Jade Goody has been in the news for all sorts of reasons but when she finally bowed out after her battle with cancer, she went without so much as a whimper.
Jade turned out to be quite a drama queen during the Big Brother show when her caustic tongue made many a visage to turn violet. Athough she was made to eat crow for being a bully she ‘kissed and made up’ with her nemesis Shilpa ‘Pappadom’ Shetty.
But by then we had got a glimpse of the real Jade- hissing and spiteful - who made a fool of herself by mocking a very cultured and sophisticated Shilpa simply because she came from another culture that Jade little understood .
There are a few things that the Jade Goody episode taught me —
# Your life may be a soap opera but it does not take long for the bubbles to burst.
#Spite is a virtue—public display of spite reveals the chinks in your armor .Such a display may initially win you enemies but once they know how honest you are with your expressions they will love you well enough to start a fan club.
# The more you wait for your turn with the ‘Grim Reaper’ the greater is the macabre drama that unfolds around you.
Whenwilljadegoodydie.com is a Holland -based website that encouraged people to predict the day and time of Goody’s death. This can only be more outlandish than Goody’s own efforts to romanticize and make a spectacle of her exit, for gain.
#’Never say die’- Jade’s fight with the big C reveals her true grit . She bared her fangs at death, withstood several surgeries and desperately tried everything to keep death away -- from trusting faith healers to eating curries!
And when she was sure that her end was round the corner she married her husband-in-waiting Jack Tweed, got christened and even planned her funeral in style……..Way to go ,lady!
Jade Goody’s greatest contribution was perhaps to the public health domain. Thanks to the ‘Jade Goody Effect’, screening for cervical cancer soared to an all time high in the UK. The humble Pap smear has come of age and has found its place in the annals of medical history! Cervical cancer, which is more or less lifestyle –related, can be easily treated and possibly cured if detected early. The recently discovered vaccine for cervical cancer comes as God -sent to all women!
At one time Jade Goody was welcome to my resent although she was of little consequence to my daily life. But as tragic scenes of this former reality star flashed on the TV screen a sense of remorse filled me as the fragility of my own existence was vehemently driven home. Goodbye Jade and thanks for those lessons!
Key words- Jade Goody, reality star, big brother, Shilpa Shetty, Pap smear, cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening, Jack Tweed, Jade Goody Effect,
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Are gay men misogynists?
Recently I read that Elton John in all his English Correctness had referred to the Americans as ‘misogynists’ because they did not care about Hillary C in a way that they should be caring.
For a man who is a renowned gay he certainly knew how to speak his mind without being deterred by thoughts such as ‘how can I”? Whether the Americans are misogynists or not is a topic for another day!
In the past , when I was still waiting for my enlightenment, I had harbored this thought that gay men are misogynists or women haters…I mean if a guy cannot bear to make love to a woman ( which I, in all my ignorant asininity, thought to be the most natural thing in the world) then he has to be a misogynist----at least that’s what I thought!!
Years later feed backs from friends who happened to interact closely with a few ‘rear door entrants’ assured me that they were not women- haters….just that they cannot bear to have sex with women just as how sane women cannot bear to go to bed with opossums!!
But having watched the Hindi movie ‘Fashion’ I realized that men and women of different sexual preferences could co- exist in holy matrimony.
Allow me to illustrate-- If, for example Billuram had a long -term intimate relationship with young pappu he surely cannot marry pappu and shock his mother into a stupor from which she is unlikely to recover . So what does he do? He takes home a wife who already knows (she is among the exceptions) about his same- sex dalliance. She says ‘I do’ because she is a sweet girl who really likes him and also finds his money useful ! Believe me they lived happily ever after…. Billuram, his wife and young pappu! All’s well that ends well.
As I was saying gay men are no misogynists. Some of them even 'honor' women by marrying them!!
Take care!
For a man who is a renowned gay he certainly knew how to speak his mind without being deterred by thoughts such as ‘how can I”? Whether the Americans are misogynists or not is a topic for another day!
In the past , when I was still waiting for my enlightenment, I had harbored this thought that gay men are misogynists or women haters…I mean if a guy cannot bear to make love to a woman ( which I, in all my ignorant asininity, thought to be the most natural thing in the world) then he has to be a misogynist----at least that’s what I thought!!
Years later feed backs from friends who happened to interact closely with a few ‘rear door entrants’ assured me that they were not women- haters….just that they cannot bear to have sex with women just as how sane women cannot bear to go to bed with opossums!!
But having watched the Hindi movie ‘Fashion’ I realized that men and women of different sexual preferences could co- exist in holy matrimony.
Allow me to illustrate-- If, for example Billuram had a long -term intimate relationship with young pappu he surely cannot marry pappu and shock his mother into a stupor from which she is unlikely to recover . So what does he do? He takes home a wife who already knows (she is among the exceptions) about his same- sex dalliance. She says ‘I do’ because she is a sweet girl who really likes him and also finds his money useful ! Believe me they lived happily ever after…. Billuram, his wife and young pappu! All’s well that ends well.
As I was saying gay men are no misogynists. Some of them even 'honor' women by marrying them!!
Take care!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Belated Women’s Day Musings
Every year on March 8th the world wakes up to the International Women’s Day! On this day women are lauded, poetries are recited from specially- erected podiums , the various chores that women engage in are proudly listed and their ability to juggle tasks ( as if they had a choice!) is vehemently applauded —-overall a woman's ability to sally forth in this mad, bad world, without losing her marbles, receives a patting on the back.
But on the very next day the podiums are dismantled, the curtains are drawn, the act is over and the world goes back to doing what it has been doing since the Great Ape metamorphosed into man----Woman Bashing!
It took almost a week after Women’s Day for me to wake up from the inertia that consumes me from time to time. The world refers to my ‘reverie’ as sulking but to me it is quality time, spent in getting a grip on the self.
On Women’s Day I received salutations (for being a women ,I guess) - mostly in the form of text messages and e-mails. One respect-dripping , awe-filled message came from a male acquaintance who loves to relax by watching live, nude women dance for a living !
However, it did strike me that most of the messages were from women friends( the decently married and ‘happily’ settled variety )who were perhaps making a feeble attempt at rising from the ashes and keeping the flame of dignity alive. Their joy at being a woman, if present, was not palpable. It was a mere rhetoric being conveyed from one to another……like a candle march without a flame!
As for me….I am pretty glad I am a woman. To think that my blueprint could have been encrypted otherwise scares me blue! To me this is , perhaps, a time to muse on a few friends in the company of whom I have spent some of the most cherished moments of my life. This post is just a ‘thank you’ note--- to you girls--- for the bonding that we share and for perfectly accepting this imperfect ‘me’!
But on the very next day the podiums are dismantled, the curtains are drawn, the act is over and the world goes back to doing what it has been doing since the Great Ape metamorphosed into man----Woman Bashing!
It took almost a week after Women’s Day for me to wake up from the inertia that consumes me from time to time. The world refers to my ‘reverie’ as sulking but to me it is quality time, spent in getting a grip on the self.
On Women’s Day I received salutations (for being a women ,I guess) - mostly in the form of text messages and e-mails. One respect-dripping , awe-filled message came from a male acquaintance who loves to relax by watching live, nude women dance for a living !
However, it did strike me that most of the messages were from women friends( the decently married and ‘happily’ settled variety )who were perhaps making a feeble attempt at rising from the ashes and keeping the flame of dignity alive. Their joy at being a woman, if present, was not palpable. It was a mere rhetoric being conveyed from one to another……like a candle march without a flame!
As for me….I am pretty glad I am a woman. To think that my blueprint could have been encrypted otherwise scares me blue! To me this is , perhaps, a time to muse on a few friends in the company of whom I have spent some of the most cherished moments of my life. This post is just a ‘thank you’ note--- to you girls--- for the bonding that we share and for perfectly accepting this imperfect ‘me’!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Terror, Terror Everywhere!
The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan got me worrying. It exposed a new face of terror unseen until now and it left me wondering as to how long it was until it foraged through the frontiers of our peace- loving Chennai!
Srilanka and Pakistan have a political affinity that dates back to several years. Nevertheless it is difficult to understand what prompted SL to indulge in this ‘dare’ of sending their team to visit Pakistan when England and India have categorically refused and, when several other cricketing nations were wondering why they should also not refuse! After all the situation in Pakistan is so volatile that it could put Mt. Vesuvius to shame!!
The politically -motivated move proved too costly for the SL cricketers who, by a strange twist of providence, managed to escape in one piece. But they are a shattered lot, despite the absence of grave injuries, and it will be awhile before they recuperate and talk/play cricket. It is a possibility that some in the team would suffer from ‘post traumatic stress disorder’ a condition that has the ability to impact the victim both physically and psychologically.
The attack has left India struggling to come to terms with the situation. Words of bravado and right-on –the –face bureaucratic exchanges cannot replace whole- hearted measures to counter terror at our doorstep.
The terror attack has brought the game to a grinding halt in Pakistan .But the saga continues unabated on various TV channels. On the day the cricketers were attacked some channels repeatedly showed terror footages all through the day…..an action that would depress even the most cheerful among viewers. I wonder why these channels use the same method that is used in the terror camps…..brain washing!
As a nation whose people collectively suffer from amnesia in general, and indifference –prompted complacence in particular, and whose limpid expressions of protests revolve around pink ‘chaddis’, this is perhaps the only way to ensure that we don’t forget what could be in store!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
SMILE PINKI SMILE
Hi !
I have been wanting to start my own blog for a long, long time and finally I have done it!
There were lot of events that unfolded which gave me the itch to put pen to paper. First there was the Mangalore pub incident…… but so much has been said, written and done (or not done) about it that I prefer to write about the ‘Oscars’!
I have not seen most of the films that gained entry into the Oscars, but, like many curious fellow Indians, I too saw ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. No wonder they say curiosity kills! It killed any future curiosity that I might have developed over an ‘Indian’ film made by anyone beyond the Indus! Now that we know what they think about us, why bother? And, like everyone else who saw SDM I too have an opinion about the film …..
The film has won the Oscars for reasons beyond layman comprehension. But it must be said that it helped to reinstate the clichéd portrayal of India. I have had friends, in the Uk, who told me that they had the misfortune to watch ‘Slumdog’ with fellow audiences who generated noises reflecting dismay, disgust or disapproval in turns! Apparently, there was one man, among the movie-watchers, who even declared that he would never ever want to visit India! So much for Danny Boyle’s Oscar speech of dedicating the Oscar to Mumbai! But thanks to Boyle there is a mad rush, among foreign tourists of course, to imbibe the essence of the slums in Daravi, in Mumbai, where the film was shot!
‘Slumdog’ pretends to have exposed the grotesque underbelly of the most -happening nation in the world today ……..and guess what ? they have actually won an Oscar for it!! Earlier India was , in the eyes of the West, the land of snake charmers, pot -bellied children with runny noses, Gandhi, slums, yoga and the Himalayas! Now, defunct toilets, beggar mafia and Hindu-Muslim riots have been added to the dismal list!
Of course , the fact that A R Rahman, the ‘Mozart of Madras’, competed with some of the World’s best to win the Oscar is a cause for celebration!
Meanwhile, basking quietly in the spotlight of new-found glory was the India-based, true life documentary film ‘Smile Pinki’, which won an Oscar in the short film category. The protagonist of the film, Pinki Sonkar, whose life transformed magically from being an outcast with a cleft lip to a sought after child, symbolizes hope in futuristic India.
The charitable organization, ‘The Smile Train’, which has brought smiles on the faces of thousands of poor Indian children suffering from a cleft lip or a cleft palate has vowed to wipe out the deformity from India.
As long as the smile train keeps chugging there is reason for children like Pinki to smile.
Good going Pinky! And keep smiling!
I have been wanting to start my own blog for a long, long time and finally I have done it!
There were lot of events that unfolded which gave me the itch to put pen to paper. First there was the Mangalore pub incident…… but so much has been said, written and done (or not done) about it that I prefer to write about the ‘Oscars’!
I have not seen most of the films that gained entry into the Oscars, but, like many curious fellow Indians, I too saw ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. No wonder they say curiosity kills! It killed any future curiosity that I might have developed over an ‘Indian’ film made by anyone beyond the Indus! Now that we know what they think about us, why bother? And, like everyone else who saw SDM I too have an opinion about the film …..
The film has won the Oscars for reasons beyond layman comprehension. But it must be said that it helped to reinstate the clichéd portrayal of India. I have had friends, in the Uk, who told me that they had the misfortune to watch ‘Slumdog’ with fellow audiences who generated noises reflecting dismay, disgust or disapproval in turns! Apparently, there was one man, among the movie-watchers, who even declared that he would never ever want to visit India! So much for Danny Boyle’s Oscar speech of dedicating the Oscar to Mumbai! But thanks to Boyle there is a mad rush, among foreign tourists of course, to imbibe the essence of the slums in Daravi, in Mumbai, where the film was shot!
‘Slumdog’ pretends to have exposed the grotesque underbelly of the most -happening nation in the world today ……..and guess what ? they have actually won an Oscar for it!! Earlier India was , in the eyes of the West, the land of snake charmers, pot -bellied children with runny noses, Gandhi, slums, yoga and the Himalayas! Now, defunct toilets, beggar mafia and Hindu-Muslim riots have been added to the dismal list!
Of course , the fact that A R Rahman, the ‘Mozart of Madras’, competed with some of the World’s best to win the Oscar is a cause for celebration!
Meanwhile, basking quietly in the spotlight of new-found glory was the India-based, true life documentary film ‘Smile Pinki’, which won an Oscar in the short film category. The protagonist of the film, Pinki Sonkar, whose life transformed magically from being an outcast with a cleft lip to a sought after child, symbolizes hope in futuristic India.
The charitable organization, ‘The Smile Train’, which has brought smiles on the faces of thousands of poor Indian children suffering from a cleft lip or a cleft palate has vowed to wipe out the deformity from India.
As long as the smile train keeps chugging there is reason for children like Pinki to smile.
Good going Pinky! And keep smiling!
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