The idea: to write a poem on the theme mentioned above
the entries so far
after years of yielding thorns
the cactus relents
to my demands...
my faith in faith reinforced.
-by Janani
The war had just ended
The cactus just bloomed
Miles of desert sands left bare
Footsteps blown away to places unheld.
Your love like the sand dunes.
My heart the flower on thorny beds.
-by Ashwini
By You?
3/24/2008
1/17/2008
Pink Shirt Guy
"The guy in the pink shirt", I said
"That's no guy, he's a MAN
And he's bald,
maybe married
With two kids and all".
"But he smiles to himself"
"Smiles to himself!
Indeed like a loon
Must be a psychopath
Though looks like a buffoon"
"No I see music playing in his head"
"I see nuts popping off in yours
Are you on grass?Or is it poisoning by lead
That's no notes you see,
That's sunshine bouncing off his head!
"I'll cross over and say 'Hello'"
"Yes,also 'How do you do?
Is your wife fine, does she like your pink shirt too?'
You can't go across and speak to him
Is that what girls do?"
Cross, I did.Sadly, he did too.
Couldn't catch up, too long was his tread.
Smiling to himself, he left, taking a little of my sunshine
Away on his head.
"Well" said she, catching up with me
"There goes your shortest love story"
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled
"It's registered in my heart's history"
My dear pink shirt guy
I din't dream of tomorrow with you.
All I wanted to say was
"Hello, I like the way you smile
And the music playing in your head"
"That's no guy, he's a MAN
And he's bald,
maybe married
With two kids and all".
"But he smiles to himself"
"Smiles to himself!
Indeed like a loon
Must be a psychopath
Though looks like a buffoon"
"No I see music playing in his head"
"I see nuts popping off in yours
Are you on grass?Or is it poisoning by lead
That's no notes you see,
That's sunshine bouncing off his head!
"I'll cross over and say 'Hello'"
"Yes,also 'How do you do?
Is your wife fine, does she like your pink shirt too?'
You can't go across and speak to him
Is that what girls do?"
Cross, I did.Sadly, he did too.
Couldn't catch up, too long was his tread.
Smiling to himself, he left, taking a little of my sunshine
Away on his head.
"Well" said she, catching up with me
"There goes your shortest love story"
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled
"It's registered in my heart's history"
My dear pink shirt guy
I din't dream of tomorrow with you.
All I wanted to say was
"Hello, I like the way you smile
And the music playing in your head"
9/21/2007
From Russia with Love
Haven't we all heard of the magic mantra to happiness- an English Home, American Salary, Chinese Food and an Indian Wife?Looks like the men are catching up, take a look at what I read in The Hindu -
"Import Indian bridegrooms for Russian brides”
-Vladimir Radyuhin
New Russian magic mantra to reverse alarming fall in the country’s birth rate
MOSCOW: Desperate to reverse a steep decline in their numbers, Russians are coming up with some bold ideas on how to overcome Russia’s demographic crisis.
A Russian feminist has proposed a radical solution to the falling birth rate — importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls. Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.
Why do Indian men make ideal husbands?Let's see -
1)The Indian man's affinity towards reproduction is well known.
Well I can't think of any reasons because I don't know if there is a typical Indian male. Every Indian man I can think of now seems, to me, completely different from the other. O but you do realise I am only speaking for the urban, educated middles class when I say this. Earlier atleast with the strict patriachal structures one could pin a man down. But the modern Indian man comes a little differently, doesn't he?
What do you think- does the modern (urban-educated)Indian male protoype exist? If he does, how is he? And what makes him a good catch for matrimony?
"Import Indian bridegrooms for Russian brides”
-Vladimir Radyuhin
New Russian magic mantra to reverse alarming fall in the country’s birth rate
MOSCOW: Desperate to reverse a steep decline in their numbers, Russians are coming up with some bold ideas on how to overcome Russia’s demographic crisis.
A Russian feminist has proposed a radical solution to the falling birth rate — importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls. Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.
Why do Indian men make ideal husbands?Let's see -
1)The Indian man's affinity towards reproduction is well known.
Well I can't think of any reasons because I don't know if there is a typical Indian male. Every Indian man I can think of now seems, to me, completely different from the other. O but you do realise I am only speaking for the urban, educated middles class when I say this. Earlier atleast with the strict patriachal structures one could pin a man down. But the modern Indian man comes a little differently, doesn't he?
What do you think- does the modern (urban-educated)Indian male protoype exist? If he does, how is he? And what makes him a good catch for matrimony?
9/10/2007
Speak kindly to yourself
“What is this self inside us, this silent observer,
Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us,
And urge us on to futile activity,
And in the end, judge us still more severely,
For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?”
-- T. S. Eliot
Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us,
And urge us on to futile activity,
And in the end, judge us still more severely,
For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?”
-- T. S. Eliot
9/02/2007
Koraput
O Koraput! Koraput we don't care
Where people die like the flies infecting their water.
There are far more important stories
To run throughout the day,
And days on end.
There's one woman who died ten years ago
She had a story we would rather focus on.
She married a man with big ears
Slept with her driver
Or was it her bodyguard?
She dated a shopkeeper's son.
Can't you see how much the news loves her?
That they even chased her to her death.
What did you say?
You have a story too?
Your mother took you to the fields, the night you were born
to strangle your new-born neck
Because you were not a boy
But changed her mind the last minute and named you,
Poonam, after the moonlight?
You could climb the highest trees in your village?
You married a man with big greed?
When Arjun who works in the city
Took off his pants for you behind the banyan trees
You wore them and danced to the latest hits?
As the astrologer said you had death by water?
As the life giving source wreaked ruin in your body
And you lay dying, come on , even you din't think
Of how brutal we were to have denied you
What we drink, three litres a day, to make our skin glow.
Well sorry but we can't harp on this.
The Orissa correspondent needed a boost
In his career
So we did cover the story once
for a whole three minutes.
But apart from that , deal with it
It's something we call fate.
You do understand we have other things to say?
You know Paris Hilton's dog needs a mate!
So you small minded village rooster
Bury your story with your bones, and
Go away from Hell.
(Last week over 170 people died of cholera, caused by unclean drinking water in the Koraput district of Orissa)
Where people die like the flies infecting their water.
There are far more important stories
To run throughout the day,
And days on end.
There's one woman who died ten years ago
She had a story we would rather focus on.
She married a man with big ears
Slept with her driver
Or was it her bodyguard?
She dated a shopkeeper's son.
Can't you see how much the news loves her?
That they even chased her to her death.
What did you say?
You have a story too?
Your mother took you to the fields, the night you were born
to strangle your new-born neck
Because you were not a boy
But changed her mind the last minute and named you,
Poonam, after the moonlight?
You could climb the highest trees in your village?
You married a man with big greed?
When Arjun who works in the city
Took off his pants for you behind the banyan trees
You wore them and danced to the latest hits?
As the astrologer said you had death by water?
As the life giving source wreaked ruin in your body
And you lay dying, come on , even you din't think
Of how brutal we were to have denied you
What we drink, three litres a day, to make our skin glow.
Well sorry but we can't harp on this.
The Orissa correspondent needed a boost
In his career
So we did cover the story once
for a whole three minutes.
But apart from that , deal with it
It's something we call fate.
You do understand we have other things to say?
You know Paris Hilton's dog needs a mate!
So you small minded village rooster
Bury your story with your bones, and
Go away from Hell.
(Last week over 170 people died of cholera, caused by unclean drinking water in the Koraput district of Orissa)
8/31/2007
Chak De!Ofcourse!!
In this post please let me review Chak De, I know everyone's doing it, but no one has said what I want to yet.
I like Chak De, I saw it in it's third week at the halls. After the movie I was waiting in an un-usually long que at the toi...restrooms, when an old woman with Kanjeevaram saree, jasmine flowers in hair et all, said to the girl ahead of her, "Isn't this movie nice?So much better than Lagaan"
Well I haven't seen Lagaan but I agree with her. I din't see Lagaan because in some way I dread stereotypes. Chak De on the other hand was interesting, not because it does anything new in terms of story, story-telling, special-effects or infact anything new in the realm of cinema as such.
But what makes it click? I believe it works because it is a super positive film. Well most films which deal with these kind of topics for instance coaches taking loser teams to victory are somewhat inspiring by themselves. But Chak De is not so in your face. It doesn't deal with any kind of melodrama.
It is the story of a coach training a hockey team of women in India. Such a simple story, told so well. Let's break it up because each part has so many parts.
The coach- the coach being Muslim was wrongly accused of siding Pakistan in the past. It made me think of muslims in India who are so often asked to defend their stand on their nationality. It also made me think of Kapil Dev who was wrongly accused and how the media really broke the man. But the strength of the coach Kabir's character lies in his belief and faith in himself and his dream.
Hockey- I often think in a party if one is asked to stand in the centre and tell a joke, the joke should be "Hockey is the national game of India". So it was a nice feeling to see some hockey and this really made me open my eyes to the sports scene!!So now I am proud to know that India won the Nehru Cup in football, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Sania Mirza who has reached the third round in the U.S open in tennis!!
Also it was crazy the way everone in the hall was cheering loudly for the players in the movie!
Women- One thing which really angers me, I have noticed, is when men are considered superior just by virtue of being men. So ofcourse I like themes which deal intelligently with gender issues. This movie is not like some movies which deal with gender issues making all men seem like assholes(it's my blog and asshole is not considered indignity of language here).
Apart from the obvious theme of showing women as strong, capable and equal the movie also deals with all the women in the movie itself and all their moods, dreams and complexities, which was nice.
India- For instance many people believe that inherent in nationalism is not love for one's country but hate for another's. But in Chak De there is no downplaying of any other nationality.
Here an attempt is made to look within, to see what it is that builds us together as a nation. It is true we are so diverse, as I sat in the movie hall there were people speaking tamil to my left, people from the North-East behind me, boys speaking Hindi in front of me and to the right were people speaking Kannada and all of us were widly cheering the movie!!
If I were the director I would edit out a couple of scenes in the movie, one for instance would definetely be the part of the Australian man hoisting the Indian flag. That for me is a sore spot in the movie. Apart from some forgivable faux pas, nationalism is treated as team spirit, and how when one plays in the team one plays for the team.
Also interesting was one instance when the team had to play against Argentina and they were getting badly roughed up on the field, the coach tells them that if they were hit once to hit back twice as hard!!Well, well, well leaving our dear Mahatma's words behind......I guess all is fair in love and sports!
Well apart from the themes all actors do so well, the movie has no song and dance routines, thank god! Or else imagine if they had to run around some eucalyptus trees in Australia with hockey sticks and short skirts!
In the Bollywood world of dull, flat, uni-dimensional films Chak De is fun!Chak De is also what I would like to call responsible entertainment.
Well, thank you for sitting through the review.
I like Chak De, I saw it in it's third week at the halls. After the movie I was waiting in an un-usually long que at the toi...restrooms, when an old woman with Kanjeevaram saree, jasmine flowers in hair et all, said to the girl ahead of her, "Isn't this movie nice?So much better than Lagaan"
Well I haven't seen Lagaan but I agree with her. I din't see Lagaan because in some way I dread stereotypes. Chak De on the other hand was interesting, not because it does anything new in terms of story, story-telling, special-effects or infact anything new in the realm of cinema as such.
But what makes it click? I believe it works because it is a super positive film. Well most films which deal with these kind of topics for instance coaches taking loser teams to victory are somewhat inspiring by themselves. But Chak De is not so in your face. It doesn't deal with any kind of melodrama.
It is the story of a coach training a hockey team of women in India. Such a simple story, told so well. Let's break it up because each part has so many parts.
The coach- the coach being Muslim was wrongly accused of siding Pakistan in the past. It made me think of muslims in India who are so often asked to defend their stand on their nationality. It also made me think of Kapil Dev who was wrongly accused and how the media really broke the man. But the strength of the coach Kabir's character lies in his belief and faith in himself and his dream.
Hockey- I often think in a party if one is asked to stand in the centre and tell a joke, the joke should be "Hockey is the national game of India". So it was a nice feeling to see some hockey and this really made me open my eyes to the sports scene!!So now I am proud to know that India won the Nehru Cup in football, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Sania Mirza who has reached the third round in the U.S open in tennis!!
Also it was crazy the way everone in the hall was cheering loudly for the players in the movie!
Women- One thing which really angers me, I have noticed, is when men are considered superior just by virtue of being men. So ofcourse I like themes which deal intelligently with gender issues. This movie is not like some movies which deal with gender issues making all men seem like assholes(it's my blog and asshole is not considered indignity of language here).
Apart from the obvious theme of showing women as strong, capable and equal the movie also deals with all the women in the movie itself and all their moods, dreams and complexities, which was nice.
India- For instance many people believe that inherent in nationalism is not love for one's country but hate for another's. But in Chak De there is no downplaying of any other nationality.
Here an attempt is made to look within, to see what it is that builds us together as a nation. It is true we are so diverse, as I sat in the movie hall there were people speaking tamil to my left, people from the North-East behind me, boys speaking Hindi in front of me and to the right were people speaking Kannada and all of us were widly cheering the movie!!
If I were the director I would edit out a couple of scenes in the movie, one for instance would definetely be the part of the Australian man hoisting the Indian flag. That for me is a sore spot in the movie. Apart from some forgivable faux pas, nationalism is treated as team spirit, and how when one plays in the team one plays for the team.
Also interesting was one instance when the team had to play against Argentina and they were getting badly roughed up on the field, the coach tells them that if they were hit once to hit back twice as hard!!Well, well, well leaving our dear Mahatma's words behind......I guess all is fair in love and sports!
Well apart from the themes all actors do so well, the movie has no song and dance routines, thank god! Or else imagine if they had to run around some eucalyptus trees in Australia with hockey sticks and short skirts!
In the Bollywood world of dull, flat, uni-dimensional films Chak De is fun!Chak De is also what I would like to call responsible entertainment.
Well, thank you for sitting through the review.
7/17/2007
:)
I saw Malpe harbour in my dreams
I saw Malpe Harbour.
I saw Malpe Harbour on television.
And all three times it was beautiful.
I saw Malpe Harbour.
I saw Malpe Harbour on television.
And all three times it was beautiful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
