(Published in First City magazine, July 2013) When the five days of the year when Delhi has nice weather arrive one after the other in mid-June, and the Dilliwali’s house becomes a zone for her infamous mythopoeia, she often wonders: how does it, happen, that a great piece of music can fill you up to the brim, a book can soak you in quietly, a movie becomes a lot more real than your waking life? How does it happen, she twirls the thought; that when the last page is turned, the credits roll, the notes fade out, our lives lie superimposed on a complete stranger’s creation? How does a mere virtual thing enter the realm of the mind and transform our way of looking, even in the quieter moments of dailyness; while alone and roaming the streets of one’s city, soaking in a cloud-ploughed morning sky, watching that rare perfect sunset, we experience strange, virtual company? How does it happen that a favourite piece of art that chooses us, stays with us, finds a life of its own in the realm of the mind, becomes
Dilli, Before Sunrise
Dilli, Before Sunrise
Dilli, Before Sunrise
(Published in First City magazine, July 2013) When the five days of the year when Delhi has nice weather arrive one after the other in mid-June, and the Dilliwali’s house becomes a zone for her infamous mythopoeia, she often wonders: how does it, happen, that a great piece of music can fill you up to the brim, a book can soak you in quietly, a movie becomes a lot more real than your waking life? How does it happen, she twirls the thought; that when the last page is turned, the credits roll, the notes fade out, our lives lie superimposed on a complete stranger’s creation? How does a mere virtual thing enter the realm of the mind and transform our way of looking, even in the quieter moments of dailyness; while alone and roaming the streets of one’s city, soaking in a cloud-ploughed morning sky, watching that rare perfect sunset, we experience strange, virtual company? How does it happen that a favourite piece of art that chooses us, stays with us, finds a life of its own in the realm of the mind, becomes