Sunday, March 29, 2009

slumdog and others like it

Disclaimer- I have not yet seen Slumdog Millionaire.
People have been constantly mentioning Slumdog to me (probably,because I am Indian)- even patients I see in clinic want to know if I have seen the movie,and if I liked it. Most people say they thought it was great. I, obviously, do not know what to think about it. All I tell folks is that it is not really an Indian movie, financed by the French, brought about by a British team but it is Indian in that it was shot on site at Dharavi and it did have an Indian crew.
I am pleased that it makes people think about poverty, which we have plenty of, in India. It brings attention and that is good, just as "Smile Pinki" does. It may make us do more and that is all good.
Amongst the category of Indian films, sort of at least, which are Oscar winners is another documentary called "Born into Brothels". I have seen this one and it is probably one of the more hopeful documentaries/docudramas that I have seen. It made me appreciate the human spirit and not to take things at face value, as all of us sometimes do. See it, if you can.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

"Keep calm and carry on"

I was driving to work one day and I heard this on NPR; it seems there is this poster from the World War 11, which has becomes seriously popular in these diificult times. This really resonated with me at that particular moment- I was driving to the outpatient clinic which is about 25 miles away from the hospital where I had rounded on a few seriously sick people and while on my way, I was called to let me know that my two year old had high fever.
I repeated to myself- keep calm and carry on....it did seem to help a little.
Check this out for the real thing .

Saturday, March 14, 2009

men are from mars....

I feel it diminishes the human being when we talk about the differences in the sexes as being so important.I also think gross generalizations are not useful and do not help us, as people, to do better in our life.
But, this is a rant against the unfairness of life. I was talking to my husband, and just casually mentioned that I told somebody at work that I was really happy I could make it to my son's school for a pizza lunch when he has an early closure. He started off by chiding me...its not good to be so openly personal at work, I really should not be talking so much about my children and especially, going off to see my son when I am doing lunch.
It got me thinking of the ridiculousness of the whole situation, he can talk about his children, even down to discussing how our two year old has been difficult to wean off the breast- that just shows the world that he is a stable, family man while if I do something similar I may be painted as undependable.
I am still seething....