Thursday, March 17, 2016

3 short films



A tiled home on a patch of land forming a bank of a slow river ... a quiet... memory of a train ride ... a Film slide, rolls and unrolls in me...at most times ....these days; the Film owns me sometimes......me does not reject the usurper; park with it ...In morning walks, the Film pops up before being saved by the March spring of a bordered, early green on a peepal in the middle of Link Road..the top bare...as there is no traffic, one waits and watches the peepal with traipsing leaves in absences of breeze ...no birds, yet...three spotted Gliricidias (Gliricidia sepium) with pink, papery flowers... 'The scientific name Gliricidia is derived from the Spanish name Mata Raton, meaning mouse killer. Gliris means mouse and caedo means killer, sepium means hedge, the tree is at times planted as a hedge,' writes Marselin Almeida and Naresh Chaturvedi in The Trees of Mumbai; and a few fragrant Pagoda trees (Plumeria rubra); the scientific name is in honour of the French botanist Charles Plumier, says The Trees of Mumbai; have a small, impractical wish of lying buried under Pagoda trees dotting an open green space with pink and white flowers dropping. So the spring is in, like it is every year and will be every year; it never misses the schedule though walkers and runners plugged to ear-music may miss it or worse not care for it; when the Laburnum glows gold in probably April...ah spring will sport summer lines...will be in T-shirts ....they go well  with the Film in me head. On the way back, a white-breasted kingfisher calls from the terrace, exciting Rama, urging her into a mobile click...and the house sparrows wait on window grills for Marie biscuits. With years, losing the rush for newspapers...prefer to keep them away for afternoon snooze and use the mornings to stare and stare from my sofa...when the Film show starts with filter kapi...This day, skipped newspapers, has been mostly with short films uploaded by Kartik Iyer ... 2 plus 2 equals 5, a 6 minutes Farsi film; a 20 minutes or so Marathi short, Kevada and The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse; the films are good per se; and me is still clutching to The Red Balloon floating over a Mumbai of me longing; the idea of a Red Balloon giving a ride to a child is tiny tot imagination; Kevada is of an aged lady, caged alone. Do not know where Kartik gets these films from but they are good; they take you away from me; perhaps, 2 plus 2 is 5, fits India 2016 well as Rambhakts rephrase us; for Rambhakts, two plus two could be 10 or 11 depending on the fiat from the top. And it is evening, looking out of the window moments,  with a Film playing inside ..... A tiled home.... 

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