Desicritics Author: DesiGirl

Movie Review: Varalaru - Good Actors Making Bad Choices

DesiGirl — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:14:41 EST

In a country like ours, where movie stars enjoy venerated status, they are in a unique position to do something positive, something immensely good to the people, to actually make a change. Some adopt a cause and use their status to do great, charitable things. In some cases, though, their A-list status is enough to publicise a deed, be it good or bad. In that regard, a 'star' at the top of his (or her) reign, has to be ultra careful in making sure his movie choices cannot be misconstrued as anything less than stellar.

This was something that Tamil actor Ajith forgot when he signed up for the movie Varalaru a.k.a Godfather. At that time, the man's career was in the doldrums and since then, he has slowly regained his lost lustre in the eyes of his adoring public. But with Varalaru, he has lost whatever respect I had for him as a person.

In the movie, Ajith plays the part of the father, the son and the evil villain who also turns out to be his other son - surprise! Daddy dear is a trained bharathnatyam dancer, which for some reason, equates him to a eunuch and all he does is elaborate abhinayam in place of regular expressions. Okay, harmless I hear you say. He is - till the day he is two shakes of a duck's tail away from being married to this luscious babe - and she dumps him. Why? Only 'cos he comes across more girlish than her! This of course enrages the hero!

So he sets off to prove his manhood. How does he do it? Oh by this easy way of raping her. In her room. With a whole household full of servants and mother hollering away, banging on the door.

Though the girl screeches it at the top of her voice, he has great trouble hearing the word 'NO' and calmly proceeds to 'show' her that he is a man, after all!

What really takes the biscuit is his explanation to the girl's mum after he was done. Apparently, he did what he did because the girl was having doubts about his manliness. How else could a bloke to prove he is a man? By raping the said woman, of course!

The cherry on top of this sick icing happens a few scenes later, when the girl's mum pleads his case to her now pregnant daughter, with the standard "He is a good man, sweetheart" line. Of course he is, if you discount the fact the raped you to prove his manhood. He is so the man!It is movies like this that make me want to gag. Here we have organisations trying to fight crimes against women and then we have movies like this tosh, that make a whole mahatma out of the sod who commits this heinous crime. Even more gaggable fact is that, the adoring public turned up in droves to see this load of crap, shelling out their hard earned money hand over fist to make it a hit. A hit! This &%$#* of a film!

There's no accounting for taste, is there? Women getting assaulted - well that is no filmy matter, is it? Why would one trivialize it so? What the hell was the Censor Board doing when it deemed this palpable fare?

Two things about such ventures astound me

how could a sane person decide portraying such roles is actually a good thing to do

why an intelligent person would throw good, hard earned money at such claptrap?

who were part of the blessed jury that awarded Best Male to Ajith for this performance?

It also makes me wonder when the so-called 'stars' would actually realise what amazing pull they have and use it to actually do some good, rather than to purely rake in the dosh. Looking cool and setting little girlies' heart go pitty-pat is all fine and dandy. But to actually pass on sensible message, one that will do some good, for a change, whilst looking cool - well that's the ult, isn't it?Any takers? Ajith? Maddy?

ps: Any one who wants to claim 'oh Daddy Ajith repented what he did and tried to make amends' and thereby prove this is a worthy film, please, save your breath.

Make A Difference This Christmas

DesiGirl — Thu, 6 Dec 2007 07:22:24 EST

What do you do when you are bored and are randomly surfing the net? Search for your favourite TV shows, play some games, Stumble upon something? Well, why don't you log on to Free Rice, exercise your brain and donate some desperately needed Third World rice in the bargain?

All you need to do is test your vocabulary skills. Simple! For every question you get right, the organisation behind this effort donates 20 grains of rice. It used to be 10 but just a few days back, the count was doubled to 20 grains per correct answer. As you answer the questions correctly, the level becomes tougher. Every time you chose a wrong answer, you go down a level and get a question in that level. You can play as long as you want. But a piece of warning: it's addictive!

This site began October 7 with 830 grains won on the first day. Yesterday a whopping 235,092,740 grains were won, bringing the total up to a mind boggling 5,541,225,910 - and counting!

So how does this work?

The grains you win are donated to the United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest food aid agency. It works with thousands of organisations to get this staple to the starving masses. You could also take it a step further and donate desperately needed cash or other vital items. Won't these make a better Christmas gift than a party gag?

While on the subject of alternate, humanitarian Christmas gifts, visit the Good Gifts site to learn how you can donate a cycle to poor children in India, donate books and things to open a library in Africa, modernize a hut in Rwanda - or you could even give someone the incomparable gift of sight. Other organisations like Oxfam have a special section named Oxfam Unwrapped, that gives one suggestions like building a bog, donating tools for farming, donating condoms and even the ultimate Christmas "takeaway" - school dinners for 100 children at the paltry sum of just 6 pounds.

How cool is that? To be able to make a difference in someone's life at the touch of a button. There's no bigger high than knowing you have just made some nameless, faceless stranger happy by feeding them; knowing that 100 poor children will have a full tummy this Christmas because you spared some change. My little boy just gave me the 6 quid from his money box. If he can, you sure can.

Go on, make a difference.

A Teddy Bear Named Mohammed

DesiGirl — Sun, 2 Dec 2007 09:35:45 EST

Britain is all caught up with the news of teacher Gillian Gibbons being thrown into jail in Sudan, facing a 15-day jail term followed by deportation. At one point, it was reported that she might be looking at the business end of a whip - 40 times. Her crime? Letting her class of 7-year-olds name their class teddy bear "Mohammed."

All over the world loud, disbelieving gasps can be heard, accompanied by the typical "they must be joking, surely!" Foreign Office is scrabbling about trying to stop the Sudanese government from lashing out on the poor bewildered woman.

One of the guys in my course even made fun of it the other day. That made me think - they don't get it, do they?

While it is tragic that the poor lady has been thrown in jail, laughing about it or passing disparaging comments about the attitude of "those people" doesn't help matters. Much as the British might see it as nothing short of ridiculous to get het up by something so trivial, the matter couldn't be more serious to the other party. If one looks at it from the Sudanese government's point of view, the teacher has committed a blasphemy, by naming a teddy bear after the Prophet. So, in their minds, she deserves to be punished. In fact, had it been a Sudanese citizen who had committed this act, retribution would have been swift.

This is not the first time the West has been caught with its foot caught in a religious quagmire. A few year's back, an enterprising outfit in America called Sitting Pretty released a range of toilet seats named, 'Sacred Seats'. The collection carried images of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Kali in glorious technicolour. Retailing for a whopping sum of $130, the line was augmented by such compelling prose such as this:

"Ganesha the Hindu elephant god, removes all obstacles, destroys evil and provides you with protection on your journey."

Say goodbye to constipated bowels! Taking the dump and prayers at one go - what more could a harried Hindu want?

Of course, the Hindu community got into a major uproar and the line was withdrawn. A while later, a San Francisco company released "designer footwear" carrying images of, you guessed it, Ganesha and assorted members of his illustrious family. Outraged squawks from all quarters made sure the shoes weren't released into the general market. Despite this, flip-flops and Hindu gods were once again merged in 2003 by American Eagle Outfitters and the result was pretty much the same. Then there was this French shoe manufacturer who put pictures of Rama onto shoe fronts.

Why would someone do it? While one can arrive at a whole lot of answers, what it all boils down to is that the people behind these never realised (or cared enough to realise) what these images represent and what kind of sentiment they carry for the millions of Hindus around the world. Unfortunately enough, no one seemed to understand the reason behind the furore caused by these incidents so that the circumstances need never be repeated again.

What does all this have to do with this divorced teacher and her impending, frightening future in Sudan? Personally, nothing. She merely went with her students' wishes, the papers say - after all, why wouldn't she let them name their toy? That she did not understand the weight the name Mohammed carries and therein lay her misfortune.

The teacher's inadvertent error just reiterates the fact that it is high time the Western countries start taking into account other cultures, customs and religions. It is that classic rule "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." To this, one more statement could be added: "do not judge everyone or everything by your standards."

Does the teacher deserve what she gets? No, no, emphatically no. Do the general Western populace need an education on what goes and what doesn't, with respect to the world's religions? A definite yes.

UK Taxmen Lose Private Records: What's It Going To Cost?

DesiGirl — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:03:57 EST

Gordon Brown's government has been blundering about since his first day at the office. The Northern Rock crisis hit them long and hard and they have barely got past that. But with the latest 'offering', they have taken incompetence to levels barely scaled before.

They have only gone and lost our child benefit records. All of it. All 25 million of it. Gone. Child benefit records, that contain everything from the names, national insurance numbers, addresses, date of births, bank accounts. Know what the funniest bit about this whole thing is? The Chancellor Alistair Darling stressing "there was no evidence of misuse of the data."

Really? That's okay then - I can heave a big sigh of relief and go back to surfing the Web.

What really happened?

Apparently, on October 18, HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Service) sent the child benefits data to the National Audit Office, in two CDs, by unrecorded and unregistered post! The CDs, containing the details of 25 million individuals, failed to turn up at the NAO and when NAO complained, a second set was sent to them.

What a bunch of imbeciles! Who are these idiots who run the government? They send vital information, in CDs, by unregistered post and when that fails to turn up, instead of kicking shit, calmly send another copy over! And now, they expect everyone to be relaxed because they assure us that "there is no evidence the data has gone to criminals". Well, we won't know that, will we, until huge sums of cash go missing from our accounts?

The blame game has started already - the Chancelleor blamed junior officials at HMRC for the fiasco; HMRC Chairman Paul Gray has resigned already. The Tories are baying for the Chancellor's blood, asking him to resign too.

How serious is this?

Very. The general public is really worried as to what is going to happen. The data in the lost discs contain real juicy details and any crook would give an arm and a leg to get his grubby mitts on them. Even though the discs are supposed to be 'password protected', the data is not even encrypted - how much time would it take for a determined fraudster to break the password protection?

Banks are trying their best to assure the public that the information contained on the discs are not enough for anyone to access their bank accounts. But there are other ways of perpetrating fraud. Identity theft is a big deal now and for those in the game, this is manna from heaven, Using someone's name, address and date of birth, a crook can take out credit cards, loans, mobile phones etc, for starters. David Hill, senior security consultant at red24 says to the Times, "having a national insurance number is as good as having a passport."

Worryingly, our children's data is in there too - including their dates of birth. What is there to prevent sickos from targetting the children?

While Darling has glibly said people ought to check their bank accounts for "irregular activity", what protection does Joe Public have against the identity theft? From identity theft, organized crime is just a step away. Immigration, driving licences, id cards, NI numbers - anything and everything could come under attack.

So what can one do?

There are organizations like CIFAS that can help one fight identity fraud. CIFAS is the UK's Fraud Prevention Service and will be able to advise on protection of identity and what to do in case of identity theft. Email them at protective.registrationuk@equifax.com. You can also register with a credit reference agency like MyCallCredit, who will, for a fee, monitor your credit and would alert you periodically. Any changes or irregular activity, you would be contacted immediately by the agency and you can react proactively.

The UK Payments Association has released a leaflet for those concerned about the HMRC data theft. The leaflet, according to the APACS website, contains "questions and answers, as well as top tips on spotting and stopping ID theft".

A special hotline has also been set up and the number for that is 0845 302 1444.

White Water Rafting: What A Rush!

DesiGirl — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:33:58 EST

It was like a scene from the Twilight Zone; flickering light, damp floors and women in various stages of undress. Within minutes, squeals rent the air as one by one we got stuck into our neoprene suits that seemed at least two sizes too small for each of us.

We were getting ready to go white water rafting. Outside, the weather was a nippy 10 degrees or so and the buffeting wind made it seem worse.

We must be crazy.

As we walked out, I could see my family huddled over frothy mugs of hot chocolate, in a warm café and here I was, sat outside in the cold, along with few other loonies, getting ready to go out into the chilly waters of the River Nene, in a raft.

I must be insane.

And to think this was an anniversary gift. Before thirty minutes were out, I would be inclined to believe my instructor, who was guffawing at a few of us lucky sods that got ‘gifted’ this experience and loudly wondered if the beloved in question wasn’t trying to do us in.

The fact that this was an artificially created environment, with none of the dangers of the natural, rock-filled rapids, didn’t instil much courage in me as I stood at the banks of the river, about to jump into the raft. The six of us who were carrying our raft to set it down on the water looked eerily like condemned men carrying their coffins before climbing helpfully into it.

Before we could chicken out though, we could hear the instructor screaming for us to get in. And like docile lambs to the slaughter, we did.

‘Bums on the blue strip’, shouted he. Said strip was on the outer edges of the raft and as such, was in the tipping in zone as far as we were concerned and time and again, one or the other of us would try to plonk ourselves as close to the middle as possible.

We all left shore and safety to the cries of ‘paddle forward’ and went towards the churning waters. The force of the water so close to the motor was such that the raft was wobbling something fierce and we all took turns in landing on the inside of the raft. Better inside than out, we thought to ourselves, even as the guide hollered at us to get paddling.

Down we went the narrow canals and you could literally feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins, with fear following just behind. Though this was an artificially constructed course and the water just came till my thighs, I am not what you’d call an expert swimmer and landing in the freezing, frothing mass didn’t actually suffuse my being with joy. Nonetheless, what a rush it was! We paddled furiously down the course and every time we sailed past the raised ramps and whooshed down, my gut and heart jostled into one another. Our families had all gathered along the grass verges, clicking away at us and we felt like a bunch of celebrities being chased by the paps.

‘Til we went past the highest ‘rapid’ and an overexcited girl sitting ahead pulled the swimmer’s line with gusto and tossed us into the drink.

One minute, we were grinning like a bunch of idiots, feeling supremely cool. Next minute, we were freezing our collective asses off, floating like jetsam in the ice cold waters of the Nene.

Whilst we were all trying to stop our teeth from chattering, our guide calmly brought the floating raft back to us and made us climb back into it. The other guides were heckling at us for being the first ones to get chucked in. After that, it was like a contest to see who could dive in first. Every time we would grab the raft, come coursing down and one or the other of the members of the four or five rafts would topple in and away we’d go.

Other than these random and wholly involuntary slides into the water, the sadists masquerading as our instructors came up with ingenuous ways and means of scaring the pants off us. When it was my turn to sit in the front row of the raft, our guide made us get as close to the churning waters as possible and bend forwards. Into the frothy water! Next, they made us jump in the deepest part of the water and float to the other end. Standing up was impossible as the bottom was slippery and I just kept getting washed away.

For the finale, we did the ‘rafting rodeo’: two of us sat facing each other in the middle of the raft, not holding on to anything, while the guide took us as close to the churning mass as possible. Needless to say, in we went. But this time, we were in the thick of it so the current kept pulling us in. It took mere seconds for me to panic and I tried my best to kill the other guy who was valiantly trying to pull me out. The poor bloke had come on this cos his girlfriend had gifted this experience to him as a birthday gift and I almost killed him the day before!

After two hours of this, we finally made our way back to the shore. Our guide went around asking each of us if we would do this again. To our own surprise, every one of us shouted: ‘YES!’

In The Name of The Lord - Whose Lord?

DesiGirl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:34:06 EST

One evening last week, I opened the doors to see an old couple with a 'I accept you though you are not doing the right thing' kind of look on their faces and a bound book under the crook of their arm. I knew straightaway I was looking at two hardened Bible thumpers and I was going to be there for the better part of an hour arguing theology with them.

I could do what any regular Joe does - slam the door in their faces and carry on with my life. But it was cold out and these two dears looked so earnest that I did not have the heart. So I stood, with my listening cap on, telling myself to keep it zipped if I wanted to get off lightly.

Of course, that is easier said that done. They started off with the usual 'oooh, we have never seen this design before, what is it?' ploy, pointing to the picture of Ganesha I had stuck onto our front door. If I had thought that would deter their lot, the past five years had taught me otherwise. I have now learned that nothing does and these actually help them get their spiel going.

After prattling about various things for about 20 mins, the lady came to the crux of her show:
'I fully believe in redemption and that, soon we could be called upon to answer for our sins. On that day, we will have to follow the One True God if we are to get salvation. Don't you think it is better we get started on reading the Bible now, to be better prepared for That Day?'

Now that riled me. I knew it was a mistake unzipping my gob but the calm statement that 'Christ would save us and you better start brushing up on your gospels' generally gets my back up. How insulting is that to the dozens of other religions out there! Not to mention the atheists, who are perfectly happy going in their merry own way. What gives them the right to say their way *is* the way and chop, chop now if we want to be redeemed?

So I asked her:

'Who's to say that Christianity is the way towards salvation? Isn't that awfully presumptuous of you to say so? How can you blithely suggest to someone to let go of their beliefs and jump on board with yours? How would you feel if I turned up tomorrow at your doorstep and said 'Here's a Koran - start cramming now if you want to be saved!' Would you be willing?'

Of course they wouldn't. They politely bobbed their heads up and down, left some leaflets with me to make me 'see' and soon went on their way.

Now I really would like to know the answer to my questions. Who's to say who / what to believe in? Isn't it your very belief in something that gives it the magic? What right does one have to say 'no, yours is not the correct belief - follow my path instead'?

I think it is this short-sightedness that is making people rise up in arms. It is all very well for one to assume that one fine day, God is going to land up and make us pay for our sins but stating that boning up on the Bible (or the Gita or whatever) would rescue one from His wrath is a few degrees beyond presumptuousness. It is downright smug. When there is so much hoopla about whose God is better and whose sucks, this 'my way or highway' attitude can really push people's buttons the wrong way.

I always thought that no matter what name we call it - God, our Belief, Self - it has power only because we feel so. That being the case, why force the next person to call it by what name it means something to you? Why force him to see your way? Why does the path matter, as long as the destination is the same?

Who has the answers?

Cox & Queens: At The Annual Chennai M&B Regatta

DesiGirl — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:05:12 EDT

With inputs and photos, courtesy Ranjani Shankar.

The early morning sunlight, spreading out in the sky in the background; the faint smudges of it reflected in the water in the foreground - from an odd angle, it may well be mistaken for one of the Regattas held periodically on the Thames. But no, it wasn't! This, unbelievably, is on the 'River' Cooum, Chennai! And the event - the the annual Merchants and Bankers Regatta Championship conducted by the Madras Boat Club!

The Club, (annual membership fee Rs 50,000!) situated in Adyar, near the banks of the River Cooum, has been conducting the Regatta for the past 80 years, churning out some of the country's best oarsmen and women. (Oarspersons?) The festive atmosphere, the competitive spirit and the beer, of course, along with some great camaraderie, makes this event a strong draw, year after year. The big corporate houses of Chennai, Sify, O&M, Element K, JWT all send their best men and women to this event.

This year, there were seven all-women teams in all and the girls from Madras Houz, a production company, were crowned the winners in the women's races.

The race is 750 meters long and only two teams can race at a time. Every team submits two entries for the pairs race. The Madras Houz girls, comprising of Neela, Madras Houz (a music production house), colleague Uma, daughter Sharmishta and her friend Ranjani Shankar, decided to sign up for the event purely for a lark - and the fitness factor! Though sacrificing precious sleep, only to row on the dank waters of Cooum was the worst part, admits Ranjani.

But the gutsy four soon got used to it; ' In fact, they take special care of the course where we row', says she.

So how did they actually prepare for this, their maiden, event?

'Well, we practiced every morning without fail, for two whole months. For an hour every day, we used to get extensive coaching from the Club coaches. Sheer hard graft helped us get better at it. We soon became quite fit and being on the water, that early in the morning, working together as a team - well, it changed the way we looked at our day. our life, even', Ranjani says, a touch philosophically.

The actual events were spread over four days - three days of heats followed by the actual, final, race. Like the other teams, the Madras Houz girls also split in two for the pairs race - Neela and Uma in one and Sharmishta and Ranjani in another.

'That was quite scary', admits Ranjani, 'taking on the corporate teams, with 5-6 years experience and us on our first ever race! In fact, while we were sitting on our boat, the two of us, the enormity of the task struck us with a force and we didn't hear them announcing till they shouted ROW!'

'That was when we realized our hidden depths of energy - we didn't spare a thought, just pulled together and took our boat home to the finish, to win our first race in style!', she laughs proudly. So you should be, girl!

After that, the girls had three more races to go through before reaching the finals. As luck would have it, their opponents for the finals were none other than the other Madras Houz women, Neela and Uma! What a double honour for the production house!

The overall championship went to Element K, with their mens and womens teams.

The delighted Madras Houz girls, though, were thoroughly happy with their loot of huge trophies. 'Wish they had given us free membership to go with that, though!', adds Ranjani with a cheeky grin.

When The Fence Eats The Crop

DesiGirl — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:33:40 EDT

Some time back, I volunteered for a couple of hours at P's school. Being a typical under-funded organization, the school normally asks the parents for any sort of help they can give to assist in the smooth running of it. Parents are regularly urged to devote some of their free time in counting vouchers or peeling carrots or do any one of its zillion jobs. Feeling quite self-righteous, I rolled up the driveway earlier that morning and presented myself for an hour and half worth of odd jobs. I was promptly given a form that will help me undergo CRB clearance - the UK's standard check for anyone working with children or confidential data. Not only were they looking at a gift horse in the mouth, they were making sure the vet got a good look at it before they let it in!

Quite right, too.

As always, things of this sort make me wonder about the state of affairs at the homeland. Earlier this summer, whilst enjoying the parents' hospitality in the maternal home, I was shocked to hear about the girl who got assaulted at school. This grim incident happened at the Kendriya Vidyalaya school, Ashok Nagar, Chennai. Apparently, a seven-year old girl had been sexually assaulted in the school premises by one of the school's laboratory technicians. What's more, it was alleged that one of the teachers played a role in luring this child to her molester. As if this wasn't enough, it was rumoured that the parents of this child were cautioned not to approach the police in this regard or else. When other parents came to know of this, they apparently blew the whilstle on the matter and called in the cops.

Of course the school denied every single thing and the investigation was still going on when I returned from my trip. But everyone I spoke to on this subject stated that the rapist will get away with a minor sentence and will shrug it off soon enough. What a disgrace if that happened! If that is the maximum punishment for a heinous crime such as this, then it is no wonder it is not enough of a deterrant to others thinking of doing the same thing!

A child of seven, I ask you! My son is five and I can only recoil in horror at the implications of this. We trust our children to be safe and sound when we send them to schools and as such, have every right to believe the school would make sure our children can come to know harm. So why is it that news of this incident doesn't seem to surprise most parents? Isn't it a truly dreadful state of affairs when nothing shocks us anymore?

So what is to be done to ensure the safety of our children? And more importantly, why is it that they don't merit more stringent measures to keep them safe? Don't our young don't warrant any serious protection? Or is it a case of 'there's plenty more of them so let's not fret too much'?

The title is an allusion to a Tamil proverb which loosely translates into that statement - meaning when those that are meant to protect end up being the ones who harm, where should one go next?

Reality TV: Not So Real After All?

DesiGirl — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 18:14:42 EDT

First there was Blue Peter; then there was the GMTV fiasco; now there are rumours of X-Factor going down the same 'match fixing' route. All of this makes me wonder: is this the beginning of the end of Reality TV?

Earlier this year, the presenters of popular children's programme Blue Peter went on air and shattered a few thousand kiddie hearts when they said they had "faked the winner of a phone-in competition." Apparently, a technical glitch came up after a phone-in competition was announced and one of the production crew decided to save the day by having one of the girls who was visiting the BBC studios that day to 'ring' the programme. This girl pretended to be a caller from London and was then declared the winner.

When the whistle was blown on this operation, everyone right from BBC Children's Controller to the presenters, apologised for this mess. But the deed was done.

But this was baby stuff compared to what happened over at ITV's popular morning show, GMTV. From 2003 right until the time the deception came to light in 2007, the show had raked in �20 million or thereabouts, thanks to some fake phone-in contests.

A contestant for these phone-ins has to pay the premium rate, which could be around �1 per minute, with calls lasting up to 3 minutes or so. According to reports, around 62 million good people phoned in on the premium numbers, hoping to win some easy money. Add the figures and you get a rather neat sum. Of course, when the news broke, the presenters greeted the outraged Brit public with suitably apologetic faces and GMTV was fined a paltry �2 mil.

Now rumours have started circling that top dog of reality tv programmes, X-factor. The latest installment is supposedly rigged. Or so 'they' say. Fans of the programme would remember that last year, contestant Ben Miller walked off in a huff (only to return a few winks later) amidst allegations of 'fixing'. So what is different about this latest season's offering? Apparently the rigging is being carried out on a much larger scale than ever. When some of the groups turned up for their audition wearing identical gold dresses, it raised more than a few eyebrows. Attendees of the boot camp are crying foul to the media that the finalists have been ear-marked already and it is all a giant charade. Sour grapes? Or the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Even Nigella seems to be faking it. Cognoscenti has it that her show is a giant charade: the buses she takes for her shopping jaunts around London are all specially hired for the show, with the 'passengers' thrown in. The kitchen where she dishes her new recipes is not her 'real' kitchen, but a studio one, situated on an industrial estate in Battersea. Even the 'friends' for whom she cooks for are not her 'real' friends but 'invited guests', most of whom have never clapped their eyes on the culinary queen.

All of which boils down to, surprise surprise, is that reality tv ain't no 'real' after all. Programmes that are supposedly shot 'live' turn out to be recorded ones (like BBC's Saturday Kitchen) or have fake winners or worse. With all the rigging that seems to be going round, why are the public still falling for the whole charade? Personally, I'd rather watch a good pot-boiler or a gripping drama any day, than a bunch of losers in a glass house, fart, burp, bitch and air their vacuous thoughts dall day long. So I say, it is time to get off the so-called reality television and get on with real lives.

Failing that, you could always live vicariously through Heroes.

The Fix-it Gang Take Over Chennai

DesiGirl — Sun, 7 Oct 2007 14:00:47 EDT

I came across this website entirely by accident and decided to blog about it straightaway. What a fantastic concept! Enough has been written about the state of the Chennai roads that it needs no clarification. Anyone who has experienced the bouncy, roller-coaster aspect of it has cribbed, complained and of course, blogged about it in great detail.

Now, we have a trio of enterprising youngsters who actually DO something about it. How very un-Indian! Mahesh Radhakrishnan, Vijay Anand and Divya Rajagopal decided to mark the 60th anniversary of our Independence in a slightly different way - by actually making a difference. So, with a little help from friends and strangers, they took to clearing up the Velacheri and Mandaveli area. At the end of the long night, they had fixed an impressive sixty plus potholes!

Anyone who has been to these areas know that they are a delight to any connoisseur of pot holes and crossing it is an unforgettable memory. For an encore, they took on the Tiruvanmiyur area and what is impressive about this outing is, their band of merry men and women swelled from 18 for the first campaign to an impressive 43!

They are now gearing up for their hat-trick performance, to be held in October.

It is the little things that make a difference and these three are proving it every month. Every Chennaivasi worth his/her salt has complained about the crappy state of the roads and the profusion of pot holes. Not one of them - local government included - has done anything about it. Now, these three are making a difference and what's more, are giving the armchair moaner a tailormade opportunity to make one too. You can be a doer and join them in fixing the roads; or let them know of the geographical location of a pothole near you; you can even form a parallel group like theirs, with their help or if you are a lazy sod like me, you can donate to their cause. Easy peasy!

So, what are you doing this October 14th? Give them a shout if you are keen to make a difference.