Now here is a realistic film. It begins at the begining.. with a parallel tale of two women. One in the desert, happily married to a loving mate, content with her limited life, to be a subservient wife because tradition demands that. Afterall, she gets to revel in the love of her doting husband. Another in the hills, a strong woman, with a strong commitment to her beloved. The fates of these women are entwined, in a very unsavory way. Their husbands both travel to Saudi for livelihood and in a mishap Shanker the Rajasthani fellow dies and his roommate Aamir (the himachali guy) stands accused of murder. His wife Zeenat (Gul Panag) must find Meera (Ayesha Takia) to beg forgiveness for her husband.

Meanwhile Meera's life has undergone a sea change. From being a blessed Laxmi who brings wealth and fortune to a faamily, she turns into a spurned widow and relegated to shadows. Until Zeenat enters her life and turns it upside down again.

Now heres a film worth its salt. When the heroines claim no makeup.. it means no makeup. (no clear lipgloss even) There is no snide attempt to put in any brand, no CCD no Pepsi's. Location means .. location. We really go to a small town in Himachal , to a small village in the outskirts of Jodhpur. The sincerity of the filmmaker (Nagesh Kukunoor) is to be lauded.

Zeenat and Meera are strong characters, and both Gul Panag and Ayesha Takia come out shining. Now I wish Nagesh had developed Girish Karnad as the quintessential egoistic male a bit more. That was a character crying out for more attention. We have Shreyas Talpade to help the story along. The guy is really good !

I saw very few men in the cinema hall :( I suppose the strong feminist subject puts them off. Cant take it i guess.

Which brings me to Food Chauvinism.

I lived in different parts of India when I was younger, Jamnagar and Bangalore. As we are punjabis, we had primarily Punjabi cuisine at home. We ate Gujarati food at home sometimes and often at friends' homes or at functions. During my 'tenure' in Bangalore I fell in love with South Indian food. (sorry for the generalised term - all you southies, I am a northie after all :)). That was also the Golden Period of cooking by my mom. She would turn out pizza's with hand made bases, spaghetti with meat sauce (my all time favorite), stuffed capsicum, baked fish, prawns and a range of cakes you wont find in any bakery.

The point is, trying out the variety of food in home everyday makes you less of a food chauvinist. You are willing to try out a variety of food without hankering for a 'known' taste.

Once a driver from our office was required to drive a car down to Chennai and back. When he got back, he moaned all over the office about being forced to eat idlis and feeling sorely deprived of his usual roti. As I loved (sorry) South Indian food, I was amazed that he didnt enjoy the experience. Similary, after I got married I laid out a feast for my brother-in-law and his wife by cooking spaghetti and meat sauce. After eating the dish, my brother-in-law asked for rotis. He said he didnt feel 'filled up' by this food.

That made me realise that by staying in one place, eating just one kind of food turned people into food chauvinists. It happens even when people go abroad, they want to continue eating their own kind of food, even if does not suit the weather.

Nearly forgot about my blog in the hassle over the bad net connection. Luckily Sooraj reminded me about it. Thanks Sooraj.

Just ponder over the simple but deadly advice by some ancient anonymous sage "Practice makes Perfect".

It applies to everything..... everything.

I remember taking up walking very seriously at one time, walking upto 7 kms everyday. My friends started commenting on how graceful my walk had become. Forcing yourself to write atleast a paragraph everyday makes your writing graceful as well. Your spelling improves, you pay more attention to sentence construction, paragraph construction. Similarly, if you listen to music more often, more eclectically, your taste gets honed and you are less likely to tolerate idiotic stuff. Similary with reading, the more you read, the more discerning you become.
Eating - you eat different kinds of food, you become concious of different flavours and settle less and less for 'tent house' food.

These days it is hot during the day and cool during the nights. Definately more pleasent than the previous month. Rains did come, though a little late. Besides it has been raining regularly uphill, which will ensure a good water supply to us next year. Whew ! We do live from day to day dont we? Just like the good sages ask us to.

Year after year, the most reliable indication of autumn has been the same vendor crying out "Palak lo Saag lo". If I go out on the balcony I will be able to see the guy pushing his cart full of leafy green saag that is available thru autumn and winter.

Kool Kote of the day : The essentials to happiness are something to love, something to do, and soemthing to hope for - William Blake

Ok trying to blog more frequently now that i have a net connection at home.

The best time i had in recent days was when i woke up with a start at 4.30 AM, crack of dawn. Usually I turn over and go to sleep again. But this time, I got right out of bed and went out on the balconey... 2nd Floor. (the highest you can go in Chandigarh) .. The Sun was just out over the distant hills. There was a pale orange light fighting the dark blue. The hills shone in reflected glory. It was a sight to remember.

Someday, I should stay up all night, just looking towards the hills, noting the varying shades of light and dark.

No one can beat our creator .. he is the best artist.