Birds of a feather….

Bawra man dekhne chala hai ek sapna…

Once more mummum
Once more please
No dear it’s too late now, don’t you have to go to school tomorrow?
Why I like this song so much mummum?
You tell me, why you like?
Umm…because you like (suddenly hugs her mother tightly).
(She smiles and adores her daughter) my crazy little girl! Now sleep my darling.
Mummum! why you like this song so much?
Now sleep my dear, do you know what time is it?
Please tell me mummum. Why you like?
Umm……….because it’s ours baby…..
It’s yours, it’s mine. It’s ours only.

Have I ever told you about that little bird from whom I have learnt this song?
Which one? That talkative blue bird who never takes bath?
(She smiles) no no this is a whitish little bird….calm & quiet…….exactly opposite of my naughty girl (embraces her).

Is she your friend?

Umm….first close your eyes……….I am telling you about the bird.
(The little girl closes her eyes)
She loves to sing, loves to dance, loves to fly across mountains, across seas…..
She wanted to fly the highest.

Her fantasies don’t have any periphery.
She envisions having dinner with humans……..
She dreams of getting married to a gladiator.
She believes there must be a great musician in the moon.

One day she was flying……..flying high, higher and higher and finally reached to the moon.

It’s like trillions of halogens are overflowing and some music… the music is unknown yet so involving. It seems it’s so easy to comprehend yet every moment it changes its direction and generates a new meaning. It’s like an addiction, it’s like a ‘dream comes true’.
She is the happiest bird in the world now; she is singing, dancing, laughing on her own. She is looking for the musician. Yes, her prediction was correct. And she is about to find that magician….the musician.
She is searching, following the tune, she is searching like anything. Everywhere she looks, it is milky white…….may be a whitish glow, she assumes it must be the aura of that Godly musician. She is searching.
She has been searching for days, for months for years and she doesn’t even realize that she has lost her vision; the extravagance of moon-light has taken it from her. She can’t see anything but that whitish glow. She doesn’t realize that she has lost her hearing. The music stopped playing long ago. It’s the amazement of the music that she is carrying in her ear, in her heart, in her mind.
She hasn’t found the musician but now she is dying to tell the world that there is a great musician in the moon and she is the one who understood the music, she is the one who has danced on its beats. But alas! Now she neither can hear anything nor can see anyone. No one understands what she is saying, no one believes. Her behavior seems anomalous to the world, like any disabled creature. But she doesn’t care. She tells about the music again and again and in that way she lives the music, lives those moments yet again. She feels the music in her wings, in her feet, in her neck, in her beak, in her blindness, in her deafness, in her heart, in her wheeze…….

But where is that musician mummum? Does the musician really exist?

Don’t know dear, she visited to the moon several times after the incident, hoping to listen to a slightest hint of the music but neither the musician nor the music was there………or may be she couldn’t hear anything because of her deafness, may be the musician was playing a different tune.

Mummum!

Hmm….

Does the bird still visit to the moon? Is she still searching for the music….the musician?
I also want to search for……..

Now sleep you naughty. If you don’t mummum will not going to love you anymore.

Noooooooo, I am sleeping mum. Look! I am sleeping.
That’s like my girl (kisses her daughter). Sweet dreams baby.

Mummum! What was that music, the bird liked?
(Adoring her daughter) Ummmmmmm, no more questions mummum, sleep tight.
The mother starts humming the tune Bawra man dekhne chala hai ek sapna…

The baby is sleeping now holding her mother tightly in her small arms.

Now the bird will start her flight…she will fly high, higher……higher, to the moon. She will again search hard, harder, hardest for the musician, for the music……….

The Couple and the Author

She is beautiful, when she smiles like a child
She is beautiful, when she is coming out of kitchen wiping her hands in her anchal ……….a mixed smell of spices and a smell of her own
She is beautiful with her healing hug…….it’s like troubles never exist in this world
She is beautiful, when she is wiping the vermillion from his hand while gulping……
That she has just got married………
She is beautiful, when she silently puts her head on his shoulder to convey……
That she is just not getting him
She is beautiful, when sometimes she sobs wordlessly assuming someone else in his mind
She is beautiful, when she devotes her entire to his desires
She deserves him because she is beautiful
She is beautiful because she belongs to him
She is beautiful because he loves her

Cut to Cut

He loved me as if it was real; he loved me as if he loved someone for the first time

He loved me deep, deeper……….

He loved me like a child; he loved me like a father

He loved me like he was lost; he loved me like he had just found himself

I love to leave some marks of my affection on him; I wanted him to do the same

I wanted him to mark me so ruthlessly that it stays till the next time he loves me

But he never did.

But when we loved each other for the last time, before we departed forever,

I got a deep cut on me by him, accidentally may be.

I think it’s going to stay for a long time ‘as I wanted’

Fool Feeling

…..And I thought everything was true

Silence means cowardliness

Silence means love and commitment too

One path is chosen by me, and one part is chosen by you.

Kingfisher Beer

It’s Not about Love

Ok Rahul, tell me what was the colour of her nail polish on the day when she first sneezed in front of you? Your options are: A) red, B) black, C) nothing. If your answer matches with your girl friend’s you can win a couple pass for the film ‘Love Main Low Balance’ at Inox on Valentine’s Day.
If this is for FM radio listeners, news papers readers are not neglected at all. Write love message for your special person in 10 words which will be published on Valentine’s Day. Best will win gift voucher from Café Coffee day. Through out the month, Nik Nish, Archie’s, Pantaloon’s etc have created an off season SELL only for the love day. You can see the advertisements of audio or video CDs accumulating romantic love songs specially released for Valentine’s Day. Music channels decorate themselves lovely with red hearts and other sensational props. And we, the victimized metropolitan youth never miss even the Valentine’s Day special beauty tips sponsored by L’Oreal Paris. Flowers, chocolates, gifts, lunch, dinner, party, romantic songs, dresses matching the occasion, romantic games these are what the Valentine’s Day blows. Did I miss anything in the list? Yes may be I have missed the love. If most of the readers didn’t notice the missing ‘love’ then may be we born to be victimized. A very few who missed the love on the Valentine’s Day, for them I only have an incident. A girl is very upset as she has broken up with his boyfriend. She is telling to her friend how the boy had called her to a coffee shop and told that he didn’t want to continue the relationship anymore. The girl is crying like anything when she is telling the story to her friends. Suddenly, one of her friends says, which coffee shop did you go? Is it Barista or Café Coffee Day? You know, Barista complements break ups more than CCD.

please, rewind

She is committed to him, committed to him forever.

But he never believes

She said, ‘you are the man of my life’

He smiled, and ignored

May be she refused to kiss him thousand times

May be she was late

May be she has slept with others

Can all these stop her from searching him in her cushions, bed sheets, books and mails?

In her mornings, evenings, days and months she is searching

He says ‘one more week’

Brand: Indian IT

Chip

Name of the Brand: Chip
Type of Product: Gadget Magazine

Kamasutra

Name of the Brand: Kamasutra
Type of Product: Condoms

Idea: Don't drive when you are drunk

It’s higher than knee-high

‘Knee-high protagonists of shows like Uttaran and Balika Vadhu continue to be TRP grabbers’ Calcutta Times, Tuesday, January 6, 2009.

I would like to add one more daily series here, Jai Sri Krishna (Victory of Lord Krishna!). It also has a little protagonist Krishna whose accretion even has been delayed for grabbing TRPs. Even the viewers, who don’t like the soap, like the little adorable child in the role of Krishna. So, here Krishna may grow up in real time rather than screen time (at least something realistic!). The very talented Avika Gor (Anandi), leading Balika Vadhu (Child Bride), and the brilliant actress Sparsh khanchandani (Ichcha) of Uttaran (hand-me-down) also have propagated themselves in primetime slots by their very natural and influential acting.        

Therefore, it is now persuaded that ‘India television is riding high on these little shoulders’. We have seen how cute babies can quickly popularize a TV commercial. Thus, this is not a very out of the box concept of giving hits for the creative behind the camera. To them it is another hit formula like saas-bahu. Then, is this the next for Indian TV after saas-bahu saga? Is that all the mature Indian audience deserve? Here one important point I want to bring up that Balika Vadhu is creating history in terms of TRPs. This series is more popular than the other two. All the three have talented, cute and adorable children, then why Balika Vadhu? Here leaves my argument, knee-highs are not the only thing which popularizes these soaps or I can say the secret of the triumph of Balika Vadhu can tell what exactly is liked by the viewers and what exactly the future of Indian TV drama is.

Balika Vadhu is a story of a child bride Anandi. The plot is based on a village of Rajasthan. Like other daily soaps place (Rajasthan) is not just an information here. In every moment of the episodes one can feel the flavor of Rajasthan. From the dialect, consumes, sets, ambiance, rituals, thought process everything is bearing Rajasthan. If we remember Kasauti Jindegi ki, they had introduced that series in a Bengali plot but after some episodes they forgot all about the Bengali quintessence. Though the characters occasionally wore Sanjay Vansali version of Bengali shares!

The most significant difference between Balika Vadhu and other two serials (Uttaran & Jai Sri Krishna) is their way of approaching. The other two are descriptive and divide their characters in black & white, positive & negative. Uttaran is a story of a small poor girl with lots of unfulfilled dreams and the little girl doesn’t understand why everything is unfavorable to her. Her mother is a servant of House. The Malkeen (owner of the house where Ichcha’s mother works) and her mother of Uttaran series are always negative because may be they don’t belong to the class of the protagonist Ichcha. Jai Shree Krishna is the Hindu mythological story of Lord Krishna. The little Krishna wins every fight and always well acclaimed even if he is doing wrong things as he is God. Balika Vadhu gives enough space to all the characters. Every character has both the positive and the negative instinct and everyone has to say something in their support of themselves. In Balika Vadhu the ‘Ma Sa’ Kalyani Devi is the head of the family but she is never a typical mother-in-law. Her activities apparently seem negative but she has some viable points too in support of her activities and the script writer is giving that persona enough space to speak for her. This is where the modern viewers can relate them with the characters and the series gets its huge viewership. I remember in an award show Mr. Pankaj Kapoor got the best negative role award for his role in the film Blue Umbrella. After receiving his award he said in his speech that he didn’t understand why they called the character negative. Where as the character was portrayed as normal human being with his voracity, fear and love. For some reason he is behaving negatively but this doesn’t make him negative. The script writer Purnendu Sekhar and the director Siddharth Sengupta of Balika Vadhu are following this approach and instead defining the characters as positive or negative they are leaving the discourse for the viewers. This is what the viewers enjoying most.

To sum up, I can say saas-bahu, small cute children these are only the ‘changing themes’. The future of Indian TV drama is laying somewhere else. A more detailed and realistic approach and the psycho analysis of the characters; these are what modern spectator deserves and the key to sustain on primetime in the long run. 

Timeless

I used to write letters to her. Camouflaging those from others’ eyes, I used to give her casing those in books. That was our secret, we relished. She used to wake me up, she wakes me up too. Her affectionate touches used to mother me. She used to pamper me; she used to spoil me like she had adopted a child of her age. She used to yell at me and she used to want me to rebuke her. She used to know, I used to hinge on her and she used to depend on my dependence. We used to sit together silently for hours. We used to infer each other reticently. We were used to each other.

........And now we are used to all of these.