the day of the triffids . khayal darpan . operation sonal update.

an apocalyptic a warning regarding bio engineering, ‘ the day of the triffids’ is a futuristic novel where a mysterious green sky leaves the entire world blind except for a chosen few. the world is then taken over by man eating three legged plants. nowhere near as visionary as the j g ballard that i read recently but quite exciting in parts nevertheless.

and ‘khayal darpan’ - as an introduction to some of the classical music exponents from across the border it is a must see. i wish though that it was able to do more than introduce us to mug shots and talking heads with intermediate performances and those rather odd slide shows of national geographic stills. must have been the difficulty of the premise of the project. an indian filmmaker travels through pakistan tracing the classical musical tradition there. it is difficult to separate this from the forms that classical music has taken in recent times on both sides of the border.

there were moments in the film- many of them- in which i felt the way i had when standing at the border outside amritsar watching the daily display of the opening of gates from both sides. at that moment when the land seems traversable with a simple walk something indescribable happens. and i never thought i was one to be moved by such nationalistic sentiment. was it nationalistic? or was it a different kind of longing- some intangible notion of brotherhood that’s been implanted in me over the years. the story of the music seemed to reach that part of me.

and sonal is better- much better. the operation went off well and she actually walked some today using the walker as aid. she might be home this saturday.