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Aaditya and Me by Aditya Joshi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License

Saturday, September 25, 2010

A colour of my own - Adaptation of a Suresh Bhat Ghazal

A friend Abhishek R. asked me to translate this marathi ghazal by Suresh Bhat. (www.sureshbhat.in and wikipedia entries will be the best way to read about him.) The original is called 'Ranguni rangaat saarya'.

I am no translator. I am no linguist. I am only a human being. I can feel. This song touches me and in this adaptation, I cannot help but move away from keeping it a mere translation.

The blogpost is not a word-to-word/line-to-line translation of the song. The lines are rearranged. Some lines from the original poem are not elaborated. Some lines are an original imagination. I digress from the original song in portions. (The ones who know the Marathi song will obviously notice the similarities as well as differences)

The expression in English is original but all the credit to the original poet for bringing in what the song brings to me.

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I stood facing the sky. As the evening set before my eyes, the colours of my skin changed. They were the colours of the sky.

As the night creeped in, I saw myself in the mirror and saw a colour that was different from the colours on my face in the evening. This was the colour that I was made of.

I coloured myself in every colour around me but knew that I had a different colour.. a colour of my own.

I have to admit, I was in love. But the only thing that fell in love with me was sorrow.

The lines on my forehead have, however, seldom affected the line that stretches across my lips and forms a smile.

I could never have you with me. Now, my tears and my songs are the only companions. I am happy that I at least have them for life.

...coloured myself in every colour around me. Yet had a colour.. that was mine.

I am the sun who wanders alone when half the world is fast asleep in the dark of the night.

I am the sun whose burning is called a day. My burning is a ceremony for the world which watches it all along.

..coloured myself in every colour around me. Yet had a colour.. that was mine.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cinediner with Dabangg

Writing after a long time.. feels like I am new to this world again. I cannot forget that the blog changed my life, made me happier and more confident. I cannot stop writing..


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Cinediner (a movie theatre) at R City mall, Ghatkopar is unique. It is unique because you can eat while you watch a movie. It is a restaurant inside a theatre. The 'eating' is similar to any fine-dine place.

You buy a ticket of Rs. 500 (as in Sept. 2010. :P Reliance hai bhai.. kab paisa badha de pata nahi..) and you get food coupons of Rs. 200 with it. You are escorted to a lounge - similar to a VIP lounge at an airport. The smartly dressed staff welcome you courteously. The ambience is golden, flashy and the sofas are velvetty soft.

A while later, you are escorted by one of the staff members to a hall reserved for 40 people - seven-eight tables only! The supercomfortable sofas are arranged in a manner that your table is YOUR private space and no one can interfere. Each table has a call bell in case you want to call the servers (a polished term for 'waiters'. I like the word 'servers', btw).

The movie begins and you definitely get a 'private screening' feel as the food you order begins to arrive. The servers often get reluctant when you press the call bell too many times. (I did that hastily and they stopped coming after a point.) The hall, the entrance, the loo are very 'Bollywood' premiere/red-carpetty in nature.

The menu is not elaborate - six to seven starters, coffees and three varieties of rice. There are a couple of desserts and sastaaa pizzas (a pizza at 170-190) too. They, ofcourse, serve desserts.

The entire movie-watching experience is enhanced when you know you are in a total private space - where you can scream and sing songs playing on the screen.


Overall, the service definitely needs to improve because the last pizza we ordered (in the interval) arrived only twenty minutes before the movie got over. The servers DEFINITELY need to watch the orders properly.

Apart from that, it definitely is a place to go for a date, a family/close friends get-together.

Cost for two people: 1000Rs. for tickets + Rs. 135 (the charges of the food we ordered over and above our food coupons.)

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Dabangg was ok btw. I am not too much of a Salman Khan fan but the action is surely interesting in parts. The songs are fulltoo chhapri and enjoyable (maybe not in the ambience I was in. :P )

Saturday, September 11, 2010

'We are Family' - Review

Why did I watch the movie? Because I like Kajol. With all her screeching and screaming, she's quite adorable.

Why shouldn't have I watched the movie? Kajol and Arjun Rampal play a divorced couple. I somehow cannot digest Kajol being ok marrying Arjun in the first place. :-p

So... The movie 'looks' good - like all Karan Johar movies. (This one's not his directorial film) Some of the songs are good - especially the 'Let's rock' number.

Performance-wise, Kajol ROCKS. She is effortlessly natural in most of the scenes. The movie is tolerable ONLY because of Kajol's presence in the movie. She is closely followed by the three kids who are cute and do a good job. Kareena Kapoor is a confused chick here in the film - she's 'K3G ki Poo' mixed up with 'Kal ho na ho ki Preity Zinta'. (Ironically, Kareena Kapoor was apparently the first choice for the Kal ho na ho role.) She's decent in parts. By the way, Arjun Rampal is also in front of the camera in the movie. ( *wink* )

By the way, the climax is touching and Kareena Kapoor does a marvellous job there.

Anyway, so if you are a KJo-YashChopra movie lover, you will like this one. Overall, 'We are Family' is an okayish movie. You may want to see the movie if you don't get the tickets to 'Dabangg' (Which is one movie I have not seen yet)