In Bangalore... after a short trip.....

It has been a week since I am back in good old Bengaluru... the city has grown by leaps and bounds as usual. I took a short trip to Nanjangud, a small pilgrimage town less than 200 km from here and it was a different experience altogether.

The journey was pretty swift on smooth and newly widened roads and what totally caught me by surprise was the amount of infrastructure development that has taken place in Nanjangud. I remember visiting the city more than a decade ago and it was a crumbling little village struggling to handle the increasing tourist/ pilgrim traffic. Today it is a swank tourist town with smooth concrete roads, vast open spaces, neat riverside areas for worshippers, devotees who wish to take a holy dip, and even fishermen. The temple itself is undergoing renovation right now and the part of it that is complete is simply superb. Going by this testimony I am sure the temple will be transformed into a wonderful tourist/ devotional/ pilgrim center once the renovation is complete.

I will conclude with a hope that I will be able to visit the temple again once the renovation is complete.

Inspired-in-India movies win Oscars

The entire world... 20% of the world definitely... billion plus people in India and millions of people of Indian origin across the world are in a daze of jubilation after last night's Oscars. Slumdog Millionaire a film set in India and based on a fantastical rags-to-riches story of perseverance, determination, optimism and positive thought won not one but eight Oscars and two were given to music maestro A.R. Rehman.

I have watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire and my personal opinion is that when I see it as a movie, it is a brilliant work of art. But when I watch it as an Indian and Hindu I simply feel that this movie is subtly targeted at tarnishing the image of India and Hindus particularly. All the protagonists in the movie, the hero, heroine, his brother and family are Muslims and poor. The villains in the movie; corrupt cops, malicious reality-show host, taxi drivers, etc are Hindus. Then the tourists who show lots of sympathy are Americans.

Anyway about the other movie, a documentary about how a girl with cleft lip was ostracised by the village and this foreigner comes to her rescue and funds her surgery and makes her beautiful and accepted again. Once again this documentary also makes a hard hitting story of India's poverty and that despite its economic growth the country still can't afford to take care of its people.

I wonder why it is only this kind of movies get to Oscars and receive awards. The music in Slumdog Millionaire was nothing so great in my opinion... I am no music expert but with my limited understanding of Music I believe that several of Rehman's past scores were far far better than the Music of Slumdog Millionaire.

Another small bit of news that I read related to this legendary movie which won two oscars for Indian and eight for a movie set in India is about the singer of the Oscar-winning song. Sukhwinder the singer of the song Jai Ho which won Rahman the Oscar attributes the success to Lord Shiva. In an exclusive interview to NDTV Sukhwinder said:

"Today is Mahashivratri and it s lord Shiva who blessed me and the whole team of A R Rahman to get this international honour. Jai ho is not just a song. It connects me spiritually to the Almighty. It has spiritual
connection. I was confident that the song will win Oscar because you know the Oscar award ceremony has taken place on this spiritual day of Mahashivratri."

But this will never become global news... I wonder why???