The Campaign Mess
Now that the dust has settled on the byelections to the Lok sabha in Trivandrum district, it is time to ponder over one of the most important issues associated with it. The matter I am pointing to is the mammoth amount of campaign materials left over by the parties. Most of the walls & trees of the city are in a defaced condition(no pun intended), with the posters of the various political parties. There is not even a small space left in most of the walls. The question is who will remove this posters, now that they have served their purpose(have they?). The writings on the walls are a bigger problem than this, as repainting is the only way out.
It is a tough ask on the city corporation workers to expect them to remove all these posters & writings. So it will be good if the political parties themselves are asked to do it. Now, don't expect them to jump out & make it all clean if an order is given now. So I propose a new rule to be introduced from next election onwards. As of present, the parties are asked to stop their campaigning 48 hours before the polling. They might be thinking why should we waste 2 days. So an order should be passed that all the posters must be removed & all the writings on the wall repainted 24 hours before the polling.The responsibility of an uncleaned wall must lie with the party which had advance booked it for sticking posters. Any party failing to comply with this rule must have their result nullified(even if they win the elections). This is the only way out of this unclean mess that our walls are becoming after each election.
What do you think on this?
Your crusader, Praveen

The lantern dies out
Lantern dies out as the light starts to shine over Bhar. Don't mistake me. Thats exactly what happened in the just concluded assembly elections in Bihar. It saw the end of the 15 year old rule by Laloo & family, a rule during which Bihar plummetted into depths of under development & illiteracy. Laloo's cabinet was comprised of tainted ministers, most of them having lots of criminal cases against their names. Its no surprise that Laloo himself was part of one of the biggest scams that rocked the country- the fodder scam. That cost him his chief ministership. The rule of Rabri was even funnier. She is an illiterate lady, who used her thumb impressions to sign important documents. Imagine, a lady who doesn't know the alphabets ruling a state....Lord save Bihar.....

Anyway, I think the prayers were answered during this elections, as Nitish Kumar came to power. It maybe ironic that Nitish started his political career under Laloo himself. But after differences began to arise, they separated ways. Nitish is a man who had proved his capability as India's railway minister. And he took a step in the right direction by not including any tainted ministers in his cabinet. Now the lantern is in Nitish's hand. Lets hope he will alight the path of development for the most underdeveloped state in India....
Plz post ur comments on this
Your crusader, Praveen

Sachin is back....& with a bang!!!!!
Is there a better way to silence your critics ,than the way Sachin did it so majestically ,yesterday at Nagpur with that breathtaking display of exemplary batsmanship? o no....he consumed all the adjectives in my kitty with that one sentence...Thats the power of Sachin's batsmanship for you. He just blazed the turf with his thumping drives & the Lankan bowlers were carted all around. Vintage Sachin was on view yesterday. Those 2 sixes he hit said just that. I was waiting for such a knock for all these day, when the critics were pillioring him for his non-performance(but i think, he has performed to his full capacity all the time).
Watching yesterday's knock, it made me think that Sachin was trying to make a statement. That he's still the young Sachin who regaled us with his attacking ways, 16 summers ago. He has still the same apetite for runs evident from his thumping strokes...now the critics please shut up bcos the king is back with all his grandeur...sit back on your couch & enjoy the genius...because these kinda men don't come every day...not even in a century...try to appreciate it when genius is at work, rather than find some conspiracy theories. Whichever new player comes, be it Pieterson or Clark, World cricket has only one real King...Thats Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
Now I gotta stop this, because am tired of using all the cliches again & again...
Because with people like Sachin & A.R.Rahman, its hard to write an article without cliches...all great men are like that.....
Post your valuable comments....
with love, Your Crusader Praveen

double click 4 enlarged view
Dan Brown..MASTER OF THE MYSTERY ART
Dan Brown is one author who has influenced me so much in recent times. I read his bestseller "Da Vinci Code" 4 months back. Iwas hooked immediately to the thrilling world of symbologist Robert Langdon. Dan Brown takes us on a roller coaster ride through the museums of Paris. So much of research has gone into the writing of this novel. It is evident from the depth of detail he has gone into describing each scene. Thanks to him, I know the exact location of Leonardo Da Vinci's original(or censored, according to Dan Brown) Monalisa inside the Louvre museum, Paris. The way in which he builds up the suspense is really brilliant.He successfully misleads us into thinking the wrong person as the culprit(that too, not a single time, on innumerable occasions). Just when that the suspense is almost over, he springs another one making us think in just the opposite direction. This element of surprise forbids us from putting this book down before finishing. Da Vinci Code will always remain my ultimate thriller. Then there are those famous anti-christ parts, in which he says that jesus fathered a child & the hidden meanings in "The last supper". Am still thinking if these are really true.

And now, after being baptised into Dan's thrilling world & having become his fan, I was on the lookout for the rest of his works. Atlast, one month back, I bought "Angels & Demons", a kind of prequel to "Da Vinci Code". Well, did u think that "Da Vinci Code" is antichrist? Then, this book has more of it. That is the impression we get when we read some of the chapters(concerning pope, conclave etc) which may raise a few catholic eyebrows. If "Da Vinci Code" gave me a crash course on the museums & artwork of Paris, "Angels & Demons" was like a virtual tour of Vatican. It gave me new knowledge of Christianity(Its another matter that, i have limited knowledge of religions, even my own Hinduism), the conclave, the carmelengo & above all the power of Pope. The secret brotherhood 'ILLUMINATI' & their unique brands(perfect ambigrams) really made me crazy. Am still trying to model my own name into a perfect ambigram.

A common feature of these novels is that we cudn't really know if a particular thing is real fact or is it author's imagination. The second feature is the level of detail. I think he may have recruited some research teams to study about Vatican & Paris. Otherwise, how coulda man describe such minute details of every single place. Also, he substantiates each claims, so all of it appears as a fact to us.(Though I believe, atleast half of what he wrote is fact)
Now am waiting to read his other two novels-" Digital Fortress" & "Deception Point". Hope those two will be more thrilling than this.
And atlast, a grand salute to the new "MASTER OF MYSTERY"....

PS:-is DAN BROWN the A.R.RAHMAN of thrillers?
Another important thing i noticed is that reading Dan Brown's novels is like listening to music maestro A.R.Rahman's music...U never know wats gonna happen next...A.R.Rahman's music is so unpredictable...a soothing opening...thumping interludes..building up to a crescendo in the climax....Thats exactly the way Dan Brown writes his novels. A.R.Rahman builds his music in layers...& the end result is so complex yet so simple...well u won't agree that dan brown is that simple..but i wud say that there is an underlying simplicty to his novels..just like ARR's music.

with love, your crusader Praveen

A.R.Rahman's Unknown Masterpieces

A.R.Rahman is a musician who has never ceased to amaze me. From the day I heard Roja(the first cassette i bought as a 6year old), I've been hooked to his unique brand of music. There are only few musicians(i think there aren't any), who have composed in such a wide vareity of genres, be it Rock, classical or even folk songs. He has reached that rarified zone, where no one earlier had even dared to go.
From the earliest ads(which he was doing before he came to films) to the latest sensation "aa aah", there has been brilliance overflowing in most of his works. But a number of these brilliant scores went unnoticed, due to a vareity of reasons like bad publicity, failure of the movie or the directors just ignoring the songs in the movie. This is has resulted in these songs becoming unknown to the general public. So I decided to compile a list of songs, which in my humble opinion are masterpieces but didn't get the due recognition...
here is a list of arr's masterpieces which hasn't got the deserved fame & appreciation....
1) first & foremost in the list is one of my all time favorites "ye jo des hai tera" from swades...the song was not even aired on the music channels...picturisation cudn't match the songs brilliance(with due respect to the genius ashutosh gowariker, it must be said tht the film really matched the spirit of the song).....Rahman really touches your soul when he sings " yun to sare sukh hi barse...par door hai tu apne ghar se...aa laut chal to apne diwane....". Really makes the NRI yearn for his homeland.

2)Vellai PookkalThis song was mentioned before by other fans. this is also one of my favorites. after hearing the audio, really was looking forward to amazing picturisation by the brilliant mani ratnam.....but alas, the song was not even picturised. was relegated to a background score. cannot blame the director . but he shud have atleast picturised this song atleast for the music channels. the visuals need not be from the movie. but something more general, like a music video...something like Michael Jackson's "Heal the world" or scorpions' "winds of change". it can be done now also..the song is such a masterpiece .it doesn't deserve to be ignored. Such a soothing tune & matching lyrics, u can't find anywhere. & that special acoustic feel is just unmatchable.

3)zindagi hai dua from dil ne jise apna kaha......no one really knew tht there was such a song in the film....it was also not shown on the channels while himesh's mediocre songs got airtime....the song has gota nice rhythm...karthik does a nice job...really lik this song.

.4)"Uyirum Neeye" from Pavithra......a really touching song sung by Unnikrishnan. The movie along with the music went unnoticed. Haven't seen the song's video. so can't comment on that. anyone seen that? plz comment. the interludes with guitar & veena are amazing..... lyrics touches your heart.

5)"My wish comes true" from Kisna....a track with a true international feel to it. Sunitha Sarathy does a fine job with the vocals. the movie doesn't deserve such an amazing song. same is the case with "hum hai iss pal yahaan".

6)the entire soundtrack of Netaji(except aazadi)......the soundtrack of netaji was one of the best released last year. It had many amazing songs like "desh ki mitti", "Ekla Chalo", "Zikr" in arr's amazing vocals, the sweet lullaby "ghoomparani" & lotz of amazing BGMs. But it all went waste in a lacklustre uninspiring movie, which will rate as the worst of the amazing shyam benegal, till date. the director made the big mistake of cutting out all the songs & still making a 4hour long movie. He failed to understand the effect of arr's songs in patriotic movies, particularly visible in legend of bhagat singh. Bhagat singh was such an inspiring movie because of those amazing BGMs & songs by arr.

7)"Naina Milake" from Saathiya. This song came in place of the alaipyuthey song in the tamil movie. It was a song with a little oldish touch. But this nice song was lost amidst all those hit songs from the movie.

8)"khamosh raat" from Thakshak. Nice singing by RooopKumar Rathod. cool guitar pieces. a totally different arr song. one of my alltime favorites. didn't become a hit as i expected it to be on hearing it first on audio. i still listen to it almost everyday.

9)entire "Meenaxi" album. one of arr's classiest compositions ever...but went almost totally unnoticed(except for the negative publicity for "Noor Un ala"). the album deserved a national album for its sheer brilliance. Be it the philosophic "do kadam" or the mellow "ye Rishta"....every song had something special in store. Asha Bhosle rocks with dhuan dhuan. not to be forgotten are the instrumentals- "cyclists' rhythm" & "Potter's village". And sukhwinder does a sexy turn in " chinnamma chilakkamma". an album oozing with class.

10)"Kankalaal Kaidhu sei" album. unimaginative picturisation coupled with bad acting really spoiled the masterpieces in this album."Ennuir Thozhi" had one of the best piano intros ever by our boss. The Piano interludes were more amazing. "Anaarkali" had nice tabla works. "Theekkuruvi" is indescribable. Hariharan does a great job in "Azhakiya Cindrella". altogether an amazing album wasted in a mediocre movie. The thing is that no one other than us(hardcore rahmaniacs), have heard about this album.

11)"Jhula Bahon ka" & "Bol sajni" from Dli Saja Ke Rekhna. The movie was a failure & music was a moderate hit. still didn't receive the fame it deserved.

12)"Vaanil eni pottu" from Pudhiya Mannargal. Its an old movie starring Vikram, before he became a star. It was released recently with the name changed as "Puthiya Thalapathy" in Kerala. It also had another amazing song "eduda antha suriya".

13)"Thenkizhakku" from Kizhakku Cheemayile. A number of sweet melodies of arr(like this one) has been lost in small & unknown movies, of which this was one. I still don't know if anyone has got the original Cd of this particular album because i have asked many leading stores & they all said they even haven't heard about it.

14)"Theendai" from enswasa katre...amazing song by SPB & Chitra.

15)"Kayyil Mithakkum", "Nenje Nenje" & "Chandirane" from Rakshakan.

16)"Azhage Sughama" from "Paarthale Paravasam"....a heart warming romantic song....but was not even picturised fully....

NB:-These are the humble opinions of a true A.R.Rahman fan.
There are lotz more....i expect more songs from the readers....

with love, Your Crusader Praveen

Swades...a flop or was it made to look like one?
Earler I had written a post about Swades & the state of the Indian film industry as a whole, in this blog. I had said then that some channels & crititcs were competing with each other to tell us how bad Swades really is. This article looks behind the scenes of a shady game played by some vested interests to tarnish Swades & also makes it clear on what triggered this bad reviews.

If someone dares to be different and succeeds, some film industry folks have so much of a problem that they calmour to pull him down. It's another thing that they can't dare to be different, and stick to their sole formula and inflict the audiences with similar mushy romances year after year. For someone who's made 'Lagaan', which went to the oscars, Ashutosh Gowariker is braving the storm of detractors who're hell-bent on running his 'Swades' down, in favour of a slow & boring 'Veer-Zaara'.
Veer Zaara was Yash Chopra's directorial venture after a gap of 7 years. At the same time 'Swades' was being made & they never wanted it to be such tough competition to their magnum opus. And this seems to have instigated the vested interests to raise their ugly heads & dub 'Swades' as a box-office dud. They launced a vilified campaign against 'Swades' and a massive promotional one for 'Veer-Zaara', which includes putting colour ads in newspapers claiming how 'well' the film has done at the box-office. It doesn't make any difference to them that in reality, Veer Zaara was actually being shown in half-emptyhalls.

According to reports, it's the media-savvy guys at Yash Raj Films & Dharma Productions who're controlling the course of these reports that 'Swades' has bitten the dust at the box-office. Probably beacause somewhere along the way, they realised Ashutosh was making a superior film than theirs. And this is something that wasn't acceptable to them, that an upstart could race ahead of them on sheer merit of sicerity, hard work and belief in his subject. And that also, minus the hype & hoopla that their names generated each time their ventures were ready for release.

Yash Raj Films released their Veer-Zaara with a record 700 prints. There were reports about how they were muscling the multiplex owners to screen atleast 8 shows daily, leaving little or no chance for the other releases. Going by this strategy, it's not difficult to interpret that the production company was not too optimistic about this love story running for weeks. But Yashraj Films was not going to allow their film to be labeled a disaster, which it actually was. So a concerted campaign was launched to hype 'Veer-Zaara' to the extent that it would get hammered into people's heads that even if the film was not a hit, atleast it was on safe ground. And the only other film that could steal the thunder from it was 'Swades', so it was conveniently victimised by this movie mafia.

When 'Swades' finally hit the screens, it garnered a positive response, both at the ticket counters and with the critics. Some even called it "the best film of the year". But the industry, or should we say certain sections of the industry, were not happy with this development. And so, the anti-'Swades' mission was initiated. Sadly for them, it didn't make an iota of difference to the audience at large. Even as these insecure few continued bitching about the film, 'Swades' continued drawing the audience. As Jaymin Panchal, the manager of Inox multiplex in Mumbai says, " It's such a great movie. With every passing day, crowds are increasing. We have the last show that starts at 10:45 & even that is going packed". The GM of E-Square multiplex in Pune says, "It's a movie for the classes. It's doing great since its release. The collections in the first week were 98% and the status of advance booking is tight for the coming weeks too".
On his part, Ashutosh was hopeful that the audiences would respond to an honest film & the collections would prove the point. But there wasn't much he could do to stop his detractors from damaging his film.

This tells us why the critics & movie channels were competing with each other to give bad reviews to Swades. Also the music channels always placed Veer Zaara's songs ahead of A.R.Rahman's touching & soulful songs in the song rating shows, even when Swades audio was selling like hot cakes. I remember the report shown on Headlines Today on next day of Swades's release, in which they said the collections were bad. Also, that jughead critic Taran Adarsh was saying it's a really bad movie. He's the same man who hailed the mediocre "Veer Zaara" & "Rok Sako To Rok Lo" as classics. This was the same thing that happened to Mani Ratnam's "Aayita Ezhuthu" last year. So this shows that we should no longer believe these reviews & reports of eminent critics. It's for us to decide if the movie is good or bad.....
NB:-Parts of this article are from the February 2005 issue of Stardust.
Your Crusader, Praveen

Palayam Underpass...a new chapter in development
Marking a milestone on the State capital's road to development, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday threw open the underpass at Palayam, constructed in a record seven-and-a-half months, for vehicular traffic.
It marks the completion of the first phase of the ambitious capital city development scheme. The Government & the workers of Punj Lloyd ltd. are to be congratulated for the speedy completion of the job. Its a step in the right direction & if the govt. continues this in the same vain, our state can make great strides in the future.
In the first two days after the opening of the underpass, traffic blocks were the order of the day. It was mainly due to the confusion that arose after the routes were changed. The situation is expected to better 9 in the coming days as things settle down. After the construction of the proposed flyovers, city traffic will be really smooth flowing.
Anyways, lets wait for some real make-up for this old & grand city.

Your Crusader, Praveen

A Novel way to protest
Last week, there was an interesting sight in front of the secretariat. A group of men were cleaning the walls of the secretariat & repainting it. Don't think they are professional painters. They were the members of the computer dealers association of kerala protesting against the Kerala government's decision to import used computers from abroad. & what a novel way to protest???
The aim of conducting protest marches is to attract public attention. But most of the marches, which get public attention by creating road blocks, fail to bring to notice the issues because of the sheer number of these marches. What these marches & violent protests failed to get, was achieved by a group of young men, with a creative & constructive mind.
The student organisations & political parties should take a leaf out these guys' book if they want to get noticed & also to get public support. Resorting to violence is not going to get them any public support. & if they do something like this then Kerala could also become one of the most beautiful lands on earth without any strikes, violence & above all a clean & green state.

Hartal Casualty 

Kerala the corruption free state!!!!!!!!!
A few days back, a survey report by an organisation called 'Transparency International' said that Kerala is the least corrupt state in India. These findings were publicised widely in the media.
But my own experiences makes me disagree with these findings. As many of u know, its almost impossible to get anything done from the Government offices without emptying your wallet. I am perplexed thinking about which all departments were included in the survey.
Take for example the procedure for getting your driving license. Its impossible to get license if you go on your own, without the help of a driving school. The officers would somehow find a reason to deny you, even if you do everything right. But if you go through a driving school, you will be given more than one chances to show the correct signals.There is a fixed amount for passing each student from a particular school. This is collected by the officer's agents sitting inside a car just near the test venue. The officers collect this money later from these agents.
The scenario is same in high offices also. Only difference is, it is on a large scale..to the tune of crores.
And this is the state which is the least corrupt one in the country? Imagine the plight of all the more corrupt states..if this is the least corrupt state!!!!!
Plz comment on your experiences of corruption in Govt. offices or do u disagree with my opinion?
Your crusader,Praveen

Hartals & the people of Kerala
Hartals have become a regular affair for keralites. Atleast once in a week, any of the umpteen political parties will call for a hartal, citing the usual "anti-people rule of government" as a reason. We've grown used to it that we take lots of preparations to celebrate this unexpected holiday.
Amidst all this stands tall Pulluvazhi, a small village near perumbavoor, where the day to day life goes on as usual even on hartal days. The people of this village have united & decided to carry on with their day to day life even on hartal days. After initial opposition, the political have also surrendered to the iron will of the villagers. This is an important lesson for all Keralites, who submit meekly to hartal calls even from 2 member parties. What can the parties do if all the shopkeepers open their shops & all the vehicles come out on the road.
The above said scenario may be dismissed as impossible by most of you. But there are ways. The media should stop reporting the hartal calls of every party. If the papers & channels don't report it, how are the people gonna know that a hartal is announced that day. This will lead to a complete failure of the hartal. But the media should strictly take this stand as they have a moral commitment to the readers. Initially, there might be resistance, but it will surely die down. Also, the vyapari vyavasayi ekopana samithi can tell all shop owners to work as usual, which will help in a bigger way in the fight against hartals.
The hartals are having an adverse effect on our already dented economy. We shouldn't allow this to continue unchecked. So lets join our hands in this fight to save our state.
Your crusader, Praveen

Swades....& the mind of the Indian audience...we the people
"Hesitation to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress."- Swades directed by Ashutosh Gowariker starts off with this quote from Mahatma Gandhi. By making Swades, Gowariker was actually caarying out the idea contained in this quote. He didn't hesitate to make a film on an untouched subject, that too one which is absent of all the commercial flavours. A film so true to heart and which truly deserves the title 'film which smells of our soil'. The soil need not be Indian...beacause this is a film which brings the same feelings of love for motherland to whichever country's native...be it India, China, Russia or any other country.
But the irony is that we Indians didn't like it. And why? Because it didn't have the usual tearjerking mellodramas, the necessary skin show(which is the USP of some of the superhits last year) & most of all, what is a patriotic film without some Pak-bashing dialogues, anti-USA comments or some of the usual stuff these kind of films are made of. We Indians are so programmed to resist change...we still like Mahesh Bhatt's Hollywood inspired(blatantly copied) movies, Anu Malik's copied & yet repetitive tunes, Yashraj family dramas, the usual boy meet girl dramas...whatever work which treads a different path from these are rejected by the audience(barring a few exceptions).
So what was Swades all about? Swades is a story of a NASA scientist, Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan), who comes to Charanpur, a small village in India in search of Kaveriamma (Kishori Ballal), the woman who took care of him as a child. His mind is touched by the plight of the villagers in rural India. They lack basic amenities & to top it is the caste system and related problems. This is not a made up story. It shows the true picture of a contemporary rural Indian village. The landlords in these villages frame their own laws & the villagers abide by it.
Swades can take credit for two of the most touching moments ever in the history of Indian cinema. One is when Mohan sits in the train sipping his mineral water bottle, when a boy selling water comes to him. The film is unmissable for this single scene itself...so touching & a strange feeling, never experinced before, came to me when I watched that scene. The second is when Mohan brings electricity to the village. An old woman faintly utters the word ‘bijli’ as a light bulb brightens her face, which symbolised the state of rural India today.

When Swades was released, the so-called eminent critics competed with each other to tell us through the channels how bad the movie really is, how long it is & how preachy it is. These are the same guys who hail the repetitive skin flicks as all-time classics. The music channels also didn't give the due importance to A.R.Rahman's soulful tunes, instead preferring, blatantly copied & rehashed songs.

Swades was but loved by a section of the audience, for whom this was a whiff of fresh air amidst all those melodramas. We have to promote these kind of movies if Indian film industry is to rise up from the depths to which it has fallen in the last decade or so. As long as there are directors like Gowariker, Mani Ratnam, Shyam Benegal etc. in our industry, we can hope for a better tomorrow, when the Indian audience will flock to the theatres to see socially relevant films, as a result of which other directors will also be forced to follow suit.

Rallies...bane of Trivandrum

Of late, rallies taken out by various organisations have become a bane for the city residents. These rallies throw the traffic out of gear for many hours, sometimes even for the full day. The vehicles are diverted through already congested roads & people are left stranded in the roads for many hours. And to top it all, the people who take out the rally, also try to control traffic. Traffic police are mute spectators to their high-handedness.

A good solution for this problem is to conduct the rally out of the city limits. There should be a permanent venue for the meetings to take place, preferably in any of the village areas just outside the city limits. The govt. should issue an order to limit the rallies up to this particular place. Stringent action should be taken against those who conduct rally inside the city. The leaders of these organisations should be punished. This would serve as a deterrent for the rally organizers and will in turn decrease the number of rallies.

Your crusader, Praveen

here's my first post on tvmcrusader
Its a poem written by me last yr. Its about the US atrocities in the abu ghraib concentration camps in Iraq.
*********************** THE RAP FROM THE BUSHES*********************
W'rap' it up, 'cause here they come
The so called champions of peace
The self-proclaimed saviours of the world
Scramble for your life, not to be trampled under their boots
Run like hell, they gonna have fun with their belts
Tighten your suits, you cutes, before they loot
‘cause what they loot is not your booty
Hounding you not for your money
Binding you, only for your body.

What they hear is rape without an ‘e’
That’s Rhythm And Poetry
From the foul mouth of Eminem, the Detroit rapper
Or through the shady voice of Shaggy.
But what they do is rap with an ‘e’
That’s Reckless And Preposterous Enjoyment
For the ravenous-minded vultures,
Fed with obscenity right from birth.
Monsters they are, but not of the usual kind
A living shame for even the real ones
They are boys from hell, here to build one.

Lick their boots, you needn’t do
But sip their closet, they’d make you to.
And here they start a new kind of market,
Where you can trade oil for current.
Electricity, they’ll give for u a handful
Not through wires, but in your bare hands
Maybe on the whole body, for the more fortunate
Heard of food for oil, but not current for oil
That’s the way the world is heading,
A killing kick for a loving kiss.
Those guys who wept watching Rambo’s onscreen hardships
Now laugh all the way at your plight.

Today starts the new soap opera
Neither at Broadway nor at West End
But on the innumerable tabloids
Splashed with paparazzi snaps,
Of those dark yet ‘famous’ rooms
Of where else but Abu Ghraib,
More of an Abu Grave,
Where you are having the ‘time’ of your life.
Gold bearing trees sprout
On the tabloid head’s backyard
With your blood & sufferings as fodder
They rake-in millions with your rapin’ stories
They care only about the trees, not for the fodder
So what becomes of you?
Your body in pains, your life in ruins
Where have u to go, whom have u to see?

But take hope, my dear Iraqis
What they did to u, is what they have done
All these years, from times immemorial
In the prosperous land, that was my India
Which was bubbling with wealth, when they came
Eventually leaving it in a state strugglin’ to find its feet
That’s the Western tradition, their legacy & their history
Which has only stories of their innumerable conquests
Of battles of gore, projecting phony heroes
Of their incalculable wealth, gained from mindless loots.

That’s the Whites, Bush or Blair,
George or Louie, whoever they are,
One thing’s for sure
They’re perpetual killing machines.
So humans, if there’re any left,
Make way for them
Let them go marching
There’s that inevitable doom
Waiting for them in hell’s corridor
It’s sure that no one lives forever
Likewise, no one rules forever
As the Wachowski’s would say,
“Everything that has a beginning has an end”

Now its time for us to rise
And bury the ashes of past wounds
Let’s hope for a new day
When the whole world ‘shines’,
Like what India ‘did’ some centuries back.
When the world order changes for good,
And the conquered becomes the conqueror.


Praveen.S.R
04/05/04

Thanks to The Hindu Newspaper for providing me with the inspiration to write this poem. Its the news item that appeared on The Hindu describing the Colonial atrocities at the concentration camp at Abu Ghraib in Iraq that made me write this poem.