The Making of the African Queen: Or How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind

I have seen several of her interviews and heard people talk about her but if you want to know true Katharine Hepburn you have to read this book.She was not so confident or so sure of herself but as anxiety ridden as any of us.She would even talk back to herself.Reading the book I thought her psyche is so much like me and I thought I was the only one who is so worried about things.She is one of my favorite Hollywood Actress and this book is just like her personal diary,she is still an icon to emulate.

"But if I smiled or laughed,he did too. I would have thought that tears were the things which bound us together, but no -- smiles,laughter--and they warmed up immediately. We are ridiculous,aren't we - black-white-yellow?If we couldn't have some laughter we would crumble. Color be damned.We must laugh together."

Dilip Kumar - The Substance and the Shadow - An Autobiography

Dilip Kumar told his Life story to Udaytara Nayar who did a average job writing this book and I feel it could have been written better,better adjectives or similes could have been used,it could have been nice sweet book of Nostalgia which readers can return to.It could have been better if first a Urdu writer had written this book and later it could be translated into other languages for Udaytara reveals there were times when she could not understand some Urdu words and later asked a expert.It doesn't even comes close to Romancing with Life which Dev Anand wrote himself.

Any way if you leave the drab writing and just follow the journey of Dilip Kumar,this book still is a good read beside being factual.But at the end of it I hope for a Part II for still there are a lot of untold things about people who were his companions along this beautiful journey of life.Also there are several parts which made me cry,like when his brothers and mother passed away or when he goes to meet an ailing Madhubala.

"In my view the heart-breaking moment in Dilip Kumar's life was not the break-up with Kamini kaushal but the time when he learnt that K.Asif has eloped with his sister.By then I was out of K.Asif's life as the wicked man had wooed and married my friend Nigar Sultana.I can't figure out who was the bigger fool - I or Nigar?His back-stabbing Dilip bhai was unacceptable to me,I cursed him he would die for the sin he has committed.On 9 March 1971 Gopi Krishna called me and informed me of K Asif's premature death.I could hear my own curse ringing in my ears." - Sitara Devi

"Soon after our निकाह Madhubala asked me to meet her.Saira insisted that I should go and meet her as she was frail and weak now.On reaching her home I was pained to see her so ill .She was happy to see me and said 'हमारे शहजादे को आखिर उनकी शहजादी मिल ही गयी, मैं बहुत खुश हूँ!'.I soon sorted her problem and that was the last time I saw her.She passed away on 23 February 1969."

"My mother would be sound asleep, tired after all the toil during the day.My unmarried phoopis(father's sisters) would also be sleeping there as also the healthy Persian cats,which were kept as pets largely because they were needed to warm the beds on winter nights."

"While the singing and storytelling went on ,the Persian cats would be made to sleep on the beds to keep the beds warm for the occupants.That was something peculiar to Peshawar."

Stars From Another Sky - Saadat Hasan Manto

This is a Gem from Saadat Hasan Manto no doubt and Khalid Hasan has translated it deftly in English.It turns the boring black & white world of 1930-1940 Bollywood into some of the most colorful characters and riveting escapades.Lust filled life excesses of artists,literary figures and actors are revealed and that is only comparable with Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street".Manto comes out as a fearless no-holds-barred writer and this book tells or presents to you life as it was actually like in 1930-1940 Bombay.Though at times I thought how would he know who is sleeping with whom or who privately told what to whom,may be some of it relies on gossip though I will like to believe otherwise.

My favorite chapter was on V.H.Desai "God's Clown " really funny piece of writing on Bollywood's first comedian superstar,a Law graduate who always forgot his lines.Chapters on Ashok Kumar and Sitara Devi are quite revealing and latter also has details of private life of K.Asif the director Mughal-e-azam.Chapters on Nargis and especially Shyam are very nice.His life with Shyam is heart-touching story of friendship and just tells of secular hearts in our citizens as it gets close to describing days of partition.This is a must read for film fans and people who think only today's youngsters had all the fun and people in 1930-1940 were all joy-killer and lived serious lives.

"Poona is a city of temples and you have to walk barely a couple of hundred yards to come upon one.Masood's next act was to go into the first temple we passed,pull the cord and ring the bell .When we heard the sound,Shyam and I prostrated ourselves,our foreheads touching the bare road,piously intoning,"Shiv Shambhu,Shiv Shambhu".From there on,the bell of each temple we came across was dutifully sounded and after we had risen from our supplications,we would break into laughter.once or twice we even woke up a priest,but before the astonished and bleary-eyed man could say anything,we were off." - Manto in Stars from another sky on Shyam the classic Bollywood Actor and his beloved friend

Below is a passage on K.Asif  by Sitara Devi,

"In my view the heart-breaking moment in Dilip Kumar's life was not the break-up with Kamini kaushal but the time when he learnt that K.Asif has eloped with his sister.By then I was out of K.Asif's life as the wicked man had wooed and married my friend Nigar Sultana.I can't figure out who was the bigger fool - I or Nigar?His back-stabbing Dilip bhai was unacceptable to me,I cursed him he would die for the sin he has committed.On 9 March 1971 Gopi Krishna called me and informed me of K Asif's premature death.I could hear my own curse ringing in my ears."


P.S. I didn't knew girls were as crazy about Ashok Kumar in 1930s as they were about Rajesh Khanna in 1970s.

Kashmir Floods - What caused them and aftermath

I am 36 and I haven't ever heard of Kashmir getting flooded let alone ravaged and submerged like it happened this September 2014.As somebody pointed out this is one of the worst urban flood disaster of India comparable only to the way Hurricane Katrina destroyed U.S. state of New Orleans.Today in News I heard Kashmir valley is like a saucer,if water comes in its hard to flush it out.People also point out that because of Urbanization and high influx of tourists plastic waste increased which was not processed but left to clog rivers and drains which led to flood like situations just as it happened in Mumbai few years back.Many Kashmiris told horrific tales of their ordeal stating it was difficult to escape flood waters since most houses have sloped roofs.Like if it floods in Bihar you can stay on roof if your house gets submerged but in Kashmir because of snow-fall most houses have sloped roofs and you can hardly stay up there.

Yasin Malik too  was criticized the way he hindered rescue and help efforts not even thanking army which had earlier rescued him.Though I found it strange when I saw on T.V. army distributing Maggi packets and biscuits to civilians,I mean how on earth they would cook Maggi when there is no fuel or clean water and they have taken shelter on upper floors.Women folks were worst affected even in relief camps as no toilets or Bathrooms were provided for them.There were few people and fewer boats to rescue stranded folks and the camps rescued people were taken to were no better.Crores of property have been destroyed and people ruined.No doubt government could have done better and still has a lot to do.We the common people of India were saddened by this awful tragedy and many people came forward to help and many wished to help and had empathy in their hearts for the common folks of Kashmir who saw their Heaven turned into Hellish Nightmare.Many Cows and Cattle have perished and their carcasses floating in the water emit stench and may cause diseases.

Hope is the only way forward,like in an interview on AajTak a little boy on a Shikara boat was as cheerful as ever talking about his family and the night when floods came.