My Diwali 2009

This Diwali was very significant in a couple of ways. First it was my last Diwali as a maiden. Secondly, my dad who had accompanied me to Pune during my return journey, and also stayed with me for 7 days, had just left. So along with the joy of a festival ringing in, I was sad that my father had left for my hometown Kolkata early that week. Still as Raj Kapoor had once said: The Show must go on.

The festival of lights is celebrated with great fervour in Pune, more so because it is one of the most important festivals of the natives. Coupled with this, the innumerable crackers bursted in every nook and corner of the city, makes the ambience extremely lively and full of joie de vivre.
This year Diwali was observed on Oct 19. However, Kali Puja, an essentially Bengali festival was on Oct 17. Like each year, I lit lamps in my home and lit a beautiful electric light (much like a Mangal Deep, used to do aarti) near the small temple in my room. Then I wore a sari as I had to go to the Kirkee Kali Temple to offer prayers for it was Kali Puja.

Kali Puja is observed to celebrate the victory of the good over the evil and to diminish the devil residing in each of us. On this day, most Bengali ladies fast throughout the day and eat the bhog or prasad of the Goddess at night, after offering prayers. I did not keep a fast though, but nevertheless I went to the Kali Temple at Kirkee to celebrate the festival and to offer prayers. It was a nice experience altogether at the temple, where my friends Subarna and Aniket had come. We chatted for a brief while and later enjoyed the lovely crackers being bursted at the small ground in the front of the temple.

The puja ended at 12:45 am in the night, followed by the bhog distribution. When we reached home it was 1:30am. But it seemed that the evening was yet to reach it's peak... shaam abhi jawaan lag rahi thi!!!

Antaheen: Film Review

Before I begin with my opinion on this latest offering from Aniruddha Roychowdhury, let me share a long-ish story with you.
Did I tell you that I originally belong to Kolkata, the City of Joy? I left Kolkata in Feb 2007 to move to Pune for work-sake. Life in Pune has been pretty nice and satisfying until I began missing the old world charms of my native city. Well you might want to know about them? The lovely short (though widely called feature-films, such films are of short duration, hence the term short films) Bengali films directed by Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh and a bevy of new directors, trying their best to make meaningful films, safely categorised as parallel cinema. The reason I miss them: Bengali films are released in Bengal only. So I tried to look for a work-around. After all meaningful films are like a daliy dose of life-saving drugs for me!! I wondered, in this age of the internet, where scores of films are watched online, how can I be left out without my dose. To my delight, I found a solution. A quick search on Wikipedia and a crisp chat with my Journalist friends provided me the list of recent must-watch Bengali films. Armed with this list, I set forth looking for them on God's best blessing ( Google of course!!) and Google's great brainchild, You Tube!

Well I must say I began looking for them at an auspicious muhurt and I thank God that the Rahu Kaal was over by then... as I did find what I was looking for. Like a baby leaping with joy on finding a new toy, I forwarded all the You Tube links of these films to Aniket, my dear friend, who by now had achieved superb expertise in downloading plenty of films from You Tube. Here ends the long-ish story as promised and the review of the film begins. [By the way thanks for your patience!! :) ]


Direction and Written by: Aniruddha Roychowdhury
Cast: Rahul Bose, Radhika Apte, Mita Vashishth, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Kalyan Ray, Saswati Guhathakurata
Music: Shantanu Moitra


Antaheen meaning endless is a Bengali film of 2 hours duration. It released in 2009 and was directed by Aniruddha Roychowdhury of Anuranan fame.

Rahul Bose (Abhik) is an honest Police Officer who seeks solace in a virtual relationship with a lady whom he chats with every night without knowing her actual identity. He seems to have lost faith in meaningful real relationships after witnessing his unmarried aunt played by Sharmila. His elder cousin brother played by Kalyan Ray (Aparna Sen's real-life ex- writer husband) still writhes under the pain of endless void ensuing from a broken marriage with Aparna. They respect each other, need and care for each other as mates too, but still cannot co-exist together in the bliss of matrimony. They are always in a denial mode.

Abhik and Brinda, the lady whom Abhik chats with every night, find intense pleasure and warmth in the surreal relationship they share in the virtual world. Strangely, when they cross paths as a fiery journalist trying to secure exclusive bytes and interviews with the police officer, they clash. In their very first meeting, they argue and exchange bitter words. Their tussle becomes a little a smoother when Ranjan, Abhik's elder cousin and Paromita (played by Aparna) enter their lives and become a bridge between them. Paromita is Brinda's colleague and Abhik's cousin sister-in-law.

Aniruddha showcases another broken relationship through the Mehra couple, who are reeling under the impact of the untimely death of their 11year old daughter. Mrs Mehra, played by Mita Vashisht accuses Mr V K Mehra of this disaster.

After a couple of meetings, Brinda begins to find some striking similarities between Abhik and her chat friend 'boy-in-the-box'. She is slowly convinced that Abhik and her chat friend are one and the same person. They plan to meet which never happens. While driving to work for a night shift, Brinda dies of a massive car accident. When Abhik visits her home to inspect, he is convinced that Brinda is the 'raat-jaga-tara' (Brinda's chat id) whom he had fallen in love with.

The film is a good study of the fragile relationships and it covers broken relationships of almost types - a divorce, the pain of an unmarried lady, a mother's turmoil who has lost her child. The virtual relationship is maturely handled and explored. You begin to question the validity of a real relationship that seems soo fragile. Antaheen is interlaced with very beautiful and lilting songs sung by the melodious Shreya Ghosal. The lyrics and music of these 2 songs strike you at once. Debutante Radhika Apte does justice to her role of the fiery Journalist, though the roles of the trio of Sharmila, Aparna and Mita seem minuscule. However these actresses do essay their roles brilliantly though.Rahul Bose stands out as usual.

The short love- episode of Sharmila followed by the Ferari Mon song is quite remarkable.

Antaheen also strikes you with it's peppy dialogues. I will list few of them for you, of course in English:

• 'Solutide is attained through years of meditation. It's hard to achieve. Most people are wimps. They dont have the talent for it.'
• There are no ideal relationships in this world.

The verdict : Go and watch this film if you love parallel cinema and films dealing with sensitive subjects!! A very good film and a must watch for sure!!!! Dont miss it!!




PS: I liked the film sooo much that I have saved it in my lappy, to watch it at the click of a mouse.

Reflections of a Would-Be Bride

Wedding or marriage is every teenage girl's fantasy. You would agree completely. However strangely I never fantasised on these lines. For me, my dreams revolved around the POWER WOMAN or the SUPERWOMAN. Yes I always wanted to be a female corporate honcho travelling throught the length and breadth of the world!! But as God ordained, I met my would- be husband and felt as if this was the Man I was dying to meet sooo long. And voila!!! I began of dreaming of becoming the perfect Wife, Homemaker and Mother too!!!

Soon I realised - circumstances can completely change anyone!! Today I am only a few months away from becoming a wife, a bride. A medley of thoughts criss-cross my mind every moment. The pain of leaving my parents , the thought about the unknown- such as 'whats, buts and whys' trouble my mind most of the time.

I guess the biggest worry is the fact that a woman has to leave her home, where she spends her childhood, teenage and adolescence too, and her relatives to form her new home with her newly-wed husband. The more I think about it, the more I sigh!! Hence for me, my wedding is more a source of worry and sadness than joy. Amidst all the shopping, planning and dreaming that I am doing since the past few months,of course to brighten up my fiance's mood, the constant thought that racks my brain is - why? Why do I have to leave my parents and go to a different home, where I dont even know half the people and to top that, live with people, who are still complete strangers to me.

Often I feel, if I could catch hold of the person who formulated this rule, I would have become the modern day Durvasha Muni i.e. I would have reduced that person to ashes.

To conclude, a wedding is definitely a lovely chapter in our lives but... the eternal but still remains...

For the bride, it brings with it a substantial amount of pain, sadness and loneliness too!!! It's a weird feeling for any would-be-bride!!! The fear of the unknown, howmuchever you may know your would be life-partner, always haunts!!

Pujo 09 & Tit-bits about Kolkata

Yes as the title suggests I have been fortunate enough to pass this Pujo in Kolkata as well in the company of parents and relatives. In that way , Maa Durga has truly blessed me. During this visit, I witnessed many changes that have taken place and are about to metamorphose. Some of them I have listed below for your knowledge.

1. We all know about the expansion of the Kolkata Metro from Tollygunge to Garia Bazar, better known as Kabi Nazrul station. Don't worry I am not trying to put old wine in new bottle here. The news here is - when the train runs from Tollygunge to Garia Bazar, it does so over the ground . The best part is the rail line has been lais way above the ground level, which makes us feel like we are inside a sky rail, and almost compels us to exclaim : 'I am the monarch of all I survey'. Believe me I was travelling from Garia to Belgachia on a rainy day and the experience of travelling from Kabi Nazrul to Tollygunge seemed just unforgettable. Do give it a try whenever you are in this part of India next time.

2. If you are a Kolkatan and live in Delhi, Bangalore or Pune for work purpose, you must have sighed at the sight of the lovely public buses plying in these cities and must have wondered like me , 'why cant we have such buses?' . But dont underestimate the City of Joy on this pretext any more. For the transport department has woken from it's Rip Van Winkle-like slumber at last. I saw a handful of buses developed by a certain Haldia- based company, that bore electronic boards with the details of the bus number and the route it would take you. And yes the buses are not dimly lit at all unlike the match-box like private buses. Plenty of new buses have been introduced that take you to newer places like Rajarhat and Newtown and to some seemingly unknown places like Kamalgachi and Achipur etc.

3. The transport department seems to have granted mercy to us by taking off the more than 20-25 year-old taxis, autos and buses. However let me give you good tidings as well. Autos armed with LPG fuel have began plying on the Kolkata roads and they are plenty in number. Which naturally means good news for us. New buses will greet you too with their improved seats and better ventilation and lighting. The hour-long or even more return trip from office or school will be much calmer and relaxing henceforth.

4. The construction work for the under-water (under river Ganges) metro link connecting Howrah to Sector V, Salt Lake is in full swing. The project is expected to finish in another 2 years. Mind you this metro route would be constructed under the River Ganges, the very news of which sounds adventurous.

5. A new flyover connecting the IT parks in Sector V, Salt Lake to the upcoming IT zone in New Town, Rajarhat is under construction too.

6. Lastly, the Rajarhat IT zone seems underway with Infosys and Wipro agreeing to launch their centres in Kolkata.

By now I guess I have given you enough good reasons to cheer and made your hearts brim full. After all anyone in love with this lovely city would want this city to develop industrially and provide a comfortable life to it's residents. I am hopeful of a brighter future and I am confident that in the next 10 years we would be able to herald the renaissance movement in Kolkata. Such incidents and improvements have already proved to one and all that despite the political chaos, the youth of Kolkata do wish to make a fruitful professional career in the heart of this state itself. Here's a big thumbs up to the developmental work undertaken in this city!!! Kolkata we are with you every moment and always!!!