My favourite scene from Skyfall...
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
An ode to gin
When I was younger, I could quaff untold quantities of beer. It was my favourite drink by far. These days however, I find myself unable to go beyond 2 pints - anything more and my digestion gets messed up. The good news is that I'm not particularly missing beer. Gin and tonic is the new elixir. Such has been my dedication to the stuff, that most people in my family (wife, mom, dad, even grandmom!!) have become gin converts. May the tribe increase!
A recent article on the miracle drink and its history -
And gin does not require ageing as whisky and brandy do, so production is faster and cheaper. Gin is also the one spirit with such an intimate connection to India that when Michel Roux, the man behind the creation of the Absolut vodka brand, decided to launch a premium gin that would do for the category what Absolut did for vodka, the name chosen was Bombay Sapphire, and an image of Queen Victoria, Empress of India was prominently displayed on the packaging. Roux and his partners were tapping into the exotic imagery of the Raj, where memoirs of the British in India always have them administering their empire with the help of a constant stream of Pink Gins.
This concoction got its name from the way in which the colourless gin was delicately tinted by a few dashes of Angostura bitters. (The British in Malaysia differentiated themselves by calling this a Gin Pahit, from the Malay word for bitter). When Jeremy Tait, a young British man, was sent to work for the HongKong & Shanghai Bank in Asia in the early 1950s, and landed up in Colombo he met an old friend of his father at the Colombo Club who offered him mango juice.
'I replied, "I think I'd prefer a pink gin." Captain Harper's response was immediate: "I don't know what else your father taught you, but he certainly steered you in the right direction."'
Tait's entertaining memoir, The Obedient Banker, proceeds to describe a career across that Asia that seemed to be spent staggering from one pink gin to another. In Japan he teaches a geisha how to mix one. In Singapore, in the days before Lee Kuan Yew made it the antiseptic place it is now, he sips gin slings watching the transvestites on Bugis Street.
And on one memorable occasion in Juhu in Bombay he and the other bachelors throw a party for all the married couples of the bank where the main refreshment is coconuts filled with gin and plum brandy. The couples are so overcome by this that many have to request retiring rooms to sleep it off. "We thought no more about it until almost a year later when several of the married couples reciprocated by inviting us to Christening parties."
In this, as with all the many British alcoholic memories of India, gin features so large for a fairly basic reason - it was a cheap and easy way to get drunk. Whisky was more expensive, rum was seen as a drink for the army and navy, while vodka was still unusual outside Russia. Gin's citrusy, spicy notes also had the advantage of mixing well with other drinks and juices, so it was an ideal way to take in a lot of liquid in a climate where one lost it fast.
It was also seen as an acceptable drink for ladies, perhaps because its lack of colour made it seem (deceptively) lighter. Most of all, the British discovered it made a brilliant marriage with tonic water, the bittersweet concoction that was originally devised as an easy way to take malaria fighting quinine by mixing it with sugar and soda. Gin and tonic had a vague connotation of health, which certainly helped justify knocking it down in quantity.
Yet this popularity became the problem. Throughout the history of gin we see alternations between periods of high consumption, followed by equally strong reactions against it. Most drinks go in and out of fashion, but only gin seems to do it in such extreme ways. After the 1960s, when expatriates like Tait became scarce in India, a reaction against gin set in.
The Indians who still drank it were derided, as Sagarika Ghose did in her novel The Gin Drinkers, as overly Westernised and alienated in their own country: "Gin with soda. Straight or on the rocks. Or with bitter lemon. Gin at the Gymkhana. Gin on the verandah. Gin at the club with cocktails at six o' clock. Gin was liquid colonialism."
Depictions like these, combined with the emergence of vodka as a stylish, less historically loaded, clear spirit, seem to have lead to gin's current sorry status. With few consumers, Indian manufacturers didn't bother investing in upgrading from the really raw tasting, crudely flavoured versions that they keep just to round out their portfolio. Yet a gin revolution is taking place abroad and it is time India caught up with it. We'll look at it in the second part of this column.
A recent article on the miracle drink and its history -
Indian Made Foreign Liquor is not a term that promises well. It admits
upfront that it is a substitute and probably an inadequate one given that
oxymoronic Indian-Foreign pairing. Add to that the knowledge that it is made
from extra-neutral alcohol distilled from molasses, flavoured and blended to
resemble whatever you want, and your expectations will not be high.
The exception, of course, is rum, which is made from molasses anyway, and Old Monk has always been justly celebrated as the one really good Indian liquor brand.
Is there anything more infuriating than pretentious (and greedy) Indian bars that don't stock Old Monk, but keep random international rums? Such places should be named, shamed and spurned till Old Monk is on their menus! Over the years other IMFL has been improving too, thanks to competition from real foreign brands and the growing sophistication of Indian drinking tastes.
Some premium whiskies are decent (even if, by international standards, their molasses base still make them a kind of rum) and vodkas like Smirnoff are as smooth as you'll get anywhere. I keep hoping that one of the better Indian wineries will grasp the challenge, which is mostly in terms of getting the licences, to distil real brandy from their wine.
Best of all, there are ventures like Amrut Distilleries with their really quite wonderful and authentically made single malt, and now the Goa based Desmondji who can't call their agave spirit tequila for fear of Mexicans sending hit squads after them. It is made from the same agave cactus plants though and tastes pretty good, as does the orange liqueur they are also making, flavoured with Nagpur oranges, so that all the ingredients for a desi margarita are at hand. But there is one inexplicable gap: why is there no good Indian gin?
This is one of the easiest spirits to make - unlike with whisky or tequila, the base material doesn't matter. GrainBSE -4.89 %is usual, but molasses will do, since all that's needed is good neutral alcohol. This is then flavoured with juniper berries, which can be easily imported (though it should be easy to grow them in the hills) and what are called botanicals, a varied mix of spices and flavourings, many of which, like coriander, cassia and orris root, come from India anyway. The mechanics of this flavouring process can vary, but none of it is rocket science.
The exception, of course, is rum, which is made from molasses anyway, and Old Monk has always been justly celebrated as the one really good Indian liquor brand.
Is there anything more infuriating than pretentious (and greedy) Indian bars that don't stock Old Monk, but keep random international rums? Such places should be named, shamed and spurned till Old Monk is on their menus! Over the years other IMFL has been improving too, thanks to competition from real foreign brands and the growing sophistication of Indian drinking tastes.
Some premium whiskies are decent (even if, by international standards, their molasses base still make them a kind of rum) and vodkas like Smirnoff are as smooth as you'll get anywhere. I keep hoping that one of the better Indian wineries will grasp the challenge, which is mostly in terms of getting the licences, to distil real brandy from their wine.
Best of all, there are ventures like Amrut Distilleries with their really quite wonderful and authentically made single malt, and now the Goa based Desmondji who can't call their agave spirit tequila for fear of Mexicans sending hit squads after them. It is made from the same agave cactus plants though and tastes pretty good, as does the orange liqueur they are also making, flavoured with Nagpur oranges, so that all the ingredients for a desi margarita are at hand. But there is one inexplicable gap: why is there no good Indian gin?
This is one of the easiest spirits to make - unlike with whisky or tequila, the base material doesn't matter. GrainBSE -4.89 %is usual, but molasses will do, since all that's needed is good neutral alcohol. This is then flavoured with juniper berries, which can be easily imported (though it should be easy to grow them in the hills) and what are called botanicals, a varied mix of spices and flavourings, many of which, like coriander, cassia and orris root, come from India anyway. The mechanics of this flavouring process can vary, but none of it is rocket science.
And gin does not require ageing as whisky and brandy do, so production is faster and cheaper. Gin is also the one spirit with such an intimate connection to India that when Michel Roux, the man behind the creation of the Absolut vodka brand, decided to launch a premium gin that would do for the category what Absolut did for vodka, the name chosen was Bombay Sapphire, and an image of Queen Victoria, Empress of India was prominently displayed on the packaging. Roux and his partners were tapping into the exotic imagery of the Raj, where memoirs of the British in India always have them administering their empire with the help of a constant stream of Pink Gins.
This concoction got its name from the way in which the colourless gin was delicately tinted by a few dashes of Angostura bitters. (The British in Malaysia differentiated themselves by calling this a Gin Pahit, from the Malay word for bitter). When Jeremy Tait, a young British man, was sent to work for the HongKong & Shanghai Bank in Asia in the early 1950s, and landed up in Colombo he met an old friend of his father at the Colombo Club who offered him mango juice.
'I replied, "I think I'd prefer a pink gin." Captain Harper's response was immediate: "I don't know what else your father taught you, but he certainly steered you in the right direction."'
Tait's entertaining memoir, The Obedient Banker, proceeds to describe a career across that Asia that seemed to be spent staggering from one pink gin to another. In Japan he teaches a geisha how to mix one. In Singapore, in the days before Lee Kuan Yew made it the antiseptic place it is now, he sips gin slings watching the transvestites on Bugis Street.
And on one memorable occasion in Juhu in Bombay he and the other bachelors throw a party for all the married couples of the bank where the main refreshment is coconuts filled with gin and plum brandy. The couples are so overcome by this that many have to request retiring rooms to sleep it off. "We thought no more about it until almost a year later when several of the married couples reciprocated by inviting us to Christening parties."
In this, as with all the many British alcoholic memories of India, gin features so large for a fairly basic reason - it was a cheap and easy way to get drunk. Whisky was more expensive, rum was seen as a drink for the army and navy, while vodka was still unusual outside Russia. Gin's citrusy, spicy notes also had the advantage of mixing well with other drinks and juices, so it was an ideal way to take in a lot of liquid in a climate where one lost it fast.
It was also seen as an acceptable drink for ladies, perhaps because its lack of colour made it seem (deceptively) lighter. Most of all, the British discovered it made a brilliant marriage with tonic water, the bittersweet concoction that was originally devised as an easy way to take malaria fighting quinine by mixing it with sugar and soda. Gin and tonic had a vague connotation of health, which certainly helped justify knocking it down in quantity.
Yet this popularity became the problem. Throughout the history of gin we see alternations between periods of high consumption, followed by equally strong reactions against it. Most drinks go in and out of fashion, but only gin seems to do it in such extreme ways. After the 1960s, when expatriates like Tait became scarce in India, a reaction against gin set in.
The Indians who still drank it were derided, as Sagarika Ghose did in her novel The Gin Drinkers, as overly Westernised and alienated in their own country: "Gin with soda. Straight or on the rocks. Or with bitter lemon. Gin at the Gymkhana. Gin on the verandah. Gin at the club with cocktails at six o' clock. Gin was liquid colonialism."
Depictions like these, combined with the emergence of vodka as a stylish, less historically loaded, clear spirit, seem to have lead to gin's current sorry status. With few consumers, Indian manufacturers didn't bother investing in upgrading from the really raw tasting, crudely flavoured versions that they keep just to round out their portfolio. Yet a gin revolution is taking place abroad and it is time India caught up with it. We'll look at it in the second part of this column.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Flip flop
Generally speaking, I think I am a happy person. However, sometimes I get really depressed with the state of existence that I inhabit. There is nothing noteworthy or significant in this very unremarkable history of a guy like millions of other guys.
To be sure, I have nothing to complain about. Everything is well taken care of. Health, family, profession, material wealth - all are present in abundance. Indeed, often I think of myself as a very lucky person. Yet often I find I am not happy. Or at least I am not as happy as I could be.
What would make me happier? I have tried to analyze this problem, hoping to find a solution. I am an introvert, so most times I am happy just being with myself. Indeed, I am most often happier by myself than in company. But really, deep down, I think I have become very lonely. I have been told I come across as arrogant and aloof. Aloof, yes, certainly. I don't try to influence or change things or people's thoughts beyond a point. So maybe loneliness is what prevents me from perfect happiness. What else? The lack of a goal - something big and meaningful to look forward to. Something to stop me from just drifting along - something to propel the oars of life's boat along the sea of events that make up every moment. What else? Courage. The courage to stand up and make a difference. Or at least the courage to tell it like it is. What else? Generosity. I try to be unselfish, and to help people close to me. I am the guy who always will volunteer to suffer adverse conditions so that my loved ones can be comfortable. Yet I dont think anyone notices this enough to let me know that it is making a difference. Perhaps the aloofness comes in the way of good intent.
I don't believe that I can change anything about myself now - after all, I'm in the mid thirties, my hair have grayed, and the best part of my life is done. So what is the solution? How can I be happier more often than I currently am? Do I really care enough about myself to try to be happier? Or am I just a lucky guy who is too lazy to turn fortune into an enduring legacy?
We shall never know.
To be sure, I have nothing to complain about. Everything is well taken care of. Health, family, profession, material wealth - all are present in abundance. Indeed, often I think of myself as a very lucky person. Yet often I find I am not happy. Or at least I am not as happy as I could be.
What would make me happier? I have tried to analyze this problem, hoping to find a solution. I am an introvert, so most times I am happy just being with myself. Indeed, I am most often happier by myself than in company. But really, deep down, I think I have become very lonely. I have been told I come across as arrogant and aloof. Aloof, yes, certainly. I don't try to influence or change things or people's thoughts beyond a point. So maybe loneliness is what prevents me from perfect happiness. What else? The lack of a goal - something big and meaningful to look forward to. Something to stop me from just drifting along - something to propel the oars of life's boat along the sea of events that make up every moment. What else? Courage. The courage to stand up and make a difference. Or at least the courage to tell it like it is. What else? Generosity. I try to be unselfish, and to help people close to me. I am the guy who always will volunteer to suffer adverse conditions so that my loved ones can be comfortable. Yet I dont think anyone notices this enough to let me know that it is making a difference. Perhaps the aloofness comes in the way of good intent.
I don't believe that I can change anything about myself now - after all, I'm in the mid thirties, my hair have grayed, and the best part of my life is done. So what is the solution? How can I be happier more often than I currently am? Do I really care enough about myself to try to be happier? Or am I just a lucky guy who is too lazy to turn fortune into an enduring legacy?
We shall never know.
Sunday, January 06, 2013
Time travel and God particles. Also, the biggest illusion of all
For a change, I am returning to my roots. On a hunch, I bought a book called The Big Questions in Physics, written by Michael Brooks. This book is a masterpiece, and also a mind bender. It has enough material in it to amaze even a reasonably aware person like me, and is written simply enough for a totally out of touch person to understand the key points.
The book tries to simplify and state what the current cutting edge thinking is on fundamental questions like Can we travel through time? Is any one of us unique? How large is the universe? What is reality? and so on.
It is astounding, or so it seems to me, that modern day physics is so close to metaphysics or religion. Spooky, in many ways.
Sample this - matter (the stuff that anything is made of, including you and me) exhibits duality. It behaves sometimes like a wave, and sometimes like a particle. What it actually is, depends entirely on the observer!! And not only on the observer's current actions, but also the observer's future actions!! Confused? Read on -
In an experiment where a single photon is passed through a double slit (you may remember this from class XII physics practicals!), the resulting pattern exhibits interference, showing that the photon is a wave (or that it passes through both slits simultaneously). Now, it we add apparatus to the experiment to measure which slit the photon actually passes through, the interference disappears! The photon starts exhibiting particle properties. In other words, the photon is at multiple places AT THE SAME TIME. Only the observer's actions (past or future) determine which of the millions of possibilities it will actually exhibit.
I may not have explained this very well, but I highly recommend a read. If nothing else, it will remind you of the Matrix, where all reality is an illusion.
The book tries to simplify and state what the current cutting edge thinking is on fundamental questions like Can we travel through time? Is any one of us unique? How large is the universe? What is reality? and so on.
It is astounding, or so it seems to me, that modern day physics is so close to metaphysics or religion. Spooky, in many ways.
Sample this - matter (the stuff that anything is made of, including you and me) exhibits duality. It behaves sometimes like a wave, and sometimes like a particle. What it actually is, depends entirely on the observer!! And not only on the observer's current actions, but also the observer's future actions!! Confused? Read on -
In an experiment where a single photon is passed through a double slit (you may remember this from class XII physics practicals!), the resulting pattern exhibits interference, showing that the photon is a wave (or that it passes through both slits simultaneously). Now, it we add apparatus to the experiment to measure which slit the photon actually passes through, the interference disappears! The photon starts exhibiting particle properties. In other words, the photon is at multiple places AT THE SAME TIME. Only the observer's actions (past or future) determine which of the millions of possibilities it will actually exhibit.
I may not have explained this very well, but I highly recommend a read. If nothing else, it will remind you of the Matrix, where all reality is an illusion.
Another year passes
I'm looking back to see what I was thinking at the beginning of that brand new year 2012. I find I was not too sanguine about things, and was full of good intentions.
Well, the year is done, and what do we have to show for it? Personally, 2012 was, for me, the year of repair - repair of my thought processes, repair of placidity, old thoughts discarded for new, and new directions set in the GPS box of life. All in all, it was a year like any other, kind in parts and cruel in others. Maybe the mix was a bit biased, but nothing to write home about.
So what does 2013 have in store? Lots of promises, for sure. New purpose, new opportunities. The uncertainties are narrowing down, which is good, but so are the possibilities. One thing is for sure, that the year ahead provides tremendous scope for trying out new things. Professionally, personally and health wise.
How will it all pan out? We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!
Here is wishing you a very happy new year!
Well, the year is done, and what do we have to show for it? Personally, 2012 was, for me, the year of repair - repair of my thought processes, repair of placidity, old thoughts discarded for new, and new directions set in the GPS box of life. All in all, it was a year like any other, kind in parts and cruel in others. Maybe the mix was a bit biased, but nothing to write home about.
So what does 2013 have in store? Lots of promises, for sure. New purpose, new opportunities. The uncertainties are narrowing down, which is good, but so are the possibilities. One thing is for sure, that the year ahead provides tremendous scope for trying out new things. Professionally, personally and health wise.
How will it all pan out? We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!
Here is wishing you a very happy new year!
Monday, December 24, 2012
Dance Dance Dance
No, this is not a remake of Mithunda's 80s movie (that one had only 2 Dances in its name). I recently went looking in the bookshop for more Kazuo Ishiguro (for details see earlier post on Remains of the Day), but instead found Haruki Murakami.
Murakami is a prolific writer, if the number of books on the shelf was any indication. He writes in Japanese, and most of the English books are translations. Dance Dance Dance is a sort of sequel to another of Murakami's books, so I was not as familiar with the characters as perhaps the author intended, but that was a small obstacle.
Murakami is highly awarded and very well regarded by critics and readers alike. It is easy to see why - the prose is lyrical, the thoughts deeply philosophical, and the characters memorable. The plot of the story itself was a bit abstruse - indeed I admit that it took me several days to motivate myself to read further than the first 15 pages. But once I waded in, there was no looking back. Part supernatural, part murder mystery and part magic realism, the story kept me expecting some kind of climactic denouement.
However, that was not to be. The story's resolution was a bit too pat, or maybe it was too abstract for someone who likes to see everything explained fully and all loose ends tied. That said, it was definitely worth the read, and I think while I may not remember much of the book a year out, I will certainly remember the title and what it stands for.
Incidentally, I was in the bookshop again last evening, in front of the same row containing Murakami's other books. I almost bought a few more, but then replaced them again. Too metaphysical for me, perhaps?
Murakami is a prolific writer, if the number of books on the shelf was any indication. He writes in Japanese, and most of the English books are translations. Dance Dance Dance is a sort of sequel to another of Murakami's books, so I was not as familiar with the characters as perhaps the author intended, but that was a small obstacle.
Murakami is highly awarded and very well regarded by critics and readers alike. It is easy to see why - the prose is lyrical, the thoughts deeply philosophical, and the characters memorable. The plot of the story itself was a bit abstruse - indeed I admit that it took me several days to motivate myself to read further than the first 15 pages. But once I waded in, there was no looking back. Part supernatural, part murder mystery and part magic realism, the story kept me expecting some kind of climactic denouement.
However, that was not to be. The story's resolution was a bit too pat, or maybe it was too abstract for someone who likes to see everything explained fully and all loose ends tied. That said, it was definitely worth the read, and I think while I may not remember much of the book a year out, I will certainly remember the title and what it stands for.
Incidentally, I was in the bookshop again last evening, in front of the same row containing Murakami's other books. I almost bought a few more, but then replaced them again. Too metaphysical for me, perhaps?
Friday, December 07, 2012
New Genres
Tis' the season of new genres. I recently read Cut Like Wound, a police procedural set in Bangalore, written by Anita Nair. The setting is quite novel, and the plot racy enough to keep one hooked. While the story is sometimes too dark for my tastes (spoiler alert: it has transgender abuse, child abuse, and gory details of gruesome murders), the characters make up for any flaws.
Inspector Borei Gowda is interesting, an alpha male trapped in a lifetime of mediocrity and bureaucracy. The story walks through his resurrection, which I liked quite a bit. He finds a girlfriend, bonds with his teenage son, and discovers a sidekick much like himself, all in the course of a few weeks. He also manages to re-discover his sex life (the sex is well written, I thought)!
Other than the characters, nothing much to remember the book by. However, I think this is probably the first book in the series, so will be looking out for the next installments.
Also saw Talaash (surprise, surprise! got tickets for it in Chennai!), the new Aamir Khan movie. Didn't know what it was when I went in. I had some vague idea from the promos that it would be a murder mystery, but turned out to be a disappointment in the end.
The plot was stale, to say the least, but the treatment was interesting. It is probably the first mainstream attempt to create Indian noir cinema. Well acted, too (Rani Mukerji was especially masterful), though I just wish they had plugged the many holes in the story! Worth watching once, but nothing that will be remembered six months hence, in my view.
Inspector Borei Gowda is interesting, an alpha male trapped in a lifetime of mediocrity and bureaucracy. The story walks through his resurrection, which I liked quite a bit. He finds a girlfriend, bonds with his teenage son, and discovers a sidekick much like himself, all in the course of a few weeks. He also manages to re-discover his sex life (the sex is well written, I thought)!
Other than the characters, nothing much to remember the book by. However, I think this is probably the first book in the series, so will be looking out for the next installments.
Also saw Talaash (surprise, surprise! got tickets for it in Chennai!), the new Aamir Khan movie. Didn't know what it was when I went in. I had some vague idea from the promos that it would be a murder mystery, but turned out to be a disappointment in the end.
The plot was stale, to say the least, but the treatment was interesting. It is probably the first mainstream attempt to create Indian noir cinema. Well acted, too (Rani Mukerji was especially masterful), though I just wish they had plugged the many holes in the story! Worth watching once, but nothing that will be remembered six months hence, in my view.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Remains of the Day
Bought this book on a hunch, and finished reading it late into the night. This has been my first acquaintance of Kazuo Ishiguro, but certainly not the last.
As I finished reading the last few pages, I was strangely moved by the story. While I think myself completely different from the protagonist in temperament, and even though he seems to have come out a loser, there is yet admiration at his simple and stoic beliefs. He spends a lot of time contemplating the nature of dignity, and despite behaviour that in my eyes is foolish, actually achieves it. The story resonates with me because I have myself contemplated the futility of all of my existence. In the end, all that is left is the remains of the day. Yet, is that reason enough to not believe in something?
Would definitely recommend this book if you think of such questions.
As I finished reading the last few pages, I was strangely moved by the story. While I think myself completely different from the protagonist in temperament, and even though he seems to have come out a loser, there is yet admiration at his simple and stoic beliefs. He spends a lot of time contemplating the nature of dignity, and despite behaviour that in my eyes is foolish, actually achieves it. The story resonates with me because I have myself contemplated the futility of all of my existence. In the end, all that is left is the remains of the day. Yet, is that reason enough to not believe in something?
Would definitely recommend this book if you think of such questions.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
A great nation
Random thoughts as I am forced to sit at home, watching non-stop squalling for the past 24 hours.
Buffeted by Cyclone Nilam in Chennai, I watch in wonder media images of 'Frankenstorm' Sandy. Hitting the coastline near New York, almost 180 degrees away on the globe, with so much fury and force. I also read President Obama's statement, cancelling his election campaign so that he can effectively monitor the state's response to the calamity. Contender Mitt Romney has also cancelled his campaign meetings, presumably because that is the right thing to do.
The right thing to do - this is a short phrase with so much power. So much short in supply in our country, but in such abundance in the United States of America. In Indian polity, there are no right things to do - only things that benefit individuals, often at the cost of the country. Sometimes I wonder, are we really so venal a people? Has all our goodness and decency really been stripped away? I see overwhelming evidence to support this unfortunate thought. In my youth, I used to think that this was because of our colonial history - scarcity and want had made us greedy. But I have been assured by various sensible people that public polity in much poorer nations is much better than in ours. Civic sense, politeness, honesty - one can find all of these in much greater proportions in some of the poorest countries in the world, but are so uncommon here.
But this is a post about the greatest nation on the planet.
Recent history is full of examples where the US has done things because they are the right things to do. Launching a war halfway across the globe in Afghanistan, because a menace to their country arose from there. Printing more dollars and debasing the currency, because that is the only thing going to help the unemployed in that country. Being at the forefront of innovation, be it Apple with the iPhone / iPad, Microsoft with its buggy operating systems, Intel with its chips or Facebook with its website. Samsung, Foxconn and all the others are just footnotes in the saga of American enterprise and innovation.
I do not have the least doubt that the economic crisis encircling the globe today will end with the re-emergence of the US as a moral, economic and cultural superpower, and the decimation of Europe, along with the decline of China. India? India will hobble along in mediocrity, an outcome destined by its citizens' pettiness and selfishness.
Buffeted by Cyclone Nilam in Chennai, I watch in wonder media images of 'Frankenstorm' Sandy. Hitting the coastline near New York, almost 180 degrees away on the globe, with so much fury and force. I also read President Obama's statement, cancelling his election campaign so that he can effectively monitor the state's response to the calamity. Contender Mitt Romney has also cancelled his campaign meetings, presumably because that is the right thing to do.
The right thing to do - this is a short phrase with so much power. So much short in supply in our country, but in such abundance in the United States of America. In Indian polity, there are no right things to do - only things that benefit individuals, often at the cost of the country. Sometimes I wonder, are we really so venal a people? Has all our goodness and decency really been stripped away? I see overwhelming evidence to support this unfortunate thought. In my youth, I used to think that this was because of our colonial history - scarcity and want had made us greedy. But I have been assured by various sensible people that public polity in much poorer nations is much better than in ours. Civic sense, politeness, honesty - one can find all of these in much greater proportions in some of the poorest countries in the world, but are so uncommon here.
But this is a post about the greatest nation on the planet.
Recent history is full of examples where the US has done things because they are the right things to do. Launching a war halfway across the globe in Afghanistan, because a menace to their country arose from there. Printing more dollars and debasing the currency, because that is the only thing going to help the unemployed in that country. Being at the forefront of innovation, be it Apple with the iPhone / iPad, Microsoft with its buggy operating systems, Intel with its chips or Facebook with its website. Samsung, Foxconn and all the others are just footnotes in the saga of American enterprise and innovation.
I do not have the least doubt that the economic crisis encircling the globe today will end with the re-emergence of the US as a moral, economic and cultural superpower, and the decimation of Europe, along with the decline of China. India? India will hobble along in mediocrity, an outcome destined by its citizens' pettiness and selfishness.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Narendra Modi for PM
I am just leaving Ahmedabad, having spent slightly less than 20 hours in the city on the business trip. What I saw of the city has impressed me quite significantly.
The city is very clean, with almost no garbage on the roads. The Sabarmati has been made pretty, apparently with water from the Narmada! The slums along the embankment have all been cleared out, and construction is on in full swing for a park and a promenade along the picturesque river. The airport is efficient, and personnel friendly. Almost everyone I spoke to praised Modi for his administrative acumen. The businessmen I had gone to meet claimed there was little / no corruption in their dealings with the govt.
Now, the guy may not be secular, and may have strange views on malnutrition among women. But is that enough to condemn him? He is a fantastic administrator, from whatever I can see. India needs someone like him, and not a dithering, inactive and geriatric prime minister.
My vote for PM goes to Narendra Modi!
The city is very clean, with almost no garbage on the roads. The Sabarmati has been made pretty, apparently with water from the Narmada! The slums along the embankment have all been cleared out, and construction is on in full swing for a park and a promenade along the picturesque river. The airport is efficient, and personnel friendly. Almost everyone I spoke to praised Modi for his administrative acumen. The businessmen I had gone to meet claimed there was little / no corruption in their dealings with the govt.
Now, the guy may not be secular, and may have strange views on malnutrition among women. But is that enough to condemn him? He is a fantastic administrator, from whatever I can see. India needs someone like him, and not a dithering, inactive and geriatric prime minister.
My vote for PM goes to Narendra Modi!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
I'm Feeling Lucky
I read this book, which, as the cover proudly proclaims, is written by Google's employee #59. Pretty interesting, and with a few insights into how Google thinks about user privacy and its key credo of "Don't be Evil". An entertaining read, overall (not least because it describes the romantic shenanigans between Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's new and very pregnant CEO, and Larry Page), and it all works out well for the author, who cleaned out (per my calculation) close to $200m in 4 years between joining Google and its IPO!
However, for all the talk about privacy, I was rudely shocked today. I usually use Chrome as my default browser. Today I was checking a few travel sites for flights between Ahmedabad and Chennai. Now, generally browsing some news site, I get an ad from Make My Trip served up on the page, saying something like "Now, fly from Ahd to Che only at INR abc".
This is spooky. Clearly, Google is tracking data of what I'm doing on the browser. More heinously, it is selling this info to random websites (or at least using it to serve up 'relevant' ads to me). I'm not sure if I appreciate this. This sounds very much like Big Brother to me.
I wonder what all Google knows about me. Pretty much everything - my bank account, my passwords, my bank balance, what i shop for, who i email, where i travel, what i do!! This is nuts!
However, for all the talk about privacy, I was rudely shocked today. I usually use Chrome as my default browser. Today I was checking a few travel sites for flights between Ahmedabad and Chennai. Now, generally browsing some news site, I get an ad from Make My Trip served up on the page, saying something like "Now, fly from Ahd to Che only at INR abc".
This is spooky. Clearly, Google is tracking data of what I'm doing on the browser. More heinously, it is selling this info to random websites (or at least using it to serve up 'relevant' ads to me). I'm not sure if I appreciate this. This sounds very much like Big Brother to me.
I wonder what all Google knows about me. Pretty much everything - my bank account, my passwords, my bank balance, what i shop for, who i email, where i travel, what i do!! This is nuts!
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Something new and nice!
In Bangalore for work, I am forced to stay overnight in the city. Working very hard and burning the midnight oil, I am reminded of my days as a McKinsey consultant, when I would stay in very nice hotels most of the time and keep working away at my computer till the wee hours. But this post is not about that. This one is related to my all time favourite topic - food :-)
I am a foodie. Not in the sense of gourmet, adventurous or even ravenous. It is just that what I like, I can eat and eat and eat. It need not be very tasty, need not be very fresh, need not even be hygenic. I just cannot say no to a samosa, or to chole bhature, or a plate of papdi chaat or aloo tikki. Ditto chicken kathi roll, ma ki dal, aloo paratha.... you get the drift.
It was with trepidation, therefore, that I set foot into this standalone restaurant near MG Road in Bangalore, called Caperberry (www.caperberry.in). Voted the Best Independent Restaurant in India by the Time Out Food Awards in 2011, this restaurant really blew my socks away.
I tried the vegetarian tasting menu, along with a glass of sangria. The sangria was the best I've ever had (and I have had lots at multiple places!), but the food was a revelation. Perhaps it was the fact that I am not accustomed to fine dining, or the fact that I was hungry (which I certainly was). But the 6 course meal, along with the tiramisu at the end was a meal fit for a king.
Beginning with a compressed watermelon with red cabbage gazpacho, moving on to mushroom parfait, then on to some kind of corn cornetto, then a sorbet, then finally the best course - an asparagus and filo stack, rounded off by something called .... I've forgotten the fancy name, but essentially it was some kind of jelly topped with olive tapenade. Finally a tiramisu which the guy actually makes at the table, rounded off with nice petit fours.
The chef came around generally asking how the food was, and I promised him that I would bring my wife to this fantastic place the next time around. The damage to my finances was substantial (approx 3.5k, all in); but an experience to remember!
Highly recommended!
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Things I like about Chennai (and things I dont)
Things I Like:
1) Short distances - point A to point B is usually no more than 30 mins. Office to home is 10 mins!
2) The beaches - although most of the city beaches are not really bathe-able, you get pretty seascapes about 45-60 mins out of town
3) Traffic policemen (and women) - ubiquitous, industrious and not too greedy
4) Nilgiri's department store - where we get our weekly fix of groceries. Beats Big Bazaar by many notches
5) Filter coffee - not the one found at Cafe Coffee Day
Things that I think could improve:
1) Eating out - the popular eating places seem to serve the same kind of non-tasty food. No Haldiram's!! No good Chole Bhature!! Thai, Mediterranean, Italian, North Indian, Greek - all uniformly expensive and uniformly mediocre
2) Buying good alcohol - cannot do!
3) Chilled out-ness - generally a good thing, but not if it means long queues at check out counters, lazy household help, shops closed on Sundays
4) Malls / cinemas - the one large mall is super crowded and teeming with humanity. Getting tickets for movies in a cinema hall is very difficult
5) Road tax on cars - cars are more expensive than Delhi by 30%+!!
6) The airport - honestly, think they can do much better than the current atrocity
7) Low on priority list for franchises - No TGIF! Starbucks not queueing up to open a store anytime soon
Have I been spoilt by Delhi's infrastructure and spending capacity??
1) Short distances - point A to point B is usually no more than 30 mins. Office to home is 10 mins!
2) The beaches - although most of the city beaches are not really bathe-able, you get pretty seascapes about 45-60 mins out of town
3) Traffic policemen (and women) - ubiquitous, industrious and not too greedy
4) Nilgiri's department store - where we get our weekly fix of groceries. Beats Big Bazaar by many notches
5) Filter coffee - not the one found at Cafe Coffee Day
Things that I think could improve:
1) Eating out - the popular eating places seem to serve the same kind of non-tasty food. No Haldiram's!! No good Chole Bhature!! Thai, Mediterranean, Italian, North Indian, Greek - all uniformly expensive and uniformly mediocre
2) Buying good alcohol - cannot do!
3) Chilled out-ness - generally a good thing, but not if it means long queues at check out counters, lazy household help, shops closed on Sundays
4) Malls / cinemas - the one large mall is super crowded and teeming with humanity. Getting tickets for movies in a cinema hall is very difficult
5) Road tax on cars - cars are more expensive than Delhi by 30%+!!
6) The airport - honestly, think they can do much better than the current atrocity
7) Low on priority list for franchises - No TGIF! Starbucks not queueing up to open a store anytime soon
Have I been spoilt by Delhi's infrastructure and spending capacity??
Sunday, September 23, 2012
An argument on FDI in retail
This weekend I was in Delhi at my parents' place. Had gone to the city for a business trip, and stayed back a day to dig into some of Mom's yummy chaat.
Chatting about this and that, the conversation came to the opening of FDI in retail, and whether it would be any good for us. Being a dyed in the wool reformist, I played out the usual arguments about how large format retail would increase efficiencies in the value chain, help farmers and producers get better prices, and reduce prices for consumers. Additionally, they would help allied areas like real estate, employment etc. For good measure, I added that any sector that has seen foreign money come in (telecom, airlines, insurance, automobiles, white goods etc etc has all improved product quality exponentially and driven prices down so significantly that it would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
My mom's experience had been that large format retail (think Big Bazaar or Reliance Retail) initially had low prices which caused the local kirana folks to buy from them and on-sell, but over time prices moved up and the kirana shops applied a mark up on the higher prices. Also, the large stores usually stocked sub standard produce (cold storage potatoes, stale veggies etc) which cannot be good for health, generally speaking. In dad's opinion, large format stores would drive out small shopkeepers from business, and with less competition, prices would begin to rise. While I agree with some of these points, I think they miss the wood for the trees.
I do not think that it is imperative for India to have Wal Mart stores. However, I think it is imperative that we get the intellectual property that these chains have and apply them to Indian supply chains. As for collateral damage, such as loss in livelihood of middlemen or mom and pop kirana stores, creative destruction is unavoidable. As an example, politicians in the state of UP shut down Reliance Fresh stores there, while other states have welcomed them. I do not think UP is any better off than before, or than its alternative. In the welcoming states, on the other hand, at least a large chunk of people have got gainful employment, and consumers low prices.
I am all for opening up the economy even more fully to foreign money and expertise. Long live liberalization!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Sherlock Holmes - the new TV series
I was given the new BBC Sherlock Holmes series by a colleague, and saw the first episode today. Frankly, I was just blown away!
Not by the story, which was fine, if a bit gimmicky. But by the actors and the development of the characters. Benedict Cumberbatch is a masterful, if impish, Holmes. He starts off being aloof and superior, but by the end of episode one, you can't help but like him. The real hero though is Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson. Starting fragile and ginger, he 'grows up' quickly and in the end, quickly becomes a peer rather than an appendage. An ally, not a flunky.
The dialogue is sharp and crackling, and the humour very British. The 21st century elements - iPhone, blogs, nicotine patches etc. etc. add to the story without taking anything away from the core of the books.
All in all, a fantastic production. Pity there are only 6 episodes made thus far. I'm planning to watch all the remaining 5 over the weekend.
Not by the story, which was fine, if a bit gimmicky. But by the actors and the development of the characters. Benedict Cumberbatch is a masterful, if impish, Holmes. He starts off being aloof and superior, but by the end of episode one, you can't help but like him. The real hero though is Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson. Starting fragile and ginger, he 'grows up' quickly and in the end, quickly becomes a peer rather than an appendage. An ally, not a flunky.
The dialogue is sharp and crackling, and the humour very British. The 21st century elements - iPhone, blogs, nicotine patches etc. etc. add to the story without taking anything away from the core of the books.
All in all, a fantastic production. Pity there are only 6 episodes made thus far. I'm planning to watch all the remaining 5 over the weekend.
The death of cash
In the past week, we have seen co-ordinated and unprecedented action by global central bankers.
First, Mario Draghi, chariman of the European Central Bank, said that he would buy short dated government bonds from any Eurozone country that asks for his help. Effectively, he is saying that he will unleash a flood of liquidity and force yields downwards, making it easier for governments to fund their spending or repayment programs.
If this was uncharacteristic of the Europeans, what came next was the biggest bazooka of all. 'Helicopter' Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US central bank (so called because he once said that if throwing currency out of a helicopter to people below could help the economy, he would do it), laid out QE3. How much is he willing to spend? No limits at all! He says he will spend $40bn each month - for ever, if required, buying mortgage bonds till the US job market improves. This is the stuff of superhuman comics and real epoch making events.
What this means is that currencies are racing against each other to debase themselves, so that borrowers have to return less (in real terms) than they had borrowed. Lenders (savers) are going to get shafted. But hey! no one said capitalism was benign.
The markets are celebrating wildly, because this means that the global currency taps are open without limit. However, I think we need to be a bit circumspect - because after this, central bankers have no more tools left. They have done all they could (and maybe more than they should). Now it is up to the politicians to deliver - austerity / increased productivity in Europe, and spending in the US.
Whatever happens, one thing is sure - these events will be discussed and debated in history books many many decades from now. All I can hope for is that these gentlemen are looked upon by history as heroes, and not villians who blew up the world as we knew it.
As for me, I am going to move all my meagre cash savings into gold or land! The reign of cash is over, the era of assets has begun!
First, Mario Draghi, chariman of the European Central Bank, said that he would buy short dated government bonds from any Eurozone country that asks for his help. Effectively, he is saying that he will unleash a flood of liquidity and force yields downwards, making it easier for governments to fund their spending or repayment programs.
If this was uncharacteristic of the Europeans, what came next was the biggest bazooka of all. 'Helicopter' Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US central bank (so called because he once said that if throwing currency out of a helicopter to people below could help the economy, he would do it), laid out QE3. How much is he willing to spend? No limits at all! He says he will spend $40bn each month - for ever, if required, buying mortgage bonds till the US job market improves. This is the stuff of superhuman comics and real epoch making events.
What this means is that currencies are racing against each other to debase themselves, so that borrowers have to return less (in real terms) than they had borrowed. Lenders (savers) are going to get shafted. But hey! no one said capitalism was benign.
The markets are celebrating wildly, because this means that the global currency taps are open without limit. However, I think we need to be a bit circumspect - because after this, central bankers have no more tools left. They have done all they could (and maybe more than they should). Now it is up to the politicians to deliver - austerity / increased productivity in Europe, and spending in the US.
Whatever happens, one thing is sure - these events will be discussed and debated in history books many many decades from now. All I can hope for is that these gentlemen are looked upon by history as heroes, and not villians who blew up the world as we knew it.
As for me, I am going to move all my meagre cash savings into gold or land! The reign of cash is over, the era of assets has begun!
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Praise for the Batman.... again
Just happened to stumble across this piece when trawling the web over the Anish Trivedi cartoons episode. The author is Vir Sanghvi, a guy whose views I usually like to read.
Spoiler alert: if you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises and intend to see it, then you should stop reading here lest I give away too much.
Eventually the project went to director Tim Burton, known for his weird and fantastic view of life. Burton took a dark Frank Miller-like Batman and placed him in an imaginatively designed Gotham City which was described in the script as looking “as if hell had erupted through the sidewalk.” Because the studio was not sure that Michael Keaton (who Burton cast, against type as Batman) had enough star quality, Jack Nicholson played the main villain, the Joker, and stole the movie.
So now we know how it ends. Batman retires and Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, which began with the magnificent Batman Begins, draws to a majestic close. I’ve been a Batman fan almost from the time I learnt how to read and have loyally followed the character through good (Frank Miller’s re-invigoration of the legend; the first Tim Burton movie; Nolan’s Batman Begins; the death of that nasty little creep, Jason Todd who was the second Robin etc.) and bad (the 1960s TV show; Batman and Robin, possibly the worst movie in the history of cinema; and the introduction of Aunt Harriet as a character in the Wayne household). But never has the myth of The Batman seemed as potent as it does now, after Nolan’s trilogy.
Spoiler alert: if you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises and intend to see it, then you should stop reading here lest I give away too much.
There are broadly two kinds of Batman fans: those who know him from the comic book and those who knew him from movies and TV. Even within those categories, there are subdivisions. If you liked the Batman TV show, then you are probably not considered cool by fans of the later movies. If you liked the Sixties and Seventies comics when Batman and Robin came across as a pair of boy scouts (or like scout master and scout), then ‘real’ comic fans don’t see you as cool. If you like the graphic novels that have populated the Batman universe over the last two decades, then you are so cool that you might as well be a nerd. (The line between fanatical graphic novel fans and geeks is a thin one.)
I’m not sure which of these categories and sub-categories I fit into. I got into Batman through the Sixties comic books and though they seem pretty lame now (at one stage there was a whole Batman family of Batwoman, Batgirl, Batmite and even Bat-Hound), they appealed to kids of my age. And many of the elements that we thrilled to: Batman’s secret identity as playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, the Batmobile, the Batcave and such villains as the Joker and Catwoman have stood the test of time.
What I did not know, when I first read the Sixties comics was that they were sanitized takes on the original Batman. Created in May 1939 as a masked avenger along the lines of Zorro and the Phantom (who predates Batman and was clearly an inspiration), the character was first called The Bat-Man, tended to appear only at night, was on bad terms with the cops, wore a mask as much to avoid the police as to protect the people he loved, and had no hesitation in dispatching criminals to their death.
But within a year, DC Comics, had begun to soften The Bat-Man by giving him a young sidekick called Robin. And soon, when Batman’s original creator Bob Kane failed to come up with enough comics, a platoon of new writers and artists, each of whom had his own vision of the character, took over: Dick Sprang, Carmine Infantino, Mort Sheskin, Jim Mooney etc. Almost as influential as Kane himself were writer Bill Finger and artist Jerry Robinson who created the Joker. Kane, however, insisted that his byline always appear and was reluctant to share credit.
Even in this softer form, Batman went on to become an international rage, was featured in two movies in the 1940s and got his own hit TV show in the 1960s. The dark Bat-Man of the original comics was more or less forgotten for over 40 years till Frank Miller wrote The Dark Knight Returns. This was a series of comics set outside the normal continuity which imagined a future where a middle-aged Batman came out of retirement to fight crime. In Miller’s world, the public had turned against superheroes, TV was full of the same idiots debating the same issues every night. And corruption had seized control of society.
Almost all retellings of the Batman legend have drawn from Frank Miller’s version of the character. The idea of a dark and dangerous Batman intrigued Hollywood and a Dark Knight movie with Mel Gibson (playing Batman as an anti-Semitic midget, presumably) was planned but never got off the ground.
Eventually the project went to director Tim Burton, known for his weird and fantastic view of life. Burton took a dark Frank Miller-like Batman and placed him in an imaginatively designed Gotham City which was described in the script as looking “as if hell had erupted through the sidewalk.” Because the studio was not sure that Michael Keaton (who Burton cast, against type as Batman) had enough star quality, Jack Nicholson played the main villain, the Joker, and stole the movie.
Burton made one more Batman-in-a-weird-Gotham-City movie, costarring Danny DeVito as a depraved, sewer-dwelling Penguin. By then the comics had also decided to focus entirely on grown-up themes and a much darker Batman. Bane, a muscle-bound villain, was introduced and in 1995, in the long-running Knightfall series of comics, he actually beat Batman, breaking his back across his knee.
Even as the public thrilled to a darker Batman, the movies lost the plot. A new director, Joel Schumacher, made the comic book-like Batman Forever (with Val Kilmer as an excellent Batman) and then followed it up with the disastrous, campy Batman and Robin which even the casting of George Clooney as Batman could not save. That movie, as Clooney often admits, sunk the franchise.
When the Batman movie series was revived, the British director Christopher Nolan agreed to direct only after he could start afresh, wiping out memories of the last dud picture. The studio agreed and Nolan’s reboot of the franchise Batman Begins starred another Brit, Christian Bale as Batman and told the story in a more realistic, matter-of-fact manner. (The movie was packed with Bit and Irish actors: Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson etc.). But Nolan went back to the idea of a Dark Knight, abandoning the comic book persona of the last two Batman pictures.
Batman Begins, a terrific movie, was followed by a film actually called The Dark Knight which most people (except me: I thought it went on for too long) regard as the finest Batman movie at least partly because Heath Ledger played a Joker who was as dark and dangerous as Bale’s Batman. (Jack Nicholson had gone over-the-top with his portrayal).
But Nolan also introduced topical themes. At many levels, the Dark Knight was an allegory for the American of the post 9/11, era fighting a battle against terrorists whose motivation it could not understand. The end was morally ambiguous: Batman beats the Joker but pays a terrible price. And serious contemporary subtext kept cropping up.
The Dark Knight Rises begins eight years after the events of The Dark Knight and freely borrows from the Frank Miller series and from Knightfall. Batman has retired. He has not been seen for eight years. The villain is Bane who wants to take over Gotham and who releases all of the city’s criminals. Bane is in league with Ra's al Ghul (as in the comics), the villain from Batman Begins. There is even a reprise of the famous scene where Bane breaks Batman’s back across his knee.
From my perspective, it is the best comic book movie ever made partly because it is tightly plotted, well-acted, (Anne Hathaway almost steals the picture) and well put-together. And once again, Nolan taps into America’s current concerns: Wall Street is bad; Bruce Wayne is cheated out of his fortune through bogus futures trades. America is no longer the land of opportunity and the cracks beneath the surface are coming to the fore --- in this movie -- literally, right after the Star Spangled Banner is sung at a football game!
I won’t give more away. But even if you have no previous interest in Batman, go and see this picture. For once, every element in the Bat pantheon is brilliantly integrated. And the end has an emotional power that is unusual for comic book pictures.
What a pity it is the last movie in this trilogy!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
For the survivor
Often life hands us lemons. Only a few of us use this lemon to make lemonade. I am lucky to have one such friend, who, in a recent conversation, only half-jokingly referred to himself as the 'Survivor'.
It is true - this dude, who I have known for close to a decade now, is indeed a survivor. He survived b-school, a couple of jobs lost, a horrific accident which laid him low for almost a year, and finally the great financial crisis.
He lives life king (ok, maybe prince) size, without attachments, and in style. This style goes beyond just a set of hot wheels and a cool pad, it includes himself, his looks, his body (recently he has started running 8-10 kms a day).
Dude, keep surviving :-)
It is true - this dude, who I have known for close to a decade now, is indeed a survivor. He survived b-school, a couple of jobs lost, a horrific accident which laid him low for almost a year, and finally the great financial crisis.
He lives life king (ok, maybe prince) size, without attachments, and in style. This style goes beyond just a set of hot wheels and a cool pad, it includes himself, his looks, his body (recently he has started running 8-10 kms a day).
Dude, keep surviving :-)
Saturday, July 28, 2012
The Dark Knight Truly Rises
First, a confession. I am a Bat-freak. When I was a kid, I would fervently wait for Batman cartoons to show up on good 'ol DD Metro on Sunday evenings. I hated the earlier set of criminally-badly made Batman movies (with the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy et. al), but even then I watched all of them faithfully. When I finally laid eyes on Batman Begins, I thought finally here is a movie that does justice to the most amazing superhero of all time. The Dark Knight was, in my eyes, the best movie ever made.
It was with great expectations, therefore, that I trudged in to watch the last part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy on the Batman. Trepidation, too. For I thought from the trailers that Batman finally meets his comeuppance in Bane.
(Aside: Bane! What a guy! A legend to match every bit of the Batman's own. A hulk who is pure evil. I thought that the Joker was the last word on villains. I still do, but I will always remember Bane with respect and admiration)
The Dark Knight Rises was everything I expected, and much more. A fantastic cast of characters (everyone is here, including Ra's Al Ghul, the Scarecrow, Catwoman, Talia Al Ghul, Robin), epic action set pieces (the first scene is going to live forever in action movie lore), honest and precise explanations for all the back stories (League of Shadows, Bane's origins etc) and contextual, big picture questions (has capitalism gone too far?, do the ends justify the means) take this movie up to the top 5 of all time list. I particularly loved the way the movie ended, on dignity and hope.
The irony is that I would rate the Dark Knight as a grander epic, precisely because it ended without hope, as a gritty and depressing tale of life as we know it.
The Dark Knight Rises, on the other hand, tells us that there is a better life out there. We only have to Rise!
It was with great expectations, therefore, that I trudged in to watch the last part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy on the Batman. Trepidation, too. For I thought from the trailers that Batman finally meets his comeuppance in Bane.
(Aside: Bane! What a guy! A legend to match every bit of the Batman's own. A hulk who is pure evil. I thought that the Joker was the last word on villains. I still do, but I will always remember Bane with respect and admiration)
The Dark Knight Rises was everything I expected, and much more. A fantastic cast of characters (everyone is here, including Ra's Al Ghul, the Scarecrow, Catwoman, Talia Al Ghul, Robin), epic action set pieces (the first scene is going to live forever in action movie lore), honest and precise explanations for all the back stories (League of Shadows, Bane's origins etc) and contextual, big picture questions (has capitalism gone too far?, do the ends justify the means) take this movie up to the top 5 of all time list. I particularly loved the way the movie ended, on dignity and hope.
The irony is that I would rate the Dark Knight as a grander epic, precisely because it ended without hope, as a gritty and depressing tale of life as we know it.
The Dark Knight Rises, on the other hand, tells us that there is a better life out there. We only have to Rise!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Elina's current favourite
This is a song I first heard in 2002 in Germany. These days my daughter loves this song (only the song not the video. She says 'Don't Like It' when I play the video!)
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