THE DIARY OF Z

Be it Cosmopolitan, Verve or Women’s Era, they lower self esteem. The fact that some of them are available in Hindi and Kannada makes it even more distressing. Most of these magazines are editorially alarmist and politically biased. The problem stems from the conceit that women are victims. Do women spend their days worrying whether antiperspirants cause breast cancer or wondering if a long airline ride will cause a fatal blood clot? Or are we just observing today’s favourite media technique to paint women’s lives to women audiences as a picture of accumulated woes?

What’s worse is that even men are falling for it. If magazine surveys are to be believed, a large number of men read women’s magazines. Which means, these magazines find their way into homes where their mothers, daughters and wives get to read them, too. And this makes it even more worrisome.

The truth is out there. A typical women’s magazine is just a ‘survival kit’ for the un-liberated and edited for advertisers, not readers. Most publication houses use the female fear factor to sell magazines. There is a big difference between creating change and creating a stir. And women’s magazines create a stir that’s unnecessary. Take Cosmopolitan, Gurlz or even Verve and New Woman. Most of the articles are from a western perspective. You even have foreign models showcasing most of their stories. Not much is actually Indianised, so what are we selling to Indians? The West? And if that is indeed the agenda, then we are on the wrong track. For long, women’s magazines in the West have been pushing chemicals into the hands of unwary women in the name of health and hygiene. Editors must realise that they are often manipulating their female readership with negative messages and one-sided politics. It was convenient to tell women about their stress, their fears, their woes in the 90’s. But I don’t like what these magazines have become. They use over-the-top cover headlines to compete on the newsstand and to create insecurity that makes women the willing consumers that advertisers crave. Articles about stress, a hardy perennial, are mostly conjured. A woman comes home from work and she has to choose between chicken biryani and ghee rice, and that becomes stress. It’s silly.

I find pathology everywhere I look on the magazine rack. To judge by the articles, women are always in danger of being hunted and killed by the opposite sex. “He is going to kill me! Is anybody listening?” read one Glamour headline. The perils are everywhere. “The Health Hazard in Your Handbag” read the headline on another article.

Much of contemporary women’s magazines are built on chronic fakery. Insiders have revealed that quotations are changed or invented, celebrity profiles are sanitised where anything unpleasant or offensive is deleted pronto, and photos are altered at whim to suit the magazine’s glamour quotient.

So the next time you see a so-called Indianised version of Cosmo or Verve, think again. Is this really a ‘survival kit’ or just a glorified pamphlet from the beauty industry?

L.I.F.E. Just four letters. But pregnant with meaning. So when you have films that are a stirring portrait of life, you should leave everything you are caught up with, and make sure you land up at the auditorium to watch these internationally acclaimed films. And that’s how it was when I was witness to a few critically acclaimed films from Pakistan, Turkey, Finland, South Africa, Iran, the US and the UK at the second Bangalore International Film Festival organised by Suchitra Film Society and the Government of Karnataka. Out of the 8 films I saw, two films stood out for their candour. Here they are:

1. Khuda Ke Liye: No film in recent times has been so well made. Not only is it so very relevant in today’s times, it’s also a film that has some great music, eye-opening cinematography, and a very engaging plot. That the actors did justice to the role made director Shoaib Mansoor’s job even easier. Set in Chicago, New York, Afghanistan and Pakistan, it chronicles the life of a non-resident Pakistani (shall we say, NRP?) trapped by a father who wants her to marry a Pakistani, even though she’s set her sights on a British lad on campus. A conniving father takes her to Pakistan on the pretext of going back to his roots only for a fortnight, but ends up ganging up with a few fundamentalists who hold her captive in Afghanistan. The Pakistani son that she’s forcibly married to was earlier a singer of Western music, but later becomes a devout muslim courtesy, a moulana who leads him on the path of destruction and terror. The rest of the film is about how she fights for her rights, how her rights are violated and she has a baby from him, and how he realises his folly and comes back into the mainstream. At no point does the director try to be one-sided. The moulana is given as many justifiable dialogues as his detractors. The pace is racy, and is anything but boring. Importantly, you go away with a message: everyone has a viewpoint and everyone are right in their context and in their way of thinking. Now the choice is yours. Whether to follow an age-old custom blindfolded or rebel and march to the beat of your own drum.

2. Heartbreak/Lovelorn: This Turkish film lasting 150 minutes was as engaging as it was insightful. The story of a teacher who comes back to his native place after his retirement and finding himself in the middle of a divorced woman and her child being pursued by her overzealous wife-beating husband. Not that he doesn’t have problems of his own. His own son is living a life of comfort, but doesn’t intend to keep his father at home, and is much relieved when the father has already rented a room elsewhere and living on his own. What’s more, realising that his children are of no help, the father takes the help of his friend and drives a taxi at night to beat insomnia. The best part of this film is that it isn’t judgemental. It showcases the dilemma of every personality showcased in the film. There are no black or white characters. There is a shade of grey in each of them, and it’s well portrayed out here. At the end, the message is simple: we are trapped in the world of our own desires, not realising that we could well be stifling someone’s else’s.

Just came back after witnessing an accident where a sand truck went over a two wheeler guy. Saw the driver and his assistant taking to their heels. The helmet was flung a few metres away from the victim who was lying face down. No movement. Spot death.

Don’t know whose fault it was. Could have been the victim’s. He was crossing the road at a small intersection while the truck was on the fast lane. It happened at around 11pm when there is relatively less traffic. Felt my stomach squirm. Didn’t feel like eating when I reached home.

Death is such a sudden occurrence. Just when you think all is well with the world, it strikes without prior warning. I remember the most gruesome accident I had ever witnessed was when i was maybe 12 or 15 years old.  A trailer truck ran over a person just when i was about to cross the road. His head split and his brain popped out of it and hit the road right in front of me. That afternoon I couldn’t eat. The incident, however, stayed with me for a while.

We make so many plans in this world, not realising that the greatest planner is up there. The moral of the story? Live in the present and do things that you will never regret later. Be happy and make others happy. This good karma will follow you in your after-life, if ever there is one. Since you and I don’t know it for sure, why risk it? Better to be safe than…

Nano. Appears to be Tata’s gift to the world. Right on time. He’s packing his bags and heading to a life of relative anonymity. Will Nano follow him?
Don’t think so. And this is why:
1. Most Nanos could become autos across the country. That would mean, safer, relatively pollution-free private transport.
2. The number of two-wheelers will come down on the roads as people opt for Nano, reducing pollution loads and rash driving.
3. It could make all the small car owners like Maruti to offer a lot more at the existing price of Rs 1.93 lakh.
4. It could result in many more companies like Bajaj and GM to rival the Nano. Since Nano scores on pricing, the competitors will want to offer more features for the price of a Nano. The consumer will be king.
5. Tier 2 and tier 3 cities will benefit the most and become more upwardly mobile.
6. Tata will come out with luxury models of Nano that will compete with the Santros and Swifts of the world, and yet keep the prices economical. Win-win again for the consumer!

“Dear sir, dear mam,

this Sunday, we’re having a jam

no bread no butter

just jam just jam

maybe marmalade

maybe metal

rather raaga

rather rock

sometimes salsa

sometimes soul

p’haps pictures

p’haps poems

l’il fizz l’il jazz

lotsa fun lotsa juice

dear sir dear mam

just jam just jam.”

This poem by a Freedom Jam regular sums up the live entertainment scene in Bangalore that’s increasingly getting better by the day. And there’s nothing quite like live music to set the mood. Here is where Bangalore scores. It has always been the rock capital of the country and continues to be so. What cemented its position was the superlative success of the annual Freedom Jam event. “Freedom Jam is the longest running live music tradition in Bangalore and also in the country,” says VG Jaideep, former editor of Rave magazine. “I think the live music scene is definitely improving in Bangalore as it has become more institutionalised.”

However, music lovers also feel that the live music scene is right now confined to a few isolated pockets like Koramangala and Brigade Road and Sankey Road. “If you look at north Bangalore where you have an audience, there isn’t any platform for people to perform,” said live music buff Chaitra. “Thankfully, the scope for bands to perform is much more now as they have access to technology and a good disposable income (most band members have full-time jobs).”

The 11-year-old annual Freedom Jam has become Bangalore’s own Woodstock with its signature 12-hour non-stop pulsating rock and contemporary music by over 40 bands of various hues vying to play over multiple stages. Performances have included Bangalore’s legends like Konarak Reddy, K.C.P., and an eclectic contemporary mix of music from the likes of Lucky Ali, David Rothenberg (New York), Sarjapur Blues Band, Baja, Steve Tallis (Australia), Vasundhara Das, Esperanto, Threnody, Kryptos, Bhumi, TAAQ and so on. On similar lines, the Sunday Jam is a live interactive event regularly held on the first Sunday of every month to promote art and other cultural activity. These days it is held at various places in the city. Anything from metal to ragas to folk and film songs to poetry readings, and art exhibitions can be expected.

And then there is the ‘Moonplugged series’ of concerts happening for about a year now at the creekside Guruskool outside Bangalore and the Chitra Kala Parishad amphitheatre. The previous Moonplugged at Parishad’s open air theatre that featured the Finnish band Piirpauke, Konarak Reddy and others was described as “magical and thoroughly enchanting” by avid music lovers.

Only a few years ago, the Bangalore Police clamped down on Live music by concluding that the live music in pubs is nothing different from the cabarets that happen at seedy bars. All of this now is slowly receding with the political top brass in favour of late-night entertainment. What has also come as a boon is the corporate backing to musical events. The pioneers were Opus, the Goan restaurant and lounge bar. The theme nights they started a few years ago today have corporate sponsors. From singing classes to karaoke sessions and live performances by semi professionals, Opus is the front-runner of live music in Bangalore today. Adding more impetus is Bangalore-based Venkat Vardhan of DNA Networks that has brought the biggest rock acts to Bangalore and other cities of India. He launched Campus Rock Idols, an annual nationwide hunt for the best college band. This year’s finale was in Delhi on December 2. He hasn’t stopped at that. In 2007, he also launched Rockillusion to get both professional and semi professional bands to compete against each other on a national level.

Some of the leading bands in Bangalore enjoying cult status include Galeej Gurus and Myndsnare. The other promising ones include Lounge Piranha and Thermal and a Quarter. Aside from the old faithful like Legends of Rock, Javacity, Pinch of Jazz, Pecos and Mojos , there are newer venues coming up every now and then. Casa Del Sol doubles into a social destination in the evenings - they have salsa nites, live music, pottery artists and lots of other fun events. The Park hotel hosts the occasional live music on Fridays and Saturdays where bands like Thermal and Quarter play a feast of original songs and ‘thermalized’ covers of Sting, Dire Straits, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, and a lot more. The latest is Le Rock, a beer café on Residency Road opposite Pecos.

Things will only brighten up with the soon-to-be-opened The Hard Rock Café on St Mark’s Road. What is also adding to the nice mix of venues is the addition of corporate spaces. Take the RMZ Group. They have built Eco Space, an IT Park on Outer Ring Road that is home to a dedicated live music space for popular acts like Kailash Kher and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Bangalore’s music scene is definitely appreciative of other genres of music, but not on a scale as large as metal. If Central Park and Javacity play jazz, everywhere else it’s rock that rules. This is evident when we see the audience for unplugged shows and live performances like the Freedom Jam or campus rock shows. The audience is mostly college goers and the young working crowd from BPOs and software firms.

George Muthalaly, who works with British Airways, is a hardcore lover of rock music. He feels Bangalore is all for rock because of its culture. “You can do what you want, and break away from all the normal rules and regulations in music, and this helps the growth of rock,” he says. A big fan of Linkin Park, Creed and Bob Dylan, he says the music can always get better. “There are only a few quality bands. The city could do with a lot more of them.”

Documentary filmmaker Adarsh NC goes for all things retro, particularly to jazz and rock of the 70s. A regular listener to Grateful Dead, The Band and Bob Dylan, he says the music scene in Bangalore has always been good. “Rock has always ruled the roost here,” he says. “There were lots of college bands even in the 80s and 90s. The city’s culture itself had a lot of music embedded in it. It’s always been a musically oriented city. To top it, the number of international bands coming into town is only increasing.”

Given to blues and jazz music, Usha, a project manager with a tech firm, believes that music is all about class. “People have a lot more class out here, so they end up listening to blues and jazz after their initiation into hardcore rock,” she says. “Take me. I started off with rock and am now more cued to blues and jazz masters like Dave Brubeck, Global Unity and our very own local band, Barracuda Blues. Maybe it’s also because of the pub culture… people are more exposed to different kinds of music.”

Play on…

2007 turned out to be a mixed bag for me. Earlier in the year, I had to take a very important decision — to stop working for somebody and do something on my own. And I did after working 12 years full-time for somebody or the other. Not because I didn’t like working under someone, but because the job didn’t allow me to make the most of my versatility. Now, I can write for publications, and find time to do photography, pen short stories and memoirs, be part of new ventures… the possibilities are endless.

Ofcourse, the beginning wasn’t easy. It took me almost two months to get to grips with my new way of life. But the result was sweet. Before I could settle down in my ’self employed’ avatar, I travelled to Bangkok and Pattaya with a group of 10 people and stayed there for nine days. The experience opened up my mind to a more international experience. Not that I hadn’t travelled outside India before. The last time was a few years ago when I had to visit Dubai for a few days as part of my job with Star Network.

Today, I am happy to say that 2007 was actually the most liberating year for me, as it gave me a handle on my career and life itself. I got to meditate a lot more during my morning walks that I have been religiously doing for the last one-and-a-half years.

But why am I saying all this to you? Because I guess, you might want to do the same. Throw away your stable, secure job and become an entrepreneur. But remember, I did it after being part of a team, and then leading a team… these skills are invaluable and need to be learnt before you start something on your own. People skills are ‘the’ most important tools in this world. Not your bachelors and masters degrees. They are only good technically. But holistically, you need to have this innate sense of calm and the belief in ‘give-and-take’. Only then, will you be happy at what you are doing, and slowly understand the real meaning of your existence: to be happy and make others happy.

Talking of happiness, every individual have their own way of interpreting it. To me, watching and playing with children, being with nature, taking a lukewarm shower, sleeping when I am really tired… all these make me very happy. Similarly, when I give alms to the disabled who cannot earn to make a living, I am most happy that they gave me the opportunity to serve them in whatever way I could. And I don’t consider this as charity. I think I am only helping my brethren.

On the same lines, when I watch the sun set in front of my house, when I watch the white clouds make an interesting pattern against the blue sky, it makes you feel blessed that you are living under their shadow. I am also very happy when I am reading a very good book, which is quite rare to find. The other day, I was reading Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, and I could sense the change within me almost immediately. It was as if my thinking was being fine-tuned and my soul was being liberated by these thoughts. Just reading this book made me happy and relieved. Now I have never read Deepak Chopra before. But what he said rang so true. He says, practice the art of ‘give and take’. Whenever you meet someone, always give them a gift. And it needn’t even be physical. It can just be a prayer. His underlying message is that so long as we keep giving and receiving life’s most precious gifts (tender, loving, care), wealth (both material and spiritual) will keep circulating in our lives. Isn’t that such a wonderful thought?

The best advice I received from Chopra is to be “non-judgemental“. I think that’s so true. As we all know, ‘assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups’. And this applies to life in more ways than one. If only we hadn’t thought of a race as being ‘inferior’, a person as being ‘evil’, a thing as being ‘must-have’, we would have none of the baggages occupying our mind space and clogging our very existence. If only we practiced to be non-judgemental and just took life as it came to us, we would have learned the art of forgiving and forgetting. High philosophy, but told very succinctly.

Therefore, I wish that 2008 awakens, energises and catalyses the spiritual awakening amongst us all, so we live in harmony across the globe. After all, eradicating poverty will not make us happy. But infusing love and goodwill surely will. So, are you ready for 2008? I surely am.

Wish you all a rocking 2008!

May all your dreams become a reality (and if you haven’t dreamt yet, start now!)