CELLULOID STARS

           The mugshot was quite attractive really.  Seemed a well-built, tall chap.  It was a friend request on Facebook.  I checked out his profile.  It was mentioned ‘Actor” against  ‘Work’.  Was he really an actor or was he shamming it?

            May be he was an actor doing ‘bit’ roles-one of the numerous extras that pass through the screen, sometimes without uttering even a single syllable.  But then there are actors who have managed to make their co-stars look insignificant even without uttering a single word. Satish Shah and Nagesh who played corpses from the movies “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron” and “Magalir Mattum” flash past my mind immediately.  Cases where non-performers upstaged the performers.

            One of my friends does have the distinction of featuring in a movie.  During our school days, an Associate Director of a movie came scouting for kids to act alongside the “Superstar”.  We were excited about it and our night and days were filled with Technicolor dreams of our future celluloid glory.  The D-day came and we gathered hopefully.  The Associate Director was not sufficiently impressed by me whereas my friend was selected. 

Cut to a few months later, we had all assembled to watch the movie featuring my friend.  With bated breath we waited for the song featuring her.  And she shrieks gleefully “That’s me, that’s me!!”.  I cannot spot her.  I ask her repeatedly.  “Don’t you see the one next to the flower pot? That’s me!” she says proudly.  Well, now I see her-all covered up from head to toe in a cute pink bunny rabbit costume with not an inch of skin showing!!

Well, that brings to my Facebook star-I have no means of knowing if his acting experience was similar to that of my friend.  I rejected his friend request!

WRITERS' BLO(G)CK

Phone rings incessantly

            disturbing my dreamy thrills

Pal speaks appreciatively

            highlighting my writing skills.

“Why the long silence, may I ask?

            No posts on your blog?

Posts came thick and fast,

            now why none?”, he barks.

Me: “Brain on strike now, yaar

            Refuses to churn out stuff

Parked like a petrol-less car

            without a clue to crank it up”

“Don’t worry, my dear”, he says

            “Common is this to writers

To work around it, many are ways

            Desperate situations, desperate measures”

“Ever heard of ‘sudal’?, he winks

            “Do a survey and surf the blogs

Choose what holds your interest

            this is full time business of cogs”

Never heard words sweeter

            that warmed my heart so

Like I got a load of Ferraro Rocher

            that I gobbled at one go!

So here I come fellow bloggers

            to ‘suttufy’ your matter

There are bloggers and coggers

            I choose to join the latter!

PS-1:  This is not a figment of my imagination and all characters are alive and kicking

PS-2: ‘sudal’ and ‘suttufy’ refers to cog in Tamil slang-in plain words copying.

 I graciously accept your thanks for enriching your vocabulary through this post ;)

            

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY

To know the value of one year... ask the student who failed the final exam.
To know the value of one month... ask the mother of a premature baby.
To know the value of one week... ask the editor of a weekly newsmagazine.
To know the value of one day... ask the wage earner who has six children.
To know the value of one hour... ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To know the value of one minute... ask the person who missed the plane.
To know the value of one second... ask the person who survived the accident.
To know the value of one millisecond... ask the Olympic silver medalist.

       
     This was in my mailbox the other day.  Though we may not have gone through all the above experiences personally, we surely can relate to each one of them.  After all, time is equally dear to all of us.

         Time holds a fascination for many of us.  During my school days, after watching a few sci-fi movies like ‘Back to the Future’,  I used to imagine myself being on the time machine of Doc Brown and the immense possibilities that it would open to me. 

        Would it not be wonderful if one were to travel back in time?  If we had realized the value of our carefree childhood days, would we have savored them better?  We are no saints and given an opportunity, there may be many wrongs which we would like to set right.  I can recollect quite a few occasions I was cruel or unkind to my dear ones without the thought that they may leave us never to return.  How I would like to erase those incidents! 

“There are some hours which are taken from us, 

  some which are stolen from us, 

  and some which slip from us.”
"The moments we forego...
   Eternity itself cannot retrieve."

       The present hides the future from us, a veil which offers no glimpse into the black hole that is our future.  Wisdom lies in living life to the fullest today, with no regrets for yesterday and no anxieties about tomorrow.  As Scarlett O’Hara famously says “After all, tomorrow is another day!”.  May be some day I will be wise enough to realize that! Time indeed, is a sacred gift, and each day is a little life. 

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

            One of my  friends remarked that ever since we planned our summer  vacation, verses have elbowed out prose on my blog.  I could sense that he was green about his gills with my so-called poems and was hardly in a condition to take any more of the stuff.  So if this post comes as a welcome change then the credit goes to him and if not, well, the author’s to be blamed.

 

            Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, 
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, 
brown paper packages tied up with strings, 
these are a few of my favorite things. 

This snippet from ‘The Sound of Music’ wafted through the air and that gave me the topic for my blogpost-‘A few of my favorite things’

o       Topping the list would be listening to good music, preferably  violin or flute in a dimly lit/dark room

o       Traveling with windows rolled down, feeling the wind on your face (never mind getting your hair messed up)

o       Watching the skies darken, awaiting the drizzle and catching the first rain drop in your face

o       Scared out of your wits by the flash of lightning but still awaiting the loud clap of thunder

o       When a big wave surprises you on the beach and soaks you to your skin

o       Walking bare-foot on the lawns feeling the grass tickling your feet

o       Starting your Sunday with a steaming cuppa and marathon session of newspaper reading without anxious glances at the clock

o       And, of course, the smell of wet earth soaking up the first rain drops

The list doesn’t quite end here.  But I can hear my friend’s stern warning to keep it short.  So, may be, whoever reads this can add to this list?  Now, wouldn’t that be lovely?

YOU

Cascading water drops wipe the pane clear

Flashes of light streak across the sky

Gusts of wind swirl through the leaves

Homecoming birds drive askew bewildered

Memories of a face reflected in the drops

Wind fury resuscitates the mind’s recesses

Ominous clap of thunder imitates your rage

Lashing spears of rain tear at the heart

Nature’s fury unbinds boundless forces

Threatening to smother, engulf, overwhelm

Sucking life out of living moments

Leaves in me a you-shaped vacuum.