What A Marriage Means in My Native
Warning: Reader’s discretion required. Please don’t read if you have a very happy image of marriages.
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It means return on investment done on bringing up the perfect groom.
It means loss of substantial portions, sometimes all, of the savings of bride’s family.
It means the perfect case study of money squandering for both parties on the excuse that the marriages are once in life time opportunity of celebrations.
It means that both sides more or less are in debt after the marriage for the next 1-2-3 years depending on the source of income. Even the dowry given to groom’s family is sometimes all used up to balance out their debt.
It means higher costs for everything. Literally everything. 10 Rs/kg of cauliflower will be bought for 100 Rs/kg even in Mandi. You’ll pay 30-35 Rs/ Km or more for the luxury vehicles. (Luxury vehicles will be an Indica or Indigo)
It means gifts given to every relative and extended relative of the groom and the hospitality will be valued on the basis of those gifts. Higher the costs of those gifts, the better the hospitality( even if you didn’t find anything to eat, anyone to tell this and came back cursing the arrangements)
It means to tolerate the problematic relatives who have the habit of creating their own chaos in already chaotic circumstances. No matter how much hospitality you show, there will still be some relatives who'll complain of being ignored at the marriage.
It means the perfect show off in the society to give everyone something to talk about the marriage.
It means the perfect show off of all that jewelleries which have been kept hidden in the trunks for generations and wear them all even if you look like a clown. The more grams of gold on your body, the more virtuous the family.
It means to show off how many people you can call for your Baarat (the procession with groom). The more no. of people in the Baarat, the more social and influential you are.
It means to show off how many people you can feed who came in the Baarat and who came from your side. The more the no of people, the more impactful the marriage you managed.
It means the show off of fire arms. The more fire arms you can flash, the more powerful you are in that area.
It means to show off how many cars, Jeeps, SUVs you can take to the Baarat. The more the no. of vehicles, the more your power and money.
PS: Though I have drawn a very grim picture of my native but unfortunately most of the points are true. Also, I have taken a certain section of society to depict the mindset and these points don’t generalize to each and every marriage in that area. It’s not that marriage celebrations don’t have any positives but my cynicism and derision for above points outweigh those positives.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Vapid, Void and Vulgar Vanity
'The Lost Symbol’- a review
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
The Lost Symbol is a typical Dan Brown novel, well researched and well compiled but it falls short of giving convincing reasons to believe in the novel, neither does it gives a good thriller. It looked like those pathetic and thoughtless movie sequels which are made after the success of a movie, just to encash the popularity.
Synopsis: A megalomaniac character Malak’ah wants to discover a secret highly guarded by Freemasons and which has potential to destroy the world. Robert Langdon, the Howard Symbologist, pitches in again to save the world. In the process, he’s helped by multitude of characters.
Review:
NOVEL: The Lost Symbol is extremely predictable, very repetitive, monotonous and boring especially for those who have already read Dan Brown’s previous four books. A lot of questions has been unanswered in the novel or rather were put their considering reader’s intellect as a big zero. Dan Brown has created few moments when one feel engrossed in the novel but those moments are too few. In the end you remain unsatiated.
The novel lacks the flow, it lacks the sharpness of a thriller and it is over dramatic to such extent that it downplays dramatic undertones. In order to create suspense, Brown made the plot so fuzzy that for the whole novel only the Antagonist (villain) was clear of what he was doing, why he was doing and how he was going to do it.
Moreover, at least three times you’ll feel that the torture ended and the story is over, but to your disappointment it doesn’t. No one leaves a novel after reading 350,400,450 pages out of 500 and you have to tolerate to finish the book.
With extremely lousy climax, The Lost Symbol is worst book written by Dan Brown.
CHARACTERS:
Robert Langdon: His character has been already explored in Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code and is projected as extremely intelligent person having photographic memory but strangely enough his character is totally underplayed and overshadowed by other characters.
Sato Inoue: As the director of CIA, she has been projected as a tough and inhuman character but as novel makes its progress, for some strange reasons she becomes milder, vulnerable and human. The fluctuations in her character does nothing to add any value to the novel.
Malak’ah: Perhaps,the best character in the novel. It seems Dan Brown devoted most of his time developing this character but still he came out with very frivolous reasons to justify Malak’ah ‘s metamorphosis into a megalomaniac , power hungry antagonist from a Fun loving, Drug addict, Party Animal and Casanova character.
CIA : CIA is also an important character in the novel. It has been depicted as an agency run by a bunch of jokers . One time they will be highly advanced, omnipresent, omnipotent agency which turns into our very own Indian police when needed most.
-----------------------------------
Verdict: 'The Lost Symbol' is a novel which you will love to miss. You can do anything you hate but you better avoid this. Let the symbol be lost.
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
Dan Brown is one among the most celebrated authors writing bestsellers one after another. After 4 successful books, his fifth book The Lost Symbol released in last September. I was eagerly waiting for the book but was very busy with my schedule so reading novels took a backseat. Finally I got my hands on the book and finished it in a jiffy but now, I really wish I’d not have read this book.
The Lost Symbol is a typical Dan Brown novel, well researched and well compiled but it falls short of giving convincing reasons to believe in the novel, neither does it gives a good thriller. It looked like those pathetic and thoughtless movie sequels which are made after the success of a movie, just to encash the popularity.
Synopsis: A megalomaniac character Malak’ah wants to discover a secret highly guarded by Freemasons and which has potential to destroy the world. Robert Langdon, the Howard Symbologist, pitches in again to save the world. In the process, he’s helped by multitude of characters.
Review:
NOVEL: The Lost Symbol is extremely predictable, very repetitive, monotonous and boring especially for those who have already read Dan Brown’s previous four books. A lot of questions has been unanswered in the novel or rather were put their considering reader’s intellect as a big zero. Dan Brown has created few moments when one feel engrossed in the novel but those moments are too few. In the end you remain unsatiated.
The novel lacks the flow, it lacks the sharpness of a thriller and it is over dramatic to such extent that it downplays dramatic undertones. In order to create suspense, Brown made the plot so fuzzy that for the whole novel only the Antagonist (villain) was clear of what he was doing, why he was doing and how he was going to do it.
Moreover, at least three times you’ll feel that the torture ended and the story is over, but to your disappointment it doesn’t. No one leaves a novel after reading 350,400,450 pages out of 500 and you have to tolerate to finish the book.
With extremely lousy climax, The Lost Symbol is worst book written by Dan Brown.
CHARACTERS:
Robert Langdon: His character has been already explored in Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code and is projected as extremely intelligent person having photographic memory but strangely enough his character is totally underplayed and overshadowed by other characters.
Sato Inoue: As the director of CIA, she has been projected as a tough and inhuman character but as novel makes its progress, for some strange reasons she becomes milder, vulnerable and human. The fluctuations in her character does nothing to add any value to the novel.
Malak’ah: Perhaps,the best character in the novel. It seems Dan Brown devoted most of his time developing this character but still he came out with very frivolous reasons to justify Malak’ah ‘s metamorphosis into a megalomaniac , power hungry antagonist from a Fun loving, Drug addict, Party Animal and Casanova character.
CIA : CIA is also an important character in the novel. It has been depicted as an agency run by a bunch of jokers . One time they will be highly advanced, omnipresent, omnipotent agency which turns into our very own Indian police when needed most.
-----------------------------------
Verdict: 'The Lost Symbol' is a novel which you will love to miss. You can do anything you hate but you better avoid this. Let the symbol be lost.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Sheer Hypocrisy or Pseudo Intellectualism
My friend Rishi was reading a red covered book for the last 3-4 days. Whenever he got time, he started ruffling through the pages of the book. I enquired about what he was reading. He made a face, smirked and answered nonchalantly , ‘2 States’ (by Chetan Bhagat )as if he was doing some kind charity work for the publishers and the author by reading that book.
Then he went on to blew every kind of wrong adjectives filled with some beautiful invectives for the book he was reading and declared that Chetan Bhagat(CB) should be banned from writing. He explained to me, how CB is writing crap since time immemorial and how it was shit then and how it is shit now. He even hinted that CB must’ve given money to TIME for getting his name into ‘100 most influential people ‘ or to the columnist of The Newyork Times for his comment "He’s making INDIA read like never before”.
I was confused. I asked if he has read all his four books and he answered in affirmative. Now what was that? I was appalled. That guy hated the author and his books but he read all of them.
Not only him, I have seen lot of Rishis who will be the first one to read CB’s books and will also be the first one to bash him mercilessly .IMO They define the words Pseudo Intellectuals and Hypocrisy. The worst thing is this hypocrisy is like a disease err.. epidemic. I deplore when people , who’ve never even read any book apart from those goddamn text books in their whole life, will start bashing Chetan Bhagat just because they heard someone bashing him and it made them sound like cool and intellectual.
Well, I don’t have any problem if someone bashes CB. After all, everyone is a free citizen of a free democratic country with free right of freedom of speech. But why the hell, you need to read all his books to declare that he is useless when you can decide it in one or two books? Also why line up and wait for his next one?
Believe me, I am not a fan of Chetan Bhagat nor his books. In fact the worst book I’ve read ever is 3 mistakes of my life. But then, I think , CB never claimed for literary greatness. But instead he wrote for the masses. He wrote pure masala novels or say pulp fiction with real life- like characters with not-so-flowery language (even that might be a reason for his bashing) and with attractive pricing. I have read Booker prize winners, Pulitzer prize winners, Commonwealth prize winners, Noble Prize winners and a CB book never ever came to even touch the B(B), P(Pulitzer) , C( Commonwealth) and N( Nobel) of the prizes in literary or whatever senses but I never expected any of those prize winning attributes from his books and I never understood people’s expectations of getting a literary gem from each of his book while purchasing . Why the hell do you expect a Nobel literature from his pen when you know in which style he writes his novels?
Isn’t it same like expecting Quentin Tarantino’s next movie to be love story and then bash it coz it had violence and a dark theme. Do we ever expect a non violent love story from Guy Richie before going to watch a movie?
Then why the fuss, buddy?
For greedy gain or plain ignorance........
For uber cool attitude or pseudo intellectualism.......
For fashion or plain cynicism......
Why??????
Then he went on to blew every kind of wrong adjectives filled with some beautiful invectives for the book he was reading and declared that Chetan Bhagat(CB) should be banned from writing. He explained to me, how CB is writing crap since time immemorial and how it was shit then and how it is shit now. He even hinted that CB must’ve given money to TIME for getting his name into ‘100 most influential people ‘ or to the columnist of The Newyork Times for his comment "He’s making INDIA read like never before”.
I was confused. I asked if he has read all his four books and he answered in affirmative. Now what was that? I was appalled. That guy hated the author and his books but he read all of them.
Not only him, I have seen lot of Rishis who will be the first one to read CB’s books and will also be the first one to bash him mercilessly .IMO They define the words Pseudo Intellectuals and Hypocrisy. The worst thing is this hypocrisy is like a disease err.. epidemic. I deplore when people , who’ve never even read any book apart from those goddamn text books in their whole life, will start bashing Chetan Bhagat just because they heard someone bashing him and it made them sound like cool and intellectual.
Well, I don’t have any problem if someone bashes CB. After all, everyone is a free citizen of a free democratic country with free right of freedom of speech. But why the hell, you need to read all his books to declare that he is useless when you can decide it in one or two books? Also why line up and wait for his next one?
Believe me, I am not a fan of Chetan Bhagat nor his books. In fact the worst book I’ve read ever is 3 mistakes of my life. But then, I think , CB never claimed for literary greatness. But instead he wrote for the masses. He wrote pure masala novels or say pulp fiction with real life- like characters with not-so-flowery language (even that might be a reason for his bashing) and with attractive pricing. I have read Booker prize winners, Pulitzer prize winners, Commonwealth prize winners, Noble Prize winners and a CB book never ever came to even touch the B(B), P(Pulitzer) , C( Commonwealth) and N( Nobel) of the prizes in literary or whatever senses but I never expected any of those prize winning attributes from his books and I never understood people’s expectations of getting a literary gem from each of his book while purchasing . Why the hell do you expect a Nobel literature from his pen when you know in which style he writes his novels?
Isn’t it same like expecting Quentin Tarantino’s next movie to be love story and then bash it coz it had violence and a dark theme. Do we ever expect a non violent love story from Guy Richie before going to watch a movie?
Then why the fuss, buddy?
For greedy gain or plain ignorance........
For uber cool attitude or pseudo intellectualism.......
For fashion or plain cynicism......
Why??????
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