About 3 yrs ago, I attended an AR Rahman concert in Bangalore, held at Palace grounds( in the centre of Bangalore). Not many people attended that concert though, and lucky for me, I was promoted from Rs 600 stand to the Rs 900 one. 3yrs and 2 Oscars later, there was another Rahman concert, this time in Shamshabad, 50kms from Hyderabad, and believe me you had to walk quite a bit. And there was such a huge crowd that the previous concert in Blore seemed like a small village fair.
Now any true Rahman fan will acknowledge that Slumdog Millionaire, though good is not among his best. Jai Ho is no where in the same league as Kehna hi kya, or a Roja or even E ajnabi.. But people who never really appreciated these songs now listen to them and say “wow Rahman is good” . We know that Rahman is good, that he’s awesome.. But what I need to know is why was an Oscar required to make some of us realize that.
I have noticed this quite a few times actually.. the Indian need for western acceptance. The waiters are more polite to the Gore memsaab than the lady with the sari at tourist spots—though this could be due to the extra income in dollars .
This need for acceptance and appreciation from outside stems from the underlying belief that they are better than us and we need to impress them. I think we need to have more pride in ourselves as a nation. I know everybody says they are proud to be Indian esp around mid August and end jan but I feel that is very superficial. The schools play a major role in shaping the future generation and should involve a lot more of our culture, heritage varied as it may be, inculcate more pride about being Indian among the kids. The parents too should play a major role towards this endeavor. Encourage kids to buy more Indian. Why pepsi when you have lime juice or majge? May be not in everything, but where ever we can, we should buy INDIAN when ever we have a choice.
So we become more independent, so that we don’t lose much foreign exchange, So that we don’t need an award from outside to tell us that our Rahman makes magic with music :)
Jai ho JAI HIND!!!
this is really good...
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