I should probably put in a disclaimer right at the start of this post. I am one among the thousands of Indians, who were following the Bachchan-Rai marriage saga. I have no shame in accepting that. It was indeed, as many media outlets put it, the Bollywood wedding of the century...So much to the chagrin of my boyfriend who would rather want me spending my time in more intellectual pursuits, I spent the last few days scanning newspaper, and television channel sights for dope on the Big Fat Bollywood Wedding.....
Up until about yesterday, I was okay with Bachchans being anal about keeping the presshounds at bay. Despite the fact that who's who of India were a part of this event, it was in the end a private ceremony. They could choose the way they wanted to go about it. Secondly, as per other media reports, the Bachchans had sold the sole rights of photos and video footage for a whopping undisclosed sum to an international media company. So far, so good...
What I was also expecting was that at the end of all ceremonies, the least the family would do is to release at least one official photograph of the married couple for national consumption...Not even that has been done however....If you ask me, I consider this an insult to their Indian fan base....
It is not a PRIVACY thing....they have SOLD exclusive footage to an international channel after all....
It is the Indian fans who have made them who they are however....the LEAST their fans deserve is one proper photograph, for which poor photo-journalists didn't have to rough-shod....
Look at any of the other high profile weddings in the recent past... Karishma Kapoor-Sanjay Kapoor, Priyanka Gandhi-Robert Vadhera, even Sachin Tendulkar-Anjali Mehta... While the media was banned from each one of these weddings, post-marriage pictures were released in each case... I feel it is a way of appreciating scores of your fans who want nothing else but wish you well and in this minuscule way, want to be a part of your big day....
The voyeur in me is doing fine, I feel bad for all the people on a stakeout outside the Bachchan bungalows to catch a glimpse of the people they consider deni-gods...The Bachchans are taking for granted the trouble that the general population of Mumbai went through because of the traffic diversions, the crowds etc etc..500 security personnel, deployed for security, thousand of media people...Not to mention fans who travelled all the way from places like Kanpur bearing laddus....And yet, in true ROYAL style..the Bachchans refuse to satiate the public's well placed curiosity even with a single photograph.....Yet, exclusive rights have been sold to an INTERNATIONAL channel...So, it is all about money in the end (Guess, Shatrugan Sinha was right) and to hell with the countrymen who made you are...Priceless arrogance....
The last bit that REALLY adds insult to injury is the manhandling of press photographers by security people at one of the Bachchan bungalows...One of the photographers was hit so badly in the abdomen that he had to be taken to a hospital (read here)....
No comment has been forthcoming from the Bachchans yet....
I, for one, am really disgusted...
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Do the Bachchans owe India an apology??
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sunshine
The sun is brighter today,
my step springier...
I smile more heartily....
and the heart is more content...
Thursday, April 12, 2007
5 things I hate about US universities...
1. US universities are all about making MONEY
I think this happens especially for people who come from countries like India. We have grown up to believe that schools and universities are "temples of learning" and "education is sacred"...pardonnez moi for the cliches but here it is all about making money. Students are charged for every small/big thing and then some more. The biggest scams of all is forced insurance for international students....
2. Does the quality of education matches the costs? NOT AT ALL
If you argue with me on this, then maybe I was lucky to go to a really good university in India. I came to the US not expecting magic, but at least keen to find what the brouhaha about an American degree is all about. I study at what may be called "ranking wise" one of the top ten schools in the US and one of the best in the world in my particular area. Yet, I find the teaching insipid, the exposure probably marginally better to what I had an undergrad in India..Though, I would be willing to concede that this malady could be typical of my area of study...the discipline in itself lacks rigor...
3. I hate the over politeness yet the non-helpfulness of the American bureaucracy
I know what you are thinking. That coming from the land of RED-TAPE itself, how can I criticize the American system? Well, see the thing with India is that you get what you see..If the Indian babus are non-helpful then they are that to my face...They don't go about saying stuff in saccharine sweetness..."Oh, I am sorry that you have to pay this..", "Oh, I am sorry but this is the procedure.." (also see later). I could be dying (hypothetically speaking) and go looking for assistance and all these people will do is shake their heads, give me that mocking smile...which seems to say to me.."We might be a GARGANTUAN university and what you say really makes sense and in general you are a very nice person, but helping you is out of our power.." The most annoying department in the US universities....The International Student Services...Bunch of morons who have been employed to make international students feel that they matter more than the money they bring in...
4. I don't know what my professors really mean
This should actually be an extension of the point before. In India, if I was in trouble in any particular subject, professors wouldn't mince any words in telling you as much...Here, I am treated (again on face) as a frigging Nobel laureate yet get passed over for a coveted scholarship over and over again. I am a BIG GIRL, tell me to my face where I really stand....believe me I won't cry....I too can smile till my jaws hurt...
5. This is the procedure, there is nothing we can do
Procedure seems to be the golden word, which University staffer just can't seem to see beyond...Taking personal initiative or questioning the "procedure" is just bureaucratic harakiri, no one is willing to commit..."We work for the University. Kindly do not ask us to think" is like the unwritten motto plate hanging behind the purple halos surrounding their heads.....
Moral of the rant: I have been here,
and I have been there.
Now that I am here,
I wish I was there.