This is probably one of the most lovely creepers in the world

Sholay

1947, August15th when India got its independence and on the same day as the country completed 27 years of independence; we got the most iconic film ever made in the history of Indian cinema. There are very few movies that have so many powerful scenes as this one, how often can you find a movie in which you can see a mans family slaughtered and then his own hands amputated, where a dacoit kills his own man for a stupid mistake and a widow is widowed “twice” in the course of a mere 3 hour long film. Even though the movie was inspired from two other movies which were: The Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai but was a great success for its powerful script, great direction and one of the best casts to be brought together in that time with Dharmendra in his peak, Amitabh Bachchan just touching the stardom, Hema Malini being one of the top actress at that time, Jaya Bhaduri was one of the most loved actress of the time, Sanjeev Kapoor being of the most respected actors and Amjad Khan being an unknown became the most monstrous villain  the Indian film industry for decades; and with an amazing cast like that and great scriptwriting Sholay worked its magic. When released Sholay was recognized as just another dacoit film but the filmmakers knew what a jewel it was and believed that people will take some time to receive it and once they did they never let it go. I am not saying that Sholay was an iconic film for the sake of its direction or scriptwriting or the cast which were obviously great but even Indians who don’t watch bollywood films understands when someone quotes a dialogue from Sholay; that’s how powerful the film is.

 Now, talking about the cinematic techniques used in the film, it was the perfect masala film. Just like we enjoy the perfect balance of masala (spices) in our food, the film has the perfect balance of comedy, drama, romance, adventure and action. The editing being spot on. The cinematography and the action sequences – especially the train sequence at the beginning of the movie was astounding. In the course of three and a half hours the movie offers comedy, romance, melodrama along with a handful of song and dance sequence providing the audience with a complete roller coaster ride.

 Sholay is not just a film but milestone for our film industry; it is a way through which people connect even after half a decade of the film we still use dialogues from the film in our regular conversation, the dialogues being so profound they were made into audio cassettes back in the days. The original ending of the movie being that Thakur kills Gabbar Singh was changed and Gabbar was handed to the police, was to teach that we can’t justify a crime it is not our work but it’s the laws; but the movie didn’t teach us only about the law but about friendship, love and sacrifice too. Sholay is not just a film anymore but it’s a feeling because how many movies have that kind of impact on us like Sholay did.

I Just love it when my bonsai has a flower.

I love eating sooji ka halwa and it is like the easiest thing to make in the planet.

Watering plants is a little more complex than you would think it is

It is always fun to finally clean up your bed and then sleep on it:)

THIS IS THE BASIC VANILLA SPONGE CAKE WITH A SUGAR ICING THAT I ENJOY, If you would like to make it then its fairly easy to make:

You would need: 2 eggs, about 150 grams of sugar (icing sugar), 100 grams of flour, 100 grams of butter, baking powder and vanilla essence.

First, mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl that is your flour and baking powder. Then mix all the wet ingredients and mix both of them in a bowl and your batter will be ready.

Bake the cake for 40 minutes and then add some icing sugar on top and it’s all ready to eat.

PYAASA

Pyaasa is often referred as a timeless classic and even after over 50 years of the film being made it is still one of the best and most appreciated one. The 1957, Guru Dutt movie was a mirror to the hypocrisy present in our society.

With pyaasa Guru Dutt bid a goodbye to traditional style of film-making in the Hindi cinema, it was a blend of art and commercial film and had a strong story line. The story emphasizing on the main point being that no matter how wretched you are, you can be loved and can love provokes the audience with a new outlook. The story revolving around a poet, shows how difficult it is for people in our society to accept new people and different kin of professions. In the movie they show how Vijays work isn’t admired even though he is an excellent poet and how he is ill treated by his brothers and how his brother sells of his work for wasted papers and later brought by Gulabo who see the potential in his work even though she herself was a prostitute. They also show how no one would publish his works because he is new which is heart-breaking cause it’s even prevalent in our society today. The movie also shows how for some financial security Meena leaves Vijay and marries someone else. And how later Vijay falls in love with Gulabo who is a prostitute and even though such a relationship is frowned upon in our society but still love has no boundaries and it sees no status or profession or success. Even though Gulabo was a prostitute and irrespective of her profession, she understood the value and depth of Vijays work. When then best of people denied to recognize the work, she did.  And later gives all her money and forces his to publish his work. This later becomes a great hit. The wow factor of the movie was the songs, the songs added another character to the movie filling in the gaps and telling us what the characters are felling exactly.

The theme of the movie was light-years ahead of its time and remains relevant after more than 50 years on: Disillusionment with the world’s crass commercialization, the futility of money, power and fame, abject poverty of materialist things and thought, prostitution and unemployment.  The movie in an over all throws light over the status of our society and how keen it is. Pyaasa comes down literally to its name which means thirsty and shows the thirst of one for success, support, care and love. The movie had been made to its perfection and after watching Pyaasa one will realize that how enlightening it is; it is a movie which is one of a kind, no one had Pyaasa before it was made and no one can make something like it even after over half a century.

Here is how I fertilise my balcony garden plants.

Crimson

Dear Kabir,

People are fragile, no matter how much they appear to be strong, powerful or unbendable but if you put them in a condition grim enough, I would say their façade comes off pretty easily. I don’t like who I appear to be and I don’t like encountering people when they are pretending to be all calm and composed; so peaceful and pleasant. I have always liked them vulnerable.

I wouldn’t like to be called a psychopath after all that I am going to tell you, and you should know that no psychopaths have ever enjoyed been called that; so far I didn’t really care what I was and what I was doing because ignorance is a bliss, isn’t it? But you matter to me so what you think matters to me and I solely believe that’s what you are going to think after this.  

I am not sure why I am writing to you but I believe you deserve to know. Though, it would be a little hypocritical for me to talk about deserving.

If you think when it all started and why it all started? I am not quite sure about that, I don’t remember. But I remember the first time I felt blood in my hands, so warm and give it 30 seconds it is all cold and dry. Blood always fascinated me. I have always liked the feel of it even when I was a kid when I fell down , I enjoyed the blood wheezing out of my wound and as I felt the warm liquid dripping down my wound ; I almost always forgot the pain.

Well, in my defence I didn’t intend to do it or do any of it; I don’t yet know why I did it. I had a pretty good day that day, it wasn’t very often that I met someone at a random bookstore and landed a date with them that day itself. That day turned out to be fun for me, he took me dinner and then we went for a walk; Calcutta is indeed very beautiful at night. After that I brought him home and we started kissing and as he pressed his body against mine and I leaned on my dining table my hand fell on the knife which slit my finger and then I don’t know what happened; it is not very vivid. I remember taking up the knife and kissing him harder and then I remember pushing the knife swiftly in his stomach and as he felt it he moved away with the blood oozing out and he was not in a state to do anything; so I pushed him and he fell on the sofa and I climbed on top of him; I guess he was too shocked to even react because as I kissed passionately while stabbing him till his eyes stood still he didn’t do much to defend himself.

After all that, I had a bloody sofa, one of my favourite blouse with too much blood on it and a dead body. So, I threw the blouse away and was grateful about the fact that my father bought me a leather sofa; so cleaning it up was taken care of. But the problem was the body, so I dressed up and went to  the nearest departmental store and bought the biggest knife available, I was a little disturbed by the fact how much they charge for those butcher knives though. Then I dismantled his body in my bathtub and put him in huge garbage bags because that’s a pretty discrete way to dispose a body and packed it in a suitcase. Then I thought let’s take a good nice bath but I almost forgot that my bathtub has a lot of blood collected in it; having a memory of a goldfish never helped when you’ve just committed a murder. Now I could’ve just opened the knob and let the blood go, but I liked blood so I collected it and then I didn’t know what to do with it? So, I made Jell-O with it. Just the gelatine and the blood; a little sugar and it was all ready to set. So, I put that in the freezer and booked a flight to Bombay. I packed two bags one with the body of the guy whose name I don’t even remember and other one with my clothes. I gave the Jell-O to Mrs.Sen cause I like blood but not enough to eat it; and informed her about the trip and left. Then I dumped the body on the way to the airport near a garbage pile and it was convenient that he has left his phone at home; so there was practically no trail.

Then drove to the airport and went to the city of dreams for a vacation. But that boy was still on my mind. I liked the feel of it. So, in the trip I wanted to experience it one more time. So, I went to a book store again and roamed around hoping someone would turn up and fall for me; take me out. I strolled for a couple of days in different places looking around. I remember getting anxious about it as my flight back home was approaching pretty fast. I really wanted it, I really wanted to feel the blood again. So after a week’s stroll, I met someone exactly like I wanted.

So, I asked him out and told him cars always fascinated me and said let’s take a drive. Then after finding a location discrete enough; I sat on top of him and started kissing him and when he was all in the action, I tied him to seat tight enough and slit both of his wrist; took out the bowl from my bag and placed it so the blood gets collected after all I was doing all this for the blood. He tried to defend himself but I continued sitting on top of him and continued to press my lips against his. After some more minutes he lost consciousness and I just sat there; once I had enough blood I bottled it up and left. I roamed the city for the last day that I had there and travelled back to Calcutta.

As soon as I came back to my apartment and crossed my way with Mrs.Sen, she said how much her children enjoyed it; so I said I’ll make some more soon. Well, I had to, I didn’t want the blood to clot now.  So I made another slot of Jell-O and threw a little party. Some colleagues and some friends. I made vodka with the Jell-O and gave it to people; I enjoyed that feeling so much. I liked how they were having fun with blood but just in a different way.

I didn’t want to stop after that and knowing I have done a good job leaving no trail about myself boosted my confidence too but then I met you. The same random way, in a café. But there was something about you, the way you talked to me, the way you smelled and what not. When I brought you home the first day intending to do the same but I couldn’t or I didn’t for some weird reason. You left the next morning, we started talking and then dating; everything was so perfect; until you found those polaroid pictures of those bloody bodies.

I am sorry that it turned out this way but I really love you and the fact that you’ve changed me. You were safe with me, I promised to never hurt you and I wouldn’t have; but you probably wouldn’t understand and that’s fine; because I don’t expect you to. I enjoyed other people when they were vulnerable never thought I would be this vulnerable. Love does some really weird things to a person’s mind, I must say. It takes 12 seconds to fall in love with a person and I’ll cherish those 12 seconds till my last breath. But now I am going really far away and you won’t ever hear from me again; but I just thought you deserved to know.

With love,

Radhika.

The qurantine is so boring that I finally cleaned up my table today.

So, here is the first picture of my babies.

Hello,

The world is burning down to ashes and as we are quarantined inside our home; boredom becomes a real issue. So, here is how I am coping with my boredom. I will be adding pictures of my day to day life, recipes of food I am cooking, reviews of movies that I am watching or the stories I am writing and obviously I will bombard this account with the pictures of my garden and the flowers I grew. I hope seeing me kill my boredom somehow helps with yours.