Believe The Hype » Social Issues

Bollywood, truly not for all Indians

Shawn — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:02:16 +0000

Greetings my well wishers

I’ve blogged after a long long time, hell I can say its almost been eternity since I last blogged. Anyways I won’t make any excuses for not being active for so long.

Lets begin with the issue I’m addressing with this blog.

There have many many of those so called PATRIOTIC Indians who have always come up with the world’s most pathetic generalisation, i.e. by stressing on the fact that, “You are not a true Indian if you are not obsessed with Cricket & Bollywood“.

Now as you all know that I’m by no means a Cricket lover (& Sachin or for that matter Sir Bradman are not my Gods), but I do believe that Cricket runs in the blood of a large majority of Indians, as it truly unifies us and our Cricket team now represents almost every colour of the diverse multicultural rainbow our great nation is.

So yes, we can say that a large majority of Indians are Cricket maniacs.

But when the talk of Bollywood comes in, I beg to differ (In a major way).

Often Indian Cinema, is presented to western audiences as Bollywood. And Bollywood doesn’t mean simply Hindi Movies.

It means all those Hindi Movies of post 90’s era that are Loud, Cheesy, Over The Top, Logicless, Melodramatic, NAACH GAANA RONA DHONA infused kind of Nautankis whose plots are mostly plagiarized from South Indian & Bengali as well as Hollywood, European & even Persian and Korean movies now.

Theres much more to Indian Entertainment than Yash Raj, Dharma Productions, Balaji, Rajshree Productions, Red Chillies Entertainemnt and the movies of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, David Dhawan, Ram Gopal Verma & Mahesh Bhatt.

For me, good Indian Hindi Cinema (not Bollywood) is the Cinema that didn’t believe in extremes. Extremes being either Poverty & Misery (The Sudhir Mishra, Deepa Mehta, Madhur Bhandarkar & now Danny Boyle school of movies) or Extravagance & Aristocracy (The Chopra, Johar, Ghai & Bhansali school of movies).

Indian Hindi Cinema for me are the movies I can relate to, the movies that make me feel, “Fuck Man, this can really happen“. Its that cinema that had pioneers like Guru Dutt, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Vijay ‘Goldie’ Anand and now today Anurag Kashyap, Nagesh Kuknoor, Rajat Kapoor & Dibakar Banerjee are the torchbearers of that cinema. And yes that cinema is by no means Shyam Benegal, Muzzafar Ali or Govind Nihalani’s largely unwatchable parallel arthouse cinema.

I was just going through an old issue of Society magazine (September 2008) and I read the following comments from some Shuchi Pandya, a jewelry merchandiser in Mumbai. I simply puked, yes puked after reading her comments. I was so disgusted by reading them. Luckily there was some Heineken Beer available to drink to calm myself down. Heres what she says -

“If you take all the pieces of Bollywood out of our lives – the celebrities on the billboards, the item songs in the nightclubs, the stars on Page 3, the brand endorsements by the hearthrobs – Indians would find their lives to be completely empty,” said Shuchi Pandya, a jewelry merchandiser in Mumbai. “It’s subconscious. Even if you don’t enjoy Bollywood movies, it becomes a part of your life.”

Well, I don’t have a very high opinion of the current generation of both Resident & Non-Resident Indian masses when it comes to their choices in entertainment (the success of shitty films like Om Shanti Om, Dhoom 2, Partner, Hey Baby, Welcome, Race, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi & Ghajini etc as well as the growing popularity of sensationalised & voyeuristic Hindi news channels, Ekta Kapoor’s Melodramtic Over The Top Saas-Bahu Serials & Himesh Reshammiya’s ear piercing Nasal Music, all together prove my point) but this generalization is simply untrue.

Ms. Shuchi Pandya should speak for herself/himself and the Bollywood fans she is friends with and not generalize that all Indians lead lives of such pathetic and unrelieved shallowness that the only matter animating them is Bollywood movies. The editorial team at Society magazine are idiot sensationalists willing to convey the impression to their ‘Vilaayti‘ readers that all Indians are empty-headed morons.

Apart from me, there are many Indians I know, for whom Bollywood movies occupy limited or no space at all in their minds.
Down with this Pathetic Generalization.

To prove Shuchi Pandya worng, I must remind everyone that not all Indians are obsessed with Bollywood. People in the 4 Southern States (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala & Andhra Pradesh) are much more connected with their cinema than they are with Bollywood. No wonder Rajnikanth in Tamil Nadu, the late Dr. Raj Kumar in Karnataka, Mohanlal in Kerala & the now politician Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh are far more popular in their respective states and within their respective communities all over the world than any Khan, Kumar, Khanna, Kapoor & Bachchan. After all, unlike the plastic, Designer Attired waxed chested heroes of Bollywood with their artificial Six pack Abs & Steroid pumped Bulging Bisceps, the South Indian hero in most cases has been dark skinned, moustached, pot bellied and wears a lungi. In other way, the Southern hero is just like the average South Indian man and hence people of the South relate so well with them and no wonder they worship them as Gods.

Even Bengalis are not so much into Bollywood (Mithudna & Prosenjit are equal to the Khans there) and the rural population of UP & Bihar has now started connecting better with the Bhojpuri movies as Bollywood mostly glorifies Punjabi culture – all Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai & Karan Johar movies prove the point. No wonder, in the UP-Bihar belt, Ravi Kissan & Manoj Tiwari have come in the same league of mass popularity as the Khans while Nagma is also in the same league as Aishwaria Rai or Katrina Kaif.

And the people of North East have developed a strong liking for Korean Cinema as its very rich in content (much richer than Bollywood) and a North Eastern would obviously love to see an actor or actress of their race on the screen.

So this proves that a large percentage of the Indian population, almost 35 to 40% of it doesn’t have Bollywood stuck in their heads. And why should they? After all, Bollywood has always been Stereotyping most of them.

Pseudo-Intellectual Directors like Mahesh Bhatt & Karan Johar praise Mumbai by saying that “Bollywood best represents the city’s cosmopolitan soul.” I suppose Bollywood style cosmopolitanism means taking digs at other communities and promoting cheap stereotypes of other communities. I suppose Bollywood style cosmopolitanism means plagiarising Western and now even Persian and Korean movies. I suppose it also means having its own caste system, where hoplessly untalented nincompoop sons and daughters of yesteryears stars (Tusshar Kapoor, Uday Chopra, Vivek Oberoi, Esha Deol, Zayed Khan, Adhyayan Suman and not to forget Abhishek Bachchan & Harman, oops Hurman S Baweja) with well known last names but little or no acting talent are promoted as super stars. If this is their ‘soul’, it is time some one put it to rest.

Now, talking about being cosmopolitan, here’s where Bollywood respects Maharashtrians. (Now I’m not even remotely a Marathi and neither I’m a supporter or admirer of the looney and eccentric Thackeray parivar). In a scene from the movie “Phir Hera Pheri” that appears close to 2 hours into the movie, where Johny Lever rips through a painting of a Lady. In that scene, when the knife cuts through the painting on the other side, the person on the painting looks remarkably similar to Sant Tukaram , one of the most popular Maharashtrian saints from the Bhakti movement. If Bollywood cosmopolitanism stands for attacking the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra, then I think Marathis really don’t need it in Mumbai. The Bolywood people can make Allahabad a cosmopolitan city, as they define it as the home of the 1st Family of Bollywood.

I have observed that these Bollywood folks sell their shit to the foriegn audiences as movies that are Indian and that represent Indian people, their traditions and Culture. But the fact is, most Bollywood movies have been only glorifying North Indian, that too mostly Punjabi culture. But we can’t help it can we, after all, more than 80% of people involved in Bollywood since the past 5 decades are Punjabis.

Look at the recent Popular Bollywood movies, Dilwaale Dhulaniya Le Jaayenge, Gadar Ek Prem Katha, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Veer-Zaara, Hey Baby, Partner, Namastey London, Baghban, Bunty Aur Babli, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, Jab We Met, Apne or the recent releases Singh is King, Dostana & Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Almost all these movies had characters who were Punjabis (and mostly played by North Indians) and settings in Punjabi culture.

Being a Delhiite, most of my friends are Punjabis and I love Punjabi culture for its celebration of life with Bhangra, Food & their Grand Weddings. But is Punjabi culture the only rich & vibrant culture in India?

Why are not Bollywood makers making movies about other ethnic groups of India?

If we can have a Singh is King, why can’t we have a Godbole is Great , or Iyer is Incredible or Banerjee is Brilliant or Patel is Perfect. Whats wrong with that u Bollywood makers.

In the past few years as I’ve observed, not a single major Bollywood movie is made with a Marathi, or a Gujrati or a Kashmiri or a Gharwali or an Oriya as the protagonist. The last time Bollywood went to Bengal was for Parineeta in 2006 and went to Assam in 2001 with Daman. And Manoj Bajpai’s Swami in 2007 was the only time in the past decade that Bollywood made a movie on South Indian Culture.

Theres not even a single Bollywood movie so far that features a major character from the North East. I see no surprise in people of that region not watching any Bollywood stuff and preferring Korean movies, after all they represent their race.

And Bollywood does sterotyping big time. Why are South Indians shown as minor characters, that too only as Dark Skinned “Annas” – Restaraunt Owners or Buffoons. Why are Nepalis reduced to foolish Shalaam Shahab type Watchmen. Why are Goans shown as only alchoholic and lazy Catholic Christians saying Hey Man, Kya Man. (The Truth is Goa has more Hindus than Christians and not all Goans – Hindus or Christians love alchohol nor they talk in Hey Man, Kya Man lingo). What about Gujratis & Marwaris, why are they only shown as Miser, Evil, Middle Aged and Pot Bellied Businessmen? Why are Parsis (Zorastrians) usually shown as middle aged, goofy & asexual loosers (all those roles Dinesh Hingoo plays)

And talking about Marathis, well most of them are shown as cheap people. Either Evil Corrupt Cops who are killed by the ‘Hero’ in the end (the way Marathi actors like Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Shivaji Satham & Sayaji Shinde are depicted in Bollywood movies). Or Marathis are shown as Dumb & Goofy Constables (Havaldars) the way Ashok Saraf & Late Laxmikant Berde were depicted, or as rude Taxi Drivers (Nana Patekar) or as Kaamwali Bais (Maids). Or they are reduced as Dumb (though hilarious) Caricatures like Babu Rao Apte – Paresh Rawal’s character in Hera Pheri movies.

CNN IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai once said in an interview of his with Asha Bhonsle - “You are not a Patriotic Indian if you don’t watch and like Bollywood movies”.

I say – “Hell with it, with this stereotyping, Bollywood is by no means a litmus Test for any True Patrotic Indian”.

Bollywood clearly doesn’t represent all Indians as equals, and neither most of its movies are made kepping in mind the diversity of the different Indian cultures & ethnicites. As the Blog says, Bollywood is truly not for all Indians, and unlike most Bollyheads don’t want to listen to, its good to know that Bollywood is not a National obsession as many would like us to believe.

Now one of the readers of this blog and my close friend, Simranjeet Singh whose a Hatta – Katta Sardar (Sikh), that too a very proud one and who has spent a lot of time in Jullundher (the heart pf Punjab) and whose also not a Big Bollywood fan, has these things to say after he read this blog-

Regarding Bollywood, I can’t even tell how much pissed I am on Bollywood which is suffering from Punjabiphobia. I am pissed not because of the overdose of punjabi culture but because what is shown in these movies is not even eligible to qualify as punjabi.

For Bollywood, Punjabi culture means sarso ke khet, couple of tainu-mainu dialogs, big families dancing & dancing & dancing. Sadly these movies doesn’t even seem to be made for a normal moviegoer, they seem more like the works of Punjab Tourism Department.

And the major force behind this is Chopras. They have ridiculed punjabi culture in every possible way. Their characters are laughable, they cannot even mouth the dialogoues properly. I am not asking for them to say every line in punjabi but they should keep the characters real.

Take a look at Dibakar Banarjee, his movies are believable. In both of his movies – Khosla Ka Ghosla & Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, in spite of not having many dialogues in punjabi, he made the audiences believe in characters. We know that the families are punjabi. He is one of those rare talented filmmakers who knows how to keep the authenticity of the characters.

Brother you are mistaken that these movies glorify punjabi culture. Infact they just do the opposite becuase if that wasn’t the case then how can one justify the works of chopras, johars, countless scenes of showing sikhs as stupid people (topping the charts is Singh is King) barring few movies like Gadar, Border, Sarhad Paar.

And why do we single out only Sikhs or Punjabis?
What about people from North-east who are labeled as chinkis or chowmeins, people from Bihar and UP who are often portrayed as filthy, pan chewing gangsters for whom only 3 things are important – Desi Katta, desi sharaab, and some naachne waali.

So we have here a proud Punjabi who his himself Pissed off with Bollywood’s Punjabiphobia and who has proved that Bollywood, doesn’t glorify, rather mocks Punajbi culture. Bravo Simranjeet paaji for your valuable contribution.

So, Ms. Shuchi Pandya and your ilk, think 1000 times & do some research the next time you Generalize Indians. Yours Ms. Pandya is a classic case of the frog in the well thinking the whole world is in the well. The stupidity which passes for intellectualism in our culture, shows the intellectual degradation of the elites.

GODMEN or FRAUDMEN

Shawn — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:42:27 +0000

Greetings my well wishers.

Its been ages since I last blogged. I’d been writing too much on movies, can’t help it. Cinema has seduced me in such an intense manner, that even Cleopatra can’t make up for it. I must plead gulity here of spending my time watching too many movies and not taking out time to blog.

But better late than never.

Many of you know must have heard about The AOL (Art of Living) and its founder SSRS — a.k.a Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a.k.a Param Pujaniya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankarji, a.k.a His Holiness, the Maha Param Pujaniya Gurudev Prabhuji Vishwa Vidhaata Bhagwan Mahadevji Sriman Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji Maharaj. As my misfortune would have it, a month ago I fell seriously ill with not one but two ailments. First being Acidity that caused excessive burping and acute headache and the other being a really bad cold the was persisting for almost 10 days. I was a sick man for about 3 weeks and was not doing anything productive due to the illness, including not coming online. After taking many antibiotics and sipping a lot of antacid ENO, I somehow recovered last week. So one of my mom’s acquaintances, a neighbourhood Aunty who works as an Art of Living Instructor (or Sewak as she and her ilk prefers to be called) recommended to my mom that I should undergo a 1 week Art of Living Course to get my body purified from all toxins and negativities by doing the various Kriyas (forms of Yoga). Despite my constant refusal, my mom booked me for this course as she, like all other caring Indian parents never wanted me to fall ill again. Although both my parents don’t believe in any Babajis or Godmen or Cultists, my mom thought that in the Art of Living, they only teach us different kinds of Meditations and make us perform various Kriyas to cleanse our bodies. But she was wrong. Although they do teach all the ways of mind, body and soul purification, its only 40% of the course. The rest, and major part of Art of Living is about His Holiness, the Maha Param Pujaniya Gurudev Prabhuji Vishwa Vidhaata Bhagwan Mahadevji Sriman Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji Maharaj’s (henceforth shortened as HHMPPGPVVBMSSSRSM) Pravachans (Sermons), which is actually a sort of Propoganda, just like Communism, Nazism & Hindutva.

His Holiness, the Maha Param Pujaniya Gurudev Prabhuji Vishwa Vidhaata Bhagwan Mahadevji Sriman Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji Maharaj (HHMPPGPVVBMSSSRSM)

Now as a liberal, modern, unorthodox, non-superstitious, open minded, optimistic, positive thinking, educated person who has a Clear Perception (Ok enough exaggeration for myself), I personally as well as my family don’t believe in any Cults or any Godmen or Messengers of God.

Be it the Anti-Christ or Gothic movement, or Isreal’s Zionism and Kabbalah, or Joseph Smith Jr’s Mormonism or Tom Cruises’s publicized Scientology (Actually a creation of a fiction author L. Ron Hubbard) or even India’s very own body of beliefs on sex OSHO and also The Radha Soami movement that its follwers consider as a true way to realize God, I as well as my parents and many of my friends find all of them to be creepy and also ways of brainwashing people and ruining their lives.

And its not just these cults, its also these Gurujis & Babajis (Godmen) that I find to be hoax. Be it HHMPPGPVVBMSSSRSM (I’ve alreday explained its full form above) or Puttaparthi’s Sathya Sai Baba, or Asaram Bapu or Morari Bapu or Smt. Jaya Rao or Amma or Sri Sudhanshu Maharaj or Maha Yogi Pilot Baba or His Holiness Baba Hardev Singh ji’s Sant Nirankari Mission, all these Godman & women are actually or fraudmen & women as well as salesmen and women.

We all know that all these Cultists and their movements and missions are actually a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding population considers to be outside the mainstream. And thats what these Cultists want us to be, away from the mainstream, be it our diet, clothing and god knows even sexual prefrences.

And these cultists are not restricted to Hinduism. Among Muslims there is the so called Scholar of all things Islamic, Dr. Zakir Naik who brainwashes Muslims about the teachings of Islam. Naik has extolled the moral and spiritual superiority of Islam and has lampooned other faiths and the West in general, also fostering a spirit of separateness and reinforced prejudice even among educated liberal muslims. While many of my Muslim friends have said that many things Naik wants Muslims to adopt are not listed in The Holy Quran and Naik, like all other Babajis, is doing this just to make money and live a luxurious life.

And among Christians, how can we forget the Faith Healer (or Fake Healer) Benny Hinn. He has promoted himself as a Christian healing evangelist and a child of Jesus himself. Like Zakir Naik, Benny Hinn has extolled the moral and spiritual superiority of Christianity and has lampooned other all faiths, majorly Judaism and Islam and has openly badmouthed homosexuality. His Divine prophocies have all been hoaxes, be it God destroying America’s Homosexual community in 1995 or Death of Fidel Catsro by 2000 or devastation of USA’s East Coast by several Earthquakes in 2003 or election of the first female president of the USA by 2004, while this is not happening even in 2008. His most absurd claim is that Adam (Of Admam & Eve) was a “Superbeing” who could fly to the Moon.

Should you be proud of being an Indian?

Shawn — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:29:21 +0000

Greetings my well wishers.

I was gonna write not 1, but 2 blogs on different subjects, but as I was just going through one of my very old blogs (Retro stuff you see) on Ibibo.com, I thought of sharing this Cult (Seriously cult) blog of mine with you. Coz this is the blog that has received a whopping 72 comments (highest number of comments for any blog of mine till now). The blog titled “Should you be proud of being an Indian?” was written and posted on the internet on January 13, 2007. And fortunately all the 72 comments it got were positive (All Praises you see)

Many of the readers of “Believe the Hype” haven’t read that blog, so I’m putting up an edited version of that blog over here. Also my old readers can refresh their memories by reading this blog again.

As I start this blog, I’m asking you all a question, are you Proud to be an Indian. And if you are OR if you are not, then why?

What makes you so proud of being an Indian?

On the other hand, what makes you Ashamed of being an Indian?

If you are Proud to be an Indian, what makes you proud of belonging to “THE POOREST OF THE POOR COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD”? What makes you proud of belonging to “THE MOST ILLETRATE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD”? What makes you proud of belonging to “The COUNTRY WITH THE HIGHEST HIV POSITIVE POPULATION”?

If you are Ashamed of being an Indian, what makes you ashamed of belonging to a nation that is considered a LAND OF ENDLESS SPIRITUALITY & UNREASONING MYSTICISM? What makes you ashamed of belonging to a country that boasts of “THE OLDEST & THE RICHEST CIVILIZATION IN THE WORLD – The Indus Valley (Harrapa) Civilization.” What makes you ashamed of belonging to the land where the almanacs of wisdom, priceless treasures of science & oceans of unending knowledge “THE VEDAS”, “THE UPNISHADS” & “THE BHAGWAD GEETA” & even the Holy “GURU GRANTH SAHIB” were composed. What makes you ashamed of belonging to the nation which produced the greatest Emperor to have ever lived on planet earth, not Alexander, not Akbar, not Genghis Khan, not King Louis the XIV, but our very own Emperor Ashoka the Great.

Now thats a Major Dilemma isn’t it.

You must be in splits by now. It must be tough deciding what you are, a proud Indian or unfortunate to be an Indian. It must be confusing whether to take pride being an Indian or cribbing yourself for being born in an Undeveloped Country.

As you take time in deciding on which side you are, let me tell you what I feel about my Indian Identity and whether I’m proud or ashamed of being an Indian. And I’m sure when you read my description of Yesterday’s & Today’s India, most of you will agree with me.

I, Shawn (Sushant Taing), am proud of the India that was, the India which used to be known as “Sone Ki Chidiya”. I am proud of the rich & prosperous India which flourished & bloomed under The Mauryan Empire, The Kushan Empire, The Gupta Empire, The Chola Dynasty, The Chaulakya Dynasty, The Rajputana Kingdoms, The Khilji Sultans, The Tughlaq Sultans & the greatest of them all – The Mughal Empire.

I am proud of the India that produced great Kings from Chandragupta Maurya, Kanishka, Chandragupta Vikramaditya, Raja Raja Chola, Harsha Vardhana to Prithvi Raj Chauhan, Maharana Pratap, Babar, Badshah Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan, Chattrapati Shivaji, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and undisputedly the greatest of them all – Emperor Ashoka The Great.

I am proud of the India that produced divine and pious souls like Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Chanakya (also known as Kautilya), Charkha, Sushrutha, Aryabhatta, Banabhatta, Kalidasa, Tulsidas, Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Aulia, Muin-ud-din Chisti, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana, Sant Kabir, Sant Gyaneshwar, Mirabai, Chaitanya Mahabraphu, Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Gobind Singh & Shirdi wale Sai Baba.

I am proud of the India that produced reformists & visionaries like Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda & Swami Dayanand Saraswati.

I am proud of the India that produced Freedom Fighters from Moderates like Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurbindo Ghosh, Lala Lajpat Rai to Extremists like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Chaphekar Brothers and Shaheed Uddham Singh.

I am proud of the India where Global Sports like Chess & Hockey were invented.

To be precise, I’m more proud of The Golden India (The Pre Independence India) that was the APPLE OF THE EYE OF THE ENTIRE EUROPE and THE JEWEL IN THE BRITISH ROYAL CROWN.

But I hardly find any reason to be proud of Today’s India, The 21^st Century India. An India, that after 60 years of Independence is still UNDEVELOPED, ILLITERATE, HIGHLY POLLUTED, OVER POPULATED, MALNURISHED, LARGLY UNEMPLOYED & FULL OF POVERTY. An INDIA whose both Houses of Parliament are full of mostly Goons, Dumb Asses & Pseudo-Intellectuals. An INDIA whose top investigation agency The CBI, takes more than 2 months to solve a simple Double Murder Case.

How can I be proud of an India which has THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICIANS, POLICEMAN, JUDICIARY and BEAURCRATS IN THE WORLD?

How can I be proud of an India where Serial Killers, Rapists, Kidnappers & other GUNDAAS become Members of Parliament (MP) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA)?

How can I be proud of an India where Social equality still doesn’t exist & where minority religious groups are still discriminated?

How can I be proud of an India where superstitions & blind-faith still exist – practices like Sati, Child Marriage & Dowry still plague India?

How can I be proud of an India where 90% of the movies are second rate – all RONA-DHONA & NAACH-GAANA & STORYLINES PLAGIARISED FROM HOLLYWOOD MOVIES and now EVEN from European, Iranian & Korean movies?

How can I be proud of an India which makes the most Disgusting kind of TV Serials (THE SAAS-BAHU SOAPS) and all those Over The Top Melodramatic Reality Shows – all 3^rd Rate?

How can I be proud of an India which has no Sports Culture, fails Miserably at all Olympics, has never won any major Soccer(Football) match, is going Down in the Dumps in its own game Hockey and has never been No. 1 in its most popular game – Cricket?

How can I be proud of an India whose media is so Biased? When we win an ordinary Cricket Match i.e. a One Day Match against Bangladesh, it hits the headlines in all Newspapers and TV News, but When Jaspal Rana Wins 3 Gold Medals in Shooting at The Asian Games (A Bigger Honour For the country) or Vishwanathan Anand regains World Number 1 Rank in Chess or Pankaj Advani wins a major International Billiards Tournament that story is reported somewhere in a small section in the Sports Column of The Newspaper and the visual media happily ignores it (As it doesn’t give them big ratings).

How can I be proud of an India where untalented jackasses like Himesh Reshammiya, Anu Malik, Qazi Touqueer and Sandeep Acharya are considered Rock stars and ugly Bimbos like Rakhi Sawant & Mallika Sherawat are considered Divas? (Just because they are experts in skin show).

And how can I be proud of an India whose Present Prime Minister is a mere Puppet & a coward and lacks decision making skills?

Clearly there are not many reasons for being proud of Today’s India.

But wait, don’t write off India as a bad country.

I’m proud of my country whose Armed Forces guard the post at Siachen Glacier under Minus 10 degree C Temperature everyday. They brave the bitter Cold, just to make the neighboring countries realize, ” Don’t take us for Granted “.

I’m proud of my country which has produced Intellectuals like Amartya Sen, Sir Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Vinod Khosla, Amar Bose, Sabeer Bhatia, Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapoor, Manoj Night Shyamalan, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, MF Hussain, SH Raza & Jhumpa Lahiri, all of whom have conqured the west.

I’m proud of my country which has produced Entrepreneurs like Lakshmi Mittal, Ratan Tata & Vijay Mallya who are buying foreign Companies & proving that Indians have arrived.

I’m also proud of my country where I break all the traffic rules and spit on the Streets (even in its capital where I live) and bribe the police so that I don’t pay up being arrested & fined.(Thats Sarcasm for the uninitiated)

As we say, it happens Only in India.

Buccaneers as politicians, copycats as musicians and vision less and imagination less chaps as film directors; that tears the veil from the real face of India! But still,even the darkest and gloomiest of Storm clouds have a silver lining,the vices might be overrunning the virtues right now,but still, there are enough reasons for us to be proud of our nationality!

Hence I’m a hardcore Proud Indian.

Hindustan Zindabad.