Magic Moments

Thanks to Instagram, I discovered this book. Or how else a book first published in 1971, can come to my hands. These days I make it a point to read a book end to end - appreciations for the book by newspaper columns, acknowledgements, contents, introduction, epilogue, end notes, indexes, appendix etc. whatever be it. This one is the most apt statement: "A 19th century book in a 20th century world. It will beguile an hour of your time and put you in tune with mankind." "As we get to know Helene, and through her, Frank and Nora Doel, and Cecily Farr and Megan Wells and the rest at 84 Charing Cross, we recognize that the books desired, located, sent and received are the happy vehicles for much else : conversation, friendship, affection, generosity, wit -- in other words, for all the best things life can share with us."  - from the Introduction by Anne Bancroft who played Helene's character in the movie. We book-lovers just love to indulge in books that talk about o...

"Every Moment Was You" (Letters in not so chronological order. Ramblings mostly.) There will be a time when I am gone, when I have moved away and moved on. May be you will miss me. May be you will remember the days we spent together- the fun and frolic. But even then, you will gossip about me, the same way as you do now. You will gossip behind my back as if I am some mundane commodity, a purpose of your laughters and entertainment. You will speak about me, my life- the tit-bits and tattle-tales, with the purpose of entertaining others and yourself. For having some more laughs in a day- Laughter is the best vacation after all. You don’t care it now, and you won’t care it then if I told you the umpteenth time that I don’t enjoy being talked about behind my back. My life stories are not yours to tell. You know my vulnerabilities and you take advantage of it without hesitation. May be I am just that to you- an entertaining story. You didn’t think of protecting my wea...

Source Dear Binodini, When I first held the book ‘Chokher Bali’ I had no idea that knowing you would be such a task. Getting to know you was like deconstructing layers of a rose; I liked you, empathized with you, loved you, hated you, sympathized with you, was jealous of you, and yet finally missed you. I would say, I didn’t judge you, even when you were your worst possible version in the situation. I just read on and on, to find the reason. ‘Chokher Bali’ was the first full-fledged novel by Rabindranath Tagore that I read. My first impression of you was- shrewd, intellectual, well-read, and someone who has a way with words. Kind, gentle, caring at heart with an eye to detail. It was sad that you were a widow; someone who didn’t have much of a married life; someone who didn’t know how destructive and fatal amorous desires could be. And I pitied you when your repressed desire for love and romantic pleasures were brought back by witnessing the rendezvous of the newly...

In the serial ‘Gulaal’, we see Kesar (after a ten year’s leap) writing letters to Gulaal but never posting them; just treasuring them in his own drawer. He has written everything in those letters. Every feeling, every emotion that touched him in the last ten years that he spent in hostel, away from his village, his family and Gulaal. Starting from the anger that burns him; the questions that intrigue him; the confusion about what the truth actually is; the feeling of missing Gulaal deeply; the longing to meet her and talk to her – everything has found a place in those letters. But every time she came to visit him in the hostel, his angry side would resurface, and he wouldn’t even come in front of her or meet her. He would just hide somewhere in the corridor and watch her leave. Then again when she would not be there, his eyes would search for her. Kesar’s emotional turmoil is a theme in itself. And those letters are an entity in themselves – very essential part of the story; the pi...