Middle-aged Van Goghs

Okay now I am almost there.. nearing 50, almost touching it. I am officially going to that age,  the age that even as a 40 year old, I thought was old. 

With a lot of free time on my hands, what with having finished with birthing and raising kids, who are now adults and on their way to finding their pearls and a husband who is  firmly in the grips of the  corporate rungs, I was casting my net around for ways to occupy myself gainfully. I mean, how many movies can you watch, lunches you can munch, clothes you can buy and on line games you can play. At one time or the other, you want to do something to "discover yourself" and "realise your potential".

As a kid growing up I had dabbled in art and painting so I set forth and found an art class close to home. I started imagining large canvases with intricately painted pictures in vibrant colours hung all over my house and gifting to friends and all going "Ahhhh".

I spoke to the lady (whom I researched and found was the genuine thing, meaning, had an Art diploma and was a professional painter) and armed with all the paraphernalia that she had asked for, I landed up at her class.

Now I had expected a class full of these young, artistic types, painting away at their easels with aprons on and palette in hand. What I found was a room with two easels and four tables, each with an "auntie" behind it. What I mean by Auntie is a middle-aged, graying lady with crow's feet and cellulite.

I found the class full of me, women like me..time on their hands and out to discover themselves. I was not a novelty, I was the rule. It seems that most women with busy husbands and busier kids join such "hobby" classes at a certain age. They start learning crochet, needle work, bridge, painting or whatever they dreamed of doing, had they a little time to call their own. They join book clubs, join community service, learn a language, attempt a sport, twang at a guitar, sweat at a gym or write a cook book. They may not do it well, but they do it.

It gives an immense sense of gratification to have filled in some hours of the day with an activity that doesn't seem superfluous or supercilious. It lends a sense of self-worth and well being.

I have been busy trying to copy Starry Starry Night. And loving every minute of it.

My daily fix or how I keep abreast with American news

I can't remember how I stumbled upon these two American talk shows but now I am absolutely hooked .. The first is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the second, Real Time with Bill Maher.

I download and watch these shows religiously, Jon Stewart being four times a week and Bill Maher, every Friday. Though Comedy Central now does show Jon Stewart in India but the episodes are old so I continue downloading the latest ones. I also like Steven Colbert, but don't watch it as regularly and compulsively. Both Stewart and Maher are liberals and pull no shots.

These shows  take a deep, incisive look at American diaspora and day to day political to-dos in a very funny and entertaining style with jokes, spoofs, interviews and one liners. Nothing is a scared cow or hands-off. The shows cut through all the drivel and hype and, in a way, expose the hypocrisy and duplicity of it all.

American politics is, of course, the main grist to the mill,  but World geo-politics, celebrities, terrorism, Obama, the Republican Party, films, books, media, Wall Street - everything is scrutinised and lampooned. And lampooned in such a way that viewer understands the point of all the double-speak , guile, insincerity and sometimes the absurdity and the hilarity of the world we live in. The topics discussed are not trivial but the treatment is so farcical, so droll  and so tongue-in-cheek that I just love watching these shows. The language can be unparliamentary, there is a lot of histrionics and over-the-top re-enactments but oh so enjoyable. These shows are not news or journalism but deal with news as satire.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is only about 20 minutes and the form is mainly a monologue, sometimes aided by his very competent and equally funny "correspondents" and this is followed by an interview. The interviewees are as diverse as authors, film stars, celebrities, visiting dignitaries, politicians, administrative officials,  et al.  His monologue is a mix of derisive humour, comical disbelief  and righteous outrage as he crisscrosses from one topic to the other with high energy and speed, drawing breath only to make fun of his own Jewish heritage or his height and lack of it. He is acerbic and satirical and so good that his show has won 16 Emmys Awards.

Bill Maher show, on the other hand, is an hour of intelligent fun with a monologue, an interview and then a round table discussion (which he monopolises, good humouredly), ending with the the most hilarious New Rules. Bill's main bees in his bonnet are Repbulicans, organised religion, right wingers and basically all small-minded people who live in their little worlds. He is also the biggest friend and fan that Obama could ever have.

Bill is more irreverent, sometimes foul-mouthed, sometimes crass and a self confessed weed smoker. But he reminds me of an uncle we all have - bachelor-bad-boy with a wicked sense of humour who does serious things with a great  appetite for life and no time for fools.

In a world that America is trying to police and be a guardian of, it is interesting to get a view of how ludicrous  things can be inside it.