Any one who had even a remote connection to India, emotionally, should have had an exciting time during this year's Oscar presentation. I do agree that its debatable as to how much an amount of "India" pride one can exude for being recognized for a movie that highlights the darker side of India. But what is indisputable is the recognition given to A. R. Rahman for his achievements in Music. A long time over due for a real talent that was just kept waiting because none of his work came with "released in hollywood" stamp so far. Personally I think there are far better scores he has come up with than the music in "Slumdog millionairre". For starters, think of his debut "Roja".
Anyways, related to that, recently my mother-in-law forwarded me an email that probed the ancestry of A. R. Rahman. Till date, I know he was a hindu-converted-muslim by faith. But I was amazed as I read that article. He was a malayalee native, that too a palghat brahmin by birth, married to a born-muslim, his in-laws are gujarathi and malayalee. I can see the usual narrow boundaries that haunt India diaspora like caste, religion, regionality etc. getting shattered in this single individual's life. Probably that may explain the far reaching effect of his music genius and his unquestioned acceptance all over India, and now the world --> Bottomline, in my opinion, every Indian feels there is some aspect of themselves in A. R. Rahman., that makes them get past those narrow boundaries I mentioned and appreciate him for his talent and genius.
I couldnt help but to extend the same logic to an even bigger celebrity - Barack Obama. I and my wife were truly carried away by his clarity and composure during the campaign days. Thinking about it, we can see Obama too had a "global-ness" about him just like the "indian-ness" that ARR embodied, which could partly explain the acceptance that Obama enjoys not only at home but all over the world ( Iran, Russia included). Get a load of this --> a US citizen by birth, white mother, black father, raised by white grandmother ( you have covered two major groups in US), has a muslim african father and a muslim middlename (most of mideast and africa covered), very literate, elite and composed (got the votes of people like me), middle-class bred, disciplined family man (another major plus point), christian by faith (covered the bible belt to some extent), "an atypical non-condescending American president" (read "non-W-like" and, of course, whole world likes that). I can see there is something for everyone to identify with in the Obama persona. Probably such a figure was long time due and is needed in my opinion, to get humanity to its senses. I only wish Obama lives up to this repute and succeeds in his efforts. Otherwise, with the way humanity is increasingly glorifying the petty differences among its members, it would be very difficult at a later date to come up with a leader-soul which has a piece in him/her for everybody to identify with.
Anyways, related to that, recently my mother-in-law forwarded me an email that probed the ancestry of A. R. Rahman. Till date, I know he was a hindu-converted-muslim by faith. But I was amazed as I read that article. He was a malayalee native, that too a palghat brahmin by birth, married to a born-muslim, his in-laws are gujarathi and malayalee. I can see the usual narrow boundaries that haunt India diaspora like caste, religion, regionality etc. getting shattered in this single individual's life. Probably that may explain the far reaching effect of his music genius and his unquestioned acceptance all over India, and now the world --> Bottomline, in my opinion, every Indian feels there is some aspect of themselves in A. R. Rahman., that makes them get past those narrow boundaries I mentioned and appreciate him for his talent and genius.
I couldnt help but to extend the same logic to an even bigger celebrity - Barack Obama. I and my wife were truly carried away by his clarity and composure during the campaign days. Thinking about it, we can see Obama too had a "global-ness" about him just like the "indian-ness" that ARR embodied, which could partly explain the acceptance that Obama enjoys not only at home but all over the world ( Iran, Russia included). Get a load of this --> a US citizen by birth, white mother, black father, raised by white grandmother ( you have covered two major groups in US), has a muslim african father and a muslim middlename (most of mideast and africa covered), very literate, elite and composed (got the votes of people like me), middle-class bred, disciplined family man (another major plus point), christian by faith (covered the bible belt to some extent), "an atypical non-condescending American president" (read "non-W-like" and, of course, whole world likes that). I can see there is something for everyone to identify with in the Obama persona. Probably such a figure was long time due and is needed in my opinion, to get humanity to its senses. I only wish Obama lives up to this repute and succeeds in his efforts. Otherwise, with the way humanity is increasingly glorifying the petty differences among its members, it would be very difficult at a later date to come up with a leader-soul which has a piece in him/her for everybody to identify with.
Just like the multi-faced personae discussed above, today's pic is that of a colorful fireworks display. For a change, this was taken with my good-ole, always reliable Canon Powershot A70 P&S, my first digital camera. The pic was taken during the 2004 July 4th fireworks at La Jolla Cove when we went there as a bachelor gang with one of the aims being to test my newly acquired digicam. The exposure is a good 4seconds with the camera on a tripod. Even today this photo finds its place in our "Folder of Fame" that we created to commend ourselves back then on our ability to shoot with P&S creatively :-)
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