ഒരു സത്യ കഥ

'കാത്തു, പൂപ്പി, മഞ്ചാടി..... യൂട്യൂബ് കാണിച്ചാണോ കുട്ടിക്ക് ഭക്ഷണം കൊടുക്കുന്നതു? എനിക്ക് മേമമാർ അമ്പിളിമാമനെ കാണിച്ചും, കാക്കയെ കാണിച്ചും ഒക്കെയാ ഫുഡ് തന്നിരുന്നത്, നീ ആ കുട്ടിനെ വേണ്ടാത്ത ഓരോന്നും പഠിപ്പിച്ചോളും!'

പരിസരവുമായി മകൻ disconnect ആകുന്നു എന്നോർത്ത് ഒരു അച്ഛന്റെ ദീന രോദനം.

'പറയാൻ എന്തെളുപ്പം, കഴിപ്പിക്കുന്നത് ഞാൻ അല്ലെ! ഞാൻ ഇനി അമ്പിളിമാമനെ തപ്പി ഇറങ്ങാം. അതും കൂടെ കുറവുള്ളൂ!'

കുക്കറിന്റെ വാഷർ ലൂസ് ആയി പരിപ്പ് കറി സിലിങ്ങിൽ പെയിന്റിംഗ് ആയതും, മോന്റെ ചോറും കാരറ്റും മിക്സി ലിഡ്ഡ് ലൂസ് ആയി വേറെ ഒരു പെയിന്റിംഗ് ആയി മതിലിൽ മാറിയതും, ഓഫീസിലെ പെൻഡിങ് അപ്‌ലോഡ്സ് വർകസും എല്ലാം കൂടെ അര കിറുക്കായ എനിക്ക് സ്വാഭാവികമായും പ്രതികരിക്കേണ്ടി വന്നു.

'നീ അങ്ങനെ വലിയ മല മറിക്കണ്ട, ഇന്ന് ഞാൻ കൊടുക്കാം അവനു ഫുഡ്. അവൻ പ്രകൃതി കണ്ടു വളരട്ടെ! നാട്ടുകാരെ കണ്ടു പഠിക്കട്ടെ. ഇങ്ങനെ യൂട്യൂബിൽ കുത്തിയിരുന്നാൽ അവൻ ആന്റി-സോഷ്യൽ ആകും.'

മൊബൈൽ ഫോണുമായി കക്കൂസിൽ രണ്ടു മണിക്കൂർ ചിലവിടുന്നതിനെ ഏതു സോഷ്യൽ ആക്ടിവിറ്റി ആയിട്ട് കണക്കാക്കണം എന്ന് ഞാൻ ഒന്നു ഓർത്തു.

'ഞാൻ ഇപ്പോ വരാം, നീ അവന്റെ ഫുഡ് റെഡി ആക്ക്'

'കൊച്ചിനേം കൊണ്ട് ഇപ്പൊ പുറത്തു പോകുന്നോ? തണുപ്പാണ് ജാക്കറ്റ് ഇട്ടു കൊടുക്കണം'

'നിനക്ക് വല്ല ചൂടും ഉണ്ടോ! ഞാൻ നിക്കർ മാത്രം ഇട്ടു മഴയത്തു ഓടിയാ വളർന്നെ'

ചിക്കൻ ബ്രോക്കോളി പ്യൂരീ ഒരു ബൗളിലും, വെള്ളം ബോട്ടലിലിലും ആക്കി കൊടുത്തപ്പോ ചൂട് ആറ്റി കൊടുക്കണേ എന്ന് പറയാൻ പോയ എന്നേ ഞാൻ തന്നെ തിരുത്തി. ചെറുപ്പത്തിൽ അടുപ്പിൽ നിന്നും എടുത്തു കഴിച്ച ചരിത്രം കേക്കാൻ വയ്യ.

'വാ മോനെ നമ്മുക്ക് ഇന്ന് കാത്തു ആൻഡ് പൂപ്പി വേണ്ട ഫുഡ് കഴിക്കാൻ'

കുറച്ചു കഴിഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ അച്ഛനും മോനും എത്തി. ബ്രോക്കോളി ഫേഷ്യൽ ചെയ്ത പോലെ കൊച്ചും, ഒരു യുദ്ധം തോറ്റു ജയിച്ച പോലെ അച്ഛനും. പാത്രം കാലി, അതിൽ കുട്ടി എത്ര കഴിച്ചു എന്നതിന് അവരുടെ കൂടെ കുർങ്ങ്യയാവു എന്ന് കൂടിയ പൂച്ചയുടെ സന്തോഷം കണ്ടാൽ അറിയാം.

'കണ്ടോ ഇങ്ങനെയും കഴിപ്പിക്കാം' 

'അപ്പൊ അമ്പിളിമാമനെ കണ്ടോ?' 

ഒരു ചിരി 

'ഇല്ലേ?'

'അല്ല കുട്ടാ മെയിൻ തിങ് അമ്പിളിമാമനെ കാണാൻ ഇല്ല, പിന്നെ ഫോഗ്‌ ആണോ പൊടി ആണോ എന്നറിയില്ല നക്ഷത്രവും മാഫി. അവസാനം ഞാൻ ഫോണിൽ കാത്തു കാണിച്ചപ്പോ കുറച്ചു കഴിച്ചു.'

ആ വളിച്ച ചിരിയിലും അഭിമാനം കൊള്ളുന്ന ഭർത്താവിനെ പിന്നെ കളിയാക്കാൻ തോന്നിയില്ല.

മോന്റെ മുഖം കഴുകാൻ ബാത്റൂമിലേക്കു കൊണ്ട് പോയപ്പോഴാണ് വാതിലിൽ ആരോ തട്ടുന്നത് കേട്ടത്. തട്ട് എന്ന് പറയാൻ പറ്റില്ല, ആ തട്ടിന്റെ എഫക്ടിൽ ടീവീ ബ്രാക്കറ്റും, ജനാലയും എല്ലാം ആകെ മൊത്തം കുലുങ്ങുന്നു. വാതിൽ തുറക്കുന്ന ശബ്ദം കേട്ടു ഒപ്പം തന്നെ നല്ല ഡോൾബി സൗണ്ടിൽ ആരോ അറബിയിൽ എന്തൊക്കെയോ പറയുന്നു. 

എളുപ്പം മുഖം കഴുകിച്ചു പുറത്തു വന്നപ്പോ ഗൃഹനാഥൻ ലേലു അല്ലു ലേലു അല്ലു സ്റ്റൈലിൽ നിക്കുന്നു. അറബി നിർത്തുന്ന മട്ടില്ല. എത്തിച്ചു നോക്കിയപ്പോ നല്ല ഗ്യാരന്റീഡ് അറബി ആണ്, തനി ലോക്കൽ ബ്രാൻഡ്. തെറിക്കു ഭാഷ ഇല്ല എന്ന സത്യം അപ്പൊ മനസിലായി.

അറബി അറിയില്ല എങ്കിലും മാനറിസം ആൻഡ് ആക്ഷൻസിൽ നിന്നും കാര്യം മനസിലായി. അതായതു അറബി പറയുന്നത് വെച്ച് നോക്കുമ്പോൾ എന്റെ ഭർത്താവു ടെറസിൽ പോയി പുള്ളിക്കാരന്റെ ഭാര്യയെ ലൈൻ അടിച്ചു എന്ന്! 

വെട്ടുമെന്നോ കുത്തുമെന്നോ എന്തൊക്കെയോ അറബി പറഞ്ഞോണ്ട് ഇരിക്കുന്നു.

അമ്പിളിമാമനെ കാണിക്കാൻ പോയ കഥ അറബിനെ പറഞ്ഞു മനസിലാക്കിക്കോ എന്ന ഭാവത്തിൽ ഞാൻ മോനെ ഉറക്കാൻ വന്നു. 

Lost in love

Betrayal - The biggest error human can ever do - not in love, but in friendship.

You add love, you add confidence, you add charm, and you add extra dollops of TRUST to brew what is called Friendship. But twice I have been fooled out of this magic mix, the other soul played around with the ingredients, only to come up with a relationship worthy to be shoveled away to the darkest corner of betrayal.

When I said "my best friend is the Me in the mirror" at a college impromptu speech, I did get curious stares from the lecturer, and from my friends. I still believe in that. It is not that friends cheat, it is that the world around, the varying thoughts around, the conflicting beliefs around that conspire to taint the relationship. Only the might can survive, and those who do will be true gems – Treasure them! I do have these gems, the precious of all, and I guard them away from the evil, from the tainted world, like the greatest fable of love ever told.


Those who manage to get the light of dark escaped, or at the least I let them go.

Once the person walked away from my life, believing the world around, ignoring my pleas, ignoring my tears. But she did come back, the joy was abound – the reunion – Ha! Trust me no other friends would have hugged and cried like that. It took long 5 years for her to realize what I did was for our friendship's sake. Thinking back, I now feel we shouldn’t have met again, been together again. She left the cheers behind, to a place we all know about and never been. The pain, not of the misunderstanding, but of the lost five years still remains.

The latter, I misinterpreted it for friendship and failed to see the opportunist in her. These are the kind who never change even if they have a trustworthy soul as a friend, these are the kind who never budge, even if they have thousands of "friends" around. Life has taught me to get going, and loosen the grip on these kinds. A friend is never made, it just happens.

May be you are deceptive, they say "a good friend is to accept a person as it is". But, I reiterate, try changing a person and he becomes a good soul from outside, but the darkness remains, only to raise its head later.

Trust it is what I infer. Friendships I have are entwined with the core of trust. It is not that you meet everyday, it is the thought that someone, somewhere cares about you that keeps the relation ticking.

Don’t wait for it, it comes knocking at your door, lingers around you for a while, and when it tries to retrace your heart misses a beat, and with all your love, with all your trust, with all your charm, with all your confidence you call it back, caress it, and treasure it – that is Friendship. The most precious gift one can ever get! 

Cocktail, with a twist

Cocktail is the kind of the movie that gives you the edge-of-the-seat experience, not for the thrills, but for the confusions it throws at you. Watching the film is more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, how much ever you try, you will be left with one or two pieces. And that is where the debutant director Arun Kumar scores.

Everything is in apple pie order for successful architect Ravi Abraham (Anoop Menon) and Parvathy (Samvrutha Sunil) until a stranger Venkatesh (Jayasurya) hitchhikes a ride with them. We have seen the trailer; we know Venkatesh is brought to the plot not to croon 'Sholay' numbers with the hero, hence look forward to see him change colors. And he does it with such finesse that the audience muffles an 'OMG'. The story then takes us on a bumpy ride, revealing surprises and thrills in all its form.

A remake of Mike Barker's Butterfly on a Wheel, the movie's plot is well-knit. Though 95% of the movie plays tribute to its Canadian legacy in terms of the sequence, the Hollywood trace is hardly visible.

The winning deal of the movie is indeed the actors; only exception is the one-day-maid Beatrice. Her mannerisms and lifeless expressions manage to bring quite a few catcalls in the cinema.

Samvrutha Sunil looks great and acts great, and Cocktail is indeed one of her masterpieces. Her name has always spelled durability in the box-office, and the movie promises to carry on the tradition.

It is indeed Jayasurya who sneaks up on you and steals your heart with light-fingered skill. However, the theatre-like dialogues by the actor in the climax adds a minor crack to the character's image.

Anoop Menon gets a nod for his acting. For an audience who are more use to super-stars and chocolate heroes on the screen with young heroines, the Samvrutha-Anoop combination is a bit too much to accept. The best part is he faces this stereotype with a smile, when he admits he is a fatso, in the first half!

The movie runs smooth and interesting until five minutes before climax, the typical 'soap drama' that follows winds up the movie in an abrupt manner. The director could have omitted the last sequence and stopped the movie, when the thrill and surprises still linger.

Fahadh Faasil marks his presence as the suave, short tempered boss, while Innocent and Mamukkoya bring in their fair share of humor.  

If you love connecting dots, you will love Cocktail, and beware you will still be connecting dots even after its sequel. 

Someone killed Jessica!

In one of those rare instances, I knew the storyline, the climax, and the characters before I comforted myself into the not-so-comfortable seat at the Cinema.

Jessica, Sabrina, the murderer, the news channel, they were all there, but the inner conscience kept nagging "something is missing"! And this is the same question I had in mind when Jessica (Myra) decked in yellow smiled and waved in the climax.

Rajkumar Gupta has a plot very strong, but the awkward bulges hamper the otherwise fast-paced storyline. The movie begins with the voice-over narration by Rani Mukherjee, who plays the foul-mouthed journalist Meera. From Kargil, Gupta brings the attention to Delhi, to the high profile night club, and to the tainted dance-floor were Jessica lies dead. What follows is a fight for justice, leaving the storyline very much predictable.

The movie pokes a finger at the dirty side of the political and judiciary system of the country, so are the numerous other Indian movies. The only upside NOKJ has is that it revolves around a half-real, half-fiction plot!

Though Rani has a role very powerful, it is quite hard to ignore the hackneyed traits of her acting. In some of the scenes like Meera making rude remarks (surprisingly not been muted) at her fellow passenger, an intimate scene with God knows who, it is hard to ignore the artificiality, and the Director's attempt to squeeze in awkward situations to establish her character.

Glitch:

Meera insists her fellow journalist Aditi to be alert 24/7, yet she has to rely on newspapers to read the breaking news!

It is indeed Sabrina (played by Vidya Balan) who gets a day in the sun. She is not seen dressed up to the nines, and her beauty is often submerged in shabby attires. The murder, trial and verdict is a circus of 8 years, and all these years Sabrina is seen reusing the same t-shirts and jackets. We agree that Sabrina is least fashion conscious, but we wonder how does a broadway t-shirt last for over 8 years.

Yet Vidya Balan pays tribute to Sabrina. With her fierceness in the fight for justice to her numbness to the hard-realties of life, Sabrina pulls a chair and sits pretty as a member of the family. The character is so highly emphasized that she takes the audience by surprise and make them laugh with her at her unexpected giggle in an otherwise tensed courtroom scene.

The culprit's mother is a recipe gone wrong. She manages to bring in some laughter when she says "Kuch be karo, mere Monu ko kuch nahi hona chahiye" the first time, but also cooks up some frown when she makes this a routine. The director reveals his bad sense of humor with this desperate mother.

Rajesh Sharma, as the investigating officer, deserves some accolade for his natural performance. While rest of the characters fade away with their blank expressions…

Forget expectations, forget action-packed sequences, forget foot-tapping background scores, forget edge-of-the-seat moments, forget suspense, forget thrills, expect the expected and you are ready for the No One Killed Jessica party!

Post movie:

Only thing that lingers is the taste of shavarma, I wolfed down, and the dark-spots I spotted on Rani's face.

The Smile Sense

It was when rearranging JK's much cherished documents cupboard, I discovered my autograph books (dated 1998, 2000, 2004). I never knew that I had brought all these to Qatar and that JK had gifted it with a cute velvet pouch!

Night is still young, confirming my decision for a time-travel. I flipped through the pages, smiled, laughed, cried, crooned, and brooded. By the time I finished, nostalgia gripped me with its firm tentacles and threw me deep into the memories.

I emerged, refreshed, happy and smiling. Smiling! Reminds me of the keyword highly penned down in my books. 'Girl with a smiling face', 'smiling girl', 'smiling friend', 'smile like this forever', 'may this smile be with you always', 'keep smiling, 'love to see you smiling'??!?!?!!!

One of them even wrote – "Once I saw you crying, but even when you were crying you were smiling!"(??!!) What? Do I smile that much?

I keep getting this compliment even now, leaving me wondering what makes me smile. It is not a deliberate attempt, as far as I know.

Unknowingly, I give it a smile finish.

"You don’t have anything to worry about, and that is what keeps you happy", once commented a classmate of mine. No worries??? For me???? I have gone through such phases in life which left me wondering what keeps me alive. There were times I was lying pathetic with the hard-effects of depression. There were times I wish sailing away to some unknown shore. There were times I wished that someone take me to the Bermuda Triangle!!!!

Just like the Bermuda, the reason behind my smile is still a mystery to me.

The Smell Sense

Walking down the aisle at the hypermarket, I was suddenly thrown into my KG class – the St Paul's School in Coimbatore. I can hear the school assembly, I can hear 'Aunty Miss' shouting at the kids, I can see girls in navy pinafore strutting the verandah, and yeah I can smell 'Mallipoo' aka Jasmine!

The mind has a strange tendency to attach smell to certain occasions in my life.

Smell of 'One Man Show' reminds me of Bawa, 'Amritanjan' reminds me of mummy, smell of spices and tea in the evening time reminds me of Ramadan days in Kochi, gram flour reminds of sissy, medicinal spirit reminds me of Kumaran Hospital in Coimbatore, and vicks lozenge reminds of bro! Every smell comes with a story. May be it is because that is the occasion I first smelled the fragrance.

What irks me is the tag my smell sense has attached with JK – the smell of stale Jackfruit!  

What's in a name?

 

"You better change my name, else am not going to school anymore!" Every time I go to a new school, or every time a new teacher joins my school, every time I take part in an inter school competition, this is the statement I used to nag Bawa with.

In a country rich with Biju, Shiju, Shyju, Byju and Sindhu, Bindhu, Sudha, my name sounded like an opera in 'Utsava Parambu'! No one missed to say "What?", "Come again", "Err, what's it", "Lebanon?" together with expressions inexpressible with words. I still remember a granny who went brooding "vaayil kollatha oro peru idum" (in simple English it means "new generation, duh!")

I nagged my Dad to this extent that once he almost got the papers ready to change my name in the Gazette.

 It was in the year 1996, I believe, we decided on the name 'Aneesha' (thinking back, I find it too odd a name for me!), and that is when my Big Brother (Dad's Bro's Son) enters the scene. (some background information: He is the one who tagged me with the name 'Lubuna', and where he got the name from is still a mystery..). When Bawa told him about the issue, he stared at me and then at Bawa, at me and Bawa, at Bawa and me; finally he said, "you don’t know the value of your name, one day you will think about me and thank me for choosing this name for you!"

Years sped by, as the clock turned to the marital phase the circumstances blessed me with a new name "Liya"! I love this name, it has the essence of "Lubuna" and "Kuttu" in it, together with a charm of its own.

Today, sitting at my hazy office in Qatar, am thinking of you Big Bro and thanking you.

Whenever I introduce myself as 'Lubuna' here in Qatar I am greeted back with sincere, innocent smiles exclaiming "Lubuna?! Masha Allah", followed by squeaks and cheers praising THE NAME!

Thank you Big Bro! I love you!