Desicritics Category: Culture: Travel

Cape Town in 48 Hours

Sanks — Sun, 8 Mar 2009 15:03:06 EDT

If there is heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this, said the Mughal Emperor Jehangir for Kashmir in India. I am sure that if he would have seen Cape Town, he would have said the same.

En route to a desert adventure trip in Namibia, I had only 48 hours to spare. Cape Town is located on the southwestern tip of the African continent and I could not pass up the chance to stand at the historic Cape of Good Hope, the same spot that Vasco de Gama rounded on his way to Asia. So I decided to go for it!

The Table Mountain is the focal point for the locals and is visible from almost anywhere in Cape Town. A visit to this famous landmark, right at the beginning, helped me get my bearings. Though there are many hiking trails to the top, I took the cable car, which rotates 360 degrees and affords some fantastic views on the ascent. Reaching the peak of a mountain cannot get easier than this. The top of the mountain is so flat that you can keep walking for two hours without falling off the summit. There is also a restaurant for refreshments. Such luxury at 1067 m above sea level! On a clear day, the views from the Table Mountain are unrivalled. But alas!, on that day, the clouds and the mist had spilled over, shrouding the mountain in its tablecloth. However, I did manage to capture some beautiful pictures at Bloubergstrand, where the Table Mountain can be viewed flanked by Devil’s Peak on the left and the Lion's Head on the right.

The legendary Cape of Good Hope is popularly perceived as the colliding point of the cold Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean and the warm Agulhas Current of the Indian Ocean. Standing at the most southwestern point of the African continent, amid the rugged landscape, looking over the foaming waters that stretch as far as the Antarctic, I felt as if I was living a piece of history when the courageous early explorers navigated the "fairest cape in the whole circumference of the Earth". Mother Nature has been particularly benevolent in bestowing this region with a rich variety of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic (ocurring naturally nowhere else on earth). No wonder the Cape peninsula is home to the smallest of the six floral zones of the world.

The Indian Ocean on the eastern seaboard of the Cape peninsula is warmer, the shallow waters extending quite far and therefore best for swimming. A short drive across this narrow finger of land is the Atlantic Ocean on the western seaboard, which is some degrees cooler than the Indian Ocean. The beaches on the Atlantic side enjoy longer daylight hours and offer spectacular sunsets. Also known as Cape Town "Riviera", these beaches are frequented by the fashionable set and stretch from the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront to the Hout Bay.

Still a working harbour, the V &A waterfront boasts many world-class five star hotels and is the more upmarket option for staying. It is the perfect spot to hang out when you are in the mood to "paint the town red", with opportunities galore for shopping and entertainment. The Belthazar restaurant offers a complete dining experience, with the juiciest steaks and the finest wines. The amphitheatre here showcases some extremely talented street performances, giving a glimpse of African music and dance. I loved the Victorian style architecture of the buildings in the harbor and spent some time observing harbor activity.

A more economical and "heart of the city" option is Longstreet and the adjoining Greenmarket Square. It is only a 10 minute drive from the V & A waterfront, though there are many pubs and restaurants in the vicinity too.

The cobbled Greenmarket Square hosts a daily market, where beautiful curios from all over Africa can be bought at bargain prices. Numerous cafes line the square, offering respite from the frenetic pace and an opportunity to quietly observe the craft on display at the Square. This gives time to decide on that perfect "dinner conversation- inducing" adornment for your house. The part of Cape Town nestled between the Table Mountain and the harbour is aptly called the City Bowl and is best explored on foot. Armed with a guidebook, it took me a couple of hours to visit St Georges Mall, the City Hall and the District Six Museum.

At the end of 48 hours, Cape Town had completely wooed me and I vowed to return for whale watching at Hermanus, tour the spectacular vineyards, do the Garden Route.......

A Journey That Continues

Kishore — Thu, 5 Mar 2009 13:04:24 EST

He was a nice looking gentleman wearing an oversize coat and thick mufflers around his neck, who acceded to taking a picture of me and V standing on the edge of Dolphin’s Nose. “So where are you from?” he asked me handing over the camera to V. “I... Er... I’m from...”, I fumbled. V did better. She smiled, as she secured the camera into its case.

It was an incredible moment in our lives. A moment when we realized, we didn’t have an answer to the most rudimentary question of existence – “Where are you from?” Well, let me see. We have moved three cities in two countries in four months, have our belongings lying in five cities across the two countries and have no idea where we would be four weeks from this minute.

Things weren’t supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be happy days ahead. Family, elders and all that, you know? A fairy tale of the prince and princess living happily ever after. It sure was a fairy tale of sorts, until the day we called bitter-gourd bitter. Ever wondered calling bitter-gourd bitter could bring you trouble for the rest of your life?

Many months after that ignominious moment of getting reprimanded for stating the obvious, troubles continued. “Elementary my dear Watson.”, a well wisher suggested, “Everyone has troubles. Just deal with it.” Deal with it, huh? At what price? A few hundred dollars of happiness would do? Heard they started selling that thing in Wal-mart these days. So I could’ve helped myself, you know, with a few capsules whenever there was trouble.

We are dealing with it alright. But not like the Goody two shoes that we used to be. Although no one knows it that way. Life is simple. People are not. They are high on illusion or hung over on reality. So much so that any attempts at talking them out of their ridiculous assumptions or psychic outbursts only falls into deaf years. We became weary of our condemned routine and decided to find our own way.

We are on the move, although no one knows the real reasons of what we are doing or where we are moving. "Family" thinks we are happy. The indicators are there – we travel, we do the vacations, we shop, we laugh, what else one needs to know if someone is actually happy? For them, we are the good kids who do a lot of traveling on business. To ourselves, we are lost rowing in a sea without a compass and the shore is nowhere in sight.

May be we could still have waited for more time, until the day when the deaf ears would open up. May be, if we could’ve drugged ourselves with a few capsules of Solvomycin from Wal-mart, everything would’ve been solved and life would’ve been back to being a fairy tale. Life is a honey moon. Except that the honey doesn’t taste good at some times, and the moon is hidden by clouds at other times.

“Deal with it, kid”, an elder told me. “It’s the same with everyone”, a veteran confided. “You can’t run away from troubles. You’ll have to come back to it someday”, told a peer. I agree with everyone. Except that they are not me, and they haven’t seen what I’ve seen. But how do you tell the world you don’t bother about it anymore? I guess you just don’t. And that’s what we’ve done. Kept quiet, and moved. “Cheeky, but you did the right thing”, a friend smiled when he heard our story, “Life finds a way”.

We’ve set out to do what we think is our pursuit of happiness. We are moving places, driving in near-zero visibility. We don’t know where our next turn is, or how long until we stop again. We don’t know if we’ll run out of gas, or reach our hitherto unknown destination soon enough. We don’t know if we are alone, or there are other cars beside us. But we do know that we’ll keep driving.

Poetry: Roadkill On Memory Lane

IdeaSmith — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:55:50 EST

Did you ever hear the call of memory
that screeching wail of nostalgia
like tires on tar
and you couldn't help looking back,
wondering if anybody died
and realising it wasn't you?

Did you turn back to proceed
and gape at the unfamiliarity of now
the past and its accidents seem so much real
and feel yourself lose footing on the road of reality
while even the blood stains from yesterday's carnage
fade away before you can grasp them?

Did you ever walk back into your past
and then find yourself lost,
not knowing how to come back
- Nostalgia is so disorienting -
and while you're frozen in your own mind
you get hit by a flood of something you never saw coming?

Maybe forgetfulness is just a way of ensuring we don't become roadkill.

Movie Review : Delhi 6

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:14:22 EST

Rakyesh Mehra's penchant for finding the heart of gold or its core of darkness within the Indian ethos continues with his latest film, Delhi 6. This is more a montage of social and visually stimulating vignettes than the traditional straight narrative Bollywood delivers, despite its mostly linear plotline. It gets the message across, at first subtly, then finally resorting to using a hammer to ensure the audience that stayed till the last gets the point, as it were.

Recession-hit or just bored, Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) brings his ailing grandmother home to Delhi, Delhi 6, to be precise, to fulfil her desire to die in her ancestral home and not in the strange land of her immigrant children. He discovers facets of urban India apart from the booming newTowns, and she discovers that it is no place to die, having changed despite outward appearances. Yet, the old pathways still have a way of bonding antagonists that goes beyond recent ideologies. Tribal and animistic linkages make all the difference, and Indian idols are there to be broken.

There are other random characters, happenstances, some pretty good music, and media frenzy - pigeons fly, cows deliver, and the Taj is mostly empty - the recession, no doubt. The breaking news is that this is all commonplace in the chaotic maelstrom of Delhi-6, and India rising. The rising India, though, is beset by boogeymen, demon warriors, and monkeys. This is as it has always been, yet the film takes a Western slant to reach its climax - going for a scapegoat, a sacrificial lamb, whose executioner, stereotypically enough, is a Bollywood mainstay.

The more interesting tack of offering up Bittu to the ape, Fay Wray-like, is not taken, and the subversive themes of breaking caste barriers, loose and forward photographers, etc., are barely explored, instead subjecting us to an unending array of media placement that merely serves to illustrate that most news people just talk about the news, meta-news as it were.

The superlative actors mostly serve to render their characters well, not going further, and this is the film's greatest failing - that such fine characters/actors are wasted in the quest of making an ideological point that could have been delivered in the director's commentary. Once the point is hammered in, the characters fade away, leaving us with a mostly forgettable film.

Parking in Cairo

Sanks — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:02:24 EST

When we received my mom at the airport, her first remark on being escorted to our car was “has your car been banged up? Why are there so many dents and scratches on your car?” And we had to explain to her how difficult it would be to find a “scratch-free” car in Cairo due to the peculiarities of “road etiquette” here. She was convinced about this that same night, when we were returning home from dinner. Our chauffeur turned the car into a lane and then immediately braked and started backing out-the reason being that another car was coming in from the other end and there was space for only one car to pass through. No, he had not entered into a “one-way” lane. It had been converted into a “one-way” lane due to the cars that were parked on both sides of the lane. And while observing these parked cars, my mom realized that indeed there was not a car to be found that did not have chipped paint, a bent fender, or scratched body.

Here in Cairo, double parking is the norm and not the exception. And don’t be surprised if you find the cars “triple” parked too, leaving only a single lane for the moving cars, on what was probably a three lane road! What happens to the poor guy who has parked on the kerb, when he wants to move out his car? Not to worry-Cairo and Cairenes have a solution for that too! A person who double parks or triple parks, just leaves his car in “neutral”-so when his his/ her car is blocking another car, it is just “nudged” backwards or forwards (as the case may be), out of the way and then “nudged” back into its spot! So convenient! No need to waste time searching for a parking spot and everyone is happy! But not the best for the car necessarily! Because all this “nudging’ and “pushing” is bound to leave a scratch on the car.

The Cairenes have a special fascination for their cars and will not scrap an old car even if they don’t use it anymore. They would rather just cover up the car and let it occupy precious space on the streets (and thereby multiply the parking problem!) than let it go. I don’t know the reason for this- maybe it is some kind of status symbol to have many cars, even if some are ready to be scrapped! Also, such cars, if used, can only be a menace on the roads and also contribute to the pollution.

The high-rises, apartments and office blocks are made with little or no provision for parking, compounding the problem. I can only imagine the residents of such high-rises or the people working there, circling the block, striving to find a place to park their car.

I am not driving in Cairo but my husband does on occasions and he has this interesting experience to share. The lane leading to his office is narrow to begin with; the cars parked on both sides making it even narrower-so that even if yours is the only car in that lane, it requires some skillful driving to get through without “kissing” the cars on either side. So what hubby does is –when he reaches that lane, he stops for a moment, ascertains that there is no other car in that lane (actually he makes sure that there is not even a remote possibility of another car) coming in from the other end and then quickly drives down the lane and breathes easy only when he has reached the other end. Reversing the car in such close confines would be quite a task!

In fact, the parking problem in Cairo is so acute that some people ingeniously make a living out of it. Near major shopping areas, offices and restaurants, don’t be surprised if as you slow down looking for a parking spot, a man materializes and offers to guide you into a parking space and look over your car till you return in exchange for a “tip”.

Changez - Alive in Pakistan

Ms. Anona — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:02:26 EST

As the pages of history are turned, it can be difficult to envision the same emphatic characters learned through books and in classrooms fitting into the saga of modern times. Names such as Genghis “Changez” Khan are often spoken about in folklore as if history exists in its own unattainable dimension, distinct from the perils of today. Over seven hundred years have passed since the peak of the Mongol Empire, the most influential and contiguous dynasty to exist in Central Asia in all time, but the legacy remains still.

To many, it may be difficult to understand why Changez Khan, a man with an insatiable appetite for blood could be looked at as such an admirable figure. His name in many circles has become synonymous with lying, killing and betrayal. He was quoted to have exclaimed that his greatest joy came after seeing the ashes of the cities and the tears of the people he conquered. But there is yet another side of the story, one of great humanity and rule of law (‘Yaza’) that is still applicable. It can be said without too much stretch of the imagination that the same roots laid out by his governance are encoded in the modern-day manifestation in at least one of the countries touched by his empire, that being the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Pakistan, in many ways borders on contemporary democratic ideals, but remains a theocracy at heart, and at times colluding in conflict. Throughout its sixty plus years of existence, it has seen its share of despots and warlords engaging in corruption and broken promises. On the political turf, not much seems to have changed in Pakistan since barbarians ruled. Its leaders seem to have forgotten Yaza and abandoned it for their own ad hoc interpretation of moral conduct. This is apparent in the recent developments at Lal Masjid where under former President Pervez Musharraf up to a thousand people were massacred for following a most fundamental adherence to Islamic Law and abandoning the state over something that would be considered First Amendment rights in the United States. Historically, nearly the same thing happened when Changez conquered Baghdad in his time. He entered the religious center in modern day Iraq and killed a few hundred people, some praying, others hiding. Both leaders claimed they were killing militants, but in the most recent case, they were almost all women and children.

Today Pakistan has a new President, Asif Zardari, formerly known as Mr. 10%, based on his infamous and unlawful taxing schemes and extortion. The President claims to be a follower of Yaza and used his knowledge superiority to defeat opponents when they were least expecting it in the latest election. The problem is that when he was elected he made a staunch promise to the party and the people of Pakistan that he would free the judiciary and restore the suspended judges that had been removed under President Musharref. This is a situation of utmost concern to the people of Pakistan and without it freedom towards granting a fair trial is impeded regularly. Only with a free judiciary will no single entity be treated as above the law. Right now, powerful landlords or certain members of the armed forces can easily be granted impunity from the law.

The dilemma with Pakistan, as seen from history’s eyes, is that our leaders instead of confronting the turmoil of our era prefer to bow down before individual situations and submit, many times abandoning the will of the people. These same leaders will easily thwart anyone who vocalizes criticisms towards the differing regimes. If someone who is not part of the elitist rank and file rises amongst the way, that man is seen as a hindrance to the structure and his voice is easily suppressed. Islamic law, although it may be difficult for the outside world to see at times, has its roots in democracy and makes a clear attempt to disable hierarchies where influential people become above the law. It is the hope of the people that Pakistan becomes democratic in nature, while still adhering to a higher purpose obtained through Islamic Law. These ideals, although difficult to pursue, need not be conflicting.

It is ultimately up to the people of Pakistan to join together and fight for their unalienable rights, a daunting task nonetheless. As seen today, the hope of a nation to balance democracy with Islamic Law may lie in one man, former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharief, who is currently leading the popular party. Pakistan needs a leader who is well-versed in the political landmines that lay before it, but someone who will not abandon the people’s voice when the time comes. During Sharief’s previous reign, he never forgot his elected role in providing education to all people, creating party networks fighting for labor rights, and ending feudal societies. The economy through the industrial sector rose and was successful. He made Pakistan a nuclear power, a source of pride for the Pakistani people. He did this not to threaten other countries, but for the purpose of defense.

Pakistan, although in the midst of mass international tensions, is comparatively a homogeneous nation of immense ideological solidarity throughout the overwhelming majority. The will of the people will not anytime soon separate or distinguish between the codes of ethics laid out in religion from that of the political arena. The conflict comes when leaders in Pakistan are boasted as sort of messianic figures, embodying the image of a god-like figure, much closer to divinity than any common man. This type of thought is dangerous and goes against a nation backed up by the concepts of old, Yaza. Pakistan as a nation needs to get back on track and find the roots of their ideology and interpret it in their own unique way that will be beneficial and yet not contradictory to modern political thought.

After Changez Khan passed and the empire was given to his descendants and successors, the new leaders became spiritually depraved, no longer wanting to follow Yaza, and the empire fell apart. They lacked the ability to commit to something that demanded high morals and unswerving loyalty and dedication to rigid principles. They instead concerned themselves with the pursuit of material riches and short-term goals of this world. Changez Khan warned about this in his time and his words are as true today as much as at any time in history. "If the great, the military leaders and the leaders of the many descendants of the ruler who will be born in the future, should not adhere strictly to the Yaza, then the power of the state will be shattered and come to an end, no matter how they then seek Genghis Khan, they shall not find him….. Be of one mind and one faith, that you may conquer your enemies and lead long and happy lives."

Guest post by Shahzeb Mughal and Malika Zafar.

MTV Roadies: The Hellish Indian Mentality Laid Bare

Deepti Lamba — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:48:10 EST

The third episode of MTV Roadies: Hell Down Under in Udaipur (no Australia?) made for a sobering viewing. The ugly side of human nature was laid bare.There was slander and assassination of character, physical brutality, cussing, blatant racism and lack of respect of cultural differences.

Yes, all the typical Indian vices were laid bare, where two people who spent time alone naturally became the target of gossip. A girl's character was assassinated, the girls judged the woman in question and the boys congratulated the man who had the supposed tryst.

We've all seen it play out in our schools and colleges. The woman is called a slut for being 'forward' or 'liberal'. The sexist game at its worst being played out by the supposed globalized generation had me shake my head. India still had its mind in the gutters.

Then came the term- Chinkie! I cringed. Chinkie?! And my mind went back to the recent conversation I accidentally eavesdropped on a few days back when a man had called a North Easterner a hot chinkie. We still have a long way to being politically correct in our thinking, words and actions.

The cat fights continued with a man thrown in like a wish bone to be fought over.

Then there was the snide immature politicking to get a guy beaten up by another hot headed jack ass.

Weight jokes were made, a woman verbally assaulted an overweight guy and another man passed a sexist remark that she should be let off since she was a girl.

A man made a mockery of a folk dance and finally the hotel was turned into a hoodlum boarding house by the crew of the show and by the team members, who placated the hotel staff when they were asked to leave the premises..

I haven't taken any names here deliberately. These were acts committed by Indians , these were acts we see happen all the time in our society, we read about them, we fight over them and we find ourselves either perpetuating them or being the victims.

The ugly underbelly of India was laid bare in all its festering rottenness and the episode left a sour taste in my mouth.

MTV Roadies - Hell Between The Legs

Deepti Lamba — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:28:53 EST

The pain really did begin down and under. And it was the type that had men on bended knees. And they took it like men between the legs. The wacks landed on the balls while they wore nothing more than their boxers.

That's what it means to a Roadie - to have balls of steel!

Did I get put the cart before the bull or was it a Pushkar camel?

MTV Roadies- Hell Down Under seems to have turned gorgeous Rajasthan into a simmering desert of politicking, kitty fights, shit picking rigor, ball-whacking terror and tears of sadness.

The Roadies were divided into green and blue teams and the war began from then on. Their first task was to pick up animal shit - cow dung, camel dung (one Roadie even touched human poop) at the Pushkar animal fair and whichever team picked the maximum poop got fifty grand in their team's account.

Bobby's team won the round and consecutively they won the next round(which granted them immunity against being voted out) as well where they had to interpret words spoken in pure Hindi. And for the generation that grew up with Hinglish the price for every wrong answer was payed not by the girls but by the guys who had to take the punishment between their legs and boy did it hurt bad.

We sat and watched with horrified expressions. The whacking was painful and the girls empathized with the the boys of their teams with every answer they got wrong.

The tasks were fun to watch but more so were the fights Gurmeet found herself embroiled in with other girls. Back biting, cussing and boys holding Gurmeet back from beating the girls in question into pulp made the show worth watching. The woman has a mouth that would put even a sailor to shame. Come to think of it no sailor worth his salt no matter how many years spent on the sea alone with his mates would want to spend a minute with that feisty babe much less do her.

Which is why when the voting out of one of Gurmeet's team members came up Puneet from Bobby's team gave her the right to have her vote be counted twice over. And as it happened one of the strongest member of Gurmeet's team- Varisha was booted out and Paulami the head nodding brainless sweet twit remained.

Gurmeet it seemed to be under the delusion that Puneet was siding with her. Little did she realize that not only was he looking out for his team but more so for being the last to be left behind - for him to be the Roadie of Season 6.

Gurmeet is a team breaker and yet none of her mates had the balls to vote her out. Why? the question remains and sweet booted out Varisha knew they had cooked their goose well.

MTV Roadies - Hell Down Under is slowly cooking the little froggies well in the broth of future fame and money. How far are these children ( as Bumpy from the crew called them) willing to go and at what cost?

By the way Bumpy Baba, the director of the show also took the rap between his bright red Boxers just to make sure the ball-whacker was effective. And it hurt like hell.

The ball-whacking activity was the idea of none other than Raghu the imp.

The show is worth staying tuned to and has me hooked. Darn it! that girl Gurmeet has me hooked line and sinker with her shrewish temperament.

Yes, you Gurmeet. You are a rowdy but a Roadie? That remains to be seen.

MTV Roadies - Hell Began In India

Deepti Lamba — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:33:07 EST

I used to consider TV game shows to be below my dignity. Yeah, add your idol frenzy to it or that damn dance Nach Baliye type of crap till one fine day my husband made me see two bald men take the trip of goonks who had come to audition for MTV Roadies - Hell Down Under. (I woke up to the show on the sixth season; shame on me)

I watched them fuck around with people who could best be classified as losers (of course there were exceptions) with dreams of being the next Roadie in their eyes. Raghu and Rajiv, the two bald twin brothers had this strange synergy between them that only twins apparently have. They picked up each others' conversation as if they knew what the other was thinking and they ripped apart the participants' self esteem within a matter of few minutes and that too in classic Hindi vulgarity that I so love.

Some left with tears in their eyes. Yeah, well, they had been warned. The two brothers weren't there to make social chit chat but to select people who had nerves of steel and sadly the one who truly was Roadie material in my books was voted out in the first episode itself- Sufi.

It was obvious why Sufi had been voted out. The man had the makings of a Bollywood hero. He had camera presence, seemed to be a man of stable character and integrity. When he was voted out he said he wanted to use the money to help build his parent's business. His words seemed genuine and I felt bad watching him go.

But a man like Sufi seems to have the will to make it big and I sure hope to see him make it big in Bollywood.

There are three other people I have taken a liking for - Bobby, Roop and baby faced Sandeep.

Bobby and Roop seem to be the only girls with intelligence in the show and I especially liked the way Roop took Gurmeet's trip.

Gurmeet tried her best to project herself to be a hip girl with a devil may care attitude but she turned out to be a chicken shit babe unable to deal with criticism when it came at her headlong from Roop. At the truth or dare game she tried to put Roop in a spot but when Roop turned tables on her she pulled the - 'I don't want to play this game' shit and had the other contestants guffaw.

The less said about Gurmeet the better. Actually the less she shows of herself the better for the viewers. Her bulky curves in tight t-shirts and thunder thighs in tiny shorts are complete eye sore. But the one person who beats Gurmeet hollow is Paulami.

Paulami thinks she is da bomb! Wait! she thinks she is a Bipasha look alike and thinks she is the best dressed and hottest babe amongst the Roadies. Fact is anyone who meets Paulami would die to ask her if her plastic surgeon had botched her face.

The woman looks like witch out of one those horror Ramsay brother flicks but even witches are allowed to think they are hot- its a matter of self esteem and who am I to disabuse them of these notions.

The women of substance on this show are Roop and Booby. They are witty and can easily take the other women up and shred them into bits and on Roadies cat fights are always hot especially when the air headed 'I am so hot' babes gets slammed by the real street smart goddesses.

The men become insignificant at that point. But the men I am rooting for are Sandeep and for Pradeep.

Pradeep is a street smart surd and knows how to manipulate his way through the game. He understands its better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend. He sidelined Gurmeet when he backed up Roop. Gurmeet, he seemed to have realized was nothing more than a dumb babe with a loud mouth and he didn't want to be seen siding with her. Clever dude.

Sandeep till now has stayed out of controversy but been yakking a lot in front of the camera. I know this baby faced dude with thick Delhi-ite accent would not last on Roadies Down Hell Under but then again it would be fun to see how a gentle giant handles himself amongst poisonous snakes.

The other Roadies wanna be players are insignificant in my mind since they have not done much to get my attention. And for those who want to read up more on them there is stuff about them on the main site but it would do them good to get a bit more in the limelight because the audience doesn't care much for wall flowers no matter how pretty (yeah like Suzanne with her hooked nose) may be.

The behind the scene peek was also fun to watch and Ragu's departure was indeed a loss to the show but these people are weird enough to keep us entertained in Hell Down And Under for an entire season.

BBC Series Review: The Story of India

Blokesablogin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:09:44 EST

Like Slumdog Millionaire, yet another Indophilic British production http://www.pbs.org/thestoryofindia/about/episode_summaries/, this time around, less fiction and more fact on Indian History. While I missed watching the first 2 episodes, I did get around to watching the next 2 exotically titled Spice Routes and Silk Routes and Ages of Gold.

Michael Wood, the narrator and primary tour de force for this series has this infectious enthusiasm about India and the remnants of history that continue to find relevance in the 21st century. At least, that is what I got out of his portrayal of "Indian History" through the eyes of a "foreigner".

If objectivity is the value of having "foreign" accounts to be given greater academic honor than Indian sources, so be it. However, I have never understood why Indian notes on their economic interactions with the Romans or the Greeks never find value in western sources cited in academic circles- a bit one sided, don't you think?

While the British continue to believe that it is their duty to interpret the history of the world, including the only surviving ancient civilization of the world (apart from the Chinese- but they have lost a lot of their "cultural currency" to communism), India continues to muddle along just fine with all the good and bad press. She is a juggernaut. Nothing can stop her. And that is precisely Michael Wood's point.

My perusal of Tamil texts when forced to learn that classical language in school mentioned economic ties with ancient Rome, and a healthy one that was under the title Pandaikaala Tamizhargal (ancient Tamils). Nowhere in any of my NCERT Indian History books did I find any information regarding the economic links between ancient South India and Rome. Michael Wood's serial is perhaps the first one of its kind where sufficient Southern Indian History has been included in telling the story of the sub continent, much of it missing from regular Indian History textbooks. His inclusion of bits from Turkmenistan and Afghanistan makes the telling more congruous.

Of course, it is your classic textbook version of history- none of the challenging of the Aryan Invasion Theory stuff- I was hoping to see some updated version and sadly disappointed. The usual Romila Thappar variety of "Hindu brahmins" destroying the society and causing the rise of Buddhism etc.

All the interviews and visuals are desperate straw clinchers. We need to be well versed in Indian History to fill in the details. After all, telling the story of India that spans over 10,000 years (according to Wood's synopsis of the series) within 6 hours is indeed a Herculean task. Kudos to him for even trying to attempt it.

The excessive shots of the Indian Railways was overmuch in a land filled with History. It was interesting to see how he "put words" into the mouth of his interviewees. Like him interpreting the Karkathars tradition as being responsible for irrigation (after talking about the Grand Anaikat) when they are actually farmers who farmed their land on rainwater alone. One of the serious gaffes he makes is in his interview with the current Maharaja of Thanjavur. He mistakes him to be of the lineage of Raja Raja Chola. Little does he realize that the current lineage is Marathi and has no connection with the Cholas. Oh well.

I suppose, one can get overwhelmed with India if you are not "born" there. For instance, in this shot in Madurai, where Wood is "soaking in" the market place with its colorful array of products, his jaw is almost hanging- as he admits. For the average Indian, it is Ghar ki murgi daal baraabar (taken for granted) attitude.

There is this cute shot of him chatting up 9 ladies from Ahmedabad who are on their pilgrimage to Mathura. The true "emancipation" of Indian women is exposed there- the women are on their own with no husbands to cramp their style! I remember my grandmother going on such a pilgrimage with her Mahila Mandali way back in the 70s with none of them speaking a word of Hindi!

If you would still like to catch this series, you still can on PBS in the US. It airs Monday night (19th Jan).