Are days short or long ???

This post is about something that struck my mind when I was in the bank to get a Demand Draft( thought of the day!). Why this one hour in the bank was so dull and humdrum. Each second in the clock was so slow that I stared at the clock until the teller called to collect the details. Again had to wait for the Demand Draft in a long queue. The time which I was in bank was so tedious. I wonder why certain moments in life moves very slow and dragging, slow and steady, medium speed, fast and furious, super fast like jet. It's the same time span we spend, but where does this difference occur??? (Don't wait for the answer in this article !! even I don't know!). I wish I had a machine which is equipped to control the time (hmm! under 18 is controlled by their parents). And I call the machine as ' KAALA YAANAM ', controls in the machine would NEVER MOVE, MOVE WITH LIMITED SPEED, MOVE WITH JET SPEED. I have experienced some moments in life which passed by so quickly that I couldn't even enjoy completely, but some stay 'still' even if I don't want them. Now I recollect the dull moment when I stood before my mom to get the signature in my progress report, the time would just stand still until she's done with her scoldings. When we go out for a picnic in our school days the day would just fly by. Even our summer vacations which we think is two months long would roll by like a second and the next thing you know, you'd be wearing the boring churidhar with a fully loaded bag trying hard to break my back. In college its was reverse - the moments in college were very short and the holidays were long and boring. The night before the university exams were the shortest. When we attend our very first interview, the moment before we step into the cabin, time would literally crawl and it'd be so silent that we can even hear our own heartbeat (For that matter even my college viva-voce was like that !! LOL!!). The days in the company while in training was fun and quick but the days with overloaded work is long and tired (That's why we call the training period as ' HONEYMOON TIME'). The time when we fall in love with our heart-throb is very short and busy. The days just turn into seconds and blooming period would be like few minutes (until we face the reality , which are again long days in our lives). Especially, when we are waiting for a phone call from them or planning for a date, the time moves so pathetically slow until we reach the actual time and in a jiffy the moment would zoom into the past.

When a women is giving birth to a kid, the day is too long for her parents and husband. Eagerly waiting for everything to happen well. When they bring up the kid, its the shortest that the parents would experience, running around the daily activities of the kid, feeding, putting him to sleep, monthly check ups (OMG!!).

As I started this post with a wish that I need a machine to control the time for any moment in life. I would use it to the maximum in my day to day life. My sleep time will be set to least speed, my fights with Chiky which I'm gonna lose will be the maximum one. I hope you had the longest time of the day reading this fiction post ( imaginary time-machine called 'KAALA YAANAM' ). I gladly end this post with a beautiful quote which I came across by Henry Van Dyke - a short story writer "Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” (This is what I was trying to explain in the entire article !!DUH )

Marilyn and her Legacy!!

This weekend, I attempted something which not many people of my generation attempt to - I watched movies of 1950s. I used to do that back in India, when my father and me used to sit and discuss the technicalities of the olden black and white movies and my father used to rewind and replay many scenes only to explain the advances in technology used in movies like "Maya Bazaar" and other mythological ones. They did not have computers but still made excellent stuff. But anyways, what I did this time was I saw Hollywood's 1950s (although still remembering the Sunday times spent with daddy). 

There was only one name ringing at that time - that of Marilyn Monroe. Recently her fans celebrated her birthday, I think 84th one, not sure, on June 1st. I never knew any other actress from that era, other than Marilyn. Of course Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery, but then they were 1960s type and not 1950s. I used to love watching them on screen as a child.. (they were beautiful, their costumes were excellent and their blonde hair was perfect in sync with their skin color). But after watching the movies - How to marry a Millionaire,  Gentlemen prefer Blondes, the Seven Year Itch, the Prince and the Showgirl, I was rather disappointed. 

I did not understand why Marilyn was so popular. I am not writing an article against her, but simply that I cannot understand why was she so great that other actresses, who had better roles to play and more magnificent personality, were overshadowed by her!! For example, I was smitten by the beauty of Jane Russell in Gentlemen prefer Blondes. She was tall, beautiful and had amazing command on voice and character that she played, but that movie was particularly famous for Marylin and her song Diamonds are the girl's best friends. Marilyn was just another blonde in that movie, with no substantial role. I really want to sit with some fans of hers and ask them why exactly she was so hyped!! She was watchable, but so were other females like Lauren Bacall and Jane Russell. I read a lot about them in the weekend that went, and they were all very famous in their own sense, but no one matched Marilyn anyways. Even the movie - The seven year Itch (which by the way, I recommend everyone to watch) was awesome because of Tom Ewell but is remembered for only Marilyn's skirt scene (which again, by the way, is nothing for people of my generations, ladies have shown so much on screen that the skirt scene is simply nothing to us!!)

I liked Marilyn more off screens than on screens, for sure. She was beautiful, great smile (she could afford to date the Kennedy's, both of them!!) and her dressing sense was impeccable. I disliked her for her roles because I believe that, to be called as an actress, they should do much more important roles than just paying eye candy...and with those standards, I can never like Marilyn. That was a stereotypical role which she passed on to generations where the heroine is just a supplement to the-color-and-the-glamor starved film. Although, at this time we cannot put Hollywood in the same pedestal, but Indian cinema is still the same. Even now, heroins are required to shed their clothes to fill in those 50% of seats in the theaters. Female oriented movies are rare here and I am not sure how long it is going to take for our actresses to seek some self respect. Telugu movies are even worse than Hindi industry, if we compare. All the movies in Telugu industry are "essentially" hero oriented. And to add to the pressure, we have more than 1 heroine all the times, the actors simply cannot act with just 1 heroine. While preparing dinner, I just wanted something to play on computer and I started the movie Dostana, and the same thought crossed again after seeing Shilpa Shetty. I am not saying that they cannot scorch the screens, but then for how long? Why don't Indian people get tired of seeing them half naked? I wish we have more Shabanas, Smita Patils and Konkanas who do movies because they want to "act"!! I hate the fact that we call Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra also as actresses in the same breath as we call Madhubala, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Konkana Sen and Kajol. 

I guess too many thoughts just crossed my mind as I started writing and I started jumping from (over hyped as per my standards) Marilyn to the eye candy heroines who do not mind just singing and dancing in a movie rather than emoting!! This could have been a very very long article about actresses, then and now, with their charm and grace completely lost and having no roles to fuel their talent, but lets talk about that later, time to sign off!!!

Love,
Raji