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Showing posts from December, 2011

Purple Night Dress

It shimmers in the faint light that seeps in from beneath the closed doors. Its touch is like flowers, like clouds, like breath, and it clings and slips and makes you feel quite queen-like. You comb your hair a hundred times and you brush your teeth. You wash your face with the posh, age-defying face wash and you step out of your soft fur slippers. In a smooth, royal movement, your stately frame struts towards your queen-sized bed with its shiny sheets, covers and pillowcases. You lift the covers and crawl deep into their velvetty recesses and, then, all dressed up in your purple night dress with pink polka dot s you turn on to your side towards a blank white wall.

Meet the Street - Bhai Mian, the God Father of Kite Flying

You do not meet someone who has followed his passion throughout his life every day. So November 27, 2011 was really special in the fact that I had the opportunity of meeting Bhai Mian and his son Jamal who have spent years making and flying kites all over the world. Bhai Mian is 85 years old now and his movement is severely restricted because of Diabetes. And this was the reason why the person who had put me in touch with Jamal had woefully predicted that probably I'll not be able to meet the national awardee at all. In fact, according to him, I would be lucky to get to meet his son in person. But when I called Jamal on his mobile, he agreed to meet me at his place in the famous Delhi 6. Full of anticipation, I and my photographer friend followed Jamal through the labyrinthine lanes of old Delhi. This was the first time I was going to enter a home in Old Delhi and the prospects were exciting me to no end. My imagination had run wild and I had painted various pictures of th