Mental Excursions

Dance baby dance! The whole country is Natu-natuing over the Oscar Award for the best original song. You may smirk and make faces at film music, but admit it, it is official now. Indian film music has arrived. Have you seen the video? The music is fast and upbeat, the steps energetic, the atmosphere is charged, the two male actors Ram Charan and NTR Jr, are fully clothed and look good dancing it, everybody is smiling and enjoying. Most of all, we are thrilled that a Bharatiya (Indian) song whether we know the meaning of the lyrics or not, brought the coveted statuette home. The chartbuster already won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards a few days ago. No need to stress how much we Indians (especially from north), love to dance. No celebration, whether in the neighbourhood, a school/college function, wedding, religious occasion, is complete without singing and dancing. The happier you are, the more your insides yearn to move and shake it. We can dance to bhajans (devo...

  All in the eyes of the beholder I merely lived through the 24 hours of the International Women’s Day this week, absorbed in my own little world and can boast of no accomplishments whatsoever that day or otherwise. But something stirred in my mind and I shamelessly admit that I had rather a good time thinking about it. Men of letters have written differently about women. Unlike scientists who are precise and want proofs, poets dream and imagine and then indulge in word play. They may compare a woman with fairy, angel or sorceress, based on their personal experience. Yet when it comes to physical beauty, they generally draw parallels from nature. What I deduced after a lot of calculation, was that most comparisons are with features from various branches of natural sciences like: Botany: flowers trees, plants or their parts Zoology: birds, animals Earth sciences like planetary science, meteorology, geology etc. Caution- nobody dare call me a misogynist and I do not focus o...

No colours for me on Holi, please! Amitabh Bachchan (L) in the baap  (father) of all Holi songs- Rang Barse Does it happen with you that you express your dislike for something socially accepted as normal or even great, and everyone tells you how wrong you are? For me Holi or rather my dislike for playing Holi is one such issue. I have checked with several people and found that there are others too who cringe at the thought of this festival. Some, however, allege that ‘others’ force them to indulge in this battle of smearing of colours. On the night before the full moon night of the Hindu month of Phalguna (Holi), bonfires are lit on crossroads and other open spaces to mark Holika dehan (burning of Holika) . The story is that she, on the orders of her brother demon king Hrinyakashyap, had agreed to sit in a pyre with her nephew Prahlad with the intention of killing the little boy who sang the praises of Lord Vishnu. Holika was blessed with the boon to remain untouched by f...