Dance Along... International Dance Day

"Dance is more than mastering steps, it's about living life."

An art that has its origins in ancient Egypt that dates back 5300 years old and in India that dates back

even further (almost 9000 years) - DANCE. An art that gives you the power to express.  It makes you feel real from within.

The old Bollywood dance in the late fifties included a mustachioed hero standing still with a wilful lot of dance attendants circling around him to some interminable tune. Actors would keep a distance from their female lead and apart from running from tree to post it was just the music that was doing the wonder.

Until, in the end of sixties, precisely in 1957, an actor decided to break from the boundaries of old-style and experiment something completely out of the box. Seethed by a Westernized sex appeal the actor changed himself to a character. From a playboy, a clown to a ceaseless ragger with his Elvis duck tailed hair, tossed his head sideways, spun round, shook his hips creating a cinematic explosion and India had given birth to its first dancer, Shammi Kapoor.

From wilderness of Kashmir in Kashmir Ki Kali to the romantic evening lights of Paris in ‘An Evening in Paris’ or jumping out of snow in Junglee, Shammi ji had made his audiences shout ‘Yahoo’. In 1965 with Bhoot Bangla, the veteran actor, Mehmood decided to introduce India with its first free style westernized dancing pattern, ‘the twist’. Just a year later, arrived India’s multi thriller movie, Teesri Manzil. Not only did it popularize western music but overnight Shammi Kapoor became the ‘Rocky’ of every woman’s heart. The oomph, the glamour, the sensuality and of course the dance steps. From ‘O Haseena Zulfowali’ to ‘Yahoo’, Shammi Kapoor not only became an overnight sensation but also earned the moniker, ‘Elvis Presley of India’.

As India was enjoying its twists and turns, the western world was a prodigy took birth to an African American family in Gary, Indiana (Chicago). The eight member of ten siblings was asked to take up to singing and no longer he was a part of his own family’s musical band which was formed in 1964 as the lead singer. 

In 1965, America got introduced to its first dancing sensation, Michael Joseph Jackson, we popularly know as Michael Jackson (MJ). From albums like Thriller, Mowtown 25 to HiStory this dancing legend had made the world say you are Bad and Dangerous.

Although it was debatable on who first invented the ‘Moonwalk’, while some say that it was an American tap dancer Bill Bailey, studies and articles suggested that MJ learnt this step from celebrity dancer and singer of the R&B (Rhythm & Blues) group Shalamar. This was initially a backslide move of the legs and ankles which Michael later immortalized it as the Moonwalk. Over time, the legend continued to give the world numerous hits so much so that he went on to be the only singer to have won eight Grammy Awards in one single night which gave him the title, ‘The King of Pop’ by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1989 Annual Grammy Awards.

As we have crossed over 100 years of dancing, there have been many who have come performed in their own virtue. But these two legends have defined the essence of dancing through their sheer nature of passion and dedication towards this art that still is patronized by millions of his fans and dancing celebrities all over the world.  This International Dance Day as we celebrate these two legends, take the lead and let the other follow, determine the direction and let the other decided the journey. It does not matter the steps taken it does not matter how you look. Because all that matters in that moment is how you express!

Being in High Spirits....

“Arey moshai… how much longer will it take”, was the shout as people in Bengal lined out in front of the liquor store. The same shout would be heard in different languages throughout the different parts of India. But all in vain. We are stocked out responded the man from the other end of the tiller. Dhat… and the entire serpentine line dispersed in seconds.  

I was just indulging myself to a cup of ‘khurir cha’ (tea served in earthen pots) when I heard the most saddening dialogue by the desperate buyer, “Ektu whishkey na hole, kosha mangsho te moja kothaye?” (Where is the fun in enjoying the Mutton Kosha, without a drop of whisky). Bengalis have always had a troubled relationship with alcohol. 

In traditional Bengal and Eastern India, Brahmins and aristocrats were habituated to consume imported and country liquor. Hindu rulers in the mid-18^th century indulged in being in high spirits during special occasions. 

In other parts of India, Bengal was known as a region where addiction to liquor was widespread. The average drinking Bengali would walk for miles with a sling bag (jhola), collect his bottle of Farini 50 UP Bangla (a drink made from fermented rice) or Old Monk Rum, carry it back home like his child and consume it with a devotion which is hard to find in the most religious of people.

With the urbanization of Bengal, the well to do ‘babus’ resorted to derision (society of upstart aristocracy) which involved drinking day and night. Wine emerged as the new friend amidst the glittering parties and instantly became a symbol of a luxurious lifestyle. Times have changed today. One can find a liquor shop with a radius of a kilometer. You need not have to call up your ‘tipper man’ or line up at the bootleg vend. Instead one could just order it from different apps. Even the average Bengali has moved on from Bangla to Bacardi.

As the country has tightened its noose over the sale of liquor during the lockdown, people have been ‘spirit hunting’ in the chance to grab a bottle, even if it means Bangla or an Old Monk Rum. Recently, the people of Bengal were in high spirits as soon as they read a post on Twitter which mentioned that the Govt of West Bengal had allowed the sale and home delivery of liquor for a limited time period, only to know later that the news was wrongly misprinted and it meant that sale of sweets would be permitted as it was declared as an ‘essential product’ for Bengalis!

While this hooch is being sold illicitly in the black market at a sky-rocket price, the high spirited Bangali is still happy to shed out a few extra shillings only if he is lucky enough to sniff out the poison and sink deep into its essence. But till then the quintessential Bangali is relishing the Mutton Kosha with ginger strips dipped in salt, poetry, good friends, heated political debates with a subtle tune of Rabindra Sangeet playing at the crossroads in the background. 

An art lost in history

"Today a reader. Tomorrow a Leader" - Margaret Fuller

Hey, have you checked out the latest Hardy Boys collection? Nah! I am more into Jeffrey Archer and Agatha Christie. Does this sound familiar to us?

In most traditional and royal residences one of the most magnificent object of desire was not the hanging chandelier or the leather diwan, it was the book shelf.  They believed knowledge is power. In fact a person’s aristocracy was valued by the collection of books one would keep immaterial whether they were read or not. 

People resorted to becoming members of libraries which was another way of being recognized among the elite class.

Reading in a whole became not just a hobby but a necessity. As children took admission in schools, boys took admission in colleges and men started becoming lecturers in universities the need and way of grasping knowledge was by browsing through as many books and scholastic articles available. I still remember that I used to get Rs. 25 as pocket money every day. 

By the end of every month I would definitely make a trip to College street to buy story books and novels (even if they were second hand). Soon I had made friends with Ray, Doyle, Shirshendu, Blyton. This was followed by the wait for Kolkata’s biggest book fair which used to take place at Maidan (now changed to another location). At that point of time books were the only medium through which one could escape from the world of reality and delve into the world of fantasy. Time so no boundary and words seemed never to end. Every plot seemed so real as though you had become a part of that story or would reminisce the character.

As technology took the forefront, we slowly started to lose patience in reading a story. And took to watching the telly which followed with hitting the theatres. While we would enter a Crossword or a bookstore it would be solely out of a sense of window shopping and end up buying a book or two. This would then straight find a place in an already stuffed bookshelf with books that were only purchased but never opened. Because, now we have made new friends, with Netflix, Facebook, Instagram and Kindle.  And, these friends control our levels of intoxication since when we start using them, we forget about time and move on to binge watching.

We have lost our commitment to these hard pages that we so eagerly used to stare that. We have forgotten how we would find happiness in getting ourselves lost in every word, expression and the skin of the character. Most important we have stopped giving value to all those who still believe that the pen is mightier than sword.

Today we do not have the patience to read an entire book, in fact we find a way to rush through the book, probably by just reading the synopsis and deciding whether the story is intriguing or not. It’s time that we stop not judging a book by its cover because reading is an art and we must value all those who painstakingly till date take time out to write.

This World Book Day, let us for once let go a series on Netflix and rather delve back into the mysterious Poirot or the wizard of Hogwarts, Harry Potter and actually take an equal interest in completing the book because its not very late that this marvelous art will get lost in the pages of history.

When Nature says, ‘I need back my space’…

India is a country where one will find a mix of nuclear and joint families. A nuclear family would be a family comprising of 3-4 members while a joint family would comprise over six members. But the common thread that binds these families is contact. In today’s generation both husband and wife are working five days a week in some cases six days. So, weekends are meant to let go of yourself which usually resort to a potluck with friends, or being at the movies and finally ending it with a dinner at a decent restaurant.

But, imagine those moments when your parents or your near ones had requested to give them a bit of your time. You would retort back and say, “Mom, it’s the weekend and its my time… Give me some space”. While you would rush out of the house your parents would return to their own world of thoughts and melancholy. And then arrived an invisible ghost in the form of a guest. Well at first, we couldn’t recognize this person until it showed its true colors. 

Today as I write this article, we are almost nearing a month of the lockdown in order to hide from this guest. In a world where we are all caged, there comes a new terminology in place, ‘Social Distancing’. So, now you suddenly find that in a two-bedroom apartment you have been asked to confine yourself to a room that looks like a cage to you - Well that is your bedroom! And to top it, you find a lot of new faces roaming around in your house with whom you have barely had the time to even say ‘Hello’ - well they are family! Further more people have resorted to taking psychological treatment as the absence of social interactions have been hurting their physical and mental well-being.

Now imagine if you were said to live out of that one bedroom of yours with another six members? Sounds shocking. Well in the gallows of Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum house, is home to over a million lives. 

Day in and day out they stand in a queue with the dream that they would be able to fill in their bucket of water to get at least a day’s bath. Contrarily, there will be a serpentine line at the ration shop with the dream that they would be able to arrange for a day’s meal. At the end of the day when the members return to that room it is ‘HOME’ to them! So, how would you explain them what social distancing means and how would they for that matter follow this norm?

But there is yet a great insight to this thought of Social Distancing. It’s the thought of giving one their

own space. Over the year’s mankind has made way for fulfilling its own plans and in this manner, it has not bothered to think whether it has by mistake encroached over someone’s space. Over time, it has even taken advantage of such spaces and have misused it by not maintaining it, instead littering it with dirt. Well, this space that we are talking of belonged to Nature.

Today, while lives are being lost there are even more lives which are being saved. And, mind you God isn’t saving them! But normal human beings just like you and me in the form of doctors, nurses, police personnel have forgotten what it seems to be at home with family. When they return in the dead of the night to their respective homes, after ensuring people are safe that the law is in order, they yearn to at least have someone to be near them or speak to them and greater need has now become for us. We feel to be with our parents and with our near and dear ones but now that space has been taken away from us by Nature’s order.

Ironically, the way to one’s survival is to keep one distanced from the rest immaterial of the relation you have. Further more while now Nature has shown its true colors, we are not even being able to enjoy the best of Nature. And, the reason is that over the years Nature has been shouting aloud requesting us for something and we have been ignoring it. Today we have journeyed back to the same situation, just that this time we are requesting Nature the same thing - Please give us back our space!

Happy April Fools Day

"Once destroyed, nature's beauty cannot be repurchased at any price" 

                                                                                                     - Ansel Adams

Billion years ago, when the world was building up God gave mankind a unique gift. A boon to us and had asked to preserve it and nurture it from time to time. He had said that the way you show your respect to it accordingly it shall reciprocate to you. We know this unique gift as NATURE. In the beginning we started to enjoy its fruits, compliment it and then made an attempt to expand it. But as mankind grew its needs started to grow and it then started to slowly find ways to use Nature until it forgot its own duty and promise made towards its upliftment. Instead, it started to sacrifice Nature in order to fulfill its own needs.  



It marked an end of an era of Nature and began the era of construction in its various forms. Gradually, this reached a level where human beings noticed that there is a dearth of space to continue fulfilling is needs. So, we started to make space by cutting trees.

Mankind discovered that this was a new way of progressing its race even though it meant exploiting Nature and ‘fooling’ God by telling him that we are doing this for the betterment of Nature. Over the few decades we realized that we could not only use Nature for the progress of mankind but also use it to begin trade and business. 

Meanwhile, in order to keep God happy (for a while), we decided to make some parks and wildlife sanctuaries not for animals to live but for mankind to enjoy seeing these animals caged!

Over a time, empty spaces converted into construction site and some unknown areas converted into beaches. So, we now took the next step of making it dirty and in helping achieve this we created a deadly weapon - PLASTIC.

We took this invention further by using this extensively and then throwing it away either on the road or better in the sea. Till now while we had quite beautifully killed Nature’s guests on land, we decided it why should marine life also not get a taste of it too. This led to poaching and fishing and it made great money.

We set foot by starting to poach animals and sell them to other nations. Next, we would kill animals and make business through various means. On the flip side we decided that to take out an entire forest so that we could construct buildings for people to stay not thinking where Nature and its guest would stay. 

In the meanwhile, God had been observing all this and was extremely shocked and he questioned us why are we doing this. What happened to the promise of protecting Nature?

So, you were all fooling me all this while? And, to that we responded by a very wryly smile. “The problem was that we stopped checking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us”. (The Joker)

Today, as we are in a war, God has returned us the favor and taken what it had owned from the very beginning. But before it did return us the favor it introduced a little anarchy, upsetting the established order and made us experience how it feels when you play with Nature and its guest. The result is utter CHAOS! Well, yes, we had thought we had been fooling him all this while but God had its own agenda. 

It played its cards well and today we are bowing against its force but in silence. And, as he continues to open his wrath in this manner, he wishes us all ‘Happy April Fool’s Day’!