Friday 23 August 2013

152VEILED VERMILLION

The facial mutilation of the attractive Apatani women, in the days of yore, was the circumstantial compulsion to discourage Nyshi warriors from forcefully taking them away. Similarly, during the Burmese invasion, pretty women smeared their faces with ash to protect themselves.
The use of tilak and regha by men and sindoor and bindi by women in India since ages old was more to dissuade hypnotisers and face-readers.
The wearing of sindoor and bindi is more a cultural phenomenon than a religious one. And the Indian woman looks best with her red bindi and sindoor. No other fashion statement can beat the Indian woman’s rich intricately designed ensemble, not to forget, the fiery red vermillion and bindi, which sets her apart from the rest of the crowd.
This bindi fascination has been with me since I was a little girl. I have loved wearing traditional clothes and my colourful bindis to go with them. Red being an all time favourite with me, I feel my ensemble is complete when a round, oval, a mere dot, crystal, an intricately done with thread or just a mere black line with small leaves drawn with an eyeliner bindi sticks between my two not-so-shapely-brows, starts a conversation with whoever I meet.
Well, talking about conversation, a couple of years I had quite a bit of gaggle following me around and wondering wide-eyed about my bindi and sindoor. Yes, you heard me right; sindoor! I have always had this fascination for women who have had this ornately done up line of red vermillion, right through the middle of their neatly parted hair. Beautiful may be too miniscule a word to describe the exquisite ornament on the Indian woman’s forehead.
To satiate this desire, I have had endless opportunities on stage to overtly decorate the parting in the middle of my head. In one play, when the director saw me, he had the most perplexed look on his face, “Tina, I am not quite sure if the character you are playing needs so much vermillion. A mere scratch will do.” I however, talked him around saying the audience at the end of the hall might not see the red line and might be confused about my marital status in the play. He decided not to argue with a ‘crazy’ woman and spoil the show!
Going back to the gossip about my sindoor, on one of my compering sessions at the Rabindra Bhawan, I decided that I would wear just a wee bit of vermillion to complement my mekhela sador and bindi. As I walked into the hall, the people who usually talk to me, raised an eyebrow and curiously smiled. Instead of looking straight at me, they constantly shifted their eyes to the vermillion. It amused me no end.
On the same day, during a meeting, more than being interested in what the speakers were emoting, people, especially the women, kept nudging each other, slyly looking at me once in a while. I was however enjoying the histrionics. The men, however, were nonchalant, preferring to manage a stoic countenance even if they did have some ‘horrific’ or ‘disbelieving’ thoughts cooking in their not-so-pious-minds. One lady shrilly asked me, “Hey Tina, when did you get married?” I smiled back and told her, “Oh several years now, baidew. You didn’t know?” “No, I didn’t! I have seen you wearing sindoor only today!”
However, I was numbed to a statue, when a lady rechristened to Islam by law against the wishes of her family, but which didn’t make much of a difference now, came up to me, with the most emotional face I had ever seen. She stood in front of me and stared at the vermillion on my head for several uncomfortable seconds, while she held my shoulders with both hands endearingly. “You know what,” she started saying. “You are looking beautiful with this red sindoor.” I smiled. Though I was shifting in the place where I was standing, I preferred to feel the emotions coursing through this dejected lady. “I never had a chance to wear the vermillion. I so wished to wear it too.” Till the time we sighed together and managed to give each other a bleak smile, everything seemed fine. The conversation that followed left me desperately wondering what to do next. The lady’s fingers dug tighter around my shoulders as she pulled me closer and whispered, “Oh, I am so sad for you. I heard a while ago that your husband passed away and you are now married to a Hindu man.”
“Oh goodness, baidew. That’s not true at all.”
“Then, why the vermillion?”
“Oh, this was just to complement my ensemble, that’s all.”
I rolled my eyes upwards and pretended to faint. Both of us laughed out loud.
 (Writing in the Hadith goes this way! Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in one of his several meetings, noticed that one of his followers was wearing an outfit, which had a combination of red and yellow. The Prophet commenting about the colour red asked, “What is this colour you are wearing?” The faithful disciple, scared that he might have hurt the Prophet, returned home and burnt up his clothes. The next day when The Prophet found him in a different set of clothes, asked him, “Where are your clothes?” The man said he had burnt it as he felt he might have hurt The Prophet.
“You shouldn’t have done this. You could have given away your clothes to one of the ladies in the house to wear.”
The Prophet was never against the colour red. He however preferred the men to wear any other colour apart from red but never passed a doctrine that the women could not wear red.)
(*Ref. To Abu Dawood Hadith 4057. Narrated by Abdullah Ibne Amr Ibne Al As.)





Thursday 15 August 2013

151. Dancing in the Dark


A video shared with me by my friend Prarthana and the caption saying, "Hey Tinzo, remember how we would jive to this one?" brought back memories galore. 
Bruce Springstein has been one of my favourite singers and his "Dancing in the Dark" was quite a song. His white unbuttoned shirt and his not so skinny pair of denims created quite a ruffle with us girls back in school as we tried to dance and also sing like Bruce. As if we could but somehow whenever we put on this music during one of the many birthday parties of our class friends, we would go crazy on the dance floor, pretending we were one of the contenders who Bruce would pull to the stage and dance with. 
Well, I kind of kept this dream alive in my heart that someday I would meet Bruce Springstein on one of his shows and while I would be in the front near the stage, he would pull me onto the stage and we would both start dancing while he kept singing for me. My, my, if wishes were horses!
Anyway, destiny had other plans for me! If it was not Bruce Springstein, then it had to be some other singer. 
In December of 2005, I was invited to compere ABP's three day annual IT conference, INFOCOM in Kolkata. As was the norm, the organisers invite a performing artist on one of the evenings. All of us were super excited as we heard that Kunal Ganjawala was going to come (he was happening at that point of time). After I had announced Kunal's name, the singer made his grand appearance on stage with one of my favourite numbers (I forgot now which one it was!) and then he went on and on. As I sat, which was getting very difficult by now as Kunal's songs were getting peppier by the minute, I just kept swaying from side to side. My two associates on either side of me kept quiet and looked as if they were listening to something really serious (and looked at me from time to time as if it was sinful for me to be enjoying so much!) But I kept up the pace and moved in my chair even more fervently to get them to shake a leg, maybe just to tap their feet. But they looked like they were too high strung to enjoy anything and smirked at me distastefully.
As Kunal kept singing one song after the other, Bruce Springstein flashed across my mind for a fraction of a second but I continued tapping my feet, closing my eyes once in a while, biting my lower lip and moving my upper body to the beat. Just a minute after I wondered if he would sing my favourite song, I was pleasantly surprised when he actually started singing the song. I smiled and yoohooed!

DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU

In the middle of the song, something pleasant happened. Kunal looked towards the corner where the three of us were seated in the front row and said, "Hey beautiful lady, can I have you on stage please?" The three of us looked at each other, looked back to see who Kunal was talking about. Then when he said, "You in the white pair of trousers, please", the lady on my left nudged me sharply and said, "Go, he is calling you!"
Me? Oh my God! 
As I walked towards him, Kunal held out his right hand to help me get onto the stage and all the while kept singing. While I stood in the middle of the stage, he went around me several times while the two thousand strong audience looked at me, some staring wide-eyed while some hooted in sheer excitement. 

DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU

At this point, Kunal turned his back to the audience, sat on one knee and held my right hand while he looked at me and sang. My heart beat fast and I was blushing. But all the while I kept smiling. Smiling and blushing! Smiling and blushing!
TERA JISM ODH LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
AANKHON MEIN TERI HAIN
MERA HI CHEHRA
CHAHE TU YEH MAANE
YA NA MAANE
TERI MOHABBAT PE
HAIN MERA PEHRA
CHAHE TU YEH JAANE
Even after Kunal had walked me back to my seat, I still couldn't stop shaking from the sheer excitement of someone singing for me on stage in front of a live audience. Now, how good is that?

YA NA JAANE
TERE LIYE MAIN
JAATE HUE LAMHO KO MOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
BECHAINI KO CHAIN
TUNE DIYA HAIN
BIN TERE MUSHKIL HAIN
REH PAANA
HO PAANA HAIN TUJHKO
YEH TAY KAR LIYA HAIN
TU HAIN ISHQ MERA
JAANE JAANA
TERE LABO SE
PYAR KI KALIYA TOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU
DIL KEH RAHA HAIN
TUJHSE YU RISHTA JOD LU
TERI DHADKANO KO CHU LU
TERA JISM ODH LU 


At the end of the show, 'green-eyed' ladies, with flushed crimson cheeks came upto me and asked if all this was part of the show and if I knew Kunal from before. I told them, I met Kunal when he called me onto the stage. But they hardly knew that this is a dream I had cherished as a little girl. It was Kunal Ganjawala in 2005. Bruce Springstein will come too!





Tuesday 13 August 2013

150. Tranquil Waters-IV

A distant rumble woke them from their reverie and from where they were looking, they turned around and started walking towards a small hillock. They had both dreamt of coming to this place before. From a distance, the small mound looked like a dense green carpet, as if someone had laid it out to welcome them. As soon as they reached the edge of the hillock, to their surprise, yellow and red tulips started blooming as if they anticipated their coming. In a couple of seconds, the whole hill was covered just like they had seen in their dream. As they walked through the flowers, hand in hand, they realised that they were actually living their dream today. Butterflies of all hues flew from flower to flower. Honey bees buzzed in excitement as if they too were all of a sudden caught unawares by the magical blooming of the red and yellow tulips. 
Both of them were filled with a love unknown to them before. Not even for a second did they leave their hands. They wanted to feel the moment together; wanted to stay connected. By now, they had walked quite a distance but they were not tired at all. It seemed as if they had just started walking!









Wednesday 7 August 2013

148Nishkaam Karmayoga – Duty without Desire

Many a times we are fraught with the inane verbatim from friends but more so from family, “If you do this, you will be rich and famous” and so and so forth. Having said this, I remember having endlessly futile arguments with my mother about why I should or shouldn’t take up a government job, wear and buy more gold, buy a piece of land or have the desire for a flat somewhere in the burgeoning city-scape. But my explanations of how miniscule all these are when it comes to the larger picture of who I am, what I have done so far, where I want to go and what my plans for the world are, all seems to fall on deaf ears and every time the exercise is pretty exhausting for me, as I return home wanting to go ‘blip’ at the first sight of my comfort zone; my bed! And dream as usual!
The long many years of my passion, my love for my work has paid off so far and I have so much more to do. I am happy! This inner strength is my biggest treasure. The excitement of creating something out of nothing, the words on paper, a dream taking shape. Can all this ever be replaced with anything  else? The adventure, the pleasure, the intense emotions are all that I call life; a life made beautiful with doing the things I have always loved. I have never worked a single day of my life! I just played, had fun and dreamt!



Tuesday 6 August 2013

147. Devil vs Angel


As I wiz past several cars, angry, frustrated and late, the only thing I can feel working inside me is a red-tailed devil making me angrier by the second at commuters who I presumed were driving in a manner not congruous to the already maddening situation (but was I driving well enough?). And I was helping in no better way to lessen the chaotic situation as I heightened the accumulated rage of people in cars who were already honking incessantly, or were trying to squeeze through an impossibility. The red-tailed nuisance, with one eye squinted and a raised eye-brow, with lips that spat fire, sat on my left shoulder and made me look at the cars on my left, right, front and rear and scream expletives, gesture vulgarly and literally forget about the soothing Norah Jones' Come Away With Me playing ever so softly inside the car. It cackled and spat and laughed and heckled me to a point of no return!
My eyes burnt and I was almost turning insane(wishing I had a monster truck to run over everyone!). I laughed uncontrollably at my 'power' to unnerve everyone. Just as I was losing sight of everything around me, there was a light touch on my right shoulder and I see the Angel himself, sitting all prim and proper gesturing me softly to slow down, relax, take a deep breath and think! He had a gentle, calm look on his face, a relaxing smile on his lips and as he winked at me, I could feel a different sort of emotion coursing through me! He instructed me to look ahead, think, feel good about myself, listen to the music and enhance the positivity I had promised to surround myself with when I sat at the wheels from home! 
The fire, which was almost starting to singe my skin by now, died down; it's embers replaced by a cooling balm and the sound of Spice Girls singing Mama. I was relieved I was breathing easy once again!! 


Friday 2 August 2013

146. OMG!


And then they say that expectation is the mother of all sadness, all unhappiness! Chiklits galore have just one opinion- learn to be happy with yourself!
But when I think deeply, I often ask myself this question; does happiness really lie deep within a person? And the answer hits me back; ofcourse silly-billy, happiness does lie deep within us. Then why do we keep looking only for things, people or incidents outside ourselves to make us happy and keep us happy? Why can’t we be plain and happy with our own selves? I mean it is no rocket science to remain happy with oneself! There is so much to explore in oneself.
Just like when we buy a smart phone, we have so much to explore. As we go through the different applications installed in the phone, we are thrilled beyond our dreams to see the ingenuity of each one of them and we eventually succeed as we spend most of our time trying to put it to good use in our daily lives.
Isn’t it also possible that we spend a lot of time with ourselves, try to reach deep within ourselves and make an effort to find out the applications installed inside us so that we can put it to good use in our lives and be happy with ourselves. Instead of waiting for some grand incident to happen, we just got to be happy every moment of our lives and just make the most of life.
‘Cause if I think of the Universe(s) that exist, I can only understand that I am but a speck of dust; just a mere dot in this magnanimous creation!

So this dot needs to understand that it is an extremely precious creation of the omnipotent in His magnificent blue-print and be happy about it! It’s pretty much easy!