Finally, a Hindi film has had the courage to move away from a story telling mode and has ventured in to an idea of expression that was earlier confined to art houses and the dispersed theatre fountains of our country.

Delhi 6 is not your run-of-the-mill movie about a hero, heroine and a villain. Sure, there have been many movies in the recent past that were not about these three erstwhile pillars of Indian cinema. However, what distinguishes Delhi 6 from any of its contemporary peers is that it does not have much of a “story” to tell. There is no mission to go from point A to point B. In stead, it is a fabulous and delicate journey which the director agrees to make you a part of and leaves you before the destination is reached. Abhishek Bachchan is not a modern-angry-young-man or a lover of the finest order. He is a passive observer of the life and its travails in the labyrinthine passages of the locality addressed as Delhi 6. Waheeda Rehman is a blast from the past, letting the new generation know exactly why she was a super star in her days. And the same holds for Rishi Kapoor, who has done a phenomenal job of playing the perfect host to the son of his ex-love.

Most of the people I watched this movie with did not like it. They felt it was going no where and the ending was a drag. But the point they missed is that the movie did not want to “go” any where in the first place. It does not warrant you to wait for the next turn of the road, in stead it asks you to just look on either sides of the road and immerse yourself in the scenery. Understandably, this is difficult for us to do in these trying times of fast life and faster entertainment. We want stories to be fed to us so that we can move on to the next tast, content that we had taken our due break of entertainment.

Delhi 6 starts with Abhishek arriving from the United States to India with his grandmother. He meets the locality’s neighbors, shopkeepers and other people who make up the fabric of life in and around his grandmother’s ancestral home. In the backdrop, there is a Ram-Leela going on which has been very creatively infused into the movie. Then there is the case of the Monkey Man which had made headlines some years ago, and perhaps is still a mystery. Abhishek Bachchan is the mute spectator who sees a lot of wrongs happening around him, and your heart and mind urge him to go do the usual dishum-dishum and save the good people and, selfishly, make your day too. However, that does not happen here and you feel frustrated.  But by keeping Abhishek’s role as passive as he is, the movie forces you to look inwards and address the demons yourself.

The movie has some brilliant and memorable scenes, especially the song which brings India to the streets of the United States (you’ve got to watch the movie to understand what I am talking about). The music by Rahman is top-notch and, I daresay, perhaps better than what he composed for Slumdog Millionaire.

I wouldn’t dwell further on the story of this movie, since the story is not really its selling point. If you like watching some beautiful images which are at the core of India and its way of life, if you like to watch how relationships  unravel between complete strangers, if you like to see the usual in a more creative manner, then Delhi 6 is for you.

However, if all you want is a story (and not a cinematic experience) that you can feel satisfied about, then you could give this movie a miss.

A few days ago, we forced our way out of leisurely slumbers to the Chitrakala Parishat institute. Veeral (cousin and a student at CKP), who was our photographer and guide told us about the Dastkari Haat which was organized in the institute and so we decided to take a look.

The place was teeming with artists and their beautiful works from almost all parts of the country. There were abstract sketches, modern clocks, Madhubani paintings, crockery made from natural stones found only in the state of Manipur, puppets from Rajasthan, Sarees (I write this for the record, upon insistence from the Mrs. of course) which were reportedly very beautiful, and a whole lot of other artifacts.

I was impressed with, and in awe of, the immense talent that our country possesses in its artisans. The people selling and showcasing their works were not business dealers. They were wonderful artists, and this reflected in the way they spoke in great length and detail about each one of their works of art. Here are a couple of the many photographs which Veeral took:
A work in wood:

Puppets waiting to be looked at:

It was an afternoon well spent.I also got to know that the Dastkari Haat Samiti might be visiting Palace Grounds next before leaving Bangalore in a few days. You might want to follow up on that and catch the troupe.

A good friend and a former colleague, Uma Iyer, has put together information which she has personally gathered from various sources on Alzheimer’s disease.

A couple of years ago, her father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and what they found lacking in all the information that they got was actual accounts of first-hand experiences of dealing with people who have this disease.

The site she has put up is: http://www.alzindia.com/

She narrates various situations that she and her family have had to face and also the ways in which she has managed to deal with these sensitive but crucial incidents. Hats off to Uma and her family for showing such great courage and thoughtfulness in coming to terms with this very unfortunate event.

I wish her and her family all the very best as they continue to engage with these trying circumstances.

Last Friday was the last Friday for me at my (now ex) work place. I had spent 1 year and 7 months there and met some fantastic people. On Friday evening there was a farewell party held for me, which made me feel very very privileged and honored. I didn’t know many of them followed my blog and so I was pleasantly surprised when one of them, after about 20 drinks down, came up to me and said, “You must publish your book”.

Elated upon hearing this, thinking that someone considered my book worth reading, I asked back with a hurry, “Did you read it? Did you like it?”

“No”, he replied, paused and swayed a little before his eyes met mine and his hands got a better grip on the glass of whiskey. “I have not read it”, he continued, “but, you must get it published. I am telling you”.

I smiled, shook his hand, and said, “Thanks a lot dude. I will” and grinned immensely. People were having fun and I was glad about that. Everyone had a great time and for a change, there was no work being discussed.

What I take back from that job, apart from the immense exposure to the internet space, are the relationships that got built with everyone whom I worked with. I feel quite unfortunate to be leaving the bunch of wonderful people but I suppose certain calls need to be taken in life.

So, right now I am in that once-in-a-bluemoon period of having a break between two jobs. You may expect more blogging happening during this week!

More later, ladies and gentelmen

In the recent past I have read three books – two by Steinbeck and one a classic American detective novel by Dashiel Hammet.

If you don’t have time for reading all three, I strongly recommend reading “The Short Reign of Pippin IV” by Steinbeck.


The Pearl by John Steinbeck 

This novel’s basic story dwells on the age-old theme of good vs. evil. However, trust Steinbeck to give this story in a way you would have never anticipated. Kino is a fisherman and a native of the land.

Intruders from outside have snatched his land’s resources and stolen the wealth of his legacy. To live is to survive for Kino and his family. One fine day, when he dives into the abyss of the ocean, he finds a pearl large enough to get the entire village talking about it. Jealousy floats fast and Kino finds his family and himself stalked and haunted by the evil men. What happens to him, and what happens to the pearl is a story that Steinbeck narrates in his inimitable style.


The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck


After having read two very serious and powerful novels of Steinbeck, this book came across as a complete surprise.

Steinbeck shows that his prowess lies not only in creating emotional serious tales but he is also a master satirist and can excel in humor as well. This book is brilliant, from start to finish. Set in France, this tale is about how a ordinary clerk (who has a fascination for astronomy!) finds himself, due to certain quirky events, crowned as the king of France. What follows is utter chaos in France and leaves the US and England confused beyond explanation.

Steinbeck goes up by many rungs on my ladder of admiration with this book. The sarcasm, wit and satire are all intertwined in the way it takes digs at political leanings of all kinds and at the functionary ways of the major powers of the world. Orwell’s Animal Farm brought out the premise of man’s inherent selfishness in a clinical and metaphorical manner. Steinbeck brings the same premise out but in a much more lucid, chaotic and extremely funny manner. This book is, to put it in the words used in the epilogue, “the French revolution turned upside down”.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

This is a page-turner, a typical classic American detective novel. The kind that stirs up images of the detective wearing a long coat, smoking cigarettes at the drop of the hat (the very hat which he wears, of course), has a pretty secretary, his office has a door which is half covered with glass and carries loosely his name on a wooden plate.

Enter a pretty client who needs protection from someone and add in a few unexpected murders and before you know it, Sam Spade has a lot of work to do. A bunch of thugs traveling across the world craving for a statuette forms a thread of the story. The twists and turns and more murders as we go along the book make this a hard-to-put-down pulp-fiction sort of a novel. The Maltese Falcon scores high on the keeping-engaged scale. Read it when you have a plane to catch. Time won’t seem that long.

On Sunday, I was invited by a volunteer to visit the premises of a school which is crumbling in terms of infrastructure. The school is Deena Seva Sangha, located close to the old Kino theater.

We first entered a small room termed as ‘hostel’. It was a dark room, perhaps 20 feet by 7 feet wide. Aluminium chests were stacked wall high in one corner. Various pants and shirts hung on top of one makeshift wooden wall which served as a provider of privacy.

Going ahead, we were taken to the main hall that served as the dining and sleeping area for the 65 students who study and live here. Then we were shown the store room, where the food rations are kept. The school sends its students to the city market once a week to get vegetables, which are given free to them by some generous and charitable vendors.
Moving on to the school building, which lay adjacent to this ‘hostel’, we were shown a pipe jutting out of the wall, gaping with its outlet wide open. In the past, the volunteers have put a tap on it to facilitate drinking of water, but every time they have done that, someone has stolen the tap overnight. A measly 10 rupees for us, but perhaps a meal for someone else. I then entered the building, which is two storeyed. Walking through the corridors, I see the empty classrooms with wooden benches strewn around. I reach the last classroom and look at the blackboard. Someone has scribbled the famous four letter ‘f’ word on the board, in cursive handwriting.

I move back towards the entrance and by now one of the volunteers has managed to get the door to the library opened. I enter the library and find that it is being used more as a junk yard, with all sorts of things lying around. There are broken tubelights jutting out of brown dusty cardboard boxes, a broken abacus lying in the middle of the room. In one corner, is a small two door cupboard that has the much sought-after books (much sought after by the visitors, since this was a libary after all). The books are few and most are torn. I then get out of the building and look at a smaller building in front of me. This one has the words ‘War on Want, UK’ engraved on top of it. “Why would someone provide war when you want it”, I wondered to myself. It took me a few more moments before realizing that the word “want” was used as a noun, not as a verb. Which meant that the word “want” here referred to the property of being in need of something. A little google-ing later gave me the website of this organization – War on Want.
We then get out of the building and there is a tea session held by the volunteers. Their aim? To showcase the state of the school and garner some funds.

If you would like to visit the school or donate, contact these folks: Yuva Bengaluru