Thursday, July 12, 2007

Delhi Dreamz

"Anything that we achieve is a milestone, so you record it and you move on. We have so many milestones to achieve and so many things to do, that if you pause to celebrate, you will fall behind." How true? , I couldnt agree more with K V Kamath.

I felt sleepy . I was damn tired . I hadnt slept for last one week and there was a pleasure of a small milestone achieved.I was reading that in Delhi of all the places inside a Delhi Mumbai flight that was just taking off. I slept and dreamt about Delhi

I fell in love with Delhi after reading M Mukundan's Novels and Short Stories . M Mukundan wrote good stuff and it was the only way to kill time back in 1990's when Doordarshan was the only Channel in India .Everybody watched Chitrahaar which would have looked amaturish by todays telecasting standards and there was a programme called Chitramala where songs from different Indian language films were telecasted . Good Olden Days!

Mukundan had Dehi as an inseparable part of his writing , in each of his works. The smell and noise of this city and Hrishikesh , Haridwar and the near by places had been effectively portrayed in almost half his works. His craft has such a reflective potential that as a reader I could identify myself with Mukundan’s characters easily and even find solace in my shadow inside them . No kidding. There were protagonists like Appu and Aditya in his novels who were characterised by the discontentments and ambivalence of restless youth, who had bitter experiences with the so-called radical and progressive thinking and activism and who finally seeked solace in drugs and alcohol in their bohemian and nomadic nature.

I dreamt of Delhi , Of the beautiful Punjabi girls with blue veins in their necks and of food in Daryaganj . Of North Campus and Buddhvatika , eX and Delhi University.

I would have liked the dream to go on for quite some time . But an air hostess with a very bad dream sense woke me up and the flight had reached Mumbai.

What an abrupt end ? Just like this post.

7 comments:

Wanderlust said...

Seems you used up a tin full of nostalgia to cook up this post instead of the regular chutney ....:-)

The Lonely Backpacker said...

"I dreamt of Delhi , Of the beautiful Punjabi girls with blue veins in their necks and of food in Daryaganj . Of North Campus and Buddhvatika and of her."

sexy lines NC... I can connect to it :D...

Jo said...

Nice one NC. :-) Talking about M. Mukundan, he is my favorite writer after MT and the only one that I didn't like is one of his latest, Nruttham.

Flyaway Mind said...

hmmm..remember those days when chitrahar, rangoli, mahabharatham & the likes were awaited throughout the week..have never read mukundan's novels..but i always used to indulge in SK Pottakkad's travelogues, and imagine myself in those far away lands...

hope and love said...

nice post..

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

@wanderlust : yupz , O bucket full in fact :)

@wanderlust:Yupz , Welcome to the gang :)

@Jo:Like M Mukundan more than MT may be because of the lonely souls in his books who travel all over India like me . Havent read his latest book :(

@flyaway mind: Hmm , Those were the gone days , but it seems that Doordarshan is still in those old days from their telecast standards . I am a fan of all travelogues not only of Ok but of every leading travel writer in Mallu and English. In fact had finished all those stff in Eloor Lending Library in Kochi :)

@Doc:Thanks , Brought back nostalgic old days is it :)

Red Lad said...

Nice one...Mukundan is one of my fav writers too..

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