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

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

Who cares about the "Superwoman" tag?

“Men to the left because women are always right”

“Behind every successful man there is a woman”

“Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice”

Why does a woman have to be right always, why does a woman have to carry all   the good omen or ill luck for a man’s success story, Isn’t’ he his own architect? And last but not the least does she  need to have all the sugar and spice elements rolling from her head, heart and body ... common tread on to the nearby bakery shop for that;)