All that he wants

My nephew wants a yellow car and a cake for his 3rd birthday. that's what he said when I asked him on phone today. I am writing this down for Toto to read when he grows up that there was a time in his life when all he wanted in life was a cake and a toy car....

I still remember being 5 years old and being taken for getting my head shaved off every summer (nyaramundi as 5 year olds with shiny, balding plates are called lovingly in Bengali). I would howl and protest this injustice being perpetrated on me by my mother. Somehow all Bengali mothers used to have this strong belief that having a shaven head till your child was at least 10 years old would guarntee a life-time of silky tresses (well, it certainly proved wrong at my case at least), and so I would be dragged to the neighbourhood hair cutting saloon (parlours were unheard of when I was 5). And what would I ask for compensation for such a momumental loss every year? It would only be a pair of Amar Chitra Katha (Ramayan and Mahabharat being special favourites) and a pack of Phantom cigars. They were actually made of Menthols and left this incredibly fresh taste in the mouth while all the time you could hold a Phantom in your mouth and pretend you were smoking, all VERY grown up. And that was all it took to bribe me to go through the humiliation of being a neri (a nyara female).

Now when I look back I wonder how was it that at 5 all that you asked for in life was a bunch of comic books and a pack of chewable menthol sticks, and at what point life moved to being all about wanting what was unattainable. I know that in just another 10 years time Toto would look back in wonder, like me..

I do not know if this happens to anyone else, but on most days my moods swing like a giant pendulum. If I am happy in the morning, all bright and cheerful, and ready to take on the world, then by the time the afternoon comes, I am all edgy, and slightly bitter, and which worsens by the time I go home when all I want to do is to curl up in bed and stare at the celiling and not be bothered to talk to anyone, not even A

Ok..since now it's a Saturday and finally, finally I have a whole blank day streteching out in front of me, beckoning me with possibilities of wasting time in a delicious manner..what do I so? I take one of these quizzes again. So here it goes..
1. Last film I saw in the theater:
Sorry Bhai..yes, it's been that long since I have seen the insides of a theatre.It's not that I havent tried going ever since but either with tickets not being there or with A too busy in exams I really haven't managed.
2. Last movie I watched on dvd/vhs:
13 B. And it scared me in a nice way..
3. Last movie I watched on tv:
Urban Legend. These days I am hungry for horror/slash and gore stuff.
4. Last great movie you saw (for the first time, no repeated viewings):400 Blows and Goodmorning Vietnam.
5. Top three favorite movies of all time:-
Midnight Cowboy, Chungking Express, Sonar Kella.
6. Three comedies I can watch over and over and they still make me laugh:- Friends, Wonder Years, Different Strokes
7. Three dramas I can watch over and over without tiring of them:-
Can't really think of any.
8. Favorite romantic comedy: When Harry met Sally, You've Got Mail, the Truth about Cats and Dogs, Love Actually, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
9. Favorite suspense/horror movie:The Ring
10. Favorite movie musical:Would Hindi films count as musicals? Oh and Sound of Music, of course.
11. My three favorite movies when I was a kid:- Shriman Prithiraj, all of Ray's kids' films.
12. Three movies I loved when I was a kid that I still love now:-all of the above.
13. Favorite movie based on a book: the BBC version of P and P. Darcey never looked hotter!
14. Favorite sequel (think hard): Spiderman.
15. Favorite movie that you know is kind of crappy, but you love it anyway:
there are so many of them!! The Spiderman, Superman and the Batman series..I have this thing for superheroes.
16. Favorite foreign film: Children of Heaven.
17. Best documentary I've seen so far: Ram ke Naam, the Anand Patwardhan doc on Babri Masjid demolition.
18. Movie I put on when I'm really depressed:Sound of Music
19. Movie that can make me cry even if I am in the happiest mood:Pather Panchali, Boys Don't Cry, Edward Scissorhands.
20. A movie someone recommended to me that I ended up loving and the person who recommended it:ummm nothing that I can think of.
21. A movie someone recommended to me that I ended up hating and the person who recommended it (but it's not their fault): same as above.
22. Movie I recommend for everyone to see and why: Muriel's Wedding. I loved its message of hope and resilience, and finding your own meaning of life.
23. Movie I recommended for someone to see and still regret doing so: Why will I recommend a movie like that anyways?
24. Biggest movie let down: Da Vinci Code, Rebecca.
25. Biggest movie surprise (you liked it and thought you wouldn't): Dil Se. The critics had panned it greatly, but I loved it when I saw it.
26. Top three actors you would watch in anything:- Al Pacino, Aamir Khan, and Nasiruddin Shah
27. Top three actresses you would watch in anything:- may be Kajol?? And defintely Meryl Streep, and Bette Davis.
28. Top three directors whose films you would watch no matter what:- The only director that I can think of is Satyajit Ray, whose films I have watched endless no of times, and can still see again.
29. Most overrated movie (please stick with stuff you've seen):Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake
30. Most overrated actor/actress: most of the current Bollywood crop..
31. Do you have a favorite screenwriter? Who and what is your favorite movie they have written?: my answers are getting repetitive..but it would be Ray again..can't pick a favourite Ray movie. There are too many of them.
32. Three favorite movie quotes:The ending of When Harry met Sally. The scene from Love Actually without any dialogues when Keira Knoghtley's husband's friends wishes her a merry christmas.
33. If you can remember it, worst dialougue in a movie ever: Surely Govinda's films??
.34. Best dialogue in a movie ever: can't pick one.
35. I can repeat every line from this movie verbatim while watching it: Gupi Gayne Bagha Baine maybe
36. Book you would like to see made into a movie and who you would like to see in it/directing it/etc.:The Hungry Tide..the novel is an experiment in visualisation..in the mind's eye.
37. Favorite song from a movie: I have had the time of my life, Dirty Dancing
38. Favorite use of a song in a movie: There are so many!!
39. A musical artist you now love that you discovered by watching a movie and said movie: none really.
40. Movie that you feel compelled to watch when you pass it flipping through channels: any Uttam/Suchitra movie..just to wallow in nostalgia
41. A movie that you really related with in high school (like the maker was your kindred spirit/ these characters were your long-lost best friend): Only You, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Marissa Tomeii
42. Movie you loved when you were a teenager and thought you would always love, but does not hold the same place in your heart: ummm..my movie tastes haven't changed that much.
43. I was completely into __(name of movie)__ when it came out, I even thought about a t-shirt or action figures, but now I don't know what I was thinking. May be the first Batman by Tim Burton?
44. I want to be _(this movie character)_ when I grow up: none
45. Best movie character: AB in his angry young man films, Soumitra as Feluda.
46. Movie I could live in happily: corresponds to my top 3 films.
47. Movie character soulmate (if only he or she was real and then you could live happily ever after): Spiderman..I dig men who are shy.
48. Deserted island movie (I know, why would you have a dvd player on a deserted island? just go with it): P and P (BBC mini series one).
49. Famous movie everyone's seen that I haven't: I have seen em all!!.
50. Movie I never want to see remade:all of Hitchcock's films.
51. Movie that inspires me: TZP
52. Three pieces of movie memorabilia I own:none
53. A movie I saw and asked for my money back: Salaam E Ishq: For once I broke my policy of not paying to watch a Salman Khan film and lived to regret it. Also Sunday and Krazzy 4.
54. Best movie watching experience in a theater (crowd rocked):Lagaan
.55. Worst movie watching experience in a theater (crowd sucked): Bhoot by RGV..people kept twittering nervously at the scariest places
.56. First movie I remember seeing in the theater: Tarzan comes to India..saw this when I was 3. Kept howling because they were hurting elephants in the movie. Baba was clueless about stopping me from bawling my eyes out.
57. People I love to watch movies with: the usual suspects..A, dada..hopefully with ET in the future.
58. Fondest movie memory (home): watching Love Actually on our 1st wedding anniversary.
59. Fondest movie memory (theater): watching Feluda in Cal with A, maa and baba.
60. If there was a movie that I can say might have changed my life, it was this one: Literature has changed my life..not films.

Ok so here's what Facebook has revealed about me. I have the intellectual capacities of Leo Tolstoy, sex appeal of Marilyn Monroe, the good heartedness of Beauty from Beauty and the Beast, and that I should live in the US coz I am meant for bigger things which are only available in cities with skyscrapers....hmmm..so my hunch that I am way above the rest, and that I am some sort of a genius whose real value is being ignored by the world at large was right all along!!

I felt so happy and proud to see this almost 6 ft ball of energy exploding like a ball of fire on the grounds of an Australian cricket field. I am not much of a cricket fan (and have followed even less after acquiring a cricket fanatic as a husband)..but watching Jhulan Goswami lead India to a win against Australia at the ICC WWC was a different ball-game altogether (pun intended!!). I wondered why we do not get to read much about these 11 courageous and brave women who have challenged and won against chauvinism, and have made their place in the face of such tremendous apathy and discouragement. Since Jhulan and I come from the same state, I have read about her struggle, getting up everyday at 4 am, a 3 hr train ride to Kolkata and then back home, fighting grinding poverty-all for the love of the game. And this, in the face of tremendous ridicule from the local boys who refused to let her bat, which is why she became a bowler.
I am sure all the other 10 girls in the team have stories to tell which are pretty similar in their undercurrents..it's not easy being a sportswoman in India, least of all a cricketer. But why doesn't the mainstream media ever highlight such stories? Why do I have to read a paper guestedited by Kareena Kapoor on 8th March? Is India so short of worthy women that we have to fall back on Bollywood once more? Even on 8th March it's Bolly to our rescue? It shames me to think about the level of shallowness that we have all been falling into..the collective stupor..where we dont even recognise real heroes..

So is this it? This? The great, big adventure called life? Just a series of plateaus and some incredibly low depths....??