CHERISH with HARISH

In NID, after every big festival there is a community dinner organised, where the dishes of that particular region are served to the whole community. It was the Onam Community dinner in 2010. I happened to sit next to one of my seniors, Sanaa. The conversation started with pleasantries and moved on to specifics, "So what is your next project?" asked Sanaa. I replied, "I am looking for subjects for my documentary. I am confused." Sanaa thought about for a moment and asked "Have you heard about this 'criminal' theatre group which is based here in Gujarat?" That sounded very new: ' a criminal theatre group'. The subject sounded very interesting because I knew very little about it. This conversation at the community dinner started the process... I looked it up on the internet...I came in contact with people working on this issue. Then I visited the community in Chharanagar. The tribe is called 'Chhara' and the group is called ...

“न होती उलझनें , तो न मिलते हमें सच के और पहलू , न होती अंधेरी रात , तो न दिखते हमें वो टिमटिमाते जुगनू।“

It’s nice to get back to this space, sharing things with a space which is yours, yet very public. I am enjoying the Delhi winters, which I missed for the last two years. The winter is just beginning to get painfully cold, but still it’s not what it used to be in the December of may be 3 years ago. Just hoping that the temperatures continue to fall down! My schedule these days somehow reminds me of school. I leave for office at 8:45 and come back home by 7 pm. When I drive to the office in the morning, through the fog, it is a great feeling to see other bikers leaving for their offices, battling the fog with me; everyone wrapped around with jackets, mufflers and what not. It somehow looks like a uniform: Jackets, hand gloves, mufflers, hand gloves and backpacks carrying laptops. Then I reach the warm office. It is energetic to work in the first session, with energy levels dipping considerably till lunch. Lunch is a nice time to leave work and have food. Food or a meal in particular, has...

When I see a mad man, it is his mannerisms; it is the way he eats or talks that is a new show for me. Then I wonder madness is! What exactly is madness? How do you define madness? Someone is termed ‘mad’ when he or she stops behaving like the population. But then can’t this be possible that the population might be mad and that one person is sane. This is all about perception. Who actually is mad? Thousands of years ago, when man started, we were all mad, with no clothes, no plans for the future, no societies and no rules. Then we started going ‘sane’. We learnt languages, we learnt how to write and we learnt something which we call today as ‘Culture’. And then we made rules, of eating, of reading, rules of sleeping, and as a whole, rules of ‘good’ living. We declared what is right and what is wrong. And we started a race. The race followed all the rules and we continued to follow the rules blindly. Today our life is governed by strict rules. We keep following them because we have learn...

A young man every day on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Wakes up and tells his father in Pashto, “It seems to be a clear day, no American and Pakistani army vehicles around.” Another young man wakes up in Africa, picks up his rifle, Which is almost half his body size and is happy that he did not have to wake up, With sounds of gun shots. In Swahili, he mutters “It’s wonderful to wake up in PEACE!” A tired young man in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, lies down in the afternoon, thinking of how his uncle had killed that Sri Lankan soldier who had abused his mother. That Tibetan young man hugs his sister, as she starts crying at the taste of Thupka, Which reminds it of her mom, who was killed by the Chinese soldiers years ago. That fair young man in Gaza, Kneels down to offer prayers to God, A God who had done nothing to help him till date, The war still went on with no winners, no losers, no parents, Only Israelis everywhere! That Kashmiri young man leaves home early morning, With a kiss o...

We talk of so many lives in one world, But little do we talk of so many worlds in one life. I live in diverse worlds, in the same life. One world has my house, my parents, and memories. Then there’s one which has my love, my friends and places and people I miss. There’s my college, my dreams of a job or two or more, Then there’s a world of good things I have done, Then there’s one which has all the embarrassing moments of mine. There’s a world which I want to be in, and there are a few I hate to be in, Some worlds start and end in a moment, some last a lifetime, or may be further. Some worlds I want to leave behind and move ahead, Some I want to enter with smiles. Some worlds which are pure nostalgia, enclosed in those old photo albums. All different and wide apart, but my worlds. I can’t divide these worlds by drawing lines, In fact one leads magically into another. I am presently traveling from Delhi to Ahmedabad, From one world to another. There are journeys which introduce me to w...