Some Distant Memories

Quite unexpectedly and accidentally I got hold of Sanchayita today. It was something I never expected when I went to talk to a fellow friend and found it on his desk wrapped in glittery paper. 'How come it's here, with you?'....was my first question to him...while I was flipping the pages to read the first poem, my all time favourite poem - Maranare Tuhu Momo Shyam Saman... 'One friend had been to Kolkata and I asked him to get it for me'....was my friend's answer. 'I'm taking it with me, I'm a bit free for some time now'...was my quick answer as I was already walking towards my bay; he didn't object though as he knows I'm not a book-snatcher.

It's such a wonderful experience to have this book on hand. While flipping the pages the old memories were gushing out from some hidden chamber of the brain, unvisited for a long time. It kind of gives me a guilt feeling that have I also abandoned it like all 'new generation' people are doing now a days. Reading a poem that also in Bengali, after all, is not an 'in' thing. Right? Or, may be I'm soundig like a nerd!

It used to be the long afternoons of summer vacations and brief evenings of winter vacations when my mother used to sit with Sanchayita in her lap, glass in her eyes and recite poems on public demand. Then those moments were very normal in our life, just like having lunch with tyangra maach or fighting with my twin sister. But now I realize how much precious moments they used to be. My mother's intense love for poetry and literature was something that always made us stay in touch with the works of Rabindranath Tagore. From the very childhood seeing the image of this snow-white-long-bearded gentleman made him a part of our family. He was ubiquitous; in the book covers, in the magazines, in the text books and more in my mother's presence. She always sings some bits or pieces while cooking or doing other works. My mother has this nightingale like voice. If sometime she was not humming anything, we used to be sure that something was wrong and she muct be upset.

Now whenever I go home I make it a point to have such a session at least once during my stay at home.

A Breed Called Shahrukh Khan Fan

Girls, ladies, aunties and grannies – in short women of all age seem to find something very interesting about this joker-like-superstar, which I have always failed to understood, in spite of being a ‘woman’.

In school, college, hostel, office, train, bus, wherever I have met these women, my disrespect for this plastic-faced star has become more and more deep.

In a very general situation when I come across someone new, or when I’m new in a place, very normally I always try to start conversation with them. After getting and giving the answers of the first few customary queries like “where from”, “what mother tongue”, “which college”, “which subject”, “previous work experience”, etc, etc, etc when the chit-chat session starts getting more informal and candid, I occasionally come up with some queries that I like to talk about.

As I ask my question “So what do you do in weekends?”, if the answer comes: “ Ohh, I just want to sleep after the hectic week. Sometime I go to the nearby mall and hang around”….

Me: “Ahem…”
Me: “So what do you do in free time? Do you like to read books?”
The Girl: “Yes I love to read books, but I never get time to read one.”
Me: “Ok, so what’s the last novel you read?”
The Girl: “Actually I bought ‘One Night at Call Center’ one month back, but I couldn’t even finish its first chapter yet.”
Then I ask abruptly “Are you a Shahrukh Khan fan?”
The Girl: “YES….I LLLOVE HIM. How did you know?”
Me: “Just a guess :)”...... and the conversation continues…..

Yes, just a definite guess. A girl who hangs around in a mall for time pass and prefers to sleep in free time rather than doing any constructive work, can only be fan of those brainless sugar candy romantic cheesy movies.

I have come across hundreds of such girls/women who can’t even tell when the last general election was held in India, or what is the full form of UPA, or the last Indian to receive the Nobel (forget about asking in which field), or anything that relates to society. They seem to be completely ignorant about the nation, state, society and even neighborhood except for the Page3 supplement that comes with daily newspaper. These are the people who do not even think about casting their vote during election but takes pride in saying “politicians sare chor hote hain. India ka kuchh nahi ho sakta”. These are the people who cannot tell the name of a single minister in the parliament, except for the PM’s name. These are the people who go to McDonald’s for lunch, and take pride in doing so. These are the people who never reads the first page of the newspaper or listens to TV news.

No wonder such brainless people can only enjoy the rubbish movies that this star loves to star in. It’s not that he hasn’t attempted doing something ‘meaningful’, thanks to his copy-cat nature. He did appear in Swades, which his honest fan base rejected like a toilet paper saying ‘how dare the director put our (beloved) SRK in a local train, crowded bus and rickety boat!’…what an irony!!!

But this is also fact that I know some super-intelligent girls too who love SRK! This is a mystery for me that how can a normal human brain actually tolerate him in the theatre!!!!

And the fact that what kind of boys/men are Shahrukh Khan fan calls for another debate and I better do not discuss that here.