Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Last Empress

So, two noteworthy news came out of this week, Republicans finally found there Presidential nominee in Mitt Romney and Standard & Poor's on Wednesday downgraded India's credit outlook to negative but maintained India's rating at BBB-. But today I am taking a little detour from the real world issues of Economics & Current affairs to the fantasies of the Indian celluloid.  
            My all-time favorite movie is Lamhe (Moments) and the stars that starred in it.
            The ‘most versatile of Indian actors’, the ‘original Munna’, the ‘Hairy man’, the ‘only’ Main stream Hollywood Star of India, Mr. Anil Kapoor. (I know many of you might give me a sarcastic laugh!!). And the subject of my blog today, ‘The Lady Bacchan of Indian cinema’, ‘The first superstar actress’, ‘The Queen Bee’Sridevi.
            If I trust my memory, the first Sridevi starrer I watched was Sadma. She plays a young woman suffering from amnesia & autism following an accident. That still remains the most definitive child-woman performance of Indian film history. Who could forget Nagin. The way Sridevi played nagin (snake) character in this movie is completely unmatched. No actress before or after this movie has done it so perfectly, and I sincerely doubt if anyone would be able to give such a performance in the future. How many of us still remember that chiffon sari in Har kisiko nahin milta yahan pyar zindagi mein from Jaanbaz? If Yash Chopra brought Switzerland to India in Chandni, Sridevi made a charming acting rainbow out of her white costumes. Either it was the sensational double-act in Chaalbaaz or the class of an acting in Mr. India, she has always tested the limits of her acting skills. Be it Khuda Gawah, Ladla, Gumrah, Judaai or the unforgettable Lamhe, she never fails to surprise the audience and her costars with her spontaneous and riveting acting.   
           Before the recent trend of Indian actress going to Hollywood, it was Sridevi who was approached by none other than Hollywood’s showman, Steven Spielberg for a role in Jurassic Park, which she refused because of her commitments.
            With all due respect to MinaKumari, Madhubala and Nargis, I feel that Sridevi is the only complete actress. She undoubtedly is ‘The Last Empress’ of the Indian film industry.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

The (Proud) Last Benchers


My first love after Ravi Shastri’s Audi was ‘the last bench’ in my class. Although it wasn’t for my taking, since my class teacher followed the rotation policy. The policy came into being because all the parents, including mine, wanted their kids to seat on ‘the first bench’. All the parents want the best for their kids and what better than the ‘first bench’, for there was a theory making rounds in the parents circle that if the child seats on the first bench, he/ she will become one of the top rankers in the class. What else could the poor teacher do when there were over 50 students in each class and almost all of them were ‘First Rankers’ in there parents eyes. Little did the parents knew that mentally, I and most of my close friends were the lovers of the last bench…for life?

At this stage of life, I can comfortably say that I have never been a topper in my school life. I and students like me who form the majority after graduating from the school, are the famous ‘by products’ of our school system. The ‘real products’ of the school system were the true first benchers who were destined to become ‘someone’ in the world. I am sure most of us have watched Bollywood blockbuster ‘3 Idiot’s’. I just wished that movie would have come a little earlier, then we would have justified our very little interest in Science & Math’s & Social studies & Hindi & English a little easily to our parents and teachers.  

The reason I am talking about our great education system today is not because I got frustrated with life and wanted to blame someone but because I feel that the ‘last benchers’ are not given the ‘respect’ that they deserve. We, the last benchers strongly believed that you can learn more if you enjoy more. Of course the ‘enjoy’ part of the above statement easily overtook the ‘learning’ aspect. So what if we are not the ‘cream de la cream’ of academia, we were on top of all the ‘other extra-curricular activities’. Life has its own pace in the last bench…dreaming with open eyes, enjoying a snack, writing a poem (of sorts); scribing on the bench with our modern art, etc…etc.

I have utmost respect for the ‘first benchers’ for some my non-last bencher friends have become ‘someone’ in the world. As far as my ‘fellow last-bench countrymen’ are concerned, I feel that the last benchers are the intellectual ones, whose level is same as that of the intelligent first benchers but have an ‘unusual’ and ‘different’ opinion about the concepts.

Here’s to the misfits, the rebels, the crazy ones, the squares in the circle, the trouble makers; the ones who see things differently.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Be Careful What You Wish For


             Happy weekend, friends.
So the past week witnessed two main events, North Korea’s failed rocket launch and the worsening situation in Syria. The two authoritative states have failed economically, Syria to a lesser extent. There population is worse off compare to their counterparts, more so for North Korea. Influential nations are pressing for democracy to be established in these states for years. But recent events like the Arab spring and death of Kim Jong Il has brought the issue of democracy to the forefront. Only if these nations would have oil reserve, influential powers would have intervened long time ago.
As protesters threaten the Syrian dictatorship, no one knows when and whether the regime of Bashar al-Assad will fall, not even the ‘experts’ at the UN. At the outset, as Assad’s security forces gunned down democratic protesters, the Obama administration and its European allies reacted hesitantly.  Now, pressure is mounting against the regime and the protestors have proven to be a durable and resilient force. But the current regime is defending its stand very arrogantly. UN led a mission helmed by much respected Kofi Anna, but nothing came out of the meet, except for the future meetings!!
Not surprisingly, Russia and China recently vetoed an attempt by the Arab League to secure United Nations Security Council backing of its action plan for a political transition in Syria. Russia has clear interests in Syria. It has long given military and diplomatic support to the Syrian government. It supplies Syria with its tanks, guns and other military accessories. If the Assad regime fell Russia would lose much of its influence in the Middle East. China usually remains neutral, but given US influence in the Mideast oil, it wanted to take a stand. Or maybe China has some genuine issues. It might be worried that some radical Islamic groups are backing the uprising in Syria and that radical ideologies could end up spreading down the old Silk Road to China’s own Muslim populations in Xinjiang. Farfetched but could be true. I totally understand the ‘passive’ American approach in the Syria issue. This is an election year after all and I am sure Obama administration doesn’t want to be blamed for another American war against the Muslim state, especially when the US economy is still fragile.
The verdict of the ‘Arab Spring’ is still open. True that democracy or should I say pseudo democracy has been established in Tunisia, Egypt & to a very very lesser extent in Libya. But improving your ‘Political Lives’ (voting power) and making your ‘Economic Lives’ better are two different things. I just hope that the leadership vacuum created by throwing the dictator may not result in a ‘democratically elected fanatic Islamic power’, which could become a ‘genuine’ democratically elected government.
What will the ‘Oil Craving’, ‘Democracy Loving’, ‘Economically Powerful’ and ‘Politically Influential’ nations do then?


Saturday, April 14, 2012

‘It’s the Politics, Stupid’

            In a true Globalized, Open, Capitalistic market, there is always a winner, no matter who the counter parties are. And that winner is NOT one of the counterparties!!
           My friends, it might be a cliché but history is indeed repeating itself.
          The year was 1979: The first Iranian oil embargo beginning in 1979 effectively handed Marc Rich, whose company ultimately became Glencore (one of the world’s largest physical oil and commodities traders), the keys to a multibillion dollar oil-trading kingdom.
          The year is 2011: EU placed an embargo on Iranian oil. Now, it was China’s turn. China’s growing global oil trading companies are in the driver’s seat. And unlike Marc Rich’s secret trades, Chinese firms can do it openly. Since, they are confident that Beijing values stable and secure oil supplies much more than cooperation with Washington or Brussels, on the Iranian nuclear issue.
         The EU sanctions, which will affect about 450,000 barrels per day of oil imports to Europe, will likely transfer billions of dollars in oil earnings from the Iranian government to China’s main oil trading firms: Zhuhai Zhenrong, Unipec, Chinaoil, and Sinochem. These firms have become major players in the global physical crude oil market.
        The crude oil prices have never adhered to the economic principals. The current $100+ barrel (Nymex) is not the result of increasing demand or decreasing supply. If you think the 2007 US mortgage market was a mess, you won’t believe what goes on in the oil trades. As of today global oil consumption is around 85 million barrel PER DAY and the oil futures markets routinely trade more than ONE BILLION (with a ‘B’) barrels of oil PER DAY. There is a reason why the largest trader of oil in the world is not an Oil company, but a trading and a financial services company.
        Hence, it’s proven again, the basic economics mantra of ‘Demand and Supply’ doesn’t imply to the Crude Oil market. In case of global oil trade ‘It’s the Economics Politics, Stupid’.