does not know you like her - she does. And if she likes you back, there will be some subtle signs of it - though she may not actually say it.

If you are getting those vibes - go ahead and take a chance. But if you're not, just keep mum because telling her "I have feelings for you" when there's a 99.9% chance she will reply "I like you as a friend" is a recipe for disaster.

Here's what is likely to happen. These are insights from a very interesting guy called David deAngelo who's written an ebook called 'Double your Dating'.

DeAngelo is an amazing writer and I think what he says has cross-cultural relevance. (No I haven't bought the book but the guy has written a bunch of articles to promote his book - this is an longish excerpt from one of them)

A Secret Women Know but Men Don't

Here's the deal: If you do something to "let a woman know how you feel"... but she isn't ATTRACTED to you, then it's going to backfire.

It's going to trigger a feeling that like to call the "Instant Ewww".

The Instant Ewww is just as powerful as the physical and emotional response of ATTRACTION.

Once a woman feels it, YOU'RE DONE.

It's over.

It's like hammering a RAILROAD SPIKE into the coffin.

Once a woman feels the Instant Ewww, she will start behaving differently.

In short, she'll disappear.

So where did I get the concept of the "Instant Ewww"?

I got it from WOMEN.

I have actually heard SEVERAL women use the word "Ewww" when describing how they felt about a guy that was "confessing his love"... of course, these were guys that weren't loved in return.

So what causes the Instant Ewww?

And why would a woman feel it towards a man who was trying to be nice... a guy who was giving her a gift or telling her how he feels?

Because if you think about it from HER perspective, you'll realize that the moment a you do something to "confess", you have created a TURNING POINT in the relationship.

Up until that point, you were harmless.

I mean, women always know how men feel.

She already knew you wanted her.

She knew it from the beginning.

But now that you've started pursuing her and talking about how you feel, you've created a NEGATIVE TENSION that is VERY uncomfortable.

You've triggered an emotion that is repulsive to women. And it does repel them.

In summary...

You can't "make a woman like you" or "change how she feels about you" by doing nice things for her...

Guys think that they need to communicate when they like a woman... as if that's part of the necessary process of getting a girl.

In their minds, it goes like this:

Like her>Tell her you like her>She likes you

Well remember... if you follow this pattern yourself with women who aren't ATTRACTED to you, then it's going to BACKFIRE.

If she's not into you, then it goes like THIS:

She thinks of you as a friend>You tell her you like her>She gets the "Instant Ewwws" and never wants to be around you again...

Now of course this DeAngelo guy advises at this point: "Buy my book to learn the secrets of how to succeed with women". And you know what - it may be a sales pitch and the book may not actually work for you - but he certainly knows more about dating than those lame mathematicians. Considering the fact that such "Educational Lectures" will be unavailable to the guys in the real world the guys will have an easy time using the correct theories given by expert. But I am having a gut feeling that all theories proposed are for girls in the western world. In India, a better book would be: "A complete idiot's guide to impress prospective in-laws".

Any author willing to write on this would definitely make a billion in fortune considering the population of this country. Morover it would lead to more books like: "A complete idiot's guide to fend off imposter bridegrooms."
 Reserve 50% seats in IITs for lady candidates and you will find a million mathematical models to explain the girls' behaviour. After all, every statisticians needs a sample space to work on.

Many guys know how it feels living in this world where having equal number of girls in the world is an axiom and not a theorem that can be proved.

 There is another theory called the Ladder theory (read somewhere on internet.) The way its written is very chauvanistic but still gives an insight of priorities women have. The theory was: Women have two ladders on which they put their male companions: one of the only Friends and the other ladder is for the males they will consider for relationship. But males normally have only one ladder for women and that is of relationship.
If you are on the friendship ladder of a female then better not try to jump on to the relationship ladder. You will fall :). As you said, females look for powerful and rich men.

Sorry, guys! Courtship is highly complex and can't be distilled into a few sterile numbers and equations. Or there wouldn't be so many mopey single engineers and IITians!

Expectations 'Rising'

When Mangal Pandey released, being an Aamir Khan film  the junta had high hopes, and expectations.

Films based on historical characters, however, can be tricky. Remember Asoka? Not only did Shahrukh and Santosh Sivan fool around with the spelling of his name, they screwed around with the basic story and character.

Ashoka is known to us all as the Emperor who was so repelled by the death and destruction caused at the historic battle of Kalinga that he renounced war and embraced Buddhism.

But that portion never got its due prominence in the film as reel after reel was wasted in unfolding the love story between Asoka and some imaginary princess played by Kareena Kapoor. (I went back home and dug up an ancient Amar Chitra Katha to confirm that fact - the princess never actually existed!).

As Oscar Wilde once said: Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it. To that I would add, it takes an even bigger genius to film it.

The only truly watchable and yet authentic biopic I've seen is 'Gandhi', whose life and thoughts were very well documented both in his own writings and those of his contemporaries.

While staying true to the key events in Gandhiji's life, Attenborough managed to add drama, emotional depth and cinematic sizzle to produce a moving and memorable motion picture.

Fact vs fiction

The point I'm making is that historical films work when they somehow manage to fit our pre-conceived notions of how the character actually existed and yet add some elements which raise the effort above documentary, to the level of a film.

In the case of Mangal Pandey, the beauty is that while the name of the character is familiar to every schoolkid, no one knows much about the guy. So you can embroider all the fiction you want onto the facts and probably get away with it.

As director Ketan Mehta himself admits: "There is not much historical data available about the life of Mangal Pandey except for the episode when he sparked off the revolt. However, a lot has been written about the life of the cantonment and the cultural atmosphere of those days. Besides lots of legends involving him have been passed over the generations. So Mangal Pandey is the mix of this written and oral tradition of history.'

History as you like it

Of course there are many versions of the 'truth'. A book by Oxford educated historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee asks: Mangal Pandey: Brave Martyr or Accidental Hero?

The author claimed Pandey was an ordinary sepoy who, under the influence of bhang, committed a reckless act for which he was hanged. Mukherjee's analysis examined whether Pandey really was the heroic figure history had made him out to be, or just a soldier who happened to get lucky.

The book had its share of controversial statements such as: 'Nationalism creates its own myths. Mangal Pandey is part of that imagination of historians. He had no notion of patriotism or even of India. For him, mulk was a small village, Awadh.'

It also went on to claim that Pandey's action was contrary to the spirit of insurgency: 'A rebellion is a collective will to overthrow an oppressive order. Pandey acted alone; he was a rebel without a rebellion. The name Mangal Pandey meant nothing to the sepoys who raised the revolt in 1857.'

And that too, is quite believable although hardly inspiring...

We've already internationalized Mangal Pandey 'the hero' through school history textbooks. With the release of the film the legend has been sealed.

Mr Mukherjee may well be right but it hardly makes a difference!

More than a Mutiny?

Besides the curiosity generated by the Aamir Khan factor, the producers cleverly played the patriotic card.

"India. 1857. The British called it the Sepoy Mutiny but for Indians it was the First War of Independence", says the official website.

Of course there was no concept of 'India' as we know it then... We were just a rag-tag collection of princely states. Although Arab travellers clearly defined "sindh" (from which we get the name India...), which included the ports of Gujarat as well as the southern ports like Calicut.  So, clearly, culturally and historically India as an entity (though not necessarily a single united country) existed.

The primary trigger for the uprising was the belief that pig and beef tallow was being used to grease cartridges. So it was more about protecting one's religion than fighting for your country. The question is, had the British been more sensitive to such cultural issues - as multinationals are today - would they have been spared the events of 1857?

I saw how Mangal Pandey - the film - tackled these issues. But was his rebellion accompanied by patriotic exhortations - the kind which we associate with the freedom struggle that followed?

Or did the film stick more closely to the facts: that he unwittingly set off a chain of events (Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rani Laxmibai, Tatya Tope etc) which came to acquire some semblance of a 'war of independence'.

Personally, I hoped the film makers erred on the side of subtlety and didn't make it a 'Bharat Mata ki jai' kind of film!

We have now known which way the biskoot crumbled.

The movie Asoka, was based on an historical character but in the beginning of the movie, the introduction clearly mentioned that this movie is not based on fact, it is a romanticized version of the story. Asoka was a commercial film, it's main aim was to "appeal to the masses", which it did. The love story of Asoka had been added to the story to make it more commercial. No one really cared about the fact that Kaurvaki didn't exist. But apparently, there might have existed a Kalinga girl called Kaurvaki, who may or may not have been a princess, and who may (or may not) have been Ashoka's second or third wife (don't remember which....I read this in some paper from the ASI which talked about some inscriptions found from that era, that indicate some such story). So the movie took some distant speculated fact, and wove a love-story around it. :-)

Asoka was one overrated, hyped movie where the actual issue and story never got importance/relevance and it was reduced to a mere Bollywood love story. People that time, made a hue and cry and spoke more of the liberties taken by SLB in changing the story of Devdas, where Paro meets Chandramukhi but never really bothered to talk against the changing of the actual life of a great Indian Emperor Ashoka in the movie.

If you are looking for history, if u want to watch a documentary, THIS IS NOT A FILM FOR YOU. BUT, if you are a fan of the Hindi film industry and if you understand the essence and need for this industry then you will enjoy the movie.

I do not understand the need for critics, in fact i feel the whole idea is WEIRD.A film is a piece of art, it is an expression, how can it be good bad or great. It can just be. Yes, art just is. Every artist has something in his mind when he paints, now that idea is art, how can that idea be classified or examined?

Majority of the people in India, are poor, they just aren't ready to see the reality. Hindi films give them an escape, they give them hope that things can work out. Not so many people know about our glorious past, if some not-so-realistic movie can at least make them see a part of it, i think its great. You need fiction and a little drama to make a movie, but change the entire story/ characters for that ?! That is ridiculous.

That is the essence of Bollywood and that is why we "need" it.

Bottomline : History is one of those things that changes every moment, depending on who's talking about it, and which voices are loudest :-)