Friday, March 17, 2017

Truly A Vijeta

I was in primary school.
So it must be over four and a half decades ago that I first saw Mr. Shashi Kapoor.
Real flesh-and-blood as they say!!!

You don't understand at that tender age why you instantly liked someone.
But looking back now, I can very well understand why that image, that memory has so vividly stayed with me all these years.
His charming vibrancy was spreading so much positivity.
His eyes and lips lighted with a smile that seemed to brighten up everything that came within its enchanting radius.
And as girls mobbed him for autographs, that look of innocence on his face, asking if someone could spare a pen, has got permanently engraved on my heart.

It was at the inauguration of an exhibition for some charitable cause.
One of my relatives was in the managing committee of the institution that was organizing the entire event.
Mr. Shashi Kapoor was the chief guest.
His simplicity, as I think of it now, was overwhelming. He casually strolled in the hall without much ado and mingled with the crowd with remarkable ease.
He was so close I only had to stretch my arm and I would have touched a star :-)!!!

Then as they say, Time flew.
And after many years when I saw Mr. Shashi Kapoor some years back at Prithvi, he was, in his outward appearance not even remotely close to the picture of his past self.
But that affectionate smile as he blessed the young who sought his duas was adorably sweet and friendly, though a bit more matured and solemn.

The serenity and calm on his face, so encouraging and uplifting, must certainly come from the satisfaction of having lived life without compromising on character.
Indeed it is with much contentment that I, his ardent fan over the years realised that Mr. Shashi Kapoor has grown splendidly in stature as an inimitable film maker, a classy theater personality and an endearing human being ....

He has shown his mettle as an intense actor, he has been a skillful director,  a resourceful producer, a fearless film maker, and a pioneer in giving theater lovers in Bombay an absolutely sumptuous treat year after year.

Visiting Prithvi is like meeting a soulmate.

What an enviably inspirational personality this wonderful man is ....
May he live long.
He has the Junoon of a true Vijeta



Friday, March 10, 2017

Holi Mubarak

"Holi Kab hai? Kab hai Holi?"
Asked Gabbar Singh in "Sholay"
Back then he was waiting to spill a horrific colour.
The colour that has been blurring logic and vision globally since times immemorial.
The colour of Revengeful Violence.

So the blossoms of population may have exploded almost everywhere, but the shoots of life seem to have dwindled as much too.

From Holika to Gabbar, and before and beyond, there are unending incandescent streaks of ill will that shroud conciliatory colours of Peace.
They stagnate the revitalizing hues of love, the inspirational aura of Hope and the happy shades of togetherness ...
Ethics and morals have lost their colour.

Holi, the festival of colours is here again.
People will symbolically burn down evil and pray for the phoenix of goodness to rise high from those ashes.
But unless we discover the rainbow of harmony and goodwill within ourselves, all the cheerful colours in our festive pichkaaris will only remain a beautiful illusion.



HAPPY PEACEFUL BLESSED HOLI TO ALL