A Haze I have felt you Peer at me, bleary eyed, In the wake of my dreams, And have felt you, Seep through the agony of my tears, Much like the thought that comes unbidden, Drenched, wet in the realisation of pain, I have felt you, Insidious, hidden in the smile That broke forth unbridled, Moist with memory of rain, Fragrant with pleasure, And I have felt you Look askance and look away, Quick, in the beat of an heartbeat, That slippery gaze, Soaked, in a query, a foggy haze, Oh, I have felt you, In many many ways... -Vinny 4/12/15
See Saw Your moods swing, he said, I know not why, I know not whence, But, I often catch myself mulling the nadir, From the edge of the crest! For one follows the other, Just as sure as night follows the day. Ah ! She said , But do you not see, That butterflies flutter insanely when the spiral downwards be, And the cresting wave frames my ringlets just right, with florescent delights, That one can catch the sighs suspended midway, When one reaches out a giggly hand mid flight ! My dear ,the see saw you see, is just a game i play with glee... -Vinny 1/12/15
Gestalt I am keeping count, he said, Of the colours you use and imbue, A one and a two and a three, The green, as green as that tree, The florid pinks and the deep deep violet and the lavender new, Fuchsia, lime and the White, So true! The brilliant reds, the muddy yellows and all hues of blue, But why? She said, the count of the one the two and the three? To discern, he said, which one is the real thee, Ah ! But they all little extensions of me be, You see, together they sew up the whole, that's me ... -Vinny 2/12/15
Enchantment I lose myself in our conversations, he said, Like the tiny bubbles that rise, Effervescent from a drink, My senses seem drunk to the brim, What is this magic you spin ?! Me? she said, My wand was stolen a while ago, And my memory knows no more, the sequence of things, You mistake the patina for the real thing. No , he said, I still see the imprint, Primordial lessons of the little things, The soft touch that thrills the heartbeat, The whisper that in their harmony, sings, The tress that twines, as if a string, You need no wand, you enchanting being! That is just your imaginations' fecundity, she said, I do no such thing, May be it's you who weaves, these magical spells you perceive, Maybe they are a function of your being! Or perhaps I am a palimpsest, One can never quite rub out an imprint, perhaps that is a wondrous thing, Or Perhaps your potions, exhume, She who once was a bewitching nymph! -Vinny 3/12/15
The wait There's such romance here, he said, See those undulating dunes, riding the winds? Life is made up of these things, the wind,the ride, the wings!! The sands scare me, she said, I always wonder what they hide beneath? And each time I set a foot forward, it's as if they'd suck me within,
She looked at him with beseeching eyes,
liquid as the rain that rose therein,
He, didn't see, he'd walked away,
Astride the wind.
She waits,
it's been an eon since...
-Vinny
8/12/15
The Walls We Build Oh what walls you build, she smiled Stone faced fortified, Are all these illusions of security, Meant to keep me petrified? Safely at arms length, All allure at bay, the distance sanctified? And are you ? He asked, so petrified ? You see that wisp of a smile? She asked, Contained in the crinkle around my eyes, And the sigh caught between my lips? Those are my partners in enterprise, We've weapons of our own, we don't scare easy, No matter how great the illusion be, We build bridges, across all moats thus fortified!! -Vinny 9/12/15
On Killing a Tree Did you see them kill that tree today? She asked, That's just the last rites they perform, he said, They killed it a while back, Starved it of attention, it fed on neglect, They poured arsenic into its roots, it drank that up, Turned blue, Then they forbade its nightly rendezvous with the moon, That's when it turned its sights inward, Living off the lamp that was lit within, They built around it, created a conundrum, shattered its peace, That's when i saw it weep, It shed its bark and its leaves like one sheds skin, seeking liberation, That too was not to be, It stood there solitary, defiant in its misery, It's addled skin exposed for all to see. " I wish to die in the spring he whispered, When the mango is laden with flower, Or when the corn on the cob ripens and the Mahua reeks with juice" Spring was a long time away, They've cut it up today, Light a fragrant pyre? oh, that they will... -Vinny 10/12/15 #Vidrohi .. Is dead, in the manner in which he lived, defiant
When did you and I happen? She asked, Was it as sudden for you as it was for me? Did it all happen all at once? No, he said, I had this slow insidious burn, Gnawing, never ceasing, that I suppressed for as long as I could, Till it burst forth, aflame, Could be denied no more, Is that when we connected? She asked, For I remember the fear the fires induced, That drove me to the peace of the waters blue, True, we did walk around aglow, licked by the flames, We didn't quite know how to tame, Then our conversations caught fire she said, And I waited for them to recede to an amiable Amber glow , Thereafter the rainbows burst forth, glittery and new, Emerging in all those myriad hues, When the bees sang amongst the flowers that drank dew, When fireflies fluttered creating that special milieu, And we were often drunk on sweet scented vapours, That were ether infused, When moonshine induced meditative calm, That's when I first knew. I've often wondered since, Was it you ? Or was it me? or that extra bit of magic that did us in ?! -Vinny 14/12/15
In Transit I wish i could read the messages the winds bear, she said, And the clouds and the rainbows and the rain, Why? He said , what are the answers you seek ? I seem to be at a crossroads, she said , Between hope and despair, is neither here nor there, And I know not the way through this, And while this indecision lasts unresolved, My life hangs suspended, in transit. -Vinny 7/12/15
Silences There was a time that you knew all my tales, I've still so much to say, she said, But I fear that you listen no more, Are we no longer on the same page? I listen, he said, but I often don't quite get what you mean, Your words are metaphors oblique, Fathoms deep, They leave me floundering for intent, I don't quite know what language you speak. When did our tale succumb to these tyrannies? She said, Why is it that we no longer look beyond the words for content? Why don't the silences speak, when once they sang ? Ah, my dear I don't quite know what to say, he said, Perhaps the dark in the words we speak, Rob the pauses of their fragrance, Perhaps it's best we turn the page, Perhaps it's time to get to the end... -Vinny 6/12/15
You and I I think I know two of you, Janus like you meet me in turns, And merrily confound my confusions anew ! There's one of you now , Smiling unconcerned, And the other am certain, awaits his turn, Which one , which one? Is the true you? For One waxes like the moon with my hopes, And the other wanes each time I despair, Perhaps you reflect my own concerns? -Vinny 5/12/15
I wonder why we talk no more? He said, There once was such a lilt in your voice, Our conversations shone, as if lit within, There was laughter and there was joy, And now, the words resound no more, They seem to lose their way in abstractions, I don't hear their music. Don't you know why? She said, Perhaps the words were merely reflected shine, Lit within, yes, within, And when the light died inside, They lost their luminescent beings. Now, There's just this dark silence that you see, Perhaps that's why the conversations ceased... -Vinny 30/11/15
Entangled Your words, he said, Such a tangled web they weave, Uneven patterns that abide, unyielding, Much as one tries meaning to derive, Perhaps you use them to hide? Ah! She said, If only you'd reach out a hand without fright, Softly, without intent, in just a little while, The words would fall away, gossamer like, I really don't intend to hide! -Vinny 29/11/15
Calypso* I hear the ebb and fall of the tides, he said, The swirl of the waves, has me in a trance, The songs of the sea beckon, It is as if the Sirens sing... I know, she said, that the rhythms that so entrance, Lie within, That the waves speak In your tongue , They tell tales of enchanted groves alien to me, That the stars light up your path, Through the riddle of the oceans, I see in the distance the ships that await, to take you tither, Away from me ... -Vinny 28/11/15 * in Greek mythology, Calypso was a nymph who kept Odysseus imprisoned in an enchanted island for 7 years.
Melody What is it that you seek? He asked, I see you roam the streets, Traverse the mountains and the seas. Hug a tree and collect the dew Or run the sands with your fingers, through, You smile with the flowers and hum with the bees, What is it that you seek? Ah ! She said , you see the imp in me! Then why is it that you don't see, That which reveals itself so readily, In the interregnum betwixt one wave and the crest of the next, That the sands have a melody, That the flowers sway to the humming of the bees! That this symphony in C minor, That the universe strums, was not just for Beethoven, Was indeed, intended for you and me ! - Vinny 27/11/15
I wonder what do you see? she asked, When you look at me so, I know that many moons have passed me by, That time nestles in the crinkles on my face, That silver colours my hair and my smile fades, Into nothingness, invisible to the gaze. He smiled, yes the moon touched the crevices of your brow, and tarried in the pooled reflections on your face, But I also see the moments in which you paused, Moonlit conversations suspended, dismissive of thought, As if rapture were alien to your state. True, she said, those moments in which I pause, Are littered with little bits of broken me , Sharp, hardened shard like, But, how is it ? That you perceive, Beyond the obvious and deep within? He smiled, I walk on the thorns of life , I also bleed. -Vinny 26/11/15
You sleep the sleep of the disconnected, he said, As if curled inside a cocoon, Don't your wings yearn the thrill of flight? I flew, too close to the Sun, she said Scorched, I use the dark to heal The dank moist haze keeps me from the blinding light. What if I were to fly alongside? Would you awaken to the colours that life offers? For they be so many, if only you would open your eyes. I see the world in light and dark, she said, And you yearn the painted dawns that arise, Washed with the hues of the waters wherein they hide, How will we fly alongside? Ah! He said, the dark and the light, Is it not that they hold within, All the colours that the universe provides? True, you see, she said, It is in this that the disconnect lies, That one splits a ray of light, And the other in the dark, abides. -Vinny 25/11/15
Kya khoob us roshan nigah ki jaadugari, Ek nazar dekh le toh savera lage hai mujhe . Nadiya kashti baarish, main aur tum, ye manzar khwab sa lage hai mujhe. Kya janeye Kya nawaz de kismat meri, Waqt ki chal badli
badli se lage hai mujhe. Us ke dar se laute to kuch yoonHua mohsin, har rooh pareshan, har mauj payasi lage hai mujhe. -Vinny
My niece and her parents and I , the four of us set off to watch #BajrangiBhaijaan, niece and I reluctantly, her parents, eagerly. We got to he multiplex to discover that there was a simultaneous show of #Massan, which I was longing to watch, and my niece discovered that #Antman was running too! a tussle ensured, we lost and ended up watching Bhai's film.
That #SalmanKhan plays Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi, (the pun on his being a devout Hanuman bhakt, obvious, like everything else about the film), who is something of a simpleton, someone who takes an eternity to finally clear his graduation exams, helps!! Salman fits the part of the somewhat slow, but large heart-ed benevolent small town boy to a T!!
and i am saying that tongue in cheek!
He is befriended for this obvious goodness by a little Pakistani girl lost in India. Pawan true to form, from the #Dabang character who "Ek baar coommitmnent karne ke baad hum apnee bhi nahin sunte hain" takes it upon himself to unite her with her family though he possesses neither a passport nor a visa and nary the means to do so. Well Salman is the super hero, aided by the Lord Hanuman who he believes will help him with every difficulty. The film like all the superstar's films, asks for a willing suspension of disbelief and and a willingness to sit back and enjoy the star's charisma, on ample display on the screen!
The man who does help him in Pakistan inaccessible to Bajrang Bali a land populated with disbelievers , is the highlight of the film, the journalist Chand Nawaz, played brilliantly by #NawazuddinSiddique, who lights up the screen every time he makes an appearance. The little girl #Harshali is sufficiently cute and adequately competent, #Kareena has little to do, except look good, which she does, with aplomb. The great twist in Bajrangi Bhaijaan is in how it renounces the masala formula of good-versus-evil, especially given its incendiary plot built around hostile neighbours. This is no Gadar, and the Pakistanis are not the Enemy. One of them is Chand Nawab (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a reporter who helps Pawan. Just how good is this actor! He can be subtle. He can be loud. He can play serious. He can play the fool. He can sell punch lines with the best of them. (Just wait till you hear him address Pawan as “Begum.”) Chand is a journalist and he’s trying to sell the Pawan-Munni story to Pakistani television channels, but no one is interested. He tells Pawan, wryly, that it’s easier to sell hate than love. That’s what Anil Sharma did, with Gadar. Kabir Khan, on the other hand, chooses love. There are Rajkumar Hirani levels of goodness in this movie. (And a bit of his sly satire too. When Pawan says Hanuman will help him, Chand asks, “In Pakistan too?”
#KabirKhan, leaves it to the charisma of the superstar to rake in the mullah, which I believe is happening, much to the producers satisfaction. The films seems to ramble on,its trajectory obvious,it could have done with a few effective cuts.however this is a focused film,the romance dealt with quickly and effectively to concentrate on Munni and Pavan. even so its a wee bit long for the simple story it is telling.
The only thing one takes away from the film is the fact that the message is one of peace, peace between the two peoples of India and Pakistan, divided by what is essentially an artificial boundary. 'Mohabbat bechna bahut mushkil hai, nafrat aaraam se biktee hai',Chand says. There are a few nuances, like the atypical Maulwi, who breaks the steoreotype of dogged dogma and choosed to side with goodness, at considerable personal risk. However, the film by and large is pretty straight forward and on the surface. The second half perceptibly better than the first.Salman delivers a Salman Khan film, nothing less, nothing more, with Nawaz ud Din as the saving grace. the music too is forgettable , a few frames from Kashmir enthrall.
Still wishing I had gotten to see Massan!
Vinny
27/715
