Stammering @ Midnight

It was just another day, or maybe, another night. My insomnia had again gripped me. I looked at the alarm clock -- 1 am. It’d be difficult to sleep now. Let’s have some tea. Anyway, tomorrow is Friday and it’d not be a problem if I reach office late; or don’t reach at all. I poured water in the cup and put it inside the microwave to warm for a couple of minutes. I took out an Earl Grey tea bag and slowly dipped it into the cup. One sip and the warm tea tasted like ambrosia.

I slid the glass door open and went out to balcony. A cool breeze touched me. It’s early October and winter is yet to hit Kolkata. I took another sip and gazed out to the street in front of me. From my balcony, on the 23rd floor of the building, it looked a complete deserted stretch of land. Occasionally, a cab or a bike will fly by. Who can guess 3-4 hours ago, this would be one of the busiest roads of the city? The street lights amused me. Don’t they get bored of glowing the whole night long when there is hardly any traffic? Maybe the government should have employ some smart way of lighting the street. Say, every hour, alternate lights will glow. Or, maybe, some sensor can be applied to check the incoming traffic, and only then, the streetlights will glow. Fuck, what am I thinking. Just useless stuff, which, probably, I’ll never be able to implement. Let’s concentrate on my tea.

One more sip and I looked at the sky. The moon was a crescent. When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me stories of how "Rakshashas” had ate part of the moon. I chuckled. Taking another sip, my eyes focused on a star to the left of the moon. It was shining, or rather, twinkling. I muttered

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Starts.”

No, that’s not a typo. I said Starts. She used to say starts. Actually, she would stammer a bit and instead of stars, pronounce starts. I used to love that; you know, these sweet nothings which people get attracted to when they are in love. She’d know I love it; and, later, she would consciously say “starts”, just to see my face beaming.

I beamed again, and looked at her. “Like a diamond in the sky”

Conclusion

"Let me know how to return the book. In case it can be given to the TCS friend of yours, let me know. And if you don't want it back, that is also fine by me, but let me know either way."

 "You can keep the book" 

 " Nice. Have a good life Teddy. Bye"

 "You too. wish you all the best"

Last Thursday Night

“What? You’d be leaving for India?”

“Yes”

“And you’re not gonna come back?”

“I don’t know. But most likely yes.”

“Ah!! That’s some news. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Umm, I thought .. let everything get over and then… “

“Let’s have a fag outside, shall we?”

“Oh yea, let’s hit it.”

“Wait, lemme talk to Jim.”

“Ok, I’ll wait outside”

“So, you must have planned this for long. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“You just asked that.”

“I mean not today, like, last week.”

“Didn’t feel the need to.”

“Right.” She let out a puff of smoke.

“So, you’ll be working in India?”

“Yep.”

“Why? Irvine didn’t suit you?”

“Not that, it’s ……… personal reasons.”

“Oh, I get it. You’d be married to some beautiful Indian princess who doesn’t like California.”

“Whatever you think.”

“... Bastard … you always had a girlfriend didn’t you?”

“That’s not true.”

“You shouldn’t have lied to me. Like, if your girlfriend is in India, am not gonna hop on a plane and tell your girlfriend about myself.. right?”

“Right.”

“Anyway, when’re you leaving?”

“Saturday morning.”

“Oh, can you come tomorrow as well?”

“I don’t think so. My friends have invited me for dinner.”

“Oh, friends… I get it. Wait a minute; is that the reason you told me today? So, like, we are meeting for the last time.”

“Probably, if luck doesn’t bring me to Irvine or you to New Delhi.”

“Ah, am getting it.”

“See, it’s ok what you did. It was a surprise to me, but, come to think, like, what else would you do?”

“Hmm”

“I don’t know how I’d define our relation, but, whatever it was, I liked it. I’d wait every Saturday for you to walk through that door around 10pm and I knew you’re for me.”

“I know, it had become a habit almost.”

“How long? 2 years?”

“Not that, I’d guess 1 and a half”

“Whatever, my maths sucks”

“You want another fag?”

“No, am good. Hey, can I kiss you?”

“Ah?”

“I know it sounds weird. We just kissed few minutes back, but, I want to kiss you again – right here, beside the highway.”

“Well.. “

While we were kissing, my hand started to slide on her body. She was kissing me more passionately than what she had done before. It was not one of those fast hungry kisses; it was slow, actually extremely slow, so that you can enjoy every bit of it and never be out of breath. My hands reached her breast and as usual, she didn’t complain. Habit, as I said. I don’t know why I moved my hands to her back and hugged her. We resumed kissing.

“Bye, have a nice life in India.”

“You too have a great life. Finish your studies and I hope you end up getting a great job in downtown LA.”

“Hah. If you ever meet me at any point, just wish me Howdy buddy, ok? Please don’t pretend not to recognize me.”

“Ok.”

I waved my hand as I drove past “Dollhouse Exotic Dancers”.

Somebody that I used to know

It was around 10:30 am in the morning when I took a seat with my backpack kept at my feet. The Pune Airport is actually extremely small; although there was a crowd today. My flight was scheduled at 11:30 am. It’d be a minimum of half an hour before they start boarding. I thought of reading “And the Mountains Echoed” during that time and maybe after I board the aircraft. The flight time to Delhi is no less than 2 hours. As I pulled the book out of my backpack, I saw her in a flash.

         She was sitting right opposite to my seat, reading a Stardust. She didn’t have the face that one would define as “beautiful”. But definitely, if you see her once, you’d want to check again. In a wheatish look, with dark eyes and small boy-cut hair, her face maybe termed as cute. She was wearing a light red kurta and black jeans; carrying a tan-colored leather bag and her legs folded while she was reading the book.

         It was odd of me to stare at her for such long time, so I immediately took rescue under Hossaini. Hardly can I read 2 lines. I realized I’ll have to resume reading onboard. It’s impossible to read with her in front of me. However, I still kept the book. It’s better to presume am just reading. My phone rang. I picked it up. A bank representative asking me to apply for a credit card.

         5 minutes elapsed. I found it difficult to pretend reading anymore. Pulled up my backpack and kept it on the chair. Putting a finger inside the book, I walked to the nearby coffee stall and bought myself a cup of coffee. I was constantly monitoring to see whether she has left the seat. She was still engrossed in Stardust.

         Slowly drinking the coffee, I started pretending again. This time I pretended am looking around the airport premises. My eyes were hovering across the tea stalls, magazine kiosks, check in booths, medicine shops and back to her. Actually, they were constantly fixed on her -- the hovering was insignificant. I glanced at my watch – 10:45 am.

         “Passengers of Indigo flight IN231 to Hyderabad are requested to kindly come in front of Gate 3”.

         She packed the Stardust in her bag, rubbed her face with a napkin and straight looked into my eyes. I faked a smile, which was left without a response. She rose up and started walking towards the gate. She stopped. As if she has lost something, she started searching her bag. Finally, she got her cellphone. Sighing a relief, she slipped it in her jeans pocket. Old habits die hard.

The Scent of a Woman

“Sir, you want to go to office?”

“No, the work has been completed yesterday. I’ve got the whole day off. Mr Bajpayee, the MD has allowed me to keep the car and you for the whole day to myself.”

“Yes, I was instructed to take you wherever you want. Where do you want to go Sir? Lalbagh, ISKCON temple, Bannerghata National Park, …”

“No. Am not going to those places. Take me to the Forum mall in Kormangala.”

“Sure sir. You want to meet anyone there?”

“Maybe, or search for something. Let’s go.”

“Chalo Sir. When is your flight btw?”

“It’s tonight at 7pm.”

“Ok Sir. We have enough time.”

“Welcome to CCD in Forum mall, Sir. What can I get for you?”

“Umm, get me a regular coffee please”

“Ok Sir, please be seated.”

“Did you meet your friend in Forum Mall, Sir?”

“No, not really. I did not go there to meet anyone”

“Oh right, you said you’d be searching for something.”

“Umm, yes. Couldn’t find it.”

“Ok, so where do you want to go now?”

“Thippasandra”

“You know Thippasandra!!! Had you been in Bangalore before?”

“I stayed here for 3 years Suresh.”

“Wow Sir, I thought you are a Delhite”

“Nope, my initial location was in Bangalore.”

“When did you leave Bangalore?”

“4 years back.”

“You got transferred?”

“Ah, not really, I changed the company.”

“Oh, do you like it in Delhi Sir? I heard the climate is not as good as here.”

“Are you from Bangalore?”

“Mysore, Sir.”

“No. I don’t like Delhi at all. In fact, I never believed I’d get settled in Delhi.”

“Then, why did you leave, Sir? Didn’t you find any other good company here?”

“Not that Suresh. It was not possible for me to stay in Bangalore any longer.”

“Oh. Ok.”

“Excuse me, which is the way to Thippasandra post office?”

“To your right, Sir.”

“Thank you, and one more thing. There used to be a Annapurna Ladies PG here. Does it still exist?”

“Yes, take the road just opposite to the Post Office. You’ll find a four storied green building.”

“Thanks”

“I guess you did not find what you were searching for Sir.”

“No.”

“Where do we go now?”

“Indiranagar, 12^th main.”

“Mr Ramchandran?”

“Yes.”

“Can you recognize me?”

“Ah, oh yes. You must be Mr Banerjee. Worked at IBM”

“Right, I was your tenant 4 years back.”

“I remember. Come in. How are you?”

“Am good. How are you Mr Ramachandran? How’re your wife and son?”

“My wife passed away last year. My son is still in US. San Jose. He bought a house there. Did you know of my grandchild?”

“Ah, am sorry to hear of Mrs Ramachandran. What happened to her? I knew about your grandchild. He was born just before I left.”

“Right. Anuradha had a heart attack. Never knew it could happen to her. She was so fit. Used to walk every morning in the park.”

“Hmm.”

“Anyway, are you moving back to Bangalore?”

“Nope, am here just for the day for some work.”

“Ah. I see. Nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you. Can I please take a tour of the house where I stayed?”

“You see, it’s Thursday. Am sure, the current tenants are at work now and have locked the door. It’s unethical for me to open the house in their absence. Sorry, Mr Banerjee.”

“Goodbye Sir. When you visit Bangalore again, let me know. Here’s our cab service card with my name and number.”

“Thanks Suresh. You have been really helpful.”

“Have a safe trip Sir.”

As soon as I took my seat, numbered 5A, in the Spicejet non-stop flight to Indira Gandhi International Airport, I got the smell. The smell I had been searching for throughout the city today. The smell, which used to attract me four years back and the smell, which has haunted me for the past four years. I looked at my co-passenger’s seat. There was a copy of Dan Brown’s Inferno lying there. Yes, the smell was emanating from the book. I bent down and inhaled. It’s the same smell. My heart started beating faster. My palms were dry. Is it? Will it be? Would we fly together? What should I say? “Hi, how are you?” Would I be ignored?

A twenty-something girl with colored hair and a “Pink Floyd” T shirt took the seat. She picked up the book, smiled at me forcing me to return the courteous smile and started reading. I buckled myself up and closed my eyes. It’d be wise to concentrate only on my olfactory perception.

Cricket and Tollywood

Cricket, considered as a religion in the Indian subcontinent, has found its way in the Hindi movie industry (commonly known as Bollywood) on numerous occasions. Be it Amir Khan hitting an over boundary of the last ball in a couple of movies, to the introduction of Hrithik Roshan in a multi-starrer, to Harman Baweja (!!)'s career best performance, to the recent Kai Po Che. However, the same cannot be said for the Bengali movie industry, commonly known as Tollywood. Cricket has always been treated as a stepson to Football, while representing sports in Tollywood. How can you imagine the evergreen Mahanayak uttering about cricket -- "ওটা আবার আমি তেমন বুঝি না।" (I don't understand the game very well.) On the other hand, the same person had been seen playing football and winning a match against the British opponents in pre-independent India. Let's look at some of the instances where cricket found its way in Bengali movies.

1) Janmatithi (1957) -- The national award winning movie has a mention of cricket, but in a weird manner. The story revolves around two young runaways from an orphanage. In a particular scene of the movie, they are seen to play cricket with some other boys. Veteran actor Anup Kumar is seen to talk about them to an elderly lady. He mentions them as "Cricket-i-yer", not Cricketer. Am not sure if Bengalis that time used to call Cricketers Cricketiyers or it was a mistake on part of the scriptwritter (maybe the reader can help), but that pronunciation by Mr Kumar was weird, if not, hilarious.

2) Dhonyi Meye (1971) -- This multi-starrer was a big hit for more than one reason. It has everything that a Bengali will love -- Football, Humor, Family Drama, Uttam Kumar. However, director Arabinda Mukherjee played it low on cricket. In one scene, Uttam Kumar goes to visit another gentleman, Nafar Ghosh to ask the latter's daughter's hand for his brother. Uttam Kumar plays the role of a retired footballer in this movie. Nafar and his wife, on the other hand, are interested in cricket. They would go ecstatic on hearing Sobers scoring a century on a radio. Not only has Uttam Kumar uttered the line mentioned by me at the beginning of this article, the portrayal of cricket-loving Bengalis is kind of hilarious, if insulting is a harsh word to use. The Ghosh couple has been portrayed as rich, pretentious, following a not-so-typical Bengali lifestyle, and of course, following cricket. On the other hand, Uttam Kumar's family has all the traits that any Bengali will associate him/herself with and of course, they love Football. Step-son!!!

3) Hansaraj (1976) -- Debut movie of Arindam Ganguly. Arindam plays the role of a young village bard, who has the unique ability to create songs on any event, instantly. When a cricket team from Kolkata comes to play in their village, Hansraj is amazed to see such a weird game being played. He, of course, takes few minutes to create a song describing the game of cricket in detail. You can listen to the song here:

4) Swopno (2006) -- Times have changed, and since 1983, cricket has been established as a religion in India. Prosenjit, therefore, backs his brother, Jishu Sengupta to pursue the career of a "Cricket-i-yer". Jishu ultimately makes it to the Indian team. With the betting scandal around, Jishu gets entrapped and accepts bribe to lose a match. Prosenjit, of course, being the righteous man, as he is always since his debut as an adult in Duti Pata (1985), can not tolerate this and nearly has a heart attack seeing his motherland lose. However, none other than the Bengal Tiger, Sourav Ganguly, comes in to rescue. He singlehandedly plays a superb innings to lead India to victory. This, IMO, is the only complete cricket-dominant movie in Tollywood. To be noted: Sourav didn't act in this movie. Some of his over boundaries from 1999 Taunton and 2000 Nairobi were used.

5) Le Chakka (2010) -- This is an ideal example to show that Tollywood has now changed it's stepson. This movie could have been ideal if Football was the bet; since this movie started with the eternal clash of Ghoti and Bangal. However, director Raj Chakraborty thought otherwise. Well, a South Kolkata (read modern, stylish) lad (Dev) moves to a North Kolkata (read archaic, useless) para (locality). The local guys have cricket club which ensures the last position in any competition they participate. Dev, on the other hand, is a renowned fast bowler. Politicians (eternal villains) play a devious plot to eradicate the club. Dev must not only play with 10 useless guys to rescue the club, he also has to ensure his love-story doesn't get disturbed. Cricket, definitely, plays a major role in this movie.

6) Cholo Paltai (2011) -- Prosenjit again. This time he is against cricket. His teenager son wants to become a Sachin or Sourav, while he wants the lad to pursue the career of a doctor or an engineer. A violent clash ensures his son falls into coma and become permanently paralyzed. How his son is rescued and how Prosenjit fights (by wearing a belt of time-bombs on his visit to the Chief Minister!!) forms a different part of the story. Sambaran Banerjee had a guest appearance in this movie.

At present, I can not think of any other Bengali movie where cricket was mentioned/an integral part. I will really appreciate if the readers can point to any movie names I missed. 

The curious case of Vivek Oberoi

Few weeks ago, back from office, I wanted to watch a movie. Sometimes, I get into this weird mindset of watching absolutely bad movies. I generally look at the recent released Bollywood movie lists (they hardly fail me) and pick one up looking at the reviews. On that particular day, I came across a movie named "Jayantabhai ki Love Story!" Surprised? Never heard the name? Well, it stars Vivek Oberoi and Neha Sharma. Neha...I really pity that girl. Not because she can't act (honestly, most bollywood heroines can't, at least the ones lighting the silver screen for the past few years), but just look at her co-stars!!! Started with Emran Hashmi, then Tushar Kapoor (I mean seriously!!! And she had to appreciate his bare body in the movie), followed by Vivek and finally Boby Deol. Doesn't she deserve at least Shahid Kapoor? A pessimistic friend of mine would have said -- "Lucky she didn't end up with Fardeen Khan." Ok, thank your almighty, Neha.

Anyway, lot of digression, getting back to "Jayantabhai ki Love Story!" As expected, this is a pathetic movie where a gangster tries to romance his next door neighbor. Well, let's not go into the movie. Vivek acted as a gangster, yet again. And believe me, he was convincing enough. He always is, right from his debut (Given his career in the movie industry, he can actually try being a gangster in real life).
That is when I felt, we need to talk about this actor. After his once "girlfriend" was hijacked by Abhishek Bachhan (on a separate note, Vivek, I believe, acts better than Abhishek), he has suddenly lost all the glamour and all the attention he used to deserve. Tell me when was the last time post that breakup, you saw him in Koffee with Karan (assuming you are a viewer of this show)?

Vivek, as we all know, made a dream debut. "Company" -- a highly acclaimed film, with co-stars like Ajay Devgan; he shot into limelight in no time. The bad gangster Chandu was highly adored. Within the turn of the year, we saw him romancing Rani Mukherjee in another blockbuster hit, Saathiya. This film is not just another "hit film" in his career, it also showed the audience that he can even play the role of a romantic hero. People started comparing him with the other two new-comers a couple of years back, Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachhan (again!!!). Actually, these two had horrible 2002. Hrithik started his downfall with movies like "Aap mujhe achhe lagne lage" (has anyone even seen the movie in its entirety?), "Na Tum jaano na hum" and "Mujhse Dosti Karoge". Dad's kiddo Abhishek starred in "Haan maine bhi pyar kiya" with his the then fiance Karishma (Akshay Kumar had to be there to save the movie, but alas!!), "Shararat" (one of the innumerable crap films by the junior B) and Om Jai Jagdish (Anupam Kher's directorial debut massacre). Thus, Vivek, with his two hit films had a dream debut in Bollywood.

2003 saw Vivek acting in a remake of a Tamil film, Dum. An out and out action movie -- it was however rejected by the audience. The Bollywood audience of 70s might have accepted this angry young man movie, but the new millenium audience were not ready to. After playing some guest appearances, Vivek starred in what I'd consider his biggest mistake -- "Yuva". A Mani Ratnam direction, with excellent co-stars and a hit film!!! So what's the problem? Well, the problem is, if it's a 3 hero film and you play the weakest character, you lose the battle to the other two; and if one of them is your competitor (whom you've already defeated once), you are just shooting at your leg!!! Abhishek Bachhan excelled at Yuva, even ending up getting an award, while poor Vivek had to only romance Kareena in Mandarmani. Those people who were, a few months back, considering Vivek better than Abhishek, now had a clear platform of comparison, and clearly, Vivek was a failure. Why would you choose such a film, Vivek?

Then came a series of films to kill one's career. First, a mindless romantic flick with his girlfriend Aishwarya Rai. Vivek was so obsessed with Aishwarya (as he mentioned in the chat show with Karan), he could do such a pathetic piece of shit!!! Although he brought in some comic element in Masti, it wasn't enough to revive the downslide of his career. Then came a series of bad films, Kaal, Kisna, Pyare Mohan (why should you choose a film with co-actors Esha Deol and Fardeen Khan?), Naksha....Vivek's career was almost gone. But halt!!! Vishal Bhardwaj, an enterprising director, suddenly made Onkara, the bollywood version of Othello. Vivek, as Kesu was more than convincing. Again, he got to play the role of a gangster. Again, he had Ajay Devgan as his co-star. And again, like Yuva, someone stole the whole limelight!! Yes, it was Saif Ali Khan as Lyangra Tyagi, leaving our poor Vivek as a no-gainer from the brilliant film.

Vivek played the role of "Maya Dolas" brilliantly in Shootout at Lokhandwala. He would even win a Filmfare best villain nomination. However, this multi-starrer failed to provide a significant boost to his career. It could, at best, stall his downslide. Next year, he played a Turkish Commando Rizwan Khan (heard the name before) in Mission Istambul. However, with Zayed Khan as co-actor, you can hardly expect anything, and the movie fell flat. Vivek continued with another of his crap, action packed films "Prince", before he was cast into Rakht Charitra. Vivek did a brilliant work in the film, and it got considerable attention. His career, seemed to be revived for the time. Since the last year, he has been acting in films like KLPD (with India's only heroine with US+Punjabi accent -- Mallika Sherawat), Zila Ghaziabad and Jayantabhai!!! I had expected him to come back with a bang after Rakht Charitra, but things are again going downhill.

Vivek Overoi's career has been overall full of ups and downs. The guy, who started his career with such a loud bang, is now far behind Hrithik and Abhishek. He has shown moments of brilliance in some of his gangster roles, but all his romantic characters have fallen flat post Sathiya.  He is expected to star in the Roshans' home production, Krish 3. Hope, he does a good job there. His career might never reach the height it reached in 2002, but, he can definitely move against the gravity and be in the race. Here's wishing all the luck for Jayantabhai!!