Has the world been culturally colonised by the US?

This thought struck me last week when I was reading an article in TOI about Shekar Kapur's visit to India to launch Virgin Comics. The theme of Virgin Comics is to provide readers,comics with their regional characters and stuff. Shekar Kapur had mentioned ' After Second World War the world has been culturally colonised by the US' and their effort is to provide readers with stuff which they can appreciate and relate better.

This observation really made me thinking, are we really colonised culturally by the US? I guess it is correct to a greater extent. We see Hollywood movies, listen to their music,eat at Big Mac, Pizza Hut, KFC. We sip Coke and Pepsi, we wear American clothes. I mean the more I thought, the more this realisation dawned on me that 'AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE' has crept in our life in a major way.

I tried analysing what is that American ways are so dominant in our life? I guess the answer lies in the fact everyone wants to follow the successful and become like it. I think it has also been the norm of life.Thank god at least we dont 'LEFT HAND DRIVE' in India.

KANK and KJ type movies...

Unfortunately I happen to see KANK, another feather in KJ's cap this weekend. I was exhausted by the intermission, having no clue where it was heading. First of all, the very concept of infidelity,the theme of this movie which KJ calls as very 'in' thing is presented in such a tacky and poorly conceived way that you feel sorry for the movie. There is absolutely no clue as to why Rani Mukherjee does not reciprocate her hubby's(AB) warm feelings. She is drawn into an affair with Shahrukh who is a perpetually sulking husband trying hard to save his own marriage. The climax of the movie seems to be on a wild goose chase with a very cliched end.

The movie seems to have a poor cinematrography, in most parts of the movie it is Manhattan skyline which is in the background .There seems no plausible reason why the movie was shot in NYC. It could have been anywhere, may be Mumbai,Bangalore or Timbaktu. Another important point which I would like to bring across is India's misinterpretation of the West. Our notion is so god damn skewed about them that we present a very poorly researched and antiquated view of the West. West is synonymous to poor family values, open sexual environment,opulence and amidst all these the pure desi Indian family.

What would you do if you lock your flat past midnight without having the keys?

Have you ever wondered what would you do in such a situation? Actually I also never wondered about this before.I went through this ordeal very recently and thought of sharing it. On one Saturday, past midnight after my quota of beer and smoke thought of stretching my legs and watching some movie. When I have too many options and no way to come to the conclusion I just listen to my heart and to decide on the movie I did the same. I played the Notting Hill dvd, my roommate also joined me for the movie.

After the movie was over, we thought of going on a ride to savour the movie and also for a smoke. Then came the painful moment. My roommate locked the flat without taking the keys.Fortunately I had 100 bucks with me and he had the cellphone and bike keys.

We started thinking what to do next, then we thought lets go for the ride first and then we would see. The ride was good, we were back after an hour or so. By now we were sleepy it was 0230 hrs. We started weighing all the options. These are the moments when you realise how crazy one can think. One option was to go to Nandi Hills and be back by morning,but this idea didnt materialize because we were too tired and also had very less cash on us. Another was may be we could wake the landlord and ask for the duplicate key. But they are old people and we thought it would be highly discourteous of us to trouble them at this hour. One other option was to wait outside the flat till morning ,for the landlord to wake up.

None of the options could stand our weariness, we thought somehow we got to find a place to sleep. We called up one of our friends who stays close by, he was awake watching football. We also watched along, had another round of beer at his place.We hardly slept that night.

We left his house in the morning thinking we would find our landlord awake by now.To our dismay they they had left for some place. My god, the ordeal which seemed romantic in the beginning became really unbearable. We were dying to crash on to our beds. We thought of waiting for sometime,but no good happened. Finally we decided to get an ironsmith and get the duplicate key done. Just as we were about to leave for the ironsmith at 1130 hrs, our landlord came back. We were thanking god from the bottom of our hearts.

The ordeal was over but the experience was worth going through. So just think of what you would do if you lock your flat past midnight?

Why Indians are not enterpreneurial by nature?

I often wonder why Indians are so successful abroad and very few Indians based in India are equally successful? Is it the system that prevents us from breaking the glass ceiling or is it our upbringing and societal make up which instills in us 'Always avoid risks'.

If we delve little deeper we can understand for ourselves that Indians as a breed is a docile type which has never attacked a country in 5000 years of its existence. Our society creates an atmosphere that only by hardwork and perseverance can one reach at the top.I dont reject this philosophy but it prevents inculcation of enterpreneurial spirit. If we look at the West, their societal make up makes the people independent and risk takers at an early age because of the unstability and turbulence in the families.

I am not saying that we should bring the turbulence and unstability of West's family life in India but parents should not mould their kids only in the shape of ' Macaulay's Mould'. Indians have proven their competence abroad, its time we let the enterpreneurial culture being nurtured and take shape.