A close encounter....of the fourth kind???

Dear Sri:

This is the fourth time since yesterday that I am trying to send you the message. I think IL is going through an upgrading/cyber cleaning process. My fb window is not responding properly.

I hope Lovely Mindi will forgive me. I am using up her space to communicate with you!
You win the prize anyway. First, Mindi came out with 2 guesses and I forgot about my own rule. Secondly, she appears to be an Aparna Sen fan and that is one reason why she chose her. She missed the hint I had left. The KKK hit part. But she may not really be a Bolly fan. I don't think Aparna was ever a Bollywood success.
I was dead sure that you would see through my hint and come up with the right answer. Your knowledge about Bollywood films is phenomenal. But I admit that I did think there was a stray chance that you will mix Sharmila up with Mousumi. I don't know what her first Bolly movie was. You might know. If you do, please educate me.
Btw, there was far more to Sharmila than her dimples. Her eyes, which I had the good fortune of watching from close quarters, were a personification of the age old artists' impression Devi Durga. No wonder Ray chose her for Devi. And the colour of her skin was gold, minus the glitter, but plus a mellow softness. I have seen actors like Uttam Kumar, Anil Chatterji and Soumitra Chattopadhyay. They/He were/is fair-skinned, extremely so. But Sharmila's skin had a fascinating colour to it.

I can't describe her merely as fair-skinned. If I did so, it would sound like calling the Mediterranean a blue sea.
These little stories keep surfacing from my disorderly memoir archive. During an exchange with TL, I told her about another interesting personality I knew quite closely. Andreas Papandreou, the Greek PM from 1981, after the military junta took leave of the country.

Perhaps life hasn't been all that uninteresting for me!

oj

 

My dear Mindi,

I had read your encounter details sometime ago and wanted to come back later to give my fb. Later turned out to be real late and this time round, the fbs here had grown like the tail of Hanuman!

Going through them, as is usual with me, the OP is nearly lost in the tiny crowded brain of mine Yet, your writing style and the stylish you have left their indelible impressions, must admit!!

Like Oj-da mentions, most of us have met or come across some well known figures and it is also true that most of us don't run to them to shake hands or ask for autographs with the exception of few Padminis!

As my dad belonged to the film fraternity, we sort of got used to seeing actors and did not get the 'fan' feeling. But as I moved away from home and as the years passed by, my views changed somewhat. Whenever I came across a popular actor or actress, I used to tell my kids to go up to them and get an autograph which they firmly refused to do. They were least interested :bonk

My recent 'encounter' was with Hariharan and the latest being ShabanaAzmi and Javed Akhtar. And now, I just make conversation like they were old friends and they too reciprocate similarly. No autograph or photograph though!! That would be embarrassing!!

Well well. I guess we Indians are somehow not immune to this 'star' attraction, I feel it is especially pronounced in India.

I came here to congratulate you on your FP nomination Mindi and seeing the animosity you have aroused, I end up asking you, "Autograph please"!

L, Kamla

 

Dear Oj-da,

That was a very interesting fb from you.

I too felt exactly like Cheeniya sir 'cause I too guessed immediately that it must have been Sharmila Tagore.
I know Aparna did not make it big in Bollyland and the other one was JayaBhaduri. But the chronology was all wrong and it had to be Sharmila

Yes sir, you cannot lay claim to a dull and boring life. With a glimpse of Sharmila and the likes of Papandreou and Utpal Dutt thrown in, not to mention the Japanese escapades, theater ventures, TV appearances and the poignant love angle to add real drama, our Ojaantrik has had a very colorful life indeed! And the saga continues....What next sir?!

L, Kamla

 

Dear Kamla:

Jaya's name had escaped my attention. She could have been a possible candidate. However, she spent her growing years in Madhya Pradesh, where her father, Tarun Bhaduri, a famous police officer, was chasing the dreaded dacoits of the Chambal area. It was his book, Abhishapta Chambal, that introduced the average Bengali to the ruthless female dacoit leader, Putli Bai. Later, they filmed the book in Bengali. Not a particularly successful endeavour. The heroine's (Manju De, who was also the director of the movie) face lacked the hardness one expected from Putli Bai. Besides, in terms of physical agility, she looked like a caricature of a docoit queen!

Speaking about Jaya, her first film was in Bengali, if I am not wrong. She must have been in her early teens when she acted in Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar. It was a side role, the hero's sister. Sharmila though was the heroine in her very first film and went on being a heroine till she crossed over to the wrong side of her heroine age.

Regarding life being interesting, I think it must have been interesting for all of us. It all depends on noticing what's happening. I suppose, even without Sharmila's presence, life does keep us all enthralled.

Sharmila wouldn't be too happy to know that my thoughts surrounding beautiful faces landed me today on a face I came across in Suraj Kund, Delhi. It belonged to a monkey. We had arrived there for a picnic and I was carrying the food basket. A monkey followed me and, finally, caught hold of the basket. I immediately looked back at it.

Can't forget the expression on its face. It was not battle ready yet. Just watching my face, trying to gauge my mental strength as an adversary. I scowled at it and the poor thing scampered away. I saw the same expression on the face of a beggar woman who grabbed on to the package containing the sweets we were carrying out of the Dakhshineshwar Temple after offering them to the Goddess. This time, I lost the power of resistance. She sensed the weakness and immediately snatched it away from me. Created quite a commotion.

I believe good actors should study the animal world closely to produce the right expressions on their faces as well as the appropriate body movements. For example, watching a tiger walking up and down a cage is a good learning experience. When it reaches the wall that stands in its way, it turns around to walk towards the opposite wall. The grace with which it <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CD1C81%7E1.DAS%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"MS Mincho"; panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; mso-font-alt:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-formatther; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@MS Mincho"; panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-1610612033 1757936891 16 0 131231 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->manoeuvres the turn mesmerizes me. That must have been the way, I tell myself, a great Emperor, say Akbar, had walked up and down when deeply immersed in thoughts regarding palace intrigues.

And then, can you beat this?

​

It's my newspaper clip challenge to Kamalji! Saw it only today. Kolkata right now is hot and sultry.

Life is far too interesting an event to be anywhere near being not interesting!

What's next? Ah ... looking into the seeds of time, are you?

Love.

oj-da

 

Dear Mindi:

Whether I said it correctly or not, I am more than satisfied that you understood exactly what I meant when I brought in the Mediterranean!

Thanks for enjoying the description. But I am highly unstable which you know for sure by now. As I kept on thinking about attractive faces, I ended up recollecting what I have described in my reply to Kamla. Once again, Ms. Tagore wouldn't be too happy to hear about it.

Also, we have all had colourful lives. This too I said to Kamla. It cannot be otherwise, for life, if anything, is amazingly colourful. Some of course are colour blind and that is unfortunate.

Love.

oj-da

 

Dear Mindi

I came here to tell you that wishes from everyone is waiting for you in Milestone thread as you have become Platinum Lite. I think you have not gone to thread as you are busy.

love
viji

 

These lines make me:biglaugh:biglaugh:biglaugh