In the Wonderland!

"..One side will make you grow Taller...

and the other side will make you grow shorter..."

Now!!! All of us have heard that...I imagine myself tumbling down the rabbit hole and standing admist the giant mushrooms talking to Mr.Caterpillar...Many of us might have had the same feel when our teacher read the story of Alice to us...But little did we know, what made Lewis Carroll think of such a wonderful story which would be read across the whole world even century's later..

Alice is almost 150 yr old today and was written in 1865, exactly three years after the Lewis Carroll and Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat up the River Thames with three little girls...Lorina,Alice and Edith..The three girls were the daughters of Henry George Liddle, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church.

To while away time Lewis Caroll told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure...The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay — over two years — he eventually did so and ever since the book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages and is considered enormously influential among the kids...

I read this somewhere "To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful"... this could be true...

Minutes go by,hours go by, days go by and so does an year... I wonder about the real world..I sense, Fantasy does hold a great deal for me... At least to Me and My Mr.Caterpillar...

"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality..."

Kill it...!

When a month clambers to its end, I often remember strange but irrefutable incidents that happened with me and friends years back...I feel a wheel pushing rapidly back in my head which brings in the old memories afresh in mind...dunno whether to call it good...sometimes I feel memories never prevailed long...

Arun was my best buddy whom I could share my bliss,agony,doubts,fights and arguments with...every morning as he entered our college van(christened DOG VAN by our college guys Cos of the size and a loony orange color it was painted in)..there was a chaos...he asked me...Hey!! is there any lab today? even before he heard something from me...he would say..."come on there is no use anyways..I dint bring my observation "...I and Anshee would just clasp hands together and yell .."BP...SAY SOMETHING NEW"....Life was so much fun..

You might think ..thts nothing offbeat now...everyone does enjoy life to the fullest at their college...yeah you are right!!!But for me college was not something unrivaled to mention...may be becoz I joined in late...most of the people had made their so called gang and I was the one left out.... for me it was my College Van ...Our Van driver Kajah ...the front seat freshers, the middle cozy seat reserved for the worst faculty, Priya..and the back seated WE...it was nothing but just fun..we used to yell at Kajah anna to turn the music on and tune it to the maximum...Kajah anna was always for us !! he relished the tunes,the shouts,the ragging and the exam tension with us... though Priya several times tried to complain against...no one could really catch us red handed, as soon as we entered the campus, the player was switched off and we abided in silence that anyone could doubt our pranks...

As we sped our way to college through the busy East Coast Road, we had sighted many things ...we have seen the Gardner of rich Estate owners selling mangoes by the garden gate...we spotted the farmer selling groundnuts with all the mud sticking to the fresh and soft shelled groundnuts .....

We witnessed accidents too ...we would sometimes see the ruins of a car against a rickety lorry or a vehicle deformed and crippled by the pavements..we had once even seen a whole family slivered inside a car waiting for help to arrive...we all were upset to see the whole scene...we imagined what their destination was and what it had turned out to be...Arun and Anshee seemed upset and they wouldn't talk...I saw a droplet at the corner of Arun's eye..."hey don't over react!!..I thought this would distract him to a fight...But, dint help"..

We never knew then, we would have tears in our eyes when we looked back at those wonderful days, years later...We never knew that he would leave us all on an unfortunate day ..we never knew that speed could kill someone so dear in the month of May...

If not for speed..he would still be among us... singing along, to the Tune of Life...

Arun's favourite song from Rhythm..!

"Speed....Kill it, before it kills you"

Antarmahal

Durga - when you hear this name and if you were an Indian..the instant thought that would come to your mind would be Radiance or the long holiday that awaits you during the season of Durga Pooja...

For me..it was definetly the Long leave that I enjoyed during the season...But that was only when I was at school.. Who worried to give an off at work after that??? Sad!!I missed the incandescence of this magnificent Godess ever since... we used to have an enormous cardboard temple setup during this season and The Godess would remain within the cardboard structure...people from the whole colony would come to have a look at The Godess ,The drummers and for The taste of heavenly prasad , The Bengali ladies made...

I did go with mom every other pooja to see the embodiment of creative feminine force , the peaceful but fierce eyes of Durga maa..

May be the movie I saw brought all the memories rolling over to me... I never saw a Bengali movie...except for the astounding ones the Bengali directors made in Hindi, except for the novels from this land which were made into movies...

Antarmahal -- A lovely epic by Rituparno Ghosh back in 2005 ...A must watch..

The greed of a Zamindar to get the Raibahadur title..the envy of a women who wants a place in the family, the innocence of a young lady which is exploited and the love of a sculpture which makes the plot of the movie... Sensational direction and you would never know that u spent a few hours watching it ...exceptional acting by Soha Ali Khan, Abhishek Bachan, Jackie shroff and Roopally Ganguly..wht more can u ask for?

Appreciate this movie from artistic point of view. This movie needs a very different view to understand. From feminine point of view, it depicts the problems and feelings of a woman and need of a child in olden days. You will also find feelings of BritishRaj that how the title of Rai Bhadur became important during Queen Victoria's time...You will find the oppression women suffered at the hands of their so called 'Masters' husbands and priests. A lively portrait of nineteenth century Bengal....

The land which workships a Godess for her ferocity , sometimes forgets to value a common woman...We often dont see the radiance in people around... but see it in a man made figure of GOD!

Watch the movie on YOUTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7QcxsUuoF0 )

"Darkness can be destroyed, only by Radiance"

Moments...

If someone asked me today ....I would immediately say.."My Wedding Moment " ..The moment the rings were exchanged..the moment he tied the chain around my neck.....Days passed and now its a few months since I have been on Knot...still I would say.... for, that is my most cherishable moment now.....

Read this little poem....

But half a moment
between here and there,
between day and night,
between yesterday and today.
But half a moment
to make a difference,
to see the moon,
to pick a flower,
to laugh,
to smile,
to hum a tune.
But half a moment
between life and death.
Half moments.....
Huge moments....

If someone asked me again...I would just say...Every moment in my life!!

Rewarding moment of Chris Angel...Listen to his words in the Video....

"Life is not measured by the number of Breaths we take , But by the MOMENTS that take our breath away..."