It is ironical, what we call fiction is so real whether it is literature or cinema. The real as we know it is made so contrive, the real ends up being a farce. I happened to watch the movie 'P.S. I love you' day before yesterday. Chickflick is it? Anyway today morning the girl from the movie popped into my head. And I thought, this movie is nothing but an example of how by constantly living in fear we make our worst fears come true. Here is a woman living in fear of being left alone by the man in her life. Because she has seen her father leave her mother alone with two children to take care of. She cannot bring herself to have a child and there are several excuses set up as a boundary around her decision. Eventually her worst fear, of losing the man, is manifested and in such a fatalistic way. We are so afraid to live our life fully always afraid of something or the other. The funny thing is always standing at the periphery, never taking the plunge into the river of life, bound by our fears, yet we think we are qualified to tell others what to do with their lives. Let go.

Walter said it

Watched Band Baaja Baraat again today. This time on TV. Enjoyed it just like the first time. Some movies just get the ensemble that goes into making a movie right. It couldn't have revolved around a more loved topic than what else but weddings. Somehow for a long time I have been eluding The Wise One. My elusion wasn't to last for long. Recently I happened to attend a get-together with my ex-colleagues from my first job. Towards the end I was sitting by myself and enjoying the ice-cream when my state of solitary bliss was interrupted by a friends' husband. He asked me if I got married or if am still single. I told him I am (still) single. To which he asked, "No boyfriend" (neither). I told him I am single in every sense. Friends' husband, "Arey get settled yaar. Celebrate karne ka mauka do." I couldn't help laughing and said, "Settled toh already hoon, par celebrate karne ka mauka bhi doongi. Don't worry." At my reassurance I was allowed to go back to the ice-cream induced blissful state. It's funny how being settled is associated with marriage. Why the assumption that if one is not married one is unsettled. I look around and see scores of unsettled married people. What about them? Its like every person is an amorous nomad, who at some point has to be tied down to some person and bingo! the person is settled. I have never been able to buy into this meaning of 'settled'.

I see it the way the character Walter sees it in the movie 'Sleepless in Seattle'. When finally Annie tells him that she couldn't possibly marry him, he says, "I don't want to be someone that you or anybody else settles for. Marriage is hard enough without such low expectations. Isn't it?" Followed by a very cliched retort by Annie, "Walter, I don't deserve you". Once again Walter gets to rise above the caricatured portrayal of his character in the movie by saying, "No, I wouldn't put it that way." For me Walter ended up being the protagonist in the movie. Yes, the lead characters meet and may be all the talk of destiny and such may come true for them or not, a movie doesn't allow one to know the entire story. One is to make assumptions based on how a movie ends. Whatever the course of stories for a Walter it will always end on a truer note.

Women who can ...

In the movie, 'Alex and Emma', Emma says to Alex.

"Like when its time for the first laundry. I know, I know. In great romantic novels there is no laundry or there's people like Ylva or Elsa to do it. Maybe that's why I like them. They can wash their own clothes."

Why do long buried things surface to the conscious mind when what it (the mind) should be doing is deliberating on the assignment?

Weirder things happen. Emma and her words popping up out of the blue is still close to normal.