Sakshi is a big Rakhi Sawant fan – The only line people seem to come up with whenever handed with the responsibility of introducing me to a new set of people. I can’t really blame them though. Ever since I started dedicating wholesome posts in honour of Bolllywood’s most famous Item Girl, my blog’s popularity jumped higher with every controversy she entertained.

Traffic, links, feed counts…you name it, “Rakhi Sawant’s unofficial PR agent of the virtual world” became my by-line. And I lapped it up every single time, never feeling that it’s gotten too much.

Until now that is.

Click here to continue reading ‘My Big Break Is Breaking Me Up’

No? Neither did I until yesterday.

There I was sitting at Juhu’s Prithvi Theatre watching a compilation of short documentary films, organized by an NGO called Vikalp (formed in 2003, a group of documentary film makers fighting against censorship) and all I could think of was Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

Though the film turned out to be the biggest box-office failure of 2007, to me the film’s depiction of modern day daaku raj (Babban Singh) vs. Ex-Police Chief and his hired goons Heroo & Raj – seem perfectly in sync with the Naxalite situation in the State of Chhattisgarh. No laughing matter this, the reality is as dark and horrifying. However unlike the movie, the Naxalite condition doesn’t have as clear a hero-villain divide as the movie.

In order to free the state’s people from the tortures of the rebellious Naxalities (dakku raj), the government put in action the Special Public Security Act (SPS, 2005), and have also created an army of villagers called the Salwa Judum giving them bows arrows and guns, under the pretext of self-protection against the bad guys. The Chhattisgarh government wants us to look up to them in the same way as the villagers regarded the Ex-Police Chief in the film. Their life-savior, their messiah.

According to the Planning Commission 2008 report, that is not only unconstitutional, but also a form of state sponsored terror. So, no happy ending in sight here, only a spiral result of violence and more of it.

And this is where filmmaker Ajay TG’s story comes in.

Click here to continue reading ‘Do You Know Ajay TG?’

Ever noticed how often we, as a race, use this word? There is actually no Hindi equivalent of adjust, which is just as well, because we have plucked that word from its native vocabulary and planted it in our own homegrown context, Indianising it to such an extent, that even the most well ‘adjusted’ Hindi speakers amongst us won’t think twice before using it.

Adjust: to compromise, to make some allowances, to make do. After all, sab chalta hain na.

So, a few days ago, I opened my Inbox to find myself part of a mass mailer from dear friend Parmesh Shahani inviting a bunch of us to Hilton to munch over the different aspects of Indian Identity. The group included professors from Havard, playwrights and authors. And then there was me. Whose identity, written in a bracket after the name, said only one word. Blogger. (How cool is that?)

So adjustment toh karna hi pada. Power lunch ka sawaal tha.