Puns & Poses

INDULGENCES  I watch movies, tv-shows, sitcoms, web series etc. A lot. This blog is about some of them. I do not claim to have great taste. That is yours to judge.  When I watched this movie for the first time I was very young. My father had rented the CD. I didn’t understand a thing thanks to elitist Urdu spoken by the characters. Two years ago, I watched it again. And boy did I like it! I loved it. By that time I had developed some interest in shayari and stuff. So I could better understand the Urdu-laden dialogues. In fact for me the dialogues are the best thing about the movie. The lines are so poetic. At one point Salim says, “ aql tamasha dekhti rahi aur ishq kadamon ka sahara lekar had se aage badh gya”. I wouldn’t even dare to translate.  Actually the plot of the movie hinges on story about a rebellious prince and his father who is a stickler. The prince is in love with a court- dancer/entertainer. The royal tradition forbids to marry out of the nobility class. Th...

MATTERS OF THE HEART It’s funny how our emotions are associated with heart when in strict biological sense they are doings of the brain. Hormones released at the commands of brain cause emotions, as many as they come. Okay, that’s how much of ‘life-science’ taught in school, is left with me. Who is to blame for such a confusion? Romantics (not the best at human anatomy), I guess. A lie told a hundred times is as good as a truth. Also, to rebel is not my biggest strength. So, I too will pretend that the heart is responsible for butterflies in the stomach and tears in the eyes.               The brain  heart sometimes can be such a pain in the a**. It makes us do weird things, speak/write weirder things (the damn poems!) and feel the weirdest things. You think you are in control of things and then one day you fall in love (or whatever connotations come with it). I’ve never had the good fortune of falling in love. Unrequited (one-sided)  lo...

 What is life? Life is not knowing what life is. Life is seeing someone acing their game and  sighing “what a life!” Life is getting frustrated at every hurdle you come across and cursing “what kind of life is this?” Life is watching ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ and resolving to take bold decisions because YOLO. Life is returning to being your own self the next morning. Life is working towards a dream and reassuring yourself, again and again, that it will come true…one day. Life is waking up one day to a horrible realisation that it is a slow journey towards a very sure death. Life is becoming  oblivious about mortality and taking things for granted. Life is never ending pursuit of ever eluding happiness. Life is seeing your beliefs change, sometimes, to the very contrary. Life is throwing a bunch of crap about what life is when one Sunday noon you are bored af! P.S. -   क्या है गर ज़िन्दगी का बस न चला            ज़िन्दगी कब किसी के बस में...

 TO HEHE OR NOT TO HEHE Let me tell you a story. A real-life story. Many of you might have already heard it from me. My school was in West Bengal. Naturally, most of our teachers were Bengali bhadrolok  (gentlemen). Obviously their Hindi sucked. Nothing wrong with it though. Please note that “DADA” in Hindi means grandfather but in Bangla it means elder brother. One not-so-fine Saturday a student was surprised to find one of his relatives in school. His grandfather had passed away. So he was given leave for some days. On his way home he happened to come across a teacher ( a Bengali bhadrolok). Naturally the teacher enquired about reason for his sudden return to home. The student answered “ Sir mere dadaji ki death ho gayi.”   The teacher was not prepared for this. The bhadrolok felt a bit of shock and bad for his student. After about thirty seconds of sombre silence the teacher again asked, “ Toh tumhara dadaji kis class me podhta tha?”  That was the story. Now that ...

                                       Begin Again  “ Don’t let me down” by Beatles is the song I am listening to as I start this blog. The song kind of suits the situation as I am starting something  (blogging) and desperately hoping that I don’t give it up. I must mention that since I was in sixth standard I have started so many journals and diaries. Each time committing myself to write regularly. Each time I failed! Lack of consistency has been one of the most consistent things about me. Other is procrastination. There are several other “qualities”. Ok! Before this  becomes a self-pitying and self-deprecating note let me tell you something  about myself and my blog.             I am not a writer. But, of late, I have been wanting to explore this particular domain. I mostly keep quiet (at least I would like to believe so). I am more of a...