Thursday, October 28, 2010

Life ishtene??

There was a “Mass Hit” song recently churned out by an all-lucky director cum lyricist of kannada movie, Yograj Bhat, which has punch line “life ishtene”. How silly. In what angle we can say that? Life ishtene means life is nothing but as simple as this. I wish it would have been like that.

There is a home in front of the BMTC depot in my locality. When I look at that house it strikes to me that god might have played that toy game of kids – plastic-building-blocks, since it looks closely packed series of homes in that line of govt staff qrts. I just pass thru that home. Nothing special than that. My mom also passes thru. Infact every one has to pass thru that home since it’s at the side of the road. Life ishtene?? Nopes. Its not. I might fail to observe anything apart from homes stacked neatly in that line, some others might notice only the vehicles parked inside or outside, some might take a sneak-view inside.

But my mom has different experience. That one home is different. My mom passes thru that home just like others. Yes, she has to pass thru since she uses that road to go to the milk dairy in evening everyday. But life is not ishtene. Atleast she doesn’t want it to be like that. Because walking thru that road is just not ishtene for her.

The other day I was going to jogging to HAL park, BAU. I went thru the twin apartment and reached the backside of the compound gate which led to the open play ground of the school. Suddenly I felt I forgot something. What? I looked around and parallely touched all over my body with my hands. Ah! Got it. Ipod. I forgot to plug it to my ears yet. Ok, I took out and was about to plug the earphones to my ears when suddenly 100’s of dogs barking sound hit my hears. I checked the Pod, no it was still not switched on. I lifted my head to see that a group of street dogs are barking at me. Huh. What for? I dint give a shit to it and turned back and took another way to park. Ok that’s it. Next day I again used the same route. This time instead of dogs staring at me, I stared at them, albeit without barking. That’s all. Life ishtene there for me.

But no, it was not like that for my mom. Life ishtene is for all others who pass thru that road, they all belong to one common category of ppl (its ppl, not animal, please underline it) “strangers”, provided that they don’t stay in any of the home their in that stack.

There is a small kid in our neighbours home. Less than 3 years old, he has only one occupation - To go to any home of his choice in our lane, go to kitchen, ask for food, eat and come back to pavilion. If he comes to our home, he stands infront of our tall double door fridge, points his right hand forefinger in diagonally upwards direction towards the freezer door of the fridge and says “chocki”. I wonder if Ambedkar came back to earth into his childhood using a time machine borrowed from Indra, since his posture is photocopy of any other Ambedkar statue in india. I tried giving a small book for him to hold in his left hand so that I can take a snap. But he is not interested in anything than the business for which he came to our House – to grab the chocki and eat it. Life ishtene for him I felt.

Of recently, if my body has got any vitamins or proteins of green leaf vegetable, the credit has to go to that home. Because it is just not any other home to my mom. Yes. Because there is an aged lady there. The height of the compound gate of that home and that old lady’s height match so perfectly that she leans over it with the help of her under shoulders effortlessly. Its 5.30 Pm, and my mom passes thru that road. This aged lady – like a grandma gives smile to my mom for which my mom also acknowledges. There might have been some unknown bond between them; they talk to each other too as if they know each other from a long time. Yes, that is why its not as “just another home” for my mom. The grandma of that home has got extended member in her life now. There is plenty of “vaali” – a green leaf vegetable growing in small garden in front of her home. We like that a lot. The grandma waits for my mom to give it to her once a week as and when it grows. If its not there, just BAU conversation will be there. But never its ishtene. For two unknowns souls, to gel together so well, there must be definitely something more than ishtene in life.

I know, everyone who reads this will ask me one question now. Why so many unwanted examples in between which are no way connected to what I wanted to say about that home. Hold on, life is not ishtene ok.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Khosla ka Ghosla is one movie which will always find place in my list of top 10 movies. When I watched the movie for the first time, I couldn’t believe that such a movie can be really made. I don’t know how to give the feelings of my mind the shape of words here. I was left gaping after watching the movie that “my god, such a different kind of hindi movie”. No big stars, no huge budget, no songs – all the ingredients that has become almost compulsory for a movie to be even recognized (let alone to be box office hit).

The other movie which I can say tops my list is “shawshank redemption”. First thing that I realized after watching the movie was that I did not stop watching the movie halfway since it was too slow moving. For days, I was immersed in only two thoughts. The first one which I just told. The second one was thinking about the idea of the protagonist in the movie. An exceptional movie which will tell how important is it to have patience and planning in life.

I love watching movies like any others. But the only difference in me is that I like to watch only realistic movies. The movies which will be close to reality. I really wonder what is the use of watching a movie where a girl falls in love with boy or vice versa – a few hiccups in their love story – and happy ending where the girl and boy marry happily for rest of their life(well I don’t guarantee the last part). I just get angry on myself if I sit to watch such kind of movies. We know it is not practical and still we watch it for what reason I don’t understand. Instead the movies where the sentiments are potrayed, where it is shown that how hard the life is and how a person should be, will be so useful and interesting to watch. Anupam kher’s son in the KKG movie is a IIT grad who wants to go to US where he just got a job offer. He wants to help his middle class family of Delhi(where middle class is treated on par with BPL class). But his dad is interested in buying a plot in south delhi, in which he wants to construct a modest house with separate rooms for each of his 3 children. He wants to do this since he has a regret that he couldn’t do it for his children when it was needed – i.e when they were studying. But none of his children really want their dad to take such pain. They respect him so much. When the father hears about his IIT grad son’s plan to fly oversees, he is so sad. Sad that his plans to build a new home is late but happy that his son’s career is taking off. The storyline of the movie hardly says all these. But a critic like me will not miss these essences which can be observed only if we watch the movie keenly. I like the movie for these embedded meanings which are not told explicitly but needs to be understood by intelligence, by making use of grey cells. I guess I had written a blog post earlier also about my taste of movies and this might have some things repeated. But I wrote this mainly to discuss my fascination for KKG movie.

I often become subject of fun for my friends for being such a psycho when it comes to watch movies. I think a lot before agreeing to come and watch a movie in theatre. They keep answers ready for my usual set of questions – is it really worth watching? Is it not jst another stupid love story? Etc…. They scold me saying movies should be watched to have a break from reality and not to suffer more by seeing more of it in big screen and also paying for it. But at the end they frown at themselves saying they were able to bend so many decisions of mine except this one. But this is not my decision. This is… ? I don’t know of any such English word to answer that.. but certainly it is not decision.