Life in Lockdown - Day 37 of 44 (or more), April 30, 2020

Day 37

Watched the movie 'Clapper' last night. Promising beginning but then it petered off. Chores. Journal and stuff. Visited the local grocer and one can sense that the tension in the air has disappeared. No masks. Relaxed air. 

Pic Satish Nargundkar

Chitra Sent Me This lovely Poem

A Woman Painted on a Leaf - Eavan Boland

https://yalereview.yale.edu/woman-painted-leaf

Read

Irrfan Khan Passes Away

I'll never forget Irrfan Khan. I watched Irrfan Khan in 'Drishti' in Calcutta in 1991. It was my first job and I was away from home. Our only means of calling back home if you didn't own a landline was through the state run telecom offices i.e. we had to go to the GPO in the city and wait in line with all others. Since the rate would quarter beyond 11 pm, the crowd would be longer. Of course there would be person with all our numbers, who would be dialling numbers one by one. If you were lucky you connected. Else get back in line.

It was a long line the day after I saw 'Drishti' and I was sitting next to a smartly dressed young lad. We got talking and he said he worked with the Indian Airlines as a purser. We both discovered we had see 'Drishti' and we were discussing the morality issues about infidelity etc when suddenly a middle aged man in the whirled around and said 'Are you both married?'. No we said. You have no right to talk about relationships,' he said. Apparently, he and his wife lived separately for 26years because she had a job in Pune and he is Calcutta. I could not understand why one of them didn't just quit and go to the other place. Anyway, Irrfan Khan was my biggest takeaway from Drishti. Then 'Piku' which remains one of my all time favs.

I'll always have pleasant memories of Irrfan. Calcutta, phones, Drishti.

Rishi Kapoor Moves on Too

Apart from his classics like 'Bobby'', 'Amar Akbar Anthony', 'Hum Kisise Kum Nahin', I watched his 'Zamane ko Dikhane Hai' many times. My partner in crime those days was young Bhaskar who was a movie buff and we both loved the movie so much that we watched it several times in Gokul theatre. I loved his performance in 'Damini'. Another Calcutta memory was of him with Zeba Bhaktiar in 'Henna' which I saw in Lotus cinema. And Raja and I watched him in 102 not out and admired his acting prowess.

Superb songs. Lovely moments. Thanks RK.

Death - Why It Hurts 

A friend of mine pondered over why it hurts when Rishi Kapoor dies especially since we never knew him personally. We thought that maybe we grieve for that part of us that they represented so well, that has now gone with them.