Obama in Mumbai

The president of the United States of America, Barrack Obama will be in Mumbai on 6th of November, 2010, which happens to be the Diwaali (Indian festival of Lights) weekend for India.

Feeling too lazy to drive, I hopped into a taxi to reach office. The friendly Taxi Driver started to chat. Translated in English, the conversation went like this.

Taxi Driver: Sir, this leader from faraway land, Okaama or Onaama…when is he coming? He has screwed up Diwali (Indian Festival of Lights) Holidays of the Traffic & Security Cops.

My reply: I agree with you Sir.

No further conversation happened between us as I got a phone call from an old friend.

Then I reach my office building to see the sidewalk below the building getting a new coat of paint by a mal-nourished looking man while a healthier looking supervisor (my assumption) was giving instructions. Another quick conversation happened between me and the supervisor.

My remark: ‘Obamaa???’

Supervisor’s reply: ‘Yeah…Barrrack Obaama. He is coming with lots of Dollars!’

The man who was painting applied a fresh coat of yellow and I walked inside the building. A couple of hours later, I wrote this.

Bhari Sadkein, Khaali Pet
Bhari Sadkein
Khaali Pet
Mumbai ke laakhon ka
Hai Ye fate

Ek Vada Paav Mein
Din Nikaalte Hai
Raat Ki Khaali Sadak Ko
Bistar Aur Takiya Bana Lete Hain

Door Desh Ke Obama
Nahin Milenge In Laakhon Se
Chamakti Sadkon aur Sea-Link Dekh Kar
Chale Jaaayenge Waapas USA

Bhari Sadkon Mein Bheed Badhti Jaayegi
Lekin Pet Shaayad Khaali Hi Rahega
Sone Ki Jagah Thodi Aur Kam Hogi
Mumbai Sheher Jaari Rahega


Stuffed Roads, Empty Bellies (a rough translation)
Stuffed roads
Empty bellies
This is the fate of
Millions of Mumbaiites

One Vada-Paav (Indian Veg -burger)
Sees them through the day
And in the night-time
Streets become their pillow and bed

Obama from faraway land
Won’t meet these millions
After seeing the sparkling roads & Sea-Link
He will go back to the USA

Stuffed streets will get more crowded
But bellies will remain empt, perhaps
Sleeping spaces will get smaller
While Mumbai will keep going on

Here’s wishing all my readers a very Happy Diwali!

You talkin' to me?

Travis Bickle is one of the most important characters from modern cinema. He represents the alienated urban angst (of course, in a very inflated manner) which a modern city life brings with it.

‘You talkin’ to me?’ remains one of the most famous movie lines ever. In fact, after seeing De Niro (playing Travis) practising the legendary line in front of the mirror, I went up to my mirror to do the same, sans the pistol and the contraption on my body. Later, I started dropping in that line in every interaction with my friends. It was the coolest line ever written. I was at an impressionable age. But, 30 years on, it remains one of the coolest line. Certain magazine rates it amongst Top 10 movie lines ever.

The creators of this movie history were Paul Schrader, the writer; Martin Scorsese, the director and Robert DeNiro, the great actor along with many others. They named it Taxi Driver and it was released in 1976, the year when my mother would’ve started driving me in a perambulator. I was born in the same year.

Apart from uttering these cool self-indulgent lines, Travis, a cabbie in New York maintains a Diary in which he documents his life and street life of NYC. He doesn’t like what he sees and feels and puts it across in frustrated words and apart from many other excellent aspects, this remains the best part of the movie, for me. Actually, his anger sums up the purpose of the movie and also explains the minor mental instability of the character. Paul Schrader has done wonders with the screenplay. An excerpt from Travis’s Diary:

"Thank God for the rain...which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks. I'm working long hours now: in the afternoon too : sometimes : in the morning. Six days a week, sometimes seven days a week. It's a long hustle, but it keeps me real busy. I can take in a week, sometimes more when I do if off the meter.

All the animals come out at night.Whores, skunks, pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies. Sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me."

Or , this:

"Twelve hours of work, and I still can't sleep. Damn! The days go on and on. They don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people."

For the full screenplay, you can go over here.

Why am I writing on Taxi Driver is because the other day, a friend sent me a link to another movie. It’s a German porn flick trying to pass as an educational material or the other way around. I really don’t know as I haven’t seen it. It’s called Karlekens Sprak and it figures in Bickle's life.

So, Travis likes this girl called Betsy (played by Cybill Shepherd) and wants to take her to a movie and she agrees. So he takes her to this porno and she gets disgusted within 15 minutes to leave the theater and him. Travis is genuinely unable to understand her. The sequence is quiet funny and goes on another step to establish the mental set-up of the character. Apart from the gore and morbidity which it is famous for, the flick has some funny moments too.

Thanks for the link, Atish!