Movie review: Walk the line

"Love Is A Burning Thing/And It Makes A Fiery Ring
Bound By Wild Desire/I Fell Into A Ring Of Fire

I Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
I Went Down, Down, Down/ And The Flames Went Higher

And It Burns, Burns, Burns/ The Ring Of Fire/ The Ring Of Fire"

The movie, based on Johnny Cash's early life, is a musical masterpiece. The focus is on showing how Johnny Cash evolved from being a kid who lost his brother in a freak accident to his rise and fall as a singer as he struggled to come to terms with drugs, inconsiderate wife and cold father; and how his love, his friendship with June Carter rescued him from his doom. The screenplay is taut, music is superb, and the cast has given memorable performances. I would love to see them win Academy Awards for such a fine show.

The best man's words!

She can talk to you through endless gossip
And serve you with anecdotes, joyful, crisp

Her apetite for the bizarre is never assuaged
All trivia in her memory is somewhere stored

She munches your words, allows you to flatter
But don't think she'd be taken in, she knows better

She splits her self into a memory and a dream
Where she was beloved, where she'll be a queen

In sounds and rhyme, she finds infinite pleasure
But its actually nostalgia that really rouses her

Delightful in conversation, pleasant in companionship
Theres always many a slip, between her cup and her lip

She talks in jingles, and in some wonderland saunters
And dresses, so elegantly, regalely she flaunts hers

She is, though enigmatic, a cause for full celebration
My friend, congratulations, for attaining her adulation!

Nov 22, 2005
Vivek Sharma
W301 Howey Physics, Atlanta!

East, West by Salman Rushdie

Eclectic, entertaining mix of East and West characters!

East, West is most readily accessible work of Rushdie. The stories are high entertaining, and each of the nine stories manages to create well-defined character sketches, as well as plots with interesting twists, myths and humor. The story about Columbus and Isabella is full of laughs, about Courter is full of sentimental exuberance, one about Chekov and Zulu delves into Indra Gandhi's assination and its effect on the friendship of a Sikh and a Hindu (very poignant for us who witnessed the tradegy), and there are others that deal with the charade of charlatan, the obsession of occult of some Cambridge students and so on. These stories reflect how well Rushdie captures both the Eastern and Western personalities and history and how he manages to combine them to make stories worth relishing.

Emma by Jane Austen

Jane Austen wrote some of the most remarkable romantic novels in English, and Emma is said to be written at the height of her powers. Like all her novels (Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility), the narrative is simple, straightforward and the story develops through seemingly commonplace conversations and events. Emma is twenty one year old daughter to rich Mr Woodhouse, "full of trivial communications and harmless gossip." The story captures how Emma comes to terms with her own errors of judgement, and how she discovers her liking and love for one of the chief characters of the novel. (Perhaps giving his name away here would be sacrilage on my part!!). The cast, the locations, the conversations are set in distinct Austen style, rooted in rural English counties. The romances are Victorian, and progress through delicate, slow developments that a through, diehard romantic is bound to like. Emma's actions are governed by her own romantic fantasies, where she tries to bring people together playing a matchmaker, and her failures as well as successes make this novel an interesting read. A treat for Austen fans!

Also at amazon

I duuno where I am going

I dunno where I am going
You may ask, then whats the point
I think if I keep on fighting
Who knows, what I will find!

You tell me to be happy
Happiness is generally misunderstood
You perceive it in giggles and laughter
Who ever knows whatever's the truth!

You ask me to have goals and dreams
Ambition and drive to get ahead
But trust me, just working on my dreams
Might not even earn me my daily bread!

You prize order and knowledge
And call my amorphous self vain
I believe as a child I knew myself
That blissful ignorance caused me no pain!

I may have grown older and no wiser
But there I few things I've realized
That self-belief breeds all heroism
A determined self must be praised, prized!

So when I dunno where I am going
I trust myself and make my own path
Pretty lost, but struggling at the moment
I'm sure this won't forever last!

I ask you to stay and criticize
Show me my flaws and possibilities
Through your words I'll correct myself
But I must still live with uncertainities.

Oh! I dunno where I am going
You may ask then whats the point
I think if I keep on fighting
Who knows what I'll find!

Written in second week of Nov, as I wandered through Home Park, Atlanta, 2005!
It is highly unsatisfactory reproduction of what I was singing as I walked, will work on it when I remember the original sentences that the melody has had strung together.

Fade Away!

Fade away my love, do fade away
Donot on the canvasses of my memory stay
Leave no trails, leave me empty, free
Banish from my present, the ghosts of yesterday!

Duniya kare sawal (Lost in Translation series)

Sahir Ludhyanvi, in my opinion, is the best lyricist Indian movie industry ever came across. He penned the famous Kabhi Kabhi, Waqt ne kiya kya hasin Sitam, Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jayen toe kya hai, Woh subah kabhi toe aayegi, Chalo ek baar phirse ajnabi ho jayen hum dono, and so on! Here is a song from 1967 movie, Bahu Begum, penned by him and sung by Lata (and the music was by Roshan), followed by another lousy translation!

Duniya kare sawal toe hum kya jawab dayen
Tum kaun ho khayal toe hum kya jawab dayen!

Poochay koi ke dil ko kahan chodd aaye ho
Kiss kiss say apna rista au jaan jodd aaye ho
Mushkill ho araz-ae-haal toe kya jawab dayen!

Poochay koi ke dard ae wafa kaun de gaya
Raaton ko jaagnay ki sazaa kaun de gaya
Kahnay pe ho malaal, toe hum kya jawab dayen!

****

Attempt A

When the world ask questions, what be my response
Who are you oh thought, oh dream, what be my response?

Asks someone where with your heart, did you part
To whom did you connect n with your own self part
If hard be describing my state, what be my response?

Asks someone who gave you the grief of fidelity
Who sentenced your nights with sleep depravity
If disconcerting shall be my words, what be my response?


Another attempt:

Attempt B

Oh! When the world asks, what do I tell them
Who are you in my thoughts, who do I tell them?

Some ask me where did I part with my heart
Where I established a connection, of relation, of life
If it be hard to describe my state, what do I tell them?

Some asks me who gave me the grief of constancy
Who punished me to stay awake in nights constantly
If my words may cause resentment, what do I tell them?

Another one??

Attempt C

If the world asks the quetion, what must my answer be
Who are you, oh my imagination, what must my answer be?

If someone asks me where did I leave my heart
Where did I new relations of life find, start
If hard be describing my part, what must my answer be?

If someone asks me who caused me the grief of fidelity
Who suffered my nights to be sleepless persistantly
If my words may be hard to come by, what must my answer be?

Which one is most preferable?