startling banals
15 August 2007
A morning
Guru Dutt and his talented team made beautiful movies - Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Mr & Mrs 55, CID, Pyaasa, Kaagaz ke Phool and Aar Paar. Chaudhvin ka Chaand was bad. But everyone makes mistakes. Johnny Walker played his best roles here. 'Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan' from CID is the immortal song that defines Bombay even today. 50 years ago my grandfather was 35 and my grandma 33, my parents were kids. This song was shot in the city they lived in. Great art that effortlessly transports us in time.
A day I will never forget. In school we used to write essays on this subject an unbelievable number of times. Everyone came up with patent lame false stories. But now I believe that such days exist. Days you recall with clarity, insignificant days having no particular life-altering events. I remember one such morning in 2004. It was a pleasantly cool Sunday, the day after Diwali night - a grand finale of loud crazy firecrackers all over the city. I had some work near Marine Drive at 9. Thanks to a night-out at the hostel, I reached VT at 7. To pass two hours, I decided to take the longer route via Fountain - Churchgate instead of Azad Maidan - Fashion Street, at a very relaxed speed.
I walked in a dream. On the entire stretch from VT to Fountain I saw ten people. Zero traffic on the roads - only an occasional speeding almost empty BEST bus screeching to a halt at a bus stop in a well rehearsed swift short symphony played by the conductor driver duo.. ting, brakes, halt, ting-ting, first gear, speed, second gear and away. Even at Marine Drive the regulars were missing. Very few people from Nariman Point to Girgaon Chowpatty and even beyond. Lovers, people in shorts walking their dogs or on their morning walk, sea-gazers, tea sellers on cycle, time-pass peanut vendors - they had all mass-bunked. Meanwhile, Silence paid a courtesy call.
A day I will never forget. In school we used to write essays on this subject an unbelievable number of times. Everyone came up with patent lame false stories. But now I believe that such days exist. Days you recall with clarity, insignificant days having no particular life-altering events. I remember one such morning in 2004. It was a pleasantly cool Sunday, the day after Diwali night - a grand finale of loud crazy firecrackers all over the city. I had some work near Marine Drive at 9. Thanks to a night-out at the hostel, I reached VT at 7. To pass two hours, I decided to take the longer route via Fountain - Churchgate instead of Azad Maidan - Fashion Street, at a very relaxed speed.
I walked in a dream. On the entire stretch from VT to Fountain I saw ten people. Zero traffic on the roads - only an occasional speeding almost empty BEST bus screeching to a halt at a bus stop in a well rehearsed swift short symphony played by the conductor driver duo.. ting, brakes, halt, ting-ting, first gear, speed, second gear and away. Even at Marine Drive the regulars were missing. Very few people from Nariman Point to Girgaon Chowpatty and even beyond. Lovers, people in shorts walking their dogs or on their morning walk, sea-gazers, tea sellers on cycle, time-pass peanut vendors - they had all mass-bunked. Meanwhile, Silence paid a courtesy call.
2 Comments:
loved the best bus symphony :)..
and everything else
and everything else
it was really unbelievable. marine drive esp. you could even hear the small waves splashing against the rocks/tetrahedrons. and again no traffic - so it was a ghost road. bahot maja aaya tha :)