Desicritics Author: kamla bhatt

Munnabhai Goes to Jail? Sanjay Dutt Sentenced to Six Years

kamla bhatt — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:34:01 EDT

In what has been described as stunning and surprising news, Munnabhai aka Sanjay Dutt, the actor, has been sentenced to a 6-year prison term for his role in the 1993 Bombay blast case. This has come in so swift and quick that people are just beginning to realize that the unthinkable has happened.

Sanjay's appeal to the court to give him a few days before he goes to jail has reportedly been declined. Reports are trickling in that he has also appealed to the Supreme Court. Sanjay needs time to tie up his loose ends etc.

The sentence being reversed appears to be slim at this point. It is ironic that the hallmark dialog from his Munnabhai film come was this:

"Ek kahani khatam toh dujee shuru ho gayee...Mamu."

Here is a timeline of Sanjay's involvement in the 1993 blast.

For the past few months there has been heightened drama around Sanjay's involvement in the 1993 Bombay blast. For the past few days what will happen to Sanjay Dutt was the dominant news in many TV Channels. TimesNow.TV had this video clip about Sanjay's superstitions.

The clear message that is coming from the judiciary and the government is that there will be no middle ground in how they treat people involved in such cases. The court and the judges through this legal and tough sentence have clearly not treated Sanjay as a celebrity. Instead, as the news media is reporting Sanjay was treated as an equal in the eyes of the court, and that his celebrity status was not considered. I wonder how this news will go down with the film fraternity and the film industry wallahs?

I wonder how the next couple of days will pan out and what will be the reaction of his fans and public? Will they make a distinction between Munnabhai and the actor Sanjay Dutt or are the two people fused into one? Does the public see Sanjay in the same way it sees Munnabhai? A Munnabhai who fought for the have-nots, and who showed them what love is? Or, will they look at him as Sanjay Dutt, a person and not an actor?

Profile: Mayawati, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

kamla bhatt — Wed, 16 May 2007 01:05:18 EDT

Uttar Pradesh's new Chief Minister (CM) Mayawati is back as the head of the state for the fourth time. This ain't no "behenji" (sister) as she is popularly referred to, this is one smart political cookie with a highly developed sense of political acumen, who has been the CM of Uttar Pradesh in 1995, 1997 and then in 2002.

This politician refuses to be written off, and has risen from the ashes time and again in different avatars. And this time her new avatar seems to be a bit different. She appears to have shed her impetuous ways, and is instead focused on becoming a key political player at the state and national level. For instance, Mayawati and her party wield quite a bit of influence over who will be the next President of India. Dr. Kalam or Narayana Murthy or someone else?

SOCIAL ENGINEERING: While various media reports have written about last week's surprise victory by Mayawati and her party, the fact is that the mainstream media did not pay any attention to Mayawati's political and strategic makeover over the past few years. I guess they were still caught up in the image of the old Mayawati. (Picture credit: Shivam Vij's blog).

The old Mayawati and Bahujan Samaj Party coined this famous slogan:tilak, taraju aur talwar, maaro unko joote char, which roughly translates into "beat or hit the brahmins, kshatriyas and the vaishyas (the upper castes) with shoes". That slogan pretty much summed up Mayawati and her party's attitude toward the upper castes. So, this new Mayawati is indeed a different kettle of fish.

Now, if only mainstream media had stopped putting those Page 3 stories about who kissed whom etc. as their main stories they would not have missed Mayawati's story that was unfolding right under their noses! The one article I remember reading is Shivam Vij's piece in Tehalka. If my memory serves me right the kinds of stories and news items I saw or read about Uttar Pradesh were largely confined to Amitabh Bachchan's proximity to Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Bachchans and Anil Ambani's visit to various pilgrimages in Uttar Pradesh, more recently the political campaign of Rahul Gandhi for the Congress Party and Amitabh Bachchan's new campaign for Uttar Pradesh that created quite a bit of stir among a certain section.

If Mayawati was mentioned, it was always in connection with the progress of a legal case filed against her. (Remember the Taj controversy and Mayawati?)

Mayawati plotted her strategy for the current election more than two years ago when she supposedly embraced this concept of including the upper caste politicians in her party. Her message of this inclusion filtered right down to the district level where she created "bhai-chara samithis". Mayawati had apparently learnt from her past mistakes and plotted a new strategy which the media has labeled as social engineering.

What social engineering? This is one shrewd politician who read her political tea leaves correctly a few years ago and plotted her political strategy. Uttar Pradesh is still a pretty backward country that fares pretty low on all the important metrics right from education and healthcare to water and economic development. The question now is if Uttar Pradesh will be able to break from its past and focus on its economic growth? That remains to be seen and only time will tell if Mayawati's new avatar is a totally new one or a rehash of her previous avatar?

Who is the real Mayawati? Yes, we have all read stories about her extravagant birthday celebrations (I wonder if she was influenced by Tamil Nadu politicians and their fondness for celebrating their birthdays in a big "vizha" or festival?) or the legal case against her or the public fallout with Mulayam Singh Yadav...but who is the real Mayawati? How did she become the first Dalit Chief Minister in India? How did Mayawati go from being a school teacher to becoming the head of Uttar Pradesh?

Mayawati appears to be somewhat of a loner, who has managed to put together a motley crew of people who are close to her. There is an eerie and bizarre resemblance that Mayawati shares with the ex-Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. Jayalalitha. Jayalalitha's close female confidante was Shashikala, and Mayawati's close female confidante is Poonam Sagar, a beautician.

EARLY YEARS: There is not much I could uncover about Mayawati's early years and her family background save for some sketchy details. Prabhu Das (or is it Prabhu Dayal?), her father, was a government employee in Delhi, which is where Mayawati and her siblings studied. She did her undergraduate at Kalindhi College in New Delhi (some sites report that she studied at Lady Shriram College in New Delhi), and then completed her law degree from Delhi University. She became a school teacher and taught at various schools.

Sometime in 1984 she became interested in politics and contested in the state elections of Uttar Pradesh that same year. Mayawati also become the protege of Kanshi Ram the founder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Kanshi Ram's focus was on the Dalits, who constituted approximately about 20 percent of the population in Uttar Pradesh.

START OF POLITICAL CAREER: Mayawati represented the newly formed Bahujan Samaj Party in the state elections but failed to win in the early 1980s. At the national level the 1980s was a period of political turmoil and best remembered for the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1984. Apparently it was the the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi that first brought Mayawati in contact with Kanshi Ram, her future political mentor.

MAYAWATI WINS HER FIRST ELECTION: During the 1980s Mayawati did not give up her bid to win a seat in the state election. She contested the state elections a couple more times, and finally won her first election in 1989 from Bijnor and become a member of the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament). Mayawati went on to win two more elections in 1998 and 1999 from Akbarpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

MAYAWATI BECOMES CHIEF MINISTER: Mayawati became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1995. Her first stint as CM was a short-lived one and lasted about six months; she was back again as CM two more times, but has never completed the full five year tenure as the CM of UP. Maybe this time around she will get to complete her tenure.

The 1990s was a pretty turbulent time in Uttar Pradesh because of the Babri Masjid case among other things. Politically, the BSP and Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajvadi Party had a pretty cozy relationship until that soured in 1994 over the distribution of votes, and since then the two parties have remained fierce competitors in Uttar Pradesh. (Why does UP in some ways remind me of Tamil Nadu and the DMK-AIDMK rivalry?)

By the early 1990s BSP emerged as a significant political player in Uttar Pradesh and also at the national level. During the early years Mayawati and the BJP had a working political relationship, but things went south when the BJP did not come through for Mayawati in the Taj Mahal case (she approved building a huge shopping complex close to the Taj), where she was accused of taking kickbacks and a legal case was filed against her.

The BJP-government at the Federal level decided against supporting Mayawati in the Taj case, and that proved to be a costly political misstep for the BJP. Mayawati does not forgive and forget easily it seems. The phrase: "Yeh duniya badi gol hai," (This is a round world) comes to my mind, and indeed it is a round world for Mayawati...what goes around, comes around.

Mayawati got her chance to even her scores with the BJP in 1999. She played a crucial role in the resignation of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999.

Mayawati's stint as the CM of UP during 1997 and 2002 were short-lived, and many critics had written her off, but she continued to remain in the limelight for various reasons. There was the extravagant birthday party and then were was the controversyduring the last days of her mentor Kanshi Ram. But, Mayawati weathered all that and the death of her mentor and retooled her party, her image and forged new political alliances and is back in power.

CONCLUSION: Uttar Pradesh has long been considered the political barometer for the country. What happens in this state usually has a long-term impact at the national level argue some analysts. They have a point I guess. Consider this - the BJP lost its hold on UP during the 1990s and the early part of this year, and today the BJP is not in the political radar at the national level.

The Congress lost hold of this state during the 1980s and that spelt disaster for the Congress in the following decades, and the Congress has not been able to regain its foothold in the state in spite of the Gandhis pouring in tons of money and lavishing attention on their constituency in Amethi. What does this current victory of Mayawati mean at the national level?

There are already murmurs being heard about her influencing the choice of India's next President. But what after that? What is Mayawati's read on the Supreme Court's verdict on reservation? The reservation issue has the potential to become a political tinder box in the next couple of years, and it will be interesting to see how Mayawati's plays her card in this political game. But, in the meantime you can be assured there will be cases filed against Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Samajvadi Party. Somethings never change in Uttar Pradesh I guess.

(Special thanks to Krishnan for bringing my attention to Mayawati a few months ago, and the possibility that she could win the elections this time around.)

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter... Does It Really Work?

kamla bhatt — Mon, 14 May 2007 00:15:25 EDT

Twitter this, twitter that, have you used Twitter... oh, the number of times I have been asked why I don't use Twitter, or why I don't look at anyone's Twitter stream or whatever you call it. Now, do I really need to know what you are doing this very moment, or what you did six hours back, or when was the last time you saw a movie? I mean why would I want to scroll through somebody's public calendar and see what they are doing? Do I really need to get down to the micro blogging level? I don't think so.

I am still trying to figure out the value of Twitter. Initially I thought I had lost it and no longer had the ability to comprehend and follow the cool and happening trends in the online and social media or the social networking space. I actually did set up a twitter account and realized after I set it up that I was not interested in populating my twitter stream. I did not know if my reaction is surprising considering that I am an Omnivore according to the Pew Internet Study (via Scott Burkett's post). Thank god, I discovered that there are folks out there with a similar set of questions.

So there is Valleywag, MaisonBisson, Pramit Singh, M Neylon and a whole lot of others out there who are not particularly taken up with twitter.

I guess there is a place for twitter in some instances like news or politics. Both, John Edwards and Barack Obama have a twitter stream. Is that the right way to describe twitter, I wonder.

If you are a twitter user you might want to read this post by Nitesh Dhanjanii where he talks about a security loophole in twitter. Nitesh is a well-known security expert. And if you are a twitter fan then maybe this might interest you? A twitter search engine called Twitterment That is in beta? Still not satisfied? Here is Twitterholics. Check out the who is who of the twitter world.

Maybe Scott got it right when he said "Stop twittering and go solve a problem." That is what I intend to do. By the way, I love the name of the company that founded Twitter: The Obvious Group. Isn't it twitterific?

India A Superpower?

kamla bhatt — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:24:39 EST

"India A Superpower? Think Again," writes Cait Murphy, Assistant Managing Editor of Fortune.

I confess the title caught my eye and then the first para had a nice hook...filled with stats from Google. So, I proceeded to read the article and found myself agreeing with the analysis in some paragraphs, and shaking my head vigorously in disagreement at some other paragraphs. These paragraphs to had to do with the international context and the comparison between India and its neighbors in Southeast Asia. How and why these countries were able to forge ahead is not explained, nor is the role of the USA in helping these economies addressed.

The USA played a pivotal role in these countries - let us not forget the wars and the money that was ploughed into many of these countries. Plus, the population and the history of the Southeast Asian nations is very different. None of these countries was labeled the "jewel in the crown" and systematically drained of its wealth for a couple of centuries. (The US colonies were lucky that they rebelled because of taxation on Indian tea and for the next two centuries focused on building their economy.) Surely that little historical fact of the British must have had some impact on India? Plus, India is a pluralistic society, a fact that is dutifully trotted out in every high-powered speech by a US official. So, comparing India to the neighboring countries is like comparing oranges and apples.

The author makes some valid observations and questions what is being done for the bulk of the population that has seen very little benefit from the recent economic growth. I cannot disagree with those observations. But, at least an awareness and some work is being done. One cannot ignore that. Pulling a billion plus people forward requires mammoth efforts and time and an effective political leadership and co-operation between the government and private sector. (Let me not get started on how many countries in the west embraced the welfare system to help the bottom of the pyramid.)

The author is right in pointing out that India is not a superpower. India does not meet the criteria of a superpower. India is an emerging power, and its role at the international level is undergoing a fundamental change because of some political realignments (I don't have to spell them out) combined with the search for new and growing markets by global companies many of whom are headquartered in the USA.

iPod or Zune? White Wire Revolution or Black Wire Revolution?

kamla bhatt — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 08:05:32 EDT

iPod or Zune? Zune or iPod?

This question has resulted in an endless loop function for me with no answers in sight. I have circled and circled and looked and looked at various iPod models. I find myself visiting B&H on a fairly regular basis to find out if should I or should not buy this device. I call it the Hamlet dilemma: to be or not to be a part of the white wire revolution. White wire you ask? Yep. White wires streaming out of your ears indicate that you are part of the iPod group. You live in your own little iPod bubble and are oblivious to the world.

You see I belong to the black wire group. I grew up at at time of the black wire revolution. What is that you ask? The Walkman. I was the proud owner of various models of the Sony walkman. For many years my walkman and I were inseperable. I listened to Led Zep, Queen, Alpha Blodie, Eddie Grant, LL Cool J, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Satchmo, Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa (I still have his tapes tucked away some where in a storage box), Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach, Simply Red, The Temptations, B52, Adam and the Ant, Police, Pink Martini, Osibisa, Kool and The Gang, Dire Straits, Deep Purple, Ghulam Ali, Om Kalsoum, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, and an endless stream of other favorite singers. The downside of being attached to your walkman meant that I slowly started to develop an allergy for it and I reached a point where I no longer enjoyed listening to music in that bubble like atmsophere. To be fair the quality of headphones has improved and that in part has had me thinking about joining the brigade of the white revolution.

But, wait! Things are never that easy. I am not a big fan of Apple and I guess this stems from that initial decision that was influenced by a professor of mine. He pronounced that if I was in the market for buying a computer I should buy an IBM and not Apple. And so I embraced the IBM way and slowly changed from using UNIX to Microsoft OS. Microsoft, I have discovered, has come a long way and has some fantastic products and in recent years they have done a pretty good job in the digital music space (read devices, Microsoft Player, mobile phones etc). So I held off on my decision to join the white revolution brigade when I heard that Microsoft was coming out with Zune.

Then comes this post from Robert Scobel where he compares iPod and Zune, and my Hamlet dilemma is suddenly on the verge of being resolved. Zune might not be the device of choice for me. This is what Rober writes in conclusion:

It's that last point that could turn into a killer feature. If software developers are enabled to build new experiences for the Zune, then we could see something killer come along that'll get more people interested in the Zune.

But, for now, I'd stick with an iPod. Microsoft hasn't given us a killer feature yet that is easily demonstratable for why we should buy a Zune instead of an iPod.

I guess I can no longer afford to sit on the fence and decide which way I am going...the writing is clear on the wall...it has be iPod. I suspect Microsoft might have a better product by next year.

It is tme to join the folks of the white wire revolution.

India and Latin America: Tata Consultancy Services and Uruguay

kamla bhatt — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:47:44 EDT

Thomas Friedman has an op-ed in The New York Times (Sept 22, 2006) on India and Latin America. The op-ed is specially about the small nation of Uruguay "wedged between Brazil and Argentina." This country with a population of three million people "has come from nowhere to partner with India's biggest technology company, Tata Consultancy Services, to create in just four years one of the largest outsourcing operations in Latin America."(bold mine.)

Uruguay emerged as as outsourcing hub because of one man's vision and that is Gabriel Rozman, a retired partner from Ernst & Young. Mr. Rozman approached Tata Consultancy Services writes Mr. Friedman when "he did not have a single client or employee...He had just two things: gut instinct that Uruguay's quality education system had produced plenty of good, low-cost engineers and a gut desire to do do something good in Uruguay - the country that gave his Hungarian parents sanctuary from Hitler."

Mr. Friedman goes on to describe how Mr. Rozman's gut instinct paid off and how engineers from Uruguay and India are learning to work together in spite of the cultural shock. Imagine this there are no Indian restaurants in Montevideo. There are other shocks like customers expect the engineers from Uruguay to behave like Indians. As Mr. Friedman writes, "to see Uruguayans pretending to be Indians serving Americans is quite a scene." Another challenge is the fact that Latin American culture is "very non-hierarchical." Getting used to hearing "no" was challenging for the Indians to accept.

The central point in the op-ed is perhaps what Mr. Friedman calls the "new normal." Here is how he puts it:

"In outsourcing, though, Uruguay has leapt ahead of its neighbors by becoming the first to understand what could be done - that in today's world having an Indian company led by Hungarian-Uruguayan servicing American banks with Montevidean engineers managed by Indian technologists, who have learnt to eat Uruguayan veggie is just the new normal."

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about India and Latin America and mentioned that a gentleman from Uruguay knew about an Indian company and its IT work. Now, I understand why the gentleman from Uruguay knew about Tata. He mentioned that a whole bunch of engineers were staying in his apartment complex in Montevideo.

I wonder how many times before this new normal of the 21st century there were other new normals in the world? I am thinking of the 15th and 16th century and the discovery of the magnetic compass .... how did the word "batata" enter Marathi language? Or, how is that you have Indian cows and mango trees in Costa Rica? As any good Costa Rican eco tourist guide will tell you: "de India."

Penelope Cruz + Javier Moro's Pasion India + Anita Delgado of Kapurthala

kamla bhatt — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 00:03:10 EDT

Actress Penelope Cruz is working on her first directorial film project based on Javier Moro's book Pasion India. Penelope acquired the film rights of the book, an English version of which was recently released in India. Javier Moro is the nephew of author Dominic Lapierre.

Pasi�n India is about Jagjit Singh, Maharaja of Kapurthala and his Spanish wife Anita Delgado. The Maharaja met Anita, a flamenco dancer from the Andalusian region in Madrid, and went on to marry her. After her marriage, she changed her name to Prem Kaur. Anita Delgado was the fifth wife of the Maharja, and the couple had a son called Ajit (according to one version; I was unable to confirm this though since I have not read the book as yet). Their marriage ended on a sour note. The Maharaja died in 1948, and Anita Delgado lived until 1962.

Anita Delgado's grand daughter Maha Akhtar is a kathak dancer, who discovered flamenco by accident, and is now learning flamenco.

Here is another interesting footnote about the royal family of Kapurthala. The current brand advisor for the luxury retailer LVMH in India is Tikka Shatrujit Singh. Apparently way back in the late 1800s Maharaja Jagjit Singh took a shine to Louis Vuitton's trunks and acquired quite a few of them during his lifetime. LVMH's relationship with the Kapurthala family goes back over 100 years.

It is not surprising the Penelope Cruz chose the story of a dancer for her first film. She is a trained ballet and jazz dancer and will play the role of Anita Delgado urf Maharani Prem Kaur. Penelope is expected to visit India in January 2007 to scout for locations.

Elisa V�zquez de Gey has written a biography of Anita Delgado that was published last year. [Hint: You can see a picture of the Maharani of Kapurthala.]

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Passes Away

kamla bhatt — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 00:11:44 EDT

Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 84, passed away in Mumbai.

Mr. Mukherjee's films shaped the sensibilities of an entire generation (or maybe two generations) who grew up watching his films in the 1970s and 1980s. His films were often labelled as family drama that had a strong dose of comic relief. His films often dealt with the relationship and misunderstandings that exist in families, especially extended or joint families as they are known in India. I remember quite a few of his films had a medical twist (Mili and Anand) in their plot line. His films were a celebration of innocence informed by a middle class sensibility.

How many of you grew up listening to "Maine tere liya" from Anand, "Bole reh Papi hara," from Mili or "Tere Mere Milan Ki Yeh Naina" from Abhiman or "Gol mal hai bhai saab kuch gol mal hai," from the original Golmal? Or Rekha singing "Sun, Sun, Sun didi tera liye ek rishta aaya hai..." from Khubsoorat.

Many of you might remember Ashirwad for its song "Rail gaddi, chug, chug..." that was sung by Ashok Kumar, brother of Kishore Kumar. The dialogs for the film were written by Sampooran Singh Gulzar or SS. Gulzar.

Tip: If you have not seen any of these films now is a good time to watch them. The original Golmal is a great film compared to the new one by the same name. The Burmans, both SD and RD, were the music directors for most of Mr. Mukherjee's films. The trademark of all the songs was the melody, it is the melody that we all remember, and even now when I listen to some of the songs it brings back old memories of sitting by the radio and listening to the song, or watching those songs in our old ECTV.

Notice how young AB senior looks in Anand (via YouTube). And there is Rajesh Khanna with his trademark eyebrow movements. Remember that and how his head would swivel from one side to the other in a smoth kind of way. There is a young Ramesh Deo, who often played the role of a villan along with Pran, and Prem Chopra.

The Bachchans' early success in the film industry was due to a string of films directed by Mr. Mukherjee. Mili and Guddi shaped the early career of Jaya Bhaduri, now Jaya Bachchan. Anand, Chupke Chupke and Abhiman shaped and launched the career of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. Mr. Bachchan's angry young man phase began with his association with with Salim-Javed around this same timeframe.

Mr. Mukherjee started his film career in Calcutta and relocated to Bombay in 1951 where he was part of Director Bimal Roy's team. Mr. Mukherjee's directed his first film Musafir in 1957. He went on to make a series of successful films including Satyakam, Ashirwad, Guddi, Mili, Chupke Chupke, Abhiman and Anand among others.

Mr. Mukherjee's films were made at a time when the parallel cinema movement in India took off. Imagine the choices you had to make: Ankur or Abhiman or both?

Thanks Mr. Mukherjee for giving us all some fantastic and memorable times through your movies.

YouTube-ization

kamla bhatt — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:10:11 EDT

YouTube-ization. YouTube + politics make for a potent combination, and The New York Times has a timely article on this subject. It starts with Senator Allen's snafu involving a desi student in Virginia.

"Last week, Senator George Allen, the Virginia Republican, was caught on tape at a campaign event twice calling a college student of Indian descent a "macaca," an obscure racial slur.

The student, working for the opposing campaign, taped the comments, and the video quickly appeared on YouTube, where it rocketed to the top of the site's most-viewed list. It then bounced from the Web to the front page of The Washington Post to cable and network television news shows. Despite two public apologies by Senator Allen, and his aides' quick explanations for how the strange word tumbled out, political analysts rushed to downgrade Mr. Allen's stock as a leading contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination."

It was not just Senator Allen, but YouTube has also impacted Senator Liberman's recent elections in Connecticut. He lost the elections. It appears that Senator Liberman's incumbent advantage did not help him win this election.

The article correctly points out that YouTube might play a signicant role in American politics, especially in the upcoming elections and campaign trails. I suspect we might have many YouTube whistle stops this time around, or maybe we should call them YouTube moments (with due apologies to Kodak). Who knows. Later this year, many states will hold their mid-term elections, and the next one after that is the election for a new President.

There are further implications of videosharing websites like YouTube on elections and journatlists. The article underscores this fact:

"Now, as the campaign trail turns into a 24-hour live set, members of the press corps may find themselves starring on YouTube."

But, then in the same breath the article argues, "Then again, YouTube's impact on politics may be exaggerated. For one, the site's users are generally young and not highly engaged politically."

Rollingtone.com labels this as the first YouTube election and writes, "it's clear that YouTube is already changing the game. And politicians of all stripes had better watch out."

It might be too early to predict whether these young users will elect to stay out of politics. They might surprise us all by becoming politically engaged. Remember the last elections, where Paris Hilton and others did their bit and asked us to vote? "It is hot," this YouTube thing. What remains to be seen is if this will become a "hot button" issue for some candidates in 2007.We now have a new word in our lexicon;YouTube-ization. I propose a new verb:YouTubed. Usage: Have you been YouTubed? or, Oh, did you see that K.Johar has been YouTubed?

The YouTube link of Senator Allen and his comments that became the talk of the nation.

The Darjeeling Unlimited: New Hollywood Film From Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson

kamla bhatt — Tue, 8 Aug 2006 12:45:16 EDT

Wes Anderson and his long-time pal Owen Wilson, one of my favorite actors, will be shooting their next film production The Darjeeling Unlimited in India. Beneath those long blond shaggy strands of Owen Wilson's head ticks a sharp and astute brain. Don't be fooled by his blond, surfer dude looks.

Back to the new film.

The new film is called The Darjeeling Unlimited. (I wonder if they got the name for the film by hanging out at Cosmic Cafe in Dallas during the early days of their career? The cafe was owned by a desi from whom they heard lots of desi stories as the story goes).

The shooting for the film will begin by the end of the year when the cast and crew travel to India for a couple of months. The film stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman among others. The story is written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, son of Francis Ford Coppola. Owen, Adrien and Jason play three brother traveling in India.

The first inkling about this film came during a CNN interview with Owen Wilson on July 17, 2006, where he mentioned:

"But I am going to do a movie with my friend Wes [Anderson] in India, and that's not going to be a buddy comedy movie. [I play] one of three brothers, and they go on this journey in India. I haven't really spoken to Wes yet in regards to what I can really talk about."

Since then Wilson has confirmed that he and Anderson are shooting their new film in India. Here is what he told the Melbourne Herald Sun:

"What are you doing next?

I think I'm working on a movie about these kids who are getting bullied and they hire me as a bodyguard. Then there's a movie I'm going to do with Wes in India, that Wes wrote and is directing. It's about three brothers -- with me, Jason Schwartzman and Adrian Brody.

But it's not a Bollywood movie?

No. It's going to be wild. Wes assures me it's great, and I kind of believe him because I think of myself as more likely to go some place where I'd be roughing it before Wes. He likes staying in five-star hotels, and nice things."

Interestingly enough, Owen is starring another new film titled Outsourced. This one is about jobs being outsourced to Mexico, and not to India.

Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson have worked on many films together. Their first film together was Bottle Rocket. Perhaps one of their better-known ones is The Royal Tenenbaums. There has been some talk about the O factor...which is, whether Owen is the key to Wes Anderson's phenomenon. Read the Slate article to find out.