A humming word

Farewell Song is a translation of Shesher Kobita by Rabindranath Tagore, set in the backdrop of Calcutta and Shillong.  Amit Rai, a city-bred boy, belongs to an aristocratic family. A polished man, Amit is well versed in the poetry of Robi Thakur and N. Choudhury. Labanya, whose home is the deodar trees and her house library at Shillong, has dedicated herself to learning and is sunk deep in philosophy, literature and her father’s wise words. Amit courts women and like a petals of flowers, he makes a pot pourri of the women he likes. While, like Arjuna, the Pandav price, Labanya doesn’t waver from her thoughts painted with her morals. She rejects advances of any kind from her father’s students, too. However, when Amit’s haughtiness brushes against Labanya’s simplicity, he is soaked in the hills and trees of Shillong, and she is painfully drawn to him.  They weave their love story with their conversations, rather, beads of literature, and that gravitates them...

When BR Choprq's Mahabharat was released, the roads were smeared with silence and the residents of houses became the citizens of Hastinapur for a solid hour,followed by discussions till the next week. Shilpa Kala Vedika, Hyderabad, turned into Hastinapur in December 15. As the auditorium, stung with mosquitoes and a good sound and light system, was packed with netizens clicking videos and pictures of the important narratives of Mahabharata, eloquently narrated by Bhu-Mata (by the talented Meghna Malik) and dialogues set in rhyme that created an indelible impact: the stellar performances, the rapidly changing sets, the rhythm of the dialogue and the powerful monoglue glued us for three hours, with a ten-minute break in between.  But this Mahabharata belonged to Duryodhan, who challenges the rules of politics and caste especially when he saves the day taking Karna in.. defying the rules of caste politics ..and giving him a kingdom. Duryodhan is unabashedly pr...

Writer's fest Definition: an exhibition of art and artists of the written word where pearls of wisdom are strewn into discussions and panels. Women's Writer's Fest - First edition- was a fest focussing on women literature and feminism. Not the feminazi kind but the kind which is elegant and strong. The free for all event was hosted Ficci Flo and Shepeople.Tv at The Park, Somajiguda from 11 am to 4:30 pm, today. Albeit it stretched to an hour and a half, people were not complaining. I attended the session from 2 pm onwards. The fest was an amalgam of strength, simplicity, style, and panache. The physical strength was the session by Mickey Mehta, who hosted the session "Reverse your Universe" spoke about the myths about healthy eating. Should we really eat six eggs a day? Is industrialized milk really healthy? He is a solo-prenuer and his marketing skills prove that. His focus on fruit and vegetables than powders and pills was refreshing. Volga's session...

Migration. Climate Change. Colonialism. War. Mass hysteria. They are peas of the same pod in the context of immigration. Suketu Mehta, author of the Pulitzer-shortlisted Maximum City, writes this book out of anger and wishes he plants a seed of hope. He borrows the title from the folk song “This Land is Our Land” written by   an Okie named Woody Gurthie. Mehta divides the book into three sections and eighteen tiny chapters that elucidate on Immigration. He touches upon: Why is immigration seen as a problem? Why are immigrants often feared? Why do people emigrate? And Why they should be welcomed? Walking into the book, the first section is The Migrants are Coming followed by Why They’re Coming and and Why They’re Feared. The book starts with the unabashed response of Mehta’s grandfather to an elderly suburban man who asks him why he is in London. Mehta’s grandfather says: “Because we are the creditors.[..] You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have c...

/for the gore called 26/11/ The skullcaps hosted brains with misanthropic beliefs and misdirected ideologies. They would have been happier hosting the activists crossing bridges and thresholds and lighting candles--where they belonged. The guns in the rough fingers scared them. The intricately designed caps wanted to plop into the Arabian sea and swim towards the Mediterranean sea. But they couldn't. They did not want a parade of eyes to follow them as they opened the glass doors for a parade of massacre -- a first date, a family holiday.. rummaging sheets and tables and chairs and spraying hate and blood. Their caps were white like a dove. They wept and wept as the police horns and the ambulance wailed. For they belonged to a far off island and it was their silence that murdered the soul of a city and a country. The placid waters turned into a typhoon of rage and wet the city of dreams. Only if the skull caps had limbs to sprint and lend its shoulder.

Ayushmann has mastered the art of finding humour and poetry in the mundanity of life and its problems. Be it in a movie where women are trying hard to conceive and he, becoming the superhero to help them with his superpower called the sperm donation (Vicky Donor) or he is having a hard time to perform the act of making love (Shubh Mangal Savdhaan) or he, having a harder time, accepting that his parents can become parents again (Badhaai ho). He has nailed every role with his acting, singing and mainly, his dialect. It would come as no surprise that he has done it again with Bala.   The good old ingredients: a middle class family, a dominating leading lady and mashed with a problem that plagues us. In this case, hairfall. His life that alters after his hairfall problem begins (his transfer to another department, his breakup, and his rejection at proposals). The strands hugging the comb, tufts of hair in the gutter and the 100s of tips and tricks that he tries ( many with a bald pa...

Much like the city of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum on George st, is a center for multi culture. The museum spans over four floors and five hours if you walk at a medium pace (not too brisk). The place is so huge that it could fit a ship. People of all ages were seated on the couches at the entrance to relax their legs after a tiring tour. Taking the mandatory entrance picture, I entered the First Peoples and the Museum of Canada on the first floor. The indigenous people of the Iroquoian Tribe and their lifestyle, their struggles, the war against colonizers in their kayaks, household items and a representation of their summer house, along with the paintings and accompanying pictures, will row you into another century. The museum of Canada hosts objects, paintings and illustrations of life in Canada since the British colonization. With modern tools - representing that they are around us and must not be ignored. If the First peoples was a peek of the indigenous ...