India has “matured”???

The best case that I remember was the Tuffs Shoes advertisement (see pics: 1, 2 & 3) featuring Madhu Sapre, Milind Soman & a Snake. The makers spoke about aesthetic nudity, rightists about blatant obscenity/pornography & the public watched. The ad was banned & both the models lost out on what could have been even better careers. I have no idea what happened to the snake. The Kamasutra Condom ads & “Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai” song from the movie Khalnayak were all highlights of the 1st half of the 90s, where tensions relating to sexuality was building up. Be it M. F. Hussain of Liz Hurley, everyone has faced the wrath of bringing commercialised sexuality to India. This page explains a lot in detail.

And today, as I opened the browser to read the DNA Newspaper, I found this on the 1st page. Agreed, the models have their pants on & the snake has been replaced by another jeans (most probably because of the noise the animal rights activists would have made). But to be on the front page of a National Newspaper? Hmmm…Some call it broad or open mindedness & appreciation of aesthicity.

I find it uncomfortable & even more uncomfortable is the knowledge that the I&B Ministry won’t do anything about it. Unless the rightists take over.

Random…

This song just keeps popping into my mind. Such wonderful lyrics!

I was wondering last night – rather, this morning, on why poets are in so much love with flowers, the moon & the heart. The moon, I can certainly understand – just looking at the moon, on a silent, lonely night. It just brings in such a lot of memories of loved ones & good moments. No idea how or why.

Yesterday was also my grandfather’s birthday – I think it was his 88th or 89th. He seemed more positive than I have seen him be in the past few years. He is now resigned to the fact that he cannot decide when he dies & therefore he should just focus on living. He really lost the passion to live after my grandmother passed away – for a few years he pulled along so that he could finish all his duties – marrying off his granddaughters, dividing his wealth amongst his children & executing the prayers he had promised god. That done, he had been harbouring this feeling that he is a burden on us, especially after his body started weakening. As they say, when the mind loses its reason to live, the body complies with ease & it is actually the other way around when it comes to body weakening & mind still pursuing life. All in all, had a good chat with him. It just amazes me how he is always practical & his words are clear & never need re-thinking or correction.

Daily schedule is “falling” in place – “falling” is the right word because it is dictated by the extraneous forces rather than by myself. But as I’ve always done, am going with the flow & hoping there’s no waterfall around the corner.

Seminars & Meetings…

Attended a seminars by Prof. Tarun Khanna & Mr. Viswa Sadasivan. Prof. Khanna is from Harvard Business School & spoke about Social Entrepreneurs in India – seems like a fantastic career option given India’s massive Social Development requirements. Mr. Sadasivan is a CEO of a consulting firm & a Nominated Member of The Singapore Parliament. He is referred to as the face of Singapore media due to his efforts in the 80s on Singapore TV. Currently, he is famous for the superb but controversial speech he made last week in the Parliament – that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew chose a unexpectedly strong response to his speech is proof enough that Mr. Sadasivan has been touching raw nerves with his effort. Mr. Sadasivan’s grand & yet lucid speechmaking is a treat to listen to & I enjoyed it thoroughly.

M. Govinda Rao’s lecture on Tax Reforms to acclerate India’s growth was a disappointment – that the benchmark for seminars has been set at exemplary heights is true but his effort, not even consisting of a good presentation, was lackluster.

Met Mr. Meloto, the Founder of Gawad Kalinga last evening & he is another phenomenal person that I got meet in the past month. His efforts in Social Development in Philipines is worth a Nobel. It was a privilege that I got to meet him & tap on his wealth of knowledge.

So far, LKYSPP has given a lot of good experiences – I have a feeling that the two years I am going to spend here will surely be an important part of my life.

I learnt…

why laughter & enthusiasm are often prefixed with the adjective “infectious”. The combinations seemed fine until I found that the word really had no positive descriptions in English. That is funny since I had always assumed that it would have some kind of positivity because it is associated with the above mentioned words on certain occations.

Yesterday, I learnt that enthusiasm & laughter need to be bridled with caution. In a world that is experiencing increasing distrust, both of the words above could be mistaken for other not so “nice” expressions. Laughing at a joke has become difficult because one does not want to be identified that he was seen laughing at that joke – given the innumerous undercurrents omnipresent, he might be called insensitive. One now has to look for racial, ethnic, gender or caste based hints in jokes & try to enjoy them in privacy (if I can claim such a thing).

Similar with enthusiasm – I had once read an essay about how when in a group, it is the average age that matters & one’s own age is irrelevant. I am now in constant company of young people with a much better exposure to this world than what I had, resulting in much “happier” attitudes. They certainly are very far from my skeptic-pessimist tendencies. And that has actually been carrying me along without my realization & this posed a serious question yesterday when someone asked what my objective with a particular exercise was. And I there I was unable to answer clearly – to me conviction is fine but unless the clarity in thought is reflected in the clarity of words, it will not work. And yesterday it did not work.

Having spent all my life in social settings, I should consider myself anti-social. I like being with people but not having much to do in what they are doing. I love to just be a part of group and yet be alone. Butthe people I am with these days are so nice – they do so much for others that I got inspired – or should I say infected?

But I realise now – caution is good.

US Policy Questionable?

This is happened twice in the past two days. First, it was the question of the US$ 13 Billion investment to “introduce” high-speed trains in US. In a country that is known for it’s predominant usage of personal transport & a country that is still reeling from the economic disaster, $ 13 Billion is a lot of money to put into something that has a minimal chance of working. Second, the “Cash for Clunkers” Program – if you want people to take up public transport & if you are investing $ 13 Billion into that program (I am not even considering the amounts spent on the Auto Industry Bailouts), why would you even come up with “Cash for Clunkers”? it is a clear question of either-or, because inevitably the Government (and by logic, the taxpayers) stand to loose money & increase the deficit.

Logically, one would want to either support business through loans (and expect the people running the business to take care of costs, demand & profits) or push demand (so that businesses start to make money at current levels). But both? Surprising.

No wonder President Obama called himself the Auto Executive of the Year in his White House Correspondents Speech – his efforts for the industry’s survival have been stellar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0GwZFAV1Lw