Rakhi Sawant gets kissed- What does it say about our culture?

Tv channels are flush with scenes of Rakhi Sawanth getting kissed by Mika singh. Whehter such things should be covered in prime time news channels is a matter of another debate (Media content nowadays has reached a point of beyond help)

But the reaction of the media and people to it says something about our society thats sickening to me. In one of the programmes, i think it was CNN-IBN, she asked what if the same thing had happened to Aishwarya Rai, would the media reacted the same way? And i feel she has a valid point

People do differnet things for a living. I do investment banking and she dances and exposes. She might be vulgar, loud mouthed and too in the face, but that doesnt give anybody the right to assume she is loose. And even if she is, its her decision alone to allow somebody to kiss her or not.

At the end of the day she does what she does, to make a living, it may not be pleasing to you or me but ultimately it fills her and her family's stomach. It takes a wonderful journalist to humanize the stories of these girls, whom most of us consider loose. Read sonia's wonderful accounts of the bar girls and item dancers in her past posts.I am not linking individual posts go through her blog but, its journalism at the very best

Here is the link

Government, Government everywhere

Ramdoss bans smoking in films
Modi bans Fanaaa from screening
Punjab government stops Da Vinci code
Rajasthan government bans conversion
VHP calls for paretnal supervision for love marriages (no i am not kidding)
RR Patil bans dance bars
Employment gaurentee scheme


This is all headline news from the past one year or so. What does this tell you? I dont know about you, but it gives me jitters and a reason for worry. Ever the free market buff, i am extremely uncomfortable with government presence in variety of fields, but i get frightened when it reaches private domain.

Look at the decisions above and its clear the govenment wants to dictate my life. It wants to tell me what movies to watch, wants to decide what religion i practice, wants to decide whom i can or cannot marry, and heck even decide what i should or shouldnt do for a living (no i am not saying i want to dance in bars). Its even more disturbing in our country, where morality is more defined by what you wear rather than what you do.

Take a look at what this government is doing to eradicate poverty or solving the problem of aam aadmi so to speak. The 40,000 crore or more utter waste of money, in employment guarentee scheme. The scheme guarentees every poor guy 100 days of employment at a specified wage rate.

Now think of an individual who is entitiled to this. He might have a family of four or five, and through this he may earn say 60-100 Rs a day for 100days. Will it make him any richer or more skillfull/resoureful than he is? Will it pull him out of poverty? Will it give his next generation enough oppurtunities? The answer is a resounding no. Its actually will keep him in poverty forever.

Isnt this the classic case of putting cart before the horse? If the government concentrates and invests that money on building rural infrastrucutre (which is pathetic to say the least), primary schooling and remove unnecassry hicupps in rural credit, you will see not only employment grow but also allows the poor to make a meaningful and tangilble leap out of poverty. But so much of our policies concentrate on distribution of wealth rather than creation of it.

Government in unnecessary public domain is scary enough, now they want to decide what i do in my bed. Immense fear comes visiting

Finally some pictures of my trip- Damn why did it end

Fanaa

I watched Fanaa last week. I have strange relationship with the movies that come out of the Yashraj block. Its the same that my mom shares with Saas bahu serials. You hate it, but still watch it.

I hate the charecters of their movies. They have absolutely no issues to tackle in life except love, they are all billoniers, yet magically always find time to dance, sing and attend endless karvachauths parties (while i toil 16 hrs a day and yet cant buy a car) and they are always always good and hip looking. They should be banned for being so elitist:). So like expected i hated Fanaa too.

But i was more dissapointed with Aamir's performance. However pahetic some of his movies may be, his perfomances have always risen above the script and moved me. But i thought in this movie his acting was uneven. Agreed it was an extremely underwritten role, but u expect an actor of his caliber to overcome it. He even looked old and a touch overweight, is the man losing his touch? Hope not

I am being discriminated against

The reservation debate is increasingly getting muddled, with absolutely no concrete solutions coming out. Pratap Bhanu Mehta was bang on when he said on NDTV yesterday there is no space for experimentation with new ideas and policies. To have that, people on both sides of the divide should be atleast tolerant and hear out each other. As was witnessed in the studios of many TV channels over the past month shouting at each other was all that was acheived. We are getting less and less tolerant on many issues any ways.

But according to me both sides are harping over the wrong issue. My basic point is why the hell in the first place higher education should be state owned and subsidized.

I am a MBA from a very ordinary college and could not get into IIMs because i wasn't good enough. Fair enough, i am not complaining. But why the hell should i pay for the education of a person who is infinitely more intelligent than me and capable of earning 10 times more money than me when he gets out in the job market. Anybody who thinks institutes of higher education like IIM and IITs should be subsidized because they serve greater public good live in a socialisitc fools paradise.

You might argue if its not subsidized and horror of horrors privatized, the cost of education will go up and hence most cannot afford. Wrong again. If the government stops funding these holy cows it will free according to some estimates a huge 10,000 crores per year. Invest that in better schools in rural areas, better teachers and better credit facility to support a child at the ground level and and suddenly you see not 40 lac but 400 lac children wanting to get higher education. And common sense and free markets say due to increased demand, institutes whether private or public will have to expand capacity (supply) and give quality at competitive prices or else go out of business.

My problem with this debate is both sides are harping on wrong issue. And its me who is discriminated against because i am being made to pay my hard earned money to fund someone more capable than me. Now that in my book is discrimination