Mundane Musings

My entire weekend was in front of the TV this time. I have watched Just Dance in three languages namely Hindi , Tamil and Malayalam. Believe me when I say that the tamil and malayalam versions of this program were hilarious. Rather than dubbing the program they should have just shown the subtitles in those respective languages. But no they dont do that. They make Farah and Vaibhavi speak in Malayalam and Tamil instead. But while even that was watchable, the worst part was the fake accent they gave to the contestants who had auditioned in London. It reminded one of the ab trimmer exercises in teleshopping where they have foreigners speak in tamil and malayalam. Speaking of the program itself, while watching it you are aware that there is immense talent in India. But then again most of them were doing locking, crumping , piping , whatever whatever. And everybody seems to have a lot of knowledge about them, But what about our bharatanatyam or our folk dances. A few dancers attempted ...

A couple of years ago, I was invited to address the Trivandrum Management Association on the subject “energizing Kerala”. I found that odd, because the only place in the world where Keralites seem to need energizing is Kerala. Look around the planet, and you see Keralites everywhere, working extremely hard, from menial jobs in the Gulf to professorships in the States, displaying their entrepreneurial energies and achieving remarkable successes. So what is it that holds them back here, in their home state? Is it resources, policies, attitudes, politics? All of the above? It’s always been a curious paradox that Keralites put in long hours in places like the Gulf, where they have earned a reputation for being hard-working and utterly reliable, while at home they are seen as indolent and strike-prone. Surely the same people couldn’t be so different in two different places? And yet they are – for one simple reason: the politicized environment at home. It’s a reputation that has come to h...