Crushed sugarcane cheek by jowl with fresh cow dung,
Dense concrete that overlooks a grand old tree,
Weak limbs on support bearing a little child all young,
Defeated hopes and misplaced expectations clothed in
fancy brands. Humble and joyous spirits decked in
rags. The world is a strange place where opposites lie
juxtaposed.
Men yearning for the rosy past and dreaming about
lush futures, Women weighed down with yesterdays
and trying to rise above tomorrows. In the midst, the
careless children digging their heels in the present,
soaring high and breathing in the little pleasures.
If the world is a theater, children are the best actors.
If it is a mammoth canvas, the young are the brightest colors.
Vibrant, joyous with hopes, showing their true spirits,
they march to a tune that is music only to their ears.
In this pendulum of hope and betrayal that life is, little do they
know what waits at the end!
The past is over and the future is yet to unravel; to live
in the present is to experience the finer moments. Blessed
are those that have short memories for the slate can be
wiped clean soon. Like a cloth that absorbs easily, I also
yearn for an unfeeling heart that cares little for the pain
and looks to the next moment in anticipation of gain!
When the World is a testimony to contrasts of every shape and size,
When the only way to forget is to erase and live in the moment, what
better examples to emulate than the young and the tiny? One moment,
happiness and the next moment, sadness, their every breath a comment
on this irony!
Here I come! I know not ego, I know not memory, all I know
is that the next moment is for me to live, not judge and brood!
Ignore me, slight me, curse me, strangle me, betray me, I shall
absorb all and rise again. I shall do only the good for I am incapable
of the bad and the ugly. I know deep down that ignorance of truth
and conscience is the biggest sin and I am not guilty. I am a child!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Some books simply overpower us!
"If you say that only what lasts is worthwhile, then nothing is valuable, because everything passes. Isn't it enough that something should have existed, just once? Don't you think it continues to exist in some world where the pettiness of time is not so important? An eternity that is more than just time without ending. A place where time runs in a different way." - Mary says in 'On Green Dolphin Street', a novel of remarkable beauty and exploration of human emotions by Sebastian Faulks.
After a long time, reading a novel of such intensity in a prose that should at best be termed as superior, not to exaggerate, I felt overpowered. Some books evoke in us such feelings of utter helplessness and fleeting moments of total incomprehension that gradually and without realization turn to the most sublime clarity. In one moment, we think we don't get it, the next moment is one of profound joy as what we read sinks in and gets digested.
Books can indeed be a person's true friends. Some command a degree of authority breaking which we struggle to extricate ourselves till we complete them. In that brief period, we forget to breathe, we get overwhelmed by a passion so strong that it seems untrammeled and without shackles of any kind.
Days spent in a haze, in vivid imagination of our favorite characters' plight as they are followed by spies, as they conquer their lives, as they experience emotions that we yearn and pine for, as they endure agonies that we wouldn't have imagined in our wildest dreams are ones of boundless joy and self-discovery. We discover different shades of ourselves as we journey in the paths of our favorite heroes and heroines.
Its a world that doesn't tie our imagination. Indeed as a person remarked in the shuttle today, the difference between novels and their movie adaptation is very simple: One is our perception where we are bound only by the limits of our imagination, the other is another person's perception that limits our freedom to think wild. How true! To me, any day a book by a cozy setting than any acclaimed movie!
What books can do to shape a man's character and a nation's intellect can be little matched by any other medium.
To quote my father who remembers a speech written for him by his geography teacher:
"The literature of future India would speak about the ordeal of the society born out of the interaction between beautifully wise and dangerously silly, generous beyond measure and mean beyond all examples." How true again! We need more good books and plenty of hungry readers for that to happen...we need to be overpowered by the good world of books and their wisdom!!!
After a long time, reading a novel of such intensity in a prose that should at best be termed as superior, not to exaggerate, I felt overpowered. Some books evoke in us such feelings of utter helplessness and fleeting moments of total incomprehension that gradually and without realization turn to the most sublime clarity. In one moment, we think we don't get it, the next moment is one of profound joy as what we read sinks in and gets digested.
Books can indeed be a person's true friends. Some command a degree of authority breaking which we struggle to extricate ourselves till we complete them. In that brief period, we forget to breathe, we get overwhelmed by a passion so strong that it seems untrammeled and without shackles of any kind.
Days spent in a haze, in vivid imagination of our favorite characters' plight as they are followed by spies, as they conquer their lives, as they experience emotions that we yearn and pine for, as they endure agonies that we wouldn't have imagined in our wildest dreams are ones of boundless joy and self-discovery. We discover different shades of ourselves as we journey in the paths of our favorite heroes and heroines.
Its a world that doesn't tie our imagination. Indeed as a person remarked in the shuttle today, the difference between novels and their movie adaptation is very simple: One is our perception where we are bound only by the limits of our imagination, the other is another person's perception that limits our freedom to think wild. How true! To me, any day a book by a cozy setting than any acclaimed movie!
What books can do to shape a man's character and a nation's intellect can be little matched by any other medium.
To quote my father who remembers a speech written for him by his geography teacher:
"The literature of future India would speak about the ordeal of the society born out of the interaction between beautifully wise and dangerously silly, generous beyond measure and mean beyond all examples." How true again! We need more good books and plenty of hungry readers for that to happen...we need to be overpowered by the good world of books and their wisdom!!!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Mumbai Meri Jaan - Among the very best!
The title suggests that the movie is all about Mumbai and its people – it’s a misnomer; the movie is about the issues that the nation struggles to grapple with; issues that threaten the fabric of unity and come dangerously close to dividing us into a myriad pieces that cannot be tied together again!
Vulgar display of wealth, creeping suspicions directed at particular groups and communities, corruption in the police force, tragedies being exploited by media for their own TRP-driven ends…the helplessness in the face of all these of the city dweller, of the ordinary citizen…this is what the movie speaks about and at the end of a masala-less, thought-provoking two hours and fifteen minutes, all one feels is elation at the ability of a Indian film maker, surprise at the genuineness and earnestness of his work, appreciation for the actors - a motley bunch of strongly under-rated men and women who have given some of their best performances and gratitude to the whole crew!
This is a movie that draws its strength from the reality it depicts on screen – the about-to-retire policeman - played by Paresh Rawal - personifying defeat and reconciliation and being able to crack jokes despite his plight, the poor Madrasi - played by Irfan Khan - with his cycle-shop who struggles to come to terms with his poverty and envies the rich at the same time cursing their abominable display of wealth, the successful journalist – played by Soha Ali Khan - who comes up with television friendly sound bytes in the midst of chaos and loss during the train blasts, the cash-deprived youth – played by Kay Kay Menon - who doubts every Muslim youth and sees them as bomb makers and architects of blasts and finally the IT employed gentleman – played by Madhavan – who prefers the city’s trains to travel for the comfort they provide and who advises a vendor not to use cheap plastic covers since they pollute the environs.
The movie is about these men and women whom we encounter every day in our lives. Bombs that go off in Mumbai’s trains affect these people in different ways and each of them emerges better from the blasts with some small but significant alterations in their convictions, in their belief of what is right and what is wrong.
Throughout the movie, one gets the feeling of “The world moving on”, indifferent to a man’s everyday concerns forcing the people to change and to adapt to the altering scenarios. This is the movie’s strength. The story by Vinayak Joshi is brilliant as the common man can relate to it and the direction by NishiKant kamat is excellent, the end result being a movie that signifies yet again the maturity towards which Hindi cinema appears to be moving. The end is touching with the song “Yeh dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke zara bachke yeh hai Bombay meri jaan” playing as the city observes silence.
Hats off!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
India gets the NSG waiver - At last!!!
In the recent past, no foreign policy decision would have got so much reams of newsprint and media coverage than the nuclear deal that has at last managed to get the NSG waiver.
The UPA Government had staked its very own survival on this issue and it has paid off.
What were the hurdles?
Non – Proliferation lobby in the US Congress and some members of the NSG that needed convincing.
India’s chief opposition party – BJP
Our comrades – Left Parties
Some key intellectuals – N Ram and V R Krishna Iyer to name a few.
What worked for us?
Risk taking – PM going for the trust vote and breaking off with the Left.
Some very focused diplomacy on the part of Shyam Saran, Pranab Mukherjee and M K Narayanan among others.
The commerce behind the deal leading some journalists to comment that it’s a Indo-International community deal and not Indo-US alone.
People in the know-how like Anil Kakodkar throwing their weight behind the deal.
The facilitation by the big brother in the form of the USA.
Some last minute announcements on commitment to non-proliferation and voluntary moratorium on testing.
The inexplicable U turn by the SP, long term interests in UP being the driver.
What next?
Some anxious moments before the US Congress give the green signal.
Lessons learnt:
Political opposition parties in India cannot be expected to rise above petty politics and put national interest ahead, the examples of Orissa and Kashmir lending further weight to this argument.
The skewed understanding of some parties like the Left on what constitutes India’s national interest is truly shocking.
Indian media can after all do their bit towards building consensus among the citizens of this nation on the merits of the deal.
Its time to celebrate this historic day!
The UPA Government had staked its very own survival on this issue and it has paid off.
What were the hurdles?
Non – Proliferation lobby in the US Congress and some members of the NSG that needed convincing.
India’s chief opposition party – BJP
Our comrades – Left Parties
Some key intellectuals – N Ram and V R Krishna Iyer to name a few.
What worked for us?
Risk taking – PM going for the trust vote and breaking off with the Left.
Some very focused diplomacy on the part of Shyam Saran, Pranab Mukherjee and M K Narayanan among others.
The commerce behind the deal leading some journalists to comment that it’s a Indo-International community deal and not Indo-US alone.
People in the know-how like Anil Kakodkar throwing their weight behind the deal.
The facilitation by the big brother in the form of the USA.
Some last minute announcements on commitment to non-proliferation and voluntary moratorium on testing.
The inexplicable U turn by the SP, long term interests in UP being the driver.
What next?
Some anxious moments before the US Congress give the green signal.
Lessons learnt:
Political opposition parties in India cannot be expected to rise above petty politics and put national interest ahead, the examples of Orissa and Kashmir lending further weight to this argument.
The skewed understanding of some parties like the Left on what constitutes India’s national interest is truly shocking.
Indian media can after all do their bit towards building consensus among the citizens of this nation on the merits of the deal.
Its time to celebrate this historic day!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Indian ODI team begins a new chapter
Winning against Sri Lanka at home is no easy task. They are essentially a team that has some crafty spinners who can roll their arms, in what has over a long period of time, appeared to the touring nations, as pitches tailor-made to suit the home team!
Statistics don’t lie – this is the first time an Indian ODI team has won a bilateral series in the island nation. It’s all the more remarkable given the circumstances in which the team achieved the series victory.
Crushed in the test series, appearing to have no clues to the wily turn of Mendis, one thought the team would take the road that our countrymen are so well aware of! But in a surprising turnaround, apart from wining three matches on the trot, every win was progressively decisive and for once it wasn’t individual brilliance but collective effort that did the trick.
Playing without Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag, when world attention was focused on the erstwhile unimaginable joy that we were witness to in Beijing where we managed to grab one gold and two bronze, when television channels and newspapers amazingly commented that Olympics is getting more viewer ship than cricket, this series victory is all the more sweet.
We can take heart from the fact that after a long time, our team has a prospective and potentially dangerous bunch of youngsters who are raring to go and who thankfully don’t find themselves limited by a captain who has to please his peers and hence finds his choices limited.
The media has also pretty much found Kirsten a difficult customer for the gossip and rumor mills. He has been allowed to focus on his job and fortunately got a young side that features almost none of his contemporaries. Hence the question of ego clashes did not arise.
Dhoni has emerged as a leader who leads by example. Indeed, but for his crucial knock of 35+ in the low scoring second one dayer, we would have lost that too after the dispirited performance from our batsmen in the first game. Raina and Kohli have risen up to the big occasion and have demonstrated that they belong in the big stage. Raina has been performing consistently well right from the IPL. Rohit Sharma after his IPL exploits has disappointed a little, but given his temperament and technique, he’ll be back among the thick of things. Only Yuvraj has let us down with this shaky footwork but again he is turning into a batting all rounder with this left arm slow bowling.
The bowlers, especially Zaheer and Munaf have shown lot of promise. The former in particular has used his experience to good effect and helped the side with early breakthroughs.
Lastly, the umpires for once did not think too much before ruling batsmen out LBW. This was much needed as cricket after IPL was turning out to be more favoring the batsmen. Bravo, Billy Doctrove!
Finally, a few words for the losing side - Jayawardene with his never-say-die attitude in the third one dayer almost took his side home after a disastrous start. Hats off to him! Sangakkara and Dilshan thankfully for the Indians did not exhibit their special liking for the Indian bowlers.
Way to go, India and Dhoni!!
Statistics don’t lie – this is the first time an Indian ODI team has won a bilateral series in the island nation. It’s all the more remarkable given the circumstances in which the team achieved the series victory.
Crushed in the test series, appearing to have no clues to the wily turn of Mendis, one thought the team would take the road that our countrymen are so well aware of! But in a surprising turnaround, apart from wining three matches on the trot, every win was progressively decisive and for once it wasn’t individual brilliance but collective effort that did the trick.
Playing without Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag, when world attention was focused on the erstwhile unimaginable joy that we were witness to in Beijing where we managed to grab one gold and two bronze, when television channels and newspapers amazingly commented that Olympics is getting more viewer ship than cricket, this series victory is all the more sweet.
We can take heart from the fact that after a long time, our team has a prospective and potentially dangerous bunch of youngsters who are raring to go and who thankfully don’t find themselves limited by a captain who has to please his peers and hence finds his choices limited.
The media has also pretty much found Kirsten a difficult customer for the gossip and rumor mills. He has been allowed to focus on his job and fortunately got a young side that features almost none of his contemporaries. Hence the question of ego clashes did not arise.
Dhoni has emerged as a leader who leads by example. Indeed, but for his crucial knock of 35+ in the low scoring second one dayer, we would have lost that too after the dispirited performance from our batsmen in the first game. Raina and Kohli have risen up to the big occasion and have demonstrated that they belong in the big stage. Raina has been performing consistently well right from the IPL. Rohit Sharma after his IPL exploits has disappointed a little, but given his temperament and technique, he’ll be back among the thick of things. Only Yuvraj has let us down with this shaky footwork but again he is turning into a batting all rounder with this left arm slow bowling.
The bowlers, especially Zaheer and Munaf have shown lot of promise. The former in particular has used his experience to good effect and helped the side with early breakthroughs.
Lastly, the umpires for once did not think too much before ruling batsmen out LBW. This was much needed as cricket after IPL was turning out to be more favoring the batsmen. Bravo, Billy Doctrove!
Finally, a few words for the losing side - Jayawardene with his never-say-die attitude in the third one dayer almost took his side home after a disastrous start. Hats off to him! Sangakkara and Dilshan thankfully for the Indians did not exhibit their special liking for the Indian bowlers.
Way to go, India and Dhoni!!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bangalore wakes up...
An old man picks flowers with unsteady hands,
Dogs stretch, yawn, scratch and doze,
A woman sees off her beloved,
Dry leaves fall on to the washed streets.
Sweepers discuss matters of heart,
Birds call out to each other in sweet tones.
A proud father smiles in joy even as his
Little girl holds his hand and looks up at him.
The sky is a clear white like a sea of milk.
A gentle breeze gathers strength and dies.
Parks wait for the young to jog around,
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Bachna Ae Haseeno – When every wish comes true!!
This is what one would feel after watching ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’, indeed everything that Raj - played by Ranbir Kapoor - wants in life comes true as if life was trying to accommodate every whim and fancy of the initially babe-hungry rich Raj and later after much journeying, the mature Raj who finally learns to respect and above all ceases to see the opposite gender as Shikar!
Of the three ladies, Deepika looks ravishing as the B School student in Australia who drives a taxi and mans a grocery store; Manisha Lamba struggles to act (more than struggling to act, I feel the role demanded her to look a little dumb which was difficult for herJ) in the first half but more than compensates in the second half in a befitting costume with looks that kill; Bipasha fits her role completely and comes up with a performance that at times makes the viewer wonder at her near subservience in the first half and daring in the second!
Ranbir has a very good presence throughout and acts well too. This movie had a range of emotions to showcase and he does it with aplomb. For a second movie, he looks convincing romancing in the snow and crying after his love rejects his hand. He is a good dancer too though he reminds one of Hrithik.
The story is patchy and dragging even before intermission when Raj meets all the three ladies, rejects the courtship of two (Manisha and Bipasha) and gets snubbed by the third to whom he proposes (Deepika). The best part of the movie is the first 25 minutes post interval when realisation dawns on our hero!
The locales are excellent and two songs captivate the viewer for that simple reason. Music is just above average. The audience in the theater clapped at all the right places. When Raj is threatened by Manisha’s husband and despised as personal assistant by Bipasha, there was applause.
This movie reinforces a lot of stereotypes though it tries to salvage something by showing a successful model and an aspiring manager. No girl would write letter after letter everyday for 6 months longing for a guy she had rejected firmly. But then, this is cinema and that is how things are!
This is a good entertainer. If only conventional Bollywood cinema looks beyond the traditional woman dialogues and realizes that with movies like this, it is only perpetuating stereotypes that have to be done away with!
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