The Unforgettable Desire

I hum a lot, everyone does, I suppose. In last couple of days, I have hummed the songs that had been composed by people I personally knew, which includes a couple of childhood friends and an almost. I have no idea about what they are up to these days, haven’t been in touch. Often thought about getting back together despite the circumstances of separation but couldn’t find a reason to do so. I don’t know who needs to pass the bill, but someone needs to call the useless pursuit of understanding emotions a crime punishable by death penalty for people like me to stop. Useless, because, after all these years of ‘observing’ and ‘experimenting’, all I know is that even if we get rid of social conditioning (if that’s possible), there will still be things beyond our understanding. Maybe even centuries of philosophies later, we still have not figured out a way towards deciphering human emotions or maybe women weren’t working on it before (seriously!). I am going to call it a good assumption. ...

My top three reasons for watching Shonali Bose’s The Sky Is Pink were: the title, Gulzar, and mainstream actors in a non-masala film. This Priyanka Chopra-Farhan Akhtar starrer film along with Rohit Saraf is based on the life of Aisha Chaudhary (played by Zaira Wasim). Despite being the story of Aisha, the film was promoted as a love story which added more curiosity to an expected inspiring story. The narrator of the film is Aisha Chaudhary who is dead and this, she clearly states in the beginning, is not a spoiler. Her voice is that of quirky teenager who has had enough time to understand the circumstances of her birth and death. She is quick-witted, constantly uses Delhi-based puns and jokes, and is really concerned about her parents’ sex life which by the way isn’t okay to talk about even when one is dead. Aisha is born with SCID – Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. She dies of pulmonary firbrosis. In case you have heard Aisha Chaudhary before, this information is not a s...

Six year old girl: Aunty, will you see my colouring book? I: Yes! I’d love to! Female acquaintance (also, mother to the girl): I was actually telling her to call you didi, instead of aunty. I: Oh, don’t bother. She sees me as a friend of yours, I’ll be aunty to her. I am absolutely fine with it. Male acquaintance: We should tell her to call you ‘young’ aunty. I: What does 'young' aunty even mean? I am fine being her aunty. I grew up calling everyone in my mother’s age group aunty. She is doing the same. I was at a seminar in Hyderabad when I met the girl. As much as I like well behaved kids, I tend to stay away from them because I find it difficult to go beyond, 'What's your name?' This kid I met had all my attention for a simple reason: colouring. I cannot recall the last time I held a crayon. She was adamant about making me colour in her colouring book. In fact, she went on to review my work as better than hers in good spirit. I think I liked list...