Some of the better things about our country…

71^st year of Independence ....does that make me more patriotic? Does that make me think a bit more about my country? Does that make me go on an introspection mode? Does it all make me turn on the pages of those books which have always glorified my shelves with so many names, so many events, post colonisation, pre independence, freedom struggle. I ultimately run my hands over that little book; I remove the dust, open my eyes wide and gently press my fingers to turn on the page.

Patriotism has been confined in those little spaces , yes I do spell it for my daughter, I also make her write paragraphs and  I ask her to sing that ‘Anthem'on the special day, we make a flag together, fill those tri colour spaces, colour the chakra with the specific colour and symmetry . ....the rest I tell her “This country is unique” still....

I pick up all the shady attributes, dark analogies, anarchic lingos , deranged slogans, lawless  images, confused emotions, turbulent undertones  from Cows to chaos, potholes to dog poo’s, sadhus to tabooed sex, jet speed carts to noisy honks, anarchic government offices to a tomato starved nation, choti cutter to ‘khule mein shauch’ ....you have it all .....Life, sound, fury....India I still feel alive every time I see you.....diversified, splendid, colourful, utterly unpredictable.

I found yellow, I touched orange, I lived green, I saw red  and wherever my eyes turned I could see all those splendid colours unite together...utterly chaotic yet life peeped from every corner

I saw a dog, a bull, and an elephant on the little by lane, each living in harmony, who said we can’t.

I had no one to talk, I was lonely the last evening, I made a cup of tea for myself and the one who looks after our house, we chatted for a while, she had 4 kids, she also worked the whole day but she still smiled, we shared a joke and she asked me “How was it to travel in an aeroplane”, she never knew the word “spirit” but she had it.

My neighbour makes the best “kheer” she also keeps a bowl  for us, sometimes she gifts me flowers from her maternal house.

I still sniff the oil soaked ‘bhature’ on the roadside dhaba, I still hold on to “tea cups” at the “chai ki dukaan” and talk about my “Nani” with a Stanger. That's my "India"

I wake up every morning and walk on the wet ground, my feet touching the soft mud, the chaos sets in, I get ready for another hectic day and the faraway music, I hear a faint sound coming from the nearby loudspeaker “Sare jaha se accha, Hindustan humara”, I knew with all its vices, I still belonged to this country, my chaotic land.... I was a free being, I felt thankful! 

pic -Google Images

oF fOOTBALL AND pINK SHirts-Gender stories untold

We are born as individuals; gender is a derived term, socially constructed sex. The society has created a web of notions with regard to the male and female gender.  The basic pattern of our thoughts have eventually been shaped with the instructed motif...freedom of expression was not a primal   ingredient  while  the behavioural pattern developed  over the years.

The stereotypical or the stereotypes are the norms of assessing a gender. The very archetypal syndrome which is expected from a specific gender is ‘ thankfully’  a borrowed one  with a lot of deviance and anomalies, variety does not find a place, everything is subjugated to pre conceived notion derived, set rules. Talking about third world countries, the progress is still on a lower graph but yes in urban India, people have started to think. That surely lays the first stone

 Few observations -Parent's story from the shelf

• ·        My son cried a lot while watching a movie
• ·         My daughter is obsessed with mechanical gizmos’
• ·         My brother loves to cling with soft toys
• ·         My daughter loves it when she does not use make up
• ·         My son plays with utensils; he has no eyes for other male specific toys
• ·         My daughter loves black and blue
• ·         My son says he would paint his wall pink
• ·     My daughter is football frenzy, she has those hysterical outbursts while watching a match
• ·         My son, he  never takes the pain to turn on the sports page...weird na

These goes on, the rhythm somewhere sets a different tone for the conventional social class. But what is norm, who sets the benchmark. The yardstick to delineate what is right for the other is according to a specified barometer.

Each one of us have  varied spectrum of thought mechanism.... are born with multidimensional behavioural  skills and  have a   natural tendency towards life. Is it right to turn the steering according to the social perception and mould natural efficacy?

So, next time try to think as a liberal parent....the boy might have an eye on the pink shirt on the shelf...or the little girl rightfully approves her tanned skin after a rebellious football match..

The gender story is so well constructed by us....can we ever come out of that armour...rightfully...ever?

   

Lipstick under my Burkha-A curtain raiser to the real self

“Lipstick under my Burkha” The Burka and the lipstick both incarnate a solitary notion of feminine character in a very paradoxical tone.  One speaks about a subjugated reality veiled under by macho ideologies of society and the other exemplifies a more enticing, liberated entity yearning to be the real self, unpretentious, free, without any gender specific regulations...a mere human spirit  enjoying the primal instinct not at all underneath the piles of blanket thrown over to hush the escatatic moans.

 Ratna Pathak Shah believes this film to be away from the conventional median, it is a leap from the destined sketch designed by the society about female sexual ardour. It is a journey, a realisation, a feeling, a smouldering wish underneath the covers to relive and enjoy the basic instinct without any underlined phrase.

   

As a Man, as an animal, as tree, as a bird, as a human and as  CREATED by NATURE.

The story of Alankrita Srivastava’s “Lipstick under my Burkha” is all about four women, heaving high in ecstatic moaning in every act they do in life.  Ratna Pathak Shah plays a woman in her fifties clinging to the different layers of her femininity, quintessentially bolder from the norms. Pathak talks about the film, the unconventional storyline rebukes the stereotypical   stigmas attached to feminine mannerism bestowed by the society. The film depicts the tangled mindset   of our generation which is engrained in patriarchal aroma.

The release date of the movie is on 21^st July. This film has an innate flavour of contemporary new age film making genre.  The film promises to intellectually stimulate   many sane minds and also bring a disgusted sigh for many who always have a say about the ethical jurisdiction about everything from a lipstick smudged lip to a nail paint supposed to entice men....even the skirts flirted with shameless moves according to them.

The actor also felt that Alankrita had devised the script keeping Pathak in mind.  The very script had the appeal to be a part of the film journey. A well written script on female emancipation made Shah fall in love with the story and sign as a main protagonist. Usha is the character who attempts to learn swimming at a ripe age, that surely knocked Shah as she herself has a fear of water.

 The actor feels that women would specifically turn the wheels for this movie, by embracing their bolder version; the burqua and the shade have many undertones and revelations to be contoured. The women in this film have been portrayed just as “women”....Burkha and lipstick both have their own story line... story about  female entity, story about life, story about 'herself'  .....the film has just deciphered that in a deeper connotation

Feel The Music

Advaita is an eclectic fusion band, an expression of eight musical identities that dissolve into one another to create a unique sound. They are a band based in New Delhi, India. From their inception in 2004, their brand of contemporary ‘organic’ Indian psychedelic music has been hailed as one of the most original and creative sounds to ever come out of the Indian underground music scene. No where else can one hear a sarangi, tabla and Hindustani Classical vocalist blend so effortlessly, yet so exotically with guitars, drums and keyboards.

In 2009 Advaita launched their first album on EMI records titled Grounded In Space and this really catapulted the status of the band. Recorded at the famed Yash Raj studios, Mumbai, the album was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Later that year, they were one of only four bands from India selected by famous producer John Leckie for the British Council Soundpad Project, recording 2 songs for a globally released compilation as well as touring the UK. More international gigs followed with a trip to Singapore.

Advaita’s fan base was boosted further by their presence on the inaugural seasons of MTV Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged. Following this the band released their second album titled 'The Silent Sea' in 2012. The album went on to bag the Global Indian Music Award (GIMA) for 'Best Rock Album' and the Jack Daniel Rock Award for 'Best Album'. Close on the heels of these awards, the band was also featured in a prime time show called 'The Dewarists' on the Star World channel and more recently ‘Sound Trek’ on the Fox Traveller channel.

Advaita is now one of India's leading bands with one of the most exciting live acts, redefining contemporary Indian music, blending the traditional with the modern in a way never seen before.

Men are not Aliens from Mars, neither Monster from ‘Lala land’ and I am not a Feminist

When we were growing up, we did not have social media with us neither the strong social platform. There has been a leap, many say in our thoughts, in our upbringing, our society and our parenting or just that the media has started glaring too much with their search for content. There might also be a graphical change in the societal morale and value quotient. The men of our society going haywire with devious instinct? The women folk keeping aside the conventional tag ‘Your fault’?  It goes on.....I might not be the right person to dig on to the reason.Or the women of our times have started being their own self, just the way they should have been, free spirit, an un-tangled identity, a human. Some say that's where the hue and cry is. Women have become "Feminists"...that's what they say.

The crowded bus, the abusive uncle, the creepy cousin, the uncanny boss, my slightly revealing 
dress, the skirt line, the fact that I was attractive, the fact that I wasn’t, the fact that I was submissive, the reality that I spoke too much, the truth that I smiled back, the notion that I was single, my age, my face, my anatomical graph, my social status, my cultural background, my gender....Do they speak without my knowledge? Or they display invitation cards? I never knew that. They don’t ask for joy rides, a lift, a consoling touch, a pat on the back.

The child, the teenager, the middle aged and the old-Did everyone  evoke a half naked alien plunging, grooving, prying for his victim in the darkness, in the broad day light, at a corner, even without the corner, in the streets, at the gathering, the road, the club, the hospital, the school, the temple and even at closet of the home.

I still believe in humanity.

My daughter grows up to be a teenager, I hold her fingers show her the blue sky, the better grass, the greener pastures, the heaven, the butterflies, the roses and then I drop the idea; take the plunge, the flight to the ground.

Words of wisdom-From Mummy

• Masked faces might have a familiar smile.
• Touch does not always mean pure love. IT COMES IN MANY SHADES

• ‘No’ has no submerged undertones. IT IS SIMPLY A ‘NO’
• The face, the cleavage, the legs are simple biological extensions. Invitation cards look different
• Either it’s “Yes "or a “No” there wasn’t a disclaimer written “Read between lines”, fantasies are cooked up stories of perverted minds.

Harsher laws, severe punishment, stronger action and off course a few things beyond the law. 
Men are not aliens from Mars, neither monsters from ‘Lala land’ and I am not a feminist.

 I don’t know why I write this article, may be as a  writer, as a Blogger, as a Mother or just as a Human Being, my right to express,  my choked up feelings, my blocked up apprehensions and that dilemma to teach my daughter about life, men, feminists and aliens.

pic -Google Images

Published   -https://www.mycity4kids.com/ 

Star Anatomy

Shimmering lip gel

Vermilion redness of a setting sun

Trembling, charred lips camouflaged

Favoured tissues, smothering the lips

Rejoicing every signature

Bruised heart, jinxed fate mourning

Lonesome soul, a few cigarette crushed

Sunken eyes, purple scars

Bed sheet scrambled, old scotch trampled

Sleeping pills, 

diamond rings,Wet old pillow choked to tears

Placid purse, flock of cards

Stardom left

Some overdose pills

Some leftover sins

Another broken soul on a heavenly trip

Life was a battle underneath the lustre

And you said “I was a star”
published- emagazine "Fragrance"






                          

Simple as that

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

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WOW – Write Your Life Story

It started with a huge bump, right from the embryo to an alien world

Mom said she poured in her extra bit to push me to her little world.

The Dad, the Mom, the cake and 14 candles.

Mom made the sweetest cup cakes

But life has short-lived sweet stories

Mom wanted to explore another world.

Me, Dad, office, chats and  “chicken curry”

Ma’s red sandal aptly slipped into my feet, really!

The sandal was lost at the party

The prince, the slipper, a ring and a voice “Mummy can I wear that "