26th January is not a good place to be in Assam. The days leading to Republic Day were fraught with bomb blasts in Guwahati, one after the other. Not that it made much difference to the people there – except for yours truly, whose plans to go to Shillong were scuttled by two panic-stricken parents who calculated the probability of a bomb blast in the immediate vicinity of their son as a clear 1 out of 1. Seems the ULFA had been quite busy in January, demanding some X crores of rupees from ONGC and IOC ( where X is a figure that would give normal men heart attacks), and refineries, pipelines and key installations were on high alert for quite sometime. By high alert, I mean that if you were a group of young men out on a picnic, there is a fair chance you might have gotten arrested on charges of being suspected terrorists.
(The interesting thing I noted about one of the bomb blast was the total filmy set-up – someone threw a hand grenade in front of a police station. One person was hurt, and then half an hour later, a high-intensity blast occurs in the SAME PLACE. The funda being that the hand grenade had been used as a lure for policemen, senior-level ones to arrive at that place to “take stock of the situation”, while the actual bomb had been planted much before, and was timed to go off half an hour after the grenade blast. These terrorist guys are getting smarter everyday.)
One good (umm, kind of) thing that happened because of these is that when we went to watch Rang De Basanti on the first day, the theatre was empty.
Most people in Assam weren’t really bothered by the bomb blasts or threats. The topic which would send Axomiya Ryze ( that’s “folks from Assam”, for the Axomiya-challenged) into a frenzy would be “Debojit”. Ask around, and the people everybody would want to choke to death in broad daylight would be either Adesh Srivastav or Himesh Reshammiya. ( Ismail Durbar was being considered for canonization, last I heard) Reliance, about the only GSM service that’s of any consequence in the North-East, had put up hoardings saying “Vote for Debojit, son of the soil”, posters that were huger than the ones that are displayed whenever a new Rajini movie is released, the ones where you can count the number of teeth in His Grinning Mouth. They also brought down SMS rates to twenty paise. Which means that most people, including my uncles sent about 40 SMSes every day. “A matter of honour”, they said, when I pointed out that this was technically cheating.
For people who were clueless about the above paragraph, it was about this series on Zee TV called ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’, which once upon a time used to be a musical talent show of much repute, with very serious contestants and judges and a presenter who dripped sugar and honey. Until all these other TRP-friendly shows like Indian Idol took away much of viewership, because of which SRGMP decided to reinvent itself as a vote-show, and a clash of music composers’ “apprentices”. There was some major controversy to do with this particular segment of the show, detailed here and here.
So how was Rang De Basanti?
I liked it. A lot.
Also just read that story abou the picnicing terrorists…if I saw that in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it. :)
Life in Assam is strange. :)
Lost Lost Na Mila..
Lost aa gira rey, Rashtriya baazar mein.
Mil gaya, humko saathi mil gaya..
…put up hoardings saying “Vote for Debojit, son of the soil”
I was watching the show the other day and when the results were announced, the singer got nearly 80% of votes from Assam. I thought, “Who would watch a Hindi show on Zee TV in Assam?” Well… your post explains it, I guess.
Sa Re Ga Ma was the only respectable show out there; they should not have aped the Idol format. I feel regionalism should not be a factor in deciding somebody’s future. If the number of messages becomes a factor, then what about people from Lakshadweep? No matter how many messages they send, they can be easily beaten just by people from Bombay messaging at the same rate. One of the worst formats to have been thought up for getting audience participation. When it comes to making money people don’t matter I guess.
I don’t know about you, but I think Mr.Reshammiya deserves to be at least gagged to prevent him from singing. :-) (I am sick & tired of watching him on every channel singing the same stuff in his nasal voice. Too much of a ‘good’ thing is too bad.)
I feel regionalism should not be a factor in deciding somebody’s future.
Hmm. Probably someone should say that to all the Mumbai people who led out a campaign to get Abhijit Sawant voted the Indian Idol. :-P
I am afraid I had rather more painful ideas in store for Himesh-bhai. ;-)
people everybody would want to choke to death in broad daylight would be either Adesh Srivastav or Himesh Reshammiya
I vote for the former. He sang here in Mumbai day before with Dominic Miller.
And you were there? :-D
I was.
Firstly, I apologize if you’ve (and anyone who’ve) been offended. I read my comment again and I realized I should have framed it better.
Anyway, my emphasis was on “Hindi”. There are few states in India where the local language is dominated heavily. If you look at south Indian states, not many people watch Hindi channels (except the urban areas). In fact, not many know even the names of theses channels. And not watching Hindi channels doesn’t make them backward or some kind of secluded tribe. It’s just that they prefer local shows. And it’s the same context I referred Assam as well; not at all with the intention to demean it.
If you’ve watched the show, there was this contestant from Andhra Pradesh who although got decent votes from south, stood no where in comparison to the votes the guy from Assam received. It was a bit surprising considering the fact that Assam is relatively smaller state when compared to Andhra. Reading beatzo’s post made me realize the guy’s popularity in his home state.
Anyway, as I’ve said earlier, I should have framed my comment in a better way. My apologies again :)
The Axomiya middle class is really hooked up on these mainstream Doordarshan programs. Saas-bahu serials, music contests,just name it. I grew up watching them as did my friends and relatives, before cable made its onslaught and we switched over to “Friends”. A north Indian friend of mine once asked me how I manage to speak Hindi without the notorious Axomiya accent. The only answer I could think of is I learnt it from watching TV. It’s strange how folks outside Assam think we are some kind of secluded tribe immersed in our own rituals and pagan celebrations. Why do you think we have terrorists in the first place !
Peace :)
Assamese as a ‘foreign’ language
Hi there
We are a bunch of us who were born and raised here in Bangladesh (we like to call ourselves the 2G Auhomias,) and whilst we speak Bengali including local dialects fluently — those from the 1st G still betray their Assamese accent prompting many Bengali to question “apnar Desher bari Kothai”?!!
Surprisingly when I visit Assam, relatives say I speak Assamese much better than many locals!!!
Cheers
Mac
http://chorchoriz.blogspot.com
http://auhomias.blogspot.com
There were about 8 26th January blasts till the time I counted this time. Maybe there were more. Oh btw, I added you as a friend.
Yeah, there were eight. I wasn’t too sure if that was a number my subconscious dug up, or whether I read it in the news, so didn’t write it down in the post. I have this occasional tendency to exaggerate. :)
speak Hindi without the notorious Axomiya accent
I still do so with that accent, I guess it is the anthropological circumstances that we have to live with :-).
Can you say “Ped parr chadh karr”? That was the official RECW test to see if a guy is Axomiya or not. :-D
Quick note to say that I’ve added a sub-domain mapping as well.
http://beatzo.zaatar.org/ works the same as zaatar.org/beatzo. You should see a ‘logs’ directory which will come in handy if you send your users to the subdomain rather than to the original URL.
enjoy.
What can I say but “Thank you!” :)
Did this Debojit dude win finally?
No idea! I need to ask my parents the next time I call them.
Aha, so Debojit is the local laddie and an apprentice of Ismail Durbaar. How’d he fair though, won?
And I remember the show’s Sonu Nigam days. How come there’s a Pa now? (Used to be just ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’, I remember)
I didn’t like Debojit’s voice myself. He butchered Humma Humma completely. No idea if he won…need to ask my parents sometime.
How come there’s a Pa now?
Because Sa, Re and Ga were lonely without both their parents. :-“
I KNEW you were going to say that. :D
Well, we *are* kindof immersed in our own rituals and pagan celebrations, aren’t we? ;-)
(I was thinking of Assamese weddings when I typed that out.)
It’s been a real long time since I took part in one of those! Maybe yours, if I’m lucky ;)
All these reality shows are SO staged, it is revolting!
Yups. But you watched Nach Baliye all the same, I remember. :-“
I was talking about singing competetions, not dance :-“
No, you were talking about reality shows.
“these” reality shows. The context was set by you as Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Song or Dance? >:P