Ashta avadhana

Recently I happened to witness an extraordinary art called Ashtavadhaana. My friend Madhu told me about this event being held in Bangalore. He gave me the address and though it was not publicly announced, it was open to public. I went to this place with a vague sense of what I was about to see. Though I had heard about it, it was the first time I was about to see it live.

Avadhaana apparently means concentration in Sanskrit. Ashta avadhaana means concentrating on eight different aspects in parallel. The Avadhaani at this event was Shathavadhaani Dr R Ganesh. He had 8 people around him. 4 on each side. The idea of Avadhaana is that the Avadhaani responds to the art question (more a challenge) put forward by questioners (pruchhaka) almost in parallel with all the others. There would be four rounds, and for each pruchhaka either a paada or in the case of aashu kavithe and kaavya pruchhaka a complete response would be done.

That day, we had the following eight roles of pruchhaka.

1. This person would give a theme and a chandas (meter, explained later). And then provide a letter that should not be the used. For eg., assuming if the pruchhaka felt the avadhaani would start with the word Ravi (Sun God), and that the meter would make sure that the first letter would be a laghu and then a guru, then the pruchhaka would rule would the occurance of Vivaswatha by saying "No" to va-kaara. The avadhaani could then either pick a different word to start the poem or pick a new letter to denote the same meaning, say divaakara and come out with the letter dhi. Then the pruchhaka would say no to va again, and the avadhaani would change the intended word to dinaakara. A letter after another, one fourth of the verse known as a paada would be complete before he would move on to the next one.

2. The second pruchhaka would pose a question with a complex statement and challenge the avadhaani to compose a poem that will integrate the question into itself and provide an answer. It is also to imagine the relevant context. Even here after finishing a paada, the avadhaani would concentrate on the next person.

3. This person would give some words and a meter and a theme. The avadhaani would need to compose a poem with those words in the given meter on the theme. The catch here is that none of the words should be used in their own meaning, for eg., shaanthi should not used as a word that will mean peace or lack of peace etc., it should be used as a samasa or sandhi between two words (a words ending with sha and another word starting with anthi).

4. This pruchhaka would look at an art called as chitra kavithe. I did not comprehend the different aspects of this one, but it looked like composing on a picture in a picture.

5. There would be a pruchhaka who would give various themes on aashu kavithe. ie., composing on will. He would give themes and meters and ask the avadhaani to compose a complete poem on each round.

6. There was a musician who would sing gamaka on different poems in different works. The avadhaani has to recognise the songs and respond in a kaavya manner.

7. There was a pruchhaka maintaining a matrix of size 5x5. He would give a number at the start of the avadhaana and throughout the four rounds ask for numbers in specific cells. He would note the number down and at the end of the avadhaana, all of the rows and columns should add up to the number given at the start. This pruchhakka has the additional responsibility of distracting the avadhaani just when his concentration is on prime to compose an answer to the other pruchhakkas.

8. the last one but the most interesting pruchhaka would intend just to disturb the concentration and ask all sorts of idiotic questions. Both this pruchhakka and the matrix person do not participate in the rounds and they just interrupt whenever they feel like.

In the midst of all this, we had some amazing samskrutha poems and Kannada poems. It is amazing to look at and its appreciated more only if one tries to even write a simple sentence in meter.

I took out of the event, the meanings of three poems:

The avadhaani was asked to come out with poems to describe the falling of raindrops on a still lake. He had two descriptions. One meant "Like notes coming out of a jal tarang, music is created out of the drops falling radially across the lake. The beautiful image of the sky that was captured by the lake got destroyed by the falling drops. With the drops both creation(of the musical notes) and destruction(of the picture of the sky) happened on the lake". The other was about the symbolism found in the story of prince and the pauper. "A single drop, falling in the lake is bound to create a wave that is far reaching. However too many drops will mean that a wave created by one ends with the wave created by another, thus limitign the impact" In life, this can be seen once too often. Any new event will have a popularity only when it is rare, but however nice the event is, if it is accompanied by many such it will have limited impact. The events could be anything from the arrival of a new technology to the birth of a new philosopher.

The other poem I remembered was sung by the Kaavya pruchhaka. This was a description that was provided on kurukshetra after the war is over. When people were asked - "How did the battlefield look?". the response was like this - "Like a new son-in-law arriving in a house, where everyone grabs the person and pulls them with lot of enthusiasm. A soldier who has died while fighting with his bows and arrows in a fighting position, on arrival into veeraswarga, is being pulled with a lot of viour and torn apart by dogs, wolves and jackals." This has so many rasas and the movement from one rasa to another is fascinating.

One another interesting point to note was that out of the eight pruchhakas only three had grey hair, the rest seemed very young around 30ish. All of them pursuing their day jobs with Samskrutha as their primary fuel. This gave me a lot of hope....

Vinay

PS: Here's a link that explains meters well: http://cs.annauniv.edu/insight/insight/chhandas/pages/typepage.htm

Long term ownership report - SX4

For a long time, I'd been searching for a car to buy. All the cars I looked at had something against them that was a strict no-no for me. one car might have had an old engine, another would have troublesome ***, another would have huge depreciation. So during this time, I had to balance my head v/s heart confusions and decided to take a definite stance on it. My stance was/is "I will not buy a car that my heart says no to, I will buy a car that makes the most economical/logical sense". Now that made me cut down on all cars, my heart said "no" to - Ikon, Verna, NHC, aveo. The cars that were left for my consideration - Innova, swift, fiesta, optra etc., made it to my next criteria, which was if I can afford it. Affordability is a big thing for me. I am a first generation car buyer and I have earned all my money myself. I cannot afford my car value depreciating at 40% pa. But at the same time I need an exhilarating experience. So both these factors made it difficult.

Being from the IT industry, I am so used to buying a computer with the latest CPU that has the best threading technology. Probably the monitor colour and the cabinet size never matter me. (I know for some it did). You can call it a hangover or whatever, I was still looking at a good engine, good transmission and easy ride. I also wanted newer technology and some gizmos thrown in.

The swift came in and went past by me as soon as they announced the reworked esteem engine. I mean, why should I buy a car, if I am treated to an over aged option. The fusion and palio were good options, but I really can't afford the depreciation that these two cars provide. The supposed maintenance cost of these cars meant that I kept myself out of them. The swift diesel arrived and I thought it was made for me. Unfortunately, neither did it have a ZDi model nor could I afford its waiting time. Since I live with my parents, I also considered the Innova, but the dual AC model was a bit too expensive for me. It was great, sad looking but a bit too expensive for me. I also considered a Skoda 2nd hand, but dropped off as soon as I heard the service problems a friend of mine has faced. OHC VTEC could have been an option, but it was too old a car.

Somewhere during this timeline, Maruti announced the launch of SX4. And I started tracking its website. Initially it had just a silly promo and a link to an idiotic website for hippies(some men are back club or something like that). Then the specs started to fly in. I don't know if it was frustration of waiting for the perfect car or the availability of a full featured car at a great price, I just wanted to buy it. I did my financials and found that I could afford it, but not the parking space for it :-) What the heck, eh? I just went ahead and called up the Mandovi guys and a friend of mine - Kiran (9854326944)asked me come over on the day of the launch in Bangalore and book it. the dealership has treated me well so I went ahead and booked the car on the day of the launch. Unfortunately I could not get the car in the first set. Kiran set the right expectations and kept upto it. I am fine with people who deal with me honestly even if they tell me the bad news. I had to wait for a month because of my car colour - red. And then on the D-day, me and wifey got it home. Everybody went for a drive with my 1 and half year old son not giving up his front seat and not allowing anybody else to sit in the drivers seat. (Even now, he's like that, recently we had been to a restaurant and the valet sat in the front seat and my son started howling :-) )

Since then till now, the car has been an eye turner. The car's not a great looker from behind, but at the right angles, it looks pretty. The interiors are okay, but I somehow cannot digest the beige colour. It is so bland and without character. I got my seat covers fitted to change that. I chose black art leather on the sides and black fabric in the middle. I do not like the body heat that is generated by leather and hence the fabric in the middle. I got it done through G Sports, whose factory is in JP Nagar Bangalore. It has come out pretty well. Pics are at: Picasa Web Albums - Vinay

My first reactions to the car include a gaping "Oh ****" to the right side A pillar. It seemed such a mess of a design. But now, it does not really seem like it, we slowly get used to it. (Some advice from TBHP members also helped). The GC was a pleasure. My car just runs over the humps. The high tyres also help :-) The ICE was a disappointment. The interiors were good. The car that I owned previous to the SX4 was Zen and had much worse interiors, so I really did not think the quality was that bad.

As time passed, my impressions changed. The right side A pillar was no longer a challenge(Its still a bother, though). The GC becomes a bigger please and so does the high seating position. The ICE is quite okay, after you play music at the right volumes, bass and treble. I got adjusted to it perhaps. Some stuff that bother me even now are the clutch position (could have been more ergonomic), absence of smaller compartments to keep coins, spectacles etc., The shape of the cabin from the side is a bother, people sitting in the rear seat sides feel the curve with their heads. The body hits the head of the person sitting in the side. The middle seat that way is quite okay for a family of average height. So much was made of the middle seat. To me, performance could have been slightly better. I probably feel like that since I was using a Zen. But its still much better than most of its other competitors. Also the lightness of the steering initially was a problem, I've got used to it now. I can feel the feedback much better now. The headlights were never seen as a problem in the initial few days, but they've turned out to be not so useful now. It was interesting to see the non-issues becoming problems and the major ones disappearing as soon as I got used to my car. So I keep advising people to try something for a period of time, before they decide its an issue.

I've had many pleasurable moments and a few heart aches as well. Scratches on my car were big heart aches. I've had a couple of them. One was while I was trying to sneak in to a small street where the residents had got a small concrete pillar erected to prevent large vehicles come in. I forgot my car was big and paid the price for it. the scratches were not big, but they were my first. The second set happened in a basement when I was trying to take a reverse. I thought I had a clear reverse but there was pillar waiting to provide me my angst for the next few days.

The car has been fantastic when I took a couple of senior citizens in my car to Shivanasamudra on quite bad roads and they did not even feel the strain of travel. It stands on its tyres quite well and the grip is fantastic even when it rains. I did not feel any hydroplaning during that trip, when I was driving at about 80-100 in Mysore road in spite of heavy rains. I've also taken the car to Jog falls and the pleasure was different then. I liked the way the car took the strain of bad roads and rainy conditions for a sustained period of time. I also liked the fact that we'd traveled for about 1000 kms in 2 days and I did not feel any pain (except the one I felt during my next day to office) To me, SX4 is meant to be driven on highways, please buy a NHC if you're driving only on good roads/city conditions etc., I love the way this car handles the bad roads. I guess that's one of the advantages of having a car that has been derived from a crossover design. That's something I had planned on and it feels good when plans turn to reality.

The fact that the car handles bad roads well, does not mean it does not handle good roads well. The car has a slight understeer at speeds over 70. But then since EPS cuts off, I was anyway trying to readjust so it did not matter. The car is tall, so the CG is high, but the high weight of the car gives it better stability. I've driven for quite sometime at 140 and even touched 150 on the NICE road. I did not feel the lack of control. Brakes are great. There's so much of confusion around the technologies: ABS/Disc/Drum/Read/Front. But all that matters is that everytime you apply brakes, it should stop well. And in SX4 it does that. Nothing else matters.

The city driving is good but not great. The size makes it difficult to park etc., I would have preferred a hatchback for pure city conditions any day. But I still enjoy driving this car in the city. With AC/music on, the stress levels are really low and unless you're in a hurry its an enjoyable experience. In fact, after a hectic work life, I'd almost stopped listening to music. It looks like its back in swing.

As an owner, the clutch change was not a problem, but a signal that I would be taken care of. I usually get my car serviced at Mandovi JP Nagar and I know a person there who takes real good care of my cars, so service of the car is a no-brainer. But as he put in, these cars don't really need servicing.

Accessories are part and parcel of any car buying, but with a ZXi in SX4 the amount of accessories you'll need as an after market fitments is less. The car comes with almost every thing. Till date, I've bought perfume, car cover, mobile chargers, seat covers and might buy a new set of headlights, reverse parking camera, sun film.

The joke around my house is that I could never be seen washing my Zen. But with SX4, I wash it at least 15 days once. Its good exercise. And those who see me, tell me I need good exercise :-) One of the lessons I've learnt is not to allow careless people wash the car, scratches will be abundant. I've also tried to take some good photos.

I've done about 2800 kms and will keep the thread updated as I move on.

PS: I've posted the same at team-bhp.com, which is a great place for car enthusiasts.

My new car

I got a red SX4 delivered on Sunday. I had a pleasant experience with Mandovi motors. It did take long, but I was given the right expectations. And it helped. I can wait, provided I sense predictability.

I've revved it only till 4000 rpm... the engine is still under run in.
Cornering at 80 kmph was great, there's a healthy understeer.
But too quick a turn has some body roll.

The luggage space is great, the boot is best in class. The car is big enough and comfortable for 5 short guys. The middle rear seat is uncomfortable only if you're tall. But other than that, the car is very comfortable and big. I would have liked a lot of smaller storage(as in Honda cars) in and around the seating space.

I like the height of the drivers' seat. I like the power, it comes at the rpms I like at the mid band. The stereo is from nippontronics, which is Kenwood, it has good reproduction of all freq spectrums. This is more important for me than huge bass(as I do not play music for people outside :-) ). The dash is clean.

The boot lid should have been a little bit stiffer. You really have to push it to make it stand right. A spring would have helped.
There are blindspots in the car due to the A pillars. The wedge simply does not help. Taking right turns are difficult. The clutch could have been better designed and a dummy wedge would be useful.

Overall, I think a paradigm shift is happening. Usually feedback from the road was associated with driver's controlling capability. This meant loss of comfort and smoothness. The shift is away from such models to a more smoother more comfortable car keeping in mind the drivers controlling capability. The search is now for the right compromise. And I think SX4 is a good compromise.

Pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinaybv/NewCar

Ikiru

Ikiru

Akira Kurasawa is not a director of movies in my eyes. He comments on men and their nature. The medium of movie just happens to be his personal favourite. Ikiru is yet another movie that emphasized this thought of mine. The movie starts with a brilliant depiction of red-tapism. A set of women that need a park repaired come to the city office. The maze that they get into can only be seen in the movie. Our bueraucrat protagonist works in the same city office and finds out that he's going to die in a few months due to stomach cancer.

Reminisces about his son and the sacrifices he had to do for his son's sake are quickly followed by scenes that show the son's attitude of being a typically selfish human being. Kurasawa excels in portraying these scenes to emphasize man's loneliness in this world. He does not treat the son as an astray. He also follows the scenes between the son and daughter in law where they discuss the usage of pension after the protagonist dies, with an incident that he narrates during his childhood, where he was left to drown with his parents afar. All this make you feel that man is finally alone in his conquest of life.

In such an ambience, he moves on to find the essence of "to live". By eliminating inter personal relations skillfully, Kurasawa makes IKIRU a personal journey, He then indulges in pleasures, that make him feel that they are not worth living for. And then he meets a junior of his in his office, who he feels is full of life. He tries to find out what is it that makes her alive. Amidst many beautifully crafted scenes, he finds out that the essence of her life is in finding pleasure in every small thing that we do. Its in doing what we want we do, irrespective of the hurdles that you might encounter.

During the realisation, there is a well conceived scene where the protagonist suddenly finds an energy "to Live" and walks down a staircase when a teenage girl is walking up the same stairs on her birthday. All her friends sing "Happy birthday", indicating that our dear protagonist started living that moment.

Kurasawa uses the two half of the movies to signify transition from one thought to another very well. Similar to High and Low, Ikiru also has been divided into two parts quite significantly.

The protagonist uses his inspired few moments remaining in his life to get a park repaired in a suburb. The second half is about his funeral. The city's deputy mayor and his supporters are present at the funeral. During an argument, they vehemently deny the efforts of the protagonist in building the park. And so do the protagonist's colleagues.

Old woman on the street

Recently, I witnessed an incident, that changed by opinion. In India, we don't really follow the written traffic rules. So pedestrians crossing the roads are the second most difficult obstacle to avoid after stray dogs. Having been on a vehicle for lots of years now. I tended to inherit the general attitude of the vehicle drivers towards pedestrians. One that glares into people crossing streets slowly and says - "I pay road tax, and these guys occupy roads more than me; lemme scare them off by going a little fast and screeching to a halt". I please guilty to have done that many a times. It is, after all, rather irritating to slow down every now and then and move down to lower gears, when there's a pedestrian crossing across every 100/200 mts.

In the recent past, I met this lady, probably in her early sixties. Kinda heavy, like most south Indian ladies at that age would be. Huffing and Puffing, she was enquiring with a guy who did not understand the local language of Kannada. Since I belonged to the locality and since I speak Kannada, I thought I'll help her out. I asked her what the matter was. She said she wanted to call up a relative. And that she was trying to find the nearest telephone booth.

Wanting to be the good samaritan, I offered my mobile phone. She obsolutely refused to use it. I tried for sometime to convince her and then gave up. Instead, she said "Show me the way to a public telephone booth". I told her its just across the road(for those who know Bangalore, its BTM Layout Ring road). But she wanted one on the same side of the street. I told her that its far and that the one across the road was a lot nearer. But she was adamant, she definitely wanted one on the same side of the road. Now, here was a lady, who was finding it hard to walk a long distance, did not want to use my mobile phone, was adamant on finding a telephone booth on the same side of the road, though she had to walk for a long while.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked her why did she want a telephone booth on the same side of the road. Apparently she did not want to cross the road... She was afraid of fast vehicles that would screech down to a halt just close to her. Yeah, the drivers would have perfect control, as in those Hollywood movies, that would have inspired such driving. But she for one, would be terribly scared of such stops. She was so scared, that she preferred walking longer (It was rather long), than to walk across the street.

This incident has changed the way I look at pedestrians crossing the road, however I do hope this change in me lasts for a longer time...

My letter to deccan herald

Deccan herald is a local newspaper. And a letter of mine to the editor got published on the net. Its about auto rickshaws, the most common form of hired taxis in India. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jul122005/netmail13882005711.asp

Respected editor,

The auto rickshaw driving profession has become a privileged one, with
the amount of profit that can be earned. The auto rickshaw's
thankfully have moved on to a much cleaner fuel of LPG. LPG also
happens to be a highly efficient fuel, somewhere in the range of 1:3
or 1:4 when compared to petrol, in terms of rupees per kilometer. The
rate per kilo meter is fixed as per the petrol rate and not by LPG
rates. Some of the autos even hold advertising boards on their backs
to make some more additional money. All this is leading to a higher
return per trip to the auto driver. Unfortunately none of these
benefits are being passed down to the consumer. The pensioner who
cannot climb a bus and hence enters an auto, will also have to pay the
exorbitant rate. No wonder in these days of high profit margins, auto
drivers will never come to the place the traveller wants to go. They
move only in the direction they want. Ironically when the recent
petrol hike went up, autodrivers were showcased by the television
channels to highlight the effects of the hike.

Regards,
Vinay

Marketing tidbits

Marketing titbits

I recently sent out a mail to my MBA class people...

I thought I'll share this thing I saw with you all... Last week, my kid had to be vaccinated and we had taken him to a doctor. There were a couple of kids at the entrance selling balloons there. I am particularly sure that none of them had a MBA, but they seemed to have got everything right about selling their product. Positioned for the parents of a sick kid or a crying kid. Placed and distributed right in front of a doctor's (paediatric) clinic, this I felt was a text book example of an excellent marketing plan in action.

Vinay

============

Got a few responses as well:

Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2006 13:29:11 +0530 (IST)

From: K. Jayanth

Reply-To: pgsm-iimb-2001@yahoogroups.com

To: pgsm-iimb-2001@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [pgsm-iimb-2001] A story of marketing

yet another one then..

place : In front of marriage hall.

product : gift envelopes into which you can put some cash.

price : Rs 5/- instead of Rs 1/- in a shop.

deal sweetner : glue for sealing the envelope !!

regards,

jayanth

=================

From: "Lall, Rajiv"

Reply-To: pgsm-iimb-2001@yahoogroups.com

To: pgsm-iimb-2001@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [pgsm-iimb-2001] A story of marketing

Here's one more -

place - big private hospital

product - small temple with a huge donation box

return - peace of mind - Someone up there will listen to your prayers

-Rajiv

Review of Mungaru Male

Well, I finally saw the movie. I went in with a lot of cynicism, with lot of doubts. Primarily I don't like it when people hype things saying its different. I believe that everything is a repeat including Maggi hot and sweet tomato sauce.

The initial few scenes were well, not different. The humor was present, but not different from his comedy time stuff. What was different was the cinematographic treatment. I've seen a good lot of photography these days, but this movie is amongst one of the best. The story starts in a very light manner, gets stronger over time. The actor Ganesh has only one face and only one tone. Its his natural tone and expression and suits the role, but that's not acting. If only Ganesh could put on a few more expressions, if only he could talk with the right intonations. Fortunately for Ganesh, in Kannada films these things don't really matter. The first half of the movie is well paced with humor or its pretensions occupying the majority of the script. The songs blend in well and are excellently composed and are very good to listen to. I personally think they are better than most Hindi movie songs. Ganesh can't dance also. The locations are very good. The heroine is passable, thankfully she's not challenged by the role.

My sister, brother in law and mother and I were all having an average expression on their faces in the interval. At the end of the first half, I felt I was wasting my time on such a story. But at the end of the movie, I felt it was a very good script. The script moves at an even pace. The sense of expectation of an ending lingers long into the second half. It is this sense that makes the pacing of the movie great. IMHO, the ending, the pacing and the cinematography are the best parts of this movie. The hero's character develops to be capable of being a "hrudayavantha" in the second half. All the pieces don't really tie in well, so you keep expecting something to happen.

In a lot of ways, this movie is not different, but it is made different thanks to the treatment. Pacing is something I always admire, I like stuff where the pacing is such that your brain is running towards various possibilities and just when its about to get distracted from thinking on the possibilities, the story comes up with an answer. It should be slow enough to allow you to think/feel, but not too slow to allow you to get distracted. It should also not vary too much through the movie. This movie's pacing is something that I liked, considering the whole story is set in a matter of 5-10 days.

The ending is a very daring ending and its like the looks of a Maruti Swift, you either love it or hate it. I liked it a lot.

The icing on the cake though is the cinematography. Malnad in mungaru male makes an excellent subject to be shot. I would normally assume that with such a subject, you don't need extra ordinary skills. But that's been disproved in this movie. The right kind of focus, framing, settings combine together in most shots. Jog falls has always been a fascination for me and I strongly believe no photography can capture the essence. But this one comes closer than most attempts before. I will still maintain that the essence has still not been captured. It is obvious that the work is done with passion. I felt that this pair of directors/cinematographer should sit together and come up with documentaries on all Karnataka tourism spots. That would be a tremendous boost.

Overall, for the Kannada movie industry, I felt this movie is very good. It brings in a new set of audience - the non Kannada, the metro, the middle class Kannadiga urban. It integrates them with the rural audience. It has deviated from the "Long" movies and has beaten all records. It has been done outside of the clutches of both the Telugu/Tamil industry. If only the movie had a better hero/heroine, it would have been incomparable. Its no Cannes film festival award winner, yet it stands to be different from the other movies.

Apparently the movie has done quite a lot and is seen as the best success so far. Remake rights have been bought in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil. I would recommend it for everyone, not just for viewing but also for helping the Kannada film industry choose the right path over the "Long" films.

Why does India not win in Cannes anymore?

I just wanted to point out the problems with the art cinema scene today.

While its true that Bollywood and its quality is growing, the intelligence behind those films is going down. Technical quality is not film intelligence. Film intelligence is about how people use the different ways of communicating to show their thoughts and emotions. In Bollywood, its getting repetitive - bazaar to show chaos, rain to show dampness, fire to show passion. The reason why this is not changing is because the aim of bollywood is not "being creative in expression", but "make more money". And there is nothing wrong with making money as long as the people who're making money don't crib that they're not getting awards. The fact that the Bollywood guys expect recognition in Cannes is ridiculous. They can expect to make more money, but not get an award (which is inline with their intention, anyway)

The real problem, which nobody seems to notice is the deterioration of the "art" movie scene. There are some huge problems there:

- Regional biases: While Ray is undoubtedly the best that India has produced, the same is not true with all Bengali film makers. Similarly both Shahji and Adoor might be great in some of their movies, but there is no certainty that only Malayalees have it in them to show the pain of mankind. India needs to move away from this kind of a bias. Recently Telugu, Marathi have picked up in the circuit, but visibility is still very less for non-Bengali/non-Malayalee movie makers. Let me give an example, Girish Kasaravalli a very renowned film maker, who's won the Swarna Kamal award as many times as the great Ray was not featured in NDTV Witness's view point on why Indian movies don't make it good at awards. He's probably very well known outside of India, but in India he's had to deal with the regional bias. Another example "Raincoat" from Rituparno Ghosh was seen by a lot of people and was given a lot of visibility that other film makers in India would have loved to have. But anybody who's read the Gift of Magi will tell that Raincoat probably missed the point of the story by a mile.

- Idealism: There is a huge idealistic bias of most of the art film makers in India. All of them have a socialist/communist background. I am not against communism, but am of the opinion that different idealisms should exist to show the different aspects of the same issue. Indian movies tend to be directed from the same angle. Its always against exploitation of poor, women, senior citizens... Or its about caste system or awakening or rationality. I am not saying that's wrong, but its getting too monotonous. Concentrate on other subjects as well for a better variety. For eg., after Ray no major art director has directed a gem of a children's movie.

- Attitude: This seriously irritates me. Art movies in India are always prescriptive. Why should movies be only prescriptive? Why not become narrative or descriptive? The problem is that directors seem to assume a higher moral altar and preach to the people down and ask them to "think". This over emphasis on "thinking" has made movies very demeaning on the audience and too some extent very brahminical(only intellectual) in view point. Personally, I am of the opinion that "thinking" on a subject does not give a person a right to have an opinion on the subject. Its actually undergoing the experience of the subject, that enables one to have a complete viewpoint on the subject. Stories are a beautiful way of illustrating an experience. I still remember the Bharath Ek Khoj directed by Shyam Benegal, where the story telling mechanism was used to illustrate very difficult concepts in philosophy; and this was done in a beautiful narrative manner. To me that was a classic piece of direction.

- Marketing: Lack of marketing affects the movies very badly. Instead of taking movies with songs and dances to Cannes, why not take some real cinema. For eg., Makdee would have been an excellent candidate for awards. We will keep sending Kabhie KKKKKKKKs and not movies intended otherwise. We should follow a simple strategy, send movies to unbiased film festivals outside of India and then send the winners of these contests to better festivals. Another thing that needs to happen is the release of DVDs of art movies, with marketing of course. A lot of people who want to watch, say Bimal Roy's Parineeta will have to wait till eternity, because the company that owns the rights will not release the movies for production. A lot of movies are stuck up with the national film archives and the commercial departments. This needs to be freed

I don't know what the solutions to the problem are, but IMHO these are some of the important problems.

Lage Raho Munna Bhai in Kannada - part 1.

In my high school days, a teacher called me a double kannadiga. :-) One for wearing a Kannadi(glass in Kannada) and one for talking Kannada, the language. Kannada, the language is not only my mother tongue but also a language that I like by choice. So to me, thinking about the space that Kannada occupies in cultural dimensions is quite natural and important. And with it came the love for the language. To a large extent, this emotion is being shared by many Kannadigas.

This love for a language is seen quite a lot in India, where states are divided according to the language the people speak and it is seen in many expressions:

• by going on the roads and making sure all the road signs are in a particular language.
• by being hostile to people who talk in a different language.
• by building a fraternity of same-language speaking people.
• by governments in mandating certain things.
• by seeing films in that language only.
• In extreme cases, we have even seen people take up arms for the sake of their language.

My love for the Kannada language was a certainty, but what was not was the way of expressing it. To my mind, supporting some of the hostile activities was neither an outright yes or no. It somehow, did not feel like "the right thing" to do. However, it also felt like there was sometimes no option. About 7-8 years back, I thought I'll try the Gandhian way of expressing my admiration. In that way, I would have to develop a positive attitude towards the language. I would have to:

• try and speak the language correctly
• understand the nuances
• read literature and poetry
• know the history and culture

I would call the above, actions that demonstrate positive love for a language. To a large extent, this was the kind of actions that Lage Raho MunnaBhai said we should be doing in the context of Gandhigiri. Difficult ones, but good ones. Similar to what was shown in the Gandhigiri context, there are easier ways out to demonstrate one's admiration for a language. But these would not necessarily be satisfying. One would have to stay away from such hypocritical actions. For this I would also have to refrain from actions that would demonstrate possessive or negative love(not hate) for a language, like:

• hating another language or people who spoke it
• supporting the violent and incorrect ways of building a language
• building myths around the language
• using the language I love for personal financial/professional gains

This change has been a difficult one, but has been very satisfying. I will not pretend that I do not get impulses to move to the easier one. For eg., if I know that a merchant in Bangalore, cannot speak Kannada, then I get this huge urge to speak in Kannada so that I get a better bargain as a Kannadiga. I'm not saying its wrong to speak Kannada during trading, I'm saying I feel its wrong to do with an intention of getting a better bargain.

But in the midst of all such impulses, I have been able to read a lot of literature. I have been able to develop my vocabulary and expressions. My knowledge on Kannada has increased. And these and many more acts have provided me the confidence that the language Kannada is not endangered. It is strong enough to protect itself and does not need violent protests or mandating to survive. With these thoughts in my mind, I can safely proceed to savor the beauty of a language in a manner I feel is right.

Vinay
PS 1: (For that matter, thinking that expressing my thoughts in a Kannada blog, would help in the survival of a language, would be preposterous)

PS 2: I've tried to keep this blog as descriptive as possible and I do not intend this to be a prescription for anybody.

Cricket selections - Cricket is a mind game; is'nt it?

The Indian cricket team is a target of many. All media men, all SMS typists, all email forwarders, all bloggers and even Narayan Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys(who was invited by Times of India to opine. With the world cup debacle, I am sure there are more that will join the bandwagon. I get the feeling I am being left out. That is the main reason for the existence of this blog.

Unlike most of the opinions, my line of thought is something I've stuck to. I've been telling this to all my friends for a long time now.

Before we move to the Indian cricket team, we must understand the game of cricket. Cricket requires three important skills:

- cricketing skills, like hand eye co-ordiantion, wrist turning etc., This will turn you into a good cricketer, giving you the flair that is required. Saqlain mushtaq came up with a different skill, the doosra, it was some time back, but he's nowhere to be seen now. There have been many players who have had a sparkle in their game that has taken them to the international level, because of their cricketing skill. Usually this alone cannot take you beyond a season. The first season, the cricketers will find a new skill slightly difficult, but laptops will come up with an answer sooner than later. There have been cricketing geniuses like Azharuddin, GR Vishwanath, Shane Warne, Muralitharan, Jayasurya, Tendulkar for whom the laptops had no answer. They tend to herald the art of cricket.

- physical stamina and endurance, some guys like Flintoff, Jayasurya etc., have great physical stamina. Players like Robin Singh could even get above the lack of cricketing skills with lot of physical stamina and determination. Its usually the younger guys that have better stamina. This kind of a strength usually results in highly energetic individuals acting like springs on the green surface. Makes for great viewing.

- The last but not the least is the mental stamina and fortitude. With the limited resources of cricketing skill and physical strength, a player can take his game to the next level by sheer mental strength. These players win matches, they might not score the most elegant four, they might not catch in the most acrobatic way, but they never fail in the crisis situations. Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Viv Richards, Mohinder Amarnath, Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble, many more come to my mind. Not as talented as their skilled counterparts, they make up for what they don't have by their mind play.

With these strengths in mind, if I were to design a system to select the best team (best here means - the one that will win most; not the one that is most acrobatic, not the one that is most elegant or artistic), I would put in mental stamina and fortitude as high on the requirement as possible. I would divide the selection into three major parts:

- I would probably make sure that state level associations have enough cricket games in short periods before they are selected to represent their states. I would make sure there are gyms and other facilities in each and every ground. Concentration would be on fielding. Thereby I would make sure that every guy who puts up his hand for state level selection is a physically fit person.

- The state team should consist of only talented individuals. Good selection committee members should be picking up talented individuals from a physically fit lot. For this a couple of changes that I would suggest are: make sure the selection committee decides on the basis of a camp or a short period instead of track records. Make sure the committee comes from outside the state concerned. Make sure the committee is appointed by BCCi and not the state board. BCCI can have a body of state level selectors who get rotated from state to state. This body can be a paid professional body. This would mean everyone who plays for the state is not just physically fit, but also the best skilled in the state.

- The final national team should be selected only on the basis of mental strength and attitude. After players have proven their worth in many many games at Ranji levels, they can be selected. Mike Hussey got selected after long years at Australian cricket, so did Mathew Hayden. In India we have a tradition of selecting people who do not have any sort of Ranji experience. Take Parthiv Patel for eg., he had not played even one Ranji trophy match, when he was selected. This selection should also take in an ability to relearn. ie., the player must have got out of form atleast once and should have regained form at Ranji level. This makes sure that at the national level, we do not waste time on people who do not know to reinvent themselves. The selection team, if you ask me should have atleast one psychiatrist who will tell you from observation if the player will perform under pressure or not. I can tell you of atleast one person Arjuna Ranatunga, who was the least fit in the Sri Lankan team, but he was mentally the strongest. We need people of such mental strength.

Implementing all these changes is not going to be easy, but its surely the way to go.

On an after thought, let me try and classify the different adjectives we use on cricketers:

Nice to have:
- Great physical fitness
- Lightning quick
- Elegant

Must have:
- Cricketing skills
- Mental strength
- Ability to perform under pressure
- Ability to come out of bad form
- Invent a new strength when your old one is invalid

Not important:
- Handsome
- Most artistic
- Powerful

After all, cricket is still a mental game; is'nt it?