CHERISH with HARISH

Bajju, Rajasthan. 9 pm In Bajju, every morning I wake up for chai and smile at strangers, who break their 'Being strangers' tag with that beautiful smile. In a similar way, there is a 'Good-morning' which breaks the unwanted ice, in the rural area across India . People living in Indian cities don't know this concept of wishing strangers, early morning. Coming from an urban Indian background, I also thought that this is a very western concept. I realised its importance when I spent days travelling with my foreigner friends. It would just be a smile, an acknowledgement to a complete stranger. But my recent shift to rural India made me realise that it is much more common here to smile here than anywhere else. When we look at the bigger picture, we always think that the villages have things to learn from the cities, but now when I look at the micro-level, I realise that the villages are any day more 'advanced' than the so-called 'modern' cities. ...

9:30 pm, Bajju, Rajasthan. I was feeling trapped in the Delhi clouds. The clouds were of pollution, of confusion and of pressure I was not liking. I had started doing theatre, but somehow I wanted to do something deeper. I had always admired nature, but never experienced it as close as I wanted to. I had always been somewhat a free soul, a free bird, but I guess I was not getting space to fly. It was very sudden, very random, and I packed my bags to Rishikesh. I somehow liked it. I had started enjoying the concept of self-exploration. I was enjoying the process. I came back home to Gurgaon and on the internet I met an old friend online, who was working in the Thar desert. I asked her about the job. She asked me for a weekend's visit. Keeping my fingers crossed, I left to see the work-place. The desert was not a new place for me, but had never been there for a job. I had been called there for a film-maker's post. Adding to this, I would also do a teacher's, a theatre...

In search of 'me', I travel the universe, I realise that 'me' is, when I actually see the 'others'

Where? When you travel a lot, you don't understand where did the sun set, and where did it rise! Where?

He knew he could never win the game, but still he played it. And then in the final match, he did not play, someone else, someone divine played for him, whom he could feel. 'They' finally, won the match! They did. :)

https://youtu.be/jz_ByDlnhRw

Life, I guess, is a big circle. If we look at it carefully, it has many circles- One spiritual, one emotional, one economical, one social. So, basically, life is a culmination of concentric circles, with our mind at the centre. Sometimes we need a tangent. A tangent, by definition is a line which just touches the circle from out side at a point. When I look at it, we are usually so busy with life that we need a tangent to get out and see where we are. I was chatting on facebook and suddenly I found this old friend. I asked him his whereabouts and he said in a sudden reply, that he was at Rishikesh. I was in a circle or loop called 'LIFE'. I wanted to take a tangent. I wanted to see the things which I always had desired to be with. As an instinctive reaction, I asked him, "Can I join him?" I am sure Negi (my friend) would have been surprised a bit, because that was quite an unwelcome response I gave him. We had not met in a couple of years and this was a good space-...

7:30 am, Delhi It was early morning and I was still on my bed. Up, but still not awake. There was a watsapp tone which shook me, but as I checked my phone, I saw that there were more than quite a few watsapp messages. It was a series of messages from different places which questioned my existence in a time-space dimension of 'X', 'Y' and 'Z'. I had recently shifted to this new village inside Delhi, but my cousins were in Hyderabad, sending me images of the Biryani party they had celebrated, but what was bigger than the taste of Biryani was the long and interesting chat which followed. But before I could read the whole thing, I had a very dear cousin of mine visiting Europe, sending some amazing images. Heaven she was in with the brilliant architecture. But before I could gather myself, I heard a cock crowing. This was surreal. It was straight out of a Salvador Dali painting in the surreal era in Notre Dam, as most of the readers won't believe that th...

A short film, which we have recently submitted to Megacities-Short Docs, Paris has been uploaded by Megacities Youtube channel. It is a 4-minute documentary called 'DILI CHALO'. If you like it, please have a look and like it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4qLF_DKWio&t=156s It was a pleasure making it. A senior of mine asked me to make a film on our present initiative. It was slightly tough for me as I have never made a film on 'Myself' or 'My-work'. This initiative was my advisor's and I had to re-look at this again, as a film. Hope you like it...

11 pm, Gurgaon. Was a lovely workshop. So, I had a lovely time with the senior citizens of an organisation, which had called me to take a theatre workshop for them.They had called it 'HAPPINESS THEATRE WORKSHOP' and my idea was to make them play some games, which made them happy. I ended the workshop and while coming back home, this idea crossed my mind. The idea, I would like to call 'Circles'! May be it would be clearer if we call it 'LOOPS'. Our life is full of so many loops. When I looked at these older people, I realised that our lives are a combination of loops. To explain it further, one loop is the 'day'loop: We get up every morning, get ready for work, do our work every day, have coffee time every day, have lunch every day, come back in the evening, have dinner and we sleep off. And when we get up, the same music begins again! There is nothing wrong in it. May be I had a problem with it, always. I have so many of my friends who are wor...

As a little kid, sitting right next to the tape-recorder, while listening to the song, I would look at the cassette cover, and wonder that the voice is of the singer singing, sitting inside the tape recorder. How wonderful! But as I grew up, I was taught and told, that there is no singer sitting inside the tape-recorder. All my dreams crashed, Now, I just wish, I had not grown up. Why?

The Moon story As a kid, some friend told me, that on the moon an old woman sits under a tree, with lots of stories. Whenever I would look at the moon, I would imagine, the old woman, sometimes scary, sometimes mischievous. But as I studied more about it, my lovely story was lost. The child in me was sad. That there is no 'Old woman', but just rocks! I just wondered, why did I grow up!

Gurgaon, 10:44 am Last Friday I woke up a little early. I was called to a government arts center, for a selection interview to improve the condition of theatre teaching in the capital. They had actually selected a list of theatre directors to take a summer workshop in some school for the month of June. I was very happy. They had called only those people whose plays had been funded by the government center. ('DRAMA JANTAR KA', our last play was funded by them). So, it was a big thing for me. I was getting ready for the interview. I had taken out an ironed T-shirt and a formal trousers. I had taken out the originals of the photocopies I had submitted. Three days ago, I had got a call to be there for the interview at 2 p.m. I got to know about this kids' workshop, through this official who was dealing with Kamaan (my group). He asked me that I can apply for it. He said only directors till the age of 40 can apply. Isaid, I will be 30 this year. He said, "Bahot time...

11:06 pm, Gurgaon. My uncle (my father's real brother) called him after centuries and he wanted to talk with me. He asked a simple question, "Harish, I have a doubt, what do you do now?" This was a question which shook me and because of lack of answers, I simply smiled. An old friend had asked me that day that I don't work anywhere,I have my group's rehearsal only on weekends, I just need to teach slum kids twice a week and now there is a summer vacation now, so the college work is closed for sometime. So how am I so busy, always? But when I look inside, I like having so much of work that there is stuff left after the day too. But where does this work come from? I guess I love 'inventing' work for myself. I have been busy writing a street play, writing a new stage play, and directing a short film, but the worst part is that I like being busy. Only the film part gives me money, and all the rest gives me more pleasure than money. I also get plea...

"Is 'Change' actually constant?" The neem tree opposite my balcony hasn't changed, the universe has not changed a bit, the clouds are still the same. the fresh breeze hitting my face, on a summer afternoon is still the same, Change does not exist for nature, nor for the Universe. CHANGE is 'constant' only for MAN, n no one else. Isn't it? - KHS, Apr'18

Gurgaon I have always believed that if you want to see India in the best possible way, take the Indian Railways! We had started about a fortnight ago from Delhi to basically rest to Hyderabad, but I had no clue that there was so much in store already. I had gone with no expectations, but just to meet my aunt, Tuffy and lots of rest. But I had surely expected train journeys, which always make me think, think and may be think more. But I got gifts which were not material, but very emotional. I loved Hyderabad's evening breeze, which is amazing always. That I guess is the only constant in this ever changing city, for the better. This breeze is an icing on the cake after you get up after a nice afternoon nap! But what was nice was meeting and chatting with my cousin Nannujiji, who had come from Brisbane, who had come back without any airs. I like it when people don't forget their roots and habits. She was exactly the same person I had seen when she left India, twenty years ...

I was quite exhausted after directing a short film and finishing a play. Everything happened in a great way, thanks to the universe. I wanted a break, so I took a week off to Hyderabad, which had no cousins, only 'Tuffy' (my uncle's lovely pet and an old friend!). I had decided to just eat and sleep. We had got the train tickets reserved and I got this news that this cousin of mine was returning to India, from outside, after about 6-7 years. I was still aiming at re-charging myself. I had brought a book of Tagore's short stories, which I had started reading mid-way. I had also thought that I will start working on the next play and street play. But again, my major motive was to sleep. The week passed off in days and I kept looking for the week! But one thing which was good was that I got a video byte and I was happy for it. I also attended a couple of functions and loads of non-veg stuff and majorly, Biryani! I also attended my older aunt and uncle and realised ...

I have been very busy in the last few days. I was enjoying it too. I was preparing for a play to be staged in New Delhi on the 23rd. I had written the play, and I was busy teaching the dialect to the students and the major part was directing it. I was struggling to meet the self-created deadlines. But when you do that, you end up working faster and hence, you become stricter with your work. You start worshiping your work. I had suddenly been strict with my students and Kamaan for 'DRAMA JANTAR KA!' too. I was fighting time Worshiping? Yes, Last week, at the same time, I had got a film project from a reference. Amidst all the chaos of the play, an organisation approached me to make a film on their patients, who were suffering from Dementia. I always had a special corner for people with mental disorders (...as I have one too!). I could not say NO. It is just that they needed to finish the film in just a week. I said yes to them and started meeting and looking at the patient...

I was working on my play's direction and I got a message on my phone to meet up. It was not a wedding, not a function. It was plainly a 'REUNION' and I liked that fact. I love it when we meet for a reason and not mix it with another meeting. It sounds a bit idealistic, but it's fun not to mix meetings and cover a lot of things. I don't believe in the idea of a 'World tour', where you just go to a monument, just touch it and come back. I would like to read about any place and then see it thoroughly. Similarly, I don't like mixing meetings. I love it when I go there for only one reason, TO MEET. This might be one of the reasons that I sub-consciously hate weddings. I am sorry to all my close friends whose weddings I have missed in the last few years. I always prefer meeting in a somewhat 'isolated' reunion and talk about MEMORIES. I love that journey to the past. So after my tiring rehearsal, I left for the 'RE-UNION'. I was early and I ...