Sunday, October 28, 2007

Waves of new phenomenon hitting Guwahati....

Guwahati is hit by several waves of new phenomenon which take the Guwahatians by storm. The first thing to hit Guwahati was a wave of PCOs....everywhere one could see a plethora of PCO booths, with xerox and fax facilities in tow. But one must confess that the frequency with which PCOs are found in Guwahati are difficult to replicate anywhere else!!!! Then with the advent of the mass surrender of the ULFA , there were loads of wine shops (liquor vends ...saying 'cold beer , sold here') that were set up. Then in the late 90s, it was the phenomenon of cyber cafes and pool parlours. And now, all of a sudden it is Lounge Bars and these huge buildings with glass facades dotting the town. Many of these lounge bars look rather seedy , with equally seedy names....

Born to be wild....

Born to Be Wild....

by Steppenwolf

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under
Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

Born to be wild
Born to be wild

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Plays, Movies and weekends.....

Its been sometime since I last wrote in a post....sheer laziness I guess...

All I can really write about is the time well spent over the weekend . Watched Chak De India last Sunday and the movie rocked. It was one great movie I had seen in a long time. It spoke about several relevant issues and dealt with them so subtly , that it wasn't preachy at all!! In addition to that it was fast paced....one wasn't provided the space for boredom. The interplay between the different characters too was well represented...on the whole i thoroughly enjoyed the movie....

Today, we went out for a play at a local auditorium. It was a theatrical presentation of a play written by Mahesh Dattani. "30 Days In September" dealt with the issue of Child Sexual Abuse and Incest, commonplace in every household cutting across all class, caste and language barriers. Yet, it is one issue that is considered so taboo that it is seldom ever allowed to be out in the open for public debate. Narratives of victims are usually frowned upon, pushed to the vestiges of private memories...to be forgotten. The pain and trauma lingers on and it can have a telling effect on the person's growth and subsequent interpersonal relations.

The play was directed by Satyakee D'com Bhuyan and he did a fine job with it. The music was composed by Mayukh Hazarika. The actors did a great job. I particularly liked the performances of the victim and the perpetrator ....absolutely stellar performances!!! On the whole it was a great show and a wonderful evening...

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Monday, July 30, 2007

Some posts from a blog that I am planning to delete.......

Tangential, disconnected thoughts...weaving a pattern....

bodies/desire/touch

hurt/pain/life

blood/gore/flesh

Sensory frames....

Smells--how evocative can they be. Taking us back in time--opening up a pandora's box of a multitude of emotions. Smells can come to represent a wide range of experiences---of culinary delights wafting in the air, the putrid smell of sweat. They can evoke a variety of feelings and images---of happiness, laughter, intimacy, death, disgust and repulsion.

***************

The word Intimacy conjures up images and experiences in my mind---- of provocation, closeness, company, dialogue--- monologue (perhaps?), shared memories, time spent together, caught together in a common space of time.........

A common ground of intimacy albeit for a short moment is the daily travels on a bus....co-passengers in a bus/jostling for space touching unknowingly/shoving knowingly in desperation to move ahead/bodies brushing against each other/a light touch on the shoulder/a brusque manner cutting past streams of unfettered conversation/ bodies closely packed together like sardines---arms reaching out/torsos smashed--confined/constrained---legs entwined....

Pleasure None/Thoughts of getting out pre-dominate the mind/desire to catch a breath of fresh air/Waiting in limbo.....just waiting...

Snapshots of a fragile memory.....

Memories are like grains of sands...shifting ....continuously moving....shaped by layers of experiences, tweaking out the old and replacing them with new, sensory stimulations.... colours, images , smells, tastes...so clear that you can feel them touching you.

How often they keep coming back...the sights, the smell....the sounds....evoked by the seemingly mundane events unfolding around us. One is always oscillating between the present and the past...taking in what one can....the memory of that event ....just an iota of the entire experience....to be embedded deep in the recesses of our mind. To be dug into at a later stage.... rummaged through for that one particular piece that would fit into an unravelling life process.

How brilliantly the mind works.....

Saturday, June 30, 2007

"Home " --- Family intrigues

Stayed up till 3 this morning reading the novel Home by Manju Kapur. Its about a typical North Indian business family based in the congested lanes of Delhi's Karol Bagh. The plot is centered around the lives of two sisters and their respective families. The intrigues in a joint family set up, squabbles, relations with the in-laws, one-up-man-ship between rival sisters in-law and incestous relations tainting innocent young lives are some of the pre-dominant themes. It is sooo real in parts, it can actually feel a bit suffocating!!! Nevertheless, if one can sustain one's interest in Banwari Lal's fortunes across several generations...it is worth the effort!!!

Monday, May 07, 2007

FM Channels....

Of late , theres been a buzz in the local radio scene. Two new private operators have set up shop in Guwahati and are airing FM channels...one has been named "Ooh La La" on 91.9 MHz ( don't ask me why they chose that name) and another one called "Big" FM on 92.7 MHz. As the FM channels are rather new....the RJs are still at a nascent stage trying to woo the audience with the gift of gab. They do a lot of blabbering ....trying their level best to sound cool, young and fresh in English , Assamese and Hindi!!! Some are quite good...the rest really need to brush up their skills.

During the night over the weekend, they air programmes on western music. None of the RJs feel it necessary to mention the names of the songs that they play (for reasons best known to them) and each of them are soo theatrical that it actually is quite funny!!! There's one fellow who introduces himself as the "father of the phantom" and in a rather grave voice presents the program, interspersed with shrill laughter. Then there was another RJ who gave lessons on spoken English language , commiting several mistakes himself!!!

For all its worth, they have brought in quite a change in the radio scene and I'm hoping that things would change for the better soon....

Friday, May 04, 2007

Books ...books ...more books..

Books I have read in the recent past..

*Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (it was my second time....a wonderful read...very real).

*The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh (took me some time initially but it is extremely engrossing ... beautifully written)

*Snow by Orhan Pamuk (haven't progressed beyond the twientieth page or so...will have to go back to it soon)

* The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (abandoned it midway...it wasn't very interesting...didn't keep me glued to it).

* South Asia's Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms Proliferation in India's North East by Binalakshmi Nepram ( I'm currently reading it and its very informative. An interesting book...its related to the work I do and that makes it all the better . Gives a good overview of the security scenario plaguing India's North East. It might scare off people reading about North East India for the first time. It is no doubt the reality but just one facet of life as lived by people in these parts of the country.

Books I'm planning to read in the coming few weeks:

*The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh

*Aparajito by Bibbhutibhushan Bandopadhyay

Thursday, May 03, 2007

One often gets driven by niggling self doubts. For me, today was one such day. I just woke up with such a terrible disposition….I was terribly upset and frustrated with my life and the way it was heading. Of late, I have begun to feel that my life is not going in any particular direction…that I need to make choices but I am not doing much about it…and that can be damn frustrating….the feeling that its all within your grasp and you are letting it all slip away because of your lackadaisical attitude!!! The feeling that there is so much to do…but for whatever reason one is not doing enough....
Its midnight now and I just hope tommorow I don't wake up with the same suffocating, nauseating feeling...a feeling that makes one extremely depressed about life....

Monday, January 08, 2007

Assam's hour of shame.....

The New Year has brought in a lot of bloodshed in its wake. Beginning with the startling revelations of the serial killers in the village of Nithari, Noida to the orgy of violence carried out by the outlawed ULFA in Assam. The recent massacres of the migrant workers from Bihar in Upper Assam are an act of cowardice of the ULFA in the face of its rejection from the popular masses. The People’s Consultative Group (comprising of a bunch of sycophants), who have been acting as mediators between the Government of India and the ULFA, have not raised their voice against these heartless killings. No longer do cries of human rights violations rent the air. Innocent migrant labourers do not seem to have “human rights” like the more privileged rebels in the state.

In their (ULFA’s) method in madness, a calculative strategy can be delineated. With the National Games in the offing as well as their sinking popularity, this act of terror seems to have been well thought out and pre-mediated. The Government is still waiting for additional security personnel. Why the presence of an already large police and paramilitary force in the state could not prevent the escalation of violence on successive days, is not known. Why couldn’t they contain it? How could the violence spread to other districts?

It is truly Assam’s hour of shame……