He tried to save me from all sorts of trouble

Last year, this time, Ma was in the hospital, suffering from a bleeding ulcer and acute anemia.. I was at home with Baba who we thought was oblivious, not understanding 70 % of what was happening around him or with him.. But, how he surprised me when he started eating up his food in just 5 mins when on other days with Ma trying to feed him he often used to take more than 1.5 hours for each of his 3 meals! To be precise, Ma was admitted on the morning of 18th Dec and Baba started helping me and cooperating with me from that day lunchtime.. Both the nurse and I were astonished when he ate up his lunch in just a few minutes! And that continued for the next 7 days! I remember that night when I had no one to help me and I requested the delivery boy from the pharmacy to come upstairs with me and help me with turning Baba on his side.. The moment I arrived before Baba with the boy and told him what the boy would help with, he himself turned on his side, something that he had not done since his accident and surgeries! The boy was not needed to do anything more than just touching him lightly! When Baba saw Ma return home on Dec 24th, he changed drastically and refused to take his dinner, almost making me cry smile emoticon.. I guess he was unhappy why Ma was not feeding him when she was already back home.

My dear Baba, my heart rains whenever I think of those 7 days and how you helped me! Baba, who never wanted me to be in any kind of trouble, tried his best to lessen my problems during those days! Baba, who loved me more than anyone ever did, anyone ever would! heart emoticon

My heart bleeds today as I complete 6 months of Baba leaving this mortal world, not because he has left, but because he had suffered so much during those 14 months! Could not do anything to lessen his pain! Hope you are in a painless and peaceful world now, Baba! Miss you more than ever

Dec 25, 2013

Thanks Nandikar for a wonderful Christmas.. Just back from Academy of Fine Arts after two back-to-back Nandikar grandeurs, Madhabi at 3 pm and Naachni at 6-30 pm.. No words for Swatilekha Sengupta for the direction of the multi-layered Madhabi, Rudraprasad Sengupta for his enanctment of Jajati, Debshankar Haldar for Galab in Madhabi and Pandab in Naachni, Swatilekha Sengupta for her enactment of Kusum Naachni.. praise praise and only PRAISE for SOhini Sengupta for two completely different avatars in Madhabi as Madhabi, and Bijolibala in Naachni.. I wonder how she changes her voice completely for two back-to-back plays, alters her volume, her personality, everything .. watched RS and Swatilekha for the first time on stage, watched Sohini and Debshankar for first time on stage.. what beautiful songs and stotras in Madhabi, lovely dancing, amazing ran-pa dancing in Naachni, wonderful folk songs with smell of maanbhum.. Magnificent, Majestic and Magical productions.. will never forget Sohini's last scene of Naachni..and the ambience that was created.. gave goosebumps..her restrained voice in Madhabi was also sending a cold shiver down the spine.. RS said he would turn 78 soon, I wonder how he danced along his character in Naachni, it needed so much animation! His humility exuded when he concluded this year's Nandikar Theatre Festival ..
Who would say Rudraprasad would turn 78 in a few months.. his body language, animated acting, playful dancing and powerful stepping in Naachni was unbelievable!

It was the last evening of my life before I came to know what having a bedridden patient at home meant.. life somewhat changed to different degrees from the next day..

I remember being on my own this Christmas evening and enjoying it to the fullest... Baba-Ma were out for a wedding invitation and returned home after I did.. I had taken home Biriyani for my dinner and asked Baba to bring a bottle of Sprite for me, which he did..

Christmas Eve 2013.. Before everything became topsy turvy

Just back from a brilliantly lit dazzling Park Street.. the decorations are mostly tasteful and lovable.. specly loved the huge Christmas Tree outside Allen Park, the smaller ones at the gate and the HUGE SANTA inside.. Thanks to Robi O Nobin, Soumitra Roy, and Irene Sarkar for a wonderful Christmas Eve..an open-air musical evening with the first chill to be felt.. the power, range and rustic nature of Soumitra-da's voice is unique and dear Irene, love you as always..it was your program the drew me to Park Street on X-Mas Eve after quite some time..the only sourness of the evening is an absent-minded boo boo made by me.. and oh! how I repent not taking the camera today again with me.. this year's Park Street decorations and that of Allen Park are special.. I never knew before today that the Dept of Tourism of WB GOVT has been arranging a Kolkata Christmas Festival since last year..this year it got inaugurated on Dec 20th.. Park Street is throbbing with red caps, reindeer horns and festive spirit..

A bed

A bed is much more than a bed to children.. came across beautiful rhymes by Sylvia Plath accompanied by lovely illustrations by Quentin Blake .. the sketches and the rhymes remind me of our childhood days Ranabir Ray,Supratik Majumdar when we used to imagine that the bed was the train on which we three adventurous hunters were traveling and fighting villains who always ended up "killing" Pikludada who would ask me to shut his eyelids just as he had seen in films..tongue emoticon .. Children always imagine the bed to be their kingdom, I guess .. at least that is what I have fathomed from my experiences with Boju, Betu, Kuhu, and Tiplu.

http://www.brainpickings.org/…/the-bed-book-sylvia-plath-q…/

The poetry of days and nights

Had the fortune of catching this movie on television last week.. A unique and curious film.. Why I call it "curious" can be explained only when you watch it... Never knew until today that it had got two National Awards.. the lean, petite, young Madhabi Mukherjee with her superlative acting talents mesmerize in this film, just as she does in Baaishe Shrabon and Charulata (but to much greater depths here) .. She deserved and won the National Award for Best Actress for her performance here and the film had won the National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film ..After reading the archives I know why "Mastermoshai" looked so familiar.. He was none other than Kanu Banerjee of Pather Pachali (Harihar) fame.. Anjana Bhowmik (named Ananda) and Basanta Chowdhury also keep haunting.. Thanks to the movie channel for gifting me a film I never knew existed..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibratrir_Kabya

Load Shedding

When genes meet good filmmaking, a touching movie like "Load Shedding" gets made! Meghla Dasgupta, daughter of Bidipta Chakraborty, niece ofSudiptaa Chakraborty, and granddaughter of Biplabketan Chakraborty acted as if she has been acting since ages.. such composure and confidence is rarely seen in a first appearance... Riddhi is as natural as ever, he acted too well when Tiklu lost his eyesight.. Nitpicking if I must, I would rather prefer the non-shaved look of a school boy and he seemed to be too big to be learning tenses tongue emoticon but maybe that was shown to portray his weak base.. The songs are beautiful.. both beautifully written and sung.. The girl who played Tiklu's little sister is an amazing actress as well! Having watched Pendulum, I guessSoukarya Ghosal has a soft spot for blindness.. All in all, it is a beautiful movie that brought back memories of our loadshedding days and the romance associated with our teenage .. and the story was so touching that it kept me awake for a while when I was trying to fall asleep. heart emoticon A big Thumbs Up to Soukarya Ghosal, Bidipta Chakraborty, and the entire brilliant team!♥
Koishorer prothom prem e poRa ba prothom premik-er chhnoya aar load shedding abicchedyo.. aaro aaro anek kichhu, ei muhurte sab theke beshi mone porchhe Baba aar Mago-r sathe kaaTano samayer kotha.. load shedding na holey toh sabaai khub byasto!

Another chance to re-live the load-shedding evenings that meant storytelling, Antakshari, Memory Game, precious time with Baba, and later on mellow thoughts of teenage years..

Dutta Vs Dutta

I have never thought much of Anjan Dutt-the film director.. hence, today I started watching Dutt V/S Dutt with very low expectations.. the moment the movie ended, the spontaneous reaction that sprung out of me was "Lovely!".. I am no one to remark whether it is one of the best autobiographical movies in Bangla or whether it is one of the best films I have ever watched on a father-son relationship.. however, the manner in which the Naxalbari movement-period, the 70-s, that old Calcutta, the north Calcutta ambience have been created deserve nothing but tons of accolades... Each character has been portrayed excellently, a special mention must go to Anjan Dutt himself, who plays his father here, the young boy named Ranodeep (playing Anjan here) who wins hearts with his natural performance, Srijit Mukherji, Shankar Chakraborty and Kaushik Sen. What a lovely actor Srijit is! I have never seen a performance where he seems to be "acting". The others like DIpankar Dutta, Manasi SInha, and Rita Koiral also do perfect justice to the roles.. No matter how much I write about the movie, I will not be able to express how though-provoking, intriguing, and enjoyable I found it.. It will remain with me as the best ever Anjan Dutt film I have watched.. What an environment and background to grow up in.. such stories and sub-plots plugged in every corner of life.. Nothing can make such good fiction as life itself! The moment when my heart skipped a beat was when Rano tried to catch his unwell father's gaze and interest, while announcing the news of Mrinal Sen selecting him for a movie, in the same manner as my brother and I do with our dad. I will remember Anjan Dutt-the director for this one film alone. I hope many will agree. Looking forward to see many wonderful performances from Ranodeep Bose in future, and from Neel as well! Feeling so happy for Senior Dutt getting to know that he was able to do what he wanted as a child.. his leaving St. Paul's did not matter.. He found his film in this city, the city of joy ..