Musings

Why is the speed of light faster than the speed of sound

Why are all the celestial bodies (almost) round

Why does earth sustain life

When for survival everyone has to strive

Why are the oceans so deep

Why do mammals need to sleep

Why are humans the only ones to drink another animal's milk

Why do they wear a worm's vomit and feel proud to call it silk

Why do humans wear clothes at all

When a crow is never seen wearing a shawl

Why do they say you are what you eat

Why reduce more than half the world to a piece of meat

Why do they need to label bloody everything

Gender, relationships, economic status among a million other things

Why do they let money and power go to their head

When all one needs is food to eat and to sleep in, a bed

Why is the race about earning a better living

Why does it not include being kind and forgiving

Why does everyone die of natural causes, acts of 'god' or diseases like cancer

Why are there so many questions left without an answer

Poster Boy of Pop Patriotism

So the Mister, once an admirer of Akshay Kumar, has now blacklisted him. He thinks Indian Film Industry's this slightly sub-super star has moved over to the dark side and become a 'chaaploos', a** licker of the Modi govt. I don't really take his word on it. After all he is a cynic and paranoid - a very dangerous combination for an Indian journalist. Although he is sort of a Mr. Know-It-All. And his points in support of his argument are hard to ignore:

1. Kumar's movies, instead of focusing on good and/or entertaining content, now focus on pleasing the govt. He is trying too hard to create a nationalist patriot image. Toilet - Ek Prem Katha is one shitty (pun intended) example. The movie promotes stalking more than it promotes building of shauchalayas in Indian homes. It was a badly executed movie and made tax free in UP.

2. Before that AK won the national award for Rustom - a sub standard film and a below par performance and that too, when Dangal came out the same year. Lobbying much?

3. And what's with releasing movies on Republic day or Independence day? Is it just to tap in the long weekend profits or a conscious effort to create a nationalist image?

4. Even his Kajaria tiles ad - shown mercilessly a thousand times in each theater before and during movie screenings - have a needless angle of nationalism inserted in them.

5. To top it, videos of Akshay Kumar waving an ABVP flag in a rally surfaced. Bleh!

Personally, I think it is good to talk about important issues like menstrual hygiene, building toilets and using them and even 'Make in India'. But becoming a poster boy for pop patriotism to stay in good books of the governing party doesn't do justice to Akshay Kumar's image. He has played an army man or navy officer or special RAW agent as many times as Amrish Puri played the baddie in movies. And all those videos of dancing with soldiers at borders are becoming a bit too run off the mill now.

It pains me to say that I enjoy his mindless comedies like Houseful or Entertainment. But this overdose of gyaan is beginning to seem like an endless social science lesson.

I didn't see Padman because I already have read a lot about Arunachalam Muruganantham and didn't want to see a glorified, romanticised version of it. But I give Twinkle Khanna the credit for this movie. After all, she made the original Padman a household name with the short story on him in her second book.

What really pleases me is that Twinkle Khanna isn't a blind follower of her husband's latest inclination towards the saffron party. She continues to have a mind and voice of her own. Khanna trumped her husband's overtly patriotic and irritatingly pro-ruling party antics with the last line of her column in this Sunday's Times of India on the April Fools' Day - "Around the world, April Fools’ Day comes once a year, but we Indians celebrate it every day, we just call it achhe din."