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There are some seeds in my body. 
Gradually growing.

One lies in my heart.
Maturing to love.

One lies in my head.
Maturing to learn.

The other two lie in my hands.
Maturing to help.

Perhaps these lines sum up the attitude of any teenager. But Prashasti Aryal’s prose is special. She is sharp. She is insightful. She contemplates the moon from her study table at nights when everybody else sleeps. And she talks to it. And words flow down to her. Sometimes the moon changes color and becomes red.

Red Moon is a collection of Prashasti’s thoughts and sentiments expressed in poems. But poems don’t tell you what prompted those musings. You can only guess. If you know the person, you can guess better. Sometimes the seed of that emotion has been sown years—or decades—ago. So you need to know the person for long.

But what if you have a book of poems in your hands and you don’t know the person? Learn about the poet’s life first? Not always possible. Perhaps the best way is to empty your mind, and read the poems with as much concentration and openness as possible. Contemplate without straining yourself. What they reveal to you is your understanding of poetry. It gives you a chance to reflect on the feelings or emotions they generate, and to connect you with your own past or imagined experience.

But we aren’t satisfied with that. We still want to know the person who wrote it. Our poet, Prashasti, is a 17-year-old science student who has just finished her higher secondary. Her hobbies are writing, reading, painting, music—all the creative stuff. And she has never been in a relationship. Perhaps that gives the reader some context. One’s age and gender often determine how the mind works.

Biological, social, and peer factors shape thoughts. Prashasti wrote the poems during her 10^th and 11^th grades—a phase of life when things seem to be in a constant flux. She lets her mind wander to discover the sublime. And she wanders with thoughts that are as powerful as swords.

Prashasti’s age can be deceptive. You can’t tell her poems apart from any old hand in the craft. They are rich. They are expressive. But they are also mostly sad and melancholic. Prashasti acknowledges that she is a pessimist and an introvert. In the back cover, she tells the readers that the book is a “piece of my darkness,” and in the introductory note, she cautions her readers that they are about to get into her dangerous mind. But that, too, is deceptive. In the poems, a subtle, beautiful, and mature mind reveals itself.

The poems are diverse. Some are long, some short. Some tell stories, some are just quotes. Some are fit for textbook poetry, some are random thoughts spread out one word per line. They are arranged into four groups, each preceded by a letter Prashasti has written to ‘life’. These are letters of despair and confusion. She tells life that she is “curled up in a corner crying and scared,” and that she is “confused and insecure.” But she endures. And ‘life’ listens. It says it loves her silently, and tells her it is with her always: in the moonlight, in the stars. It reminds her that she was born to fight, and that the difficult phases shall pass. She lets the flux pass through her poems.

‘Life’ tells her to confide in someone. And she does so: in her moon. It knows about her, like no one else does. It meets her in the night when loneliness prevails. And she wonders: How can the moon be so bright even amidst all the darkness?

Red moon
Prashasti Aryal
Genre: Poetry
Published: 2020
Publisher: Sangri-La Books
Language: English
Pages: 159
Price: Rs 295

“There’s a difference between dreams and delusions,” is the underlying message of the lighthearted family drama/comedy “Maska”—cleverly puts across. While most Indian and Nepali films have been telling us that ardently chasing one’s dreams ensures success, Maska dispels the disillusion of the entire cosmos working together to fulfill one’s dream (pun intended). Not all dreams are worth chasing. Sometimes, cultivating the skills you already have is better than chasing a distant dream.

Maska’s storytelling is grounded and the plot somewhat predictable. In fact, Maska is a film in which predictability makes it more interesting as the audience get a chance to identify with Rumi Irani (Prit Kamani), son of Rustom Irani (Javed Jaffrey), the sole heir to the historic Cafe Rustom established in 1920 by his great-grandfather. While Rumi’s mother Diana (Manisha Koirala) wants him to take charge of the iconic café, which has a loyal following among patrons, Rumi has other ideas. He wants to be a film star and is taking acting classes and auditioning for roles. The mother-son clash when their dreams collide and a drastic step Rumi takes to fulfill his dream is the story of Maska.

The low-budget, independent film not only captures the nuances of a mother-son relation but also gives space to real life history of the famous Irani Cafes in Mumbai, which hold a special place in the history of the place. Opened by Zoroastrian Iranians who came to British India in the 20^th century when they were fleeing Islamic persecution in West and Central Asia, the cafes played a big role in the popularization of Iranian cuisines in Mumbai. The fares they serve mostly consisted of Irani tea, biscuits, samosas and the famous bun maska (bun and cream) from which the film gets its name.

So with the story of the mother-son conflict and ‘dreams and delusions’ as the front, Maska—written and directed by Neeraj Udhwani—is a coming-of-age tale that also celebrates posterity, heritage, legacy and antiquity, in this rapidly changing world.

Rumi’s mother Diana, who took over the cafe after her husband’s untimely demise, lives with his fond memories. She has preserved her husband’s apparels and accessories and hands them over to her son on his birthdays.

Diana also doesn’t want to change anything in the restaurant. She even repairs the almost 100-year-old furniture to preserve the original essence of the place. Also, the cafe is tied to the lives and memories of many of its patrons, some of whom have been visiting for decades. Rumi’s dilemma is between continuing with his father’s legacy or pursuing his dream. A mama’s boy who has already taken the huge step of moving in with his non-Farsi girlfriend Mallika Chopra (Nikita Dutta), Rumi is also split in matters of the heart when his neighbor Persis Mistry (Shirley Setia) starts getting intimate with him.

On the acting front, our very own heartthrob Manisha Koirala makes yet another resounding comeback. As a Farsi single mother, Manisha weaves her charisma into the role and has us almost believing she is one of the Zoroastrian Iranian women from the Ferozshah Baag Colony in Colaba, Mumbai. Whatever little awkwardness she has in diction while switching between Farsi, Hindi and English, she makes up with her high energy and kindred spirit.

Javed Jaffrey, whose voice narrates the film as Rustom and who also appears in the imagination of his son Rumi, adds humor to the film with his impeccable comic timing. Although not famous for playing lead roles in Bollywood, Javed has honed his skills for decades and in his role as Rustom Irani he proves why he has thrived in the industry for so long.

Newcomer Prit Kamani doesn’t fall behind his veteran co-actors either. As a young and confused man on the verge of a personal rebellion, Prit is both convincing and entertaining.

Who should watch it?

Despite the film being mostly pleasant, the 1hr 51mins runtime feels a bit stretched. The film’s subject perhaps asked for a shorter script. Nonetheless, Maska is definitely a family entertainer and if you don’t mind having to read the subtitles (because some Farsi words might be completely new to you), you will definitely enjoy the Netflix special.

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Actors: Manisha Koirala, Prit Kamani, Javed Jaffrey

Director: Neeraj Udhwani

Run time: 1hr 51mins

Rating: 3.5 stars

Spending the lockdown at home and also have a guitar, but never have had the time to learn anything handy? Here is your chance to channel the inner musician in you. Social distancing won’t let you hire a real tutor and you may also not want to splurge on expensive online lessons. But good-old YouTube has got you covered. There are many channels offering beginners to advanced guitar lessons on the famous video platform. For your convenience, we compile a list of some of the very best guitar lesson channels.

JamPlay 

Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/user/JamPlayDotCom

Youtube subscriber count: 270,553

JamPlay is actually a website that offers paid, structured lessons for students of all levels. But its YouTube channel also has free lessons. It’s surprising how a channel with such good lessons has only 270k subscribers. JamPlay covers all levels of guitar lessons, including guitar guides for beginners to follow along with, as well as challenge lessons for expert guitarists, mixed in with song tutorials and playing styles broken down into simple steps.

GuitarJamz 

Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/user/martyzsongs

Youtube subscriber count: 2,103,760

GuitarJamz on YouTube is where you get to see Marty, the guitar tutor adored by more than two million subscribers and many more visitors. Marty is one of the most patient and thorough guitar teachers on YouTube and runs all of his lessons at the perfect pace for beginners. There are also guest videos, where famous guitarists explain various techniques for players of all levels.

Ben Eller Guitars  

YouTube Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/user/BenEllerGuitars

YouTube subscriber count: 183,259

Now this channel is for the more experienced or for beginners who’re at least acquainted with the basics. Ben Eller Guitars will not teach you another chord progression chart or a guitar cover of a pop song; it’ll give you an idea of what you’re doing wrong with the instrument and how you can make it right.

The channel has a series called ‘This Is Why You Suck at Guitar’, which covers the basics to help you improve your guitar skills and correct the bad habits that are slowing down your progress.

Fiction                                                

The Woman Next Door

Yewande Omotoso

Published: 2016

Publisher: Vintage

Language: English

Pages: 279, Paperback

In an affluent neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, two strong-willed, successful women live next door to each other. Widows and in their 80s, the two come from completely different backgrounds and are sworn enemies, with each trying to make life a little difficult for the other.

But fate brings them together one day—albeit unwillingly—and has both living under the same roof.

The premise of Yewande Omotoso’s novel is simple. But the author has effectively managed to bring to focus how the repercussions of apartheid were widespread and deeply felt by families across the continent for years even after the White minority rule came to an end. The impacts of racial discrimination—mainly based on skin color and facial features that existed from 1948 till the early-1990s—in modern life is what Omotoso explores through her two main characters.

Marion Agostino is a white native of Cape Town. Once the primary architect in her own firm she had to stop working when she had children and now her children mostly ignore her. Hortensia James is a famous black textile designer whose husband, Peter, is on his deathbed, and they have no children. After her husband’s death she finds out he has a daughter from another woman. Hortensia has been Marion’s neighbor for the past 20 years, living in the very house that Marion meticulously designed and wanted to possess herself.

The chapters alternate between Marion and Hortensia and we get to know their backstories and slowly understand how they became the women they are now—bitter and loveless. But there are many more layers to these women and that’s what keeps the story interesting. Also, it’s not that the women chose to go on a journey of discovery and self-healing but circumstances are such that it’s what they both eventually end up doing.

Omotoso was born in Barbados and grew up in Nigeria before moving to South Africa with her family in 1992. Her first novel ‘Bom Boy’, published in 2011, got critical praise and many literary awards. In ‘The Woman Next Door’ Omotoso shows how prejudice can fuel hatred among people as well as the ramifications it leaves in its wake. But the witty story is more than just a tale of black versus white for it stunningly depicts the wisdom that comes with age and thus has an underlying charm that you just can’t resist.