Everything in between

As someone said, "it's just a matter of time".... Here I am, days after my last post on Bangalore's rootlessness, and I can indeed affirm that yes , it was just a matter of time. I have been uprooted from what I call "my" city not in a way where I feel old ties going snap, but in a way where I have been given the strength to nurture new ones. I still see the rootlessness, the very obvious look of being from somewhere else, the lack of large families, the very young and upwardly mobile class of people who seem to float-always ready to move on to something new.... but I also see their new roots, their own sense of an apnapan for B'lore, their love, their joy... in short the promise of a new life. I miss the strong ties of Kolkata but, to be honest, I quite enjoy the independence offered by B'lore's rootlessness!!

The stars went out one by one, The candle flickered in a gust of storm, The melting wax stopped on its way down… Its weird but these words flash across my mind when I think of myself in Bangalore. Hopelessness? U may say so. But I call it rootlessness. A rootlessness that is not only in me but something that is reflected in the larger reality of this city itself. It may be a case of the observer’s state of mind interpreting that which is being observed. Again, it might not be so. Different faces, identifiable as belonging to different communities throng the city’s streets. Diversity is good, but where is that one trend that can be identified as belonging purely to Bangalore? Well ok, there is the language but the diversity is so great that no three people speak the same language! One comes across youngsters in large numbers in malls and theatres – this phenomenon is the same, I guess, across all states. But one jarring difference is the lack of large families at these places. I was at ...

Hinging on something very normal and common in our society, marital infidelity, this movie scales new heights of glory, both by way of direction and in the sense of performance. Rituparno’s sensitive handling of the issue, complimented with the performances, both of which I missed in Chokher Bali, showed that Bengali movies are ready to once again take the film world by storm. The movie is set on a monochrome canvas on which marital infidelity across various couples is explored. In this sense the movie does not essentially have a protagonist…but going by screen space, the lead pair is undoubtedly the rich urban couple played convincingly by Konkona and Prosenjeet. Theirs is the first troubled story. Linked to their story, where the man is the betrayer, is the story of Shankar Chakraborty’s family, whose wife shares a clandestine relationship with Prosenjeet. On a completely different level, is the story of Pallavi Chatterjee, Konkona’s friend, who is having an affair with Parambroto. ...

The movies tagline might be a mystical love story...to me it was India's mysticism at its best. Banaras has for so long been the centre of our spirituality and the movie has done its best to capture it. The love story that is actually the director's ploy to get across the essence of Banarash has been kept simple, no undue complications helps the message to come out really strong... the message of Soham, of unity of every atom of the world! At the same time the complications of human emotions are also dealt with...best being Dimple Kapadia, Urmila's screen mother, facing her screen daughter with the one confession that changed the latter's life...the murder of her lover! The manner in which Urmila (Shwetambari) transcends personal grief to attain that spirituality where the self ceases to matter has been well depicted. There is always the fear that the mpvie will go overboard with its spirituality, but the moment comes and goes. Even Naseeruddin's role as God exudes ...

I have noticed it time and again. Every form in this country requires the applicant to fill in certain identification details... here is how one of the options goes — Name of father/mother/husband______________ (??) Can someone tell me the logic behind this? To me, as a woman, this is highly insulting. It is nothing short of being very offensive. The third option could easily be spouse , but NO! The woman afterall has no identity of her own. Parents, I agree, are our identity givers, but in the context of a married individual, how can a husband give his wife an identity when the contrary is not applicable? The sex-based segregation goes much deeper than we can imagine. These little things, that we very easily overlook, is what serves the purpose of deepening the rift. A definite change needs to be worked out, but how....and when? Or in the Indian context, is the wife not equal to the husband?

We wish happiness for the bride, so we teach her to ignore certain aberrations. In fact we teach her to look at the said aberrations as customs, as something that is the done-thing. So please girl, don't complain and if you have a daughter, god forbid, teach her what we have taught you. God Bless! Snippets of a conversation I overheard... Reality Cast : Three Marwari girls...with very joyful expressions on their faces Topic of discussion : The picture of one of them, who is married, draped in a saree at a bridal workshop on the backpage of a city Daily. Quite a beautiful picture, I must add. Girl 1. (married) You know kya hua? Dadaji saw this pic. Kuch khas khush nahin they . Itna skin dikh raha hai na isliye. Girl 2. Kahan yar? Mujhey to normal hi laga tha. Girl 3. (Nods in the affirmative) Girl 1. (pointing at the little midriff showing courtesy the slighly bold cut of the blouse) This. Dekha? All three laughed in unison. (Smile) The laugh was very heartwarming. They...

Firstly, the wedding in the heading refers to my cousin tying the knot. It was not the totally conventional wedding with all the ritualistic strings. It was different. It was a love marriage so parents were not in agreement. Budget was kept as low as possible and the Hindu ceremony done away with. This is of course the latest fad. I dont say it's wrong (Who am I?), but sometimes the fatkabaji surrounding weddings seems a little too much. Just for the sake of argument, what if the money spent on extravagance was put aside or invested in the name of the newly-weds? Coming back to the point, my cousin went for the registration form of the wedding. Seemingly a simple thing, the formalities of this legality set my mind working. Have you ever wondered how little things go a long way to strengthen the claims of the patriarchal society? For starters, after the signing of papers, my cousin had to sign as her husband’s wife…i.e. without her “maiden” surname and with her married one! Somethin...

....a sobbing Prerna Now, now this is not a regular saas-bahu lambast session. I am like the incurable romantic, who chastises and also enjoys. But some things are so completely hilarious that even for the sake of giving the plot a twist, these things appear a tad too stretched. One such thing, that just doesn’t get into my thick skull, is why did Prerna, of the Kasauti fame (please excuse the K’s, I have no idea how many I should put), have to sleep with Anurag to save Sneha? Aw! C’mon, don’t give me that “because Sneha needed a sibling” excuse. Wonder if Ekta Kapoor has heard anything about In Vitro Fertilization. Poor Ekta, she could have got in another angle…surrogacy? Imagine, Prerna’s eggs + Anurag’s sperms + X’s womb! Whoa that would be a cracker? But then No! Ekta loves to make surrogate mums sleep with the genetic dad…she did it in Kusum. Why doesn’t this woman try artificial insemination? See what did technique has done for Anu in Ek Ladki Anjani Si? Now, that girl is in a re...

After a lot of hullabaloo, we actually made it to Priya. At the outset, let me clarify, all the misgivings were not movie-centric, they were seat-centric. We had managed to get Front tickets, right you ought to be shocked! I knew what I was putting my neck into.... anyways, it was worth it. Here goes.... Leaving aside concepts on what a movie should be, 15 Park Avenue can truly and safely be called a cinematic delight. Not only were the individual performances exemplary, but the concept of the director was also praiseworthy. Once again Aparna Sen has proved her mettle and that too with respect to a theme as difficult as schizophrenia. The last time someone dealt with this theme beautifully was Ron Howard, whom I believe Aparna Sen has not exactly surpassed for no fault of hers though. The protagonists in their movies are diametrically opposite and so each to his/her own film. The biggest pitfall faced in such films is the misrepresentation of medical facts and wrong depiction of sympt...

Views, views and views! I seem to have too many of them. My friends say I am very aggressive about them too, kind of not open to variations...and, later ofcourse, sheepishly accept that I am right. So this blog, to satiate my hunger for expression ;). Well ofcourse I am open to criticism, especially here, as it excludes any verbal contradictions. (lol). I am looking forward to a whole load of serious talk, brainstorming sessions (for myself and for you), sobriety and ofcourse fun. So do write in, and like I always say, I don't necessarily mean all I say, so dont take me seriously...(don't take this seriously either)