World Cup memories: Down Under in 1992

After Reliance had sponsored the 1987 World Cup co-hosted by India and Pakistan, Benson and Hedges were the official sponsors of the 1992 edition co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. This was the first world cup I remember watching on TV since the 1987 cup took place when I was in the first standard and me not even having the faintest memory of those matches.

I think one feature which I liked most about the 1992 edition more than its subsequent ones was the round-robin format. Each team played the other teams in the tournament in the first stage. After all those matches, the tournament went directly went to the semi's and then to the finals. I always thought that this format gave equal opportunity to all teams to compete and prove a worthy contender for the title.

And I remember India's first match. It was against England. And again Robin Smith proved to be India's nemesis with his bat. But even at the end the victory for England was by just a mere 9 runs. India, as usual, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I think it was a time when the batting got over as soon as the top 5 batsmen got out. The tail never managed to be effective with the bat. Sachin had an interesting duel with the legendary Botham till Beefy managed to get the better of the Little Master with a leg cutter.

Pakistan never started in the best fashion. They were convincingly beaten in their first match against West Indies (which had a young and flamboyant batsman called Brian Lara). But they still had the legendary Imran Khan leading them. Never ever should one write off the Pakistan team. They are to cricket what the German football team are to football. I remember the toss taking place for their crunch game against Australia. Imran was wearing a Tee shirt with the picture of a tiger. Ian Chappell asked him about the new Tee he was sporting and Imran replied "I was just talking to Border here. He also asked me about it. I told him that we are like the cornered tiger shown in this shirt. That is when it is the most dangerous". And how true it proved.

Martin Crowe tried his bag of tricks when captaining New Zealand. Opening the bowling with Deepak Patel, a spinner and one of the many Gujarati Patels who took cricket as a career in New Zealand!! Also the aggressive opening batting by Mark Greatbatch was something that went on to change the nature of batting in cricket.

On the hindsight India could have done better in so many ways. But like they say, life is not about ifs and buts. Probably Sachin could have opened the batting in all games. Probably our tail-enders could have shown more sense and judiciousness in their batting. Our fielding could have been better. So many excuses like that.

Jhonty Rhodes was a revelation in this tournament. His run out of Inzi in the round robin match proved that the new generation of cricketers were going to set higher standards in fielding. Rhodes will arguably probably go down as the greatest fielder in cricket history with some old timers still feeling that Colin Bland was still one level above him.

New Zealand had a dream run until the semis. Martin Crowe seem to do everything right. For me the turning point in that match, probably more than Inzi's blitzkrieg, was Aaqib's dismissal of Greatbatch. I think that superb slower ball by Aaqib proved crucial for Pakistan because Greatbatch, till then, had smashed all bowlers in the first 15 overs in most of the group batches. Had Greatbatch continued in the same momentum we might have seen a different result in that semi.

Australia who started as title favourites didn't perform as expected of them. They defeated teams like India (though by a single run), Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka but failed against whom it mattered most (New Zealand, England,South Africa and Pakistan).

South Africa were really unlucky not to have made it to the finals. Brought back into international cricket after being excluded from the ICC for following the practice of apartheid, they produced some brilliant display of cricket to reach the semis. But as fate would have it, even in future, they were brought down at the crucial stage.

I still remember rooting for Pakistan on the day of the finals. Pakistan has always been one of my most favourite team in cricket. For the amount of raw talent they had, it was only befitting that the reins of captaincy was taken by Imran, who commanded respect from everyone in the team. No one who saw that match will ever forget the 2 deliveries by Akram to get rid of Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis. 2 varieties of reverse swing by the Sultan of swing. I think Imran's biggest advantage was that he was never afraid of losing. So this made him a great risk taker in the positive sense. Taking Inzamam into the team after just watching him for 5 minutes in the nets was the best thing he had done during the preparation for the World Cup.

And finally, the outcome of the victory made it seem so satisfying. A cancer hospital and research centre in Lahore where even poor people could take treatment for free. Imran's dream had come true. It also proved to be a springboard for him to take the plunge into politics in which he waits to achieve the same glory that he achieved in cricket.

Dasavathaaram - Making sense of it

Disclaimer: The article just lists a few of the subtleties, symbolisms and hidden meanings which are implicit in the film. It is not an exhaustive write-up on the same, and readers are invited to come up with their thoughts/ideas if interested. The major source for this article comes from the fans of Kamal Haasan at his Orkut community and a few things I had noticed when I saw the movie on June 13th. Also I wish to say that I have seen the movie only once. This is not a recount of the story. For that you can go to this Wikipedia article on Dasavathaaram.

"I didn't say there was no God. I only said it would have been nice if there was God".

You may love him, you may hate him but you just cannot ignore him. Kamal Haasan's latest flick 'Dasavathaaram' incorporates the themes of chaos theory, karma, spirituality, science and environment in a wholly entertaining package. While many have hailed the movie as a great effort, there are critics who have blamed the poor quality of graphics, bad make-up and seemingly blank script with 10 characters just stuffed in. But all that is another story.

Kamal Haasan is the leading method actor in India. In my opinion, Kamal Haasan comes from a school of thought which insists on symbolisms, facial expressions, body language and intelligent dialogues while making a film. Probably it could be attributed to the influence by his mentor K.Balachander and his interest in the works of Hollywood director Stanley Kubrick.

'Dasavathaaram' is what many call "a hologrammatic movie' . What you perceive of the story depends on from which angle you look at it. A rationlist would attribute chaos theory and butterfly effect for as the cause for all the happenings. A religious person would attribute the events/interventions as acts of the supreme being. A believer in Karma would attribute some later events to acts done in the previous birth. Finally, a neutral person would perceive the movie as an entertainer or thriller.

At the function attended by Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, Indian Prime Minister ManMohan Singh and American President George Bush (played by Kamal) we hear Kamal (face not shown fully) giving out a speech. On the stage is the Govindarajar (Lord Vishnu) idol. We are told that the idol has both a religious and scientific background.

We are taken to the 12 century period where Kolathunga Cholan II rules over Thillai (Chidambaram). He is shown to be a staunch Shaivaite to the level of being in a frenzy state of wiping out Vaishnavites. This is expressed in a very nice dialogue by Kamal. "Yaanayepol Manushyanukkum madham piditthal athu tholla thaan". The interesting thing to note here is the use of the word "madham". One interpretation is frenzy (as in the case of an elephant) and the other is "religion" (as in the case of humans). So he is saying that in either of the two cases it creates trouble/nuisance (meaning of tholla).

We are shown 'Ranagaraja Nambi' a staunch Vaishnavite who prevents the workers from displacing the statue of Lord Vishnu from the temple. He succeds in doing so but only in being captured and hands bound by chains by the king's soldiers. The king them speaks to him by telling him that he knows that he is a Vaishnavite, knows that he will turn into a Shaivaite etc. For the words "I know" the tamil translation is 'Arivom' , which the king uses 3-4 times. Kamal the mocks him by telling that his Lord Hari had made the king call his name by the words "Hari Om Hari Om" (Arivom sounds like Hari Om).

The king asks him as to the whereabouts of the 'Rangarajar' idol. The point to note here is that in South Indian temples (mainly in the ones in Tamil Nadu) one idol is the main one in the temple. The other is a smaller one used in the festivals (like Ratholsavam). So the Rangarajar idol here refers to the smaller one. The king wants to destroy that also.

The king then tells him that he could spare his life if he chants the name of Lord Shiva. On hearing this both his wife (played by Asin) and father-in-law plead with him to do as the king says as all gods are the same and it doesn't matter as to whose name he chants. Nambi instead chants 'Om Namo Narayanaya". As a result the king orders his people to tie him with the idol and drown both in the sea. As he is being taken to the sea, a boy throws a stone at his forehead and this causes a bleeding. If you notice, the bleeding comes in the form of a 'naamam' used by Iyengars, thus showing that however much they try to make him a Shaivite he still remains a loyal devotee of Lord Vishnu. Then as he along with the idol sink into the sea the colour turns a little red due to the bleeding he has. Also Asin throws her 'thali' in anger at the king. It misses him and falls at the lion sculpture indicating that her husband has the bravery of a lion.

We are next shown the period December 2005 in U.S where Govind Raamasamy (played by Kamal) is a scientist in a top bio-reserach lab in US. They have discovered a deadly bio-weapon which could prove to be the most destructive. However during an announcement with George Bush, Govind's lab monkey breaches the security protecting the bio-weapon and swallows it, killing it and producing a devastating effect. Now if you note the monkey which is very intelligent is named as 'Hanu' in the movie as a possible shortened version of the monkey Lord Hanuman. Govind realises the danger of the weapon (which can only be neutralised using large quantities of NaCl) going into wrong hands.

His boss has other ideas and so has ex-CIA agent Christian Fletcher (again played by Kamal). During the encounter with Fletcher Govind receives an injury in his forehead (same area where Nambi received the injury). Also the injury was caused by the security guard trying to shoot him. If you notice, the boy who threw the stone at Nambi didn;t even know why Nambi was punished. Also this security guard didn't even know what Govind was trying to do. He was merely shooting him based on the orders given by higher authorities.

Also Govind dresses the wound on his forehead by putting two plasters. One is vertical and the other is horizonatl and passing through the lower half of the vertical one. Probably Kamal is trying to tell us that Govind, at that moment, is a sort of Anti-Christ since he is going around with a potentially dangerous weapon which threatens to wipe out the human race.

The vial (bio-weapon in its case) gets shipped to India (Chidambaram) under some circumstances and Fletcher and Govind continue their search in India. Here we are introduced to the CBI officer Balram Naidu (played by Kamal) who interrogates Govind. But in some bizzare situation we see Fletcher arriving there and taking Govind and another police officer Akash along with him to search for the vial in Chidambaram. Balram Naidu and other officers actually come back to continue their interrogation but are delayed when a famous pop singer 'Avtar Singh' (played by who arrives at the airport faints.

The vial ultimately ends up at the house of a Brahmin family in Chidambaram. The vial, delivered in a parcel by the postman Prabhu (Vayapuri), is taken in by a 95-year-old, mentally retarded woman, Krishnaveni (Kamal Haasan), who lives in belief of receiving a parcel from her son, who perished in 1953. Govind pleads for it to no avail, but eventually changes the mind of Krishnaveni, after explaining the scientific threat to her granddaughter, Andaal (Asin Thottumkal). Krishnaveni responds by putting the vial inside the idol of the deity, Perumal, citing that God would destroy the weapon. Actually here Kamal is telling us that the vial is being accelerated to it's destiny (final state/destruction). And a;so the Perumal idol here could have been that 'Rangarajar' idol which the Shaivite searched for destroying in vain.

Govind tries to secure the vial before Fletcher and Jasmine reach them. Soon, to embark fear, Fletcher fires his gun near an elephant and it starts rampaging, with Jasmine getting badly hurt in the commotion. Lest she should say something, Fletcher shoots her dead. A religious person will say that it was God's act of punishing the evil while rationalists would argue that it was a simple reaction caused by Fletcher shooting the elephant.

Govind tries to escape with the idol but Andaal, who worships the idol, tries to stop him. Now the thing to note here is that Andaal is shwon to be very religious and conservative (with signs of believing and practicing the caste system). Govind on the other hand is a pure rationalist/athiest. Asin asks him his full name and Govind replies saying that it is "Govind Raamasamy Naicker" and Asin shows here contempt for a supposedly lower caste by telling things (that %@#$* caste) which are understandably censored. Now if you notice Govind is of the same caste as the legendary Ramasamy Naicker aka Periyar who was an athiest. He did not have any children. So in essence Govind tells Aandal that he is one of the many adopted sons of Periyar.

Time and again we see Kamal potraying his athiestic beliefs through dialogues in his films. When Aandal tells him that the Rangarajar idol has its rightful place in Chidambaram and not Pondicherry , Kamal mocks her by telling her "Thoonilayum thurumbilayum daivam irukkinnu sollrenge.." which translates "You tell that God is present in every nook and corner.."

Eventually they both escape and after a long chase, they manage to reach the old Chola Temple, where the King watched the idol of Vishnu being thrown into the ocean in 12th century. Govind remembers that the vial should be kept cool or it could cause total annihilation so they bury the idol in cold sand and go in search of ice to maintain the temperature. It's interesting to note that Kamal first buries his watch inside the sand and only when he takes it out do we realise that he does so to note the temperature.

As I said, for those who belive in Karma theory Govind and Aandal could be the re-incarnation of Nambi and his wife who lived in the 12th century. If you notice again, in the 12th Century Nambi is a staunch Vaishnavite who doesn't mind sacrificing his life and rejecting his family for the Lord. But his wife and father-in-law on the other hand are not staunch devotees. This can be understood when they tell Nambi to chant Lord Shiva's name since all Gods are the same. But, in the present day Govind is an athiest while Aandal and her father are staunch devotees. So the Karma effect has ensured that people pay for their actions in the past.

So after the Tsunami you see Govind and Aandal professing their love for each other and join hands touching the idol which has been thrown out of the sea because of the tremor. So this indicates that Nambi and his wife who were seperated at the 12 th century have united at the present age through Govind and Aandal and the idol which was sunk in the sea has now been thrown out to be restored at it's original location.

Now , on the other hand a rationalist would say that the idol which sank in the 12th century (800 years back) disturbed the sea bed by a small amount. That fault gradually increased over the years and finally caused a tremor resulting in the tsunami. But this reasoning is not explicitly stated in the film.

Also, in the film, just before the tsunami the birds are shown to be flying away from the shore. In fact when the actual tsunami had occured , in Yala National Park at Sri Lanka most of the animals had fled away from the shore (probably they have an extra sense regarding these) and hardly few animals had died.

Also, in the film, the word 'Tsunami' is uttered only by the Japanese Shinghen Narahasi (played by Kamal) since the term was not known much among Indians at that time, whereas tsunami was a recurring phenomenon along the Japanese coasts.

There is a interesting dialogue between Shinghen and Fletcher.

Fletcher : Remember Hiroshima?

Shinghen: Remember Pearl Harbor? denoting the Hiroshima bombing by Americans and Pearl Harbor bombing by the Japanese which preceded that.

Also when Fletcher consumes the vial and dies, the tsunami strikes the shore and an Indian flag is uprooted and it goes ad pierces the body of Fletcher, who at that moment hoped to kill many Indians through his death from the virus.

The other characters include 'Vincent Poovaraghan' , a Dalit leader fighting against the sand-mafia and Khaifulla Khan (a 7 ft Muslim). If we notice carefully, the actions by each character finally shape the outcome. Avtaar Singhs health condition gives an escape route for Fletcher along with Govind. Poovaraghans entrance saves Govind and Aandal from the sand-mafia. The sand-mafia boss looks to rape Aandal when she cried 'Narayana' and lights flash revealing Vincent Poovaraghan along with press reporters. Again, religious people would take it to be an intervention of God while rationalists would argue and say that it was just the right person being at the right place at the right time i.e co-incidence/luck etc.

Prem Panicker at his blog had said that people would get lost if they viewed the characters as the Dasavathar's of the modern age. But if you carefully see, the 10 roles can be compared to the 10 avataars taken by Lord Vishnu.

1. Krishna avatar - Vincent PoovaraghavanLord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P. Vasu's.. sounds familiar???
2. Balarama avatar - Balarama naiduThis is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.
3. Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambinambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly.
4. Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paattiDuring the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.
5. Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khanremember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.
6. Parasurama avatar - Christian FletcherParasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER... Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. But does he kill 21 people?????
7. Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashifirst of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?
8. Rama avatar - Avatar SinghLord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.
9. Kalki avatar - Govindaraj RamasamyAs you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!
10. Koorma avatar - BushThis is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth (divine nectar). This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom.

A few say that the character 'Vincent Poovaraghan' uses false eyes. This may have been done to show the intensity in the expressions. But to confirm this I have to see the movie again :-)

Dasavathaaram, I would say is packaged in such a way that audience can pick and choose what they want. Yes, I do agree that the symbolisms and dialogues indicate implicit messages. But after all they also add to the mystery and thrill.

But I think the marketing for this film could have been better. I fell the real hero is the script and that should have been hyped instead of the 10 roles. But that is another debate.

I know that I have just included only very few details regarding the symbolisms and inner meanings. If you have seen the movie and deciphered/understood more , then you are ever welcome to share them here.

For a better India...

Greek mythology states that one of the twelve tasks of Hercules involved the cleaning of the Augean stables which was filled with filth and dirt. For this, it says, Hercules diverted the rivers Alpheus and Peneus into the stables, thus, accomplishing a task deemed impossible right from the outset.

A Herculean effort like the one above is needed to save the agriculture sector in India. Majority (60%) of the Indian workforce is engaged in agriculture, an occupation (along with forestry, logging and fishing) which contributes to around 20% of the nation's GDP.

While pre-liberalised India concentrated on generation of jobs through industries promoted by the public sector, post-liberalised India's GDP growth is dictated primarily through the services sector. In both era's, it is the agriculture sector which has suffered the after-effects of a Government which totally ignored the national sector with the largest labour force.

Time and again we are reminded of the grim realities facing the agricultural sector in our country. Journalists like P.Sainath bring out well researched and shocking revelations of the situation of farmers in rural India. These farmers face the risks of never ending debts, failing monsoons, low scales of profit and the harsh realism of avoiding starvation death. Whether we accept it or not, they represent the average Indian.

A contrast to all this can be our own life. Many of us (including me) work in the IT sector. Like other private sectors we enjoy medical claim, health insurance and many other such benefits. And yet, we crib when we fail to make it to that particular grade during our appraisal period which would have given us a 20% salary hike instead of that 15%. But whenever I see a blog-post like this, I feel I am far better off when compared to that average Indian. What benefits does he have? A village farmer obtains loan from the money-lender at such astronomical rates of interest. He slaves for a lifetime hoping to repay that loan. He has no one to insure him. No one to help him pay his medical bills. Or worse, he is not even if any such scheme exists. Then, when it comes to selling his produce, he is taken for a ride by the middle-men. We complain when we see farm loans being wavered or free electricity supply being provided to them. Of course I agree that these are not long-term measures. But then, are we losing much by doing this?

While the entry of India into WTO was a welcome move, it has conveniently pushed aside the woes of the agricultural sector. The meets at Doha and Geneva were not fruitful in this regard. They ended with hollow promises (mainly from leaders of European nations) to entertain thoughts like this at future summits.

Right now it seems ridiculous to know that, for a country like us with such huge arable land, once upon a time we were importing food-grains from U.S. It needed a Green Revolution to drastically improve the situation by increasing the food-grain production. I think the nation now needs to raise its hands to bring about a second Green Revolution.

What will a second such Green Revolution encompass? Well, the issues to be sorted out are many. Modern methods of farming, making loans available to a larger populace of the farming sector, Public Distribution System, Basic Infrastructure (Roads, water-supply, electricity and others) and what not! I am not, at any moment, voicing a cause for deliberate negligence of the IT & ITES sectors. A surging Indian economy should have the growth of both the agricultural and services sectors go hand-in-hand.

As a nation, we have a lot more to do than lauding short-term victories like an Infosys listing its stock at NYSE. Our neighbouring country, China, produces twice the amount of food grains when compared to us, and that too, when the amount of arable land there is lesser than ours. They have recently built the world's longest sea-bridge, the breathtaking three Gorges Dam and a new international world-class airport at Beijing as the start of the Olympic Games nears. The numbers regarding youth population may be favouring India, especially after the one-child norm was imposed in China. But their energies have to be channelled and utilised in the right direction.

For me, India shines only when the life of the average Indian shines.

P.S: Read this article which appeared on Business Line.

Celebrating Mediocrity

When I visited Trivandrum last Onam, I had made up my mind to see a couple of Malayalam films, trying to compensate for the meagre few I had seen during my days at Coimbatore and Trichy owing to a scarcity of theatres showing Malayalam films coupled with a laziness to go searching and hoping to find cd's of the same, a task which seemed next to impossible.

However the very first film I saw at New Theatre made me wonder as to why I had even thought of such an idea. Ali Bhai seemed another stereotyped action film from Shaji Kailas and a last throw of dice from Mohanlal to provide a hit film to his fans. What worried me more was the near hysterical fans who seemed to relish the dialogues and the different action scenes in the film which was nothing short of a preposterous show by an actor of Lal's caliber.

The same film viewers who relished the natural films of Padmarajan and Bharatan and encouraged directors like Sathyan Anthikkad and Sibi Malayil to bring quality movies to the screens were now thriving on a horde of films which are an insult to the films made during the Golden era. The vestiges of the brilliance of the films during the golden era are found only in a few films now.

The fault lay partly with the Directors themselves, who decided that the tastes of the audience had changed with time and that the mimicry style of films was the new name of the art. However I would blame even the experienced actors who never bothered to be selective about their films and instead chose to work on every tom, dick and harry project.Sadly even the film industry seems depleted with its shortage of quality scriptwriters. While directors like Sibi Malayil and Sathyan Anthikkad were assisted to a large extent by brilliant scripts from Lohitadas and Sreenivasan, they failed miserably when the quality and quantity of output from such writers reached a low point. On the lighter side, it can be said that the only person who seemed to benefit from all this was Sreenivasan, who took this opportunity to make a blockbuster film "Udhayananu Tharam" :-)

A relief could be that while this could be a case of flash in the pan as regards the Malayalam film industry (owing to the various factors mentioned), the situation is worse in Tamil Nadu where genuinely good films are sometimes totally neglected by the public. Quality films like Anbae Sivam and Hey Ram were commercial failures though critically acclaimed. Again and again we see mediocre films from the like of Simbu, Vijay and their ilk getting attention from the film viewing public while the genius of Kamal and Mani Ratnam is being rubbished.

The effect is seen when Mani Ratam makes a film like Guru. The climax in that movie which showed the protagonist being questioned by an enquiry committee setup by the Government was nowhere near the levels depicted in the same kind of scene in the movie 'Aviator' by Martin Scorcese. It is not that Mani Ratnam could not have made it better, but the fact that the film viewing audience do not seem to have the sense to appreciate such natural techniques of filming. If an ace director like Mani succumbs to such pressure from the public , then it is no wonder that the others have made no effort in improving the quality of films.

Another example is Sreenivasan who scripted 'Kadha Parayumbol' . The same genius who scripted such high quality satirical scripts like 'Thalayanmanthram' and 'Sandesham' fails to bring out quality satirical humour in "Kadha...". It is really sad to see even Sreeni stoop down to such mediocre levels from the golden heights of success he once enjoyed.

Hero-worship also causes much of the above problems. Hero-worship discourages improvement and encourages mediocrity. The same people who set the benchmark for such high quality films in Malayalam now deal in immature slap-stick and crude comedy flicks. Recently I happened to see the comments section in Rediff regarding the review of the film "College Kumaran". At the end , I didn't know whether to laugh or lament over the bitter truth regarding the quality of present day super-star flicks. The only postive outcome I had was that the comments section provided me with humorous dialogues from fans of Mammootty and Mohanlal, which I thought I would share with all of you ;-).

Ajay, obviously who has had enough with all these flicks says "Super movie, like best of Lalettan clips, but heroine is too old for lalettan, it should be Baby Shalini or that daughter in Kazcha who should be Lal's heroine.Roma , Parvathy and Meera are all to old for our evergreen hero.."

VarunRaj, a die-hard Lal fan retorts " PAAVAM AJAY IS JEALOUS THAT EVEN THOUGH ABOVE 50, LALETTAN REMAINS THE PLAYBOY IN MALAYALAM MOVIES!!! SHAME ON OTHER MALE ACTORS, THAT STILL NOONE IS THER TO COMPETE WITH HIM EVEN WHEN IT COMES TO ACTING OR EVEN GETTIN THE GIRLS...SAKALA KALAA VALLAVANS R ONLY 2 IN INDIAN CINEMA, KAMAL SIR N LALETTAN!"

Girish says "It's total paisa vasool...heartening to see that Lalettan is back with a bang" to which Ajay says "Correct, my friend paid for the ticket and I had a superb nap for 2.5 hours, less mosquitoes than at home, even they are staying away from this movie.., woke up for 5 minutes and liked the dialogue by Suraj Venjaramoodu.. Pazham ..njan tharum.. ha ha funny, then slept again.."

Jiby mentions frequently that arrival of fresh and young talent like Prithviraj and Vineeth Sreenivasan could be a sign of changing times for the better. But my only concern is that I don't seem to find that talent emerging in the case of directors and script writers. GOD save Malayalam cinema!

The Art of Mimicry

I have been fascinated by the art of mimicry right from my childhood days. Be it school life, college life, movies or stage-shows the mimicry shows have evoked great admiration and interest among many people.

In Kerala, mimicry artistes have used their skills at stage-shows and also in films and TV comedy shows partly as comedy, and partly as a means of effective satire on the various happenings in society. Many of the mimicry artistes have diverted their career successfully into movies. The earliest example of such personalities could be Cochin Haneefa who started his career as a stage-show mimicry artiste by imitating the voices of leading actors like Sivaji Ganeshan and MGR. Others of his ilk include the famous director Fazil whose shows were regularly attended by Mammootty during the actor’s days at Maharajas College. Mammooty too is an avid fan of mimicry shows and has been seen at many Gulf Programmes.

Fazil, after his break into the film world, went on to direct many hit films and later introduced the duo Siddique-Lal into the cine field. Siddique-Lal were popular mimicry artistes cum comedians at the famous Kalabhavan troupe in Cochin. Probably Fazil was also influenced by this very fact which would have reminded him of his heydays as a mimicry artiste. This proved to be Fazil's best gift to Malayalam cinema since the duo of Siddique-Lal went to create many super-hit comedy films like In Harihar Nagar and RamjiRao Speaking.

However, as a member of YouTube quoted "Jayaram remains to-date the master of the art of mimicry". Jayaram honed his mimicry skills while studying at Sri Sankara college, Kaladi and later at Kalabhavan, Cochin. Probably the artiste whom he was mimiced often has been Prem Nazir whom Jayaram respects a lot and who he has seen in childhood at shooting locations at Perumbavoor as a young boy. In the film 'Chanakyan', Jayaram appears as a mimicry artiste with his reel-name also being Jayaram. The film which deals with a former musician (Kamal Hassan) seeking revenge over the killing of his family members by a politician (Thilakan), shows Kamal seeking the help of Jayaram (in an indirect way/ unknown to Jayaram) by making him mimick the Chief Minister's (Thilakan) voice and relaying a totally false speech on TV.
Even now Jayaram appears in quite a few Gulf Programmes where people wait to see his mimicry skills. He also appeared as a guest in the programme "Minnum Tharam" hosted by actor Jagadeesh on Asianet channel. Such is his love for the art which gave him so much fame among the people of Kerala.

Dileep, who ruled the roost during the crisis time of Malayalam film industry (1998-2002) started his career as a mimicry artiste. He honed his skills during his days at Maharajas College which later proved handy when he went searching for roles in films. He was the first anchor of the program 'Comicola' on Asianet which gained immense popularity during that time. Jayaram had this interesting anecodote regarding Dileep to share whe he appeared on "Minnum Tharam".

"Njan oru shooting kazhinju vannappo enne kanan oralavide kathirippundennu aro paranju. Chennu nokkiyappo njan kandathu melinju kolam ketta oru Dileep-ine ayirunnu. 'Sir..Njan mimicry artiste aanu' ennu paranju Dileep swayam parijayapedutthi. Sadarana ella mimicry artises kanikunna sthiram items ayirikkum eyalum kanikkan pokunnathennu ehikku thoni. 'Sir. Ithuvare arum attempt cheyyatha oru pratheka item enikku kanikkan pattum sir'. Enthennu njan nokiyaapo "Lalu Alex"-ne mimic cheythu oru dialogue. Aa samaythu athoru puthiya item ayirunnu. Adhikam arum imitate cheythittilatha oru actor ayirunnu Lalu Alex".

Saying the above, Jayaram showed the audience as to how Dileep had performed the item. It was just amazing to hear what Jayaram had said and again more amazing, to see him mimicking Lalu Alex just like how Dileep had done, or maybe even better.

At school, my classmates Anand, Tariq and Arun were known more for their monact rather than mimicry. But Anand at times used to mimic Prem Nazir, not so much by voice, but by the actions especially that famous smile of Nazir and to say that the fellow Loyolites didn't enjoy that would be a mere understatement. I feel, from the viewpoint of a lover of this art, at times, that it was rather unfortunate that there were more monoact artistes than pure mimicry artistes at Loyola School.

While the earlier mimicry artistes in Kerala used to merely mimick the voice of popular actors merely through their popular dialogues, the later one's added an element of comedy by mimicking their voice by choosing specific imaginary instances. For example I remember a mimicry artiste showing how Prem Nazir would have spoken at an election campaign.
"Ehhh..Kavilammayanu Sathyam..ehhh..kodungallur deviyanu sathyam..njan ee election-il theerchayayum vijayikkum..ehh..anganeyalla chirikkunnathu..ingane venam..Ha Ha Ha Ha".

Suraj Venjaramoodu seems to be the latest of mimicry entrants in the cine field. He is known for his famous mimicking of actor Jayan and is seen using that voice in many of the films he acts in. Since the audience too enjoy that I don't see him dropping that style in the near future.

All famous mimicry artistes have not necessarily made it big inflms. Kottayam Nazeer is such an example. Though his skills at mimicry even equal and sometimes even rise above Jayaram, his roles in films have been far and few in number. The last time I saw him in a movie was in the Sreenivasan flick "Kadha Parayumbol". While he is a definite successor to Jayaram as a mimicry legend, journey into filmdom has not been a smooth ride for him. As a film lover, I wish he gets good comedy roles which will help him leverage his acceptance among the film viewers.

Moving from people who do mimicry to people who are mimicked, there seems to be a standard list is an expected and now accepted one. The usual personalities are film actors like Nazeer, Mohanlal and Mammootty and also politicians like Achuthanandan, Karunakaran, E.K.Nayanar and even A.K.Antony. In fact the comedy shows at Asianet and Surya used to take a dig at Achuthanandan so frequently that his party supporters expressed anger at it. A popular episode at one such comedy show mimicked the phone-in program with the Chief Minister. The dialogues go like this:
Q: Saare..Njan Guruvayoor Kshethrathile Melshanti-ya samsarikkunnathu
EKN: Aaahh..enthado guruvayoorile prashnam..
Q: Sir evidethe vigraham moshanam poyi..kallane pidikkan vendiya ella sahayavum mukhya manthri cheyyanam
EKN: Aaahh..kallane pidikkan athrakku padalla. ella onnam theeyathi avide oruthan thozhan varum..avane pidicchu police-il elpiccha mathi ketto..

Jayan became the popular subject of mimicry artistes circa 2000. I remember Jayan Day being celebrated every year at CET with students coming dressed in bright red shirts and white bell-bottoms providing the ever funny college life there with even more interesting moments. I remember a Mech guy once entering our class during Jayan day. He pointed at one of the girls and asked us guys 'Ithente Seemayano?' in typical Jayan style. Of course we guys didn't spoil the fun and replied "Ohhh.thanne...kondu poykko" much to the flushed expression on the girl's face.

Even now I enjoy mimicry shows. Maybe it's the comedy, maybe because it's a good pass-time or maybe because I continue to get amazed at how the artistes manage to do it so well time and again. So, I end this post, fittingly, with this video from Youtube. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :-)

The Bhisti

The other day I was reading the book "The Great Indian Novel" by Sashi Tharoor. While reading through the second chapter, I happened to notice the word "Bhisti". The term, literally means, a water carrier to a household or an army regiment. Primarily prevalent during the days of the British Raj and in the caste-ridden societies, the Bhisti's were people from the lower caste who used to supply drinking water to members of the household or the regiment.

As to why I suddenly got interested in this term is a different matter altogether. During our school days in the 12th standard there was a syllabus book titled "Anthology of Poems" which was a collection of poems by poets of different eras. Understandably, we had to study only a selected few from that book. Of the poems we were not taught, was one by Rudyard Kipling titled "Gunga Din". I am not of the poetry lover type, but this poem somehow caught my attention.

This poem talks about a Bhisti serving the British regiment in India. Frequently rebuked, ridiculed and shouted at by the army officer (the narrator), he is finally acknowledged for his kindness, hard work and valour by the very person in a tragic climax. Kipling brings out the fact that though he is from a lower-caste, he shows valour and loyalty at a level not expected even from that of people supposedly superior to him.

The poem starts in a sort of prose style and gradually the situations are described. One of the reasons I tend to ignore reading poems is because of the difficult subtleties and metaphors they use. But this poem is written in such an easy-to-understand style that anyone who reads it for the first time would get hooked on to it. It is Kipling's take on vintage pre-Independent India.
But for me the real message was the one in the very last line. Read it and share your experience. I guarantee you an enjoyable time!

P.S: Critics claim that Kipling was a racist (regarding this poem it could be the way he addresses Gunga Din at times), but as Wikipedia says, the racism is exhibited only by the fictional charcaters of Kipling's works. Infact Kipling could be ridiculing the mentality of the British Raj through his very works.

The Poem



You may talk o' gin and beer

When you're quartered safe out 'ere,An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;

But when it comes to slaughter

You will do your work on water,

An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.

Now in Injia's sunny clime,

Where I used to spend my time

A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,Of all them blackfaced crew

The finest man I knew

Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.

He was "Din! Din! Din!

You limpin' lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!

Hi! slippery hitherao!Water, get it! Panee lao!

You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din.



"The uniform 'e wore

Was nothin' much before,

An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind,

For a piece o' twisty rag

An' a goatskin water-bag

Was all the field-equipment 'e could find.

When the sweatin' troop-train lay

In a sidin' through the day,

Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl,

We shouted "Harry By!"

Till our throats were bricky-dry,

Then we wopped 'im 'cause 'e couldn't serve us all.

It was "Din! Din! Din!

You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been?

You put some juldee in it

Or I'll marrow you this minute

If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!



"'E would dot an' carry one

Till the longest day was done;

An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear.

If we charged or broke or cut,

You could bet your bloomin' nut,'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear.

With 'is mussick on 'is back,

'E would skip with our attack,

An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire",

An' for all 'is dirty 'ide

'E was white, clear white, inside

When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire!

It was "Din! Din! Din!"

With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green.

When the cartridges ran out,

You could hear the front-files shout,

"Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!"



I shan't forgit the night

When I dropped be'ind the fight

With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been.

I was chokin' mad with thirst,

An' the man that spied me first

Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din.

'E lifted up my 'ead,

An' he plugged me where I bled,

An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water-green:

It was crawlin' and it stunk,

But of all the drinks I've drunk,

I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.

It was "Din! Din! Din!'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen;

'E's chawin' up the ground,

An' 'e's kickin' all around:

For Gawd's sake git the water, Gunga Din!



"'E carried me away

To where a dooli lay,

An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.

'E put me safe inside,

An' just before 'e died,

"I 'ope you liked your drink", sez Gunga Din.

So I'll meet 'im later onAt the place where 'e is gone --

Where it's always double drill and no canteen;

'E'll be squattin' on the coals

Givin' drink to poor damned souls,

An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!

Yes, Din! Din! Din!You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!

Though I've belted you and flayed you,

By the livin' Gawd that made you,

You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Good old DD - Weren't we "Santhusht"?

As I was gearing up to see the finals of the Commonwealth Bank cricket series, I got to know that the match was also being telecast on "Doordarshan". That name certainly rang bells and being exposed to Cable TV for well over a decade had made me ignore the presence of our very own national channel.

As more and more channels keep cropping up each year, I wonder at times, as to how we (including me and my friends) managed to entertain ourselves with just one TV channel. Yes, the first reply would immediately be "But we had no other choice". But there is something more to this. We had our own preferred set of programs that provided us the much-needed fun needed to quench our insatiable thirst for visual entertainment. Let us just take a trip down memory lane to rekindle the sweet memories of the DD of our bygone childhood era.

Though our choice of cartoons were limited to He-Man, Disney, Ducktales and Jungle Book , I remember many of us eagerly waiting to see them on those leisurely Sunday mornings. In fact He-Man was so famous that its merchandise became an instant hit among kids of our age group. I remember pestering my father to buy one from the Paico store at Trivandrum (with him tactfully evading my request each time). He-Man was assisted by his friends Man-At-Arms, Teela, Sorceress and Orko whereas his enemies were the dangerous Skeletor and Trap Jaw. Ducktales also was a good toonie program focussing on Uncle Scrooge Mc Duck (a billionaire) and his 3 nephews (Huey, Duey and Luey?). Jungle Book was telecast in Hindi and I remember being desperate to watch each episode, as was the case with my friend 'Binu' :-). Disney used to relay episodes of Mickey and Goofy in the beginning but then it got discontinued. Also popular were 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Talespin'.

As to the weekly serials, none can beat the fame of Ramanand Sagar's "Ramayan" or B.R.Chopra's "Mahabharat". The sight of Rama's duel with Ravana or Arjuna's battle against Karna, with different kinds of arrows flying in all directions, were a treat to watch at a time when special effects were just beginning to take giant strides in Hollywood movies.

Remember the young Shah Rukh in serials like 'Dil Dariya', 'Fauji' and 'Circus'?. Fauji and Circus were entertaining with the former describing the tale of an army cadet whose commanding officer is his brother. It had its moments of the tough army life, blood relationships, romance, fun and the usual British style Army dialogues like 'I say chaps...". All that looks a bit silly now, but the fact is that, at that time, we simply loved those! ' Circus' depicted the life of circus artistes, with each episode highlighting the life of an artiste in the troop. Shah Rukh was "Shekaran" the son of the circus owner whom everyone refers to as "Babuji". The serial came to its climax with the passing away of Babuji and then Shekaran taking over the mantle of ownership after rejecting an offer to go and work in America.

Who can forget those wonderful Hindi detective serials? It started with Karamchand starring Pankaj Kapoor in the title role as the eccentric investigator with his secretary Kitty who always seemed to try to impress him. The famous catch-line/dialogue used to be “Shut up Kitty”. And then there was “Tehkikaat” with the chief detective being named Sam and his assistant going by the name Gopi. Ashok Kumar came in one of the episodes in which he is named the murderer in the end. My favourite among the detective serials was Byomkesh Bakshi starring Rajat Kapoor in the title role. The other protagonist was Byomkesh’s friend Ajith, a writer, and one who begins to live with him after they meet on the first case and also one who accompanies and at times assists him on most cases. Based on the stories by the Bengali writer Saradindu Bandopadyay, the episodes were a hit among the TV viewers with Rajat Kapoor playing his part to near perfection. For cultural program enthusiasts there was “Spirit of Unity Concert” and the popular “Surabhi” hosted by Siddarth Kak and Renuka. The question asked at the end of Surabhi used to invoke response from people all over India sending their answers through postcards. At a time when people had not heard of Discovery Channel and when National Geographic Channel books were read by a few, that wonderful German channel TRANSTEL used to telecast wonderful programs on wildlife. They also used to telecast the slapstick comedy series “Didi’s Comedy Show” and the detective series ‘Derrick’. Also popular were the detective serials Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and ‘The Old Fox’.

Among the popular long running Hindi serials like Humlog and Buniyaad. The former was about a typical middle-class Indian family of the 1980's, whereas, the latter was a story on the lines of the Partition era. The list of long winding serials also later included the popular Shanti (starring Mandira Bedi), Kismat and Swabhimaan. Another popular serial used to be Mr. Yogi, a comedy based one about the various foiled attempts of Yogesh Patel to find a girl he can marry. Other comedy based programs used to be Jaspal Bhatti's Ulta Pulta and Flop Show, both being extremely popular during those days.

Turning Point was an excellent program aimed at preserving the scientific temper among the people. Initially hosted by Mahesh Bhatt, it was later anchored by Girish Karnad and Nasserudin Shah and explained simple scientific principles in a manner which would be termed simple even for a layman. I was a regular viewer of this program that had people sending their scientific queries to Prof. Yashpal who attempted to answer some of them at the end of the program.

No description of DD would be complete without the famous sitcom "Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi" which starred the Late Shafi Inaamdar. The serial was so popular that Moser Baer has now released the episodes in CD's. Among the sitcoms, another popular one used to be "Tandoori Nights" starring Sayed Jaffrey which was a take on an NRI family in London who owned a restaurant.

DD introduced the charismatic economist cum journalist "Prannoy Roy" through the program "World This Week". "The Pritish Nandy Show" used to be the popular talk show with Pritish interviewing many famous personalities from the field of politics, entertainment, media etc. My favourite episode in that was the interview with the famous magician P.C.Sarkar :-)

Among the Sports programs "World of Sports" was an evening program hosted by Narottam Puri. Also hugely popular and my personal favourite was "Sports Time" hosted by Tom Alter (first time I heard of him). It had a section in the end called "Lighter side of sports" which showed some of the funny moments in various sports. It was the program which showed two young girls practicing tennis rigorously in the United States and were tooted to be the next big names in women tennis. They were Venus and Serena Williams.

Our own DD (Malayalam) had its set of interesting and popular programs. Jiby had mentioned Kalikkalam, the sports program, in one of his blogs. I used to watch this program regularly and thoroughly enjoyed it those days. I remember that we got a holiday whenever Kerala won the Santosh trophy, and therefore, used to pray for their win not just as a supporter but even for getting an extra holiday in the school calendar. But I remember Kerala Police losing the finals once in a penalty shootout and agonisingly lose the cup, and more so, depriving me of a holiday

:-(

People in Kerala used to stay glued to their television sets on Sunday evenings for the Malayalam films being telecast. Though at most times, DD telecasted films from the "Jambhavan era" a.k.a films starring Nazeer and Sheila (How many films have they acted together in??), at times sense prevailed and somewhat new and good films used to be shown. I remember once that they had telecast a film that seemed to have some 17 songs (and most of the film was just songs!) when they had announced earlier that it was going to be a new movie. I , being so bored, actually saw that movie! Next day, I went to school thinking that all my friends would laugh at me on having seen that movie. Luckily all of them too had seen the movie! Instantly I was happy that I was not alone in this world.

But what ailed DD were the usual problems faced by a Government entity. Bureaucracy, red-tape and a general lack of accountability in the Department. Today it just exists, viewed regularly only in the remotest of places, and, in the coming years, even that elite viewer-ship seems improbable. But at its helm, it truly gave us some memorable moments.

P.S: One day, at my friend's house, we were using the remote to switch over various T.V channels to see, hoping against all odds, that there would be something worthwhile to watch. We started with DD and surfed many channels before we came back to DD. Whether it's irony, I don't know, but right when we went back to DD, the anchor of that program being relayed at DD said "Welcome Back". :-)

Anyone interested in downloading the video links of the epidsodes of "Byomkesh Bakshi" ?

Find it in the blog link given below:

http://serialepisodes.blogspot.com/2007/05/byomkesh-bakshi-episodes.html

Enjoy!

Profound words

Was going through a few blogs on the net. And then i picked this one post. What words!!! As i prepare to leave for lunch, I wonder "If this is not keeping faith in God, then what is?".

Arthur Ashe - R.I.P.

To believe or not to believe

Whenever i visit Trivandrum I make it a point to reserve one day just to visit Beemappalli and buy a few Malayalam film cd's/dvd's to add to my existing collection. Rather than going for new movies (except for selected ones) i prefer buying the "Tried and Tested" ones a.k.a award winning, comedies, classics genre of films etc.

This time on my trip I purchased a few of the Mammootty classics. It was a DVD with the films Yathra, Thaniyavarthanam and Nirakoottu. Of these perhaps the one that will immediately strike the chord of not just a Malayalam film viewer but any film viewer would be the film "Thaniyavarthanam".

Before going into the discussion on the movie, I would like to contemplate on the theme of blind-beliefs or what is known in Malayalam as "Anthavishwasam" with respect to Malayalam movies. It is a theme brought about it in a few Malayalam movies through varied degrees of seriousness in the script.

Nagarangalil Chennu Rapaarkam (1989) was a Viji Thampi directed film starring Sreenivasan and Jayaram. Sreenivasan plays the son of Nedumudi Venu in a typical village Tharavadu. The local astrologer predicts that Sreenivasan would die within a few weeks. Then the entire family keeps him virtually in a sort of house arrest providing him with good food and all other facilities. Jayaram , his childhood friend in the village returns from town on a break and meets Sreenivasan at his home. Sreenivasan on hearing the stories about town life coupled with his boredom on being forced to stay within the boundaries of the family house decides to escape with Jayaram to the town. The film then goes through humorous twists and turns before Sreeni finally unites with his father after the prediction of the astrologer proves false. This is a comical satire on blind beliefs that exists in rural Kerala brought about in a light manner.

Based on these themes were the satire like films Sadanandante Samayam (Dileep) and a film (whose name i forgot) in which Sreenivasan is claimed to have "RajaYogam" by an astrologer and thus whoever comes in contact with him will gain enormous luck. The latter was a laugh riot but atypical of Sreeni films delivers a subtle message on the blind beliefs held by society.

Anyway coming back to Thaniyavarthanam, it tells the story of Balan Mash (so brilliantly portrayed by Mammootty) a middle class schoolteacher who falls prey to the blind beliefs held in society. His uncle Sreedharan Maman (played by Babu Namboothiri) becomes mentally retarded after getting separated from his lover (played as a cameo by Parvathi). Thus starts the blind belief in the family that in each generation one male member in the family would get mentally retarded. Unfortunately Mammootty becomes the victim and the sufferings of the protagonist depicted on screen and the climax of the movie were too tragic for me to watch this movie more than once. Unlike the other mentioned movies, this one dwells into the subject in full seriousness and considering that it was Lohitadas's debut script one can also imagine the genius of the scripting prowess of Lohitadas that were seen in his later films like Kireedam. The film shows that these incidents are caused due to the perceptions held by people rather than they exploring the reality. Directed by Sibi Malayil (known for his tragedy films) the film explores the emotions, beliefs and attitude held by people in such a society. Mukesh (playing Gopan, Mammotty's brother) is cast as a rationalist and one who despises such beliefs and who is always seen telling the family members that unless they leave the house no one is going to live a happy life. This film is a must watch not only for fans of Mammootty but also for any film lover.

Now coming to the subject of false-beliefs, one can say that with the advancement in science and the spread of income among middle class and with migration of people from rural to urban areas the stats seem to indicate a decline in such thoughts among people. But along with increase in income and a busy and stressful lifestyle also comes insecurity in life. This has induced even people among the so-called educated class to adopt false beliefs and visit god men. How can this be stopped or will it ever stop? I have no answer for this. As for me i am one who keeps faith in God but I absolutely despise false-beliefs and even get irritated when i meet people with such views. But i guess traditional views passed on by generations cannot be completely removed from minds of old-aged people who believe in them. But at least the present generation should drop such thoughts and create a healthier society in terms of social development. Would love to hear your views on this. Please do drop in your thoughts.