A Reminder

Because you never know enough / but you can learn / you’ll never be / ready but you can fake it / because the when and where / are here and now the answers / to who and what / are you and this is the how / and why will reveal themselves / in the making.
Because ready / is never a question just a reminder / to breathe / and jump

- from The Making by Shailija Patel

Solitude

"The solitude we elect ourselves, is met with judgement and enslaved by stigma."

Who Killed My Past

Title: Who Killed My Past

Script Writer: Shubhra Rishi

Music: None

Actor 1:

Dear Past Life,

This is your "next life" writing to you. I couldn't believe that I was born just 25 years after your death. Hope your soul is seeking positive things and keeping away negative thoughts. That's something I have not been able to do. To start with, I'm a beautician.  And I have a big mole on my forehead that I haven't been able to get rid of --- Ironic, I know!! But frankly, I don't even have money to spend on it. So I wear these long colourful wigs that cover most of my forehead. Enough about me.  how's your life... errr.. my past life?

Lots of love and kisses to you.

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Actor 2:

Dear Future Life,

Yes, it seems like my life has a faster refresh rate.I have had quite a life here. I'm a famous novelist, name's Virginia Woolf. The money is quite good and I'm sending you some so that you can get rid of that ugly mole. But let me tell you honestly that looks aren't everything and I hope that you find a man who loves you for exactly what you are. unfortunately, I couldn't.

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Actor 1:

Dear Past life,

 I went to the doctor who simply refused to help me out and said, "you're perfect. You don't need this surgery. You need something else." Well, he is rather old, but very handsome. His wife passed away a long time ago. Anyway, I asked him out and we are meeting this weekend for a dinner date. Your words proved prophetic. Thank you so much. By the way, I'm sending you my selfie with him and a picture of his late pretty wife. And don't forget to send me your photograph next time.

P.S: oh, Ms. Woolf.. I like the sound of that.xoxo
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Actor 2:

Dear Future life,

You already have my photograph. I'm his late wife -- the pretty one and I didn't die..he murdered me.

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(Mechanical voice)

Dear Ms. Woolf, we regret to inform you that your letter wasn't delivered because it was lost in transit..

Depression

John Denver's song is playing softly. A woman is sitting and listening to the song.

Song playing: "Some days are diamonds, some days are stones;sometimes the hard times won't leave me alone; sometimes a cold wind blows a chill in my bones. Some days are diamonds, some days are stones."

Another woman enters and turns off the music. She stands near the table and starts collecting books and papers scattered on the table.

Shweta: We have all had those days that Denver's talking about, haven't we? Those depressive,  lousy, tear-jerking, lonely days....

Sneha :  Hmm. Yeah. I  knew Sylvia Plath had them. So did Mark Twain,  Stephen King , Ann Sexton and even J.K Rowling..

Shweta: hmmmm but Plath, Sexton... succumbed to depression...

Sneha: For authors, they say writing is a way of signaling others, letting people know if they are undergoing depression.

Woman 1:  How do you know?

Woman 2: I use to be depressed too. So I would write about things that bothered me. Wait.. let me find something that I wrote a few years ago... must be around somewhere here - ah.. here it is --  "“I’ve never once thought about how I was going to die, but I know several who are dead.  I don’t even know how I’m going to live."

Woman 1: Wow. What made you write that?

Woman 2: I was once a writer and my job depressed me. I had to stop writing.....

Woman 1: (interrupts) Why? What were you writing?

Woman 2: Obituaries

A Sincere Ode to Belle and Sebastian

Your songs are a reflection of my mood. Well, to begin with, you know how temperamental I am. The feeling of beatitude is rather nonexistent. Happiness is only a subset of my larger mood set. In the superabundance of my disguised emotions, it makes a quick appearance, sometimes. 

Anyway, that was my introduction. 

Now getting to the point, I can't start to tell the first song that I heard of you was Beautiful. And I thought to herself, "I know Lisa like the back of my hand."  Like Lisa, I'm ignorant of what they think of me. "She would rather go blind, still act like a lunatic, smiling at her crazy life."

And then I heard She's losing it. Yes, the first cup of coffee tasted like washing up. It did. No, it's not a surprise that Lisa knew her. Because Chelsea was Lisa. Whenever I listen to this song, it reminds me of Joy Division's She's lost control when a dope-sloshed Curtis relentlessly rants about me, making me believe that I walked up to the edge and laughed, "I've lost control."

Storytelling's my favourite album. And Wandering alone my favourite song. Because that's what I did when my mind started to give up. I went about taking rounds in the city of blinding lights, sitting near the ocean, feeling the water against my bare feet, regaining my strength and my sense because that's was what left of my naivete. Did you know ufck this shit was a lonesome, tranquil instrumental because that's what I wanted to hear, after I mouthed those words to someone.

When you wrote about love, I couldn't stop wanting the world to stop. But I didn't see it coming when you said,

We don't have the money.

(money makes the wheels and the world go round)

Forget about it, honey,

Trouble's never far away when you're around.

Your Absence Will Make Our Hearts Grow Fonder

When the musical journey of a great band reaches its final destination, the world must know of its greatness. So when R.E.M. decided to call it a day on 21^st September, 2011, it was time to look back and reminisce the era which, unfortunately, after 31 years came to an end. 

Most of us know R.E.M. through popular songs like Losing My Religion, Shiny Happy People and Everybody Hurts, but it was one of the first bands which laid down the foundation of the alternative rock genre in the 1980s. Consisting of Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass) and Bill Berry (drums), R.E.M. released their first song Radio Free Europe on a college campus radio show. On MTV’s request, this single was accompanied by a music video.  The lyrics of the song were not only cryptic, but they captured the essence of America’s political movement at that time. 

In the entire span of the band’s career, they delivered 15 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, 1 EP, and 65 singles. An entire American and British rock generation grew up listening to their songs encrypted with sensitised lyrics, highlighting issues like revolution, war and tyranny.

I grew up in the 80s, the time when the Indian political scene was undergoing a lot of radical changes. Indian fans were still reigning in the glory of raga rock, the musical collaboration of several Indian classical musicians with the rock-n-roll artists in the West, a typical archetype being songs like Across the Universe and Norwegian Wood by The Beatles. 

Not a lot of us would have paid attention to this solemn band from Athens, spreading their word peacefully, challenging the norm in the West. 

At that time, the Indian rock scene was largely influenced by western musicians of the Woodstock Era. Indus Creed (formerly called Rock Machine) and a few native bands from the North-Rast were still covering Western bands before 1993, when they started writing lyrics and creating their own music. 

It is also worth noting that since the 60s, rock-n-roll music has never hesitated in admonishing war and terrorism through their songs. Bands like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Pearl Jam have voiced a plethora of songs through music, embracing socio-political issues. But R.E.M. sustained like a diamond in the rough. The band not only managed to stay clear of any kind of addiction/intoxication which has plagued an entire music landscape for years, but they also managed to stay away from controversy which has been a commonly occurring phenomenon in five decades of the rock-n-roll eon.  

In 1997, When Bill Berry retired as the drummer of R.E.M., the band continued playing and went on to release 5 more albums before they finally decided to retire as Shiny Happy People, “holding hands, laughing”.

Few bands have survived breakups, R.E.M. did. And their emblematic music will resonate in our hearts for years to come.

Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder.