Stories

Silent winds shout outside my window
And a street light flickers in disdain
As I watch through the pale yellow
Haze that has gripped the inner mountain.

We can dive deeper for limits also have stories
The deepest, the highest, lonely from eternity
If only someone would reach beyond the mysteries
To uncover the greatest treasures of humanity.

Lightning flashes become visible now and then
Even the Gods have their own stories to tell
What happens to the wishes of the roads we take?
Even she had her share to which you should have listened.

There must be stories similar to mine,
Waiting under layers of dust; to shine
Everyone feels the storyteller's pain
What about these stories dying in vain?

Why have I decided to give society(read Facebook) a break?

#Viewer's discretion advised
I have recently read the Shiva Trilogy. If you haven't, I would urge you to do so before scanning the article further. If you have no plans to read the books, then you may proceed. I will just be using the central idea from the novels but I would be happier if the idea gets disclosed to you through the books and not by me.

$ The flipping of the coin.

When does the greatest good turn into the greatest evil of the age? Can you identify evil? These are the questions, the thirteen hundred page long trilogy is all about.
Internet, surely is the greatest invention of this millennium with Facebook being the pinnacle of success. Unfortunately, it has also become the greatest evil of this generation. It has lent voice to every corner of the globe. Surely this is a dream come true for the founders of humanity. But nonetheless it has also opened the gateway for probably the most harmful evil of all time.
Honesty is a virtue. So is humanity. I don't know if it takes courage to be honest. Giving up what is not rightfully yours is certainly not a sacrifice! Yet, how many of us live by this virtue? But this is how the world has always been. Personal gain at expense of others has forever been a part of life. It doesn't differentiate us too much from other animals. Even if after millions of years we haven't learned the actual art of living, one is forced to wonder what was the point of the early civilisations!
So how does social networking enter the picture? Well, when you hit at the very core of the beliefs people live by, they retaliate. A social network unites the mass. So when a leader makes a silent call towards humanity, she is being criticized in union. Of course, some people know the difference between humiliation and criticism. But the mass is composed of those who are unaware of this subtlety. This results in ambush- of morals, dignity, culture and future.There used to be a time when only a little section could have had their say that would have a wide audience.

Noise, disguised as Voice can cause serious damage.

 I have left Facebook for a reason. Of course, it was the best platform for my mind to reach out. But it has been diluted beyond measure. My social circle, however small is still polarised. The minute fraction which has the capability of understanding maintains a dignified silence. I have always been expressive. But the realisation has finally dawned on me. There are classrooms and there are markets. Quoting Satyajit Ray from his film Agontuk,
 "Even Socrates used to indulge in discussions. But those were at the highest level."
It is time to organise the classrooms. Yes, I would still be as animated there as I have been in the market.
The problem is not the solution but the concentration of the solute.

Let the dawn arrive soon
For the western bank is afraid
Of the ghost of intruders,
Let the rays of the new Sun
Vapourise the mist and end
The long search for answers.

See you in the classroom.

Peace.

I would shoot you, in colour.

Why would I shoot you in black and white?
I would rather present to you the shades,
The colourful ones of your master spirit
The lens should be honest in front of a mermaid.

My eyes are not meant to see your enigma
They have a soul, nourished by beauty
And deep into you it sets a panorama
Let the whole world indulge in subtlety.

There were angels on earth
And fire,invisible through air
But they have gone into hiding
Awaiting the release of the master.

Yes, I would capture you in colour
And set you free, the way you are
I have a soft numbness in each corner
Since your eyes shot me without measure.

Those Left Unanswered

Blood dripping through the edge of my words,
I wait for the rain of dots to arrive soon
Coma, colons and exclamations call for stops
But the stops are on a highway seeking their monsoon.

I have a tight hold on this blade
For I've bled and recovered
And in this new birth of fate
The only salvation is in being heard.

I come with a million words without thinking
Funny how you ponder in search of meaning.

Poor little devils lament over Barcelona
While the others queue for a drop of elixir
And a few write columns from Tokyo to Passadena
While the rest believe in the silence of eternity.

I come with a million questions at your door
And I find myself answering as you approach the lock.

I MET A MERCENARY

Seventy years ago, a boy was sitting under a banyan tree with a torn kite in his hands. He took out his flute that his maternal uncle had gifted him on his last birthday. It was  a pleasant spring afternoon with a cool breeze coming from the west. With his mind on several things, he started playing his flute.The place was deserted like it always used to be at this time of the day.


1: ENTER SAHADEV da...

"The pale wind seems to bring
 Along with it, another spring
 Little brother, will you sing
 For me, a distant dream ? "

Mukul turned around in a little shock to find a young man with a fine moustache who was smiling back at him. The young man folded his dhoti in order to sit beside Mukul. "Hello", he said, "what's your name, brother?".
Mukul took a while to reply, "Mukul."
Sahadev smiled for an instant looking at Mukul and then looking straight ahead said, "Aptly named."
Mukul was feeling a little disturbed at the vanishing of his solitude. He wasn't able to play his flute any longer. He didn't think it appropriate to walk away and so he remained seated. Sahadev, feeling his state broke the silence, " bhaloi to bajacchili. amay dekhe lajja pash na. ektu shona na."
Mukul turned towards Sahadev and quizzed,"What brings you here? You aren't from Balurghat or I would have known you."
Sahadev : Do you know everyone from Balurghat?
Mukul: More or less.
Sahadev: Do you roam around a lot?
Mukul: Quite the opposite. I stay at home and every other day people come to my father.
Sahadev: Is your father an important person?
Mukul: He is the village head. So that brings us back to the question, why are you here?
Sahadev surveyed Mukul for a few seconds. THen, somehow lost in his own thoughts, he started to sing,

" While the fire was ignited in our hearts
   They shook hands behind the bars
  And when we thought we would reign
 The world conspired to put us to our end."

Mukul had heard this song. Everyone in Balurghat had. Amartya da was singing this song before being gunned down in the marketplace.  Three, along with Amartya da left the world that crimson morning. The police had been looking for the group for last few months. Word was out that they were sheltered at Amartya da's place when the news was leaked. The police couldn't catch one of the mercenaries. Rumour was that he was hiding somewhere near by.

Mukul was looking at Sahadev in awe. He couldn't yet take in the death of his Amartya da, the ever smiling footballer who had introduced him to music and poetry. He brought himself together to ask this young man beside him who now seemed to appear so similar to Amartya da, "tumi Amartya dar bondhu?"

Sahadev looked into Mukul's eyes and nodded," they killed them all. They named us mercenaries to make their job easier. All they needed to churn out was that we were hired killers of an unknown pay master. Yes, Mukul we have killed people and we have masters, not one but many. We have been and many more like us are being used. They have termed it Swadeshi. There is going to be no Independence,brother. It's just going to be a transfer of power."

Mukul hardly understood what Sahadev said. But the manner in which he spoke convinced Mukul that Sahadev believed in what he was saying. He felt a strange pity for Sahadev. Word was out that the fifth member of the group would have asimilar fate once he was caught.
Mukul: you should be as far away from here as possible. They will kill you too.
Sahadev: Do you know, brother what we used to call each other? "Pancha Pradip."  Amartya had told me about you,about how you would keep listening to his songs without interrupting,about teaching you how to ride a cycle. He loved you dearly. The day we were given away, I had his specific instructions to take a different route. I have my own mission to complete now. The first task was to meet you.
Before Mukul could ask anything, Sahadev broke into singing while urging Mukul to play the flute,

" The flame fights the melancholy 
  With the pure hue of soul
  The tree will shower holy
 Blessings over the newborn goals;
                       The Sun will smile at the world
                       Like the proud father of a triumphant child
                       The five flames will ignite again
                       In the glow of the hard won shrine"

Sahadev: Amartya, Hriday, Narayan, Tuhin, Sahadev. The "Pancha Pradip".
With one ever lasting smile towards Mukul, he walked towars the west where the river played abode for the Sun.

2: Fifty two years later...

Mukul Chakrabarty, the respected retired school headmaster on the eve of his grandson's eighth birthday takes a look inside his trunk. Yes, the flute is still there. The ownership will be changed the next day. An eight year old Animesh, the legacy bearer in waiting.

Epilogue:

The year is 2013. Animesh goes through a historical fantasy.

The Directions And The Convergence

What if the illusion I have about life finally runs out of light? Am I ready to face myself in that situation? I guess not. I am too tired with myself. Principles, fightbacks, memories, nothing has been worth this phase. I do not want to change! All the reasons and beliefs have fallen apart. I don't expect anyone to understand me, even though I'd want someone to. Why is it that words just refuse to come out?
So many people have so much to fight for, to live. My sole reason is non-existent now.
There are too many judges in this world, too many sentries. I miss the gardeners, can't see them anywhere near my flowers. They need to be tended. I feel powerless, if only someone would lend me a little understanding!
I am happy, no doubt to have seen this beautiful world. My parents are my inspirations, my hope for peace.
There is a mild sound of silence. Is this how I was supposed to feel it? It is not pleasing, not comforting either. But it provides me with an inner eye. I don't have to self-justify, thankfully. May be this is where the principles help- where things in our control are concerned.
I don't know if I will ever marry, start a new family so that these bricks can serve as foundations. The living world I see around me doesn't enthrall me, rather it pains to be a part of it. People like me are a necessity if this race is to exist. But these words of wisdom were born to die inside the creator only. The shadows, I see! May be this is what a mother goes through when her child stops inhaling inside her womb. All that is for me to do is spread what I think is right.
I have a strange lifeline. I don't know how it used to be in my childhood. I had this habit of biting my skin as a child. So when I look at it now, I find it divided into two halves just above the base of the thumb. I wonder if it is His way of letting me find myself. 'Guess I'm lucky. :)
But it is a deep line nevertheless. Well, it suits the predictions then. My life will be controlled by the one and only Me. The funny part is this that I don't care about the directions which lie ahead. All I know is that I was born to do something different, different from what the masses do and I have a strong g.u.t. feeling that it is not about academics. Probably it is me, who is destined to search for the roots.

Family, birth, forefathers, questions, answers.

Bikel goriye jay

Amader hariye jaoa kichu katha ghore fire ashe majhe majhe. Ekhon to duto ghor. Tomar r amar. Kichu katha amar ghor ei asroy khunje peyeche, nischoi tumio karor asroy hoyecho. Bikel bela konodin o amar bhalo lageni. Sesh sesh gondho bhese berai ei samay. Amar mone ache tomai hostel e chere asha ei bikel gulo, jokhon eka eka firtam bus e; shei agarpara theke moulali. Tumi roj i bolte ami eka firbo otoduur ta tomar bhalo lage na, ami boltam amar lage. Satyi boltam. Saradin tomar sathe katano sob muhurto bari ferar path e aro ekbar shanti dito amai. Jokhon bari firtam porashuna sob late uthto amar… phone e katha hoto. Tumi ki kore porte boste ami bujhtam na. Hoyto Xavier’s e pora kalin tumi etotai ghire chile amai je anyo kichui gurutto pai ni.

Proti saptaho tomai dekhar apekkhai kat to. Shei chotto tumi. Halka haste, kokhono rag kore chup kore jete. Ami ekhono dekha hole shei bokar moto tomai hasanor chesta kori, shei jemon kortam. Nite pari na, ar jei hok, tomar chokhe jol. Parbo o na. Bhenge jai. Tai hoyto ei dekha na hoya tai bhalo. Tumi paro na nijeke samlate, keno parona jani na. Anyo ekjon ke etotai bhalobaste parle jokhon tahole keno amai dekhle ekhono nijeke sthir rakhte paro na samne asle? Phone e to bolei dao je amar janyo r kichui aboshisto nei.

Eto kichu bujhi tobu nijekei bojha holo na. Hoyto nijer bhalobasha chara anyo sob kichui bujhte pari. AJ bhoy jano kothai? Bochor 20 por nijeke khunje pai na. Tumi bolte beshi duur na bhabte sob samay. Kintu ami je duur er i basinda. Shei duur ei ghure berai. Paltano uchit ki anuchit chilo tao bujhi ni. Swapno chara bnachte aneke hoyto pare. Amar to swapno-I bastab.

Sobai amar dik theke bhebe tomar bishoy e katha bole. Keu tomar jaigai nijeke boshai na ekbar. Tomai dosh deoa khub sohoj, tomai bojha noy!

Bhalobasha khunje peye thako Jodi shetai jeno sob. Koto joner emni emni I sob furiye jai tobu bhalobaste pare na. Tumi Jodi pere thako, tobei jeno ami bhalo thakbo. Amai noy nai ba basle. Hoyto ami chilam bolei bujhte perecho kotota tumi take bhalobasho.

Bikel goriye sandhye neme elo. Ekhon ar ghor theke beronor kono pala nei.

Ek-i sohor ke kivabe chinchi notun kore ami i sudhu jani. Khub chonchol chilo ei sohor ta ek samay. Ekhon koto shanto hoye poreche. Sudhu klanti dekha jai chari dike. Ki kore eto ta palte gelo sohor ta ami bujhte pari na.  Jeno ei sohor ta amar bhetor kei represent kore. Ebhabe to kokhono bhebe dekhini age. Na, sudhu ekta ekaki bikel noy; etka boro time-span e. Proticchobi ebhabeo dekha jai.

Boro hoye jacchi bodhoi. Ei to sedin ekjon bollo ekhon r naki ager moto class e excited hoina, nijer motoi chup chap boshe thaki  (she amar sathe porto bochor dui age). Katha ta shune ektu abak hoyechilam. Evabe ki baire amar change sobar samne eshe uposthit hoyeche? Ektu bhabtei (mane khuub i alpo) dekhlam satyi amar bishaal poriborton hoyeche . Chokhe to porbei, after all ami ek samay generally centre of attraction hoye jetam karon eto beshi katha boltam. Aj katha boroi kom boli, khub i kom.

Godhuli esheche. Sudhu ei samay tai ektu pochondo kori bikel er por. Hoyto pochonder karon holo ei samay ta kkhonosthayi, hariye jai taratari. Na paoa ke khonjar madhye emni emni chotobelai hariye gechilam ajante.

Nijekeo khunjchi. Tumi ashar age theke.

The Man who teaches love

I like analyzing the stupidity of people. Make no mistake, I analyse mine too!

The current trend, which I am observing for last two-three years, is barking at big names, persons who have given their best in their respective fields and achieved love and respect. Now, in this world that we live in, both love and respect are funny concepts! People enjoy stupidity, violence, anarchy.

That is why a “Human-Being” like Salman Khan breaks box office records with films like Dabangg and Bodyguard, as well as enjoys the Bhai-status; whereas a fighter like Shah Rukh Khan is made fun of for whatever he tries.

Yes, there were movies like Om Shanti Om or Rab ne Banadi Jodi(2^nd half) where SRK didn’t do anything noteworthy but there are more than 50 examples where this man has given his best to entertain the audience! I have a question today. Do you know what it takes to get up every morning knowing you are SRK and that you have to live up to a billion expectations of the millions?

You don’t, since you have never given it a thought! You grew up watching KKHH or DDLJ but just as you got the flavour of the false intellectualism, you decided to criticize Bollywood and everything to do with it. Ah! You’ll say, “Hang on! I don’t criticize Amir Khan”. Yes, you don’t, I agree. But there is a subtle difference. Amir Khan has given us movies which belong to the real world. That, my friend becomes easy to appreciate. SRK, on the other hand has given his life to the world of fantasy, a world that does not exist (news! Amir is a failure here). Think of it. Think of the conviction with which he plays the role of a lonely person in love ( jab tak hai jaan) or a music teacher who has lost everything yet he is there to teach you how to love(Mohabbatein).

To fall in love with fantasy, you have to be in fantasy first. A man like Yash Chopra knows how to make a movie and that’s why he is what he is (yes, he lives on). Ask yourself what you seek in a movie.  As for me, I look for the good things, always have and always will. May be that’s why I have had to hear phrases like “tor bhalo laga to… tor to sob kichui bhalo lage”. I’ll tell you what I don’t like. I don’t like people who pretend. I don’t like selfishness. I don’t like superiority complex that so many of my contacts regularly suffer from.

But let me finish this with what I do like.

EVERYTHING CREATIVE.

BOND with the best!

For someone who hasn’t read Ian Fleming, for whom the first Bond film was The World is not Enough (when he was a baccha by all means), for whom Casino Royale was a brilliant film and Quantum of Solace a disaster, the latest instalment has come as nothing less than a powerful surprise!
SKYFALL , ladies and gentlemen, is a movie which never lets you rest for a continuum of two and a half hours. Thrill has a new definition, entertainment has a new mirror, style (well it always had this icon) has a re-invention and James Bond has a new director! Sam Mendes, take a thousand bows! Thank you, Sir for a new hero (new to this HP fan), grown up hero for the grown up me.
We have seen countless good-guy-chasing-the-evil-one scenes but what knocks you out is not when two superfast bikes race each other on rooftops of Turkey but how that chase ends. You’ll know what I mean if you have been a follower of the series for ten years. You know you are in for a treat as Adele gets deep into your head with the soundtrack after one of the best ever opening sequences.
The movie took its time. Well after the nonsense of Quantum of Solace, this is how one expects the Bond franchise to respond! Once Bond was all about sexy girls and sexier gadgets. Then arrived Casino Royale which interchanged sexy and sexier. Now we have Skyfall. Thankfully it’s not about Bond girl or gadget, it’s about Bond, James Bond. It’s about the lady without whom Bond has always been incomplete. It is about the Bond-baddie, the best the best the best Bond Challenger!
Javier Bardem (Silva). One and only! Who can praise his acting? He doesn’t act. He reacts! If one was awed in No Country for Old Men, SKYFALL is right up there. “Want to know what cyanide does to you?”  I may be wrong here but his escape scene to me was a tribute to The Silence of the Lambs by the director and who better than this man could have pulled it off with such ferocity, such calm, such silence.
Daniel Craig. The man knows how to raise the bar! Casino Royale, The Girl with the Dragon tattoo and now, SKYFALL, he is a gift to movie lovers all around. In democracies where people say “It’s a young man’s game”, the answer has been slapped on the screen!( I really hope my last line pisses a lot of idiots and I hope the idiots catch the drift!)
Judy Dench. M. Period.
The movie would never have had this effect if it was not for the background score. Be it a scene when 007 lands on a deserted island or when Silva breaks into MI-6 cyber intelligence Digital Fortress-style or when Bond chases Silva through the tunnels of the “greatest” imperial capital, the music is there- to keep you on the edge, to provide you with your money’s worth! But what shows you the actual genius is when Silva’s helicopter reaches SKYFALL. Watch out, keep your ears open (your eyes anyway will be!)
Finally, the cinematography! If sky ever had to fall, it had to be SKYFALL. If you have watched it already, then do it again and if you haven’t, go to the theatre, look at the sky when you hear “a storm’s coming”. You’ll anyway be glued to the screen henceforth!
I have a new hero to look up to. I am meeting him again for sure. If you haven’t till now, let me quote the most stunning dialogue from the most graceful Bond girl( yes! It of course is always about the lady)
“Take the bloody shot!”

Revolution

Rising stars of the country
Meet me each night
When I'm deeply conscious;
They speak of miseries
I see them, I talk to them,
The effect of ghosts- infectious.

Static brotherhood of tainted morality
Evolution, a merely extinct process;
I once touched the ice of humanity
And eyes of future, emotional riches;

I die, I cry, I desperately want to step aside;
I search for a way to revolve the orb called life.

House of witches,  a destination in dark
I have succumbed each time I took the path
Shadows of future and the nearby past
Crawl inside me, waiting for their turn.
I see a fallen angel, I see a defeated soldier
I see an ugly mask, I see through the heart.

I live, I smile since I have only one more chance to shine
Love and regret, no more a reason for this life.

Ray on Ray

Link to a few views of the greatest film maker I believe.

http://www.satyajitray.org/about_ray/ray_on_ray.htm