Saturday 29 August 2015

Dialectic




Caught in a dialectic,

You and I, 

The thesis and the antithesis,

Play out their parts in an endless swirl,

The pendulum swings , 


now this way,

And then the other,

Moods swing, 


the tides of fortunes imagined or not,


ebb and flow,regardless,

Time sings its multiple rhapsodies,

The elusive harmony one seeks,

That calm beyond

Will that synthesis forever elude?

-vinny

29/8/13

Friday 21 August 2015

SAILAB सैलाब


सैलाब 

तब,
 जब पहाड़ पर बारिश होती थी ,
अब्र  बहता था  नीला नीला ,
सींच देता था रूहों को,
खिल उठते थे दरख़्त सभी,
 गुनगुनाती थी पूरी घाटी 
अब,
 जब पहाड़ पर बारिश होती है,
लहू बहता है सैलाब सा,
घाटी की तलहटी में ठहरे , 
उस खूबसूरत फरेब सा,
जिसे शहर कहते हैं बड़े लोग, 
 अब बारिश बहा ले जाती है अपने साथ पैरहन  
  भीतर तक उधड़ जाती है, धरती की खाल, 
दरख्त सब सो गए हैं,
कोई जागा नहीं,
जो फेर दे सैलाब . ..
-विन्नी2013



SAILAB
tab
 jab pahaadh par baarish hotee thee
abr behta tha neela neela
seench deta tha roohon ko
khil uthte the darakht sabhi, 
gungunati thee poori ghati 
Ab
 jab phaadh par baarish hotee hai
lahu behta hai sailaab sa
ghatti ki talhati main tehre us  koobsurat fareb sa
jisi shehar kehte hain bade log
baha le jata hai apne sath pairahan,
bheeter tak udhad jaati hai dharti ki khaal, 

darkht sab so gaye hain
koi jaga nahin, jo pher de sailab...


vinny jain
2013

Sunday 2 August 2015

Of #BajrangiBhaijaan, the film.

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

Saturday 1 August 2015

The Muse



The Muse

By the bend of the river she sang,

And what I heard reminded me of a choir,

She and the river as if of the selfsame song,

Sometimes her words were clear, at others bent,

To the roar of the river at the indent,

Much like the filled in colours of memory’s imprint,

And then by the mountain she was seen,

In the glen at the foothill,

 amidst the yellow flowers strewn on the green therein,

her eyes bent, her lips moved to that self same song

singing to the muse within,

oblivious, serene, she sat almost unseen,

 I see her often by the sea shore,


Nestled in the boats come ashore,

She sits quiet, transfixed as if by the play of light and dark,

The waters lit, often gold or shimmering with sliver,

As the ebb and flow of life tip toes by

It is her song the waves sing…


Her words now resonate with my musings within,

She and I, as if of the selfsame song, we sing…

~Vinny


August 1, 2013