Sal wanted to go to Wyoming

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In a time honored tradition among the Bujwasis, we all congregated at Satish's house last night (20 mins past the agreed time) and debated which movie to watch. Satish had just bought a new projector because the last one had developed a creeping corruption of dead pixels. Anyways we wanted to start this one on a good note and we settled on Dog Day Afternoon. 

This is the story of a guy, Sonny Wortzik (played by Al Pacino) whose life's sound track could've been The Animals' 'Don't let me be misunderstood'. He is out there with his friend Sal, trying to rob a bank in Brooklyn to fund his lover's sex change operation and having a serious case of Murphy's Law. Even though Interstellar tried to change our view about the said law - 

Murphy's law doesn't mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever *can* happen, will happen.

some impressions are just difficult to shake off. 

Anyways, the movie is this beautiful, fast-paced, tight narrative where we see the day and its strange event unfold from a point of view that is largely informed by Sonny's. He is the man trying to run the show, he is kind, he is desperate, and shit is being thrown at him fast and loose. There is a very beautiful scene where he is talking to his lover, Leon on the phone, he is in the bank with Sal and all the hostages, Leon is in the barber shop across the street surrounded by cops and they break up because Leon doesn't want to be 'accessory' to the whole thing. That is such a personal moment played out in such a public setting, it broke  my heart. 

Image Source: wikipedia.org

The one complaint I had with the movie was that we get almost nothing from Sal (played by John Cazale). We get some hints about how he is a devout catholic and believes that the body is the temple of the lord, he has a problem with being called a homosexual (he is not but his fervent denial smacks of homophobia) but doesn't seem to have a problem with his friend Sonny's homosexuality. He has never been on an airplane before but has been to prison. With the bank robbery turning into a negotiation, he is faced with the prospect of either going back to prison or having to fly to some far away country and never come back - none of them look attractive to him. Also he doesn't know where to go; he thought Wyoming would be a good country to go to but he ends up dead at the end of the day. That is all very know about him. We don't know why he went to prison and why he hated it, who are is family and why he doesn't have anyone to call when he is leaving forever. 

By contrast we watch Sonny make calls to people he loves; we meet his parents, his wife, his lover; we watch them argue; we even watch him dictate his own will. Sal is just there in the background, speaking very little, all wound up tight like a ticking time bomb spring, and we were all waiting for him to explode. But the bang in the end is the sound of Sal getting a bullet in the head.

Ok, that was a really long point there. 

Another thing I found really interesting was the underlying politics in the film. There was the rage over recent Attica Prison Riots where the prisoners demanded more political rights and better living conditions but the end result was a forceful retaliation. There was the voyeuristic media and everyone's tendency of performing for the camera. There was also extreme peevishness over use of foul language one news channel. And then there were the polarized reactions to Sonny's homosexuality. Watching all of this I have a vague sense of Déjà vu - more things change, the more they remain same. I really like it when the tiniest of references add nuance to a story and this movie certainly had that going for it. 

A home coming for a Bhujwasi

The Creepy Doll, like the Lone Pelican of Hamirsar (will introduce
it some other time) are landmarks that makes a Bhujwasi feel at home.

It's so good to be back, after two months in the rural hinterland of western UP, Bhuj feels amazing. I've always thought of Bhuj as this alcove in civilization where one can nestle comfortably. The last time I felt this sense of comfort or being at home in a place, I called myself a KGPian; now I call myself a Bhujwasi. 

Bhuj, the city of beautiful sunsets and breezy evenings; Bhuj, the city of expats in flux; Bhuj, the temporary home of the wandering misfits, the wonderfully varied and deeply passionate. This is Bhuj for me, a city that accepted my weird and offered me friendship. 

One of the things I love about Bhuj (and this is something that happened in Kharapur a lot as well) is that people leave behind these legacies, so we have Bhawna's Bean Salad, Tanvi's Pumpkin Soup, Aarati's Baked Veggies - the list just goes on. And long after the Bhujwasis in question have moved to different places, one makes them and in the flavors, savors all the evenings and weekends spent together, all the seasons we weathered together, all the drunk brunches and nights on the beach, all the poetry readings, all the random impromptu plans, and the camaraderie we shared.

Ok I'm getting definitely soppy. Needless to say I missed Bhuj too much and my fellow Bhujwasis even more. Now I'm back to walking down Saraf Bazaar, joking with my tailor, planning the fake-sangeet, drinking my coffee, and eating my bean salad. If you're curious about the salad in question, here is another Bhujwasi talking about it.

The Long Road Ahead

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I have been meaning to do a little post about A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I finished the book more than a week ago but I haven't gotten around to writing about it. Its a heart wrenching book mostly because Mistry is so good at getting you to invest in his characters. The arbitrary violence of everyday existence during the Emergency - how power was wielded, how the powerful used it to their advantage, how the upper middle class was complicit in it when it suited them and how is dis-empowered the powerless in the name of efficiency and discipline - gave me the shudders. It takes so many political under-currents and tries to illustrate how they come together to form a vortex.

Anyways this post is not supposed to be a book review - I don't think I'm qualified enough to critique someone as masterful as Mistry. I only offer one of my favorite quotes from the book:

"...People keep saying God is great, God is just, but I'm not sure"

"God is dead" said Maneck. "That's what a German philosopher wrote."

She was shocked. "Trust the Germans to say such things," she frowned. "And do you believe it?"

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"I used to. But now I prefer to think that God is a giant quiltmaker. With an infinite variety of designs. And the quilt is grown so big and confusing, the pattern is impossible to see, the squares and diamonds and triangles don't fit well together anymore, it's al become meaningless. So He has abandoned it."

"What nonsense you talk sometimes, Maneck."

All attempts at defining 'God' take me back to the definition that made the first strong impression on me. It was John Milton's (played by Al Pacino) monologue in the movie The Devil's Advocate:

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Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow. Ahaha. And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He's laughin' His sick, fuckin' ass off! He's a tight-ass! He's a SADIST! He's an absentee landlord! Worship that? NEVER! 

I remember being mesmerized  by it and I remember questioning my belief in God - not that I had a particularly staunch belief to begin with. I've seen a dozen Christian Apocalypse movies since - where the lambs are led astray and then they come back to the fold - but nothing ever came close to this masterpiece. 

Anyways let's not go off on a tangent about the half-hearted depiction of Satan in Hollywood movies and get back to philosophies of Life, Religion, God, etc. While my own feelings about God are closer to Maneck's, someday I'd like to achieve a stoic outlook closer to Pavel's and live in an ethical manner just for the sake it - without hoping to build up a pile of good Karma or what have you. Problem is I'm a bit of a vengeful sadistic bitch and I think of Cosmos as a bitch out there, conspiring to annoy me. So one can see quite a long road needs to be traversed before one reaches nihilistic zen.

P.S. I need to thank my roomie for goading me to pick up the book. Here are her own reflections on the book.