

Madhur Srivastava
Explorer | Traveler | Book Worm | Writer | Photographer
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Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life
Get wasted all the time, and you will have time of your life
- Billy Connolly
Travelogue
In Tryst With Every Inch
Karlsruhe, Germany
Picture: Castle
Just across the border from the Rhine river lies a small college town of Karlsruhe. Sandwitched between Heidelberg in Germany and Strasbourg in France, Karlsruhe is unglamourous yet very attractive town. It is clean, residents are well dressed and there are plenty of young people, thanks to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Surprisingly, everyone in the town is comfortable in speaking English, contrary to the general reputation of a German city. It seems to have everything one desires for peaceful and happy life. Plenty of nature, walkable city, lively city center, libraries, and friendly people. It is boutique town with elegance and quality of life of a large city.

Strasbourg, France
Picture: Train Station
While visiting for a conference in the city, a colleague suggested me to visit the European parliament. Little did he told the city itself is a world heritage site. Strasbourg embodies the life and times of the medieval age, barring all the violence and barbarism! The roads are narrow, canal encircles the city, shops closes early, ice creams are the tastiest, and every corner of the city is picturesque. All the roads lead to the famous (and huge) cathedral, which I believe is the envy of the other christian cities. Residents bike, walk, use Tram, and speak French. But many names in the city can sound German, as it is just a stone throw away from Germany, a former occupier of it.

Abu Dhabi, UAE
Picture: Sheikh Zayed Mosque
The future has been seen, it is Abu Dhabi. The UAE capital is epitomizes modernity in its fullest sense: beauty, architecture, infrastructure, culture, transportation and housing. It looks that the rulers of Abu Dhabi are determined to bring the world there. No cuisine unfound, no world-wide brands absent, and no nationality missing. Boasting of several tourist spots such as Lourve museum, it is the Zayed Mosque, the Aquarium and the Presidential Palace stands out beyond measure. The rulers not just have the wealth but also the taste for luxury and delicacies. While it is desert, it feels like none. It is easy find water everywhere, but almost impossible to spot a camel.

Bordeaux, France
Picture: Victoire Place
Bordeaux is not the city that comes to mind when someone says France; the honor usually goes to Paris or Nice. But this mini-Paris located next to the Atlantic ocean, is full of surprises and history. I was travelling to the city to visit a collaborator and never expected much, only to be proven wrong with the medieval architecture, night-lit city, wine region (including a museum dedicated to wine history), authentic food, and eye-catching scenery of river Garonne passing through the city. Not commonly known, even to French, that Bordeaux was part of British empire for some period, who converted it into wine region to avoid purchasing French wines! What an irony!
Podcasts
Periodicals and Special Series

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Seasonal

Monthly

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Special Series

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Daily

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Weekly

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Knowledge from Podcasts

Lifestyle Changes: Slowing cognitive decline
- Eating healthier - Fruits and Vegetables
- Staying socially engaged
- Exercise - Sit less, move more
- Good Sleep
- Dental Health
Breathing: Improving brain aging and cognitive health
- Breathwork - Slowing breathing
- Yoga
- Chanting Meditation - Paces Breath
- Listening Soothing Music
- Singing and Humming

Focus
How to Change a Habit:
- Create a Physical and Mental barrier to the habit
- Replace the habit with another activity
Physical Boundaries:
- Keep phone out of bedroom
- Use alarm and clock
- Read a Physical Book
- Walk in Nature
Normal People
TV Series
Mirzapur
Indian Television
Beautiful Disaster
Hollywood Movie
←→Travel Diary
Experiences from Travel
Good lawyers know the law, great lawyers know the judge
Anonymous
Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal
T. S. Elliot
←→Noteworthy Episodes
The Palace of Illusions - Delhi, Mughals and Mahabharata
The Weekend Intelligence
Expenses
Credit Cards
Flights
Amex Platinum
Dining
Amex
Gold
Coffee
Amex Marriott Platinum
Grocery
Amex Preferred
Cash
Hotel
Wells Fargo Autograph
Clothes
Amex Blue Cash
Parking
Amex Preferred
Cash
Interviews
Idea Exchange
The Lallantop
Teen Taal
Audiobook Listening
Novels -- Fantasy-- History
1Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Palace of Illusions
The Last Queen
Independence
Oleander Girl
One Amazing Thing
The Forest of Enchantments
Before We Visit the Goddess
Queen of Dreams
The Vine of Desire
The Unknown Errors of Our Lives
Sister of My Heart
The Mistress of Spices
Arranged Marriage
2Sarah Adams
The Cheet Sheet
Practice Makes Perfect
When in Rome
In Your Dreams
Beg, Borrow, or Steal
The Temporary Roommate
The Off-limits Rule
The Enemy
The Match
The Rule Book
3George R. R. Martin
Song of Ice and Fire
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast of Crows
A Dance of Dragons
Fire and Blood
The World of Ice and Fire
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
4Indian Partition
Partition Voices - Kavita Puri
Indian Summer
The Great Partition (Yasmin Khan)
Freedom at Midnight
Empireland - Sathnam Sanghera
5Corporate Biography
The Founders (PayPal)
Setting the Table
The Sky High (Indigo)
Bad Blood (Theranos)
No Filter (Instagram)
Becoming Trader Joe
The Shopify Story
Winner Sells All (Amazon)
Last Man Standing (Duff McDonald)
House of Huawei
Mood Machine (Spotify)
The Whole Story
The Everything Store
Reentry (SpaceX)
Electronic Value Exchange (Visa)
Nuts! (Southwest)
Netflixed
No Rules Rules (Netflix)
Amazon Unbound
The Thinking Machine (Nvidia)
The Nvidia Way
Sam Walton - Made in America (Walmart)
Book Series Reading: William Dalrymple
Reading: White Mughals
Read: Return of a King, The Last Mughal,The Golden Road; The Anarchy; Koh-i-noor.
To be Read: Nine Lives; City of Djinns; From the Holy Mountain; In Xanadu.










Lifestyle
Luxury Matters - Personal Care
Wallets
Shoes
Shoes
Body Lotion
Toothpaste Tablets
Amusing Stories
Poetic Eulogy on the Death of a Powerful Visier
See how the Barmakid Blade of Indian steel has been struck
By the steel of the Hashimites!
The stars of generosity are out;
The hand of benevolence is closed.
The seas of bounty have ebbed away
Now that the Barmakids are gone.
Fate has betrayed the sons of Barmak,
Did Yahya not govern the whole earth?
Yet he woke to find himself beneath it.
Source: The Golden Road Book
Namechange
Idi Amin, the Ugandan Dictator who had thrown thousands of his countrymen into prison, once told his foreign ministerthat Uganda should be named "Idi". "There is a problem", the sharp Ugandan foreign minister told his boss.
"The people of Cyprus are called Cypriots; the people of Idi will be called Idiots"
Idi dropped the idea.
Source: Economist
Brevity in Exams
I am reminded of an old Oxford essay question: “Was Hegel a good philosopher? Be brief”. One smug student wrote, simply, “Yes”. When the paper came back, the examiner had given it a high mark but scribbled a comment in the margin: “This was a good, brief answer. But a better, briefer answer would have been No.”
Source: Anonymous
Origins of Symposium
In ancient Greece, symposium was an occasion where intelligencia met to drink wine and have intellectual conversation. Master of ceremony was responsible for mixing appropriate amount of water in wine so that things don't go out of hand.
Source: La Cite Du Vin
Wine and Liver Treatment
In ancient Egypt, wine was used to treat liver disease as a part of standard medical practice.
Source: La Cite Du Vin
Critial Book Review
“That’s not writing, that’s typing”. But Randall Jarrell did just that, opining that a book by Oscar Williams “gave the impression of having been written on a typewriter by a typewriter”.
Source: Economist
On Obsession with You
At some point, you will find someone who is obsessed with you and wants all your time. That person is your manager at work.
Source: Internet
Difference between a Diplomat and a Lady
If a diplomat say "yes", he means "maybe"
If he says "maybe", he means "no"
If he says "no", he is no diplomat
If a Lady says "no", she means "maybe"
If she says "maybe", she means "yes"
If she says "yes", she is no lady"
Source: Warren Buffett
A Perfect European
A perfect European should drive like a Frenchman, cook like the Dutch, be as organized as the Greeks, and as humorous as a German.
Source: Economist
It's All Relative
"How dirty are electric vehicles?", you asked. I am reminded of the quote from Lee Iacocca when he was at Ford: "How much clean air do we need?"
Source: Economist
On Innovation
If innovation has an iconography, it involves a genius, a breakthrough and a dash of serendipity. For example,
Alexander Fleming notices mould growing on a plate of bacteria and discovers penicillin.
John Snow produces a map of the victims of a cholera outbreak in 19th-century London and traces the outbreak to a single water pump.
A German chemist called August Kekulé falls asleep, dreams about snakes eating their tails and realises upon waking that the benzene molecule has the shape of a ring.
Source: Economist
Difference Between Complete and Finished
If one marries the right person, he is complete. If one marries the wrong person, he is finished.
Source: Self thought
Age of Revolution
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair
We had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
We were all going direct to Heaven, We were all going direct the other way
Source: A Tale of Two Cities
The Most Important Question
Richard Hamming, a mathematician, famously asked chemistry fellows at Bell Labs
what the most important problems in their field were,
then what they were working on at the time, and
then why they were working on things that were unimportant.
This may not have been the best technique for making friends, but asking what was the most important problem he could be working on is pretty much exactly what is needed.
Source: Economist
The Most Important Question
Richard Hamming, a mathematician, famously asked chemistry fellows at Bell Labs
what the most important problems in their field were,
then what they were working on at the time, and
then why they were working on things that were unimportant.
This may not have been the best technique for making friends, but asking what was the most important problem he could be working on is pretty much exactly what is needed.
Source: Economist
Irony of Reading
When literature was considered transfressive, moralist couldn't get people to stop buying and reading dangerous books. Now that books are considered virtuous and edifying, moralists can't persuade anyone to pick one up.
Source: The Atlantic
Great Sentences
Honesty and Deceit
The gold coin of honesty and scrupulous respect for one's engagements is a currency valid everywhere, which will preserve its owner from dishonor even in the most turbulent circumstances. If you are faithful and true, people will love you; deceit will only make people shun and loathe you!
Source: Mirza Ata
Opportunity Cost
Working takes up hours that might be spent in libraries, browsing online, learning new languages, and reading classical texts, all activities foundational to the acquisition of specialized knowledege.
Source: The Atlantic
Platforms for Purchasing Bond
TreasuryDirect.gov
US Government Bonds
Book Review
Thoughts, musings, and ruminations.December 30, 2023Read more...While all economists are wrong, some are useful and entertaining. Such is the case with the book "Edible Economics". It gives a primer of various economic concepts and justifies them with selective facts. However, the justification is well-reasoned and respectable. Coming from a left leaning...December 30, 2023Read more...Is hierarchy embedded in thesocial fabric where one segment of society dominates others? Or is it possible to have equality in principle? More importantly, what is equality? Is it in the freedom of expression, equal income or equal access to resources? There is a saying that everyone can be...December 30, 2023Read more...It is said that books are humans’ best friends, where andhow did they come from is a mystery to many. The journey from the stone tablet to electronic tablet is largely unknown, especially the shape shifting nature of books. Imagine time traveling to 800 BCE and asking for a book and getting a...TV Series
In Desire of Next Season
1Panchayat
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
2House of Dragons
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
3Shogun
Season 1
Season 2
4The West Wing
Season 1 (Ep 18)
5Silicon Valley
Season 1 (Ep 5)
6A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Season 1
Season 2
7A True Detective
Season 1
Season 2
Must Watch Movies
The Godfather
What is the most American movie? For the US citizens, it is debatable. For the rest of the world, it is undoubtedly Godfather, Godfather and Godfather! Produced in 1970 and set in 1950's, the movie deals with the complexities of Italian mafia family via father-son duo. Covered in the envelop of business empire, crime, deceit, family values, betrayal and promises, the movie is a recipe that illustrates strength and helpnesses at the same time. You can be the Godfather, but yet have to resign to the fate that bestows upon you.
Take Michael Corleone, the son with a military career who wants to live a normal life. He is not interested in violence, but ends up being the most violent, including killing his own brother and brother-in-law. He demands absolute loyalty, but his own loyalty in doubt. Or take the family patriarch, the original Godfather, Vito Corleone, who seems to be in control and yet fails to find out who attacked him. His aura is gripping, yet he is helpless. A family man who keeps the vows, yet betrayed by his own gang members.
The two-part movie is as American as it can get. It focuses on immigrants and their lives and their system. They trust their tribe more than the institutions. They have past that contantly begets them.
The movie is a master class that needs to be watched again and again, albeit for different reasons. First time, it is the aura of the scenes, characters and story. Second time, to understand the minute events that were set up in the past. It is like an academic paper, where one needs to go back and forth to know what is going on. And third and more times, just to enjoy each scene as it goes by. Like a Shakespearean play, it is fresh every time.Ever wondered how one's journey have traversed through time, just watch Michael sit in his dining table, smoking and remembering all the chatter and family warmth at the same time with all his brothers, sister and family members. Time passes and we become the person that we hated the most.


Must Watch Movies
Ocean's Series
Despite being morally wrong, there is something in stealing that makes everyone gets glued to it. Or why else there are so many movies on "heist". But making a movie on heist is not that easy task. The plot needs to be compelling; villian and heroes needs to be well-defined (just because you steal doesn't mean you are the bad guy; recall Robinhood); what needs to be stolen should be precious (i.e. large sums of money, antique jwellery or ancient artifact, to name a few); how it is stolen should be impossible (but our hero still accomplishes it!); the motive behind the stealing should be convincing; and most importantly, after the heist, the hero should always remain free and the villian should die or go to prison. A bit of romance or passionate sex adds to the thrill. A starcast of elite actors is a plus. Ocean series somehow manages to bring everything together. But it does more, it adds style to it and a teamwork between the thiefs that is carefully thread together with storyline and is hard to replicate in every scenario. If the male version of the series is breathtaking, wait for the female version (Ocean's 8), which takes heist to the next level.
Must Watch Movies
On Wall Street
Wall Street is both loved and hated. Everyone wants a pie of money made by the Wall street, but hated for its people and culture. The words egomanics, greed, selfishness, corrupt, and immoral are commonly used to describe the Wall Street. The following movies shows inside working of the Wall Street, both proving and disproving the popular perception. One thing that is pervasive and not mentioned anywhere is that sleep is a luxury in the Wall Street. Late night meetings are the norm and nobody complaints about 100+ hours of work week. These are both strange and admiring.

Margin Call
2011
During the 2008 financial crisis, a financial firm realizes that its exposure to mortgage is unsustainable and could lead to the firm being bankrupt. Its mortgage portfolio is practically junk, and needs to be off-loaded before other firms realize. The key is how to convince morally and ethically driven investment bankers to follow the route.

The Big Short
2015
There is always people who benefit from a financial crisis. We call them devil, but they are people who identify the flaws in the system early and risk their money betting against the market; in this case economy (2008 financial crisis). This is a story of financial insiders and outsiders who got it right, when establishment was being too clever by half.

Too Big To Fail
2011
The two investment banks, Lehmann Brothers and AIG, are about to go bankrupt. They need a buyer for them, through which 2008 financial crisis can be potentially avoided. The behind the scenes drama of the real life events reveal how the financial system work. Petty the treasury secretary, who has to be both gentle and enforcing.

The Wolf of Wall Street
2013
Being an active investor is not for faint of hearts. In many cases, one has to do things over and beyond the law. Worst types just use the system to their advantage. This film caters to such an investor, who opened a successful firm, made a lot of money for himself and his team, but eventually lands in a prison, for all the shady things he did.
Reviews
Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883
There is a reason why the Dutton family is always grumpy in the three TV series: Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883. It is the USP (Unique Selling Point) of the drama, which makes the viewer glued to the show. In the modern day, when TV and movies are focussing on topics related to future and spaceships, Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883 takes us back to horses, cows and wolves. It is a story of a lifestyle and a family, and its struggle to protect their property, a big ranch.

Yellowstone
Peacock
John Dutton, a ranch owner and the family patriarch, runs a loss making enterprise of raising and selling cows for beef in the State of Montana, next to the Yellowstone National Park. The ranch spans several miles with beautiful landscapes and without any modern amenities, including roads. Needless to stay, it gets attention of the California and New York businesses for opening resorts and airports, with the future same as Breckenridge, Colorado. The problem is John Dutton doesn't want anyone entering his ranch, let alone sell it, but the wealthy are determined to acquire it by any means. There is also another problem, an Indian nation, who wants the ranch back to its fold, before the Dutton family arrived 150 years ago. So the drama unravels with guns, politics, kidnapping, deaths, and legal maneuvers. Honorable crime is the name of the game. One can kill but it doesn't mean one is guilty. There is a difference between killing and murdering! Not made for a faint heart, the show is gripping despite plenty of violence, including the sexual one.
The key that makes the show unique in not the Dutton family's fight with the outside world, but its struggle within it, which adds to the complexity. No one is spared, not even the dining table where no mean if ever finished. But the person who steals the show is Beth Dutton, the daughter of John, and an insane person yet lovable. No women likes to be her but admire her, and men don't even bother coming close. She will shame you to the death. She is the only person who lives in modernity and prefers riding Bentley and Mercedez over horses. Her boyfriend-turned-husband, Rip, is the only one she rides more! Rip strangly is a cowboy.
Although Beth is a show stopper, other characters are no less important and plays there role to perfection. They all have their fans, even Tait, the grandson of John Dutton. Jokes are plenty, and dark humor is the underdog.
The show is streamed on Peacock as of 2025 and runs for five seasons. It is not for self-moralizing environmentalists or vegans. Beth will beat you to the hell, like she did to Summer, her father's part-time girlfriend who complained how can one eat "Dove", the bird of peace! If that humiliation was not good enough, Beth sarcastically suggested to her father, John, that if you want to have a hooker, at least have a better and expensive one!

1923
Paramount+
If you think John Dutton was badass, then you haven't met his great-granduncle Jacob Dutton, played by Harrison Ford. Jacob Dutton is the family patriarch in 1923 TV Series, where he has two seasons to protect the ranch from a wealthy banker, who wants to convert the ranch to a tourist resort.
Jacob is shot multiple times in an ambush, but survives. He is loosing men and cows to maintain his land and has no source of income. His wife tries best, but they are running out of time.
There is one hope. Their estranged nephew, Spencer Dutton, who is roaming in the jungles of Africa, killing tigers and protecting British tourists. He left the ranch a while ago, but needs to return to it to save the family and the family property. The struggles of return are real, considering its 1923 and there are no airplanes. Only way is ships, boats, trains and horses; a several months of journey. The return is further complicated as Spencer is separated from his newly wed wife from a Royal family of England, which disapproves the wedding
The wife and husband separately chart their path to Montana, and finally meet in Bozemann. But they are not alone; gunmen from the banker is waiting to kill them, and the rest of the Dutton family.
An orgy of shootout happens. Who wins is not in question, after all it is the show on the Dutton family. How they win is more important and breathtaking.

1883
Paramount+
In the Yellowstone TV Series, the Indians frequently claim the Dutton ranch belong them generations ago, before John Dutton's great-grandfather took it from them. The question may have arisen, who are Duttons and where they came from. The pne-season 10-episode 1883 answers that question.
The Duttons came from Texas, when James Dutton (Jacob Dutton's younger brother), decided to move to Portland, Oregon, with his family. He had his wife, his sister, her daughter, and his own daughter and a son. While initially planning to move alone with his family, he is persuaded to travel with an European caravan who has the same destination. The journey is arduous, and on the way he looses his sister and her daughter, and many other caravan companions.
But it not the show about James Dutton, but his daughter Elsa Dutton, who comes off her age and aid her father in the journey. She becomes the first cow-girl, dates another cow-boy (before he dies) and eventually marries an Indian.
But she also undone by an Indian tribe, who mistakenly attacks the caravan, fatally injuring Elsa. She has limited time, and Portland is far away. While most of the caravan disintegrates, the Dutton family ends up in Montana, and with the help of an Indian tribe, gets a piece of land next a river to restart their life. This is the place where Elsa decides to die, and this is the place that becomes the Dutton Ranch.
There was only one thing about the gifted land. That after five generations, the tribeman will come and reclaim the land. James Dutton agreed, but everyone else forgot. But fate had it in the last episode of Yellowstone that the land went back the Indian tribe.
Reviews
Chernobyl

Chernobyl
HBO Max
Truth is stranger than fiction. It is also unpredictable. While there have been many nuclear disasters, none have been like Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It occurred at the peak of the cold war and could have destroyed a continent. The story of the disaster is essential to be told to the general public. What happened? How did it happen? How was it contained? And more importantly, what was the human cost? Both in terms of population effect and the people involved in the containment zone. There is no better way to tell the story than via cinema.
The 5-part TV series “Chernobyl” produced by HBO is a must watch masterpiece. It is bingeworthy. It is both suspenseful and factual. It covers the accident in detail, action taken by politicians (aka Soviet comrades) and role of scientists in determining the cause. The characters are real and the situation they face is unprecedented. Watching the series is like observing it in real time from a distant view. Whether it is the worry in the face of Mikhail Gorbachev, or the wife of a firefighter caring for her radiation infected husband, it is deeply personal. And deeply factual.
Killing of animals because they were contaminated is cruel and scientific at the same time. Ordered not by a politician but a scientist who cared for the future generation. The lives of people changed overnight, and they have to find a new home for the rest of their lives. An old woman who didn't leave her village since birth, despite living the fears of the two world wars, Nazi occupation and Soviet capture, had to succumb to the radiation to find a new home.
And finally, the culprit: Was it a human error or the faulty rods? While the TV series ends blaming the system and faulty rods, the answer is more profound. Shouldn't scientists consider human error when designing a reactor? Especially when the stake is high, like in the case of a nuclear power plant. These are the questions one is left wondering at the end of the series. And the thing that makes it so real and thought-provoking are the characters and the actors portraying them. I am glad that HBO made the TV series and I watched it.Reviews
True Detective

Season 1
Finding a Missing Serial Killer
One can be forgiven if they quit watching the eight-episode season in the first 15 minutes or after the first episode. It is genuinely boring; not just the first but first four to five episodes. Until one realizes they were building up to the climax. This season of the True Detective is rated highest for a reason. Unlike other detective drama, where the killer is somewhere around the ecosytem, the season tells you story from a detective's perpective, where evidence is gathered ambiguously, and one feels confused and second guessing all the time. Even detectives are under the scanner from the other detectives. The story peels through itself as new perspective arrive. Case seems to be solved, and then its seems that they have caught the wrong person. Nobody knows who is the killer until the very last. This is for people who love complex drama and have memory to remember previous episodes.
Must Watch List
Jolly LLB Series
Legal drama in Bollywood movies is all pomp and show, where Hero saves an innocent accused wrongly. But the Jolly LLB movies are a bit different. First, judge has a crucial role and is an central character. Second, the lawyer fighting are incompetent and alright morons. Third, the defence is professional and is very thorough in their case, despite being the guilty party. But the innocence of the victim and his incompetent laywer still carries the day, thanks to the judge who intervenes at the appropriate moment. "The law is blind, not the judge, who can see everything". The first movie is when a lawyer named "Jolly", played by Arshad Warsi, is fighting a hit and run case. The second movie is when another lawyer named also "Jolly", played by Akshay Kumar, fights a case of fake encounter. And in the third movie, both the Jollys team up to fight a case on fake land aquisition. What makes the movies great the opposite council, played by Boman Irani (first movie), Anu Kapoor (second movie) and Ram Gupta (third movie); three finest actors.
TV Series - Hindi
Reviews

Panchayat
Amazon Prime
Indian Soap Operas are famous for their glamour, lack of content, unrealitic drama, and kitchen politics. They are primarily focused on women fighting among themselves, for reasons nobody knows; while men stand next their spouses or mothers making all kinds of wierd faces. It is still a mystery what men do for their living and why they spend most of their time at home. More importantly, how the family is so rich without anyone having a real job.
Panchayat, luckily, is the Black Swan among the Indian TV. A story of an aspirant graduate who is preparing for MBA at the Indian Institutes of Management, a group of elite Indian Institutions. As happens to many aspirants, the man takes a side job as a government secretary. Work during the day, study during the night. But unfortunately, he is posted to a remote village called "Phulera" in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh, where things move at an extremely slow pace. Electricity is unreliable and roads barely exists. And then there is village politics.
Fustrated as he is, the show goes through authentic life of villagers and their issues, which may seem remote to urbanties, but are so real for the rural populations. How to enforce government policies when villagers' are against them. For example, limiting a family to two children may seem a good policy. But do you convince a man with five children that government is interfering in his personal choices.
Not all is bad for "Sachiv ji", as the man is referred to by the villagers. He apparantly has crush on the daughter of the "Pradhan", village's elected chief. Subtle romance and local politics, with small group of friends and enemies, keep "Sachiv Ji" entertained in the village. He has a chance to leave, but chooses against it.
Each episode caters to unique problems of Indian villages, and the show reflects them in its utmost raw form. Finally, a true Indian drama that the world can peek into.
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