Music does it
With the news of Ameen Sayani, the doyen of radio music presentation, passing away it seemed to be an end to a certain chapter in my life. Those were days when words like radio jockey, mobile app, Spotify, etc. were yet to arrive on our horizon. But in the small upper Assam town where we lived Wednesdays were special for me: the Binaca Geetmala day!
Talking...talking
I am too talkative, some say. Like, on the Metro train I start talking with a total stranger, a woman with a child. By the time she gets down in her stop I know that she is a homemaker, worked in a school before marriage and is now itching to get back just waiting for the child to grow up a little but also worries if she waits too long the opportunities would get fewer as new batches of aspirants come up.
The other side of happiness
The monsoon is on its last legs, the blue sky and white waves of kaash flowers now send the message that our beloved festival, Durga Puja, is round the corner. A time for celebration indeed. But old-timers are frowning a little unhappily too. Ma this time is coming to earth on the vahan of ghotok - horse, and going back to her heavenly abode on horseback too. This indicates a time of conflicts and war.
Theatre of the absurd
Does fiction imitate life or is it the other way round? Sometimes you wonder as you look around the world you live in today, and not in a fictional time. But one thing is sure , there are enough material to inspire fiction or celluloid tales to give a satirical twist to which is very real.
Looking back with stars
As one gets on the years, one tends to look back with nostalgia on days past and then often regret with a sigh, ‘those were the days’. But looking back can also mean no regrets but joy, happiness, even savouring the innocence of believing that things would remain so too in future. Thus the news of the death of Gina Lollobrigida at 95 took me back to my teenage years when everything seemed to have a spring in the air.
Hope, despite everything
We are living in a strange time beyond familiar ‘normality’. Climate change creating havoc with unseasonal rains, furious floods, hurricanes looming like a Damocles’ Sword over hapless citizens, forest fires, heat waves in a cold continent like Europe –the list can go on. Not to talk about Covid 19, return of old world diseases like cholera, Ebola, etc. etc. Old timers in India wonder if the dreaded ‘Koliyug’ is upon us in our lifetime itself when the fabled Lord Koli descends to destroy everything on his way.
Wood stories
I was walking around in the famous Lal Bagh of Bengaluru on a monsoon day recently when some huge structures caught my eye. Sure, the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, its formal name, is known all over for its sprawling 240 acre area, its 200 year old history starting with ruler Hyder Ali, its more than 1,000 species of plants- some centuries old, etc., but these structures were different. Amidst the bright bougainvillea shrubs, lush green vegetation, palm trees with drooping leaves, these dark brown majestic figures stood apart. What or, who were they?
Top Headlines
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Music does it
February 27, 2024
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Talking...talking
December 16, 2023
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The other side of happiness
October 18, 2023
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Theatre of the absurd
June 07, 2023
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Looking back with stars
January 19, 2023
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Hope, despite everything
November 02, 2022
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Wood stories
September 03, 2022