It’s been 75 days, displaced from
my workplace, just like any other migrant worker I came back home.
Is this the new normal – for 5
days we hang on to the phones & PC like our life depends on it. On sat our
home is a battel ground – we go down with empty suitcases and come back loaded
with whatever Big Basket has to offer, the wife washes every single packet with
soap and vegetables with baking powder, the washing machine runs 3 times and
after the iron grills of balcony are sanitized, we display our cloths to the
world. The kitchen is on overdrive in preparation for the week – what ever
pre-cooking can be done, is done so that minimum time is spent in cooking
during weekdays. By Sunday evening most of us are battle weary and rest our
aching body and get some sleep so we can wake up with a battle cry with our
phone in our hand. All of us in our corners – till Friday beckons.
Long back, in one of my post
drinking poetic phase, I had said to the drunk people surrounding me. I just
need my books and music to pull me through the rest of my life. Well, a lot happened
between that night and now. My new normal in the weekend is immersions mostly
in reading the weekend newspaper which is my umbilical cord to what’s happening
in the non-business world, immersion in books & movies. While the newspaper
was added a month back books and movies were my sole companions for the first
60 days.
This week was high on emotion
& relationships:
Sun Catcher, By Romesh
Gunesekera is a growing up story of Kairo and his idol Jay in a town in Sri
Lanka. It’s 19 64, the country is going through it’s communism phase of land
reform, nationalisation, Sinhala is about to be made the national language. Kairo,
shy, confused of his emotions, trying to define the language of grown up’s eyes,
not sure what is right and wrong. Jay is just the opposite – he knows everything,
a few years older to him, he is a self-taught environmentalist n automobile
engineer n businessman – all rolled in one. While he idolises him – he goes
through his enquiries on what is right or wrong. On one hand, in Jay’s backyard
he build an aviary to protect birds on the other hand when he goes to his farm,
he hunts birds and kills them. Then there is the squabbling parents in both
households – who keep fighting, lost in their own world and trying to give
their best to their boys while hanging on to their jobs in a difficult phase of
Sri Lanka. It took me back to my childhood and how I coped with my existential
crisis and how it shaped my life at home and away from home. I spent some time
sipping my tea in my balcony and looking at clouds as memories drifted in &
out – till it was time to come back to my new normal.
I loved some of the quotes which
the author slipped in, which I am producing below:
“You nibble at everything to find
out the truth only when you are young. The adult mind just wants to forget, or
escape.” – Ibrahim the book keeper.
“I had no understanding of the
compromises by which the adult world found it’s temporary equilibrium, whether
between partners, lovers, families or tribes.” - Kairo
“A sense of fore-boding is hard
for a young boy to separate from terror….” – Kairo
“I wish I could make something
both beautiful and unbreakable.” – Jay
“A firefly is never alone because
when he looks up all the starts sparkle with him.” Jay
After the last chapter aptly
titled fireflies where Kairo (now a grown up) tries to physically experience what
he experienced as a child with Jay like the large flock’s of birds coming inland
to nest in the evening, which could be seen only in a specific point in a secluded
beach and was discovered by Jay. He keeps waiting but not a single bird turn
up.
As I created the book, I also
felt a huge sense of loss – In 6 years space, Maa & Baba passed away leaving
behind a void which nothing can fill. For all my misgivings – the only thing I
have left is their memories. The book re-kindled some of my childhood memories
Winter Sleep, A Turkish film
which caught my attention some time back because it got the Palme d’Or in 2014.
I saw it in 2 parts. Not people can see the 3 hr+ movie. But who see it will
savour it for it’s slow pace, beautiful & serene photography (shot in
Cappadocia – an ancient heritage site in Turkey which is famous for cave hotels
as I discovered after I saw the movie). In fact, the movie is shot in a cave
hotel which is run by Aydin a former actor who despite all his attempts retired
as failed actor.
While you can read about the
movie here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Sleep_(film).
The movie is built like a lengthy
novel or a play, which has many layers and slowly you uncover the layers
through dialogues / interactions between characters. Many things are unsaid and
left to interpretations which you connect later – like the roadie who stays in
his hotel, he does not have a planned destination, he has his tent food etc
packed in his bags and just goes where the road takes his, he discovers every
day. It’s brief conversation of 10 mnts but it showcases Alydin’s desire or
maybe a lost dream that he could do this or should have done it in the past. While
that is in his mind he justifies his present with the fact that he is writing a
book on Turkish theatre and he also rode through Europe in his younger days.
End Note: I discovered
Didi Contractor, https://www.thehindu.com/society/our-post-independence-cities-are-so-ugly-didi-contractor/article31980225.ece.
Read about this 90 year old who is a self-taught architect who stays in
Kangra valley since 19 70’s, and has painstakingly studied local building
traditions to create structures that are as magical as they are this-worldly. She
reminded me of Hoard Roark of Fountainhead.
Ashish Birulee This anti-nuclear activist and
photojournalist from Jharkhand’s Jadugoda is fighting for the rights of his
people and making their stories heard (https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/lounge-heroes-ashish-birulee-rising-out-of-a-nuclear-wasteland-11593747542673.html)
2 books which got added to my list
-
Perumal Murugan’s first novel which got
translated after 30 year, Rising Heat.
-
Less by Andrew Sean Greer who won a Pulitzer prize
for this book in 2017
Director on Watch list: French Dierctor, Olivier Assaya
https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/olivier-assayas-altered-states-11593776773817.html
Neil Young’s new album Homegrown got added to my
playlist. https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/lounge-heroes-ashish-birulee-rising-out-of-a-nuclear-wasteland-11593747542673.html
Cheers! Have a great week. (For once I uploaded the same day
😊)
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