Indian Cinema

A BOOM! A BANG! - That’s the entry of the hero;
Emphasis will be great, even if he is a zero!
His friends are many, it's him they worship;
And be by his side during his times of hardship.
They move about in a gang, doing nothing;
And suddenly form groups and start to sing!
They wriggle, twist and turn - calling it dance;
Exhibit it on the roads - nobody calls it a nuisance!

Hero meets the heroine, mostly in a collision;
It's his love at first sight as little hearts bar his vision!
He would love her passionately for no known reason;
And she ignores the poor guy all through the season.
She encounters a few mishaps and he is her (obvious) savior;
She falls in love, rushes into his arms and apologizes for her former behavior.
They erupt into a duet song and a dozen dancers follow;
Movements & words would be obscene, more than what we can swallow.

After that there is very little for the heroine to do;
It's about the hero, there's much ado.
Whether rich or poor, he'll wear great attire;
And have an unblemished character - as good as sapphire!
Stumbling & falling, hitting & shouting come under "comedy";
As a general rule, the comedian is hero's buddy.
Of course there's a villain - it could be the heroine's dad;
Or a much wanted anti social who is raving mad!

As a one man army, the hero is all set,
To give the villains, what they deserved to get.
Cars fly, bombs explode & machine guns roar;
Miraculously, the hero's still alive & what's more?
The villain is nabbed by the police who arrive late;
Hero & heroine are united - thanks to their fate.
They live happily ever after - And,
What are you waiting for? - That's the End!

Will you grant me a boon?

A forwarded mail

******

'How long will you be pouring over that newspaper? Will you come here right away and make your darling daughter eat her food?'

I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter Sindu looked frightened. Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with Curd Rice.

Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age. She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. My mother and my wife are orthodox, and believe firmly in the 'cooling effects' of Curd Rice!

I cleared my throat, and picked up the bowl.

"Sindu,darling, why don't you take a few mouthful of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad's sake, dear. And, if you don't, your Mom will shout at me'

I could sense my wife's scowl behind my back.

Sindu softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. 'OK, Dad. I will eat - not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should...' Sindu hesitated.

'Dad, if I eat this entire Curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?'

'Oh sure, darling'.

'Promise?'

'Promise'. I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal.

'Ask Mom also to give a similar promise', my daughter insisted. My wife slapped her hand on Sindu's,muttering 'Promise', without any emotion.

Now I became a bit anxious. 'Sindumma, you shouldn't insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. OK?'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive'.

Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity.I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child eat something that she detested.

After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her. 'Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!' was her demand!

'Atrocious!' shouted my wife, 'a girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!'.

'Never in our family!' my mother rasped. 'She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!'

'Sindumma, why don't you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything else', Sindu said with finality.

'Please, Sindu, why don't you try to understand our feelings?' I tried to plead with her.

'Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice'. Sindu was in tears. 'And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for. Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral that we should honour our promises no matter what?'

It was time for me to call the shots. 'Our promise must be kept.'

'Are you out your mind?' chorused my mother and wife.

'No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honour her own. Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.'

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big & beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved.

I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, 'Sinduja, please wait for me!'

What struck me was the hairless head of that boy. 'May be, that is the in-stuff', I thought.

'Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!' Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued, 'That boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish. He is suffering from .. ..leukaemia.'She paused to muffle her sobs. 'Harish could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates. Sinduja visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue.But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son! Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.'

I stood transfixed. And then, I wept. 'My little Angel, will you grant me a boon? Should there be another birth for me, will you be my mother, and teach me what Love is?'

Friend or Frenemy?

Today I learnt that a term called Frenemy does exist.

Flashback: Some eight or nine years ago, I had a "friend". Let's call her PV. She was a classmate and I was good friends with some girls from her "gang". Inevitably I ended up befriending this girl also. She had a sharp wit and always succeeded in bringing quick smiles. She was definitely good company, yes. But she was equally good in rubbing people the wrong way. If I had problem with something and confided in her, she would assure that she will be on my side and help me out. But when the time comes, she would just snub me in front of all and make a joke out of it. Later, she used to come back and do something incredibly nice to get back into my good books. At one point of time she had me totally bugged. What followed was a big fight. "Well, you are not my friend", I told her, at the end of it. "What then, your enemy?", she asked. I thought for a moment and said, "No, but a mixture of both. Guess you must be called Frenemy then". She looked at me for a few seconds, smiled and said, "Yeah, I feel the same way about you too". We had a good laugh later thinking about it. But anyway, we felt that term described our relationship aptly. (Secretly I felt proud for having "coined" it!) We agreed that our love-hate relationship had given a new(?) word to English. After that, we used to refer each other by that term only and on the rare occasion where we exchanged greeting cards, we signed them as "Frenemy". - End of flashback.

Have lost touch with PV but currently I do have a few "friends" belonging to the category of "Frenemies". (We are close, have fun when we meet but there is an underlying distrust nevertheless, so the category.)

Today evening, I was reading day before yesterday's paper (now don't look at me like that) when I came across the term Frenemy in a front page article in TOI Ascent. Was quite surprised and googled the term only to end up knowing that the term has been in use since 1953! So much for my hopes of getting the word added to the Webster's dictionary! :) :)

P.S.:  Definition of Frenemy: A person who is ostensibly friendly or collegial with someone but who is actually antagonistic or competitive (Source : http://www.answers.com/topic/frenemy-1)