Vandalism of Mumbai Wall Project

It was just Sunday when I was admiring the pictures of “Wall Project, Phase -II” shared by my Mumbai friends on Facebook, Twitter etc and within a day I get to read about vandalism of those lovely walls! This was actually a joint initiative of BMC and Mumbai citizens where a number of people turned out to paint and beautify the wall running along Tulsi Pipe Road, between Mahim and Matunga in Mumbai. Wall project as a concept has definitely grown noticeably since its inception; in fact what started just as an idea by a group of few enthusiastic people to do something to one of the compound walls in Bandra has become a large scale city wide beautification project now. Not only this is an interesting way of transforming the city walls, it is also an innovative way of preventing them from turning into a spittoon or cuspidor. I have personally seen this project on walls of Lalbaug, Bangalore and it’s simply awesome. I’ve been commuting on the same road daily for many months now but after those paintings are done the whole area has got a different vibrancy & liveliness altogether.

As a part of this initiative, BMC started the second stage last weekend where whole lot of bright and lovely pictures were painted by the citizens of Mumbai, some were based on alphabets whereas some had interesting messages. My personal favorite ones were "म से माँ" or "Ghar Ja ke Kar" :-). You can check the whole collection here. But within a day, all hard-work & efforts of citizens were just scrapped by the promoters of the movies Aladin, Gair & London Dreams. They didn’t even think twice before pasting the movie posters all over those painted walls!!! If you look at before & after images of the walls, you just can’t refrain yourself from a feeling of disgust and appall towards this insensitive sabotage.

Citizens are angry and rightly so at this step of movie marketers which has resulted to an outrage all across social media against this inconsiderate act of promoters. Many people have decided to boycott these movies. Seeing the repercussion, few actors and other associated people have apologized for this act and instructed to remove the posters, but the question is will removal of pictures solve the problem? Won’t those paper posters leave paste marks on the paintings? And how about their attitude or approach towards cityscapes? Isn’t it highly insensitive to go ahead and paste them at the first place? On one hand we have such bunch of enthusiastic people who spend their weekends towards enriching their cities and on other we have such thoughtless bunch who didn’t even think twice before ruining it. And no, I do NOT think that it’s the mistake of those poor poster guys who had stuck those posters, they have just executed what was instructed to them; it was surely the mistake of the planners who would have decided on the areas for their poster campaign. Also on second thought, in an OOH & hoarding dominated city like Mumbai, do we really need to spoil any wall (be it painted or plain ones) now for movie promotion??? Well, there are definitely more interesting mediums available for movie promotion than spoiling the beauty of your own city…

Blog Action Day – 2009: An Inconvenient Truth

OMG, I totally forgot that it’s 15th today; in fact I had already started a post for this day but then left it mid-way with an intention to wind it up on the actual day. So, here I am with my bit for this year’s Blog Action Day on Climate Change.

On this day I would like to contribute my bit with yet another movie recommendation to all my readers. Yea movie…well with movies good thing is that you can always find one to suit your mood & occasion – be it romance or break-up, glee like wedding to dread like terrorism, national issue like girl child to global one like climate change. This year’s Blog Action Day has been dedicated to Climate Change and on this day I strongly recommend all my readers to watch the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” of Al Gore. This is surely a must watch for all those who are aware or would like to be aware of the term global warming & it’s effect on our climate and surroundings.

"An Inconvenient Truth" directed by Davis Guggenheim is a 2006 released documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming and inspire them to take action…Here are 5 key reasons why you must not miss this movie at any cost:

• This is a very well presented movie which has dealt with the issue of global warming in a totally different way.
• It is not just a documentary or a story of despair but rather a real cry to protect the one earth we all share.
• Even if the movie does not disclose the root cause of this burning issue but it does reveal some interesting figures & amazing insights on global warming which hits you hard enough to think more & more.
• A cinematic food for thought, this movie is having more suspense than many thrillers and more emotion than many dramas. Most of all, it's scarier than any horror flick and what shakes you deep within is the fact that this horror is not fiction or fantasy, it’s for real!
• It is one of those movies which not only got great response from viewers & reviewers but got thumbs up from many film critics too. In words of famous film critic Roger Ebert: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

So, in case you’ve not watched it till now, I urge you to grab a copy of it soon and give it a try. I’m sure you’ll have a different perspective of environment & climate once you’ve watched this movie.

Reality TV hits its all time low!

It’s no more anger rather DISGUST on Indian reality television now. With programs like “Pati, Patni aur Woh”, “Rahul ka Swayamvar & “Bigg Boss 3” I’m wondering if there is any better reaction possible than this? Well, content wise I guess all of them are crap but the crappiest of the lot is surely “Pati, Patni aur Woh”. This program leaves me nothing less than AGHAST! I mean why on earth would people want their few months old kids to participate in such a weird program? Be it any class of the society, I’ve generally seen parents taking utmost care of their babies, but the way kids were handled in the initial few episodes of the program just makes you think again & again – what is it which would have acted as trigger enough for the parents to leave their infants in such a strange environment. Is it money or fame or both? And when you read justification like the following, all the more you start wondering if the parents really know what they are doing with their kids through all these reality programs.?As quoted by one of the parents in TOI:

"My husband and I did this purely as social work. All the celebrity couples are either married or are preparing to marry. So we are helping them for the future," said Shilpa Budhraja whose 10 month old son is one of the kids in the show.

!!!!!!!!!#######!!!!!. Ms. Budharaja, don’t you think there are zillions of better and more sensible ways to do social service than lending your kid to a reality show? Being a mother, the least you could have thought about is the distress and unease which such show can cause to your kid.

When I see the program and the way those 10-11 months old babies are handled, all I can feel is empathy for those kids and pity on their parents. Really hunger for fame can make you do anything! From the appearance of their parents I somehow don’t think it’s only money which is making them do so.

Indian reality television has been blatantly copying the western content format but with shows like Perfect Bride or Pati, Patni Aur Woh, I wonder do they even understand the impact of such shows on our society. And with almost every aspect of life becoming a reality program, what would be the next content now? Shaadi dikha diya, pregnancy ka natak bhi karwa diya, bachche bhi palwa liye, what next? “Rakhi ka suhaagraat” or “Rakhi maa kaise bani”??? Well, reality TV content has definitely hit its all time low and it does need a full stop in its flow now!