Lalita Iyer

 MY MIND IS NOT MADE UP....... My latest writing project just got over and so I am at a loose end. Well, not really. I have a couple of projects in my mind but that also means the rains can't have a mind of its own. Brilliant sunshine in the morning and there I am singing with the finches (do they sing?) and then it gets cloudy, humid and pours incessantly for 15 minutes and then stops. I seriously have nothing against the rains. So what if our CM, KCR garu has got us both the Krishna and Godavari waters to our taps. It is the rains which puts the smile back on the farmer's face, at least for a period of time. It is only then that greenery takes on a new hue.  (A poet friend the late Prasad wrote, `pacche rang ki pacche essi nattu').While I will not deny that there is a certain charm in this season, of having a roasted corn, even as the warm embers of the coals dry up your face. Or having a hot cup of ginger tea from a roadside stall while you are inside the car. Or having ...

SOMETHING ABOUT GODSE After I saw `Samadhame' and `Ante Sundaraniki' I felt a bit dull. The first film was definitely nice but lacked vim and vigour, while the second one went in so many directions, poor Naani probably did not know he was suckerpunched. Directors and also script writers do not know where to stop and so there is unnecessary khincha khinchi......till you as an audience on the OTT platform, change the movie. Samadhame has some cute songs, reminicent of circa 80s, musical and full of tamasha. And then Netflix announces Godse. Must say the name is very intriguing. And the hero, Satyadev Kancharana, known popularly as Satya Dev, not much seen but boy is he good! He is among those who makes a few films and with fairly meaty roles. While the name of the movie makes us recall Mahatma Gandhi, there is one shot to connect to the name the hero has got. Otherwise the movie is based on a Korean film called The Negotiation. Aishwarya Lekshmi, the ACP from the negotiation team...

NEW SHOPPING SCAPES Every day events excite me quite a bit and I like to write about it. Like the state of roads in and around Srinagar Colony and there are such dangerous pot holes in certain turnings and corners that if a car gets stuck, it would take a long time for it to get back on the road. So, while Hyderabad wins prizes for being the best city, it is only on the main roads and probably the ORR. But with guys brandishing guns and young idiots zooming at high speeds, that is also losing its charm, especially after dusk or pre-dawn.  I do not want to complain, because how much can the municipality guys do or MAUD do. They are probably busy wondering when they will get their salaries. And look at all that construction happening abutting the ORR. My God, and I am left wondering if there are enough people to buy the apartments. And all of them have smooth facades and elevations, for all the pipings, ACs are centralised, including the bin chute. God help the occupiers if one of th...

ROMANCE IN THE AIR Saw Viratta Parvam.... While romance is relit by the poetry and the literature, the cause for naxalism or who and what they were fighting was lost. Before I write a little about it met some old pals at Amar Devulapalli's home. He makes you climb two flights of steps but being the perfect host, makes up for it.  Then there were the boys including Sattibabu, Madhu, Divakar and Tiger, aka Srinivas Reddy, aka Seenu. When Amar and Tiger get together you must be there with your filled glass and 'listen', which is a skill, believe me. You can only learn.  Between the two of them they carry an era of reporting, colourful, informative and full of dates and names. And it is always filled with beer, nights filled with drinks, afternoons of scooter rides into forests. Fascinating and I come away awed each time by the sheer depth of information these two guys have.  I am going to be quick about this, because my friend said I was too long in my previous blog. I was d...

A LITTLE MOPING AND LOTS OF TV WATCHING I have been moping around today because I have a cold and cough and no fever. Murali has been going through the same since he returned from Mumbai and I have been nurturing him back with vetha khozhambu and molugu rasam and the likes. Today morning I complained of exhaustion and he reassuringly tells me to stay at home and not even go for my daily chakkar. Let me digress. If you do not go out everyday you lose track of new roads, new cafes, new restaurants, new sari shops. They all seem to be sprouting overnight. Like new flats. You would have crossed some sand traps, workers carrying on their heads and little children running between their legs and of course the ubiquitous blue sheet and by the time you are checking out the other parallel road, the flats are ready, the sand traps are still there and in fact there is also a truck unloading something. I have heard of pre-fab but this is something else. So if I am not working on an idea or a story,...

FILMS SEEN AND FILMS YET TO BE SEEN.... There is an overdose of films/TV shows, at least in my life. Murali and I watch a movie in the evening once he returns from office, you know the usual dinner in front of the TV. I thought one meal a day on the table is enough for a married couple. Luckily for me, M does not like to watch language shows and movies and so I end up watching these when I am free. And hence the glut of visual media. Mind you, I am not complaining, but when you doze off when somebody is murdering someone violently on screen means there is an overdose. And so I saw Jana Gana Mana in Malayalam, known differently in other languages. Main reason being Prithviraj, who is a great performer. I had not heard of the film and I seemed to have caught it on the day it was launched on the OTT. All the while I was reminded of incidents which had taken place in Warangal, outskirts of Hyderabad city and the ACP was incidentally called Sajan. There is an encounter of four 😏men, to boo...

 SOME MORE THOUGHTS ON THE SUPREME COURT ORDER So, what the bench at the Supreme Court, who passed the recent order saying `sex work' is a `profession', is thinking is that there is `dignity' in selling your body and adult women should be allowed to go about doing their job. And since they will not have an agent, also popularly known as pimp, they will go about in public calling out to men and exhibiting their ware, since that is the way this job is done.  What the Supreme Court is saying is to arrest all pimps, brothel owners or anybody making money out of the body of a woman. Which was always the case. There was no pimp or brothel owner who put up a board or carried a visiting card on himself. It was and is always word of mouth and there is a chain of control of these people. Which is one of the reason that it takes a very long time to convince the girl to go to court against them.  The terrorising of the girl in court is another story. Wonder if the judges know about a...