Zero Degree - a "40 page" review

When was the last time you read a novel and you feel a bubble rolling between your stomach and neck (like vairamuthu said). when was the last time you read a book and struggled to classify/review it? When was the last time a book blared straight into your face and you were left stunned not knowing what to do.

I personally have this habit of reading the whole book in one-go,even if the book is bit uninspiring and boring.Even i read the  'The man who sold his ferrari',which is boring in my opinion, almost in one-go. However, i have read this book Zero Degree only 40 pages and my head was swirling for half an hour. I couldn't even eat my dinner for the next half an hour.

The legendary writer Sujatha called it ' a piece of shit'. Tehelka called it "Style with substance". Some called for the book to be banned straight away.Wikipedia calls it 'Postmodern lipogrammatic" novel and some call it transgressive fiction.This book shatters every little piece of idea you have about a book. Every third line in the book deals with drug addiction,sex maniacs and gory explanations.In many areas, the book likes  third grade pent-house type but understanding the thread which is scattered then and there is a difficult task. The author throws the name of many writers,artists then and there and you can be pretty confident that you would not even have heard about any of the names or countries.The information gathered by the author in pre-information age i.e. as early as the year 2000 is amazing.  

A page in the novel

If in Tamil movies, Bala is the "dark" director, then writer Charu nivedita can be called "the mother of dark writers". This book,if i am allowed to call it like that, has also been translated into english in 2008.

Before seeing the movie "Hey Ram", i was cautioned that it was a adults-only--movie.That was exactly the same review i got when i was thinking about reading the book.

If you are trying to figure out whether i liked the book or not, i have no answer.As i mentioned earlier, this book shatters every little idea you have about a novel. 

Humbled!

It's very rare in one's life that one comes across humbling experiences.You do something inadvertently and it ends up having positive impact on the lives of some people.

One such incident happened in my life. It all started with this post.
http://suryaprakashv73.blogspot.in/2013/07/kalkandu-thatha.html

Fast forward few days later, an old woman in late 60's walked up to me, with hands folded and with tears in her eyes. This patti  is wife of kalkandu thatha mentioned in that blog. She was so happy that i had written about her husband. I was informed that she was waiting to see me for days and was inquiring about me.
    I received couple of messages in facebook-from sivakasi to UK - all from the sons ,daughters and grandsons of kalkandu thatha. All of them were happy that i had written about him.I came to know his name was jeyaraj and he was a rice merchant. His daughters spoke from sivakasi and they explained how they were above the moon for days.Nevertheless to mention, i haven't even meet or heard about any of them.
       Thanks to all of them who read my so-called self proclaimed "writings" .Our problem is there are good people very close to us in our day-to-day life but we never realize or appreciate them in either in our life time or in their life time.
       

Gandhi haters & Independence day

 A couple of years back, I was talking to a moron who said that assassination of Gandhi was the best thing that happened to india. He went on to add that he should have been assassinated much earlier.

He was not a one-off case. I have come across quite a few ‘cases’ like this. While everybody is entitled to their own opinion, there are some morons who think opposing any established views makes them feel they are intelligent ones or unique ones.

There are also some morons who support Godse. These people share photos and events saying that he justified killing of Gandhi in court. The fact is no such thing exists. There are many fake articles claiming to be the last speech of Nathuram Godse which justify killing Gandhi . And a lot of stupid young facebook-savvy Indians believe and share this propaganda and sometimes, you happen to bump into these idiots.The most common thing in this country is to give opinion even though you don't have hell of a idea about it.

I don’t know how many of such idiots have seen the english movie on “Gandhi”. It is a shame that “the” best movie on Gandhi has to be made by a foreigner. This movie is a must-watch for an Indian.

 I remember a scene from the movie was used in one of behavioral sessions .Gandhi ends the speech as below

They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body. But NOT MY OBEDIENCE! 

Another quote from the movie

[at Gandhi's funeral] The object of this massive tribute died as he had always lived - a private man without wealth, without property, without official title or office. Mahatma Gandhi was not a commander of great armies nor ruler of vast lands. He could boast no scientific achievements or artistic gift. Yet men, governments and dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands today to pay homage to this little brown man in the loincloth who led his country to freedom. Pope Pius, the Archbishop of Canterbury, President Truman, Chiang Kai-shek, The Foreign Minister of Russia, the President of France... are among the millions here and abroad who have lamented his passing. In the words of General George C. Marshall, the American Secretary of State, "Mahatma Gandhi had become the spokesman for the conscience of mankind, a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires." And Albert Einstein added, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."

Another one: 

Nahari: I'm going to Hell! I killed a child! I smashed his head against a wall.

Gandhi: Why?

Nahari: Because they killed my son! The Muslims killed my son!

[indicates boy's height]

Gandhi: I know a way out of Hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own.

[indicates same height]

Gandhi: Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one.

The movie ends with the following credits

Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! 

Food Security Bill

The government has tabled Food Security Bill in Parliament and most probably, the bill will be passed or taken for voting in next week. The bill, in its present form, proposes to give food and grains to 67% of the population at highly subsided rates. The total cost is supposed to run to close to 1 lakh crore. The bill will increase the government subsidy on food from 1% to 2% of GDP.

        While the bill may seem noble and great in its intentions, the main problem ,as usual with any other bill , is in its implementation. This bill may or may not override the current PDS system ration shops. Particularly considering the fact that ration shop system in tamilnadu is highly successful, it’s better that states should not be compelled to fall under the new bill.

The ration shops in tamilnadu provide 20 kg of free rice per month. In addition, they provide wheat at ₹ 7 , pulses at around ₹ 15  and palm oil at around ₹25.All prices are approximately one-fifth of current market prices. The current ration system which has been perfected for around 30 years has still around 30 % leakage. There are thousands of bogus cards in use and authorities themselves use these ration cards to sell these items in open market. Many local shops buy these items and sell them as rice flour or mix them with their oils/wheat,etc. If you can get 10 people with ration cards , you get around 200 kg of free-rice which you can grind and make rice flour and sell it in market for 10rs per kg.

Image courtesy: business today

 By any yardstick, out of 1 lakh crore for Food security bill, atleast 30% i.e. 30k crore rupees will go into the pockets of corrupt politicians and officials. A good portion of that amount includes thousands of rupees paid by stupid tax payers i.e. you and me. A simple math will reveal you what will happen if the government buys more than 60% of the food grains available in the market. Food prices will increase.

History says even the Iron lady Indira Gandhi tried such thing and it failed. The purpose of this bill is only one thing – to help the government get votes in upcoming general elections.

Obama & the 5 dead soldiers

Another 5 Indian soldiers were killed in firing near Line of Control.Previously, an indian soldier was beheaded in January this year. The Defense Minister of this country gave a statement saying "terrorists" in Pakistan uniforms were responsible for the killings. Hours later, the army issues statement that attack was by "Pakistan border action team" itself. Hours later, the army was made to retract the statement.
In 3 hours, all references of "Pakistan" were deleted from the army's statement. 
Opposition parties demand the Defense Minister retract his "terrorists" statement and wants him to name-and-shame Pakistan . 

For reasons unknown, the Defense minister fails to name them.Our honourable Prime Minister, as usual don't want to issue a statement. The prime minister is slated to meet his pakistan counter-part next month.

Snowden who exposed US government of spying has now been granted asylum in Russia. Russian president Putin has granted him asylum against US wishes. US president Barrack Obama  has cancelled his meeting with the Russian president because a defector from his country has been granted asylum in another country.

Nevertheless to mention, if Palestine had beheaded 5 Israeli soldiers, Israel would have started attacking all the enemy posts by now. 
Well, nobody here is asking for such an action from our government but refusal to even name Pakistan shows the sorry state of the Indian Foreign Policy.