Oye Billo chaman!

Saw Omkara last night, late show as usual. I'm amazed by the fact that people can take a story written many centuries ago and spin it into something that people in present times can understand. I loved Maqbool (also by the same director) based on Macbeth and this one is equally sharp. I drove through Uttar Pradesh last year and was able to experience first-hand the anarchy prevalent there.

I remember stopping at this dhaba one afternoon, somewhere between Kanpur and Lucknow. I was sitting at a table sipping chai when three or four jeeps bearing the Samajwadi Party flags drove up and about 20 odd dudes got out. Half of them were carrying rifles and they wore the standard kurta/jeans attire complete with the "gamcha",tilak and stubble. Then one guy, probably the boss, started talking on his cellphone. "Haan, hum pehelwan ko bol diye hain....agar nahi utha to uthva lenge....." Trust me, you do not want to be caught listening in on that conversation. I'd be dunked in my chai like a glucose biscuit. As expected they left without paying. I used to complain that things in Gujarat aren't good enough until I went to U.P. and Bihar. Take your average Delhi taxi driver and multiply him by 100 million. That's the cow-belt for you my friends.

Coming back to the movie, I'm really liking Shakespeare's dark side. Far better than the comedies. And when you bring back Iago as Langda Tyagi, man, what can I say! Superb! I love sinister characters......edgy, troubled, brilliant in a sick way. I haven''t read too much Shakespeare and I probably won't get around to doing so anytime soon, unless somebody re-writes it in more contemporary prose. Like I've just started reading the first book of Ashok Banker's version of the Ramayana....it's called The Prince of Ayodhya. Good stuff so far.

Non-stop rain here for 48 hours. Time to dust off the old "The End Is Near" sign. I've noticed rain is a regular topic in my posts. Maybe I'm British. The British did hang out in Saurashtra quite a bit you know. What the fuck am I typing???? Where's my chai?!?!