Evolution of Indian television?

Had been to N and A's for dinner. They have a subscription to a hindi music channel. I was excited to watch Indian television after eons but what followed was a culture shock. I mean what is Indian television headed towards really? What they try to portray by aping the west is not the real India....not the soul of the people or the essence of the culture. There are innumerable music channels playing the same songs which are either remixes or *inspired* hip-hop numbers. The videos look all the same, similar looking girls, similarly dressed (read skimpily) and similar dance steps (read obscene). Or the other channels run the never-ending saas-bahu soaps!
That set me thinking about the evolution of Indian television in my quarter life.
My earliest memories of television was Lucy on Doordarshan. I simply loved it as a kid. Then there was Yeh jo hai zindagi on Friday evenings and of course Chitrahaar on Wednesday evenings. That was our only choice and we were content. Our viewing was also restricted by mom. Ramayana/Mahabharata, Bikram or Betaal, He-Man, Spiderman, Quiz Time (Siddharth Basu rocked!) , The world this week and a few more was all she let us watch or all that was there to watch. 9 o clock news on DD (Salma Sultan was one of the news readers) was religiously watched.
At that time the possibility of having 50 channels seemed unfathomable. "50 channels, that too all night, you must be kiddin!"
DD2 arrived when I was in my teens....superhit muqabla was the first countdown show I had ever watched and it seemed like a cool concept. But very soon there were hundred other countdown shows and it lost its charm. Cable tv had just been introduced but it had the power of hampering our studies and so was kept away. Then one fine day dad realized that espn and star sports would let him watch sports 24/7, so we stepped into the world of more than 2 channels on television!
First few months I was addicted .... Wonder years, Crystal Maze, Mash, Bold and the beautiful on Star, Nonie and Danny McGill on Channel V, discovery channel, BBC , Star Movies ........
Hip hip hurray and Banegi apni baat on Zee I was hooked to too.
Later there was Mastermind, the Big Fight, Cyrus on MTV, Friends, Dharma and Greg, Mr.Bean and many more interesting shows which I enjoyed watching.
Down the years the influence of Bollywood percolated through all the channels ... and one fine day Ekta Kapoor conquered. Thus followed the downfall of Indian television. Well, downfall not for the profit makers and lot of the junta- the rising TRPs were evidence ... but for a sensible television watcher, it was a catastrophe!
Now television is a money making factory churning out serials from the same plot instead of the media of mass communication that it was intended to be..... very much like current newspapers, where Page 3 is the most read and the frontpage headlines include stories about celebrity affairs leaving space for important issues only in a small corner inside. And noone is to be blamed for this other than us - 'cause they make what we demand. They ape the west, we follow. They make run of the mill soap operas, we cry 'cause Mihir died. They portray women clad in small pieces of cloth, the stores start selling them. They copy songs, we download the ringtones on our mobile devices. They dance to our tunes, we dance to theirs. Fair enough!

Self assessment

Met up with P after work on friday to go for a movie. None of the movies in town seemed interesting enough so went for dinner instead. Margarita, nachos, pasta and an awesome desert called the Molten Chocolate Cake...it was sinful :). Had a late night *adda* at her place talking about various things ranging from serious topics to the not so serious ones. Slept on the drive back home and the inertia of sleep stayed with me the next day too. It was a sleeeeepy saturday.

Some realizations after the chat.... I am paranoid about the future and my ambitions, restless about achieving my goals, worry about something or the other all the time, don't share my deep down feelings with anyone .... and these things are not evident to anyone with whom I interact on a daily basis other than those who are close to me.

On some contemplation I realized why I am this way ..... one - don't want to drag anyone into my problems, they are mine..yes I can discuss but noone can be in my shoes so its entirely my responsibility to solve them, no point cribbing about them , two - I am heading towards being a perfectionist...this raises the bar of the standards I expect, be it in work or people or anything I am involved with , satisfaction does not come easily, three - ambitions which were ingrained into me in childhood are beginning to take shape and I am restless to get till the end, I need tangible results, four - in the bigger picture I don't see my contribution being significant enough..... what exactly am I on this planet for? writing code? I am on a constant search for inner fulfillment..... I know I will do it but when? five - I always compare myself to everyone around me, good or bad .... that makes me more ambitious.
I have to work on calming down, relaxing and taking life as it comes. Maybe I should dance and paint more often, they are an outlet of my pent up thoughts and unexpressed feelings which I feel noone will understand. Its meditation for me and I should start soon....now.

Twins are reborn

4 and 3/4 years back an attack planned by our fellowmen killed thousands of other fellowmen, ruined the families of many more fellowmen.....
When I visited the site in the middle of the night a year back in the midst of a bustling city I felt a lot of things that I hadn't felt when I had seen the incident on television....
I stood there looking up at the other mammoth structures above me and imagined standing there on that day witnessing a structure twice the height of the mammoth structures I was seeing, collapse, seeing people jump out of windows from 100 floors above, flame and fire, rubble and concrete, screams and sirens, blood and tears............
The area was surrounded by metal fences with pictures of the incident and the rescue process, there were numbers and facts written on boards for everyone to read but what caught my eye was a bunch of fresh flowers placed in front of those gates with a note that said "Happy Anniversary Honey - love you always"................
Today I read this.
Will they stand up again, fearless and majestic? Or will they be haunted by memories and scared of the future?They have a reason to.

Rainy days and errands

I hate paperwork! Running from one place to another just to get a signature?! Taking an appointment a week in advance just to submit a paper or get an approval. I mean why can't there be a simpler process?? Took an afternoon off today to complete the paperwork and nothing got done!!!! Was compeltely annoyed and to add to it it was ranining all day, continuously and I hate rain when I have to be outside running errands and when the edges of my trousers get sloshed with mud, eeks.

To vent out the frustration a lil bit, had a good meal of chalupas, did some shopping at Circuit city...A and I had been planning to get a cam for a long time cos our previous one wasn't working anymore and moreover ours was 3 years old, too ancient in comparison with the latest models in the market. After innumerable arguments about whether to buy the slimmer one or a bigger one, the trade off being the quality and features of course , after some market research and trying out a couple of them we decided on the canon sd450, small , less shutter lag, good quality pics and SD card. The only problem with these slimmer cameras is they don't take AAs, so we have to carry the charger just in case the battery dies.

To vent out a lil more of the frustration after the dragging day, had mango milkshake and listened to some awesome tabla and sitar jugalbandi on full volume.....that was truly relaxing.

Tomorrow is Friday , will have lunch with all the Indian ladies in our division. The invitation for the meeting was hilarious - "Lunch and gupshup" !

Whats with age!

Pool party at N's was great. Barbecue and a swim at 8 o clk in the night was crazy! Even crazier was the fact that we were not permitted to use the pool beyond dusk and that we set off an alarm trying to open a door and also while playing chicken in the water I sprained my neck! Totally crazy but enjoyable, certainly! (Brought out the child in us for sometime!)

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Watched That thing you do today. I had seen the movie before on Star Movies when I was in high school and at that time it had seemed like a nice movie. Today I just couldn't concentrate or enjoy the movie...the predictability of the story, the boyish faces, the teenagerish dialogs and cliched direction got me bored.....
Am I growing old?? (I know I am but this is a serious symptom, no more lovey dovey scenes or sob stories for me. Or maybe I have just matured as a movie watcher and critic. hmmm)

'Oceanic' music

Indian Ocean in concert was terrific! They played all my favorites: Kya Maloom, Hille re, Jhini re jhini, Ma Reva. The good part is that before they played each song, they outlined the meaning and the significance of the song and how they came up with it. Good instruments, great music, awesome lyrics: a terrific show all in all.
Their music is indeed extraordinary , the 'depth' of the lyrics, the 'vastness' of the variety of instruments, rhythms, vocals and the languages in which their songs are written, the 'versatility' of the members, the 'strength' of their voices, their 'cool' attitude and the 'liveliness' of their performance really made them live up to their name: Indian Ocean.
At the end of the show they left an open question to us: what would you call their music? world music and fusion is not what they wanted to hear ..something different. They mentioned that their music at one time seemed similar to sufi but it wasn't Sufi so they called in Loofy !
I think I would call it 'oceanic' because an ocean is beautiful, soul moving, inspiring, pleasing to the ears, a pleasure to watch, deep, meaningful, vast, versatile, strong, cool, blue and full of life - just like their music.

Eventful weeks

Its been a while ..... the past weeks have been hectic
A recap of what I did in the past few weeks:

Beach trip to Wilmington: long drive, sand castles, cold water, cheese sandwiches, sunsoaked siesta and sunset....beautiful

Weekend trip to Ashville, Smokies and Gatlinburg: Friday evening we arrived at Ashville. It is a small quaint town with a very lively and arty downtown. The city was awake till the wee hours of the morning. We walked down the roads watching street artistes perform, stopping at small coffee shops where people were seated outside and having a good time listening to live bands performing, the noodle shop where you could custom order noodles, a big standing iron where I posed uncountable times to get the right shot, and old and young couples walking hand in hand.
Saturday we drove through the Smokies to Gatlinburg. The smokies (Great Smoky Mountains, one of the most visited National Park in US) were beautiful in spite of being barren. They are renowned for their fall colors.... it was foggy and chilly and rained a bit, but the wetness added to the beauty. The smokies were inhabited by the eastern band of Cherokees till Europeans came to occupy their lands and a lot of them were forced to vacate. Some of their clan still live there having adopted professions related to tourism. So very often you can see Indians (or whom we Indians call red Indians) dressed in regular denim and t-shirts selling mementos and handicraft in small shops in the valleys.
Gatlinburg at the foothills of the smokies is a small town in Tennessee, a major tourist attraction. A small town with a lots of stuff to do.... Guiness Museum of Records, Ripley's believe it or not, Ripley's haunted adventure, sky lift, a huge aquarium, horse riding etc. There was a candy store which displayed the entire candy making process which was intersting. The popular food around the place was pancakes and donuts. Had a long and adventurous day.
Sunday we visisted the Biltmore Estates in Ashville - America's largest private owned residence - the same place where the movie Richie Rich was shot. and yeah it was H U G E! With over 200 rooms and 46 restrooms, stables, gardens, swimming pool, lawns,a pond, stables and even their own winery. The most interesting part of the house was the kitchen, pantry, refrigerator and laundromat - the technology they used in that era was fascinating. At a time when not every house had electricity the house had an indoor heated swimming pool! The views from the rooms were beautiful,peaks at a distance and lush greenery. Not only was the architecture or technology appealing, the history of the place was fascinating..... walking through rooms, hallways and staircases where a 19th century family resided, their lifestyle, incidents were a great experience. There was a flower festival in the gardens, got to see some beautiful tulips. An old man playing soft tunes on his keyboards in the wooden covered path amidst the flower beds added to the serenity of the place. The winery was our last stop. They walked us through the entire process of wine making , including distillation and fermentation. There was a wine library - a cellar where old wine stacked in shelves had been preserved for years. Then there was the wine tasting experience.... the connoisseur that I am (:), the only knowledge of wine that I have is that they are made from grapes and could be either white or red :D) .... first time I learnt the difference between chardonnay, reisling, chenin blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, chiraz etc. After tasting some nine different types I decided that I like the sweeter white wines ( now I don't remember their names :( ).
After the Biltmore tour we headed back home .... from a long relaxing weekend to Monday morning blues, from quaint beautiful small towns in the midst of mountains to city life and traffic.

Other than the trips the other events of the weeks include a new hobby: cryptic crosswords, some progress in my thesis, a party at J's place where we played taboo against the guys and defeated them (;-) ) by coming up with new strategies ("Sounds like pottery starts with L" hahhaa!!!) , a first round interview with my dream company which went well, some new clothes and a shoe sale, a surprise gift with a message hidden in an anagram engraved, ice age- the meltdown at the theatre with the kids, PI - a crazy movie, the thomas crown affair - same ol thriller, being cyrus - another evidence of changing Bollywood, zinda - let down compared to the original movie OldBoy one of my all time favorite thrillers, first time attempt to make capsicum stuffed with paneer, cleaning the closet, germination of the plants which we had sown in the beginning of spring and B's first attempt at DJ'ing under the alias DJ SnowGirl (hilarious)

That was a good recap, I think!!