The Last Song of the Dusk

In a race effort to banish my self-pity over lonliness, I sprained my neck and finished " The Last Song of Dusk" in less than twenty four hours. This happened two weeks ago and the song has been giving me goosebumps all the while. As I read, the book invoked so many different reactions and emotions in me  that I didnot know existed.


The writer, Siddharth sanghvi, is a talented story teller. The book is unputdownable, as the author's narration spans across time, places and feeling. The quality of writing is exceptional and the story carried a certain amount of magic in it. Set in the '20s, the story is simple yet superbly written. The author holds you thorughtout with his narration. The story is about love, art,jealousy, karma and destiny. The last song of dusk is a story of Anuradha (singer), Nandini (painter) Shloka (kid) and Vardhaman (doctor). Mr. Sanghvi was impressive in his debut, the story is an emotional roller coaster. This is one story that delights you and disguts you at the sametime.

To poke or not to poke :P

Well this is usually my constant affirmation. I have this urge to fix things, people or anything depending on my OCD. There were times when I did not leave the plates in the sink even in a stranger’s house ....but now if you visit my place, my kitchen sink will be filled with utensils at one time or the other in a day. Anyways I'm not here to discuss that though. I have another problem, I offer my piece of advise most of the times. I  offer to help depending on how well I know them and many a  times I help those I do not know at all. Now that is a good habit... isn't it??  My other poking habit is I listen to conversations haha creepy!! not that I'm interested in others lives,  but I have this tendency to grasp reality. People, behaviour, the way they talk and other wierd details. I am an analyst and its my excuse for research, but I do know when to draw the line. I don't try to press my ears hard on a door to hear what's going on inside, or take too much interest in a whispery telephonic conversation.By this I simply mean the conversation has to have the quality to catch my attention. Sometimes I even miss the conversation my friend is having sitting right next to me.

Today I was sitting at a  friend's beauty salon, when my friend told me that he had to go to the car service center to collect his car and asked me to watch the salon until he's back I gladly agreed. After 20 minutes  a woman came in along with her teenage daughter. I dutifully told them that my friend would be back in 10 minutes or so and gave them few magazines to kill their time and I myself picked up a magazine called "Latest hair trends" which was entirely in some south-asian language but for the name. I was bored to death and suddely I heard a conversation between the 40 something year old woman and her 16 year old daughter. The magazine I was trying to read was bad anyway. I heard the mom asking her daughter about school and friends. That grabbed my attention. The girl patiently answered like she really wanted to share. How many teenagers do that? (Not like i am the 40 year old mom) Then the topic turned to men/boys. Mother asked if the girl liked anyone in school. The girl just giggled and said " Oh no mamma no way"!!

The mother gave her daughter a puzzled look and then  rehearsed something in her head  and spoke after a long pause “You know sweetheart just because me and your dad didn't work out it doesn't mean marriages never work" The girl just kept listening (surprisingly the culture here in Goa is some how so umm say western!! and the girl looked comfortable having this conversation) “I really loved your dad and tried but its unfortunate that it didn't work. We even tried for you but it just didnt” I really respected this woman that very moment. Not bothered about my opinion she continued “Now you must be happy to have two moms” The girl smiled and nodded. Mother asked very cautiously “She takes good care of you right?” The girl was eating kurkure i guess, she nodded as she ate. “I am sure she will take good care of you. Anytime you feel low and want to talk to somebody, will you call me?” One more nod in agreement.

After the pack was empty the girl looked up and asked “Are you not going to find anyone?” Mother said “I am looking desperately. I need to find a man faster before you do” The girl laughed. Then she started teasing her mom about some colleague. Mother went red for once. It was a moment. “I will move on sweetheart. I promise. I needed my time. Now I am over him. And yeah that man is beginning to look good these days” The girl squealed in excitement and started singing songs. It was chaos. It was like girls day out(in a beauty salon) . That's when I realized that I wasn't actually part of this conversation I was so involved in whatever was going on between them and before I could hide my blushing face it was too late. The mother just looked and I shrugged. I said “I’m sorry I didnt mean to” She said “No issues".She smiled and went back bonding with her daughter. My friend came at the right time and saved me from further embarrassment. So here is a piece of advise "DO NOT POKE".

Lyrically speaking

This habit of Y really gets on to my nerves.....he doesn't take things seriously. the other day I almost ruptured my vocal chords yelling at him for being irresponsible and he smiles at me and starts singing a song in a self made on the spot tune  which goes like "meri biwi gussa hogayi" can you imagine!! Now as i recollect, that was not the first time he did something like that, in fact I was so busy yelling at him all the time that i failed to notice this unique quality of his. He has the habit of singing about everything he does. Like say, if he's wearing his shirt ... the song would be "mere white shirt pe blue stripes hai". or "mera woh  white shirt kahan hai". Sometimes when I'm irritated his songs make me smile...laugh most of the times.

Yesterday as he was cleaning his cupboard, he came across many interesting things. He worships MJ and he even maintained a diary where he wrote all his songs, not only MJ there were songs by  Eagles, Bob Marley, Boney M, and many others. he even wrote ghazals , Ghulam Ali's "chup ke chup ke raat din" is his favourite, Bhajans by Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Bheemsen Joshi. I get my daily dose of bhajans. I mean he is one person who can annoy you by singing(not that he doesn't sing well...oh no.. he's got a wonderful voice), but by singing songs like "Tukur tukur dekhte ho kya" , "Jethi ki dopahari mein", "Awaara hawa ka jhonka hoon". He stopped cleaning and started to glance through his notebooks  I lost my temper and told him that we had plenty of time for all that and cleaning the cupboard was more important ( i know that was rude, but I had a lot of work to do and he said he would help me finish it). As i was looking at one of his books he told me that he used to write poems earlier(hindi). I thought it would be some kind of weird stuff, but after I read it, I was like "awwwww my jaanu is soooo talented" 

here it is

हर पल तुम्हारी याद

 हर याद एक पल के बाद

यह सच्च है या है एक ख्वाब

मेरा प्यार शायद देगा यह जवाब

हमारा मिलन शायद है एक अनहोनी

हर जनम में पुनरावर्तित होगी यह कहानी

कभी लिखता में, कभी लिखती वोह दीवानी

पुस्तक नयी है लेकिन भाषा है पुरानी

 आओ अतीत को बहलाकर भविष्य को सुधारें

उस कठिन पत्थ को एक और बार निहारें

इस कहानी की शुरुवात  हर अगले जनम में हो

मुझे विश्वास है क्योंकि तुम साथ हो....