Controversies galore!

Amitabh inaugurated a college in Allahabad (his place of birth) on his daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan' name AND A CONTROVERSY BROKE OUT! -- why does he not make the college in Mumbai when he is living here!?

One of Konkana' dialogues in her movie 'ake up Sid' had the word Bombay in it as opposed to the new and legally enforced Mumbai AND A CONTROVERSY BROKE OUT!! and we were subjected to reels of newsprint about Karan Johar making a beeline to the MNS office.

Shahrukh recently stated that Pakistani cricketers should be allowed to play in the IPL AND A CONTROVERSY BROKE OUT!!!

Aamir said that it is the hero/heroine that make a song immortal and not its lyrics as said by Javed Akhtar the great legend AND A CONTROVERSY BROKE OUT!!!

Each of the above controversies happened in Mumbai and are related with film celebrities ... our lives whether we like it or not continue to be filled with fillum star-related lore/gossip/controversies -- as if we don't have any more callings to bother about; and the media and the infamous minority polity make the most of the slightest spark of information that creeps out of the fillum quarters turning it into an uncontrollable flame ... MNS lately seems to lead such brigades of unemployed rowdy youth who break lose on the city. Why does MNS' agenda for his beloved marathi manus go for a toss when their people cause destruction and the state loses money by delaying releases of films, holding creative juices at ransom and/or eroding GDP of the state? Conveniently targets of most of the controversies are film stars so that there is more hype and attraction to the so called infamous cause of the political entity ... SIGH ... rise above this sham my brethren!

Amitabh did something very gracious -- he named the college after Ash and not his own daughter Shweta ... instead of respecting Jaya and his sentiment of giving so much honor to Ash and also supporting womens education the polity of our state had the gall to say things against him and blow the goodness out of the window.

Why cant Bombay be called Bombay without feeling that some Shiv Sainik or MNS activist will hurl a stone in your direction!?? Isn't this a free country and wasn't this city called Bombay at one time ... Bombay Blues continues to exist as a brand where I am sure even the marathi manus have also grabbed a bite - how come no plans to shut it down!? Are they going to break all the records or cassettes of the song 'ai dil hai mushkil jeena yahan ... yeh hai Bombay meri jaan, should we rename the movie Bombay to Goa as Mumbai to Goa!?? Why make us live in fear of being assaulted because we are brought up saying the word Bombay and that Mumbai doesnt come to our lips as easily!? Why did Karan have to make a mockery of himself and go and apologise to Raj Thackeray!???

I really believe that SRK has the right to express himself about wanting the Pakistani players to play in the IPL - after all why blame the sportsmen of the country!? And why target him when the Times of India is continuing a huge campaign called 'Aman ki Asha' which is endeavoring to unite the two nations? Why isn't any activist bringing down the TOI shutters yet!?

The most recent one on Amir and Javed Akhtar was thankfully not started by the polity but by the stars themselves and the media - radio, TV and print of course lost no effort in blowing the words of both these legends out of proportion. In my humble opinion neither Amir nor Javed are right and these are the reasons why:

- A song becomes a song only once it is sung to music without which it is poetry and hence it is the music that brings life to the poem ... which unfortunately does not draw too great an attraction from the masses... but when the same poem is sung along with music you can hear it blaring from the smallest of hutments to the wedding parties of the elite; from the swanky new BEST AC buses and the sexiest Porsche that has hit the streets and to cabs and the jhankar beat versions in autos ... it is the music that makes the song popular ... Javed please take note!

- Most music albums are released way before the release of the film and hence very often you will hear a song playing for months on the radio and the best ones are played several times a day making them all but mantras of the masses ... there is no star involved at this stage ... the association of the star in fact happens only after you have seen the film and if he/she is a star of your fantasy you fantasize yourself as a part of the song. In fact, so many old age numbers that one has never ever seen on screen are still remembered and sung very animatedly in the ever favorite party game 'Antakshari' and even otherwise bring an association of happiness or sadness in our lives ... Aamir take note ... these songs of yesteryear have nothing to do with the stars that they were filmed on... and yet I am sure that they come to your lips too as you go about your life... just as they do to mine!

TRUTH shall prevail?!

As children we parroted the school poem every morning ... which amidst its other idealistic lines had a phrase that said ... 'TRUTH SHALL PREVAIL'! As a child, I obviously didn’t know otherwise and prided my self when my teacher called me to the front of the class to lead the recitation of the song, as I recited it 'so nicely' compared to the rest of my classmates.

However, despite the daily morning chant, through my growing years, somehow Truth was a choice I seldom made as there was always the fear of consequence... what would Mummy think if she got to know, teacher will get angry, my friend will be katti with me, I have got poor marks - what will Papa say!? Opinions mattered so much and I was too young to know how to deal with the possibly harsh (?) consequences. These fears grew and became not unlike monsters in my innocent mind … seeming so much larger than the tiny me!

Today, as a woman of the house, as a colleague at work, as a friend or as a citizen of the world I consciously choose Truth and preach it, knowing that Truth is ‘Godliness’ and that it spreads ‘Goodness’ and in the over all mix of things it is for the good of all. I believe I have the maturity to deal with the consequences that may come my way and I fearlessly pride myself for abiding with Truth at the risk of being branded a critic or brazen or opinionated or even down right rude. You might say it is stupid of me to be so apolitical but I would rather be upfront about what I think than be a hypocrite and hate myself for it. More often than not I have come through victorious on my resolve because Truth is right for me, for the people in the situation and for the world at large.

And yet the sad truth is that because most people don’t like to hear or deal with truth, more often than I would like to admit, I am forced to bend towards the other end of the spectrum -- examples that I feel guilty about are ... You don’t tell your boss that she or he is an apology of a leader because you risk your annual appraisal getting awry or getting fired, you don’t tell your maid in enough words that her work is horrible as you run the risk that she won’t turn up the next morning, you listen to crap from a popular yet conceited colleague because you want to be on his right side, you hold back irritation with your spouse on mundane issues as you want to keep peace in the house, you mutter your angst with the system within the confines of your air-conditioned car as you inch through traffic-clogged bumpy roads as you just don’t have the time or patience to deal with such things – it is after all the Government’ job, you don’t stand up and fight terrorism or internal enemies of the state that dispel the oneness of India and you don’t put annoying relatives in their place for interfering in your way of life ... strangely despite my advocacy of Truth I find myself numbing to certain situations of my life … and remain silent to what my mind is shouting or I am reduced to humming and hawing and pulling punches and being politically right … my peers/family/friends egg me into behaving so – don’t be ridiculous, you should not be belling the cat … don’t get involved Priya because you will end up getting blamed … mind your own business yaar … bina wajah ke liye phans jaogi … it will unnecessarily complicate your life – and sadly, I allow such things to happen around me … feeding the demon of frustration that builds within me … where is the space for Truth in the throng of the political thought process doing a TANDAV dance within my mind!?! I feel a sense of gnawing guilt as I look around … only to find that everyone else too is in the same boat … making compromises with their conscience, with their school drilled value systems and with their pride … simply because it is easier to be untruthful ... or it is easier to keep quite!

And of course this choice of silence lets wrong continue, lets mediocrity prevail and negativity grow… we allow house help to continue to do shoddy work and hence our home is not up to the standard we are used to or we like, we let people be mean to us without putting up a front, we don’t have the courage to put people in their place and we are reduced to internalised bitching which increases the negative energies within us and our homes and losing our patience with our kids or spouse or parents becomes a vent of our STRESS, we allow people to be unprofessional, we choose to let a bad leader remain bad leading to a frustrated non-performing team which in turn produces poor quality products and services and a dissatisfied customer base, we let a nasty colleague remain so and let gossip thrive making the work environment unhealthy, we continue inching along bumpy roads and cursing our polity for all the mayhem that the country is drowning in and feel good about the 7.5- 8% GDP growth that is attracting all the FII money to goad the SENSEX to higher highs making the rich richer while farmers not so far away continue to take their lives, we continue without much hope making virtually blind and uninformed choices at the polling station year on year, while reading the papers every morning we choose to let the oneness of our country get diluted with only Tsk-tsking at the continued obliteration caused by our so called leaders ... and so on … Our life has become a consequence of these countless decisions of untruth and silence and hence it is only WE who are responsible for our life being the way it is … sadly this is the only truth that prevails!!