malaria and mother

What else, i am here lying on the bed, staring at the laptop screening and listening to my mother complaint about the filthy city life of Bombay (she doesnt want to hurt any maharastrian sentiments, just that she likes calling it Bombay). My parents flew down as soon as malaria tests were positive, assuring me of a better life. Father left in 2 days (work comes first you see, i am proud of him!). But life did not change much(except i miss those rum and bada gold flakes now), i thought malaria would get better and i would trip on mumma's food; well it happened- report says that i am perfectly normal but need rest; and the food really is an escape from the spicy maharastrian jewan (food)! But then what? i am on my bed, writing blogs, listening to my mother...where is the crux? wait a minute....i guess i heard my mom saying something! "I saw Manav and Archana- they stay in that chawl!" Oh my holy god! i have been staying in this house facing the chawl for 3 months now and i havent noticed life as much mom had noticed it in 2 days! she was referring to the characters from a daily soap, (of course Ekta Kapoor's) Pavitra Rishtaa. The characters stayed in chawls in the soap; and mom found similar characters in the chawl across the street. she started to describe the daily routine of the families in the chawl- the green one has a mother father, grand mother grand father and two children; the pink one has only two old people and a girl, perhaps their daughter... she went on and WHAT has she observed! I should have smiled and lifted her for making me proud by her observations and characterizations! But i didnt, i havent done that before!

What i thought to myself was there is indeed a film maker within all of us, but more than that the words that echoed in my head were those of Jim Morrison- "we are being enslaved by a system, the closest being a TV set!". Ironically, i am waiting for the cable wala to reconnect the tv set; and my mother was devoid of the daily soaps for 4 days! 96 hours! her symptoms were so much showing the absence of tv. she had become chatty, observative and impatient. the genre of entertainment that i feel has been mis used the most- tv, actually has affected my mother to this extent! To add on to that when she came to know that i didnot sit for the campus interview of balaji television, she became furious and dissatisfied. i had to explain her that why was i dis interested towards daily soaps... and that my interest and passion lied in feature films and parallel television. i explained to her how much i admired when i saw the episodes of buniyaad, strangely she liked it and cherishes it; i thought to myself, how versatile target audiences can become!

i portrayed a laugh, and mother followed with a grin- a proud one (i suppose)! i asked her about tonight's dinner- and disapproved of chewing rotis, she has gone to make Laacha. Bon appetit to me!

Chao.