Charlie and me - Feb 2021

Owning a pet does not come easy. Whoever says that (no one that I know has ever said that), is lying. It’s the constant attention that they demand in their first few months, iterative vacuuming, moping, cleaning floors, rugs, carpets in the house, getting used to pee and poop appearing in all corners of the house, throwing up indiscriminately for no obvious reasons, barking sessions in the middle of the nights, trip to the vets, more trips to trainers, dog parks and pet stores. It's never-ending. This is not even considering the behavioral issues of the pooches like jumping, nipping, lugging and tugging during walks, biting virtually everything, incessant barking, etc. So yes, the first few months had been a struggle as a down owner. Within the first month or so, while chasing Charlie Seema slipped and fell pretty hard on her back and that was when Seema threw in the towel and was insistent that we give him up for adoption to another family. It was only after vociferous threats of “I go, if the dog goes” from me, did she finally relent to keeping him. But I could sense behind those smoldering eyes that for a hot minute she was considering throwing both of us out of the house!!!

Charlie seems to have matured though, over the past 2 months. The issues still remain about the jumping, nipping, and tugging, but his bathroom habits have settled into a routine, where he whines loudly every time he needs to go. He’s also realized that every time he whines, we jump and take him out, which he many times uses to roll around in the snow or just stand and watch people pass by outside. I’ve had to miss many meetings to rush him out in a rush only for him to frolic in the snow or chase the birds on the trees. Most times I don’t even have my damned jacket, hat, or gloves on. Brrrr. 

He’s grown a lot since the time we got him home as a cute, adorable 8-week puppy over 3 months ago, who weighed about 20 lbs. in Nov to about 60 lbs. now. We kept up with his steady diet of kibble that he was being fed, when we got him from the breeder, but over time he’s acclimatized to an Indian palate and staple diet of idlis, dosas, yogurt rice, buttermilk, rajma, chicken/turkey rice, fish, etc. Seema feels guilty if he doesn’t get his idlis or dosas over the weekend and feed him ‘Neer (instant) dosas’ out of sheer guilt. Seema’s warmed up to him since he knows where his food comes from and showers her with that extra bit of affection.

Dogs are good and simple souls. What you see is what you get from them. Complete loyalty, complete adulation, complete love. They don’t care if your rich, poor, black, white, male-female, young or old, an idiot or a savant. Once they take to their families and win their trust, they maintain that sustained level of affection for the rest of their lives. Every morning when Charlie wakes up and walks out of his crate, he greets us with the same affection as if he’s seeing us for the first time after a long separation. His joy no bounds as he enclasps us with his paws with unfettered glee and tries to lick our face. While his behavioral issues still remain, he’s calmed down a lot from a couple of months ago when he’d tear up the house. The rest of the training will be a work in progress over the next year or two, and hopefully, he’s turn out fine after that. 

The time that Charlie is not napping, which is almost 23 hours in a day, he is a bundle of energy and is zipping around the house, keeping everyone on their toes. He has a rubber ball that we play fetch with or he likes to play catch with me inside the house. He brings the ball to my feet and thrust it in front of me as if to tell me ‘Come get it if you can’. I then pretend to chase him around the dining table and the family room threatening to take his ball away from him and he seems to enjoy evading my outreached arms and outfoxing me with the ball. After 10 minutes or so he falls down panting on the floor, and the balls roll out of his mouth. Ha!!! Stupid mutt.

We, humans, have domesticated all other creatures on earth successfully, but the bond between dogs and humans may be the most harmonious of these relationships. It’s a pact that so special, that it’s difficult to explain it to those who haven’t quite experienced it. There are many reasons why you wouldn’t want to go thru the pains of breaking in a puppy, but once that phase is over, you’ll build something so deep, loving, and intimate that it will sustain you for a lifetime.

Some nights Charlie gets up at the crack of dawn, maybe because he’s thirsty or he needs to pee or whatever. So, I drag myself out of bed, attend to his needs and make tea for myself. He likes to sit and watch the sun come up outside the patio door and I sit at the kitchen table, sipping my tea and stare out the door, enjoying the sights and sounds of the day that’s about to unfold. Man and dog, in perfect harmony with the universe. It’s going to be a beautiful day.

Movie Characters I love - Maya from Ijaazat (1987)

Movie characters I love

Maya from Ijaazat (Hindi -1987)

In the movie Ijaazat, Maya is a figment of the writer's (Gulzar) imagination that most people want as a girlfriend, but never as a life partner to spend the rest of your life with. Quirky, eccentric, moody, spontaneous, fun, no-committal, rich, spoilt brat but also self-destructive, and schizophrenic are the traits that define mercurial Maya. Beautifully played by Anuradha Patel (most of us 80’s kids must have had a crush on her I’m sure, and even more so after Shashi Kapoor’s Utsav), plays the love interest of Naseer, a photographer in the movie, who lives a bohemian life, refusing to settle down in life or get tied down in conventionalism. Maya flits in and out of Naseers life, driving him to despair as he is trying to keep up with her mood swings and eccentricities. I don’t remember the details of the plot well, but on a whim, she breaks off her relationship with Naseer, and he is forced to marry a family friend, Rekha, with whom he shares a good life but not his passion.

Even after their marriage, Maya weaves in and out of Nasser and Rekha’s life which as the wife, she good-naturedly and patiently takes it in her stride and quietly adapts to Maya's quirkiness and demands from Naseers life. After some time of this drama between their lives and the inability of Naseer to keep Maya out of their lives, Rekha walks out of their lives and Maya later dies in an unfortunate accident. When Naseer bumps into Rekha at a waiting area of a railway platform, she’s already married to what seems to be a happily settled life and the movie ends there. So, he ends up losing both the loves of his life, is the story

While this entire movie is well made, with beautiful acting by the principals, melodious songs and deep meaning lyrics, superb cinematography by Santosh Sivan in exotic locales like Kudremukh and Chikmangalore, but what stays with the audience (with me at least) is the ethereal, quirky and impulsive charm of Maya. She doesn’t respect societal norms (yes, she’s schizo) but yet at the same time she has a sensitive side where she confesses that her intrusion in Naseers life may cause marital strife, but she still does it anyway hoping the wife wouldn’t mind her outsized presence in their lives. It doesn’t work as such in real life, but it’s a movie. The genius of Gulzar is such that he breathes this quixotic life into Maya's character. Even the single melancholic song that the character hums (listed below) seem so whimsical where she’s asking for her things to be returned back from her estranged lover after their breakup. Not any material possessions mind you, but the esoteric intangibles

‘Ek sau solah chand ki raaten, (One hundred sixteen moon-light nights)

Aur ex tumahare kandhe ka til (And the mole on your shoulder)

Gheeli mehendi ki khusboo (the fragrance of wet henna)

Jhoot mooth kay shikway kuch’ (Pretend quibbling between us)

Jhooth mooth kay vaade bhi

Kuch yaad kara do (Let me remind you, of all your false promises)

Give me back all these, since they are rightfully mine. Genius of Gulzar

In my opinion, Gulzar is one of the deepest and original creative talents in Bollywood. Mausam, Raincoat, Hu tu tu, Namkeen, Aandhi are some of my favorite Hindi movies).  Maybe he intended Maya as this crazy girl that fits well within the narrative of the script. Or maybe Maya (illusion) is that phase of all our lives that’s fleeting, transient, crazy, and carefree and one that’s over before you know that you ever had it. Maybe Maya is that part of all of us that we really crave to have, but can’t really have? Maybe Maya is that phase of life when everything seems achievable, possible, fun before the pressure of reality grinds you into facing the mundane? Or she just plain nuts. Whatever it is, it’s one of his characters that I love.

Know what I’m saying? Lemme know what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlvXDGJAMT0&ab_channel=GaaneSuneAnsune

Entitled

 

Entitled

We watched Ramin Bahrani’s ‘White Tiger’ two weeks ago and thought it was a great watch, especially the protagonist, played by young actor Adarsh Gourav who was impressionable and Priyanka Chopra and Rajkumar Rao, as expected from them, gave a solid all-round performance. The story based upon Arvind Adiga’s novel tells the story of a boy from a backward caste in Bihar and his experiences in the class-conscious Indian societal structure. The bottom line of the story is that the lowest rung of Indian society is destined for a lifetime of servitude since they have been bought up believing that their very existence is dependent on the largesse of the people they serve. Servants are so deferential to their masters, that sometimes all aspects of their lives, their children’s lives, and their grand children’s lives are dictated by the whims of their masters.

Being born poor is a curse, rather than anywhere in the world, but more so in India, where centuries of caste, race, and religious politics adds additional layers of dominance to those above or higher in the food chain. Having grown up in a city, I was not exposed to the full extent of the subjugation of the poor in the society, but there was ample evidence of peoples entitled behavior towards those economically lower than them like the domestic help, drivers, watchmen, hawkers or just about any perceived to be poor and needy. The watchman in society was treated like the personal errand boy of most society members, more so of those in the managing committee of the society or the general secretary or chairman. It’s like servitude is so inbred in this strata of society, that they meekly obey whatever is ordered of them. Very rarely do you find employers treating their employees as equals or even accord them a minimum of respect. Children learn at a very young age that it’s OK to abuse or be rude to those less fortunate than them economically, be it the domestic help at home, drivers, hawkers, and others in their ecosystem. Even when someone’s car breaks down on the road, the owner of the car thinks nothing to order those pedestrians around, who may appear far less affluent to push their car, and then drive away nonchalantly after the car starts.

Our apartment building, growing up, bordering the two-storied bungalow of some lawyer. The lawyer and his family lived on the second floor and the first floor was rented out to other tenants. Next to the bungalow were several tin shacks, where the servants who worked at the lawyer’s house, their driver, the maali (gardener), and others lived. These tin shacks bordered our society wall and every time we played clicked and someone hit the ball over the wall it would land across the wall in the middle of these shacks. As children, we’d brazenly walk into the homes of these folks to retrieve the cricket ball, without even paying much attention to the inhabitants or their protests. It was as if these people simply didn’t even exist. The residents of these houses most times wouldn’t complain about us walking into their houses while they could be in the middle of sleeping, cooking, changing or whatever else people normally do. Nor did we bother to ask if it was OK for us to go fetch the cricket ball. It was as if it was our right to trample any shred of privacy these people had, to get what we wanted. Now that I think about this, it certainly seems bizarre behavior by a bunch of callous, unrefined teens.

The poor certainly exist in India, in large numbers, they are just not very visible to classes above them. My experiences are from limited exposure that growing up in a metro like Bombay. Imagine how much worse it is in the villages where there are layers of caste, religion and feudal hierarchies that permeate all aspects of daily life. That’s really the national shame.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6571548/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0