Humiliation

This poem has been a favourite for the last five years. Hope you love it as much as I do. Its by Kaifi Azmi, and translated by Mumtaz Jehan.

When I left her door I thought
She'd try to stop me
and we might be reconciled.

The wind billowed through our clothes;
I thought she'd ask me not to go,
and as she uncrossed her legs to get up
I thought she'd come to call me back.

But she didn't stop me
and she didn't ask me to stay;
she didn't call me
and she didn't ask me to come back.

I walked away slowly
and the distnce between us grew steadily,
till our separation became finite.


Current read: Still stuck with the ones I was reading, will be starting Shantaram soon!

Current music: Train: Give myself to you. Amazing stuff.
Current movie: 15 park avenue: I loved it. There will be a post about this one soon!

Gift of the Gulti

While some chose to do research projects, some chose to intern here and there, and some to study for the next semester, one Jayanth Madhav Barki ended up with what he does best… Nothing! So what does one who has nothing to do, do? When VTU decides to make its exams coincide with NIT and IIT holidays, there’s no one else who has nothing to do! Well…you’re getting there. Yes, one switches the television on! Over the last three weeks the phrase ‘Idiot Box’ has acquired far more philosophical significance in my life. It’s a TV-eat-TV-eat-TV-eat-TV-Sleep routine I have been following since the holidays began. And yesterday I reached the limit.
I’m an intellectually superior being (grin) so I never touch the addictive stuff (No double entendre there! I’m talking about the Saas Bahu dramas…I simply adore them!) I normally stick to VH1 and Zee Café for the entertainment, but after Will and Grace has been allotted erratic timings and only Taxiride and the Pussycat dolls get all the airplay on VH1 I have been reduced to a wanderer in TV Land.

Yesterday afternoon I had to sit through three hours of WWE to be able to get some of the action from the French open. While Nadal hammered Lewitt away I chewed my Britannia Milk bikis away. Right when Hewitt was about to win the second set, a message flashed on the screen….that the French open could be seen on Zee sports and Ten sports would be covering the India-West Indies test match. Damn! The only game whose rules I know well (that’s a BIG exaggeration) is tennis. I mean me+sports= 100% disaster (natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis, included). And I actually understand words like serve, rally, volley, break serve etc. So I ran to the TV channel preset to be able to watch my favourite tennis players live in action at the Roland Garros (Damn! Too much TV). But life had only sorrows in store for me! There was no Zee sports available! I called my cable operator who gave me a cable operator’s equivalent of a middle finger.

So I had to only flip channels and venture into forbidden territories… The first one being Sindoor Tere Naam ka on Zee TV! Amazing show! Three Bahus and one conspiring Saas who’s killing unborn babies and making life hell for all the Bahus. Damn. Wish I had such an interesting saas. The Background music brings tears to my eyes (ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding) when one bahu makes a malediction about another (Three scenes of her turning ninety degrees) Another ninety degrees and the bahu being cursed gives a shocked expression (No, I didn’t forget the ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding) And the Saas grins away to glory (Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding) and just when I’m at the edge of my seat, falling off with excitement (k)ekta Kapoor’s name flashes in the screen.

Dejectedly I flip the channel to see the Gulti (telegu) movie on Gemini TV.

Scene: The heroine is covered with crabs (fake ones) crawling all over her face and bare stomach. She’s screaming in agony while a white hair white shirt white dhoti white moustache yellow teeth villain laughs threateningly ( and its not a ding-ding, its just violins gone berserk) While the ‘heroine’s’ sister runs house to house asking for help. The ‘Bhadralok’ rather un-diplomatically close their doors as soon as they see her. Suddenly the berserk violins give way to ‘berserker’ Mridangams, Veenas, and violins as the heroine’s sister becomes ‘Durga’ and kills the villain with a spear she got from Gandhi’s statue. Now what Gandhi’s statue was doing holding a spear, god only knows. And wait…The heroine’s sister cannot be accused of murder…The villain threw it at her and fell down. The spear just happened to pierce his navel perfectly! And then the hero comes in the worst possible fitting black leather jacket and thrashes the villains goons! Whew!


So while Hingis rallied her way into the quarter finals, while Nadal continued hammering Hewitt, while Ljubicic and Ancic Volleyed away, Jayanth Madhav spent the afternoon with Crying Bahu’s, Inspired Gultis, mediamen and mediawomen (According to whom, Rahul Mahajan is the only thing which matters to India), The pussycat dolls, Oprah and Sania Mirza (She’s seen more often in the ads than in the courts…Who cares about tennis!). Sheeesh! Why do I even bother!


Meanwhile in my current music column, I decided to name my top 5 as on 6th June 2006 (they keep changing with the hour)
1. Janis Joplin: Son of a preacher man
2. Texas: Inner Smile
3. The Beatles: You’ve got to hide your love away
4. U2: Angel of Harlem
5. The Spice girls: When 2 become 1


Current Read: Mani Bhaumik: Code Name God and Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children

Current Movie: I still haven’t been able to see the Code. Damn!