Aussie Lingo

Overheard at a fish and chips place at the seaside town of Noosa, Queensland, Australia:

"We haven't travelled out of the country since terrorism started"

I am not cynical

On March 11th, 2008, it will have been eight months since I left home. Eight months since I moved to Sydney. Eight months into a new life, in a country, on a new continent, in a new hemisphere.

I haven't yet looked at whether toilets flush anti-clockwise. Mine doesn't flush any wise.

I haven't met many Australians at all! But everyone says 'no worries' with the optimistic view that it will make them feel like they fit in in a city that is very like 'It's a Small World' in Disneyland.

Whoever told me it was a 'mild climate' is going to die a very slow, painful death.

The summer here is like winter at home. Which is alright, but still wrong.

I get very homesick and nostalgic and love talking about it, but I hate being considered a source of information regarding things from home, or people from home.

The funniest comment I have had made to me: 'You're not Asian!'
Me: 'But India is in South Asia'
Addresser of comment: 'What? Really?'

I'm a genius because I can add in my head.

I'm not a bad cook.

It's Tooheys all the way. Not VB, and definitely not Fosters.

Cheap wine can be very nice.

Beaches are good. Ocean swimming, not so much.

Sydney gets transformed in summer really. If there ever was a city that made the most of sunshine and green grass, this is it! Movies, fairs, markets, concerts, bushwalks... and those are only the mainstream events you can participate in, in picnic fashion, during Dec-Jan-Feb.

There were banners all over the city in January, rather smugly proclaiming 'This is our city in summer'.

I have to admit, I felt the pride swell up within myself too. It's so easy to show off this place to the world. It's not home, but still home. And I love it.

Ugly faces

For a while I have been debating with myself as to whether this situation was worth posting about. God knows the media has made a big enough deal of it already. To add to it, I'm probably not the best authority on the game of cricket or the actual situation that occured- even though it happened about 6 kms from where I sat watching it on TV.

But I decided I should say something, whatever little- because for the first time I am witnessing it from the other shore, not from within a place where I am ensconced within the comfortable majority.

Everyone who is bothered has been following the situation- I'm not discussing the fairness of the judgement, or the actual evidence of what occured. I'm only mentioning some of the significance of the situation as I see from my place here.

Australia has more than its share of racial tensions, there is no denying that. That is why the first thing that struck me about the Sydney Test Match Incident was what its repurcussions would be. Australian news reports and press interviews by Ponting speak of the situation as if Australia is standing up against racist behaviour- as if it always has- as if the problem lies outside, not within the country. Externalising the problem is not a way of dealing with it, is it?

The other issue that gets pulled up is the definition of racism. After crying themselves hoarse about how the 'monkey' term is a definition of racism, will the country- actually, countries- again go back to believing certain other actions don't blatantly constitute racism? If you think about whether this situation has caused the citizens of respective countries to be more introspective or more secure in their existing beliefs, I think we'll find it's the latter.

Why does cricket expect its players to be of higher moral fibre? Is it fair to ask that? Or are we lowering our standards of sports and sportsmanship too much?

Rants

I have realised that this is what irritates me the most in my part-time job here- the scrunched up look on the customer's face when they come expecting to not understand what you are saying, that suddenly clears to this expression of pleasant or delighted surprise that you actually speak comprehensibly!

Don't be surprised, damnit. It isn't any sort of achievement that I speak the way I do in a language that you don't believe is my first language. It just is. Bah.

Pressures

It scares to think that I am looked upon as a trust worthy source of information regarding India, Hyderabad, Hindusim, architecture, Bollywood and cricket (among other things)!

This can't be a good thing, can it? I hope they Wikipedia everything I say!

Down Under

Overheard two women having a conversation on a bus heading towards the eastern suburbs of Sydney:

Woman 1 (watching a person of South East Asian heritage get onto the bus): Everywhere I look, they're taking our jobs. The bloody Chinese. And bloody Indonesians.

Woman 2 (also watching the same person): Aren't they the same? Isn't China the same as Indonesia?

Woman 1: No. In Indonesia, they eat dog.

Scary Things like Amitabh Bachchan

* As those who know me know, I do change my mind a lot, so I am reserving full freedom to edit this post as and when I please and have a change of heart.

I have never attempted a movie review and I don't really plan to attempt one now. This is only an opinion.

There are two places I look for reviews, however. One is the newspaper review. Second are the blogs floating around.

With Rang De Basanti, I was very pleased with the reviews I found online.

With Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, not so much. Why did everyone love it??

I get that the movie was more essentially Bollywood than any other in a long time. But I thought it was too condescending towards its own genre. It is very happily being slotted with Main Hoon Na, but I don't really agree. Main Hoon Na seemed to do a better job of being a Bollywood film that spoofs Bollywood, but I felt Jhoom Barabar Jhoom struggled with the concept a lot. It was as difficult for me to watch as Bride and Prejudice. MHN managed to rope in both the (many) people who just wanted a fun film and the (much fewer) people that keep waiting for mainstream Hindi films to be somewhat interesting/ worthwhile/ dissectable beyond the obvious. JBJ only managed to bag the latter category. It got too cleverly cheesy for its own good.

I think pretty much everyone agrees that a Bollywood film is its own separate category and needs special parameters of judgement. So a Bollywood film that laughs mercilessly at Bollywood , is that film going to be a success? It could have been, had it not adopted a very superior attitude. Because to me that wreaks of hypocrisy- the same actors and filmmakers have a mountain of typical Bollywood films behind them. I suppose it is unfair for me to sit here and say 'Choose one: serious Bollywood, or mocking it'. But I wouldn't have to if it didn't look like it was trying so hard.

With Rang De Basanti, the message the film came with was so crucial that it was very important to judge the film after stripping it of its Bollywood tag. But with JBJ, there is no need to do that really.

To me it is a very irritating path to walk on: We know it's ridiculous, the whole industry is crazy, but look, we're better because we're atleast laughing at ourselves through this. We want the money that comes from being marketed as a mainstream film, but we want none of the accusations.

And Amitabh Bachchan? That manic laugh at the end was just way, way too much for me to tolerate.

But I love the songs. And Bobby Deol. And Lara Dutta ('Hindi nahin aati kya?' 'Aati hai kamini' 'Sirf utni aati hai kya kutti'). They are all awesome.