Friday, July 22, 2011

Aaloo bonda and Chai

We went to Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Bombay today.
Our auto guy didn't know where it was.
We were starved.
They didn't let me eat aaloo bonda and chai before entering.

We walked a few miles to get to the ticket counter.
We saw boards of badly painted animals.
The safari starts at 9 in the morning.
At 9:30 a.m. the ticket counter had not opened.
They didn't let me eat aaloo bonda and chai before entering.

We sat there in sweat.
We nibbled on biscuits Sowmya had kindly brought.
I don't like biscuits.I saw the man opening the gates to the ticket counter.
We went and stood in the queue.
The counter opened and the man left.
We didn't eat aaloo bonda and chai before entering.

Another man came in.
He dusted the counter.
He left.
Yet another man came.
He gave us the tickets.
We boarded a bus.
We waited.
The first man sat in the driver's seat.
By then I thought that the first man would jump out of the bus to make lion sounds.
We didn't eat aaloo bonda and chai before entering.

The safari was a lie.
Its a zoo.
A white tiger, a tiger, a tiger cub, a lion.
They honk outside the enclosure.
The animal comes out, struts its stuff, leaves.
We didn't eat aaloo bonda and chai before entering.

The lion is old.
Will probably die day after tomorrow.
He roars like my grandpa coughs.
He made me sad.
And we didn't even have aaloo bonda and chai before entering.

We thought we'll walk to the 'caves'.
We started.
It was 7 k.m. away.
We didn't go.
You see?
We hadn't eaten aaloo bonda and chai before entering!

We ran out of the national park/bad zoo.
We crossed the road to a vegetarian restaurant.
I got a BAD dosa.
Shivangi
got potatoes in her uttapam.
Our Kaapi made me throw up a little.
We hadn't eaten aaloo bondas and chai before entering.

We took autos to aksa beach.
You see we wanted to feel better.
Our auto broke down after one signal.
We took another auto.
The beach was pretty and then it was not.
Dirty.
Very dirty.
Diesel all over our legs.
By then I could cry that we hadn't eaten those aaloo bondas and chai before entering.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Even if you get life again.

I absolutely loved 'Zindagi Na Milege Dobara'.

Despite all my efforts to love sophisticated cinema, I fall yet again, for the simplistic, rainbow palette of a peppy-song-filled Hindi movie. I do so, unabashedly. And here's why.

I am the queen of mush. Old friends bonding over old jokes that never get old will get me...EVERY time. Old friends trying out new things brings a child like joy to me that no amount of chocolate can. No matter how different their context, no matter how bizarre the thing they try to pass off as philosophy, no matter how utterly lame the plots is, an unlikely story is what I love about cinema.

Of course I don't imagine living like that, doing those things or being half as spontaneous. Of course I wouldn't hope for people like them in my life. But what can I do if I love the broken voice of Farhan Akhtan mocking wrong accents as we do all the time. Of Hrithik being as uptight about life as I am often. How can I possibly help loving a movie that finally casts Naseeruddin Shah as more than an item boy...there's a man who gets sexier everyday.

I loved it.