Calling ALL INDIANS!

As terrorism strikes all parts of India - the Delhi bombings, the attacks against Christians in Orrisa &Bihar, rape, murder, pillaging, atrocities committed against the common man by policemen, politicians and many of us - I am struck by the horror of how easily we get into debates and verbal abuse and blame games and DO NOTHING!

Those educated few of us still left, anyone who ever went to a school, learnt-rather mugged until they would never forget- can we even recall the Preamble to the Constitutuion of India? Does this mean nothing after 61 years of independence?

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HERE BY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

While I saw debates rage across all television channels last night, it struck me as odd that terrorism is now being categorised! Any act by one man / group that terrorises another is terrorism! Are bombings so different from rape - perhaps you should ask the person being raped. Are blasts so different from people being terrorised by vandalism, threats to their families & kidnappings - perhaps you should ask those being attacked? Is bloodshed from a bomb so different from communal riots caused by our politicians or inhuman beatings neing meted out by our policemen - perhaps you should ask the innocent?

Where has our intelligence gone? Are not all of the above acts of treason punishable by death? Why are all such groups and people being allowed to live in my country and our armies being sent to our borders to ward of external threats when we threaten our free, democarcy from within, more?

Do you remember our Pledge?
India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters.
I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.
I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders, respect, and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion.
In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.

Where is that country? Where is India? All i see are States and people constantly asking me which caste / state / religion I belong to? Isnt is obvious to all that religion divides and only faith can unite? Religion is and has always been politically motivated to divide or control and only faith transcends all these differences?

Wake up India and believe in yourself if not God, believe in the bond that is humanity, believe in the brotherhood of togetherness, believe in the cause that is peace, believe in the love that can only be received by giving it out to another.

REMEMBER

INDIA IS MY COUNTRY AND ALL INDIANS ARE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS.....

INDIA IS A SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC....

Anything else is treason and must be abolished and banished forever without trial!

Broken wings

"The heart is the strongest muscle." Heard that in a movie recently - The Life Before Her Eyes - the movie I didnt get and it left me bereft, as I see any movie in its entirety no matter how bad and at the end of it I simply must "get it"! But what I did get was the angst of utter despair, the torment of genuine fear...the dread of losing...of losing everything I hold dear...my family, my faith, me!

If the heart truly is the strongest muscle why is it the weakest - the easiest to break? A word, a mere glance, appreciation not shown, love neither revealed nor spoken in words, the breakdown of the super-strength that holds together the mind, body and soul and thus the slow and steady chipping away, bit by bit, piece by piece of this, the raison d'être, of us!

I do believe Bruce Springsteen tried to bring to life this inner core most women keep hidden in his song Secret Garden from the OST of Jerry Mcguire, atleast thats where i broke down the first time I heard it -

She'll let you in her house

If you come knockin' late at night

She'll let you in her mouth

If the words you say are right

If you pay the price

She'll let you deep inside

But there's a secret garden she hides.

She'll let you in her car

To go drivin' round

She'll let you into the parts of herself

That'll bring you down

She'll let you in her heart

If you got a hammer and a vise

But into her secret garden,

don't think twice.

You've gone a million miles

How far'd you get

To that place where you can't remember

And you can't forget

She'll lead you down a path

There'll be tenderness in the air

She'll let you come just far enough

So you know she's really there

She'll look at you and smile

And her eyes will say

She's got a secret garden

Where everything you want

Where everything you need

Will always stay

A million miles away.

For a man to get so deeply what a woman is, is scary, for if he did there'd be nothing to hide anymore. There'd be love and peace and understanding and more love. And so I look to God for wisdom and "get" Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy and Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis totally - I understand wholly and absolutely why so many of us escape to such voices on song or characters on screen when we need strength and a way to mend a broken heart.

For those of you blessed enough to not have ever felt self-pity or anguish or utter despair let me borrow a line from Grey's Anatomy and then add my thought to it - "Do you know what its like to not feel yourself?" Not to feel what you want to feel? To stop yourself continually from opening up to reveal and share a feeling thats not meant to be bottled up for one human being isnt strong enough to understand it or rise above it?

To feel your heart breaking - to hear it physically tearing into shreds so tiny you cant repair it alone? And then to feel your brain override the very base and intrinsic need to cry out at the torment, lest you break up further? To want to feel love, physically, for it is the only balm, the elixir, that can mend Broken Wings.

Righteous Kill!

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro stole my heart yet again with Righteous Kill. Of course I was stuffed into a premiere-theartre-full-of-people who gasped continually at how bad the movie was and i felt alien and alone in my appreciation of good film - not great - but good and recommendable for a single watch. Which brings me to my thoughts today that I find need expression on this page.


It has begun to awe, scare and astound me a bit as people's expectations and opinions and appreciation of things go topsy-turvy and have no basis clearly visible to me. As an artiste, I find it imperative to know audiences - when I perform live - I must know the mood, the mind-set, the expectation of the audience before me. It has begun to dawn in me now, that people, the world over, increasingly becoming their idea of righteous, have, in that tough approach to leading their lives "righteously", begun to crticise anything and everything not fitting into their limited scope of things.



Simplicity has lost its value, love has been commercialised to the point of becoming as lost as civilisations of the past, religion has overtaken faith and we are all getting it all wrong all over again. Will another messiah appear before us now - to right the wrongs of our foolish righteousness or will God forsake us completely for we continually throw stones, when there is not one amongst us who is completely free of sin? Will we kill our very earth that provides us by our ignorance and leave it barren and dead for our children? Is there no hope of uniting to eradicate boundaries, abolish judgement, exterminate religion, banish political plotting and remove all thought of us being separate in caste, creed and religion? Could we ever just come together as people first?


Are the true righteous being killed everyday or is our supposed righteousness killing everything that needs to stay alive? Is there such a thing as a righteous kill or do we kill what is right to simply run away from being truly righteous?

Big Boss!

I have pondered very seriously this past week, as even now I am glued to the television, why Big Boss is so addictive!? Perhaps the real truth lies in the fact that any Big Boss is. The biggest of them all, God, to those blessed enough to find Him and keep Him, can be the most fulfilling addiction.

I am still one of those idealists who gives peace a chance, 'white' lies to avoid confrontation, loves to be happy, knows that the eradication of alcohol, tobbacco and drugs WILL make this world better for our children and knows in her heart, truly, madly, deeply, that retail therapy is all that is required to get you out of the deepest doldrums. And therein we lie in a quagmire - as money seems to have becomer a Bigger Boss than most things we should hold dear.

It saddens me to see the things we do for money, Big Boss included! "Ballika Vadhu" shocks me - how can we be so blindsided in our efforts to rake in the moolah that we become so irresponsible towards a nation that is already so uneducated that it cant separate myth from reality.

Irresponsible advertising, smoking on screen, J&K, the seven sister states, our judiciary, our police force, our politicians, our faith in bestsellers like Ramayan and Mahabharat, no quality control, not fighting for our rights and turning a deaf ear towards those willing to stand up and be heard. Perhaps we all need the real Big Bosses, vigilantes, freedom fighters and benevolant dictators. So should we set out for Superman, Ironman, Spiderman, Hancock or then finally give the Biggest Boss of them all a real chance? No religions that divide only faith that unites, no selling our souls for money only duty, honour, food, clothing and shelter, no egos and wars only love and togetherness - Imagine - have faith - believe and you shall be rewarded - you shall see what you believed in - Big Boss!

Rock On

My career as a live entertainer started of much by accident but by God's grace it took off to make me known in most of the prestigious audiences and event companies around the world. Singing, acting, dancing, talking - I love combining it all and love playing new personalities on stage each time. I realised early on in my career that most Indians (I am a proud one myself), unlike others, are intimidated by talent, genius and people who do as they please and rather than appreciate effort and applaud it they find solace in criticising sheer brilliance and bask in mediocrity.

I am constantly shocked at movies that succeed and those that dont, mediocre musicians and composers that are idolised and geniuses lost, critics that can only comment on how actors look on screen rather than script, screenplay, cinematography, on how many celebrities attend a music album launch than how good or bad the actual songs are and on "fashionable" meaning celebrity in India rather than those who truly make their own waves and mark!

So this blog is dedicated to all those maestros I would love to see Rock On as the movie is currently doing - kudos to Farhan Akhtar for Don and for his own coming out in Rock On! Arjun Rampal for stealing the thunder and giving the performance of a lifetime! Aajaa Nachle for taking an average story and showcasing it as a screenplay, cinematography, acting, directing and musical masterpiece. Rani Mukherjee and Dia Mirza for being true fashion icons. Wizcraft for bringing the real magic of live shows alive in India. Aamir Khan for educating enteratiningly and always, always being incredible. Bipasha Basu for breaking all barriers. And last but not least, Palash Sen, Mika, Shibani Kashyap, Anushka Manchanda, Raghav Sachar, Nikhil Chinapa, Ryan Beck, Megha Kawale and Akbar Sami for being true rock stars - unintimidated and gutsy and true musicians in promoting the art not the stardom!

Love,
Manasi Scott