Fair & Handsome

It is the women who are often criticized for putting on make-up or relying too much on cosmetic products. The usual charges that one comes to hear of, is that they don't understand the need of the hour or undermine the value of time by wasting time on looking fair.

This will be Breaking-news for those critics. Guess who would care more for looking fair when they are on a serious mission (though the mission was mass murder)? It's the bunch of terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

It could not be more surprising to discover that the terrorists along with carrying the other essential commodities to survive on the trawler Kuber on high sea, were also carrying tubes of fairness cream. The security agencies have found along with tooth brushes, tooth paste, dairy whiteners, clothes, soap detergent, namaz caps, instructions to operate arms in urdu and satchets of fairness cream shipped from Dubai.

Cold cream would have made more sense than fairness cream given the dry season that has already set-in, in the region.Though the guys were going to launch a killing spree in a city at the end of their voyage, they could not care less to look fair. And the cream certainly have worked wonders, as the eyewitness who saw these men getting off a dingy in Macchimar colony described them as "gore-chikne ladke" ( fair and handsome men).

Bigg Boss: Curtain Raiser

In the season of reality shows on Indian television, another one of it –Bigg Boss season 2---kicked off on 17th August 2008. The inmates of the Bigg Boss house this time will not just include actors and models, but reality show winner, politicians and jailbird(s). Some of the biggest names involved in controversies have been roped in for this edition of the show.

Gangster Abu Salem’s companion Monica Bedi is probably trying to re-launch her career through this medium. After spending years and months in Portuguese and Indian jail, spending 84 days in Bigg Boss house may be easier for her, as pointed out by last season’s winner Rahul Roy. The other news maker is BJP leader Late. Pramod Mahajan’s son Rahul Mahajan who has been in the news for all the wrong reasons—starting from his drug abuse to physically abusing his wife to his divorce. He played the perfect guide to every contestant, making them familiar with every corner of the house.

Barack Obama and other US presidential hopefuls have used new technological methods to reach audience far and wide. So can our politicians do. Opposition leader, L.K. Advani has also opened a website in the lines of Obama, to reach out to the youth. Congress, the ruling party has outdone BJP, by fielding one of its leaders as the Bigg Boss contestant. So, Sanjay Nirupam won’t have to walk that extra mile like any other leader, he has ensured a slot for himself during the primetime most of the living rooms in India. If you know Shilpa Shetty, then you are also aware of the Jade Goody, the tormentor of the former in the British reality show Big Brother. She is also present in the bigg boss house so that “people in India can know more of her personality”. Welcome Jade.

Besides this high voltage list there are other eleven contestants including TV actors Ketki Dave, Rakhee Vijayan, item girl Sambhavna Sambhavna Seth, actor Payal Rohatgi , non- celebrity-Elina, model-actor Zulfi Syed, music reality show winner Debojit Saha, MTV Roadies 5.0 winner Ashutosh Kaushik, TV actress Shweta Tiwari's estranged husband Raja Chaudhry and famous comedian Ehsaan Qureshi.
Ms. Shetty as presenter would have been okay if she had not tried much urdu. Hope that she catches her act up as make-up and gloss inside the house wears off.

Meanwhile, enjoy being a peeping tom, while being a couch potato, all at the sametime.

V–J day in Times Square

Whenever i have a look at this picture, the only thought that pass through my mind is: how special and relieving was the news of end of Second World War. This famous photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt captures the mood that was in the public, especially those who were serving in the armed forces--the sailor kissing the nurse-- on 15th August 1945 after the victory over Japan, marking the end of Second World War.

According to Eisenstaedt, when he came in the Times Square, he spotted a sailor on a kissing spree, "grabbing any and every girl in sight". But he waited for him to kiss someone wearing a light colored dress, which will create the perfect contrast. Eisenstaedt was running ahead of him, "Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse."

This is one of the best photograph published by Life Magazine. The magazine has accepted the claim of nurse Edith Cullen Shain of being the nurse in the photograph. She was identified on the basis of her legs by Eisenstaedt. But the sailor has not been identified yet.

I believe, it is one of those rare pictures which captures the immense amount of joy a common individual feels when something terrible is over.

Reality TVs: Encouraging ‘peeping toms’

Recently, Nicole Kidman and her husband requested Australian media and paparazzi not to hound them for photographs as they want to show their kid the places, they grew up in. In short they asked for privacy.

They didn’t want the ‘peeping toms’ around the world to have access to their private family moments. They deserve to keep things like that private. So does every star, whether in Hollywood or Bollywood or Sarkozy-Bruni, anyone deserves to have their privacy. But, what wonders me the most is that none of these stars protest against reality TV programs like Big Brother, Big Boss brought out by the entertainment industry, which does nothing but encourages our ‘peeping tom’ instincts.

In these programs celebrities live in a studio/house, without any contact with the outer world (huh!), where every activity of theirs is recorded and telecasted on TV as daily soap. So, you get to see what the celebs (though most of the time B-grade actors or some what extraordinary common people are roped in as contestants, who becomes celebrities, as the show begins) do when they are not in make-up, gloss and designer outfits.

This is what the paparazzi tries get for the audience, readers worldwide. They want to show the fans, what their stars and heroes do when they are doing acting. Does the pay check that the contestants of such reality TV shows get make all the difference? I won’t jot the universally accepted answer. Because these same contestants would object to paparazzi and media not allowing them live peacefully once they become ‘known’. After all, participating in shows like these can catapult one to a celebrity status that acting and singing in dozen of films and songs cannot do. Like Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, who got international fame after winning the UK ‘Big Brother’ show. Her tormentor in the show, Jade Goody, whom Shilpa accused of being racist will be participating in the Indian equivalent of ‘Big Brother’, Big Boss (season 2), which Ms. Shetty would be hosting.

One cannot ask for privacy, at the same time very well tolerate shows which actually show the stars when they are not wearing make-up. If some one believes that the media frenzy to get exclusives about the private life of stars and people is crossing all boundaries, then one must also voice against such reality shows like Big Brother , Big Boss which records the activities of its contestants all round the clock.