Rishu

On a soft cloud

Innocently floating

Collecting country coins

Like they were sea shells

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Infectious smile

A born charmer

Imagination galore

Like in your own world

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Ghost encounter stories

Chocolate covered trees

Strawberry cream rivers

And funny anecdotes

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Mischief to the hilt

Beguiling make-up tactics

Always winning the battle

Reclaiming my heart

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Lying by your side

I watched you breathe

Afraid you might fall

I held on, could hardly sleep

  

For my adorable 8 year old nephew. Sweet child of mine

Anuranan

Resonance; to resonate; to strike a chord; the coming together of harmonies. 

I watched this Bengali movie yesterday by debutant director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. It did not matter that I did not understand Bengali. The body language of the actors alone could have carried the movie. Yet, the words made it fly.  I found resonance in this movie, in its simplistic way of accepting relationships, of allowing it to be left undefined. It left so much to interpretation and individual perception with an honesty that’s missing in the black and white portrayal of characters in mainstream cinema.  

I found the relationship between Rahul and Preeti that of enablement. Rahul unintentionally enabling Preeti to fly further than the prisoned life her mind has had her leading. I say unintentionally as Rahul never set out to save Preeti, he was the way he was due to Nandita. I honestly think it was Nandita who was saving Preeti. She knew, she simply knew there was a gap. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Nandita questions Preeti on her relationship with her husband Amit, translated in English it goes, ‘Where is the gap? The body, the soul or the caress.’  

I did not know why Rituparna Sengupta was so highly regarded in Bengali cinema, I had watched ‘Mein Meri Patni aur Woh’ and found her pretty good, but definitely not exceptional. This movie gave me the reasons for her popularity. She was vulnerable, playful, coquettish, wounded and insightful, a myriad of emotions smoothly flowing on celluloid. Rahul Bose was once again, simply adorable. My observations of him are entirely useless as they are heavily biased. The surprise package of the movie was Raima Sen, one could feel the emptiness in her life. Her eyes spoke volumes and her body language was subtle yet powerful. 

There were some parts of the movie which seemed like it didn’t need to happen to carry the movie forward, it was undertaken to make the story simpler for the director to end the movie. It seemed like a hesitance to explore the undefined world further. I don’t criticize that as I can understand the complexity it could lead to, although I would be intrigued. The movie did conform to ending a bond which had no meaning, no name defined by society, possibly as it is quite the reality as everything does start flowing into black and white. However, I do applaud the unconventional resonance shown between the two women at the end of the movie. That was groundbreaking. It was a firm step. 

See this movie, it won’t matter that you don’t understand the language. Its beauty is in its rawness, I am sure you will resonate with it.  

Tag tale!

The ace storyteller Ditty has tagged me to do this fun post!  

Here are the rules:

Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like).
Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.

Now I wish I was doing this when I had the 100 odd posts in my earlier blog before it was deleted, as 5 out of 15 posts here is not much of a variety, but oh well, here goes 

1) Family – I think this post summed up my family, the concept of home and growing up. Its one of my most nostalgic posts yet, and I still pinch myself when I have to think about a different place as home. I wish Papa can re-purchase our old place! 

2) Friend – The most fun I have had with some close friends has to be the stay over sessions when I was studying for my GMAT and Anu was studying was her GRE and Vivek was generally vela studying in his MBA classes. This was among the few cool things we indulged into. 

3) Me – At this stage of life no other post sums up where I am than this one 

4) Love – I have been careful to not explore this topic on the new blogmaybe coz of my increasing disbelief in the concept. This could come close I guess. Okay so maybe not, but heck he is cute

5) Anything I like – This has to be my fav post so far, I love this poem, the number of ways it can be interpreted. And it was so apt for when I wrote it. 

Okay so now for the tag, let’s see Sonal, Apoorva, Sines and Lovemarks do it. The fifth person is whoever else reading this blog, which means YOU!

La la land

There is something incredibly satisfying to see a big ice block melt and slide away from your car windshield. Especially the moment you find the one crack which makes the rest of the ice lose momentum and ease their hold of the glass, sliding down like a tiny glacier. Its a moment of pure victory. A moment where the fact that you are freezing, and your hands and feet are devoid of any feeling becomes insignificant, where you go, ‘ yes!, take that you sucker! ‘  

Indiana winters are a beautiful torture. There is poetry in excruciating pain. Especially when the pain comes from the fact that you are playing musical chairs and lose your 80 F chair to a 10 F one in a span on 2 hours, that too without any play gear (read hand gloves). There is magic in sitting in the car at the airport parking lot waiting for it to heat up, so your hands can return to life and actually be able to drive. Its surreal. It amazes me, the extent to which humans seek torture. I can see it now, its beautiful. I mean come on, how boring is it to spend 5 days in perfect weather, where is the adventure in that. You know, 80 F, clear skies, blue Miami water, and just too many people smiling. Such experiences can be dangerous. Saccharin sweet revolting. Yet I decided to take a plunge in the artificial world last week. 3 days in Miami beach and 2 days in Key West had me begging for Indiana winters. Seriously!  

There are travel notes to add here, for the interested ones who want to go through the Matrix of lovely Florida. A conference held by a prestigious bank with a four star hotel stay all paid for, catamaran tours in between the breakout sessions along with a dinner cocktail event with General Colin Powell as the keynote speaker summed up Miami Beach for me. An evening walk along Ocean drive and lunch by the waterfront with some interesting soft rock completed the experience. Colin Powell was captivating, his oratory skills, surely practiced to perfection from his diplomat years made us all goose bumpy and warm and fuzzy about America inspite of its recent international (mis)happenings. The other interesting event to see was Tucker Carlson (MSNBC host) and Paul Begala ( CNN Political analyst) take each other out in a Republican Vs Democratic debate. It was live television,literally with all the drama and exaggerated head/hand gestures. 

The true vacation began on Friday when I headed out to Key West, a 3.5 hour drive which easily took me 5.5 hrs, giving me time only to visit the downtown area which pretty much is the never ending Duval Street with its quaint little shops and a wide choice of bars. Saturday was when the adventure began, literally as I had signed up for one of those power adventure water sports tours, which meant large part of the day was spent snorkeling, para sailing, jet skiing, and banana boating ( which is the cause of the whiplash) and pretty much basking the sun on the catamaran. Completely exhausting as you can imagine. Of course since the adventure wasn’t enough, I decided to visit the Mallory Square and watch the beautiful sun set along with local art shops, and imaginative street performers. Very enchanting. The night activities included an amazing Thai dinner and a listen to Key West’s own local band (http://michaeldixonband.com/) 

As you can imagine, this was more than enough sunshine for me, so Indiana pulled me in her icy embrace on Sunday evening. And I am left wondering if I should have swallowed the blue pill instead. Seriously!