Ho! Ho! Ho! and a bottle of wine

AAHH!!!...Holiday season,days off work.
Late to bed, later to rise, and absolute boredom...
Unbelievable as it may seem, christmas day sees the local bus and train services taking an extended siesta. I guess most people avail the use of their cars, except the dinosaur that I am , still living in the two wheeler era, who cannot drive.
I thus found myself trapped within four walls of my room overlooking the psychiatry ward,and spent three lost days desperately trying to find a worthwhile activity and purpose,finding fleeting shapes in the smudges and peeling paint on the walls instead.
WHEE!!! SEASON'S GREETINGS!!
The secularisation of Christmas (happy holiday season is a proposed option) seems an extremely stupid exercise to me, here in small town Britain (and I may be absolutely wrong), because:
1. No one really takes religion seriously anymore.It had been absorbed a long time ago by Coke and it's red and white Santa Clause. The only time it really figures in the life of most locals is for ceremonial purposes like marriage and death.
2.A few days intoxication, good cheer and materialistic catharsis by any other name
would be as much fun.So why not leave good enuff alone?
Anyway, back to my tragic predicament:

Having found myself a victim of circumstances beyond my control, I first tried to drown my sorrows in three gift bottles of wine (ok,ok, bad excuse).A hangover at 4 pm cured me of this lunacy on day one.
Next I tore open the packet of old hindi classic movies DVDs and embarked on a movie-watching marathon.That felt better.Soon, I was absorbed in the black and white filmistan of the fifties, watching 'Bandini', 'CID', 'Anupama',Do beegha zameen' and 'Devdas' in quick succession.

I viewed this exercise as an adventure greater than simple movie watching.Every time a spoilt 21 year old buxom 'baby'of seth Girdhari Lal shouted out to her bearer to get her motor out of the shed,to enable her to visit the caneema, I felt like a time travelling fly-on-the-wall, a ghost in a Nehruvian world,in a society yet to come to grips with it's newly acquired freedom,still awed and fascinated by it's colonial past, yet making an obvious effort to commit to it's new socialist resolve.
Years of socialist propoganda drilled into my head at school quicky reemerged.A song finds special mention. I won't bother to translate.

Chamka ban ke aman ka taara
Prem ki dharti desh hamara
jai jai Hindustan!
Aman ke dushman, jung ke bete bhool gaye sab chaal
Atom bomb se jaa takraya veer Jawahar Lal
Duniya ne ek saath pukara -jai jai Hindustan!!!

Thus were we impressionable 8 years old introduced to the concept of the Non Alignment Movement.Also came to mind were the social message posters on topics like 'Good habits' and 'hygiene' that adorned the walls of my classroom.
Only if I could get my hands on one of them today... for their sheer comic value they beat anything Picasso ever did.
The movie-thon soon lost it's steam, and I am down to single movie a day now, as I was in a grave danger of losing my colour vision forever.

In between I read the news of operation Majnu.. A wave of post traumatic distress washed over me as I saw pictures of a hapless, star crossed couple being thrashed by a formidable, burly policewoman, who was also dashing the hopes of the parents who named her Madhu Malti with sweet expectations...(shudder...).To quote Soniaji comforting the naked- hungry villagers of inner U.P 'mai apki vedna samajh sakta hoon'

Rather, anyhow, as I settle in front of the TV, I wish everyone a merry Holiday season.
I sign off humming a perennial favourite of Door Darshan
chodo kal ki baatein
Kal ki baat purani
naye daur me likhenge hum milkar nayi kahani
Hum hindustani

next up.. Rajiv Gandhi leaping into the 21st century with Remo Fernandez.

who is this guy? what does he want?

this gentleman read the post a day in the life, and was smitten enough to respond thusly:
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1:38 PM

hot ground spices

it was a nippy wednesday night. not cold, not chilly, just nippy. the wind whistled, and in parts , there were villagers wrapping their blankets about tghem, shivering, and hurrying home. one likes to believe that far away, wolves bayed, and were silent for a while.
the city was twinkling. happily. no, that's not it. merrily, it twinkled, and winked with shy pleasure.
far away, beyond the glass wall, there was cold brick and mortar and stone. but inside, there was glow. light that had the luxury of being soft, reflected off gleaming smiles, and smouldering stares; i wandered in heading for the stairs alwyas the atairs, they never seem to stay still, only when i stand on them do they come
to a stop that is. for me, me me me only, for i and i alone can cause the stairs to stop running up the incline. i command them to lay silent at my feet, to move not, and to lay absolutely still, and they obey. for that is how it happened, and it must be told as such.*
the hall was darkened. there were little lights tho'. small blue lights. all along the sides of the walls.leading me on.one after the other after the other.... stretching till darkness, where they wud be swallowed, by the inky stillness. everywhere, the warm smell of youth wafted to my nose. the fresh, tangy whiff of young hope and fragrance. their tinkling laughter washed over me. the darkness suddenly seemed colder, and the warmth of that smiling fireplace more distant.
i sank, into the chair.thankful,happy that it had cushion ass-rests and a coke glass holder. in front of me, the screen was suddenly caught , in a technicolour spotlight; as it was trying to creep away. they trapped it. nailed it to the wall with a stronger beam of light, and forced it to smile as they sat back and howled.
and howl they did. shrieked. and rolled(in the aisles, alone tho', as i had already rolled at home). and wiping the tears from their eyes, they wud lapse into an uneasy silence, punctuated in predictable time by an explosive chuckle causing them to dissolve. yet again.
i was as silent as the grave. after a while, so was the screen. just reflecting what they threw on it. not bothering to smile. not really caring too, really.
i did not get the joke. perhaps, that is why i had rolled at home.
i'm not laughing.
the movie was described as http://www.rediff.com/movies/2005/nov/02garam.htm
i'm still not laughing.

*reproduced from "the prophecies of ngjnh (all silent)", chapter two, "ex calator the sword"