Splash of color

“A single rose can be my garden...a single friend, my world.”
Leo F. Buscaglia

Freedom at midnight- a recycled review

Still moving some posts from Sulekha, a recycled, renewed review repost in lieu of Gantrantra Divas(Republic Day):

Freedom at Midnight by Dominique LaPierre
(Also the author of City of Joy, Is Paris burning and O'Jerusalem)

I read this book some years ago, and was absolutely impressed. I bought a copy for myself this time I went to India and of course, that warranted a second read. I was never a history buff and the stuffy school textbooks really didnt aid the learning process a whole lot. While I ramble on admiring author's superior style of writing and the darts of humor and wit that dot the landscape of the narration, I will also be inserting some memorable lines and dialogues from the book, that are totally noteworthy. If you havent learnt much about India's struggle for freedom and all that remains in your memory are the ashes of a multitude of dates that your history teacher committed into it, this sure is a refreshing read.
The book starts off with Lord Mountbatten being chosen by Britain to be sent as the last Viceroy of India and the mission bequethed to him was to ensure a speedy settlement for handing over India and if possible, a partitioning of the land to avoid conflict. Once Mountbatten arrives in India, the book then goes on to explore the lives on Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and Patel, before plunging into the political events that led to the moment when Mountbatten decided that August 14th was the day India would attain freedom. Convincing Gandhi that partition was inevitable has been beautifully narrated. There is a chapter on how the princely states were coerced into merging with the union. The princes and their eccentric lifestyles can have one in splits. The process of how India and Pakistan's demarcation boundaries were drawn and the events that led to the day of reckoning is but a poignant essay and a great tribute to the people involved. The following chapters have been dedicated to depict the riots that wreaked havoc in Northern India due to partition and the refugees that swamped both nations. The final few chapters concentrate solely on the events that lead to Gandhi's assassination and how the nascent nation called India survived and strove to rebuild a strong and progressive country.

All in all, this book is as comprehensive a history book could get, without the trappings of a school textbook. The lines that I promised are as below :


"Jinnah's meeting with the Viceroy and his wife had begun with an unhappy gaffe, a gaffe poignantly revealing of the meticulous, calculating Jinnah to whom no gesture could be spontaneous. Realizing he would be photographed with the Mountbattens, Jinnah had carefully memorized a pleasant little line to flatter Edwina Mountbatten, who he was sure would be posed between the Viceroy and himself, Alas, poor Jinnah!! It was he and not Edwina who wound up in the middle. But he couldnt help himself. He was programmed like a computer and his carefully rehearsed line just had to come out. 'Ah' he beamed, 'a rose between two thorns'. "

"Mahatma Gandhi walked into Buckingham Palace to take tea with the King Emperor dressed in a loincloth and sandals, a living portrayal of Kipling's Ganga Din with 'nothing much before and rather less than 'arf o' that behind'. Later, when questioned on the appropriateness of his apparel, Gandhi replied with a smile 'the king was wearing enough for both of us'."

"Time often hung heavy on the hands of the indolent gentlemen who inhabited the palaces. While the pastimes of some were grandiose, there were others less flamboyant, albeit pious. The ruler of Benares , by tradition, required that he open his eyes each day on a sole and unique vision, a Sacred Cow. Each dawn a cow was led to the window of the princely bedchamber and jabbed in the ribs so that her mooing would stir the princely Maharaja from his slumber.Once, during a visit to his colleague, the Nawab of Rampur, fulfilling the tradition posed a grave problem because the Maharaja's quarters were located on the second floor. The Nawab finally resorted to an ingenious tactic . He brought a crane and hosted the cow in a sling up to the Maharaja's bedroom window. Terrified by her unnatural voyage, the poor animal emitted a series of moos so piercing that they not only woke up the pious Maharaja but most of the rest of the palace as well"


There are more such passages, some humorous, some touching, some just historically noteworthy. The author sure has a strong sense of style and fluidity in writing. Enjoyable!!!

"For years to come, the one great memory left by 15th August 1947 in India would be the crowds, the multitudinous hordes inundating in a human sea the event that had been designed as the high point of the new nation's independence celebrations"

Duel for the dual sided

"Clunk, Rrrrrrrr, clank clank, " and many such groans later "Please check the right, left and middle doors for paper jam" spat the photocopier.

Its the 26th of January 2007, we are well into our 21st century but photocopiers still choke when you try to make "1-2 sided" copies of a 12 page manuscript.

Objective : Turn 12 pages of a document into 6 pages(flip like a book, NOT a calendar) and I dont ask for much, just one frikking copy!

Thank you.

You feed the sheets "facing up" as it politely asks you to, set the "1->2sided" and press "start". And then most photocopiers miss this one vital step that should be taped into all of them that warns-"this is when you cross your fingers and start praying".

It tells you very methodically to have saved each sheet into memory. But its at the spitting out of memory into actually production of turning 1 sided sheets into 2 sided is when something goes haywire! I didnt program it, all photocopiers HAVE this built in. I dont know if these things are QC'ed but I am yet to run into ONE photocopier that has mastered this function like a well oiled machine.

And God save you if you asked it to make 10 copies of this "1->2sided" program. Somewhere amongst assembly language code, this behemoth goes into dysfunctional space. The choking and spluttering you hear in that process really makes you wonder if these machines were developed in caveman times.

And then it sweetly says "Check the right door first", you pull out the right door to find 2 sheets stuck out there"

Next "Close the right door and open the middle door now and pull out tray 2"- You obey the machine and find 2 more sheets stuck there.

Next " Close the middle door and open the left door"- Yes sirree, to find two more sheets out there.

So you've got your 6 sheets with half the content. It warms up for 5 mins after that and settles into a satisfied silence akin to achieving nirvana after a job well done.

One's left to one's discretion of whether to try this all over again OR maybe the printer would behave better(eureka! goes the bulb in your head).

So printing preferences are set to print on both sides(again, like a book and NOT a calendar).

Rush to printer and lo and behold! "Check right door for paper jam."..........

The long, lean,skinny and curvy of the jeans

Many moons ago when Maggi mused on a similar topic, I shared the pain and exacerbation that she poignantly describes. For a long time, I've disliked jeans mainly because for those vertically challenged, it really becomes a challenge to find a size and fit that is the right height. In India, in those days(I mean before this mass globalization and springing of Gap and Banana Republic in major towns and cities), my only option was to buy a random pair of jeans and sit with my tailor for the next two days to make sure he right-fitted them. Since then, I'd never schedule for a shopping trip just to buy jeans, because it never happened that I got jeans when I was looking for them.

Most times, I've managed to stretch(no pun intended) one or two pairs for years just due to the frustration in finding the right fit.

Recently, I mean about 5 years ago, during my customary stroll into a Gap store(primarily for window shopping, I was still experiencing sticker shock at that time) my eyes espied a wonderful array of jeans in different shades of blue neatly stacked. Someone had pulled out a random pair, I grabbed at it and measured it against my short leg. Whoa! The length was just right. I looked at the size and grabbed a few pairs of that size in various cuts and colors. That day I bought myself 3 pairs of jeans(my first in my entire lifetime).

Granted they were expensive, but finding not one, not two but three pairs of jeans that fit so wonderfully. Now that is a God send, at least to my kind of vertically challenged souls.

Since then, I love jeans, I love the fit, I love their new styles and yes, I am a Gap maniac.

Serenity with snow

And now its winter!! Really!

Wah Guru Wah!

In this wonderful interview Mani Ratnam says "The biggest advantage of making films is you get into somebody's character. You have an opportunity to be somebody else, other than your rational self. You can be someone totally opposite to what you are and lead his life. You then exist, think like, write like that person and understand what and who he is."

So I will take a stand. I have watched the movie and hopefully have taken back a message. And that is, yes Gandhism is a time-tested philosophy. But we are in the 21st century now and its evident that India is turning more capitalistic than it probably desired for back in the nascent stages of independence. Sure, we can question the means to an end, but in the end, what shows is that to make that quantum leap from mediocre to exceptional, risk is a vital bridge.

One can stay conventional and wary, tread in the path of righteousness, but in this competitive world, what makes people to take notice is when you display that killer instinct, that one vital step that places you ahead of the herd.

So do you blame other's aggressiveness and ambition for your not being there? Or do you, maybe set aside/tweak your principles to give a tough fight and race to finish?

Interesting storyline, interesting perspective, definitely a worth watch.

Some footnotes :

- Aish should stay out of dance numbers, her fakeness is just too transparent

- Another movie where she has played a role to some decent, creditable appreciation. The other would be Raincoat. Gosh, what it takes to get her to just emote!

- Abhishek is brilliant and supremely convincing as Guru.

- Madhavan(omg!!!) looks adorable and as always plays his part wonderfully well.

- Vidya Balan's short but sweet role- definitely worth a mention.

- Brilliant screen presence from Mithun.

- Wonderful, superb, stupendous photogrophy by Rajiv Menon.

- Gulzar's lyrics with ARR's music strikes a great chord again! Encore!

A piece of the poet's mind

phoolon ki tarah lab khol kabhi
khushboo ki zabaan mein bol kabhi

alfaaz parakhta rehta hai
aawaaz hamaari thol kabhi

anmol nahi lekin fir bhi
pooccho toh muft ka mol kabhi

khidki mein kati hai sab raatein
kuch chauras thi, kuch gol kabhi

yeh dil bhi dost zameen ki tarah
ho jaata hai daava(or daama?) dol kabhi

Written by : Gulzar
Singer : Jagjit Singh
Album : Koi baat chale
========================================

And a poor attempt to translate :

Open your mouth like a flower sometime
Talk in the language of scent sometime

One keeps analysing words
Try to analyse my voice sometime

Its definitely not precious
but try asking the price of the free sometime

All nights have been spent near the window
Sometime square, sometime round

This heart is also a friend much like the earth
Tremors are likely to occur sometime



And this should really be here

Brush and water unleashed

brush+color+hand=art!

"Use the aqua and the burnt sienna and unleash your brush to your will." said the instructor and that was all the nudge I needed to let my mind loose. The coarse paper was just the right texture for water color. No great masterpieces being created, just a brush, two colors and a hand.

I had no recollection of how the two hours creeped by, and all I had to show was 8 pages of squiggly art much like a toddler's finger paint work. But no, this was a class of adults, for adults, by adults trying master water color painting.

Yes, I have finally reconnected with my inner, inert passion for the paints and...

brush+color+hand=art!

The Innocent Man- John Grisham

- Only achievement to account for this long weekend.

- John Grisham was the perfect author to cover this true life incident. His maiden venture into the land of non-fiction and investigative journalism. Covers in detail the (mis)trial of two jail inmates who came very close to the lethal injection, being wrongfully accused for murder.

- The book did drag in places and some of the accounts were too detailed and delved too deep into facts and criminal investigation.

- Appalling the way forensic pathology worked until 10 years ago. Pretty sure there were a lot more of such wrongdoings.

- Some detailed reports on prisons cells, death sentences and bad forensic evaluation and criminal interrogations.

- All in all, its Grisham, its got to be worth a read!

- Now, on to the next.....

The Bard at the Capital- Part 1

Last night, I got to watch "Othello" in a ballet version as part of the Shakespeare in DC festival that is in town for the next 6 months. Having watched Omkara this year, watching a ballet version of Othello was definitely a different experience, this being my first attempt at ballet.

Let me start off by saying the Kennedy Center offers a fantastic setting for such theatrical productions. There is a old world feel to the building with its red carpets and the theater sets of the 18th century. I was glad to have reached quite early to explore the building. I literally felt that I had been transported to another world, another time and space. I kicked myself for not having visited the place earlier, having been in this area for 4 years now. Its been added to my list of regular places- here's to more shows!

About the ballet itself, I was glad that I knew the story quite well enough to follow it in the ballet version and was in synch. It would have been hard otherwise. I have renewed respect for the ballet dancers now that I've watched in real-time.

Photography was not allowed during the show so all I managed to take were a couple of photos of the opera house itself. The rest of the visual treat is tucked safely in my memories to be stored permanently in the life-sized vault!

Lunchboxes-all in the family

In all my growing years, my appetite or lack thereof has always been a major topic for discussion, amusement and dissection, not necessarily in that order. I am not sure how it happened, but I was a poor eater. I dont know if it reflects on poor cooking at home, my taste buds not developing fully or my own stunted growth or it could even be a combination of all this and more. But the fact was it was a feat to feed me. And what didnt help in this venture was I hated rice. I'd prefer to eat fancy food like samosas and kachoris, chaat and chips, icecream and so on and so forth, you get the drift!

One of my grandmother's favorite line would go "You'll never grow if you dont eat rice.". And sure enough, my height just didnt measure up and I guess it was a sore point of discussion for my mom with her own. "Why dont you do something?" would be Ajji's constant whine looking at Amma accusingly, like she had me bound in wraps so I didnt grow. My grandmother also conveniently forgot that she and my grandfather barely making the 5 foot mark wouldnt exactly produce astonishingly tall grandchildren. Be that as it may, Amma launched the "make altoid grow asap" campaign. There'd be this o-t-c concoction called Incremin(ugh!) and ferrous potent potion called Sharkoferral to make up for the iron deficiency. Doctors and quacks would be consulted for all possible solutions on this earth for this major catastrophe. This went for quite a few years until my mid-teens when my mother found other more pressing catastrophe's (like my sister missing the cleanliness gene in the dna build) to deal with. Sometimes I wonder if I hadnt gone through the campaign, if I would have turned out more vertically challenged than I already am. Hm, a real puzzler that!

But I digress, this post was intended to discuss my poor eating habits. A lot of people, family and friends included, would be appalled at the sight of ONE dosa or TWO idlis in my lunchbox at school which I'd laboriously toil to finish during the entire lunch break. I'd have to be enticed with Bisibelebath or puri/chole for dinner. And to add to the misery, my dad believed in feeding children only with idli at restaurants. That was a turn off in itself.

While in college, our not-own SLV cafeteria was my food haven. My mother would always wonder at how I'd prefer to demolish the idli swimming in chutney there and then come home and pout at the idlis she had made. Though my appetite improved considerably, it definitely wasnt anything to write home about. It appeared that I was eating, and quite regularly. And so my mother left it at that.

Now my sister, aah that is an entire story in itself. Her lunch boxes right from 1st grade would be one of those stainless steel stacked box containers. My mother would lovingly pack rotis with diverse sabjis, curd rice, pickle, a fruit, a snack and half the monthly groceries. She'd still come home famished and ready to eat us come 5pm. That gave my mother immense satisfaction, it was apparent people who cook like to be appreciated and nothing like empty stainless steel containers to vouch for the quality. My mother came close to signing up for cooking classes to hone her skills just to impress Miss. Lunch box. Fancier and fancier dishes would appear automagically and at 7am, right out of bed, my sister would be ready(with unbrushed teeth, nonetheless) to sample the wares. Instant gratification, was what it was. My mother would float back into the kitchen(with a self promoted halo) to finish up her other mundane chores(which included packing MY lunch box that could as well have been a ziploc bag.)

Since I started working, in India as well as here in the US, I have either had a cafeteria at work, or have come home for lunch. Though, mind you, being on your own, the fancy of going home for lunch soon wanes at the thought of having to heat up your own leftovers. However, and now we get to the interesting bit, since being on my own and being forced to enter the kitchen to feed the stomach, I have developed a pretty strong cooking skill that has helped improve my appetite immensely. It could as well be that since I am the ultimate victim of my own cooking experiments, I'm encouraged to cook better. Vicious circle, that! I do try to cook healthy- avoid fried foods and have never tried to enter the realm of making sweets at home. I try new recipes, new cooking methods and can safely say that I am a decent cook, all said and done.

So how is my appetite now?, you ask? In this newest job of mine, the work location is not close enough to go home for lunch. It does have a cafeteria. But guess what? I am extremely thrifty now and hence.................I get my own lunch :)

Just last month, I picked up this giant sized lunch bag. There are myriad boxes packed in them(unfortunately I cant find the stacked container lunch box from those good ol' times). Guess what it contains?

- 3 whole wheat rotis
- One sabji
- One raitha or cucumber salad
- Curd rice
- An assortment of cookies, cakes, snacks(ahem, all home made) that serve for breakfast and snack time.

I'm Miss Lunch Box resurrected!

And hence I come full circle! Have you heard that twins are bound together by this invisible bond by which when one hurts, the other senses it immediately? Or if one feels joy, the other feels it too even if they are miles apart? I think with sisters, each one grows into the traits of the other. For most part, we share the same voice. Many people have confused our voices over the phone. Maybe we will soon be exchanging other traits. For now, I cant imagine eating fried food first thing in the morning, in bed with unbrushed teeth!. Maybe that might just happen sooner, than later!

Disclaimer : Poor cooking at home wasnt the case, my mom is/was one of the best cooks ever!

Footnote : All said and done, sisters(no, I dont mean nuns!) rock! And sisters reading this post should realise its all in jest, all in the family ;)

To the letter

dear --

Its been many moons since we wrote to each other. I am sure a lot has changed for both of us, we have ourselves changed as well. Speaking for myself, I can say for sure that I have. A lot of inexplicable things that we used to wonder about, are clear to me. New ones have taken their place. SOme things dont bother me any more, other things that never mattered before are constantly on my mind. New fears have supplanted the old ones, new priorities have overgrown completely suppressing the older and lesser ones. I was never one to harp on "the good ol' times", I have always believed in the words of Billy Joel "The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow's not as bad as it seems.". But I do surprise myself even now with my naivete and implicit faith that life will unfold itself and I just have to sit by the shore and wait. I still do it, though I have realised nothing happens when you are a bystander. Then one should not complain about the lack of excitement-right? or wrong? One of life's valuable lesson is that everything doesnt happen to one automagically, there's a lot of effort to be put in for it to appear so.

I actually have a ear for music now, I can never figure how that happened. I still read. Nope-no signs of my ol' painting skills. Maybe thats a dormant volcano that will erupt with a masterpiece many years from now. Or maybe that fire has forever been smothered. You might say I am still the loner that I used to be- I think I keep to myself-not because I am shy-but because I dont have much to say :).

I am curious as to what you'd say if you saw me now. What your overconfident, cocky take would be on how I've turned out. And thats right, my imagination never took off and I dont believe that kite will ever soar. I remain the eternal realist and bore myself with logic and practicality that the years have only made worse. I dont know what you'll think of my day job which I guess is also my profession. I feel old just using the words profession and career. But I guess thats what I have now. And when I am not at work, I try to have hobbies(remember how we'd talked a whole day about what qualified as hobbies?). All my music lessons went to naught- I cant sing to put a baby to sleep, for sure. I do love to travel, though I'd never make a lofty claim that I am well travelled. Again thats the "modest" me resurfacing time and again.

But as far as you're concerned, my best attempts at imagining only fail miserably. I see you just as I saw you many moons ago. Confident, cheeky and so full of yourself. Maybe life has smoothened your rough edges, maybe you are suave and polished but I cant imagine your motor-mouth to have slowed down in all these years. But life is so full of surprises, like Erma Bombeck says-"If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" :)

I am so eagerly waiting for your mail. Fill it with plenty of news about yourself and what you do and how you turned out. Remember how we'd exchange pages of our journals just so we knew what we were thinking!! I'd call that an invasion of privacy now :) but then all legalities aside, it was a good giggle time snug under the sheets with the torch light. Oh yes, my voice still squeaks like Minnie Mouse occassionaly. And when it does, it makes me take a short trip into memory wonderland.

regards
--

The day the moon stayed up late

Moon @ 10:30pm





















And you think thats the sun? Wrong! At 7:30am, the moon is still up!!!














Mr. Sun finally appears at 8am!!!!















And hence I was late for work. Because the Moon stayed up late.
I rest my case.

Blogthings galore-2007

You Are a Cupcake

Cute and fun, you never take life too seriously. People are constantly surprised by how delightful you are.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

Your Ideal Hairstyle:

Layered Bob

What Hairstyle Is Right For You?

Your Element is Metal

Your power colors: white, gold, and silver Your energy: contracting Your season: fall You are persistent (and maybe even a little bit stubborn). If you see something you want, you go for it. You have a lot of strength, and it's difficult to get you down. Very logical, you tend to analyze everything going on in your life.

What Element Are You?

Your Fashion Style is Urban

You've got a style all your own... and it works Not too trendy, not too freaky - you've got streetwear down to a science You always look cute and put together, but keep it comfortable too You're the type of girl that creates trends and inspires others to be funky

What's Your Fashion Style?

Its a brand new dawn

As I age and thus ponder
Of a whole new year in the yonder
And of the 365 days packaged in a deal
Oh my, a day at a time sometimes is an ordeal!

Whenever I've wished upon a star
For setting a higher bar
I have soared in the skies and fallen with a thud
I now choose to pick myself up from the dust and mud.

I prefer to take it one day at time
And when my head touches the pillow as the bells chime
I ask for strength to journey to dusk from dawn
In peace and quiet much like a freshly mowed green lawn.

Every day is a miracle, I've learnt by rote
Let me be thankful for life's little footnote
That I find more often in many a shelf
Maybe I am rediscovering a new side of the self?