Poetry and else

I was never good at languages, neither cared much about literature while at school and it was only in college when i  started reading fiction actively.  My mother tongue is Hindi, my mother still teaches Hindi and writes amazing poems,but Hindi poetry eluded me most of my school life. However, if there was ever a curve to represent my love for poetry it must be at its peak around this time and within the past year, a time, which i dreadfully admit has been quite difficult for me. Dreadfully, because of i fear still, if it will end. I had read somewhere that if there would have been no pain and no misery,we would have missed the best things in art. I can't find that essay now, but i remember it ended by saying that if Kafka and Mozart would have always been happy,Gregor Samsa would have never woken up to find himself transformed into an insect and most of world's music wouldn't have existed. I tend to agree to that.

Anyways coming back to the post; i don't know if this is the reason for my new found love for hindi poetry but i truly seem to enjoy it these days. It's not that i didn't understand poetry earlier, its just that the admiration for the words and their depth has been a new phenomenon.Although i still enjoy the poetry most when it is sung, with good music and voice taking the experience of listening to some beautifully written words almost out of this world.  More so, i have been really enjoying the resurgence of good hindi poetry in Bollywood songs.  Below are some mentions of some of my favorite works in different genres. I am not quoting them here or providing interpretations and translations here. There already many of them on web, i am just linking to the ones i found most appropiate.

As far as Hindi mainstream songs with poetic touch are concerned, Piyush Mishra's 'Duniya' from 'Gulaal', Gulzar's 'Dil toh Bachcha hai' from Ishqiya, 'Tu Raja ki Raj Dulari' from 'Oye Lucky Lucky oye', 'Dhan Tan' and 'Kaminey' from the movie 'Kaminey' and finally 'Aaoge Jab tum' from 'Jab we Met' are some of my recent favorites. I am sure there would be many more and i am in no hurry to find them.Serendipity, i feel, is best in cases like these.

Besides these, Harivansh Rai Bachhchan's 'Madhushala' and Kabir's Dohas have been my all time favorites. Kabir's Dohas in particular, are hallmarks of simplicity and profundity. In just two lines, Kabir touches society,philosophy,spirituality and other realities of our existence. A weaver by profession, he literally weaves magic, if you'd ask me. At this point, let me also give you a link to a wonderful site to explore and understand Kabir's Poetry. Rajender Krishnan through Boloji has not only compiled and translated some of Kabir's best known Dohas, he has also delved deep into subtle meanings of the words Kabir employs and also cared to explore the historical background in which these works were created.  Some of my favorite Kabir's Dohas are 'Chalti Chakki' and 'Guru Gun'. This blog has some of Kabir's songs and links to there modern renditions. Indian Ocean's Jhini Re Jhini is one such beautiful rendition of a song by Kabir with an amazing Fusion music.

Madhushala can be found at various sources, but most famous is of course is Amitabh's short rendition as a tribute to his father. I especially love the verse that says, "Pathik Pyaar se peena isko Phir na milegi madhushaala."

Another great site to explore poetry is Audio Poetry. I found that one back in college while looking for a audio rendition of 'Hazaron Kwahishyein'. It has one of most exhaustive collections i have ever seen. One final mention about a poem that i across through a friend's status message on Facebook.It's titled Jeevan nahi mara Karta by GD Neeraj.  Here is the complete text.

There are ofcourse many poems which i read as part of my course studies in school but not many have stayed, although i would have found them interesting then. As i said above, serendipity is best when it comes discovering new art works, may be i'll discover one them some day. Also, don't immediately click on all the stuff mentioned above. Read , take your time, explore some stuff and then forget. And then one day when you suddenly remember about it, try to search for it and find something new. You'll love it more.

P.S. I recently got a random compliment that it is amazing that i have managed to keep this blog alive for such a long time now.Although i accept it has had many long and short comatose periods,but not counting 2009, during which i never blogged, this is the fifth year of this blog. :)

Most of my friends, advertise their blogs at different places in efforts to draw more crowd and seek more recognition for their works, or probably involve more people in the discussion. Whatever be the intention, there is  ofcourse absolutely nothing wrong with it. I remember when i started this blog drawing inspiration from Nikhil, even i loved to have lot of comments on my blog. But after all these years - i don't know if you can call that growing up or being purely lackadaisical -  i am just content enough to put my thoughts here and forget the rest. May be when i am 50, i'd revisit this page to find out what i was thinking during my early quarter life crisis :D

How Do i Know?

Last two years or so have been a terror. I don't how much of me has been lost in the process, besides that,so many weeds have grown, that i have almost forgotten myself and my worth. It is almost impossible to know now. Comparisons have become inevitable and have gone out of hand.  Temporary distractions make it up sometimes but then at the end of day there's something that is always wrong. I am not philosophical, i can't practice that mind art or that 'art of living', but yes there are weeds and there are too many.

As i wade through this agnozing wait, i wonder, was all of it ever worth it or if i was ever worth it.

Biopics

Biopic or a Biographical drama is a significant genre of film making. Some of the most popular and best known movies of our time fall into this category. A Beautiful mind,Cinderella Man, Gandhi,Schindler's List and many more. Most of them have been DVD/video hits or very high grossing movies. There can be several reasons behind their success, simplest that comes to my mind is that these movies are essentially stories of triumph - they inspire us, they give us hope, they make us think and dream beyond the petty struggles of our mundane lives.

I'll discuss here three biopics which i found really interesting. Not from a cinematic point of view ,but a feature of the character that stood out for me. I normally detest writing philosophical stuff only because i know i am very bad at it,which is almost an understatement because i also know i am a bad writer too, and it precisely makes no sense to attempt a combination of two. So as i try to discuss these characters/personalities below, i will try to be as pragmatic as possible and stay away from any kind of sermonizing.

Let's start with Natarang. Natarang is essentially not a biopic,by that i mean, it is not based on a true story as per known facts. It is the story of a village farmer, Gunavantrao Kagalkar or "Guna", who aspires to be a Tamasha or a theatre artist in his life. He has always wanted to play the role of king and often behaves like one in his normal life; he has a good built and a kind of swashbuckling demeanor. Apart from that he is shown as a versatile artist - who writes, sings,can direct and act really well. Circumstances, lack of resources and an unusual turn of events land him in a precarious situation. He has an opportunity to start his own theatre company.However there's a catch, he has to take up the challenge of playing a Nachya or a 'Pansy'[1] artist,basically a man who performs a woman's role. Imagine,for a man who aspires to play a king, to take up the role of a pansy artist. He has to learn the demeanor of woman,lose a lot of weight and built, and face several other difficulties. I'll let you explore all that in the movie; but the point that stands out here is often our destiny lands us in a situation where we are forced to make choices which are diagonally opposite or much below our aspirations/expectations. Implications of all that,as i said before,fall in a domain which is beyond me.

Next is Patton,based on the life of General George S Patton.What stands out for me in Patton, is portrayal of man who has always believed in his destiny. Patton had several problems most of which can be crudely classified as behavioral. Although one of the best generals of armored warfare,Patton's career was marred by several controversies,mostly due to his outspokenness. At one point he served under people who were once his juniors in army(Omar Bradley and Eisenhower). But i guess Patton, as he is portrayed, more or less accepted his weaknesses, although never really succeeded in overcoming them. However, he believed he was destined to achieve something great as a general and he did that. Initially when the allies landed at Normandy he was not part of the battle but when he got his chance, he proved his mettle. Third army,which he commanded, engaged far more divisions of the enemy in far less time as compared to any other division of US army.At one point during the Battle of bulge ,he removed some corps of the third army from an already fighting position and turned them abruptly north to relieve another division of US army stranded at Bastogne. You can read more about it here,watch the movie,or better still read parts of his diary here.

Finally I'd like to discuss Ed Wood based on the life of Edward Wood, Jr; a very different case.Ed wood loved to make movies.Period.Nothing more to it; he neither had great movie-making skills to boast of nor did he always have sufficient means to them.Most success stories one comes across, are of people who became champions of their field by virtue of their skills or sometimes by chance.Wood was different,i'd like to say he was a classic case of, "I'd-like-to-live-my-life-the-way-i-want,do-hell-with-the-world". Big deal,you'd say,but isn't that a classic case of "Stay hungry,stay foolish".To quote from his page on Wikipedia.

[..]Wood made a run of cheap and poorly produced genre films, now humorously celebrated for their technical errors, unsophisticated, large amounts of ill-fitting stock footage, idiosyncratic dialogue,eccentric casts and outlandish plot elements[..]

In an essay paying homage to Wood in Incredibly Strange Films, Jim Morton writes: "Eccentric and individualistic, Edward D Wood Jr was a man born to film. Lesser men, if forced to make movies under the conditions Wood faced, would have thrown up their hands in defeat."

Back home Kanti Shah would probably come close.

That's it,a very long post,i'd say. I composed it over few days,writing for few minutes everyday. And that's all ,that's one for the season, no more philosophical or even semi-philosophical posts from me for some time.

[1]I have used this word because i couldn't find a proper translation for the Marathi word Nachaya. This word was used in movie subtitles,although, i guess it doesn't exactly mean the same.

Civil Wars

Civil wars can also be cataclysmic in the extent of damage they cause,particularly the ones which involve secession of a small part of a country which claims its independence. The damage caused, albeit isolated to the small secessionist state, is total, wiping out almost everything. I just finished reading Half of yellow sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, centered around the events of Nigerian civil war of late 1960s. This was first novel i read that was set in Africa and the first one after i resolved to pick up of novels from different countries and continents which i haven't touched till now.

I saw Nigeria of 1960s as a country with lot of diversity,grappling with post imperialistic problems which combined with ethnic tensions actually led to the civil war. I feel had India not been partitioned after independence, we might have gone through a similar civil war which would have been even more devastating considering the size of the nations involved and it would have also ended with two separate nations. Also with this context,one might realize,how important were steps taken against Khalistan and how severe can be the Naxalist problems of our country.

Adichie's work is very humane and involving in its approach, to say the least. It is not just a compilation of events, but a thickly woven story,told from three different view points. This combined with the fact that this was an hitherto unknown part of history to me, made the novel an interesting read for me.

There are a lot of countries today that are grappling with with political instability or conflicts with neighboring countries; the world death toll due to human conflicts it seems, was never higher. An argument against this can simply be that in today's information age we are more informed about other parts of the world and hence perceive that death toll today is high. May be the 19th and 18th century were as tumultuous,but because of the communication gaps,the extent of damage at any moment was never perceived to be that big.

P.S I decided to carry on with the blog and will try to post alteast more than once a week. However, i don't expect myself to spend a lot of time posting,hence most of the posts would be short,on-moment-types and as you can read above,hardly structured.

Cocoon

And then suddenly it dawned upon me, that all this while when i thought i was sailing on the sea,failing storms that seemed violent and merciless,i was only trapped in a cocoon that i built when i thought i was awake.The parallax was rather severe.

This blog has been inactive for a very long time now and i hardly see that changing for some months to come. Every time i think about deleting it,the thought that it often serves as a repository of sorts for me,prevents me from doing so.The seahaven should have a door.