Bryan Adams.....For Real

One concert.....so many experiences

His songs have been part of life ever since I can remember, through the growing up years ...past tense, into present continuous. There's songs of his even on my current CD in the car.

To see him in person, the ambience, the volume, the energy......it's pulsating.... a mind body experience.

Each of his numbers took me on a different trip. 

Heaven,  I do it for you, Have you ever loved a woman, Please forgive me, Summer of 69, Run to you, Straight from the heart, Cloud number 9, Can't stop this thing we started, When you love someone, You belong to me, I'll always be right there....

So many....and what I also enjoyed is knowing almost every song he played.

Another experience was going with Diksha. In that mad number of people, though most times we weren't even hanging around together, it just seemed to have attracted a lot of attention.  We had random folks coming up to say different stuff...was very sweet.  Like an occasion for both of us to re-cherish what we have.

Some pictures from the event:

Any pictures of Bryan Adams had to be only from the screen, that's how far we were from the stage :)

The audience

Playing 'I'd die for you '

A random bunch of us who just gravitated together and hung out for over an hour after the show

Another screen picture

Michael, who insisted on this picture :)

A groupie from one of the others we met

Well, a selfie to close

Late night at home, diksha sends me this message saying "that was so much fun ma, we should surely do this again". 

Amen to that.

Sukrutha & Sukrutha

While this might sound like Julia & Julia, it actually has a deeper connect. 

Sukrutha Mahendra, 80 yrs and Sukrutha Deshpande  22 yrs ...... the younger Sukrutha actually named after the first.

It's one more really uplifting Smile Foundation story, one that seemingly started way before even Smile Foundation did.

Let me tell the story.... in-between this Sukrutha and that Sukrutha, is Kavitha

Flash back around 40 years:  .Mom was working in Andhra Mahila Sabha, and Kavitha was daughter of mom's maid. Kavitha would occasionally help out her mother at our house.  I recall Kavitha, a skinny, but gutsy, fast and super efficient girl. The speed with which she spoke, or walked or swept would be noticed. In fact the speed with which she did the dishes would baffle us. She was a power.

She had dreams of joining the Police Force, as constable. We all felt she'd so fit the role. Sadly, circumstances at her home, (she was one of many daughters) the difficulties they came upon when her father got paralysed,  impacted her studies, and she couldn't clear her 10th class. She missed by one subject.  No encouragement from us could get her to try again. It broke her, and her dreams evaporated. 

She gave up, got married and became a full time maid. When she had her first daughter, she named her after my mom. 

That's the Sukrutha and Sukrutha.

Likely she'd shifted her dreams and aspirations to her daughter.  A strong independent woman is what she saw in my mom, I guess. 

Fast forward many years: Sukrutha was in school, Kavitha wanted her to go to a school that taught English, and that's where she connected back to us, to Smile Foundation.  Sukrutha would come all the way from Kachiguda to Srinagar Colony, changing three buses, along with her father to collect fees from Smile Foundation. We saw her grow from a gawky and shy school going girl to a young and confident college going student. We could see Kavitha's genes in her.

Fast Forward to now: Yesterday morning I get a message 

"Hi Di (short for didi), this is Sukrutha. I have good news. I got a job in ICICI". ( she went and met mom personally with the good news)

Sukrutha Deshpande, huge Congratulations, so so proud of you !!

Kavita: Kai bolu re......bahut bahuth badayee...deeper Congratulations to you....a dream that took a long time coming, but came true so beautifully. Very happy for you. Will come and give you a personal hug soon.

And Ma....so happy to have been on this journey with you. 

A rare and precious meet

Dad and Raju uncle, friends since 1957.........meeting, by chance (?) in Care Hospital.

Daddy and Raju uncle go back a long long way. They met when they joined service, when they were 23 and 27 years old, all of 61 years back, and have been friends ever since.

Through their growing up, work life, getting married, having children, grandchildren, .......... different cities, different offices, different experiences.......yet they kept in touch. They were so close. Raju uncle, aunty and their four sons, Madhu, Sudarshan, Murali and Vijay became our friends by default and they were always there, a peripheral, yet constant presence in life. 

While all of us lost touch, uncle and daddy stayed friends...all through, even post retirement. More recently, when age made mobility difficult they yet kept in touch over the phone.  Right until a few months ago, when  health conditions intervened even that.  

In fact just a couple months back I was telling daddy we should get a wheel chair and go see him, even I wanted to see uncle, wanted to hear his affectionate and gregarious voice again. But it didn't come to be.

Last week, daddy had an emergency, so serious that I don't trust myself to write and do justice to the depths it took us to. Suffice it to say, he came out yesterday to say "I feel like I am on a second lease of life".

Third day in hospital, mom walks in the door saying "guess who is also in the hospital...Raju uncle, I bumped into aunty in the lift". Chance ? Really ??.

Mom and I immediately went to see uncle . Next day Madhu and Vijay came up to see daddy.

Fourth day came news that uncle was being discharged after a month in the hospital, and daddy was ready to go see him. That was the first laughter I heard in his voice after a long time, when he said "how does my tie look?" (he had to go down in the hospital gown). We needed special permission and he was wheelchaired to uncle's room.

Precious moments .....to see them together again. And to hear daddy say to him "all things have to come to an end Raju.....and we are both on the fringe........"

Mahanati

Watching Mahanati was an experience, a three hours of stepping out of ones own life into that of Savitri's, what only a really good biopic can do.

And what a life....and what a woman.

When end of movie you feel it was so intense and dramatic, you get grounded in your knowing it to be a real story. Of a woman who could inspire a biopic. I watched fascinated as the story unfolded. Savitri, right from when she was a little girl, the spark clearly visible.....turning into a woman with spunk, a mind of her own......one who lived life on her own terms; be it her dance, her love, her money, her alcoholism,  fame, ego, generosity, kindness....all larger than life.

I was wowed.

Keerthy Suresh has a remarkable likeness to Savitri, and breathed life into the role. Dulquar as Gemini Ganeshan was charming, and while playing a crucial role in her life, at some point kind of fades away, fades away from the movie too.....and that catalyzes her spiral.

The several clips of all the old Savitri songs was beautiful..... and nostalgic too as I've grown up hearing those songs on daily basis ( plus my dads a big fan of Savitri's).

I loved the cinematography of old time rural life.....plus the old time tinsel town exposure, that was brought in with all real life characters of yesteryears.

It's a long movie, but then her life has so much, so much of everything that I could have watched a couple hours longer. A story that inspires, of a woman who inspires.

A lot of folks said it was sad and depressing, but I didn't think so......to me what stood out is a woman who chose her own life.

Nag Ashwin, for having delved so deep into the life of Savitri, and given us Mahanati, kudos and thanks !!

As Chimerical as Real

We had this most spectacular of rainbows yesterday.......horizon to horizon... each color distinctly visible. And as we were still admiring it, right before our eyes there appeared a second rainbow....a double rainbow.

All right from our balcony. What a treat.

To me, one of my favoritest sights.......one of the most beautiful things on earth. A rainbow like this, an experience that always comes with goosebumps. So beautiful, so colourful, so large, so across the sky, so fragile, so exciting, so touching..... almost chimerical.

First sighting.....my pictures are sad here....it'll have to be 10 % picture, 90% imagination :)

this one is to show how it seemed to go right down the horizon

And if you look closely, you'll see the double rainbow on top

After a few pictures, I could only stand and gaze.....in awe

The story of a bag

A nice story that unfolded in phases over the day.

Our watchman, Venkaiah, came up early this morning saying he was going to Tirupathi, and could he get an advance. The otherwise usually grouchy man actually sounded excited about his trip, and when I asked further, went on into which train, when, what....lots of details....he looked happy.

Then he says "I also need a bag....can you give me one, I don't have a bag to pack our clothes in". I said I'd check and to come back later.

When Faizan came at 11, I asked her to help me get down a suitcase from the attic and then to empty it (it had a lot of random stuff in it).....and after it's down she says "let's empty it tomorrow, I'm in a rush today".... and I was like, "No, now only, Venkaiah needs the bag today".

She's like "what?!!? ....you're giving this suitcase to him?? what amma....what happened to you....it's such a nice suitcase....plus he's such a horrible man, he doesn't clean your car well, he yells at me for the smallest reason........no, you're not giving the bag to him....if you don't need it, give it to me". 

I'm like "It's not about me not needing it, it's about him needing it".

She's like "no, not this suitcase, and not to him, I won't let you, he's so kadoos, he doesn't deserve it". She sounded so like an offended petulant child, that I gave in, thinking I'll ask Diksha for a backpack.

An hour later.......Diksha searches through her stuff and doesn't find one she can give away.

So we're like "sad, but what can we do, just tell him we don't have one".

A couple hours later .......

Diksha: "ma, I told him about the bag when he came up, and he looked so disappointed......I can't get that look off my mind.....can we do something?"

 "we tried no sweetie, we don't have extra, it's okay, he'll manage".

"no ma, it doesn't seem right that there should be so much grief because of not having a bag for a trip, he looked so sad (even if he's a creep), do something no".

We put our minds together, and finally decided that we'd give him one of our regular bags for this trip, on returnable basis. (He's now gone off with my bag:)

Deech, for having let that expression touch you...... for having pushed for a solution.... for enabling an out of usual resolution......you made the day so special !

Falling Out

From Seth

The hard part isn't coming up with a new idea.

The hard part is falling out of love with the old idea.

That's why editing work is so difficult. In order to make the new thing, to make the old thing better, you need to destroy it first.

Situation switching, acting as if, loving the idea enough to sketch it out and then caring enough to stop loving it......that's where the tension often lies.