Monday, July 12, 2021

The Gods on Earth

How do we thank the countless people who have made an impact on our lives? It is Kishore Kumar's birthday today and as I listen to his songs, I go off into another world. If he appeared in front of me right now, what would I do? Maybe just cry copious tears of gratefulness for making my life so much richer by his voice. I know I would not be able to speak a single word.
Just trying to think of all the writers, musicians, artists, actors, movie makers, playwrights who have made my life that much more better, complex and simple. Where would my childhood be without the magic of Enid Blyton and where would I be without my childhood? O'Henry is someone I haven't read in a long, long time but it is he who has been my first guru in writing. Agatha Christie continued my Enid Blyton phase. The poems of Rabindranath Tagore recited to me by my mother when I was a child touched a chord in my heart so strongly that it is still vibrating. Beatles, John Denver, Smokie, Carpenters all bring with them memories of childhood summers spent with my cousins in Shillong.
Wham is a taste of my teenage years. Posters of Wham and Archie comics is who I would describe my room those days. Movies like 'Sound of Music' and 'My Fair Lady' were passed on my aunts and mom to our generation and I am passing them on now to my sons. Masoom is another movie that has stayed with me over the years. Stephen Spielberg brought E.T. and Goonies (story) into my life then so many more... Saving Private Ryan came at a very vulnerable point of life, Schindler's List at another. Tintin  There are so many Speilberg movies that is woven into our lives that its not funny. (Btw, here's a link in which you can rank his films: http://www.hitfix.com/awards-campaign/steven-spielbergs-25-greatest-movies-to-date-1974-to-2012)
Books like Sun Signs were part of my life for a short time but very intimately... extremely thankful to Linda Goodman for those moments. Also Eric Segal! how could I forget him? Jeffrey Archer and John Grisham are still with me, walking by my side. 
I am, as you can see, not a Shakespeare girl but whenever i have read him, he manages to say what I feel and touches me deep inside. Van Gogh, daVinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Matisse fill me with a spiritual bliss.
So many and so many people. Writing, painting, singing with a passion that at one point or other has touched my life. So many that I dare not start writing a list beyond the names I have mentioned. Can I leave out Freddie Mercury? Or do I not mention Jane Austen? Also thinking of the many people who perhaps contribute to drawing comics children love. Does a writer write for money? Can someone write for money and write so beautifully?