Me in all my brooding avatar after discussing some events...
Me : "Zaara don't be so attached to teachers or fella classmates. Years change and your sections also change. You must go with the flow!"
Z : "But why should I not get attached. At times I may find a favorite person in the process, with whom I would love to talk more..."
Me little surprised: "Ya, you will find such, but is there any recent favorite person!"
Z: "Ya , my grade 3 teacher . I meet her in every snacks period!"
Me : Really?!
Z: Ya , I still meet her. We talk. One day she asked me , how's your grade 4 Zaara. I said , "Mam!Busy, suffocating mammm!"
Me: wow, then?!😅
Z: She laughed and said, tell me about it Zaara and we chatted away.
Me: So you guys talk like friends now then!?
Z: Ya. She is not my class teacher, so we talk more now.
Me: So you feel good then!?
Z: Not just good maa! It feels fresh, a new feeling....like how you finish a book and start a new one, or how you end a lesson and start a new lesson, I feel that refreshing!!!
I WAS MIND BLOWN AND COMPLETELY SHOCKED TO SAY THE LEAST! I didn't want to amend her thoughts or add my thoughts. I just let that be...
It feels like it is not me who is teaching, but my always talkative 🦜 kid is teaching me - more about relations, friends, or emotions !
Uhh! Freedom of Speech and Expression - what a beautiful freedom to have and exercise, isn't it?!! And a child reflects it every once in a while and makes us realise how to beautifully yet nonchalantly execute it!
Today is 78th Independence day for India ( India became independent on Aug 15th 1947, 🇮🇳) - Happy Independence day. A plea to all to have the sense and sensibilities to recognise and understand the differences between patriotism and hyper nationalism!⛓️💥
Off we go - I thought finally and was super excited even for our super short trip to Kerala ( Gods Own country it is called in India due to its divine locations, general calmness and the beauty). Due to some repeated health issues and other obstacles our different kinds of trips planned to Thailand, then to Bali etc did not get implemented. Cancelling all the foreign trip plans - we rounded on somewhere near - udupi ( TamilNadu) or Kerala in June - even they all got postponed or cancelled and so on...
This summer threw me a curveball - some health issues turned chronic and demanded long treatment sessions. I ended up spending weeks indoors, barely touching my usual hobbies or even picking up the phone. Also I believe there is NONE to call to coz all are in their soup! I don't feel like calling friends when there is really no plan or nothing exciting happening. Just to mope, it doesn't feel right! Every one nowadays prefers to mope like a mop in a corner😜 Doing otherwise is a blasphemy for adulting :) and anyway so all plans kept getting cancelled!
So we finally planned a 3.5 days or I must say just 3 day trip to Kollam , Kerala via Trivandrum. As soon as we reached, huge waves of Arabian sea welcomed us just outside the airport premises (I thought it is Bay of Bengal and my daughter corrected me with a taunt that what did I even study in school? 😀). Our moods got lifted seeing the sea...and another highlight of the day is meeting an old friend, who became a good blogger friend during one of A to Z writing challenges - Shail Mohan, she and her husband suggested a restaurant and we all met for lunch there...Sea food eating folks ordered some prawns and all of us tasted some Kerala style chicken biryani. Even if I don't eat fish, the fish gravy tasted great and biryani is okayish for my palate.
I felt jubilant on meeting Shail and we recollected , relived all the moments from our last meet which was nearly a dozen years ago in Hyderabad! Phew. Time did fly. I felt like a baby then, now am meeting her with my baby ☘️♥️ . We all guffawed , talked and went click click click but we had to disperse sooner as we wanted to continue with our trip and do some boating the same day...
We reached the Fragrant nature resort around 2 PM and were welcomed with a sweetish tangy beetroot juice I guess. I didn't ask what it is but felt good on the taste buds. The drizzles also gave a lyrical welcome to us. The resort is located just on the shores of paravur lake. The resort itself is nearer to paravur beach and a local Elephant park! Quite a dreamy setting for a long weekend get away. As I started taking in my surroundings, the resort manager or whoever it was - greeted us and explained breathlessly what we can do, what we need not, weather updates, complimentary boat rides so on so forth! As we already had an early lunch, we had time to relax for a while before we go ahead with our Kayaking!
My daughter utters so many wise words at the age of 7-8 , it almost feels like she is some 18+ and in all - sage avatar is preaching me. From today I am trying to be active on blog and would try capturing some of the random wisdom nuggets and wise-cracks, my daughter has up her sleeve :-)
My wisdom tooth is a unique pain giving companion from more than a decade 🤕. A nerve exactly is passing in between the tooth and to operate it's tough, if it's bone we can still surgically extract...if nerve little tough - at times u may lose sensation of the jaw, but mostly u won't - I was told .. I thought, feeling the pain is better than feeling nothing, so nearly from 12 years I suffer on and off immense pain episodes, sometimes I get fever and so on ....
Today some food got stuck in that tooth. I was cleaning and then pressing my jaw in pain, holding it...and so on, seeing my trials ,
my daughter : "what's wrong!"
I then explain about the wisdom tooth...
After five different Q and A on what it is, why it's extracted and so on ( and me googling most of it to explain to her😜)....then she goes on like this.
"Mamma I guess I know the reason why you are in so much pain!"
Me: why
Z: maybe it's not just nerve , maybe tone down your wisdom. You act too wise at times 🤔
Me: means?
Z: Become a bit dumb, then the tooth won't be used much ...Being dumb numbs the pain ma!🤣
Me again perplexed as am not sure if she is just speaking sillily or even if in the form of taunt at me, the sage avatar of hers made her utter the life's most profound and ugliest fact 💯🙂💥
I am happy to say on my blog that I am in the process of getting published, a collection of my poems. While aimlessly scrolling through my final manuscript on a dull rainy gloomy Sunday (as I didn't have much zeal to sit or look at it due to some events in my life), I remembered this movie recommendation from my intermediate friend Poornima - who now is a Gastro surgeon in Hyderabad! What started as a casual time pass watch became a much needed brooding piece for me!
I finished watching it and I wondered why no one is talking about it! We’re quick to troll Tollywood for mindless content, but when rare gems like this quietly shine, they somehow go unnoticed, so I felt a need to write. Even I thought maybe it's originally a Tamil or Malayalam movie - that's how the brains got wired 😀 but felt happy to see that it's a true blue Telugu movie!
What can I say about the movie? It felt like chicken soup for the soul. It’s been ages since something so pure, so soulful, and deeply rooted in emotion has graced our screens. It gave me the warm, nostalgic vibes of Geetanjali ( may be due to locations), Yevade Subramanyam, or even Aanand and Godavari (the classics by Sekhar Kammula) - those timeless, feel-good films from the late 90s and early 2000s that made you pause and feel. [Non telugu folks may not be aware of all this but read on :)]
The film explores many aspects like feminism, heartbreak, outdated societal norms, and above all, the strength of the human spirit. It’s a must-watch for women, especially!! The story follows Shuddhi Ayodhya, a passionate poet-author played gracefully by Ananthika Sanilkumar ( she played roles in some other telugu flicks), and her journey through love, self-discovery, and resilience.
Yes, the script does fumble at a couple of places, but it hardly matters - because what you walk away with is a deep sense of having felt something real. The dialogues are raw and powerful, and the connection between the two writer characters will especially resonate with anyone who writes or feels deeply!
Here’s a dialogue that stayed with me, when Shuddhi sees the Taj Mahal, she reflects :
(A man has grand symbols like the marbled Taj Mahal or cities like Bhagyanagar ( Hyderabad ) to prove his love. But what does a woman have? Just the memories she buries in her heart.) - translated for non telugu folks!
That line alone is worth the watch.
The writing feels like it comes from a place of lived emotion, of quiet pain and silent strength. Hats off to director-writer Phanindra Narsetty. He’s on my radar now - I truly hope he keeps making such honest cinema. He has given a new face to the female protagonist by not reducing her to an oomph exuding male magnet. Thanks for that🙏🙏
The poet in me now may be inactive, but this movie has definitely stirred the soul.
PS: I also felt learning self defence could be really important for a girl, yes our protagonist is a black belter and that one fight sequence in the movie is just😲 fabulous, again laced with great dialogues!
Reflections💡and Life Lessons from the Movie (for all):
After a series of much real posts on my blog, today I want to write a heart warming one - An event that took me down the memory lane , made me relive most precious years of childhood once again! India is cricket frenzy and a movie frenzy nation. I think these are the only elements which bridge the gaps and inequalities here...How much ever silly it may seem - I believe they have the ability to divert one from deaths, wars and make one's heart gooey and happy!
There is a trend of rereleases going on in India - one reason being that all the new content nowadays is on OTT ( streaming platforms) and also there is a dearth of non triggering simple happy content for a human to watch. At times we don't need real or relatable content...we just need a fantasy of 2-3 hrs to travel to a dreamy land and come back to face reality. The content made nowadays is great, with mind blowing effects, unbelievable sizes of heroines, transformations on screen, plethora of topics, too many new faces but that old school feel and happy emotions are almost always missing. Once ina blue moon there may be some flick or a series that feels like a slice of life, but most of the times there is nothing which makes you fall unconditionally in love with the characters, the charisma and all the grandeur!
The idea to go to a rerelease started when my close friend from school - Hema once pinged on Instagram saying there is a rerelease of a movie called Murari , that came out when we were in early teens! I doubtfully nodded yes as I was not sure if watching a rerelease is a smart idea. This happened almost an year back , and we both - she a mad Mahesh babu fan😌 and me thoroughly enjoyed the movie, humming to all those sweet songs, we sighed at the beauty of Sonali Bendre, innocence of babu , the purity of the movie overall and thoroughly enjoyed every moment - followed by a yummy lunch and we casually spoke that day, that this is definitely a stress buster - and such a unique memory revival and that we should do it if we get a chance again.
We departed and time flew. In between we did meet for a comedy gig or had some usual girl friend voice note exchanges but didn't get a chance to meet for a longer time again!
As if someone heard us, an announcement came in March or may be April that the movie Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka sundari is rereleasing. I was super excited as my childhood golden lady and someone who I always tried to follow suit is the leading lady in it - the forever gorgeous sridevi. I wrote about her at I always Want to be like Sridevi, if interested to read (Its my love letter to her) 💗! Her dressing, those sarees, that childlike smile, comic timing, those big almond eyes - are all to die for! The hotness factor and sex appeal need no mention!
We chit chatted and had no solid plan in mind because of our own hurdles, health issues and so on - nothing was sure. One of my msgs to hema -"Woman! If you flop this day I won't talk to u!" -..and she replied, "It's Sridevi babe! I won't ditch!" With that excitement and enthusiasm we booked tickets on one Sunday ( May 11th) and tried including the whole class. Strangely none were motivated enough to join the party!
Couple more women had some or other hurdles but one other close Friend Prem was game for it🩷 and we trio booked the tickets on a Sunday 9 AM show😂 I mean I didn't even book such an early show for any releases on any day in all these years! But I was meeting my girlies ....and it was Sridevi Chiranjeevi starrer movie that basically could be the first fantasy movie we watched as toddlers and later as kids.....
The movie released in 1990 created quite a stir and there are stories of how a ticket worth 6/- was sold for 250-300/- in those days! Vyjayanthi movies - the banner under which the movie got released started their own marketing by releasing some merch , past anecdotes as stories on their insta, interviews of Chiranjeevi , Aswini dutt, filmmaker Raghavendra rao etc. Everything was interesting to watch except the only fact that Sridevi is no more - the actual star of the movie is her and it felt like the spark and joy of the film faded in her absence!
So Sunday came and lot of thrill and excitement in air as we woke up early in morning, that too by putting alarms in our phones, got dolled and dressed up mainly for our Sri and started on a mildly sunny morning , thankfully with very less or no traffic and eating nothing coz the thrill to meet each other filled our tummies probably😛. However I gulped a cup of black coffee to not look sleepy and started in a cab. We kept messaging each other and reached IMAX. Not sure if it was the high of meeting school girls after long or if it's Sridevi but I was surely light headed ;)
We started photo sessions and clicked to our hearts' content! The movie started with whistles and hoots as Chiranjeevi entered the screen with this fabulous intro song. As SPB's voice playfully filled the theatre, we were pushed in to the valley of nostalgia with in seconds and were surely not present in 2025. Body present, mind travelled to 3 decades back.
Chiru intro song
Both Hema and Prem joined school in high school years but I studied from Grade 2 to Xth in same school! I vividly remember how we were taken to a charity show to the same movie....almost, the whole school was in the movie hall and it was quite a fun filled day. May be I watched the movie only now again with the girls. The mere disappointment is that they didn't really work hard to clean up the film. The print is as bad as a You tube print ! if not for the protagonists' undeniable grace and charm - you won't be able to tolerate such a bad print on the large screen (even youtube print is better)!
We were utter disappointed and thought to even write a letter to Vyjayanthi movies as especially Indraja's ( Sridevi's ) entry was too bad. All frames seemed like in sepia color mode...all lovely costumes colors seemed hampered ;(...I mean this is not the way an iconic film is meant to be rereleased!!! I don't know where they spent those 8 crore rupees - As per their statement , it is the money spent on movie revival!
Celestial Sridevi (Indra's daughter Indraja) - her intro scene
Everything these days feels polarized. Every single event, thought, or expression seems to spark division.
You can’t even yawn without someone offering a lecture.
It feels like we live under a constant spotlight, where even the smallest actions are analyzed and debated.
Somehow, everything gets tied to your nationalism, your patriotism, your respect (or lack of it) for those who actually serve and protect us.
Before you even finish the sentences or suppose you are trying to have just a dialogue, it never goes smooth as the opposing group is ready to “educate” you on how your perspective is flawed.
In times like these, sometimes the sanest thing to do is focus on the simple, everyday routine, some self-grooming or progress stuff:
Staying hydrated, a personal or official milestone, pending checklist items, skincare, good food, whether intermittent fasting actually works or not, general health improvement, so on and so forth...
These may seem silly or mundane—but they’re the very things that keep our boats afloat.
In these sensitive times, some bonds may have formed and some friendships and acquaintances may have been broken or permanently damaged, all due to strong polarised views, but for our personal well being we all should do what's utmost important!!
Rather than furiously sharing news updates, half-checked data, and being at war of words with each other, it's always better to focus on personal agendas!
I end my thoughts with deep pride and gratitude in my heart for the brave soldiers who put their lives at stake, to make it possible for us to live peaceful, ordinary lives!
Let’s honor them by living well, staying grounded, and cherishing the quiet, simple joys of life. Again I reiterate what I said in all my previous posts - silence doesn't necessarily mean apathy, sound doesn't necessarily mean empathy!
The only feeling I have in heart is amazement by the valor of our soldiers and all the forces in frontline, who nonchalantly lay their lives down. Their cool composure and balanced neutral tone when addressing the nation is worth applause
Keep a check on the Hero Worship you are doing and Let us salute and hail the right heroes!
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