SRK ... A Microsoft?

Time and time again, I happen to meet people who just simply can't like Shahrukh Khan :). It happened recently when I asked a group of friends if they would be willing to watch "Rab ne bana di jodi". Its amazing ... since he's probably "The superstar" that the Hindi film industry has seen. And even more interesting are the reasons that people have to not-like him.

Most people say that he is hardly an actor. In all his movies, its SRK who is the the main lead... and not Raj or Rahul or Om or whatever. Its as if Shahrukh, the person, is put into some real like situation and the camera is capturing the scenes. Compare this against Aamir Khan who almost everyone agrees is the better actor.

Although, I agree with this, I don't think this is good enough reason to just completely hate SRK. Fine, he doesn't go into the character but makes the character look like him. So what? The ultimate aim of a film should be to entertain people with characters on the screen which are likeable. If SRK does that job for a film, then whats wrong? So when you see a DDLJ, you want to have Raj as your friend or a member of your family. When you see a Baazigar, you root for Vicky even though you see him going on a killing spree. When you see a "Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa", you do empathize with Sunil even though you see him lying and manipulating his way through. No point talking about Swades and Chak De India since almost everyone seems to like them.

Maybe I am an absolute nerd or just completely out of my mind, but I couldn't help comparing this situation with that of Microsoft :).
In the tech circles, most people just seem to go slam-bang against Microsoft.Its amazing ... since that is probably "The Company" that the software industry has seen. And even more interesting are the reasons that people have to not-like him.

Most people talk about how Windows wont work under some circumstances or worse still, it will crash just out of the 'Blue' (WOW... how subtle was that ;) ). It was they who made the 'PC' really what it is. Without Windows, probably the computer would've never been personal. And not just that, maybe the software industry would probably not existed at all.

From what I think, most of this criticism comes from --- "I am an industry insider. I know it better than most. And guess what... Microsoft sucks." We've all been in these situations where claiming something completely extraordinary catches everyone's attention, people are in awe and probably makes one feel above the rest. But if one thinks rationally, its almost stupid :).

Microsoft has made such an impact that people expect too much from them. And when that does not happen, people criticize them :). For e.g. quite often when Windows crashes, it because some driver written by some companies other than MS did something wrong. Windows did a good thing to crash because that saved your PC. If it had just continued, you might have lost your hardware or data or both. Neways... will talk about BSODs in depth later.

But the point to note about both, SRK and Microsoft is that people like them. They're famous and successful. And most of us would want to be that. So rather than criticizing them people should try to learn from their success (don't emulate it if you don't like it... but just criticism makes no sense).

Mumbai...

Just like most of you, I witnessed the horror of terrorism in Mumbai... live on TV. And just like most of you, I was left extremely angry, frustrated and completely dejected with 'the system'. I watched most of the 60 hours of the battle and during the process was hounded by many many questions.

1) How on earth can 20-something men (boys?) be convinced to unleash such terror?

I know the quick answer is that these people are brainwashed with sermons with religious/Islamic duties and the idea of trying to save their brethren. But my question is, how would killing people of other religions help? If at all, it only increases the divide between Muslims and non-muslims. If extremists in Pakistan were so sensitive to atrocities on Muslims in India, why don't they call them to their own country? In 1947, people had the option of selecting the country they want to stay in. The Muslims in India made that choice themselves. I know, some of the present Muslims may not have been born then and maybe they disagree with the choice made by their great-grandfathers or grandfathers. If there is any truth in that, the extremists in Pakistan should pressurise their govt. to call Muslims from all over the world who are unhappy with their respective countries and allow them to stay in Pakistan.

2) What about Kashmir?

The original conflict started with the dispute over Kashmir. With the current sorry state of affairs there, I guees, Kashmir has just become a 'piece of land'. Its more in the news for terrorism than its natural beauty. I don't have concrete numbers, but I am pretty sure that tourism in Kashmir is certainly not big enough to affect the economy of either India or Pakistan. I am quite certain that both countries spend more money on military in Kashmir than they get from it. Not to mention the pain that it is causing to the millions of other people. I think, Jawaharlal Nehru's words 'If there is heaven on earth...' has caused more damage than promoting J&K. In such a situation, why would holding a plebiscite in Kashmir under the extremely extremely heavy surveillance of impartial international police (you know who) be a bad idea?
Beyond that, I think, if Kashmir is 'owned' by any country, the other one would be unhappy. Why can't people agree to the idea of open borders? Regarding the money that the tourism and other industries in Kashmir would generate, spend all of it on Kashmir itself. If there is a will, the logistics could be worked out.

BTW, the above should be done only because of the fact that there was no clear mandate as to whether Kashmir was meant to be with India or Pakistan (Yeah I know about Hari Singh and all that... but the ground realities are different). If Pakistan or anyone else thinks about snatching any other part of India it should be met with proper force.

3) Is it jealousy?

I've always felt that Kashmir and Islam is just a reason for the jealousy that some people have against India. India and Pakistan were (kind-of) born at the same time. Who had more advantage at the start is debatable. But the whole world would agree that India has done much more constructive work in the last 61 years than Pakistan. India is a big player on the international scene today with a big booming economy. But Pakistan has probably no significance. If it were not for terrorism, Pakistan would have been no different than say Latvia or Libya or Ethiopia. Seriously; they don't have many people, they don't have oil, they are not a very accepting society and most countries in the world don't play cricket.
Therefore, its fairly natural for them to feel jealous of India. Some of the more aggressive people have therefore taken it upon themselves to bring India down rather taking Pakistan up.

4) Aren't politicians supposed to be 'servants'?

'Public servant' is the term used probably in text-books now-a-days. From the local corporator to the member of parliament, every is my servant. Everybodie's servant. And these servants are not doing a good job at all. Its amazing to see that India is developing so rapidly and so well and yet the people are increasingly unhappy about politicians.
Time-n-again my mind goes back to the lesson learnt in history. The British came to India and promised safety and security to the kings from other kings. And slowly but surely got a stranglehold over the entire country. Similarly, politicians pose a people there to help you in every which way during elections. And immediately after that, they start behaving as if people are at their mercy. Its time these things change. I laughed out loud when Barkha Dutt mentioned on NDTV that no politician was ready to come on 'We The People' after the incident because they were scared. Guilty conscience pricks the mind :). I laughed out even louder when Mrs. Hemant Karkare refused to take compensation from Narendra Modi and also when Mr. Unnikrishnan Sr. refused to meet the Kerala CM.

Unfortunately, 'the system' in India has always given the impression that whatever you want, you can get it done. Be it driving without a license or getting a govt. job or avoiding income tax. What would it take to make everyone more responsible and honest?

India has the 'Right to information' act these days where ordinary citizens can ask for the information they want. I am quite sure that this wrath against politicians will now be translating in many RTI petitions where many scams and promises-not-delivered will be unearthed; especially by TV news channels. I can't wait to see all that...

5) What am I doing?

Its all good to sit back and keep pointing fingers at others. You, me and everyone else knows that if one wants things to be better, then one has to work towards it. We all should realize our responsibilities and act in a responsible, fair and trustworthy manner.

Hopefully, a bigger, better and a much much stronger India will emerge from all this.