Here I come again… after a long self-imposed hiatus…I admit that I am not much of an active blogger… having left my blog unattended for months at end much to the chagrin of my friends who complain of my lethargy…Sorry folks…but yes I need to be totally at peace with my own self to write…not otherwise…
Yet another weekend is coming to an end… it has started raining here in Bengaluru as is the norm of the city’s weather pattern. Unlike major monsoon months of June-August in coastal hamlets, here the rains make a daily appearance from October onwards. And the best point is that they are people-friendly causing outbursts in the evenings usually post the office hours :) The clouds are gathering momentum… chilly winds are blowing in the north-westerly direction and there is a cutting dampness in the air…Many people detest such an atmosphere due to its compelling nature of confining us at home… but I somehow love it… the approaching darkness from heavy moisture-laden clouds, the downpour of the rains, the nostalgic streak…its just too good… feels connected with the Nature…
It’s a Sunday evening (doesn’t feel so due to the reasons mentioned above…) and have just finished watching a Hindi movie "Wake Up Sid" … Its more than a month now from being released and was wanting to gulp it down on a full screen in a multiplex…But couldn’t’ make it then… and got that chance today when my bro got the CD for a leisurely afternoon pastime. And I must say I loved every bit of it… it was a welcome change and a nice refresher after a long time… for readers’ general interest, I had stopped watching Hindi movies from last year since I felt they had deteriorated enough and were beyond any interest… but this one proved me wrong and am glad for it :) It was contemporary, unconventional, realistic with streaks of imaginative inklings, dreams in a megapolis like Mumbai… all elements which make for a wonderful 2-hour long-motion picture… the backdrop of Mumbai, its ethereal sea-line, bustling city life, offbeat careers of struggling newbies make up an interesting storyline… though I doubt if the storywriter did ever write a script for it. Looks like the story wrote for itself with the characters etching out their heads on their own… Whatever it is, it was indeed a fine attempt… reminded me of those crazy days when I was just out of St. Xavier’s and was all set to pursue my career in Mass Communications… fascinated by my much inclined creative pursuits such as writing on freelancing basis, photojournalism, advertising, copywriting, photography, etc, etc… It’s a nice push once in a while to get back to those memories…
Ok…now back to our rains… it has now started pouring cats and dogs. The evening is drawing closer by time-scale but it seemed so from a couple of hours already due to the dark clouds gearing up for a heavy lashing… Sometimes I am left wondering how inured have we become when it comes to rains and their after-effects… Classic examples being the annual clogging of suburban railways tracks in Mumbai, the lashing torrents in Konkan region causing major road and rail accidents due to landslides, the unexpected floods in the East, the cyclonic belts in Bay of Bengal and so on. Year after year, the more the climate changes… the more it remains the same. And to add to it… we hardly ever learn from the administrative mistakes in our Indian cities…Invariably, rains are followed by water-clogged streets even in a well-planned city like Bengaluru, flooded roads, tracks and drains in our very own economic capital city, Mumbai…. Remember 26th July 2005… Nature’s fury and a poor administration could bring it to a standstill making the whole nation watch in distressing gaze… Isn’t it frustrating? Absolutely no lessons learnt… Sadly, this is a bigger concern altogether…and I think a granular thought like this will be of no help; it should be taken on a larger initiative… So lets leave it for the moment as we have always been doing!!!
On the lighter side, rains have an ambivalent nature associated with them… they also bring the much needed respite from those torrid days of sweating in the Sun… they are the torchbearers of all the wonderful sights that Nature has to offer… Lush green fields filled with rain water… a lovely rustic scene to behold… the effervescent waterfalls, the misty hills, verdant avenues everywhere…Ours has always been an agricultural country and rains are messiahs of our national-level problems such as disparities between flood and drought affected areas, scarcity of food grains, inflation levels reaching an all-time high for everyday commodities… No wonder then, even the Indian cinema which our nation follows only too religiously has some of the most memorable songs dedicated to the rains bringing forth social messages - "Allah Megh de pani de" from Guide (1965), "Umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata" from Do Aankhen Barah Haath(1957), "Ghanan ghanan" from Lagaan(2001). Rain themes inspire hope, enthusiasm, excitement, closeness to our loved ones and much more…and form the favourite backdrop of media, books, arts, culture and history…
Aha…the power has gone… again all thanks to the incessant rains…I could have continued but it forces me to halt here… till my next post…Adieu for now…
Yet another weekend is coming to an end… it has started raining here in Bengaluru as is the norm of the city’s weather pattern. Unlike major monsoon months of June-August in coastal hamlets, here the rains make a daily appearance from October onwards. And the best point is that they are people-friendly causing outbursts in the evenings usually post the office hours :) The clouds are gathering momentum… chilly winds are blowing in the north-westerly direction and there is a cutting dampness in the air…Many people detest such an atmosphere due to its compelling nature of confining us at home… but I somehow love it… the approaching darkness from heavy moisture-laden clouds, the downpour of the rains, the nostalgic streak…its just too good… feels connected with the Nature…
It’s a Sunday evening (doesn’t feel so due to the reasons mentioned above…) and have just finished watching a Hindi movie "Wake Up Sid" … Its more than a month now from being released and was wanting to gulp it down on a full screen in a multiplex…But couldn’t’ make it then… and got that chance today when my bro got the CD for a leisurely afternoon pastime. And I must say I loved every bit of it… it was a welcome change and a nice refresher after a long time… for readers’ general interest, I had stopped watching Hindi movies from last year since I felt they had deteriorated enough and were beyond any interest… but this one proved me wrong and am glad for it :) It was contemporary, unconventional, realistic with streaks of imaginative inklings, dreams in a megapolis like Mumbai… all elements which make for a wonderful 2-hour long-motion picture… the backdrop of Mumbai, its ethereal sea-line, bustling city life, offbeat careers of struggling newbies make up an interesting storyline… though I doubt if the storywriter did ever write a script for it. Looks like the story wrote for itself with the characters etching out their heads on their own… Whatever it is, it was indeed a fine attempt… reminded me of those crazy days when I was just out of St. Xavier’s and was all set to pursue my career in Mass Communications… fascinated by my much inclined creative pursuits such as writing on freelancing basis, photojournalism, advertising, copywriting, photography, etc, etc… It’s a nice push once in a while to get back to those memories…
Ok…now back to our rains… it has now started pouring cats and dogs. The evening is drawing closer by time-scale but it seemed so from a couple of hours already due to the dark clouds gearing up for a heavy lashing… Sometimes I am left wondering how inured have we become when it comes to rains and their after-effects… Classic examples being the annual clogging of suburban railways tracks in Mumbai, the lashing torrents in Konkan region causing major road and rail accidents due to landslides, the unexpected floods in the East, the cyclonic belts in Bay of Bengal and so on. Year after year, the more the climate changes… the more it remains the same. And to add to it… we hardly ever learn from the administrative mistakes in our Indian cities…Invariably, rains are followed by water-clogged streets even in a well-planned city like Bengaluru, flooded roads, tracks and drains in our very own economic capital city, Mumbai…. Remember 26th July 2005… Nature’s fury and a poor administration could bring it to a standstill making the whole nation watch in distressing gaze… Isn’t it frustrating? Absolutely no lessons learnt… Sadly, this is a bigger concern altogether…and I think a granular thought like this will be of no help; it should be taken on a larger initiative… So lets leave it for the moment as we have always been doing!!!
On the lighter side, rains have an ambivalent nature associated with them… they also bring the much needed respite from those torrid days of sweating in the Sun… they are the torchbearers of all the wonderful sights that Nature has to offer… Lush green fields filled with rain water… a lovely rustic scene to behold… the effervescent waterfalls, the misty hills, verdant avenues everywhere…Ours has always been an agricultural country and rains are messiahs of our national-level problems such as disparities between flood and drought affected areas, scarcity of food grains, inflation levels reaching an all-time high for everyday commodities… No wonder then, even the Indian cinema which our nation follows only too religiously has some of the most memorable songs dedicated to the rains bringing forth social messages - "Allah Megh de pani de" from Guide (1965), "Umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata" from Do Aankhen Barah Haath(1957), "Ghanan ghanan" from Lagaan(2001). Rain themes inspire hope, enthusiasm, excitement, closeness to our loved ones and much more…and form the favourite backdrop of media, books, arts, culture and history…
Aha…the power has gone… again all thanks to the incessant rains…I could have continued but it forces me to halt here… till my next post…Adieu for now…
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