Dorydom

My phone never rings. Well, if you discount the robo calls that is. The other day, which is a month ago, I spot a missed call among the many optimistically thought of junk calls that randomly try to fix my credit score, charge me for the felony of missing jury duty, make me a billionaire by sharing a top secret business proposition , change my utility bill to zero by installing solar panels on my rooftop or with one of such lifetime opportunities that keep banging relentlessly on my ringer till I let it slip to the VM. So spotting a name from my contacts was a stand out in a sea of spurious but authentic looking numbers. A missed call that I could actually recognize?? My ego body let out a smile. So no matter how many walls I build around me, there are souls out there who'd try to reach me. What a boost to 'the self' by golly! What a revelation of the subtle ego body that sticks like gorilla glue, no matter how sincerely the spiritual seeker looks to rid it? Well well, I don't intend to hijack the point of this ponder and make it about my ego gratification - cause it is not what it is, at all. I swear! Rather than torture you, my imaginary readership, with the shenanigans of my mind's over thinking, let me try to crystallize it. 'Try' being the operative word.

So one score and no years ago, it happened. I found a volunteer that said "I do". The milestone occurred in July. This dude that called, the true blue teddy buddy - (this description  is something I cooked up just now as it stands true to the Teddiness of this buddy) - doesn't miss wishing me on the occasion like the nineteen other times the occasion came. He has some silicon chip in his head I tell you. Whoever can remember a long gone childhood friend, let alone her milestone of an event that occurred in the dark ages? Did I hear a resonating "None"? Thank you for not disappointing me. But this friend is another one of those pesky numbers that doesn't give up on talking me into getting solar for my household, (which we already have by the way, but the trust issue laden  world and the telemarketing brethren wouldn't buy it for reasons you probably already know). Very adamant I tell you. Now I wish I had this kind of passion in  life, that doesn't give up on morons like me. But what I lack in myself, I don't unsee in others. Thank God for little blessings.

Or big blessings perhaps. Love born of one's presence can die upon their absence - but what if that love is born of an eternal soul connection? It is then that you have this tremendous blessing of a friend  that crosses your path. They defy all human give and take, all barters, all 'I scratch your back you scratch mine' dynamics. "People like you have guardian angels around" this teddy buddy once opined while speaking to me. Unbeknownst to him, that he was reassuring me of his own presence in my life. I'll tell you what a self wrapped excuse of existence I am. I didn't return the call. I know he'd know I know what was to be known. But seriously folks - please give up on me already! And that isn't even that bad. I have something else that tops this bad of not acknowledging. August 13th came and went. Like it did for the score and six years I had had the good fortune of calling Teddy buddy my buddy. This date intersects with the birthday of an immediate family member but did it help my amnesia? Nay! not so. Guilty as charged for the umpteenth time in this year, and twenty sixth time in this life time - my Dorydom kicked in. I forgot. But it is just wishing that I forgot, mind you. The guardian angel lingers in my heart chakra, keeping guard of his pal day in and day out. Sometimes he goes dormant. But he is still there, like the spirit that lingers in the body till it stops and then transcends it and lives on.

So my dear teddy buddy, I know you wouldn't tread this lonesome path of my virtual ponders, but let's leave convention to muggles. Here's wishing you many many many more. Thank you for existing. Thank you for hovering over me with those wings and wand. I remain, utterly grateful! And till the next time I fail you and my own grey cells, don't give up on me. Pretty please with a cherry on top.

Signing off, your dear dear dearest of dears - the one that's being preciously Guarded.

Unlearn

The thought, I thought

Defined my scope

By taking away shackles of form

I linger out and about

Launched from my grey cells

A contemplation here, an opinion there

An understanding in between.

How brilliant! I thought.

Just one thought sprouting from my mind

Kind of minded my entire being.

It manifested a world

Adorned with stretched perception 

Skewed perspective.

Until one day

I learn that it curbed my infiniteness

Into petty premonitions.

I freeze bewildered.

The intellect wasn’t of much service 

Except to facilitate an inflation 

An illusion.

Unthink! I heard the awareness whisper

Ever since, I grapple

To empty the dense thing like thought 

For Nothing is where the cosmos dwells.

I linger in stunned space

Laughing at the revelation.

Come to think of it-

What a plot hole

I was living!

Vision

Mellow yellow sunshine

Like a dream catcher

Throw bait

To translate  moments

Into mementos.

Golden rays spike in as reminders

That distance is perhaps a mind game

When a tingling warmth on skin

Makes the sun feel like a lover

Cuddling in with a cup of tea.

The light and shade

Like yin and yang

Inspire a rush of emotion

Making the windowsill as stage of sorts

I sit and soak in the shine and coze

As another thought drifts across

Forming soap bubbles 

Of woe 

Transform into wonder!

Pictured -  An evening tryst with tea and sunset.

Missing

I forgot my Mantra

Something's amiss

Mojo you said?

That's absconding as well.

I look here, and then there 

It's got to be found

Can you tell me where?

So, for a restart 

Let's do a long gaze at a sunset

Or a hazy depiction of one. if that!

Wouldn't that be a perfect pairing?

Grainy image, juvenile wordage,

'Lost as lost can be' theme

Lingering around the laze.

I broke my spirit

I ripped my heart

Did I tell you? I forgot my Mantra?

Let it begin

The recollection

The search

The mending 

The stitching!

And the attempts commence

Dusting the space

Making way to what can seep in

The good, the bad, the silly or the meaningless

Whatever comes, let it in

May be the Mantra can come in then.
May be!

Pictured - California sunset, from behind the windshield.

5D wishes through the Virtual space :)🎉🎊💐🎂

Oh Baby! and Beyond

I had a very skewed view of movie producers and that reflected on my perception of Sunitha Tati when I first learned that she is a movie producer. I imagined her to be a filthy rich lady that funded Tollywood productions while comfortably lounging around and doing little. When we spoke, Suntiha told me about her next project in pipeline and mentioned that she had Samantha, the Telugu movie goers' sweetheart  committed to play  Bebakka, the protagonist in  a remake of the Korean film Miss.Granny and another successful woman  that made a mark in Tollywood world, Nandini reddy directing the film and the famous Suresh Productions co-producing it with her.

"I watched Miss.Granny" I proclaimed with pride, as it was indeed a happy coincidence that I did watch a Korean film of all films in the few countable films I watched in my lifetime. 

"You are only the second person that had watched it so far, that I spoke to" She beamed with happiness, flashing her characteristic grin while her twinkling eyes shone a tad more. We spoke about the script in length and I promptly got back to watching it again, after our conversation. 

While in India, I had the opportunity to be in the background of all the pre-production work Sunitha took up from casting to re-imagining the script to make it resonate with a regional audience. I watched her grit and resolve in utter awe. While she 'flight hopped' from Korea to Mumbai to Hyderabad in what looked like a tiring infinite loop, I was in the background too speechless to even cheer her. This woman was just about to redefine everything 'creative' for me. It was then that the haze surrounding my 'film producer' stereotype started to clear up. Not just that but I had a new paradigm to ambition, dreaming and manifesting our desires to create. 

What ensued were some of the most important and intense lessons I learned, all while having the privilege of Sunitha's company. I saw her oversee the smallest of details, making plans and plan Bs for the unforeseen and roping in technicians and supporting cast to get the film rolling. She executed all of this with a single minded focus on what was to be addressed at that moment. For me she kicked up worldly dreams to a spiritual level. The way she stood unfazed, never for once doubting her faith in the script or the execution process, never once succumbing to the pressures of film making, never once dismissing a nobody like me and including me in her creative journey is something that is awe inspiring. Her focus and energies were always in the 'NOW' doing what needed to be done. No job was too small for her, no detail too trivial. If this isn't a meditative state of executing a worldly task, I wouldn't know what really is! 

"We need to give form to our thoughts" She would look at me intently and say. "Unless we create something out of our thoughts, they remain what they are - thoughts!" 

There are numerous labels one could use to describe Sunitha - Film Producer, Spiritual seeker, entrepreneur, professional, Cancer survivor - but she stands alone as a woman of substance, not letting any one label define or confine her. She is a doer in a talking world, she doesn't let her work get hindered by any inward or outward impediments whatsoever. Like they say - 'If there's a will, there's a way!' and she probably could be a poster child for that adage and a perfect brand ambassador for all those spiritual discourses that point in one direction - that all we have is this moment and we need to do what needs to be done now without dwelling in the illusion of the past or future. Then dear people, we have the walkers such as Sunitha who walk the talk!

When I saw the trailer of "Oh Baby" I couldn't have been more sure about how laborious this production was for Miss. Tati - a production that could be compared with bringing a baby to this world after a lengthy gestation, and that my friends, is mothering at a whole new level. A level that I am very happy to have understood, thanks to being a fellow traveler with Sunitha Tati for the past so many months. 

Oh! Baby is scheduled to a world wide release on the 5th of July 2019. Please go and catch it on the big screen and be prepared to be entertained and get smiling, laughing and welling up. It is a very unique and fresh perspective of a story that is worth it for what it portrays and for all the sincerity, effort and faith Sunitha and her team invested into the making of this film. I am sure all the honesty and hard work would reflect in the movie's every frame. 

Here's wishing the Oh!Baby team a tremendous success!

May Doers Prevail!

For the love of Imtiaz (Ali), Harry met Sejal again!

I am utterly easy to please and utterly difficult to impress. You can check with my first born if you question the above statement. But egotism apart, the point of this ponder is to talk about one of the few people that manages to impress me time and again. It is Imtiaz Ali, the brain, heart and soul behind some memorable movies in Bollywood - at least in my arsenal of memorable films. 

So when Harry met Sejal was in the making, I had this anticipation to watch out for how Mr.Ali is to woo me yet again with his charms of film making.I know, the title is uninspiring and sounds so much like "Harry and Sally" from Rodeo drive. But, it is a given that we get 'inspired' and that inspiration doesn't elude even original thinkers like Mr.Ali - and what's in a name anyway? It's just a label of recognition. 

I didn't go catch it on the marquee - luckily for me, I didn't have my friend Ms.Madhavan persuade me to go to the theater for obvious reasons - it didn't have a certain Mr.Kapoor or a certain Miss (now Missus) Padukone. So, I kind of halfheartedly watched SRK and Anushka in action while doing my chores once it streamed on Netflix. For me, Harry and Sejal fell flat. They didn't do much except bore me to a point where I switched the telly off,half way through. I didn't want to consume unconsumable stuff. 

Long after I dismissed Harry and Sejal as boring, a little voice in my head kept egging me to give Mr.Ali a second chance. Now Imtiaz is one of those endangered species in bollywood story telling, who conceives character and emotion driven plots. Seldom do we find an intricate story in his works, but somehow, by the virtue of making his leading characters embark on this journey of self discovery through the people they bump into and get influenced and inspired by, he creates a layered viewing experience that is filled with gasps, 'aha' moments and once in a while fills the peepers as well, in the intensity of those second hand emotions that find their way into the minds of hard hearted, logic driven viewer like me. 

"What you are seeking is seeking you" is the log line. I got the metaphorical engagement ring that is lost and the the allegory of the 'seeking' well bred, 'sister type' Sejal does with the vagabondish Harry. Each carrying their own bags and baggage and each finding what they were seeking in the unusual company of the other. On paper, Harry and Sejal must have been every bit as convincing as the leads of 'Jab we met' or Highway or Tamasha...but when the translation to the screen occurred, some crucial details fell through the cracks. Yes, I get Sejal's side of the discovery but Harry's demons stay vague and obscure failing to create the trademark 'character driven magic' Imtiaz creates time and again. 


I know I sound every bit like those 'reviewers' out there. That isn't the point. At all. The point is, I am smitten by Imtiaz Ali's story telling prowess, his deep, meaningful, welling up human relations that he explores through his protagonists and his ability to take the movie goer beyond entertainment. There are wonderful, insightful and smile inducing moments in Harry and Sejal's journey too...I specially was smiling through the scene where Sejal keeps on repeating "Main uss se laayak hoon" pointing to the super hot female entertainer they meet in the quest of finding what they were seeking. That gyrating she does - Oh God! the sister type and her voids! Oh my! I smiled, laughed and them got all smitten by Mr.Ali's nuanced, subtle character exploration. 

But the meeting sank, not because it went over the heads of the average Joe of a movie goer, but because it didn't recreate the intensity that we have come to trust Mr. Ali with. But then again, our Midas touch goes to the garage once in a while. It is really okay. Such is life!



Pictured -Harry and Sejal, sporting their Tom ford and Ray Ban aviators respectively ;)

Mind it :)

The twist

There's a unicorn with a golden mane

Iridescent coat and a sparkly horn

She glimmers and shines

Smiling through her densely fringed eyes,

She adorns the footwear of a child in guise.

The exotic creature has a magical presence

Cutting through her manmade effervescence.

When she glides along with the child in guise

All and sundry sport a smile, perhaps of surprise!

The smile could even be a mocking laugh

Possibly of a secondhand embarrassment

On the child in guise's behalf. 

Cause the feet that slip into the golden maned unicorn

Are attached to a woman, grown up and a half.

Little does the child in guise care

And embraces unicorn shoes, humming bird bracelets

Rhinoceros pendants

And ladybugs studded to the earlobes.

In her critter company

The quirky little child in disguise

Lives happily ever after -

Go ahead, judge her!

She'll probably respond in laughter. 

Matt and Bessie series.

Undercover

Out of the blue

Emerges green - lush with yellow streaks

Sporting smears of light and dark

Shine and shadow.

Out of the brown

Springs green,

Shooting through the soil

Swiftly up the bark

Slithering into vein thin stalks

Spreading above my head

Like an umbrella

Shielding, soothing, swaying!

Playing hide and seek

In beams of rays

Forming metaphoric arrays

Much like this illusion

Called life?

Out of the green

Sprouts a thought

A flash of smile.

Blessing in the angry noon,

Ala carte of shelter served with inspiration

To breathe in verde

And breathe out a verse.