Not a Kannada film ... ಗೋಧಿ ಬಣ್ಣ ಸಾಧಾರಣ ಮೈಕಟ್ಟು [GBSM]

I am a Kaanadiga, I love Dr.Rajkumar, Dr.Vishnuvardhan,Shankar nag. I have enjoyed watching classic films like ಬಬ್ರುವಾಹನ, ಮುತ್ತಿನ ಹಾರ, ಚಿನ್ನಾರಿ ಮುತ್ತ, ಮತದಾನ, ನಮ್ಮೂರ ಮಂದಾರ ಹೂವೆ. But off late I have rarely watched or enjoyed any Kannada movie especially in movie theaters. Which is why I would like to give a rating that GBSM [Godhi Banna Sadharana Maikattu] is NOT a Kannada movie.

It does not have unnecessary double meaning dialogues [ I feel Kannada movies are famous for that], songs thrown for the sake that auto drivers can play them aloud [what with the likes of ಹಳೆ ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಹಳೆ ಕಬ್ಬಣ ] , fighting scenes just to show the prowess of our heroes, villain who looks like a UFO.

Anant Nag Sir is exceptionally good. The lost look in his eyes, his timing and dialogue delivery are just superb. No one else could have made justice to this powerful role. He is our true hero. May be we could have had more of his screen presence.

The villain - Vashishta N Simha is the second hero of the film.  The bass in his voice echoes very well with his character. Watching Tamil movies I used to think how wonderfully trains are used as characters adding value to the movie. Here too the use of the train timings to show day and night is very refreshing.

The songs raise and ebb out very synchronously with the situation and the characters, especially Ayomaya.

But I don't say that this movie is a classic as it has its share of several technical glitches like lightning not appropriate at several places, the heroine being a little patient like even at occasions where she could have looked more bountiful, hero being in a hurry even to deliver the most quintessential emotional dialogues in a fizzy, our Sir. Anant Nag's watershed dialogue - "ಕರಿ ನಾಯಿ ಬಿಳಿ ನಾಯಿ"  seems like its coming out of nowhere, the sound could have resonated in a much better way. and so on.

All this said, its the coming of age movie for Kannadigas. Good Job Hemanth Rao & team !!!

Please go and watch it in THEATRES, lets promote the true goodness and ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಂಪು.

Tailors will be...

Well, what else tailors only,  URBAN or rural, male or female, age-old tailor shop or new age boutique.

The moment a person becomes a tailor,  irrespective of how good,  disciplined,  genuine,  punctual he/she is,  a new factor called "delay"  gets added to his/her list of traits. Something strange happens which will never ever allow him/her to maintain your date.

I guess we all Indian women have had our love affair and heart break with tailors. That is how best I can describe it. What with the minute details, the type of Kameez - straight cut, Umbrella, anarkali, to the depth of the neck, sleeve length, back tie, type of flair and then to the type of salwar -100 types and a 100 filters!

Then the quintessential Indian saree and blouse -aaah Katori type, plain, lining, piping, padding, neckline like Sridevi in Chandni, sleeve like Juhi in Duplicate and so on.

After all this we instruct the tailor - give me this dress before Ganesha chathurthi and that saree I need before my chacha's wedding anniversary and oh uncle that one Kurta can you please give it by tomorrow evening... I just want have a trial before my seminar on Friday.... Please please please uncle (yes, "Uncle" to bring in that innocence😊).

And so the tailor uncle is bound to be delayed. He tries to open your cloth bundle on the day he is supposed to give you the final piece or if he has already opened it then he has misplaced the pairs. If ever he delivers it on time then definite he definitely has screwed up your masterpiece 😈

How many times have you bought a Kurta which is slightly "big" in size or a littttlle tight and then got it "altered to your size"? Then asked your DH to just quickly pick it up the next day while coming back from office?

No? you haven't done any of this before??!!! Don't you remember your brother or your dad waiting for you outside the tailor shop while you narrated your dress epic to the tailor?


I remember all this and why the story at the top of my list is more than hilarious. It's a day before my wedding.  In our Kannada culture we have the very important VARA_PUJA,  where we have a ceremony to welcome the groom and his family to the wedding function.  This happens most of the times at the wedding hall which is away from your home and of course you got it right from your TAILOR shop too!!!

My beautician comes with all her kit and starts opening her set. She asks me "Deepthi,  show me your evening saree and blouse let me match it with the make-up".  I ask my friend Aruna "Hey da I have it all right there,  that,  yeah over there blue suitcase,  pink color Kangan Saree shop cover.... Yeah right there"

"What??!! No? It's 5:30, they'll be here at 7. You have his number? But it's Sunday oh nooo... "

Did you get what happened? Out of the 50 blouses he stitched for our wedding house,  he has missed to give My,  yes,  the bride's blouse,  THE B-ll-oouuzzz.

So another friend Asha quickly pulls out her activa scooter and vrooms to pick it up etc... And rest is history.

OK so the point is these delays,  mishaps keep happening and then we still keep going to the Tailors.

Years after all these tailor stories, I had literally stopped dreaming about having a perfect or near-to-perfect blouses, kurtas and kameez. I would just tag on to whatever looked decent enough.

But then few weeks back, in the early morning, something caught my attention. My son was banging the iboat and turned on the radio in full volume, my daughter's screaming in the background for TV remote and I hear some ad with the word tailor.

Later in the day,  like a thief I steal 20mins for myself from the daily family affair, do a little research on the ad and give a blouse to be stitched by the xxxxx tailor.  What luxury they give you door step service wonderful,  you don't have to be bothered running to the tailor superb, decently priced ah icing on top. 10 days to get your first blouse delivered to you thumbs up. 👍

They send you messages and keep you updated. Ok all done. 

Measurement Dress

Materials for stitching

On the day of delivery DH is pulling my leg so have you got it? Haha cmon tailors will be tailors...  I brag about my intelligence and the phone beeps with an SMS, wait, wait it must be an update from my new-age tailor - and yes it was an update -

Xxxxx Tailor: Frequent power cuts in Bangalore has affected our production volume. Due to this, the delivery of your order may get delayed by 2-3 days from the expected date of delivery. Kindly co-operate with us.

A Suitable Review

Facts (as a matter of fact)
Name: A Suitable Boy
Author: Vikram Seth
Genre: Melodrama but with emphasis on characters or Bollywoodian
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 1364 only
Weight: 800 gms
Started Reading :  August 2015
Completed Reading: October 2015

    It has been a literary pleasure reading this epic. If not for now, I wouldn't have been able to read a book this fat and so elaborate. The loneliness of post delivery, sleeplessness, anxiety etc were cured to a certain extent because of reading.

    So, I would try to read at least 5 pages every day before I fall asleep. I would feel all the characters of the book are waiting for me, they are waiting to tell me their story, they are waiting to unfold themselves. I could not sense the face of any of them but it was a visualization beyond plain characters.
 
    First of all, let me warn you about the weight of the book itself. The author also mentions this in his preface itself. I did sprain my neck a little, had severe arm pain few times. I suppose the author himself also mocks at the density of his book. He mentions that the Shakespearean books should be torn into smaller parts that can be read at your comfort maybe even during a light walk thru a cemetery. Maybe this book should also have followed that path and been divided into 3 parts, each part introducing the "suitable contenders" and the fourth book being the finale!!!

    Now to the actual story itself... the book begins and ends with a marriage as you would have already guessed. But there are several other events that sway the story between varied emotions of happiness, friendship, passion, jealousy, fear, anger, dejection, anticipation and silent love.

    Yes, this book is quite like our very own Bollywood movie in some sense but the emotions expressed feel more practical and realistic. How logically each person is introduced, grows and contributes to the growth of the story and eventually ebbs out is so unpretentious.

    As the story grows it's remarkable, and the subtle way in which he introduces each of the "suitable" contenders is very interesting indeed. The sentiments expressed are so true and touching, like this one where one of the suitable contenders puts it -

                      "I am a practical man and I am proud of it - but sometimes I come across situations that I don't know how to handle despite my well formed opinions and I find that after all perhaps that there is less reason to be proud than I thought "


    This book has been written in an era when postal letters were the fad. It felt so nice to read the long letters of Mrs.Rupa Mehra, the practical reply of her son Arun Mehra, the no-love but plain worldly exchanges between the heroine and one of the contenders... And so on.

    That left me wondering, now, in this era of short messages and emoticons, we may loose to express ourselves as completely and as thoroughly as we are made to be or may be the emotional center of our brain, the amygdala may grow vestigial! And then who will be left to explain the longing of love, the pain of rejection, the "herewith-find-enclosed" and the "Lots-of-love""s... Our literature will suffer an incurable paralysis. 

    The wikipedia informs that there would be a sequel to this book, titled of-course "A Suitable Girl" to be released in 2016. And well, I am waiting for it.

Let me leave you with these words from the book -

 Hope this will inspire you to do some weight lifting...err reading!!!

9980065496

She has called yet again... Ah Ma not again. I get annoyed as I see the number "9980065496 AMMA" displayed on my mobile screen. How many times does she call me. She wants me to get married, have children... and umpteen advices. I would avoid discussions, tell her I am busy, or my routine phrase "nanna tale tinbeda amma" (don't eat my head). Then i got married etc...

She would call me at least once everyday to either ask about me or scold me that I have not returned back her call, or to tell about the latest article she read in her favorite magazine "Kasthuri". We would very rarely gossip, that was unlike both of us.

She would give me small tid bits about raising kids, home cleanliness etc... like any other mother. Her phone call was my strength as well as my weakness. We would fight, laugh, cry all emotions filled in our phone calls. If she didn't like what I was saying she would cut the call abruptly only to call back again from 9980065496. That one call from 9980065496...

AMMA was working, was sufficiently healthy, but concerned about her 2 daughters.

 She was a very independent lady, tough to ignore. She would call anybody and everybody, till her point was heard. She  had the phone number's of magazine editors, tanker water suppliers, the maid's daughter's, what else do you need she had it all.

Her mobile phone was THE most quintessential device or in fact her best friend. It would be with her all the time, safely kept below her pillow when she slept. It always had enough currency and charge, you never knew when she would need it.

All this seems like a distant past now. We both sisters are married and have settled well into our lives. And now I only stare at the contact list in my mobile "AMMA 9980065496".

AMMA succumbed to a rare form of brain cancer. In the initial days she atleast remembered who we are, she would still try and call us. But slowly she lost her memory, forgot all about us, her mobile phone and all other worldly things. She only remembered Anna (my dad). I had to reluctantly delete all contacts from her phone except ANNA's so that she wouldn't call anyone else.

Towards the end of her days she became completely opposite to her original self - slim, fair complexion, long lovely locks,  sharp memory, always active and quick like mercury (she was fondly called so by her colleagues).

Now I only stare at the contact in my phone "AMMA 9980065496" yes all in caps as I always thought small letters don't give respect to elders.

The phone will no more ring for 9980065496, no more advice, no scoldings, no one who will care for me like  her, no more malnad-style culinary discussions, no more literary conversations, no more maternal love, no more no more no more AMMA.

Half Empty, Half Full

My left pocket is empty,
it only has memories now...
of tales of discipline,
of special malnad cooking
stories heard from amma and ajji.
of how I grew up, what was our family like,
to never-say-no, to ever-be-ready.
to never hesitate to help any one.
to fight stage fear and always be ahead.


But my right pocket in now getting filled,
with stories from Aditi's school,
of dreams about my new baby
of our life as family of four in future.
And this is what I will be passing on
to Aditi's left pocket....

Promise...

From the time my legs hit the cold ground in the morning
till the time my tired head hits the soft pillow in the night
The mind is wandering from the hurried brushing, a quick shower
to the namaste God and to the kitchen stove.
And then back to the cleaning,cooking,
do-it-fast, do-it-fast, do-it-fast routine.

I want to save up time to spend with my mom,
I hurriedly run thru my self-acclaimed responsibilities.
But in this hurriedness,
I loose myself, I loose my focus.
I loose the very reason why I ran hurriedly
up-and-down throughout the day.

When the head hits the pillow,
it swirls and swirls in weird thoughts
and guiltful reasoning.
No I could not today.
I will hurry thru much faster tomorrow.
I will promise I will spend more time with her tomorrow...

Old Age

What is love?
Murmuring soft things into your ears,
Blind folding you to show your new special gift
A deep French kiss...
Sharing your panipuri half you half me?

What is love?
Talking softly near your ears so that you can hear better
Holding your hands and taking you to the loo, lest you fall and hurt yourself again
Massaging your back as you puke for the nth time
Sharing and enjoying your diet food with you?

What is love?
Sharing an umbrella walk on a rainy day,
Buying you a kancheevaram saree for your birthday
A new necklace for your house warming ceremony
Waiting for you to come home for a dinner together?

What is love?
Holding the tarpaulin on the auto side on a rainy day
helping you change into your hospital gown before the major surgery
telling you its ok to remove your mangal sutra for your therapy
waiting for you to swallow that tiny morsel?

What is love?
A teenage love,
middle-age love or
finally...
the care and compassionate love
that you only aspire for in your old-age?