Happy Halloween!

Today lots of little feet will walk up this path to say trick or treat and collect candy. I hope there will be lots of princesses. So love to see three and four year olds dressed up as princesses. I really love princess costumes.

The yard has a ton of dry leaves.

The jack o lantern will say hello.

Snoopy jack o lantern.

We are ready to distribute candy.

Abhimaan

Yesterday I watched a movie titled Abhimaan made in 1973. It was a good movie. The director was Hrishikesh Mukherjee and the main actors were Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. While studying in college my friend was a huge fan of this couple. In this movie Amitabh Bachchan is a succesful singer. He has many fans and holds many shows. He also has a friend called Chitra with whom he has phone conversations. His career is managed by Asrani who advises him to not be friends with chitra. One day he goes to visit his aunt in a village. In the village while walking around he hears a beautiful singing voice. It is the voice of a girl. He asks his aunt about the singing. His aunt said it is a neighbor a daughter of a saintly man. His aunt wants Amitabh to meet the saintly man and his daughter the next day but Amitabh has to get back to his career in the city the next day. While taking leave his aunt told Amitabh to go to the temple before leaving. He goes to the temple and meets the girl who sings to whom belonged the singing voice that he heard the previous day. It is Jaya Bachchan. He speaks to her. And then has to leave to the city. But he misses the flight comes back to the village and meets the saintly man and his daughter and the marriage is fixed and takes place. Amitabh goes back to the city with Jaya and introduces Jaya to his friends. A wedding reception is held and both sing at the reception. A person in the music industry hears Jaya singing and thinks she is very gifted. Even more gifted than Amitabh. It was decided that she would sing with Amitabh. Both of them start singing. However her popularity starts soaring. She has fans and she has shows and recordings. Amitabh starts to feel resentful of Jayas success. Angry words erupt. When Jaya realises this she decides to stop singing. No understanding is reached. Amitabh goes to chitras house and comes back drunk. Then he spends a lot of time there. Jaya goes to chitras house to bring him back. Amitabh says very angry words and Jaya is deeply hurt. She goes back to her father. She is expecting their first child. Although the aunt, Asrani etc persuade Amitabh to go to see Jaya he refuses. For Jaya it is time to give birth. During the delivery the baby is not saved. Jaya falls into a deep depression. One day her father tries to get her back to singing and she retreats as though in shock. For her singing has become something that caused a rift in her marriage and stopped Amitabh from singing. The aunt and Asrani scold Amitabh about his responsibility toward his wife and he goes to fetch her. He brings her back to the city and consult many doctors. She continues to be like a stone. Then Asrani and the older person in the music industry says if Amitabh sings Jaya will sing. So a show is held. Amitabh starts singing and it brings a lot of memories for Jaya. It is difficult for her to stand up even but she finally with everyones help sings with Amitabh. And there is a great apllause and they leave. In the last show the audience has Chitra in it. I liked how this movie sensitively handles the things that can go wrong in a marriage. The emotional upheavals of life. I did not understand the role of Chitra in the life of Amitabh. Why does he take refuge with her. Why is Jaya not jealous? I liked the songs. I wish they did not lose the baby. That frightened me honestly.

The Empty Existential Bench

There are two kinds of movies. Art movies and commercial movies. Art movies require us to think a lot to understand. There is no easily understandable plot, story line etc in art movies. In commercial movies there is always so much melodrama, so much comedy, so much violence, so much romance and a specific number of songs. In art movies there is none of this. We may spend a considerable amount of time watching a scene where all we see is water pouring into the sink from the tap. Or we may see someone just lying down or some inconsequential thing which has no drama whatsoever. Yesterday I saw a bench--an empty bench near some hydrangeas right in the middle of the downtown area. Here was a bustling downtown area of a university town and people are busily walking around but there is no one to sit on the bench. The sight of the empty bench made me think that this could be a scene from an art movie which has no plot and no story line. It made me think of existential philosophy. I googled existential philosophy and the themes of existential philosophy that came up are Existence precedes essence. Absurdity, Nihilism, Condemned to be free, Radical free choice, Lack of meaning in life, Absence of the hand of God.

The empty bench is representative of a bleak outlook on life. The wikipedia definition of existentialism is that it is the search by man for meaning in a meaningless world. The empty bench reminded me of the idea that the bench could be empty because life is meaningless. Or the bench could be empty because instead of sitting everyone is searching for meaning. In any case the empty bench looked very existential to me.

Silk Hydrangeas

I also like silk hydrangeas that can be bought from craft stores.

If you buy a lot of these and place them in a vase it will look pretty.

Green Hydrangeas

Usually hydrangeas are blue. They can also be pink. However in front of the church I go to there are green hydrangeas. These hydrangeas are a lighter green when compared to the leaf. Probably due to its being autumn they have brown petals and some have wilted. Yet to see these flowers growing in profusion is pretty.

The petals are bunched in the form of a ball.

A lot of leaves have become yellow.

In some flowers all the individual flowers at the base that make one large flower have become a deep brown.

Some flowers are all brown but a light brown.

Here is an undried hydrangea.

Next to the hydrangea are some other green plant.

Here is an empty bench in front of these plants.

When I checked the botanical name for this plant I found that it belongs to the family hydrangeaceae and that it belongs to the species hydrangea macrophylla.

In this picture it looks as though the hydrangea plant is growing from the green plant.

Here the stalks of the plant are visible.

I think these flowers look best if there are a lot of them.

Here are a lot of dried flowers and stalks providing autumnal charm. Autumn is the season when the whole world turns brown gold yellow or other earth tones and these hydrangeas add to the color palette of the season.

Chanderi Silk

I found this online store where I saw all these pictures of chanderi silk sarees which is a kind of saree I liked.

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Dharmavaram Sarees

These sarees are from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. I remember my mamma having dharmavaram sarees.

The Wonderful World of sarees

I love sarees because my mamma loved sarees. She had a beautiful collection of sarees. As a child I used to go shopping with her for sarees. Loved the world of sarees.

Kancheepuram sarees.

kota sarees.

Bengal cotton sarees.

Sarees from the state of Maharashtra.

Kashmir silk sarees.

chungidi sarees.

These may be some type of Benaresi saree.

Chanderi cotton.