Attempt # 2*

I've tried to rhyme and croon before, but never, my love, for you;
Words flow so easily now in a song I wrote, my love, for you.

You showed me life's possibilities through the glass of hope
I would have been lost and despaired long ago, but, my love, for you.

I was so selfish, tangled in my needs and fears
You saved me from myself by letting me care, my love, for you.

I had become completely numb to both pleasure and pain
You brought a spark back to my darkened heart and so I fell, my love, for you.

In your eyes, I'm beautiful, in your hands I'm clay
You can make me do anything your heart desires, my love, for you.

Life's joys, brief moments of bliss, triumphs, gifts
Don't you know that they'd all mean nothing if not, my love, for you?

You rode bravely with me, through my highs and lows
Forgive me my madness, but you made me crazy, my love, for you.

Before, diamonds were just hardened coal, snowflakes just frozen rain
Your faith brought wonder to my life and it's all, my love, for you.

In my heart I know the truth,"Zaara! It's written in the stars!"
There never was the slightest doubt that I was meant, my love, for you!

*This is the second time I'm attempting to write something ghazal-style. I don't know if it worked, but I thought that I'd be forgiven for unleashing this sentimentality today, of all days!
Of course, 'my love' in this piece is an amalgamation of my loves, past, present and future, platonic, romantic, and everything in between!
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you from all of me!

And so it is...

...that I revisit a movie and a song almost by accident, and they capture me though they never did the first time around.

And so it is

Just like you said it would be

Life goes easy on me

Most of the time

I don't know what has changed in me since the first time I saw "Closer" or heard Damien Rice's "Blower's Daughter", but for some reason today, the second time around, I'm smitten.

And so it is

The shorter story

No love, no glory

No hero in her sky

It is rare for film-makers to allow a song to be so intricately identified with a movie, as this one is. What makes it cooler, is that this was from Rice's debut album, and gets complete airtime not once, but twice, in the movie, in its entirety, with no dialogue to interrupt its haunting, beautiful, heartfelt flow.

I can't take my eyes off of you

I can't take my eyes off you

And it is the perfect choice too - it has the same pace, mood, subtlety and flow of the film itself - passionate undercurrents, smooth yet confusing connections and transitions which somehow leave you wondering what hit you...

Did I say that I loathe you?

Did I say that I want to

Leave it all behind?

I can't take my mind off of you

I can't take my mind off you

And so it is

Just like you said it should be

We'll both forget the breeze

Most of the time

Watered down

Children sail paper boats in dirty potholes,
Lovers meet, farmers weep,
A city grinds to a helpless, reluctant stop.
Monsoon rains...

Trees and houses torn up, families torn apart
Landscapes sculpted over centuries, change instantaneously,
Homes, dreams and lives destroyed by brute force.
Tsunami...

A poet dreams, a song is born,
A bee feeds,
Rays of sunlight compete seductively.
Dewdrops on a leaf of grass...

Mighty feats of engineering put up their sails and flags,
Travel thousands of miles to trade - slaves, spices and small pox,
Some to conquer, some to go home, some merely to marvel.
The ocean...

A panting marathon runner grabs wildly,
The old patient gestures feebly,
A baby cries helplessly.
A glass of water...

A drop is enough to break a heart,
To heal a bruised elbow,
To unleash a tidal wave of passion and pain.
Tears...

A bond of friendship over a fine catch for dinner,
A final farewell, a cleansing of sinful bodies,
An awakening of the mind.
A river...

Each flake is unique, never before and never again,
Snow angels, blocked driveways, cancelled school,
Christmas, little yellow gloves and hats.
Snow…

Tilling, building, mowing, entertaining,
Riding, shooting, cutting, running, drawing
Delivering, fighting, crying, dreaming.
Sweat...

A child builds a sand-castle,
A couple builds castles in the air, walking barefoot and carefree,
A surfer challenges his fate and the tides.
The beach...

A tag to build a dream on!

When I was four I'd only just
Begun to notice that boys exist,
Have short hair and short pants
And car toys (if their parents were sexist)

By the time I turned ten
Things had changed a bit
My first crush, my first heartbreak
And at the time I was heartily denying it

Three years later and I had turned
Into that interesting creature, a teen
When the only boys that mattered
Were on TV, in books, or at least eighteen!

At sweet sixteen I still dreamt
Of lopsided smiles and brown eyes
And surprise gifts from Mr.Right
And dreaming, missed all the good guys :(

I turned twenty two, still single
Left the country for greener pastures
Got a degree, a job but still no man
Who'd thrill me to raptures

My mistake came to me one day
I had built a mold, a holding pen
And tried to fit men into it instead of
Molding my ideals to fit the men!

But hey, I got tagged by Aparna to dream a little dream. So I'm going to take this opportunity and see if I can squeeze all these years of red herring fantasies into eight bullet points !

The Rules:
1. The tagged victim (haha!) has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. You have to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged. (This I'm not doing, sorry!)
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.

Ok, here goes...

Sex of the 'target' - Male.

My perfect desert island dreamboat ideal man:
1. Is a 'nice guy' - patient, compassionate, respectful, loyal and understanding.
2. Loves music. Is willing to experiment with different kinds. Indulges my music tastes, and shares with me his. Wants us to discover new music together. Gets excited by music trivia.
3. Is very intelligent, almost nerdy. Grasps things quickly and is a treasurehouse of knowledge. Is still logical, rational and keeps me grounded with that rationality and common sense!
4. Is very passionate. He gets excited by new advances in science, inspired by good poetry, intrigued by the possibility of alien life, amused by the mysteries of human relationships and enraged by the manipulations of politicians.
5. Has a nice mouth and a great smile, strong arms (not muscular - just toned and veiny!), brown eyes, straight black hair, a lean body, not too tall but taller than me, and good hands.
6. Respects me. Gives me my space and my independence without being resentful, jealous, hurt or condescending.
7. Brings something new to my life everyday, whether it is an attitude, an idea, a story from work, a book recommendation, a song that touched him, a surprise gift or tax advice. I think the loveliest relationships I've seen are those where couples share and learn from each other...And god knows I need to learn a lot of things!
8. Makes me want to show him off to my friends and family :)

Alright, I don't have eight people who read this blog that I can pass this onto. So I'm going to open this tag to whoever is interested in tagging along... I know one person who'd do it, but doesn't have a blog (Maru...how many such lists have you and I come up with over the years, huh?!), someone who has her ideal man already, someone who's shared some of his ideas on this with me but not completely, someone whose list will surely be interesting and someone who's such a romantic I'd love to see him forced into compiling a list of his romantic projections!

I say, chaps!

Does that sound familiar? If you answered yes, you are probably from my generation/background/age etc. and remember the days of Doordarshan and watching Shah Rukh Khan make his skinny entrance into the entertainment world in "Fauji".
I had the great luck recently of chancing upon the first of two DVDs containing episodes 1-7 of Fauji in the local Indian store.
Watching these brought back memories of a simpler time, both for me and for the Indian television industry as a whole. A time when the jokes were corny but simple and clean, the sets were realistically middle-class, the clothes were ridiculous and the acting was pathetic!
Shar Rukh showed definite signs of his flamboyant self even then. The show no doubt propelled him onto bigger and better things, but even the other characters were interesting... the brother (intimidating, but oozing integrity and righteousness!), the women (with cheesy lines, bad accents, pink lipstick and big hair!),Varun (the "I say, chaps!" guy)and the other guys (Peter, Dev, etc.) and quite possibly the most entertaining character, Capt. Narayanan.
Those were the days I would watch TV because I followed certain shows. There were times set out during the week when the family would sit down together to watch TV for 30 minutes, we'd discuss it for a whole week in school and wait eagerly for the next instalment of the 13-episode (typically) serial.
Today? TV is an escape while I 'unwind' or eat...I flip channels impatiently and spend 15 minutes trying to find something, which I watch for 30 minutes at the most and get tired and leave. TV today is the opposite of wholesome, stimulating, exciting...And that's ironic, because there never has been so much choice, so many types of programming, such advances in media and delivery.

Is it me then, at fault? I don't know..I take solace in these lines from a song by The Boss:
"I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood hills
With a truckload of hundred thousand dollar bills
Man came by to hook up my cable TV
We settled in for the night my baby and me
We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on"