The Garden & Unrealised Dreams

 

We stay in a flat in Bangalore – so it’s only concrete around us at home. We have using a composter to convert our wet waste to manure. Everyday morning when I go to mix the waste I touch the old wet waste which is almost half formed soil. Running it through my hands is my only feeling of soil. We have small pots in which we put plants and hope that they stay alive.

One of my dream was to sit in the garden in an easy chair reading with a dog by side – You know kind of house you see in old 70’s, that image is stuck in my head.

So, every time I come to Jaipur where my in laws stay – it’s like an unrealised dream, the lawn and the flowers and the house. There is a driveway and a lawn, beds of flower, and also a mango tree which is full of flowers now (mid-march), butterflies, birds, squirrels. The whole place is like an eco-system which we wanted to be a part of, creating something looks like a distant dream.

So I soak it in – a walk in the terrace which gives a lovely sunset view, walk under the mango tree, or photograph the different flowers, birds. During winters, sit in the warm sun and read a book.

As they grow old, the place is becoming a difficult place to maintain, but they stick on to it like I do with my dream.

They have realised it and I am yet to realise.

Maybe I will never, but what’s wrong in dreaming, after all that’s what keeps us all alive.

Hearty Breakfast of Rawat Ki Kachodi at Jaipur

Jaipur - March 23

You know you are old when you ignore the upset stomach and sleep to gorge on Pyaz Ki kachodi from Rawat & add half a mawa kachodi to it. Done, that’s a hearty breakfast.

The other thing which you realize as you write at 55 is that most of your writing is like a memoir because you want to cherish the memories you are making and start hunting memories.

My visits to Kanpur and Lucknow was to meet Mama & Mashi (mother’s brother and sister) but it also brought back memories which were made when I was a growing up and used to make my summer holiday trips to Kanpur.

Lastly you give more weightage to meet physically even if it’s a shorter duration like the current visit when we are meeting Nikita & Joyeeta for just 2 days. These are the only 2 days when we will be a family but the effort required to make it happen is worth it.

As we grow old, you can either be terribly fit like many of my friends who live by the book – in terms of food intake, sleep, drinks, physical activity and there are some who say we have to anyway go so might as well make the best of it – eat, drink, make merry & lastly there are some like us who follow the middle path. Be austere when you are on your own but maximize the short visits and occasions.  

Hence the deep fried breakfast we had today (and we will have tomorrow) in honour of the children who are back.

Can there be a perfect movie - Carla Simon’s Alcarras n Summer of 93

With Oscars announced on Monday and Everything Everywhere All at once getting 7 Oscars and being nominated for 11 - the answer might be an easy one.

But having watched maybe 30 + movies on MUBI in last 2 months from 19 40’s to 23 and yes this also might be because I saw it most recently - my vote would go to Alcarras, It won the Golden Bear in the Berlin International Film festival last year. 

It’s a Spanish movie but the spoken language is catalan. This is the first catalan language movie to be nominated and winning. The director Carla Simon grew up in Barcelona speaking Catalan and living in a catalan village. 

The beauty of the movie lies in 

#Every character in the movie has a story to tell and through their behavior and actions one can understand the pre teen & teenager angst or the how a child’ mind works with so much cross talk happening between adults.

#Every relationship has beautiful moments but is also fraught with tension. That is beautifully portrayed very subtly

#The lovely picturesque setting and life in villages - from the outside it would look like a perfect place to be - reminded me of the Italian countryside with their large houses like the one they showed in many Italian movies.

#kids are real gem of the movie - their spontaneous acting and shots of kids in siesta or doing simple things like eating a fruit

#the clash of tradition - the farmer kills the rabbits as they are a menace to his peaches he grows but the blacks who are plucking the peaches, cross their hearts and bury the rabbit. 

#the village life and simple traditions of wine drinking competition and easy friendship and simple life 

#the farmers' plight with large corporations coming in and buying stuff cheap (very similar to whats happening in India.

Read a nice review in scroll below:

https://scroll.in/reel/1044583/alcarras-review-a-masterly-portrait-of-a-farming-community-on-the-brink 

I followed this up with Summer 93, 

In 1993, six-year-old Frida left Barcelona and her grandparents for the countryside. Her parents have died, and she is taken in by her uncle Esteve and aunt Marga in their farmhouse. Despite the beautiful summer and the warm welcome, Frida finds it hard to settle in.In 1993, six-year-old Frida leaves Barcelona and her grandparents for the countryside. Her parents have died, and she is taken in by her uncle Esteve and aunt Marga in their farmhouse. Despite the beautiful summer and the warm welcome, Frida finds it hard to settle in.

It’s an innocent movie which is not like a movie, the acting and the setting is so natural that it's almost like you are god and seeing it from somewhere top. 

Loved it because it shows

#the pains of being orphaned

#especially when both your parents died of AIDS

#sibling rivalry and it’s innocence

All of us have run away in our childhood, i went to a sugarcane field and my brother in law tried to catch a bus and in the movie Friday packed her beautiful dolls, took some fruits which I thought was wise for her age and then trudged out of a farmhouse which is literally in between a jungle - with a high way on one end a stream on the other. You have to see it to know more…..