Basket Case

The story goes back around 10 years. Some bright young students were having a Botany class and the topic of discussion was flowers. Flowers of all colors, red, blue, orange, violet, yellow, green... "Green?? Who said that ?", demanded the teacher. The culprit was asked about which green colored flower he had seen and was ordered to bring one to the class next day which he couldn't. The reason for this was, as the teacher told them, that there are no green colored flowers, none in the whole world !! No green roses? How unromantic !! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fast forward 10 years and we find ourselves in Ooty. Well not exactly in Ooty but on the Coonoor - Kotagiri road, in a organic farm called "Beulah Farm" which, in Hebrew means, Blessed by God . It is run by a person called K. Eapen Jacob, who is 70 years of age and who insists that he is only the in-charge of the farm, owner being the God. In the farm, Jacob grows various varieties of herbs, fruits and rare plants, ...

I got a little distracted from the Nilgiri posts for a while but no more. So here it goes. The trip to Ooty was memorable not only for the nice sceneries, beautiful places, and lovely climate but also because we met some of the most unforgettable people. Having come back to the daily routine and struggles of life, they even seem like a little unreal. But they are very much the people of this world who have learned to keep the balance between the ambition and satisfaction. This post talks about one such person named Antony Joseph, creator of thread garden . Are they real? Thread Garden is situated in an exhibition form right in front of the Ooty lake. It consists of over 300 varieties of plants in it, plants with lovely flowers, of all shapes and sizes. Not impressive you say? Well consider that none of those plants are real (you wouldn't guess yourself) but have been manually created by 50 crafts men over 12 years using threads !! Over 60 million meters length of threads have been ...

थके थके से कदम दिल का बोझ सहते हैं , ज्यों लद के फूल से दरख्त झुके रहते हैं । कभी उदास हो कर दिल भी हमसे कहता है, बातें वही जो सब दुनिया के लोग कहते हैं । दीवाने दिल के हाथों इस तरह मजबूर हैं कुछ, गुनाह कर नही सकते, सज़ायें सहते हैं । कभी छलके थे मेरी आंख से जो दो आंसू, अब हर एक शख्स की आंखों से देखो बहते हैं ।

I bought a combo cassette of Kajal and "Do Badan" this weekend. Both the films have excellent songs and I was thinking of getting "Do Badan" for quite sometime now. To make things better, I got it paired with Kajal. I hardly remember the story of either of the movies but the basic undertone of the songs in both the movies remain sad. Of course, Kajal has this favorite Bhajan of Mine "Tora Man Darpan Kahlaaye" but most of the songs, even the romantic ones are not without a touch of melancholy in them. I remember the picturization of "Chhoo lene do naazok hothon ko" in bits and pieces and I can see a Meena Kumari trying to keep away a drunk Rajkumar. Similarly all the songs of "Do Badan" are sad songs. Now from the musical point of view, two movies are very similar. Music director for both the movies is same, Ravi, and Rafi and Asha have sung most of the songs. The only difference is in the lyricists and what a study in contrast they pres...

[ With due apologies to Philip K. Dick ] For some days now, every morning I find a bunch of emails in my inbox from some friends who are graduating from IIT this year and the mails bring back so many memories, happy and sad !! It was around 2 years back when I was also busy writing such mails to all the people I knew. The world still seemed very small and every fellow IITian a close friend. It was beyond imagination that I wouldn't keep in touch with that guy living at the end of my wing whom I hardly had any interaction with. I wanted to get every address, every phone number, every email id. Yahoo groups were formed, mailing lists were created and with all the fan fare we marched out to the real world. And yes ! I also got all those "Friends' " episodes, all those songs, all those movies. How could I ever live without them? Today after 2 years, I have never talked to or mailed to R, my roommate for 3 years. I have little idea how M is doing,my next door neighbour for...

For long I have had this peculiar relationship with dance. Peculiar? Well, Let me explain. I like to read and I also like to write. I like to listen to music and so I also want to learn how to play an instrument. I enjoy good meaningful Cinema and so I have a strong desire to pick up a camera someday. With dance this is different. I love to dance but I hardly feel enthusiastic about watching a dance performance. I never went to any live dance performances even in IIT whereas I always went to all the musical (vocal or instrumental) once. I wonder why? May be the reason can be as banal as having not been exposed much to this particular art form. But I think there is more to it. The fact of the matter is that whenever I look at somebody dancing, I want to go up and join and dance my heart out. It is not so when reading a book. Though I may get inspired but I do not want to go and start writing. I also do not feel that instant need to go grab a camera while watching a movie. They are all d...