‘Picture Perfect’: Short Stories penned by Anjali Minanath Dhaske

Anjali Minanath Dhaske has done Post graduation in Education and was teaching at teacher training school for 3 years. Post this career stint she decided to enjoy her motherhood. While enjoying her motherhood, she pursued her hobbies. She is the passionate homemaker and Marathi writer. She is well-known for her elaborate Rangoli designs and the writing along side. She creates stories with an intrinsic love of storytelling. Her first story book, which was inspired by her own experience as a woman in modern-day, is proof of her dedication to self-expression.
Her entry in literature world started with her blog “Ashayghan Rangoli’ (आशयघन रांगोळी). She started writing alongside her Rangolis. Progressively she also started her own YouTube channel “Rang Majha Vegala by Anjali M Dhaske” for art, craft and Rangoli. Meanwhile she was also writing short stories on many online platforms.

Order your copy of the book ‘Picture Perfect’, which is a collection of short stories in the form of an ebook and hardcopy on the following websites.

👉 BLUEROSE STORE: https://blueroseone.com/store/product/picture-perfect

👉 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.in/Picture-Perfect-Anjali-Minanath-Dhaske/dp/9359898856

👉 FLIPKART:

https://www.flipkart.com/picture-perfect/p/itm04fbc25771963?pid=9789359898858

My thoughts about the book: Rashmi Malapur

All the stories written by Anjali are simple and so are the characters. You don’t have to stress about multiple characters or complex situations. All the situations or the backdrop are so relatable and true to real life. She makes no deliberate attempt to think out of the box in a bid to impress the audience. The ease in her writing flows seamlessly in the reader’s mind and at the end of each story you wish to get intuitive and reflect on the society we presently live in.

Few stories are about women and the way they try hard to fit into the mold of femininity, culture, and traditions. The struggles of women might seem so insignificant at times but they touch them at a deeper level. Even women shrug them off by saying, “Life is like that” or “Women are bound to face these challenges”.

Now what is impressive is Anjali’s approach, she isn’t criticizing or vehemently opposing the repressive culture. She intertwines her thoughts through the characters that live out of self-realization and progress to a better life. May it be Nisha from the story ‘Chakulya’ or Veena from ‘Teku’.

Deepak or Eshwari’s mother from her story ‘Eshwari: Ek Stri man’ understands her son’s sexual orientation and accepts it gracefully by supporting and making  him feel confident and independent.

Anjali presents the dilemmas we face in our daily life and choose to just ignore. Probably we all have become a little insensitive to observe and ponder. Here Anjali’s stories play that vital role of triggering thoughts that we shrug off, through relatable stories with daily incidences. She proves that while bringing to notice the complexities of daily life and the present society a detailed narration isn’t necessary. Simple short stories can do the job well.

But what I genuinely loved about the book is the thread of positivity that runs through all stories and the maturity with which she unfolds each situation and the characters as well.

Most of the stories are progressive and impress on the reader’s mind in the subtlest way to rethink the present societal norms we accept at a subconscious level.

Anjali avoids stretching the stories too much but that doesn’t mean she fails to take time and effort to weave each story. She is simply brilliant at touching the audience with minimum words.  Infact, some stories are light-hearted yet leave a lasting impression on your mind like ‘Promise Day’, ‘Picture Perfect’ and ‘Healthy Food’.

The book is written in Marathi but it would be great if these stories could be translated into English. Not an easy task though.

‘Picture Perfect’ by Anjali Minanath Dhaske is distinct due to its simplicity, brevity, and intuitiveness.

Copyright 2024 Rashmi Malapur

PIFF Diaries Pune International Film Festival

As an artist, it’s imperative that I ponder over social sensibilities, diversities, upheavals, economic challenges, social structure, cultures and customs. Movies reflect all these aspects through storytelling and visual aesthetics, which consume me.

I’ve been attending Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) for the past 3 years. In a span of 3 days, I watch 9 movies and still don’t feel satiated for the simple reason that these movies awe me. I carry these movies with me through the years, the stories, characters, locations, countries, emotions, cultural references so much more that cannot be expressed in words. This year too I’m here at PIFF for my sheer love for movies.

Hats off to Jabbar Patel sir and his PIFF team for their consistent, and sincere efforts to plan and execute such a well-organized event that brings the best movies around the world on a single platform.

The movies that I saw at PIFF 2023 screened at the Pavilion Mall, PVR Icon, Senapati Bapat Marg:

Day 1 – Monday – 7^th February 2023

Movie: Minsk

Director: Boris Guts

Estonia

Image courtesy: https://t1tallinn.com/en/film/minsk/

The movie is about the August 2020 street protests in Minsk, Belarus and the movie turns violent in the latter part.

It’s a single-take movie and was created without any editing cuts.

Reflections:

Though the movie gets violent and stuns you at the end, it is a must-watch for the way its shot and an understanding of the political scenario in Belarus. Democratic rule is what people wish but dictatorship is thrust upon them by rulers who refuse to acknowledge the right and the intellect of the people to believe that they need to be ruled, not empowered.

A series of mass protests were held against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. Protestors faced violent persecution, torture, sexual abuse, and rape. Viasna Human Rights Center has documented 1,000 testimonies of torture victims by the end of 2020.

Amidst the heightened emotions and violent scenes, I was pleasantly surprised to listen to a song by my favorite band Radiohead in the movie.

Reviews on IMDb – some reviews shared by Belarusians have criticized the movie saying that it is not the true picture of what happened during the protest.

Read more about the August 2020 protest: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/11/belarus-violence-abuse-response-election-protests

You can watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSVLFu4a9-A

Read more about the film: https://minskfilm.com/

Movie: The Blue Caftan

Director: Maryam Touzani

Morocco

Image courtesy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17679584/

The movie centers around Lubna Azabal (“Adam”) as Mina and Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”) as Halim. A married couple owns a store in Morocco’s oldest town in the city of Salè.

It’s a caftan store meticulously made by Halim a traditional art that seems to be challenged by machine-made embroidery. They try hard to catch up with the customer demands though Halim is passionate about the art and hardworking. They need a helping hand thus, hire a young apprentice Youssef (Ayoub Messioui). Halim is involved in Youssef and their life changes.

The movie is about the compulsion of concealing homosexuality since same-sex involvement or sexual acts are illegal and can be punished with imprisonment.

Reflections:

It’s a sensitive movie with superb performances by the artists. The scene where the three actors dance to the tune of a song being played in their lane is fantastic. The bond that the married couple share is so deep and beyond all practicalities. The intimate scenes are shot well.

I loved the music composed by Kristian Eidnes Andersen and Cinematography by Virginie Surdej.

Excellent work by Maryam Touzani!!

Movie: The Star is Moving –

Natchathiram Nagargiradhu

Director: Pa Ranjith

India

Movie Courtesy: IndiaGlitz

Image Courtesy: Movie Crow

It’s a Tamil movie set in the backdrop of a theatre group and weaved with complex thoughts about social issues pertaining to love in Indian society. It touches on many aspects like honor killing, arranged marriage system, casteism, the generation gap, transgender individuals and gay relationships. The theatre group is run by Subeer played by the actor Regin Rose.

Rene (Dushara Vijayan) and Iniyan (Kalidas Jayaram) living in a romantic relationship break up and the movie begins by stating ‘Love is political’. Rene is a Dalit and Iniyan makes her realize it which she despises. Later on in the movie, Rene speaks her heart out to Kalaiyarasan who plays the character  Arjun and transforms as the movie progresses from an orthodox person to a more receptive and open-minded person.

Reflections:

The opening scene begins with references to casteism and orthodox values that are losing their relevance among the young generation. Though it’s tough for the young generation too to live with the changing scenario of Indian social structure and rebellion. Biases are a result of our upbringing and education. Well, it isn’t that simple too. It’s a complex mesh of thoughts that we all prefer not to untangle. I like the fact that the movie is hopeful about the changing social scenario but the onus should not lie on a few.

I loved this movie the direction, acting, and dialogue.

Special mention about the music composed by Tiburtius Vinodh Rubin, better known professionally as Tenma and the leader of the indie band ‘The Casteless Collective’. Music is foot-tapping, melodious and fresh adding to the vibrance of the movie.

You can watch the film on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81594244

That was about my Day 1 @PIFF2023.

To be continued….

Happy Teacher’s Day

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan – Picked from https://www.brainpickings.org
Every artist’s art is their coping mechanism for the extreme sensitivity to aliveness that we call beauty — the transcendent and terrifying capacity to be moved by the world, to let something outside us stir deeply something within us. All great art — and only honest art can be great — is therefore the work of vulnerability and all integrity the function of fidelity to one’s fragilities.

That is what Bob Dylan (b. May 24, 1941) addresses with his penetrating poetics of insight in a 1977 conversation with Jonathan Cott — that uncommonly sensitive and erudite investigator of uncommon minds.

Image source;

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2021/06/double-life-bob-dylan-clinton-heylin-review?amp

Emotional tug a war

Copyright 2021 Rashmi Malapur

Fragile

Copyright 2021 Rashmi Malapur

Dost- Friend- yaar – humraaz

Friends brought a deeper meaning to my life-

they loved me for who I’m and of course, accepted that I’m mad and

I won’t compromise on my soul and calling !!

love them a lot and

I’m alive and survived because of them.

Thank you to all my friends!!

Happy friendship day!!

Source of image: https://happymothersdayquote.com/friendship-day-wishes-to-best-friend/

Stop it!!

Ive been reading this book by Alan Watts called, ‘Wisdom of Insecurity’. I quote a sentence from the book for reference.

“The hard-bitten kind of person is always, as it were, a partial suicide; some of himself is already dead”.

Alan Watts

I have come across tough people who have collapsed at some point of time. They become helpless and try hard to put an act of being tough.

Stop –

STOP Being so tough. Or rather putting an act of toughness.

STOP Searching for answers. Somethings are beautiful when left unanswered.

STOP – Masking – Unmask- start doing this, no matter how embarrassing it is. It benefits you and to hell with people who do not acknowledge.

STOP- being what you are not.

STOP being right all the time. Don’t struggle so hard to be right.

If you mask yourself too much, a time will surely come when you will be tired of this anti-thesis within you.

You will lose your own identity trying to confirm every time with the masked YOU.

No one is perfect, and I surely don’t want to be perfect.

Love your flaws!!

And something that I do subconsciously , laughing a lot without a reason. Well, what a blessing!! Keep laughing.

When I laugh a lot people think I’m insane and that I’m beautiful but brainless. I’m none, thank you very much!!

Rashmi Malapur

Gulzar sahaab’s writings are timeless

Why are Gulzarsahab’s writings timeless?

Click: Courtesy: http://dohaz.com/songs/Agar-Aisa-Bhi-Ho-Sakta-Artist-Gulzar-Lyrics

It’s Gulzarsahab’s birthday today and I thought about translating one of his poems written for the movie he directed; ‘Ijaazat’.

The gist:

My things lying in your home can be returned to me but, how are you going to bury/ forget and throw away the innumerable memories that we have woven together. They are eternal and you cannot detach yourself from them. Im eternally attached to you and if at all I try to separate myself from you, I will take my last breath.

मेरा कुछ सामान, तुम्हारे पास पड़ा है

सावन के कुछ भीगे-भीगे दिन रखे हैं

और मेरे एक ख़त में लिपटी रात पड़ी है

वो रात बुझा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

You have returned some of my belongings today,

But, there are some more things that are lying with you,

Some days drenched in raindrops,

And a night that we spent together is wrapped in my letters

Make me forget that fiery night, return me these things that I still so fondly embrace.

पतझड़ है कुछ, है ना?

पतझड़ में कुछ पत्तों के गिरने की आहट

कानों में एक बार पहन के लौटाई थी

पतझड़ की वोह शाख अभी तक काँप रही है

वो शाख गिरा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

Do you still remember the autumn days?

The sound of the autumn leaves that drifted away from the tree and fell off,

That branch since autumn is trembling in the fierce winds,

Wither off that branch for me,

Return me these things that I still so fondly embrace.

एक अकेली छतरी में जब आधे-आधे भीग रहे थे

आधे सूखे, आधे गीले, सूखा तो मैं ले आई थी

गीला मन शायद बिस्तर के पास पड़ा हो

वो भिजवा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

Once while we were sharing the same umbrella,

We both got drenched in the rains,

A bit wet, a bit dry, I brought along with me all the things that dried off,

But, my heart that soaked in your love, is still with you,

Send it to me and also, return me these things that I still so fondly embrace.

एक सौ सोलह चाँद की रातें, एक तुम्हारे काँधे का तिल

गीली मेहँदी की खुशबू, झूठ-मूठ के शिकवे कुछ

झूठ-मूठ के वादे भी सब याद करा दूं

सब भिजवा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

Those 116 nights that we spent together,

The mole on your shoulders,

The fragrance of the wet heena on my hands,

Those fun filled tantrums,

Can you remember those false promises you made?

Send back all these memories,

Return me these things that I still so fondly embrace.

एक इजाज़त दे दो बस, जब इनको दफ़नाऊगी

मैं भी वहीँ सो जाऊंगी,

मैं भी वहीँ सो जाऊंगी

I have only one wish that you can grant,

When I bury these memories, let me take my last breath.

Click: Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/while-reading-tagore-we-tend-to-forget-that-he-wasnt-born-with-a-beard-gulzar/

I feel Gulzarsahaab is the ‘King of romance’; intense, subtle, intuitive and full of romance. I faintly remember the first time I got introduced to his writings. I was still in school, probably in the 8th grade when I watched his movie ‘Ijaazat’ on Doordarshan (the only channel that existed in those days as compared to the crowd of channels telecasting sub-standard serials with no content value).

While I watched the movie, I got engrossed in the storyline and the characters. I found the movie a cut above the rest. Some other movies that I loved were ‘Pestonjee’, ‘Masoom’, ‘Andhi’ and ‘Sparsh’.

These are unforgettable movies. Coming back to ‘Ijaazat’, I loved the movie for its intensity, cutting all the pompousness of Bollywood. Extremely sensitive, well directed and written. I got curious about the director and started delving more into Gulzarsahaab’s writings. Those days Google hadn’t come into existence. I relied mostly on Radio (no FM, just Vividhbharti).

I gradually got to know more about him and his work; the more I heard songs penned by him, I got attracted to his poetry. He made an album with late Jagjit Singh, which was called ‘Marasim’ and I practically heard it everyday.

With the desire to read more of his poems I bought his books, ‘Raat Pashmine Ki’ and ‘Triveni’. In the book ‘Raat Pashmine Ki’ Gulzarsahaab has written and dedicated a poem to Naseeruddin Shah. An apt description of Naseer and his acting skills.

At times, it is difficult to find the hidden meaning behind the poems because, at face value the reader will never feel the intensity.

One of my all-time favourite songs written by Gulzarsahaab is ‘Mera Kuch Samaan’ from ‘Ijaazat’. This song has a deeper meaning where the protagonist writes a letter to her lover, who is now married to someone else. The couple decides to return all her belongings which make her presence felt in the house. Her memories linger in their mind and it disturbs the wife.

Here is what she has to say to her lover:

She wishes to say that my things lying in your home can be returned to me but, how are you going to forget and throw away the innumerable memories that we have woven together. They are eternal and you cannot detach yourself from them. Im eternally attached to you and if at all I try to separate myself from you, I will take my last breath.

From the words ‘autumn leaves’ I also remembered this song sung by Nat King Cole, which also speaks about separation.

Lyrics

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

Songwriters: Unknown

Autumn Leaves lyrics © The Royalty Network Inc.

From Wikipeida:

“Autumn Leaves” is a popular song and many singers have sung it. But, originally it was a French song called, “Les Feuilled mortes” which means “The Dead Leaves” whose lyrics were written by poet Jacques Prévert and composed by Hungarian – French composer Joseph Kosma

How Yoga helped me?

Amidst the daily struggle with restlessness, anxiety, and mood swings, I was finding my answers to the root cause of these emotions. That is when I started practicing yoga under the guidance of Mamta mam at Spoorti Yoga.

Slowly a journey within began.

My Yoga Guru: Founder of Spoorti Yoga – Mamta Rao mam.

You can connect with Mamta Rao at mamtarao68@gmail.com

I found that I had deep-rooted fears that caused barriers to my daily life and spiritual growth.
Yoga kept me rooted to reality and made me more patient. The constant blaming on situations was replaced with gratitude towards my blessings. Slowly I’m learning to become calmer within.

I feel energetic to do so many things that I initially used to give up on. I’m trying new things and taking up new assignments as a writer even during lockdown times. Also, since I have hypothyroid, Yoga has helped me to keep my weight constant and acidity is no more a challenge.

Mamta mam’s positivity is infectious and her innovativeness keeps you hooked on to the sessions. I love the online classes that she is conducting as we can’t move out of the house due to the lockdown.

My journey within continues as I progress towards developing a balanced mind and connecting with myself.

Thank-you Mamta mam for being such a great source of inspiration to us.

Blind