Role Reversal

Finally, Kolkata has got its lady mischief-monger, a crank caller (who tells that she’s a student of Panskura college), who calls men (all unmarried between 25-32 years) from public booths, blurts out the details about their private lives, talks sleaze and then when the men begin to go weak between the knees and plead a meeting, she disconnects the line. Though most of the victims have shied away from launching a police diary, the police are on the lookout for this lady, who if caught, would have to pay dearly for her mischief.
(News courtesy: The Telegraph)

A visit to the Citizen's Park

The Citizen's Park has been recently renamed as "Mohor Kunjo" after the legendary Rabindrasangeet singer Kanika Bandhopadhyay, whose nick-name was Mohor.

Last Sunday, I visited the park with some of my friends at evening. Though I had passed the road in front of this place several times, I never knew what was inside the gates. That was the first day when I came to know that there is a musical fountain inside this well-maintained garden. This garden doesn't charge the visitors an entry fee and is maintained beautifully.

When we entered the garden at around 7.10 p.m, a musical show was going on. The stands were "house-full" with people sitting all over them. Some like us were even standing at the back, taking the support of the railings. The fountain rose and fell, changed colors with the sound beats. Rabindrasangeet (both vocal and instrumental) and famous Bollywood-movie songs (instrumental) were played. My friends later told me that anytime after 6 p.m is good to catch a show or the other of this musical-fountain.

The show was simply superb and I was spell-bound. The only regret: I didn't have a camera to click the scene and post it for my readers. Nevertheless, for those who still haven't seen this, do go to the park, take a stroll amidst the greenery and enjoy the musical-fountain.

The Overcoat: author- Nicholai Gogol

I still haven't been able to visit the Book Fair @ Salt Lake Stadium and today my schedule being choc-a-block, it's likely that this year too, I'll be giving it a miss. However, it doesn't mean that I'm not reading books. Yesterday, I purchased a few books again from Starmark, making good use of the 10% discount being given there.

One book, a compilation of Russian short stories, had The Overcoat by Nicholai Gogol as the first story. (In fact, seeing this story's name prompted me to buy the book coz ever since I read Namesake and saw the film based on this book, I was eager to read The Overcoat, based on which the central character got his name, Gogol.)

The story is about the life of a person (Akaky Akakiyevich) who works as a copier (who copies documents day-after-day) in a department. How the poor soul endures hardships of life to finally get a new overcoat (his old one was worn beyond repair), how his life takes a new turn with the new found happiness, how he loses it and how he dies...all this and more is nicely depicted in this story. This story made me realize, once again, how the small things in life bring happiness and how they should be cherished. Only, you need to have an eye for detail, noting these small incidents and savoring them, or else, they'll be lost amongst the crests and troughs of life.

The Kite Runner: a marvellous book

I first heard praises of this book from a colleague about 7 months back. Last Sunday when I finally purchased the book, I couldn't hold myself back from reading it that very night. Once I started reading, I was always wandering with Amir and Hassan in Kabul, wondering what would happen next. The next two days were spent with the book, in the metro, in office during lunch hours and at home in night....whenever I could steal sometime for myself. How an incident on that fateful day of the tournament changed everything, how relationships were broken, how some bitter truths were revealed, how someone would suffer (at times, it seems to be till eternity) and how he would go to any lenght for the atonement of his sins....all these and more are so beautifully captured by Khaled Hosseini in this book in fluid language that you can't but help feel a pain and start praying that the sufferings come to an end and that a new dawn full of hope and positive things finally happen.
In short, you just can't have words express how you would feel after reading this novel. I'm no exception. I still feel the pain and a peculiar kinship with the characters, especially with Amir (not to mention Hassan and his son, Sohrab). It would be another few days, I believe, that I wish to be rewinding again and again the special incidents (and believe me, there are a lot of them) of this book before I finally move forward to another story by yet another master storyteller.

The Japanese Wife

After a long gap, I finally invested in some good books. The Japanese Wife by Kunal Basu is a collection of 12 short stories where the unexpected is the expected thing. The first story (The Japanese Wife) was the tale of Snehamoy and Miyage, his Japanese wife, the two being married via letters. The relationship that started as pen-friends proceeded to Miyage proposing to Sneha (as he was fondly called by his aunt) and his acceptance to an alliance which seemed improbable. Yet, the couple continued their marital life without getting physically close to each other. After some twists and turns, it was Snehamoy's death that finally brings his Japanese wife to his village on the banks of Matla. This story is soon to be made into a film by Aparna Sen, starring Rahul Bose as Snehamoy and Raima Sen as the widow whom once the school master (Snehamoy) declined to marry.
The second story titled Grateful Ganga tells the story of a widow, Evelyn, who had come to India to fulfil the last wish of her dead husband, Andy....to flow his ashes in the Ganga. However, I didn't like this story, especially after the beautiful and poignant introductory tale The Japanese Wife.
The rest of the stories are put on hold as I am running through the pages of The Kite Runner finally, after about 7/8months when the book was first recommended by a friend. Needless to say, I am loving every moment of it. Would shortly let my views on it be known to all of you. Till then, it's me and the world of printed words!!!

Jodha Akbar: Film Review

Finally, India has its own magnum-opus that can match the splendor and magic of Hollywood biggies of the same genre like Troy and the likes. Though a few people discouraged me from seeing the movie giving a negative feedback, I just couldn’t resist the urge to have a look at the film which was being talked about so much. The positive and rave reviews that the film was getting everywhere strengthened my desire further. So, yesterday, I went and watched Jodha Akbar.

The opening scene of the battle of Panipat, shot beautifully, was like a trailer that set the tone for the following events. As the top shot of the armies of the two sides with the magnificent hills in the backdrop unfolded, I knew that there would be more such magical moments of photography in the film. How the soldiers of the two warring sides rushed forward and clashed was shot beautifully by forward and backward movements of the cameras, making the viewers a part of the whole proceeding from close quarters.

Apart from the breathtaking scenarios of the landscape of Rajasthan dotted by grand forts, this film is also worth a watch for the elaborate costumes and jewelry of the cast. The songs were soothing to the ears as well, merging the Islamic and Hindu elements with élan.

Lastly, the cast of this film: superb. Hrithik as Akbar was a sheer delight to watch. Aishwarya looked ethereal as the Rajput Princess Jodha though at times, her mannerisms were more modern, not befitting the times that she was portraying on-screen. Among the supporting cast, Ila Arun was at her nastiest-best as dai-maa of Akbar while Sonu Sood as Sujamal was another person I admired on-screen.

All-in-all, I would suggest that go and watch this film coz it’s not worth giving a miss to such a nice film made with a lot of care for the minutest of details. Whatever the cynics say about the historical authenticity of Jodha being the wife of Akbar, the film in its credits at the beginning tells clearly that it doesn’t claim to be a historically authentic record, rather a work of fiction based on certain historical events. So, I salute Ashutosh Gowariker for his labor of love and for giving the audience such a wonderful film to watch.

Bicchoo-nonsense

I think that people in the Health Ministry now-a-days have no pressing matter on their hands coz that's why they have come up with the idea of replacing the skull-and-bone symbol on the packets of cigarettes by a scorpion. If these people are to be believed, the bicchoo would frighten people far more than the skull-&-bone combo. The scorpion would be there for 6-12 months after which it may be replaced by a more dangerous image (wonder, what would come next....The Mummy???)