I must, so I must

Yesterday I was vulnerable,
Today I am weak,
But tomorrow I will be stronger,
And the day after I will be invincible,
For, I must.

My quarrel is never with anybody else,
My victory is never over anyone else,
My grief is never about anyone else,
My anger is never towards anyone else,
Never has, have been these at anytime else.
Only that I’ve discovered it now,
In my heart and pulse,
As, I must.

Everyday I conquer a very little bit of myself,
Every now and then I do trip myself,
But every often time I pick and pull myself up,
Seldom times do I bite the dust,
And when I do, I swallow the dust,
As I must.

For, I believe, I will have to shoulder burdens
Far more heavy,
Far more pressing,
Than I have ever known
To this, I must
Swallow the grief,
Swallow the rage,
Swallow the sulk,
And Swallow all other bulk
As I must swallow the dust,
As I must.

Don’t ask me why
Because all I know is
It’s a must, I can’t shy,
It’s the who, I define,
I ain’t alive when, this, I defy,
And Yes, it is a must
That I must.

A Trek with CTC…

Posted this in a mail thread some time ago. Dusting and presenting it here.

This being my first trek with CTC, I was quite excited and enthused to experience everything that comes along this trip.The reason for my interest in trekking is no different from that of any other’s – gaze and admire raw nature, adventure, maintain/improve fitness, socialize [inclusive of flirting :P], learn and such others. All forming the group shared the same interests, may be in different proportions and in no way can I say that I’m disappointed, and I hope this holds good for the rest as well.

In general the trek was filled with a few half slips and desparate balances [few of which failed, pushing us into the water], a few cliff-hanging/hair-raising moments, a routine/cycle of sweat along the trek & dip in the pool was followed throughout, regroup, refresh, a few trail along wrong courses & revert to right ones. A brief look into the trip follows.

Day 1

The day started early for me, but our journey started the latest, as the car that I hopped in, piloted by Magesh, played the sweeper, with Thilak guiding the route and Suresh Kannan, jockeying Maestro’s music all along the ride. All cars regrouped twice before reaching the destination. Though our start was a bit late, we reached the destination on time for breakfast – hot Idlies & vada with sambar and spicy chilli chutney, typical of Andhra, were readily served on our arrival.

It was time for loading our bags with food items and common items. The volume of food items was a little large, that I doubted whether we are here for trek or a fiesta ;). Once fully loaded we set our sails to conquer Nagala [Destination : Picnic Pool]. I took Prabhakar, an experienced trekker, for company – who was very informative, explaining a few aspects of trekking/trekking positions like eye-sight, navigator, sweeper and sharing a few adverse experiences that he faced in his previous treks.

The journey began with an easy walk on mud-road towards a dam. While crossing the dam and entering the jungle, initially I felt that the trail was a bit narrow with just half-foot width, only later when we were passing along half-toe trails I realized that the earlier one were luxuriously wide. After a trek for about 2 hours we reached our first stop point – Dead-end Pool. Earlier we skipped the first pool, for want of spending more quality time at the Dead-end and Picnic pools. We spent about 2 hours here, meanwhile the veteran trekkers prepared to ferry our luggages across the pool. Once all luggages were ferried, the walk towards Picnic pool resumed, after finishing lunch – vegetable biryani packed in the village.

Another 2 hours of walk took us to the trek destination/camp-site – Picnic pool. Along the journey, a part of the team including me, diverted twice slightly off-course and then rejoined the trail before reaching the dreaded ‘Parda point’ [dono if that was its real name]. Fortunately, the difficulty of crossing that point was hyped, that most of us prepared for a dare-devil stunt, which eventually made crossing this point an easy task. Then we undertook a mini-ferrying/self-ferrying across a small pool, which our friends dubbed as the ‘irumudi’ of this trip, as one has to carry his/her luggage on his head and cross the pool drenching in it.

Finally, around 4 30pm we reached our destination and started settling slowly. People started gathering firewoods to set the camp-fire, some jumped into the pool to cool down. With the camp-fire ready everyone gathered around it to celebrate Mr.Mayuran’s birthday. He blew his birthday wish against ‘a firewood planted on a cream-bun’ in lieu of ‘a candle on a cake’. Later on he was introduced to birthday bumps by practising it on him, for he never have heard of it earlier.

It was time for soup and the entire team was abuzz – some collecting firewoods, some setting up the stoves and almost everyone pouring in suggestions to ignite the stove. It’s obvious that ‘too many cooks spoil the dish’, but for the first time we witnessed that too many who doesn’t cook can spoil even the stove :). After all that little chaos the stove was finally set & up; then came the part for those who can cook to play their task and the soup was ready.

While preparing and serving the soup happened the self-introduction which helped us realize how diverse was the group – the group included personalities ranging from my ex-colleague to my prospective future colleagues, students to professionals, corporates/enterpreneurs to government servants. Some people introduced themselves in quite an interesting manner – with some even stressing his relationship status as SINGLE – some very briefly and some very articulative.

Post that, pasta was prepared and served for dinner. In the mean time a little singing was happening in the background. This part of the trek helped the team socialize better – there were a few pleasant surprises that some of the group members were related in some way or the other, say, two of them found that they belong as alumni of same institution, a few others shared a common native town/village and so on.

Gradually everyone started to chose their sleeping-spot and settled. We slept under a roof that pristinely telecasted the activities of the universe. The sky was so clear and cloudless, that when viewed in a half doze state, after all the tiredness of the day’s toil, felt as if  floating in space. The stream and the frogs tuned us a lullaby all night.

Day 2

As the dawn broke we all up to the flute of Suresh, who was erstwhile just playing pranks on others. In the morning the call of nature was answered out in the nature 🙂 [thirandhaveli pulveli kazhagam].

Morning activity started with Tea preparation by Vadivel. While Tea was being prepared, Thilak led a few members to a morning trek up the stream – of which I was also a part – clicked a few snaps and returned; while returning another team led by Vadivel was up the same course and they did go a little further to ‘Treasure-hunt pool’.

Once we returned we treated ourselves with a well-made tea and bun. Then packed all our stuff and took a dip in the pool, till the other team returned. Once they returned we started our downward jouney and it was again a cycle of sweat and dip, only this time we didn’t trail along any wrong courses and surprisingly felt at ease at all those spots that looked treachorous just a day before.

At the Dead-end pool after ferrying all our luggages back and a brief dip, had our lunch – chappathis with all possible side-dishes like Paneer-butter/palak paneer masala, mango/tomato pickle with mayonnaise. Interestingly, on the return journey all those missing items like water-bottle, a sock, etc were found.

Apparently we got tuned to trekking, the downward trek felt relatively simple; while reaching the village, just when we felt the trek was over, we were re-routed through swampy fields as road construction was under progress on the regular path. Finally when we reached the village we feasted on hot Bonda with spicy chutney and coffee.

By 6:40 pm, after all financial settlements, re-loading of common items, our car left first countering our role as sweeper during the onward journey. Owing to our early start we reached home by 9:00 pm. Later at home, while resting, the body slowly started to feel all those minor bruises, cuts & sprains identifying them with the trek’s memories, concluding the two days of pleasant and engaging activities.

 

Kollywood Masala 2.0

masala

/mɑːˈsɑːlə/

noun

1. a mixture of spices ground into a paste, used in Indian cookery

adjective

2. (Hinglish) spicy; dramatic: it was a typical masala film

Word Origin

from Urdu masalah, from Arabic masalih ingredients

 

That’s about the dictionary definition. In film parlance, at least in the Indian scenario, it is a term that refers to formulaic movies.

 

Certain elements will definitely find its place in such formulaic movies. A predictable theme – David like good triumphs Giant like evil. It is important to end the plot with an All-is-Well mood. A dramatic plot, even more dramatic screenplay – high point will invariably at the midway, and melodramatic performances of the actors. Adventure, bravado and valour will rule the plot – Blood-racing heroism is th norm. Often larger than life image build-up of both the good and the evil, in terms of characterisation and their exploits on-screen. Overall character of the movie will be at least on the brink of being termed male-chauvenistic. Mass-appealing punch dialogues, witty exchanges between the hero and villain would also form part of it. Invariably violence will be justified. Spectacularly choreographed stunt sequences are sure things.

 

Above characteristics can be attributed to formulaic movies across different film industries across the world, more suitably to the Hollywood blockbusters that include James Bond movies, Super Hero movies, most action movies.

 

But certain other ingredients and minor desi tweaks makes the formulaic movies an Indian masala – Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood and such other flavours. A minimum of five songs – a mass appealing introduction song for the hero with preachy lines is a must, at least two romantic numbers with the heroine, an item number for entertaining the villain and a muscle-flexing energy booster towards the climax. A beautiful damsel as Heroine, whose sole purpose will be to fall for the Hero for the faintest of the reasons and to entertain the crowd with belly shaking numbers (not many hip-shakers available). Then there must be a track for comedy, no matter how disconnected it is with the main-plot. Stunts will not only be spectacular but will also be unrealistic, gravity-defying. A variety of punch dialogues will find its place, however inappropriate it may be – Blood boiling punches, moral preaching punches.

 

For just a reference purpose let us term this as Masala 1.0. In such movies most of the elements mentioned above will register its presence. A more important aspect will be that it will be culture-neutral, i.e., will handle only the common cultural elements of the masses.

 

So what then this post means by Masala 2.0?

The idea of Masala 2.0 was conceived on the inspiration provided by a few recent movies of Kollywood, which cannot strictly be defined under the Masala films category. There has been intelligent and quirky twists to the elements of Masala. More importantly in these Masala 2.0 movies, efforts were made to make right the dosage of the masala ingredients.

 

Movies that inspired this idea are – Pollathavan, Naan Mahan Alla, Kalavaani, Mouna Guru, Aadukalam, Neram, Pandiyanaadu, Goli Soda, Madras and the likes.

 

These movies were particular in detailing the universe of the plot. To make the universe of the movie more real and convincing – Goli Soda, Madras impressed much in this respect.

Some others even strived a bit further to document the local culture seamlessly into the screenplay, without thrusting them in your face – Pollathavan, Kalavaani, Aadukalam, Madras stands out in this regard. More importantly all these movies cut-down on the melodrama, and used it only appropriately for dramatic effect. Sentiments were placed in rightly and in right amount. Even such melodrama were enacted convincingly.

One more striking feature was that track based comedy was missing in most of them, with plot based good-natured humour taking its place.

Songs, though not done away with, most of them, are aesthetically refined and are found with scene-flow, enhancing the mood of the scene that precedes or follows. They don’t interrupt the story-telling. More native cultural elements can be found incorporated in some of these songs – Kalavaani, Madras for example.

Stunts, again, are not done away with. Instead they were choreographed more convincingly – gravity-defying spectacles were used very minimally. Subramaniapuram deserves a special mention, for its National award winning, near-real stunt choreography. Others worth mentioning for their stunts were Mouna Guru, Kalavaani, Goli Soda, Neram, Aadukalam (stands out for the cock-fights).

Another striking aspect is that barring a few movies, none of them banked on big stars – a big marketing point for masala movies. Casting was taken seriously. Eye-pleasing prejudices were broken. Particularly Heroines were not portrayed as out of the world divas (rugged heroes has been the norm for long).

The moral questions raised in some of them were not the usual shallow ones. Goli Soda’s emphasis on search-for-identity was a fine example of a strong and relevant moral quest.

Excessive build-ups were avoided. Characters were pleasantly introduced.

Punch dialogues were drastically reduced. No trash talks either. No blatant preaching of morals. Subtlety of expression took its place. Pollathavan – face-off between the hero and villain at the hospital is a fine sample.

 

So this must be some neo-noir, neo-realistic or the Satyajit Ray type isn’t it?

It’s here that these movies fall back to the All-is-Well mood of the Masala genre, that justice always prevails in them. No lump-in-throat feeling as in neo-realistic movies.  All of them had cinematic/fairy-tale climaxes, where either the villain is vanquished or reformed and the lead pair lives happily ever-after. Overall a positive mood will be maintained and the rush-of-blood feeling will be quenched. Angaadi Theru is worth mentioning here, for it ended with however a small but positive note without compromising on the reality. They proved to be good entertainers with racy screenplay. Never let out the arc of the screenplay. Mostly linear in narration, no mind-bending as in neo-noirs was necessary. They never needed time to soak in to the mood, as was the case with neo-realism.

 

It might be safe to say Masala 2.0 is a blend between realistic and masala movies. Basically Masala 2.0 can be defined as the noise-reduced Masala genre – where excessive use of any spicy ingredient is avoided, serving a delightful piece of entertainment. Happy to welcome more products of the trend.