Baba Ramdev ki ajab dastaan

I have a healthy dislike of gurujis and babajis of all ilks. Top of my list are the miracle workers who claim to cure uncurable diseases - they so obviously prey on the helpless and the hopeless, people clutching at straws of hope.

Second on my list are the preachers who recite this mantra or embrace this form of worship and thou shalt attain salvation. As if.

Both of the above, invariably, get drunk on the money and power that fame and following brings. And then come the whispers of sexual favours, molestation, even murders involving the 'Holy One'. Does not sound God-like to me!

However a New Age calls for New Age Gurus. This guru is one who offers more of practical and psychotherapeutic advice than deep religious or spiritual fundas. And in a format that's nicely packaged, easy to digest.

The two gurus who fit the bill are Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Swami Ramdev .

The key take away from Sri Sri's 'Art of Living' course is the 'sudarshan kriya' breathing technique while Ramdev is chiefly known for teaching ordinary individuals of varying shapes and sizes all manners of yoga asanas and pranayams.

Art of Living has a more premium brand image while Ramdev has a wide, mass appeal. But both, I think, are doing a great job of delivering ancient Indian wisdom to a modern, skeptical and stressed population.

The Bone of Contention
And then, Ms Brinda Karat is accused Ramdev of selling 'adulterated' medicines. Financial Express reported:

"We came to know recently that herbal ayurvedic medicines prepared by Divya Yog Pharmacy, owned by Ramdev, contained animal material and human bones. We then handed over the medicine samples to Department of AYUSH and now they have confirmed our apprehension," she said.

But the swami's followers as well as leaders across the political spectrum have come out in support of Ramdev. Because medicines have never been his primary appeal.

As Acharya Balkrishanji, director of Ramdev's Divya Yog Pharmacy pointed out in an interview with the TOI,"While Swami Ramdev started teaching pranayam about 15 years ago, we started selling medicines only a year and a half back. The turnover is Rs 1 crore annually."

The 'overall assets' of the Divya Yoga Mandir Trust, incidentally, are worth Rs 45 crores.

Sach kya hai?
Ramdev denied adding animal content to his medicines . What, then, of the samples tested which the  Health Minister  said contain some ' animal residue'?

And does 'animal residue' necessarily mean 'animal and human bone' as Ms Karat and ex-workers of Ramdev's pharmacy allege?

Dr Madan Gulati, Deputy Director, Ayurveda, UT, said to the Tribune: "Ayurveda is not a system of medicine for vegetarians alone. In fact, it is incomplete without the use of minerals and animal parts. Ayurvedic medicines contain herbs, minerals, shells and corals but there is no place for human bones".
This is what the description on Ramdev's own website stated:
Medicine: Divya Arshkalp Vati (for curing piles)
Main Constituents: Pure rashont, termalia, chooti harad, bakayan seed, neem seed, reethatawka, desi kapoor, kaharva, khoonkharaba, makoya,alua, nagdaun etc.

Khoonkharaba? Apparently there is a herb by that name.
What I find more interesting is the "etc". Etc could be anything.

The Solution
If Ramdev stands firm that his medicines do not contain any 'non-veg' content then he has to be able to prove this by getting more samples tested at a nationally recognised laboratory.

If they do contain some 'animal' elements he should simply come out and say: "Some medicines may contain animal content - but they work. You decide if you want to buy them!"

To my mind even that would not pose a problem:
a) as long as no people or animals are actually killed for their bones
b) those buying the medicine are aware of the facts and accept them

When I was growing up 7 Seas Cod liver oil was a much favoured prescription for 'health and vitality'. My sister and I consumed those yucky transparent yellow capsules for years. (God forbid if one opened in your mouth before swallowing!)

But then, the question arises - would Ramdev's medicines qualify as 'ayurvedic' if they contain animal / human bone?

What is ayurveda?
The big mystery today is - what is an ayurvedic product in the first place. My first memory of a product that unabashedly called itself thus: Vicco vajradanti toothpowder and toothpaste. "Ayurvedic jadi bootiyon se bana sampoorn swadeshi..." went the jingle.

Then, multinationals discovered Ayurveda.

a) For tax purposes: If an OTC offering or cosmetic product is labelled 'ayurvedic' - there are several commercial benefits.

The most famous example is Vicks Vaporub which uses the exact same formula in America and India, except here it lists the Indian (herbal) ingredients on the label. The company was able to establish that all of its ingredients were listed in traditional Ayurvedic texts.

b) Customer appeal: Companies realised that any product labelled ayurvedic or herbal connoted 'natural' and 'chemical freee' to the customer. The Hindu reports that the Rs 300-crore segment is perceived to be "the hottest and the fastest growing". And hence everything from toothpaste to shampoo to face cream went ayurvedic with a vengeance.

So we saw new and amazing products like Clinic Plus Ayurvedic Hair Wash with natural ingredients such as neem, tulsi and cinnamon leaf oil...

Do a few drops of one or the other plant extract make a product 'ayurvedic'? How herbal do you need to be to qualify as truly herbal??

Someone, somewhere urgently and immediately needs to set clear and definite standards for what constitutes 'ayurveda'. Both in medicine and cosmetics. Or, in the name of ancient India, consumers will continue to be taken for a ride. Maybe one they are enjoying - but a ride nevertheless.

Meanwhile the Brinda Karat vs Ramdev slugfest continues... And at the end of it all, both will come out unscathed. Looking good in the eyes of their respective followers. Make no bones about it!

Steve & Barry's in India

Steve & Barry’s, a US chain catering to collegians, launched in India.

"Steve & Barry's recruited five people from Shoppers Stop. The US chain offered a 40 to 50 per cent rise in salaries and the promise of a global experience".

Pardon my ignorance - I have never heard of Steve & Barry's. But an apparel chain catering to collegians piqued my interest and a google search yielded a wealth of information. ABC News provided the best summary:

In the summer of 1979, 15-year-old buddies Steve Shore and Barry Prevor started out in business with a megaphone and piles of excess-inventory T-shirts they sold for $1 each at flea markets across Long Island.

In college, they opened their first Steve & Barry's University Sportswear store at the University of Pennsylvania, charging fire-sale prices for T-shirts and sweat shirts emblazoned with college names.

Their low cost, casual clothing chain moved off campus for the first time in 1998 to a mall in Auburn Hills, Mich., and underwent a rapid expansion. Their 100th store opened in this Rochester suburb in November and they expect to swell to 200 stores inside a year and top 5,000 someday.

100 new stores in 7 years is impressive! The USP of Steve & Barry's appears to be 'cheap and cheerful'. Everything from cargos to jeans and sweatshirts sells for under $ 10.

Says co-founder Prevor: "McDonald's changed hamburgers, Home Depot changed hardware. Basically we're doing the same thing with clothes. There's no reason people have to pay five times the price for the items we're selling."

How do they do it
Analysts estimate that Steve & Barry's markups are just 2 - 20 %, far below the apparel industry's 54 % average. The secret of being able to sell cheap is buying cheap. Apparel Resources says: The company is an expert in international tariffs and sources merchandise from America, Canada, Central America, India, Mexico, Pakistan and a few other countries.

Their other successful business management stint includes purchasing merchandise off-season for a better price and allows manufacturers ship in full truckloads.

Apparently 40% of Steve & Barry's merchandise is now sourced from India. So it makes good sense to sell some of that stuff in India as well.

India already has an 'export surplus' type markets. But now the bargain basement shopping concept has been picked up by organised retail. There are the 'family type' places like Big Bazaar, the reasonably-popular-with-youth Vishal Megamart and the most promising of the lot - Pantaloons 'Fashion Station'.

Fashion Station is a first of its kind fashion outlet spread over 15,000 sq ft and is located in the NCR region’s largest mall. The outlet houses a wide selection of trendy apparel for today’s fashion conscious people at value prices. The USP of the store is "Fashion that fits your budget".

A good concept but not many outlets so far.

So yeah, I think Steve & Barry's has great potential to become a popular youth shopping destination. 'Everything in this store Rs 499 or less' is an unbeatable proposition. You'd go there once at least to see what they stock.

Like McDonald's 8 rupee icecream, they should consider offering a ridiculously low price on a few basic items. 'T shirts for Rs 99', anyone? If quality is decent - public will come. In hordes.

The college sweatshirt
One of the items Steve & Barry's appears to be famous for is college sweatshirts. In the US Steve & Barry's has licensed apparel from 350 colleges - the University of Michigan is their best seller nationally. According to Forbes magazine, today college apparel is less than a third of sales, but it still drives Steve & Barry's image.

I can't help wondering whether they will attempt similar licensing deals in India. Wonder what the Principal of St Stephen's or St Xavier's would say to such a proposal. Nope, can't see it happening. Imagine the kind of internal and external debate that would take place! The TV news channels would have fodder for weeks!

The other, more favoured method of building a brand is to advertise a lot and then hope people walk in and buy your over-priced goods. That's what Tommy Hilfiger, Nine West, Guess and a host of international apparel/accesory brands have been trying. It appears to me, without much success.

At Steve & Barry's the advertising budget is less than 1% of revenue. With that kind of attitude you'd better get your merchandise and pricing mix right!

Steve and Barry's has its own office in Mumbai by the name 4004 Incorporated. Not much people are aware of it, however all the back office operations are carried out from the office in Mumbai. There is a mass-market sweet spot in the Indian landscape just waiting to be discovered by retailers. The problem in finding it is getting the 'sasta-sundar-tikau' equation just right. Excessive weightage on any one of the variables will make the whole thing crash or require a drastic ( and maybe expensive) mid-course correction.
4004 Incorporated is situated amongst the most noticeable heritage compositions in the vicinity. Built during the British era, the building has over 100 years of history in its stride and is enhanced with flawless architectural statistics. The office accentuates the concept of change and enhancement of our work processes to support the ever growing employee strength at 4004 Incorporated. It has a capacity to accomodate over 700 employees.

4004 Incorporated is a US based company founded in 1985 by Steve and Barry who set out to open a new kind of “On Campus” collegiate apparel store and thus established Steve & Barry’s Sportswear, their flagship brand. Their mission is to offer the largest selection of high quality graphics with college names and garments to students as well as the university communities, at prices substantially lower than those previously available. Today it has licenses of several American Universities & Colleges and is one of America’s Top 20 Retailers of Licensed Collegiate Sportswear.

The company has grown extensively over the last few years and now owns and operates several retail stores throughout the U.S.A. – on the campuses of some of the most prestigious universities and in shopping malls as well. Along with specializing in licensed merchandise the company has now ventured into the Casual Wear Segment as well and is building its own brand. The product range includes jackets, jeans, khakis, T-Shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, shirts, polo shirts, shorts, jerseys, hats, nylon pants, sweaters and much more at prices that are generally at least 50% lower than the prevailing prices at college bookstores and mall locations. 

This all seems reminiscent of the British era when they sourced cheap raw material from here and sold expensive finished goods in our country. The only difference now is that they source finished products from our country. I think this is globalisation. Let's just hope the the stuff is good. Their rock-bottom prices especially in college apparel which is frightfully priced more so for students. The quality is not that great but just right for the price. If you use a $9 tshirt or sweat shirt 4-5 times, its paisa vasool. I definitely think that S&B will make inroads in the Indian market. Merchandizing Indian college apparel is a whole different issue unfortunately. 






We are demanding customers..pay less but want more..

We get what we deserve..

We get all the following all the time as if these were on demand..

Roads, Politicians, Social injustice, Corruption, Adulteration, Female infanticide, Dowry, Pollution, Fake Godmen, Hypocrisy, Casteist prejudice etc

Bottomline
In price and value conscious India I think a Steve & Barry's kind of mindset will click. As the success of dollar stores has shown, people are willing to make impulse purchases at psychologically appealing price points.




A bit of friendly advice: Don't sell us bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that has been rejected by the rest of the world. We Indians are difficult-to-please customers - don't take us for granted.

Humko style bhi, size bhi, aur sasta bhi mangta hai. Tall order - but then you are Steve & Barry's. Surprise us!

B school salary figures: Reality Check

The campus placement season is coming like a drunk and unbathed Gulshan Grover staggering towards a cowering and trembling girl who took refuge from the rain in one of his luxurious bedrooms.

That's how an IIM Calcutta student describes the feeling of hurtling towards the 'final destination'. The all-important, all- essential, all-you-really-wanted-from-the-MBA: the Placement.

In the movies , the girl generally pulls out a seven inch knife from the apple basket lying on the side table , positions it right over her tummy and yells "Kutte , ek kadam bhee aage badaya to main khud ko khatm karr dungi". But I do not feel any amount of artillery positioned over any part of my anatomy can halt the oncoming placements .

Like it or not, that ‘these-are-the-best-days-of-my-life’ feeling you get in year 2 of the MBA is now, inevitably tinged with the worry of what is to come. Will I get placed on day Zero, day One or still be hanging in there like a monkey on day Three?

Well, if placement details so far are any indication, you can expect far fewer monkeys. And far more peanuts. Make that pistas and badaams, actually.

The Madras Institute of Management (MIM) is one of the first b schools to announce its complete placement picture this year. The average salary offered at MIM increased this year to Rs. 5.66 lakh as against Rs 3.77 lakh last year. 71 companies were scheduled to participate in the placement process but only 38 companies could recruit students.

Which is great news. The economy is booming, the job market is robust. You are lucky to be passing out this year, folks.

But, a word of caution. Let’s not make placements into an Olympic style competition. This is not a race to be won by any one institute. It’s just about getting off the starting block in the Marathon of life.

And yet, B school after B school – including the best of them – pad up the salary figures in their press releases. As do companies themselves, when making their offers.

The biggest culprit: the concept of CTC or ‘cost to company’.

An annual package of “12 lakhs” (CTC) offered by a well known foreign bank last year actualy included:
* Cash component of salary.
* The rental value of the chummery (shared) accommodation provided.
* Interest on the deposit paid for a flat.
* Allocated cost of furnishings.
* Company’s contribution towards provident fund.
* The employee's contribution towards PF.
... and of course, the taxes that the candidate has to pay.

The joke went, even the toilet paper provided in the loos was accounted for in the package. Certainly, the cost of training in the UK was factored in. So, in hand, the MBA could expect to get about Rs 35-40,000. Which, although excellent, was far less than what the hype would suggest.

One accounting method, please
With tax rules changing, many companies are expected to do away with the CTC concept and offer all-cash-component salaries. Which may make the job of adding up apples and oranges - when it comes to salary packages - that much easier.

Either way, B schools must adopt a uniform method of ‘accounting’ for their placements. If one institute reports ‘CTC’ while another refers to actual cash component, there is ample scope for confusion.

Secondly there is the issue of ‘incentives’. A sign-on amount is one thing but otherwise a bonus is linked to performance. How can that possibly be predicted and included as part of ‘salary’?

What’s more, many companies, especially in industries such as insurance, financial products and marketing clearly specify a variable package. Say Rs 2.2 lakhs will be ‘fixed’ while Rs 1.8 lakhs is based on your meeting certain target. Which means it’s more like a commission.

Hence referring to such a package as Rs 4 lakhs p.a. is misleading.
As for the students - this is a consideration in deciding which institute should they choose if they happen to get calls from multiple institutes. Hardly something to worry about.

The more worrying feature of this hype is the number of students trying to become an MBA - without much analysis of cost they will incur and the returns they might generate.

The hype on salaries is making every student to pursue an MBA.
And it is making every businessman to open either an MBA institute or an MBA entrance institute.

This is a self serving vicious circle. The hype so generated about MBA has attracted a lot of media attention - so everybody writes about, covers live, reports on CAT & B-Schools. This is turn makes the hype a hyperbole.

Most of students take decision keeping this in mind.Moreover even now the Brand image of college plays a much important role in the final decision than the average pacage.

But i do hope that some form of regulation must be imposed on all the B-school to quote the figures in a standard way so as to allow a fair ground for comparision.

This is the time when institutes come out with placement stats and also students apply to institutes based on the "brand value" of the institute. We should educate applicants to consider not the placement statistics as the main criteria.

Then, of course, there are blatant lies. A click of a mouse and suddenly figures get transformed. The main thing is that if institute X has released its figures, then we have to look equally good. Or better.

Institute X may have indulged in a bit of exaggeration to begin with - that gets compounded as institute Y also decided to add some lipstick, powder and paint before facing the world.

And so the chain reaction continues. While B school community is not fooled by tall tales – the truth is generally known - the real loser is the prospective student. He who takes the very decision to pursue the MBA based on these fantastic figures...

Will B schools come together and solve this very real problem?

IISc attack: A never-to-forget sad day for science

Army establishments.
National monuments.
Political figures.
These were the original terrorist targets.

But this didn't instill fear in the common man, so they started attacking places of worship, railway stations, cinemas, random marketplaces.

And then, they chose to attack a scientific establishment.

CNN IBN reported: An armed intruder opened fire at the Indian Institute of Science premises in Bangalore on December, 2005, killing former professor of IIT Delhi MC Puri and injuring four others. Intelligence sources said the attack might be linked to Abu Salem's presence in the city that time.

The intruder, came in an Ambassador car around 1845 hrs (IST) and started firing indiscriminately near the Tata Auditorium where a seminar, International Conference on Management Studies was being held. Professor Puri was among the 250 professors attending the seminar.

A symbolic target? Or just a soft and easy one. A kid who's just passed the KG level in terrorist training can be entrusted a rifle and let loose on such a campus. A campus where brain is at a much higher premium than brawn.

I mean, sure, there would have been some routine security checks at the gate but who seriously believed that a bunch of scientists gathered to discuss string theory or particle physics could be of interest to the Lashkar-e-Toiba?

Laymen envision all scientists as variations of Einstein. Unfortunately not all scientists are that photogenic - most look rather ordinary, and could have been working in State Bank of India except they dress shabbier and attend office on Sundays of their own free will.

Well, at least that's how scientists are. Which is also why the IISc shooting was something that was to be taken note of.

And of course people as usual asked : why was there no security? But although there was talk of scientific establishments being possible targets, army-like security was a little alien to the laid back culture on these campuses.

The question is: how many soft targets can you eliminate? How hard would it be to enter an IIT tomorrow and open fire at the crowd gathered ??

A terrorist attack is a terrorist attack be it on a military establishment or an educational institute. It is despicable. Terrorism has now become an industry and it is only flourishing with time. Innocent killings have to be deplored. The terrorists try to get targets that are vulnerable as well as something that will bring to their cause publicity. Sometimes the cause itself becomes a vested interest and is perpetuated without rationale.The cost is too high in terms of innocent lives snuffed out.

But looking at other side of the picture, it is not possible and even feasible to provide high security at all places. Not all the terror attacks that takes place in our country are religious in nature. The entire militancy in North-East, the MCC, the PWG...and to some extent LTTE was driven by various ideologies nothing to do with religion. And I condemn all of them, irrespective of any great ideal or religious reasons. Every movement starts with good ideals and intentions, but if the means are wrong (i.e. resortment to violence), they nevertheless degenarate to the levels we see today and finally hurt the same group which had espoused it in the first place.

Gandhiji was right! An eye for an eye will lead to the whole world becoming blind. If we trace down the issues to the grass roots, shouldn't we step up security at the points where people can come in? (Airports, seaports, borders etc). Our corrupt officials get bribes and let in people with fake passports, illegal documents and such illegal immigrants may end up being criminals. To top it all, I fail to understand, how some people who were born and brought up in our country, get conditioned by those illegal immigrants and are ready to bomb or attack people/places in our country? Shouldn't the country welfare be put before religion?

Why only the IISC, IITs and IIMs ..this holds true for any institution imparting education in India..Imagine tomorrow terrorists barging into a primary school...what would happen..Well the consequences will only be too grave to think off..We live in a very fickle world...we dont know what happens next and where ...
It's a fact that in the near future we'll have to live with this menace called Terrorism. And many more attacks to come. Unlike US or Isreal we are still caught with the our hands tied...Must we wait till we bleed to death...

The immediate reaction is to fortify places. But how many can we fortify and for how long? The next question in the mind is "why is it happening, how can we change this?" For a country with so many religions and tolerance record, how this ugly black pit called terrorism came to stay?

Mine is not a loney voice, there are so many out there , wondering helplessly. Can't we all join together and look for solutions at the grass root level? I am sure there are ways to curb these acts of hate. Shall we all explore together?

Because life is precious. More precious than any abstract ideology. Or concrete cause. Any motherland or fatherland. Any zid, jehad or junoon.

Dil Manga More

A man from India migrates to South Africa.
From there he migrates to Canada.
He marries a Polish woman.
A child is born.
This child grows up in Canada.
He migrates to America.
At the age of 37, he is featured by People magazine in their issue on the 'Sexiest men alive'.

Journalism students: How many permutations and combinations of headlines can you make with this news? And which of these combinations is technically correct??

Indian scientist among Sexiest Men Alive said DNA. It goes on to call him an 37-year-old Indo-Canadian geophysicist.

NRIs can't ask for more, Manga Sexiest Man Alive said HT. A geophysicist of Indian origin has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' ... went their story.

PIO prof among world's sexiest men said TOI. It went on to observe - quite rightly - that the list came out some years ago but made headlines in India only after the delirium-stricken desi media (their words, not mine!) discovered that he had a remote Indian connection.

However the TOI web version was equally delirious:
SILICON VALLEY: An Indian geophysicist of Indian origin has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People magazine along with Hollywood superstars Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt.

Meanwhile a Canadian TV station reported: A Canadian shares a page with Bono in People magazine's sexiest men issue but Michael Manga is a reluctant and unlikely heartthrob...
 
Further down it briefly observed: "Manga is 5-foot-11, has long, dark hair and his family background makes for an interesting DNA mix with ties to South Africa, India, Germany and Poland".

My question is: who or what is 'Indian'.

Had Michael taken more after his Polish mother and looked Caucasian with blonde hair, would we have rushed to claim him as one of our own?

Is being 'Indian' a racial characteristic ie defined by colour of skin? In which case no matter how many generations we may move away from the Motherland, its culture and customs - we will never be fully 'American' or 'Canadian'?

Science can be sexy?!
I know every newspaper needs a peg to hang its news on - so that's where the 'Indian' bit came in. But to me, the fact that a scientist made it to the 'world's sexiest men alive' was a far more interesting point.

As every write up mentioned: Manga was one of only two men in academia admitted to the ranks of America's dreamiest dudes. "That's why I agreed to do this..." he explains. I wanted to get information out to people who wouldn't normally hear or see anything about science."

Of course, I may be more excited about a 'scientist' being called sexy.

 What 'People' wrote about the 'hesitant hottie' was not known (they don't put up their entire mag online u see!) But a scan on the 'UC Berkeley News' site showed he was featured on the same page as U2's Bono.

The category was 'Smart Guys'.

As one blog noted:
To celebrate the 20-year milestone, editors highlighted some "smart guys" (CNN's man of the hour, Anderson Cooper), a few "bad boys" (actor Russell Crowe) and a bunch of "funny guys" (Steve Carrell).

Glad to see that the definitions of sexiness are expanding! Point to be noted is that Manga was not smart in the regular "muggu" sort of way.

In September 2005, Manga was named a Mac Arthur fellow. The fellowship was described as 'an exclusive club of creative and original thinkers given $500,000 with no strings attached over the next five years'.

Manga, who combined theoretical geophysics with innovative laboratory experiments, intended to use some of the money to travel more and visit the subjects of his research: volcanoes.

Hot stuff.

But this was bound to happen. We as Indians are so starved for attention that anyone who has the slightest Indian roots is extolled by us far beyond any limit. Another case in point is that of Bobby Jindal. A guy who has relinquished his Indian roots totally, follows anti-Indian policies a la Republicans is held up as some sort of a hero because he won an election, especially by the expats. Same goes for Navin Andrews and Kal Penn, who have finally found fame with Lost and Harold and Kumar Goes to Whitecastle respectively. I consider people of Indian nationality Indian. All these examples are totally and completely American. Time we stopped fawning over them because of nationality and just appreciate them, if they deserve it, for their achievements.

This craze with Indian roots is because of lack of our own heroes who are internationally accepted. So few are they that anyone in these lists even remotely Indian will be big news. We always look forward for some motivator. Media always created them for us. So any person, with even a distant Indian Connection, if he does something good or bad, we call him an Indian. So its like Indians have become wrappers in which we want to pack new dreams..

We follow multiple standards while branding people as Indians. One classic case was labeling V.S. Naipaul as an Indian while he himself had said many times that he doesn't consider himself an Indian. Then we had the case of Mother Teresa and Dr. Hargobind Khurana. The former was born abroad and did work in India while the latter was born in India and did work abroad.

We Indians call both of them as Indians which should not be the case.

Thought for the day
Albert Einstein, Abdul Kalam, and then Michael Manga, being quizzed about their long dark mane. Is being a celebrity scientist all in the hair?! 

Life is Beautiful

Yesterday, i happened to purchase this film not knowing how it would be. Can say just for the heck of seeing, it got way in my collection. But, it is really a beautiful movie as the name suggests. A must see classic. A collector's pick, it is.

Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella) is a 1997 Italian language film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the film), who must employ his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.

The first half of the movie is a whimsical, romantic, slapstick comedy set in the years before World War II. Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), a young Italian Jew, arrives in Arezzo where he plans to set up a bookstore, taking a job in the interim as a waiter at his uncle's hotel.

Guido is both funny and charismatic, especially when he romances a local school teacher, Dora (portrayed by Benigni's actual wife Nicoletta Braschi). Dora, however comes from a wealthy, aristocratic, non-Jewish Italian family. Dora's mother wants her to marry a well-to-do civil servant, but Dora falls instead for Guido where he ends up stealing her away at her engagement party from her aristocratic but arrogant fiancé.

Several years pass in which Guido and Dora marry and have a son, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini).
Dora and her mother (Marisa Paredes) are estranged due to the unequal marriage. Later on, a reconciliation takes place just prior to Giosue's fourth birthday.

In the second half of the film, The Second World War has already begun. Guido, Uncle Eliseo, and Giosué are forced onto a train and taken to a Nazi concentration camp on Giosué's birthday. Dora demands to be on the same train to join her family and is permitted to do so.

In the camp, Guido hides his son from the Nazi guards, sneaks him food, and tries to humor him. In an attempt to keep up Giosué's spirits, Guido convinces him that the camp is just a game, in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a tank. He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn 1,000 points.
Guido convinces Giosué that the camp guards are mean because they want the tank for themselves and that all the other children are hiding in order to win the game. He puts off Giosué's requests to end the game and return home by convincing him that they are in the lead for the tank. Despite being surrounded by rampant misery, sickness, and death, Giosué does not question this fiction because of his father's convincing performance and his own innocence.

Guido maintains this story right until the end, when—in the chaos caused by the American advance—he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this being the final test before the tank is his. After trying to find Dora, Guido is caught, taken away and shot dead by a Nazi guard, but not before making his son laugh one last time by imitating the Nazi guard as if the two of them are marching around the camp together.
Giosué manages to survive and thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the camp. He is reunited with his mother, not knowing that his father has died. Years later, he realizes the sacrifice his father made for him, and that it was because of that sacrifice that he is still alive today. In the film, Giosué is around four and a half years old; however, both the beginning and ending of the film are narrated by an older Giosué recalling his father's story and sacrifice for his family.

Awards

At the 71st Academy Awards in 1998, Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the film won both the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie was shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, winning the Grand Prize of the Jury. It then went on to win the Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and Best Foreign Language Film; Benigni won Best Actor for his role. The film was additionally nominated for Academy Awards for Directing, Film Editing, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay. An inspired motion picture masterpiece, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL was nominated for 7 Academy Awards winning 3 Oscars, including one for Best Actor Robert Benigni.

A wonderful comic masterpiece – Chicago Tribune.

Sorry, could not absorb within me, so i let the story flow out.

Madonna - a fading brand?

In 1985, Madonna's navel ruled the world. That year - which opened with "Like a Virgin" perched at Number One, and would later see "Crazy for You" knock "We Are the World" off the top of the charts...

Coming off her last album, the tepid American Life, the fifty-two-year-old mother of two wants to show that she can still stay up late. Confessions on a Dance Floor won't stand the test of time like her glorious early club hits, but it proves its point. Like Rakim back in the day, Madonna can still move the crowd.

That's what Rolling Stone magazine had to say but I don't have as charitable an assessment. I am a Madonna fan but remain unmoved by this new album.

The 80's had dozens of female singers with catchy tunes going for them - Cyndi Lauper, Belinda Carlisle, Paula Abdul, Whitney Heuston, Janet Jackson et cetra. But Madonna had something more - she had attitude.

Madonna was no musical genius but one thing you could not accuse her of being was a 'me-too'.

Yet, 27 years into her musical career that's exactly what's she's become. The video of 'Hung Up' has the 52 year old prancing around in a neon pink bodysuit - the kind favoured by 16 year old Russian gymnasts.

"Ooh! she's 52 and can still look like that?" we're all supposed to gush admiringly. And hopefully, we'll be so busy looking we'll pay less attention to the music. And also forget to notice how much of a tribute to Britney Spears the whole effort is. (remember the 'Slave for You' video - note the many echoes in 'Hung Up')

And the strenuous dance movements? They reminded me of uthak-baithak style punishments at a military boot camp...

The thing is, Madonna has nothing to lose. Or to prove for that matter. I don't think she's out there to prove that she can still dance and fit into something that small. She's one woman who's got what she wanted and in fact has given hits one after the other and maintained the top spot. A tribute to Britney? Well, highly unlikely.
I have enjoyed a few of Madonna's songs when she was in her prime. Over the years I lost track of her releases and did not care much to follow her.


The thing is, when a 52 year old tries to emulate someone half her age she ends up looking silly. Like a mom desperately trying to be as cool as her 16 year old daughter.

Certainly Madonna should be proud about looking and feeling great, but it's time to style a whole new image, both musically and otherwise.

Because this looks hollow and fake. So despite amazingly positive reviews and great initial sales, the album is still a number on the Billboard charts . In fact, it did not climb beyond no 7.

A musician, after all is the brand. And this brand - in her quest for eternal youth -has abandoned her core customers. The fans who grew up on her music and are not getting any younger themselves.

They want the old Madonna who sang tuneful songs with simple lyrics that one could understand and hum along with. Not some dig-tik-dig-tik-dig-tik interspersed with mumblings. Call it dance or trance or electronica.

And no, looping ABBA's "Gimme gimme" into one of songs does not qualify as 'experimental'. It's just being smart and cashing in on a current trend. Although she did have to grovel for it.

Incidentally the 50-something, mother-of-two Sharon Osbourne recently pronounced that Madonna 'dresses like a hooker'. Talk about the pot calling the kettle as black!