When I went to the backyard for a quick and easy shot to host the Black and White photo challenge in Facebook, found this new sprout at the end of a dying stick of our pepper plant. That was so hopeful a thing to see in the morning. Made my day.
Every single time a moral policing issue comes up in India, there is an oft-asked question from the ‘moral police’ or the supporters of the moral police – “would you let your mother/sister/wife/daughter?” – and that question is appealing to a larger fraction of the society because the social morals of this patriarchal society, especially when it comes to women, are decided by men.
The answer from the ‘liberal’ camp (except a few) to this question would usually be blunt, going by the politically-correct statements, like “it’s not for me to decide, but for my mother/sister/wife/daughter to decide whether they want to go”. Well, I agree that’s how it should be but I’m also suspecting how honest that answer is, to come from a society like ours.
I support the events like “Kiss of Love“, that is now in the news, in protest of the moral policing by BJP’s youth wing in Kozhikode, not because I would ‘let go’ the women in the family, or ‘not let go’, or ‘let them decide’ (basically just saying that I don’t know what I would do if it was on me, because even though I would like to think of myself as a conservative-in-transformation, it is a big struggle within myself to come out of my somewhat-moderate-but-still-conservative upbringing). I support such protests because regardless of what answer that a conservative or liberal comes up with to such a question, based on their own morals, we as a society has the responsibility to protect the individual’s freedom as long as it is not harmful to those who involved or others. The nation and it’s legal/police system also shares that responsibility. And when we fail to do that, we fail as an evolving society, or as human beings.
More than two years back, I received an email notification from 4shared customer support that one of the songs I posted there (a cover version of the Malayalam sing “Anthiveyil Ponnuthirum”) violated the original copyright and had been taken down. Then just about six months back another one on a Hindi cover version of the song “Main Agar Kahoon” was reported and taken down with a warning that a third instance would end up with my account being banned. Then I learn from Rahul Soman that the website Muziboo has been shutdown permanently due to such copyright infringement claims. All these removals and warnings involved DMCA (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act), which is a US copyright law that is supposed to protect the intellectual property.
I had sent an email to 4shared contesting the copyright infringement claim but I did not receive any reply but further warnings without addressing the real issue here. Make no mistake, I respect intellectual property rights. But here I was, or many people like me who makes the majority of users at Muziboo, posting the karaoke/cover versions of the original songs with leaving original credits with their owners. Obviously, we do not make any money out of it. And these cover versions help audience remember the originals and appreciate it once again. At times, we also get applauded for our own efforts too, sometimes people commenting that our amateur, home-recorded versions were better than the originals.
If DMCA continues to make such claims of copyright over these harmless cover versions, how is it going to end? Is this restricted to the karaoke/cover songs uploaded over internet? Or does this extend to the music troupes who make a living out of singing the cover versions? Or the large number of celebrities and YouTube stars who made big with their versions? Can we not even sing at home, tuned to the karaoke tracks? Why are these big shots afraid of the music lovers like us, who aren’t in this for money but just the love of music?
I was thinking that if this was going on earlier, I would never have met M G Radhakrishnan and sang for him. I know many people in the industry who has made it big or is starting to make it big have started with singing the cover versions. I hope they will do something about it. To bring it to the attention of the biggies in the industry and get them to do something about it. On a large scale in the future, this move will put a cap on many amateur talents.
Life at times is like Clint Eastwood, the composer. Out of the blue, it brings out strangers on your way, walking beside you and in the very next moment they’re gone. You don’t want to know where they came from or where they’ve gone or who they are. You’re left untouched. Like those guitar riffs in Million Dollar Baby.
Much has been spoken about the Delhi zoo accident already. I think it’s unfair on the part of the media to call the animal a ‘killer’ tiger. He did what the nature has programmed him to do when he feels threatened. The victim is said to be mentally unstable, so its unfair on the so called animal lovers’ part to put the blame on him too. Those who were around were also blamed, but I think that is also unfair because you can’t expect a common man to have learned about the animal behavior and acted accordingly.
But the zoo authorities should have done something. To have somebody trained to handle such situations if something like this tragic situation happened. It seems that there was a trainer for this tiger who knew the animal inside out but he also couldn’t get to him through the crowd (I wonder there is no other entrance for the trainer to approach the tiger than through the crowd). The tiger seems to have waited for about 10 minutes I hear and that’s plenty of time to get his attention away.
On a larger perspective, its time to think about the very concept of zoo or bringing in the wild animals to common places (elephants included).
Every generation blaming their next has become a general practice. Complaining that they lack the morals or compassion and are self-centered. It’s the same story that you would have heard from your elders and it’s the same thing you would tell about your younger ones. And I think it is utter stupidity and I believe that every generation has had their good and bad.
A couple of weeks ago, my neighbor who is a student, came to me asking for help to raise funds for Naishana, a little girl who is an excellent student in her school but deaf and mute. A famous ENT surgeon had told her parents that he could help her gain the sight and sound but the surgery would cost seven lakh rupees. Naishana’s family didn’t have that much money since they were poor and her father is a cardiac patient. The Kerala chief minister had ‘referred’ her case to be taken care of under a government health scheme, but the department refused to treat her because the scheme is not available for children more than 5 years old (no comments on this – long live politicians and bureaucracy). But people around them – friends and neighbors – didn’t give up and they formed a committee to help raise funds for this child.
So this young man, my neighbor, came to know about this girl through the newspaper. He was touched by the story and the situation of this little girl. He called up her family, using the phone number that was published in the newspaper, and he was even more sad when he talked to her father. Then he decided to raise funds for Naishana on his own. He started pooling in money from his family, his brother, friends and neighbors. He took the newspaper clipping with him everywhere he went. When he went to college, he would ask his friends. When he went for a family function, he would ask his cousins. And so on.
He said he didn’t want to post it in Facebook, because he believed that it would end up in a few likes and shares and there was no assurance that the actual money would come through. He shared an experience when he asked some people for help and they told him “I will make a bank transfer straight to their account” before he didn’t even mention the bank account number to make the transfer. So when he asked, “so wouldn’t you need the bank account number?” they would casually ask for it as if they missed that part. His brother chipped in to help too and himself went down to see the family once. And finally, today I got a message from his brother saying that together they could collect Rs. 30000 and they made the cash transfer today.
Naishana is no friend of the Raphael brothers. She wasn’t from the neighborhood, no cousin and neither was she from the same religion. Yet, these young men, the younger one who told me the story is a student, took her story to heart and together they made a change. Ciril Raphael and Sunil Raphael, I’m proud of you my young friends. I think the others around our neighborhood or anywhere else has something to learn from you guys. More power to you.
If you want my attention to the cause of Palestine by posting photos and profile pictures of the dead bodies of children, their scarred little bodies and them crying, you don’t have it. It is most likely that I will turn away from them and do not care to read further. Not that I am insensitive to children; in fact its just the opposite.
I am aware that world over it is the children who suffer the most in war, riots, terrorism, domestic abuse or family struggles – be it in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq or your home. Directly or indirectly. Left dead or left to live. I don’t need your pictures to tell me that. So if you want my attention, write something about the politics and power plays that keeps Gaza on fire. The fight that religion ignited based on their holy books and race. Tell me something that I should know about the problem. Not the pictures of children left dying.
I didn’t even notice how many times the word ‘fuck’ appeared in the movie (of which I watched a YouTube video that took count before I watched the movie) because the movie, even in it’s entire three long hours, didn’t distract me to those unimportant details.
I was of the opinion that Leonardo DiCaprio, no matter what roles he played, I always saw the ‘actor DiCaprio’ a lot more than the characters he played. This was not to undermine his abilities as an actor. He does the ‘acting’ well, but he always was ‘DiCaprio playing the character’ for me. I have noticed the same thing in the case of Tom Cruise. No matter what role Tom plays, he remains ‘The Tom Cruise’ always (not comparing him with DiCaprio; DiCaprio is definitely in a different league as far as acting is considered). Don’t take me wrong, I don’t have anything against the handsome/good-looking actors because I don’t see the same thing happening with Matt Damon. Even when I look at Gatsby to Jordan boy here, they are just roles that DiCaprio plays (and there isn’t too many differences between both portrayals but that’s for another note). That said, the only reason that you would sit through these long three hours is, DiCaprio. And if there is a best of his so far in his career, this is it.
One thing is sure though. You’ve got to watch the movie to see what happens when you go off the track in your life – you know, with alcohol abuse, drugs abuse, sex abuse, career abuse or money abuse. There is a message for the guys of those sort or to the guys who may be headed on that track (even though the scale may vary).
