Ten books that I simply have to have with me.....

Yes, I know it sounds weird, but that's how I am. If I move, or change phones, or buy a new tablet, all I want is to first download them as e books, or get them as paperbacks/hardcovers.In short, I'm lost if I realize that I cannot just reach out to these books whenever I need to.....

1) Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpretor of Maladies"

2) Amitav Ghosh's "The Hungry Tide"

3) Haruki Murakami's " Sputnik Sweetheart"

4) Arundhati Roy's " God of Small Things"

5) "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

6) Kamila Shamsie's " Kartography"

7)"To Kill a Mokingbird" by Harper Lee

8) The Harry Potter series

9) Ayn Rand's "We, the Living"

10) D.H.Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover"

The world seems just a tad bit warmer and familiar when I know I have these with me....no matter how alone I am, or how lost I feel. As long as they are with me, I'm safe and happy.

Dharmendra: alternative portrayals

In continuation with my previous post, I'd like to make a slight point about the wonderfully charming, handsome and talented Dharmendra(ji). I mean, it is so ironic that the man is best known for his roles in action movies (most notably, Sholay), and his dialogue " Kutte, main tera khoon pee jaunga", and his jauntiness, his comical antics, his signature dance moves, and his overall "macho" persona.

    

I mean....it is so totally not right!!! I wish he was remembered more for his portrayal of the sensitive, thinking, idealistic common man that he so effortlessly played in movies like "Bandini", "Anupama", "Anpadh","Satyakam", "Guddi" and other such movies that he worked in during the 50's-70's. "Sholay" again was one of his highlight movies, and his garrulous, dare devilish, romantic Veeru was a perfect antithesis to Jai's brooding, contained persona.  Watching it today is a bit poignant because Dharmendra was never to star in anything worthwhile again. Though he continued to work as a hero till the end of the century, developing a tough new Garam Dharam persona along the way, the films he made were consistently appalling and by the time he went into semi-retirement in 2000, he was a B-grade movie star.

    

But watch Dharmendra(ji) sing "Ya dil ki suno" in Hemant Kumar's melancholic voice-over and you will instantly relate with his sensitivity and range, which unfortunately was not tapped properly in his latter work.

Or watch scenes from the movies listed above to understand that he was definitely better as an actor playing roles that gave him an opportunity to show his sensitive, understated, charming, slightly flirtatious side that will make any woman fall head over heels in love with him.

Bandini

Satyakam

Anupama

  

Guddi

The fascinating aspect of this phase of Dharmendra's career is that he became the vehicle for Bengali literary realism in Hindi cinema. Just as Guru Dutt's "Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam" was a Bengali film in Hindustani GARB, so too were "Bandini", "Anupama", "Manjhli Didi" and "Satyakam". That a strapping Jat hunk managed to play the bhadralok protagonist with such intensity and conviction is an achievement for which Dharmendra gets too little credit.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee's movies in the 60's and 70's

    After all the hullabaloo associated with my PhD confirmation examination, I've retreated into my good old cocoon, nestled against old books, movies, thoughts and dreams that are most dear to me. In fact, I've been watching movies like crazy. The week of my exam, I watched the new line of Hollywood movies that have been nominated for the Oscars, starting with "12 years a Slave", then "Her", "American Hustle", " The Wolf of Wall Street", and so on....

     After the exam, it was back to the good old Hindi movies. And as I watched "Guddi", "Abhimaan", then "Anupama" and "Satyakam", I sort of wondered as to how Hrishida's movies shifted in themes when you look at them ranging from the 50's to the 90's. I always considered Hrishida's movies to be rooted basically in humor, testimony- most of his popular work like "Golmaal"(1979), "Chupke Chupke"(1975), "Kubsoorat"(1980), "Mili"(1975), "Baawarchi"(1972), "Guddi"(1971). Even in "Anand"(1970), where the lead protagonist suffers from a fatal disease, the underlying melancholy is buoyed by humor and a "fun" outlook towards life.

    But if you look at his earlier work, especially his debut movie "Musafir"(1957), "Anuradha"(1960), "Anupama"(1966) and "Satyakam"(1969), you invariably feel that his earlier works reflected more serious, deeper themes and were dealt with less lightheartedness than his "signature" films. Not that they were of any less impact;just that they somehow seem different than his usual style.

   "Musafir" was in fact totally unique in it's narrative structure, because it was shot in an episodic format and dealt with three stories of three different set of people and their encounter with the three most significant events in a person's life i.e. birth,marriage and death. The cast was a formidable one, with stalwarts like Dilip Kumar, Suchitra Sen and Durga Khote. 

"Anuradha" had a lonely wife played by the beautiful Leela Naidu who becomes increasingly disillusioned by her Doctor husband wonderfully played by Balraj Sahni, who neglects his wife in his workaholic lifestyle.

"Satyakam" was again a serious movie that depicted Dharmendra as the no nonsense, hard working idealist who shuns the changing trends of society and refuses to compromise on his ideals. 

By far, my most favorite film, "Anupama" blew me away with its sheer simplicity, minimalism and beauty. I mean, as far as I know, Dharmendra never looked as handsome and romantic, and my darling Sharmila was never portrayed more vulnerable, beautiful and engaging. I mean, the film is sheer poetry. 

 His later movies were more garrulous and lighthearted, and believe me when I say that I've actually lost count of the number of times I've watched "Chupke Chupke", "Guddi", "Golmaal" and "Mili". I mean isn't that what good movies are about? The fact that you watch them repeatedly, discovering something new to wonder about each time, and every time you laugh and cry for the same reasons and yet you never ever feel bored or let down? Something that current movie makers need to really understand. A great movie need not make 100 crores. It only needs to live forever in the hearts of movie lovers, needs to continue to have a life in a DVD format, or You Tube views, still ascertaining its magic and impact on people.

      How I simply adore you Hrishida..... 

    

Ulvepigen Tinke aka Little Big Girl

        OK, I have a confession to make. Some of my very best books and movies are children's and Little Women, To kill a Mokingbird, Heidi and Shadow the Sheepdog have been and still are some of my all time favorites. There is something about child protagonists, their world and their thought processes, their unwavering optimism and sense of adventure that I love. Perhaps every such book or movie I see takes me back to my childhood days that were the best years of my life. I mean I feel so close to what they feel, and totally associate to what they perceive and the way they react. In fact, I love some characters as if they were flesh and blood......

      So, when I saw this lovely Danish movie, Ulvepigen Tinke aka Little Big Girl, on Cinemaworld (which showcases some of the best foreign cinema that you can lay your hands on), I was smitten. Simply swept off by the then 8year old Sarah Juel Werner, who worms through your heart and makes you almost give her a standing ovation, so effortless has been her performance in this delightful tale.

Briefly, it is the story of an eight year old orphaned Tinke, who sets out to search for her grandfather thereby fulfilling the last wish of her dying mother who gives her a medallion to prove her heritage. In her quest, she befriends a young shepherd Larus, who shelters her in the stable where he lives while working for an old couple. Later, her grandparents come looking for her, but she has a hard time proving to her grandad that she is indeed his grand daughter, what with her wily ways, belligerent behaviour and mischief.

Throughout the course of the movie, it is Tinke who evokes all the emotions in you, be it by her inherent predisposition to break all the laws, her stubborness in the face of any obstacle, her pranks and mischief or, on the other hand, her vulnerability that is not so easily bared, or flashes of her innocence that light up her face and tug at your heart strings....Tinke is the very soul of the movie. 

Tinke all soiled, dirty and hungry when Larus finds her in a cave. She is so stricken with grief and hunger that is almost animal like, but his affections win her over.

They soon forge a beautiful friendship that lasts forever, with each one taking care of the other in their own way.

He brings her to his place and the land lady sets to give her a bath, after which she emerges clean and nice, and Larus is surprised that her hair is actually red beneath all that dirt :)

 Meanwhile, flashes of the past keep floating in her thoughts, as she tries to recall her parents names so that she could set forth to find her grandparents, from whom her mother had fled and married her father who was a poor vagrant.

Her mother had given her a medallion as a keepsake and to prove her heritage.

The owners are an old couple who have a grown up son, but whom they keep locked up in the stable as he is mentally retarded and prone to sudden bouts of violence. But our Tinke is not afraid of him, and instead of shunning him, she befriends him and teaches his mother a thing or two about love!!

Her face is at times devilish, at times angelic, but this way or that, she simply moors you to her heart.

For everyone who cherishes childhood... please watch this amazing movie and this amazing child gifted with such a wonderful skill for acting. Bravo...Sarah!! Love you girl!!!

Four days in Kangra......

After living on an island for five years, all I can think of is escaping to the hills. In fact, I sometimes day dream of a life in the mountains, away from the bustle of the plains, away from the clammy heat, the humidity, the flatness and the monotony of plain ground. Of air that is rarefied, that falls soft on the body. Of wildflowers growing of their own accord here and there. Of steaming cups of mountain tea, with sunlight streaming in through slats in the window, and of valleys and endless valleys, green with cedars, willows and pine. Of the sheer fragrance of life in the hills.....away....from everything.

Last month, I spent four days in Simla....a cozy mountain town tucked in the foothills of the Himalayas, where my uncle lives with his family. Right at the outset, when the ascent from the plains began, and the altitude started rising steeply, the topography began changing, and every new turn heralded a new vista, a new panorama.....

The view from my uncle's balcony itself was mesmerizing.....a bird's eye view of hundreds of homes tucked in the mountain incline in tiers, as if God himself had taken a handful and tossed them onto this pretty patch of land high up in the mountains......

Simla is the capital of Himacha Pradesh. It was the summer capital during the time of the British in India, and it was here, in the Vice Regal Palace, that the Simla conference was held and the decision to partition India and Pakistan was taken. The Vice Regal Palace that was once the abode of the Vice Chancellor of India, and after Independence, also housed the President, is now converted into The Institute of Advanced Studies.

Housing some very interesting relics of the past, the Institute's key attraction is the round table that was used during the signing of the partition papers.Seems unbelievable that one fifth of humanity was wiped off the earth by a few papers signed on this ridiculously small table!! 

The British, in their attempt to reach Simla with more ease, built a railroad from Kalka in the foothills 

(around 600m above sea level) to Simla ( more than 2000m), which came to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a part of the Mountain Railways of India. The train that traverses the spectacularly beautiful route and passes a total of 103 tunnels is called the Himalayan Queen.

A visit to Simla is incomplete without a trip to Mall Road, a winding incline bordered by countless shops, boutiques and stores selling souvenirs, nicks and knacks, apparel, woolen clothes and local merchandise. A walk up the steep slope leads to the Ridge.

Public Library at the Ridge

Christ Church at the Ridge

A view from the elevators that lead from this road to Mall road on top

Gaiety Theater at the Ridge

View of lower valleys from the Ridge

I had really wanted to visit Dharamshala, the seat of Tibetan Buddhism in India, and home of the Dalai Lama, a mere 270km from Simla. Unfortunately, I could not. And being a hard core Buddhist fan, I visited the local monastery instead.

After almost a year of just waiting and yearning to visit Simla, the meager four days came to a hasty end. But I tried my best to gather all the sights, smells, visions, and images of the region. It is so wonderful that mundane things- a cup of my aunt's Kangra tea, a tasty meal of simple pahari fare in a roadside dhaba, a chance encounter with little kids I saw playing on the steps, souvenir shopping in Lakkar market where I found an exquisitely carved wooden tray to gift my Prof back in Singapore, buying paintings at the Gaiety Theater, a ride on the Himalayan Queen from Simla to Kathleeghat, and counting the number of tunnels we passed through, wildflowers blooming everywhere and the early morning mist getting dispelled by the slanted rays of winter sunshine- all that and much more, gave me a brand of peace and wholesomeness that I had been craving for since almost two years.

On our way down, as we began our descent, we were in for still another surprise. The valley had gathered white fluffy clouds, and the natural basin had trapped them to render an almost surreal landscape that was bewitching in it's beauty. 

I was sad to leave this beautiful place behind, and even sadder when we finally reached the planes and suddenly all the cedars disappeared and the cool rarefied air was replaced with the dusty, humid air. Nonetheless, the entire journey was refreshing, beautiful and soothing. 

Next on my list is Dharamsala, Kulu-Manali, Dalhousie and hopefully....Ladakh!!