a dream..

What's your name?
Sunny

How old are you?
(an enquiring glance at his mother, responded to by a giggle)
i don't know...perhaps 9

What have you made?
A house

Whom for?
simmi didi (name changed)...she is ill so I thought I will gift her this house on Diwali
(the mother pitches in) this will bring her good luck and good health.

Did anyone ask you to?
No

From where did you get all this cardboard?
They are making a house next door. A man there gave it to me.

Who gave you all this wrapping paper?
I bought it from my own money.

What do you mean your money?
The money I get every now and then on festivals etc.

How much did you spend?
(proudly) Rs. 40/-

That's a lot of money!
(the smile gets wider) I had collected it since Holi

How long have you been making it?
1 month.

But why did you spend all your money on this?
So that simmi didi gets well soon

Do you really like her that much? Is she nice to you?
She lets me play with her video games and gives me her old books to read.

Do you know how to read?
Yes. I learned my tables, and alphabet in school back at home. I also know counting till 200 and I know how to write my name.

Do you like to read?
Very much

Then why don’t you go to school?
Mother says she has no money and the schools here charge a lot of it.

(Once more the mother speaks, this time she can’t help crying) My son is very bright. We had come to delhi so that he could go to a better school. Now I don’t have money to send him to school , or to go back. I don’t know what to do.

What do you want to do when you grow up?
(still smiling) Earn money and go to school.

When was the last time you or I gave up practically everything we owned and put in so much of sheer effort to do something so selflessly for some one else ? This rat-race…is it really worth it?! Can we not stop armchair politics and actually do our own little bit to make this world a slightly better place? Is it really that impossible a target to achieve?

I couldn’t go on after the last question, and till date I cannot shut my ears to the answer. Can you???

Jab We Met

2 words. Pretty enjoyable. After a really long time, I saw a hindi romantic comedy I actually liked. The protagonists, Shahid and Kareen, carry off their roles with a natural panache, making you feel that no else could have possibly been a better fit. While Shahid looks custom made for this role of a lost-in-love oh-so-lovable millionaire (though I do feel the essential vulnerable element was somewhat missing from his character), Kareena plays the bubbly, cheerful full-of-life 20-odd chatterbox of a girl with unaffected ease and simplicity. Club it with the only other role where I found her irreplaceable till date, the unforgettable "Poo" of the otherwise tear-jerker epic, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum, and you understand why people say she can steal the limelight at any party.

Not to forget of course, that a movie is made by an entire team and a single element cannot be examined in isolation. So, if Jab We met is doing well at the box office, it’s because of its simple plot, sensible execution, identifiable characters and a great script.

And that brings me back to my quest tonight. After a really long time, I saw a hindi romantic comedy I actually liked. The last movie I remember thoroughly enjoying was Bheja Fry (though it fell in a different league of comedies). And before that Pyar Ke Side Effects. All the 3 movies had 3 things in common – identifiable characters, real-life settings and great scripts perfected by their seeming simplicity.

Now, I am not a movie critic or an expert of the field but I am what makes or breaks a movie at the box-office; the general public and a movie lover at that. And yet, in a span of over a year and a half, I have thoroughly enjoyed only 3 light-hearted movies. This, amidst an entire flood of the likes of Dhols, Dhamaals and Golmaals, not to mention the better-forgotten-continued-miserable attempts at comedy by Priyadarshan, whose definition of comedy has somehow come to be pathetically limited to huge star casts and loads of forced confusion desperately trying to make the audience laugh, after perhaps a chance hit with Hera-Pheri.

What is so difficult about making a comedy that is so impossible for our movie-makers to comprehend anyway? And why only movie makers and comedies? Take our TV serials for that matter with their never ending supplies of the tulsis and the parvatis , who give up their careers, their education and their dreams, even their clothing preferences the day they get married, clad themselves in heavy banarasi sarees and 2 inches of makeup 24-hours a day and devote their lives to saving their thankless families from the ever-impending disaster and the continued plots of the even-more-heavily made-up “vamps” . While the “heroine” turns into a 20-odd looking woman playing a 5-times divorced (at least) 52-yr old tycoon grandmother of half-a-dozen adults, in her quest, the “vamp” never tires in the face of defeat and with her slick planning and ruthless execution leaves you thinking that perhaps Osama isn’t such a bad guy after all.

Ok, so, tired of senseless TV and sleazy comedies? Turn to the news. And what do you see, a “breaking news” coverage of which saree Aishwarya is wearing on Karwachauth and how many bangles!!!! Flick to another. “Aishwarya will be celebrating her diwali with hubby Abhi…” . And another. “Aishwarya celebrating her birthday in Agra with …..” WHAT!!! Is there nothing else happening in this world?! Or is our world restricted to Aishwarya’s personal life ??!! And when the media is not drooling over some or the other celebrity, its busy encashing a disaster, asking a poor blast victim lying in the hospital, obviously in pain, “So being a victim..how do you feel…??” ???!!!!!!. Whatever happened to “news” as we knew it!?! The media that provoked an entire nation to fight for freedom. Whatever happened to the Power of the Pen?! What saddens me even more is that such sleazy sub-standard movies, mindless serials and junk news sells. BigTime!

Now I am not a cynic, nor am I one of those people who drool over the USA. I consider myself a sensibly positive and an intensely patriotic individual. And I am saying all this not despite of my patriotism, but because of it. For a country that boasts of soaring GDP, stock markets and intellectual prowess, we can do so much more and so much better than 3 good comedy serials, 2 serious News channels and 3 good romantic comedies in 1.5 years !!

Explanations awaited

Despite all my senses rebelling hard and strong, screaming of fatigue, I had been forcing myself to concentrate on my screen and at least finish the task at hand. After about a half hour of relentless struggle on both sides, my senses, with my eyes leading their front, won. I shut my laptop and moved out of my room. And suddenly it hit me. The air outside was perfectly still and calm, as if at the advent of a storm. Laced with the fragrance of lilies, almost bitterly mixed with that of wet cement and sand, the night felt like a strange mix of eerie and heavenly. Almost as if drawn against my will, I went to take a walk.

An early October night, the on-spring of the much awaited dussehra-diwali festive season as well as the much anticipated harsh yet-not-to-be-missed winters, I wasn't walking exploring new arenas. Everything looked as it should have. The ubiquitous silence and stillness could be attributed to the reasonable assumption that everyone must have been out, celebrating a stray holiday in the middle of the week, hence explaining the lack of any famous soaps sounding off TV sets, the noise of loud air-coolers, even the regular parking and reversing car alarms. Logically, everything made sense, and there was nothing wayward. And yet the night's touch felt only faintly familiar. The stillness of the night had enveloped the entire neighborhood. It was only 8 PM, and though the markets outside must have been bustling with people, the absence of human life in the area seemed unnatural. Even the stray dogs, which never fail to make their presence felt, seemed too quiet, too meek for comfort. A sudden chill made me shudder. I instinctively pulled my jacket closer and hastened my step back towards home.

Suddenly, at about 50 meters away from my comfort zone, power went out and I was engulfed in complete darkness. “Just a power-cut; no need to over-react!” I convinced myself. Then, I heard footsteps: calm and deliberate walking towards me. I hugged myself and gingerly looked around. A neighbor, walking towards his home, with his dog, looked at me and passed a courteous smile. He seemed unfazed, almost enjoying the dark and still night. Needless to say I was scared, and the fact that he hadn't been anywhere around a few moments ago didn't help. Clutching my racing heart, I smiled back weakly, and walked as fast as I could to my home, sometimes breaking into a sprint.

As soon as I reached home, I stopped dead in the tracks. The front entrance was ajar, the house pitch dark and hauntingly silent. Pushing the main gate further, I treaded silently inside, and went straight up to my room. It was locked. I knew I hadn’t locked it. I fumbled for my set of keys in my jacket, I didn’t have them. More baffled than ever, I went downstairs and tried the door to my LG's room. No one answered. I pushed the door open. The room had a 100% power backup and yet was as dark as outside. Taking a deep breath, I fumbled for the switch, put one foot out and let out a gasp....the deserted room's floor, which had been intact till the afternoon, was missing. The entire room had been dug at least 3 feet.

Praying hard that the digging was due to the ongoing renovation, I was about to turn around and go to my room, when I thought I heard the sound of running water. Maybe someone had left a tap running, and I had missed the sound before. I turned it off. I had walked barely 20 steps away, when I heard the same sound. This time it was a different tap. By now things were getting too much for me and I was nearing complete panic and frenzy at an alarming speed. There was no one around. Something told me the tap wouldn't turn off. With trembling hands, I turned it off. At almost the same instant I heard the sound of water starting from somewhere else. I muffled my scream, dropped the candle and ran upstairs to my room...

But the nightmare wasn't over yet. My room was no longer locked. Not knowing what else to do I threw the door open. This room, just like the rest of the house was completely dark. I flicked the emergency backup lights on. Everything looked as I had left it, thankfully. My rapidly failing rationale and courage weren't equipped to handle any more surprises.

So here I am, sitting on my bed, typing my fears away in the light of the

laptop screen, running on battery power. I am pretty convinced that power will be back soon, and so will the people in my house and that everything has a logical explanation, the locked front door and my room, the absence of people in the entire neighborhood, including my house, as well as the malfunctioning power back up and plumbing. All the movies also show that the paranormal world has a liking for thunder and lighting. And that ghosts don't really show themselves on still clouded early winter nights, but I have locked my room nevertheless. ..…Just in case…

smiles are free...so give them away ... :) :) :)

arz kiya hai...
aashiq wohi jo maashooq ke haathon qatl ho jaaye
uski friend ke haathon marne waale ko toh
pati kehte hain ;)

extracted from tpb-arz-kiya-hai