The Golden Cage

1. A few weeks back, I came across an article of a temple built at Varadyapalem in Andhra Pradesh. It is worth around Rs. 500 crores. The creators say it has been built to unify, energize and evolve all of humanity. crap load of s**t. There are temples like these being built in every nook and corner of India.

2. Some elite few have donated to the Balaji temple in Tirupati various things ranging from golden crowns to LCD screens, from holy vastrams to air conditioners. Does the lord need AC's to stay kewl? Or are golden crowns the new in-thing in divine fashion? Would he have been unhappy with them if these men had donated a few essentials to the kids in Dharavi?

There are countless more examples by which enormous funds are swindled in the name of charity and welfare. Funds are being spent to beautify these sacred places when one could make the detestable slums more inhabitable. Does a 'statue' of God need more comfort than the life he created? God's got heaven to have fun, the young kids I see on my way back home have a mud hut. Arent there enough temples in India? Aren't the so-called holy places not holy enough that we need more temples, religions et al? Do we need these newly sprung hi-fi temples to wash away our sins? Do the gods we build them for need them?

Give these a thought. And next time you visit a place of worship, be compassionate towards the beggars who line the pavement, leading to the stairs of divinity rather than the stairs. Halve the amount you drop in the collection box. And if someone's trying to build a temple in your village, try to make them see the light of things.

There have been many babas who sprung out of nowhere. Let me share with you an anecdote, that I recently heard during my intern. A new baba suddenly came into existence in the Telangana region of AP, promising to make barren women fertile (Thats how I heard it, :P). He was a good PR guy, I believe, for during the start of his career there were a few cases who spread the word that they had been blessed with children. Truckloads of people went to the baba. It was a costly affair - one had to pay for the lodging, for meeting the baba and take to him coconuts (whole coconuts, without tearing it out). After an year, the baba and his whole institution vanished. The baba had apparently made crores out of commissions, and selling the coconuts back to the hawkers. Now thats one successful b-plan, you know !!!
Anyways, except a select few, most of these saffron robed men are fakes. Discourage any superstitious lot you know and get them to donate to the needy rather than to these con men.

India has the potential, the brain and the brawn to become a superpower. Let us not thwart the process, but contribute to it. Provide the needy with a new hope and bring forth the humanity in you. Let our country not be caged by these golden temples.

PS:
(i) The word temple was used as a generalic term and means all places of worship.
(ii) Well just because Arjun Singh gave away reservations like candies, it doesn't mean he is helping the nation move forward. Make things happen, but think about them first.

When's wall*e coming to India?

Hmm .. in the last sem, there were great movies that I watched, and then good movies, passable movies, telugu movies and there was 10,000BC. But one movie stood out among them all. A soft french movie which tugs at your heart strings. 'Ratatouille' (rat-a-too-ee, the french have a weird way of spelling things). Animated movies - most of the them (with the the exception of Lion King, Antz and shrek) are childish. Even the three mentioned have rather subdued climaxes. Until this, I considered this genre 'funny' at best and never close to the 'moving stuff'. This movie changed that once and for all, and now seeing the review WALL*E's getting, 'funny' will most surely get changed to 'satisfying'.

The movie is based on an ace chef, Gusteau's principle "Anybody with enough zeal and desire can cook (and thus succeed)". Remy, a french country rat with great taste for fine food and a knack of combining flavours gets blown away to Paris due to a twist of luck. There, he gets into a really unexpected relationship with a young cleaner in Gusteau's restaurant, Linguini. Together they overcome their natural shortcomings, dish out magical recipes and taste success. The movie's high point is definitely the food critic, Ego. A man, who holds utmost dislike for Gusteau's morals, visits Linguini for making his report. The scene and the narration that follows is arguably one of the best in animated film history. It moves you and if you listen to it with an open mind, one shall discover a really profound meaning.

If The Incredibles earned Brad Bird a good reputation, this one will firmly establish it in the reamls of the greats. The movie is visually bright and the colors used are soft and easy on the eye. The humour is light and enjoyable. The best aspect of this movie are the charatcers itself. A loser that everybody likes in the form of Linguini, a scheming boss that people could associate with (not me though, :P), a sensible lady love who isn't the perfect beauty attainable only by the tom cruise's and a chef with a cheery disposition. If one can bring oneself not to like this movie, the person gotta be a retard. There shouldn't be a need to mention that this movie won the oscar for the Best Animated Feature Film, but as it's a review there you go. All in all, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.

Ratatouille is a classic from Pixar.