Real India?

Recently read ‘The White Tiger’ Written by Arvind Adiga which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2008. It was about Balram Halwai and his journey from an Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. And Then happened to watch Slumdog Millionaire, a movie that follows a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on Kaun Banega Crorepati and wins it.

Both of them were lapped up by the critics in US and UK. Do we see a pattern being developed here?

Allow me to elaborate.

Richard Marcus said, “In his book, Adiga not only peels back the gloss of the economic miracle to expose the rot beneath, he instructs us in the means by which a small minority of the population are able to subjugate the majority.” David Mattin was of the opinion that, “The result is an Indian novel that explodes the clichés – ornamental prose, the scent of saffron – associated with that phrase.” It was described by one reviewer as an ‘unadorned portrait‘ of India seen ‘from the bottom of the heap’.

Slumdog Millionaire showed the slums, the poor and their fight for survival. n The New York Times, Manohla Dargis called the film a “sensory blowout,” and “one of the most upbeat stories about living in hell imaginable.

Living in hell.

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Is this the real India? Or is it the Western outsider’s view, superficial and cursory?

Cheers

Jais

South Africa on the verge of historic win!

Perfect end to an amazing year in cricketing terms. India having a good set of players for once and Australia losing  face yet again in their own backyard. Too good to be true!

Wonder what excuse Ponting will use this time around… Steyn performance gave South Africa an unfair advantage and that the pitch was ‘Steyn-friendly’? Or maybe for once he will admit that the best team won in Australia. Maybe.

2009 looks a good year for cricket! Here’s hoping for accelerated decline in Australia’s performance.

Cheers

Jais

PS: Assuming of course South Africa doesn’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory…

Australia was one team everybody wanted see lose. It was so evident during the legendary match on played on 12th March, 2006 at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. We were watching it in our mess where the TV was kept and soon the whole place was filled. Not a single soul (ok, one or two perhaps) supported Australia. And when it was over, the reaction was comparable to when India won the t-20 world cup (well, almost…).

What a match!

Guess it has more to do with making the sport interesting than anything else.

Update!

Ponting’s reaction,

“We deserved to be in this position and full marks to South Africa . They won very comfortably, a well deserved series win. Things were looking good for us at one stage, but their tail played exceptionally well and Lee went down through injury.

“We weren’t able to convert our opportunities. Let’s see what the selectors come up with for next week.”

Gracious enough.