Travelling in India

Here is where perspiration and body odour are shared through close contact free,
So suffer stench with patience till you reach destination ultimately !







This vehicle in front was a shocking sight to see,
All clinging to support themselves individually.
This type of travel is often termed ‘Latak Savari’.







At every bus stop bodies calmly flow out
Oh, not a whimper not a shout.
The driver's view is restricted cos of legs
Zig- zag driving’s not due to consumed pegs !
Preferential seating is bestowed for women up front,
His changing gear technique, a well acquired stunt.
‘Walk and talk’ scored many an accident inducing fear,
Here driver's braile n lever grab, mastered shift of gear.
On these roads the drive is silky smooth for sure,
Jeeps over-loaded, sharp ghetto body odour to endure !

Out standing performers wait just for the move
Then hop swiftly and on just front toe hold shove.
Seeing is believing, cos it's indeed hard to imagine,
The accurate number the busting crosses margin.

Poem and photos by,
David de Figueiredo

The Random Self-Help Book - Increase Self-Awareness

1. Never take yourself too seriously
2. Never be afraid to laugh at yourself
3. Be not afraid of posting links such as this and thanking Wilbur Sargunaraj though he does poke fun at the blogger tribe.

By,
Zen

THE Deol is Back !

After quite a long interval, Abhay Deol will be back on the big screen this week with ‘Road, Movie’, reason enough for all Abhay Deol fans to rejoice. What’s more, two other films of his should get realeased this year too – ‘Basra’ and ‘Aisha’. Happy Days Are Here Again !


This week’s release, ‘Road, Movie’, is directed by Dev Benegal, his earlier films were ‘English August’ and ‘Split Wide Open’; combined with Abhay Deol’s penchant for off-beat movies, Dev Benegal’s direction promises us a really wacky movie. The promos that are airing on TV currently support that premise too - tell me you were not wondering why a weirdly dressed woman was dancing in front of a white screen in the middle of nowhere, with a bright blue truck parked nearby ! Seems like a typical Abhay Deol movie, a story that’s zany, edgy sometimes, and, to be honest, a bit freaked-out too, bolstered by good acting and tight screenplay; hope the film actually lives up to these expectations.


“Road, Movie” revolves around Vishnu (Abhay Deol), a young man desperate to escape a future working as a salesman for his father’s hair oil business – finally an explanation for the random version of the famous ‘Sar jo tera chakraaye’ song and the bottles of oil that we’ve been seeing in TV promos ! An old truck beckons, which Vishnu sees as his ticket to freedom. He offers to drive the antique truck across the desert to the sea, where it has been sold to a local museum. As he sets off across the harsh terrain of desert India, he discovers he’s not merely transporting a battered vehicle but an old touring cinema.

(Alert : If you don’t want to read a star-struck gushing groupie type of post, stop NOW)

If one tried to draw a trend line of the kind of movies Abhay Deol acts in, it would zigzag crazily all over the place – the only pattern is that there isn’t one. From his debut in 2005 with ‘Socha Na Tha’ to ‘Dev D’, he’s played a different character each time and the tone of the movie has been varied too. Unlike a host of other actors, most of his work has been with debutant directors, which might explain the various genres explored, the unusual themes, and a marked absence of performances that seem like the star is sleepwalking through a repeat of the last successful movie.



‘Socha Na Tha’ was a Hrishikesh Mukherjee kind of feel-good movie about a pair of young ones who reject a match arranged by their parents only to become good friends and eventually fall in love. Nothing new about the story but the lead pair made it credible. This was followed by the dark noir tone of ‘Manorama Six Feet Under’, the charming chutzpah of ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’ and the bitter cynicism of ‘Dev D’. ‘Ahista Ahista’, ‘Ek Chaali Ki Last Local’ and a role in multistarrer ‘Honeymoon Travels’ made an appearance in between these.





Apart from the selection of films, Abhay seems quite a maverick in other aspects too. After the shooting of ‘Dev D’, rather than stick around, enjoy the adulation and sign more films, he went off to New York to study welding and metal work. He has also now turned producer with his own company called ‘Forbidden Films’ in order to be able to make the films he likes. Read about this here.

Often described as the Thinking Woman’s Sex Symbol, he is credited with the concept of Dev D. Also, this site claims that including the ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye’ song in ‘Road,Movie’ was Abhay’s idea.

To read more about Abhay Deol, check IMDB and Wikipedia, also this article titled ‘The Deol with a difference’ and this one titled ‘One Life, Different Takes’.


For more information on ‘Road, Movie’, read here and here and here.

Information collated by,
Zen

To Christie, With Love

My first Agatha Christie was "Mrs McGinty's Dead" when I was 12 years old. I was introduced to the fascinating world of detective stories earlier through Arthur Conan Doyle’s pipe smoking, violin playing and cocaine consuming Holmes. But it took me no time to switch my loyalties over to the egg-shaped head and luxuriant moustache of the Belgian. Of course I completely bought into the idea which Christie propounded of the superiority of psychological detection using “little grey cells” over (what she disparagingly calls) the human hound-dog approach of sniffing out clues like the cigarette ash, fingerprints, witnesses, etc. But a larger part of the fascination lay in the gaiety of her books. Murder can hardly be gay..u say? Nevertheless that is the first word that comes to my mind when I think of the overall impression I have of her books. How does she manage to make all her books so lively with all those deaths and gruesome killers?
Her detectives were not bungling idiots relying upon mere chance to throw up a solution; indeed they were formidable in their own field (Except perhaps Tommy and Tuppence but there Christie steps into a different genre of adventure thrillers rather than the usual detective fiction). Yet at the same time there is always an absurd or comical touch to them. Whether it is Poirot with his vanity and fastidiousness, Miss Marple with her curiosity and love of village gossip or Superintendant Battle with his infuriating English stolidity, all her detectives evoke admiration tempered with a healthy irreverence for they are after all only too human. You are encouraged to not take them too seriously, cast an indulgent eye over their imperfections and you always end up being amazed in every story how those dear darlings are able to piece it all together!

I don’t remember anybody telling me about the strong vein of humour in Christie’s works. I wonder why it is so less spoken of. Many of her characters with their exaggerated traits are almost Wodehousian- no doubt he was one of her favourite authors! The woolly adorable English aristocrat, Lord Caterham, is a spitting image of Lord Emsworth and the profusion of aunts and cousins in her stories is veritably Woosterish. Yes, the resourceful butlers and helmet-pinching young men about town are missing but there are American millionaires, duchesses and poets/writers at least. One must take heart from that. What is remarkable is the way she juxtaposes these characters with a murder or scene of crime. So we have the apple munching Ariadne Olivier with her mismatched socks interviewing murder suspects in one story while an idle young aristocrat (who could well fit into the Drones Club) turns out to be the murderer in another!
And of course add to all this – a dash of romance. Very rarely have I come across any book of hers which does not have a budding romance or two…perhaps with a happy ending in jeopardy because of one of the partners is a suspect or a likely victim. By and large the more beautiful and likeable ladies are preserved till the end of the book in the interest of the love angle; but there are some notable exceptions- for instance, ‘Peril at End House’, ‘Death on the Nile’ or ‘Evil Under the Sun’.

What helps in this overall formula is of course the slightly detached look at death/demise. There is no undue misery or emotional upheaval when there is one. Mourning is quick and perfunctory if at all and quite a few people seem to benefit from the deaths. That I suppose is by design- there wouldn’t be multiple suspects otherwise! Never are the murders done by people whose point of view you genuinely empathise with or want to argue as justified. If at all there is an element of likeability in them or shades of grey in their character, then the writer mercifully lets them take the easier way out through suicide in the end…viz, ‘Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, ‘Death on the Nile’, ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’, etc. (‘Murder on the Orient Express’ being the only book where the murder is left unpunished in the end).

Christie makes murder so natural and devoid of darkness/evil that one can even contemplate the person sitting across the table drinking the morning cup of coffee committing one. I have always been fascinated by this whole idea of how a murder reveals things about the murderer and the victim. So I fantasized about how some of my relatives or friends would murder if they were to go about it (just a tickling academic exercise - before everybody disowns me). How would I murder-hmmm…let me see...:)) In a fit of rage probably…..someone I loved…the crime passionel....the weapon… a firearm (though Christie preferred poison for women) and the place…..beneath a pomegranate tree…..the witnesses…three grey kittens playing nearby with a broken plastic mug. What??? Is that so fantastic? Haven’t you ever thought about murdering someone? Oh come on…murder is gay. Almost festive. Cheers!

By,
Sharmishtha Dasgupta

The Basic Difference Between People (2) - must a painting ‘mean’ or ‘be’

The random self-help book project we began in 2008 had a chapter on ‘the basic difference between people’. Here’s another entry for the same.

You can divide people into two groups, those who like the type of paintings painted by Monet and those who like ones painted by Salvador Dali.
Here’s an example of a painting by each :



In case you want to know which camp I am in, here’s a clue - ‘Ars Poetica’

:-)
Zen

To see more of Monet’s paintings, follow this link
To see more of Dali’s paintings, follow this link
Read about Monet here,and read about Dali here
Some interesting facts about Dali’s paintings here

Kuchh Kavitaayein

In this post, I had promised some poetry on a similar theme soon. Here are links to the poems.

Swantrata ka deepak by Gopal singh Nepali. Read this poem out loud, it has a brisk marching pace to it; the third verse is my favourite.

And do you remember this one from your school days - those who studied in CBSE might; Pushp ki abhilasha - makhanlal chaturvedi

Chale Mardane - Bachchan (neither Amitabh nor Abhishek, the really senior Bachchan is the poet)

And three poems where the Hindi is slightly tougher to understand :

This power-packed poem by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar is exhorting Indians to resist the British. It’s been one of my all-time favourites, had memorised the lyrics in school. The site that has the lyrics is missing one verse, but I couldn’t find the lyrics anywhere else.

Himadri Tung Shring Se - Jai Shankar Prasad

Var De – Suryakant Tripathi Nirala

And, before we end, here's a wWebsite from which you can play patriotic and inspirational songs - www.geetganga.org.

Till next week,
Zen and Friends.

Review of ‘Ishqiya’ – Desi Western, Couple of Crooks, Cool Caper

Finally, the much-awaited ‘Ishqiya’ released this weekend. The promos on TV were promising - a lead trio of NaseeruddinShah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan, ably supported by awesome music from the Bharadwaj-Gulzar music-and-lyrics team, and an interesting story of two thieves on the run.


And did the movie disappoint ? Not at all ! As this poster suggests, ‘Ishqiya’ has colour, character, humour – some ribald though, and crackles with life; it’s a rollicking fun-filled debut film from director Abhishek Chaubey. Expect a fast-paced story, supported by good acting, great music, some bad language, some wit, some chemistry (both physical and sulphurous), and you will get full paisa-vasool entertainment.

A pair of small-time crooks – Khalujaan and Babban (Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi respectively) are on the run from Mushtaq Bhai with a bag full of cash that they have stolen from him. They shelter for a few days in the house of a genteel widow Krishna (Vidya Balan) in a village near Gorakhpur in UP; as the movie unfolds our heroes find that the widow isn’t as sweet and innocent as she appears to be and has an agenda of her own to fulfil. Rooted against the background of this story, we get some great shots of the rural hinterland, and a few brief glimpses of what caste-wars imply in the UP badlands.

The movie has great music, my favourite being the adorably picturised ‘Dil tho baccha hai ji’. The background score is aptly chosen and adds nuances to the story, whether it is the ring-tone of Jijaji’s cellphone, or the old S.D.Burman songs playing on the radio while Khalujaan tries to romance Krishna, or the more contemporary numbers that underscore Babban’s antics.

Some nitpicking – I doubt there are many widows in villages near Gorakhpur that wear such low-cut almost-backless blouses. And team that up with a pair of high heels ! Honestly ! While Babban and Khaalujaan wear the same shoes throughout the movie, the heroine’s footwear alternates between simple chappals and high heels. Whither continuity ? And realism ?

Furthermore, I felt that Vidya Balan’s performance, while good, was neither as intense nor as shaded as the plot demanded, though that may also have been due to the way the role was written. Compare against Tabu in ‘Maqbool’ or ‘Mahie Gill’ in Paro and you will know what I mean. At times, Vidya was so sweet that she seemed to be channelling ‘Parineeta’ !

While this movie was a great fun (I watched it twice, in two successive shows ! ), both director Abhishek Chaubey and Producer Vishal Bharadwaj need to work on a different theme and tempo for their next movie. They are in danger of getting stuck in the Omkara-Kaminey-Ishqiya genre.

Incidentally, I wonder what the source of inspiration for this movie was ? [Alert : Spoiler follows] ‘Maqbool’ and ‘Omkara’ were adaptations of Shakespearean plays, ‘Kaminey’ was inspired by Guy Ritchie and Tarantino’s caper flicks, what about this one ? A caper flick for sure, one of my friends claimed it reminded him of the basic outline of the ‘Kill Bill’ plot – the bride prefers an honest life, the husband attempts to murder her, she plots her revenge. What do you think ?

Ending with links to more reviews of the movie :
http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2010/01/30/review-rann-ishqiya/
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masand-movie-review-ishqiya-a-delicious-little-film/109408-8.html
http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/ishqiya-review-6432.html

Zen.

Ek ? Anek ?

On the eve of Republic Day, we sat down to try and put together a list of songs that speak of our unity. Maybe our mood is driven by nostalgia for a sense of unity that seems to be evaporating, if ever it totally existed.

The first few on our list are a blast from the past, apologies for the poor picture quality on these:

The first, of course, the ‘Ek Titli, Anek Titliyaan’ broadcast on Doordarshan during the 80s and 90s.

‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ – another regular feature on Doordarshan’s menu in the 90s, and it’s new avatar released today – ‘Phir mile sur mera tumhara’

On those lines, also ‘Baje Sargam’ (Desh Rag) from DD days

The ‘Hamara Bajaj’ ad – Buland Bharat ki Buland Tasveer

Rabbi’s contemporary version of ‘Jinhe Naaz hai Hind pe’ from Guru Dutt’s epic ‘Pyaasa’.

To add to the list of songs, we tweaked the theme to include facets of patriotism too. Though some recent songs crept into the list too, many of these were re-interpretations of old songs or from new movies about our history.

‘Bande mein tha dum’ from ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ – I know it sounds blasphemous, but I think it’s quite a good attempt to re-interpret the song and the Mahatma for a younger audience; and The original ‘Vande Mataram’ from ‘Anand Math’

‘Yeh jo desh hai tera’ from ‘Swades’

‘Desh mere desh mere meri jaan hai tu’ from ‘Legend of Bhagat Singh’

‘Sarfaroshi Ki Tammana ab humaare dil mein hai’ from the movies ‘Rang de basanti’ and ‘Legend of Bhagat singh’, the latter being one of the rare instances of Bollywood music doing justice to great original poetry.

‘Ae mere watan ke logon’ – this composition and Lata Mangeshkar’s melodious voice can bring tears to your eyes. This song has a lot of history associated with it; it was composed to commemorate Indian soldiers who died during the Sino-Indian war, check this link for details and for the lyrics.

‘ Jab zero diya mere bharat ne’ from ‘Purab aur Pashchim’, very corny picturisation though; another song from the Manoj Kumar stable – ‘Mere desh ki dharti’ from ‘Upkaar’, though I prefer ‘Jab zero diya...’

That’s all for this post. Stay tuned for some poetry along similar themes next week.
p.s. In case of any errors in this post, do post a comment so I can correct it. Also, do add to the list of songs here if you can think of more.

Jai Hind !

Songs in this post were remembered by,
Zen and friends.

Mannu Bhai motor chali pum-pum-pum

Wonder how many of you recall this Kishore Kumar song that was popular years ago, the lyrics are as follows :

Mannu Bhai motor chali pum pum pum
Chaupaati jaayengey ne bhelpuri khayengey
Acchhi achhi sooraton se aankhen ladaayengey
Hallaa machaayengey ! Gulla machaayengey !
Bandbaajaa bajegaa dham dham dham !

If Mannu Bhai had been a taxi driver and been reborn in Bombay - ooooppps Mumbai - today, he might have had to change his name to Mahadev Bhau and sing this song in Marathi instead :

Mannu dada motor chalali pum pum pum
Chaupati jauya ani bhelphuri khauya
Chhaan chhaan mulinshi dolyaat dole milauya
Gondhal ghaluya ! Dhamal karuya !
Bandbaaja waje dham dham dham !

While some people may term this move by the Maharashtra State Government misguided, parochial or just plain silly, I think it’s quite a good idea, though not fully thought out. There is one flaw in this policy that could keep it from achieving maximum impact. While it makes Marathi compulsory, it does not make forgetting Hindi equally necessary. There may be taxi drivers that know both Marathi and Hindi, and hence conversation between passenger and taxi driver may yet be conducted in a language other than Marathi.

Lacking funds to implement either a linguistic memory wipe or partial lobotomy for taxi drivers, I suggest the state take recourse in the simple solution of passing a policy that makes it compulsory for passengers in taxis to know and speak in Marathi too. It should not be too difficult to monitor this. The state could invest in a speed-gun like instrument that detects and identifies the source of any non-Marathi language being spoken within a fixed radius. Policemen wielding this - let’s call it the ‘Language Lathi’ - could be stationed at traffic signals, major crossings etc and could dole out hefty fines and / or imprisonment for inadequate Marathi knowledge. (Note : I have stocked up on copies of ‘Learn Marathi in 30 Days’ – contact me once the copies in shops are sold out.)

Once this phase has been implemented, I suggest that in phase 2 the state focus on easy identification and targeting for MOB (Marathi Observation Bureau) purposes. In this phase, it will be made compulsory for every cabbie to display a black-and-white map of India on the taxi’s windshield with only the cabbie’s state-of-origin marked in colour. Every inhabitant of Mumbai should also be forced to carry a small map that declares state-of-origin in a similar fashion - though they can keep it in their wallets and do not need to stick it on their foreheads or chests.

In phase 3 the Grand Plan really comes together. Now, each religion will be assigned a colour and the state-of-origin should be in that colour. So now, we meet anyone and we know all that is important about them. Ah ! Bihar in Green, this person is a Muslim from Bihar. TN in saffron, a Hindu from TN ! Aiga ! Maharashtra in saffron – a mulga from the motherland ! Somebody wake up Mr. Nilekani, these are the important details for the Unique Identification card, all other details are just incidental.

Acknowledgements – Many thanks to Adolf Bhau for showing the way through his experiments with the yellow star (info here and here).
I Remain,
Yours sincerely,
Zenobai

Another Chapter for ‘The Random Self-Help Book’

Those readers who have forgotten this project can refresh their memories here. The post below is the first entry for a Chapter titled ‘I would rather learn some things through observation than through experience’

I attended a fusion concert last week where I witnessed something interesting. The noted blues harmonica master Corky Siegel was one of those performing. When it was his turn to perform, he ambled on stage, simply dressed, with a water bottle in hand and set it down beside the piano. No one in the audience recognised him and no one clapped. Like me, I guess they mistook him for someone from the artists’ retinue who was ensuring that water was available in case the maestro felt thirsty. Only when he faced the audience, gazed straight at them for a few seconds and then bowed was there some perfunctory applause to welcome him on stage.

But after he played the harmonica, boy, was there some applause ! What an awesome performance ! No one in the audience had any doubts about being privileged to hear a musical genius and they showed their appreciation by clapping loud and long.

Which leads me to the dilemma – which of the following morals do I choose as the learning from this incident :
1) Being modest and self-effacing is all very well, but overdo it and you may be mistaken for a water-carrier. Sometimes a GRAND entry is necessary, ANNOUNCE your arrival in style.
2) It doesn’t matter if people don’t notice your arrival, as long as your performance leaves them spellbound and begging for more

You tell me, which moral would you choose ?

Zen.