Malvika's Ramblings » In the air – current affair

How to make an arms deal

malvikajain — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:29:29 +0000

Learn from an Israeli arms maker, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems who brought the following video to woo Indian weapon buyers, last month, at a trade fair called Aero India, organised by India’s Ministry of Defence.

Click here.

On 25th Jan, the day before India’s Republic Day

malvikajain — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:27:12 +0000

Girls at a Mangalore pub were violently beaten by the members of Shri Ram Sena. According to the Sena, the presence of girls at a pub translates to immorality. What a piece of shit this Sena is.

India has progressed a lot, but considering its huge illiterate population, it’s an unsafe place to be in with some very stupid, firm beliefs.

Ontario Province Elections

malvikajain — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:05:30 +0000

It’s the Ontario general election day today and the air is electric with excitement. People are voting to elect members of the Legislative Assembly (Members of Provincial Parliament, or MPPs) of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

It’s interesting to see what elections in Toronto mean. What is it that the candidates promise to the public?

Health Care is turning out to be a huge issue in Canada with people complaining about wait times in hospitals and the fact that each citizen does not have a family doctor. It astounds me as I compare this to India where certain places, especially in the Himalayas, don’t have even 1 doctor for miles and miles.

Clockwise from top left: Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, Green Party Leader Frank De Jong and NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

What I did notice is that in 1 month of living in Toronto, the manifesto of each candidate is very clear to me. That is something that did not happen in 20 years of my life in India. In India, elections meant a lot of jeeps, flags and noise. Call it bad general knowledge on my part, but I never really knew what each party was proposing. In Toronto they make sure you KNOW. It is so clear that a 5 year old child can tell you that the Liberal Party candidate wants to fund public schools and discourage faith based religious schools.

The agenda of every candidate is clear as each party has made commercials that are shown on TV like regular ads. A lot of finger-pointing there.

There are other ads encouraging people to vote, saying that ‘Don’t let someone else speak for you’. Effective advertisements with a good dash of humour!

I saw similarity between Canadian and Indian voters when a pizza joint man wryly commented – “I have to decided which crook to vote for.”

The 3 main candidates are

Dalton McGuinty – Liberal Party

Howard Hampton – NDP

John Tory – PC

McGuinty says ``We plan to hire 9,000 more.Today, we're not only measuring wait times, but those wait times are slowly, but surely, coming down. Half a million more Ontarians now have a family doctor. And we have a plan to get family doctors for 500,000 more.`

He focuses on

1 Directing health tax to provide medical facilities

2 Clean water laws

3 Publicly funded schools.

John Tory promises

1. Relief to low income people from health tax

2. Public housing

3. Reducing doctor shortage

4. Integrating skilled immigrants fully into the workforce

5. Fixing the justice system

He mainly says that he will fix all the problems created by the previous Premier, Dalton McGuinty. He keeps repeating the fact that McGuinty did not fulfil his promises towards autistic children, instead he took the parents of these children to court. I don’t know what’s the story behind that. Check it out yourself.

Howard Hampton says his party will

1. Provide a health tax rebate of up to $450 for everyone making less than $80,000.

2. Raise the minimum wage to $10 per day.

3. Reduce post secondary education fee

4. Make sure all kids get the education they deserve.

5. Reduce hospital waits.

6. Protect our environment.

7. Establish a right-to-know law that ensures families know what toxins are in our food, air, ground and water. Our plan to fight global warming would meet Kyoto targets by shutting Ontario's biggest polluter (Nanticoke coal plant) by 2011, invest in energy efficiency not nuclear, and fast-track public transit expansion.

Dalton McGuinty says that he would continue the good work. He needs support to complete his plans which are on the verge of success.

John Tory attacks McGuinty. He was supporting faith based schools earlier but had to move away from that when the electorate didnt seem too happy about his idea.

Howard Hampton promises many new positive steps.

Who would you have voted for ? If I was part of this, I would have chosen by elimination. I would NOT have voted for John Tory who supported faith-based schools. Just like how i would not have voted for BJP after the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Lets see which issue is close to the hearts of Torontonians. I’ll switch to catch the updates on TV now. The magic number is 54. A party needs 54 seats to win!

Will post the election result as a comment.

Nuit Blanche 2007

malvikajain — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:31:37 +0000

A Bad Day For Limousines

Nuit Blanche - White Night is an annual art and design festival in Toronto and it was held on the streets of downtown T last night. Roads were cleared of traffic and it was OUT there. SO many people were out on the roads, a novelty for Canadians and commonplace for an Indian!

(Photo by WordFreak on www.Flickr.com . You can see Ricky and me talking to the corseted girl)

Here are some of the things I did -

Walking in a Red Light Area that had been created by some artists. The entry was very morbid as my friend Ricky and I saw a girl walking around in a bridal dress with a goat's carcass. The carcass was complete with head and hooves and tail. It was skinned. She was holding it in her arms and caressing it, then raising it over her head as the internal organs of the goat threatened to collapse over her head. Next we saw she was playing with its intestines.

( Photo of Jesika Joy as a bride pulling at a carcass. Photo by WordFreak on www.Flickr.com)

I whipped Ricky as he wore a dog collar and I wore a blue wig. We got a photograph taken. Oh by the way, this was a public performance. It started when we saw a shop window where you could go in and participate. Many people were looking but very few were jumping in. I asked a girl, who was wearing a corset that started just under her bust and showed off pierced nipples “What’s happening here?”. She said we could live our fantasies in there and have our photos taken. So we said, OK! And you dont want to guess.. who was Bad Boy and who was Pussy in Boots....

There was an iron fence along the road. It had paper tags all over it. You were supposed to write a secret or wish on the tag. The interesting part was reading the secrets and wishes of anonymous people who belonged to the crowd that was milling around.

Photo by Qehven from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

A shadow dance was going on in a red window.

Later that night we banged into a friend who was with her friends, one of which ran into her boyfriend who was with his friends. So it was Ricky, Jordanna, Elana, Hailley, Kelly, Daniel, Graham and I. We visited the String of Diamonds. It was night and strings of diamonds floated in the atmosphere above the lawns of the University of Toronto. Actually, they were helium balloons with small LED lights all along the string and as the balloons floated high up, the lights swayed in the air. From far it was just lights in the air. After dancing a few balloon dances and making a balloon centipede that ran all over the park like a Chinese dragon, we left the park to look for a chocolate deer that was being sacrificed somewhere.

On our way, We overheard that a haunted party was going on in the subway, but the line for it was endless.

(Lots of crowd on the Philosopher's Walk. Photo by mtnbiker404 from www.flickr.com)

I went home while some of my friends proceeded to Eaton centre to make their own clouds and set them free. Daniel said “Can I make a cloud in the shape of Daniel?.. Because that would be the coolest cloud ever...!”

Trying Spandrea – spiked fruit punch at the Red Room was a good introduction to the good things of Toronto! Friends, a warm pub, wet glass rings on a wooden table. It was very nice and mellow.

And did I mention the UFO wreck? An area, in the open, was blocked by police tape. There were firemen and police all around. In the middle was a wreck from which smoke emanated. A few aliens had supposedly, just escaped and were roaming the earth.

(Alien crash site by Eyeline-Imagery from www.Flickr.com)

In the Ryerson University area, they had put toilet pots all over the pond. Nice

While walking all over the streets we came across the Royal Ontario Museum. It is such a daring and fantastic work of architecture! The new is literally breaking through the old. It is brazen, beautiful, rebellious and inspiring.

(The Royal Ontario Museum by gbalogh from www.flickr.com)

We also visited a dumpster (that smelt like one) that had been converted to a hotel. You could check in, enjoy a sauna, and look at the lovely interiors - soft bed et al - of the dumpster. Ricky wanted to be slid under the dumpster for getting his face steamed but the hotel was mobile and packed up to move to another street.

(Dumpster Hotel. Photo by Tabibito79 from www.flickr.com)

The best part was that we were literally out on the streets looking for fun and action. The festival was being held in different parts. So we were forever popping into weirdness and then into normal life. One moment we would be at a UFO wreck, the other we would be passing staid people in fine dining restaurants. We were looking for thrills and we stumbled upon them every now and then in downtown Toronto!

I didn’t expect to be walking so much last night. Wore the most stupid and quite fashionable boots ever. My feet were killing me. Soon I was walking barefoot all over Toronto. While walking back to my hotel, a cute guy and I got talking. But I was too tired, just got back to my room and slept like a million hibernating squirrels.

Review of OSIANs cinefest and the films screened

malvikajain — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 08:27:20 +0000

Picture taken from www.Osians.com

Attended half of OSIANs film festival, from the 20th to 25th of July. I would wake up and really get cranky about procuring food. I had nothing to do and no will to work, having just finished my internship. The only highlight in the day was the time spent in Audi 1, 2, 3 or 4 at Siri fort in the darkness catching movies. Soon I was craving for AC, fridge and Mummy and I hit home in Chandigarh after half the film festival was over.
It was good to watch the thin Neville Tully around the festival with his light cotton, well ironed clothes and the characteristic loop in his posture.

I caught the following films-
Curiosity killed the Cat
Dor
Fourteen
Tender is the Wolf
Driving to ZigZigland
Where to
Vanaja
Frozen
Mr and Mrs 55
Cafe Lumiere

If you watched any of these films do give your opinion on it as a comment on this blog.
Some films had a very strong plot that kept the viewer glued to his seat while others seemed like drifters with a surrealistic touch. I am a fan of strong plots and films that are too abstract lose my attention.

Vanaja (Telegu), Frozen (Shot in Ladakh), Dor and Mr and Mrs.55 (Guru Dutt) were the Indian movies I watched.
Vanaja is the story of a fisherman's 15 year old daughter and how she tries to climb up in life. She works at an influential woman's house as domestic help and wins a bet against her mistress to learn classical dance from her. Vanaja is at the verge of womanhood. Its crazy how certain scenes titillate you without any skin show. Its mind twisting. A simple story otherwise, very interesting to watch with lots of Andhra Pradesh landscape and lifestyle to observe.
Frozen has very very very beautiful shots. Its all in black and white. The snow, the glare of the sun in frozen Ladakh, the wolf like dogs make it a beautiful calender. No story. No fun.
Mr and Mrs 55. Fat and happy and beautiful Madhubala. Guru Dutt in a lighter mood and Johnny Walker flirting with Ms Julie by singing songs with her while crawling under office desks. Loved the movie.
Dor - a Nagesh Kukunoor movie with Ayesha Takia, Gul PAnag and Shreyas Talpade. Strong story. Beautiful shots. Great film in too many aspects to point out.

Fourteen was about crazy adolescents in Japan. It was also about adults coming to terms with the craziness of their own childhoods. Didn't identify with it as we Indians are still a sane lot in our teenage lives except for the occasional young guy who features on reality shows like Deewanagi.
Cafe Lumiere - another Japanese movie. Boring. Japanese movies are non-noisy non-pushy like Japanese people themselves. They pause. One scene was shot with a girl bending and putting on her shoe, stopping to think and finally does up her laces to sit up straight and thinking and then finally going and pulling out her cycle from the stand to pedal away. The way they make films, the way Japanese people shoot scenes and the way they give the viewer lots of room for thought is a breath of fresh air for people accustomed to racy Hollywood. Sounds are like water dripping, the sound of putting down a tea cup on the table or the short answer "Hai (yes)" to a question.

The Chinese movie Curiosity Killed the Cat is one of the movies I enjoyed the most. It is the story of betrayal and revenge. Main characters - a man, his wife and his mistress. It is all about she knows and she knows that she knows but she doesn't let him know that she knows, he doesn't want to let her know. The same scenes are shown again and again but each time a new angle in the story has been revealed to you so that you see it in a new light each time. Its a whodunit. Very well made film that grabs you by your eyeballs.

Tender is the wolf (Tunisian) had me cringing with its rape scene. Its about weird characters, a girl who takes revenge and even makes up with one of the men after rape, a girl with no fear and lots of spunk, a mentally sick albino, a coward who is beaten to pulp and rushed to hospital by strangers in a trash wagon. The story of the movie is made up of the happenings of one night. It is a very involving movie.

Where to - strikes a chord in the heart of anyone who longs for home. Its a 12 minute film on an immigrant taxi cab driver.
Drivingto Zigzigland is a movie made in USA but the theme is not USA. Its inclusion in OSIANs is justified by the fact that the main protagonist belongs to Jerusalem and this affects the thought-base of the movie. This man too is a taxi cab driver. Each time he tells his passengers he is from Palestine it strikes up a political debate or calls for a history lesson. So he prefers to say he is from Zigzigland and even gets away from it. The passengers are often racists - not the extreme types, but the everyday types - you and me. The film has comedy, sadness and damn! kick-the-object-closest-to-you, bang-your-fist moments. It was the best film I watched at the film festival. It was introduced by the director and cast of the movie which was an honour.

Waiting for a movie to start- Looking around - silver haired flowing tresses women with silver jewelery and exclamation mark bindis on the forehead - the gaggle of students- a woman from some country left for you to guess with a scary spice hairdo sitting in the seat in front of a short man - the old man who sang along lustily with all the songs in the Guru Dutt's movie - the people sitting around that old man who did not have the heart to ask him to stop although they are very sensitive to the backseat chatter in a movie usually - the security guards at the door who were very sincere in their duty but a little scared lest they be stopping some high and mighty dignitary who is a chief guest for the movie screening and not to be disallowed anything - the aunty sitting in the food court handing out coupons to soggy bhelpuri - the sound of the projector running just before the video appeared on the screen - the gol gappa fellow outside making hay while the sun shone by doubling the price of his aloo tikki and papri chaat and chutney burger - the art student studying the posters and understanding the development of painting to printing techniques over the years - fearless Nadia - Lawrence of Arabia - toilets that don't lock from inside- beautiful signage, direction pointers.

Rainy Day Fashion

malvikajain — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:52:36 +0000

Rain down on Me
And sweep me away
In scented winds
And scattered drops
Let them whiplash here and there
Let me look up heavenwards
Let the drops trickle down my throat
Down the collar
Into my printed windy dress
The abandon of the rain
The abandon of my colours
The abandon of my shape
No running away
No saving leather shoes
No scampering to the sheltered kerb
Only running, dashing, wildly spinning
Or walking with the calm of a ramp scorcher
Hands in my pockets,
Walking down with a haute the pouring rain cant cool

I called upon my sources (I will have to kill you if I tell you), my powers and a fashion stylist, editor and writer and here are five looks for this monsoon season. Here is telling you before the junta knows it!

1 Slouchy Sporty
In the summer the Kate Moss look was a rage. This look meant a long clingy jersey top over tights or leggings. The ensemble was completed with a belt strapped low over the jersey top. This look has changed into a less dressy version for the monsoon. Wear a large voluminous bubble-silhouette top over fitting shorts or capris. For those who can carry it off, really short shorts are in. More movement and prance in this look. Go for draping tops, ones with interesting folds and necklines.

2 Strawberry Frog
strawberry : pink, bright, candy
frog: translucent (Lookah at the veins under my throat skin), waterproof, pretty, glossy, rain-lover
Be a strawberry frog this monsoon. Have fun with colours and plastic. No subtleity. Its the only time in the year when even yellow Zens look pretty zipping down the road. Its a colour party.
Checklist >
Crocs - the toy like plastic footwear in yellow, orange, pink, green
Jelly sandals and slippers
Clear plastic raincoats
Chunky bangles
Neon colours
Bug eyes shades - pink, green, blue

3 Bold abstract prints
Huge prints are in. Look like a splash of colour on the street. Dresses are majorly in - Shift dresses, babydoll dresses, tent dresses. Hemlines below the knee are criminal. Let your legs be happily bare and sexy. Accessorize with chunky bangles. Its all BOLD. The prints are Pucci style - abstract and dynamic made up of swirls and organic motifs. Try a parka dress - a lil conversation with the hip-hoppers.
Here are some designs by Pucci -

4 Romantic look
A girl's gotta feel like a girl and bless the fashion mechanism, the romantic look is back! Its simple floral, pastoral dresses this monsoon to make you feel like an innocent country lass. Keep the colours light like leaf-green for a dewy fresh feeling. Says designer Anjana Bhargava "Its all about elegance, grace and femininity. This monsoon, flaunt your femininity in calf-length skirts and dresses with frills, lace, romantic necklines and puff sleeves that look girly and chic. "

5 Metallics
Yes. Its still going on. Watch out for metallic parkas, shimmering tops, shiny sportswear. Flash and glint under the sombre nimbus clouds. Break the dullness, thunder and opaque rain. The metallic look generally makes for rocking nightlife, but it can be incorporated in casuals by means of detailing like metallic strips, pockets, zippers. Its not the classic metallic of the mellow golden ages. Its the metallic of Techno Glam.

So don't get bored this monsoon. Don't weep inside your stupid raincoat for the lack of oomph and style. These are the five looks, inspiration material, green signals, imagination stimulants or simply working solutions to adopt. Last of all, a fashion tip that guarantees to transform you into a head turner - wear whites with no underwear!

Avoid
- Leather
- Ankle length skirts, pants
- Dark colours
- Socks
- Mixing looks (Strawberry frog + Metallics)