Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It took me a while but I finally finished 'Love in the time of Cholera'. It is a different love story of one Mr. Ariza's undying, undiminishing love for Ms. Fermina Daza a pretty young thing set in the Caribbean islands in a time when cholera outbursts were quite frequent. As a youngster the unimpressive yet highly romantic Ariza pursues her with poems and letters and serenades her with with the violin. Fermina responds with her own letters and they continue writing to one another, passionate letters until one day Fermina is stopped form seeing him and sent away by her father. The long distance love prospers for a while longer until Fermina one day sees Ariza from up close and falls out of love with him in an instant. She detests the guy from that moment on (which to me appeared rather disconcerting after all the build up). Ariza however decides to carry his love for her till his dying day.

Ms. Fermina Daza marries Dr. Juvenal Urbino, a well educated medical doctor belonging to a family of high social standing, and though she does not seem to have any great passion to share with him, lives on with him for the ext fifty years in a typical married life. And on the day Dr. Urbino dies, accidentally, Mr. Ariza, now a wealthy director on a rich company, still single but one with numerous liaisons,  presents himself again and tells Femina Daza that he is still waiting after fifty odd years. Fermina is angry and hurt but slowly, the steady love of Ariza does win her over and they do make peace in their old age.

'Love In the Time of Cholera' is a classic love story told in that inimitable style of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.Some fabulous lines are spoken through the characters - 'Thank you for making me a whore' says one to Ariza feeling completely happy at not having the pressure of being a nice old woman, 'There is a number of predetermined lays that one comes to the world with says Ariza and one must not waste them or else they are gone forever'. And so many more brilliant lines. Ariza is an ugly, unimpressive guy and the only thing he carries with him is his great love for Fermina and that is what, you know, pulls him through his life. It is a slow read but certainly one to savour.

One more reason why I liked the book is that it has a time span that is longer than my book 'If You Love Someone...' where Meghna and Aditya, who like Fermina and Ariza, meet before marriage, and meet again after thirty years. I was worried how the long gap would be received by the readers. But here is Marquez not only taking a fifty six year gap but one where there is love only from one side and he is also an unimpressive guy. Also realised that the premise for the movie 'Badmaash Company' of smuggling shoes by getting only left pairs in one consignment and right pairs in another and then auctioning for them, is inspired by this book!

Dabangg - Time Pass

Watched 'Dabangg' this morning at Ramakrishna Glitterati with Ranjan, Rama and LV. They did not like it one bit. But I did. I mean you got to expect what a movie like Dabangg can dish out - no soft, sweet, clever, intelligent stuff. It's just Salman and muscle and UP lingo and its total timepass. Okay, the fights were a bit stretched but you can ignore that.

Salman is Chulbul Pande, the dabangg police officer i.e. slightly off his rocker police officer. Now Chulbul is corrupt but he is also known as Robin Hood Pande. Chulbul has a big chip on his shoulder - he is the stepson of his father Prajapati Pande (Vinod Khanna) who had married Chulbul's widowed mother Dimple Kapadia. Now they have Makki (Arbaaz) as their son and Chulbul is pretty clear from his childhood that his step father and step brother are not on his like list. He actually hates them. Makki, is kind of slow in the head, says his asthmatic mother and tells Chulbul to take care of him. Anyway Chulbul is too busy making money off all kinds of corrupt deals and falling in love with Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha) who looks perfect for the role she plays.
Until the interval we have no clue where we are going because no villain has surfaced yet but its entertaining with Chulbul around.

After the interval things hot up. Rajo's father dies paving the way for the marriage, Dimple dies paving the way for Chulbul to move out and clear out of his step father's house, Makki gets everything in place for his marriage with Mahi Gill but is thwarted by Chulbul who hijacks the wedding to get married himself (why? and why did they not get Makki married as well after that?) and Chulbul's small war with a local don Chedhi Singh heightens. Chedhi burns down Vinod Khanna's mill causing a cardiac arrest, as a consequence of which Makki the foolish joins Chedhi Singh and pretty much kills off some 50 people with a bomb and almost kills of Chulbul before confessing to Chulbul his dirty deeds. Chulbul decides to bury the hatchet with Vinod Khanna and in a moving scene calls him Papa instead of Pande ji. And then all hell breaks loose with several cars being blown up and finally Chedi Singh getting what he deserved. All's well and that ends well.

Nothing much to take home and chew. Leave Dabangg in the theatre and head home. But the time spent there was worth it, if only to meet Chulbul Pande.

Anjaani, Anjaana - Disappointing

I watched 'Anjaani, Anjaana' last night and was really disappointed. For one the movie never went off the ground after a potentially nice set up when two potentially dynamite actors meet on a bridge to commit suicide, fail and then decide to do as many things that they wanted to do before they die at a later date. (Now how they think they can pull it off later is another issue of course.)

The two, Aakash (Ranbir) and Kiara (Priyanka) fail at everything they do, which I guess is supposed to be funny but the problem is that the script is not consistent to that. Right up front there is an overdose of 'dost dost na raha' when his friends realise Aakash cheated them by telling them he'd raise a loan of 1.2 million but actually raises 12 million and loses it all in a sock market crash. Now they are all supposed to be bankers and it made me want to strangle them as they whine about how he cheated them (what were the dodos doing while signing the documents or are they even more dumber than this guy who can't even kill himself after 5 tries). 'At least do that for you friends, you who have never done anything for friends,' they whine with such sad faces and cracked voices that you feel like throwing up. It turns out that maverick Aakash has also made similar plots before and made lots of money for them. Anyway, this stock market crash and guilt drives Aakash to the bridge (why, if he was so not bothered about them anyway?) where he meets a vodka swigging Kiara who is also a step away from jumping. Her instant advice 'if you have to jump, jump, and don't think about it'. Then pray, why is madam swigging vodka instead of jumping?

Anyway she is so upbeat in that part of the film that you wonder why she is going to die. She actually looks like she is enjoying her life. The couple try to get run over, jump off the bridge, asphyxiate themselves (ass...what, nice one whoever came up with that) and fail, turn on the gas and find out that the gas connection has been cut, drink bleaching solution and fail at everything. By now it has been established that these two are the world's biggest losers with the brains of two year olds (which was a rather unnecessary set up because they could have just gone on being normal instead of being depicted as retarded). Struck by a realisation that they are here for a bigger purpose they decide to do something they wanted to do before they die before trying to die again on the 31st (20 days away, cute scene where Kiara is counting away the number of days). Aakash wants to get laid (he never did it) and Kiara (who does not know if she is a virgin and neither do we) wants to swim in the ocean. Losers that they are, Aakash cannot do it with someone he does not love (and he does not love anyone, so how will he get laid ever?) despite Kiara finding him some women to do it with, and Kiara manages to fall into the ocean and they both manage to lose the boat. The ocean scene takes a turn for the worse because Kiara finds it a good time to tell Aakash how her boyfriend cheated on her with Rachel and they remain in the water for a good half hour.

And then we go to Vegas because Aakash is inspired enough to do something whacky. And you won't believe it - they lose the car from under their noses in the middle of a flat desert for miles when she gets off to pee. They regain possession of the car with Ranbir acting as a gay stripper (please, not anymore gay jokes guys, it's getting boring) and fooling the big fat foreign guy. And then Vegas where Kiara finally decides that she can let Aakash sleep with her (aha, finally, why did they not think of that possibility at all since they are living together all this time anyway and are going to die anyway?) but Aakash does not (maybe he does not love her) and they drive off unhappy. She wakes up to find that she is in San Francisco - hey how did we get here? I mean did you not look at the signboards maam? An attempt to hitch her back with Zayed flops but Aakash is off to NY already and everyone including Zayed tell Kiara that she must go to the bridge in NY where they were to meet on the 31st to commit suicide. And she does and well, he does. And by this time it was beyond me how they can ever do anything right ever and I don't really care.

Anyway, good luck to them. I did not connect with either nor with their love, nor with their cute little ways. Unfortunate because I do think they are first rate actors and it was a waste of such fine, spontaneous talent. Music was decent. Felt camera work was below par - both Ranbir and Priyanka don't look their best. I think what did not work for me was that it tried to tread too many things at once, something for everyone kind of a formula. It might have worked if they stuck to making it funny, or dramatic, or romantic. Unfortunately it became none of the above. I am surprised why the reviewers gave it 4 star honestly. At best a 3 star for me but more like a 2.5.

3 Princesses

Prarthana, Anjali and Pooja

I really liked this picture of the 3 cousins together. Anjali had asked Nalini to bring her a crown and pestered her until she got it. Nalini got her 3, knowing Anjali's finicky choices. And so it was that Anjali stayed put with the one that had Happy Birthday printed on it and Prarathana and Pooja who came down from Pune, wore the other two crowns.

And a pretty picture they all made.

Sangeeth Shobhan a.k.a. Varun - Golconda High School

Meet the ebullient Sangeeth Shobhan who plays the key role of Varun Agarwal in Golconda High School, the film based on ‘The Men Within’. Sangeeth is every bit of the Varun I envisaged and more. One look at him, one interaction with this 13 year old and you know that within the casual and fun exterior lies a mind that ticks constantly, a mind that knows what it wants and more importantly how to get it. Sangeeth is intensely competitive, is supremely confident of his abilities and knows what he is doing. The younger brother of the mercurial Santosh, Sangeeth has a temperament that is completely different from that of his older brother. Somewhere, somehow you can feel that Sangeeth is completely grounded, plans himself out to deliver the best he can while Santosh goes about it with the flow, relying more on his reaction to the moment.

Sangeeth at the Don Bosco nets

I first met Sangeeth at the nets in March 2010 just as I met everyone else. He looked the part certainly, chubby, sweet with a fine smile, and worked hard at the game during the practice sessions. He almost always goes about things with a smile, brings in seriousness when it is required, is always polite and does not fail to leave an impression. Maybe it is his innate sense of humour which makes him deliver that one extra line, his take on the incident that makes a conversation with him rather serious-funny-intelligent. He'd bowl all over the place in the beginning and after some serious work on line and length, he got the basics pretty fast - I could see him imbibing what I told him, registering it and instantly implementing it. The result was that he bowled a fantastic line for the rest of the day. But come another day and he was all over the place. You know, that he now knows he can do what he wants when he wants, and so he allows himself to slack off. But mind you, he got to a state of knowing the art behind line and length first.

Sangeeth studied in Sloka earlier and then moved to Sreenidhi International School. Studying in his 7th standard now, he likes playing cricket, and likes to bat. He bowls decent spin and can bat a bit. 'I like playing football as well,' he says. 'I am the goal keeper. And the shot put champ, the goal keeper for the hand ball senior team in my school as well.' Well we had a football on sets one day and we all took shots at the goal and I remember Varun did a great job for our team saving some penalties in that inimitable style of his. He is competitive in a very calculated manner - someone you want on your side. But leave aside games and sports and he becomes serious and says that his main hobby is 'to act' and second to that is 'to watch movies'. 'I'd like to do comedy characters,' says he. 'Once I wanted to do a villain character though.' Pretty good clarity for a 13 year old I would say.

Sangeeth has acted in three movies so far, the third being Golconda High School. Sangeeth's favourite actors are Jackie Chan, Leonardo di Caprio, Mahesh Babu and "me"! That is how the lad is. He will always add that one bit extra, which I do not see as arrogance, but as a deep burning desire to express himself as well as the best names in the business. And I know he is only half-joking, perhaps, he is not joking at all. And if Sangeeth says that he can do it, I would bet my last dollar on him. He will pull it off.

On one of the initial days of shooting I remember visiting the location. Sagar told me that I missed watching Varun's shot which he says was fantastic. 'That kid is a natural,' said Sagar who could not keep his admiration out of his voice. 'He acts normally in the monitor, looks very casual and confident, but in the take he improvises his performance and elevates it to another level. It's absolutely fantastic to watch.' I can understand what Sagar meant now. Because talking to Sangeeth is like talking to an adult-child. His responses are his own, he is not scared to speak his mind, he takes pot shots at everything, shrugs in that supremely confident way, but never ever does it offensively.

Santosh, Sagar and Sangeeth at the shoot in Don Bosco

When I asked him to send some details about himself Varun did it with a promptness that one does not expect from children his age. This is another pointer to the person within him, the perfectionist, the clear work ethic that drives him. When you ask him of what he is like personally and what drives him he says, 'I am scared of nothing till now but if anything comes, I will go through it, but never be scared of that.'

In 'The Men Within' the character of Varun Agarwal turns the tide really for the team. The weakest member, the coward of the school, he takes enough strength from their training to challenge the bully who beats him all the time. And when the rest of the team, the rest of the school sees him fighting the bully and beating him, not backing off an inch, never giving up, they all think in their hearts that if Varun can, so can we. This is a spirit that Sangeeth seems to possess as well and like Varun in the book, he is destined to scale many heights.

Sangeeth says: 'In my last school, on my birthday, my class teacher gave me a paper writing this to me that says,

"There lives in me an image of all that I should be,
Untill I have become it my heart is never free,
I search for a reed to weave a cloak of strength, of love, of might."

'And,' he says, 'I still remember this because she knows that I am an good actor and she wrote that this will become true and it will!!!!!'

I have not an iota of doubt that you will. That reed is your confidence, your knowledge that you will make it, that you are good enough as Di Caprio or Mahesh Babu or anyone else. Glad that our paths met Sangeeth, and may you scale the heights you are destined to. May you express yourself in glorious ways to the world and may your heart be free!

Article in the Indian Express - October 3, 2010

This article appeared in my Sunday column 'Un Intended' in the New Indian Express on October 3, 2010.

My Unfounded Fear of Activity On Facebook

Harimohan Paruvu

I am not one to be left behind in the latest things. I have an account on facebook. Two actually (by oversight, I must admit). As things stand, I don’t know what to do with one account, and now I have two. But don’t think I am all that naive. Send me a friend request on facebook, and I will confirm it in a jiffy.

But that is about all that I do on facebook. Frankly I am too scared to do anything else. I find it a bit too intimidating. There are too many people out there doing too many things. And many more unseen eyes like mine watching all this activity. Quietly. I see friends and friends of friends pouring their hearts out, making intelligent comments, sharing highly intimate pictures, sending hearts, gifts, horoscopes, doing a bit of passionate farming as well. I don’t think I can ever do anything so private in such a public space where 114 friends of mine (on one account) and the 139 (on the other), and so many more friends of all those friends will view.

The reason for this unfounded fear of mine is Michelle Ramanathan. Just the other day I was tranquilly viewing my account when there was a message that Michelle Ramanathan was tagged in a pic with someone. I was intrigued– who is Michelle Ramanathan? I had no idea why she was advertising to me the fact that she was tagged in a photo. I sincerely hoped that it was tagged and not gagged, and as any duty bound citizen, opened the concerned link with caution. There she was, Michelle, a belle from UK or someplace farther, cavorting in some green fields. I clicked on her pic and got a good, detailed look at her. Hmmm. So this was Michelle Ramanathan. She did not look gagged certainly. That was a relief. Nice house, nice car. But how did she land up here in my facebook account which I have kept so sterile with no activity from my side? I detected the answer soon enough. She apparently is a mutual friend of my distant friend’s distant cousin. So, I deciphered, not just this distant friend’s distant cousin, but even Michelle would probably view the goings on in my life if I decided to bare my soul. (I am sure there must be a way to keep it private, but by the time I figure that out all my secrets will be known to the world.)

I checked facebook again to see if the beautiful Michelle was up to any new activities that she forgot to tag me on. Michelle was missing but I there were some messages. Friend requests from three foreign women I did not know, invitations to join groups, exhortations to sign petitions, suggestions to add unknown people as my friends (courtesy the google chaps I suspect) and one to donate a chicken coop to an aspiring farmer. I browsed gingerly, careful not to click any button, lest I send out an invitation or cause a war or a breakup. With a heavy heart I noticed that people were vacationing in Europe, Kashmir and Himalayas, dancing gaily at weddings, trekking and waxing eloquent on all topics under the sun. I signed out feeling rather dismal and left out, much like I do in a party, or in a room full of intelligent people, wanting to say something intelligent, something funny, something exciting.

Even I want to send out an invite. For a chicken coop. To Michelle. I will, I soon will. From both accounts!

Power Makes Us All Equal

I realised that power makes everyone react the same way. The moment you feel that you have enough power over the other, physically, emotionally, psychologically, you start exercising your power on the weaker one.I think each one of us falls for the lure of exercising that pure power over the other - especially evident if we are in a position where it cannot be disputed. Families, jobs, schools are some place but one must pay closer attention to how children cope with this to know how deeply it is ingrained in us. It is pathological.

I watch my 3 year old daughter Anjali and I see adults dealing with her. If she is nice to them, they are normally nice to her. But if she does not respond instantly to their affections, for whatever reason, I notice that most adults turn the heat on slightly. They either grab at her, pull her away with force, threaten her (smilingly), make big eyes or big noises, grab her toy, obstruct her in whatever she is doing, ask her to do what they say else they won't give what she wants, pinch, pull, push - all to get the kind of a reaction they want. If you do not give me this reaction - does not matter if you are 3 years old and probably tired and cranky or probably don't understand what it is all about - you have to suffer this. They do it out of their own misplaced affection of course, since they all come to play with her. They do, in a while, but the initial reaction is worth watching.

It need not be adults. Kids of the same age are as bad of course. The slightly older ones have fun at her expense, she is always the one to chase them, to catch the ball, to have her stuff taken out and kept out of her reach. It is for a while, but for that while everyone shows their power. Until she cries. And then she is, after being shown her place, picked up and cuddled and well, she forgets and gets back to play. Everyone is happy.

This is something we do with someone we really really love. Babies are the most vulnerable and everyone loves them unconditionally. But if we can do this with them, you can imagine what we would do if we were to find a people who had no way to save themselves, a person who is totally dependent on you, a situation where you have absolute power, a people who believe that  you can deliver somehow, guileless, defenceless, powerless. And that is when we show our true nature.

Like he says in Spiderman - With great power comes great responsibility! Would be good to remember that in our sphere of influence.