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Indentification points

To be absolutely candid, the responses both in terms of quality and quantity far far exceeded my expectations. Heart bracing to know that there are even far more passionate Ray bhakts than I am.

On re-seeing Pather Panchali — albeit on DVD with a distracting logo of its distributor perched on the north-east tip of the screen — still find myself inadequate in expressing the emotional pulls and pressures that one goes through. Perhaps, it does the heart-catalysed response does have something to do with points of personal identification.

The shadow profile of the ancient aunty — the nonagerian sister of Apu’s father — is a precious image. The camera fulls back from the shadow on the wall of her hollow profile to see her gabbing away delightfully.

Another sculpted image — the old woman trying to thread a needle in flickering light, licking the thread to make it slip through the …

Okay, so an indulgently kind and persuasive cell phone voice, belonging to Kartik (surname not quoted), invited me over to blogland. Not quite techno-whizzy, I procrastinated. There were thel hmmms, i don’t know, I’m the good old ink and paper type, Remington typewriter was so sturdy..but yes, I can handle PCs with not a little help from my friends and colleagues. Since this is actually on blogprint, guess I’m smartening up.

Enough of I-me-moi. I’m here because to blog meansto express whatever, I can’t on other platforms, and I’m not talking railway stations.

The column title ‘Cinema Ray’ alludes, of course, to my god of small and big things, Satyajit Ray. The intimacy he struck with his narratives of people..rich, poor and middle class, remains untouched. Pather Panchali..was a life-altering film. Iwatched it at a film society screening in Bombay’s Tarabai Hall.

After that I’ve never looked at farmhouses zipping …