LTGTR October 2011
‘They were three Wise Men just trying to have some fun’ - James Blunt
THE EDITORIAL - Vijay Narayan The worst part about life is that you have to grow up. One day you’re sitting playing with a GI-Joe, and the next thing you know, you’re thrown into a rat race. Assignments to complete, meetings to attend, deadlines to be reached. Essentially, you’ve become an adult. Talk all you might about how satisfying your work is , but you know deep down that you would give anything to become a little kid again. And, in our infinite glory, we managed to solve this problem, if only for short periods of time. People might tell you that cartoons are just for little kids, but if that were really true, why have20 animated movies released in 2011 alone, and why have they done so well. It can’t just be because the kids are watching it! It doesn’t really matter who you are, at some point all you want to do is sit back, and watch a ridiculous show of a cat chasing a mouse all over the house! Why? I can’t offer you a scientific answer, but I do know that cartoons do have their allure! The beautiful thing about cartoons is that for those few minutes, you get transported into this ‘parallel universe’ (for lack of a better term), in which you are simply unburdened . It’s our way of clinging on to a way of life that was just so uncomplicated. The best part- it truly works wonders! Despite their implausible plot lines, in these three years of college, I have never found anyone badmouthing shows like Swat Kats, The Road Runner Show, The Centurions etc. Why, because these classics were what we grew up on, and we refuse that let that one childish aspect of our lives go away that easily.
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FEATURE : CARTOONS 8
A walk through animated movies 18
Movie Review Mona Lisa Smile 33
Occupy Wall Street 24
Everyday Life For Dummies 28
Wings Of Pride
Interview with Group Captain TEJWANT SINGH 36
To The
Redline | N By Nishant Boorla
MIST, Hyderabad
Ferrari Enzo
the world welcomed the Ferrari 125 S. Not ones to start quietly, Ferrari’s debut attempt housed a V12! Ferrari stamped their authority over the Anyways, Scuderia Ferrari supercar market over the course of participated in races with Alfa the 50’s. Romeo cars throughout the 30’s. Fast forward to circa ’63 – A The wise folk at Alfa Romeo took challenger stepped up. Ferruccio notice and signed up Enzo to head Lamborghini set up his company their racing division in 1938. In with the sole aim of knocking Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari’s racing 1941, Alfa Romeo was confiscated Ferrari off their perch. A wealthy arm came first and was founded by Mussolini and his fascist regime, man, Lamborghini himself owned in 1929 by Enzo Ferrari. If his first prompting Enzo Ferrari to shift a number of Ferraris’s, but felt they name sounds familiar to you, you focus to his own company. In 1943 weren’t refined enough since they know more about cars than you Ferrari moved his company to sported tuned down versions of think! Back then the factory racing Maranello, their headquarters to coarse race engines. His vision was scene wasn’t as rigid and orthodox date. Things got off to a turbulent to make cars that offered greater as it is now. This meant it wasn’t start, however, when the factory levels of refinement without uncommon for teams to race using was bombed by the Allied Forces in skimping on performance figures. cars made by established third-party ’44. It took a while, but in 1946 the Refinement, performance and manufacturers. This is comparable factory was restored and in 1947 handling. In that order. ot too long ago, I was involved in a heated argument with a fellow petrol-head. No ground-breaking stuff. The usual Ferrari Vs Lamborghini conundrum. If you know your cars I’m sure you already have a firm opinion. There’s no middle ground in this debate. However, let me start with a brief history lesson for the uninformed.
Ferrari 250 GTO
to the Indian Rally Racing scene today where independent teams race using modified Cedia’s and Evo’s.
Ferrari F40
Lamborghini Muira
Lamborghini Diablo Now you probably think Ferrari and Lamborghini have been neck and neck ever since. But you couldn’t be further from the truth. It all started with Lamborghini outsourcing the design of the engine for their first car to Giotto Bizzarrini, the man behind the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO. He had quit Ferrari over a dispute with Enzo Ferrari and I assume was only too pleased to design a V12 for a rival.
So you’re probably thinking Lamborghini launched absolutely incredible cars one after the other, knocking Ferrari out of the park. Wrong again.
You see, the Diablo was a raging bull that was launched with one purpose – To take on the Ferrari F40. General consensus to this day is that the F40 is the greatest supercar of all time. It blew the Lamborghini Countach out of the water and held the record of However, it wasn’t until 1967 that being the fastest road car with a top Lamborghini were considered speed of 320kmph. The Diablo, of serious rivals. The Miura was the course, was marginally quicker but first 2 seater supercar Lamborghini it was the Ferrari that walked away ever, and it took the challenge to with all the plaudits for its incredible the Prancing Horse. The car was a handling and driver involvement. trendsetter and is to this day the The Diablo still had the higher top most awe-inspiring Lamborghini speed and one could sense that the ever made. They stepped it up boys from Maranello were aching a notch in ’69 with the Espada for revenge. They launched the F50 which put impressive numbers on which matched the Diablo’s top lap boards and sales charts alike. speed but fell by the wayside and Ferrari had a star of their own in was largely criticized. And before the 365 Daytona. Throughout the they knew it, Lamborghini landed 70’s, Lamborghini struggled with another blow by launching the their finances and went through Murcielago. And the numbers were multiple ownership changes while mighty impressive. 6.2L V12 engine, Ferrari cruised along. The 80’s saw 580bhp, 0-100 in 3.5 seconds and the Countach grow in popularity a top speed of 330kmph. Game, but in the ‘90’s it was game on. set and match then? Hardly! You Ferrari was slipping up a bit and see, Ferrari hit back with a car that it was at this opportune moment made jaws drop, snap and hit the that Lamborghini launched the pavement. The Ferrari Enzo. quintessential “raging bull” – The Diablo! The beast, powered by a Some Enzo Numbers then with V12 engine, boasted of speeds over corresponding Murcielago digits in 325 kmph! This was followed by brackets: the most recognizable Lambo of all • 6L V12 producing an astronomical time, the Murcielago, which set the 660bhp! (580bhp) • 0-100kmph in 3.14s (3.5s) supercar world on fire in 2001. • Top Speed – 350kmph (330kmph)
As a reference: Maruti Swift • 1.3L engine. • 87bhp. • 0-100 in 13.8s • Top speed - 160kmph Now you get it! Those were the days. Cut to the present and Lamborghini have moved in to Hypercar territory with the Aventador while Ferrari is happy ruling the supercar world with the incredible 458 Italia. There really is no way to be objective about this. The Ferrari Vs Lamborghini debate isn’t decided by the numbers they put out. The winner isn’t decided on the basis of technical superiority. It’s all about perception. I like Ferrari because they make beautiful automobiles. To me Lamborghini is like an annoying, attention seeking, high school girl – slutty persona, goth make-up, the whole nine yards. They deal in shock and awe. Outlandish designs and the like. I leave it to each of you to decide – The grace of the prancing horse or the fury of the raging bull. P.S: Go to Google Images and search for “Ferrari P4/5 Pininfarina”
Rewind By Clive Pereira
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hey used to put a smile on your face every time you saw them scampering around fighting with one another or just plain lazing around not doing anything besides eating and having the day off. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking then we are talking about your favourite cartoons. Tom and Jerry, Pink Panther, Garfield and Friends, Powerpuff Girls and so many more. When you think back to when you used to watch these cartoons you go back into a simpler time, a time without responsibility, a carefree time just like the one Garfield seems to still have. Well, this month, it is all about reliving your childhood. Take a day or two off and spend that time with your favourite cartoon character. Watching re-runs is always fun; every joke, every dynamite stick hits you with a wave of nostalgia. They definitely don’t make them like they used to. Nowadays it’s all peace, love and joy and purple dinosaurs, which ironically makes me feel violent. The classics were not only entertaining, but also educational, giving us ideas on how to get back at our annoying sisters or how to steal pic-a-nic baskets…. ahhh childhood… good times!Jokes apart, watching old cartoons makes you realize how clever they really were, and gives you a second chance to appreciate hidden
pop-culture references or humor that may have gone over your head as a child; you’re not only watching reruns, you’re seeing them in a different light. The old episodes of Tom and Jerry were some of the top rated and had a completely different feel form the modern computer generated ones. Unfortunately, most of the cartoons we love, the classic cartoons, are difficult to come across. They are off the air and rarely found on DVD. The best way you can have access to all those old memories is by turning towards the internet. Websites like toonjet, internet archive, Hulu are some of the best when it comes to old cartoons. You can enjoy old episodes of that modern Stone Age family or episodes of Wile.E.Coyote chasing the Roadrunner (shockingly, for 48 episodes, a half hour special and a feature film; if that isn’t a lesson in perseverance I don’t know what is). There might be several instances where you feel that the cartoon you were watching was much better back then. Just chill out, you’re not 7 anymore! Go with it and watch it like you watched it in the good old days (but in HD of course).So with the theme being cartoons this month lap up all you can get and catch up with your childhood favourites! LTGTR | October ‘11 | 8
The Madness, weirdness and awesomeness of Hanna-Barbera cartoons I’m a ‘90s child and like most antisocial kids, I spent a significant part of my early years watching cartoons on TV. Cartoon Network in those days was brilliant. It started off with just a 12 hour slot on TNT/Cartoon Network (as far as I remember) and the last show of the day used to be Popeye at around 9 pm which was then followed by strange old Hollywood movies on TNT. Later, they did away with TNT and Cartoon Network became independent which may have been one of the happiest days of my geeky childhood. Thus began the golden age of cartoons(on Cartoon Network at least), which ended as soon as they started showing stuff like ‘Shamsher Sikandar Chaddie Buddie’ and ‘Ben 10’, which I strongly dislike. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer a horse named El Kabong in a Zorro outfit, who hits villains on the head with a guitar to some green-eyed dweeb with a fancy watch(I don’t even care to find out properly). Point here is, some or almost all of the best, craziest and funniest cartoons came from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Now that I look back, I barely remember watching anything apart from Hanna Barbera cartoons. Lets do a recap *crashboom-bang-badoinkkk*
By Rachina Ahuja
secure in their originality) and two big Hollywood movies were spawned. The Flintstones Poor Fred, always yabba-dabbadoo-ing into adventures and taking his hapless buddy Barney with him. His sole aim in life was to go bowling with the guys, twinkle-toe his way to victory and not get in trouble with his wife. Based in the ‘stoneage’ when pigs were garbagedisposals, dinosaurs were pets, and velociraptors were airplanes, The Flintsones was almost like a sitcom, except from a billion years ago and um, without real people. The Jetsons The Jetsons was centered around George Jetson, his wife and kids, his dog, his robot housekeeper and his irate, bullying boss Mr.Spacely, who could often be heard yelling, “JETSONNNN!” It was just like the Flintstones except based in a different time: the future, which meant we got to see some nifty gadgets and fake future technology. Top Cat TC and his gang of alley cats-Benny the ball, Spook, Brain, Fancy Fancy and Choo Choo- were forever on the lookout to improve their situation and of course, to evade Officer Dibble (for years, I thought his name was Table) who was always suspicious of their schemes.
Scooby Doo Throw him a Scooby Snack and he’ll do anything, even chase after ghosts and monsters. These mysterysolving, meddling kids and their dog became so popular that thousands Quick Draw McGraw of poor pomeranians(annoying yappy dogs) were named Scooby Sheriff of a small western town, by their proud owners(erroneously Quick Draw, a horse and his LTGTR | October ‘11 | 10
sidekick Baba Looey, a burro, used to fight crime with their sheer awesomeness. Occasionally, Quick Draw would show up as El Kabong, as I mentioned, and with a yell of “Oleeeee!” would hit the perpetrator with his guitar, producing a very satisfying ‘kabong’ sound. Yogi Bear Nobody in Jellystone Park could keep their ‘pic-a-nic’ baskets safe, the acquisition of which was the main desire of Yogi’s heart, which in turn was the bane of Ranger Smith’s life.
unwittingly terrorizing neighbours and...dancing.
their
Swat Kats Protectors of Megakat City and part-time junk yard workers, T-bone and Razor were two ‘kats’ that you did not want to mess with. Seriously, they came with a fighter jet, uniforms and their own awesome theme song.
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Stupid dogs They liked running around in circles(in case of the little one), just sitting around(the big guy) and getting in free at the drive-in. What can I say? They were just really Dick Dastardly and stupid. Muttley in the Wacky Races Magilla Gorilla, Dick Dastardly was always off Huckleberry hound, Atom being true to his name and trying Ant, Secret Squirrel to get to the finish line first in Some of the shorter toons featured the most fiendish way possible a Gorilla in a pet shop window while his dog, Muttley, tagged who was always trying to escape, along and snickered. Muttley’s a blue dog who liked to sing about snickering was quite possibly his darling Clementine, a crimethe best part of the show, apart fighting ant and a detective squirrel. from the unconventional vehicles I could go on forever, Hanna Barbera of the equally unconventional produced cartoons from the 1960s participants. onwards all the way to the 1990s Snagglepuss Heavens to Murgatroyd! This cowardly pink mountain lion was a slippery one. Whenever in trouble, or being chased by Major Minor, he was quick to escape with an announcement of “Exit! Stage left!” and the famous Hanna Barbera running sound effect. The Addams Family The strangest family in the neighbourhood, or possibly in the world, the Addams had several peculiar habits which included but were not limited to : keeping a pet hand, having a large, blue, frankenstein-like butler, attempting to kill each other out of boredom, LTGTR | October ‘11 | 11
and there are several that I’ve left out. Here’s to the hope that their legacy, the legacy of real cartoons (apologies for the oxymoron) lasts forever and people don’t forget that cartoons are meant to be outrageous, ridiculous, hilarious, possibly borderline offensive and accompanied by sound effects of similar characteristics.
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the power!” It’s the perfect way to appeal to young testosterone-driven boys who grow up to become young testosterone-driven men with libidos. Action cartoons were, by far, the one genre of cartoons that appealed to all male members of our generation. Who amongst us doesn’t occasionally YouTube the action cartoon oldies of our time now and then just to reminisce about how freaking awesome growing up was? I mean, sure, school was tough. Homework was dull, teachers nagged, parents exacerbated every situation by nagging some more. Playing cards and fitting in with social groups was either too expensive or too difficult to understand. What better way to connect with your peers than to discuss what happened in the last episode of Swat Kats, breathlessly re-enacting exciting fight scenes and discussing whether Razor or y bhay upta T-Bone was more badass? In my opinion, T-Bone was ack when I was still a kid, we had a fixed formula decidedly more badass, if only because he was far for what made an awesome cartoon show. more underrated than his partner and I have a thing for This went beyond your run of the mill usual underdogs. Or, if you’d prefer, underkats. colourful, brainlessly slapstick cartoons like Bugs Bunny Even today, I wish I had my own jet in a secret base and any other Looney Toons products. The cartoon under my building. Or a suit that I could attach a whole qualifying for awesomeness managed to combine bunch of guns, missiles and transportation devices to. that spectacular animation with fast-paced, adrenalin- Don’t we all, sometimes? I mean, it’d be so useful to pumping action. And this is before Anime made it fight off bullies if you could instantly attach an RPG to big in India. I’m talking about shows like Swat Kats, your arm or summon a super-powered eco-freak with Centurions, Galtar and the Golden Lance, Ninja Robots, a green mullet. And that love for violent content and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, etc. You action grows with us. As adult men, 300, Transformers, also had shows like Powerpuff Girls, that were action- Terminator Salvation, Jurassic Park, X-Men, Ninja packed but silly, as well as shows like Captain Planet, Assassin and Gladiator are just a small sample of the which attempted to teach kids values like recycling and kind of movies we’d put on our top ten lists. And, living green. Personally, blowing stuff up with massive going by the trend, they each have one or more of the guns and shiny swords appealed to me more than using following qualifying items: shiny weapons, dinosaurs, elemental super-powers to clean up the environment. robots, ninjas, fighter jets (that turned into robots), The formula was pretty simple. Have a generic a good-versus-evil battle sequence and lots of stuff character and give him a shiny weapon. Throw in a getting blown up. Action cartoons are every young dinosaur or a robot or a ninja, or even fighter jets and boy’s initiation process into the fast-paced themes of cool gadgets. Mix them up in permutations if you have the all-general action genre that is, inherently, maleto. Have exaggerated fight scenes followed by another bait.
Action Cartoons
B A
B
G
generic good-versus-evil showdown each episode with the good guys triumphing and yelling out catchphrases like Razor’s “Bingo” or Captain Planet’s even cheesier “The power is yours!” or even He-man’s “I have
Cowabunga, anyone?
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CARTOON VILLAINS W hether it’s the creepy Joker, the angst-ridden Magneto, or the sad Dr. Doofenshmirtz; we love our villains. Usually because of the suspense they help create. There’s a reason Megamind ended up where it did. Any “Good Vs Evil” cartoon is only as fun as its scheming villain. This extends to feature films as well. A super-hero flick, for instance, is only as good the super-villain in it. Cartoon villains need to be just as good and larger than life on an epic scale. Either that or they need to stupid on an epic scale. Think about it. It’s hard to come up with a toon villain who doesn’t fit either of these templates. Over the years, that really has been their USP. Larger than life, bonkers and either very stupid (Wile E. Coyote) or very witty (Princess Morbucks, Powerpuff Girls). Buttercup: You can’t just buy superpowers! Princess Morbucks: Oh yeah? Tell that to Batman! And if the villains don’t mock the show, the show mocks them. I mean LTGTR | October ‘11 | 13
their names are Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Angelica Pickles for crying out loud. And what kind of a name is Bluto? In several cases, it’s fun to watch cartoon villains fail on a grand scale. Diabolical schemes that lead to hilarious failures - Embodied best by Team Rocket of Pokemon fame: Well them and Wile E. Coyote from The Roadrunner Show. Jessie of Team Rocket: This couldn’t have worked better if we’d planned it. James of Team Rocket: If we’d planned it, it wouldn’t have worked at all! And how can we forget how much villains influence our everyday lives? All of us have repeated lines by villains to mock our siblings. But we don’t take after cartoon villains in matters of mockery and fashion (remember Cruella de Vil?) alone. My favourite cartoon villain inspired songs are Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by AC/DC and on the hall of fame, the much more recent Club Villain by YourFavouriteMartian. Some leave you with insights.
By Kusha Singh
Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology Dr. Doofenshmirtz: You know, fire is the leading cause of fire. Others inspire you. James: We have a proud tradition of failure to uphold. They show you how to wish and dream. Jessie: Just once, I’d like to make a dramatic exit that DOESN’T involve a life-threatening explosion. Others yet, teach us leadership qualities, Dick Dastardly: Muttley, do something! And make you believe in the place where a great man once said “impossible meets possible”; The Possimpible. Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Behold, the Melt-inator 6-5000! It has a melting capacity... of 7! That’s on a scale from 1 to 5, so that’s a big number. It’s not easy being a villain. Being a cartoon villain is ever harder. Being super evil while making kids laugh is nigh on impossible. And yet these characters managed that episode after episode and we salute them.
THEY’RE NOT JUST CARTOONS, THEY’RE realised that I was reckoning with its animated features also had a a new generation of cartoons- sizable audience. BITS PILANI, Hyderabad cartoons featured exclusively on If you grew up in what I like to call t was sometime during the turn Nickelodeon. Nicktoons. the Harry Potter generation, then of this millennium, that I came Not to say that I moved away from you must’ve seen shades of Harry, back home from school to see a new kids’ channel playing on Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes, Ron and Hermione in Krumm, Ickis my television set. Out of curiosity, Merry Melodies and the like. They and Oblina of Aaah! Real Monsters! I watched as the story unfolded shall remain evergreen classics. But A school for training monsters in about a young wallaby that moves you had to admit that Nicktoons scaring, a headmaster whose name from Australia to America and had a certain novelty to them. rhymes with the first syllable of the has a temperamental toad for a While Cartoon Network was vintage name of his wizarding counterpart neighbour and a naive steer and at its very best, Nickelodeon was, – hard not to draw parallels. And if a nerdy turtle for best friends. shall we say, more contemporary you’re an animal lover like me, then That was Rocko’s Modern Life and modern in its content. Even you would’ve loved tailing Eliza of and as I watched the theme though the channel’s fortes were The Wild Thornberrys in talking to song end with its signature comedy sketch shows, game amnesiac hippopotamuses and “SPUNKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” I shows and teen-centric dramas,
By Sayonee Ghosh Roy
I
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llamas that raised curious points of self-existentialism. Personally, I never really like Rugrats but it was a heavyweight as far as Nicktoons were concerned. I suppose it’s endearing that a bunch of babies can be such thick friends, following a policy of “When one of us has gots a problem, all of us has gots a problem!” The follow-up, All Grown Up, probably lost its charm because they were <refer to title of the show>. For people who couldn’t make up their minds whether they prefer cats to dogs or vice versa, they were merged together in a bizarre creation called CatDog. Again, not captivating enough for me, possibly because Cat always got the short end of the stick and my nepotism for felines was quite well developed at that time. If you wish to know the difference between ‘strange’ and ‘weird’, watch Ren & Stimpy, which was both. And not in a nice way either. But strange and weird in a good way was Kablam! Watching a show about a comic book where Henry and June present a show on short animated features like Action League Now, Sniz and Fondue, Prometheus and Bob etc. was convoluted and curiously cool as LTGTR | October ‘11 | 15
well!
under the sea. That’s right, absorbent and yellow and porous was he. He’s none of that nonsense, he’s something you wished. And he dropped on the deck and flopped like a fish! Spongebob Squarepants seemed to me to be the last of the Nicktoons. Nothing that came along with it or after it could recapture and retain that brand’s charm. Not The Fairly Odd Parents. Not Chalk Zone.
But I’ll list Hey Arnold! and The Angry Beavers as my favourites. I can’t explain what exactly fascinates me about the everyday trials of a football-shaped head boy and his small town friends or two beavers that’re not really that angry and introduced a new word in my vocabulary, spooty. Cartoons don’t necessary involve rational thought processes and I don’t think liking them should either. That was at least bearable. Then Hence ends the first generation the channel was seized by rabid of Nicktoons. The coming years Indianisation and we lost all the saw the introduction of shows like good ones. You don’t see any of Rocket Power, The Adventures of the 90’s stuff playing anymore. Jimmy Neutron, As Told By Ginger You now get outlandish cartoons etc. They were fresh but not exactly with outlandish names like Ninja refreshing in my opinion. Apart Hattori, Oggy and the Cockroaches from engendering an idle interest or Keymon Ache, which sounds in daredevil sports, enlightening Bengali for “How is it?” To which I me that robotic dogs can be named reply, not good at all! Goddard and attempting to portray ....................................................... the adolescent challenges faced while growing up, none of them made a lasting impression. Until I was doused generously by someone who lives in a pineapple
Cartoons and their influence on children’s minds
By Clive Pereira
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hat a child watches in a cartoon has a great influence on their behaviour; it’s a sort of “monkey see monkey do” situation. “Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology”- John Tudor With the century of technology upon us the way we used to live our lives is changing. Instead of the passing of time by indulging in outdoor or even indoor activities which are not technology related we are constantly turning towards technology to entertain us or keep us busy. And this is beginning at a very young age. Children, rather infants, as young as a year old are glued on to the television and even have their favourite programs. They do not understand much of what
is going on, but are mesmerized by the character movements in all sorts of pretty colours. Believe it or not but this is having children addicted to television before they can even walk. I don’t want to play the blame game but parents are using television as a distraction for their children so that they can get in a little “me time”. It is not wrong to want some time to yourself but it has become a convenience to turn your child towards the television in order to distract them for a while, and boy do they get distracted. You can find some children looking so intently at the television as if in a state of trance. They are even oblivious to you shouting out their names, and in order to get a reaction you have to end up switching off the TV or blocking their view. Sometimes you wonder if the cartoons are ridden with subliminal messages which hypnotize them completely. Children are more influenced by
behaviour acted then preached It is important to see the influence which television has on the young mind. Staring mindlessly at the television screen for hours on end is just one of the influences it has. In some way it is robbing children from being children. Don’t get me wrong, television is not all that bad when it is in moderation and the programs watched are being monitored. On that note let us talk about cartoon content. A child’s mind is like a sponge it soaks up all which it is exposed to. The content in a cartoon has a great influence on a child’s behaviour. Violence in cartoons not only teaches a child what violence is but also normalises it to appear like a part of everyday life and something which is practiced. In some extreme cases it can even desensitise a child to violence which is not a trait you want your child to grow up with. There have been many studies which LTGTR | October ‘11 | 16
have been conducted which prove that violence in cartoons has an influence on children’s minds. In one such study there were two groups of children. One group was exposed to a violent carton while another was exposed to a cartoon rid of any form of violence. Upon watching the program the children were left to interact with one another. The results were shocking but proved a point. The group exposed to the violent cartoon behaved in a rather harsh manner some even indulging in full blown fighting. On the other hand the group exposed to the pleasant cartoon were interacting without any scuffles. What this case study showed is a clear influence of cartoons on the young mind. Some more serious instances are where children believe that they have the ability to perform tasks just like super heroes do on the television or fight like the Looney Toons and throw objects at one another. To you and me this may seem ridiculous, but with the increased violence in cartoons nowadays it is what children start to believe. There’s more... Aside from violence in cartoons and its influence on children’s behaviour there is also the matter of the physical harm. Staring into a TV for hours together is going to create a strain on a child’s eyes and mind. The constant glare from a screen can cause a hindrance to a child’s vision and will end up in them having to wear glasses. Because we are at a stage where television is an important factor in our day to day lives we cannot bar children from watching cartoons, although what we can do is impart the knowledge that a cartoon is make believe an monitor what they are viewing. Distracting them with other activities be it sports or creative is a more pro-active approach to them passing their time. LTGTR | October ‘11 | 17
My Cartoon Story T
here are 2 things you need to know about me. I am a single child. I never stayed in a building. Now if you’re in the same boat as me, you’d know how lonely it would get as a child. School got over early and then there was really no one to play around with. I’m talking about the early 90s. You didn’t have the culture or resources to go your school friends’ house every time you got bored. These visits were planned weeks in advance and only for the weekends. Anyways, I did what any rational child would do in my situation. I played a little with the domestic helps when they had free time, I experimented by playing ghar ghar with two older didis who were my only neighbours and I made sure I slept by 6 in the evening so that I didn’t have to endure a boring night after an extremely boring day. But this wasn’t a permanent solution and even 3 year old me knew it. So finally after numerous failed attempts at engaging myself in any outdoor activity, I did the next best thing. I started watching TV. Initially the television was restricted to watching cricket with my grand-mom. But as my brain developed and I learned how to switch channels on the TV, I was introduced to this magical world full of endless possibilities. Cartoons. And it was hilarious to watch Tom & Jerry run around all day long bumping into things! It still is. I don’t exactly remember when I started watching cartoons regularly. But the feeble tendrils of my memory stretch back to reveal memories of Mowgli on DD, then Disney Hour on Zee, Hanna Barbera cartoons on Cartoon Network. After that the memories are a little clearer and I can recall watching Ghostbusters and Disney Hour on Sony. Scooby Doo became my favourite along with Centurions and Swat Kats. I absolutely loved watching Razor and
By Sahil Mehta
T-Bone build those awesome parts and weapons from scrap. That’s probably about when I decided I wanted to be an engineer. I also remember holding a toy gun with batteries in my pocket pretending to be like Egon. I also made a Ghostbusters badge and wore it on my T-shirts. And I absolutely worshipped Ace from Centurions and blue was soon my favourite colour. Come to think of it, I surprised I didn’t start eating dog food like Scooby!
Life was good then. I was doing well at school. The teachers were particularly happy about my English. My mom has more than once said it was because I watched so many English cartoons. I knew all about conversation and the environment because I watched Captain Planet. And by then I had decided I wanted to grow up and become like the Swat Kats and hence was on my way to getting into the IITs. I wasn’t even 10 and had made my life choices based on cartoons. These best thing is I never believed that it wasn’t possible because in the cartoons everything was possible. Oh and I decided to be a good guy because the good guys always won in the end! I outgrew cartoons after a couple years. And I never really went back to them until this issue. But I always did stop and watch Tom & Jerry whenever I came across it while skimming through channels. And it always made me smile. But watching so many of them over this past month has made me realise why I loved them so much and how they influenced me. And I really feel sorry for kids today who have to put up with the crap they show these days. Most of them are a lame excuse for cartoons. But the few good ones, you can still sit down as a family at the end of a day and watch and laugh and forget everything else. It is family entertainment at its best.
A brief history of the animated feature film
By Rachina Ahuja
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rom 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the animated feature film has come a long way. Disney’s Snow White wasn’t the first full length animated feature, but it was the first successful one. Each frame of the movie was hand-drawn, a process that came to be known as ‘cel animation’ or simply ‘traditional animation. Stop-motion is another kind of animation that uses puppets or clay models instead of drawings where each frame is a photograph. Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit are two examples of this kind of animation. While traditionally animated movies needed every frame to be drawn, the modern CGI(Computergenerated imagery) animated movies use powerful software to draw/model scenes and to animate things. Almost all animated movies these days are CGI-animated. The first full-length feature that was CGIanimated was Toy Story (1995) by
the studio that revolutionized the animation industry, Pixar. Disney and DreamWorks are the other two giants in the industry, although after Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in 2006, it’s really two studios that currently monopolize the animated feature film industry. You just have to love Disney. It’s impossible not to. Our generation grew up on Disney movies, and they will always be classics. The Lion King (1994), Aladdin (1992), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Mulan (1998) are just a few among the 50odd movies they’ve released so far that are must-watches. They’re the bosses, enough said. Pixar(Disney•Pixar, if you want to get technical) has given us some real gems; their movies are noted for being visually gorgeous, technically advanced and their stories always strike an emotional chord with the audience.
In fact, Cars(2006) and The Incredibles(2004) are the only ones that come to mind when I think of a Pixar movie that didn’t make me want to cry(personally, I prefer these movies for that very reason). Pixar crossed a big hurdle for animated movies, though, they proved that animated movies are not just for children. Before Pixar, the animated film industry was dominated by Disney, whose films, while really really good, catered mostly to the younger crowd and (out of necessity) their parents. Pixar movies contain great depth: WALL•E deals with environmental issues, Up deals with some heavy human emotions and so beautifully that you feel every single one without getting the feeling that you’re being hit over the head repeatedly with them, unlike most live-action movies. Who would have thought that a rag-tag bunch of beatup toys or a
couple of monsters(Monsters Inc.) could reduce adults to tears? That is the magic of Pixar. DreamWorks Animation SKG was a part of DreamWorks Pictures until 2004. Their first success was Shrek(2001) which won the academy award for Best Animated Feature that year and since then they’ve made a string of pretty popular movies and given Pixar some competition in the field. I am a huge fan of DreamWorks, mostly because their movies are hilarious. Shrek was followed by some great movies like Madagascar(2005), Kung Fu Panda(2008), Monsters vs Aliens(2009) and How to train your dragon (2010). Although Pixar generally receives all the oscars and critical acclaim, How to train your dragon was one of DreamWorks’s recent movies that was well-received by critics. Since Shrek, DreamWorks has developed a reputation of making movies that capitalize on humor and make several pop-culture or general satirical references. They make more movies than Pixar but only one in three turns out to be really good. The Shrek sequels were indicative of a trend that was to follow in later years, when Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar would be given the dubious honor of a sequel. One sequel usually works well, but after that, the whole franchise just somehow goes to hell. Toy Story 3 (2010) is the only one I know of that escaped the more-than-one-sequel curse. I’m dreading the release of
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Puss in Boots, a spinoff of Shrek, after watching it’s ridiculously campy trailer. DWA also, apparently, has plans for a total of six (!!) Kung Fu Panda movies and three (at least) How to train your dragon movies ,which is alarming, but we’ll see how it turns out. Sony Pictures Animation is a relatively new company, founded in 2006 and known best for Open Season(2006) and Cloudy with a chance of meatballs(2009). Cloudy was a great movie, I enjoyed it very much(made me laugh and made me hungry), and I’m optimistic about the future of this company. Their recent release, The Smurfs, may have been a bit of a damp squib, but it made a lot of money and they have several projects in the making, including Hotel Transylvania, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, a sequel to Cloudy, Popeye and Rollercoaster Tycoon - yes, a movie based on the game, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I do, however, like the idea of getting Hugh Grant to voice a pirate captain so I’ll let it go.
carved a definite niche for itself in the market, an extremely lucrative niche, you realize upon examining the figures, and is now more than just a children’s film. I would argue that it was never just a children’s film. People tend to look down upon ‘cartoons’ as juvenile, which is ridiculous. Just get over yourselves, haters, what’s wrong with a movie that is good, clean, unadulterated fun for the whole family? Also, I hope that the next person who calls it a ‘cartoon movie’ gets slapped around and then eaten by a giant walrus. With most animated movies now being made in 3D, the result is a visually beautiful and grand affair that is a powerful contender for the ubiquitous live-action movie and always a safe bet for your hardearned money.
Blue Sky Studios(owned by 20th Century Fox) is worth a mention here for the excellent Ice Age (2002) movies, as well as Robots(2005) and the more recent Rio, which did quite well at the box-office, for a non-Disney, non-DreamWorks movie. The future is bright for the animated feature film. Although it can never replace the live-action movie, it has
TIMELINE : A look at animated movies through time
Crossing the rubicon
- FDI IN MULTI-BRAND RETAILING IN INDIA
By Pradyut Hande
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NMIMS, Bombay
he Indian Retail sector has witnessed a gradual albeit steady metamorphosis over the last decade alone. Despite the myriad advances over the years, the sector continues to remain highly fragmented; still primarily dominated by the unorganized segment – the quintessential traditional family run stores. Although there has been a steady deviation from this paradigm, causing the share of the organized segment to grow on a per diem basis especially in urban India, the fragmented and piece-meal nature of the market, amongst other correlated factors, has disallowed the sector to realize its holistic growth potential. However, off late, large scale domestic retailers who continue to astutely learn from their former debacles; are looking to individually embark and embrace a carefully calibrated long term strategy in their quest to dramatically transform the retailing landscape in the country. Despite the numerous obstacles that existing players and new market entrants have to deal with, the Indian retail market bristles with abundant promise…The country beckons
to global retailers and foreign ever increasing disposable investors alike. incomes, greater availability of personal credit and a growing Market Realities: vehicular population that According to the Global Retail facilitates easier mobility are Development Index (GRDI) a clutch of factors that will report published by the fuel further sectoral growth. leading US based consulting Despite the increasing levels group, AT Kearney in June of disposable incomes, both 2010, India is the third most in rural and urban India, 75% attractive retail market for of the country’s population global retailers among the 30 earns less than US$ 2 per day. largest emerging markets. The However, that is a figure that report also highlights the well is unlikely to deter foreign retailers. The dominating “The retail presence of the unorganized sector is currently segment, a burgeoning youth worth around US$ population more receptive to Western lifestyles and 395.96 billion ideologies and the low levels and accounts for of market penetration in 22% of the GDP. various categories and retail It also contributes formats; especially in the Tier a healthy 8% to II and Tier III cities; makes the the country’s Indian retail scene all the more attractive. employment.” documented fact that organized retail constitutes a mere 5% of the total annual revenues generated, hence, providing a tremendous window of opportunity for both domestic and international retailers to tap into a burgeoning albeit fragmented market. The sector is poised for rapid growth and is pegged to be worth US$ 535 billion by 2013, with organized retail’s share increasing to 10%. Robust economic progression,
The retail sector is currently worth around US$ 395.96 billion and accounts for 22% of the GDP. It also contributes a healthy 8% to the country’s employment. Domestic “power players” like the Future Group, Reliance and Tata (Trent) amongst others; continue to adopt a high scalability strategy and are increasingly experimenting with new formats that are gaining greater acceptance with an ever evolving and perceptive consumer. A slew of LTGTR | October ‘11 | 20
hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental, convenience and speciality stores are rapidly replacing the traditional momand-pop kirana stores; raising grave concerns regarding their profitable existence in the long term. Amidst all this hyperactivity, one key issue that has remained atop the agenda of the country’s policy formulators for a while now has been the issue of FDI in the retail sector. FDI in Multi-Brand Retail: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector has always been a contentious issue per se, courtesy the well documented proclivity of our policy makers to dither and delay decision making on key aspects stemming from political risks at large. Presently, India allows 51% FDI in singlebrand retail and 100% for cash-and-carry outlets that are permitted to sell only to other retailers and businesses. This has seen global giants such as Walmart and Carrefour enter the Indian market. Walmart currently operates five cash-and-carry outlets in partnership with the Bharti Group while Carrefour set shop with its first cash-and-carry store last December. FDI in multibrand retail however, has always been a hot potato of sorts. With global retailers clamoring at our doors, a burgeoning market ripe for organized development and LTGTR | October ‘11 | 21
an increasingly discerning and aware end-product consumer; policy makers have been unwilling to throw caution to the wind and go the whole hog by allowing any sort of FDI intervention with regards to multi-brand retail in the country. The authorities have made the right noises from time to time, germane to the matter at hand, but have been reluctant to “open the floodgates” as far as FDI in multibrand retailing is concerned. However, in the face of rising inflation, need for proactive economic and strategic reforms and employment generation opportunities; the Government has off late, softened its stance… partially shedding its garb of recalcitrance and embracing the next phase of economic liberalization.
purported market entry of international players. The fact is that although their financial interests will take a hit to a certain extent, the “shopping culture and mentality” of the lower-middle and middle class Indian consumer coupled with their locational advantage will ensure that the kirana stores remain an integral part of the Indian retail scenario for the next few years. Many believe that the widely propounded theory that the “entry of big fish will kill small fry” is a myth and there is ample scope for growth for both segments. The paper further discussed the feasibility of introducing a Shopping Mall Regulation Act in order to protect the interests of the small-scale domestic retailers. The pertinent question of employment was also addressed, as the In July of last year, the Department suggested that Department of Industrial Policy half the jobs accruing from the establishment of new multi-brand outlets be reserved for the rural youth. However, the house is still divided with regards to that recommendation.
and Promotion (DIPP) released a detailed discussion paper exploring the plausibility of permitting FDI in multi-brand retail. The paper sought to allay the fears of the traditional kirana stores that stand to lose the most in the wake of the
They say that the supply chain is the heart and soul of a retail business…and it is with prudent reason that they say that! The Indian retail sector is presently hounded by a flawed and floundering supply chain that has caused humongous monetary losses to all domestic players in the business, both big and
small. Coupled with gross mismanagement and an inherent inability to address these deficiencies, the supply chain remains the retail sector’s weakest link. Bereft of a sound supply chain system, dogged by managerial and logistical impediments and the absence of proper cold storage facilities and warehouses; the sector incurs losses to the tune of over US$ 1 trillion annually. Hence, the need to allow FDI in multibrand retail assumes even greater significance. These global retailers are expected to bring with them a wealth of experience, streamline supply chain operations, eliminate the predatory middlemen and infuse a greater degree of strategic technical expertise that will only benefit the sector as a whole. The domestic players will face stiff competition and many of them may look to enter into strategic alliances with these global giants in order to safeguard and further their interests and protect their margins, but are likely to take a leaf out of their books and implement proactive strategies to establish stronger and more robust supply chains. At the end of the day, it is about delivering value to the consumer and ensuring a veritable level of customer satisfaction. An efficient supply chain, seamlessly integrated into a holistic retail business mainframe, goes a long way in
doing just that. Although the are those with populations discussion paper lacked clarity over 1 million. There are 36 on various aspects, it is still such cities in the country. This development certainly “Bereft of a sound latest does come as a shot in the supply chain arm as far as FDI in the retail system, dogged business is concerned. Retail by managerial is capital intensive sector and the increased availability and logistical impediments and the of funds coupled with the imminent presence of foreign absence of proper players promises to add a cold storage facilities whole new dimension to and warehouses; the sector. Retailers ought the sector incurs to take cognizance of the losses to the tune of fact that both back-end and over US$ 1 trillion front-end operations require investment and hence, need annually.” to be developed in a manner commensurate with their overall business operations. Our policy makers finally appear to be waking from their “decision-making reverie” and have most certainly taken a leap in the right direction. However, the road ahead is paved with regarded as a positive step in greater challenges, for both existing and potential market the larger scheme of things. One Giant Leap for Indian players alike. Only time will tell who rises to the occasion, “Retail-kind”: adapts to the new market In late July this year, acting realities, galvanizes its supply on the recommendations of chains, leverages its core the DIPP, the Committee of competencies and successfully Secretaries (CoS) headed by counters its competitors in a Cabinet Secretary, Ajit Kumar hyper-competitive sector that Seth, cleared the proposal to is the Indian Retail arena! allow FDI in multi-brand retail. The FDI is pegged at 51% and the foreign investor would have to bring in US$ 100 million as investment, restricted to only Tier I cities. Tier I cities LTGTR | October ‘11 | 22
DEAR MA’AM
By Kusha Singh|Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology
A letter of complaint by a homesick lunatic with bad grammar. 06 Sravana Tapori Nagar Colaba Mumbai-400005 3 September 2010 Ms. Fucha 01 Sravana Tapori Nagar Colaba Mumbai-400005 Dear Ma’am, Sub: Letter of complaint I am informing to you that the flat I am living in is highly unlivable. The rent is too too high for this dumpshit. I am already saying to my wife, there is no way I am paying you for this month’s rent. I am even remembering my amma’s food in Rayavaram and thinking why I am coming to Mumbai from Tamil Nadu? I am feeling like calling Veerappan to kill you, but too bad, Veerappan is already being dead. Here I am listing all of my complaints, which you read and solve. • Whenever I am hiding my chocolate under the bed, the ants LTGTR | October ‘11 | 23
are eating. And after eating they are roaming all around the house and my wife is beating me • The man next door is stinking. Very bad. • The toilet is blocked and we cannot bathe our children. Little Ramanarayan Krishnaswamey is completely dirty whenever he is hugging me. • The police is coming every time I am playing my Tamil pop music in the middle of the night and trying to arrest me. This is very racism type; if I am playing devotional music they are not arresting me because they are thinking I am good man, why every time for pop music they are coming? • The McDonalds is living too far away. • I know I am not supposed to be saying, but the little kids here are also not nice, they are never letting me play hide and seek with them. If they are letting me play, they are hiding so much I am not finding only. • And the little boys are always banging their balls against my windows and breaking them.
• The walls, windows and floors, everything is being broken… you are always sending repairmen but my wife is not being satisfied. • The girls are being very naked on the streets outside. • When I am having a bath and turning on the tap, I am getting even more hot. There needs to be a cooler for me atleast. • 50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and 50% are plain filthy. • The tap in the kitchen sink is leaking. That is ok, but at night the every drop’s sound is waking me up a lot. That also I am not minding. But when the children are waking up then I cannot sleep only, for the full full nights • Everyone in the building is making fun of my accent. Whenever you are solving all of my problems, only then I am to be paying you for the rent. Otherwise I am to call the spirit of Veerappan to kill you Lots of Respect and Loving Ramanathan Sivamalya Jaijaishankaram
AGAINST INEQUALITY
By Prachi Gupta
from the “Arab spring”, protesters have called for the occupation of Wall Street and demonstrations around Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi government institutions. The significant slogan of the he eminent liberal scholar, Francis Fukoyama movement, “We are the 99%” signifies the biased wrote his popular article “The End Of History” development where only 1% of the population is celebrating the triumph of liberalism throughout benefitted by the nexus between the government, the world calling it an ideal situation, in 1992. But corporates and lobbyists. that ceases to be the case with demonstrations in and around Europe gaining momentum and garnering The major cries among the protestors such as ‘No, support from people and leaders alike. Popularly we will not pay for your crisis’ and ‘I care about you’ known as “the Occupy Wall Street Protests”, these invoke the values and ethics that underlie the structure protests began in late September 2011 in New York City of a democracy. Policies like privatizing education and and made their way to countries in Europe and parts of Asia. The movement has been largely peaceful and non-violent and has witnessed people from middle and lower middle class sections raising their voices against the unjust and unequal capitalistic growth pattern.
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The indulgence of western liberal democracies in corruption amongst government officials, corporate groups and the media has caused a huge uproar. The influence of lobbyists, and environmental degradation caused by unrestricted capitalistic exploitation has led to mass unemployment, inflation and consequent poverty and unequal growth pattern. Taking inspiration LTGTR | October ‘11 | 24
social security, deregulation, slashing public services coupled with the unfettered greed of the corporate groups has completely neglected the circumstances the workers and unemployed middle class people. Down on the streets, people are adamant for a long lasting protest, with their tents fixed in open parks and churches. Protesters have been largely targeting global summits such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the G8 summits that only last for a week and are inconclusive and transient. Prominent leaders, such as American President
NIRVANA IN A TEA - CUP By Aradhna Mangla Daulatram College
It wakes us up in the morning. It’s the cubicle dweller’s sustenance. It ranges from a burnt brown to milky orange. Its something that was worn in small pouches by the first people to sail across the world. Its what Britain paid China in opium for. Its Tea for the urban sophisticate. Or just “Chai” in the chalti bhasha. Its an addiction of sorts. My body starts craving it after regular intervals. ( I need my daily fix :P ) However its also similar to sleep - “the balm of hurt minds.” Nursing a hot cuppa and brooding is sometimes the best hug you can give yourself. I’m gonna share a recipe with you.
Barack Obama, have shown faith and support for the protest calling it a reflection of the frustration amongst people. Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh has said that it signifies a warning about the governance. Others who do not see a bright corollary to this movement believe that it is ‘silly’ to protest against capitalism and that it will end as peacefully as it started. However, with the movement turning global and consolidating support, the probability of fruitful results is expected. Whatever may be the course of this on-going movement, it has certainly put a big question mark over the viability and implications of biased policy making. There is a requirement for effective mechanisms to look into corruption. Laws and policies proving an equitable distribution of wealth among the masses such as taxation on luxuries and not basics, expansion of government subsidies and employment programmes, and reducing the involvement of lobbyists in policy mediation are the need of the hour. This ‘End of History’, with these movements and protests, apparently doesn’t seem to be a smooth one.
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I like it black. It gives my system the kind Its an esoteric blend of earth and sharpness of tea and the mellowness
of hit I want. warmth, of the of honey.
I call it “Nirvana in a Tea-cup” Things you need : 1 tsp of Tea leaves. 1 cup (150 ml) of Water. 1 tsp of Honey. A few sprinkles of Rose petals. What you do now : - Dunk the tea leaves into a pan of boiling water till the desired color is achieved. - The longer the tea stays in it, the stronger the tea will be. - Add the rose petals. - Strain it into your favourite mug, add honey, stir it up and enjoy! strikeout(snuggle into your favourite pajamas, curl up and watch re-runs of F.R.I.E.N.D.S) Complex flavors, don’t you think so? You must be saying to yourself, “She’s putting roses into her tea! Eww!” But believe you me, try it to believe it. Soon its gonna become your little excuse to escape from the world. :) Disclaimer: The author does not endorse substance abuse in any form whatsoever. However she is confused whether Bhang and chocolate come under this category. (Just kidding)
THE CHARMS OF STREET FOOD By Pavithra Nirmala
Sastra Univ, Thanjavur ood!!!! It spells happiness, joy, sharing, and satisfaction. It is something that lightens our mood when it is our favourite dish had in that perfect ambience. However, there is one particular type of food which is not only handy and ready-to-eat, but also makes us forget our poised, controlled self and turns us into the foodies we all pretend not to be.
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Street food: The road-side shops, the make shift stalls, the small carts; and all filled with gorgeous, delightful and mouth-watering spicy food that has now become a favourite with people of all age groups. There is a typical set who will argue that street food is unhygienic, unhealthy and unsafe. Given an option they would probably prefix a ‘un’ against every food related adjective. But that never dims the attraction of these delicacies. A rich, affordable multi-cuisine, with
a natural ambience is how I would describe the street food outlets. First, what kind of eatables can be categorised as street food? Readyto-eat food, generally termed as ‘fast food’ available in road side shops, make-shift carts and dhaabas can be called the street food.
readily available dish and sharing it with your friends is what adds flavour to your youthful days. Standing with the plates in your hands, talking to your friends and being perfectly at ease, envelopes us in comfort. Though there are neither chairs to sit on, nor any waiters to attend to us, we feel perfectly comfortable standing amidst the aroma rising from different dishes with just a lamp to light the place.
Food in itself is a wonderful thing, We all know that everyone enjoys so what is so unique about these eating; there just can’t be anyone road-side food servers? who doesn’t love what they eat; The answer would include so many but let us look at what street foods of its attractions that it would have to offer us and how they probably convince the reader that maintain their stand among hi-fi it is not only the most sought-after restaurants teeming with luxuries. one but also the best of its kind. One would say that lack of proper These road side shops have more surroundings would be a negative to offer than just the food on your for road side shops. But turns out plates!!! Let’s dig in further to it doesn’t matter as long as the know more… food offered is good enough. Hanging out with friends would Some of the most popular street not have been such a great idea if foods are pani-poori, bhelnot for this experience. Ordering poori, chaat, Chinese dishes, from the road side at 11:00 pm, and sandwiches. These road side munching a quick bite from your LTGTR | October ‘11 | 26
wonder-worlds bring with them the riches of their region, a plethora of dishes and combinations that speak about the flavors of that place. It is interesting to note how varying the proportion of just a handful of powders can give you a new taste every time, the next one always better than the last.
and restaurants you never know what’s in your dish and one can’t even predict how it’s gonna look until you have seen it.
Another interesting thing about street food is that all the ingredients are in front of you and your dish is prepared right in front of you. But in case of hotels
ambience and low cost are 2 of its greatest strengths. Who now has the patience and time to walk into a hotel, find a table, go through the menu card, order and then
wait for the dish?? One would prefer to go to make-shift stalls, ask for any dish, and see your plate getting fully loaded and pay A point which strongly favors only half of what you pay at other street food over restaurant food is food outlets. that they do not concentrate much If asked to frame in one sentence, it on the decoration of dishes; it is will be “Street foods have become the taste that comes first whereas the most sought-after food outlets Street food has not only opened the importance is given to both which economically combine the up a new world for food lovers, but the taste and looks in hotels and vantages of variety and taste”. also turned out to be the best of restaurants. hangouts. It has sprung out places Just the sight of colorful dishes, where you can chat, relax and steaming hot, waiting to be laugh out loudly without having to grabbed up is enough to lure us mind your manners. to the street shops. Their natural
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Everyday Life for DUMMIES
HOW TO . . mess up a ‘proposal’
By Rachina Ahuja
Yes, that declaration of affection, of feelings that are more than just fraandship is accompanied by several hazards. Steer these waters carefully or forever go down in ignominy as ‘that boy/girl who proposed me by *insert explanation of embarrassing circumstances*.’ 5.Use a form of ‘endearment’ such as ‘baby’. 4. Ask ‘Will you be my girlfriend/boyfriend?’ with your group of pals chuckling/whistling/giggling behind you. 3.Compliment the person lavishly and give them the entire story of how you’ve been feeling since the first time you saw them (3 days ago). 2.Do it by text/any form of social media. 1.Use the L word. What’s that whooshing sound? Ever watched Road Runner?
(Not to be confused with the ubiquitous attentionseeker) 1.Be an attention-seeker(What? Every self-respecting drama queen has to be an attention-seeker to start with.) It’s easy, just make every conversation/ situation about yourself. For example: A: Ouch, I just accidentally cut my finger off!
be a drama queen
DQ- Oh no! I can’t stand blood! *faints* 2.If there is no occasion to talk about yourself, talk about your possessions or your boyfriend, or your dog, or your fingernails! Be creative! 3.Remember, you are always the victim, the persecuted and the unfortunate. 4.Also, remember, nobody in the world understands you. When in doubt use “You won’t/don’t/can’t understand!” freely. 5. Cry. Cry loud and long and if no one hears you, tell them about it! Follow that up with long explanation of how you’ve been wronged(see 3) and if that fails, make a dramatic exit (see 4). LTGTR | October ‘11 | 28
ORDER IN CHAOS
By Aradhana Mangla|Daulatram College *Chaos too, is Ordered.* His life was an endless cacophony. Mystified by the world around him, he’d sunk into a place inside of him. People pushed him around. Cursed and hit him. As if he was here by choice. Sometimes a kindly soul bought something from him something that he probably didn’t need and threw away later. Times were tough. His daring dreams of yesteryear had faded into nothingness a long time ago. Yet he’d stuck to his place at the red-light. He’d seen many things happen at this crossing. Careless children getting run over. Cows blocking the road. A superstar’s movie being shot. Yet today, something struck his old heart that always kept up with him in erratic beats. A bird had made a nest on the signal pole. A chick had fallen down from it. And a little girl was trying to trying to cross the road to
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rescue the fledgling. Nobody stopped. Nobody paid heed to the attempts of the little girl trying to cross the road. But you could see the determination in her face, screwed up in concentration. Child of the wild. Wild-Child. But the cars wouldn’t stop. Lost in the chaos of rush hour traffic, why would people care about something as trivial as this? The chick hadn’t learnt to fly. And it tried to crawl hither and tither. The little girl now had tears in her eyes. She was consumed by the will to run across the road. She did not see what was coming. But He had and he’d made his decision. He got up from his place. And ran to stop the little girl. .................................................... Actually he did more than that. His death caused an hour-long jam at the red light.
An English Whitewash: Team India Returns the Favour
By Pradyut Hande NMIMS, Bombay
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fter being thoroughly decimated and pummeled into submission by their ebullient and clinical English hosts this summer, Team India came back home to a tepid welcome, brickbats and humungous disappointment. Much was expected from MS Dhoni and his confident unit, but alas! They flattered to deceive (on second thoughts, all they did was “flatter” the English team and “deceive” their cricketing sense!). Team India came a cropper and endured humiliating loss after
humiliating loss. The fact that they returned without a single victory on their torrid English tour was symptomatic of their lack of adequate preparation, “luckless injury syndrome”, dubious team selection and a general absence of fundamental application. The World Champions had been humbled and how! Knocked off their high pedestal…licking their wounds; the Indians returned to regroup for their Home ODI series against the same opposition.
Billed as the “Revenge Series”, there was a veritable degree of attention directed at the series, even before it got underway.
Beset by injuries to key players, MS Dhoni and his young squad had the unenviable task of beating (some would say, “bringing down to Earth!) a buoyant and well balanced English unit, fuelled by confidence and a welcome injection of young blood. Without the likes of stalwarts such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh in the side; Team India faced an uphill task. Defeat was an ostentatious luxury they could no longer afford. “Failure” was a word that couldn’t have a place in their motivational LTGTR | October ‘11 | 30
lexicon. The time was ripe for India to step up to the plate and “defend their territory”…and defend their territory they did with aplomb and how! Under the talismanic leadership of MS Dhoni, a young and relatively inexperienced Indian side put paid to England’s plans, ruthlessly trampling over them to clinch the ODI series 5-0! They “kick started” their victory run in Hyderabad and never looked back after that, improving with each passing game. They used their home conditions effectively to neutralize any sort of English resistance (there was hardly any!). The English never really got going, failed to come to grips with the Indian wickets and eventually stuttered, fumbled and floundered their way to spectacular capitulation! The World Champions rose to the occasion and obliterated a hapless opposition… There were numerous positives to take away from this series for India. The batting and bowling clicked as a collective unit for the first time in many months. The manner in which the youngsters donned the mantle of responsibility and came out trumps is most praiseworthy. On the batting front, MS Dhoni led by example and played some critical knocks to put India into match winning positions. He finished with 212 runs in the series; without being dismissed a single time! He has definitely transformed himself to become one of the best finishers in present day ODI cricket. The likes of Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, LTGTR | October ‘11 | 31
Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli too shone with the bat. Kohli has been in stupendous form all throughout this calendar year and has merely carried on in the same vein. His maturity, consistency, confidence and insatiable appetite for success are exceptional. If his recent form is anything to go by, the future appears more than bright for the talented Delhi lad. Rahane too staked a claim for a Test berth with his relatively consistent showings. However, he does need to learn how to rotate the strike more often and build on his starts to eventually log substantial scores. The diminutive Parthiv Patel failed to impress while opening the batting with the perennially improving Rahane and did himself no favours by throwing his wicket away after getting off to reasonable starts. What was noteworthy was the fact that, someone or the other always raised his hand and “did the job” in testing situations; wresting the transient initiative back from the Englishmen. The same English bowlers that had the Indians hopping in grave discomfort in their own back yard were now being thrashed all over the park. In the absence of senior bowlers like James Anderson and Start Broad, the young English bowling lineup struggled on the docile and unresponsive Indian tracks and lost the plot entirely, especially in the death overs. On the bowling front, the Indians evidently outperformed their English counterparts. The likes of Praveen Kumar and R
Vinay Kumar bowled with verve and consistency, giving India the crucial initial breakthrough on more occasions than one. It was more than heartening to watch Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron go flat out and beat the English batsmen with some ferocious pace! For far too long now have we incessantly clamoured, pondered, wondered aloud and what have you…”Where is our Brett Lee?”, “Why don’t we have out and out pace bowlers to trouble the most competent international batsmen??” Yadav and Aaron certainly did their future prospects no harm by rattling the Englishmen with sheer pace on the flattest of “batting utopias” (read Indian
pitches!). If the performance of the India’s pace battery was satisfactory, then India’s spin duo in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were not less than revelatory. The markedly contrasting off spinners bowled with guile and zip, using their myriad variations to good effect to bamboozle the jittery English
batsmen. The likes of Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jonathon Bairstow and Samit Patel struggled to counter the spin and allowed them to dictate terms with some poor shot selection and inefficient foot work. Ashwin appears to be growing in confidence with each outing and has now emerged as a serious contender for a Test berth. Jadeja too turned in some fine performances, with both bat and ball; furthering his growing reputation as a promising allrounder. Team India’s fielding also definitely deserves mention. The young outfit, brimming with energy and confidence, excelled on the park; backing their bowlers to the hilt. The likes of Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary and Ravindra Jadeja displayed their athletic prowess as they dove around to save India some precious runs in the field. If Dhoni’s batting left the Englishmen scratching their heads in utter bewilderment (“How do we get this lad out?” would have been a common question that would have been discussed in excruciating detail during the English team meetings!); his performance behind the stumps was also tidy. His bowling changes and field placements were spot on. Suffice to say; when you’re on a roll, it is hard to put a single step wrong! In sharp contrast, the Englishmen appeared to be bereft of ideas as they failed to conjure any remotely successful solutions to the “Indian conundrum”! What a cruel reversal of fortunes…The tables
were turned and the English were humbled 5-0… Revenge or no revenge… retribution was served in ample doses to an unwilling English side that surrendered rather tamely to the “Indian
juggernaut”. Alistair Cook and his men will return home a bruised outfit…whitewashed in ignominy. They say sport is a great leveler. Certainly rings true for the English – they have been comprehensively “leveled” indeed! For India though, it is now a matter of capitalizing on their recent success and consolidating their position. But for now though, they can bask in the glory of successfully conceiving and serving the Englishmen an unappetizing dish we call…sweet, sweet revenge! .................................................. LTGTR | October ‘11 | 32
Monalisa Smile By Amrita Paul
A
ctor Cameron Diaz had once said, “I’ve always been a huge fan of Julia Roberts. Without her what would the world be like?” And like her are a million others who look up to Julia Roberts in ways more than one. As a little girl I would idolize bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan for his amicable ways and the manner in which his characters was able to impress the most beautiful of girls. But when it came to actresses, there was nobody whom I could relate to, even remotely. Then one day I happen to chance upon a movie by Roberts whom I had otherwise known as one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. And that encounter of a couple of hours was enough to make me fall in love with her effortless transition into a teacher of 1950’s in Conservative America who held her own in spite of being challenged by the stalwarts of the society time and again.
Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication them were already engaged to be married as soon as they graduated. The movie is also made remarkable with stellar performances by Kristen Durnst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ginnifer Goodwin. But Julia Roberts was extraordinary in this movie. Her character was that of a woman who wants her students to realize their potential, to enjoy what they do and to believe and revel in the fact that if all they get married, it should not put an end to their personal aspirations. One of my most favourite parts of the movie is when Watson takes her students to a dilapidated building to show them a new painting. When asked if it was a marked assignment Katherine replies“You’re not required to write a paper. You’re not even required to like it. You are required... ...to consider it.”
I mean think about it, most of the time we end up being so very over critical about things which surround us. Education is supposed to liberate our thought process, to help us think freely, to look beyond the obvious, then why do we, at the end of everything become so constricted in expressing ourselves? Remarkable isn’t? How a movie can make you question your very Directed by Mike Newell, the man behind movies existence? like Johnny Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Although this movie was a commercial success, the more recent Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Monalisa Smile is the story of Katherine Ann Watson, it did not win any accolades for all the wonderful a woman in her thirties who takes up a job in the performances which made the movie what it is. And conservative Wellesley College to teach “History of Art” even though I seen over a dozen of Julia Robert’s to young minds. But sadly her unorthodox methods of movies including her much acclaimed Erin Brockovich, letting students think for themselves instead of trying to I still feel this movie was one of her best. What I like complete the syllabus does not go down too well with most about Julia Roberts is that she is able to hold on the Wellesley Faculty. But this was just the beginning to herself irrespective of whether she is in a movie with as Katherine had multiple battles to fight. Her first task multiple star cast like the Ocean’s Series or is a minor was to inspire and to win over her students who have character like that of in Fireflies in the Garden. She is been strangely cautious of her presence. The fact that my favourite actress for emoting her roles with passion she was over thirty and was unmarried mattered to and grace (not that the others don’t) and for inspiring them more than what she taught in class as most of me to not let go of that one little ounce of hope which makes life so much better. LTGTR | October ‘11 | 33
News That Matters Not” (NTMN) is a news satire and social commentary website based in India. Founded in late 2009, it is known to publish sarcasm, criticism, satire and the like, usually in the form of humorous news parody. It targets the media, politics, life and society among other entities of the world. It has been covered in print media on two occasions: by MiD-Day and by The Times of India. NTMN was a finalist at Manthan South Asia Awards for socially responsible e-content, and will feature in their Grand Finale in New Delhi on December 1–2, 2011. Vijay Narayan talks to the people who started it!
Q. Please Introduce yourself. Who are the founding members?
penning down funny/philosophical/ random thoughts that occur to me Tanay: I am Tanay, a third-year civil every now and then in the form of engineering student from Delhi one-liners! I think I have a penchant College of Engineering. NTMN was for them. I think I am good. Yeah, initiated by me in November 2009. am not modest. :D I love to write, and when I am not Q. What made you start this site? writing something, I am either What first gave you this idea? editing articles, reading, listening Tanay: One day I read about the to music, thinking, trying to be a concept of news satire in the good engineering student, watching newspaper. That was my first tryst cricket, internet-strolling, or maybe with this. I had the sudden urge to thinking, once again. try it out myself. I had never actually Prateek, a childhood friend of mine, provided the initial boost for NTMN; he joined me three days into the venture. Sugandha has been associated with the website ever since its first month, and is now Head of Operations with me. We handle all the administration, team handling and decision-making. Sugandha: Well, I ain’t who you would really call a “founding member”, but I don’t deny playing somewhere a not-so-unimportant role in the overall growth of NTMN from the time when it was just a blog to now, when it is a full-fledged website being run by an entire team of students from across the country. I am Sugandha, a third year Software Engineering student from DTU (formerly DCE). I choose to call myself a “multi-hobby-ed” person because my interests range from music to dance to dramatics to public speaking and of course, writing. I love my blog (http:// thoughts-in-play.blogspot.com) and I love updating it, as much as I love
written any humour, and did not believe I could either. But the urge to attempt gave way to NTMN. Back then, it was still very early days for successful and noticeable news satire on the Indian web. I wrote few articles on my personal blog just after my exams ended, and within a week, I was on a new fullfledged website. I got much-needed assistance and support from Prateek in the initial days. Q. How has the experience been? Can you share some things about life that you have learnt at NTMN? Sugandha: For me, becoming a part of NTMN has been one of my most fruitful undertakings ever since college started, and I really mean that. Having served first as an author, then as an assistanteditor, later assisting Tanay in all the planning & management and now, as the official HoO, I can vouch for one thing: the growth in me, not just as a writer, but as a planner, as a team-leader and above all, as an LTGTR | October ‘11 | 34
individual, has been manifold. The original author. NTMN team, in particular, is nothing Q. What were the sources of less than terrific. finance you could leverage? Our team, I feel, derives its strength Tanay: There were no significant from the fact that every single finances involved initially, except person here firmly believes in the domain registration, which NTMN and takes pride in their I funded myself. Now, there are association with it. We all have hosting charges, which are just been taught in our childhood good covered by our advertising revenue. old stories that prove ‘united we stand, divided we fall’; I am lucky Q. How many writers and editors to have got to experienced that does your team consist of? How first-hand. The fact that so many easy was it to find these people? of us are contributing to NTMN’s Tanay: Our team has writers from growth, sans any personal interests, all over India, who joined voluntarily is really heartening. I am thankful to to avail the platform. We have an NTMN, for having taught me for life, editorial team of around 7 editors the value of such valuable traits as in principle, who I ask for assistance team-spirit, dedication, creativity, according to requirement. There honesty, innovation and above all, was no proper editorial setup integrity. Knowing that I wasn’t half before August this year; articles as good as I hopefully am today, as were solely edited by me. During a writer and as a person, I sure have our successful internship program this summer, I came across some a lot to thank NTMN for. Q. How difficult was it to start talented individuals who possessed up? Did you encounter any set- the accuracy of editing that I backs? How did you deal with always looked for but never got. The interested editing interns were them? given an opportunity to be part of Tanay: It never began as a start-up. the team. That a start-up venture could be made out of this, only dawned upon Q. How will your work affect the me, 14 months into the venture, masses? thanks to Sugandha. Even today, Sugandha: We believe our work it is not a proper entrepreneurial can ‘inspire change through humor’; and on a more realistic note, it does. venture. So, back then, the only issues dealt Satire, or even plain humor, are with creativity and response from actually very powerful literary tools. readers for quality of content. The When used for the right cause, quality was not the best, and the they can draw a lot of attention satire was not of any critical value to what might have been ignored to the society. Experienced readers otherwise, can force the reader to were quick to notice; some wrote think and come with his own viewin hate comments, some wrote point about the same. Awareness in detailed quality feedback. The of this kind, is really important for latter of them helped; I got in touch our generation — otherwise touted with other satire-writers and some as a rash and careless lot. It is only experienced journalists, and by a blessing in disguise, that we have April 2010, we had more careful got support from a reader-base approach to better satire, and we constituted not just by the youth, knew where to improve at. Our first but more experienced individuals sweet taste of success came in April, too. when Mid-Day chose to reproduce Infact, it gives us utmost pleasure, to an NTMN post in its Mumbai edition be able to come out with something in return for remuneration to its truly useful. Which is why, we don’t LTGTR | October ‘11 | 35
mind digressing sometimes from our main genre, to let people know of, say, the harmful effects of the now-trending Hookah or reasons why women ought to be offered a seat in public buses or our lack of true patriotism and love for the nation! Q. Where do you see yourself after five years? What are your plans for the future? Sugandha: We do wish to expand as much as we can. We have plans for the same, but this is too early to comment on them. Having run on a no-profit basis all this while, even being able to survive till five years later would be gladdening for us. If our team and readers continue to co-operate and encourage us, we aren’t going anywhere for as long as possible. This is a promise, to them, and ourselves. Q. Any such belief as a “formula for success”? Tanay: Success does have a formula, but that formula can’t be applied by everyone. It’s like you form water not by knowing it consists of hydrogen and oxygen, but by actually having hydrogen and oxygen. If you don’t have the constituents, you have to be very careful to ensure you don’t stumble midway. For me, success comes from ambition, execution, perseverance accompanied with humility, a constant urge to learn and share skills with all levels of people at every opportunity. Before everything, you have to be a good person, else that success has no value. Sugandha: I’ll tell you once I achieve it. You tell me if you get to taste it before me. :D Tanay: After Sugandha’s reply, lemme add that I gave some formula, doesn’t mean I am successful. :(
Wings of Pride By Rahul Seth
National Law University, Delhi
“Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence. — Winston Churchill
W
e recognize the 8th of October as the Indian Air-force Day. On this day we celebrate the proud individuals who man our skies and form an essential element of lethal assault and defense to assuage the nation’s national security and sovereignty. On this day, we recognize their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of every other such member of the armed forces or individual who, in the history of the nation, have indulged in similar contributions to the nation. On this day, we don’t celebrate just these individuals, but the idea that and moreover, the ideal of patriotism that drives them. LTGTR speaks with Retd. Group Captain Tejwant Singh, who joined the Indian Air-force on 9th March 1963 and served in both the wars of 1965 and 1971, was designated Squadron Leader in the War of 1971 where his MiG Aircraft was shot down over Prassur and he was taken POW. Later, post repatriation, he was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for his gallantry in the war of 1971. We visited him at his Gurgaon home, where he now writes avidly, his first book, ‘The Bold, Brave and Fearless’ having recently been launched in Canada; He actively blogs as well, titled ‘Don’t Mistake me for a Muslim’. Q. Sir, why is your Blog titled as such? A. Post 9/11 America was in a state of fear. Trust in people became a problem and everyone looked at people with brown skin with eyes of suspicion. Turbans became synonymous with Muslims on account of the Taliban Pathan turbans and eventually to suit their own safety and convenience some Sikhs stopped wearing them, however those who were devoted still kept them on. A regular American citizen’s General knowledge is extremely poor even though they are extremely liberal
and welcoming in comparison to the USSR who were distant and confronting, post 9/11 America changed radically to resemble the coldness I received in the USSR and they mistake us Sikhs for Muslims. My blog is to tell them the difference since most of them refuse to consider the world beyond their nose.
The Sikhs established the Khalsa to combat the Tyranny of the Mughals. At the time of Aurangzeb’s rule, Non-Muslims weren’t even allowed to ride an elephant or a horse. Even today Baba Trilok Singh leads the Shiromani Panth Akali Dal Khalsa Nihang Singha (Khyale Wale) whose headquarters have always been at Gurdwara Guru Hargobind Sahib Q. Sir, How Did you come to join in the town of Khyala in Amritsar. I chose to join the Air-force as a the Air-Force? diversion from the Army. My sons A. I come from a family of warriors. however are in Hotel management For nearly the past 300 years my and the Merchant Navy respectively. ancestors have been defending this The desire to join the army seems nation. My Father and his father to be diluting. before him were also in the Army. LTGTR | October ‘11 | 36
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.
you. Those you can see and dodge and get ahead of. The ones that get you are the ones that explode in front and above you. On shard of shrapnel is enough to damage a vital part of the engine. We took heavy AA firing.
— Henry Van Dyke. My plane was shot down as well;
I had been wounded and couldn’t Q. Sir, How was the experience of walk due to an injury to the spine. your First Flight? We were captured and given first A. The first flight is known as the Solo aid and then put on a stretcher flight. In my time we used to have and into a jeep. I was taken to the piston engines. I took off and looked Gujranwala Jail, put in a cell and back at the navigator’s seat and saw locked up. The mattress was filthy it empty and for the first time I felt and later in the night, at midnight, absolutely in control. Taking off is my cell door was opened, I was the easy, it’s the landing that one blindfolded, cuffed and loaded needs to worry about. Landing takes into the jeep and then we drove all the greatest amount of control, one night long. We were driving in the would need to control the float morning as well, we could peek and speed, gradually decrease the through the corner of the blindfold speed and height, alter the weight but my watch had been taken away. pressure and rotate the drag-lift I had no idea of time but I could component. Lift must increase and feel the heat of the sun. I could
Q Sir, What do you think of corruption in the Defense Ministry and deaths of Air Force pilots due to plane crashes on account of purchase of cheap parts? I believe there is a systemic problem in the institution that we have established in our nation, ergo the Ministry of Defense which is essentially run by politicians and bureaucrats, who aren’t members of the armed forces. Here one must compare with the United Kingdom model wherein the armed forces and the people running it are merged into one body which makes infrastructure and development easier since their need is better understood. When you have bureaucrats running the show, they have a different frame of mind, however, when the authority of the military dictates, you bloody well listen.
“It is an amazing sensation watching an AA gun fire at you. It isn’t like a bullet, but more like a ball of flame, coming straight for you.” Drag must decrease. Landing is like a controlled crash and when you are in the cockpit, it isn’t like you are strapped into the plane, but more like the plane being strapped onto you. It is a great sense of responsibility, to have to bring the plane back safely.
assess directions by the heat of the sun, when the left was warm, I knew we were travelling north, and south when the right was warm. We stopped in front of a barren piece of land with a bore well. They thought we didn’t know where we were and were poking fun at us, Q. Sir, How was your experience but I immediately surprised them by stating where we were based on as a POW? my assessment of their dialect. The A. In the 1971 war, when we jeep ride continued all day until we took flight it was like our defining were taken to Rawalpindi. moment. It was as if we had been trained for just this day. We had I wasn’t tortured at any point. planned an aerial strike deep in They did question me a bit, but enemy territory. We had planned moments after I had been captured to take the shortest areal route, ‘Jangbandi’ or a Truce had been over Amritsar. The Pakistani forces declared and the war had subsided. had pre-empted this and had I actually made an immediate bond supplanted AA guns in Sugarcane with a Major Kholer, who was sitting Fields near Lahore. It is an amazing by me while I lay in the jeep on sensation watching an AA gun fire account of my spinal fracture. He at you. It isn’t like a bullet, but more peeled a Kinu and fed it to me as like a ball of flame, coming straight well. for you. The shell that gets you isn’t the one that come straight at LTGTR | October ‘11 | 37
Post Kargil, there was a slack in attitude and staffing. 80% of the defense budget goes into just pensions. The normal service period of and officer is 22 years after which you are kept for 5 years reserve. After this you can pursue other occupations, however, every year you need to come back for 1 month once a year to retrain. ‘Exigency makes a man’. The military is always in turmoil, always ready to serve. It all depends on the attitude and what you can make of what is given to you. After independence a lot of us were given abandoned enemy properties. Many decided to keep begging the governments for funds and assistance, some, like our family, immediately capitalized on the opportunity to make the best use of the land that was given to us and converted it into profitable capital. In the defense ministry there is a rumor that every contract that we
enter into, there is a 2% margin to fill the pockets of these people. Moreover, they don’t understand the need of the Air-force. The Indian Air-Force needed Advanced Jet Trainers 20 years ago and we requested them for the same at that time. For 20 years the file was buried before they finally sanctioned it. How can you bury something so important for 20 years? Drop Tanks that are attached to Jets are a form of WWR, or War Waste Reserve. They are discarded in flight to lighten the weight of the jet, which helps in Dog fights and in getting away from an enemy, essentially to lighten the jet. When we asked for WWR to be sanctioned for our MiG Fighters, they said “Why do you need it? In 1965-71 war we sanctioned WWR for the hunter jets, a lot of which are left in spares. Besides the Hunter is out of date now so use the WWR of the Hunters for the MiG’s”. They don’t even understand that these parts are made plane specific. They also prefer to buy from parties previously contracted with even if their offers continue to be obsolete. They will refuse to buy new, better parts, which have been tested and approved, from new sellers on account of suspicion. I sent a letter to the Prime Minister with my recommendation. I received no reply. In our country we don’t have a need for only a Lokpal, but a need for better laws per se.
Pathans and occupy Peshawar, their biggest stronghold, without a fight. The only warring clans who had the warrior spirit in India were the Sikhs, Rajputs, Jats and the Marathas. The Sikhs have always had the spirit of sacrifice. Even when Guru Tegh Bahadur was brought before Aurangzeb in chains, not once did he flinch or show fear, only pride and valor. It isn’t easy to die for somebody else, to put your neck on the line for someone else. The question is one of ‘I’ vs. ‘Tyaag’. For the Sikhs Tyaag’ always came first and therefore Langhars where we feed everyone as equals to help them without boasting or claiming credit. When Nadir Shah invaded India and stole the peacock throne and was taking it back to Persia, it was the brave and selfless skirmishes of the Khalsa at his encampments en-route the return that saved the 25,000 women that he wanted to
take back as slaves and to add to his harem. This is the Spirit of Tyaag that is enshrined in the ideal of the armed forces. It is Tyaag that should be the Global Dharma. We see from this inspiring conversation with Retd. Group Captain Tejwant Singh that there are inadequacies in the setup as it stands, in how we deal with our reciprocal responsibilities to these brave men who risk their lives for us on the warfront. We owe to them the respect that they have more them earned. We owe to them some semblance of security, resembling the kind they render us. We owe to them not to have them neglected. Let us recognize that on this Indian Air-Force day, and maybe do these men and women more of a kindness then just a Calendar Day.
Q. Sir, Are you for complete disarmament, if it ever was a possibility? Complete disarmament is a utopia and is therefore not a possibility. Having an army or protective forces isn’t a bad thing. Besides we have always been a defensive nation and never an offensive one. The only time we have ever actually conducted a military offensive was when Maharaj Jeet Singh marched into Afghanistan along with Nihang Akali Phula Singh. They managed to strike fear in the hearts of the LTGTR | October ‘11 | 38
changed status By Sebastian Davis FISAT About 20 years ago, the difficulties in life for a teenage boy, were measured by the kind of course taken, the number of exams, how to talk to a beautiful girl and the methods on how to catch a smoke or drink without your parents catching you.
My name is Sharath Kumar. I’m your average middle class teenage boy. Everything about me is so called ‘middle-class’. My dad works at a bank and earns just about enough to buy me a gift worth Rs.5000 every year on my birthday. My mother is a housewife who like every other mother cooks the tastiest food in the whole world. I have 98 friends on Facebook, 32 of which are my family members! Final year at engineering college was a really boring time for me; loads of exams and countless enquiries about my future plans. To make things worse the people who were worried most about my future were my neighbours, the milk-man, the paper guy and even the temple guy who comes every month for donation. Engineering has taught me everything that a certain forwarded message says: opening a beer bottle with my teeth, experiencing getting drunk to the maximum level of intoxication and still trying to stand straight and pee, getting depressed over the same girl a zillion times, and also developing a habit of smoking a cigarette daily. In short I was enjoying my perfectly going imperfect college life. The only thing that kept bothering me was that I’d never had a girlfriend. I had been single since the day I was born. It’d been 21 years and not even a one week relationship! All my friends kept telling me that when the day came, I will find the perfect person.
thing that could happen to me, happened. I and a couple of friends were having the usual end of month booze party. Just before the party had started I had borrowed a friend’s laptop and gone through my Facebook notifications. Nothing great, just the usual Farmville notifications. The booze party went on till 3 in the morning but tragic me, as usual, passed out after two shots and three rounds of puking before 10 pm. It was around 9 the next morning when I got up hearing my phone ringing. With the extremely bad hangover I picked the call. It was MOM. Mom: “What is wrong with you? This has become a disgrace to our family.”
The cigarette wasn’t working, so I took the laptop and logged into Facebook. Actually i didn’t have to log in, it logged in automatically. 2 Notifications! “John Mathew and 20 other friends like your status.” “Anil Uk and 35 other friends commented on your status.”
Status? When did I even put up a Me: “Mom, what are you talking status? I Clicked on one of those about? I’ve told you about the notifications and there it was, monthly booze parties.” “I LOVE RANI...CANT WAIT TO But she barely heard what i said and MARRY HER...APPA AMMA OK.! :D.” she went on... Closed the laptop in a second and “...never thought you would do such put on pants in a hurry. I looked a thing. When you said you wanted around at all the bastards drunk to stay with your friends I never and sleeping peacefully. I know one thought it was to have privacy to do of them did this. I was in a hurry to such things. We have loved you in get home and convince Mom that every way and is this what you’re it was a huge mistake. But by the giving us back?”. time I got home, my whole family was there, including my cousins and Oh God. How do I stop this? “...if you had any kind of feelings for their children who were already Rani, you should have told us first running around the place. A whole place rather than telling the whole group discussion went on the whole day, and finally my history world about it.” was sealed. My first love – Rani the “STOP IT”, I shouted. servant girl. However I try, it’s not Shit. Rani was the Tamilian maid going to change. who came home every day to wash clothes and clean the house. What Even a week later I was getting the hell was Mom talking about? “Hope you have thought well about “What are you talking about?” I it” wall posts. asked. “Why are you talking about Moral:- Make sure you log off your Rani now?” Facebook account after use. “Don’t try to pretend in front of me now. Indrajith uncle called early A status can change your life. morning....”
August 6th 2011 was the day that And she slammed the phone on me. the most horrible imaginable LTGTR | October ‘11 | 39
I stepped out of the bachelor pad, took a deep breath of fresh air and put a cigarette in my mouth before I could take in my next breath. I was bewildered as to what exactly could have gone wrong? Why would Mom say anything about Rani at this time of the day? Ah chuck it, she’s probably pissed off with something. But still...feelings for Rani? Oh no... something’s not right.
By Nishant Boorla MIST, Hyderabad
Idle Observer
Continuing my tradition of writing baseless non-sense I will reveal what a few celebs are doing this holiday season. Charlie Sheen: The usual for him. Same old same old. Cocaine and hookers. Most people would get excited at the prospect of the romance of the holiday season. Not Charlie though. Coke and hookers as always. Romance of holidays you say? Charlie doesn’t wine and dine, that’s not his style. He snorts and cavorts. Like a pro! Tiger Woods: I had heard Tiger Woods was pumped about celebrating Diwali. It made no sense to me. Sure he enjoys a good bang for his buck! Sure he enjoys oily wicks and flower pots but I still don’t.....ok I get it now! Rajnikant: The usual for him this Diwali. He’s going to continue his tradition of setting fireworks alight just by staring at them. I won’t lie to you. There are times when he simply stares at thin air wondering why the “atom bombs” aren’t exploding. Members of Parliament: Members of Parliament are going to light a customary sparkler each before hoping out loud that the country enjoys a safe Diwali. They will go on to advise us against burning money on harmful fireworks so they can burn it on statues for themselves, on T.V channels and the Swiss Bank. Foot in the Mouth Moments:
Alex McLeish: Emile Heskey is like Franz Bekenbauer. Sure and Pravin Kumar is like Viv Richards. There’s nothing that can top that so I’ll move on.
As always I’ll give you, the reader, some more proof that we live in a crazy ass world. “Adults puzzled by Hollister store that keeps shoppers in the dark with almost no lighting and ear-splitting music to create a club-like environment!” • They should try this at Tata car showrooms. Might just help them sell a few more Manzas if the customers can’t see what it looks like. • Bad idea to try this stuff in a cricket stadium. Batsmen can’t see anything; bowlers don’t know what the hell they’re aiming for and so appeal anyway. The umpire of course can’t see the ball and can’t hear the bowler appeal. Every once in a while he raises the index finger. The batsman can’t see this so he stays put. The commentator thinks this is a good time to talk about his personal problems. The scorer can’t make head or tail of the situation. So they decide result of the match on the basis of the Duckworth Lewis System, which miraculously makes sense in this situation Berlin - Police arrest man who burned more than 100 luxury cars. • This is Germany, where cars are considered more LTGTR | October ‘11 | 40
sacred than humans! PETA are full of lunatics who would prefer dating a dog over a human and Germany is full of Petrol heads that would rather sleep with a V8 engine (naturally aspirated of course). Judge: Do you confess to burning 100 luxury cars? Arsonsteiger: Yes your honour. Judge: Was a Yugo among the cars you burnt? (The other witnesses cringe when the judge says Yugo) Arsonsteiger: No your honour. Judge: Any Pontiac Aztecs? (Some more cringing) Arsonsteiger: No your honour. Judge: Then you have no excuse. You’re hereby sentenced to 60 hours of community service cleaning Porsche Panameras! “60 Elvises flee hotel during fire alarm at a public event.” • You know what they say don’t you? Elvises have left the building. • The fire alarms were triggered by a smoke-machine used in the performance. A smoke machine in an indoor location with smoke detectors. Yes I know what you’re thinking. The event management firm does recruit from a crack house.
• Does this stampede count as assault and – wait for it – Battery? • They broke barricades but they didn’t “Hit The Lights” • If only they could refund the ticket money. It would be a nice gesture and Justice For All. Honoured to have wax statue at Tussauds: Kareena • Incredible how life-like the wax statue is. • There’s just no way you can the real one from the statue. They both look just as plastic. MJ was probably addicted to Botox, says expert • Expert my ass. If you came to this conclusion in 1990 you’re an expert. • What next? Was Kurt Cobaine addicted to cocaine? • Maybe this “expert” can throw some light on Elton John’s sexuality. Hopefully at a time when Elton John isn’t “doing it” Finally, it’s time for some footy humour. As you may know, Chelsea were hammered 3-5 at the Bridge by Arsenal with Arsenal’s skipper RVP netting a hat-trick. Here are some of the best responses I found on Twitter. • Fat Frank has made it 1-0 at the Bridge with a diving header. Stewards, officials, teammates and back-room staff now helping him back up. • Terry Slips on Van Der Sar’s Birthday.... Some things are just meant to be! • For so many reasons, John Terry is a “gira hua insaan!” • CH3L5EA vs AR53NAL • Chelsea fans look TerryFived. Whats the Mata ? • chelsea fan’s singing - Arsenal Torres’ apart! • John Terry threw himself to the ground so he didn’t have to touch a ball passed to him by a black man. • After Terry’s slip Chelsea instantly ordered brand new pair of boots for him. They will be delivered in 3-5 weeks! • Someone please Cech the score. • What time is it? It’s 5 past Cech! • Who needs Batman when you’ve got Robin? • Arsene Wenger just asked Andre Villas Boas the time. Turns out it is 5 to 3. • Fernando torres is finally on twitter. He aimed for Facebook but missed.
Metallica concert cancelled after fans stampede and break through barricades. Time for some lame Metallica references. • They couldn’t master these puppets. • Exit light. Enter crazy fans. • The concert has been cancelled. Sad But True. • I hope the organizers have learnt a lesson. Security is of paramount importance. Nothing Else Matters. • Nowhere in Delhi will the fans hear Metallica play And on that colourful and gay note, Goodbye. live. Wherever they may roam. • On Sunday, When the 5 red lights go out the Indian Grand Prix is Goooooo! On Friday however, as the lights went out at the arena, it was simply a case of Fade To Black. LTGTR | October ‘11 | 41
DESIGN | Chinmay Maheshwari PHOTOGRAPHY Aman Wilson Indrajeet Deshmukh Vijay Narayan Sahil Mehta Chinmay Maheshwari
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