The Landlord - Part 1

“Good morning, Mehta saab!”
The cheery voice could belong to none other than Krishnamurthy.
Read Part 1 of the story here

A Delightful Republic Day!

Company get-togethers can be quite boring affairs for spouses. I realized that after I stopped working with DH. I would go to the event, and come away quite bored. However, the Republic Day outing was one I really enjoyed, because it was so very different, and brought back some dear childhood memories!

It was held at the Shankara Foundation (not to be confused with Ranga Shankara of recent fame), which is a sprawling campus with many interesting nooks and corners, and a lovely open-air amphitheater. The event had a complete village theme, not restricted to just the ethnic clothing, as is usually the case.

We were greeted with the nadaswaram-drum-decorated-bull ensemble at the gates, followed by welcome drinks of tender coconut. Bananas, "paanaka", butter-milk, and slices of water-melon kept us snacking healthy. Food was awesome with "jolada rotti", "neer dosa", many sweets and spicy pickles, all served on traditional banana leaves, with "paan" to top it all off!

The games included robust Kabaddi, played most enthusiastically by the guys who didn't mind a roll in the dust even in their silk jubbas; "Madike aata", which was a race with couples balancing 3 pots on the female's head; "Koli Katch", where a hapless hen was chased and caught within an enclosure (we did lodge our protest on cruelty to animals!); "Lagori" or seven stones; "Govinda", where guys had to climb on each other's shoulders and break a pot, whilst the opposing team threw water on them.

Balloons, kites, and "horse-jutka" rides entertained the kids immensely! Palmistry, bangles, mehendi, and try-your-hand-at-pottery were ongoing in the welcome shade.

The higlight of the evening was a demo of Kalariyapattu by folks from a leading school in Kerala. I was too busy with lil D to catch the complete details narrated by the host, but the show itself was totally awesome!

I think I'm having a "delightful" spot in my life right now - this was a really delightful way to spend the day!

Katha Collage - A Delightful Evening!

When I saw the invite to Katha Collage - a production directed by Naseeruddin Shah, sitting in my inbox, I was sorely tempted.

DH offered to baby-sit lil D; I contemplated my list of possible companions, and finally settled on someone who's always fun to go out with - my mom; dinner was ready, checklist for lil D was stuck on the fridge, and I was all set to head out to an evening of entertainment! Just at the gates of our apartment complex, I decided to check out the tickets for the time and seat numbers - and guess what?! The tickets I had were for the next day!! What a letdown!!

The next evening, we went thru the same routine, and off I went! It's been ages since I've been to an event of any sort - the last one I can remember is Elton John's concert. So, I was really eager to have a taste of theater, and I'm glad to say that Katha Collage did not disappoint!

It was a collection of three stories, presented as one-act plays. The sets were minimal, the lighting and sound were just perfect, and our seats offered a fantastic view. The best part was that the audience was a darling, coming right on time, absolutely no annoying mobiles ringing in between, and very responsive!

The first was Bade Bhai Saheb by Munshi Premchand. It was a study in contrasts: a young, innately brilliant boy, who loves spending his time playing rather than studying (played by Imaaddin Shah - Naseeruddin's son), and his very studious, but very mediocre older brother (played by Jameel Khan). The act had the audience in splits, especially when the older brother began describing the difficulties of studying English history ("na jaane kitne Henry, Charles, aur William the - koi aur naam nahi mila kya?") and writing compositions ("chaar panne me likho, lekin sankshep mein, aur sasura, woh panne bhi itne lambe!" [showing a foolscap sheet length])

The second was Shatranj Ke Khiladi by Munshi Premchand, made famous with the movie by the same name. What was admirable was the way the two actors, Ahmed Khan and Khaalid Muhammad, brought alive the story with such minimal props.

The last was the poignantly amusing Sankraman (The Circle of Life) by Kamtanath. Set in a middle-class home of Uttar Pradesh, it has the retired old father (Naseeruddin Shah) complaining endlessly about his son (Jameel Khan), forever shutting off the lights and fans (that definitely struck a chord with the audience - the guy behind us was whispering - "My father always does that!"), bemoaning his son's spendthrift ways, and recollecting the good old days.

The son in turn, presents his point of view (but only when the father is not around :D), remembering the days when his father would stay late playing cards at his friends' houses, and so on. The long-suffering wife (Seema Pahwa) quietly endures both. In a somewhat hilarious ending, the father tries to repair a leaking tank in the loo with M-Seal (after seeing an ad on TV), falls and breaks his leg, and needs to get operated on. He dies after they discover that he was actually diabetic and a heart patient. The son now strangely starts resembling the father - switching off all the lights, trying to save on money by buying wheat grain instead of packaged wheat flour, sleeping on the charpoy outside to save on the power bills....the mother begins to wonder.

I was both laughing and crying in this last play, because it reminded me so much of my dad, and so many other old people I know. It was absolutely hilarious, but at the same time, struck a deep chord.

Jameel Khan was simply amazing, both as the Bade Bhai, and the son in Sankraman. The audience was in splits with his delivery, and spontaneously clapped several times during his performance! The entire cast and crew was given a standing ovation, but Jameel Khan received the loudest and longest applause! (Just to contrast - the papers today had an interview with Imaaddin Shah; not that he doesn't deserve to be interviewed, but couldn't they have highlighted Jameel instead??)

I laughed so much throughout that I was in tears by the end of the show! All in all, a delightful evening!!

Trend-setter

I noticed her maybe three months ago.

She is a young mother, who obviously takes fitness quite seriously. She had started walking around the complex. That's not unusual - we have scores of people doing that. What was unusual about her was that she would do at least 3 laps, walking very fast with the-baby-in-a-stroller, and another 3 laps with the-baby-in-her-arms. I noticed her only because lil D's play timings coincided with her walks, and lil D loved to go running behind her on her stroller laps.

People looked curiously at this odd sight initially. It seemed to me that she tried to avoid catching anyone's gaze, walking determinedly on at a brisk pace. Soon, I began to see other mothers going for similar walks; all briskly pushing the stroller and staring ahead.

Now, it's become like a congregation of mother-walkers-with-baby. She's got some good company, and they all walk and talk.

I like the way she's single-handedly changed the scene in our complex, by just going ahead and doing what she thought was best.

Song (and Dance)!

It all started with Neels. She *sang* a song for me on my doodle-board, and I felt most obliged to respond in kind.

We then played song-tag, (a new(?) game) where we picked up words from each other's songs and *sang* other songs. Before I knew it, we had a game in eternal progress, with daily updates from many who joined us in our *singing*!

Which brings me to the well-know game of Antakshari. I wonder what is so fascinating about Antakshari. I think most Indians are quite familiar with this game, and have played it some time or the other in life! (To those who don't know the game, it's very simple: one person starts singing a song from a Hindi film (mostly), and the next person has to sing another song starting with the last alphabet of the previous song.)

I remember the game being a top favourite of my childhood years, coming from a musically-inclined, and movie-inclined family. All of us used to play it - including my parents. Dad used to sing real oldies by K L Saigal, which we could rarely challenge. Mom's favourite song was "Nahi nahi, abhi nahi, abhi karo intezaar - chodo naa!" The chodo naa ended at a higher inflexion and sent us into peals of laughter! We sisters used to compete to end a song with the most difficult last alphabet. We loved starting up cycles which would always end with the letter "ha". We would hunt down songs like rare diamonds and stash them away, only to produce them with a triumphant flourish when others were stumped! It was also an effective tool to keep me from feeling bored, when I was alone - I used to play the game with myself! :))

I was quite taken aback when I grew up and met people who actually didn't enjoy playing Antakshari! I viewed specimens who groaned at the very mention of the game with a great deal of suspicion. I was convinced that there must be something seriously wrong with them!

Nowadays, of course, with all the TV shows, the game has been elevated to quiz-status, where one needs to know not just the song, but all the trivia associated with it! Enjoyable at first, but gets to be a drag after some time.

I wonder how this game got started in the first place. Anyone out there, who can throw some light on this unique Indian phenomenon?

The Draupadi Episode

Some of the things I've been reading these past few days reminded me of questions I had toyed with earlier.

Most of us know that when Arjuna won Draupadi's hand, and the five Pandavas brought her home. This excerpt does most of my work for me in the narration, so I'll just reproduce it below:


Reaching their small hut, Pandavas announced their arrival and told the mother Kunti to guess what they have brought that day. Innocently, Kunti, thinking that her children must be talking about the food they had received, said, "O my dear sons, I know you bring wonderful things; as usual divide the gift amongst yourself and enjoy."

This terrible command applied to Draupadi now. As the custom went they had to obey every word of their mother as final order. Kunti also became worried about the difficult predicament. Can a wife ever divided amongst five brothers!

Sri Krishna came to know all about and he advised the Pandavas to accept Draupadi as common wife of all the five brothers. Thus Draupadi, also known as Panchali, became wife of five brothers.

Sage Narada advised the Pandavas to honour the privacy of Draupadi when she was alone with any other brother. Whosoever entered the room of Draupadi when she was with other brother would be forced to self exile as the punishment. All the brothers agreed. Thus the problem of one wife and five husbands was solved!

The lesson we are all supposed to draw from this is to follow the lead of the Pandavas, and obey our parents unquestioningly. At least, that's what I think the popular lesson is.

However, if Kunti's words were to be obeyed as the final order, surely she had powers to revoke such orders? Was there no such thing as "Sorry sons, my mistake! Please rescind earlier command and follow what I say now".

Or was the lesson actually to think before you speak?

On another note, was this episode simply a touched-up version of the solution to the woman-to-man ratio problem that threatens India even today? Quite some time back, I read about a village where a similar solution had been implemented.

Just some things to air out of my attic! :))

Untitled

Read my new poem here

The Answer is 49!

A busy weekend: attending a birthday party with lil D, who appears to be quite popular, since all the kids seem to talk about her at home! Or maybe she's just notorious? And meeting parents - I simply hate the fact that my parents are getting older and frailer, and we just have to sit by and watch it all happening. :-(

My shipment of books came in from FabMall, and I was all excited. Read Frederick Forsyth's Avenger, and kinda liked it. It's been a really long time since I read a best-seller thriller, and this book was a good read, mostly because you could relate to all the (world) events he described.

Then I read Eats Shoots and Leaves. It lives up to all the hype, her [Lynne Truss] style is great, and there was lots of interesting trivia. The biggest revelation for me was [sic]! I remember reading about it quite long ago, but it had since slipped my mind; so every time I came across it, I thought the author was just being nasty! :-)

I started on The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst - the latest Booker prize winner. I was looking forward to a heterosexual romantic novel (don't ask me why!), and was kind of disappointed when I realized that (I don't know how I missed this in all the reviews!) the protoganist is gay.

Caught snatches of Rules: Pyaar ka Superhit Formula on TV - Milind Soman is so definitely drool-worthy!!

Oh, and btw, the question is - which page does lil D always interrupt me at? :-)

Losing My Religion

I grew up in a fairly religious family.

Though my dad wasn't all that into poojas and stuff like that early on, he changed quite drastically as he aged. The turning point I can remember was when he went on a trip to Badrinath. After that, every Sunday, we had a Badrinath pooja at home. As time passed by, it grew more and more elaborate. Sunday mornings were devoted to cleaning the hundreds (I'm sure there were hundreds!) of idols, photos, and other godly paraphenalia, and lighting up of at least 30 lamps, before the grand maha mangalaarathi!

Schooling at a convent, I imbibed all the Catholic behavior mindlessly, and sometimes wished I could also stand up and say the Angelus (?) when the church bells tolled! There was no conflict in my mind, however. Jesus and Mary stood cheek by jowl with Srinivasa and Padmavathi. The miracle of Our Lady of Fatima co-existed happily with the miracle of Mirabai drinking poison. St. Francis of Assissi and Sant Tukaram were neighbours at peace with each other.

Meanwhile, however, stirrings of a rebellion were beginning within. I disliked going to the temple intensely - I could only see how bored the priest was, how selective he was in preferring people who donated more generously towards the aarthi, how the various aunties who gathered and discussed everything else other than divine matters....I did not feel more religious or pious going to the temple. When I prostrated before the idols, it was with a mixed feeling. If God was everywhere, why was this idol more sacred than anything else? Why did we have to "bribe" God if we wanted anything? I hated the rituals too - I found them utterly meaningless.

Between school and college, I tried to fill up the boring holidays with as much reading as possible. Included in this were religious texts such as the Isopanisad, and books on Vedanta. Suddenly, I was confronted with a completely different view of religion and spirituality as I knew it. The discussion seemed to answer many of my questions at that time.

As time passed by, however, I began to question everything around me. Nothing was sacred any more. In this context, it became even more difficult to reconcile religion with my daily life. Marriage did not really change this situation, because DH had similar views. I adopted the convenient philosophy that Slartibartfast so eloquently puts across in H2G2: "Perhaps I'm old and tired,' he continued, 'but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied."

So there we were, a couple who did not feel like celebrating religious festivals or holidays, yet joining my parents or in-laws in the festivities. We were given so many religious photos and idols, and every once in a while, I would feel guilty and light a lamp or two.

All this changed once lil D came into our lives. She is so interested in God and pooja! And from what I've read, it is important for a child to have a firm religious grounding as well. So now, we do a little bit for her sake. We celebrate festivals in a traditional way. We perform poojas at home. Rituals I once thought I would never, ever perform! I myself find the fragrance of the incense sticks and camphor strangely comforting.

I can't help thinking - it's so difficult to get away from our roots! It's like overcoming gravity to orbit in space!

Playback

Was doing some transcription of tapes as part of my volunteer work, and it felt like I was part of the classroom itself! Could almost "see" the class happening!

Have you ever heard your recorded voice? Mine sounds almost mournful - I can hardly identify it as my voice! It sounds really wierd!

I was having a similar discussion with the instructor, who felt her voice on the tapes was much slower.

Another very graphic example of how self-perceptions can be so deluding!

Fair 'n Lovely

I wish I could get hold of a tube of F & L for the soul!

My blemishes of inadequacies, weaknesses and mediocrity sometimes threaten to overwhelm. I wish I could wipe them all out. A 12 week regime would suit me fine indeed!

Virtuality

When one browses thru other blogs, one can't help noticing the number of comments a particular blogger receives. The comments sometimes are as interesting, or sometimes, even more interesting than the blog itself!

What interests me is that the virtual personality a blogger exhibits seems to be a fairly close reflection of their real personality. The few bloggers I have met briefly are perhaps too small a sample to base my conclusion on, but when I read blogs, I get this feeling of how a person would be when I meet him/her.

The similarities to a crowded party room are too many. You see the sparkling wit, engaging everyone effortlessly. You see the happy-go-lucky sort hanging out with birds of the same feather. You see the self-absorbed types, always worrying about themselves, their relationships, and their appearances. You see the shy and retiring sorts, who are content to remain on the sidelines.

And yet, a blog is, to a large extent, not just writing for its own sake, but of being heard, of being appreciated, of being applauded, of being empathized with. The few who know how to "get up there" do it. Their blogs are hits, the traffic healthy, and the comments come pouring in. As in real life. The other wannabes keep trying, but are never heard, or should I say, read. Just like in real life. The Pareto Principle works here too!

What's my point here? Nothing spectacular - just the thought that virtuality is perhaps much closer to reality than we think it is. I know in my case it's true - I'm the one you see standing at the corner, quite happy to be invited to the party, speaking to the few people I know well, and admiring the scene from afar!! :))

What really gives me a kick is to discover a blogger in the early stages, and watch him/her grow in popularity. I like that satisfying feeling it tends to give me - don't ask me why!

Smooth Operator

I paused in the shower, certain I had heard knocking at the door. The hot water drummed a sweet tattoo on my smooth chest, as I stood blinking the dripping water out of my eyes. There! I heard it again! Who could it possibly be, at this late hour? I turned off the shower, grabbed the soft and fluffy terry towel, and wound it around my waist after a swift whisk over the rest of my body. I padded wetly to the door and peered thru the peephole. A bolt of lightning hit me – what the hell was she doing here, at this time?

I opened the door, and she bounced inside the room. Her plain face was radiant, and she looked ready to burst with happiness.

“I did it! I did it!” She clasped her hands around my neck, waltzing thru the room madly, dragging me along like a broken doll.

Read full story here