Birthday break
charukesi April 27th, 2005
I am off for a short holiday - a drive along the Konkan coast - I am turning thirty in a couple of days - and this is an attempt to forget and overcome that sorrow…. Back in a few days with pictures 
Archive for April, 2005
Asking to be raped?
charukesi April 27th, 2005
The Shiv Sena outdoes itself this time… In an article in Saamna (the party propaganda newspapaer), the Sena presents a thoroughly objectionable explanation for inducement of rape - women wearing revealing clothes - in other words, women asking to be raped…
And what is their basis for saying this - the police chowky where the rape happened was found to be covered with pictures of semi nude women… So any man commits rape and points to the woman, accusing her of enticing him by wearing revealing clothes - in fact, if this bit about picture found inside the chowky is to be taken seriously, it is not even necessary for the victim to have been wearing such clothes - it is enough that any woman does.
The woman is not the victim but the accomplice? The article wondered who is to be blamed if a youth misbehaves with an innocent girl - the youth or the society at large. (Incidentally, I am waiting for the Maharasthtra Government to come out with a statement vindicating their decision to close down dance bars all over the state)
What was this girl’s fault? That she went to Marine Drive? in the middle of the day? with two boys for company? Right, enough to lure any strong willed policeman with morals into rape…
More imporantly, rape is less about lust or even sex than about power (teach her a lesson) and hatred (teach her community / family a lesson) and other strong negative emotions - such an act is the sign of an otherwise deranged mind - the Times of India which had carried the Sena article on its first page yesterday, also carries a small piece on the third page (no, not page 3) about a twenty year old man who raped a two year old girl. Yes, two years old… And what was this girl’s fault? In this case, the victim cannot even be considered a sex object - she is merely an object…
Incidentally, the TOI editorial today carries a strong comeback to the Sena’s argument - about women being denied their basic constututional freedom of choice. Oh my god, please, this is not about markets and modernity as the title says - not about clothes - but about our society’s attitude towards women and sexuality in general… the greater need is not for women to cover up, but for building sensitivity around such incidents - where they cannot be prevented, there is aleast a need for society to look at the victim with a sympathetic eye - sensitivity among the law makers, the ‘protectors’ - better support systems -helping her pick up the pieces and move on with her life… however, always keeping in mind her feelings and needs…
Read also The Hindu on Moral Police Not Moral Policing
What do you look for in a book?
charukesi April 26th, 2005
My favourite piece in Bookless in Baghdad (although it is hard to choose) is the one that this edition begins with - growing up with books in India.
As with Tharoor, I read copiously, rapidly and indiscriminately… I have memories of many many lonely moments in childhood banished by books - which took me through exotic lands and dangerous adventures - and entirely allowing my imagination to take over - kids holidaying alone in a lighthouse in a deserted island, matching wits with fierce kidnappers… (maybe that is why I did not enjoy the televised version of Famous Five half so much - and I still don’t enjoy movies made from books - they force me to look at the situation as they present it - and not through my imagination…)
But as I grew up, I found myself looking for and enjoying books not which offered me an escape route - from loneliness or boredom - (although I still turn to dear PGW when the going gets tough) - but those which offer me something that I can relate to… indeed, the books that I put down with a feeling of satisfaction today are those which offer me something more - shared experiences. When I think about it, this is exactly why I loved Tharoor’s piece on growing up with books in India - I could relate thoroughly to the sentiments he has expressed here - It is, I suppose, a uniquely Indian experience to embrace both Biggles and Birbal, Jeeves and the Jatakas, Tintin and Tenaliraman in your reading. Growing up as a reader in India left me with a vivid sense of books devoured as sources of entertainment, learning, escape, - and vicarious experience - as with most things Tharoor says, I couldn’t have said it better
I was thinking about this recently as I read a couple of books - both by Indian writers - both fairly ‘light’ reading - and both of which I had mixed feelings about - neither of them is the stuff that great boooks are made of - by way of writing style or story / plot or even language… but there was something about the books that I enjoyed (in bits and pieces) - they made me think, smile and even laugh out aloud in parts.
One of them is the itinerant indian - (stories of adventure and discovery, of nostalgia and novelty, of mishaps and misery, of confusion and comedy, the blurb says). The book armchair transported me (as the dedication offers) not (only) across space to distant lands which I have never visited and only dream of, but also across time - to those moments when I have experienced something similar to what the writer has - which translates to a been there-done that- felt that reading experience… I know what Raju Ramanathan means when he writes about his railway reminiscences - how often have you queued up at Madras Central - or any other railway station - bleary eyed at 7 am - waiting for the exalted doors of the ticket booking office to open, or what Vidya Baglodi must have felt like when she returned to Bangalore after ten years to find it entirely transformed, and in a not-so-pleasant way… and much more… personal ’stories’ which trigger a distant memory-bell within me… and then the smile of empathy….
And the other book is Piece of Cake by Swati Kaushal - with its mixed reviews - I suspect I shocked and embarrased a few friends when I announced that I quite enjoyed the book - and thinking back, I know that the book to me was not about the ’story’ - heavily borrowed from (sorry, inspired by) Bridget Jones or the writing where the effort to be constantly funny shows… it was to me about those shared experiences - of being in ‘corporate’ life, dealing with pompous advertising executives, trying to explain to a smug knowall the value of qualitative research, trying not be impressed with a HR executive who actually seems to be clued in to what is happening inside the company (although it turns out later that he actually does not - thank god for that - some stereotypes are just not meant to be played around with). As this rediff reviewsays, In the process, she writes up a story of corporate one-upmanship with enough insights into the workings of a multinational firm (with marriage as a side accompaniment)
And as I write this, I came across Why I Read on Kitabkhana… When a reader falls in love with a book it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced. We love relatively few books in our lives and those books become parts of the way we see our lives, we read our lives through them, and their descriptions of the inner and outer worlds become mixed up with ours, they become ours. - Salman Rushdie in Guardian
After-thought : I do not mean by this post (as someone had emailed me) that the reader agree with everything the book / author says - that indeed beats the purpose of good writing - what I mean is that the if the author is able to touch some chord within you - making you think - agree or disagree - and not leave you cold and distant… then that is getting somewhere…
A new take on celebrity endorsements
charukesi April 23rd, 2005
I was reading this in Bombay Times this morning…. and wondering afresh why marketing companies and ad agencies waste so much money on hiring totally over-exposed and jaded (if familiar) faces to endorse their brands….
They stare down at you from huge billboards and help push products on TV ads. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Aamir, Salman and Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta and now even Kajol, Ajay Devgan and Karan Johar have now occupied the place which once ‘officially’ belonged to models.
And then I saw this from Dilbert…
Also read Celebrity = credibility? from a long time ago…
Bookless in Baghdad
charukesi April 23rd, 2005
Jobless in Chennai - was what I was till a few days ago… when I devoured a book a day…
My most satisfying find during this time was Shashi Tharoor’s Bookless in Baghdad - so titled after those Iraqis who are selling off their priceless collection of books - to fend for their food and other basic needs - on the one hand, and searching the streets of Baghdad on the other looking for bargains - and returning disapppointed at not being able to afford anything…
Through these pieces in the book, Tharoor takes you through a journey through your own memorable reading moments… and among the most loved (and hated too) writers of our time…. savour this - like many of my compatriots, I had discovered Wodehouse young and pursued my delight across the ninety five volumes of the master’s oeuvre, savouring book after book as if the pleasure would never end…
(Of course, he also defends his less engaging books like Show Business tooth and nail and wants us to look for and appreciate its hidden depths - which I found totally lacking - and no amount for regard for Tharoor will make me accept that there are the multiple layers to this book that the author hints at… a pot boiler kind of good read, it is; a deep parallel with Indian society and politics, it is not - Tharoor is very defensive about this bok - and rightly so!)
Bookless in Baghdad is about books, about reading, about writers and wannabe writers… a must-read for all of us who have grown up with books and still thrive on them….
BinB is not one of those thrillers you read at one go at bedtime - it is one of those rare rich chocolates that you want to last forever - so you hoard and hoard and make do with small bites every so often….
My passport photo travails
charukesi April 16th, 2005
When You look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to Go Home. Says Erma Bombeck…
Sure, what is it about passport photos that bring out simply the worst and most lifeless in our faces?
After insisting that you comb your hair and powder (yes, I went through this in Madras yesterday - when I meekly protested, he glared at me in a manner as if to suggest - then don’t hold me responsible for the resullt…) your face, the well-meaning photographer then proceeds to help place your map in just the perfect position. Move your chin left madam, no, no, litttttle to the right. And then proceeds to jerk your neck violently in the said directions… By which time your well-combed hair has already started flying on your face. And you imagine the powder melting and trickling down your nose in rivulets… (which is exactly what the portrait will reveal finally)
And after hours of such guided directions (or what seems like hours), the final product always shows me looking somewhat desperately towards the celiling, head tilting to one side and my mouth set in a tight grimace as if I have somehow lost control of my facial motor muscles, or at worst, a smile which is sure to suggest to the viewer that I have had a few quick ones just before stepping into the studio…
Show me an individual with a passport photo he can be proud of - viz, one that he can show in mixed company without having children burst into sudden frightened sobs and adults falling off their chairs and hurting their heads / pulling their more delicate stomach muscles in the ensuing mirth - and I will show you an overachiever…
Lost for metaphors…
charukesi April 14th, 2005
We have a favourite question we use in qualitative research to understand the extent of emotional bonding a customer has with a brand (yes, there are some one us naive ones who believe that people have eomtional bonds with brands) - how would you feel if you came to know that x brand is dead / banned from the market…
Of late, I have been fantasising about asking advertising creative types this - what would you do if chillies were banned in ads
Coke and red - chillies - was fresh when it came on air long ago… but since then all manner of ads have been using chillies to show ‘hotness’ of the brand…
Last month, Hindustan Times threw a party in Bombay to announce their impending (that word sounds so ominous) launch in Bombay… the invitation was accompanied by a bottle of some red sauce - Capsico? chilli something or the other?
A hot newspaper?
Are there no other creative ideas to show ‘hot’?’
Just as I write this - the new Liril ad flashes on tv -
Since when is Liril a hot soap ? and why should a soap be hot ? and how does an ingredient like aloe vera suddenly make a brand hot? (let me not get started on this - this is Rashmi Bansal’s take on this ad - my only thought is that if Hindustan Levers has passed such an ad, this must be surely signs of extreme desperation…)
The semiotics of red and chilli are very interesting… I had written about Asian Paints using red evocatively in Different Strokes….
What are your thougths on this?
The Hindu : a new look
charukesi April 14th, 2005
The Hindu in a new look… colour in its masthead, horizontal index with colour pics, overall lighter feel (visually)…
Classic, yet contemporary; contemporary, yet classic — that is what The Hindu has continually sought to be in the world of Indian and international newspapers.
Says designer Mario Garcia: the new design will make this newspaper “easy not only on the soul and the brain, but also on the eyes.”
(As an aside, a couple of questions I have been thinking about -
1. can any newspaper in India be truly called a national newspaper?
2. why do newspapers in the US, have their city of origin in their name - say, the Boston Globe, New York Times, for instance?)
No Smoking in Marlboro Country
charukesi April 11th, 2005
Smoking Outlawed in ‘Marlboro Country’, says Adrants
Montana, which has served as Marlboro Country in magazine ads depicting rugged cowboys puffing on cigarettes while riding a fence line, is about to outlaw smoking just about everywhere but the great outdoors. The state Legislature voted Thursday to ban smoking in all enclosed public places, including bars and restaurants
I had written abut the Marlboro Horse a long while ago….
Battling AIDS in India
charukesi April 7th, 2005
Patrix writes about the AIDS tsunami…
Here’s an interview with the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in India - from the mckinsey quarterly on battling AIDS in India (you need registration but it is worth the effort)
In a country of a billion people, about 4.6 million are HIV positive. If the problem is left unchecked, that number could reach 20 million to 25 million by the decade’s end. A single country could have an HIV-positive population larger than the total populations of London, New York, and Tokyo combined.