Magic Moments

It is human nature to dwell in the past, worry about the future and forget all about the present. I still miss the days spent in Hyderabad. I miss the study schedules, eating out, street shopping, and the city tours. I miss the roads, the townships and the metros. But I clearly remember that I just wanted the days to pass quickly so that I could return home, while I was there. And today I miss the view from the terrace of the ladies hostel we stayed in, the floral decorations with chalk, colors and flowers, the flower market, the abundance of curd during lunch hours, the constant ‘amma’ recitals by our wardens and so much more.


One of the highlights of the hostel life in Hyderabad at Sri Kamali was queuing up for tea, puri and dosa during breakfast time, and then hurrying to secure a chair the very next moment. And conversations and complaints flowed unhindered during these hours in many languages at once- the most prominent ones being Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and English.…

Neelesh Misra has become my favorite story teller. He writes so well, and reads it to the listeners so well. Of course I didn’t have a story teller, leave alone a favorite one, for the past 14 years; ever since ‘growing up’ happened, and Grandpa stopped telling me stories. And whenever I insisted, he would tell me that his story basket was empty, and that I had already listened to all his tales, nothing was left. So I read myself stories- champak, chandamama, minabazar, nandankanan, sanskar, gokulam, and many more monthly magazines. Then I promoted myself to reading short story collections by O Henry, Oscar Wilde; Kaleidoscope, and then came Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, and Heidi; and then full-fledged novels entered my life, which have been with me ever since.
‘Yaad Shehar’- the city of memories. All his stories  are set in this imaginary small town. ‘Baat pe apni hi baat kehta he, mere andar mera chota sa shehar rahta he’- and thus begins his narrations. His stories are soothing, thoug…

With the soulful song ‘Nindiya Re’ crooning in the background this is a simple touching story about the relationship of a single working mother, Masooma with her only teenage daughter, Maha. Directed by Asim Raza, his award winning Pakistani telefilm is bound to touch hearts especially for its unexaggerated freshness and the subtlety with which it depicts ‘selfish’ and ‘selfless’ love.

After the death of her husband in an accident, Masooma is left alone to fend for herself and take care of her introverted daughter. With time the mother and daughter grow very close, given Maha’s unwillingness to open up and make friends. She’s almost possessive of her mother, and Masooma’s over protective of her daughter. Then one day Jamal, the younger brother of Masooma’s best friend, enters their lives. Five years younger to her and divorced, Jamal is a pleasant soft spoken guy, fun to talk to and a great company in lonely times. Surprisingly Maha too likes to be around him. The trio spends a lot …

My tryst with music began quite early, inside my mother’s womb. I danced to my mother’s heartbeats, as she would put it. That was a nine month introductory session to rhythm, beat, and music in its crude form.  I grew up to granny’s lullabies, and grandpa’s chanting of prayers. I lived three of my early schooling years with them in Bhubaneswar- kindergarten and grade one, as my father was posted in Daitari where there was no school nearby. I was introduced to ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ at school. Grandpa had a collection of cassettes and a cassette player. I remember wrapping one of the bed-sheets around me like a sari and dancing to the Hindi bollywood songs on the double bed.
We would visit grandpa’s home in Nayagarh in holidays, a joint family, a heaven for me in those days. We were like nine kids of the same age group in a single household. It was fun; running about in the corridor, playing in the veranda, playing flying dish with Jimmy- a street dog who had become quite …

a gathering of friends is a collection of 21 short stories.
The twenty-one stories in the book are the greatest pieces of fiction written by Ruskin Bond. Chosen by the author himself, from a body of work built over fifty years (starting with his award winning first novel, ‘The Room on the Roof’, and ending with ‘Tales of Fosterganj’), this collection includes well-known masterpieces like ‘The Night Train at Deoli’, ‘The Woman on Platform 8’, ‘Rusty Plays Holi’, ‘Angry River’, ‘The Blue Umbrella’, ‘The Eyes Have It’, ‘Most Beautiful’, ‘Panther’s Moon’, as well as newer stories like ‘An Evening at the Savoy with H.H’ and ‘Dinner with Foster’. Taken together, the stories in A Gathering of Friends show why Ruskin Bond has long been regarded as one of the pillars of Indian Literature.
Timeless tales
Ruskin Bond's stories have the essence of the hills, the trains through the deodars, uninhibited exploration of childhood and other vagaries of life. They have such a universal appeal. They a…

now these give an asthetic appeal....serenity in the surroundings..
Flute is for peaceful, soothing music...that triggers the emotional corner of ur heart..,makes you nostalgic ..and takes you back to those old days of the past...which you most lovingly cherish as a memory....

And peacock feathers relate to Him, lord Krishna...(infact flute too does)...

I like the setting- the locales of Gujarat- the desert, the village lifestyle, the way of living in that village of Talsagra. I like the house itself- it is so like a thing of the past, a white palace-like bungalow. I like the terrace (marble tiled) where Gulaal comes to dry the clothes in the clothes line. I like the verandah where they dry the kitchen things (food items- chili and grains). I like the very decorum of the house- the way the furnitures are, the way every room is furnished, decorated in traditional style (typical of villages); the way they eat in plates made of brass and bronze, not steel. (Glasses too of brass or bronze). Even the way they cook in the kitchen-not with gas, but firewood and earthen ‘chulah’, sitting on the floor- the most Indian and traditional way.

Just love Gulaal’s ghagra cholis, the bangles, green color, all ‘chunars’, their turban, and the kurta pajamas.
I like the flashbacks, how the past plays an important role in the serial, the memories, the n…