Swadhyaya: The Anti-Krishna

One day at home, I was looking at the Diwali 2008 booklet put together by the Association of United Hindu-Jain Temples, which comprises of 14+ organizations in the Washington DC area. One name was conspicuously missing - The Swadhyay Parivar. Why didn't it participate? Do they not celebrate Diwali? Of course they do? After it's leader received countless awards received from world-wide organizations ranging from Padma Vibhushan to the Templeton Prize, why was the organization so "small-potatoes". Swadhyaya founded by Pandurang Shastri Vaijnath Athavale AKA Dadaji in the 1950s.

In the DC area, for over 20 years they have been renting schools cafeterias/classrooms to conduct their teachings. Why haven't they established their own building? One could argue they are saving money to do good elsewhere?

One could argue, but one could also state the facts as they are.

Aaja Nachle "Castes" a Spell

So I watched Aaja Nachle, the film being touted as Madhuri's comeback film. Let me say it was a good movie going experience. The dances, Madhuri's look and acting were excellent. I felt that it could have had a little more comedy in the story line. I wanted to laugh, cry and be mesmerized in the same movie. Akshaye Khanna was a nice surprise and so was Irfan Khan. Of course Konkana Sen Sharma and Kunal Kapoor were excellent, I loved their part of the storyline. Konkana has never been this funny and non-serious. The last 30 minutes of the film were beautiful to watch. Everyone of course loved the title song - visually if not lyrically.

Some controversy hit the film and the government in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana banned Aaja Nachle on the release date of Friday, November 30th and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to impose a countrywide clamp-down on the movie alleging its title song was "unconstitutional".

"Bazar mein machi hai maramar; bole mochi bhi khud ko sunhar" (There is so much chaos in the market that even a cobbler is calling himself a goldsmith) -- was the objectionable line of the title song. First of all let me go by explaining the song, it talks about how Madhuri's character loses her jewelry and the attraction the men of the town feel for her that they will go to any lengths to help her. Even say they specialize in a specific trade, that they don't. I didn't find anything offensive in the line. But some felt as if the line was saying that the mochis are a lower caste than sonnars. What I'm saying is, 'Does it really matter? When you are comparing two low castes what does it matter who is higher or who is lower." Yeah...I said it. Watch this be my last post.

Concerned by the ban and protests, director of the film Anil Mehta announced the "objectionable" line from the song would be deleted. Censor Board chairperson Sharmila Tagore, who cleared the film for release, stated, "We saw the words 'mochi' (cobbler) and 'sonar' (goldsmith) as people of a certain profession, not a caste. Urban Indians would not I'm sure be offended - but as they say India lives in centuries, so to that extent people in smaller towns may find it offensive, and we are sorry we overlooked that,"

When promotional videos of the film had been running for a very long time, why did the government decide to wait until the film's release to deem the lyrics unacceptable? Answer -- simply --- Haters!! Deep down inside the government of UP, Punjab and Haryana are Sridevi, Juhi Chawla, Kajol fans..

Vishwa Hindu Parishad stall alleged conversion proceedings by Christian missionaries in UP

About 30 Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists disrupted a meeting conducted by Christian missionaries accusing them of attempting religious conversion on January 21st. The Christian attendees allege there was no conversion going on.

Right to Congregate
The Christian group had a right to meet and I strongly believe that violence is not the answer, when dealing with missionaries and converts. There was no apparent violence involved with this incident. However the meeting was disrupted by the two groups.

Having written the above, I must state the point of the blog, which is that the conversion tactics used by these Christian missionaries are despicable. Promising jobs, food, shelter in return for someone soul is inhumane. It's like they get bonus points for every person they are able to convert. They seriously need to be stopped! And it's not like becoming Christian helps the people out, they are faced with the same poverty.

The Race towards Oscar

It's that time of the year where I check out Oscar contenders and Golden Globe nominees for the Foreign film section and see if India has made the cut. Not that it matters.
"On a daily basis I educate Hollywood Studios that Bollywood represents 3.8 Billion fans worldwide compared to Hollywood 3.6 Billion fans worldwide, it's time for Hollywood to wake up." Said Sheeraz Hasan (founder of www.Hollywood.tv).

I find this quote to be amazing. I must say that I new this to be true years ago. I find it amazing that Indian movies are watched by more people than any other country's films and that too with a language not spoken by the majority of the world. I have people with non-Indian ancestry coming to me from Russia, Guyana, Nigeria, etc. telling how they are big fans of Indian films and how they've been watching since they were kids. I get so surprised since they can't otherwise speak the language, yet are fans of the films.

Anyhow, it seems like this years contenders for Golden Globe Nominations, "Rang De Basanti", "Omkara", and "Lage Raho Munnabhai" didn't make the final list. I wish them better luck at the Oscars. My favorite in all of these is RDB, although I haven't seen Omkara. LRM was good, but I still LOVE RDB.