Too Many Cooks!

Trilogy (of Poems)

Taking cue from Deepa Mehta's Trilogy of films - Earth, Fire & Water, few years back, I too constructed a Trilogy of poems. Here it is for you to read, enjoy and criticize.

(Please feel free to comment on other recent entries on the blog : "Republic Day Memoirs" and "Slumdog Bizzare?").


Water

few could look
into those reservoirs
for men usually shy away
when they stare

you could be bold
and continue to gaze
but you’ll drown too -
a similar fate!

gazing at them
many lost balance
tormented ever after,
turning insomniacs

the irony however is
unaware of their strength
those eyes blink innocently,
like a child awe-struck!


Earth

burning sand
hot and bizarre
such is life
an eternal fire

some soothing balm
everyone finds
one thing or the other
to which life binds

your black tresses
weave magic as they swirl
I long for their shade
oh! my girl

the magical curtain
as it falls
I experience bliss
amidst its walls

its swings and swirls
and scent and shade
is my place to rest
and reason to wake!



Fire

gateway to her gut
are two crimson gates
spreading fire
and igniting the place

just their thought
acts as a spark
igniting passion,
arousing desire

as my being
gets engulfed in desire
I long to lick
the voluptuous fire!

heat generates
as I probe her lips
slimy saliva,
firing the flames!

Republic Day Memoirs

Most of my memories of Republic Day are from School. I did my schooling from Kendriyas Vidyalaya (Central School).

My dad was serving in Indian Air Force and he would get transferred from one place to other every 3 to 4 years. I did my preschooling at Ghaziabad. 1 to 3rd standard in Hyderabad, 4 to 5 at Bagdogra (Siliguri), 5 to 8th at Barielly, 9 to 12th at Jodhpur. In fact, Jodhpur happens be the place where I have spent most part of my life (4 years!)

As a kid, Republic day was fun at school. No Padhai-Likhai and just few hours of cultural program and then sweet distribution (I really used to savor that boondi).

Then in college, I joined NCC, and was egged by my friend Anurag Misra to go for the Republic Day Parade selection camp. It meant lot of hardwork. The basic requirement was a good ranking in the 6 km cross-country race and decent marks at the drill parade. I was from Naval side and without much difficulty I cleared the college selection, city selection and found myself at Lucknow for a pre-Republic Day camp. My drill was average and my cross-country bordered towards poor. I would, with great difficulty(and with lot's of will power)would finish those 6 Kms.

Every night in the camp, I used to suffer from the sick feeling of churnings in the gut, a feeling quite close to terror, as I would think of getting-up next day morning, to run for 6 long and never-ending Kms. In the morning, as I would begin, my resources would exhaust within a Km or so. Then it used to be only me and my sheer will power. I would drag and drag till I'd reach the finish.

All this hard-work however was ok as I visited my relatives at Lucknow during the pre-RD camp(I had so much to boast!) and they too were excited at the perospect of seeing me march on the Republic Day Parade.

We were in the middle of the camp when we came to know that they had to eliminate one last person. Again the drill tests were called and cross country race. Again the lists were made. My heart really broke that day as they announced my name. I didn't want to go back. I badly wanted to go to Delhi. But there I was - eliminated.

There is this famous line in "Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)", something like (not verbatim) - 'if you desire something with all your heart into it, the whole world conspires for you to achieve it'. (This also became a famous dialogue in SRK's "Om Shanti Om' something with words like "shiddat" and "kaaynaat"). So, something similar must have happened to my Lucknow relatives as after the Republic Day, they called up and informed they actually saw me at the RD parade!!
(ofcourse, I hadn't inform them that I was eliminated).

Later though, I told them the truth - for a clear conscience :)

A Happy Republic Day to you.

Slumdog Bizzare?

10 oscar nominations.
A bagful of Gloden Globes.
A rating of 4-and-a-half-star in TOI.

I have been a serious movie-buff for a long-long time now and have been following the critic-rating of movies (mainly in Times of India). Though I not always agree with the stars over there, but that is one-of-my guides to pick a movie or give it a slip.

I don't remember any other time when there was a rating of 4-and-a-half for any movie in TOI. So when I found this rating for Slumdog Millionaire, I was like, "wow!". This was after the movie's big reap at Golden Globe and Times of India Front Page - Main Headline (after it's oscar nominations) "Rah Rah Rahman..."

So the expectations were sky high as I went to have a dekko. The movie, no doubt, is a well made one. But I as I got out of Theatre, I wasn't sure it was as great as it was made out to be. Here are few thoughts which echoed in my mind as I drove back home :

The high-points of the movie are its cinematography, AR Rahman's red-bull energy laced music (I think the movie wouldn't have been half as good without that), the performance by the lead actors, slick editing and an amazing portrayal of Mumbai's slum under-belly.

What I thought it lacked was the emotional warmth which a good Bollywood movie often does so well - touching your heart in such a way that you feel an emotion so strongly that your eyes just spill. I know I am going against the tide, but couldn't help feeling this way. I also attributed this to a Brit being at the helm-of-affairs, here.

Another thing which I found a bit out-of-place was the casting of Dev Patel as Jamal. Dev Patel looked too sophisticated for a guy raised in slums. He always looked someone from a very well-to-do family. Contrast this to the Jamal played by the child artist (see him jumping into human excreta to get a Glimpse of his hero Amitabh Bachchan), one can immediately connect with the native intelligence the role possessed and the spirit it had (to beat the system to rise up).

Well, none from outside India can understand this nuance and won't be able to figure this out. As they applaud the movie, most of us too, would choose to ignore this.

If you keep these points aside, it is a well made movie and does deserves few stars!

Harivansh Rai Bachchan

It was flattering that Ajay & Anu mentioned Harivansh Rai Bachchan on the blog. Neither of them has read any of my poetry (that helps me in not taking their compliments to my head), I personally have read Gulzar more than Harivansh ji. and if you ask me, my poems are more inspired by Gulzar than anyone else.

Having said that, one of my poems "bhor ka vaada", is inspired by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, for sure. And as I refer back, this poem stands out among my other poems. It has a different feel, a different touch - more classical and less contemprary in it's choice of words. And this happened immediately after I read a collection of his poems.

Some of you may be interested as how a poem starts taking shape in one's mind. I was taking an early morning flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad few years back and as the plane gained height, there was this nice big full moon, which had started turning white because of very early light appearing in the sky. It was mesmerising...the morning was just about to begin.

As I had been reading Harivanshji, mind started thinking in shuddh hindi and words like "bhor ka shishu roop" (morning in infancy), os (fog/mist) mein lipati hui were at the fore front and as I imagined moon turning from golden in night to shining white, I thought about "chaand bhi taj (leave), raat ka sringar swarnim, odh kar chaandi khada - shwet, sfatik".

I started thinking how would be the day, if the morning was such! Or was it necessary that if the morning was good the day would be good, too? What is the relevance of a beautiful morning? Does it have a promise?

As happens in life, in poetry too, well begun is half done.
Rest was all easy. Here is the whole poem for you (hope you'd like it) :

Swiss'land : A Travelogue '03

Lucerne, Switzerland

Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world but in Switzerland too, Lucerne is perhaps the best with a huge lake kissing the feet of mountains in an otherwise flatter city. One-hour drive from Zurich, Lucerne is a town with a local population not more than 78,000 ! But it’s frequented throughout the year by tourists from allover the world. Tourists love its calm and pure atmosphere; a walk on the wooden bridge with colourful flowers hanging on one of its sides and a beautiful boat ride in the lovely Lucerne Lake.

On our first evening there, Urvashi and I took up a boat ride on the lake for two hours. Though the cabin was warm and air-conditioned, we sat out on the deck in that cold, chilling dusk to soak-in the beauty of the lake and the mountains. I don’t know why, but somehow we assumed that after two hours, the same boat would bring us back to Lucerne. This assumption, however, was a grave mistake – it was actually a ferry taking people from Lucerne to various other hamlets! We were supposed to get down at one of these places and board another boat in reverse direction to reach Lucerne. The mistake caused me to reach late for the official dinner hoisted for the Surgeons sponsored by my Company.

But as a trade-off, as we got down at a place to take a ferry back, we got a closer look of this small and very silent hamlet – such silence one can only imagine in India when the place is under curfew! For about an hour or so, we enjoyed the view of the nice little houses and the shops with their roofs sloped, bunch of flowers hanging from cute small windows, the effect was like that of some fairyland- but this one really existed and was only an hour away from Lucerne both by road as well as boat.

From Lucerne station a train leads to Engel burg, from where, one can ascend to the snow-capped Mt. Titlis. A cable car lifts people from Engel burg to Mt. Titlis, which is at a height of appox 3500 meters - almost half of that of Mt. Everest! While on the train, one passes through a beautiful countryside with lovely green manicured grasslands. It’s a great sight to watch well-fed cows feasting on the green, while tinkering the neatly tied bells around their neck. You wonder what the people here would have done to be born on such a scenic place – away from a world of chaos, pollution and stress!

I had been to Mt. Titlis about three years ago, and as this time, I was to accompany the surgeons to visit my Company’s nearby Heart-Valve plant at Horw, Urvashi went to Titlis alone.

Another train from Lucerne leads you to Interlaken, a hot favorite among Bollywood Producers. In fact it is not unusual to find things written in ‘Hindi’ at few places in the major tourist spots in Switzerland – thanks to Bollywood and the Indian ‘honeymooning’ couples. The journey to Interlaken is around two hours, and gives an amazing view of some of the fabulous lakes – the colour of of these appear in some superior pastel shade of green.

On our trip to Interlaken, two Bangladeshi Surgeons, who were very friendly throughout, joined us. We took a Tonga ride in Interlaken to see the place and relished every part of it as we passed by beautiful houses, church and shops in this scenic town. The major attraction in Interlaken is Para-Jumping and Para-Gliding, that’s why Urvashi had planned this visit in the first place. Unfortunately, as we didn’t have a prior booking for these events, she couldn’t fulfill her long time desire of Para-jumping, and was really put-off.

Austria : Travelogue (2003)

Vienna, Austria

As the bus moved from Airport to the City, I was disappointed to see huge factories, fumes and an array of strong lights. Austria in my mind used to evoke images of green grasslands, mountains and lakes – thanks to the Hollywood blockbuster “Sound of Music”. This was nothing like it. This seemed more like the cold, industrial Germany. Anyway, when I got up next morning and saw the view from our Hotel room window, I was delighted to see Danube river and lots of green trees partly decorated with yellow leaves, as typically seen in the areas away from tropics.

As I was busy with the Conference, Urvashi was on her own for next few days, visiting museums and palaces in Vienna. She had taken a Vienna Card, which was a one-time expense for transportation and thereafter one could board buses, or underground trains without paying for 72 hours. The card also entitled discounts in Museums. As she returned from these palaces and museums (including the famous Leopold Museum), I kept hearing names of Queen Elizabeth “Sissi”, Artist Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Monet.

Princess of Bavaria, Elizabeth (nicknamed as ‘Sissi’), was one of the most beautiful women of her times. She weighed 48 kgs and was 5 ft 6 inches tall! Married at the age of 16 and murdered at 61, she remains one of the most well known Queens of Europe.

In the art scene, throughout Europe from 1890 to 1910, a movement was flourishing to overcome the ‘historicizing forms’ of art and to create a style suited to the new age. In 1897, an ‘Association of Austrian Artists (Secession)’ was formed. Gustav Klimt is regarded as the master of the ‘Vienna Secession’ and its true representative.

Egon Schiele was one of the most famed artists of the 20th century. Died at the age of 28, his work ‘The Family’ is acknowledged as one of his major works. In this he depicted himself, a woman and a child. Egon’s wife died of influenza in the advanced stages of pregnancy, and three days later Egon too succumbed to the same disease. The painting remained unfinished at the base.

Claude Monet is another big name and his work ‘Path in Monet’s Garden’ is superb, particularly his catching of the sunlight on his garden path.

Before this trip, I used to believe that my only idea of holiday was - to go back to the nature, enjoy the natural beauty of mountains, soak-in the silence which is only punctuated by sound of a flowing stream and sweet sound made by bugs and birds. In fact, I even checked with Urvashi whether she was really interested in going to Italy for remaining one week of our holiday (or should we spend that time in Switzerland)! But it all changed after this visit as now I had this newfound appreciation for art, culture and history.

On last day of the Conference, on Urvashi’s insistence, I took some time out and went with her to the famous Belvedere Museum. I liked the beautiful surroundings and felt bad that the roll in our Camera got over. As soon as I started looking at the paintings I sort of started making fun of them - ‘what’s this, what’s so great about it, why people spend so much money or time on such things’ and so on. Urvashi was feeling quiet upset. It suddenly changed however. Few paintings later I was becoming quieter, deeply touched by those great works of art. I was amazed at the details worked out in each of the paintings. Boy! It was amazing! I realized why Gustav Klimt is regarded so much as I saw his towering Work – “The Kiss” (A poster of the same painting now hangs framed in our Drawing room).

The art gallery in Belvedere was indeed an overwhelming experience.

We spent some time in a main shopping area-“The Ring”. We saw a guy with many glass- goblets, filled with different levels of hot and cold water. He was working his fingers on the goblets and was producing amazing musical notes! As he was tuning them with Do Re Mi… it sounded like someone was playing a violin. Amazing!


Salzburg, Austria

On our way to Salzburg, we met an interesting guy in Train. He was from Denmark and had recently shifted to Vienna. He was in the ‘wine’ business and was into logistics. He began conversation and informed us that along with some of his friends, he was toying with the idea of marketing the concept of “wine drinking” in India. We discussed with him possible strategies and scenarios for the Indian market and the time just flew away.

The Sound of Music

Salzburg is mainly associated either with Mozart or the Hollywood blockbuster –‘The Sound Of Music’. In fact there is a bus tour conducted for tourists to take them to all the places where the movie was shot. So we proudly announced to our other co-passenger in the train, an old local lady that we were going to take up the tour. She sounded least interested and said its all-Hollywood stuff and she didn’t like the movie! I thought this lady must’ve lost interest in life for not liking a movie like “Sound of Music”.

Later, to our surprise, we found that while the movie was a big hit all over the world, it wasn’t liked in Salzburg a bit! Hollywood, it seems, had taken huge liberties, while portraying the story of the local Von Trapp Family. To name one, in the movie the Trapp family is escaping through a mountain to Switzerland, in reality however, that route leads to Germany and Switzerland is nowhere near!

Next day evening, we went to the famous Mirabell Gardens. I saw a metallic statue of a man, which I liked a lot before Urvashi told me that ‘it’ was actually a man ‘acting’ as a statue to collect money! I did give him some coins for his class ‘act’.

Hitler’s nest

First day we did the tour of ‘Sound of music’. Second day, we went to “Eagles Nest”. 'The Nest' is a place in Germany, near Salzburg, where the great dictator used to conduct his conferences. The place is up on the mountain providing great view of a snow-capped range. One can reach the conference hall using a special lift, which was constructed, inside the mountain, to raise people up 124 meters! It showcases a nice fireplace gifted to Hitler by his Italian ally Benito Mussolini. Hitler had visited this place officially 14 times.

Mozart

Mozart is a big brand in Salzburg; his picture is omnipresent - on the chocolates, t-shirts, crockery, and what you have. Born in Salzburg, he remained in the city for some time, but ironically, didn’t seem to like Salzburg much and moved to Vienna.

Trivia

One of the things worth a visit in Salzburg is ‘Augustine’s beer home’. The atmosphere in the pub is amazing, people from all age groups sip beer in huge mugs of a liter or half-a-liter. It seems that the some monks brew the beer, served here.

Italy : Travelogue (2003)

Venice, Italy

Now, as the conference was over, we were booking hotels on our own using ‘Lonely Planet’s guide – ‘Europe’. Also, since we had not reserved our train tickets, we were buying current tickets to have the flexibility to move as per our convenience.

As we got out of Railway Station - Ferro Via (‘Ferro’ for iron rails and ‘via’ for way) in Venice, huge tourist crowds surprised us. Till now, we were used to a very few people moving around in Switzerland as well as in Austria. But Venice was different. Its rush reminded that of India.

We bought two 24-hr. bus passes for Venice. Needless to say, the buses were actually boats (locally known as Vaporetto). The main road (oops! the main canal) passed through all the major stops and has house and hotels built on both sides of the canal. As we boarded a boat, it seemed as if the air was abuzz with the tune of ‘Do Labzon ki hai dil ki kahaani….’

Next day we took a vaporatti to Lido -a famous fashion capital of one time. Lido looked somewhat like modern Europe with cars, modern style of houses and shops. Save Lido, Venice looked like a beautiful romantic city that has come to life from some ancient times.

At Piazza de San Marco, like others, we too purchased corn seeds to feed pigeons. As the pigeons feasted on the seeds sitting all over the head, shoulders or palms, the moment presents itself as an ideal snap-shot to be captured on camera. We were missing our daughter Srishti too much, in fact while feeding the pigeons Urvashi said that she felt as if she was feeding Srishti!

We also got clicked a snap of ours in front of the ‘bridge of sighs’, the building adjacent to this was a prison at some point of time, where Casanova was imprisoned for some time and the women used to stand on this bridge and sigh!



Florence & Pisa, Italy

We had this great day in Venice before we took up another train and left for Florence.
From Florence, early in the morning we left for Pisa. While in Pisa, I remembered my close friend Chandu a lot, who had spent few years in this town.

The leaning Tower of Pisa

The leaning tower is a godsend opportunity for this town, where otherwise, few tourists would come. They would rather go around Florence to the scenic areas of Tuscany region (which we missed out). But to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, tourists flock this place.

Most big Churches in Italy seemed to have a bell-tower next to them, and so did the church in Pisa. The foundation of it’s bell tower was laid in 1173 A.D., But as the tower was constructed, it was realized that due to certain type of material used or due to the marshy nature of the land, the tower was not very stable - it in fact started leaning! Twelve years later the construction was stopped, which could only begin a century later.

After lots of restoration work the tower stands as it is today – leaned about 4 meters from the vertical axis – and is still leaning by approx. 1mm per year!




Florence

Florence city per se was a bit of disappointment as we had formed high hopes of scenic beauty, but it was just a city. There was a great museum though, having paintings from 13th Century onwards, all of which were biblical depictions. Some of them by great artists like Raphael and Lorenzo. It housed lots of sculptures too. One had to wait in long queues to get in. We thought about how foreigners must have been feeling when they visit India!

At dusk, we climbed the hill on which Michelangelo’s monument is built. From this point, there was this spectacular view of the city. There were lots of tourists around, lovers freely smooching and a painter doing some strange spray painting with a crowd around him, his system playing a fast track Punjabi folk number, that too, on full volume!

Next day early in the morning we took a cheaper train to Rome (14 Euro/person)


Rome, Italy

‘Rome was not built in a day’, though being a clichéd saying, takes a different meaning while roaming the city of Rome. The excavated sites of ancient Rome (some dating back to the B.C. era), the ruins of medieval Rome and the jazzy new markets of modern Rome – they all co-exist, sometimes just a walking distance from each other. Long back I had somewhere heard Mark Tully’s reference to India as ‘centuries co-exist in India’, ditto for Rome.

Ancient Rome

The origin of Rome dates back to 753 B.C., built by Romulus. In fact most of the ancient Rome is underground! Over the centuries, because of the changes in the ground level, most such sites went down as low as about 8-9 meters at some places. They are out in the open by careful excavation. Benito Mussolini carried out most of the excavation work, supposedly to gain popularity in the name of ‘restoring the old pride of Rome’.

One such important site is the ‘Roman Forum’, which has among other buildings a ‘Temple of Saturn’, which dates back to approx. 500 B.C., though today what remains is only a side of it with huge pillars, but still it looks majestic! The forum also has a temple of Julius Caesar, where people still keep bouquets. After Caesar was murdered at Piazza del Argentino (another excavated site open for public display) to save ‘Democracy in Rome’, his body was brought here and it was here that Mark Anthony gave that famous speech, “Friend, Romans and Countrymen…”


In the forum, in another temple, a flame was kept alighted all the time, in those days.
Select virgin girls were responsible to keep this lamp alighted, each of whom had to devote 30 years of their life from puberty, for this cause. First 10 years to get trained, next 10 years actually on the job, and last 10 years to train. Though severe punishments were meted out at them, but they sort of enjoyed a special status vis-à-vis other women in Rome. For example they were allowed inside the Colosseum and they also had some kind of influence on the powerful men of those times.

Apart from the Forums, the most well kept building of ancient Rome is perhaps ‘The Pantheon’. Pantheon was built in 27 B.C. It has 16 huge monolithic granite columns, each 13 meters high, brought from Egypt. The story is that the vessel bringing these pillars from Egypt sank and all over again new pillars were built in Egypt and transported to Rome.

After being inside the Pantheon, one can’t but appreciate the vision of the man who thought of building such a marvelous structure in 23 B.C.! Many ancient and medieval buildings in Rome owe their design and architecture to Pantheon. In fact, it is believed that Michelangelo got lots of his ideas from Pantheon, when he was designing the St. Peters church in the Vatican.

When Christianity became popular in Rome, ancient Romans were scoffed as ‘Pagans’, for their worship of the natural elements like Sun, planets, fire etc. and of their emperors. Though Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 A.D., it became popular only in the 7th Century AD. As new churches kept popping up, all old temples and monuments were destroyed; their pillars and their precious metals were used for building the churches and palaces. Some, like the pantheon, survived the onslaught to some extent, as they were converted to Church. Rome was cannibalizing itself.

‘The Colosseum’ still remains a major tourist attraction in Rome. Gladiators used to fight here or were thrown in front of beastly animals, as the spectators, indicating thumbs up or thumbs down were deciding their fate. Approximately 80,000 people could be accommodated in the Colosseum. It was built in 72 A.D.

Ganges in Rome!

At Piazza Navona stands a magnificent fountain –‘The Four Rivers’, created in 1651. At the four corners of this fountain, are personifications of The Nile, a South American river, The Danube and The Ganges.

The Vatican City

The smallest country of the world, is inside Rome, and has magnificent St. Peters Church and an amazing museum. St. Peters church owes its grandeur to Michelangelo, who was given this project in 1547 AD, at the age of 72. The church is flocked by people from all over the world and is huge, majestic and has amazing interiors. In the church, even today, a dress code is followed, dresses like mini-skirts are not allowed.

When we visited Vatican, Mother Teresa was already a big star there, as her beatification was completed recently. Her image was right there on the postcards, magnets, key rings, photographs, statue etc., the souvenir manufacturers were having a great time!

Vatican’s criteria for deciding if someone is a saint or not are that whether he or she could perform miracles, even after death. The miracle, which the mother is supposed to have performed, is curing abdominal tumor of some Monica Besra who prayed to Mother Teresa and her tumor vanished!

Most of us would respect the mother same, magic or no magic. But that’s not the way the medieval ritual of Vatican looks at it. I read a very funny remark from Vir Sanghvi few days back in Mid-Day, that ‘It’s Mother Teresa we are talking about, for god’s sake not Gogia Pasha !’

Anyway, the museum at the Vatican, houses some of the best pieces of all time artistic gems. The Ceiling of Sistine Chapel is mostly done by Michelangelo, which has in the center, his masterpiece – ‘The Creation of Adam’. In this, as the god is creating Adam, their forefingers are just about touching. There is a sac around the god, which has an uncanny resemblance to the anatomy of human brain, which is still being debated after about 500 years whether it is deliberate or co-incidental (of course in those days, the anatomy was not known in such detail)! Other masterpieces in Sistine Chapel include ‘The Last Judgment’.

In the museum, Raphael rooms are a treat to watch. It was believed in Rome in those days that the three basic objectives of humankind are – Truth, Beauty and goodness. Raphael beautifully depicts this. Truth, which represents knowledge and philosophy, is depicted by Raphael’s masterpiece –‘The School of Athens’. In this painting, you can see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, Diogenes, Ptolemy, Zoroaster and Raphael himself! Lot of literature has been written on the interpretation of this one painting itself, in fact there is one whole book available on ‘The School of Athens’.

Truth, beauty and goodness immediately reminded me of ‘Satyam, Shivam, and Sundaram’. A mere co-incidence?

The Ghetto

In 16th Century, as the Protestant movement was on rise, The Pope feared that the Jews would join the movement and would become a real threat to Catholics. Most of the Jews in Rome lived in a specific area. The Pope ordered to build a wall around the Jewish locality to isolate them from rest. Thus a huge wall (The Ghetto) was constructed, which remained there for next 300 years, isolating the Jews from rest of the Rome! Inside Ghetto, The Jews lived a miserable life.

In 18th Century, a census reported 8900 Jews inside Ghetto were living in 135 houses (on an average 70 people lived in a single house!) The area inside Ghetto was limited, so they just built more storeys to their house to accommodate the growing population. They lived in serious unhygienic living conditions.

In 1871, the first emperor of unified Italy, Victor Emmanuel, declared Italy to be a nation not to be built on religion, and it was only then that the Ghetto was brought down.



The Greek tragedies

Near this Jewish area, resembling Colosseum, is a theater - The Theater of Marcellus. This was begun by Caesar and was completed by Augustus in 11 B.C. Like a semicircle, it looks like half a Colosseum. The design of Colosium was lifted from this theatre, formed by sort of putting two of this amphitheatre together.

This theater used to stage Greek tragedies, which ended with someone getting killed or committing suicide. The only difference was that this role was given to convicts and they were to ACTUALLY die in the end to provide REAL entertainment (in the absence of Reel life) to the audience!

The theater served many purpose – here, the public were entertained to keep them from entertaining any ideas of a conspiracy, convicts were punished brutally and people were given a strong message that if they do wrong, what fate awaits them!

Trastevere

River Tiber flows through Rome. The other side of Tiber is a small place called Trastevere (derived from ‘Trans-Tiber’). There is a small bridge there, which was built in approx. 65 B.C. (in Caesar’s time!). It still stands as it was and is perhaps world’s oldest functional bridge! Trastevere also holds the distinction of having the oldest Church of Rome.

Trivia

In Rome at one point of time, becoming Pope meant having great power and influence. Those families flourished whose one of the members would become pope. Of course, Popes were not supposed to marry and thus not have children. Many of them, though, had children, from illegal liaisons, who were referred to as Pope’s nephews! And it was these nephews who got all-important jobs. Thus the term ‘Nepotism’ got coined.

Before leaving Italy, we took time-out specifically for ‘Naples-style Pizza’ at a famous restaurant in Rome – ‘The Pizza Re’ at Piazza Lapoli. Take my words for it; it’s simply Pizza at its best, melting deliciously in mouth

Early morning next day we boarded the Rome-Zurich-Mumbai flight, once in Mumbai, I felt that wherever you go, nothing feels like coming back home to India!

Kamasutra

Picking up a comment made by Avinash on this blog (hippocrate changing?), I agree with him that things were dramatically opposite in ancient India. Infact, I don't think any of the civilizations was more comfortable discussing sex than our ancient Indian civilization. Having been both to Khajuraho and the Konark Sun Temple at Orissa, I can tell you that the graphic depiction of sex there is beyond imagination!

Just think about it, in our so called "Modern" India, there exist a section of people who would even try burning paintings of artist no lesser than MF Hussain calling them "obscene", contrast this with ancient India, where temples were built showcasing people engaged in sexual acts!!!

One explanation for depiction of sex in Temples, which I have heard, is:
All these sexual sculptures are on the outside walls of the temple while the lord resides inside. This is to establish that one can only attempt to reach higher levels of spirituality by dealing with one's carnal instincts/needs and not by sweeping them under the carpet or ignoring them as if they did,'t exist. (Osho?)

Is this the only explantaion? Have you heard any other?? I am interested.

This open minded-ness aside, in ancient India, sex got recognised as an art by Vatsyayan's "Kamasutra". Imagine not only did the society accept it, it also became "literature" - which even today, remains one of the most sought-after Indian work, all across the globe!

Kudos to such society!

Hippocrate changing?

When it comes to "sex", it is widely accepted that we Indians are big hippocrates. It is such a taboo subject that even a mention of the word like "condom" needed guys to cough out all the courage they had! My contemporaries would sure remember the awkward yet comic scene from then "famous" movie "Anubhav", where the bloake played by Shekhar Suman makes a fool of himself in the chemist shop, wanting to buy condom!

On one hand, for long, we kept mantaining a moral high ground by being obssessed by virginity before marriage. On the other the incidence of incest, if all reported, would make make us appear like a "sex-obssessed" race. If you keep your ears to the ground, you would hear all those murmurs of how most women at some time or other have been "felt" or "fondled" by a close relative.

Sex was dark. To be "done" at night. "Done" and not to be talked about. If at all "sex" was discussed, it was discussed either as a boastful experience of guys or as a complete derogatory description of the women involved. A typical reflection of a Patriarchal society, which is so biased against fair sex.

Well, we all know that. Why am I raising it then. Here is the reason why -

I recently started watching "Theatre" . Over the years, I had only watched one play that too was years ago at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. It is great that now one can watch "theatre" even at Gurgaon! To many of us who haven't seen much of plays and such stuff, "theatre" evokes images of "old-fashioned", "melodrama", "fading art in times of technology", "a poor cousin of cinema" etc. But it seems it has caught up in big way! At least I was ignorant about the contemporary face of Theatre till I saw two plays (of a 35 year old "Ruchika Theatre Group" )- CHAAL & PEOPLE LIKE US.

Apart from other things, the bold mention of sex related issues was an eye opener. There was even mention of terms like "breasts", "oral-sex", "tits on legs" while describing the sexual harassment and incest. Imagine that the audience were all family members and that it did't appear scandalous!

Add to this the movie "President is Coming" where while the security gurad tries to do a security check on Maya (Konkana Sen Sharma, she cool-ly and confidently warns - "please don't touch my breasts".

I think we are changing. We are now able to face these things better than how our parents or their parents did. We are at least opening up to discuss the issue related to sex which was such a big taboo.

Have you seen/heard the recent ads of generic term "condom"? If you have, you would understand what I mean. And you would also understand the significance of the ring tone "condom-condom-condom".

Hopefully, this new-found openness would help women to come out and report their sufferings and would make men perhaps more sensitive towards women. And hopefully we all may be able to use this to make sex-education more relevant to the younger generation and not just an awkward dialogue or mere lecturing.

Good Day!

Triveni

Triveni is a form of poetry invented by Gulzar.

As we all know, Triveni is the sangam of three rivers, Ganga, Jamuna, and Saraswati. The first two lines of a Triveni represent Ganga and Jamuna, and provide complete meaning to the topic. However, the third line, Saraswati provides a completely new dimension to what’s being said.

The triveni is all about the third line....which gives the verse a new dimension.

Here are few which I wrote:
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poori raat kagaz ghise, syaahi kharchi
taaref mein teri, ek poori nazm likh daali

tune nazar daali savere, akhbaar utha liya
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main bhi ek gul hoon, mere andar bhi gulzaar hai
kagaz pakda, kalam uthayee aur kaside likh diye

raat khuda ne samjhaya, sirf ek banaya hai usne
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kharche kam karne ka jo silsila tha,
aaj maine akhbaar bhi band kara diya

tum saari duniya ka haal bata dete ho
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dekha apne jism ko zameen par
apni maut ke kuch lamhon baad

jo kuch bhi tha, main nahi tha
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aaine mein kuch kharabi thi
dikhlata na tha surat-ien asal

naram-dil tha, bechara aainaa
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Wohi kahani, do bhai-
ek garib, doosra amir

bharat ek, dooja india
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Hope you will like these :)

Splitsville

After deliberating for more than 3 years, Urvashi and I have decided to separate. We concluded that we have been growing in different directions as individuals with different set of priorities. Post separation, we still remain as good friends. Our daughter Srishti would remain with Urvashi and would keep getting love from both of us, always.

The begining...

This was one of those things which you keep procastinating till all the cows come home. For years I have been thinking of starting my blog. With more than 60 poems in english and hindi under my belt (any publisher listening?), I thought I should channelise my self-proclaimed creative juices through my blog.

Even after my childhood favorite Amitabh Bachchan's blog became a national sensation (why would he sleep with a gun under pillow, though?) and even after Aamir's wish of a doggie named Shahrukh made blogs a more day-to-day affair, I didn't write.

As I usually do while wandering at airports, I picked up a good book at Delhi airport recently. (Of late, I have been living a busy existance as am shouldering even a Sales Manager's resposibility after Mr. Sangra left the job. With two full time portfolios of Marketing and Sales - you can imagine my busy-ness! ) Being busy makes you think about time in a different perspective altogether. A murder mystery or a laid-back romantic novel which used to be an obvious choice, suddenly seemed a waste-of-time! Also, I feel I have out-grown the Self-help books, which were my obssession until recently.

So I picked up this book - "The Google Story". What amazing story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin! If you haven't read, please go and get a copy of this 'rise and rise of Google empire' story.
Those who have read it and liked, please share your views with this fan.

Well, after this book, the Google blogspot was obviously an automatic choice to begin my blog journey. So here I am.....