What's in my mind these days...the masterpiece says it all.



The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This Diwali...

I was alone. Not completely though. My memories old and recent were decent enough company. Our childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows. I believe that what we remember from childhood we remember forever - stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen.

Although I have spent many evenings in my own company, it was different this time. Needless to say, I was homesick…and was visibly upset. Remembrances till date were forming images of all kinds in front of my eyes. Eternally seen, it was indeed.
Nevertheless, I made an attempt to keep my promise to the loved ones. I tried to focus on my work. I was thinking when a beautiful pattern in the dark sky struck my eyes, through the window. Memories again knocked by.
Suddenly, my musings were interrupted by realities. I don’t know how.
I realized that there are countless people who are lonelier than I am. They are lonely not only in their celebration but their strife as well. This, of course, didn’t make me feel better. This wasn’t meant to.

In a world with no right or wrong, ‘justification’ is an unheard term.
People often say that I think too much. I think that everybody thinks, what differs is what we think about. Also often people are not consciously aware that they are thinking.

I got the Diwali night on my own rather, me and the lights and the darkness.

Hope you all had a great Diwali. God bless all!

A writer......Why

I did not want to be disturbed, and wasn't. I knew what I had to do. No matter where we go- an office, a classroom- we have to put the time in. No matter who pays whom, If we quit, we starve. If we don't show up, we're fired.
That's working for somebody else. Writers ususally work for themselves. I am convinced that one of the chief reasons I aspire to be one is that I can't stand working for somebody else. I just can't. It's one of the main reason that anyone becomes a writer: self-motivation.
Like just about every other writer, I have been searching for the right work-schedule. Few hours stretches at night, 1-hour bursts. On trains, classes, coffee-shops, on the floor. The one constant in my schedule is that I work everyday.
I used to badger myself about getting a certain amount completed every day-the minimum-and then ridicule myself for not having done it. I'd count what I hadn't done and punish myself for not living up to it. This practice does absolutely nothing except haul more guilt into the warehouse.
I'm kinder to myself these days. "What's the big rush?" I say to myself. As long as I show up for at least a couple of hours every day. The work will get done. the work has become better. I'm not rushing or anguishing about how much I'll complete in the next week, month or year. Instead, I concentrate on the day's work and when it's done, I reward myself with a chocolate. :)

Do yourself a favour and pick the time ofday when you work the best, or when you can find time. If you have 20 minutes, take them. If before your regular job you can find a half hour, take it. On the contrary, if you keep telling yourself that you need bigger blocks of time, or that you have too many other obligations or you're too tired, you'll have no pages but a lot of excuses.
You've the willingness, you'll make time.

Remakes in Bollywood: a trend story

A string of remakes of old Hindi hits is under way. Putting technical advances to best use, filmmakers are capitalizing on the emotional appeal of the old plots and actors are pushing the envelop in a bid to serve up old wine in new and fancy bottles. Picture this: Amitabh Bachchan playing the menacing 'Gabbar Singh' in the remake of Sholay, Aishwarya as ever-effervescent Umrao Jaan (God save us!!!) and Shah Rukh Khan (Talk of b***s!!! phew...it is really a sad) aspires to do rework the enigmatic Don. Is the remake rage sweeping Hindi cinema today?
People like Shah Rukh justify the remake trend thus, "In Hollywood people remake films and they are appreciated." Having acted in Devdas, which was another remake, he perhaps knows only too well the ageless appeal of classics. Devdas was hailed by the viewers all over. (At a personal level, I abhorred it...for the obvious reasons)
The remake rage, however, is not propelled by commercial considerations alone, filmmakers urge that old stories need to be retold. Priyanka Chopra who is slated to play Meena Kumari's ethereal part in Saheb, Biwi Aur Ghulam (WHY :-( ) remarked, "My generation may not watch old classics and miss out on them completely, what is the harm in retelling classics in a contemporary format? That way they would learn about our rich cinematic heritage," she added. (Give me a break woman! Those who want to, would watch, understand and respect it anyway...they do it. They really do.)
While critics lament that the trend stems from the dearth of original scripts, filmmakers are defensive saying that these fabulous tales must be retold. Ram Gopal Varma who is set to remake Sholay reasons, "I saw Sholay at least five times when it was released, I want to make that film for today's generation."
For producers too, remakes appear to be a safe bet. It is a tried and tested formula after all. Last year turned out to be quite a remake bonanza - as Bimal Roy's Parineeta, a 50's romance set against Bengali backdrop worked well in Vidhu VinodChopra's version, Shah Rukh Khan chose Mani Kaul's Duvidha, to be remade under his banner as Paheli, Dharmesh Darshan's Bewafaa was inspired by the 60's hit Gumraah and Akbar Khan resurrected the eternal love story of Taj Mahal in all its grandeur.
Nevertheless, remaking classics is not a prerogative of today's filmmakers alone. Earlier, filmmakers also banked upon hits of yore. Sholay was inspired by Raj Khosla's dacoit drama Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman by Raj Kapoor's tramp-turned-hustler story Shri 420, Raja Hindustani by Jab Jab Phool Khile and the 90's comic bonanza Aankhen by Mehmood-starrer Do Phool. Not surprising that old themes get recycled time and again.
Today’s generation, too, seems to be divided over the trend. “If I have to watch a movie why not watch the original rather that waste time watching the stupid remake... which at some point, would go out of track and even the charm of the story is lost. Performances of our earlier stars can never be matched in today’s time. So please leave it alone, says Nupur, an student from Pune. Her friend, Neetu seconds her opinion and adds that a ‘classic’ means a piece that leaves its niche in history and that any addition of colour, music beats, technology would not do much to something that has already created history. In general, remakes have become an easy way to get launched in glamour world. There is, of course, no creativity involved in it.
In contrast, there are some who cannot rule out the remake of classics as total waste of money and time. Raghav, another student at Pune voices strong support for the remakes. “If you happen to see something more often you will get bored.but if you see the same with some chnages it looks appealing and this is true for anything. We may get bored if we see the same kind of cars on road even if it was appealing earlier. So when something new comes, we go for it. People want change, he says.
Recently, Pritish Nandy Communication announced remake plans of Vijay Anand's Guide with Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan playing the lead. But this remake saga isn't going to be smooth sailing as the rest. What with actor-filmmaker Dev Anand claiming exclusive rights to the script as well as the R K Narayan's eponymous novel. Whether all these remakes can rework the old magic, only the viewers and the time would decide.

One of the greatest labor-saving inventions of today is tomorrow.
~Vincent T. Foss

Its been quite a while since the last entry here. It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.
I hope a hiatus won't happen again.
Amen!

A genuine ode

I am sure most of you would agree when I say that we do not need any special day to express our love for our mothers. Loving is a continual process or rather, a way of living. I don't wish to sound pedantic but for each one of us, they are our first teachers...the academy shifting from their lap to their knees. I think a mother's love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. Please let me extend it our fathers too. Our parents lay the building blocks of the kind of human being we grow up to be.
Not anyone but our parents are the most affected by our success and failures...yes, even more than ourselves.
After a long and hectic day at work, I was relieved to find a vacant seat in the local bus. My eyes rested on a father-daughter duo. They were seemingly new to the city. This person pointed the India Gate to his darling daughter but his eyes were admiring the smile the lit up his daughter’s face. Not even once he spared another look to the monumental document of our modern history. For him, the excitement and happiness on the angelic face of his daughter meant the world. A silent prayer from my heart went to God to bless them.
On each day of our lives, our parents make deposits in our memory banks. We owe them...our lives, our being, our smile, our beliefs,...everything.

Can never thank God enough.

A serious concern...

Of late there has been a mounting discourse about the meaning and content of Indian identity provoked by the various communal crises afflicting India. I am talking about what happened in Vadodara recently.
The wounds of the communal conflict of 2002 in Gujrat have not healed yet; and it faced Vadodra episode.
Ironically, after four long years, justice seems to have finally caught up with the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim violence in the Indian state of Gujarat. Nine persons were convicted on Friday by a court in Mumbai for the killing of 14 in the notorious Best Bakery incident in Baroda. The bakery was set alight by angry sword-wielding Hindu extremists during the orgy of communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 in which some 2000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed. It is viewed as a little hope, as the first step in bringing to book those responsible for the terrible massacres that swept through the state. At the height of the troubles, Gandhi’s home state was overrun by bloodthirsty mobs killing Muslims in a brutal and chillingly systematic manner as the authorities looked on. It was the worst communal violence witnessed in India since Partition.

But what does one expect from this state where people are so communalised. Where would this hatred take Gujarat and the country as a whole? The twentieth century politics of deprivation has eroded the culture's confidence. Hindu chauvinism has emerged fom the competition for resources in a contentious democracy.

Amitav Kumar in 'Husband of a Fanatic' rightly said:

"It is not merely respect for the other's religion that is important; what is essential is that we have respect for the other's rights as a human being. The fundamentalists in India deny the former and thereby also the latter; the secularists fight for the latter but pay very little attantion to the former. Both aspects can come together in the celebration of a shared life."

We cannot wait for a miracle to alter the situation, we ourselves have to be the deus ex machina. Are we working towards it yet?