Very Idiotic Persons

These days I'm busy in a high intensity training programme for a certification in skilled language teaching. My day is spent in close company with a lot of men and women ranging from the twenties to the forties. We all work under a lot of pressure and are under the scanner constantly. But, being the inherant 'people observer' that I am, I can't stop noticing the number of oddballs that are in the group. In fact, I'm beginning to think that it's the age that we live in. There's something in today's air, water or sunlight that breeds weirdos. Why aren't people straightforward anymore? Everybody is trying to outdo each other. Everybody wants to speak whether they have anything important to say or not. And everybody has an extremely high opinion of themselves! Move over Obama, Manmohan and all the other VIPS. The man on the road today is the VVIP. And he has no time for niceties. If he is boarding the metro, he'll bulldoze his way in. If you want to get off- it's your fault. Why the hell did you board it in the first place? If you are standing in a queue, he'll break it with happy abandon. Foolish people stand in queues. If he/she's giving a presentation, you better have nice things to say even if she blundered her way through it and looked like the biggest fool on earth with IQ in double digits. The list is endless. I think I shall retire to my corner with a Douglas Adams book. The earth really needs to be blown up to make way for an intergalactic highway.

The Beauty Bandwagon

I'm not a great judge of beauty and I'm strictly against the idea of holding beauty contests. But I do have a broad sense of what or who catches the eye and is like they say 'a sight for sore eyes'. So when I saw a short news clipping of India's entry to the Miss Universe contest 2009 I muttered uncharitably 'Not in a million years- she wont make it!' I wasnt surprised when I saw the toothy Miss Venezuela beaming at me from the papers next morning. The Indian contestant didnt even make it to the last 15. I am puzzled why she was sent in the first place. Or like every other sphere has corruption seeped into this field too?

Traditionally, before the 90s, Indians always came away with the best costume/ best hair/ best smile/(best eyes even) prize. They never made it to the top 10 because apparently they were not tall and athletic enough. Well, the first one to come close to sniffing the winners' podium was Madhu Sapre who was tall, leggy and had all the right answers...almost. She goofed up at the last decider question: what will you do if you became the prime minister of your country?
She hadnt mugged up all the world-changing, altruisitic answers (like being Mother Theresa, removing poverty, etc) and instead said she wanted to open a sports complex in every village in the country! It was a damn good answer if you ask me and showed how keen she was in sports but the judges didnt buy it. They dropped her like hot cake and she was third runner up. (Madhu, I know why India never wins Olympic medals)

The Indian makeover mafia came in after that year and thus began our success story. Sushmita Sen, Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra- there were several at both the Miss Worlds and Universes. AT last we had decoded the secret to the crown and like Venezuela, Columbia and Puerto Rico were breeding beauty queens by the dozens. The designers, the media, the brands all joined in the bandwagon. And after the crown the film industry embraced them with open arms into a career in the limelight. An enviable life for a woman craving for the arclights.
Beauty contests are big business today. They are the factories for our models, actresses, anchors, news readers, singers, ribbon cutters, etc etc. But this is provided they win and stumble up the podium. What is the future for the ones who fail? I dread to think.

the real truth of the finger

The election commission has declared that the ink mark after voting is to be put on the middle finger. Just to prove how it should be some politicians have posed with their fingers up. Show them the finger and be a good citizen.

Why blame Rubina's family?

Some TV channel has done a sting op on Rubina and her family (the slumdog kid) to prove that they're trying to sell off the girl to the highest bidder (for adoption). Now, if you know anything about slums and the abject poverty of the people living in them why should this come as a surprise? The kid is a gold mine for the family. Of course they'll try to milk her. Her biological mother was in a catfight with her step mother some time back and was pretty candid about her intentions. I want all my children to have a share of her money, she demanded when Rubina first tasted money and fame. At least the woman was brutally honest. If you take the fame away, all the money she's earned is tied to her education so the family hasnt really gained any substantial moolah. After having got their hopes up do you really blame the family for trying to cash in?