Thursday, June 16, 2011

Our national anthem

Our national anthem is in Bengali. No one remembers this, because in multi lingual India, people are free to speak in their own languages and while they tolerate other languages, most of them have no curiosity whatsoever about the other languages.
The point is, every Indian sings this song in the style of his or her state, but is not aware that he is doing so. For instance, in some schools in Tamilnadu, the music teacher picks up the harmonium. and sings it with gamakams (shaking the notes) and pauses that are typical of carnatic music. The pronunciation of the words is 'oh so tamilian', by which I mean that every syllable is pronounced sharply, as an orator of tamil would, in a tamil speech. It's comical for someone used to listening to some other version of the song. There is ofcourse the standard version of the band, which is anglicized and is sung in 54 seconds.Many have heard this, as it is a recorded version, like all things western.
It is a however, a treat to watch Bengalis sing this song. With emotional fervour,  a slow rhythm and the unique pronunciation of the language which does not have the vowel sound /a/ , it sounds different, but endearing and goes like this....jono gono mono athi noyoko joyo he... tamilians have to listen to it to believe it!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

my poems

Actually a couple of my poems have been published. A reporter tore a sheet from my diary and had it published in a newspaper in Bangalore; the Times of India, I think. I don't have a copy of those poems, nor a copy of the newspaper. Another friend of mine, (I think I mailed her the poem) told me that a pop singer had set it to music in Brazil. I vaguely remember that poem, though not the first two.I have a few more in my old diaries, though i have no idea where those diaries are.
I started this blog to record my poems, but somehow never feel like doing it.
My friend Bhooma is the only person who has read most of my poems.She even has a few of them. In fact, I used to write short ones about emotions and they used to turn out well. Bhooma has a few of these poems, coz I would throw them away after writing them. I think she inspired me to write and I miss her.
Actually my poems are nice, I just feel they are private. It's similar to an unwillingness to be photographed, a habit of the mind that i trained myself to change. I pose a lot for photographs these days. When I write more, as I am bound to, I think I will get over this unwillingness to share my poems too.

Friday, June 3, 2011

A modern affair - movie review

This was a romantic comedy that was free on you tube. The 'story' ( we all know that the story of a romcom is: boy meets girl, misunderstanding , then understanding, then love, then confession of undying love)  is about a woman who despairs on her lack of relationships, (she is overqualified, earns well, drives a great car, is a senior manager of some sort, very fit, orderly, serious and is close to middle age, and ofcourse as pretty as a romcom heroine should be) and decides to have a baby through In vitro fertilization. She goes through several profiles and selects a guy, who is anonymous and whose picture she cannot see.
After she becomes pregnant, she becomes curious to meet the male donor. See, this longing for relationships is the back bone of all romcoms. She meets him by hacking a computer and finding his address, and of course they hit it off. and then at a nice juncture when they are kissing and all, she tells him about her pregnancy and he asks her to get out. Then change of heart. ok?
Good choice of actors, suitably good looking not so young people; that's the best part of the movie....some realistic scenes and dialogues.... the heroine and her friend have a first look of the guy and go to an adjacent room and mouth the words, 'bald'  'he's a baldie' and laugh silently. The screen play is also interesting and not boring.Very few characters, non intrusive music. Good location
One thing I must say....the main characters, especially about the female; never, not even once, does she appear in sexy clothes. She never acts or speaks suggestively, even in romantic situations. I was shocked by the length and thickness of her clothes; It occurred to me that a woman from the west, in the exalted state of a film heroine has never been spared the burden of looking sexy, as this female seems to have been. Personally,
I thought the hero looked attractive.
Then there is a best friend, who is like a catalyst, suggesting ways and means for the heroine to take the steps required for the story to progress... Her character is not intrusive. But the unbelievable part of the story is that the hero, a person who makes a side income by donating his sperm decides to stop doing that at the end.

The dialogues were good. The heroine delivered them particularly well. Ok you can watch it. It's like a serial that's not boring.