Hum Apke Hain Kaun?

The brouhaha surrounding Bajrangi Bhaijaan made me watch snippets from an old classic (probably the first Salman Khan movie I watched and that too in a theater) - Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.
I remember watching it in a hall called 'Mitra'- I guess with my entire family and being amused by the flashy lights that jarred my little eyes every time a song sequence happened.
I will always remember the lines 'Didi Tera Devar Diwana' without understanding what it means as of now. Madhuri Dixit who sat on a Billiards Table romancing Salman Khan (Bhaijaan) in one song sequence hardly impressed me back then- it was 20 years ago and I was too bloody young to understand why MF Hussain would make her his muse. Although, no offence to artist Bhaijaan I fondly remember the fluffy white thing that danced with Madhuri and umpired in a cricket match, yes a little white spitz, just like our very own kuttush.
And in a split moment of curiosity I did a Google search, 'what happened to the dog in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun'? And really you must love the internet.

.....
In Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), the role of "Tuffy" was played by Redo, a 6-year-old Indian Spitz belonging to the Assistant Director Madhukar Sawle. The Spitz had a vital role in the movie. Actress Madhuri Dixit later adopted the dog, which died in 2000 at age twelve....

Now that I am all grown up, I do love Madhuri Dixit. I kinda have this thing for women who love dogs.

Don't do drugs?

Last night/this morning I read about Jeet Thayil and his heroin addiction. I kept listening to the jazz of Thayil/Sridhar through the night. Had horrible dreams on the account of sleeping through the day, but kept on sleeping because I loved those scarring mini movies inside my head. It was 2.30 in the afternoon and I had to wake up coz the dreams were getting intolerable. As I sat on the sofa reading the headlines and promising never to torture my mind like that again, ma comes over and smiles and says - "Ami shob bujhi," (I understand everything) and so I had to explain her for the next few minutes how I am not into drugs and will never do drugs.

Happy Friendship Day

Looking back at my schooldays I must wonder why I didn't connect with most people around me- is it because I did not have a slam book or watched enough Bollywood? I never asked my parents to buy me a slam book, the economics were different back in those days- plus i wasn't much of the asking kind- it appeared a sort of luxury to the child in me and I guess it has done me wonders in finding friends for life.

I am glad I never watched WWE/WWF back in school, and instead read books. Most cool kids graduated into watching the EPL/IPL the pop- trend of our generation, and like a fool I still remain loyal to my books- friends for life? Perhaps.

To all the beautiful and real people in my life- Happy Friendship Day. 

Because the world is round it turns me on

 The Beatles once said,

‘Because the world is round
It turns me on. ‘

I wonder if life is strewn with
callus orange lotus that soothe
God’s eye, I don’t care about gods plan
-orange fucking lotus turns me on. 

A butterfly swivelling through mid-air,
Whose colours are a mystery, who suckles
my nectar, who suckles on and on
- butterflies, they turn me on.

I am made of water, I do not flow, I am still
water, yet I am not ice and I am not snow,
I am pure- find me in your
protoplasm, hang me dry and I will still breath life-
More life than your police state with population charts-
- water and words, they turn me on.

Busker was a big boy and he knew a butterfly,
who ate from his lotus garden-orange fucking lotus:
by the side of a great lake- whose scenery exaggerated
in the moonlight and who wouldn’t come near that living
beauty? Come, oh strangers with cameras! Water can wash
words but it exaggerates beauty, and who is beautiful-
the flower, the water or the butterfly?

Beauty turns me on. One day Busker
woke up and he had lost his voice: the sun
was banned, and with it everything died,
the soul died he said- there was no flower,
no water and no butterfly. And to those who
banned the sun he asked them- he asked
 time and again
‘Does death turn you on?’

He must have heard nothing, for the
dead do not speak to the living in their
language and perhaps there is no poem
without loss.