I expected this to happen. To begin with, I am against cheer leading (from now on I would use CL) in any kind of sport. I feel sports do not and should not need any external stimuli. Sport itself should be the reason why people watch them. I was first exposed to CL in the American sports. I have never seen any other sport which has had CL, other than American sports. Cricket has always been a crowd puller in India and other cricket loving countries. What was the need of the CL to promote the sport ? My feeling is that it is just another example of blindly aping the west. We just want to be USA. We do not have any genuine thoughts, ideas, movies, music.
Now the politicians are up in arms with CL because of the obscenity. They have, as always, taken the high moral grounds and become the custodians of the Indian culture. They are ready to ban it or at least have some restrictions. My point is, like some other people, that when we can have all the obscenity and vulgarity in movies what is so bad about the CL(although I do feel that we cannot compare them). In fact Indian version of CL is used in some election campaigning. I do not buy the obscenity argument. The Maharashtra government one day wants to ban CL and the next day makes a u-turn and says that CL is alright and should be taken sportively. It needs another post to discuss about some of Maharashtra government's rules and regulations.
It is very obvious why the organizers use the CL and what is the USP of the CL. If entertainment is what they argue about, then why CL why not some music or comedy. One cannot be so naive about things. I am not going to be the moral police and I think even the government should not be the one too. My objection to the CL is purely based on the fact that sports do not need sleazy or suggestive acts to attract the crowd. Also I read that some CL received some lewd comments from the spectators. This is bound to happen, as India still is not a matured country when it comes to sensuality, sexuality. Line between entertainment (as in movies etc) and sports is blurring these days but I feel we should not mix them together. I believe sports, is itself a great entertainer.
Anyone even remotely interested in science, science fiction or physics should read this book. One, because it is an excellent book and second because Prof. Michio Kaku, the author of this book, makes it so very interesting and easy to understand. He is one of my favorite science authors. I have read four of his books and each one is a gem in its own way. In fact my blog name is inspired by one of his books.
This book has been split into three sections namely Class 1, 2, 3 impossibilities. These impossibilities are based on the time by which we can hope to have the science fiction concepts come true. Class 1 impossibilities are those which might come true in the next century but they do not violate any of the known science of today. Teleportation, antimatter engines, certain forms of telepathy, psychokinesis, and invisibility fall under this category. Class 2 impossibilities are those which, if at all they come true, would be in millions of years in future. Time machines, hyperspace travel, worm hole travel fall under this category. Class 3 impossibilities violate the known laws of physics. If these do come true in future, that would mean a fundamental change in the way we understand physics. Perpetual motion machines and precognition come under under the third category.
Most of the science fiction concepts, as per the author, are possible in a century or so. He starts each chapter by mentioning about some science fiction phenomenon from a science fiction book or a science fiction movie, related to the chapter and then he builds on it from there. It is a great art to make such convoluted concepts easy for the public to understand and Prof. Kaku seems to be a master at it. I would highly recommend this book along with his other books Hyperspace, Visions, Parallel Worlds. Take the plunge with the author into this fascinating world of science and science fiction and I can assure you that you would want more of it.
Why do we Indians and the Indian media have such an obsession with Bollywood or the Hindi film industry ? All the programs in television is in some way or the other linked to hindi movies, if they are not already showing the dumb serials. There is hardly any "news" in the news. Now, even the cricket has attracted bollywood stars. This phenomenon is actually true for tamil television channels also. Is there no world beyond movies ? Why have we let the movies hijack the media ?
Where are the programs like Kirdar, Buniyaad, Hum Log, Nukkad, Mirza Ghalib, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Surabhi, Science program, Quizzes (real good ones, not like kaun banega crorepati) and many many more ? Those were the days when we used to have less programs, but high quality ones. People would actually wait to watch those shows. Programs ranged from thought provoking to good healthy comedy. Now the program quality ranges from dumb to the dumbest. This is one place where the opening up of the economy has proved to be bad for the society. People have completely lost the power to think. Movies are the opium of the masses these days.
Chak De India was one of the best movies of 2007. As mentioned in one of my other blogs, this was only the second sports movie (after Iqbal) made in the history of Indian cinema. Iqbal was about the struggle of a hearing impaired boy from a small town to get into the Indian cricket team and Chak De was about hockey that too women's, a far less discussed or written about sport in India, despite being the national game. Chak De had a very subtle theme of patriotism which was not beaten into the audience. It was so refreshing to see that being patriotic was not being anti any country but is rather the harmony between our own people. It also was by far Shah Rukh Khan's best performance till date.
But above all I think, one thing that touched me was the breaking of the stereotypes. In the very beginning of the movie when the girls come to the hockey academy to register, they are asked about their domicile. It was really refreshing to see, when a girl from Andhra Pradesh is told "oh so you are a madrasi" and she replies back instantly saying no, she speaks telugu (one of the four languages spoken in southern India). It is very true that people from north do consider anyone from down south as a "madrasi". It is also in fact used as a derogatory word, sometimes. This is because of ignorance, no intention of knowing the difference and arrogance of their own culture. Another one was when a manipuri girl is told that "you are our guest" and the girl immediately says that "how would you feel if I call you a guest in your own country". This is exactly what India has done in the last 60 years of independence, treat the north easterners as guests. Northeast insurgency would not have been an issue today had we cared for them and treated them as equals.
It was good to see the representation from Jharkhand. Importance of punctuality was very well shown as was the feeling of being an Indian rather than living in our own state wells. Team was shown as the ultimate, not individuals or seniority. I hope people become more understanding and compassionate about other's culture rather than ridicule it. I thought these were some very strong statements made in the movie which I hope, people would have taken notice of and would act on.
