kartik trivedi

Why I dont like coming on iBranch?

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:41:00 GMT

Lets war it out.

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:56:00 GMT

Rape Theory

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:03:38 GMT

{A post after some six months...a very long delay. I apologize to all my loyal readers, and since I dont think I had any loyal reader over here, then I will keep my apologies with me. But yes, the delay was too long and was/is unwarranted, and I (sort of) promise that I wont let such type of delay to come up again.}

Ok, all you fellows, you feel you people are intelligent and collectively know all the possible theories, you were never so wrong as you are today, because there is one theory you never paid attention to, one theory which was there since the advent of any media, or mode of entertainment. Ah...yes this is one theory having its roots in media and communication but its effects pertain to wide array of subjects, only bound by your own imaginations.

THE RAPE THEORY

What is rape theory?

Yes, rape is that same RAPE, and there is no other meaning tried to put forth in this piece. If we have paid enough attention to media and happenings around, then we know what a rape is. Well lets put it lightly, its a gratuitous sexual act done by some person on another person, now once we are clear with what RAPE is, then lets look into bones of RAPE THEORY.

Well, here by RAPE THEORY we are o(ooooooo)nly trying to convey the basic fundamentals of including a RAPE scene in any form on communication. Here due to the sensitivity associated with the word we are avoiding one to one communication cases associated with RAPE as they are to be spoken about by more intelligent people with no or little brain.

RAPE THEORY states that, if you want to aggrandize a less intense situation and portray the weaknesses of weaker sex, and strength of not so strong sex, then you place a scene of RAPE into your mode of communication, and in this way dive away from any intelligent solution to move ahead with the story.

Rape scenes in particular to Indian Film Industry have been used with great aplomb by various artistes with no art in their veins. Ranjeet by all measures was and will remain the master of doing an onscreen rape. Going into anatomical details of a rape scene would be too tough on me, so I wont be doing so. Instead I will deal it emotionally. I have postulated few points regarding rape theory, and they are as follows:

1. Need of a close place, and if place is open then it must be done in full public view. There is no mid way, like few people passing by a rape. Thats just not possible in Indian films.

2. Presence of Hero: If hero is present then he must be tied down. Now there are two cases associated with the presence of hero, either his sister is being raped or his love interest. Chances of saving sister are not high, well for the sake of story and the BADLA, sisters, who should have been saved arent saved. Whereas love interest being raped induces herculean powers in hero. Thats how story is moving.

3. Rapist: Well rapist never does it with sorrow, they have all the reasons to rape, well foremost, its the director. One thing which is very special to Indian Films, rapes are to be done in savage manner, rapist drool like a bull dog, and smile like a mad chimp. They always do so. Now if rapist is doing a rape our of some preconceived agenda, then he would but obviously do it with vengeance. Well one more thing which is quite typical to indian films is, shredding of clothes. Firstly there are too many clothes (thanks to mahabharat inspiration), I in my all these years have never seen a scantly girl being raped onscreen, it never happens that way, scanty dressing may lead to lecherous view from wolfic humans, but never a rape. Because for a rape scene to last, to let hero have enough time, heroine must wear full clothes. Then more typical is flying of clothes, that too in slow motion. Last but not the least, indian filmi rapist, licks his lips in a bovine way, and then POCHO-FY them as if he has just drank a cold drink.

What else...am I missing something...well I ought to...

Rape scenes have been an integral part of Indian Films, one of the egregious crimes is proffered so freely that now it really does not make any sense. They are portrayed in such a ludicrous manner that, one sensible person can start having pain anywhere in cerebral sphere. On to that, most of the times there is no need, there is no social message involved, and what it is only delineating is need to tantalize hidden desire of this countries masculine workforce. WTF. I agree that showing hero smoking isnt promoting cigarette, so in the same way, showing a rape scene isnt promoting rape. But in some way, subconsciously it does play its game not in sane mine but surely in insane mind. I am not psychology wizard, so my words wont be that of BHRAMA, but a mind already on verge of being anti-social may just get totally pushed to follow this condemnable act. I know, that this is laughable in its own right, and as a person with inclination towards media, i am firm supporter of creative freedom, but there is one very thing line for creative freedom and overt use of a plot already gone wrong. India by all its virtuous degrees is a nation with very high number of rape cases, and that to in its own right, in a pandemic fashion.

Will not showing rape on screen, in any form of media, stop rapes in real life?

I dont know.

I have no solution for sexual violence, this topic is so cavernous, so dark that, it sucks away all the limited mental light I have.

One thing I surely know, that there are various ways, in which we can do away with a rape scene in most of the indian films. Lets deal this topic more sensitively, and let it be a scene just to show some male chauvinism, which I doubt Indian males have (though being a one, myself - they in most of the grey cases are least bothered about females around). Rape is crime. If any film maker wants to portray it, then do it likewise, and not in any other way. Let it not be a tantalizing tool, its just so pathetic to see a rape scene after rape scene in numerous indian movies. I am fed up, so should you...if not for a safer nation for females then just for watching better movies.
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Ways to kill education!

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:24:25 GMT

'We dont need no education.' A Pink floyd's masterpiece by name of 'Another Brick in the wall'. This blog post is partly inspired from this song and mostly inpired from a passage from a book I am reading, Catch-22 from Joseph Heller. The passage I am reffering is like this...

Yossarian attended the educational sessions because he wanted to find out why so many people were working so hard to kill him. A handful of other men were also interested, and the questions were many and good when Clevmger and the subversive corporal finished and made the mistake of asking if there were any.

‘Who is Spain?’

‘Why is Hitler?’

‘When is right?’

‘Where was that stooped and mealy-colored old man I used to call Poppa when the merry-go-round broke down?’

‘How was trump at Munich?’

‘Ho-ho beriberi.’ and ‘Balls!’ all rang out in rapid succession, and then there was Yossarian with the question that had no answer: ‘Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?’ The question upset them, because Snowden had been killed over Avignon when Dobbs went crazy in mid-air and seized the controls away from Huple.

The corporal played it dumb. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?’

‘I’m afraid I don’t understand.’

‘Où sont les Neigedens d’antan?’ Yossarian said to make it easier for him.

‘Parlez en anglais, for Christ’s sake,’ said the corporal. ‘Je ne parle pas français.’

‘Neither do I,’ answered Yossarian, who was ready to pursue him through all the words in the world to wring the knowledge from him if he could, but Clevinger intervened, pale, thin, and laboring for breath, a humid coating of tears already glistening in his undernourished eyes.

Group Headquarters was alarmed, for there was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to. Colonel Cathcart sent Colonel Korn to stop it, and Colonel Korn succeeded with a rule governing the asking of questions. Colonel Korn’s rule was a stroke of genius, Colonel Korn explained in his report to Colonel Cathcart. Under Colonel Korn’s rule, the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did. Soon the only people attending were those who never asked questions, and the sessions were discontinued altogether, since Clevinger, the corporal and Colonel Korn agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.

The blue colour portion is the one which inspired me to write this post, so true, so the imperative logic which can be derived from this quoted piece is that to kill education, you just need to stop pupils to ask question. As simple as that, and education, learning will all vanish, what will remain will be dry teachings. If you ever feel like looking into Upnishads, then you will find that, Guru's from that age knew the importance of question as all the upnishads are in form of question and answers.

With new (with present standard, its old) education system, the right of questioning is harried away from students. The will to question starts dying, and eventually system starts to crumble, as there wont be enough people to educate. India at present can not think of becoming a developed economy, un till and unless we just gear up to educate all female and children, I am delibratingly leaving males from the list, because their participation is nation building is limited, its women, and childred which builds nation from within.

Another way we are killing the very spirit of education is by taking away the right of making mistakes. With time and development we started putting to heavy a price on mistakes, which meant we said that we are not in position to allow mistakes to happen and in a way took away the experimental spirit from students and children. And thing which stands to testify what I am saying is all the successful researches, products which in process of building faced zillions of failure.

So what teachers are doing, what are teachers of teachers doing. Before changing education system we need to put some thought in the process of how we are getting teachers. How are they being educated? Teaching as I see is more about inspiring than transpiring. Will I take teaching some day to prove the point? May be yes! but just may be. Till then you can sing the song.

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey teacher leave them kids alone
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey teacher leave us kids alone
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall

Today is no teachers day, neither students day...do we need a day to put our thoughts.

Long Live freedom, as stated in constitution.

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10 Things, which no prime-ministerial candidate in India will ever talk/tell.

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:26:47 GMT

10 Things, which no prime-ministerial candidate in India will ever talk/tell (Till me or my kid becomes one)
1. Talk about men peeing on the roadside.
2. Talk about rise in circulation of porn in country.
3. Talk about, why the hell Big Boss talks in such a pathetic baritone.
4. She/he will never speak that she/he is the sexiest woman/man in the world.
5. None of them will agree that; yes there are extraterrestrial aliens among us and will neither question that why all of these aliens pay visit to US and not India(probably due to lack of proper tourism infrastructure).
6. None will talk about their first crush. (They pretend as if they are demigods unaffected by MAYA.)
7. None will tell that they hate most of their colleagues(those paan chewing morons).
8. None will accept that they want to have healthy relationship with Russia so that they can send bhayans to work over there.
9. None will accept that in reality they wanted to become PM of some Scandinavian nation where population is very less and none to bother the head with anything.
10. Will never say, “India is a wretched nation and if you do not agree come and sit at my chair.”

This is no exclusive list and there can be more than 10 points but after the advent of 10 commandments, any thing important should be prefixed with 10, that is why gave you 10 reasons.

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Government, taxes, you, me and growth.

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:36:16 GMT

After my morning chore and before leaving for college I like everyday checked news updates in my mail, and found a wonderful article from Boston Globe. Though article is about US and their economy but like always there can always be few parallels drawn out between India and US. Present problem of global downturn is more serious for Indian than US, reason being that India is still in developing stage and the amount of infrastructure in India is far less that what US has got and adding to that we have larger number of lives to support. General perception among public and few economists in US (for US economy) to tackle current down turn is to minimize government and lower the tax. But the situation in India is slightly opposite, government is inflating in size and hunger and taxes are also increasing with new forms or other. Burden is as usual falling more so on middle income group [poor chaps- papa lets be rich ;) ] as income tax never reaches mega heights for those with mega bank balance. India in case of its economy is still some 20-25 years behind US, I am talking in terms of net worth, and we should thus keep an eye on history of developed nations to avoid mistakes, which they committed, or those, which they didn’t. In 1980 presidential elections of US, Ronal Regan put it in a nice way, "We don't have inflation because the people are living too well. We have inflation because the government is living too well." So is it time for us to look retrospectively in spending of our governments? The underlying economic argument is persuasively simple: Higher taxes undermine incentives to work and invest; a bigger government pushes aside private enterprise and siphons money from private investment; social programs are inefficient and make people dependent. All these cost the nation valuable gains in productivity. But there are also some counterviews that I will discuss slightly later on. While at the same time we must also look into the logics of Mr. FM behind higher taxes, India is in dearth of infrastructure and additional taxes are required to meet national requirements. We as a nation is lacking in terms of education, basic amenities, health and energy, so our Mr. FM thinks that and I also feel rightly so that we need to put in more money for that. Another factor which induces such an action is staggeringly low investments in industrial sector, and this is the reason due to which govt. is still not able to pull its hand off from public sector units. But the other point of Mr. Regan, the size of government, does it really matter, there are enough economical researches to prove otherwise. Most of these researches were undertaken in developed nations, the problem in India with the pinch of added corruption is that the added size government slows things down, which we, with many social and economical problems are in no position to carry on out back. So rather than harming the economy, the evidence shows that government spending, when done well, contributes critically to economic growth. Coming back to first problem, and there are evidences to show, that higher taxes will not halt economy. But with that there is a catch, and the catch is that spending pattern should not be adversely affected with raise in taxes. So if you now look at the picture comprehensively, you can look at three things, increased taxes, higher government spending (less private input); that is heavy and bulky government, and the present problem of inflation, and with all these three problems there are mighty chances that spending pattern of public will alter, public in general would like to save much and work less as there are heavy taxes to pay. Static money is of no use, that aphorism you can take from me. Contrary to any romantic claims there is no nation, which sticks to one ideology throughout, so government even in a highly capitalistic nation like US has to some time, intervene into activities related to national importance and development. There must be some streamlining of government in whole for smoothening the process of development, it is high time to speed up the investment and that too without spillage. This unromantically means that there must be some tightening of state and local governments. This also means that India at present cannot turn to laissez-faire economics. Coming back to tax and government and putting them in present scenario, one thing clearly embosses out, and that is, with high as prefix (tax and inflation) the result will be lower spending and lesser private infrastructure, which according to my argument will not argufy nicely with growth. All we at present need are some flexible economic policies and through spending, whether by government or by private partners and adding to that a strong government at centre. This article is also available on http://kattak.wordpress.com
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The ever happy singing Girl

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:40:59 GMT

Songs, she sung in dim light,
With tears and no delight.
There laid few bodies in calm,
By which she sat beside.

Where can she find her mother?
She has also lost father from sight.
People are running here and there,
She is waiting for a flash in night.

There is some pain, in thighs,
She can not touch it,
Does not know where to find.
And blood is going bit by bit.

Some people looked in her eyes.
There is fear, everywhere,
Where can she find peace,
In her songs or in arms of her mother.

There is vengeance, the never ending one,
There is anger, hungry as ever,
There is you, there is me,
But where is she, the ever happy singing girl.

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Green Polity.

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:18:50 GMT

With Lok Sabha elections stated to fall next year, government and other parties are already in poll mood. This fact is only strengthened by the announcement of a sop a day. Though state elections (MP) may also fall next year but polices at the national level hold much more importance than those at state level. Every party will be having agendas; few very close to their heart and few will be those garnered during the course of past five years. But the important fact that remains to be seen which party is going to take risk to go green. With going green I meant to say, which party is going to raise voice against global warming, increasing pollution, depleting forest cover, extinction of animals as a part of their national level manifesto.
At present I see no party with green in their cards, and none who will rise above their colours be it blue, red or saffron. Indian flag though have green in 1/3 of its area which shows our love for green but it somehow does not translates to love for ecosystem. What can we hope if none of the probable talks about ecology and global warming, and aren’t such issues above the process of policy making? Policies are fine, but they need to be ported to real time conditions and this fact is well understood by all including you, politicians and me. India is one of those countries which posses large amount of biological diversity and also some of the very delicate ones. And if not taken care of then they will only remain in the text books for students in school and that too will come after a decade owing to late modification in text books. There are too many of questions than answers. As we the general public still do not know whether any of the party is taking climate change issue seriously or not. Adding to that we also do not know which party is greener of the lot, as I suppose no one have yet ranked them on this issue.
There may be some arguments that climate change is not seen as a major problem by most of the public, and inflation will rule the election season this time. One can agree to this fact but still I do not fine people in general ignorant of this topic as such and they might just not prioritizing it highly when compared to price rise and other economical parameters. But on any given day if you sit and explain public that how ecological change will lead to adverse economical change then there would be really very few not giving you ears. Indian polity in general thrives on this very ignorance of general public or we can also say that it thrives on lack of any positive action by the public. There is regular reporting of illegal mining but there is no reporting of any positive action taken by the government and on to that there is no questioning by the public and since there had been no system of public questioning there has been no answering system either.
If we go deeper into the mud puddle we might end up finding lack of political will to curb any illegal activity harming ecology. So we can say that, its not important what parties are saying but what parties may do, and we all know the quantum of difference between the two. Climate change is inevitable at both global and local level, and its really a high time to check whether the part or person we are going to elect sees the future clearly or not, or is it still sticking to the past.

Note: This post is also available on http://kattak.wordpress.com

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Capitalistic Icons

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:17:50 GMT

How many of you know Che Guevera, kindly do not feel down if you don’t know who this man is, and also do not be affronted either if you know him like you know your brother. For those who do not know him I should spend few molecules of my ATP, describing him. By profession he was a physician, and later due to some personal experiences followed the conduits of Marxism. He later became a Marxist revolutionary and was revered in this respect. He was the master of guerilla warfare and as he was one of the staunch Marxist crusader, which meant he was in tussles with America, for obvious reasons. His area of work was mostly latin America, you can know more by googling about him.
How many of you know Mahatma Gandhi, now don’t feel insulted if you know him, and if you do not know him then, mate, go check mirror, there you will find a #$!@. So I think every one reading this entry knows who Mr. MK Gandhi was, and also know his importance in Indian perpective. Mr. Gandhi wasn’t a staunch supporter of capitalism either. He stressed more on socialism, more on equal distribution of resources, which, by its ethos capitalism doesn’t supports.
Both Mr Guevera and Mr Gandhi are amongst the 100 most influential people of 20th century. There is not much similarity between both of them but that both of them in their way were against the influence of capitalism. Now after reading this you must be trying hard to conjoin the heading and the substance you have read so far and might have come on conclusion that I am full of time wasting @#@$. But now let me pour down some wonderful paradoxes. They are in fact great capitalistic icons, more than they are icons of Marxism or socialism.
Before you come up with counterviews, just see you pocket and you may find proof of what I am saying. Mr.Gandhi resides on very symbol of capitalism. Gandhi like Che has become brand. Their brand values are bigger than what they were when they lived. When US presidential candidates says that he seeks inspiration from Mohandaas Karamchand Gandhi then you can bet that if he was listed in any global stock market his stock value must have sky rocketed. Same goes with Che, not many know him (in India), not many follow what his aims were or what he did, but would wear T’s with his iconic photo on. Che in India is comparatively a newer brand but in Latin America he has had his presence from long time. Look around and you may find few of his photos, on caps, on shirts, on sweat shirts and so on. Yes there are cigars carrying him as an icon ( due to his Cuban roots).
Success by its nature is capitalistic, and if you are successful then you can not deny that you are there without capitalism. Capitalism isn’t just an economic term, and now holds greater social significance. Skipping capitalistic point of view, while carrying ant plan of yours aren’t going to bring you basket full of fruits of success. Humans by nature seek icons; no society has ever escaped from any kind of symbolism, or icons. It has always gone like that and will always go like that, I wont put more views herein, and would like to reply on comments carrying counter views.
Gandhiji , Che for many still hold special value, not marred by petty capitalistic views, but as far as populist culture goes they are losing their value. They are slowly becoming irrelevant, but I bet that they will never get completely vanished; capitalism will save them for us, for future. And as far as fashion is concerned, Che is really hot these days; fashion icons are flaunting him on their sexy bodies publicizing him more than his ideology. Same goes with Gandhiji, political parties flaunt him, put slogans around him while showing complete Alzheimer as far as his teachings are concerned. Have I lost hope…no ways…I believe in capitalism, it wont let them die, there will be authors writing about them, churning money, they will continue as brands, and their ideology, teachings will wait for someone who is ready to follow them and not just fashion.

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Ragging; a reply to Aman's blog entry.

kartik.trivedi@aol.in — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:15:37 GMT

This was my reply to Aman Konark Modi's post on ragging, you can read it in comments section of his blog (if and after he approves my comment). You can read his blog post here. and my reply...below.