The Second Lost One...

Tonight I send my silence,
gift wrapped
in my grandma’s worn wooden box
As you sleep.
I remember
our search for
the Cinderella slippers
in the musty maze of New Market.


If I could paint
I would
break the curse
of an afternoon geometry
with the soft strong lines
of your mouth;
the music,
as the piano finds the fingers it shall love.
and the lightning
in monsoon darkness
that summons
kisses and revolutions…


We walk;
Lonely
amidst the crowded city streets
before the 3 p.m. punctuation
ends it all.


Not every woman needs
a hitchhiker!
So no daffodil skies,
or engraved rings
from Tiffany.
Maybe a pledge
to remember
our Paris?

Paradise is never lost


Photograph : Yours Truly

The New pin Code

Zarre zarre mein usi ka noor hai
Jhaank khud mein wo na tujhse door hai…

So began the film.
Rakesh O Mehra has done it again. His latest poetry on celluloid is a multilayered explosion of sights and sounds that is an assault on one’s senses. And through this implosion of conflicting ideas that forms the very basis of the fabric named India, it holds the mirror and nudges us to take a second glance. Delhi six is all about introspection. Religion, caste, money, ego… before blaming others, look within. More than cinema, it is a lucid dream that is essentially the visual monologue of the director.

Binod Pradhan’s stunning cinematography and Reheman’s sound add context and texture to the movie. Pradhan’s work has an inconspicuous documentary style and every frame is a photograph. And by far this is the Maestro of Madras’s greatest work (Never mind slumdog…jai ho). The beauty of the film lies in its thought provoking yet simple and free flowing story line.

Realistic? Hell yeah! Yesterday on my way back the auto driver charged Rs 10 instead of the stipulated fare of six. When we- the four commuters, ganged up on him, he explained how he was suffering financially while drivers of another route went scot free with rule breaking because they were from a more ‘cohesive’ community that the police couldn’t bully. “Them Muslims…they will turn us minorities in our own country” pat came the reply. From my seat beside the driver I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a man who could be anyone from my uncle to your dad! The mirror announced- ‘Objects in the mirror are closer than what they appear.’ Irony? Maybe......
62 years post independence; yet it continues! Perhaps it’s time to take another look in the mirror?

Photo courtesy: http://delhi6.co.in

Past continuous...future tense?

Past Continuous.....
A couple of days back I was at a book reading session at The British Council Library. The occasion: launch of Neel Mukherjee’s bildungsroman Past Continuous, which he calls a novel with a gay protagonist written by a gay writer. The interactions between the articulate Oxford educated author, a very gay panelist (whose only claim to fame was possibly that) and an I-am-desperately-trying-to-sound-intellectual-but failing-miserably Munmun Sen were quite funny. But this is not about the session or the book, which by the way I would very much like to read. The entrée promises a delicious bleak delight and the language seemed quite evocative. Last book I read with the same flavour was God of Small Things.

Anyway, as I was saying…. It wasn’t the book but its title and the audience that got me thinking. The crowd was an eclectic mix- members of the intellectual hierarchy, the pseudo intellectuals tagging along their better halves (I can so see Ghosh kakima ask her husband that night, “Cheleta kirom odbhut na? Eder bujhina baba.”), library members caught off guard and forced to fill the seats, journalists and yes, last but not the least…them! Those who shouldn’t be named- them GAYS!

Homosexuality is out in the open.....
We had one Dostana, the probable reversal of a section of archaic colonial laws (about time!) and the Virgin mobile ad about a girl who pretends to be a lesbian in order to go on a trip with a guy. But we also have political parties campaigning to remove sex education from the school curriculum and the friendly neighbourhood Sarkarbabu who sends his son to get a glass of water when the parrot sings the Condom anthem. Two sides, same moon! In a land that still stashes sexuality in the closet with other skeletons, as a society are we mature enough to recognize and maybe even accept its various shades? While we aim for western sexual liberation they seem to have already left the station for post-sexuality. And even this homosexual (r)evolution stinks of patriarchy. As one of my German friends pointed out, it’s still ok to be gay in India.....but lesbian- HELL NO! I know of one...two...three....and maybe four (if Addie is right) bi-curious/sexual individuals. But true blue...emm...pink lesbian? Nun my child....none! It’s still past continuous there.

Future Tense?
I really envy those who belong to the fortune cookie school of thought- Let things happen and then we will decide about it! For me it has always been the target first and then back calculating the steps towards it. It works fine if one is flexible enough! But life ain’t that predictable. Look at Cosmy.....She prepares well, writes the CAT and gets a shitty score. The retard writes it again... only this time without any preparation and scores a 97.4 percentile! But she didn’t prepare...and so the bisexual lady luck skips her and like a nice Indian girl chooses the next guy. Chance favours the prepared mind darling.....Irony isn’t it? Life may not play fair, but it sure has a hell of a sense of humour! Looking into the relationship rear view mirror…one realises the past was closer than what it appeared. And in our retrospection of the past that is continuous and future that may be perfect we ignore the present that in spite of being simple is so beautiful! It was January 11 when I decided to do get drunk and play BBC. As she takes her own ‘sweet’ time I am in my private version of bliss.....enjoying enlightenment and taking a breather. This time I wouldn’t mind bearing the cross....again.

Photograph from Deviantart.com

Auld Lang Syne

Hello all….
My watch says 4:40 am and it’s officially New Year. Wishes to everyone. A year that began eventfully at Varanasi finally ends without even a drop of alcohol! After the cold coffee, I am even more parched! Zipping down the neon washed deserted Kolkata streets, one tends to retrospect ...especially when he is sober. The early morning fog adds to the mystique and makes a philosopher out of a cynic. I was no exception. Much sewage has flowed down the neighbourhood Kestopur canal and I had made new friends, lost some, fell in and out of love, bought the big ass Nikon D300, played Shylock and exacted more than a pound of flesh, blah blah blah......the list continues. And while they are relics of the past now, a new common minimum program has already emerged to serve as a control for my experiments with life running into its 24th year.

There goes my first ever public 10 point directive generally referred to as the New Year Resolution. Let’s see how the Battle Plan survives the first contact with the enemy.



Get Some
I am taking money you dirty, depraved mind! Lucre, cash, dough! My eco prof preached, ‘Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.’ So here is to the search for pecuniary nirvana… various combinations of numerals prefixed with a Rs or $.

Victory- The Battle Of The Bulge
The Aim- To achieve a perfectly sculpted body with minimal workout! I am talking neo-classical Rambo with Amir Khan abs, John A. butt and Hritik Roshan flexibility. (NO Salman Khan please...but wouldn't mind Katrina *Wink)
The Catch- All that without waking up when I generally go to catch my forty winks and a drop of sweat.
The Result- Keep my ever fluctuating waist in shape and help me fit into old pairs of denims (I don’t give a damn about children in Africa....I am not giving them denims away for charity).

Photo- (Ec)centric
Wish list-
* NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S
* NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S
* NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8 G ED-IF AF-S VR
*Crumpler dSLR/Laptop Bag- Karachi Outpost (KO03A)
(ORGASM)
*Have 12 photo-series by the year end
*Win at least two contests of repute

On Being The Oracle Of Delphi
I have found my calling- Journo/photographer. So Agony Uncle/Career Councillor NO more.

WanderLOST & Found
Give in to my wanderlust and travel more. Dream destinations this year include- Agra, Delhi, Rajastan, Goa, Kerala and the Jungles of Uttarakhand and MP.

Light(en) Up
Sorry all you puff addict friends, the fiend with a fierce dislike for nicotine waft is here to stay. Come 2009 he promises to take a proactive role in enforcing the Ramadoss interpretation. G and Soumik, take special note.


Blog Regularly
More Blogging equals more posts equals more of my life out in the public.
Good exercise for a future great.

Be less Judgmental
I, Chhandak Pradhan the resident of snobville do solemnly swear that I will be less snooty, opinionated and bitchy than last year.
* *Raises his left hand and makes a solemn face :|

Plan-err
Will try to stop planning so much and act more spontaneously.
‘So should I kiss her...should I take up that job? emmm errrr.....’ **scratches his head. [Narrator prompts from side- 'First get the girl and job you moron!']

Commit_meant _for _ME
It’s official! My 14 year old cousin has a girlfriend with whom he dreams to spend the rest of his life with. And look at me..... SHYTE! This glass being half empty crap sucks...big time. So this bohemian blues manager promises to put more heart into whatever he does this year.....bohemia or otherwise.
Let’s see if he can achieve the stable ‘thing’ this year =)

Photo- Ciril from www.deviantart.com