Once

Recently, I saw the movie ‘Once’ and I have to confess it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is an unusual love story of a guy and an immigrant girl from Czech Republic.

The plot is set in Dublin. The movie has a certain flow to it. A poor, immigrant, pianist girl likes the songs of a street guitarist. They get to talking and he wants to hear her play. What follows is a beautiful series of songs that they write, compose and record in the upcoming week.

These songs tell us a story. They slowly unravel their own love lives while simultaneously give us the feeling that he is falling for her and she is in love with him.

There is one scene in movie where the guy asks the girl whether she loves her husband. She replies to him in Czech, “No. I love you.” The guy doesn’t understand a word of what she says and even in the movie, we don’t have any translation for that dialogue. The subject ends there. There is this unusual kind of unspoken love that has starting to flourish between them and we can feel that.

But the other factors in their lives make their coming together impossible or to the very least, cumbersome. Deep down, both of them know this fact.

The ending of the movie is what makes this movie great. It couldn’t have been any better. I am not giving up the ending here, but it makes sense. I found the ending moving. It tells us no matter what, life goes on! 

I also liked the sound tracks, especially the song ‘Falling Slowly’. As Marketa Irglova said in her Oscar acceptance speech about this song, ‘This song is written to give hope!’    

The optimism fills the movie. We have to cherish the moments when we are with the people whom we love/like. It also has an underlying sad tone that the time we have got is finite. But the optimistic side ensures us that finite time is enough!

The interplay of the deepest human emotions that has been captured through songs makes this movie amazing! I am glad I came across this movie. 

Weekend at Pondicherry: Part 2

The next day was touristy. We visited the markets of Pondicherry. We visited Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. In Auroville, I found the food there is preposterous in price. I couldn’t help but notice the stereotyping of Indian culture. There are shops that sell exotic incense sticks and handmade soaps. The spices, the khadi shirts with ancient scripts such as ‘Om’ written on them with the aroma of perfumes added to it. I felt sad when I saw foreigners buying those things in the little ‘bamboo baskets’. I don’t know if they were really made of bamboo or just plastic coated. But it felt superficial. I felt sad that people visiting India will carry this stereotypical image of spices, aromas and khadi with them when they go back. Those people  might never see the real India. Then they will write about their trip to India and the spiritual uplifting they felt because of this trip. Finally, some guy in India will read it and think if someone with white skin is saying this, he/she must be right. And then he/ she will go to such places to seek spiritual peace. This is what British Rule has done to us. Indian people still think of white skin as something to seek . They think white is good. They want to mimic the British view of Indians. The beauty products in India advertise the skin becoming fair when you use such and such product. This is one of the side effects of British Raj. Our conception of beauty has significantly changed. And the western world is still not ready to accept that Indian people do not travel on elephants! There are two images of India in the western world that I know of. Most of the people think that we come from some exotic place, we travel on elephants and our food is spicy. Many think that we live in a shit hole, are corrupt and seriously need help. I reject both of them. And on top of this, what creeps me out more is Indian people behaving the same way around foreigners. I think we have lost our self esteem because of 300 years of rule under the British Empire. Anyway, I did not like the Auroville and this is my personal opinion.

The only things that I admired about Auroville were the concept and the architecture. The architecture is awesome and the concept is beautiful. It is a city for all races, cultures and people from all over the world who want to seek self realization. I liked the idea of having a piece of land somewhere on the planet where people who are ready to take effort on their own selves are welcome! 

 

Matrimandir, Auroville

Taken at Auroville

The central tree, Auroville

 

We also visited ‘the Pondicherry Museum’. It is a small ancient building where certain French governor used to live. His villa has been now modified/ transformed into a museum. There, we saw many paintings of French as well as Indian rulers. How many people would have lived there? They would have travelled from France to India. Not that I support some foreign power ruling over India, but try to see the picture from their side.

It also had ancient scriptures from the eras of Chola and Pallava dynasties. The statues of Nataraja, Krishna and the dancing lady accompanied the statues of Narcissus, Cupid and Psyche. It was the confluence of the cultures. I love such things.

The museum also had the remains of Arikamedu Greek settlement. It was mesmerizing for me. Museums have always attracted me. The Arikamedu remains brought me back to my childhood. When I first learnt about the lost civilizations of Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Egypt and Babylon, I was so fascinated that I decided to become a historian or an archeologist. I gave up on that because later in my life, science fascinated me more. But I still like to read about lost civilizations. A small piece of some pottery can tell you so many things about the culture of those people is a fascinating fact in itself. The remains of these civilizations are not just broken pots and incomprehensible drawings. They are telling us a story. They are the legends of the lost people. Anyway, I enjoyed the visit to museum.

Ruchir wanted to buy a set of chocolates for one of his friends. So, we did a lot of chocolate hunting. In the afternoon, we ate at some café where he tried some French food. In the evening, we ended our journey by drinking coffee and eating chocolates.

We then handed our bike back and went to Chennai to resume our summer internship. The adventures and the mass delusions that I experienced were unique. I also saw the two sides of India. In French quarters, you will have all the cleanliness and order and a lane or two after that, you will see big amount of trash on the boulevard. I cannot change it. But I can at least document my feelings about the current situation! Indian people need to develop a backbone and we need to break our stereotypes. What else can I say? This was an awesome experience after all!

French Quarters 1

French Quarters 2

French Quarters 3

GPS!

Coffee: Perfect way to end the trip to Pondi!

Weekend at Pondicherry: Part 1

(I wrote this article sometime during last summer. I am posting it on the blog now.)

Last weekend, I visited Pondicherry. It is just a three to three and half hour bus ride from Chennai.

I had Ruchir Dwivedi with me as my traveling companion. He was also the planner and the manager! I had no idea how we were going to go, where we were going to stay…He did all the planning. So all I had to do was accompany him.

We left Chennai from Madhya Kailash (nearest stop from IIT Madras, where I am currently doing an internship) at around 9:30 in the morning. The bus was almost full and we had to sit in the driver’s cabin on the cover of the engine!

There are two problems associated with sitting on the engine-cover in the driver’s cabin. One, the honking of bus horn which may cross 40-45 decibels at times and second, it is incredibly hot! The only soothing thing was the Bay of Bengal which we could see as we traveled along that fabulous road. At 1:00 pm, we got off the bus at ECR circle. There is an YHI (Youth Hostels Association of India) hostel two-two and a half kilometers from there. We were going to be there in Pondicherry on Sunday too. We had to accommodate ourselves somewhere. So Ruchir had already found out about the Hostel and as he is YHI member, we were also going to get some discount! We took an auto and went to the youth hostel. As it turned out they were not allowed to give any discounts to anyone but students! We already had our BITS id cards with us. And we got ourselves a place to stay for the night for just 100 rupees. It was too good a deal. Though they were not able to provide us separate room as such, they made all the arrangements in a spare hall. It was good. We were up from 6 O’clock in the morning and I had slept late on the Friday night. (I was watching Seinfeld!) Also, the Sun had come up and as it is well known, Pondicherry is humid. That is why we decided to take rest for the afternoon.

Oh, what a nice sleep it was! In the meanwhile, I also charged my phone as we were going to need a lot of battery if we were going to use GPS. At quarter to five or so, we came to main town which is two kilometers away from where we were staying. Next task was to hire a bike.

We searched for a good bike and ended up renting a ‘Vespa’. It was costlier than that of an old, ragged ‘Activa’, but it was worth it. Our Vespa was a yellow colored beauty with rounded mirrors. For some reason, that gave us a classic feel. The next important task was to fill the tank with petrol, as fuel does not come under the renting deal. For two days, two and a half liters of fuel are more than enough to roam around in Pondicherry. Once we had the vehicle in a ready-to-go state, we started ambling.

It was already five O’clock in the evening so we decided to go to the Pondicherry beach. On our way, we came across the Government Park of Pondicherry. We roamed around there for a while, saw some monuments and observed people taking selfies. I don’t like casual selfies that people take when they go to a mall or when they visit some tourist place. It is not as if you are on top of the Everest, people! Come on! I will write about it sometime in the near future. There was some information written under the Park Monument, but it was in Tamil and French, neither of these languages can I comprehend. So, that was it as far as the park was concerned.

Just in front of the park, there is the famous Pondicherry Beach. It is not a sand beach. It is rocky. The road alongside the beach bears an apt name: ‘beach road’. There is a magnificent statue of Mahatma Gandhi with eight pillars surrounding the statue. The pillars have been brought there from the fort of Gingee. There are also Ambedkar memorial and French war memorials on the other side of the road.

We roamed around the beach road for a while and once the hunger called for food, we decided to go to famous ‘Le Cafe’.  Ruchir told me that in the times of the French rule, the building was a post office. Now it has been renewed as a restaurant. It has got an amazing view of beach and the food was great too. It is not cheap though. Well, nothing comes for free on this planet.

After a rejuvenating break at 'Le Cafe', we resumed our roaming-around activities. We met some local Police with their interesting, red, French hats. I clicked a picture or two of a stranger couple who wanted me to take a photo of them. Ruchir was on roll with his camera.  He clicked some awesome pictures that evening. Here are some of them.

It was 8:30 pm or so and we were already hungry. Ruchir wanted to try some sea food. So we went to some French restaurant which was famous for its sea food. I, on the other hand am not a fan of non vegetarian food. Though I have tried chicken tandoorie and some variants of chicken, I have not finished a whole plate till date. I had never tried sea food before as I have some issues with the stink and by issues, I mean serious, honest disgust or at the very least, nausea. So I tend to steer clear of sea food. But that day, when we went in that restaurant, all my expected nausea was not there. I do not know how I didn't feel that peculiar unwanted disgust about sea food. Maybe because there were no stinky-fish smells or for some other reasons, I was completely normal around all that sea food. To my own surprise, I tried fried prawns and I liked it.

Once the dinner was over, we had nothing else to do except to go back to our lodge. It was already 11O’clock in the night and it would have been logical to go back. But instead, we decided to go to Paradise beach which is almost 15 km away from Pondicherry. It was thrilling, being spontaneous. But it was also going to be one of the unforgettable experiences ever.

We took out our Vespa and started our journey for the Paradise beach. I had GPS on my phone and that was going to be our pathfinder. We decided that I would drive while going there and Ruchir would drive while coming back.

I have never been to Pondicherry before and I thought this so called Paradise beach would be a crowded place. But, owing to an odd timing of 11:30 pm, it was just a long beach with some fishermen sleeping in their huts. Ruchir and I parked our scooter and went on. I sat on the deck of one of the canoes that were standing there on shore. Ruchir went along with his camera.

It was nice there. There was no noise, no crowd. It was like a private beach!

I was sitting on the deck of canoe, enjoying the placid environment around me. The tides were making periodic splashing on the shore and the sky was clean. In such situations of beauty, everyone starts thinking about life and so did I. I was thinking about all the beautiful things that have happened to me in my life so far. I remembered something that someone once said to me and I had no idea whatsoever that within next ten minutes I would be driving away from that beach just to get the hell out of there.

In fact, while I was thinking about life, I was also trying to absorb what was around me. It was too tender a feeling! But when I gazed around, I saw a flickering light to the far right of me. It was interesting. What was that light? Was someone there? Soon, as I concentrated hard enough on that light, I could see two, maybe three silhouettes. One of them was holding the source of that light. It might have been a mobile phone. But the shadowy figures were too far from me. My feeling of romantic thoughts went down and was overtaken by the feeling of adventure in a moment. There was something going on out there. I wanted to know. So I turned around to take Ruchir with me for investigation only to find him talking to a local fisherman.

I went there and asked Ruchir to come with me. I did not want to mention the silhouettes and the light in the presence of the fisherman, but I wanted Ruchir to know that there is something suspicious going on there. I don’t exactly remember how I managed to convince him but Ruchir tried to say goodbye to the fisherman in order to take a walk along the beach. And the fisherman suddenly changed his attitude. He told us not to go in the far right and quote, “There are big dogs”. That was obviously a lie and we knew in an instant that we were in trouble. The fisherman seemed to know about the thing that was going on and was keen on not to let us go there. The fisherman or the guy posing as a fisherman then started asking us to drink with him a couple of beers. When we said we are not interested, he asked us some money for a beer and some smoke. There were many loopholes in his story. He was not conveying what he wanted to tell us, as he only knew some words in English and none of us could understand Tamil. The only thing that he conveyed properly was that there was some danger involved in going to the far end of the beach. On top of that, Ruchir had a high resolution camera in his hands. He must have thought of Ruchir as a journalist or a reporter or at the very least, an overenthusiastic tourist.

Meanwhile, the shadowy figures that were there had disappeared on one of the canoes. While we were talking to the fisherman, I was constantly trying to look whatever I could look for. I don’t know why but I was getting a hunch that there was something wrong with that beach. In the end, at around 12:00 O’clock, we decided to run away when we could as if situation arrived; no one else in the world knew that we were on the Paradise beach. I guess he must had been on strict instructions about not to let anyone go there. What if there was some illegal activity such as drug trafficking going on? What if the dark figures that might have caught us with a big camera were actually some mafia gang? More probably, it might have been a newlywed couple celebrating a romantic honeymoon on a clean beach, but the fisherman was somehow involved. He had his interests in not letting us go there. Anyways, because we were only two people with no one else knowing our whereabouts, we decided to get out instead of being stupid and investigating. I accelerated our scooter so hard that we almost slipped in the beach sand. The fisherman was still with us. Once we got out, Ruchir was constantly asking questions about the silhouettes. I told him the story and how it all implied us getting in trouble.

Finally, when we reached a crowded town nearby, we changed seats. Ruchir was driving and I was holding the GPS now. I don’t know what happened to GPS, but we lost our way. After a lot of encircling to the same area and going through many odd lanes we reached Pondicherry at around 12:35 am. Finding our hostel was another task that was remaining. It took us 15 more minutes to reach there and while going there, a dog chased us as good as it could. Finally, we reached YHI hostel at 1O’clock in the morning only to find it locked. We had to wake the watchman up and listen to him about coming in before 12O’clock. After all the listening, he took us in and thus ended the first day in Pondicherry.