Stuff daydreams are made of

From DH Lawrence’s Women in Love (yes, the passage does mention food):

“Lunch was served on the lawn, under the great tree, whose thick blackish boughs came down close to the grass… The food was very good, that was one thing…. Ursula loved the situation, the white table by the cedar tree, the scent of new sunshine, the little vision of the leafy park, with far-off deer feeding peacefully. There seemed a magic circle drawn about the place, shutting out the present, enclosing the delightful, precious past, trees and deer and silence, like a dream.”

Sigh.

He threatened to put me behind bars ...

As I lost an ``important government document".

Well, I have been meaning to write about this incident for over a month now ever since it happened…so finally I let out steam here.
After a rather tiring three-days in the villages of Vizag and Kakinada, I took a train from Kakinada to Secunderabad. I was tired, after a long day spent in the sun, and crashed soon after I got into the train. I woke up only to find that the train was nearing Secunderabad station and would reach in the next five minutes. I hurriedly gathered my stuff, by which point the train reached the station, and got off.
As I headed the exit, a lady TC stopped me and asked for my ticket. My nightmare started now. I rummaged through my obscenely messy bag and did not find it. I looked for it in my jeans pocket and it wasn’t there either. I remembered holding the ticket in my hand at Kakinada station and showing it to the TC in the train before dozing off. Where could I have kept it. So, in all humility I told the TC that she could check the reservation sheet (the one pasted outside train bogies) and see my name there and that I could show her my identity card to her for name verification etc.
The lady said it was not her job to check the chart and that I will be fined. I lost it. I told her that if I am fined, it means that I have traveled without a ticket. “Meaning, you are announcing me guilty without giving me a fair chance to prove that I am not,” I said. The lady in black coat still maintained that I had to be fined.
Well, I asked her to put me onto her superior in that case. The superior was standing close by and she directed me to him. There, controlling my temper, I told him that I could not find my ticket but he could check the chart to verify that I did pay for my travel and that I did have a ticket. To this he said that I had to be fined since I had lost an ``important government document”. I was speechless for a bit and then I managed to say that I will not pay him a penny and that he could do what he felt like. At this point, he lost his temper and said, “do constable bulao”!! Huh!!
I stood there, waiting for the constables, who did not come and after a while, the man said that I could go back to the train compartment and check if my ticket was there. I said ok and asked him to send his subordinate so that I could show my name on the chart. Thankfully, the train terminates in Secunderabad and was still there when I went back with the lady TC who had stopped me. I entered my compartment and the cleaner was folding the blankets but hadn’t reached my berth yet. Under my blanket, I found the ticket.
With the ``important government document” in my hand, I marched to the big boss TC and showed him the ticket and asked him how he could threaten a regular passenger with constables etc knowing fully well that he could not do so until the crime was proven. To this, he hollered that he was well within his rights to put me behind bars for having lost that “important document”. I was by then mentally prepared to lodge a complaint with the railways about the man’s conduct and asked him for his name. He declined and said “You are my daughter’s age and you are threatening me” and started moving towards a box to put my ticket in. I said, don’t put my ticket in the box, I need it back. He said, “You cannot get your ticket back .. its against the rule”.
I told him that I was not off the mark in asking for the ticket and I knew it could be returned. Now, our man holding the government document was hopping mad. And took me to the station master. I was more than happy to do so to get rid of the curious crowd that had surrounded this whole ugly scene that I was creating with much help from the TC.
The station in-charge turned out to be a remarkably reasonable woman. The TC narrated the entire story to her, albeit sprinkled with huge helpings of masala (I got the train compartment door opened for her so that she could look for her ticket!!!) I told the station in-charge that she should take his story with a pinch of salt and all that I am asking for was my ticket. I forgot I needed his name too. She asked him to return my ticket and by then I was both exhausted and was smarting tears (problem is I get all teary-eyed by the end of a big argument) so picked my bag and left, mumbling a faint thanks to the station in charge. Thought about writing about it or sending it to reader’s grievances, but then got busy with some work stuff and had, frankly, lost interest too.

Umrao Jaan

I first saw Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan as a child and still remember being taken in by the film’s story and the performances of the lead actors. When I could understand the film better, I saw it again and again and again. To date, it has remained one of my favourite films with some of the best dialogues, scenes, music and, of course, lyrics.
The film’s strength, I still believe, was its narration. The tragic story of Ameeran, kidnapped and sold in a `kotha’, her failed love life and the sad and lonely life she has to reconcile with in the film’s end, was beautifully told. The grandeur in the film was subdued, didn’t shroud the story or the characters. As Muzaffar Ali himself had said that he didn’t wish to go for elaborate sets as it was the story and the acting of the lead roles that he wanted people to notice. And it worked as planned by the gifted filmmaker.
There isn’t, according to me, even the slightest flaw in the film’s gripping direction. It takes the viewer to a different era when girl children were randomly picked, sold and later disowned by their own parents/family. The most heart rending scenes being that of a teenager Ameeran being kidnapped even as she played with her kid brother and that of her returning home and her brother declaring to her that she did not exist for them. The best and biggest tear-jerker scene, of course, is when Umrao returns to the kotha she had left and removes the dust from the mirror in her room.
Rekha, though I was never really fond of her, gave her finest performance of a sad and lonely courtesan seeking love. Farooq Sheikh was a treat to watch as he played his role of a rich and spineless lover believingly. Naseeruddin Shah as a pimp was predictably as brilliant as the film’s award-winning soundtrack.
While all the songs from this film were hits, my all-time favourites have been `Yeh Kya Jageh hai doston’, which she sings while performing in Faizabad where she was kidnapped from as a child. The best lines that speak of her plight in this song, that has haunted me to date, are `tamam umra ka hisaab maangti hai zindagi.. yeh mera dil kahe to kya ..yeh khud pe sharmsaar hai’ and… `mere liye bhi kya koi udaas bekarar hai’.
Yet another melody is `zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein…’ which has this gem of a romantic yet realistic line…`har mulaqat ka anjaam judai kyon hai’.
With such a masterpiece already crafted, why then would I watch a new version of the film, whose promos have been enough to put me off.

Who are you scared of?

Last night, while tuning into radio I stumbled on this private FM channel where the jockey was asking “aap kisse darte hai (who/what are you scared of)”. I thought it was one of those programmes wherein the jockey herself would give answers like failure in professional life, financial or marital problems, and then go on talking about some philosophies of life and then play an encouraging song like ``mein zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya…”
In a nanosecond I realized I was way off the mark. After repeating the question twice, “who are you scared of?”, the jockey soon chirped, “The options to the question are a) Your boyfriend or girlfriend b) your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s parents and c) your boyfriend or girlfriend’s dog. SMS your answers to me on this number…the winner will get a goodie bag!”
I stopped reading to hear the options carefully when she repeated them again and realized it was not a joke. The jockey was serious and this was a serious contest. Then, I started thinking. Given the options I wondered what was the right answer to this question? I wondered what was there in the goodie bag (perhaps a book on `overcoming fears’). I also racked my brain about how the radio station will decide who to give the goodie bag to? I understood the gravity of the question only after the options were listed. After all, what can be more scary in life than your girlfriend or boyfriend’s temper, or either’s parents or either’s disapproving pet? Profound! The jockey broke for a song which was not `main zindagi..’’ for sure…but a more peppy `Kajrare’’.
It wasn’t a coincidence that yesterday hundreds of comments flooded news sites with people wishing a certain celluloid goddess a happy birthday. Television and radio had played songs featuring her all day. Yes, the music channels just fell short of changing their logo as they do on other `important’ days such as Independence and Republic Day and Diwali and Holi. Perhaps by next year, they will make amends. I was touched at how the nation got together once again in wishing this certain lady (strangely with no hits to her credit in the last few years) a happy birthday.
And celebrations continued this morning with news channels devoting a segment, a song, a report and an `in-depth’ feature on the ruling king of bollywood on his birthday. Predictably, the day’s schedule across channels…entertainment and news… comprises generous segments and films featuring this actor who could once act, but no longer can. Nevertheless, people can wish him by logging onto news websites and even take part in trivia quiz contests that a news anchor announced only three times this morning.
And as I write this, I think we are living in Trivia times.. when trivia makes main news, when trivia contests comprise sizeable chunks of television, internet and radio programming.
If I were to answer who/what am I scared of, I would add another option to the list. Option (d): the changed priorities of the media.