Shadows: What will we be without them?

My friend, Shaili wrote a brilliant piece on shadows.
Like she has said, we take advantage of the fact that we have shadows.
Unlike mirror images, shadows follow us everywhere.
Mirror images come close as we come closer and move away as we disappear.

Now look at the image above and imagine your shadow doing something like that to you.
Imagine your shape saying, "Ah fuck you. I want to have some fun and destroy you."
If you've played the original Prince of Persia, you'll know what happens. The shadow comes and takes out his sword. You have to put your sword back into your sheath for your shadow to do the same thing. If you choose to fight, you die as soon as you kill your shadow.
If you haven't read the link that I posted at the beginning of the blog, it says that our shadow defines us. It is an extension of us.

I remember one time, my sister and I went to the Gateway of India at night to shoot. I was having a lot of fun playing with the light and decided to take a picture of my sister and I as shadows. It's one of my favourite pictures because despite the simplicity, it says a lot.
Indian mythology told us about shadows. According to legend, the Devas did not have shadows, while the Asuras did. The sun and the moon notice this when the Asura Rahu disguises himself like a Deva, so that he can drink the Ambrosia of immortality. Lord Vishnu cuts off his head and they chase the sun and moon, which is why they 'hide' during a solar and lunar eclipse.
Shadows are a mystery, which will never be solved. They follow us in an almost creepy-like way, yet we feel comforted when we're walking down a dark alley knowing that they are around. We can sense someone is following us because of shadows, but yet despite all of this, we take advantage of them.
I don't know whether things would be different if we took them seriously, but think of this simple thought: what if you woke up one day knowing that you don't have one? What will you do then?

RIP Shammi Kapoor

If there was anybody I would have considered 'cool' in the 1950s and 1960s era of Hindi cinema, it would be Shammi Kapoor.
My earliest memories of him was on this show called Movie Mahal that would be aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.
The show opened with a creepy old man wearing a dark blue kurta and beads talking about something. And then it would move to this guy dancing and sliding down the snow, screaming 'Yahoo!'
When my brother and sister tried explaining that the two people were the same person, I refused to believe them.
But that was Shammi Kapoor's life.
From the cool dude, he became the reclusive hermit after Geeta Bali's death. He made rare public appearances , but still became the first Indian to have an Internet connection in 1996 when there were options of TCP/IP and Shell Accounts. He had several followers on Twitter and despite staying in most of the time, he kept himself occupied and connected with the outside world.
When I heard about his death this morning, I was happy. The man had suffered from acute renal failure and was suffering.
He will, for me, be the true Junglee
Below are some of my favourite Shammi Kapoor songs.

Main Chali from Professor

Taarif Karoon

Yahoo!

Notice one thing in each of these songs. Shammi Kapoor has an expression for each word. And that was his genius.

Doggie Days

Some recent study said that man's new best friend is the gadget.
I think that the survey is full of shit.
If you own a dog, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Books come a close second, but that is for another blog post.
I've had two dogs in my life. They've been part of my life for the last nine years.
Nothing can beat a dog's company.
You can tell them about your day, knowing that sit in judgment of you if you fucked up.
They sense when you're down. They come to you and comfort you.
They give you an ego boost.
They give you unconditional love.
Sure there are the downsides: they snarl at you when they're sleeping and you try and wake them up. They snarl at you when you mention the word 'bath' or 'walk'. They piss you off when they want attention. It's like they burn you with their look.
But despite all that, it's good to have a dog.
Rani, my dog turns 8 on Monday. If I made her life into a movie, it would be a comedy. My sister and I make jokes about her weight and the number of necks she has. Rani gives us a look to shut us up and it usually works.
She understands us. She swears at us. And unfortunately, we don't understand her at all, except for the swear words.

Colours

Colours are strange things.
They are there all the time and we take them for granted.
When we go about our daily chores, we don't acknowledge the blue drinking bottle, the white plastic cup that contains shit brown froth that was machine coffee. We don't notice that a pink transparent bottle, with enough light on it can actually form a pink shadow on the white wall, thanks to the light around.
Colour is beautiful.
I never appreciated it so much, until I took up painting as a fun hobby last week. I've always been decent at drawing, but in school, I was appalling at painting.
Surprisingly that has improved and I have a little something here to show my improvement.
It's the banquet scene from Asterix and the Black Gold:

We think and appreciate black and white and sepia images, but imagine waking up to a black and white world.
Whenever I think of that, I always think of this Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where he and his father discuss a world in black and white.

And I'd love to follow Hobbes' philosophy :). Click on the image and enlarge the strip, if you believe it too.

Sita: Daughter of the Earth: A review

This is the second Ramayana-related graphic novel that I have read and it doesn't disappoint.
Saraswati Nagpal's story tells the tale of The Ramayana in Sita's perspective. I liked the perspective. The artwork by Manikandan is really good. And you can finish reading 92 pages in 10-15 minutes.
The story starts differently. It begins in King Janaka's court, where he and his wife pray for a child, are asked to pray to the Earth Goddess, who blesses them with a child. She grows up to be Sita, a girl who is beautiful, wise and strong, as she demonstrates when she moves Lord Shiva's bow. The rest of the story is pretty much where the Ramayana takes off after Lord Rama weds Sita. The search for Sita, however, is done like a back story that is narrated by Hanuman.
Nagpal has taken some liberties. In my grandmother's tale and the ACK that I read as a child, Rama banishes Sita after a citizen tells him that he overheard someone throw out his wife, stating that he wasn't like Rama, who took his wife back after living in the home of another. In Nagpal's version, Rama never says anything to Sita and Sita finds out herself and leaves Ayodhya.
Another thing that is different from the original story that I read is that Rama learns of Luv and Kush being his sons, only after they nearly defeat him in battle. Nagpal's story, which has probably been inspired by Tulsidas' Ramayana rather than Valmiki's tells how the boys go to Ayodhya and play music and reveal themselves to Rama, following which Sita comes and asks Mother Earth to take her back home.
Nagpal's narrative is really good. She brings Sita to life and the gentle touches like 'bhaiya', 'didi' and 'bhabhi' are added, which was not there in the original ACK.
For parents who want to introduce their kids to Indian mythology, I strongly recommend that they get this for their kid. You can buy it here.

A promising start

The Ramayana has always been a story of Good Vs Evil. Grandmothers love Rama and say that he is the epitome of goodness and it was only his dharma as a king that prompted him to banish Sita from Ayodhya.
Personally, I always liked the Mahabharata better. It always felt real. All the characters, including Krishna had shades of grey. It was and still is, in my opinion, the greatest story ever told.

Cover of Issue 1

However, one character that always remained a mystery in the Ramayana is Ravana. The Lord of Lanka was a brilliant man, a scholar, a great king, loved his wife (or wives) and family. Yet, we've all been raised with tales that Ravana was the epitome of evil because he kidnapped Sita and challenged Rama to a fight.
Funnily, Ravana is the only grey character in the Ramayana. Come to think of it, so were Sugreeva and Vali, but then this is more about Ravana, given that I've just finished reading Vijayendra Mohanty's 10-part series, Ravanayan.
I finished the first part yesterday and thought that it was really good. The artwork is superb, as is the narrative. I love the way it opens with Ratnakar (later to become Valmiki), meets Ravana for the first time. The characters look complex and I sincerely hope that Mohanty has the same consistency as the series progresses. For those who want to order their copy, you can buy it here.
Happy reading.

A general ramble

We sit.
It's lunchtime at work and all of us sit in our fixed spots.
There's a lot in our minds, but the silence is enough communication. Funnily, it's comfortable silence because we're all in the same frame of mind. The only consolation is the food that we've brought. There is homemade bread, rice, chappattis, different varieties of potatoes (currently, it's six), some meat and some dessert. We smile at each other and silently eat. In the middle, we complement what we have brought and insist on writing out a list of what food items to bring the following day. We discuss meals on Sunday and wish we were part of each other's house to sample out the Sunday spread for a day. While some of us are more generous with our invitation, others are very possessive about their food and say that sharing food will mean taking portions out of their labeled food. We then decide that we'll salivate over what was made on Sunday the following Monday.
We dream of vacations. Of tropical islands, of golden sand, of high mountains, of deep valleys, of the idea that there could be no cellular network. This makes us happy. None of us are in the mood to communicate right now, especially using mobile phones. We think that physical presence is more important. We don't even feel like logging into Facebook. We talk about Google+. I think its a waste of time having one more social networking site, given that it looks similar to Facebook. I suggest that we go to Hatebook instead. That would give us more people to add.
Work off late is not the best place to be. Sure the office is nice-looking, but we're fed up with the job profile. We feel disillusioned that what we came here for is not what we want to do in the long run. I don't see myself writing 400 character recipes for the rest of my life. You don't see yourself editing mobile content for the rest of your life. You don't see yourself writing health and fitness stories for the rest of your life. You don't see yourself listing out mobile phone prices. You're smart. And so are you. You got better offers and fucked off. That leaves us, wondering what to do next.
If only there was a vacation to look forward. Oh yeah, you and you are going on one. Grrr. While I know that you deserve it, I can't help but feel jealous.
If it's not your vacation we're discussing, it's a huge t-shirt that speaks of a Canadian city.
I'd rather speak about your vacation and feel depressed. At least none of you will have to wear that t-shirt.