The Sheltering Sky

Director : Bernardo Bertolucci

Based On The Novel By : Paul Bowles

Are you lost?


Because we don't know when we will die,

we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.

Yet everything happens a certain number of times,

and a very small number, really.

How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon 

of your childhood,

some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that,

you can't even conceive of your life without it?

Perhaps four or five time more.

Perhaps not even.

How many more times will you watch the Full Moon rise?

Perhaps twenty.

And yet it all seems limitless..

since feeling is first ~ e.e. cummings

since feeling is first



since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis



~ e.e. cummings 

A Quick Take On The Films Of The Season

Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani 

Director : Ayan Mukerji

This confused movie had capitalised on the stale Bollywood gossip about the relationship between an even more confused Ranbir Kapoor & the perenially confused Deepika Padukone : To love or not to love!  But it made good money for everyone concerned. The only sensible storyline was carried forward by Kalki Koechlin and Kunaal Roy Kapur to its logical conclusion, if at all there is any.

Rating : 4 out of 10

Fukrey

Director : Mrighdeep Singh Lamba

A brilliant comedy depicting the predicament of the contemporary youth, laced with a fine sense of humour and intelligence, this movie is an interesting surprise! Though all the new actors have performed pretty well, the brutally honest characterisation of a kinky local Gangster named as Bholi Punjaban, which has been enacted by Richa Chadda, is memorable. Yet another proof that a low-budget production can do wonders, both in its commerce and aesthetics.   

Rating : 6 out of 10

B.A. Pass

Director : Ajay Bahl

One can always expect that the story of an aunty seducing a young boy can be raunchy and sleazy. But one is out for a shock. The first half of the movie is pretty hot and sensual. And the second half gets darker and melancholic, exposing the underbelly of the Indian male commercial sex worker, along with the hypocrisies of the Indian sex life, in all its gory. The voyeuristic hard-on is pulped and crucified in the anti-climactic end of the movie, where the viewer is forced to carry loads of grief and guilt. Had the backdrop been Mumbai, instead of Delhi, the protagonist perforce would have been, hopefully, a tad smarter!

Rating : 7 out of 10

Chennai Express

Director : Rohit Shetty

Rohit must be a real smart Shetty! This movie seems to have already made more than 200 crores in the Box Office. And is supposedly going to make and break all such earthly records. Of course, it is no mean feat. Especially when the stardom of Shahrukh Khan is on the wane. Had never  been a victim of a Rohit Shetty onslaught before. There were two compelling reasons to watch this time : Deepika and Nithila. The success of this movie must be a solace to Shahrukh, at last. For all the torture that one has to undergo during the 141 minutes running time, this trash of a movie ought to be rated as zero, but for Deepika, the eternally delectable lass!

Rating : 2 out of 10

I Will Remember.. ~ Charles Bukowski

Photograph : Ugo Pellis 

(1882 ~ 1943)

I will remember 

your small room,

the feel of you,

the light in the window,

your records,

your books,

our morning coffee,

our noons,

our nights,

our bodies spilled together,

sleeping,

the tiny flowing currents,

immediate and forever.

Your leg,

my leg,

your arm,

my arm,

your smile

and the warmth of you

who made me laugh

again.

~ Charles Bukowski

(1920 ~ 1994)

Maula Ya Salli Wa Sallim..!

O Mawla (Protector, speaking to Allah), send prayers and peace always and forever

Upon Your beloved, the best out of all of Creation.

Muhammad is the Sayyid (Master) of the two worlds and the two groups (men and jinn),

And the Guide of both the Arabs and the non-Arabs.

He is our Prophet, commanding the right and forbidding the wrong, and there is none,

More true in word, saying "Yes" or "No".

He is the Habib (beloved) of the One, from whom we have hopes of intercession (shafa)

In (from) all the woes that have descended upon the humans.

He called us to the path of Allah, and those who cling to Him

Have held the rope of Allah so tight, that it would never break.

He surpasses all the Prophets in khalq (creation/external appearance) and in khuluq (characters/internal apprearance)

None could reach His rank in knowledge (ilm) and in generosity (karam). 

Our utmost knowledge about him says that he is a bashar (human being)

He is the most distinguished and the best, out of all of Creation.