Those were the ‘Happy Days’ of my life! (Just like the Telugu movie, Happy Days, set in CBIT, Hyderabad, this post is of me, during my Engineering College days.)
During those days, the only worries I ever had were, does my dress look too flashy? Will the seniors decide to rag me because of my dress? What seminar should I attend? What is my attendance percentage? Is it really above 75% ?
Anyway, I have always been insect friendly. So, naturally, the ever beautiful butterflies were also among my friends, who caught my attention every now and then. But don’t go imagining the beautiful Costa Rican blue butterflies here!
Blue Butterflies = luck
The Costa Ricans actually believe that spotting a blue butterfly means luck is on your side. (Lucky Shivudu. Spotting a group of blue butterflies must be the reason he could climb the waterfalls, defying death! This is part of Baahubali story. Hope you watched it. It is one of the most iconic scenes, with a magnificent waterfalls in the backdrop. Never was CGI used more beautifully for creating a waterfall)
The butterfly that I am actually referring to was a far cry from these beauties. Although our Engineering college campus had its share of huge farmland insects, thanks to all the farm lands and vineyards around our campus, this one was a surprise. I had seen big grasshoppers the size of my hand, beetles the size of lemons and some insects whose names I don’t even know.
After a fun filled day at college, I was exhausted and I lept on to my bed , ready to end the day. We (me and sister shared our bedroom) chatted away, after turning off the light in our room. I turned to my side in my bed and put my hand on the pillow beside me. My hand touched something and I felt something flee the spot, like rushing away! I jumped out of my bed, ran towards my sister’s bed and turned on the light! I saw the most surprising thing ever!
It was a huge butterfly, with each wing, a little bigger than the size of my hand, whose wings were as rough as the skin of a crocodile! It was wheatish in colour. (That must have been the reason I couldn’t spot it before sleeping. Camouflage!) It was completely different from the notion I had of butterflies and the tender love I always had for the colourful beauties vanished!
Once we spotted the butterfly, all hell broke loose!
The Ugly Butterfly, refusing to budge, while I and sis were at wits end.
We began jumping up and down, crying out loud. Our commotion brought my parents into our room. We demanded our dad to chase it away or we wouldn’t sleep at all. After 10 minutes of extreme effort with a mop, dad managed to chase it out. It was such a stubborn butterfly refusing to budge. It must have been scared about the commotion it was creating!
Sadly, one of its wings was hurt. (It was unintentional. Seeing such a butterfly in our midst made us adamant. We wanted it out of our room at any cost.) I am mostly a forgiving person, but once it perched on my bed, I knew it was better to get rid of it. I can still remember how I felt when I touched it by mistake!
Looking back, I now understand that, even in the midst of the concrete jungle, a wild butterfly managed to survive!
P.S:
1. Our college chairman once said during our Annual day celebrations, that he was torn between, whether to use the land to ‘grow’ grapes in his vineyard or to use the land to build the college to ‘grow’ students!
Our college was in the middle of farms and vineyards. I also remember seeing Sunflowers each morning. Happy Days indeed!
2. One of Mr.Bee’s friend, J from our days in Charlotte had presented him with a souvenir of a Blue Butterfly, after his trip to Costa Rica. That’s how I got to know the significance of the blue butterflies.
As I begin to write yet another post, I am beginning to understand myself a whole lot better. I keep going back and forth between movies and book references in my life! ( It must be due to my upbringing, in a family where both books and movies were treasured alike!) Today, it is the movie influence that is apparent in my post title, Dadamoni.
Dadamoni is a Bengali term, where ‘Dada’ means an elder brother and ‘moni’ means a jewel. An elder brother who is as good/precious as a jewel! (If you have been Indian cricket fan, you will know Sourav Ganguly was referred to as Dada. But the original Dadamoni was the actor Ashok Kumar, the elder brother of the eccentric Bollywood singer Kishore Kumar da)
Since I am done with the introduction, lets jump into today’s cartoon…
The scene starts with an interaction between QueenBee and KBee. My aim was to teach KBee some basic words. KBee had successfully repeated Amma, after me. Then I make him repeat Nanna, Anna and other two letter words. Then, I see GBee zooming away, running fast, passing us both, shouting at the top of his lungs ….
Jumping right away into bigger words!
Just when KBee was getting comfortable with two lettered words, I threw a bigger word at him, Dadamoni! (I am a parabhasha priya! One who loves other languages, more than their own. My bad!) It is safe to say that KBee found it difficult to even utter ‘dada‘. He already calls his brother, anna.
Meanwhile, Mr.Bee in his office room…
Done with two syllable words already!
I would still prefer if KBee referred to GBee as Dadamoni, but, I am not going to force it upon him! Some words are just so beautiful, they remain with us. Dadamoni is one such word, which captured my heart, during my movie research, years ago.
Does anyone like Golden Oldies? Like the movies of Dev Anand, Ashok Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna and the likes?
P.S:
My all time favourite actor has always been Shammi Kapoor.
Dev Anand’s brother,Vijay Anand, played a detective in an old Hindi serial in Doordarshan, Tehkikaat. It was the first detective serial I had ever watched, not that I remember much. I hope to watch it again. I also watched Byomkesh Bakshi, a series in Doordarshan, starring Rajit Kapur and not the one starring Sushant Singh Rajput. (God I feel so old!)
Some day I will surely write about all the detective movies and series, I ever watched. It may end up being my longest post. And, did anyone observe that today’s post has a lot of Bengali flavour! 😉
I think Mr.Bee in today’s cartoon looks very young! I should have given him a stubble!
After almost a year and half, I have taken to drawing a cartoon again. It feels so gratifying, being able to draw and write, like I used to. It is also the first cartoon my new character, my younger son, KBee is debuting in!
Anyway, coming to the present topic, the title must have confused you readers, let’s be frank, its not even a word. It is a group of words. Thanks to GBee for coining the term for me and as I put our conversation here, it will be a tiny part of internet history!
As is usually the case, whenever we bring home vegetables and fruits after buying them from the market, we lay down everything in the open, ready to put them in separate covers.
This time around, we did the same and had all the vegetables out on the floor. Little did we guess that we may get the attention of the baby, KBee! He and his brother had been immersed in D-Billions, but then, who can resist colourful vegetables? Not a certain KBee!
KBee picking up the bottle gourd, (Lauki.)
KBee usually enjoys, ‘tomato’napping (kidnapping tomatoes), mostly to either smash them or bite them off. But this time, he ran away with a bottle gourd! I went after him, to ask him, if he knew what he was taking…but the kid hardly knew how to say amma! (He was a little over 1 year, during this particular scene)
Once, KBee he had our undivided attention,GBee, likes to be included too! GBee, who had been listening to me, had given me his answer…
Getting a response to one’s question can sometimes baffle us!
Yes! He replied Banana Guava!
Eye opening moment
Even though it was a baffling moment. It was also crystal clear, why GBee had given me the answer he gave! (He looked happy and content, he felt proud of himself, for coming up with an answer, to shut his mother down!)
According to him bottle gourd is Banana Guava, because, it is elongated and almost shaped like a banana and also in the colour of a fresh guava. Hence the name. Of course, this was my deduction, since I know GBee like the back of my hand.
So the next time you see a bottle gourd, I hope you remember ‘The Banana Guava’ episode!
P.S:
Apart from Cocomelon, Chuchu tv, Infobells, Grizzy and the Lemmings, the kids love watching D-Billions, which is fun to watch. Even I like watching those. (Actually, its the only stuff I get to watch on T.V. Our T.V. has been conquered by Samrat GBee for now. It is under his rule! Some day, it may be under the rule of Samrat KBee.) Mera number kab ayega? Can’t say!
I had watched Kantara in the beginning of October and had even written down the review the next day. But due to some unforeseen circumstances (health of KBee) i was forced to shelf the post and let it gather dust, cobwebs and the likes!
Firstly, I am going to be very frank in my review and it is completely my opinion and I have a right to write! (It looks like the beginning of a political speech, but no, I sometimes manage to have strong emotions on certain topics)
Secondly, who has not watched Kantara? If you have watched it is well and good, if not, I advice you to go to the nearest laptop or T.V. , login to Prime and watch it!
I never watch a movie, until and unless I like either the trailer, poster or the word of mouth talk! I have very little patience for mediocre movies and tear jerking stuff. (Life already has loads of problems and ups and downs. Who the hell wishes to go to a theater, pay 200 bucks or more and cry again in an A.C hall, in front of strangers? Not me!)
After the buzz about KGF 2 died down (which I didn’t watch), I read tweets from different actors online, raving about Kantara. (I don’t follow any actor on twitter, but I still found the tweets, some how in my homepage!) Since I hardly knew either Tulu or Kannada, I had no idea what the title meant. I googled it and found out it meant ‘a mystical forest‘ and that’s when I decided to watch the movie.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD***
The opening scene is the back story of the present day.
A King, who has everything he needs, wealth, a happy family and vast kingdom, yet has no peace. He wanders in his kingdom alone,as advised, reaches a spot in the forest, where he finds the Deity of the tribals. He wants the Deity for himself. The Panjurli demands vast lands for his followers, in exchange of coming with him. If the promise is broken, ever, then the Guliga Deiva, a violent servant of Panjurli, will exact revenge! The king accepts. (I may be wrong, but I think the Panjurli at the beginning must have been the grandfather of Shiva.)
Years later, the king’s son breaks the promise by demanding the forest lands, which are worth in crores and demeans the Panjurli. The one performing the Bhoot Kola (as seen in the movie poster) at the beginning is the hero, Shiva’s father. (Dual role by Rishab Shetty as both father and son) The moment the performer runs into the forest and disappears, the titles roll and that was a bang of an opening.
Once the story begins, it shows how Shiva doesn’t respect the very animal pig (or the Varaha Roopa, which is actually their Diety), hunts and kills pigs on a regular basis, eats their meat, feeds the leftovers to his dog, does drugs and also drinks at the drop of a hat. He is probably the worst guy to lead a rebellion or even a movie for that matter! He is brash and arrogant, doesn’t have a job except being the right hand man of a wealthy Zamindar, the heir to the King we see at the beginning of the story. ( Instead of referring to him as King’s successor, I will refer to him as zamindar, to make it easy.) The curse of the Panjurli had indeed come true, because the Zamindar’s son is physically and mentally challenged.
The rest of the story shows some extra characters of the heroine who is a constable, the hero’s mom, some other side kicks and a Bhoot Kola performer who is Shiva’s cousin. Since Shiva’s father vanished into the Kantara forest, Shiva avoids performing the BhootKola, which is their family tradition. His cousin takes up the mantle instead of Shiva as the Bhoot Kola artist.
It is also shown that, whenever Shiva participates in immoral activities, he dreams of either Varaha Roopam or his father in Bhoot Kola attire. It shows that, in spite of his rogue exterior, he is still a God fearing man. We get brief glimpses of his father, appearing suddenly in his dreams and those moments were the only reason I continued watching the movie. (It thrilled me to no end). Rest of the movie was passable. Nothing much to write about. So I will just jot the main points.
As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that there are only 3 important characters. One, Shiva. Two, the forest officer whose aim is to save the forest from smugglers. Three, the Zamindar, the villain. (He is one bad-ass villain, as we can see in the climax)
Zamindar kills Shiva’s cousin, to demoralize the tribals. He tries to pin the murder on the forest officer. But, one blacksmith, who is high on drugs, reveals the truth to Shiva and the pre-climax fight sequence happens. (After the death of Shiva’s cousin, we get a subtle hint of who is going to be the next Bhoot Kola performer, i.e. Shiva. There is an under current of anticipation for the big reveal. The build up for the final act of Kantara, the movie!)
When the whole village along with the forest officer gathers to fight against the zamindar, Shiva is still reeling under his new found gyaan. (In the middle of the movie, there is this scene about Shiva’s cousin dreaming about what may happen in near future to Shiva. This indicates that Bhoot Kola performers sometimes have premonitions and that is what is happening to Shiva during the climactic scenes. He is in a daze!) He knows he will die. He is still coming to terms with this information.
After a lag, Shiva gets into the fight, protects the forest officer, because he is the only one he trusts with his life. One of Zamindar’s chamcha kills off Shiva, by hitting his head, right at the center. (A hit on the head at the top, generally results in Kapala Moksham! There is no way anyone can ever survive that. This is the truth.)
That’s when Shiva’s father breathes new life into Shiva, by making the unique sound, synonymous to the Bhoot Kola.(He increased his son’s life span a little for the sake of the helpless tribals) All hell breaks loose. The violent Guliga Deiva, the servant of Panjurli, acts through Shiva and kills off the villain. (The zamindar, till his last breath is not scared at all, because he thinks Shiva is only acting!)
Finally, Shiva, turns into a Bhoot Kola performer (while Varaha Roopam song plays in the background), tells all the tribals the forest officer and other landlords to stay together and be happy. Just then, Shiva’s father calls him from the Kantara forest, signalling, his borrowed life has come to an end. Shiva rushes into the forest, just like his father and unites with him and both disappear.
Final word:
No one can ever beat the acting Rishab Shetty managed to do at the end. Not a single dull moment in the climax. The movie is elevated beyond anything, only through the last 10 minutes of acting. This moment, I may never forget! I had goosebumps through the climax. I re-watched the climax, a little over 10 times. (I only watch a movie once and never comeback to it. I rarely listen to the same song twice. That says a lot about how much I liked this one.)
Let me not forget to add the supporting cast were also apt and had done justice to their role. But there is always one black sheep! (He spoils the perfect moment by raising his hand too early!)
And God, what a song to accompany the mind blowing acting. Varaha Roopam is a mesmerizing song, divine and memorable. The shehanai (Sannayi in Telugu) and violin make the song a classic.
P.S:
1. Who is Rishab Shetty? How can one direct a movie and also act perfectly? I admire multi taskers, because it is soooooo sooo hard!
2. There was a controversy regarding the Varaha Roopam song. The Kerala based band, Thaikkudam Bridge went to court, saying their song has been copied. Frankly speaking, even if the Varaha Roopam was inspired by the Navarasam of Thaikkudam Bridge, I am willing to forgive it. Why? Because I like it better, sorry guys!
4. I think there is going to be a prequel to Kantara. I wonder how even Rishab Shetty can live upto the extremely high expectations!
On a different note, after the movie was released, Karnataka government has taken up the welfare of the Kola performers, which is a welcome move. (Who knew such Kola existed before Kantara? )
Although I am a self confessed book worm, I have read very little books by Indian authors. That being said, the only children’s books I have ever read were comics like Tin Tin, Aesop Fables, Hans Andersen’s stories, later progressing to Nancy Drew mysteries, Hardy Boys and my all time favourites the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton (which made my childhood worthwhile!). Then I jumped right into the world of murder mysteries and never looked back. (Its either mysteries or biographies for me. I know it is a weird combination!)
Years later, when I wanted to introduce GBee to some good books, I began my survey and came across Ruskin Bond. (GBee is still 5 year old, so getting him to sit at a place is something on its own, making him read will be a mountain of a challenge, for now).
I decided to pique his interest in books through puzzles and meanwhile, I stumbled upon books by Sudha Murty(who needs no introduction), during a recent car trip to the temple town of Yadagirigutta, a 2-hour drive from Hyderabad.
The title of the book forced me to buy it and I wanted to know her writing style.
Here goes the review, after an apparently lengthy intro.
Book : The Magic of the Lost Temple
Author : Sudha Murty
Published in :2015
QB Bought in : 2023
Genre : Children’s book
The story is about Nooni, (short for Anoushka), a city born only child to her Doctor father and bank officer mother. Her life is filled up with school, studies, summer camps , swimming classes and yearly trips to Coorg. (Did I say, she is from Bangalore?)
Anyway,this city born kiddo is sent to Somanahalli, for her summer, because of her mother’s training in Delhi. She lands in paternal grandparents house and this is the turning point of her life.
She gets to learn many things first hand, about almost everthing. I couldn’t help but draw parallels to my own childhood.
Sleeping under the stars and counting them, admiring the Moon (which generally plays hide and seek with us, from our city apartments), the types of plants and medicinal trees in Indian village houses, similar to the garden my ammamma (maternal grandmother) had in our village. Aaji giving hair massages to Nooni and washing it with home grown Shikakai with a bucket of hot water (so unlike the showers we take in cities) reminded me of my mamma(paternal grandmother) doing the same for me, in Laxmi Nagaram.
Nooni never knew sweets were made at home during festivals and marriages. She only knows buying the sweets over the counter at Haldirams!
As the story progresses, Aaji tells the story of Somanahalli step-well, which mesmerizes Nooni. The step-well might have been a fiction, but Nooni discovers the said step-well! (here the story reminded me of Famous Five series by Enid Blyton, because of the adventure involved).
A Step well looks like this
What I liked:
The values. It reminds of the good old days, where the families helped each other during any function. They were there, whether it is a celebration or a death, to give us a helping hand. (Today we find very little of that)
The rules. The elders before us, often made rules for a reason. If they say, don’t open a temple during an Amavasya, it had a valid reason. There is a reason the elders dictated that one should enter a temple only after cleaning themselves. That was proved beyond a doubt during the time of COVID pandemic. We began to understand how important cleanliness is.
The style of writing is as simple as that of Ruskin Bond. Let me tell you a little secret. It is very difficult to write in simple prose. So if you find a writer who specializes in simple prose, BINGO, it means the writer is a gem!
P.S:
I loved the back story behind the idea for the story. Goes to show a small incident is enough to create beautiful stories, if you are a creative person.
Hans Andersen is the Dutch writer, who wrote the most famous stories of The Mermaid, The Emperor’s new clothes, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling and more. He is a legend as far as children’s books are concerned. If you have not read any of those, go ahead and read them. If you have forgotten them, read them to refresh your memory. I just wonder what must it have been like to be a famous author during those times!
Whoever said ignorance is a bliss needs to meet me personally, to get an earful! They must be joking, right?
I learnt my lesson the hard way.
Let me elaborate on the point…
All had been well and I remember announcing the arrival of Baby No. 2 , KBee, in my blog and that was my last post for 2021. I also re-christened my first born, from Baby Bee to GBee, now that he is not a baby anymore, but a pre-schooler. (We named our first born as MG and the younger one as MK. )
Anyway….coming back to my original plot of the post…
2021 had been a busy year, what with my share of good and not so good experiences. By the time we entered the last quarter of 2021, I had been so ignorant that my hosting plan had expired! I couldn’t renew it within a month of expiry date, due to issues with the credit card. (My blog was being hosted with my previous USA address, even after relocating to India)
I cursed the bank and the Government for the new guidelines, which made the renewal difficult. (Conspiracy right under my nose!) I lost all the years worth of my precious moments, events and prize winning blog posts to the “black hole” of internet. (Sadly my backups failed me.)
I don’t know how Lord Voldemort must have felt when Harry Potter destroyed all the seven horcruxes, the 7 parts of his evil soul, one at a time, but when I lost all the 7 year worth of precious data, I felt “this” must be it! (I am a Harry Potter nerd , through and through. I tend to drag Harry Potter world into my life, drawing parallels. J.K.Rowling must be thankful for having me as a fan! I hate ‘The Cursed Child’, that’s there!)
I felt so sad for a couple of days, I never knew one could connect so emotionally to one’s own writings. I shed many a precious tears, I mourned the early and sudden demise of my blog.
Slowly I let bygones be bygones and decided to start afresh.
So here’s to a new beginning of the blog, albeit with an old name!
Welcome back to BeeAfterYou, where the buzzing is always true!
P.S:
It feels so gratifying and encouraging when friends and family enquire after my blog and my writing schedule or the lack there of! It is such a humbling experience and truly inspires me to sit , write , edit, edit, edit, edit and post!
Thank you for all the love and I truly appreciate the concern. Lots and lots of love, dear readers…. QueenBee is back!
😉
P.P.S:
It is better to back up all your files regularly. If you are a fellow blogger, please back up and store it in a fool proof place.
