The Predicate

Go read this.

I am running a marathon this year! Hard to believe, right? I’ve never done anything like this, so I am excited about it.

You can read more about it here: https://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/marathon/runnernet2/public.php?2008TASV1069 .

I am raising money for charity, so please help!

- Balaji.

As I stood among the thousands of runners to run Bay To Breakers in San Francisco, a couple of guys next to me were pushing a shopping cart filled with beer kegs. Yes, the beer was flowing at 8 am! That’s the kind of “festive” race that Bay to Breakers is.

For the uninitiated, B2B is a 12K foot race that goes from one end of San Francisco to the other end. Unlike other races, here the motive to run is only for a few. For the rest of 60,000 runners, it is just a fun time to wear a costume, indulge in partying and start drinking all day. B2B is the ultimate frat house party.

The event was won by a couple of Kenyans, of course who finished in 30 odd minutes. By that time, I was probably just starting to climb the dreaded Hayes Street Hill. By the time I finished, the Kenyans must have caught the next flight back home.

B2B’s unique tradition is the numerous nude runners. These are guys who are usually over 50 and are the last ones that you would want to see naked. Sightings of nude female runners are few and far between. Still, the race had enough girls wearing next to nothing to keep me going. My favorite was the one who had dressed up as pickle relish with this message written on the back of her really tight knickers: “Relish your buns”!

There were the usual Elvises, girls running with wedding gowns, super heroes, Spartan warriors, Viking soldiers, Lightning McQueens. A trio were dressed up as “Britney over the years” - One from the Mickey mouse club, One as a vamp from 2002, and one all freckled and old with the tagline “Oops”. There was a “Ho cumming queen”, “Miss Match” and one that proudly announced “My Bush is for sale”. A couple of guys were signing petitions to name the sewage plant in SF after George W.Bush. One girl had this on her chest: “Don’t stare, I am barely legal”. There was a “Save Boobs” campaign going on in the sidelines, which looked very funny but was actually for breast cancer research.

As I crossed the finish line though, all I could think of was that I should do this in lungi and banian next time!

I read this in Salon:

I desperately want a child. I want, my husband wants, we want.

However, my husband and I purposely will not conceive a child. The reason is, we feel that what we want is not the most important thing. The most important consideration is toward the person who is most directly affected. The most important consideration is toward the child.

Making a life-altering decision without consulting the one most affected seems wrong. Also, there is a chance that once the child is grown, he may look back and feel, “I would have preferred nonexistence. There, I would have remained safe from all harm.”

Also, any harm that comes to the child would be my fault and my husband’s fault. If we had not conceived the child the harm would not have occurred. Do many other people think this way?

No.

From the SAJAForum:

 A group of Columbia Journalism School students who had spent almost eight months documenting the lives of Burmese refugees in New York for their Master’s Project [http://FromBurmaToNewYork.com/], have now built a useful blog about the Burma cyclone - the death toll appears to have crossed 100,000 now.

On the blog you will find everything from the latest news to how you can contribute directly to the victims to information about candelight vigils.

Please visit: http://BurmaEmergency.wordpress.com/

It looks like the death toll can go up to 100,000 and about 1.5 million people are at risk if they don’t get proper aid in time.

This is just surreal. It is difficult to imagine more than 20,000 people dead from a cyclone. There was a tidal surge that leapt up to 12 ft high, that killed a lot of people. Thousands of people killed in one town, bodies strewn everywhere, the people who are alive throwing the dead bodies into the rivers… 41,000 people are missing.

If you wish to donate to the cyclone relief fund, check out Burmese American Democratic Alliance.

This video is from the British talent show, Britain’s Got Talent. The performers are the duo who go by the name “Signatures”, Suleman Mirza and Madhu Singh. Suleman impersonates Michael Jackson and starts off with his signature moves, but when the Sardar walks in with the broom, the show really gets going. Watch for the crowd reaction. Simon Cowell of American Idol is one of the judges. The song is Nachna Onda Nei, taken from Tigerstyle’s album, The Rising. You can listen to the whole song here.

I usually don’t spend much time on forwarded jokes, but this one, put up by Amitava Kumar, cracked me up:

I was depressed last night so I called Lifeline. Got a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

In the same vein, check out Amit Verma’s post on a Rediff article on teenage depression.

Mint reports that the parent company of ‘The Hindu’ newspaper is probably in talks to sell a minority stake to Australia’s Fairfax Media. Fairfax owns ‘The Age’ and ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.

The financial details of Kasturi and Sons could not be obtained as it is an unlisted and closely held company but, based on its Rs450-500 crore advertisement revenue, the group could be valued at Rs2,600-2,800 crore, according to some media analysts.

Going by this valuation, a potential 26% stake sale, the maximum permitted under India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) laws for the print media, would fetch the company Rs676-728 crore. Specific terms of the discussions couldn’t be ascertained.

With Times of India invading the already depleted Hindu’s territory, there is probably no other alternative for the Mount Road Mahavishnu turned Mao. Hindu will be locked in a bitter price war with Deccan Chronicle and Times of India for the next few months.

I was reading a book titled “Cinema Nijamaa?” by the famous editor and director B.Lenin. In that, he writes about the movie “Maalik” starring Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore. Directed by Lenin’s father, Bhimsingh, it was the remake of a tamil tearjerker, “thuNaivan”.

கதையின்படி இந்திப் படத்தின் நாயகனாக ராஜேஷ் கன்னாவிற்கும் நாயகி ஷர்மிளா டாகூருக்கும் பிறந்த குழந்தை கைகால் விளங்காமல், கறுத்து சூம்பிப் போய் கிடக்கிறது. கதாநாயகி சதா அந்தக் குழந்தையை நினைத்து அழுது கொண்டிருக்கிறாள்.

படப்பிடிப்பு நடந்து கொண்டு இருக்கும் போது நாங்கள் இதே போன்ற கறுத்த, சூம்பிய குழந்தைகளுக்காக தேடினோம்.

எப்படியோ கடைசியில் பிள்ளைப்பேறு மருத்துவமனையில் இருந்து பிறந்த குழந்தைகளில் ஒன்றை பேசி பணம் கொடுத்து படப்பிடிப்பிற்காக கொண்டு வருவோம்.

படப்பிடிப்புத் தளத்தில் அந்த இறுக்கமான சூழ்நிலையில் ஆயிரக்கணக்கான கிலோவாட்ஸ் பல்புகளின் சூட்டில் படப்பிடிப்பு நடைபெறும். ராஜேஷ் கன்னாவும் ஷர்மிளாவும் தங்கள் குழந்தைக்காக அழ ஷாட் 1, ஷாட் 2, ஷாட் 3, ஷாட் 4. இதற்குள் மாலையாகி விடும். அதற்குள் அந்த குறைபிரசவக் குழந்தையின் கைகால்கள் அசைவற்று ஓய்ந்து விடும். அனேகமாக இறந்துவிட்டிருக்கும் அல்லது ஏற்கனவே இறந்து இருக்கும். ஒரு வேளை உயிருடன் இருந்தால் இன்னும் கொஞ்ச நேரத்தில் இறந்து விடும் தன்மைக்கு வந்துவிடும்.

தாய்மார்களுக்குத் தெரியும். குறைப் பிரசவத்தில் பிறக்கும் குழந்தைகளை இன்குபேட்டர் போன்ற நவீன சாதன அறையில் பாதுகாப்பாக வைத்துப் பிழைக்க வைப்பார்கள். ஆனால் அத்தகைய குழந்தைகள் ஸ்டூடியோ சூட்டில் என்னவாகும்…?

ஒரு நாள் படப்பிடிப்பில் கலந்து கொண்ட குழந்தை மறுநாள் கலந்து கொள்ளாது. ஏனெனில்ல் அதற்குள் அது இறந்திருக்கும். …

கலைக்கு சில தியாகங்கள் தேவைதான். ஆனால் ‘மாலிக்காக’, அதாவது இறைவனுக்காக இறந்த இந்த குழந்தைகளை என்னவென்பது.

For those who can’t read tamil, the gist of the story is this: Maalik (1972) was a movie in which Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore give birth to a prematurely born child with stunted legs..essentially a vegetable. Since the scenes required such a child, the production executives scoured the hospitals and rented out any premie baby and brought it to the studio floor.

A baby that needs to be in the incubator full time was now under the studio spotlights and grueling conditions. The child wouldn’t survive a day of shoot. So, each day, the shooting would go on with a different child since the child that came the day before would have died!!

The name of the movie was “Maalik” which meant God, and many infants were sacrificed to this “God”.

The story doesn’t end there. There is another sad twist to this.

Once the film got completed, it was shown to the distributors. Distributors refused to buy the movie. They felt that Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna were too good looking and they cannot possibly have a deformed baby! The audience will not accept this!

The film was stalled because of this, and finally a decision was arrived at: The scenes with the deformed premie were all thrown out on the cutting floor. Scenes were reshot with a healthy looking baby. The film got released and was an instant flop.

B.Lenin doesn’t say how prevalent this practice was, but sacrificing the lives of several infant newborns to make a movie is shocking to me. It is sad that there were parents who were willing to part with their children for pittance. The ruthlessness of the whole system stuns me.