U.S.A. - Uncle Scam America-2

"Remember", the instructor said to the class,"a 35 year old American's brain and IQ is the same as a 10 year old Indian's brain.... Americans are dumb, just accept it. " - pg 53, One Night in a Call Centre

1- New York taxis, of course, are known for their polyglot driver population - reflecting a country that welcomes immigrants. "Taxi cabs are both loved and hated by New Yorkers" says the NY.com website. Ditto America's sentiments towards immigrants.

2- Thank you for smoking, 9/11 Fahrenheit, Sicko, Fast food nation and Bowling for columbine are best documentaries about deep rooted problem of theirs. Blacklisting of writers with communist background in Hollywood had showed an ugly picture of America. Also, they hate the term communist and ignore the term socialist. They only know free market with unbounded flow of capital and restricted motion of labor force.

3- Outsourcing becomes one of the prime topics of the election. Obviously, the Green Card Lobby is fast becoming the strongest vote bank in the US. FYI, Obama's campaign database is probably being managed by TCS!

4- The American university system, funded by wealthy donors and alumni, for example, is actually bhai bhatijawaad and paisa power at its worst. The stench of money and influence has long been concealed by the heady fragrance of ‘High Up There’ college brand name. But a recent book by Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Golden painstakingly unmasks it all. ‘The Price of Admission’ chronicles how America’s ruling class buys its way into elite colleges. And ‘who gets left outside the gates’.

5- Best universities are filled with foreign students as they bring not only quality but high revenue to colleges. Of course, getting a job after a Bachelor's, or Master's in the US is apparently not a cakewalk. An employer needs to prove there is no American citizen or permanent resident skilled for enough to take on that particular job, in order to sponsor your visa. The company must want you pretty badly to go to that much trouble.

6- With Indian IT companies cornering more and more H1B visas in recent years, things seem to be getting tougher.66,000 H1B visa issue is such as example of restricted movement of labor. Only highly skilled or knowledge driven labor can get entry into their market.

7- Contrary to this,American MNCs are plundering third world and developing countries with their product. Giants like Pepsi or Coke exploit local natural resources i.e. water of 3rd world to for their sole benefit. The experiments done by medical companies in poor countries are now open to all world now. The movie 'Constant Gardener' shows such case by drug companies with full honesty and coverage.

8- The comment of Bush Jr. over food crisis was really also shows a new way of mind boggling and height of stupidity.And 'Teach the controversy' programme by Bush Jr. is really a threat to scientific community.

Jean Luc Godard : ‘A film is ‘the truth 24 times a second.’ Hollywood has buried cinema’s search for truth beneath the search for marketable concepts. Most American directors are like orphans, they have no parents, no history. There’s no story, so they have to invent one. I was always accused of doing pictures will no plot. But a picture is first a story, second a story and third a story. The Americans just spread their story all over the world, hoping that a majority of the audience will buy them the history they don’t have.”

But you have to give credit to America for standing tall as symbol of democracy and free voice in the changing times. It supports the views of  Noam Chomsky and P Krugman even after their economic and political opinion. People like Michael Moore & Al Gore are real pioneer of bringing change in America.

Alexis de Tocqueville quotes (French Historian and Political scientist. 1805-1859)---“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

What India can learn from America
http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/03/what-india-can-learn-from-america.html
For comparison of family values read:
http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/02/great-indian-family.html

U.S.A. - Uncle Scam America

Half of people in America do not read news paper and remaining half does not vote;we hope they are same bunch of people or god help that mighty country.

Stereotype truths that all blacks are prevailed in crime. While truth is almost 33% of black youths aged between 18 to 25 are involved in crime.They are either in prisons or roaming in society on parole. Yaa, it is true that now multi-ethnic races residing there are following the same American dream.

Consumer culture is at peak in America than anywhere n the world. The sub-prime crisis in America surfaced when defaults were reported in payments for housing mortgages. The 5% population consumes 25% resources of the world. 90% of GDP is consumed in loans (Sources: Business India 5,October 2008). It is the real face of the capitalist economy of America which wants bail out package from the government now.

Ancient Indian had described consumerism as tendency to "Rinam kritvaa ghritam pibet "/"Take a loan and drink the ghee". Take a car loan or home loan or even a holiday loan. Live for today - but, make sure that you are not in debt tomorrow. America has 115 million such suicidal loan bombs who carry forward credit card debt every month. That is one aspect of consumerism that no Indian certainly don't want to emulate from the Americans. For better present, they are dumping their future. Hence, next generation similarly dumps their previous generation ideas and values. Hippie culture was born by these hypocrisy of western values. Indians don't consider shame in poorness and self content is far more characteristic of east. Read my take on consumer culture for more detail.

Most of the development in U.S.A. is achieved by foreign immigrants struggling hard to acheive green card or citizenship. Insecurity among originals is nothing new here. Red Indian extinction shows the real face of west and condition of Aborigines in an Oz country follow similar track. These migrating workers form the major head of American economic and political position in coming decades. Either the Jewish lobby of business groups or German and Russian scientist community had given best years of their life to reach success as individual and community. Chinese make rail road there when Irish and British settlers were fully Americanized. Then Jewish, Italian and Deustch intellects or labor class flow to U.S.A. in world war times. Russians, Iranian and Afghan flow for better future in cold war times. Japanese came through trade routes and established their supremacy in electronics market. African American involvement in crimes are now known to whole world thanks to Hollywood.The constant influx of Latino has feel their presence in drug and human trafficking. Irish, Italian, Chinese and Russian mafia are now better known to us through film and fictional novels. In between Indians also got entry through green cards except sardars coming for cheap labor by illegal means.

Facts about America:
Land of conspiracy theory: JFK murder to UFO case.
Buy burgers and sell guns to dictators around the world.
Hate speech and gang violence between races is now a major problem.
Bill Monica scandal was a gossip to read....
Donkey is the perfect sign of republic party and stands tall with George Bush Jr.

This America is far from the dreams or philosophy of Thoreau and Emerson. I am sure that even most of Americans would not have heard the name of Henry David Thourea. Continued bashing in the next post....

Reality Shows in India

The first ever music reality show was- Popstars. And the nation was hooked on to the fortunes of Viva, long before Abhijeet Sawant of Mumbai or Silchar Assam ke Debojit and Sanjaya Malakar of Mohawk hair fame! But I recalled due to age limit that there was a dance show named Boggie Woggie. It was the first dance show that changed the idiot box viewers interaction. It was the first popular show across India that made the participation of an average Indian possible. Even S. Sreesanth danced to its tune in his childhood days.

Apart from the past, the airing program reminded me of unlimited potential spread across our land. India is beautiful nation and full of colors in each aspect of life. Brilliant Performance by children shows the changing attitude of previous generation towards dance, songs and cultural values. Ethics are changing with time (Degrading according to previous generation).

A new type of show is spreading across cable channels: Reality Show for talent hunting.

Until now, so called 'reality shows' have really been talent shows. Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul, Sa re ga ma,Great Indian Laughter Challenge - all of them promise to make a star out of an unknown quantity.On one hand rich cultural heritage and diversity are expressed to us by competition and on other 'Make a name of yourself fast & big philosophy' is in full flow in masses. Mainly dance, songs, comedy or mimicry is limited to bollywood. Folk culture is dying in fast rush of population for city culture or consumer culture. Leave alone the Drama, Tantrum and TRP ratings. For nonjudicial and biased decision of reality shows, read this brilliant article:

From youthcurry blog, one line thrashers for this trash shows:

Rock n Roll Family: They flirt shamelessly with the judges, and debate on saali being aadhi or poori gharwali. All scripted for sure but there is no sharam or lihaaj in either the banter or the matkas and jhatkas.

Big Boss: It may be trivial, perfectly "yeww" in parts. But even discussing how much you supposedly hate it... is fodder for canteen conversation.

MTV Roadies:The irony of each rounds is that if you ask a junior to do this kind of thing in college, it's called 'ragging' and you could go to jail.

Splitsvilla: The I & B ministry recently issued a notice to MTV for 'denigrating women' .
In my(yayaver) opinion 15 girls to seduce 2 boys is really cat fight not to miss by each boy/guy at home alone.Truly,all of them are one more step ahead for voyeurism,vulgar language and dirty politics on idiot box.And all things are done in the name of reality.

My opinion: We are feeding upcoming generation with "reality TV" obsessed culture. The way the real-life viewers ignore the real lives of their compatriots and customers while focusing on a false life on screen; whose life is more real and whose is worth living? Instead, the insight aspect of the reality show has been catapulted by a society that would more readily watch "reality" than live it.Notable watch for understanding and future of reality showbiz: The Truman Show in this genre.

Message for die hard reality shows fan: The audience that watched the reality show is a self-indulgent audience of consumers who wanted to be entertained no matter what the cost to characters, reminded me of the soaps opera & Paparazzi, of how we like to know about the celebrities, and ultimately of how the product could be the death of someone such as Princess Diana.

Rashmi Bansal quotes in her post about sad state of affairs---
"The whole idea of the new generation of 'reality' shows is to create an 'emotional infection'. While the characters in a soap opera act and evoke emotions, reality shows set up a showdown of some kind which induce emotions, spontaneously. The ultimate irony, isn't it? 'Reality shows' and their contestants are becoming more real and newsworthy for viewers ... than reality itself."

Bottomline: Life is not fair - that is reality. Neither are reality shows which are actually not real at all...

American Desi

American Consular Officer: "How do we know you'll come back to India?"
Student: "Sir, my roots are here - my family, my property, my business... I want to study in America, but I will come back and put my education to good use."

I read this conversation from someone'sblog and idea about state of indians living abroad struck me. Thousands of Indian students have given this earnest answer at their visa interview. A significant number never return to their motherland. You have to wonder - why bother to ask? Because the idea of America, to a large extent, is to attract the brightest and the best from around the world. NRI ideally stands for Non Resedential Indians. Practically NRI means- Non Returning Indian or Non Reliable Indian.

When the race for food, clothing and shelter becomes over, then green card migrants try to find a identity for themselves. Next generation faces issues like choosing their sides between Indian family and American culture. Desi Indians may perceive herself as 'American' but the colour of her skin and country of birth still make her/him a 'foreigner who's done well' as far as (a section of) right-wing America is concerned. It is about finding identity in a country that will treat you as alien if you are born there. They become like pendulum bob swinging between Indian family and American social surroundings.

Desi is all about rediscovering your roots. Generally, Desi is turned usually associated with Indians living abroad. Now, a new term is framed for the generation born there: ABCD .

ABCD: American Born Confused Desi ;American Desi is used in short for them. The movie 'American Desi' was really upper view of lifestyle and relation of Desi youths. For cool pass time watch it with open mind and heart....

The Namesake as a novel and movie is one of the original and first attempt to address this issue from American perspective. The settling of a family in alien land for the search of livelihood. Their gradual acceptance of the new land. A bemused incomprehension of their extended family to appreciate their better (different?) way of life. Clinging on to certain customs while leaving others. The alienation of the second generation from the first. The second generation's assimilation into a more modern way of life. Halted communication of the first generation to the second. Three hardly identifiable characters mostly lost in a distant land from their own makes Namesake a passable attempt at winning western audience. And i will not spoil the plot here.

Lets put our attempt to understand about Indians living abroad. We were not much aware of America before 90's as brown skinned natives who didn't elect George Bush and live 3000 miles from Graceland. With the globalization era, the periphery of an average Indian with outside world has increased dramatically. The journey starts with Bollywood.

“Watan se chitthi aayi hain” (sung on screen by Pankaj Udhas) was NRI anthem from film 'Naam' but the movie was mainly targeted to middle east based Indians. Forget Purab aur Pachim, now bollywood can make film like Salaam Namaste, Kal ho na ho, Namaste London, Kabhi khushi kabhi gum and Dostana (list cont...) . But movies like 'Provoked' gives also other face of the reality. They are entirely based on NRI life with fictional Indian value embodiment in them. Now,an overseas market are targeted with Desi junta as potential consumers. Swades was genuine Indian attempt to pull the strings of NRI to their motherland. Sivaji was also on footstep of swades but on a much broad fictional stance. Some are worth mentioning here as they have done Real Life Swades.

Worthy to mention Punjabi NRI who's mixed bhangra rhythms with hip-hop and reggae to create new genres of music altogether. I am mere observer here. Its flight of elites and plight of masses in mine motherland India.

Death of Parallel Cinema

There are now two decades over after the demise of parallel cinema.Literature and Theater are the main sources of parallel cinema in India.The turbulent situation of the 1970's gave birth to the ‘parallel cinema’ movement in India.With the open market policy in film industry and decay in government funding,this movement dies out slowly after economic liberation.Indian Cinema is thriving today thanks to an audience who is hungry for films, however, our works have degraded over the years, and regional cinema and few great filmmakers are marginalized to the film festival or art house circuits.

Regional films constitute of high percentage in parallel cinema. The regional cinema, obviously in majority formed the alternate cinema. Ever since the decline of regional cinema throughout the nation, and the dying out of the parallel movement, the viewers have been feed with repeated image, sound and music.Most of us had used to watch regional films on DD on Sundays. With the advent of cable and dish culture, the regional cinema has suffered huge setback. There is no information either in the print or electronic media about alternate films.Dish Channels do not show off alternate movies even in non prime time.

Today, the films of ' New Wave' are hard to find, and the aesthetics of these filmmakers were never carried forward, meaning, the tradition not only got lost, but never translated or taken further- explored in new avenues. Not only that, the lack of availability of the films of ‘New Wave’ in the market is another important factor which slowly spelled death for the filmmakers and their films. It’s sad, because, even when one wants to rescue these films most negatives are either lost or destroyed or its in hands of people who are not willing to part away with them for reasons unknown.

For,deep view in the subject:

-To each his cinema.
-Wikipedia Link about Parallel Cinema.
-Indian New Wave- a potrait.
-Old vs New Parallel Cinema.
-Parallel or New Cinema in India.
-The demise of parallel cinema.
-Demise Of A Different Kind.
-Parallel Cinema not getting visibility at global festivals.

While other directors other mainstream directors usually try to be time consumer and economical by saving on cuts and indulging into unnecessary zooms and moves of the camera, it feels positive that there existed what we call Indian Parallel cinema, wherein the directors were at least trying to find their style with a sense of aesthetics .

As Andrei Tarkovsky once said, "Cinema can never be a true art form till it’s confined by the constraints of money."