By Geeta Padmanabhan
A billion Indian voices went “Jai HO!” as AR Rahman stepped on stage to accept his second Oscar statuette at the Kodak Amphitheater. Crackers were burst in front of his house, his sister was caught gushing about brother Rahman on TV cameras. A nation stood up and applauded.
People in the streets, teashops, hotel rooms, offices, buses, trains, beaches and hospital wards screamed, clapped and hugged as Slumdog Millionaire was called again and again for the various awards. India was awake at 4:30 am – the hour the live telecast on TV began for this big event. And held its breath.
The movie had generated incredible buzz – both good and bad – since its huge success at the Golden Globe awards. Reporters had not wasted even the remotest angles for their stories. Every entertainment slot had something on SM. Who is Dev Patel? How was the cesspool scene done? (Chocolate and peanut butter). They were helped with more than the usual grist by Amitabh Bachchan who made some oblique remark in his blog about the movie. AB was quoted and misquoted. He had “accused” the movie makers of selling India’s poverty abroad.
Then came the questions. “Why didn’t SRK play the games show host?” “Was the movie a success because a foreigner had directed and marketed it?”
As the movie began to make huge box office collections, the accusations turned socio-political. “SM owes its huge success abroad to the slum kids, slum scenes, slum story, slum what-have-you,” said a student on the NDTV show featuring Boyle, Dev, Tandon, Kapoor and Simon Beaufoy.“What are you going to do for them?”
“Goood question,” sidestepped Boyle.
“Why was the name in Q & A changed to Jamal?” asked another kid.
“A multi-religious name (in the book) is a beautiful idea. But movies work on emotions,” said Beaufoy.
The interviews with the cast and crew went on and on – you saw Anil Kapoor and Irfan on one channel, flip, there were Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto on another, flip, the kids on the third, flip, the entire main crew (include Lovleen Tandon) on the fourth, even while you heard Rahman’s voice on the FM waves.
Is this unprecedented national response because we are movie-mad? I don’t think so. A lot of people haven’t seen anything of the movie beyond the clippings rolling behind the studio interviews. There are millions of people in India who speak neither Hindi nor English. A movie about violence and slums, so what’s new?
India’s heart beats for AR Rahman. He is the binding force. People know him. They hum, sing and perform his songs. They have been doing it since his Roja days. His tunes, whether Chinna Chinna Aasai or Kwaja oh Kwaja bring a deeply felt resonance. No, it isn’t movie-madness. It is music-madness. Hs music fills the potholes of Indian life.
Congratulatory messages flew across the globe to him and Rasul and Prasanna, who made the music for Smile Pinki, the award winning documentary. Actor after actor was interviewed through the day. “I waited like I was waiting for my Board Exams,” said Surya. “Rahman richly deserves this award,” said Ilayaraja’s son. Kamal Hasan said something similar.
What did the awardees say in their acceptance speeches? Rasul talked of the silence before and after “Om” and dedicated the award to the nation. Rahman likened his emotions at the moment to his marriage jitters. He looked genuinely pleased as he pointed his mother in the audience. And then he endeared himself to the 10 crore Tamilians across the globe by invoking god in Tamil. He sang in Hindi, was awarded in English and he thanked God in Tamil. In that instant, he became a local, national and global boy. The boy who chose love over hate.
I spoke to him on the 7th January. He was a member of the jury that selected disabled candidates for the CavinKare Ability Awards. Talking of the disabled achievers, he said, “I should have been in London for the BAFTA celebrations. But I’m happy to be with these (disabled) stars rather than the movie stars.”
About 1 in 8 kids in the US has special needs. Despite this alarmingly high number, parents of kids with special needs face incredible loneliness in their challenge to deal with their child’s disability.
“Jeena Yahaan gives hope to parents. They meet other like minded parents, and form networks and are inspired to live life here and now. My son Neel, who is autistic, has benefited a tremendous amount from Jeena Yahaan,” says Sanjita Dhingra, a long time Jeena member who is putting together this year’s show. “Thanks to Jeena, he has got over his anxiety over performing in public.” 13 year-old Neel is now confident enough to participate in his school band with over a 100 other kids, a real challenge for an autistic child.
While your pocketbook may be thin because of the current economic environment, I urge you to help Jeena put together their annual show this year. It is an incredibly important event for the kids who look forward to it all year. I have attended previous shows and have been moved by the look of pride on both the children’s and the parents’ faces.
I may have just discovered the single most important key to successful weight loss.
One might wonder why a movie, whose central premise is President George W. Bush’s visit to India, was released after he left the office. But as an Indian American, I was glad to have the distance and be free to laugh at the mockery this movie makes of our last President, glad to have woken up from the nightmare of the last 8 years.
We take our Blackberries into the bathroom and listen to music while we work. While us old fogeys have to be content with doing 2, maybe 3 things at a time, it is marvel to watch a teenager at it – simultaneous screens on the laptop deal with Instant Messages, chat rooms, homework assignments and YouTube; earphones blare music in one ear while the cell phone is pressed to the other.
“I’m the president of a couple of clubs at my school,” says Arun Bajaj, “ and let me tell you, it is a lot easier managing a group of my peers than a group of 40 young kids!” 17 year-old Arun, a senior at Saratoga High School, volunteered at the 
Karan Suri agrees. “I think the once a week program is a great idea,” he says enthusiastically.” Karan, a senior at Los Altos High, has been volunteering at the summer camp program since he was a freshman. “I brought my drum set and taught the kids the elements of drumming. Another counselor who was good at drawing helped the kids design their own comic books.” Thanks to his experience, Karan is eligible to be a camp director this year. In his senior position, he would plan schedules, hire instructors and develop the curriculum for some of the camps, an invaluable training in managerial responsibilities. “I am grateful for the opportunity to meet people in business and develop my leadership skills,” he says.
There is an axiom in the publishing industry that says ” Write what you know.” Certainly director Zoya Akhtar seems to have taken it to heart in her debut movie, Luck By Chance. Daughter of famous poet, composer and writer Javed Akhtar, Zoya uses the movie industry in Mumbai as a backdrop for the story of a couple of struggling actors who come to try out their luck in the big bad city.
I don’t need to tell you that there is a recession underway. Headlines scream “The worst recession since the great depression”. These are uncertain times and everyone is tightening their belts. While cutting down expenses is the need of the hour some things can not be cut out completely, like the occasional get-togethers and parties, specially birthday parties for children.
Food:Pizza: Buy some Pizza dough from the grocery store and a bunch of toppings. Pizza topping ideas: Spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, shredded pepperoni slices, ham slices or Canadian bacon, pineapple chunks, pepper slices, sliced mushrooms, sliced olives etc.you will need 8” Disposable aluminum foil pie tins (Mark each child’s name on it with a sharpie), a few rolling pins. Roll out the pizza dough into small rounds and put it in the pie tins and let the kids put toppings on them.
Venue: Home (economical) or Restaurant
Water, No Ice 