My Tweet Published in Newspaper!

My tweet on AIMIM Leader Mr. Asaduddin Owaisi was published by leading the Urdu newspaper 'Etemaad Daily News' 

Original tweet has been reproduced below-

Respected Sir, I waited the whole day just to listen to your speech. Sadly, you were given just a minute but even then, your speech was so passionate and eloquent. I loved your poetry as well.

Chakravyuh

I happened to watch the ‘Chakravyuh’ scene of B. R Chopra’s ‘Mahabharata’ today on Epic channel and the first thing that struck me was its uncanny similarity with a certain thing. The young, confident and cheerful Abhimanyu entered the Chakravyuh formation when his uncles and other family members promised to help him but later they were barred from entering the formation by the enemy soldiers. Inside, Abhimanyu was attacked by his elders in the Kaurava army all at a time: an unethical attack. He died bravely defending himself and crying for this father. Gurus Dronachrya and Kripacharya were genuinely sad about this but could not do anything. A brave young life was lost due to unethical fighting.

‘Chakravyuh’ exist in modern context too and are known by the name of the ‘Arranged Indian Marriages’ that don’t turn out to be as expected. A young and confident girl enters the alliance but ends up catering to everyone’s demands and fighting for her freedom and rights. Her family members are not allowed to interfere and thus they become helpless as well. She ‘dies’ fighting, not literally always, and even though her downfall and deterioration is mourned by a few members, they are too dependent to take a stand. An arranged marriage in India is an unethical combat that swallows young lives where they not only battle for their freedom every day; they are attacked by many societal malpractices all at once as well. There is no way out from such formations, they are one way streets that lead only to frustration and rapid decline.

Image from Shutterstock

Warrior Abhimanyu entering the Chakravyuha. 

Stone artworks of the 12th century Hoysaleshwara temple in Halebidu, India.

To ‘T’ or Not To ‘T’

I could not stop myself from expressing my thoughts when I came across an article that justified tracing, in a famous art magazine. Yes, the same tracing our Drawing and Biology teachers would frown upon and promptly give a ‘redo’ for. Tracing is basically copying a picture from its original source. As the name suggests, you just ‘trace’ the whole image without taking the pains of drawing it with hand along with all the aspects, measurements, shadow & light and of course, perspectives, a very important thing most people just do not care about. When we trace an image, we let our drawing skills take a backseat by cheating deliberately. All the skill then is required is that of coloring. In a way it is ‘manual photocopying’!

Advocates of tracing call it an absolute necessity for creating ‘hyper-realistic’ art. They state that many great painters traced too and also that end result matters and not the means, a point with which I absolutely refuse to concur. Art lies in the skill of the person, in his practice and dexterity to handle sketch and colors. Tracing is like writing an exam with guidebook open and then celebrating full scores. Yes, I consider it nothing more than plain stupidity and cheating the person appreciating and buying your art. It is said that the beauty of art lies in imperfection, there is no art sans it and I find no reason to disagree. In long run, tracing destroys an artist’s talent for the ability to recreate a photograph or a live thing or person accurately on paper which is used to gauge an artist.

To get to this final sketch of Daniel Craig as James Bond took me around nine or ten drafts. I never faced this much difficulty with any portrait but when after more than a week or so I got my base sketch correctly, I felt happy and proud of myself. This work may not be realistic or perfect but it is honest and has helped me brush up my art a bit more. Looking at my works give me inner peace and happiness, precisely for which I am into- fine-art.

Those masters who trace will surely lose their art in a few years while those novices who do so, unfortunately, will never get to develop the same in the first place. So, in my personal view, tracing is nothing more than suicide for an artist. Our Drawing and Biology teachers were indeed right.

By the way, I wonder if tracing is not cheating then what is?

Book Review– ‘More Malicious Gossip’ and ‘The Vintage Sardar’

First of all, it is quite audacious on my part to review the work of the veteran writer Khushwant Singh. I have read his various books and he is now amongst my favorite authors. Still, the two books I’ll try to review here are ‘More Malicious Gossip’ and ‘The Vintage Sardar’, both compilations of his best writings of his long spanning and successful career as a columnist, novelist, editor, journalist, traveler and a diplomat. He has achieved much in life and hence these literary pieces are not just plain essays or boring travelogues but, concise and thought provoking pieces that can flood the reader with knowledge and interesting facts.

The first book is More Malicious Gossip, which is published by HarperCollins. This book is divided into three parts, viz, ‘With malice unspared’- personality portraits, ‘Going places’- travelogues and ‘Musings’- essays.

The first part describes the lesser known facets of people admired and hated. Their lives, careers and their real self have been described (read exposed) in a very to-the-point manner. The people included are Lord Mountbatten, urdu poet Faiz ahmed Faiz, dacoit turned MP Phoolan Devi, criminal Charles Shobhraj, actors Nargis Dutt and Ingrid Bergman, and Mughal ruler Aurengzeb, amongst others. Whatever he writes is his unbiased and frank point of view. He bashes politicians openly and cuts them to size. He describes how an innocent village lass Phoolan became a notorious dacoit, how Faiz Ahmed Faiz (who also happened to be his senior in college) was unhappy with the way Pakistani government worked and was looped into the dirty game of politics, how Shobhraj cleverly escaped from prison, and many other things. This part 1 is immensely readable.

The second part is travelogues. Khushwant Singh has traveled around the world and his writings on places are also quite interesting. He describes places like Syria, Germany and various Indian cities like Konark, Hyderabad and Goa.

The third part is Musings, essays and his thoughts and opinions on various things like disturbance in Punjab, family planning, dowry deaths, God and religion. This part is also extremely interesting. Here you’ll find naked truths and unbiased contemplation of matters we come across everyday but rarely stop to ponder upon.

The second book is ‘The Vintage Sardar’, published by Penguin Books. This is a compilation of his articles, especially those from his coloumn ‘With Malice Towards One And All’ in Hindustan Times newspaper in late 80s and early 90s. The range of topics is wider in this book and various new categories have been included as well, like nature, sex, death and faith.

He talks about shrewd Pakistani General Zia Ul Haq and his deceptively innocent looks, Nehru’s affair with Lady Edwina Mountbatten and how paparazzi sneaked inside their hotel at midnight, the infamously nymphomaniac life of painter Amrita Shergill, who was also his neighbor in Lahore and her catfight with Singh’s wife. He also takes us back to Mughal era and tells us what Babar told Humayun about India in his famous letter, and much more, from the secretive functioning of the gay community of Mumbai to Singh’s tactful dealing with a verbally abusive caller.

I loved both the books and undoubtedly I applaud Khushwant Singh for such a clear and informative yet interesting style of writing.

What lies beneath?

Before proceeding any further in this post, it is important to give a small disclaimer. Basically, I am writing this on the basis of my real life experiences with friends and especially social group members like neighbors and relatives. How your problem is a time pass for them and how eagerly people look forward to what happens next in your life is just similar to how a serial buff looks forward to the next episode; how much your drooping face interests them and how much willing they are to stir up waters to catch some mew ‘masaala’ from your life! Not just some of your relatives but a few neighbors as well fall into this category. I do not mean everyone is like this but most of the people definitely are, and you find more so if you keep your senses open and become a bit more observing.

1.     This happened when my mother was hospitalized and I was a kid of six years. This bitch used to be a neighbor of mine.

Miss A: Where is your mother these days?

Me: She is at hospital.

Miss A: So who is managing the house? Her sister? (With a wink)

Me: No

Miss A: What did your father cook for dinner yesterday?

Me: Xyz curry

Miss A: What else he can cook?

Me: I don’t know

Miss A: why? (Angrily)

Me: ?

Miss A: He bathes your mother?

Me: I don’t know

Miss A: Why? Are you mad? Don’t you live with them? Anyways, who was he who visited your house yesterday?

Me: ? (Crying)

Miss A: Go and come tomorrow.

After that, at that tender age, I swore I will refuse to talk and keep mum if any one enquires about my mother again.

2.            This happened when I was in school. One of my friends had three more siblings.

Teacher: How many siblings do you have?

She: Madam, three

Teacher: My gawd! four kids in these times! And what is your father?

She: He is a professor at Xyz University

Teacher: Still four? hahahah!

She: (Silent)

Teacher to a fellow teacher: He must be keeping his evenings free of private tuitions (with a wink)!

I clearly remember my friend cried bitterly after that and swore never to befriend any one of that particular religion to which that teacher belonged.

3.     This happened when I was in college.

A few distant relatives visited us. As soon as they arrived, they started doing recce of the house, opening closets and surveying nook and corners. I was asked to show some old photographs. As soon as I got the bag out of the drawer, it was snatched and all the albums spread on the bed. Much to me and my mother’s discomfort, my college trip album was picked up, and then started the interrogative process. They started inquiring about my male friends in my group. The uncle looked at me with penetrating eyes and said: “Hmmm, so schooling was in co-ed school?”

Me: Yes uncle.

He: College as well

Me: Yes

He: Hmmm (passing a silent and dirty smile to his wife)

Me: So???

4.     Finally this happened to me  when I was working:

A friend of mine was going through a painful marriage. She called me one day at two in the night and started crying. I tried my best to console her. After I told her to be calm and even, and after an hour long conversation, I was firmly told by her not to ‘interfere’ in her ‘personal matters’, ‘husband’ and ‘married life’. I was also given a lecture on relationships and emotions.

That was the last conversation of my life with that girl. I swore never to interfere in anyone’s marriage, no matter how close he or she is and how painful it is going.

 I have noticed, some people do not leave a single opportunity to insult others in any way and sometimes they create situation that can provide them an authority to insult. I strongly feel such people are kind of mentally deranged or sick and not worth interacting with.

Also, certain experiences and insults that shook you from inside are very capable to form some particular attitudes and beliefs for the rest of your life. If you think someone is that possessive about this or superstitious about that or simply refuses to let herself/ himself go, prod a little; you will find an insecure child or a confused teen somewhere in her/his soul. Next time, before rushing to form an opinion after the first meeting, just go a little deeper, things may not be what they seem, something else lies beneath.

Whatz ur rashi??

Well this is one discussion I am always all ears to. And yes, I always wanted to write on this- the zodiac signs. I agree that there is no second opinion in crowning late Linda Goodman as the queen of the zodiac analysis, but here’s my analysis of the zodiacs.

In my class, there were students of all the zodiac signs. And they actually reacted differently to the same thing and same command of the HOD…here’s what our ex- HOD Mr. Sharma typically sounded like:

“Your minor project is complete crap, be ashamed of yourself and no second thoughts on a re-do. And I know it’s copied. hai naa? Are u getting my point???”

These were his fav lines. And that’s how my friends reacted …

1. Aries: really! Sir you are a genius!! BUT its NOT copied ok ( laughs out loud after coming out).

2. Taurus: sir it’s not copied and I spent 5 nights into making this draft, and u’ll have to read it at least once before saying all these words publicly.

3. Gemini: what!! No sir it’s not a crap!! How can u say so, have u read it. it might look like one but sir I am..yups I am sure its not a crap sir.. XYZ told me to do the formatting this way and ABC told me to do the margins this way, that means all of us have written crap..is it?? My god! Then I must tell the class hai na? No no…Lemme read it once again; no sir have u read it. It’s definitely not copied, just the idea is ‘inspired’…and ..and…(and the HOD faints)

4. Cancer : (Starts crying). Sir you are partial…

5. Leo: what!! You moron, who has given u this post!

6. Virgo: (Almost crying) Where exactly is the mistake. I have actually worked tirelessly sir. Please consider.

7. Libra: hmm hmm (after much thinking)...Sir u say you mean it’s a crap because the idea is copied or because the content is bad. If the idea is copied then there is no point because there can be n number of researches on the same topic, and if the content is bad then we have taken what was given in the books.And if and if…but what is your point exactly? Is it… (HOD goes nuts)

8. Scorpio: Okk, I’ll change it ( he heh! We all knew they’ll never do it!)

9. Sagittarius: hahahaah! So it’s a crap, hain! Its not oldie, and what makes u think I’ll change it! Yo baby!!

10. Capricorn: No sir , its not copied. Kindly spot the mistakes. I do not deserve a thoughtless redo, I know I do not.

11. Aquarius: haha! If u know the answer why asking the question???

12. Pieces... They stay quiet and just nod. Come out, sip tea and say “oye! nayi movie kaunsi lagi hai??”